GIVING UP ON NATION-BUILDING: Reader Bob Kingsberry emails:

Bush is bringing our troops home from Germany because he realizes American-style democracy will never succeed there. After freeing the German people from a brutal dictatorship and protecting them from Soviet tyranny for almost fifty years, Bush is finally willing to admit that Germans aren’t capable of contributing to the security and prosperity of the world.

I wish I could argue with this. . . . Related thoughts here. And Mickey Kaus thinks Richard Holbrooke needs message control.