She was an American and a world patriot: her counsel--even at its most boneheaded--was always devoted to advancing the security of the United States and the cause of liberty and prosperity around the world.
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The key word here is "boneheaded" as in mistaken, but in a lovable -- and mark, completely forgivable -- way.
Really, these gentle words aren't that surprising are they? In the popular imagination, Washington stumbles from one well meant misadventure to another. Surely, only hoarse-voiced, wild-eyed radicals differ on this point, using terms such as 'war crimes' and other uncharitable phrases.
And since the US as an entity is well meaning, even if "boneheaded" at times in the execution of its lofty aims, it follows that her humble foreign policy servants are just plain folk, trying their best to, as DeLong writes "[advance] the security of the United States and the cause of liberty and prosperity around the world."
I'm sure that in years to come, when Cheney and Bush leave this mortal coil, someone will be writing misty-eyed remembrances of their contributions to human development.
I suspect that even if all our cities were reduced to ashes in a Washington-engineered global cataclysm, some American would find the time, as the strontium 90 gently fell, to sigh over the world's failure to appreciate our devotion -- sometimes "boneheaded" but always as kindly intentioned as a pie baking grandmama -- to liberty and prosperity.
.d.