An odd kind of empire
We somehow missed James Woolsey's essay on the contribution of Judaism to the rule of law when it appeared in Friday's Jerusalem Post on the occasion of the Jewish New Year. It is a moving declaration of solidarity and respect: "We are all Jews."
Responding to the notion that the United States today is an imperial power, Woolsey points to our distinctly unimperial presidents. Woolsey writes: "People (and smaller nations wherein an empire maintains troops) obey emperors, if they know what’s good for them, without much discussion. These two recent presidents [Nixon and Clinton] were, instead, held to account in a distinctly non-imperial way — in pretty much the same way Elijah humbled Ahab for allowing his queen, Jezebel, to frame and execute Naboth and steal his vineyard, and in the way the prophet Nathan confronted David over his taking Bathsheba and ordering her husband, Uriah, to the front lines and certain death.
"The US does not look back to Rome or France at the height of their power in determining the way to deal with those who today govern the most powerful nation in history. Thankfully, in regard to the powerful being subjected to the rule of law we are, instead, all Jews." (Courtesy of Little Green Footballs.)
