That's something a (rather knowledgeable) child might say of the crackpot neocon who was afforded a full page op-ed calling for 'preemptive strikes' on Iran in one of America's (formerly) most respected papers -- and quite appropriately considering Norman's thought processes seem to mirror a child's impulsive actions, reflexive bullying, and irrational logic.

But is he wrong?

Of course he is, and yet, not so long ago, nearly half of all Americans agreed that a preemptive strike on Iran would be desirable.

In April 2006, a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showed that "despite Iraq, Americans don't reject strikes against a nuclear Iran. By 48%-42%, the public says U.S. should join coalition to attack Iran's nuclear capability if Tehran approaches development of a weapon."

Are there that many punks in our great nation?

Now this is a year later and the 06 elections as well as more recent polls regarding our occupation of Iraq have certainly indicated that Americans are fed up with this crap.

But what would it take to swing them back the other way? How much effort would it take for the administration and it's minions to convince the public that "Tehran [is approaching] development of a [nuclear] weapon"?

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

Last week, I partly addressed America's strategic incompetence with my post, "Afghanistan: The Forgotten War." Another country we appear to have no strategy for is Pakistan. Presently, political leadership in Washington is consumed with a myopic debate over non-binding resolutions in Iraq while the failed "global war on terror" continues to burn. Pakistan illustrates America's delicate position in this conflict, as the growing numbers of presidential candidates offer nothing but platitudes.

The topic below was originally posted in my blog, the Intrepid Liberal Journal.

How many voters went to the polls in 2004 believing Iraq was behind 9/11 and didn't give Afghanistan a second thought? The oxygen of our political discourse is consumed by Iraq. Some of America's most prestigious citizens collaborated on the Iraq Study Group. Politicians from both parties are proposing alternatives from supporting President Bush's escalation, to partition and even cutting off funding.

Indeed, Bush, through his continued embrace with nuclear dictator Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan, has done more to compromise US National Security than practically any other entity on Earth.

When Bush & Co. allowed Osama Bin Laden to escape from Tora Bora, Osama scurried off to the Pakistani tribal lands -- a place he knew would be safe since Musharraf refused to enter, or allow others (i.e. the U.S.) to enter those tribal areas. Harboring public enemy #1 should be reason enough for the U.S. to blacklist Pakistan, but not for George "Dead or Alive" Bush. Months later, Bush, in an egregious act of appeasement, was allegedly able to 'cut a deal' with the dictator that allowed U.S. forces in those areas (more on that below the fold).

My fellow Americans

After spending nearly 400 billion dollars ousting Saddam and the Taliban, eradicating al Qaeda and other international terrorist organizations and creating a Model for future Middle East Democracies in Iraq, after vastly improving the lives of the Iraqi people by turning on their electricity and water service, creating a safe and secure environment for them to pursue their lives, rebuilding their schools and hospitals and other critical infrastructure and after getting their oil flowing freely to the export markets, to enable their return to national solvency, you might think that they would be grateful.

Pakistani officials insisted Monday that DNA evidence and communications intercepts both confirm that a top al-Qaida operative died in an explosion at his tribal hide-out last week, brushing off Washington's reluctance to confirm the man was dead.

But wait, there's more! The head of Pakistani counterterrorism, Javed Iqbal Cheema, is being cagey on whether or not Pakistan's sample of DNA was matched to DNA found at the scene, or if its DNA sample was matched to DNA actually taken from Rabia's body:

He would not say whether Pakistani forces had recovered Rabia's remains from the blast site. The Karachi-based Dawn newspaper reported that Rabia's body had been retrieved by associates from outside Pakistan and spirited away.