America's Empire: A Foreign View...

“It’s sad to see a country that went to war with itself over an issue like the abolition of slavery descend to such a level (economically).”

“It’s a real shame that a Republic that has (or rather had) such a wonderful constitution (with its Bill of Rights) that was designed to keep the government under the constant watch of the people has allowed itself to be sold out.”

“But I guess this was waiting to happen since America morphed from a nation state into an empire, which began with the end of America’s isolationist foreign policy. Had America not taken part in recent wars(completely unnecessary and wasteful), there is no doubt that it would have been a First World country with the highest standard of living for centuries to come. Sadly, it chose to go down the path of so many empires though it seems the Founding Fathers wanted to avoid precisely that.



http://expat21.wordpress.com/2009/08/16/americas-empire-a-foreign-view/

:kick:

But this military domination is a vestige of an American empire no longer able to rule by economic strength.”


THIS, is why we will have a dictator soon. Our ante is arms and war.

I think America started down the road to empire with the Spanish American War. But WWII pretty much sealed it. I'm not sure that I would want to be a resident of a country that passed on WWII - it does seem that stopping Hitler was an imperative. Then, after WWII, it was the US and the Soviet Union going head-to-head. A lot of that was our fault, but given what we had been through, I'm not sure you could expect us to behave much differently towards a totalitarian nation that looked strong enough to challenge us.

The big question is, can we step back now? I'm not sure anyone has ever willingly given up power, and I don't think the US will. In which case, it seems that our fate is sealed.

...maybe Afghanistan and VietNam too.