Jonah Goldberg Misses the Point on Empire

Columnist Jonah Goldberg in defending the use of the term American empire misses the point, but we suspect that was his aim all along. Why use such blatantly inflammatory terminology such as calling Dennis Kucinich a "lefty" if not trying to deflect from the real argument.

Goldberg claims there are good empires and bad empires and argues that America falls into the good empire category.

America's critics point out that the U.S. does many things that empires once did -- police the seas, deploy militaries abroad, provide a lingua franca and a global currency -- and then rest their case. But noting that X does many of the same things as Y does not mean that X and Y are the same thing.

The police provide protection, and so does the Mafia. Orphanages raise children, but they aren't parents. If your wife cleans your home, tell her she's the maid because maids also clean homes. See how well that logic works.

Hey, how did your wife get into this discussion?

America is not an empire in the Hollywood sense of the word, because we leave foreign countries when asked.

We left the Philippines when asked. We may split from South Korea in the next few years under similar circumstances. Poland wants our military bases; Germany is grumpy about losing them. When Turkey, a U.S. ally and member of NATO, refused to let us invade Iraq from its territory, the U.S. government said "fine." We didn't invade Iraq for oil (all we needed to do to buy it was lift the embargo), and we've made it clear that we'll leave Iraq if the Iraqis ask.

Dude, the Iraqis overwhelmingly want us to leave; it's the Bush Puppet Government that just agreed to permanent American military bases.

Other arguments made by Goldberg include these gems:

• U.S. involvement in World War I is responsible for women getting the vote. Must have missed that in our history classes.
• Harry S Truman was an empire builder but he integrated the Army.
• The Cold War and Vietnam escalated the Civil Rights Movement.

Then he drops this one:

Sure, Naomi Wolfe, Frank Rich and other leftists believe that the imperialistic war on terror has turned America into a police state. But if they were right, they wouldn't be allowed to say that.

Hey, Goldbug, why don't you go and read The Patriot Act then talk about what American citizens are allowed to do and say?

We'll wait right here for you unless we are whisked away to one of the secret camps Halliburton is building.