Friday, July 23, 2010

William Collins: America Can't Afford its Empire

America Can't Afford its Empire
By William Collins article link article link
July 21, 2010 | OtherWords | AlterNet

It's a lot of work being an empire. Expensive, but well worth it. Americans make up only 4 percent of the world's population, but we get to use up 25 percent of its resources. That's pretty high living and you don't get to pull it off by being a wimpy socialist nonentity. We also get to spew 25 percent of the earth's unsustainable pollution. Sure, this all has to come to an end eventually, but no matter; it's been a great ride.

And at least it won't come to an end militarily. Our army puts Rome to shame. We have 865 foreign bases, and blanket every continent with soldiers and CIA nests. ESPN World Cup announcers "welcome our men and women in uniform serving in over 175 countries and territories." Japan hosts 47,000 of our troops, paying $2 billion for the privilege and annoying its own citizens no end. It just ousted a prime minister over that spat.

South Korea, even closer to the front lines, harbors 37,000 U.S. troops. It's also a serious local annoyance, but nonetheless an irresistible international insurance policy. Now our navy wants an additional Korean base on Jeju Island, jutting out into the sea toward China. This would be yet another means of menacing our biggest economic competitor should it ever display dangerous military rumblings. Much of its incoming oil passes near Jeju. Also in the Pacific we're vastly upgrading our Command Headquarters in Hawaii. Just in case.

Europe doesn't really mind all this military posturing either. It gives them a cheap umbrella against any Russian or Chinese expansionism. On the other hand, they're impatient with our fixation on starting wars. The Netherlands recently lost a government over sending its troops to Iraq and Afghanistan, and Tony Blair's toadying up to George W. Bush was no small part of Labor's dramatic demise in Britain. Military shield? Yes. Wars? No.

Meanwhile Secretary of Defense Robert Gates just rebuked Europe for being too peaceful. What a putdown.

Plainly the U.S. is not shy like the European Union. Our military and CIA now have virtual carte blanche to go ahead and assassinate our enemies of the moment, wherever. Drones in Asia have long been doing this regularly and now special forces are similarly authorized to murder, at least in many parts of the Muslim world. The Israelis are old hands and presumably give us pointers. Yemen and Somalia are our current James Bond hotspots.

In addition to military bases, any empire needs management infrastructure. Thus the Mothership of World Domination is now moored in Baghdad. It's the largest embassy on earth, covering 104 acres. In true Iraq War fashion it was shoddily built by corrupt contractors, but will henceforth serve as our Middle East and Central Asia nerve center. Presently it's busy insinuating U.S. corporations into Iraq's juicy, if decayed, oil fields.

There's more too. Iraq is now viewed as Asia's rail gateway to Europe, with deepwater harbor plans being drawn for Basra and rights-of-way being organized for trains all the way from there to Germany.

But such domination can be messy. There is always stuff like having to bribe the rulers of Kyrgyzstan to keep our air base, supporting coup plotters in Honduras so as to hang onto our base there, paying Ethiopia to occupy Somalia, etc. Plus the wars. It's all so terribly expensive.

Indeed, it's the cost that will probably take our empire down one day. We have built this global fortress on financial sand. Despite our momentary debt reprieve when Europe went bust, our deficit can't keep mounting forever. One day it will force us to bring all those troops home, like it or not.

William A. Collins, an OtherWords columnist, is a former Connecticut State lawmaker and the former mayor of Norwalk.

© 2010 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.

OtherWords home page
AlterNet home page

The American Empire According to TomDispatch
The Essential, Undistractable Tom Engelhardt
July 23, 2010 | Nieman Watchdog | Huffington Post | CommonDreams
Nieman Watchdog home page
The Huffington Post home page
TomDispatch home page
The Nation Institute home page

Countering the Iraq War Spinners
The Truth of the Iraq War is That We Destroyed Iraq
by Jodie Evans article link
July 23, 2010 | CODEPINK | CommonDreams
CODEPINK Women for Peace home page
CommonDreams home page

We Can Handle the Truth – Stop Trying to Hide the Truth from Us
The Peace Movement Should Stand With Military Whistleblower Bradley Manning
By Kevin Zeese article link
July 22, 2010 | Information Clearing House
Help Bradley Manning home page
Voters for Peace home page
Information Clearing House home page

Why Afghanistan?
By Timothy V. Gatto article link
July 22, 2010 | OpEdNews
LiberalPro blog home
OpEdNews home page

Share/Save/Bookmark

No comments:

Post a Comment

Mammon or Messiah research contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. We are making such material available to our readers under the provisions of "fair use" in an effort to advance a better understanding of political, economic and social issues. The material on this site is presented without profit for research and educational purposes. If you wish to use copyrighted material for purposes other than "fair use" you must request permission from the copyright owner.