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American Empire
Cover detail from "American Empire" by Andrew Bacevich Email to friend
"All hail the American Empire," not a slogan that slips easily from American lips. For years, liberals have criticized the U.S. for trying to be, in the words of the late Senator Alan Cranston, "the one, the only main honcho on the world block, the global Big Enchilada."
Now that ensuring American military superiority is the official foreign policy of the Bush administration, more on the right are accepting the term -- calling it empire.
Even as American leaders test the imperial throne for comfort, soldiers of the new empire are into the next level, debating whether it's American justice and morality that underpins the empire, or economics and the idea of democratic capitalism. Sitting at the right hand of the president, the Imperial Exchequer or the Imperial Chief Justice.
Andrew Bacevich, author, "American Empire," professor of international relations, Boston University
Max Boot, author, "The Savage Wars of Peace: Small Wars and the Rise of American Power, "senior fellow, national security studies, Council on Foreign Relations.
