Christopher Hitchens, "Just Causes," Foreign Affairs (Sept./Oct. 2008)

Surely, identifying the situation that is appropriate for [humanitarian] intervention is both an art and a science, but history has taught us that tyranny often looks stronger than it really is, that it has unexpected vulnerabilities (very often to do with the blunt fact that tyranny, as such, is incapable of self-analysis), and that taking a stand on principle, even if not immediately rewarded with pragmatic results, can be an excellent dress rehearsal for the real thing.