I don't think much of his reporting in general, but the excerpts from the Rumsfeld Memo that Wolf Blitzer includes in this story are quite interesting. The final paragraph suggests an issue that is quite complicated:

'Rumsfeld said that how the nations of the world respond to the U.S. effort will determine what kind of relationship they will have with the world's only superpower. "We have to accept that, given the importance of the cause," he said. "As a result, relationships and alliances will likely be rearranged over the coming years."'

It's the first I've seen of the government saying that whatever coalition is together at the beginning, it probably will be very different at the end. At once this is insightful since all of our actions will not please the entire world. It is also food for thought in that it may mean that the US will take its actions regardless of who, if anyone, supports it. Not having the whole memo, I can't say (and I find it unlikely that we would, at the outset, contemplate the possibility of acting totally unilaterally in the world's most conflicted region) but there are two quite distinct readings one can make of this part of the memo.
- posted by levinson @ 9/22/2001 02:41:00 PM