It has become fashionable to call the USA an empire. Whatever the term may mean to radicals and conservatives the fact remains the both groups do not see the present international overreach of the USA as imperial. I have some trouble accepting such generalities because they obcure certain hard ground realities. A better mway of phrasing the question would be: Does the USA have the stamina to be an imperial hegemon of the 21st century. With the war in IRAQ going nowhere and no exit strategy in sight, the daily body count increasing to catatrophic levels and the public acceptance level of Bush and his Bushmen decling by the day, a look at the history of the USA is in order. Consider the following points made by Niall [pronounced Niel] Ferguson in his Colossus:The Rise and Fall of the American Empire:
Impressive military success
A flawed assessment of local sentiment
strategy of limited war and gradual escalation of forces
domestic turmoil over the unpopular and nasty war
premature political settlement
declare victory and withdaw
Sounds familiar. No we are not speaking of the Vietnam War. Afterall that war has still searing scars left to heal. We are referring to a much older war, one that is barely remembered.
In 1898 American forces won a striking victory over Spain.The pretext for the war, like the WMD in the case of Iraq, was the accidental explosion in the battleship Maine. How could Spain be responsible for the explosion, is any body's guess. Mckinley, the then President spoke in words that would credit Bush and the Bushmen:
I walked the floor of the White House night after night until midnight..
..I went down on my knees and prayed Almighty God for light and guidance
..and light came..(1) We could not give them back to Spain(2) That we could not
turn them over to France or Germany our commercial rivals in the orient (3) They are unfit to govern
themselves(%) There is nothing left to sdo but educate, civilise and Christianize the Fillipinos...
Thus the evangelical rhetoric of Bush II has precedents in US history.
The fact that the USA completely underestimated the Resistance led by Emilio Aguinaldo. The War to "pacify" Phillipines was a costlt war and American tactics in the Phillipines bears recall of what is happening in Iraq; Read what the General officer Commanding of the US Forces in the Phillipines, General Jacob Smith ordered his men:
"I wish you kill and burn the more you kill and the more you burn the better you will please me... I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms. Max Boot The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power, New York 2002. pp.120.
The point is that the rhetoric of freedom, civilization and democracy is only a smokescreen for what was an aggressive war based on perceived self interest. The Iraq war is no different."