time-release booby trap that will blow off his Obama appointed successor's thumbs.

That scenario creates more of the everlasting low-level conflict the neocons want in order to justify continued U.S. military presence in the region. It also gives the neocons an opening to say they told us Obama didn't have the experience needed to be commander in chief.

Most importantly, though, it paves the way for David Petraeus's nomination as the Great Foreign Policy Hope of 2012.