1. There is no monarch/emperor, and never has been one; it's a founding principle of the US that there is no hereditary aristocracy. You can't really have an empire without anybody who can play an emperor-like role.
2. America is wildly influential, but "empire" certainly implies more than influence; it implies direct control. There is just no such thing.
3. I agree with you that Iraq is a horrible, groundless war that never should have happened. But can you imagine any empire in world history -- the British, the Romans, the Mongols -- spending a trillion dollars to install and then withdraw from a self-governing democracy that paid no taxes? It's amazing to me that so-called fiscal conservatives lined up behind this plan.
4. "Economic empire" is a casual and toothless term. It would be about as reasonable to talk about America's "cultural empire," derived from America's dominant role in the entertainment industry. (Give it twenty years and see what you make of China's economy.)
The nearest example of genuinely empirical behavior in America's history that I can think of was indeed very shameful -- the geographical usurpation of territory and subjugation of native populations we excused with the charming term "manifest destiny."
However, it has an extremely close historical parallel here:
no subject
Well, among other justifications...
1. There is no monarch/emperor, and never has been one; it's a founding principle of the US that there is no hereditary aristocracy. You can't really have an empire without anybody who can play an emperor-like role.
2. America is wildly influential, but "empire" certainly implies more than influence; it implies direct control. There is just no such thing.
3. I agree with you that Iraq is a horrible, groundless war that never should have happened. But can you imagine any empire in world history -- the British, the Romans, the Mongols -- spending a trillion dollars to install and then withdraw from a self-governing democracy that paid no taxes? It's amazing to me that so-called fiscal conservatives lined up behind this plan.
4. "Economic empire" is a casual and toothless term. It would be about as reasonable to talk about America's "cultural empire," derived from America's dominant role in the entertainment industry. (Give it twenty years and see what you make of China's economy.)
The nearest example of genuinely empirical behavior in America's history that I can think of was indeed very shameful -- the geographical usurpation of territory and subjugation of native populations we excused with the charming term "manifest destiny."
However, it has an extremely close historical parallel here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Territorial_evolution_of_Canada
now your government, with the shameful collaboration of ours, is paving the way to allow an military invasion of Canada
This sounds promising. Can I get dibs on Banff National Park and enslave Amanda Tapping?