The Mick and Limey Show Part 1

In 1999, when I was at Howard University, Alex, one of my best friends, and I decided to host our own radio show. It was on the AM Howard University student radio station. For several months we did a morning show. We called it the Mick and Limey show since I have Irish ancestry and he has English roots. It was a hilarious exercise that ended when we became sick of waking up before 6am each morning.

Well, the Mick and Limey show is back on air, except this time we are on-line. Alex and I exchange e-mails all the time. I've decided to post some of those exchanges! Here is our latest. Enjoy


From Limey to Mick:

Are we beginning to see the sun setting on the US empire or am I missing something? Gone seem to be the days when the US said something and people would fall into line or powers would fall eg. Chile. Today, even the banana republics are beginning to talk smack without much fear. Piracy is rampant on the high seas, Isreal will not listen, North Korea, Burma and Zim are like whatever. My question would be what happened to weight of the US? Where did it go and when did it leave?

Was it after Vietnam with Panama and Grenada simple sideshows to fool us into thinking the US still had real power. Shoot, the UK fought and won the falklands war but no one with any real sense would consider us to have any power but there are still some crackpots. Sadly we call them the media.

Yes we all know the US has the largest most powerful army but what good is it if you can't use due to the political and economic ramifications? Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying your 15 mins is about up just yet and I'm no neo-con...shoot I'm not even an American all I'm saying is these are interesting times which we live.

Thoughts,

Limey

From Mick to Limey:

Limey,

I think you are spot on on many points. Let's hope the sun is setting to some degree. (Though I'd still rather see the USA in the lead than China or Russia.) Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The US financial meltdown is evidence of that. How a few bankers managed to rip off the world and screw up the entire financial sector...eish. That's another story.

Here's the problem. The US is the world's largest debtor. It owes the world in its own currency. So if the $ falls to precipitously, it makes that debt owed worthless. The US just prints more money, and voila...it's out of debt, it's economy has taken a hit, but not a non-recoverable one. What's crazy is that despite all the anti-Americanism, frustration with foreign policy, etc., nobody wants to see the US economy fall because with it, then so too goes the world economy.

Politically, Bush messed it up. Full stop. I said this in 2004. On September 12, 2001, George W. Bush woke up as the most powerful man in world history. He was the leader of the most powerful empire and he had the entire world's sympathy. Imagine that..the whole world felt sorry for the big guy. How often has that happened? Over the next seven plus years, he managed to successfully erode that sympathy to the point where it had switched to loathing. Nice job there Bubba.

We are not safer. We are far poorer (from a balanced budget Clinton to the world's biggest debtor in 8 years). And US prestige has been eroded, perhaps beyond repair. Translation: Osama accomplished his goal of bringing down the US empire!

It's been frustrating to watch if you believe in America. If you believe the US had too much power, it's been a thing of beauty. I do think little countries such as Chile, etc., won't get too carried away because they need the US. But you are 100% correct that the days of Uncle Sam saying something and the rest of the world kowtowing are gone.

Cheers,

Mick