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TO: Harper's Weekly
FROM: Sara

Did you hear that? The sound of Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad rattling his sword for the folks at home. His
fundamentalist policies weren't playing so well, poll
numbers were down, so now he just bashes America (his
numbers have since soared). And did you hear that? Bush is
jumping for the bait, knowing that invading a second
Muslim nation will impress his core constituency as
well. This time, he doesn't have to make up stories about
weapons of mass destruction, because his new fight is with
a nuclearized loudmouth who'll do anything to give Bush a
black eye.

Which brings me to that other thing you hear in the
background: World War III, and Bush's core voters singing
their approval. In case you didn't know, they've all been
raised on tales of the world ending any day now, as the
result of a war in the Middle East. Ever stood at a book
stall and thumbed through Tim LaHaye's popular "Left
Behind," or Todd Strandberg's "Are You Rapture Ready?" or
Hal Lindsay's classic "The Late Great Planet Earth"? You
should. According to these Bush-favored texts, nukes rain
on the Arabs, God roasts the Blue-state voters, and
Evangelical Christians float up to heaven just before
things get nasty. Imagine that. Walking around believing
God wants you to start wars, but since you're a favored
person, you'll not have to endure what you've
started. Ever wonder why Bush is so strangely upbeat about
the war in Iraq, despite daily, unrelenting bloodshed? Now
you know. For Bush, the only thing wrong with the battle
is that it's not a firestorm of Biblical proportions. If
we allow him to drag Iran into it, he'll get his wish.