MADAME SPEAKER

Nancy Pelosi's recent sojourn to Syria ostensibly in search of furthering peace efforts in the Middle East fizzled into frustration as the venal cynic who sent her into this grieving vortex with an encouraging message that Israel wanted to renew peace talks denounced her efforts on her return-- As a token of his sincerity presenting her with a captive Israeli soldier's dog-tags as an amulet for her safety and success, the corrupt and duplicitous Ehud Olmert, groveling in lapdog homage to the paralytic Bush/Cheney's lack of efficacious strategy, proceeded to stab her in the back by disavowing the veracity of her offer-- That Pelosi ventured to the inflamed region in the first place, no matter how significantly so her naivete, is searing testament to the insolvent rationale and acute weakness of America's flailing failing foreign policy-- Utterly transparent for the whole world to glimpse is the glaring bald-faced answer to the question of who really wants peace in the Middle East--

No matter how hard Madame Pelosi tries or how rational and articulate her personal efforts apply, the bottom line is that violent madness and coercive greed combined do not lend themselves to moral suasion-- In such an explosive cauldron feeling one's way to peace is fore-defeated but Pelosi's impulse to right the listing ship of American influence is similar to Senator McCain's market stroll into misbegotten self-delusion or political suicide-- Both sought to save a seriously deteriorating situation incognizant of it's deepening futility while their weakened astigmatic leaders hide among royal sycophants in deafening denial--

Bush, embedded and embunkered in mega-fantasy no cogency of fact will ever dislodge, decided, in an unmistakable metaphor of signatory retreat, not to renew a Rite of Spring by refusing to throw out the ceremonious first pitch on Baseball's Opening Day-- Mr. Olmert, the wavering loser, cornered by financial scandals and the luster of incompetent military defeat, will say or do anything to maintain his tattered grip on his waning authority--

Arial Sharon once bragged that he had America in his pocket, perhaps not too long after the ashen-faced Mr. Bush emerged from their meeting to proclaim Sharon, a Man Of Peace to a big wide world that knew quite better-- Olmert obviously had the inexperienced, AIPAC-bought Pelosi in his and has certainly showed her the bottom side of his Coin of Honor-- Nearly 60 years in the region and Israel has no friends to show for her endeavours except those she buys and the proof of Olmert's shameful treatment of Pelosi echoes why-- As Israel bears the earmarks of failed statehood, American gets ever closer to recognizing exit from the Iraq disaster is her last best option-- Thanks for the effort, Madame Speaker--

ACCIDENTAL VICTORY?

Strange week on the current affairs block-- Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri Al-Malicki who has publicly stated he is never allowed to move his own troops around Baghdad or even set up a checkpoint without first securing American permission, initiated invitations to all the major players in the middle east to join him at an early March round-table where the United States will come face to face with Iran and Syria and guess what....talk to each other-- Reconciliation???-- Too much to hope for given the extent of this incendiary conflagration???-- How deeply the toxicity of sectarian hatred has progressed???__ How many independent groups including intelligence agencies from outside countries are involved and the ease with which their unique agendas can derail even well-intentioned efforts??-- France agreed to attend but their I-told-you-so presence alone might be enough to scuttle the wounded pride of US options-- Bottom line, though....it's only the last place left to start--

Change of heart??-- Suddenly weak in the knees??-- The Decider in a grand stand-down??-- After failure upon failure upon setback upon setback in Iraq as well as Afghanistan did the improbable North Korean deal soften up the administration??-- His Feb. 15 speech to the American Enterprise Institute, the neocon think tank which supplied his rationale for initial Shock and Awe all the way up to the Surge which is more a reinforcement rather than a Surge in the classical sense, indicates that much of this failure has failed to penetrate his particular ideological paradigm-- At any rate, did what seems like an accidental/unintentional victory (or kow-tow?)by the diplomatic corps on the Korean Front and the ensuing praise it engendered world wide convince Bush to attempt another new way forward from the losing end of Iraq??--

A win is a win is a....... but meaningful tide-turning victories have been so few and far between during his Iraq war tenure--Having Malicki back-door the invitations is obviously designed to make it appear that the administration is only another interested party and not the desperado politico groveling for any way out of a disintegrating violent morass of his own making but the whole world knows better-- Bush doesn't really need to save face to ameliorate the world anyway-- What he needs is a Nixonian canard like Peace with Honor which allows the visage in his own mirror to appear less judgementally threatening to George himself-- He's the man he has to live with but that's really neither here nor there in the fluidity of this week's cascading events--

Interesting allegation last week that refuses to go away and hide, claims Karl Rove in receipt of an offer four years ago from Iran proffering to negotiate the whole nine yards... Nuclear options, Israel Palestinian peace ramifications, Hezbollah, Hamas and the compromises open to their government which the short sighted administration immediately dismissed out of hand in what.....a fear their hegemonic dreams might yield to some kind of contamination-- Sec State Condi Rice recently disavowed ever having seen the document ( but didn't disavow ever hearing about it)-- Such unnecessary dissembling which she shows no reticence in practicing with aplomb-- Iran as well as Syria have offered to start talks for years and the State Department, The DoD, The NSA, and the White House are all well aware of it--

Redundant reports all week concerning the inadequate training supplied our troops as they prepare to execute the Surge in another rush, the deterioration of our National Guard , and Joint Chief of Staff Peter Pace's unflinching public statements concerning the degraded condition of our overstretched under-manned under-armored troops in Iraq and the spent capacity to react to other trouble-spots around the globe should the need arise-- Apparently two full Army combat brigades were ordered to skip premier training for the shake and bake variety and just when the repo-men seemed to have turned the corner on portraying the lemming demies as a sniveling mealy-mouth crew who wouldn't support the troops out comes another scathing report illuminating the callous squalid treatment of wounded soldiers....our wounded soldiers... at the cockroach vermin-infested Walter Reed Hospital-- One top general has been axed while the Secretary of the Army tendered his demanded resignation-- Would that the mainstream media gets wind of the sordid treatment our volunteer soldiers receive from the careering Military (In)Justice System--

A disturbing question comes to the fore-- Are we needlessly sending thousands of ill-trained troops into the shrieking insurgent buzz saw while our diplomats cop to a surrender/cease fire/ withdrawal agreement in order to spin a canard that we were not defeated????-- Our Surge brought the enemy to the table and negotitiated a surrender on their part????-- Olmert attempted to similarly spin the Israeli debacle in Lebanon in such light last summer but was clearly and publicly rebuked by his own troops and their officers-- Dozens of Israeli reserve troops ill-trained and poorly fed were sacrificed on the final weekend even with the cease fire agreement already secured and in the pipeline-- Let us not even mention the material decimation including a relatively high number of tanks and personnel carriers or the damage to IDF's once vaunted reputation--

In Iraq General Petraeus reaped disconcerting news from his core team of PhD lauded insurgency specialists (serious academic achievers with critically impressive ground combat experience)-- Gen Petraeus' team reported after a country-wide survey of intel-gathering first-hand that the US lacks the troop count to credibly fight the insurgency-- British troops are cutting out in southern Iraq leaving massive potential for more violence in their wake-- Blair's Royal Empire has tasted its fill while less self-enamored Denmark opts to follow suit-- The coalition under-weighted as it once was appears now to be in full-fledged dis-repair before the real battle for Baghdad even begins --

Britain's troops are not going home to victory parades and Blair affirmed publicly his opposition to a Bush attack or, for that matter, anybody else's attack on Iran--No more monkey to the US organ-grinder, Blair's piecemeal troop pull-out is a vote of no-confidence and diminishes overall strength as it thins defenses in the simmering Shiite territory of oil-rich southern Iraq-- A chink in this armor strains relative insecurity everywhere else leading Petraeus himself to warn of a surge in American casualties in the months ahead-- Destination Walter Reed is not confidence-inspiring, to say the least, and in Petraeus own words, 'The stakes couldn't be higher.'--

Petraeus cannot stop the suicide martyrs, the car bombs or the roadside IED's anymore than Malicki can and his PhD crew warns of problematic morale issues emanating from the Green Zone-- There are less than a few remaining who believe in the efficacy of miracles-- Without ruling out a potential Vietnam-type endgame collapse in the not too distant future, perhaps in the not too distant present, the knell of each new car bomb punctuates the gloom with augury-- Perhaps the hapless Malicki's overture for talks signals DC's grim realization that imminent strategic defeat might be rearing its ugly head..........a leadening depressive possibility--

Referencing once again Seymour Hersh's The Redirection because it brings to light Bush's ace up the sleeve if the talks fail, or in a perverse and irrationally maddening light if they look like they might succeed-- Having asked the Pentagon for a battle plan to attack Iran with a massive aerial bombardment that could be ordered into execution within 24 hours, the word from Hersh's highly placed sources is the Pentagon has complied-- Not Gates, not Pace, not Blair, not Chalabi, not Daddy Baker, not Greenspan, not Woodward, not Giuliani, not Pelosi, not Reed, not Hagel, not Obama, not McCain, not Sheehan, not Cronkite, not Rodham, not McConnell, not Lott, and probably not even Rove at this juncture can stop it-- The Decider still holds trump unless........