Chinese soldiers headed to Middle East?

Plans for bases, deployment under consideration

© 2010 WorldNetDaily

China is considering setting up military bases and possibly deploying forces in the Middle East over the next decade as a means of protecting its access to strategic materials, especially oil, and sizable investments in various Arab countries, according to a report from Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.

Middle East expert Patrick Seale said the Chinese influence in the Middle East is rising and its trade with Arab countries, which totaled $132 billion in 2008, will increase.

The growing cooperation between China and Iran in energy and trade is seen as leading to the prospect of increased military cooperation. That would come at a time when the West is considering increased sanctions against Iran, and Israel is threatening open military attack on Iran's nuclear enrichment facilities.

"For sure, Iran's willingness to show a greater willingness than hitherto to embrace China's naval vessels making port calls to Iran is now in the cards, this as a prelude to more extensive agreements up to and including provisions for a small Chinese naval outpost on one of Iran's Persian Gulf islands," according to Iranian expert Kaveh L. Afrasiabi.

“Again, such a scenario, sure to raise the serious ire of Washington, depends on a number of intervening variables," Afrasiabi said. "These include future U.S. moves in the Persian Gulf, for example, whether or not the U.S. military will end up utilizing some of the man-made artificial islands set up by the (United Arab Emirates). If so, thus enhancing the U.S.'s power projection capability with regard to Iran, Tehran may be more inclined to try to offset the U.S.'s leaning so heavy on it by playing the 'China card.'"

Until now, the role of China and its influence in the region has received little public attention, even though Beijing's influence is growing, especially toward Iran.

China, for example, is Iran's main customer for oil. It plans to invest some $43 billion in Iran's oil industry, despite the fact that U.S. policymakers are adamantly opposed to this development. In the case of China, however, unilateral U.S. sanctions would be fruitless and would create further tensions between Beijing and Washington.

Policymakers view Tehran's offer to give China access to its massive oil and natural gas reserves as a way of deflecting the possibility of increased sanctions for its uranium enrichment program. As the U.N. Security Council shortly will consider such sanctions, there are growing indications that neither China nor Russia will support the move.

A good reason for that is China's heavy reliance on oil shipments from the Middle East, particularly from Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Security experts say the strategy that China is developing for the Middle East is referred to as the "string of pearls." The strategy is designed to protect sea lanes from the oil-rich area of the Middle East to China. In addition to military, the strategy includes diplomatic and economic activities.

As part of the "string of pearls" strategy, China is to develop commercial seaports that also can handle Chinese warships and provide support for alliances from Gwadar in Pakistan through the Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia.

Reports: Iraq De-Judaizing Ezekiel's Tomb

(IsraelNN.com) Early reports that Iraq plans to retain the Jewish nature of the Tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel are apparently false. Sources in Baghdad say that the government plans to turn it into a mosque and erase all Jewish markings.

Iraq announced earlier this year that it would revamp the ancient burial site, which is located in Al-Kifl, a small town south of Baghdad. The U.S.-backed government announcement implied that its Jewish nature would continue to be emphasized.

Since then, however, reports have surfaced that the government is actually planning to build a mosque there, including removing the ancient Hebew inscriptions that adorn the site. Some reports say that all or some of the lines of Hebrew script have already been erased.

Ezekiel (Yechezkel, in Hebrew), lived in the sixth century BCE, having accompanied the exiled Judeans to Babylon. His prophecies include the Vision of the Dry Bones, as well as the future return of Jewish People to the Land of Israel even if they are not deserving (Chapter 36: 22-25). Thousands of Jews often visited the site of his tomb annually before Iraqi Jewry came to an abrupt end in the middle of the 20th century, and Moslems and Christians continue to visit it even today.

“Iraq - the Biblical Mesopotamia -is almost as rich in Jewish history as the Land of Israel. The tomb of the prophet Ezekiel dates back to the Babylonian exile in the sixth century BCE. It was there in Iraq that Abraham discovered monotheism, and it is where the prophets Ezra, Nehemiah, Nahum, Jonah and Daniel are all buried.”

The United States of Stupidity

By Doug Gamble (World News)

I don’t know precisely when the dumbing down of America began, but my guess would be sometime during the 1960’s, the decade historians may someday identify as the beginning of the end of the USA. I believe this dumbing down has now caught up with us to the extent we are, collectively, one of the most stupid countries on the face of the earth.

We are so stupid that, just a few years after we came under attack from Muslim fanatics, we elected as president an inexperienced man contemptuous of America and sympathetic to Islam, instead of a war hero alternative.

We are so stupid we are politically correcting ourselves right into the grave. Terrorists must be doubled over with laughter (if extremist Islam permits laughter) as we hassle and search obvious innocents at airports instead of  profiling those most likely to do us harm. It may turn out, looking back, that America was actually lost the instant the airplanes hit the Twin Towers on 9/11 and we are now going through a steady decline leading to the inevitable end.  I’m sure terrorists can hardly believe their luck as they watch us doing ourselves in.

Beyond that, while the terrorists are clever enough to kill seven CIA agents recently through trickery - the use of a double or triple agent — we are too stupid to outfox the terrorists the way the U.S. and our allies did to the enemy on occasion in World War Two. “American intelligence” is an oxymoron.

We are so stupid that, while countries like China and India are graduating more scientists and engineers, we are graduating students barely capable of stringing two coherent sentences together. These are the same students who  have little or no knowledge of American history, no clue who George Washington and Abraham Lincoln are and why they are important, and if that isn’t bad enough, students in public school, high school and university classrooms are being taught every day to hate America.

We are so stupid we have lending institutions allowing people to buy houses with no money down, and people falling for such schemes, ignorant of the severe economic consequences to individuals and the country as a whole.

We are so stupid we sit in front of TV sets and watch mindless “reality” shows that not only have no redeeming value whatsoever but further debase our culture. America is a country where the results of “American Idol” are actually reported as a legitimate news story, not only on the network that carries the show but on the news broadcasts of competing networks as well. 

We’re stupid enough to believe that celebrities matter in our lives.

We are so stupid we have allowed ourselves to become slaves to high-technology, wasting hours in knee-jerk, unnecessary texting and cell phone conversations, following any latest hi-tech fad in lemming-like fashion, losing our humanity in the process.

Our stupidity is monumental. It has made us ripe for the picking. Our much smarter enemies know it but we will probably not wake up until it’s too late. We’re just too stupid to figure it out.