You Know What Our Problem Is? Not Enough Tyrant-Coddling From The MSM.

Sometimes you read something that makes you laugh even though it’s not funny at all. This paragraph definitely counts:

What’s missing in America’s mainstream media is the voice of realism. As the label implies, realists think foreign policy should be based on the world as it really is, rather than what we might like it to be. Realists see international politics as an inherently competitive realm where states constantly compete for advantage and where security is often precarious. But realists understand that being overly alarmist and aggressive can get states into just as much trouble as being excessively trusting or complacent. So realists keep a keen eye on the balance of power, but they oppose squandering blood or treasure on needless military buildups, ideological crusades, or foolish foreign wars. Realists cherish America’s commitment to democracy and individual liberty, but they know that ideals alone are no basis for conducting foreign policy. They also understand that endless overseas adventures will inevitably provoke a hostile backlash abroad and eventually force us to compromise our freedoms here at home.

Realists also have propped up dozens of tyrants over the decades. Realists were responsible for building up Saddam Hussein and for leaving him in place after the Gulf War. Realists are responsible for the house of Saud, for the Muslim Brotherhood having a choke hold on Egypt, and for both Assads holding Lebanon in thrall for the better part of twenty years.

Realists are, to my way of thinking, selfish cynics who have no problem buying their way into uncomfortable entanglements that betray the ideals on which this country was founded while giving them a safe position from where they can simply shrug when one of “their bastards” commit yet another atrocity. Their position allows them the comfort of distance from the misery they cause and stinks of a milquetoast isolationism that lacks the courage to either wall ourselves off from the world or to fully involve ourselves in helping to end the scourge of tyranny everywhere we reasonably can.

But my quibble here is not with the substance of realism. It’s with the idea that, somehow, realists are not adequately represented in our public discourse. It is a rare news article in the past seven years on the President’s foreign policy that has not included more than one quote advocating the realist position. Realists show up regularly on the op-ed pages of major newspapers. In fact, before a single William Kristol column appeared in the new York Times, Henry Kissinger has published pieces in the Washington Post twice, the Wall Street Journal, was the main subject of articles promoting his opinions on Iraq in 2005 and 2006, was (incorrectly) profiled as a “top Republican” who “broke” with the President on Iraq by the New York Times after he wrote this op-ed in 2002 (that actually supported the president’s case for toppling Hussein), and was interviewed extensively by the CFR about the potential for military action in Iran. It certainly seems that he’s had no problem whatever getting his opinions into the mainstream media. You will find a similar presence for Zbigniew Brzezinski.

Again, this is all before Kristol had even been hired by the Times.

Walt’s complaint seems a little hollow and, quite honestly, smells of a whiny “But I’m right! Why isn’t everyone listening to me all the time?” If his worldview hadn’t contributed to nearly untold misery and the murders of thousands of Americans at the ands of Islamists who were radicalized in large part because of realist policies I’d laugh at his complaint.

Instead I’ll thank him to slink back to the ash pile of history where his onerous policy should have been relegated a long time ago.

(via memeorandum)

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Category: No More Tyrants, Oh, THAT liberal media.