In his The Case For Goliath: How America Acts As The World’s Government in the Twenty-first Century, Michael Mandelbaum suggests a different role for the United States than that of ‘imperialist’ or empire, or even “the world’s policeman.” Mandelbaum suggests that the United States is, more and more, functioning as the government of the world.

It has been fashionable, since the beginning of the 21^st century, to describe the United States as an empire. This is because of the interests and influence the United States has in almost every area of the world; we have troops in as much as 150 countries, depending on how you count. We are responsible for 30% of the goods delivered in the world, a number which cannot be matched, even closely by any other country. Our cultural influence is overwhelming, our clothes styles set the norm for the rest of the world…I could go on, but the influence of the United States on the rest of the world is close to overpowering.

 This, of course, makes many people nervous, and the use of the term ‘empire’ is not used in a complementary sense. It is generally used to demonstrate a purposeful attempt by the United States to dominate and control the rest of the world, in the manner of a Hitler, or Alexander. There is concern, of course, for local customs and traditions, as people try to emulate the United States. There is concern about political domination, as the United States uses its forces to impose its will on nations which the United States considers a threat. There is a, justifiable, fear of loss of political controls by nations which are proud of their independence.

 The term empire, however, implies three characteristics which the relationship between the United States and the rest of the world lack. First, it implies an unequal relationship between two parties, one being dominant over another. Second, it implies coercion, the dominant State forcing the subordinate State to work for the dominant state’s interest. Third, it implies one culture’s domination over another; France’s domination over Vietnam and Algeria would have been an Empire, since Vietnam and Algeria had radically different racial and political characteristics than did France…no one terms French Control over its own, French provinces as an empire.

The United States has not, except in very rare circumstances, attempted to dominate other countries by military force. In fact, even in the exceptions, such as Haiti and Bosnia, the Untied States has sought to share its domination with other nations, and divest the responsibility to the countries for which it has assume responsibility as quickly as possible. Instead of putting up puppet governments in Germany, Japan and Iraq, the United States formed Democratic governments, removing the pernicious influences of the megalomaniacal tyrants who controlled those countries previously, and putting the power in the hands of the people. That is not the characteristic of an empire-building State.

 The reason why the United States has achieved this dominance world-wide is because the United States ’s economic and political systems have enabled it to utilized the full power and ability of all of its citizens. Any citizen has the possibility of achieving economic success if they have the imagination, and the luck to reach the top of their endeavor. Such opportunity is far less in those competing societies.

 So…what IS the role of the United States in the world? Mandlebaum makes the leap to suggest that the United States serves as an unappointed government to the world. In Mandlebaum’s conception, this form of government is not in the role of safety and, but in terms of a supplier of goods and services, and there is much to be made of this. Using Mandelbaum’s example, a wealthy neighbor might hire a security firm to patrol his streets, and his neighbors will benefit from this, even though they do not contribute. In the same way, the United States pursues success, and the rest of the world benefits.

 This does extend into the military field. The United States has provided security for the world since the end of World War Two. When the North Koreans invaded South Korea, it was the United States, along with its United Nations friends, who stopped them. When North Korea invaded South Korea, it was the United States which attempted to stop them. When Saddam invaded Kuwait, it was the United States, and its coalition friends, who stopped them…and it was the United States, and its coalition friends, which forced Saddam Hussein to pay for his violation of the cease fire after Desert Storm, and 17 U.N. Resolutions.

 In effect, the United States has taken over the vacuum created by the abdication of the United Nations. The latter has become, very early, a sounding board for Western hatred, and useless for maintaining peace anywhere in the world. It serves as a good place to meet to discuss issues that should not be aired in public, but as a world government, there is no possibility that it can ever be effective.

 How long the United States can maintain this position of defacto World government is an open question. Totalitarian States around the world, Russia, China, Venezuela, etc, all focus on their common foe, the United States. Couple this with the obvious cowardice of those European States which should be the natural allies of the United States, and the future is not bleak.

 On the other hand, the United States has surmounted difficulties in the past. The fall of the United States would be a disaster for humanity, and it would be hard to believe that the world would be so self-destructive as to allow their own interests to be so thwarted.

Merriam Webster defines torture as: ” the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure”

Note the qualifiers…”to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure.”

Note that none of these definitions have anything to do with the legtimate military use of ANY method used specficially to gain information from prisoners. This entire debate over waterboarding has had just that ’surreal’ aspect to it that makes my head swim. Nitpicking over wheter waterboarding is or is not ‘torture’ is meaningless. In the context of legitimate military goals, waterboarding is not torture. In the context of a sadistic individual who seeks nothing more than the causing of pain, it IS torture.

The waterboarding used by the U.S. military is not torture. Neither is pulling out fingernails, if the purpose of using it was to gain legtimate military goals. Both ARE torture if there is no good reason for using either method of coercian.

Now, if a person wants to argue that pulling fingernails is ineffective in gaining information, and should be stopped, THAT is a legitimate argument…and I am sure the CIA would love to see the data to prove that. To suggest, however, that the CIA cannot use that method if the experience of the CIA has been that it IS effective is detrimental to the safety of our country.

I wanted to start this by writing why I love America, and what it is about the nation that gives me hope that we can persevere in this time of war. This turned into a more difficult exercise than I had anticipated…because, while there is much about America that I love, there is much that I admire to a far lesser extent. America is so large, so diverse, in both land form, people and culture, that it is very hard to grasp, and that is always the problem when one writes about America. One cannot generalize. America is just about anything to everyone, whatever you want it to be, and, often, not at all what you would like it to be. It depends on your perspective. One has to be able to define and understand the basic ’spirit’ of America before one can understand if America has lost the intestinal fortitude it takes to see this war out.

When I say that I ‘love America,’ what I am referring to is this image of America in my mind…America’s ‘spirit,’ my idea of what represents ‘good character,’ what I admire in a people and a culture. I admire the ‘focused aggression’ America has shown in achieving its goals. From the beginning, the people of this country have grown up with a sense of ownership of the land, a sense of possession of whatever is over the next hill, that it is ‘ours,’ for the taking, and never mind who was there first. Of course, this had unfortunate consequences for those who actually WERE here before the Europeans….but that is sort of the point.

Europeans were among the toughest, meanest, probably the cruelest, but also the most competent race this world has ever known. That character is derived, to a very large extent, from the Scandinavian heritage of the Normans who conquered much of Europe, even as far South as Italy, before spreading throughout the world. European culture has dominated the world as soon as the technology to dominate the world was invented, and that is because it was so ruthless and because what it did was so effective. No Mr. Nice Guy, here, Europeans simply have bowled over the competition and, today, it is European technology, culture and even language which are the lingua franca all over the world. Somewhere in the 19th century, this aggression seems to have funneled to the United States, from Europe, as the rise of the United States ties in almost precisely with the decline of Europe.

There are, of course, many who would find this quality, the ability to ignore the slaughter thousands of others to attain its goals, a less than admirable characteristic for a people, and there is some truth to that. European history is full of instances of horrific massacre, rape and torture, of millions of people, from its earlier ages, and there are few cultures that can match the Europeans in the numbers who have died for the furtherance of goals. Yet, this is the quality that I think of when I say that I ‘love America,’ this fixity of focus, and straight determination to achieve a goal, no matter what the cost. If less than admirable, in many ways, the horrors were horrors of our national youth, and not considered horrible at the time, while the glories of our national growth were glories of our adolescence. It is the quality which brought the United States through eight years of a hopeless revolutionary war against Britain, to claim our freedom, settled the middle and West of the country within a period of a hundred years, through the horrors and triumphs of WWI and WWII, and took us to the moon. Americans have a feeling we can do anything we set our minds to, and it is hard not to admire that cockiness. History loves a success, and very often ignores the means of that success.

One has to wonder, though, whether that spirit exists today, and there is where I begin to quibble about how far my love for America extends. It would be hard to imagine the people who successfully helped fight off the Germans, and who successfully fought off the Japanese, both to final victory, quibbling over whether or not we have the right to question prisoners caught on a battlefield. While there would have been some, I am sure, who might have questioned whether or not prisoners caught on the battlefield have the right to trial by jury, according to our Constitution, the vast majority of Americans would have looked at a person who suggested such as being a crazy person. The Germans and Japanese were our enemies, they were trying to kill us, and they were lucky that we were so kindhearted as to give them decent food, housing and contact with the Red Cross. It is within our national character to do so, but there are few who objected to the lack of Japanese prisoners, or the summary executions which occurred, on occasion, against Germans. It was a war to the death, and we intended the enemy to be the ones who died. We knew that stark choice. We obviously do not know it today.

The question arises, then, what has changed. I am sure a sociologist can write lengthy papers on the differences between the WWII generation and the generation today, but I do not think that is necessary. There is one salient difference between the populace of the country prior to the end of WWII, and that today; we are far better off, economically, as a people, today, than we were ever before. Prior to the turn of the 20th century, most Americans were rural, involved in agriculture. Prior to the end of WWII, most were factory workers, and much of the Middle Class was building was destroyed by the depression.

We have not had a bad economic time since the end of WWII. The growth of personal wealth has been steady, and even factory workers earn enough money to live a very middle-class lifestyle. We are prosperous, content, and few of us feel any real danger from outside sources. It is very hard for people to knuckle down and give the kinds of sacrifices necessary to conduct and win a war, when they are living a relatively prosperous life, with no apparent danger in sight. This was bin Laden’s big mistake, with regards to 9/11, as brilliant as it was in execution. If he had continued attacking American interests, abroad, and not attacked the United States, directly, he would still have his training camps in Afghanistan. Instead, he brought Americans face to face with the type of war that needs to be fought, and Americans supported the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Now, we have not had an attack on the Continental United States for five years, and people are forgetting…and support for the war is falling.

One must look at the spirit of America the same way a mother loves her child. Like a child, Americans can be the best people in the entire world, if they are given a chance. They have the attention span of a gnat, if not reminded, continuously, of what they should be doing…and they can do real harm, if poorly led. Perhaps, that almost childlike ability to be as good as one can be, and also do bad, even for good reasons, if told what one has to do, is a reason to have hope that we shall not only survive, but triumph. To quote Winston Churchill, “Americans always do the right thing…after trying everthing else, first.”

© 2006 Steve Haas, All Rights Reserved.

There is a saying in Sports, most especially in college sports, that “it is not how you win that is important, it is how you play the game.” Sports is supposed to teach sportsmanship, the idea of being fair, having respect for one’s opponent, and being gracious in winning or losing. The idea is that one can carry these lessons into life, being fair to ones competitors, having respect for those who work for you, and for whom you are working against, and being gracious, if you win or lose in life. I doubt if anyone would argue that this is not a wonderful ideal for everyone to follow.

Sadly, though, if one looks closely, winning like a scoundrel is very often far more lucrative than losing like a gentleman. The winner of a sporting event is invariably remembered, no matter how he or she won…while the loser is, more likely than not, forgotten, no matter how gentlemanly the loser played the game. In sports, as in life, winning is, in fact, everything. Losing accounts for very little

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