Postscript to Syria Revisited Postscript - with sober and saner reflection

Yet I'll readily admit that World War Three would be a pretty high price to pay even if one accepts that America is right, and that Assad was the one and only culprit.. and though it's no doubt been greeted with a fair bit of ridicule and scepticism, the suggestion of dropping gas masks from Syria's skies, while providing real assistance to innocent Syrians, would hardly lead to such a diabolical outcome, would it? Unfortunately, and perhaps cataclysmically for the region if not our world, lateral thinking has hardly ever been the strong point of the 'leaders' of our global community...and if it were, not only would such a plan have been actively and deadly seriously considered from the word go, but the brilliantly creative and out-of-left- field proposal by the internet campaign outfit Avaaz would have likewise received not only some press but moreover equally meaningful consideration. No, as I've ever said, dreams are ever free (or some would say a dime a dozen). P.S. For the Avaaz plan, yes, you guessed it, 'just Google' the same, and yes, you're right once more, it's both involved (though hardly really complicated), and again I've no time now to go through it, besides which I'm sure they explain themselves far better than I ever could...

Syria Revisited: Postscript

In view of all the commentary flying thick(ly) and furiously in light of the prospect of ever-imminent military action by the United States in response to the recent ghastly chemical onslaught upon Syrian innocents... All those now theorizing that Assad et al did not in fact do the dirty deed, in a letter-day reconstruction of Conspiracy School 101...do perhaps, admittedly, have half the story, so to speak - but only half - for indeed the truth is oftentimes a lot stranger than fiction. But methinks some are now becoming a little too big for their britches, yea, too wise by half (and all the rest). To wit: If no other single piece of evidence were needed/able to be cited, the simple yet all too telling and telltale and abject refusal of Syrian authorities to allow independent United Nations observers/inspectors in to ascertain/verify (or otherwise) the situation in the first instance - in the couple hours after the gruesome incident and dastardly deed - speaks volumes, surely belying all their self-righteous denials, protestations and refutations; to both the nth degree and well beyond. Yes, this surely proves their fingerprints were all over the nasty weapons involved...and yet I happen to believe a side-theory that's now been well-asserted - on both Leighton Smith's Newstalk ZB morning talkback show and BBC News to boot, thus combining conspiracy theorists anonymous and the liberal media establishment incorporated... Which is this: that Bashir's own kid brother, in order to pull one over his highly placed sibling, is indeed thus manoeuvering and manipulating events to gain an advantage, subtle, covert and underhand yet ever so effective, over him in the not-so-distant here-after.... As head of one of the major military subdivisions of Assad's army, he stands to gain from Bashir's being targeted and ultimately 'taken out' by whomever, whether foreign nations like the U.S., fellow Syrians or Al-Qaeda operatives within the land...it really matters not a lot. His desire thus to take over power from his brother can thus be effectively and ingeniously realized with no-one suspecting the real culprit in the chemical attack, and scapegoats (especially foreign and long-despised) be thus conveniently found to cop all the fallout and flak resulting from the horrific episode. Mission Accomplished - and no-one suspects a thing! (Or so he presumes.) Yes indeed, things are not always quite what they appear - though admittedly that remains just a theory, but a pretty good and convincing one in my book anyhow.

Syria Revisited

Yes, the U.N. is once more found conspicuously missing in action when and where it really matters..."So what else is new?" you ask. Which of course is why the good ole U S of A is once again expected to 'pick up the slack' and act as Global Cop/Enforcer (the World's Moral Policeman)...ever and mercilessly pilloried by all and sundry for just such interventionism... And so commendable if altogether predictable words today from United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon that the U.N. may well (and none too) soon have a 'moral obligation' to act...i.e. against the Syrian leader's chemical assault upon his own people - whatever such action may actually happen to entail/necessitate...(naturally another matter entirely, but good luck to that vain hope, as it'll not happen, quite obviously, except in a fool's paradise). Meanwhile American Secretary of State (and one-time Democratic Presidential Nominee John Kerry has indeed addressed, and well, the issue - ever simmering on the back-burner - of 'unintended consequences', (e.g. and most worrisomely, no doubt, a spillover into a regional 'all out', and, through targeting of Israel, potentially a far wider and world-engulfing conflagration). But, however sure he may (at least claim to) be, I fear and suspect that the world's other (alongside America) favourite whipping boy Israel will once more be used/employed as the region's, and world's, fall-guy by the likes of Assad et al. Welcome one and all to International RealPolitik 101 in the 21st Century!