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IMHO it will be Syria...but here is Chris Floyd:<br><br><br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/article.asp?ID=3484">www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/...sp?ID=3484</a><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br><br>Chris Floyd – The Moscow Times August 18, 2005 <br><br>Now is the summer of discontent for President George W. Bush, a man beset on every side – by a failing war and falling popularity, by scandal, suspicion and rising hostility, even in the red-state heartlands. With each passing day of his long vacation in the Texas wastes, his presidency is shrinking palpably before our eyes, his wildly inflated public image shrivelling like a punctured balloon. <br><br>The fountainhead of his trouble, of course, is the murderous quagmire he has created in Iraq. Some say he has no exit strategy, no way to escape the corrosive effects of this gargantuan disaster, which is draining his support and destroying the aura of the all-conquering "war leader" that he used to impose his radical right-wing agenda on the country. The tide has turned against him at last, some say; he's a lame duck crashing to the ground. <br><br>But those writing Bush's political obituary have "misunderestimated" him once again. For it's becoming increasingly clear that Bush does have an exit strategy from Iraq – and it runs through Iran. <br><br>For months, the Bush Faction has been conducting a low-key PR campaign to put Iran in the crosshairs for a military strike. Last week, Bush himself upped the wattage with a public declaration that "all options are on the table" for slapping down Tehran, Agence France Presse reports. He even alluded to the invasion of Iraq as an example of the kind of action he has in mind. Bush scarcely bothered to hide his disdain for peaceful solutions to the row with Iran. After mouthing the usual pious lies about "working feverishly on the diplomatic route," he immediately dismissed such efforts with a sneer: "As you know, I'm skeptical." <br><br>The chief angle of Bush's warmongering campaign has been Iran's nuclear energy program. Although Iran is allowed by international treaty to develop nuclear energy resources and has been proceeding under international supervision, there are concerns that Tehran might follow the example of U.S. allies such as Israel and Pakistan and use the technology to develop a secret nuclear weapons program. This has been the cue for a reprise of those "smoking gun/mushroom cloud" tropes that the Bushists used to such great fear-rousing effect in fomenting their aggression against Iraq. <br><br>But the latest investigation by the International Atomic Energy Agency found that Iran is not developing a nuclear weapons program, The Independent reports. And Bush's own intelligence services say that even if Iran did start a weapons program, it would take at least 10 years to produce a bomb – plenty of time for "feverish diplomacy" to work, you would think. So while "Iranian Nuke Threat" is still a good scare phrase for a cable news crawl, it might not be enough to sway an increasingly war-weary public to leap into another military adventure. <br><br>That's why the Bushists are throwing new tropes into the mix. In his chest-thumping bluster last week, Bush said pointedly that he would be willing to use military force to "provide the opportunity for people to live in free societies." That's a blank check for hitting Iran (and many other countries) any time he feels like it. <br><br>But such noble gasbaggery might still prove too vague to close the deal. So now they've waving the bloody shirt: "Iran is killing American soldiers in Iraq." That's the charge currently percolating through the corporate media – NBC, Time magazine, etc. – from the usual anonymous "senior officials" and the never-anonymous but always mendacious Pentagon warlord Don Rumsfeld. "It's true that weapons clearly, unambiguously, from Iran have been found in Iraq," he announced last week, with same clinched-sphincter certainty he once displayed in declaring that he knew where Iraq's WMD were hidden: "They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad, and east, west, south and north somewhat." <br><br>Left unexplained is why Shiite Iran would want to help Sunni insurgents overthrow a Shiite-dominated Iraqi government led by Tehran proteges (and employees) who are busy aligning the country with, er, Tehran. That's the kind of self-defeating stupidity one might expect from the Bush poltroons, who have spent $300 billion and almost 1,900 American lives to establish an unstable, terrorist-ridden, fundamentalist Islamic state in the center of the Middle East. But it's unlikely that the subtle Persians, with 3,000 years of statecraft behind them, would be foolish enough to kill the golden goose that Bush has handed them by destroying Saddam and installing their allies in power. <br><br>Still, a lack of sense and credibility in a <>casus belli<> has never hindered the Bush Faction before. And it won't now. The plain fact is that Bush doesn't want "diplomacy to work" against Iran. He wants the situation to reach a crisis point that will "justify" military action. It's the only form of politics he knows: You foment (or invent) a crisis, then use deceit, fear and brute force to impose your radical agenda. And the takedown of Iran is a long-held ambition of the corporate militarists behind the Bush Faction's relentless quest for "full spectrum dominance" over world affairs. <br><br>The "high" Bush got from his Iraq assault is now wearing off, politically and personally. He needs another hit of blood and destruction. And don't think he's worried about the prospect of a much wider conflagration arising from a bombing strike against Iran. After all, chaos and instability only mean more money for his war-profiteering family and cronies -- and greater authority for "war leaders" seeking to "secure the Homeland." <br><br>More war is the only way for the Bush Faction to maintain its power and keep advancing its rapacious agenda. So there will be more war. <br><br><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>

One BIG mistake the hitler war machine made, was to engage on TOO MANY fronts at the same time. <br><br>Let's see: we have the ongoing slaughter in Iraq and Afghanistan. Next we will have another hot-spot in the middle east, likely Syria or Iran (Syria- prime candidate)- and then we're upping the aggression rhetoric and military movements in the Taiwan question and now in South America- looks like trouble ahead and the great american empire is due to fall soon-- history repeats itself again! <p></p><i></i>

<!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2005/08/19/2003268327" target="top">North Korea.</a><!--EZCODE LINK END--> <p><!--EZCODE IMAGE START--><img src="http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a239/ZeroHaven/tinhat.gif"/><!--EZCODE IMAGE END--></p><i></i>

nope, omitted purposefully! North Korea is a no-go, because it can defend itself and has nukes <!--EZCODE EMOTICON START :\ --><img src=http://www.ezboard.com/images/emoticons/ohwell.gif ALT=":\"><!--EZCODE EMOTICON END--> <br><br>did you ever wonder why they never attacked Cuba? hmm got the hint? <p></p><i></i>

-- what a fuggin egomaniacal nitwit (am I allowed to say something so critical? Or is this giving aid and succor to our 'enemies' -- uhm, and who are who? People who believe in responsible, life-respecting government supporting self-rule democracy, human rights, liberty and social justice?<br><br>What a topsy-turvey world.<br><br>Iran has just finished substantial new oilfield investment-developments, and as OPEC's second-largest producer is now producing some 4.2 million barrels of oil per day. If the Daddy-O WarBush Gang attacks Iran, I doubt if Iran's going to continue supplying oil to its major trading partners -- Among which India and China are the largest. Iran is also the world's second-biggest world producer -- it's hard to imagine where this amount of oil would come from if the US were to attack Iran -- and likely China might have something to say about it.<br><br>US policy is trying to discourage nations from buying oil from Iran, Sudan, Burma and Venezuela -- the 'bad boys' who the State Dept. and White House can't resist demonizing for not bowing-down to American demands --I'm not even sure what the hell the beef is -- Chavez and Venezuala apparently for his 'leftist' ideas, such as economic. trade and political/ideological support for Cuba and his promoting the Bolivarian Revolution (social justice, land and economic reform, populist civil-society self-empowerment, regional development, etc.), resisting US/neoliberal Globalism and Imperialist exploitation -- <br>But Iran? Or Sudan and Burma?<br><br>What gets me is the blatant in-your-face hypocrisy of the Bush Gang -- complaining about other nation's 'interference' when NO OTHER NATION has such a past and present history of interfering with and coercing other soveirign nations, let alone military invasions and interventions and subsidizng/directing coups and establishing crooked, brutal autocrats -- <br><br>US Imperialism needs to fall on its face and learn a lesson.<br>Since we're living in a corporate-led dictatorship, it wouldn't bother me in the least.<br><br>Starman <p></p><i></i>

well spoken, Starman! I agree!<br><br>I was in Europe on 9/11/01, and while the whole continent was shocked and mourned the dead, even had complete minutes of silence (unknown to americans - the WHOLE entire country, including radio and TV broadcasts go SILENT for ONE whole minute), prayer chains, candle vigils, etc....many also expressed the sincere hope that this day would teach the U.S. a 'lesson in humility'. No nation is invincible, no people are superior, no nation in history has been able to display militarism, coercion, empirialism without having to pay for it! Many people were hoping that 9/11/01 would bring the U.S. away from arrogant empirialism. The opposite happend; the sleeping giant/monster arose- with a head uglier than ever before- G.W. Bush. He is the world's and America's worst nightmare. <br><br>I'm definetely not a religious person, but living in the U.S. and seeing all this unfold, I can only pray that 'God help us', because nobody on earth can, when shit hits the fan.<br><br>hope is out there, just where??<br><br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>

<!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:red;font-family:comic sans ms;font-size:large;">we have a humungous opportunity to increase our happiness enormously - do what the founding fathers based the american dream on - limit fortunes <br><br>jefferson wanted it<br><br>lincoln wanted it<br><br>jfk wanted it <br><br>roosevelt wanted it <br><br>huey long wanted it -</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <br><br>now admittedly three of those got assassinated - i imagine by certain individuals who didnt want fortunes limited - but history shows that the people have always been able to bring down the high and mighty [and nasty and megagreedy and monomaniacal and vicious and insane] - get the numbers and you have a hope - 100% of humans will be much much better off, 99.9% can be convinced they will be much much better off; if everyone who hears the plan passes it on to just 1 person a month, everyone in the world will know it in just 33 months, so spreading the word is not hard; it benefits 90% financially enormously, and it benefits 99% financially, and it saves us all from nuclear winter extinction, so, ah, well, you know, why not? <p></p><i></i>

<!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong><!--EZCODE ITALIC START--><em><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:green;font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;">please excuse excessive size of previous - you dont get to preview what it looks like, on this <br><br>i discovered that the ezcodes [which allow u lots of buttons to play with] reappear if you clik plain text and then clik ezcodes</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--></em><!--EZCODE ITALIC END--></strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--> <p></p><i></i>

<!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:lime;font-family:century gothic;font-size:medium;">youd think that by allowing unlimited fortunes, youd have a better chance of being welloff - but actually 99% are worse off - and 90% of people a lot worse off - with unlimited fortunes - nobody is better off with unlimited fortunes; 1% have more money, yes, but they also have desparate insecurity and danger, topped off with nuclear winter extinction</span><!--EZCODE FONT END--><br><!--EZCODE FONT START--><span style="color:orange;font-family:georgia;font-size:small;"><br><!--EZCODE BOLD START--><strong>ps about ezcodes: type first, select and then choose fonts etc - otherwise youll have to retype the bit you want in whatever font etc in the panel which appears</strong><!--EZCODE BOLD END--></span><!--EZCODE FONT END--> <p></p><i></i>

hmmm... <p></p><i></i>