Some Conservative Anti-Imperialism

"A chief danger both to ourselves and others is that we shall continue to have a frontier psychology long after we have ceased to have a frontier," wrote a great conservative mind eight-and-a-half decades ago, quoted by Daniel McCarthy — Before Bacevich, Babbitt. "For a frontier psychology is expansive, and expansiveness, I have tried to show, is, at least in its political manifestations, always imperialistic."

"Imperialism is cruel, and I anticipate that I will eventually prove it to be unjust," wrote a great conservative blogger yesterday — Imperial Fortresses Considered As Wasps' Nests. Interestingly, considering Prof. Babbit's remarks, he notes that the "the globe-spanning empire of Portugal" was "a natural continuation of Portugal's reconquest of territory from the Moors."