Rad Geek People's Daily

Now that Saddam Hussein has caved in and accepted the return of weapons inspectors to Iraq, the Bush administration has declared that it doesn’t give a damn and it wants Congressional carte blanche to bomb Iraq whenever it pleases [NY Times]. Although they are lobbying the UN Security Council for a resolution authorizing police action against Iraq, Bush wants Congress to authorize war whether or not the UN goes along with his transparent plan for conquest and plunder.

The toadies in the War Party of Congress — Daschle, Gephardt, Hastert, et al. — are all lining up to cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war, but there is a growing amount of grumbling amongst Congressional Democrats. With good reason — not only is Bush’s plan transparent conquest, it’s also transparent attempts at an October Surprise to derail the Democrats’ chances of holding on to the Senate and retaking the House in November by energizing a hawkish coattail once the anti-Iraq media blitz hits the airwaves. As Roderick Long has pointed out, Bush should get a t-shirt with his new slogan: Think locally, act globally.

The Bush-Rumsfeld junta claims that Iraq is a unique threat to the world:

Iraq is unique, Mr. Rumsfeld said. No other living dictator matches Saddam Hussein’s record of waging aggressive war against his neighbors, pursuing weapons of mass destruction, using them against his own people, launching missiles against his neighbors, brutalizing and torturing his own citizens, harboring terrorist networks, engaging in terrorist acts, including the attempted assassination of foreign officials, violating international commitments.

Rumsfeld is correct that the peace and welfare of a great many people in the world is in peril from a rogue state, which

• … pursues aggressive campaigns of conquest and plunder against sovereign states
• … has imprisoned thousands of its own civilians without basic civil rights protections
• … does everything it can to stockpile weapons of mass destruction and has threatened to use them unprovoked [*]
• … flouts international agreements and threatens war in violation of international law
• … has used poison gas against its own people in acts of repression
• … is goverened by a maniacally hawkish, unelected head of state

… and so on. But as you’ve probably guessed by now, it’s not Iraq. Anyone want to guess who it is? Anyone? Anyone?

In Other News

The Bush administration is, of course, doing everything it can to use the war issue as a media smokescreen over issues that it would prefer to go away, here’s a brief review of some U.S. news tidbits:

• Michael McConnell, the latest anti-choice extremist nominated to the federal bench by the Bush administration, faced the Senate Judiciary Committee today. Bush needs Democrats behind McConnell to get him past the committee, which has already struck down Charles Pickering’s and Priscilla Owen’s nominations.
• The domestic economy continues to falter, with a lacklustre retail season during the back-to-school period
• How war-crazy media toadies built a story by making shit up about the faux terrorism scare in Georgia
• The Congressional inquiry into September 11 was just released, and makes clear that the administration failed to take up intelligence leads for investigation or even warning of the public. The administration still refuses to declassify details concerning the reports received by the White House from intelligence agencies.