The United States is the most hated country in the world, followed closely by Israel, and then by nobody. Wny? Why not Ecuador? China? Russia? East Timor? The hostility puzzles many Americans, who genuinely believe their country to be a force for good, a pillar of democracy, a defender of human rights.

I do not support the present system of world trade. But give me a straight choice between this and the economics of the jungle that is fair trade, and I will choose the present system any day. Global corporatism may be unfair. But it does at least allow some wealth to be created. It does allow at least some rational economic calculation. Fair trade simply gives even more power to politicians and bureaucrats and favoured business interests in poor countries - that is, to the very people and interests that made and have kept these countries poor.

If you really want to improve the lives of the poorest, forget all this “kumbaya socialism” - which is a cocktail of bad economics and bad theology, accompanied by self-righteous candle-waving. Either settle for what we have - which, unfair as it is, delivers something - or campaign for a return to national and international voluntary exchange. Fair trade can never be fair. But free trade can be free.

Perhaps the enthusiasm so many conservatives show for American militarism and adventurism abroad can be explained by their misunderstanding of the fundamental nature of the state.

As Murray Rothbard said, “the State is nothing more nor less than a bandit gang writ large.” It is naïve to expect a bunch of politicians and bureaucrats, largely shielded from public accountability, to provide something as ambiguous and vast as “national security” without turning the entire project into a giant pork-barrel scheme and making a general mess of things. But Rothbard was purged from the Right for his heresy of rejecting the Cold War consensus, and his libertarian insights were largely ignored by the postwar conservative movement.

In stepping forward to display regional leadership in a post Arab-Spring Maghreb, and in the process crossing Israel's bows, Turkey has done exactly the right thing. A secular Islamic republic that brews some decent beers is exactly the model democracy that offers Israel the best bet for peace and security, and the best model for Egypt, Libya and the rest. We should encourage Turkey in developing a pivotal role astride the Bosphorus, as a regional power bridging Europe and Maghreb / Arabia.

Why did the U.S. government side with authoritarianism in Egypt? To update what Franklin Roosevelt is reported to have said about Nicaraguan dictator Anastasio Somoza in 1939: Mubarak and Suleiman may have been sons of bitches, but they were our sons of bitches. For decades they were faithful agents of the American empire, at a cost of well over a $1 billion a year from American taxpayers. In the eyes of the power elite, it was money well spent.