The North Korean "satellite" launch was a failure, according to this piece in The New York Times. This is just the most recent in a string of such failures. We may learn, after the regime crumbles and the true (and, no doubt, horrifying) story of North Korea is told, that the "Dear Leader" executes those responsible for the failures, thus losing the expertise necessary to learn from them, thus leading to more failures, and more executions. That, at least, is my guess.

A debate is raging inside the Pentagon about how the Army should orient itself to manage future threats. Should we concentrate on counter-insurgencies, such as those we are dealing with in Iraq and Afghanistan, or prepare for a larger, more conventional, war. The war between Israel and Hezbollah that was fought in Lebanon in 2006 is being examined intensely by American war planners in an effort to discover if lessons can be learned from that conflict that would be useful in deciding the issue.

Robert J. Samuelson sees deception behind the suggestion made by Chinese officials that the world move to a global currency to replace the dollar.

Michael Kinsley describes what the world might look like without newspapers. Surprisingly, he takes the exactly correct, and capitalistic, tone. His conclusion?

If General Motors goes under, there will still be cars. And if the New York Times disappears, there will still be news.

Bingo.