Operation Godzilla-Versus-Mothra

Nomi Hurwitz at the Grace Paley blog is understandably upset over the recent shootings in Pittsburgh, Oakland, and Birmingham. Her reaction is this post on the need to review the rules for gun ownership.

Preventing such a review of the rules for gun ownership, of course, is the National Rifle Association, an organization dominated by gun manufacturers that reflexively opposes any and all attempts to keep guns out of the hands of anyone who wants them.

With this recent upsurge in gun violence, I think the time has come for me to unveil a project that I've had bumping around in my noggin for some time now. I call it Operation Godzilla-Versus-Mothra, and the idea is to somehow get the two most powerful and dangerous special interest groups in Washington, the National Rifle Association (NRA) and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), into an all-out no-holds-barred lobbying turf war that will damage both (if we're lucky, fatally).

The problem here is that since the NRA is a domestic policy group and AIPAC is a foreign policy group, there's no actual overlap between their areas of concern for them to fight over.

Or is there?

Consider Iraq, the invasion and occupation of which has to be considered AIPAC's crowning glory. Now that the Obama administration has committed to withdrawing American troops from that nation and leaving its rather shaky government to fend for itself, the Israel hawks have got to be feeling nervous. There is every chance that after the American troops withdraw Iraq could find itself with a government even more hostile to Israel than Saddam's was. How can they keep such a government from supplying arms to Palestinian militants?

I think you can see where I'm going here.

It isn't necessary for AIPAC to actually call for gun control in Iraq. All that's necessary is for a sufficient number of American gun nuts to think that AIPAC is pushing for gun control in Iraq. This can be accomplished by the simple expedient of infiltrating various right-wing message boards and planting a few "I heard on the news that . . . " rumors as well as seeding some artfully concocted stories within the right-wing chain e-mail circuit.

If we can get the NRA to denounce AIPAC's alleged pro-gun-control stance, then AIPAC will have no choice but to start fighting back. In addition to the possibility of one or both groups being fatally weakened, there's the potential amusement value of watching members of Congress being whipsawed by the two groups' supporters.

Can Operation Godzilla-Versus-Mothra be implemented? I frankly admit that it seems unlikely, but I think that if there's even a small chance of success, then we ought to go for it. The potential benefits, both foreign and domestic, are too great to pass up the opportunity.