In previous posts I mentioned the thousand-plus military bases the U.S. has dispersed around the globe. Hopefully interested parties have verified my claims, and if found correct, have been encouraged to modify notions on how this nation may be viewed from other perspectives. It would be easy, it seems to me, for some to regard such omnipresence as a tangible manifestation of empire. Admittedly it is not an empire of the old model, but more accurately Empire 2.0. It isn’t a collection of colonies, but is instead an accumulation of real estate parcels. A few hundred or thousand acres purchased or leased here and there accompanied with Status of Forces agreements, characterizes the modern imperial structure. This arrangement provides local influence without the appearance of gross suzerainty. It provides platforms from which to project military power and buttress American business interests regionally. And overlapped with other strategically placed bases provides American “scent marking” over much of the planet. If the sun never sets on American military real estate it can be argued an empire exists ipso facto. At least it was so argued in the past. This non-traditional structure allows distracted Americans to discount charges of imperialism. However, indigenous citizens seeing the Stars and Stripes waving in their backyards can justifiably question America’s presumed right to hegemony.

I anticipate those prepared to enjoin that this nation’s worldly omnipresence is a projection of material generosity and democratic good intentions. Some may believe this burden is only undertaken to “preserve the peace”. But, it must also be accepted that it also breeds fear in some sectors of America’s hubris and societal genetic predisposition to believe in the manifest destiny of the American way. Our situation in Afghanistan is demonstrative of the incongruities of national perspectives.

The most recently offered rationale for our continued and possibly escalated presence in Afghanistan is not the present threat of Al Qaeda from that quarter. It is conceded they (Al Qaeda) are no longer situated there. We are now told our goal is to assert enough control over the Afghan body politic so that the Taliban, acknowledged as Afghan nationalists, will be discouraged from acquiescing to the use of a few acres of Afghan wasteland by Al Qaeda for their activities. Every depiction of Afghan Al Qaeda training bases I’ve seen have only included a few tents, a couple of makeshift obstacle courses, and a few dozen idiots shooting into the sand. We have green spaces in the heavily urbanized city in which I reside that dwarf the area the Taliban has allowed Al Qaeda to encamp. Still, we’re told we must redouble our efforts and manpower in Afghanistan to prevent Al Qaeda taking up similar residence in any other part of that Texas-sized nation; presuming the Multiple Listings of the rest of the world offers no other parcels or apartments sufficient in size to allow a 9/11- like attack to be planned. It is necessary for our security! Yet there are American bases in many parts of the world staffed by thousands, large enough to maneuver brigades, to train with artillery and armor and allow practice bombings from aircraft. These bases, some, thousands of miles from our national borders, are supposedly non-threatening even to their nearest neighbors. This biased reality behooves us to consider the other guy’s point of view. When we face up to our own national rhetoric that proposes not “permanent”, but the more politically palatable “fifty-eight enduring bases” proposed for our Iraqi future, together with the recent agreement for additional Latin/South American bases in Columbia, and the inevitable non-withdrawal of all U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, we must anticipate the imperial implications the less sanguine may draw from these on-going developments, together with the precedents of the past one hundred years.

To me, the darker implication of this creeping imperialism may be that our President, present or future, may not have the viable, survivable (literally) option to reverse this trend. This Empire 2.0, as did past empires, has acquired its own momentum, and a sort of “naturalness” that leads many thoughtless citizens to condemn any deviation from this geo-political hubris as treason at most and anti-Americanism at least. Any withdrawal is termed surrender and tantamount to loss of face, which is more unacceptable than the foolish continuance of an enterprise divorced from the facts on the ground and the stated raison d’être. We must re-examine our place, role, and actions in the world, and we should begin that process in Afghanistan.