As of 2008, the American empire consisted of 865 military facilities and more than 190,000 troops spread across more than forty foreign countries and territories. Most of these astronomically expensive military installations are not crucial to our national defense and many are arguably major contributing factors in our international conflicts. According to some sources we spend upwards of $250 billion annually to maintain just the military aspects of our global empire, the sole purpose of which is to give us some measure of control over as many other nations and their resources as possible.No matter what ambitious plans for change Barack Obama may have brought to the Oval Office, our reliance on global military power and the massive financial resources required to maintain it has the potential to ruin every reform the president might undertake, foreign or domestic, in the course of his administration.

Our dependence on military imperialism, if not drastically reduced soon will ultimately lead us to a permanent state of war, financial insolvency, and finally result in societal collapse similar to that experienced during the last years of the Soviet Union. Unlike the Soviets, American citizens are unaccustomed to shortages and rationing of essential resources and such a disaster would be, well, disastrous.

In the first few months after taking the oath of office, Barack Obama made several speeches where he issued open assurances that under his administration the US would maintain it’s military dominance in the world. Unfortunately the president doesn’t appear to realize that our nation no longer has the ability maintain global hegemony. In failing to understand or intentionally ignoring this fact Mr. Obama is flirting with disaster.

I believe, as do many others, that we should begin to reduce the size of our full time military and bring our brave soldiers home from countries where we have no defensive interest and where our presence is neither required nor desired. It is not possible for the US, as a diminishing economic power, to support such a widespread military empire.Few if any imperial nations of the past have ever voluntarily given up control their dominions in time to preserve their independence. The Soviet Union and the British Empire are the only two examples I can recall.

The British managed to successfully divest themselves of their imperial holdings in a relatively civilized manner after World War II. The former Soviet states had a slightly rougher time in the past few decades; in some cases descending into anarchy and civil war.

If we in the United States do not learn from these examples, the great American experiment in democracy is doomed to an ugly, destructive path of failure.

Thurman

Random Abstractions Blog