The final straw for the European Community may well have been our plans to go forward with the Star Wars initiative. Well it isn't reasonable to anyone else. We use an economic stick to bludgeon countries into accepting our will. There has only been one nation in recorded history that has used nuclear weapons on another. I don't think most Americans want to rule the earth.
History is littered with the remains of immoral societies that have tried.
We can be the most powerful nation on earth and be part of a cooperative global community as well. Getting rid of ignorant insular rednecks like Jesse Helms is a start.