No One Asked, but We'll Tell Them Anyway

Liberal voices, moved by sentiment, are now coming around to the idea that America must . . . what? Do something? Say something? Note how comfortably E.J. Dionne, a reliably Democratische commentator, slips into the idea that America's overarching purpose is to transform every nation into self-similar democracies, whose "legitimacy" will be measured by their friendliness to US. Dionne would still gainsay the neoconservative conviction that stridency and force are now required, but their positions are not so far apart and not so irreconcilable as either side, Dionne's in particular, would like to think.