response to a teacher

this teacher is concerned of his students rampant support for america as an empire, stating they believe that if not us then russia or china will take over the world. this is my response.


the issue of an american empire is not a political issue, concerning governmental power and assertion of control over foreign peoples. the issue at hand, in truth, is a corporate empire. we live in world not run by politics but by commerce. politics is merely the stumbling blocks which corporate tyrants trip over and inevitably buy out or eliminate. this can be shown in hundreds of instances, ranging from the strangling of economies, both at home and abroad, to the brutal treatment to citizens of allied regimes to maintain control, using mercenary force, often times being the military complex itself.

american corporations are definitely major players in the global empire, however we must look further than that. i would suggest having your students research the g-8 committee and the economic policies that spring forth from the eight richest nations in the world, affecting the world over. it is obvious that these nations wish only to profit and doing so will use any measure.

i do not believe that america can sustain ourselves in this climate as we stretch ourselves too thin with military debts to corporations whose major share holders are foreign governments. yes, governments can and do invest, as corporate entities on the global market. for instance, the u.s. invested heavily in the aircraft industry in post WWI america, assuring the profits with the inevitable coming of great wars, such as korea, cambodia, laos, vietnam, and iraq. also look at saudi interests in investing in american oil companies, and the following oil wars in iraq, despite the fact that a number of the terrorists responsible for the attack on the u.s. were saudi in origin. this is proof of an economic empire that goes beyond american borders, but is not mutually exclusive from american foreign policy.

any student that denies the existence of the empire is to be told they are short changed in the information they receive. any student in support of american empires needs to be reminded that empires serve the purposes of the wealthy elite that can only grow smaller in size in a free market, expanding the number of poor, which will lead to mass suffering and revolt. remind your students who they are and who they are not, and let there be no mistaking the two. debt is not wealth.