If I Talk To Rural People Where

War Seems To Come Out Of Nowhere, Like Rust That Suddenly Pops Up On Iron After A Storm.

If The Democrats Feel They Have Lost The Public's Confidence In Their Stewardship Of National Security, Then The Threat Of Iran Offers A Hillary Clinton, Howard Dean, Or John Kerry An Opportunity To Get Out Front Now And Pledge Support For A United Effort - Attacking Bush From The Right About Too Tepid A Stance Rather From The Predictable Left That We Are 'hegemonic' And 'imperialistic' Every Time We Use Force Abroad.

Western Societies From Ancient Athens To Imperial Rome To The French Republic Rarely Collapsed Because Of A Shortage Of Resources Or Because Foreign Enemies Proved Too Numerous Or Formidable In Arms - Even When Those Enemies Were Grim Macedonians Or Germans. Rather, In Times Of Peace And Prosperity There Arose An Unreal View Of The World Beyond Their Borders, One That Was The Product Of Insularity Brought About By Success, And An Intellectual Arrogance That For Some Can Be The Unfortunate Byproduct Of An Enlightened Society.

We May Casually Talk Of All Sorts Of New Programs And 'stimulus,' But The Vast Trillion-dollar Collective National Debt And Rising Annual Deficits Will Insidiously Hamstring Almost Everything We Plan To Do.

Offering 'comprehensive' Reform Usually Means Years Of Arguing And Horse-trading Among Pressure Groups To Get Anything Done. By The Time All The Special Interests Are Appeased Or Bought Off, The Resulting Elephantine Legislation Typically Looks Nothing Like What Was Intended. In Short, Big-government Medicine Usually Doesn't Work On Big-government Sickness. If President Obama Wants 'comprehensive' Change, It Would Be Better Simply Not To Spend Any More Money We Don't Have.