Bam! Just like that! "Something wicked this way comes..."

If you listen carefully you may hear the faint sound of the drums of war being beaten to the cadence of our imminent and pending invasion of Iran. It's not quite as catchy as say, Ginger Baker, although there are some strains from "Toad" to it. Ok, maybe toadies would be more accurate. But it has all the repetitiveness that was offered up in the Gulf War I and II to remind one of Wipe Out, fer sure.
The chain of events are quite similar to what preceded our most recent invasion of Iraq. The leadership and the roles they play are pretty much the same. The initial rumblings and the creation of headlines based on "whisper campaigns" are being mirrored as well. Only the impetus and causes have shifted to any real noticeable degree. Yet you and I will hardly notice it for all the misinformation being treated as factual information. Actually the differences can hardly be detected at all if one considers that it all really boils down to sheer media manipulation and yet another crusade based on the creation of a nationalistic social environment built upon willfull suggestion and what will also most likely again later be revealed as yet another unfounded atmosphere of fear staged for just another less than genuine cause.
Given that more than a few impartial historians and military analysts have publicly expressed their conclusions that Iraq is now actively in the throes of a civil war and has been for approximately six months now, despite the claims of the Pentagon and our White House (that the car bombings and explosions have been driven and directed by "foreign insurgents" and al Queda whose only interests are anti-American activity,) there's evidently this and a whole lot of information about the current Iraq situation that remains beyond the grasp of those same millions of American taxpayers who, when polled to this day still believe against all evidence that Iraq has WMD's and poses a genuine threat to America. Many of them probably also believe that Elvis can still be spotted at the local roadside diner if they just remain ever vigilant for his arrival.
The truth however, I believe goes a little something like this.
In the event of an official civil war in Iraq between, (as the factions involved actually are,) the Shiites and the Sunni's, the US will no longer have a viable part in it other than having created the very power vacuum that allowed this civil war to be born, nurtured and grown into what it is today…A mess. As such, not only would the US lose it's valued foothold in ol' Mesopotamia, but our leaders will have even less than the vapor-ware they already maintain as a reason for our military efforts to date or to remain in that area of the globe since we as an occupation force can hardly favor one side of this civil war over the other without admittedly imposing our design on the very country that we so righteously claim to have liberated for the purpose of establishing Iraq's self determination. Can't have that now can we? At least not right up front.
So, what are the options? Well, if we just had another small country somewhere in the neighborhood where we could bivouac our troops, say in the name of American and world security in much the same way Iraq came in handy. Or due to the threat of nuclear weapons and WMDs in much the same way Iraq came in handy. Hey. Forget about the fact that Iran's President was elected democratically. It wasn't what our leadership considers a real democracy, anyway. Besides, technically, Saddam was elected by the people too. But again, not by the standards of our leadership. Maybe a few hanging chads and people turned away at the polls would have been more acceptable. Or perhaps eliminate the popular voice of the people completely and have a Supreme Court pick the winner…There…now we're talking a true democracy! At any rate, let's suppose we could get a few admonishments and imposed sanctions from the U.N. just to get the ball rolling. Again, in much the same design as was used with Iraq. Then, after generating just the right climate politically we can totally disregard the call from the U.N. to use diplomacy and once again "go it alone" with our coalition of the well heeled 3rd world nations and enter Iran…Well, hell. They were warned! But here's the beauty part. Ready? Once we have boots in Iran, we can just sit out the civil war across the street in Iraq, deliver training and weapons to which ever side we think would best uphold our ideals for a week or two at a time and then waltz back in whenever and as often as we can see an opening or the opportunity for a covert operation. Brilliant!
Stay in the middle east…annex two countries for the price of one and no one back here at home will be the wiser because, hey! Ain't you glad we're fighting the terrorists over there instead of in small town America??? You bet!
If you've been reading/watching the news lately the same scenario is beginning to play out as it did leading up to Iraq. Just yesterday, having not gained enough comfortable traction with the nuclear threat some would have us believe Iran poses (just like Saddam did)for us, the politico-military PR men have now started to accuse Iran of supplying new, special and much more dangerous explosives to the insurgents to use against our troops in Iraq. This is based on the same maybe's and might be's that were used to build a case for invading Iraq in the first place, if you recall. And still fails to hold any basis in fact.
Our political and military complex (if I may be so redundant) has perfected making statements to the press and international boards and bodies to the full extent of generating their own desired results for a select agenda in direct opposition to the better welfare of our nation and have repeatedly pimped a manipulated world response. Unfortunately, behind all too many of these sort of reality moldings, from Iran-Contra during the Reagan regime through now two gulf wars these proven falsehoods, although an effective means to a variety of agressive and futile ends have been found to be lacking in both honorable intent or factual accounting with an impecable consistency.
The signs are all around us, people. And here we likely go again. History has left us with little else to reasonably expect from these folks who currently lead us.