The new American century was swiftly throttled in three stages: 9/11 (blowback); invasion of Iraq (preemptive war); and 2008 Wall Street meltdown (casino capitalism).
Pakistan is strategically at the center of too many plans for it to rely on the US -- with pipeline plans, Iran and China as neighbors and a planet hungry for natural gas.
A new regional political-military alliance emerges out of the 'Arab Spring,' laden with corporate contracts, missile deals, anti-Iran propaganda and oodles of oil money.
The Israeli response to Palestinian protests? Killing ten people in Lebanon, eight in Syria, two in Gaza and one in the West Bank, and injuring over 200.
The country of Oman is a tinderbox: Its sultanhas ruled for four decades, exports 750,000 barrels of oil a day and half its population is under 21 -- with massive unemployment.
As much as Mubarak is a slave to US foreign policy, Obama is boxed in by geopolitical imperatives and enormous corporate interests he cannot even dream of upsetting.
It's as bloody as a slasher film, horrendously expensive, and it keeps Western powers busy in the strategic center of the world -- there's no intention to end it any time soon.
A new Middle East is being born - and there seems to be only one place for Israel: isolation. With that comes an inevitable, somewhat crazed approach to diplomacy.
Cheney and Rumsfeld's script was never supposed to develop like this. Instead of US Big Oil getting the lion's share in Iraq, its top competitors turned out to be big winners.
