December 20, 2006

Patience Please: An American Empire Takes Time

"It is not the weapons per se that cause fear, but the nature of the government that possesses them." -- Victor Davis Hanson

One of the mildly exasperating things about the plethora of news media available now is having to wade through a much more extensive swamp of fetid posturing and vain prognostications on a daily basis. The "stalemate of this" in "the quagmire of that" consumes these impostors. The disaster of beginning weakly and the hubris of winning resoundingly confounds their timorous timetables. The warnings not to be too weak in struggle nor too overbearing in victory erupt from their mouths like gouts of steam from a Yellowstone blowhole ringed round with slack-jawed credulous groundlings. The endless whines about the least loss of innocence in the inadvertent slaughter of an innocent slink out of their yawps as dependably as hamsters multiplying in a cage of some kindergarten.

The war must be won in a week! If not, abject failure and the military must go to its room.

The peace must be won in a day! If not, rioters will strip the country bare and another Vietnam will spring up from the desert sands like the ghost of Christmas past.

We must pacify a foreign country and make them love us in a month, or, well, we're just not good enough or smart enough or nice enough.

We must give the gift of liberty to those too weak to win it for themselves in less than a year.

The usual whining chorus starts these off-key and historically flat refrains, and, like a bad rap group with ears of tin and hearts of slush, repeats it over and over and over again until even the more clear-eyed among us starts to think, 'Humm, it's not a catchy song but since everybody seems to be playing it in heavy rotation, maybe there's something in it.'


"What we'd really like is just to be able to have a really nice 4th of July cookout, a day at the beach, about $500,000 worth of fireworks and then early to bed every day of the year.

"What we're going to get instead is an Empire. And we'd better start getting good at it. "


The idea here is that repetition creates credibility. But to believe something merely because it is repeated from seemingly different angles and seemingly different sources is not, in general, a solid means by which to develop a view of the history that is now unfolding before us. No, taking something as writ because it is said... that sort of attitude is not the kind that marks the deep thinker and man of conviction and character, but only the man whose mind is a thin and fragile reed, the man who on honeydew has fed for far too long.

And yet who can blame this multitude of wafflers among us. We've all been feeding on flesh of the opium honeydew for too many decades. Sweet and soft mush has been the mainstay of our cultural diet since the rise of the Monkees. Not only that, but a generation that has been drenched in the moist sop of the marijuana and psychedelic cultures, has schooled yet another two generations in the value of tofu over Toynbee and to admire Gurdjieff far above Gibbon. We've been, in essence, on a binge of soft-thinking, soft-hoping, and soft Tofutti covered philosophical slop for so long it is little wonder we haven't the patience of a June Bug in heat when it comes to having, holding and controlling this empire that has fallen to us.

We are deep into the denial/avoidance stage of acknowledging our current role on the world's stage. Why? Because, man, woman, and child, we are "just nice guys."


"The nation that bases its foreign policy on the thoughts of those good at pretending to be others or on the lyrics of popular songs, is a nation overdue for a mugging at the hands of history."

We don't want to cost anyone any pain, difficulty, or money in the course of giving them freedom from some of the worst tyrannies in the history of the world. Nope. Indeed, we want to spare them anything unpleasant even if it means bankrupting the nation and sacrificing the lives of our soldiers in bits and pieces over a long period of time. Heaven forbid we do anything that creates less love for America in a world that would cut its throat and pillage its purse if it got a chance.

Over and over we see the weakest among our so-called political and cultural leaders advise more restraint, more sacrifice, and bigger checks sent out into the bottom cesspits of the world.

Over and over we see our shabby celebrities plead for their fellow citizens to open up "their" wallets and send "their" sons and daughters out into the world. Not to make the world safe for America, but to make the world love America. Since these celebrities thrive on the fan love they've bathed in for all of their wretched lives, it is little wonder they feel that more love for America means a better world. After all, more love for them means more record, book, or movie sales and hence a fatter payday for their already overfattened egos.

Why wouldn't that work the same for a nation? The nation that bases its foreign policy on the thoughts of those good at pretending to be others or on the lyrics of popular songs, is a nation overdue for a mugging at the hands of history.

Over and over we read, see and hear the slack-minded and morally bankrupt pundits of one shade or another counseling more attention to the corrupt United Nations (a grant-in-aid program for the most useless intellectuals of its component members),and working through the wiser and older cultures of the EU (that body that probably hasn't 200 years of stable government among all of its countries combined).


"Democratic politicians, thinkers, pundits, and palaverers capable only of mere repetition of reformist notions due for the ashpit of history by the mid-1970s. If this is the best the Democrats can muster, let the backhoes be brought forth and the burial of this bloating hulk begin."

Above all, these constipated blatherers counsel the restraint of the American Armed Forces from any duties except stopping floods, feeding famines, and acting as targets for the scum of the earth's many scummy nations and half-baked civic and celestial religions. But then, why shouldn't these career parasites counsel this? After all, they are basking in the attention of a content-starved commentary industry and the increased consulting fees that flow from a five-minute oral slop fest with Aaron Brown. Why would they want to bolt from the trough that feeds their monumental egos and their minuscule intellects so consistently?

With a few, and only a few, exceptions those people who pass for American intellectuals today are just that; passing for intellectuals.

Who believes that, listening to someone such as, say, Howard Dean, that they are listening to anything approaching a first-rate mind? John Kerry, that horse faced Lothario of women with more money than discernment, as a person to lead this nation into the encounter with history it has already begun? Hardly. Instead perhaps that fountainhead of Democratic Party future vision, Al Sharpton, can be seen as the man to put the world to rights. Politicians, thinkers, pundits, and palaverers. All weak and empty and capable, at this juncture, of mere repetition of obsolete reformist notions that were due for the ashpit of history by the mid-1970s. If this is the best the Democrats and the Left can muster, and it is, then let the backhoes be brought forth and the burial of this bloating hulk begin.

Those who are passing for "celebrities who think" are also just passing. But in their passing, like comets on a last plunge into the sun, they throw off bright plumes of hot gas against the limitless space of their ignorance. Will Tim Robbins be remembered more for his films or his feeble notions of "free speech?" Neither. He'll be lucky to be a footnote in a pass/fail master's thesis at USC in the year 2022. No, not even the dulcet tones of that aged harridan Barbra can save America for the love she so richly wants to absorb into her far-too ample self.


"... it is a road that now must be traveled. We can travel it weakly and with trepidation -and be killed and crippled as a people and a nation - or we can travel it in strength and with a terrible purpose that brooks no terrorist response without a terrible price being enacted immediately and without reservation."

None of these types, these cheap 25-cents and two Wheaties box-tops cereal premium brains has the wit or the wisdom or the vision to see that their snug little liberal world faded on the falling of the towers, and the only question waiting for America to decide at this moment is whether it is ready to step forward and assume the burdens and gather the rewards of a global empire.

For this is where, at last, the rag-tag haters of America from the Arabian peninsula have led us, and it is a road that now must be traveled. We can travel it weakly and with trepidation -and be killed and crippled as a people and a nation - or we can travel it in strength and with a terrible purpose that brooks no terrorist response without a terrible price being enacted immediately and without reservation.

But will we do this? I do not believe, looking about the landscape of America today, that we have yet reached a consensus to proceed as a nation down that path. If anything, we are resisting the reality and are demanding to be dragged to this destiny. But soon, with I fear, another brutal and perhaps most costly attack on American soil, we will find within ourselves the commitment to go forward. But we will go as the most reluctant imperialists in history.

We are, after all, Americans.

We like to have out little pleasant lives in our little pleasant neighborhoods, villages, towns and cities.

We like to have our families happy and our jobs secure and our leisure abundant.

We like to have enough money to spend and enough to put away for our old age.

We like vacations, and Little League, and puppies and kittens and cute kids.

What we don't like is running about the world, putting out other people's brushfires.

We also dislike giving people a democracy which, since they didn't have the metal to fight for it, they cannot appreciate.

We detest sitting around handing out fat checks and getting our soldiers shot as thanks.


"It is said that we can't kill all the terrorists in the world, but I have a great faith in the ability of the ammunition factories of this democracy's arsenals to tool up to the task."

If they could 'include us out' we'd just as soon sit at home and let the rest of the world get sucked down the drain of history which, without the support of the United States in treasure and in lives, would be its fate.

We'll have our empire by and by, but what we'd really like is just to be able to have a really nice 4th of July cookout, a day at the beach, about $500,000 worth of fireworks and then early to bed every day of the year. That's what we'd prefer to have.

What we're going to get instead is an Empire.

And we'd better start getting good at it.

Instead of nothing but aid going out, we'd better start to see a little tribute coming back in.

Time to start to insist on some of those "loans" to the wretched of the Earth getting paid back instead of written off.

Time to think about imposing a 30% fee of all oil profits from Iraq for the next 20 years as a way of showing some gratitude for being saved from having nothing for the next 20 years except a few more mass grave subdivisions in the desert.

Instead of having our troops getting picked off by scum overseas and picked on by traitors here at home in pursuit of office, we'd better start picking off scum in large numbers by land, sea and air assault overseas, and stop electing those who would put them at greater risk once in office here.

It is said that we can't kill all the terrorists in the world, but I have a great faith in the ability of the ammunition factories of this democracy's arsenals to tool up to the task.

I think it is about time that, as Empires do, we start to push the general concept towards various belligerent nations with more testosterone than sense that if they don't like our Stealth bombers, they'll really hate our ballistic missile submarines. I hope we will not have to arrange a live demonstration of their nuclear missile delivery systems, but considering the mentality we are dealing with it would not surprise me if we did.

I have had conversations with various acquaintances about this need to become as Romans and they always caution "Remember what happened to Rome."

I remember well what happened to Rome, but it took a few centuries to build and many more to burn. These days I'd settle for a few centuries of Empire.

By that time the rest of the world might just have enough time, especially the infantalized cultures of Europe and the ossified cultures of the Middle East, to grow up into decent, civilized places where all the citizens on God's green earth could have a nice 4th of July cookout without worrying that some mullah's demented second-cousin is going to turn up with a couple of pounds of TNT strapped to his chest on a red-hot mission from God.

A decent goal for a decent Empire. For once.

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Posted by Vanderleun at December 20, 2006 11:55 AM | TrackBack
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AMERICAN DIGEST HOME
"It is impossible to speak in such a way that you cannot be misunderstood." -- Karl Popper N.B.: Comments are moderated and may not appear immediately. Comments that exceed the obscenity or stupidity limits will be either edited or expunged.

Spot on; and even better: correct.

Too bad, that as Mark Steyn says, we've not an imperialist bone in our bodies. That, unfortunately, leaves us with a much less palatable option in this war, one you've addressed before.

Posted by: Clayton Barnett at December 20, 2006 5:24 PM

Great screed. But I think you need to cut back a little on the coffee. If you wrote that thing all at once, you've got to be exhausted.

Posted by: Mike Anderson at December 20, 2006 7:21 PM

"...that if they don't like our Stealth bombers, they'll really hate our ballistic missile submarines."

I'm going to have that entire paragraph painted on the tailgate of my pickup.

Bravo, sir.

My wife asks my opinion about the Long War from time to time. I tell her that nothing will happen until we bury a few tens of thousands more Americans.

Yep, it makes her sad. I don't even follow the week to week stuff anymore. No point. And I say this as a guy who up until 2005 could show you the location on a map of every area command, FOB, and yes, so help me, major infrastructure project in either Afghanistan or Iraq... plus some others happening in random 'stans and African backwaters. Oh, Bush might go Chicago Rules on Iran and Syria, maybe even do a little pruning in Warzirastan (this week's spelling) on a low-level, tactical, and mostly-sorta plausibly deniable plane, but we have come to the point in the play where minor and major players stand in front of the closed curtain and speak in ad libers and asides as the hidden stage is reset. For The People, God bless their short attention span hearts, have spoken. Mostly by not speaking, true, but the result is the same.

The grand maneuvers aimed at Democratization and the high minded vision/hope/pragmatic goal of an internally reformed Islam are about run to naught.


Got Milk? Forget that; stock water, antibiotics, and ammo, instead.

Posted by: TmjUtah at December 20, 2006 7:41 PM

Gerard, if my grandmother had balls, she'd be my grandfater; if America was just ambivalent about the prospect of an empire, there would be an American empire right now. The problem with your arguement is not just that Americans have never thought about an empire or have mixed feelings about it, but Americans do not want an empire.

In the 19th century, the United States possesed the structural, technological, and demographic means to occupy and rule most of the Western Hemisphere. However, we limited ourselves to the vast thinly populated parts of the North America. Only after the Spanish-American war did we acquire anything resembling an empire, ie the Philippines, Guam, and Puerto Rico. We've since given independence to the Philippines and have tried every decade or so to get Puerto Rico to accept statehood. The Spanish-American war is only one example, and similar arguements could be made from American actions surrounding World War I, World War II, or the Cold War. The American people have never desired an empire, and when the opportunity for one have arisen, the American people have ignored or rejected the opportunity.

The advice of Roosevelt was/is always at the heart of American foreign policy: "Speak softly and carry a big stick." You might notice, and I'm sure our enemies have, that there's nothing in that proverb about using our big stick - not that we haven't used it before. Our enemies very well might have forgotten that you can't admire the architecture of pre-1945 downtown Hiroshema, but if so, then we have done a poor job of reminding them.

Nothing in the history or character of the American people indicates that we desire a global empire, and so the idea of establishing one is as plausible as establishing a kosher deli in Mecca. If we lose a city, then this might change, but it would be much more keeping with the American character to extract quick, bloody, terrible vengence against our enemies.

Because there will be no American empire and because a significant number of Iraqis prefer to kill each other for regional dominance, our list of options in the Middle East become fewer and worse with each passing year. God willing we'll find a solution before the bottom of that list where the dreaded 'g' word waits.

Posted by: LRFD at December 20, 2006 9:29 PM

Gerard -

I just return from a month in the hinterlands of Japan to the more modern area near Tokyo enroute to the US for the holidays. For the past month, in spite of having 'high speed internet' (relatively) at my hotel, I am able to access American Digest again. For some reason, you must have aggravated a sysadmin in the hinterlands. I kept getting an 'Error 403 - Forbidden on this server'. Keep up the good work, though I would fail to remember where you may have ever said anything untrue or mean about the Japanese.

This post made me laugh in places and shake my head in others. For lack of a better outlet in the cold evenings of rural Japan, I have caught up on the bloggers that I like to read with the exception of American Digest because that rogue sysadmin would not allow it.

I have come to pretty much the same conclusion as you, we (America) are accused of pursuing Empire but we neither really wish to have that Empire nor are truly in pusuit of it. Should we desire it, as so many on the Left seem to think, we could have it with relatively little effort. Who could stop us? But, we have spent much treasure in Iraq and Afghanistan, yet the price of gas is at all time highs. Ah, but the BUSHHITLERHALLIBURTON cabal has become rich on it! I forgot!

I truly fear that it is as you say, that our enemy will keep prodding until they are successful and enleash a more massive devastation on the US than they have been able to do so for or we finally grow tired of the constant drip, drip, drip of the negativity thrust in our direction and unleash the dogs. That will be a sobering day.

I seem to remember that I first came to a blog and I thought it was this one, American Digest, because of an essay on a smuggled nuke going off in one of the US cities near the border. That particular essay started an exploration down intellectual paths that I am still exploring to this day. If you did not write it, then it still resounded with many of the same themes as expressed in this one.

Please keep writing. The viewpoint is truly valued by this individual. Thanks...

And Merry Christmas!

The Hobo

Posted by: Robohobo at December 21, 2006 5:49 AM

You must have read Orson Scott Card"s Empire.

Posted by: Kevin Baker at December 21, 2006 5:49 AM

As usual, well reasoned and superbly written.

Some say we are an empire whether we want it or not. Others may say (primarily the Left) we want an empire because we are ultra aggressive. You argue rather convincingly that we don't have such lofty ambitions. I agree. That we only want the peace to have our 4th of July bar-b-ques and pursue life liberty and happiness is most assuredly true.

What we don't want is to be constanmtly attacked by a bunch of back alley thugs who fight dirty and want us to submit to their brand of religion.

I submit that the questions before us are:
1. Can we, or should we, try to introduce democracy to the Islamic world?
2. Can we, or should we, try to get Islam to reform?
3. If the answers to 1&2 are no, then it becomes a question of what must we do to convince the Muslim world to live peacefully with the non-Muslim world?

Introducing democracy or religious reform into the Muslim world will require us to assume much of the accoutrements of empire. On the other hand, using the force necessary to deter them from attacking non-Muslims is something, though not relished, we are capable of doing and doing quite quickly. All that is required is the leadership that understands what must be done and has the will to do it.

Posted by: Jimmy J. at December 21, 2006 10:43 AM

the usual hypocritical. dishonest, right wing garbage from another fascist warmongering braindead blogger. Keep panderings to reactionaries and theocons, they are the only ones who can take your crummy crap seriously. I guess this is just another piece to make right wing scumbags feel like noble victims, By the way, the incompetent who set up this page should check the tab order on this form, when I hit tab, I should go to the preview button. But when God is on your side, who cares about details?

Posted by: Jakester at December 27, 2006 3:50 PM
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