Pentagon policies presume guilt by association.

• Position: Washington PULSE

The launch of a new policy shop responsible for "counternarcotics, counterproliferation and global threats is one piece of a broad reorganization recently unveiled by Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Eric Edelman. The rationale for creating this office, he explains, is the notion that "people who do bad stuff tend to do more than one bad thing."

According to this thinking, it's fair to assume that certain crimes beget...