Interesting question
Alaa’s Third Law: The United States of America has become the Sole Super Power in the world of today; and has been cast into this role almost despite itself; its success has been so unbelievably complete, especially after the dramatic collapse of the Soviet block, that it finds itself charged with such global responsibility that is almost unbearable and for which it may not be entirely prepared. Just look around you: which other nation has such armies and fleets and economic involvement spreading over the entire globe? Consequently America has become the obsession of friend and foe alike, world wide. Just listen to any standard discourse of our Arab commentators, for instance. You will hear the word America or something to do with America, in every other sentence; if not in each one. America is deified, demonized, believed to be the source of everything that is happening. My son once told me that one of his teachers (of wahabi sympathies) emphatically told his pupils in class, that it was America that caused the Tsunami that struck the shores of Asia. Ordinary American folk may not quite realize or understand this; it is rather like some of these fairy tales when some quite ordinary person finds himself crowned as King or something of the sort.The question is this: Is the American political and social system really fit and prepared for such huge responsibility? That I shall leave to friends to ponder about.
The rest of the post is well worth reading as well.
As for the question posed there, I would certainly say that it is not. America is in many ways quite ill-suited to be a world hegemon. We will doubtless do a very bad job of it.
I happen to think that that is probably a good thing, because although us doing a bad job will cause quite I bit of pain, us doing a good job would be even worse.
A successful, organized tyrant is about the worst option you can have.
As it is, we will strive to help, and I think do a lot of good, but we will also blunder enough that others will be inspired to look after their own interests, and not simply count on America to solve their problems for them.
This is certainly happening in Iraq.
