Neoconservatism: Not So Bad After All

A good friend of mine wrote the following re: my post here. He nicely is allowing me to post it. I will offer my thoughts in a subsequent post.

I agree that Obama's foreign policy soft tactics are probably the result of keeping consistent with his campaign, which was to pose as the anti-Bush. In that sense it does seems like he's running into a realistic wake-up call.

But I think he needs to come into realism slowly. His popularity abroad is soaring, and the cost of tough stances could be in international disfavor and rough resemblance to the Bush administration. So it seems he needs to play a balancing act. In order to garner an international backing, he needs to strike a balance between neoconservatism (which the rest of the world hates) and soft diplomacy.

I guess the good thing is that the memory of Bush is fading, and the more it continues to do so we can start a more neocon agenda with democracy-building. To be honest I'm with you in that I don't accept the idea that we have no business in the rest of the world's affairs. If we're powerful with resources at our disposal, we have a duty to protect human beings.

I actually think there's a bright wing of neoconservatism that accords extremely well with globalism, at least philosophically. Essentially, yes the world is imploding, and because everyone's interests are overlapping, we have a moral and realistic obligation to protect democracy. [Emphasis mine]