The crackpot-led regime of North Korea has apparently conducted another nuclear blast on May 25 to coincide neatly with Memorial Day observations in the United States. I’m sure it is just a coincidence. Predictably, President Obama and other national leaders will condemn the “tests” and a lot of rhetoric will flow from the usual sources, but nothing will be done. The “Dear Leader” will continue to plan the launch of his rogue state’s phallic symbols and try to increase nuclear strike capability to intimidate the rest of the world.

The upcoming election in Lebanon on June 7 may see the rise of a “Third Republic” with Syrian- and Iranian-backed Hezbollah in total control. Independent Lebanon was once considered a cosmopolitan place held in esteem as a country of culture and civilization. Bloodthirsty Islamic fundamentalists have all but taken it over by violent force, slaughtering many and driving others from the country. How seriously do the United States and others take this situation? Vice President “Gaffe” Biden is paying a visit in advance of the elections suggesting that further aid to this sad state will be conditional on the outcome of the election. It is to say that unless a government sympathetic to the West is re-established financing may be cut off. Wow, that is some serious threat of “action”. Unless they behave, their allowances may be cut off.

Finally, the leaders of Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan are meeting in Teheran again with a big agenda to sort out, which regard mostly how to deal with those pesky Taliban causing so much trouble for the region, and oh yeah, for their new good friends the Americans. Ha! I’d be betting more on the development of a regional hegemon being promoted behind closed doors with Ahmadinejad as the titular leader, or his successor maybe, and the mullahs in Teheran calling the shots from the background. This may be viewed as progress by the Obama administration, which upholds the great value of diplomacy, pragmatism and moral equivalency over principles worth fighting for.

The rhetoric will indeed flow back and forth over the above mentioned nests of vipers. Western leaders of appeasement will carry on playing mesmerizing and mellifluous tunes, but inevitably the wrong note will be struck and some hideous outbreak of mayhem will result as the snakes break from the spellbinding talk and strike out.

Copyright 2009 Edward Podritske