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Conspiracy Theories
War: What is it Good For?
Americans are...
For the Love of America
Hippies never stopped any wars
The Future Doesn't Suck
Does God Bless America?
Why are Americans such assholes?
In World War II Britain was in the right in that we were fighting for our national survival. The USA joined in on our side, after a fashion and about 120 weeks late, and yes we were and are grateful. But America did not fight for the survival of the British Empire. Why the hell should she? That decision was also correct.
The USA does not fight for European country's empires. That was totally correct strategy. The USA was an ally of Britain but she did not fight Britain's imperial war. American forces were not used to defend Britain's empire but to some degree to defend America's white, English-speaking democratic allies Canada, Australia and Britain. Fighting the Japanese in Burma and defending the Indian Raj was not an American priority.
America's priority was rolling back the Japanese Empire in the Pacific and restoring America's Pacific Empire and defeating Nazi Germany which was ideologically hostile, barbaric, a poor trading partner and a potential threat to American interests everywhere. Winston Churchill did not care one jot for Iwo bloody Jima or the Philippines. Likewise Roosevelt wasn't losing much sleep over Singapore, Burma and Malaya. Did that make them poor allies? No, Britain and British Empire forces were included in the plans to invade Japan, that was a common enemy and a common purpose. But "liberating" the Philippines was an American imperial objective, "liberating" Singapore was a British imperial objective and "liberating" French Indo-China was a French imperial objective.
Today Germany and France have no desire to help America build an empire in the Middle East. That is not because they are poor allies. They are as staunch allies of America as Britain under Churchill was. Allies don't fight for each other's empires.
America helped Hồ Chí Minh to fight the Japanese and didn't do much to stop him kicking the French out after the Japanese had gone. America did not fight for the French Empire in Indo-China. Neither did the British. Neither did the French or British fight for the American Empire in Indo China when Ho Chi Minh was expelling the American imperialists. The Australians did but Australia is an awful lot closer and had her own crypto-empire to protect.
Allied imperial forces don't fight for imperial possessions or "long established trading partnerships and special understandings in matters of foreign policy" of other imperial allies. No British troops have ever been used to fight for French colonies despite being allied for over a century. How many American troops have been killed defending French colonies? You can count them on the fingers of one foot. So less of the stupid jibes OK? Just because you rednecks are dumb enough to swallow the rhetoric used by the American imperialists who want you to stand up and be killed for their profitable crypto-empire it doesn't mean those who stand little to gain will swallow it.
The Middle Eastern countries hate America for the quite reasonable reason that America is a tool of the zionist state of Israel. This operates via the mechanism of Jewish funding of US political campaigns. The lack of any hint of a threat doesn't mean it isn't a form of extortion, just like a generous grandparent doesn't have to spell out what the consequences of excluding them from the child's life would be rich Jews and Jews with influence in rich corporations finance US politics and miraculously it is simply understood that supporting Israel is in the best interest of the United States without anybody paying too much attention to how that might be the case. When asking certain questions is dangerous they don't get asked. America doesn't seem to make any special efforts to get along with Arab and Muslims. America is also a bully and clearly has imperial ambitions, although she doesn't do her imperialism out in the open, as since the overthrow of the Empire of Japan the world has given up the idea that imperialism is A Good Thing.
When Britain ran an empire she did so out in the open with clearly imperial flags, armies and titles. The use of force and threats was not disguised and neither were the multifarious motives of glory, tribute, financial gain and active promotion of British values such as Christianity and intolerance towards practices such as infanticide and slavery. In contrast the American empire is run behind a screen of bullshit and denial. The motives are extremely similar, a mixture of a sincere aim to promote what are seen as superior values (democracy, freedom and good bathroom habits) coupled with much less forgivable motivations of greed, corruption and glory-seeking. Americans don't make Iraqis salute a flag with a stars and stripes in the corner but the attitude of the imperial storm troopers is every bit as arrogant as when the British were calling the place the Protectorate of Mesopotamia or whatever a lifetime ago and Winston Churchill was advocating the use of poison gas by the RAF to show the bloody natives what-for.
The motivations for imperial wars are never totally simple. It is never just about oil, or cotton or having to avenge the honour of a diplomat who was made into a pie. An empire is too big of an idea to be sustained by a single motivation. Imperial wars never have one sentence explanations. Tommy Atkins from Ladysmith Street Oldham would not go and fight the Fuzzy-wuzzies for the chance of the Duke of Rutland to exploit a goldfield and neither will Miguel Martinez from Ohio go and fight for the interests of Exxon.
Those with imperial ambitions deliberately promote alternative reasons to fight and to sustain the fight in just the same way as vegetarians come up with new reasons to justify their choice on a regular basis. e.g. breaches of UN rulings, weapons of mass destruction, bringing a tyrant to justice, removing a tyrant, avenging an attack by somebody totally unconnected, installing a democracy, setting up an example to the whole region (add new reasons here)
There is no single cause for imperialism any more than there is a single cause for all the people who are anarchists, vegetarians or Baptists. Imperialists collect and exchange motivations, explanations and cover stories. The more explanations you have the less likely you are to be found to be working for an ignoble motive.
I doubt even George W Bush had a single motivation behind his strategy in Iraq. It was almost certainly a combination of motives including personal revenge and ambition for a favourable judgment from posterity as well as a desire not to get himself assassinated by forces working for people who financed his election. I would not bother looking for too simplistic a personal financial motive.
The whole world is not obliged to support America's imperial strategy even if they do call themselves allies of America. The rednecks who call the French cheese eating surrender monkeys do not say the same things about Israel. Why not? Israel has not supported a single US foreign policy strategy except the survival of the state of Israel. Why aren't they ever goaded for their cowardice? It is madness to expect small countries to join in to help a big country build an empire. The USA should not expect any support for further imperial adventurism into Syria, Iran or Venezuela. Smacking down dangerous tyrants is one thing, securing an American empire and stealing oil reserves is quite another. Allies don't fight for empires. They never have, they never will. And while you're digesting that thought, Redneck America, ask yourself if you really want to be part of an imperial system that bullies little countries and makes other people rich, people who don't send their own sons to fight where they will happily send yours.