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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KING ABDULLAH: SLEEPLESS IN RIYADH

Oil prices, driven by ratcheting tension over the Iranian seizure of fifteen British sailors, bored through $66/barrel today closing at a 6 month high-- Adding to the upsurge in regional anxiety, King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia chastised the American occupation as illegal imploring other Arab leaders to patch up political animosities or continue being dictated to by foreign powers like the US-- Are these comments just designed for Arab Leaguers and will tomorrow then beget business as usual or is there a rift developing between the Sunni Saudi Royalty and Lame Duck Bush??--

State Sec Condi Rice on Monday called on Arab Governments to"begin reaching out to Israel,"-- Not exactly the warmest of rejoinders from the Saudi King to the posturing Secretary but lest his pointed remarks missed their target he added point blank "It has become necessary to end the unjust blockade imposed on the Palestinian people as soon as possible so that the peace process can move in an atmosphere far from oppression and force."-- This sounds like the attempted 'Redirection' the Bush crew sought by swinging toward the Sunni side of the mayhem ledger in Iraq in order to lessen the Iranian influence among the Iraqi Shia, is not progressing as smoothly as planned--

Ann Coulter and Robert Kagan, mahogany-foxholed at the AEI, proclaim, as do many in mainstream media, undeniable success so far for Bush's Surge but Iraq's unceasing plethora of record setting car bombs last month proclaim something else entirely-- Now March's rate is on track and tempo to surpass February's record high bloodmark and the adaptability and persistence of these sectarian antagonists to continue expansion of their mayhem in the face of The Surge may be one reason the Saudi King feels confident enough to challenge Bush so publicly on the legality of his occupation-- Bush is not winning and cannot win and King Abdullah knows it-- Is Abdullah's plea for Arab unity a call to arms against the dictates of foreign occupation??-- Has Abdullah lost faith in the Bush's war policy??-- Does Abdullah think the Surge is succeeding??-- Reports from the Washington Post indicate Abdullah will cut and run from the state dinner the White House had planned in the King's honor sometime in April-- Lame Duck, anyone??--

That the Saudis themselves give aid and comfort to the Sunni insurgents is a given subject neither the administration nor the hometown media wish to breach to the general public or to the mal-informed demie majority in congress, but more Americans, by a long shot(no pun intended), have been killed in Iraq by the Saudi-aided Sunni insurgents than by the Iranian-aided Shiite killers-- A fact not too likely to be bandied about on 'Hardball' and certainly one not conducive to a fresh Sunni-American alliance, restoration of Baathist participation or victorious strategy-- 'There are no good options' has been the omnipresent shibboleth to the Realist realm of America's failing Foreign Policy but the word 'no' has not gained penetration into the inner sanctum of DC's omnipresent denial--

Seymour Hersh's article , 'The Redirection', paints the Saudi Kingdom as scared to death of Iran's sudden influential ascendancy into the great Middle Eastern Void created by the Neocon Shock and Awe and the utterly stupid dissolution of the Iraqi Army by Rummy's Boy Wonder Paul Bremer-- Iraq, as a country, has been murdered and Pandora herself must be keeping Abdullah sleepless in Riyadh-- Hersh described a Saudi/ American/ Israeli consort aiming at taking down Iran with massive aerial bombardment-- Uncertainty over who would fly the mission and pull its deadly trigger, considering the lack of political coin nabob Bush and slithery Olmert merit from low polls and lack of trust on each's home-front, might have gummed up the best laid plans of desperate men but the US Aircraft Carriers still continue to practice and maneuver in or near the Persian Gulf with one more carrier recently dispatched to join the others--

Fifteen sailors from Lame Duck Tony Blair's Royal British Empire managed to get themselves captured in disputed waters further roiling the region-- Blair upped the volume button on his professional outrage yesterday which only accentuated his ministerial weakness before replicating The Rose Garden and setting up camp-- One million dollars apiece and a covert state-of-the-art arms-for-hostages deal facilitated by clandestine repo campaign operators conjunct then wondrous ally Israel was the Ayatollah's ransom, yet Senor Reagan disavowed his own ban on negotiating with terrorists and then not so reluctantly paid it-- The hostages came home on Inauguration day and then it was Morning in America, again-- Five Iranians considered some kind of embassy personnel by Iran and captured inside Iraq and held still by the US merit potential bargaining chip status-- Latest word from Britain comes in concialtory tones seeking quick resolution to the problem a gambit Ahmadinejad did not immediately embrace--

The downward manipulation of oil prices last fall in vain effort to derail the demies from their electoral victory-by-default cost Ahmadinejad and his oil coffers a thinned out profit or two-- So expect this tempest to linger for a while barring, of course, a botched raid by Brit Commandos-- Turnabout may be fair play except that the immediate health of the American economy finds itself jeopardized by surging oil prices, surging corn prices, surging foreclosures, delinquencies and defaults plus downward spiraling housing sales, housing prices, housing starts and new housing permits to mention a just a handful of many convergent threats-- Waiting.......

THE PUTZ

"Iraq is going to be there — it's just a question of when we get back to it," said Harry 'The Putz' Reed the incapacitated demie leader backing down once more in a shrivelling show of abject disarray-- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi joined the retreat levelling Jack Murtha's plan at the knees-- Serious divisions inside the party have crippled whatever momentum last fall's elections had bestowed upon these demies-- Now they opt to cut and run from the American people whose flagging confidence in the ability of their government to act in their best interests increasingly demoralizes their natural optimism-- There will be no action to limit or repeal the Iraq war authorization or narrow the mission in Iraq-- The mission itself is now beyond Iraq and out of control, completely out of bounds, off the books and being run by rogue elements and private dual citizenry with whom the demies are too shy to tangle--

Indeed, reading Seymour Hersh's article "The Redirection" depicts a middle east in such pandemic corruption and complex rogue political intrigue involving such disparate energies as funding jihadist islamic Al Quaeda operatives with black money to oppose Hezbollah in Lebanon unbeknowst to the US Congress-- Correct, according to Hersh, the US via Saudi Royalty paying blood money to 9/11's Al Quaeda brotherhood to fight Hezbollah in Lebanon-- Or try this, Hezbolla's leader Nazrallah claiming in a personal interview with Hersh that Bush's real plan is a tri-partite divided state in Iraq and civil war followed by partite state in Lebanon-- The new Axis of Evil hideously playing with the desperate fires of doom.....The Bush Neocons, The Israeli Zionists and the Royal Saudi family -- The demies sadly evince no competence remotely capable of comprehending the internecine historical compulsion into which Bush and the Neocons have unwittingly coerced the American people and their government-- Aipac is working overtime behind the scenes in the once 'hallowed' halls of Congress-- Bush himself embodies pandemic confusion opting for darts launched at ever receding buzzwords--

Saudi Arabia pointed out to Bush and his war cabinet somewhere along the strange and twisted way this colossal mis-adventure unfolded that 90% of all Muslims worldwide are Sunni implying that our efforts in Iraq had aroused the enmity of Sunnis everywhere including their Kingdom-- An arousal of popular anger at such a level may be difficult to control to say the least and there's the lucrative importance of the oil business that might merit some of that more serious anger should the infidel bully in what's left of Iraq cross the wrong Rubicon-- Remember in the run-up to the war a week before D-day Bush inquired of his war cabinet what the difference was between the Shia and the Sunni-- The enemy as an afterthought, a clear admission he couldn't quite conceive into what kind of danger he was ordering America and her soldiers to march--

Not quite suddenly but so it might have seemed, the Bushies, having gambled and lost on transforming moderate shiite suits in Iraq into insurgency world-beaters, and running on empty to avoid the ignominious defeat described as imminent by the Daddy Baker group and all but assented to in acclamation by the world's scholarly foreign affairs punditry, underwent an epiphany of sorts and accepted the Sunni lifeline(replete with affiliations to the Muslim Brotherhood and the dreaded Salafis) that Saudi Prince Bandar offered in nebulous consort with Israel-- Choosing Victory, the idea which led to or at a minimum supported the Surge phenomenon, didn't have as its priority mission the decimation of the feeble self-imploding demies or their illusionary victory at last year's polls, but, point blank, did require the United States Forces to switch to the Sunni side of the mayhem adorned equation.....the sunny 90% side-- Not so cavalier a choice, mind you, considering that same Sunni side was and is still responsible for more than 90% of all American soldier casualties in Iraq-- This is a major defection impossible to understate but probably not the first time a major world leader of Decider status has taken his Navy and his Air Force and gone over to the other side-- Few Americans have any idea it has happened-- Probably even fewer in Congress-- Oh what tangled desperate webs we weave...

The Rubicon Bush now waits to cross is a full-scale aerial bombardment of Iran-- His Israeli and now Saudi handlers have convinced him that Iran is the new Dragon definitely in big urgent bold-faced need of slaying-- Iran's roughly half a million man standing army dwarfs the Saudi 75,000 and now that Iraq's army was virtually decimated by oblivion's Rumsfeld and his lackey Bremer, one can understand threadbare Saudi security hanging its bleep out in the breeze-- Hersh writes that the Saudis want Iran attacked but not by the US-- The duplicitous, or is it 'realist', Saudis want Israel to do the dirty deed because if the US does it the entire region will blame the Saudi Royals whereas if Israel wipes Iran off the face of earth the corrupt and degenerate Saudis can blame the degenerate and corrupt Zionists-- So if the vaunted Israeli Air Force wipes Ahmadinejad and his Shiite Mullahs off the proverbial map "vanishing from the pages of time" and if the Mahdi Army of Shia upstart Moqtada al-Sadr is 'taken out' by the Surge and the now US allied Sunnis capture Iranian oil fields and those in Iraq all financed by the Saudi oil revenue ....Voila!! .... Victory!! .... The New Middle East!!!.......Bush equals Churchill and the 3500 American Soldiers didn't die for nought-- Baby, you can drive my car, into the infinitude of cheap oil-- Such is fantasy............

Where Russian interests and where Chinese interests configure in all this should be a worrisome anti-dote but Reason is currently not coin-of-the-realm in this imbroglio-- Now that Bush has allied with the Sunni insurgency what happens if the alliance isn't returned??-- What if the insurgency decides to overthrow the unpopular Royalty and exile them to ill-repute in Las Vegas???-- And amidst all the questions surrounding this craven change of strategery, where do the hapless demies fit-- They are not even in the game-- They don't know what's going on-- They don't want to know-- Aipac is dealing their cards and doesn't want them to know-- All they've got left is Willy Loman's shoeshine and a smile--They may as well be watching American Idol-- They may very well be--- Hell's bells, ...........they may even apply to audition--