Nobody Ever Said Doomed Empires Don't Win Some Victories

but victories don't change the "doomed" part

Paris, 1783. The court of Louis XVI of France was ecstatic. A great victory for the glory of France had been won, and its greatest rival had been humbled before the world. Versailles had something to celebrate.

Just 20 years earlier, France had been humiliated by the British and Prussians in the Seven Years War. Louis’ granddaddy Louis XV had overreached. New France in North America was no more, profitable colonies in the Caribbean were now profiting the British Empire, as were some former French outposts in India. The treasury was empty and currents of social unrest were stirring in both the taverns of the poor and the salons of the aristocracy.

Louis XVI came to the throne in 1774 determined to avenge his grandpa and find a way to restore la gloire to France, and things didn’t look good. Then, just two years later, this happened,

Britain’s American colonies, who just 20 years before were fighting a war of bayonets and tomahawks against the French and their indigenous allies, had revolted against the British Empire. Could this be a chance for France?

Louis XVI and his advisors waited. They smuggled guns to the rebels. They consulted with every European power that had a grudge against the British, and lined up allies. They modernized their navy while the British Royal Navy rotted at the wharfs due to rampant early capitalist corruption.

The French aristocrats set their eyes on other prizes they might be able to grab if the British got punched hard enough, waited to see if these American rebels had the wherewithal to bloody Perfidious Albion’s nose on their own, and after Benedict Arnold captured an entire British army at Saratoga they declared war on Britain.

The Dutch and Spanish joined in, the French Navy defeated the British off the Virginia Capes while the French Army joined my great-X5 grandpa and the Continental Army at Yorktown, Britain was humiliated, Grandpa Louis was avenged, and it was time to shout Vive la gloire! and party hardy in Paris.

France was back on the way up, the British were going down, and the treasury was still empty but surely things would turn around now.

Six years later, the people of Paris stormed the Bastille and Louis XVI and the French aristocracy were overthrown.

Just a few days ago the US Empire scored a major victory. It finally succeeded in a regime change operation in Syria.

Reaction has been predictable. American liberals are giddy at the prospect of Sharia Law being imposed on Syria because Assad was evil and the descendant of Al-Qaeda with Sham in its name says they’re moderate now.

I think that means caning a woman for failing to cover her hair instead of stoning her, but CNN assures me Democracy will prevail. One Ukrainian on Facebook was so giddy he declared that Moscow will fall next. He’s in for a disappointment.

Anti-imperialists are wailing and gnashing their teeth, with some saying those of us who pointed out the Empire’s previous flails and fails must have been wrong, that the Ukraine War isn’t an imperial disaster after all because they got Syria, that if the Empire gets stymied it will just wait and find another way to win, and that this could conceivably go on for generations.

Balderdash and poppycock.

All of the systemic problems the US Empire had two weeks ago still exist. Yeah, it won in Syria, but just what exactly did it really win? Louis XVI won his war against the British, too, but that foreign victory did nothing to fix the rot at home that would claim his head just a few years later.

OK, Assad’s gone. Israel’s ports are still empty, its best people are still emigrating, and its economy is still collapsing. Hezbollah is definitely weakened, and Israel will be able to slaughter even more Palestinians while attention is focused elsewhere, but BDS will continue to grow regardless.

Nothing has changed in the Ukraine War. The Russians keep advancing. Even Zelensky finally admits there’s no way Ukraine can ever restore its 2014 borders.

Nothing has changed in the United States. People in Appalachia are showing just how white and privileged they are by freezing in tents because their government is more concerned about the welfare of Syrian rebels, Georgian color revolutionaries, and Israeli genocidal maniacs than that of North Carolinians.

Inflation’s still a thing. The rent and the mortgage are still too damned high. Health care and education are still unaffordable. Groceries still cost way too much. Infrastructure still crumbles right alongside faith in established institutions.

Yes, the US Empire had a victory overseas, but it did nothing to address the causes of its ongoing decline, any more than Louis XVI did those of French feudalism when he successfully propelled a ragtag band of rebels to victory over 240 years ago.

For America, nothing has even cosmetically changed.

Thank you for reading, good day or night, and good luck.

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