[CS-FSLUG] NI: THINKING PAPER

[Chris Brault]

How about this,

>> The Philippines, Puerto Rico, and the island of
Guam were ceded to
>> the Unites States as a result of the
Spanish-American War.
>
>And how is this different from imperialism:
annexating territories 
>--unwillingly, see Emilio Aguinaldo-- overseas?
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------
>The point is, the revolt of Panama was engineered and
abetted by the 
>U.S. for the strategic purpose of getting a puppet
state in the Canal 
>Zone.
>
>http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/47/476.html
>
>Isn't that imperialism?
>
The US was a late entrant into the imperalism game.
Britian, Spain, 
France and Portugal at one point had nearly every
county in the world 
under their power. Theodore Roosevelt and others like
him believed that 
the US was a major power, not a third world
former-colony anymore. And 
so, we simply joined in the game of power grabbing
just like the rest of 
the world. Once we had all the land in the US, we went
for overseas 
posessions.

However, looking at the fate of former colonies ...
being a territory of 
the US isn't that bad of a thing. If it hadn't been
the US on their 
shores, it would have been one of the other powers. 
And aside from the 
US and Britian, former colonies of other countries are
in seriously bad 
shape. Today the US prefers "economic imperalism".
It's much cheaper and 
keeps our hands out of the everyday fray. Plus, if
they sink, we don't 
go down with the ship.

In short, the US played along with everyone else. It
was the song at the 
time ... but how fashions do change ... unless of
course, you're a 
muslim who knows and trusts the Koran.

Gabe



		
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