Politics Of Fear And Ignorance: Alive And Well

(Updated below)

Raw Story reports that the Commander Guy met privately with approximately a dozen Christian right leaders last week, in order to rally support for his policies on Iraq, Iran and the Global War on Terror (TM).

Here is what Focus on the Family Founder and Chairman James Dobson conveyed to the flock and for all to hear (emphasis mine):

“I heard about this danger [from Iran] not only at the White House but from other pro-family leaders that I met during that week in Washington. (...) Many people in a position to know are talking about the possibility of losing a city to nuclear or biological or chemical attack. And if we can lose one we can lose ten. (...) If we can lose ten we can lose a hundred, especially if North Korea and Russia and China pile on.”

Of course, Dobson then equated current Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad with Adolf Hitler ...

(Where do I even begin with all of this?)

Well, I will simply say that A) this is the same insipid, dubious and mendacious rationalizations/justifications/excuses for war that we've come to know so well in the case of Iraq (mushroom cloud as a smoking gun, anyone?); B) again we have to trust "people in a position to know" (sure ... fool us once, shame on you - fool us twice ...); and C) this is the most outrageously conflated (and pathetic) attempt yet in promoting a confrontation with another nation by overplaying fear and ignorance.

The Bushies did it for Iraq and they are still doing it for Iran (while at the same time continuing their attempts at restoring a cold war mentality with regards to Russia, China and North Korea).

How desperate can the Commander Guy be when he seeks to stir up support for a war with Iran (and China and Russia and North Korea and Cuba and Mars and Alpha Centauri and etc., etc., etc.) among people who are not only wishing to live in a dominionist theocracy, but also waiting for such a conflagration - because it will mean (to them) that the Rapture is at hand? (Then again - G.W. Bush is essentially one of them, so ...)

I wrote before that it is the incompetents among us who consistently promulgate violence as a solution for anything, to everything. Methinks this holds quite true still, especially with regards to Iran (see in a previous entry of mine here).

And of course, the best weapon to promulgate warmongering is ignorance-based fear - something religious fundamentalists like Dobson et al. simply can't live without.

It is what defines them.

It is what drives them.

It is what gives them purpose*.

Consequently, we can thank Pres. Bush, V.-P. Cheney and all neocon chickenhawks for demonstrating that the mendacious politics of ignorance and fear are quite alive and kicking - even still in 2007.

(And we can thank them as well for being such undeniable paradigms of incompetence).

Unfortunately, it is this very kind of politics which inevitably leads the way towards the ascent of authoritarian/facist regimes.

Food for thought, eh?


(* I know, I know ... I was channeling Agent Smith and his speech in the movie Matrix: Reloaded there. I just could not help myself in this specific instance.)


Update: 05/16/2007 - C&L reminds us that Da Decider/Commander Guy met with another loony Christianist fundamentalist leader in March 2003, Pat Robertson, a mere few weeks before launching the invasion of Iraq. Bis repetita with regards to Iran? It might just be indeed ...

In related news: Jerry Falwell, yet another pro-eminent Christianist fundamentalist loony leader, passed away. To remember him by, here he is in his own words.

Then, for fun, compare Falwell's wisdom with that of Robertson's and Dobson's.

Enjoy (sarcasm intended) ...