Of course, Mailer has not always been right about everything - he is renowned not only for great writing but also for his vitriolic verbal tilts at windmills as diverse as feminism and plastic, and he once famously described the Internet as 'the greatest waste of time since masturbation was discovered'.

Mailer turned 80 in January, but his cantankerous intellect burns as fiercely bright and controversial as ever. Why Are We At War? is a short, thoroughly readable analysis of the current international conflict, which he succinctly summarises as 'Allah vs moolah'.

It is a carefully reasoned argument, and harshly judgemental of both protagonists. 'We violate Christianity with every breath we take. Equally do Muslims violate Islam. We are speaking of a war then between two essentially unbalanced and inauthentic ideologies ? and the motives of both sides do not bear close examination.'

In one corner of Mailer's ring is a humiliated and disillusioned Islamic world, mis-led by corrupt despots, childishly unwilling to share the blame for its own failures, instead angrily casting about in search of scapegoats for its ignominious fall from the pinnacle of civilisation over the past few centuries.

In the other corner, America; or at least, the malevolent corporate power-brokers who control the helm of the world's superpower: ' ? descended from 125 years of lawyers and bankers with the cold nerve and fired-up greed to foreclose on many a widow's home or farm ?They have the moral equivalent of Teflon on their souls. Church on Sunday, foreclose on Monday.'

These servants of Mammon, in Mailer's opinion, have long believed their destiny is to rule this world, for its own good and for theirs, although they are happy to collude with those who would bend it to the designs of the right-wing Christians' God. They are the Cheneys and the Wolfowitzs of this world, and Mailer warns they possess as great a potential for wicked deeds as any tin-pot dictator.

Not all their opponents must necessarily be militarily crushed. Mailer suspects their message to China, for example, is: 'Hear ye! You Chinese are obviously bright. We can tell. We know! Your Asian students were born for technology ?You fellows can have your technology; may it be great!

'But, China, you had better understand: We still have the military power. Your best bet, therefore, is to become Greek slaves to us Romans. We will treat you well.

'You will be most important to us, eminently important. But don't look to rise above your future station in life.'

Perhaps America's single greatest advantage over the totalitarian regimes of the world is not its financial clout or military might, but its willingness and ability to tolerate its Mailers.

Their constant carping denies the nation any opportunity to sink into the soporific slumber that endless repetitions of fairy tales about good and evil are designed to induce. Their jarring intellectual jabs may be our best protection against the despots of this world. If not, they can at least make for extremely entertaining and informative reading.