Inane pop psychology ("this is how paranoids, mystics and pedophiles think") and glib formulations abound: "The war broke him as a man and made him a great artist; religion offered him postwar spiritual solace and killed his art".
The specifics of Prothero's thesis are not new, but his formulation makes the culture wars seem more misguided than ever.
Blair's formulation that, since the cold war, "our actions are guided by... mutual self-interest and moral purpose in defending the values we cherish.
"Impact of the Early Cold War on the Formulation of U.S. Science Policy: Selected Memoranda of William T. Golden, October 1950-April 1951" documents the invention of the science adviser's office, published by the Association for the Advancement of Science in 1995.
From embracing the "war on terror" formulation, to embracing the proposition that six years of Bush administration policy has made us safer, to her famous refusal to concede that her support of the Iraq war was wrong, Clinton appears to embrace at least some of the underpinnings of Bush's approach to national-security policy.
Mr. Bunn said he believed the Bush administration had shown no interest in making the science adviser a serious player in policy formulation, limiting his influence in the war against terrorism.
One speechwriter came up with the formulation that "new leadership will end the war and win the peace in the Pacific".
The domino theory behind the Vietnam War revived under a new formulation: but for the American umpire, the bad guys (Al Qaeda, Iran, North Korea) will win.
The command and control formulation, although has a longer history, draws heavily on World War II and Cold War attitudes.
That "every option" formulation, of course, refers to the possibility of war.
