1/ Kanan Makiya, in a NYT Mag­a­zine pro­file by Dexter Filkins:

“You know, in a way, the real­ists are right, they are always right. Even when they are morally wrong.”

2/ Ali Allawi, former min­is­ter of defense and trade in Iraq and a friend of Makiya’s, ibid.:

“Kanan is a roman­tic. He thinks in these broad cat­e­gories. He thinks of democ­racy, of free­dom, in ide­o­log­i­cal terms rather than in terms of prac­tice and expe­ri­ence and living.”