Jim Hightower

Heads up, folks! The neo-cons are in heat again. The same gang of right-wing ideological maddogs who got George W to launch his disastrous Iraq attack is now beating the war drums in an effort to engineer an even more disastrous attack – this time on Iran.

How insane are these foaming-at-the-mouth warmongers? Check out Norman Podhoretz, known as the patriarch of neoconservative nutballism. A confidant of Bush, Podhoretz is now running around in the White House inner circle promoting a massive bombing attack on Iranians. He admits that this would “unleash a wave of anti-Americanism all over the world that will make the anti-Americanism we’ve experienced so far look like a lovefest.” Yet, despite acknowledging such horrific consequences for our country, he maniacally declares “I hope and pray we will” bomb Iran.

Excuse me, but what kind of god do you pray to for a hellish attack that will make America globally despised?

You might hope that Bush would pay no heed to such obvious insanity – but noooooo. Numerous foreign policy analysts report that while the Bush-Cheney regime makes public gestures of diplomacy toward Iran, they already are on a path to war. They’ve been trying to soften up the American public for such action by asserting that the Iranians are developing (here we go again) weapons of mass destruction, and by trying to link Iran to al Qaeda.

The London Telegraph reports that the Pentagon has already identified some 2000 targets to bomb in Iran, and that the White House has begun a carefully calibrated campaign of escalation to provoke a military showdown. Even though Iran’s leaders pose no imminent threat to us, Bush is said to be determined to launch a preemptive strike on that country before he leaves office.

Bush is arrogant enough to do it. The real question is whether congress will finally stand up to him.