Forum Post: Engineering Empire: An Introduction to the Intellectuals and Institutions of American Imperialism
Posted 10 years ago on May 28, 2013, 3:38 p.m. EST by LeoYo
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Engineering Empire: An Introduction to the Intellectuals and Institutions of American Imperialism
Tuesday, 28 May 2013 10:55 By Andrew Gavin Marshall, The Hampton Institute | News Analysis
The 'discourse' of foreign affairs and international relations failing to adequately deal with the subject of empire is based upon a deeply flawed perception: that one cannot have an empire without imperialists, and the United States does not have imperialists, it has strategists, experts, and policy-oriented intellectuals. Does the United States, then, have an empire without imperialists? In the whole history of imperialism, that would be a unique situation. Empires do not happen by chance. Nations do not simply trip and stumble and fall into a state of imperialism. Empires are planned and directed, maintained and expanded. This report aimed to provide some introductory insight into the institutions and individuals who direct the American imperial system. The information - while dense - is far from comprehensive or complete; it is a sample of the complex network of imperialism that exists in present-day United States. Regardless of which president or political party is in office, this highly integrated network remains in power.
This report, produced exclusively for the Hampton Institute, is to serve as a reference point for future discussion and analysis of 'geopolitics' and foreign policy issues. As an introduction to the institutions and individuals of empire, it can provide a framework for people to interpret foreign policy differently, to question those quoted and interviewed in the media as 'experts,' to integrate their understanding of think tanks into contemporary politics and society, and to bring to the surface the names, organizations and ideas of society's ruling class.
It is time for more of what the Trilateral Commission dismissively referred to as "value-oriented intellectuals" - those who question and oppose authority - instead of more policy-oriented imperialists. The Geopolitics Division of the Hampton Institute aims to do just that: to provide an intellectual understanding and basis for opposing empire in the modern world.
Empires don't just happen; they are constructed. They can also be deconstructed and dismantled, but that doesn't just happen either. Opposing empire is not a passive act: it requires dedication and information, action and reaction. As relatively privileged individuals in western state-capitalist societies, we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to understand and oppose what our governments do abroad, how they treat the people of the world, how they engage with the world. It is our responsibility to do something, precisely because we have the opportunity to do so, unlike the majority of the world's population who live in abject poverty, under ruthless dictators that we arm and maintain, in countries we bomb and regions we dominate. We exist in the epicenter of empire, and thus: we are the only ones capable of ending empire.
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Tuesday, 28 May 2013 12:22 By Andrew J Bacevich, TomDispatch | News Analysis
http://truth-out.org/news/item/16625-naming-our-nameless-war-how-many-years-will-it-be
Scahill: Expanded Executive, CIA and Pentagon Powers Institutionalize Dirty Wars Despite Obama Promises
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Wow, looks like a bullseye topic in many ways. Who makes the empire?
"we have both the opportunity and the responsibility to understand and oppose what our governments do abroad, how they treat the people of the world, how they engage with the world. It is our responsibility to do something,"
It is also a directive of our constitution to not take life with agression unless defending.
I guarantee the imperialists are of the MIC and its, military/civil government linkages.
And yes, we are the only ones capable of ending the empire. I assert it will require us using our first constitutional right, Article V.