Daniel Ust wrote:
> This makes it sound like that phase is over. America appears to be very
> imperialist of late... I gather it depends on how one defines
imperialism.
> Surely, controlling other nations' internal politics is one indicator. If
> so, then in the past ten years, America has interfered in Somalia, Haiti,
> Bosnia, and Serbia. It's used military intervention in all four cases
> mentioned. This is aside from the various and often routine bombings of
> other nations -- Iraq, the Sudan, Afghanistan.
>
> Maybe there's some dividing line I'm missing here.
The dividing line is the motivation for intervention. In the early 19th
century
Manifest Destiny was originally a "line in the sand" to the European powers
to cease their colonial endevors in the new world. When the US became more
powerful it became the justification to settle the continent and to expand
over-
seas i.e. Spanish-American war, Central and South America, Caribbean. The
Cold war era was to keep markets and resources accessible for "free world"
use. Since the end of the Cold war the United States has been acting more
as a first among equals (all qualifications attached) in conducting police
actions providing social stability in order that economic and political
stability
can follow and we all benefit. This is lew of an international
military/police force
which the globe is just not quite at the point of embracing.
Robert Wasley
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Thu Jul 27 2000 - 14:05:44 MDT