How is the USA "Imperialist".

[Mindtoaster]

I'm currently working on my college application essay, and I choose the topic of "Describe an issue on a local, state, or national level and how it affects you". So I decided that I would write about US Imperialism and domestic civil rights abuses.

I was wondering if anyone had any solid evidence (statistics of bourgeois profiteering off of Iraq, etc) as to why the US is an imperial power, and why the "War on Terror" is an imperialist war?

Some thoughts I have are:

1) The US has over seven-hundred military bases on foreign soil across the world. These bases are used to enforce US policy on weaker nations.

2) The US still controls territories in the Caribbean and Pacific oceans: Puerto Rico, Guam, The US Virgin Islands, etc.

3) The US uses its garrison of bases worldwide to form a sort of neo-imperialism, and the plans of permanent bases in Iraq reflect a plan of having Iraq as a colony.

[Trystan]

4) The US has a history of deterring democracy via means of a coup in order to maintain power (Latin America, Iran etc.) You should read some Chomsky (if you haven't already), he often talks about this.

[Winter]

I was wondering if anyone had any solid evidence (statistics of bourgeois profiteering off of Iraq, etc) as to why the US is an imperial power, and why the "War on Terror" is an imperialist war?

Here's a list of corporations profiting off the war: http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Investing/CompanyFocus/WhosProfitingFromTheIraqWar.aspx

http://www.alternet.org/waroniraq/41083/

Actual U.S. politicians who are profiting from it:

http://www.roguegovernment.com/news.php?id=8694

[Red_or_Dead]

4) The US has a history of deterring democracy via means of a coup in order to maintain power (Latin America, Iran etc.) You should read some Chomsky (if you haven't already), he often talks about this.

Chile under Augusto Pinochet is an excelent example in particular.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._intervention_in_Chile

[Winter]

4) The US has a history of deterring democracy via means of a coup in order to maintain power (Latin America, Iran etc.) You should read some Chomsky (if you haven't already), he often talks about this.

The War On Democracy by John Pilger is a great documentary all about Latin American coup's: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-3739500579629840148

[loveme4whoiam]

Definitely watch that documentary - I was lucky enough to go to a John Pilger Q&A lecture, and that guy well and truly knows his stuff.

The US is imperialist in its manner in that it manipulates the internal political affairs of other nations in order to maintain, in Chomsky's words, a "favourable investment environment" for capitalist exploitation (that quote is from Noam Chomsky and Norman S. Herman's The Washington Connection and Third World Fascism, South End Press, 1979, p. 4 - I did an essay on US repression of Latin America last term at uni :)).

The points you make about the US' military presence around the world are certainly accurate, but there is also a far greater weight of imperialist influence around the world through more "soft power" means, such as economic aid to friendly organisations within states it wishes to exploit (for instance, in El Salvador after a peace treaty was brokered the left-wing FMLN received far less of the funding the US gave to the country in order to support democratic elections than the right-wing ARENA group did (I don't have actual statistics for that unfortunately, it was in my lecture notes :cool:), which the US had supported throughout the long and extremely bloody civil war - http://countrystudies.us/el-salvador/84.htm.

Organisations like the National Endowment for Democracy (NED) and US Agency for International Development (USAID) have pretty impressive budgets, and these organisations are responsible for the allocation of resources to groups around the world that the US feels it can support, and thus by extension, manipulate (if your company/government is propped up by US funding, you're going to be pretty agreeable to suggestions made by that nation as to your political decisions).

The old meaning of imperialism is well and truly out the window these days (which I'm sure you know, I don't mean to patronise :)), and "soft power", "persuasive" means are now used more widely than military might to achieve the desired result of any imperialist nation - to have the ability to dictate political and economic policy to another state.

Hope this post has been helpful and your essay goes well. If you want to chat further about this then by all means PM me :)

[Decolonize The Left]

I'm currently working on my college application essay, and I choose the topic of "Describe an issue on a local, state, or national level and how it affects you". So I decided that I would write about US Imperialism and domestic civil rights abuses.

I was wondering if anyone had any solid evidence (statistics of bourgeois profiteering off of Iraq, etc) as to why the US is an imperial power, and why the "War on Terror" is an imperialist war?

William Blum's Rouge State will provide you with much of the information you need for this essay - in fact, it is basically your essay in a book. Enjoy.

- August

[Morpheus]

Here are some ruling class documents you may find useful.

U.S. Space Command Vision for 2020 (http://www.fas.org/spp/military/docops/usspac/visbook.pdf)
Military Advantage in History (http://www.motherjones.com/news/featurex/2008/07/military-advantage-in-history.pdf)
Rebuilding America's Defenses (http://www.globalpolicy.org/empire/analysis/2000/09newcentury.pdf)
The National Security Strategy of the United States (http://www.whitehouse.gov/nsc/nss.html)
NSC 68 (http://www.fas.org/irp/offdocs/nsc-hst/nsc-68.htm)
Policy Planning Study 23 (http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/archives/000567.html)
In Support of An American Empire (http://www.teachingamericanhistory.org/library/index.asp?document=639)

[PigmerikanMao]

5and 6) Lets not forget that the US still maintains an enormous nuclear arsenal and refuses to disband it. Furthermore, the United States spends more than any two countries combined on its military alone ($463 billion per year).

Although this isnt the reason the US should be considered imperialist, as many non-imperialist nations have been or are developing a functioning military and nuclear arsenal, it contributes to the formerly mentioned arguments.

~PMao ;)

[lombas]

5) The US fly 2000 Georgian troops home.

[Q]

If you're doing a thesis on America's imperialism, I suggest you read Imperialism, the Highest Stage of Capitalism (http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1916/imp-hsc/) as it clearifies the underlying mechanism of imperialism as a logical step of development within a capitalist framework.

[rocker935]

I actually wrote an essay on this very topic. I was only a sophmore when I wrote it so its not the best paper in the world but feel free to use anything from it that you want.

http://www.mediafire.com/?sharekey=6408be09888c66549f40a8a6cb5377b4

btw, wherever you see a bunch of asterisks, that is just where my name was, I just don't want the feds or fuckin neo-nazis gettin any info on me.

[piet11111]

read the shock doctrine by naomi klein that gives an ugly picture of how the bourgeois profit from war while everyone else suffers.

[Yehuda Stern]

The criteria posted here are not enough because using them exclusively could mean that many European countries are not imperialist. I would suggest studying Lenin on this question, the book mentioned here, and look at imperialism as the stage of monopoly capitalism, of a highly organic composition of capital, of industrial capital's alliance with finance capital and their close relationship with the state.