Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Brad DeLong comments on the Council on Foreign Relations.
Citing Drezner, who says:

1) There is a broad bipartisan coalition of people pissed off at the administration. This is not limited to those involved in this petition (some of whom were at the conference). Those on the liberal side are upset about Bush going into Iraq in the first place -- as well as Abu Ghraib. Those in the center are upset with the breakdown of the policy process -- as well as Abu Ghraib. Those on the right are upset with Bush for appearing to back down in confronting Sunni insurgents in Fallujah and Sadr's militia in Najaf -- as well as Abu Ghraib. Across the board, there is dissatisfaction at the way the Bush team has dealt with the allies. At least two people I talked to who helped advise the Bush campaign in 2000 were positively delighted at the political difficulties faced by administration-based neoconservatives [Yeah, but this is just the liberal Eastern Establishment, right?--ed. No, the national members consist of people outside of the DC-NYC axis, and Republicans were fairly represented.]

2) The love for Kerry ain't exactly palpable either. As much fury as was being directed against Bush, many members -- including a lot of Democrats -- were still having difficulty getting enthusiastic about Kerry. To them, the Senator from Massachusetts was just a replica of Al Gore in 2000. Kerry's foreign policy team is essentially Clinton's old team, and even the Democrats there acknowledged that the Clinton foreign policy team was lucky rather than good on most matters outside economics.

All of which is almost dead up true, though I still get pumped over Gore.

Brad Quibbles:

To say that Clinton foreign policy was, except for international economic policy, "lucky rather than good" seems to miss a good deal of the point. A lot of international affairs is international economic policy, and Clinton international economic policy was very good indeed.

This goes back to one of my oldest rants. From that fountain of knowledge, the McDonalds tray liner, "No two countries with a McDonalds in them have ever gone to war." It's not about the peace inspired by le Royale with Cheese, its because people who are in the "making money club" understand that agression is bad for business. Where we have completely dropped the ball in the Arab world is we didn't bring them into the real making money club, rather we allowed regimes to solidify power. Norquist and I agree on this point, that policy was a horrible mistake. What I don't agree with is that "freedom" can be delivered on the tip of a bayonette. Think about the rest of the Muslem world -- Indonesia, Malaysia -- and where we would be if they hadn't been brought into the making money club in the 90's. International economic policy is not only a large part of, it may be the single most important factor in foreign affairs when it comes to long term peace and security.