Since the end of World War 2 the United States reigned supreme both economically and politically as the world military leader.
The
dismantling of Eastern Europe left the United States unchallenged as the p re-eminent military power, but American economic power declined in the face of competition, first from Germany and Japan and then from newly prosperous countries elsewhere. The consequences of this imbalance were potentially catastrophic. The United States set out to exploit its advantage ruthlessly in order to enforce national interests and in the process destroying weaker nations.
El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala suffered enormously with at least 100,000 killled by the US armed Contras fighting the ruling Sandanistas in Nicaragua. Vietnam and Cambodia suffered devastating trade sanctions and embargoes.
The US population were denied news of these actions due mainly to a US government oriented print media bias which negated any free press. Noam Chomsky and John Pilger expose the right wing actions of the US in order to suppress any reporting of their cruel support of cruel dictators like Saddam Hussein and the non-democratic Gulf States.
Deterring
democracy offers a devastating analysis of America's imperialism, connecting its repression of information inside the US and its aggressive empire building abroad.
The economic decline of the US means the military is capable but today the US can no longer afford to ploice the world.