Puppeteering's Final Breath

I've suspected for a while now that the Bush administration (read: Bush & his Puppeteers) would try to force through a few last minute deals beneficial to themselves, with total disregard for the consequences. It's Bush's last electable term, and it seems highly likely that the next legislation will return to the hands of Democrats, so on a basic level, there's little if anything to lose.

The most striking example was the intervening of Bush himself in Libby's case. But when I read this BBC article this morning, I couldn't help but feel a little nauseated:

US plans huge Mid-East arms deal

During a stop-over in Shannon, Ireland, Ms Rice told reporters: "There isn't a doubt, I think, that Iran constitutes the single most important, single-country challenge to... US interests in the Middle East and to the kind of Middle East that we want to see."

What strikes me, is how the phrasing of their goals is becoming increasingly less covert. "US interest in the ME and the kind of ME we want to see"

Hang on a wee second. Surely arms (if they should happen at all) ought not to be based on what the US wants the world to be? Where is the UN response in this. It appears to me that the major institutes that once represented a healthy democratic sound aim for our World have been eroded away quite successfully by the US over the last two decades.

I personally find it shocking that such direct statements do not rouse more reaction from the general public. We might have had the (unfounded) excuse and pretense of not knowing what the real aims of US policy were in previouw decades, but surely, in this day and age, with such little attempt to cover up their policies and such disregard for global regulation, we have no more excuses for pretending we didn't know.