If You Read Anything Today, Read This

(Via Ipse Dixit)

Jon Stewart had Nancy Soderburg, ex-Clinton aide and author of The Superpower Myth: The Use and Misuse of American Might. But Stewart managed to get her to all but admit that the thesis of her book was in error. And he got her to openly admit what most Democrats loudly object to when accused of:

Well, I think, you know, as a Democrat, you don't want anything nice to happen to the Republicans, and you don't want them to have progress. But as an American, you hope good things would happen.

James Taranto's Best of the Web in today's Opinion Journal has the full transcript. Read the whole thing. And pay particular attention to this Soderburg quote and its context:

There's always hope that this might not work.

UPDATE: I've expanded on the post Bittersweet Triumph below, as I've found some additional commentary on just this topic by Steven Den Beste. Read also this piece by Steven from December, 2003. One of the (many) pertinent quotes:

America was the most important battlefield for the transnationalists. Without political victory in America, they had no hope of success overall. Their only hope was for the "American Street" to lose heart, to become dejected and depressed, to be defeated in spirit. Transnationalists tried to push defeatism and doubt and feelings of failure, but also knew that this was futile unless American actions were met with failure. After the 9/11 attacks didn't make Americans lose heart, they hoped that each successive major action by America might be the one which might deflate these brash, confident, overbearing unilateralists. Thus they found themselves in the position of hoping that America would face defeat.