POINT OF VIEW

News & Observer Published: Aug 1, 2005 Modified: Aug 1, 2005 7:57 AM

America's imperial dilemma


By W.W. FINLATOR


RALEIGH -- To be or not to be -- an empire!

This is the question of greatest moment to our nation today. Put differently, shall we remain or cease to be an empire, for despite President Washington's caution against foreign entanglements, we soon launched into empire-building with the Monroe Doctrine warning European nations to stay out of Latin America, which was reserved for our nation to have and to hold and to exploit. Hence under the inspiration of Manifest Destiny we proceeded to take over the world.

It will be helpful to take a look at England, for that country did have and chose to disavow an empire. At the close of World War II, Winston Churchill was asked his intention regarding the empire, and his reply was to the effect that he did not accept the office of prime minister to preside over the liquidation of the British Empire. Yet the empire was on its way out because the people of England had made a choice.

A glance at the famous "Recessional" by Rudyard Kipling, an authentic imperialist, can be helpful:

God of our fathers, known of old,

Lord of our far-flung battle-line,

Beneath whose awful Hand we hold

Dominion over palm and pine...

Note that in four lines the deity is mentioned three times. God is always embedded in empire building. Note the words "far-flung battle line." Today we maintain more military installations around the globe than England did when her boast was that the sun never sets on the British Empire. Note also the words "beneath whose awful hand" and compare it with "this nation under God." But note especially the words "we hold dominion" for control is the Alpha and Omega of empire.

The time is far past when we should disabuse ourselves of the notion that we are out to shine the beacon of freedom and democracy among the nations. You don't need far-flung battle lines for that. Our mission is not to convert but to control, to hold dominion.

Whatever else may be said of our foreign relations, the heart of it is control of the nations and the United Nations and the people of our nation. The nations of the world are telling us that they are tired of our control, resent deeply our hegemony and our unilateral actions and pre-emptive attacks, and they are fast turning enemies with the capacity to develop competitive economies. They want nuclear weapons and will eventually have them, regardless. I am afraid we are not listening.

Furthermore control has to be directed homeward. There is a nemesis that tells us that we cannot "export democracy" abroad without diminishing it at home. I wonder that the American people can be so accepting of the stripping of their liberties. The Founding Fathers told us that the price of those liberties is eternal vigilance, but we are directing that vigilance abroad rather than at home.

I hereby propose and urge that we renounce our empire; that we withdraw our troops from Iraq and Afghanistan beginning tomorrow; that we cut in half appropriations to the Pentagon the next day; that we begin dismantling our nuclear weapons with the pledge of no future manufacture; that we disband our secret army, the CIA, with all its dirty tricks at home and abroad; that we renew our full support of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a product made in America; that we strictly honor all the treaties made with other nations; and that, as a member of the family of nations, we accept the jurisdiction of the World Court -- all this in the name of friendship rather than enmity, and sheer survival.

Years ago Abraham Lincoln told the people that they were engaged in a struggle to test whether a nation conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are born free and equal can long endure. A century and a half later we are face to face with that same question. My fondest hope and faith tell me that it can and will, yet I know that it will not and cannot long endure if it chooses to stay the course to be and to remain an empire.

Meanwhile we can sing less often,

Then conquer we must;

For our cause it is just,

And this be our motto

'In God is our trust.'

And more often,

America, America, God mend thine every flaw

Confirm thy soul in self control, Thy liberty in law.

(The Rev. W.W. Finlator is pastor emeritus of Raleigh's Pullen Memorial Baptist Church.)