this narrative of the collapse of american moral authority is pretty tenacious in it's refusal to acknowledge it's own doublethink. it came up during vietnam, in the contra wars, in iraq...

the reality is that if america had any moral authority it's been gone for over a half century. the rest of the world has not seen america this way for generations. and, americans know better - they just suppress it, as they're trained to.

the reality is that the only morality america needs is the master morality of "might makes right". these rumours of it's demise....

also... i'm not up-to-date on this isis war. but you could see this coming from the mid-00s. and it's not clear whether this caliphate is a threat to the countries in the region, or an intended construction to legitimize a desired confederation.

if prince whomever in riyadh declared a caliphate, the muslim world would laugh at him. as bad as the ottomans. if this is a desired end point, it needs something that appears to be a little more organic to get it rolling.....