Lynn and the boys and I just got back from a week out of the country to find some big headlines. President Bush says he is "very optimistic" about forging peace in the Middle East at next month's summit in the U.S. We pray he's right, but the latest stories out of the epicenter suggest leaders there are steadfastly preparing for war.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is vowing to liberate "all of Palestine" and vows some sort of "final response" to Iran's enemies on October 12th, Qods (Jerusalem) Day. Here is the official story from the Iranian news service's website:

"Supporters of the Zionist regime will receive their response during the world Qods Day's rallies, government spokesman, Gholam-Hossein Elham, said Wednesday. The spokesman made the remarks during his weekly press conference while commenting on the current visit to the occupied Palestine of the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Qods Day is held each year on the last Friday of Muslims fasting month of Ramadan after it was nominated by the late Founder of the Islamic Republic, Imam Khomeini, as a day to voice the protest of the Islamic Ummah against the Zionists. The day falls on October 12 this year. 'The US loses all opportunities to cooperate with regional and other world states by trying to support a regime (the Zionist regime) which is now at its weakest political and social position,' Elham said. He warned that Washington's insistence on its wrong policies and arrogant approaches would have no result 'but further political disgrace' for itself. Referring to the approaching World Qods Day, the spokesman stressed,'Supporters of the Zionist regime will definitely receive the final response for their support on that day.'"

What does this mean? No one knows for certain. Will it be another false alarm like Iran's vow to issue some sort of definitive "response" to the West regarding its nuclear program last August 22nd? We shall have to wait and see. But it must be seen in light of Ahmadinejad's recent speeches suggesting the arrival of the Islamic Messiah is "imminent," rather than several years away.

Syria's leaders, meanwhile, say they will retake the Golan Heights using any means necessary. Lebanon is on the verge of a civil war and Hezbollah continues to buy massive amounts of weapons from Iran and Syria to prepare for a future war with Israel. And all the while the U.S. and Israel are reportedly stepping up their war gaming efforts to prepare for war with Iran and possibly Syria as well.

If all these rumors of war in the Mideast weren't troubling enough, Russian President Vladimir Putin said this past week that he plans to stay in office beyond 2008, when he is constitutionally mandated to step down. He won't serve as "president." Instead, he plans to slide over one chair and become Russia's "prime minister."

So the cat is finally out of the bag. Putin now admits he plans to stay put. He wants to change the hat, but keep the power. It's a very worrisome development, especially in light of Putin's planned $200 billion increase in defense spending and his recent arms deals with Iran, Syria, Algeria and other Islamic enemies of the West. Putin is no democrat. He's recasting himself as a classic Russian Czar. His ambitions run far beyond maintaining control of the Kremlin.

We'll look at his long-term goals in future posts. For now, consider this FLASH TRAFFIC message from November 1, 2005: "I simply don't believe Vladimir Putin's repeated refusals to seek a third term in 2008. I think he's staying. The big question is, 'Under what pretext would Putin stay?' The answer: to maintain stability. Stability is Putin's mantra. My sense is that he intends to maintain it at all costs. That would -- by definition -- means he plans to stay in the Kremlin as he believes only he has provided Russia something Gorbachev and Yeltsin didn't. What will be the crisis, real or perceived, that requires Putin to change his mind and stay in office? It could be the possibility of an ultranationalist fascist like Vladimir Zhirinovsky or a Communist like Gennady Zyuganov rising in the polls and suddenly being in a position to win the presidency and thus seize control of Russia. It could be a terrorist attack, or the threat of one, or a stock market collapse, or the thre at of one. It's too early to say what the 'crisis' will be, but I submit that come 2007 or 2008, Putin will declare one so serious the he has no choice but stay at the helm."