Nothing New Under the Imperial Sun

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Thursday October 04, 2007 · 1:56 PM PDT

2007/10/04 · 13:56

In 1900, a young Senator named Albert J. Beveridge gave a speech before the U.S. Congress which every American should read. It expresses the thoughts behind a century of American foreign policy. It can be found in its entirety here.

After the Spanish-American War, the United States acquired, among other things, a jewel in the Pacific called the Philippines. It was ours because we entered a war for the purpose of acquiring territory. That is usually called imperialism. As such, we were to rule it as we saw fit. The locals didn’t like that very much and they started an old fashioned guerilla war against our occupation forces. Some Americans were for staying, while others wished to leave and mind our own business. On the road to the establishment of the American imperium, this was a critical turn, and Beveridge had something to say about it.

I will quote liberally from the speech, as it is public domain and in the Congressional record.

marshmallow

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Monday September 17, 2007 · 9:29 AM PDT

2007/09/17 · 09:29

In 1979, the USSR invaded Afghanistan. Unable to control the countryside with their initial thrust, they ended up occupying the country with 100,000 soldiers. With equipment not built for the environment and a lack of counter insurgency training, they were stymied at every turn by the Afghan insurgents, who hid within the local population. The Soviets were reduced to using ham-fisted, brutal tactics, which ended up inflaming the populace even further.

The Soviets were unable to build a loyal, competent Afghan army to replace its occupation forces. Back in the USSR, officials heaped scorn upon their puppet ruler Babrak Karmal, who had little influence outside the capital.

The war itself was unpopular with the Soviet citizens, particularly due to the draft. Their wishes and desires had no effect on the political machinery of the country.

Stop me when any of this sounds familiar.

Poll

19 votes Show Results

Should the USSR have stayed in Afghanistaon to prevent chaos?

19 votes Vote Now!

Should the USSR have stayed in Afghanistaon to prevent chaos?

Yes, it is their moral responsibility. You break it, you fix it

1 vote

No, that'd be a crazy, nonsensical pipe dream which would cause further harm

17 votes

Undecided

1 vote

Boehner was right

marshmallow

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Saturday September 15, 2007 · 5:44 AM PDT

2007/09/15 · 05:44

In recent days, liberal blogs have been attempting to manufacture a controversy over a comment where Rep. John Boehner (R-Ohio) referred to the investment the U.S. has made in Iraq in both blood and treasure as "a small price to pay." There have been howls of outrage from seemingly every nook and cranny of the anti-war body politic.

I guess I'll be the contrarian.

Boehner is pretty much right. Historically, our losses in Iraq are small. The Coalition has barely breached 4,000 dead -- that's getting our hair mussed, at worst. Moreover, the number of U.S. dead is irrelevant to whether we are losing or winning or whether the war in Iraq is just or not just.

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Nothing New Under the Imperial Sun

Pulling out of Iraq is moral, a Soviet-Afghan parallel

Boehner was right