[Rembrandt]

I favor thinking in an outward plan, beyond our own borders. I retired 5 years ago from a large U.S. company which does business worldwide. The company is arranged with business managers for areas of the world.

Yes, the U.S. already has ambassadors but too damn many for GWB to esablish a coherent plan, plus some are good, a lot are worthless or worse (Joe Wilson was an ambassador as was Carol Mostly Fraud from Illinois). I'd suggest GWB divide the world into 4 or 5 zones then have the managers agree on a hot list of actions to be taken with the hot list updated very frequently. After all, if you try to do everything at once, you'll probably accomplish little or nothing.

I agree we need to have a strong southern exposure, perhaps the same on the North.

[bybybill]

Ollie is right again, lot`sa folks south of here have always hated us.
Here`s what we need to think about. Bush has won the war in Iraq. As long as he doesn`t quit, its over. The problem is that after 2008, he`s in Texas cutting brush.
The Rat that wins their nomination in 2008 will be anti-war anywhere, and against border control.
Our challenge will be to select somebody that "gets it" with the continued threats and CAN BE ELECTED.
CAN BE ELECTED
We must have our priorities right and pick the candidate that can continue what Bush has done--put the defense of the country first, before all the hot button issues

[humint]

I'd suggest GWB divide the world into 4 or 5 zones then have the managers agree on a hot list of actions to be taken with the hot list updated very frequently. After all, if you try to do everything at once, you'll probably accomplish little or nothing.

Great suggestion. The pace out there is certainly picking up! However the U.S. still sets the pace of change so in a sense, we need a reorg in our foreign service agencies to keep up with ourselves. I hadn't looked at it that way before...