The United States and Russia brokered a ceasefire in southern Syria a few days ago and it appears to be holding.
This is good news for almost everyone. Almost everyone.
Is it about oil? Is it about gas? Is it about pipelines? Is it about a central bank? Is it about power? Is it about greed? Is it about regime change? Is it about country balkanization? Is it about Iran? Is it about Russia? Is it about Israel?
Yes.
Is it about fighting terrorism?
No.
We are being very quickly drawn into the conflict in Syria, and no one seems to care.
Well, Americans don't care, but everyone else in the world does. They care a lot.
Last night I said there would be a response to our shooting down of a Syrian military jet.
Well, there was. But the response was even more forceful than I expected.
We returned to bombing Iranian-backed militias in Syria today.
If you liked the most recent Iraq war, you'll absolutely love war with Iran.
Make no mistake, war with Iran will be an epic disaster. A Napoleon invading Russia in 1812 level of catastrophe.
But facts and reality has never been enough to change Donald Trump's mind.
Trump has loaded his cabinet of trusted advisers with anti-Iran warhawks.
Fareed Zakaria has published at the Washington Post and declared on CNN that:
"Almost every terrorist attack in the West has had some connection to Saudi Arabia. Virtually none has been linked to Iran."
His column of May 25 is a significant breakthrough. He is a mainstream media spokesperson. He's speaking the truth. And he's still alive.
The destruction of ISIS has given Iran the one thing they have always dreamed of - the Shia Crescent becoming a political fact. Maybe more.
When I wrote this essay a few days ago, I was honestly puzzled why we had bombed the Iranian militias.
Today's news cleared up that mystery.
Hoping this is good news, I find it important to contemplate that elections themselves, especially in countries where women can vote, are such a contrast to Saudi Arabia's total dictatorship. Even if Iran is not a democracy, it has moved in the direction of becoming one, or so it seems.
There's nothing worse than being at a party and feeling like no one wants you there.
By "party", I mean the Syrian civil war.
By "no one" I mean everyone in the middle east.
The US has a very bad habit of running aroound overthrowing foreign governments, overtly, covertly, directly, or, preferably, by proxy. It almost always has multiple motives and goals when it does so. There is usually a plan, generally half-assed and poorly thought out, but a plan all the same. It also usually has a replacement government in mind. One or more aspects of the plan usually require a puppet or sympathetic government.
Is there any way to stop this?
The above title is from an article written in 2009.
"The Pentagon is accelerating by three years plans for a super bunker buster, the GBU-57A/B or Massive Ordnance Penetrator or MOP, a powerful new bomb aimed squarely at the underground nuclear facilities of Iran and North Korea."
One airstrike does not make a war.
For instance, President Clinton bombed Iraq every week for eight years, but it took Bush to lead us into a disastrous war.
So are we going to war with the Assad regime? The rhetoric is unclear at this point, but it is alarming.
