“Disastrous” compared to what?

Via Insurgente: Jonah Goldberg sobre Ron Paul e Mike Huckabee (2)

Carta de Don Boudreaux enviada ao New York Post: Like National Review’s Jonah Goldberg, I’m frightened by Mike Huckabee’s itch to regulate (“Who’s Extreme?” November 24). Also like Goldberg, I admire Ron Paul for being that rare politician of principle.

But I disagree with Goldberg’s prediction Ron Paul’s noninterventionist foreign policy would be “disastrous.” “Disastrous” compared to what? To Bush’s failed and bloody effort to remake Iraqi society? To Bush being obliged now to side with Pakistan’s reigning strongman? To the neocons’ - and National Review’s - strange notion that the same government that is inherently incompetent to regulate the economy here at home is ordained by history with the obligation, wisdom, and ability to re-engineer whole societies elsewhere?"