Mr. Kagan is here Calabazas the Court Jester of Phillip the IV, made eternal by Velazquez. Mr. Kagan/Calabazas is the dissatisfied, the disgruntled , aspiring to be, longing to be Count Olivares. Not exactly a man of action, but a man who made policy and was the king’s favorite, whose passion for war was long lived, accompanied by disasters abroad and rebellion at home. But then there is Victoria Nuland, and the elaborate story I have built falls apart!
Mr. Kagan’s essay is replete with self-serving statistical data, in fact it’s main body is made up of this statistical garnish, and also  a somewhat muted call for a return to the notion and practice of American Greatness, American Exceptionalism. Wilsonian Idealism is a long lived American delusion, not to speak of an utter misnomer.

Political Cynic