After an alleged "nerve gas" attack which killed several people in Syria, the CFR connected media immediately pointed the finger at president Assad followed by cries to "do something" about the atrocity. The Israelis called for airstrikes against the Assad government forces. The obsequious Hillary Clinton, interviewed by CFR member Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times as if her opinion really mattered, echoed the Israeli demand.

President Trump quickly obliged after consulting his security advisors, led by CFR member Gen. Herbert McMaster and CSIS trustee Rex Tillerson. Dozens of million-dollar cruise missiles (purchased from CFR corporate sponsor Raytheon) were fired from U.S. ships targeting the Shayrat airbase near the city of Homs, damaging the base facilities and killing several people in a nearby residential area. CFR member Brian Williams of NBC provided color commentary during the action, gushing over the "beautiful" missile launch. Former CFR director Fareed Zakaria of CNN called the action "presidential".

Trump was rewarded by the establishment media with several days of favorable publicity, after his theatrical statement lamenting the death of "beautiful babies" in an attempt to justify the U.S. assault -- which caused even more deaths. This is the sort of nauseating, hypocritcal performance one would expect from a CFR sponsored "liberal" harpy like Hillary Clinton or Madeline Albright. Trump was supposed to be different.

The hasty counter-strike, planned well in advance, was launched without a U.N. investigation of the incident, without any proof that the Assad regime was actually responsible, and without authorization from the U.S. Congress. Back in August 2013, the Assad regime was falsely accused of a similar attack which was later shown to have been perpetrated by the rebel forces in an attempt to justify overt U.S. involvement in the conflict. Trump and his "advisors" are surely aware of that precedent. Back then, he said:

"We should stay the hell out of Syria. The 'rebels' are just as bad as the current regime. What will we get for our lives and $ billions? Zero!"

-- Donald Trump tweet, 2013-06-15

Photos at the scene appeared to show gassing victims being handled by people who were not wearing proper protective equipment. If a "nerve agent" had actually been used as reported by the media, those responders would likely have died from contact with the victims. Who would take such a risk? If the airbase actually held a stockpile of such deadly chemical weapons, who would be foolish enough to detonate them with a missile strike?

The selected target of the counter-strike was the same airbase where Syrian forces had successfully repelled a squadron of Israeli jets on an illegal bombing mission inside Syrian territory a couple of weeks ago. The alleged "nerve gas" attack provided a convenient pretext for a retaliatory strike against the base and its air defense systems.

Trump said he would "make America great again". He would "put America first" in policy decisions. He would withdraw from counter-productive foreign conflicts, including the war in Syria. He would cooperate with the Russians. Instead, it appears that he is continuing the same pro-war, pro-Zionist imperial policies of previous administrations. Who benefits from this?

UPDATE: See this commentary from David Stockman, who called the fiasco "surely the most impetuous, thoughtless, reckless and stupid act from the Oval Office that we can remember." The CFR script writers are devious, but not stupid. Every scene in the play, including the election of Donald Trump, is a setup for the next act. So what if a few "extras" are killed in the process?

UPDATE: The CFR journal Foreign Affairs is complaining that the populists are now threatening the "liberal" world order they have dominated for the past century. There is nothing "liberal" about corporate socialism, imperial wars and debt slavery, comrades! The hypocrisy of the CFR oligarchs and their minions -- led by the likes of David Rockefeller, George Soros and David Rubenstein -- is exceeded only by their arrogance.

UPDATE: In late June, investigator Seymour Hersh published a detailed report on the event which refutes the official story. The "advisors" apparently knew the facts, but allowed (encouraged) Trump to proceed with an unjustified and ineffective military strike against Syria as a prelude to further escalation:

"Trump issued the order despite having been warned by the U.S. intelligence community that it had found no evidence that the Syrians had used a chemical weapon... There had been no chemical warhead. And yet it was impossible for the experts to persuade the president of this once he had made up his mind."

-- Seymour Hersh article

The Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) also released a report claiming that "people were exposed to sarin, a chemical weapon" without conducting an on-site inspection. Since the OPCW is not authorized to "identify who is responsible for alleged attacks", the U.N. is now starting an investigation. Note that Israel, which supports the Syrian rebels, is one of only 4 nations which is not a member of the Chemical Weapons Convention. Also note that the U.N. organization itself is one of the key institutions created by the CFR following WW2.

UPDATE: In June, David Rubenstein, Jewish billionaire and founder of the Carlyle Group, became the new Chairman of the CFR, succeeding Robert Rubin. The Carlyle Group is a major "defense" contractor which profits from the wars and suffering in the Middle East, while advancing the strategic goals of the Jewish State and their Saudi allies. Several other Carlyle officers have also been CFR members, including George H.W. Bush, James Baker and Frank Carlucci. Former CFR director George Soros is a Carlyle investor.

"The Carlyle Group is essentially a hedge fund for war-making and high tech espionage. They are the people who brought you the Iraq war [2003] and all those intrusive niceties of 'Homeland Security'... Many of Carlyle’s executives and investors have spent decades in the Pentagon, the CIA or the State Department, before cashing in for more lucrative careers as war profiteers. They are now licking their chops at the prospect for an all-out war against Syria, no doubt hoping that the conflagration will soon spread to Lebanon, Jordan and, the big prize, Iran."

-- CounterPunch article (Sep 2013)

Someone who claims to be a worker at a Ukrainian air base has decided to come forward with new information regarding the shootdown of Malaysian Airlines flight MH-17 last summer. He was recently interviewed on a Russian TV program, and here are some highlights from the transcript:

"Q: Where were you on July 17, 2014, the day Malaysian Boeing was shot down?

A: I was on the territory of Ukraine, in the city of Dnepropetrovsk, the village Aviatorskye. It is a regular airport. There at this time were based fighter jets and helicopters. Planes regularly flew on bombing missions, Su-25 attack aircraft bombed Donetsk, Lugansk. This lasted a long time... Out of the eight airplanes which were based there, only two had "air-to-air" missiles. They were suspended [under the wings]...

Q: Tell us about July 17.

A: Airplanes flew regularly, all day since the morning. In the afternoon, about an hour before the downing of the "Boeing", three attack fighters were raised into the air. I don't remember the exact time. One of the airplanes was equipped with such missiles. It was an Su-25... The missiles vary in size, plumage, coloration. With a guidance head, very easy to recognize. Anyway, after a short time, only one airplane returned, two were shot down. Somewhere in the East of Ukraine, I was told. The airplane that came back, was the one with those suspended missiles.

Q: It returned without the missiles?

A: Without the missiles. That pilot was very scared...

Q: What else do you remember this day? What did the pilot say?

A: He said a phrase, when he was led out of the airplane: "It was not the right plane." And in the evening there was a phrase to a question from one pilot to him, to Voloshin: "What's up with the plane?" To which he replied: "The plane was in the wrong place at the wrong time."

-- Translation of "Komsomolskaya Pravda" interview, 22-Dec-2014

We have no way to confirm this story, but it sounds plausible. It might help explain why the western "investigation committee" has not published their findings. Note that Aviatorskye is an airbase adjacent to the Dnipropetrovsk International Airport (see map), a short distance west of the conflict zone where MH-17 was shot down. The entire province (oblast) of Dnipropetrovsk has been under the governorship of Jewish billionaire Igor Kolomoisky since the coup. See our previous comments on these events.

UPDATE: In July 2015, Russian sources released a new forensic analysis indicating that an Israeli-made Python air-to-air missile was probably the weapon that brought down the airliner:

"The dimensions and character of the puncture holes left by the strike elements allegedly allow their size and form factor to be established, which in its turn makes it possible to identify the type of weapon used in a particular case."

-- Russia Today, 16-Jul-2015

While world attention was distracted by the recent airline disaster in Ukraine (see below), more than 1500 men, women and children in Gaza were slaughtered and thousands more driven from their homes once again by the Zionists, who proudly posted photos of themselves celebrating the carnage and destruction. The spineless lackeys in the U.S. Congress -- including those who claim to be "Christians" -- expressed unanimous support for the latest war crimes, and voted to send even more U.S. taxpayer money and weapons to the Jewish State.

Instead of focusing on Bibi "the Butcher" Netanyahu; the piles of dead and maimed Gaza children; the bombing of schools, shelters, and hospitals; the raving Jewish mobs and the racist incitement by their leaders; and the worldwide protests against these ongoing atrocities, the Zionist controlled media is busy trying to drum up support for a war against Russia. Does anyone perceive the hypocrisy?

Here's an example of this anti-Russian propaganda from The Economist (of London), where Jewish oligarch Evelyn de Rothschild is a major shareholder and former chairman. His current wife, Lynn Forester de Rothschild, friend and supporter of Zionist cheerleader Hillary Clinton, now sits on the board of directors. They are especially determined to destroy Vladimir Putin, who dares to stand in their way.

Oddly enough, the case of the former Yukos Oil company, which was broken up by the Russian government a decade ago, has recently resurfaced. An EU "arbitration panel" has now ruled against the Russians and ordered them to pay $50 billion in compensation to former shareholders. One of those shareholders was Lord Jacob Rothschild, former director of the Yukos "Open Russia Foundation", who reportedly acquired $13.5 billion worth of shares from Yukos owner Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003. After serving 10 years in prison for financial fraud, Khodorkovsky was pardoned by President Putin and now resides in Switzerland.

The Rothschilds have been prime sponsors of the Judeo-Masonic "State of Israel" project since its inception in the 19th century. The Economist blog for its pro-Zionist commentary is called "Pomegranate" and features a picture of that fruit centered on a map of the middle east. Why? According to Jewish mythology:

"Pomegranates were known...as the fruits which the 'scouts' (spies) brought to Moses to demonstrate the fertility of the "promised land"... The robe of the ephod worn by the Hebrew High Priest has pomegranates embroidered on the hem... The capitals of the two pillars (Jachin and Boaz) that stood in front of Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem [and within Masonic temples today] were engraved with pomegranates and it is said that Solomon designed his coronet based on the pomegranate's crown... Pomegranates also symbolize the mystical experience in the Jewish kabbalah".

-- Wikipedia, Pomegranate

The roving band of Israelite raiders eventually seized the "promised land" from its rightful owners by military force, and all the inhabitants were mercilessly slaughtered. The Jewish priests and scribes justified the deed after the fact, and enshrined their own version of events as "holy scripture" not to be questioned. Is it any different today?

UPDATE: In 2016, Russia won an appeal to overturn the $50 billion ruling.

A Malaysian airliner en route from Netherlands to Malaysia crashed in the Donetsk province of eastern Ukraine on 17-July killing almost 300 people. The Boeing 777 was cruising at 33,000 ft altitude, and it has been alleged that the cause of the disaster was a surface-to-air missile. Political demagogues, led by Zionist warmongers John McCain and Hillary Clinton, were quick to point the finger at both the Russians and the separatists in eastern Ukraine.

However, it is just as likely that the well-equipped but poorly-trained Ukrainian military forces, now under command of the NATO backed junta in Kiev, were actually responsible. They control most of the territory in Donetsk, and it would not be the first time they have "accidently" shot down a civilian airliner.

"The Ukrainian military has several batteries of Buk-M1 (SA-11) surface-to-air missile systems with at least 27 launchers (see photo), capable of bringing down high-flying jets, in the Donetsk region where the Malaysian passenger plane crashed, the Russian Defense Ministry said... There were unconfirmed reports the Malaysian plane was travelling at an altitude of over 10,000 meters when it was allegedly hit by a missile... Only the S-300 and Buk surface-to-air missile systems are capable of hitting targets at such altitude..."We simply don’t have such air defense systems. Our man-portable air defense (shoulder-launched) systems have a firing range 3,000 - 4,000 meters. The Boeing was flying at a much higher altitude," Sergey Kavtaradze, special representative for the prime minister of the [breakaway] Donetsk People’s Republic, explained."

-- Russia Today

Not only were the Ukrainian missile batteries stationed in the Donetsk region, it also appears that someone in the Ukrainian air traffic control system directed the flight to deviate from the usual route, placing it within range:

"What’s peculiar about MH17 is that the ill-fated flight [on the 17th] was different from its usual path over Ukraine. According to data at flightaware.com, a website tracking civil aviation traffic, the flight on Thursday diverted about 200 km north from the paths the Malaysian Airlines Boeing 777 had used in previous days. And it led the plane right over the war-torn Donetsk Region. So far no official explanation has been given as to the unusual flight path. "

-- Russia Today

Igor Kolomoisky, the billionaire Jewish oligarch recently appointed governor of the adjacent Dnipropetrovsk province and founder of the European Jewish Parliament (EJP), has stated that he intends to use his private mercenaries to "wipe out" the separatists in neighboring Donetsk. Was the errant missile fired from a launcher located within Kolomoisky's domain, including areas in Donetsk under control of his forces?

"During the working visit of President of Ukraine Petr Poroshenko to Donbass [in June], oligarch Igor Kolomoisky has openly declared, that he would not obey the President's decree on 'peaceful settlement', and that his army would "finish off" the militiamen in the South-East of the country in any case. This was confided by a source in the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine on condition of anonymity, RIA Novosti reports... Earlier, the Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation made a statement that almost 1,500 people were recognized as victims in the case of using prohibited means and methods of war in Ukraine. The list of defendants in this case includes Governor of the Dnepropetrovsk region, Igor Kolomoisky..."

-- Voice of Russia

Another strong possibility, not mentioned in the western propaganda campaign, is that the airliner was shot down by a Ukranian fighter jet rather than a surface-to-air missile. There will be some sort of "investigation", but the truth may never be revealed. As usual, the most important question remains: who benefits?

UPDATE: It is likely that NATO knows exactly what happened to MH17, but are unwilling to release the information for some reason:

"The 10-day NATO exercise code named 'Breeze 2014' has ended in the Black Sea... NATO ships and aircraft had the Donetsk and Luhansk regions under total radar and electronic surveillance..."

-- Wayne Madsen article

UPDATE: A private investigation firm in Germany is now offering a $30 million reward for infomation which correctly identifies the perpetrators of the shootdown.

The London Guardian recently published an article titled "The Truth about Israel's Secret Nuclear Arsenal". The revelations it contains should come as no surprise, even though the Israeli government has denied any such program since its inception. The Zionists, led by Bibi Netanyahu, prefer to divert public attention onto the alleged "Iranian nuclear threat" instead of their own dishonest and aggressive behavior.

"Israel has been stealing nuclear secrets and covertly making bombs since the 1950s. And western governments, including Britain and the US, turn a blind eye. But how can we expect Iran to curb its nuclear ambitions if the Israelis won't come clean?...

Despite the fact that Israel's nuclear programme has been an open secret since a disgruntled technician, Mordechai Vanunu, blew the whistle on it in 1986, the official Israeli position is still never to confirm or deny its existence... The former speaker of the Knesset, Avraham Burg, broke the taboo last month, declaring Israeli possession of both nuclear and chemical weapons and describing the official non-disclosure policy as 'outdated and childish'...

In Dimona, French engineers poured in to help build Israel a nuclear reactor and a far more secret reprocessing plant capable of separating plutonium from spent reactor fuel. This was the real giveaway that Israel's nuclear programme was aimed at producing weapons. By the end of the 1950s, there were 2,500 French citizens living in Dimona, transforming it from a village to a cosmopolitan town...and yet the whole endeavour was conducted under a thick veil of secrecy...

The US policy of silence continues to this day..."

-- London Guardian article

The U.S. Congress does not merely follow a "policy of silence", but rather loud and hypocritical saber rattling on behalf of their wealthy Zionist benefactors. For instance, Senate bill S.1881, the "Nuclear Weapon Free Iran Act", is currently up for consideration. This latest war-mongering sanction is aimed only at intimidating and provoking Iran, while continuing to ignore the undeclared, uninspected Israeli nuclear arsenal which poses a direct threat to Iran and other states in the region.

Meanwhile, these same Congressional lackeys just extorted another $3 billion dollars in tribute money from U.S. taxpayers in order to prop up the oppressive and immoral Jewish State, which has already received at least $230,000,000,000 plus interest since 1948. This may be "good for the Jews", but is it good for Americans or anyone else? Somehow that question is never debated.

UPDATE: Here is a detailed report on the history of the clandestine Israeli nuclear weapons program, the threat of which has been used to extort military support and funding from the United States for over 40 years:

"On the afternoon of 6 October 1973, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in a coordinated surprise attack, beginning the Yom Kippur War...This crisis brought Israel to its second nuclear alert... U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger was notified of the alert several hours later on the morning of 9 October... American commanders in Germany depleted their stocks of missiles...and sent them forward to Israel. Thus started the subtle, opaque use of the Israeli bomb to ensure that the United States kept its pledge to maintain Israel's conventional weapons edge over its foes. There is significant anecdotal evidence that Henry Kissinger told President of Egypt, Anwar Sadat, that the reason for the U.S. airlift was that the Israelis were close to 'going nuclear'...

With no open, frank, public debate on nuclear issues, there has accordingly been no debate or information on existing safeguards. This has led to accusations of 'monolithic views and sinister intentions.' Would a right wing military government decide to employ nuclear weapons recklessly? Ariel Sharon, an outspoken proponent of 'Greater Israel' was quoted as saying, 'Arabs may have the oil, but we have the matches.' Could the Gush Emunim, a right wing religious [settler] organization, or others, hijack a nuclear device to 'liberate' the Temple Mount for the building of the third temple? Chances are small but could increase as radicals decry the peace process. A 1997 article reviewing the Israeli Defense Force repeatedly stressed the possibilities of, and the need to guard against, a religious, right wing military coup, especially as the proportion of religious [Jews] in the military increases."

-- "The Third Temple's Holy of Holies: Israel's Nuclear Weapons", Col. Warner D. Farr, USAF Air University, Sep 1999

"The [Obama] White House and the [Clinton] State Department watched, in real time from an overhead drone, live video of the attack and did nothing. They did nothing to help those Americans under attack, those Americans who ended up dead. No action was taken, no troops deployed to aid those under siege in the 7 hour attack. That's right, the attack lasted 7 hours... The President lied about the motivation for the attack, lied about his knowledge of the attack, and lied to cover up all of it."

-- New York Daily News

On Sep 11, Ambassador Stevens paid the ultimate price for Hillary Clinton's obscene laughter mocking the rape and murder of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Too bad she wasn't there to share the laughter in person. Why did Clinton and Obama ignore the repeated requests for enhanced security?

"To make its involvement in Libya seem successful, the Obama administration has pursued a policy of 'normalization' of relations with Libya. This has meant scaling down the U.S. security forces in and around the U.S. Embassy and Consulate in Libya... [The team] assigned to protect the ambassador and his staff was pulled out in August, just a month before the attacks. This was done over the protests of the leader of the team, the State Department regional security director and Ambassador Stevens himself."

-- Washington Times

"The August 15 cable from Ambassador Christopher Stevens to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, marked 'secret', was sent by the Benghazi mission and outlined both the threats and the insufficiencies to U.S. security in Libya. The mission called for an "emergency meeting" to discuss the rapidly eroding situation on the ground:

"RSO (Regional Security Officer) expressed concerns with the ability to defend Post in the event of a coordinated attack due to limited manpower, security measures, weapons capabilities, host nation support, and the overall size of the compound."

-- Heritage Foundation

"Emails...indicated that the White House had been informed almost immediately that a terror group had taken responsibility for the attack in Benghazi, and Fox News reported this morning that the two former Navy SEALs, Ty Woods and Glen Doherty, had been refused in requests for assistance they had made from the CIA annex. Jake Tapper quoted [CIA director] Petraeus this afternoon denying that the CIA was responsible for the refusal: "No one at any level in the CIA told anybody not to help those in need; claims to the contrary are simply inaccurate."

-- Brietbart

"The FBI partially declassified and released [portions of] a 1985-2002 investigation into how a network of front companies connected to the Israeli Ministry of Defense illegally smuggled nuclear triggers out of the U.S. [as part of Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons program]. The newly released FBI files detail how Richard Kelly Smyth...met with Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel during the smuggling operation. At that time, Netanyahu worked at the Israeli node of the smuggling network, Heli Trading Company...

Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan was recruited into Israel's economic espionage division...and learned how to establish front companies and secret bank accounts for smuggling operations. [He] encouraged Smyth, a California engineer, to incorporate MILCO in 1972 and serve as a front for the Israel-based Heli Trading (also known as Milchan Limited) acquisitions of sensitive military technologies on behalf of the Ministry of Defense. Smyth fled the U.S. after being indicted for violating the Arms Export Control Act in the mid-1980s. In July 2001, Smyth was arrested in Spain by Interpol and returned to the U.S., and in November, he was convicted of exporting 800 nuclear triggers (called krytrons)...

According to the FBI report, "Smyth and Netanyahu would meet in restaurants in Tel Aviv and in Netanyahu's home and/or business. It was not uncommon for Netanyahu to ask Smyth for unclassified material."

-- Grant Smith article

Netanyahu, now the Prime Minister of the Jewish State, is attempting to justify a "first strike" against Iran over its alleged nuclear weapons program. Such hypocrisy!

UPDATE: A new book about Hollywood tycoon and Zionist spy Arnon Milchan, who was "exposed after purchasing sensitive items for Dimona and the Israeli nuclear weapons program", has recently been published.

"On June 8, 1967, Israel attacked our proud naval ship -- the USS Liberty -- killing 34 American servicemen and wounding 172. Those men were then betrayed and left to die by our own government....

Israel attempted to prevent the Liberty's radio operators from sending a call for help by jamming American emergency radio channels [and] Israeli torpedo boats machine-gunned lifeboats at close range that had been lowered to rescue the most-seriously wounded.

After an exhaustive review of previous reports, naval and other military records, including eyewitness testimony from survivors...our commission concluded that there is compelling evidence that Israel's attack was a deliberate attempt to destroy an American ship and kill her entire crew."

-- Adm. Thomas Moorer, former Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, Jan 2004

For the full story about this Israeli atrocity and the ongoing coverup, visit USSLiberty.org to see reports, photos and interviews.

"For eight years...[Meir] Dagan led the Mossad, Israel's foreign intelligence service, comparable to the British MI6... A protege of Ariel Sharon, he was considered a champion of the most aggressive policies. And here, after leaving office, he speaks out in the harshest terms against the government's plans for an attack on Iran's nuclear installations. Not mincing words, he said: "This is the stupidest idea I have heard in my life."

This week he was overshadowed by the recently relieved chief of the Shin Bet.... [which] is equivalent to the British MI5, but deals mostly with the Palestinians in Israel and the occupied territories. For six years, Yuval Diskin was the silent chief of the silent service... And now he has spoken out... According to Diskin - and who would know better? - Israel is now led by two incompetent politicians with messianic delusions and a poor grasp of reality. Their plan to attack Iran is leading to a world-wide catastrophe. Not only will it fail to prevent the production of an Iranian atom bomb, but, on the contrary, it will hasten this effort, this time with the support of the world community.

Going further than Dagan, he stated that the only factor preventing peace negotiations with the Palestinians is Netanyahu himself. Israel can make peace with Mahmoud Abbas at any time, and missing this historic opportunity will bring disaster upon Israel. As chief of the Shin Bet, Diskin was the No. 1 official government expert on Palestinians. His agency receives and collates all the evidence, spy reports, interrogation results and information gathered from listening devices.

Leaving no room for doubt, Diskin said that he knew Netanyahu and Barak from close up, did not trust them and thought they were unfit to lead the nation in a crisis. He also said that they are deliberately deceiving the people... One after another [former officials] were quoted by the media as agreeing with the two in substance... Not a single one questioned their assertions or denied what they said... Suddenly there was a united front of experienced security leaders against a war with Iran."

-- Uri Avnery, Gush Shalom

"After about two and a half years during which the danger of war between the United States and Iran was at a relatively low level, this threat is now rapidly increasing. A pattern of political and diplomatic events, military deployments, and media chatter now indicates that Anglo-American ruling circles, acting through the troubled Obama administration, are currently gearing up for a campaign of bombing against Iran, combined with special forces incursions designed to stir up rebellions among the non-Persian nationalities of the Islamic Republic...

Zbigniew Brzezinski formulated his critique of the neocon methods of aggression and imperialistic geopolitics in his testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in February 2007, going so far as to point out the likely scenario of a false flag event or 'Gulf of Tonkin incident' designed to embroil the United States in direct military hostilities with Iran. The heart of Brzezinski's analysis was this:

"If the United States continues to be bogged down in a protracted bloody involvement in Iraq, the final destination on this downhill track is likely to be a head-on conflict with Iran and with much of the world of Islam at large. A plausible scenario for a military collision with Iran involves Iraqi failure to meet the benchmarks; followed by accusations of Iranian responsibility for the failure; then by some provocation in Iraq or a terrorist act in the U.S. blamed on Iran; culminating in a 'defensive' U.S. military action against Iran that plunges a lonely America into a spreading and deepening quagmire eventually ranging across Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, and Pakistan."

-- Webster Tarpley article