HP rather likes Imperial America:
Did the Athenians have a U.N. resolution 1441 before launching their attempt to build an empire? Were they already engaged in containment of an avowed enemy for which they had a written truce which was being violated on an almost daily basis? I wonder how you would have felt if FDR had decided to preemptively attack Germany once it was clear that Hitler and his minions were A) systematically committing genocide against certain groups. B)Rebuilding his war machine in violation of the Versailles accords. C) Preparing to attack his neighbors. If I was Vox Day I guess that would just have to wait till all came to pass before I would or should act. For me it is more prudent to act preemptively. Bush was right in attacking Iraq. The ultimate outcome is still not certain but at least there is a chance that a Democracy will take hold. At the very least we now have outposts in one of the most unsettled regions of the world so that we could act quickly. It would also be a constant reminder to our enemies that WE WILL ACT if necessary in our national interests. That to me is a good thing.
What does a UN resolution have to do with anything? Are you seriously going to try arguing that the Athenian attack on Syracuse been more just with the permission of the Persian empire and Republican Rome? Apparently you don’t know much Greek history, as the Athenians had been attempting to contain the Spartans longer than the USA was containing Iraq; Thucydides and Xenophon chronicle the Second Pelopponesian War. And the analogy holds with regards to treaties, too, as it was Sparta that first violated the 30-year truce by invading Attica.
Your knowledge of WWII history is scanty as well. A) Hitler and company did not begin systematic genocide until after Germany was at war with the USA; the decision to begin the Endlosung was not made until after Pearl Harbor. B) The guarantees of the treaty did not give FDR or anyone else free reign to attack Germany, only to reoccupy the areas specified in Article 429. C) This logic justifies the 9/11 attacks on the USA, as the establishment of bases around the world are obvious preparations to attack countries that are not even neighbors of the USA.
Furthermore, Iraq is not a member state of the USA and it is not in the USA’s national interest to occupy it or even prevent its government from slaughtering its people. Nor is democracy in the American national interst, here in America or anywhere else in the world. Finally, I note that Athens, too, established many bases around the Pelopponese in support of its empire – Pylos, Cythera, Aegina, Cephallenia, Methana, Nisea, Naupaktos and Zkynthos – and this was done in the period immediately prior to its decline and fall.