Archive - Nov 17, 2013

While hardly as dramatic as last week's revelation that Syrian Al-Qaeda cannibals apologized after chopping off the head of one of their CIA-funded "rebels" by mistake, the news that a US drone struck a US missile cruiser during training off Southern California, causing two minor injuries is maybe even more embarrassing. After all, with Al-Qaeda one can at least make a legitimate case of a friendly fire, er, beheading incident. When it comes to the coast off SoCal, it will be difficult to suggest the Chinese (or Russian) navies were running sorties next to the surfers off Point Mugu.

When last week's Iran nuclear talks were blocked by France, it provided a useful glimpse into just who it was that would benefit politically from a continuation of the regional confrontation. But while the French sabotage was an amusing distraction, it revealed a curious shift in middle-east alliances, namely old "enemies" Israel and Saudi Arabia, both feeling shunned by Big Brother, suddenly becoming the best of buddies. It was only a matter of time before this novel alliance moved beyond just paper and tested how far it could go in real life. Said test may come far sooner than expected: according to the Sunday Times, Israel's Mossad and Saudi Arabia are planning an attack against Iran if negotiations and talks don't come to an agreement, and that Saudia Arabia will permit Israel to use their air space for an attack on Iran including full technical support. According to the Sunday Times, the Saudis would assist an Israeli attack by cooperating with the use of drones, rescue helicopters, and tanker planes. "Once the Geneva agreement is signed, the military option will be back on the table. The Saudis are furious and are willing to give Israel all the help it needs,” said the paper citing an unnamed official.

In a few years’ time we might all be whining because there is no more water left in the world apparently. That’s because according to the World Economic Forum “we are now on the verge of water bankruptcy in many places around the world, with no clear way of repaying the debt”.