The War Drums

I read something online last night that was like a punch in the stomach. It was painful to read because it shows how much Americans really haven't learned anything from the run up to and the war in Iraq.

It said:

"A majority of likely voters – 52% – would support a U.S. military strike to prevent Iran from building a nuclear weapon, and 53% believe it is likely that the U.S. will be involved in a military strike against Iran before the next presidential election, a new Zogby America telephone poll shows."

http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1379

Of course, the Administration would have you to believe that they want to work this out by "vigorous diplomacy". Are there any Americans who still believe that they (the Administration) want to try to work this out by diplomacy?

To me, these numbers are not surprising. The Administration constantly says that we are "a nation at war". We aren't a nation at war. We are a nation that keeps sending back essentially the same 1% of the population repeatedly and without regard to their long term health to the war zones. Those people are in fact in a war. The people who love them and worry about them every day are in fact in a war. The rest of us? No way. This one percent shouldering the burden, plus a healthy dose of Hessian's (mercenaries such as those working for Blackwater) and massive amounts of borrowed money (so we don't feel the pain of war in the pocketbook) make it so the war is not at all apparent to the general public.

In essence, this poll means that they support what the Administration is going to do without even giving so much as a passing thought to the consequences - and there are very REAL consequences - these are not original thoughts on my part. These have been spread all over on sites such as www.lewrockwell.com and www.antiwar.com - go there and read about it for yourself. They report YOU decide as Fox News likes to lie about.

Our economy, as I have said before several times in this blog is built on the idea that energy will always be cheap, and energy will always be plentiful.

Oil is already at $90 a barrel. Do you think, as the supply shrinks due to conflagration in the middle east that the price is going to remain static? There may be a time coming where Americans cannot get gasoline no matter how much they are willing to pay. Do you think that there will be no retribution world wide against Americans - including those Americans in Iraq and Afghanistan, right on the borders of Iran?

And what about the homeland? Do you really believe that Iran won't practice Asymmetric war against us once it starts to go south? How do IED's on Main Street USA sound to you?

How soon we forget. They said the same tired things before we went to Iraq. They wanted to try diplomacy (but their patience wasn't limitless), and after what they thought was a suitable time, the war started.

They were wrong about Iraq, and they are wrong now. Why on earth, knowing what we know about their terrible intelligence pre-Iraq war would we believe them now? I'm reminded of that Drew Barrymore and Adam Sandler movie 50 First Dates, where Drew Barrymore gets amnesia during the night, every night. She simply cannot remember Adam Sandler the next day.

I read a piece the other day in which the author said that 5 to 20 people forcefully speaking out could stop the coming war against Iran. Who are those people? Why aren't they speaking out? NOW is the time. I personally don't believe those people exist. I also don't think they would make a difference. Our leaders are going to do what they want to do. We are going to stumble blindly, madly into another war.

We have lived fairly luckily for a long time in that none of our recent foreign adventures have cost us in the way that history cost the Roman Empire or other empires. I believe realistically that this event could be the event that could change that.

52% of my fellow Americans think an attack is a good idea. I don't even know why I'm bothering trying to write about this. I believe fervently that the future of the United States is dim if we rush recklessly into this war.

I hope that those folks are smarter than me, and I'm just paranoid.