Will Iran become Bush's "Eastern Front?"

In an article published in today's NYTimes titled "Leading Senator Assails President Over Iran Stance," Sen. John D. Rockefeller Iv, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, wars that the Administration is getting ever closer to a military confrontation with Iran:

Mr. Rockefeller was biting in his criticism of how President Bush has dealt with the threat of Islamic radicalism since the Sept 11 attacks, saying he believed that the campaign against international terrorism was "still a mystery" to the president.

I don't think he understands the world, Mr. Rockefeller said. "I don't think he's particularly curious about the world. I don't think he reads like he says he does.

That is, in a nutshell, the reason the Administration's policies have served to promote rather than combat terrorism.

The arrogance and petulance displayed by Cheney-Bush and their neoconservative cohorts in their dealings with the rest of the world are in and by themselves a barrier that inevitably leads to growing resentment and hatred that translates into growing terrorism.

While it is true that the Administration's policies are largely devised by Cheney and his neoconservative buddies, the ultimate responsibility for the irresponsibility of these war mongers and their right-wing Israeli cohorts rests with Bush.

Some Democrats have suggested that Mr. Bush's speech was the beginning of a meticulously choreographed campaign to demonize Iran, much the way the administration built its public case against Iraq.

There is every indication that the Administration has indeed decided to engage in this process much as it did before dragging our nation into an unprovoked war in Iraq that resulted in such an enormous failure.

Fortunately, control of Congress has reverted into Democratic hands. One can only hope that they can stop the nuts sitting in the White House from wreaking more havoc around the globe...before it is too late.