The United States was never the Empire.

The Rocky Mountains were never the Empire. Niagara Falls was never the Empire. The Everglades were never the Empire. The winding rivers of the Mississippi, Missouri, and Ohio were never the Empire. The Great Lakes were never the Empire.

The Empire was never Los Angeles or New York. Alaska, Texas, or Hawaii.

The Empire was never the Declaration of Independence, the Stars and Stripes, or the Constitution.

None of the roughly 340 million people – who live normal lives and just want to get on and be happy, like everyone else – were ever the Empire.

America was never the problem.

And the problem was never America.

Raytheon was never America. Neither was Pfizer, or Boeing, or Lockheed Martin, or Halliburton.

The Pentagon was never America. Neither were the three-letter monsters of the CIA, NSA, or DHS.

The politicians – who broke their oaths to the constitution almost as soon they swore them – were never America. The lobbyists and profiteers who paid them were never America.

The Federal Reserve was never America, Wall Street was never America. The vast corporate megaliths that own half the world and tie economies in knots with made-up money were never America.

And none of them will pay the price for what they have done in that name.

America was never the Empire, it was just where the Empire lived for a while.

It had other homes before, it will have others in the future. A hermit crab shedding shells as it swells.

The Nation of the United States – however you define the idea of nationhood – was as much a victim as any of us.

If a "nation" is a matter of geography, then the United States had its resources plundered, its water poisoned, its skies polluted as much as anywhere else in the world.

If a "nation" is a library of laws, then the United States had its constitution torn down, chewed up and shat out.

If a "nation" is a collection of shared traditions, then the United States not only saw its triplet traditions of opportunity, freedom, and democracy butchered, but witnessed their mutilated corpses strung along in a macabre puppet show for decade after decade.