We can have an empire or we can have democracy; we can't have both.
At the moment, we are still trying. To maintain our empire, we keep troops in more than 700 military bases in 130 countries.
To maintain our democracy, we hold elections -- then don't pay any attention to them. In the last election, for example, people clearly voted against the war in Iraq. But President Bush is not only continuing the war, he is extending it -- and he is likely to start a new war with Iran on top of it, whatever silly halfhearted measures Congress takes to stop him.
Chalmers Johnson thinks the erosion of our democracy has gone too far to be stopped now. But, he says, we do have a choice. "We could, like the British Empire after World War II, keep our democracy by giving up our empire." It wasn't easy, he said, and there was some backsliding, "But the overall thrust of postwar British history is clear: the people of the British Isles chose democracy over imperialism."
I wish we would do the same. I don't think it is going to happen.
Chalmers Johnson's take on this is interesting -- and frightening. You can read more about it at:
http://www.tomdispatch.com/indexprint.mhtml?pid=160594