Almost a year ago to the day, in a totally surprising move, the Israeli Air Force bombed a suspected nuclear facility in Syria. Interestingly, over the previous summer, Israel had reportedly warned the George W. Bush administration. Despite opposition from U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, Israel moved to eliminate what it believed was an imminent threat.

If the world were voting in the U.S. presidential elections next November, Barack Obama would be certain to win. Such is the longing across the globe -- and nowhere more than in Europe and the Arab world -- for the United States to recover its sanity, its authority and its reputation. But the world will not be voting.

AMMAN -- As the prospects of securing a Palestinian-Israeli peace deal before the end of the year become more remote, Washington is now pushing instead for a continuation of the U.S.-brokered negotiations revived at Annapolis nine months ago, if only to avoid a complete collapse of a process that the top U.S. diplomat insists is making progress.

AMMAN -- U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began on Monday what has become a routine visit to Israel and the West Bank as the U.S. administration of President George W. Bush races against time to try to clinch a peace deal in fewer than 150 days; but despite an Israeli "goodwill" gesture in releasing 198 Palestinian prisoners, there were no new signs that deal was near.

AMMAN -- Iraqi negotiators are saying they have agreed a deal with the United States that entails a complete withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq by 2011, but Iraqi leaders might overturn the controversial pact that is to determine the future of the U.S. forces in Iraq after the end of this year.

Four almost simultaneous events this week point to the emergence of something that is starting to look like a new U.S.-led security system that reaches from Europe to the Indian Ocean.

AMMAN -- Syrian President Bashar Assad became the first Arab leader to break his silence over the new conflict in the Caucasus by standing in clear support of Russia as Moscow faces mounting U.S.-led Western pressure for its military intervention in the Georgia crisis.

BEIRUT -- The memorandum of understanding for easing sectarian tensions signed in Beirut Monday between Hezbollah and an obscure Lebanese Salafist (Sunni fundamentalist) Islamist movement isnt likely to have a major impact on anything.

AMMAN -- Pervez Musharraf took Pakistan by surprise on Monday when he unexpectedly announced his resignation as president, effectively making history as the first leader in the country to voluntarily step down, albeit under tremendous pressure to do so.

Russias show of force against Georgia is already having repercussions far beyond the borders of the Caucasus. It is a stark reminder that the country ruled by Prime Minister Vladimir Putin and President Dimitri Medvedev is no longer the impoverished, broken-backed state of the 1990s, but is now a power to be reckoned with.