Among Republicans, the debate over America’s proper world role is vigorous. Sen. Rand Paul blames the current disarray in Iraq on George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. “Were they right in their predictions? Were there weapons of mass destruction there? Was the war won in 2005, when many of those people said it was won?”

Cheney, civil but direct, defends his decisions and warns that Paul’s “isolationism” is unwise. “He doesn’t believe we ought to be involved in that part of the world. That didn’t work in the 1930s, it sure as heck won’t work in the aftermath of 9/11.”