EMPIRE

As an expression of a gentile characteristic, I'll start with the innocuous small-talk first.
I apologize for not keeping my blog up to date - blah, blah, blah. There, that's done.

I've always been a fan of the Star Wars movies. Back in the seventies I first watched Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope (commonly known as THE Star Wars) in the Glenwood Theater in Overland Park. I must have seen that movie 17 times in a row, to the point where my older brother Rocky went with me one time - quite a feat for a baptist in that day - and he turned during the movie to see me mouthing the words along with the characters. That's how lame I was.

I grew, and do did George "Why-Doesn't-the-World-Kiss-My-Ass" Lucas in his productions. As of this writing the latest Star Wars flick is Episode II: Attack of the Clones. The next installment is due out in May, 2005 and is rumored to be the last of the series, although there were originally supposed to be nine (Lucas is actually more lame than I am...bastard!). In Attack of the Clones there was a very poignant scene that stuck with me for some time, although I didn't know why until just recently. The movie is all but over and the scene takes place on the Republic capital world of Coruscant. The Galactic Republic, under the covert leadership of the Sith, has created a clone army to combat the insurrection of planets attempting to secede from the government. The million-man clone army are all assembled upon a giant loading plateau, boarding newly-christened pre-Star Destroyers on their way to do battle for a cause. All the while the Prime Minister of the Republic and others, including Jimmy Smits, watch from a balcony. Smits, whose character I don't recall (Antilles, maybe?) watches with a sort of desperate and helpless horror, actually banging his fist gently upon the railing as he sees what he has most dreaded - warriors going off to kill under the authority of the Galactic Republic. He's upset because the Republic is supposed to be good and just, founded on laws that protect all its citizens, but now events have conspired to make it an empire. It's a moving scene, made more so by the first introduction of composer John William's "Imperial Death March" which played so heavily in Episodes IV, V and VI. As usual, the music makes the scene.
From the very first, when I saw this scene I thought of U.S. forces marching out to vanquish terrorism in the name of America. But until I began reading the book "The Coming War with Japan" did I fully understand the nature of my discomfort.
The United States of America, which is supposed to be good and just and founded on laws that protect her citizens, is now embarking upon a course of imperialism. We are the strongest nation in the world, her only superpower, and we are reaching out to embrace an empire in the post-Cold War days in which we now find ourselves.
Some may argue this point, and do so convincingly, but it is a politico-military fact. Consider the following:
1.) our military is unbeatable, and there's no hubris in that statement. There's not a nation in the world that can match us man for man or that can compete with our level of sophisticated organization and technology in this realm.
2.) we control the sea lanes, another fact. The U.S. Navy is unrivaled upon the waters of the world, and the world relies entirely upon commerce conducted upon the sea. I know, I'm quite familiar with the Merchant Marine and trust me, we cannot maintain our current status of living without conducting trade over the oceans. For us in America it's mostly luxury. For nations like Japan and Indonesia, it is absolute survival. One day, perhaps, space will replace the seas as the forum of transporting goods between human beings but today (as the British have known for centuries) it is the oceans.
3.) we're up to our eyeballs in debt, yet another fact. We're not feeling this yet because as the world's biggest consumer market we have nations like China and Germany and Japan lining up to float our Treasury Bills and keep the U.S. government and the Dow afloat. How long this lasts depends on who we make war against. If we obey our creditors we become vassals. If we follow our own lead we risk our creditors pulling their financial resources and collapsing our economic bubble. For now we're okay because we can replace any ONE creditor, but an alliance would destroy us within days, as it literally requires billions of dollars per DAY in foreign investment to keep our ecomony afloat. War is historically one of two things: 1.) a religious endeavor or 2.) the act of a powerful debtor destroying a vulnerable creditor, which is where we find ourselves today. This moment, we are in Iraq in force, but the moment we turn our eyes towards a nation that we owe money to the jig is up...and it WILL happen. It must.
4.) as example of imperial aspirations we have, in addition to holding and controlling the sea lanes of the world, set our eyes on the world's most valuable commodity: oil. We are doing what no other nation in recent history has aspired to do - we are having our way in the Middle East. This concept terrifies the Europeans (justly so) and makes resource-poor Japan tremble in fear. And we're winning. Never mind CNN and the touchy-feely liberal democrats (with whom I feel more kinship than any republican alive), but our losses are economically insignificat compared to our potential gains. Iraq is rich, Rich, RICH in oil and we possess her in entirety. Soon her oil will flow again and you can bet your bottom dollar that we'll be right on top of that money rolling in. This is not JUST about dollars and cents, or an oil-investor president getting cocky with Saddam Hussein - this is about an empire securing a resource without which it cannot function. We MUST have the oil or our factories grind to a halt and our non-nuclear naval vessels founder in the seas.
Now, we have oil ourselves, oil aplenty make no mistake. But we're not going to use it. For one thing the American oil derrick-guy makes about $35 per hour and nobody wants to pay that two-bucket-of-chicken/six-pack-of-beer drinking son of a bitch the money it takes to get it out of the ground. Enter now the environmentalist gamut.
(please apply massive amounts of sarcasm to the following statements) -
Ohhh, we must protect the environment! Oh, what about the spotted owl, the little seal, the blue whale?
Hey, pal - screw the seal, wallop the whale and the owl can just kiss my ass. Environmentalism has NOTHING to do with the environment. The current environmentalist movement in the United States is a total fraud with several different layers.
LAYER #1 - "We're conserving our pristine environment so that future generations can enjoy prairie grass and bears that will eat us while we picnic." Horseshit. We are NOT drilling for oil today so that we CAN drill for oil in Alaska tomorrow, that's the fact of the matter. It's conservation all right...conservation of the most savvy sort. We're waiting for the day (a rapidly approaching day, I might add) when our gluttonous, consumer-driven modern Maddonna-ized global economy runs out of resources and America can drill for and sell her oil at prime prices. Look at a map of the western states in America, particularly a BLM (Bureau of Land Management, a federal department) map. You will see that the west is OWNED by the federal government and that so-called "liberal" policies are "protecting the environment" there. True in a sense, but the fraud is still there. BLM land cannot be drilled for oil or mined for silver, copper, iron ore, coal, bauxite, molybdenum or any other of the host of minerals and resources available because we are holding them for a future day when we - the good old U.S. of A. will need them to hold on to our empire. Consider the reality. Don't you think we could take the millions of prisoners in U.S. prisons and mine that stuff for next to nothing? Sure we could....but we're not. We're saving it for the soon-t0-come rainy day when our "allies" realize we're the next Napolean/Hitler/Stalin-type regime and actively oppose us. When they do we shall be challenged on the seas and unable to import the things we need securely, and then you'll see environmentalism thrown out the window.
LAYER #2 - The Legal Side of Environmentalism: Policy doesn't happen in a vaccuum, and especially not fiscal policy. As these untold billions of dollars of investment money flow into the U.S. our creditors want some assurance that we can pay. If we can't pay in real money they'll want resources, and THAT'S the truth behind the official environmental policy. All those lands west of the Rockies are a tangible assurance to China, Japan, Germany, India and any other creditor nation that we will pay in coinage that they'll need. What they know but won't admit is that we as a nation will never, EVER allow them to have that coinage. We'll keep it for ourselves in order to win and keep our empire. It all looks good on paper - ecology laws that keep the resources from being exploited and held for future use under the steady auspices of the U.S. government to be paid in tandem for debts accrued, but these guys overseas have never heard of the 'ol Chapter 13, which is exactly what we'll claim. Combine that with a National Security Directive and I guarantee that we'll never pay back the debt we're amassing. Empires don't do that.
So, here we are. Time Magazine called the U.S. soldier the most dangerous man in the world and they're right. Our armies march overseas to secure resources we need for today while politicians at home pass lie-laws to hold onto what we'll need for tomorrow. Nero never put this much thought into his empire, so maybe it will work....but probably not.
I don't know what's going to happen (hell, I'm just now figuring out what's going ON!) but I'm not an idiot. When I hear the Imperial Death March and see soldiers in formation ready to kill for their country and their cause with that glassy look in their eyes, I know that all that spells E-M-P-I-R-E, and in a big way. And America will be that next empire, and the rise of the Euro's value or China's trade surplus notwithstanding it will be a tough empire to beat.

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