This link will take you to a perceptive analysis of American empire and what it is doing to us as a nation http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/04/27/811/print/. The co-author, Phyllis Bennis, spoke at Pax Christi last summer. She is very perceptive and knowledgeable. You may also want to read Stephen Kinzer’s book, Overthrow. It is a good read and Kinzer documents how American imperialism has led to the overthrow of governments from Hawaii in the 1800s to Iraq today. Read the chapter on Iran and you will better understand why the Iranians do not like us.
On a recent visit to Williamsburg, Jamestown and Yorktown, I came away with the impression that the oppressed have become the oppressors. European empires looking for wealth and resources “discovered” America. The truth is that they stole the colonies from the Indians and we finally stole it all. Eventually, the British prevailed. When the British started oppressing the wealthy founding fathers by taxing their wallets, they led a revolution to deliver us from oppression. Now the American empire is raping and pillaging the rest of the world to get all the resources and wealth.
Mairead Maguire, the Nobel laureate, has said that we have lost the moral fiber to be the leader of the world. Here are some recent examples. McCain has said that he will follow Bin Laden to the gates of hell. Sheer vengeance! What happened to love your enemies and praying for those who persecute you? Anxious republican candidates are trying to get away from Bush and tag on to Reagan. Ask the Nicaraguans about the blood bath Reagan unleashed on them under the guise of fighting Communism. Homocidal violence unleashed on the least among us. The democrats have been no better. They have all served empire.
It is time we really became a Christian nation–a nation dedicated to liberating the oppressed so that they might have life and have life in its fullness. We are refurbishing and upgrading nuclear weapons while chidren starve to death and people die from preventable illnesses.
We must ask ourselves how we are complicit in empire and start to disengage from empire. We are called to metanoia–repentance.