The sad reality of the world is you either have an empire or you’re part of someone’s empire. From Ukraine to Iraq and from Xinjiang to Kashmir, the new empires come forth. When Winston Churchill foolishly destroyed the British Empire he “passed the torch” to America. As the American hegemony comes to an end we will find, to our horror, that democratic internationalism is not the way of the future.

The world is more cruel and horrifying than most college students are willing to admit. The real world does not share a college student’s fanciful ideas of “multiculturalism” and “globalism.” The real world is concerned with wealth and survival. It is for these reasons that empire is an unshakeable reality of the Earth. Like gravity, it doesn’t care how you feel about it.

We are told incessantly that “Putin is rebuilding the Russian Empire.” What drivel this is. It is Russia who is defending against the imperialism of the West. Since the end of the Cold War, Russia has given up control of more than 500,000 square miles of Eastern Europe, much of which now belongs to the government in Brussels. When Russia desperately attempts to save some of its ancient territories we portray the country as the aggressor.

The hypocrisy of the Ukraine crisis is unbelievable. Last year, the Russian government released a recording of Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland in a phone conversation with Geoffrey Pyatt, the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine. The two appeared to be engineering the Ukrainian election in a way we claim we’re against. How can we say that the Russian backed government of Yanukovych was morally wrong when our own State Department is engaged in electing a puppet?

Perhaps it’s time to be honest about foreign policy. We have an imperial interest in Ukraine and that’s why we make Putin into “Hitler.” Not a word is raised about any other country that is in occupation of formerly sovereign land, so why is Russia singled out?

The most terrifying of all empires is China. It was once believed that freedom led to prosperity and totalitarianism to poverty. China has taught us that prosperity can exist in a sinister racist police state.

The Chinese government has pursued a policy of colonization of Xinjiang in hopes that the flood of migrants will swamp, and eventually replace, the native Muslim population. The Chinese are also in military occupation of Tibet, forcing the Dalai Lama to live abroad. Yet, those who are concerned about Russia in Ukraine don’t raise a word about China. Xi Jinping makes Putin look like a saint but Obama doesn’t put sanctions on China.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, president of Turkey, is more a military dictator and is an imperialist of the first degree. The nation of the Armenian Holocaust is currently in military occupation of Northern Cyprus. The Turkish government also subjugates 14 million Kurds who would rather have their own country. Why is Putin compared to Hitler and Erdogan part of NATO?

The Franco-German Empire of the European Union has wiped away the independent nation states of Europe. People used to hold up photographs of German soldiers tearing down border crossings in the ’40s and say, “Look how terrible this is!” Now there’s a “European Passport” and Europeans may cross the border between Germany and France without even a momentary stop. What was the 1939-45 war for if France was going to merge with Germany anyway?

Iran, with our help, has become a great empire. When George Bush invaded Iraq and ousted Saddam Hussein, he effectively handed Iraq over to the Shia Persians. Now the Iranians are in control of four capitals — Tehran, Baghdad, Damascus and Sana’a. Iranian Revolutionary Guards are helping the Shia militias in Iraq and the Assad regime in Syria, but Obama wants to lift sanctions on the mullahs and place sanctions on the Russians.

If building an empire is a grand crime worthy of sanctions, then we should have to embargo half the Earth, including ourselves. Many people, like our president, look down their noses at our ancestors and make silly protestations about the “evils of imperialism.” In reality, Obama is one of the greatest imperial presidents to date, save George Bush. Obama’s imperial adventure in Libya ruined the lives of millions and created a failed state where journalists won’t even go because it’s so dangerous. Despite our incredible imperial disasters in Kosovo, Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia, Libya and Syria, we still find time to lecture Russia on Ukraine.

One of the saddest moments in recent history was the British handover of Hong Kong in 1997. In pouring rain, a regimental band piped “Auld Lang Syne” as the British garrison slow-marched out of the city. The scene looked very much like a funeral, and so it was. One empire died and was replaced by another, as it shall always be.