All Intensive Purposes

Bush's defenders insist that his paramount contribution to the war against Islamic radicalism is "moral clarity." Moral clarity means keeping in mind that even if we're not perfect, we're the good guys and they're the bad guys. The president's defenders are correct that having moral clarity is a necessary condition for fighting evil. What they fail to realize is that it's not a sufficient condition.

There are millions of teenage boys who have moral clarity but who are nonetheless unqualified to lead the free world against jihadists. If your leader has moral clarity but lacks the other relevant intellectual qualities, you end up with a president whose foreign policy doctrine is expressed in statements such as: "I intend to kick [Saddam Hussein's] sorry ... ass all over the Mideast."

Although even that wouldn't be quite so bad if he actually followed through on the talk.

// posted by t.s. @ 7:53 AM