Out of resignation

Really have appreciated feedback from folks about the blog, and you know the real value to me and I hope to those who read it is that there are things happening in the world, not all bad even, that kind of invite exploration and I have the time and the resources to investigate some of the issues and concerns slung around the news and TV as if they are for real, while real information is possible. The issues or concerns I bring up and direction I take in researching available information is not the definitive statement in any sense on any issue. But I will make known the sources of the material that I present and make the distinction between my own opinion and the material I find on different subjects. The subjects I choose are those that present themselves to me as I go through life. One can either ignore, deny, suffer or take it on out of/away from resignation towards some kind of responsibility if only to come to an accurate understanding of the issue.

Like, for instance, Friday afternoon I'm driving home from Lafayette feeling happy about the upcoming weekend, satisfied with the day and the week that has passed, when I hear on NPR that Israel may- upon sufficient threat and intimidation from Iran- respond with bombs and the question is air space: Turkey has said no to their coming across their country to bomb Iran, and the US has control of Iraq and may be in a position to not have Israel use Iraq's airspace to bomb Iran. Or not. And, Israel does bomb Iran, the NPR report said, Iran has indicated that the missles reach will extend to the high density area where there is the largest American population of soldiers and workers. Now see, for me it's hard to change the station and go home and have dinner like this is none of my business. What IS there to do? I decide the thing to do is to try to get information from a creditable source. Strangely enough, there wasn't much info on line or otherwise that I could find directly addressing Israel and Iran, but then I found an article in the Washington Post Sunday paper by Jim Hoegland.
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The article showed the relationships in the Middle East have a pattern, an understanding that if pressure goes down in one area of the closed Middle East system, it must come out elsewhere. "If Isreal smiles at Syria, Iran must growl at Israel." He went on the describe the process: Israel has approached Iran saberrattling as follows : 1) Israel is moving towards a US led effort in a series of talks in Tehran; 2) Israel is having direct peace talks with Syria in an effort to wean the Arab country from its partial alliance with Iran; and 3) Israel recently accepted a cease fire in Gaza in large part to rebuild political bridges with Egypt. These measures, Hoegland points out have had the effect of their being a new calm last week and bringing down oil prices. Iran then fired off new missles and bragged that they could reach all parts of Israel as well as where the US troops and ships are in the Persion Gulf. Hoegland then goes on to say that the actual threat to global stability has more to do with Tehran than with Bush and Washington. Polarization and conflict help Iranian President Mahmaud Ahmadinejad maintian his shaky grip on power. Bush, only in the past six months, the article states, has stopped playing into Ahmadinejad's political need for conflict and tension. Thus the most significant change in the Middle East scenario is from the US putting public and private pressure on Israel.

And that pressure is focused on the use of sanctions. Israel Ambassador M. Sallai Mandoor has requested that the Worlds' oil companies not sell gasoline that is used by Iran's nuclear scientists, as well as sanctions on insurance and maritime and air transportation that would raise the cost of Iran's doing business.

Somehow the Washington Post article gave some gravitas to the floaty threats and intimidating blurbs from the radio and TV news. It even sounded hopeful to me.