Bush Is Ready To Attack Iran

Bush: US would defend Israel against Iran

"I am concerned about a person that, one, tries to rewrite the history of the Holocaust, and two, has made it clear that his intentions are to destroy Israel," Bush said.

"Israel is a solid ally of the United States, we will rise to Israel's defense if need be. So this kind of menacing talk is disturbing. It's not only disturbing to the United States, it's disturbing for other countries in the world as well," he added.

Asked if he meant the United States would rise to Israel's defense militarily, Bush said: "You bet, we'll defend Israel."

As the US now embraces a doctrine of pre-emptive war, this suggests that a war with Iran is a done deal. If we combine this with Bush's recent declaration that the US citizenry are all addicts dependant on the oil he sells, we might wonder how soon this war will begin.

A war with Iran is sure to put the world's supply of oil in jeopardy and probably sink the US into a social and economic crisis that will be of epic proportions. My grandparent's generation lived through the Great Depression and World War II and could probably go far in telling us what to expect. But very few of that generation are left. Besides the US was much different then. More folks lived on the farm. There were fewer people living here overall. The people weren't dependant on China and commercial food processing for their daily sustenance.

Bush is taking us into unknown territory here. And he'll likely have a willing religious base behind him in his push for war. A great many Americans believe that the next war will force God into invoking the rapture, and take them up to heaven to bask in his grace. What I find especially disturbing about this belief is that it's the Anti-Christ that rises and triggers these events. If Bush is meant by his religious fundamentalists followers, to perform this function, then in their mythology, Bush is the beast, the Anti-Christ. His followers wear the mark of the beast. And the mindless followers of the beast don't get raptured in that story. I'm not sure how they figure they can force God to destroy the Earth, and still be in God's grace.

From my own reading of the Bible, I'm not so sure the Rapture or Revelations is really something to count on. Revelations was written by someone named John. But what John? Few scholars believe he was John the Baptist. So maybe Christians should think of revelations as scary gothic novel rather than something that is going to happen for their benefit.

And if you don't think you're going to be raptured, what do you think of this mess? We have to live on this frigging planet. Trashing it in order to force God into destroying it, and fixing it up, just doesn't sound like a reasonable course of action. After we trash it, I don't think God will be interested in doing anything for us. Imagine a teenager tearing up the furniture, carpeting sheetrock, etc... in their room in order to force you into remodeling it. How kindly would you look on such an action? Would you lovingly restore the room and embrace that teen? your answer is probably, "Hell No!". So why should we expect God to clean up after us?

I believe Bush and his base of fundamentalist religious zealots will continue their war with Islam and will continue to trash the planet. I just hope that somewhere along the way, people start waking up and working to turn this horrifying situation around.

But I don't expect that until the Middle East is in flames and the US is the throes of a depression greater than the Great Depression. By then the general draft will be in full gear, and it will be clear to everyone that we went wrong somewhere, while thinking it we were doing the right thing.

"I'd rather do the wrong thing for the right reasons, than the right thing for the wrong reasons." - Dick Armey