Deeper on Georgia

We noted earlier the seismic shift in State's outlook--towards a "democracy before all" model, following the GWB Second Inaugural's startling rhetoric.

Now Dreher, quoting Bacevich, points to the upshot:

Since the end of the Cold War, the tendency among civilians -- with President Bush a prime example -- has been to confuse strategy with ideology. The president's freedom agenda, which supposedly provided a blueprint for how to prosecute the global war on terror, expressed only grandiose aspirations without serious effort to assess the means required to achieve them

PJBuchanan has been warning--for at least a decade--about the notion of "Imperial America." We can debate whether the meaning is literal or not (I do not think he's being literal), but "installing Democracy" worldwide simply cannot be the assignment of the US Armed Forces. The resource-requirements for that are incalculable, and likely unavailable--ever.

But Buchanan (and Bacevich) are not alone. Recall that I also pointed to Solzhenitsyn's remark to the effect that 'democracy is not for all people,' and that measuring all States by the standards of the West is simply foolish.