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Title: Why Living In The American Empire Isn't All That It's Cracked Up To Be
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Published: May 2, 2012
Author: pcr
Post Date: 2012-05-02 10:32:45 by tom007
Keywords: None
Views: 320
Comments: 21
Why Living In The American Empire Isn't All That It's Cracked Up To Be The Daily Reckoning | Apr. 3, 2012, 6:57 AM | 6,374 | 40 Share on Tumblr [Pin It] A A A army supply drop parachutes The U.S. Army The Army drops supplies in Afghanistan The Daily Reckoning URL The Daily Reckoning features Entertaining Ideas on the Economy, Markets, Gold, Oil and Investing Strategies Recent Posts Preparing for a Lengthy and Unpredictable US Dollar Crisis Is It Time to Buy a House? Time to Accumulate Gold and Silver RSS Feed The Daily Reckoning Preparing for a Lengthy and Unpredictable US Dollar Crisis Is It Time to Buy a House? Time to Accumulate Gold and Silver RBA Cuts Deep Catastrophically Successful Life Extension Great empires, such as the Roman and British, were extractive. The empires succeeded, because the value of the resources and wealth extracted from conquered lands exceeded the value of conquest and governance. The reason Rome did not extend its empire east into Germany was not the military prowess of Germanic tribes but Rome’s calculation that the cost of conquest exceeded the value of extractable resources. The Roman empire failed, because Romans exhausted manpower and resources in civil wars fighting amongst themselves for power. The British empire failed, because the British exhausted themselves fighting Germany in two world wars. In his book, The Rule of Empires (2010), Timothy H. Parsons replaces the myth of the civilizing empire with the truth of the extractive empire. He describes the successes of the Romans, the Umayyad Caliphate, the Spanish in Peru, Napoleon in Italy, and the British in India and Kenya in extracting resources. To lower the cost of governing Kenya, the British instigated tribal consciousness and invented tribal customs that worked to British advantage. Parsons does not examine the American empire, but in his introduction to the book he wonders whether America’s empire is really an empire as the Americans don’t seem to get any extractive benefits from it. After eight years of war and attempted occupation of Iraq, all Washington has for its efforts is several trillion dollars of additional debt and no Iraqi oil. After ten years of trillion dollar struggle against the Taliban in Afghanistan, Washington has nothing to show for it except possibly some part of the drug trade that can be used to fund covert CIA operations. America’s wars are very expensive. Bush and Obama have doubled the national debt, and the American people have no benefits from it. No riches, no bread and circuses flow to Americans from Washington’s wars. So what is it all about? The answer is that Washington’s empire extracts resources from the American people for the benefit of the few powerful interest groups that rule America. The military-security complex, Wall Street, agri-business and the Israel Lobby use the government to extract resources from Americans to serve their profits and power. The US Constitution has been extracted in the interests of the Security State, and Americans’ incomes have been redirected to the pockets of the 1 percent. That is how the American Empire functions. The New Empire is different. It happens without achieving conquest. The American military did not conquer Iraq and has been forced out politically by the puppet government that Washington established. There is no victory in Afghanistan, and after a decade the American military does not control the country. In the New Empire success at war no longer matters. The extraction takes place by being at war. Huge sums of American taxpayers’ money have flowed into the American armaments industries and huge amounts of power into Homeland Security. The American empire works by stripping Americans of wealth and liberty. This is why the wars cannot end, or if one does end another starts. Remember when Obama came into office and was asked what the US mission was in Afghanistan? He replied that he did not know what the mission was and that the mission needed to be defined. Obama never defined the mission. He renewed the Afghan war without telling us its purpose. Obama cannot tell Americans that the purpose of the war is to build the power and profit of the military/security complex at the expense of American citizens. This truth doesn’t mean that the objects of American military aggression have escaped without cost. Large numbers of Muslims have been bombed and murdered and their economies and infrastructure ruined, but not in order to extract resources from them. It is ironic that under the New Empire the citizens of the empire are extracted of their wealth and liberty in order to extract lives from the targeted foreign populations. Just like the bombed and murdered Muslims, the American people are victims of the American empire. Paul Craig Roberts for The Daily Reckoning
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#1. To: PSUSA2 (#0)
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams America: Israel's Handmaiden
Does anyone want to argue this point? Does anyone want to argue this point? I will, I've voiced my disappointment in PCR before, he's is (or is supposed to be much smarter than this). Our "extraction" is in the form of credit through Dollar hegemony. Using "our" military to establish and enforce the central banks, the petro dollar and the mandate that all transactions be processed through central clearing houses. The US taxpayer (including a pittance from corporations) pays 62% of (on the books) Federal spending the rest is printed and borrowed. The printed money serves a dual purpose both as a hidden tax (inflation) and a secret weapon (credit). Remember our national pride in the MOAB's (mother of all bombs) we we're dropping on those stupid brown foreigners, our new secret weapon is the MOAD and someday, in the not too distant future we will claim that because of the MOAD "we are too big to fail" and then........ TSHTF " Arguing on the internet is like running in the special olympics................................ Even if you win, you're still retarded ": Anyone who has the power to make you believe absurdities also has the power to make you commit atrocities. –Voltaire
A good number of Paul supporters are young. But I understand what you're saying. If those kids don't care about the same things you care about, they're uneducated. Well, here's a news flash for you. As people grow older and wiser, beliefs change. At least for some. Others remain stuck in the same crap their entire lives. And, they try and justify that, by saying "I have the same religious beliefs / political beliefs, but I'm not like THAT. I'm more reasonable than THEY are". I really doubt you were such a know-it-all genius when you were a kid, even though you probably thought you were. Having seen your posts lately, I really REALLY doubt that. I bet you played war or cops and robbers when you were a kid too, and when you got older, war movies were fun to watch. I don't remember any of my teachers glorifying war. Just the opposite. Some were veterans. ------------------------------------------ deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams America: Israel's Handmaiden
Show me where. Honestly dude, give it a f'ing rest already, if you cannot see that the pubik edumakational system is at the core of our issues as a nation, Did I ever say it was good? Fuck no. But somehow you think that is what I said. All I said is I had faith in the teachers and they need to be left to do their jobs. It's obvious that if they can't do the job, then they go away. Those higher up I have no faith in. I said as much but you somehow missed that, You got it into your pointy little head that I said things are just great. Whatever, but seriously, give it a f'ing rest already, will ya! I'm just responding to you. I didn't start this, you did. So, fuck off. ------------------------------------------ deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams America: Israel's Handmaiden
Someone has studied this book: How to Alienate Friends and Make Enemies, by Johnny Satan. Mangel & Schmertz Publishers, 2011. 666 pages + 23 page Workbook. Available at your local New Wave bookstore. The answer is that Washington’s empire extracts resources from the American people for the benefit of the few powerful interest groups that rule America. America was not the intended beneficiary of all of these foul wars. Contrary to the line sold to the dumbed down sheeple of Amurka' the intended beneficiaries are ultimately located in Israel and the Banking District of The City of London (who ultimately own the Military Industrial Complex through a system of interlocking directorates). They are ghouls and vultures fattening off of the death and misery of others. If they can succeed in their push to rule the entire planet one can well envision Orwell's "boot stamping on the face of humanity, forever." : ) Oh, he has to defend der state - after all they're paying his freight, but its a job - I guess you could call him "gainfully" employed. Well, sort of anyway. At least he has a job even if it is hanging out on internet forums sowing disruption, hate, and goobermunt polizy. Every time you say I'm an agent, Xenu drops a million kittens in a Hawaiian volcano. You kitten murderer you. ------------------------------------------ You are just such a charming disinformationist and you use such cute metaphors. Of course I can't prove that your are a paid shill even though you operate exactly like one. However, there is always an alternative. You could go hang out on Stormfront with your homies' and just feel the "love". deleted
The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams America: Israel's Handmaiden
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams America: Israel's Handmaiden
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams America: Israel's Handmaiden
Thot that mite get yer funnybone ES. ;-]
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The relationship between morality and liberty is a directly proportional one. "If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.” —Samuel Adams America: Israel's Handmaiden
Of course I can't prove that your are a scientologist even though you operate exactly like one.
------------------------------------------ Oh. And why is that? Because I wish well toward all people regardless of superficialities such as race? Or is it that I reject the materialist viewpoint that man is nothing more than a biological automaton? Or that I reject activities that harm while claiming to help, oppose wars, torture, murder, and criminal banking syndicates? Perhaps it is because I respect the rights of all to live their lives in freedom and dignity and oppose tyrannical government which would make people surrender their inherent dignity and submit as slaves? Or perhaps it is just because I reject your spew of hatred and denial of the humanity of others? Or is it that I reject the materialist viewpoint that man is nothing more than a biological automaton? Or that I reject activities that harm while claiming to help, oppose wars, torture, murder, and criminal banking syndicates? Perhaps it is because I respect the rights of all to live their lives in freedom and dignity and oppose tyrannical government which would make people surrender their inherent dignity and submit as slaves? Or perhaps it is just because I reject your spew of hatred and denial of the humanity of others You're so heroic, so valiant, so noble. in your own mind When someone has to pat themselves on the back like you just did, they are the exact opposite of what they are trying to portray themselves as being. It's no different than gay bashers / family values scumbags getting caught in a motel room with another man and a meth pipe. ------------------------------------------ Following till here
#2. To: All (#0)
The answer is that Washington’s empire extracts resources from the American people for the benefit of the few powerful interest groups that rule America. The military-security complex, Wall Street, agri-business and the Israel Lobby use the government to extract resources from Americans to serve their profits and power. The US Constitution has been extracted in the interests of the Security State, and Americans’ incomes have been redirected to the pockets of the 1 percent. That is how the American Empire functions.
"Satan / Cheney in "08" 
The people of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." J.K. Galbraith
#3. To: tom007 (#2)
The answer is that Washington’s empire extracts resources from the American people for the benefit of the few powerful interest groups that rule America.
#4. To: Eric Stratton (#1)
Glad you support their "education" in this way.
#5. To: PSUSA2 (#4)
#6. To: Eric Stratton (#5)
In your world you support the miseducation of that same youth,
#7. To: PSUSA2 (#6)
#8. To: Eric Stratton (#7)
#9. To: tom007 (#0)
America’s wars are very expensive. Bush and Obama have doubled the national debt, and the American people have no benefits from it. No riches, no bread and circuses flow to Americans from Washington’s wars. So what is it all about?
#10. To: Eric Stratton, BSUSATOO (#7)
OK ...
#11. To: Original_Intent (#10)
#12. To: PSUSA2 (#11)
#13. To: Original_Intent (#10)
#14. To: randge (#8)
#15. To: randge (#8)
#16. To: Eric Stratton (#15)
#17. To: randge (#16)
#18. To: Original_Intent (#12)
#19. To: PSUSA2 (#18)
"You can search throughout the entire universe for someone who is more deserving of your love and affection than you are yourself, and that person will not be found: You yourself, as much as anybody in the entire universe deserve your love and affection." - The Buddha
#20. To: Original_Intent (#19)
(Edited)
Because I wish well toward all people regardless of superficialities such as race?
#21. To: Hmmmmm (#3)
The printed money serves a dual purpose both as a hidden tax (inflation) and a secret weapon (credit).
"Satan / Cheney in "08" The people of privilege will always risk their complete destruction rather than surrender any material part of their advantage." J.K. Galbraith
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