Today, Slate's Fred Kaplan discusses a new CIA report that states that US global dominance could end in 15 years. The stated reason is our obsession with the war on terror. It seems that we are so focused on terrorism that we are missing the bigger picture. The surprise here is that these are not liberals, but CIA wonks.

I also recently read a piece in the Atlantic Monthly by Richard Clarke, the former White House counter-terrorism chief. His is a mock speech given by someone on the ten year anniversary of 9/11. He suggests that the government is missing the focus within the war on teerorism, suggesting that we need to be more practical in our look on homeland security.

Makes me wonder how Bush's second term will really look like. I remember thinking that Clinton's second term would be much more policy-driven than it was. Seems like things are more personality driven these days...