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NeoCon, it's not just an SF con
While the stuff about empire is wrong and, IMO, more than a little slanted, this article does a decent job of articulating what I think a "good" conservative is... someone concerned primarily with active, aggressive foreign policies. Someone not at all interested in the moral agendas of the fundo-wackies. The summary is nice:
Any regime that is outwardly hostile to the US and could pose a threat would be confronted aggressively, not "appeased" or merely contained. The US military would be reconfigured around the world to allow for greater flexibility and quicker deployment to hot spots in the Middle East, as well as Central and Southeast Asia. The US would spend more on defense, particularly for high-tech, precision weaponry that could be used in preemptive strikes. It would work through multilateral institutions such as the United Nations when possible, but must never be constrained from acting in its best interests whenever necessary.
What a great idea, especially since we have torn down our manufacturing sector so we are now dependent on imports from China, and nuclear weapons are falling pachinko-like into the hands of ever smaller potentates and players...what could go wrong?
Posted by: Barney Gumble on August 28, 2003 09:51 PMBut this is merely good sense in general, Scott. It's not dependent on any particular political orientation. If we make allowances for changes in the scope of military technology, it's been the foreign policy of every durable state in history.
The differences between our present era and previous ones mostly have to do with the reach of present-day destructive technology. We can no longer restrict our concerns to our geographical neighbors. Essentially any power, anywhere on the globe, must be evaluated for its intentions and its capacity to do us harm.
Time was, I thought a non-interventionist foreign policy was a good idea. Sadly, the premises upon which such a policy would be based have been shown no longer to be correct. Today, there is no alternative to the active promotion of freedom, and aggressive, preemptive defense against those who hate it -- by any means necessary.
Posted by: Francis W. Porretto on August 29, 2003 05:37 AM