Bush: Militants seek to establish empire

And we don’t?

That’s the latest justification for the invasion of Iraq.

What about those plans for a dozen or so U.S. military bases? The neoconservatives’ wet dream of using Iraq as the first domino in the Middle East to create governments both more democratic (at least in theory) and more subservient to us? And, what about these “more democratic” governments being more socialized to American capitalism while we’re at it, as Karen Hughes would have us think all Arabs want?

Geez. Niall Ferguson at least has it right that the neocons (and many others) should at least be honest with themselves and the country at large that we already act like an empire.