Dateline: above the garage in snowbound Portsmouth RI, 22 January 2005
Puppy was a dream last night, sleeping until 7 am. After a long walk and much spirited play, I retreated to my loft above the garage and—as planned—tacked a solid 5k onto the 1.6 I penned yesterday for the third and last section of Chapter Two (this one involving the war against transnational terror networks). Break at noon to coach Kevin's team. Bit nervous, because co-coach Bill was gone on travel, but we romped 34-10 over a team that just didn't have more than three solid players, while we have a good 8, albeit mostly of marginal size.
After a stop-off at Walmart on the way home, I banged out an additional 2.5k for a total count of just under 9,000 words, giving me somewhere in the mid-50s range and keeping me on track for a final count somewhere around 145k. But again, I don't worry about the running total, because that's Mark's job to slim it down sensibly to where it needs to be.
Funny, but much as with Neil Nyren's subtitle of "War and Peace in the Twenty-First Century," the whole "Blueprint for Action" thing is worming its way into my writing style on this book, keeping me suitably focused, I do believe.
Got an email from a reader who wanted me to blog on Charles Krauthammer's recently, rather hysterical op-ed about China and Russia "coming together" against the U.S., which I found painfully hyperbolic in its fear-mongering. Krauthammer's a brilliant guy in so many ways, able to write across so many topics. And I really value his consistent take on U.S. foreign policy. I mean, the man really gets America at its core. But when he ventures much beyond our shores, he tends to get so reflexively suspicious about everybody else, as if, WRT to this argument, somehow it's almost unseemly for any great powers to cooperate militarily and not do so specifically at the behest of, and in conjunction with, the United States.
I just read Robert Wright's "Nonzero," and his "first rule for running the world" is a brilliant one: don't fight the inevitable. To me, that's why you deal with Iran on the bomb. And it's why you don't fight China and India linking up with Iran over energy. If you want responsible partners, you've got to give them responsibility—and some trust. The quickest way to kill the unipolar situation on military capabilities is to become obsessed with any movement by others in the direction of diluting that advantage. I mean, does our definition of global stability rule out military cooperation between Russia and China? Where in the hell do you go with that one? The naiveté on that one is—to me—just stunning. Did anyone think this was how we'd win a Global War on Terrorism? Keeping all the Core's major powers suspicious of one another and at arm's length—except with regard to the US? I mean, I just love it when people call me optimistic and then engage in grand strategic thinking along those lines. It's just fantasy.
Let me crank out a Reviewing the Reviews entry and then I gotta go shovel with Kev and get started on his school project.
I leave this day feeling awfully good about the book. This section felt the most professional and solid yet. Tomorrow I get up and plan section 8 before noon and get at least 5k into it before knocking off and cleaning the house.
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