Robert Dallek, in his 2003 biography of John F. Kennedy "An Unfinished Life," (p. 64) wrote the following passage about the young JFK's thinking on international affairs, in regards to a thesis Kennedy wrote that eventually became the book "Why England Slept."
What seems most important now about Kennedy's thesis is the extent to which he emphasizes the need for unsentimental realism about world affairs.....Personal, self-serving convictions are as unconstructive as outdated ideologies in deciding what best serves a nation's interests.
George W. Bush tonight fully exposed the weakness of his ideology, in prime time, for everyone in the heartland to see.
Sure, the late night guys will seize upon the vibrating tie, the inability to admit ever making a mistake, the hesitation. But there's a more important point that has to be driven home to the American people.
George Bush's ideology is outdated. It's a mixture of World War II and Cold War platitudes and aphorisms, jumbled up with some good old time religion, that cannot possibly be used to fight our real enemies....radical Islamists worldwide and especially those Wahibes in Saudi Arabia who clearly seek to train and support terrorists.
If we really wanted democracy to take root in the Middle East, our foreign policy would seek to ameliorate the worst results of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. But it doesn't. Our foreign policy would take dead aim at the corrupt and decayed monarchy in Saudi Arabia, and cultivate regimes in the region that are moving in a democratic direction. But it doesn't. Instead we get absolutely meaningless blather about patriotism and sacrifice, with no real plan.
Bush's outdated ideology threatens to destabilize the entire Middle East, and perhaps the entire Islamic world. It promises us a conflict in Iraq that could last a decade. Bush thinks he's in "Sands of Iwo Jima."
I think we're in "Brazil."