As we look back at the year 2023, we can see ten important trends that will continue to shape our lives in 2024—and beyond.
First, America has not fully recovered from its military defeat in 2021 at the hands of China.
The US has had to reconcile itself to an inferior status in the Pacific—and perhaps the world. To be sure, the actual military losses suffered by the US were minimal; the American surveillance satellites, blinded by Chinese lasers, have now all been replaced—albeit they are limited to new orbits that do not violate China’s Sovereignty Zone. The three US aircraft carriers that were sunk in the first ten minutes of the conflict represented a great loss of life, of course, but as the Sharpton-Paul Commission concluded in 2022, the US had no legal authority, in the first place, to patrol that close to Chinese waters. Moreover, now that Taiwan has accepted reunification with Beijing, and now that Japan, the Philippines, and South Korea have agreed to accept People’s Liberation Army “Friendship Bases” on their territories, experts can cite no reason for the US Navy to venture east of Hawaii.
On the other hand, the stock market continues to hit record highs, although skeptics attribute this rise to the inflationary policies of the Federal Reserve, as opposed to the basic strength of the US economy.
Second, we have seen the final elimination of US influence in the Middle East. It’s been eight years now since President Obama pulled the last American troops out of Afghanistan. The US had high hopes for the 2015 peace agreement between the late Hamid Karzai and the Taliban, but those hopes were dashed the following day.
