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The United States of Amnesia has sometimes found expression among those who despaired of Freedom's Land's historic state of consciousness. Gore Vidal remains a little high priest, his writings are a pertinent reprimand on what went wrong during the creation of New Rome in the Americas. From Pilgrim's Progress to the State of National Security, the United States has become an empire with some similarities to those of the past: acquisition of territoriality, code of conduct to observe and impose, insistence of its exceptional qualities.
The word "empire" never really got its way, sealed the cognitive abilities of the American academic and political institution. The United States was supposed to be different and the July 4th celebration was not meant to be a boastful affair of enslaved slaves, booming armaments and victorious victory. Moreover, all that Washington could exercise as power was, as has been pointed out in the past, former director of the Norwegian Institute of Norway, Geir Lundestad, invited and untaxed. (Such a beautiful hiding!)
International historians and theorists insist on this point to avoid the implications of American brutality and predation: the United States simply exercised a kind of hegemony by consensus and encouraged their citizens to spend, spend, spend; it was also, by definition, the only true hegemon (see John Lewis Gaddis on this subject) in a world without real rivals, which was not the same as calling it imperial. Personalities such as Robert Kagan, who insisted that "it would be not only factually false, but also catastrophically strategic," alarmingly alerted all the pressing demands for the US empire to come out of the closet. .
For much of the Obama administration, the Imperium has adopted what might be called a form of dress or at least a form of disguise. No one could have any illusions about what the Chicago lawyer really wanted to do: Empire's lingering power did not require a less than subtle reorientation, or a pivot, eastward to keep Cathay's rise. He also saw an expansion of such interventions in stealth mode, with a hint in the use of drone warfare.
Then President Donald J. Trump, who has been dreaming of rolling cars and deafening jets during an official celebration since 2017, witnessed the spectacular procession parade on July 14th. If French President Emmanuel Macron could bask in such an ecstatic celebration of civilization, why not the United States? But even the empire has its logistical limitations: an exorbitant budget to organize such a spectacle, for example, and the possibility of damage to roads. (US infrastructure continues at all.)
Trump's July 4 "Salut to America" was an opportunity to raise the bar. The Blue Angels of the US Navy impressed; the crowds took their shots. the New York Times writes his own observation, not an endorsement for that. "Flanked by Bradley armored vehicles and M1A2 tanks in front of the Abraham Lincoln statue, Mr. Trump paid tribute to the five branches of the army as a choir sang every military anthem and announced the first one. arrival of fighter planes, helicopters and other military planes. as they roared above. "
Trump the militarist had he gone out? Navy Retired Colonel David Lapan of the Bipartisan Policy Center has caught the attention of the tanks, but found them less impressive. Before the celebration, the question of Trump's release of tanks was exposed to blends of orgiastic delight and infantile terror.
The American Empire gasped to get out of the closet and dress for the occasion, but Senator Jack Reed, Democrat of Rhode Island, himself a West Point graduate and having served in the United States.North Dakota The airborne division would not have one. "Tanks are not props. They are weapons of war.
As with all flagship posts, Trump spoke of an idea rather than an entity, a heart that was rising. "We are one people, pursuing a dream and a beautiful destiny." Then came the dream – and so many dreams he was. "We all share the same heroes, the same home, the same heart and we are all created by the same almighty God." The United States was a story of progress and progress. "Together we are part of one of the greatest stories ever told – the history of America."
Although these notes have a historical rhyme with the price of the speeches of the other presidents, it was different in substance and occasion. The former stewards of the imperium have preferred to avoid the abject reality of the American empire, preferring quiet retirement, modest commemoration. This contributes to amnesia, rebaduring US citizens that Washington remains opposed to wars of conquest, overthrowing governments and preserving its power.
On this occasion, there was no return in the state of origin, no discreet gathering. George W. Bush preferred West Virginia for four consecutive years; visible, the military bluster filled was set aside. As Time magazine It was noted that hundreds of thousands of people were attending the 1976 bicentennial parade, but President Gerald Ford preferred to play golf in Bethesda.
While Fox News tends to be an appendix of laborious unreality, its commentators have risen to celebrate admission to US military power, disputing with the naysayers. Lou Dobbs of Fox Business Network, in the true feeling of the Imperial hen, felt particularly bullish. "It is no wonder that these snowflakes have not won the war since 1991: the military leaders are concerned about the celebration of @ realDonaldTrump on July 4th". Dobbs' was on fragile ground relying enthusiastically on a source: a play in the UK Daily mail – it is hardly an official document – noting the claims of an "insider" that "members of the senior army hierarchy have been reluctant to accept Trump's invitation to the ceremony at the National Mall on Thursday".
Certainly senior military officials were rare, on vacation, traveling or simply absent. The same could not be said of the military families to whom Trump had invited the VIP section.
Trump was warmly warmed by the occasion and duly said. "A big crowd of huge patriots tonight, back at the Washington Monument!" the accusers suggested a reworking of the original. The allegations of authenticity have fought those of the inauthentic, and Trump has been content to garner more publicity for the occasion. The only entity, undisguised and dressed in all the costume of celebration war, finally unveiled in the open with frank vulgarity, was the American imperial.
Binoy Kampmark was a Commonwealth Scholar at Selwyn College in Cambridge. He teaches at RMIT University in Melbourne. E-mail: [email protected]
Warning: "The views / contents expressed in this article only imply that the responsibility of the authors) and do not necessarily reflect those of modern Ghana. Modern Ghana can not be held responsible for inaccurate or incorrect statements contained in this article. "
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