Magnitude..............................

     Contemporary America is often now seen through the lens of ancient Athens, both as a center of culture and as an unpredictable imperial power that can arbitrarily impose democracy on friends and enemies alike.   Thomas Paine long ago spelled this natural affinity out:  "What Athens was in miniature, America will be in magnitude."  Like ancient Athenians, present-day Americans are often said to believe that  "they can be opposed in nothing," and abroad can "equally achieve what was easy and what was hard."  Although Americans offer the world a radically egalitarian popular culture and, more recently, in a very Athenian mood, have sought to remove oligarchs and impose democracy - in Grenada, Panama, Serbia, Afghanistan, and Iraq - enemies, allies, and neutrals alike are not so impressed.  They understandably fear American power and intentions while our successive governments, in the manner of confident and proud Athenians, assure them of our morality and selflessness.   Military power and idealism about bringing about perceived civilization to others are a prescription for frequent conflict in any age ...

-Victor Davis Hanson,  A War Like No Other:  How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War