Gen. Wes has a well-thought out article in the November issue of the Washington Monthly on the role of military, empire and multi-lateralism.

One sentence struck me:

And many foreign policy theorists in and around the White House and the office of the secretary of defense were putting forward the idea that America should embrace its destiny as a new imperial power, using military force as the chief tool to create a more democratic and pro-American world order.

There's a tendency to think that "democracy" and "pro-American" are the same thing, like the tendency to think that "democracy" and "free markets" are the same thing. Unfortunately, that thinking is simplistic and leads to adventures poorly thought out that serve to weaken our economy and democracy, not strengthen it.