The American Empire, Is It Manifest Destiny?

John O’Sullivan wrote the article titled “Manifest Destiny” in 1839.  The article can be found at (http://www.civics-online.org/library/formatted/texts/manifest_destiny.html).  Mr. O’Sullivan contends that it’s just meant to be that the U.S.A. is “governed by God’s natural and moral law of equality, the law of brotherhood — of “peace and good will amongst men.”. . .”

I believe that President George W. Bush honors that theory.  The context of that article by Mr. O’Sullivan is remarkably similar to the words of this president.

What constitutes an empire? The U.S.A.has nearly 1.4 million active military personnel according to Wikipedia, and over 369,000 of those are deployed outside the United States and its territories. They are located in Germany, Japan, South Korea, The Philippines, Diego Garcia, Cuba, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Djibouti, Italy, Portugal, Qatar, and many other countries.  Try searching for that kind of information elsewhere is futile.

Now the president wants an “enduring relationship” with Iraq.  Does that mean we will have our troops there indefinitely?  We still have more than 35,000 troops stationed in South Korea.  The Korean War ended in 1953.

It was said that the sun never sets on the British Empire.  Can that statement now apply to the U.S.A?  I believe the answer is yes. 

What is our objective in building this empire?  It is part of our manifest destiny.