David Brooks disliked Kerry's acceptance speech:

When you actually read for content, you see that the speech skirts almost every tough issue and comes out on both sides of every major concern...For every gesture in the direction of greater defense spending, there are opposing hints about reducing our commitments and bringing the troops home.

Oh, wait a second: didn't George W. Bush run on a platform of greater defense spending and reducing our overseas commitments in 2000?

I bring this up not just to be snarky. One doesn't have to be an op-ed writer for the Times to realize that the two ideas are not incompatible: a stronger military is one that engages in fewer cockeyed adventures overseas.