Smearing Ted Cruz

David Harsanyi writes at Real Clear Politics about how some pundits are attempting to smear Ted Cruz by calling him an isolationist.

Marco Rubio has also called Cruz an isolationist. Having watched the debate, though, I think, as Donald Trump might complain, it is unfair. What I heard was not a case for isolationism but one against Middle Eastern democracy building -- a project that's been a persistent and bloody failure, one that's sidetracked foreign policy from its "first" task, which is defeating the enemy.

...But Iraq is not 1945 Germany. Syria is not Japan. Libya is not South Korea. Asking the theocratic thugs in Saudi Arabia or the strongmen in Egypt and Pakistan to "stand aside" for democracy would almost certainly manifest in anarchy, widespread violence and more radicalism. If we trust Pew Research Center's study of the Muslim world -- and everything recent history has shown us -- it's clear that most Islamic-majority nations would be unlikely to embrace anything resembling Western democracy.

Read more here.