“Yes, I was quite sceptical. Less so over the years. They’re desperate. Everything they touch is in ruins. They’re even in danger of losing control over Middle Eastern oil — to China, the topic that’s rarely discussed but is on every planner or corporation exec’s mind, if they’re sane. Iran already has observer status at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization — from which the US was pointedly excluded. Chinese trade with Saudi Arabia, even military sales, is growing fast. With the Bush administration in danger of losing Shiite Iraq, where most of the oil is (and most Saudi oil in regions with a harshly oppressed Shiite population), they may be in real trouble.Under these circumstances, they’re unpredictable. They might go for broke, and hope they can salvage something from the wreckage. If they do bomb, I suspect it will be accompanied by a ground assault in Khuzestan, near the Gulf, where the oil is (and an Arab population — there already is an Ahwazi liberation front, probably organized by the CIA, which the US can “defend” from the evil Persians), and then they can bomb the rest of the country to rubble. And show who’s boss….”
Meanwhile, Nawaz Sharif, former Pakistani PM and a determined opponent of the Musharraf government (our ever-so ambiguous partners in the War on Terror) has been arrested on corruption charges on his return from exile in, of all places, Saudi Arabia.
More at Bloomberg.
And if that is a non-sequitor, make what you will of it…..
Yes, Bush could go into Iran — has wanted to for quite some time. According to an older “The American Conservative” issue, the smart money has expected this as a certainty for a long time. The only good thing about our unhappy occupation of Iraq, is that our failures there may have checked our administration’s hubris — a little. Time will tell, of course. One can only dream that Congress will rise up and prevent such a disaster.
<p>Congress will rise up….you jest, of course….</p>