>An imperial power can enforce peace in a peripheral reason only if
>all the thugs-with-guns in the region think that the imperial power
>has a *long* memory and never forgets an insult. Everyone in the
>world knows that the Murka has a short memory, and that consistency
>of foreign policy is unlikely given that foreign policy's principal
>use is as a domestic political football. Hence Murka sticking its
>nose into the Balkans is unlikely to improve matters.
How many countries have seriously dis'd "Murka" and gotten away with it?
Doug