- Israeli PM Ariel Sharon's status changed very little over the weekend, I'd say that he will be out of Israeli politics forever; except for being an icon or something. It is certain that he will be out of the upcoming elections being held in ~3 months. His Kadima party was born from the hopes of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. They outnumbered the two traditional party's in the polling; projected to take a third of the seats. But now who knows...?

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- Good LTTE editorial in WaPo

CHRISTIAN television evangelist Pat Robertson and the president of Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, have a well-established affinity for the outrageous. This time their mutual embrace of indecency places them in a category all to themselves. As Ariel Sharon lies hospitalized and critically incapacitated by a massive stroke, Mr. Robertson, one of America's best-known religious extremists, and his Iranian counterpart -- no slouch when it comes to religious demagoguery -- suggested that Israel's prime minister had it coming. Speaking on his TV show, "The 700 Club," on the Christian Broadcasting Network, Mr. Robertson said the Bible "makes it very clear that God has enmity against those who 'divide my land.' " Mr. Sharon, Mr. Robertson asserted, "was dividing God's land, and I would say woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course." As Mr. Robertson was offering up his thoughts about a man fighting for his life, Iran's president was expressing unrestrained hope that Mr. Sharon would simply die.
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- In Syria, the next Chalabi has emerged. Brought up late last year by Col. Pat Lang and more recently here in the BBC. Abd al-Halim Khaddam is a Sunni Baathist and loved Bashar's Father Hafez al-Assad (even murdered for him), but wasn't happy with the new (younger) Assad leadership in Syria. Khaddam has called for the Sunni majority and any opposition groups in Syria to rise up and overthrow the Alawi Baathist minority government. That's a sure way to get yourself killed in Syria and the rest of the Middle East for that matter.

We'll have to see if the US picks Khaddam up as an agent, if they haven't already. Would a Sunni/Muslim Brother led Syria be a good thing? Of course not. Does the US know that? Yes. Will the neocons listen? Nope. Will the Israelis be pissed? You betcha!

- to top everything off I thought I'd highlight the shortsightedness and incompetence that got us into Iraq in the first place. Paul Bremer, failure, has now dropped this bombshell.

When asked who was to blame for the subsequent Iraqi rebellion, in which thousands of Iraqis and Americans have died, Bremer said "we really didn't see the insurgency coming," the network [NBC] said in a news release.

I mean come on. They may have told us this would be easy, but that is the style of this administration. But for someone on the inside to be this clueless is a real embarrassment. Hey Paul, if you invade a country, some portion of that countries population will resent you. It's common sense.

Christ! These neocon's and their Republican, right-wing enablers are going to get us all killed.

Posted by Geoff