Certainly, protecting oppressed people, stopping ethnic conflict and promoting responsible governance are worthy goals. But none is as important for American security and prosperity as keeping the peace in the Middle East, Europe and East Asia.

The attacks of September 11, 2001, were spectacular, riveting, grim, costly and searing. The shock that they caused reverberated throughout the world. What happened in New York and Washington and Pennsylvania ended the lives of thousands of people and changed the lives of many more. But they did not change the world.

In my experience, it's not just that serious books get a hearing on comedy shows. But serious books get a serious hearing, as well as a funny one, on comedy shows.

Football is controlled violence, but it is violence, which people have loved to watch since the gladiatorial contests in ancient Rome.

The American empire will not disappear... because America does not have an empire.

The less oil the world uses, the less important the region that has so much of it becomes.

The main division in the world is between democratic and undemocratic countries.