Talkin' Baseball

No, not really. But sort of. Anyway, it’s Robert Kagan, and that makes it worth reading:

And so for the past few months it has become common wisdom that the war in Iraq is lost, based on what any historian will tell you is far too little evidence to make such a final judgment. Not only that, but the entire approach to foreign policy that has been called the “Bush doctrine” is, therefore, finished. Another fine Post reporter, Robin Wright, wrote at the end of June that the Iraq war had undermined or discredited the four central planks of President Bush’s foreign policy: preemptive action to “prevent strikes on U.S. targets”; a willingness “to act unilaterally, alone or with a select coalition, when the United Nations or allies balk”; a policy to promote democratic reform in the Middle East, sparked by democratic progress in Iraq; and Iraq as “the next cornerstone in the global war on terrorism.” I’m not sure what the last one means exactly, so I’ll give it to her. As for the other three, is it really likely that they are dead as principles of U.S. foreign policy?

And, oh yeah — go Cards!