In 1956, the United Kingdom confronted the reality that its days of Empire were finally over. In collaboration with France and Israel, the United Kingdom had asserted its authority over the Suez Canal overwhelming the Egyptian forces of Colonel Abdul Nasser. Britain took this action, as an imperial power, without consulting Washington.
U.S. president, Dwight D Eisenhower, was highly displeased with this autonomous action, that coincided with the USSR invading Hungary to put down a potential uprising, right in the middle of his re-election campaign. The British government was served with a warning that if the Allies failed to withdraw immediately from the Canal Zone, the United States would apply downward pressure on sterling. Sir Anthony Eden, the conservative Prime Minister, a great statesman who had served as Foreign Secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill from 1940 to Victory in Europe, and who had developed a close personal relationship with then General Eisenhower, reluctantly ordered withdrawal, thereby signaling the end of his own illustrious career, and, effectively, withdrawal of Britain’s imperial role, at least, East of Suez.
These past few days, President Obama must be reflecting on a similarsequence of events that have occurred under his weak and corrupt administration. No nation on earth now respects the political authority of the United States. U.S.influence in the Middle East is negligible, with the governments of Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Egypt and Pakistan openly flexing their independence from the Stars and Stripes. China and the Russian Federation clearly signal that the United States is a paper tiger led by an incompetent President.
And now, Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin have publicly flipped President Obama and Attorney General Holder the bird, much in the same manner that Eisenhower flipped Eden the bird in 1956. By allowing Edward Snowden safe passage from their countries, as he flees American snoops without a passport and with felony charges hanging over his head, Xi and Putin clearly indicate that the so-called Pax Americana is over. It has collapsed in a web of lies, corruption and deceit, not least of the People who elected it into office.
Unfortunately, the American political system does not provide for the People to force its president prematurely out of elected office. So American will have to wait some 40 months before they can take their revenge on the betrayal from within.
