Bush on Iran: from firm to flacid.

After years of a lot of tough talk, Bush has gone limp as a dishrag. It's hard to believe that Bush's hard line attitude about nuclear proliferation has completely petered out. Well, if you ever actually believed anything Bush said, that is.

Was the "axis of evil" just a smokescreen? When Bush first mentioned the membership--Iraq, Iran, and North Korea--experts shook their head. These three nations have no ties to each other and almost nothing in common except past antagonisms with the U.S.

Bush knew he couldn't just target Iraq. That would be too obvious. Even his blind followers might catch on. So he assembled three names that he could easily sell as "evil." Iraq was easy. Americans already knew the "evil leader's" name. Iran was almost as easy. People still remember the hostage crisis. And North Korea wasn't difficult either. Everyone knows we were at war with them once, and that they have a repressive government. Where Bush's scheme took off is that America panicked over the idea of "bad countries" could get nukes and destroy our cities. And Bush could easily imply--with some help from the countries themselves--that they could do so at any moment.

So Bush got his invasion of Iraq and now his oil buddies have control of Iraq's oil industry. But what to do about his other axis members? Bush had already invested a lot of propaganda in the dangers of Iran and North Korea arming themselves with nukes. North Korea has since shown it has nukes and (allegedly) isn't afraid to use them. And now Iran is a step away from its own nuclear arsenal.

You'd think anybody who bought into Bush's "axis of evil" rhetoric would now be in dire need of a diaper change. Or at the very least would be demanding Bush finish the job of protecting America by disarming the second and third axes. But nope. Not a peep.

Bush has only confronted North Korea with verbage and the mindboggling promise of REMOVING American troops from South Korea. Eh? How's that any kind of firm stance against nuclear proliferation?

As for Iran, inspectors have already found traces of weapons grade uranium in one Iranian facility (in 2003). And now, Iran has inked a deal with Russia to supply them with nuclear material for non-military use. Any diplomat knows that Iran is now on the verge of being able to arm itself with a nuclear arsenal. And what is Bush doing about it? Nothing. Bush has offered some verbal protests plus the--again, mindboggling--promise that a U.S. military option is "ludicrous".

So here we have three alleged threats to American national security. And we have two countries who have aggressively increased that threat by seeking and/or gaining nuclear capabilities--the very threat Bush was allegedly so eager to prevent. And we have one country that was NOT aggressively increasing its alleged threat against the U.S.

Guess which one Bush invaded, and which ones Bush is trying to ignore?

This looks so very very obvious to me. And I don't understand why it's not so very very obvious to those Americans who believed whole-heartedly in the "axis of evil" threat. National security is NOT BUSH'S AGENDA.

Oil is his agenda. And he GOT IT. So now he's working overtime to diffuse the emergency he created. Iran with potential nukes isn't a threat to America anymore. Just as North Korea isn't a threat to America anymore.

Hey, Republicans, doesn't this bother you? Aren't you outraged at how you were played like a piano? If the country with the least ability to harm us must be immediately invaded and toppled, what's that say about the other two countries who are significantly more able to harm us? Because you either have to admit Bush suckered you, or that Bush is willfully leaving America exposed to nukes exploding in our cities.

And we know what happened the LAST time he willfully ignored a threat.... (9/11 ring a bell?)