No one's advocating Christians shirk their civic responsibilities. On the contrary, I'm all in favor of their embracing their civic responsibility to resist the Biggest International Bully of Them All. This would entail, at a minimum, repudiating the conversionists' adoption of the methods ("Thou Shalt Not Steal or Kill, Unless Thou Art Advancing the State's Version of the 'Public Interest'") employed by the reigning territorial monopolist of force (TMF), whether that TMF presumes to Preserve the Disorder only within its own borders--like those peon "isolationist" nations run by mullahs--or across borders, like the One Indispensable Nation run by forward-thinking men of vision like Bush and Obama.

Yes, Pox (sic) Americana, like its Pax Brittania and Pax Romana predecessors, can serve an invaluable service if it preserves the civic peace. I see very little evidence it does. The words of Tacitus--"Where they make a desert, they call it peace"--still ring true. Millions of Iraqis and Afghanis will testify to them.

The Pox may or may not protect the roads and waterways. Either way, there's no reason to believe smaller governmental units or private interests can't accomplish that task more efficiently and inexpensively.

Finally, I see no evidence Obama is appeasing bullies--unless you mean he's appeasing his pals in the military-industrial complex and himself. That sham of a Nobel Peace Prize notwithstanding, he's pretty much pursuing the policies of his predecessor: maintaining the U.S. military presence in Iraq, expanding it in Afghanistan, and siccing his drones on Yemeni and Pakistani wedding parties.

Happily, when the inevitable blowback comes, as it did on 9/11, the Empire and its apologists can blame "Islamofascists" motivated by hatred for our freedoms. As if the imperial mischief-making had nothing to do with it. As if the victims of Muslim extremism are any more innocent than the victims of U.S. imperial extremism. As if we're free. And on and on it goes.