At the event I hosted a week ago today, Mort Kondracke was among the approximately 45 guests. Mort is an open-minded ‘radical centrist/moderate independent’ columnist who thinks, like I do, that blind faith by many to anachronistic perspectives as well as ‘inertia’ explain government policy better than most any other set of drivers.
I think everyone on both sides (if there are only two) of the debate that unfolded on David Frum’s and my blogs yesterday regarding the appropriate use and meaning of the words, ‘incipient’ and ‘imminent’ will find this editorial in the Manchester Union Leader something to laugh about.
David Frum responds to yesterday’s post on Brent Scowcroft and a possible Iraqi civil war with a supercilious and I think incorrect commentary on the fine differences between the words ‘incipient’ and ‘imminent’. I’ll let the linguists out there be the judge of who has the better part of that lexical exercise.
George Gedda of the Associated Press has written this interesting article today that refers to the comments made by Brent Scowcroft at last Thursday’s New America Foundation lunch meeting. A bit of an excerpt: At age 79, Brent Scowcroft doesn’t have much to lose if he speaks his mind.
I am re-reading Anatol Lieven’s America: Right or Wrong — An Anatomy of American Nationalism, which I am reviewing and have a drop-dead deadline on Monday. At the end of the first chapter, he recounts something J.
David Frum gets starchy about the dangers of rising Scowcroftism in foreign policy circles.
The transcription process for this event that has received a lot of attention in the media as well as my attention in entries below was complicated by the fact that the New America Foundation (in which I have a fairly substantial role) has unbelievably low quality recording and taping equipment.
Here is the last part of Maureen Dowd’s New York Times piece today, “Defining Victory Down,” that lashes the Bush administration for its imperviousness to feedback. Again, the Thursday forum that we hosted with Zbigniew Brzezinski and Brent Scowcroft gets a lot of play: The arrogant Bush war council never admits a mistake.
Brent Scowcroft’s comments last Thursday at the inaugural meeting of my new foreign policy project, New Solarium Project on U.S. Foreign Policy, have really riled up those who are gambling that Iraq’s January 30th elections are going to usher in an era of stable governance and democracy for Iraqis.
A small meeting I hosted on Thursday with former National Security Advisors Brent Scowcroft and Zbigniew Brzezinski to inaugurate the launch of a suite of new foreign policy programs at the New America Foundation continues to draw attention.