Is Donald Trump the Second 9/11? Or Is He the Third? By Tom Engelhardt

By Dilip -
NB: This is an important article -  a reflection by a conscientious American intellectual who lived through the Vietnam years. Here he looks back on the disasters unleashed on the planet by American militarism. Its well worth a careful read. DS

 Donald Trump essentially hijacked our world. I mean, try to tell me that, in the years since, he hasn’t provided living evidence that the greatest power in human history, the one capable of destroying the planet six different ways, has no brain, no real coordination at all. It’s fogged in by a mushroom cloud of largely senseless media coverage and, though still the leading force on the planet, in some rather literal fashion has lost its mind. No wonder it’s almost impossible to tell what we’re actually living through...

 Here's the question at hand -- and I guarantee you that you’ll read it here first: Is Donald Trump the second or even possibly the third 9/11? Because truly, he has to be one or the other. Let me explain, and while I do, keep this in mind: as 2019 ends, thanks to Brexit and the victory of Boris Johnson in Britain’s recent election, the greatest previous imperial power on this planet is clearly headed for the sub-basement of history. 

More articles from TomDispatch
Sam Kriss: 'Neoliberalism' isn't a left-wing insult but a monstrous system of inequality

 Meanwhile, that other superpower of the Cold War era, the Soviet Union, now Russia, remains a well-sauced Putinesca shadow of its former self. And then, of course, there’s the country that, not so long ago, every major American politician but Donald Trump proclaimed the most exceptional, indispensable nation ever. As it happens, the United States - if you didn’t catch the reference above -- has been looking a bit peaked lately itself. You can’t say that it’s the end of the road for a land of such wealth and staggering military power, enough to finish off several Earth-sized planets. However, it’s clearly a country in decline on a planet in the same condition and its present leader, Tariff Man, however uniquely orange-faced he may be, is just the symptom of the long path to hell its leadership embarked on almost three decades ago... read more:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/post/176645/tomgram%3A_engelhardt%2C_on_hijacking_history/#more

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