America’s Persistent Empire

The first Gulf War with Iraq was a watershed. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, the United States had its best chance to end its policy of perpetual foreign intervention without losing any face. Instead, the U.S. war with Iraq under the first Bush signified the beginning of a whole new chapter in intervention and blowback. It was then that the United States established the brutal sanctions in Iraq as well as the troop presence in Saudi Arabia — two of the major grievences cited by Osama bin Laden in explanation for why Islamic terrorists target Americans.

Although the first Bush left those sanctions and troops in place, Clinton did nothing to ameliorate the situation. It was his Ambassador to the UN, Madeline Albright, who callously said on Sixty Minutes in 1996 that the price of hundreds of thousands of dead children was “worth it” to agitate and eventually overthrow Saddam. (Shortly thereafter, she was made the Secretary of State.)

And then Bush II, of course, came to power, did nothing to retract the empire in the short time before 9/11, and responded to the horrific and murderous attacks on that day with seven years of war, expansions of government and especially executive power, and a series of horrendous assaults on our civil liberties. Partly in reaction to these excesses, many Americans voted for Obama, to whom Bush has now passed the imperial torch.

The article is quite good, but that’s the part that caught my attention. War is Peace. Slavery is Freedom. Yada, yada… I digress. There is a bigger point here, and I suggest you read the whole article. I’m in no mood at all to provide much commentary.

Related posts:

1. Further proof that the universe hates us
2. Joss Whedon wants his storyline back
4. The skirmishes have begun
5. How anyone could possibly view this as a good thing simply baffles me