For many in the world, the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games encapsulated the changes at the top of the global political food chain. As the pageantry and power of China gripped the world, conflict in the Caucuses seems to have overturned what we used to call the ‘New World Order.’ According to Germany’s former foreign minister Joschka Fischer, American and Russia need one another – and as long as the two remain at each other’s throats, the main global beneficiary is China.
The unease in Europe is palpable – even if Americans by and large remain blissfully ensconced in the U.S. presidential election and coverage of Hurricane Gustav.
Expressing the concerns of many Europeans, Fischer writes for the newspaper Die Zeit:
“China not only won first place among participating nations; with its presentation of these Games it demonstrated to the entire world its progress and its power. … With his Iraq policy, George W. Bush maneuvered the West into its first strategic impasse. The U.S. has dissipated its power and credibility, so that finally – if all goes well! – it will leave behind a status quo that is difficult to sustain and leaves Iran as the new hegemonic regional power. Bush’s political legacy is a confrontation between the West and the Islamic world, the end of which is not yet in sight. …
“Many will benefit from America’s disaster in Iraq, but not the West nor the cause of human rights and democracy. One regional beneficiary is Iran, but the global winner is China. While the United States, the leading Western power, fritters away its credibility and power in the so called “war on terror” – read: against large portions of the Islamic world – China grows strong in the wake of its strategic foolishness. … Now the West is in danger of maneuvering into another impasse: a confrontation with Russia over the Caucasus. And to this as well, little grief will be felt in Beijing.”
And touching on the U.S. Presidential campaign, Fischer warns:
“The United States will soon choose a new President, and election campaigns are seldom characterized by strategic clarity. We’ll have to wait and see how much campaign rhetoric and how much strategic conviction is expressed by the candidates. As an observer, however, one can’t avoid the impression that a tendency toward a confrontation with Russia prevails. If this comes about, the political and strategic folly of the Iraq War will be multiplied many times over.”
By Joschka Fischer*
Translated By James Jacobson
August 25, 2008
Germany – Die Zeit – Original Article (German)
The Olympic Games ended with an impressive “show of force” by the People’s Republic of China. With its 51 gold medals, China not only won first place among participating nations; with its presentation of these Games it demonstrated to the entire world its progress and its power.
Perhaps one day in retrospect we’ll assess that this demonstration of Chinese power has been one of the few “honest” results of the 2008 Olympic Games. In fact, China is taking huge strides to being a world power, and American policy has had more than a little to do with it.
Coinciding with China’s Olympic demonstration, the West slid into a confrontation with Russia over the war in the Caucasus; a confrontation that proved a strategic impasse for both America and Europe as well as Russia.
With his Iraq policy, George W. Bush maneuvered the West into its first strategic impasse. The U.S. has dissipated its power and credibility, so that finally – if all goes well! – it will leave behind a status quo that is difficult to sustain and leaves Iran as the new hegemonic regional power. Bush’s political legacy is a confrontation between the West and the Islamic world, the end of which is not yet in sight.
Read on at WORLDMEETS.US, along with continuing translated foreign press coverage of the unfolding crisis in the Caucusus as it impacts our nation.
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