Neo-Cons and Neo-Liberals Have Afghanistan In Common

Andrew Sullivan is back blogging and it's about time. He writes about the truly conservative nature of opposition to our adventure in nation-building in Afghanistan:

You may recall a time when conservatives believed in a strong defense, but
also opposed using the military for open-ended nation-building efforts against
amorphous enemies in failed states. The argument was that you cannot impose
order and civilization on alien societies with foreign forces, that the
occupying troops will become part of the problem after a while, that culture
matters and not every country is ready for democracy or even a functioning
central government. Intervention should be brief, and only undertaken under
duress. This is George Will's classical conservative take on the utopian beliefs
of the neocons in Afghanistan. As a general principle, it is solid. But in this
case, the argument is almost comically persuasive. I mean: if you were to come
up with a country least likely to be amenable to imperial improvement and
edification, it would be hard to come up (outside much of Africa) with any place
less propitious than Afghanistan, a tribal alien place with almost no record of
central governance whatsoever.