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Loud and clear
Finally, an intelligent conservative writing in a mainstream conservative publication speaks the clear and uncivil truth about President Bush’s and the neocons’ Soviet-like denial of reality in support of Bush’s disastrous policy to democratize the Muslim world. Three cheers for Andrew McCarthy. Also, at Powerline, see “Paul’s” well written and cogent summary of the central problem with the Bush Doctrine, namely the incoherence of fighting Muslim terror and promoting Muslim democracy at the same time. Paul's critique is not the familiar one (familiar, that is, within the tiny circle of rational Bush critics), that if Muslims have democracy they will elect terrorist governments. Rather, he points out that the two-pronged policy makes us hold back from fighting and even opposing the terrorists, because we think that fighting and opposing the terrorists will discourage them from democratization and nation-building. In short, we’re pursuing war and utopian liberalism at the same time, and the utopian liberalism keeps undermining the war. It's an illuminating analysis, but Paul doesn’t take it far enough. He writes: “In the end, I agree [with Norman Podhoretz] that the Bush Doctrine is not dead. However, I fear that the Doctrine may have a fever due to a serious tension between two of its primary elements.”
It’s not a serious tension. It’s a FATAL CONTRADICTION. Email entry |