The great chess game of the Middle East

[The abyss]

Source: Asia Times


Nerves are frayed to the point of breaking over the Middle East escalation. One can tell this is so when even respectable think-tanks start looking for ulterior motives behind seemingly minor events, without offering any specific evidence or well-developed leads.

Take, for example, Thursday's emergency landings of two Iranian civilian airliners…

snip

A strike on Bushehr is all but impossible to imagine now, and though it is true that the reactor cannot easily be converted for military use, it is also true that an attack on Iran's other nuclear…


Read more: http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LH28Ak01.html

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Full story http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/LH28Ak01.html

[maryf]

1. Frays my nerves

just to read about all the potential avenues that could be taken...K&R

[Swede]

2. k and r

thanks for posting thhis

[FMBM]

3. Since I was a young man....

many years ago... it's been Middle-East... Middle-East... even during the Vietnam War it was Middle-East (1967, 1972)... can I be blamed for having Middle-East fatigue? It seems our world is inextricably tied to the Middle-East... GWB thought he could ameliorate the situation by capturing a Middle-Eastern country and setting up a pro-western democracy... how did that work out? Time will tell... I fear things will go badly in the Middle-East... let's hope it doesn't go nuclear...

[BeHereNow]

4. Welcome to DU-

And I share your hope that it does not go nuclear.
The movie "Syriana" sure looked prophetic to me.
Especially these days.

BHN

[DCKit]

5. The RW fatigued their own kids to the point of not caring about "Teh Gay"...

Perhaps the M.E. will become the new Gay and we'll all get over it.

[No Elephants]

8. Oh, for totem poles that have only tops!

[No Elephants]

7. Oil

[maryf]

9. Yep.

and other resources. This is an area with infinite sun and wind, but oil and nuclear are the top choices...all for profit and control...

[TomClash]

6. This article is a medley masquerading as subtle analysis

It makes no predictions and draws no conclusions. It tells us what we already know. Debka is pushing for war with Iran? Israel profits from Iran's belligerent posture? The Israeli Air Force updated its wartime codes (which it does routinely)? The sun rose this morning somewhere in the world. What a surprise. Where have we heard this before? :eyes:

Unlike the author I will go out on a limb. There will not be an Israeli attack on Iran. Period.

Four reasons for starters: 1) It would set the US on a collision course with Israel because the US does not back a strike; 2) Other methods are being used to prod Iran and some of these are not pretty; 3) Israel invites an attack on its soil and against its interests without significant gain because an attack will not stop Iran from building nuclear weapons and may even accelerate the process; 4) Some or all of the conventional assumptions listed in the article may not be true.