It is not only Bill Kristol who could say just after NATO's attack on Libya: "President Obama is taking us to war in another Muslim country. Good for him." Kristol's promotion of wars of liberation has been U.S. policy for the past 25 years. Kristol's philosophy has informed and heavily influenced U.S. foreign policy. This philosophy must be clearly spelled out and rejected if the disastrous U.S. interventions are to be brought to a halt. Bill Kristol's way has been the U.S. way for 25 years, and it's been the wrong way.

By its wars, invasions and meddling, the U.S. government has harmed Yugoslavia, Somalia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen, Ukraine and Syria. It should have kept America out of these places and left their peoples alone. The most basic philosophy that justifies all this intervention gone wrong must itself be faulty. What is this U.S. philosophy? Bill Kristol articulates it, one clear example being here on March 28, 2011.

Kristol mentions five wars that the U.S. was involved in from 1991 to 2011, all in Muslim countries: Kuwait, the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. He calls these "liberations" and denies that they were invasions. He calls them honorable fights for liberty. He thinks they further American interests and principles. These wars, he claims, are "for the national interest, for national greatness, for the exceptional American role in the liberation of peoples around the globe."

It's 100 percent obvious that they have never furthered the American national interest in peace and goodwill, in national security, in the environment, in friendship to other peoples, or in well-being and wealth of the American people. It is entirely clear that the so-called "liberation of peoples" has entailed their death and destruction, the destruction of their lives and cultures, and setting them back. We've degraded the environment everywhere we went. It's pure fantasy to think that any of this contributes to the "national greatness" of America. The exceptional American role has been one of great crimes against humanity.

But we understand what Kristol imagines, even if none of it comes true in reality. He imagines that America is exceptional because of its principles of freedom. There is truth in that idea, even if it's myth when we look closely at it. Freedom and free peoples remain an aspiration. He imagines that America is exceptional in its power. That too is truth in certain respects. We know that such power is definitely limited in many ways. The point is still Kristol's assumption that this power can and should be used for "good", such as by liberating unfree peoples.