The Globe and Mail has an excellent piece reconsidering the American empire, post-9/11 (and post-Katrina) by Paul William Roberts. Roberts is a the author of The War Against Turth: An Intimate Account of the Invasion of Iraq.
In “The Flagging Empire,”, Roberts starts wth the watery hell that is New Orleands (which he says shouldn’t be a surprise) and aruges that decades of oil-greed and misguided foreign policy have created a monster at oddds with much of the planet and unwilling to take care of its own. Over the course of the article Roberts analyzes the politics of the “Founding Fathers,” deconstructs Cold War thinkiing, rehabilitates (some of) the views of George Kennan, recounts the lead up to 9/11 and concludes
“Put these anomalies together: Americans knew of Arab hostility in 1955 Yet they persisted in supporting hated regimes And even got them to promote Islam While training large numbers of devout Muslims in terrorist skills Even after being humiliated by a massive Islamic resurgence in Iran And experts on Islam had pointed out that the religion was populist in appeal and socialistic in nature.
Either you have an extraordinary jamboree of stupidity here, or you have the deliberate creation of a national demon to replace the defeated Soviet Red Peril, a new cause of public anxiety that justifies continued expenditure on arms, explains far-flung wars, and ultimately provides an excuse for the current terror and finances the invisible war against China.”
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Just snagged a copy of A War Against Truth.
I’d also recommend Roberts’ previous book on the first Iraq war, The Demonic Comedy. Comprehensive and very funny in places, such as when the author interviews Saddam Hussein shortly after (accidentally) taking a cap of ecstasy.