The Humbling of the Hegemon
















Please read my recent piece:
The conventional wisdom in Washington is that the North Korean nuclear test is just the latest demonstration of the Bush Doctrine being challenged by an aggressive international player intent on defying the dictates of the current global hegemon.

Hence, if after the Cuban Missile Crisis, John Kennedy could say that the U.S. and the Soviet Union stood eyeball to eyeball and the other fellow blinked, this time it was George W. Bush and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il who stood eyeball to eyeball and… Mr. Bush blinked.(more)


Also re The Iraq Study Group headed by Jim Baker. You get the feeling that these guys coming up with cure for cancer. According to leaks, some of their recommendations include dividing Iraq into three mini-states and getting a "strongman" to lead Iraq. Well, they could have saved a lot of money if they have read my commentary from October 31, 2003:
To lower public expectations about Iraq would require the White House to accept that the two most likely scenarios under which U.S. troops could exit from Iraq will shatter neoconservative dreams. Those scenarios are (1) the rise of an authoritarian leader who could maintain a unified Iraq by centralizing power in Baghdad, and (2) the division of Iraq into three separate Kosovo-like mini-states, under some kind of regional and international safeguards. That could be an American-Turkish protectorate in the Kurdish North; a European-Arab military presence in the Sunni areas; and a U.N. authority in the Shiite parts.(read the rest).

Comments

Anonymous said…
How long till a a black mustache is put in charge?

Is the US is linked to a coup - won't subsequent leaders fear a coup too?
7:31 AM
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