"The Rumsfeldian idea - if idea is not too dignified a word - is that American might is right. It's right because it's American. ...The Rumsfeldian vision is half right and therefore all wrong. It's probably true that the United States can now win most wars on its own. But it can't win the peace on its own. And victory in the "war against terrorism" is all about winning the peace - in Iraq, in the wider Middle East, and beyond. "
"The Chiraco-Putinesque idea - if idea is not too dignified a word - is that American might is, by definition, dangerous...The Chiraco-Putinesque vision is half right and therefore all wrong. It's true that it's unhealthy for any single power - however democratic and benign - to be as preponderant as the United States is today. But for France to make common cause with a semi-democratic Russia (the butcher of Chechnya) and a wholly non-democratic China in a diplomatic campaign which brought temporary succour to Saddam Hussein is not the brightest way to advance towards a multipolar world. "
posted by Matthew @ 3/20/2003 02:53:00 PM
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