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Originally Posted by Young
Imperialism....no. Imperialism goes alot deeper than some vague defination in a dictionary. Imperialism involves culture, ideals, values, and government.
Sure we export our culture and Mc Donalds pops up in zillions of nations, we believe that Capitalism and Democracy are the answers to everything....but what doesn't make us Imperialistic is the fact that we are not imposing these ideals but suggesting them and promoting them. Thats what gives off the idea that the U.S. is imperialstic..the heavy promotion of these two ideals. Hey...Iraq has the choice to choose...and it looks like they are leaning against a "true democracy" but they are using some of the basic ideas such as voting and equal rights.
I'm fucking tired.
Though an argument can be made either way....I say No.
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Iraq is a bad example. The current incarnation of government being argued over (by three groups already in the opening stages of civil war) want Islamic law to be the fundimental underpinning philosophy. Ironically, equal rights with respects to women were far more respected under hussein than any of these future arrangements. Women were doctors, lawyers, engineers, with wage parity that, while not matching western societies', at least wasn't abysmally bad.
Additionally, Iraq didn't "choose". A choice was forced upon them. Claiming that Iraq had any sort of input on being forced into that decision-making process is either disingenuous or incredibly naïve. Iraq is simply the latest in a long, long list of countries that have been co-opted by military means, which in turn is merely a subset of the list of countries co-opted by economic strongarm tactics.
Trying that poor-man's-journalism canard of there being 'an argument either way' is utter bullshit. By definition of imperialism, which is by no means vague, the US obviously engages in it and only a sophist would try to refute that point. Now, if you wanted to comment on the extent to which imperialism has control over policy and whether or not that's a good thing, that's more fertile ground.