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February 19, 2007

Bush Will Save Us From the Flood!

Gary Younge, in an op-ed published in the UK Guardian, compares President Bush to Marion Keech, a woman who, on December 20, 1954, waited with her followers for UFOs to save them from huge floods that would soon cover the planet. When the UFOs and the flood failed to appear, rather than abandon her beliefs, Keech told her followers that their advanced state of enlightenment had saved the planet — and they believed her.

Social psychologist Leon Festinger, who had infiltrated the group, wrote, "A man with a conviction is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and he turns away. Show him facts and figures and he questions your sources. Appeal to logic and he fails to see your point." Sounds eerily like Leonid and a lot of other mentally obedient right-wingers I know. And as Younge says:

George Bush is a man of conviction and clearly a hard man to change. When reality confronts his plans he does not alter them but instead alters his understanding of reality. Like Keech and her crew, he stands with a tight band of followers, both deluded and determined, understanding each setback not as a sign to change course but as further proof that they must redouble their efforts to the original goal.

The parallels between the run-up to the war in Iraq and the apparent run-up to war in Iran are a maddening display of the Bush Administration's stubborn clinging to a false premise:

And so we watch the administration's plans for a military attack against Iran unfold even as its official narrative for the run-up to the war in Iraq unravels and the wisdom of that war stands condemned by death and destruction. As though on split screens, we pass seamlessly from reports of how they lied to get us into the last war, to scenes of carnage as a result of the war, to shots of them lying us into the next one.

One moment we see the trial of Dick Cheney's former deputy, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, revealing how the administration sought to discredit critics of the plans to invade Iraq; the next we see them discrediting critics of their plans to attack Iran. On one page, newly released documents reveal how the defence department contorted evidence to justify bombing Baghdad; on the next, the administration is using suspect evidence to justify bombing Iran.

He was wrong when he invaded Iraq, and people are warning him that invading Iran would also be wrong. But no matter how many facts you cite, or how persuasive your logic, or how many Americans don't want it, or many countries in the world urge us not to do it, Bush appears to be intent on bombing Iran. And his deluded followers stand loyally by his side, awaiting the UFOs that are sure to come just before the great flood.

Posted by Becky at February 19, 2007 10:00 AM