Compare this statement made by John McCain two weeks ago as he attempted to reach out to the international community and distance himself from Bush's go-it-alone style of foreign policy:

"When we believe that international action is necessary, whether military, economic or diplomatic, we will try to persuade our friends that we are right. But we, in return, must also be willing to be persuaded by them."

With this passage, taken from his U.S. Senate website from early 2001:

In this dangerous environment, the U.S. must be willing to act alone, not only in Iraq but in North Korea, if necessary. While other nations "may risk their own populations, the United States will do whatever it must to guarantee the security of the American people," McCain wrote in January. "And spare us the usual lectures about American unilateralism."

The interesting thing here is not just that McCain went from dismissing lectures about American unilateralism to giving them. The passage helps answer the question, "How different would a McCain administration have been from Bush's if he had won in 2000?" The answer is, not very. McCain wanted to invade Iraq well before September 11 and was willing to pull the trigger much sooner than Bush was. And he had no problems doing it unilaterally.

Would he have managed it better? Maybe, maybe not. But he still bought into the foolishly idealistic notion being pitched by neoconservatives that overthrowing Saddam Hussein would "set off a democratic chain reaction through the region." That was a dumb idea in 2003, when there was at least some faulty intelligence about WMDs and the shadow of 9/11 to cloud lawmaker's judgment. To make that argument in early 2001 shows the poorest of judgment.

So which McCain approach to foreign policy will we get if he wins in November? Has the five-year war in Iraq taught him a thing or two about the difficulty of waging unilateral war? Or are his efforts to reach out to the international community nothing more than pre-election pandering?

Hopefully we'll never find out.