Saturday, October 29, 2011

Netanyahu & Obama: Churchill Brothers?

Now that NATO wrapped a bow around Libya, who's next for Western intervention?  There's oil fields to tap and markets to open. 

Some believe Iran is on deck, given Israel's recent prisoner swap which set the teams for the next conflagration. 

“When people speak to you about a preventive war, you tell them to go and fight it. After my experience, I have come to hate war. War settles nothing.”
 Dwight David Eisenhower quotes

Bush had Iraq, Obama's got Libya.  Reds and Blues like war, selling it as the preventive kind (WMD, massacre of the people).

“I like to believe that people in the long run are going to do more to promote peace than our governments. Indeed, I think that people want peace so much that one of these days governments had better get out of the way and let them have it.”
 Dwight David Eisenhower quotes

Rather than get out of the way, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu may be looking for his inner Churchill.  Israel at least faces interim bomb attacks, albeit not from a mighty power.

Bibi's Churchill stance would drag Nobel Peace Prize winner Obama into any conflict.  That is if Obama isn't seeking his Churchill, as America doesn't normally change presidents mid war.  Coincidentally, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton trotted out that Iran is morphing into a military dictatorship.

Two evil dictators, Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gadhafi down, one rising military dictatorship to go.  Nobody spins a narrative like the Western greed and power boys, and now girls.

Update 10-30-11:  President Obama will build troop levels in the Persian Gulf, according to NYT

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Middle East Freedom Update


A number of news stories reflect the dire state of the Middle East, at least on the Palestine-Israel front.. In one story a Palestinian official called Quartet Representative Tony Blair useless. Blair leaked a peace deal in December 2008, before Israel razed Gaza.  After the white phosphorous and dime bombs settled, Blair pushed economic peace for Palestinians, implying that participation in the global economy would bring about conditions for peace. 

The second story has the U.S. blocking $200 million in aid for the Palestinian Authority.  The withhold is in retribution for Palestine requesting statehood from the United Nations.  Stopping aid will drive the Palestinian Authority where in its search for aid?

Egypt and Libya have new governments with their hands full meeting domestic needs.  Lebanon wants to avoid a repeat of Israel's brutal attack in summer 2006.  Syria is in the midst of a low grade rebellion.  That leaves three major players in the region, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Gaza's Hamas wants the Palestinian Authority to  fight Israel in order to form a state.  Which way will Mahmoud Abbas go?  It has massive implications for the next war, currently in the planning stages. As for Blair, he has economic peace in spades.

Update 10-2-11:  The Arab League said it would fill the U.S. funding gap.  Israel continues pushing its Jewish state.