Ha!!! I nor anyone else can prove anything and we never will as we will never have all the evidence BUT as we watch events unfold we can note the clues and produce theories based on accumulated facts.
something much stranger than a conventional empire
Exactly. We influence without always being a force directly on the scene - rule by proxy or satrap as the case may be. If one satrap gets uppity - take him out. The key to all this is our wealth, global reach militarily and high tech capabilities.
Let's face it we, The US spend more on defense than everyone else combined and no one can hope to match it and the same goes for the high tech, it is beyond anyone else's capabilities. France and Germany want the EU to rise to prominence but they can't even afford their domestic socialist obligations so they can't compete militarily. China may be up and coming but they are far down the ladder from us and we are boxing them in with our forces. But the big prize in this whole adventure of ours and the key to everything is the strategic location of Iraq and the strategic natural resources - oil. Iraq is dead center in the middle of the Arab world and the first step. With a huge military force in place there we can dominate the entire region like never before. Right now it takes 6 months or better to build up a large invasion force. Once we have Iraq the problem is solved. With Afghanistan under our control and forces in the Stans of the old Soviet Union and Eastern Europe opening up to our bases on top of Iraq and the Balkans we will control cental Asia - the world's oil supply (the balkans being the place for a pipeline to facilitate the supply out of the Black Sea bottleneck). Add to this mix the possibility of taking out the leadership of Syria, Lebanon, Iran and maybe even Saudi Arabia we will truly be a hyper power and total rulers of the world. With strategically placed forces and puppet governments we not only impose our will but our companies get the contracts. As a side note we can eradicate radical Islam, liberalize that religion to a "religion of peace" and force a peace between the Arabs and Israel - peace and safety, a world safe for democracy and all that.
So with England on our side and forces in eastern Europe and all oil purchases remaining in dollars and not in eruos France and Germany and their dream of a powerful EU are smashed. With our forces all over central Asia and in Japan and Korea we have China hemmed in. The result - Pax Americana. New World Order. No longer a distant dream , a very near reality.</P.