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"The Turkish parliament votes against letting U.S. troops invade Iraq from
thenorth -- and nothing happens to Turkey"

"Bush warns Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak not to trample on human rights; the trampling continues -- and not only does nothing happen to Egypt, but on his
recent trip to the Middle East, Bush commends Mubarak for his commitment to
democracy."

"The next president can begin to rebuild U.S. influence, but he or she cannot
do it alone. The task requires rebuilding alliances, and that is a harder task
than before."

YAWN. More nations are drawing closer to Great Satan - like Poland, India, Pakistan, Ukrainia, Japan, SoKo, Taiwan, Canada, Deutschland, France, Philippines, Australia, - the list goes on and on. More nations realize that downsizing American dominance isn't really helping anyone and like France - realizes that if America does split - the world is less likely to instantly become a happy place where stability, tolerance and enlightenment reigns.

Professor Michael Mandelbaum, Foreign Policy and Internat'l expert at Johns Hopkins University reveals in his killer crunk "The Case for Goliath" that

"Every threat to internat'l order for which the United States bore responsibility after the Cold War involved a government that fell short of Western and economic standards.

Every security problem that the American government felt called upon to address would be alleviated, if not solved altogether, if the regimes responsible for them could be remade to American specifications. For the global economy and internat'l security, the United States functioned, in the wake of the Cold War, as the world's government."

Dr K redefines that unhappy fact. Military misfits dug their poisoned claws into weak minded elected pols poisoned by disasterous, daemonic, democratic day dreams

"They believed, and acted, as if American power were not only undimmed but
supreme and unchallengeable -- as if a president's grimace would still make tyrants tremble and the dispatch of light armies could remake the world."

Oh Snap! America Unbound did remake the world -

Regime changing Ba'Athist Iraq (with the largest Arab army in history in 20 days - no less).

Libya's Colonel Khadaffy trembled and gave up the ghost with his surprisingly advanced secret WMD witchcraft.

Decapitating the Taliban and driving them into a giant kill zone like the former 'No Go' Federated tribal turf in Pakistan.

Staring down Iran in Iraq with multiple Mahdi army massacres, Tehran trembled enough to yank Mookie's asset out of the Surge's Mookie minion mashing Bahgdad sweep. And sack Larajani. And their Revo Guard Commander.

The NIE 2007 'nuke free since '03' is 'moderately confident' that Iran "trembled" enough to forsake nukes and are left with only Kamikaze motorboat flotillas to sortee periodically.

The Land of the Pure's General President for Life trembled and dropped the 'General', stopped fiddling about with caliphaters, began killing them off instead, promised to hold a real election and overtly covertly invited Great Satan right on in the house.

Getting Japan to pull naval ops (under a very thin veneer of UN 'legitimacy') to protect Nippon's skirt flirt with military projection along with constitutional pacifism frees up regime killing regime changing global platforms to prowl the seas.

Isolating the HAMAS and using the entire Arab League to do it at Annapolis. Global stomping?
Of all the things that could be listed about the last 8 years - "supreme and unchallengable" is right up there with "universal values of the human spirit."

"The next president might try to rally an anti-Iran coalition of Sunni leaders in
the Middle East. But those leaders will need some enticements from the United
States to take the necessary risks. What deal would the next president offer to,
say, the Persian Gulf states near Iran to encourage them to join the enterprise?"

How about their own survival? If Arabs leaders need to defuse Palestine to deprive Iran of a strategic propaganda ploy to militarize and revolutionize Arab kingdoms to overthrow their leaders or plant resistence movements that tend to resist sovereign legit democracies more than resisting Little Satan - then the fear of what the Islamic Republic could do with an 800 lb nuke in the hood is totally off the hook.

Dr Kaplan does realize that diplomacy is often non profit jaw flapping that doesn't solve everything everytime but then he totally blows it by trying to paint a weak Great Satan that is helpless without the aid and abetment of unfree regimes who are primarily interested in maintaining their own power at any costs, destabilizing the hood, projecting projectile proliferation and a penchant for bomb squads to torment their neighbors.

"In many situations, though, the vital interests of two countries are simply
irreconcilable -- and neither has the power to make the other give in."

Now that is flat out Realpolitk - not even good code - and after 60 years of failed Foreign Policy like Dr. K's fave - is so last year - totally out of date in the new millenium. No new ideas, no hope and no future for Great Satan except as a broke no game player trekkin through a bizarro global hood where it's getting dark.

"The next presidents will have to get down in the dirt, strike deals and
trade favors. It's no longer morning in America, but it's not quite twilight
either."

In a way - this piece by Dr. K could be interpeted as saying far more about publicizing an inner ethical wrestling match and coming to terms with Realpolitik's failure. A potential personal epiphany super slide from the old school Cold War amoral, corrupt, cult of stability towards a new school, amoral, corrupt cult of stability.

A history do over and rewriting Great Satan's response to 911 is a very weak excuse for some realthink pursuit to reignite magical mythical stability, detente' or neo isolationist coexistence.

Realpolitik's real history is of wars, genocide, terrorism - in a word - failure. Hopes of a resurrection should really be as incinerated as surely as the nearly 3K innocents who made it to work that late summer day.

Outsourcing Great Satan's ideals and diminishing her dominance will be a tough sell in the new millenium, just like weak, boring, enemy encouraging handwringing that anything that happens is entirely Great Satan's fault.

"The next president can begin to rebuild U.S. influence, but he or she cannot
do it alone. The task requires rebuilding alliances, and that is a harder task
than before."

Since 911, Great Satan has demonstrated her will power, fire power and staying power to hit up scary places in the world, adapting, annihilating and allying.

A better case could be made that Great Satan's Globe Stomping DID remake the world. And Great Satan knows Her way around.