"Arsonists may have great experience with fires, but that doesn't qualify them to become the captain of the fire brigade."

David Goldman writes at PJ Media,

Two incompatible views of the world have cohabited under the conservative label since the fall of Communism: a national-interest view that seeks to keep the insoluble problems of failing states at a distance from America, and a Utopian vision of a world remade in America's image. American voters puked out the Utopians in the Republican primaries, shunning every candidate who embraced the George W. Bush "Freedom Agenda" in favor of Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, the candidates who refused to carry the Bush Administration's foreign policy baggage. Trump said it best: the Iraq War was one of the dumbest things America ever did in foreign policy, the equivalent of "throwing rocks into a hornet's nest."

Grandiose blunders of this kind are not made out by stupidity, though, but by insanity. The American conservative movement was infected by a cult that eroded the common sense of its victims and instilled a messianic, fanatical commitment to nation-building and democracy promotion. What are broadly (and sometimes inaccurately) referred to as the "neo-conservatives" are a cult that succeeded in persuading the unfortunate George W. Bush to spend trillions in treasure and tens of thousands of casualties for the mirage of democracy in Iraq. Such was their influence that an entire generation of Republican foreign policy officials was vetted for cult loyalty.

The Bush administration incubated a generation of ideologues rather than diplomats who created the mess that is now the Middle East. Almost without exception, they backed Hillary Clinton over Donald Trump in the belief that Clinton would pursue Utopian globalism and bitterly opposed Donald Trump's national-interest realism.

...Tillerson needs strong deputies, to be sure. He stumbled at his confirmation hearings by claiming that the United States could deny China access to reefs in the South China Sea to which China already has access as well as the capacity to secure. Evidently, he was poorly briefed in an area in which he did not have (and could not be expected to have) expertise.

The Trump Administration's off-the-cuff diplomacy during its first two weeks out of the gate has been sloppy, to be sure. There is a lot to criticize (and I have not hesitated to criticize some of the obvious missteps). Bringing the Bush Utopians back into the picture, though, would be a cure far worse than the disease. During the campaign Abrams made clear that he would rather see his party fail than see Donald Trump succeed. Inside the administration, Abrams would have the opportunity to make this happen. Arsonists may have great experience with fires, but that doesn't qualify them to become the captain of the fire brigade.

Read more here.