Imperialism, blah blah blah

A long piece today at the NYTimes, blathering on about world opinion regarding the US.

There are a bunch of quotes from people of all ages that we want to rule the world, etc. etc. In other words, we are imperialists.

[sigh]

People, the USA is not an empire! Go read this if you don't believe me... we don't act like any other empire in history, for goodness sake! We don't tax our "foreign subjects," we don't force them to serve in our military, etc. etc. Yes, we are dominant in many ways, but that isn't imperialism!

And then there's the usage of "Europe" in place of "France & Germany"... while the author of the piece on numerous occasions acknowledges that there are differences of opinion viz. the US within Europe, he all too often substitutes the name of the continent for two of that continent's nations.

It's unfortunate that people react negatively to Bush's image, but this doesn't say much to me about people's reasoning skills and ability to think critically -- for heaven's sake, pay as much attention to the words the man speaks as you do to his attitude [as you perceive] it, and you might find that his views are actually somewhat plausable!

And I thought we Americans had the "impressions over intellect" school of decision-making cornered.

Make no mistake -- I'm not some redneck running off at the mouth with an American superiority complex and derision for the rest of the world. I know that we're not perfect, and that we've made plenty of mistakes in our history. But that doesn't give others an excuse to toss good thinking out the window. I can handle disagreement; what I can't handle is ignorance and demagoguery, whether it's coming from an American or someone else.

One more thing... it's as if people think that we're chomping at the bit, waiting to invade someone else. Gimme a break. Bush acted because he believed that it was in the interests of national security to act, not for because of any bloodlust. Listen to the man's public addresses after 9/11, for goodness sake! For that matter, listen to what he said during his debates with Gore -- did he sound like a guy waiting to get involved in "foreign entanglements"? Of course not... he wanted to be less involved in those sorts of things!

Oh, that's right... Cheney's buddies at Haliburton (and the rest of the good ole "military-industrial complex") got him to convince Bush to set the guns a blazin'... how could I forget?

Bunk, bunk, bunk. You disagree with the decision to invade Iraq? Fine. There are many such people whom I respect, and whose arguments are often cogent. But don't go telling me that we invaded Iraq in order to get its oil (hint: if we wanted it, we would have taken it in '91!) or as the first step in the Bush Dynasty's Master Plan for Utter World Domination (v. 2.0). It won't endear you to me. And who doesn't want to be endeared to me?

Okay, enough of that rant for today.