Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

"American policy is still powered by the fantasy of Manifest Destiny, though the limits were once set by the borders of the continent, whereas today America's destiny embraces the entire world. There are still more hordes of redskins to be mowed down before virtue triumphs; as the classic Western movies explain, the only good Red is a dead Red. This may sound like an exaggeration to those who live in the special and more finely modulated atmosphere of New York and its environs. Cross the Hudson. You find out that not just some Americans but virtually all Americans feel that way."

"The unquenchable American moralism and the American faith in violence ... constitute a full-grown, firmly installed national psychosis, founded, as are all psychoses, on the efficacious denial of reality. ... Since wars always happen Over There, and we always win, why not drop the bomb? If all it takes is pushing a button, even better."

"I think that this administration's foreign policies are likely to lead to more wars and to wider wars. ... It's hard to lead a holy war without allies. But America is just crazy enough to try to do it."

From Susan Sontag's "What's Happening in America," written in 1966.