I think that the killing fields of Gaza may well end up proving to be the downfall of Western power,

certainly as we understand it.

Now I'm in Athens at the moment, almost exactly equidistant between where I live in London and where the men, women and children of Gaza are being blown apart, riddled with bullets, starved tortured, deprived of medical gear and the essentials of life like water like shelter. And I found myself gazing at

the Acropolis of Athens thinking about how civilizations rise and fall but how

their decline is normally only clearly apparent when enough time has passed to take the long view.

Now civilizations can be aware of in crisis sure but they can't be sure that things might not turn around. In the 1970s, US power seemed to be in decline.

They'd been defeated the US in Vietnam and national liberation movements which looked to

Moscow were on the march in Africa, Asia and

Latin America. But then by the late 1980s the Soviet-led world was in terminal

decline, crisis, and then of course collapse, leading to the US establishment being overwhelmed with

triumphalism which it turned out to be fatal because hubris meets Nemesis.

As you can see Greek culture washing off on me while I'm here. Now in the 21st century

every Western foreign military adventure has proved a catastrophe and each has significantly weakened Western power in the process.

Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya.

Then there's the 2008 financial crash and its aftermath.

There's the political consequences of all that,

not least the rise of Donald Trump and his far-right movement which threaten the

very future existence of US democracy. They may well themselves be strengthened, of course, by what happens in Gaza

and they may well win as a consequence.

As someone who opposes Putin's brutal and unjustifiable invasion of Ukraine, it's clear

there too that the West is in the tree.

But Gaza. Gaza I think will have a calamitous lasting impact when it comes to

...