"Saudi Arabia, you over-rated tank of blubber"

I believe Norman Mailer is still one of the most interesting conversationalists in America's public sphere; I'm always glad to see Mailer making headlines anywhere; I appreciate his observation here that the Air Force is the only branch of the armed services that matters; and I'm partial to any argument that uses flagging masculinity to explain historic events. All that having been said, the White Negro's latest outing is the shadiest essay since Lamar Jimmerson's "Why I Am A Gnomon." A sample:

In the course, however, of all the quick events of the past few weeks, our military went through a transmogrification. Indeed, it was one hellion of a morph. We went from a potentially great athlete into a master surgeon capable of operating at high speed on an awfully sick patient. Now, even as the patient is being stitched up, a new and troubling question arises: have any fresh medicines been developed to deal with what seem to be teeming infections? Do we really know how to treat livid suppurations we were not quite prepared for?

Do we, indeed? Link courtesy of drf.