The One Liners #365
16 years ago
Monday, July 9, 2007
Response to Claim that US is not Imperialistic
The US has followed, since the end of WW II, a different method of imperialism, different than all previous empires. Some call it "neo-colonialism", but short and sweet it involves the propping up of nominally "independent " governments in Third World countries, but which are financially and militarily held in thrall by the US--the object has been--and is-- the domination of the countries' resources and markets. Whenever one of these puppet governments are threatened by internal insurgency or rebellion, the US goes in, usually under a palatable cover story about "defending freedom" and " "saving the country from the bad guys"--right now, the bad guys are the Iraqi insurgents who are fighting the US invasion and occupying of their nation--yunno, kinda like we fough the British 230 years ago.
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2 comments:
Nice blog! A very perceptive post, and an important point that needed to be made. It's not a traditional empire-but is no less an empire(although the 120 or so nations "hosting" American military installations at the moment might quibble). Does anyone seriously question that the US is imperialistic? Wasn't there an Administration mouthpiece a few years ago who said, IIRC, "We're an empire now-we create our own reality"?
It's a triumph of propaganda that even Goebbels would envy that most Americans are abysmally ignorant of US foreign policy--ask any Joe Sixpack in the street and he'll tell you that the US is a benevolent force for good in the world--how generous we are, blah, blah.
The great Phil Ochs summed it up better than any 10 books on the subject when he sang, "We own half the world, Oh say can you see, And the name for our profits is Democracy, So like it or not you will have to be Free, 'cause we're the Cops of the World."
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