I suppose unsurprisingly, this Moussaoui verdict has really touched a nerve. Here’s Peggy Noonan with an as-always-eloquent column this morning:

How removed from our base passions we’ve become. Or hope to seem.

It is as if we’ve become sophisticated beyond our intelligence, savvy beyond wisdom. Some might say we are showing a great and careful generosity, as befits a great nation. But maybe we’re just, or also, rolling in our high-mindedness like a puppy in the grass. Maybe we are losing some crude old grit. Maybe it’s not good we lose it.

This seems to be the emerging conservative line: As Stephen Colbert might say, we lack the collective balls to execute Moussaoui. That may be true. And it may be worrying. But we did have the balls to go into Afghanistan and Iraq — and I think that’s a bit more important.