Nuke 'Em For Jesus
I try to tell myself that they can't really be seriously considering bombing Iran with nuclear weapons. The very thought is beyond crazy. The people running the show in Washington may be inept, they may be blissfully stupid, but they're not monsters. Right? I mean, they know that such a thing would not only be immoral, but would inspire new generations of terrorists for decades to come, right? Right?
The Bushies say they're trying to resolve things with Iran dipolmatically, and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but of course that whole 'we don't really want war' stuff is the same hokum they kept mouthing about Iraq. Seymore Hersh says in The New Yorker that his sources tell him that Bush has a Messianic complex about his perceived 'duty' to do "what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do", i.e. take any steps necessary, including a nuclear strike, to prevent Iran from one day attaining nuclear weapons itself. Hersh says that one former defense official told him that military planning was premised on the notion that a "sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government." God, where have I heard that before?
There are a number of theories as to what this administration is actually up to. It has been posited that this public discussion of a nuclear option against Iran is simply posturing, an attempt by Bush to get the Iranians (or perhaps our European allies, who have been dragging their feet to some extent on the issue of sanctions) thinking that he just might be crazy enough to do it, so we'd better give him whatever he wants. Others argue that this floating of the possibility of nuclear weapons is actually the set-up for a conventional strike, which will look tame and rational, perhaps even benevolent, by comparison. Either one of these theories might be true, but frankly such subtle, Machiavellian manipulation is not this crew's usual style, even if they are dumb enough to believe it might work.
I hate to say it--I really really do hate to say it--but in this case I think the correct answer is the most obvious one; I think the Executive branch of the U.S. Government wants to seriously consider the use of nuclear weapons against a foreign nation in order to prevent that nation from perhaps being a threat to us (or to Israel) ten years down the road. This wouldn't be Iraq-style premptive war, going in after weapons that you have convinced yourself already exist; this would be some kind of bizarro double-plus pre-emptive war, invading a foreign nation and using radiological weapons to deal with a threat that might exist in years to come. Even though a rational mind could never justify such an action, the more I see from this administration, the more I fear that they really are capable contemplating and even doing such a thing.
You want to know what thought keeps me up at night more than any other? In the darkest corners of my mind, my greatest fear is that the men now running this country are not, as some of my friends believe, just a bunch of charlatans using public piety and religious wedge issues to protect corporate interests and shift the tax burden away from the rich. No, my fear is that they actually believe all the apocalyptic insanity that is accepted as self-evident truth out among certain segments of their Evangelical base. You know, that whole "Armageddon brings us that much closer to Jesus' return" thing. The fact is, a lot of the fundamentalists who have risen to power in this nation (somehow still clinging to the notion that they are persecuted) actually see the End Of The World not as a bad thing to be avoided, but as a good thing, to some extent the only good thing, which is to be brought about ASAP. And that means war. There are a lot of Evangelicals out there in this country who see continuing and increased bloodshed in the Middle East as necessary to bringing about the Second Coming, something they very much want to see happen. They form the hardest of the hard-core of the President's base, which could mean that we are all along for the apocalyptic ride whether we believe their fantasies or not. If a few Persians get nuked on the road to the Kingdom of Heaven, it's just God working in mysterious ways.
Am I spouting paranoid ravings? Maybe. Hopefully. But the evil things that have been done to human beings down though the ages because someone or some group thought they were doing God's work is too long to list here. I hope all this talk about the potential use of nuclear weapons is all just "wild speculation", as the President says. If it's not, we're in worse trouble than I thought.
The Bushies say they're trying to resolve things with Iran dipolmatically, and I want to give them the benefit of the doubt, but of course that whole 'we don't really want war' stuff is the same hokum they kept mouthing about Iraq. Seymore Hersh says in The New Yorker that his sources tell him that Bush has a Messianic complex about his perceived 'duty' to do "what no Democrat or Republican, if elected in the future, would have the courage to do", i.e. take any steps necessary, including a nuclear strike, to prevent Iran from one day attaining nuclear weapons itself. Hersh says that one former defense official told him that military planning was premised on the notion that a "sustained bombing campaign in Iran will humiliate the religious leadership and lead the public to rise up and overthrow the government." God, where have I heard that before?
There are a number of theories as to what this administration is actually up to. It has been posited that this public discussion of a nuclear option against Iran is simply posturing, an attempt by Bush to get the Iranians (or perhaps our European allies, who have been dragging their feet to some extent on the issue of sanctions) thinking that he just might be crazy enough to do it, so we'd better give him whatever he wants. Others argue that this floating of the possibility of nuclear weapons is actually the set-up for a conventional strike, which will look tame and rational, perhaps even benevolent, by comparison. Either one of these theories might be true, but frankly such subtle, Machiavellian manipulation is not this crew's usual style, even if they are dumb enough to believe it might work.
I hate to say it--I really really do hate to say it--but in this case I think the correct answer is the most obvious one; I think the Executive branch of the U.S. Government wants to seriously consider the use of nuclear weapons against a foreign nation in order to prevent that nation from perhaps being a threat to us (or to Israel) ten years down the road. This wouldn't be Iraq-style premptive war, going in after weapons that you have convinced yourself already exist; this would be some kind of bizarro double-plus pre-emptive war, invading a foreign nation and using radiological weapons to deal with a threat that might exist in years to come. Even though a rational mind could never justify such an action, the more I see from this administration, the more I fear that they really are capable contemplating and even doing such a thing.
You want to know what thought keeps me up at night more than any other? In the darkest corners of my mind, my greatest fear is that the men now running this country are not, as some of my friends believe, just a bunch of charlatans using public piety and religious wedge issues to protect corporate interests and shift the tax burden away from the rich. No, my fear is that they actually believe all the apocalyptic insanity that is accepted as self-evident truth out among certain segments of their Evangelical base. You know, that whole "Armageddon brings us that much closer to Jesus' return" thing. The fact is, a lot of the fundamentalists who have risen to power in this nation (somehow still clinging to the notion that they are persecuted) actually see the End Of The World not as a bad thing to be avoided, but as a good thing, to some extent the only good thing, which is to be brought about ASAP. And that means war. There are a lot of Evangelicals out there in this country who see continuing and increased bloodshed in the Middle East as necessary to bringing about the Second Coming, something they very much want to see happen. They form the hardest of the hard-core of the President's base, which could mean that we are all along for the apocalyptic ride whether we believe their fantasies or not. If a few Persians get nuked on the road to the Kingdom of Heaven, it's just God working in mysterious ways.
Am I spouting paranoid ravings? Maybe. Hopefully. But the evil things that have been done to human beings down though the ages because someone or some group thought they were doing God's work is too long to list here. I hope all this talk about the potential use of nuclear weapons is all just "wild speculation", as the President says. If it's not, we're in worse trouble than I thought.
posted by Yukon Sully | 6:55 PM
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