>>>>>You don't agree there is an American empire then?
>>>>
>>>>Correct.
>>>
>>>So why do you think there are US armed forces distributed all over the world. I think its a projection of power and while altruism may be a factor its not the main one.
>>
>>And that is exactly my point - projection of power for non-altruistic reasons is not the definition of empire or imperialism.
>
>Isn't that semantics. By using economic and military power to control or influence other countries you have implicitly become imperial. But how would you define what the USA is today.

It is indeed semantics and my argument is exactly that putting historically weighted words like "empire" into the discussion steers it away from content and into polemics.

Every nation that can uses economic power to control or influence other countries. Many failed states use the very lack of economic power to manipulate the behavior of other countries. some use the disparity of economic power within their society to enlist powerful economic interests to benefit their ruling class rather than the country as a whole.

Any military defense is aimed at "controlling" potential aggressors. As to how the power is projected, that is decided for a lot of reasons. Once again, the American experience i the last half the 20th century and certainly in the first decade of this is historically unique so labeling doesn't help to understand it or evaluate parts of it. (A good argument can be made that by any historical scale, given the imbalance of military power, American projection of it is rather restrained, if the goal is in fact to "control" other countries. I grant you that is as much for practical reasons as benevolent ones.)

I only took issue with the characterizing of the US role in the world as "empire". It is what it is, and it is historically unique. It's wisdom and merits are certainly up for debate, and a lot of one's perspective depends on whose ox is being gored, but I think putting labels on it just clouds what can be an otherwise meaningful discussion.