Spengler, the iconoclastic and always

provocative Asia Times columnist, has a fascinating

piece out today with

an arresting lede: “The West should be thankful that it has in US President

George W Bush a warrior who shoots first and tells the Central Intelligence

Agency (CIA) to ask questions later. Rarely in its long history has the West

suffered by going to war too soon. On the contrary: among the wars of

Western history, the bloodiest were those that started too late.” He’s

serious, and makes a historical case that the war on Iraq now, whether Bush

realizes it or not, may well have mitigated a bigger, nastier war later.

Read the whole thing.