Interesting Times

“Over and over again,” writes Michael Ledeen at NRO Online, (“No Options? Nonsense. It’s ours to win.”), “in tones ranging from annoyance to paternalistic, the pundits tell us that ‘there is no military option’ with regard to the Russian invasion of Georgia. And in case you missed the point, they will tell you that we’re not going to war with Russia over this particular crisis. Not for little Georgia, so unimportant, so far away. It’s very hard to find any of the leading commentators who thinks otherwise. . . .”

Except, continues Ledeen:

“We’ve got war already, and it was a big war, long before the invasion of Georgia. The battlefield runs from Afghanistan into Somalia, Iraq, Lebanon, and Israel, across northern Africa, and deep into Europe. The latest Russian gambit is part of that big war, as any of our friends and allies in the war zone will tell you. Insofar as America is seen as weak, our enemies will redouble their actions and our friends will hold back, fearing that association with us will not protect them, and single them out for attack. Those consequences are immediate, traveling across the airwaves of the BBC and al Jazeera and the other propaganda outlets favored by our enemies. The Chinese, who will feel free to bare their fangs after their Potemkin Olympics, may be emboldened to move against Taiwan, another small place very far away.”

Read the entire article here.

Which suggests the nation seriously will be in need of a wartime president. Which is a prospect, similar to Samuel Johnson's observations on the prospect of being hanged, should focus the mind wonderfully.