Obama's Empire

By Douglas Kohn
Kohn@Fordham.edu

Now that we are nearing the tail end of the Iraq War, one thing is certain: America is the worst imperial power to ever try to take over another country. It is not in our blood and we simply cannot do it.

It has now become clear that Obama is not going to withdraw all of our troops from Iraq. He has announced that about 50,000 will stay on longer than his promised withdrawal date of 16 months. This is the pragmatic, responsible thing to do.

I personally think the United States has been far too nice. We allowed oil prices to rise to catastrophic levels in the last few years, which no doubt did not make our economic crisis any easier.

Here is the proper solution. Evidently we Americans have resigned ourselves to some form of overseas empire, be it an empire of the mind or otherwise. If we are going to be an imperial power, that means doing it right.

We should use our military power to break up OPEC. As payment for the removal of Saddam Hussein Iraq should give American companies an option price on barrels of oil at $35 a barrel or less. Force them to pump more, force them to give us oil and stop trying to bring democracy in the most dysfunctional region of the world.

Second, as troops are withdrawn from Iraq send them to the border with Mexico. Illegal aliens are bankrupting this country pure and simple. They are the reason California is bankrupt and they are harming other states. For every working illegal alien there’s three on welfare. They get free healthcare, something your average American citizen does not have access to. They get as much healthcare as they want by simply walking into a hospital. Using the soldiers on the border with Mexico, the Mexican government should be forced to give us one barrel of oil a day for every illegal alien on welfare. Fair is fair.

It is time for the United States to stop being the nice country and we should start looking out for ourselves. No more bailing out of bankrupt third world countries now that we are becoming a third world country ourselves. If we are not going to kick out the illegal aliens that are bleeding the country dry, make Mexico pay for it. Make Iraq pay for their liberation just like Kuwait paid for it. Enough of the United States doing everything for everyone and not getting anything in return.

Reciprocity should be Obama’s foreign policy doctrine.