In another example of confluence with neoconservative positions, two signatories of the "Progressive Internationalism" manifesto, Michael McFaul and Larry Diamond of the Hoover Institution, have called for the toughest possible US policy toward Iran, rejecting engagement in favor of regime change and democratization--thereby aligning themselves with neoconservative hard-liners and the Israel lobby, and against both Colin Powell's State Department and the views of leading European allies, including Britain.

Somehow, all this is said by its Democratic exponents to be compatible both with "multilateralism" and with the provision of a clear alternative to Republican strategy. In fact, it is often impossible to see any substantive difference. Thus Tomasky echoes not only the messianic democratizing rhetoric of the neoconservatives but also their ostentatious contempt for "the world."

McFaul's proposal for US world strategy is arguably even more radical than the Bush Administration's 2002 National Security Strategy. In his words:

The United States cannot be content with preserving the current order in the international system. Rather, the United States must become once again a revisionist power--a country that seeks to change the international system as a means of enhancing its own national security. Moreover, this mission must be offensive in nature. The United States cannot afford to wait and react to the next attack. Rather, we must seek to isolate and destroy our enemies by eliminating their regimes and safe havens. The ultimate purpose of American power is the creation of an international community of democratic states that encompasses every region of the planet.

It is true that the vision of the Democratic "progressive internationalists" differs from that of the American nationalist right on a range of other vital international issues, including the environment, foreign aid and various international treaties. And if actually implemented--a quite dubious possibility, given the past record of the Democratic Party in Congress with regard to these issues--such policies would not only be very good in themselves but would go far toward improving the entire atmosphere of relations between the United States and Western Europe in particular. However, when it comes to the specific issues of the conduct of the war on terrorism, and the use of force to improve the world, the "progressive internationalists" present no real alternative to Bush Administration policies. Rather, like the neoconservatives, they represent a form of liberal imperialism, of a kind that characterized much of the liberal scene in America and Europe a century ago. In the meantime, however, the historical circumstances have changed utterly. The liberal imperialists were explicitly antidemocratic. They believed that, at best, it would take generations of Western authoritarian rule before the "lesser breeds" they conquered could develop a capacity for constitutional self-government. They would have regarded as utterly ludicrous the idea that rapid "freedom and democracy" could be introduced by Western military force.

The whole democratizing project, as espoused by the liberal hawks and the neoconservatives, is therefore inherently contradictory; and this contradiction is apparent from the very language they use. From the neocons, as Seymour Hersh has reported in The New Yorker, professed support for Arab democracy is mixed with statements that "the only language Arabs understand is force" and that they can be manipulated by sexual shame. But the liberal hawks too combine professed belief in democracy with an openly macho nationalist contempt for the opinions of every other country and its inhabitants.

This is clear in the passages I've quoted by Tomasky and McFaul. America "eliminates" the enemies of liberty. It declares unilaterally what it wants, and the rest of the world has to follow, for "who can afford to buck the United States?" The "world" is, however, seen as inevitably responding "petulantly," thereby delegitimizing any criticism and demonstrating yet again the need for firm American command over the whining and useless dregs who make up the rest of humanity.

• « Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• Next »

• Get The Nation at home (and online!) for 75 cents a week!
• If you like this article, consider making a donation to The Nation.