Supercommittee lived down to expectations

    I don't recall hearing anyone I know say, with any confidence, that the super committee in Congress would come up with a compromise that would fix problems with the American deficit.
    That just shows how little we expect.
    It also shows why our appreciation for politicians in general, and Washington politicians in particular, is at an all-time low.
    Americans are not alone in their estimation of their leadership. The Syrians have issues, and the Egyptians thought they fixed their problem by taking to the square in Cairo, but they're learning. Libyans are still waiting for the other shoe to drop, but, again, I don't have any great expectation that whatever comes next in the Middle East will be an improvement.
    After nearly 5,000 American soldiers' deaths, and untold civilian casualties, the outcome in Iraq is that they need a strongman leader to grab hold of the situation and end the chaos, kind of like what a fella named Saddam Hussein did for a couple of generations. If he were still around, they might have recruited him to take charge again.
    I thought it was kind of strange that the war to keep weapons of mass destruction out of the hands of terrorists was waged in the one country that had put a lid on the radical Islamists, while we continued to cozy up to the Pakistanis and Afghans, who have more cousins killing other cousins and making bombs to blow up Westerners than Hussein could find on his best day.
    Not that I consider myself an expert on international relations. I have my hands full keeping the peace with other Americans. But that's another column.