More deaths and destruction in the Middle East!
Hopes of any peaceful settlement in the Middle East were blown away earlier today along with a Palestinian suicide bomber who blew himself up in central Tel Aviv Monday, killing nine people and wounding about 50 others.
Rumors were plentiful in Washington last week that a military strike on Iran was a possibility after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced that his country had succeeded in enriching uranium, a necessary first step in producing a nuclear weapon. According to a very reliable source who spoke to me on condition of anonymity, a military strike on Iran was -- or maybe still is -- in the offing, as was reported by Sy Hirsch of the New Yorker.
It's not easy being a faithful ally of president these days. Many world leaders who supported the American president in his Iraqi expedition, either politically or by contributing troops to the Iraqi campaign, have systematically found themselves voted out of a job.
In Italy this week Bush lost his staunchest European supporter ever with the defeat of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and his conservative Forza Italia to centrist Romano Prodi and his alliance of Catholics, leftists and communistsThirty-three years ago Jean Raspail wrote "The Camp of the Saints,"his almost-prophetic book on immigration gone wild. The French author explained how social conditions in the developing world deteriorated to the point that it forced millions of refugees from the Indian subcontinent to storm the beaches of southern France after commandeering an armada of cargo ships. At the same time, milliona of hungry Chinese oozed across the Amur River into Russia. With refugees flowing like uncontrolled mercury into Europe from the east and west simultaneously, the face of Europe was suddenly changed -- forever.
Could the same be happening in the US with 12 million "aliens.?"
Only a few days after strong rumors of a possible preemptive U.S. and/or Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear facilities circulated like wildfire around the Washington Beltway, Iran said it has taken its nuclear program forward.
"Uranium enrichment has been achieved," boasted Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Tuesday to a jubilant crowd gathered in Mashhad, during a speech televised for the world to see. This latest step in Iran's nuclear program brings the Islamic Republic that much closer to acquiring nuclear weapons.
The author of the report, Nawaf Obaid, an adjunct fellow at The Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, recently released a comprehensive study of the situation in Iraq titled "Meeting the Challenge of a Fragmented Iraq: A Saudi Perspective." offers invaluable background on the various players and political parties elbowing for power in post-Saddam Iraq. The following are extracts of his report.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's often-controversial rule came to an abrupt end -- maybe? -- Monday after a tumultuous five years in power. This places the center-left back in control. Assuming exit polls are correct the center-left alliance leads with a margin of 4 percent to 5 percent.
President Bush is right when he says there is no civil war in Iraq. The Commander in Chief is right on the money, there is no civil war in Iraq. The spiraling spate of sectarian killings is far from civil.
"United States policy in Iraq is widening sectarian divisions to the point of effectively handing the country to Iran," commented Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal while on an official visit to Washington on September 20, 2005. "We fought a war together to keep Iran out of Iraq, now we are handing the whole country over to Iran without reason... Iraq is disintegrating."
A new report by Nawaf Obaid, an adjunct fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, reveals some chilling realities about the U.S. intervention in Iraq and explores a Saudi view of the ramifications of the war.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said while on an official visit to Washington on September 20, 2005: "United States policy in Iraq is widening sectarian divisions to the point of effectively handing the country to Iran. We fought a war together to keep Iran out of Iraq, now we are handing the whole country over to Iran without reason... Iraq is disintegrating." Latest report by Nawaf Obaid, reveals chilling realities about the U.S. intervention in Iraq.
(click on the above link to see full story.)
The Iraqi Islamic Reconciliation Summit will be held in the Jordanian capital, Amman, on April 22 -- it will be Iraq's last chance to avoid civil war.
(Click on above link for full story.)
The violence in Iraq may is not considered by Washington as a civil war.
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Protesting a controversial law meant to encourage employers to hire young people without suffering heavy social taxes, the French have taken to the streets as Prime Minister Dominque de Villepin's dream of reaching the Elysee Palace fades with the smoke from every tear gas grenade.
(Click on above link for full story.)
Having won the legislative election in the Palestinian territories, Hamas faces new challenges.
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