PRESTOPUNDIT

I wish someone had time to Fisk this piece of santimonious drivel from Martha Nussbaum on Grotius, Hobbes, Kant and international law. Didn't Benthem say something about "blather on stilts" -- well, maybe not, but he wasn't reading Nussbaum either. Can someone perhaps send a copy of this Nussbaum nonsense to Charles Krauthammer or Mona Charen?

The classic foreign policy debate in the later half of the 20th century was between cynically expedient "realpolitik" (think Kissinger) and hopelessly naive Wilsonian liberalism (think Carter). Narrow self-interested power seeking for its own sake vs. wishful thinking moral preening for its own sake. Of course, when America is its best self and most successful it unites its self interest with its best moral tradition -- that of liberty and the rule of law. And these things are a far cry from the phony U.N. "democracy" of "sovereign" tyrants and deeply corrupt elites. It was in America's self interest to bring true liberalism to Germany, Japan, France, Italy, etc. -- and we did this using both the force of arms and the force of ideas (Voice of America, etc.). Truman created peace in Europe -- Wilson did not.

Bush clearly understands that America's self-interest and her moral vision go hand-in-hand (and that these have nothing to do with European realpolitik or squishy leftist moral preening):

The advance of freedom is the surest strategy to undermine the appeal of terror in the world. Where freedom takes hold, hatred gives way to hope. When freedom takes hold, men and women turn to the peaceful pursuit of a better life. American values and American interests lead in the same direction: We stand for human liberty.

Clearly this muscular liberalism is the true liberalism of Grotius and Kant, and not the false "liberalism" of Thomas Hobbes. But something has happened to those of a certain age -- as if some part of their brain has been removed which makes it impossible for them to deal honestly with the deep insights of true liberalism. (And one more thing, Martha needs to read some Peter Bauer on the human disaster which is foreign aid -- even the IMF and the World Bank won't claim that their multi-billion dollar efforts have contributed any net good to humanity. And she also needs to look at the facts and results of private aid coming from private American citizens).