Bandow on the Empire

Doug Bandow is back with a vengence!

He's always been one of my favorite experts on foreign policy - combining solid, principled views with a keen understanding of global politics, to derive rational policy suggestions. He is a staunch opponent of Global Empire, recognizing that its pursuit will surely spell the end of America as we know it.

In his latest commentary, Foreign Policy of Fools, he notes:

For despite the nonsense emanating from President George W. Bush, his neocon acolytes, and what passes for Democratic foreign policy experts, terrorists seek to kill because they believe that America is at war with them. They didn't fell the World Trade Center because they disliked the Bill of Rights, attack the Pentagon because they detested Disneyland, or plot the destruction of the Capitol because they abhorred free elections in America. Rather, they sent the simple message: you want to be an empire? You'll pay the price for attempting to enforce your edicts on the rest of us.

Finally, and perhaps most ironically, attempting to be a democratic empire ensures that we will be less democratic – or certainly less free, to be more accurate – at home. The Bush administration's nomination as CIA head of Gen. Michael V. Hayden, former director of the National Security Agency and responsible for the Bush administration's illegal warrantless spying program, is emblematic.

Empire abroad can be sustained only by empire at home. The national security state must grow, individual liberties must diminish. We spy on you, search your bodies and cars, restrict what the media can tell you, and, of course, mislead you and lie to you. But it's in the cause of making the world democratic, so don't worry, be happy.

Good stuff, indeed.