by William Kristol and Robert Kagan

About the authors: William Kristol is editor of the Weekly Standard, a weekly political journal. Robert Kagan is a contributing editor to the Weekly Standard.

National security adviser Condoleezza Rice gave an important speech a couple of weeks ago [in August 2003], in which she called on the United States to make a "generational commitment" to bringing political and economic reform to the long-neglected Middle East—a commitment not unlike that which we made to rebuild Europe after the Second World War. It was a stirring speech, made all the more potent by the knowledge that it reflects the president's own vision. President [George W.] Bush recognizes that, as is so often the case, American ideals and American interests converge in such a project, that...