Democrats, irrelevant.

• Author: Gvosdev, Nikolas K.

CALL ME idealistic, but I thought the midterm elections could have been an opportunity for a serious debate about the aims and goals of U.S. foreign policy. Sure, the results matter for who gets to call hearings, fill staff positions, oversee budgets, influence presidential appointments and claim a greater share of the attention of the media and lobbyists; the elections also matter for various politicians eyeing a 2008 presidential bid. They even may prove quite useful for rewriting recent history about the essentially bi-partisan consensus that undergirded Iraq policy--one could say that George W. Bush built on the foundation Bill Clinton laid--even if, in fairness, Democrats might have chosen a somewhat different architecture. And even with regard to Iraq, there is less debate than meets the eye; with the exception of the few calling for an immediate and unconditional withdrawal or the partition of Iraq, most Democratic proposals seem like kinder, gender versions of what the president is advocating. I am not sure precisely how a phased withdrawal differs from "when Iraqis stand up, we stand down."

What we have is a pseudo-debate on foreign policy. Even by the standards of past U.S. elections--and our campaigns have often been characterized by sloganeering rather than sober analysis (remember the "missile gap"?)--the absence of a serious national conversation is striking.

This is my problem. When Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean says, "The President's freedom agenda has been replaced by the era of incompetence"--he doesn't enlighten me as to whether the freedom agenda itself is flawed as a foreign policy strategy, or whether it is a good and sound approach that has just been poorly executed by Republicans. That's a major difference--with major implications for the direction of U.S. policy--and it is not being discussed. Republicans may deserve to lose, but why should Democrats deserve to win?

IT MUST be odd for the rest of the world to hear lectures about the wonders of American democracy, yet witness such an unedifying spectacle from the world's leading democracy and sole superpower. Impassioned debates on foreign policy marked the 2004 elections in Spain, the 2005 ballot in Germany and the parliamentary campaigns in Italy and Ukraine this year. The two main political parties of the United States, in contrast, want to play a game of partisan "Gotcha!"--exploiting missteps and focusing on trivial disagreements for...