يادداشت الای ليک در يک وبلاگ آمريکايی در رابطه با استراتژی امپراتوری

Posted by: cleek | December 5, 2004 01:53 PM
Matt,
Alright, I gotta get back to writing for tomorrow. But you're biting at ankles here. The biggest problem facing the world is the civil war within Islam. We are, as you and others have pointed out, not a credible voice yet to support the moderate liberals in this debate. In large part it is because we are the benefactors of corrupt elites that run roughshod over Arab lands. The preservation of this constellation of strong men and sheikhs for years was heralded as stability by both parties. A fair argument can be made that we need the friendly muhabbarats as proxies in a war against ngo Islamic lunatic terrorists. I'm all for the extralegal capture and assasination bin Laden. But this is not the liberal position. The liberal position is one most associated with the neoconservatives, which is to support the opponents of both friendly and unfriendly regional despots. Regime change. Mind you, regime change need not and should not be more invasions. Besides being infeasible, it has proven impractical. But the isolation of repressive governments that give cover and cut deals with our enemies is desirable. You and other Kosovo democrats have spent the better part of the last two years calling the neocons deceptive amateurs, howling that they have failed to listen to the counsel of our intelligence bureaucracies. At no point have I read an honest hawkish democrat explanation that the CIA and foreign service indeed have their own political agenda and it is largely a conservative one to preserve the current international system. Besides which, regardless of the neocon analysis, the professionals have screwed up so many times it's amazing to read Fred Kaplan and Jason Vest defending their job performance. Anyway, look at the other comments on the blog here. On the very big strategic questions Cliff May is not so different than Ken Pollack. They differ only in strategy and on their opinion of the united nations. But neither question for a minute America's obligation to shape the world. The Nation magazine and the American Conservative on the other hand favor the retreat of America from the world. At the end of the day which tent accomodates Samantha Powers? Chomsky/Buhanan or Wolfowitz/Hitchens. By the way if the mindless quibbling continues between the two sides of the robust American power coin, Scowcroft/Kissinger wins and we're back to where we started.
Eli
PS: Related to another thread. I don't write for Campus Watch. Like many websites, they pick up some of my work.
Eli
Posted by: Eli Lake | December 5, 2004 02:37 PM