From the blog LiberalPro
I cannot watch the news on television anymore. I am tired of the lies told baldly to my face and the “spin” put on everything that is not in the Empires best interests. That is what we are; an Empire that rules the world in order for the benefit of The United States. Listen further my fellow Americans, when I say for the benefit of the United States, I am not talking about the people of the United States, rather I am talking about those that own and manage the United States. These people are the people in our government, our corporate leaders, and our mega-wealthy ruling class. The people of the United States are no more or less important to these people than anyone else in this world save for the fact that we pull the lever to put them in power.
Today that right is not even guaranteed. If this government can’t convince us with their fear and propaganda along with their wars and economic power over their own citizen’s to vote the cabal’s way, why… they’ll just change the vote! When there is no paper trail to visually verify the vote what are we left with, the word of the government official that tallied up the score? We saw this in our last two Presidential elections, will we see it again? Of course we will, for nothing has changed. We can’t even predict primaries on poll data; do you think something’s wrong here?
The people that promise to change the status quo are run out of the election by collusion between the corporate-run media and the corporate financed candidates. No one wishing to change the way this country runs can get equal footing with these “sponsored” candidates. What change will any of them bring? They will do as they are told and we will continue to have an Empire, again, not of the people for the people, but for the ones that control this nation’s destiny, and believe me brother, it’s not you or me. To these people that run this Empire we are a nuisance that they must deal with from time to time. We are allowed to believe that we are free by voting for one of them. Once in a blue moon we will actually get to vote for someone that is not part of the Empire, but that is a rare occurrence. We are the serfs of this Empire, back to being plundered by the “Robber Barons” and most people in this nation aren’t even aware of it.
This Global War on Terrorism is a lie. There are no Al Qaeda cells in every city in America and in over 60 countries in the world. This is the same “Red Scare” tactic our government has used so well since the end of the last World War. It is propaganda, pure bullshit. Deep in your hearts you know it’s true. To say or think differently would be seen as anti-patriotic. Well chew on this for awhile, why has this country been instrumental in bringing down close to 50 governments of other nations? Why did we finance the overthrow of Hugo Chavez in 2002 only to see his people rise up and re-install him? Why is Hugo Chavez, a man that works for the poorest of his country, so savagely attacked by the Empire? The reason is because like Fidel Castro, he won’t play the Washington game. He won’t sell his nation’s resources to the Empire for pennies on the dollar. Is he a threat to you? Is he a threat to any average American? The answer is obvious, but he is a threat to the multi-national oil cartel. The people controlling this Empire’s government will tell you any number of lies to watch out for their interests.
Why are we fighting in Iraq? Were we ever afraid of Saddam? Give me a break. We are fighting over there to pay for Lockheed-Martin and all the other defense contractors’ budgets. We are in Iraq to give the Empire military bases to control the Persian Gulf and to assert our presence to insure our interests. We care not for the people of Iraq, nor do we care for the soldiers that die on command. This is just another example of Empire at its most malicious. Killing, according to some estimates, over a million Iraqi’s and almost 4,000 American soldiers that die on the ground, many soldiers who died in the air on a medi-vac didn’t make the count. We have destroyed their infrastructure and now pay Halliburton, Cheney’s company to put the country back together with no-bid contracts.
We threaten Iran with attack for having the audacity to build a nuclear power reactor. The Empire which once overthrew their infant democracy and re-installed the Shah, now tells the people of Iran what they can and cannot do. Meanwhile the Empire is selling nuclear secrets to India and Turkey and is the world’s foremost owner of nuclear weaponry. How insane is this logic? Still, this is the dictatorial nature of the Empire that we let thrive and grow while they scared us with horror stories of “Evil Empires” out to crush us and our “freedoms”. Now we are locked into an Empire that we can’t reign in because they have shredded our Constitution and we have surrendered our rights as citizens.
In 2006 the American people sent the government a clear and concise message to this government. We elected the opposition party into power in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. We did this on the basis that they would rend the excesses of this administration and stop the war in Iraq. Yet to this day, there have been no meetings of oversight committees that have produced anything of note. Bolton and Miers thumb their noses at the contempt of Congress citation and the Speaker of the House puts out a civil suit. If this Congress had a backbone they would send the Federal Marshall’s to the White House and put them in jail for contempt! This won’t happen, and you want to know why? It’s because the majority of Democrats are a working part of the Empire. The people’s party has been hijacked from the common American by politicians with a median income of $675,000.00 a year in the House and $1.7 Million in the Senate. http://www.opensecrets.org/pressreleases/2008/CongressFinances.3.13.asp
This, my friends, is what you call an example of “Class War”. In this country we have the rich, the middle-class and the poor. The top 10% of the families in this nation control 71% of its wealth. This means that 90% of the people of this nation share 29% of its wealth. The median income of the Middle-Class is shrinking by $2,000.00 an year as we sell off our industries to countries that provide cheap labor. The individuals that own these industries care not if they stay in America to give its citizens work. We are expendable; the only thing that concerns these huge corporate interests is the bottom line. The Empire exists to serve its masters whether they are Americans or not. This is excessive, ruthless, unchecked capitalism of the worst sort. Unregulated economic barbarism for the influential and wealthy, the divide between the two major political parties has been bridged by wealth. The Unions have been bought off, the politicians work for their corporate masters and the corporate masters work for the American Empire because they are the Empire. We spend more money on the military than all the nations on Earth combined. We have military bases in 130 different countries.
How did this happen? The truth is that it has been going on for over 60 years. Almost everything our government in Washington tells us is a lie. They are so confident of maintaining power from either party that they hardly disguise the lies that they tell anymore. There is no great political genius waiting in the wings to give our government back to its people. There is no great movement that will restore our Constitution. Those on the left fight amongst themselves and those on the extreme right prepare for survival in a world gone mad. Meanwhile both factions have never been so close on their view of this government. This is underscored by the 9/11 truth movement that has both factions working together to find out what really happened on September 11th and who was involved.
On Wednesday, March 19th, there will be a mass civil disobedience demonstration on the steps of the Capitol. If you can be there, then be there. If you cannot attend, go to a rally near where you live. The future of this nation is at stake. This means our future is at stake. This monster that has been created must come to an end and this nation must return to its borders and re-join the community of nations. The simple fact is that all Empires fall. Do you want to be here when this one does?
That’s the way I see it.
posted by Timothy V. Gatto @ 8:25 PM
There is no doubt there is an American empire. Yes, it is different from empires of the past, it is more about economic influence than obtaining territory. There is a force surpassing the American empire; it is globalism which knows no borders and who’s common language is wealth and the means and production thereof.
I am going to venture a guess here. I bet that most of the people who railed on America are young, lower middle class people who are upset that there are people that have made their own way in society and are under the socialist impression that being wealthy is an ‘evil’ capitalist notion and that equality should be forced on everyone. I then assume they believe countries should be subject to that same idea and they hate America because it still believes in itself first.
Please, if you have a problem, just leave. Don’t come back at all if you so desire. I, and certainly others, will not miss you. Leave us in peace.
You are a moron. Yes i will revert to name calling just to be on your intelligence level. Those who subscribe to the love it or leave it mentality in regaurds to america are a bourden on our society. This mentality leaves little room for meaningfull change in our governing institutions. Our forign policies are atrocious and our domestic issues can not even be seriously discussed because of partisanism.
If you think there is no room for change, well sir you are a moron.
With the exception of Jordan Meda’s comment, of those that I read I am stunned by the torrent of ignorance in the remarks. The author of this post is an unthinking fanatic that merely spouts out reactionary, dogmatic, hysterical rhetoric.
The fundamental flaw is to take as a basic assumption the notion that “empire” is evil. There are in fact several historical examples of empires benefitting their peoples; that is, they were much better off under empire than without it. As Thomas Friedman recently wrote in his column, it is easy to complain about too much American power when you don’t live in a world with too little American power. Superpowers have a responsibility to use their power. Imagine a world in which the U.S. reverted to a policy of isolation in 1945. Imagine a Middle East in which the U.S. has no vital interests. If you think the Middle East is in bad shape now, with the U.S. intervening…
The biggest problem in modern world politics is not the presence of empire, but the notion of self-determination of nations and absolute sovereignty. In other words, the problem is that the modern international system of states is anarchical, it lacks an order or rank or hierarchy. Conflict has always existed and will always exist between polities, but never has the violence been so fierce and destructive as with the emergence of modern states and their gnostic and/or nihilistic ideologies.
about iran-well I myself don’t trust their project is truly for energy purposes.
however that doesnt make the us goverment a friend watching out for the good of the world. so long as the US keeps and maintains over 10,000 various nuclear weapons and is still producing space aged ones they are speaking with their head up their ass and shit is just getting spewed all around.
Maybe the new president will be better but I don’t have any hopes. So he is black and inspires black people.Good?!?
Now how about signing the treaty to cease production and disassemble nuclear weapon stockpiles like all the other life loving nations? (let the UN or some global body keep a teency amount for space purposes)
This is indeed an interesting (and depressing) look at the old United States and it’s alledged ’empire’. I am not an American, but a Canadian, and I am talking from the perspective of an outsider looking in.
First of all, it is always amusing to see that you guys tend to think like the whole world hates you and that America must, and always must, react defensively and aggressively in your foreign policy. This is not so! Much of the world likes democracy and the old American model that you built. It is true that many Europeans despise American motives and accuse you of imperialism (yeah, like that’s not hypocritical at all.)but as a society that threw off the shackles of imperialist policy, I am content that the vast majority of Americans, and even a few in your government, oppose it passionately.
During WWI and II, America actually opposed joining the war for the greater good of it’s people. When you guys finally did join, it was purely out of the altrusic and selfless attitude of the USA to ‘save’ fellow democracies in Europe from the tyranny of Austria/Hungary first, then Nazi Germany second. Although many Europeans hailed Canadians and Australians for rushing to their rescue alongside Britain, it’s colonies, and France, they fail to see that although Australia and Canada were self govering nation-states, we were a piece of the British Empire, so we were culturally compelled to join.
Second, it’s the issue of nation-states in general that compells America’s actions. It is true that the United States did install the Taliban in Afghanistan covertly as a means of ousting the Soviet communists. A selfish motive? Yes, but only in the premises of it’s own security. It is the unfortunate nature of the human race to dwell on pointless seperations and divisions; from these contradictions in belief, social idealogy, and even appearence, we gravitate towards one group or the other and draw our borders to protect each other from the so-called “infidels” or “socialists” that “threaten” us. A country must be ready to protect itself, and what happens to anyone stupid enough to threaten a nation as powerful as America is shown to be drastic. Polititians and governments in every nation in the world, not just the USA, are guilty of extreme overexaggeration and propoganda of any conflict. Fear for personal security is a central part of
the human condition.
Third, a world superpower always has enemies. As a species, humans have developed so many cultural personalities that there is always one opposing the other. Both America and Canada suffered this painful truth about human seperation after the war of 1812, which was in reality a gain for no one but a horrible loss for both. After the Cold War- which had divided the world so finely -the leader of the communist regime, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, collapsed, leaving many contries threatened by America. But if the reverse would’ve happened; had America collapsed and the Soviet Union survived, the known tyranny of the USSR would have spread all over the world. With the USA leaving it’s backyard only to help it’s allies, tyrants or not, proves that America is much less intent on empire than world powers of times past. After the collapse of their major rivals, the Egyptions, Babylonians, Persions, Romans, Mongols, Spanish, French, and yes, the British (especially)proceeded to lay waste to the world’s other nations and annex them unilaterally, often with horrible human rights abuses against their citizens. However, despite it’s obvious meddling, and a number of abuses, America has done a lot less evil than it’s predcessors.
Finally, there is Canada as proof of your lack of imperialism.
I like my country and prefer it to remain on the course it is at, as in remaining an independent nation state for a while into the future, so if you SHOULD attempt invasion, thus proving Timothy’s bad impression of you, I’ll be waiting for you with a .22. But don’t think I don’t respect or admire America and it’s power, I do.
Although some of my hotheaded friends have made a notion that Canada could defeat the USA in a war and thus save ourselves from the ‘evil empire’, this is little more than boasting. I do not forsee a war in the near future between your country and mine, so no need to lose sleep about it. Sure, the USA in it’s youger days considered it’s “Manifest Destiny” to acquire all of North America, but those ideals have past and I’ll show you why.
America actually REDUCED it’s soveirgn territory in the 1900’s, granting statehood and freedom to some of it’s formal “empirial” possesions. Yes, America exudes a powerfull, and sometimes menacing political aura over other nations, and this does anger people and has destroyed countries, but heck, every nation in history has done this! The USA just has the capacity to do more damage (or help) than most.
I’ll paint a picture of Canada for you: a free country with a huge amount of territoy and natural resources, decent infrastructure, and strong economic and cultural ties to the United States. Also, with a population of only 35 and a half million, we are not a very populous country. Under Timothy’s view of America,your government would be frothing at the mouth to overrun Canada and gain power over our massive supply of natural resources. Yes, there would be an insurgency and a huge international backlash, much like Iraq, but unlike Iraq, this would be completely, and not just partly, about wealth. If America wanted to rule the world, it would’ve attacked Canada not just once, but many times until it finally got us.
My point is, America is just another powerful nation trying to make it’s way in the world. Does this mean it is another “empirilist giant”? Of course not? Does that mean it is evil? Not under the fundementals it was built upon. Of course, the US government is often described as power hungry, or war mongerring, but everyday Americans are decent people whom value the freedoms that built your great country, and they have their say in a democracy, even when it is reduced.
America’s evils are not always neccesary, but the USA is far less evil than the powers of times past, so I’ll call it even.
Long live America, and long live Canada.
well written.
Jordan Meda, you emphasized your point very eloquently on the notion of American Imperialism. It’s interesting to get a foreign point of view, and you put the positive attributes of the Canmerica region of north America very well
To the kid,
why is your government supporting dictators in various countries.
why did ur country help the taliban against the soviets only to fight it now
why did ur country tries to destabilize south america, now that bolivia has a man who actually wants to help its poor u guys wanna ruin it.
why did u country overthrew the democracy of iran and put the shah and now wants to fight it.
what does ur country get by inflicting so much pain on the poor of the world, starving cubans , civilian casualties in iraq and afghanistan…isreal doesn’t respect the green line set up by norway..and its settlers are just about everywhere they shouldn’t..and rice says “that doesn’t ‘help’ peace”..like a tap on the wrist for its dear freind..
what does ur govt teach at the school of the americas?..how to keep the south in’check’…
why didn’t ur government recognize the election of hamas though it was completely democratic…
ur government mostly does what it finds of interest to the big corps..i
under the guise of democracy and freedom…face it…what rebuilding has ur government done in afghanistan in the past 7 years…women were under siege under taliban and now they fear the warlords who have been placed into power …fuckin america
America is imperialistic in the good way. We help ourselves by helping others. It is true our nation does what is in our interests. That isn’t always right. But the good our country does easily outweighs the bad. Face it, without the US we would all be speaking Japanese or German!
Jasper, you’re much more level headed than Timothy Gatto.
Timothy Gatto. Move to France. We don’t want you here anymore. And apparently you don’t want to be here either.
The US will not fall for a long time. We have a military that could take on the world and possibly win (although we would not want to live in that world anymore.)
The US has saved the world from tyranny so many times. The Europeans loved us when we were their shield against the USSR. Now that the Soveit Union disintegrated they spit on Americans. Because now they don’t need our protection. They don’t take in mind that we saved them from Germany TWICE! (with a little help from Britain). They don’t recognize that we stopped Russia from invading them.
Viva Liberte!!!
the kid,
a forever proud American.
to extremist Kid
“America is imperialistic in the good way. We help ourselves by helping others.”
In a good way? what goodness USA brings? The only good things from USA that I remembered are the entertainments and technology, that’s all. Even if America helped most countries against tyranny, you don’t have the right to forced people to sell oil in your currency. Then you attacked Libya, Iraq, and Afghanistan, you guys brought Islamophobia propaganda all around the world. I thought Americans are full of clever independent minds? Why can’t you think of better solutions? Even America went as far as denying democracy in Palestine? Is that democracy?
Believe me, most people respected USA not because of your deeds, but due to hostility towards American military capacity. I’m not anti-America, but with the capacity USA had, you can make world happy yet you chose not to.
This monster can’t be stopped. The world is trying to cripple is with oil prices. I wouldn’t want to live any where else.
Haha, I was looking for a “world map” and i find this. Turkmanistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgystan, Tajikstan, Ghana, Nigeria, Congo, Angola, and Somalia are part of an “American empire” while American Samoa, Ireland, Lebanon aren’t. Maybe the moon should be part of the American too. And if you count Voyager, the rest of the solar system too. Hippy nutjobs.
what are you on about to have a empire you need a emperor or king and you dont rule these countries since when have you ruled britain or france or australia or any country the overseas places you actually own where bought get your facts right and remember where america comes from (britain france spain)
I wonder if ya got hauled off by the CIA or FBI.
I believe that this is correct, to a point.
I think it has only been going on since the beginings of the guilded age, and the rise of imperialism here in the US. That Imperialism hasnt ended, it has simply taken a different form.
instead of taking over nations, we replace their govts with ones friendly to those in power here in the US. Our corporations use the govts infulence in these countries to gain more profits.
Im not sure wether or not the elections this year will matter, nor am i sure if Obama will be the one to help bring us out.
All i know is,
My Prediction of our fall is coming. But it will be because we will finally fight back.
About TIME.
“Love and “Light”
Well, the best way to change America for good is to not turn off the news. Instead, you should watch/read it and research facts to dispell the untruths.
America has been like this since it was first formed. How did we manage to expand from 13 states to 50 states? Not by peaceful or righteous means, I suppose. If you want to blame someone for this, you should first blame your own ancestors since they were silent when many of the stuff you mentioned were happening. Your parents and grandparents should also share the blame.