It's the end of the world as we know it

Unlike the REM song, I don't 'feel fine' about this.

Look, religious cults have predicted the end of the world for forever. So much so that it has become a popular theme in our fiction.

But if you want to be scared, read about Christian Zionism. These bozos are actively working to hasten the End Times.

Bush openly supports Israel and will often ignore Palestine. This of course makes things much more tense. His policy seems based on Christian Zionist attempts to influence the GOP.

I've been reading about the middle east for a couple of months now, (starting with a 'Dummies' book) and I'm just starting to understand the magnitude of how important the middle east is to us in the USA. (I'm also just beginning to understand how little I know about it.)

The middle east could be close to destabilizing - and we have our finger right in the middle of this. I think I need to understand what's going on here. At a bare minimum, it should be understood that America used to support Saddam against Iran - because Iraq was a counter to the spread of Islamic fundamentalism from Iran. Remember how chummy Rumsfeld was with Saddam?

Iraq used to be a secular state. That won't be true in the future! Hello Islamic state! Most of the American media is pretty optimistic about the Iraqi constitution, but the fact is that as it is currently written it's pretty darn vague. Iraq's new constitution is religious, and it leaves large holes to be determined later, but it already seems that Iraqi leaders are becoming very dictator-like in making it into law. (The media calls it an 'unusually high' yes vote. I call it a banana republic!)


A lot of stuff is being swept under the rug here.

(Anyone want to guess why Saddam is only being charged with the deaths of 148 Shiites? No mention of the Kurds that he gassed, or the many in Iraq that he killed in retaliation for a failed uprising after operation Desert Storm. If found guilty of the current charges, he will be immediately executed and no further trial - or investigation - will happen.)


So my worries are - rising Islamic extremism, mixed with rising Christian extremism, in an already volitile mideast. The religious fruitcakes won't get their Armageddon or Rapture - but the resulting explosion (if it happens) could seriously damage everything.