Root, Root, Root For Death

I'm old enough to remember liberals praising Michael Scheuer because he criticized George Bush. Heck, I cited him in passing in this post back in 2006, although not with praise. But despite being quoted in serious journals of opinion, he always seemed a little off to me, which I guess makes him a great Glenn Beck guest.

Scheuer: The only chance we have as a country right now is for Osama bin Laden to deploy and detonate a major weapon in the United States. Because it's going to take a grass-roots, bottom-up pressure. Because these politicians prize their office, prize the praise of the media and the Europeans. It's an absurd situation again. Only Osama can execute an attack which will force Americans to demand that their government protect them effectively, consistently, and with as much violence as necessary.

Beck: Which is why, I was thinking this weekend, if I were him, that would be the last thing I would do right now.

Somewhere in his brain, Scheuer might have a sincere belief in protecting Americans. But he thinks that only by a major terrorist attack on the United States will we create the authoritarian society he prefers that would accomplish such a goal. It's wrong on the history, it's completely misguided, and it leads him to openly root for such an devastating attack. There's almost no antecedent for this anywhere in the world - hoping for mass death to force a closed, authoritarian police state.

This is the distilled worldview of modern conservatism.