Discussing an article in Foreign Policy entitled “The Six Most Important U.S. Military Bases,” Richard Fernandez comments,

… the list serves to illustrate the geopolitical transformation that has taken place since 2000. Or more accurately, it reflects the current administration's perception of what the geopolitical map (of) the early 21st century looks like. Not only does the list appear very different from one that could have been compiled in the late Clinton Administration era, it also provides an alternative explanation for the weakening of links to Western European allies that the Bush administration has often been blamed for. The newly important areas to the US are China, Southwest Asia and Central Asia. Western Europe, while still important, may no longer have the central position it once had…

I've really been struck, nearly five years after September 11, by the nondebate over strategy and geopolitics, as exemplified by the Democratic Party's Real Security platform… it is hardly possible to believe the Real Security platform is anything but the political equivalent of a bye, written for the express purpose of saying absolutely nothing.