| First, I deny that Afghanistan is a failure, it is merely not a finished project. Second, you have no real grounds to claim bad faith on the part of neoconservatives or the Administration. It is a mere prejudice. Third, the main area where idealist and realists have clashed is, in fact, over the use of force. Once again, you don't know very much about this. In fact, realism is mainly interested in confining the use of force to areas where our vital interests, somewhat narrowly construed, are at stake. It is the idealists who want to use force to promote democracy, human rights, and so forth. In that, Clinton was behaving pretty much like a neoconservative in some of these matters, and, indeed, some of his advisors were neocons. Realists are aware of the importance of force in human affairs, but they are also cautious about using it, or wasting it on crusades. Of course, the current crop of Left- idealists tends to underestimate the efficacy and importance of force, and think that their position is so obvious that everyone who disagrees must be cynical. As your comments demonstrate........ |
