It’s the 27th of January, 1991.

The Cold War is coming to an end. The Berlin Wall has fallen. With fascism and communism defeated, Fukuyama declares the end of history. The announcer begins the introduction.

And now to honour America, especially the brave men and women serving our nation in the Persian Gulf, and throughout the world, please join in the singing of our national anthem.

America is 10 days into the Gulf War. They lead a 42-country coalition in a campaign to liberate Kuwait.

The United States enjoys the strongest military in the world, the largest economy, veto power in the UN, powerful positions in NATO and a dominant cultural export.

The anthem will be followed by a flyover of F-16 jets from the 56th Tactical Training Wing at MacDill air force base…

Those same F-16s have just established air superiority over Iraq.

…and will be performed by The Florida Orchestra under the direction of Maestro Jahja Ling and sung by Grammy Award winner Whitney Houston.

The performance is being broadcast to 750 million people around the world. And for the first time, in Russia. 14% of the world will hear John Clayton’s jazz arrangement of The Star-Spangled Banner.

Whitney Houston delivers what is now considered the best rendition of the US national anthem of all time.

The F-16s roar over the stadium. The coalition wins the war a month later.

But after the war, the presence of troops in Saudi Arabia would eventually become one of the motivations for the September 11 attacks. And it was the son of the Gulf War president who would lead the same coalition into the war on terror.

With a growing wealth divide, military overextension and protracted culture wars, America turned to cronyism, isolationism and fascism. It graduated from world police to global pariah.

Rest in peace.