Tom Maertens: Are we safer now?

If U.S. policy persists, so will the danger (excerpt):

...The current administration has exacerbated Arab hostility. It has abandoned our traditional evenhanded role as the honest broker in the Middle East peace process and -- for the first time in U.S. history -- endorsed Jewish settlements on the West Bank. Previous administrations, including George H.W. Bush's, called the settlements "an obstacle to peace" and even deducted Israel's expenditures on West Bank settlements from the U.S. yearly aid payments. Why would George W. Bush change our policy? The Guardian of London reports that almost one-third of Bush's electoral base favors war in the Middle East. This group of apocalyptic Christians reportedly believes that Israel must occupy all its "historic Biblical lands" as a precondition for the final struggle against the legions of the Antichrist in Armageddon. This in turn will bring on the end of days and the "rapture." Although this concept doesn't exist in the Bible, Attorney General John Ashcroft and House Majority Leader Tom DeLay are said to be among the believers. To Arabs, the invasion of Iraq is another example of the United States defending Israel's interests. They know that the so-called neoconservatives had long advocated overthrowing Saddam Hussein in order to establish U.S. military bases in Iraq, ensure access to oil and improve Israel's strategic position. The same neocons devised the theory of preemptive war, giving us a permanent rationale to invade any country we choose....

Note: 1-time reg required; or use dailykos/dailykos to log in.