WALTER RUSSELL MEAD ON KHADDAFY: The End Of The Great Loon. “There is one conclusion we ought to draw from the inglorious end of the Great Loon: the Bush agenda in the Middle East is alive and well. The United States is, as Bush and Cheney so forcefully announced, a revolutionary power in the Middle East no longer seeking to prop up the status quo at any cost. (The Saudi exemption still holds.) Regime change remains on the table; the military forces of the United States stand ready to take out thugs whose viciousness has become insupportable, or who align themselves against the vital interests of this country.” They told me if I voted for John McCain, the United States would . . . oh, hell, you know the rest.