We have actually experienced in recent months a dramatic demonstration of an unprecedented intelligence failure, perhaps the most significant intelligence failure in the history of the United States.

The potential for regional conflict in the absence of an internationally active America is real.

The Chinese are really good at diplomacy - and even at making their interlocutors feel very uncomfortable.

Indeed, for almost 10 years, Moscow had to carry on a war unsupportable by the government, a conflict that brought about the demoralization and finally the breakup of the Soviet empire.