HART  (CONT)

ate? And if we can adopt this preemptive policy, why cannot other nations? If we can engage in preventive wars, why then cannot India or Pakistan or a rather large number of other antagonists do the same thing? Wipe out your enemy now on the grounds that he may someday represent a threat to you. And what about eradicating dictators who assault their own people - an argument used against Saddam Hussein? There are certainly plenty of those around.

A president who campaigned on a platform of humility in international dealings and resistance to ''nation-building'' now finds himself waving a big stick at almost everyone and rebuilding nations right and left. When exactly did this transformation occur? Was it 9/11 or was it the project of a handful of advisers perpetually eager to remake the Middle East? And how did the Philippines suddenly get into all of this? If the invasion of Iraq is simply the completion of Gulf War I, then perhaps deployment of special forces to the Philippines is the completion of the Spanish-American war. Who can tell? No one in Washington, including in my own Democratic Party, seems to be up to asking any tough questions.

A short year and a half ago America was astride the world like a moral colossus. Virtually the entire world united behind us in our grim search for justice against Al Qaeda. Sometime last fall, however, when Saddam replaced bin Laden as our white whale, we started on our own crusade and left the rest of the world behind. You can either believe much of the rest of the world became, almost overnight, obtuse and anti-American, or you can more plausibly believe we unilaterally launched ourselves on a mission that made little sense to much of the rest of the world.
Before we take the next step, wherever that may be (Syria? Iran? North Korea?), perhaps we should stop and take stock. What is our mission here? What exactly are we trying to achieve? Should not the president spell out in considerably more detail where he is leading us and what price, including in American lives and international goodwill, we must be willing to pay to achieve his goal?

America is a republic. Throughout history, republics have never been compatible with empire. Read the Romans, among others. When republics begin to seek hegemony and expand the reach and scope of their power, they no longer remain republics. America is still too young - and too noble - for that.

Gary Hart, a US senator from Colorado from 1975-87, recently served as co-chair of the US Commission on National Security/21st Century.

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