Everyone has read Seymour Hersh’s exposé of our government’s plan for Iran by now, I’m sure, and today there is an article in the Washington Post backing it up. Our leader is pushing for a fast strike to cripple Iranian military capabilities.

The rationale is that the Iranians are followers of an “apocalyptic” religion who “believe that they are stronger than ever” and think, “To hell with the [other side]. You can do as much as you like.” Their leader is erratic and dogmatically hostile to Israel, and is compared to Hitler. There’s a real risk that they would use nuclear weapons to blow up a country they don’t like.

On our side, we have a government supported by fundamentalist Christians who anticipate the rapture and an apocalyptic war in the Middle East, who are quite pleased with the fact that they are the sole world superpower, and think that they can now unilaterally project that power wherever they want. Our leader is called “messianic” and believes his legacy will be the “saving Iran,” by which he means bombing the heck out of it. We’re planning to use nukes to blow up a country we don’t like.

I agree that Ahmadinejad of Iran is a dangerous lunatic who says stupid things and is a threat to Israel. I do not want any war in the Middle East; I want the people of Israel to be able to live in peace.

But it’s also clear that Bush of America is a dangerous lunatic who says stupid things and is an even greater threat to other countries in the region. When I say I don’t want war in the Middle East, that includes pre-emptive strikes that would kill huge numbers of innocents, shatter and destabilize yet another country, and inflame the hatred against my country, as well as against Israel. But our administration is making serious plans to do just that.

Those plans involve bombing at least 400 sites to take out their nuclear potential, and many more if they decide they might as well take a swipe at their conventional sources and infrastructure while they’re doing it. A key site at Natanz is so well protected that a nuclear bomb would be required to take it out.

It’s insane.

He [a former senior intelligence official] went on, “Nuclear planners go through extensive training and learn the technical details of damage and fallout—we’re talking about mushroom clouds, radiation, mass casualties, and contamination over years. This is not an underground nuclear test, where all you see is the earth raised a little bit. These politicians don’t have a clue, and whenever anybody tries to get it out”—remove the nuclear option—”they’re shouted down.”

I’ve written to my representatives, but I doubt anything will happen; we have a madman running the country, and the checks and balances that are supposed to be in place are failing—there is no opposition. There are only benchwarmers in congress, people collecting their paychecks and their graft and calculating what they need to do to keep their seats. There are no leaders.

The House member said that no one in the meetings “is really objecting” to the talk of war. “The people they’re briefing are the same ones who led the charge on Iraq. At most, questions are raised: How are you going to hit all the sites at once? How are you going to get deep enough?” (Iran is building facilities underground.) “There’s no pressure from Congress” not to take military action, the House member added. “The only political pressure is from the guys who want to do it.” Speaking of President Bush, the House member said, “The most worrisome thing is that this guy has a messianic vision.”

He and his advisors have political cunning, too—anyone care to bet that the most likely time for Bush to pull this monstrous stunt is sometime before the 2006 elections?

If he does this, we are all going to have blood on our hands, and we are all going to be paying the price for generations. The time to rip out that whole rotten cadre of scoundrels and incompetents at the top is now…but of course, we have no leadership, no one in Washington with the spine to fight.

We’re screwed…and that’s the big “we”, the whole world.