This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Friday, September 5th, 2008. I'm Caleb Brown.

In his new book, Smart Power, Ted Galen Carpenter, the Cato Institute's Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy Studies,

discusses how the United States has gone wrong and how it can go right in engaging the world.

He discussed his book June 17th of this year. This is a segment of his talk.

Regarding the campaign to head off the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

I am especially proud of an op-ed that appeared in 2002, January 2002, some 14 months before the invasion, the title was Overthrow

Saddam, question mark, be careful what you wish for.

And I want to read just a few sentences of that.

Begins, advocates of making the ouster of Saddam Hussein,

the next stage in America's war against terrorism are becoming increasingly vocal.

The United States has the military power to achieve that goal.

Yet no matter how emotionally satisfying removing a thug like Saddam may seem, Americans would be wise to consider

whether that step is worth the price.

The inevitable American victory, military victory, would not be the end of America's

troubles in Iraq. Indeed, it would mark the start of a new round of headaches.

Aousting Saddam would make Washington responsible for Iraq's political future

and entangle the United States in an endless nation-building mission beset by intractable problems.

Well, that I think pretty well nailed it.

But it was indicative of the problems that I faced and other opponents of war faced at the time

that this piece was carried by United Press International. A fine organization but certainly not an agenda setting

outlet. And other people I talked to who spoke out against the war, including people with very impressive

credentials in the foreign policy field, encountered the same resistance I did among the elite publications. They simply were not interested in

...