"Permeating the FDD essays is an implicit assumption that we still live in the world of 2000. Back then, policy elites had persuaded themselves (along with more than a few ordinary Americans) that the United States was in history’s driver seat while possessing the military might necessary to keep history moving in the right direction.

Two decades later, FDD analysts see no reason to question continuing U.S. ideological and military supremacy. By extension, they see no need to think critically about what Washington’s recurring misuse of military power in recent decades has actually produced and who has paid the bills. Nor are they willing to acknowledge the possibility that while the United States preoccupied itself with needless wars, history headed off in directions that American policymakers failed to anticipate and that employees of FDD would seemingly prefer to ignore."