I think what's important here, if one is to give any credence to...

I think what's important here, if one is to give any credence to the article, is not the rightness or wrongness of the situation. As Yak points out quite effectively, I agree that there is a historical inevitability about the filling of power gaps. The fall of communism and the Soviet Union clearly created just that and the US moving to fill that gap can be seen as part of that historical process.

What is important here is to have all motives up front so we can see them for what they are. In that way perhaps we can help to guide the building of a US based edifice (if that is what we must have) without having merely to accept what is offered to us. Let me also remind the historians that empires built on absolute power usually collapse in corruption and decay.

AnnaP