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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsWhy Living In The American Empire Isn't All That It's Cracked Up To Be
In his book, The Rule of Empires (2010), Timothy H. Parsons replaces the myth of the civilizing empire with the truth of the extractive empire. He describes the successes of the Romans, the Umayyad Caliphate, the Spanish in Peru, Napoleon in Italy, and the British in India and Kenya in extracting resources. To lower the cost of governing Kenya, the British instigated tribal consciousness and invented tribal customs that worked to British advantage.
Parsons does not examine the American empire, but in his introduction to the book he wonders whether Americas empire is really an empire as the Americans dont seem to get any extractive benefits from it. After eight years of war and attempted occupation of Iraq, all Washington has for its efforts is several trillion dollars of additional debt and no Iraqi oil. After ten years of trillion dollar struggle against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Washington has nothing to show for it except possibly some part of the drug trade that can be used to fund covert CIA operations.
Americas wars are very expensive. Bush and Obama have doubled the national debt, and the American people have no benefits from it. No riches, no bread and circuses flow to Americans from Washingtons wars. So what is it all about?
The answer is that Washingtons empire extracts resources from the American people for the benefit of the few powerful interest groups that rule America. The military-security complex, Wall Street, agri-business and the Israel Lobby use the government to extract resources from Americans to serve their profits and power. The US Constitution has been extracted in the interests of the Security State, and Americans incomes have been redirected to the pockets of the 1 percent. That is how the American Empire functions.
http://www.businessinsider.com/how-empires-really-work-2012-4
hifiguy
(33,688 posts)for a thorough and sobering analysis of the inevitable decline and fall of the American Empire.
The Twilight of American Culture,
Dark Ages America, and
Why America Failed.
izquierdista
(11,689 posts)At least the rest on the list brought a lot of loot home for themselves. America gives half the loot to the Forbes 400 (who put it in Swiss ban accounts) and ships the rest off to China.
jwirr
(39,215 posts)Rome and for the British. The little guy just gets to pay. This prospective makes Empire an even worse idea. Waste of time and money. Except for the MIC.
HughBeaumont
(24,461 posts)er . . .. no.
5 to 10 = Doubled.
10 to 15 != "doubled". While neither president has exactly been a friend to peace, President Obama's spending is due to Bewsh's shite decision making on the economy that gave the wealthy the keys to our kingdom while not giving back (and modern congressional blackmail with Bewsh's tax cuts). Let's not allow this myth to propagate.
Hawkowl
(5,213 posts)That is how I envision the 1 percenters vision of America. It can't last forever. Cut off the head to save the tail.