The war drums are beating louder and louder. While there appears little hope of salvaging the incredible mess we made of Iraq, "The Decider" has moved to spend more American and Iraqi lives and billions of dollars on the failing effort. If the goal was just spending money, he could direct some to New Orleans -- the folks still living in FEMA trailers and packing crates eighteen months after Hurricane Katrina might find a use for it.

Meanwhile, saber rattling, in a pattern we've seen before, is escalating against Iran. Reports keep popping up identifying Iranian support for insurgents in Iraq, even though some intelligence reports don't sound convincing. As near as I can tell, most of the Iranian people like us, and even emulate a lot of western ideas in fashion and entertainment. Just as here, it's their government that's screwed up. There are also instances of internal struggles within the country that have a chance of moderating the Iranian government's behavior. An attack by outsiders would be the perfect catalyst to bring all those factions together against us. An attack by our warmongering administration would seem to be a pretty stupid strategy on our part.

The most frightening thing currently is the build up of more military presence in the Straits of Hormuz and persistant rumors that plans are on the drawing board to use nuclear weapons against underground Iranian nuclear facilities. I can only say that if this country fires a nuclear weapon in anything but last-ditch defense against a direct attack, we will have lost what little moral ground we have left (which admittedly isn't much after the last four years). I feel more and more convinced that impeachment proceedings might be a good idea.

D. W. Thomas 10 February 2007