Next up on the fight card: Iran

Glenn Greenwald argues convincingly that: (a) Congressional Democrats will not force withdrawal from Iraq next month, or any month, and indeed the signs are they that aren't even going to try hard to do so, and (b) we, our country, the United States of America, will soon attack Iran.

On the first point, I think that has been obvious for some time now. The Bush people are certainly incompetent in a lot of ways, but their core competency is in political bullying and assorted procedural and bureaucratic chicanery. In regard to the Iraq quagmire*, the administration has utilized a three pronged strategy: (a) demonize any opposition to its policies as anti-troops, anti-American, cowardly, traitorous, etc., (b) continually set and reset future goals (usually based on the Friedman Unit) which are reasonable-sounding and appear to be objectively verifiable but are actually subjective, open to later interpretation, and just real squishy in general, and (3) continually trotting out pliable lackeys in the administration, military, and punditry to extol the Great Progress we are always, ever, making in Iraq -- this, despite usually overwhelming evidence in direct contradiction, there being no amount of empirical data capable of contradicting to any degree these well-worn, fact-free assertions of Great Progress.

Democrats are apparently not smart enough, or principled enough in their beliefs, to counteract this strategy, and therefore enable the administration and continue to assist it in implementing its disastrous war policies.

Or perhaps -- despite their public disagreement -- congressional Democrats actually believe the administration -- and our country, us, the United States of America -- are currently pursuing the wise and proper course in Iraq. Certainly they, Congress, could hardly have done more to help continue these policies than they have over the past 9 months. Despite their public anti-war stance, they have not taken one single identifiable measure which would or could impede the administration's chosen course. They talk. They write letters. They give speeches. They do nothing.

And therefore, when The Cheney authorizes bombing and missile strikes on the newly-declared terrorist group -- Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, an official Iranian government entity -- Congress will continue to do exactly nothing. Whether it is because they cannot, or because they will not is, in the final analysis, irrelevant. We have put our nation -- our guns, our lives, our resources, our credibility, our good name -- in the hands of leaders (Congress, the President) who use it in a manner which has clearly become repugnant to an ever-increasing number of us, to achieve ends which they do not deign to tell us, with a deaf ear and a blind eye toward our opinions, with no accountability whatsoever.

And when we, our nation, attacks Iran, and eventually any number of other countries, we may voice our displeasure. Will we be heard? I think not.

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*seriously, if you have not watched this video of Cheney talking about the Iraq quagmire, you will want to do so immediately.