The Informationist

The Informationist:

Life during the transition from industrial age to information age.

Bruce Abramson

Recommended Web Sites

Purchase Bruce Abramson's Books

War on the Cheap

Irwin Stelzer wrote an important article in last week’s Weekly Standard, War on the Cheap. Stelzer finally admits what too few Republicans have been willing to say: there is an untenable gap between President Bush’s often lofty goals and the rather chintzy resources that he allocates to achieve those goals. Though the most obvious example today deals with the recovery of New Orleans, Stelzer focuses on an area where it should have been obvious for quite some time: foreign policy.

I’ve been complaining about the mismatch between our asserted foreign policy goals (which I support) and the resources we’ve allocated for quite some time. Most of my Republican friends have chided me for questioning the management skills of Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld. Most of my Democratic friends have chided me for supporting a hawkish foreign policy stance. Few of either stripe agreed with my initial assessment of a multi-generational engagement in Iraq and the Middle East as a good reason to support the Iraq war. But I felt then--and feel now--that such a commitment was necessary, and that the return on our investment would validate the high costs.

At least I’m starting to get some company. Stelzer’s piece is worth reading whichever side of the aisle you’re sitting on because he outlines our choices dispassionately: allocate the resources necessary to be a world power or retreat from our global reach.

Posted by Bruce Abramson from on 09/16 at 06:32 PM in American Government, Politics, and Domestic Policies, Foreign Affairs and the World beyond Our Borders