At least that is the latest assessment from the brilliant right-wing foreign policy minds that have done such a bang-up job in the Middle East over the past half-decade.

He [Newt Gingrich] lists wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, last week's bomb attacks in India, North Korean nuclear threats, terrorist arrests and investigations in Florida, Canada and Britain, and violence in Israel and Lebanon as evidence of World War III.

He said Bush needs to deliver a speech to Congress and "connect all the dots" for Americans.

So there it is WWIII. Had William Kristol still had the respect he enjoyed in his run up to the Iraq War we would be fighting Iran, Syria, Lebanon(Hezbollah), Hamas...

What's happening in the Middle East, then, isn't just another chapter in the Arab-Israeli conflict. What's happening is an Islamist-Israeli war. You might even say this is part of the Islamist war on the West--but is India part of the West? Better to say that what's under attack is liberal democratic civilization, whose leading representative right now happens to be the United States.

So with that it's time for more war. The two-front war we struggle with today should become a half-dozen or more. We should confront these armies, armies to weak to fight conventionally, over there rather than here. As we have seen these armies fold at the first glimpse of conventional warfare and melt into bands of guerrilla fighters that our military has not been able to effectively control historically. No diplomacy , no reassessment in foreign policy, America has done nothing wrong. Slap another yellow ribbon on your SUV, spend your tax cut, and 'Get 'er done!'

November must be close. Connect the dots.

Further down the article about Newt:

Gingrich said he is "very worried" about Republican's facing fall elections and says the party must have the "nerve" to nationalize the elections and make the 2006 campaigns about a liberal Democratic agenda rather than about President Bush's record.

Dots connected. Or as Matt Stoller puts it, "It's important to start World War III, otherwise the Democrats will win the midterms in 2006...".

[UPDATE] Col. Lang on war hysteria In DC:

Otherwise sensible people are seriously suggesting that all out war to the death is the desirable "motif" of the day. In addition, neocon visionaries like Bill Kristol, Newt Gingrich and the Ledeen are howling like banshees for general war against the enemies of "freedom."