Lacking in nuance, indeed

A Townhall editorial fantasizing about just nuking Baghdad away. Granted, she immediately says that this wouldn't be a workable idea. So, why worry about it if it's so far off the plate?
I sincerely think that neocons really do think that America's duty is to remake the world in its own image, that is, the perfect neocon world. All of history would be just a footnote to this new world. If you really believe this, the image of a neocon-controlled America destroying the oldest city in the world with a single bomb is just an irresistible image.
The fundamentalist contribution to this is just unavoidable. The end of times is coming, and any non-Biblical history will be irrelevant as soon as the Rapture happens. The big problem with the Biblical prophecies is that they all center around Christians and Jews and the geography of the Middle East. There is no mention of Muslims. They are simply in the way. On top of it, they have their own claims to holy lands that look just as legitimate as the Judeo-Christian claims to an outsider. On top of it, Arabs themselves have this unfortunate well-researched history supporting that ungodly notion that there may have been entire cities when God was entertaining himself watching Adam and Eve cavort in the Garden. (Okay, I don't know how much thought they put into that last part, but one has to wonder.) How tempting it must be just to clean them out!
It is critical to understanding the secular neocon's alliance with the religious right, particularly over the issue of American world dominance and the Middle East. The neocons believe in it because of simple nationalism, and the fundies believe it because of contorted and self-serving interpetations of the Bible, but the end result is the same--America is fighting to take its place as the rightful world leader. That's why people who innocently question whether it's wise to strongarm the rest of the world like this is considered treason. America's purpose is world dominance and to question that is to question America.
Four contractor/mercenaries got murdered in an ugly, ugly way. Kos got into alot of shit for overstating what is a fact--mercenaries are never appreciated wherever they go and this stuff is bound to happen. Neocons surely understand this on a certain level, but they can't ever state it and there is a good reason. There is never a better time than the present to exploit a torturous murder for political gain. After the hoopla over that movie The Passion, the fundies are primed for messages about how the enemies of all that is good (and holy) can be spotted by their sadistic pleasure in torturing enemies. This war is being sold covertly to the religious base as a holy war. If these men are anything but martyrs, then it undermines the firmest support the administration has in its war plans.

I was just going to leave a comment at Pandagon, but I realized I had alot more to say, obviously.