Israel's Lapdog?

Seems the Presidential hopefuls started their campaign trails a bit far from home..... or perhaps not. Several Presidential candidates went to Israel the other week to speak at a security summit meeting where several high ranking Bush advisors like Richard Perle were there to rally the people behind the apparently imminent strike against Iran. Yes you heard me, Iran.

While the media directs our attention to the troop escalation in Iraq - more specifically the debate over the use of the word "surge" vs "escalation"- Bush and his advisors have moved in for a check-mate with Iran. More than 90 ships are conducting exercises in a highly trafficked waterway no wider than Lake Michigan is to Grand Rapids. Two aircraft carrier groups, several cruise missile ships, submarines and mine-sweepers are "practicing" in the Straits of Hormuz- an essential waterway that traffics most of the middle east oil tankers, the real surge is going on here and has no "embedded journalists" to make the news.

Bush appointed a naval admiral to head up Cent-Com for the first time in history, a naval commander is in charge of ground forces in the middle east... a position that even he claimed little qualifications for during his Senate approval hearings. The question is whether Bush is unable to find any qualified military commanders to replace all the ground commanders who keep disagreeing with his policy, or does he really have another reason for boldly ignoring the will of the public since the overwhelming defeat to his agenda in November? I think the concentration of overwhelming force just off the shores of Iran is saying alot more than Bush and the media about the intentions of this administration in the middle east.

Vice President Cheney has gone on the Sunday talks show circuit to clearly emphasize that he not only thinks everything is still going well in vietnam...er Iraq, but that he is not going to be dissuaded by public opinion in his plan to "liberate the middle east from terror." So who's terror is Iran? People don't seem to remember that over 1,000,000 Iranians rallied in the streets of Tehran in September 2001 —not to say death to America— rather in solidarity with us and people across the globe against violence and injustice! Iran sells the US and our allies its crude oil and has technology sectors with thousands of citizens working with US corporations. It has cities with amenities just like any first world nation. So why the problem? Perhaps we need look no further than where our Presidential candidates decided to do their first campaigning... Israel—our 51st State or the real Washington DC.

Despite the talk, no one has been able to prove there are any weapons-grade nuclear actions or intentions in Iran... NONE. So just like the run-up to Iraq with WMDs, Chemical Factories and underground bunkers loaded with weapons got us into the mess we're in in Iraq... we are doing it again with Iran. Why? When they have said numerous times that they are willing to open negotiations (a fact Condi just lied about to Congress earlier this week). They have said the reactors they are building were solely for power generation as the price of oil continues to rise beyond their citizen's ability to afford. Why do we persist in calling them evil and demonizing them along with Syria, Lebanon, Palestine , Turkey and sometimes Egypt? Because they ARE real threats to Israel... But wait? Isn't Israel a sovereign nation not affiliated with the US? Why are we about to wage what could become a global war on nations that really don't pose a thereat to US foreign policy in the name of Israel?

Exxon posted the biggest quarterly profit on earth, the past three quarters... US and EU companies have been selling into Iran and using their labor forces for years without problems... so why all of a sudden this urgent need to wage war on another democracy? I'm guessing its because Israel told us we should.

My problem is not that we should defend the Nation of Israel when it needs help, just as we defend any other nation in its recognized moment of need, but, when there is no distinction between our needs and urgencies and those of Israel, how is it that our nation simply unites the needs, hope an fears of anothers' without even a debate or question to our citizens? These citizens are the ones shelling out Billions of dollars and our very children and family members to fight and die for this "interest" that gives nothing to our bottom line. How is it that Israel can dictate the policy and rational of our Nation like no other? We aren't sending our troops to France to eliminate the threat to their democracy from the radical Algerian insurgents? We aren't going to Somalia to stop their civil war? So why defend Israel by bankrupting our nation's resources and goodwill? Anyone?