
Pentagon study declares American Empire is 'collapsing' - flowersoldier
https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/pentagon-study-declares-american-empire-is-collapsing-746754cdaebf
======
mindcrime
_and the authority of governments everywhere is crumbling._

Good.

 _potentially undermining trust in incumbent governments for the foreseeable
future_

Even better. Trusting government is a fool's errand.

 _But, the document says, this should not be seen as defeatism, but rather a
“wakeup call”. If nothing is done to adapt to this “post-primacy” environment,
the complexity and speed of world events will “increasingly defy [DoD’s]
current strategy, planning, and risk assessment conventions and biases.”_

IOW, it's not the Department of _Defense_ at all. It's more like the
Department of World Domination.

~~~
sharemywin
Then who do you trust no one? computers? corporations? religious leaders?
scientists?

How do you run society without trust?

~~~
mindcrime
Wait, what?? Where did I say anything remotely like "trust no one"?

Trusting governments has worked out _so_ well historically though. That got us
many wars, untold numbers of people killed, incarcerated and/or experimented
on. It got us untold numbers of people inhibited from creating wealth and a
better future for themselves, so the existing elite power base could preserve
itself. It got us civil asset forfeiture, the "War on Drugs" (aka, war on
civil liberties), horrible nutritional advice promulgated by the USDA and
their ilk, which has ruined people's health (hey, eat lots of carbs, fat is
evil!). It's got us entrenched systems which promote the morality of one
religious group (Christians, in the US) regardless of one's personal beliefs.
It's got us MKULTRA, COINTELPRO, Room 641a, etc., etc.

~~~
lightbyte
Are you suggesting any alternate ideas here, or just ranting about "muh
gubment"?

~~~
thatswrong0
All they're suggesting is that trusting the government is a silly idea, and
then provided examples of it. I don't think they're suggesting necessarily
that we need a brand new kind of government - just that we should for good
reason be wary of the one we currently have.

~~~
irickt
"Government" is governance of humans by humans. It has never been "good"
because the past is so dismal and because humans collectively have not come to
make it good.

The challenge for those who critize government generically is that they design
a good governance ... whether we call some part of it government or not.

------
alexandercrohde
Good. Here's how things should go:

1\. First America stops being world police.

2\. America plays ball with rest of world (adopts metric system, becomes a
leader in climate, shares control of internet, turns concern toward to real
issues like asteroids, population growth, health issues, cyber security)

3\. Citizens acknowledge that war is a tool for siphoning tax money into the
coffers of people with connections/government-contracts, and move towards a
post-war-era.

4\. Citizens start to move to a post-nation era, where we acknowledge have
more in common with each other than our own politicians who drive us apart for
financial gain.

5\. We move toward universalizing language, so we hit a point that declaring
war with Iraq seems as absurd as declaring war with Canada.

6\. The very concept of "superiority" and "class" becomes meaningless as we
move into an era of excess due to automation.

[Link to Pentagon's study:
[https://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/download.cfm?q=1358](https://ssi.armywarcollege.edu/pubs/download.cfm?q=1358)]

~~~
mrkrabo
That's a good way of becoming weak. Your enemies will be very glad to watch
you try this.

~~~
Bjorkbat
"The Americans have brought their armed forces back home, adopted sensible
foreign and domestic policies, and are starting to see eye-to-eye with people
whom they once found too foreign to relate to. Now is the perfect time to
strike!"

~~~
nnfy
Our global hegemony ensures stability of trade for the entire world, and that
stability is the reason that other countries eagerly trade and generally deal
business with the US. Unfortunately, if we back away from our role as world
police, the resulting power vacuum will see some other country take up the
role at best, and at worst we could see another large scale conflict as
emerging powers compete for dominance.

Our current foreign policy is far from ideal, but there is a delicate global
balance which would be dangerously upset if we ceased global operations and
"world policing." The GP is niave to think that such rosy, utopian intentions
would not be taken advantage of by other global players. Look, for instance,
at the current posturing by China in the Pacific. Imagine the scaling of their
operations if there was no one in our position to apply pressure against them.

Someday, sure. But, globally, humans are still viciously tribal, and some form
of enforcement keeps everything running smoothly for everyone. And while
Americans foot much of the bill, there is no denying that our benefit is of
larger proportion as well.

~~~
codyb
I feel like a lot of people have a lot of trouble appreciating the wars that
_didn't_ happen under American hegemony. I don't believe we're perfect in
anyway, but under our influence the world has been more peaceful and
interconnected than at any other time in world history.

~~~
jrs235
Similar to the violence that was quelled under Saddam. It's difficult to
appreciate and measure that which is absent.

------
rajathagasthya
This was a top post in r/geopolitics a couple of days back. I can't find the
link anymore, probably because it was removed. A lot of them commented that
this sounded like DoD propaganda to get increased funding, especially when you
consider that this study was funded by DoD.

Anyway, it is truly scary if they think they need to massively expand the
already unparalleled American military dominance.

------
camillomiller
One thing I find particularly funny about the whole Trump-Russia connection
and the possibility of Putin & Co. meddling with American Elections, is the
disconnect of those that are so blindly outraged about it all.

Trump of course should resign if the intervention is proven as deliberate and
facilitated by his side, but shall we make a list of all the foreign elections
the US have been meddling with in the last 50 years?

The real solution? American friends, as much as I love you (and I do, mostly),
you should just stop being so way up your own ass all the time. About
everything. There's a world out there, across the borders and the two ponds.

~~~
dboreham
The techniques used in the 2016 US election were developed by western
governments to interfere in 3rd world countries' elections. Heck the same
subcontractors were used. Classic example of a weapon being turned on the
maker.

------
moomin
Maybe they should consider exactly how badly they used their post-Cold War
dominance. Things like the Iraq war leeched their dominance, by showing them
as unprepared, by showing them as an occupying power and by splitting them
with most of Europe.

It wasn't the only decision that had this effect, either. The report might as
well say "We used to be rich, but we spent it all on fast cars and drink."

------
mnm1
I wonder if this is what the Soviets proposed right before their collapse. I
guess when you're a hammer (Pentagon) you only know how to hit things (war).
We may or may not be about to collapse as an empire, but I'm certain that if
we follow the plan outlined here, we will collapse as a society. We've already
been heading there for quite awhile now. Let's spend more on military while
our citizens are jobless, homeless, and dying of sickness, then use propaganda
to tell them they're living the high life. There are, unfortunately, enough
stupid people in this country to keep such a charade going. The current
leadership, both political and military, is just a reflection of that.

------
petraeus
Theres a easy cure that will be the norm in 100 or 200 years, whenever we get
sick of capitalism. You're right capitalism is not currently recognized as a
form of government, but in reality it is the dominant form of government in
the west.

The cure is, get this, transparency. It'll take some effort to get to a true
transparent government and im calling this new form Transparentism.

------
DonCarlitos
Edit: "...has collapsed."

