SHARM EL-SHEIKH

The resounding show of support for the evicted Fatah Leader Mahmoud Abbas at the recent 4-way summit at Sharm el-Sheik may reverberate faux optimism amongst the member participants but certainly few if any other responses to the most recent flash point of military defeat offered any legitimate forecasts of success-- The redoubtable quality of the actors in this emergency drama leave plenty to be desired and fresh confidence from favorable outcomes may find manifestation difficult if not impossible to attain --

Egypt internally appears so fearful of nervous breakdown and internecine chaos that its ability to act decisively beyond its borders must be considered suspect-- Jordan, considering the precipice it finds itself apprehensively facing due to the sizable number of Palestians as well as Iraqi refugees residing inside its territory, appears somewhat placid, perhaps calm before the storm may be more apropos a description of its current condition, but, at any rate, it must also be considered, somewhat generously, as less than vibrantly capable or strong at the moment-- Israel beyond doubt is a near basket-case as a country, being led by a embarrassingly incompetent war-loser renowned widely for his inability to make good on his promises now basking in 3% poll popularity, as a country extolling denial even in the brazen face of chronic out-migration from the most talented of its citizenry, as a country enduring the dangerously demoralizing issue from economic stagnation, and the fear of apoplexy induced by the near total depletion of faith in their entire political order-- The continuing dissolution of its authoritative credibility does not denote a position of strength in todays' roiled Middle East--


And now these Big Three intend to bank their money and arms as well as their no longer credible futures on Mr. Abbas, another bribery-diminished leader of a fractured organization, most every observer realizes, is no longer totally controlled or unified, if it ever was, by its nominal leader-- An air of panic permeates the sudden creation of this summit, so massively over-covered by mainstream media but conspicuously unattended by the Saudi players, that belies the buoyancy of this rather blind improvisation-- Abbas as an undeniably visible crony to Israeli fixers, a Vichy kind of fellow, will never have the support of street level Palestinians no matter how much force he uses in attempting to secure it-- The more force he desperately applies the quicker and wider Fatah falls apart--

And what kind of offerings does the once proudly, if you remember distinctly, and politically credible Mr. Bush bring to the rallying rings of this last ditch circus??-- In a nutshell not very much-- Ladies and Gentlemen, Middle Eastern Envoy, Lord Anthony Blair-- Yes, the same Mister Blair who helped architecture the fiasco in Iraq and who will now use his considerable expertise, assuming he survives his obligatory turf war with State Sec Condi Rice, to solve the most intransigent complexities in recent Middle Eastern history-- Yes, that same Mr. Blair who on the day after vacating the storied premises of #10 Downing Street became the first former Prime Minister of England to ever be interrogated (for a third time) by British Police, you know, the almost mythical Scotland Yard,(doesn't quite reverberate as it once did, but a reputation much less tarnished now than, say, 'The Bureau's) concerning cash payments received for dispensing purchased 'honours'--

Blair will almost certainly be 'honoured' by this Middle Eastern quartet in their time honored tradition-- In fact this looks to be his big payout, big stage remuneration of the Neocon gratitude for turning a blind eye to all their bullshit passing itself off as real world intel in the run-up to Eternal War and for prancing around like a banty rooster confidently reveling in the bygone days of Imperial Romance and for refusing to acknowledge the utter defeat this maladroit enterprise continues to inflict upon his country and its supreme ally-- If this tragedy of error multiplied were not so emblematic of a world order in acute disrepair on the perimeter of outright collapse, Blairs parody of world leadership might have even been theatrically comedic instead of so painfully laughable--

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BACKING DOWN

Once more, the demies have have thrown in the towel on the Iraq funding bill-- Once more, the most weakened major political leader in the entire world subtracting Anthony (Poodle)Blair busy publicizing himself rock-star style with a farewell resignation-tour, and, of course, the ever irresponsible Ehud (3%) Olmert and possibly, according to recent open-source intel out of Pakistan, the popularity-challenged Pervez Musharrif, Mr. Bush has manage to cower the less than laughing-stock demies into abject surrender with a veto threat leaving no datelines for troop pullout in the immediate offing-- That a man incapable of whipping the Euro-liberals at the World Bank decimates these demies with such remarkable ease is strange testimony to the power vacuum enveloping the entire DC echelon--


Forty-seven Republicans, one independent and 19 Democrats voted with Jimmy Carter's favorite Prez, none of whom on the nominal demie's side were presidential candidates but chairman of the Armed Services Committee, the Israeli Senator from Michigan, Carl Levin kept the faith with his AIPAC handlers siding with the Lieberman ilk-- Harry Reid had the unmitigated temerity to denounce the Republican plan as weak and timid-- Non-binding demie cowardice hard at work-- No wonder positive congessional poll numbers of late have sunk like a stone--

Meanwhile fifteen more American troops had their young lives snuffed out over the weekend last-- The Sunni insurgents continue their Surge options more effectively than most American officials willingly admit-- Hundreds of bystanders have recently been slaughtered by insurgent car bomb attacks plied with increasingly sophisticated technique and for all intents and purposes a relative impunity that openly mocks the Bush security plans-- Iraqi security forces manning evermore checkpoints reportedly stop certain vehicles and beg for more bullets--


Market bombs which killed 140 people have an illustrious tendency to force reports detailing incessant mortar attacks against important targets such as The Green Zone or the Airport off the home pages of most news sites-- Few politicians see any hope of building a name for themselves invoking lines of cautious optimism once so prevalent at the Surge's initial foray into the slums of Baghdad-- How long can Moqtada Sadr order his militia to stand down while under-manned under-armored American forces fail to prevent ongoing Sunni butchery??-- The facts on the ground speak way beyond the charade of political dogma so rife in DC and they do not currently bode success much less chosen Victory-- How many months into the Surge so far??-- A Colonel struggles with the double-bladed logistics of faux optimism and reminds everyone the Surge is not yet 'fully-staffed'-- Well,........ Why not??--


The air of futility, the demies' maladroit skill engenders to display in broad daylight, reverberates across the dispirited country mirrored by the cloud of exhaustion and acute despair permeating the disintegration of Iraq-- Not just a country at singular civil war but one enduring multiple civil wars locally, regionally, and in some cases, inter-tribally-- The Iraqi government, strangely enough being supported by both Iran and the US, is increasingly irrelevant across much of its own terrain-- No government earns legitimacy by failing to deliver security and services-- The Iraqi government lacks real authority and it is incapable of serving its own people-- The canard that chaos will overrun the country should we pull-out belies the intense pervasive chaos and lack of structural, political and social cohesion manifesting already-- Accepting extant reality doesn't appear to be an option--

RESIGNATION

The architect of the undermanned invasion of Iraq has fallen from his prestigious position at The World Bank-- The unsavory groveling he employed to extend his current directorial rein embarrassed his patrons in the White House and distracted their daily focus from the mega-exigencies wrought by the continued failure to tamp down the incessant violence countrywide in Iraq-- Wolfie's graceless exit ended a troubled tenure in such a wretched manner no one would be sorry to see the sullied little worm go-- One more sullen demoralizing episode illuminating the ongoing loss of American influence in the big global picture--

The White House crew under bigboys Rove and Cheney smelled a paranoid conspiracy of liberal bankers (how more oxymoronic can they be?) full bore intent on punishing The White House via Wolfie for the grandiosely misbegotten Neocon strategy of remaking the Middle East through coercive gunfire-- To effect such a scenario the financially important world institution would opt to subvert its own inner daily workings in order to provide the arrogant Wolfewitzie enough rope to hoist himself to the rafters-- Once this was so deftly achieved the world mission of the Bank would be benched in some strange limbo while the Bank's board would devote its primary energy to management of the attendant media circus Wolfie would attempt to orchestrate to his advantageous survival-- All that only if your viewpoint mirrors Dick and Karl-- Wolfie's final gambit a pathetic schoolboy delusion to save unrepentant face-- His integrity tattered and diminished beyond repair he pleads with The Board whimpering this sleazy calculus: If you just tell them I did nothing wrong I will leave--

The White House now closes ranks once again as the once powerfully inept inner circle of Shock and Awe diminishes even further-- Two architects of the efficacy of aggressive eternal war, two major players in this criminal enterprise, have thrown in the towel this week-- Tony Blair's farewell fantasy tour extended its nostalgic air of egregious unreality into the Bush White House to say Tally-ho while Wolfewitzie chose humiliation over grace for his demeaning manner of exit-- The mood in the administration can't be aglow as odds-makers now consider Attorney General Gonzalez, whose top three or four deputies have also resigned, fair game for the next to depart-- The odds on Wolfie now portend ...... you guessed it......mega book deal as payoff where one would fruitlessly hope he would address his famous Salon magazine quote stipulating WMD's to have been a canard in the first place, the purpose to which, forcibly allowing US troops access to Iraq and its oil fields-- One suspects a facile vain refusal to face up to his own complicity since neither direct nor implied mea culpas find any solace of honor or,indeed, even punishment in the coin of today's realm-- Ask George Tenet!!!!--

At the twilight of the Conservative Epoch a litany of casualties sours the once powerfully prophetic and political battlefield-- When a championship caliber team sees through the dream of victory and realizes its fortunes will not be favored in the Big Game's outcome, out comes the finger pointing and the blame sayers and retreating die hards plot sick revenge-- Across the blathersphere the cacophony of anger, denial, and retribution only spells out the impending collapse of the order-- The Pharasaic Fallen reads like a list of Who's Who? from the halcyon days of Reagan's Morning in America-- Bennett, the gambler; Limbaugh, the designer-drug addict; Powell, the liar; DeLay, the hammer; Abramoff the bribester; Cunningham, the bribed; Pastor Ted and Jimmy Swaggert, Congressmen Foley and Jefferson, Coach Hastert, Armey, Gingrich, Lieberman, Kissinger, Perle, Tenet, Wolfewitz, Rumsfeld, Blair, Bremer, Franks, Gonzalez, Clinton, Abrams, Libby, Adelman, Kerry, Olmert, Peretz, Halutz, Rice, Lott, Gore, Falwell........... The blade next waits on Bush and Cheney........

Nancy Pelosi is only now calling for the administration to be held accountable for conduct surrounding the Iraq debacle-- Since this cannot possibly be true might it, at least, be factual??-- Yahoo quoted her as saying "Nothing is off the table."-- Does this mean......?-- No, of course, not!!!-- The demies still lack cajones enough to pass the minimum wage bill-- But clearly visible to most any cognizant observer is the utter implosive atmosphere surrounding this administration and the entire infected echelon-- The air of resignation hangs oppressively over DC and the ineffectual demies cannot muster enough force to fill the vacuum much less prevent themselves from being sucked down into the swirling morass themselves-- Even Bush weakened returns their flimsy serve in a match neither can save themselves from losing-- As much as they petulantly dislike to be reminded of the harsh discomforting fact, they, too, voted....... For the War!!--

No one seems sorry to see him go

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WINOGRAD

Israelis of all political stripes, some vehemently, some disgustedly, continue to demand the resignation of their Prime Minister who was mercilessly pummeled by a scathing denouncement in the long awaited report from the special Winograd Commission juried to examine the dismal performance of Ehud Olmert, his government and his military staff in the disastrous Israeli War last summer on Lebanon-- Shorn of all possible denial, the commission nailed ignominious defeat in no uncertain terms to Ehud's quickly closing door--

Bearing the unassailable earmarks of dead man walking, Olmert stands disconnected like a disheveled scarecrow in winter begging for a second chance to rewrite his embarrassing ineptitude and incompetence as a military leader-- Lost wars never go away and they never grant the defeated those sought after second chances-- The long road of Defeat eats all participants and it runs forever-- Olmert's succor currently roused from sycophantic loyalists who fall when his regime falls will fade as more calls for resignation pierce his oblivious denial-- The longer he desperately hangs on, off-key and out of tune, the longer Israel suffers--


Israel clearly lost on strategic, operational and tactical grounds and the commission, didn't flinch in spelling out the damage done and it's potential repercussions-- It did, however, refuse consideration of the moral aspects of Olmert's improvisational martial gambit in the first place that ultimately wrought condemnation from the entire region and most of the world-- Millions of cluster bomblets and their maiming potential left scattered across farmlands and playgrounds and demolished neighborhoods won neither moral kudos or simple tokens of friendship from anyone anywhere-- This, after which the cease fire agreement was, for all intents and purposes, acknowledged as fait accompli by all parties--

The Israeli psyche has been fractured by the loss of their once invincible hubris and deteriorating economy(frothy run-up in stock prices a mirage of exception) and a critical lack of true leadership(as opposed to posturing professional dandies and opportunists which the general population appears now to loathe) currently prevents her from coming to grips with the depressingly dangerous predicament-- While 150,000 Israelis fill Rabine Square protesting Ehud (of 3% poll support)Olmert's decision to resist resignation, the chaotic disconsolate condition of the country precludes any overt and legal action to remove the man too incapable of discerning his misguided train not only left the station long ago but also departed on rails heading in the wrong direction--

The country might just be too chagrined to care enough to lop off the political head this sorry excuse for a real leader-- Not unlike its last remaining ally, America, the whole political echelon is suspect-- Leaders who knew better, or should have known better, failed to summon courage enough to act-- Israel's existential threat ain't coming from straw man Ahmadinejad or Iran, it is roiling up from the shame within and the outward contortions that rabid denial of such exhibits-- There may appear to be temporary respite from the storm in simply wishing the whole sordid mess would just vanish on its own accord, but the ultimate problem of Olmert's incompetence and the open extant highly-visible corruption of a large swath of the current political class will continue to fester until the Israeli people's strength of will, until now painfully lacking, ends this regime-- Fat Chance in the current climate--

The weakest most abjectly damaged political leaders in the world today are those who lent their moral and political integrity(such that they bore) leveraging their soul as well to the faux glory embodied by the Project For A New American Century now hemorrhaging disillusionment and self-destruction in Iraq-- The project, concocted by a group calling themselves 'The Cabal' later monikered as Neocons', consisted of think-tank zealots, some bearing dual passports, who fervently calibrated Israeli interests to be absolutely synonymous with American interests in the Middle East and who first won praise for their project from Israeli hawk Mr. Netanyahu-- Cheney arrived on board without being cudgeled toting Scooter Boy and with magical help from charismatic Ariel Sharon quickly swiveled Mr.Bush into position-- Richard Perle ascended to Rumsfield's right-hand man whenever Paul Wolfewitz could not avail himself for duty-- Tough talking milquetoast Brit PM Tony Blair found martial seduction facilely to his liking as well as the newly found tone of belligerence charading through his imperially pompous but out-of-touch speech-making-- George Tenet the erstwhile enabler now sudden convert to the aggrandizing nature of self-pity whining for or to likes of Oprah-- The list could go on........ Powell, Rice, Rove, Libby, Lieberman, Feith(of faith-based intel),Bolton,............. No longer strutting but most definitely fretting their remaining hour upon the world stage and with history's unwelcome judgement still to come, these ghostlike figures shattered of credence, crippled of and by the power invested in careerism, world political influence, once strident, now nebulous at best, almost fanciful ........ Dead Men Walking........ All of them, now, like Ehud Olmert-- Losers in the tarnished limelight of history--


The degree of security Israel absolutely professes to need is simply unattainable-- And if the illusions possessed by this desire convince the many or even the few that such security has, currently or in the mythic past, been once attained it is simply incapable of being maintained-- Israel sees enemies everywhere and where those enemies are real they are all strengthened greatly by last summer's defeat as well as by upgraded guerilla tactics and military hardware-- Invincibility no longer feared and deterrence no longer beyond doubt, serious trouble now awaits this crusader state-- Hezbollah leader Nasrallah praised the Winograd Commission for looking defeat squarely in the eye and studying hard earned lessons for the future-- He will not take Israeli desires for revenge lightly--For Bush, Blair and the rest of the neocon boys, there is no future to rebuild-- The future is a football full of fear and failure and an horribly acute mess they created to be handed off to a successor they hope shoulders the blame they richly deserve-- A veritable wasteland devoid of Honor---

Lost time and opportunity is the bitter pill not found again, Ehud-- Just ask John Kerry and Al Gore about second chances-- Better yet, why not ask.......... Mr. Kissinger??--