Traditional beliefs like ... the conviction that America should not start wars it does not know how to win, wind up being portrayed as extreme. —NY Times editorial of August 9, "Revenge of the Irate Moderates"

Here I was, thinking I was being traditional by believing that America should not start wars—period.

That was of course before George Bush's "preemptive war" doctrine. The NY Times now accepts this as "traditional," but with the added wrinkle that the U.S. should know how to win wars before it starts them. If we begin to impose requirements like that, I don't know when we're going to have another war.

Tags: * war preemptive war extremism conservatism New York Times NY Times editorial