[dead]

This was a very well-written analysis, but I would take issue with this statement:

The past 12 months have also demonstrated that the Bush administration suffers serious internal divisions over how to use that power.

I think the past 12 months have really demonstrated the power of the NY Times to gin up controversy, based on anonymous quotes from supposed insiders, or real quotes from known outsiders (like Henry Kissinger and Bill Richardson.)

It also demonstrates how all other news media do not feel the need to independently research and confirm stories on their own. If the Times says it, it must be so, apparently. This despite the Times horrendous track record for falsifying, or at the very least spinning, stories to fit their own pacifist, liberal, pro-internationalist agenda.

[Yardstick]

*Bump*

[Yardstick]

The US now accounts for 34 per cent – and rising – of the global economy. It accounts for 36 per cent of global defence spending, 40 per cent of global research spending...

We are one incredible nation. It's no wonder we freak the world out the way we do.

[Gothmog]

Great article thanks bump

[July 4th]

Nice article. I've sent it off to my Australian friends who think the US is too powerful and their prime minister is a suck-up to Bush.

I think what we need to see this September 11th is Americans of all stripe once again remember the pain of 2001. With a brilliant prime-time speech by the President, perhaps we can turn the remembrance of that day into a growing resolve to get things done - all over the world.

[struwwelpeter]

Nice article, but I have to disagree that the world needs stability everywhere. In many countries the status quo sucks - lots of abscesses need popping in the Mideast, Africa, Asia, and Central and South America, and - of couse - Cuba.

Where would the world be if the American colonies hadn't rebelled, the Berlin wall hadn't fallen, or the Soviet Union hadn't imploded? Some dynamic rearrangement of today's "stability" is sorely needed.

[Cold Heat]

LOL! I thought this might have been a article about "Kenny Stabler!"