Stephen Walt

Absolutely not.

Oh, no.

No, no, no.

Stephen.

They weren't firing those missiles until Israel and the United States attacked Iran.

You do understand that, right?

You do know that we overthrew the democratically elected government in 1954.

Just for the record, you're talking about this... You don't think Iran has... You think Iran's forgotten about that?

You don't think Iran remembers that we supported Saddam Hussein in the Iran-Iraq war?

I know this.

This is a debate between realists and crusaders.

We all believe the United States should be actively engaged in the world and support a rules-based order.

What we're debating is whether America should be a crusader state that tries to remake the world by overthrowing other governments.

Our opponents say yes, we say no.

In our view, the United States should use its power to deter or defeat attacks on the United States and to uphold the balance of power in critical regions.

It made good sense for the United States to enter World War II.

Japan attacked us, Germany declared war, and both countries were great powers engaged in vast wars of aggression.

During the Cold War, American leaders were right to forge and lead an alliance to contain the Soviet Union.

We believe the first Bush administration was correct in leading the effort to expel Iraq from Kuwait to keep it from dominating the Persian Gulf.

But President Bush acted with restraint.