I attended a reunion dinner last night with about fifteen former CIA colleagues from the Directorate of Operations.  The discussion inevitably turned to politics and it soon became clear that I was the only one present who would not be voting for John McCain.  Though feeling somewhat like General Custer at the Little Big Horn, I tried to find out what McCain policies were viewed positively, but it turned out that the decision has nothing to do with policies, that a Republican is always better than a Democrat or independent.  Depressing.  When reasonably intelligent people who have actually traveled the world and worked with foreigners cannot see the McCain/Palin foreign policy shortcomings I can only despair.  Of course, one might also note that most of the people in the room are still employed as contractors in the defense and intelligence mega-industry and have a vested interest in war going on and on and on.