[Porterville]

Empire my ass. It is a World War against much of the Muslim World tied to the UN and corrupt governments like france vs. The United States of America.

It ain't got nothing to do with empire.

[BenLurkin]

What "Imperial Ambitions"?

[Darkwolf377]

Commentators began to declare, in somewhat exultant tones, that America had at last become a true empire.

They did?

[A. Pole]

Empire has less to do with scale of realm or of power than it does with one single feature. Simply, it is a polity where politics itself revolves around the person of the emperor.

This differs from the politics of kingship. Kings represent and embody a densely woven social fabric. They preside over a society of aristocracy: an extended family of rule, where the king is also father. Empires in contrast often emerge from republics.

[peyton randolph]

But then he went further and announced a state of perpetual war - "a war of generations," "a hundred years war" - and so transformed himself into an imperial person.

---

DNC talking point regurgitated in Patsy Buchanan's misnamed magazine.

[LSUfan]

The name of that magazine really bothers me. Conservative my eye. More like The American Isolationist.

[pissant]

This guy reads too many Buchanan books. Oh wiat, this is Pat's rag he's writing in.

[tet68]

What a pant load this is.

[ex-snook]

Does 'Empire' of its nature pursue military solutions? The first half of the last century was spent warring in Europe. The second half was in warring in Orient. This century we are off and running in the Near East. All of these have been 'to make the world safe for democracy'.

It is akin the age of exploring countries to spread Chrisianity [and acquire wealth and control trade on the side]. Our effort seems to be to make sure that no other country becomes 'the Empire'. This will be successful for us as long as 'the war' is on the battlefield of armies.

'The war' today is one where the future will go to ideas. The past non-military growth of Christianity comes to mind. Also the triumph of marketing over communism. I believe Bush has mis-framed the future with 'people want freedom'. I believe it will be framed into 'people want justice'. And that should be the driving force of our 'Empire' - the unugly American.

[Always Right]

How many terrorists blowing up planes must there be before we respond? How many USS Coles? How many 9-11's? Yeah, we are really acting like an empire. We had been acting more like a whipping boy. Is that the conservative response to decades of terrorists regimes and attacks?

[Savage Beast]

Vlahos' imagination is running away with him. Maybe he should spend his time writing scary fiction like...well...wait a minute--that's what he did here.

You know, it seems that lots of people are fascinated with the idea that the United States is going to wind up like the Roman Empire. They just can't resist doom and gloom scenarios. It's as though they're creating action movies in their minds and can't resist expressing them in print.

The wiiiiiiiiiiiiiide stretches of imagination that their scenarios require are no deterrent.

This is what comes of watching too much Hollywood. You loose the ability to discern reality from fiction.

[Donald Rumsfeld Fan]

Empires are weak. It is republics in contrast that are strong. The United States is a republic that has been operating like an empire, and it has suffered for it. If we look at the gold standard for empire - Rome - we can see why.

He fails to mention that the Roman Republic had experienced several civil wars and during the time of Caesar was irredeemably weak, corrupt and ready for a fall.

In crisis, a republic can claim all the energy and resources of its citizens because in the end the citizenry and the republic are the same.

In Rome's case...BS

In revenue terms, this means that although they will still pay a citizen’s normal taxes, they are no longer obligated for extraordinary levees. Formal empires, in fact, are unusually weak when it comes to squeezing the very top citizens, those who in a republic would have been the foremost contributors. Remember, an empire that succeeds a republic retains as a sort of sacred fiction the old constitutional framing. And behind this fiction is continuing reality: that the emperor is not all-powerful, but rather dependent on the same political constituencies that were players in the old republic. The emperor cannot do without them, and he cannot afford to alienate them. Thus the top citizens in effect have to be bought off. This president has done just that with his extravagant tax cuts. In other words, the emperor can have his war, which itself is necessary to his majestic exercise of imperial power, as long as he does not demand too much from the interest groups whose support he needs for the continued exercise of imperial authority.

This is the worst part of the article. Caesar fought the wealthy elites who had backed Pompey. They were killed and/or sent into exile. Caesar eliminated oppressive taxes and regulations which had been imposed by the ruling elite onto the poor and middle class.

The Roman "Republic" at the time of Caesar had become a sham. It was controlled by influential wealthy elite families and political alliances for their own benefit. The people be damned.

I see parallels with America today. Supreme Court Justices are acting like supreme senators. Not judges. Although they genuflect before the written constitution for the benefit of the great unwashed, they do what they damn well please and the people be damned. All the while aided and abetted by the Media and their stooges in the Democratic Party.

As a result of Caesars actions the corrupt and oppressive Republic fell and the rule of the emperors began. The empire and it's citizens prospered as never before.

[JasonC]

This is the stupidest article on the subject I've ever seen.

[ScubieNuc]

Next time you might want to condense your post. When I scrolled down to see how long it was, I decided against reading it. Simply by reading the title and browsing the responses, I can see that its not something I'm willing to waste my time reading.

Just my .5 cent worth.

Sincerely

[bert]

Brigadeer drivel.

The writer apparently misunderstands the concept of empire. There is only evidence of empire in the minds of America haters....both left and right.