While I was doing the research for my last series of posts (Strange Bedfellows), I kept coming across articles, editorials and even whole books lamenting the poor track record of countries around the world that are struggling to install functioning democracies. Almost all these sources were unconsciously patronizing, as though if those stupid countries would only follow America’s example (or Western Europe’s), all would be well. read more »

In my last two posts I described a world familiar to all of us: chaos in every direction, not unlike the 1970s or even the 1930s. But I also noted that, if you look hard enough at most of the trouble spots, what you see are a bunch of very strange bedfellows. read more »

In my last post I described a world familiar to all of us: chaos in every direction, not unlike the (miserable) 1970s. But I also noted that, if you look hard enough at each trouble spot, what you see are a bunch of very strange bedfellows. read more »

The 1970s weren’t America’s finest hour. Early in the decade we retreated from Vietnam after losing 58,000 American dead and over 300,000 American wounded. At the end of the decade fifty-two Americans were captured and held hostage for 444 days in Iran. An attempt to rescue the hostages proved to be a humiliating failure, as the Vietnam Era military equipment failed, a helicopter crashed into a cargo plane, and eight Americans died. read more »