[Pokey78]

Steyn ping!

[You Dirty Rats]

Thanks for beating Q.

[Austin Willard Wright]

Based on his comments, Steyn apparently was pro-intervention on Bosnia. At least he is consistent, unlike many. Apparently, he has never met a quagmire he didn't like.

[alwaysconservative]

Any large gathering of world leaders is a waste of time, especially if there’s any kind of permanent secretariat or bureaucracy involved. Mr Bush will be polite at Gleneagles, but it’s no coincidence that his closest relationship is with a man he hardly ever meets in person, and never at the big talking-shops — John Howard of Australia, who doesn’t get to go to the G8 or Nato or the EU and yet works more effectively with America than Canada or any of the so-called ‘major European allies’ like France and Germany. Summits are, so to speak, one huge bluff.

According to my favourite foreign minister these days, Australia’s Alexander Downer, ‘Iraq was a clear example about how outcomes are more important than blind faith in the principles of non-intervention, sovereignty and multilateralism.... Increasingly multilateralism is a synonym for an ineffective and unfocused policy involving internationalism of the lowest common denominator. Multilateral institutions need to become more results-oriented.’

Thanks for the ping to another brilliant Steyn-sighting!

[Ronzo]

If you really wanted to make an effective donation to a humanitarian organisation, you’d send your cheque to the Pentagon or the Royal Australian Navy.

I'm getting my chequebook out right now...

[irv]

they launched comprehensive studies to develop a comprehensive development study for holding meetings on developing more comprehensively a framework for studying the development of further meetings.

Hey! They sound like the VPs where I work! Except here, it mostly keeps them out of the way so those of us who work for a living can get something done. I don't think it quite works that way on an international level.