ONE of the great academic texts written the past 100 years is Paul Kennedy’s, “The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers.” They say humans never learn from the past and never learn from their mistakes. I am not sure you cannot include China in this.

While the great powers in the 20th century were competing with each other to show off their military hardware, China was using its income to make China great through production of all kinds of things, not only military hardware. So it brings in to question what President Trump means by the term, “great?” So what is the meaning of the term Make American Great Again (MAGA)?
It needs no sophisticated delineation. Trump and the right-wing core of the Republican Party knew that for over 20 years now, the US has been in economic decline. When Trump came to power, he asserted that the US will not protect countries under NATO that do not spend money for their own protection. In reference, last week, to European countries, he alleged that they spend on their domestic economy while the US finances NATO bases.

By MAGA, President Trump means the domestic economy of the US. He is not referring to its military might. Obviously, he has read Kennedy’s book. The essential point of the book is that empires fall because they lack the economic resources to keep empire going.

No matter how emotional the UK felt over Pax Brittanica, World War II had devastated the UK economy. The UK had no money to preserve its global empire. The UK was simply overjoyed to let its colonies go their own way. When he became President of the USSR, Mikhail Gorbachev came to the full realisation that the USSR could no longer afford to bankroll both the constituent parts of the USSR and the entire Warsaw Pact nations of Eastern Europe. Gorbachev told the Cubans that the era of Soviet generosity was over. The fact is the USSR’s economy could not afford the preservation of empire.

Trump has now announced substantial cuts to the US military budget. The US military budget is $880 billion which is 63 percent of the world’s expenditure. How such incredible expenditure makes a country great?

Think of this. A country has dozens of submarines, dozens of aircraft carriers. Ten years passed, they are not engaged in war to protect the country. 20 years passed they are still not fighting any wars to ensure that the world is conquered. 50 years pass and that hardware is still in the water. How that stupendous arsenal makes a country great?

The US has about 152 military bases in about 60 countries. Decades come and decades go by and those bases are still sitting there. How does that make the US great? $880 billion goes to the armed forces while that money could have gone to make America great again.

A sitting American president, Barack Obama, won the Nobel Peace Prize while he presided over a country with excruciating poverty that spends $880 billion on the military.

So which country is great when you make the comparison between China and the US? China’s annual defence budget is 309 billion, less than half of the US’. But inside of China, one sees amazing post-modern developments that motivate you to call it a great country. China’s post-modern infrastructure, literally, and I mean it literally, makes American airports, American transport systems and Manhattan look like Third World structures.

The American political establishment woke up a morning and found out that China, not Russia was the most formidable challenger to Pax-Americana. One of the earliest persons who came to that realisation was Donald Trump. The current American president wants the US to compete with China on the basic issue of production not military expenditure. Mr. Trump knows Professor Kennedy is right.

Mr. Trump knows too that there is less poverty in all the top Western European nations because since World War II, they have spent more on development than the military. They used their money to modernise their country. The US is using its money to modernise its armed forces. The UK defence budget is 69 B. Germany is 61 B. France is 57 B.

The US may be the most popular country in the world, but a serious philosophical debate could conclude that it is not a great country. What the popularity of the US has done is obfuscate its horrific manifestations of poverty.

The UK spends a substantial amount on free medical service. The US expenditure in this regard is minimal. What criteria then does one use to call a country great? Why should it be military might while your people live in abject poverty?

DISCLAIMER: The views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Guyana National Newspapers Limited.