FLYING IN THE FACE OF THE CONVENTIONAL NARRATIVE: Esteem for US rises in Asia, thanks to Iraq war:

THE US war in Iraq has strengthened its strategic position, especially in terms of key alliances, and the only way this could be reversed would be if it lost the will to continue the struggle and abandoned Iraq in defeat and disarray.

Read the whole thing. (Via Don Surber). Plus this: “More generally, in a world supposedly awash in anti-US sentiment, pro-American leaders keep winning elections.”