Scowcroft thinks GWB gets it but the Republican Party does not. Can't argue with the latter but I've seen precious little evidence of the former. And S advances none.
agreed. this admin is very, very tough to figure out. I first thought it was gonna be the Bushies vs. the Reaganites, with the Bushies winning on points. Then it turned out to the be Reaganites winning by a TKO. After 9/11 the Bushies came back, but after the victory in Afghanistan they lost ground once again. Right now the Reaganites are riding high in the saddle, and every indication I've seen is that GWB himself is more like Ronnie than like poppa. And yet, and yet, they're gonna confront reality at some point, and a lot of these guys are smart enough to see real problems when they're staring them in the face.
So...for me the Iraq thing is shaping up to be huge. Increasingly, I've come around to the Pollack view--invasion would be desirable--both because it would take care of a nasty problem and because if done right it would set a wonderful tone for the century: "America, the serious but responsible hegemon. Good guys don't have to fear us, but bad guys better not f*ck with us." Still, I just don't see it happening, though. At the end of the day, therefore, the situation on foreign policy now is like what it was with our tech faves during the collapsing bubble: not much visibility out there...
tb@nightynight.com |
