From: "P. J. Alling"
If you have any doubt that our cold war foes were interested in running
an empire or not, ask the Poles.
I don't question former Soviet (or current Russian) imperial ambitions.
I question whether establishing an "American Empire" is the best way to
counter them. To my way of thinking, it is not; if for no other reason
than the costs are too high, while the benefits appear to be almost
non-existent - the "American Empire" brings with it great cost and very
little recompense.
Many of our current foreign policy challenges are rooted in our cold war
actions. We have to go on from here, but we have to recognize when the
way we are meeting those challenges with cold war based solutions is not
working. Instead of continuing self-defeating practices, we should look
for ways to accomplish our foreign policy goals that do work.
Among other things, I think we need to ask ourselves *WHAT ARE* we
trying to accomplish? Should we be trying to accomplish that?
Is our foreign policy worthy of our American ideals? Shouldn't it be?
Someone mentioned "the costs of doing nothing", as if that were the only
alternative. How about instead we examine our actions carefully and find
actions - and policies - that are not self-defeating.
And history shows that empires are inevitably self-defeating.
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