Bacevich on American Triumphalism

From a brief essay in Commonweal.

In short, after 9/11 President Bush put the triumphalist hypothesis to the test. As he left office, the results of that test clearly presented themselves. What we’ve learned is this: First, liberalism’s widely touted victory is at best incomplete. Especially in the Islamic world, a stubborn search for alternatives persists. Our insistence that others do things our way exacerbates the opposition we face. Second, unipolarity is a chimera, a dangerous refusal to acknowledge the world’s complexity. Third, to pursue global hegemony is to court bankruptcy. To persist in imagining otherwise will only hasten America’s decline. Fourth, although globalization may be real, the United States can neither direct its course nor fully insulate itself from its adverse effects.