War

On September 6th, in an almost entirely secret operation, Israel attacked and destroyed a nuclear facility in Syria. Israeli spies had tracked a North Korean ship carrying nuclear material to a Syrian port, and continued to track the cargo as it made its way inland to the town of Dayr as Zawr to a facility that Israeli spy satellites had already been monitoring.

Within hours an Israeli commando team had crossed the border, and made its way to the facility, taking soil samples and returning. The soil samples indicated that there was indeed nuclear material at the site, and shortly afterwards, with American approval, an Israeli strike force attacked and destroyed the site.

Funnily enough it didn't lead to war, and both sides seem to be downplaying the event, although Syrian officials have visited North Korea, indicating that they may be co-ordinating a response.

Read about it here. Or here.

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The Pentagon has drawn up plans for a blitz campaign to destroy Iran's military capabilities in three days. The US is also fitting its B2 bombers with massive bunker buster bombs, in a move that could indicate a coming strike against Iran.

Read about it here.

Britain has also indicated their support for airstrikes, and their willingness to help out in the event of any Iranian retaliation. British troops have also moved to the Iranian border.

As reported by the London Daily Telegraph on October 8.

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France has also gone public in saying that for Iran to have nuclear weapons would be "unacceptable" and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner has said that France is preparing for war as a worst case scenario. France has also indicated a willingness to get involved with the war in Iraq, proposing itself as a peace broker between the warring factions in Iraq.

As reported by the Agence France Presse on September 25.

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Russia has also reached a deal with Syria in which it will supply Syria with yet more weapons in exchange for the ability to build a naval base on the Syrian coast. This will put the Russian fleet very close to both the Israeli fleet and the US 6th fleet, based in Turkey. In August Syria began receiving Russian deliveries of its SA-22 E defense system. Syria has also massed troops along its border with Israel.

Russia is also trying to build a naval base in the Gaza strip. If successful the Israeli navy would be sandwiched between two Russian fleets.

The US aircraft carrier Enterprise and it's associated fleet have also been playing wargames with the French in the Mediterranean recently. The US 5th fleet has been dispatched to Guam. In all, 30 American warships, 280 American fighters, and 22,000 soldiers and sailors have recently been dispatched, mostly to the Mediterranean.

It's apparently a fairly well known fact that Russia has maintained a line of nuclear submarines off both coasts of the US since the Cold War.

In August Russian aerial patrols began over the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic Oceans for the first time since 1992. Sometime also in August, two RAF fighters intercepted and shadowed a Russian bomber flying over the Atlantic. Vladimir Putin has claimed that there are 20 Russian bombers regularly making long-range patrols.

Putin has also recently stepped up the anti-American propaganda: Only two days ago, on October 19, Putin claimed that the US had an "erotic" desire to invade Russia, and that the US and it's allies had organised his assassination to stop him meeting with Iranian leaders. He claimed that only Russia's military abilities stopped Russia from sharing the same fate as Iraq.

Putin also said that if the US goes ahead with its missile defence shield in Europe, then Russia would "act accordingly" and hinted that such action would involve an invasion of Eastern Europe.