Just Say No To Empire (from MilitaryWeek.com!)

[Liberty Belle]

from MilitaryWeek.com

Without Reservation
A biweekly column by Karen Kwiatkowski, Lt. Col. USAF (ret.)

posted 31 March 05

Just Say No ... to Empire

…Our American Republic is hanging by a thread. Some argue it's already gone. Not a single American was asked if they preferred empire over republic. And yet the question of the day remains, "How do we manage an unruly world?"

The point of empire is control. Centralized control of commerce, resources, and people and their choices. It's understandable that a nation made up of hardy immigrants and independent argumentative souls has a bit of a problem adapting to the new role as master of the universe. It is both illiberal and unconservative at the same time…

The term neoconservative is a political label, self-identified and celebrated by political scientists and philosophers like Irving Kristol – and it has nothing to do with religion or ethnicity.
It does have to do with the new kind of empire that Kaplan embraces and George W. Bush seems to believe that all Americans support.
John Mearsheimer wrote fifteen years ago that we would surely miss the Cold War. Neoconservatives missed the Cold War more than all others. Modern neoconservatism exists as a political construct only in the face of a constant and dangerous enemy.

Fear, terror, over-centralization and empire – all are alien to the American tradition and should be soundly rejected, one by one. Instead, George W. Bush continues to hold them close and even celebrate them.…Americans need to "just say no" to empire – the sooner the better. When we do, we might just find that it is a house, or perhaps, empire of cards.

http://militaryweek.com/includes/kk033105pr.html

[Imalittleteapot]

1. Good work Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski

"And we need to define empire in terms that are accurate, not glorified or sugar-coated. It isn't about what is good for the world – empires never are. It is about what is good for the emperors. Americans of all people ought to be a bit insulted, if not enraged, that empire is pursued in the name of our cherished Republic."

This is the kind of short and to the point writing that is needed to get the message to the people of this country.

Thanks Liberty Belle.

:thumbsup:

[Liberty Belle]

3. You're welcome! Seeing this from a high-ranking ex-military officer

does indeed drive home the message.

[bvar22]

2. Recommended...

*

[Liberty Belle]

4. Thanks!

[applegrove]

5. I look forward to reading it. n/t

[Karenina]

6. Kick!

:kick:

[applegrove]

10. I like that. Thanks for writing. n/t

[Lady Effingbroke]

7. Excellent article by Lt. Col. Kwiatkowski.

"What we really need to cast away is an unseemly fear of "enemies" that leads to our own criminal lawlessness, at home and abroad. We need to drop wrongheaded ideas of terror as only conducted by evil people, and pay more attention to that conducted by the state – ours and theirs (our torture-buddy allies comes to mind)."

Concise and to the point. Kick!:thumbsup:

[reprobate]

9. "Fear of enemies" is a Goebbellian tool to control the masses

Without it the Patriot act would not have been possible, the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq would not have been possible, and the death of nearly 1600 Americans would not have been possible.

In fact it is this need for fear of an enemy that puts me in the MIHOP column, particularly when we know this administration intended to invade Iraq from it's very inception. Without an enemy, even as ghostly as that enemy may be, there could not have been any reasons for the neocons to carry out their plans as outlined in the Project for a New American Century. Call me s conspiracy theorist if you will, but I truly believe that in order for this coup to succeed 9/11 was in the planning stages for a decade. The only hitch in their plans was that Jethro Bush got caught with his hand in the cookie jar. He was the one being groomed for the presidency. He had to settle for the state house in Tallahassee, while his dumber brother George took his place. But George was a good study, so their plans went thru as intended.

And the American people have no one to blame but themselves.

[The White Tree]

8. What a great statement:

"What we really need to cast away is an unseemly fear of "enemies" that leads to our own criminal lawlessness, at home and abroad."

also

"We need to drop wrongheaded ideas of terror as only conducted by evil people"

I have always found it hard to accept the notion that people who would kill themselves for a cause believe that they are evil or doing something evil. They may be mislead by ideology, but I can't see how an evil person benefits from killing themselves.

Understanding what motivates these people, and not the leaders who send them to die, I think, would be our greatest weapon in defeating terrorism.