Following in the footsteps of legendary military genius and maximalist warrior Dubya the Conqueror, Republican politicians are bubbling over with surefire ideas for triumph over the terrorist menace, summoning every drop of testosterone in those Barney Fife bodies, hopeful of simulating swagger.

If there’s any doubt things could be worse, imagine these people in charge. They remind us not only that talk is cheap but that it can be reduced to utterly worthless currency.

If only, Republican masses believe, The Donald could aim his blowhole straight at ISIL, the maniacs would prostrate themselves at the feet of the great, white whale in obeisance. A stern look from Marco or Jeb, or Ted or Carly might accomplish the same. Oh my.

It is a given that the anti-Obama tirades in the wake of the Paris attacks are largely indistinguishable from the continuous seven years and counting highly symptomatic anti-Obama Tourette’s Syndrome.

Still, in much the way they yearn for an 18th century America that never existed, and an economic feudalism that did, Republicans continue to believe every war is the Spanish-American war, and they are Teddy Roosevelt bullying from the pulpit. They resist the reality of asymmetrical warfare same as they resist the reality of the changing climate, modern economics, evolution and science.

Hey fellas and gals, didja ever think maybe them jihadists thunk up that there type of warfare cuz it’s impossible to quash with armies and planes? Just spitballing here.

The Bizarro World brilliance of Cheney/Bush responding to a fanaticism born of a legacy of colonialism and empire-building, by replicating colonialism and empire building, was the gift that keeps on giving. It continues bearing fruit even after thousands of Americans were killed who otherwise wouldn’t have been, along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. ISIL is perhaps the ripest fruit of all.

The fatheads like to attribute a squeamish regard for collateral damage by the Obama administration, meaning lots of dead innocents, as the great hindrance to total annihilation of the terror threat. It should be noted that Obama has killed, along with Bin Laden, and a gazillion really bad guys, plenty of innocents on his own watch. Were he a Republican president, it would have endeared him to the rank and file.

Unfortunately, in the same way that the damage perpetrated by ISIL, while concentrated in a region of Syria, doesn’t stop there, American troops introduced there en masse, not only would be ineffective, but counter-productive, and ultimately self-defeating. That’s why this form of radicalism will always be so formidable: it’s everywhere and nowhere. It’s an idea, and it moves from person to person and place to place like an airborne virus. It’s the idea you have to kill if you ever want a significant diminishment of the terror threat.

Fighting it requires deep historical knowledge, complex strategies and tactics, and savvy, cool-headed intelligence. None of these are normally associated with the Republican puffballs bloviating from your television screen, and rightly so.