Why Are We Imperialist? (Colin Powell, Congress, Iraq, Taliban)
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I wrack my brains and I cannot come up with a logical answer.
It's just a complex, multlayered case of "dominant vs submissive ape". The dominant ape gets all the perks, benefits and pleasures of being in charge.
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Originally Posted by thrillobyte
Oil? Then why are we still dependent on oil imports?
Because our whole civilization still revolves around oil, a fininte resource that is only getting more scarce and difficult to extract as time goes on.
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Originally Posted by thrillobyte
Loot? Then why are still in debt several miles above our heads?
Mere numbers on a computer screen. Real wealth is control of/distrbution of resources. A physical dollar bill is just the carrot dangled in front of the donkey, wealth is the stuff in the car the donkey is pulling around and the fact the donkey is pulling it from point A to point B to exchange for better stuff. The donkey is everyone who thinks it would be great to have that carrot.
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Originally Posted by thrillobyte
Geo-political? Do we just prefer to be in certain positions in the world like pieces on a chessboard?
Empire-building? Do we just want the name America stamped on most foreign countries.
Yet again, those are means of acquiring and excercising control of said resources.
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Originally Posted by thrillobyte
Altruism? Do we want the world to be democratic, even though we have less true democracy than most other countries?
Tit for tat? Another strategy with the same ultimate end; help when we can spare it because we'll get help when we need it for our own benefit down the road.
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Originally Posted by thrillobyte
Or is it just something as mundane as making the MIC as rich as Congress can get away with?
I mean where is our payoff for all this money we're spending?
You and me get to sit on our couches, eat dorritos, watch 500 channels after work and drive our SUVs to the gas station with minimal interruption. That's our reward. The Man gets to feel like he's the master of universe (but can't see he's really the "Lord of the Flies" in the grand scheme of things). Silly monkeys!
What are we accomplishing in Iraq? Did we get any oil out of the occupation? Did we stop the advance of communism? Did we bring a lasting democracy there? All I can see we accomplished was to run up a trillion dollars in debt, most of that money going to the munitions makers.
What are we accomplishing in Afghanistan? Did we eliminate the Taliban? Bin Laden? Did we bring lasting democracy? Did we get control of the Caspian oil basin? Again, all I can see we accomplished was to run up another trillion dollars in debt, most of that money going to the munitions makers.
"I mean, it was not soft power that freed Europe. It was hard power. And what followed immediately after hard power? Did the United States ask for dominion over a single nation in Europe? No. Soft power came in the Marshall Plan. Soft power came with American GIs who put their weapons down once the war was over and helped all those nations rebuild. We did the same thing in Japan.
So our record of living our values and letting our values be an inspiration to others I think is clear. And I don't think I have anything to be ashamed of or apologize for with respect to what America has done for the world. [Applause.]
We have gone forth from our shores repeatedly over the last hundred years and we've done this as recently as the last year in Afghanistan and put wonderful young men and women at risk, many of whom have lost their lives, and we have asked for nothing except enough ground to bury them in, and otherwise we have returned home to seek our own, you know, to seek our own lives in peace, to live our own lives in peace. But there comes a time when soft power or talking with evil will not work where, unfortunately, hard power is the only thing that works."
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