Reading Justin Raimondo’s piece on political candidates got me to thinking about empire building. The US is in the empire building business (though some confuse it with the oil pipeline routing business). No doubt about it. The methodology seems unusual. Take Europe, please. The Huns, Romans and others have occupied Europe to some extent throughout history. Lands were occupied, property taken and people enslaved or made to work for the enrichment of the occupiers. The US occupies land, improves the land (if building military burn pits that pollute with unmatched efficiency can be called improvement-think Subic Bay) and otherwise contributes vastly to the occupied’ s economy. We do this in UK, Germany and some former soviet satellites, all at taxpayer expense. The same is happening in Japan, Australia and Kuwait. We occupy, though the occupied may not realize they are being occupied, and pay for the privilege. Read the rest of this entry »