vitation. Bubbling over with the platitudes of democracy andrnhuman rights, our political leaders rain death on the innocentrnpeoples of Iraq and Serbia; repeating by rote the slogans of internationalrnfree trade, they impose criminal embargoes uponrnLibya, Iraq, Cuba, and Yugoslavia, when everybody knows thatrnthe only effect of such embargoes is to deprive simple people ofrnthe necessihes of life. And if anyone does speak out in lawfulrnprotest, he is immediately labeled an anti-American leftist.rnWlien Pat Buchanan finally came out against economic sanctionsrnas acts of war, he was denounced as a friend of dictators byrnlongtime Republican operative (and current Donald Trumprnadvisor) Roger Stone. My people, my people, as Zora NealernHurston used to say.rnEven the American clergy have lost their humanity. Wlien Irnwas quoted recently in the Nation to the effect that the UnitedrnStates was becoming an evil empire, a liberal cleric who has displayedrnno serious interest in foreign policy denounced the statementrnas “repugnant.” In fact, there is a swelling chorus ofrnbloodthirsty cheers for NATO chanted by the very leftists whorntook part in illegal demonstrations against the Vietnam War.rnThey were delighted when Martin Luther King, Jr., toldrnAfrican-American soldiers not to fight the white man’s warrnagainst a colored nation in Asia, but they call for the rack andrnthe iron maiden when conservatives appeal to the conscience ofrntheir fellow eihzens.rnThere is no paradox: These people supported internationalrnsocialism in the I960’s, when it was espoused by the SovietrnUnion, but now that the U.S.S.R. has disintegrated and Clinton’srnemerging U.S.S.A. has taken up the Brezhnev mantel, leftwingrnglobalists (many of whom prefer to be called conservatives)rnhave discovered that aerial bombardment of civilians is arnvirtuous display of patrioHsm.rnMeanwhile, the refugees from NATO continue on theirrnweary way. Belgrade is overflowing with the victims of thernAmerican attack on Kosovo and the American-Croat expulsionrnof the Krajina Serbs. Western relief experts estimate that asrnmuch as ten percent of the Serbian population is literally starvingrnto death. Refugees from U.S./NATO policies are bringingrnkiller strains of TB and even the Black Death into the Americanrnheartland.rnThe Dark Ages are back, and the Eastern parts of Christendomrnare being overrun by barbarian invasions. This time, however,rnthe invaders are sent and paid for by a country that used tornbe both Christian and republican. If we have any power as citizensrnover American foreign policy, it is not through marchesrnand demonstrations but through our votes; every two years for arncongressman, every four years for the president, every six for arnsenator. It is time to retire the Democrats and to send ever)’ Republicanrncollaborator back home where he can find out whatrnhis votes in Congress are doing to his constituents.rnWhat is a practical litmus test for Christians? Most might sayrnabortion, but whatever they do, presidents and congressmenrnwill never be able to prevent an evil woman from killing her baby;rnthey can, however, refuse to murder European Christians.rnIf George Bush will promise to bring home the boys and girlsrnand to give up this foolish and evil dream of world empire, gornahead and vote for him, even if you think he may be lying. If,rnon the other hand, he will promise only to be Clinton-and-ahalfrn—a Rehoboam to Clinton’s Solomon —then Christiansrnwho can think for themselves are free to answer: “Every man tornyour tents, O Israel,” and to find new leaders and new partiesrnthat will call a halt from this insane march to our destruction, crnDICTATIONSrnTime’s Ugliest ChildrenrnBetween the two world wars, Robinson Jcffersrnwatched a.s the old ^American Republic settled intornempire. Jeffers was an honest man, a patrioticrnDemocrat who knew that the extension of Americanrnhegemony into Europe and /sia could only mean anrn”empire.” Since candor has never been an Americanrnvirtue, American imperialists prefer kinder, gentler expressions,rnlike “saving the world for democracy” or “protectingrnhuman rights.” ‘llie prize for the most impudentrneuphemism goes to the Weekly Standard for proposing tornsubstitute the original Latin imperium for a downright Englishrnderivative that means what it says.rnI would like to a.ssvune that the Standard’s KKK of foreignrnpolicy—Kristol-Kagan-Kaplan—know enough l^iinrnto be deliberately dishonest, but in the unlikely event theyrnare sincere, they might pause to consider the history of im-rn/jenum/”empire.” Tlie Latin term means something likernsovereign authority, and imperium was the sovereign powerrnof the Roman commonwealth as exercised by the magistrates.rnA republican proconsular general could wieldrnthat same power outside Roman territor}’, and althoughrnfrom an outsider’s perspective—that of a Gaul or a Jew—rnimperiimi would obviously represent an alien force tryingrnto occupy his eountrv’, the word did not specify even thernform of government, much less a particular foreign policy.rn{Imperium was, however, used even by Romans as arnmetaphor for the area they ruled.)rnThis benign use of empire survived into h’.nglish. “Allrnempire is no more than power in trust,” was the sage Drj’-rndcn’s observation. A hundred years later, however, whenrnBurke uses “enipire,” he is more likely to mean the Britishrncolonial dominions. Then which of these two basicrnmeanings does the Standard have in mind, when it commendsrnimperium as the goal of American foreign policy?rnNot, surelv, the primary l^atin sense of sovereign authority,rnbecause no one challenges the fact that the Americanrngovernment exercises sovereign authority within its territory.rnThe only alternative explanation is that they want tornmisuse imperium to mean empire in its later, colonialrnsense, but that they lack the courage of the British imperialistsrnwhom they so much admire.rnIn this duplicit)’, the neoconservatives are at one withrnthe liq)ocritical President they only pretend to criticize.rnTheir nnnored trips to Texas to visit the governor and fillrnhis head with their uninformed and incoherent musingsrnon foreign policy should be a cause for alarm among thernRepublican consenatives who insist that a Bush II presidencyrnwill represent a real change from the Clinton years.rn- IJumpty Dumptyrn12/CHRONICLESrnrnrn