Headline Surfer illustration / ABOVE: America's dominion as the World's Superpower is being called into question by Vladimir Putin's Russian invasion of Ukraine.
By TRAVIS HENVILLE / Guest political column for Headline Surfer
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla — For nearly three weeks, people around the world have been transfixed in horror at the images coming out of Ukraine, seeing a massive invading Russian army unleash modern weaponry upon a nation of 44 million in the largest conflagration seen in Europe since the defeat of Hitler's Nazi Germany.
And ironically World War II ended with the fall of Germany's Axis ally, Japan, with America's decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
This being the first such war in the digital age of the 21st century with the proliferation of camera smartphones and social media, footage of all the horrors of war is not only easily available but in fact, inescapable; the feelings of anger evoked by such visceral scenes of inhumanity driving demands that we act.
Action, however, entails risk—and action taken rashly, in the context of a war in which one of the combatant countries has the world’s largest nuclear arsenal much like ours is risky indeed. Injustices and inequity ignored too long at home have sapped America's wherewithal to maintain the delicate international order abroad.
The collective anger of Americans should not be reserved for faraway tyrants like Russia's Vladimir Putin alone; its own politicians, by turns corrupt and crooked or incompetent and inept -- a notable few managing to embody all the above -- have driven this country into the morass, leaving it stuck as bystanders watch the deadliest conflict in half a century unfold.
The collective anger of Americans should not be reserved for faraway tyrants like Russia's Vladimir Putin alone; its own politicians, by turns corrupt and crooked or incompetent and inept -- a notable few managing to embody all the above -- have driven this country into the morass, leaving it stuck as bystanders watch the deadliest conflict in half a century unfold.
In this now-waning era of “Pax Americana,” many younger Americans have taken for granted the world's lone superpower status since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and the end of the Cold War, preeminence on the world stage, having known no other balance of power.
But surely as night follows day, great civilizations rise only to ultimately fall.
America's stubborn belief in its national exceptionalism notwithstanding, so too could the age of American dominance come to an end. The writing has been on the wall for some time-- political polarization and domestic division, unsustainable economies of careless consumption, ill-advised international interventions, the list goes on -- but only in the last five years has the extent of America's decline become so starkly obvious.
Indeed, America's own political system is in such dramatic disarray -- it has been scarcely a year since the seat of the once-vaunted “Arsenal of Democracy” was ransacked by a pro-Trump mob on Jan. 6, 2021 on the U.S. Capitol building, led by a “shaman” complete with body paint and Viking attire. As such, the U.S. has lost both the will and the power to continue to police the world beyond its borders, and despots everywhere are taking note.
Short of escalating matters with Putin’s Russia into World War III, there’s little more America can do now to save Ukraine as a sovereign nation beyond its current commitments along with its NATO allies in providing weapons and humanitarian aid.
If the U.S. wants to prevent the next conflict from breaking out, it needs to take extraordinary action to stop its own disintegration -- and soon.
YouTube coded embedding / France 24 English video / Live streaming – War in Ukraine: Follow the latest on FRANCE 24.
About the Guest Guest Political Columnist: Travis Henville is a 29-year-old resident of Daytona Beach, Florida, and an advocate for Central Florida's working class and marginalized communities. Originally from New Jersey, Henville has called greater Daytona home since 2006. He attended Daytona State College he focused on elective courses in international relations, psychology, political science, and communications. Henville can be found on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Travis Henvill's political views as expressed in this guest column are his own and not necessarily shared by those of the publisher. Headline Surfer is published from Lake Mary, Florida, by Henry Frederick, Central Florida's award-winning journalist.