Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"The Pax Americana, the three generations of relative peace and prosperity that followed World War II, was different in every detail from the Roman Principate. Not only are we vastly richer than Rome could have imagined, we're also a lot nicer: America has done some terrible and shameful things, but nothing like what the Romans did when they got angry.

"Still, our sort-of empire, like Rome's, has been held together mainly by soft power rather than violence. Even when America was an overwhelmingly dominant economic and military power, it generally exercised restraint, getting its allies to buy in to our system rather than resorting to raw compulsion.

"And it worked really well. Not perfectly, of course, but we gave the world -- and ourselves -- an era that was incredibly benign compared with the modern Thirty Years War that came before."

-- Paul Krugman, 2018-06-17

[Yes, there's a "but...". Despite that "but", I wish all my countrymen a wonderful Independence Day!]