David Adesnik at Oxblog, on liberals and Lebanon - what he said.

I find the political position that I'm in very strange. I did not vote for George W. Bush and did not want him to be re-elected. When I'm asked what my political beliefs are, they tend to fit into the "liberal" or "progressive" box. On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, I fit pretty securely into the "left-wing Zionist" box. But when it comes to a lot of current American foreign policy, I find myself agreeing with Bush and Condoleeza Rice!

I'm thrilled about what's happening in Lebanon, especially if it leads to a Syrian withdrawal and a genuine democratic government there. I was pleased at how well both the Palestinian and Iraqi elections went. I'm glad that the U.S. government appears to be withdrawing its support for horrible Arab dictatorships. I found the events in Ukraine positively inspiring. Why aren't my fellow liberals as excited as I am? Just because George Bush might have had something to do with some of these moves towards democracy and political freedom? (Differing amounts in different places, of course - the death of Yasser Arafat was the major factor in Palestine, for example).

I do genuinely wonder what John Kerry would have done in foreign policy if he had been elected. I pretty sure I would have preferred his domestic policy (since he wouldn't be in thrall to the Christian Right, wouldn't have proposed an anti-gay marriage amendment to the Constitution, and probably wouldn't be trying to gut Social Security in the name of saving it), but would he have done what I wanted in foreign policy?