The American Way (The 5th Dragon).   Since the end of World War II, USA has had a tumultuous rise on a zig-zag course with strategic highs and lows.  It now settles into a position of troubling disadvantage in the face of a continually changing world and an aggressive China Superpower.    “US change”, however, would significantly unsettle CCP advantage.  https://thechinafactor.org/?page_id=2741

For all our blood and money spent since 1945, the accumulation of strategic gains and true allegiances is disproportionately scant.  One has but to think of trillions and “things more precious” gone in Iraq and Afghanistan without much to show for it.   Our PREZ-DIP-CONGRESS-BIZ-MIL-INTEL model of the past has been outdone in too many instances to ignore in terms of strategic gains both missed and lost.  There is something deeply flawed here, and the question is whether this US six-headed beast can fix itself or not.  Rice bowls, egos, agendas, protectionism and treachery abound in this deadliest Dragon #5.   Best to address this and stay on it, since it defines what America and allies must address for success.   

Focal Point.  There are significant mismatches that “The Five Eyes” must face today with China.  This term is not discriminatory “against “The Rest of the West”, and “All The Rest”.   It is descriptively intended to mean the five countries whose roots in The Magna Carta represent shared original instincts concerning the fundamental rights of man.  

Implications:

  • Allies.  We have fewer trusted allies than ever before in our history.
  • Military Might.  US DOD “boots on the ground” from the Vietnam War to wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have resulted in others swooping for strategic gains.   This suggests that something is gravely wrong with US strategy.
  • Economics.  US business profit-making has not resulted in national economic resilience.  US profit does has not equated to Americans’ prosperity and security.
  • Diplomacy.  The nation-state-to-nation-state focus of the US model has allied us with other governments and regimes of dubious character.   US Government has accumulated the allegiances of leaders who we would not dream of letting our daughters go out with, even under armed escort.   Moral standards apparently do not make for good diplomacy or good business.  This has tarnished USA’s well-deserved World War II reputation as a champion of human liberties around the world.
  • Allegiances.  In doing business with the devastators of these liberties on an ongoing basis (the Peoples’ Republic of China, being a case in point) we have abandoned many standards and allegiances.  21st Century globalization has been much about exploiting humanity below the level of nation states in their interactions with other power brokers.   This has resulted in abuses, misery and conflicts on a wide-spread basis.  Whither true allegiances?  What of the corrupted ones?
  • From the Bottom of the Pile.  The cumulative mass of authoritarianism, colonialism, neo-colonialism and globalist greed for “good deals” ultimately impacts The Village.  
    • The village sitting atop incredible natural resource wealth astride geo-strategically vital terrain is Hell on Earth.   And none of the competitors mentioned thus far care about it. 
    • There is, after all, profit to be made with impressive margins, if one can only discount human misery, the destruction of millennia-old civilizations, environment, humanity, morality and other peripherals to profit making.   
    • Easy to rationalize this.
    • Now “the global village” is impacted by this dark profit impulse.
  • Leadership?   Americans know with precision the ingredients of the foods and certifications of the “good deal” products consumed.  We are, however, generally clueless on and chillingly distant from the true price of those consumables.  This means in terms of their dark and dirty devastations “at the bottom of the bloody pile”.