Question for the HL brehs, Is America todays great Empire?

[NZA]

Yes, but we're comparing the old world to the new world. With that being said, Isis and Russians can run freely, of course. With the point that you made of the old world domineering what they knew as the 'world' at that time was limited. Being realistic there's no way one state is going to be able to shut every group of insurgents that rise, but that doesn't mean they can't suppress them and fight back.

Isis and the Russians exist, but they're fires that can be put out if we really wanted to. Let's be realistic

ISIS is a direct consequence of our use of hard power on iraq, breh

and we dont want anything crazy to pop off, so we are going to avoid russian related stuff unless it is of dire consequences to us

this all means our hard power aint really what we have been conditioned to believe

 

[Poh SIti Dawn]

ISIS is a direct consequence of our use of hard power on iraq, breh

and we dont want anything crazy to pop off, so we are going to avoid russian related stuff unless it is of dire consequences to us

this all means our hard power aint really what we have been conditioned to believe

Hard power, is having a presence in ones nation. That's policing your interests. To use drones amongst one nations people is hard power. Now to fully get a full example out of the term hard power we would have to enter a war, again. But look at Iraq and Afghanistan, regardless of the results, hard power is the ability to invade ones country, which is what we did.

Isis exists but I mean that's inevitable, as you said we're not dominating nations in today's world

 

[NZA]

Hard power, is having a presence in ones nation. That's policing your interests. To use drones amongst one nations people is hard power. Now to fully get a full example out of the term hard power we would have to enter a war, again. But look at Iraq and Afghanistan, regardless of the results, hard power is the ability to invade ones country, which is what we did.

Isis exists but I mean that's inevitable, as you said we're not dominating nations in today's world

the point is our hard power is showing its inability to achieve our imperial goals. our soft power is winning, our hard power is getting 10-15 year virtual stalemates with some of the most raggedy fighting forces known to man

neocons have goals that seem to inherently require things we just dont have. rumsfeld was supposed to restructure the military so that we could nation build with a small force. what we got instead was a military that could go anywhere and kill/capture practically anything but cant hold on to it. it's vietnam 2.0 except these modern enemies are actually weaker than the vietnamese

that's not to say that hard power is a complete waste, it matters as well, but for the imperial "loot" we actually own, soft power plays a much bigger role.

ISIS is not inevitable, ISIS only exists because of our applications of hard power. just like al qaeda before it.

 

[frankster]

To be a truly Great Empire you must be the unquestioned leading military and economic power, for a least a thirty yrs....The US is yet to achieve this status.
The US is definitely the greatest military power today.....Up till the 1990's its military might was checked and sometimes rivaled by the then USSR.
It is the top contender for for the greatest economic power today but it has burgeoning competition from China.
As far as Empire goes the US has been the leading nation from the late 1940 to now which is 76 yrs......But Not necessarily the greatest Empire of All times or an Empire in the traditional sense.

What the US has achieve is a system of Global vassal states, that are internally politically independent but externally economic satellites of the US and militarily dependent on the US.
This state of affairs give the US economic control without the responsibility of governing through military presence.
Without immediate political and military control, the US is embarking on a new form of Empire - called Corporatocracy.
The danger of Corporatocracy is that it is not situated or beholden to any single Nation or state.... but to Corporate boards and Agreements GATT WTO WB IMF etc