Having failed not surprisingly to find any weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) in Iraq, despite the unbearably high cost in lives and property paid by the people of that country, the Pentagon is now shamelessly claiming, in a callous international game of constantly shifting goal posts and arbitrarily

changing rules in mid-stream, that the so-called WMDs have been moved to Syria, no doubt while the American spy satellites were napping.

This is also a diversionary tactic subscribed to by Washington in order to draw away the attention of the international community from its moral failure in Iraq, the total breakdown of law and order heralding visions of another Somalia in the making and it being forced amidst international condemnation to make a public show of literally begging the former ruling Baath Party members for assistance to help get the government structure going again and ostensibly rein in the various forces at work within the country's potent mix of religious factions, ethnic groupings, tribes and regions.

Are we going to allow ourselves to be led down the garden path again, this time over Syria?

Given initial signs that an imminent demonisation of Syria with the aid of the scavenging western press is in the works, its clear that paranoia-fueled scenario-building intertwined with pathological and congenital lies are the driving forces behind Pax Americana, a policy which has now gone beyond mere omnipresence and is now reaching dizzyingly lunatic heights in global ambitions and the very personification of Evil Incorporated.

Here, given the various sensations of unreality at work, the line between method in madness at best and mental illness is razor thin. The rapidly dwindling number of apologists will credit Washington with employing the former while, at the other end of the spectrum, an ever increasing number will have little difficulty in convincing the world at large that escapees from

various loony bins have joined forces with newly-released spirits from Hell and seized power in

the US capital.

The world was never the same again after 911 and the world will now never be the same again after Iraq. The American military-industrial complex is determined to crush any and all emerging models of military might in order to re-define global security in and o­n absolute American terms and thereby hopefully ensure the supremacy of its economy and currency while guaranteeing cheap, easy and continuing access to an ever increasing share of the rapidly dwindling andscarce resources of the world at the expense of the Third World in particular.

If there's o­ne thing that continues to haunt the ruling elite in America, it's the nightmarish thought of what the perpetrators of 911 were determined to achieve, i.e. the demolishment of the image of American military might as invincible in order to let the emerging security vacuum erode consumer and investor confidence in the American economy, and depress prices and values while driving up the cost of doing business.

The perpetrators of 911 struck at America's Achilles heel and will no doubt continue to do so in future at a time and hour of their own choosing. This anticipation alone means tremendous economic losses. The fact that 70 percent of the bloated US economy is consumer-based simply means that Americans are living in a gigantic glass house, encased in a bubble from time-to-time, and therefore would be wise to immediately cease, resist and desist from their increasingly irritating and annoying habit of throwing stones at others. No level of military might can ultimately protect the US from the wrath of the dispossessed peoples of the world. They have nothing to lose but their chains.

The urgent question before the world now is not Iraq, which is history at least as far as US fixation is concerned, nor Syria, however that country's emerging future in the wake of Iraq turns out to be but how to bell the increasingly scruffy-looking American cat which is terrorising the alleyways?

For starters, Washington won't be able to resort to the same dirty trick twice and the State Department will have great difficulties in persuading the UN Security Council or the General Assembly to go along with the Pentagon's future scams.

This will force Washington to continue to fall back o­n a policy of unilateralism while trying to avoid the long arms of the newly-established International Criminal Court. It would be very doubtful whether Britain and Australia, minions if not mangy stray dogs in tow in Iraq, will go along with any future acts of American adventurism given the fact that, unlike Washington which has won a o­ne-year exemption, they are signatories to the ICC.

Besides, Britain is merely a paper tiger outside the confines of its undeserved permanent seat o­n the UN Security Council. Britain desperately needs the UN system to work in order to ensure that it, despite the loss of the Empire, continues to have relevance in international affairs, especially that of a military nature. Britain is a nation with a very much inflated sense of importance and doggedly determined to utilise its permanent member status in the UN Security Council to capitalise o­n every available excuse and pretext to impose its puny will and unwanted presence a la Americana o­n as much of the rest of the world as possible.

Economically, there's a need by the international community in general, and the Third World in particular, to get away from their fixation with the US economy and its performance and the US dollar which intrinsically isn't even worth the paper it is printed o­n. However, it would be extremely difficult for the ruling elite in many Third World countries in particular to stop collecting bribe money from the ruling elite in America, funded by the American taxpayer, via the US government.

The latest American act of bribery was to renew the plea to the governments of France, Germany, Russia, Kuwait and several other countries to forgive debts owing by the government of Iraq in return for Washington's renewed (i.e. prewar) pledge to compensate the ruling elite in these countries with equivalent amounts for which it would of course seek speedy reimbursements from future sales of Iraqi crude oil.

The emerging economies of China, India and Brazil/Latin America besides Russia, Japan and the European Union could provide alternative markets, opportunities and growth prospects for the rest of the world. There is a need to explore these emerging markets and include their currencies as well in world trade in order to seriously cut America down to size.

China is the rapidly emerging big economic story, o­ne very much bigger than the US. Not too much hope should be placed o­n Latin America, which is largely feudal and continues to be largely run by reactionary governments under a tiny elite drawn from the white minority, or India which continues to be run by the disincentive factor inherent centuries-old evil caste system rather than the Federal Constitution and the rule of law.

America's standard of living has long been maintained at the expense of the rest of the world, in particular the Third World. For example, 80 per cent of the price of gasoline at the fuel pump flows back in the form of taxes and other revenue to western governments alone.

This is a very sore point with Osama bin Laden, the ruling elite in Saudi Arabia and other Opec nations, among others. Osama has in fact put together a bill which totals how much the Arabs have been short-changed in billions over the years o­n their returns from oil vis- B -vis the United States and other western governments.

Opec is caught between the devil and the deep blue sea in that any unsustainable increase in the price of oil per barrel o­n the world market would risk triggering off the search for and headlong rush by oil multinationals into alternative fuels. What the Arabs want is a greater share of the gasoline price at the fuel pump while keeping the current price of oil per barrel at a secure point which would not trigger off a rush into alternatives.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Action expands to fill the void created by inaction. The day is not far off when the ruling elite in Washington will meet their match, perhaps not from a single country like China but combination of countries, including China, which will stand up to the American rogue giant in defence of the dignity of mankind everywhere.

This certain knowledge is the proverbial sword of Damocles which hangs over Washington, the capital of a nation cursed with a ruling elite who, judging from contemporary history, harbours a death wish.