The End of the American Nation-State

The American empire is now obviously coming to an end. What is less obvious is the end of the American Nation State. We now live in its last days.

American History of Violation of the Territorial Sovereignty of Other Nations

The United States has a long history of violating the territorial sovereignty of other countries and pushing for their dismemberment. The best-known recent example is the breakup of Yugoslavia, where the US helped split up the prosperous socialist country through economic coercion, diplomatic backing of separatists, and military force. That Balkanization concluded after the NATO bombing campaign targeting Yugoslavia in 1999.

1999 would not be the end of American support for the fracturing of other countries. Just shortly after, the US played an indispensable role in the de facto-balkanization of Iraq. After the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Iraqi Kurdistan gained significant autonomy from the new US puppet government in Baghdad in the 2005 constitution. These events follow the 1991 Gulf War, where the US implemented a no-fly zone over Iraqi Kurdistan, thus beginning the American-Israelification of Northern Iraq. The recent war of aggression between the United States and Israel against the Islamic Republic of Iran shows the importance of Northern Iraq in maintaining a balance of power in Iraq for Israeli-American interests against Iran.

Under the Biden-Kamala regime, many ideas were floated about the potential balkanization of Russia in its seemingly (to the stupid) defeat in the Ukraine war. The idea held by many of the transatlantic elites was that the cost of the war and Russia’s economic isolation would force the collapse of the Russian Federation, or at least the ousting of the Putin-led government. The 2022 congressional report titled “Decolonizing Russia: A moral and Strategic Imperative” is typical of the western weaponization of decolonial and seemingly “anti-imperial” language and ideas for its own imperial agenda. Many so-called leftists in the West are very quick to accept these pro-Western empire talking points.

The Trump Regime

With the rise of the second Trump administration, we see an uglier, more overt form of balkanization and violation of the territorial integrity of other nations, even those considered “allied” states. Trump has frequently flaunted the idea of seizing Greenland, voiced support for Albertanian succession in Canada, and is actively attempting to Balkanize and destroy the almost 3000 year old civilization that is Iran. The Trump regime is actively attempting to strangle and de facto annex Cuba by starving the island of energy, and it seems to have similar plans for the rest of South America. The maniac has even proposed that Venezuela become the 51st state.

Trump’s handlers in Israel have also been supportive of balkanization efforts in Somalia, establishing a neo-colonial puppet state of Somaliland in the North East. The Israelis have also been supportive of South Sudan’s secession from Sudan, the creation of fascist Christian militias in Lebanon called Lebanese forces, Kurdish separatism in Syria (along with the US), and the now-defunct Southern Transition Council in Southern Yemen. Now they are actively attempting (and failing thankfully) to incite insurgency in the Kurdish areas of Iran. Israel is also successfully cutting off Druze-dominated areas of Syria with the seeming support of the Julani regime, who is a former ISIS and al Qaeda leader.

Bring it Home

What the Empire does abroad will eventually come home. Ever since the war on terror and these insane conflicts in West Asia began after September 11th, we have seen many aspects of the war blow back on the American population. September 11th brought us the hyper-expansion of the surveillance state, increased militarization of US security forces, and increased fiscal stress of the state. As the US exported instability to North Africa and West Asia, the United States itself began to become increasingly unstable, culminating in the rise of Donald Trump and his 10-year-long death grip on US politics.

The Trump administration has supercharged many of the worst aspects of American imperial blowback. Many of the internal contradictions that have been elevated since the 2008 financial crisis and the election of Barack Obama are reaching a climax. The contradiction between the suburban/rural and the urban, racial/subnational contradictions, intra and inter-class contradictions, and the contradiction between democracy and oligarchy have reached new heights. Empire originally attempts to soften these external contradictions through the plundering of the labor and resources of other nations, but eventually destroys the nations it springs from. These contradictions are only expected to get worse as the American Empire dies in its war with Iran. With the destruction of the American Empire comes potentially the destruction of the American nation-state.

Destruction of the Empire/The Destruction of the Nation State

It has become apparent to the world that the United States, its ruling elite, and even its people are rogue elements. The American empire is run on myths; myths that its military is unbeatable, financial derivatives and intellectual labor mean more than resources, and it is indispensable to the world system. The war in Ukraine and the war with Iran are proving all three of those statements to be untrue. The Russians and Iranians have shown that resources and commodities are still the bedrock of the modern nation state and are much more important to the international economy than the ability to move numbers on a spreadsheet. The Russian ability to survive and thrive under 4 years of international sanctions, while the Eurozone suffers from strategic decline, has heavily damaged the myth of American financial superiority. The Iranian ability to levy oil sanctions through their bombing of oil refineries (in response to American–Israeli aggression) and control the Strait of Hormuz has annihilated its American military and economic coercive superiority. The Iranians have more power now relative to the US in terms of negotiations and coercion than they ever have in the 47 years of the Islamic Republic.

The American ruling elite have been exposed to be agents of Moloch who consume children for their own pleasure and purposefully spread chaos and oppression across the planet. Gone forever is the myth that America is the democratic policeman, and now rises the idea that America truly is the great Satan. Domestically, the ruling elite of the United States has never been more illegitimate. Though the ideas on why the US elites are illegitimate are diverse; some believe that the American government is an agent of a foreign power (Israel), some say it is a collection of pedophiles and their protectors, others say it is a dictatorship of one class of people over another. Many more ideas exist, and they might all be right. What is true is that the American ruling elite, both the Trump-led counter-elite and the trans-Atlantic elite of the Democratic party, are increasingly viewed as illegitimate as they are in increasing conflict with each other. The decadence, sheer hubris, and brutality of the Trump-led counter-elites and the weakness and complacency of the Democratic Party transatlantic elites threaten to undo the 250-year-old country.

Post-Nation State

Both the American Empire and the American Nation State, as it is currently constituted, are coming to the end. The United States will be forced to retreat from West Asia and eventually all of Eurasia. The United States will begin to violently succumb to its internal contradictions within the system as the economic situation declines. Trump has already signaled that he wants to pivot to confront his domestic enemies even as his war with Iran continues to go badly. When the collapse of the nation state comes, new systems need to be organized to accompany the new sub-national identities and political entities. The death of the old system will spawn new chaos, but there will become a necessity to re-accommodate all of the internal contradictions within the former American nation-state. In future articles, I will post some concepts (both realistic and idealistic) on what the post-nation-state system in the current United States will look like.