I got to thinking about this not too long ago when I came to the realization that Cobra itself did not have any real ideology. So they want to take over the world. But why? The comics seemed to paint them as just being greedy and everyone was there just for the money. But even then there has got to be some cause that everyone is at least pretending to be interested in. As such I decided that in my Joeverse Cobra is a snake worshiping cult of sorts. One of these wacky new age religions. Essentially it attracts a lot of kooks. As such I view Cobra's Commander (and his followers) as being those conspiracy theorist types. He thinks 9-11 was an inside job, the moon landings were faked, the Nazis had a base on the moon, UFOs are alien spacecraft and are being covered up by the government, the elections are all rigged, secret societies are really running things, etc. He doesn't see himself as bad. Rather he sees his fight against the government as being a righteous one. He is not an over-the-top buffoon so much as he is the kind of guy that won't drink water from the tap because he thinks the government puts chemicals in it to control his mind. I also see him ultimately as a hypocrite. He condemns the US government as murderers but is willing to murder himself. He's crazy but not padded walls crazy.