"A Large Warmongering Nation out of Control"

We're in serious trouble, friends. Listen here to historian Morris Berman talking with Leonard Lopate about his new book "Dark Ages in America," in which he paints a troubling picture of a bloated, gouty imperium in decline.

And who better to preside over that decline than our all-too-fearless leaders? It would seem that if decline and fall is what you're after, you couldn't ask for a more effective crew than the present regime -- a group of people who appear to be hell-bent on causing the apocalypse to occur in the most spectacular way, at the earliest possible date. Judging from their actions and policies, I find it almost impossible to imagine what else they could possibly have in mind.

Jim Carroll does a pretty good job of advancing a competing theory in his very astute column in today's Boston Globe: "Surely, something besides intelligent strategic theory is at work here. Yes. These are the policies of deeply frustrated, angry, and psychologically wounded people..." He gives the Administration the benefit of the doubt, arguing that they're merely blind, incompetent, and unhinged. His argument is cogent and nicely put, but that doesn't mean he's right.