Did You Have A Good Apocalypse Today?

I don't know if you noticed, but the neocon whack-jobs were predicting the end of the world today - at the hands of Iran's leader and in spectacularly nuclear fashion. Much of the panic-mongering was started by rightwing pundit Bernard Lewis in an op-ed at the Wall Street Journal, but it had been on the go long before his piece poured gasoline on the fire.

Think Progress yesterday had a roundup, naming names, of the action:

- “What is the significance of Aug. 22? […] This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world. It is far from certain that Mr. Ahmadinejad plans any such cataclysmic events precisely for Aug. 22. But it would be wise to bear the possibility in mind.” [Bernard Lewis op-ed, Wall Street Journal, 8/8/06]

- “We all hope and pray that August 22 is not the day Ahmadinejad has chosen to launch the apocalypse, but there is little doubt in the White House and at the CIA that the Iranian leader is feverishly trying to build, buy, or steal nuclear weapons, and that he will quite likely use them once he has them.” [Joel Rosenberg, National Review, 8/10/06]

- “Will [Ahmadinejad] attempt to make good on these threats this year on the anniversary of the Miraj [August 22], illuminating the night sky over Jerusalem? Will Western powers heed Farid Ghadry’s words and move to stop Iran before it is too late?” [Front Page Magazine, 7/27/06]

- “It’s an important symbolic day for jihadists. And I’m curious to see what happens on Tuesday. [Ahmadinejad] may just say no or he may do something a little more dramatic, launch a missile or something, to show that - Iranian defiance of what looks like an impotent West.” [Bill Kristol, Fox News Sunday, 8/20/06]

- “‘The only thing we can know is that the date was not chosen by accident,’ said Robert Spencer, Director of Jihadwatch.org and an adjunct fellow at the Free Congress Foundation, a conservative think tank. ‘It does seem very likely, very probable, that he has something major in mind, whether only a major announcement or a major attack, we will soon see.’” [The Blotter, ABC News, 8/21/06]

Of course, the apocalypse so eagerly awaited by that intersection of the neocon nutcase warlover's "keyboard brigade" and the loony religious rapturous Right singularly failed to happen - unless I'm in hell already, which is always something one considers while living through a Texan summer.

Malkin's "Hot Air" website pours scorn on their gullible and milleniarist compadres today, although refusing to name names. Allahpundit writes:

It’s after midnight in Tehran. The apocalypse turned out to be four soldiers getting froggy with some Romanian laborers.

I won’t name names, but my feelings about the people who were pimping this are the same as my feelings about Amir Taheri after the yellow-badges fiasco: I’ll still read them, but never again with quite the same credulity. That’s how it works, boys. If you’re going to roll the dice on the end times, even with the standard disclaimers, you’ve got to come up with something. And blitzing an oil rig doesn’t quite cut it. Now we look like cranks and the poor morons who clicked that Drudge link yesterday and don’t know any better will be forgiven for thinking Ahmadinejad’s not quite as dangerous as the crazy neocons think he is.

That last sentence is saying one thing and meaning another, mind you. Ahmanutjob is exactly as dangerous as the crazy but well-informed neocons think he is - but not even half as crazy as the neocons want those "poor morons" who clicked the Drudge link to think he is. I love the way that the truth, stated by a militant rightwinger, is just as good as an outright lie, don't you?

Anyway, if you want to find out just how deranged those "poor morons" are, try reading Allahpundit's comments as they frantically try to justify themselves. Oh, and they still want to attack Iran...

(Incidentally, Bernard Lewis signed on to the infamous Committee for Peace and Security in the Gulf which asked Clinton to attack Iraq as well as being a member of the Committee for the Liberation of Iraq - both neocon regime change cheerleading teams. Now this nonsense too - from the "Professor Emeritus of Middle Eastern and Ottoman Studies, Princeton University", no less. Islamophobe much?)