Tell it, Preacher! Stanley hits the nail on the head yet again. You’d think he’d have driven it in by now, but this is stubborn wood we’re working with.

Nukes are the thing. Like the Colt 45 in the Old West, they are the “equalizers.” There isn’t a state in the Muslim Middle East that could match Belgium in conventional military power, let alone the U.S.A . Militarily, these places are nullities. Their best efforts at terrorism, even when state sponsored, are mere fleabites on the civilized world, however stunning and outrageous as spectacles. If nuke technology proliferates around that region, though, we are going to be in a world of hurt.

GWB should borrow a rhetorical figure from the Great Liberator and say: “If I could stop nukes from spreading around the Middle East without democratizing any of their countries, I would do it; and if I could stop it by democratizing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about democratization, and the Muslim Middle East, I do because I believe it helps to stop the spread of nuclear weapons technology to people who should not have it.”.