And the Gulf War was fought, preventing Saddam from becoming the nuclear-armed hegemon of the Persian Gulf. For the last 20 years of the Cold War, after the Democrats lost their nerve over Vietnam, there was no internationalist consensus. Berger's revisionism is not restricted to the Reagan and Bush years. He can't seem to remember the Clinton years either. The American people knew what the rules were.
Engagement can mean anything.
It can mean engagement as a supplicant, as a competitor, as an ally, as an adversary, as a neutral arbiter. Wake up on a Wednesday and pick your meaning. The very emptiness of the term captures perfectly the essence of Clinton foreign policy. It is glorified ad hocism. If there is a thread connecting these meanderings, it is a woolly utopianism that turns a genuinely felt humanitarianism and a near-mystical belief in the power of parchment into the foreign policy of a superpower.