Assholesomeness*

How's that working out as the pillar of US foreign policy?

Israeli Forces Enter Lebanon After 2 Soldiers Are Seized

Kidnapping and Bombing Add to Baghdad Turmoil

Violence Mars Rumsfeld Visit

Investigators Seek Clues in Bombay Bombings

U.S. Officials Visit Afghanistan's Turbulent South

There is a fundamental distinction between being tough and being an asshole. The tough guy understands that toughness needs reserving for critical moments of actual import, that, used in such moments precisely and measuredly and finished with fairness, toughness is actually a negotiation tool, not a policy. The asshole makes his assholeness the policy itself.

Would there be peace upon the lands, would centuries of ethnic and religious acrimony cease, would the ambitions of other assholes lessen if our President wasn't a bullying asshole? Of course not. But toughness gives pause where assholeness emboldens. There is nobody as asshole fears less than another asshole. Nobody creates more assholes than another asshole. Nothing drives an asshole to greater assholeness more than another asshole (see Putin Rips Cheney's Verbal 'Hunting Shot').

I guarantee, it'd be a lot less bloody - and the United States would be stronger - if our President (and a significant percentage of American citizens) didn't believe that being an asshole is the same thing as being tough.

AND - I also guarantee that the bloodier, more violent and generally cataclysmic things get b/c of assholeness, the more the asshole, his supporters and enablers, will claim the right, nay, the obligation for the asshole to be a bigger asshole. That's the way assholes reason. Watch.

* Pardon the use of the bad work. I could search for a euphemism, but outside of politeness, why? The word fits