The Great Right Hope?

Hey, look at what Condi did! This is a victory in the GWIF (Global War on Islamic Fundamentalism) that most people won't even notice or even see as such, which is why it deserves to be trumpted (via CQ):

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meeting with the new leaders of Kyrgyzstan, reached agreement on Tuesday on long-term rights to maintaining an air base here for servicing military aircraft on missions to Afghanistan.

The United States and allied forces may continue to use the base, adjacent to the international airport here, "until the situation in Afghanistan is completely stabilized," President Kurmanbek S. Bakiyev said at a news conference.

Last July, Kyrgyzstan, along with three other Central Asian states and Russia and China, issued a statement calling on the United States to evacuate all its bases in this region. A short time later, the Kyrgyz defense minister told Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld that the United States could continue to use the base. [emphasis added]

This is big, not only in the context of the GWIF, but in blunting the Sino-Russian effort to drive us out of Central Asia. That drive, and the burgeoning alliance between the two strongest world powers after ourselves that fuels it, needed to be answered and countered to send the message to Moscow and Beijing that we are not going to be intimidated nor will we allow them to interfere with our prosecution of the war in which we are currently engaged. That message has now been sent, resoundingly, and by diplomatic means, to boot.

Mr. Morrissey observes that this "agreement speaks to [Secretary] Rice's expertise in negotiation and toughness." Indeed it does.

But can she save us from an even worse enemy (hint: an area in which Rice has no expertise whatsoever)? That remains very much to be seen.