In fact, we are experiencing a period where, because there is one dominant player in the world, the might of that player determines what is considered right, at least for the time being. We all know that might does not necessarily mean right. Might is might, right is right. When might is right, it's because the action was right, not because might was used. But when the one player is so strong, it's hard to argue that there is anything other than might.

It's a matter of human nature, if not nature itself. One dominant power will assert it's influence over the others, a priori. If there is no other competition to the dominant power, what's the dominant one to do? It can take an aggressive posture or a reticent posture or something in between, but it will dominate the discourse.

The problem, in my humble opinion, is that the current adminstration is acting like a schoolyard bully. There is no self-reflective understanding that we have acted negatively (inevitably) with regards to the rest of the world and that we have a responsibility to own up to our over-zealousness and/or mistakes.

It would be so easy to do. Yes, we supported bastards, and we're sorry we did. At the time, it seemed a reasonable thing to do considering that there was a real, palable threat from the Soviet Union. Now that the cold war game is over, we no longer have an excuse and we'll do better.

Instead, we make nuclearized warfare against tin-horns an acceptable tactic and we throw our economic weight around because we can. We're acting like really poor winners.