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There is much to ponder here, mostly how Joe Bob went from a pretty decent writer and thinker to a drooling moron.

"Like Napoleon, he likes to strike first and negotiate later, figuring that we live in a state of perpetual warfare anyway and so we might as well have the advantage of the blitzkrieg."

Yeah. Strike first, like, you know, scuttling that North Korean freighter shipping missiles to the middle-east powder keg.

Strike first, like, you know, demolishing that expensive base we built to protect the Saudis and then being told we could not use it against Saddam.

Strike first, like, you know, making that North Korean nuclear site into a vague smear on the soil.

Strike first, like, you know, revoking the visas of every Saudi, Egyptian, Syrian, Irani, Iraqui, etc, still living on our soil and accepting our hospitality.

Strike first, like, you know, a blanket cessation of all new visas from those nations.

Strike first, like, you know, maybe a 1-megaton burst over Mecca, just to get their attention.

Strike first, like, you know, wiping the Dome of the Rock clean of islamic obscenities and presenting the scrubbed surface to Israel.

Stuff like that--you know--stuff a nation at war commonly does.

--Boris

"Joe Bob went from a pretty decent writer and thinker to a drooling moron"

I agree and let me add "espousing vague conjectures and projecting his opinions onto the much broader canvas of the American people as if he is unable to differentiate between the two."

"In other words, we're scared"

Joe Bob is scared. My father explained the possibility of nuclear war with the Soviets to me when I was five years old (1974). Life went on.

"We see it stretching on for years, with only vague intimations of what the goal is"

Joe Bob might not understand the goal, luckily most of us (and more importantly the current administration) do. The goal is to stop criminal acts by radical extremists against western interests and peoples. Afghanistan was part 1 of this process and Iraq is a convenient part 2.

"We have, for the first time since the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, a moneyed nobility.

This is either absurd or ignorant (possibly both). I guess he has writers block when it comes to names like Hughes, Dupont, Rockefeller and Kennedy.

"and yet at the same time we fear immigration as never before"

Most of us are in favor of immigration so long as it is done legally and with the stipulation that the immigrant is law abiding and willing to assimilate.

"We think that there must be some kinder, gentler version of Islam that can prevail in the world"

Sure there is. Look at the Catholic Church during the Inquisition. Luckily the church realized it needed to adapt itself to scientific and sociological progress or it would cease to exist on the basis of being absurdly incorrect about many things. Islam will learn to play nice in the sand box (no pun intended) though it may require neutering.

"We don't trust our children. We think their values are suspect, their morals are loose, their patriotism questionable.

I don't trust your children Joe Bob. Their old man is barely lucid. I am raising mine with a concise and focused religious, moral and patriotic beliefs.

Sorry. I could go on like this forever.