The Limits of (American) Power

Talking Points Memo book club has been focused on Col. Andrew Bacevich's new book "The Limits of Power" over the past few days. The whole back and forth between Bacevich and the others is interesting and points to how America might reclaim a truly conservative (as opposed to neoconservative) foreign policy.

Here's a smaple from Bacevich himself:

What I try to argue is that empire (or at least an expansionist foreign policy) once /paid. /Indeed, if we cite the Louisiana Purchase as the beginning of serious American expansionism, then it paid quite nicely for at least the next century-and-a-half. By the time I was born after World War II, the United States had become the most powerful, the richest, and (for the white majority), the freest nation on earth. Americans liked to attribute the nation's success to Providence or their own virtues, but that was nonsense. We acquired power because we sought power. Many (by no means all) Americans then reaped the benefits of power.

The problem is that for roughly the past four or five decades empire (or expansionism) has /ceased/ to pay. Unfortunately, our political elites, deeply invested in obsolete and bloated conceptions of "global leadership," won't face the facts.
Will Obama be able to break us of these old habits? Maybe. His pragmatic inclinations offer modest cause for hope. But persuading institutions wedded to the expansionist tradition to change poses a mighty challenge.