{"id":4255,"date":"2010-09-17T20:44:24","date_gmt":"2010-09-18T00:44:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=4255"},"modified":"2010-09-17T20:51:10","modified_gmt":"2010-09-18T00:51:10","slug":"speaking-of-greed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2010\/09\/17\/speaking-of-greed\/","title":{"rendered":"speaking of greed…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Invading Iraq was more than a story about what to do about the frustrating leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. It was about taking advantage of the fall of the Communist Bloc to catapult the United States into the position of being the world’s sole superpower<\/font><\/strong>. With the failure of the Eastern Bloc’s attempt to convert the world to Communism, we were going to spread American style democracy [along with the American style economy]  in much the same fashion, and in the process, replace the United Nations altogether. They wanted the world to become something of a democratic empire, with the United States directing the show. They spoke of America’s special place in the world order – American Exceptionalism<\/font><\/strong><\/a>. Paradoxically, they had the concept of a Unitary Executive<\/font><\/strong><\/a> – a strong leader with exclusive power who was essentially advised<\/em> by the elected legislature, much as the opinions expressed in these DOJ OLC Memos. It’s almost impossible to describe what they had in mind without making analogies to a King<\/font><\/strong> or an Emperor<\/font><\/strong>. <\/div>\n

People have pointed this out, but I don’t think it’s been sufficiently highlighted that while they espoused democracy and spouted traditional patriotic slogans, they were aiming to create an American Monarchy<\/strong>, an American Empire<\/strong> of sorts. That was the Project for the New American Century<\/font><\/strong> – a century in which America would essentially rule or at least dominate the world much like the Empires of antiquity – unfettered by the tedious processes of something like the UN or Congress. It was an attempt at a power grab of global proportions, and it was driven more by American Capitalism than American Democracy. I don’t think it was a plan for world conquest like the Empires below. What they had in mind was a loose union of democracies with multinational American Corporations domination the commerce, industry, and resources.<\/p>\n

How do I get that from the drive to go to war with Iraq? Iraq was meant to show the world that we had the military might to conquer non-cooperating States and "convert" them into American style democracies beholden to the US for safety and protection. I think they focused on Saddam because everyone knew he was a jerk, and we already knew he could be easily beaten. We attacked him not because he was strong, but because he was weak. <\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

Superpowers<\/h1>\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n

Mongol Empire<\/sup> <\/td>\nRoman Empire<\/sup> <\/td>\nMaurya Empire<\/sup> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Arab Empire<\/sup> <\/td>\nSpanish-Portugese Empire<\/sup> <\/td>\nRussian Empire<\/sup> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Maratha Empire<\/sup><\/td>\nOttoman Empire<\/sup> <\/td>\nQing Empire<\/sup> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
\n
<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Achaemenid Empire<\/sup> <\/td>\nBritish Empire<\/sup> <\/td>\nCold War<\/sup> <\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/table>\n

<\/p>\n

The world was handily spared the rise and fall of the American Empire… <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Invading Iraq was more than a story about what to do about the frustrating leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. It was about taking advantage of the fall of the Communist Bloc to catapult the United States into the position of being the world’s sole superpower. With the failure of the Eastern Bloc’s attempt to convert […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4255","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4255"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4255\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4255"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4255"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4255"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}