In laying out his doctrine of containment in 1947, George Kennan wrote that anti-communism was not, in and of itself, enough to defeat the Soviet Union. The US also had to "measure up to its own best traditions and prove itself worthy of preservation as a great nation."

Writing in TNR, New Democrat Network president Simon Rosenberg argues that the current administration has failed to heed that lesson in the war on terror, and that that lapse has given Democrats just the opening they need in order to start formulating a better, more attractive alternative to the Bush national security agenda.

MORE: Sorry, I just realized that the TNR link above is subscription only. So here's a taste:

Today, the United States faces an administration that has failed to learn the critical lessons of the twentieth century and has only embraced one half of Kennan's synthesis. This administration is waging a campaign against terrorism, but it has failed to offer a credible vision of how the United States can move the world toward a peace and prosperity rooted in our own best ideals. Moreover, the Bush administration's failing Iraq policy and the serial lies about its intentions and principles have so tarnished U.S. standing abroad that they have unforgivably weakened our ability to conduct and win the struggle against Islamic extremism.

So 2004 is not 1947. The war against Islamic extremism is not the cold war, and Bush is not Roosevelt nor Truman. Our choices are different now. Yes, we as Democrats must articulate and embrace a muscular response to the threat of Islamic extremism and a twenty-first-century version of Kennan's vision of a United States that lives up to its own best traditions. We are also morally obligated to acknowledge that President Bush's record is deeply worthy of skepticism, and we can no more ignore those in our party who have rightfully voiced dissent than we can forget how we won the war against communism.

Our urgent goal as a party should be to work with those who have led the fight against Bush's dangerous policies and, together, to craft a new and compelling vision that is rooted in the very best of the United States and utterly defeats the threat of terrorism.

POSTSCRIPT: Yes, yes, I realize that there's all sorts of other stuff going on up there in those grafs -- most of it involving Rosenberg's campaign to become the next chairman of the DNC. But that's Jerome Armstrong's beat, and he's been covering it quite nicely so far without my assistance, thank you very much.