Everyone’s favorite small-c communist imparts his timeless wisdom:

“Today our American friends are suffering from an illness worse than AIDS. And I would say this is the victor’s complex,” Gorbachev was quoted as saying in an interview with the Netzzeitung.

Unable to extricate itself from its Cold War mentality, the United States was playing a dwindling role in world politics, while Russia, China, Brazil, Europe, India and Japan were becoming stronger, Gorbachev said.

Funny how the US managed to both become a global hegemon unique in world history and play a dwindling role in world affairs. Of course Russia, in absolute terms, has become stronger over the past fifteen years; as a great power Russia had nowhere to go but up. One would hope, too, for their sake, that the Chinese leadership would be able to strengthen party and country relative to their position in the wake of Tianenmen. Strengthening India and Japan are deliberate policies of hegemonic America; Europe as we know it could hardly have become stronger without the full-flank advancement of the West past the fallen iron curtain of failed Soviet hegemony; and, well, the might and authority of Brazil on the world stage speaks for itself. Sorry, Gorby. Stick to your day job.