Your mileage may vary, but I found this to be a pitch-perfect summation of the War Years.

Danner puts his finger on the key component of the wingnut worldview that's turned American politics into a room of funhouse mirrors. It's the naive abstraction of "power," through which foreign policy (and to a degree extent domestic as well) becomes a ridiculous game of playground intimidation and a test of "will" (this phenomenon is expertly explained here and here).

Thus we must "demonstrate" our "resolve" to the "terrorists;" and as Kissinger advised in the wake of 9/11, "we need to humiliate them." Ironically, this approach has accomplished precisely the opposite, demonstrating how easy it is to not only sucker the big, dumb giant into jump into the pit trap, but have him dig it with his own hands before doing so. We have, in effect, delegated our foreign policy choices to a sorry band of extremist nutbags.

Many are counting the days until Bush leaves office, but none of the current crop of GOP hopefuls have repudiated this lunacy. They (perhaps including at least one of the Dems) may in fact be worse, believing the Bushies have demonstrated insufficient "will" in the war on terra.