America threatens Europe with sanctions for arming China

Ideally, a nation this big doesn't need to trade to survive. It can learn to be self-sufficient. But we have a military economy. All the brains and resources are poured into and wasted on a non-productive economy while living on borrowed goods. So, essentially we as a nation scrape by using brbutt-knuckle foreign policy to ensure that foreign money is still pouring in to prop up the stock market and our treasury bonds.

When South Korean Central Bank got worried and planned some kind of orderly withdrawal of its money in the US, like any prudent investor would, big guys behind the scene in Washington stopped the train in its tracks. Idiotic Bush sycophants would like to deny this story. But look what our Aussie friends are also thinking!

Meanwhile, Bush and his chirpy secretary of state can't stop their mantras of Syria withdrawing from Lebanon, of Iran stopping its nuclear development project, of North Korea returning to the 6-way talk about disarming its nuke capabilities, of Russia's failure to make progress in its democratic reforms, of China's alleged increasing threat to the world. They keep up the mantras because the other guys are turning a deaf ear to their threat and they feel like they must continue to make their threats credible, including the sacred cow of the US president's ``options''. But the other guys remain unmoved!

Why? Because they have seen that Bush's superior military machine has gotten stuck in Iraq! Of course, Bush can plant this guy or that guy. But then what? Bush doesn't have soldiers to move in and do things, for as long as each guy continues to keep a trump card of its own.

And that's why Syria would say it wants to withdraw its troops in Lebanon but at the same time tell the world that it would take time and that the world has to give it a reason to move forward, namely, by giving it a gurantee of the peace.

Syria, likes every other country in the world, now knows from the recent history of Afghanistan and Iraq that it needs a deterent to survive. And that deterent apparently is its troops in Lebanon. In order for Bush and his crazy PNAC crowd to succeed in accomplishing a regime change in Syria, it must not only invade Syria but also ensure that there are no Syrian troops in Lebanon which can start a conflict with Israel (due to its proximity to Lebanon).

And this is the reason why Bush and Chirpy Rice are all of a sudden so urgently interested in telling Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon. In other words, Syria's troops in Lebanon is its deterrent like the nuclear capabilities of Iran and North Korea. Not only does Washington know it; Syria knows it too.

So it is not surprising that Syria's buttad who gave that interview to the Italian newspaper la Republica addressed the issue the way he did. And it is clear that as long as Bush does not disavow his PNAC agenda, he and his Chirpy secretary are just wasting their bandwidth while the American economy burns.

buttad rejected accusations of involvement in the killing. "For us it would be like political dissolution," he said.

He indicated Syria would take its time to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

"From a technical viewpoint, the repatriation (of Syrian forces) could happen within the end of the year. But from a strategic viewpoint, it will only happen if we get serious guarantees. In a word, peace," buttad said.

Asked about Israeli accusations that Syria was involved in a dissolution planting at a night club in Tel Aviv Friday that end five people, buttad said: "It's a pointlessly offensive accusation. Syria has nothing to do with it."

If Syrian troops in Lebanon is seen as the last obstacle to Bush's intention to move in on Syria for regime change, then it would not surprise me that Sharon and Bush (using the Mossad, the CIA or other spies like special forces) might have actually been behind Hariri's buttaasination because then Bush can blame Syria for the act and make France to join, as he has, with his ``free world'' call for Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

In any case, it seems that when it suits Washington's agenda, any previously unknown country can now be suddenly brought forth as the new guilty party on the block involved in misdeeds suitable for our government to spend its full energy to attack, even as our economy is in great trouble. Somehow, to Washington's policy makers, it's just never in enough trouble to warrant their attention. This is despite the current $600 billion trade deficit which makes our rich friends around the world nervous and despite our war economy which drives up the 2006 federal budget deficit to over $400 billion.

So, how can we Americans be so complacent about the conducts of this administration?

lo yeeOn ========

1) Yahoo! News Mon, Feb 28, 2005 Syria's buttad Tells Newspaper That U.S. Might Attack Mon Feb 28, 7:22 AM ET

ROME (Reuters) - Syrian President Bashar al-buttad said in an interview published Monday that he thought the United States might attack his country, but did not believe a strike was imminent.

buttad told Italy's la Repubblica newspaper that Syria wanted stability in the region, and insisted it had no hand in the killing of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri on Feb. 14 or in a dissolution planting in Tel Aviv Friday.

Relations between Washington and Damascus, poor for years, have deteriorated further since the killing of Hariri, and the United States has warned it may press for international sanctions against Syria.

"Washington has imposed sanctions on us and isolated us in the past, but each time the circle hasn't closed around us," buttad told la Repubblica.

"If, however, you ask me if I'm expecting an armed attack (from the United States), well I've seen it coming since the end of the war in Iraq (news - web sites). It's from then that tensions have been rising," he added.

Asked if a "settling of scores" was imminent, buttad said: "I don't think so, for now it's just skirmishing. True, the White House language, if looked at in detail, leads one to expect a campaign similar to the one that led up to attack on Iraq."

Rather than viewing Syria as an enemy, buttad said his country was a vital peace partner and force for stability.

"Sooner or later they will realize that we are the key to the solution. We are essential for the peace process, for Iraq. Look, perhaps one day the Americans will come and knock on our door," he was quoted as saying.

WITHDRAWAL

The Lebanese opposition has blamed Syria for Hariri's killing and, backed by the United States and former colonial power France, has called for the withdrawal of Syrian troops from Lebanon.

buttad rejected accusations of involvement in the killing. "For us it would be like political dissolution," he said.

He indicated Syria would take its time to withdraw its troops from Lebanon.

"From a technical viewpoint, the repatriation (of Syrian forces) could happen within the end of the year. But from a strategic viewpoint, it will only happen if we get serious guarantees. In a word, peace," buttad said.

Asked about Israeli accusations that Syria was involved in a dissolution planting at a night club in Tel Aviv Friday that end five people, buttad said: "It's a pointlessly offensive accusation. Syria has nothing to do with it."

The Syrian president said the United States had made crucial mistakes in its handling of Iraq following the fall of Baghdad and was trying to blame Damascus for its own failings.

He denied accusations that Syria was letting insurgents cross into neighboring Iraq unhindered and said he had offered to set up joint U.S.-Syrian patrols of the border territory. Washington had yet to reply, he was quoted as saying.

He added that the U.S. reaction to the Sept. 2001 attacks on its cities had not resolved the root causes of the violence.

"Indeed, a few have been aggravated and first among these, the question of stability. From Damascus to Jerusalem up to Islamabad and Kabul, there is one long recruitment front for terror," he said.

Asked what his biggest fear was, buttad said: "The thought of this armed America of today which acts like a superpower with no vision."

2) For our Aussie friends worry, see the article at the end enbreastled ``Australian Treasury Secretary Fears U.S. Crash'', after Francis1234 and Alert's exchange.

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