It takes little insight at this point to see that a US strike will not only not induce any such salutary situation, it is likely to exacerbate monumental harms. Insofar as it is pursuing Order - an Order indistinct from systemic ecological and human harms - this should not come as any surprise. Yet, whether it will be because of anthropogenic, ecological disasters, such as Fukushima, or war, or whether it will be the result of emancipatory political and social movements, this Order is itself destined to fade.
To be sure, as Obama argues his case for bombing Syria it is interesting to reflect upon the fact that at least since the death of Louis XIV, in 1715, there has been a major shake up in European western power every hundred years. In 1815, after the defeat of Napoleon, the alliance largely established at the Congress of Vienna maintained a balance of power that persisted until an industrializing, unified Germany upset it, leading to World War I in 1914, after which a new Order arose. And now, in 2013, over 20 years since the end of the Cold War, one cannot help but wonder whether an overextended, historically unpopular US will precipitate its own demise, joining Napoleon's Empire, and the Austro Hungarian Empire, and so many others in the clutter of the dustbin of history.
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