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Robert D. Kaplan in his earlier works, including "The Ends of the Earth" and "An Empire Wilderness" used a keen eye and sharp pen to uncover the intricacies and ambivalences of human and political life at the turn of the millennium. He has shown himself steady in the face of evil. Based on his past record, a new work by Kaplan deserves close attention. In "Warrior Politics", Kaplan attempts to provide an ethic of power for the twenty-first century. He reaches back to Livy and Thucydides to find the roots of such an ethic. (xx) (All numbers are to page references in the 2002 hardcover edition.) He propounds a "pagan" ethos. Unfortunately, he never defines "pagan". He finds this ethos in the Greeks and Romans, and in the framers of the Constitution, Alexander Hamilton, Churchill, Ronald Reagan, Yitzhak Rabin and Henry Kissinger. This "pagan" ethos seems not to include Ghengis Khan, Attila the Hun, the Vikings, Hitler, Stalin or Mao. There are apparently "good" pagans and "bad" pagans, but Kaplan fails to explain the difference. "Good" pagans have in common the beliefs that, citing James Madison, "men are beyond redemption" (xxi), that, citing Machiavelli, "good men bent on doing good must know how to do bad" (53), and, quoting Hamilton, that "Men are ambitious, vindictive, and rapacious." (63) To his credit, Kaplan acknowledges the challenges we face. Globalization and global warming present grave dangers. (4, 11) The benefits of capitalism are not distributed equitably and "the more dynamic the capitalist expansion, the more unequal the distribution of wealth". (5) But Kaplan does not present these as problems requiring solutions. He does not use the term, but I could not help thinking that he sees systemic problems much like ancient pagans saw forces they did not understand: as Fates. Since he offers no suggestions which might deal with these problems, it is fair to conclude that he sees the growing rift between rich and poor, the spread of old and the creation of new diseases, increasing starvation, decreasing literacy, increasing homelessness, decreasing health care, increasing violence and decreasing democracy as inevitable. For pagans, man stands helpless before the Fates. Given the inhumanity of the human race and facing insurmountable problems, Kaplan urges us to "think the unthinkable". (114) But before we follow him there, we should note that he reaches this conclusion through a series of "laughers". Kaplan places a great deal of emphasis on Malthus. While Malthus deserves credit for raising issues no one else had, he was plain wrong when he theorized that prosperity would lead people to have more children. Exactly the opposite is the case. Prosperity, particularly when combined with women's rights, reduces population growth. Kaplan even tries to support Malthus' incorrect theory by citing his own experiences among poor, not wealthy, populations. Kaplan also states, citing Hobbes, that "altruism is unnatural". Hobbes may be of interest to students of the history of political theory, but he has nothing to offer to the study of human motivation. Kaplan might have tried to learn from psychologists, sociologists, novelists or, better yet, from his family and the aid and human rights workers he's met in his travels around the world. He multiplies his error by suggesting that affluence leads to altruism. (96) No. Nor is there any evidence that abject poverty leads to altruism. But altruism exists. People rescued Jews from under the noses of the Nazis. Firemen run into burning buildings every day. Aid workers risk their lives bringing food to starving people. Soldiers, who appear to be Kaplan's heroes, risk their lives at least sometimes for the safety and health of others. Kaplan's view of human nature is crippled. No wonder he wants us to think the unthinkable. His solution is, apparently, the benign dictator who will, in the name of good, do all those evil and "realistic" things the good requires. Two problems. First, since our benign dictator is a human being and therefore as selfish, unaltruistic, power hungry and scared of death as Kaplan says we all are, we cannot trust him. This benign dictator begins to look a lot like George W. Free the Wealthy Enron Faith-Based Bush. At best. The second problem is that this kind of realism is a failure. One of Kaplan's prime examples of a leader who is "only as brutal as circumstances required" (54) is Rabin. Kaplan reports, "In 1988, during the Palestinian Intifada, Israel's defense minister, Yitzhak Rabin, reportedly told Israeli soldiers to "go in and break their bones," referring to Palestinian protesters." (52) Kaplan does not give the details. John Conroy in "Unspeakable Acts, Ordinary People: The Dynamics of Torture" does. The operations were brutal. Armed soldiers dragged unarmed civilians from their homes, handcuffed them and beat them senseless, breaking arms and legs and causing other injuries. At least one of the Israeli soldiers involved was so outraged that he reported the incident and some of those responsible were prosecuted. What Kaplan, very much in the tradition of other realists, does not mention is that the Intifada did not end and peace did not come to the Middle East. Nor did peace come to Iran when the CIA overthrew the elected government there in 1953, or to Guatemala when the CIA overthrew the elected government there that same year. Nor did peace come to Vietnam when the realists decided to back the French reoccupation, or to assassinate the President we had put in power there. Nor did peace come to Chile when the CIA realists overthrew the elected government there. Churchill, one of Kaplan's prime heroes, was unable to cope with that naked Indian named Gandhi. Kaplan argues that the pagan virtues are realistic virtues and that religion is ineffective and mere wishful thinking. However, the Roman Empire is long dead and the Jews and Christians that opposed it are still here. We deserve much better than Kaplan offers us.