Oh My! Nancy Pelosi's off to a great start. Could it be that governing is harder than bitching?

Update: The Larry Kudlow link didn't work. Try This One

RIP Milton Friedman

I can't do better than the words of Larry Kudlow. One of the giants. He will be missed.

Reporter: Do you accept civilian control of the military?

Patton: Of course I do. But the politicians always stop short and leave us another war to fight.

Although it is far from clear from the results of the election that that is what the people really want, all signs seem to indicate a return of "realism" to the conduct of American foreign policy, as the Iraq Study Group creates the political cover to cut and run from Iraq.

A few thoughts. As flawed as this mission turned out to be, I maintain that it was our best shot at acheiving a decisive blow against the jihad early in the conflict. Located as it is in the heart of the Mideast, with many of Islam's holiest sites, with its mix of Shia and Sunni, a comparatively cosmoplitan, educated population and of course its massive oil reserves, geopolitically Iraq is pivotal real estate. Although it may in retrospect seem quixotic, the notion of (belatedly)liberating Iraq from a heinous despot while spreading freedom and prosperity had the potential to stop the jihad in its tracks. Was it really so farfetched to believe that Iraqi's would prefer ipods to IED's? Apparently it was.

Ultimately, America ended up paying the price for prior fecklessness. We cut and ran out of Vietnam, we cut and ran out of Beirut, we cut and ran out of Mogadishu, we hung hundreds of thousands of Iraqi's out to dry after the Gulf War. We'll probably eventually throw Israel and Taiwan under the bus as well. The democracy project in Iraq was doomed because our enemies knew that all they had to do was wait out two elections and we'd cut and run in Iraq too.

So, it looks like "realism" will once again rule the day. It was realism that led Bush 41 to encourage the Iraqi's to rise up against Saddam, only to stand there with his hands in his pockets while he slaughtered hundreds of thousands of them. And we wonder why they hate us.

What does the election mean? Does it mean the American people are tired of fighting? Could be. And that's too bad, because I see no signs that our enemies are.