Did anyone see Bill Moyers' NOW program on PBS last night? It was a very interesting discussion on how the US might be at the pinnacle of it's power and might as an empire, but that the downhill slide caused by arrogant imperialist over-reaching is well advanced.

Both panelists agreed that anti-American international attitudes isn't yet universal (ie there are still places that have every reason to despise the US, but don't), nor does the anti-American hatred seem so hardened that our imperial overreach couldn't yet be corrected. In other words, the panelists were guardedly optimistic about the possibility of the US pulling back from the brink, and avoiding repeating the history of the Roman and British empires.

However, both pointed out that the foreign policy of the past 50 years, regardless of who was enthroned as the imperial president, would have to do a 180 turn around to prevent us from repeating the historic mistakes of previous empires. The panelists were quite pessimistic about current trends though, especially with the so-called "war on terrorism" generally, and the Bush National Security Strategy (released about a month ago, but being conveniently ignored by the media, of course) in particular.

Somehow the "Democrats always pick on America first" apologists rings a bit hollow when you begin to find out about the "new" foreign policy strategy laid out by the Bush administration.