1-20-09

1-20-09. The day Bush leaves office. Never before have we been so keenly aware of the exact date when a president will step down. It’s on bumperstickers and keychains everywhere. Many have timers counting down the days, minutes, and seconds left to his term.

Amusing at first, these now seem vital to those who are terrified that Bush may still have time to start a war with Iran before his term ends and will leave it to the next president to mop up not from just one war, but from two. The reports differ, but there are indications that the hawks, especially Cheney, are lobbying heavily for an attack on Iran in the near future. They’re afraid that the next president will be “too wimpy,” and believe that this is their last chance to start another war before they lose power.

Bush recently said that he does not want to become “irrelevant.” It’s frightening to imagine that the war-mongers whispering in his ear may be saying there’s no better way to become relevant again than by provoking Iran into war. Think of the advantages – all the fun of dropping bombs, cowboy talk, and killing people without any of that messy clean-up to do. It’s like having a kids’ birthday party at a restaurant – the kids have fun, spill cake and soda all over the place, and then you pay and get to leave, while someone making minimum wage cleans the tables and floor. Iran is like a neocon’s Chuck E. Cheese, but better; the money they’ll spend will be the taxpayers’, not theirs.

It won’t be up to Bush to figure out how to increase the ranks of the armed services, who today are straining to keep up with the demands in Iraq alone. It’ll likely be up to a Democratic president who may not have even supported the Iraq war to begin with. If it’s Hillary, well, too bad, since she did support Iraq and has given tacit support so far to the saber rattling over Iran.
It will be the American people straining financially to pay for two wars and sacrificing more and more of their sons’ and daughters’ lives while Bush will be busy building his presidential library and maybe clearing some brush at his ranch.

The countdown now is about 15 months. That’s plenty of time to invent the necessary justifications for war. The administration has the experts who must believe that, having fooled us once into buying that invading Iraq was essential to our security, we will believe it once again about Iran.

Soon, we’ll begin to hear “9/11” and “Iran” in the same sentences, and frightening talk about WMDs. We’ll be told that we have to fight ‘em there so we don’t have to fight ‘em here. The U.S. will make ridiculous demands with deadlines that Iran cannot possibly meet. When they don’t meet the deadlines, the bombings will start.

Get your cameras ready: Bush may yet have time to don another flight jacket and pose beneath another “Mission Accomplished” sign before he walks off into the sunset on 1 20 09.