What are the Bushies going to do now? If the two major groups combine against USA troups there could be massive massacres of Americans and Iraqis. USA troups in Iraq shoud be withdrawn ASAP and the Bushies should rein in the Israelis else Republicans will lose massively in November. Can the Bushies see reality and do the right thing? Probably not.

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Today on alternet we have one article telling us to ignore and laugh at American religious extremists who use politics and religion to further their crazy agenda. Then, the next article says that when some Iranian religious wacko starts threatening us, we had better pay attention or we'll be in trouble. Screw this guy. Of course he wants a ceasefire. He wants to extend Shiite military power in the region, and Israel bombing the shit out of Lebanon doesn't further the agenda of Hezbollah or their proxy state Iran. The Shiites are upset that Israel's destroying Hezbollah...duh. I"m supposed to flip out over this? As a general rule, when an islamic state that sponsors terrorism and is trying to develope nukes is allied with a non state actor across the gulf and some other nation takes it upon itself to bomb them, you shouldn't complain. Also, as a general rule never trust Juan Cole to put American interests first. If the U.N. wants to go in a disarm Hezbollah, fine, but until that happens Israel is going to keep bombing them, and it's stupid to pretend that they are obligated to stop. Oh yeah, I love that we should give Hezbollah a pass because they haven't attacked us in a while. This is LOSER talk.

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If Bush wants to he can and will ignore anything. He is power mad and his handlers want war to keep oil prices booming and the munitions industry fat and happy. Stupid still thinks he is king of the hill even if it has shrunk to the size of an ant hill and he is the biggest pissant

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Bush does not have to worry about what Iraqi thinks; he has an army there. Bush’s problem in Iraq is American public opinion. He is going to try to parlay the Israel-Lebanon conflict into validation of the grand war on terror. A strong UN military capability in Lebanon will legitimize the grand war. If he is successful public opinion will probably shift and his ratings will go up. Hopefully, the Iraqi will put pressure on a withdrawal.

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This whole episode reveals the idiotic, arrogant and just plain stupid nature of 'Western diplomacy' in the Middle East - and that's the most positive possible judegement on this - the other possibility being that bloodthirsty criminals are doing all they can to provoke and promote war in the Middle East for their own personal benefit - arms sales and oil prices. All the PR teams in the world can't cover up the atrocity that US mideast policy has become in the hands of the Bush Administration and all its dishonest power-mad subunits.

What's also bizarre is that the Israelis are going to be the big losers in this - their unqualified support for the army brass (who apparently are the ones who run that country) has allowed them to 1) strengthen Hizbullah - for every dead man, we can guess there will be a long line begging to take his place, 2) throw the Sunnis and Shias into each other's arms, which goes against the US 'divide and conquer plan' - come on - bombing the Samarra shrine was probably a US covert operation aimed at that very thing. You never saw the IRA blowing up British churches, did you? So who's coming out covered in roses? Oil prices are nice and high, aren't they? Northern Iraq is pumping oil through Turkey, isn't it?

The devastation in Lebanon - the flattening of whole towns, the deliberate attacks on civilian populations for political reasons- has been underreported in the US (no surprises there). It seems clear that the racist hatreds in the Israeli army are being played out as attacks on Arab civilians - what many Israelis refer to as the 'unter menschen' - meaning that they view themselves as the latest inheritors of the Übermensch concept of Aryan racial superiority.. or maybe it's just good old-fashioned race hate... but never mind that, you can see important video from a real war reporter at this site:

http://hotzone.yahoo.com/

The commercial US media - they only go into war zones 'embedded' with a US command - those self-styled 'reporters' should be ashamed of themselves for serving as little propaganda tools.

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bush is much more comfortable as a war president. he doesn't have to worry about all those other little things that come with being president. and he longs for the adulation he experienced after afghanistan and after mission accomplished.

plus he's got the neocons cheering/egging him on

plus he has crazy rummy and crazier dick or is it the other way around?

plus he has staked his entire presidency (according to many) on this war stuff

plus his base truly believes its a holy war and would be dissappointed should it end (have you seen the rapture index lately?)

plus this could only help the dems come elections which could make the vote differential too big to steal

plus that would likely lead to impeachment (it better) and if their is justice in the world (I can hope) - a war crimes tribunal

plus he has proven over and over again he could give a rats ass about the troops

plus the more conflict the bigger the pay check for bush, cheney, rummy, exxon, saudi arabia, etc.

which all equals a lot to overcome for all of us pacifist (anyone desiring anything less than wwiii)

everyone just needs to learn to give war a chance (i think that lennon who put it so eloquently) (or cat stevens?)

and if the weight of the world becomes too much for bush, he will resort to his usual strategy of coming around until the uproar quiets and then resume again (see dubai ports, israel/lebanon cease fire, gitmo/supreme court, nsa wiretap, etc)

its either wwiii or rapture though they do appear to reach similar conclusions

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End terrorism, covert attacks, guerrilla wars, state sponsered wars, war by proxy or whatever the name may be. Refusing to participate in war is an act of peace. War is a symptom of disease. Search for the cause of symptoms, resolve or at least earnestly try to resolve the grievance and good things will happen. It may take a long time, but working on peaceful solutions will yield peaceful results. If someone involved in positions of influence show signs of not working toward peace then get that person out. The goal of this haman infested world should be nothing but lifting each other up and working out problems without weapons, period. Now, i suppose my head is up my unrealistic hole in the sand, but if we do not ever start this peace philosophy, we can only expect bad things to happen repeatedly. The u s a was in the prime position after 9/11 to make a real stand for peace and to change the way humans deal with conflict, but failed miserably. What a pity we had capitalist pigs in the highest positions of influence in our country instead of say Ghandi or Dalai Lama or MLK.

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Sistani is a dirty old man and agent provocateur of Iran. His word isn't credible. Only the Shiites listen to him, and the Commie Juan Cole. How hypocritcal of Alternet to hold this old fart up in esteem, who openly advocates the killing of homosexuals on his website.

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Sistani is not as big a prob as our own people. Via Raw Story: US supplying Israel with NSA signals intelligence
08/03/2006 @ 9:25 am
Filed by RAW STORY

A report by columnist Sidney Blumenthal in Salon claims that Israel is receiving intelligence from the US's National Security Agency.

Blumenthal claims to be in touch with "a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation" to supply Israel with signals intelligence from American assets to help it monitor armament transfers from Syria and Iran to Hezbollah. He states that President Bush has approved the intelligence sharing.

Bush is being influenced by neoconservatives in his administration led by Vice President Dick Cheney's staff and Elliot Abrams, senior director for the Near East on the National Security Council.

The group, according to Blumenthal, seeks to start a 'four front war' by giving Israel the pretext to strike Iran and Syria. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has been briefed, but is not a central actor in the plan.
An excerpt of the restricted-access article is provided below.
----
The National Security Agency is providing signal intelligence to Israel to monitor whether Syria and Iran are supplying new armaments to Hezbollah as it fires hundreds of missiles into northern Israel, according to a national security official with direct knowledge of the operation. President Bush has approved the secret program.

Inside the administration, neoconservatives on Vice President Dick Cheney's national security staff and Elliott Abrams, the neoconservative senior director for the Near East on the National Security Council, are prime movers behind sharing NSA intelligence with Israel, and they have discussed Syrian and Iranian supply activities as a potential pretext for Israeli bombing of both countries, the source privy to conversations about the program says. (Intelligence, including that gathered by the NSA, has been provided to Israel in the past for various purposes.)

The neoconservatives are described as enthusiastic about the possibility of using NSA intelligence as a lever to widen the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah and Israel and Hamas into a four-front war.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is said to have been "briefed" and to be "on board," but she is not a central actor in pushing the covert neoconservative scenario. Her "briefing" appears to be an aspect of an internal struggle to intimidate and marginalize her.

Recently she has come under fire from prominent neoconservatives who oppose her support for diplomatic negotiations with Iran to prevent its development of nuclear weaponry.

(To learn more about the Neo-Con takeover and plans… Google “Project for a New American Century” also, the Neo-Con paper “Clean Break” = WAR everywhere. No lie, unfortunately….)

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Capitalism has begun wheezing and sputtering under the influence of its fatal contradictions. One of the more graphic illustrations of the system’s growing irrationality is being vividly painted now by one of its forward outposts—Israel. The state that Zionism created has begun sensing its mortality and is thrashing around accordingly. The guardians of the state are clearly in the grip of fear and uncertainty. The indiscriminate bombing in Lebanon and Gaza and the resultant killing of civilians and destruction of infrastructure, the kidnapping of Hamas legislators, the targeting of a U.N. observer post and now the outrage on Qana are desperate acts increasingly outside the bounds of common sense.

Completely out of the blue on several recent occasions and in leaflets dropped on the Lebanese, Israeli leaders have felt compelled to mention their power to erase Lebanon from the planet. The Israelis are blustering past the graveyard and their bully’s trepidation is bound to grow now that their adventure has gone badly. Prime Minister Olmert and his security cabinet are moving in fits and starts. When the Israeli military’s nose was bloodied at Bint Jbail they gave up on the idea of driving to the Litani River to establish their so-called buffer zone. When the security cabinet realized the electrifying effect of this turn on the Arab people, they poured troops across the border and returned to their original plan but deep down they know that militarily speaking, only a Pyrrhic victory is available against Hizbollah.

One thing the Israeli assault on the Gaza and Lebanon has made clearer is the alignment of forces in the Arab and Muslim world. Ironically, in different fashions both Hamas and Hizbollah were creations of Israel. Hamas was supposed to act as a counterweight to the Palestine Liberation Organization when Israel considered the PLO the most immediate threat to their domination of the Arab majority. Hizbollah filled the gapping chasm Israel created with the 1982 invasion and years long occupation of southern Lebanon. Both Hamas and Hizbollah have, through years of disciplined work and organizing, woven themselves into the lives of the respective peoples they seek to liberate. What a stark contrast with the rich Arab boys who have created the cult they call al-Qaeda. See the clownish Ayman al-Zawahiri rush to his camcorder after Hizbollah faces down the Israeli military to spout some silly rhetoric about a caliphate from Spain to Iraq in front of a poster that screams, “Please remember us, we did 9/11!”

Under normal circumstances the impending death of a form of racism like Zionism (see the picture of young Israeli girls writing messages and drawing on missile warheads soon to rain down on Lebanon) and the establishment of a secular state on the territory Israel now occupies where Palestinian Arabs of various religious persuasions and Jews could peacefully co-exist as equals would be cause for human celebration. Unfortunately, the insanity that clearly grips Israel means they will likely resort to attacks on Damascus and Tehran and then to use of their nuclear arsenal when all else fails. And that, on a larger scale, is the dilemma that the whole world faces as the capitalist system spearheaded by the United States passes into history.

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Once again, what all this says, is the reason why Iran needs to put its nuke development program into high gear. The Israelis have way too much military superiority over the Arabs. And, this just invites a lot of trouble, Israel has no reason to negotiate in good faith with anyone, they can just take, take, take. Well when Iran has nukes, this will act as a deterrent to Israel. Almost immediately then you will see Israel sit down with the Palestinians and allow them to have a state with rights. As it is now, why should Israel, with all it's US supplied military hardware, negotiate with anyone, it is far easier to just bomb and take, take and take.

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Is what the Russians called Englands the Great Game.
The race for empire based in modern times on the writings of Bernard Lewis can help you understand him and his fascist drive to create the arc of crisis and perpetual war to keep the elites in power through resource control primarily oil.
Pat Buchanan had a good article about this.
Google the Great Game, Bernard Lewis etc for more details.

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And how bad that is for all of us.

Sistani is a very smart, very shrewd man. He is probably one of the few Muslim leaders whom the neocons fear. I think that's why we saw a change in official US rhetoric, which prior to the Qana massacre had been much more like Olmert's "war will go on for weeks, if not months," but now it's closer to Condi's "days, maybe hours--I'll bet my wardrobe allowance on it."

Juan Cole talked of fuel and supply cutoffs if Sistani sparks a Shiite uprising in Iraq. Water and electrical power cutoffs to the troops would make the battle of Stalingrad's aftermath look like a schoolyard fight. The coming days should show which way things are headed: toward a truce between Iraq's Shiites and Sunnis as they team up on their "liberators" or toward more of the Sunni-Shiite back-and-forth that those liberators have either inadvertently or deliberately provoked.

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Apparently, President Bush aka Anointed Leader is fully capable of ignoring is Hizb Allah sympathizer and Iranian ally Sistani. Thank God he is our President. Go Israel!!!!!!!!

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As strategic insight, posts here run half cooked to sandbox. Especially those on how “capitalism” has overreached in the Mid East, is on the ropes, etc.

Real and open “capitalism” exists nowhere on the globe. Nor does valid “democracy” essential to keep it well checked. By the same token “communist” inspired socialism is as non-existent*.

Above all the Mid East has been about Big Oil as motive for war since it was discovered there. Analysis lacking Big Oil as strategic to the region and human civilization is bankrupt.

Now to the system:

The globe is more or less run by de facto fascist cartel rule that makes an Orwellian killing joke of “democracy” and free market “capitalism” wherever sold via MSM psyops. Sure, clueless renegades counting Chavez and Castro buck a system they are oblivious to (outside a wakeup call, such players are doomed to apartheid extinction).

Serial temp stooges a la Bush, Blair etc, pose for a DC-MSM-UK puppet complex. One run by a cartel state in power from before the Gilded Age. And yes, those behind the cartel are that clever as the stakes are that large.

And al-Qaeda was CIA grown if fully financed by the House of Saud in bed with every snake out of DC from the Clintons to BushCo.

http://www.geocities.com/libertystrikesback/afghans.html
http://www.bulatlat.com/news/6-21/6-21-asset.htm
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article14233.htm
http://szamko.gnn.tv/blogs/17155/Pipeline_Time

As another poster offered, this is a fresh chapter of the “Great Game”. One played by cartel oligarchs on expendable sheep for Big Oil at the wellhead and beyond.

http://www.wealth4freedom.com/creature.htm
http://www.wealth4freedom.com/creature_Chapter_10.htm
http://www.mises.org/content/mnr.asp
http://www.freedomtofascism.com


*“WE WILL HAVE WORLD GOVERNMENT WHETHER OR NOT WE LIKE IT. THE ONLY QUESTION IS WHETHER WORLD GOVERNMENT WILL BE ACHIEVED BY CONQUEST OR CONSENT.”
JAMES PAUL WARBURG (in testimony before the US Senate. Warburg was an agent of the Rockefeller-Rothschild bloc and chief architect of the “Federal Reserve” Corporation, an unconstitutional private bank monopoly set up for cartel hegemony. James Paul Warburg was the son of Paul Moritz Warburg, nephew of Felix Warburg and of Jacob Schiff, both of the Rothschild front Kuhn, Loeb & Co that financed and setup Lenin and Trotsky’s “Bolshevik Communist Revolution” thru James' brother Max, banker to the German government. February 17, 1950.)

"THE REAL TRUTH OF THE MATTER IS, AS YOU AND I KNOW, THAT A FINANCIAL ELEMENT IN THE LARGER CENTERS HAS OWNED THE GOVERNMENT EVER SINCE THE DAYS OF ANDREW JACKSON.”
PRESIDENT FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT (describing cartel rule in a letter to handler “Colonel” Edward M. House, confidence man for the cartel and founder of the Council on Foreign Relations. House also handled President Wilson and so, creation of the private “Federal Reserve” Corporation and its IRS in 1913. FDR speaks of monopolists at cartel centers of New York & London that own the U.S. Government. November 21st, l933)

“THE RULING CLASS HAS THE SCHOOLS AND PRESS UNDER ITS THUMB. THIS ENABLES IT TO SWAY THE EMOTIONS OF THE MASSES.”
DOCTOR ALBERT EINSTEIN (Nobel Laureate and refugee from Nazi fascism. 1879-1955)

“IF YOU WANT TO BE THE SLAVES OF [PRIVATE CARTEL] BANKS AND PAY THE COST OF YOUR OWN SLAVERY, THEN LET THE BANKS CREATE MONEY…”
SIR JOSIAH STAMP (Governor of the Bank of England and the 2nd richest individual in Britain. A man in service to the Rothschilds.1920)

“BRITAIN IS THE SLAVE OF AN INTERNATIONAL FINANCIAL BLOC.”
BRITISH PRIME MINISTER DAVID LLOYD GEORGE (on the money cartel June 20, 1934)

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Xymphora
August 4, 2006

Watching the Democrats spin the Israeli massacre of the Lebanese people is like watching a spectator to an altercation between a 200-pound man and a six-year-old girl. The man keeps knocking the girl down, but she gamely gets up, only to be knocked down again. Gradually, as she struggles more and more to get up, it becomes apparent that he is killing her. Nevertheless, the spectator, Mr. Democrat, claims to be completely oblivious to what is going on, as witness his series of comments:

She must have done something to provoke him;
Look, she held up her arm to defend herself, it’s obviously a fair fight;
These issues are too complicated for any outside observer to understand;
We have to let them work out their own problems (although the man is using American brass knuckles supplied with the approval of Mr. Democrat);
There are thousands of years of conflict behind this, and we have no role to play;
It all comes down to 'He said, she said’; who knows who is right and who is wrong?
Of course, the analogy is faulty, as we would have to add that the 200-pound man’s brother, Mr. Israel Lobby, is standing beside Mr. Democrat handing him one hundred dollar bills, and whispering, "You won’t get any more unless you support the man". The rationalizations of a position that you are taking solely because you are being bribed are sickening. I’ve cleaned up my blogroll to remove some of the worst offenders (I note that Defense Tech, not a Democrat blog, actually seemed to be getting a sexual thrill describing the technology Israel was using to murder Lebanese civilians).

Mr. Democrat’s position is even more sickening when you consider that the American public is against what Israel is doing. Despite the heavy spin of the Los Angeles Times (not to mention a lying headline), their recent poll shows that 43% of Americans feel the Israeli actions are justified and not excessively harsh, while 44% think those actions are either unjustified or excessively harsh. You have to read this poll in the light of the fact that the mainstream American media depicts the conflict as the unprovoked attack by Arab 'terrorists’ on innocent Israeli civilians, attacks shown in massive detail, along with veiled rumors that Arabs are suffering from something akin to spontaneous human explosion, cause unknown. Despite the lying news coverage, the truth is sneaking through. The only lesson to be taken from this is that the Democrats are doing this rationalization solely for money, and not for political support. They make the Republicans look ethical.

By the way, doesn’t the current situation make those who denied the Israel Lobby thesis look positively foolish?

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Well, I am all for disarmament in the Middle East. First, let us start with Israel, how many nukes does this country have, an estimated 200 or more? And, the country is a marginal democracy at best with some valid accusations against it of war crimes. So, who is the responsible one with the weapons anyway?

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