International Isolationists?

Over at the Wall Street Journal's Opinionjournal.com, Francis Fukuyama says what precious few Republicanoid conservatives have been willing to say:

Behind the emphasis on power, sovereignty and self-help, the Bush administration has articulated a not-so-hidden idealist agenda that is encapsulated in the term "regime change."

What's curious about Fukuyama's critical piece, though, is the unconvincing and gratuitous slam at "libertarians like those at the Cato Institute." He lumps them in with Pat Buchanan's isolationist tendencies, as if they haven't spent the past decades articulating the legitimate sort of "globalization" (i.e., increasing worldwide free markets, international trade, and open borders) that Buchanan rails against and that Fukuyama defines as essential to a proper foreign policy. [Link courtesy of Arts & Letters Daily]

Comments

[Mark S.]

Of course Fukuyama doesn't try to differentiate the isolationism, natives, and (dare I say it) racism of the Pukeananites with the non-interventionism of libertarians. Better to lump us in with the crackpots then have an honest debate on whether it's our meddling in foreign affairs that's the real source of Terrorism and Anti-Americanism rather than just Islamic extremism.