Thom Hartmann; The Republican vision of America is that of costly and perpetual warfare.

Republicans held - literally - their 20^th debate last night. With a pivotal Michigan primary just 5 days away - and polls showing Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum neck-and-neck - the four candidates took to the stage in Arizona to see who can win the race to the bottom. And with the exception of Ron Paul - everyone in the debate thinks the United States needs to be involved in another war - this time with Iran.

Romney, Santorum, and Gingrich all painted doomsday scenarios of a nuclear Iran and how big of a threat that nation is to America's security. They stopped just short of using Bush's famous war-mongering line of a smoking gun being a mushroom cloud over an American city. Apparently no one on the stage learned the lessons of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars - their vision of America is one of continuous and costly warfare across the Middle East - the same sort of perpetual warfare that's bankrupted every empire that's ever existed in history.

-Thom

(Will there be war with Iran? Tell us here.)