The American Empire is alive and well — and as expansive as ever. We have established more than 700 military bases across the world, largely encircling the peripheries of Russia and China, which are now central to the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts. The Cold War in the aftermath of World War II drove the expansion as we searched for security — and markets, to be sure. Perhaps we now are the largest imperial power the world ever has known.
(Stanley Kutler, a UW-Madison professor emeritus, is the author of ?Judicial Power and Reconstruction Politics? and other writings. This column first appeared on truthdig.com.)