Let's start with a wider context for this question, from the point of view of an American living in Eastern Europe:

Communism has apparently spent itself as a major political force. Now I believe we are in for the testing of democracy - democracy and capitalism. Their supposed twin victory is likely to be tried severely in the decades to come.

It seems that the "false strength" of the US - its reflexive assertion of military and technological superiority for a quick fix - has been weakened by the ongoing Iraq crisis, but its real strength has a chance to emerge if the country's ruling powers will allow themselves to be chastened by their own blunders on the way to empire. Unhappy response now in Iraq, Afghanistan, and in many parts of the world, could conceivably direct the United States towards the limits to unilateral power it needs sooner or later to grasp. Such response can bring the lesson that, in the end, other nations do not like to cooperate with a country so heavy-handed militarily and arrogant in attitude that they must find ways to either withdraw or resist its aims.

But the strengthening of the United States, I think, mainly depends on the American people; whether we are able to shake ourselves from the trance induced by a media that has become an alarming fusion of government and corporate interests, and realize several things:

1. Our democratic way of life is not to be taken for granted. We can lose what democracy we have and we are losing it - inch by inch: not because of outer attacks from al-Quaida, but because of our government's increasingly distorted response to them. The civil liberties we deny the Guantanamo captives are the civil liberties we practice losing for ourselves.

2. We are fast becoming hostage to a new political agenda of America preeminence in the world, brought by a group of neo-conservatives waiting in the wings since the last Bush administration. The attractiveness of this ideology draws from the deep trauma after September 11, the imperial ambitions of a few, and unfortunately, a kind of insulation from, and ignorance about, the rest of the world which is also to be found in America. We are afraid and could obey our government and close ranks against outsiders. But do we really want to be an empire?

3. We are cultivating the loss of respect and very likely the cooperation of other nations. The ripple of sympathy for America around the globe after the attacks turned to confusion then anger after the US administration showed disregard and open ridicule for European allies who disagreed with its determination to go to war. The policy in the aftermath of Afghanistan and Iraq, articulated with a peculiar combination of fervor, naïvety, and entitlement, sows hatred, not least among the Arab world - the very sort of hatred that bewildered Americans after September 11. Do we want to alienate the world in order to protect ourselves? Can we afford to lose the last scrap of good will in order to "prevail" in a world more and more filled with enemies?

I was one of those not convinced by the arguments for the Iraq war, but not able to demonstrate against it with conviction either.

After living in post-Communist Europe for many years, I recognized how fragile is the making of a democracy and how easily it can be unmade. It was only in experiencing the psychological aftermath of totalitarianism that I understood what a marvel the US constitution actually is, and that few countries on earth have anything like the codified protections of, say, free speech, which Americans like me assumed would always be there. But fear and war media have contributed to a subtle and not-so-subtle censorship in the United States right now that is marginalizing the voices of foreigners and shaming the opinions of dissenters.

A Russian I met there last fall said of the US he recognized the signs of a press moving towards totalitarian thinking. During the war preparations, he remarked glumly that he never thought he'd see America become the next Soviet Union. The message over the airwaves at the time was essentially this: They are trying to get us, so we'd better get them first. The "they" was alternately the Washington sniper, the Anthrax perpetrators, Saddam Hussein, an Indonesian paramilitary group, and other potential enemies. The international news coverage I'd had in Europe was hard to find.

This worries me. The outcry I hear is mainly from foreigners who live or work in the US, not from my educated and perceptive American friends.

The US government thought democracy would break out in Iraq like crocuses in spring. Even in the Czech Republic, which has more cultural similarity to America as well as a bit of democratic history, truly democratic institutions are tenuous at best. America simply cannot, with a wave of the wand and a little fairy dust, remake other traditions into its own image of democratic capitalism.

On the question of the only remaining superpower becoming the new Empire: The fear of Americans is being captured for ideological purposes that have grave consequences and Americans need to decide whether we choose an imperial vision, on both moral and practical grounds. Empire generates resistance for one thing. And can the US continue to pursue such adventures without bleeding itself dry militarily and economically? And without losing the last scrap of good will in Europe and the rest of the world? Can it cajole countries' support and let them down in return, such as it did with its new friend Poland? (Poland hoped for a relaxation of visa regulations, but was told too many of its citizens seek illegal jobs in the US.)

Lots of nations know the dangers and traps and burdens of empire, like Britain, but my government is not really listening these days. It's not listening to its own military strategists who are concerned that personnel and equipment are overstretched, compromising the ability to respond to threats. It's not really listening to the foreigners in its midst - many citizens or long-term residents - who are alarmed at the measures taken against them in the name of homeland security, and who weep, earlier than others, for the loss of the American dream.

For America, that special country with a marvel of a constitution, is the repository of the dreams of ordinary people around the world. Along with American pop culture and consumer goods, citizens everywhere have looked have looked to its mythical dimensions: the openness, the inclusion, the protection of liberty. It's time now, more doggedly than before, to practice discerning the myth from the reality.

What I wonder is if our remaining superpower will use its special status and power on behalf of the world as a whole or will it simply visit its trauma from September 11 on every living thing outside its borders?

We'll have to choose. If Americans like me are skeptical of wielding power unilaterally and without restraint, we'll have to challenge the ideology of empire at the core of a government that's not really listening. We'll have to challenge that ideology with irresistible pressure and from every fiber of our being, and thereby re-earn our democracy.

And all the people outside our borders who recognize clearly what our country is becoming - who know the difference between false and real strength - can help us to see.