The True Cost of Invading Iran

One of the thorniest conundrums the Republicans face is how

to get around “It’s the economy, stupid.” If they manage to ride out the
current wave of discontent and hold on to power for two more years, a tougher
problem will emerge: Bush’s wars are expensive, and Democratic Presidential
candidates will tour the country asking, “Are you better off now than you were
eight years ago?” How can the Republicans nullify blame for a poor economy in
2008?”  . . . .

Last week, North Korea suprised us with nuclear tests. But don’t you wonder why the Administration didn’t see it
coming? After all, before the US
invaded Iraq,
Bush seemed aware of Saddam’s every potentially aggressive action. Back in
2002, no news day was complete without a fresh account of Iraq’s dark
side. And, now, there’s Iran.
Reports of President Ahmadinejad’s nuclear capabilities are as regular as
weather. So why were we caught off-guard by North Korea? Because the President
and his Congressional allies are not orchestrating an invasion of that
particular nation.

One of the thorniest conundrums the Republicans face is how
to get around “It’s the economy, stupid.” If they manage to ride out the
current wave of discontent and hold on to power for two more years, a tougher
problem will emerge: Bush’s wars are expensive, and Democratic Presidential
candidates will tour the country asking, “Are you better off now than you were
eight years ago?” How can the Republicans nullify blame for a poor economy in
2008?” By unleashing the politics of rage.

Bush is orchestrating public support for an invasion of Iran,
and just as sure as gas prices fell in time for Nov. 2006, we’ll see military
action around Summer of 2008. Yes, I hear you. Who said anything about
invading, right? Just drop a few bombs on their nuclear facilities, and the Iran
problem goes away. But does anyone believe Iran will just roll over? No. We’ll
see a response, counter-response, culminating in an invasion.

At what cost? Besides financial and lives lost, we’ll lose
strategic allies. A huge wave of “I told you so,” will sweep across the Middle East, and the most extreme, anti-American voices
will hold the upper hand. But that’s nothing compared to the unleashing of
rage, rage on both sides.

First, put yourself in the place of an Egyptian grad
student, maybe majoring in Medicine, frickin’ hates the politics, can’t stand
the fundamentalists, the conservative mullahs with their rules drive him crazy.
Or perhaps a Child Development major in Bahrain who feels the same way.
Tired of living in the 19^th century. Wants to join the rest of the
world. Now, imagine these two figures sitting in the quiet of their bus ride
home, slowly coming to grips with what America has just done, invaded its
third Muslim nation in six years. And America’s President even uses words
like “Crusade.” So what’s the student gonna say to his fundamentalist cousin
now? The one always going on with “I hate America”
this, “I hate America”
that? How’s he gonna stand up to that?

Watching the gathering anger on both sides has made me
rethink Al Gore’s response to the 2000 election. I was miffed at his refusal to
take the challenge further. By the same token, there’s Kerry’s cave-in in 2004.
He knew something smelled in Ohio.
He said as much, but he didn’t want to take it further. . Were these men just
plain passive, as I thought at the time? Not necessarily. They understood that
before you unleash forces of aggrievement,  you have to consider their
power. That sense of being wronged, the hurt, the political grievance that
becomes more and more personal, the hatred, and when the gloves come off, the
violent tit-for-tat. This is a genie that you can’t put back in the bottle.

And that will be the darkest result of an American invasion
of Iran.
Not the monetary expense, or the loss of strategic allies, but a descent into
hatred. You see, America’s
always been able to play-act at war because our enemies have been far away. The
Vietnamese never brought it here. America
has never had to endure the proximity of 
enemies close to home, and if we let Bush invade Iran, that will change. What our
President is planning to do is inflame an entire world region against us, and
they will bring it here. Iran
knows very well that Bush means to cripple Islam as a world power permanently.
These days, he barely bothers to deny it.

They will come, they will inflict bloodshed like we’ve not
experienced since the Civil War, and America will learn to hate them.
 America’s
inter-personal differences will dissolve in patriotic fervor Our children will
learn to hate, not the TV villains, but the evil men that blew up their
favorite shopping center with their friends inside. And all that political
correctness? The insistence that we don’t dislike Islam, its only the
terrorists we hate – that will all go. We will mourn our wounded and deceased
loved ones, and learn to hate. And the Republican Party, the party that America somehow
believes makes us more secure, will be handed unparalleled electoral victories
in 2008. Please keep us safe. Do whatever you must do.

Yes, rage, pure and unreasonable, but reliable for the Party
ready for war. The news yesterday morning told of a 13-year-old boy attempting
a copycat Columbine. We didn’t have to be told that the incident occurred in an
all-white rural or suburban area, and that the perpetrator was a middle-aged
man or boy, white, and angry about the world. We also didn’t have to be told
that the boy’s family kept assault weapons at home. Somehow, these details
always go hand in hand. Whenever I read those stories, I think of the senseless
black-on-black crime of the early 1990’s, the rage that exploded across urban America not
that long ago. The causes at the time? Joblessness, racism, lack of
opportunity. But to learn about White rage and its targets, just turn on the
radio: They hate Liberals, especially Hillary, the New York Times, the United
Nations, and Muslims. Actually, mostly Muslims.

Our President and his allies in congress have a plan to
bring that rage into focus, and transform our nation into a unified lethal,
warring tribe. Of course, “It’s the economy stupid” won’t be a factor anymore,
and we’ll never again vote on an issue so petty as our pocketbooks, or consider
a matter so trivial as personal prosperity when our boys and girls are fighting
the world over, protecting civilization itself. After all, we won’t only be at
war against Iraq and Afghanistan, but against Iran, not to
mention the hydra head terrorists that will start blowing up our city busses if
Bush gets his way.  

Click
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corporations all under investigation for multimillion-dollar corruption of some
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wide awake and see an opportunity they’ve never had before. They have a President
that is not afraid to start wars on a whim, multiple wars at that, and a public
unwilling to stop him. These corporations see an opportunity to forever change America’s
political landscape, and it won’t be hard. All they have to do is get us to
look the other way.