Some people say the United States behaves like a world bully. There's a term for those people: Morons. Pampered morons but morons nevertheless.

Let us pretend that in 1944 when Roosevelt died that his Vice President was actually I. Bully. He was actually the genetic twin of Adolph Hitler. And as World War II came to a close, he instituted a policy of world bullyism. What would he have done and what could have been done about it?

1945: The entire population of Japan is exterminated. Every man, woman, and child is killed. American colonists begin recolonizing the vacant land.

1946: Mass production of the A-bomb allows the sole atomic bomb source, the USA, to annihilate Soviet Russa. Stalin and his regime is wiped from the face of the earth.

1950: There is no North Korea as South Korea absorbs all of North Korea. USA doctrine: No country is allowed to have nuclear weapons. Anyone who tests an atomic bomb will be annihilated immediately.

1951: French and German governments are officially reinstated but must rebuild themselves. US goods are imported in with no tarrifs. No tarrifs are allowed on US goods.

1960: All of middle east is made into a US colony. Native peoples are rounded up and forced to live in reservations where no oil has been found. Uprisings are brutally crushed with deadly force. Any person found with a fireharm has their family executed along with them.

1967: There is no war as US has made known that any move against Israel would result in atomic retaliation from the United States.

1979: Iran is destroyed after several ICBMs level the country in relatiation for uprisings against US embassy.

1980: There is no Iran-Iraq war since Iran doesn't exist anymore. Saddam's regime moves into Iran.

1984: China is caught testing an atomic weapon. All of China is obliterated by the United States in nuclear attack using new low fall-out nuclear weapons. India and Pakistan, who both have suspected nuclear programs at the time, open themselves to inspection by the USAEC.

1989: Canada (except for Quebec) is annexed peacefully by the United States. The border with Mexico is militarized with deadly force to any who cross the border.

1995: WTO now globally accepted. It is different from our reality's WTO in that the United States government is the sole arbitrator of WTO rules.

2000: Trusted countries such as the UK, Australia, and other Anglo-Saxxon based countries form a league with the USA to help maintain "global peace and prosperity".

In this nightmare scenario I have just provided we would all, including Americans, be worse off. On the other hand, there is nothing to have stopped the United States from having done this. The US did have a monopoly on atomic weapons for a long enough time to have made that monopoly realistic as long as it was willing to commit genocide and "bully" the world to achieve its goals. The events of World War II have taught us that genocide is not something unthinkable. It wasn't even the last time when genocide has been commited.

The USA is not perfect. It has its share of faults. But it isn't a bully. Or...if it is, it is a very benign bully. Those who claim otherwise are being dishonest because they rely on the compassion and humanity of Americans to be restrained. I have no doubt that the terrorists of the world would, if roles were reversed, not feel that restraint.