Rupert Cornwell: Is this the end of Pax Americana?
Or was it the remark of one of those unnamed senior officials, delivered to the author Ron Suskind a couple of years ago, when the hubris of this White House was at its zenith – to the effect that reality was not an objective condition, but whatever the administration decided it should be? Probably, though, the prize belongs to Dick Cheney. (Who else, you will ask.) Making the case for war with Iraq in August 2002, the Vice-President waxed lyrical on the benefits of a successful invasion. “Extremists would have to rethink their strategy of jihad, moderates throughout the region would take heart, and our ability to advance the Israeli-Palestinian peace process would be enhanced.” Today, each of those three assertions lies in ruins. Instead, in the “arc of instability” stretching from Afghanistan and Pakistan westwards to Palestine and Israel, there is a dreadful confluence of events. Madeleine Albright, Powell’s predecessor as Secretary of State, has called the interlocking crises “perf
