The Good, The Bad, and The Ever So Ugly

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There are some days I can't find a bloody thing to write about and others where my cup doth runneth over. Today as I was searching good old Google News, I found a bunch of articles that don't necessarily dictate a full column so instead I'll just respond briefly to a couple that I thought were fairly good news, some that were bad news and others that just made me want to eat peanut butter cups and watch Netflix while Armageddon approaches. And so here we go...

GOOD NEWS:

Pakistan backing out of Iran-India gas project to please US

"Pakistan is willing to back out of $7.2 billion Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project in return for US according to Pak parity with India in civilian nuclear technology sector...Bush administration’s reluctance to respond to Pak request is also due to the clandestine nuclear proliferation network created by Pak scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan at the behest of successive Pakistan regimes...Pak leadership is now using the gas pipeline as a trade off to curry Washington’s favour.

The US has been pressurizing both India and Pakistan to abandon the gas pipeline project. It has primarily to do with American wariness with the Iranian nuclear programme."

So this is somewhat good news. I've covered the Iran-India pipeline project since I learned of it a few months back. At the time I had commented that it was probably bad for the US if both India and Pakistan began a long-term economic partnership with Iran, especially in the field of energy production. India has been a long time strategic partner with the US and behind China, it is the world's fastest growing economy with a tremendous population of skilled and unskilled laborers. Pakistan is important because of the role in the War on Terror. Much like Saudi Arabia, even with the best of intentions to thwart terrorist plots, their leadership must contend with a population mostly unsympathetic to America's needs with regards to global security.

It would appear that if Pakistan is backing out of this pipeline, they are sending a signal that if they must choose a side to be on, they are choosing the West. Given the state of Middle Eastern affairs at this juncture, any sign that we're making some progress is good news from where I'm sitting...it would seem.

BAD NEWS:

U.S. Deploys Slide Show to Press Case Against Iran

"With an hour-long slide show that blends satellite imagery with disquieting assumptions about Iran's nuclear energy program, Bush administration officials have been trying to convince allies that Tehran is on a fast track toward nuclear weapons.

The PowerPoint briefing, titled "A History of Concealment and Deception," has been presented to diplomats from more than a dozen countries. Several diplomats said the presentation, intended to win allies for increasing pressure on the Iranian government, dismisses ambiguities in the evidence about Iran's intentions and omits alternative explanations under debate among intelligence analysts.

The presenters argue that the evidence leads solidly to a conclusion that Iran's nuclear program is aimed at producing weapons, according to diplomats who have attended the briefings and U.S. officials who helped to assemble the slide show. But even U.S. intelligence estimates acknowledge that other possibilities are plausible, though unverified."

Wait Wait Wait, I've seen this movie before. This is the one where Colin Powell makes an ass out of himself in front of the UN by showing a PowerPoint presentation allegedly proving that there were Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq. If you read Bob Woodward's, "Plan of Attack," there's a entire section that talks about how Powell was browbeat into running with bad intelligence in order to show the world that Saddam Hussein had stockpiles of WMD's. Now lord only knows what he really had and if he had anything, where it all went but, most certainly we didn't find anything that was in Powell's moving picture show.

You all know what I wrote yesterday. Apparently W and Co are moving ahead with Phase 2 of the planned Iran war and it definitely isn't anything related to collecting underpants. What is really sad here is that how many of us bloggers are lamenting the collectively bad memories of most Americans, while the Bush administration is obviously using said lack of any long term memory as a means of pushing their agenda using the same bloody script they used for the Iraq War. It'd be funny if it weren't so damn scary.

UGLY NEWS:

Iran warns of nuclear crisis

"A senior Iranian official issued yet another blunt warning to the European Union on Tuesday not to refer a crisis over the Islamic republic's nuclear programme to the UN Security Council.

Senior national security official Ali Agha Mohammadi said Britain, France and Germany "are mistaken on our policies, and think that if they increase the pressure we will back down".

Mohammadi said: "This is an error because if they do such a thing, the Iranian strategy will also be to raise the stakes in response."

Last month Iran resumed converting uranium - a precursor to the ultra-sensitive enrichment process - in violation of a deal reached with the so-called EU-3...Mohammadi said: "If the Europeans understand that we will defend our interests and that it is impossible for us to compromise on enrichment, we could reach an understanding and have a good board of governors meeting at the IAEA.

"But, if they miscalculate, this would lead to a challenging situation." "

Did I mention that the Iranian's have absolutely no reason in the world to cooperate with the EU-3?

OK, just checking. So as much as I rag on the Bush administration for pushing a war with these people, they don't exactly do themselves any good by behaving this way. I mean, it does lend some credence to the Pentagon's assertion that pre-emptive nuclear war is hot idea. What else can I say about this other than at this point, because the Iranians themselves won't revolt (mostly because the mullahs have recent very much cracked down against dissent) and the mullahs won't abandon what appears to be a clear plan to stick the thumb in the eye of the West, there doesn't appear to be a way out of this mess.

Wow, now I'm depressed : )