However, constructive engagement with members of the Democratic Party is not part of President McCain's agenda. Given that the Democratic Party is an important part of the West, for President McCain to engage constructively with the West would require him to engage constructively with the Democratic Party.
Well, we can't have everything. When people begin with excessively high expectations, they typically end with disappointment. After all, who promised that President McCain would be another Gorbachev? Anybody? We should be happy that President McCain is withdrawing the troops from Afghanistan, and that he is also providing a plan to help the Afghan government slow the drift of radioactive dust across the border from Iran into Afghanistan.
The radioactive dust in an unfortunate side-effect of Operation "bomb, bomb, bomb Iran." Yes, it is a good time to withdraw the troops from Afghanistan. McCain always was good with timing. For example, when the financial crisis became severe, he knew that it was time to suspend his campaign. How candidate McCain persuaded Democratic nominee Barack Obama to suspend his own campaign is something I'll probably never know.
That's the end of today's alternative history news. Below I quote some writing about related ideas, and I provide a hyperlink to the source of the quote:
Within a year of becoming Soviet leader, Mr. Gorbachev had changed the entire top foreign policy team and had begun to implement what was called the New Thinking. It involved acceptance that real security meant mutual security and interdependence, agreement on arms reductions, withdrawal from Afghanistan (one of Mr. Gorbachev’s aims from the outset, and fully realized by early 1989), and constructive engagement with the West.
From:
"When Gorbachev Took Charge", The New York Times, By Archie Brown, Published: March 10, 2010