CNN
Scrabble and Crossword Puzzles and theWar in the Middle East
By Dr Khalid Siddiqui
Ohio
My hobbies of reading and writing have been, more or less, put on hold since the start of the on-going Middle East war. Instead, I have been playing scrabble and solving crossword puzzles on the computer while listening/watching YouTube to get the opinions of ‘experts’ from Pakistan, India, UK and USA on the progress of the war. All the reporters on YouTube seem to be anti-government, which is understandable, because the pro-establishment reporters are on the national channels. Although these experts don’t have any more information than what the general public has, it is still interesting to hear their perspective. Here are their pearls of wisdom (some of it may be true):
* They all agree that President Trump is frustrated because the war didn’t go according to his plan.
* Trump said that he won the war the very first day, but he also promised to continue the war till the very end!
* Netanyahu and his brother are dead.
* Mujtaba Khamenei is seriously ill or even dead.
* USA and Israel, and not Iran, are hitting the US bases in the Gulf countries and Turkey to incite those countries into attacking Iran.
* Most agree that the war will end only when enough pressure is exerted by the public on Israel and USA, or when Iran runs out of missiles. (Both the scenarios are not evident at this time.)
* Some reported about the Russians sending S-300s to Iran to provide some air defense.
* Also, there are rumors of North Korea planning to supply its own missiles to Iran, and also a nuclear arsenal, if needed.
* All Indian reporters are upset with the Indian government for letting their long-time friend, Iran, down at the time of need. Also, they have all condemned the Indian government for not protecting the unarmed Iranian submarine from the US attack.
* The October 7, 2023, massacre of 1,200 Israelis was a false-flag operation by Israel to justify the bombing of Gaza. Mossad, allegedly, paid some Gazans to do the massacre. The reason advanced is that the sophisticated Israeli intelligence set-up couldn’t, by any chance, have missed this big operation by Hamas.
* President Trump shouldn’t get too excited about successfully installing a compliant regime in Venezuela because the supporters of Maduro are forming a guerrilla organization to challenge the pro-US government installed by the USA. A guerilla-like civil war is about to start there.
* The oil being extracted from Venezuela is too thick to be transported or refined! It needed to be mixed with the ‘thin’ oil first, which only Iran has. So, the reason for the USA to enter into this war was to acquire that ‘thin’ oil from Iran!
* Mossad was involved in the assassination of JFK because he was vehemently opposed to Israel having a nuclear bomb. He had demanded regular US inspections of the Dimona Facility to ensure that Israel didn’t develop a nuclear bomb.
Regardless of who wins this war, my skills at Scrabble and Crossword puzzles would definitely improve further by that time.
