The “Collective West” led by the chief imperialist power, the United States, is careening and buckling, the wayward collapse evident with each passing day.

For what it’s worth, the transatlantic alliance of the U.S. and its European allies – embodied by the NATO military bloc – had a fairly good chronological run. The imperialist clique managed to hold together for nearly eight decades. But now that ship is running aground on the rocks of a proxy war in Ukraine against Russia.

Signs of collapse and disintegration are coming fast and thick. The military defeat in Ukraine by the NATO powers after a $100 billion investment in weapons is foremost among the casualty list – together with up to 500,000 dead Ukrainian soldiers.

What a hideous fiasco the NATO-sponsored campaign against Russia has turned out to be. A bloodbath in Europe akin to the worst among history’s many imperialist slaughters. The U.S.-led military alliance of 30 nations has spectacularly forfeited any pretence of being a “security organization”.

The gnashing of teeth has only just begun. The farcical shame over NATO’s retreat two years ago from Afghanistan in August 2021 – after 20 years of failed military occupation – is but a prelude to the horrendous debacle unfolding over Ukraine.

For the first time in the history of the United States republic, that country this week saw its Congressional leader getting the sack. Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House of Representatives – third in line to the presidency – was forced out of his job largely due to political infighting in Washington over the scandalous funding of a proxy war in Ukraine against Russia, all while the U.S. federal government is teetering on bankruptcy shutdown.

Hours before McCarthy was ousted, President Joe Biden made a desperate conference call Tuesday with European leaders to “reassure allies of continued U.S. support for Ukraine.” The phone conference included all the main allies, Britain, Germany, France, and Poland as well as Canada and Japan.

The sole topic was the war in Ukraine and pledges from Biden that the United States would continue its military support for the Kiev regime.

Speaking later about the discussions, Polish President Andrzej Duda, conveying the urgency of Biden’s agenda, was quoted as saying: “Everyone took the floor. The main subject was Ukraine, the situation in Ukraine. President Joe Biden began by telling us about the situation in the U.S. and what is the real political situation around Ukraine. He assured us that there is backing for the continuing support for Ukraine, first of all for the military support. He said that he will get that backing in the Congress.”

The Polish leader added: “Biden called on the participants to continue their support for Ukraine and that everyone assured him that they would.”

The unprecedented ouster of House Speaker McCarthy within hours of Biden’s empty assurance to Western allies “about the political situation in the U.S.” and his promises to stick with Ukraine can only serve to rattle nerves even further.

Obviously, Biden doesn’t even know what is going on in his own country never mind in Ukraine.

The biggest fear among America’s vassals in Europe, Canada, Japan and elsewhere is that Washington will abruptly jettison the failed proxy war in Ukraine. Not out of principle, but rather political expediency, thereby leaving them high and dry.

The United States and the European Union have committed up to $200 billion in military and other economic aid to Ukraine since the conflict with Russia erupted 20 months ago in February 2022. Europe has been impacted much more badly than the U.S. from the loss of Russia’s energy supplies and from the influx of millions of Ukrainian refugees.

Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign policy chief, asserts that Europe will continue to support Ukraine even if the United States were to halt its aid. Borrell is indulging in delusional fantasy.

Already European NATO members are becoming leery and reluctant about the endless financial largesse doled out to prop up the corrupt Kiev regime. Hungary and now Slovakia are vowing to cut off the weapons supply and other funding. Mass protests are occurring in Germany and other EU countries against the NATO-fueled war. European political leaders are increasingly seen as feckless Yes-Men for Washington and betraying their national interests.

Biden and the warmongering U.S. establishment are deeply committed to the proxy war against Russia. The war function is the engine of American capitalism and imperialist ambitions. But if the economy is fundamentally broken – and it surely is with an unsustainable $33 trillion national debt – the reality of bankruptcy and political/public opposition becomes untenable.

Biden’s “assurances” to the NATO vassals are embarrassingly worthless after he was blindsided by the ensuing chaos in his own Congress. The American president is in no position to pledge anything.

The Pentagon and the European militaries are also complaining they don’t have any more weapons to give to Ukraine, their arsenals having been depleted by reckless donations to the squandering, incompetent Kiev regime.

The already nervy Europeans and other NATO partners are no doubt having flashbacks of the treacherous way that Biden and Washington abruptly and unilaterally pulled the plug on Afghanistan. The NATO allies were stunned by that fast move to exit the quagmire. Biden didn’t even give them a heads-up, never mind consulting with them.

For eight decades after the Second World War, NATO and later the European Union were always a handy vehicle for American imperialism. The vassals were held together by the relative strength of the U.S. empire. That empire is now unravelling from endless wars, bankruptcy and endemic corruption in Washington. The last episode of the historic failure is being played out in the fraudulent proxy war in Ukraine – sold to the Western public by the lying mainstream media as yet another “noble cause” to allegedly defend democracy (how absurd!).

The ultimate degeneracy is evident from the “moralizing”, “superior” Western powers being found in bed with a Nazi regime. And along with that degeneracy, financial debts are off the charts and a grievous insult to the onerous democratic needs of the Western public.

When Uncle Sam does a runner, and he will, the game is finally up for him and all his vassals.

The great unravelling of Western imperialist power is underway and is accelerating.

Finian Cunningham has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. He is a Master’s graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. He is also a musician and songwriter. For nearly 20 years, he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organisations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent.