I think that Niall Ferguson is a really sad
little man. He imagines a British Empire that
never was and wants the US to be the "Second
Anglo-Saxon Empire", which will do only good,
because they are good, and even if something
nasty happens, it isn´t bad, because somebody
else would do even nastier things if these
Anglo-Saxon Rulers of the World wouldn´t.

British Empire was far from a benign and progressive
force in the world. All empires are. I am reminded
of the praise the Pax Mongolica always gets; people
forget that before it the Mongols orchestrated several
genocides and killed a significant part of the
population of Asia. Before anything positive emerges
from empires, dark deeds are done. And even during
the heighday of the empire, dark deeds are done to
keep the Empire from collapsing.

Roman Empire gets always good publicity, even when
it really was an oppresive and authoritarian system,
which always had millions of slaves and whose rulers
were never shy of a massacre or a genocide.

The world doesn´t need empires, it needs countries
which co-operate and solve their problems together.
Empires are always waging a war somewhere.