US administration worried it isn't dominant enough: China Daily editorial

According to US Vice-President Mike Pence, who also heads the National Space Council, the current administration in the United States will work with Congress, starting next year, to get a law passed to create an independent Space Force by 2020.

"Space is a war-fighting domain, just like the land, air and sea, and America will be as dominant there as we are here on Earth," he said.

This despite the US being on the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. But, hey, what does that matter. As it is for trade, the military, science and technology, indeed everything else, it is all about US dominance.

The same is true of the US-Russia Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty. The US president has claimed it ties his country's hands while Russia allegedly develops missiles banned by the treaty. That, together with the pretext that China remains outside this essentially US-Russia bilateral agreement, boils down to the same anxiety - that US dominance may be softening.

As is evident in all recent moves the White House has taken, "Make America Great Again" is essentially an ambitious all-around rallying cry so America can have confidence it will remain firm and in pole position.

Clearly some people in Washington simply cannot feel confident unless they believe they are pushing the US higher and boasting of its staying power, which appear increasingly unrealistic these days.

The Russians got it right when they criticized Washington for dreaming of a unipolar world when the latter threatened to leave the INF, official notice of which the US government will present "in due course", according to National Security Adviser John Bolton.

Nothing may prevent the US from establishing a space force, or anything it likes. Likewise, it can choose to withdraw from the INF, or any bilateral or multilateral treaty, as it feels fit. That is a sovereign right it is entitled to.

But that ignores the credibility and moral authority of US global leadership the Trump White House is vainly trying to uphold. For its reckless, destructive disruption of the longstanding world order and governance institutions, the present-day US administration will be remembered for fast-forwarding the moral decline of the US like none of its predecessors has.

American voters have just been told their country is now "respected again".

But even with the claims to prowess, if the current trend persists, they will no longer need to consult a Pew survey to see the country's waning appeal.