http://counterpunch.org/leupp01262004.html
from which -
If each day brings another apparent neocon setback, it brings more evidence, too, that the balls they've set rolling continue to roll.
<snip>
Last May I listed in a CounterPunch piece "the issues the neocons have and will continue to raise as they muster support for the Syria invasion:"
1. Syria's possession of chemical and biological weapons, including those represented as relocated Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
2. Syria's supposed "sponsorship" of Lebanon's Hezbollah (viewed by most in Lebanon as a large, mainstream political party), and several Palestinian groups.
3. Syria's alleged involvement in the flow of personal and equipment into Iraq to fight the invaders
4. Syria's alleged harboring of fleeing Iraqi officials.
5. Child custody disputes between Syrian fathers and their American spouses. (This added just as a means of vilifying Syrians in general.)
I felt last May that the most important of these was the first, since it was used effectively to prepare U.S. public opinion for the Iraq attack, and because if WMD weren't found in Iraq then the easiest way out of the inevitable embarrassment would be to assert that they're all over the border in Syria.
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There's been some discussion here about whether the "Anybody But Bush" (ABB) position is a sound one, given the level of threat to what passes on Earth for global order the Busheviks pose.
I believe it's almost certain that if Bush / Cheney retain the White House in 2004, we can expect another act of aggression, most likely the one Leupp predicts.
It is difficult to believe the Bush administration will be content to spend the next four years passing tax cuts, creating new rules for harassing immigrants and citizens while making speeches about how if saddam had not been toppled, he would have surely developed a chem-bio powered time machine and assasinated history's greatest heroes because that's how evil rolls (any excuse is better than none).
No, there'll be no resting on laurels I'm sure. These are restless men in power, the most dangerous type. As shakespeare, speaking through Caesar, put it:
Let me have men about me that are fat; Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o' nights: Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much: such men are dangerous
Times have changed, fat, balding men can also be "lean and hungry" in their pursuit of power. Our adversaries are tireless. Families, finances and conscience do not impede them. They have clear plans; they will waste no time in carrying them out. Do you think that following a withdrawal of main battle force from Iraq there will be time given for licking wounds, learning lessons, listening to voices urging caution?
Is this what Cheney wants? How about Wolfowitz or Rumsfeld or the sinister Dr. Rice?
No, no, this is an empire don't you know. The US's power is limiteless, deficits don't matter, jobs will return - somehow. In the meantime, there's a world to
reshape. These people are not joking. I think they've proved that they're not joking. We should take them seriously. Four years is a long time in which to do damage. They want to do damage and will use those years with dedicated un-wisdom.
So, we can foresee, without too much effort, at least one (and probably several) extraordinarily dangerous acts which will make our situation even more precarious.
I believe this to be a strong argument for what's been called the ABB position.
Should a Dem win, will he handle the existing Iraq problem more adeptly? Probably not, but here's what he's very unlikely to do: invade syria, provoke N. Korea, interfere militarily in Iran... in short, pour gasoline upon a pile of dry wood and hold a lit match, with a mad gleam in the eye, above the combustibles.
There is a counter-argument to all this I'm sure. I'm sure it's a good one. Doesn't matter. We've taken the measure of the Busheviks and should need no convincing. Work to elect an electable candidate, then hold his feet to the fire (not the crazy guy fire but, you know, a democratic one) to purge - the word's got to be used this time - purge neocon influence from government.
They must be driven, like the wraiths they are, back to the shadows where they belong.
After that? Things will not be perfect or settled but at least we can begin building a 21st century rather than a nuclear armed, computer assisted semi-duplicate of the 19th.
DRM