Altruism: The Central Axiom of Left-liberal Foreign Policy

Shades of Ayn Rand from James Taranto this Thursday:

Howard Dean, who emerged as the Democratic presidential front-runner with his uncompromising antiwar stand, now favors military intervention--in Liberia, where he'd like to send 2,000 U.S. troops...

Iraq's history of invading its neighbors, using chemical weapons and pursuing nuclear ones, and backing terrorists actually made it a threat beyond its borders--and thus the U.S. had a strategic interest, not just a moral one, in removing the dictatorship. Some on the left seem to think U.S. intervention is just fine, so long as its moral purity isn't tainted by self-interest.... [OJ]