An Empire in Denial (Stryker McGuire - Newsweek)

[struggle4progress]

America is strong, but lacks the will to rule the world

<snip>
As an example of history on the fly, Ferguson's eye-opening new book "Colossus: The Rise and Fall of the American Empire" (400 pages. Allen Lane) could hardly be timelier. An examination of American imperialism past and present, it lands amid the scandalous allegations about U.S. guards at Abu Ghraib prison and the June 30 handover of power in Iraq. "Colossus" is a logical sequel to Ferguson's acclaimed "Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World." Ferguson believes in liberal empires that promote equality and free trade. And he believes that it would be good for the world if the United States stepped into the vacuum left by the fall of the British Empire. But he has doubts that America is up to the job.

America's problem, says Ferguson, is that it is an empire in denial. It possesses the strength but not the will of a proper empire. It has 752 military installations in more than 130 countries and accounts for as much as a third of the world's economic output. But America is also a relatively young nation of immigrants with plenty of unfinished business at home.

Ferguson is at his best in limning the differences between Britain and America's appetite for empire. America's empire is one "without settlers" or "administrators." There is no class of citizens displaying the imperial spirit of the British, who emigrated in large numbers to their colonies, building not just institutions but their own lives. At Oxford and Cambridge a century ago, says Ferguson, "ambitious students dreamed of passing the exam and embarking on careers as imperial proconsuls."

Ferguson's autopsies of the "worst failures" of recent American imperialism—Haiti, Cuba and Vietnam—show just how badly U.S. policies can backfire. His conclusion in this compelling and readable book could hardly be bleaker: "The United States has acquired an empire, but Americans themselves lack the imperial cast of mind. They would rather consume than conquer. They would rather build shopping malls than nations." As a result, America's imperial adventures tend to go with alarming alacrity from ardent to absent—a cycle not unfamiliar to anyone following the news out of Iraq. It would be a "tragedy" if, in the end, history repeats itself in Iraq, Ferguson says. "But not a surprise."
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/5305200/site/newsweek/

It is interesting to see "empire" discussed in the mainstream press, although the discussion is predictably horrid. Apparently, we are now destined for another of those "national dialogues," this time centering around, not the moral questions associated with empire, but instead the burning issue of whether we have become too wimpy to face our own glorious imperial destiny. :puke:

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. I almost predict

the press will change the tone, as F 911 sinks in, fully

[struggle4progress]

2. I hope that you are right. However, I am concerned that this ...

... may actually be a somewhat longer term problem, associated with the reaction of Western elites to the increasing competition worldwide for limited resources, and that the matter will not be resolved quickly. :(

[Demeter]

3. I think Bush Has Demonstrated that we aren't strong enough

to be an empire--at least not one run by idiots. Look at how long and how many incompetents (not to mention militant germanic tribes) it took to destroy Rome--look how many lives and how much materiel it took to bring down the Nazis and Tojo. It's taking fewer than a million pissed off Muslims (and a couple thousand GOP Neocons) less than 4 years to bring America to its KNEES! Of course, the corporate frauds helped a great deal, and Greenspan put his two cents in.