Bush Begins To Lose Steam

Ten months after last September's terrorist attacks, President George W. Bush's efforts to keep the nation focused and enthused about his war on terrorism appear to be running out of steam.

The steady slide in the stock market, which plunged to levels not seen since 1997 shortly after Bush delivered a rousing but largely hollow speech to Wall Street CEOs Tuesday, not only highlighted growing worries about the health of the U.S. economy but also raised questions about Bush's grasp of the problem of corporate corruption. More than one columnist suggested after the speech that, like his father in 1992, Bush ''doesn't get it.''
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The Eagle Has Crash Landed
Pax Americana is over. Challenges from Vietnam and the Balkans to the Middle East and September 11 have revealed the limits of American supremacy. Will the United States learn to fade quietly, or will U.S. conservatives resist and thereby transform a gradual decline into a rapid and dangerous fall?

The United States in decline? Few people today would believe this assertion. The only ones who do are the U.S. hawks, who argue vociferously for policies to reverse the decline. This belief that the end of U.S. hegemony has already begun does not follow from the vulnerability that became apparent to all on September 11, 2001. In fact, the United States has been fading as a global power since the 1970s, and the U.S. response to the terrorist attacks has merely accelerated this decline. To understand why the so-called Pax Americana is on the wane requires examining the geopolitics of the 20th century, particularly of the century's final three decades. This exercise uncovers a simple and inescapable conclusion: The economic, political, and military factors that contributed to U.S. hegemony are the same factors that will inexorably produce the coming U.S. decline.
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Iraqi Opposition Leaders Warn US and Britain Not To Invade

Iraqi exiles expected to participate in a future government of their country warned yesterday that an invasion by American and British troops would bring widespread destruction without removing Saddam Hussein.

Opposition leaders stressed that a large-scale offensive by Washington and its allies would not be supported by opponents of the Baghdad regime, either inside or outside Iraq.
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