It seems to me that when the Bush administration makes loud accusations about a Middle Eastern state’s “weapons of mass destruction” programs, the average Joe would question it.
After all, they must have made up a hundred lies about Iraq: that the motivation for the invasion was to protect the people of America, that Iraq had “reconstituted nuclear weapons” (the evidence for which was forged documents and rocket tubes), that Saddam had a “long-standing relationship” with al Qaeda (providing training for plane hijackings, support for Mohammed Atta in Prague, even a wooden leg for abu-Musab al-Zarqawi), that there were storehouses full of “anthrax, sarin and VX nerve gas” “north, south, east and west of [Baghdad and Tikrit] somewhat,” that there were fleets of remote control planes that could fly to America and spray people with germs, that the Sunni insurgency fights for their “crazed ideology,” that “we’re making progress,” that…
Now the administration claims that Iran is working on a nuclear weapon. This even though anyone who watches closely can tell you that Iran’s capability to produce enriched uranium is far from what is required to produce weapons grade material. The CIA says it would take them a decade if they were to begin trying now, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has had open access to all their nuclear sites for more than three years with “no indication” that there is anything untoward going on.
77% percent of the people of this country believe that Iran will have nukes soon. So there’s your fake cassus belli, folks, it’s already done. (Not that Iran having nukes is any of America’s business, but neither I nor the Constitution set the premises around here.)
Congratulations America! Your stupidity and child-like willingness to follow the leader will continue to get untold thousands of people killed.
But every action has an equal and opposite reaction. One may recall the sage advice of the ancient Greek Oracle (via Malcolm Garris): “If the king attacks Persia, he will destroy a great empire.”
(Comments welcome over at Stress.)