TomDispatch.com

Imperial powers — and so empires — have always been with us. They’ve been part and parcel of history forever and a day. However, in this country, though it should be difficult to deny that the United States is just such a power, most Americans remain remarkably oblivious not just to the phenomenon, but to the very idea of it. No matter that, in this century, their country invaded and occupied two lands, Afghanistan and Iraq, thousands of miles distant (and more than a thousand miles apart). No matter that its annual military budget, now heading for the trillion-dollar mark, has for the last 20-plus years been spent in significant fashion fighting a disastrous Global War on Terror (that could indeed hardly have been more “global”), or that its military maintains a veritable empire of 750 bases scattered across the planet.

Us, imperialists? Huh?

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