The phantom empire
The Left and Right agree: the United States - once a republic that minded its own business - has become an empire that looks after everyone else's. They're wrong.
By Alan Wolfe, 11/17/2002
... Conservative defense intellectuals favor having the United States assume an imperial role, but in reality, not even an administration as favorable to the military and as unilateralist in its instincts as that of George W. Bush can grant them their wish. Even the administration's plans for Iraq fail to demonstrate a true imperial imagination: They tend to be fairly specific about ridding Saddam of his nuclear weapons, yet remarkably vague when discussing how long American troops will have to remain to ensure a pro-American government in that country.
... For many years, Americans have resisted any expensive and long-lasting involvement with countries whose ways of life are thoroughly unfamiliar. We resist an imperial role for America not because we are humanitarians and internationalists but because we are stingy with our government and lack genuine interest in the rest of the world. Our best defenses against empire, as it turns out, lie not in our virtues but in our vices.
<http://www.boston.com/dailyglobe2/321/focus/The_phantom_empire+.shtml>
Carl
_________________________________________________________________ Add photos to your messages with MSN 8. Get 2 months FREE*. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/featuredemail