World News and Trends: A disturbing aspect of American decline

You are here

World News and Trends

A disturbing aspect of American decline

Login or Create an Account

With a UCG.org account you will be able to save items to read and study later!

Sign In | Sign Up

×

Financial Times columnist Philip Stephens said this about the WikiLeaks situation: "What all this says is that American power is indeed waning. In a world of rising states, nuclear proliferation and international terrorism, Washington cannot be sure of getting its way. How pleased the rest of us should be about this is another question. Courtesy of WikiLeaks and 250,000 cables we have been given a look at some of the alternatives. What's a little diplomatic chicanery, we might ask, against, say, a nuclear arms race in the Middle East?" ("A History of the Present in 250,000 Cables," Nov. 30, 2010, emphasis added throughout).

Contemplating a world without American restraint in international affairs can be a bleak exercise indeed. But that is precisely where we are headed. In his article about the staggering U.S. national debt, International Herald Tribune columnist Thomas Friedman warned:

"Many people understand that we are slipping as a country...If we fail to come together and invest, spend and cut really wisely, we're heading for a fall—and if America becomes weak, your kids won't just grow up in a different country, they will grow up in a different world. We have to manage America's foreign policy, and plan its rebuilding at home, at a time when our financial resources and our geopolitical power are more limited than ever while our commitments abroad and entitlement promises at home are more extensive than ever" ("Got to Get This Right," Nov. 30, 2010).

Christopher Dickey, writing for Newsweek, stated: "Apathy, not activism, is likely to dominate U.S. foreign policy after November...Americans have been in this sort of apathetic but emotional mood many times before, and the record is grim. After World War I, the United States turned away from the League of Nations and back in on itself, only to watch from an unsafe distance the resurrection of Germany under the Nazis" ("America Turns Inward," Nov. 1, 2010).

There remains, however, much more to understand about the American story, historically and prophetically. Read our booklet The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy. (Sources: Financial Times, International Herald Tribune, Newsweek.)