comment on Zionism discussion

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>>On Sat, 14 Jul 2001, Brad DeLong wrote:
>>
>>>  But what does the U.S. get from this $3 billion a year, besides a
>>>  more difficult and prickly relationship with the Gulf states where
>>>  the oil is?
>>
>>That's a post-Cold War question, but we're talking about the history of
>>the Cold War era. Capitalist empires don't "get" things from their proxies
>>the way the Romans plundered their provinces.
>
>Then why have an empire?
>
>>There's a different
>>rationality at work, namely classic good-cop, bad-cop strategy: the minor
>>powers serve as the attack dogs, gendarmes, and errand-runners, so that
>>the hegemon can relax and watch NFL football
>
>Simply not true. An enormous amount of the hegemon's time and energy 
>is spent trying to make the minor powers behave...
>
>>
>>Put more sharply still, you'd have to explain why the US *didn't* invest
>>those billions in R&D, or energy conservation. The answer isn't stupidity
>>or some evil conspiracy of brain-eating aliens, but objective history: a
>>decrepit, enfeebled 18th century system of governance and the narrow and
>>self-destructive class interest of the ruling elites of the US.
>>
>>-- Dennis
>
>Ah. So now we get to the point. You agree with me. It makes no sense 
>at all--at least not from a flint-eyed State Department realist 
>perspective...
>
>Brad DeLong

The point of Pax Americana is not to make Americans rich but to 
guarantee the reproduction of capitalism.  You can't be a 
bean-counter & imperialist at the same time.

Yoshie