"This self-image, combining grandeur with insufferable smugness, both energizes and perverts U.S. foreign policy. It inspires American policymakers to undertake breathtakingly bold initiatives such as the Marshall Plan—Harry Truman setting out to rebuild a Europe laid prostrate by war. Yet it also inspires the likes of George W. Bush to pursue his Freedom Agenda—an expressed intent to transform the entire Islamic world, providing a rationale for open-ended “global war.”

Andrew Bacevich is professor of History and International Relations at Boston University. His latest book is "Washington Rules: America's Path to Permanent War."

to read Andrew Bacevich's article published in: Boston Review Jan/Feb 2010, click on

bostonreview.net/BR35.1/bacevich.php

to watch Andrew Bacevich on Book TV Sept 12, 2010, click on

www.booktv.org/Watch/11815/Washington+Rules+Americas+Path+to+Permanent+War.aspx