PUT YOUR ARMS AROUND ME

"Put your arms around me, baby, hold me tight . . . "

The president recently announced his decision to escalate the war, warning Iranians that if they were caught supplying weapons to the conflict they would be arrested or killed or made to stand in the corner. This is done, of course, to protect American soldiers and Iraqi freedom.

Could be bluster - hard to tell. A number of political commentators, however, seem to believe that, like the WMD hoax, this is the opening shot in justifying a preemptive strike against Iran’s nuclear facilities and a possible invasion.

One way or the other, the argument doesn’t hold water. The largest arms supplier in the world is the U S of A; so large, in fact, that it supplies more arms to more armies than all the other countries of the world combined! So, using the same logic, any country being attacked by an army using American weapons, which is most of them, would be justified in launching a preemptive strike against us.

It's also worth mentioning that when tyrants invade foreign countries, they rarely admit they’ve come to rape and pillage (the Vikings would be a notable exception). No, what tyrants have always said, from Caeser to Hitler to Hussein, is that they have come as liberators, to free the people from … someone, and protect them. Shall we add Mr. Bush’s name to the list?

a foot on either side

Bartley B