Is our democracy sleepwalking into a nightmare?

by Gene Lyons
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

We hear a lot about “madmen” taking power in far-off lands, most often lands with large oil reserves. A few pertinent questions: Has the White House lost its collective mind? Do the president and his minions believe that Americans can be stampeded into another needless war to save his party from the consequences of the catastrophe in Iraq? Is the Bush administration seriously thinking of bombing Iran for political purposes? Of a nuclear strike? Is it actually possible, as has been said, that George W. Bush believes himself to be on a divine, messianic mission? If the answer to any of these questions is yes, then our democracy may be sleepwalking into its worst crisis since the Civil War. A pre-emptive strike on Iran, because it might hypothetically develop nuclear weapons five or 10 years hence, would be a naked act of aggression. Not to mention an offense against the U. S. Constitution. On what authority would Bush make war on a nation that played no role in 9/11, bears enmity toward al-Qa’ida and has never seriously threatened to attack the United States? His own God’s?

So far, Iran hasn’t even violated the non-proliferation treaty giving signatories the right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful use. It boasts of purifying a small amount of uranium ore to the standard needed to generate electricity. Experts say Iran would need roughly 100 times its present refining capacity over several years to accumulate enough weapons-grade uranium to make a bomb. Despite the absurd and offensive posturing of its president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, a demagogic politician playing to his own base, no immediate danger exists.

(The rest is here.)