Eric Alterman, lefty columnist for The Nation and MSNBC, accuses the Bush administration's Wolfowitz, Perle, et al of being “Likudists” who want to suck the US into a long-lasting war on behalf of Israel's interests.

I dunno if I buy this completely. But Alterman's vision of permanent war is pretty close to being on target; either intentionally or unintentionally, we're being placed into a situation where long-term ongoing military operations will place Americans permanently in danger, and any hope of a peaceful settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict with the US as a “fair cop” will go out the window.

And yet, it will be years before the masses get angry enough to do anything about this, because the media is keeping a lid on dissent. Alterman is a marginalized voice, and the last one anybody in the Bush administration is concerned about. They clearly leave no room for debate internally, so why should they listen to left-wingnut dissidents?