U.S. leaders have increasingly embraced imperial ambitions in an era of unprecedented military strength

Evidence

While this situation may lead to a suspension of war between the nuclear powers (or so we all must hope), it scarcely prevents them from engaging in military adventures outside their own territorial domains. The two superpowers in particular engage in what might be called “orchestrated wars” in peripheral areas of military strength. By these I mean military encounters, with the governments of other states or with guerilla movements or both, in which the troops of the superpower are not necessarily even engaged at all, but where that power is a prime organising influence. — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 187 (#expands, via linked claim)

The original settlers of Massachusetts Bay Colony, founded in 1630, adopted an official seal designed in England before their journey. The central image depicts a near-naked native holding a harmless, flimsy-looking bow and arrow and inscribed with the plea, “Come over and help us.” Nearly three hundred years later, the official seal of the US military veterans of the “Spanish-American War” (the invasion and occupation of Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Philippines) showed a naked woman kneeling before an armed US soldier and a sailor, with a US battleship in the background. — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 121 (#complicates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: U.S. conquest has long been framed as benevolent rescue. — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 121; US overseas bases extend an ancient imperial strategy of encircling domination; US universities produced Middle East knowledge specifically to serve imperial needs. — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of Empire, 139 (+2 more)

Related

• U.S. conquest has long been framed as benevolent rescue. (similarity 0.85)
• Contemporary imperial wars resemble pre-World-War-I brinkmanship more than the 1930s (similarity 0.80)
• The United States has shifted toward imperial ambitions despite unprecedented military strength (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Superpowers wage wars abroad through proxies rather than their own troops #expands (0.80) — Anthony Giddens, The Consequences of Modernity, 187
• U.S. conquest has long been framed as benevolent rescue. #complicates (0.60) — Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the…, 121