November 8th 2006-day of the Pyrrhic victory

People sometimes aren't fully conscious of what it means to be an American in this day and age, perhaps that is why it all works. You see, the USofA has this little reputation for being the one country you just plain don't fuck with. The first war we got into as a country (after of course the War for Independence) was against the Barbary Coast. Now the Barbary coast was really just a bunch of pirates that exacted tribute for passing through their little part of the Mediterranean. Every other nation just accepted the fee as the cost of operating. Well the young little Republic of America just wasn't down to play like that. We rolled over the Barbary state and have pretty much rolled over anyone else who has messed with us since. Now some people think democracies are supposed to be inherently peaceful, that is rubbish. The first sincere democracy on record was Athens, and they were so sanguinary expansionist that they eventually were defeated in the Pelopenessian War by a broad alliance of other Greek states. The fact of the matter is that in a economically competitive world the collective egoism of nationalism will always lead political leaders to desire to demonstrate our power. It is often said that power corrupts, well what then of a nation of millions with power fairly evenly distributed amongst them? Does the corrupting power decrease as it is disseminated? I tend to think only the blame is lessened, but certainly not the destructive nature of power. As America came onto the world scene around 1800 the whole western world was doing this thing called imperialism, which is really just a name for a type of Capitalism. Well, a somewhat educated and independently minded America decided to play like the big boys did and build up an army and navy so we could bludgeon anyone with our might that we saw fit. After we had beaten the Barbary States in the first 1801-1805 and second 1815 wars we decided we liked the collective power and authority organized violence for economic gain bestowed. Thus followed a long list, here is a short version: Mexico, Cuba, Puerto Rico, Greece, Argentina, Peru, Fiji, Samoa, China, Turkey, Nicaragua, Japan, Uruguay, Panama, Columbia, Paraguay, Angola, Ourselves in the Civil War, Korea, Hawaii, Haiti, Chile, Brazil, Venezuela- and that is only up to 1900! Believe me, we didn't really get to whopping ass until the 20th centry. As Americans we need to face a fact: we roll on fools, and we roll hard. So now, one must ask oneself after accepting this fact, how hilarious is it that the Democratic party is pitching itself as the party of peace? Having already written plenty for one blog let it suffice to say I think that is nothing but ignorant nonsense.