Whose putting on the squeeze

There are a lot of other things I had to post about but something more worrying has come up and it's been niggling at me for the past 48 hours.

I'm going with my intuition on this again and I know, as usual, that it's going to make me un-popular.

I'm worried about increased tension between Lebanon and Syria.

All the old US/USSR cold-war targets are re-appearing as points of conflict. There are three prime locations that both cold-war "super-powers" "wrangled" over during that time. Those three locations are strategic points of prime significance in controlling Middle Eastern territory and by extension ME natural resources. Those targets are - Afghanistan, Ethiopia and Syria. Ethiopia was conveniently "deactivated" by famine in the 80's. Everyone knows what happened to Afghanistan - and now it looks like someone's trying to stir up shit between Lebanon and Syria by playing on Lebanon's grief.

Lay it out on a map, centre (Iraq) occupied, surrounding points closing in - someone's putting on the squeeze. I don't like it.

Although there has been no direct evidence linking Syria to the bomb that exploded Monday in Beirut, killing Lebanon's former prime minister and 13 others, many here and abroad have instinctively linked the attack to Syria, which dominates the Lebanese government...

But the bombing has not only resulted in a backlash from opposition groups here who oppose Syria's involvement in Lebanon, there is outrage from the West and the Arab world, which could put an indelible imprint on already strained relations with this country branded a supporter of terrorism by Washington.

Analysts say that if it becomes clear that Syria had a hand in Hariri's assassination, Damascus will become isolated regionally as well as globally. "Syria will have to take dramatic and effective action to track down Hariri's killers and deflect the blame," says Joshua Landis, assistant professor of Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Oklahoma. He's living in Damascus and is the author of Syriacomment.com, a blog. "If it can't do that, its name will be mud," Mr. Landis says. - CSM.