In anticipation of President Obama's speech tonight

From Thomas Fleming, V-I Day.

If we were serious about carving out an actual empire in the Middle East–for our own benefit and not for the benefit of our gallant democratic ally etc etc– I might, grudgingly, be able to see the point of all this loss of life and waste of money, a waste that is bringing our economy down for a long time.  But we are not.  The American people does not have the stomach for empire.  We can bomb some poor devils to hell and blow their country up and set off civil wars.  But what we cannot and will not do is to impose a Pax Americana on the Middle East.  We won’t even do it in Mexico and Central America.