Comments on: Military or Market-Driven Empire Building: 1950-2008

By: denk

denk — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:03:07 +0000

evie,
**who needs the Middle East when they have mother Africa? Precisely why the US has invented AFRICOM.**

“When the Bush Administration recently unveiled its new African military command – AFRICOM – Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Theresa Whelan said that the initiative was aimed at “promoting security, to build African capacity to build their own environments and not be subject to the instability that has toppled governments and caused so much pain on the continent.”

And yet hardly was the announcement made when the Bush administration organized the overthrow of the first stable government Somalia has had since 1991, stirring up a hornet’s nest of regional rivalries in the strategic Horn of Africa”

By: denk

denk — Fri, 02 May 2008 16:57:14 +0000

evie
**
they are no more concerned with mining laws and human rights than the Anglos have been**

the chinese dont pretend to be “hr” crusaders in the first place ,
At least China doesn’t topple democratically elected regimes to replace them with ones that are more friendly to Western business and political interests

and whats your point anyway, evie, since when have the chinese become the moral compass for the angos ?

By: onecansay

onecansay — Thu, 01 May 2008 23:05:14 +0000

Unfortunately this article only rehashes what has been said. I guess others are waking up slowly to the fact that the ‘peeons’ have no say in this millennial war of those who really control hell on earth. The very few in the shadows play their chess game at our cost. They are governed by rules which we cannot comprehend. They play crochet while we play with our bums. I will make sure I am going in the opposite direction of the masses when the shit finally hits the fan.

By: DavidG.

DavidG. — Thu, 01 May 2008 00:51:39 +0000

“Militarism is deeply embedded in the structure, ideology and policies of the entire US governing class, its political parties, the executive and legislative branches, the judiciary and the armed forces.”

What an understatement! America is a sick country. Probably came from the slaughter of the Red Indians and the buffalo. Perhaps universal lobotomy will cure it.

P.S. Check ‘Depravity’ on my blog.

By: Arch Stanton

Arch Stanton — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 18:20:19 +0000

“For the US, I would guess, a Soviet-style collapse, with all the unpleasantness that we have seen there. For Israel, things could be quite dramatic. Time is now on the side of the Palestinians. I would guess that when the American money runs out, the Jews will try to fund Israel out of their private pockets, which are fairly deep. Like Cuba without the Soviets, that may well prop it up for a few years, but, ultimately, it too has to fall.”

If people say that you’re a dreamer, Mike, tell ‘em you’re not the only one.

By: Michael Kenny

Michael Kenny — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 16:42:36 +0000

Excellent analysis. The odd thing is that the reason why the rest of the world has gone for economic power over military power is precisely because it saw the US dominate the planet through economic, and not military, power. The military merely served to give the US an aura of invincibility but the real power was economic blackmail. Even more odd, the American doesn’t seem to have realised that and attributed “support” to agreement with its ideas, thereby not seeing the smouldering resentment that was buliding up in say, Europe or Latin America, even amomg people who actually did more or less agree with their ideas. The latter may well, indeed, have been the fatal error.

The US, don’t forget, has not really won a war since 1945. All it achieved in Korea was to maintain an unnatural status quo and it has lost, or is currently losing, every other war it has ever got into since. Thus, once the myth of military invincibility was broken in Iraq and Afghanistan (and for Israel, in Lebanon), the hyenas closed in for the kill! As so often, the threat was effective only as long as it remained a threat!

What next? For the US, I would guess, a Soviet-style collapse, with all the unpleasantness that we have seen there. For Israel, things could be quite dramatic. Time is now on the side of the Palestinians. I would guess that when the American money runs out, the Jews will try to fund Israel out of their private pockets, which are fairly deep. Like Cuba without the Soviets, that may well prop it up for a few years, but, ultimately, it too has to fall. That probably means what is called the “one state solution”.

By: evie

evie — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:47:41 +0000

China has expanded big time into Africa the last couple of decades. China’s “market-driven” empire building in Africa also supplies arms to opposing factions there, e.g. Darfur. China also dumps radioactive waste into Africa’s rivers and they are no more concerned with mining laws and human rights than the Anglos have been. Angola is now the largest oil supplier to China - who needs the Middle East when they have mother Africa? Precisely why the US has invented AFRICOM.

To quote Lord Palmerston “China has no friends, only interests.”

The Chinese encourage migration to Africa and it’s been said eventually hope to have 300,000,000 migrate, to ease pollution/population problems at home. While good for some Africans, the same problems accompany Chinese investment in mother Africa - greed, political corruption, atrocities.

If the US has failed to benefit from the “fall of communism” and China’s turn to capitalism - it is not from stupidity but by deliberate intention/design. Someone might wanna look into that, find the who and why.

I suspect those who would deconstruct the USA are not going to reconstruct anything even near a “democratic republic.”

We can sit and write wordy pieces about the horrors of American military/empire building and the decline of the US superprowess but economic empires are always built and backed by a military. Always.