President Obama will deliver the commencement address at West Point later to this month. This is an opportunity, as Gerald F. Seib writes in the Wall Street Journal, for the president to somehow resolve “a giant foreign-policy paradox.”

Namely, how to stay out of messy situations overseas, which seems to be the public’s preference, while at the same time appearing to be strong and decisive and in charge around the globe. Which the people also seem to desire.