Thomas P.M. Barnett

ARTICLE: The Distance Between 'We Must' and 'We Can', By JAMES TRAUB, New York Times, October 3, 2009

Reasoned analysis, but still the usual strategic myopia, only highlighted by citing George Will's quoting of George Kennan on Vietnam.

My point: we face no superpower rivalry here and all the regional great powers--quite frankly--prefer to see us succeed more than to see us fail (even Iran). But we debate the question as if we are a world unto ourselves.

So strange: we condemn Bush for his unilateralism (and we should), but then we're indulging the same instinct with Obama (America and America alone decides to make this effort--or not!).

The SysAdmin function remains more ROW (rest of world) than just USA. A change in administrations does not change that underlying reality. Nothing does.

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