The horrible Iraq war continues, with official opposition meekly calling for a responsible redeployment of troops. That�s like stopping crime by asking rapists to responsibly redeploy their genitals. And the credit bubble has become a deflating balloon whose escaping gas promises far more lethal contamination before it is totally empty. While global awareness of environmental problems has advanced, our theocrats still preach the economic fundamentalism at the root of the problem, with only murmured complaints from Democrats more beholden to capital than Republicans. And now the bad news.

After the November vote, no matter who moves into the subsidized housing at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, slavish support for Israel�s endless assault on Palestine will continue. While there may be small differences on running the crippled economy, they amount to simply employing different decorators to rearrange deck chairs on the Titanic. In the Middle East, the metaphor might better be hiring consultants to improve elevator service at the Twin Towers.

When dealing with the Jewish state, at the root of present war and threatening more, there is no difference between Huckabee and Clinton, or Romney and Obama, or Edwards and McCain. And that may be the worst news, since that policy has already caused so much devastation elsewhere that we forget, or more honestly deny, its impact on the 9/11 disaster and those which followed in Europe. For the agents of continued race war against Islam, the fire next time is to be in Iran, and if the fanatic Christian regime and its biblical brothers of the Zionist bloc have their way, hell may have its day.

Could an independent presidential candidacy make a difference? Too soon to tell. Though pure libertarianism is nothing more than demented individualism, some think it makes more sense to support an honest conservative who wants to end war, than a dishonest liberal who'll continue all wars. The crackpot realism which had many suppress their ideals and support the warrior candidate last time will see them lose again if they submissively line up behind the corporate shill with enough money to buy the nomination. It remains to be seen if those who oppose the war, but are without a party or a candidate, can be organized in support of an alternative with some hope of even minimal success in the short term.

What�s needed is a long-term focus that doesn�t reelect servants of the creators of our problems, and foolishly expect them to bring about the radical changes needed to solve them. Neither of the ruling party factions will stop warfare or start health care for every one of us, as long as they remain dedicated to maintaining corporate welfare for only some of us. The serious concern about climate change is already being guided into feel good, cosmetic proposals having more to do with capital�s plan to green the market with advertising rhetoric, while avoiding the economic system�s role at the core of the problem.

The increasing turmoil in our credit scheme to finance war and waste while denying just about everything else will only become more widespread. Our corporadoes work through their federal outlet store, the government, to produce immaterial finances for capital, while increasing material layoffs for what once called labor and has been relabeled a middle class. It is that shrinking population sector which joins the poor in being subjected to both economic assault and media perversion. We are constantly told, for example, that the president of Iran, holder of a doctoral degree, is an ignorant, hardline threat to one and all, while hearing uncritical repetition of the idiocies that spout from the menacingly empty head which rules the USA.

Intelligence leaks that showed Iran was not developing nuclear weapons were met with hyperventilating anger and hysterical disbelief by those who insist that nation is an enemy of all mankind. The fanatic Christian regime was exceeded in passion by the rabid Zionist machine, as both screeched about lies, plots and cover-ups. Although Iran has as much right as any nation to create nuclear weapons, especially given the nuclear arsenal in Israel, which is pledged to destroy Iran -- contrary to the reverse propaganda believed by many here -- the leak indicates dissension in the establishment. This is good news for those who seek an end to the slaughters in Iraq, Afghanistan and Palestine, but it also shows how powerless the antiwar opposition has become.

We must rely on factions which serve the empire, to get us out of a dreadful situation created by other factions which serve the empire! And the really bad news? They may be our only immediate hope.

It seems the only way to stop a war with Iran, which could bring more tragedy than has yet been experienced or imagined, is to support the ruling class servants who are aligned against the idiots in power. Since the officially sanctioned opposition is no such thing, and alternative candidacies are not yet operational, our only hope is to back those factions within the CIA, the Pentagon and the intelligence bureaucracy who believe the empire must be maintained, but not under its present controllers. These establishment forces will probably support the official opposition provided in the presidential election, though we don't have to go that far. But for the present, don�t hang by your lip waiting for the supposed liberal left to challenge the unholy alliance with Israel and pending war with Iran. In order to achieve those ends, we need the internal opposition, and much more external clamor for impeachment, and economic change that means no war, anywhere. Always hope and work for the best, but always be prepared for the worst.

Happy 2008? Let�s see.

Copyright � 2008 Frank Scott. All rights reserved.