Despite the lengths of his pieces I regularly find a gem or two, often in a single paragraph. For example, his take on "lesser evils" from the 2000 election recap was better than most of what I'd read elsewhere.
Of course, I could just be a sucker for his prose. Still, I think he's good at providing greater focus, if not always finding new angles to view the world from.
Doug:
> 2) did he really need 10,000 words to make those unremarkable
> observations?
No. A fair amount of it is unremarkable to this list, but what still stands out for me is what he said about two of the causes (the second and third below) for the coming war. Again:
> There are three causes for the current push to invade: the need for a
> conclusive and glorious victory in the war on terrorism, to establish
> pre-emptive strikes as the _norm_ in securing a nuclear oligopoly as
> nukes become cheaper and easier to acquire, and to secure a center
> in an Arab world where American "soft power" currently holds no
> effective sway. The price will be steep, but a dramatic revival in
Iraq
> won't be too hard pull off in the wake of a decade of economic siege,
> with the population trading "independence for material relief." Iraq
> could be the US's imported model for the rest of the Arab world.
And his take on what Washington has gained despite Bush's stridency and the snubbing of the "international community" is pretty lucid:
> Also, while the human rights angle got more applause in Europe, the
> war on terrorism plays better in China and Russia. However,
> complaints of unilateralism are a small price to pay for US bases
> throughout Central Asia, the death of the ABM Treaty, NATO
> expansion, and closer ties with Putin's regime.
-- Shane
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