- In July AD 65, the Great fire of Rome destroyed 70% of the imperial city, and Emperor Nero blamed the Christians for it, thus initiating a campaign of persecution. Rumor has it that Nero himself started the fire. Moreover, according to a popular expression, he even “fiddled while Rome burned”. Although the aforementioned accusation against Nero in all likelihood is historically false (the fiddle, for one thing, didn’t even exist back then), the image of a ruler, mad with power, celebrating while his own reign burns conveys a powerful image. And some analysts have thusly described the current Western elite amid today’s many crises.
Rod Dreher, for one, a senior editor at the American Conservative, and the author of three New York Times bestsellers, writes that Westerns are being ruled by “a claque of Neros”.
- He builds a very convincing case, by mentioning, among other things, that officials within the American Pentagon are voicing concerns about an ammunition and arsenal shortage that could jeopardize the US own military readiness – while President Joe Biden announces an extra $3 billion military aid to Ukraine.
One could add the fact that, in the UK, anonymous sources in the Minister of Defense, interviewed by the Times, have stated that by the end of this year London will run out of weapons for Kiev. One should also keep in mind that the same ammunition-starved Pentagon has admitted it cannot really track the weapons it sends to Ukraine, and it is a well known fact that many of them end up in black markets.
Dreher summarizes the situation regarding Western support for Kiev thusly:
- “It might be worth it if we stood a chance of prevailing against the Russians. But we don’t. They are fighting on what they believe is their own territory. Russia’s a big country, and it’s making a ton of money selling gas and oil in this distorted market created by Western sanctions.”
He adds that “it by no means insults Ukrainian valor” to point out that they simply “do not have the resources to prevail.” One could also ask whether the Western powers themselves, in Europe particularly, have the resources to continue funding Ukraine and to endure the coming winter.
- The American journalist therefore paints a convincing picture of the Western crisis: Rome is indeed burning. Its metaphorical fires include the specter of hunger, recession and the risk of literally freezing in the dark during the winter. It is about time to start talking about the Ukrainian disaster.
It is not, however, the US-led West’s only disaster. Rod Dreher also mentions Karl Rove’s supposed Empire quote to contrast it with the current crisis in Iraq.
In a 2004 New York Times Magazine article, American journalist Ron Suskind quoted an unnamed George W. Bush administration official as saying (in response to critics of US foreign policy in Iraq, particularly) that
“We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality.”
Rumor has it that the source for that was former President Bush’s senior adviser Karl Rove. Dreher, in his piece, also assumes this quote to be Rove’s, although its source (and even its truthfulness) has been questioned. Be as it may, this is yet another powerful image that appears to be in any case “true”, in the sense of portraying an elite drunk with hubris who believes to be able to make the rest of the world in its image. In other words, even if no US official said such a thing, the country’s foreing policy for years seems to have been based on such an idea.
- One of Washington’s goals with the occupation was to “help Iraq achieve democracy and freedom”.
From 2003, after the war and invasion, to 2011, the United States occupied that nation, deploying thousands of private military personnel. US Department of Defense’s direct spending there totaled at least $757.8 billion.
In 2010, the final combat troops reportedly left the country, although the American presence there continued.
On September 30 2022, at least 10 were killed in clashes in Bagdah’s Green Zone in Iraq involving supporters of Shia Muslim leader Muqtada al-Sadr. There have been riots inside the Presidential Palace, and neighboring Iran has closed its borders. One could soon see new developments there and Tehran might play an important role. Depending on the outcome, the very point of Washington’s 8-year occupation of Iraq might be called into question, from an American perspective. Likewise, the recent Taliban’s victory in Afghanistan has been described by many as the worst US failure in recent decades. The truth is, in the near future, one might see even greater troubles.
- Among European leaders today, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has remained the voice of reason. But he is no longer a voice in the wilderness: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has openly admitted multipolarity (and thus the end of America’s unipolarity).
On August 29, in Praga, he stated that a sovereign European continent must “hold its own in a multipolar world.”
It is about time Europe asserts its own sovereignty, and about time the US exercises restraint. Rome, as Dreher so eloquently argues, is already burning.
Source: Uriel Araujo, – SOUTHFRONT