By Steve Clemons

I just ran in to the Australian Ambassador to the United States at the Sydney International Airport, where I’m about to depart for Los Angeles. More when I get back to the U.S.

Michael Ledeen — who once told me that he only supported the Iraq War because it provided momentum and pre-positioning of American military forces to then go after Iran — is not going to feel self-actualized until America unleashes a considerable portion of its arsenal against the nation and people of Iran.

I’m not very culturally literate, and it took my table partner at the ongoing Australian American Leadership Dialogue to tell me that the erudite, bald-headed guy speaking eloquently and convincingly about sensible strategies to confront climate change was a former lead singer of the group Midnight Oil, Peter Garrett.

My blogging colleague, Juan Cole, who publishes the blog, Informed Comment: Thoughts on the Middle East, History and Religion, will be speaking at a forum I am chairing next week at the New America Foundation. He will be speaking about his just released book, Napoleon’s Egypt: Invading the Middle East.

I’m into the second day of an extraordinary set of meetings, the 15th annual Australian American Leadership Dialogue, staged in Melbourne, Australia. They are extraordinary because of the seriousness and general candor of discussions ranging from climate change policy challenges to the mess in Iraq to brewing issues in Asia and with China.

This blog entry was posted on Senator Chris Dodd’s campaign site today but was also written for publication as a guest post by Senator Dodd on “The Washington Note” and “Huffington Post.

I shared some views on Saudi Arabia’s steely-eyed, unsentimental assessment of the deteriorating situation in Iraq and the consequences of America’s decline in the region with this Radio Free Europe journalist, Abubakar Siddique.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) just shot a cannon blast across the bow of John Edwards’ presidential campaign.

Sam Rosenfeld and Matt Yglesias (the duo that brought you The Incompetence Dodge) each make excellent points about today’s Ivo Daalder/Robert Kagan op-ed, which argues that the Security Council should no longer have the final say on authorizing armed intervention.

I’m about to head off with journalist Jim Lobe and another friend to commune with big mountains and tough hiking trails and plan strategy in the Cascades. I’m not used to this stuff and think I’ll look a bit like Oakley and Annie above — though they aren’t on this trip.