CONAN: David Henderson, are the realpolitik people of the world, the Henry Kissinger wing, if you will, of the Republican Party–first time I’ve ever said that, the first time anybody may have ever said that–are those the only people objecting to this policy?

Prof. HENDERSON: No, I don’t think so. Although I think that Bill is right, that the realpolitik thing is part of it. But let’s do a little translation here before I get to the other part of my answer. Realpolitik means take account of realities in politics, and so you definitely should take account of reality in everything. And so it certainly makes sense to do it here. But there is a kind of a view that’s more based in principle than that, which is that the United States shouldn’t just go around–even for people who think that we should have a very active interventionist foreign policy, which we clearly do–that the United States shouldn’t go around just invading a country just in case, that that’s not right.

This is from “Iraq after Saddam Hussein,” NPR, August 2002. Neal Conan, on NPR’s “Talk of the Nation,” interviewed Bill Kristol and me on the Iraq war. I was against; Kristol was in favor. This is the short piece for Hoover that led NPR to contact me and argue with Kristol.

Our segment is right at the end.

I was unable to find the audio.