Cartoons and Bombs: Was Rice Right for Once?

Days ago, Condoleezza Rice - Secretary of State, fundamentalist Christian, and apologist for torture and bombing - told the world that Iran and Syria were stoking the fires of these protests. At first pass, this sounds like the days when Moscow was held responsible for every change of weather in Peoria.

But for once, I think Condoleezza may be right, but her words mean something different than she intends.

Israel’s Sharon, now sidelined by a lifetime’s accumulation of blood on the brain, has advocated American military action against these states since the invasion of Iraq, and there have been many threatening, blustering statements from Washington, at one point coming up with the silly idea that Iraq’s weapons of mass destruction had been shipped surreptitiously to Syria. Syria has been the recipient of threats, shootings by Americans along its border, and illegal buzzing by Israeli jets.

From Iran’s point of view, the U.S. has been on a violent tear in Iran’s own neighborhood, and America’s closest partner in the region, Israel, is an open advocate of war. So there are powerful and legitimate reasons why Iran and Syria might be stoking the demonstrations -- simply trying to avoid being attacked. America is definitely building a big head of steam towards Iran, but it is too ferociously engaged in Iraq and too weighed down with resulting economic problems to consider another invasion. Sanctions, bombing, missile attacks, and black ops are all undoubtedly being planned.

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