Arjay,

The fact that the USA can wipe the floor with Iran, does not mean that war is what the US is seeking. All that it needs is some hot head Iranian to take a few pot shots for the US to be forced to retaliate.

The US has not submitted, and its threat stands.

Shadow Minister.The US/NATO is stone cold motherless broke.They cannot beat pissy Afghanistan with 25 million people.What chance have they of beating 1200 million people in China?

It's all over.Israel needs to crawl back to its hole and make peace with the Palistinians and face reality.They like the Catholics,Muslims,Buddists must realise that they are not the centre of the universe.

Hi Julian-the-nutter, long time no see.

What is "oddball" about letting the free world's enemies kill each other off? Looks poetic to me.

There will be peace in the Middle East when the Arabs and the Persians stop trying to exterminate the Israelis. But that is not going to happen. Now that the Gyppoes have elected an anti democratic, Islamist (read, religious Nazi) regime, they will now want to go to war with Israel again.

It is ironic. The communists once claimed that a communist state would never go to war with another Socialist state, because "workers would never kill workers." And the yanks once bragged that democracies never go to war with each other. Afghanistan and Russia proved the Ruskis wrong, and Egypt and Israel may prove the yanks wrong.

My prediction is that, provided that the Egyption Army does not stage another coup, the new Gyppoe government will break the peace treaty with Israel and start moving troops back into Sinai.

Things could get very interesting again. I am pissed off with the yanks for being stupid enough to sell F-16's and M1A1 tanks to the gyppoes. That must be giving the Israeli fighter pilots and tank commanders nightmares. Why the yanks sell or give their most advanced weaponry to unstable and unreliable regimes is beyond me. They would be better off just giving the things to Australia, at least they know who's side we are on.

Well, most of us are on, anyway. I know that there are a lot of third worlders infesting Australia now who despise westerners and love our enemies, but who all want to live with us.

But if there is another fight for Sinai, I presume that the Israelis will win again, and this time they will learn to never give up land taken from the enemy, especially if that land is critical to your defence, and contains valuable resources which can make your country bigger and stronger,and your sworn enemies smaller and weaker.

Arjay,

They beat the snot out of Afghanistan in a few weeks. The EU and the US have economic troubles presently but are not broke.

The US air force and Navy are still by far the strongest in the world, and the US could easily confine China to its borders. A nuclear conflict would see China a pile of radioactive ash. And there is not a snowball's chance in hell that China would take on the US.

PS

It looks as though Iran has backed down.

"The softening of Iran's position followed a warning by a US emissary this month that any effort to close the strait would trigger a potentially devastating US response. Clearly, Tehran got the message - with a top Iranian official on Friday publicly disavowing the earlier sabre-rattling."

Thx. excellent article, clear, intelligent, aware. Israel + US appalling tactics look like leading the world to another war. Nothing learned from Iraq. Mossad assassinations, N.armed Israel not party to NPT + US sanctions on Iran econ. + US taxpayer billions to Israel, recipe for disaster. Nuclear free M.E. way to go. When will warmongers cease?