Wildo7

http://alternet.org/audits/81005/

Empire or Humanity?

What the Classroom Didn't Teach Me About the American Empire
By Howard Zinn

With an occupying army waging war in Iraq and Afghanistan, with military bases and corporate bullying in every part of the world, there is hardly a question any more of the existence of an American Empire. Indeed, the once fervent denials have turned into a boa(Please be quiet - edited)l, unashamed embrace of the idea.

However the very idea that the United States was an empire did not occur to me until after I finished my work as a bombardier with the Eighth Air Force in the Second World War, and came home. Even as I began to have second thoughts about the purity of the "Good War," even after being horrified by Hiroshima and Nagasaki, even after rethinking my own bombing of towns in Europe, I still did not put all that together in the context of an American "Empire."

I was conscious, like everyone, of the British Empire and the other imperial powers of Europe, but the United States was not seen in the same way. When, after the war, I went to college under the G.I. Bill of Rights and took courses in U.S. history, I usually found a chapter in the history texts called "The Age of Imperialism." It invariably referred to the Spanish-American War of 1898 and the conquest of the Philippines that followed. It seemed that American imperialism lasted only a relatively few years. There was no overarching view of U.S. expansion that might lead to the idea of a more far-ranging empire -- or period -- of "imperialism."

I recall the classroom map (labeled "Western Expansion") which presented the march across the continent as a natural, almost biological phenomenon. That huge acquisition of land called "The Louisiana Purchase" hinted at nothing but vacant land acquired. There was no sense that this territory had been occupied by hundreds of Indian tribes which would have to be annihilated or forced from their homes -- what we now call "ethnic cleansing" -- so that whites could settle the land, and later railroads could crisscross it, presaging "civilization" and its brutal discontents.

patsfan13

Pretty lame, by Mr Zinn, but he does do a good job expressing his loathing of America. The title of his book couldn't be more pretentous.

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"Some guys play in all-star games, some guys don't. I don't know who picks all those all-star teams. In all honesty, I don't know who picks the combine, for that matter," Belichick said. "How does (Miami-Ohio offensive lineman Brandon) Brooks not get invited to the combine? How did Vollmer not get invited to the combine? I don't know. We can't really worry about that. We just have to try to evaluate them the best we can."

Wildo7

glad to see your total misunderstanding of the article.

Harry Boy

F-ck the rest of the world, come home, no more money for them, no more help for them, no more food for them, no more protection for them, LET THEM STARVE TO DEATH, LET THEM DRAG THEIR WOMEN AROUND LIKE TRAINED MONKEYS AND LET THEM ALL SLAUGHTER EACH OTHER LIKE THE ANIMALS THEY ARE.

All you slobbering liberals remember this guy ZINN when you prepare to send young Americans to die in the Cesspool called Dafur.

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Harry Boy (Genius)

In The Absence Of Law And Order Society Will Surely Destroy Itself

Stokes

Completely disagree with his conclusion here. He ignores the fact that unlike other empires throughout history, our military is stationed in these other countries because it is the will of the governments of those countries. If Germany said tomorrow "pack your ***** and get out" we would. If you told the Persians or the Romans to do so, they'd "replace" you. We also do not force our rule on other countries as would be the case if we truly were an empire. Our allies are free to govern as they wish. So are our enemies, to the extent that their choice does not present a risk to our own national security (the reason why the Taliban had to go, for example). As for "corporate bullying" we operate under negotiated trade agreements with other countries, and unlike many of them (I'm looking at you, China), we honor those agreements. US businesses are in it to make money, but so is everyone else.

wistahpatsfan

How do you see with these on?

Stokes

my pair are not broken.

Seriously though, do you think the United States qualifies as an empire? I see it as a superpower, and I think "superpower" and "empire" are 2 distinct things. At any rate the conclusions drawn in that article I think are unjustified. I pointed out how the claims summarized in the first paragraph are inaccurate.

wistahpatsfan

I'm sure yours work just fine...in fact, I'd bet the house on it.

I think "empire" and "world power" are distinctions without a difference when you look at the whole of history.

otis p. driftwood

I'm not sure I agree. If the US was an Empire, we'd have a lot more oil and there'd be a lot fewer terrorists (as any good Empire, we'd identify what we needed and take those areas that had it, yes)?

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Wildo7

what a joke that statement is. I suppose the Soviet empire didn't have Chechen rebels, and the British empire didn't have the IRA. Way to go slick, you're on fire today....