First reported by Iran, later confirmed by other sources, a US nuclear sub entered the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz earlier today.

If the US is serious about calming war fears in the region, that’s probably not the very best way to do it.

Subs fall into two major categories, missile boats (subs are called boats, not ships) and the attack subs that hunt them. The latter category also hunt ships. I bring this up because there is no significant reason for an attack sub to be wandering around those shallow Gulf waters by itself. (more…)

South Korea has suspended trade with North Korea. Along with investment and everything else except ‘humanitarian aid’. They will not even allow North Korean merchant shipping to pass through South Korean territorial waters.

The US has ordered the 28,000 or so troops we still have there to coordinate efforts with the South Korean military to ‘defend against aggression’, after statements that North Korea must pay some unspecified price for torpedoing a South Korean ship, which everyone now agrees they did do.

North Korean has ordered all ‘defensive forces’ to prepare for total war with South Korea, and by extension, the United States. (more…)

Stock market may be crashing.

Dow futures down over 230 points to 9833. That is WAY below magic 10000.

If you have stock, please pay attention to it very soon. Tomorrow may be the beginning of the descent into the abyss. Not for sure. Nothing is for sure in the stock market. But keeping a close eye on it would be very, very wise.

Iran’s President Ahmadinejad says, “Israel’s destruction is near.”

Iran says their (essentially bogus) uranium transfer deal with Turkey is off if UN sanctions approved, some of which are nearly certain to be approved. (more…)

President Obama’s Chief of Staff, Rahm Emmanuel, is in Israel, ostensibly for his son’s Bar Mitzva (coming of age at 13), which he calls a totally personal affair. But he has meetings scheduled with Israeli President Peres, Prime Minister Netanyahu and Defense Minister Barak. Israeli sources say he is meeting with the three most powerful government figures in that nation to make sure Israel does not snap the leash and make a preemptive move toward any of the conjoined states of Iran/Syria/Lebanon.

John Kerry, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is in Syria to talk with Syrian President Assad about the ’stability of the region’ and… again according to Israeli sources… to keep the Syrians and, more especially, Lebanese Hisballah from overreacting to the largest war preparedness drill Israel has ever undertaken. That drill, Turning Point 4, started a few hours ago and will last for at least five days.

Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman, charged with the State Department’s portfolio for Syria and Lebanon, is giving press conferences around the Middle East, including Syria, to air US concerns about Syria transferring munitions to Hisballah in Lebanon. His job is to kennel the dogs of war throughout the region. I do not envy him.

We are trying very hard to keep a war from starting right now.

That’s good.

But the necessity for extraordinary acts in the service of peace tells me that peace is far from certain.

This is hopefully just cautionary. When one side gears up, the other side gears up just in case.

Sunday, Israel will begin Turning Point - 4 national drill against massive attack by missiles carrying conventional and non-conventional (read chemical) weapons. It will be held in 68 cities throughout Israel. It’s a big deal drill.

Naturally, the adversarial nations to their north suspect it is cover for an aggressive move. It probably is not. But, what do I know? And that’s no doubt what they are saying. We don’t know for sure, so we have to be ready. So they are transferring thousands of Hizballah military personnel to the border of Lebanon and Israel. Btw, that’s just a few miles from Mount Megiddo, which some see as the location of Biblical Armageddon. Food for thought, there.

Anyway, the obvious problem with all this drilling and moving about is that when two nervous and highly armed groups of people start doing things that can so easily be misinterpreted, what they plan may evolve into what they do not plan. And Israel’s adversaries know by now that US carrier strike forces are on their way to their region.

So things are hot, things are dicey, things are prone to sudden chaos.

But if all goes well, it will not be time quite yet. Turning Point 3 was held in May, 2009, and the sky did not fall.

Although, things are a bit different now.

President Obama has dispatched Carrier Strike Group 10 to the Persian Gulf.

The USS Harry S. Truman with its attendant ships and Marine strike force sails tomorrow, according to Israeli military sources. They will be joined by additional guided-missile cruisers and destroyers to enhance their presence and capabilities. And, quite unusually, the German warship FGS Hessen, which will be under American command.

We have had only one carrier group in the area for quite some time, all the time Obama has been President. Traditionally, we up the ante to two when we want to project our military power into the Gulf, usually for political reasons. Two is cautionary.

However…

Same sources say the Obama administration has decided to send at least two more carrier strike groups (more…)

The tale has been told on the next round of sanctions against Iran for pursuing nuclear parity with the West. (more…)

Syria is building a Great Wall in Lebanon.

No kidding.

Bet you don’t see that one in the mainstream news.

It is so big (how big is it?) that construction stores in the Syrian capitol of Damascus are pretty much out of cement, putting a halt to many construction projects in Damascus. This is not a pipe dream. It is current reality. (Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu should have thought of this to solve the East Jerusalem building crisis.)

Seriously though… this is really weird, and very ominous for Israel. (more…)

The stock market is having problems.

A trillion dollar rescue in the European Union caused brief euphoria, and then markets worldwide began sinking on the realization that the money for the rescue came out of thin air. It was all smoke and mirrors.

In the works is a new rule that essentially will stop trading when a stock starts crashing too much. That is ascribed to the recent huge down-up spike that is said to have been human error. Horsefeathers. If that were so, there would not be a new rule. There is fear running rampant in the capitols of the world, as countries ‘too big to fail’, like France, may have their sovereign credit downgraded as larger and larger numbers of people realize there is a strong wind rattling the house of cards that is the current world economy.

The rule, if implemented, is to keep the market from crashing too quickly. That tells me that even the big boys in charge see the crash coming. (more…)