DEMOCRATIC REALISM: So I was reading the second of David Brooks' "Hookie Awards" articles (the first is here), wherein he hands out imaginary awards (Hookies) for the best political essays of the past year. In it, he praises an essay by Francis Fukuyama (a response to a speech by Charles Krauthammer) and an essay by Charles Krauthammer (responding to Fukuyama's response), both of which were published in the foreign affairs journal THE NATIONAL INTEREST. I printed both out and took 'em to lunch with me (I'm sure I was the only guy in this suburban Fuddrucker's reading thusly), and I found that Krauthammer's worldview is mine, that it makes me feel better about my own ideas (given that he's clearly much smarter and a much better writer than me). (His response to Fukuyama also made me laugh out loud in spots. It's an intellectual bitchslap of sorts.)

In a nutshell, Krauthammer describes a foreign policy strategy he calls "democractic realism," which makes a solid case for why the Iraq war was a sound political decision, even in the face of the calamity's that have arisen therefrom. It's the most clear and clarifying piece of Iraq-related prose I've read since my original meander through THE THREATENING STORM. For you two or three Camelists who care about this kind of stuff, have a ball following the links.