George Bush's Iraq adventure is rich in dangerous precedents

Prudence requires resisting the impulse to claim the right to double standards - one for other people, a different and more permissive one for oneself - on the grounds that one represents higher values or has special responsibilities. There is something intrinsically nutty about using one's claimed moral superiority to justify the adoption of lower ethical standards.

A prudential ethic requires that, in making policy, discrimination takes precedence over consistency. This is because a country may pursue a number of goals that have moral worth, among them justice, peace, freedom, security, prosperity and stability. Sometimes these compete or conflict, and which should be given preference will vary. In other words, judgement is involved, not merely the automatic application of general principles.

It is in terms of such a morality of prudence that I believe that the Bush Administration has seriously failed in Iraq. Its policy has been rich in unintended consequences, such as a global wave of intense anti-Americanism, the strong opposition of some of America's most important allies, the indefinite tying down of one-third of a million military personnel, disgusting images of torture, the killing of large numbers of civilians, and the establishment of dangerous precedents that may be exploited by others.

Those who criticise American policy are often criticised for being insensitive to the importance of freedom as a foreign policy goal. It might therefore be appropriate to end with a contribution from John Stuart Mill, a pre-eminent liberal philosopher and the author of a classic treatise, On Liberty:

We have heard something lately about being willing to go to war for an idea. To go to war for an idea, if the war is aggressive, not defensive, is as criminal as to go to war for territory or revenue; for it is as little justified to force our ideas on other people, as to compel them to submit to our will in other respects.

These words were published in 1859 in an essay on the subject of non-intervention. At a time when we have been hearing much about "exporting democracy", they are worth a moment's consideration.