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Author's note: The following is the text of a talk given in Paris on March 21, at the "Prendre le Moyens de la paix au XXI siecle," which I believe roughly translates into "Prospects for Peace in the 21st Century," a conference sponsored by Bernardins College and the Sorbonne.

I am not cheered by the subject of my talk here today, which is the decline and fall of the American empire, first, because I am an American, and, second, because the description of America as an empire fits it all too well. When you remember that the American Revolution was fought against an imperial power, that U.S. was born in a struggle against an occupying army, and that its victory against the British was an inspiration to anti-imperialist liberals everywhere, it is a shaming thing to have to come here to describe how it ended in tragedy, betrayal, and a short and ugly decline.

That decline was not written in the stars but made inevitable by the actions of individual men (and women!), the men and women who rule us, the elites in government and the corporate world, in ... >>>