Tradition and continuity are of utmost importance, and Americans today — outside of keenly watching to see if Michael Phelps can swim for yet another gold medal — can only hope that President Bush’s managers are consulting Nancy Reagan’s astrologers as they set a date for bombing Iran. Unless, of course, their last minute, desperate attempts at ‘diplomatic legacy building’ don’t get in the way.

But a problem remains: patriotism. It’s what the troops are told they are — patriots. However the dictionary defines patriotism as ‘devotion to one’s country’. And so the question remains –which country? The two groups that have benefited most from the destruction of Iraq are Big Oil and Israel. But Big Oil is multinational, and that still leaves a choice: should an American soldier be devoted to Azerbaijan, Nigeria, or even to Venezuela, where the oil cartels continue to do business? Or should our soldiers be patriots of Israel, fighting to knock down Iran, the next-in-line of its three main rivals?

The Bush war machine grinds steadily forward, even as Condi Rice does her darnedest through diplomatic overtures to save her bosses’ — and her own — future reputation. Vice President Cheney’s chosen fiction writers for Iraq evidence have been churning out evidence for invading Iran — witness those empty Iranian tin cans shown on TV not long ago. Some American citizens are also eager to send our troops marching across the sands to Iran, pushing to denounce the free speech evidenced in Congress’ recent debate about the Afghanistan-Iraq-Lebanon-Somalia war, calling it ‘un-American’. What ‘patriots’ we are so lucky to have in this country! But enough of such miserable talk and petty distraction- our President is currently concerned with checking in on the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympic Games and taking photo-ops

with the American women’s beach volleyball team. Who has time for such depressing considerations? To speak nothing of dampening the festivities with talk of Chinese authoritarianism and civil rights abuses. Surely Bush’s delivery of one pro-human rights speech, combined with conciliatory, supportive attendance at the Games will encourage those good Chinese folks to clean up their act, right? And wait — what’s this now brewing on the Russian-Georgian border?

Oh hush now, won’t you?
 — I think the United States is about to claim another gold in athletics … 

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