Great piece by Fareed Zakaria in Newsweek, which actually ties into what Noonan wrote in today’s WSJ, below:

Then came 9/11. Ever since the attacks, the United States has felt threatened and under siege and determined to carve out maximum room to maneuver. But where Americans have seen defensive behavior, the rest of the world has looked on and seen the most powerful nation in human history acting like a caged animal, lashing out at any and every constraint on its actions.

At the heart of this behavior is fear. Americans have become scared of the new world that is emerging around them. As long as this atmosphere of fear envelops U.S. politics, it will surely produce very similar results abroad. Washington’s real task, therefore, is to combat such unthinking emotion.

Yet the opposite is happening. Republicans are falling over each other to paint an atmosphere of dire threat that requires strong, even brutish action to protect the American people. Democrats, while far less guilty of fearmongering, have been afraid to combat this hysteria.

Consider the top GOP candidates to replace Bush. On the campaign trail, Rudolph Giuliani endlessly repeats his mantra that “we are facing an enemy that is planning all over this world … to come here and kill us.” Mitt Romney has explained that while “some people have said we ought to close Guantanamo, my view is we ought to double [the size of] Guantanamo.” And John McCain sometimes sounds cavalier about bombing Iran—despite the fact that, if it happened, it would be the third U.S. war against a Muslim country in seven years.

This fear, as I’ll argue in this week’s print edition, is specifically the reason we seem to want our candidates to have “values,” first and foremost. I really do believe the United States on the whole, despite our continued dominance, despite our “hyperpower” status, really believes the world is spinning beyond our control. That involves terrorism but it also involves the deindustrialization of the country, the fact that globalization has been a net loss for us. Health care costs continue to shoot upward, the economy seems to teeter on the brink and so many of our personal finances teeter on that same brink - overcharged, undercapitalized.

As individuals, we take solace in our faith. We want the country to do the same; if only we believe, things will work themselves out. It’s almost a surrender, in that respect; we cannot possibly hope to navigate these great waves, all we can do is trust in a captain good and true to get us through the storm.

I think, and have thought, that this mentality makes America ripe for despotism. Especially given the utter corruption we see in our political system itself. The country seems to want a strong and decisive leader, rock-solid in his belief and his certainty, unencumbered by nuance. What I fear most of all is that someday soon, we’ll get him. And then heaven help us all.