Monroe had his, and Bush has his. But Monroe was a little more upfront about his. While Americans have been trying to figure out exactly what Bush's is for six years. Here's my take on it.
Recently The New Yorker published an article by Seymour Hirsch called "The Administration's plan for Iran."
And, here, in the very last line of the article, we see the administration's plan for the whole Middle East:
Brzezinski said that Iran would likely react to an American attack "by intensifying the conflict in Iraq and also in Afghanistan, their neighbors, and that could draw in Pakistan. We will be stuck in a regional war for twenty years."
It has several "advantages" for Republicans and big Republican donors:
1. By creating wars in other oil-rich nations, it artificially boosts the price of Saudi, British, and U.S. oil. Oil companies like this because they make more money. If, by some chance, we win any of these wars, they'll still make money by being able to drill whatever countries we manage to conquer.
2. By creating never-ending wars in the Middle East, we create the need for an arms race in the region. Since weapons are virtually the only thing the U.S. still exports, we can sell arms to countries in this region. Defense contractors also make money by replacing all the equipment we're destroying in these endless wars, and by providing contractors at hugely inflated rates compared to what we pay regular service personnel.
3. By spending vast amounts of money on these wars and cutting taxes on the rich, we bleed the federal government of funds that could otherwise be spent on healthcare, education, social security, welfare, consumer protection, disaster preparedness and recovery, and other programs the GOP doesn't like. These services can then be provided by corporations, which the GOP does like, with little regulation because they've gutted the regulatory agencies.
4. Because the country is now on a permanent wartime footing, the administration and the conservative judges they've appointed for life, now have an excuse to ignore the Constitution and abrogate our civil rights. We now do the things we accuse North Korea and the Junta in Burma of doing (except for the killing monks and dumping their bodies in the jungle--we hire Blackwater to do that in Iraq and South America). And they've managed to frighten Congress and the media into backing this and covering it up because they'd be disloyal and soft on terror if they don't.
And, this, my friends, is the real administration plan. Not just for Iran, but for all of us. If you're not happy about it, you need to speak out--loudly and often. Never think it does no good. As the monks in Burma know, if enough of us do it for long enough, we finally get heard. It isn't easy, but then democracy isn't. After all, it can't be a government of the people if the people give up on it.
