Chris Jepson: Please, no popes or emperors

My father had an expression when one of his children got too big for his britches that went, “Who died and made you pope?” I think the same could be asked of America, “Who died and made us emperor?”

One take-away from studying history is that nations are no different from human beings in one respect: “Nothing lasts.” Nations, like people, come and go. Since 1848, with the Mexican-American War, America has been unquestionably an imperialist nation. We’ve spun our aggression (our exceptionalism?) in the noblest of terms such as “spreading democracy” or “providing the capitalistic benefits of a free market system.” No matter how it is spun, locals lost their autonomy and America lost its way.

Since the end of World War II, America has been a colossus, imperially striding the worldwide stage as the “final” international arbiter, the muscular pre-eminent nuclear power, the only world power capable of waging two major theater wars plus corralling “local” skirmishes. We’ve over 700 military installations abroad, 10 aircraft carrier groups and unchallenged primacy in air power. In nearly every U.S. congressional district is a military contractor. We tax and borrow prodigious sums to support our military-industrial complex and empire. And the world (Europe in particular) has come to expect that America will continue this role indefinitely.

Another euphemism for America’s role is that we serve as the world’s policeman. We’re the cop-on-the-beat ensuring that “things” don’t careen out of control so badly as to threaten world stability and by implication American security (the homefront). One might buy this argument except for the fact(s) of where America has historically intervened (see Vietnam, Iraq and by some counts the 56 interventions in Latin America).

To question the nobility of America’s imperialist presence worldwide is to open yourself to criticism as being naïve, unpatriotic, or worse, anti-American. I find it illuminating that presidents Washington and Eisenhower (both generals) in their farewell speeches to the nation cautioned against the creation of an overblown military.

George Washington advised the nation in 1796 to “avoid the necessity of those overgrown military establishments which, under any form of government, are inauspicious to liberty, and which are to be regarded as particularly hostile to republican liberty.”

Dwight Eisenhower, 165 years later in 1961 said, “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” How incredibly perceptive were these two American leaders.

Yet, here we are today being prodded to militarily intervene, yet again, in the fetid cesspool of the Middle East. President Obama is bashed by the likes of senators Graham and McCain (Neocon puppets) for being uncertain, for not having a strategy for dealing with ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria).

Here’s my recommendation for dealing with ISIS: When the Islamic nations of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Egypt and Iraq field an army to confront ISIS, the U.S. will provide air cover for their operations. The United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia will underwrite the costs of American air power. To the degree any Western “troops” are required, Germany, France, Italy, Spain and England will provide them.

The question on the table is how best do we (Americans) ensure that our way of life continues (realizing that absolutely nothing endures forever)?

If history is any indication, America needs to change course immediately and unapologetically.

America requires neither pope nor emperor nor should we act as if we were so anointed.