Talk-Polywell.org

Al Queda exists, but I am pretty sure that its power is overblown to further political agenda.

scareduck wrote: Lerner represents himself as a "researcher"

MSimon wrote:[It is my opinion that America as the world's premier imperial power has a plan for civilizing the world. I have no proof. One only has to look though.

Second - copious energy is part of that plan.

TallDave wrote:

MSimon wrote:[It is my opinion that America as the world's premier imperial power has a plan for civilizing the world. I have no proof. One only has to look though.

Second - copious energy is part of that plan.

Simon, Simon, Simon. Let's not get into black helicopter territority. Yes, there is PNAC, but that's a very public think tank.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pnac

Like all bureaucracies our government can barely tie its own shoelaces on its own. They have a master plan for putting cheese in vaults. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Government_cheese That's about the extent of their ambitions.

Anyways, we don't need a plan. It became painfully obvious in the 1990s that liberal democracy is by far the best way to organize a society. All that remains is for those ignorant of that reality to awaken and demand their rights as human beings, as is gradually happening all over the world.

The effect of declaring that the United States is an empire would not only be factually wrong, but strategically catastrophic. Contrary to the exploitative purposes of the British, the American intentions of spreading democracy and individual rights are incompatible with the notion of an empire. The genius of American power is expressed in the movie The Godfather II, where, like Hyman Roth, the United States has always made money for its partners. America has not turned countries in which it intervened into deserts; it enriched them. Even the Russians knew they could surrender after the Cold War without being subjected to occupation."

MSimon wrote:Congress passed a bill saying it was US Policy (2006 or 07 I think).

The US has been acting that way for 60+ years.

It is not the scary stuff of conspiracy mongers. What we prefer is a world full of Germanys, Japans, South Koreas. Eliminate the Zimbabwes and North Koreas.

Military means will be a last resort. It will be an option.

But if we really are imperial, we rule over a very funny sort of empire.

We do not send out proconsuls to reside over client states, which in turn impose taxes on coerced subjects to pay for the legions. Instead, American bases are predicated on contractual obligations — costly to us and profitable to their hosts. We do not see any profits in Korea, but instead accept the risk of losing almost 40,000 of our youth to ensure that Kias can flood our shores and that shaggy students can protest outside our embassy in Seoul.

Athenians, Romans, Ottomans, and the British wanted land and treasure and grabbed all they could get when they could. The United States hasn't annexed anyone's soil since the Spanish-American War — a checkered period in American history that still makes us, not them, out as villains in our own history books. Most Americans are far more interested in carving up the Nevada desert for monster homes than in getting their hands on Karachi or the Amazon basin. Puerto Ricans are free to vote themselves independence anytime they wish.

Imperial powers order and subjects obey. But in our case, we offer the Turks strategic guarantees, political support — and money — for their allegiance. France and Russia go along in the U.N. — but only after we ensure them the traffic of oil and security for outstanding accounts. Pakistan gets debt relief that ruined dot-coms could only dream of; Jordan reels in more aid than our own bankrupt municipalities.