Thomas P.M. Barnett

Tom wrote about Bill Roy back in January. Dr Roy is a retired physician and former member of Congress. He writes opinion columns periodically for the Topeka Capital-Journal. My Google Alerts brought him up tonight. He has a new column called Preemption may not be best option with Iran.

Last week, I wrote about Thomas P.M. Barnett's unusual concession that Iran is going to get a nuclear bomb regardless of what the rest of the world does, and that we, the United States should be thinking primarily about what we can get from them in return.

Of course, that lead sent me scrambling for last week's column, too: A nuclear Iran might not be the worst thing. Boy, do I love the lead on this one:

The crisis for 2006, unless a better one unexpectedly comes along, is Iran's efforts to have a nuclear bomb in one to 10 years. Everyone seems to think this is a very bad thing and that anything and everything, including bombing Iranian nuclear sites, perhaps with tactical nuclear weapons, must be done to stop this from happening.

This near-universal alarm sent me scrambling to find Thomas P. M. Barnett's 2005 book, "Blueprint for Action, a Future Worth Creating."

Thanks, Bill, for getting out the word. We hope for better results than your close to today's column:

I like Barnett's analysis best, but know George W. Bush is "the decider." And that the American people, 99 percent of whom have not been asked for a darned thing to support the Iraq War, will go along.

So prepare for more multicolor ribbons supporting our troops, standing in line to buy $5 gas, and beyond trivia, possibly an Armageddon arranged by two men who seem to be getting conflicting messages from God.