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Article on UK Daily the Guardian: End of US Dominance...

I've been brooding about this news piece by UK daily The Guardian, which reports on a Policy Paper by the US National Intelligence Council (NIC) that forebears bad news in future geopolitics. The United States, it says, will not be able to call the shots in an increasing multi-polar and unstable world. It will also prove most difficult for this nation to forge 'coalitions of the willing' in an environment where emerging nations like Brazil, India, and China will rise to higher political and economic status in spite of the United States.

Disturbing indeed. However, there was a similar report similar report in the midst of G.W. Bush's election victory in 2004 where the world was, well, different. Quoting The Guardian 'it matched the mood of the times'

Forgive me for saying so, these reports have a way of waking the skeptic in me. What's changed in the course of four years? Are these reports a reflection of the intelligence community's attitudes towards the president? Will things fare worse just because Barack Obama is now the President of the United States?

Should we believe the report? After all didn't these intelligence agencies failed to warn us about the September 11 attacks? How about the shaky UK intelligence report affirming the presence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq? Or the illusory reports that the Iraqi population will welcome US troops with flowers? How's that for wishful thinking?

More disturbing still would be if NIC would tailor these reports to match the wits of the president. In which case the NIC made in 2004 a —dangerous— fairy tale for a most inept George W. Bush.

Anyway, have a look on the report. Try and determine what's true and what's fiction

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