Angry One plus Kissinger equals Endless War

"A foiled and frustrated McCain — trying to get covered when the entire media world has gone fishin’ for Obama stories — took the Hillary tack of mocking the press for having a “love affair,” as his campaign said, with the senator. McCain is hopping mad that the surge that he backed, and Obama resisted, has now set the stage for the Bush puppet Maliki to agree with Obama’s exit strategy. But Obama has a better batting average with his judgment on how we shouldn’t have gotten into Iraq, we should have gone after Osama and we should talk to Iran and other foes, if only to better assess their psychology. Then we might have deduced that Saddam had the “Beware of Dog” sign up without the dog.
It doesn’t work for McCain — and his foreign policy guru Henry Kissinger — to keep insisting that timetables will lead to defeat.

The Angry One can try to paint The One as having bad judgment. But who is being advised by Kissinger, the man who helped keep us in Vietnam and get us into Iraq?"

-Maureen Dowd

Pride goeth before the fall

Oregon Pundit does a great job responding to Thomas Friedman's latest column.

When other countries are your bankers, how strong are we?

An old mentor used to say "He who holds the gold makes the rules."

Lobster Summit

They lauded Condi Rice as a Russian expert. So what was accomplished during the Lobster Summit? Sounds like Putin looked into the soul of Bush and found nothing.

Putin is taking full advantage of Shrubs weakened position at home and globally.

Putin 1, Shrub 0

Brooks: New World Order

"In the future, Kagan concludes, the U.S. is going to have to stabilize regional conflicts and gradually push back against the autocratic tide. The U.S. will also remain the most ardent champion of liberty in the face of Islamist anti-modernism. American predominance is not a danger. It’s the only thing standing between us and regression to a more dangerous world.

For what it’s worth, I’d say Ikenberry underestimates the power of nationalism. There’s little evidence that different nations with their contradictory moral cultures can really cooperate, except in utter crisis. But I’d also say Kagan underplays postnational threats. More than in the 19th century, security threats come in the form of global guerrillas, loose nukes and disintegrating nations.

Instead, we’re trapped in a hybrid world, in which many problems are postnational but the social structures are unavoidably national. The interesting bright spot is that both Ikenberry and Kagan believe in a Concert of Democracies, an emerging body where countries that do share values can rebut autocracy and consolidate their common success.

It’s a start."

Zoellick's Unpaid spin doctor

It would have been nice if Irwin Steltzer would have put his disclaimer in the first paragraph of his glowing commentary.