And while you're there, read this. His analysis of the French election and where European politics are going is deeply disturbing:

Europe witnessed something similar a while back. A directionless politics of discontent -- reaction to the vertigo of "modern times", craving for security, trumped-up nativism/nationalism/nostalgia, impatient populist disparagment of governing parties -- dominated the run-up to World War II.

The word is "fascism", folks. All it needs is a foreign enemy to blame its troubles on... and we've got a doozy (or several). Forget "Islamofascism"... why settle for less when you can have the real thing?

Edit: forget that. Well, don't forget it, it's a good read, but I'd honestly suggest dropping everything and going here, and scrolling down to the "three wars" posts. (Although, as seems usual for Cogent Provocateur, it's all good stuff). I wasn't blogging then... did this cause a huge stir that I simply missed, or did one of the best series of war analyses I've yet read simply go unread by the general population?