Reply #51: And you will note of course

[flying_blind]

that Iran is flanked by both the countries our fine Empire is taking on.

Here is a video debate on the AEI site I found compelling and that really does inform this whole train of thinking:

http://www.aei.org/events/eventID.428/event_detail.asp
America is not just the most powerful nation on earth but, arguably, the most powerful nation in history. To protect the global trade routes of democratic capitalism and its own security interests, the United States can intervene anytime, anyplace. Although America’s domain is more seaborne, airborne, and space-based than territorial, some are beginning to refer to this Pax Americana as the American empire. Is the United States an empire? Should we call it that? On July 17, 2003, the New Atlantic Initiative organized a debate on this topic between two renowned authors-Niall Ferguson and Robert Kagan.