We giving all gained all.
Neither lament us nor praise.
Only in all things recall,
It is fear, not death that slays.

From little towns in a far land we came,
To save our honour and a world aflame.
By little towns in a far land we sleep;
And trust that world we won for you to keep.
~ Rudyard Kipling

Ya’ll should of ascertained by now, my stance on this Syrian Fiasco, and the steady drumbeat of ‘Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Iran’, by now…!

As the ever intrepid, Pepe Escobar opined recently…

Got war if you want it

…Nobel Prize winner and Drone Godfather Obama has been busy “justifying the ‘just war’ theories of Christian philosophers”, as Ray McGovern graphically put it – and as attested by the New York Times orgasmically promoting its piece “Secret ‘Kill List’ Proves a Test of Obama’s Principles and Will’…

…Panetta regurgitated the same old fallacy perpetrated ad infinitum, since at least 2006, by the neo-cons, the Israel lobby and US corporate media, according to which Iran is about to build a nuclear bomb like … tomorrow. “We will do everything we can to prevent Iran from developing a weapon”, Panetta said. Once again, it doesn’t matter that the International Atomic Energy Agency, the UN’s nuclear watchdog, plus 17 US intelligence agencies have stressed this is not the case…

…By the way, Iran’s Central Bank Governor Mahmoud Bahmani said that Tehran has already activated an alternative payment clearing system to SWIFT – thus foiling another vector of Washington’s relentless economic war. What this means is that Iran, BRICS members Russia, India and China, plus Iran’s trading partners in the developing world are moving one step beyond in their flight from the US dollar as global reserve currency.

Sanction me baby one more time

Even in the – unlikely – possibility that the leadership in Tehran suddenly decided to stop all uranium enrichment, and kill the whole nuclear program on the spot, Iran would still be under US sanctions. The sanctions have practically nothing to do with Iran’s nuclear program. It’s all about regime change…

…Into this mire of wishful thinking steps Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey. He told CNN on Monday, “the military option should be considered”. Oops, but that refers to that other war in the making – in Syria. General Dempsey said he would prefer for the “international community” to effect regime change in Syria, but – just in case – the Pentagon is ready to pounce (“Of course, we always have to provide military options.”) The NATO/GCC compound is barely containing its shrieks of joy.

So what’s it all about, Barack? So many wars to choose, so little time till Re-election Day.

Emptywheel expanded on the great ‘Deciderer’, today…

…I suppose I’ll eventually get around to discussing how the series of condoned leaks portraying President Obama as the Deciderer all rest on the pathetic but true fact that he is only borrowing George Bush’s claim to that title.

…With cyberwar, with drones, and (to a lesser extent) with the embrace of the terrorists’ transnational methods to fight terrorists, Obama has crossed into uncharted territory of the sort Wills explored in his book, Bomb Power. These changes are likely a step beyond the Bomb Power paradigm, whatever that entails.

Yet Obama has only barely begun to think through the ramifications of these tools. He has, instead, focused on the near and overblown threats of Iran and AQAP, not seeing both the strategic implications of even those choices, much less the implications of the sort Wills describes arose in the wake of our use of a nuclear bomb.

The President has embraced waging extralegal war using drones from the Oval Office. The President has embraced using easily manipulable code to wage physical war. What are the implications of these decisions? {snip}

…At this level, then, this story displays the height of the Bomb Power President’s abuse of information asymmetry, permitting selected people to spread the same secrets that are criminalized from others.

But the larger tale–particularly the escape of StuxNet and its subsequent exposure–shows the lie of this arrogance. The Chinese, certainly, can take what they want. Bradley Manning allegedly can take what he wants too. And unless the code is perfect, and unless the Israelis refrain from toying with the code, eventually the code, the Bomb Power itself, will become available.

Obama’s foolish embrace of these new technologies without considering the larger impact may lead to the decline of the Bomb Power President–of Presidents, generally. It may lead to something far more fearful.

But one thing is clear: he didn’t really stop to think about all that before he set free his zoo animal.

Even b at MOA expanded on the grand ‘Decider’ thesis…

Obama – The Detail Decider Lacks Strategic Foresight

…Like the shiny object of kill lists today’s revelations about Stuxnet are likely only a diversion from much bigger rogue cyberwar activities, like that huge Flame virus, various U.S. services are running. But unlike global drone killer capabilities, which do need lots of physical resources, cyber capabilities are available to all actors and the cyber realm is a much more leveled playing field.

But back to the Obama campaign. I do not believe that Obama is personally involved in various program details, authorizing every next step, as much as portrait in the NYT piece. After such a program is once launched there is no need for him of being involved at all and playing golf is much more fun than sitting in conferences. The campaign may well be effective in portraying Obama as The Decider daily involved in keeping U.S. safe. But what it really portraits is an Obama who is fixated on tactical level operations which at the same time generate serious strategic set backs.

What is the use of a Decider when he lacks strategic foresight?

Speaking of CNN, it’s interesting to see how Panetta’s words were spun today… Panetta: No unilateral U.S. military action likely in Syria…

Now, let’s look at what’s really transpiring abroad… Talks only way out in Syria: Merkel, Putin, and, then later today; Putin, Hollande See Differences on Syria Sanction…

Visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin and his French counterpart Francois Hollande on Friday stressed the necessity of full implementation of UN resolution and Kofi Annan’s plan, but saw sanctions against Syria in different ways.

“Mr. Annan is a man of great experience and an honest man, and we must do everything we can to make sure his mission is successful. I believe it is counterproductive to say his mission is a failure in advance,” Putin told reporters at a joint press conference with Hollande after the two leader met on Friday night to find solution for Syia crisis.

However, the Russian president said imposing sanctions on the Syrian regime must be debated within the United Nations Security Council.

Putin admitted the possibility of the breakout of a civil war in the Middle-East country.

“The most important thing we need to do is to prevent the situation from developing under the worst scenario and not let a civil war take place,” he said, noting that consultation and more efforts are needed “to solve, via political means, the problems we faced.”

“We propose to act in an accurate, balanced manner… in Syria,” he suggested.

Hollande, on his part, refused to rule out military intervention in solving crisis in Syria.

Recognizing “the risk of destabilization, the risks of civil war” in Syria, the French President insisted that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s departure was a “prerequisite for a political transition” in Syria…

C’mon now, let’s get real…

Iran/P5+1 talks could ‘end in tears’ – Bluster, propaganda, media leaks on the rise…

Faltering nuclear talks between Iran and world powers could hit a make-or-break point in their next round in Moscow, with both sides digging in and maneuvering for elusive advantage, analysts and diplomats say. Bluster, propaganda, media leaks and official declarations have all noticeably sharpened in the past week by both sides. The rhetorical duel has become so serious that some fear the showdown has the potential to tip from diplomacy to military action.

“As both sides escalate for leverage, the reality is that neither side has gained an upper hand,” an Iran specialist at the National Iranian American Council, Reza Marashi, wrote in a piece published by a website, The National Interest. “Both sides are nearing a critical point at which delaying the inevitable choice between military action and compromise is no longer tenable,” Marashi wrote. One Western diplomat in the P5+1 group of world powers engaging Iran confessed to AFP, on condition of anonymity: “I increasingly struggle to see a way where this doesn’t end in tears.”

Both the United States and its ally Israel-Iran’s arch-foe, and the Middle East’s sole, if undeclared, nuclear weapons state-have warned they are keeping the option of air strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities. The June 18-19 talks due to be held in Moscow, then, are seen as crucial. “We don’t intend on continuing talks for talks’ sake. The window (for diplomacy) is closing,” the US ambassador to Israel, Dan Shapiro, told a Tel Aviv security conference on Wednesday. The last negotiations, held in Baghdad on May 23-24, exposed a gulf between the two sides’ positions that looked almost unbridgeable, and nearly caused the talks to collapse…

About those illegal sanctions on Iran… ‘Crowing’ About Iran Sanctions Should Stop…

I’m surprised that the Grey Lady had actually published the official Iranian response to the noise, today…

Re “Negotiations With Iran Conclude Fruitlessly” (news article, May 25):

The Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons has unambiguously recognized “the inalienable right of all the Parties to the Treaty to develop research, production and use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes without discrimination,” which covers all areas of peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including the inalienable right to develop a full national fuel cycle.

Each party has the sovereign right to define its national energy policies in accordance with its national requirements. Iran is fully committed to its obligations under the treaty and is firmly determined to exercise its rights. In future talks, Iran will continue to insist on all its rights for peaceful uses of nuclear energy, including a full national fuel cycle. As pressure exerted by some Western countries against Iran has failed to bear results, we expect a positive and constructive approach regarding Iran’s peaceful nuclear activities.

Ha Ha, indeedy…

*gah*