OT #2: Globe oped on US and Davos

[MBS]

Column on decline of US, by HDS Greenway in today's Boston Globe. "Whisperings in Davos"
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2007/02/06/whisperings_in_davos/
.. .. resonates with my current gloomy mood

An excerpt:

Some of the delegates who met in the Swiss mountain town of Davos late last month detected a disconnect between business chiefs, who see these times as the best of boom market times, and those involved with national security who fear the worst of times, with the demons let loose in the Middle East and the misuse of American power.

[europegirl4jfk]

1. Great article. Thanks for posting!

More excerpts:

There was a hint in the alpine air of resignation and sadness among those who admire America that the United States was stumbling along, lost in Iraq and headed in the wrong direction toward Iran. There was lament about good will lost, of power and prestige dissipated, and the dangers inherent in the rising tide of self-inflicted anti-Americanism.

And

But for all of that, Pei Minxin of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace predicted the United States will still be dominant in the next 15 or 20 years. China had only one-fifth the gross domestic product of the United States, India less, he said. And "these new powers will be more interested in balancing against each other than against the United States." The United States had "tremendous recuperating powers" and "self-correcting mechanisms." Iraq would be only a temporary reversal, he said, and it would be unwise to bet against the United States.

One hopes he's right. But if America continues with the new colonialism of regime change in Muslim lands, or goes to war with Iran with two wars yet unfinished, then the United States will be staggering under its too-vast orb of fate for generations to come.

It was in this atmosphere in Davos that Kerry made his critical remarks about the USA and the Bush administration, and I still think it was very moderate and diplomatic. I don't want to know what he said in private conversations with political and economic leaders.

[ProSense]

2. Excellent article!

When they say business chiefs, are they referring to executives of Halliburton, Exxon-Mobil and the rest who are making a boom on the war?