“The American people will never knowingly adopt Socialism. But under the name of ‘liberalism’ they will adopt every fragment of the Socialist program, until one day America will be a Socialist nation, without knowing how it happened.”

Socialist Party presidential candidate Norman Thomas


Thursday, July 13, 2006

A world of trouble...

This is what it looks like when an Israeli F-16 drops precision ordinance on a bridge in the Gaza strip.

I would strongly advise against this...but then nobody asked me...

Israel has information that Hizbullah guerrillas who captured two Israeli soldiers are trying to transfer them to Iran, Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev said. Hizbullah guerrillas, who are backed by Iran, seized the soldiers Wednesday in a cross-border raid.

If Hezbollah manages to get those two captured Israeli soldiers into Iran, lookout! Iran being involved automatically escalates the war by orders of magnitude. This picture is of a bridge in Gaza that the Israeli's blew up today, effectively blocking escape from Gaza for anybody. The last thing the world needs is for Iran to become directly involved in the fighting and there is little doubt that Israel would waste no time attacking sites there if they had intelligence that Israeli citizens were being held there.

Of course France took the wrong side of the conflict, as surrendering cowards always do. Having allowed millions of radical Muslims to thrive there, France has no choice but to take the Muslim side, otherwise Paris will suffer violence, mayhem, burnings, and killings at the hands of their Islamic jihadist guests.

We in America can only hope that Israel can prevent this eventuality and contain the war in Gaza. If Iran gets involved militarily, which they will with pathological madman Ahmadinijad at the reins, the entire Middle East will be at risk for all out war against Israel. Russia is on the side of Iran, all the other Muslim states will side with Iran and the Palestinians and the U.S. will have to actively take sides. Not that Israel cannot dish out much damage herself, but fighting all those other surrounding Muslim countries would require our help...who else will do it?

Last but not least, the price of a barrel of oil hit a new all-time high yesterday at $76. As the third leading exporter of crude, Iran cannot get involved in a shooting war. The world price will skyrocket to over $100 and higher on fears of a dramatic shortage. What will $4.00 a gallon gas do to the world's economy?

Bush and Merkel, meeting today in Germany, had better think of some way to keep Iran out of the mix and let Israel take care of it's business. And when Bush meets Pootie Poot in St. Petersburg for the G8 summit, maybe Bush can persuade him to yank the chain of Iran and keep them out of it.

Man, what is happening in the world? Just look at the hotspots that if escalated could easily descend into a multi-fronted world war: Iraq v U.S., Palestinians v Israel, Iran v Israel, the whole Middle East v Israel, U.S. v Taliban in Afghanistan, Pakistan v India, North Korea v U.S., North Korea v Japan, China v Taiwan, East Coast rappers v West Coast rappers, and I would mention all the conflict in the horn of Africa but as bad as it is, it doesn't really have far-reaching geopolitical consequences.

It's all sort of scary to me, in a global, biblical kind of way.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Aren't we all growing just a bit weary of all the coddling and appeasing of the Palestinians? It's about time Israel completely destroys them once and for all. Then and only then, will there be peace in the Middle East.


Go Israel!!!

Ed said...

Reid is right about our dependence on middle eastern, crude oil-derived gasoline forcing our hand when conflict arises in that part of the world. On the one hand, we must defend Israel's right to defend herself, while on the other, we must at some level appease the Arabs for they control the oil for which we are desparate.

I'm no wacko environmentalist but I would tend to support any reasonable measures which reduce our demand of oil...especially middle east oil.

I thought supply and demand would take care of that need for oil but demand for gasoline has not abated one bit, even in the face of $3.00 a gallon gas.

Perhaps something more dramatic is necessary...but what?

Ed said...

You may get your wish yet Cedric.

But it won't have had anything to do with Bush's policies. It will have had to do with Iran's involvement in the Middle East crisis and the resulting inavailability of crude oil combined with consumption demands from India and China which drive the price of gasoline toward prohibitive levels.

I suppose your sense of smug shadenfreude would be overwhelming at that point, and you would be partying your anarchist butt off in your outdoor-plumbed shanty in N. Idaho where you've escaped the world.