For a family whose patriarch once spoke of it dismissively, the Bushes have developed a thing for vision. In September 1990, a few weeks after Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, President George H.W. Bush told Congress that "out of these troubled times, our objective--a new world order--can emerge." For the next year or so, he trotted out that phrase times without number. The new world order, he said at one point, implied "new ways of working with other nations...peaceful settlement of disputes, solidarity against aggression...and just treatment of all peoples."
George W. Bush has his own version of the vision, though some...