Power balance in the world is shifting to a worse position

Taliban fighters patrol the streets of Kabul on Monday. Picture: AFP

The Vietnam war shattered the myth the US could do anything it wanted anywhere in the world. Americans were forced to watch the local government and its army be defeated by an energetic, motivated force well supported by a big majority of the population and armed to the teeth by the Russians who are always looking to embarrass the US.

While many in Australia would believe this conflict had an appropriate ending, I don’t know anybody who is relaxed and comfortable about a Taliban victory in Afghanistan.

These barbarians have slogged it out with the Western forces and the might of their technological superiority and emerged triumphant.

As evidence mounts of more Afghans being dragged from their homes and summarily executed by the Taliban, you have to wonder how the rest of the world proposes to deal with them.

The UN is a joke at the best of times but even its mostly anti-American bias would surely be tested by admitting those who are proud of their beheadings and determination to take this poor country back beyond the dark ages.

They seem determined to offer no concession on their lifestyle and as distinct from the rest of the Arab world, they will never don a Western-style suit.

Tribalism is deeply ingrained in some of these countries and American attempts to impose democracy will always face resistance.

Since the death of Muammar Gaddafi, Libya has remained a failed state because the people of the region identify only with their tribe. They have no time for the name Libya and no belief in its institutions.

After the two world wars of the 20th century, the victors sat down with a map of the Middle East and proceeded to put lines in place to denote new national boundaries and, indeed, new nations.

It must have been a heady task as the victors basked in the glory of their win. Imagine the power these individuals had in their hands.

They were exercising the power of the gods as they inked out a page and transferred a million people from one country to another.

Everyone got a look in, bar the one lot who always seem to be on the wrong end of the stick when boundaries are being drawn: the Kurds. They carry on the fight against the remnants of Osama bin Laden’s brutes and the Taliban-type terrorists. They deserve better than their so-called allies in the West have ever dealt out to them.

The power balance in the world is shifting to a worse position. It is hard to believe that since Chairman Mao took over a war-torn land accustomed to regular famines, the Chinese now hold more than 4 per cent of US debt (more than $US1 trillion).

You can’t expect China to observe all the niceties of our insistence on targets to limit the emission of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

The West did so willy-nilly for almost two centuries while it achieved its wealth and high standard of living. The Chinese will cop no lectures on that score.

Hesitant leaders like Joe Biden are no match for the Chinese leadership. Reaching the top of the political tree in the Chinese Communist Party requires patience, guile and a capacity for ruthlessness. The weak don’t prosper in Chinese politics and if you don’t have blood on your hands, you’re a novice.

I have never been able to understand how such a mighty nation can elect the likes of Trump and Biden.