War President

New at Reason: In their book, America Unbound: The Bush Revolution in Foreign Policy, Ivo H. Daalder and James M. Lindsay can't decide whether to give President Bush an A or an F on foreign policy. Steve Chapman grades on a curve.

Comments

[teacher]

I give him an incomplete.

[Matthew Cromer]

It's clear that mass murdering butchers have nothing to fear from the likes of Steve Chapman and politicos like Kerry who see the world his way.

Steve, how much should we pay off Kim Jong Il so he won't sell his nukes to what's left of Al Quida? And how will we know he won't take our money and theirs at the same time?

Sometimes, the only policy that makes sense in the long run is to act. It was clear in the 1930s that Germany and Hitler was a threat to the peace, sooner or later. It's clear now that Islamic and nuthouse thugocracies armed with nuclear weapons and allied with terrorists is a threat to the peace. But how few willing to do a damn thing about it.

[Ruth]

I didn't read a sentence of analysis in this piece that corresponded to what's happened in the real world. Unless the intent was to humiliate Steve Chapman, I don't understand why Reason is running this.

[Kiran Hill]

dj,
That was very well put. Thanks for reminding me why I am going to vote for Bush again. It seems to me that the only defense policy that Kerry and his ilk seem to be offering now is: be nice to the French et al and they will fight our wars for us. I hear a lot of criticisms of the current administration, some somewhat valid, but I have yet to hear anyone with a better plan

[Umbriel]

The part that most stuck in my craw was: "[I]t blinded him to realities that other governments understood, such as the feasibility of corralling Saddam through containment and deterrence."

France, Germany, and Russia understood no such thing. They understood that the enmity of Saddam and the US presented them with great business opportunities. They understood that by advancing Saddam's interests -- working to lift the embargo, keeping the US on a leash -- they would win favors and opportunties from him. They understood that if Saddam ever became too troublesome for them -- started invading his neighbors again, perhaps with "WMDs" in his arsenal -- they could rely on the US to clean up the mess.

[Matthew Cromer]

For those of you who are sick and tired of the fecklessness of Reason after the departure of Virginia Postrel, tech central station (www.techcentralstation.com) has taken up the mantle of sensible libertarianism on the web.

[Stephen Fetchet]

I dunno, Matt. I don't think it's fair to call Reason "feckless."

The core principle of Reason.Com Libertarianism is actually quite principled - It's a belief in an inalienable right to drive down the road in a convertible Hummer, while smoking a fat spliff (to cut the Oxycontin buzz) and watching gay bestiality porn on a big screeen TV/DVD combo on the hood.

It's also a belief that Murray Rothbard didn't go far enough in condemning the existence of all government and laws, and that the market will solve all ills without any regulation of any sort, public or private (hence the Chicago school libertarians and the Hayekians who posit the need for some form of government are actually fascists or brain dead conservative christian fundamentalists); and it's the belief that nobody with any brains at all could believe in anything other than cold, hard unchanging (ahem) scientific truth.

This is anything but feckless - it's a very clear cut set of principles to live by.

I'm just not sure I'd like to live by them. I think you have a point about Postrel's departure. If Charles Paul Freund stops contributing, I think I may just start going to Atrios or Democratic Underground to get a dose of slightly more sensible commentary.

[Josh]

Am I the only person left on earth who knows what the words 'alone' and 'unilateral' mean?

[sensible libertarian]

Gee, thanks, Matt. For a second there, I thought I was going to have to think for myself and draw conclusions on my own. Now I can consign critical thinking to sweet oblivion.

[dj of raleigh]

Title & concluding sentences of the opening paragraph:
> Perhaps no country in history had ever enjoyed the position that the United States held in the wake of the Soviet Union?s collapse...We had no enemies of any consequence.

[Will Spencer]

Ruth, you are 100% correct in your analysis.

I was amazed at the appalling lack of quality of the analysis in Steve's article.

Steve should be embarassed and Reason should be also.

[Sweney Michael]

EMAIL: [e-mail]
IP: 212.253.2.205
URL: http://preteen-sex.info
DATE: 05/21/2004 05:53:07
I can't understand why a person will take a year to write a novel when he can easily buy one for a few dollars.