Israeli sources are alleging the existence of a secret Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance. The allegation is credible, even obvious to many who understand the close ties that exist between terror-supporting states and the "former" communist bloc. The allegation is also credible to anyone who watches the way Moscow supplies and encourages rogue states like North Korea, Iran and the old Iraqi regime of Saddam Hussein. Consider the following tangled web: Recently published Iraqi documents confirm a Saddam-Taliban connection as previously alleged by terrorism expert Yossef Bodansky. Rounding out the overall picture, Pakistani journalist Hamid Mir recently stated that Iran and Russia are jointly supporting the Taliban's resurgence in Afghanistan. In an interview with Paul Williams and David Dastych, Mir affirmed: "a top official of Afghanistan's Interior Ministry revealed to me in Kabul that Russia and Iran are providing weapons and money to the Taliban. But we don't have the courage to speak against them...."
Who will find the courage, indeed, to admit the truth about Russia and Iran? Who has the courage to say what is actually occurring as opposed to the mindless repetition of ideological falsifications? The left uses every occasion to bash Bush and deny the enmity of certain countries. It is America's fault, they say. America is the villain of the piece while Russia is, once again, a "progressive country." Even the right is disunited, as we find Patrick Buchanan declaring for retreat and isolation. Meanwhile the maligned "neo-cons" call for tougher measures, though none are to be aimed at Russia. They warn us about China and Iran and Syria. But Russia is left alone, wrapped in its cocoon of lies. The truth is lost on every side as each contestant struggles to prevail in a political debate that misses the big picture and the big enemy. The partisan bias that afflicts punditry makes any discussion of strategic realities difficult if not impossible. It is a sure path to obscurity for a writer to discuss the emergence of a powerful anti-U.S. bloc of countries led by Russia and China - a bloc that includes Western Hemisphere countries like Brazil, Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela and Cuba. (Mary Anastasia O'Grady's July 28 Wall Street Journal piece about Kirchner's purging of anti-communists from Argentina's military was particularly chilling when she stated, "Since 2003 Mr. Kirchner has been seeking retribution for the injuries sustained by his allies, the friends of Fidel.) America is facing a powerful international combination with a communist pedigree. This combination is on the march around the world, successfully punching holes in the decayed shell of Cold War containment, slowly undermining the U.S. economy and the Pentagon's military position. If a pundit, here and there, bravely acknowledges that Russia and China are not our friends there is no echo, no discussion, and no feet to carry the revelation forward. The public's incomprehension and lack of interest, fortified by half-truth and pregnant with a threefold misinterpretation, leaves the bravest of pundits without a leg to stand on. The fact that Katyusha Rockets are a Russian weapon has been lost in a maze of Islamist and Arab enemies, each assisting the other behind the scenes. Russia's role is usually omitted, or chalked up to the economics of arms sales instead of strategic malice.
Given the nuclear deadlock of the Cold War, the Russians and Chinese are performing what remained to them when direct assault was out of the question. They reverted to deception, false friendship and the classic "peace offensive" of Lenin. To write of this reality is not conspiracy theory. It is the way of the oriental despot. It is the great game injected with the spirit of Sun Tzu (the Chinese strategist who taught that all warfare is based on deception). We must accept the fact that despotic states, like Russia and China, seek to aggrandize themselves at the expense of their weaker neighbors, and at the expense of their main democratic rival (also known as their "main enemy"). Direct nuclear assault is suicide without a long and sophisticated political deception. In this situation, deception opens the path of least resistance and least expectation for a cunning and devastating sequence. There are many weapons aside from nuclear and conventional ones. Everything now is resolved according to a strategic series which probably includes the following elements: (1) An energy squeeze that benefits the new Russian bloc, fostered by Russia and Venezuela and Iran; (2) the decline of the dollar and a growing economic crisis in the United States; (3) Rising Russian revenues for modernizing conventional and nuclear forces; (4) China's gradual, step by step transition from a dollar economy to a war economy; (5) intensification of terror attacks on American and Israel targets; (6) spread of diversionary wars that promise to drag American forces into a vulnerable or untenable position; (7) the intensification of the Middle East crisis; (8) the breakup of NATO and other U.S.-led alliances; (8) and to divide the American people on defense-related questions so that a national consensus cannot be reached.
The process thus outlined gradually unfolds, step by step. When the U.S. economy enters the inevitable crisis stage - events will ripen quickly. Within 18 months bad news will be followed by worse, and a breakdown of America's war-making capability (already compromised on the political level) could occur. What will be the immediate, accelerating factor?
A July 20 column by Kenneth R. Timmerman at FrontpageMagazine.com suggests a primary role for Iran. "The Iranian-backed attacks [on Israel]," he noted, "are aimed at deterring an Israeli military strike against Iranian nuclear and missile facilities." The intensification of hostilities in the Middle East is more and more blamed on Israel. "Instead of blasting Hezbollah for abducting Israeli soldiers and launching rocket attacks on Israeli towns and cities," added Timmerman, French President Chirac "blamed Israel for retaliating."
A split between Europe on the one side, versus America and Israel on the other, is being encouraged. European support for a preemptive strike on Iran's nuclear infrastructure is now completely squashed. The Syrians and Iranians are not being held responsible for the conflict, as they should. And Russia stands directly behind the Syrian and Iranians, arming them and guiding them. A terrorist noose is being tightened around Israel. The objective is to buy time while Iran creates the nuclear arsenal needed to defeat the Americans and Israelis.
Indications that Hezbollah planned the present outburst of violence in advance may be found in the fact that (as Timmerman reports) "Iranian supply deliveries to Hezbollah through Syria have increased during the first half of 2006." Meanwhile, Russia is delivering new anti-air and other military systems to Iran. The network of terror, in Afghanistan and Iraq, in Lebanon and the West Bank, begins with the Islamic terrorist on the ground and ends with the pulling of strings in Moscow. The realization must be dawning on someone in Washington. The America press must eventually grasp the underlying theme at work.
It is an old theme, known to every cold warrior.
