More work needs to be done to turn critiques like [Graham] Platner’s into credible Democratic policy. Truly ending the forever war is an essential starting point. Rescind the post-9/11 authorization that allows the president to use military force globally against terrorists without coming back to Congress for approval. Commit to going to war only in self-defense, with congressional authorization. Slash a bloated and out-of-control Pentagon budget. Draw down the sprawling American defense installations across the Middle East. End all military assistance to an Israeli government committed to territorial expansion and hostile to international law. Restrict the use of artificial intelligence in autonomous weapons or mass surveillance.

Beyond that, we must re-engage the world as something other than a hegemon. Rebuild diplomatic and development capabilities hollowed out under Mr. Trump. Buttress NATO as a defensive alliance. Negotiate the outlines of a new international order with other major powers, focusing on the existential risks of nuclear weapons, artificial intelligence and climate change.

More than any of this, though, Americans must change their relationship to war itself. One reason we have a hard time reckoning with the forever war is that it undermines our own story. We like to think of America as a force for good, acting out of enlightened self-interest, our military fighting for freedom around the globe. Is that really what’s been happening?

Mr. Trump makes this reckoning easier because he has dropped the pretense of virtue. The typical language about Iranian freedom disappeared after the first bombs fell, replaced by threats of the genocidal erasure of an ancient civilization. Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, boasts about blowing up Iranian missiles and boats that posed no threat to the people of Sullivan, Maine. No apology was made for killing well over a hundred schoolgirls. This is where American exceptionalism attached to American power can lead: We kill people because we can, and boast about it.

A reasonable to-do list from Ben Rhodes in his piece on Graham Platner — sans isolationist trope. But I wonder: has Rhodes made the case for Graham as Senator or for Graham as concerned citizen we really do need to listen to?