For the first time since the early 1770s, Russian troops are in Lebanon. They are not part of the UN force, but are flying Russian and Lebanese flags.
The rest of an engineering battalion, totalling between 350 and 400 troops, is to land by sea Friday at Jiyeh, south of the capital, near six Israeli-bombed bridges to be repaired in the Sidon area, the embassy said.
"The only goal is to build these temporary, metallic bridges ... It is our material support to our political efforts" for Lebanon, Russian ambassador Sergei Boukin told AFP.
AFP via Yahoo
London Yank's excellent diary reported 20,000 US sailors headed for the Gulf. There was some back-and-forth about the source, which speaks highly of Kossacks, imho. I can understand why he said he was shaking when he wrote it, though. I'm in about the same shape right now.
Today I also read yesterday's column by Patrick Seale, a Briton who lives in Syria and has written numerous books about the Middle East. The column says:
There are persistent reports out of Washington picked up and amplified in the American press that the United States is preparing to attack Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities. In normal circumstances, such naked aggression would be hardly credible. It would be an act of insanity which would set the whole region on fire. But we are not living in normal times.
There is such paranoia in the United States and Israel about Iran's nuclear programme that anything is possible, even the unthinkable. In any event, the US is being permanently blackmailed by the threat that if it does not attack Iran, Israel will do so. ...
The US secretary of state's mission is to attempt to mobilise Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States against Iran, Syria, Hezbollah and Hamas. This may be what Israel and its friends are demanding, but it is not what the United States should do. It will not resolve the region's old conflicts, only create new ones.
We have taken action against Russia, as curmudgiana's diary, "While We Weren't Watching" reported Saturday:
... the "Iran Freedom Support Act," ... which extends and amends the existing odious Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 to impose sanctions on any foreign entity that provides goods or services for Iran's weapons programs. This is clearly aimed primarily at Russia, which has been the foremost supporter of Iran's nuclear enrichment program.
With the Republicacns tripping all over themselves, it may be the neocons' (Cheney, Rumsfeld et al.) last shot at their goals. I have a terrible feeling they're going for their most far-reaching one, all at once, and as fast as they can:
challenge regimes hostile to our interests and values
PNAC's 1997 Statement of Principles
Does this explain the timing of the Foley revelations? Or could BushCo be just taking the opportunity, as usual?