I’m going to write a syndicated column about it , which may not be enough room. Basically, I think it’s a wonderful, heartfelt, tough-minded, morally and politically serious wake-up call (even if I have a few quibbles about some details). For all those readers who wonder why I’m a fan of his, never mind a friend, this should help explain why.

I also fear for Beinart’s and the nation’s sake that it will fall on deaf ears and that what he hopes to make possible in the Democratic Party is more or less impossible. But I would love to see it happen. I would truly love to see the Democratic and Republican parties competing on who could be more aggressive on the war on terror, not just militarily but morally, economically and politically. The Democratic Party has credibility and strength on issues very much needed for the war on terror. But that Democratic Party has remained largely dormant. As I’ve written many times, a morally serious foreign policy liberal wouldn’t have applauded John Kerry’s vote against the $87 billion because that was too much money he would have denounced the whole enterprise as too little money. If you believed any of the rhetoric about nation-building and humanitarian war spouted by liberals in the 1990s, you had to favor doing more in Iraq, not less.

Peter thinks that his party can become that party. I am very pessimisted that such a thing is possible any time in the near future. And I think short of another truly horrible attack on US soil, it will be almost impossible for Beinart’s project to even get off the ground.