[close] Conventional wisdom has it that the Middle East crisis is the product of a clash of civilizations between Islam and the West. The Fall of the House of Bush will frame that conflict as part of an entirely different paradigm namely, the ongoing war between faith and reason, between fundamentalisms (Islamic, Jewish and Christian) and the modern, scientific, post-Enlightenment world. It will tell the story of how radical, neoconservative ideologues secretly forged an alliance with the Christian Right in the presidency of George W. Bush, and, driven by delusional idealism, ideological and religious zeal, waged unilateral, preemptive war in the Middle East, not to mention a domestic war against reason, science, and civil liberties. In other words, it will make the case that irrational religious and ideological forces have taken control of U.S. policy and are part of the problem, not the solution.



To fully appreciate the catastrophic consequences of these policies, one cannot overlook the fact these are the last days during which the United States has secure access to diminishing supplies of Middle East oil. As a result, far from insuring our security, the Iraq War will be seen as a great strategic pivot point in history that is igniting a global oil war. It also means a foreign policy based in part on apocalyptic end-time scenarios embraced by tens of millions of right wing Christian evangelicals who have effectively taken over the Republican Party, and are explicitly calling for the end of the separation of Church and State. If the Bush administration expands the Middle East war with a massive bombing campaign against Iran, it may even mean the end of America's global supremacy. [close]