I like to make a list of what to nuke, too – but it may not be necessary, or especially desirable. The way to avoid it is like redirecting an asteroid away from hitting the earth – a small push early on, is better than the huge push needed later. Call this the King Hussein rule for the middle east – a simple artillery barrage wiping out an entire community of about 10,000 people, and voila, hudna for twenty-plus years. The problem is we have been too sickly to make that demonstration … or have we? Perhaps, for all of our squeamishness, our blundering about in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last eight years is enough to make the point. Look at Israel and Lebanon – Israel effectively “lost” the battle against Hizbullah in the last war, but made it so expensive to everyone in Lebanon that for better or worse peace (or something like it) has now prevailed for … what is it, six years?

This does presume that the Islamists are rational, once hit by the old 2×4 between the eyes. And if I’m wrong, what the heck, get out the old nuke target list, and this time let’s get that shock and awe thing right.