Pushback Against the Naysayers

++Sometimes the resurgence of the long dead spark writers to flourish in their rebuttal to the past. You may not agree with Andrew Sullivan but when he senses the neo-cons believe we are sleeping he will respond. Since people like Bob Kagan have a distinct history of disaster that they have not owned up to,people like Sullivan are great at lancing the boil. I strongly suggest your reading "Thoughts on Kagan" in today's The Dish where Andrew eviscerates Kagan's comeback bid in the article "Super-Powers Don't Retire." Sullivan also dwells on the once dominant theme that Americaphiles like himself growing up in England saw a flawed democracy trying to live by international law and combating a totalitarian rival. Those days were gone with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the United States violating international law at a whim. Kagan was an enabler and a big one for an America trampling on his own ideals. Andrew warns that America's overreach also means it is hollowed out domestically, allowing even its basic infrastructure to collapse. After sinking the S.S. Kagan, he moves on to Doug Brooks and his op-ed this morning to zero in on Brooks' unfortunate metaphor as America as the international gardner, trimming and weeding the international order.

++Sullivan's long post is worth the read. He is at his most articulate.

++Meanwhile Dick Cheney surfaced the last few days to lament Obama's weakness and opine that the international elites with whom he confers with lament America's failure to lead. Peter Beinart in the Atlantic is moved by Cheney and Rove's recent statements that we should suddenly be concerned about international opinion. In "Is the World Really Losing Faith in Barack Obama",Beinart decides to look at the comparison of international public opinion polls on the Bush and Obama eras. Alas,Obama's America still retains large approval numbers over W. If anything,Obama bought back the global respect for the country. This too is worth the read.