Michael Totten's Open Letter To The New President Has Some Gems

But I would also point out that he has a hysterical post over at his own site, so take what he says with a large bourbon and a bite of steak. Or a grain of salt....I'm not sure about the correct saying.

But What the Next President Must Do About the World has some intelligent observations about the state of the world and how our foreign policy must recognize some harsh facts:

You will not be able to democratize the Middle East and drain the swamp of its political pathologies by using regime change or any other tool at your disposal. Nor will you be able to diplomatically "engage" your way to being liked by the Vladimir Putins and Ali Khameneis of the world. You can flush the terrorists of ISIS out of their nests and vaporize them with Predator drones, but they'll pop up again in some other unstable and anarchic part of the world.

He is correct about nation-states, but I do not believe that an aggressive policy of total war against militant Islam would be ineffectual. Keeping these murderers rocked back on their heels and afraid to turn on their cell phones or computers for fear of a special forces bullet or a missile strike is a fine thing. Make them afraid of American might and maybe they will be less apt and able to kill innocents in the West.

First things first. You need to get real about Russia.

No more "resets" or "bromances." Vladimir Putin is not your friend.

He is implacably hostile to the U.S. and Europe for one simple reason. He recoils from the expansion of NATO into Eastern Europe, just as we would have done had the Soviet Union won the Cold War and expanded the Warsaw Pact to Brussels and Amsterdam.

So Putin pushes back anywhere and everywhere he can. The handful of countries in his backyard that haven't yet joined the European Union and NATO but might some day -- Georgia, Ukraine, Belarus, Armenia, and Moldova -- must either bow to Russian hegemony or suffer the consequences.

Yup. And it will take a few years to rebuild both our credibility and our armed forces to the point where we can challenge Putin in his back yard.

Anyway....read the whole thing. It's a bit too realpolitik for my taste, but Totten is knowledgeable and a good writer, so it's not a waste of time.

posted by CBD at 06:57 PM

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