LOS ANGELES -- The job of U.S. secretary of state requires skating on ice -- sometimes thin -- and dodging diplomatic bullets -- even if they later are found to be blanks. From this standpoint, could the United States do any better than Colin Powell?
The former four-star general was on the road last week yet again. It was an eight-day, eight-country swing through much of South and Southeast Asia that he'll probably remember as one of his finer stretches in office.
It started bumpily enough, though, in tension-filled South Asia, where India did not take kindly to his advice about "internationalizing" upcoming elections in disputed Kashmir and Jammu -- and in Pakistan, which seemed irritated by the brevity of his visit there (five hours and on to Thailand).