Lee Harris points out the fatal flaw in the argument of the “non-interventionists“:
We may agree with Ron Paul that our interventionist policy in the Middle East has led to unintended negative consequences, including even 9/11, but this admission offers us absolutely no insight into what unintended consequences his preferred policy of non-intervention would have exposed us to. It is simply a myth to believe that only interventionism yields unintended consequence, since doing nothing at all may produce the same unexpected results. If American foreign policy had followed a course of strict non-interventionism, the world would certainly be different from what it is today; but there is no obvious reason to think that it would have been better.
Ramesh Ponnuru has a great question, that occurred to me as well, when I read this. This discussion is in the context of whether or not earmarks are a winning issue for Republicans. Well, they certainly aren’t unless they’re willing to embrace it. Which apparently they aren’t…
Is it possible that the Steyn imbroglio could be used to shut down the Canadian Human RightsWrongs Commission? It’s something else that’s long overdue.