America and Russia: Two
Empires Now 'Nakedly Imperial' (Semana, Colombia)
"Apparently
President Obama, as educated as he was, doesn't know
his history. Or is it that he knows but won't admit to it? This is not only an
insoluble element of his function as president, which is to tell lies, but part
of the education of Puritan hypocrisy. The United States has never recognized
itself as an empire, allowing it the luxury of condemning the imperialism of
other empires in the name of freedom. ... Russia, on the other hand, arrogantly
boasts of having been an empire for centuries, hoping to remain so."
Barack
Obama, usually so careful with his rhetoric, let slip an unfortunate phrase a
few days ago. At a press conference after criticizing Russia's annexation of
Crimea, the
U.S. President said,"You know,
we (the United States) have considerable influence on our neighbors. We
generally don't need to invade them in order to have a strong cooperative
relationship with them."
"Generally"
not? The United States has invaded its neighbors in the Americas at least 29
times during its brief slightly over two century history, starting with its
failed attempt to annex Canada in 1812 (even though before that, it had had its
eye on Mexico, and before the war against slavery, on Haiti). Then, after a
pause dedicated to eradicating the enemy within - the native Indian tribes, came
a list, as the crow flies, of countries to invade.
Following
the declaration of the Monroe
Doctrine [1850] on the divine right of the United States to rule the entire
hemisphere, the first large-scale invasion was of Mexico in 1846,
after which half the country was seized (what is today Texas and California). In
1855 came the occupation of Nicaragua and neighboring countries El Salvador and
Honduras - in order to reestablish slavery [the filibusters].
In 1898
followed the occupation of
Cuba, which included the conquest of Puerto Rico and the remote Philippine islands
in the Spanish-American
War. The takeover
of Panama came in 1903. In 1904, the Dominican Republic. In 1906, Cuba again,
in 1908, Panama again, and in 1910, Nicaragua once more.
Almost every
year, between 1911 and 1927, there were invasions and either temporary or
permanent occupations in parts of Mexico, Haiti, the Dominican Republic,
Panama, Honduras and Nicaragua. A respite followed until
1954: Guatemala. Then came fleeting interventions or interventions by
proxy; such as the recruitment of anti-Castro Cuban exiles in 1961 by the CIA, local
coups d'etats in Brazil, Uruguay, Guatemala and
Bolivia, the bloody 1973 coup d'etat in Chile organized
by U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger; the coup d'etat
of the Argentine generals; the invasion of the tiny Caribbean island of Grenada
in 1983, and the bombardment of Panama City the same year.
That
doesn't include wars and invasions of other countries on other continents - in
Europe, Asia, Africa, as Obama says, to "enhance cooperation" with
those who have been invaded. Nor do these include the hundreds of military
bases that have been established, like the one Russia has in Sebastopol in the recently
annexed - or better said re-annexed - Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea.
Apparently President Barack Obama, as
educated as he was at the best universities, doesn't know his history.
Posted By
Worldmeets.US
Or is it that
he knows but won't admit to it? This is not only an insoluble element of his
function as president, which is to tell lies, but part of the education of
Puritan hypocrisy. The United States has never recognized itself as an empire, allowing
it the luxury of condemning the imperialism of other empires in the name of
freedom.
Russia,
on the other hand, arrogantly boasts of having been an
empire for centuries, hoping to remain so. So now President Vladimir Putin
says that the "bravery of Russian soldiers restored Crimea to the Russian
Empire," referring to
the wars of Catherine the Great, named so after the wars she waged.
In the
years of the Cold War, these two empires, Russia and the United States, became
almost hegemonic in their respective halves of the world. However, the collapse
of communism has stripped them both of their masks, leaving them almost nakedly
imperial. Russia can no longer portray itself as a promoter of the socialist revolution,
nor can the United States disguise itself as the defender of freedom. Each has
been reduced to the promotion and defense of their respective national
interests.
How has
this happened? Through what Obama calls "cooperation." That is, the
same thing he criticizes Putin for: the use of force.
