Usually when oil prices become pocket book piercing - considerable pressure is political - and is all about unleashing a bit of that super sweet Strat Reserves to relieve purse pressure - not to bling for even more.
Many reasons why this happened (war for oil anyone?) - including fear of oil flow disruption? Like an earthquake, revolution or - war?
A lovingly recv'd hot and sticky early St Valentine's Day gift, when vexed vengence vaporized a 'dear' psychopathic 'brother commander' of the IRRGC, a founder of Hiz'B'Allah, a mentor of the Mahdi Army and the world's most prolific serial tormentor of Americans in history til 911 time.
Rich - sweet and totally delish is the happy fact that Imad was annihilated in the heart of a computerized, secret police state. Syria - ran by Pres for Life Bashar has a wicked penchant for feeding and funding a sworn enemy of Great Satan - the HBA.
Risible retarded too is the fact that since the eid of mourning hath past, Hiz'B'Allah - despite happy talk of revenge and resistence on Little Satan - instead act out by resisting their very own legit semi functional democracy - tiny terrorized Lebanon.
Little Satan has denied the hit and Great Satan said nothing. Difficult to say. Being the most wanted cat in the world (by 42 diff nations - no less - Imad's anti fan league was due to catch up with him sooner or later.)
Whatever. HBA cried 'foul' and everyone been patiently waiting for HBA to act out in revenge mode.
Then in March - a significant threat magically appeared just out of sight of Lebanon's and Syria's coast. This unengaged regime changing naval amphib Marine toting posse (Nassau Expeditionary Strike Group in regime killing speak) is still unengaged and sweetly loitering somewhere in the Med.
The exact mission statement of these potential potentate pulverizers presence off the coast of Syria and Lebanon.— never really made clear. Great Satan's 6th Fleet is not the only globe prowling, globe stomping regime changing platforms sending some kind of signal.
HBA cats being granted instant easy access to the perfumed halls of Paradise, or Great Satan's missiles and Marines off shore in the Med and Petrol reserve stocking may be innocently unrelated.
Except, wacking Imad was a wicked thong like tease to HBA and by definition Iran and Syria. Who ever killed him WANTS someone to act out.
It gets better. Before Imad's eid of mourning passed - Little Satan publically shouted out about a Civil Defense - Military Op combo exercise with the optimistic nom de voyage "Turning Point II" to get crunk up in April. Nothing major?
Except Syria was semi hot about it - deploying 3 divisions (2 Panzer and 1 mechanized Inf) at their side of BeKahh Valley. Hiz'B'Allah's home hood is the western part. To be fair, unverified sources claim
"The Syrians didn’t appear to be aggressive. Rather, they deployed these
forcesin a defensive posture, in a way walling off their part of the valley. "
In a real war (conventional for purists) with Little Satan - Syria would enjoy a 'short - but very exciting life.' Like all despotries with an armored fist up their sleeve, Bashar needs those 500 old school tanks. And their deployment is significant. It could be interpeted something like this:
"Syrian ground forces deployed near the Lebanese border would be fair targets. By eliminating 500 Syrian tanks--tanks that Syrian President Bashar Al Assadneeds to preserve his regime and presented with a choice between saving Hezbollah and staying alive, Syria's dictator will choose the latter."
Syria doesn't want a conventional war with Little Satan (or anyone else - true that!) This deployment is hardly threatening - it is defensive.
Little Satan and Suriya al Kubra both dissed any designs for a fight."The deployment therefore seemed intended to keep the Israelis on the
Lebaneseside of the border — on the apparent assumption the Israelis were going
into theBekaa Valley. "
Turning Point II is the the largest exercise in Little Satan's history.
" It involved the entire country, and was designed to test civil defensesand the
ability of the national command authority to continue to function inthe event of
an attack with unconventional weapons — chemical and nuclear.
This was a costly exercise. It also involved calling up reserves, some of them
for the exercise, and, by some reports, others for deploymentto the north
against Syria. Israel does not call up reserves casually.Reserve call-ups
are expensive and disrupt the civilian economy.
The Syrians already were deeply concerned by the Israeli exercise.
Eventually, the Lebanese government got worried, too, and started to
evacuate some civilians from the South. Saudi Arabia told everybody to leave.
Hezbollah, which still hadn’t retaliated for the Mughniyah assassination, also
claimed the Israelis were about to attack it, and reportedly went on alert and
mobilized its forces.The Americans, who normally issue warnings and cautions to everyone, said nothing to try to calm the situation. They just sat off shore on their ships."
Then, Little Satan's Defense Cat - Ehud Barak - ditched a trek to Deutschland at the last minute. This may be significant - as "TP II" had been planned for over a month. Why bail at the last sec?
Will HBA act with a retaliate attack? Will Little Satan pre empt?
Also, Great Satan's fave Vulcan Regime Changer - the avuncular (and nigh indestructable cardiac wise)VP Cheney hit the ME during the Arab League's Lo Down Ho Down in Damascus - and hung out with Oman."Ignoring all rhetoric — and the Israelis have gone out of their way to say that
they are not looking for a fight — it would seem that each side, but particularly
the Americans and Israelis, have gone out of their way to signalthat they are
expecting conflict. The Syrians have also signaled that they expect conflict,
and Hezbollah always claims there is about to be conflict.What is missing is this: who will fight whom, and why, and why now. Thesimple explanation is that Israel wants a do over with Hiz'B'Allah. But while that might be true, it doesn’t explain everything else that has happened.
Most important, it doesn’t explain the simultaneous revelations about the bombing of Syria. It also doesn’t explain the U.S. naval deployment.
Is the United States about to get involved in a war with Hezbollah, a war that the Israelis should handle themselves?Are the Israelis going to topple Syrian President Bashar al Assad — and then wind up with a Sunni government, or worse, an Israeli occupation of Syria? None of that makes a lot of sense."
Oman is alledgedly a fave of the Persians. Big biz - legit and shady are conducted a lot between Iran and Oman. Next up, Sec Def Gates hits the hood in of all places - Oman.
Why the sudden interest in Oman? Like right now?
It may go all the way back to 'Syria Bombing Day' on 6 Sept '07.
Little Satan annihilated something in northern Syria - taking a Turkish U Turn to do it.
The UK leaked a Little Satan commando raid seized wickedly incriminating nukey stuff and may have pulled a snatch and grab on key cats.
The Axis of Evil was awful quiet about it.
While Syria may very well desire a nuclear reactor - the locale was awful funny. A super sensitive site like that so close to the border with Turkey? The reactor story may be a smokescreen.
Other theories include Iraqi WMD (though to be fair - WMD stashed in the same locale brings up the same quiz)."Why would Syria want a nuclear reactor and why put it on the border of Turkey,
a country the Syrians aren’t particularly friendly with? If the Syrians had a
nuclear reactor, why would the Israelis becoy about it? Why would the Americans?
Having said nothing for months apart from careful leaks, why are the Israelis
going to speak publicly now? And if what they are going to say is simply that the
North Koreans provided the equipment,what’s the big deal?That was leaked months ago."
Zooming out of the Holy Land and taking Persia into account with the Nuke Free since '03 NIE, the eclipse of the Mullahs by their own Praetorian fan boys in the IRRGC in the recent Majiles election and the Basra blitz - the conclusion may be incredible.
Like a real regional war with the short term military goal of knocking out more than one enemy - a multi hit ala Corleone family.
Hang on boys and girls - it's going to be a wild ride.
Spying on the Dark City by rsconnett
Very interesting connect the dot exercise, Courtney. I hadn't thought about the Oman connection. Hmmm.
ReplyDeleteWhy would Syria want a nuclear reactor and why put it on the border of Turkey?
ReplyDeleteIt's one of the many questions which puzzles me too. Who's done deals with whom?
Can't wait to read the report on the Syria take down by Israel. Syria may have been cooking up nuclear material to ship back to their good buddy Iran.
ReplyDeleteDebbie Hamilton
Right Truth
It just shows the deep, 'mysteries within engimas' that the Middle East was, is, and is going to be for some time.
ReplyDeleteRevelations of the huge oil reserves within US territory and US reach makes some of this easier to view (other than the AlGore hysteria about faux climate change and oil's impact therein).
Still...the next few years make good, dependable leadership in the White House imperative. Danged sure ain't gonna get it from the Left...nuthin' there but surrender, appeasement, and stupid udopian socialism that's a myth wrapped in cow dung.
Excellent analysis! Absolutely excellent. I've been seeing many of the same things you are. All the people upset about Condi and the State Department's efforts at keeping the Israeli-Palestinian "peace process" going are likely to go "OH, so THAT's what all that was about!" The peace process keeps Iran from being able to pick a fight before we are ready to "whack" the whole lot of them.
ReplyDeleteHi Karen, it's a hoot no doubt -= so much to consider - plus the possibilities that seemingly allied forces tend to work against themselves. It also helps to think deceitfully and many times in the coldest zero sum type mindset.
ReplyDeleteWhat was interesting is that pro intell cats like stratfor - refuse to reach ANY conclusion - they flat out said - hey ya'll - we don't what the heck to make of all this.
Having seen the GF series on TV all my life - it sure looks like a multi hit in the making on lottie dottie everybody ala Corleone family style.
Hi semaj - true - makes little sense - if Bashar wanted nukey stuff - couldn't he bling for it from NoKo?
ReplyDeleteBodansky says in "Secret History of the Iraq War" That Iran actually has 2 old school Soviet devices - one - is a 1960's era artillery shell and the other is a 'dumb' bomb from the same era - picked up at bargain rates when USSR regime changed herself into the commonwealth.
Hi Debbie - yeah I've been looking forward to that one a long time it seems. I hear they keep post poning the report. It may actually be 'too hot to handle"!
ReplyDeleteHi SF, I hear you - OTOH there will be little sympathy for Bashar (even amoung SOTH Pelosi and her fellow despot sucking up to trekkers) if Syria is found to be fiddling about with WMD of the non chemical/bio type.
ReplyDeleteHi sekhmet,
ReplyDelete1st off thank you very much for the very cool PR at LGF. Much appreciated. I've been preaching about this for a while - well hinting at it - and after 'Tension' I finally came out and said it.
Way back in the 'Annapolis Awakening Days' nearly everyone thought that Olmert, W, Condi and Tzipi were dismantling Little Satan and she would be gone by New Years.
Yet careful study of key texts shows that Iran has severalf policies - one of which is to sabotage ANY ME peace deal and willing to absorb a very high cost to do it. It's one of the regimes most precious pillars of Revolution exporting.