Hey, somebody spilled Syria on my Iran Cakes!?
Mood:  suave
Topic: And Freedom marches on...
Last week was all about Condi and how Iran was not on the agenda. Of course, after saying that they proceeded to talk about Iran for the rest of the week! Fun! Meanwhile, North Korea announces it actually has nukes (to no one's surprise) and we wont talk to them.

So, to make everything even more exciting there was a big old carbomb in Lebanon that lead to Bush saying things like this today:
(CNN)
"President Bush on Thursday said Syria is "out of step" with other nations in the Middle East and said the United States will work with other countries to pressure Damascus to remove its troops from Lebanon."

'Out of step?' I wonder if Bush thinks of the Middle East as nothing more than an arabiac square-dance?

Condi also had our ambassador in Syria leave town rather quickly while noting to Damascus that 'we've got an eye on you.' Now, Damascus is not paradise and they certainly have their problems, civil strife with Lebanon not to mention plenty of folks in Syria support or participate in terror. Yet, I have never heard anything tell me that the government wasn't interested in cooperating and working with us as opposed to against. So, why all this poo-poo talk towards them? Why are we not working harder to help the Syrian President and such get a better handle on the terror situation and the Lebanon situation? Oh, I forgot we cannot lose face with our best buddies in the Middle East...Israel!!!

Meanwhile, there was a somewhat mysterious "fuel tank" explosion in Iran. Couple that with the allegations of covert recon missions being conducted by us (and maybe even our pals again, Israel) into Iran and one is left wondering. The tension is mounting which leads to this...(My Way/Drudge)

"Iran and Syria, who both are facing pressure from the United States, said Wednesday they will form a "united front" to confront possible threats against them, state-run television reported.

"In view of the special conditions faced by Syria, Iran will transfer its experience, especially concerning sanctions, to Syria," Mohammad Reza Aref, Iran's first vice president, was quoted as saying after meeting Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otari.

"At this sensitive point, the two countries require a united front due to numerous challenges."

Otari concurred, saying, "The challenges we face in Syria and Iran require us to be in one front to confront all the challenges imposed (on us) by others."

Hmm, sounds like they are becoming allies (or in Dubya's mind a more official Axis of Evil!) and perhaps this is just me but doesn't all of this kind of sound like the early stages of a world war-ish kind of thing?

Just so no one is left out (except North Korea)Porter Goss goes and issues this fine notice: (Financial Times)

"The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency has warned that China's military modernisation is tilting the balance of power in the Taiwan Strait and increasing the threat to US forces in the region.


Delivering the agency's annual assessment of worldwide threats on Wednesday, Porter Goss, a former Republican congressman who was named in September to head the CIA, dropped any mention of the co-operative elements of the US-China relationship that characterised recent CIA statements. Instead, he said China was making determined military and diplomatic efforts to "counter what it sees as US efforts to contain or encircle China".

See, the whole damn planet is trying to work against us in some capacity or at the very least our Republican friends are manipulating the culture of fear to get us to think that way. Freedom is on the march. This is all purley paranoid speculation on my part these days...I think anything is possible after Iraq. There are just so many puzzle pieces floating around out there that can be easily put together to form a rather nasty world war crisis like scenario.

What with the never ending tension of Israel and Palestine (though a ray of hope is beginning there), the Syria/Lebanon issue combined with our own decision to fuck with them. Iran, it's unity with Syria, it's stubborn pursuit of all things nuclear and again our fun and friendly way of fucking with them (even without their being on our agenda). Then you have North Korea who think we are their primary enemy and also happen to have the largest army on the planet at the moment and we can barely be bothered to talk directly to them (or Iran) at all. Add in the idea of China wanting to take the sole super-power of earth mantle, the constant tension between India and Pakistan over Kashimir (they gots Nukes too!) and sweeten with the Russian/Chechnya problems, stir and...Well, starts to sound a lot more complicated than the Cold War now doesn't it? I didn't even mention the possibility that the Saudi royal family is a merely a few well placed shots away from loosing power and say if anybody in Pakistan manages to take out their President...WHOOO BOY! We'll have ourselves some real Talibans then!

Naturally, the end of the world isn't the only way out of all of this and it is possible that things will be tense but struggle on as always...So, I stress that I may just be waxing paranoia!

Or am I?