NeoCons Desperate for War

If we were living in a sane and democratic America our government would be putting extreme pressure on Israel to stop its attacks on Lebanon and Gaza. The Administration would be talking to Iran and Syria about controlling Hezbollah and Hamas. The Pentagon would be trying to stop the Iraqi civil war by giving concessions to the Sunnis and making the Shiites pretend that they like it, while making plans for an orderly withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq. And the White House would be forcefully standing between the Israelis and the Palestinians and making them move the peace process forward as if millions of lives depended on it.

But of course we do not live in a sane and democratic America. We live in an America that has been hijacked by the Neo Conservative Chicken Hawks and their Corporate and War Industry Cronies. Recently the Neo Cons have been losing ground politically and in the courts, but never underestimate the desire of these people to maintain power and manipulate the world to suit their interests, namely high oil prices, lots of defense contracts, and a population that is scared of terrorists and whipped into a patriotic fervor by war.

Apparently, the Neo Cons are operating in Israel as well as the U.S., because Israel’s actions of late can in no way be seen as a reasonable or legitimate response to recent small scale attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah. Instead Israel has used these small attacks as an excuse to launch strategic attacks with the aim of crushing Hamas and the Palestinian Authority and destroying Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israel would never have launched these attacks without assurances that the United States (or at least the White House) would support them. And as long as the U.S. Administration supports Israel they will continue to attack and attack and attack. And I believe Israel is also counting on this military action to strengthen the hand of the Neo Cons in the White House. Israel is already trying to ensnare Syria and Iran into the conflict. And combine that with the occupation and civil war in Iraq and you now have one Unified Middle East War where the U.S. has no choice (in the minds of the Neo Cons and their apologists) but to stand with our ally Israel against the Arabs.

Now the United States faces a huge dilemma. The Israelis are betting that President Bush will do whatever Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld tell him to do: give Israel a clear thumbs-up, escalate the war of words with Syria and Iran, and increase our involvement in the occupation of Iraq. Israel has used war to get what they could not get politically. There will be no peace process, no talking with Hamas. There will be war, war which may soon encompass the entire Middle East and the rest of the world.

And the fact that the U.S. opened this can of worms by invading Iraq is not lost on the Israelis. They now feel free to do as they wish militarily in the region, knowing that U.S. hands are too dirty, knowing that the U.S. does not have the moral high ground to stand on. Even if we wanted to stop what the Israelis are doing, the Administration would have to admit its own wrong doing in the region.