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The right and freedom

But I agree with conservatives on things like the economy, crime and foreign policy.

Liberals lead to freedom at home, but are disastrous abroad. Only conservatives understand how the world as a whole works - that the world is full of folly and brutality, that the west is imperfect but the best there is, that it must now and always be defended against its enemies.

The right has the best record on freedom

I do not deny that the defence of the west has involved crimes, the worst of these by far being the bombing of civilians in WW2, and the collaboration with Russia in WW2. But the fundamental points remain, that the left will not support, that: (a) the west is the best part of planet earth - everywhere else is worse, and: (b) the west does need to be strongly defended.

The Past - The defence of the west has involved crimes

• In World War 2 (the War on Fascism):
  1. The bombing of civilians in WW2.
  2. The "realpolitik" (not idealistic) collaboration with Soviet Russia in WW2. Note that this is a crime that the left supported.
  3. The sending of 4 million POWs and displaced persons back to Russia (many for execution) after WW2.
  4. Allowing Russia occupy Eastern Europe and part of Germany after WW2.
  5. The West made up for this somewhat by containing the Soviets and ultimately bringing down the Soviet regime in 1989.

• In World War 3 (the War on Communism):
  1. The bombing of civilians in Cambodia in the Vietnam War.
  2. The abandoning of South Vietnam to the communist butchers after 1973. Note that this is a crime that the left supported. South Vietnam fell to the butchers in 1975.
  3. The abandoning of Cambodia to the communist butchers after 1973. Note that this is a crime that the left supported. Cambodia fell to the butchers in 1975.
  4. "Realpolitik" (not idealistic) support for right-wing tyrannies like Pinochet and El Salvador in the Cold War. The US made up for this everywhere by making the right-wing tyrannies it once supported move to democracy, once the communist threat was defeated. South and Central America are the most notable successes of this policy.
  5. "Realpolitik" (not idealistic) support for the Islamists fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. The US made up for this by bringing down the Islamist regime in 2001.

• In World War 4 (the War on Islamism):
  1. "Realpolitik" (not idealistic) support for Saddam's Iraq against Islamic fundamentalist Iran. The US made up for this by bringing down Saddam's regime in 2003. France and Germany never made up for their support of Saddam, which continued until his downfall in 2003, and even to some extent beyond.
  2. "Realpolitik" (not idealistic) support for unfree Islamic states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Egypt and Pakistan today.
  3. "Realpolitik" (not idealistic) support for other unfree states that have been useful in the war, such as Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and the Northern Alliance in Afghanistan.
  4. As part of the "peace process" environment, America and the EU sending money (and even weapons) to the Palestinian Authority "police" and "security forces". America and the EU supporting Fatah against Hamas. Note that this is a crime that the left supported.

My idea of an ethical foreign policy is to only ever be allies with free countries. But I do have sympathy for the politicians, who are often faced with horrible choices. I accept that to defend the west without any alliances with unfree regimes often seems impossible. Unfree regimes (notably Pakistan and Kuwait) were essential to the wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, for example. Should their help have been rejected? I accept that it is easier to be an idealist than a politician.

• Rudolph J. Rummel
  • Democide by America in the 20th century (mainly aerial bombing of civilians)

• The World's Champion Villain, by Randall Hoven, February 20, 2007 - List of 20th century democides points out the obvious - that America is largely irrelevant to the story of 20th century democide.

• Allied war crimes during World War II

• Don't Judge a Nation by Its Friends (judge it by its enemies) - Andrew E. Busch considers the problem of alliances with unfree regimes for the sake of a greater goal. He correctly points out that the alliance with Russia in WW2 was by far the worst of these.

• Victor Davis Hanson, December 10, 2007, lists some of the intelligence failures, strategic errors, tactical errors and realpolitik alliances of American military history. The Iraq War has been better than average so far.
  • He notes how humans once accepted error: "Yet until the defeat in Vietnam, there was a sort of tragic acceptance of military error as inherent in war. Ours was once a largely rural population, inured to natural disaster and resigned to human shortcoming. ... the common desire for victory usually overcame perpetual finger-pointing and serial despair. ... Again, what loses wars are not the inevitable mistakes, but the failure to correct them in time and the defeatism and depression (because errors occurred at all) that we allow to paralyze us."
  • He also points out how we rarely dwell on our enemies' mistakes: "the enemy, being less introspective and self-critical, was even more prone to military error than we - and less likely to innovate and correct. ... There is no need to document the stupendous strategic and tactical blunders that led to Saddam's ignominious defeat. But in his wake (and after his demise), the supposedly sophisticated jihadists have made just as many mistakes. In a self-proclaimed war of Islamic liberation, al-Qaeda in Iraq has mutilated, butchered, and terrorized a once largely sympathetic population. As a result they have nearly pulled off the impossible: a formerly receptive Sunni tribal community has turned against Sunni Muslim jihadists, and joined with American infidels, sometimes alongside the troops of a Shiite-led government."
  • As always, Hanson provides hope. He says we cannot see the wood for the trees: "The Iraq war and the larger struggle against the anti-American jihadists can still be won - and won with a resulting positive assessment of our overall efforts by future historians who will be far less harsh on us than we are now on ourselves."

• Power by Bill Whittle - on how America is not perfect. Just better than the alternatives in this imperfect human world. For example, European or UN leadership would clearly lead to a worse world than American leadership.
• I never claim America is perfect. Just that it is the best.

• French foreign policy
  • I don't include in the list above the long list of tyrannies that France has supported - from Hutu Rwanda to Saddam's Iraq to genocidal Sudan to communist China to the thug Mugabe - since I do not regard France as in any way a "leader" of the west.
  • I am defending the American-led west. I do not offer any defence of French foreign policy, since it is not defensible.
  • In fact, I am generally opposed to French power. France is a perfectly nice place domestically, but its foreign policy is irresponsible and amoral, and I am hostile to any increase in French power in the world. I would like to see France lose its UN Security Council seat, for example.

The Present - Western foreign policy is still flawed

Not its support of the democracy of Israel, which is perfectly right and proper.

Rather its support of unfree states like Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan, that share no common values with the west, and where human rights do not exist. These regimes should be dumped by the US at the earliest possible opportunity.

• The Real Roots of Arab Anti-Americanism by Barry Rubin - discusses America's long history of support for the Arab Islamic world, which has yielded it nothing but hatred. America needs to change its policy, and become a much more aggressive force for democracy and change in the Middle East.
• America's long history of thwarting Israeli interests - America has not been loyal enough to Israel.
• The End of Appeasement by Max Boot - America needs to assert itself.

• Statistics of US foreign aid to enemies of the US - This aid to countries like Egypt must stop now.
• Not to mention the appalling amount of money the US gives to the UN.

• Our Not-So-Wise Experts: A litany of past failure by Victor Davis Hanson, April 15, 2005 - lists all the failed policies of the past:
  • Policy #1: Realism (Bush senior)
  • Policy #2: Punitivism (Clinton)
  • Policy #3: Bribery (Clinton)
  • Policy #4: "Let Them Be"
  The new policy - the policy of actively trying to change the Middle East, and end tyranny and spread democracy - is the last resort, the only one that hasn't been tried, the only one that will actually work: ".. too often we discuss the present risky policy without thought of what preceded it or what might have substituted for it. Have we forgotten that the messy business of democracy was the successor, not the precursor, to a litany of other failed prescriptions? ... After the failures of all our present critics, this new policy of promoting American values is our last, best hope. And the president will be rewarded long after he leaves office by the verdict of history for nobly sticking to it when few others, friend or foe, would."
• Yes, well. It's early days yet, and Bush still has realpolitik alliances with tyrannies like Saudi Arabia. Bush has made a good start, but we need to see Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Pakistan becoming free democracies soon, if this war is ever to end.
• The Bush Doctrine's Next Test, May 2005 - Victor Davis Hanson on Egypt, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia. He says now is the moment: "change is inevitable in any case, and there may be only a brief window to ensure that it is democratic and stays that way".

How to criticise policy while still being pro-West:

1. Ralph Peters shows how to criticise policy while still being pro-West:
   • Peters is as gung-ho and idealistic a supporter of Bush's war as you will get, and what he criticises America for is what I criticise it for - its appalling "realpolitik" history of support for Arab tyrants.
   • Our True Enemies - "Until the recent war against Saddam's regime, we never stood up for freedom in the Arab world."
   • Bush's speech of 2003 indicates that he gets it (or at least, that the debate is raging in his administration).

2. Michael Ledeen also does a good line in scepticism and caution. He is gung-ho in favour of the war on Islamism, but worries that we are not serious enough.
   • Our Moment of Vainglory worries that the diplomats are going to turn military victory into defeat - by allowing the establishment of "friendly tyrannies" in Iraq and Afghanistan. If so, the war will only be postponed, not ended.

3. Cox and Forkum blog also does a good line in scepticism, and thinks the US has not got remotely serious enough with Islamist and communist states. They also refuse to be happy with Iraq and Afghanistan until these countries become free societies.
   • "Our SOB" - Cox and Forkum fed up with the realpolitik support for the tyrant of Uzbekistan, just because he is useful in the War on Islamism.

4. Capitalism magazine also shows how to criticise the Bush administration while still remaining clearly onside and pro-War-on-Islamism. Indeed, they criticise the Bush administration for caring too much what Europe and the UN think.

What Democracy Is

• "Democracy Is" by Cox and Forkum - Democracy is not a majority vote. It is the whole works - free speech, freedom of religion, repeated free elections. It is not acceptable if Iraqis vote for an Islamic state: "it would be far more than merely "disappointing" if Iraq becomes a fundamentalist Islamic state. It would be a defeat for us in the war on terror."
• Or, if you like, what I am in favour of is not democracy. It is a free society: "A democracy, if you attach meaning to terms, is a system of unlimited majority rule ... Democracy, in short, is a form of collectivism, which denies the individual rights: the majority can do whatever it wants with no restrictions."

• Majority-rule is not democracy.

• Hamas win the Palestinian election, Jan 2006

Everyone should still support America

• In America and Britain, democracy is old. In Europe, democracy is new.

• The new power blocs of the world

• What's So Great About America by Dinesh D'Souza - "America is the greatest, freest, and most decent society in existence. It is an oasis of goodness in a desert of cynicism and barbarism. [It is] the last, best hope for the world."
  • I agree - and I, like D'Souza, am not American.
  • My only criticism is he does not seem to acknowledge that the American life can be lived to some extent throughout the west. For example almost everything he praises exists in Ireland too.

• Project for the New American Century - America, not the UN, should lead the world.
• National Interest and Global Responsibility (also here) by Robert Kagan and William Kristol, 2000. The prophetic, pre-9/11, neo-con text on the need for American dominance of the world.

Name the country that has done more good than America

• Why America is Great by Daniel J. Flynn - "What country in the history of the world boasts such an impressive record of bettering the lot of all of humanity?" Name that country, if it's not America.

• Victor Davis Hanson - "Kurds and Shiites support us for obvious reasons - no other government on the planet would risk its sons and daughters to give them the right of one man/one vote." If there is any other country on earth which will give the Kurds freedom, then name that country.

• America's Remarkable Goodness: What the Critics Refuse to Acknowledge by John Perazzo - America is not perfect. Only better than the others. - "America's track record is quite demonstrably the most awe-inspiring model of benevolence in the recorded history of mankind." If you disagree, name the country whose record is better.

• Pew Survey, July 2007. When asked to name their home country's most reliable allies in the world:
  • The US was the no.1 choice in: UK, Canada, Israel, Japan, South Korea, South Africa, India, Kuwait, Mexico, Peru, Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Kenya, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Uganda, Mali, Tanzania.
  • The US was the no.2 choice in: Germany, Italy, Czech Republic, Poland, Morocco, Ivory Coast, Senegal.
  • The US was the no.3 choice in: France, Bangladesh, Malaysia.
  • And remember, not all countries were polled.
  • The US itself viewed the UK as its no.1 ally in the world. Far ahead of Canada and Germany.

• 6 word mottos to define America. Ones I like:
  • Always Saving Europe From German Invasion
  • Keeping the world safe without thanks
  • Piss us off, we'll bomb you
  • You send rhetoric, we send Marines
  • 1 Billion liberated since 1942
  • Friends or Enemies, It's Your Choice
  • America - we subsidize your sorry asses
  • Let me into your country, now
  • That hot girl who ignores you

The world's oldest (and best) democracies

• Above I said that America is "the oldest democracy in the world". What I mean is that it is the oldest real democracy that is continuous (unbroken).
• Britain has an older continuous tradition, but wasn't a real democracy before America. It was the proto-democracy that inspired America.

• Chronology of Modern Democracy
• Combining the charts of Samuel P. Huntington and Francis Fukuyama gives the world's 10 oldest continuous democracies as:
  • Late 18th cent: USA
  • Early 19th cent: UK, Switzerland
  • Late 19th cent: Sweden, Canada
  • Early 20th cent: Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Finland, Iceland

• Today, all 10 of these countries are ranked the maximum "Free" in political freedom by Freedom House.
• All 10 are ranked the maximum "Free" in economic freedom by The Heritage Foundation.
• All 10 are in the top 25 richest countries on earth.

• 5 of these 10 countries are strong military defenders of the West. The other 5 are neutral.
• 5 of these 10 countries led the defeat of the 3 greatest killers that were defeated in the 20th century - the Nazis, Axis Japan, and the Soviet Union.
• Today, in the Islamist War, all 10 of these countries are either in the "Axis of Good" or are neutral.

• Truly, these are good candidates for the best 10 countries in the world.

Europe and America (separate page)

Tony Blair's address to Congress after the Iraq War, July 2003, on why America has the thankless task of saving the world (and why everybody else in the West should support them):

"And in some small corner of this vast country, out in Nevada or Idaho or these places I've never been to but always wanted to go - I know out there, there's a guy getting on with his life, perfectly happily, minding his own business, saying to you, the political leaders of this country, "Why me, and why us, and why America?" And the only answer is because destiny put you in this place in history in this moment in time, and the task is yours to do. And our job - my nation, that watched you grow, that you fought alongside and now fights alongside you, that takes enormous pride in our alliance and great affection in our common bond - our job is to be there with you."

See also Tony Blair's speech at Sedgefield, Mar 2004, on the central dilemma of 9/11 - whether to take action on possible threats, or wait until we are attacked again. We as pundits have the luxury of playing each side. The lonely prime minister, however, has to decide.