Drums of War - update 2
This is difficult, because there are not a lot of sources. But this is what seems to be happening.
As detailed in the Major Update two posts ago, Iran’s President Ahmadinejad hosted the leaders of Syria, Lebanon’s Hisballah, and Gaza’s Hamas to put the finishing touches on who does what in time of war. The question was whether that meeting would end with discord for some reason, or with all parties agreeing on what they were to do.
Apparently, it was agreeable.
Ahmadinejad is going on to host in Tehran this weekend an extraordinary meeting of what is said to be all the Arab Islamists and terrorist groups that Israel says Iran sponsors, “to finalize their roles in military operations against Israel in the event of a Middle East conflagration.”
Some of the heads of those ‘organizations’ are not going to be there, for fear a drone will loose a hellfire missile into the meeting and take out a very unusual concentration of anti-US/Israel leaders. It is probably still very tempting to take out a few of those who attend as they come and go. Which is why Lebanon’s Nasrallah, and others, will apparently phone conference to the meeting.
If all goes amicably — and all indications are that it will — then the coalition centered on Iran will have all their ducks in a row, and be ready to start or respond to a war. They swear they will not start one. They swear they will retaliate if one begins.
Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu keeps swearing Israel will not start one.. but does swear he want “crippling sanctions” against Iran.
Our President does not even grace the idea of war with a comment. Of course the US will not start a war with Iran’s coalition. And we have Israel on a tight leash. We’re not even entirely sure we want to do sanctions. Clearly, the EU, Russia and China do not.
So we need not worry about a war in the Middle East, because no one wants to start it.
Everyone is ready for it, yes. All have their dogs of war in place, yes.
But it won’t happen.
—
Repost: apparently it was not entirely clear that I was being a little cynical at the end of the post above.
Yes, we do need to be concerned about a war in the Middle East, because having that much military material and manpower on each side, ready to act upon the slightest provocation, is inherently dangerous.
I actually do think the chances are very high that war will be brought upon us. The only way around it at this point is for one of the sides to do a 180 degree turn and stand down. I feel that things have advanced too far for that to be a probability.
Hope that makes things more translucent. Best wishes for us all.
