The scandal involving CIA chief David Petraeus and his biographer Paula Broadwell made me review some of the American history I have studied, to make the following comparison. The first three presidents of the United States were the fathers of independence, George Washington, his vice president, John Adams, who later became president, and his vice president, Thomas Jefferson, who later became president, and his vice president during his first term, Aaron Burr. Who matches up with them among the American presidents whom I have known? Lyndon Johnson, Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan, up to George W. Bush? A quick comparison explains the reasons for the collapse of America, after it was a leading state in the realm of freedoms and human rights, and the supporter of colonized peoples, one that built Europe after World War II, and allocated foreign assistance to poor countries. It has now become a country of foreign wars and neo-imperialism, with strained relations with the Third World. Its assistance goes to either dictators or to Israel, a country of crimes, occupation and racism. The fourth, fifth and sixth American presidents were James Madison, James Monroe and John Quincy Adams, respectively. These are matched in my day by Gerald Ford, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Washington was the leader of the Continental Army, which defeated Britain and gained independence for its American colony. He, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe were founding fathers; John Quincy Adams was the son of John Adams and was the most famous diplomat of his day. Washington needs no introduction; Jefferson, with the help of Adams, authored the Declaration of Independence, while Madison was the "father of the Constitution," who played a key role in passing the Bill of Rights. The first presidents of the United States were no angels. Jefferson was accused of love affairs that even Clinton could not keep up with, and it is said that the third president had children by his servant. His vice president, Burr, was killed in a duel with his political rival, Alexander Hamilton, one of the founding fathers, a political philosopher, constitutional lawyer, and economic expert who was secretary of the Treasury (the leading American author Gore Vidal, who died this year, wrote the historical novel "Burr," which denies some of these accusations). These men made the US an example for the entire world. Then we arrive at the assassination of John Kennedy after less than three years in the White House; he left us tales of romantic exploits. He was a playboy and his brother had a relationship with Marilyn Monroe. Johnson was a cowboy, crude in speech, and the war criminal of Vietnam. Ford was a football player and the only unelected president. He became vice president after Spiro Agnew resigned following a series of scandals, and president after Nixon himself fell, after the Watergate scandal. Jimmy Carter was a peanut farmer with very good intentions, but he was weak. The siege of American diplomats in Tehran for 444 days did away with his chances for a second term. Then came the elderly Ronald Reagan, a second-rate actor and third-rate politician. After he left the White House it turned out that he had begun to suffer from Alzheimer's and perhaps he was up in the sky when he came up with the Star Wars project against the Soviet Union. Do I have to tell readers about Clinton? Monica Lewinsky was one of a thousand things that diverted the president from focusing on presidential affairs, although there was a consensus on his sharp intelligence and political skill. Perhaps Clinton's reputation paved the way for George W Bush to come to office; he destroyed America's economy and led three losing wars, in Iraq and Afghanistan and against terror. The US and the world paid the price for the neoconservatives' control over American policy; most of them were pro-Likud American Jews who put Israel's interest before the interest of their own country, and caused disasters whose price the world continues to pay. The famous British historian Edward Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire is an authoritative source on this subject. I wait to see what will be written about the American Empire's decline and fall, although I do not expect that it will be as good as Gibbon's. Perhaps readers have found an explanation for the rise and fall of countries in the Muqaddima of Ibn Khaldoun. He said that kingship is power and is taken, not granted; it goes to the victor. He also said that states go through a series of phases, led by taking over power, followed by the ruler's dictatorship over his people, then vacuum and weakness, and finally extravagance and wastefulness, or the George W. Bush era in the US, when the country went bankrupt, and so did we. [email protected]
