One Hand Clapping features a nifty little piece that wonders aloud whether Wesley Clark has what it takes to lead a Great Nation:

In a Newsweek article about Clark's presidential potential, the general is quoted as saying of the Iraq campaign and aftermath: "You can't win without a vision, and that means working with allies."

Why? I would like to read Gen. Clark's explanation of why without allies, there is no vision.

History is replete with failed alliances as well as successful ones, and with successful unilateralists as well as failed ones. The Union in 1861-1865 had no allies. The United States entered World War I on 1917 with two principal allies, England and France, but from the first day it was America's unilateral vision that dominated the employment of American forces. The main task General John. J. Pershing faced in France was making sure that the Anglo-Francais 'vision' of four years of unmitigated trench warfare horror was never adopted by Americans. Both the English and French high command were adamant that American units be used as replacements for their own units that had been decimated by years of grinding combat. Some French generals even wanted American infantrymen to be assigned to French units as individual replacements, which would have been their death warrant. Pershing refused so steadfastly that he prevailed.

Peep the rest here, if you so desire.