Late last year, Harvard historian Niall Ferguson labeled America as "the Nation that fell to earth". In terms of dwindling
domestoc and international support, the war in in Iraq has many parallels with Vietnam. In addition, what is currently occuring elsewhere on the international stage greatly augments the overall problem.
According to The Guardian (Oct. 12, 2007), a resurgent Sino-Russian polititical nembrace is already well under way: "Moscow and Beijing are closer now than in the Communist period... They have frustraed Western hopes for sanctions or other taugh action on disputes ranging from Burma and Darfur to Iran. They are blocking a solution on Kosovo". Tensions between Russia and America are clearly on the rise, alarmingly so.
In 1940 Winston Chuchill warned that unless the English-speaking countries triumphed over Nazism, the world would "sink into a new dark age". How much more would this be the case if the west should fail in its war on terrorism? America and Britain eventually prevailed in two world wars in the last century. Yet our present century is not without its own civilizational showdowns. Recent trends showing America and Britain gradually being boxed into a corner should deeply concerns us all.