Imperial Overkill and the Death of U.S. Empire

[kpete]

Imperial Overkill and the Death of U.S. Empire

By Francis Shor, July 27, 2010

...........

Addicted to War

As resources are stretched to the limit and permanent war becomes the defining feature of the empire, the selection for imperial overkill gains prominence as the modus operandi for U. S. foreign policy. Among the stretched resources are the $1 trillion in expenditures for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Using a multiplier effect, the economist Joseph Stiglitz has estimated the long-term expenses for those wars to be in excess of three times the expended amount. This is all part of a growing debt of $13 trillion dollars. Moreover, with U. S. casualties rising in Afghanistan and with a record number of closed head injuries among American soldiers, the costs in human terms are enormous. And still, the Pentagon is seeding future wars by the extensive operations of Special Forces.

Given this seeming addiction to war, perhaps the reference to imperial overstretch is not elastic enough to contain the contradictions and absurdities in these war-making policies. Among the most absurd, reminiscent of the antics of the fictional operator Milo Minderbinder from Joseph Heller’s satirical antiwar novel Catch 22, is the $2.2 billion Host Nation Trucking contract underwritten by the Pentagon for security companies in Afghanistan. These same companies, in turn, contribute money to Taliban warlords in order to guarantee safe delivery of U. S. supplies over Afghan routes. These payoffs also allow an unending cycle of violence that stokes the military machine and its imperial enablers.

It's hard to imagine the persistence of a U. S. empire that relies on imperial overkill. In fact, much evidence of a dying empire can be found on the blood-soaked landscapes invaded by the U. S. military and the mad mindscapes of imperial policymakers. From the “shock and awe” bombing campaigns unleashed on Iraq by former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, to the death squads fostered by the Bush and Obama administrations in Iraq and Afghanistan, to the drone attacks in Pakistan, the U. S. political elite seems committed to what C. Wright Mills called “crackpot realism.” Such policies can only lead to increased resistance to U. S. hegemony.

Perhaps if the terminal crisis of U. S. empire isn't evident to the political elite, the absurdity of its operation and trajectory is all too apparent to those with any historical sensibility. The Afghanistan invasion clearly put the finishing touches to the overextended and military-heavy Soviet empire, even with the last-ditch efforts of Gorbachev to withdraw and reorganize the Soviet system. Many voices on the left and the right are calling for Washington to admit it cannot “win” in Afghanistan. However, like other empires of the past, those in power remain convinced that they have a global mission to perform, even if it leads to self-destructive imperial overkill.

more:
http://www.fpif.org/articles/imperial_overkill_and_the_death_of_us_empire


more:
http://www.fpif.org/articles/imperial_overkill_and_the_death_of_us_empire

[Liberal_in_LA]

1. kick

[Kurovski]

2. K&R. (nt)