All this talk by Hillary Clinton about “obliterating Iran,” and Clinton sycophant, James Mushmouth Carville waxing lyrical about Clinton having cojones to spare, worries me. Does the Clinton camp really believe that the answer to eight years of mindlessness and high testosterone swagger is more mindlessness and high testosterone swagger?

In an old episode of Fawlty Towers, the British sitcom starring Monty Pythoner, John Cleese, his slightly crazy hotel keeper character, Basil Fawlty, is urged by an exasperated American guest who is disgusted with the hotel’s employees to “go kick some ass.” “It’s all about kicking ass with you Americans, isn’t it?” replies Basil.

Indeed, it has been throughout the Bush Administration. Former counter-terrorism chief, Richard Clarke wrote in his book, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror that on the evening of September 11, 2001 President Bush—surely overcompensating for his earlier paralysis while reading My Pet Goat to kindergartners— went into ass kicking overdrive. When reminded of the constraints of international law, our Commander in Chief responded, "I don't care what the international lawyers say, we are going to kick some ass."

Taking a cue from the President, before the invasion of Iraq (sorry Operation Iraqi Freedom), Toby Keith had half the country humming, “we’ll put a boot up your ass, it’s the American way.” It was mindlessness that led us to associate Saddam Hussein with Islamic fundamentalists in the first place. Saddam, who tried to live up to his self-fashioned destiny as “The Lion of Baghdad,” was a known hedonist without a shred of fundamentalist convictions. Cupcake shots of him in testicle-enhancing bikini trunks would have led any mindful intelligence analyst to conclude that the kohl-wearing, henna-mustached former American puppet was not in cahoots with Al Queda.

It is no surprise that President Bush favors C.Q to I.Q when taking the measure of a man. In Bob Woodward's book, Plan of Attack, Bush marveled at British Prime Minister's Tony Blair's cojones, for playing Ted to his Bill in their excellent adventure in Iraq. When Donald Rumsfeld strutted the stage and talked about the benefits of "Shock and Awe," it wasn't just mainstream media who swooned. Our President is reported to have said, "That man has cojones."

If Bush and Cheney hadn’t been so aroused and ready to start a war, they would have seriously considered the reports of Iraq’s then Foreign Minister, who told Western media that Saddam was busy putting the finishing touches to his fourth novel, Begone Demons. But no. We were in full mindless, asskicking mode.

On television, during the run-up to the war, reporters worked the American people into quite a lather. Our military were shown scribbling, “This one’s for 9/11” on missiles, before the invasion of Iraq. And the media induced frenzy left us all feeling that it was time for the foreplay to end and the fun to begin. And so started the invasion of a foreign country that had done nothing to us.

In Rajiv Chandrasekaran’s book, Imperial Life in the Emerald City, he cites the asskicking mentality of our representatives in Iraq. Tom Foley, President Bush’s classmate at Harvard was charged by the President to oh, bring democracy to Iraq. A week after his arrival. Foley announced that he intended to privatize Iraq’s state-owned enterprises within thirty days. A contractor pointed out one hardly worth mentioning, insignificant, teeny, weenie detail—international law, that quaint Hague Convention, that prevents the sale of assets by an occupation government. Foley is reported to have replied, “I don’t give a shit about international law. I made a commitment to the President that I’d privatize Iraq’s businesses.”

Five years after he waged a muddle headed war punctuated by bouts of lunacy (it’s about defeating evil in the world, democracy blooming like cactus flowers in the desert etc) the President is still full of swagger and hot air. "The economy will come on." "We will prevail." "The definition of success is victory." During a trip to Australia after a fall sojourn in Iraq, the President appraised Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister, Mark Vaile about the realities on the ground in Iraq. “We’re kicking ass,” our Commander in Chief replied. Reports that the Founding Fathers were rolling in their graves were quickly confirmed.

Tres Cojones Clinton and Mr. Mushmouth, listen up. The majority of Americans would like a new President who thinks deeply, who can add two and two and come up with something besides a rhinoceros, and uses his/her intellect to solve problems instead of running off at the mouth, kicking ass to prove testicular fortitude and cojones, and making a fool of us all.

It’s embarrassing.

Gail Vida Hamburg, a former print reporter, now in science communications, is the author of The Edge of the World, a novel shaped by American foreign policy and war. Visit Mirare Press www.mirarepress.com for details. Gail blogs at www.gailvidahamburg.com