If the Left loves it…

…it has to be good, right Chris?

That elements of the Left are rediscovering their taste for state-building should come as a surprise to no one. That the Left shares this taste with the neo-neocons* should also not be very surprising. That the rest of us should, as a result, be all the more skeptical of the entire venture is therefore just natural.

Some of CAP’s intermediate policy goals for Afghanistan seem especially foolhardy:

• Promote a viable Afghan economy that offers realistic opportunities for the Afghan people
• Sharply curb the poppy trade in Afghanistan and the region
• Promote democracy, the rule of law, and human rights in Afghanistan and the region

The second one in particular is a big loser. The other two, at least, are stated fairly limply and aspirationally. Of course, as Christian notes, the devil will be in the details, and we’ll all be able to hash out our differences at length once the Af-Pak review is released for public consumption.

*Neoconservatives who’ve served time in the Bush Administration and who’ve come to believe in a much less militaristic but nevertheless very proactive foreign policy which seeks to solve the world’s problems through intervention and state-building.