Reading the works of American military pundits and the vast US media commentariat that amplifies their voices often feels like entering an alternate universe. Weaknesses are touted as “strengths”; self-congratulatory propaganda and delusion are seen as substitutes for hard analysis; belligerent, callous jingoism passes as the norm; and American “exceptionalism” is taken for granted almost as a theological truth. Clearly a day of reckoning is coming. It has been coming for some time now.