The imperial era begins

Washington Times ^ | 9/11/02 | Tony Blankley

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

In the past year, we have all asked the question: Has America changed as a result of the attacks of last September 11th? Most of the answers have focused on how we feel as Americans. Do we think about the danger? Do we relate to our families more intensely? Have we thought of moving or switching jobs?

[hchutch]

Interesting.

I will confess to wanting to plant our flag and claim some territory for ourselves, though. Some oilfields and air bases, for starters.

I can't WAIT for the Buchananbots to start firing at will over this.

[headsonpikes]

It's better to project state power outwards than inwards.

imho.

[Poohbah]

There's a hoary old joke about how some Republicans are Democrats who have finally figured out what government actually does, and devoutly wish that it be done unto somebody else.

Make no mistake: our crisis is not brought on by our foreign policy; it is a byproduct of our existence. Our existence as a free, self-governing people (as imperfect as our history and current performance at the task is, it's light-years ahead of our nearest competitors) is a mortal threat to tyrants everywhere, because it calls into question the legitimacy of their regimes.

[AUgrad]

It's better to project state power outwards than inwards.

The problem arises when they do both.

[Kobyashi1942]

I can't WAIT for the Buchananbots to start firing at will over this.

The reason we don't make a big deal any more about this empire is that we, and Pat, were vindicated on 9/11/01. That is the day when the chickens came home to roost.

Hell, you're empire is so vast and your resources stretched so thin that you can't even quell the resistance in little Afghanistan (we never should have tried nation building in that place). Come to think of it, your puppet government in Kabul is but a bullet away from total collapse.

Yep, some find empire Bush has to run.

[Poohbah]

The reason we don't make a big deal any more about this empire is that we, and Pat, were vindicated on 9/11/01. That is the day when the chickens came home to roost.

Ya know, even if we HAD listened to Pat, we still would have been attacked. Perhaps not on 9/11/01, but sooner rather than later. "After Saturday comes Sunday" is a common saying among Islamists. (You figure it out.) And Osama's war isn't with Israel, or even America--it's with Western Civilization. Let's face it: Islam sucks, and they f***ing well know it.

Pat just wants to pretend the rest of the world doesn't exist. Unfortunately, the rest of the world doesn't give a s**t what Pat wants.

[moneyrunner]

First the collapse of the Soviet empire left the US as the world’s only remaining superpower, even after a drastic reduction of our armed forces. Then the advent of technology made it possible for small groups of people to do what, in times past, could only be accomplished by nations. Finally, human nature being what it is, some people will inevitably hate you, consider you a threat, or desire to take what you have.

Events have come together at the beginning of the 21st Century making inevitable the beginning of the age of American Empire, or the gradual destruction of the American Republic. There is no going back and there is no standing still. These are not options.

[B-Chan]

The American Empire Center: A Proposal

In a world where fanatics can destroy thousands of people in an instant, where madmen wielding gas, germs, or atoms can wreck a nation at a whim, there is no more room for half-measures, appeasement, or the endless squabbling of the so-called "united" nations. If we must have a global policeman, a planetary power both willing and able to keep the various conflicts between nations, cultures, and ethnic/religious groups from spiraling out of control; if we must have, in effect, a global version of the Roman Empire; then let the United States step to the fore and become the new Rome. If we are to have Empire, let it be an American Empire.

The new Twin Towers are built with this new Empire in mind. The transition from a de facto to de jure empire will not be done with soft words and diplomatic finesse; to be effective at all, the new Pax Americana must be imposed on the world forcefully, unabashedly, and -- where unavoidably -- brutally. The new American Empire Center rises from the ashes of the World Trade Center as a symbol of this steely resolve. These twin towers, each half again and more the equal of their predecessors in height, are each founded on a square composed of four triumphal arches, symbolizing (as does Napoleon's Arc de Triomphe) a forcible unity of peace; the stone façades of each of the eight immense arches are inscribed with the names of the fallen of September 11, and with the names of those brave warriors who lose their lives in the war to avenge them. The square plaza within the arches at the base of each tower is an empty expanse of white marble, centered on twin eternal flames of remembrance.

Towering above this open-air atrium are the towers themselves, 166 stories of mixed work and living space, faced with granite and connected by atomic-powered elevators proof against any conceivable impact. On each of the towers' two setback levels are placed four stone Screaming Eagles, crying defiance at the four corners of the globe; each setback also houses the buildings' Point Defense System, an integrated array of antiaircraft missile launchers and Phalanx Close In Weapons System autoguns capable of projecting firepower on the scale of a naval cruiser, making each tower a constant sentinel in defense of the city. At the top of each tower is a penthouse Citadel, an enormous multi-level meeting facility for use by civic and religious organizations. A gleaming pyramid of golden-faced glass admits light into each Citadel; atop its highest point stands a gilt statue of a spread American Eagle grasping the Globe in its talons, a fitting symbol of the new international order.

Finally, the upper floors of the towers are each faced with an immense bas-relief carving of a spread eagle bearing the shield of defense and the fasces of Order -- the same fasces that grace the chambers of our Congress in the Capitol. These eight immense images project the message of the edifice to the world: the message of Pax Americana.

The remainder of the former WTC complex site surrounding the new Twin Towers is left to go back to nature, and is utterly devoid of construction; the towers rise from an uninterrupted plane of grass and soil, representing in literal form the source of the new America Empire's strength: the grassroots of its people, rooted in the soil of this great land.

The American Empire Center is a brutal, uncompromising structure, a structure for a brutal, uncompromising world. But its brutality is based in the sincere desire for an end to brutality; its lack of compromise based in a refusal to compromise further with the forces of barbarity. The spirit of the new Twin Towers is expressed in written form by the V of Victory, engraved upon shield of the bas-relief eagles that crown them; its motto, carried by each of the great birds of prey, is the motto of the great Roman emperor Tiberius: Oderint dum probent ("Let them hate me, so long as they respect my power".)

[marron]

The defining feature of this new mentality is the awareness (gained for most of us one year ago, today) that for the first time in human history, the advance of technology makes possible the killing of millions of Americans by just a handful of other people on the other side of the world.

There is no longer the luxury of waiting for your enemies to hit you first.

If you know they are coming for you tomorrow, you must go for them now.

There is no way to defend every target, or to harden the targets sufficiently, if you want to live in freedom.

Freedom and security can only coexist if you carry the fight to the enemy.

[headsonpikes]

"Our existence...is a mortal threat to tyrants everywhere..."

An extract from a clear, concise and accurate post.

;^)

[Poohbah]

I'm sorry that you have an aversion to reality.

[bob808]

Refresh my memory, what happened to the once mighty and invincible Roman empire?

[Poohbah]

It fell. As did various free Greek city-state republics. As will any human instrument of governance, given enough time.

[Billy_bob_bob]

It is my opinion that we have been an empire since 1861, when Lincoln invaded the free and soverign nation of the Southern Confederacy. The people in the south didn't want to be a part of the "Union", they were forced to submit under weapons of war. We have been an empire ever since, IMHO. The American Nation: 1776 - 1861. The American Empire: 1865 - present.

[rdb3]

The United States of America is not an empire.

[junta]

We are gonna rearrange the Muslim world no doubt about that, but that will only get the normal American a few million refugees from that "sucky" place and they and the other Third World migrants will be our version of the Goths.

[rdb3]

I'm sorry that you have an aversion to reality.

When engaged with these types, remember these three words: ideology über alles.

When you realize this, it's so easy to just overlook them.