Reversal of Fortune

Mercury must be in retrograde for some. For most of us, changes happening may be too little, too late, but worthy of noting...

With the the great turning of the American gaze to events in the Pacific, the US has become positively stingy with the amount of military force it's prepared to commit to Middle Eastern squabbles.

Just now there have been some remarkable reversals of fortune...

President Bush the Elder has just accused Cheney and Rumsfeld of damaging the United States, and by implication, the weakness of his own son in allowing them and the Zionist neocons to dictate the official reaction to the World Trade outrage. The result has been a destabilization of the area and the launching of a systematic bloodletting dismantling Syria and Iraq. End of Sykes-Picot, but also a green light for the Israelis to treat the occupied Palestinians in whatever way they wish.

Meanwhile, the Syrian peace talks have been expanded to include Iran, without whom the talks would have been meaningless. And their first statements have been to remind us of the Saudi responsibility for the World Trade outrage that lit the touch paper and ensuing explosion and mess. I agree with them. The Saudis provided tacit approval for troublemakers such as Bin Laden to pursue their issues outside of the Kingdom. They promulgated the Wahabbi/Taliban/ISIS/Muslim Brotherhood version of Islam with all its literalist, back to the 7th century, severity. They also provided the troops to pacify the planes passengers. 

The pigeons have come home to roost for Mr Putin, with his obstructionism over the downed Malaysian plane in Ukraine. Bodies lay strewn and the outrage uninvestigated for weeks because of his manipulation. Now, he has sallied forth to defend the Syrian state against ISIS and has directed most of his air support effort in bombing US supported rebels around Aleppo and Idlib. He has shown no interest in ISIS, but curiously they seem to be showing an interest in him - the bombing of a Russian plane which took off from Sharm elSheikh at the tip of Sinai. The British and Americans have reason to believe it was a bomb and are, understandably, not sharing their source with Putin...and the Russian bear is whining about unfairness.

So, do we have a sea change, maybe not, but there is that prospect. Meanwhile, close to some Chinese-claimed shallows in the South China Sea, US warships are exchanging pleasantries with the Chinese.