The American Empire Must Die So The World Can Live

Does being American mean preserving the Empire so *our kids* can live, all while the children of the Global South die? Tina Strawn explores what it truly means to "be American".

Follow along with me and see how these statements land in your body:

Palestine has over 100 military bases around the world.
Iran has over 200 military bases around the world.
Russia has over 300 military bases around the world.
Afghanistan has over 400 military bases around the world.
China has over 500 military bases around the world.

Yikes.

Let’s check in with a few questions: 

If these statements were true (they’re not), what kind of world do you think we would live in? I mean, would this feel alarming and excessive to you? Or would it feel just right? 

Does any part of you wonder what on earth would justify any of these countries having such an enormous military presence?

Do you think that the planet would be a safer place if each of these country’s governments had this type of military power in hundreds of places all across the globe?

Well, have no fear (or have a lot of fear) . . .

None of these countries has that many military bases spread out all over the planet in such a Pinky-And-The-Brain-Take-Over-The-World fashion.

Except the United States of America, which has 750 military bases in 80 countries and territories across the globe, and boasts $876 billion in military spending. 

For context, the next two top military powers are Russia at #2 with $86 billion and China at #3 with $291 billion in military spending — and the U.K. has 60 military bases worldwide, coming in second to the U.S.

Isn’t that a relief?

I mean, surely to some degree you, as an American, must feel some measure of safety with this knowledge. I mean wouldn’t you agree that while perhaps that much global military presence is a bit excessive, at least YOU live in the country who owns those 750 military bases in 80 countries and territories across the globe.

Let’s be honest, might that at least contribute to why you feel safe driving your 2.5 kids to school each morning in your minivan? Unafraid that any country could attack or interfere with your great American life because who would mess with THAT country?

I imagine that the mothers whose children are working in the bottom of a cobalt mine right now to power our smartphones and technology might have that same sense of freedom if the Congo had 750 military bases worldwide.

I imagine that the 130 Sudanese women who reportedly committed mass suicide last week to avoid being raped by the UAE backed and funded U.S. supplied RSF might have different choices to make if Sudan had 750 military bases worldwide. 

I can tell you that even as a queer, Black American mother who had the privilege of ‘divorcing America’ a few years ago, my three Black American young adult children do experience a tremendous amount of ‘safety’ and ‘freedom’ living inside of the belly of empire, as compared to any Palestinian mother anywhere on the planet because it is our country, the United States of America (where my ancestors and people have been enslaved for centuries) that has 750 military bases worldwide, and is funding the ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people and countries like South Africa and more have to be the ones to stand up and bring Israel to the world court for their war crimes against humanity.

750 military bases in over 80 countries and territories around the world. I will continue repeating this fact so that hopefully the absurdity of it begins to sink in, particularly where said country does not spend equal or even comparable amounts of money on its own citizens, despite having innumerable problems domestically such as the high rates of mass incarceration, lacking, inaccessible and unaffordable health care, a houselessness crisis, poor education, etc ad nauseam. 

Perhaps I would feel differently about the ridiculousness of these statements if the fact was that the singular country with that much military presence and power took some kind of responsibility for keeping the global peace.

But at some point in our adult American lives, we must come to terms with the fact that the opposite is actually true . . . the singular country with that much global military presence and power is actually largely responsible for all the wars, genocides, imperial dominance, climate destruction, devastation, supremacy, oppression, and violence across the globe.

It would be nice to consider the United States as some kind of global peacekeeper, though that narrative isn’t exactly consistent with how the United States shows up on the global stage. Check out how the U.S. votes as compared to other nations when it comes to global debates and resolutions decided at the United Nations regarding major topics such as the Palestinian genocide by Israel, nuclear weapons, disarmament, human rights, colonialism, and economic development. 

But at least Americans are happy, right? Not even close. Apparently $876 billion can’t even buy happiness as the United States is no where near among the happiest countries in the world. 

Shocking.

American Imperialism and Capitalism Must Die So The Planet Can Live

As we look around the planet today, it would serve us to notice that there are multiple genocides taking place. Notice the economic instability in most countries in the global south. And notice our global climate catastrophe that is beyond the point of no return. 

Did you know . . .

• That the Pentagon is the world’s largest institutional user of petroleum and the single largest institutional producer of greenhouse gasses in the world? 

• The U.S. Military emits more emissions than entire nations like Portugal and Denmark?

• More than 281,000 tons of carbon dioxide were generated by Israel’s aerial bombardment and ground invasion of Gaza in the first two months of the genocide alone?

Gut check: with this information, now maybe it makes a little more sense that the country with 750 military bases in over 80 countries and territories around the world is also the country where guns are the number one killer of kids and teenagers.

Do you hear any cheers in the background of your mind? USA! USA! USA!

We’ll come back to this.

What It Means To Be American

Is being American an idea? 

Or is being American more of a concept of a plan, like Donald Trump offered as he stood on the Presidential debate stage next to his Black and Indian woman opponent who still somehow ignorantly believes and foolishly parrots the long debunked lie that Oct 7 was about the fake beheaded babies and false accounts of rape of Israeli women?

Does being American mean ‘protecting the Constitution’? I hear that a lot.

This is the same Constitution that protects American guns that kill American kids in American schools more than anything else, right?

I offer for your consideration something that Palestinian American poet and reporter, Noor Hindi, says in her poem called, ‘Fuck Your Lecture On Craft, My People Are Dying’:

“I know I’m American because when I walk into a room something dies.” 

Ah. There it is. 

What has to die so we can hold on to our concept of being American?

More importantly, who has to die so we can hold on to whatever it means to be American?

Does being American mean working to barely be able to survive, barely able to pay rent and mortgage, barely able to afford groceries and the rising cost of existing so American tax dollars can pay for all the global genocides abroad?

Is it safe to say that being American means being at war?

Is it not true that as Americans, aren’t we at war at home and abroad? 

As Americans, aren’t we at war within ourselves, and at war with each other?

Are the people in Palestine, Sudan, the Congo, Tigray, Haiti, and all over the globe where genocides are happening . . . are they dying so the empire, so Americans, can live?

All Americans should — no, we must — contend with these questions. Especially if you think one of the two evils, the Democrats or the Republicans, is going to save us.

“I believe that you cannot claim a people and not assume responsibility for what that people do or don’t do.” — June Jordan

America, the War Machine

I’m looking at the 2000-pound bombs being dropped right now in Gaza, Lebanon, Syria. It’s as if Israel has 750 military bases worldwide . . . and I mean, don’t they? THEY FUCKING ACT LIKE THEY DO.

Both Republicans and Democrats have selected Presidential candidates who literally argue over who loves Israel more, and subsequently who loves arming Israel more. 

I’m writing this just days shy of the 2024 Presidential election and it is incredulous to me that both parties in America are fighting over who loves GENOCIDE more.

And while I believe that Trump will get a second opportunity to prove his unyielding affection for the settler colonial, imaginary state in just a few months, those who are voting blue, and really all of us, should be paying more attention to what Presidential hopeful Kamala Harris means and is trying to say to us with her dream of having “the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world” as she boasted at the Democratic National Convention in August — and the vote ‘blue no matter who’ crowd went wild, chanting USA! USA! USA!

Is this your king?

Presidential candidate Kamala Harris boasting about having “the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world” at the Democratic National Convention in August

Who are we planning to fight with this most lethal fighting force? Cuz why else would you have the most lethal fighting force? Unless you want to use it? Or is it just for show? As the President of the most lethal fighting force on the planet, she should absolutely expect to tell the people exactly what she plans to do with it right? Or nah?

I bet having the most lethal military in the world would make it even easier to keep your own citizens under control. I’m looking at you, Cop City(s). 

It’s that time of year again when Americans will vote in the political theater that is the American electoral process in a so-called democracy that literally isn’t. Our only viable choices? Lucky Americans, we get to vote for one of two very different Americans who promise to keep supplying American guns, American bombs, and American weapons to keep as many global genocides going as they can. Oh, and to keep as many American kids and their families terrified of sending them to American schools everyday . . . whatever it takes to keep the country with the most powerful military in the world operating at full capitalist capacity. 

Judging by the number of dead children, and Black and brown people all over the planet, American business (guns and war) is pretty damn good. 

Actually, that is exactly what it means to be American. Isn’t it. 

Because I mean, what is America without war? Well, I bet it’s probably the same answer as what are Americans without guns.

My point? Being a Black American mother who is a citizen of the ‘land of the free, home of the brave’ should not make my kids any safer than the kids in Haiti experiencing unrest, political instability and a genocide. As a Black American mother, I don’t want to uphold, preserve and protect the American empire so my kids can live if and because it means that the children of Africa, Central and South America, and all over the Middle East have to die. 

The U.S. Empire was not set up for children, mothers and fathers around the globe to live. The U.S. Empire, much like the imaginary, settler colonial state of Israel (stolen and founded in 1948), is only functioning so that American and Israeli children can live, while it simultaneously burns up the planet with its guns, bombs and war. 

And don’t get me wrong, I do want American and Israeli children to live. But not at the expense of everyone else’s children. 

All the children of the world deserve to live. I know that is a controversial statement right now, as both political parties can’t afford to have this as a foundational principle so close to the Presidential Election because their ability to win requires Americans to not consider what the stability of the American Empire means to the rest of the world.

Both the Democrats and Republicans survival depends on Americans only taking into consideration the luxury, the privilege, and corresponding rights that are on the line in order to live in this illusion of prosperity and freedom, at the expense and real cost of human lives of children and people around the world. 

Sounds like if we want to have a chance to save our children (from guns),  humanity (from all the genocides), and the planet (from the catastrophic climate emergency we are facing), the country with 750 military bases scattered across the plant killed by white supremacy, capitalism, the patriarchy, and the American Empire, should and must fall. 

May we keep this in mind beyond the vote and when we attempt to organize and survive beyond November 5. May the American Empire and its most lethal military with over 750 bases in the world fall, so everyone can be free. And may we build something really beautiful on the other side.