RELIGION (CONT)

I repeat: "Toughness" and strength through militarism speak to the myth of nationalism but will get us only deeper into the quagmire that President Bad Example has bequeathed us as his legacy. We won't stop terrorism with shock-and-awe bombing, torture and pre-emptive global bullying. Almost everybody knows this by now, but our presidential candidates still genuflect before the almighty defense budget, varying only in the fervor they are able to project.

This is scary, is it not, that we might wind up with More of the Same as our next commander-in-chief, simply because we lack the capacity to step outside the stagnant mythology of macho nationalism.

"Preachers warn of hellfire to offer rescue from it, which is available to those who submit," writes Carroll. "This feedback loop of damnation-salvation-submission serves the people by offering meaning, and it serves the elite by protecting the structure of power. In religion, all of this is overt. In presidential politics, it is implicit."

In obeisance to the myth of national security, we have squandered trillions of dollars invading and occupying Iraq. We've broken a country, killed as many as a million Iraqis, created 4 million internal and external refugees, thrown the Middle East into chaos and incurred global animosity.

Maybe obesity is still a greater threat to Americans than terrorism, but if we stick to our "mission," terrorism will close the gap.

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