CIA has "grown intellectually dishonest" and the intelligence the agency produced is "often nearly worthless." Because of this, the neocons created the Office of Special Plans (OSP), managed by the Leo Strauss scholar Abram Shulsky, and offered up their own "intelligence," mostly gleaned from the overactive imagination of the convicted embezzler Ahmed Chalabi and the so-called "Iraqi chemical engineer" (and the brother of a top lieutenant of Chalabi) colorfully nicknamed Curveball. It is important to note that Chalabi's lies and fabrications were used by Shulsky's OSP-and subsequently fed to an eager shill, New York Times columnist Judith Miller, for wide dissemination-because a key tenet of the Straussian philosophy is the necessity of deception.

"Strauss believed that societies should be hierarchical-divided between an elite who should lead, and the masses who should follow," writes Jim Lobe. "But unlike fellow elitists like Plato, he was less concerned with the moral character of these leaders" who "are fit to rule" because they "realize there is no morality and that there is only one natural right-the right of the superior to rule over the inferior." For the Straussian neocons, it is perfectly natural for the "elite" to deceive the "inferior" masses with scary fairy tales about weapons of mass destruction and cave dwelling Muslim terrorists. In fact, the scam worked famously.

Recall the lie that the Iraqis would welcome the United States, showering its soldiers with rose petals. Of course, the Straussian neocons knew this would never happen and, in fact, it would have been counterproductive to their ultimate plan-the implementation of the "clash of civilizations," the generational war against Islam, root and branch. As a scant glance at the headlines demonstrates, the Straussian neocons are working on the next phase of their plan-the violent "sectarian" balkanization of Iraq and the spreading of the flames of war and misery elsewhere in the Middle East. As the latest outrage reveals-the murder of Muslim worshippers at a Shia mosque in Baghdad-the neocons are doing all they can to turn the Shia majority against the occupation and thus reduce Iraq to a smoldering ruin, or more of a smoldering ruin than it is already, thanks to our "elite rulers" and their "Machiavellian wisdom," as Michael Doliner describes it.

In order to muck up the delicate situation in Iraq even more, the Straussian neocon cardboard cut-out president, George W. Bush, has "made it clear that he does not want Ibrahim al-Jaafari to remain prime minister of Iraq … a move likely to increase hostility between the US and the Shia community," according to the Independent. "Friction between the Americans and the Shia, who make up 60 per cent of Iraq's 27 million population, escalated sharply after at least 16 Shi'ites were killed in the al-Mustafa mosque by Iraqi and American Special Forces on Sunday night. Many Shia believe that the US was shocked by, and is not ready to accept, the success of the Shia Alliance in the election on 15 December." No doubt the Straussian neocons realize the "prolonged negotiations on forming a new national unity government" have "served to underline the fissures dividing Shia, Sunni and Kurds," the very keystone of the neocon effort to form three Bantustans based along ethnic and religious lines.

According to Justin Raimondo, "the U.S. knew perfectly well what it was doing when it charged into Iraq, guns blazing. They knew the Sunnis and Shi'ites would soon be at each other's throats, they anticipated the insurgency and the depth of Iranian influence in post-war Iraq…. and that's just what the neoconservatives in the administration were hoping for. Phase two of their war to 'liberate' the Middle East is about to begin-and it promises to be far bloodier, and to encompass a much bigger battlefield," including Iran and Syria, to name but two. "As American forces begin to take on the Shi'ites in Iraq, and Iran is drawn into the conflict, this new turn … could not be more ominous. If you thought the invasion and occupation of Iraq was a major military production, with more shock and awe than anyone was prepared to withstand, then wait until you get a gander at what's coming next. All I can say is: fasten your seat belts, because it's going to be a very bumpy ride."

Indeed. Of course, the naysayers will complain about the obvious fact the United States does not have the manpower-or for that matter the money-to take on Iran, Syria, the Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Palestine, and other Shia factions across the Middle East who will naturally be drawn into a protracted conflict when the Iraqi Shia finally go into the streets to battle the occupation in earnest.

"Paradoxically, Straussians do think that Cindy Sheehan's son Casey died for a noble cause, the transformation of the United States of America into the Straussian State," explains Michael Doliner. As Shadia Dury points out, the Straussian ideal is not only about transforming the Muslim Middle East-it is also about transforming American society. Like the Nazi Jurist Carl Schmitt and the Hegelian Alexandre Kojève, Strauss "understood politics as a conflict between mutually hostile groups willing to fight each other to the death… In short, they all thought that man's humanity depended on his willingness to rush naked into battle and headlong to his death. Only perpetual war can overturn the modern project with its emphasis on self- preservation and creature comforts…. The combination of religion and nationalism is the elixir that Strauss advocates as the way to turn natural, relaxed, hedonistic men into devout nationalists willing to fight and die for their God and country."

"The real question is not whether the American military can topple Hussein's regime, but whether the American public has the stomach for imperial involvement of a kind we have not known since the United States occupied Germany and Japan," wrote the Straussian neocon Lawrence F. Kaplan prior to Bush's invasion based on deception. Soon enough, we may be told-as tankers aflame block the crucial Strait of Hormuz, bottlenecking access to the most important substance in the world, oil-that we must donate our children or ourselves and "fight and die" for "God and country," or at least to preserve our way of life, even as the Straussian neocons work behind the scenes to destroy it and elevate themselves to the status of Machiavellian princes.

Another Day in the Empire