While Argentina, Brazil, and Chile - what in textbooks used to be called the ABC countries - seem settled into democratic politics and free market economics, the Andean countries are in disarray.

The ultimate goal is to change Syria's behaviour on a variety of issues - on its interference in Lebanese internal affairs, on its support for Palestinian terrorist groups that oppose the Palestinian Authority, on, most importantly, acting as a land bridge between Iran and Hezbollah, where Hezbollah gets all its arms.

Iran exports about 2.2 million barrels a day.

There are no Muslim ghettos in the U.S.

As the Palestinian leadership never seems to pay any penalty for its words, America's seriousness about the peace process is in doubt.

There are examples of fraternal dictatorships, or one, anyway: the passing of power from Fidel to Raul Castro.

The question was never whether the United States, E.U., NATO, Arab League, U.N. Security Council, and African Union could together using economic sanctions, diplomatic pressure, and military attacks to bring Qaddafi down. The question was always how much time, how much blood, and what damage to NATO.