WASHINGTON -- As the Fourth of July approached that summer of 1826, John Adams, the second president of the United States and designer of American constitutionalism, lay dying in his Massachusetts home.
WASHINGTON -- It was supposed to be Iraq that was threatened. For at least the last five years, it was assumed by the best American analysts that the strange and ominous tribal warfare at the heart of that historically troubled country would inevitably "do it in."
WASHINGTON -- When I visited the British colony of Rhodesia in 1979 before it gained its much longed-for independence as Zimbabwe -- an independence that has today virtually destroyed it -- it was, even then, not difficult to hear ominous musings about the independence leader and soon-to-be president, Robert Mugabe.
WASHINGTON -- The Iraq story makes the papers about once a day, although ever more unenthusiastically for the American reader. Afghanistan edges into newsprint occasionally. But our own hemisphere? Or our important, long-suffering neighbor, Mexico? There the coverage is even worse.
WASHINGTON -- The Irish went overnight from being the pride and joy of the European Union to being the bad boy of Europe -- and with good reason. I fear they are going to wake up after their present intoxication of self-assertion and realize that Mother Europe is not only not pleased, but might actually DO something about her displeasure.
WASHINGTON -- Your heart breaks as you see the pictures of sorrow, tragedy and loss from Cedar Rapids and Iowa City and Columbus Junction. Of all places -- Iowa! I am originally from Illinois and, even next door, we thought of Iowa, so deeply tucked into the heartland of America, as one of the safest and most protected of places.
WASHINGTON -- Step over to your globe of the world, or get out your atlas, and look up Iran. You will find it to be a huge blob deep in the Middle East, bordered by Afghanistan, Pakistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, Armenia and -- of course! -- our very own Iraq.
WASHINGTON -- What a strange, dangerous and complicated -- and in many ways, absolutely wonderful! -- time it is in America.
WASHINGTON -- When by accident I ran into Zbigniew Brzezinski at a dinner Tuesday night, just before Barack Obama's victory speech, the first thing he did was to issue a personal warning about Hillary Clinton's continuing ambition.