And it raises questions about whether the administration is seeking a rationale for reducing troop levels as scheduled starting next summer even if the counterinsurgency strategy does not show significant progress by then.
And as Democrats seek a rationale not merely for returning to power, but for fundamentally changing — or changing back — the relationship between America's government and its citizens, Mr. Krugman's arguments will prove vital in the months and years ahead.
Because it isn't immediately apparent to us how our beliefs create our experience, we often seek a rationale, a greater purpose, other than our own path to awareness.
A Socialist victory next year could bring Mr. Strauss-Kahn into government as a minister, and a Socialist defeat might make him even more important in a party that would be seeking a new rationale.
Instead of seeking a market rationale for arts patronage, the authors stress the benefits for civic virtue.
Significantly, an efficiency-seeking rationale to economic integration will not necessarily bring about pressure for labour mobility and often completely rejects the sorts of political approximations implicit in the deeper forms of economic integration.
Last week, Mr. Bloomberg muttered, "You're a disgrace" at a reporter who questioned his rationale for seeking a third term.
(Though later, speaking to reporters, he criticized her temperament and rationale for seeking public office in New York).
Mr. Owuo-Hagood's rationale for seeking out the Taliban is hard to gauge; it is also unclear whether he was motivated by ideological or other reasons.
If the plan succeeded in removing Syria's chemical weapons from the control of its government, then there would be no need for a strike under Mr. Obama's rationale of seeking to deter the use of such arms.
But others, including his account of his service in Vietnam, his journalistic accomplishments, his views on the death penalty and abortion and his role in the Democratic fund-raising scandals of 1996, are substantial parts of his public record and rationale for seeking higher office.
