HI, I'M AMERICA, AND I'VE BEEN AN EXPANSIONIST POWER FOR 230 YEARS. In contrast to Matt, this Robert Kagan piece in The New Republic didn't bug me much at all. The more folks -- particularly on the right -- who dispense with the fiction that the U.S. was ever anything but an expansionist power, the better. America has convinced itself that we've always been a shy, sensitive, introspective nation only occasionally and reluctantly roused to roughhouse play. Our historical memory encompasses little but World War II, and so our interpretation of our own foreign policy instincts is benevolent and benign. The rest of the world, however, hasn't participated in this process of continuously forgetting our many years of overthrowing their leaders, deploying expeditionary forces to their lands, and pressuring them into supporting our interests -- and those memories color their reactions to our every move and initiative. Maybe we could all agree to disagree, but our lack of appreciation for the historical narrative other nations attach to us leaves us confused and befuddled whenever they greet our plans with skepticism. And I think that's irritating to everyone involved. Now, there are very good questions about the significance of our past actions and what tomorrow's policies should be -- Kagan and I have, shall we say, something of a disagreement -- but it's a salutary sign to see neocons placing their imperialistic impulses in their proper historical context. As Kagan concludes, "we have remained a 'dangerous' nation in many senses -- dangerous to tyrannies, dangerous to those who do not want our particular brand of liberalism, dangerous to those who fear our martial spirit and our thumos, dangerous to those, including Americans, who would prefer an international order not built around a dominant and often domineering United States. Whether a different kind of international system or a different kind of America would be preferable is a debate worth having. But let us have this debate about our future without illusions about our past."
--
Ezra Klein
