A superb piece, and some excellent comments too.
As Lee said, the elites are able to get away with luxuriating in ‘progressive’ views without having to worry about the consequences. They claim to be against genocide, but their highbrow appeals haven’t stopped the killing in Darfur or anywhere else. And if the only way to stop a genocide is US military action, then that genocide will quickly become reclassified as a complex tribal/cultural issue in which the US has no business interfering.
No matter how evil a particular regime or dictator is, if their interests are opposed to those of the United States then the Samantha Powers of the world will make common cause with them.
For further reading on some of the issues raised here I’d recommend ‘Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left’ by David Horowitz.
