Humanitarian imperialism

Writing in today's Globe and Mail, Margaret Wente makes the connection between the West's latest invasion of an Arab country -- Libya -- and the doctrine of "responsibility to protect" (R2P) which is at the heart of the UN resolution. R2P is, as Ms Wente says, all the fashion these days among foreign policy liberals such as Hellery Clinton.

Two excerpts from Ms Wente's column are worth repeating here.

The war in Libya is a creation of the liberal intellectuals – just as the war in Iraq was a creation of the neo-conservatives.... Both groups are serenely convinced of their own moral rightness. Yet, the delusions of the R2P crowd aren’t all that different from the delusions of the neo-cons, who thought they could march into Iraq, decapitate the dictator, and help the cheering throngs embrace democracy. Has the past decade taught these people nothing? Evidently not.

Well said. But the one that really caught Walt's eye comes right at the end.

We have entered a new age – the age of humanitarian imperialism. Humanitarian imperialists are besotted with fantasies of the West’s inherent goodness. As American writer David Rieff puts it, they have promised that, from now on, all wars will be “noble wars of altruism.” To them, the facts on the ground don’t matter much. What really matters is their good intentions.

"Humanitarian imperialism". What a wonderfully descriptive oxymoron. And what a concept! This bears further discussion...