The New York Times' Tom Friedman finally admits what we've been claiming since 2008, the Cold War is back and the lack of ideology cheapens it for him. Cold War 2.0 is just raw nationstate power politics, without the ideological window dressing.
Honestly, it was never about ideology. Properly understood Cold War 1.0 was the Russian empire vs. ours. In its latter stages it became a three cornered game including the Chinese. Today it bids fair to become a four cornered game with the Islamists aspiring to join "the bigs."
It's unfortunate we have a President who wants to sit on the sidelines. The game continues whether or not we take our turn at bat. Clearly, sidelined nations cannot win, they become the retinue, the minions, of powerful states.
