[Jason Vines]

Something in this Washington Post article cheeses me off a bit:

Quote

Taken as a whole, his national security policies do not [lean left], as they represent the triumph of pragmatism over ideology.

I disagree. Pragmatism describes "a practical approach to problems and affairs." And practical means "of, relating to, or manifested in practice or action : not theoretical or ideal."

But "practice or action" does not indicate the strategic effectiveness of nation-building, Predator drone strikes, military tribunals, trying to quash legal cases on the flimsy basis of "state secrets," or ignoring the law regarding prosecution of torture perpetrators. These are what rest on "theoretical or ideal" benefits that real world application either doesn't support or demonstrates to harm our interests rather than help them.

For Obama to continue our foreign policy in the vein of "big, bad interventionist (albeit less bad than Dubya)" represents the triumph of ideology over pragmatism.