The Little Tin God and the Ogre

I won't say "I couldn't believe it", because I know better. Here is George Bush strutting around the Middle East telling us that Iran is a nuclear threat and we'd better stop them before it's too late, barely two weeks after being informed by his own intelligence services that it's all malarkey. He and his cabal are panting for war on Iran in the same way they lusted for Iraq .

Bush and his mentor, Dick Cheney, obviously don't give a damn what anyone thinks because they've gotten away with it and we've all been had. They will complete their term of office unmolested and leave the mess to their successors. With the time they have left, they'll do what they can to leave a bigger mess. Maybe they're hoping for another Republican President to carry on the crusade. These two, along with their gang, known as the Project for the New American Century (think tank) make no bones about their plan to dominate the world and we can like it or lump it.

There's little hope that a Democratic President and Congress can really change the course of things. There are too many defense contracts and jobs at stake. The defense industry is spread over the landscape and most Congressmen are in its clutches. Profits are enormous and war is needed to keep the momentum. One commentator made the observation that as long as war is profitable, we'll have war.

Last night there was 2-hour documentary "Why We Fight". It used for its theme Eisenhower's warning in his farewell speech of the danger of the military-industrial complex, a term he originated. He knew what he was talking about. As to critics saying that the war is all about oil, the documentary pointed out that oil is needed to power the planes, tanks and other military machinery necessary to make war.

Democracies and republics only last so long. We tend to celebrate the ancient Greek - read Athenian - democracy, but it was brief. Few if any of the other Greek city-states were democratic and they were always at war with each other, let alone the Persians. (Some of the Greeks sided with the Persians.) The Roman republic was undermined by its military and America seems to be following suit.

It's interesting to note that the much revered Founding Fathers had little faith in democracy, considering it to be the rule of the rabble, who could be shamelessly manipulated. This "rabble" voted for Bush-Cheney. Twice.