End of Empire
By Jim Hoagland
Sunday, May 9, 2004
The idea that quick military triumphs in Afghanistan and Iraq inaugurated an era of American global empire died a quiet death on Capitol Hill on Friday as Congress raked Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld over the coals for mishandling the Abu Ghraib prison abuse scandal. The United States must make do with less grandiose but more meaningful missions abroad.
The photographs of grinning goons in uniform taking pleasure in the sexual humiliation of Arab captives have inflicted "a world of hurt" on America's reputation abroad, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said in a gentle scolding of Rumsfeld. The excuses of "just following orders" from guards or explanations that "the system worked" from the Pentagon's tone-deaf leadership fell as flat on the Hill as they have with foreign audiences.
The tough grilling that Rumsfeld received should do more to heal "the hurt" than the grudging apologies that he and President Bush have issued. This was the American system operating in antithesis to delusions of empire. It took only a sleazy, degr
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