When mainstream Democratic politicians talk about Iraq, they sound more like Republicans than like the actual Democratic citizens they claim to represent. Matthew Yglesias has risen to prominence as a political commentator by being the wisest and wittiest writer to articulate his anger over this ridiculous state of affairs. He's been profiled as an up-and-comer in both New York and GQ magazines, and the Wall Street Journal recently called him a ringleader-of-sorts for the D.C. blogging community.

With his famously sharp mind (and tongue), Yglesias refutes the two most important misconceptions about recent American foreign policy. The first is that Bush is an idealist. As Yglesias makes clear, Bush is a nationalist plain and simple, as a my-way-or-the-highway agenda takes precedence over any other supposed guiding ideology. The second is that the Democrats don't have a useful foreign policy tradition when they do. Liberal internationalism may not be exciting or perfect, but promoting global order through international law and stable institutions has brought about a lot more peace and prosperity than imperialism, isolationism, communism, or any other way of approaching the world.

So what have the Democrats been espousing instead of liberal internationalism? Not much, according to Yglesias. It's common to read articles by liberals calling for big, bold new ideas, but they don't have any, and don't have any explanations for why the old ones won't work. Democrats have come unmoored from their principles on foreign policy out of political opportunism, but this path hasfailed to give them a decisive political advantage on security issues, despite the massive failure of Bush-style nationalism.

As Heads in the Sand makes clear, Americans can no longer support reckless policies from the Republicans, and should loudly shout down any Democrat who's more interested in what seems politically safe than what makes the world safer.

Matthew Yglesias (Washington, DC) is an Associate Editor of the Atlantic Monthly, which also hosts his popular blog. His writing has also appeared in the American Prospect, Slate, the New Republic, and the New York Times.

A very serious, thoughtful argument that has never been made in such detail or with such care.

--Ezra Klein, staff writer at The American Prospect

Matt Yglesias is one of the smartest voices in the blogosphere. He knows a lot about politics, a lot about foreign policy, and, crucially, is unusually shrewd in understanding how they interact. Here's hoping that his new book will introduce him to an even wider audience. Once you discover him, you'll be hooked.

--E. J. Dionne, author of Souled Out: Reclaiming Faith and Politics After the Religious Right and Why Americans Hate Politics

Matthew Yglesias is one of a handful of bloggers that I make a point of reading every day. Heads in the Sandis a smart, vital book that urges Democrats to stop evading the foreign-policy debate and to embrace the old principles of international liberalism--to be right and also to win.

--Fred Kaplan, author of Daydream Believers: How a Few Grand Ideas Wrecked American Power

Reading foreign policy tomes is seldom included among life's pleasures, but Yglesias has concocted a startling exception. Heads in the Sand is not just a razor-sharp analysis cum narrative of the politics of national security in general and the Iraq war in particular, it's also an enthralling and often very funny piece of writing. Though he administers strong antidotes to the haplessness of his fellow Democrats and liberals, there's more than a spoonful of sugar to help the medicine go down.

--Hendrik Hertzberg, Senior Editor, The New Yorker, and author of Politics: Observations and Arguments