posted February 10, 2003 at 6:09 a.m. MDTThe "Empire Page" guest editorial by Gregory Stephens is titled American Myopia: The View from Abroad and begins, "The course of this nation does not depend on the decisionsof others," declared President Bush in his 2003 State of the Union speech. Such a bald assertion of American arrogance is not surprising, coming from a man whose worldview has been termed "messianic militarism." But this was one of Bush’s biggest applause lines, which I find discouraging. Can we voice a more attractive alternative to this jingoistic patriotism?"
The American's jingoism is not benign. At a time when otherwise sensible legislators are soberly suggesting that passenger aircraft be fitted out with anti-missile defense systems, this sabre rattling has a real effect on the body politic. Like the infamous "go pills", it leaves people with an unfortunate tendency to go off half-cocked.
Is our thinking at the beginning of the new millenium that we must be rash, lest events surpass us?
