Map of the American Empire Last week, former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson paid a visit to Republican leaders in the US congress to urge them to send American F-16 warplanes to Ukraine. In doing so, Mr. Johnson is continuing a century-long tradition of Brits attempting to drag the United States into European conflicts that are of no consequence to us. Stretching back through Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, David Lloyd George, and Edward Grey, the UK has managed to twice drag America into wars to defend their empire at a cost of more than 1.4 million American casualties and untold suffering and treasure. Before we further involve ourselves in this war, it is time for Americans to wake up and take a long, hard look at what our foreign military interventions have wrought.
As children, we were taught that World Wars I and II were glorious moral crusades to “make the world safe for democracy” and then to “rid the world of tyranny.” Anyone that bothers to read a book, of course knows that the first world war was fought to ensure that politically influential American bankers were repaid the billions they had loaned to France and Britain, generate massive income for the DuPont family and other arms manufacturers, increase the power of our government over its citizens, preserve the British Empire, and for the aggrandizement of the unfathomably arrogant President Woodrow Wilson. After the deaths of 20 million boys and the wounding and maiming of 21 million more, the one-sided Treaty of Versailles did not so much end World War I, but was rather a shaky 20 year ceasefire that ended with the Nazi invasion of Poland. Moreover, far from making the world safe for democracy, the war enlarged the empires of Britain and France, leaving tens of millions around the world under foreign rule, with no say in their form of government and no rights to their own natural resources. Far worse, it resulted in the collapse of the Russian Empire and establishment by the Bolsheviks of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – a movement that would spread and ultimately kill nearly 100 million people during the 20thcentury.
World War II was sold to Americans as a fight to rid the world of tyranny. Roosevelt and Churchill’s Atlantic Charter set out the war aims of the two nations and read in part,
“After the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, [we] hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want…”
At the end, 400,000 young American men were dead along with 70 millionothers. Was tyranny banished by this unimaginable conflagration? Hardly. The war liberated northern France[1], Belgium, and The Netherlands from occupation or colonial rule (The Philippines was liberated from American colonial rule in 1946). Simultaneously, it left Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania, and Eastern Germany in the iron grip of socialist dictators. With the exception of Yugoslavia, all of these countries were controlled and/or occupied by our wartime allies, the Soviet butchers of the USSR. The British Empire was on its deathbed and the American Empire was inaugurated. One of our government’s first orders of business was bankrolling the brutal French invasion of Vietnam, which had been freed from French colonial rule during the war. So much for people “dwelling in safety within their own boundaries.”
America has been expanding its global empire ever since it supplanted the British. Once, the British monarchy could boast that “The sun never sets on the British Empire.” With colonies stretching from the south Pacific, to India, Africa, and North America, it was true that the sun always shone somewhere in the realm. Today, the British royalty of yore would blush at the scope of the American Empire. While Britain, at its zenith, held 30 or so countries in its grip[2], the American Empire exerts significant control across the entire planet, having its imperial troops deployed to 750 military installations in 80 countries; just over half of all countries with a population over 1 million.
The modern American Empire operates differently than the Roman and British Empires before it. Instead of sending Proconsuls and Governor-Generals to directly operate the state apparatus in its colonies, the US government has dispatched its military proconsuls – known as “Commanders-in-Chief” - to the six military districts into which they have divided the world (See map). Our government deals with other nations primarily through its military proconsuls rather the old-fashioned method of using diplomats. These Generals and Admirals exert their influence with a carrot and stick approach; promises of protection, military exchanges, and financial aid in exchange for economically favorable terms for politically connected corporations back home. With American warships, bombers, fighters, soldiers, and marines in their countries or their backyard, the stick doesn’t even need to be mentioned.
Like the British, America has bankrupted itself with the cost of maintaining its empire and now teeters on the brink of collapse. Britain severely wounded itself by its foolhardy war guarantee to the French in 1914, then sealed its fate with an even more absurd war guarantee to Poland in 1939. By contrast, America currently has guarantees to go to war on behalf of fifty countries worldwide, and – without consulting the American people - is presently reconfiguring its forces specifically for an impending war with China.
Boris Johnson’s visit is Déjà vu all over again; another British leader is urging us to directly involve ourselves[3]in yet another European war; this time a Slavic civil war on the fringes of the continent. Only this enemy doesn’t have Panzer tanks and horse-drawn artillery – they have intercontinental ballistic missiles and have already threatened to use them.
Today, eight decades after World War II, with our troops still garrisoned where they stood in August 1945 – and now, with the relentless expansion of NATO, are right on Russia’s doorstep – we are coming to the end of our short reign of world dominion. While there are differences, we’ve followed the same road to ruin as did the Romans and British before us; as Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does often rhyme.”
Like the Brits, we too may be able to salvage ourselves as simply a member, not master, of the community of nations and maybe even come out a little better than they did; but if our morally and financially bankrupt masters in Washington continue to simultaneously poke the Russian Bear and Chinese Dragon in hopes of keeping their grip on power just a little longer, our republic will cease to exist in any recognizable form.
Randolph Bourne wrote a century ago that “War is the health of the State;” if you think Washington politicians, bureaucrats, and power brokers won’t sacrifice you and your children to satisfy their lust for power, just cast a look at the broken and maimed bodies of American boys spread across the globe and the lies those who sent them to their deaths have been telling us for decades.
--------------------------------------------
[1]The Nazis only occupied the north because the French government was allied with Germany. (You read that right; read a short history here)
[2]This depends on how you count them; many British holdings were tiny and/or uninhabited islands, or small enclaves within a larger colony.
[3]Hundreds of troops would have to accompany the jets; you can’t just send them over in a crate and toss them the keys. Pilots need to be trained, planes need constant, highly technical maintenance and other forms of ground support.
As children, we were taught that World Wars I and II were glorious moral crusades to “make the world safe for democracy” and then to “rid the world of tyranny.” Anyone that bothers to read a book, of course knows that the first world war was fought to ensure that politically influential American bankers were repaid the billions they had loaned to France and Britain, generate massive income for the DuPont family and other arms manufacturers, increase the power of our government over its citizens, preserve the British Empire, and for the aggrandizement of the unfathomably arrogant President Woodrow Wilson. After the deaths of 20 million boys and the wounding and maiming of 21 million more, the one-sided Treaty of Versailles did not so much end World War I, but was rather a shaky 20 year ceasefire that ended with the Nazi invasion of Poland. Moreover, far from making the world safe for democracy, the war enlarged the empires of Britain and France, leaving tens of millions around the world under foreign rule, with no say in their form of government and no rights to their own natural resources. Far worse, it resulted in the collapse of the Russian Empire and establishment by the Bolsheviks of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics – a movement that would spread and ultimately kill nearly 100 million people during the 20thcentury.
World War II was sold to Americans as a fight to rid the world of tyranny. Roosevelt and Churchill’s Atlantic Charter set out the war aims of the two nations and read in part,
“After the final destruction of the Nazi tyranny, [we] hope to see established a peace which will afford to all nations the means of dwelling in safety within their own boundaries, and which will afford assurance that all men in all lands may live out their lives in freedom from fear and want…”
At the end, 400,000 young American men were dead along with 70 millionothers. Was tyranny banished by this unimaginable conflagration? Hardly. The war liberated northern France[1], Belgium, and The Netherlands from occupation or colonial rule (The Philippines was liberated from American colonial rule in 1946). Simultaneously, it left Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Albania, and Eastern Germany in the iron grip of socialist dictators. With the exception of Yugoslavia, all of these countries were controlled and/or occupied by our wartime allies, the Soviet butchers of the USSR. The British Empire was on its deathbed and the American Empire was inaugurated. One of our government’s first orders of business was bankrolling the brutal French invasion of Vietnam, which had been freed from French colonial rule during the war. So much for people “dwelling in safety within their own boundaries.”
America has been expanding its global empire ever since it supplanted the British. Once, the British monarchy could boast that “The sun never sets on the British Empire.” With colonies stretching from the south Pacific, to India, Africa, and North America, it was true that the sun always shone somewhere in the realm. Today, the British royalty of yore would blush at the scope of the American Empire. While Britain, at its zenith, held 30 or so countries in its grip[2], the American Empire exerts significant control across the entire planet, having its imperial troops deployed to 750 military installations in 80 countries; just over half of all countries with a population over 1 million.
The modern American Empire operates differently than the Roman and British Empires before it. Instead of sending Proconsuls and Governor-Generals to directly operate the state apparatus in its colonies, the US government has dispatched its military proconsuls – known as “Commanders-in-Chief” - to the six military districts into which they have divided the world (See map). Our government deals with other nations primarily through its military proconsuls rather the old-fashioned method of using diplomats. These Generals and Admirals exert their influence with a carrot and stick approach; promises of protection, military exchanges, and financial aid in exchange for economically favorable terms for politically connected corporations back home. With American warships, bombers, fighters, soldiers, and marines in their countries or their backyard, the stick doesn’t even need to be mentioned.
Like the British, America has bankrupted itself with the cost of maintaining its empire and now teeters on the brink of collapse. Britain severely wounded itself by its foolhardy war guarantee to the French in 1914, then sealed its fate with an even more absurd war guarantee to Poland in 1939. By contrast, America currently has guarantees to go to war on behalf of fifty countries worldwide, and – without consulting the American people - is presently reconfiguring its forces specifically for an impending war with China.
Boris Johnson’s visit is Déjà vu all over again; another British leader is urging us to directly involve ourselves[3]in yet another European war; this time a Slavic civil war on the fringes of the continent. Only this enemy doesn’t have Panzer tanks and horse-drawn artillery – they have intercontinental ballistic missiles and have already threatened to use them.
Today, eight decades after World War II, with our troops still garrisoned where they stood in August 1945 – and now, with the relentless expansion of NATO, are right on Russia’s doorstep – we are coming to the end of our short reign of world dominion. While there are differences, we’ve followed the same road to ruin as did the Romans and British before us; as Mark Twain once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does often rhyme.”
Like the Brits, we too may be able to salvage ourselves as simply a member, not master, of the community of nations and maybe even come out a little better than they did; but if our morally and financially bankrupt masters in Washington continue to simultaneously poke the Russian Bear and Chinese Dragon in hopes of keeping their grip on power just a little longer, our republic will cease to exist in any recognizable form.
Randolph Bourne wrote a century ago that “War is the health of the State;” if you think Washington politicians, bureaucrats, and power brokers won’t sacrifice you and your children to satisfy their lust for power, just cast a look at the broken and maimed bodies of American boys spread across the globe and the lies those who sent them to their deaths have been telling us for decades.
--------------------------------------------
[1]The Nazis only occupied the north because the French government was allied with Germany. (You read that right; read a short history here)
[2]This depends on how you count them; many British holdings were tiny and/or uninhabited islands, or small enclaves within a larger colony.
[3]Hundreds of troops would have to accompany the jets; you can’t just send them over in a crate and toss them the keys. Pilots need to be trained, planes need constant, highly technical maintenance and other forms of ground support.
RSS Feed