them soldiers, they leaving?

This post was moved to Disturbing Trends - War Stories (where we take license with reality and write a bit of fiction).

CHANGING FACE OF IRAQ

Iraq's real WMD crime

By Lawrence Smallman in Baghdad

Wednesday 17 March 2004, 13:03 Makka Time, 10:03 GMT

Depleted uranium has a half life of 4.7 billion years

There are weapons of mass destruction all over Iraq and they were used this past year. Iraqi children continue to find them every day. They have ruined the lives of just under 300,000 people during the last decade - and numbers will increase. The reason is simple. Two hundred tonnes of radioactive material were fired by invading US forces into buildings, homes, streets and gardens all over Baghdad.

The material in question is depleted uranium (DU). Left over after natural uranium has been enriched, DU is 1.7 times denser than lead - effective in penetrating armoured objects such as tanks. After a DU-coated shell strikes, it goes straight through before exploding into a burning vapour which turns to dust.
"Depleted uranium has a half life of 4.7 billion years - that means thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will suffer for tens of thousands of years to come. This is what I call terrorism," says Dr Ahmad Hardan.

As a special scientific adviser to the World Health Organisation, the United Nations and the Iraqi Ministry of Health, Dr Hardan is the man who documented the effects of depleted uranium in Iraq between 1991 and 2002.

"This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people."Dr Ahmad Hardan,scientific adviser to the World Health Organisation. But the war and occupation has doubled his workload.

Terrible history repeated

"American forces admit to using over 300 tonnes of depleted uranium weapons in 1991. The actual figure is closer to 800.

"This has caused a health crisis that has affected almost a third of a million people. As if that was not enough, America went on and used 200 tonnes more in Baghdad alone (last) April. I don't know about other parts of Iraq, it will take me years to document that."
Hardan is particularly angry because he says there is no need for this type of weapon - US conventional weapons are quite capable of destroying tanks and buildings.

"In Basra, it took us two years to obtain conclusive proof of what DU does, but we now know what to look for and the results are terrifying."

Leukaemia has already become the most common type of cancer in Iraq among all age groups, but is most prevalent in the under-15 category. It has increased way above the percentage of population growth in every single province of Iraq without exception. Women as young as 35 are developing breast cancer. Sterility among men has increased tenfold.

Barely human

Depleted uranium has caused severe deformities in babies. But by far the most devastating effect is on unborn children. Nothing can prepare anyone for the sight of hundreds of preserved foetuses - barely human in appearance. There is no doubt that DU is to blame.

"All children with congenital anomalies are subjected to karyotyping and chromosomal studies with complete genetic back-grounding and clinical assessment. Family and obstetrical histories are taken too. These international studies have produced ample evidence to show that DU has disastrous consequences."

Not only are there 200 tonnes of uranium lying around in Baghdad, the containers which carried the ammunition were discarded. For months afterwards, many used them to carry water - others used them to sell milk publicly.

It is already too late to reverse the effects.

After his experience in Basra, Hardan says within the next two years he expects to see significant rises in congenital cataracts, anopthalmia, microphthalmia, corneal opacities and coloboma of the iris - and that is just in people's eyes.

Add to this foetal deformities, sterility in both sexes, an increase in miscarriages and premature births, congenital malformations, additional abnormal organs, hydrocephaly, anencephaly and delayed growth.

"A world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq" Dr Ahmad Hardan,scientific adviser to the World Health Organisation

Soaring cancer rates

"I had hoped the lessons of using DU would have been learnt - especially as it is affecting American and British troops stationed in Iraq as we speak, they are not immune to its effects either."

If the experience of Basra is played out in the rest of the country, Iraq is looking at an increase of more than 300% in all types of cancer over the next decade.

The signs are already here in Baghdad - the effects are starting to be seen. Every form of cancer has jumped up at least 10% with the exception of bone tumours and skin cancer, which have only risen 2.6% and 9.3% respectively.

Another tragic outcome is the delayed growth of children.

Skeletal age comparisons between boys from southern Iraq and boys from Michigan show Iraqi males are 26 months behind in their development by the time they are 12-years-old and girls are almost half a year behind.

"The effects of ionising radiation on growth and development are especially significant in the prenatal child", adds Dr Hardan. "Embryonic development is especially affected."

Action needed

Those who have seen the effects of DU hope the US and its allies will never use these weapons again - but it seems no such decision is likely in the foreseeable future.

Many affected foetuses are so deformed they cannot survive.

"I arranged for a delegation from Japan's Hiroshima hospital to come and share their expertise in the radiological related diseases we are likely to face over time," says Hardan. "The delegation told me the Americans had objected and they had decided not to come.

"Similarly, a world famous German cancer specialist agreed to come, only to be told later that he would not be given permission to enter Iraq."

Moreover, Hardan believes the authorities need to produce precise information about what was used and where, and there needs to be a clean-up operation and centres for specialist cancer treatment and radiation-related illnesses.

Iraq only has two hospitals that specialise in DU-related illnesses, one in Basra and one in Mosul - this needs to change and soon.

"I'm fed up of delegations coming and weeping as I show them children dying before their eyes. I want action and not emotion. The crime has been committed and documented - but we must act now to save our children's future."

Lessons of Falluja

An army can kill civilians in an uprising.

The Iraqi people gravitate to the loudest voice. The Islamic Iraqi people gravitate to the voice of a powerful cleric. They are led by the dictates of power. The only focus they can have is angry liberation and the trouble with being the invading force is becoming the target of hatred.

Is George Bush being forced to withdraw by June 30th or is it the only thing left? It is difficult to understand the logic of going in and inciting a whole lot of enemies in a process you call liberation but others call occupation or invasion. It is difficult to see the result of what George Bush has invested 100 Billion dollars to achieve. A country that is still racked by indifference to the values he seeks to impose upon it? Or is it a country that is convinced the West is plundering oil as payment for Iraq's war debt?

Battle Royale for Left

President Bush is playing trump cards early Bush Details Plan to Curb Nuclear Arms (washingtonpost.com) in a cynical effort to soften Democratic unity under the growing banner of John Kerry, or even John Edwards. I got it wrong about Wesley Clark. I liked how he wrote and what he said has been important in defining the battlefield. Now President Bush has jumped into it.

President Bush again announces a Left handed brush stroke and masterfully executed. Here it comes kids, let's have an indefinite war on Nuclear Proliferation and we know you will go for it. If President Bush is one thing, and it's one thing his electorate just love, he is the greatest salesman since the indespensible Top Cat. 55% of Americans, in a recent Time poll (it on the street magazine, go get it) do not trust him. But they will give their trillions of dollars of taxes to his decisions.

In the final analysis, the Republican voter will vote for Bush, come what may. Even if he declared war on the Pacific Ocean, the Republicans are going to vote for him. We can be sure they will not change their minds, and yet Democrats endlessly waste their time trying to reason with the simplistic greed and individuality that makes Republicans so unique. The broad sword of social progress and making things better for everybody is at the heart of the argument that justifies the lack of taste or dignity. Where Clinton was suave to excess, Gore was too casual. Too often appearing uncomfortable trussed up like a kipper in a suit but at home in denim or light blue but rugged atire. Gore was the wrong sort of hero at the wrong sort of time.

President Bush fell into the deep end of extreme politics and has fought with the water fairly well. He is a supported by a highly rational Secretary of State, Colin Powell.

Powell will feature large in feature films as a muscular romantic soldier who braved the desserts in 1991, he returns, like the King of Africa to reclaim Mesopotamia from the barbaric mob and not even flinching will finally come to the defence of his Commander in Chief. Such pride and dignity will take that man far. Far out.

In the end, it is the middle ground that both sides will scrap and tear each other apart over. But it is defining where the middle ground is, that the game President Bush is playing. Just a bit to the left... Just a bit more.....

If the Democrats want to win this election their response to President Bush is to adopt the same policy, but more vigorously. If Wesley Clark were still in the running, I wonder if he thinks that it would be better to respond with the complete destruction of all nuclear weapons?

"can not be allowed"

Japan said of the United States of America and its' President's belief that tactical nuclear weapons are useable on a battlefield in a limited theatre of operation:

"something which cannot be allowed".

Can it be prevented? What are the advantages of such weapons? They allow the United States of America to fight its wars for far less cost, and therefore the threat of larger armies is irrevant.

An example of its use would be to certainly eradicate Osama Bin Laden, and any living thing within a 200 mile radius of him would probably also be affected. The problem is that depleted uranium shells are already used to pierce buildings and increase the devastation upon impact.

Limited Nuclear may have more engineered method of zapping large armies or their communications with pulse beam generators. It may be baby atom bombs that can wipe out an army in a swoop, but what that images lets in under the door crack of public opinion is remarkable.

Why does Bush want such weaponry? For one reason. So he can afford to take on the world with the same cool criminal rationale that allows him to take out Afganistan and Iraq following an act of terrorism by Al Qaeda that America should have detected conspiring in its midst.

Wiping out foreign armies like this induces terrorism. A fear of its consequences may push an ever irrational North Korea to carry out an insane threat, or worse a concerted effort by China to reverse the march of American soldiers, if a nightmare scenario were to ensue. Another 4 years of World Domination is not on the table, thankyou, Mr Bush.

As the world multiples its problems and we teeter on the edge of things, President Bush and his hungry Americans will attempt to buy the world and then take it back by force? Why keep lending them money?

The rest of the world must be supporting America's deficit, and the threat of an international agreement to simply boycott America anything would defeat this America.

Tell America it must disarm itself of the weapons that can destroy the good work of nature and the Earth. The continued use of radioactive weapons is not necessary. Spend more on Star Wars technology, point your weapons away from mankind.

Nobody has a right to interfere with nature to the degree that we threaten.

See also:

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Scary and scandalous: "cannot be allowed"

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Meet criminals who cost UK £14bn: the middle class

It all adds up

All those little things we get away with add up. In the UK the regular guys small misdemenours and criminal acts add up to UK £14bn.

Genuine honest human relations rarely exist. The norm in UK society is to get away with it if you can. Actions that cause a little bit of advantage or "graft" are taken as there is an expection that anybody would take advantage given the same opportunity. It becomes a calculation of fairness.

Complete compliance or strict adherence to the law is a sign of a totalitarian state that could lose its inspriation and foothold upon progress.

Perhaps a level of "harmless" latitude or natural adjustment is inevitable.

New Zealand has a slightly different social ethic at work, a tradition of self depreciation that allows neighbours to trust one another, allowing minor deeds by employees to go overlooked. There is reversio to the (current) American accusing/politically correct mindset/dichotomy.

Consent may be required for a population to be subjugated or instincts are stirred releasing counter-attacks. Revolution is a momentum, a storm. It gathers like music, sweeping up a people in its politic.

In other words, release valves that allow customer dishonesty or excess in response to perceived wrongs appear to be part of our culture.

It is more than a distaste for authority. It is more than a protest. It is a desocialising force that forces entropy into the process of civilisation.

Saddam and WMD

More on this later..

Now, Iran?

Iran's Clerical leadership now want to rattle their sabres as GW Bush tells Israel and Palestine to get real about making peace.

Just how effective Mr Bush will be remains to be seen, but somehow the simplistic approach may go along the lines of - become peaceful with each other or the US will occupy Israel.

Iran sees the US as a big bully and the best way to deal with a bully is to sock 'im in the mouth. It may work in the playground, but these kinds of threats spewing forth did nothing for Saddam, so why is Iran now tempting Bush to move in? Is it stupidity, or fear?

Here is the source of terrorism. Exhortations that result in suicide bombings. Institionalised indoctrination of budding armies of expendable people. Iran may pause to consider that this kind of language may in fact make it more likely that the US, in its current mindset, may be more tempted to act in response.

GW Bush is not Jimmy Carter.

Shadow War

Third Head of the Snake

North Korea comes to the negoiating table armed with a nuclear threat. What is causing it to come to this? They are now petrified that the US is going to summarily invade them.

It seems that the NK leadership rotted in its own gut. It shows no talent for the leadership necessary for economic growth let alone international diplomacy. It now thinks it faces the crisis of US invasion without provocation, so it feels it must flex military muscle so that the US is compelled to give them food... in other words a horribly corrupt civilization. By doing this it invites precipitive and probably immediate military responses from GW Bush. Are they really that stupid?

In any universe that makes any sense GW Bush is no match for the might of the inherited regime that does not work for its own people, by unwarrented stavation in the name of "equality". The military overmuscle is the most obvious threat to the economics of a net food consumer or client country.

Paranoids should realise that the main danger is their own motherland is in the hands of a person who has no feelings. They should realize that it is better to be a mad christian fundamentalist than someone who lets his own civilisation die in order that he may remain in control of its destiny.

New World Order

The New World Order is upon us. Now the red, white and blue carpet will roll out, topple dictatorships and add to its extended family of members of the "global economy" where faith bestows privilege.

Sceptics beware. This is no mystical slide into some inevitability. Prophesy is easy, things are going to get worse, before they get better. Its always that way.

Prophesy is in fact an art. A vague sort of science that allows the forboding truth be faced by painting other paths or new patterns that beget growth.

The actions of America are the actions of the evolving species of mankind. The actions of China are the same category of thing. Different method. More people.

America will not be able to form or sustain an significantly large empire before it ultimately collapses. So why go along those roads? Why does America need to take out its enemies? The simple fact is that the greatest tool of politics is fear. If the population can be made to fear, the reins of power do not pull you in all directions.

The Left Wing seeks to keep the horses in line, but attaching a framed harness, that makes it impossible for anything but uniform directed motion. Direction is achieved by decision, usually following discussion. It is all done with remarkable coldness yet a moderately amiable manner. The skill with which emotions become functional in negotiation is the mark of executiveship. That is how Saddam could control his unstable world.

Without Saddam, Iraq will become a world with a negative democracy. Where the people ruling the country are in minority to two other groups, and thus will always be objected to and the other groups, although diametrically opposed to each other, need the other to survive.

Saddam should not be mourned, except perhaps in the horror poetry genre and of course humour. A new genre of Iraq stand up comedian should of course savage both the full deck of fugatives and the US invaders. Humour is how the West survives. It is what allows us to survive in the face of failed love. It is what we hire at video stores when we are a little blue.

The US initiative of summarial invasion is an agressive action that has grown of US made policy. Why is NK going to use a nuclear weapon? What is their motivation?

Tariq Aziz

The USA captured the Iraqui I thought should have been the Knave of Hearts.

You got to have a soft spot for this Iraqi master of deception. Not sure that he killed anyone, but his loyalty to his leader seemed unfaltering, but somehow he was the one person that, using a range of Western cultural facial expression, good underacting and sheer political charm, could communicate what his boss was really thinking about.

It would be a great shame to see him executed. Something tells me his story is not finished, yet. He would make a great guest on the Oprah Winfrey show.

We do not believe that it is constructive for the USA to set itself the goal of destroying the UN"s credibility. It was the USA's choice as possibly the sole agency on Earth that could contemplate going to war in Iraq and the UK beside them, in order to achieve I would guess a 95% survival rate without the machinery of death that controlled their lives.

That there was a purpose in that control sadly did little for this now lucky civilisation, given the oppotunity of becoming an economic powerhouse in the global economy.

A stable political machinery that manifests a future for Iraq may have to appeal to the Iraqi people. It is an admirable goal. A happy and prosperous nation depends upon a fair education system that needs those who question authority, so many dead at the hands of a warrior lord society.

The people of Iraq will once again come under the yoke of control by its own people, and they in turn controlled by fierce religious belief.

It would serve a sad irony to the fundamentalist regime that may result from democracy. That Saddam was one of the most stupid and arrogant nationalistic dangers to the world was in little doubt.

Next it may be Yasser Arafat that the US turns like a screw , by widing the sphere of influence of his people rather than the spent leader. He may be the choice but Palestine will benefit from a discussion. It is time to stop killing.

A failure to share intelligence about Iraq before the war does not excuse also undoing the international representative body of most of the voices of this civilized world want where humans treat humans with humanity.

This churlish boycotting of all things French does nothing constructive for the serious dialogue and challenges ahead. Of course Americans are free to buy Brie or Feta as they please or use other adjectives than "French".

A rejection of any point of view, except the official one (i.e. being a good American friend means doing right by America), or the officially wrong one (aiding or supporting terrorism is all that is left seems an effort to damns not only Europe but the Democrats inside America.

What is achieved in sidelining the UN? Credibility with all nations? Or is this the aim of US foreign policy?

It would seem that it may well be, in which case it comes the USA against the rest of us. That is no formula for success, but by defining the world as a binary opposition, GW Bush has drawn a line around the United States and its interests rather than define humanity and due consideration to one's neighbour. Unlike what the Ludicrous Left is accused of by the Ranting Right, I believe that the intention of all that is good is for the tree of life to contain as many branches as possible.

If the US-AK coalition in Iraq invites the weapon's inspectors in, it avoids further weakening of Iraq. And lets face it, the more weapon finding expertise there is, the more likely the weapons will be found, and the less likely any new regime to namelessly use them against the US troups.

Consistent with this view, the US troups may face danger so long as any real Saddamite WMD caches remain. Playing politics over the removal of land mines is inhumane.

Make an agreement with me by a present, and come out to me, and then eat ye every man of his own vine, and every one of his fig tree, and drink ye every one the waters of his cistern.

The Bible II. Kings 31

Used with permission

The Balance of Nature

The balance of Nature has changed. Man, now tired of indulgent liberal ways turned to intervention by enforcement; death has been sanctioned to defeat the sadistic pleasure of tyranny but confined to the hands of the terribly human professional enforcer.

We are entranced now by conquering the unknown enemy that lurks inside and surrounds us. We lost a sense that our sins are necessary to break the unbearable maroon exactitudes of political correctness. Invented during an age where the attack on human liberation was by sneer and slight. In those days, we slaughtered morality with the humane razor, art.

We are now more satisfied to save the world with a gun and sacrifice knowledge. To shoot before questioning so when the suspect corpse croaks out last words, its easy to digitally alter the mouth and create history.

We have entered a new age of Digital Structured Slavery. A world more complex than it has ever been. Where wealth equates to more control. Where the methods and concepts of what forces we reign in are controlled. Where chaos can not roam unless it has a ticket with a number on it we can verify. Where art is attacked by morality.

We have passed though an era of realizing what scares us. What takes us below and makes us equal. What it is that drives us is no longer what is fantastic but a feverish compliance with burgeoning federal specifications of exactly what a good citizen of a civilized country must do, in order that they be defined and restrained by the tightening circle of acceptability.

We have passed through a time of verification, border checks, distrust sowed by the violent suicide protests of the organised oppressed, opposition to the greatest machine in the world, ploughing through other philosophies as its own philosophy trembles in a dishonest wake.

We enter a new age, and in this new age we can expect the background to be a glaring light that pieces through our very genetic makeup. Nazi experimentation is but stone-age alchemy against the precise and meticulous wave of DNA alteration techniques. This modern cult from which we expect immediate answers to new plagues that threaten to kill 5% of humanity.

Odd that the version of SARS that hit America is more benign and far be it from me to suggest, but to conjecture instead, that it is not beyond the capability of Gene Splicing Institutions to have combined, say, a new signature for the common cold (unknown to the human immunity) with a pneumonia (deadly) and the same common cold virus is doped with a toothless DNA cousin and we could be relied upon to develop immunity against the common cold.

*=signifies fictitious conjecture, any names used are intended to be fictional. Apologies if they coincide with any genuine reasearch facility.

It could transpire thus:

*GSI-Agency Labs develop the vaccine first and administer it to the armed forces. It could be administered alongside a smallpox vaccination, publicity explaining to the general population that it is too risky and expensive except for "vital service personnel".

A harmless cold is released to the general population, giving them immunity to the deadly pathogen.

Then the deadly pathogen is released by miniature missile drones dropped by satellite and glided in to land, undetected in some Eastern village. The viral package encased in a package of frozen nitrogen explodes upon impact. The virus spreads very slowly into the major cities, with no evidence of its introduction.

Over years, the virus spreads into the population, and the world population is reduced, except for the immunised. The eugenic goal and net effect is an alteration of society.

It is well within the capabilities and intentions of today's world. That is where we live. That is our home.

Laws are needed to protect our world from our technology before someone strikes a Genetic Modification Error. The eventual consequence of favouring survival of the most destructive is the elimination of lesser forms, the destruction of Nature's complex infrastructure.

That is what we have done and that shall be our demise. It is the actions of the very weakest of our world that define the boundaries where most of us dare not roam.

Iraq invasion fails to save culture

Iraq's National Libarary and archives have been destroyed completely. It is not clear that this is due to bombing or if it is due to civil disorder. Either way, it is a crime against all humanity.

Iraqi criminals raiding and looting as soon as shackles are removed is clearly wrong. The victims of their grasping greed also lived under Saddam's regime. The destruction of the regime seems like a good idea, today.

The destruction of human culture is a war crime. The US military are not protecting Iraq for the future of the Iraqi people by letting mob rule succeed.

This incident is the wastage of human experience, the rendering insignificant of Iraq's wonderous past.

Not Syria ?

There is always someone in every war. A mouthpiece to pre-massage opinion and draw the initial reaction. In this war it is Jack Straw.

Syria seems the focus that requires the denial of a bishop. Jack Straw's word is a sacrifice that Bush can afford to be loose with. Not so sure that Tony Blair will not attempt to catch Jack Straw as he draws flak for disagreeing with GW Bush's direction into Syria.

It remains to be seen what the outcome of the NZ Prime Minister's extraordinary statements and apology to the USA President. Under the circumstances, tight lipped diplomacy was dropped for a few minutes as Helen Clark delved deeply into hyper liberal mode and yearned for a US lead by Al Gore that would not have gone to war with Iraq.

The invasion of Iraq has become a reality and part of human history. Saddam's power is blown to pieces.

Time to take a breath and consider direction, we thinks.

India / Pakistan Nukes

Both India and Pakistan may question the path of the Bush doctrine of complete intolerance of anything but clean cut American culture as another defacement of South Asian culture in Western eyes. To defeat the dragon, you must look it in the eye. You must be able to outlast its glare or suffer its fire. Once you commence with such a contract, it has been an historic expectation that to fight back is noble and to accept foreign intervention in the destiny of one's own world was unbearable.

Predictions Dept

By the US's very own doctrine, if the borders of conflict and military takeover are expanded to fulfil some kind of doctrine, the US instantly transgress from protecting the world into a new age of attacking the neighbours of Iraq.

All the way to North Korea. Now what is that saying to Everyones' Big Brother? China is on the way to North Korea. China would have to at least allow US troups in and something tells me that is the end of the world. The end of so many worlds that humanity indeed turns to forces greater than itself, it turns to its must fervent Gods and Powers and Forces.

Somehow, one could imagine Iran giving up its Nuclear aspirations in return for US protection, both from itself and China. A US umbrella of "protection" where the US offers to permanently threaten any invader of your terrority with invasion, and regime installation at whim, blowing the tip of a smoking gun, cheap and efficient, and in return you do not have a military need.

It is the path to one thing.

It is the path to the end of countries. We predict that the twenty first century will see the dissolution of most boundaries of identity and the uniformity of the systems of control.

The establishment of a Universal currency that eventually competes with International exchanges and is operated by infaliable machines built into the world's structure.

The establishment of a Global Army.

The New Authority will defeat the UN and abolish national difference, effectively resizing America to the rest of the world, except for Opt Out nations, that remain independent, such as China, Greater Switzerland, The United Nations of Africa, The Swedish Empire, Holland and Israel.

The New Rules

Ramy Khoury, editor of the Daily Star in Beirut, Lebannon, wrote,

"If Washington merely suspects that terrorists may one day emerge from your land, or that you might in future threaten your neighbors, you have only two options: You change course and shape up, or you are finished as a governing regime. If you behave as Baghdad behaved, defying the new rules of the game, you suffer the same fate as Baghdad is suffering."

Saddam Hussein was a convienent source of evil control that suited the CIA perhaps and a Reganite fear of Iran. In the days of the edict on Salman Rushdie and the Ayotollah Khomeni Saddam did not head the most repressive or evil reigime in American eyes. He could be relied upon to stay at war for some time as the seeds of evil germinated.

The invasion of Kuwait is what started the trouble with America. You just don't go launching a huge army against another state and get away with it, especially when its small and produces a lot of oil.

Saddam has been rubbed out. His bluster about Republican Guard might could not be tested as their loyalty evaporated as America demonstrated a giant leap ahead in the horrors of war.

World War IV

Former CIA Director James Woolsey said

...the new war is actually against three enemies: the religious rulers of Iran, the "fascists" of Iraq and Syria, and Islamic extremists like al Qaeda.

By redefining the Enemies of America, Woolsey confirms his posting to Iraq. The Clinton era CIA man parallels Syria with Iraq. We have already predicted that a US Adminstered Syria Iraq buffer zone will be created and it would make sense if that gave America ownership of the oil pipeline to the Mediterranian. For exporting night goggles to Iraq, Syria will now be invaded with the full force of the US military, already in position.

War may be declared briefly: Israel may invade Syria from the South. This kind of military adventure is best formulated in secret. America wants a strong Israel and the hawks in America will want things to remain tense until they have a firm grasp on the engine.

Declaring the religious leaders of Iran as enemies is a dangerous move. Why is America their enemy? Because it stations troops in the Holy Lands of Islam. What is the unifying force that encourages America to do this? Not sure, exactly.

China will cope with North Korea. North Korea's threats and bluster seem best addressed with trade. They already have nukes, so its difficult to invade.

If they are so adept at manufacturing weapons, North Korea could just as easily make cars or computers. It makes no sense to take things to the brink with a trigger happy America. China would not allow it. It would be the wrong time for China if North Korea excited America to attack it. China is not ready for that war.

It is suffering the pain of fast track capitalism, and all those loose ends. It believes avoiding conflict with America is their best course, and so long as America also believes this, unresolvable conflict may be avoided.

Eastern Europe and the satellite states of the defunct USSR broke away when the controlling economy let go. China has been less eager to expand its empire and that has its rewards in economic stability.