More Mushroom Clouds on the Horizon

After reading Bruce's post, "Smoking gun" found on Iranian nukes!!! I had this weird sense of deja vu. A midterm election, a grave threat, mushroom clouds, where had I heard that before? Oh right! The Republicans are using the exact same script from 2002, they only had to change one letter in the name of the rogue regime to say the same thing they had said in 2002. Get rid of the Q in Iraq, and add an N, what does that spell?

War.

And after that, I opened the Washington Post and read the story about Cheney threatening Iran with "meaningful consequences" if they didn't cooperate and back down on their nuclear plans. We've got almost all of the same players as last time, Dick and Condi, Bolton and Rumsfeld, the UN Security Council, the only thing that has changed is that one letter.

It's a pretty risky strategy considering that the scare tactics from 2002 have resulted in an expensive bloodbath which we are unwilling to abandon. The situation is very different today since in 2002 the Democrats had a tiny majority in the Senate, and could have voted against the Iraq war. Today we have no such majority, and there is a huge fear on the part of the Democrats to speak out against war, fearing that they might sound as if they are a little light in the shoes, or soft on security.

A war with Iran seems unthinkable to us now, but in 2002, torture and secret wiretaps seemed unimaginable, yet here we are in 2006, powerless to stop either. The military, and the corporations that profit from war are more powerful than both parties.

The noise I hear coming from 16th street might be some kid with monster speakers in his car, but it sounds more like a drum beat to war.

| +Save/Share | |