In our system leadership is by consent, not command. To lead a President must persuade. Personal contacts and experiences help shape his thinking. They can be critical to his persuasiveness and thus to his leadership.

... something under $50 billion for the cost. How much of that would be the U.S. burden, and how much would be other countries, is an open question.

Leave the President's family business to him. You will have plenty to do without trying to manage the First Family. They are likely to do fine without your help.

Certainty without power can be interesting, even amusing. Certainty with power can be dangerous.

In 2003, at the time I made my "Old Europe" comment, the center of gravity in NATO and Europe had long since shifted to the East. With the former Warsaw Pact countries joining NATO, the alliance has a different mix today. Some people were sensitive about my comment because they thought it was a pejorative way of highlighting demographic realities. Apparently they felt it pointed a white light at a weakness in Europe - an aging population. Europe has come some distance since World War II in becoming Europe.

The purpose of terrorism is to terrorize. It's to change the behavior of the people that are being terrorized.

I tend over the years to have developed a certain hesitancy about believing that headlines tell the whole story.