* Remember when “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” had resonance? How Cold War era. But if it still resonated, we’d be pragmatic buds with China and Russia, both existential targets of ISIS-inspired jihadists.
* You go, Pope Francis. You have to give it up for a leader uniquely positioned to speak truth to world leaders as well as his own Catholic Church officials. Most recent example: Mexico. He cut to the theological chase when he upbraided church leaders for their deference to Mexico’s wealthy and powerful. Standing ovations were rare.
The Pope also cautioned President Enrique Pena Nieto that public officials cannot be seduced by privilege and corruption. And throughout his travels he continuously urged Mexicans to confront their unacceptable, new normal: a drug culture, gangland killings, human trafficking, kidnapping and crooked police.
In short, it’s what Mexi-stan needed to hear. Not from border-defending yanquis–but from the first Latin American pontiff.
* Few would argue that North Korea–for obvious reasons–is a threat and its 30-something leader alarmingly ominous in his nuclear-envelope pushing. Even fewer, it would seem, would defend the response of the Chinese. They live with an existential threat next door. They also supply North Korea with most of its energy and food. They have incredible leverage. Use it.