Auntie American

Followers of this blog may have noticed an affection for the USA which pre-dates President Obama’s visit on Monday.  To be honest, Johnny Cash’s voice is enough of a contribution to the world to warrant the celebration of the United States, but Johnny Cash’s voice AND the out-take reels featured at the end of Burt Reynolds movies?  What a great country.  Added to many people’s list of things to love about America in recent years is the oratory of President Barack “we like you much better than the last guy” Obama.  This week we were treated to our own Irish helping of the great man speaking, a beautiful oral monument both to American optimism and Presidential avoidance of detail.   Yes, in the end he didn’t say much but unless he was prepared to pick up the tab for the country as well for the pints at Ollie Hayes’ pub, there wasn’t much to say.  Hopefully his trip will encourage him to think of us when next he meets with the IMF.  Instead we were given some American optimism and self-belief and we were reminded that of all the nations on earth we have a stronger claim to share in that American identity that most, and that’s enough for me.  It goes without saying we need to feel good about ourselves, so thanks Pres.  Did you know though that Obama is actually the Warlord of the US Empire?  This is what I’ve been told by a number of Waterford City Centre lampposts in the last week, through the intermediary of the Socialist Workers Party.  Joe Higgins of the Socialist Party (not to be confused with the Workers Party or Socialist Workers Party, keep up) said last week that he has nothing against the American people, just their political leadership, but as Americans keep electing Presidents he doesn’t like, he must find that a little bit annoying?  So I’ve been thinking about what this sometimes popular European youth activity known as anti-Americanism is.  Well, let’s reflect on that pejorative term: Warlord of the US Empire.  That’s basically correct.  He’s the commander-in-chief of the greatest war machine the world has ever seen which projects its power with the help of a network of alliances; some, such as NATO, based on common values and interests, some, such as Turkmenistan, based on retainers and free Dallas DVD box sets.  This second set of allies closely resembles the “informal empire” model pursued by the British in early part of the 19^th Century . That power was misused on an epic scale in Vietnam, poisoning generations of Left inclined people against US foreign policy.  Worse in my opinion was the refusal of successive US governments to countenance democratic wealth redistribution in Latin America, because while Vietnam was a misguided application of the relatively sound Truman doctrine, overthrowing democrats like Allende and Árbenz had no justification whatsoever. In other words, for every Johnny Cash and Burt Reynolds for whom we should thank America, there’s always a Lady Gaga for whom we should not.  Is there any innocence in US military might or must it always be regarded as aggressive and imperialist?  Well, America was the world’s biggest economy for more than forty years when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbour, yet it had a tiny army by the standards of the day (admittedly, the navy was pretty big).  Over the course of the next four years it tooled up and successfully destroyed the urban infrastructure of Japan and Germany - which is what war is all about – but then invested enough US taxpayer’s money in both countries for them to join the US in the top three world economies within twenty years.  I’m not sure if that’s unique in world history, but it’s certainly atypical.  Since then, America’s military muscularity has remained intact, embedded, in a European context, within NATO.  NATO is commonly regarded as an absolute evil by the anti-American lobby here - bogeyman threatening our neutrality - but it never fired a shot in anger for its first fifty years.  When it did, it did so to detach Kossovo from Yugoslavia.  That war was possibly unnecessary, probably illegal but certainly in no one’s economic interests.  NATO was established to counter a communist threat which generated such hysteria in the US in the 40’s and 50’s that our cultural memory of that threat is that it was irrational and fictional.  It wasn’t, just ask any of your Polish friends in Ireland today.  Another way of looking at the military power of the US is to make a comparison with the countries that come just behind it according to Jane’s Defence Weekly: France, Russia and China – who would you prefer was number one?  America is not always on the side of the angels, but I’m not sure if it’s the evil empire either.  The real problem is that it’s always on one side or the other, when you have the world’s most powerful military you don’t have the luxury of neutrality – who did Europe turn to end the Bosnian War? Clue: it wasn’t Ireland.  And the other root of anti-Americanism perhaps has more to do with Johnny Cash and Burt Reynolds.  The cultural, economic and military reach of the US is such that everyone has an opinion about the place.  Americans, to be fair, don’t always have an opinion about everyone else (but think about it, when is the last time you expressed strong views on Bhutan?).  They do have an opinion of us, and it’s generally a benign opinion.  I don’t know if that will do anything to get us out of our mess, but it can’t hurt.