(June 5) On its final descent into Istanbul yesterday, my plane swooped low over the length of the Bosphorus, that narrow sluiceway between continents, before landing at Ataturk International Airport.
While the world has been focused on negotiations with Iran over its nuclear program, there is a potentially ominous development with that other member of the “axis of evil,” the one that already has nukes, North Korea.
Whether justified or not, most voters consider Republicans better custodians of the nation’s security than Democrats. This bias began after the Democrats drove the country into the Vietnam quagmire, thereafter making many in the party uncomfortable with the use of American power.
You may have noticed that we’re having a problem with comments: clicking on “comment” doesn’t do anything. I’m not sure what the cause is, but I’m rebuilding the site, which will hopefully fix the problem. In the meantime, you can still read and post comments by clicking on “permalink” and viewing the individual post page….
We will get, in due time, to Steve Walt’s noteworthy appearance at the “Committee for the Republic” — a Washington club comprised largely of dissenters from Bush’s foreign policy.
Granted, more than 90% of communication is supposed to be non-verbal. And images and atmospherics certainly are as important to diplomacy as the spoken and written word.
For those of you who feared that Steve’s absence would mean a whole week without any references to John Bolton, I bring good news.
Just as in foreign policy, economic policy under the Bush Administration has been waiting for adult supervision.
Al Gore’s latest venture in the film business has produced a movie, “An Inconvenient Truth,” about the dangers of climate change. This feature film takes the famous Gore lecture on climate change and intersperses the science with biographical moments, those “Aha” moments that have formed the Al Gore we see today.
Try as they might, the Republicans are not going to be able to spin Haditha. But they sure are trying.
