Ralph Peters understands empire. In 1997, he wrote this for the US Army War College's Quarterly, Parameters:

There will be no peace. At any given moment for the rest of our lifetimes, there will be multiple conflicts in mutating forms around the globe. Violent conflict will dominate the headlines, but cultural and economic struggles will be steadier and ultimately more decisive. The de facto role of the US armed forces will be to keep the world safe for our economy and open to our cultural assault. To those ends, we will do a fair amount of killing.

Ralph Peters has this to say about the present administration's management:

My disillusionment with our Iraq endeavor began last summer, when I was invited to a high-level discussion with administration officials. I went into the meeting with one firm goal, to convince my hosts that they'd better have Plan B in case Iraq continued to disintegrate. I left the session convinced that the administration still didn't have Plan A, only a blur of meandering policies and blind hopes.

Ralph Peters doesn't have a problem with us imposing our will on weaker nations. He has a problem with the disasters brought about by the Cheney-Rumsfeld axis. Even then, he doesn't question their motives. He only knows that, from a military standpoint, something is very wrong with the whole situation.

Iraq is failing. No honest observer can conclude otherwise.