The Democrats’ debate in Iowa covers foreign policy at last

BEFORE LAUNCHING into a speech for the 30 or so Joe Biden-curious Iowans who had gathered in Ames on a frigid Wednesday evening in early January, John Kerry, the Democratic presidential nominee in 2004 and a secretary of state for Barack Obama, made sure to hug an old friend in the crowd: the gunner from his Swift Boat in Vietnam many decades ago. Soon after returning from that war as a wounded and decorated veteran, Mr Kerry had concluded that it was a pointless misadventure. In Iowa he worried that America was again on the brink of another disastrous war—this time with Iran.

President Donald Trump had ordered the killing of General Qassem Suleimani, perhaps the second-most-powerful man in Iran, eviscerating what little remained of the detente that Mr Kerry and Mr Obama had worked to establish through diplomatic channels. “We didn’t sit there publicly pissing and moaning and screaming about how bad they were and tweeting away and creating a storm,” Mr Kerry said.