Thomas Friedman redeems himself

You have to admit. This is pretty funny.

Intercepting Iran's take on America

Tom and I disagree about higher taxes. But other than that, this is funny as hell.

Kagan family wisdom

How interesting it would be to sit around this family dinner table.

Robert Kagan and Frederick Kagan have consistently offered up some of the strongest policy wisdom, especially in the later stages of this war in Iraq and the general international policy milieu, during this period.

Time to talk with Iran

Robert is right about the policy realities. Striking Iran only becomes an option for me when Iran has the bomb, for sure, and becomes provocative with genuinely imminent threats of military action against Israel or others in the region (we must anticipate a surprise attack, of course, but we can't go around assuming that one is always around the corner and rationalizing military force in its name; that was one of the animating forces of imperialism that had much of the world in constant warfare for much of humanity's history until democracy and a commitment to peace took hold).

The only realistic and most likely constructive option, right now, is talks. Obama's instincts are right on this, though Kagan is right that the risk of rebuff is present. Obviously, as much advance work as possible should be done on any summit deals. But Kagan is right that open-ended talks are also critical to getting information, generating mutual understanding, and getting at issues not likely to be revealed or resolved before a face-to-face meeting between heads of state.

It is Ronald Reagan's strongest legacy, I believe. During arms negotiations with the Soviets, Reagan believed in the cause of freedom and that democracy was a better system than Communism and was able to convince Mikhail Gorbachev of these commitments as well as the facts of Soviet life that clearly demonstrated the comparative strength of a society built on freedom and democracy. Reagan was right and he convinced Gorbachev of the case and the world was changed by all that talk. Talk could not have countered a Soviet attack, obviously, or removed a bloody dictator like Saddam Hussein. But talk and ideas do much in the world.

And especially in a country like Iran that is already built on a nascently democratic system of governance, which can elect or reject Ahmadinejad and any other leader (and looks prepared to do so, more, with each passing day), talk is the best way, as Kagan argues, to open up so many different issues that need to be addressed to work to deepen democratic commitments in that country and throughout the Middle East. As long as America acts like a hegemon in the region, Osama Bin Laden and Al Queda and so many anti-American, anti-Israeli and various terrorist causes will have much fuel for their destructive fires.

The more America lives up to her liberal democratic commitments, the more she leads from true strength and not the weak position of force without regard to liberal democratic principles that is the source of frailty, infirmity, and insecurity in governments like Myanmar, North Korea, Syria, China, Iran, Venezuela and so many repressive governments around the world.

Liberal values and commitments are the source of our strength if we could shed our insecurities about their capacity to do good in the world.

President Bush, in his remaining days, has an opportunity to demonstrate that. He is already making motions in that direction with the coordination and the tone of the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks in Annapolis.

The Kagan brothers have sensed better the policy realities we face and the relationship between force and liberalism than most folks who have written about this period.

It'd be nice to sit around their supper table just to hear the interesting conversation.