Imperial Overstretch: George W. Bush and the Hubris of Empire

Imperial Overstretch at first glance seems an odd title for a book about a nation that was founded in a revolution against an empire. Indeed, the principles upon which it was created were based on the democratic concepts of the Enlightenment. The United States of America was to be a republic whose ideology held the concepts of imperialism and colonialism to be anathema. The authors, however, in this concise, well reasoned, and well-documented book, present a compelling case for the fact that the US began its imperial growth virtually from its beginning. Empires have existed since the beginning of recorded history. As a civilization becomes successful, it grows, conquering new lands in hopes of increasing its wealth. Paul Kennedy described the organic process of the growth and decline of empires in his book The Rise and Fall of Great Powers. It is from Kennedy that the authors get the term imperial overstretch. As an empire grows, it expands its wealth and the military power needed to protect that wealth and to make new conquests. However, this process of growth contains the seeds of its own destruction. The larger the empire becomes, the more of its economic production is devoted to the military costs required to maintain and expand its power. At some point, the imperial power reaches overstretch and begins its decline as the cost of maintaining that power becomes more than the economy can sustain. Sustainable power ultimately results from a strong economy rather than a strong military. Roger Burbach and Jim Tarbell have applied this mode of analysis to the United States at the beginning of the Twenty-first century. Although the US does not have a colonial empire like Rome or Britain had, its military and economic hegemony translate into imperial power. The book shows how the current Bush administration in general, and the war in Iraq in particular, have pushed the nation into imperial overstretch and decline. The heart of this slim, eminently readable volume is an analysis of the Bush administration and the war in Iraq. It shows how the war is part of an attempt to establish US hegemony in the oil and gas rich areas of Southern Asia. It looks at how the Bush administration achieved power, and the incompetent way it has abused that power, especially in Iraq. It gained power with the support of an unprecedented fund raising apparatus among the ranks of corporate conservatives, especially in the energy industries, and a well-organized fundamentalist Christian right. Unfortunately the ability to gain political power does not guarantee the ability to govern effectively. Influence over decision making within the administration is tightly controlled by a group of hubristic neo-conservative and militarist zealots. The war on terrorism, and the war on Iraq, which the administration has dishonestly convinced the American public are one in the same, has been a series of arrogant, bad decisions that were disastrously executed. All