The media seems to be in soviet-style agreement that this administration will be less interventionist than the last. And I'd like to believe that, probably for the same reason that many of the talking heads do, because I like silver linings. But the more people Bush appoints, the more likely intervention looks. These guys are really gung-ho for the missile defense system, they really want to up defense spending, and they are congenitally willing to be seduced by companies that manufacture arms. Put all that together, along with a divided congress, and they are going to need an enemy. The only effect of the Powell doctine will be to ensure that we bomb them from great heights and fire missiles from far off. Or do it all via proxy, as in Colombia.
Also I was going through a pile of clippings to find something else, and I stumbled upon Condoleeza Rice's speech to the delegates. Very different from her public pronouncements about the Balkans and her official coming out in Foreign Affairs a year ago. Here it was all about how the Clinton administration failed to deliver the knock out blow to rogue states, and how the next administration wouldn't. And as we all know, a rogue state is anyone that defies our will and doesn't belong to NATO. Oh, they also have to have committed a human rights offense. But if all you need to do for that is aid and abet the slaughter of innocents, and/or frightfully oppress some minority of your own people, I'd be hard pressed to find a country that couldn't qualify. Especially once you factor in our remarkable press, always willing to bang on the needful and minimize the dissonance. To call them soviet-style maligns them. They're a much better orchestra.
Michael
__________________________________________________________________________ Michael Pollak................New York City..............mpollak at panix.com