The Kerry Doctrine.

WaPo's Robert Kagan does an excellent job of viewing a potential Kerry Doctrine, one that would replace the Bush Doctrine of Pre-emption.

In Kerry's acceptance speech, he said, "I will bring back this nation's time-honored tradition: The United States of America never goes to war because we want to; we only go to war because we have to. That is the standard of our nation."

As Kagan explains, that "tradition" simply never has existed. It reflects, rather, a Kerry wish from his Hanoi Jane days. It would suggest that the overwhelming majority of our military actions have been ill-founded. Read Kagan's piece for a detailed discussion.

So where will such a policy lead us? Kagan writes: "If Kerry has revealed himself in an unusual moment of honesty, it's time everyone took an equally honest look at where he would lead the country if elected. Kerry's 'doctrine of necessity,' if seriously intended, would entail a pacifism and an isolationism more thorough than any attempted by a U.S. government since the 1930s. It would rule out all wars fought for humanitarian ends, all interventions to prevent genocide, to defend democracy or even, as in the case of the Persian Gulf War, to uphold international law against aggression. For those are all wars of choice."

A group hug with collective inaction as foreign policy. No wonder liberals want to lower the voting age to 16.