*Iran: Time For A New Approach*

[madwriter]

Yesterday I polished off Zbigniew Brzezinski's geopolitical work The Grand Chessboard, which calls for an American dominance of Eurasia and thus, by proxy, the world

Comments

[pompe]

Empires are not just won, they are also lost in Eurasia.

What Obama should ask himself, especially after the last decade, instead of digging up old hawkish geostrategists nationalistically fiddling with the World Island (doesn't it feel very 20th Century?) is if there is anything truly worth winning remotely sensible to gamble for compared to what is extremely likely to be lost.

[madwriter]

One point in his favor--and where he certainly parts ways with the Republican Party at large--is that he considers France important. Every bit as important as Germany and even Britain. He says that France could be and should be a friend of the United States.

The reasons he seeks French friendship, however, are a bit dubious, as you can guess. He thinks that each of those three countries controls a certain sphere of influence in Eurasia (he includes part of Northern Africa in the French sphere as well), and that by bringing France into our corral we'd naturally bring that French influence under our own too.

[pompe]

Geostrategy is nationalist geography. To me, it is about as valuable as a scientific and sensible way of thinking about man's relation with the rest of the world as nationalist genetics or nationalist history is. It is deeply disturbing if Obama is into that mess, few "scientific" fields are as intrinsically dangerous and have had so profound evil effects as nationalist geography.

[jordan179]

One point in his favor--and where he certainly parts ways with the Republican Party at large--is that he considers France important. Every bit as important as Germany and even Britain. He says that France could be and should be a friend of the United States.

Bush was getting along just fine with Sarkozy, last I looked ...