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Sometime, somehow, the Iraq war will end. The surge may stabilize the country sufficiently to allow the withdrawal of American troops (less likely). Or the American public may simply sicken of the war to such an extent that US forces are pulled out regardless of the consequences after the 2008 presidential election (more likely). Either way, the end of the war will be the starting bell for a much more sweeping battle over the future of American foreign policy.
The question? Quite simply, What role should the United States play in the world?
Both parties are in severe disarray over this issue. A shrinking group of Republican loyalists still holds fast to the Bush vision of remaking the world in America’s image through the aggressive use of force. But many conservative thinkers and lawmakers have deserted the president. They accuse him of recklessly using American troops to pursue state-building abroad and advocate a return to isolationist policies aimed at protecting America’s core interests.
On the Democratic side, disgust with the war has produced a hard core of antiwar activists whose overriding foreign-policy priority is to bring the troops home. Their distaste for the use of American military force abroad brings them into conflict with the party’s more hawkish and internationalist wing. The latter also finds itself under siege from antiglobalization advocates on the left and their instinctive distrust of international free-trade agreements and multinational companies.
