Not to be beaten by Senator John Warner who called last night for the beginning of modest troop withdrawals from Iraq, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Peter Pace is reportedly going to urge President Bush to cut troop levels next year in Iraq by half. That would move the level deployed to roughly 80,000.

Significant events are unfolding inside Pakistan, most recently with reports within the past few hours that former Pakistani PM Nawaz Sharif, who was exiled for corruption, has been cleared by Judge Iftikhar Chaudhry to return to Pakistan.

At the first Democratic presidential primary debates, Bill Richardson was asked about what he’d do with regards to Cuba, and he proceeded to spend much of his time answering not that question but rather an earlier question about how each of the potential presidents would react in case of another terrorist act.

Recently I spent a few days up in Provincetown, Massachusetts at the very point of Cape Cod and connected with some people and ideas that moved my soul and mind forward a few notches.

I collect the folk art works of an Eastern Shore artist and craftsman named Jimmie Reynolds, who I met years ago in Chestertown, Maryland. Visitors to my office often comment on a “dancing crabs” painting in my office — which is in the roster of paintings on Reynolds’ website.

It hasn’t been announced publicly yet, but look for the first Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings on the Law of the Sea convention to take place on Sept. 27. Government witnesses will come then.

I’m not very good at humor, particularly when it comes to wars in which so many on both sides are tragic victims. But I just received this clip from a friend that reminds us of the “swagger” of the Bush-Blair crowd.

Even President Bush is likening Iraq to images of Vietnam — but in an opposite way from the Iraq War’s critics.

John Bolton talks a lot about democracy but seems more about igniting wars — particularly with North Korea, Iran, Cuba and/or China.

(Doesn’t Cheney just seem so. . .Richard the Third?) I just came by this interesting interview with former Arms Control and Disarmament Agency Director and evolving neoconservative thinker Ken Adelman.