Where are we going? And why are we in this handbasket?

By Libby Spencer

This on its face would seem to be good news. Reid sternly warned the President that he could not attack Iran without Congressional approval. The problem is it's just so much political posturing. As if that would stop Bush from launching missiles if he decided to do it?

If Reid wants me to believe he's serious, then he has to gather the party together and immediately rescind the "war powers" and the Patriot Act. It probably wouldn't stop Bush either, but it might slow him down to have to consider he was suddenly much more culpable for crimes against the state if he no longer could wrap himself in the mantle of "War President" to justify his unilateral decisions.

It's time to rewrite the script. The truth is Bush isn't a war president; he's presiding over an occupation of a sovereign country with democratically elected leaders. We've fulfilled every one of dozen justifications from destroying non-existent WMDS to regime change to execution of the brutal tyrant Saddam. So can someone just tell me exactly what the mission is now and why we should commit greater resources to it?

And we can't allow any president to claim war powers under an undeclared war against a non-state player. The truth is we're not in a war on terror. We're in a battle against terrorism that has been going on since the beginning of time. It's a battle that will never end as long as the desire for vengence or empire beats in the hearts of cruel and hot-headed extremists. It's a fight against an idea, not a place or a decipherable demographic, and no one man should be allowed to decide its course without the consent of the people in any country that calls itself a democracy.

Meanwhile, if you don't think Bush has an itchy finger on the nuclear trigger, I do and I'm not all comforted by this assurance from our new Defense Secretary.

This week, the administration sent another aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf _ the second to deploy in the region. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the buildup was intended to impress on Iran that the four-year war in Iraq has not made America vulnerable. The U.S. is also deploying anti-missile Patriot missiles in the region.

Cool. We can scare Iran. So what are we going to do to impress China? Because frankly, this scared the bejebus out of me. China didn't decide to successfully test a ground to satellite missile at just this moment for no reason. And I'm sure you remember that we haven't had a successful test of the same technology since Reagan started our own Star Wars Defense system.

Perhaps it's time to start building bomb shelters in our backyards again.

(Cross-posted at The Impolitic.)