MORE RECORD

Two blog reactions to Jeffrey Record's piece criticizing the Bush administration for losing focus in the war on terrorism are particularly noteworthy. See James Joyner at Outside the Beltway (from whom I learned at dinner the other night that Jeffrey Record has made a career out of pushing strategic focus) and this post at the always interesting (and well-titled) Secular Blasphemy. Both have important points, but neither, as far as I can tell, meets Record's main claim: because even "rogue states" like Iraq can be deterred from using WMDs against the U.S. and its allies, invading them will always be a misallocation of resources in the war on terrorism. It's really hard to say that Record is wrong here; indeed, international pressure seems to have deterred Iraq from any significant acquisition of WMDs, never mind use.

Record's point is worth taking seriously, especially given the lack of any evidence that Iraq cooperated with al-Qaeda (the nightmare scenario that the administration used to justify erasing the difference between a rogue state and an immanent threat).