They are getting their wish. The members of the Axis of Apocalyptic Evil (i.e. the Cheney/Rummy Paleocons driving the Bushite/Weekly Standard Neocons using the moral force of the Robertson/Falwell Endtimes Theocons) are seeing their vision fulfilled in the current Israeli slaughterfest in the Middle East. First they destroy what little government infrastructure the Palestinians still had, after first bleeding them of all economic resources, and now they are destroying the infrastructure of Lebanon, which Israel occupied for decades and treated as a subjugated State until finally slinking home in disgrace.

Now, ostensibly driven by revenge for the kidnapping of first one soldier and now two more (and even more to come, most likely) they have lashed out at anyone in their neighborhood who even blinks. The Jordanians and the Egyptians need to, as Ari Fleischer famously said of Americans post 9/11, “watch what they say, watch what they do” lest they prick the beasts of Israel into looking in their direction too.

Apparently Israel is stopping all pretense of being anti-terror and is now employing it as the weapon of choice in their overreaction to their enemies, real or perceived. Granted it is much better armed terrorism than one usually sees but I doubt the people being killed and driven in fear from their homes appreciate that distinction.

Israel has a lot of reasons to be fearful in that region and has been subject to plenty of terror attacks in the decades of their existence, but it is one thing to be driven by that reality into making their part of the world better and safer and another entirely to use it to justify becoming terrorists themselves.

Of course they have George Bush and his cabal to thank for that rationale (or maybe he simply borrowed it from the rightist Israeli political parties and ideologues like Netanyahu and then cranked it up a few notches). Bush and his apologists regularly use the “we’re fighting terrorists” excuse to justify throwing democracy and human rights out the window, thus becoming de-facto terrorists themselves.

The entire mess in the ME right now can be laid firmly and squarely at Bush’s feet and no one else’s. It is his policies, his militarism, his criminal invasion of Iraq and policies of torture and murder, that have opened the door for what we are seeing right now.

The fundies to whom Bush kowtows will get their Apocalypse, or at least the outward appearance of one, and they can all dance naked around that Maypole in celebration now that it approaches. It makes me wish the Rapture were real so we could get all those bastards the hell out of this world and give it back to those who love it, cherish it, and will work to make it better for all human beings. The Raptured can rot in their own unique Hell for all I care.

[UPDATE] An interesting and related article on Common Dreams by Rupert Cromwell.

Iran meanwhile seems less inclined than ever to give up its nuclear ambitions. Yesterday, the world’s major powers referred Iran back to the United Nations Security Council after its failure to reply to the West’s offer last month of incentives to halt is uranium enrichment activities.

But Russia and China have shown no sign of willingness to adopt tough sanctions against the Islamic regime in Tehran. And in the end America may be faced with a choice akin to the one it faced over Iraq: either acquiesce in doing virtually nothing - or bypass the UN and form a new “coalition of the willing” to take tougher, conceivably even military, action.

To these two flashpoints, a third has now been added: Israel’s reprisals against the Palestinians over one of its soldiers taken hostage last month on the border with Gaza. Some 50 Palestinians have now been killed.

The crisis spread to confrontation yesterday with Hizbollah guerrillas, backed by Syria and Iran, in southern Lebanon, after incidents in which three Israeli soldiers were killed and two others captured.

The White House insists that its policies are on track. If there are “a lot of issues in motion,” according to Stephen Hadley, Mr. Bush’s National Security Adviser, “in some sense, it was destined to be. We have a president that wants to take on the big issues and see if he could solve them on his watch.”

More probably an administration whose energies have been consumed by the war in Iraq, on which Mr. Bush has staked his presidency, may be simply overwhelmed. The separate crises amount to “a perfect storm,” Madeleine Albright, who was Secretary of State under Bill Clinton, told The Washington Post last week. “We have not been paying attention to a lot of these issues.”

In the latest flare-up between Israel and its neighbors, Washington has been almost silent.

And to think we used to be leaders in the tough struggle to achieve peace in that region. Now we invade and occupy and then sit silent as the blowback inflames surrounding countries.

Pathetic.