financial times: "How America became the world's dispensable nation"

[sweetheart]

This is in the subscription website (or paper edition) of today's FT.

Nor is American democracy a shining example to mankind. The present
one-party rule in the US has been produced in part by the artificial
redrawing of political districts to favour Republicans. The role of money
in American Politics continues to grow, America's judges - many of whom
will be appointec by Mr bush - increasinly behave as partisan political
activists in black robes. America's antiquated winner-take-all electoral
system has been abandoned by many other democracies for more inclusive
versions of proportional representation.
.
<snip>
.
"The view that American leaders can be trusted
to use a monpoly of military and economic power for teh good of
humanity has never been widely shared outside the US. The trend
toward multipolarity has probably been accelerated by the truculent
unilateralism of the bush administration, whose motto seems to be
"include me out".
.
<snip>
.
Ironically, the US, having won the cold war, is adopting the strategy
that led the Soviet Union to lose it: hoping that raw military power will
be sufficient to intimidate other great powers alienated by its
belligerance. To compound that irony, these other great powers are
drafting the blueprints for new international institutions and alliances.
That is what the US did during and after the seonc world war.
But that was a different America, led by wise and constructive statesmen
such as Dean Acheson, the secretary of state who wrote of being
"present at the creation". The bullying approach of the bush
administration has ensured that the US will not be invited to take
part in designing the international architecture of Europe and Asia
in the 21st century. This time, the US is absent at the creation.
(The writer is senior fellow at the New America Foundation in
Washington DC)

http://news.ft.com/home/uk

In paragraphs i cut out, he mentions the new Asian trading pact,
how europe is going ahead with galileo and forming its own defense
pacts.. how south america is doing similarly, and much more that
one can't include without breaking the copyright rules.

[papau]

1. Excellent article - I wonder why it did not get a mention in the ABCNote

:-)

[sweetheart]

3. Best i've read in a while

What is the ABCNote?
:-)

[PROGRESSIVE1]

2. Great Article!!!

[Deja Q]

4. And not written in America either.

The UK. Where poodle jumps through *'s hoops...

Heh., They seem to have freedom of speech. Not freedom of $peech.