Well, dubya threw a rare press conference today, so you know he's got something to sell. Unfortunately what he's selling is more of the same war-mongering and tough-guy posturing we've all grown tired of. Make no mistake about it, we are at war with Iran right now and it didn't begin in the past few weeks. It really began with the preznit's State of the Union address in January 2002. Do you remember? America was still basking in the good will of the rest of the world as we recovered from 9/11. We had just defeated and scattered al-Qaida and the Taliban in Afghanistan with very little effort. The preznit was sporting insanely high approval ratings and the Republicans were firmly in control of all three branches of government. Dubya stepped to the podium for that speech with a boner that a diamond couldn't scratch and did what all small men who are given too much power do, he over-reached. That was when he proclaimed Iran, Iraq and North Korea to be an axis of evil and started his personal jihad.

Think about that for a second. With the benefit of hindsight, doesn't it seem obvious that everything went downhill from that point? The preznit gave the world a glimpse of the neo-conservative vision of American empire and the world responded by politely backing away from us. Then came a year of arm-twisting and bribery and economic blackmail to put together a bullshit "coalition of the willing" in order to give the Iraq invasion some air of legitimacy. The United Nations and all other countries who opposed the invasion were declared irrelevant as millions of people world-wide demonstrated to voice their disapproval of this war of choice. But here in the US, the only opinions that have any weight are by-gawd Amurkin opinions and the right-wing noise machine was dutifully keeping the blood-lust revved to a high pitch. Any and all voices of dissent were labeled as cowardly and treasonous. That particular attack has now morphed into the failure-to-support-the-troops theme. Dubya is so far using it successfully against the Democratic controlled Congress. From today's presser:

Bush cautioned the Democrat-majority Congress that they don't undermine the troops in Iraq -- whether they agree with his strategy or not.
"I am going to make it very clear to the members of Congress starting now that ... they need to fund our troops, and they need to make sure we have the flexibility necessary to get the job done," he said.

And it looks like the Dems are going to take it like the spineless bitches they are. This administration is about to do something horrible to a sovereign nation for no valid reason for the second time, and Congress is fucking around with non-binding resolutions expressing their disagreement with current strategy. The preznit is nothing if not resolute. He plotted a course 5 years ago and he's sticking to it. He's already invaded one of the countries on his list and he's really got nothing to lose by doubling down on Iran. He's even using the same game plan, right down to the unsubstantiated allegations of evil misdeeds and the "Aww shucks, I don't want to go to war, but they may force it on us" line. The US Congress is absolutely the only authority that can rein in this village idiot of a commander-in-chief before he expands this war into a regional conflict with no foreseeable end. But apparently the Dems can't figure a way around dubya's Gotta Support the Troops Gambit, so the leadership on this needs to come from the Republicans.

I have my doubts that it will happen, but if it does...just imagine what would happen. If sometime very soon, a key Republican stands up and looks the American public in the eye and tells them what they already know. That this president is completely out of control and bordering on insane. That this war is lost and must end sooner rather than later. That the people responsible for this war should be held accountable. That Republican will be our next president.