The Return of the Sheik Ussi Stefano - 1822 -1901
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Continuing today's leitmotif, Bush is not going to go quietly, he is going to escalate. He is going to dig his hole deeper and deeper, in exactly the same way his predecessors did in Vietnam. Again, I repeat, Bush is looking at a level of failure magnitudes beyond LBJ's. He is looking at disgrace far beyond the most paranoid nightmares of Richard Nixon. The world is literally crashing down around his ears. He is still the Commander and Chief of history's most mastodontic military establishment... And yes dear readers, in fact, he is still the decider. I don't think somebody who conspired to steal the presidency and who lied the country into a criminal war, would stop at killing a few thousand more people just to save his tattered reputation. Tell me, do you? DS
Arnaud De Borchgrave: Arabian Medicis - UPI
Abstract: There is a growing convergence of opinion among the leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt that only an aerial bombardment of 17 known nuclear sites could retard Iran`s nuclear ambitions by five to 10 years. One U.S. intel topsider remarked (not for attribution), 'If we can gain five years that way, it`s worth considering.' He speculated Iran`s moderate reformers could gain power in the interim, Royal hawks remembered how Iranian pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard) agitators had joined the annual pilgrimage to Mecca to stir up the masses of worshippers and provoke a coup against the ruling Saudi family. In the early 1980s, several hundred were killed in clashes with Saudi law enforcement. The Saudis can also see Iran becoming the big winner in the wake of a U.S. disaster in Iraq. And unless the U.S. ceased pampering Iraq`s Shiites at the expense of the Sunnis, or precipitously withdrew from Iraq, the kingdom would have to openly side with the Sunni insurgency, supplying both arms and funding to Iraq`s Sunni minority. This, in turn, could agitate Saudi minority Shiites that live and work in the eastern oil fields.(...) Since the 1973-74 oil embargo and skyrocketing oil prices, the Saudi-led, six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the latest defense hardware from the U.S., U.K. and France. Saudi Arabia alone, with a population of 21 million and oil revenue of $500 million a day, bought $268.6 billion worth of armaments since 1990, proportionally more than India or China, each with populations of more than one billion, writes Youssef Ibrahim, a prominent Arab American journalist. But the 'Gulfies' know they`re no match for the Iranian military with eight years of war fighting experience following Iraq`s 1980 invasion. A nuclear-tipped Iran, undeterred by the U.N. Security Council`s slap-on-the-wrist sanctions vote, has alarmed all six countries, from Oman to Kuwait. They, too, are now planning a 'peaceful' nuclear power program. The GCC Arabs are also planning their largest ever joint exercise -- Peninsula Shield -- to test interoperability. By reinforcing their naval presence inside and outside the Gulf, the U.S., Britain, and Gulf navies keep demonstrating that the military option is very much on the table. A second U.S. carrier task force will be on station in early 2007. Gulf countries possess over half the world`s oil reserves. Conversely, Iran is honing its retaliatory capabilities. Several hundred Hamas operatives recently left Gaza for Iran for special training by Revolutionary Guards, according to Israeli intelligence. Iran has also re-equipped Hezbollah in Lebanon with thousands of missiles and rockets to replace those fired at Israeli targets for 34 days last summer. READ IT ALL
Continuing today's leitmotif, Bush is not going to go quietly, he is going to escalate. He is going to dig his hole deeper and deeper, in exactly the same way his predecessors did in Vietnam. Again, I repeat, Bush is looking at a level of failure magnitudes beyond LBJ's. He is looking at disgrace far beyond the most paranoid nightmares of Richard Nixon. The world is literally crashing down around his ears. He is still the Commander and Chief of history's most mastodontic military establishment... And yes dear readers, in fact, he is still the decider. I don't think somebody who conspired to steal the presidency and who lied the country into a criminal war, would stop at killing a few thousand more people just to save his tattered reputation. Tell me, do you? DS
Arnaud De Borchgrave: Arabian Medicis - UPI
Abstract: There is a growing convergence of opinion among the leaders of Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt that only an aerial bombardment of 17 known nuclear sites could retard Iran`s nuclear ambitions by five to 10 years. One U.S. intel topsider remarked (not for attribution), 'If we can gain five years that way, it`s worth considering.' He speculated Iran`s moderate reformers could gain power in the interim, Royal hawks remembered how Iranian pasdaran (Revolutionary Guard) agitators had joined the annual pilgrimage to Mecca to stir up the masses of worshippers and provoke a coup against the ruling Saudi family. In the early 1980s, several hundred were killed in clashes with Saudi law enforcement. The Saudis can also see Iran becoming the big winner in the wake of a U.S. disaster in Iraq. And unless the U.S. ceased pampering Iraq`s Shiites at the expense of the Sunnis, or precipitously withdrew from Iraq, the kingdom would have to openly side with the Sunni insurgency, supplying both arms and funding to Iraq`s Sunni minority. This, in turn, could agitate Saudi minority Shiites that live and work in the eastern oil fields.(...) Since the 1973-74 oil embargo and skyrocketing oil prices, the Saudi-led, six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on the latest defense hardware from the U.S., U.K. and France. Saudi Arabia alone, with a population of 21 million and oil revenue of $500 million a day, bought $268.6 billion worth of armaments since 1990, proportionally more than India or China, each with populations of more than one billion, writes Youssef Ibrahim, a prominent Arab American journalist. But the 'Gulfies' know they`re no match for the Iranian military with eight years of war fighting experience following Iraq`s 1980 invasion. A nuclear-tipped Iran, undeterred by the U.N. Security Council`s slap-on-the-wrist sanctions vote, has alarmed all six countries, from Oman to Kuwait. They, too, are now planning a 'peaceful' nuclear power program. The GCC Arabs are also planning their largest ever joint exercise -- Peninsula Shield -- to test interoperability. By reinforcing their naval presence inside and outside the Gulf, the U.S., Britain, and Gulf navies keep demonstrating that the military option is very much on the table. A second U.S. carrier task force will be on station in early 2007. Gulf countries possess over half the world`s oil reserves. Conversely, Iran is honing its retaliatory capabilities. Several hundred Hamas operatives recently left Gaza for Iran for special training by Revolutionary Guards, according to Israeli intelligence. Iran has also re-equipped Hezbollah in Lebanon with thousands of missiles and rockets to replace those fired at Israeli targets for 34 days last summer. READ IT ALL
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