Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Empire  June 14, 2009  View as Single
Page Mr. Obama, Tear Down This Empire  Twenty-two years ago,
June 12, 1987, President Ronald Reagan made a speech in front of
the Brandenburg Gate at the Berlin Wall in which he implored
Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down this wall.” Within a year, the
wall that symbolized repression and tyranny did in fact come
crashing down. But with the demise of the Soviet Union, there is
something else that should likewise have been toppled: the U.S.
empire of troops and bases that encircles the globe.  Mr. Obama,
Tear down this empire.  The kingdom of Alexander the Great
reached to the borders of India. The Roman Empire controlled
Western Europe and the Hellenized states that bordered the
Mediterranean. The Mongol Empire stretched from Southeast Asia
to Europe. The Byzantine Empire lasted over a thousand years.
The Ottoman Empire stretched from the Persian Gulf in the east
to Hungary in the northwest; and from Egypt in the south to the
Caucasus in the north. A