It is taking shape. Well, it has been shaped for quite some time when Condi Rice asked what was the point of having power and not using it? Now, many crucial developments converge and make the use of power more effective and easier, the advance of AI being one of them.
So, the American ideal of Government of the People, by the People, and for the People is not going to be the foundation of the new world order but the Wrestling Mania or the spaghetti cowboy culture (go ahead, make my day) will be. I told you not to try to defend your country by enriching uranium, but you don’t listen. Whack!!! I told you not to get involved in narcotic trade. Whack!!!
The taking of the Maduros and the bombings of Iran are the policy of the new world order. It is not even a carrot and stick policy, because there are no carrots. Or to be exact, we Americans clobber you on your head and then we get the carrots. We bomb you and we will keep all the money you have deposited in overseas banks. We arrest and imprison you and will take your oil.
We Americans are human too. Leaders of other countries are not American, and our blood does not spill. We have a lot of other urgent problems such as a leaking water heater to be concerned about. Overseas problems are not our concern because we have our government to deal with them.
But we should be concerned and should assist our government in thinking correctly. Even if supported by AI, this bullying tactic may turn out to be short-sighted and imbalanced, and the consequences could be chaotic and unpredictable. The Romans fell because they went to wars trying to dominate other countries.
We may overestimate our ability to produce weapons and pay for them. In September 2025, the Defense Department (or Department of War) spent $93.4 BILLION. In only two days, we spent $5.6 billion to bomb Iran. And we have spent or will have to spend billions of dollars to provide defensive weapons to other countries in the region including Israel, which is right now asking for more weapons.
Of course, our economy can do magic again. After each and every war, we came out richer. The Homeland Security Department’s $200,000,000 expense on an ad campaign featuring former secretary Kristi Noem was chump changes. But as often said, money (as well as weapons) does not always solve a problem, especially when the problem is the survival of a country of 100 million people, which has one of the oldest cultures or civilization lasting thousands of years.
Americans have been welcomed, liked, and respected everywhere we have visited. We are not used to being disliked or disrespected and so we may not be prepared to deal with a world where disrespect, dislike, and suspicion are working against us. We may isolate ourselves in the cocoon surrounded by the oceans, just like the billionaires fortifying themselves within the borders of the Florida peninsular. The universe has always been expanding. Isolating ourselves makes us smaller and the obvious consequences are that we may miss a lot of wonders and magics offered by the larger world.
That also goes against our current political philosophy that strong we win, weak we lose. The larger world may get stronger.
JOHN P LE PHONG (This article appears on Facebook, X, and thelephongjournal.com)
