Last week, U.S. President Barack Obama went to Hiroshima to mark the occasion of the use of a nuclear weapon against a civilian population in wartime. He was right to do this. A greater triumph even than the military victories won over fascism in World War II has been the conversion of the fascist states of Germany and Japan to members of the alliance of market-based, human-rights-respecting democracies. A recognition of the suffering at our hands of the populations of those states that are now our allies is a noble and wise act.
But the president did not go to Hiroshima merely to make an empathetic gesture. He went to make an argument, reflecting a profound and well-thought-out commitment that has been the basis of much of the foreign policy of his administration. Because the argument was slightly smothered in his speechwriters' prose, it may be worthwhile to examine its elements....
