IS AMERICA A SUPERPOWER OR AN EMPIRE?

[BEYOND TREASON]

Have there been any threads on this question on this forum? if so could someone please post the links for the threads here,so i can i have a good read.

[Skidmore]

1. Neither. Under the current administration, it is aspiring to be

a theocracy.

[MADem]

2. Use the search feature to find the answer to your question nt

[htuttle]

3. Define the difference between the two

As far as I'm concerned, 'Superpower' is the late 20th century term for 'Empire'.

[noahmijo]

4. A city like the mythical Troy was a superpower we are an Empire

To me a superpower is a nation that if it has its hands in anyone else's country or land it's typically for a mutual or noble cause; i.e. you give us wheat we give you bananas, and the power comes from the fact that the nation is strong yet respected more than feared.

America to me used to be a nation just like that but now....

[democracyindanger]

12. Troy isn't mythical

Just sayin'.

[noahmijo]

21. I know but the way it was portrayed in Homer's "The Ilad" was

[Ezlivin]

5. With over 1,000 known military bases scattered across the globe

I'd say that we are strongly in the "empire" category.

[BEYOND TREASON]

15. WOW!!!

1000 bases,where did you get this info from? do you have a link?

[Ezlivin]

26. 1,000 bases - from "The Sorrows of Empire" by Chalmers Johnson

He details the spread of our bases across the globe. Fascinating and enlightening reading, even for me, a veteran.

[nadinbrzezinski]

6. Neither

not any more, it wiill just take time for the reality to hit home

[leveymg]

11. Boy, that was one quick case of imperial overreach

Soon after Mr. McGillicutty passed, his widow followed him to the grave. Without him, she lost her reason for being.

USSR RIP 1991. USA RIP 2006, '07 or '08?

[Rex]

7. Both, neither are exclusive of the other.

nt

[Swamp Rat]

8. CAPS LOCK

[mmonk]

9. More like

a past superpower turning into an international beligerent.

[wixomblues]

10. Both. A Supire.

[Yollam]

13. Ancient Rome was often described as a great sow...

...with all her far-flung provinces ever suckling...


America seems more like a great, corpulent obese couch potato, desperately in need of bariatric surgery. Too obese and sedentary to do the hard work required to get back into shape. We keep ordering more and more nachos and ribs from China and Japan, while they loan us the money to pay the mortgage, because again, we're too fat to go out and earn any. Sure there is a huge arsenal of shotguns in the closet that we use to steal candy from the neighborhood kids, but It would hardly be fair to call a big, bloated bully a "superpower" or an "empire" would it?

At least that's how I see us.

[pbca]

14. Neither

Not really, not anymore - more like hired muscle for big corporations and other countries - the US will never pay off the debt from the iraq fiasco and the interest from that debt will prevent fixing the serious health, education, environmental, economic and infrastructure problems that would need to be fixed for the US to be a super power again.

[donheld]

16. Welcome to DU pbca

:hi:

[pbca]

17. Thanks!

:party:

[bananas]

24. Welcome to DU and ...

do you have something to do with http://www.publicbroadcasting.ca/
considering your handle "pbca" ?

[pbca]

27. Yep

It's my site =)

[BEYOND TREASON]

22. Interesting viewpoint

I would have to agree with you to some degree,but not sure that america is neither an empire or superpower.

[bananas]

25. I would agree with him

we're just the muscle for multinational corporations.

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

18. Was a superpower, now an empire

the difference is how the power is used.

[K-W]

19. It is both.

It isnt an either/or issue.

[meganmonkey]

20. It's like a big bully teenager asshole

that acts like an empire but has NO concept of longevity or sustainability.

By 25, it'll be fat and bald, and by 30 it will be a useless drunk. Like the asshole football player who always took jokes too far, and then you run into him 15 years later and he is miserable and totally unsuccessful.

[Solly Mack]

23. America is War Crime Nation

I don't consider America to be anything else - and will only stop viewing America as a war crime nation if the Bush Regime and it's helpers are brought up on war crime charges.

If anyone wants to call her a War Crime Empire or War Crime Superpower, more power to them - just don't forget to add America's war crime status.