We are properly slow to report for duty that entails mass civilian deaths, or that raises the probability of nuclear holocaust even a small fraction. Discretion is the better part of valor, said Shakespeare. Good consciences themselves constrain. Those who have them, that is. Back at the White House, meanwhile, scribblers script tales of the atrocities of enemies and the heroism of allies.
Polls surge, history salutes, civilians die.
And you thought they didn't have a plan. Contributing Editor Thomas W. Hazlett teaches economics and public policy at the University of California at Davis and a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.