The Expansion of War

The recent war in Lebanon does not bode well for what lies ahead. Seymour Hersh has written that the US was pressing Israel to go after Hezbollah months ago. It would seem that they agreed. All they needed was a pretext. Iran supplies rockets for Hezbollah and we supply tanks and bulldozers and jets and on and on for Israel. Iran is our final destination but we need Hezbollah out of the way first and we may go after Syria as well.

I recently heard on Democracy Now! that the Bush administration is considering alternatives to Democracy in Iraq if things get any worse. Considering the fact that things will only get worse it will be interesting to see how Bush tap dances his way into an overt dictatorship in a country we supposedly invaded to liberate. It is late August so the push for war with Iran will wait until everyone is back from vacation. It may even wait until after the elections. It depends on how bold our fearless leaders are.

Was Lebanon a testing ground for what they will attempt to do in Iran? Will they carry out a massive air war with limited ground forces? It seems likely considering the size of our military. It may also be in their plans to have us in a major crises come election time in 2008 and I can hear the cries of “Stay the Course” and “Don’t change horses in midstream” already. Would they carry out the threat to suspend elections here if they deemed them to be “too dangerous?”

So far, Bush has gotten away with almost every outrage he has committed. He has the press and the money and military might on his side. Will we continue to allow him to do as he pleases? The recent ruling by a Federal Judge that his NSA wiretapping is unconstitutional has not dissuaded him. Innocents dying in Iraq and Lebanon has not even given him pause.

People will look back at this time in history and wonder why we allowed this to happen. My question to them and to you and to me is, “What are we to do?” There is an almost universal opposition to what Bush is doing in the Middle East and yet the only question about the recent war in Lebanon on NPR that I heard was, “What should we call this war?”

With a press like that who needs ignorance?

"Violence is the last resort of the incompetent."
-Issac Assimov