Geoff's orginal post, to which this responds, can be found here.

But show where it's happenned in this great republic? There have been no shortage of opportunty for the USA to this, yet we have been very disinclined to take this path.

The growth of the United States has very much resembled the unification of Italy under the Roman aegis, involving the conquest of neighboring tribes, the absorption of other territories by treaty or economic means (purchase or overwhelming dominance in trade), and finally a consolidation of identity through foreign wars that established citizenship rights for individuals outside the kinship circles of the original founders.

After that, with the new power and wealth the wars brought to the victorious Republic, an expansionist policy was begun which ultimately led to the fall of the Republic and the rise of the Empire. Rome continued, and still resonates in history, but the Republic was dead.

This took place over something in excess of 500 years, but the Romans didn't have the telegraph or the locomotive. Events move faster when information and supplies do.

We as a nation are less than 300 years old. Yet the path we choose for ourselves now can determine whether we remain a republic or become an empire. It will depend on how much we value who we are over how much we fear what others can do to us.

You are talking about foreign policy as if it has no domestic effects apart from those perpetrated by terrorists. That isn't true. The burden of occupying and governing vast territories that are not part of the nation taxes republican government beyond its administrative ability and causes it to collapse. We need to understand that now and choose wisely.

People who claim that the past has nothing to teach us have very poor pattern recognition skills.

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I have never observed that freedom can be inflicted on people. They have to want it, and to understand it, or it becomes another opportunity for the next autocrat. Iraq has never had a democracy in all of its long history. How do you propose we make it one? And if you propose we merely rid the world of Saddam and his family (I'm aware that his son is a sociopath), what will replace him? Does it matter? Will it be a new autocrat with an American sponsor? Will it be an American army of occupation?

Will we make a commitment not to occupy the country now, or do we put our best foot forward onto the imperial doorstep?

Regards--
Mary Anne