Announcement

For the next few weeks Pundita will be talking a great deal about U.S. domestic issues; however, as with all other posts I've put up over the years about such issues I don't see these as a departure from foreign/defense policy.

It's been coming clearer and clearer since 2006, when William Easterly published his landmark rant that in this era the best way for the United States of America to further its international interests is by establishing a new model of conduct for itself.

This on the sound theory that when a country is deeply in hock to another and depending on very unsavory regimes for help, that's not the right time for the country to say to others, 'Do things the way we say you should do them.'

So right now it's not a matter of leading from the front or the behind; it's a matter of leading by example. And frankly in a lot of areas we're not setting a good example.