George Will on Wolfowitz

Last week John Derbyshire wrote a pretty persuasive column entitled The Twilight of Conservatism, in which the most arresting comment was probably in parenthesis at the end of this paragraph:

"Our country was attacked by a terrorist conspiracy well supported by, and well funded from, the wealthy and populous Muslim Middle East. All sorts of things flowed from that, including necessary expansions of government power and expenditure. (Though whether a $300 billion experiment in Wilsonian nation-building was really necessary is a question I shall leave to another time.)"

It really stuck with me, as that was my general feeling up until, perhaps even a little after the war began. After a little while I was more and more persuaded that the war was largely a noble endeavor on behalf of a badly stricken population, even as the failure to find WMD seemed to have been proved it unnecessary. The elections clinched it, despite all the problems.

Anyway, I was very glad to see George Will's column on Wolfowitz this morning, in which he quotes the deputy secretary of defense: "I can't tell you," Paul Wolfowitz says with justifiable asperity, "how much I resent being called a Wilsonian."

That's the lead-off. The rest of the column is a solid review of the realpolitik that governed U.S. policy in the 70's and 80's, however controversial it was at home. Will ranges between subjects as diverse as the Philippines, Tomahawk missles, the invasion of Kuwait, Leo Strauss and even Saul Bellow to make the point that Wolfowitz's advancement of policies for almost 40 years has been in the defense of the national interest rather than pie-in-the-sky ideals that cost much and deliver nothing. And, come to think of it, the 'exportation of democracy' notwithstanding, how do Wolfowitz's opinions have anything to do with the League of Nations?

The Twilight of Conservatism