Cliff, I agree with a lot of what you say. And in that post yesterday I was analyzing the “to hell with them hawks,” not throwing in with them. I’m still a “hearts and minds” guy, on the theory that we are fighting a global insurgency and insurgencies are rarely won by military means alone. But I wouldn’t be quite as dismissive about “friendly” dictators and our “sons of bitches.” All things being equal, we obviously should always take a liberal democrat. But things often aren’t equal, in which case you settle for the son of a bitch (see: Perez Musharraf).