by Stephen Lendman

Cast Lead and Pillar of Cloud represent skirmishes. Syria's one on a higher boil. Expect full-scale war ahead. It could happen any time or perhaps next year.

These conflicts portend more to come. Washington, Israel, and NATO plan them. Regional collaborators go along. One or more of them ahead may become targets.

They'll know, or should, when they're excluded from future plans. As a well-known poker saying goes: If you've been in the game a while and don't know who the sucker is, it's you.

Israel wants to be a regional hegemon. Washington seeks global dominance. Achieving imperial aims requires eliminating rivals and potential ones.

Syria tops America's target list. Hezbollah's on it as well. At issue is isolating Iran, then replacing its government with a pro-Western puppet one.

Next year could be more violent than recent previous ones. Obama's a lame duck. He's got nothing to lose. After all the harm he caused, half the country still supports him.

He conned them into thinking he's doing the right thing. He was picked to stay in office for that reason. Expect four more violent years at home and abroad. The last four were grim. What's ahead looks worse.

Henry Kissinger will be 90 years old next May. Last November, he said:

"If you can't hear the drums of war you must be deaf." He explained further. More on that below.

On November 23, Mossad-connected DEBKAfile (DF) said Obama's pledge to deploy US troops to Sinai convinced Netanyahu to accept a ceasefire deal.

Doing so sounds more like preventing peace than assuring it. Memorandum of understanding terms included:

"Opening the crossings and facilitating the movements of people and transfer of goods and refraining from restricting residents' free movements and targeting residents in border areas and procedures of implementation shall be dealt with after 24 hours from the start of the ceasefire."

"Procedures of implementation," of course, lets Israel manipulate them any way it wishes. Nonetheless, Hamas and 1.7 million Gazans think border and movement restrictions will be eased.

Don't bet on it. Israeli pledges aren't worth the paper they're written on. Neither are America's. Together they assure Palestinian betrayal.

US troops on Gaza's border adds an exclamation point. They're expected to start arriving next week. Siege will continue. Borders will stay closed.

Preventing Hamas from rearming is planned. Also maintaining isolated suffocating conditions. Netanyahu wants maximum pain inflicted.

Despite one-sided scoundrel media support and Israel's military might, he lost the battle of public opinion. David Hamas withstood Goliath Israel.

Fatah looked pathetic. Abbas is a spent force. Hamas leaders Khaled Meshal and Ismail Haniyeh look heroic. Palestinians may have more support now than ever.

Terror bombing innocent civilians aroused enormous worldwide anti-Israeli sentiment. Netanyahu wants revenge.

If bombing and shelling can't defeat Hamas, perhaps he'll enforce harsher than ever conditions by keeping borders closed and destroying Gaza's tunnel economy entirely.

DF said Obama plans "to accelerate the construction of an elaborate US system of electronic security fences along the Suez Canal and northern Sinai." At issue is preventing Hamas from rearming.

If Gaza's tunnel economy is destroyed, vital essentials won't get in. They include Israeli-prohibited construction materials for rebuilding.

Egypt's Morsi apparently agreed to US and Israeli demands. Clearly it shows what side he's on. Permitting Gaza's siege to continue and preventing effective Hamas deterrence strength portends ill for isolated Gazans.

Expect Netanyahu to take full advantage. Expect Washington to partner in his crimes. Expect continued suffering for 1.7 million trapped Gazans.

US/NATO/Israeli planned wars inflict enormous harm on others in the region. Kissinger weighed in on what he sees coming. The fullness of time will tell if he's right or wrong. His comments in part said:

"The United States is baiting China and Russia, and the final nail in the coffin will be Iran, which is, of course, the main target of Israel."

"We have allowed China to increase their military strength and Russia to recover from Sovietization, to give them a false sense of bravado, this will create an all together faster demise for them."

"The coming war will will be so severe that only one superpower can win, and that's us folks."

"This is why the EU is in such a hurry to form a complete superstate because they know what is coming, and to survive, Europe will have to be one whole cohesive state."

"Their urgency tells me that they know full well that the big showdown is upon us. O how I have dreamed of this delightful moment."

Kissinger repeated what he said before about "control(ling) oil and you control nations. Control food and you control the people."

He omitted controlling money that controls everything. Perhaps he knows but didn't say.

"We told the military that we would have to take over seven Middle Eastern countries for their resources, and they have nearly completed their job."

The "last stepping stone (is) Iran which will really tip the balance. How long can China and Russia stand by and watch America clean up?"

"The great Russian bear and Chinese sickle will be roused from their slumber and this is when Israel will have to fight with all its might and weapons to kill as many Arabs as it can."

"Hopefully if all goes well, half the Middle East will be Israeli."

"Out of the ashes we shall build a new society, a new world order; there will only be one superpower left, and that one will be the global government that wins."

"Don't forget, the United States, has the best weapons, we have stuff that no other nation has, and we will introduce those weapons to the world when the time is right."

Kissinger's worldview was always Dr. Strangelovian. His resume includes global wars, genocidal slaughter, mass destruction, replacing democrats with despots, and advocating involuntary eugenics as well as other ways of eliminating useless eaters.

How he's "dreamed" of a final solution "showdown." What he has in mind almost makes Hitler look saintly.

He was born Heinz Alfred Kissinger in Bavaria in 1923.

It was months before Hitler's failed Munich beer hall putch. Weimer Germany then existed. Hitler's January 1933 rise to power ended it.

Kissinger's family was Jewish. In 1938, they fled Nazi persecution. They got out just in time. They lived briefly in London before arriving in New York. As they say, the rest is history.

Hopefully Kissinger's vision proves false. His world isn't fit to live in. If conflict plays out as he believes, it may be destroyed in the process.

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Stephen Lendman lives in Chicago and can be reached at lendmanstephen@sbcglobal.net.

His new book is titled "How Wall Street Fleeces America: Privatized Banking, Government Collusion and Class War"

http://www.claritypress.com/Lendman.html

Visit his blog site at sjlendman.blogspot.com and listen to cutting-edge discussions with distinguished guests on the Progressive Radio News Hour on the Progressive Radio Network Thursdays at 10AM US Central time and Saturdays and Sundays at noon. All programs are archived for easy listening.

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