Oh, to Have a Daily McClatchy Newspaper

Only a few large cities in the U.S. are fortunate enough to have a McClatchy Newspaper as their daily. I wish that Toledo was one, but unfortunately we have The Blade. Fortunately for the folks in Kansas City, Fort Worth, Sacramento and Miami, they open a daily McClatchy to read the fine journalism associated with this publishing group.

Their OP-eds are especially keen as is one today that appeared in the Fort worth Star-Telegram this morning by Joe Galloway titled, "What kind of a nut wants a war with Iran?" The sidebar to the article: General H. Norman Schwarzkopf has called Joseph L. Galloway, a military columnist for McClatchy Newspapers, "The finest combat correspondent of our generation — a soldier's reporter and a soldier's friend."

I enjoy this no-nonsense, hit them over the head style of journalism which is often displayed in this blog. Galloway begins:

"There were some things far more frightening last week than Halloween's small ghouls and goblins -- and the scariest of all is the Bush administration's seemingly inexorable march toward military confrontation with Iran.

What are they smoking at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.? The very idea is dumb as a fencepost and best left to the biggest pied piper of what passes for neoconservative thought, Norman Podhoretz. Yet President Bush and his able assistant, Vice President Dick Cheney, are marching to that tune and humming along lustily."

Nutcase. Stupid. Dumb. Good descriptive words. I'd add Dictatorship, New World Order and Fascism.

Beyond the labels and the political rhetoric, Galloway makes a great economic case against the absurdity: oil. Remember those pre-invasion anti-war rally signs, "No Blood for Oil!" Galloway says, "Shutting down not only Iran's oil production but Iraq's as well, and possibly triggering Iranian retaliation against the oil production and shipping in other nations around the Persian Gulf. Are we ready for $300 a barrel oil?"

Then he brings up Putin, the man whose soul the naive Texas governor saw, as the man whose hand is on the spigot:

"Putin has his hand on the natural gas and oil pipelines that keep our presumed allies in Europe from freezing to death, so it is wise to assume that any support for a U.S. attack on his ally Iran would be slim to none."

Imagine that: the oil execs in the White House now facing the awkward stalemate of their neocon goals because of that which made them wealthy. Isn't that an excellent irony?

Unfortunately, a stalemate would be a logical conclusion for anybody but Bush. Many times on this blog I have questioned the mental stability of Mr. Bush. Many times. His mental health is dangerously unstable, and a man with adolescent tendencies will not stand to be caged up in a stale mate.

Perhaps that is why Galloway ended his op ed with this: "Be afraid. Be very afraid.."