<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[The Dish]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[http://dish.andrewsullivan.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[Andrew Sullivan]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://dish.andrewsullivan.com/author/sullydish/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Is There A Worse MSM Mediocrity Than Richard&nbsp;Cohen?]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p>It&#039;s hard to imagine in the more meritocratic world of the blogosphere and the web in general that an exhausted incoherent hack like Richard Cohen would have any platform at all. But there he still sits on Fred Hiatt&#039;s op-ed page, churning out dated, brain-dead dreck week after week. His <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/obama-in-denial-about-us-role/2012/02/13/gIQAH05wBR_story.html" target="_self">latest column</a> really could have been written at any point during any Democratic administration since Carter.</p> <p>His current (and previous) hero is Robert Kagan, a man who famously championed a war against Iraq that killed 100,000 Iraqis, 5,000 Americans, permanently maimed tens of thousands more, cost up to a trillion dollars, and ended by empowering Iran. None of this is mentioned by Cohen in using Kagan to condescend to Obama. None of it. And in a column allegedly devoted to American power and influence in the world, Cohen makes no mention of the massive events of the last decade - the rise and rise of the new economic super-powers of China, India and Brazil. Yes, he&#039;s that lazy. He knows as much about foreign policy as I do about how to apply mascara.</p> <p>He&#039;s also completely incoherent, as the National Interest <a href="http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/the-sky-not-falling-6503" target="_self">points out</a>. Is American power in relative decline? Cohen uses Iran as an example to say yes:</p> <blockquote> <p>Russia will not cooperate on Iran. Neither will China. The two even <a href="http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/middle_east/russia-china-veto-un-resolution-on-syria/2012/02/04/gIQAxvVhpQ_story.html">vetoed a U.N. resolution regarding Syria</a>.  India will continue to buy Iranian oil, and the Iranians themselves  have learned that they need only promise to behave and Washington will  shimmer in relief.</p> </blockquote> <p>Then he says no. I love this sentence:</p> <blockquote> <p>[A] limited America still has unlimited possibilities and solemn responsibilities.</p> </blockquote> <p>If a freshman in International Relations wrote that sentence, I&#039;d give him a D. And let&#039;s look at the country Cohen focuses on, Iran, as an example of Obama&#039;s failure to wield power as well as Kagan&#039;s puppet, George W. Bush. Here&#039;s <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/15/opinion/give-diplomacy-with-iran-a-chance.html?ref=europe" target="_self">Dennis Ross</a>, a man long dedicated to Israel&#039;s and America&#039;s interests in the region:</p>]]></html></oembed>