"Which certainly is Empirical behavior, is it not?"

Nope.

"What I've gotten is inconclusive replies and what I feel is a sort of concealed pretension and personal attacks from others, which isn't that fun to have."

Uh, me, Unne, and others have stated that it's not an empire because it does nothing to fit the definition of empire. I don't see how that counts as any of what you've listed above.


"Seriously, did Romans fancy they had an Empire at first?"

No, but they concurred other countries and ruled them. The US hasn't. That's a huge, huge difference.

"If Bush declared America an Empire, would we fall in line too? That's a thought to ponder."

I don't know what you mean. I really doubt that if Bush said that America was an empire, Martin (my Prime Minister) would go "Oh, ok, have my country." If by we you mean American citizens, well, that still wouldn't make the US an empire. It would just think it's one.

"There can be only personal responses, not large sweeping answers that completely rule out one side over the other."

I disagree, since this deals with the definition of a word. The word "empire" isn't ambiguous, and doesn't have many meanings. Not everything is in shades of grey.


"In the beginning of this country, you could argue that "Manifest Destiny" was certainly another fancy word for an Empire, as we took control of land, and claimed it for our own."

The Manifest Destiny thing was definitely an empirical attitude, yep.

"There still seems to be a form of Manifest Destiny that lingers in that America feels it must get involved in everything and that "The American Way" must find its way into every country."

Manifest Destiny was some American's belief that all of North America should be un American rule. I would say it's too much of a stretch to say that that applies to Americans believing that their way is the best way. It doesn't mean they think other countries should be ruled by them.

"How about instead of saying "right" or "wrong", we say, "I'm justified in my belief because..."? It feels a lot less angry and might calm tension a bit. Just a thought."

I don't think that sort of tact is necessary here. I honestly don't see anything worth being angered or tense about.

Usually I would agree that most things aren't just right or wrong, but not here. The word "empire" is very specifically defined, and the US doesn't fit it. It's as simple as that.