The US government is not imperial and this can be plainly seen by the fact that our bases exist in foreign countries by invitation only, and not imposition. Or, so goes to the standard political narrative. Enter Japanese PM Hatoyama's "gaffe" in promising the Okinawan people to remove the US military base from the island. Several LRC contributors have speculated on a link between the media blitz on the mythical runaway Prius and Hatoyama's announcement of intention to remove the US base from Okinawa. But now the PM has had a change of heart and he now sees that this is "impossible." Of course, the US military base remains there on a completely voluntary basis, by their invitation only. Yet, at the same time, it is "impossible" for the PM to remove it. Puzzling.
With 700 military installations (yes, 700, though not all of them are military bases, per se) in 170 of the world's roughly 200 nations, how can the US military be understood as anything other than an imperial force? When I went to school, I learned about the Roman Empire and the gist of it was that empires are bad. They're abusive because the imperialists exploit the subject nations for their own benefit. Yet, for at least the last seven decades, the United States government has been furiously building a worldwide empire and nobody's saying anything. Puzzling.
Clayton -
I would only add that the empire building has been going on for longer than 70 years.
Every decent man is ashamed of the government he lives under - Mencken