Q and N

It's the nail in the coffin of the Bush administration's war in Iraqnam, and its conduct of the war on terror simultaneously: a consensus report of 16 U.S. national security agencies that the warfare in Iraq has increased terrorism and made the world, and specifically the people of the United States, less safe than on 9/11/2001.

This conclusion of a classified report was published by the New York Times and the Washington Post, and confirmed in an Associated Press report carried in the Washington Post on Sunday.

The report concludes that the occupation of Iraq has helped create a new generation of radical Islamicist terrorists. Combined with the falsities that evidence shows were deliberate lies leading to the invasion of Iraq; with the evident misconduct of the aftermath of the invasion, the occupation and the warfare resulting in continung needless loss of life, and the relentless and accelerating drain on our military, our youth and our resources to the tune of a more than a billion dollars every week ; the official defense of a policy of torture that has inflamed the world and brought shame to America with no intelligence or security benefits, and the failures of Homeland Security and FEMA along with the billions lost in corporate corruption in Iraq, Homeland Security, FEMA and in Republican- run Washington in general; the Bush government is a tragic and continuing failure on a scale unknown in anyone's memory.

Yet reports persist that the Bush administration is deep into planning a repeat performance, this time exchanging the Q for an N by making war on Iran. Recent military movements as well as political whispers prompt some, including former Senator Gary Hart, to predict a Rovian October surprise, featuring the US bombing of Iran shortly before the November elections.

The stakes of such a reckless action should be self-evident, but how far they could go is outlined in a series of essays by Jeff Huber at E Pluribus Media. Others (including former CIA Larry Johnson) contend that the US started a shift of power in Iraq that moves it towards alliance with Iran. A U.S. war on Iran would simply accelerate the process. The Bush administration's policies and mistakes would be an even greater contributor to the causes of terrorism as well as to terrorist recruitment.

And while we wait for the other shoe to drop on torture, we are already seeing the strange fruits of Bush's dark and erratic policies on nuclear weapons: planning new ones for the U.S., helping India acquire more, while threatening to bomb Iran for nuclear weapons it doesn't have and can't develop for years. One result is this significant but under-reported event (covered by Think Progress ): the possibility that Egypt will embark on a nuclear weapons program.

For the Bushites, exchanging an N for a Q in their patriotism sandbag of voters along with the biennual fearmongering and tough talk on terrorism (we'll torture the world into a safer place for Americans) is part of the political calculation that is supposed to equal electoral victory in November. The ultimate price to the world and to every non-superwealthy American doesn't count.

Only when Americans stop falling for this cynical button-pushing--only when voters stop being played for saps--will it ever stop. It's got to stop now.