This is a long-range decline, 911 didn't start it, accelerated it. Wallerstein last year had a good article on the dynamic in NLR, which I quoted back then.
I would suggest this strategic thinking you are citing is a logical extension of conciousness of that decline. Necessarily, the elites producing it are not willing to accept what this all means, in particular for them. For the piper is soon coming to be paid, and there isn't a whole lot they can do, for much longer; soon they will no longer be able to shape events as in the past, but will be shaped by them.
The first impulse, a properly bougeois one, in view of this, is to cast about for scapegoats and new enemies. Fortunately, the elites in the US are still looking for external enemies, for when they start looking at internal ones in earnest, I'm not sure we want to see the result. Fai de bèn a Bertrand, te lou rendra en cagant
The US is loosing the supreme position in world politics it once gained through european countries military adventures for the enslavement of the rest of the world, ending with the same european countries blasting each other to small bits, leaving the US at the top of the hill, holding the chains. Now that the rest of the world has gained some independence and is on its way to diversify who holds what chains, the US as supreme world power is comparatively falling. Nobody likes to fall, and flailing is common. Corns article is a bit of intellectual flailing. A vote for PES is a vote for EPP! A vote for EPP is a vote for PES! Support the coalition, vote EPP-PES in 2009!
