The Empire Expands
US defence expenditure has risen quite dramatically under George W. Bush.
You can see from the figure that the two imperial presidents are Ronald Reagan, 1981-88, and George W. Bush. Under these two there were dramatic increases in military expenses. In 2006 the military budget exceeds 500 bn. Dollars or half a trillion. These are only the basic Department of Defense outlays. On top of that there are expenses to nuclear programmes from the Ministry of energy accounts and expenses from the war in Iraq. So far the US has spent more than 240 bn. $ in the Iraq war.
What is the empire for? Is there a good return on investments? That is questionable.
The expansion is taking place under the ideological mantle of fighting for "freedom and democracy". The real purpose is to build up a secure area in Central Asia and the Middle East. The USA gets its energy supplies from this region. Furthermore, it must be opened to free markets, so US transnational corporations can get a free playing field for investments and trade.
However, the costs have probably exceeded the wildest expectations. The USA thought they came as liberators being cheered by the local population that would throw flowers to the soldiers. That only happened few places. It was a rosy dream designed to impress the American public about the boons of the wholde enterprise. Soon after the "liberators" were seen as the occupiers they actually were. Furthermore the attack, which was in violation of international law, was justified by reference to lies about WMDs in the country, which were proved not to be true. So now the USA is stuck with its poodle allies from Britain and Denmark, not knowing how to get out of the mess. The incredible thing is that there were no plans about what to do, if the invading army was not seen as liberators, but rather as occupiers that were met with stiff resistance.
What is the moral? Something like: If you have to make empire in the 21st century, do it in a more discreet way.
posted by Cosmic Duck at 3:23 AM
4 Comments:
IMHO, you miss a vital point in this criminal endeavor. The Bush crime family has only one goal, that of capital and power aquisition, for themselves and their cronies. American taxpayers are to them simply saps to be used. The continuing plunder of the planet is for this cabal, simply a way of doing business. The real mystery here is how on earth they have convinced the Danish people to be willing accomplices in the crime. That is my question.
It was the right wing government of liberalists, conservatives and with the votes of the anti-immigrant Danish People's party that voted for Danish participation in Parliament in March 2003. That probably explains why Denmark, unlike Sweden and Norway, went along. Under previous governments Denmark was more prone to follow the "Nordic line" in foreign policy.
This right wing goverment you write of, elected with a clear and comfortable majority one would assume in light of the fact that there is zero opposition to the policy of supporting the criminal activity in the Middle east, begs the question to be asked, what social dynamic has caused Denmark to abondon the Nordic model of compromise, tolerance, and Peace ? Denmark is actively supporting the current war of agression, at the expence of domestic social programs. Protest against this criminal policy are non-existant. What is the cause of the drastic change.
Anonymous.
Good questions that are hard to give satisfactory answers to. Denmark has probably been split between the models of euro-capitalism and the anglo-american capitalism, and has opted for the latter because of the traditional EU skepticism. When Rumsfeld spoke of "Old Europe versus New Europe", Denmark followed America, old ally in NATO. Furthermore, the strong sectors of the new knowledge economy in Denmark (Maersk, shipping, Novo, other medico companies), trade actively with North America or have advantages in deals together with American multinationals.
Furthermore, the Rasmussen government has succeeded in selling the war as a non-war that is waged in compliance with old Danish principles of development assistance and legitimized by the UN. Maybe a number of Danes don't even realize that Denmark is a coalition partner in a war. They see it more or less as another DANIDA project. It is not without reason Rasmussen is called the "King of Spin".
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