Well, the rationale that the Taliban served as the hatching oven for the assaults of September 11 -- a major historical trauma and slap in the face -- at leasts means that pursuing a military policy to eliminate the breeding ground makes some sense, not as a way to build empires but as a means to eliminate proven dangers.

Little Hawk, I think your enthusiasm for making the United States into a member of the set of "all aggressive empires"--placing it among the ranks of Alexander, Attila, the 18-19th C. British Army, the Han and gawd knows what Ethiopian princes and Indian moghuls of yore -- is simplistic and undiscriminating, as is your innuendo about unidentified cahoots in the halls of power. Your are far too intelligent to trade in such paranoid generalizations without due diligence.


A