And this week Israel's Perez visited India helping to cultivate the "concern about terrrorism" that will keep India in our camp. Like Israel India has a territory that it is trying to hang onto despite the inhabitants desire to be free of their rule. Fostering a war on the Chinese border coupled with these not so subtle attempts to control China's access to cheap fuel can only work to increase the ire of the dragon.

As Pakistan scrambles to protect its eastern flank by leaving its western one unprotected, China cannot help but notice that another of its allies are being done in. Is it all due to America's fear of China as a military power or as the inevitable economic superpower of the future? Selection of Yemen, Somalia and Sudan may also amount to no more than a little China baiting. Yemen was in its earlier days fainly red, or at least China aligned, and the national Chinese petroleum company is one of those in the Sudan. In any case China seems to have gotten the meassage and is now sending one of their own.

Should The U.S. insist on bombing Iraq the temporary alliance with Russia may evaporate. Right now the pipeline consortium that includes Chevron and Gazprom was created by seducing Gazprom away from a consortium with Unocal. It also excludes Iran at the insistance of the pro-Israel lobby. It is also interesting to note that the pipeline hasd been built and started operations at the beginning of the bombing of Afghanistan.

But supposing there is a nuclear exchange between India and Pakistan and the U.S. goes ahead in oppostion of its European allies and Russia and targets Iraq again? Coupled with Iran's anger at being accused of "arming terrorists" in Palestine, the pendulum may just swing in the other direction as Russia, China and Iran again find common ground.

The world increasingly questions the relentless bombing of Afghanistan. The European allies have no desire to war agaisnt the country of Iraq. How comfortable can Russia be with increased American military presence in Central Asia? To date they have declined to join NATO or even to show much enthussiam for the idea. They may be too broke right now to pump thier own oil and gas but their reserves are tremendous.

And finally America's blatant disregard for the suffering of Palestinians, Iraqis and Afghanis is becoming repugnant to friend and foe alike. We may think we look tough but to the world at large we look more and more like bullies. No one on the planet thinks that America plays an even handed role in the so called peace process between Israel and Palestine. No one thinks that the policy towards Iraw is anything but vicious.

As 911 comes to look like something quite other than what the media so desperately wants us to think it is. As more and more lies, distortions, extreme unliklihoods, and sheer impossibilites get unearthed the word spreads. Rumor travels like wildfire and on the net it moves at the speed of lighning.

This week hundreds of Ethiopian troops were seen heading towards Somalia. It's hard to think of two countries that need war less than these two. Where are we headed?