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writing for godot

Watching America’s Imperial Empire Evolving Toward its Eventual Demise

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Written by michael payne   
Saturday, 15 March 2014 02:32
The evidence is rapidly mounting that we are witnessing the beginning stages of the end of the American Imperial Empire. This military colossus is spread across the world, its costs are out of control and the fact that, instead of being a positive force for America, it has become a monumental liability, one that is totally unsustainable.

How does America fit the description of an Imperial Empire? Well it can be considered to be an imperialist state because of its “established economic and political domination of other nations that are not its colonies.” And when you add the use of indirect and direct measures, including aggressive military power, to control and dominate other countries of the world, it then becomes an Imperial Empire.

So what are the indications that this Imperial Empire is in the beginning stages of its eventual demise? Where are the signs, where is the evidence? For starters let’s consider the fact that America’s powerful military has engaged in three unnecessary and unjustifiable wars in recent history against small nations that did not pose any direct threat to this nation and its people – and, yet, it did not prevail against any one of them.

We might say that Vietnam was strike one; Iraq was strike two and Afghanistan, after U.S. troops leave at the end of 2014, will be strike three. The massive military debacle in Iraq, in particular, appears to have been a turning point in American history as this country took a fatal turn in the wrong direction. History may see it as that point in time when the foundations of the empire began to crumble. These three wars are living proof of the vulnerability of this military when faced with unrelenting opposition from home grown guerilla-type fighters.

But the U.S. government, instead of using the defeat in Vietnam to step back from its hubristic agenda, has since then refused to change course and the cost to America, in financial terms and in it’s relationships with other nations, has been staggering. It’s becoming more and more obvious that the nations of the world are refusing to bend to the dictates and dominance of the U.S. government.

Recent world events would seem to support the above contentions. In the Syrian crisis, while Mr. Obama and the Congress were debating whether to use military force, Russian President Vladimir Putin clearly took charge of the situation by coming up with a plan to dispose of Syria’s chemical weapons and that was that; he dismissed America’s “options on the table” and clearly called the shots. Should this government and our president thank Putin for preventing a Middle East war? What would have happened if the U.S. had launched an aggressive military operation?

In the Ukraine/Crimea situation, while the U.S. and Euro/NATO nations were attempting to intervene in that nation’s internal political affairs, Putin stepped into the act and once again took control and is calling the shots. The viable strategy that needs to be created by President Obama and the Congress to deal with this situation is non-existent and, again, illustrates how America’s foreign policy has become dysfunctional; and is the reason why this country’s influence and hold on the world is rapidly waning.

Listening to the media pundits and pseudo-journalists discuss the options, including sanctions, that America should use to deal with this situation is hilarious; they don’t have a clue about what’s happening and have to, as usual, just repeat this government’s canned propaganda. Have they no shame?

How about the situation involving the attacks on the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya in which the U.S. ambassador and two other diplomats were killed by attackers yet to be identified? Republicans have been relentless in blaming the Obama administration for allowing this attack to happen and the administration has strongly denied the charges. But what both sides are entirely missing is the fact that this attack can easily be attributed to what is called “blowback” or “payback”, a deadly form of revenge for the massive, relentless missile attacks on Libya by the U.S. and its Western allies in March of 2011.

What the Benghazi incident should tell this government is that this blowback is just one of the results of its aggressive military actions around the world that have created many thousands of new enemies for America and that these enemies will use deadly forms of blowback to gain their revenge. One of the most dangerous occupations in the world going into the future will be positions in U.S. embassies and consulates. One day the applicants for those positions will be minimal as no one will want to be a target of revenge.

Let’s think about it this way: when you invade and occupy other countries you make thousands of new enemies and when you make these enemies they seek revenge for your acts; and when they exact their revenge you launch drones into their countries as retribution; and when you do the nations of the world see you as a predator nation; and the strongest of your enemies plot to undermine you; and that deadly, destructive cycle never ends. And your empire begins to unravel.

Here is an excellent analysis of the evolution of the American empire by Prof. James Petras; his conclusion is that the “The unfolding of the Obama regime’s global effort to stem the imperial retreat and re-launch empire-building pivoted almost exclusively on military instruments” and “force and violence” rather than through diplomatic agreements or political negotiations.

Prof. Petras obviously sees this empire in a state of decline as do many other analysts and observers who believe that it will largely be dismantled by the year 2025 as the continuous stream of taxpayer dollars that have been sustaining it will have dried up by that time. Unfortunately, what Mr. Obama, by his actions, has succeeded in doing is to create two massive obstacles to the further expansion of this empire; namely Russia and China which have now clearly shown that they have no intention of allowing the U.S. to dominate their regions of the world.

Russia and China will not be prone to initiate military actions against America but they are taking the offensive in attacking its financial foundations. They, together with any number of other nations are determined to eliminate the U.S. dollar as the world’s main reserve currency and conduct trade in their own currencies; and it’s only a matter of time until that takes place. This threat to the dollar was made even more clear when Russian presidential adviser Sergey Glazyev, in response to America’s threats of sanctions in the Ukraine situation, told RIA Novosti, "Russia will abandon the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency if the United States initiates sanctions against the Russian Federation."

And for all those who still want to cling to the belief and take comfort in the thought that the U.S. is the world’s only superpower, that’s delusional thinking and they need to accept the reality that this is no longer the case. Russia and China are most certainly superpowers of this world because they are massive countries with massive standing armies and, of greatest concern; they can counter America’s nuclear capabilities with powerful arsenals of their own.

America is a country that continues to invest heavily in war, methods of destruction and empire building; it provides jobs for many hundreds of thousands of those who occupy our military, the Pentagon, the CIA, 13 intelligence agencies, as well as the NSA spying agency and Homeland Security. We have a White House and a Congress that are shredding our Constitution, who clearly march to the beat of Corporate America in facilitating its agenda of total control over this nation.

What America desperately needs is to cleanse itself of those negative, debilitating factors; it needs a far better education system, one in which our college students are not drowning in debt; we need millions more jobs, a growing economy, a restoration of our middle class and infusion of creativity and innovation. But these great needs will never become reality until this country finds the way to bring an end to this empire and send it into the dust bins of history.

When this empire is dismantled, and it will be at some point in the not too distant future because no empire in the history of the world has ever survived, America will still have a very powerful military to provide safety and security for its people. But that black hole of empire that has been sucking the lifeblood out of this nation, with its colossal waste of this nation’s resources, will cease to exist.

And as this inevitable dismantling of the empire gathers momentum and becomes reality it will be the greatest thing that could possibly happen for America and for the world, for both can then turn to positive and constructive endeavors.

Michael Payne


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