THOMAS E. RICKS, WASHINGTON POST, August 21, 2001 - People who label the United States "imperialist" usually mean it as an insult. But in recent years a handful of conservative defense intellectuals have begun to argue that the United States is indeed acting in an imperialist fashion - and that it should embrace the role. When the Cold War ended just over a decade ago, these thinkers note, the United States actually expanded its global military presence. With the establishment over the last decade of a semi-permanent presence of about 20,000 troops in the Persian Gulf area, they contend, the United States is now a major military power in almost every region of the world - the Mideast, Europe, East Asia and the Western Hemisphere. And even though the United States is unlikely to fight a major war anytime soon, they believe, it remains very active militarily around the globe, keeping the peace in Bosnia and Kosovo, garrisoning 37,000 troops in South Korea, patrolling the skies of Iraq, and seeking to balance the rise of China. . . . The discussion of an American empire also helps illuminate the running battle for the last six months between Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld and his Joint Chiefs of Staff over how to change the U.S. military. The defense secretary wants to prepare the armed forces to deal with the threats of tomorrow, and so hints at cutting conventional forces to pay for new capabilities such as missile defense. But the Joint Chiefs respond that they are quite busy with today's missions . . . If Americans thought more clearly and openly about the necessity of an imperial mission, [Thomas] Donnelly argues, "We'd better understand the full range of tasks we want our military to do, from the Balkans-like constabulary missions to the no-fly zones [over Iraq] to maintaining enough big-war capacity" to hedge against the emergence of a major adversary . . . To his critics, Donnelly responds that they are arguing with reality, not with him: "I think Americans have become used to running the world and would be very reluctant to give it up, if they realized there were a serious challenge to it."