It seems to me that the “let’s take a breather” folks must know something that I don’t, for taking a breather suggests several things:

1. That we need one?

2. That things might improve by doing nothing?

3. That things won’t get worse?

4. That somehow a retreat to the old order will help?

Let’s focus on #4. Kerry apparently believes that the old order–the U.S as benevolent superpower working hand in glove with a functional UN and Nato–can somehow be restored. Fact is, it never existed, and 9/11 blew to hell any delusions that it ever could. The UN is terminally corrupt and can’t even govern itself. NATO without US might is an impotent joke. The EU makes the Weimar Republic seem a model of probity. The old European powers are eunuchs, drowning in immigrants who are mostly hostile to the west. Let’s stop pretending. The US must defeat the islamofascists. If we get help, well and good. If not, so what? It’s Osama who needs a breather, not us. President Bush is the clear choice, not Senator Kofi, er Kerry.