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Entry: America: An Empire? Link: http://www.takimag.com/site/article/america_an_empire#12750 Post contents: This extended essay by Mr. Coulombe is very interesting, enlightening, and thought-provoking. While I agree with him that empire is not contrary to American principles, I would have to disagree that the only problem then is how to do the job and whether the Americans are up to it. In concluding that Americans are not up to it, Mr. Coulombe implies that Americans are not up to their own principles. That might be true and I would be happy if it is. But we should not take for granted that there is nothing wrong with the principles. While empires may not be intrinsically evil, an empire which aims at rule of the entire world is evil in its pride, its hubris. Like Napoleon and the Jacobins, like the Communists, American imperialism has no theoretical limits short of world rule. Indeed the relative success of American imperialism in western and now eastern Europe is attributable to those areas being first softened up by the French and Bolshevik revolutions respectively. Had those countries maintained their traditional regimes and cultures, it is difficult to imagine the US dominating them the way it does. Sent at: 2009 01 07