Or are they just plain nuts?

From the New Jersey Star Ledger yesterday, by John Farmer:

It's hard to believe that with one military venture gone bad in Iraq and a world that now sees Washington as the greatest threat to peace, the Bushies would contemplate attacking a second nation, this time with tactical nukes. Which prompts two questions: Are these guys obsessed with a messianic sense of world mission that has robbed them of common sense? Or are they just plain nuts? And the answers are yes and possibly so.

…The whole Iranian matter is fraught with awful irony and echoes of mistakes made in Iraq. Consider, for example, the irony of America inflicting a nuclear strike on the people of Iran in the name of stopping nuclear proliferation. Are the Bushies totally insensate? Or are they simply stupid?

Within hours of an American attack on Iranian nuclear sites, U.S. embassies across the globe would be under assault -- maybe even in flames -- and American tourists and diplomats and businessmen and women would have to run for cover. But how would Bush or Cheney or the civilian neocons in the Pentagon appreciate this possibility? They've lived lives immunized by privilege and draft deferments from the costs of war. The tragedy is that they've fallen heir to the greatest military power in history -- with no grasp of how to use it wisely.

…They should never again be allowed anywhere near the instruments and agencies of the American government.

John Farmer is The Star-Ledger's national political correspondent. He may be reached at jfarmer@starledger.com.