Making the Mid East Safe for Israel

Justin Raimondo's recent column is full of hard hitting lines, such as: "If the Bushies want to bring 'democracy' to Iraq, let them start in the U.S., where an elite corps of policy wonks without military experience or common sense is pushing us into a fateful and bloody regional conflict."

Hear, hear!

He goes on to make this controversial point:

The Left says this is a war for oil, and that is true, as far as it goes. The big oil companies are openly competing for favor with the various Iraqi exile factions, trying to buy and beg their way into what promises to be a hot opportunity. But that is just the gravy...

Seen in the context of this administration's evolution on the Middle East question, the President's drive to war is but an extension of his radical tilt toward Israel...Let's drop the pretenses...at least for a moment, and acknowledge the geographic and political reality: this is a war to make the world safe for a Greater Israel.

Asserting that the preoccupation with attacking Iraq is driven mostly - or primarily - by Israeli security demands is, to the say the least, provocative. I fear, though, that he may be right.

Update: Ali Abunimah elaborates on the connection between Israel and the proposed war on Iraq.