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| washingtonpost.com - Jim Hoagland (washingtonpost.com)
It is hard not to root for Condoleezza Rice to succeed. After all, if this intelligent, personable African American woman excels as the nation's top diplomat, America's interests and reputation are advanced throughout the world.
Russia's brutal and calculated invasion of Georgia raises the curtain on a dangerously volatile period in world politics. Further miscalculation and posturing by Russian, American and European leaders could damage the prospects of global peace for years to come.
U.S. and Iraqi negotiators are days away from agreeing on an "aspirational" date for withdrawing American combat troops from Iraq. Barack Obama and John McCain will find language in the accord to allow each to take credit on the campaign trail for shaping that outcome.
Every aspect of life under totalitarian governments is political, from sports to culture to business. President Bush and other world leaders attending the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics this week should stop pretending otherwise, especially to the Chinese people.
John McCain's prisoner-of-war experience is a strong selling point for him in this American election. But it is a powerful drag on his popularity in Europe, where past U.S. involvement in Vietnam still generates intensely negative feelings.
The exposure of illusions does not automatically cause them to be abandoned. They become even more necessary when other alternatives look riskier.
At the strong urging of the Bush administration, Israel has pulled back from threatening to bomb Iran's nuclear enrichment program and has joined the U.S.-led effort to give coercive diplomacy with Tehran a (time-limited) chance.
LONDON -- John McCain would kick Russia out of the Group of Eight economic powers that meet in Japan this week. But this is no time to think small. The G-8 leaders themselves should declare surrender and disband their high-profile huddle on the state of the world.
MOSCOW -- Vladimir Putin's switch from running Russia as its president to running Russia as its prime minister has changed traffic patterns here but little else.
PARIS -- Remember this, Mr. President of the United States of America: You may have regrets about things you were not able to finish in office. But only winners, like you and like me, ever get the chance to change their nations.
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