Hi Doc Sarvis
The US should never have been an empire in the first place. The American people fought off an empire to become an independent republic. As a congressman from Illinois in 1846, Abraham Lincoln kept questioning the warmongers who pushed for war against Mexico. He would say: "Show me the spot on the map where Mexican forces went into US territory." The newspapers began calling him "Spotty Lincoln."
As a militiaman mustered into service to fight the indigenous tribes, he was elected commander and his unit apparently never engaged the enemy during months of patrols-- A. Lincoln had no blood on his hands.
During the Civil War, President Lincoln did not invade Canada and he had pretext to do so. Confederates ran an espionage and sabotage ring out of Quebec and their envoys worked out of Ontario. Raids were conducted into the northern states and a plot to burn down Manhattan emanated from Confederates in Canada. SECWAR William Seward and the cabinet were all made aware of these machinations.
Protests from all quarters couldn't stop the Spanish-American War (1898) and within four months the US became an empire.
Protests against entering the First World War initially worked, but failed.
"I don't want my son dying in some far away place for some far away reason."
The US would occupy the German Rhineland until 1923 while sending a brigade to help the White Russians and Czech Legion against the Bolsheviks.
Pacification against the Moros and resistance forces in the Philippines continued until the Imperial Japanese Army kicked us out in 1042: "I shall return."
The US wins the Second World War, establishes Bretton Woods, the Five Eyes Intelligence alliance, USCENTCOM, USEUCOM, USPACOM, USSOUTHCOM, and then sacrifices our boys "in a far away place for a far away reason" called Vietnam. Then Lebanon, Grenada, Panama, Iraq, Afghanistan, and now Iran.
While our "empire" rapidly declined and our population pauperized under Republican Party malfeasant governance, the US amassed the most billionaires in history and Israel recorded the highest per capita number of billionaires on the planet.
Endnote: 'Twas a northern oligarch named Horace Greeley who funded CSA Jefferson Davis' post-Civil War bond granting him freedom. Jefferson Davis would outlive A. Lincoln by 20 years or so.
Read A. Lincoln's prophetic words below:
