The Phantom of the (tragic) Middle East Opera is back. A killer without a clue, he can\u2019t be blamed for not being consistent.<\/p>\n
His most\u00a0recent opus<\/a>\u00a0speaks for itself; like a Kabuki mask high on Earl Grey tea, the Phantom is eviscerated by his own mighty pen, actually sword.<\/p>\n The fact that the Phantom keeps getting away with his vast desert of convoluted lies \u2014 instead of languishing in some rotten, extraordinary rendition hotel – spells out all we need to know about so-called Western \u201celites\u201d, of which he\u2019s been a faithful, and handsomely rewarded, servant.<\/p>\n So Western \u201cinaction\u201d in Syria has led to the latest Iraq tragedy? Sorry, Tony; it was yours and “Dubya\u2019s” 2003 Shock and Awe \u201caction\u201d that set the whole Shakespearean tragedy in motion.<\/p>\n The Phantom always wanted the Obama administration to bomb Syria, as much as he labored for “Dubya” to destroy Iraq. Phantom logic never considered that would have installed in Damascus the same Islamic State of Iraqi and the Levant (ISIL) that is now making a push towards Baghdad.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s the gift that keeps on giving \u2014 the endlessly recycled, repackaged Global War on Terror (GWOT), of which the Phantom was the prime sidekick. So Phantom had to be on board the latest US craze \u2014 which brands ISIL as the avatar of a\u00a0new 9\/11<\/a>.<\/p>\n In Syria, Phantom has been one of the prime instigators of the\u00a0\u201crebel with a cause\u201d<\/em>\u00a0ISIL and Jabhat al-Nusra-infested gang. If the Phantom\u2019s bombing logic had won in Syria \u2014 he was preaching Damascus as a replay of 2003 Baghdad – Aleppo would be, for a while now, an avatar of Mosul.<\/p>\n The deeper we get into it, the Phantom looks and sounds like the heir of \u2014 also clueless – British commanders in 19th century Afghanistan. Look, for instance, at this unintended consequence of the 2001 American bombing of Afghanistan; now we have Hazaras \u2014 Afghan Shi\u2019ites \u2014 fighting side by side with Iranians, alongside Bashar al-Assad\u2019s Syrian army, against the Phantom-supported Syrian \u201crebels\u201d. Oh Tony; not even your old cohort Peter \u201cLord of Darkness\u201d Mandelson could have explained that.<\/p>\n