Sunday, February 19, 2012

What Rough Beast Is Docking At Tartous?



" The naval deployment to the Mediterranean would carry a "message of peace" but also put on display "the might" of Iran's military.


"It will prove to the world that despite increasing enemy sanctions over the past 33 years, our manpower, obedient to the orders of the leader Imam Khamenei, continue to add to their academic and military abilities." - from al Jazeera


We begin, and probably end, in the Middle East, where everyone is acting all testosteronish, pretending to drag their balls across vast landscapes of desert. The Iranians, who want nothing less than to be considered a world player, has engaged in bluffs on three fields. First, they have cut off oil flow to France and England. This is symbolic, as these countries don't buy much oil from Iran, and they can easily make up the amount, buying from Saudi Arabia and Russia. Iran hopes to change the minds of other European countries who buy larger amounts, and have stated that an embargo against buying Iranian oil will begin in June. India and China are trying to buy the oil that would have gone to Europe, so there probably won't be much hurtin' put on Iran, other than symbolically.

The carrot being offered by Iran, is the continuance of nuclear talks, which stopped over a year ago, without any agreements or conclusions. Iran claims that the nuclear bombs they are trying to make are only for peaceful purposes, while the US and others claim that Iran is doing it for piecemeal reasons. The one universal bullshit reason is that it is doing it: to benefit the Iranian people... Whenever a government uses the phrase "benefit to our people," either run quickly the other way, or depose that government...

Finally, Iran has brought a warship and a supply ship from the Persian Gulf, across the Suez Canal, and landed at a Syrian port where their best friends, the Russians, also have a military base. In order to get across the Suez, it would have had to satisfy the authorities that the ships carried no heavy weapons, unless bribery was used... Iranian news is claiming that they want to impress the Mediterranean countries with the splendor of their warships, and how they are used for peaceful purposes, like furthering the education of the young crew members, but using them as fodder if this experiment blows up in their face like a magnetic bomb in Bangkok... Of course, the Iranian ship may just be picking up members of its Republican Guard, who have been on loan to the Syrian government as "observers" and "trainers"...

Egypt has rescinded its ambassador to Syria, but they still have a lot of problems, themselves, besides the constant stream of protesters in Tahrir Square, with no let-up in sight. An Egyptian judge is proceeding with mounting a trial against 19 Americans and 12 Europeans, who run several Non Governmental Organizations. She is claiming that these groups are trying to undermine the success of the Arab Spring, by seeking to make Egyptian goals the same as US and Israeli goals. The US replies, that, well, yes, that;s what we call democracy building. It would be irresponsible of us to let you make decisions on your own! The judge also wants to expose the NGO's for the scams they are, and would love to ignore the pressure being exerted behind the scenes by the US, not to link any of them to the CIA. We are about to send in our biggest whores from Congress to talk to her, Sen John McCain and Sen Lindsay Graham... Oh, yeah, I almost forgot: the US is also responding with the threat to cancel the $1.5 billion they give annually, not counting toys for the military, followed by Egypt saying, fine, then we will take another look at the agreements we have made with Israel, would you like us to cancel them?

Lots of game playing, and I'm not sure whose turn it is next to roll the dice. Rest assured the people losing out in all of this are young people who want to live quiet lives and the opportunity for a job in Palestine and Syria and Iraq and Iran and Egypt. Ironic that the small country of Tunisia may hold the solutions for all of these countries, as they continue to rebuild their country in more democratic terms that works well with their religious beliefs.

In the meantime, that rough beast is indeed slouching towards Bethlehem, by way of Damascus, and it looks like there is little we can do to stop it. Just like any dog tasked to guard the henhouse, once it tastes blood, then its no longer any good. It will begin hunting and killing the chickens until you put the damned thing down, I'm sorry to say...

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