Imperial Overkill and the Death of US Empire

[unhappycamper]

Imperial Overkill and the Death of US Empire
by Francis Shor
Published on Tuesday, July 27, 2010 by Foreign Policy in Focus

The oft-cited reference to Afghanistan as the "graveyard of empires" haunts the increasingly desperate military measures of the United States in that beleaguered country. However, beyond Afghanistan and the hydrocarbon-rich Caspian basin region, the imperial projects of the United States are, more and more, a commitment to Pentagon aggression and profligacy. Imperial overstretch has transmogrified into imperial overkill.

While all empires have had to contend with imperial overstretch, the particular historical situation confronting the United States after the fall of the Soviet Union led to an asymmetrical hyper-power, reliant especially on the reach of the Pentagon. The compulsion to rely even more heavily on the military to compensate for a waning hegemony in other domains - and to contend with shrinking resources (especially hydrocarbons), rising adversaries (especially China) and growing resistance (especially non-state Islamic militants and Latin American national-popular governments) - led to a record number of direct U. S. interventions. In turn, two of the most massive interventions, those in Iraq and Afghanistan, underscored the inability of Washington to realize all of its imperial goals.

In effect, out of frustration with unfulfilled geostrategic results, the United States has turned to expanded and deadly military imperial overkill.

~snip~

In the face of enormous budget constraints, the Pentagon still manages to receive the equivalent of what all of the other nations around the globe spend on their militaries. While the United States remains the overwhelming leader in military exports to the tune of 70 percent of the weapons market, it also continues to flout international treaties, such as those on cluster bombs. By ignoring these accords, the United States thereby erodes international legal standards. To project its forward-basing power, the Pentagon garrisons the globe with what Chalmers Johnson calls an "empire of bases." This land presence - massive permanent bases like those in Germany and Okinawa, smaller "lily-pads" that now dot Central Asia, seven new bases in Colombia - is complimented by naval flotillas, particularly evident in the Persian Gulf and Indian Ocean.

This imperium is under attack not only by adversaries, but also by those who no longer accept U. S. economic and ideological models, especially in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007. Continuing resistance in Okinawa has roiled Japanese politics. In Latin America, leftist leaders from Rafael Correa in Ecuador to Hugo Chavez in Venezuela have challenged the United States. In the aftermath of his election in 2006, Correa declared his intention not to renew the U. S. lease on the Eloy Alfaro Air Base near the Pacific seaport of Manta when it expired in 2009, unless Washington offered Quito the right to establish its own military base in Miami. Correa's decision was made even more urgent as a consequence of the Columbian military's March 2008 attack on Colombian insurgents in Ecuador, probably assisted by the Eloy Alfaro Air Base.

[stellanoir]

1. Proof of the desparation of the Empire . . .

http://www.nationalledger.com/ledgerdc/article_272633544.shtml

http://gothamist.com/2010/07/22/darth_vader_robs_bank_photos_oh_yes.php