For years I have been reading about the Bush administration's rationale for preemptive war, its claims to the mantle of global superiority as a (moral) nation state. The left, rightly and too easily, blasts large holes in this rationale, pointing out failing after failing. Currently, we are debating the wisdom of Iran as the next front for Bush's bellicose foreign policy. This has become my dark fear: the chaos, conflict and death of Iraq, and possibly Iran, are actually the goal. The neoconservative think tankers are millennialists. The me, the you, and the now doesn't exist for these guys. They are working for 3006; they are willing to write off the 21st century; at least the one that includes us.

I would like to find a bright spot here, maybe even some humor. We all enjoy watching Bush unravel as he is asked direct questions by a gathering of graduate students. His rambling answers, the idiotic mugging and giggles combined with his arrogance and impatience are truly disturbing. Increasingly, I get the impression that as he looks at his handpicked (or not) audience, he really doesn't see people with lives, interests, values...they don't register in his gaze. I really think he is running the clock down, halfheartedly performing as he waits for the next calamity, the next step in the millennial sequence.