Very interesting makes you think. On the other hand I personally, as an American, and as far as I know everybody I know, would welcome Geert or any other Dutch or other nationality to clean up the gulf. I get so sick of what ever you may be if not an ist of some kind laying the arrogance bullshit at the door of all Americans. Yes it may be true of the idiots in office and their minions, but I didn't vote for them, of course the idiot I did vote for probably would't be any better, and yes the agencies with all their stupid rules are making it more difficult than it needs to be but that goes back to the idiot and his minions.
Also I am so sick of people like you calling the US an empire, it isn't and never was. The Roman Empire and The British Empire were empires, the Germans, French and Spanish had pretentions, and may even have attained empire status briefly, but WE have never been an empire. You might mention Iraq, but we are occupying it and spending make that throwing away God knows how much borrowed money after an illegal war against them, nor (not) through a desire to make them part of an empire. I also (disagree) with those who describe the US as Imperial...
I refer the following articles some of which I agree with some of which I don't:
http://hnn.us/articles/1237.html
and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_imperialism
and http://www.enlightennext.org/magazine/j24/garrison.asp
and http://www.lewrockwell.com/vance/vance8.html
and http://askville.amazon.com/United-States-Empire/AnswerViewer.do?requestId=2608517
The original Blog article that I commented about is here, read it and see if you agree or disagree:
http://www.declineoftheempire.com/2010/07/how-not-to-contain-an-oil-spill.html#comments
Lee Murray
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Here is my comment to the original article discussed:
ReplyDeleteIn the interests of full disclosure, I am a long time friend and fellow blogger to Lee Murray, whose comment I am replying to.
Yes, I strongly believe the United States is an empire in decline, an empire which had its' intentional beginnings in the Mexican-American War followed by the Spanish-American War, which we began in the conventional sense, the acquisition of territories from another. Examples are the state I reside in,California, and the Philippines, to name just a couple. This proved to be costly in lives lost and treasure spent, i.e. the pacification of the Philippines, and we moved on.These facts on the ground, in my opinion, refute the notion that we were never an empire.
Our empire ambitions got a big break after the end of World War 2. At the conclusion, two strong peoples were left standing at the end, the americans and the russians. The Soviets with Stalin in charge, and determined never to be invaded from the west again, went the way of conventional empires of old, holding territory at all costs and subjugation the peoples there to the needs of the Imperial rulers in Moscow. This fact is indisputable. And
of course the British, exhausted and broken, have not recovered their old
imperial glory to this day.
You know that old saying about walking and quacking like a duck, there's something to that. Granted, after WW2 we didn't act like the Soviet's seizing and holding territory, WE JUST REMADE THE RULES OF THE GAME.
Instead of holding territory, we helped rebuild Europe via the Marshall Plan. In return for our protection, those governments had time to develop
politically and economically in ways pleasing to us. They also joined in alliances both military and economic, against the Soviets. This American hegemony over the area allowed the dollar to replace the pound sterling as the defacto global currency, a fact which continues to this day. And of course, American english replaced the Queen's english as the defacto business and cultural language. American hegemony and suzerainty over the
"free" peoples of the globe was now assured, and is recognized by historians,for the next 40-50 years, and some say to this very day.
How about just a few examples- whose cigarettes are smoked worldwide? What
part of the globe has never heard of the Marlboro man? Whose movies and culture is viewed worldwide and pirated, as much as America's? Whose armaments and military are the acknowledged GOLD STANDARD and are considered unequaled by all the other governments of the world? Whose defense budget dwarfs the rest of the other countries' budgets in the world, PUT TOGETHER.
What other country has over 700 military bases in over 70 countries of this
planet? The answer to all the above questions is : NONE.
So, in my humble opinion, yes we started out over a century ago along the conventional path of empire, but got smart and figured out, with that old-fashioned yankee ingenuity, how to take this empire building to the next level, and to do so in such a way that the average person on the street, seeing the huge trees all over in the forest, would fail to recognize that there was in fact, a forest.
As far as the empire being in decline, that should be obvious to all, and that is in fact this blogsite's author's responsibility to make clear to the readers, a job which I feel he is succeeding admirably at.
I wholeheartedly agree with the premise of the blogpost, our government's refusal to accept the Dutch offer(s) not once but twice, smacks of arrogance, an arrogance which is unjustified considering the desperate straits, financially and strategically our country finds itself in now, thanks to the shortsideness and corruption of our so called "elected government".
Bill Mcdonald
http://morongobillsbackporch.blogspot.com
Posted by: William Mcdonald | 07/11/2010 at 04:37 PM