U.S. involvement in the 2011 decapitation of Libya’s government has predictably (for those who have noticed developments in Iraq since 2003) produced a failed state convulsed by rival militias. The attack on Libya appealed to the Obama administration’s humanitarians precisely because it was untainted by considerations of national interest. The seven-month attempt to assassinate Moammar Gaddafi with fighter-bombers was a war of choice, waged for regime change. It was not an event thrust upon the United States, which had its hands more than full elsewhere. Because the war against Libya was thoroughly voluntary, it stands as the signature deed of the secretary of state at the time and should, by itself, disqualify her from presidential aspirations.

Today there is a torrent of redundant evidence for the Macmillan axiom. When British Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was asked what caused him the most trouble, he supposedly replied, “Events, dear boy, events.” He certainly used the phrase “the opposition of events.” Events, from Ukraine to Syria to Gaza, are forcing something Americans prefer not to think about — foreign policy — into their political calculations.

Having recoiled from the scandal of the Iraq war, which was begun on the basis of bad intelligence and conducted unintelligently, Americans concluded that their nation no longer has much power, defined as the ability to achieve intended effects. The correct conclusion is that the United States should intend more achievable effects.