Wars and Empire | Page 4

the outcomes of expedience, the Ugly American's alliances
and allegiances shift kaleidoscopically. Pakistan and Libya were
transmuted from foes to allies in the fortnight prior to the Afghan
campaign. Milosevic has metamorphosed from staunch ally to rabid foe
in days.
This capricious inconsistency casts in grave doubt America's sincerity -
and in sharp relief its unreliability and disloyalty, its short term
thinking, truncated attention span, soundbite mentality, and dangerous,
"black and white", simplism.
In its heartland, America is isolationist. Its denizens erroneously
believe that the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave is an
economically self-sufficient and self-contained continent. Yet, it is not
what Americans trust or wish that matters to others. It is what they do.
And what they do is meddle, often unilaterally, always ignorantly,
sometimes forcefully.
Elsewhere, inevitable unilateralism is mitigated by inclusive
cosmopolitanism. It is exacerbated by provincialism - and American
decision-makers are mostly provincials, popularly elected by
provincials. As opposed to Rome, or Great Britain, America is
ill-suited and ill-equipped to micromanage the world.
It is too puerile, too abrasive, too arrogant - and it has a lot to learn. Its
refusal to acknowledge its shortcomings, its confusion of brain with
brawn (i.e., money or bombs), its legalistic-litigious character, its

culture of instant gratification and one-dimensional over-simplification,
its heartless lack of empathy, and bloated sense of entitlement - are
detrimental to world peace and stability.
America is often called by others to intervene. Many initiate conflicts
or prolong them with the express purpose of dragging America into the
quagmire. It then is either castigated for not having responded to such
calls - or reprimanded for having responded. It seems that it cannot win.
Abstention and involvement alike garner it only ill-will.
But people call upon America to get involved because they know it
rises to the challenge. America should make it unequivocally and
unambiguously clear that - with the exception of the Americas - its sole
interests rest in commerce. It should make it equally known that it will
protect its citizens and defend its assets - if need be by force.
Indeed, America's - and the world's - best bet are a reversion to the
Monroe and (technologically updated) Mahan doctrines. Wilson's
Fourteen Points brought the USA nothing but two World Wars and a
Cold War thereafter. It is time to disengage.
Containing the United States
By: Dr. Sam Vaknin
Also published by United Press International (UPI)
Also Read
In God We Trust
Why America is Hated
The Iraqi and the Madman
God's Diplomacy and Human Conflicts

European intellectuals yearn for the mutually exclusive: an America
contained and a regime-changed Iraq. The Chinese are more pragmatic
- though, bound by what is left of their Marxism, they still ascribe
American behavior to the irreconcilable contradictions inherent in
capitalism.
The United States is impelled by its economy and values to world
dominion, claimed last week an analysis titled "American Empire Steps
Up Fourth Expansion" in the communist party's mouthpiece People's
Daily. Expansionism is an "eternal theme" in American history and a
"main line" running through its foreign policy.
The contemporary USA is actually a land-based empire, comprising the

territorial fruits of previous armed conflicts with its neighbors and foes,
often one and the same. The global spread of American influence
through its culture, political alliances, science and multinationals is
merely an extrapolation of a trend two centuries in the making.
How did a small country succeed to thus transform itself?
The paper attributes America's success to its political stability,
neglecting to mention its pluralism and multi-party system, the sources
of said endurance. But then, in an interesting departure from the official
party line, it praises US "scientific and technological innovations and
new achievements in economic development". Somewhat
tautologically, it also credits America's status as an empire to its
"external expansions".
The rest of the article is, alas, no better reasoned, nor better informed.
American pilgrims were forced westward because "they found there
was neither tile over their heads nor a speck of land under their feet (in
the East Coast)." But it is the emphases that are of interest, not the
shoddy workmanship.
The article clearly identifies America's (capitalistic) economy and its
(liberal, pluralistic, religious and democratic) values as its competitive
mainstays and founts of strength. "US unique commercial expansion
spirit (combined with the) the puritan's 'concept of mission' (are its
fortes)", gushes the anonymous author.
The paper distinguishes four phases of distension: "First, continental
expansion stage; second, overseas expansion stage; third, the stage of
global contention for hegemony; and fourth, the stage of world
domination." The second, third and fourth are mainly economic,
cultural and military.
In an echo of defunct Soviet and Euro-left conspiracy theories, the
paper insists that expansion was "triggered by commercial capital."
This capital - better known in