There it is, throughout the recorded history of our species -- the perennial tale of kings plotting to seize their neighbor's grain and cattle and gold, for which acts of premeditated piracy there must soon be some pretense created, some dire existential threat invented, else the yeomen will not beat their plowshares into swords and march forth.
And here is our King George in hot pursuit of dominance over the oil and gas bearing lands of the Near East, whipping on the dogs of war to seize whatever he can over there for the benefit of his noble backers, the Haves and the Havemores.
They'll get the contracts, the cash and the connections to the levers of power. The American yeomen get the lurid tales of Islamic fascist supermen living in caves. And they get war.
There is no Islamic Bogeyman. There is only plunder to pursue. The pirate wars America now makes on the fractured nations of the Ellipse are not driven by existential threats to our nation or our way of life or our freedoms or the virtue of our womenfolk or the sapping of our precious bodily fluids -- that is all folderol for the common fool, to get him to wear the uniform, to wave flags and yellow ribbons and go along with the crowd.
The only real threat is to American capitalists, who fear losing ground to rising capitalist nations like Russia, China, India, Brazil. And so the nobles of America, the Haves and the Havemores, back King George to the hilt in his petroleum piracy.
It's all good for their bottom line. And it is their choice. After all, they have the money, they control the votes, and they own and operate both political parties. The only threat to American capital is competition, and so the need to defend American capital drives this and the coming resource wars Professor Cole describes:
Bush Turns to Fear-Mongering Creation of "Islamic" Bogeyman →
America's nobles know that if we don't seize those resources, other capitalists will. That won't do, and what the wealthy want is what gets done around here.
For, as I.F. Stone put it, "The rich march on Washington every day."