perfidy

Mike, would you say that the Chinese Empire in the fifteenth century or so had an informal empire that included SE Asia, Korea, Manchuria, and Japan? For me, I have a hard time translating influence into empire - empire to me means something like the Romans or the British. Generally, if someone wants our stuff, or watches our movies, or whatever, that's their choice. We aren't forcing it down their throats at gunpoint. Now, obviously in Iraq we are going to force Democracy down the Iraqi collective throat, but if McD's can't make money in Mesopotamia, they'll close up shop and move elsewhere.

As for the United States itself, while yes, we did take the land from the Indians, our polity is not structured even remotely like any historical empire. We do not function like an empire internally. Our overseas possessions are leased, or the people there voted to be part of our big crazy party.

Maybe we need to consult a therapeutic semantician.