.
Many observers expect Israel to mount a ground offensive in Gaza in the next few hours. The grindingly slow progress of Russian troops in capturing the small Ukrainian cities of Severodonetsk (pop. 99,000), Lysychans’k (pop. 353,000) and of course Bakhmut (pop. 71,000) tells us that progress may well be slow and costly for Israel as they attempt to subjugate an urban area of 2.2 million.
Lebanese resistance fighters from Hezbollah are widely expected to enter the conflict along Israel’s northern border if Israel begins a ground assault. Hezbollah are a much larger and better equipped force than Hamas and skirmishes have already begun. Israel has already carried out two airstrikes on airports in Syria – perhaps to prevent attacks towards the illegally occupied Golan Heights.
U.S. military bases in Iraq and Syria have been attacked. The USS Carney shot down three cruise missiles en route to Israel, apparently launched by the Houthis in Yemen and heading towards Israel.
There are violent clashes in the occupied West Bank. Israel has bombed a mosque and the Jenin refugee camp. Jewish settlers have attacked Palestinian towns in the West Bank killing 90 Palestinians since Oct. 7
The USA has sent the USS Eisenhower carrier to join the USS Gerald R Ford carrier that arrived there earlier this week – both are in international waters off Israel. From these positions they are in a position to hit Lebanese forces. If that were to occur then the defence of U.S, military bases in the area may become problematic.
Hezbollah are of course backed by Iran who may not sit idly by if U.S. forces intervene in the Middle East. Missiles can easily be fired and the two large U.S. carrier groups will be a tempting target for many. An easy path to escalation involving U.S. forces in the Middle East exists.
Following the military food chain from the minnows of the Palestinian Resistance to the militias of Hezbollah and the armed forces of Iran leads one inexorably to the altogether bigger fish. Lebanon is backed by Iran, Iran is backed by Russia and China – Syria by Russia also.
Chinese Warships have been stationed in the Middle East and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will shortly arrive in Tehran. Gaza suddenly has the world’s attention and the fires burning in that small enclave might not stay there for long.
What on earth is going on the heads of the American planners in Washington? It has hard to fathom any pattern in U.S. foreign policy these days except maximum belligerence on every front which breeds only one catastrophic diplomatic setback after another.
Anthony Blinken’s trip to China was a pointless exercise of travelling to a superpower in order to give them hubristic lectures about Russia and not listen to a word the Chinese said. What little good the trip did was soon undone by his octogenarian boss who bad mouthed Xi Jinping within days of Blinken’s return to the U.S.
Biden’s trip to the Middle East turned into another disaster as it became clear that nobody in the Middle East wanted to talk to him – so it was selfies with Netanyahu and back on the plane. Blinken’s trip to Egypt was little short of a humiliation as he received a dressing down from Sisi about Israeli excesses in Gaza.
Given the well documented depletion of U.S. stocks of ammunition by the proxy war in Ukraine why on earth would they want to get involved in an escalation in the Middle East ? Why continue sabre rattling near Taiwan at the same time?
Janet Yellen says the U.S can certainly afford two wars – but is two enough for the current administration? There is no point really to this post except to document the growing chaos that seems to be engulfing the world – a chaos in which all roads lead back to The White House and their little puppy dog pets like Sunak and Macron.
I don’t know what to be more scared of as regards the U.S.
If they don’t have a plan and are just crashing about the globe in chaotic hissy fits of pique and hubris, that is terrifying. That they do have a plan suggests only that they are hell bent on trying to start world war three as they insult everyone and poke hornets nests around the globe. Waiting in the wings like an orange angel of doom is Trump – a fascist demagogue who will surely drag the U.S. further into the abyss.
In the UK we have a billionaire idiot and moral vacuum in Downing Street – soon to be replaced by Keir Starmer’s continuity Tory Party which has shown only one unswerving ability only so far – to run as far away from Labour’s once proud history of socialism, justice and internationalism as they can. Seeing Keir Starmer defend Israel’s right to commit war crimes live on LBC (and then brazenly lie about it) will surely be the last straw for many.
I just had a thought of pure melancholy of a world in which the usual suspects hadn’t managed to sabotage and sideline Bernie Sanders and Jeremy Corbyn. What a different world we might be living in now.
A great many people in Gaza and around the world may have cause to regret the defeats of those last of the socialist Jedi before this dismal year is out.
Subscribe to Sodium Haze
Since 2013 I have worked on this Ad-Free site: trying to give a voice to those without the power or agency to speak out for themselves and speaking simple truths that well paid journalists in the corporate media dare not utter.
I am a home schooling parent on a low income – paying for the domain, web hosting and security entirely out of my own pocket.
If you find this website useful and could spare us a few shillings to help keep our lights on, it would be very much appreciated.
Thank you in solidarity with all our readers. John Lynch, Editor.
More Stories
Ukraine pays the price for the West’s addiction to propaganda over reality
Radical Friendship 2: Healing the divisive human need for certainty
Nobody should be surprised that Fascism is on the march across Europe.