http://joshualandis.com/blog/?p=418
In addition to furthering our conversation/speculation about a coming war with Iran, this article by Alistair Crooke is interesting in that it mentions yet another idea about the recent IDF “attack” on Syria (one you won’t likely hear from American or Israeli news sources).
If you’ll read the comments afterwards, you’ll notice one by “Enlightened” which reads, “On a side note my brother in laws wife just returned fro lebanon after a six month holiday and reports are everyone is arming themselves! [sic]”
My father responded to the story in the NYT last week about Lebanese Christians re-establishing militias, training in the hills and stockpiling weapons (10/6) by writing “The Times article reminds me of the things I saw in l975 when I drove through parts of east Beirut. I saw welders converting pickups to gun carriers. It wasn’t long until serious clashes broke out between east and west Beirut.”
Anyone currently in Beirut wish to comment on the situation there? Is it as ominous as some are making it sound or is it all simply scare tactics to force a political outcome? The article by Crooke suggests that there is a heightened “inter-linkage” between current events in the Middle East, resulting in “hair-trigger instability and escalating tensions” that some unexpected and relatively insignificant event could ignite. He compares it to 1914 Europe, when an assasination in Sarajevo sparked WW1.
Re. whether there are signs that GWB is about to again waste American blood and treasure on another unnecessary war… Given the spectacular success of the present mess in Iraq, wouldn’t he and everyone around him be completely nuts to follow the same failed game plan a second time? Are they going to yank Colin Powell out of retirement and have him create another WMD scare over at the United Nations? I’m not convinced Prince George is smart enough to be nuts, but it sure seems like some in his inner circle are harboring dangerous apocalyptic fantasies.
And a lot of people who are a whole lot smarter than me seem to think they’re close to becoming reality…
PS — for more on Alistair Crooke, see http://conflictsforum.org/who-we-are/alastair-crooke/