Originally Posted by Mark Conley

even with all the bases, and the islands we have as territory, and not full fledged states, id have to say the US is not a military empire. Id think if we were actually into empire building with our military, we wouldn't care to spend as much within those areas..by congressional mandate. We'd just simply use force to totally shut it all down, without one nickel spent on these countries we are in at all.

Now does our military protect US interests? In some cases, yes. Are we acting as some kind of world policeman? Id say yes. I don't see anyone else in the world that went in to mogadishu to stop the misplacement of food. Or go to the Sudan to stop libyan air attacks (what did we want in the sudan?). Or go to lebanon to try and stop their problems in 1982 (whats in lebanon that we'd want?). How about the time we had to go to lebanon in 1961. What was that all about? or any of the other places around the world we just go to? Bosnia. Serbia. greece in 1946-50. Somehow, our congress and our president have always found something for us to do. I guess to keep them self occupied between wars, the Foreign Leigon built roads and forts. With the US, I guess its being a policeman

Policeman yes. But a military empire? No.