flucht nach vorne...can we stop it???

I first read this incredible post by Billimom at Whiskey Bar last year. It is more pertinent now than ever.

While Americans are consumed with the NFL playoffs, the dogs of war have become rabid and they're very close to breaking the chains which have held them at bay and kept the Middle East war contained to Iraq.

If you thought Iraq was a debacle...you ain't seen nothing yet.

I offer you a compilation of omens which signal an inevitable preemptive strike against Iran.

1. The House Foreign Affairs Cmte. recently held a hearing on Iraq with former Sec. of State, Madeline Albright, as the cheif witness. I watched the whole thing on C-span (isn't that sad...I watch C-Span) and it scared the hell out of me. The questioning quickly turned away from Iraq to Iran. Albright's general opinion was that Congress had better pull out all the stops and attack this administration as quickly as possible, before Bush pushes us into a nightmare with Iran.

2. The ensuing result of that hearing: yesterday a bipartisan group of House members proposed a bill that would ban the executive branch from launching a pre-emptive attack against Iran without the permission of Congress. That's scary...Congress is being forced to rush legislation in order to stop our President from catapulting us into another war. This is indicative of how divisive our government has become.

3. We're increasingly taunting them in order to invoke a retaliatory strike. We are giving them every opportunity to attack us. From the raid on Iran's Iraqi consulate in Irbil, to the escalation of carriers in the Persian Gulf, to increased drone flights into Iranian airspace. We are begging them to attack us.

This is the same method we used to justify entering WWII when FDR purposely ran American cargo ships through German patrolled waters in the Atlantic and possibly allowed the attack on Pearl Habor among claims that he had prior knowledge that the attack was planned. This is exactly how LBJ justified our entry into Vietnam when the USS Maddox was supposedly attacked by North Vietnamese forces in the Gulf of Tonkin.

As the House steps up it's pressure to launch preemptive measures to stop Bush from launching his preemptive measures...the American public's sentiment and awareness becomes increasingly important. While Bush's approval ratings are so low, he would have a hard time justifying a preemptive attack aganst Iran. However, if it appears that we were the victims of an unprovoked attack by Iran, the public would become enraged and possibly support the attack.

4. Israel. Read this post from independent reporter, William Thomas. If this is true...it's the scariest thing I've read since Britney Spears was thinking about moving back to Louisiana. Israel was attempting a preemptive NUCLEAR strike on Iran, and we stopped it?!? Each plane was carrying a 20 kiloton Nuke?!? "Little Boy" the bomb dropped on Hiroshima was a 13 kiloton device.

Oh, how I hope this isn't true.

Is Bush in "Flight Forward"? Is he pushing us even further down the rabbit hole? Can Congress stop him, even if they pass legislation? If he attacks...will he nuke? Will Israel attack them unilaterally, hence pulling us into the conflict and bypassing any move Congress could make to halt the attack?

Don't mean to ruin the game for you this weekend....but there's a much bigger game playing itself out which may warrant some attention.