"How a half-century of conservatism has undermined America's security"

... is the subtitle of U.S. Versus Them by J. Peter Scoblic, executive editor of The New Republic. He argues that plain old conservatism — as opposed to neo-conservatism — is what landed us in the mess in Iraq and the Middle East. The bad ideas that mark the Bushies' foreign policy are classic conservative policy ideas.

In foreign policy, "conservative" describes a distinct attitude in which the world is conceived in terms of "us vs. them" or "good vs. evil," with the United States assuming the role of a righteous protagonist facing a monolithic enemy. It is often an explicitly religious vision, with frequent allusions...to God, Satan and Armageddon. Characterizing the Soviet Union as an earthly manifestation of evil, rather than...as an antagonistic nation-state, convinced conservatives that Moscow could not be reasoned with. The forces of good could not — and should not want to — coexist with the forces of evil. Conservative anti-communists rejected the...policy of containment, dismissed... negotiation as appeasement, and even insisted that a nuclear war was winnable....George W. Bush is the direct descendant — indeed, the ultimate product — of this movement.

Sounds familiar — and explains why, instead of pursuing a rational policy to reduce the threat of a nuclear terrorist attack by neutralizing the threat from North Korea and Iran, the Bush Administration instead chose to invade Iraq. Conservatives, convinced of the futility of negotiating with or containing evil regimes, went for Iraq because "Iraq was the most invadable member of the axis of evil."