[Kat]
In 2006, discussing Zarqawi's appearance in the machine gun blooper video, I noted that the war was already won for several reasons. One of which was the appearance of Zarqawi in a pair of white New Balance tennis shoes. When the enemy is buying (or hi-jacking) your products and wearing them on his propaganda video, you realize that his ability to become what he believed (ie, the masters of the Islamic Global Caliphate) was a bunch of horse hockey.
Here we've talked about the economic effects of the black market selling American goods with American dollars undermined the Soviet economy in a way that it could not recover from. Taking money out of the hands of the collective government and created a private wealth system the government could not compete with. Of course, Reagan outspent them on military and their politico-economic system was a rock around their necks. But the spread of the idea of freedom through every nook and cranny they could not fill in the hearts and minds of their people were filled up with American goods and American ideas.
I remember the first time I heard that a McDonald's had opened up on Red Square. Not exactly as spiritually uplifting as seeing the wall taken apart with sledgehammers and bare hands, but a quiet triumph for capitalism and, in the end, freedom.
In a piece originally aired last summer, CNBC presents: The Big Mac - Inside McDonald's Empire , CNBC high-lights McDonald's expanding reach into China. Several hundred stores.
Things to look for, the total blasphemy of Chairman Mao's giant picture over looking Tianneman Square with a giant photo of a Chinese mom sharing fries with her kid, emblazoned with giant golden arches within the cut out of a giant side of fries on the opposite side of the square, staring back at the glorious leader.
You could say in many ways that the expansion of such global, capitalist empires is the the expansion of the "American Empire". Our "empire" is not built on military conquest and holding land. The "American Empire" is completely misunderstood because of the long shadows of previous empires. The American Empire is the American Dream, the American idea of freedom, spreading from nation to nation. Sometimes by politics, sometimes by war, but, very often, it's through the hard work, innovation, inspiration and entrepreneurship of American citizens.
It might not always be clean and pretty or look like our idea of spreading freedom, but it is one of our most effective "weapons" against tyranny.
I'm just waiting for the first McDonald's in Baghdad.
I'll call it: V.I. Day.
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