PAXALLES

Iran: Masters Of Bloody Chaos Theory, Playing to a Shi'ite Crescent-O

Asia Times Online offers several analytical pieces on the Middle East puppet master, Iran.  UPI's Jason Motlagh reports on how Iran might leverage the opportunity dropped on it by Hezbollah - who is avidly lobbing Iranian supplied missiles at Israel.  He notes that this is giving Iran time to lay low, plan its moves and give a response on August 22 on the incentive package offered to quit its nuclear enrichment - "this date just happens to coincide with the Islamic-calendar date Rajab 28, when the Kurdish Muslim warrior Saladin conquered Jerusalem."  An ominous coincidence?

Richard Bennett analyzes how Iran knows it would be crushed by the US in a head to head war - but it betting on its strengths - and is taking pages from the Iraqi resistance playbook as well as Hezbollah's war with Israel.  It has chemical and biological WMD assets that are overlooked and is signing deals around the area with folks like Russia to bolster its armed forces. 

Spengler's analysis notes Iran's phoniness in complaining about how the US and Israel will cash in on the region's chaos is only matched by Washington's obtuse squeamishness in taking advantage of the new/old rules - rather like the Huns of old - that the amount of human blood spilled is irrelevant and is something to be leveraged.  Iran, Hezbollah and the Muqtada al-Sadr's militia suffer under no such scruples and don't bat an eye at human blood - except to use it for propaganda -as long as it isn't their leadership's.  They are the new masters of chaos theory - and as scientific as physicists in its application.  There is no better example than their use of civilian sites to bring on world horror and to then precipitate a ceasefire that Hezbollah will use as a victory and an opportunity to parade about as a player and world power broker as the PLO did. 

Qatar: World's Richest Sandbox & Power Player

Der Spiegel reports on the world's richest land per capita, Qatar, which is the size of Connecticut and the world's third largest producer of natrual gas.  It is home to the famed - or infamous Al Jazeera - purveyor of the tapes of Osama bin Laden - but also the CNN of the Muslim world and a sophisticated operation.  Its capital, Doha, is undergoing a building boom and the country's political ruling elite are among the more progressive in the Middle East.  The US has its largest base in the region in Qatar. 

Needless to say, despite being planted in boiling, gritty sand, it is one rich sandbox and a player...

Hizbullah Launchers Have Taken A Hit

Matt Drudge links to the Jerusalem Post that says Hizbullah has limited numbers of launchers left - despite still having a number of missiles to shoot... one has to wonder if this is the thinking behind going for a ground invasion to wipe out the whole supply... the United Nations can't be depended on to do it...

Gitmo Detainees Abuse Guards

The AP reports that guards at Guantanamo Bay have been attacked hundreds of times by the detainees there - including having human waste and vomit thrown on them, being attacked with various instruments, including radios and homemade weapons.  We hear a continued chorus of how the detainees are abused - but not how they abuse...

Seawater Loaded With Little Critters

The AP reports that scientists have found more than 20,000 types of bacteria in a liter of seawater - far more than the 5,000 previously identified in total for the oceans.  This effort to take a census of the microbes in the oceans involves 70 countries, according to a report in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.  Quite a thought for when one goes splashing on the beaches...

Nasrallah Lies, People Die In Lebanon

In case everyone has wondered where Hassan Nasrallah has slipped off to, Regime Change Iran reports that Nasrallah has snuck into Damascus, Syria - dressed in regular street clothes rather than his clerical garb, traveled to see old pal Bashar al-Asad and he secretary of the supreme national security council of the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ali Larijani.

Vehicles crossing the borders around Turkey are also being scrutinized for any sort of weaponry or other resources from Syria, Iran, etc. to go into Lebanon.

Young Entrepreneurs Exploit New Media For Fun & Profit

The Wall Street Journal's July 29th's edition features great piece on how young entrepreneurs are cashing in on blogs, videos, podcasts, etc. - making them the new newsmakers and shakers of today beyond the MSM - way to go...

Ingraham With Dan Senor On Middle East

Laura Ingraham hosted Dan Senor who was with the Coalition Provisional Authority. 

Senor said that the blowback from the Qana situation has been difficult - and a typical blow that Hezbollah to provoke an incident in Qana to get back world opinion on their side.  He said that Israel needs to show all the air strikes that Hezbollah is launching from among civilians and to give fair warning to all about what is going on.  Senor said that while America may be hated but it is because we are doing the right thing - a responsible position that the world doesn't like.  He said it is fallacious that people are turned off by the initial violence that causes Israel and the US to hold back - only to fight later because the enemy feels that Israel and the US are weak - and they come back with a vengeance.  Senor says that the Iraqi army was disbanded even before Baghdad was taken.  He said that most of them were Shi'ites conscripted to fight Saddam's wars while the upper officials were Saddam's toadies.  Thus it was better to start the Iraqi army again without Saddam loyalists.

Senor agreed that Muqtada al-Sadr should have been taken out right out of the box and the US held back - and he became emboldened.  This is a classic example of the dangers of inaction.  He compares Sadr and the Mehdi army to Hezbollah in Iraq with the same dynamics - and that Iraq could look like Lebanon in ten years with him wiping out all the Sunnis.  He is cautiously optimistic about the political process in Iraq.  He said that the vicious minority in Iraq is funded by Iran - and that most revolutions and mayhem are caused by such minorities. 

Army Equipment Degrading; Why Isn't Pork Money Spent On Upgrading Army Equipment?

The Washington Times reports on the wear and tear on Army equipment in gritty, unforgiving conditions - wouldn't the "Bridge to Nowhere" or one of the other pork project's monies be far better served protecting our country?

Uganda's Children Endure Unspeakable Lives

The Washington Times reports on the horrific abuse of children in Uganda - boys who are either killed or kidnapped to serve as soldiers for senior miscreant abusers and girls assigned as "wives" to the Warren Jeffs of Africa.  This is totally reprehensible that children ages 6 - 12 are used to do the dirty work for adult psychopaths who try to turn them into child predators for their sick ends.  This is even one step lower than the thugs of Hezbollah who hide behind women and children so they can live behind their phony rhetoric...

Boil, Boil, Toil & Trouble = Artificial Microbes Off The Shelf

The Washington Post reports on microbes that can be genetically altered and created - and frightenly, very simply - by checking genetic codes posted on the Internet, mixing simple materials and concocting artificial replicas of known germs.  This lethal bioterrorism could easily morph to the creation of deadly, fast moving viruses that could level a designated area, making the anthrax scare look like a whispering warm-up of coming events that science fiction writers can't even fathom...

Charities Underwrite Drug Research Big Pharma Doesn't

The New York Times reports on how small and big charities are helping to underwrite cures for neglected diseases - often ones that plague the Third World and thus don't spell big profits for big pharma.  Such groups as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and Doctors Without Borders among others, are answering the call - and this is good news for all of us as the more that is known and dealt with, the greater protection there is globally against such diseases - and the knowledge gained is invaluable.

Phantoms Of The Operatives: Where's Nasrallah? Osama? Zawahri?

While Israel was all over the press apologizing for Qana and calling for a temporary halt in air strikes and while the UN Security Council was registering its shock, shock at the tragedy at Qana and while the impotent Lebanese government officials were omnipresent covering their sorry tails and at last speaking up for the people of Lebanon, one key person was missing: WHERE WAS NASRALLAH? 

The Hezbollah kingpin who is the darling of the Middle East due to his allegedly standing up to the evil Israelis and United States - was not standing up for and making the case for the Lebanese people during this all.  Where is he?  Is he recovering the bodies of the fallen?  Is he fighting Israelis?  Is he going to the United Nations to make a speech? 

Seems he has gone the way of Osama, Zawahri, Zarqawi, etc. - let the little people fight and die for the cause - while he runs and hides.  Maybe if everyone is really lucky, he will give an audio or videotape to al-Jazeera so that eveyrone in the West can run and try to get it translated and provide grist for the news cycle.  It is all right for others to die for the cause - but not these elites who are taking their sweet time to meet their 72 aging virgins...

So Long, Farewell, Auf Weidersehen Wal-Mart!

Der Spiegel reports the shocking news that Wal-Mart is pulling the plug on all its stores in Germany.  There are a variety of reasons for this who'd have thought it moment - but they all seemed to boil down to arrogance and ignoring a signature Wal-Mart trait: attention to the customer.

Wal-Mart went into Germany and bought up some stores, slapped on the Wal-Mart sign and thought the customers would come.  They failed to research the market as far as local customs that Germans would be comfortable with - and most of all, didn't read a market that is heavy into discount stores already.  Thus the competition was stiff, and Wal-Mart lost money. 

Perhaps lessons learned would include thinking of the customers and customs of a locale before making heavy investments while strip malling the globe like America.

France's Bad History With Hezbollah

Olivier Guitta gives a preview of his Weekly Standard piece at the Counterterrorism Blog concerning the fractious relationship of France and Hezbollah dating back to the early 1980's, when the French also sustained casualties at Hezbollah's birth in Lebanon - thus accounting for France's initial harsher words towards Hezbollah, although given the latest Israeli strike in Qana, Lebanon and France's Islamic population, Chirac will probably soften his rhetoric on Hezbollah and instead criticize Israel...