Grand bargains

Today, Robert Samuelson tells us our Nuclear Nightmare is real and neither Bush or Kerry have a plan to deal with this madness. In varying degrees, both presidential candidates believe we can buy our way out of this mess.

On August 29th, Senator Edwards, during an interview with The Washington Post, promised the Kerry administration would seek a "grand bargain" with Iran.

The underlying premise in a "grand bargain" is: Money means as much to others as it does to those that are offering it.

Herodotus told us Croesus' wealth did not save him from his enemies. Machiavelli tells a story about a King of Macedonia:

"the king, in order to display his power and to frighten them, showed them a lot of gold and silver; whereupon the Gauls who up till then had been intent on peace, broke off negotiations, so eager were they to relieve him of that gold. So the king was despoiled on account of the very thing he had accumulated for his defence."

With luck, Iranians and North Koreans have not read Herodotus or Machiavelli.