Georgia And Conservatives

A reader writes:

You were right about the fact that this conflict exposes, as no others have, the chasm between the formerly united cold war warriors in this country.

True conservatives/realists recognize that the US has little national interests in Georgia and even less in going out of our way to piss off the Russian bear. Georgia is a poor, isolated, backwater country that has throughout modern history been within Russia’s sphere of influence, much as the Caribbean and Central American nations have been within America’s sphere of influence. Moreover, even if things were different on that score, there nothing we can effectively do to coerce Russia to act differently.  The realist recognizes this as a windmill at which we should not attempt to tilt. 

But the romantic Wilsonian interventionists (i.e., unchastened neocons) believe we should take on any burden and any cause that appeals to our sense of democratic morality irrespective of how costly and how damaging such rhetoric and actions may be.  U.S. foreign policy is in desperate need of a dose of realism and restraint.  We are not a hegemonic empire, we are at heart a commercially based power whose ultimate demise will come not from challenges from Russia or China but from our own overreaching. 

While I loathe the prospects of Obama’s left-wing economic prescriptions and what they may entail for the country, I do find comfort in the idea that he would actually exercise much more restraint and rectitude in our foreign policies.