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>But the Bush administration's hawks, especially the neoconservatives who
>provide the driving force for war, see the conflict with Iraq as much more
>than that. It is a signal event, designed to create cataclysmic shock waves
>throughout the region and around the world, ushering in a new era of American
>imperial power. It is also likely to bring the United States into conflict
>with several states in the Middle East. Those who think that U.S. armed
>forces can complete a tidy war in Iraq, without the battle spreading beyond
>Iraq's borders, are likely to be mistaken.
[snip]
>"It may turn out to be a war to remake the world," says Ledeen.
I remember reading a very frightening article in the NYTimes early in the Reagan regime back in the early 80s...what was frightening were the statements by various Reagan administration members of the "born-again Christian" bent confirming the conclusions made by the ostensibly 'liberal' NYTimes reporter...
And that was that these "born-again Christians" saw their role as "fulfilling" God's word, specifically regarding "end times" as spelled out in the book of Revelations; to that end, they felt that by HASTENING the onset of what they believed to be "Armageddon", that they indeed were inacting "God's Will"...IOW, it wasn't sufficient to just wait for Armageddon to occur, and perhaps just prepare for that eventual war at some indeterminate future date...no, these men saw their role as actually working to cause Armageddon ASAP, since they apparently sincerely believe that when it occurs then Jesus will soon return...
And because they apparently sincerely believed that the "end times" were about to occur, they saw no need for such things as environmental protection, a cure for AIDS (or any other disease, for that matter), or any funding for any long-term solution to current problems -- since the world was about to end, they opined, why bother?
And to fulfill their apocalyptic vision, the Reagan administration hemorraged funding for nuclear buildup, rattling nuclear sabers at Russia...
Part of their nuclear vision was the infamous "Duck and Cover" plan, which they claimed would help American citizens survive an all-out nuclear war with the former Soviet Union; except for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of citizens to rural and semi-rural areas, the rest of the "Duck and Cover" plan has been resurrected and repackaged as the current "Homeland Security" plan for citizens to supposedly protect themselves from an all-out NBC attack...
So it would seem that we are currently witnessing "Chapter 2" of the "Let's Bring Armageddon On" saga that was instituted during the Reagan administration...with the enemy easily switched from the former USSR to Iraq (shades of Orwell's "1984" -- which coincidentally (or not) occured during the Reagan administration -- where a constant state of war is kept, with the 'enemy' and the 'allies' being switched every couple of years)...let us not forget that back in the 80s, both Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden were considered our friends, friends which we gladly financed and supplied with weapons, and in the case of Saddam, supplied in whole or in part with NBC weapons...weapons which he had no compunction in using on Kurds, etc., and which the U.S. didn't raise a peep in protest at the time...
So while there may be some in the current administration who are seeking a secular U.S. empire, the driving force behind it all is a fanatical cult who believe they are following "God's Will" to bring about what they consider to be the biblical description of the 'great final battle' of Armageddon, a battle which they believe will hasten the return of Jesus Christ to earth...if we just happen to gain access to vast oil fields in the process, well that's just a sign that God really is on 'our' side and not 'theirs'...
>And not just in the Middle East. Three-thousand U.S. soldiers are slated to
>arrive in the Philippines, opening yet another new front in the war on
>terrorism, and North Korea is finally in the administration's sights.
Only because the current U.S. regime can't avoid criticism for completely ignoring terrorism in those 2 countries; but since neither country is mentioned in Revelations, they are NOT high on the current U.S. regime's list....after all, after Jesus returns, what will North Korea's nukes matter? :-7
>"It's like the bully in a playground," says Ian Lustick, a
>University of Pennsylvania professor of political science and author of
>Unsettled States, Disputed Lands. "You beat up somebody, and everybody else
>behaves."
But no one LIKES you, not even your allies; everyone FEARS you, and everyone works to overthrow the bully (either the bully's victims, who seek to free themselves; or any of the bully's ostensible allies, who seek to become head bully themselves)...
>The first step, neoconservatives say, will be for the United States to lend
>its support to opposition groups of Iranian exiles willing to enlist in the
>war on terrorism, much as the Iraqi National Congress served as the spearhead
>for American intervention in Iraq. And, just as the doddering ex-king of
>Afghanistan served as a rallying point for America's conquest of that
>landlocked, central Asian nation, the remnants of the late former shah of
>Iran's royal family could be rallied to the cause. "Nostalgia for the last
>shah's son, Reza Pahlavi has again risen," says Reuel Marc Gerecht, a
>former CIA officer who, like Ledeen and Perle, is ensconced at the AEI.
As if the Pahlevi's have any legitimate claim to rule Iran, and weren't a puppet regime originally installed by the CIA itself to kowtow the U.S. party line...
June
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