I have NEVER heard anyone 'speak' or even hint at such a thing.
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Please do a search on FR and google for keywords like empire, imperial, imperialism, colonialism and all the variants. You will find opinion columns from National Review, The Weekly Standard, The Wall Street Journal, The New Republic and a host of other sources from center left/center right (neocon) pundits who have been trying to whitewash these terms so we can get use to the idea.