Seven million jobs vanish from the economy in two years, most never to return without a multi-trillion dollar public works program. American leadership stresses market profiteering as a solution to climate change, while more scientists see that as the source of a problem so critical it needs immediate action. The slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan has lasted longer than the 20th century world wars and now spreads to Pakistan, destroying more lives and draining more trillions from a nearly bankrupt USA. Tensions grow among stressed out citizens, including some of what passes for their political leadership. So what should most concern us?

Iran?

We are continuously warned of the ominous threat represented by this nation said to be secretly preparing to annihilate all life on earth, or at least its most perennially menaced tribe. Ahmadinejad is supposedly out to exterminate Jews with nuclear weapons that do not exist. They certainly exist in Israel but are never mentioned in our “don’t ask don’t tell” policy towards the Jewish apartheid state. With 70 million people, Iran spends some $7 billion annually on its military. Israel spends double that amount, with one-tenth that population. The United States spends $600 billion, or 85 times more than Iran. Obviously, Israel and the USA are pacifist nations while Iran is a military monster. Also, atheists wrote the Bible and pimps believe in free love.

Given the hysterical ravings of corporate puppets posing as our government and then repeated by their media stenographers, we can be forgiven for consuming intellectual garbage and believing it is informational health food.

America’s Israel lobby has been hysterically demonizing Ahmadinejad and Iran for years now. Most recently, after thousands of AIPAC minions lobbied for it, Congress -- America’s not Israel’s -- approved action authorizing government divestiture from companies invested in Iran’s petroleum and gas sectors. Then the secretary of state -- America’s not Israel’s -- argued for a “diplomatic” approach so “we gain credibility and influence . . . to make a sanctions regime as tight and crippling as we would want it to be.”

Why should we “cripple” Iran, which has done nothing to us while suffering American meddling in its political process for generations? It dates back to the assumption of power by the Islamic revolution which overthrew an American created despot. But it became worse when Ahmadinejad hosted an international conference on the holocaust with some participants who would be imprisoned in their own nations for merely suggesting a critical view of an historic event. Since then the hatred for him, the distortions of his public comments and the charge he was embarked upon the annihilation of the Jewish people has become a dementia with the potential of plunging the entire world into unimaginable horror. This terrible threat needs to be dealt with by rational leadership, If any still exists. There is reason for doubt.

The president who supposedly represents change speaks out of both sides of his mouth, making occasional statements of reason to attempt balance with the usually irrational, but the possibility of lunatic action by other leaders still looms. Most of the world can see through the blatant lies and hysterical suppositions of those who claim imminent extermination if Iran is not destroyed, but it is more difficult to overcome consciousness control exercised here by the lobby and its employees in U.S. government and media. While some confused and disoriented Americans are screaming over alleged socialist policies taking their hard-earned money, a minority ruled government is moving toward stealing far more than some angry family’s Christmas club fund.

As more of our people suffer joblessness, unpayable debt, unaffordable healthcare and sink into poverty, our heads are filled with gibberish about a threat from nonexistent Iranian weapons. We should remember the charges lodged against Iraq by the same political forces that are trying to get us into another murderous fiasco. They clamor for more blood to avoid what they devoutly believe is an eternal assault on Jews which seems to date back to a time even before there were Jews. Some compare the situation to Vietnam in that we get more deeply into an unwinnable war, as though its immorality doesn’t matter and only victory assumes importance. But even without moral consideration -- essential in our immoral system -- the wastefully brutal madness of conducting war while our nation suffers crippling social problems shows the deteriorating ability of leaders to understand material reality. It calls for a genuine democratic intervention, something that presently seems beyond American capacity.

What is to be done when a war-making president receives a peace prize, and this after condemning a report which called Israel’s atrocity in Gaza exactly what it was? When media outlets purvey such disinformation that much of the public is reduced to believing socialists rule the USA ? An individual in our condition would be sedated and put in a padded cell but our problem is social. Despite our cultural shaping as isolated individuals, we need to create democratic social action to reverse the process by which we live, but will not be able to survive if it continues.

A spineless president who bends to minority power is a problem but could become a solution if democracy brings real majority control. Obama will follow orders coming from power, which is why he obeys the war making class. If there is to be peace and a better world, real democracy needs a wakeup call among the people. An aroused public has to provide a choice that reflects majority values and interests or minorities will not only continue ruling Obama, but make things much worse than they are now. Is that possible? Don’t ask, just make it impossible.

Copyright © 2009 Frank Scott. All rights reserved.