Re: confirmation of Debka -- OK, let's review. We've got confirmation that there are Turkish ground troops in Kurdish northern Iraq, presumably within our no-fly zone, and that they have seized Iraqi territory. We've got confirmation that there are a couple thousand US troops in Jordan, taking part in war games. We've got confirmation that the Russians are engaged in a massive war game exercise in the Caspian sea. We've got confirmation that the US has built a massive base in Qatar.
All, very coincidentally, coming out about the same time this weekend.
Also, very odd coincidence, the New Scientist publishes a report that we have a new weapon, the E-bomb, which can destroy underground electronic equipment, at the same time that Debka publishes a rather puzzling bit about a new weapon ("new precision-guided bombs capable of locating and destroying fiber optic systems") taking out the Chinese-built Iraqi fiber optic system. What kind of weapon can do that? Probably the E-bomb, wouldn't you say? Not sure about the "locating" but certainly the destroying.
So, we've got the Turks on board, the Kurds on board, the Qatari on board, probably the Jordanians on board, and the Russians keeping watch in the Caspian region, and putting "military observers" in Abkhazia, Georgia's breakaway province that is infested with Al Qaeda types. That's the minimum.
Could this be an orchestrated effort to tell the world that we do, in fact, have allies in this effort?
And, in the meantime, there are popular uprisings in Iran.
I'd say Debka is getting it pretty much right this time.
The weird thing for me is how my own feelings have morphed during this exercise. The reason I was so fascinated by Walter Russell Mead's essay on Jacksonians is that I felt like I finally understood why I switched from being non-interventionist to bloodthirsty as soon as we were engaged in war or a warlike struggle. It's the innate nature of Americans to become more Jacksonian in times of war. |
