If this motivating power is to continue, human rights must not be invoked cynically, cheaply or casually. In the past month, the administration has been on the verge of committing all these errors. It gives the impression of using human rights as a convenient club to bully the politically friendless like the Bosnian Serbs or the strategically irrelevant like the Cambodians. In the meantime, commercially or strategically powerful nations like China and Azerbaijan can get away, literally, with murder. This is not good enough.
Human rights are never easy to align with strategic realities.
Perfect consistency is not to be expected. Indeed, it would signify something less than a great mind. But if the administration is to exercise moral authority on the important issues, it must be prepared to square off with the big boys, not just the small fry.