Gerard Baker of the UK Times offers the sort of viewpoint one rarely finds in the European press: decidedly pro—American. In this column, he sees the difficulties in Iraq as minor, and the strength of America as lasting. The whole thing is worth a read, but the following passages struck me in particular. That Iraq shows the limits to American power is surely true. But the only real surprise in this is that we should be surprised about it. Asymmetric warfare from Algeria to Northern Ireland has shown the limitations of large immobile militaries. With accelerating nuclear proliferation, those limits are only going to grow, as we have seen with North Korea. What will determine America's ability to maintain its pre—eminence will be its flexibility and the willingness of its population to take on new burdens in the new warfare that confronts them. [,,,,] Throughout its 220—year history, as the historian Robert Kagan points out in his brilliant new book, Dangerous Nation,...(Read Full Post)