Rational Grounds

For instance, Fouad Ajami writes in this quarter's Foreign Affairs:

Pax Americana's tolerance for bargains with strongmen had substantially eroded since the September 11 attacks. [...]

The Bush administration had announced nothing less than the obsolescence of the Arab world's old authoritarian order. [...]

Syria never fully assimilated how different the world had become after September 11. In March 2001, Cardinal Sfeir had journeyed to the United States, where he sought an audience with Bush -- in vain. ... Four years later, however, a president who had "planted the flag of liberty" in Arab lands had no choice but to take up the cause of Lebanon's independence.

I mean, are you serious? Pax American's tolerance for Islam Karamov, Abdullah ib'n Saud, Pervez Musharraf, King Abdallah of Jordan, and the various princes and sheikhs of the Gulf states seems relatively unchanged except where it has strengthened since 9/11. The brief knock on Egypt's Mubarak to hold elections has seen precious little follow through, and he has predictably covered over his tracks on that count.

Syria came in for punishment purely on account of its support, whether by commision or omission, of the Iraqi insurgency and its general longstanding opposition to U.S. interests in the region. Similarly, Pakistan gets a slap on the wrist for its central role in the global nuclear blackmarket, while Iran is given the full-court press over its nuclear program. Who actually believes it's only about the Democracy here?

Speaking of nuclear proliferation, G. John Ikenberry, at Josh Marshall's new TPMCafe site, writes on the breakdown of the Non-Proliferation Treaty talks:

America’s "no show" in New York is puzzling at many levels. First, it is puzzling because the administration has argued that nuclear proliferation is the preeminent security threat of our age. ... Second, it is puzzling because Bush administration officials are actively using NPT commitments as a tool to pressure Iran... Third, it is puzzling because the NPT itself has been remarkably successful. ... So why not build up rather than tear down its treaty-based authority? Puzzles, puzzles.

What really puzzles me is why we keep wasting time debating these things like there's a serious political theory or over-arching principle to these events beyond bare-bones realpolitik. The Bush administration has a few core guiding principles: free America's hands of any conceivable restraints, maintain and extend it's military power in strategic regions, punish its enemies and pay back its friends. Everything else is window dressing.