If their lack of a financial commitment to Afghanistan is any indication (Oxblog's David Adesnik proclaims "Bush Screws Afghanistan" and links to some commentary), the administration's sweet-smelling rhetoric about democracy-building is setting off horse-puckey detection warnings all over the world. Weapons of mass disinformation, even? Not to put too fine a point on it, of course.

Let me go out on a limb here and predict a revival of the division-of-labor argument, often detected under the "comparative advantage" label as well, the most simple form of which will be: the U.S. should fight the wars (when and where we want) and the rest of the world can engage in "humanitarian" causes. Where democracy promotion will fit in this agenda is clear: it's something for the other folks to do.

Will Iraq be any different?