Dearest Tina,

This morning I opened my e mail from the Daily Beast to find two essays, one by Peter Beinart and one by Leslie Gelb. Mr. Beinart’s contribution is titled Obama’s Foreign Policy Doctrine Finally Emerges With ‘Offshore Balancing’. Well Tina, Mr. B. outdoes himself in the realm of self-congratulatory rhetoric,as is usual for this deep thinker and full time apologist for the the Empire, of the New Democratic persuasion. Not to speak of the use of such literary/political gems as ‘offshore balancing’ and ‘zero sum’, all very technical, and reeks of the mastery of the vocabulary of the accomplished technocrat,although not demonstrating any real competence: a specialty of Mr. Beinart. Then Mr. Gelb’s essay, The Republican Party Is Losing Its Grip on Foreign Policy,a withering polemic against the demonstrable incompetence of the Republican Party’s front runners in the arena of Foreign Policy, but here is the telling first paragraph:

“Americans can learn more about foreign policy from The Real Housewives of New Jersey than from Republican presidential hopefuls. At least the shrieks of the housewives speak to reality. The Republican wolves howl about a mostly bygone world of dire military threats, a world inhabited by global ghosts to be thwarted by waterboarding and wars. Most of them just don’t see that the old right-wing rhetorical bromides that once scared Americans and dominated campaigning won’t win future elections.”

The Real Housewives of New Jersey? Surly, an insertion by you or some sub-editor in order to make Mr. Gelb’s usual serious tone a little more palatable, for a reader addicted to the lurid, the gossipy tone of less serious but bestselling magazines? Mr. Gelb does indulge in his usual finger pointing at The Republican Party’s political irrationalism, while loudly and at length, proclaiming the sanity and probity of he and his political allies, hardly noteworthy, but, well, predictable . Tina, my morning would have been complete had you had the foresight to include an essay by my favorite reactionary thinker and imperial apologist, Niall Ferguson, that would have been the realization of a powerful triad of thinkers-would they qualify as the New Intellectual Trinity of the Politics of Empire? With you as it’s midwife, the thought is heady, in fact dizzying!

Sincerely yours,

Myra Breckenridge