By imposing sanctions on Iran for its fomenting of violence in the Middle East, for its engagement in weapons proliferation, and for its attraction to nuclear technology for use as international muscle, the Bush administration yesterday hit the granddaddy of all hypocritical trifectas.
There was a time when the U.S. had some moral standing to preach and condemn. No longer. The world, quite simply, now sees us as the global bully and bad guy -- and when it's a 100-plus nations against one, there must be some merit to the world's perception. We're the 21st-century version of the Viking pillager, the British imperial lion, the Soviet cancer.
When it comes to fomenting violence, proliferating weapons of mass destruction and caressing, say, bunker bunkers with that little extra kick, the U.S. has no equal.
Nor will it tolerate one, no matter how far down the road any such equality or competition may lie.
Hence the Bush administration was in full dress rehearsal yesterday for yet another Middle East extravaganza of incalculably moronic proportions.
With the Commander Guy safely tucked away in the smoldering West, the seemingly less threatening Condi & Co. were left in charge of re-introducing all the preliminary hogwash of another war in the smoldering Middle East.
Gosh we're a peace-loving people, but our patience is forever tried by these little upstarts with disobedience and pushback in mind. So here we come, with mere rumblings at first, but then the sanctions, the unilateralism, the demand for Congressional resolutions, the drumbeats of propaganda, the nuclear references, the demonization of a singular human face, the preposterous urgencies.
Deja vu? Hell no. It's bloody verbatim -- an exact copy, a precise replay, a concrete reenactment of 2002. It is far, far more than any eerie sense of a replay.
Said Condi yesterday: "Unfortunately the Iranian government continues to spurn our offer of open negotiations." What she omitted was that all the U.S. asks is that Iran agree to our demands first, then we'll talk. It was but one of the many slimy misrepresentations for which the administration is known, past and present.
She also hammered away at the administration's determination to seek "a diplomatic solution." This, of course, in BushSpeak, means everything but. And we were, in fact, urged in every way, shape and form that we should now anticipate the use of force, since Condi's undersecretary sidekick, Nicholas Burns, assured us that "in no way, shape or form does it anticipate the use of force."
There's a little game played among many of the Beltway intellectual elite that I like to call the Sophistication Game. Its players are the oh-so worldly, the always level-headed, the calm and forever collected, the absolutely imperturbable. They are the wise and sophisticated; it is they who see beyond the hype and hysteria, and they are there for us, always, to lessen the temperature by advising composure -- even when manifest lunatics are in charge.
One such player in yesterday's tournament was Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Observed this calmest of the calmly astute: "This is a warning shot across the bow, not that the U.S. is going to invade Iran, but that Iran has pushed the level of escalation, particularly inside Iraq, to unacceptable levels. In many ways, this kind of warning is more a demonstration of restraint than a signal that we’re going to war."
Right, Anthony. And you've been living ... where, lately?
The Bush administration doesn't do subtle. It may think it's being clever and coy -- and it sure is clever of experts to read some cleverness into the Bush administration's profound lack of subtlety -- but the average man or woman on the street knows better these days.
Yesterday's charade was indeed a warning shot across the bow. But it wasn't hurled at Iran. It was, rather, fired in "Surrender, Dorothy" fashion over America -- originating in California and merely landing in D.C.
And the sky-written message could not have been plainer. We're off and running again.
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to support p m carpenter's commentary -- and thank you!