From the Times of London Gerald Baker writes “America’s decline and fall is a long way off yet”…
A presidential inauguration is a chance for America to remind the world who is boss, to demonstrate that the modern United States is the inheritor not only of Greece’s glory but of Rome’s reach…
…Previous premature judgments about America’s decline enjoin us to be a little circumspect about its current difficulties. Even as American pre-eminence was realised in the past 60 years, the country has been racked by prolonged periods of self-doubt. In the 1950s, half the nation was convinced it was losing the Cold War. Vietnam eroded American confidence, not only in its power but even in the justice of its cause. In 1989, the apotheosis of American success, the fall of the Berlin Wall, was seen by many as the passing of an era of American supremacy. Japan and Germany were going to rule the world, we were told.
All these alarms proved false
…On the threat from a united Europe- This ageing, genteel, pacifist, dysfunctional old Continent is not going to be challenging anyone in my lifetime…
It is so heartening to see these words by a British friend from “across the pond”. If America is ever left standing with just one friend, may it be Britain!