Anti-Climacus

FOR THOSE OF YOU: not yet of a mind on the Iraq question, a few things which might help point the way:

1. Taking Sides, Christopher Hitchens' last column for The Nation, in which he outlines the Liberal case for regime change in Iraq. Importantly, he notes, the cause has to go forward even if we're suspicious of the motivations of the people making the decisions (as we should be)

2. Of Sin, the Left and Islamic Fascism, another by the Hitch. Here, I think, he critically makes the point that our failures in foreign policy in the past obligate us all the more to push for the right things to be done today. And you get some arguments that lay the groundwork for

3. Can There Be A Decent Left?, Michael Walzer's legendary excoriation of his Liberal fellow-travelers. I think it rather effectively makes two points: 1. That Liberals can't conceive of actually holding power, and so don't formulate positions based on having to deal with complicated situations pragmatically, and 2. that there can be a Left foreign policy that isn't, as Margaret Thatcher might put it, "wet."

I recommend, additionally, everything Salman Rushdie and V.S. Naipaul have written on the subject, and the same goes for what's-his-face at The New Republic. That's not so helpful, I guess. But here, of course, context is everything: a good Iraq policy ought to be applicable to how we deal with every other state in the world (Afghanistan, Iran and Nigeria). So the real question is, what precident do we want to set?