That’s IT. Now, we know: Our enemies are Al Qaeda and Iran. Somehow, we all suspected the facts would come oozing out of the woodwork someday. And finally… the truth. Boy, oh, boy! Those dang Persians.

Oh… and Al Qaeda. …The ones that… uh… flew the planes into the buildings. …Killed our countrymen while we watched in real time. …Right...

Them, too.

Before we sip again the rivers of forgetfulness, we should remember that throughout the uneasy first few months of this year anyone paying a smidgen of attention began to get somewhat fidgety at all the signposts popping up and pointing to impending war with Iran. Petraeus and the Green Zone tribunes starting blaming Iran for spiking violence in Baghdad and other major Iraqi cities; Iran’s Republican Guards were declared a terror group (if even ONE of ‘em slips across the border to buy a donut, his Gitmo ticket’s punched); and, finally, Adm. Fallon, one of the few honest figures in the whole mess, signed off into retirement. Previously, he’d warned an attack on Iran wouldn’t happen “on his watch.”

So now Bush is hammering the idea that Iran is one of America’s greatest threats. But despite the fulminations of recent months and his most recent remarks, American war fever has iced over. He appears to be the last person in this country to get it: Nobody’s going to bite this Administration’s bait anymore. We’ve been punked just too many times.

But we also know public opinion doesn’t matter fresh, sticky squat. If this Administration wants to drench in blood another Mideastern country, it will do so with or without Americans’ support. As Vice President Cheney succinctly put it, “So what?”

Stopping such a demented project won’t take courage or integrity; we know those characteristics are as rare in Washington as anthrax investigations. It will take Republican Fear. The congressional GOP delegation, with tacit or carnate support of Republican governors and state hacks as well as the national party apparatus, will have to sit down with George; they’ll have to remind him that, even though he’s a lame duck, their political futures are still on the line. They'll cajole. Maybe threaten. Whatever it takes: blackmail, maybe mumbled references to "Grassy Knoll crews". Whatever.

Republicans risk a Hoover-style ass-kicking this November. They’re stuck with a candidate who’s economic grounding stopped with abacus technology; McCain feels the best way to deal with our stealth recession is import more cheap labor and export more American jobs to Bhowani Junction. With a voting-booth handicap that profound, the albatross of the war will only get heavier by spreading its carnage throughout the region.

Forget about the Democrats. They’re as sewn up as the GOP by the lobbies driving this war. No… It’s up to the fearful to scare off Bush.