then think how much a map can tell. Sometimes it's helpful to put oneself in the position of others whose behavior you would like to influence -- even if they are implacable foes.

Surely the Times best-sellers on business strategy agree that somewhere in the top 5 "to-do" list is "know the competition." So mightn't you feel a bit antsy if you were sitting in Tehran?

Courtesy Needlenose.

[UPDATE 11-25-04] The Brooding Persian points us to this useful perspective, provided by the next National Security Adviser, Stephen Hadley:

Even critics must acknowledge that the security arrangements developed after World War II, largely dependent upon nuclear weapons, were successful in giving us a Europe that has been free for fifty years from the major warfare that twice afflicted the continent in the first half of this century. Under the protection of nuclear deterrence, Europe has pursued a policy of economic and political integration that has put to rest age-old antagonisms and centuries of conflict between countries such as France and Germany. Nuclear deterrence also helped to hold off a Communist Soviet Union until the internal contradictions of that regime brought it down. In summary, "morality" must be judged in part by its effects, and if judged by these results, nuclear deterrence was a highly moral and responsible national security policy.

Finally, a good column:

In my next life, I want to be Tom DeLay, the House majority leader.

Yes, I want to get almost the entire Republican side of the House of Representatives to bend its ethics rules just for me. I want to be able to twist the arms of House Republicans to repeal a rule that automatically requires party leaders to step down if they are indicted on a felony charge - something a Texas prosecutor is considering doing to DeLay because of corruption allegations.

But most of all, I want to have the gall to sully American democracy at a time when young American soldiers are fighting in Iraq so we can enjoy a law-based society here and, maybe, extend it to others. Yes, I want to be Tom DeLay. I want to wear a little American flag on my lapel in solidarity with the troops, while I besmirch every value they are dying for.

If I can't be Tom DeLay, then I want to be one of the gutless Republican House members who voted to twist the rules for DeLay out of fear that "the Hammer," as they call him, might retaliate by taking away a coveted committee position or maybe a parking place.

Yes, I want to be a Republican House member. At a time when 180 of the 211 members of the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit in Iraq who have been wounded in combat have insisted on returning to duty, I want to look my constituents and my kids in the eye and tell them that I voted to empty the House ethics rules because I was afraid of Tom DeLay.

Damning.

Every once in a while I tell myself I should regularly check out what the folks at the National Review are saying, just to be a fully informed citizen, have a broad perspective, etc etc. And invariably I quickly come across another piece of nonsense that reminds me why I don't bother.

The editors must set "red meat" quotas. If their writers haven't met their bogeys and don't have a new outrage by the Democrats to froth about, they can usually trot out some old leftist chestnut, but when they don't have a strawman, they can just make stuff up.

Even so, I find it a bit of a stretch why it should be incumbent upon Nancy Pelosi to tell the Palestinians to get real and stop believing Arafat was poisoned. But I guess it would help drown out the chorus of regrets from non-existent Democrats that now Bush can't ever invite Arafat to the White House.

Fritz Hollings gave his farewelll speech on the Senate floor last week. Vintage Hollings -- you can hear his voice as you read the words. Most of his thoughts were on either what the Senate experience had meant to him or what is left to be done for the people of South Carolina and the country. But one passage is especially Hollingsesque: funny, sharp, stentorian, and telling.

But the main culprit, the cancer on the body politic, is money: Money, money, money. When I ran 6 years ago, in 1998, I raised $8.5 million. That $8.5 million is $30,000 a week, every week, for 6 years. If you miss Christmas week, you miss New Years week, you are $100,000 in the hole and don't you think we don't know it and we start to work harder at raising money.

As a result, the Senate doesn't work on Mondays and Fridays. We have longer holidays. The policy committee is adjourned and we go over to the campaign building because you can't call for money in the office. So we go over to the building and call for money and obviously we only can give attention to that. We don't have time for each other. We don't have time for constituents, except for the givers. Somebody ought to tell the truth about that.
[...]
But if you want to limit campaigning and if you want to change -- as Abe Lincoln said -- disenthrall ourselves of the dogmas of the quiet past that are inadequate for the stormy present of money grubbing, then we have to think anew and act anew. We need to disenthrall ourselves from this money grubbing and go to work finally for the country instead of the campaign.

That is our situation. I have watched it. I have studied it. I have seen it. They don’t have me going to meetings. They have me going to the telephone and calling and calling, traveling all over the country for money. Money is a cancer on the body politic.

Hat tip Micah Sifry.

I don't mean to ruin Nadezhda's silver lining, but ...

We're Congressional Republicans are spending $2,000,000 taxpayer dollars so that George W. Bush can have a Presidential Yacht?

(Edited: credit where credit is due)

Although the opportunities to point out Reasons for Congressional Reform(TM)come fast and furious on a daily basis, from time to time Congress does something that deserves commendation. And so there's a tip of the hat when they do.

The giant spending bill that Congress passed on Saturday eliminated money for developing new nuclear weapons, including one that would be used to destroy underground bunkers. It also deeply cut the Bush administration's request for money for a new factory to make the triggers for nuclear bombs.

One of the projects eliminated was the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, widely known as the bunker buster; the administration had wanted $27.6 million for the program.

A special commendation to Rep David L. Hobson, chair of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Energy and Water Development. In an August speech he said he viewed

...the administration's call for research on the new bombs and the earth penetrator, along with a proposal to shorten the lead time required to resume nuclear testing, as "very provocative and overly aggressive policies that undermine our moral authority to argue that other nations should forgo nuclear weapons.''

"We cannot advocate for nuclear nonproliferation around the globe and pursue more useable nuclear weapons options at home,'' Mr. Hobson said at the symposium, which was sponsored by the Carnegie Endowment.

The Senate was friendlier to the Energy Department's budget request but in a closed negotiating session to reconcile the two measures, Mr. Hobson's position prevailed.

Go, Davey, go!!

Maybe this is a little early yet for some folks, but Thanksgiving break is here at BU. While I expect to spend the bulk of the break on marathon paper-writing sessions and thus expect my postings to remain light as they have been for the past month or more, I'm not actually going home for the holiday itself. Rather, I'm going to be celebrating it here in Boston... with Professor Bacevich. He invited folks in class without Thanksgiving plans to join him and his family and I was the only one to take him up on it... awkwardness abounds. It'll be great!

I plan on cooking (with my Japanese conversation partner: more wierdness) and bringing a derby pie to the festivities, the recipe for which follows below; this is a holiday staple of my Dad's (natch -- hope he doesn't mind me sharing it here), but times I've made it in the past, folks from around here have never heard of it, so maybe this is really more of a Southern or Midwestern thing. In any case, it's delicious and no turkey day is complete without it.

Happy Thanksgiving!   more »

Been quiet 'round these parts of late, so I thought I'd throw out some questions for discussion, courtesy of the always thought-provoking Fafnir:

• Is Super Mario Brothers responsible for the recent escalation of plumber-on-turtle violence in America? Plumber-on-mushroom violence? Discuss.


• Sales of violent video games have lead to increased violence in our culture, but sales of Dead or Alive: Xtreme Beach Volleyball have not lead to increased playing of xtreme beach volleyball. Why is this?


• Defend the following statement in 200 words or less: Leisure Suit Larry is a Christ figure.


• You are a Democratic strategist looking for a gimmick to exploit the "values" vote. Will calling for a ban on violent video games be more effective or less effective than abolishing the NEA or decrying obscenity in broadcasting? Which swing demographics will you pick up? Which base demographics will you drop? Discuss this with the soulless pollster of your choice.

Have at it.

In her Nov 18 column, "CIA 'Purge'? What is This, the USSR?" she concludes:

The Bushies always remind me of Cousin Claude, a major political thinker.

Claude says: "Hell, yiss, I believe in the right to dissent. H'it's in the Constitution! What I can't stand is all this criticism. Criticize, criticize, criticize. Why don't they leave poor Dubya alone and let him fight his war in peace?

Hat tip Matthew Good.

Kevin Sites, the freelance journalist who shot the video of the Marine shooting the wounded Iraqi in the mosque, has been well-known for some time for his warzone blogging from Iraq.

Sunday he posted a painful open letter to the Marine unit which he had been accompanying through much of the Fallujah fighting. A very personal story, and an attempt to communicate understanding and perspective from all sides of the terrible choices war presents.

He closes with a thought that should be remembered daily about all the actors in this teledrama as we watch Fallujah and Baghdad and Mosul from afar:

So here, ultimately, is how it all plays out: when the Iraqi man in the mosque posed a threat, he was your enemy; when he was subdued he was your responsibility; when he was killed in front of my eyes and my camera -- the story of his death became my responsibility.

The burdens of war, as you so well know, are unforgiving for all of us.

I pray for your soon and safe return.