Ben Franklin was the last...

Submitted by Dmitry (United States), Feb 13, 2013 at 09:59

Not pretending to be a high flying big shot, nevertheless I ones had an opportunity to have a one-on-one discussion with Sec. Donald Rumsfeld. Being a very well educated and just simply pleasant to speak with gentleman, he though expressed the same naivete in regard to American world wide policies' "successes" in the last century. He dismissed my comment (a bit exaggerated, but just to enforce the point) that the LAST really qualified and successful American diplomat was Benjamin Franklin by bringing up examples from Teddy Roosevelt to Cold War. I am sure that Dr. Pipes and enlightened readers of this blog would agree with me that ALL of even perceived (leave alone real ones) success were achieved more or less in spite of American efforts, not due to them. Obviously, a monumental total failure of Middle East/Islam issue, except of self made Israel' survival, is a gaping case in point.

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