NOT-SO-HAPPY NEW YEAR
For those believing that November's votes would stop war in the Middle East, guess again
BY DOUG FRENCH

Doug French, associate editor of Liberty Watch: The Magazine is an executive vice president of a Nevada bank. He is the 2005 recipient of the Murray N. Rothbard Award from the Center for Libertarian Studies. Other stories by Doug French

Public-opinion polls show that Americans are sick and tired of the War on Terror. Even pro-war types concede that Iraq is a mess. The Democrats won majorities in the house and senate in November and Donald Rumsfeld was quickly canned - err, he resigned. 

"It's all but official: The war in Iraq is lost," Fred Reed wrote on LewRockwell.com. "Report after leaked report says so. Everybody in Washington knows it except that draft-dodging ferret in the White House."

In a Washington Post interview, Bush said, "We're not winning, we're not losing." So maybe he's thinking about supporting the troops by bringing them home. Nope. Bush believes more troops need to be put in harm's way, ordering Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates to develop a plan to increase the troop strength of the Army and Marine Corps. The President, during his interview with the Post, said he interpreted the Democratic election victories in November "not as a mandate to bring the U.S. involvement in Iraq to an end but as a call to find new ways to make the mission there succeed." 

And the new defense secretary doesn't sound so moderate: "We need to make damned sure that the neighbors understand that we're going to be here for a long time - here being the Persian Gulf."

Plus, according to NBC News, "The U.S. Central Command is aggressively planning a naval buildup in the Persian Gulf, including the addition of a second aircraft carrier, in response to a series of aggressive actions by Iran."

And the Israel Insider reports: "U.S. Navy forces have been pouring in and out of the region over the past few months, including the carrier Strike Group 12 led by the nuclear aircraft carrier U.S.S. Enterprise, Expeditionary Strike Group 5 led by carrier U.S.S. Boxer, Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group, and even elements of the U.S. Coast Guard. Canada and NATO have also sent naval forces. It is the largest amassing of off-base naval forces anywhere in the world at present. However, given the size of the U.S. armada in the Gulf, the question remains as to whether the assemblage is a show of force or the next step in a much-speculated war plan for 2007."

So for those believing that their votes to create Democratic majorities on Capital Hill would serve to stop the bloodshed in the Middle East, guess again. Next stop on the War on Terror Tour: Iran. 

Early Warning Report's Rick Maybury reasons that "the forces of Islam are attempting to suck America so deep into the Middle East that we will be bankrupted and our armies destroyed, removing our threat and other Western 'crusaders' for generations," reports Dave Galland of Casey Research. 

Galland wonders what the consequences would be if the United States and Israel "begin carpet bombing and maybe even nuking Iran." Even the Saudis couldn't remain pro-America in the face of enraged mobs. 

Holiday saber rattling with Iran continued with the U.N. Security Council voting unanimously to impose economic sanctions on Iran for refusing to end a uranium enrichment program that the United States says is aimed at building nuclear weapons. Iran immediately thumbed its nose at the United Nations, rejecting the resolution. 

But what really has the Bush administration agitated is Iran's plans to insist on euros as payment for its oil instead of dollars. You may remember that the Iraq invasion in 2002 took place after Saddam Hussein refused to accept dollars as a payment medium for its oil exports and Oil For Food program, choosing euros instead. 

Rest assured, powerful Jews in America are all for bombing Iran back to the Stone Age. Attending a Yad Vashem dinner in New York a couple of months ago, I heard rabbi after rabbi thunder to the crowd of 1,200 that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad -who they referred to as the "new Hitler" - must be killed before he destroys Israel. Meanwhile, in the wake of Iran's elections last month, Ahmadinejad called President Bush "the most hated person" in the world, "keeping up his tirades against the West despite elections that showed Iranians want him to focus on the country's domestic problems," the Chicago Tribune reported. 

During lunch at the LewRockwell.com conference in December, Rep. Ron Paul of Texas was asked what the odds are of America going to war in Iran. "Fifty-fifty" was his quick reply. 

More bodies, more bloodshed, more taxes. A not-so-happy New Year. LW