American Empire Redux
<p>A respondent to my previous post on <a href='http://esr.ibiblio.org/index.php?p=190'>American Empire</a> saidÂ &#8220;For non-Americans, the concern is not necessarily â€œdoes America behave like an empire?&#8221;, but â€œcan we trust it not to act like one when the chips are down?â€ (e.g. if oil supplies dwindle to the point where the US economy is at real risk).</p>
<p>The answer is &#8220;of course not!&#8221;.  You can never trust <em>any</em> nation-state not to go imperialist in a crisis of that kind, if it has the power to do so.  But the United States is demonstrably exceptional in one important respect; it doesn&#8217;t hold on to its gains when the survival crisis is over.</p>
<p>Ask the Japanese or Germans, defeated in World War II and ruled by American proconsuls for years afterwards.  Both became independent and prosperous nations.  Or ask the Iraqis &mdash; defeated <em>twice</em> by the U.S., but now drafting their own constitution.</p>
<p>Contrast this with the great 19th-century and early 20th-century imperia.  The British pattern was to shellack the hell out of the natives when they got uppity, then rule them lightly and (with only sporadic exceptions) quite benevolently.  This was a small improvement on the French and German empires (almost as civilized, rather more nakedly exploitative) and a large one on the extremely brutal Belgian, Japanese, and Russian empires.  But the Americans go the Brits one better; they civilize the natives and then <em>get the hell out</em>.</p>
<p>And why is this?  I was travelling in Europe a few years back, and some Euroleftie began blathering in my presence about America&#8217;s desire to rule the world.  &#8220;Nonsense,&#8221; I told him.  &#8220;You&#8217;ve misunderstood the American character.  We&#8217;re instinctive isolationists at bottom.  We don&#8217;t want to rule the world &mdash; we want to be able to <em>ignore</em> it.&#8221;</p>
<p>The play of expressions on his face as he rethought his history was hilarious to watch.  The other Europeans laughed at him, as well they might.  Because it&#8217;s true.  Whatever Americans may get up to abroad when some Hitler or Hussein needs squashing, at the end of the day they invariably do the one thing no previous global hegemon&#8217;s soldiers ever have.  They go home.</p>
