The world is just one misstep away from a complete financial, economic and geo-p olitical meltdown.

Though the mainstream voices have calmed their reports of middle east conflict a mid the debt ceiling and negative economic development in the US and Europe, mil itary intervention in Iran has not been taken off the table. The Daily Crux reports via the Economic Policy Journal and Zero Hedge: Robert Baer has had a storied career, including a stint in Iraq in the 1990s where he organised opposition to Saddam Hussein. (He was recalled after being a ccused of trying to organise Saddam s assassination.) Upon his retirement, he rece ived a top decoration for meritorious service. Baer is no ordinary CIA operative. George Clooney won an Oscar for playing a character based on Baer in the film Syriana (Baer also wrote the book). He obviously won t name many of his sources in Israel, the United States, and elsewhere, but the few he has named are all Israeli security figures who have pu blically warned that Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak are hell-bent on war.

[Baer] appeared on KPFK Los Angeles, warning that Israeli PM Netanyahu is lik ely to ignite a war with Iran in the very near future. It gets worse: Masters aske d Baer why the US military is not mobilising to stop this war from happening. Ba er responded that the military is opposed, as is former Secretary of Defense Rob ert Gates, who used his influence to thwart an Israeli attack during the Bush an d Obama administrations. But he s gone now and there is a warning order inside the Pentagon to prepare for war. The punchline: There is almost near certainty that Netan yahu is planning an attack [on Iran] and it will probably be in September before the vote on a Palestinian state. And he s also hoping to draw the United States in to the conflict , Baer explained. While President Obama has not exactly been fully supportive of Israel (at least overtly), an attack on Iran by the Israelis would no doubt be considered by Iran as having been supported by the United States. That being the case, Iran would respond militarily against all US forces in the region, especially those in Iraq , at the first sign of any trouble. Subsequently, the U.S. would return fire en masse, perhaps even utilizing the nuclear option to incapacitate any possibility of an Iranian nuclear response. What China would do is the unknown variable, but it is clear that the US and Chi na are engaged in a covert war economically, financially and in cyberspace. The recent UN actions in Libya may have been sold to the world public as a peacekeep ing mission, but one side issue that has remained in the background is China s rem oval of some 30,000 workers from state sponsored oil facilities in the country a s a result of the conflict. This leaves one to wonder whether the UN action was a veiled attempt at controlling the oil interests in North Africa. How long befo re the Chinese decide that their interests have been violated and they get invol ved militarily? Could an attack on Iran be the catalyst that brings China into t he mix? It is our opinion that what we have seen in the middle east since 2002, includin g the destabilization of governments in the region over the last 12 months, is a precursor to a war that will eventually encompass the entire world. Whether this goes critical in September, or at some time in the future, is of no matter. War is coming to the world, as it always does when the economies of emp

ires collapse and national interests over resources collide.