Colonialism

In a recent statement Newt Gingrich claimed that Barack Obama inherited an anti colonial gene from his father whom he’d only met once when he was ten. If true it should come as a quite a surprise to the scientific community to learn that there is a genetic aspect to anti-colonialism. The merits of this hypothesis aside, Mr. Gingrich obviously considers anti-colonialism bad. By the same reasoning he must consider colonialism good. Well, at least in moderation.  

While I rarely agree with Gingrich, his argument supports my theory, only a theory based on my observations, that colonialism in American hands is viewed more favorably by Republicans than Democrats. Today’s colonialism is a far cry from what Rudyard Kipling alluded to in his lyrics to Road to Mandalay. We don’t expect our version of a colony to accept the Star Spangled Banner as its national anthem. All we ask is a military presence and, of course, control of that nation’s natural resources. Iraq today is a textbook example of a colony

Where there are colonies there must be an empire. Make no mistake. There is an American Empire that has been growing since World War II. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union, ours is now the only one remaining. (I assume this makes us the “Good Empire”) We have troops in 135 nations over half of which most informed Americans have never heard.

There are 75,000 American troops in Germany. I assume Hitler is dead. If not, these troops belong in Argentina. They are there under the auspices of NATO, to be used against an as yet unspecified enemy. These bases provide most creature comforts; ski slopes, bowling alleys, golf courses and the like. At this time we have fewer troops in Iraq where people are still being killed. I’m curious how many of these career military people will ever to be called on join the poorer Americans who risk their lives because it’s the only way out for them.

There’s no secret why Germany, like the other countries, puts up with our presence. 75,000 Americans spending money from the U.S. Treasury is nothing to be sneezed at. Denmark had no problem with our giving the residents of Thule, Greenland a week to leave before their homes were bulldozed. We have 35,000 troops in Japan, another country that we are supposed to have defeated. It would be a bit of a geographical stretch to conflate this with North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

In case you haven’t figured where I stand on the matter of colonialism, to quote Professor Quincy Adams Wagstaff, a.k.a. Groucho Marx, “I’m against it.” The preceding verbiage was based on the theory that it’s easier to fight a disease if one knows the symptoms. On the assumption that there might be two sides to this issue I turn mine over unequivocally to the unequivocal verdict of the folks who supported the American Revolution.