In hardcore, buckle-down fiction-writing times (such as the one I’m in now), I read a lot of nonfiction. Lately, much of the nonfiction I’ve been reading has dealt with current and recent events: I’m about two-thirds done with Samantha Power’s “A Problem From Hell”: America and the Age of Genocide; prior to that, I took in the paperback edition of Paul Berman’s Power and the Idealists. The latter briefly covers a man named Kanan Makiya, who was the recent subject of a New York Times Magazine article as well. Makiya was a leading Iraqi advocate of American intervention in his country; the article focuses on his thoughts now, given the current situation there. Berman’s book, in its later chapters, devotes much of its thought to the invasion of Iraq and represents something of a two-sided debate on liberal interventionism. It’s been a recurring theme as of late; also consider Christopher Hitchens’s thoughts on learning that an essay he had written inspired one soldier, later killed in Iraq, to enlist. Matthew Yglesias has been weighing in on the larger question of the validity of liberal interventionism lately as well.
I can’t imagine that this debate — less a debate and more a slow, meticulous dissection of a political philosophy that I suspect is far from popular in either political party right now — will end any time soon. I’m tempted to think back to Slate’s “Liberal Hawks Reconsider the Iraq War”, which included thoughts from Berman and Hitchens, though this debate is much wider in scope. What I don’t like to think about — what frightens my lefty, international-friendly heart — is that said Slate piece dates back to early 2004, and I don’t genuinely know whether the essential nature of the debate has improved in the ensuing years.
Post-script: Also worth a read, if you like watching smart people sharply disagreeing: Roger Cohen defending liberal hawkishness, and Ezra Klein offering a rebuttal. And if that doesn’t have you exhausted, you can go on to read Andrew Sullivan’s rebuttal of Klein.
Doublepluspost-script: While looking for the third piece linked above, I found Klein’s rebuttal to Sullivan’s rebuttal.
