The New Spring Line of Threats Is Coming Out

James Wolcott smells a rat, a big fat neocon rat:

"Couple of weeks ago on Tina Brown's Topic A, Daily News publisher Mort Zuckerman squawked about Iran's support for terrorism in general, Hezbollah in particular. Now I don't pretend to be the Mideast savant Jonah Goldberg is, but my dim understanding is that Hezbollah's fight is with Israel, they pose no direct threat to the United States; ergo, let Israel fight its own battles, for which it is more than adequately equipped.

"But Zuckerman's offhand mention got my spider sense tingling, triggering a faint suspicion that Hezbollah was being groomed for the next big scary terrorist threat to Our Way of Life now that Al Qaeda's fear factor was receding."

Let's see. We're mad at Syria, Iran, a terrorist group in Israel, Venezuela, and Canada(!). We're kind of pissed at Russia and China. The Europeans are pissed at us, and mock us for our thin efforts at making nice--strongly reminiscent of George W. Bush's efforts to make nice with the Democrats after the 2000 election. We're ignoring North Korea, even though its batty leader routinely threatens to incinerate large swaths of the Earth. We're trying to rebuild two nations, Iraq and Afghanistan, on the cheap. Weren't the Bushies supposed to be the adults who bring focus to foreign policy--unlike the feckless amateurs of the Clinton administration? Can't they finish one problem before creating another? They're wandering over the world like a todder in a department store, pulling the adults to and fro yelling "Ooh, look at that. I want that. Ooh, look at that, I want that."

No wonder I'm so tired. Living with the Bush administration is like living with a two year old who never ages and can't stay out of the sugar.

Anyway, now the neocons are looking at Hezbollah, so that they can justify going after a) Syria or b) Iran or c) (a country to be named later). They're writing their position papers saying why we must strike a,b, or c now or the world is doomed. These press releases have been assembled into a book called "Lightning out of Lebanon." The board of directors of the group releasing this book boasts several neocon names, as well as a now famous neocon kisser who thinks he still has the Joe-mentum. The media, for whom worry and shock are meat and bread, will help them as much as they can; and the lie will once again outrace the truth. Hezbollah's anger is directed at Israel. They've never shown international ambitions, though they might if the US starts fucking with them.

In the meantime, the Sudan grows even worse, the insurgents blast away in Iraq, and the North Koreans sift their uranium. And the band plays on.