The latest month’s wackiness in the world of international relations, politics, and brinkmanship.
US ‘considering military force in Syria’: If you read this article the headline is not exactly true, the Pentagon is enaged in contingency planning but is not preparing for imminent action. There are elements in Congress that would love to see it but as of now Obama is still being partially smart and resisting calls for direct US intervention, which would be a mistake no matter how you look at it.
With little argument, House limits U.S. military involvement in Syria, Egypt: I wil believe it when I see it. The administration will do whatever they think is necessary and justfy it later regardles of the wisdom of any intervention. The US only has a stake in Egyt to the extent that traffic through the Suez Canal is interrupted. Beyond that, we should have no interest in the winnes and losers. The Middle East is rapidly becoming geo-strategically irrelevant as their oil supplies become less vital to the US and world economy.
Egypt: scores killed as army launches offensive against Muslim Brotherhood & Egypt’s interim president says PM has right to give military arrest powers: You read it here first, these are the first steps to the incipient Egyptian Civil War to accompany that in Syria. Does anybody really think the MB is going to take the coup lying down? They did get 51% of the vote after all. How long until McCain starts saying we should arm the MB rebels? The people who should be worrying the most right now are Israel and if anything they should be supporting the military in trying to impose a secular regime. The ultimate nightmare for Israel is Islamist regimes in both Syria and Egypt. We could then see a replay of the 1956 and 1967 wars. Is the resurrection of the UAR far off now?
Syria’s Assad says he certain to defeat rebels: Given that his forces seem to have the upper hand right now after the intervention of some Hamas forces I would say he has reason to be confident. Unfortunately the force balance is very unpredictable and whether he wins depends very much on hat the West does. I would guess that if he gets too close to winning the hawk-idiots in the US will get their wish and we will see Americans dying over there to ensure that the rebels win. How ironic is it that in that case we would be fighting to help Islamists gain a victory. This Civil War, like every other is complex and best left alone because regardless of who we assist we will be hated by somebody and their is enough AMerican hatred in the region as is without adding to it.