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America is on a world mission but it is not a unique one. There have been empires in the past and there will be empires for as long as man has a planet to live on. The only difference between American empirical ambition and those that have preceded it is that the US has not actively used war as a means of exercising sovereignty over a land.

What the US has done from Korea to Iraq is to use its military force in support of another political power then slide in the corporations in their wake to rebuild and spread American values and influence. But only when it is in the economic interests of the US for if it wasn't then American troops would be wandering up and down the streets of Harare winning hearts and minds in the wake of a UN authorised campaign to remove an evil dictator. But there is no oil in Zimbabwe, just economic meltdown and a population that refuses to resort to the violent tactics of the Zanu PF.

Sticking briefly to the military theme, I was trying to think of any American led military campaign since 1945 that can be hailed as success but all that comes to mind is Korea, The Bay of Pigs, Vietnam, Grenada; I could go on but I think I have made my point. I suppose the first Gulf War was successful in evicting Iraqi troops from Kuwait but perhaps the campaign should then have carried on then to Baghdad?

The US has had a monopoly in the world founded mainly on economic might. Russia was a contender but capitalism proved far stronger than communism. Since the collapse of the former Soviet Union in the late eighties the US has had the playground mainly to itself. No one has had the ability to stop the corporate takeover of the world but that is all about to change. What is ironic is that it has been the American corporate drive that has fuelled the new contenders.

India is growing nearly as fast as China but the political motivations are benign, or at least appear to be. Russia has licked her wounds and is emerging from a split that very nearly destroyed it. Whether the new Russia still holds on to many of its old desires remains to be seen, but the future is far from certain.

The Chinese economy is clearly the powerhouse that will drive forward the next political world power and I doubt if they are going to go round handing out burgers and cola to win hearts and minds.

This then begs the question what should American foreign policy be from now on? Kicking sand in the faces of the Arabs is not going to help anyone. The price of oil is only as high as it is because American troops are still in Iraq.

I don't think it coincidental that there is a lot of political noise surrounding the Iranian nuclear ambition just as the campaign in Iraq appears to be drawing to a close. Even Obama has made his position clear about Iran. If there is going to be further conflict in the Middle East then it will start about Christmas this year, 2008. I hope it won't for oil is likely to double in price and that will herald the end of the world economy as we have known it for the last four hundred years.

Should America have a unique mission? I think it should. Instead of wasting countless billions of dollars on another war it will have to leave unfinished it should concentrate all its economic efforts on making life tolerable for its own people. We all saw the apathy displayed by the Bush administration after Katrina. We all know just how poor the social welfare systems are in the US and the poverty it perpetuates. So come on Obama retract your support for Israel (that territorial ambition is never going to work) and make America a country capable to survive the rest of this century and the next. Stop wasting energy and food and get your people fit to live in a world where oil will not exist.

Learn more about this author, Ian Pauley.
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