The Last Word
Abandon American Imperialism — Before It Destroys America

Abandon American Imperialism — Before It Destroys America

The United States has — since at least World War II — been suffering from an identity crisis: We are a republic that calls itself a democracy and behaves like an empire. America’s survival depends not on continuing American imperialism, but on abandoning it for a return to the policies that served America so well before it behaved like an empire. ...
C. Mitchell Shaw

The United States has — since at least World War II — been suffering from an identity crisis: We are a republic that calls itself a democracy and behaves like an empire. But now, the “primacy” of the United States in the order of nations is “fraying” and “may, in fact, be collapsing,” according to a report published in June by the U.S. Army War College’s Strategic Studies Institute. With the American empire falling under its own bloated weight and coming apart at the seams, the report — rather than suggesting a return to the roots of the American Republic as outlined in the Constitution — suggests expansions of force, surveillance, and propaganda to reinforce the crumbling empire.

The report — entitled At Our Own Peril: DoD Risk Assessment in a Post-Primacy World — is the conclusion of a year-long study, with input from the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Army. Both the report and the study were sponsored by high-level government and military agencies, including the U.S. Army’s Strategic Plans and Policy Directorate; the Joint Staff, J5 (Strategy and Policy Branch); the Office of the Deputy Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development; and the Army Study Program Management Office.

The report — available for download here — laments the decline (and pending fall) of the American empire and predicts dire consequences if the “unassailable position” of the United States “versus state competitors” is not reinforced. The report goes on to say, “Status quo forces [comprised of ‘the United States and its major Western and Asian allies’] collectively are comfortable with their dominant role in dictating the terms of international security outcomes and resist the emergence of rival centers of power and authority.”

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