by: Emily Sumner - posted (or last updated): 20th, June 2009

Occupation: Manager of a Nutritional Supplement Store

The 21st century has started with the American people having had to endure some of the most tumultuous deterioration of our economy, civil rights, and reputation and credibility abroad in modern era. From Internet bubble, housing bubble, Arthur Anderson accounting problems, Enron, 9/11, Iraq and Afghanistan wars, terrorism, Abu Ghraib and water boarding torture, CIA kidnappings in Europe, to stock market meltdown and mortgage and credit market freeze, job losses and continuing global meltdown.

The newly elected Obama Administration and the new Congress, who were voted in by a combination of substantive and rhetorical agenda and loss of hope in the ousted Republican administration, have generated immense expectations by the American people.

But dreaming for change is not going to produce change, nor produce the change that best serves our country and humanity. We must first understand the challenges of the new century by discovering why past policies brought us to this point in time in order to build a new path for a better, more peaceful and prosperous future.

Just about the time that the pioneers had already settled the last western frontiers, expansionist were planning a new policy in U.S. which took shape in the 1840's and despite a brief interruption during the Civil War, it charged ahead with strong determination to find new territories.

This new policy let the expansionists into the Pacific wars and its conquests, the Spanish-American war, the Boxer Rebellion in China, the Panama Canal catastrophe, and U.S. Interventions in Latin America until the dawn of the World War II.

Emerging from the second world war victorious and superior to all other industrialized countries in military strength, manufacturing infrastructure, productivity, and economic strength, and agricultural capacity, the United States of America became the single leader of global capitalism and the vehicle to allow global expansionism.

By any comparison, be it financial strength, military strength, or political strength, the United States was the greatest empire in history - far greater than Roman Empire in its day or the British Empire of the nineteenth century.

Once assured of its undisputed power and with Atomic bombs in its pocket, the U.S. quickly improvised a new world order intended to preserve not only the international capitalist system but our hegemony of that system. This new doctrine was to complement the original expansionist policy and it focused mainly on the primary objective: the United States is to dominate the international system for its expansionist goals by discouraging any other nation (including WWII allies such as Britain and France, or the Soviet Union) from challenging our leadership through our total global dominance.

Logically and understandably, this global power and dominance does not come cheap and its immense cost to the American people has been ignored and there was never any public debate to discuss whether global supremacy is worth the price or not.

Currently, the United States spends more on defense (totaling nearly $700 billion) than the entire world combined, even though there is no real threat, even remotely comparable, to the U.S. military. The U.S. national security is guarded by more than 3 million military personnel, almost 600,000 troops stationed at over 400 military bases in forty-two foreign countries, a fleet larger in total tonnage and firepower than all the other navies of the world combined consisting of largest nuclear aircraft carriers the world has ever seen, battleship destroyers, missile cruisers, nuclear submarines, and amphibious assault ships that sail every ocean and make port on every continent. We are the largest empire in history.

Add to this, the clandestine organizations such as CIA, NSA, Diplomatic Security Service, Defense Intelligence Agency, Air Intelligence Agency, Army Intelligence and Security Command (INSCOM), Marine Corps Intelligence Activity, and Office of Naval Intelligence and a range of other secret organizations funded by secret programs through Congress - and it is quite clear that there simply is no real threat to U.S. National Security from other countries, including the usual scapegoats namely, Russia, China, Iran, North Korea, and Cuba. Most of these clandestine organizations are operated with shadow budgets which only a few people in Congress or military are aware of.

Our Air Force is the stick in our force projection. The U.S. bombers and long-range missiles can reach any corner of the world targeting an enemy with enough explosive force to destroy entire countries. There is nothing in the world that can challenge the U.S. nuclear capacity and its delivery of more than 12,000 strategic nuclear weapons and 14,000 tactical nuclear weapons into the theater of war.

Now that the Stock Market has seen severe downfall, we are facing a recession and a depression at the same time, Wall Street in turmoil, mortgage and credit market collapsing, 1.4 million jobs lost in 2008 with 3 job seekers for each available job, businesses collapsing, bailouts for failing and irresponsible corporations, crime on the rise, college education cost up by 14% compared to previous year, college loans now have crippling effects on recent graduates that cannot find jobs, and most economists say that this is just the beginning and it will continue throughout 2010, and may be 2011.

While the U.S. taxpayer has funded the ambitious military power projection instead of economic prosperity balanced with national security, our country is currently facing $10.6 trillion of national debt (about $38,000 per person) and if you add un-funded Medicaid, Social Security, Medicare, veterans' pensions, and similar obligations, this figure rises to a total of $59.1 trillion, or $517,000 per U.S. household.

The total national debt has increased by $500 billion each year since 2003.

The U.S. owes 25% of its total debt to foreign governments, and according to U.S. Treasury, foreigners hold 44% of federal debt held by the public. The foreign debt is mainly held by central banks of other countries, in particular the central banks of Japan and China. As a result of the rising debt-to-GDP ratio, there is a strong decline in willingness of foreign investors to continue investing in U.S. dollar denominated instruments which has resulted in the value of Dollar dropping significantly (more than 50% against Euro) in the last few years.

However, as Americans we may feel assured that our government and our ideals are serving the greater good in the world and there is no price tag for truth, justice and liberty and pursuit of happiness. The American sacrifice is noble enough to pay the price of global leadership to protect capitalistic system and bring peace, harmony, freedom, and justice to the world.

But if this is the noble goals of our government and our people then why are we hated more than ever outside our borders by so many, including the people of our 'democratic' allies in Europe, Asia, Middle East, Africa, and South America?

Since the second world war, our government has given more than $200 billion in military aid to more than 70 countries. In each case, the purpose was far from defense of national sovereignty for the sake of freedom, justice, and pursuit of happiness. The defense and protection against an outside invasion was never the reason but instead in each case it amounted to protecting the ruling oligarchs and multinational corporate investors from the dangers of domestic anti-capitalist insurgency, the tool that facilitates expansionist policies of an empire.

Among the recipients of this $200 billion U.S. taxpayers money have been some of the most notorious military dictatorship and autocracies in history including countries whose regimes have repeatedly tortured, killed or imprisoned large numbers of their citizens because of their dissenting political views, many of which were in fact US installed puppet governments. The list is long but a few of these non-democratic oppressive regimes include: Cuba (under Batista), Nicaragua (under Somoza), Iran (under the Shah), Israel (and its continuing occupation of Palestinian lands), the Philippines (under Marcos), and Portugal (under Salazar), as well as Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt, Zaire, Chad, Pakistan, Morocco, Indonesia, Honduras, Peru, Colombia, El Salvador, Haiti, and others.

While U.S. leaders stand before us at each and every State of the Union and profess a dedication to democracy, a devotion to rule of law, and a commitment to humanity - the truth is far from those spoken words.

Since the second world war, democratically elected reformist governments in Guatemala (Jacobo Arbenz Guzmán), Guyana, the Dominican Republic, Brazil (under Joao Goulart), Uruguay, Chile (under General Augusto Pinochet’s violent regime), Syria, Indonesia (under Sukarno), Iran (under Dr. Mossadegh), Greece, Argentina, Bolivia, Haiti, and numerous other nations were overthrown by pro-capitalist militaries that were funded and aided by the United States starting with the infamous Coupe d'etat in Iran against Dr. Mossadegh in 1953 by labeling him a communist or leftist (which was admittedly a lie disclosed in the US State Departments declassified documents - see National Security Archive).

On December 7 1975, Indonesia invaded East Timor with full U.S. military support and the U.S. explicitly approved the invasion. Over 200,000 East Timorese lost their lives in one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. A recently-completed East Timorese commission of inquiry into human rights abuses during the occupation makes use of extensive documents that show the U.S. government worked behind the scenes to hide it from public scrutiny. Even the CIA has described it as one of the worst mass-murders of the 20th century.

Again and again covert actions, proxy mercenary wars, and hostile actions were used against revolutionary governments, as in Cuba, Egypt, Angola, Lebanon, Mozambique, Peru, Ethiopia, Syria, Zaire, Jamaica, Portugal, Nicaragua, South Yemen, Fiji Islands, Cambodia, East Timor, Western Sahara, and elsewhere, usually with dreadful loss of life by civilians and often triggered civil war, internal conflicts, and torture of political prisoners sometimes for decades - some even continue to this day.

And today our friends are some of the most repressive regimes in the world, such as Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Pakistan, Columbia, Peru, Ethiopia, Zaire, Jamaica. Israel is constantly cautioned by the United Nations to stop occupying the Gaza and other Palestinian territories (see undisputed accounts of killing Palestinian children as young as 8 years old by the Israeli forces).

While many claim that these operations against democratically elected governments and support for repressive militaristic governments were to fight against the Soviets in the Cold War, the truth is quite obvious when you separate facts from fiction.

For those of you that believe that we had to overthrow these 24 democratic governments for the fear of the Soviet's expansionist policies and the Cold War, you may want to refer to Stephen Kinzer's (The New York Times Pulitzer Winner) comments:

"I don't think that's true at all. In the first place, the countries whose governments we overthrew, all countries that we claimed were pawns of the Kremlin, actually were nothing of the sort. We now know, for example, that the Kremlin had not the slightest interest in Guatemala at all in the early 1950s. They didn't even know Guatemala existed. They didn't even have diplomatic or economic relations.The leader of Iran who we overthrew was fiercely anti-communist. He came from an aristocratic family. He despised Marxist ideology. In Chile, we always portrayed President Allende as a cat's paw of the Kremlin. We now know from U.S. State Department's declassified documents that the Soviets and the Chinese were constantly fighting with him and urging him to calm down and not be so provocative towards the Americans. The Soviets were not behind those regimes and their rhetoric. We completely overestimated the influence of the Soviet Union on those regimes, often deliberately and sometimes through complete incompetence or through deliberate cherry-picking of intelligence reports as was the case for the Iraq war".

Here's an interview with an ex-CIA agent describing the way decisions are made in covert operations and the political motivations behind in the US clandestine operations:

In those cases where covert intervention was deemed unsuccessful, the U.S. government resorted to direct military invasion or launched aerial attacks. The list includes: Vietnam, the Dominican Republic, North Korea, Laos, Cambodia, Chad, Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Libya, Iraq, and Somalia, and in every case it has resulted in varying degrees of death and destruction.

However, the interventionist policies of U.S. was not limited only to post WWII period and the result of the threat from the Soviet Union or the Cold War. U.S. military forces waged a bloody and protracted war of conquest in the Philippines in 1899 which lasted for four years . Along with Britain and France, the United States invaded socialist Russia in 1918-21 occupied Murmansk and later Arkhangelsk with the stated purpose of protecting Allied commercial interests against possible seizure by the Germans.

The U.S. expeditionary forces fought in China along with other Western armies to suppress the Boxer Rebellion and keep the Chinese under the heel of European and North American colonizers. China suffered a devastating blow to her prestige and power, which allowed foreign nations to consolidate their interests and previous territorial gains. The weakened Chinese state could not interfere in the war (1904-1905) between Russia and Japan that secured Japanese dominance in the Far East which gave it the impetus to follow in colonial aspirations of the U.S. and Britain therefore attacking Pearl Harbor in 1941. In both WWI and WWII the Allies (U.S., Britain, and Soviet Union) attacked, invaded, and occupied countires in Africa, Asia, Europe, and South america even though they had not attacked the Allies not displayed any aggression towards the Allies, and in most cases had declared neutrality.

The U.S. Marines invaded and occupied Nicaragua in 1912 and again in 1926 to 1933; Cuba, 1898 to 1902; Mexico, 1914 and 1916; Honduras, six invasions between 1911 to 1925; Panama, 1903-1914, and Haiti, 1915 to 1934.

Why would a nation founded on liberty, justice, and pursuit of happiness profess to be peace-loving and yet commit so much aggression, violence and repression against so many peoples in so many countries for so long?

The American military actions and intervention were not limited to just an evil man (like Saddam) or an evil dictator. It was often conducted against democratically elected governments.

Those who think of empire solely as an expression of national interests rather than class interests are bound to misinterpret the nature of imperialism. In his American Diplomacy 1900-1950, George Kennan describes U.S. imperialist expansion at the end of the nineteenth century as a product of popular aspiration: the American people "simply liked the smell of empire"; they wanted "to bask in the sunshine of recognition as one of the great imperial powers of the world."

How little they know the American people.

Expansionism policies use three steps (as described in the video clip above):

1) Step One, The Economic Hitman;

2) Step Two, Send in the Jackals; and

3) Step Three, Send in the Military.

The NeoConservatives have always described the benefits of war and preemption and nation-building as the means for protecting investments and expanding commercial interests - in particular, access to cheap energy. Energy controls industrial might and hence global investments and productivity.

At stake in these various wars of suppression is not just the investments or commercial interests in any one country but the security of the whole international system of finance capital that sustains the U.S. supremacy. Those that make the rules to serve their strength and weaken the challengers are clearly in a position of major advantage against others. None can be allowed to deviate or allowed to redesign rules. For instance, Saddam could not be allowed to convert his oil purse from Dollar to other currencies.

No nation in the world can be allowed to pursue an independent course of self-development, independence, self-sufficiency, freedom from international financial system in pursuit of happiness or a desire for independence. None is permitted to go unpunished and undeterred because none can be allowed to serve as an inspiration or source of material support to other nations that might want to pursue a politico-economic path other than the one offered by global capitalism under U.S. domination and control.

Despite the total world domination by U.S. and its gang of bullies (Britain, France, Australia, Canada, Germany, and now the financially deprived Eastern Europe), there are many challenges in this new century that U.S. is incapable of addressing without global cooperation and collaboration.

The time has come and gone for military supremacy. As few as 500 dedicated guerilla forces of Lebanon (Hezbullah) can hold down the Israelis for more than a month and the war comes to an end without a winner, despite the obvious superiority of the Israeli military that receives $12 billion each year from U.S. taxpayers paying for a wide range of the most sophisticated military weapons systems and technology.

The time has come for U.S. to change course and unfortunately Barak Obama is sounding the same bells, and whispering the same tunes. Nothing really has changed. His administration is following a leader like Rahm Emanuel which many remember for his ultra-aggressive and vindictive style that would send a message (a dead fish as in the Godfather movie) to all those that would refuse to submit to his will in the U.S. Congress under the Clinton administration. What U.S. must do is to stop listening to all the voices that spoke the loudest about the Iraq war and got every single thing wrong.

It is time to listen to voices of reason and logic and to try to create a world based on mutual respect and understanding rather than name-calling and school-yard bullying. Let's start by apologizing for all the horrible things that past governments have done. Why is it that we refuse to apologies to countries that lost their democratic governments and countless number of civilians because of U.S. clandestine activities and intervention? Why is it that we cannot apologies for past governments' crimes against humanity? Does anyone really believe that ignoring our previous foreign policies and acts of atrocities will make the memories of it go away by those countries that suffered from U.S. hand of expansionism? Does anyone really believe when enough time goes by, no one will remember anymore?

Have Cubans forgotten and forgiven the American capitalistic horrors prior to Fidel Castro, the big hotels in Havana that were run by Mafia, the sex bars for American tourists, the poverty and injustice? Have Guatemalans forgotten that CIA carried out a coup that started the civil war causing the death of 300,00 civilians? Has anyone in Iran forgotten and forgiven the CIA overthrowing Dr. Mossadegh?

They have not. Just read their local newspapers and listen to their media. They hate us more now than they did 50 years ago. Every generation blames us more for creating a paradox in their lives that resulted in the death of so many people. Their hatred toward U.S. government and Americans is getting more intense. After Iraqi invasion, the terrorist organization now have many new young recruits to choose from and every intelligence report indicates that volunteers have increase by ten folds, at the least.

Most people would agree now, even many of the members of the U.S. Congress, that the Iraq war was an illegal move against a sovereign nation, it dismantled the state's institutions, brought disorder and violence, provided fertile ground for more terrorism, killed hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians, made more than 4 million homeless, and fragmented a country along sectarian lines.

It is time for a new American century, one without imperialistic expansionism and interventionist foreign policies, without benin media and absent of fear-mongering, hate-mongering, and war-mongering.

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Wow. Spectacular article. Well done Emily. For myself, I would say that subconsciously we all know these things happen and we feel powerless to do something about it, ... More >>

That's right, nice piece Emily. The member's area is filled with discussion groups talking about this article. Apparently, everyone was moved by it and it has continued, ... More >>

The video with the CIA agent was amazing. If I had not heard it myself with my own ears, I never would have believed it. I don't think any of these things are necessary, ... More >>

It has always been like this and it will always be. I think we should all consider that at least U.S. is better than all those empires before it and that should be enough comfort, ... More >>

I don't agree with "U.S. is better than all other Empires", since we live in a different time, a period in history with TV and Internet. How would other Empires could have behaved worse that U.S. when they lived in a far more brutal time and technology was not with, ... More >>