Left Flank

First up, there's Mohamed ElBaradei. If we're rehabilitating public figures who were right about Iraq, the long-serving head of the International Atomic Energy Agency should be high on the list. But, he also makes a good point on Iran: you can't bomb knowledge!

Next, there's Francis Fûkûÿámá, who in his present anti-neocon pose, is almost a realist.

But the fundamental problem remains the lopsided distribution of power in the international system. Any country in the same position as the US, even a democracy, would be tempted to exercise its hegemonic power with less and less restraint. America’s founding fathers were motivated by a similar belief that unchecked power, even when democratically legitimated, could be dangerous, which is why they created a constitutional system of internally separated powers to limit the executive.

Such a system does not exist on a global scale today, which may explain how America got into such trouble. A smoother international distribution of power, even in a global system that is less than fully democratic, would pose fewer temptations to abandon the prudent exercise of power.

Finally,and more on the national security front, a little more budget help for the US Navy: Abolish the Air Force!

We aren't likely to see the end of the United States Air Force anytime soon, however. The institutional structure of the Air Force would resist its absorption into the Army and the Navy; friends of the Air Force in Congress and the public would fight to prevent consolidation. Strong proponents of the «Air Force way of war» remain, and aren't convinced by «boots on the ground zealots.» The Air Force would fight very hard to stay independent.

The consolidation of the services, of course, is no panacea for military difficulties. In spite of the formal unification of Israel's military forces, for instance, the Israel Defense Forces last summer embarked on a poorly planned strategic air campaign against Hezbollah and its Lebanese supporters. Israeli air attacks destroyed Lebanese infrastructure and killed Lebanese civilians without dealing serious damage to Hezbollah.

Nevertheless, the idea of an independent air force was not handed down on Mount Sinai. We have institutions because we've built them. When these institutions outlive their usefulness or fail as experiments, we can take them apart. In a post–September 11 world, we live with threats quite different from those that the Soviet arsenal used to pose. We can and should devise uses and a bureaucratic structure for American airpower better suited to our current challenges than those set out in 1947.

I'm grading midterms, and it's Friday movie night, so I'll leave you with this reading. It's either Gallipoli or Paradise Now tonight. Any votes, leave me a comment!