Surber on Foreign Policy Realism

Don Surber, one of the best analysts on the net, and the one with whom I most often find myself in agreement, cites George Packer's description of the foreign policy "realists."

“These are the same men who, fifteen years ago, abandoned Afghanistan to civil war and Al Qaeda, allowed Saddam to massacre his own people, and concluded that genocide in the Balkans was none of America’s business.”

He argues that a "realist" approach to Iraq, as is now being advocated by both Republicans and Democrats, would impose a horrendous "stability" on that long-suffering nation at the expense of human freedom and lead to immense suffering. He writes:

I do not want to see America throwing away 3,000 lives again. Stay. Fix the nation. Make every life sacrificed — American, Iraqi, Pole, Brit, Aussie, Dane, whomever — count.

Read it here.

Henry Kissinger has often complained that the United States has long had a habit of going about the world creating "bloody messes" and then walking away from them, leaving local populations to suffer the consequences. That is what the "realists" are counseling now -- and Kissinger is among them. The Iraq war has been one of the most efficiently and effectively prosecuted campaigns in the history of warfare, and yet is being regarded as a failure. We must recognize it's astounding successes as such and carry the war on to a satisfactory and honorable conclusion.

No more boat people! Please!

You can read Packer's New Yorker article here.