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And as America retreats under the "new direction" Democrats, our enemies expand their influence around the world!

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And the Democrats will call it "diversity."

I'm wondering if Tradesports has set up a futures auction on how much longer Israel will last. My feeling is that with the enormous emboldening that this election has given to the Iranians, we're going to be seeing a lot of Jewish refugees within the next five years. I give the State of Israel 3 years.

...as a result of our election is the demise of our commitment to foster democracy and freedom around the world. Freedom is only associated with power when it is found in strong nations. State power, on the other hand, is far easier to achieve and far more commonplace in the world (and in history) because it only depends on the will to power of the regime, not of the people that they dominate. (Obviously, democracy confers only legitimacy, not freedom.)

Our election created a near-instantaneous power vacuum in the region which the Iranians naturally are moving to exploit. The name of the game for them is regional dominance, and their wild card is their oil wealth and their imminent nuclear capability. Intriguingly, their primary opponents will be the Arabs. It's entirely possible that a future Democratic Administration, not bound by ideological qualms about cooperating with terror sponsors, will make common cause with the Arab states to oppose Iran.

I agree with the many people who have predicted here that our foreign policy goals will degenerate into a quest for "stability." While we were locked in the Cold War, that was most of what we could hope for, and the moment has now passed for unopposed unilateral action in the world, courtesy of America's voters. Now we will face a world unlike the Cold War, with only one major adversary, but rather one like the run-up to WW1, in which there were many powers competing for regional dominance. But the primary goal, "stability," will be the same. (And the anticipated outcome, world war, is also the same.)

One external power which we should expect will make a move to ally tightly with the new Iranian superpower is China. Iran's oil industry is set up in an unusual way, so as to make it difficult for other countries to directly invest in Iranian oil assets. But the most important strategic goal for China in the decades ahead will be to secure "equity" oil supplies, so they don't have to buy them on the open market. Expect China to make long-term supply arrangements with Iran in return for arms and for political cover in the UN for Iran's terror-exporting activities.

America is unique among all the world's powers in that freedom for other peoples produces natural advantages for us in the global competition. We have now decided that we don't have what it takes to pursue this broad goal, so we'll need to adapt to the world as we find it. And people will be writing books for decades about whether or not we might have succeeded.

You're right, we shouldn't forget that Iran is probably the biggest challenge we're going to be facing in the imminent future. And now with a Democrat-ruled Congress, what do you think the odds are we'll be able to do anything?

As Israeli PM Olmert said today: "I don't believe that Iran will accept a compromise unless they have a very good reason to fear the consequences of not reaching it. In other words, Iran must start to fear."

Olmert arrived in the US today, mainly to discuss the Iranian issue with President Bush and Secretary Rice.

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