[Baron Munchausen]

Originally written by Dogscoff:
Here's something to think about: I wonder if this was inevitable after the fall of the Soviet Union- does anyone think that without a balancing force to keep it in check, the US was bound to go on the rampage like this?

Well, there are some interesting assumptions in this. Ask some Latin Americans, especially from Central America, if the US hasn't been 'on the rampage' since well before there was a Soviet Union to 'balance' it...

But yes, a pretty well established law of psychology is that you become what you dwell on, and whether you dwell on it in admiration or opposition does not matter. After more than 2 decades of fear and loathing of 'communists' prior to WW II and then a bit more than 4 more decades of direct opposition in the 'Cold War' we do have a pretty well entrenched habit in the US institutions (and society! ) of viewing the external world in a militaristic way as something needing to be controlled. But even before this, as the Central Americans will tell you, we already had pretty noticeable Imperialistic tendencies.

So on the one hand, I'd say yes it was fairly predictable that the US would become more difficult to live with once the 'Big Enemy' was gone and all that energy was freed up from opposition to one target. But on the other hand we were never a very good neighbor, and advanced technology has made everyone neighbors in the contemporary world.

But you seem to have ignored my earlier question about the direction of British politics. Do you really think Britain is more strongly allied with Europe than the US? (The French bashing in the UK was certainly not any less than it was here.) Or is it just possible that the 'far right' segment of the British political spectrum wants ro reclaim Imperial glory by proxy, in alliance with the US? Under a similar 'rationalization' of defending against those evil terrorists, of course. This seems to be a phenomena sweeping the English speaking world. There are major anti-immigrant sentiments in Australia as well. And they were one of very few nations other than the US and Britain to send actual combat troops to Iraq. We may see the development of a US/British/Australian axis along the lines of George Orwell's Oceana...

[ April 16, 2003, 17:33: Message edited by: Baron Munchausen ]