A Tale of Two Headlines

How he felt in June 2013, not how he feels now.

Politico, October 5 2015:

Brzezinski: Obama should retaliate if Russia doesn't stop attacking U.S. assets


NPR, two weeks later:

Former National Security Adviser: U.S. And Russia Must Work Together In Syria

Both referring to the same Brezinski opinion piece in Financial Times, October 4.

It was the NPR story that got my attention. I don't subscribe to the exotic strain of Brzezinski paranoia according to which old Zbig actually rules the world with the aid of his trusty and superpowerful henchwoman Victoria Nuland, who staged an entire revolution in Kiev to cover up her secret maneuver to seize dictatorial power in the Ukraine. etc, etc., but I do think of him lazily as a kind of poor man's (or Democrats') Kissinger, a throwback to the power diplomacy of the 19th century animated by hatred for Russia and for his excessively peaceable old boss Jimmy Carter,

A spite to remember

Dost Mohammad Khan, via Wikipedia.

Commenter Blueskies at Booman notes on my happy birthday President Carter post:

While Carter was a better president than many give him credit for, we should not forget, in addition to his efforts for middle east peace, his efforts against middle east peace. We are still living (and dying) with the consequences of some of these acts.

1. Not to be too pedantic, the story linked to is about Afghanistan, which is not in the Middle East. Nah, that really is too pedantic, sorry. Also, Googling around, I find there's an aspect missing from the story, which is the correct apportionment of the blame between Carter and the CIA.