PETE DUPONT writes that Iraq is only the first step to liberating the mideast. Leon Fuerth more or less agrees, but thinks that’s a bad thing. He sees it as the birth of an empire.

But American hegemony in the region is already extensive, and there seems little alternative — certainly Fuerth doesn’t provide one — to an increase of American influence. A U.N. figleaf might be diplomatically desirable (Fuerth thinks is is) but it would still be just that, a figleaf. Fuerth is, as I’ve said before, a smart guy. But I’d very much like to see a column as long as this one that spelled out exactly what we should be doing differently, and compared the costs (including the costs of failure) between that approach and the one the Bush Administration is pursuing.