Howard Dean In Paris

++Despite early internet buzz that Howard Dean might run for President, Howard told me that he wasn't and that he supported Hillary Clinton.

++Despite polls saying he could win the Pennsylvania Senate race, Ed Rendell said he wasn't and that it was up to the younger generation.

++Howard participated in a seminar on the Middle East. He recapped what he said in 2004 and that since  he was right then, why not take a stab at projecting now. He says that Syria and Iraq are failed states and there is no wishing them back together again. He was for a n-fly zone in southern Syria. He said we probably should supply the Kurds directly rather than wait on Baghdad to furnish the supplies. He said the only political entity that has anything resembling our values are the Kurds and that we should recognize that an independent Kurdish state looks inevitable. He believes the days of Sykes/Picot are dead and that a new political reality will emerge. 

++Howard struck a chord that David Brooks months ago did. He said that the only values Americans should assert in the region are human rights and that we should back those forces and entities that protect those rights. It is silly to fall back on theocratic regimes or the dictatorships of old.

++He appeared at a forum with James Woolsey, former director of the CIA, who took another tack. Woolsey was hailed by people in the audience as a greater geopolitical thinker. I never knew he was. Woolsey went off on the United States must prepare itself to fight a major war against Iran. While he admitted it would be costly,he said we had to for the future of the West. I thought,"Beam me up,Scottie." It was such a strange talk as if he was channelling James Angleton,yapping about the Sino-Soviet conspiracy. He actually encouraged a widespread Sunni-Shia conflict through then Middle East to thwart Iranian expansionism. Maybe there is something that confuses dementia with gravitas. I find that alot with aging second string securitats. 

++On the other hand, Howard is a Yankee with a common sense approach and an awareness of what is doable and not doable. I like the man.