I imagine it would be the Roman empire. Alexanders empire was problably larger as he simply took over all lands of the Persian empire...all the way to India. But it didnt last as long under one government.
Excellent point, Dora (love the name, by the way). The best we can hope for is that the next douchebag to take office is just a morally corrupt scumbag, like Clinton, and not a religious zealot warmonger like Bush.
Here is the reason, simple and absolute. Violence is the Absolute Authority, the authtority from which all other authority is derived. You can hem and haw all you want about it, but it is the truth. Violence or the threat of violence has been the solution for almost every conflict in human history. Go ahead think for a while on everyday life, how many of your life's decision are influence by the threat of violence. That is true everywhere.
If violence was the supreme authority, a weak creature like homo sapiens could never have survived on his own.
Violence is certainty is the supreme authority within the three Abrahamic religions...all of whom incorporate Gods wrath to contend with. If God wasnt wrathful his directives would simply be one of a number of human choices...instead of the only choice.
Sam, I don't know what "witch hunt" or "mass murder of people under communist regimes" you're talking about so far as Communism is concerned, but the US and the USSR essentially negotiated and played brinkmanship for 60 years, with both sides avoiding "bombing" each other. Within this setup, a perfect example of where the US was willing to talk instead of using brute force is the Cuban missile crisis. With Libya, I was speaking of more recent history, not the Reagan bombings of the 80s, which were done, in part, as a retaliation of Libya sponsoring terrorism, which it subsequently stopped doing after the bombings, so score one for Mr. Reagan. However, shortly after 9/11, American diplomacy through back channels, combined with the threat of a new "bunker buster" bomb, led Libya to renounce its campaign to acquire nuclear weapons. I provided specific examples about China and Pakistan where diplomacy was successful, examples you chose to ignore and thumb your nose at. But such is the behavior I've come to expect from you...
Not the least for the supposed half that believes in global warming. I'm an atheist, a politically unaffiliated Independent, and a decades-long astronomy teacher by professional trade. Global warming by human-induced carbon forcing is a myth. Your's is the religion of irrational water vapor denial. There must be a reason.