During four years of combat against the Axis leaders in Berlin and Tokyo that raged across the planet, America’s wartime commanders - George Marshall in Washington, Dwight D. Tomįrom the ashes of a world war that killed 80 million people and reduced great cities to smoking rubble, America rose like a Titan of Greek legend, unharmed and armed with extraordinary military and economic power, to govern the globe. With all of that grimly in mind, why not take a step back from this increasingly overheated world of ours and let TomDispatch regular Alfred McCoy, author of To Govern the Globe: World Orders and Catastrophic Change, explore what lies behind such tensions: the rise and fall of great powers on a distinctly disturbed planet. At the same time, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has turned a cold shoulder to the Biden administration’s attempts to restart high-level talks of any sort while, as the New York Times reported recently, his country has begun a significant buildup of its nuclear arsenal. military is upgrading its forces in the region, its military positions in the Pacific, and its training exercises for just such a future conflict. That war! Meanwhile, after a - yes, this is not a misprint - congressional war game simulating a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, the head of the new House committee on China, Mike Gallagher (R-WI), insisted that Washington needed to arm that island “to the teeth.” At the same time, the U.S. Army Secretary Christine Wormuth, while not exactly predicting such a conflict, Minihan-style, did recently say of China, “We obviously have to prepare, to be prepared to fight and win that war.” His comments were mild compared to those of General Mike Minihan, head of the Air Mobility Command, who recently predicted war with China within - yes! - two years! (“My gut tells me will fight in 2025.”) And don’t think it’s just the admirals and generals either. Indo-Pacific Command, warned that “I’m responsible to prevent this conflict today and - if deterrence were to fail - to be able to fight and win.” Fight and win indeed! And if that doesn’t seem clear enough to you, he’s talking about a future war between the planet’s two nuclear-armed great powers.

Just the other day, speaking about China, Admiral John Aquilino, head of the U.S. On both sides, the talk only grows grimmer.

The world after the fall