AN AMERICAN EMPIRE? Not hardly:

Still, despite the endorsement the notion of an American empire has received from writers across the political spectrum, something is missing from the analysis. There is more to having an empire than simply the possession of great power. Empire presupposes the existence of a military establishment that is charged with the task of insuring, through the threat and use of force, that local and regional conflicts are settled by the application of imperial power. Understood that way, the imperial model does not match American foreign policy as it has actually developed since the end of the Cold War: Indeed, we fear empire rather than welcome it. . . .

For conservative defense intellectuals to achieve their imperial ambitions, their first order of business would have to be preparing the American public, and their own Republican base, for increased public expenditure. Alas for them, the president for whom they work has done exactly the opposite. No serious empire-builder would ever cut taxes as recklessly as President Bush has. Because of the enormous tax cut, the Bush administration has had little choice but to disappoint its allies in the Pentagon by reneging on its promise to throw open the government’s checkbook.

I think this is largely right. Americans don’t want an empire. We want to be left alone by those — like the Wahabbist fanatics of Al Qaeda — who are trying to build their own empires.