Revenge of the Bushies

A couple of original Bushies are less than thrilled with the message of his Inauguration Speech. In two seperate op-eds both Mark Helprin and Richard N. Haas take on the crusade to rid the world of tyranny. Helprin penned W's convention speech in 2000 ("A generation shaped by Vietnam must remember the lessons of Vietnam: When America uses force in the world, the cause must be just, the goal must be clear, and the victory must be overwhelming.") and Haas was the Director of Policy Planning at the State Dept. from 2001 -2003. George Kennan crafted the containment policy as the DPP and Paul Nitze helped put together NSC-68 from that office after succeeding him. Helprin bemoans our current strategy, "God help the army that must fight for an idea rather than an objective." Haas notes that "freedom is not a doctrine" and that "it is neither nor practical to make democracy promotion the dominant feature of American foreign policy."