Pentagon chief: 'We're within an inch of war almost every day’

Jeremy Herb for The Hill.  Excerpts:

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta offered a blunt assessment of the threats facing the United States on Wednesday, saying the potential for another war breaking out remains high in places like North Korea.



“We’re within an inch of war almost every day in that part of the world,” Panetta said in an interview with CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, in response to a question about the threats in the Korean Peninsula. “And we just have to be very careful about what we say and what we do.”


Blitzer then asked Panetta, who joined with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for an interview during the secretaries’ NATO meeting in Brussels, whether the North Korean threat kept him up at night.



“Unfortunately, these days there’s a helluva lot that keeps me awake,” Panetta responded, listing Iran, Syria, the Middle East, cyber warfare and weapons of mass destruction as other insomnia-inducing issues.

It's interesting he didn't mention India/Pakistan.  And wouldn't it have been quicker to say Fukushima?

Hurry Up, Kids; World War 3 Is On! If You Miss The First Five Minutes, You're Gonna Be Confused!

So far, its all quiet on the Western MSM front (Red Alert!  Tom Brady said something scandalous!), but the tension has definitely ramped up between Greece and Israel and Turkey(and consequently, Russia, the U.S., and China..). 

The reasons vary, but combine for some potentially deadly inertia.  Turkey is angry because of Israel's actions concerning the Freedom Flotilla earlier this year.  Israel is pissed because Turkey supports political reform in Middle Eastern countries involved in 2011's Arab Spring, reforms that will further isolate Israel, and the Israelis are also mad that   Turkey downgraded their diplomatic status.  So now Israel has started hanging out with Turkish enemies the Greeks, the Armenians AND the Kurds.  This all pretty intense, seeing how these two nations(Israel and Turkey) were strong allies only months ago..

And now, the Greeks and the Turks are at odds of Turkey's oil exploration in the Mediterranean.  Due to the activation of existing defense pacts, if hostilities escalate, Israel and Greece (and Russia!) will be on one side, Turkey, Iran, and the United States will be on the other.  Uh-Oh!  And to really send the whole situation into Defcon 1 land, China might end up siding with Turkey, Iran, and the U.S.  Overlapping diplomatic and defense pacts are awesome!  And they'll probably insure our complete involvement, confusion, and ultimately, destruction! 

And please, bear in mind, my explanation is terribly simplistic, not factoring in other alliances with nation-states (Syria, Lebanon..), political factions(Hezbollah, PKK), escalating tensions between Palestinians and Israelis, Palestine's lobbying for U.N. Statehood status, and rich, western countries sticking their ass in this ever-growing potential apocalypse..  And the fact these people have hated each other for a millennia.. 

Imagine a tangled ball of Christmas lights the size of your house.  Untangle it.  Oh yeah; it's electrified.  That's kinda what we're dealing with, here..

It's a good thing this will be on television, or I'd be worried that it's all real!