John Nichols, writing in The Nation, should include Republicans as well as Democrats in needing to learn Rand Paul's "lesson." And Bolton will never make Paul's grade in view of an unrepentant stance on Iraq and the whole interventionist concept so characteristic of Ziocons. Include Graham and McCain in their stubborn commitment to subordinating U.S. interests to those of sacred cows Israel and NATO. Paul at least carries through on one major political virtue of his father: anti-interventionism.

Stubborn commitment of War Vultures like McCain, Graham, Bolton cost the U.S. the golden-grand opportunity to exit and collapse NATO, and thus remove 50,000 U.S. troops from Europe, when anti-Stalinists performed an internal regime change in Russia under the banner of Democracy. They renounced Stalin's territorial ambitions by dissolving the USSR during the 1990-1992 glasnost fruition. And how did War Vultures reciprocate?

Instead of dissolving NATO as a quid pro quo, War Vultures stepped up their NATO pressures on Russia, hurriedly enlisting newly independent states in NATO, as if nothing had changed and Russia was still the Evil Empire. Voila!--Putin--and the resurrection of nationalistic Stalinism sans Hammer&Sickle/Communist-trapping impediments.

War Vultures need to crow a little louder-- show a little more ownership of their heaps of corpses. When you get what you wish for, you should openly acknowledge the fact.