Two recent interrelated events, the Russia-Georgia spat and the seemingly inability of hard breathing West, especially America, to forcefully react, mock the idea of the destiny controlling superpower that America is supposed to be.

It is not something that the American punditocracy is used to.

To hear them rave and rage over Russia’s actions in Georgia, and then to watch them cool down to a state of incoherence forged by the realisation that they have no control of some events in a world supposedly under the thumb of one superpower is akin to witnessing a hot air balloon pop.

Tireless critic

Just as if on time Prof Andrew Bacevich, a tireless critic of American policies, domestic and foreign, weighs in with a well-timed compact volume, The Limits of Power, The End of American Exceptionalism.

Bacevich, a West Point graduate and an army officer of more than 20 years, specialises in what he sees as speaking truth to power. He quotes theologian and philosopher Reinhold Niebuhr who warned that America’s dream of managing history would come to no good.

Bacevich says America faces three major crises: economic, political and military.

America, says Bacevich, has become a nation of debtors and is dependent on foreign oil. Politically, he says, the system has been severely strained by the George Bush’s presidency that has usurped massive power and at the same time, it has enfeebled Congress.

More frightening, adds Bacevich, the “ideology of national security” has supplanted everything else and it is a guide to America’s relations with the rest of the world.

Barack Obama, too, says Bacevich subscribes to this ideology as well.

The United States military, Bacevich argues, has become the instrument for buttressing the national security ideology, never mind that the utility of the military is doubtful in many politically delicate situations where most conflicts erupt.

What is more, he says, the volunteer army has become increasingly isolated from the society and it has become “an imperial constabulary” and “an extension of the imperial presidency.”

Latest offering

Fans of Bacevich’s book will be thrilled with his book. The interesting things about the author, and they probably lend considerable gravitas to his analysis, are his military background, intellectual abilities, and politics. Bacevich not only attended West Point, he was a professor there too. A Princeton PhD, he teaches history at Boston University and he has taught at Johns Hopkins University.

Politically, he is a conservative, and that makes it harder for the usual crowd of distracters to go after him and to discredit, him based on political inclinations. Every time Bacevich makes a case, usually in book format it is compelling. His indictment against America can be summed up as three charges: Americans consume too much, they go to war too often, and they are not governing themselves too wisely. Of course, others will disagree, but that is how Bacevich sees it.