Public-opinion samples indicate that, while many Americans are deeply worried about Iran, they recoilfrom the idea of undertaking any additional combat responsibilities and the associated losses.
Policy makers recoilfrom radical solutions to problems of burdensome debt and bloated banks because they worry about setting precedents in one country that could spook investors in another.
They will construe the continuing subordination of the American missile defense program to the dictates of the ABM Treaty as evidence that -- notwithstanding W.'s oft-declared determination to "move beyond" that accord -- in fact, like his predecessors, he will recoilfrom doing so.