Like Sand Through the Hourglass

I met a traveller from an antique land,
Who said--"Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desart . . . . Near them, on the sand,
Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, the heart that fed;
And on the pedestal, these words appear:
My name is Ozymandius, King of Kings,
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
Nothing beside remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away."
Ozymandius by Percy Bryce Shelly

He [President Bush] is pursuing a Pax Americana. This peace will not be the false peace that flows from appeasement, but the true peace that flows from victory. The conduct of this war should make America proud. It is fought reluctantly and with every possible care for civilians.

But the peace will be George Bush's best legacy. For despite the bleating of the left that this war was fought "for oil," America will not touch a single oil well except to put out the fires and hand over the oil to the Iraqi people. And in the wake of victory, America will help to create the first democracy in the Arab world. This is the first step in tugging the region into the 21st century, and thereby extinguishing the terrorist wildfire.
Pax Americana, Mona Charen

I hope Ms. Charen is right in her assesment of the future, and I think it is up to us as citizens to support this vision of the future.