Another area where science is very weak is in the use of statistics. People who work in areas which are not rigorously mathematical, such as psychology or economics, will take a course in statistics in order to analyse their experimental data. Most amateur statisticians don't understand that statistics deal with probabilities, not certainties, even after they have taken statistics 101. They will report that their experiments prove that their hypothesis is true when what they should report is that there is a X% probability that their hypothesis is true.
Or to put it in the terms Luis Ibáñez used in his article: The experiment shows a X% chance that the hypothesis is true and a Y% chance that the hypothesis is false. Since X > Y then the hypothesis is likely to be true.
"They just don't like the idea of a strong national "offense," if you catch my drift."
I think that a better term for what you are describing is "imperialism".
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Steve Stites