Guardian on US in the Middle East: it pretends still to be a power in the region in spite of being locked into an unwinnable war in Iraq

The Guardian reaches new heights in the grip of it's non survival mutation. Anti Americanism, in a Britain unable to defend itself from Jihadistan is death for the heritage of Runnymede. But perhaps, the Guardian is part of a new Britain, eh?

As US power fades, it can't find friends to take on Iran: Washington has exaggerated Teheran's capabilities and intentions in Iraq. It is confused and frustrated

The shadowy outlines of a new US strategy towards Iran are exercising diplomats and experts around the Middle East and in the west. The US says Iranian personnel are training and arming anti-US forces inside Iraq, and it will not hesitate to kill them. It is sending a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf, doubling its force projection there. It is calling on Europeans to tighten sanctions on Iran until Tehran suspends its uranium enrichment programme.Is the US rattling the sabre in advance of an attack on Iran? Or is it merely rattling its cage, as it pretends still to be a power in the region in spite of being locked into an unwinnable war in Iraq? The only certainty is that Bush's strategy of calling for democratisation in the Middle East is over. Washington has had to abandon the neocon dream of turning Iraq into a beacon of secular liberal democracy. It is no longer pressing for reform in other Arab states.

On her recent trip to Egypt, Jordan, and the Gulf, Condoleezza Rice said little about democracy. Her pitch was old-fashioned realpolitik as she tried to create a regional counterweight to Iran's influence

Frankly I continue to maintain, that unless the USA continues to stress that in the end there is either commitment to democracy for all peoples, or the deluge, we are and will be no different (to foreign entities of any kind) than any other powerful nations in history. We will have amoral interests, devoid of what makes us what we are. And what makes us, quite different from others. This, I contend, is a profoundly LIBERAL view.

Gary Sick, a former National Security Council expert, argues that Washington's return to balance-of-power considerations is designed to create an informal anti-Iranian alliance of the US, Israel and the Sunni Arab states. The aim is partly to divert attention from the catastrophe of Iraq. It also reduces Israel's isolation by suggesting Sunni Arab states have a common interest in confronting Iran, whatever their disagreements over Palestine.

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