Posted on 10/09/2001 11:25:39 AM PDT by johnqueuepublic
PipeBombNews Editorial
~ Empire America? – Yes! ~
By William A. Mayer - Editor & Publisher
October 9, 2001
“...Cold, poverty, and a life of danger and fatigue fortify the strength and courage of barbarians. In every age they have oppressed the polite and peaceful nations of China, India, and Persia, who neglected, and still neglect, to counter-balance these natural powers by the resources of military art. The warlike states of antiquity, Greece, Macedonia, and Rome, educated a race of soldiers; exercised their bodies, disciplined their courage, multiplied their forces by regular evolutions, and converted the iron which they possessed into strong and serviceable weapons. But this superiority insensibly declined with their laws and manners: and the feeble policy of Constantine and his successors armed and instructed, for the ruin of the empire, the rude valour of the barbarian mercenaries...” - From Edward Gibbon's "The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire" - 1765It is with a thousand years of perspective and hindsight that Gibbon, with us looking over his shoulder two centuries later, restates the simple law of the jungle - kill or be killed.
Failure to internalize and act upon the fact that planet Earth is more often than not a cruel and factious place is more than foolish, it is suicidal.
Critics from the squishy right, mostly champions of libertarian thought, counsel a retreat from any American role that even approaches that of global policeman.
Populist wing nuts like Pat Buchanan argue that America can simply walk away from foreign squabbles, using the verbiage from George Washington’s farewell address that warned of “entangling foreign alliances”
Taking a much more aggressive tact, the left has a long history of indicting the West and especially America as colonialist plunderers of other cultures, imposing hegemony via economic and military power.
While this accusation can be dismissed as an essentially ideological attack it is now time to turn the argument on its head and actually embrace the kernel of the concept, and the sooner the better.
From the time the Roman republic was declared in 509 BC to it’s ultimate sacking by the Visigoths in 410 AD the Roman Empire, which at its zenith spanned over 2000 miles in breadth, for the first time in the history placed the most desirable and arable land in the old world under the control of a centralized modern government - a system which forged this land and its inhabitants into a supra almost federal type organization, elevating it far above the surrounding barbarian world.
How did they do this?
- · They ordered society from top to bottom, training young minds and bodies together at rigorous levels
- · They developed new concepts of governmental organization and integration
- · They invented the science of military tactics - analyzing the lessons of previous wars and battles
- · They developed the idea of public works and public sanitation
- · They were able to instill among the citizenry, and above all the martial class, absolute devotion to duty and fidelity of purpose
The Roman Empire was willed into being by force of personality and force of arms.
Above all it was successful, guaranteeing relative peace (or what could pass for it in a world primarily populated by, what only can be described as, quasi-human beasts) for nearly a millennium.
When the empire failed it ushered in a thousand years of darkness and horror.
Yes the Romans were oft times cruel themselves, but their cruelty generally had a purpose. It was the exception to the rule, not the personification of it.
Caesar Augustus and Julius Caesar were the two most remarkable men in the history of the ancient world, making the flowering of Rome complete.
America also has a chance to flower anew.
America has a meeting with destiny, history and events beyond her control have demanded her presence.
To say that we stand at a crossroads is trite, but indeed we do so stand.
We have been forced to learn hard truths in a very short time.
We have learned that we are alone in this world; that we are hated by those jealous of our standard of living and because we have had the temerity to follow an older more benevolent prophet.
We have been shown that our complex society, though stunningly diverse and rich beyond belief, is so delicately balanced - so free - that it is in many ways as fragile as a mayfly.
We have been brought face to face with the fact that this delicate creature is now pursued by the hounds of hell; illiterate barbarians barely capable of signing their own names, who use a 7th century text to justify extermination of the non-Islamic world.
It is as if we are confronted by escapees from some insane time warp who have taken advantage of our good nature, our belief in equality and our dedication to civil liberties and freedom.
If we cower from this challenge, if we pull inward we will be picked off one by one, community by community.
We will become targets of opportunity succumbing with increasing rapidity as weapons of greater and greater power become available to agents of terror, plunging us into a an abyss from which escape is unlikely.
There can only be one response – to embrace power, to accept the role for which we have been unknowingly grooming ourselves for 200 years.
We must establish a Pax Americana – a worldwide dominion – an Empire – hard when need be - but fair and leavened with our deep regard for liberty.
We must create our own martial culture, appropriate for the times, as did the Romans.
Our young people must be educated and inculcated into this culture.
We must once again strive for excellence, OUR test scores in mathematics, science, reading and history must become the standard by which achievement is measured.
The pledge of allegiance must be said - with purpose - in every classroom in the United States, abstinence will be tolerated , but doing so will reflect poorly on those so choosing.
We must develop and deploy the weapons of the 21st century, directed energy weapons, space based lasers, ultra supersonic fighters and bombers - whatever advanced technological means whereby power, authority and in the case of attack - revenge - can be projected.
We must not strike indiscriminately at innocents, but we will not let their presence shield our enemies.
A very good symbolic first step might be to send the UN packing; it has become a symbol of anti-Americanism. It exudes racism, is corrupt to its core and is anti-Christian and anti-Semitic to boot - send it to Chernobyl where its red glow will then match its ideology.
Rome does not consult Babylon on matters of foreign policy.
Grasping at the mantle of such awesome power brings with it the attendant duty of exercising it in a way consistent with the values that have preserved us to this point.
Our founding fathers could never have conceived the world in which we live, but they would never forgive us if we departed from the ideals that they died for.
By observing and acting upon what is best in our heritage we can avoid becoming merely another Reich - smug, egocentric and eventually despotic.
It is a heady challenge, one which is unique in the history of the modern world, but one which we MUST accept - the portent of allowing fanatical madmen to wage a continuous jihad against us, with the full array of modern weapons, is too terrible an alternative to contemplate.
There's good evidence that the opposite is true. A younger, ruthless empire might stop terrorism (with a high price in personal liberty), but an aging empire such as ours has very little chance.
I think our dilemna is similar to the aging Roman empire, our citizens are too fat, dumb and happy.
What happens if the Saudi princes are overthrown and the oil shut off by Islamic nutcases? Under your theory we simply give up, dont we? Under a policy of empire we take over the oil fields and survive.
You either buy oil from the Islamic nutcases and keep your SUV, or get a honda and run it on Colorado shale oil at $2.50 a gallon, your choice.
No, it mostly includes things like working with Winston Churchill to save western civilization. Your point is well taken, though. Perhaps I should have written that some of our finest moments, as well as some of our darkest moments, have been when we have participated actively in international affairs.
I guess they will just drink the oil and not make any money off it won't they?
Pat B is a fruitcake.
What has he ever done but flap his lips?
Never elected to office, he was a freakin' speechwriter for Nixon - that is his sole accomplishment.
Oh, i forgot his appearances on crossfire and his anti-Semitic remarks
Buchannan is wrong almost every time he opens his mouth
Yes, by all means Go Pat Go....yes go Pat go... go far, far away and shut your pie hole while you are at it.
It’s a metaphor, the purpose of which is to point out that Empires are Bad things that freedom loving American’s don’t like.
You might want to recall such useful historical tidbits like:
To sum up: Empire=Bad
I hope that clears things up for you.
You are attempting to committ revisionism of the lowest order, comparing a potential American empire with the Nazis and the Spanish is pretty silly dont you think.
There is the term called "moral relativism" that you should really investigate.
We are better than them.
ps - What happened in the wake of the British Empire? I say look to Africa for your answer - they are MUCH better off today dont you think?
LOL
Knock em flat Pat!
And how precisely am I revising the history of an American empire, which hasn’t occurred? I am not committing revisionism, I am warning you that you advocate a counterproductive, generally unworkable, and morally reprehensible course of action.
There is the term called "moral relativism" that you should really investigate.
Lets see here:
You suggest that America invade other nations, overthrow their governments and enslave their people.
But that’s good.
And I’m the moral relativist?
We are better than them.
If we do the same things they did, then we are the same as they were.
ps - What happened in the wake of the British Empire? I say look to Africa for your answer - they are MUCH better off today dont you think?
I’d say it’s not much different from Europe after Rome fell. I say this because empires tend to decimate the cultures of the peoples they enslave. This goes right back to my thesis:
Empire=Bad
Got it yet?
Empire also always leads to the end of Empire... and the aftermath in the world's history has never been pretty....
Line 'em up and count 'em... Greek, Roman, Ottoman, Soviet, Brtish (BTW, we have simply inherited the British Empire in the Middle East)....
Ane yes, the fall of the British Empire was not pretty, either... particularly in Africa.
So was 1984....
BTW, it's almost uncanny how so much of the science fiction written over the last decades has evolved into fact....
Anyway, I think we can draw on history to prove the point.
It's just that now the prospects are Orwellian.
That's the sole point on which you and I might disagree....
It's an empire. alright... has been since the days of Wilson.
Unfortunately, being a global policeman usually means that the jobs of judge and jury go along with the role of policeman, and imposing western ideas of justice, crime and punishment in non-western locations sometimes gets us into more trouble than it may be worth. Are your jet commercial airplanes more likely to be crashed into your supersized office buildings by people who are ticked at you because you stuck your nose in their business, or because you refused to stick your nose in their business?
Libertarians have no problem with the idea of being adequately prepared for a war waged on them by someone else, but are not real fond of drawing someone else's fire because they intervened where they weren't wanted in the first place. If we're determined to annouce ourselves as being the friend of a country with many enemies, then we'd best expect to gain a whole bunch of new enemies to go along with that friend.
How many countries have announced themselves to be the mortal enemies of Switzerland?
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