Tag: empire

This Is What Defeat Looks Like

How about a moment of silence for the passing of the American Dream? M.R.I.C. (May it rest in carnage.) No, I’m not talking about the old dream of opportunity that involved home ownership, a better job than your parents had, a decent pension, and all the rest of the package that’s so yesterday, so underwater, … Continue reading “This Is What Defeat Looks Like”

Closing Overseas Bases Is Good Policy and Good Politics

It has been like a cross between a suspense and a horror movie. If the committee doesn’t come up with a compromise by the Thanksgiving deadline, the axes will come out. Perhaps only Washington insiders appreciate the suspense. As for the horror part, the blood will flow only later and largely out of sight of … Continue reading “Closing Overseas Bases Is Good Policy and Good Politics”

How Washington Creates Global Instability

It was built for… well, not to put too fine a point on it, victory. I’m talking, of course, about the ill-named Camp Victory, the massive military complex, a set of bases really, constructed around an old hunting lodge and nine of former dictator Saddam Hussein’s opulent palaces near Baghdad International Airport. Within months of … Continue reading “How Washington Creates Global Instability”

Edward Gibbon at America’s Grave

1. Twin Towers Two years from now the staffs of Vanity Fair and The New Yorker will move into the most haunted building in the world. There, the elite of American celebrity photographers, gossip columnists, and magazine journalists may meet some macabre new muses. Aloft in the upper stories of 1 World Trade Center (where … Continue reading “Edward Gibbon at America’s Grave”

The Rise and Fall of the American Empire

If we look at American foreign policy under Bill Clinton, George W. Bush, and Barack Obama, what strikes the non-partisan observer is a sense of continuity – and an escalating aggressiveness. President Clinton moved with force into Haiti, Bosnia, and Kosovo, the latter two in support of a Muslim minority that was fighting for independence … Continue reading “The Rise and Fall of the American Empire”

Apocalypse Now?

The Republican congressional leadership was in a panic: their covering for the Obama administration’s unconstitutional and unnecessary war in Libya was rapidly unraveling as a resolution by Rep. Dennis Kucinich calling for an end to it gained momentum – among Republicans. Kucinich’s bill gave the administration 15 days to withdraw all US forces and support … Continue reading “Apocalypse Now?”

What Must We Defend?

“We need to be honest with the president, with the Congress, with the American people” about the consequences of cutting the defense budget, said Secretary of Defense Robert Gates in his valedictory policy address to the American Enterprise Institute. “[A] smaller military, no matter how superb, will be able to go fewer places and do … Continue reading “What Must We Defend?”

The US Versus the Egyptian People

The last thing the U.S. policy elite wants is real democracy in Egypt. That country has been a linchpin of American foreign policy for more than 30 years precisely because its government has been able to defy the will of the Egyptian people. If that should change now, America’s rulers and their Israeli partners will … Continue reading “The US Versus the Egyptian People”