Paying the Bills. Review: The Frugal Superpower  Injured Piggy
Bank  Is the US too broke to continue its global empire? Photo:
Kenteegardin via Flickr.  For some, the distinction between
coolly rational foreign policy theorists and messianic
interventionists out to remake the world in America’s image is
enticing. Lively, endless debate ensues.  Did our not-fully
engaged engagement in Egypt and Libya get it right, or did we
allow radical elements in Islam an opening? Did we fail in
Vietnam because we didn’t allow ourselves to win, or…? Is red
wine better than white?  Too broke  The Frugal Superpower:
America’s Global Leadership In a Cash-Streapped Era primarily
concerns global politics from the perspective of political
science professor Michael Mandelbaum, who hails from the liberal
interventionist mainstream.  Mandelbaum’s thesis is that for
economic reasons the US can’t continue the foreign interventions
it’s long made.  To him such a forced return to minding only our
own interests is not in the world’s or o