Asthmatic republic struggles for breath

An article in Esquire about the ongoing internal struggle within the Bush Administration over war with Iran is motive for both relief and further nervousness. It’s good that someone is resisting this new wacko plan from the hard-line autistics in the White House, but unfortunately that someone is far too often found in the military upper ranks who are supposed to be subordinated to civilian rule.

A Navy admiral, William Fallon, apparently pissed off the Bushites by meeting with Egyptian president Mubarak last fall and very publicly ruling out a strike against Iran, directly contradicting the drumbeat of threats emanating from Pennsylvania Avenue and environs. One is tempted to say, Good for him, but having lived under military dictatorship, the words stick in my throat.

Yet another war with all its attendant horror and carnage is frightening to contemplate, but it should be we, the sovereign people, who resist this new crime, not some reified centurion class taking over the formulation of state policy. It would certainly be an ironic result of the Bush’s disastrous reign if the armed forces of the United States burst their tenuous remaining political bonds and openly defied civilian leadership, enshrined in our increasingly wobbly constitution 200-plus years ago.