The American Century

In Farewell, the American Century Andrew Bacevich almost sounds like the Archbishop of Canterbury:

we [the United States should ] apologize to them [Cuba, Japan, Iran and Afghanistan] for our own good -- to free ourselves from the accumulated conceits of the American Century and to acknowledge that the United States participated fully in the barbarism, folly, and tragedy that defines our time. For those sins, we must hold ourselves accountable.

To solve our problems requires that we see ourselves as we really are. And that requires shedding, once and for all, the illusions embodied in the American Century.

David Hayes and I would have added Iraq to the list.

Paul Collier observes:

Chinese aid to the US has been like EU aid to Chad, but on the grand scale: China paid for Iraq.