Max Boot’s Moral Compass

Max Boot writes this today, discussing the competing currents of American foreign policy, militarized Wilsonianism and those who oppose it:

The opposing viewpoint—which denounces American “imperialism” and abjures the defense of liberty abroad—has an equally long history. It lists among its proponents not only modern‐​day neocon‐​bashers such as Michael Moore and Pat Buchanan, but also such illustrious predecessors as the “progressive” historians Charles Beard and William Appleman Williams and realpolitik thinkers like Hans Morgenthau and Walter Lippmann.

Does Boot want us to believe that–to take a particularly salient example–playing one Shi’a militia off the other amounts to “the defense of liberty abroad”? Maybe I don’t want to know the answer, since Boot has called the deranged Gen. Curtis LeMay “one of the ‘greatest peacemakers in modern history,’ a proper candidate for a Nobel Peace Prize” and gushed over how maybe the Philippines (200,000 civilians killed! torture!) could be a model for how to win in Iraq. So I for one will pass on taking my moral cues from Boot, thanks.