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Syria war bulletin, 2018

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[Dec 29, 2018] Two More Spiegel Employees Out After Fake News Scandal Expands -

Is not "Greed is good" a neoliberal slogan
Dec 29, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Relotius, meanwhile, has "gone underground," according to the Guardian, returning several awards for his work while being stripped of others, such as CNN's two Journalist of the Year awards. A German publication also stripped the journalist of a similar accolade.

At least 14 articles by Relotius for Der Spiegel were falsified , according to Steffen Klusmann, its editor-in-chief. They include an award-winning piece about a Syrian boy called Mouwiya who believed his anti-government graffiti had triggered the civil war. Relotius alleged he had interviewed the boy via WhatsApp .

The magazine – a prestigious weekly – is investigating if the interview took place and whether the boy exists. Relotius won his fourth German reporter prize this month with a story headlined "Child's Play".

Klusmann admitted the publication still had no idea how many articles were affected. On Thursday it was revealed that parts of an interview with a 95-year-old Nazi resistance fighter in the US were fabricated. - The Guardian

According to Relotius' Der Spiegel colleague Juan Moreno - who busted Relotius after conducting his own research after his bosses failed to listen to his doubts , released a video in which he attempted to describe how Relotius got away with his fabrications.

"He was the superstar of German journalism if one's honest, and if his stories had been true, that would have been fully justified to say so, but they were not," said Moreno. "At the start it was the small mistakes, things that seemed too hard to believe that made me suspicious."

In addition to having several awards stripped from him, the 33-year-old Relotius now faces embezzlement charges for allegedly soliciting donations for Syrian orphans from readers "with any proceeds going to his personal account," according to the BBC . On Thursday, Relotius denied the accusations.

[Dec 29, 2018] Why Mattis' Exit Is A Defining Moment In US Foreign Policy

Dec 29, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

William Bowles , Dec 27, 2018 4:52:43 AM | link

Why Mattis' Exit Is A Defining Moment In US Foreign Policy

by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

An important analysis!

https://orientalreview.org/2018/12/27/why-mattis-exit-is-a-defining-moment-in-us-foreign-policy/

[Dec 28, 2018] Send Mad Dog James Mattis to the Corporate Kennel

Notable quotes:
"... Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He was an Army Infantry/Intelligence officer before working as a CIA analyst for the next 27 years. Ray admits to a modicum of bias against Marine officers, but not those with whom he worked back in the day. He is co-creator of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which includes Marines who remember what Semper Fi means. ..."
"... A case in point is when you hear members of congress criticize Trump decision to withdraw the US army personals from Syria and Afganistan. These members forget that the US army in Syria is in violation of international laws and US laws as well. ..."
Dec 28, 2018 | www.mintpressnews.com

utgoing Defense Secretary Gen. James "Mad Dog" Mattis was famous for quipping , "It's fun to shoot some people." It remains a supreme irony that Mattis was widely considered the only "adult in the room" in the Trump administration. Compared to whom? John Bolton, the rabid neocon serving as national security adviser? That would be the epitome of "condemning with faint praise."

With his ramrod-straight image, not to mention his warrior/scholar reputation extolled in the media, Mattis was able to disguise the reality that he was, as Col. Andrew Bacevich put it on Democracy Now! this morning, "totally unimaginative." Meaning that Mattis was simply incapable of acknowledging the self-destructive, mindless nature of U.S. "endless war" in the Middle East, which candidate-Trump had correctly called "stupid." In his resignation letter, Mattis also peddled the usual cant about the indispensable nation's aggression being good for the world.

Mattis was an obstacle to Trump's desire to pull troops out of Syria and Afghanistan (and remains in position to spike Trump's orders). Granted, the abrupt way Trump announced his apparently one-man decision was equally stupid. But the withdrawal of ground troops is supremely sane, and Mattis was and is a large problem. And, for good or ill, Trump -- not Mattis -- was elected president.

Marine Wisdom

Historically, Marines are the last place to turn for sound advice. Marine Gen. Smedley Butler (1881-1940), twice winner of the Medal of Honor, was brutally candid about this after he paused long enough to realize, and write, "War is a Racket":

I suspected I was just part of a racket at the time. Now I am sure of it. Like all members of the military profession I never had an original thought until I left the service. My mental faculties remained in suspended animation while I obeyed the orders of the higher- ups. "

Shortly after another Marine general, former CENTCOM commander Anthony Zinni, retired, he stood by silently as he personally watched then-Vice President Dick Cheney give his most important speech ever (on August 26, 2002). Cheney blatantly lied about Iraq's (non-existent) WMD, in order to grease the skids for the war of aggression against Iraq. Zinni had kept his clearances and was "back on contract." He was well read-in on Iraq, and knew immediately that Cheney was lying.

A few years later, Zinni admitted that he decided that his lips would be sealed. Far be it for a Marine to play skunk at the picnic. And, after all, he was being honored that day at the same Veterans of Foreign Wars convention where Cheney spoke. As seems clear now, Zinni was also lusting after the lucrative spoils of war given to erstwhile generals who offer themselves for membership on the corporate Boards of the arms makers/merchants that profiteer on war.

(For an earlier critique of senior Marines, see: "Attacking Syria: Thumbing Noses at Constitution and Law." )

Marine officer, now Sen. Pat Roberts, R, Kansas, merits "dishonorable mention" in this connection. He never rose to general but did become Chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee at an auspicious time for Cheney and Bush. Roberts kowtowed, like a "good Marine," to their crass deceit, when a dollop of honesty on his part could have prevented the 2003 attack on Iraq and the killing, maiming, destruction, and chaos that continues to this day. Roberts knew all about the fraudulent intelligence and covered it up -- together with other lies -- for as long as he remained Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman

Scott Ritter on Pat Roberts

Roberts's unconscionable dereliction of duty enraged one honest Marine, Maj. Scott Ritter, who believes "Semper Fi" includes an obligation to tell the truth on matters of war and peace. Ritter, former UN chief weapons inspector for Iraq, who in April 2005 wrote, "Semper Fraud, Senator Roberts," based partly on his own experience with that complicit Marine.

Needless to say, higher ranking, more malleable Marines aped Zinni in impersonating Uncle Remus's Tar Baby -- not saying nuttin'.

It is conceivable that yet another sharply-saluting Marine, departing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Joseph Dunford, may be tapped by Trump to take Mattis's job. If that happens, it will add to President Trump's bizarre penchant for picking advisers hell-bent on frustrating the objectives he espoused when he was running for office, some of which -- it is becoming quite clear -- he genuinely wants to achieve.

Trump ought to unleash Mattis now, and make sure Mattis keeps his distance from the Pentagon and the Military-Industrial Complex before he is asked to lead an insurrection against a highly vulnerable president -- as Gen. Smedley Butler was asked to do back in the day. Butler said no.

Top Photo | U.S. Secretary of Defense James Mattis, sits on stage during a change of command ceremony at the U.S. Southern Command headquarters on Nov. 26, 2018, in Doral, Fla. Brynn Anderson | AP

Ray McGovern works with Tell the Word, a publishing arm of the ecumenical Church of the Saviour in inner-city Washington. He was an Army Infantry/Intelligence officer before working as a CIA analyst for the next 27 years. Ray admits to a modicum of bias against Marine officers, but not those with whom he worked back in the day. He is co-creator of Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity, which includes Marines who remember what Semper Fi means.

Mahmoud HAm 4 days ago ,

I am not so much surprised that military generals keep their mouths shot rather than tell the truth when the truth is needed to avoid wars. But worse is that the US congress which are supposed to overlook over the government misbehavior to make the government abide by the laws and protect the interests of the people against government wrongs.

A case in point is when you hear members of congress criticize Trump decision to withdraw the US army personals from Syria and Afganistan. These members forget that the US army in Syria is in violation of international laws and US laws as well.

The congress are supposed the authority to declare war but the US is engaged in multiple wars without US Congress authorization. Worse off these idiots want to force the Trump administration to keep its illegal wars going on? What is the role of the congress??? To correct and force the Administration to abide by the rule of laws of the force them to keep violating international laws and US laws as well????

Felix Hoenikker 5 days ago ,

Trump's bizarre penchant for picking advisers hell-bent on frustrating the objectives he espoused when he was running for office

It's bizarre that he's hired so many Bill Kristol approved neocons when they abandoned him for Hillary in 2016. Or not so bizarre when one remembers what Russ Tice said about Cheney using the NSA to get blackmail dirt. Now they've lost control, so it will be interesting to see how they try to regain it.

[Dec 27, 2018] Who Was Secretly Behind America's Invading and Occupying Syria

Notable quotes:
"... "the C.I.A. and its Saudi counterpart have maintained an unusual arrangement for the rebel-training mission, which the Americans have code-named Timber Sycamore. Under the deal, current and former administration officials said, the Saudis contribute both weapons and large sums of money, and the C.I.A takes the lead in training the rebels. From the moment the C.I.A. operation was started, Saudi money supported it." ..."
"... "The Saudi efforts were led by the flamboyant Prince Bandar bin Sultan, at the time the intelligence chief, who directed Saudi spies to buy thousands of AK-47s and millions of rounds of ammunition in Eastern Europe for the Syrian rebels. The C.I.A. helped arrange some of the arms purchases for the Saudis, including a large deal in Croatia in 2012." ..."
"... "In late 2012, according to two former senior American officials, David H. Petraeus, then the C.I.A. director, delivered a stern lecture to intelligence officials of several gulf nations at a meeting near the Dead Sea in Jordan. He chastised them for sending arms into Syria without coordinating with one another or with C.I.A. officers in Jordan and Turkey. Months later, Mr. Obama gave his approval for the C.I.A. to begin directly arming and training the rebels from a base in Jordan, amending the Timber Sycamore program to allow lethal assistance. Under the new arrangement, the C.I.A. took the lead in training, while Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Directorate, provided money and weapons, including TOW anti-tank missiles," ..."
Dec 27, 2018 | www.strategic-culture.org

One of the best articles that the New York Times ever published was by Mark Mazzetti and Matt Apuzzo, on 23 January 2016, "US Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels" . They reported that, "the C.I.A. and its Saudi counterpart have maintained an unusual arrangement for the rebel-training mission, which the Americans have code-named Timber Sycamore. Under the deal, current and former administration officials said, the Saudis contribute both weapons and large sums of money, and the C.I.A takes the lead in training the rebels. From the moment the C.I.A. operation was started, Saudi money supported it." Furthermore, "The White House has embraced the covert financing from Saudi Arabia -- and from Qatar, Jordan and Turkey." But "American officials said Saudi Arabia was by far the largest contributor to the operation." The invasion and occupation of Syria by jihadists from around the world was primarily a Saud operation, though it was managed mainly by the US Government.

... ... ...

Prior to the failed US-backed coup-attempt on 15 July 2015 to replace Tayyip Erdogan as Turkey's President, Turkey was part of the U.S-Saudi alliance to overthrow and replace Syria's Government. But afterwards, Turkey increasingly switched against the US and Sauds, and toward instead supporting the target of the Sauds and of America's aristocrats: Syria. And, so, Turkey has increasingly joined Syria's alliance, which includes Iran and Russia. That's one of the major geopolitical changes in recent decades.

The NYT continued: "The Saudi efforts were led by the flamboyant Prince Bandar bin Sultan, at the time the intelligence chief, who directed Saudi spies to buy thousands of AK-47s and millions of rounds of ammunition in Eastern Europe for the Syrian rebels. The C.I.A. helped arrange some of the arms purchases for the Saudis, including a large deal in Croatia in 2012."

The US preferred to be supplying the jihadists weapons that weren't from US manufacturers, in order to impede any tracing back to the United States the arming of the movement to oust and replace Syria's secular, committedly non-sectarian, Government. The Sauds -- who are just as committedly sectarian, and are even supporters of the extreme fundamentalist Wahhabist sect of Sunni Islam -- likewise tried to cover their tracks in this operation, but their tracks were financial. The Sauds have been especially skillful at covering their tracks. Prince Bandar bin Sultan al-Saud was a buddy of George W. Bush, and had secretly donated over a million dollars in cash to Al Qaeda prior to the 9/11 attacks, according to Osama bin Laden's financial bagman , who had picked up personally each one of the million-dollar-cash donations to that organization until 9/11 and who named amongst those donors not only Prince Bandar but also Prince Salman al-Saud, who subsequently became King Salman, who is now the father of Crown Prince Salman, who recently murdered the "In late 2012, according to two former senior American officials, David H. Petraeus, then the C.I.A. director, delivered a stern lecture to intelligence officials of several gulf nations at a meeting near the Dead Sea in Jordan. He chastised them for sending arms into Syria without coordinating with one another or with C.I.A. officers in Jordan and Turkey. Months later, Mr. Obama gave his approval for the C.I.A. to begin directly arming and training the rebels from a base in Jordan, amending the Timber Sycamore program to allow lethal assistance. Under the new arrangement, the C.I.A. took the lead in training, while Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Directorate, provided money and weapons, including TOW anti-tank missiles," columnist Jamal Khashoggi. Crown Prince Salman is also a close friend of America's current 'prince', Jared Kushner, the US President's son-in-law. So, the Saud family are very close with America's Republican aristocrats, perhaps even closer than they are with America's Democratic aristocrats. But especially because of the business links, the Sauds are deeply influential throughout America's aristocracy. Not only is Saudi Arabia the world's most oil-rich country, but it is also the world's largest purchaser of weapons from Lockheed Martin and the other American 'defense' contractors, which sell exclusively to the US Government and to the governments that are allied with it (such as to Saudi Arabia). So, those corporations depend upon the Sauds more than upon any other family, even than any single American family.

The Saud family are also crucial allies with Israel's aristocracy , who include such American billionaires as the Republican Sheldon Adelson and the Democrat Lesley Wexner.

Prince Bandar was also reported by the FBI to have financed directly from his personal checking account the US stays, and the pilot-training, of at least two of the 15 Saudis who were among the 19 jihadists who carried out the piloting and plane-seizings on 9/11. So, if Bandar didn't (perhaps in consultation with George W. Bush) actually plan those attacks himself, he at least was one of their chief financial backers.

[Dec 27, 2018] Why Mattis' Exit Is A Defining Moment In US Foreign Policy by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

Dec 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

William Bowles , Dec 27, 2018 4:52:43 AM | link

Why Mattis' Exit Is A Defining Moment In US Foreign Policy

by M. K. BHADRAKUMAR

An important analysis!

https://orientalreview.org/2018/12/27/why-mattis-exit-is-a-defining-moment-in-us-foreign-policy/

[Dec 27, 2018] Trump Pulls Troops Out of Syria in Desperate Attempt to Save His Presidency, Causing Geopolitical Earthquake

Notable quotes:
"... On December 19, Donald Trump announced in a Twitter message: "Our boys, our young women, our men, they're all coming back and they're coming back now. We won". Shortly thereafter, Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement: "We have started the process of returning US troops home from Syria as we transition to the next phase of the campaign". ..."
"... The temperature is heating up for Trump following the midterms, as the Democrats prepare to take command of the House of Representatives in January, something that Trump had always hoped to avert. He surrounded himself with generals, in the forlorn hope that this would somehow protect him. If the last two years of his presidency were constantly under the cloud of Mueller's investigation, or insinuations of being an agent of Putin, from January 2019 the situation is going to get much more complicated. The Democratic electoral base is baying for the President's impeachment, the party already in full pre-primary mode, with more than 20 candidates competing, with the incumbent of the White House offering the rallying cry. ..."
"... Given that 70% of Americans think that the war in Afghanistan was a mistake, the more that the mainstream media attacks Trump for his decision to withdraw, the more they direct votes to Trump. In this sense, Trump's move seems to be directed at a domestic rather than an international audience. ..."
"... The decision to get out of Syria is timed to coincide with another move that will also very much please Trump's base. The government shutdown is a result of the Democrats refusing to fund Trump's campaign promise to build a wall on the Mexican border. ..."
"... The choice to announce to his base, via Twitter, a victory against ISIS and the immediate withdrawal of US troops was a smart election move with an eye on the 2020 election. ..."
"... Macron has for now reacted angrily at Trump's decision, intensifying the division between the two, and is adamant that the French military presence in Syria will continue. ..."
"... The military-industrial-intelligence-media complex considers Trump's decision the worst of of all possible moves. Mattis even resigned on account of this. ..."
"... For Israel, it is a double disaster, with Netanyahu desperate to survive, seeking to factor in expected elections in a now-or-never political move. Trump probably understands that Bibi is done for, and that at this point, the withdrawal of troops, fulfilling a fundamental electoral promise, counts more than Israeli money and his friendship to Bibi. ..."
Dec 27, 2018 | www.strategic-culture.org

On December 19, Donald Trump announced in a Twitter message: "Our boys, our young women, our men, they're all coming back and they're coming back now. We won". Shortly thereafter, Pentagon spokeswoman Dana White said in a statement: "We have started the process of returning US troops home from Syria as we transition to the next phase of the campaign".

The reasons for Donald Trump's move are many, but they are mainly driven by US domestic concerns. The temperature is heating up for Trump following the midterms, as the Democrats prepare to take command of the House of Representatives in January, something that Trump had always hoped to avert. He surrounded himself with generals, in the forlorn hope that this would somehow protect him. If the last two years of his presidency were constantly under the cloud of Mueller's investigation, or insinuations of being an agent of Putin, from January 2019 the situation is going to get much more complicated. The Democratic electoral base is baying for the President's impeachment, the party already in full pre-primary mode, with more than 20 candidates competing, with the incumbent of the White House offering the rallying cry.

The combination of these factors has forced Trump to change gears, considering that the military-industrial-intelligence-media-complex has always been ready to get rid of Trump, even in favor of a President Pence. The only option available for Trump in order to have a chance of reelection in 2020 is to undertake a self-promotion tour, a practice in which he has few peers, and which will involve him repeating his mantra of "Promises Made, Promises Kept". He will list how he has fought against the fake-news media, suffered internal sabotage, as well as other efforts (from the Fed, the FBI, and Mueller himself) to hamper his efforts to "Make America Great Again".

Trump has perhaps understood that in order to be re-elected, he must pursue a simple media strategy that will have a direct impact on his base. Withdrawing US troops from Syria, and partly from Afghanistan, serves this purpose. It is an easy way to win with his constituents, while it is a heavy blow to his fiercest critics in Washington who are against this decision. Given that 70% of Americans think that the war in Afghanistan was a mistake, the more that the mainstream media attacks Trump for his decision to withdraw, the more they direct votes to Trump. In this sense, Trump's move seems to be directed at a domestic rather than an international audience.

The decision to get out of Syria is timed to coincide with another move that will also very much please Trump's base. The government shutdown is a result of the Democrats refusing to fund Trump's campaign promise to build a wall on the Mexican border. It is not difficult to understand that the average citizen is fed up with the useless wars in the Middle East, and Trump's words on immigration resonate with his voters. The more the media, the Democrats and the deep state criticize Trump on the wall, on the Syria pull out and on shutting down the government, the more they are campaigning for him.

This is why in order to understand the withdrawal of the United States from Syria it is necessary to see things from Trump's perspective, even as frustrating, confusing and incomprehensible that may seem at times.

The difference this time around was that the decision to withdraw US troops from Syria was Trump's alone, not something imposed on him by the generals that surround him. The choice to announce to his base, via Twitter, a victory against ISIS and the immediate withdrawal of US troops was a smart election move with an eye on the 2020 election.

It is possible that Trump, as is his wont, also wanted to send a message to his alleged French and British allies present in the northeast of Syria alongside the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and US soldiers. Trump may be now taunting: "Let's see what you can do without the US!"

It is as if Trump is admonishing these countries in a more concrete way for not lifting their weight in terms of military spending. Trump is vindictive and is not averse, after taking advantage of his opponent, to kicking him once he is down. Trump could be correct in this regard, and maybe French and British forces will be forced to withdraw their small group of 400 to 500 illegal occupiers of Syrian territory. Macron has for now reacted angrily at Trump's decision, intensifying the division between the two, and is adamant that the French military presence in Syria will continue.

There is also a more refined reason to justify the US withdrawal, even if Trump is probably unaware of it. The problem in these cases is always trying to peer through the fog of war and propaganda in order to discern the clear, unadulterated truth.

We should begin by listing the winners and losers of the Syrian conflict. Damascus, Moscow, Tehran and Hezbollah have won the war against aggression. Riyadh, Doha, Paris, London, Tel Aviv and Washington, with their al Qaeda, Daesh and Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist proxies, failed to destroy Syria, and following seven years of effort, are forced to scurry away in defeat.

Those who are walking a tightrope between war and defeat are Ankara and the so-called SDF. The withdrawal of the United States has confirmed the balance on the ledger of winners and losers, with the clock counting down for Erdogan and the SDF to make their next determinative move.

The enemies of Syria survive thanks to repeated bluffs. The Americans of the military-industrial-intelligence apparatus maintain the pretence that they still have an influence in Syria, what with troops on the ground, attacking Trump for withdrawing. In fact, since the Russians have imposed a no-fly-zone across the country, with the S-300 systems and other sophisticated equipment that integrate the Syrian air-defenses into the Russian air defenses, US coalition planes are for all intents and purposes grounded, and the same goes for the Israelis.

Of course the French and British in Syria are infected with the same delusional disease, choosing to believe that they can count for something without the US presence. We will see in the near future whether they also withdraw their illegal presence from Syria.

The biggest bluff of all probably comes from Erdogan, who for months threatened to invade Syria to fight ISIS, the Kurds, or any other plausible excuse to invade a sovereign country for the purposes of advancing his dreams of expanding Turkish territory as far as Idlib (which Erdogan considers a province of Turkey). Such an invasion, however, is unlikely to happen, as it would unite the SDF, Damascus and her allies to reject the Turkish advance on Syrian territory.

The Kurds in turn seem to have only one option left, namely, a forced negotiation with Damascus to give back to the Syrian people, in exchange for protection, the control of their territory that is rich in oil and gas.

Erdogan wants to eliminate the SDF, and until now, the only thing that stood in his way was the US military presence. He even threatened to attack several times, even in spite of the presence of US troops. Ankara has long been on a collision course with NATO countries on account of this. By removing US troops, Trump imagines, relations between Turkey and the US may also improve. This of course is of little interest to the US deep state, since Erdogan, like Mohammed bin Salman (MBS), is considered unsuitable, and is accordingly branded a "dictator".

Trump probably believes that with this move, as with his defense of MBS concerning Khashoggi, that he can try and establish a strong personal friendship with Erdogan. There are even talks about the sale of Patriot systems to the Turks and the extradition of Gulen.

When Will They Leave, and Cui Prodest?

It remains to be confirmed when and to what extent US troops will leave Syria. If the US had no voice in the future in Syria, with 2,000 men on the ground, now it has even less. Leaving behind 200 to 300 special forces and CIA operatives, together with another 400 to 500 French and British personnel, will, once they are captured with their Daesh and al Qaeda friends, be an excellent bargaining chip for Damascus, as they were in Aleppo.

The military-industrial-intelligence-media complex considers Trump's decision the worst of of all possible moves. Mattis even resigned on account of this. The presence of US troops in Syria allowed the foreign-policy establishment to continue to formulate plans (and spend money to pay a lot of people in Washington) based on the delusion that they are doing something in Syria to change the course of events. For Israel, it is a double disaster, with Netanyahu desperate to survive, seeking to factor in expected elections in a now-or-never political move. Trump probably understands that Bibi is done for, and that at this point, the withdrawal of troops, fulfilling a fundamental electoral promise, counts more than Israeli money and his friendship to Bibi.

Erdogan has two options before him. On the one hand, he can act against the Kurds. On the other hand, he can sit down at the negotiating table with Damascus and the SDF, in an Astana format, guided by Iran and Russia. Putin and Rouhani are certainly pushing for this solution. Trump, on the other hand, would like to see Turkey enter Syria in the place of US forces, to demonstrate he concluded a win-win deal for everyone, beating the deep-state at their own game.

Erdogan does not really have the military force necessary to enter Syria, which is the big secret. He would be against both the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and the SDF, though the two not necessarily in an alliance.

There is a triple bluff going on, and this is what is complicating the situation so much. On the one hand, the SDF is bluffing in not wanting help from Damascus in case Erdogan sends in his forces; on the other hand, Erdogan is bluffing in suggesting he is able to conquer the territory held by the SDF; and finally, the French and British are bluffing by telling the SDF they will be able to help them against both Erdogan and/or Assad.

Iran, Russia, Syria are the only ones who do not need to bluff, because they occupy the best position – the commanding heights. They view Trump's decisions and his allies with distrust. They know very well that these are mostly moves for internal consumption by the enemies of Syria.

If the US withdraws, there is so much to be gained. The priority then becomes the west of Syria, sealing the borders with Jordan, removing the pockets of terrorists from the east, and securing the al-Tanf crossing. If the SDF will request protection from Damascus and will be willing to participate in the liberation of the country and its reconstruction, Erdogan will be done for, and this could lead to the total liberation of Idlib. It would be the best possible outcome, an important national reconciliation between two important parts of the population. It would give Damascus new economic impetus and prepare the Syrian people to expel the remaining invaders (ISIS and the FSA/ Turkish Armed Forces) from the country, both in Idlib and in the northeast in Afrin.

Russia is aware of the risk that Erdogan is running with the choices he will take in the coming days. Perhaps the reason why Putin chose diplomacy over war with Turkey after the downing of a Russian Su-24 in 2015 was in order to arrive at this precise moment, with as many elements as possible present to convince Erdogan to stick with Russia and Iran instead of embracing Trump's strategy and putting himself on an open collision course with Damascus, Moscow and Tehran.

Putin has always been five moves ahead. He is aware that the US could not stay long in Syria. He knows that France and the UK cannot support the SDF, and that the SDF cannot hold territory it holds in Syria without an agreement with Damascus. He is also conscious that Turkey does not have the strength to enter Syria and hold the territory if it did. It would only be able justify an advance on Idlib with the support of the Russian Air Force.

Putin has certainly made it clear to Erdogan that if he made such a move to attack the SDF and enter Syria, Russia in turn would militarily support the SAA with its air force to free Idlib; and in case of incidents with Turkey, the Russian armed forces would respond with all the interest earned from the unrequited downing of the Su-24 in 2015.

Erdogan has no choice. He must find an agreement with Damascus, and this is why he found himself commenting on Trump's words the following day, criticizing US sanctions on Iran in the presence of Iranian president Rouhani. The SDF know that they are between a rock and a hard place, and have already sent a delegation to start negotiations with Damascus.

Trump's move was driven by US domestic politics and aimed at the 2020 elections. But in doing so, Trump inevitably called out once and for all the bluffs built by Syria's enemies, infuriating in the process the neoliberal imperialist establishment, revealing how each of these factions has no more cards to play and is in actual fact destined for defeat.

[Dec 27, 2018] Russia, according to TASS (note the snowflakes in their logo), is not clear on US intentions in Syria and is relying on media reports

Dec 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

the pessimist , Dec 26, 2018 2:02:30 PM | link

Russia, according to TASS (note the snowflakes in their logo), is not clear on US intentions in Syria and is relying on media reports. Is Trump clear? Is there a strategy? Or just an idea? There seems to have been no coordination between the US, France, Britain, and Israel, and no contacts between the US and Syria or Russia (or Iran). Trump and Erdogan had a phone call and Trump has been invited to visit Turkey. Turkey and Syria are repositioning forces. A fog has descended.

[Dec 27, 2018] Trump's move was driven by US domestic politics and aimed at the 2020 elections. But in doing so, Trump inevitably called out once and for all the bluffs of Obama adminsitration infuriating neocons

Notable quotes:
"... "Trump's move was driven by US domestic politics and aimed at the 2020 elections. But in doing so, Trump inevitably called out once and for all the bluffs built by Syria's enemies, infuriating in the process the neoliberal imperialist establishment, revealing how each of these factions has no more cards to play and is in actual fact destined for defeat." ..."
"... If Trump survives his domestic battles, I suspect that neocon policy has been dealt a glancing blow that it will never quite recover from. Not that it's down by any means, but diminished a little, put in its place a little. Or so we can hope. Much remains to happen yet, and we shall see. ..."
Dec 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 , Dec 26, 2018 6:43:02 PM | link

Well, I see my complaint comment got posted but the previous 4 remain in limboland! What a crying shame! Anyway, here I go again trying to post a link to what I believe a very perceptive article by Federico Pieraccini :

"Trump's move was driven by US domestic politics and aimed at the 2020 elections. But in doing so, Trump inevitably called out once and for all the bluffs built by Syria's enemies, infuriating in the process the neoliberal imperialist establishment, revealing how each of these factions has no more cards to play and is in actual fact destined for defeat."

Now we'll see if this gets shared with the internet community or is swallowed by the information cloud.


Grieved , Dec 27, 2018 12:14:31 AM | link

@76 karlof1

Agreed, the Pieraccini article is one of his best. He's a deep thinker, with a longer horizon and memory than many other commentators, and I think he's pulled many, many of the threads together in this analysis.

We've seen some commentary and sentiment to the effect that Trump is moving finally along his stated plan to get out of the ME, but Pieraccini calls it as being only for the election. I agree with this. Trump wants to win and he needs to start now to do it, because it takes two years to win, and this is also crucial to build a defense from the Democrats along the way.

However, just because Trump is perhaps "only" looking at election doesn't mean that nothing is revealed about policy in the Middle East. What he has shown is that even a weak President can still affect foreign policy, and also that the neocon dream means nothing compared with domestic political realities - if the two come into sharp relief, as they now do, then the illegitimate and parasitic neocon force must yield.

If Trump survives his domestic battles, I suspect that neocon policy has been dealt a glancing blow that it will never quite recover from. Not that it's down by any means, but diminished a little, put in its place a little. Or so we can hope. Much remains to happen yet, and we shall see.

~~

The US is what Jeff Brown calls the colonial spawn of the western tip (Europe) of Eurasia, all of which together have been consumed in racist and genocidal, imperial plunder of the whole world for 500 years. This kind of mindset is not going to vaporize overnight. The actions of one president are an insect bite in comparison. A dozen presidents maybe, one after another, with all the other influences of the world included over that time. And there's still the old money families at the root of it.

I begin to believe we must be looking at decades, perhaps almost a century, for this global anomaly to die away completely. But this is the Asian Century. Heaven itself, perhaps, sends its force against the old empires.

Circe , Dec 27, 2018 4:04:27 AM | link
The U.S. has used hard and soft power with an iron fist to acquire its Empire status. For now, Trump is using soft power i.e. financial tyranny more aggressively than any preceding President, Iran being his number one target, followed by China.

Iran can't do much to fight this tyranny alone without China and Russia's help, but what Trump is doing to China based on hyper-insecurity and imperial hubris will have serious blowback.

The author of this article that appeared in Vanity Fair in 2014, but is more relevant than ever China's Rise already viewed China as the world's No. 1 economic power at that time and Trump should be heeding his warning, but instead he's going the Neocon route: the Empire cannnot share power, have any challenge to its authority or even a counter balance either militarily or economically. This is not only an imperial mindset it's a Neocon standard.

If Trump uses economic tyranny with more force than his predecessors, you think he's going to hold back on the Yinon objective to neutralize Iran? This is why I laugh at those who think that Trump is not establishment. He's the Chosen of the 1%.

[Dec 27, 2018] Israeli attack has of a lot in common with the IL-20 atrocity - namely that the Israelis may have been deliberately hiding behind two civilian passenger jets to launch their attack

Was it the last "hello" to Putin form Netanyahu?
Notable quotes:
"... The Israelis lost big time from their IL-20 misadventure, but those losses will seem like childs play compared to their geostrategic losses from a repeat performance - that is if my interpretation is correct. ..."
Dec 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org
BM , Dec 26, 2018 11:26:03 AM | link
It appears to be too early to say much about the latest Israeli attack, until more details are released, but my inkling is of a lot in common with the IL-20 atrocity - namely that the Israelis may have been deliberately hiding behind two civilian passenger jets to launch their attack. If that is the case the Israelis can expect to be a gigantic loser.

From what I can gather it appears that 14 of the 16 the guided bombs were shot down using Pantsir S1 and/or S200. If that is the case then it is not true to say that the S300 was not used, because the S300 is an integrated system which automatically chooses the most appropriate means of response including S200/S125 etc and also including (as I understand) the Pantsir. In the case of the S200 at least, the missiles will be guided to their targets by the S300 radars and S300 control system.

The big question is the role of the two passenger jets and why their presence impeded action against the Israeli F16's. That is where the parallels with the IL-20 come in. The Russians are going to analyse this carefully and precisely before publishing conclöusions - after that we can expect harsh action - certainly geostrategic and maybe also kinetic.

The Israelis lost big time from their IL-20 misadventure, but those losses will seem like childs play compared to their geostrategic losses from a repeat performance - that is if my interpretation is correct.

By the way, I wouldn't take either Korybko or Cartalucci too seriously, both seem to me to be pro-empire misinformation artists - or at the very least highly untrustworthy sources.


BM , Dec 26, 2018 11:39:27 AM | link

Attacking Israeli aircraft over Lebanon? A no-go at the current state of affairs, as it would most likely trigger an escalation neither Russia, Syria, Hezbollah and Iran want, at least for the time being.
Posted by: Hmpf | Dec 26, 2018 11:08:26 AM | 26

This is precisely where the consequences of the Israeli timing my come in. If they deliberately timed their offence with the landing of passenger jets in Beirut and Damascus, thereby putting those jets at risk, Russia may be able to persuade Lebanon to allow them to impose a total no-fly zone over Lebanon for all Israeli military aircraft and projectiles. Check mate.

BM , Dec 26, 2018 11:50:29 AM | link
I've just seen this which also suggests the Israelis were hiding behind the passenger jets

Russian MoD: Israeli Air Force Used Landing Of Two Civilian Planes As Cover For Airstrikes

Syria had to delay actions against the F16s to safeguard the passenger jets.

Expect heavy Russian/Syrian retribution against Israel (especially geostrategic).

Bart Hansen , Dec 26, 2018 12:11:14 PM | link
As for relations between Russia and Israel, don't for get that Russian Jews represent over 10% of the Israeli population. Roughly one million out of nine million. Putin obviously is aware of this and may represent leverage for Israel. To use a favorite word of the pundits, this "emboldens" the blue haired PM
karlof1 , Dec 26, 2018 12:18:47 PM | link
All--Korybko, again, wrote hastily about something he fails to completely understand, thereby making a fool of himself. Syrian air defenses are quite adequate without needing to employ their S-300s. It's not clear if the changes to Syria's rules of engagement include targeting AND shooting down Zionist jets over Lebanon outside of Syrian airspace, which would employ S-300s. The following is Canthama's report from SyrPers posted @ 5 hours ago:

"Some latest news from Syria:

"1) Last night attack from the apartheid regime was very intense, used several vectors such as cruise missiles, ground to ground missiles etc in total it was reported 64 IDF missiles, this nbr can change as per SANA. only 7 went through the SyAAD defenses, which is an incredible rate of hits.

"There were several targets, all on the IDF hit list targets released few weeks ago, but only 1 target was hit SW of Damascus, causing material damages on a weapon depot, believed to be one of the hundreds carrying ammo recollected from the very terrorists the apartheid regime sent weapons to. SANA reported 3 SAA soldiers were injured during the explosion.

"It is believed the SAA fired retaliatory ground to ground missiles into occupied Golan which caused the interruption of IDF attack. SANA is yet to comment on that, but there are videos with Patriot attempts to intercept SAA missiles on the occupied Golan.

"2) There was not so ever any other casualty on this event, the web and news last night was full of fake news and intentionally planted news.

"3) Yesterday was a tough day in the apartheid regime, Natanyahu dismantle the cabinet for a new election and it seems the Likud party managed to hold him in power. Keep in mind the corruption case against Natanyahu is strong and moving to the last phase, he is desperate. On top of that the apartheid regime is completely against the US withdrawn from Syria, placing Natanyahu at odds with Trump, thus the attack in Syria as a sign of defiance and provocation to cause strong Syria/Russia's reaction, which it did not happen.

"4) SAA troops are in the very outskirt of Manbij, the deal is done between the MMC and the Syrian Government, there are a mix of some key SAA armies involved, bringing to all the Manbij pocket heavy tanks, missiles and thousands of soldiers. SyAAD has brought to Kuweyres and Aleppo airbases AA to protect the skies in all northern Syria thus controlling the events for the next months.

"Important to watch what is done in Qamishli and Hasaka airbases regarding AA defenses, if it is beefed up in the next few days, it will mean some inroads were agreed.

"5) Early today, the SAA has moved NW of Aleppo and liberated the town of Malikiyah, just northwest of Menagh airbase, this position was occupied by turkish backed terrorists. There are reports local SDF forces worked with the SAA on this ops. Not clear why this is happening, but it could be to divert the turkish backed terrorists that moved in force to the area near Manbij. There is no huge strategic gain with it but to control a small road that bypass the M5, but it could indicate advances toward Afrin and Azaz, but this is too early and more info is needed."

What the Zionists did was to commit an obvious Terrorist Attack on a peaceful capital city trying its best to celebrate Christmas that will further sully what remains of its reputation, as if it could get any lower than it is now. Nutty's clearly terrorizing for domestic reasons as there are Yellow Vest demonstrations and other political unrest occurring in Zionistan daily. Hopefully, he will be the last in a long line of Zionists Devils deserving a trial prior to dismemberment at The Hague.

It appears the lengthy, complicated back-room discussions between Damascus and Kurds has reaped results that are now becoming visible. The holiday's over, so now it's time to destroy the vermin. Iraq's PM is supposed to visit Assad for talks to coordinate several key actions: approach to Kurds and Turks; action East of Euphrates; and Iraqi government plans to deal with its Outlaw US Empire occupiers that are infiltrating from Syria. I've peered into corners to see if Iran or Syria have made any comment about Trump's withdrawal, but still nothing, which I entirely understand.

ADKC , Dec 26, 2018 12:28:22 PM | link
In any conventional conflict between Russia and the west, no matter how good the new Russian weapons are, Russia will quickly run out of munitions. The West can overwhelm with greater numbers of (poorer quality) weapons. This leads Russia into the position of surrendering or having to escalate (to nuclear). So it is a dead-end to directly get into a conflict with Israel as this too easily leads to the west mustering in support of Israel and a direct confrontation between Russia and the West. Tactically, the way to deal with Israel is to neutralise it's capabilities without resorting to direct confrontation and ultimatums (unsatisfying as that may be).
karlof1 , Dec 26, 2018 12:36:49 PM | link
This is supposed to complement the Syrian report I just posted but has yet to appear. This provides the reason why the Zionist attack on Damascus is an act of International Terrorism:

"The Israeli military put two civilian airliners in immediate danger, Igor Konashenkov, the Defense Ministry spokesman, told reporters. 'Provocative acts by the Israeli Air Force endangered two passenger jets when six of their F-16s carried out airstrikes on Syria from Lebanese airspace.'"

Such behavior cannot be condoned for any reasons whatsoever, and ought to produce an article 7 UNSC Resolution. Unfortunately, one Outlaw Nation protects the other Outlaw Nation, so such a proper international response will not be forthcoming. The Moroccan Terrorists are nothing compared to the Zionist and Outlaw US Empire's terrorists, and they all ought to share a similar fate.

abierno , Dec 26, 2018 12:58:09 PM | link
Was there another purpose behind the Israeli fighter jets hiding behind civilian aircraft? What would be the international reaction or more specifically the US reaction, to Syrian missiles downing a civilian commercial aircraft packed with civilian holiday passengers on Christmas Day? Would the Israeli role be masked in well-honed outrage at "Assad the butcher" again - without conscience - murdering defenseless civilians, necessitating immediate retaliation on the part of virtue signaling Western forces? Would it validate the cacophony from the Beltway regarding US withdrawal from Syria, vindicating Mattis' resignation concerns?
William Bowles , Dec 26, 2018 1:44:23 PM | link
james | Dec 26, 2018 1:27:36 PM | 43

See: https://21stcenturywire.com/2018/12/26/revealed-israels-idf-used-passenger-airliners-as-cover-during-christmas-day-attack-on-damascus/

karlof1 , Dec 26, 2018 1:47:15 PM | link
First report of Syrian retaliation I've seen today. No, it wasn't part of my detailed--6 paragraphs of Canthama's reporting--detained for who knows what as there were no links within it as Korybko's essay was previously linked. Many things ongoing today as the holiday's over, particularly movement around Manbij.

Elsewhere, Poroshenko ends martial law making him look weaker than ever. Arab League going against advice of Outlaw US Empire to reinstate Syria. Ground broken in Korea by North and South for construction of rail line linking them despite Outlaw Empire efforts to forestall. Japan says to world: Fuck-off, we're going to kill whales regardless.

james , Dec 26, 2018 3:18:00 PM | link
pat lang talking about what BM has already addressed here on the open thread... not clever.. extremely stupid and unfortunate as the same game can be playing on airplanes arriving in tel aviv at some point...
https://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/12/how-clever.html
ADKC , Dec 26, 2018 7:58:27 PM | link
The purpose of a provocation is to lead the provoked into a rash act. There are many posters on various sites who are guaranteed to condemn Putin for not taking (rash) action in response to the latest provocation. I profoundly distrust such posters because they appear to almost be acting in concert with the provocateur.

Today, Poroshenko announced the end of martial law. Poroshenko's plans to provoke conflict with Russia and suspend elections appear to be effectively over. We can look forward to new elections, a new President and an improved relationship with Ukraine. Where would we be now if Putin had responded to Poroshenko's provocations as some would wish?

Jackrabbit , Dec 26, 2018 9:01:28 PM | link
What would've been Trump's reaction if Syria had mistakenly downed a civilian airliner on Christmas Day as the Israel's might've been hoping for?

Another round of missile attacks on Syria? Direct attack on Assad? Re-commit to the occupation of Eastern Syria?

Whatever it might've been, we can be be sure that Americans and Europeans would've been overwhelmingly supportive: those that were critical of Trump's pulling out of Syria and those that were cheering his pulling out of Syria. United. Against. Assad.

And ready to face any counteraction by Assad or Putin. Together.

Still think Mattis' resignation was not a PR stunt?

[Dec 27, 2018] Unwarranted Hysteria Over Syria and Afghanistan by Publius Tacitus

Dec 27, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

TTG , 2 days ago

I'm in full agreement with the author's sentiment. We should pull out of Syria and begin the drawdown in Afghanistan. Our reason for being in Syria is in support of Israeli and Saudi policies, not ours or the Syrian's. The hysteria over this dramatic and IMO welcome change in policy is a pure neocon hysteria. They are not primarily concerned about the remaining IS forces. They are hysterical about the withdrawal of US support for Israeli and Saudi objectives in the region.

I do want to clear up a few details. Our material support to the jihadis we called moderate rebels was a clear anti-Assad move. It was and is illegal and uninvited. Our initial support to the Rojava Kurds was also illegal and uninvited by the Syrian government. However, it was a pure anti-IS move. The SF teams, the air support and material support provided to the Kurds was in our interests. Where this went wrong was when that support morphed into maintaining a US-sponsored statelet in eastern Syria to thwart both Damascus and Tehran.

The air support we employ in Syria is primarily manned fighter-bombers and rotary wing aircraft, not drones. We also have artillery on the ground in Syria along with infantry (500 or so Marines) to protect that artillery and forward air bases for helicopters and supply aircraft along with the support personnel at those bases. There are also a 100 or so Rangers around Manbij. The SF teams advising and assisting the SDF/YPG direct that air and artillery support. All those duties will be taken over by SAA, Russian and Hezbollah and Iranian forces. The SAA and SDF/YPG are already coordinating for the employment of SAA units along the Turkish border.

John Waddell -> TTG , 2 days ago
The Marines and their artillery were pulled out many months ago after they had finished reducing much of Raqqa to rubble, something the local Arabs who are the majority in the Euphrates valley will never forgive the US for. Those guns were, as far as I have been able to find, the only over 100mm barrel guns taken by the US into Syria as Turkey would have had a fit otherwise.

US and UK drones are still in use against ISIS elements in Deir.

Harlan Easley , 2 days ago
Our allies were the Jihadist and we armed them to overthrow the Syrian Government and destroy its secular government. Just go to Youtube and watch all the videos of Salafist firing our TOW missiles and taking out the tanks of the SAA. ISIS was a bridge too far and world condemnation forced our hand. It appears to me our foreign policy objective was to encourage sectarianism in order to overthrow a government that is hostile to Israel. Our foreign policy establishment didn't give a damn about the Christians being slaughtered. As long as Jerusalem was happy was all that mattered. In bed with the devil.
william mcdonald , a day ago
Trump is finally starting to get it. Most of Washington hates his guts and won't do a thing to help out, no matter the mission. Might as well go it alone and push his constitutional authority to the limits and then some, trusting the deplorables to have his back.
ancient archer -> william mcdonald , a day ago
The grunts in the armed forces largely come from 'the deplorables'. I am sure they would prefer to stay home than fight thousands of miles from home in a strange country for absolutely no strategic gain to the US. How many of the liberals, the so called resistance, actually serve in the armed forces? And they are the ones shouting the loudest to continue the ending war. War frequently seems exciting to those who don't do the fighting!

[Dec 27, 2018] I'm sure the Trumpster is telling us peasants what we want to hear, just as he did while campaigning, and who knows if the US military will really get out of Syria on his order

Dec 27, 2018 | www.unz.com

jacques sheete , says: December 27, 2018 at 1:00 am GMT

@anonymoys

But let me tell you the future: there will be no withdraw from Syria UNLESS the king of Israel agrees.

No doubt about it. I'm sure the Trumpster is telling us peasants what we want to hear, just as he did while campaigning, and who knows if the US military will really get out of Syria on his order. I myself think he's bullshitting, but I hope I'm wrong.

AnonFromTN , says: December 27, 2018 at 1:28 am GMT
@ChuckOrloski Pretty much. Sounds like "the only democracy in the Middle East".

But if we cry for every victim of Israeli scheming, we can't drink enough to replenish the store of tears. Maybe we should do something about it, rather than crying or laughing? Or commenting here lulled by false anonymity? NSA is listening, anyway.

[Dec 27, 2018] Trump disengagement from Syria may be (and probably is) nothing more that a tactical retreat/change in plans for which the Mattis resignation is merely a fig leaf; that is, it's just more of the same disingenuous dialectics that we've been bombarded with since the beginning of the "Trump" administration

Notable quotes:
"... If in addition to withdrawing from Syria orange clown were to stop arming the "government" of "Ukraine" and agree to negotiations with Russia on the issue of intermediate range nuclear armed missiles in Europe -- with a goal to support/strengthen the INF treaty rather than withdraw from it -- I might be willing to entertain the idea that something's changed. ..."
"... Call me cynical but I think you cannot take ANYTHING our masters say or do, e.g. this, at face value. ..."
"... just watch their behaviour -- the wall never gets built even though they are now talking about increasing the "defense" budget from $700 billion to $750 billion next year -- the increase alone is the cost of two walls ..."
Dec 27, 2018 | www.unz.com

Harold Smith , says: December 25, 2018 at 6:44 pm GMT

"President Donald Trump's order to withdraw from Syria has been greeted, predictably, with an avalanche of condemnation culminating in last Thursday's resignation by Defense Secretary James Mattis. The Mattis resignation letter focused on the betrayal of allies "

Call me cynical but I think you cannot take ANYTHING our masters say or do, e.g. this, at face value.

Orange clown's alleged disengagement from Syria may be (and probably is) nothing more that a tactical retreat/change in plans for which the Mattis resignation is merely a fig leaf; that is, it's just more of the same disingenuous dialectics that we've been bombarded with since the beginning of the "Trump" administration.

Apparently we're urged to conclude that Trump has finally had enough of the people he knowingly and willingly surrounded himself with, and their agenda, and now all of a sudden (because of some kind of a spiritual epiphany, pro-American New Year's resolution, etc.) he wants to do right by (some of) his supporters by doing what he should've done a long time ago. (And the hint of a military drawdown in Afghanistan adds a nice touch).

Sorry but I can't buy what they're selling.

If in addition to withdrawing from Syria orange clown were to stop arming the "government" of "Ukraine" and agree to negotiations with Russia on the issue of intermediate range nuclear armed missiles in Europe -- with a goal to support/strengthen the INF treaty rather than withdraw from it -- I might be willing to entertain the idea that something's changed.

As it is now it'll take a lot more than the obligatory "avalanche of condemnation" i.e., cheap words, to convince me that the perfidious orange clown and his jewish-supremacist handlers are doing anything other than rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic with one hand while steering it into the iceberg with the other hand.

anon [231] Disclaimer , says: December 25, 2018 at 6:59 pm GMT
@Harold Smith

Call me cynical but I think you cannot take ANYTHING our masters say or do, e.g. this, at face value.

agree

just watch their behaviour -- the wall never gets built even though they are now talking about increasing the "defense" budget from $700 billion to $750 billion next year -- the increase alone is the cost of two walls

annamaria , says: December 25, 2018 at 7:01 pm GMT
@Puzzled "I have never been able to discern a strategy, other than to keep the region in turmoil"
-- Agree.

Here is a tepid and academically deeply dishonest oeuvre by Richard Haass, who simply cannot help himself but to keep his day job of presstituting: https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/2018-12-11/how-world-order-ends

Sampling:

Although Russia has avoided any direct military challenge to NATO, it has nonetheless shown a growing willingness to disrupt the status quo: through its use of force in Georgia in 2008 and Ukraine since 2014, its often indiscriminate military intervention in Syria, and its aggressive use of cyberwarfare to attempt to affect political outcomes in the United States and Europe.

Haass is a Cheney's choice of opportunist and Goebbelsian kind of criminal:

Haass was born to a Jewish family in Brooklyn From 1989 to 1993, he was Special Assistant to United States President George H. W. Bush and National Security Council Senior Director for Near East and South Asian Affairs. In 1991, Haass received the Presidential Citizens Medal for helping to develop and explain U.S. policy during Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Storm. Haass argued that the leaders of the United States should adopt "an imperial foreign policy" to construct and manage an informal American empire (Haass 2000)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_N._Haass

[Dec 27, 2018] Syrian government forces 'enter' Kurdish-controlled Manbij region

Syria is really complex and may be untratable problem which Obama intervention only laid bare. So many tribes, so little land.
Dec 27, 2018 | www.unz.com

RobinG , says: December 25, 2018 at 9:21 pm GMT

.local sources told Al Jazeera and Turkey's state-run Anadolu Agency --

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Tuesday that Ankara and Washington agreed to complete withdrawal of the YPG forces from Manbij before the US pulls out of Syria.

He added the US agreed to take back weapons given to the YPG.

Syrian government forces 'enter' Kurdish-controlled Manbij region. Trucks carrying regime forces and equipment, and armoured vehicles have arrived in the region, sources say.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/12/syrian-government-forces-enter-kurdish-controlled-manbij-region-181225153526422.html

[Dec 27, 2018] Netanyahu: Israel will escalate its fight against Iranian-aligned forces in Syria after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country

Violation of international law is "business as usual" for Netanyahu
Dec 27, 2018 | www.unz.com

renfro , says: December 25, 2018 at 6:06 am GMT

Withdrawing from Syria is the right thing to do, though one has to be concerned that there might be some secret side deals with Israel or Turkey that could actually result in more attacks on Syria and on the Kurds.

Netanyahu says he will escalate attacks against Iran in Syria. Lets see if Russia takes exception to that.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-israel/israel-to-escalate-fight-against-iran-in-syria-after-u-s-exit-netanyahu-idUSKCN1OJ1BS

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Israel will escalate its fight against Iranian-aligned forces in Syria after the withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday.

Some Israeli officials have said U.S. President Donald Trump's move, announced on Wednesday, could help Iran by removing a U.S. garrison that stems the movement of Iranian forces and weaponry into Syria from Iraq.

Israel also worries that its main ally's exit could reduce its diplomatic leverage with Russia, the Syrian government's big-power backer.

"We will continue to act very aggressively against Iran's efforts to entrench in Syria," Netanyahu said in televised remarks, referring to an Israeli air campaign in Syria against Iranian deployments and arms transfers to Lebanese Hezbollah guerrillas, carried out with Moscow often turning a blind eye.

"We do not intend to reduce our efforts. We will intensify them, and I know that we do so with the full support and backing of the United States."

anon [243] Disclaimer , says: December 25, 2018 at 8:24 am GMT
4,000,000 Muslims have been killed as a consequence of the wars since 2001, millions more displaced. More than 8,000 U.S. military have died in wars whose purpose was to take the oil from the Arab s, a purpose which started in 1897 with at the Zionist Congress in Switzerland. -- $6 trillion you say and counting, much of it borrowed. War without end means killing without end and it has to stop.

Your article names the supporters of the war bandits and invading countries who rob the govern of there of their money, so the money can be used to destroy the lives and to reduce the quality of life in the target place to tribal at best (Iraq, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan). You mentioned war gang supporters Reuters, NYT, WoPo, mainstream television news providers , Pentagon, the Middle East Institute, and Israel.. but you left out so many others.

The important people to be considered in this are the Syrians humans governed by the Assad Syrian Government. & years of catching USA, British, French, Turkish, and Israeli bombs and donating, to Saudia Arabia raised Wahhabi's, Syrian heads and Syrian body parts, and being forced into homeless status as refugees of one more invader war, the Syrian people have evolved into strong nation organized to defend against the most powerful militarises in the world, they have voted 87% to keep Dr. Assad in three different elections as their leader. But something else happened: Syria became stronger, Syria became an international player, because both Russia and Iran joined to help Syria defend its sovereignty and to defend the lives of the Syrian people. I cannot think of one single American who wants anything the Syrian people have?

Why the war? So a few oil companies can steal the oil in Syria and run oil pipelines through Syria in order to defeat Russia's oil sales to Europe. Its not about Israel security (no threatens to invade Israel), its about Zionist greed and the urge to be entertained by murdering people in their homes.

Ronald Thomas West , says: Website December 25, 2018 at 8:48 am GMT
So, Trump bends over his second least favorite babysitter/general, Mattis, and orders a complete withdrawal from Syria opening the door to NATO's Turkey to go after the Kurd units there, which is an interesting development.

Putin wanted the USA out but he also has warned Erdogan against funneling Idlib's Salafi militants to Syria's Kurdish region, something Erdogan has been keen to do. Actually I expect the erratic Erdogan will go for it anyway, and small wonder at that, considering Erdogan's intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan, whose personal history is one of a bona fide member of al Qaida. Is Putin ready for Erdogan to back-stab Russia again? (recalling Erdogan's military had shot down a Russian jet.) This has to be the biggest geopolitical soap opera of the moment:

"The third disagreement is related to the fate of extremists as Turkish officials want to transfer them to Kurdish-controlled areas while Russian officials insist on "terminating them""

https://aawsat.com/english/home/article/1410516/russian-turkish-dispute-over-idlib-agreement-explanation-sources https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2018/10/03/natos-takfiri-laundromat/

So, then Trump's detractors (includes Mattis) will point the finger at Trump (not Turkey) when Syria's east is reinfected with Salafi militants but secretly pleased Erdogan has reopened the terrorism pipeline into Syria if only because it will cause Assad and Russia problems, as well, there is the perpetual profits motive (noted by Phil.) And, so it goes

Durruti , says: December 25, 2018 at 4:36 pm GMT
@Ronald Thomas West Good thinking:

opening the door to NATO's Turkey to go after the Kurd units there

Must look to the North:

On Turkey's Northwest front, tensions are high between the Greek Military & some foreign controllers of Greece, and the Turkish Military, and their leaders. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/mar/27/tensions-flare-greece-turkey-answer-provocation-erdogan

... ... ...

[Dec 27, 2018] The destruction and destabilisation of the ME, an Israeli plan, as far as I know.

Notable quotes:
"... Maybe I am overestimating the intelligence of MIC profiteers, but my impression is that those thieves know that their loot is only useful as long as they are alive. There is a lot of silly hostile talk against Russia and China, but have you noticed how the US military always makes sure that there are no direct confrontations with countries that can turn the US into radioactive dust? The profiteers want huge Pentagon budget to steal from, but not the war where they lose along with everyone else. ..."
Dec 27, 2018 | www.unz.com

jilles dykstra , says: December 25, 2018 at 5:31 pm GMT

@Z-man Israel fears Iran, is my idea. Norman Finkelstein once stated that Israeli jews do not see how there ever can be peace with the Palestinians 'after all we did to them'. Not all jews are idiots. Forgot in which book I read that in the thirties a Zionist reached Palestine, and saw that this was not the 'land without people for people without land'. He stated 'this is a crime'.

The destruction and destabilisation of the ME, an Israeli plan, as far as I know.

In 1921 and later years there was the enormous population exchange, without any financial compensation, between Turkey and Greece. To this day tensions exist between the two countries.

Iran is one of the oldest civilisations. Twice, one might say even three time, the west overthrew Iranian democracy. Iran knows of course quite well that the VS brought Saddam to power so that he could subjugate Iran, that had rid itself of the USA puppet shah. Iran also of course knows quite well Jewish power in the USA, Bush' s promise to AIPAC to destroy Iraq. Will those leading Iran now ever trust the USA or Israel ?

So that Netanyahu and USA jewry now are in complete panic, who had expected it to be otherwise ? Uri Avnery wrote 'the only language zionists understand is power. Is there a problem, use power, if it does not help, use more power, if that also fails, use even more power'.

There has never been any serious negotiation between Israel and its neighbors, or with the Palestinians. About the Oslo negotiations a book appeared in Israel with the title 'How we fooled the Palestinians'? Sharon answered any Arab League peace proposal with force, Jenin, one of them, if my recollection is correct. There always was the idea of overwhelming more military power, and of USA support.

Kissinger saved Israel in the 1973 Yom Kippur war by flying over hundreds of the newest USA anti tank weapons, wire guided, TOW. What will the USA do in case Israel is attacked ? Is Netanyahu crazy enough to provoke an attack ?

AnonFromTN , says: December 26, 2018 at 10:37 pm GMT
@Harold Smith

Maybe I am overestimating the intelligence of MIC profiteers, but my impression is that those thieves know that their loot is only useful as long as they are alive. There is a lot of silly hostile talk against Russia and China, but have you noticed how the US military always makes sure that there are no direct confrontations with countries that can turn the US into radioactive dust? The profiteers want huge Pentagon budget to steal from, but not the war where they lose along with everyone else.

As to the wall, it is one of the silliest projects ever suggested. Maybe that's why it was so easy to sell it to the intellectually disadvantaged electorate. There are two things that can stop illegal immigration. First, go for the employers, enact a law that fines them to the tune of $50,000 or more per every illegal they employ. Second, enact the law that anyone caught residing in the US illegally has no right to enter the US legally, to obtain asylum, permanent residency, or citizenship for life, and include a provision that marriage to a US citizen does not nullify this ban. Then enforce both laws. After that illegals would run out of the country, and greedy employers won't hire any more. Naturally, the wall, even if built, won't change anything: as long as there are employers trying to save on salaries, immigration fees, and Social Security tax, and people willing to live and work illegally risking nothing, no wall would stem the flow.

Unfortunately, no side is even thinking about real measures, both are just posturing.

[Dec 25, 2018] If the Turks attack the Kurds it will be their own fault. If they don't learn the lesson of Afrin and accept the Syrian Government offer, they will be eliminated by the Turkish Army and proxy troops.

Dec 25, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

John Waddell -> jdledell , 2 days ago

If the Turks attack the Kurds it will be their own fault. If they don't learn the lesson of Afrin and accept the Syrian Government offer, they will be eliminated by the Turkish Army and proxy troops. They appear to have been offered the option of becoming part of the Syrian Arab Army, an offer the Russians and Turks have supported.

Bear in mind that many of the Kurds are now in parts of Syria that were not theirs before the US backed them and, under the eyes of US SF and DoS observers, they have been ethnically cleaning some of those areas of Arabs. This will be reversed.

Poul -> jdledell , 2 days ago
A cynical view on the Kurds would be that throwing them to the wolves will make the wolves fight amongst themselves over the prey.

The one issue which united Russia, Syria, Iran & Turkey was that they all wanted the US out of Syria. Now that has happened friction between the nations can occur.

Russia may have gained something from the new relationship with Turkey that they may not want to sacrifice for Syrian-Iranian policy regarding who shall control Northern Syria.

Can Syria-Iran go it along against Turkey . I doubt it.

[Dec 25, 2018] A Short History of How the US Went to War in Syria by Peter Van Buren

Dec 25, 2018 | original.antiwar.com

Posted on December 24, 2018 December 23, 2018 Here's what got Secretary of Defense James Mattis all worked up!

Even as what should have been a quick 2001 strike into Afghanistan bogged down into the quagmire of nation building, George W. Bush in 2003 invaded Iraq. The pretenses were all false. Terrorism was the excuse, American control over the region the goal. "Winning" in Iraq was built on an illusion the U.S. could somehow establish a puppet government there incorporating Sunni, Shia, and Kurd power blocs. There was no plan for this and it predictably failed, metastasizing into civil war, eventually drawing in powerful outside forces, most predominantly the Iranians on the Shia side, and al Qaeda on the Sunni side, with the US assuming a defacto role protecting the semiautonomous Kurds.

As the second Bush term gasped to conclusion and America grew weary of the Iraq War, the US quietly abandoned its plans for a tripartite Iraqi state. It allowed Iranian-supported Shias to "win" the 2010 elections at the expense of the Sunni population, and walled off the Kurds, formal status to be sorted out sometime whenever. Under a deal negotiated by Bush, American troops came home under Obama. That action didn't "lose" Iraq; Iraq was "lost" at a thousand incremental steps between 2003-2010 when the US failed to create a viable government and left everyone to fight it out. The continued presence of American troops post-2010 would not have prevented the violence which followed, anymore than the continued presence of US troops pre-2010 did not prevent the violence and in fact inflamed it.

The Shia government in Iraq, advised, financed, and controlled by newly-empowered Iran (America's wars had removed Iran's two biggest enemies, the Taliban on its eastern border and Saddam on the west, freeing up the bulk of Iran's military and foreign policy resources) wildly overplayed its hand, setting off on a clumsy genocide of the Sunnis. Out of desperation, the remnants of al Qaeda coupled with ultra-violent Sunni nationalists/protectors/patriots/terrorists (pick one word, but they all describe ISIS) morphed into Islamic State. From a Syrian border American interventionism had turned into a failed state, Islamic State organized itself and began holding ground, quickly rolling over the Kurds in northern Iraq and through sympathetic Sunni lands. When the American-trained (cost: $25 billion) Iraqi national army dropped its weapons and ran in 2014, remaining Shia forces collapsed back toward Baghdad, and it looked like Iraq was about to snap apart.

The US, under Obama, reinserted itself into Iraq, in a devil's bargain with the most powerful player on the ground other than ISIS, the Iranians. The US paired with Iranian special forces, the US paired with Iranian-led Iraqi troops, and the US paired with Iranian-backed Shia militias/nationalists/protectors/patriots/terrorists. This time there was no grand plan to do any nation building. The plan was to literally kill every Islamic State fighter, and if that meant destroying Sunni cities to save them, so be it. Death was rained in literal Biblical doses. The American strategy against Islamic State worked. It should have; this was a war the American military knew how to fight, with none of that tricky counterinsurgency stuff. Retaking Ramadi, Fallujah, and Mosul were set-piece battles. City after Sunni city were ground into little Dresdens before being turned over to the militias for ethnic cleansing of renegade Sunnis.

Without much discussion, "fighting ISIS" into Syrian territory slipped into another, albeit less enthusiastic, round of regime change , this time aimed at Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. Assad's family controlled the country since the 1960s, and was a sort-of American partner here and there, certainly helpful during the early years of the GWOT in torturing folks on America's behalf. Bashar himself was a goofy looking guy with a sophisticated wife, an optometrist by education, and when he took office after his classic dictator Dr. Evil father's death, was briefly seen as a "new voice" in the Middle East, a less fashionable version of last year's Saudi Mohammed bin Salman. Assad was fighting Islamic State, too: they were seeking to seize territory from him, and so the US and Assad were sort of on the same side.

Nonetheless, Obama's warhawks – the gals, Susan Rice and Hillary Clinton in the lead! – drove policy toward regime change. Assad became an evil dictator who killed his own people. Justification for the US going to war again in the Middle East was thus because a tiny percentage of the deaths were maybe caused by gas instead of artillery, aerial bombs, machine guns, tanks, rockets, grenades, car bombs, mines, bad food, or sticks and stones, a "red line." The world of 2015 however was very different than the one of 2003. The US had been bled out by the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq, and fights picked in Libya, Somalia, Yemen, and across Africa. Iran was empowered. Russia, always a friend of Assad's, was invited in to help rid Syria of chemical weapons by Secretary of State John Kerry and took the opportunity to dramatically grow its military role there.

Saudi money fed the fight, often flowing into ISIS' coffers because ISIS was fighting Iranian-backed troops whom the Saudi's opposed. Turkey saw an opportunity in chaos to push back against the Kurds nipping at its southern and eastern borders and basically a small-scale version of WWI unraveled as the United States bombed a bit, stepped back, sent in some special forces, then claimed it had no boots on the ground, and so forth. America's goals – destroy ISIS, fight Iranian influence, oust Assad – were often at odds with one another and lead to US weapons and money flooding the battlefield. More than one firefight featured American-supplied guns on both sides. More than one American special forces unit found itself playing traffic cop stopping an American "ally" from attacking another American "ally."

That more or less brings things up to late 2018

Peter Van Buren blew the whistle on State Department waste and mismanagement during Iraqi reconstruction in his first book, We Meant Well: How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People . His latest book is Hooper's War: A Novel of WWII Japan . Reprinted from the his blog with permission.

Read more by Peter Van Buren

[Dec 25, 2018] Saudi Arabia Agrees to Finance Rebuilding of Syria - Trump

Dec 25, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

DarkPurpleHaze , 1 hour ago link

How unlikely did it seem (pre-Khashoggi) that the Syrian situation would take the turns we're now starting to witness?

Totally under the radar during the holiday newscycle.....major news story!

▪Saudi Arabia Agrees to Finance Rebuilding of Syria - Trump▪

US President Donald Trump said in a statement on Monday that Saudi Arabia has agreed to pay for the reconstruction of Syria rather than the United States financing the reconstruction of that country.

>>> "Saudi Arabia has now agreed to spend the necessary money needed to help rebuild Syria, instead of the United States. See? Isn't it nice when immensely wealthy countries help rebuild their neighbors rather than a Great Country, the U.S., that is 5000 miles away. Thanks to Saudi A! " Trump said via Twitter.<<<

https://mobile.twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1077253411358326785

Trump has welcomed Riyadh's decision, adding that it is "nice when immensely wealthy countries help rebuild their neighbors rather than a Great Country, the US, that is 5000 miles away."

The US president's comment comes after, on Wednesday, he announced that the United States would withdraw its roughly 2,000 troops from Syria since the Daesh* terror group had been defeated. However, the White House later clarified the decision does not mean the US-led international coalition's fight against the Daesh has ended.

Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the US Congress who have supported US military engagement and intervention throughout the world have criticized Trump's decision, saying that a US troop withdrawal from Syria will lead to the reemergence of the Daesh and aid Russia, Turkey and Iran fulfilling their interests in the region.

emersonreturn , 19 minutes ago link

the saudis will only put money into isis & therein taking over the oil fields to supplement theirs...yemen isn't quite working out as they'd planned.

[Dec 25, 2018] Mattis Marks End of the Global War on Terror

Notable quotes:
"... America's presence in Syria, like Jim Mattis himself, is an artifact of another era, the failed GWOT. As a Marine, Mattis served in ground combat leadership roles in Gulf Wars I and II, and also in Afghanistan. He ran United States Central Command from 2010 to 2013, the final years of The Surge in Iraq and American withdrawal afterwards. There is no doubt why he supported the American military presence in Syria, and why he resigned to protest Trump's decision to end it: Mattis knew nothing else. His entire career was built around the strategy of the GWOT, the core of which was to never question GWOT strategy. Mattis didn't need a reason to stay in Syria; being in Syria was the reason. ..."
"... So why didn't Trump listen to his generals? Maybe because the bulk of their advice has been dead wrong for 17 years? ..."
"... The war on terror failed. It should have been dismantled long ago. Barack Obama could have done it, but instead became a victim of hubris and bureaucratic capture, and allowed it to expand. His supporters give him credit for not escalating the war in Syria, but leave out the part about how he also left the pot to simmer on the stove instead of removing it altogether. ..."
"... Peter Van Buren, a 24-year State Department veteran, is the author of ..."
"... . He is permanently banned from federal employment and Twitter. ..."
"... The GWOT was not only a failure, it was a fraud. Saddam's Iraq was secular and had nothing to do with terrorism. The same can be said for Libya and Syria. We armed and trained jihadis for the purpose of overthrowing Assad. How is that fighting terrorism? The war on terror was a deception, to cover for wars which were aggressive and unjustified. These wars were not just a failure, they were criminal and should be a source of shame and sorrow for our country. The men who orchestrated these wars did so by lying to the American people every step of the way, with the media repeating their every lie and distortion with robotic consistency. The neocon planners and all their willing accomplices deserve a special place in hell for the death and destruction they have wrought. Thank God the neocon era seems to be coming to a close. Thank God for Donald Trump, with all his flaws, for having the guts and decency to put an end to this prolonged military outrage. ..."
"... It's strange that Mr. van Buren celebrates the exit of Mattis as symbolizing the end of a long-discredited policy when Mattis was hired less than 2 years ago, many years after that policy became discredited, and after Mattis's hirer ran for President on a platform diametrically opposed to the discredited policy while denouncing the discredited policy. Now we find out belatedly that the only reason President Trump hired Mattis was because Mattis was fired for insubordination by former President Obama which incumbent President Trump hates, and for which a strong motivating factor is doing everything opposite of Obama. So now incumbent President Trump finds to his dismay that Mattis is insubordinate to himself as well. And yet Mr. van Buren thinks the important focus of this development is Mattis ..."
"... "The raw drive to insta-hate everything Trump does is misleading otherwise thoughtful people. So let's try a new lens: during the campaign Trump outspokenly denounced the waste of America's wars. Pro-Trump sentiment in rural areas was driven by people who agreed with his critique, by people who'd served in these wars, whose sons and daughters had served, or, given the length of all this, both. Since taking office, the president has pulled U.S. troops back from pointless conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Congress may yet rise to do the same for American involvement in Yemen. No new wars have been started It is time for some old ideas to move on." ..."
"... The GWOT was a repudiation of the Powell Doctrine. Almost 20 years on, Powell looks like genius and the neocons like a bunch of morons. ..."
"... The retreat from Syria does not mean a U.S. retreat from its role as the Global Cop Gorilla. The Pentagon is merely changing its primary target set from the GWOT actors to the "revisionist powers". ..."
"... The National Defense Strategy Commission's report, ironically and perversely released by the "United States Institute of Peace", validates the fear-monger claims and also the claims to more TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to feed the Gorilla as it marauds around the perimeter of Asia. ..."
"... "There is no pleasure in watching Jim Mattis end his decades of service with a bureaucratic dirty stick shoved at him as a parting gift." ..."
"... "Don't make me have to kill you" ..."
"... It's no coincidence that Netanyahu's government fell apart today. Another good riddance. May the Israelis elect a new PM who actually wants peace in the Mideast. ..."
"... The War Party is still The War Party -- which is why so many of us who are strong Trump supporters have never joined the Republican Party and have no plans to join. This moment in history is particularly instruction. The Democrats have blown their cover. The Democratic Party is as much The War Party as the Republican Party. ..."
Dec 25, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

The New York Times , its journalists in mourning over the loss of a war, ask , "Who will protect America now?" Mattis the warrior-monk is juxtaposed with the flippant commander-in-Cheeto. The Times sees strategic disaster in an "abrupt and dangerous decision, detached from any broader strategic context or any public rationale, [that] sowed new uncertainty about America's commitment to the Middle East, [and] its willingness to be a global leader."

"A major blunder," tweeted Senator Marco Rubio. "If it isn't reversed it will haunt America for years to come." Senator Lindsey Graham called for congressional hearings. And what is history if not irony? Rubio talks of haunting foreign policy decisions in Syria seemingly without knowledge of previous calamities in Iraq. Graham wants to hold hearings on quitting a war Congress never held hearings on authorizing.

That's all wrong. Jim Mattis's resignation as defense secretary ( and on Sunday , Brett McGurk, as special envoy to the coalition fighting ISIS) and Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria and Afghanistan are indeed significant. But that's because they mark the beginning of the end of the Global War on Terror (GWOT), the singular, tragic, bloody driver of American foreign policy for almost two decades.

Why does the U.S. have troops in Syria?

To defeat the Islamic State? ISIS's ability to hold ground and project power outside its immediate backyard was destroyed somewhere back in 2016 by an unholy coalition of American, Iranian, Russian, Syrian, Turkish, and Israeli forces in Iraq and Syria. Sure, there are terrorists who continue to set off bombs in ISIS's name, but they are not controlled or directed out of Syria. They are most likely legal residents of the Western countries they attack, radicalized online or in local mosques. They are motivated by a philosophy, which cannot be destroyed on the ground in Syria. This is the fundamental failure of the GWOT: that you can't blow up an idea.

Regime change? It was never a practical idea. As in Iraq, Libya, and Afghanistan, there was never a plan for what to do next, for how to keep Syria from descending into complete chaos the day Assad was removed. And though progressives embraced the idea of getting rid of another "evil dictator" when it came through the mouthpiece of Obama's own freedom fighter Samantha Power, the same idea today has little drive behind it.

Russia? Overwrought fear of Moscow was once a sign of unhealthy paranoia satirized on The Twilight Zone . Today, Russia hate is seen as a prerequisite to patriotism, though it still makes no more sense. The Russians have long had a practical relationship with Syria, having maintained a naval base at Tartus since 1971, which they will continue to do. There was never a plan for the U.S. to push the Russians out -- Obama in fact saw the Russian presence are part of the solution in Syria. American withdrawal is far more of a return to status quo than anything like a win for Putin. (Elsewhere at TAC , Matt Purple pokes more holes in Putin paranoia.)

Washington Melts Down Over Trump's Syria Withdrawal Former Yazidi Sex Slave Is America's Shame

The Kurds? The U.S.-Kurd story is one of expediency over morality. We've used them only because, at every sad turn, there's been no force otherwise available in bulk. The Kurds have been abandoned many times by America: in 1991 when it refused to assist them in breaking away from Saddam Hussein following Gulf War I, when it insisted they remain part of a "united Iraq" following Gulf War II, and most definitively in 2017 following Gulf War III when the U.S. did not support their independence referendum, relegating them to Baghdad's forever half-loved stepchild.

After all that, America's intentions toward the Kurds in Syria are barely a sideshow-scale event. The Kurds want to cleave off territory from Turkey and Syria, something neither nation will permit and something the U.S. quietly understands would destabilize the region. Mattis, by the way, supported NATO ally Turkey in its fight against the Kurds, calling them an "active insurgency inside its borders."

Iran? Does the U.S. really have troops in Syria to brush back Iranian influence? As with "all of the above," that genie got out of the bottle years ago. Iranian power in the greater Middle East has grown dramatically since 2003, and has been driven at every step by the blunders of the United States. If the most powerful army in the world couldn't stop the Iranians from essentially winning Gulf Wars II and III, how can 2,000 troops in Syria hope to accomplish much?

The United States, of course, wasn't even shooting at the Iranians in Syria; in most cases it was working either with them or tacitly alongside them towards the goal of killing off ISIS. Tehran's role as Assad's protector was set as America rumbled about regime change. Iran has since pieced together a land corridor to the Mediterranean through Iraq and Syria, which it will not be giving up, certainly not because of the presence of a few thousand Americans.

What remains is that once-neocon, now progressive catch-all: we need to stay in Syria to preserve American credibility. While pundits can still get away with this line, the rest of the globe already knows the empire has no clothes. Since 2001, the United States has spent some $6 trillion on its wars, and killed multiple 9/11s worth of American troops and foreign civilians. The U.S. has tortured , still maintains its gulag at Guantanamo, and, worst of all credibility-wise, has lost on every front. Afghanistan after 17 years of war festers. Nothing was accomplished with Iraq. Libya is a failed state. Syria is the source of a refugee crisis whose long-term effects on Europe are still being played out. We are the "indispensable nation" only in our own minds. A lot of people around the world probably wish America would just stop messing with their countries.

So why does the U.S. have troops in Syria? Anyone? Bueller? Mattis?

America's presence in Syria, like Jim Mattis himself, is an artifact of another era, the failed GWOT. As a Marine, Mattis served in ground combat leadership roles in Gulf Wars I and II, and also in Afghanistan. He ran United States Central Command from 2010 to 2013, the final years of The Surge in Iraq and American withdrawal afterwards. There is no doubt why he supported the American military presence in Syria, and why he resigned to protest Trump's decision to end it: Mattis knew nothing else. His entire career was built around the strategy of the GWOT, the core of which was to never question GWOT strategy. Mattis didn't need a reason to stay in Syria; being in Syria was the reason.

So why didn't Trump listen to his generals? Maybe because the bulk of their advice has been dead wrong for 17 years? Instead, Trump plans a dramatic drawdown of troops in Afghanistan. The U.S. presence in Iraq has dwindled from combat to advise and assist. Congress seems poised to end U.S. involvement in Yemen against Mattis's advice.

There is no pleasure in watching Jim Mattis end his decades of service with a bureaucratic dirty stick shoved at him as a parting gift. But to see this all as another Trump versus the world blunder is very wrong. The war on terror failed. It should have been dismantled long ago. Barack Obama could have done it, but instead became a victim of hubris and bureaucratic capture, and allowed it to expand. His supporters give him credit for not escalating the war in Syria, but leave out the part about how he also left the pot to simmer on the stove instead of removing it altogether.

The raw drive to insta-hate everything Trump does is misleading otherwise thoughtful people. So let's try a new lens: during the campaign Trump outspokenly denounced the waste of America's wars. Pro-Trump sentiment in rural areas was driven by people who agreed with his critique, by people who'd served in these wars, whose sons and daughters had served, or, given the length of all this, both. Since taking office, the president has pulled U.S. troops back from pointless conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Congress may yet rise to do the same for American involvement in Yemen. No new wars have been started. Though the results are far from certain, for the first time in nearly 20 years, negotiations are open again with North Korea. Mattis's ending was clumsy, but it was a long time coming. It is time for some old ideas to move on.

Peter Van Buren, a 24-year State Department veteran, is the author of We Meant Well : How I Helped Lose the Battle for the Hearts and Minds of the Iraqi People and Hooper's War : A Novel of WWII Japan . He is permanently banned from federal employment and Twitter.



Geo December 24, 2018 at 8:22 am

I'm about as left wing as they come and have had a distain for Trump for decades. But, if he can put an end to the GWOT and truly pull America out of those disasters I protested against back in 2001-2002 (not to mention Libya and Yemen) then he will be my favorite modern president. Granted, that's a low bar. I've not had one in my lifetime that was worth admiring, but would be a welcome change.

I have my doubts he'll be able to pull it off but even if he manages to just not start any new wars that would be a novel new direction for us.

Kent , , December 24, 2018 at 9:23 am
If Trump pulls this off, I'll actually consider voting for him in 2020.
TomG , , December 24, 2018 at 9:24 am
It's good for Van Buren to remind people that our relationship with the Kurds has long been one of support when it is convenient and abandonment when it is not. For left and right to feign concern now is quite hypocritical.

Reading this offers some hope though the bulk of coverage on the Syria withdrawal from left and right has been most depressing. May Mattis (and his ilk) go far and may it be soon!

Stephen in Florida , , December 24, 2018 at 9:25 am
Amen to everything in this article. I voted for Trump because of the way he strongly denounced the Iraq war and our policies of interventionism and nation building in general. It has taken two full years, but finally he is delivering what I hoped for. The media is trying to turn this into another Trump smear issue, but I expect them to fail at this. At this point in time how many people take the news channel narrative seriously? Especially if Trump removes our troops from Afghanistan, I expect his popularity to soar.

The GWOT was not only a failure, it was a fraud. Saddam's Iraq was secular and had nothing to do with terrorism. The same can be said for Libya and Syria. We armed and trained jihadis for the purpose of overthrowing Assad. How is that fighting terrorism? The war on terror was a deception, to cover for wars which were aggressive and unjustified. These wars were not just a failure, they were criminal and should be a source of shame and sorrow for our country. The men who orchestrated these wars did so by lying to the American people every step of the way, with the media repeating their every lie and distortion with robotic consistency. The neocon planners and all their willing accomplices deserve a special place in hell for the death and destruction they have wrought. Thank God the neocon era seems to be coming to a close. Thank God for Donald Trump, with all his flaws, for having the guts and decency to put an end to this prolonged military outrage.

JK , , December 24, 2018 at 9:51 am
It's strange that Mr. van Buren celebrates the exit of Mattis as symbolizing the end of a long-discredited policy when Mattis was hired less than 2 years ago, many years after that policy became discredited, and after Mattis's hirer ran for President on a platform diametrically opposed to the discredited policy while denouncing the discredited policy. Now we find out belatedly that the only reason President Trump hired Mattis was because Mattis was fired for insubordination by former President Obama which incumbent President Trump hates, and for which a strong motivating factor is doing everything opposite of Obama. So now incumbent President Trump finds to his dismay that Mattis is insubordinate to himself as well. And yet Mr. van Buren thinks the important focus of this development is Mattis
Kurt Gayle , , December 24, 2018 at 10:06 am
This is brilliant, Mr. Van Buren. Thank you:

"The raw drive to insta-hate everything Trump does is misleading otherwise thoughtful people. So let's try a new lens: during the campaign Trump outspokenly denounced the waste of America's wars. Pro-Trump sentiment in rural areas was driven by people who agreed with his critique, by people who'd served in these wars, whose sons and daughters had served, or, given the length of all this, both. Since taking office, the president has pulled U.S. troops back from pointless conflicts in Syria, Afghanistan, and Iraq. Congress may yet rise to do the same for American involvement in Yemen. No new wars have been started It is time for some old ideas to move on."

furbo , , December 24, 2018 at 10:08 am
The President made the right decision. I WISH it had been reached in a more traditional manner -- going thru the NSC and such, but we had no achievable strategic goals and were really only a bit player. The very real danger was that we were dancing around the Russians like two porcupines making love with the current "Russia!Russia!Russia!" political freakout preventing what could have been a genuine opportunity for cooperation in at least one area. Syria will not be any more chaotic for our departure, infact given less scrutiny and no danger of accidental WW III, the Russians/Iranians/Syrian gov't may be able to wrap this up more faster.

Russia also has interest in Kurdish welfare and as 15% of Israelis ARE Russians, their wellfare as well. In an administration that needed to project credibility, SEC Mattis was a good choice and has done some great things cutting alot of uneeded red tape & worthless 'training' and giving clear priorities for the services. But, he's opposed almost everything the President including the Trans ban so it was 'when not if'.

Oleg Gark , , December 24, 2018 at 10:13 am
The GWOT was a repudiation of the Powell Doctrine. Almost 20 years on, Powell looks like genius and the neocons like a bunch of morons.
Seaman Bodine , , December 24, 2018 at 10:30 am
It all makes sense once you understand that by "restraint" they mean "leave American soldiers as hostages to fortune in Syria!" and "unlimited mulligans for failed generals in Afghanistan!" and "let's provoke Erdogan into releasing two or three million refugees into Europe!"
Alex (the one that likes Ike) , , December 24, 2018 at 10:33 am

The Times sees strategic disaster in an "abrupt and dangerous decision, detached from any broader strategic context or any public rationale, [that] sowed new uncertainty about America's commitment to the Middle East, [and] its willingness to be a global leader."

Geez. I can also come up with something like this artwork by the Times journalists. Here: "The lack of correlation between convergences caused an unwanted bifurcation of idiosyncratic dichotomies". Twaddle? But how badass is sounds! Just read it aloud -- and you'll see the credibility glittering like Swarovski crystals all over the place.

Merry Christmas to the MSM. I wish them to start writing something meaningful next year.

Dan Green , , December 24, 2018 at 10:52 am
Too bad the military establishment had their Christmas ruined. They shouldn't get down there will new new wars.
SteveM , , December 24, 2018 at 11:19 am
The retreat from Syria does not mean a U.S. retreat from its role as the Global Cop Gorilla. The Pentagon is merely changing its primary target set from the GWOT actors to the "revisionist powers".

Mattis fronted the updated National Defense Strategy. It again fear-mongers out the wazoo about Russia and China with the only solution being "more, more, more" for the War Machine.

The National Defense Strategy Commission's report, ironically and perversely released by the "United States Institute of Peace", validates the fear-monger claims and also the claims to more TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars to feed the Gorilla as it marauds around the perimeter of Asia.

Re: "There is no pleasure in watching Jim Mattis end his decades of service with a bureaucratic dirty stick shoved at him as a parting gift."

Au Contraire , there is much pleasure watching that sanctified War-Monger and Pentagon Hack with his contrived "Don't make me have to kill you" schtick ride off into the sunset.

Unfortunately for those of us not deluded into the Cult of Military Exceptionalism, Mattis will no doubt segue to Fox News as yet another "Wizened Sage" of Pentagon wisdom and insight, where he'll live very large for simply gas-bagging his "Warrior Hero" script. And perhaps Mad Dog will even meander back to General Dynamics to pimp yet again for the Merchants of Death.

Make no mistake, Mattis and his General pals are enemies of the taxpayers and rank apostates of the Founders' principles. Mattis may soon be gone, but unfortunately, he won't be forgotten.

P.S. Merry Christmas

Citoyen , , December 24, 2018 at 11:55 am
It's good to see Trump finally realizing that he is the president, and not his generals and "advisors" that no one elected. Goodbye and good riddance to Mattis, Haley et al. Next to go should be John Bolton, Mike Pompeo and Jared Kushner.

It's no coincidence that Netanyahu's government fell apart today. Another good riddance. May the Israelis elect a new PM who actually wants peace in the Mideast.

Kurt Gayle , , December 24, 2018 at 12:35 pm
"'A major blunder,' tweeted Senator Marco Rubio. 'If it isn't reversed it will haunt America for years to come.' Senator Lindsey Graham called for congressional hearings. And what is history if not irony? Rubio talks of haunting foreign policy decisions in Syria seemingly without knowledge of previous calamities in Iraq. Graham wants to hold hearings on quitting a war Congress never held hearings on authorizing."

The War Party is still The War Party -- which is why so many of us who are strong Trump supporters have never joined the Republican Party and have no plans to join. This moment in history is particularly instruction. The Democrats have blown their cover. The Democratic Party is as much The War Party as the Republican Party.

Stephen J. , , December 24, 2018 at 12:44 pm
Article of interest at link below.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
Send the Mad Dog to the Corporate Kennel
by Ray McGovern Posted on December 22, 2018

https://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2018/12/21/send-the-mad-dog-to-the-corporate-kennel/

Ron B. Saunders , , December 24, 2018 at 2:50 pm
No wonder Mr. Van Buren is banned from federal employment and Twitter. His clarity and surgical observations of American interventionism are indeed enlightening. Deep State forces must cringe when reading his missives.

I don't agree with everything Trump does, but I have high hopes for his intent to extract American military forces from the Middle East. Having cost trillions of dollars and countless lives, these profit-motivated, failed expeditions could never be morally justified even if they were successful.

Being the world's policeman does not make America a benevolent, inspiring global leader. The opposite is true, as much of the world now perceives America to be a disruptive force, conspiring against global peace for the benefit of the military industrial complex and multinational corporations.

Let's pray for a changing tide that steers us further from the brink.

Mark Thomason , , December 24, 2018 at 3:19 pm
"Now Trump, the guy everyone expected to start new wars"

Hillary supporters said that. The rest of us knew that she was the danger of more and bigger wars. That was a prime reason to defeat her. Too bad the only way to defeat her was to elect Trump, but that is on the DNC, since they offered her, and every other Republican was even worse (Cruz!).

[Dec 24, 2018] Time to Get Out of Syria by Eric Margolis

Dec 24, 2018 | www.unz.com
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President Trump has done the right thing with regard to America's troop deployment in Syria. Trump ordered the 2,000 US troops based in Syria to get out and come home.

Neocons and the US war party are having apoplexy even though there are some 50,000 US troops spread across the rest of the Mideast.

The US troops parked in the Syrian Desert were doing next to nothing. Their avowed role was to fight the remnants of the ISIS movement and block any advances by Iranian forces. As a unified fighting force, ISIS barely exists, if it ever did. Cobbled together, armed and financed by the US, the Saudis and Gulf Emirates to overthrow Syria's regime, ISIS ran out of control and became a menace to everyone.

In fact, what the US was really doing was putting down a marker for a possible US future occupation of war-torn Syria that risked constant clashes with Russian forces there.

We will breathe a big sigh of relief if the US deployment actually goes ahead: it will remove a major risk of war with nuclear-armed Russia, whose forces are in Syria at the invitation of the recognized government in Damascus. The US has no strategic interest in Syria and no business at all being militarily involved there. Except perhaps that the war party wants never-ending wars abroad for arms production and promotions.

Trump's abrupt pullout from Syria has shocked and mortified Washington's war party and neocon fifth column. They were hoping reinforced US forces would go on to attack Damascus and move against Iranian forces. It was amusing to watch the anguish of such noted warlike chickenhawks as Sen. Lindsay Graham and the fanatical national security advisor John Bolton as their hopes for a US war against Syria diminished. Israel was equally dismayed: its strategic plan has long been to fragment Syria and gobble up the pieces.

The venerable imperial general and defense secretary, Jim Mattis, couldn't take this de-escalation. He resigned. Marine General Mattis was one of the few honorable and respected members of the Trump administration and a restraint on the president's impulses. To his credit, he opposed the reintroduction of torture by US forces, a crime promoted by Trump, Bolton and Chicago enforcer Mike Pompeo.

What really mattered was not a chunk of the Syrian Desert. Matis's resignation may have been much more about Afghanistan, America's longest war. The US has been defeated in Afghanistan, rightly known as the 'Graveyard of Empires.' Yet no one in Washington can admit this defeat or order a retreat after wasting 17 years, a trillion dollars and thousands of Americans killed or wounded. Least of all, Gen. Mattis, Bolton or Pompeo who bitterly opposed any peace deal with the Taliban nationalist movement.

According to unconfirmed media reports, the US has already thinned out its Afghan garrison of 14,000 plus soldiers. These soldiers' main function is to guard the corrupt, drug-dealing Afghan puppet government in Kabul and fix Taliban forces so they can be attacked by US airpower.

Taliban insists it won't begin serious negotiations until all US and 8,000 foreign troops are withdrawn. In fact, Taliban, which has been quietly talking to the US in Abu Dhabi, may agreed to a 50% western troops cut in order to begin peace talks.

ORDER IT NOW

The Afghan War has cost the US $1 trillion. Occupying parts of Iraq and Syria has cost a similar amount. Resistance against US rule continues in both nations. Mattis and his fellow generals really like these wars, but civilian Trump does not. As a candidate he vowed to end these 'stupid' wars. Let's hope he succeeds over the bitter objections of the Republican war party, neocons, and military industrial complex.

Syria is an ugly little sideshow. By contrast, Afghanistan is a dark blot on America's national honor. We watch with revulsion and dismay as the US deploys B-52 and B-1 heavy bombers to flatten Afghan villages. We watch with disgust as the US coddles the opium-dealing Afghan warlords and their Communist allies – all in the spurious name of 'democracy.'

If Trump wants to make America great, he can start by ending the squalid Syrian misadventure and the butchery in Afghanistan.


Alistair , says: December 22, 2018 at 2:13 pm GMT

We should give credit to president Trump for getting the US troops out of Syria and Afghanistan.

Mr. Trump has always been consistent about the withdrawal of the US Forces from Afghanistan; back in 2011, in an interview with Bill O'Reilly, Trump reiterated his total dismay and opposition to the waste of lives and money in Afghanistan; he clearly mentioned that he would withdrawal the US Forces from Afghanistan immediately, See the link: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/22/donald-trump-said-afghanistan-president-saying-now/

The same applies to Syria, America has no genuine strategy to remaining in Syria; staying in Syria would be further destabilizing the region – fueling the Syrian civil war for the sole benefits of Israel and Saudi Arabia whom had created the ISIS against the Iranian influence in the region.

President Trump deserves to get credit for being courageous and consistent about the US involvement in the middle east; withdrawing from Syria and Afghanistan is the right strategy, too many lives have perished and trillion of dollars have been wasted for nothing; let's put an end to this – thank you Mr. Trump for doing the right thing !

Jimmy , says: December 22, 2018 at 9:45 pm GMT
Trump finally does something sensible? hard to believe
Anonymous [401] Disclaimer , says: December 22, 2018 at 10:55 pm GMT
Fun fact: $2 trillion is more than Italy's GDP.

[Dec 24, 2018] Mattis Resigns

Notable quotes:
"... The Defense Department under Mattis became more opaque and less accountable to the public and Congress. He presided over two years of shameful support for the Saudi coalition war on Yemen, and he went out of his way to offer absurd justifications for continued U.S. support for the war to the end of his tenure. ..."
"... No less than Secretary Pompeo, Mattis discredited himself in the desperate, unsuccessful effort to derail S.J.Res. 54. An administration that fights as hard as this has to keep the war on Yemen going is definitely not one interested in peace and restraint no matter what else happens. ..."
Dec 24, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

Secretary Mattis has resigned :

Officials said Mr. Mattis went to the White House on Thursday afternoon with his resignation letter already written, but nonetheless made a last attempt at persuading Mr. Trump to reverse his decision about Syria, which the president announced on Wednesday over the objections of his senior advisers.

Mr. Mattis, a retired four-star Marine general, was rebuffed. Returning to the Pentagon, he asked aides to print out 50 copies of his resignation letter and distribute them around the building.

Mattis' departure from the administration after the midterms had been floated as a possibility for months, but I don't think anyone seriously expected him to resign suddenly over a policy disagreement with the president. It is telling and not to Mattis' credit that ending an illegal war in Syria was the one policy disagreement with Trump that Mattis couldn't stomach. The Defense Secretary had repeatedly disagreed with Trump on a range of issues, and he usually lost the internal debate. The only times that he prevailed with Trump were when he advised him to escalate ongoing U.S. wars, and his influence had waned enough that he couldn't get his way on that, either. I was extremely skeptical that a Syria withdrawal would actually happen. Now that Mattis has tried and failed to reverse that decision, I have to acknowledge that I overestimated the ability of Trump's advisers to change his mind.

The Defense Department under Mattis became more opaque and less accountable to the public and Congress. He presided over two years of shameful support for the Saudi coalition war on Yemen, and he went out of his way to offer absurd justifications for continued U.S. support for the war to the end of his tenure. The disagreement over Syria will dominate coverage of Mattis' resignation, but it is important to remember that when it came to the most indefensible U.S.-backed war he and Trump were always on the same page. No less than Secretary Pompeo, Mattis discredited himself in the desperate, unsuccessful effort to derail S.J.Res. 54. An administration that fights as hard as this has to keep the war on Yemen going is definitely not one interested in peace and restraint no matter what else happens.

As wrong as Mattis was on a number of foreign policy issues, there is a real danger that his successor could be far worse. Even if Trump doesn't nominate a Tom Cotton or Lindsey Graham, the next Defense Secretary is very likely to be a yes-man in the mold of Mike Pompeo. Almost every time that Trump has replaced his top national security officials, he has chosen someone who will flatter and praise him instead of telling him the truth and giving him the best advice.

The next Defense Secretary is less likely to resist Trump's belligerent tendencies, and he is more likely to indulge the president's worst impulses. Just as Pompeo has proven to be a worse Secretary of State than Tillerson, Mattis' successor will very likely prove to be an inferior Secretary of Defense.

about:blank


Robert December 20, 2018 at 11:53 pm

How about Rand Paul as SecDef?
Farewells , says: December 21, 2018 at 12:46 am
You're right to fear what may replace him, especially after the disgusting Pompeo replaced the decent but ineffectual Tillerson, but I'm glad Mattis is gone, especially if he quit over the Syria decision, a no-brainer which should have been made two years ago.

It's hard to imagine anyone being worse than he was. Sadly, we may not have to imagine it.

another take , says: December 21, 2018 at 1:54 am
There's also the danger that the elites and establishment will now escalate their efforts to remove him from office.

I've disagreed with Trump about many things, and I don't like the man, but I still trust him more than the corrupt incompetents and foreign agents who dragged us into these Middle East hellholes.

That is the terrible and ongoing damage that must be stopped.

But now that Trump has made a move in the direction of winding it down, you will almost certainly see the fury and resentment of the elites and establishment redoubled. From their point of view, the only thing worse than a Trump who doesn't keep his campaign promises is one who does.

prodigalson , says: December 21, 2018 at 8:55 am
I'm still happy to see him go. Someone with the handle of "Mad Dog" is perhaps not the best fit for national defense issues.

Agree his replacement will likely be worse but such seems to be the case for hardening our pharoah's hearts.

Christian Chuba , says: December 21, 2018 at 9:09 am
His next appointee will be no better and more than likely worse, a crafty Neocon who will bite their tongue when they disagree with Trump in order to remain so that he can encourage his worst tendencies. Bolton is a stellar example of this.

If he appoints someone like Cotton or Gen Jack Keane then Trump will be the last adult in the room.

Alex (the one that likes Ike) , says: December 21, 2018 at 1:49 pm

what this withdrawal means to the Kurds? Leaving them once again in the lurch?

Perhaps ceasing to deceive them with impossible promises given by both the previous Democratic and the current Republican administrations?

Sid Finster , says: December 21, 2018 at 1:51 pm
My SWAG, and this is merely SWAG, is that, since his election, Trump has given the neocons everything they wanted or asked for, but he still is allowed any freedom of action.

In spite of governing much like a garden variety Republican, his enemies are still looking for any excuse to remove him.

This is Trump reminding his enemies that he can do lots of things to upset the apple cart, so cut him some slack, already.

[Dec 23, 2018] Ignore the howls of protest – Trump's Syria withdrawal is a simple reflection of foreign policy realities The Independent

Notable quotes:
"... Independent Minds ..."
"... The Independent ..."
"... The Independent ..."
Dec 23, 2018 | independent.co.uk

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Ignore the howls of protest – Trump's Syria withdrawal is a simple reflection of foreign policy realities | The Independent President Trump's decision to withdraw US troops from Syria is being denounced by an impressive range of critics claiming that it is a surrender to Turkey, Russia, Syria and Iran – as well as a betrayal of the Kurds and a victory for Isis.

The pullout may be one or all of these things, but above all it is a recognition of what is really happening on the ground in Syria and the Middle East in general.

This point has not come across clearly enough because of the undiluted loathing for Trump among most of the American and British media. They act as a conduit for the views of diverse figures who condemn the withdrawal and include members of the imperially-minded foreign policy establishment in Washington and terrified Kurds living in north-east Syria who fear ethnic cleansing by an invading Turkish army.

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Opposition to Trump's decision was supercharged by the resignation of Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis which came after he failed to persuade the president to rescind his order. Mattis does not mention Syria or Afghanistan in his letter of resignation, but he makes clear his disagreement with the general direction of Trump's foreign policy in not confronting Russia and China and ignoring traditional allies and alliances.

The resignation of Mattis has elicited predictable lamentations from commentators who treat his departure as if it was the equivalent of the Kaiser getting rid of Bismarck. The over-used description of Mattis as "the last of the adults in the room" is once again trotted out, though few examples of his adult behaviour are given aside from his wish – along with other supposed "adults" – to stay in Syria until various unobtainable objectives were achieved: the extinction of Iranian influence; the displacement of Bashar al-Assad; and the categorical defeat of Isis (are they really likely to sign surrender terms?).

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Ignore the howls of protest – Trump's Syria withdrawal is a simple reflection of foreign policy realities | The Independent In other words, there was to be an open-ended US commitment with no attainable goals in an isolated and dangerous part of the world where it was already playing a losing game.

It is worth spelling out the state of play in Syria because this is being masked by anti-Trump rhetoric, recommending policies that may sound benign but are far detached from political reality. This reality may be very nasty: it is right to be appalled by the prospects for the Syrian Kurds who are terrified of a Turkish army that is already massing to the north of the Turkish-Syrian frontier.

There is a horrible inevitability about all this because neither Turkey nor Syria were ever going to allow a Kurdish mini-state to take permanent root in north-east Syria. It existed because of the Syrian civil war in which Assad withdrew his forces from the Kurdish-populated regions in 2012 in order to concentrate them in defence of strategically vital cities and roads. Isis attacked the Kurdish enclave in 2014 which led to a de facto alliance between the Kurds and the US air force whose devastating firepower enabled the Kurds to capture a great swathe of Isis-held territory east of the Euphrates.

Turkey was never going to accept this outcome . Erdogan denounced the Kurdish political and military forces controlling this corner of Syria as "terrorists" belonging to the Syrian branch of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) that has been fighting the Turkish state since 1984.

This is a good moment to make a point about this article: it is an explanation not a justification for the dreadful things that may soon happen. I have visited the Kurdish controlled part of Syria several times and felt that it was the only part of Syria where the uprising of 2011 had produced a society that was better than what had gone before, bearing in mind the constraints of fighting a war.

I met the men and women of the People's Protection Units (YPG and YPJ) who fought heroically against Isis, suffering thousands of dead and wounded. But I always had a doomed feeling when talking to them as I could not see how their statelet, which had been brought into existence by temporary circumstances, was going to last beyond the end of the Syrian civil war and the defeat of Isis. One day the Americans would have to choose between 2 million embattled Kurds in Syria and 80 million Turks in Turkey and it dd not take much political acumen to foresee what they would decide.

Turkey had escalated its pressure on the US to end its protection of the Kurds and this finally paid off. A telephone conversation with Erdogan a week ago reportedly convinced Trump that he had to get US soldiers and airpower out of Syria. Keep in mind that Trump needs – though he may not get as much as he wants – Turkey as an ally in the Middle East more than ever before. His bet on Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman and Saudi Arabia as the leader of a pro-American and anti-Iranian Sunni coalition in the Middle has visibly and embarrassingly failed. The bizarre killing of Jamal Khashoggi by a Saudi team in Istanbul was only the latest in a series of Saudi pratfalls showing comical ineptitude as well as excessive and mindless violence.

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Ignore the howls of protest – Trump's Syria withdrawal is a simple reflection of foreign policy realities | The Independent Critics of Trump raise several other important questions in opposing his withdrawal decision: is he not letting Isis off the hook by prematurely announcing their defeat and thereby enabling them to make a comeback? There is something in this , but not a lot. The Islamic State, that once held territory stretching from the Tigris River in Iraq to Syria's Mediterranean coast, is no more and cannot be resurrected because the circumstances that led to its spectacular growth between 2013 and 2015 are no longer there.

Isis made too many enemies because of its indiscriminate violence when it was at the peak of its power. Trump is right to assume in a tweet that "Russia, Iran, Syria & many others will have to fight ISIS and others, who they hate, without us". Isis may seek to take advantage of chaos in eastern Syria in the coming months, but there will be no power vacuum for them to exploit. The vacuum will be filled by Turkey or Syria or a combination of the two.

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A further criticism of the US withdrawal is that it unnecessarily hands a victory to Vladimir Putin and Assad. But here again, Trump's manoeuvre is more of a recognition of the fact that both men are already winners in the Syrian war.

Nor is it entirely clear that Russia and Iran will have greater influence in Syria and the region after the US withdrawal. True they have come out on the winning side, but as the Syrian state becomes more powerful it will have less need for foreign allies. The close cooperation between Russia and Turkey was glued together by US cooperation with the Kurds and once that ends, then Turkey may shift – though not all the way – back towards the US.

By denouncing Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria, his opponents are once again making the mistake of underestimating his instinctive political skills.

[Dec 23, 2018] Good riddance to James Mattis, Trump's last general

Notable quotes:
"... You want to know what those casualty numbers tell us? American forces in Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq aren't going outside the wire – off American bases – very often. That's how you stay alive in places like Syria and Afghanistan. You stay away from places where things like IEDs can kill you. And even then, in the comparative safety of American bases, you're not safe, because there are enemy soldiers posing as "friendly" Afghan soldiers who will kill you. ..."
"... This is the nature of the conflicts we're engaged in. You take thousands of American soldiers and send them thousands of miles away from home into combat zones in foreign lands, and you have them do as little as possible so not too many of them get killed. ..."
"... It pains me to say this, but Trump pulling 2,000 soldiers out of Syria and 7,000 soldiers out of Afghanistan is the right thing to do. It might be getting done by a certifiable loon with an orange muskrat on his head, but it's the right thing to do and it should have been done a long time ago. ..."
Dec 23, 2018 | www.salon.com

... ... ...

The arm-waving and hand-flapping and pearl-clutching in the foreign affairs and national security "communities," not to mention in the Congress and among prominent Democrats, is something to behold. Significant portions of all those communities have long thought we didn't have any business being in Syria in the first place. Not to mention fighting our 17th year of the so-called "war" in Afghanistan, from which Trump intends to remove some 7,000 American troops...

More than 2,400 American soldiers dead in Afghanistan so far. More than 30,000 Afghan civilians killed. Sixty percent of Afghan districts under control of the Taliban. Opium production at an "all-time high." Dozens, sometimes hundreds of Afghan soldiers killed every single week. You thought Vietnam was a misbegotten military misadventure? How about 17 years in Afghanistan with no end in sight? Hell, opium production was said to be at an "all-time high" when I was in the Kunar River Valley in Afghanistan in 2004. That's 14 years ago, 14 years of record-setting opium crops!

And what are the pundits saying about our military foray into the morass called Syria? Listen to what I heard from one "expert" on MSNBC yesterday.

"Syria is a very winnable proposition," this numbskull said, looking gravely at the other "experts" at the table. "The U.S. presence is actually very small numbers." Two thousand is the "very small number" this blazer-and-tie wearing "expert" was talking about as he reached for his "I'm a Pundit on the Katy Tur Show" cup and went on to blather about how "winnable" Syria is.

Let me tell you what 2,000 soldiers is. It's about the size of a brigade, commanded by a full colonel. A brigade is typically three to five battalions of 500 to 1,000 soldiers, commanded by lieutenant colonels. Battalions are made up of three to five companies with around 200 soldiers, commanded by captains. Companies comprise three to four platoons of 40 to 100 soldiers, commanded by second lieutenants. So 2,000 soldiers is about 30 to 40 platoons of soldiers. I used to command a platoon. I was 22 years old. There were about 40 soldiers in my platoon. Let me tell you, taking care of 40 soldiers was a big fucking job, and we weren't even in combat.

Taking care of 2,000 soldiers in a place like Syria with bullets flying and IEDs going off is a huge fucking job. Taking care of 14,000 soldiers, like we currently have in Afghanistan, or 7,000 which we'll have when Trump gets finished with his draw-down, is a massive fucking job.

... ... ...

And now Trump's Last General's feelings are all hurt, because he wasn't consulted about pulling 2,000 troops out of Syria or 7,000 troops out of Afghanistan. What were those troops doing in Syria? We don't know, and I don't think Mattis had much of an idea what they were doing, either.

We can get some idea what they're doing by the number of casualties American forces have suffered in both places. An American soldier was killed in Manbij, Syria, by a roadside bomb in March of this year. He was the fourth American killed in Syria since our forces entered the country in 2014. There have been 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan this year. Eleven were killed there last year. About half of those killed in Afghanistan have been so-called "green-on-green" killings, incidents where "friendly" Afghans killed American soldiers, usually on American bases.

You want to know what those casualty numbers tell us? American forces in Syria, Afghanistan, or Iraq aren't going outside the wire – off American bases – very often. That's how you stay alive in places like Syria and Afghanistan. You stay away from places where things like IEDs can kill you. And even then, in the comparative safety of American bases, you're not safe, because there are enemy soldiers posing as "friendly" Afghan soldiers who will kill you.

This is the nature of the conflicts we're engaged in. You take thousands of American soldiers and send them thousands of miles away from home into combat zones in foreign lands, and you have them do as little as possible so not too many of them get killed.

It pains me to say this, but Trump pulling 2,000 soldiers out of Syria and 7,000 soldiers out of Afghanistan is the right thing to do. It might be getting done by a certifiable loon with an orange muskrat on his head, but it's the right thing to do and it should have been done a long time ago.

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All the talk you're hearing about how we've got to have American forces in this desert or that mountainous no-man's land as a "counterbalance" to countries like Russia and Iran is lip-flapping twaddle from the kind of "experts" who got us involved in Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan in the first place. They are the same "experts" you didn't hear a peep from when Mattis stood loyally by Trump as he virtually capitulated to Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, trashed NATO every chance he got, and sat down for Nuclear Kimchi with Kim Jong Un. Now Mattis is all "maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies" in his resignation letter. Talk about a day late and a dollar short, he should call Angela Merkel and ask her how much "respect" she's felt from the United States lately.

You want to know who can stop the resident of the adult day care center in the White House? It wasn't Adult in the Room General McMaster. It wasn't Adult in the Room General Kelly. It wasn't Adult in the Room General Mattis. And it's sure as hell not going to be somebody like Secretary of Defense Kushner, or whoever the hell Trump decides he's going to sentence to a padded cell on the E-Ring in the Pentagon next.

Trump can be stopped by Congress. The Congress can cut the funding for our misbegotten misadventures in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan. It can refuse to fund the laughable wall along our 1,900 mile border with Mexico that Trump apparently thinks 6,000 soldiers can guard in the meantime. And Congress can impeach and convict Trump's insane clown ass for conspiring with a foreign nation to defraud the United States of America. Congress can do all of this if Republicans will stop bowing down before the Orange Hair Helmet and start looking out for the United States of America.

I told you before that Trump's generals wouldn't save us , and they sure as hell haven't, not even Mad Dog Mattis, who's now being lauded as the only thing standing between us and the total collapse of the Western World.

Just between you and me, we'll wake up tomorrow morning, and even with The Last Adult in the Room on his way out the door, the Western World will still be here, and so will Trump. Trust me.


Lucian K. Truscott IV

Lucian K. Truscott IV, a graduate of West Point, has had a 50-year career as a journalist, novelist and screenwriter. He has covered stories such as Watergate, the Stonewall riots and wars in Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan. He is also the author of five bestselling novels and several unsuccessful motion pictures. He has three children, lives on the East End of Long Island and spends his time Worrying About the State of Our Nation and madly scribbling in a so-far fruitless attempt to Make Things Better. He can be followed on Facebook at The Rabbit Hole and on Twitter @LucianKTruscott.

[Dec 22, 2018] Possible end of Syria war racket upset neocons and currupt Clinton interventionists alike -- which suggest that there are two War Parties in Washington now

Trump decision was even bigger surprise if we understand that the dominant part of the US population have been successfully brainwashed into thinking it's normal for a country to exist in a state of permanent war, fighting in seven countries at once, spending half of all discretionary funding on "defense" (which in reality is offence).
Notable quotes:
"... The bullshit about Bolton and others being aghast as they looked on and listened to the Trump/Erdogan phone call is just that, total b.s. Come like gangsters Erdogan has been told he can pay for US support if he so desires (Patriots is a euphemism) whilst on another front the war in Afganistan will be fully privatised. ..."
"... Let's not get too far afield here. Yes: wicked good news about Syria and the US announced withdrawal. Be sure, though, the ISIS/Saudi/Israeli elements will do all they can to prove Trump wrong. However, the focus will likely shift to the Ukraine. The Syrian situation has played itself out with no good neocon-approved outcome. ..."
"... Ukraine is fresh. Focused NATO-involved and with US/UK/EU encouragement, there is well-founded speculation for another military provocation seeking to entrap Russia. That will be the biggest challenge to Trump and Putin: not to pull the trigger over Ukraine. ..."
"... Watch the war criminals and banksters "find religion" with waves Clinton foundation avatars. (II and Silicon valley troughs just the first few drops) ..."
"... News is breaking that MbS is deploying troops into Syria to take over for U.S. ..."
"... What it does not signify is the slightest respect for the autonomy of the Syrian secular national government, nor for its sovereign rights to make alliance with Russia and Iran in an existential conflict. ..."
"... "How many senior American government officials resigned from their posts when Iraq's invasion and bombing of Libya campaigns were announced? "That's right, nobody, God forbid Trump ends a conflict, all hell breaks loose." ..."
Dec 22, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

MadMax2 , Dec 22, 2018 5:13:18 AM | link

Enjoying the fake left aka resistance exposing theselves further by demanding more war. Bolton, Mattis and co have served as pretty good stooges in a final act.

Erdogan must have read Art of the Deal. Fair play.

None-ya , Dec 22, 2018 7:09:18 AM | link
The Demiurge-in-waiting was reportedly caught off guard by Trump's quick surrender to demands the US pull troops from Syria. Trump ended his recent phone conversation with Erdogan by emphasizing his promise to withdraw from Syria, not explaining how, repeating the pledge a second time to make sure the message was received -- perhaps pouncing on an opportunity and/or executing a script.

The bullshit about Bolton and others being aghast as they looked on and listened to the Trump/Erdogan phone call is just that, total b.s. Come like gangsters Erdogan has been told he can pay for US support if he so desires (Patriots is a euphemism) whilst on another front the war in Afganistan will be fully privatised.

Next up, Donald Trump appoints Eric Prince new Secretary of Defense.

Mina , Dec 22, 2018 7:46:21 AM | link
Regarding II, what's interesting about the French cluster is that half of them are officials, not even half indepependent spooks hiding behind charities and offshore companies.
I wonder if anything has been reported in the Baltic newspapers.
vk , Dec 22, 2018 8:04:44 AM | link
I know it isn't true, but seeing this headline written in a MSM American newspaper is simply delicious:

It's official. We lost the Cold War. -- By Dana Milbank < https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-official-we-lost-the-cold-war/2018/12/21/1c3b52b0-0565-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html>

vk , Dec 22, 2018 8:11:38 AM | link
It seems WaPo now has a paywall. Here's a functional link to comment number 7:

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/its-official-we-lost-the-cold-war/2018/12/21/1c3b52b0-0565-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html?utm_term=.69f274172c98>

BThePrisoner , Dec 22, 2018 8:44:10 AM | link
Let's not get too far afield here. Yes: wicked good news about Syria and the US announced withdrawal. Be sure, though, the ISIS/Saudi/Israeli elements will do all they can to prove Trump wrong. However, the focus will likely shift to the Ukraine. The Syrian situation has played itself out with no good neocon-approved outcome.

Ukraine is fresh. Focused NATO-involved and with US/UK/EU encouragement, there is well-founded speculation for another military provocation seeking to entrap Russia. That will be the biggest challenge to Trump and Putin: not to pull the trigger over Ukraine.

Not having a Ukrainian conflict would be the best gift we all could have.

BM , Dec 22, 2018 9:35:39 AM | link
I know it isn't true, but seeing this headline written in a MSM American newspaper is simply delicious:
It's official. We lost the Cold War. -- By Dana Milbank
Posted by: vk | Dec 22, 2018 8:04:44 AM | 7

Absolutely hilarious - and I'm talking about the garbled babies' bable in the content, not the title! As to the title, it rings true in important respects - but the loss is due to Trump's predesessors, demented neocon savages in his administration, and demented Dem opponents/the media, rather than (substantively) Trump himself. That irony is of course lost on the half-wit hack of this article.

BM , Dec 22, 2018 9:43:31 AM | link
it seems that the British government was prepared well in advance for the sudden attack on Skripal.
Posted by: bevin | Dec 22, 2018 9:33:42 AM | 12

That is a development. Can you give us a link, Bevin?

slit , Dec 22, 2018 11:24:52 AM | link
@Sasha

"money laundering schemes for unconfessable activities" ZeroHedge reports carnage . . . how to launder $21Trillion back into circulation? Watch the war criminals and banksters "find religion" with waves Clinton foundation avatars. (II and Silicon valley troughs just the first few drops)

Lozion , Dec 22, 2018 11:26:40 AM | link
Brett Mcgurk resigns, effective Dec 31st.. :) https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brett-mcgurk-top-u-s-envoy-in-isis-fight-to-quit/
Circe , Dec 22, 2018 12:07:01 PM | link
Lemme resurrect this article from the past to impress on all Trump suckers just how Machiavellian he really is. Trump's Syria scam Sooo, while MbS is securing or rather wreaking havoc on one front, Trump can free up for the biggest target of all. IRAN. Now you know why Trump was protecting MbSs ass! And don't think Netanyahoo wasn't in on Trump's game! Boy I hate to say told ya so again! Throw away the Trump juice already! Sheesh, I hope you're finally awake.
Circe , Dec 22, 2018 12:10:34 PM | link
That post was meant for Syria thread. News is breaking that MbS is deploying troops into Syria to take over for U.S.
spudski , Dec 22, 2018 12:23:34 PM | link
Great interview with Michael Hudson at https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2018/12/michael-hudson-the-vocabulary-of-economic-deception.html
lysias , Dec 22, 2018 12:51:08 PM | link
Saudi Arabia's military is worthless, as they have shown in Yemen.
steven t johnson , Dec 22, 2018 1:41:28 PM | link
Distracted by the timing of the call from Erdogan, I forgot how the US used ISIS (as it was then) against al-Maliki. They're not too keen on Abdul-Mahdi today, nor do I think they are so pleased the IRG has had its wings clipped. Turkey's army doesn't equal Erdogan's megalomania, but it can certainly keep YPG occupied. US withdrawal doesn't just give Erdogan a greenlight, but what's left of ISIS as well.

What it does not signify is the slightest respect for the autonomy of the Syrian secular national government, nor for its sovereign rights to make alliance with Russia and Iran in an existential conflict.

Ort , Dec 22, 2018 2:28:28 PM | link
Merry Christmas to B. and the MOA barflies, if it ain't out o' keepin' with the situation.

♪ O, Bernhard, O Bernhard
Wie treu sind deine Blogeinträge! ♪

so , Dec 22, 2018 3:15:33 PM | link
Screw the news. We want recipes!
slit , Dec 22, 2018 3:51:28 PM | link

les7 , Dec 22, 2018 4:09:16 PM | link
B: thanks for the excellent posts recently.

Back when the SAA took Deir Ezzour many expected immediate confrontation with the US/SDF forces east of the Euphrates.

I suggested at the time there would be a delay while the SAA consolidated the desert, the Golan and the southern border first. I stated that the key indicator the SAA would be ready to reclaim the area east of the Euphrates would be the stationing of the S300 in Deir

uncle tungsten , Dec 22, 2018 4:10:15 PM | link
Thank you b for a great year of informed writing and thanks to all you comrade barflies for your harmonious buzzing and supportive research and surmises. I have been spreading some xmas cheer to the USA audiences celebrating the resignation of the man who stood on top of the $21trillion waste heap. Its just my idea of bringing the message home.

Barflies rule!!

les7 , Dec 22, 2018 4:15:23 PM | link
B: My read of the current situation is that Russia must avoid an obvious triumph- the Ukraine will be used against it if there is too much publicity given to Russian or Syrian success. Instead a low key ground confrontation beteeen the SAA and SDF will proceed while a lot to PR focuses on autonomy talks and the drafting of the Syrian constitution.
les7 , Dec 22, 2018 4:18:20 PM | link
B: Should Kurdish arms need twisting the Turkish army will conduct incursions. I expect a long drawn out process - again the issue is to downplay Russian success

With the US forces out of the area I would not be surprised to see Putin invite Trump to be part of the Astana process.

karlof1 , Dec 22, 2018 8:14:50 PM | link
A rather ironic and extremely telling observation :

"How many senior American government officials resigned from their posts when Iraq's invasion and bombing of Libya campaigns were announced? "That's right, nobody, God forbid Trump ends a conflict, all hell breaks loose."

I recall a few minor officials resigning in 2003, but nobody "senior."

[Dec 22, 2018] Did Trump have thrown Erdogan in a trap

Dec 22, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

virgile , Dec 22, 2018 9:43:50 AM | link

< Trump has thrown Erdogan in a trap. The Turkish army have been highly Islamized since the coup. They would fight without hesitation on the more liberal YPG than then would dare to confront ISIS.>

Until now Erdogan has been avoided confronting ISIS and other Islamist groups. He left the task to the US, the Kurds, the Shia militias, the Russians and the Russian army. He failed to expel the Islamist miliatias in the Edlib buffer zone because they are too close to him ideologically.

He now made a promise to Trump to take care of ISIS and got a green light to crush the Syrian Kurds and invade their land.

The Russians and the Syrians are eager to finish them off in Edlib, but could not proceed for fear of a human disaster. The left the task to Erdogan.

Now they have the choice, either wait and see if Erdogan is able to deal with them without the support of the USA, or get the Kurds to join the Syrian army and invade Edlib, Afrin etc... thus kicking out the Turks, the FSA and ISIS.

Erdogan is counting on the fact that ISIS may not get financial support anymore from Saudi Arabia and thus will be ready to compromise without fighting.

Erdogan is in a bind, if he shows sign of failure in dealing with Islamist militias in Edlib then Iran, Russia and Syria will move on in Edlib and confront the Turks and their allies. That is what Bashar al Assad wants: kick out the Turks and the FSA. Is Trump trying to weaken Erdogan before the overdue pPalestinian plan is announced?

[Dec 22, 2018] Fallout Of Trump's Syria Withdrawal - Why Erdogan Does Not Want To Invade

Notable quotes:
"... Defense Secretary James "Mad Dog" Mattis resigned from his position effective February 28. He disagreed with the president's decision. It was the second time in five years that an elected commander in chief had a serious conflict with Mattis' hawkishness. President Obama fired him as Central Command chief for urging a more aggressive Iran policy. Mattis is also extremely hawkish towards Russia and China. ..."
"... Mattis is an ingrained imperialist. He always asked for more money for the military and for more meddling abroad. One of Mattis' little notice acts as Defense Secretary was a unannounced change in the mission of the Pentagon : ..."
"... The Pentagon no longer "deters war" but provides "lethal force" to "sustain American influence abroad." There was no public nor congressional debate about the change. I doubt that President Trump agreed to it. Trump will now try to recruit a defense secretary that is more aligned with his own position. ..."
"... Associated Press ..."
"... Trump did not "capitulate". He always wanted to pull the U.S. troops out of Syria. He said so many times. When he was finally given a chance to do so, he grabbed the opportunity. Erdogan though, was not ready for that: ..."
"... Erdogan had planned to only occupy a 10 miles deep strip along the Syrian-Turkish border. Some 15,000 Turkish controlled 'Syrian rebels' stand ready for that. He would need some 50-100,000 troops to occupy all of east Syria northward of the Euphrates. It would be a hostile occupation among well armed Kurds who would oppose it and an Arab population that is not exactly friendly towards a neo-Ottoman Turkey. ..."
"... Any larger occupation of northeast Syria would create a serious mess for Turkey. Its army can do it, but it would cost a lot of casualties and financial resources. Turkey will hold local government election in March and Erdogan does not want any negative headlines. He will invade, but only if Syria and Russia fail to get the Kurds under control. ..."
"... 'The Pentagon's official website now defines its mission this way: "The mission of the Department of Defense is to provide a lethal Joint Force to defend the security of our country and sustain American influence abroad."' ..."
"... '"We had decided last week to launch a military incursion... east of the Euphrates river," he said in a speech in Istanbul'. So much for the UN Charter, then. Anyone who wants to can invade any other country and take over as much of its territory as he wants to - as long as Washington agrees. But, as Saddam Hussein could testify if he were still alive, it would be sensible to get such consent in writing. ..."
"... Macron's forces are illegally present too. Assad would have to request their presence, but I really doubt he will given the harm France has done to Syria over the past 7 years. Word is SAA's Tiger Forces will get sent East of Euphrates; when is now the question. ..."
"... One's got to worry about who will replace Mad Dog Mattis after February 28 next year. It would seem that whoever succeeds Mattis will be another former general, likely to share his views on maintaining and increasing US forces in Syria, Iraq and other parts of western Asia ..."
"... Compared to Mattis, Pompeo and Bolton, and now Nauert at the UN, are raving jingos. Thank Gord they have no ties to the US military. ..."
"... "there also a contingent of 1,100 French troops"... You can hear me laughing after reading this. The French empire was over a long long time ago and they still think that Syria is their colony. France has been sending French Jihadists for regime change in Syria since 2011 and their mission has failed since Russia intervened in 2015. France cannot even send troops to Mali - destabilized by Jihadists created by France in Libya to topple Kadhafi, without the help of the US!!! France is a de-facto vassal state of the US since they decided to joined the NATO central command under Sarkozy who was bribed by the zionist neocons. ..."
"... I personally distinguish between Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria and his move to withdraw partially from Afghanistan. The latter is a step towards ending a brutal, illegal NATO occupation war of over 17 years. The former is also illegal but the Syrian Kurds (left wing and largely communist) are likely to be supplanted as counters to "Iran" by fascists Turkey and Israel (this has been confirmed in reports), so we're moving from tactical NATO proxies to actual NATO governments seizing Syrian land. ..."
Dec 22, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Fallout Of Trump's Syria Withdrawal - Why Erdogan Does Not Want To Invade uuu , Dec 21, 2018 1:37:31 PM | link

President Trump's strategic decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Syria creates some significant fallout. The U.S. and international borg is enraged that Trump ends an occupation that is illegal under international as well as U.S. domestic law. "That's un-American!"

Defense Secretary James "Mad Dog" Mattis resigned from his position effective February 28. He disagreed with the president's decision. It was the second time in five years that an elected commander in chief had a serious conflict with Mattis' hawkishness. President Obama fired him as Central Command chief for urging a more aggressive Iran policy. Mattis is also extremely hawkish towards Russia and China.

President Trump campaigned on lessening U.S. involvement in wars abroad. He wants to get reelected. He does not need a Secretary of Defense that involves him in more wars that have little to none defined purpose.

Mattis is an ingrained imperialist. He always asked for more money for the military and for more meddling abroad. One of Mattis' little notice acts as Defense Secretary was a unannounced change in the mission of the Pentagon :

For at least two decades, the Department of Defense has explicitly defined its mission on its website as providing "the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of our country." But earlier this year, it quietly changed that statement, perhaps suggesting a more ominous approach to national security.
...
The Pentagon's official website now defines its mission this way: "The mission of the Department of Defense is to provide a lethal Joint Force to defend the security of our country and sustain American influence abroad."

The Pentagon no longer "deters war" but provides "lethal force" to "sustain American influence abroad." There was no public nor congressional debate about the change. I doubt that President Trump agreed to it. Trump will now try to recruit a defense secretary that is more aligned with his own position.

The White House also announced that 7,000 of the 14,000 soldier the U.S. has in Afghanistan will withdraw over the next few months. The war in Afghanistan is lost with the Taliban ruling over more than half of the country and the U.S. supported government forces losing more personal than they can recruit. It was Mattis who had urged Trump to increase the troop numbers in Afghanistan from 10,000 to 14,000 at the beginning of his term. There are also 8,000 NATO and allied troops in Afghanistan which will likely see a proportional withdrawal.

The Associated Press has a new tic toc of Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria:

Trump stunned his Cabinet, lawmakers and much of the world with the move by rejecting the advice of his top aides and agreeing to a withdrawal in a phone call with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, two officials briefed on the matter said.
...
"The talking points were very firm," said one of the officials, explaining that Trump was advised to clearly oppose a Turkish incursion into northern Syria and suggest the U.S. and Turkey work together to address security concerns. "Everybody said push back and try to offer (Turkey) something that's a small win, possibly holding territory on the border, something like that."

Erdogan, though, quickly put Trump on the defensive, reminding him that he had repeatedly said the only reason for U.S. troops to be in Syria was to defeat the Islamic State and that the group had been 99 percent defeated. "Why are you still there?" the second official said Erdogan asked Trump, telling him that the Turks could deal with the remaining IS militants.
...
Erdogan's point, Bolton was forced to admit, had been backed up by Mattis, Pompeo, U.S. special envoy for Syria Jim Jeffrey and special envoy for the anti-ISIS coalition Brett McGurk, who have said that IS retains only 1 percent of its territory, the officials said.
...
Bolton stressed, however, that the entire national security team agreed that victory over IS had to be enduring, which means more than taking away its territory.

Trump was not dissuaded, according to the officials, who said the president quickly capitulated by pledging to withdraw, shocking both Bolton and Erdogan.

Trump did not "capitulate". He always wanted to pull the U.S. troops out of Syria. He said so many times. When he was finally given a chance to do so, he grabbed the opportunity. Erdogan though, was not ready for that:

Caught off guard, Erdogan cautioned Trump against a hasty withdrawal , according to one official. While Turkey has made incursions into Syria in the past, it does not have the necessary forces mobilized on the border to move in and hold the large swaths of northeastern Syria where U.S. troops are positioned , the official said.

The call ended with Trump repeating to Erdogan that the U.S. would pull out , but offering no specifics on how it would be done, the officials said.


bigger

Erdogan had planned to only occupy a 10 miles deep strip along the Syrian-Turkish border. Some 15,000 Turkish controlled 'Syrian rebels' stand ready for that. He would need some 50-100,000 troops to occupy all of east Syria northward of the Euphrates. It would be a hostile occupation among well armed Kurds who would oppose it and an Arab population that is not exactly friendly towards a neo-Ottoman Turkey.

Erdogan knows this well. Today he announced to delay the planned invasion :

"We had decided last week to launch a military incursion... east of the Euphrates river," he said in a speech in Istanbul. "Our phone call with President Trump, along with contacts between our diplomats and security officials and statements by the United States, have led us to wait a little longer.

"We have postponed our military operation against the east of the Euphrates river until we see on the ground the result of America's decision to withdraw from Syria."

The Turkish president said, however, that this was not an "open-ended waiting period".

Any larger occupation of northeast Syria would create a serious mess for Turkey. Its army can do it, but it would cost a lot of casualties and financial resources. Turkey will hold local government election in March and Erdogan does not want any negative headlines. He will invade, but only if Syria and Russia fail to get the Kurds under control.

Unfortunately the leaders of the anarcho-marxist PKK/YPK in Syria have still not learned their lesson. They make the same demands to Damascus that were already rejected when similar demands were made for Afrin canton before Turkey invaded and destroyed it.

agitpapa @agitpapa 11:14 utc - 21 Dec 2018
YPG delegation was flown in to Mezzeh yday. Negos were inconclusive because they just repeated their usual line of "SAA protects the border, we control the rest." No army allows someone else allied with an enemy to control its rear and its supply lines. +
+ The YPG leadership is still stuck in its pro-Western rut. It needs to be purged before any deal can be made with Damascus. Their present track will just lead to another Afrin, then another, then another. Thousands of brave YPG/YPJ fighters will have died for nothing.
Elijah J. Magnier @ejmalrai - 16:31 utc - 21 Dec 2018
#Breakingnews: Private sources : President Bashar al Assad has rejected the Kurdish proposal while Turkey is gathering forces (Euphrates Shield et al) to attack the Kurdish controlled area north of #Syria. #Russia seems holding back president Erdogan for a while. A lot of pressure

It is not (only) Russia that is holding Erdogan back. As seen above he has serious concerns about such an operation. Moreover, he does not have enough troops yet and the U.S. troops have not yet changed their pattern. As of today they still patrolled on the Turkish border and yesterday new U.S. war material was still coming in from Iraq. Erdogan does not dare to attack U.S. troops.

He will most likely want to avoid any additional military involvement in Syria. If Damascus and Moscow can get the PKK under control, Ankara will be satisfied.

Besides the presence of 4,000 to 5,000 U.S. troops and contractors in northeast Syria there also a contingent of 1,100 French troops and an unknown number of British forces. France for now says it wants to stay to finish the fight against the Islamic State enclave along the Euphrates.

But France does not have the capability to sustain those forces without U.S. support. Syria and Russia could ask Macron to put them under their command to finish the fight against ISIS, but it is doubtful that President Macron would agree to that. It is more likely that he will agree to a handover of their position to Russian, Syrian or even Iraqi or Iranian forces. Those forces can then finish the fight.

Posted by b on December 21, 2018 at 01:09 PM | Permalink

Comments next page " Some of the conclusions toward the end of this article don't entirely make sense to me. Trump is withdrawing 2000-4000 US troops. Why does it follow that their absence would create a space requiring 50000 Turkish troops to fill? I don't see how occupation of the entire eastern would be under consideration at all.

As far as IS is concerned, their defeat will be "enduring" when their sponsors stop paying them, first of all.


Guy Thornton , Dec 21, 2018 1:38:25 PM | link

Mattis comes across to me as a psycho case of a suppressed faggot who has spent his life trying to disprove and conceal the blatantly obvious. There we go...fairly succinct analysis.
Tobin Paz , Dec 21, 2018 1:44:44 PM | link
The neo-liberal meltdown is astonishing, it's like the Iraq war never happened: James Mattis Is a War Criminal: I Experienced His Attack on Fallujah Firsthand
More importantly, Mattis, known to some by the nickname of "Mad Dog," has shown a callous disregard for human life, particularly civilians, as evidenced by his behavior leading marines in Iraq, comments he made about enjoying fighting in Afghanistan because "it's fun to shoot some people. You know, it's a hell of a hoot," and myriad other problems.
...
While reporting from inside Fallujah during that siege, I personally witnessed women, children, elderly people and ambulances being targeted by US snipers under Mattis' command. Needless to say, all of these are war crimes.
Russ , Dec 21, 2018 1:46:37 PM | link
For at least two decades, the Department of Defense has explicitly defined its mission on its website as providing "the military forces needed to deter war and to protect the security of our country." But earlier this year, it quietly changed that statement, perhaps suggesting a more ominous approach to national security.
...
The Pentagon's official website now defines its mission this way: "The mission of the Department of Defense is to provide a lethal Joint Force to defend the security of our country and sustain American influence abroad."

At least Mattis is more honest than most of his fellow psychopath war criminals.

If the AP account is factually accurate (i.e. leaving aside the tendentious pro-imperial, pro-war editorializing), then it's funny how fast Erdogan goes from "What are you doing here? Why don't you leave?" to "I didn't mean now!" He was probably angling for something else and didn't really want US withdrawal.

As for the French, what a contemptible squeak from a government on the ropes trying to look tough.

Never Mind the Bollocks , Dec 21, 2018 1:48:37 PM | link
It's the US imperialism that has been defeated in Syria, but it's now gathering forces to go after Iran
Sally Snyder , Dec 21, 2018 1:49:03 PM | link
Here is a look at how the United States is putting a mechanism in place that will increase its ability to sell arms around the world:

https://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2018/11/american-international-arms-sales-and.html

The hawks in Washington need not worry, there will be plenty of war to go around.

Tom Welsh , Dec 21, 2018 1:52:40 PM | link
'The Pentagon's official website now defines its mission this way: "The mission of the Department of Defense is to provide a lethal Joint Force to defend the security of our country and sustain American influence abroad."'

I wonder whether, perchance, the Chief Executive and Commander in Chief should have been consulted about that. Traditionally, US Presidents have had some considerable say in defining the country's foreign policy.

Although one could interpret the change as being wholly in tune with Mr Trump's overriding policy of transparent honesty. After all, as long ago as 1900 - on the evidence of Marin Major-General Smedley Butler - we know that the US armed forces were used almost exclusively to promote American interests abroad. Maybe it's just refreshingly open to admit it at last.

Tom Welsh , Dec 21, 2018 1:54:45 PM | link
"Trump stunned his Cabinet, lawmakers and much of the world with the move by rejecting the advice of his top aides..." Please remind me: who was elected in 2016 - Mr Trump, or "his top aides"?
lysias , Dec 21, 2018 1:54:56 PM | link
When David Ignatius reported that Mattis's bedtime reading was Marcus Aurelius in the original Latin, who was responsible for the mistake? (Marcus Aurelius wrote in Greek.) Ignatius, an aide of Mattis's, or Mattis himself?
Tom Welsh , Dec 21, 2018 1:57:50 PM | link
"While Turkey has made incursions into Syria in the past, it does not have the necessary forces mobilized on the border to move in and hold the large swaths of northeastern Syria where U.S. troops are positioned, the official said".

Splendid! Let them hand it back to the lawfully elected democratic government of Syria, then.

Tom Welsh , Dec 21, 2018 2:00:51 PM | link
'"We had decided last week to launch a military incursion... east of the Euphrates river," he said in a speech in Istanbul'. So much for the UN Charter, then. Anyone who wants to can invade any other country and take over as much of its territory as he wants to - as long as Washington agrees. But, as Saddam Hussein could testify if he were still alive, it would be sensible to get such consent in writing.
james , Dec 21, 2018 2:14:27 PM | link
thanks b... who replaces the war criminal mattis? and when does any american get charged in the hague for the countless wars they start? how long do we have to wait for this to happen? the fact he changed the wording is at least more honest, so i give him credit for that... he could have said 'we are the worlds policeman, and we will continue to be the worlds policeman too' which would have been equally appropriate...

one thing i do like about trump is his ability to surprise... he could have done this earlier in his term - pull out of syria - but i guess he was waiting to see how things went... as it stands i think the knifes are out for trump big time now, and i suspect he is not going to last as president.. someone else mentioned this on the previous thread, and i agree with that assessment..

at some point in the next month, it is going to look different if USA follows thru with the commanders new position... meanwhile Russia has to continue to keep turkey on a leash and Syria, Russia and Iran have to continue to work at regaining the area east of the Euphrates as this unfolds... the leadership in France at this point are loony... the smart thing for them would be to leave or hand it over to syria/ russia...

karlof1 , Dec 21, 2018 2:21:14 PM | link
Macron's forces are illegally present too. Assad would have to request their presence, but I really doubt he will given the harm France has done to Syria over the past 7 years. Word is SAA's Tiger Forces will get sent East of Euphrates; when is now the question.

Rolling-back the Outlaw US Empire's overseas troop deployments and shuttering their bases is something I've argued for since I was honorably discharged in 1985, with the monies turned to desperate domestic needs -- the financial statement may declare the USA the world's richest nation, but reality tells a very different story. That reality got Trump elected. The haphazard, laissez-faire, unplanned structural nature of the USA's economy is in no way prepared for the rising technological revolution, which is in stark contrast to China and Russia's plans. The most important message Putin delivered in his annual meeting yesterday was about the whys and hows of changing the structure of Russia's economy:

"I have said it on numerous occasions, and I will repeat it today. We need a breakthrough. We need to transition to a new technological paradigm. Without it, the country has no future . This is a matter of principle, and we have to be clear on this....

" Healthcare, education, research and human capital come first, since without them there is no way a breakthrough can be achieved . The second vector deals with manufacturing and the economy. Of course, everything is related to the economy, including the first part. But the second part is directly linked to the economy, since it deals with the digital economy, robotics, etc. I have already mentioned infrastructure....

"But we will not be able to achieve the GDP growth rates necessary for this breakthrough unless the structure of the economy is changed. This is what the national projects are aimed at, and why such enormous funds will be invested, which I have already said – to change the structure and build an innovation-based economy . The Government is counting on this, because if this happens, and we should all work towards this, then the growth rates will increase and there will be other opportunities for development." [My Emphasis]

200 million residents of the USA--2/3s of the populous--also need a breakthrough, which is why the Green New Deal has such widespread support : "The survey results show overwhelming support for the Green New Deal, with 81% of registered voters saying they either 'strongly support' (40%) or 'somewhat support' (41%) this plan." IMO, domestic political pressure generally supports Trump's MAGA, but the monies need to come from somewhere, and that somewhere is from the Outlaw US Empire part of the USA.

lysias , Dec 21, 2018 2:25:14 PM | link
It was only a couple of years after de Gaulle returned to power in 1958 that it became clear that he was going to pull out of Algeria.
Jen , Dec 21, 2018 2:36:37 PM | link
One's got to worry about who will replace Mad Dog Mattis after February 28 next year. It would seem that whoever succeeds Mattis will be another former general, likely to share his views on maintaining and increasing US forces in Syria, Iraq and other parts of western Asia where they're despised by the local people, and perhaps not averse to sounding out good ol' Erik Prince to fill the vacancies left when US troops start leaving.

Krishnadev Calamur, "Four People Who Could Be the Next Defense Secretary" https://www.theatlantic.com/amp/article/578809/ Good God, not David Petraeus!

CD Waller , Dec 21, 2018 2:51:41 PM | link
Tom Welsh. It's my understanding that the Constitution states that foreign policy IS the job of the President. This Congress doesn't seem to have gotten the memo and though strictly a legislative body, have engaged in some pretty spectacular over reach.

The Constitution also puts an elected civilian (the President) in charge of the armed forces but put the power to declare war firmly in the hands of Congress.

The 1973 War Powers act has obscured this division of power. The President can order troops anywhere for a short time but must get an Authorization for Military Force from Congress. However, this is supposed to only in the case of attack or imminent danger, hardly the case in the ME.
Time limits on AFMF are often ignored and Congressional! purse strings almost never limit (exception: at the end of Viet Nam Congress was about to cut funding) any and all military adventurism.

Don Bacon , Dec 21, 2018 2:52:31 PM | link
@ karlof1 14
Healthcare, education, research and human capital come first, since without them there is no way a breakthrough can be achieved.

It would seem to me that if US politicians really cared about their job performance they would be working more on your "human capital" and less on warfare and Russian collusion. But there's no money in that, so they don't. So much for "democracy." Here's a recent article on a US achieved "breakthrough," in a negative sense that is.

WaPo, Nov 29

Life expectancy in the United States declined again in 2017, the government said Thursday in a bleak series of reports that showed a nation still in the grip of escalating drug and suicide crises.

The data continued the longest sustained decline in expected life span at birth in a century, an appalling performance not seen in the United States since 1915 through 1918. That four-year period included World War I and a flu pandemic that killed 675,000 people in the United States and perhaps 50 million worldwide.

Public health and demographic experts reacted with alarm to the release of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's annual statistics, which are considered a reliable barometer of a society's health. In most developed nations, life expectancy has marched steadily upward for decades. . . here

Kevin J Quinn , Dec 21, 2018 2:53:40 PM | link
Compared to Mattis, Pompeo and Bolton, and now Nauert at the UN, are raving jingos. Thank Gord they have no ties to the US military.
uncle tungsten , Dec 21, 2018 3:02:58 PM | link
Mattis could not, would not accept responsibility for the misappropriated 21 trillion dollars at HIS defence department. Kick him out. He was always a moron and demonstrated his arrogant dismissal of the elected president almost every day. $21 trillion buys a lot of MAGA.
ConfusedPundit , Dec 21, 2018 3:05:43 PM | link
Kurdish population in Syria is only 5% whereas the land they now control is 30% of the country thanks to the democratic EUSA nations?

They can no longer feed the ISIS inmates (they'll end up in France or Germany or elsewhere undertaking new projects?) since Khashoggi case (or Mr. Erdogan who caught the Saudis by their balls) made Saudis quit financing the YPG. Almost all ISIS inmates left in Syria are from abroad (they had been released from Libyan, Afghan, Iraqi prisons en mass at the beginning of the war and are ready for relocation?

Will the globalists controlled China arrive to rebuild what the US demolitionmen destroyed in Syria?

Who founded (USrael?) ISIS and made them lose water and oil rich territories in Syria to the PKK/YPG/SDF and what are they planning to do now?

Hoarsewhisperer , Dec 21, 2018 3:09:39 PM | link
It'd be funny if Trump appointed Tulsi Gabbard to the post of DefSec. I don't know much about her except that she's definitely very cute and probably isn't a pushover. If the glowing praise of her MoA fans is any guide then she'd do a better job than any recent appointment to the role and would then become a shoe-in for POTUS. If that came to pass then 'Hillary Who?' would become part of America's Permanent Lexicon.
karlof1 , Dec 21, 2018 3:26:44 PM | link
Don Bacon @18--

Thanks for your reply! Yes, the financialization and industrial hollowing-out of the USA's economy renders following the path being broken by Russia/China very difficult, but the projected outcome will be dire if the economy isn't radically restructured and the fake economists and their financial predators aren't driven from the Temple by modern Tribunes.

Meanwhile, shrouded by the Trump/Mattis circus, Turkey & Iran held an "historic summit" that likely had an impact on Trump's decision as everywhere he looks his previous foreign policy choices driven by his neocon advisors are mostly backfiring.

Robert Snefjella , Dec 21, 2018 3:35:04 PM | link
Re US president and foreign policy:

The language of the US Constitution gives the President the power to make treaties and choose Ambassadors, in consultation with and with the consent (2/3 majority) of the Senate. Also, President is Commander-in-Chief of the military. This includes state militias if formed. He also receives political figures from abroad.

Like so much else in the US Constitution, there has been creepy or 'necessary' or when it's handy mission creep in regard to these delineated functions.

But more to the point, the US is and has long been a serial de facto repudiator of the US Constitution and of International law. 'Let us discuss the fine points of law pertaining to the repeated launching of wars of aggression on the basis of lies.'

karlof1 , Dec 21, 2018 3:37:58 PM | link
CD Waller @17 and others never having taken a US Civics course--

This essay details how the separation of powers construct works in the formulation of US foreign policy.

Hoarsewhisperer , Dec 21, 2018 3:39:00 PM | link
Forgive the levity but here's Hillary's theme song.

Oh yes I'm the great pretender (ooh ooh)
Pretending that I'm doing well (ooh ooh)
My need is such I pretend too much
I'm lonely but no one can tell.

Oh yes I'm the great pretender (ooh ooh)
Adrift in a world of my own (ooh ooh)
I play the game but to my real shame
You've left me to dream all alone.

Too real is this feeling of make believe
Too real when I feel what my heart can't conceal

Ooh ooh yes I'm the great pretender (ooh ooh)
Just laughing and gay like a clown (ooh ooh)
I seem to be what I'm not (you see)
I'm wearing my heart like a crown
Pretending that I'm still around.
(stiill a rounnd)

michael smith , Dec 21, 2018 3:49:49 PM | link
If the U.S. withdraws its forces from NE Syria who will control the air space. That will likely determine who controls the territory in the future. I don't think the Kurds have an airforce.

mls

financial matters , Dec 21, 2018 4:13:46 PM | link
karlof1 @ 14

"""But we will not be able to achieve the GDP growth rates necessary for this breakthrough unless the structure of the economy is changed. This is what the national projects are aimed at, and why such enormous funds will be invested, which I have already said – to change the structure and build an innovation-based economy. The Government is counting on this, because if this happens, and we should all work towards this, then the growth rates will increase and there will be other opportunities for development."""

Similar sentiments are expressed by Rhiana Gunn-Wright.

After Sanders lost the Democratic primary in 2016 a group called 'Brand New Congress' formed to carry on his ideas. This morphed into 'Justice Democrats' which helped Ocasio-Cortez get elected. She is serving as a lightning rod giving the Green New Deal popularity.

Rhiana Gunn-Wright is a young energetic and talented policy wonk working for 'New Consensus' which is a spin off of the 'Justice Democrats'.

She is being tasked with forming policy for the Green New Deal.

'Again, the GND is not just climate policy. It's about transforming the economy, lifting up the poor and middle class, and creating a more muscular, active public sector.

The GND "opens an opportunity to renegotiate power relationships between the public sector, the private sector, and the people," says Gunn-Wright. "We are interested in solutions that create more democratic structures in our economy.'

green new deal explained

slit , Dec 21, 2018 4:16:39 PM | link
Thanks to b for stellar continued coverage!

$21 Trillion + "interests abroad" DoD mission creep
>>
Silicon Valley hot air equity ($150,000 starting salaries for fresh graduates) on cash flow only digital assetts
+ offshore oligarch accounts (kkr et al)

I found it helpful to take stock of reported conditions surrounding the troops out move:

* ksa reportedly going bankrupt
* ksa reneges on golden glow globe sword dance MIC mou-s
* failed israeli missile attempt to start wwiii & ensuing s300 reinforcements
* kashoggi and related muslim brotherhood entanglements
* clinton foundation in DC "hearings" censored by msm
* continued censorship of Awan bros Blackberry scandal (espionage?)
* Cricket hero Khan batting for Pakistan
* Huawei affair
* Bibi & family corruption scandal

Trump has a keen eye for ratings, and surely knows giving the deplorables (private contractors, self employeds etc) trying to rub two pennies together gasoline under $3/gallon in the holiday season will mean much more to the public than Cnn Russiagate drivel working people have no time for anyway. Keeping armed forces rank and file happy and re purposing for disaster relief would be a good move.

Karlof1 is correct to make the most of the narrative. Glad b is on it. Hope troops arent cleared for nuclear Armeggedon!

Josh , Dec 21, 2018 4:23:57 PM | link
@mls The US currently does not control Syrian airspace. The Russians do, ever since they switched from using the existing old Syrian S200 to the current advanced model S300, after the downing of their plane by the Israeli interference.
This was probably another factor that made operating in Syria increasingly problematic and handicapped: options of 'punishing Assad' or bombing mobile Iranian units were limited if they didn't want to coordinate with the Russians.
The Syrians now have to amass a large contingent to 'control' the Kurdish area; likely the Russians will be go-between to lower Kurdish demands as well as placate the SAA and achieve some kind of tense co-existence which can keep Turkey satisfied.
Interesting to see how Syria will handle both wanting to mop up Idlib as well as re-establish control over the North-East and its oil wells.
Noirette , Dec 21, 2018 4:29:57 PM | link
I read that Trump did not inform Netanyahu of the USA's Syria 'withdrawal' until about an hour before it was made public via tweet. Five mins! according to another article. Also, that Trump did discuss it with B.N. several days before (Haaretz), that sounded like a smoothing over. Another article claimed that it was Pompeo who clued in Israel a short while before. So who knows?

Right from the first time they met, Bibi was terrified of Trump, though I could not find one telling vid. I saw.

Feb. 15 2017.

Trump today said that he is keeping his options open about how best to reach a peaceful solution to the Israeli-Palestinian situation but urged Israel to hold back on settlement building in occupied territories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SmfseeZt5fA

President Trump veered from years of U.S. policy in the Middle East by backing off the "two-state solution," as the only path to peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

https://youtu.be/Wf-3916zpGA

One article stated that Macron and Merkel learnt of the 'withdrawal' from the media! I have noted that Macron is always very 'late' and 'behind the times' as far as the US is concerned, obviously the F 'info' services have no clue, or he isn't kept informed, etc.

Not that there will be consequent 'fall-out' from either, for the moment. (Israel can only go along, and the EU has more serious stuff on its plate.)

Pnyx , Dec 21, 2018 4:39:59 PM | link
"If Damascus and Moscow can get the PKK under control, Ankara will be satisfied."
Well - let's hope Allah (or whoever) will enlighten Erdo...
steve , Dec 21, 2018 4:42:14 PM | link
First President since JFK to say no to the CIA. Lets see that SITRAP
Kadath , Dec 21, 2018 4:42:18 PM | link
Re: #3 Tobin Pa,


Yes, it's dispiriting, but not surprising that the anti-war "Left" movement has almost totally dissolved following their failure to prevent the Iraq war. As a deeply cynical person I'm certain that Hillary and the Clintonites worked behind the scenes in the DNC to undermine the Anti-war movement in expectation of her eventual 2008 & 2016 runs, since she and Bill supported the Iraq war and were no shrinking violets when it came to the use of military force in furtherance of their foreign policy goals. The consequence of destroying the Anti-war movement with the Democratic Party is that they have become a defacto Pro-war party even in situations where the use of the military is blatantly illegal, futile and against the National interest (since there is no organized Anti-war movement articulating why they should not go to war/use military force to stand against the Military Industrial Complex that is constantly advocating for more war). Hilariously, by becoming a Pro-war Party when the American people are increasingly tired of constant warfare the Democratic Party lost the 2016 election to a mildly anti-war Trump, who will most likely be re-elected (unless he is impeached or assassinated). In the long-term, unless the DNC faces up to the 30 years of disastrous Clinton mismanagement and corruption and cleans house, I could certainty see the Democratic Party collapsing over the next 15 years just like how the Labour Party in the UK is still struggling with the legacy of Tony Blair.

What's really galling to me though is watching all these so called "liberals" (Cher, Beth Midler, Rachael "Mad Cow" Maddow & Mia Farrow) whine about how the US should never leave Syria and stay there indefinitely; Are they or their children going to be fighting this war? Who gave the US such authority take seize parts of Syria? What exactly is the benefit to the US & her people in doing all of this? How many hundreds of thousands people (mostly Syrians) need to die for this ill-defined goal of spiting Syria & Russia? Just like the destruction of the Anti-war left in the Democratic Party had long term consequences, people will remember how Hollywood liberals behaved like jabbering, ignorant, warmongering ideologues during this period of US decline and it will cause profound damage to them and their professed causes.

stonebird , Dec 21, 2018 4:48:40 PM | link
KarlofI@14 and Fin Matters @33

Nice thoughts, but I don't think you have the time.
"Worst December since the great depression"
Just look at the pictures (charts), and scroll down.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-21/fear-reaches-most-extreme-ever-traders-see-panic-air
....
Trump has a tactic of "giving people what they ask for" (eg Jerusalem). Just to break a deadlock. This Syria gambit seems to be something of the same as Erdogan now gets what he has been asking for - and finds he doesn't want it yet.

I still think that there will be a continued US presence in Syria, concentrated around the Oil sources. The Agricultural lands further north were owned by "Arabic", Christian, Yadizi and other various tribes and ethnies. The Kurds only made up a small portion.
One reason that Trump may have decided to throw the Kurds to the wolves, is that they were overstretched, and not motivated enough to continue to be cannon fodder for Uncle Sam. The SDF (Which incorporates some turncoat ISIS members, which partly explains why there has only been slow "progress" against the last ISIS enclave in Eastern Syria, brother against ex-brother), also contains foreign mercenaries from various sources. What they will "demand" is open to question. The tribal forces in the SAA who are directly opposite contain members of the Shaitah, who saw 700 of their women and children massacred by ISIS. They may want their own land back too, as well as "payback".

The other reason for Trump to act now is that Flynn has been given three months in which to change his guilty "plea". After which, Mueller will HAVE TO provide proof, and not just accusations and people that have been blackmailed into "plea deals". Trump doesn't have too much time left for subtle tweet-tweets before the Dems arrive. etc (big topic by itself)

.... By the way, OT; Butina was really "brain-washed". 67 days in solitary confinement with all the recognised means of brainwashing used on her. Assault (including sexual) sleep deprivation, continued stress (including randomly timed "strip searches") probably lighting either permanently on or randomly used to destroy time awareness. There are other methods to be included, and at a "key" break point, a "counsellor/handler will whisper sweet nothings in hear ear to control her way of thinking ( I am NOT a specialist in Brainwashing, but the outline of what she suffered, means that she will always repeat what she has been told to say.) Real Brainwashing from the cold war era .

Red Ryder , Dec 21, 2018 5:09:03 PM | link
b's statement regarding Turkey: "Its army can do it, but it would cost a lot of casualties and financial resources."

During the entire war, Turkey's army has done not so much and not so well. Manbij, Afrin, and where else? Well before the US presence with bases, the Turks could not hold their border region from the Kurds.

They cannot impact deep anywhere. Their AF is not even as effective as Syria's, yet it is a much better, more advanced arm of the military. It's special forces?

They are used to doing what NATO and US troops do. They murder civilians and massacre opposition. They did little against ISIS which was a very fierce, mobile and effective military.

They do have logistical advantage and can move heavy weapons for a siege. But they are a set piece land force.

The Kurds also are quite overrated.

Erdogan knows that the notion of him holding the East is a pipedream. His FSA allies are the weakest lot in Syria.
His real fighters are those in Idlib, al Nusra and the Uyghurs.

If he intends to hold land the US has marked out in the North-east and East, he will have to move the headchoppers.
The Russians will annihilate them if they cross the zones in Idlib.

With the US vacuum the Syrians, Hezbollah, Quds, Iranian militias and the Russians will complete the war.

The French and Brits say they are staying. They should write their Last Will letters. They will be shot out of the sky and incinerated on the ground. Folly.

The pullouts from Syria and Afghanistan are severe blows to NATO as hegemonic shock troops.
This time next year we will hear and see how Russia won and NATO is gone from Eurasia.

This is also an object lesson to those nations on Russia's periphery who are flirting with the US, EU and NATO. Belarus, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan will have to recalculate.


Grieved , Dec 21, 2018 5:14:15 PM | link
@b

I think we will see many more updates such as this one, showing us who's pushing back, who's wavering, and who's simply blowing hot air. I could wish for better sources of the back story than AP and Reuters, but we must wait for better analysis I think. I'm sure I'll see it here first - thanks for your continued vigilance.

Meanwhile my guesses are that Trump holds the longest knife and will prevail in this course. And that Erdogan is not faltering as the Reuters report implies, but is simply letting players and forces adjust to the new situation. And that, regardless of the details on the ground, the US flag has been struck in Syria, irreversibly. This is a geopolitical milestone, and everything now changes from this.

mls , Dec 21, 2018 5:17:11 PM | link
@35 It has been my understanding that while the Russian forces have stepped up their air defense systems the Americans still fly freely to the north-east of the Euphrates and have not hesitated to attack SAA forces who came close to their proxies on the ground, as well as attacking the SAA when they moved toward the U.S. base at al-Tanf. If the U.S. really does evacuate their troops it will be interesting to see if they discontinue their air movements over the eastern bank of the Euphrates. mls
Sasha , Dec 21, 2018 5:19:12 PM | link
Almost all ISIS inmates left in Syria are from abroad (they had been released from Libyan, Afghan, Iraqi prisons en mass at the beginning of the war and are ready for relocation?

Who founded (USrael?) ISIS and made them lose water and oil rich territories in Syria to the PKK/YPG/SDF and what are they planning to do now?

Posted by: ConfusedPundit | Dec 21, 2018 3:05:43 PM | 23

Terrorice Europe?

Two Scandinavian backpackers hacked to death in Morocco, mother spammed with gruesome images

Sasha , Dec 21, 2018 5:35:59 PM | link
But how this "withdrawal" holds when new equipment is arriving to US bases in Syria?

US reinforces new base in Syria despite announcement of withdrawal

Schmoe , Dec 21, 2018 5:40:34 PM | link
@ Kadath 39
As respects Rachel Mad Cow,MSNBC has been reading from the neo-con playbook for several years now. Pre-Iraq War,Chris Matthews was vehemently against it, but in my limited recent viewership they are silent on Syria in general. They did however have a one hour special by Richard Engle which was essentially an hour of showing the carnage and saying "look what Assad did". It was even more absurd than Fox's islamaphobic specials they ran a few times. Truly pathetic and it feels like MSNBC is hewing to the HRC model "of no one can criticize me fro the right on "national security".
james , Dec 21, 2018 5:41:33 PM | link
emptywheel is suggesting tom cotton as a replacement for mattis.. this is the first time i can recall ew
james , Dec 21, 2018 5:43:43 PM | link
my comment was chopped off... first time i can recall ew writing on foreign policy! at any rate, skip the ew comment section, as the folks at ew can completely in denial about the role the democrats have played in bringing the usa to this point in time... read @35 kadath post for greater clarity on that...
BRF , Dec 21, 2018 5:50:37 PM | link
Too many "old men who think in terms of nation states and peoples. There are no nations. There are no peoples. There is only the Federal Reserve, the BIS, IMF, WB, WTO and an entourage of multinational corporations all inextricably inter associated." as redux of Ned Beatty's soliloquy from the film Network.

These pesky wars, as one front of many fronts, are getting in the way of NWO timing. The world's major central banks are now involved in quantitative tightening and much of the liquidity that was handed out as loans will now disappear and the debt trap will now be sprung on many 'nation states' as it was in Greece. Turkey's major industries owe about 300 Billion. This while the Lira drops ever lower in relation to the Fed Reserve Note, euphemistically the USD, and will be hard pressed to pay back the less abundant, higher valued amounts at the higher interest rates of the FRN's borrowed. War, with very real deaths, continues but on another front and Trump as the front figure is the main conductor of this coming war.

Piotr Berman , Dec 21, 2018 5:51:32 PM | link
When David Ignatius reported that Mattis's bedtime reading was Marcus Aurelius in the original Latin, who was responsible for the mistake? (Marcus Aurelius wrote in Greek.) Ignatius, an aide of Mattis's, or Mattis himself?

Posted by: lysias | Dec 21, 2018 1:54:56 PM | 9

Explanation from an aide of Mattis: the General purchased the volume while visiting Latin America, so he always assumed that it is in Latin.

Sasha , Dec 21, 2018 5:55:53 PM | link
What theis "withdrawal" is about....To continue causing turmoil in Syria so as to impede its rebuilt and return to peaceful normal life...This is why Israel has not said a word....

US pullout from Syria result of secret deal with Turkey, says expert

Lochearn , Dec 21, 2018 6:03:22 PM | link
I have been away in the Scottish wilderness for a while, cut off from everything, so it with somewhat jaded joy that I come back to stunning news from this unfailingly brilliant place to hear the latest (US getting out of Syria, Mattis out, Macron on fire, Britain in an existential crisis the like of which I have neither seen nor read about).

Like a schoolkid who has absented themselves I venture back into the classroom to take my little seat, all the while carrying with me audio of howling winds and the low whistle of a friend who came to visit, an Irish instrument that so resembles native American flutes. In this Highland cabin I filled the stove with ash and oak and beech, listened to the haunting sound of the low whistle and drank whisky as I watched the snow drift down.

Sasha , Dec 21, 2018 6:12:53 PM | link
The SDF (Which incorporates some turncoat ISIS members, which partly explains why there has only been slow "progress" against the last ISIS enclave in Eastern Syria, brother against ex-brother), also contains foreign mercenaries from various sources.

Posted by: stonebird | Dec 21, 2018 4:48:40 PM | 40

This is why they wear masks/balaclavas....the same way they used to do on Iraq....

US-supported militias in eastern Syria take Hayin

Peter Grafström , Dec 21, 2018 6:14:19 PM | link
Josh on #35 hints at an explanation for Trumps action which is confirmed by a romanian military expert in the article http://www.voltairenet.org/article204433.html
Assuming that analysis is correct, Trumps military associates like Mattis must have known but was apparently more willing to risk american casualties.
Pft , Dec 21, 2018 6:49:31 PM | link
So the past 2 years of bombing and support for bombing and special forces operations in Syria, Yemen, Africa, Afghanistan and of course the ongoing genocide of the Palestinians in Israel is blamed on Trumps aids, all of whom he hired.

Whenever something positive comes out (and Trump has said he was done in Syria before only to be followed later by a barrage of missiles due to outrage over the poor babies killed in the CW attack blamed on Assad) its presented as Trump heroically goes against his aids advice and does right.

This is a common theme in MSM and almost all of the alt media now. Trumps swamp included Bolton, Barr, Devos, Pompeo, Mnuchkin, Acosta, Haspel, Ross, Mulvaney, Kushner, Pruit, Mattis. Blame them instead of the guy who hired them and has authority over them. Right.

Piotr Berman , Dec 21, 2018 6:55:08 PM | link
I have been away in the Scottish wilderness for a while, cut off from everything,
Posted by: Lochearn | Dec 21, 2018 6:03:22 PM | 51

I once spent a week in Glen Lyon which is not cut off from anything, there is a paved road (one-lane for two way traffic, only in Scotland!) and Royal Mail operated, but these days young people complain when there is no cell phone reception, there was a land line but our niece was could not send any pics and texts to her boyfriend. Thus she very eagerly joined me for a hike and after ascending 1000 m and getting the view of Loch Tay she immediately texted etc. But something is brewing outside quiet glens: [video of parliamentary session] The defence secretary, Gavin Williamson, says the UK will have 3,500 service personnel on standby 'to support any government department on any contingencies they may need'

Watch the situation, Lochearn, and if needed, run back to the hills.

karlof1 , Dec 21, 2018 7:03:00 PM | link
financial matters @33--

Thanks for your reply with its post-2016 info! I returned to following domestic happenings a few months prior to the 2018 election and was surprised by the gumption of the new Freshman class. There was lots of negative speculation about how AOC would become a sellout, but I'm impressed and added her twitter to my ever lengthening list. The first 2020 polls have appeared with the narrative being Biden over washed up Sanders, but the reality is the opposite. Wife and I had a dinner table discussion about that and related matters last night from the frame of Media Truth from Putin's meeting I posted. There's an ideological divide within the USA; but as AOC notes in this very informative* twitter thread :

"People are starting to realize our issues aren't left and right, but top and bottom.

"And the just solutions will come from the bottom-up."

*--Informative due to the immoral hatred revealed, which unfortunately validates my references to Monopoly philosophy and Zerosumism. Scrooge was tame in comparison.

hopehely , Dec 21, 2018 7:11:55 PM | link
Posted by: Piotr Berman | Dec 21, 2018 5:51:32 PM | 49

Explanation from an aide of Mattis: the General purchased the volume while visiting Latin America, so he always assumed that it is in Latin.
Or in Latin American...
And it wasn't bedtime reading but bathroom reading.

karlof1 , Dec 21, 2018 7:37:52 PM | link
stonebird @40--

Fortunately, the stock markets are not the economy. Trump campaigned on MAGA; the Green New Deal makes MAGA possible and as the polling I linked to shows is popular across political lines--the people know something must be done. Currently, it's the D Party Old Guard standing in the way doing R Party work. When it comes to the traditional definitions of national security and national interest, Trump was correct to say MAGA is a matter of national security. Too many Trillions have already been wasted, and we within the USA cannot afford any more of those mistakes from the past as the margin for success gets thinner daily. When I compare the directions of China, Russia and USA, the former two are rising by attaining their planned national goals, while the USA drops downward thanks to directionless policy that only supports the greed of the greedy. I know its much better for an individual to be a poor worker in China than a poor worker in the state of Georgia and too many other places--very few opportunities and almost no social support very similar to the Great Depression; but nowadays, you can't even hop a freight to go somewhere else as was possible in the '30s.

Red Ryder , Dec 21, 2018 7:38:55 PM | link
Apparently, Mattis bought the book for the illustrations.

Latin America speaks Spanish and Portuguese not Latin American, which is not a language.
Plus, there are secondary languages of indigenous people, and tertiary languages like German and Italian, Japanese and Chinese as well as English.

From the "story" about Mattis, I think it is laughable. He pretended his whole life to be a Patton.
Read their career stories and it is a joke that Mattis had four-stars, as did Patton.

bjd , Dec 21, 2018 7:42:17 PM | link
The only reading generals do is Macchhiavelli, Von Clausewitz and Superman
O yeah -- and the bible, these days.
karlof1 , Dec 21, 2018 8:25:24 PM | link
Comic Relief courtesy of the UK government :

"UK government refuses to release the documents on its 'counter-disinformation' programme linked to the Integrity Initiative. Because (don't laugh now), it could 'undermine the programme's effectiveness'."

Craig Murray has an update on the affair--all the documents provided by Anonymous have proven genuine.

Jen , Dec 21, 2018 8:45:15 PM | link
Lysias, Piotr B, Hopehely, Red Ryder & others:

Maybe Mattis bought the book for interior decoration. It makes his coffee table look good. What language it's in is irrelevant.

snedly arkus , Dec 21, 2018 8:49:46 PM | link
Where is the evidence of widespread support for a green new deal as pushed by a couple of people here. A poll of 966 people sorted by whether or not they are voters does not mean there is widespread support. As in most polls claiming whatever we do not know the questions that were asked or how they were framed. Thus they could have said "would you be for a new green deal if it energized the economy bringing riches to all and extremely cheap rates on power would you be for it." Until we know the full extent of this poll it's a nothing burger pushing an agenda.
psychohistorian , Dec 21, 2018 9:00:16 PM | link
@ financial matters # 33 with the link to the Green New Deal....thanks

The problem with the GND is that it does not seem to address the underlying fact that private finance makes all investment decisions. If they evolve to understand that, they can do all they want if it is within the public government plans for investment.

If the government controlled finance instead of the private folk I would expect there to be public input to/(control over) investment decisions.....just like the GND folks are pushing for but in a more comprehensive context and manner.

Piotr Berman , Dec 21, 2018 9:02:39 PM | link
The only reading generals do is Macchhiavelli, Von Clausewitz and Superman
O yeah -- and the bible, these days.
Posted by: bjd | Dec 21, 2018 7:42:17 PM | 60

A general slurps macchiato while reading The Prince of Niccolò Machiavelli.

In the history of my country there is a nice episode when one of the main generals was rousing the units before the critical battle that actually went well "In loco, spes in virtute, salus in victoria" - Here, the (only) hope (lies) in bravery, salvation in victory, which quotes Ceasar's De Bello Gallico. . Sadly, while the battle was brilliant, the war was not. Nevertheless, I would recommend Ceasar.

Ceasar was victorious, so he should be balanced with History of the Peloponnesian War of Thucidites. A terrible was in which one side lost terribly, while the other succumbed to hubris, imposed painful domination on all and sundry to be irreversibly defeated one generation after. Woe to the defeated, but the victors should be careful too.

The story of "Woe to the defeated", Vae victis , is interested too. Romans were treated mercilessly by victorious (unmitigated?) Gauls, but then see De Bello Gallico above.

Don Bacon , Dec 21, 2018 9:04:06 PM | link
Five unforgettable quotes by the killer, James Mattis (He will be missed?):
>1. 'It's quite fun to shoot them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people.'
>2. 'There are some assholes in the world that just need to be shot.'
>3. 'I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I'll kill you all.'
>4. 'Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.'
>5. 'There are some people who think you have to hate them in order to shoot them. I don't think you do.'. . . here

Don't let the door hit ya, Jimbo.
karlof1 , Dec 21, 2018 9:07:15 PM | link
63--

You sound just like an D Party hack doing the work of the R Party. Must pay good.

psychohistorian , Dec 21, 2018 9:10:22 PM | link
I am sure getting tired of entering my personal info each time I post a comment because the remember doesn't work...

@ karlof1 with
"
"UK government refuses to release the documents on its 'counter-disinformation' programme linked to the Integrity Initiative. Because (don't laugh now), it could 'undermine the programme's effectiveness'."
"

They are lying through there teeth. The real problem for them is that some could end up in jail, and rightfully so. We can only hope that they take the City of London down with them.

What is their long term plan for containing the IntegrityNOTInitiative scandal? The house of cards seems to be falling and now is when we hope that the losers love their children enough to not takes us to extinction with their pride.

karlof1 , Dec 21, 2018 9:12:46 PM | link
psychohistorian @64--

It appears more people are aware of such a threat as this article notes . Pelosi's unfortunately a whore of the sort needing pasteurization, along with Feinstein.

karlof1 , Dec 21, 2018 9:17:58 PM | link
Don Bacon @66--

Mattis makes the fictional Hannibal Lecter a Prince of Peace by comparison. The end of February can't come soon enough.

hopehely , Dec 21, 2018 9:31:18 PM | link
Posted by: Don Bacon | Dec 21, 2018 9:04:06 PM | 66
Five unforgettable quotes by the killer, James Mattis ...
Yep, the influence of Marcus Aurelius is all over him. Through and through.
True philosopher general indeed.
Pft , Dec 21, 2018 9:35:07 PM | link
The problem with the GND being discussed here is in the Green. Any New Deal that starts with a false premise and bad science is a bad idea IMO.

That said, a New Deal that incorporates Ellen Browns and Edison/Fords ideas on public financing I am all for. Goals should be universal health care, guaranteed income and housing, vast infrastructure projects and alternative energy development. The latter two should be green in the sense of nonpolluting (Co2 is not a pollutant). Jobs are fine but with automation, AI, and robotics lets face it, a world where most people dont work except as a hobby or to live better than others is coming, as my old science teacher predicted with envy over 50 years ago. The neomalthusians and transhumanists have other ideas.

I would also devote massive resources for researching the safety of GMO , vaccines and medicines as well as upgrading climate monitoring and climate research since climate does change and we have so little understanding of it. Climate measurements are indadequate (number of weather stations in US have dropped by a factor of 3 since climate became a thing and quality is a key concern. This research needs to be free of influence from parties having an agenda (political and financial). Good luck with that.

Kooshy , Dec 21, 2018 9:54:32 PM | link
Mattis is a coward, he knows the American efforts in Syria has failed, and will go nowhere. So for him this was a great excuse and a good uportunity to resign and not share the blame for failure of his past advise and insistence to continue a lost effort. Now all the blames for loosing in Syria will go to Trump. The blame game has already started coming out of MSM and the DC swamp (you read sewer).
ben , Dec 21, 2018 9:56:02 PM | link
Seems as though we've heard this "withdrawal" meme before. We'll see.

IMO, the key to ME peace is STILL based on liberty and justice for the Palestinian people.

Heard some noise about "The green new deal". This from The Nation magazine;

https://www.thenation.com/article/democrats-green-new-deal/

psychohistorian , Dec 21, 2018 10:00:12 PM | link
@ pft will the great follow on the the GND proposal

I want to add a data point to the universal health care initiative.

Because we are a society wedded to the profit motive we put it between the client and the health care provider and worse only promote "therapies" that make a profit. Let me provide my personal proof of that statement.

This week, after a 12 year journey, I can state that I have healed myself (with help) from a traumatic brain injury using neurofeedback. Neurofeedback in a non-drug, non-invasive EEG based therapy based on the mental health brain paradigm of dis-regulated neural networks. The world of Big Pharma does not want to see neurofeedback advance because it will eliminate most of them.

Some on MoA have read me writing about this before and I will do so more in some future Open Thread.....when the dust settles a bit.

Yeah, Right , Dec 21, 2018 10:01:41 PM | link
@1 Isn't it obvious? US forces are there to support the Kurdish forces. Training, supplying, and a little moral "stiffening".

But Turkisk forces would go in with the aim of defeating those Kurds, and then suppressing the local pop in. That requires an order of magnitude more troops.

Don Bacon , Dec 21, 2018 10:17:15 PM | link
One think-tanker expects problems with troop morale, which by the way was the killer that ended the stupid Vietnam War.
Trump's sudden decisions to drawdown troops in Syria and Afghanistan that sparked Mattis' resignation marked for perhaps the first time in American history the departure of a defense secretary in protest and adds to the overall unease that remains, experts said.
"I think it adds to a feeling that in some sense the wheels are beginning to come off of American foreign policy and national security policy," said John Hannah, a senior counselor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a nonprofit, nonpartisan research institute on foreign policy and national security in Washington.
Hannah said he thinks the Mattis resignation will inevitably affect troop morale . . . . here

That's a good thing.
Circe , Dec 21, 2018 11:01:47 PM | link
@47

Tom Cotton is a rabid hawk especially on Iran. If Trump choses him then this will signal what Trump meant by the next phase of the campaign after he announced a withdrawal from Syria.

I read General Jack Keane was in the running but he doesn't want the job.

That leaves Lindsey Graham and David Petraeus. Both of these might be willing to take the job, but I see Trump picking Petraeus over Graham, although Graham just visited the troops in Afghanistan; maybe he's sending a subtle hint to Trump.

If it's Cotton, we should brace ourselves for escalation with Iran.

Pft , Dec 21, 2018 11:19:21 PM | link
Yeah Right@76

Well there are 50K Al Nusra fighters in Idlib that Russia and Syria want out of there and Turkey is protecting. Maybe they will be on the move soon to deal with the Kurds in the NE once the US pulls out. US can pretend ignorance and then step back in again under the cover of stabilizing the region with replacement for the kurds to use against Assad and protect assets in the NE. Everyone except the Kurds is happy, almost.

Kadath , Dec 21, 2018 11:24:12 PM | link
@46, Schmoe

Further to your point about MSNBC, I just watched Michael Moore on MSNBC being interviewed by Ali Velshi and Moore was actually advocating that the troops stay in Syria and blamed Putin for ordering Trump to do this ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q0SP7puk8f8) - words fail..... Michael Moore, the Anti-Iraq war activist, the Occupy Wall Street advocate, the Anti-Imperialist, has reached the terminal phase of his Trump Derangement Syndrome. His irrational hatred of Trump has just driven him to torch all of his prior Anti-War work; to betray every speech, every millimeter of film he's ever made all because he hates Trump that much and everything he has previously done can be jettisoned if it furthers this new goal.

Ugh... Is he doing this all for the money he can glean from the mainstream Media by being even more extreme than them, was he always this shallow and empty? This is what I just cant get over, do these jackanapes not understand that their words and behaviours are being recorded and people will remember it, it will haunt their futures and taint their legacies. Hating Trump is one thing (there is certainly no shortage of reasons to hate him), but I'm rethinking my entire interpretation of Moore and his career because of these constant, irrationally hateful and extreme statements. Michael Moore, Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon, Rachal Maddow and Stephen Colbert can play to the crowd for now, but once Trump's term ends people will never be able to take them seriously as public figures again because of all of their delusional tirades while Trump was in office.

Pft , Dec 21, 2018 11:30:32 PM | link
Don Bacon@77

Troop moral today is far different than Vietnam. Reason in no order of importance

1. Well paid volunteer army, well trained with skills transferrable to private sector
2. Limited tour length, long paid breaks between tours
3. Skype/internet access on tours to stay in touch with family firiends
4. Contractors to do much of the dirty work
5. Military glorification at home treats them as heros and plenty of discounts
6. Far fewer casualties
7. Great benefits once the leave miliitary (loans, paid university transferrable)
8. Tax benfits for companies hiring vets helps them in job market

The main negative with fewer troops in Syria or Afghanistan means there are fewer tours which means less money.

I expect they will be deployed elsewhere. Where is the big question. Like you say, moral not an issue


flayer , Dec 21, 2018 11:34:45 PM | link
RE: Posted by: Pft | Dec 21, 2018 11:30:32 PM | 81

This is why you should never "thank them for their service." They're selfish and/or deluded pricks. Not heroes. It's a scam from start to finish.

Peter AU 1 , Dec 21, 2018 11:48:20 PM | link
Kadath 80 "do these jackanapes not understand that their words and behaviours are being recorded and people will remember it"
The average person that watches MSM have the memory of a goldfish when it comes to politics.

"His irrational hatred of Trump has just driven him to torch all of his prior Anti-War work"
Most that make it in politics or entertainment go with the flow - whatever will further their career. Empty people. I don't know this Michael Moor, but sounds lie he is one of this type.

telescope , Dec 21, 2018 11:48:22 PM | link
People like Lindsey Graham simply cannot comprehend that USA is in fact a demolished country, with its last leg - the stock market - getting cut off in real time, as we speak. The implications of American equity markets collapse are momentous. The relentless year-end selling means that government revenues will be drastically reduced, by at least couple hundred billion dollars, driving US budget deficit to well in excess of $1.2T in current fiscal year. And that's in a benign case. If America slips in a recession, and has to resort to fiscal stimulus, we are talking about $1.5-2T budget shortfall. Add quickly deteriorating demographics, and "japanisation" of the USA is all but inevitable (and yes, US financial system is a dead man walking)
Trump, although not the brightest bulb, is infinitely smarter than Grahams, Rubios and Cottons of the world. He knows that it's much better to withdraw on what looks like own accord now, than being kicked out in the most disgraceful fashion upon the passage of time. Or even worse, having your troops marooned in the troubled region without any prospect of being extricated, unless on the most humiliating terms.
Whether Trump succeeds or fails in returning the troops home is irrelevant at this point. They are coming home anyway. The only question remaining is not if but when, and how.
Pft , Dec 21, 2018 11:57:14 PM | link
Bolton announces Trumps Africa strategy

https://thehill.com/policy/international/421179-bolton-warns-russia-china-threaten-us-in-africa

The Cebrowski plan for Latin America

http://www.voltairenet.org/article204400.html

Maybe Trump is diversyfing, scaling down in the The Middle East (a lots been accomplished already) and ramp up efforts in Africa and Latin America to counter BRICS

Pft , Dec 22, 2018 12:00:04 AM | link
Meant "diversifying". Spell check hasnt been working well here since i upgraded to ios12
once and future , Dec 22, 2018 12:20:01 AM | link
Thanks, b.

stonebird @40
OT (apologies) Can you help with the evidence that Maria Butina was subjected to these abuses while in solitary?

ben , Dec 22, 2018 12:45:15 AM | link
@ 80: Yes, agreed, my impressions on MM will change. Too bad really, that people sacrifice their credibility, based on blind hatred.

I'm speaking only of MM, the rest lost their credibility, IMO, long ago..

james , Dec 22, 2018 12:50:40 AM | link
@87 once and future... first off i want to thank stonebird for there comments on this topic.. solitary confinement is inhumane.. that the usa is keen to use it in all sorts of circumstances, is a reflection of their abu ghraib, guantanemo mentality... solitary confinement is more of the same.. in a civilized world it would never be allowed to be done... but this is more exceptional nation stuff from the exceptional nation and what the world has come to expect from a country that preaches one thing while practicing something completely different..

80 kadath... michael moore has really fallen... i was unaware of this and am not tapped into the usa msm to be able to follow.. in fact, it is so depressing i have no interest in following much of anything coming out of the usa at this point...

@78 circe.. another name mentioned was this tulsi gabbard from hawaii.. i doubt it very much... the usa continues to fly way off the rails...

what is especially telling is the response from the usa on trumps decision here... caitin johnstone has a good overview on this..
Endless War Has Been Normalized And Everyone Is Crazy

karlof1 , Dec 22, 2018 1:10:40 AM | link
james @89 and others--

Michael Moore destroyed his credibility when he failed to denounce Obama for not jailing the Banksters and it's been downhill from there as it's been with so many of his ilk. Another case of money ruining youthful idealism. Caitlin's on a roll and deserves a much larger audience. The propagandizers have deluded themselves via their own machinations and are now going mad.

Albert Pike , Dec 22, 2018 1:11:24 AM | link
"there also a contingent of 1,100 French troops"... You can hear me laughing after reading this. The French empire was over a long long time ago and they still think that Syria is their colony. France has been sending French Jihadists for regime change in Syria since 2011 and their mission has failed since Russia intervened in 2015. France cannot even send troops to Mali - destabilized by Jihadists created by France in Libya to topple Kadhafi, without the help of the US!!! France is a de-facto vassal state of the US since they decided to joined the NATO central command under Sarkozy who was bribed by the zionist neocons.
Hoarsewhisperer , Dec 22, 2018 1:44:00 AM | link
...
US can pretend ignorance and then step back in again under the cover of stabilizing the region with replacement for the kurds to use against Assad and protect assets in the NE. Everyone except the Kurds is happy, almost.
Posted by: Pft | Dec 21, 2018 11:19:21 PM | 79

I think you're right. And I hope so, too...
The Yanks should be counting their blessings. I thought it was extraordinarily generous of Putin to agree with Donald that "the US beat ISIS in Syria" considering how half-assed/limp-wristed their anti-ISIS actions were in comparison with Russia's 100+ sorties per day 24/7 for many months.
Imo, if the Yanks dream up another excuse to go back into Syria, Putin will caution against it and then make sure that none of them get out alive.

Blooming Barricade , Dec 22, 2018 2:07:30 AM | link
I personally distinguish between Trump's decision to withdraw from Syria and his move to withdraw partially from Afghanistan. The latter is a step towards ending a brutal, illegal NATO occupation war of over 17 years. The former is also illegal but the Syrian Kurds (left wing and largely communist) are likely to be supplanted as counters to "Iran" by fascists Turkey and Israel (this has been confirmed in reports), so we're moving from tactical NATO proxies to actual NATO governments seizing Syrian land.

All of that being said, both are policy decisions that should be able to be debated freely. I can totally see why many on the anti-imperialist left welcome the decision to withdraw from Syria, I'm not entirely unsympathetic to them. It the US and international media response has been horrific.

The New York Times and Guardian are basically now neconservative papers indistinguishable from the Wall Steet Journal and Daily Telegraph. Not a word of dissent is even remotely allowed or involved. The Blob has totally taken over the entirety of the liberal global establishment which sees Trump's move as "treasonous." Not looking forward to 2020 when Democrats will run on identical foreign policy platforms to Mitt Romney.

Circe , Dec 22, 2018 2:15:25 AM | link
@80

Not sure if you watched when Michael Moore received the Oscar for Farenheit 9/11. Let's remember he was addressing the top elite Liberal crowd and got booed. What is it they say about prophets in their own land? Oh yeah, Jesus said: A prophet is without honor in his own country.

I actually have some sympathy for Michael Moore. Aside from being a major critic of the Bush Administration, Michael Moore was also very critical of Obama, and Hillary and was lambasted by liberal centrists and neolibs. He was considered part of the radical left and despite the success of his documentaries, he continued to be marginalized and never received the respect he deserved. In 2015, Moore was supporting Bernie Sanders, but when Bernie was railroaded, Moore who couldn't see himself voting for a Republican ever, especially a depraved billionaire whom he rightly viewed as Chaos personified felt that Hillary was the lesser evil, and from there found the respect that had been denied to him by his own side and especially after he predicted Hillary was about to lose despite the polls and Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania would deny her the Presidency. From the day his prediction materialized Democrats were in awe of his perception. Since then he exchanged integrity for their respect. The Michael Moore of 2003 would never criticize military de-escalation.

However, Moore recently released a new documentary Farenheit 11/9 wherein apparently he's critical of Democrats whom he blames for the rise of Trump.

So don't be too hard on Moore who was an outcast in liberal country for too long. Once you've earned the respect of your own and the mainstream it's not so easy to speak your truth anymore. Thanks to Trump and the Dems, Moore has been temporarily altered. But you're right, he'll look back with regret on this Syria opinion.

I can't stand Trump either, but I agree that getting out of Syria and de-escalating is a good thing...IF in fact that's what he's really up to.

Circe , Dec 22, 2018 2:20:02 AM | link
JR might be interested to know that Michael Moore believes that Hillary handed Trump the Presidency.
b , Dec 22, 2018 2:23:14 AM | link
Bolton's Hawkish Syria Plan Backfired, Pushing Trump to Get Out

The national security adviser expanded U.S. goals in Syria to challenge Iran. But Trump wasn't on board, senior officials say, and Turkey took an opportunity to push the U.S. out.

Hoarsewhisperer , Dec 22, 2018 2:26:43 AM | link
...
Most that make it in politics or entertainment go with the flow - whatever will further their career. Empty people. I don't know this Michael Moor, but sounds lie he is one of this type.
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Dec 21, 2018 11:48:20 PM | 83

Michael Moore has produced some brilliant anti-establishment docos focusing on gun-control (Bowling for Columbine), the US healthcare rort, the sub-prime scam, and the absence of socio-economic well-being in AmeriKKKa (Where To Invade Next?).
I'm hoping that Kadath @ #80 is kidding, but he's right about Moore being rabidly anti-Trump from the get-go.

Peter AU 1 , Dec 22, 2018 2:37:58 AM | link
Geo-political chess. Russia, Turkey, Iran have called check and Trump is moving his pieces accordingly. I think he will pull the US out of Syria. Seems he is not as blinded by his hatred of Iran as his appointees.
psychohistorian , Dec 22, 2018 2:47:28 AM | link
@ b with the link about Bolton

So, does this mean that Bolton should or will resign?

I thought the update of the linked article with the statement about the Kurds from the White House official was interesting: ""They've done the majority of the fighting against ISIS in Syria," one U.S. official said. "How do you treat a partner like this?""

[Dec 22, 2018] Why Trump Decided To Remove U.S. Troops From Syria

Notable quotes:
"... I really want to be naive and think Trump left Syria for good but no, US never leaves Israel alone specially now that Iran is present in Syria with only one intention, to threaten Israel. I believe US pulling out of Syria is bad news for Iranians, maybe he finally wants to bomb the hell out of Iran? I'm John Bolton would love it. ..."
Dec 22, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Zico , Dec 20, 2018 9:14:59 AM | link

Last Friday President Trump had another long phone call with the Turkish President Erdogan. Thereafter he overruled all his advisors and decided to remove the U.S. boots from Syria and to also end the air war .

This was the first time Trump took a decisive stand against the borg , the permanent neoconservative and interventionist establishment in his administration, the military and congress, that usually dictates U.S. foreign policy.

It was this decision, and that he stuck to it, which finally made him presidential.

Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton, his Secretary of Defense 'mad dog' Mattis and his Secretary of State Pompeo were all against this decision. The specialist working on Syria, the lunatic (vid) special representative for Syria engagement James Jefferey and Brett McGurk, the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat ISIS, were taken by surprise. They had worked diligently to install a permanent U.S. presence in a Kurdish ruled proxy state in northeast Syria.

While these people first tried to change Trump's decision, their resistance has now ceased :

Secretary of Defense James Mattis, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton met Monday, when Trump was said to formally decide on a US withdrawal from Syria. Multiple US officials argued against an abrupt US withdrawal, but were said to have given up trying to get Trump to change his mind by Tuesday night . US officials began to notify allies of the decision Tuesday.

"The push back from DOD, State and NSC stopped [Tuesday] night," said one regional expert who consults with the US administration, referring to the Department of Defense, the State Department and the National Security Council.


Back in January we already explained why the neoconservative project of a Kurdish proxy state in northeast Syria was doomed from its start:

Ilhan tanir @WashingtonPoint - 7:50 PM - 24 Jan 2018
This map being discussed all day on Turkish TVs as Turkey's planned security zone/safe zone on Syria border.
Reportedly OK'ed by Sec.Tillerson though nobody on the American side confirms it
Trump is a businessman. He sees only profit/loss. Why should America bare the burden of occupying a hostile place and protected "Kurdish" interest?

I suspect the Northern Syria project was meant to be paid for by the Saudis/Persian Gulf Arabs Sheikhs. But after the Kashoggi fiasco, the Saudis felt betrayed by the US and stopped the cash flow. So Trump said, "fuck it, I'm out".

Any US action in the region is to a large extend, directly/indirectly for the benefit of Israel - at least from the neocon's pov.


donkeytale , Dec 20, 2018 9:25:24 AM | link

Erdogan holds all the cards in the Syria machinations as I stated back when he clearly put his foot down against the Idleb attack.

Putin isn't going to sacrifice Russia's relations with Turkey simply to let his little lapdog Assad pretend to be in control of all of Syria.

Trump needs victories in the new congressional term and his only hope is to start playing ball with the Demotards and try to affect stuff that is truly populist.

Cutting out of Syria is one small opening step if he actually follows through. Giving up his wall fantasy and building roads and bridges instead would be another.

b4real , Dec 20, 2018 9:48:15 AM | link
Trump is not that smart.

He is pulling troops out because it is an Obama war and he is intent on removing any trace of an Obama legacy.

He is also trapped. The only thing keeping him from the inside of a courtroom is the presidency. He can pardon federal crimes, but the NY Attorney general is deep into his finances and his entire family is being threatened. It is a battle between oligarchs who in another age were called carpet baggers as they try to strip everything of value from U.S.A. before the collapse of the economy or they manage to provoke Russia or China to respond militarily.

It was an Obama mistake to try and overthrow Syria, and remember, Hillary was wanting to Libya it with another no-fly zone, (so little imagination) which would likely have led to usa/russia conflict.

This is a well written and researched article, but to suggest that Trump is intentionally doing the smart thing is a little hard for me to believe.

b4real

Circe , Dec 20, 2018 10:11:41 AM | link
That's a pretty nice dream scenario you laid out, and of course it makes perfect sense it should happen that way. However, I still don't get why the Russians have no clue as to what Trump means by the next phase of the campaign . I hope you're right on all this but with all the other bad decisions Trump's been making like covering MbS's butt and still supporting KSA on Yemen and catering to Zionist policy on Jerusalem and Iran, and keeping his son-in-law in charge of swindling the Palestinians, I just have to remain skeptical that there's not an even worse Plan B behind door no. 2. Let's be reminded that when Trump was still President-elect he went out of his way, even risking breaching the Logan Act, to scuttle a U.S.-supported Resolution put forth at the UNSC at the end of Obama's administration condemning Israeli settlement expansion.

Now, is that the act of a man sensible enough to embrace the wonderful, sensible plan you just laid out? I don't think so. I hope I'm wrong and you're right.

Somebody , Dec 20, 2018 10:29:27 AM | link
I really want to be naive and think Trump left Syria for good but no, US never leaves Israel alone specially now that Iran is present in Syria with only one intention, to threaten Israel. I believe US pulling out of Syria is bad news for Iranians, maybe he finally wants to bomb the hell out of Iran? I'm John Bolton would love it.
MarkU , Dec 20, 2018 10:41:15 AM | link
I will believe it when I see it, talk is cheap. The US was going to pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq but it is still there. There is also plenty of time to arrange the next 'chemical attack' to create a pretext for staying.
WJ , Dec 20, 2018 10:53:38 AM | link
I agree with Circe @9 that the following sentence goes a bit too far:

"One hopes that he can expand on it by further decreasing the influence of Saudi Arabia and Israel on his policies."

Trump's biggest donor is an "Israel-first" billionaire and his most influential personal and presidential contacts are from the shadowy world of the Israel-Saudi alliance.

As to the comment quoted by Annette @4, I have never understood why criticisms launched more appropriately at Zionists are regularly directed by certain elements of the alt-right against "Jews." Not only is this practice factually imprecise and also bigoted, it serves to weaken the often legitimate points made against Israel and its influence by allowing others to dismiss them as motivated by anti-Semitism. It is the equivalent of criticizing the Saudi state ideology and using the word "Muslims" to do so, while including lots of cherry-picked quotes from the Koran and Wahhabist propagandists to paint as scary a picture of "Islam" or "Arabs" as possible. It's stupid and rhetorically counterproductive. It also is *exactly* what the Zionists want you to keep doing, as it only enables their self-interested conflation of anti-Zionism with anti-Semitism. If you want to blame "the Jews" for all the problems in the world, just remember that your doing so in this language actually strengthens the position of the Zionists. And you may want to consider that at least *some* of these Jew-bashing critiques of Israel on sites like Unz and others are most certainly written by paid propagandists of the state of Israel.

Paul Damascene , Dec 20, 2018 10:58:38 AM | link
One can only hope the decision holds, but it's hard to exclude the possibility of a borg-staged false-flag provocation.
Jonathan H , Dec 20, 2018 11:03:49 AM | link
B,

I agree with B4real. I find it hard to believe Trump is capable of the thinking you attribute to him in the second of the following two paragraphs - the first paragraph, yes; the second includes nuanced and informed thinking that IMO is beyond his capability.

Paragraphs #1: Trump never wanted that project to proceed. He had always wanted to declare victory against ISIS and leave. It was the borg that tried to prevent this and which push the project along.

Paragraph #2: But there are bigger geopolitical fish to fry than such meddling in the Middle East. Trump knows that the United States' 'unilateral moment' after the demise of the Soviet Union, which left the U.S. was the sole superpower, is over. Russia is back and China is rising. [up through this sentence I can believe that "Trump know it" but not what follows, i.e.:]
Trump's policy to adopt to the decreasing U.S. power is to end the 'globalization' that allowed for China's rapid rise. He wants to geopolitical split this world into two influence spheres. These will be separate from each other in the political, economic, technological and military realms.

Jonathan H

Passer by , Dec 20, 2018 11:03:53 AM | link
"It is quite refreshing to see that Trump was finally able to liberate himself from the dictate of the borg."

From the jewish borg, yes, but not from the military/NATO/EU/geopolitical borg, those who want to rule the world as an Atlantic Empire. And this is even more dangerous.

"Trump decided that to prevent Turkey from leaving NATO, and from joining a deeper alliance with Russia, China and Iran, was more important than to further fool around at the margins of the Middle East. It is the right decision."

What kind of strategists are you? Actually it would have been better for the world if the US and Turkey had a major conflict. That would have destroyed NATO as we know it and would weaken the Atlantic Empire considerably.

Do you know what the way for weakening the US is? Israel and the Zionists.
You should tacitly support them as they will bog down the US in the Middle East, cause muslim anti-americanism, and weaken the Atlantic Empire on the Russian and the Chinese fronts. The Iranian issue again always causes splits between the EU and the US as well.

Russia should actually covertly support AIPAC in the US. No better way of weakening the US. Have you ever thought about it?

james , Dec 20, 2018 11:06:00 AM | link
thanks b... i think the issue of turkey is very big to all this, but i think you might be discounting the ability of those intent on screwing trump, succeeding in doing so... for trump to finally achieve one of his election promises looks positive on the surface... why is it, it took him this long? i am not convinced, but happy it is moving in this direction...

turkey staying onside with the usa doesn't look like a done deal to me either... again, i think we have to wait and see how this unfolds.. i would be concerned about trump hanging onto power at this point.. there are a lot of interests that run contrary to him here..

bevin , Dec 20, 2018 11:11:04 AM | link
The great strength of this analysis and the blog in general is that 'b' never falls into the error of accepting that the US, and its faction riven government, is all powerful and hegemonic.
The US government not only makes stupid mistakes- look at Afghanistan- which not all the money and purchased PR in the world can compensate for, but regularly suffers defeats obvious to anyone who isn't watching the Victory parades on TV.

Many commenters labour under the misapprehension that the neo-cons are clever strategists. In Washington politics they may be but in the wider world they are as incompetent as the slaves of an idiotic ideology always are: they greatly over estimate their own abilities and those of the US forces. They spend their lives reading their own publicity.
All that they can do is bring misery to other countries and increase it in their own. The record is very clear.
Iraq is a mess and it certainly isn't, either economically or strategically, a feather in Washington's cap. The same is true of Afghanistan after 17 years in which dozens of countries, directed by the supposedly unbeatable US forces, are in the position of sharing control of about a quarter of the land with friendly dope dealers.
Sudan, Somalia and Libya are similar, in each case the US would have been much better off if it had left these places alone and relied upon its diplomatic and economic weight to influence their governments. The same is true of Iran and, indeed, Russia where neo-con aggression has forced governments into permanent and implacable opposition.
Ukraine is another strategic disaster for the US, with the added twist that it seems fair set to break NATO up by forcing European nations to choose-as b notes above-the US economic sphere. Or LNG, from rapidly declining fracking wells, over piped natural gas from the biggest, cheapest and deepest gas reserves on the planet.
And it really doesn't matter to the Eurasian sellers whether Europe buys the gas or not: if it wants to hobble its industries and lower living standards by paying twice the price in solidarity with the neo-cons, it simply hastens its decline.

What the New Year holds in store is a United States returning to its ancient role of bullying Latin America: no doubt Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba will come under intense attack as the US preens itself on the strength of its new allies, in Brazil, Argentina, Honduras etc. But all of these regimes are unstable, fascistic, military dictatorships which are doomed to bring unbearable hardships on the people.
And the same is equally true of the US and its allies, everyone of which has a government skewed towards subservient militarism, with domestic politics increasingly dominated by xenophobic hysteria as a substitute for prosperity and social stability: millions of homeless and economically insecure people, without permanent jobs, their savings and pensions dissolving, being fed fear of Russia or China by governments which are transparent fronts for oligarchs and imperialists.
The fact that this sad scenario of social suicide is being played out against a background of rapidly approaching environmental disaster- the reality of climate change- is perhaps an indication of the price that we pay for living under an hierarchy of the most corrupt, venal and thoughtless people in the world. The ones we choose to govern us and tell us what to do.

[Dec 22, 2018] Trump's Decision to Leave Syria Was No 'Surprise' by Mark Perry

Notable quotes:
"... The American Conservative ..."
"... ISIS isn't really defeated, Iran is on the march, the U.S. needs to show solidarity with its Kurdish allies. ..."
Dec 20, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
To say it was impulsive, or that the entire military opposes it, would be grossly misreading the situation.

In 1966, in the midst of the Vietnam War, Vermont Senator George Aiken recommended that President Lyndon Johnson simply "declare victory and get out." While what Aiken actually said was more complex (because the U.S. couldn't win militarily, he implied, it should stop deploying troops and start deploying diplomats), his statement is commonly cited as an example of foreign policy wisdom -- then, as now, a much depleted currency in Washington.

While it's doubtful that President Donald Trump has studied Aiken's views (or even heard of him), his decision on Wednesday to order the unilateral withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria is one of the few "Aiken moments" in American history. Not surprisingly, given Trump's inclinations, the news came in a tweet posted by the president on Wednesday morning: "We have defeated ISIS on Syria," Trump announced , "my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency." U.S. officials later said that all U.S. troops would be removed from Syria over the next 60 to 100 days.

While the announcement took much of official Washington by surprise, The American Conservative has learned that a select group of administration officials, as well as a handful of senior military officers, knew of Trump's decision as early as Saturday morning. According to these officials, all of whom required anonymity in exchange for the information, Trump's decision came as a result of a lengthy telephone exchange he had had with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday. Everything that Trump announced today, we have been told, was decided in that call.

That telephone discussion, as one of these officials told us, was the latest in "a series of conversations the two have had over the last weeks on a host of issues," including the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, Erdogan's insistence that the U.S. extradite cleric Fethullah Gulen to Turkey, U.S. worries about Iranian meddling in the region -- and continuing U.S. support for Kurdish forces operating in Syria (led by the People Protection Units -- the YPG), which Turkey views as a terrorist organization. It was this last issue that was the focus of Friday's telephone call, spurred by Erdogan's public pledge 48 hours earlier that he was prepared to order his military into Syria to take on the YPG despite U.S. backing.

"We will begin our operation to free the east of the Euphrates [river] from the separatist organization within a few days," Erdogan had said on Wednesday . "Our target is not American soldiers, it is the terror organizations that are active in the region."

During Friday's telephone call, Erdogan once again took a hard line against the Kurds, and the administration's support for them. A part of his argument was that the U.S. had said it was allying with the Kurds to destroy ISIS which, as Erdogan argued, had been accomplished. Nor was Erdogan influenced by Trump's contention that the U.S. needed to remain in Syria in order to check Iranian influence in the region. Erdogan, we have been told, was ready for the argument: the best hedge against Iran, he told Trump, was not the Kurds, or even the Saudis, but Turkey.

Erdogan, as it turns out, wasn't the only one making that argument. As reported in these pages last April , senior U.S. military officers, including Gen. Curtis Michael "Mike" Scaparrotti (the highly respected head of the U.S. European Command), warned that the U.S. "marriage of convenience" with the YPG in its fight against ISIS in Syria was poisoning its relationship with Turkey -- a NATO ally. Turkey, as Scaparrotti told James Mattis in March, was particularly angry that the U.S. was supporting the YPG's deployment to Manbij, threatening Turkish forces some 70 miles away. So what is more important, Scaparrotti asked Mattis, our relationship with the Kurds, or our relationship with Turkey? Gen. Jospeh Votel, the head of Centcom, pushed back against Scaparrotti, saying that America's "marriage of convenience" was "temporary, tactical and transactional" and essential to defeating ISIS.

And so it was that the Scaparrotti-Votel debate was both postponed (with the administration supporting Votel's position until ISIS could be decisively defeated) and papered over -- with the Mattis and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo issuing regular reassurances to Turkey that the U.S.-YPG relationship was only temporary. Now, with Trump's decision, the debate has been resolved. "Somewhere, you can bet, Joe Votel is absolutely spinning his head into the ceiling," a senior military officer told me. "I don't know what to call this -- but it sounds like Scaparrotti's revenge." Perhaps, but for Syria experts and for those in the military who supported Votel's position, while Trump's decision on a full U.S. withdrawal came as a surprise, it might have been predicted.

America's Fling With the Kurds Could Cause Turkey and NATO to Split How the Brass Talked Another President Into a Losing Strategy

"Yes, I was surprised," Joshua Landis, the head of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma, says, "but I suppose I should not have been. After all, we could see this coming. Our relationship with Turkey is much, much more important than our relationship with the Kurds. Then too, if the Trump administration wants to pin Iran's ears back in the region, it's not Kurds, or the Saudis or the Emiratis who are going to do it. It's the Turks."

John Allen Gay, an Iran expert and executive director of the John Quincy Adams Society, agrees. He argues that Trump's decision confirms what everyone has quietly admitted for at least the past year: that keeping U.S. forces in Syria to counter ISIS was starting to look like a way for administration interventionists to argue that we should take on Iran.

"Keeping the troops there post-ISIS was in part natural mission creep, but it was also a stalking horse for hawks in the administration who want to take on Iran," he told TAC .

"Yet dangling a few thousand guys in between Turkish forces on one side and Iranians, Russians, and Syrians on the other was never going to be decisive on Iran's regional role, and it came with real risks and no endgame," Gay added. "I just don't think there's any appetite in the American public for a big fight with Iran anywhere, let alone over Eastern Syria."

Gay may well be right, at least according to a number of U.S. military officers with whom we've talked.

"We need a respite," a senior military officer told us in the wake of the Trump decision, "and that's especially true for the Air Force. Those guys have been in the air over the Middle East since Operation Enduring Freedom, back in 2001. These guys are running on fumes."

Nor, as we've been told, are senior military officers concerned that the announced U.S. withdrawal from Syria gives Putin a victory. "Complete and absolute nonsense," a very senior officer who served multiple tours in the region told us. "I hate to put it this way, but I think it's true. We can't repair Syria -- and it's not our job to do it. If Putin wants to inherit it, that's fine."

Which is not to say that Trump's decision has been greeted unanimously. In the wake of his Friday decision, the administration's foreign policy triumvirate of James Mattis, John Bolton, and Mike Pompeo pushed back, arguing that keeping U.S. troops in Syria was essential, if for no other reason than to keep a high U.S. profile in the region. Their arguments were predictable, if outspoken: ISIS isn't really defeated, Iran is on the march, the U.S. needs to show solidarity with its Kurdish allies.

Trump, channeling Erdogan, pushed back on each of them -- ISIS is finished, Iran could be countered in other ways and, as Erdogan had told him, the Kurds were already talking with the Assad government about an accommodation that would keep them in northeastern Syria. In truth, as we were told by a senior Turkish diplomat who was privy to the Trump-Erdogan exchange, the decision had been made on Friday, when Trump told Erdogan that he agreed that the U.S. could withdraw its troops from Syria. When can you do that? Erdogan had asked. Trump wasn't sure, so he turned to his national security adviser, who was listening in on the conversation.

Can we do it today? Now? Trump asked. Bolton nodded: "Yes," he said.

Mark Perry is a contributing editor at and the author of The Pentagon's Wars. He tweets @markperrydc .

about:blank



What To Do December 19, 2018 at 10:51 pm

Turkey always seemed to be the key to the Syria situation, and so it has proved to be.

It's remains the key, or one of them at least, to other regional matters. We should have pulled out many years ago and left it up to Turkey, Syria, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Egypt to make their own arrangements. All we've managed to do is mess things up.

I hope Trump and his people are finally recognizing the wisdom of doing that.

giacomo , , December 19, 2018 at 11:13 pm
Tough week for Bill Kristol et Al, but a good week for the rest of us.
Stephen J. , , December 19, 2018 at 11:15 pm
I believe "Syria" and other countries in the Middle East are victims of powerful war criminals, and their illegal wars. All the propaganda in the world cannot hide the truth of their monstrous crimes against humanity. More info below:
--

"A Christmas Report on the Crimes of the War Criminals"

There is no "Peace on Earth" because of what you do
Millions are dead and their homes destroyed, all "thanks" to you
Some cities have been reduced to burning, smoking rubble
And some countries are now in chaos; you started all this trouble

Millions are in refugee camps, and millions wander the earth
Many refugees are drowning in the sea, or lying dead in the surf
Bombing, killing, blood and gore is your legacy to humanity
All of you posture on the world stage and promote more bloody insanity

So as you toast each other and drink glasses of blood red wine
Perhaps in your hypocrisy you don't realise that you are, the "Gadarene Swine"
Fiends dressed in expensive suits, with "honourable" titles to your names
When you all should be in prison gear, and hanging your heads in shame

As you all relax for the holiday season, no doubt you will be sending each other Christmas Greetings or Happy Holidays. It has been a busy war supporting year, 2018, for many of you. Supplying the weapons that destroyed and decimated many countries, and attending meetings with other war criminals, oops, I mean with other world leaders .
[read more at link below]
http://graysinfo.blogspot.com/2018/12/a-christmas-report-on-crimes-of-war.html

furbo , , December 19, 2018 at 11:29 pm
I would have thought it would be wise to stay until an agreement was reached and in place that guaranteed limited autonomy for the Kurds -who did a great deal of the fighting against ISIS -- and ensured Iran was not too dominating and threatening Israel. But -- the Russians are probably good guarantures of Israeli interests (15% of Israels population are Russians) and as a major Sunni power Turkey can counter Iran. So .ok.
Rey Ikari , , December 19, 2018 at 11:31 pm
Pulling out of Syria because "ISIS is defeated" is a joke of an excuse. ISIS is nowhere near defeated, and if the US pulls out now new terror groups will just fill the power vacuum.
Joe Beavers , , December 19, 2018 at 11:41 pm
Nice background to have.
john , , December 20, 2018 at 12:50 am
Of course it was a surprise. A more thoughtful president might have said something like. " I have directed the Secretary of Defense to draft plans to remove all our ground forces in Syria in the next 3 months or sooner"
11bravo , , December 20, 2018 at 1:27 am
Do we have NUKES in Turkey? Why else would we give 2 $hits about Erdogan's Islamist A$$. I don't mind getting our guys out though. Let the savages and barbarians work it out amongst themselves by killing one another. Who really cares about Syria, Israel can take care of the Russians and the Iranians if need be. Leaving Afghanistan should be next!!
No Respecter Of Persons , , December 20, 2018 at 1:59 am
If it sends the blundering and incompetent Victoria "Eff the EU" Nuland into hysterics like this, it can't be all bad.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/in-a-single-tweet-trump-destroys-us-policy-in-the-middle-east/2018/12/19/eb423434-03da-11e9-b5df-5d3874f1ac36_story.html

Streetlights

Antoinetta III , , December 20, 2018 at 4:26 am
Strange that Bolton would agree that we could pull out right away. If he wants us to stay, why wouldn't he prevaricate and come up with some superficial reason why it would take months before we could actually start moving out.

Antoinetta III

Johann , , December 20, 2018 at 6:45 am
This article describes the complexity of the Syrian quagmire. If we stay in the region with military assets, the probability for conflict, accidental or intentional, with other participants is close to 1, and may result in escalation of conflict with other participants.

Bottom line, Syria is not a national security interest of the US. And when we leave, there will not be a vacuum for ISIS to re-fill as there was in Iraq, as some neocons and neoliberals so disingenuously allege. Assad, Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah, who are working together as allies, will be there to stomp out the remaining embers. Turkey is just another trouble-maker in Syria.

The real motivation to stay there is that so many believe we should be the leading influence in every conflict and pathetic country in the world. That, and the ideology that all governments in the world should be a democracy. In the middle east, democracy is but a transition to a theocracy. In the middle east, democracy is the god that failed.

Richard Vajs , , December 20, 2018 at 7:05 am
Who shouldn't welcome a withdrawal from armed conflict, especially at Christmas? Well, those making a buck off the killing of people in Syria and those who really worry about Iran keeping Israel from stealing half of the Middle East, that's who.
I'll Take It , , December 20, 2018 at 7:35 am
Well, I don't know, but I hope. I surely hope.

Maybe the Spirit of the Lord descended on him, and he (finally) understands that he's got to start getting us out of there.

But whatever the reason is, I'll take it. We beat ISIS? Fine. This is what I voted for, and I'm glad he did it. Our people over there were just sitting ducks, hostages to fortune. Not any more.

Let the other countries take care of whatever's left of ISIS now. We did the heavy lifting. It's their turn. And if they're too lazy or cowardly to do it themselves, **** 'em.

Surety , , December 20, 2018 at 7:43 am
Is this an early fruit of the demise of The Weekly Standard? The scales fall from Trump's eyes and he pulls out of Syria?

Whatever. Hooray!

Bryan , , December 20, 2018 at 8:41 am
Both Fox % Friends and Morning Joe have their hair on fire this morning and they're laying Trump's decision all at the feet of Rand Paul. Jack Hunter has been saying all along that Paul had Trump's ear on foreign policy. If Paul really is the one who persuaded Trump to do this, God Bless Ron and Rand Paul. Now, Paul and his left-wing allies need to go on cable TV and defend this move because right now Trump is being eviscerated.
Rocketeer , , December 20, 2018 at 8:47 am
What I don't understand is all the horrified whining about "commitments" and "honor".

Haven't these idiots been paying attention? Ever since he pulled out of the Iran deal, it was plain as day that prior commitments mean nothing to him. But some of those now shrieking and rending their garments seem to have though that the Kurds and Saudis and Israelis were immune. Surely he would always do what they told him to do?

But pulling out of the Iran deal didn't mean "I can do whatever I want for Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Kurds". It meant "I can do whatever I want". And "whatever I want" can mean "pull out of Syria". Which is what he just did.

It almost amounts to a strategy. And anyone who missed that after everything he's done over the past two years either hasn't been paying attention or just plain dumb.

This is Trump.

On the bright side, it may be the smartest thing he's done in foreign policy since taking office. And he owns it -- it's clearly NOT the work of his sinister and incompetent advisors. Good! More! MORE!

Connecticut Farmer , , December 20, 2018 at 9:03 am
Finally, after two years, Trump has at least taken the first step in fulfilling one of his campaign promises: reducing our overseas military presence.
PAX , , December 20, 2018 at 9:29 am
Forcing the neocons to go deep in their bench. Hope Trump does not waiver. This very exit is what many Trump voters hoped he would do.
Andrew P , , December 20, 2018 at 9:31 am
There are no good options in Syria, so the best thing is to pull out. The next question is what to do about Afghanistan.
Carroll Price , , December 20, 2018 at 9:38 am
"He who laughs last, laughs longest."
eric siverson , , December 20, 2018 at 9:44 am
I hope the Kurds still have good relations with Syria and Assad because USA is going to stop protecting the Kurds .
Michael Ard , , December 20, 2018 at 9:48 am
Very insightful piece. Thank you!
Michael Kenny , , December 20, 2018 at 10:03 am
I tend to see this as Trump trying to find money fro his wall.
marku52 , , December 20, 2018 at 11:02 am
I haven't seen this background info anywhere else.

Thank you.

Donald , , December 20, 2018 at 11:14 am
The NYT editors and most of the commenters are in hysterics.
One thing I have learned from the Trump era -- mainstream liberals are as McCarthyite in their attitudes sometime as the conservatives they love to attack.

On the decision itself, I wish something would be said about protecting the Kurds, but we had no right to meddle in Syria in the first place. All of our interventions in the Mideast turn to um, manure. ( Family blog). We are constantly justifying new interventions because of the problems our earlier intervention caused, or we are told we can't pull out because we are in too deep. It's almost as if this were some giant scam designed to make money for the military industrial think tank complex.

I can't quite bring myself to defend Trump on this, but I have no problem attacking some of his critics.

Win , , December 20, 2018 at 11:35 am
Just some facts that most of you USA suckers are ignorant of;
The Syrian army with the support of Russia, Iran and Hezbollah defeated ISIS.
The US seemed to be more intent on bombing haystacks oh and civillian infrastructure until Russia stepped in.
Styria has claimed back 95% of her land.
Syria with the support of her allies is starting to rebuild the country
Alleppo is rebuilding thanks to Russias help
Many commentators acknowledge the war is basically over -- no thanks to the US.
But yes proclaim you defeated ISIS just get out of there. You are not wanted and your support of ISIS to try and get rid of Assad has not worked.
peter mcloughlin , , December 20, 2018 at 11:44 am
Allies are allies until their interests diverge. Turkey and the US are prime examples. In the chaotic world of the Middle East Ankara sees a Greater Kurdistan of threat to its territorial integrity: Washington supports the YPG, a Marxist-Leninist organisation, because of its importance in the fight against ISIS. It looks as though President Trump has decided Turkey a more vital ally than the Kurds.
Every state pursues what is seen to be in its own best national interest. But it is important that the pursuit does not undermine those very interests. It is a difficult calculation for any leader, upon whom the responsibility of history weighs heavily. The past gives a grim prediction for the future:
• Power, (manifested as interest) was present in very conflict in history -- no exception. It is the underlying motivation for war. Interest cuts across all apparently unifying principles: family, kin, nation, religion, ideology, politics -- everything. We unite with the enemies of our principles, because that is what serves our interest. It is the one thing we will destroy ourselves for, as well as everyone else.
• History shows that every civilization/nation eventually gets the war it is trying to avoid: utter defeat. This applies as much today as any other time in history.
• Leaders and decision-makers delude themselves, thinking they can avoid their fate -- they can't. If survival is threatened, there is no alternative to war, however destructive.
https://www.ghostsofhistory.wordpress.com/
Ergeneqon , , December 20, 2018 at 11:50 am
This will be good for Turkey in the long run.

By 2023, don't be surprised if the Turks have annexed both northern Iraq and northern Syria.

Badger , , December 20, 2018 at 12:05 pm
I'm no fan of the president and have basically disagreed with everything he has done since taking office. But I fully agree with him on this policy change and hope we continue to withdraw from other pointless military quagmires around the world. I can't believe I'm writing this but well done Mr President.
John Balch , , December 20, 2018 at 12:28 pm
No because he is replacing them with uncontrollable paid mercenaries just like he is doing in Afghanistan that way the United States is no longer responsible if they commit war crimes. George W. Bush did it in Iraq using "Blackwater Security aka Academi Company now" until Iraq kicked them out for killing incent civilians.
SteveK9 , , December 20, 2018 at 1:16 pm
The first bit of actual good news in 2 years. Trump is finally acting on what he ran on. Next, Afghanistan. Peace will reign in Syria in a short time now. The Kurds will receive some limited autonomy from Damascus. Damascus will keep them under control, so Turkey will not need to invade Syria to destroy them. The SAA and Russia will wipe out what is left of ISIS in short order, then turn to the hard-core terrorists in Idleb, while Turkey tells its proxies to join the political process. Syria will have survived one of the most vicious multi-national efforts to dismember the country.

Losers # 1: Israel

One Guy , , December 20, 2018 at 2:17 pm
"my only reason for being there during the Trump Presidency."

Because everything is about Trump. The troops weren't there, HE was there. "Me, me, me, ME!!"

Sid , , December 20, 2018 at 3:24 pm
Never thought I'd see the day when American troops would be withdrawn from anywhere! Surely unconstitutional or something This president really does have some crazy ideas!
Fred Bowman , , December 20, 2018 at 3:27 pm
Well about time for the US to pull out of Syria. Shouldn't been there in the 1st place. Maybe one by one the US will start pulling out of some of the other misadventures in the Middle East, and let the nations in the Middle East solve there own problems. Of course, I'm not going to hold my breath, but nevertheless a 1st step had to be taken.

[Dec 22, 2018] Trump made the right decision to quit Syrian conflict by M.K. Bhadrakumar

Notable quotes:
"... Russian President Vladimir Putin echoed on Thursday the widespread skepticism whether Trump's decision will be enforced by Pentagon commanders. Yet the odds are that they just might. This needs explaining. Admittedly, Trump is still a quintessential "outsider" in the Washington Beltway, but then, he also enjoys the backing of a good majority of the American people who are tired of the United States' endless wars abroad. ..."
"... Indeed, a coalition of disgruntled elements and assorted interest groups is forming to debunk Trump. Simply put, they are unhappy that the US military is pulling out of Syria. For many, a gravy train is running while for some others, the issue is Trump – not even Syria. ..."
"... Evidently, there is a sophistry in their campaign against Trump's decision. Principally, three phony arguments are being advanced – that Trump's decision "baffles" the United States' allies; that he has thrown the Kurds under the bus; and that a US pullout from Syria harms the anti-ISIS fight. ..."
"... At any rate, the brunt of the fight against the ISIS was borne by the Syrian government forces and their allies – remember Aleppo? Their grit to finish the job has never been in doubt and there is no reason to fear any let-up. In fact, their interest lies in stabilizing the security situation in the quickest possible way so the political process leading to a post-conflict Syrian order can be speeded up. ..."
"... Ironically, the departure of the US forces could help matters, since in many ways the US military presence only impeded the anti-ISIS fight in Syria. It is well known that terrorist groups took shelter in the US-led security zones in eastern Syria ..."
"... The Al-Tanf base and its 50-square-kilometer security perimeter was only the most glaring example. Again, the "no-fly zones" prevented Syrian and Russian jets from hunting down the ISIS cadres and de facto amounted to US air cover for terrorists. ..."
"... Succinctly put, the Americans are laboring under an illusion that they alone "won" the war against the ISIS in Syria, or Iraq. This illusion must be purged. No, without the 2,000 American troops, Syria isn't about to collapse like a sack of potatoes or become the revolving door for international terrorists. Trust the Russians and Iranians to eliminate the scourge of terrorism from Syrian soil, because it directly affects their own national security. ..."
"... The alliance with the Kurdish militia in Syria has severely damaged US-Turkish relations. Turkey will never allow the creation of a Kurdish homeland on its borders, and it has a congruence of interests with Iraq and Iran – and even Syria – in this regard. ..."
Dec 22, 2018 | www.atimes.com

700 days out of US President Donald Trump's 1,461 days of presidency seem a wasteland of unfulfilled promises and expectations in foreign policy – except, perhaps, on the Korean Peninsula – things dramatically changed on December 19 when he announced the troop withdrawal from Syria.

Taken together with Washington's hurry to negotiate with the Afghan Taliban, it appears that Trump is, finally, on the move as a man of peace, fulfilling the pledge of Candidate Trump to prioritize nation-building over extravagant military adventures in faraway lands.

However, the big question remains: Is the Washington establishment ready for Trump's action plan? The signs so far are very discouraging. The resignation of US Defense Secretary James Mattis raises the stakes incalculably.

Russian President Vladimir Putin echoed on Thursday the widespread skepticism whether Trump's decision will be enforced by Pentagon commanders. Yet the odds are that they just might. This needs explaining. Admittedly, Trump is still a quintessential "outsider" in the Washington Beltway, but then, he also enjoys the backing of a good majority of the American people who are tired of the United States' endless wars abroad. And that becomes a decisive factor in Trump's political calculus. This is one thing.

A proxy war

Indeed, a coalition of disgruntled elements and assorted interest groups is forming to debunk Trump. Simply put, they are unhappy that the US military is pulling out of Syria. For many, a gravy train is running while for some others, the issue is Trump – not even Syria.

For the Cold Warriors in the strategic community, Syria is a proxy war against Russia.

Evidently, there is a sophistry in their campaign against Trump's decision. Principally, three phony arguments are being advanced – that Trump's decision "baffles" the United States' allies; that he has thrown the Kurds under the bus; and that a US pullout from Syria harms the anti-ISIS fight.

To take the last argument first – what will be the impact on the Syrian situation? To be sure, ISIS is down, but not quite out. But then, ISIS is today only residual terrorism, after the huge defeat in Iraq.

At any rate, the brunt of the fight against the ISIS was borne by the Syrian government forces and their allies – remember Aleppo? Their grit to finish the job has never been in doubt and there is no reason to fear any let-up. In fact, their interest lies in stabilizing the security situation in the quickest possible way so the political process leading to a post-conflict Syrian order can be speeded up.

Ironically, the departure of the US forces could help matters, since in many ways the US military presence only impeded the anti-ISIS fight in Syria. It is well known that terrorist groups took shelter in the US-led security zones in eastern Syria .

The Al-Tanf base and its 50-square-kilometer security perimeter was only the most glaring example. Again, the "no-fly zones" prevented Syrian and Russian jets from hunting down the ISIS cadres and de facto amounted to US air cover for terrorists.

National security

Succinctly put, the Americans are laboring under an illusion that they alone "won" the war against the ISIS in Syria, or Iraq. This illusion must be purged. No, without the 2,000 American troops, Syria isn't about to collapse like a sack of potatoes or become the revolving door for international terrorists. Trust the Russians and Iranians to eliminate the scourge of terrorism from Syrian soil, because it directly affects their own national security.

Therefore, isn't it the smart thing to do to let "others" do the job, as Trump put it? However unpalatable the thought might be, a tragedy like the attack on the US Marine Corps barracks in Beirut in 1983 is waiting to happen in Syria once the Turkish military crushes and scatters the Kurdish militia, leaving the 2,000 US troops stranded like sitting ducks in 12 bases in the middle of nowhere spread over a vast territory about one-third the size of all Syria.

Wouldn't Trump know he's skating on thin ice? For if body bags were to come home, the political cost would be his – not Mattis'.

Equally, Trump can no longer take for granted the Saudi willingness generously to bankroll the United States' war in Syria, especially if the self-styled humanists on the Hill proceed with their foreign-policy agenda to wreak vengeance on Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman for the killing of Jamal Khashoggi. You can't have the cake and eat it too, can you?

The ground reality is that Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Jordan have exited the Syrian conflict. Egypt has no stomach to get involved and Turkey, of course, has turned hostile. So who are these "allies" that the agitated folks in the US are talking about? The frank answer is: a clutch of British and French operatives and a horde of Western mercenaries. Isn't this a macabre joke?

The Americans have been acting as "spoilers" in Syria, locked in a geopolitical struggle that has very little to do with fighting terrorism and has only impeded the stabilization of the Syrian situation. Thus it is no coincidence that Trump unveiled his considered decision just as the announcement was made in Geneva that the pan-Syrian committee for the drafting of a new constitution has been set up, which will work under United Nations supervision to galvanize a political process leading to elections and the formation of a new government enjoying the mandate of the people.

Turkey and the Kurds

Finally, the Kurdish factor. The alliance with the Kurdish militia in Syria has severely damaged US-Turkish relations. Turkey will never allow the creation of a Kurdish homeland on its borders, and it has a congruence of interests with Iraq and Iran – and even Syria – in this regard.

On the other hand, without a strong partnership with Turkey, a "swing" state overlooking several regions, American strategies not only in the Greater Middle East but also in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Balkans, the Black Sea and the Caucasus will be at a serious disadvantage. Now, is that something the US can afford?

The US has done a great injustice to the Kurds by giving them false hopes. Leave them alone. They will reconcile with Damascus, availing of the good offices of Russians who have dealt with them from time immemorial.

Plainly put, the Pentagon's trainers and Special Forces "embedded" with Kurdish men and women fighters helped develop romantic notions of creating an independent country for their partners. This should never have happened.

[Dec 22, 2018] Media's Russia Obsession Obscures How Trump's Syria Withdrawal Benefits Turkey Most

Dec 22, 2018 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

PATRICK COCKBURN: The Turks benefit from this. It also shows, you know, that Turkey is really powerful in the region. You know, they've moved a lot of troops up to the border. They'd been threatening to come in anyway. I think, you know, portraying this as Russia being the big winner, this is pretty naive, or even childish, in many ways. It's in Russia's interests that the U.S. should stay in Syria in alliance with the Kurds, which means that the U.S. is probably confronting Turkey, whose main policy objective is to eliminate this Kurdish enclave. So if anything, you know, this is something which makes it easier for the administration to revive the old U.S. alliance with Turkey. And so it doesn't necessarily work in Russia's favor.

This is a very simpleminded view, that this benefits Russia. Turkey benefits because suddenly this whole area in northeast Syria becomes vulnerable to them. They've threatened to move in. They've talked about burying the Kurdish militants in ditches. And we know what happened earlier in the year in Afrin, another Kurdish enclave. You know, there was extreme ethnic cleansing. Almost half the Kurdish population was driven out, and hasn't come back. They've been taken over by extreme Arab jihadis. So yeah, it's very much in Turkey's interests what's happened. But it is not necessarily in Russia's interests at all. BEN NORTON: Yeah, Donald Trump himself, in fact, repeatedly tweeted this on December 20 in response to the news. You know, many media reports portrayed this as a gift to Russia and Iran. Trump pointed out that now Russia and Iran will be fighting ISIS on their own in Syria, and there are still elements of ISIS that are in the country. Thousands of fighters, although ISIS doesn't control a territorial capital, as it had in the past. And what's also interesting about this is that on the same day Trump announced the withdrawal of U.S. troops on December 19, the U.S. State Department also cleared a $3.5 billion sale of air defense systems to Turkey. And in addition to that, a few journalists, mostly Kurdish and Turkish journalists, pointed out that Trump's decision to withdraw came just two days, or a few days, after he had a phone call with the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. And just two days before that decision, Erdogan had, in fact, claimed that in the phone call Trump had agreed, had greenlighted, to a Turkish assault on northeast Syria. Turkey has been trying to get the U.S. to get approval to send Turkish troops and embedded jihadist rebels east of the Euphrates River. So do you think that this is essentially a kind of green light from Trump, saying to Erdogan go ahead and invade?

PATRICK COCKBURN: Well, it kind of–it opens the door to that. Green light creates a picture of somebody saying, you know, go for it. Which is doubtful. But you withdraw the troops, Turkey has been threatening to intervene. Yeah, I think, you know, it may well amount to that.

I think that, you know, it's easy to pillory what Trump said and did. You know, saying that the Islamic State will come back, ISIS will come back. But you know, this was a movement that once controlled territory really from Baghdad to almost to the Mediterranean. And you know, it just lost its last small town on the east of the Euphrates in eastern Syria. So you know, will it come back? Well, yeah, there will be more guerrilla warfare. But again, you know, what strikes me about a lot of the coverage is it's kind of hysterical. It kind of–it is based on a sort of conspiratorial view of what Trump is up to, what his relations with the Russians are. You know, this stuff is so far from the reality of what's actually happening on the ground in Syria, or in Iraq, for that matter. It's very difficult to to discuss it or contradict it. But it's just sort of off the wall.

BEN NORTON: And the question now up in the air is what will happen to the Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, specifically the YPG, the People's Protection Units, which control this area in the northeast. For months now the YPG has, in fact, had kind of on and off relations with Damascus, the central government of Syria. They had brief negotiations and peace talks, and they made some–a few agreements. But it seems that the agreements didn't go very far. It seems to me that this decision will encourage the YPG to seek further rapprochement and a kind of alliance with Damascus. So what do you think-

PATRICK COCKBURN: They'll be desperate to do that right now, because they may not like Damascus very much, but they'd much prefer the Syrian government to the Turks. They're really terrified of the Turks coming in. They're threatened. They are terrified of ethnic cleansing. So they'll go to Damascus.

Now, previously, because of the U.S. presence that inhibited them, stopped them doing that. And also the Russians didn't want them to do that. So they'll do that. But it's it's–you know, the Turkish army is pretty big, pretty strong. Even supposing the Syrian army came into this enclave it wouldn't necessarily be able to stop the Turks. I mean, what's happened is that, you know, if you go to that area, one, it's not a great place for the Turks to fight against heavy armor and aircraft. It's very flat, most of the east of the Euphrates. Not many mountains, or no mountains, and few hills. And also mostly about 2 million Kurds there. But a lot of them are in towns or cities along the Syrian-Turkish border. Often cities, when the frontier was drawn up between Syria and Turkey, it ran along the old railway line between Aleppo and Mosul. And so cities were cut in half. Kurdish cities were cut in half. So a lot of these the Kurds live within artillery range of the Turkish army/.

It's important to talk about this, because if the Turks do come across, we could have a great wave of 2 million Kurds taking to the roads, desperate to get out, going to northern Iraq, going elsewhere. And there seems very little concern about this, and it's kind of depressing to hear these sort of conspiracy theories about Russia when what is happening is that, you know, is in many ways pretty–you know, pretty simple, but pretty bad.

BEN NORTON: And then finally, Patrick, let's just take a big look at what's going on here. What do you think this will mean for the future of the war in Syria? The war has been going on since early 2011, and it looks like the conflict is really finally in its final stages. It might come to an end pretty soon. We've also seen, interestingly, negotiations between Iran, Russia, and Syria, and Turkey. And specifically, Iran, Turkey, and Russia have had these kinds of peace negotiations. They've had some developments, some breakthroughs, and then some obstacles. But the three of them, it seems like they have had many agreements, although there are some agreements that seem pretty intractable. And I think the question of Idlib, and now the question of the Northeast, seem to be two major obstacles that Russia, Iran, and Turkey have really different views on. So with this potentially the U.S. withdrawal, would this potentially accelerate a peace negotiation for the end of the war? Or could it potentially usher in a new phase of the war?

PATRICK COCKBURN: It could go either way. It's very difficult to tell which way the ball will roll after this. Will the Turks come in directly, or will the Russians try to stop them? Will the Syrian government sort of take over the, do a deal with the Kurds and take over? You know, if the Turks do come in, what will happen to the Kurds in this area? You know, it's about 50-50 Kurds and Arabs. And they–you know, the relations are very hostile. You know, there could be a lot of revenge killings in this area.

So you know, it's difficult to say that. But I think a lot of this has to do with Trump wanting to get on better terms with Turkey. And if he does want to do anything against Iran, having better relations with Turkey is essential. But the actual having a U.S.–a Kurdish enclave supported by the U.S. in Turkey never really, you know, didn't do any damage to the Russians, and didn't do any damage to Iran. So I think the idea that this is, you know, Happy Christmas for Putin and slogans like that is really completely unrealistic.

BEN NORTON: We'll have to end our conversation there. We were speaking with the award-winning journalist Patrick Cockburn, who has for decades been a foreign correspondent for the British newspaper the Independent, and he's also the author of several books. Thanks so much for joining us, Patrick.

PATRICK COCKBURN: Thank you.

BEN NORTON: For The Real News Network, I'm Ben Norton.


Pym of Nantucket , December 21, 2018 at 10:17 am

This all started with Khashoggi. Another aligned news story that wasn't mentioned above was Trump musing aloud about rounding up Gulen.

Pavel , December 21, 2018 at 10:47 am

The Grauniad just quoted a tweet from a predictably OUTRAGED @HillaryClinton:

Actions have consequences, and whether we're in Syria or not, the people who want to harm us are there & at war. Isolationism is weakness. Empowering ISIS is dangerous. Playing into Russia & Iran's hands is foolish. This President is putting our national security at grave risk.

This from the woman who almost singlehandedly (i.e. along with David Cameron and Sarkovy) destroyed Libya and allowed -- if not encouraged -- the flow of US weapons to go into the hands of ISIS allies in the US-Saudi-Israeli obsession with toppling Assad regardless of the consequences. As Justin Raimondo wrote in Antiwar.com in 2015:

The policy of the Obama administration, and particularly Hillary Clinton's State Department, was – and still is – regime change in Syria. This overrode all other considerations. We armed, trained, and "vetted" the Syrian rebels, even as we looked the other way while the Saudis and the Gulf sheikdoms funded groups like al-Nusra and al-Qaeda affiliates who wouldn't pass muster. And our "moderates" quickly passed into the ranks of the outfront terrorists, complete with the weapons we'd provided.

This crazy policy was an extension of our regime change operation in Libya, a.k.a. "Hillary's War," where the US – "leading from behind" – and a coalition of our Western allies and the Gulf protectorates overthrew Muammar Qaddafi. There, too, we empowered radical Islamists with links to al-Qaeda affiliates – and then used them to ship weapons to their Syrian brothers, as another document uncovered by Judicial Watch shows.

After HRC's multiple foreign policy fiascos she is the last person who should be commenting on this matter.

a different chris , December 21, 2018 at 11:50 am

>the people who want to harm us are there & at war

Sounds like then they are too busy to harm us? She is truly an idiot. Thanks again, Ivy League.

flora , December 21, 2018 at 10:54 am

We used to jokingly call the Washington Post 'Pravda on the Potomac' because of what appeared to be occasional heavy spin – the official story – in news coverage on foreign policy. Now, the new coverage seems to be 'all spin all the time'. It's getting harder and harder find reporting on foreign policy issues.

Thanks for this post.

Ptb , December 21, 2018 at 11:12 am

Middle east 101 – it's the pipeline options.

What is the most valuable thing Turkey has? The ability to block pipelines to Europe. They need to have Syria in semi chaos to complete that block, but it is already the case. And there is no shortage of cheap options to maintain it, nor any huge objection by regional players to maintain it.

Turkey, otoh, controls its territory well enough to make its own moves, leveraging its strategically central location to the max. (The whole flood-the-EU-with-refugees extortion move was just vicious. Kissinger would be proud )

Also the pipeline expansion is a big part of the Russia phobia too. Keeping hydrocarbons flowing by sea under the protection of the navy is a cornerstone of maintaining global security. Thus, as long as Turkey blocks Russian pipelines too, it will get away with it for the time being.

With a likely Emerging markets bust, however, TR will be at the mercy of creditors, so Erdogan is going to need a whole new stack of cards to play for that round, which wol be next year very possibly.

Nick Stokes , December 21, 2018 at 11:18 am

No, the Russia obsession shows how the US military is being used. Increase activity in Yemen and Africa since 2017 parallels Russia's goals.

Susan the other , December 21, 2018 at 1:02 pm

Thanks for this post. I makes the best sense of our actions. We want to keep Turkey loyal to NATO, keep them buying our missiles, etc. The raging hatred of Turkey for the Kurds and their pursuit of a corner of land to call their own somewhere in the east of Turkey (close to huge oil reserves) and the threat of relentless terrorism has been Erdogan's big nightmare. At odds with Erdogan has been the policy of the US Military which has always used the Kurds as trusted allies in the ME. But all the sturm und drang of Syria has now subsided and seems to have been almost pointless thanks to the Saudis falling apart. At least it looks that way. And this also explains Mattis' abrupt resignation, explicitly stating he does not agree with Trump turning his back on the Kurds. Basically. Mattis has worked with the Kurds for decades probably. The only question now is what concessions did we get from Erdogan that Turkey will not have a total pogrom on the Kurds? It is going to be interesting to see what becomes of the Saudis as well.

Synoia , December 21, 2018 at 1:10 pm

Non more Kurds in the Way?

A sharp lesson for US allies – nothing endures .

[Dec 21, 2018] The White House announces some sort of US troop withdrawal from Syria

Notable quotes:
"... The only losers are the Israelis and the Saudis ..."
"... Now is the time for noninterventionists of all colors to support these decisions. ..."
"... I have seen some indication that we (the USA) will be removing support for Saudi activities in Yemen ..."
"... How much more flak could the neocons give him at this point. Short of assassinating him they've just about thrown everything they have at him. ..."
"... This is good news. It is insane to occupy a third of Syria risking a world war. But I heard the other day Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon accusing Russia of using Facebook to destroy American democratic values. That is crazy. ..."
"... If Trump pulls the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan just before the next presidential election - I think he can win it. There is strong bipartisan support for bringing the troops home. I am Canadian and a lefty - but if I were an American I would vote for Trump in the next election if he pulled the troops out (as long as his democratic opponent was not making a credible pledge to do the same). ..."
Dec 21, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

TTG , a day ago

The papers are saying withdrawal in 30 days. I don't know when the clock starts. That's fast, but enough time to coordinate the withdrawal with Damascus and her allies. The only losers are the Israelis and the Saudis . Between this bold and far reaching decision by Trump and the reestablishment of USSPACECOM, he is being presidential on a grand scale and keeping promises. He's going to get a lot of flak from neocons on the left and right. Now is the time for noninterventionists of all colors to support these decisions.
Pat Lang Mod -> TTG , a day ago
I would think that 30 days is an impossibly short period. It is not just a matter of climbing on board aircraft to leave. It should be noted that the US has a long record of walking away from allied peoples and groups in a treacherous way. People who trust us even in extremis are fools. When you no longer serve our purpose we are done with you. Having been involved in several of such abandonments I speak from experience.
dilbertdogbert -> Pat Lang , a day ago
A friend of mine was in 1st Log in Saigon and was told the order was to get out stuff out in some silly assed time frame. He replied that we had been putting stuff in Vietnam for 10 years and you want it all out pronto???!!!
Pat Lang Mod -> dilbertdogbert , a day ago
A good story but we actually back-hauled a great deal of materiel and still left the ARVNs enough that the communists sold it all over the world for years. My outfit at the end was STDAT-158. We were the rump of MACVSOG left behind to keep up the good work in that vale of tears. We had vast warehouses full of weapons, ammunition, clothing, commo gear, medical supplies, etc. We sent much of it to Okinawa and turned the rest of it over to our remaining native troops. They were non-Vietnamese who were not ARVN. They went into the jungle north of Pleiku where we had bought them at their request since the USG would not evacuate them and their families from the country - BOHICA! I argued as best a major could to set them up somewhere like Palau until I was told to shut up. Alas.
Eric Newhill -> TTG , a day ago
TTG,
I have seen some indication that we (the USA) will be removing support for Saudi activities in Yemen . The Kashogi killing seems to be the excuse. So maybe there is a grander general withdrawal from MENA involvement afoot. How much more flak could the neocons give him at this point. Short of assassinating him they've just about thrown everything they have at him.
Strawman -> TTG , 8 hours ago
TTG, I am wondering if you have an opinion on the writings of active duty Army Maj. Danny Sjursen, who posts a lot at tomdispatch.com and is reprinted at truthdig.com . Though often critical of the president, his latest (linked below) is approving of Trump's Syria move:

https://www.truthdig.com/ar...

TTG -> TTG , a day ago
Other sources are saying 60 to 100 days for a complete withdrawal. That's fine. Now is the time for those Special Forces teams working with the Kurds and Arabs of the YPG/YPJ and SDF to finally complete a full cycle of a US sponsored resistance, the demobilization and/or integration of those forces into the host government's forces.
Pave Way IV -> TTG , a day ago
Too bad we didn't go full cycle with the Houthis. Or is it still a secret that GBs were working with them against al Qaeda in Yemen way back when.
TTG -> Pave Way IV , a day ago
You would be surprised (or maybe not) at the range of people our Special Forces have worked with. I wrote this a while back about our work with the Iranian Green Berets. Some of the meet-ups I imagined may take place.

https://turcopolier.typepad...

Pat Lang Mod -> Pave Way IV , a day ago
Yes. It is, more or less and fine little fellows they are, or at least their grandfathers were.
SurfaceBook -> TTG , a day ago
TTG. , theres some Russia reports on fighters from Syria moving to Africa , will this mean an increase of US African activities after syria ? or do you foresee another theatre of increased activity ?
TTG -> SurfaceBook , a day ago
I'm sure jihadis from Syria are making their way to various fronts in Africa. I doubt Trump will be sending troops to the continent in response beyond a few more SF teams. I imagine the Russians will be sending a few teams of their own.
SurfaceBook -> TTG , a day ago
What do you think when you see AFRICOM increased activity in africa ? is this one of the neocon's way to counter china's influence in africa in the future ? The French also got heavily involved in Mali and yet there still no end of it..
VietnamVet , a day ago
This is good news. It is insane to occupy a third of Syria risking a world war. But I heard the other day Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon accusing Russia of using Facebook to destroy American democratic values. That is crazy.

The Yellow Vests provincial French uprising is destroying corporate toll booths and speed cameras. This plus Brexit documents how fragile the Western Alliance is. The anger across the West is due to horrendous inequality, privatization, political incompetence, and degradation of life. Instead of picking fights with everyone across the world, Mid America needs rebuilding and healing to prevent a revolt at home.

Pat Lang Mod -> VietnamVet , a day ago
The Democrats and especially the real lefties like Wyden have no ability to block Trump in this so long as he is president
TTG , a day ago
As a corollary to today's announcement, we should see our troops out of Tanf most rikki-tik. I bet we could get out of there in 24 hours if we had to. That would open the Baghdad-Damascus Highway.
JJackson -> TTG , 17 hours ago
I was wondering, with the benefit of hind sight, who knew in advance given a flurry of SAA activity recently around At Tanf. I doubted the point was a show down with the US now it looks like an encirclement to intercept the force fleeing the area, once the US pulls out, and in preparation for clearing the pocket.
Pat Lang Mod , a day ago
For general information TTG is the designated hitter on Syria but the the contributions of all, especially Robert Willman are very welcomed
Eric Newhill , 2 days ago
A good start! Now, if Trump can also get our troops out of Afghanistan, he will have fulfilled another campaign promise and free up some money for yet another; The Wall.
James Thomas -> Eric Newhill , a day ago
If Trump pulls the troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan just before the next presidential election - I think he can win it. There is strong bipartisan support for bringing the troops home. I am Canadian and a lefty - but if I were an American I would vote for Trump in the next election if he pulled the troops out (as long as his democratic opponent was not making a credible pledge to do the same).
Pat Lang Mod -> James Thomas , a day ago
What would "credible" be?
ancient archer -> Pat Lang , 14 hours ago
Good point, Colonel. Given the past and recent record of democrats nothing they say on this topic can ever be credible to anyone.
Greco , 2 days ago
That's a positive indication, but I thought the calculus was to force the Iranians out? Is Trump now willing to engage a more diplomatic approach with Iran? Has neocon influence lost momentum?

It looks like this is the rationale behind this move:

https://www.thetelegram.com...

Ayham Kamel, an analyst with Eurasia Group, said Moscow, as part of any deal, may ask for acceptance of Assad and an eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops from Syria, as Trump has suggested he would like to see happen by the end of the year.

"A public deal that accepts Assad in return for limiting Iranian influence implicitly if not explicitly gives him some legitimacy, and gives a much more coherent meaning for the victory beyond military terms," he said.

The president has also been trying to work out some sort of deal with the Taliban in Afghanistan. Apparently the president wants to remove all US troops in Afghanistan by the time of the 2020 election season. I'd certainly like to see that happen too.

https://taskandpurpose.com/...

smoothieX12 -> Greco , 16 hours ago
That's a positive indication, but I thought the calculus was to force the Iranians out?

Iran activities in Syria will be limited (or regulated, if one wishes) by Russia-Israeli arrangement, it is a given. Syrian air-defense officers Mustafa Ivanov and Akhmed Petrov manning all those air-defense toys in Syria (S-300 PMU et al) saw to that. Russia is NOT Israel's enemy but she expects some set of rules which work for everyone in Syria. IDF top brass nowadays visits Moscow as if going to work everyday.

Patrick Armstrong , 10 hours ago
I think the tiny minds that infest this site would do well to expose themselves to the larger strategic thinking of Mia Farrow:

"As Trump pulls troops out of Syria, we must acknowledge the enormity of
the world's failure to halt a humanitarian catastrophe . U.S exit
benefits Russia, ISIS - still active, Iran & Assad. Was this agreed
to during Putin/Trump's 2 hour Helsinki meeting- without witnesses?"

Bill Browder says it's a gift to Putin.

Here's some good reading https://www.rt.com/op-ed/44...

No doubt more to come. I look forward to the pink pussy hats carrying signs "No to grabbing! Yes to bombing!"

BrotherJoe , 16 hours ago
Being cynical for a second, could this be a response to the House's refusal to fund the border wall ? I can imagine the Israeli lobby putting pressure on Congress to make any deal necessary to retain American forces in Iraq. Is this overly convoluted thinking ?

On a second note, the Colonel has posted elsewhere about Erdogan's ambition to (re)establish a pan-Turkic alliance across the ME. Will the fact that he won't have the US as a buffer against Russsia be a help or a hindrance ?

Eugene Owens , a day ago
US withdrawal from Syria was a kickback to Erdogan for buying $3.5 Billion in Patriot missiles instead of the Russian S400.

https://foreignpolicy.com/2...

Pat Lang Mod -> Eugene Owens , a day ago
Plausible, but it was something he wanted to do anyway.
Jaime , a day ago
I hope this time is for real. I wonder what kind of deal Erdogan and Trump reached.
Pat Lang Mod -> Jaime , a day ago
Continued support
FB Ali -> Pat Lang , a day ago
And Patriots (on deferred payment, I presume).

As always seems to happen, the Kurds get thrown under the bus! They seem to have a remarkable ability to screw up their alliances.

ISL -> Pat Lang , a day ago
Dear Colonel,

There also are reports of sales of Patriots, so maybe Turkey has decided against the S-300 (for the time being).

FB Ali -> ISL , a day ago
Anyone hoping this means the Turks have cut their ties to the Russians is sadly mistaken. They've taken the free Patriots, and will use the funds earmarked for the S-300 to pay for the gas coming from Russia.
Eugene Owens -> FB Ali , 16 hours ago
And sadly, the inner technical workings of the Patriots and their radar systems will now be open to inspection by GRU technical intelligence experts. Same for the F35 if that deal frees up in Congress.
ISL -> FB Ali , a day ago
Dear FB Ali,

I suspect that is what the Trump administration or more likely Trump himself (no matter what the intelligence agencies say) personally believes (but then he doesnt listen to briefings).

It was apparent that Erdogan believes the US was behind the coup against him and thus will ensure he has ace's up his sleeve (i.e., air defenses that could not (potentially) be turned off by NATO). Call it a strategic and temporary turn from Russia (for a few months?).

Adrestia , a day ago
According to Southfront some troops will stay, but they give no source for this.

https://southfront.org/u-s-...

A notable part of US Special Operations Forces will remain on the ground
and additional forces of US-linked private military companies will be
deployed to "defend American interests"

Pat Lang Mod -> Adrestia , a day ago
"Some troops" is probably the neocons and generals' club attempt to blunt Trump's decision
TTG -> Adrestia , a day ago
The first US troops in were a couple of dozen Green Berets. They will probably be the last ones out. If all goes well, they will hand over liaison duties to SAA, Russian or even IRGC counterparts (loosely speaking). At least that's the way I think it should go.
Pat Lang Mod , a day ago
As TTG says here the Rojava Kurds have a chance here but the window will close quickly if they do not embrace fully the Syrian government. I suspect that the Russians have made a deal with Turkey that involves a cessation of support of jihadis in Idlib and possibly Afrin in return for a free hand against the Rojava Kurds and that Trump personally and against advice made that decision.
Walrus , 2 days ago
...Leaving a vacuum to be filled by?
TTG -> Walrus , a day ago
The supposed vacuum is Syrian territory. Damascus and the SAA will fill it just fine. The Kurds would be suicidal fools to resist.
Jaime -> TTG , a day ago
I think one should NEVER betray one's own. Unless Russia gets some deal for the Kurds, they will be thrown under the bus. The only place where they can get some mercy is, again, in Damascus. If you ask me, I would crush them.
TTG -> Jaime , a day ago
Assad's policy is to eventually exert control over ALL Syrian territory. He wants the Kurds to be an integral part of that Syria, probably more integral than a lot of Kurds would want. If we facilitate that transfer, we will for once do right by an indigenous ally. It is time for the demobilization phase. Special Forces commanders should be doing everything in their power to ensure this is part of the withdrawal plan. That's how we avoid betraying the Rojava Kurds.
Pat Lang Mod -> Jaime , a day ago
'If you ask me, I would crush them." Ah, a cruel, fierce man you are...
Jaime -> Pat Lang , 13 hours ago
No, Sir. In fact, it is true that human nature has its contradictions. War is a total waste of resources -both human and material. Negotiations and diplomacy are much better courses of action. I guess I got carried away, and I reacted irrationally. Syria has suffered enough, and I hope that the parties can find ways to put away their weapons and start the recontruction of their country despite the mistakes from all sides.
ISL -> Jaime , a day ago
Assad also knows the Kurds are a problem for Turkey, which is in Syria's interests.
Pat Lang Mod -> Jaime , a day ago
if you were Damascus?
John Waddell -> TTG , a day ago
Might be a bit of a tussle with Turkey but its probable that Damascus and the SDF have been in talks for a while so hopefully this time, as opposed to Afrin, the Kurds will see sense. The Turks biggest fear must be PKK spreading along their southern border and if Syria/Russia can give them some assurances re that then perhaps they will sit back and watch.

This will leave the SAA and RuAF, with Iraqi help, to get stuck in on a proper demolition of the remaining ISIS units followed by a Idlib campaign.

There is an implication in this move by the US that they have evacuated anyone that matters from their proxy units. How the remaining disposable foot soldiers react to that is an unknown so a factor in a rapid withdrawal to reduce shot in the back risk.

If Trump also wants to get out of Afghanistan perhaps this is a small scale dry run.

Julius HK -> TTG , a day ago
To say the least, Netanyahou is not going to have a good night sleep from now on...
Pat Lang Mod -> Julius HK , a day ago
I don't think so. The re-opening of the Quneitra crossing speaks to a change in Israeli policy.

[Dec 21, 2018] Trump End the Syria War Now by Eric Margolis

Highly recommended!
This article written more then a year ago still reads as today analysis of the situation. Bravo !
Notable quotes:
"... That's fine, but the problem is that Trump's track record so far makes it impossible to give him unalloyed credit for this. ..."
"... Who exactly is the US at war against in Syria and why is it going on? http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-u-s-military-bases-in-syria-their-precise-location-is-known/5600527 ..."
"... Trump has decided. Perhaps. But do the CIA and/or Pentagon really care what Trump decides? Thank you for this concise summation of Imperial Washington's war against Syria. ..."
"... The goal of supporting the Kurds is still a priority, to advance Israel's fall back position of partition. It would prefer the chaos of a regime run by jihadi scum (not going to happen thanks to V. Putin) but either way we'll do Israel's bidding. ..."
"... As so often, the weakness of the argument is obvious in the first sentence: "Many Americans voted for Donald Trump because he vowed to end the foreign conflicts in which the US had become entangled". I can't say I recall any such vow. Trump is a master of doubletalk. He says everything and the contrary of everything. ..."
"... Where is the "Special Prosecutor" on this? Assange: 'CIA Not Only Armed Syria's Insurgents -- It Paid Their Salaries' http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=57076 ..."
"... "Pompeo and David B. Rivkin Jr., a senior fellow at the neoconservative think-tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal that "Legal and bureaucratic impediments to surveillance should be removed." Pompeo has also suggested that National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden should be executed." ..."
"... ZeroHedge: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-23/five-weird-conspiracy-theories-cia-director-mike-pompeo "Mike Pompeo sounds increasingly unhinged when talking about Russia, Wikileaks and the media" ..."
"... U.S. Special Operations Commander Tony Thomas confirmed Friday that the U.S. had ended its covert program aiding rebel groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying the decision was made after assessing the years-long operation's capabilities and by no means an effort to curry favor with Assad's chief backer, Moscow ..."
"... Lavrov has some pretty direct and well-deserved words for Obama. Thus, Lavrov compares Obama to a small kid unable to comprehend the responsibilities of his position of a President of the US. ..."
"... Oded Yinon in his famous article "proceeds to analyze the weaknesses of Arab countries concluding that Israel should aim to bring about the fragmentation of the Arab world into a mosaic of ethnic and confessional groupings. "Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation," he argued, would prove to be advantageous to Israel in the short term. Ilan Peleg described it as "an authentic mirror of the thinking mode of the Israeli Right at the height of Begin's rule." Chomsky warned against complacency about these fringe ideas since, he argued: "(t)he entire history of Zionism and later that of Israel, particularly since 1967, is one of a gradual shift towards the positions of those formerly regarded as right-wing extremists." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinon_Plan ..."
"... van Creveld also stated: "We have the capability of taking the world down with us. And I assure you that will happen before Israel goes down." Food for thought! ..."
"... Tucker and Tulsi on Syria vs CIAria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IGAXJNzPfU ..."
Jul 22, 2017 | www.unz.com

Many Americans voted for Donald Trump because he vowed to end the foreign conflicts in which the US had become entangled. So far, they have been disappointed. But this week a light flashed at the end of the tunnel.

President Trump, according to numerous reliable Washington sources, has decided to end US arms supplies and logistics support to Syria's jihadist rebels that have fuelled the bloody six-year conflict. Washington, and its allies Britain and France, have persistently denied arming Syria's jihadist rebels fighting to bring down the Russian and Iranian-backed government of President Bashar Assad.

Former President George W. Bush actively considered invading Syria around 2008 in collusion with Israel. But the Israelis then pointed out that there were no Western-friendly groups to replace Assad, only extreme militant Sunni Muslim groups. Even the usually reckless Bush called off the invasion of Syria.

By contrast, Barack Obama gave a green light to the CIA to arm, train and logistically support anti-Assad jihadist rebels in Syria. Arms poured in from Lebanon and, later, Turkey, paid for by Saudi Arabia and the Gulf emirates. Small numbers of US, British and French advisors went to Syria to teach the jihadists how to use mortars, explosives, and anti-tank weapons. The media's claim that the fighting in Syria was due to a spontaneous popular uprising was false. The repressive Assad government was widely unpopular but the uprising was another CIA 'color-style' operation.

The object of this operation was to overthrow President Assad and his Shiite-leaning regime, which was supported by Iran, a bogeyman to all the US-backed feudal Arab oil monarchies. Syria was also to be punished because it refused Washington's demands to sever ties with Iran and accept US tutelage.

Then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton championed the covert war against Syria, arranging massive shipments of arms and munitions to the rebels from Kadaffi-era arms stores in Libya, and from Egypt, Croatia, likely Serbia, Bulgaria and Azerbaijan. Once again, the Gulf Arabs paid the bill.

The offensive against Syria was accompanied by a powerful barrage of anti-Assad propaganda from the US and British media. From the background, Israel and its partisans beat the war drum against the Assad government.

The result of the western-engendered carnage in Syria was horrendous: at least 475,000 dead, 5 million Syrian refugees driven into exile in neighboring states (Turkey alone hosts three million), and another 6 million internally displaced. That is, some 11 million Syrians, or 61% of the population, driven from their homes into wretched living conditions and near famine.

Two of Syria's greatest and oldest cities, Damascus and Aleppo, have been pounded into ruins. Jihadist massacres and Russian and American air strikes have ravaged once beautiful, relatively prosperous Syria. Its ancient Christian peoples are fleeing for their lives before US and Saudi takfiri religious fanatics.

Just when it appeared the jihadists were closing in on Damascus, limited but effective Russian military intervention abruptly changed the course of the war. The Syrian Army was able to regain the military initiative and push back the jihadists. Intermixed with so-called 'takfiri' rebels are some 3,000 ISIS jihadists who were originally armed and equipped by US advisors but have now run amok. They are under fierce western air attack in Syria and Iraq and are splintering.

Russia and the US have been inching toward a major war over Syria. In fact, US intervention has been far more extensive than generally believed, as this writer has been reporting for the past five years. Turkish media linked to the government in Ankara has just revealed that the US has at least ten small military bases in northern Syria being used to support rebel jihadist forces.

Meanwhile, the US is now relying almost entirely on Kurdish militias, know in Syria as YPG, to attack ISIS and act in US interests. This has outraged Turkey, which regards YPG as part of the hated Kurdish independence movement, PKK, against which Turkey has fought for two decades. During the 1980's, I covered the Turkish-PKK conflict in eastern Anatolia.

If YPG/PKK emerges victorious from the Syrian conflict, Kurdish demands for an independent state in south eastern Turkey will intensify, threatening the breakup of the Turkish state. Kurds make up some 20% of Turkey's population of 80 million.

For this very important reason, Turkey has been pulling away from US-run NATO, and warming relations with Moscow. Turkey has NATO's second largest armed forces and key airbases that cover the Mideast.

Trump's announced retreat from Syria -- if it turns out to be real -- will mark a major turning point in US-Russian relations. It could well avoid a clash between Russia and the US, both nuclear powers. The US has no real business in Syria and no strategic interests

America's powerful neocons, who have been pressing for war against Russia, will be furious. Expect the media war against Trump to intensify. So too claims that Trump colluded with Moscow to get elected.

Copyright Eric S. Margolis 2017


Randal , says: July 22, 2017 at 8:58 pm GMT

But this week a light flashed at the end of the tunnel. President Trump, according to numerous reliable Washington sources, has decided to end US arms supplies and logistics support to Syria's jihadist rebels that have fuelled the bloody six-year conflict.

That's fine, but the problem is that Trump's track record so far makes it impossible to give him unalloyed credit for this. At the moment it has to be counted as just another "up" moment in the rollercoaster ride that has been the Trump presidency so far. Will it foreshadow further moves towards sanity in foreign policy? Or will it just be followed by another literally stupid lurch back to the neocon-driven norm?

Looked at optimistically, you can read it as a sign that the underlying sensibleness of the patriotic "America first" noninterventionist approach (as opposed to the usual Israel/Saudi first, or US-uber-alles militarism, or "humanitarian interventionism" approach) is finally prevailing, or at least as a sign of a reduction in the US regime drive towards direct confrontation of Russia.

But looked at pessimistically, it's just an admission of the already obvious failure of one particular interventionist approach and its termination in favour of alternative approaches to the same ends, which will be followed by some idiocy such as another childish murder of Syrian conscripts when Trump is shown some more emotionally manipulative photographs.

Time will tell.

exiled off mainstreet , says: July 23, 2017 at 2:18 am GMT
Kudos to Mr. Margolis for penning an excellent article describing the real facts of the matter against the prevailing propaganda narrative and placing the blame, including by implication war crimes responsibility, where it belongs.
Gg Mo , says: July 23, 2017 at 3:14 am GMT
Why is NO ONE at UNZ covering the UN pay-to-play Corruption/Bribery trial of Ng Lap Seng ? More coming down the pike involving Ban Ki Moon's brother ! Thank Goodness for Mattew Lee at Inner City Press ! https://youtu.be/62YnvqveGYU
UNZ should DEFINITELY carry his reportage as he seems to be the ONLY one at the Pressers w/ Dujarric asking questions about ANYTHING at the UN.

http://www.innercitypress.com/unbribery63uncooperativeun072217.html

Russ , says: July 23, 2017 at 4:08 am GMT
A sidelined John McCain should be a greatly reduced impediment to an exit from Syria.
NoseytheDuke , says: July 23, 2017 at 4:12 am GMT
Who exactly is the US at war against in Syria and why is it going on? http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-u-s-military-bases-in-syria-their-precise-location-is-known/5600527
SND , says: July 23, 2017 at 4:28 am GMT

Former President George W. Bush actively considered invading Syria around 2008 in collusion with Israel. But the Israelis then pointed out that there were no Western-friendly groups to replace Assad, only extreme militant Sunni Muslim groups. Even the usually reckless Bush called off the invasion of Syria.

You mean the Israeli government's desire that the US fragment Middle Eastern Arab states for Israel's hegemonic purposes is actually a concern for "Western-friendly groups?" And the repeated Israeli statements that "ISIS would be better than Assad" means they totally changed their mind since Bush days? Something doesn't smell quite right here.

WorkingClass , says: July 23, 2017 at 4:29 am GMT

President Trump, according to numerous reliable Washington sources, has decided to end US arms supplies and logistics support to Syria's jihadist rebels that have fueled the bloody six-year conflict.

Trump has decided. Perhaps. But do the CIA and/or Pentagon really care what Trump decides? Thank you for this concise summation of Imperial Washington's war against Syria.

jilles dykstra , says: July 23, 2017 at 6:25 am GMT
The great thing resulting from the election of Trump is that it made quite clear how undemocratic the USA is, and how Israel influences, tries to determine, USA foreign policy. Trump and Putin agree on a partial cease fire in Syria, who objects ?: Netanyahu. What media continue accusing Trump on collusion with the enemy, Russia ? CNN, Washpost and NYT. I hope Trump survives the Cold Civil War. Kennedy did not.
Ace , says: July 23, 2017 at 8:47 am GMT
@Randal The goal of supporting the Kurds is still a priority, to advance Israel's fall back position of partition. It would prefer the chaos of a regime run by jihadi scum (not going to happen thanks to V. Putin) but either way we'll do Israel's bidding.

Mr. Margolis is must read for me but I wonder at his embrace of the "repressive," "unpopular" Assad regime view. I don't get that impression and it is certainly not the view of Eva Bartlett or Vanessa Beeley. The chemical weapons stuff is complete garbage as Margolis knows.

Renoman , says: July 23, 2017 at 8:50 am GMT
Trump will be very popular if he pulls this off, war in Syria is not in the US interest and being friends with Russia is a smart move. Go Trump!
Good article Eric!
Miro23 , says: July 23, 2017 at 9:01 am GMT

The result of the western-engendered carnage in Syria was horrendous: at least 475,000 dead, 5 million Syrian refugees driven into exile in neighboring states (Turkey alone hosts three million), and another 6 million internally displaced. That is, some 11 million Syrians, or 61% of the population, driven from their homes into wretched living conditions and near famine.

You can lay all this at the door of Israel, US Neo-cons and their Congressional and MSM collaborators + treasonous leaders like Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Same for the Iraq war (duck shoot) with its WMD lies and the MSM 9/11 trigger "Event". The US as an Israeli colony is a disaster for the people of Iraq, Libya and Syria and it's also the worst news for the 98% of Gentiles in the US who have now lost their country to these Zionist freaks.

Greg Bacon , says: Website July 23, 2017 at 9:08 am GMT
To claim that Israel got Bush the Mad to back off from invading Syria because they were concerned about moderate head choppers being the only ones who would fill the power vacuum is laughable. Israel has supported these thugs many times with medical care, money, shelter in the stolen Golan and most importantly, their MSM buddies printing all those stories about how Assad must go.

Israel had been directing its colony, the formerly free USA, to bust up Syria and murder Assad and that we have been faithfully trying to do, but that damned Putin got in the way, so sic the MSM on him and his buddy Trump.

The illegal war against Syria is far from over, Israel is PO that Syria hasn't been destroyed and they will not take lightly some chump like Trump interfering with their plans.

lavoisier , says: Website July 23, 2017 at 9:40 am GMT
@Russ I think that is a good observation. I also believe his traitorous sidekick Graham will also be a little less vocal about his support for world destruction now that his comrade in stupidity has fallen. These two obviously are bought and paid for by the Zionists. There is no other explanation for their predictable level of malice and stupidity.
jacques sheete , says: July 23, 2017 at 11:17 am GMT
@Russ

A sidelined John McCain should be a greatly reduced impediment to an exit from Syria.

Let's hope so. Unfortunately there is no shortage of crackpots to replace that reeking glob of slime.

Lemurmaniac , says: July 23, 2017 at 11:18 am GMT
All good points but its disgusting how left anti imperialists care more about a foreign people than the colonization and dispossession of the their own group by hordes of 'the other' from the global south under the aegis of neoliberal ideology.
Che Guava , says: July 23, 2017 at 1:15 pm GMT
Well, we non-USA can only be hoping. That order was one of the better, anybody who is reading English is to knowing that the building attack had nothing to do with a consulate, but the consul happened to be there at the time. Sure, probably CIA. The weapons-running operation certainly was.

Hillary was terrible to making 'The Kindness of Muslims' maker the scapegoat, sending him to prison in defiance of his rights, I only saw the short, but it was both apt and funny, if there is a feature-length version, I would love to seeing it. It did exist, it seems, was shown once or twice.

Aah, memory holes.

Michael Kenny , says: July 23, 2017 at 1:28 pm GMT
As so often, the weakness of the argument is obvious in the first sentence: "Many Americans voted for Donald Trump because he vowed to end the foreign conflicts in which the US had become entangled". I can't say I recall any such vow. Trump is a master of doubletalk. He says everything and the contrary of everything.

Mr Margolis, and others, heard what they wanted to hear and believed what they wanted to believe. Quite simply, they fell into the trap Trump set for them. Even if Trump wasn't the most pro-Israel president in US history, the Israel Lobby is there to see that US foreign policy suits Israel's interests. Israel sees Iran as its principal enemy. Putin has snuggled up to Iran and is propping up Iran's "ally", Assad. Israel thus needs to get both Assad and Putin out of Syria. By failing to stand up to Putin in Ukraine, Obama allowed him to discredit the US as Europe's, and by extension, Israel's protector and to discredit NATO as the instrument of that protection. For obvious reasons of geography, there's no way the US can defend Israel without the use of bases in Europe.

Thus, Trump has to restore US and NATO credibility and the only way to do that is to get Putin out of Ukraine and, ideally, out of power. The simplest way to do that is to fight him in Syria, where he's bogged down and cornered and cannot escape unless the US capitulates. Thus, arming or not arming this or that Syrian group is totally irrelevant. It just shows that the US can turn the heat up and down on Putin at will. I can't imagine, therefore, why US neocons would be "furious".

The longer Putin is bogged down in Syria, the better. The last thing Trump needs is to have anything he does, whether in Syria or Ukraine, billed as a "retreat" in regard to Putin. That will simply inflame Russiagate.

DESERT FOX , says: July 23, 2017 at 2:37 pm GMT
Trumps word means nothing, and he never said a thing about the pentagram ending their support of Isis aka al ciada, so this is much ado about nothing, the Zionists want war and war they shall have until Zionist Israel destroys America.

Zionist Israel and the U.S. and Britain created isis aka al ciada and anyone who thinks they have given up on regime change and the greater Israel plan in the Mideast is sadly mistaken. America is under Zionist control.

DaveE , says: July 23, 2017 at 3:14 pm GMT
Could it be that Trump is waking up? In spite of all his bluster during the campaign, it's become obvious that Mr. Trump doesn't have the foggiest idea how government and politics actually works. It's just a LITTLE different than running a real-estate operation.

My opinion is that that Trump, being the very insecure egotist that he is, is beginning, just barely, to realize what people actually expect, not what the neocon con-artists and rigged "opinion polls" tell him the story is.

Is Trump, maybe, just kinda sorta maybe, waking up to slimeballs like his dirty little son-in-law he so fervently followed in the past?

Anyway, Trump has been scoring big lately with his chat with Putin and this kick to the neocons' sensitive area.

Let's all write the guy and tell him he's on the right track. I'm sure the "opinion polls" will tell him just the opposite, since they're nothing more than some Jew in an office in Brooklyn telling us what we believe.

Che Guava , says: July 23, 2017 at 3:27 pm GMT
@Michael Kenny

You are so clearly a harmful propagandist on so many levels that I need not to pointing it out.

I am knowing that you are to making one or two of good points at times, but only to draw to all of your lies and stupid assumptions. Essentially, to making EU= NATO=zionism is the great thing to you, hate Russia is your cause.

Your 'Michael Kenny' is as much a pseudonym as mine. It is obvious. At least, when I am posting, it is from the heart of the person behind the pseudonym and of goodwill or to informing. Reading yours, it is very difficult to see any good intentions.

Many others here are to having critical faculties. They also will be seeing you for what you are, just a nasty and cheap propagandist, with posts that are always being too long.

Are you on some kind of 'net agent of influence programme? Sure is looking like it.

Joe Hide , says: July 23, 2017 at 3:44 pm GMT
The evidence seems to support the view that an informational war, with some actual murders, is taking place within and between, the CIA, FBI, NSA, other U.S. agencies and institutions. Also this happened in Russia but as Putin survived and consolidated power, it's much less so now. It is probably happening in many countries. I have come to the conclusion that these "hidden wars" within seemingly unified groups is part and parcel of human nature. The bad guy deceivers normally have a huge advantage in that they become much more skilled at deceiving. Their great disadvantage is that they eventually go so obviously nuts that nobody believes them anymore!
Randal , says: July 23, 2017 at 4:30 pm GMT

Their great disadvantage is that they eventually go so obviously nuts that nobody believes them anymore!

And yet John McCain and Lindsey Graham keep on getting re-elected, usually by huge margins.

Bruce Marshall , says: July 23, 2017 at 4:37 pm GMT
Where is the "Special Prosecutor" on this? Assange: 'CIA Not Only Armed Syria's Insurgents -- It Paid Their Salaries' http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=57076
Father Coughlin , says: July 23, 2017 at 4:59 pm GMT
Since the Resistance has relentlessly played the bogus Russia narrative to a point where it is hampering him from getting anything done (thus jeopardizing his reelection, if not some crazy impeachment attempt), Trump's only choice, according to Jiu-Jitsu, is to flip the script and make the Left the pro-War party. Go!
Sean , says: July 23, 2017 at 5:45 pm GMT

http://www.martin-van-creveld.com/disaster-area/
Some years ago I had the pleasure of coming across a book by the aged doyen of "oriental studies," Bernard Lewis. Titled What Went Wrong and first published in 2002, it tried to explain how and why the brilliant civilization of the Middle Ages had declined until, finally, it reached the point where the epithet "Arab" is positive only when applied to a horse.

Though I read it twice, I still do not know.

nsa , says: July 23, 2017 at 7:33 pm GMT
Must be tough typing out a couple thousand word screed re the destruction of the ME without mentioning the vile jooies and their total domination of American foreign policy in the area. The US Knesset on the Potomac is now actually trying to pass a law outlawing any criticism of the bloodthirsty Izzies ..with very stiff fines for offenders. Need any more evidence?
Alden , says: July 23, 2017 at 7:35 pm GMT
@Sean The brilliant Muslim civilization is a myth It never existed.

The Arabs conquered the Middle East and blundered into the legacy of Egypt, Persia Mesopotamia, Greece Rome, and the Byzantine empire. Claiming the Muslim primitive Arabs created the legacy of those civilizations is like saying Walter Raleigh developed tobacco or the Spanish conquerors developed potatoes and corn. Iranians still resent the conquest of their ancient civilization by the barbarian primitive Arabs

It took about 500 years but the Muslim Arabs destroyed those civilization. Morrish Spain? Every one of those great buildings, from architects and engineers to porters were built by European slaves.

It was the numerous Christians and less numerous Jews who kept things going. The Turks wouldn't even hire Muslim Arabs for any kind of government positions in the Arab countries. They used local Christians, Jews and imported slave Europeans.

I've read Bernard Lewis. He's outdated. For a long time in the 19th and early 20th century Jews wrote many of those books extolling the superiority of Muslim Jewish countries over us blue eyed barbarians. Lewis is one of those writers

Greg Bacon , says: Website July 23, 2017 at 7:38 pm GMT
@Michael Kenny For obvious reasons of geography, there's no way the US can defend Israel without the use of bases in Europe.

Why should the USA defend Israel from its horrible choices, especially being an Apartheid nightmare? Why should we defend a nation that has attacked our ships, bases and personnel numerous times? Why should we defend a nation that has control of our economy thru their choke-hold on the FED and Treasury? Why should we defend a nation that acts like a spoiled child anytime it doesn't get it's way and goes on murderous rampages against the world's biggest concentration camp, Gaza? Why should we defend a nation that attacked us on 9/11, then had their MSM whores blame the Muslim world?

http://www.911history.de/aaannxyz_ch01_en.html

Art , says: July 23, 2017 at 8:34 pm GMT
The illness of McCain will give the prospects for cooperation between the US and Russian a big boost. Here is an interesting article on the subject.

Dismantling McCain's Disastrous Legacy Should Now Be Trump's Top Priority

By Tom Luongo

The Arizona senator's absence creates a unique opportunity for President Trump to alter the course of our foreign and domestic policy. From Iraq to Libya, Syria to Afghanistan and right up to Russia's borders in Ukraine, McCain's bloody paw prints are all over more than a decade of American foreign policy blunders.

http://freedom4um.com/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=20873

exiled off mainstreet , says: July 23, 2017 at 9:05 pm GMT
@Greg Bacon The attempted sinking of the USS Liberty in 1967 and the actions of the US government since reveal 50 years of the Israeli tail wagging the yankee dog. It is unprecedented in history for an auxilliary satellite state to so dominate the foreign policy actions of what should be the dominant power. Whether or not 9-11 was a conspiracy is interesting but not dispositive, since whatever its cause, whether or not intentionally planned or simply allowed to happen, as I suspect, the event was used as a Reichstag fire event by the yankee regime and its Israeli patrons to brush aside any remaining opposition to the neocon project. By the way, I am totally convinced that the anthrax attacks occurring in the wake of 9-11 were to secure this result.
annamaria , says: July 23, 2017 at 9:36 pm GMT
@NoseytheDuke " ten U.S. bases in the Syrian provinces of Al-Hasakah, Manbij and Raqqa, as well as in the areas of Harab-Isk and Rmeilan The source also reported on the number of the U.S. servicemen deployed at these bases."
Splendid. Illegally, on a territory of the sovereign state of Syria, without any permission from the Syrian government. http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-u-s-military-bases-in-syria-their-precise-location-is-known/5600527
But for the demonizers of Iran and apologists of Kievan junta, the US involvement in Syria is a clear case of bringing the "democracy on the march."
annamaria , says: July 23, 2017 at 9:38 pm GMT
@WorkingClass "But do the CIA and/or Pentagon really care what Trump decides?"
-- You mean, the CIA and/or Pentagon will jump as high as the Lobby tell them to jump?
annamaria , says: July 23, 2017 at 9:42 pm GMT
@Miro23 "The US as an Israeli colony is a disaster for the people of Iraq, Libya, and Syria "
Agree. A minor addition: The US as an Israeli colony is a disaster for the people of the US as well.
utu , says: July 23, 2017 at 9:45 pm GMT
@Alden "in the 19th and early 20th century Jews wrote many of those books extolling the superiority of Muslim Jewish countries over us blue eyed barbarians"

Correct. But in the 2nd half of 20 c. the winds of history shifted with the creation of state of Israel and Jewish historians decided to write the history anew in which Muslims were not so good anymore. Father of Netanyahu was one of them.

Which Jewish historians do you want to believe?

annamaria , says: July 23, 2017 at 9:47 pm GMT
@Greg Bacon "Israel had been directing its colony, the formerly free USA, to bust up Syria and murder Assad and that we have been faithfully trying to do, but that damned Putin got in the way "
This is why the Russain Federation has been suffering the relentless barrage of demonization and economic sanctions, and this why Americans have been suffering the stupidity of the ziocon-promoted Russiangate.
annamaria , says: July 23, 2017 at 10:10 pm GMT
@DESERT FOX " the Zionists want war and war they shall have until Zionist Israel destroys America."

True. The Jewish communities of the EU/US, UK must decide -- now -- whether they are with western civilization or with the mythological and barbarous dream of Eretz Israel. The US, UK, and EU have been a safe harbor for the majority of Jewish people for the last 50 years. However, the Jewish Lobby is not satisfied with such trifles as the peaceful life and security and it wants Eretz Israel; PNAC (ziocons' manifest) has been used as an ideological guise.
There were certain sane Germans who tried to stop Hitler and thus to save Germany. Some of them paid for the attempts with their lives. Where are the Jewish communities of the US, UK, and EU to stop the lunatics, all these Friends of Israel and AIPAC, these pushers towards a worldwide catastrophe? See the ziocon plan in Ukraine, which made the lives of many Jews there intolerable (welcome, neo-Nazi). What is next -- the rise of antisemitism in the tolerant (for now) Europe and US?
If MSM were the honest sources of information, the westerners would have seen already the thousands and thousands of little corpses, the victims of "humanitarian interventions" of NATO/US in Libya and Syria and would already demand to hang the main war profiteers /war criminals to prevent more carnage and more war-profiteering schems.
The ongoing wars in the Middle EAst are an integral part of Eretz Israel project. Give Israel its due.

annamaria , says: July 23, 2017 at 10:15 pm GMT
@Che Guava Agree
annamaria , says: July 23, 2017 at 10:40 pm GMT
@Bruce Marshall This is great: "CIA not only armed Syria's insurgents -- it paid their salaries."
And who are these "insurgents" -- the "moderate" jihadis affiliated with ISIS and Al Qaeda?
The supposedly "manly" CIA director Mike Pompeo comes out as a banal opportunist inclined to hysterics.
Pompeo, "No one has the right to engage in the theft of secrets from America!"
Assange, "What sort of America can be "taken down" by the truth?"

http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-04-14/wikileaks-issues-response-cia-director-mike-pompeo

"Pompeo and David B. Rivkin Jr., a senior fellow at the neoconservative think-tank Foundation for Defense of Democracies, argued in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal that "Legal and bureaucratic impediments to surveillance should be removed." Pompeo has also suggested that National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden should be executed."

https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/michael-f-brown/trumps-pro-torture-pro-israel-cia-chief

annamaria , says: July 23, 2017 at 10:50 pm GMT
@Michael Kenny "For obvious reasons of geography, there's no way the US can defend Israel without the use of bases in Europe."
For obvious reasons, the sooner the US disengages from Israel, the better for the whole world.
Pachyderm Pachyderma , says: July 23, 2017 at 11:44 pm GMT
@Greg Bacon Why should you? Because Jesus was a Jew just kidding! But didn't you utter something about a chockhold on the Fed and the Treasury? Well, it may just be me but if I controlled my bitch's purse then she would be dancing to my tune too!
annamaria , says: July 24, 2017 at 1:13 am GMT
Paul Craig Roberts and Stephen Lendman have a word for Pompeo:

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2017/07/23/trumps-appointees-worse-obamas/

ZeroHedge: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-23/five-weird-conspiracy-theories-cia-director-mike-pompeo "Mike Pompeo sounds increasingly unhinged when talking about Russia, Wikileaks and the media"

anon Disclaimer , says: July 24, 2017 at 1:56 am GMT
Can he ????

Here is one of the many views of this unstable man -- How the Trump regime was manufactured by a war inside the Deep Stat . A systemic crisis in the global Deep System has driven the violent radicalization of a Deep State faction By Nafeez Ahmed

https://medium.com/insurge-intelligence/how-the-trump-regime-was-manufactured-by-a-war-inside-the-deep-state-f9e757071c70

anon Disclaimer , says: July 24, 2017 at 2:02 am GMT
@annamaria http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/21/tony-thomas-syria-secret-program-cia-240818

Top general confirms end to secret U.S. program in Syria

Special Operations commander walked back remarks that appeared to surprise the CIA. ASPEN -- U.S. Special Operations Commander Tony Thomas confirmed Friday that the U.S. had ended its covert program aiding rebel groups fighting against Syrian President Bashar Assad, saying the decision was made after assessing the years-long operation's capabilities and by no means an effort to curry favor with Assad's chief backer, Moscow . The comments appeared to take the CIA -- which declined to comment -- by surprise.

Thomas almost immediately tried to walk back his comments after leaving the stage, telling reporters he hadn't confirmed anything and was referring only to "public reporting."

http://www.politico.com/story/2017/07/21/tony-thomas-syria-secret-program-cia-240818

anonymous Disclaimer , says: July 24, 2017 at 2:11 am GMT
@jilles dykstra It won't come to that right away. But it will come to that if Trump does not ultimately keep the pressure on the Assad regime, and if he ignores all the drumbeats (and survives the "impeachment").
edNels , says: July 24, 2017 at 2:14 am GMT
@Pachyderm Pachyderma how do you know that Jesus was any such thing? A Jew? Never!
annamaria , says: July 24, 2017 at 2:51 am GMT
@anon Thank you for the interesting post.

Here is a transcript of an interview with S. Lavrov (Russian foreign minister), which should provide a lot of educational moments for the US Congress people and WH press corps (known as the presstitute corps): http://www.mid.ru/en/press_service/video/-/asset_publisher/i6t41cq3VWP6/content/id/2821758

Try to compare Lavrov with a typical US legislator, for example, with Maxine Waters, John McCain, and Chuck Schumer, who represent three main subgroups in the US Congress. The decades of "unnatural selection" in the US government have produced a collection of intellectual and moral pygmies, unfortunately.

Lavrov has some pretty direct and well-deserved words for Obama. Thus, Lavrov compares Obama to a small kid unable to comprehend the responsibilities of his position of a President of the US.

anon Disclaimer , says: July 24, 2017 at 5:23 am GMT
WHATEVER happens, Syria will remain a backward, retarded, Muslim shithole with no freedom, democracy, respect for women, free speech or press and an all around dysfuntional Arab country.
dorkimundo , says: July 24, 2017 at 11:52 am GMT
It it time for the Syrian "Madman' to order another sarin gas attack against the innocent children?
annamaria , says: July 24, 2017 at 1:25 pm GMT
@dorkimundo It is so easy to spot a ziocon thirsty for the US resources, who is eager to see the US to waste the US limb&blood for the barbarious dream of Eretz Israel
annamaria , says: July 24, 2017 at 1:26 pm GMT
@dorkimundo There are hundreds of thousands of innocent children that perished because of the ziocon project in the Middle East
annamaria , says: July 24, 2017 at 1:37 pm GMT
@anon " dysfunctional Arab country."
It is fun to observe how Israelis of Soviet extraction feel superior to other Israelis and to everybody else. Check the level of "democracy, respect for women, free speech or press" in Afghanistan in the 80-s and compare the facts with the disaster brought upon Afghani women by US warriors.
Your bloodthirsty ideologues of Eretz Israel dream nothing more than creating the dysfunctional Arab countries next to Israel (see Oded Yinon plan); hence the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians of all ages in the Middle East. After this holocaust of Arabs, which was designed and promoted by Israelis and Israel-firsters in the US, your apartheid state of Israel will never recover morally. You are doomed.
Gg Mo , says: July 24, 2017 at 1:55 pm GMT
@RobinG He is the LAST Real Journalist at the UN pressers . Him today explain his oust of his office space at the UN and replacement by a FAKE "Egyptian" Newspaper.
Che Guava , says: July 24, 2017 at 4:19 pm GMT
@annamaria Annamaria,

Thanks for it. Interrupted by a friend and tired, am forgetting what else I was wanting to say, but your post 42 in this thread is very good.

IMHO, as USA people say, that man is a three-dollar bill. I don't even know if it was common speech or made up by Phillip Kindred Dick, but 'phoney as a three-dollar bill', it is a great expression!

Sean , says: July 24, 2017 at 6:10 pm GMT
@Alden My point is the Arabs have never been easy to govern and they revolt a lot. Martin van Creveld says

The aftermath of the war [WW1] saw the establishment of the colonies -- which later developed into independent states -- of Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, the Gulf, and Trans-Jordan (as it then was). Saudi Arabia, which was never occupied by either Britain or France, became independent by default. [...]

Since then the peace to end all peace, as it has been called, has remained the source of endless trouble. First the British had to cope with Arab uprisings in Palestine and, on a much larger scale, in Iraq. No sooner were those revolts suppressed than trouble broke out on the border between Trans Jordan and Saudi Arabia, an entirely artificial line on the map that the local tribes refused to respect. In 1927-29 it was the turn of the French to cope with what is still remembered as the Great Syrian Revolt. [...]

How to account for all this trouble? Perhaps the most important answer is the extraordinary complexity of the region. A complexity which the new states, lacking firm roots in the population as they did, never succeeded in controlling. There are, of course, Egyptians and Syrians and Iraqis and Saudis and so forth. But there are also Israelis and Palestinians. And Arabs and Kurds. And Egyptian Muslims and Egyptian Copts. There are Sunnis and there are Shi'ites and there are Allawi's, whom some do not recognize as Muslims at all ).

The Kurds' interminable revolts have had help from the US. but really you cannot say the US created the uprising of the Kurds against every state they reside in The last time the US helped Kurds and then abandoned them. Just like the Syrian rebels. Kurds never expected anything different as they have been dumped by the US before. Leaving their erstwhile allies to their fate is something America has a reputation for. So I would not get excited about the US doing it in Syria.

annamaria , says: July 24, 2017 at 8:02 pm GMT
@Sean " the Arabs have never been easy to govern and they revolt a lot."

When "Arabs" is replaced with "Jews", the statement could be from a book on the history of the Jewish Greek wars, "the Jews have never been easy to govern and they revolt a lot:" http://www.onjewishmatters.com/the-jewish-greek-wars/

As for Martin van Creveld, this supremacist barbarian has obtained his fame by promoting the Samson Option. " Van Creveld was quoted in David Hirst's The Gun and the Olive Branch (2003) as saying: " We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force. " https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option
Very clear. Also explains the miserable role that the US is currently playing on the orders from the Lobby.

KA , says: July 25, 2017 at 2:33 am GMT
Trump is thinking of doing what Cheney did on the CIA. He is sidelining Tillerson and urging some handpicked guys to give him what he needs not to certify Iran when it is up for agin in 90 days .

"A third source with intimate knowledge of that meeting said Steve Bannon, the White House chief strategist, and Sebastian Gorka, deputy assistant to the president, were particularly vocal, repeatedly asking Tillerson to explain the U.S. national security benefits of certification. "They repeatedly questioned Rex about why recertifying would be good for U.S. national security, and Rex was unable to answer," the source said. http://foreignpolicy.com/2017/07/21/trump-assigns-white-house-team-to-target-iran-nuclear-deal-sidelining-state-department/

It is not US interests . It is the fact that should guide Bannon , Gorka and Trump. Iran is still in the crosshairs

zzzzzzz , says: July 25, 2017 at 1:38 pm GMT
@Randal Trump knows how to brawl, but the Deep State knows how to box
Sean , says: July 25, 2017 at 2:29 pm GMT
@annamaria Israel has no external threat, Syria was always a military minnow. Israel has an internal threat inasmuch the West Bank Arabs cannot be kept as they are.

The US backs a two state solution and thus in the REALLY IMPORTANT THING America is NOT A TOOL OF ISRAEL.

RobinG , says: July 25, 2017 at 4:35 pm GMT
@annamaria " free access to classified information by a group of the proven blackmailers ." Sounds like you're talking about Debbie and the DNC.
annamaria , says: July 25, 2017 at 4:35 pm GMT
"Israel has no external threat" Israel simply wants a destruction of the functioning neighboring states to proceed with the creation of Eretz Israel. http://www.ahavat-israel.com/eretz/future Not all Jewish people share this view of Eretz Israel but a certain aggressive and loud part of them does. The Likudniks are currently in power.

Oded Yinon in his famous article "proceeds to analyze the weaknesses of Arab countries concluding that Israel should aim to bring about the fragmentation of the Arab world into a mosaic of ethnic and confessional groupings. "Every kind of inter-Arab confrontation," he argued, would prove to be advantageous to Israel in the short term. Ilan Peleg described it as "an authentic mirror of the thinking mode of the Israeli Right at the height of Begin's rule." Chomsky warned against complacency about these fringe ideas since, he argued: "(t)he entire history of Zionism and later that of Israel, particularly since 1967, is one of a gradual shift towards the positions of those formerly regarded as right-wing extremists." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yinon_Plan

One could sympathize with the non-solvable situation for Israel, if not the horrors of the ongoing Middle Eastern wars that have been promoted by neo-& ziocons.

https://www.washingtonreport.me/2015-june-july/neocons-and-the-israel-lobby-are-promoting-war-with-iran-as-they-once-did-with-iraq.html https://thinkprogress.org/the-architects-of-war-where-are-they-now-52ff022f9bfe
Che Guava , says: July 25, 2017 at 4:38 pm GMT
@dorkimundo Alright. thanks for the reply, I would guessing not 'Hungarian' like Soros.

Good humored reply, that is always to being appreciated! I was so irritated by Refuvsky's bs, in a bad temper for that at the time.

Ben Frank , says: July 25, 2017 at 7:33 pm GMT
Is there any evidence that Assad is not the legitimate ruler of Syria? Or that Syria is better off now than before the civil war started? Those poor people deserve peace.
Dan Hayes , says: July 26, 2017 at 1:42 am GMT
@annamaria annamaria,

van Creveld also stated: "We have the capability of taking the world down with us. And I assure you that will happen before Israel goes down." Food for thought!

Priss Factor , says: Website July 26, 2017 at 2:07 am GMT
Tucker and Tulsi on Syria vs CIAria https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7IGAXJNzPfU
annamaria , says: July 26, 2017 at 8:02 pm GMT
@Priss Factor It was Israel's active participation in the attempt at regime change in Syria, which has finished the undressing of the "most moral" state of Israel. Currently, the "chosen" are outraged that the CIA could scale down the US support for terrorists. https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/07/26/fear-and-trepidation-in-tel-aviv-is-israel-losing-the-syria-war/

"Despite assurances to the contrary, Israel has always been involved in the Syria conflict. Israel's repeated claims that "it maintains a policy of non-intervention in Syria's civil war," only fools US mainstream media. Not only was Israel involved in the war, it also played no role in the aid efforts, nor did it ever extend a helping hand to Syrian refugees. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have perished in the merciless war; many cities and villages were totally destroyed and millions of Syrians become refugees. While tiny and poor Lebanon has hosted over a million Syrian refugees, every country in the region and many nations around the world have hosted Syrian refugees, as well. Except Israel.

Even a symbolic government proposal to host 100 Syrian orphans was eventually dropped ." ( -- Wait when the Lobby starts squeaking that mentioning this shameful fact is antisemitic.)

Israel has major responsibility for the Syrian tragedy. Astonishingly, Israelis are planning to triple down on the support for ISIS & Co in Syria.
"Since the start of the conflict, Israel wanted to appear as if in control of the situation, at least regarding the conflict in southwestern Syria. It bombed targets in Syria as it saw fit , and casually spoke of maintaining regular contacts with certain opposition groups. In recent comments before European officials, Netanyahu admitted to striking Iranian convoys in Syria [whcih is a sovereign state] "dozens of times." But without a joint Israeli-US plan, Israel is now emerging as a weak party. Making that realization quite belatedly, Israel is becoming increasingly frustrated. Failing to obtain support from newly-elected President Donald Trump, Israel is now attempting to develop its own independent strategy.

On June 18, the Wall Street Journal reported that Israel has been giving "secret aid" to Syrian rebels, in the form of "cash and humanitarian aid ." -- See the US taxpayers' money in actions ($3 billion this year only). The "war on terror" came down to the "cash and humanitarian aid" to terrorists, delivered by Israel directly from the US taxpayers pockets to Israel's favorite head-choppers.

[Dec 21, 2018] Looks like an o ld, sick neocon Hillarty still tries to influence events, continuing her warmongring

The trouble with CIA democrats is not that they are stupid, but that that are evil.
Hillary proved to be really destructive witch during her Obama stunt as the Secretary of State. Destroyed Libya and Ukraine, which is no small feat.
Notable quotes:
"... The policy of the Obama administration, and particularly Hillary Clinton's State Department, was – and still is – regime change in Syria. This overrode all other considerations. We armed, trained, and "vetted" the Syrian rebels, even as we looked the other way while the Saudis and the Gulf sheikdoms funded groups like al-Nusra and al-Qaeda affiliates who wouldn't pass muster. And our "moderates" quickly passed into the ranks of the outfront terrorists, complete with the weapons we'd provided. ..."
"... She is truly an idiot. Thanks again, Ivy League. ..."
Dec 21, 2018 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

Pavel , December 21, 2018 at 10:47 am

The Grauniad just quoted a tweet from a predictably OUTRAGED @HillaryClinton:

Actions have consequences, and whether we're in Syria or not, the people who want to harm us are there & at war. Isolationism is weakness. Empowering ISIS is dangerous. Playing into Russia & Iran's hands is foolish. This President is putting our national security at grave risk.

This from the woman who almost singlehandedly (i.e. along with David Cameron and Sarkovy) destroyed Libya and allowed -- if not encouraged -- the flow of US weapons to go into the hands of ISIS allies in the US-Saudi-Israeli obsession with toppling Assad regardless of the consequences. As Justin Raimondo wrote in Antiwar.com in 2015:

The policy of the Obama administration, and particularly Hillary Clinton's State Department, was – and still is – regime change in Syria. This overrode all other considerations. We armed, trained, and "vetted" the Syrian rebels, even as we looked the other way while the Saudis and the Gulf sheikdoms funded groups like al-Nusra and al-Qaeda affiliates who wouldn't pass muster. And our "moderates" quickly passed into the ranks of the outfront terrorists, complete with the weapons we'd provided.

This crazy policy was an extension of our regime change operation in Libya, a.k.a. "Hillary's War," where the US – "leading from behind" – and a coalition of our Western allies and the Gulf protectorates overthrew Muammar Qaddafi. There, too, we empowered radical Islamists with links to al-Qaeda affiliates – and then used them to ship weapons to their Syrian brothers, as another document uncovered by Judicial Watch shows.

After HRC's multiple foreign policy fiascos she is the last person who should be commenting on this matter.

a different chris, December 21, 2018 at 11:50 am

> the people who want to harm us are there & at war

Sounds like then they are too busy to harm us? She is truly an idiot. Thanks again, Ivy League.

[Dec 10, 2018] The American Melting Pot Can Turn Into A Volatile Mixture At The Top by Wayne Madsen

Melania slap of Bolton face might be a good sobering measure. But neocons can't probably recover from their addition
Notable quotes:
"... Ricardel is a longtime friend and associate of national security adviser John Bolton, who brought her into the National Security Council from the Department of Commerce, where she served as Undersecretary for Export Administration. Ricardel reportedly angered Ms. Trump over seating arrangements on a flight by Ms. Trump to Africa two weeks ago. Ricardel, who was to accompany the First Lady, did not make the trip. Ms. Trump, in an interview conducted with ABC News during the trip, said there were people in the White House she did not trust. Apparently, Ricardel was one of them. ..."
"... Perhaps no one in recent memory brought such a degree of ethnic baggage to her job like Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright's Czech roots and the Yugoslav warrant issued for the arrest of her professor-diplomat father, Joseph Korbel, for the post-World War II theft of art from Prague, brought forth extreme anti-Serbian policies by the woman who would represent the United States at the United Nations and then serve as America's chief diplomat. Albright's hatred for Serbia was not much different than Zbigniew Brzezinski's Polish heritage evoking an almost-pathological hatred of Russia, while he served as Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser. ..."
"... In 1981, Ronald Reagan appointed Valdas Adamkus as the regional administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for the Mid-West states. Retiring from the US government after 29 years of service, Adamkus was elected to two terms as President of Lithuania. ..."
"... One might ask whether Ilves and Adamkus were kept on the US government payroll merely to support them until they could return to their countries in top leadership positions to help lead the Baltic nations into NATO membership. ..."
"... From 1993 to 1997, Army General John Shalikashvili served as Chairman of the Joint Chefs of Staff. Shalikashvili was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Georgian and Polish mother. During World War II, his father served in the Georgian Legion, a special unit incorporated into the Nazi German "SS-Waffengruppe Georgien." General Shalikashvili served as commander of all US military forces during a time of NATO expansion into Eastern Europe. It was no surprise that he was an avid cheerleader for NATO's expansion to the East. ..."
Nov 25, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Wayne Madsen via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

America has always fancied itself as a "melting pot" of ethnicities and religions that form a perfect union. The Latin phrase, E Pluribus Unum, "out of many, one," is even found on the Great Seal of the United States.

However, as seen in a recent blow-up between First Lady Melania Trump and now-former Deputy National Security Adviser Mira Ricardel, old feuds from beyond the borders of the United States can result in major rifts at the highest echelons of the US government.

On November 13, Ms. Trump's communications director, Stephanie Grisham, fired off a tweet that read: "it is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she [Ricardel] no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House." The White House announced Ricardel's departure the next day, November 14.

Ricardel is a longtime friend and associate of national security adviser John Bolton, who brought her into the National Security Council from the Department of Commerce, where she served as Undersecretary for Export Administration. Ricardel reportedly angered Ms. Trump over seating arrangements on a flight by Ms. Trump to Africa two weeks ago. Ricardel, who was to accompany the First Lady, did not make the trip. Ms. Trump, in an interview conducted with ABC News during the trip, said there were people in the White House she did not trust. Apparently, Ricardel was one of them.

The bitter feud between Melania Trump and Mira Ricardel likely has its roots in their backgrounds in the former Yugoslavia. Ricardel was born Mira P. Radielović, the daughter of Peter Radielovich, a native of Breza, Bosnia-Herzegovina in the former Yugoslavia. Ricardel speaks fluent Croatian and was a member of the Croatian Catholic Church. Melania Trump was born Melanija Knavs [pronounced Knaus] in Novo Mesto in Slovenia, also in the former Yugoslavia. Villagers in the village of Sevnica, where Ms. Trump was raised, claim she and her Communist Party parents were officially atheists. Ms. Trump later converted to Roman Catholicism. She and her son by Mr. Trump, Barron Trump, speak fluent Slovenian. The Yugoslav Civil War, which began in earnest in 1991, pitted the nation's ethnic groups against one another. There are ample reasons, political, ethnic, and religious, for bad blood between the Slovenian-born First Lady and a first-generation Croatian-American. The "battle royale" between Ms. Trump and Ricardel is but one example of a constant problem in the United States when individuals with foreign ties bring age-old inter-ethnic and inter-religious squabbles to governance.

Perhaps no one in recent memory brought such a degree of ethnic baggage to her job like Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright's Czech roots and the Yugoslav warrant issued for the arrest of her professor-diplomat father, Joseph Korbel, for the post-World War II theft of art from Prague, brought forth extreme anti-Serbian policies by the woman who would represent the United States at the United Nations and then serve as America's chief diplomat. Albright's hatred for Serbia was not much different than Zbigniew Brzezinski's Polish heritage evoking an almost-pathological hatred of Russia, while he served as Jimmy Carter's National Security Adviser.

Albright's bias against Serbia saw her influence US policy in casting a blind eye toward the terrorism carried out by the Kosovo Liberation Army and its terrorist leader Hashim Thaci. That policy resulted in Washington backing an independent Kosovo, a state beholden to organized criminal syndicates protected by one of the largest US military bases in Europe, Camp Bondsteel.

Ties by US foreign policy officials to their countries of origin continued to plagued administrations after Carter. For example, Kateryna Chumachenko served in the Reagan White House and State and Treasury Departments and later worked for KPMG as "Katherine" Chumachenko. She also worked in the White House Public Liaison Office, where she conducted outreach to various right-wing and anti-communist exile groups in the United States, including the Friends of Afghanistan, on whose board Afghan refugee and later George W. Bush pro-consul in Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad, sat. Khalilzad, like Chumachenko, worked in the Reagan State Department. Chumachenko was married to Ukrainian "Orange Revolution" President Viktor Yushchenko, and, thusly, became the First Lady of Ukraine. Khalilzad became the Bush 43 ambassador to the UN, where he often was at loggerheads with Iran, Libya, Syria, and other Muslim states. As was the case with Albright and her anti-Serb underpinnings, it was difficult to ascertain whose agenda Khalilzad was serving.

After being fired from the White House, there were reports that Ricardel was offered the post of ambassador to Estonia. That Baltic country was no stranger to hauling foreign baggage into the US government. Former Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, a bow-tie wearing former Estonian language broadcaster for the Central Intelligence Agency-funded Radio Free Europe ; long time resident of Leonia, New Jersey; could have just as easily ended up in a senior State Department position rather than President of Estonia. Such is the nature of divided loyalties among senior US government officials of both major political parties.

In 1981, Ronald Reagan appointed Valdas Adamkus as the regional administrator for the US Environmental Protection Agency, responsible for the Mid-West states. Retiring from the US government after 29 years of service, Adamkus was elected to two terms as President of Lithuania.

One might ask whether Ilves and Adamkus were kept on the US government payroll merely to support them until they could return to their countries in top leadership positions to help lead the Baltic nations into NATO membership.

From 1993 to 1997, Army General John Shalikashvili served as Chairman of the Joint Chefs of Staff. Shalikashvili was born in Warsaw, Poland to a Georgian and Polish mother. During World War II, his father served in the Georgian Legion, a special unit incorporated into the Nazi German "SS-Waffengruppe Georgien." General Shalikashvili served as commander of all US military forces during a time of NATO expansion into Eastern Europe. It was no surprise that he was an avid cheerleader for NATO's expansion to the East.

Natalie Jaresko served in positions with the State Department, the Departments of Commerce, Treasury, the US Trade Representative, and Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC). In 2014, she became the Finance Minister for Ukraine. Earlier, she served as a financial adviser to Yushchenko. The United States is not the only "melting pot" in North America that suffers from officials burdened by ethnic dual loyalties. Halyna Chomiak, the Ukrainian-born émigré mother of Canada's Foreign Minister, Chrystia Freeland, weighs heavily on Freeland's ability to advance Canada's interests over those of the nation of her mother's birth.

Trump's entire White House Middle East police team is composed of individuals who place Israel's interests ahead of the United States. Trump takes his Middle East advice from principally his son-in-law Jared Kushner, a contributor to and member of the board of the "Friends of the IDF," an American non-profit that raises funds for the Israeli armed forces. Kushner was named by Trump as a "special envoy" to the Middle East, while Jason Greenblatt, a former attorney with the Trump Organization, was named as special envoy in charge of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Although the two positions appear to overlap, Kushner and Greenblatt, both Orthodox Jews who have little time for Palestinians, are on the same page when it comes to advancing the West Bank land grabbing policies of the Binyamin Netanyahu government in Israel. Trump thoroughly Zionized his administration's Middle East policy with the appointment of another Israel supporter, David M. Friedman, as US ambassador to Israel. Friedman had been a bankruptcy lawyer with the Trump Organization's primary law firm, Kasowitz, Benson, Torres & Friedman.

Trump has nominated as US ambassador to South Africa, handbag designer Lana Marks, who was born in South Africa. Marks, who is known only to Trump from her membership in his Mar-a-Lago, Florida "billionaires club," left South Africa in 1975, when the country was under the apartheid regime. Marks claims to speak Afrikaans, the language preferred by the apartheid regime, and Xhosa, the ethnic language of the late President Nelson Mandela. Because Marks embellished her professional tennis career by claiming, without proof, participation in the French Open and Wimbledon in the 1970s, her mastery of Xhosa can be taken with a grain of salt. So, too, can her ability to deal with the current African National Congress government led by President Cyril Ramaphosa, who had just been released from prison when Marks left the country in 1975. The claims and politics of Marks and every official and would-be US official who failed to shed their biases from their native and ancestral homelands, can all be taken with a metric ton of salt.

Melting pots are fine, so long as they truly blend together. However, that is not the situation in the United States as high government officials have difficulty in consigning the bigotry inherent in family folklore and beliefs to the family scrapbooks.

[Nov 29, 2018] Neocons 'Taking Over The White House' WSJ's Kissel Joins Trump Administration

Looks like Trump lost control of appointments in his administration... and it is Pompeo who is intrumental in defining the US foreign policy, not Trump.
Notable quotes:
"... The decision by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to give former Wall Street Journal editorial writer Mary Kissel a senior position at the department, despite her previous clashes with US President Donald Trump, shows that neoconservatives are moving in on the administration ..."
"... As a writer, Kissel took Trump to task on Twitter on multiple occasions, criticizing him for his " frightening ignorance " on foreign policy. During a March 2016 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Kissel even went as far as saying on air that then-candidate Trump had neither principles nor policies. To this, Trump shot back on Twitter, calling her a " major loser ." ..."
"... The only thing that I can think of is that nobody takes Trump seriously in the White House on what he says from day to day ..."
"... Kissel's recent appointment, to no one's surprise, isn't exactly sitting well with the folks on the more conservative side of the political spectrum. In a recent opinion piece for the Washington Examiner, writer Ryan Girdusky wrote that "Kissel is so wrong so frequently that not only should she not be advising Pompeo on policy, she shouldn't be employed by a single newspaper in the country to talk about politics." ..."
"... Kissel, however, isn't the first Trump opponent to be hired by Pompeo. There's also Jim Jeffrey, who, along with several other GOP insiders, signed a letter in August 2016 which noted that then-candidate Trump "lacks the character, values and experience" to be president. Despite his past objections, Jeffrey is now serving in the Trump administration as the special representative for Syria engagement. ..."
Nov 29, 2018 | www.defenddemocracy.press

The decision by US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo to give former Wall Street Journal editorial writer Mary Kissel a senior position at the department, despite her previous clashes with US President Donald Trump, shows that neoconservatives are moving in on the administration, investigative reporter Dave Lindorff told Sputnik.

As a writer, Kissel took Trump to task on Twitter on multiple occasions, criticizing him for his " frightening ignorance " on foreign policy. During a March 2016 appearance on MSNBC's "Morning Joe," Kissel even went as far as saying on air that then-candidate Trump had neither principles nor policies. To this, Trump shot back on Twitter, calling her a " major loser ."

An unidentified senior State Department official told Politico that Kissel's past remarks were more of a reflection of her "role as a member of the Wall Street Journal editorial board."

"As she has said previously when asked similar questions, her job there was to analyze and write about policy," the department official said. "As a member of the editorial board, Mary strongly endorsed this administration's policies on Iran, Afghanistan, tax cuts, energy policy, regulatory reform, judicial nominations and other issues. She is proud to serve this President and Secretary Pompeo."

"The only thing that I can think of is that nobody takes Trump seriously in the White House on what he says from day to day," Lindorff told Radio Sputnik's Loud & Clear on Wednesday in an attempt to explain Kissel's hiring.

"That could be one answer the other one could be that this kind of neocon person, which she is, are basically taking over the White House. I wouldn't have called Trump a neocon when he was running for office, but I think his policies are at this point pretty much in the neocon playbook on foreign policy."

Read also: The Bolton threat to the Iran nuclear deal

While it's unclear how Trump reacted to Pompeo's move, Lindorff, who also writes as a columnist for CounterPunch, suggested that he might have let bygones be bygones after certain apologies are exchanged.

Kissel's recent appointment, to no one's surprise, isn't exactly sitting well with the folks on the more conservative side of the political spectrum. In a recent opinion piece for the Washington Examiner, writer Ryan Girdusky wrote that "Kissel is so wrong so frequently that not only should she not be advising Pompeo on policy, she shouldn't be employed by a single newspaper in the country to talk about politics."

"It is frightening that Kissel has managed to fail forward," he added.

Kissel, however, isn't the first Trump opponent to be hired by Pompeo. There's also Jim Jeffrey, who, along with several other GOP insiders, signed a letter in August 2016 which noted that then-candidate Trump "lacks the character, values and experience" to be president. Despite his past objections, Jeffrey is now serving in the Trump administration as the special representative for Syria engagement.

Published at https://sputniknews.com/analysis/201811291070224029-neocons-white-house-kissel-hire/

[Nov 26, 2018] The degree of bombast coming out of the Israeli establishment is now deafening

Nov 26, 2018 | craigmurray.org.uk

Yeah, Right , October 24, 2018 at 02:46

"Yeah, Right, there's no sign of wavering though."

Agreed, there is no *sign* of wavering.

Indeed, the degree of bombast coming out of the Israeli establishment is now deafening.

"The Golan Heights aren't even an issue today, that's how bad it's gotten."

Oh, I think that once the Syrian government wipes out the last of the jihadists and then forces the US to withdraw from Syrian territory then you will find the Golan Heights will become very much a hot potato.

After all, it will then be the last piece of Syrian territory that is not under the control of the Syrians, and they'll be in no mood to be "intimidated" by the Israelis.

The Israelis will keep beating up on the Gaza Strip? Sure, they will.
And that will lull the Likud into thinking that the IDF is still a mighty fighting force, sure, it will.

But the strategic situation for Israeli is getting worse and worse, to the point where the Israelis dare not attack Lebanon for fear that the Syrians will take the opportunity to seize the Golan Heights, and the Israelis dare not launch an attack into Syria lest Hezbollah launch a counter-attack on the flank of that expeditionary force.

And either way there is this slight problem: the IDF is now a bunch of fluffy-girls-blouses, and as such is likely to get its arse kicked in a fight with a real army.

laguerre has it correct below: the IDF has been hollowed out, as has Israeli society as a whole. They are riding for a fall, and when they do they will come down to earth with a thud.

And nobody will be more surprised than them, which is when they will stampede for the door.

Yeah, Right , October 24, 2018 at 02:52

"That said, the airforce is very good, but it's the only arm that works now."

Rather highlights what an "own goal" the Israelis scored when their jets hid behind that Russia Ilyushin Il-20 plane.

They had been very successful in convincing the Russians not to hand over any S-300 missiles to the Syrians, and now the Syrians not only have them, but they have the most up-to-date version.

Way to go, guys .

SA , October 23, 2018 at 11:41

Hatuey
I somewhat share your pessimism but not want to give in yet. The problem is that the way this has been set and the ground rules have been laid is that the whole 'international community' is complicit in racism and ethnic cleansing and that is why there will be no progress. The parameters set are self contradictory, either you recognise that Palestinians have the right to Palestine or you don't. Recognising that they have the right, at least an equal right, negates the current wisdom that some people have more rights than others, and that this trumps all other rights. This obvious point has become a taboo.

Hatuey , October 23, 2018 at 14:54

SA, if you think this about "right" or "rights" or notions of justice or anything like that, you aren't even in the right solar system, never mind the right planet. That horse bolted decades ago.

Nobody with any seriousness disputes Israel's criminality in any of this. And nobody with any seriousness disputes that we are talking about the highest order of crimes either, ethnic cleansing, war of aggression, collective punishment, etc.

This is about brute force, nothing else. The UN has been condemning Israel continually for about 50 years and nothing has come of it because the US vetoes just about everything.

Andyoldlabour , October 23, 2018 at 15:19

@Hatuey,

"The UN has been condemning Israel continually for about 50 years and nothing has come of it because the US vetoes just about everything."

That is the rather large elephant in the room, and one which nobody seems to want to confront or even admit to.

SA , October 23, 2018 at 17:31

I realise what you say but nevertheless there is a conversation going on that is a total cover up of reality and trying to justify the unjustifiable. This conversation has set the limits of what can and can't be discussed.

Bill Rollinson , October 23, 2018 at 12:40

UK, US, EU, NZ, Canada, Australia, all controlled by Zionist puppets. This is why Israel get away with what they do and to an extent Saudi, who have 'the goods' on UK dealings.
It's about time the people of these nations took responsibility for the actions of their 'elected' MP's, especially those with 'dual nationality'.
In UK Corbyn is being attacked, not for his policies, which haven't been mentioned, but for what he stands for. His promise to recognise Palestine, if he becomes PM, has them really scared, as has his policy for nationalised banks, that lend Government [Sovereign] money to Entrepreneurs [SME's] who currently cant get loans from banks, as they provide competition to their Corporate friends. He also wants new bank rules, no doubt based on Glass Seagal.

He'll need to watch is back. Look what happened to Lincoln, Andrew Jackson, John F Kennedy when they went against the money men!

[Nov 25, 2018] Craig Murray - Historian, Former Ambassador, Human Rights Activist

Nov 25, 2018 | craigmurray.org.uk

24 Nov, 2018

[Nov 20, 2018] Netanyahu government is about to fall

Nov 20, 2018 | www.unz.com

Garreth Smith , says: November 16, 2018 at 5:13 pm GMT

@SolontoCroesus

Garreth Smith, Chuck Orloski --

Speaking of balls, steel or titanium --

Greetings Brother S2C,

The only power given to satan is the "Negative Power of Whisper". We are constantly bombarded with this shitty and crappy "Power of MSM Whisper" which is on a daily basis brainwashing the masses of the world. This is s very powerful, "Power".

But it is now time that we use the "Positive Power of Whisper" and time to rejoice:
01. Netanyahu government is about to fall.
02. He is personally implicated in bunch of corrupt cases.
03. Hamas has become a pain in his ass, which he cannot defeat no more.
04. Not only Syria has survived, but its' skies are now closed to Israel.
05. Both Syria and Hezbollah forces have become battle hardened.
06. Syria is back in Arab League fold, and now it borders are opened to Iraq, Jordan and Golan Heights.
07. The Syrian refugees are returning back to their homes.
08. Hamas fired 500 missiles in two day, the Iron Dome success rate was 20%.
09. Both Hezbollah and Hamas have precision guided missiles. Hamas videoed a military bus they destroyed after everyone left the bus, and only the driver left.
10. Only 100 Iron Dome missiles were successful and at $65,000 a pop, the the total damage was $30 millions and only 6 million Shekels were successful.
11. With Khashoggi saga, the MSB peace plan has been thrown in dustbin.
12. Iran with its' battle hardened military is at the doorsteps of Israel.
13. I can go on and on .

[Nov 19, 2018] Syria - Back In The Arab Fold

Nov 19, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Syria - Back In The Arab Fold BM , Nov 19, 2018 1:01:56 PM | link

Following Syria's military success against its enemies, Arab states which supported the war on Syria are again making nice with it. The United Arab Emirates will reopen its embassy in Damascus. Kuwait and Bahrain will follow. Today a delegation of parliamentarians from Jordan visited Damascus and met with President Assad .

The members of the delegation affirmed that the pulse of the Jordanian street has always been with the Syrian people in the face of the terrorist war against the, as Syria is the first line of defense for the entire Arab region and the victory in this war will be a victory for all the Arab countries in the face of Western projects aimed at destabilizing and fragmenting these countries in service of Israel's security.

First signs that this was going to happen appeared a few month ago when a Kuwaiti TV personality spoke about the pleasure of visiting an again peaceful Damascus. In June the Foreign Affairs Minister of UAE called the expulsion of Syria from the Arab league a "mistake". In an interview with a Kuwaiti paper Assad said that he had reached "major understanding" with Arab states.

The Saudis though are not yet welcome back in Damascus. They were one of the largest financiers of the Jihadis and will have to pay an equally large price to come back into good standing. Negotiations are ongoing . A formal reentry of Syria into the Arab League can not be far away.

Behind this change is a fear of renewed Turkish ambitions. Not only Saudi Arabia but all the Arab states do not want Turkey to expand and become more powerful. They do not want to see Arab land in Syria under Turkish control. The sole exception so far is Qatar which is allied with Turkey and has Turkish troops on its land to protect it from Saudi imperialism.

The three blocks that form the larger Middle East, Turkey, Iran and the Arab states north of the Red Sea are roughly of the same population size. Each block also represents a religious-political stream with Turkey leading the political-Sunni Muslim Brotherhood, Iran the political-Shia and with the third block consisting of Sunni majority countries with more or less dictatorial rulers. The three blocks compete in their borderlands of Iraq and Syria. The Arabs finally noticed that their attempts to dispose the Syrian government led to gains for Iran and Turkey and put them on the losing site.

For Syria the new Arab position is a very welcome change. While it will certainly not end its alliance with Iran, it will welcome any help against the Turkish ambitions. It also needs investments to rebuild and the rich Gulf states will surely provide some. That will also sabotage U.S. and European plans to starve Syria of money unless it submits to their will. That is good news ... what we need now is some good news for Yemen


Russ , Nov 19, 2018 1:10:15 PM | link

Just read this piece with a similar Turkey-vs.-the-Arabs theme.

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/11/19/iranian-albatross-us-has-hung-around-its-own-neck.html

Sally Snyder , Nov 19, 2018 1:14:59 PM | link
As shown in this article, at least two American politicians believe that Washington's version of the war in Syria is wrong:

http://viableopposition.blogspot.com/2018/09/american-politicians-and-syria-what-if.html

Unfortunately, the mainstream Western media has swallowed Washington's narrative hook, line and sinker.

Peter AU 1 , Nov 19, 2018 1:27:15 PM | link
There were under currents of change earlier but it now seems to have sped up. The Khashoggi killing seems to have knocked Trump and MBS out of the middle east great game. The Syrian S-300 plus domestic politics seems to have shut down Netanyahu and Israel for the moment and US now seem stalled by their domestic politics with the anti Trump group looking to be sabotaging his foreign policy on top of his other setbacks in foreign policy.
Plenty of room for the GCC mice to play.
karlof1 , Nov 19, 2018 1:45:13 PM | link
Russ @2--

I read Crooke's most recent essay earlier and second your motion of its importance. As I wrote yesterday, it seems Idlib Dawn will finally be given the go-ahead since the Iraqis aren't yet ready to participate in the East Euphrates operation.

Unmentioned by Crooke is the escalating energy drama over drilling around Cyprus. Also announced today and noted by a ceremony involving Putin and Erdogan is completion of Turk-Stream's underwater segment across Black Sea, thus gas deliveries will commence in 2019. The article provides a map illustrating Russia's sensitivity to Ukrainian and NATO aspirations to conduct war games in the Sea of Azov and surrounding area that it will never allow to occur, which is why NATO's been pushing it as a flashpoint.

Overall, the forces of reaction are in disarray and retreating, although paradigm change still has a long ways to go.

Castellio , Nov 19, 2018 1:47:56 PM | link
@3

The Media hasn't swallowed Washington's narrative: they wrote and propagated it.

ben , Nov 19, 2018 2:51:10 PM | link
This is for me, very positive news. Hopefully, Assad and the Syrian people will move forward together, providing they are wary of the empire's games, and don't except any rhetoric coming from the West.

IMO they should ask the Russians to stay and move closer into the Russian/Arab orbit.

Stumpy , Nov 19, 2018 4:23:28 PM | link
@ Ben 7

Yes, Russia deserves most of the credit for turning this around, IMO.

james , Nov 19, 2018 4:29:29 PM | link
thanks b.. you forgot the 4th block in the middle east - usa-israel-ksa... look to them to figure out a way to throw a monkey wrench into any hospitality that might otherwise enter in..at present usa is still in al tanf and a few other places trying their best to play a game with the kurds, and the headchoppers they are also responsible for - isis/al qaeda.. thanks god russia got involved.. after witnessing what happened in libya, they realized they had to act.. a lot of those dictator states, i wouldn't trust, uae in particular.. will be interesting to see how idlib is resolved, or what crazy game erdogan comes up with next..
Jen , Nov 19, 2018 5:18:52 PM | link
Curious to see how Iraq decides which power bloc it will join. Despite Arabic being the first language for most Iraqis, they are tied to Iran by religion (Shi'ism) and shared history: the area known to the British as Mesopotamia (between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and surrounding territories) used to be part of the Sasanian and Safavid empires (both Persian) before passing to the Ottomans.

The area south of the Persian Gulf which is currently part of the KSA is also mostly Shi'ite and was also ruled / influenced by the Persians and the Ottoman Turks in the past. So we can't assume that the Arabic-speaking populations in that part of the KSA and in Bahrain, Qatar and the UAE will be necessarily loyal to their current Sunni royal family rulers.

fast freddy , Nov 19, 2018 5:19:47 PM | link
Ham-fisted USA forceful, aggressive, big-stick foreign policy by full spectrum rectum has served to force alliances btw China and Russia and Arab States. How much longer will the EU states stay on board? They are fools to follow the USA.

[Nov 17, 2018] Army Wins Al-Safa Battle - More Troops Move Towards Idelb

Notable quotes:
"... Does terrorism even really exist? It seems to me that in most cases (in modern history) incidents of terrorism can be attributed to state actors seeking to discredit and/or escalate. ..."
"... If we look at Northern Ireland it is clear that the British State were involved in carrying out, organizing, etc. acts of terrorism on both sides of the divide. The protestant paramilitaries where actively controlled and directed by the British state and in many incidences actually took part. On the catholic paramilitaries there were British agents who were in senior positions within the IRA and extremely violent in their approach. ..."
"... It is now fairly obvious that Al Qaeda and ISIS were western controlled, funded, trained and directed organizations. ..."
"... There is the Gladio operation (US/Anglo stay behind armies) which staged many acts of terrorism in post war Europe and is likely to still be active. ..."
"... Turkey has both the leverage and, in neutrality, superior military strength vis-a-vis the Kurds in Northern Syria. To top it off, it has the geographic advantage, because a Syrian Kurdistan would be landlocked between hostile neighbors. They were pawns in the American adventure in Syria. ..."
Nov 17, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

james , Nov 17, 2018 4:44:23 PM | link

thanks b.. it is still a proxy war and the usa is never going to leave.. they want to get rid of the pmu in iraq.. sanctions and etc bs... obviously that would help facilitate isis which the usa claims they are going after.. a load of bs is all i have come to expect from the usa..

here is inherent bullshit resolve comment regarding your mention of 40 dead.. - "Inherent Resolve: many open sources claiming massive casualties among civilians in Hajin region as result of coalition actions without any evidences."

meanwhile almasdar reporting 18 saa personal dead in latakia thanks these moderate rebels today.
https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/jihadist-rebels-kill-18-syrian-soldiers-in-northern-latakia/

the kurds are brain dead... no wonder the usa likes working with them! they get what they deserve for sleeping with snakes...

the result of the al-safa battle is encouraging.. thanks for the update and good luck working on the google snoop dynamic..


Den Lille Abe , Nov 17, 2018 4:45:52 PM | link

What is the diference between a moderate terrorist and a extreme terrorist? I wonder ? Will the moderate say please, before he chops you head off?

Any that can help me here? I run afoul the wording. A terrorist is not necessarily a terrorist ?

If he is on our side then he is ok , clear to go?

Say I wanted to throw bombs (I don't, and cant throw very far) my actions wound depend on who the victims were? If they were Arabs, it would be ok? If it were white people, it was probably not ok? Amirite ?

And what is a moral war? Anybody?

Seems like I am more confused today being 61 than I were when I was 20.

ADKC , Nov 17, 2018 5:08:38 PM | link
Does terrorism even really exist? It seems to me that in most cases (in modern history) incidents of terrorism can be attributed to state actors seeking to discredit and/or escalate.

If we look at Northern Ireland it is clear that the British State were involved in carrying out, organizing, etc. acts of terrorism on both sides of the divide. The protestant paramilitaries where actively controlled and directed by the British state and in many incidences actually took part. On the catholic paramilitaries there were British agents who were in senior positions within the IRA and extremely violent in their approach.

It is now fairly obvious that Al Qaeda and ISIS were western controlled, funded, trained and directed organizations.

With the Dakota Pipeline protests there where agitators without a history with the protest seeking to provoke violence.

Hitler organized outrages against the German communities in Czechoslovakia to justify an invasion (to protect German minorities).

There is the Gladio operation (US/Anglo stay behind armies) which staged many acts of terrorism in post war Europe and is likely to still be active.

There is barely a terrorist incident that doesn't have some connection to state actors.

karlof1 , Nov 17, 2018 5:40:48 PM | link
How many times have we read reports of terrorists fleeing toward al-Tanf; I recall at least a dozen over the past 2 years. The volume and rhetorical tone Russia uses in what are now its demands that Outlaw US Empire forces abandon al-Tanf have drastically escalated over just the past month as several damning reports of conditions at the refugee camp are now published.

The rains in the region were quite spectacular and numerous videos of camel caravans slogging through the mire along with others--a massive river in al-Safa flowing through the rocks is one--are all over Twitter. Additional long-serving Syrian troops have been demobilized and discharged from service and further amnesty programs introduced to goad refugees to return. Civilian services still need lots of attention, but normal life is steadily returning.

Idlib awaits its Dawn operation as the Turks have had more than enough time to do their sorting, while the terrorists have increased their number of assaults inviting increased counter-fire. The chemical FF potential still lurks, and further excellent published exposures detailing the true nature of the White Helmet Terrorists are published. IMO, Russian hopes of solving Idlib politically without a major combat operation have dimmed greatly.

Numerous variables influence where the next major combat op will occur. Iraq's political issues impede its military actions. A weighty contingent of Russian troops were moved to Dier-Ezzor over the past two months along with fresh Syrian forces. With the clearing of al-Safa, those forces will likely combine and head East over the Euphrates. I believe both Russia and Syria are aware the situation there cannot be allowed to become frozen, and the lands east of the Euphrates is the largest remaining district needing liberation. Indeed, there are only 3 remaining: Idlib, al-Tanf, and East Euphrates--4 if the Turkish border zone's included.

Politically, Assad can't allow too long a respite as his liberation task remains undone. So, since the region lacking a political solution is East Euphrates, I look for the next major action to occur there--and the first serious testing of the new, joint, Syrian-Russian air defense system by the Outlaw US Empire, not the Zionists.

vk , Nov 17, 2018 9:03:36 PM | link
Throughout the war on Syria the Syrian Kurds have shown a lack of political wisdom. They probably believe they can withstand the Turkish army or that the U.S. will come to their help. The Turkish invasion of Afrin demonstrated that both ideas are nonsense. Their only chance to keep their homes is to completely submit to Syrian government control.

If the Kurds knew about the tale of the Malvines, they would've already surrendered to the Syrian government.

During the Falklands War, Argentina declared war against the UK calculating the USA would side with them against the British because Argentina is in the American continent -- therefore the Monroe Doctrine would take precedence.

But the UK was (still is) a NATO member. The mistake the Argentinian military dictators committed was that the choice wasn't between the Monroe Doctrine or NATO, but between capitalism and socialism (i.e. West vs USSR). The military junta that was governing Argentina at the time had already given up everything to the USA, they were already a guaranteed ally, with or without the Malvines. The UK had much more leverage, and, if it didn't have, it was the superior military power even if you factor the logistics of the war theater.

Turkey has both the leverage and, in neutrality, superior military strength vis-a-vis the Kurds in Northern Syria. To top it off, it has the geographic advantage, because a Syrian Kurdistan would be landlocked between hostile neighbors. They were pawns in the American adventure in Syria.

[Nov 15, 2018] Bolton's Met His Match Melania! - Antiwar.com Original

Nov 15, 2018 | original.antiwar.com

Bolton's Met His Match – Melania!

by Justin Raimondo Posted on November 15, 2018 November 14, 2018 We don't really hear all that much about Melania Trump in the media except occasional digs at her immigration status and a few daring photos. That's because the FLOTUS is one of the few unreservedly good things about this administration, and of course the media doesn't want to go there. Her grace, her reserve, her remarkable calm at the epicenter of a tumultuous White House, and, strikingly, her sense of style (and I don't just mean her clothes) puts her on a different plane from the Washington circus that surrounds her.

She had managed to keep her distance from the cutthroat politics of the Beltway, that is, until her collision with Mira Ricardel, National Security Advisor John Bolton's top aide and enforcer. Ricardel apparently disparaged the First Lady to other members of the White House staff, and tried to withhold resources from her on her recent trip to Africa. Whatever personal interactions of an unpleasant nature may have passed between these women, it's hard to imagine what provoked the office of the FLOTUS to issue the following statement :

"It is the position of the Office of the First Lady that she no longer deserves the honor of serving in this White House."

Ricardel is described by those who know her as abrasive, a bureaucratic in-fighter, and one "who doesn't suffer fools lightly." Having mistaken the First Lady for a fool, Ms. Ricardel is the one who will suffer – along with Bolton, who has protected her since her appointment from a chorus of critics, but who cannot stand against Melania.

So Team Bolton is on the outs, which means the America Firsters within the administration who oppose our foreign policy of globalism and perpetual war are on the rise. Which leads us to contemplate the meaning of this incident. The War Party's ranks are not filled with Mr. Nice Guys. They are nearly all of them pushy self-serving aggressive SOBs, with about as much personal charm as a rattlesnake.

I'm reminded of an essay by the conservative philosopher Claes Ryn, professor of politics at Catholic University, in which he describes the obnoxious behavior of the children of our political class in a local MacDonald's just inside one of the Beltway's more prestigious neighborhoods:

"Deference to grown-ups seems unknown. I used to take offense, but the children have only taken their cue from their parents, who took their cue from their parents. The adults, for their part, talk in loud, penetrating voices, some on cell phones, as if no other conversations mattered. The scene exudes self-absorption and lack of self-discipline.

"Yes, this picture has everything to do with U.S. foreign policy. This is the emerging American ruling class, which is made up increasingly of persons used to having the world cater to them. If others challenge their will, they throw a temper tantrum. Call this the imperialistic personality – if 'spoilt brat' sounds too crude."

The Imperialistic Personality, indeed! It seems Ms. Ricardel had one too many temper tantrums so that even in the permissive atmosphere of Washington, D.C., it was too much. There are a lot of imperialistic personalities in that particular location, it seems, for one reason or another. But things are different in Donald Trump's Washington, and even if we have to take down the Ricardels one by one, just think of the numbers we can rack up in the next six years.

A NOTE TO MY READERS : My apologies for the short column: I have some medical issues to take care off this week and I'm a bit pressed for time.

NOTES IN THE MARGIN

You can check out my Twitter feed by going here . But please note that my tweets are sometimes deliberately provocative, often made in jest, and largely consist of me thinking out loud.

I've written a couple of books, which you might want to peruse. Here is the link for buying the second edition of my 1993 book, Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement , with an Introduction by Prof. George W. Carey , a Foreword by Patrick J. Buchanan, and critical essays by Scott Richert and David Gordon ( ISI Books , 2008).

You can buy An Enemy of the State: The Life of Murray N. Rothbard (Prometheus Books, 2000), my biography of the great libertarian thinker, here .

[Nov 14, 2018] Bolton Vows to 'Squeeze' Iran, Escalating Sanctions - News From by Jason Ditz

If this is Trump policy, then Trump is 100% pure neocon. It took just three months for the Deep state to turn him.
Notable quotes:
"... Bolton shrugged off the reality that Iran is still doing business internationally, saying that he believes Iran is "under real pressure" from the sanctions, and that he's determined to see it keep getting worse. ..."
Nov 13, 2018 | news.antiwar.com

Says Europe will be forced to accept US demands

With the newly reimposed US sanctions against Iran having little to no perceivable economic impact, national security adviser John Bolton is talking up his plans to continue to escalate the sanctions track, saying he will " squeeze Iran until the pips squeak ."

Bolton shrugged off the reality that Iran is still doing business internationally, saying that he believes Iran is "under real pressure" from the sanctions, and that he's determined to see it keep getting worse.

Bolton went on to predict that the European efforts to keep trading with Iran would ultimately fail. He said the Europeans are going through the six stages of grief , and would ultimately led to European acceptance of the US demands.

Either way, Bolton's position is that the US strategy will continue to be imposing new sanctions on Iran going forward. It's not clear what the end game is, beyond just damaging Iran.

[Nov 11, 2018] Trump's Iran Policy Cannot Succeed Without Allies The National Interest by James Clapper & Thomas Pickering

Highly recommended!
It's interesting that Clapper is against abandoned by Trump Iran deal.
Tramp administration is acting more like Israeli marionette here, because while there a strategic advantage in crushing the Iranian regime for the USA and making a county another Us vassal in the middle East, the cost for the country might be way to high (especially if we count in the cost of additional antagonizing Russia and China). Trump might jump into the second Afghanistan, which would really brake the back of US military -- crushing Iran military is one thing, but occupying such a county is a very costly task. And that might well doom Israel in the long run as settlers policies now created really antagonized, unrecognizable minority with a high birth rate.
Vanishing one-by-one of partners are given due to collapse of neoliberalism as an ideology. Nobody believes that neoliberalism is the future, like many believed in 80th and early 90th. This looks more and more like a repetion of the path of the USSR after 1945, when communist ideology was discredited and communist elite slowly fossilized. In 46 years from its victory in WWII the USSR was dissolved. The same might happen with the USA in 50 years after winning the Cold War.
Notable quotes:
"... a vanishing one by one of American partners who were previously supportive of U.S. leadership in curbing Iran, particularly its nuclear program. ..."
"... The United States risks losing the cooperation of historic and proven allies in the pursuit of other U.S. national security interests around the world, far beyond Iran. ..."
Nov 09, 2018 | nationalinterest.org

Only well calibrated multilateral political, economic and diplomatic pressure brought to bear on Iran with many and diverse partners will produce the results we seek.

"Then there were none" was Agatha Christie's most memorable mystery about a house party in which each guest was killed off one by one. Donald Trump's policy toward Iran has resulted in much the same: a vanishing one by one of American partners who were previously supportive of U.S. leadership in curbing Iran, particularly its nuclear program.

Dozens of states, painstakingly cultivated over decades of American leadership in blocking Iran's nuclear capability, are now simply gone. One of America's three remaining allies on these issues, Saudi Arabia, has become a central player in American strategy throughout the Middle East region. But the Saudis, because of the Jamal Khashoggi killing and other reasons, may have cut itself out of the action. The United Arab Emirates, so close to the Saudis, may also fall away.

Such paucity of international support has left the Trump administration dangerously isolated. "America First" should not mean America alone. The United States risks losing the cooperation of historic and proven allies in the pursuit of other U.S. national security interests around the world, far beyond Iran.

... ... ...

European allies share many of our concerns about Iran's regional activities, but they strongly oppose U.S. reinstitution of secondary sanctions against them. They see the Trump administration's new sanctions as a violation of the nuclear agreement and UN Security Council resolutions and as undermining efforts to influence Iranian behavior. The new sanctions and those applied on November 5 only sap European interest in cooperating to stop Iran.

... ... ...

The United States cannot provoke regime change in Iran any more than it has successfully in other nations in the region. And, drawing on strategies used to topple governments in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States should be wary of launching or trying to spur a military invasion of Iran.

Lt. Gen. James Clapper (USAF, ret.) is the former Director of National Intelligence. Thomas R. Pickering is a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Russia and India.

[Nov 10, 2018] ISIS is as authentic and real as The White Helmets

Nov 10, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

never mind , Nov 10, 2018 7:30:32 AM | link

ISIS is as authentic and real as The White Helmets. There are mercenaries trained, paid and moved around by foreign intelligence, but there is no independent entity with a cyber division between the deserts of syria and iraq.

It's all make believe.

[Nov 10, 2018] The Reasons for Netanyahu's Panic by Alastair Crooke

Highly recommended!
Looks like time is working against Israelis in general and Netanyahu administration specifically... the nest result of 10`8 is he supply of S300 by Russia, which is a real thereat to Isreli air supremacy, no matter what Israili minister of offence said.
Alastair Crooke: "Belatedly, Israel has understood that it backed the wrong side in Syria -- and it has lost. It is not really in a position to demand anything. It will not get an American enforced buffer zone beyond the Golan armistice line, nor will the Iraqi-Syrian border be closed, or somehow "supervised" on Israel's behalf."
In the next ten years Israel regional position might deteriorate. It antagonized Palestinians to the point of "no reconciliation". And as US faced its own internal difficulties and divisions (and neocons in the USA now are look mostly negatively by wide swats of population), Israel might again face hostile Arab countries on the "never negotiated" borders. To find itself the country without negotiated borders with the hostile encirclement, of a kind Washington tries to create for Russia, is the position that any diplomat would like to avoid.
So it looks like the key idea of Zionism -- colonizing the land and displacing Palestinians much like Indians were displaced in the USA or aborigines in Australia, in retrospect looks not that realistic. A lot of Jewish talent and Western money was spend on a this variation of "Drang nach Osten"
Notable quotes:
"... It will not get an American enforced buffer zone beyond the Golan armistice line, nor will the Iraqi-Syrian border be closed, or somehow "supervised" on Israel's behalf. ..."
"... simply failed ..."
"... Israel's unexpected failure was deeply feared in the West, and in the Gulf too. A small, armed (revolutionary) movement had stood up to Israel -- against overwhelming odds -- and prevailed: it had stood its ground. This precedent was widely perceived to be a potential regional "game changer." The feudal Gulf autocracies sensed in Hizbullah's achievement the latent danger to their own rule from such armed resistance. ..."
"... And the war in Syria started to be mooted as the "corrective strategy" to the 2006 failure (as early as 2007) -- though it was only with the events following 2011 that the "corrective strategy" came to implemented, à outrance ..."
"... Syria -- with indisputable help from its allies -- seems about to prevail: it has stood its ground, against almost unbelievable odds. ..."
"... Syria's "standing its ground" represents a historic turning ..."
"... with each other ..."
"... Netayahu's "near panic" (if that is indeed what occurred) may well be a reflection of this seismic shift taking place in the region. Israel has long backed the losing side -- and now finds itself "alone" and fearing for its near proxies (the Jordanians and the Kurds). The "new" corrective strategy from Tel Aviv, it appears, is to focus on winning Iraq away from Iran, and embedding it into the Israel-U.S.-Saudi alliance. ..."
"... Daniel Levy has written a compelling piece to argue that Israelis generally would not subscribe to what I have written above, but rather: "Netanyahu's lengthy term in office, multiple electoral successes, and ability to hold together a governing coalition [is based on] him having a message that resonates with a broader public. It is a sales pitch that Netanyahu [has] 'brought the state of Israel to the best situation in its history, a rising global force the state of Israel is diplomatically flourishing.' Netanyahu had beaten back what he had called the 'fake-news claim' that without a deal with the Palestinians 'Israel will be isolated, weakened and abandoned' facing a 'diplomatic tsunami.' ..."
"... "Difficult though it is for his political detractors to acknowledge, Netanyahu's claim resonates with the public because it reflects something that is real, and that has shifted the center of gravity of Israeli politics further and further to the right. It is a claim that, if correct and replicable over time, will leave a legacy that lasts well beyond Netanyahu's premiership and any indictment he might face. ..."
"... "And then events took a further turn in Netanyahu's favor with the rise to power in the United States and parts of Central Eastern Europe (and to enhanced prominence elsewhere in Europe and the West) of the very ethno-nationalist trend to which Netanyahu is so committed, working to replace liberal with illiberal democracy. One should not underestimate Israel and Netanyahu's importance as an ideological and practical avant-garde for this trend." ..."
"... And this week, Hassan Nasrallah called on the Lebanese government " to devise a plan and take a sovereign decision to liberate the Shebaa Farms and the Kfarshouba Hills" from Israel. ..."
"... Will ethno-nationalism provide Israel with a new support base? Well, firstly, I do not see Israel's doctrine as "illiberal democracy," but rather an apartheid system intended to subordinate Palestinian political rights. And as the political schism in the West widens, with one "wing" seeking to delegitimize the other by tarnishing them as racists, bigots and Nazis, it is clear that the real ..."
"... The increasingly "not to be" constituency of the Middle East has a simpler word for Netanyahu's "ethnic nationalism." They call it simply Western colonialism. Round one of Chas Freeman's making the Middle East " be ..."
"... For all Netanyahu's bluster about Israel standing stronger, and having beaten back "what he had called the 'fake-news claim' that without a deal with the Palestinians 'Israel will be isolated, weakened and abandoned' facing a 'diplomatic tsunami,'" Netanyahu may have just discovered, in these last two weeks, that he confused facing down the weakened Palestinians with "victory" -- only at the very moment of his apparent triumph, to find himself alone in a new, "New Middle East." ..."
"... [For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.com's " The Possible Education of Donald Trump. "] ..."
www.defenddemocracy.press
... ... ...

Belatedly, Israel has understood that it backed the wrong side in Syria – and it has lost. It is not really in a position to demand anything. It will not get an American enforced buffer zone beyond the Golan armistice line, nor will the Iraqi-Syrian border be closed, or somehow "supervised" on Israel's behalf.

Of course, the Syrian aspect is important, but to focus only on that, would be to "miss the forest for the trees." The 2006 war by Israel to destroy Hizbullah (egged on by the U.S., Saudi Arabia -- and even a few Lebanese) was a failure. Symbolically, for the first time in the Middle East, a technologically sophisticated, and lavishly armed, Western nation-state simply failed . What made the failure all the more striking (and painful) was that a Western state was not just bested militarily, it had lost also the electronic and human intelligence war, too -- both spheres in which the West thought their primacy unassailable.

The Fallout from Failure

Israel's unexpected failure was deeply feared in the West, and in the Gulf too. A small, armed (revolutionary) movement had stood up to Israel -- against overwhelming odds -- and prevailed: it had stood its ground. This precedent was widely perceived to be a potential regional "game changer." The feudal Gulf autocracies sensed in Hizbullah's achievement the latent danger to their own rule from such armed resistance.

The reaction was immediate. Hizbullah was quarantined -- as best the full sanctioning powers of America could manage. And the war in Syria started to be mooted as the "corrective strategy" to the 2006 failure (as early as 2007) -- though it was only with the events following 2011 that the "corrective strategy" came to implemented, à outrance .

Against Hizbullah, Israel had thrown its full military force (though Israelis always say, now, that they could have done more). And against Syria, the U.S., Europe, the Gulf States (and Israel in the background) have thrown the kitchen sink: jihadists, al-Qaeda, ISIS (yes), weapons , bribes, sanctions and the most overwhelming information war yet witnessed. Yet Syria -- with indisputable help from its allies -- seems about to prevail: it has stood its ground, against almost unbelievable odds.

Just to be clear: if 2006 marked a key point of inflection, Syria's "standing its ground" represents a historic turning of much greater magnitude . It should be understood that Saudi Arabia's (and Britain's and America's) tool of fired-up, radical Sunnism has been routed. And with it, the Gulf States, but particularly Saudi Arabia are damaged. The latter has relied on the force of Wahabbism since the first foundation of the kingdom: but Wahabbism in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq has been roundly defeated and discredited (even for most Sunni Muslims). It may well be defeated in Yemen too. This defeat will change the face of Sunni Islam.

Already, we see the Gulf Cooperation Council, which originally was founded in 1981 by six Gulf tribal leaders for the sole purpose of preserving their hereditary tribal rule in the Peninsula, now warring with each other , in what is likely to be a protracted and bitter internal fight. The "Arab system," the prolongation of the old Ottoman structures by the complaisant post-World War I victors, Britain and France, seems to be out of its 2013 "remission" (bolstered by the coup in Egypt), and to have resumed its long-term decline.

The Losing Side

Netayahu's "near panic" (if that is indeed what occurred) may well be a reflection of this seismic shift taking place in the region. Israel has long backed the losing side -- and now finds itself "alone" and fearing for its near proxies (the Jordanians and the Kurds). The "new" corrective strategy from Tel Aviv, it appears, is to focus on winning Iraq away from Iran, and embedding it into the Israel-U.S.-Saudi alliance.

If so, Israel and Saudi Arabia are probably too late into the game, and are likely underestimating the visceral hatred engendered among so many Iraqis of all segments of society for the murderous actions of ISIS. Not many believe the improbable (Western) narrative that ISIS suddenly emerged armed, and fully financed, as a result of former Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki's alleged "sectarianism": No, as rule-of-thumb, behind each such well-breached movement -- stands a state .

Daniel Levy has written a compelling piece to argue that Israelis generally would not subscribe to what I have written above, but rather: "Netanyahu's lengthy term in office, multiple electoral successes, and ability to hold together a governing coalition [is based on] him having a message that resonates with a broader public. It is a sales pitch that Netanyahu [has] 'brought the state of Israel to the best situation in its history, a rising global force the state of Israel is diplomatically flourishing.' Netanyahu had beaten back what he had called the 'fake-news claim' that without a deal with the Palestinians 'Israel will be isolated, weakened and abandoned' facing a 'diplomatic tsunami.'

"Difficult though it is for his political detractors to acknowledge, Netanyahu's claim resonates with the public because it reflects something that is real, and that has shifted the center of gravity of Israeli politics further and further to the right. It is a claim that, if correct and replicable over time, will leave a legacy that lasts well beyond Netanyahu's premiership and any indictment he might face.

"Netanyahu's assertion is that he is not merely buying time in Israel's conflict with the Palestinians to improve the terms of an eventual and inevitable compromise. Netanyahu is laying claim to something different -- the possibility of ultimate victory, the permanent and definitive defeat of the Palestinians, their national and collective goals.

"In over a decade as prime minister, Netanyahu has consistently and unequivocally rejected any plans or practical steps that even begin to address Palestinian aspirations. Netanyahu is all about perpetuating and exacerbating the conflict, not about managing it, let alone resolving it [The] message is clear: there will be no Palestinian state because the West Bank and East Jerusalem are simply Greater Israel."

No Palestinian State

Levy continues: "The approach overturns assumptions that have guided peace efforts and American policy for over a quarter of a century: that Israel has no alternative to an eventual territorial withdrawal and acceptance of something sufficiently resembling an independent sovereign Palestinian state broadly along the 1967 lines. It challenges the presumption that the permanent denial of such an outcome is incompatible with how Israel and Israelis perceive themselves as being a democracy. Additionally, it challenges the peace-effort supposition that this denial would in any way be unacceptable to the key allies on which Israel depends

"In more traditional bastions of support for Israel, Netanyahu took a calculated gamble -- would enough American Jewish support continue to stand with an increasingly illiberal and ethno-nationalist Israel, thereby facilitating the perpetuation of the lopsided U.S.-Israel relationship? Netanyahu bet yes, and he was right."

And here is another interesting point that Levy makes:

"And then events took a further turn in Netanyahu's favor with the rise to power in the United States and parts of Central Eastern Europe (and to enhanced prominence elsewhere in Europe and the West) of the very ethno-nationalist trend to which Netanyahu is so committed, working to replace liberal with illiberal democracy. One should not underestimate Israel and Netanyahu's importance as an ideological and practical avant-garde for this trend."

Former U.S. Ambassador and respected political analyst Chas Freeman wrote recently very bluntly: "the central objective of U.S. policy in the Middle East has long been to achieve regional acceptance for the Jewish-settler state in Palestine." Or, in other words, for Washington, its Middle East policy -- and all its actions -- have been determined by "to be, or not to be": "To be" (that is) -- with Israel, or not "to be" (with Israel).

Israel's Lost Ground

The key point now is that the region has just made a seismic shift into the "not to be" camp. Is there much that America can do about that? Israel very much is alone with only a weakened Saudi Arabia at its side, and there are clear limits to what Saudi Arabia can do.

The U.S. calling on Arab states to engage more with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi seems somehow inadequate. Iran is not looking for war with Israel (as a number of Israeli analysts have acknowledged ); but, too, the Syrian President has made clear that his government intends to recover "all Syria" -- and all Syria includes the occupied Golan Heights. And this week, Hassan Nasrallah called on the Lebanese government " to devise a plan and take a sovereign decision to liberate the Shebaa Farms and the Kfarshouba Hills" from Israel.

Read also: Church Leaders Condemn 'Brutal' US-Led Attack on Syria, Praise Gov't Forces

A number Israeli commentators already are saying that the "writing is on the wall" -- and that it would be better for Israel to cede territory unilaterally, rather than risk the loss of hundreds of lives of Israeli servicemen in a futile attempt to retain it. That, though, seems hardly congruent with the Israeli Prime Minister's "not an inch, will we yield" character and recent statements .

Will ethno-nationalism provide Israel with a new support base? Well, firstly, I do not see Israel's doctrine as "illiberal democracy," but rather an apartheid system intended to subordinate Palestinian political rights. And as the political schism in the West widens, with one "wing" seeking to delegitimize the other by tarnishing them as racists, bigots and Nazis, it is clear that the real America First-ers will try, at any price, to distance themselves from the extremists.

Daniel Levy points out that the Alt-Right leader, Richard Spencer, depicts his movement as White Zionism. Is this really likely to build support for Israel? How long before the "globalists" use precisely Netanyahu's "illiberal democracy" meme to taunt the U.S. Right that this is precisely the kind of society for which they too aim: with Mexicans and black Americans treated like Palestinians?

'Ethnic Nationalism'

The increasingly "not to be" constituency of the Middle East has a simpler word for Netanyahu's "ethnic nationalism." They call it simply Western colonialism. Round one of Chas Freeman's making the Middle East " be with Israel" consisted of the shock-and-awe assault on Iraq. Iraq is now allied with Iran, and the Hashad militia (PMU) are becoming a widely mobilized fighting force. The second stage was 2006. Today, Hizbullah is a regional force, and not a just Lebanese one.

The third strike was at Syria. Today, Syria is allied with Russia, Iran, Hizbullah and Iraq. What will comprise the next round in the "to be, or not to be" war?

For all Netanyahu's bluster about Israel standing stronger, and having beaten back "what he had called the 'fake-news claim' that without a deal with the Palestinians 'Israel will be isolated, weakened and abandoned' facing a 'diplomatic tsunami,'" Netanyahu may have just discovered, in these last two weeks, that he confused facing down the weakened Palestinians with "victory" -- only at the very moment of his apparent triumph, to find himself alone in a new, "New Middle East."

Perhaps Pravda was right, and Netanyahu did appear close to panic, during his hurriedly arranged, and urgently called, Sochi summit.

[For more on this topic, see Consortiumnews.com's " The Possible Education of Donald Trump. "]

* Alastair Crooke is a former British diplomat who was a senior figure in British intelligence and in European Union diplomacy. He is the founder and director of the Conflicts Forum.

[Nov 10, 2018] US, Turkey risk direct military clash as they escalate war in Syria Defend Democracy Press by Barış Demir

Notable quotes:
"... Washington Post ..."
Aug 11, 2018 | www.defenddemocracy.press

As it pursues its war with US-backed Kurdish-nationalist organizations, the Turkish government is threatening an outright military occupation of large parts of Syria that could provoke war with Syria and a direct clash with US forces.

On Tuesday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan denounced joint patrols by US forces and Kurdish-led militias as "unacceptable." Speaking to reporters in Ankara, he said: "Not only can we not accept (the joint patrols), such a development will cause serious problems at the border."

This came after Turkey shelled positions of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in the Zor Magar region east of the Euphrates River and the town of Tal Abyad starting on October 28, killing at least 10 Kurdish fighters. Two days earlier, Erdogan had delivered a "final warning" to Syrian Kurdish fighters to retreat. He also warned that Turkey's next target would be positions of the People's Protection Units (YPG, a Kurdish force that is the key component of the SDF) east of the Euphrates.

On October 30, as shelling continued, Erdogan stepped up threats to invade Syria to attack the US-backed Kurdish forces: "We are going to destroy the terrorist organization preparations and plans have been completed. We've made our plans and programs, and initiated it in the previous days. We will come down on the terrorist organization's neck with more extensive, effective operations. We could arrive suddenly one night."

This provoked an angry warning from Washington on October 31. State Department deputy spokesman Robert Palladino said: "Unilateral military strikes into northwest Syria by any party, particularly as American personnel may be present or in the vicinity, are of great concern to us Coordination and consultation between the United States and Turkey on issues of security concern is a better approach."

Ankara, however, is determined to crush the YPG, which it views as an affiliate of the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), the Turkish Kurdish separatist movement against which it has waged a bloody counter insurgency campaign for more than 30 years. Ankara also fears Kurdish autonomy in Syria, worried it will provoke demands for Kurdish autonomy in eastern Turkey.

Read also: Israel Bombs, Shells Syria in Latest Attempt to Justify More Land Grabs

In an apparent attempt to placate Ankara, Washington announced on Tuesday that it would place bounties on the heads of three PKK leaders. Visiting Turkey, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Matthew Palmer announced that the State Department's Rewards for Justice program is offering money for information leading to the capture of the PKK officials. The bounties are $5 million for Murat Karayilan, $4 million for Cemil Bayik and $3 million for Duran Kalkan.

But Ambassador James Jeffrey, the US special representative for Syria engagement, said Washington did not see the YPG and PKK as the same entity. He declared: "For us, the PKK is a terrorist organization. We are not of the same opinion on the YPG. We ensure that the YPG operates as part of the Syrian Democratic Forces in the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant [ISIL] in a way that does not pose a threat to Turkey."

Turkish presidential spokesperson Ibrahim Kalin rebuffed the US initiative, saying Ankara would treat it "with caution" and demanding that Washington sever all ties with the YPG.

Turkey's ever-deeper involvement in the bloodshed across the region is the product of Erdogan's decision to support the proxy war for regime change launched by the NATO imperialist powers in Syria in 2011.

As the WSWS previously noted : "All Erdogan's calculations were upended by the intensification of the war and of the class struggle in the Middle East. In 2013, amid growing working class anger against Egypt's Islamist President Mohammad Mursi and social protests in Turkey centred in Gezi Park, the imperialist powers backed an army coup that toppled Mursi. As the Islamic State (IS) militia grew in Syria and invaded Iraq, moreover, they turned to the use of Kurdish nationalist groups as their proxies against IS.

Read also: Proposals for a new Syrian Constitution

"Erdogan could not adapt himself to these sudden, violent shifts in imperialist war policy, and Ankara's imperialist allies rapidly came to see him not as a 'strategic partner,' but as an unreliable one."

After Russia intervened militarily to prevent NATO-backed Islamist militias from overthrowing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, Turkish jets shot down a Russian jet over Syria in November 2015, with US support. After Russia escalated its military posture in response and threatened economic sanctions in retaliation against Turkey, however, Ankara tacked back toward Russia and China. Ankara turned first to China and then Russia for an air defence system, while its relations with the Obama administration and its European allies rapidly deteriorated.

In July 2016, a section of Turkey's military, encouraged by Washington and Berlin, launched an abortive putsch out of NATO's Incirlik air base, aiming to murder Erdogan and carry out regime change in Turkey.

Erdogan responded to the coup by stepping up the war against the Kurds and imposing a state of emergency, seeking to strangle all political opposition. Ankara also maneuvered closer to Moscow and Tehran, setting up talks in Astana for a "solution" to the Syria war. And Erdogan ordered the Turkish army to launch its own invasions of Syria, "Operation Euphrates Shield" (in August 2016) and "Operation Olive Branch" (in January 2018), directed against the YPG.

The brief warming of US-Turkish relations that followed the gruesome state murder on October 2 of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi in the Saudi consulate in Istanbul appears to have quickly ended. Ankara clearly saw the investigation of the Khashoggi assassination as a means of promoting Turkish interests in relation to Riyadh and Washington. It had shared tense relations with both the Saudi regime and US imperialism, including over the Saudi blockade of Qatar, a key Turkish ally, and the US alliance with the YPG in Syria.

Read also: The Reasons for Netanyahu's Panic

Erdogan sought to improve relations with Washington by investigating the killing of Khashoggi, who worked extensively for US publications, including the Washington Post . Ankara also released US pastor Andrew Brunson, whom it had accused of helping prepare the 2016 coup. But Washington soon dropped the Khashoggi murder, focusing instead on strategies for intensifying the war in Syria.

Ankara is responding by moving closer to the European powers and seeking to exploit their growing differences with Washington. It joined a new mechanism with Germany, France and Russia to work out a peace deal in Syria acceptable to the European imperialist powers. An inconclusive October 27 Istanbul summit on Syria, hosted by Erdogan, was attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and Russia President Vladimir Putin.

After the summit, they called for a new Syrian constitution to be drafted before the end of this year, "paving the way for free and fair elections," according to a joint statement.

Visiting Tokyo on Tuesday, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu also criticized US sanctions against Iran, which have been the subject of escalating conflict between Washington and the European powers. "While we were asking (for) an exemption from the United States, we have also been very frank with them that cornering Iran is not wise," he said. "Turkey is against sanctions, we don't believe any results can be achieved through the sanctions."

[Nov 09, 2018] Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi possible connection to Israel

Nov 09, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

ardent 19 minutes ago ( Edited ) remove Share link Copy Report

"Abu-Bakr al-Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, is an Israeli Mossad-trained operative whose real name is Elliot Shimon, a *** who took courses in Islamic theology and Arabic Speech." - Snowden

Old Poor Richard 49 minutes ago remove Share link Copy

Now how would Ed Snowden know this? Is he some kind of super h4x0r tapped into the Pegasus mainframe?

ShakenNotStirred 42 minutes ago remove Share link Copy

I heard you have a bunch of Mossad agents below your bed. Check it out or you will be "Mossaded" before the morning.

passingthroughtown 2 hours ago remove Share link Copy

Proving once again that the Saudis and Israelies have been working hand in glove for a very long time. Is there any doubt about the connection between the two and what happened on 911?

But what is even more disturbing:

In recent days, Egyptian President Abdel Fatah Al-Sisi and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have reached out to the Trump administration to express support for the crown prince, arguing that he is an important strategic partner in the region, said people familiar with the calls.

"Strategic partner" makes it all okay. This is merely a glimpse of what is coming in the future. You ain't seen NOTHIN yet.

He–Mene Mox Mox 3 hours ago remove Share link Copy

Here is more of what Snowden was talking about: https://citizenlab.ca/2018/10/the-nso-connection-to-jamal-khashoggi/ .

Derezzed 3 hours ago ( Edited ) remove Share link Copy

" Israel is routinely at the top of the US' classified threat list of hackers along with Russia and China [ ] even though it is an ally "
Our best allies !
" Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked the United States to stand by Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed Bin Salman (MBS) in the wake of the Khashoggi case. "
The most morale people !
I bet they are behind ISIS too with their (((allies))) and the (((deep state))).
But hey isn't it conspirationnist and antisemitic to accuse them of anything ?
Because you know as the most " kind " and " human " people there needs to be laws, censorship and repression, to protect them from being hated.
< 1% of the global population and they make the headlines 4/5 times a day.
Can only be bad luck and a cohencidence !

Dickweed Wang 3 hours ago remove Share link Copy

"Israel is routinely at the top of the US' classified threat list of hackers along with Russia and China [ ] even though it is an ally"

Sorry Ed, IsraHell isn't an ally of the USA. It's a ******* parasite and it's well on its way to killing the host.

alamac 4 hours ago remove Share link Copy

I guess Netanyahoo and KSM love each other because they have a common hobby: Killing Arabs.

RagnarRedux 4 hours ago ( Edited ) remove Share link Copy

ISRAEL FLAGGED AS TOP SPY THREAT TO U.S. IN NEW SNOWDEN/NSA DOCUMENT (2007)

https://www.newsweek.com/israel-flagged-top-spy-threat-us-new-snowdennsa-document-262991

Former U.S. Officials Say CIA Considers Israel To Be Mideast's Biggest Spy Threat (2012)

U.S. intelligence agents stationed in Israel report multiple cases of equipment tampering, suspected break ins in recent years; CIA officials tell the Associated Press that Israel may have leaked info that led to the capture of an agent inside Syria's chemical weapons program.

https://www.haaretz.com/for-cia-israel-is-a-spy-therat-1.5272328

He–Mene Mox Mox 4 hours ago remove Share link Copy

What Snowden says is true. Here is what the Canadians have put together about NSO: https://citizenlab.ca/2018/09/hide-and-seek-tracking-nso-groups-pegasus-spyware-to-operations-in-45-countries/

What is really troubling, is Kushner's involvement in the affair. He would have been debriefed once he returned to the U.S., not only by his father-in-law, Trump, but the intel community too. You can bet every dollar you have that both the Israelis and Saudis were using NSO surveillance on him. What is even more troubling, it appears that the action taken to "neutralize" Jamal Khashoggi, more than likely had the blessings of Washington, since Kushner met with the Saudis prior to the killing. It really makes one wonder, since Kushner declined to discuss the state of his relationship with Prince Mohammed.

GRDguy 4 hours ago remove Share link Copy

"licensed only to legitimate government agencies"

That's the problem.

There are no legitimate government agencies any more.

[Nov 07, 2018] Trump is now ripe of impeachment for his crimes in Syria, but nobody will push for it

One potential worry in both the extensive Democratic and Republican political criminal cesspool would be that another wealthy populist-esque candidate for the Presidency will emerge in the wake Trump's faux populism to come closer to the real thing. ....
Nov 07, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org
Robert Snefjella , Nov 7, 2018 3:32:12 PM | link

As I gamely attempt to make some sense out of a daily inundation of various alternative political realities and alternative illusions co-mingling, processing as best I can the bits and pieces that I manage to filter through my taxed cranium, it occurs to me again that Trump won the 2016 election against the Establishment of both parties.

Subsequently, Trump has had various anchors attached to him and booby traps placed in his way and arrows shot at him from many political directions, and some self-inflicted. His own behaviors and policies have managed to alienate just about everybody on the planet except some tens of millions of Deplorables of indeterminate faithfulness.

But it appears to me that the strengthening of his position in the Senate, which previously was at best weakly supportive at Trump and for good reason easily suspected of being poised for betrayal, is potentially very significant. The question is to what extent the new Senate will be more willing to flex its enhanced Republican muscles on behalf of Trump.

"The Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments." Okay, so the impeachment possibility is nullified.

Another point is that whereas after 2016 the Democratic minority were reduced to political 'guerrilla-tactics', they are now able to actually propose and win the H. of Rep. vote on their proposals. Since they require the assent of the Senate, will this lead to a more cooperative approach to proposed legislation? After all, bashing Trump has not been a great strategy. Might the Democrats try actually proposing and attempting to pass sensible laws?

One potential worry in both the extensive Democratic and Republican political criminal cesspool would be that another wealthy populist-esque candidate for the Presidency will emerge in the wake Trump's faux populism to come closer to the real thing. Perhaps such a political trend/event in the USA is as far fetched as the unicorn, but after all, who would have thought Russia could have rebounded positively so far from their inebriated depressed life support just a short generation ago?

[Nov 07, 2018] A must watch Jimmy Dore show

Nov 07, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Harry Law , Nov 7, 2018 3:27:30 PM | 86 ">link

This is a must watch Jimmy Dore show, Professor Jeffrey Sachs of Columbia University lays out how Obama and Trump have made a mess of Syria and caused the deaths of half a million people, the panel on MSMBC are stunned into silence by this truth telling.. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O2TRzA2ezk

[Nov 05, 2018] Both in Skriplas affair and in Syria the UK is slowly sinking to its appropriate level of incompetence and self-delusion

Nov 05, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

et Al November 5, 2018 at 8:22 am

I'm not surprised that you are such a fine shot with his harpoon considering your naval background, Mark! The UK is slowly sinking to its appropriate level of incompetence and self-delusion with the likes of former PM Dave Cameron declaring that he is 'shit bored' and would like to return to cabinet, preferably as Foreign Minister. That could be arranged, but as Foreign minister in Libya.

Still, the whole 'Russian corrupting in Britain' is the British government's perception management at its finest. As someone recently posted on the last thread, a Spanish case against RUSSIAN MAFIA collapsed for lack of evidence after ten years , which I suspect was partly provided by British Intelligence paid organized crime experts from Russia like Litvenenko & Skripal. Who's been bilked then?

Yes, this is a classic case of 'LOOK OVER THERE!' rather than the billions upon billions sunk in to London by the UK and the west's bestest Gulf buddies, you know, the one's who fear not their exposure for outrageous human rights abuses on a genocidal scale such as in Yemen, and a much smaller scale with the likes of their own citizens, sic Kashoggi. But, Chelsea & Westminster are such a fundamental part of British Life (coz its London, innit?) and does very well for itself. I have to admit, it is (mostly) nice around there where you can take a stroll along the Embankment, wander around Hyde Park and visit the museums.

Northern Star November 5, 2018 at 5:33 pm
"Like in the Wild West, betting in the saloon is also common when it comes to Syria. The US State Department under Obama placed all its bets on some entity they invented, which they liked to call "moderate rebels" (why not "respectable terrorists" or "polite criminals"?). They lost. Numerous left-wing academics signed on to regime change years ago, and because they only pretend to be seasoned analysts for their day jobs, they did not foresee the collapse of the anti-government forces in Syria. That list included noted "post-colonial" scholars and anthropologists, united in their belief in "democracy promotion" and remaking Syria into something palatable to them, with the right leaders in place. Five years later and a smaller group -- including feminists like Gloria Steinem and Judith Butler, anarchists like Noam Chomsky and the anthropologist David Graeber, the Marxist David Harvey, and advocates of recolonization like Michael Walzer -- placed their bets on socialist Kurdish militias, presumably increasing the value of their bet by the important sign value of their brand name authority. Ironically, in the process of reimagining legendary Rojava as the site of a second Spanish Civil War, they were openly collaborating with Donald Trump (not naming him directly, since "the US government" was more convenient). These signatories were thus complicit with the very same commander-in-chief of the armed forces they were calling on for support of Syrian Kurds. They wanted "the US government," whose President is Donald Trump, to impose sanctions on Turkey, and to develop a foreign policy that put Kurdish interests at the forefront. You can be sure that, elsewhere, in front of different crowds, they return to "the Resistance" by puffing up their little chests and sounding all "anti-Trump" -- but when it came to cheering their favourite band of ethnic anarchists, they could dispense with appearances. Less "prestigious" characters, publishing in a less "prestigious" outlet, countered the call to "defend Rojava", a call which appropriated "progressive" politics for the cause of imperialism (thus reigniting an old marriage). (David Harvey, by the way, having cashed in on abundant sales of his volume, The New Imperialism, has recently changed his mind: he has decided that imperialism is merely a metaphor, "rather than anything real". Out of curiosity, we have to wonder if "capitalism" is also a metaphor, rather than anything real, seeing how Marxists have linked capitalism with imperialism. Perhaps even socialism is a metaphor, rather than anything real."

This Canadian has a lot to say well worth reading!!!!!

https://zeroanthropology.net/2018/10/06/syria-the-new-terra-nullius/

https://syria360.wordpress.com/2018/11/04/syria-the-new-terra-nullius/

[Oct 26, 2018] Russian general says US plane directed drones towards airbase in Syria News

Oct 26, 2018 | www.dw.com

A US military aircraft took control of 13 drones over Syria in January and tried to redirect them in an attack on a Russian airbase, a senior Russian official has claimed. Russia's military managed to thwart the attempt.

The US military helped coordinate an attempted drone attack on Russia's Hemeimeem base in Syria, Russian deputy defense minister Alexander Fomin claimed at a summit in Beijing on Thursday. The alleged attack took place in January 2018.

Fomin's statement marks the first time Russia has directly accused the US of targeting Russian forces.

The Russian official said that a coordinated group of 13 drones was directed toward the base while a US Poseidon-8, a high-tech reconnaissance plane, was cruising over the Mediterranean. Once the drones "reached our barrier of radio-electronic interference," they were switched to manual navigation, according to Fomin.

"This manual control is not conducted by just some villager, but by a normal, modernized Poseidon-8," Fomin added. "It took on manual control."

Read more: Russia starts drone surveillance missions in Syria

Fomin did not say who had launched the drones before the the US plane took over their direction. 'This needs to stop'

Russian forces managed to shoot down seven of the drones and then hack and take control of the remaining six, landing them safely. "And this needs to stop -- in order to avoid high-tech weapons falling into terrorists' hands and having well-equipped terrorists, it is necessary to stop strengthening them," Fomin told delegates at China's Xiangshan security forum.

The three-day summit in Beijing is organized by the Chinese defense ministry, with delegates expected from 79 countries.

Moscow has repeatedly accused the US of supplying and arming jihadist groups fighting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad.

Islamist rebels often use drones to target Russian forces in Syria. Russia's defense ministry has claimed that rebel drones appear to be basic, but are equipped with modern navigation and ordinance delivery systems. This suggests that "a country possessing the technology to produce such systems supplied them to international terrorist groups," the ministry said, according to remarks cited by Russia's RIA Novosti agency.

Syria has been engulfed in a devastating civil war since 2011 after Syrian President Bashar Assad lost control over large parts of the country to multiple revolutionary groups. The conflict has since drawn in foreign powers and brought misery and death to Syrians.

Syria's army, officially known as the Syrian Arab Army (SAA), is loyal to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and is fighting to restore the president's rule over the entire country. The SAA has been fighting alongside a number of pro-Assad militias such as the National Defense Force and has cooperated with military advisors from Russia and Iran, which back Assad.

Turkey, which is also part of the US-led coalition against IS, has actively supported rebels opposed to Assad. It has a tense relationship with its American allies over US cooperation with Kurdish fighters, who Ankara says are linked to the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) fighting in Turkey. The Turkish military has intervened alongside rebels in northern Aleppo, Afrin and Idlib province.

The Kremlin has proven to be a powerful friend to Assad. Russian air power and ground troops officially joined the fight in September 2015 after years of supplying the Syrian army. Moscow has come under fire from the international community for the high number of civilian casualties during its airstrikes. However, Russia's intervention turned the tide in war in favor of Assad.

A US-led coalition of more than 50 countries, including Germany, began targeting IS and other terrorist targets with airstrikes in late 2014. The anti-IS coalition has dealt major setbacks to the militant group. The US has more than a thousand special forces in the country backing the Syrian Democratic Forces.

The Free Syrian Army grew out of protests against the Assad regime that eventually turned violent. Along with other non-jihadist rebel groups, it seeks the ouster of President Assad and democratic elections. After suffering a number of defeats, many of its members defected to hardline militant groups. It garnered some support from the US and Turkey, but its strength has been greatly diminished.

Fighting between Syrian Kurds and Islamists has become its own conflict. The US-led coalition against the "Islamic State" has backed the Syrian Democratic Forces, an alliance of Kurdish and Arab militias. The Kurdish YPG militia is the main component of the SDF. The Kurds have had a tacit understanding with Assad.

"Islamic State" (IS) took advantage of regional chaos to capture vast swathes of territory in Iraq and Syria in 2014. Seeking to establish its own "caliphate," IS has become infamous for its fundamentalist brand of Islam and its mass atrocities. IS is facing defeat in both countries after the US and Russia led separate military campaigns against the militant group.

IS is not the only terrorist group that has ravaged Syria. A number of jihadist militant groups are fighting in the conflict, warring against various rebel factions and the Assad regime. One of the main jihadist factions is Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham, which controls most of Idlib province and has ties with al-Qaeda.

Iran has supported Syria, its only Arab ally, for decades. Eager to maintain its ally, Tehran has provided Damascus with strategic assistance, military training and ground troops when the conflict emerged in 2011. The Iran-backed Lebanese Shiite militant group Hezbollah also supports the Assad regime, fighting alongside Iranian forces and paramilitary groups in the country.

In Moscow, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the information was "very alarming," but added only the Russian military could provide details.

Putin might raise the issue when meeting US President Donald Trump in Paris on November 11, Peskov told reporters.

The US Pentagon did not immediately comment on Fomin's claims.

The news of the alleged US-coordinated attack comes some two months after Russia lost a high-tech plane in Syria in an incident Moscow says was caused by Israel . Russia responded by pledging to supply Syrian forces with S-300 aerial defense systems.

dj/jm (AP, Reuters, Interfax, dpa)

[Oct 22, 2018] Canada to nominate Al Qaeda for Nobel Peace Prize...

Oct 22, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

John Gilberts , Oct 22, 2018 2:10:56 PM | link

Syrian White Helmets To Be Nominated For Nobel Peace Prize

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-renowned-international-human-rights-lawyer-to-nominate-syrian-white/

Renowned [Zionist] international human-rights lawyer Irwin Cotler is nominating Syria's famed White Helmets, a group of volunteer humanitarian workers Canada helped rescue from the war-torn country for the Nobel Peace Prize...

A senior Canadian government official who was not authorized to speak publicly, confirmed Friday that some of the refugees have already resettled in Canada. The government declined to say exactly how many White Helmets have already arrived or the total number Canada plans to welcome, citing security concerns..."

[Oct 22, 2018] NINE British, Chechen and Turkish experts and TWO members of the White Helmets were killed in the blast at a workshop used for making chemicals in the small town of Tarmanin in Northern Idlib

Oct 22, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Montreal , Oct 22, 2018 5:28:27 AM | link

From Craig Murray's site.

" Over the weekend, there was a huge explosion at a workshop used for making chemicals in the small town of Tarmanin in Northern Idlib. The workshop included a large volume of chemical, explosive materials and liquid chlorine barrels. NINE British, Chechen and Turkish experts and TWO members of the White Helmets were killed in the blast."

https://en.muraselon.com/2018/10/white-helmets-blast-chemical-syria/
https://en.reseauinternational.net/white-helmets-members-experts-killed-in-huge-blast-at-chemical-workshop-in-northwestern-syria/

[Oct 21, 2018] Bolton is a certified retard if he thinks he will bankrupt Russia with an arms race

Oct 21, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

kirill October 19, 2018 at 2:40 pm

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-19/bolton-pushes-trump-drop-1987-treaty-after-russia-unveils-advanced-nukes

Bolton pushes for the US to break out of the 1987 INF Treaty. Not surprising considering that all those ABM components they are deploying around Russia are dual use and violate the INF. The INF is also a joke (showing us what a comprador Gorby was) since it allows the US to deploy unlimited range nuclear missiles in its Naval assets. So Russia cannot have any land based intermediate range nukes, but the US can park its ships in EU harbours and deploy unlimited amounts of the "banned" class of missiles.

I say let the US break the INF. The INF helps the USA and its NATzO minions more than it helps Russia.

Patient Observer October 20, 2018 at 9:05 am
There may be several motivations for Bolton
– an attempt to force Russia into a ruinously expensive arms race;
– to create a regional Cold War to reverse the nascent rapprochement between Western Europe and Russia;
– an attempt to limit war to the European/Russian region as much as possible if a war against Russia is needed by the US.

Bolton is an idiot carrying out a moron's strategy. What could go wrong?

kirill October 20, 2018 at 2:46 pm
Bolton is a certified retard if he thinks he will bankrupt Russia with an arms race.

1) I find the theory that the USSR couldn't afford the 1970-80s arms race and went bankrupt to be of zero credibility. The USSR was a command economy and various estimates of how much it allegedly spent on the economy to be ridiculous western attempts to impose their capitalist accounting on a command economy.

The USSR collapsed due to internal political rot and not some "budget deficit" which was meaningless in command economics and never exiting in reality anyway. The only valid metrics of deficits in command economies if there are labour shortages in various industries.

The USSR had more than enough engineers, researchers, workers and material resources to keep up with the arms race.

This is why command economics is vastly superior to capitalist profiteering. Capitalism only triumphs because humans are genetically deficient to live optimally under a command economy since they need all sorts of superfluous incentives and feel-good junk.

2) Nuclear weapons are the cheapest option out of all military costs. Tanks, ships and armed troops are much more expensive. In the current rocket era, these expensive options are outdated and much less potent. Russia can neutralize any US move by deploying appropriately designed missiles and warheads.

[Oct 20, 2018] Trump is de facto neocon

Oct 20, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Peter AU 1 , Oct 19, 2018 4:34:37 AM | link

@ Hoarsewhisper

I initially backed Trump, though with reservations on his attitude to Iran and his wanting to increase US military spending - build a stronger US military. Pulling out of the TPP was great. Au had sovereignty on paper if not in practice, but with the TPP, Australia would not have had sovereignty legally. His first attack on Syria was a flash bang exercise to disable his opponents. His second attack I thought initially was the same, but with everything I've read since, I believe Trump's US planned to destroy Syrian military but not wanting to go to war with Russia at that time, respected the Russian nyet on targets.

With Idlib it moved up a notch, Trump's US threatening attack on Syria including Russian personal stationed there, and Russia moving to asymmetrical moves rather than in your face nuclear amageddon, which is what a full on US attack on Syria would have amounted to..

[Oct 12, 2018] Father Dani l in Syria 'Fake News is Imposed With Great Enthusiasm in the West, While Channels of Truth Are Closed' by Bahar Azizi

Notable quotes:
"... Hand in Hand voor Syrië, ..."
"... The most flagrant case is Syria where a war was orchestrated by "proxy groups" by Western powers and the Petro monarchies of the Gulf States. Before the war, Syria was a country that could support itself in terms of food and industrialization with a well-developed population that enjoyed a modern health system. The "strategy of the chaos" imported hoards of mercenaries of which the Syrian government can hardly get rid of after 8 years of war (2011-2018). The imperialist intervention, meant to fight this state that refused to obey, has driven 5 million people from their homes" ..."
"... L'intervention and Libye, la pire erreur de ce début de siecle ..."
"... Propaganda Blitz. How the Corporate Media Distort Reality ..."
"... For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities of this dark world ... ..."
Oct 11, 2018 | www.sott.net
Living in Syria in the sixth-century Mar Yakub monastery in the city of Qara, 90 kilometers north of the capital Damascus, Flemish Father Daniël Maes has been a witness to the invasion of western-backed terrorists since the very beginning. To this day, he and his friends continue to support the Syrian people by not only helping them directly, but also by spreading the truth about what is truly going on in the country.

Each week, a newsletter written by Father Daniël is published, in which he describes his experiences and thoughts on the situation in Syria. With the help of much needed donations and NGOs such as Hand in Hand voor Syrië, Father Daniël and others have been working tirelessly with the Syrian people liberated from (formerly) terrorist-held areas.

Below, you can read his latest newsletter , as published on September 28th, 2018, and as translated by Sott.net:

Dear friends,

It seems unlikely that the planned military escalation by Western forces to protect the terrorists in Idlib and to risk a last chance to subvert Syria, will continue. The Abou al-Dohour safe zone basically ensures that citizens can escape the terrorist-controlled Idlib. This was largely guaranteed by the agreement between Russia and Turkey. And Putin seems determined to impose a no-fly zone over all of Syria! Well done. Meanwhile, the Syrians continue to work very diligently on the restoration of their country and society. After the fantastic course of the 60th annual fair last Friday, a 'marathon of peace' was organized to support those who work for the end of the war and the restoration of peace. This marathon was held in Hama, Homs, Lattakia, Tartous and Sweida.

At the same time, a limited bicycle race was organized in Damascus for 200 cyclists from the Ommayade mosque through the city.

In Qara there was one crossroad that was full of rubble for years. It was the place where the hardest fighting took place in 2013. Well, the debris is finally cleared up. And between the monastery and the Ante-Lebanon Mountains people have been working hard lately. The so-called Qara 4 gas source is now operational. It delivers 120,000 cubic meters of gas and 100 condensed barrels every day. We pray and hope that there will be a definitive end to this war and the Syrian people can fully develop their identity.

Father Daniël then goes on to sharing news about the community, his reflection on the root causes of the refugee problem, and a warning with regard to the "official fake news":
Preparation

We want to have a quiet retreat in the community and some preparation has been made for this. On Monday, we visited Sadad and the Syrian Orthodox community with some sisters and a guest, with whom we now maintain a close contact. We visited the "martyress" of the village again, the old woman, who was all alone, was left behind by terrorists to die but recovered. She received a shed that is now being converted into a two-room house, which she proudly showed us.

We prayed together in the church and visited a number of villagers. The pastor abou Michaiel and the Christians count on us that we also continue to help them financially. It is mainly about the purchase of material for the reconstruction, they will do the work themselves. Tuesday and Wednesday were still preparation days to start with a real quiet retreat for the whole community on Thursday. Hopefully more about that next time. So, you won't be getting a message about the war around us this time, we are committing to the struggle in ourselves right now.

Ministerial visit

This week we were again visited by the Minister of Supply together with his wife. They were with us before. He practically has the function of the patriarch Joseph in Egypt during the famine. He asked mother Agnes-Mariam to help find the means to offer more people work in agriculture so that they can provide themselves with their own food. In Aleppo we have been able to help 5,000 families. He also asked in India (mother Agnes-Mariam will briefly give a retreat in India) to find out whether material and prostheses can be shipped from there for disabled people.

From our monastery MSJM (Saint Jacques le Mutilé) about 1,000 people are now employed as paid workers in relief efforts throughout Syria. In the beginning we received a lot of opposition and suspicion. Meanwhile, there is a strong and good spirit with five responsible people, with mother Agnes-Mariam assuming the final responsibility. Now, big organizations are coming to us to work with us. However, the first and foremost impulse always starts with simple, sincere people who give their contribution with generosity. That is why we would like to express our sincere thanks to all our benefactors.

Our wars, our refugees

The continuing flow of refugees from the Middle East and Africa to Europe is a humanitarian drama for these people themselves and is also a threat to the countries in which they seek refuge. In this regard, two attitudes are mainly present. Some respond from a humanitarian point of view and want these people who are in need to be helped and taken care of. The others want to defend the identity of their country to for example prevent a Christian country from being flooded with Muslims who do not want to adapt and who create their own areas where the authentic population can not even visit.

However, what is missing too often is the question about the actual cause and background of the problem. When you return home and you see that the water is flowing out the front door, do you first look for buckets and mops to remove the water from your house? No. You first search for the cause of this flooding. And then you see, for example, that you have left the faucet of the sink open while the stopper was in. So the very first thing you do is close the tap.

There can be many causes that trigger a flow of refugees, but almost always they involve rich Western countries who want to master the resources of other countries. Under the pretext of "freedom and democracy" these countries are being disrupted, a change of government is being worked on, and puppets are being appointed to ensure the interests of the West.

" The most flagrant case is Syria where a war was orchestrated by "proxy groups" by Western powers and the Petro monarchies of the Gulf States. Before the war, Syria was a country that could support itself in terms of food and industrialization with a well-developed population that enjoyed a modern health system. The "strategy of the chaos" imported hoards of mercenaries of which the Syrian government can hardly get rid of after 8 years of war (2011-2018). The imperialist intervention, meant to fight this state that refused to obey, has driven 5 million people from their homes" . (Bruno Guigue, 23 september 2018: Link )

The US and the Western powers proclaim that they no longer have colonial policies, that they only want to ensure freedom and democracy, defend human rights and, finally, defend their own national security and interests. Those who claim their sovereignty must also recognize the sovereignty and interests of other countries. And that is precisely not the case. The military intervention by Western countries is not the solution, but the problem itself. It is the French troops in Mali, Niger (rich in uranium), Chad, Central African Republic that ensure that the countries remain dependent and poor.

It is NATO that destroyed Libya with active participation from Belgium and France. After the Belgian "aid" to Libya, there was hardly a bomb left in Belgium. No "mea culpa" came from any country for this total devastation (Jean-François Kahn, L'intervention and Libye, la pire erreur de ce début de siecle , Le Soir, 25/9/18; about this well-known French journalist see: Link ). The invasions of Somalia (1992), Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2003) destroyed these countries. The aggression of Saudi Arabia with active support from the West against Yemen has killed 10,000 people since March 2005, causing a deadly cholera epidemic and famine for 8 million people.

Certainly, there are several causes of the refugee flow. However, the most important remains the neo-colonial domination of Western powers who shamelessly and with military force appropriate the richness of other countries. Subsequently, there is often a corrupt elite of the country itself who have allowed themselves to be bribed to betray their own people. Finally, there are Mafia bosses who set up an extremely lucrative business to get the refugees across. Let's stop whining about the shortage of mops, pullers, buckets, and turn off the tap. These are our wars and our aggression against other countries that are making people flee. If we want to assert our sovereignty, we must also respect the sovereignty of other countries and their interests.

Ready for the battle for your mind!

The spreading of false, incorrect or misleading information, 'fake news', is a problem. The European Union is working diligently on a strategy to combat this ailment. The East StratCom Task Force was already set up for this purpose in 2015. Certain guidelines have been developed and at the end of this year we can expect more concrete actions.

However, there's a catch. Let's make it clear immediately. We are getting more and more into a situation where fake news is imposed with great enthusiasm by government leaders, politicians, official statements, authoritative media and acclaimed journalists, who conceal reality, while the channels of honest researchers who bring the truth, are closed expertly. The justification is then: We must defend European values. That free speech and the obligation to tell the truth are also values, is then forgotten. Or real news and truthful reporting are condemned as being a "conspiracy theory". Or, as we now experience with the announcement of the criminal behavior of the Dutch government, which smoothly helps with the slaughter of innocent Syrian people, says that it should not come to light because it is a "state secret".

The example we know best is of course Syria. A very harmonious, prosperous and particularly safe (albeit imperfect) society with a President who is supported by broad sections of the population is suddenly presented as a terrible dictatorship with a gruesome dictator. The CIA provided an abundance of false photos, films, reports, books, testimonies of inhuman torture (the American prisons remain an inexhaustible source for this) that were spread throughout the West. And everyone (including our "conflict journalist"!) "knew", almost one day after another, how that terrible Syrian president strangled people all day, tortured them to death and carried out chemical attacks.

Something like that makes the blood of every right-minded person boil and that makes a heavy-handed military intervention more than justified. When someone dared to say that there was no "popular uprising" in Syria and certainly no "civil war", that Syria had not committed any chemical attacks at all, he was dismissed as unreliable, fake news. And so the US, Israel, NATO and allies could continue to send their most fanatical terrorists to destroy the country and take away oil, gas and sovereignty. In our own Flemish press I never read one balanced article about the situation in Syria.

In the end it is about the loss of credible journalism. For England, this is now greatly described by David Edwards and David Cromwell, Propaganda Blitz. How the Corporate Media Distort Reality , Pluto Press, 2018, foreword by John Pilger. They show how the liberal media give half-truths and whole lies or sometimes represent reality in reverse, in the service of large interest groups. And the writers of this work are not even journalists but a former professor and an oceanographer. It will become increasingly difficult to discover reality, but it is not impossible. The Australian journalist and founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, is now imprisoned at the Embassy of Venezuela in London but in reality deserves a monument to what he has made public. There are undoubtedly many more people than we suspect, who are aware of the prevalent lies.

Anyone who has any insight into the ever-recurring anti-Russia, anti-Iran, anti-China, anti-Brexit... hysteria on the one hand and on the other Western unlimited war propaganda, justified by the most unlikely pretext to dominate the rest of the world, will soon find more reliable sources. It is also necessary. " For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities of this dark world ... " (Ephesians 6, 12). And by our attitude, we are always either on the side of the murderers or on the side of the innocent victims. We are called to be people of peace and not silly servants of hatred and war, which we conveniently want to package in a message of peace.

Bahar Azizi

Bahar Azizi lives in Europe, holds an MA in psychology, is an instructor in Éiriú Eolas meditation , and is a keen animal lover. Bahar has been a contributing writer and editor at SOTT.net since 2012.

[Oct 12, 2018] Putin, the responsible adult, is doing the World a huge favor with his Syrian S300 therapy

Oct 12, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Barbara Ann , a day ago

Excellent roundup Patrick, thanks.

I believe that is a truly pivotal piece by Gideon Levy in Haaretz and I share his sentiment and cautious optimism. Israel behaves as a child. It has been spoilt by being allowed to do as it pleases for far too long and by an over protective parent who comes running every time it throws a tantrum. Putin, the responsible adult, is doing the World a huge favor with his Syrian S300 therapy. These 2 paragraphs are spot on:

"Russia, without meaning to, may yet turn out to be better for Israel than all the insane, corrupting support it receives from the current American administration, and from its predecessors, too.

Russia has outlined for the world the way to treat Israel, using the only language Israel understands. Let those who truly care for Israel's welfare, and for justice, learn how it's done: Only by force."

[Oct 12, 2018] CIA democrat Obama was 100% involved in unleashing Syria war

Oct 12, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Harry , Oct 12, 2018 10:05:33 AM | link

@ Schmoe | 27

I see references again and again (and then again), that Obama started the war in Syria. It is pretty well established that the CIA started this "uprising" in 2011, but the only credible article on Obama's involvement that I have read was a NYT article a year ago saying that Hillary and Nettanyahoo urged Obama to get involved in Syria in 2012, but he declined.

Actually US plans to overthrow Syria's government goes back in decades, and there were multiple attempts to do so. Active preparations for 2011 started in 2005 under Bush, when Assad refused to cut ties with Iran and Hezb.

We know he declined to get the US involved in lobbing missiles after the 2013 alleged chemical attack. Is there any link or article discussing Obama ordering the Syrian uprising

Obama was 100% involved he just didnt want to do expensive direct intervention and rather prefered cheap proxy war with expendable cannon fodder jihadis rather than spend trillions and see the return of US soldiers in body bags. It worked for them in Libya, and Obama thought it will work in Syria and Iraq (he publicly admited they used ISIS to oust Maliki).

[Oct 12, 2018] The Pantsir is a Lord-have mercy self-defense weapon once the Israelis have already decided to come over for another spot of target practice. The S-300 is to tell them in advance to stay the fuck away

Oct 12, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

Mark Chapman October 6, 2018 at 12:32 pm

That might seem on the face of it like common sense, and in a way I suppose it is, but the Pantsir cannot enforce airspace sovereignty the way the S-300 can. The Pantsir is a Lord-have mercy self-defense weapon once the Israelis have already decided to come over for another spot of target practice. The S-300 is to tell them in advance to stay the fuck away.
Patient Observer October 6, 2018 at 3:34 pm
The Russians have shown excellent military planning to date and it would be reasonable to assume that they will continue to do so. If more Pantsirs are needed, they will be provided. I suspect that electronics warfare equipment may be of more significant in terms of defense from further attack.

I would like to see several F-35s shot down. That would do more than anything else to bring peace to the region.

Mark Chapman October 6, 2018 at 9:54 pm
Electronic warfare systems, or what is known as 'soft-kill' systems, enjoy a considerable probability-of-success advantage over 'hard-kill' weaponry such as guns and missiles.

[Oct 12, 2018] Terrorists Want America to Reverse Engineer Russian Machineguns by Michael Peck

Notable quotes:
"... US Special Forces Command wants to copy Russian firearms in the US to give away to proxies around the world ..."
Oct 12, 2018 | russia-insider.com

US Special Forces Command wants to copy Russian firearms in the US to give away to proxies around the world

Wed, Oct 10, 2018 | 500 words 4,029 45 Why would U.S. special forces want to manufacture Russian machine guns?

Just watch any video of a conflict such as Iraq and Syria, and the answer becomes clear. Many of the combatants are using Russian or Soviet weapons, or local copies thereof, from rifles to rocket launchers to heavy machine guns mounted on pickups. Which means that when U.S. special forces provide some of these groups with weapons, they have to scrounge through the global arms market to buy Russian hardware as well as spare parts.

So U.S. Special Forces Command, which oversees America's various commando units, has an idea: instead of buying Russian weapons, why not build their own? That's why USSOCOM is asking U.S. companies to come up with a plan to manufacture Russian and other foreign weapons.

The goal is to "develop an innovative domestic capability to produce fully functioning facsimiles of foreign-made weapons that are equal to or better than what is currently being produced internationally," according to the USSOCOM Small Business Innovation Research proposal .

v76 a day ago ,

"develop an innovative domestic capability to produce fully functioning facsimiles of foreign-made weapons that are equal to or better than what is currently being produced internationally,"

I laughed and stopped reading.

Kjell Hasthi v76 a day ago ,

It is a good story. US needed so many AK-47 for African terrorists group, killing Blacks, they had to build a new factory in Africa to handle demand. There were not that many AK-47 available on the black market

Think about that. Look into a mirror and say slowly
- WE LIBERALS ARE TERRORISTS

Mary Floyd Kjell Hasthi 3 hours ago ,

Actually, that should read: We American politicians and military are terrorists...the worst in the world

[Oct 12, 2018] Russia's answer to this theory? "Let the Israelis test our system and we shall see the results"

Oct 09, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

Northern Star October 9, 2018 at 11:31 am

Very cogent informed reaction to and analysis of the political and military aspects of this rapidly developing story:

https://syria360.wordpress.com/2018/10/09/israel-trains-to-counter-the-s-300-while-russia-expands-towards-lebanon/

"Informed sources said: "Tel Aviv and Moscow have never ceased their regular coordination to monitor and avoid air incidents over the Levant. The downing of the Russian IL-20 and the death of all its 15 crewmen forced Israel to communicate its belligerent intentions much ahead of time to Russia, to put its jets and personnel in safety. Indeed, it was the downing of the IL-20 that speeded up Russia's delivery of the long-awaited S-300 to Syria.

Although Russia possesses high-frequency VHF, tracking systems and radar capable of detecting the F-35 and making it visible, it is another matter to shoot it down with the S-300. Russia's answer to this theory? "Let the Israelis test our system and we shall see the results". (LOL!!!) BTW ..In consideration of certain Stooges-who know who they are- I will restrict my use of "LOL" !!!!!!

However, Israel can fly low, violating Lebanese airspace and avoiding Syrian radar so as to hit objectives in Syria from afar. To avoid this only too plausible scenario, Syria needs to establish a missile protected radar coverage on the eastern chain of mountains on its border with Lebanon, so as to be able to "see" all Israeli jets and the air movement above Lebanon and Israel at all times."

Jen October 9, 2018 at 1:10 pm
As Bernhard at Moon of Alabama notes, if Israeli warplanes were to fly low through Lebanese airspace to avoid Syrian radar, they become targets for Hezbollah's short-range air defense missiles.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/10/syria-sitrep-the-s-300-air-defense-arrives.html#more
Mark Chapman October 9, 2018 at 4:47 pm
Low-level coverage for the S-300 is 25 meters. I don't think you will find too many Israeli pilots willing to fly that low for a full intercept mission, and the attacking aircraft itself cannot see shit at that altitude. The most basic version of the missile can reach out and tap your ass at 47 km at that altitude, in flat terrain. http://aviationweek.com/site-files/aviationweek.com/files/uploads/2015/07/asd_08_06_2015_dossier.pdf

Although the Israelis' Popeye cruise missile can be launched from ground level and has a maximum range about equivalent to that of the basic SA-10, its range at that altitude is basically line-of-sight unless it is receiving external targeting data from an airborne platform which is at a much higher altitude and can see farther. Unfortunately, that re-introduces the original problem.

https://www.onwar.com/weapons/rocket/missiles/Popeye-missile.html

Additionally, this set of circumstances is tailor-made for a technique known as 'SAMbush', in which the S-300 radar goes active to make the attacking aircraft dive for cover taking them into the coverage of a different system (such as Pantsir) which is optimized for low-level detection and engagement, but whose location was unknown up to that moment. Jen alludes to something like this.

As someone mentioned elsewhere, the real test is for Israel to come on out and give it a try. You gotta ask yourself a question – do I feel lucky?

Well, DO ya, punks?

[Oct 12, 2018] Hysterical accusations were being levelled at the Syrian government, in an attempt to engineer immediate air strikes, on the basis of irrelevant evidence, at a time when the people doing this really ought to have known that relevant evidence tests on 'environmental' samples would shortly become available.

Oct 12, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

Cortes October 10, 2018 at 11:59 am

Interesting take on the possible evolution of Hamish de Bee Gees ((c) M Chapman) from accidentally deluded to covering his errors with malice aforethought:

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/10/habakkuk-on-the-roots-of-the-trans-atlantic-cabals.html#more

Mark Chapman October 10, 2018 at 7:12 pm
Delicious. A particularly tasty morsel:

So hysterical accusations were being levelled at the Syrian government, in an attempt to engineer immediate air strikes, on the basis of irrelevant evidence, at a time when the people doing this really ought to have known that relevant evidence – tests on 'environmental' samples – would shortly become available.

When however it was acknowledged that this evidence had become available, the only use to which it was put was to vindicate the – irrelevant – conclusion that sarin had been used: nothing was said about what it had established, or might establish, about who had used it.

Science? We don't need no steenking science.

[Oct 09, 2018] The level of skills in Syria air defence in th past was low

Oct 09, 2018 | www.unz.com

FB says: October 7, 2018 at 5:24 pm GMT 1,600 Words @Hanoodtroll 'Handtroll' issues this challenge

'Explain this'

The subject being 'Operation Mole Cricket' in 1982, when the Israeli air force mounted a successful SEAD operation [suppression of enemy air defenses] against Syria's Russian made SAMs

I will quote from the 1989 issue of Air Power Journal the USAF premier professional publication

'Syrian SAM operators also invited disaster upon themselves. Their Soviet equipment was generally regarded as quite good; Syrian handling of it was appalling.

As noted by Lt Gen Leonard Perroots, director of the US Defense Intelligence Agency, "The Syrians used mobile missiles in a fixed configuration; they put the radars in the valley instead of the hills because they didn't want to dig latrines -- seriously."

The Syrian practice of stationing mobile missiles in one place for several months allowed Israeli reconnaissance to determine the exact location of the missiles and their radars, giving the IAF a definite tactical advantage on the eve of battle.

Even so, the Syrians might have been able to avoid the complete destruction of their SAM complex had they effectively camouflaged their sites; instead, they used smoke to "hide" them, which actually made them easier to spot from the air.

It is ironic that the Syrians, who have been criticized for their strict adherence to Soviet doctrine, chose to ignore the viable doctrine that emphasizes the utility of maneuver and camouflage.

According to a 1981 article in Soviet Military Review, alternate firing positions, defensive ambushes, regular repositioning of mobile SAMs to confuse enemy intelligence, and the emplacement of dummy SAM sites are fundamental considerations for the effective deployment and survivability of ground-based air defenses.'

That excerpt from Air defense expert Dr Carlo Kopp

We note here also that the highly effective Serb air defense in 1999, which stymied a huge force of over 1,000 Nato aircraft for 78 days, did exactly those things that are mentioned here and which the Syrians failed to do

But of course there is more to the story much much more

You see, that wikipedia article that 'Handtroll' links to has a section called 'Background'

And that background is that in previous years the Israeli air force had been thoroughly pasted by the same Syrian and Egyptian air defenses Mole Cricket was Round 2 round 1 having been a much bigger win for the air defenses

As Kopp recounts

'It is widely acknowledged that the Israelis suffered heavy losses of aircraft during the fighting in 1973. Exactly how many were lost to SAMs, and to which type of SAM, has been less well documented. Israeli public claims are that 303 aircraft were lost in combat

The same wikipedia article that 'Handtroll' points to says this

'The losses suffered by Israel in the 1973 war were so high that it indirectly spawned the United States stealth aircraft program, Project HAVE BLUE.

The U.S. estimated that without a solution to the SAM problem, even the United States would suffer depletion of its Air Force within two weeks of a conflict erupting between the U.S. and Soviet Union. The Israelis had lost 109 aircraft in 18 days.'

The Kopp article Surface to Air Missile Effectiveness in Past Conflicts is a good historic breakdown that contrasts the very effective use of Soviet air defense in Vietnam, where the US lost 10,000 aircraft [including 31 B52 strategic bombers] and the various Middle East conflicts where the Arab air defense forces put up a generally spotty record, using the same equipment

The collapse of the extensive Iraqi air defense system in Desert Storm in 1991 is a textbook case although here it is worth noting that a significant factor was that the Iraqi integrated air defense system, KARI [Irak spelled backward] was designed and built by the French, integrating both Soviet and French SAMs into one central network

'Planning for this mission was helped when the CIA contacted the French engineer responsible for designing the Kari IADS and passed along information about its vulnerabilities and limitations.'

The main takeaway from a historical review of air defense versus attacking air power is that human competence is always the overriding factor on both sides just one year after the well-planned and executed Israeli Mole Cricket, the US decided to launch an air raid on Syrian SAMs, which ended in disaster

'Despite official statements, however, the first direct combat in Lebanon between the United States and Syria was both a military and political disaster.

Two of the U.S. planes were shot down either by anti-aircraft rounds and/or approximately forty SAMs; one pilot was killed, another was captured by Syrian forces, and another parachuted safely into the Mediterranean Sea. (The hostage pilot, Lieutenant Robert Goodman, Jr., was held and interrogated in a Syrian prison for thirty days until Reverend Jesse Jackson secured his release.)

Clearly the US raid was poorly planned and ill conceived and they got a beating for their efforts

So clearly the human factor always counts for the most statistics from the history of air combat show that 10 percent of pilots score 90 percent of the kills the 'hawks' while that other 90 percent end up as the victims

That is not to say that technological advance does not play a role clearly it does by the early 1980s a number of SEAD technologies matured that had a big impact in swinging the pendulum back in favor of air power these include standoff jamming pods carried by specialized SEAD aircraft and which targeted the SAM radars properly used, these could degrade radar performance enough to tilt the contest

Other significant advances occurred in anti-radiation missiles designed to home in on the radio emissions from SAM radars as well as airborne emitter locators that could pinpoint radar locations when those were switched on all of these tools, in the right hands, could make a big difference, as they did in Mole Cricket

But military technology is usually a game of leapfrogging the air attacker gains made by the 1980s with jammers and Harms were countered by the 1990s with fundamentally new and much more powerful radars known as 'phased array'

Instead of a parabolic 'dish' antenna, these radars use a flat surface containing numerous [up to thousands] of 'radiating elements' controlled by a computer that can do things that conventional radar cannot this includes much higher beam resolution the ability to track numerous targets at once the ability to efficiently eliminate ground clutter for low flying objects and most important the ability to defeat jamming by means of 'frequency hopping' and reducing radio emissions to the side and rear

At the same time, the US has NOT developed new generations of SEAD weapons the same AN/ALQ99 jamming pod used since the Vietnam war is the front line unit today a jammer is basically a radio emitter, using an antenna and electrical power to send radio waves at a target radar in an attempt to disrupt it by necessity, being carried aloft by an aircraft, the jamming pod is limited in terms of antenna size and available electrical power

Here we see an AN/AL99 pod under the wing of a Grumman EA6B 'Prowler' the small wind turbine at the front supplies electrical power and the transmit antenna inside is a simple small dish type against the big Russian SAM radars [even assuming the jamming aircraft could get close enough to actually do anything] it is like a mosquito versus an elephant

–A Russian phased array radar on an all terrain tracked chassis

The next generation US jammer is still in development and is not expected to come online for another three years even then it will probably be too little too late basic physics tells us that radio is all about electrical power and antenna size considering also the standoff capability of modern Russian SAMs [over 400 km] plus the fact that those ground assets are also protected by fighter aircraft, AWACS etc the advantage has definitely shifted in favor of air defense as Kopp notes in his article, Surviving the Modern Integrated Air Defense System

'The reality of evolving IADS technology and its global proliferation is that most of the US Air Force combat aircraft fleet, and all of the US Navy combat aircraft fleet, will be largely impotent against an IADS constructed from the technology available today from Russian and, increasingly so, Chinese manufacturers.

If flown against such an IADS, US legacy fighters from the F-15 through to the current production F/A-18E/F would suffer prohibitive combat losses attempting to penetrate, suppress or destroy such an IADS.

This is not news to military professionals retired USAF Gen Philip Breedlove former Nato commander for Europe notes

'Right now, we're almost completely dependent on air forces and aviation assets in order to attack the A2/AD problem

We need more long-range, survivable, precision strike capability from the ground We need dense capability -- like the dense A2/AD networks that we face.'

A2/AD meaning the 'anti-access/area denial' zones created by Russian air defense netorks

That pretty much sums it up the physical equation has tilted far in favor of the massive electronic power and firepower that those all terrain mobile SAMs can muster versus what an aircraft can take aloft what Breedlove is saying here is it's time to go back to the drawing board and figure out a new way air power alone is not going to cut it


Avery , says: October 7, 2018 at 6:06 pm GMT

@imaginative {Still trying to learn if these 300s (whether new or old) solve the stated problem:}

S-300, like any other military equipment or hardware, is a tool: you need a good, reliable tool, but you also need a trained operator to properly use that tool. And sometimes it is impossible to train someone, if the material is not there.

SAA in general and Syrian soldiers individually have fought bravely against unbelievable odds.
To wit, the heroic defense of the Kuweires air base by SAA, which was completely cut-off by the terrorist invaders (and their patrons US, UK, France, Turkey, KSA, .). Yet it held out for 2-3 years until liberated recently.

But there is something missing from the overall picture to make SAA a truly competent military force able to defend itself and Syria independently against foreign aggressors. There is an article on the web with the title "Why Arabs lose wars" (not sure if it's the exact title) that examines the reasons. It is worth a read.

Also, poster [FB] discusses in detail in post #110 some of the differences between various nationalities using Soviet/Russian military equipment.

Even if Syria were to get the latest Russian anti-air systems (S-400, S-500, .), they'd have to be operated by Russians (or Serbs) to be truly effective against a competent, technologically savvy adversary like Israel. Syrians have their work cut out for them for sure.

Avery , says: October 7, 2018 at 8:36 pm GMT
@peterAUS This is the article I remember reading, not the book.

[Why Arabs Lose Wars
NORVELL B. DE ATKINE
Middle East Quarterly Volume 6: Number 4
SEPTEMBER 01, 1999]

https://www.meforum.org/articles/other/why-arabs-lose-wars

Anon [424] Disclaimer , says: October 7, 2018 at 8:52 pm GMT
@peterAUS The arabs lose wars .. just like the americans no war won since WWII ( thanks Russia )
annamaria , says: October 7, 2018 at 8:54 pm GMT
@Felix Keverich Let Syrians defend their sovereignty from the Israeli illegal aggression. This is a Syrian war.
George1 , says: October 7, 2018 at 9:44 pm GMT
I am no expert in this area to be sure. However with the unit price of the F-35s, they are capitol assets. The loss of an F-35 for any reason in a combat zone would be a disaster. Yet Trump is sending more of them to Israel in response to the S-300s.

This tit for tat escalation is not doing anyone any good and is potentially dangerous beyond words. Syria had not been a threat to Israel in decades, yet Obama thought it was a good idea to try an take out Assad. I would just like to know why.

Kiza , says: October 7, 2018 at 9:44 pm GMT
@jimmyriddle As far as I understand, the Russians have not turned on any other then the surveillance radar in the S400 complex. Of all the radars in the complex, this one is the least interesting to spy on. The real performance secrets of the system are in other radars. The Russians have not turned on other "action" radars because this would give an opportunity to be studied and because the US and Israeli planes have been declared "friendlies" by Putin.

The proximity of forces gives both sides opportunities to study procedures and technology and both sides are avoiding showing all their cards. But the shooting down of IL20 may have changed the game a little by giving the Russian military more freedom from the political constraints. If the Russian military does turn on its other radars in the S400 complex, then someone "stealthy" will find himself in the drink, in pieces.

In other words, the hope is that now the Russian military will be allowed to defend itself. Otherwise, the Russians will keep suffering more Putin-style accidents in Syria.

Avery , says: October 7, 2018 at 10:36 pm GMT
@peterAUS {The only solution which would work on preventing further losses of Russian men and material there is, effectively, Russians taking over all that. All.
Impossible, of course.}

Only Kremlin knows what ' preventing further losses of Russian men ..' implies, but clearly Russia has taken losses from the day they went in and it does not seem to faze them one bit, judging by their responses over the years to various losses they have incurred: they didn't cut and run.

And I doubt Russia ever intended to fight Syrians' wars for them.
They can't make SAA into the Wehrmacht (or the Red Army of WW2 1942-1945) for sure.
But SAA has done quite well with Russian (and Hezbollah and IRG) help*.
It is an undeniable fact that before Russian AF came in and started cauterizing the cannibal infestation, SAA was on the verge of collapse, and with it the State of Syria. Today what remains of the terrorist invaders is holed up in Idlib: for how long?

And none of this – i.e. Russia's involvement, etc – would have been necessary if Syrians were left alone to sort out their own internal affairs. Russia would not be invited in by Syrian government if external forces intend on dismembering and erasing the State of Syria had not started this war. The blood of 100s of 1,000s of innocent Syrian civilians killed in this war is on their hands: US, UK, France, Turkey, KSA, Israel, various other Gulf states,

btw: what's with the quotation marks for "locals" ?
You don't consider Syrians local?
Syria is one of the oldest countries in the region.
Its composition of people has naturally changed some over the centuries, but Syrians are as local as it gets. And Syria's Alawites, in particular, have been there for millennia (genealogy-wise).

___________
* Only fair, given the massive support ISIS cannibals and assorted other mass-murdering invaders have gotten from outside.

[Oct 09, 2018] S-300s and other military hardware for Syria, by The Saker - The Unz Review

Oct 09, 2018 | www.unz.com

Isabella , says: October 5, 2018 at 4:50 pm GMT

@TheJester Remember before you join with PCR in decrying the incredible degree of patience and restraint that Putin has shown, that should a situation escalate into a probably WWIII – which could happen within a few hours, Russia, population 145 million, would be facing America; Population 330 million, plus probably most of Europe; Population 300 million, plus the 5-eyes vassals; joint pop. almost 100 million.

IN which case, he would have no choice but to pre-emptively empty just about all his nuclear missiles all over America before it could do the same to Russia.

Do you want this?

AWM , says: October 5, 2018 at 11:21 pm GMT
Russia can move plenty of hardware into Syria, but that will not change the fact that Israel is the 800 pounder in the region with more strike options than everybody else combined.
And as far as Israel "illegally" interdicting missiles intended for use against their infrastructure, good luck with that, they certainly don't need anyone's approval.
Sure, some hi tech Russian weapon systems may take out a few Israeli aircraft, but at what cost?
If Putin wants to sell more of his shiny missile systems, he will not try to use them against Israeli forces.
War for Blair Mountain , says: October 6, 2018 at 12:33 am GMT
@AWM In other words, Israel is a psychotically evil nation that is willing to escalate the situation in Syria to the brink of nuclear war.
TheJester , says: October 6, 2018 at 1:03 am GMT
@Isabella Isabella, I'm not understanding what you are saying or what you are presuming. I'm an avid fan of Putin. Indeed, I have imaged myself wearing a "Putin for President" shirt. I'm on his side in the free-for-all of international intrigue and politics.

Under Putin's leadership, one has to be impressed with a country (Russia) that the West has disparaged as an economic rival of Spain yet has developed a stable of advanced military weapons that are superior to anything the United States has in its arsenal. However, a side question: Is this the Russian strategic equivalent of the previous American "Star Wars" program albeit this time designed by Russia to bankrupt the United States? If the F-35 is an example of the US response, this will succeed.

The issue I raise is a real one. The West is paranoid that Russia and China will reach a political, economic, and military accord that will secure the Asian continent for Asians. The British Navy and then the American Navy have historically acted on the periphery to extract natural resources and control international trade. A Russian/Chinese political, economic, and military accord has the benefit of Asians acting on internal lines of communication and making the United States Navy obsolete.

The dilemmas are not unlike those presented to the Germans in the 1st and 2nd World Wars. Could the Germans secure effective internal lines of communication into Asia in time to make the navies of Britain and the United States irrelevant? The Germans failed. However, Russian weapons and the Chinese economy have the potential to finally pull this off.

Hence, the United States with pitifully ineffective support from the EU is desperate to prevent the concord between Russia and China that can materially and perhaps permanently change the power relationships in the world for the first time since the western Middle Ages. The US strategy: divide and conquer.

I imagine myself in Putin's shoes playing three-dimensional chess. (BTW: I can't play three-dimensional chess.) How does one deal with the last desperate throws of the dying American empire without getting involved in the "action-reactions" that led to WWI and WWII? Syria is the perfect scenario for that to happen.

If Putin is forced up against the wall in Syria, what will he do? If a confrontation with the West materializes and he backs down, he is over. The United States has called his bluff. The United States is then free to confront and try to humiliate China in the same way.

However, if Russia calls the US bluff, I'm afraid to imagine the consequences. The US is also over. The danger is that the United States will respond with mindless violence that leads to WWIII.

I wish Putin well. He is better equipped to play and win at three-dimensional chess than any of the current actors in the United States or the European Union in his quest for a multi-polar world.

As an American, I pray Putin succeeds. I want my country back; I want us to return to our origins as a constitutional republic. In the meantime, Putin lives in a deadly jungle created by the death throes of the American Empire. To paraphrase Dylan Thomas, The Empire of the United States,

Does not go gentle into that good night,
Old age should burn and rave at close of day;
Rage, rage against the dying of the Light.

Though wise men at their end know dark is right,
Because their words had forked no lightning they
Do not go gentle into that good night
[ At the close of Imperial Light ].

SeamusH , says: October 6, 2018 at 3:39 am GMT
@Isabella @Isabella

PCR doesn't "decry" Putin's patience and restraint, he admires it; but he points out that they may entail unforeseen consequences and may ential the irrational responses of the neocons and Israelis. Obviously the Russian military doesn't entirely agree with Putin's "partners" perspective.

SimplePseudonymicHandle , says: October 6, 2018 at 5:26 am GMT

the S-300s are certainly formidable air defense systems, they are not a Wunderwaffe

Most important statement. Repeat over, and over, and over again.

Israelis operate in Syria because of Iran/Hezbollah. Maybe they operate in Syria more than they have to, and they use Iran/Hezbollah as a casus belli , because they are secretly compensated by the Saudis who have it in for the Assad regime. That's conspiratorial, but seems at least as likely as the speculation that "Israelis simply think that they don't have to abide by any kind of norms of behavior." This conspiracy theory also doesn't implicate all Israelis or even the entire Israeli government, it may simply be limited to key individuals in extraordinary positions of power who may be on the offing for riches no one here can imagine in return for some old fashioned corruption.

To try and put a Saker hat on and see this from a Russian point of view, and to also care for Russian servicemen in Syria, and to be realistic about the extent and capabilities and quantity and quality of the assets at the disposal of those who seem determined to act with impunity against international law in Syria under the rubric of opposing Iran/Hezbollah, here's some more ideas:

1. Perhaps Russia should provide substantially more SAM systems than it has openly stated (and maybe it is planning this and wisely not announcing it) – in this vein the Pantsirs-S1/2 the Saker recommends and additional un-enumerated integrated S-300 deployments might satisfy no one should think this is invincible it is simply so far from it – I am sorry Russian tech fanboys, none of this is a Star Wars Nabooian Gungan shield – the tech can be defeated and you are wrong to think anything else but it plays the strongest hand, strongest, and can be part of a larger strategy

2. "Syrian finger on the trigger" is key – avoiding Russia/Israel or Russia/NATO engagement is paramount not least of all because it means Israel/NATO forces cannot rely on Russian restraint and that should have a deterring effect which will allay tensions

but with hands played as strong as they can be:

3. Strategically de-escalate – do this by cooperating with the Chinese and other non-permanent members of the UN Security Council to make as loud a fuss as possible to call for a demilitarization of Syria by both Iran/Hezbollah and Israel following 1980s norms meaning:

Turn the cards, turn the tables

a) under a UN Mandate (that China and Russia should dare the US, UK and France to veto) belligerents such as Russia, NATO, Israel all observe a cease-fire while b) a substantial force of UN Peacekeepers enters Syria does whatever is possible to expel Hezbollah or drive it underground to the point of effective neutering, and c) position themselves strategically so that Israeli strikes would result in hitting UN targets raise stakes further by working the UN in advance to presume Israel will strike a UN target and be ready with the most devastating economic and diplomatic counter-response possible as swiftly as possible – such a response should be calculated to hit the ordinary Israeli citizen/taxpayer and make him as likely as possible to vote in a new government.

The Saker is putting the best face on it he can, but a plain stating is that a military solution isn't in the offing. This is true for everyone. There's not Israeli military "solution", nor Iranian, nor US – there certainly isn't a Russian military solution.

But as far as I can tell the US has no interest in being a hero of a diplomatic solution even though if it was paying any attention, acting with any values, and not allowing the tail to wag the dog but leading with its own agency, it would be the one leveraging the UN exactly as I've described and without need of S300 deployments.
So go ahead Russia. This is the US's show to play, but it's not playing the part. Have at it Understudy!
Play the military cards well so that they arc towards a diplomatic break of tensions and no one should fault Russia for eating empire's Peacemaker lunch when empire is off at the war movies.

Someone needs to be thinking about a diplomatic endgame. It is simply unsafe, at a global level, to have the US, Russia and Israel packed in this small place testing each other this way.

A caution: one shouldn't underestimate Iranian squealing in the event of the success of such measures. The Iranian regime isn't popular and like other regimes relies on wars "over there" to promote stability at home. It must be nice too for the Ayatollahs and Revolutionary Guards to be able to send volatile hotheads a few countries over to blow off steam and occasionally fail to return to the motherland. Genuine diplomatic success in Syria has the potential to be destabilizing in Iran. On the other hand, peace in Syria, leveraged well, can generate economic opportunity for Iran that could offset such concerns.

Alfa158 , says: October 6, 2018 at 4:48 pm GMT
There's one thing I'm surprised you didn't point out in this article. It isn't necessary for the Syrians and Russians to wipe the sky clean of NATO and Israeli aircraft. Western electorates are very leery about ongoing casualties. They expect John Wick action movie sagas of the enemy being exterminated like ants while the good guys collect the occasional photogenic bruise. Even a trickle of losses will erode the public support and political will to continue (well except for the Israelis). What does an F-35 go for, something like $350M a copy? Imagine losing even a few of those plus the file photos of the dead or captured pilots.
El Dato , says: October 6, 2018 at 5:36 pm GMT
My Schwartz is bigger than your Schwartz now in progress. Prepare for affronts.

US to send Israel more F-35s after Moscow supplies S-300s to Syria – reports

The US will reportedly provide Israel with more F-35s after Russia supplied Syria with S-300 missile systems. Moscow's move came in response to the downing of a Russian military plane, which it partly blamed on Israel.

US President Donald Trump decided to lend a hand to America's most devoted ally following consultations at the "highest administration and military levels," DEBKAfile, a military intelligence news site, said to have ties with the Israeli security services, reported.

1) How many F-35 can the US spare?
2) Does it have to tune them to Mediterranean conditions?
3) What about support infrastructure?

and most importantly

4) Does that mean US pilots will be flying or do the Israeli have enough qualified pilots on standby?

jimmyriddle , says: October 7, 2018 at 7:55 pm GMT
One effect of this is to make Israel and the US deploy F35s over Syria. That gives the Russians a good opportunity to study its vulnerabilities.

Naturally, the same goes for whatever variant of S-300 they have deployed, but the F35 is a $1.4 trillion programme. If, like the F-117A, it is found to be fatally compromised by some new radar technology, it will be a total disaster for NATO.

renfro , says: October 7, 2018 at 8:09 pm GMT
@Michael Kenny

precisely what the Israelis intended.

The only thing the Israelis have intended was luring the US to open a semi-military base in Israel so they could set up a false flag attack on it to get the USA to fight their wars for them.

[Oct 02, 2018] Rogue Nations, US, UK, France and Germany in Talks to Attack Warn-Torn, Heroic Syria Without Cause

Oct 02, 2018 | russia-insider.com

[Sep 29, 2018] The Airwaves Are Still Heaving With Spin Two Days After US Airstrikes Against by Sharmine Narwani

Notable quotes:
"... On the ground in Syria, dead civilians - some of them children killed by US bombs - muddied the perfect script. Confused Syrian rebels - many who had called for foreign intervention to help crush the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – demanded to know how these airstrikes were meant to help them. ..."
"... The Syrian armed forces have spent little time on the ISIL threat because their focus has traditionally been on protecting their interests in Aleppo, Damascus, Homs, Hama – and the countryside in these areas – as well as towns and cities around the Lebanese and Jordanian borders. That changed when ISIL staged successful attacks on Mosul and created new geopolitical urgency for Assad"s allies – which triggered some major Syrian strikes against ISIL targets. ..."
"... Obama has managed to get the whole world singing from the same hymn sheet in just two months, including, and this is important, the three states - Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey - most instrumental in financing, weaponizing and assisting ISIL and other extremist militias inside Syria. ..."
"... For three years, Washington has overlooked and even encouraged illegal and dangerous behaviors from its regional Sunni allies – all in service of defeating Assad. With all eyes on America and expectations that Obama will fail in his War on Terror just like his predecessors, the US is going to have to pull some impressive tricks from its sleeves. ..."
"... Ideally, these would include the shutting down of key border crossings (Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon); punishing financiers of terror and inhibiting the flow of funds and assistance from Washington"s regional allies; cutting off key revenue streams; tightening immigration policies to stem the flow of foreign fighters; disrupting communications networks of targeted terrorist groups; broader intelligence sharing with all regional players; and empowering existing armies and allied militias inside the "chaos zone" to lead and execute ground operations. ..."
"... If there is the slightest deviation from the "guarantees" provided by the US, this trio has plenty of room to maneuver. Iran, for one, has dallied with the Americans in both Iraq and Afghanistan and they know how to cause some pain where it counts. The Russians, for that matter, have many playgrounds in which to thwart US ambitions – most urgently in Ukraine and in Afghanistan, from which the US hopes to withdraw billions of dollars" worth of military equipment by the end of 2014. ..."
"... Reprinted with permission from RT . ..."
Sep 26, 2014 | ronpaulinstitute.org

Kerry Arab Saudi

Undoubtedly the attacks were timed to occur on the eve of the annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations, so "Coalition" partners could cluster behind the decision to bomb a sovereign state, uninvited.

The irony, of course, is that they are doing so at the UN – the global political body that pledges to uphold international law, peace and stability, and the sanctity of the nation-state unit.

The goal this week will be to keep the "momentum" on a "narrative" until it sinks in.

On day one, heads of state from Turkey, Jordan, Qatar, the UK and France were paraded onto the podium to drum in the urgency of American strikes against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), Jabhat al-Nusra and other militant groups inside Syria.

Every American official – past and present - in the White House rolodex was hooked up to a microphone to deliver canned sound bites and drive home those "messages." In between, video-game-quality footage of US strikes hitting their targets was aired on the hour; clips of sleek fighter jets refueling midair and the lone Arab female fighter pilot were dropped calculatingly into social media networks.

The global crew of journalists that descends annually on the UN for this star-studded political event, enthused over US President Barak Obama"s ability to forge a coalition that included five Arab Sunni states – Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Bahrain and the UAE.

Few mentioned that these partners are a mere fig leaf for Obama, providing his Syria campaign with Arab and Muslim legitimacy where he otherwise would have none. Not that any of these five monarchies enjoy "legitimacy" in their own kingdoms – kings and emirs aren"t elected after all – and two of these Wahhabi states are directly responsible for the growth and proliferation of the Wahhabi-style extremism targeted by US missiles.

Even fewer spent time dissecting the legality of US attacks on Syria or on details of the US "mission" – as in, "what next?"

But with a mission this crippled at the outset, it didn"t take long for an alternative view to peek through the thick media fog.

On the ground in Syria, dead civilians - some of them children killed by US bombs - muddied the perfect script. Confused Syrian rebels - many who had called for foreign intervention to help crush the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad – demanded to know how these airstrikes were meant to help them.

Sunni Arabs would be radicalized by these strikes, they warned, as ideologically sympathetic citizens of the Arab coalition states took to their information channels and swore revenge for airstrikes against ISIL and al-Nusra.

The Syrian government, for the most part, remained mute – whether to save face or because they could "smell" the gains coming. Contrary to Washington"s prevailing narrative, privately the story was that the US had informed the Assad government of both the timing and targets of the attacks in advance.

Sources say that the US even provided "guarantees" that no Syrian military or government interests would be targeted. A Reuters exclusive claiming that the US went so far as to provide assurances to Iran, suggests this version is closer to the truth. When US airstrikes against Syria were on the table a year ago, the various parties went through a similar game of footsies. Last September, the Americans backed off – allegedly because of communications from their adversaries that even a single US missile would trigger a warfront against Israel. This time, Washington needed to know that scenario was not going to be activated, and this week they offered the necessary guarantees to ensure it.

Although the Russians and Iranians have publicly lashed out at the illegality of US strikes, they do not seem too worried. Both know – like the Syrian government – that these air attacks could be a net gain for their "Axis."

Firstly, the United States is now doing some useful heavy-lifting for Assad, at no real cost to him. The Syrian armed forces have spent little time on the ISIL threat because their focus has traditionally been on protecting their interests in Aleppo, Damascus, Homs, Hama – and the countryside in these areas – as well as towns and cities around the Lebanese and Jordanian borders. That changed when ISIL staged successful attacks on Mosul and created new geopolitical urgency for Assad"s allies – which triggered some major Syrian strikes against ISIL targets.

But to continue along this path, the Syrians would have to divert energy and resources from key battles, and so the American strikes have provided a convenient solution for the time being.

Secondly, the Syrians have spent three years unsuccessfully pushing their narrative that the terrorism threat they face internally is going to become a regional and global problem. The US campaign is a Godsend in this respect – Obama has managed to get the whole world singing from the same hymn sheet in just two months, including, and this is important, the three states - Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey - most instrumental in financing, weaponizing and assisting ISIL and other extremist militias inside Syria.

Syria, Iran, Russia, Hezbollah and a host of like-minded emerging powers are pleased about this new laser focus on jihadi terror and for the accompanying resource shift to address the problem.

Thirdly, the US has now been placed in the hot seat and will be expected to match words with action. For three years, Washington has overlooked and even encouraged illegal and dangerous behaviors from its regional Sunni allies – all in service of defeating Assad. With all eyes on America and expectations that Obama will fail in his War on Terror just like his predecessors, the US is going to have to pull some impressive tricks from its sleeves.

Ideally, these would include the shutting down of key border crossings (Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon); punishing financiers of terror and inhibiting the flow of funds and assistance from Washington"s regional allies; cutting off key revenue streams; tightening immigration policies to stem the flow of foreign fighters; disrupting communications networks of targeted terrorist groups; broader intelligence sharing with all regional players; and empowering existing armies and allied militias inside the "chaos zone" to lead and execute ground operations.

Thus far, there are signs that some of these things are already happening, with possibly more to come.

Now for the fun part. The Syrians, Iranians and Russians do not fundamentally trust Washington or its intentions. The suspicion is that the US is on another one of its regime-change missions, displaying its usual rogue-state behavior by violating the territorial integrity of a sovereign state under false pretenses, and that it will shortly revert to targeting the Syrian government.

While they can see clear gains from the current level of US intervention – as distasteful as they find it - they are watching carefully as events unfold.

If there is the slightest deviation from the "guarantees" provided by the US, this trio has plenty of room to maneuver. Iran, for one, has dallied with the Americans in both Iraq and Afghanistan and they know how to cause some pain where it counts. The Russians, for that matter, have many playgrounds in which to thwart US ambitions – most urgently in Ukraine and in Afghanistan, from which the US hopes to withdraw billions of dollars" worth of military equipment by the end of 2014.

All understand that Washington has just assumed a risky public posture and that many, many things can go wrong. The Sunni Arab fig leaf can disappear in a nano-second if domestic pressures mount or revenge attacks take place internally. Information could leak about continued assistance to terrorist militias from one or more of its coalition partners – a huge embarrassment for Washington and its wobbly Coalition. ISIL will almost certainly act against coalition partner soft-targets, like carrying out further kidnappings and executions. Continued airstrikes will almost definitely result in a growing civilian casualty count, turning those "hearts and minds" to stone. Syrian rebels could swiftly turn against the US intervention and radicalize further. Massive displacement caused by airstrikes could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis.And as in all other past US military War-on-Terror adventures, terrorism could thrive and proliferate in quantum leaps.

As Moscow-based political analyst Vladimir Frolov noted to the Washington Post:

The United States has underestimated the complexity of the situation before, so let's just wait until they run into problems.
The idea that US military engagement could continue for the long-term is unlikely given the myriad things that can go wrong fast. Obama is going to be reluctant to have his last two years in office defined by the hazardous Syrian conflict – after all, he was to be the president who extracted America from unessential wars.

But the most compelling reason that this Coalition will not pass the first hurdle is that its key members have entirely different ambitions and strategic targets.

Over a decade ago, these US-engineered coalitions were wealthier, less-burdened and shared common goals. Today, many of the coalition members face domestic economic and political uncertainties – and several states are directly responsible for giving rise to ISIL. How can the Coalition fight ISIL and support it, all at once?

What"s missing is a formula, a strategy, a unified worldview that can be equally as determined as the ideological adversary it faces.

Down the road, we will discover that the only coalition able and willing to fight extremism does indeed come from inside the region, but importantly, from within the conflict zone itself: Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Iran. For starters, they are utterly vested in the outcome of their efforts – and would lead with political solutions alongside military ones. Those elusive boots-on-the-ground that everyone is seeking? They live it. Pit that group against Obama"s Coalition-of-the-Clueless any day and you know which side would win handily.

The question is, can this Coalition stomach a solution it is working so hard to avoid? Will it partner with vital regional players that were foes only a few months ago? It is doubtful. That would require a worldview shift that Washington is still too irrational to embrace.

Reprinted with permission from RT .

[Sep 29, 2018] Rogue Nations, US, UK, France and Germany in Talks to Attack Warn-Torn, Heroic Syria Without Cause

Sep 29, 2018 | russia-insider.com

[Sep 27, 2018] Russia and the Taming of the Israelis by Israel Shamir

Notable quotes:
"... For otherwise, why did the Israelis do that? Were they just careless and brutal, as is their wont? They didn't give a damn about the Russians, and considered them a lesser breed, whose life is of little importance. This is a possible reading, quite consistent with their general attitude to strangers considered to be children of a lesser God ..."
"... Israel Shamir can be reached at [email protected] ..."
Sep 27, 2018 | www.unz.com

There was a lull when the disaster of the downed plane completely disappeared from media, Russian or Western. It was not mentioned by the New York Times , it was not mentioned by the Russian newspapers. And after that, unexpectedly, the Russian Defence Minister Mr Shoygu made his announcement. Russia responded adequately, closing the sky over Syria, or at least over Western Syria, and activating its powerful GPS-jamming system off the Syrian coast. Israel has lost its right to bomb Syria at will.

The Russians said it will take them two weeks to deliver, install and make the system operative. I have heard that the system of up to eight S-300 had already been delivered by massive airlift a few days ago, with cargo planes landing in Syria every few minutes. Probably two weeks will be needed to install and activate the system.

Now in Israel the response was of two kinds. The hot heads said Israel is not worried by S-300; they know how to deal with it, and if necessary, Israeli commandos will come and sabotage the system just in time for a massive air attack by Israeli bombers. Sensible people said Israel should try to repair relations with the Russian military. The Russians did a lot of what the Israelis asked them for, including removal of Iranian forces from the vicinity of Israeli borders (rather, armistice lines). A thorough investigation of the air disaster may uncover the mistakes and convince the Russians that they aren't likely to occur again.

Netanyahu sounded like he was trying to minimise the strife with the Russians. After meeting with President Trump in New York, he said that he came with specific requests "and I received everything I wanted from him [Trump]. Our goal is to preserve the connection with Russia and on the other hand to defend Israel's security against these threats."

So, for good or bad, Israel is not going to break relations with Russia, and Russia is not going to go further, beyond sealing Syria's sky for Israeli raids. If Israeli leadership will keep its fingers away from Syria, things may cool down. Otherwise, the results will be quite unpredictable.

In Israel, there aren't many people at the top, apart of Netanyahu and Lieberman, who cherish their country's involvement with Russia. For Israelis, Putin is one of many unsavoury leaders from Idi Amin to Orban their country has to play ball with. Russia is not popular with ordinary Israelis who prefer America or Germany. A lot of Israelis will be pleased with breakup of this connection. Immediately after the Russian decision had been announced, Haaretz had made its feelings clear: "In recent years, Russia has been caught lying or spreading disinformation about its role in a number of incidents, the most recent being its involvement in the U.S. presidential elections, the poisoning of the former Russian agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Britain, and the invasion of Crimea and eastern Ukraine. So it's hard to believe that anyone but Syria and Iran will adopt the Russian version of last week's events." This is not a way one's partner is usually described.

More conspiratorially minded Israelis opined that beyond downing of the Il, there was an Air Force plot against Netanyahu and Lieberman who are unpopular within the top echelon of IDF. Others say it was an American Secret Service plot to undermine Russian-Israeli connection.

For otherwise, why did the Israelis do that? Were they just careless and brutal, as is their wont? They didn't give a damn about the Russians, and considered them a lesser breed, whose life is of little importance. This is a possible reading, quite consistent with their general attitude to strangers considered to be children of a lesser God .

On the other hand, it is possible that the whole Israeli raid had been staged to down the reconnaissance plane and to leave the Russians without its real-time intelligence data. In 1967, the Israelis bombed and sunk the USS Liberty , an electronic spy ship, the then equivalent of Il-20, for they did not want to have foreign eyes and ears in the area. But then, there was an ongoing full-scale war between Israel and Egypt, and the USS Liberty had been attacked just before the planned Israeli invasion of the Syrian Golan Heights.

Could it be that Israelis expected an attack by France, England and the US upon Syria on that night, an attack that did not materialise thanks to the Russian-Turkish agreement on Idlib? There was a British plane and a French frigate in the vicinity, and a whole lot of American ships.

The agreement on Idlib was a very important event, though Il-20 displaced it out of our collective memory. Putin and Erdogan reached a working compromise, thus avoiding almost unavoidable large scale hostilities. The White Helmets had already prepared a film with staged chemical attack upon Syrian children, but the agreement had made the attack improbable in the first place. It is possible that the American coalition assault had been postponed in the last moment, when the Russian plane had been already downed.

However, all is well that ends well. Russian decision to create practically a no-fly zone is a good decision, good for all. It is good for Russians as they learned that their Commander-in-Chief can make strong decisions. It is good for Syria, as they will suffer less of the Israeli bombardments. And it is really good for Israel, as this naughty child, a spoiled brat, a darling of America had to be forbidden to bother neighbouring children. The automatic missile defence system will provide a threat of spanking. The kid had been told that he is not allowed to kill neighbours. With its excessive aggressiveness multiplied by impunity, Israel has been spoiled, as anybody would. With this block, Israel can still become a mensch , and for this chance, thank you, Russia.

Will Tel-Aviv use this chance? The US will try to frustrate the Russian taming of Israel. John Bolton and Mike Pompeo already declared that no one may interfere with Israel's divine right to freely bomb Syria. Will the Israeli lobby in America be able to neutralise Moscow's decision and unhinge Israeli soul once again? Will they convince Putin to postpone his decision like they did in April, and a few years ago? I do not think so.

We can congratulate the leadership of Russia on the consistent, justified and well-balanced decision that may yet tame the Jewish shrew.

Israel Shamir can be reached at [email protected]

[Sep 26, 2018] Hired to Drain the Swamp, Fired in Less Than a Year

Notable quotes:
"... @markperrydc . ..."
"... Well, we know where Mattis is going when he leaves the Pentagon. Nice work if you can get it. ..."
"... Seriously, anyone taking a knife to the Pentagon budget is putting a knife top their throat, unless they have support. ..."
"... Gen Mattis wants to save big money stop sending US forces to needless adventures. ..."
"... On top of the firing, I found the last three or four paragraphs all about insider trading as opposed to job performance, goals, budget cutting, not even budget accountability . . . Personalities over performance -- holy petolies. ..."
"... Given that the United States spends more money on defense than the next seven countries COMBINED including Russia and China it's not a question of how much you spend it's a question of how well. Until DOD passes that financial audit that all other agencies are obligated to do DOD should be get any increase in funding. ..."
"... When folks learn that the DOD is the swamp, then we can start having a conversation. ..."
"... "Lap Dog" Mattis. ..."
"... The Trump Administration is the most incompetent and corrupt since Warren G. Harding. There is no swamp draining going on. It is just a fight on who occupies it. ..."
Sep 26, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

Hired to Drain the Swamp, Fired in Less Than a Year 'This is the Boeing mafia in all of its glory,' one DoD official said of John 'Jay' Gibson's mysterious demise. By Mark Perry September 26, 2018

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The Pentagon ( Frontpage / Shutterstock ) On April 4, 2003, Col. Joseph Dowdy -- whose 1st Marine Regiment was then fighting its way through a tangle of Iraqi villages south of Baghdad -- was called to the tent of Gen. James Mattis and told he was being relieved of his command. A career Marine, Dowdy was stunned: Mattis's action in the midst of a battlefield fight was nearly unprecedented and, as Dowdy knew, would mark the end of his military career. Adding to the humiliation, Mattis told Dowdy to remove his sidearm and hand it to him. "We're going to give you a rest," he said.

Dowdy had known that his job was in danger, the result of complaints from Mattis and his staff that he wasn't moving his regiment quickly enough. But it's not as if Dowdy was taking his time: his troopers had been involved in bitter firefights against tenacious "Saddam Fedayeen" killers every day for the previous two weeks. But Dowdy had no choice in the matter, so while he objected to Mattis's action he packed up his gear, called his wife, returned to the U.S. and retired from the Marine Corps.

That Mattis acts quickly and decisively is part of his lore -- it's what good Marines do. But while quick and decisive might work on the battlefield, they're not always a good fit for a secretary of defense. Mattis learned this earlier this month, after he fired John H. "Jay" Gibson II, the Pentagon's first-ever Chief Management Officer and its third highest ranking official. The reason for the firing, as The Wall Street Journal's Gordon Lubold reported on September 5, was for "lack of performance."

The firing was immediately controversial, spurring under-the-radar resentments among senior defense officials in the Pentagon's E-Ring where military and civilian managers huddle to run the world's largest bureaucracy. "This doesn't make any sense," a senior Pentagon official told TAC . "Jay was CMO for seven months; he hadn't even gotten his staff in place."

John H. 'Jay' Gibson II (U.S. Government)

Gibson came to Washington to oversee Mattis's attempt to cut waste from the Pentagon budget by identifying savings that would lessen the ballooning impact of the Trump administration's $670 billion defense spending proposal. Armed with an impressive resume (including a successful stint as an assistant secretary of the Air Force and deputy undersecretary of defense for management reform, where his efforts saved billions of dollars), Gibson was tasked with reforming Pentagon procedures in buying and developing weapons and in managing logistics and supply, technology systems, community services, human resources, and health care.

Gibson was given a broad mandate to "shake up the system," which the deputy defense secretary Patrick Shanahan (the department's number two official and Gibson's boss) admitted would cause "screaming and yelling" from the Pentagon bureaucracy.

Even so, Gibson was told he would have the Trump administration's support -- which is why he decided to give up his post as president of XCOR Aerospace, a Texas company that develops rocket engines and space launch systems. "Jay did this over his wife's objections," a friend of Gibson and a senior official at a major private sector financial institution told TAC in a wide-ranging interview, "because he thought he could make a difference. He is a cracker-jack administrator; he knows how to dig and dig. So he came into D.C., started digging into the Pentagon budget and was fired. In my world, when that happens it isn't because you're doing a lousy job, but because you're stepping on the wrong toes."

In fact, as the senior Pentagon official with whom I spoke says, the toes that Gibson stepped on belonged to Patrick Shanahan, the deputy secretary of defense and a former vice president and general manager of Boeing Missile Defense Systems, a major Pentagon contractor. Shanahan and Gibson had a falling out in August, according to the senior Pentagon official with whom I spoke, and Shanahan reported the difficulty to Mattis -- "who pulled a Dowdy." Put simply, this official adds, when the "screaming and yelling" from the Pentagon's senior bureaucracy reached a fever pitch at the end of the summer, Mattis and Shanahan decided that firing Gibson would be easier than defending him.

The Recruitment Problem the Military Doesn't Want to Talk About Forget Trump: The Military-Industrial Complex is Still Running the Show

"I am not familiar with the details of what happened here and I wouldn't want to speculate," Todd Harrison, an official with the Center for Strategic and International Studies (and a well-known defense budget expert) says. "But I think that anyone in the new CMO position was signing on to the toughest job in Washington. It's one thing to identify waste, and another to actually get rid of it. The truth is that waste is built into the Pentagon budget; if you eliminate it, you eliminate jobs." A Pentagon official confirms this, but adds that "firing an official charged with making reforms for 'lack of performance' is laughable. Who are these guys trying to kid? The truth is that if Jay didn't perform, he'd still have his job."

The timing of Gibson's firing, just weeks after the death of Senate Armed Services Committee heavyweight John McCain, also raises uncomfortable questions. "The minute Gibson was fired, McCain would have had Mattis, Shanahan, and Gibson on the carpet in his office, asking them what the hell they were doing," a senior congressional staffer who monitors Pentagon personnel issues notes. "That's not going to happen now."

In fact, McCain had little love for Shanahan, telling aides that his appointment raised conflict of interest issues. McCain's worries were aired when he grilled Shanahan on answers the Boeing executive gave to written questions posed to him by the committee in June 2017. It was a classic McCain scorcher: "The answers that you gave to the questions," he told Shanahan, "whether intentionally or unintentionally, were almost condescending, and I'm not overjoyed that you came from one of the five corporations that receive 90 percent of taxpayers' dollars. I have to have confidence that the fox is not going to be put back into the henhouse." McCain was livid.

"Not a good beginning," McCain told Shanahan. "Do not do that again, Mr. Shanahan, or I will not take your name up for a vote before this committee. Am I perfectly clear?" Shanahan nodded his agreement. "Very clear," he said.

As it turns out, Shanahan's appointment resulted from a series of contentious negotiations between Trump transition official Mira Ricardel and retired Adm. Kevin Sweeney, Mattis's chief of staff. "There was no love loss between Mattis and Ricardel," the senior Pentagon civilian with whom TAC spoke says. "So the SecDef told Sweeney to deal with her. Sweeney is a tough guy and Mira has sharp elbows, so this got nasty."

The skirmishing got so bad that when Ricardel said she wanted to be the Pentagon's undersecretary for policy, Mattis killed the idea, with Ricardel sidelined as the undersecretary of commerce for export administration. But Ricardel got her revenge: she not only successfully slotted Shanahan as Mattis's number two, she was named as deputy to John Bolton, appointed by Trump to succeed H.R. McMaster as the administration's national security advisor. "It's the ultimate irony," the senior Pentagon official says. "Jim Mattis ignored H.R. and he ends up with Mira Ricardel. Incredible."

That Jay Gibson has been caught in the Mattis-Ricardel crossfire is an open secret at the Pentagon, where key officials speculate that Ricardel's promotion of Shanahan has less to do with his commitment to Pentagon budget reform than to the fact that the two were close colleagues at Boeing, where Ricardel served for nine years (from 2006 to 2015) as vice president of strategic missile and defense systems. That is to say, Jay Gibson's still unexplained firing has reinforced John McCain's worries that the fox would end up guarding the henhouse.

"This is the Boeing mafia in all of its glory," the senior Pentagon official says. "Anyone who comes in here [to the Pentagon] will always have Jay Gibson's experience as a marker. You think anyone who's willing to take on the bureaucracy is going to want that job? No way. Budget reform is dead, d-e-a-d dead. So much for draining the swamp."

Mark Perry is the author of The Most Dangerous Man in America and The Pentagon's Wars . Follow him on Twitter @markperrydc .



Whine Merchant September 26, 2018 at 12:05 am

Well, we know where Mattis is going when he leaves the Pentagon. Nice work if you can get it.
EliteCommInc. , , September 26, 2018 at 3:24 am
"Even so, Gibson was told he would have the Trump administration's support -- "

Look these are the issues in which the executive has to be made of sterner stuff. I suspect that the tag line after the articles title heading is more accurate and that has probably nothing to do with COS being quick on the draw.

Seriously, anyone taking a knife to the Pentagon budget is putting a knife top their throat, unless they have support.

Gen Mattis wants to save big money stop sending US forces to needless adventures.

On top of the firing, I found the last three or four paragraphs all about insider trading as opposed to job performance, goals, budget cutting, not even budget accountability . . . Personalities over performance -- holy petolies.

In this day and age there seems to be no other tune.

david , , September 26, 2018 at 5:49 am
All federal agencies are by congressional mandate obligated to pass financial audits EVERY year. DOD hasn't done one in over 10 years. Mattis supposedly was "working" on one for this year. Where is it?

We see endless stories of waste, fraud, and mismanagement in DOD. The littoral combat ship that more than doubled in price and clearly can't do what it was designed to do. So many others.

Given that the United States spends more money on defense than the next seven countries COMBINED including Russia and China it's not a question of how much you spend it's a question of how well. Until DOD passes that financial audit that all other agencies are obligated to do DOD should be get any increase in funding.

Kent , , September 26, 2018 at 6:39 am
When folks learn that the DOD is the swamp, then we can start having a conversation.
b. , , September 26, 2018 at 9:24 am
"Lap Dog" Mattis.
Scott , , September 26, 2018 at 10:27 am
The Trump Administration is the most incompetent and corrupt since Warren G. Harding. There is no swamp draining going on. It is just a fight on who occupies it.

The Trump Administration taking months to fill a position and then not having a support staff in place after 7 months is totally incompetent.

[Sep 25, 2018] Why did the Il-20 was not protected by our fighters? by Victor Alksnis

Slightly edited Yandex translations
Notable quotes:
"... Remember downed in November 2015, the Turkish F-16 our su-24? After all, one of the main reasons for this is that no one warned the crew about the presence and possible attack by its Turkish fighter in the vicinity due to the lack of control of airspace in the area and due to this our bomber was not covered by fighters, when it needed such a protection. ..."
"... Why was there no control of airspace over the Mediterranean sea? Why Israeli fighter were not discovered, why the Fight control center did not issue the command to the crew of the Il-20 immediately go in the direction of the Cyprus and wit for then of Israeli attack? ..."
"... Yes, periodically A-50 appear in Syria. But only periodically. And because of this, our planes are shot down and pilots are killed. ..."
Sep 18, 2018 | vz.ru

For almost three years, I have been publicly asking the same questions: "Why is Syria still not created a continuous radar field? Where are our aircraft AWACS (long-range radar detection and control) type A-50 (a-50U), and even more so A-100? Why are they not" hanging " around the clock over the middle East region, as do the United States and Israel?

Why do our "sworn partners" have full information about the air situation over the middle East region, and we are fighting there with our eyes closed? Why are our bombers, transporters and reconnaissance planes not covered by our fighters?" After all, as a result we suffer losses.

Remember downed in November 2015, the Turkish F-16 our su-24? After all, one of the main reasons for this is that no one warned the crew about the presence and possible attack by its Turkish fighter in the vicinity due to the lack of control of airspace in the area and due to this our bomber was not covered by fighters, when it needed such a protection.

And yesterday's death of Il-20 and 14 people of his crew? Today, the Russian defense Ministry tells us tales that Israeli fighters hided in a radar footprint of Il-20, attacking Latakia, and so the Syrians shot down our plane. Why wasn't the Il-20 was not protected by our fighters?

Why was there no control of airspace over the Mediterranean sea? Why Israeli fighter were not discovered, why the Fight control center did not issue the command to the crew of the Il-20 immediately go in the direction of the Cyprus and wit for then of Israeli attack?

Yes, periodically A-50 appear in Syria. But only periodically. And because of this, our planes are shot down and pilots are killed.

Why today our "partners" are armed with weapons of the XXI century, and we are forced to look at it with envy and use the methods of detection of air targets used in 40-50th of the last century?

Who of our military leaders was responsible for the death of Oleg Peshkov in November 2015? Which of them will be responsible for yesterday's death of 14 Il-20 crew?

Unfortunately, apart from the next victorious speeches about the world's best weapons and the world's strongest army, about the victory over terrorism on the far borders, we are unlikely to hear anything.

Source: Victor Alksnis's Blog

[Sep 25, 2018] Bolton Hates the Nuclear Deal Because It Proves Diplomacy Works

Notable quotes:
"... Earlier today, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo spoke to the hard-line, misleadingly-named pressure group, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), and delivered their usual attacks on and threats against Iran. ..."
"... An agreement that eliminates any pretext for preventive war, imposes no costs on America, and succeeds through cooperation with multiple governments is anathema to someone like Bolton, because it is proof that diplomacy works and can achieve things that coercive and punitive policies never could. ..."
"... UANI audience members react this way to bad economic news from Iran because they desire the destabilization and overthrow of the government. The fact that the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor headlined their event this week confirms for us that this is the administration's goal as well. ..."
Sep 25, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Earlier today, John Bolton and Mike Pompeo spoke to the hard-line, misleadingly-named pressure group, United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI), and delivered their usual attacks on and threats against Iran. One line from Bolton's speech stood out for being as delusional as it was representative of the Iran hawk worldview:

The Iran Deal was the worst diplomatic debacle in American history [bold mine-DL]. It did nothing to address the regime's destabilizing activities or its ballistic missile development and proliferation. Worst of all, the deal failed in its fundamental objective: permanently denying Iran all paths to a nuclear bomb.

Bolton loathes diplomacy. That is the key thing to understand about him, and it helps explain almost everything he has done in his career. He regards any successful diplomatic agreement as something of a debacle because it involves striking a compromise with another government, usually an adversary or rival, and because it means that the other side wasn't forced to give in to our every demand. When he denounces the JCPOA as "the worst diplomatic debacle in American history," he is simply expressing the intensity of his hatred for the government with which the agreement was made. His previous and ongoing support for the Mujahideen-e Khalq (MEK) shouldn't be forgotten when we try to make sense of this fanatical rhetoric.

If Bolton considers something to be the "worst diplomatic debacle" of our entire history, that tells us that the agreement required very little of the U.S., that it reinforced habits of multilateral cooperation, and that it successfully resolved an outstanding dispute that Bolton wished to resolve through regime change and war. An agreement that eliminates any pretext for preventive war, imposes no costs on America, and succeeds through cooperation with multiple governments is anathema to someone like Bolton, because it is proof that diplomacy works and can achieve things that coercive and punitive policies never could.

The venue for Bolton and Pompeo's speeches was no accident. It was an audience of hard-liners that detest Iran being addressed by like-minded speakers. UANI intensely opposed the nuclear deal and recited the usual false claims about it. Their vehement hostility to the most important and successful nonproliferation agreement of its kind is a testament to how little they care about actually restricting Iran's nuclear program. Like other Iran hawks, UANI is simply against Iran, and therefore they hate anything that might relieve international pressure on Iran. The group celebrates Trump administration sanctions and its members laugh about the deteriorating economic conditions inside Iran:

UANI audience members react this way to bad economic news from Iran because they desire the destabilization and overthrow of the government. The fact that the Secretary of State and National Security Advisor headlined their event this week confirms for us that this is the administration's goal as well.

Whine Merchant September 25, 2018 at 6:44 pm

Well, more evidence that the three stooges still drink Bibi's kool-aid. Perhaps AIPAC has promised to arrange for the Pompeo-Haley GOP Ticket to succeed Trump, with Bolton as Sec of State and Defence all-in-one.

[Sep 25, 2018] Why do i smell a false flag coming soon on CNN!

Sep 25, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

AG17 , Sep 25, 2018 1:35:35 AM | link

Why do i smell a false flag coming soon on CNN!

[Sep 25, 2018] USA/Israel/NATO would love for Russia to lash out against Israel for a provocation such as this Ilyushin 20 downing; but as the author suggests Russia knows it could not withstand the combined forces of NATO/Israel/USA in the Syrian theatre. Russia would not stand a chance.

Sep 25, 2018 | www.unz.com

Uncle Sam

If Russia shot down Israeli aircraft or bombed the airbase from which they took off, or even obliterated Israel, America would do nothing but bitch and complain. The American military does not want a war with Russia, because they know they cannot win a conventional war with Russia. I would go so far as to say that even if Russia sank American warships including an aircraft carrier America would not go to war.

America does not go to war with countries that have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to the continental United States. That is why she would bend over backwards to prevent a war with countries like Russia, China or North Korea, and the reason these countries need not fear America. The prevention of nuclear war is the underlying premise of American foreign policy. It has been since the nuclear age began. America would only use its nuclear weapons if the American mainland is hit with nuclear weapons.

America would accept the loss of hundreds or even thousands of its servicemen rather than have the continental USA turned into a wasteland.

Deschutes , says: September 25, 2018 at 10:24 am GMT

Sorry, not so sure I'd agree. USA/Israel/NATO would love for Russia to lash out against Israel for a provocation such as this Ilyushin 20 downing; but as the author suggests Russia knows it could not withstand the combined forces of NATO/Israel/USA in the Syrian theatre. Russia would not stand a chance.

I would agree with you that the USA has historically only attacked much weaker foes: Viet Nam, Iraq, Libya, Syria etc. But recently there has been a shift in US military I've read about, i.e. revisionist powers are now the main focus instead of 'war on terror'. With the stranglehold 'declare war!' sanctions USA will crush Iran with this November, it means that there will most definitely be ensuing hot war with Iran, probably early next year. What happened to Syria will next happen in Iran.

Once Iran is reduced to rubble with US/Israel trained and equipped ISIS proxy armies, the US and NATO will start destabilising actions along Russia's southern borders, i.e. Caspian Sea and Georgia. Their plan is to use the same Arab Islamist proxies and/or Chechen Arabs to start terror attacks in souther Russian provinces, i.e. Grozny, Derbent, Dagestan oblast. USA/NATO/Israel will try to chip away at Russia's southern provinces using same methods used in Syria, weaken and balkanize it. This is why Putin is trying so hard to stop them in Syria.

[Sep 25, 2018] Russia had rejected the request by Israel for the bombing raid near Latakia. Seems Netanyahou decided to ignore Russia and go ahead with the mission

Sep 25, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Brad allen , Sep 24, 2018 7:20:47 AM | link

What seems very significant, apart from this long late upgrade to Syrian air defenses, is news from the area that Russia had rejected the request by Israel for the bombing raid near Latakia. Seems Netanyahou decided to ignore Russia and go ahead with the mission. This could be very significant in changing rules of cooperation between them.

[Sep 25, 2018] The Path to World War III by Philip Giraldi

Notable quotes:
"... "from which weapons-manufacturing systems were supposed to be transferred to Iran and Hezbollah." ..."
"... The Israelis for their part were using four F-16 fighter bombers to stage a surprise night attack on several sites near Latakia, close to the airbase being used by the Russians. They came in from the Mediterranean Sea and clearly were using the Russian plane to mask their approach as the Ilyushin 20 would have presented a much larger radar profile for the air defenses. The radar systems on the F-16s would also have clearly seen the Russian plane. ..."
"... There was also a back story. The Israelis and Russian military had established a hotline, similar to the one that is used with the U.S. command in Syria, precisely intended to avoid incidents like the Ilyushin shoot-down that might escalate into a more major conflict. Israel reportedly used the line but only one minute before the incident took place, leaving no time for the Russian plane to take evasive action. ..."
"... The Russian Ministry of Defense was irate. It saw the exploitation of the intelligence plane by the Israelis as a deliberate high-risk initiative. It warned "We consider these provocative actions by Israel as hostile. Fifteen Russian military service members have died because of the irresponsible actions of the Israeli military. This is absolutely contrary to the spirit of the Russian-Israeli partnership. We reserve the right for an adequate response." ..."
"... Aggressive war directed at a non-threatening country is the ultimate war crime as defined by the Nuremberg Tribunals that followed after the Second World War, yet the United States and its poodles Britain and France have not so much as squeaked when Israel kills civilians and soldiers in its surprise attacks against targets that it alone frequently claims to be linked to the Iranians. Washington would not be in much of a position to cast the first stone anyway, as it is in Syria illegally, bombs targets regularly, to include two major cruise missile strikes, and, on at least one occasion, set a trap that reportedly succeeded in killing a large number of Russian mercenaries fighting on the Syrian government side. ..."
"... There is, of course, an alternative explanation for the Israeli action. Netanyahu might have considered it all a win-win either way, with the Russian plane masking and enabling the Israeli attack without consequence for Israel or, perversely, producing an incident inviting retaliation from Moscow, which would likely lead to a shooting war with the United States after it inevitably steps in to support Israel's government. In either case, the chaos in Syria that Israel desires would continue and even worsen but there would also be the potential danger of a possible expansion of the war as a consequence, making it regional or even broader. ..."
"... It's the same old story. Israel does risky things like attacking its neighbors because it knows it will pay no price due to Washington's support. The downing of the Russian plane through Israeli contrivance created a situation that could easily have escalated into a war involving Moscow and Washington. What Israel is really thinking when it seeks to create anarchy all around its borders is anyone's guess, but it is, to be sure, in no one's interest to allow the process to continue. It is past time for Donald Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to pull the plug on American engagement in Syria and terminate the seemingly endless cycle of wars in the Middle East. ..."
"... Syria and Israel are still "officially" at war. No peace treaty has ever been signed between them after the 1973 war. ..."
"... Bolton and Pompeo have really excelled themselves over this. Been almost a blackout on reporting over this, at least after initial reporting of the incident. A major world leader slapping down Israel is not something the media wish people to see, might get the wrong idea. ..."
"... Not only that, but the IDF LIED to Russia, stating they were going to attack targets in N. Syria, not around Latakia. ..."
"... It appears that French frigate did fire on Syria, in the hopes that Russia would respond, then Macaroni would cry out to NATO for help under Article 5, which says, "An attack against one is an attack against all" and off we'd go to who knows where, maybe WWIII. ..."
"... How, I asked Fort Russ to explain, did the monsieurs on the French tin can know that Russia wouldn't shoot back and send them all to Davy Jones' Locker? Fort Russ' response? It deleted my comment rather than defend its claim. I'm through with Fort Russ. ..."
"... Trump's infamous campaign slogan of MAGA quickly mutated into MIGA which is the originally intended version anyways. ..."
"... France a real FUKUS country ( France -UK-US ) ..."
"... The French destroyed Libia https://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/06/28/hillary-libya/ ..."
"... There are French colonial troops in 5 african countries https://www.businessinsider.com/frances-military-is-all-over-africa-2015-1?IR=T ..."
"... France steals about 400.000 million euros per year from African ex-colonies with their currency, the CFA franc ( Communnaute Francophone Africaine, currency ) https://africasacountry.com/2018/06/its-time-to-end-the-cfa-franc ..."
"... Never underestimate French colonialism ..."
"... One might as well ask, why were the French on the scene in the first place? In the scenario being discussed here, the French did not shoot for self defence, but because they were told to. Macron would be the perfect lapdog for the job. I agree Macron being the perfect lapdog for the job. I nevertheless find the scenario on Fort-Russ unlikely because of the relative positions of the actors, if they were their true positions, when the Russian plane was hit. ..."
Sep 25, 2018 | www.unz.com

Israel is, of course, claiming innocence , that it was the Syrians who shot down the Russian aircraft while the Israeli jets were legitimately targeting a Syrian army facility "from which weapons-manufacturing systems were supposed to be transferred to Iran and Hezbollah." Seeking to undo some of the damage caused, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu quickly telephoned Russian President Vladimir Putin to express his condolences. He also sent his air force chief to Russia on Thursday to provide a detailed report on what had occurred from the Israeli perspective.

But that story, however it will be spun, is inevitably only part of the tale. The narrative of what occurred is by now well established. The Russian aircraft was returning to base after a mission over the Mediterranean off the Syrian coast monitoring the activities of a French warship and at least one British RAF plane. As a large and relatively slow propeller driven aircraft on a routine intelligence gathering mission, the Ilyushin 20 had no reason to conceal its presence. It was apparently preparing to land at its airbase at Khmeimim in Syria when the incident took place. It may or may not have had its transponder on, which would signal to the Syrian air defenses that it was a "friendly."

Syrian air defenses were on high alert because Israel had attacked targets near Damascus on the previous day. On that occasion a Boeing 747 on the ground that Israel claimed was transporting weapons was the target. One should note in passing that Israeli claims about what it is targeting in Syria are never independently verifiable.

The Israelis for their part were using four F-16 fighter bombers to stage a surprise night attack on several sites near Latakia, close to the airbase being used by the Russians. They came in from the Mediterranean Sea and clearly were using the Russian plane to mask their approach as the Ilyushin 20 would have presented a much larger radar profile for the air defenses. The radar systems on the F-16s would also have clearly seen the Russian plane.

The Israelis might have been expecting that the Syrians would not fire at all at the incoming planes knowing that one of them at least was being flown by their Russian allies. If that was the expectation, it proved wrong and it was indeed a Syrian S-200 ground to air missile directed by its guidance system to the larger target that brought down the plane and killed its fourteen crew members. The Israelis completed their bombing run and flew back home. There were also reports that the French frigate offshore fired several missiles during the exchange, but they have not been confirmed while the British plane was also reportedly circling out of range though within the general area.

There was also a back story. The Israelis and Russian military had established a hotline, similar to the one that is used with the U.S. command in Syria, precisely intended to avoid incidents like the Ilyushin shoot-down that might escalate into a more major conflict. Israel reportedly used the line but only one minute before the incident took place, leaving no time for the Russian plane to take evasive action.

The Russian Ministry of Defense was irate. It saw the exploitation of the intelligence plane by the Israelis as a deliberate high-risk initiative. It warned "We consider these provocative actions by Israel as hostile. Fifteen Russian military service members have died because of the irresponsible actions of the Israeli military. This is absolutely contrary to the spirit of the Russian-Israeli partnership. We reserve the right for an adequate response."

Russian President Vladimir Putin was more conciliatory , saying the incident was a "chain of tragic circumstances." He contrasted it with the Turkish shoot-down of a Russian warplane in 2015, which was planned and deliberate, noting that Israel had not actually attacked the Ilyushin. Though the Putin comments clearly recognize that his country's relationship with Israel is delicate to say the least, that does not mean that he will do nothing.

Many Israelis are emigres from Russia and there are close ties between the two countries, but their views on Syria diverge considerably. As much as Putin might like to strike back at Israel in a hard, substantive way, he will likely only upgrade and strengthen the air defenses around Russian troop concentrations and warn that another "surprise" attack will be resisted. Unfortunately, he knows that he is substantially outgunned locally by the U.S., France, Britain and Israel, not to mention Turkey, and a violent response that would escalate the conflict is not in his interest. He has similarly, in cooperation with his Syrian allies, delayed a major attempt to retake terrorist controlled Idlib province, as he works out a formula with Ankara to prevent heavy handed Turkish intervention.

But there is another dimension to the story that the international media has largely chosen to ignore. And that is that Israel is now carrying out almost daily air attacks on Syria, over 200 in the past 18 months, a country with which it is not at war and which has not attacked it or threatened it in any way. It justifies the attacks by claiming that they are directed against Iran or Hezbollah, not at Syria itself. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has insisted that any peace settlement in Syria include the complete removal of Iranians, a demand that has also been repeated by the United States, which is also calling for the end to the Bashar al-Assad government and its replacement by something more "democratic."

Aggressive war directed at a non-threatening country is the ultimate war crime as defined by the Nuremberg Tribunals that followed after the Second World War, yet the United States and its poodles Britain and France have not so much as squeaked when Israel kills civilians and soldiers in its surprise attacks against targets that it alone frequently claims to be linked to the Iranians. Washington would not be in much of a position to cast the first stone anyway, as it is in Syria illegally, bombs targets regularly, to include two major cruise missile strikes, and, on at least one occasion, set a trap that reportedly succeeded in killing a large number of Russian mercenaries fighting on the Syrian government side.

And then there is the other dimension of Israeli interference with its neighbors, the secret wars in which it supports the terrorist groups operating in Syria as well as in Iran. The Netanyahu government has armed the terrorists operating in Syria and even treated them in Israeli hospitals when they get wounded. On one occasion when ISIS accidentally fired into Israeli-held territory on the Golan Heights it subsequently apologized. So, if you ask who is supporting terrorism the answer first and foremost should be Israel, but Israel pays no price for doing so because of the protection afforded by Washington, which, by the way, is also protecting terrorists.

There is, of course, an alternative explanation for the Israeli action. Netanyahu might have considered it all a win-win either way, with the Russian plane masking and enabling the Israeli attack without consequence for Israel or, perversely, producing an incident inviting retaliation from Moscow, which would likely lead to a shooting war with the United States after it inevitably steps in to support Israel's government. In either case, the chaos in Syria that Israel desires would continue and even worsen but there would also be the potential danger of a possible expansion of the war as a consequence, making it regional or even broader.

It's the same old story. Israel does risky things like attacking its neighbors because it knows it will pay no price due to Washington's support. The downing of the Russian plane through Israeli contrivance created a situation that could easily have escalated into a war involving Moscow and Washington. What Israel is really thinking when it seeks to create anarchy all around its borders is anyone's guess, but it is, to be sure, in no one's interest to allow the process to continue. It is past time for Donald Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to pull the plug on American engagement in Syria and terminate the seemingly endless cycle of wars in the Middle East.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is www.councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected] .


ValmMond , says: September 25, 2018 at 5:14 am GMT

"a country with which it is not at war"

Syria and Israel are still "officially" at war. No peace treaty has ever been signed between them after the 1973 war.

Harold Smith , says: September 25, 2018 at 5:32 am GMT
"It is past time for Donald Trump to fulfill his campaign promise to pull the plug on American engagement in Syria and terminate the seemingly endless cycle of wars in the Middle East."

Orange Clown's a liar whose presidential campaign was a calculated bait and switch fraud from the beginning. Our presidential poseur obviously had no intention of following through on most of his pre-election intimations and campaign promises.

Anon , [629] Disclaimer says: September 25, 2018 at 5:47 am GMT
Syria refused "land for peace" initiative in 1967 where it would get back Golan in return for peace. They never established diplomatic relations and are technically in the state of war.
Ronald Thomas West , says: Website September 25, 2018 at 5:58 am GMT
"The downing of the Russian plane through Israeli contrivance created a situation that could easily have escalated into a war involving Moscow and Washington"

I don't doubt Israeli contrivance but I expect there is possibly a wider contrivance involving Netanyahu's poodle Macron:

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/full-analysis-russian-disinfo-campaign-blames-israel-for-il-20-plane-downing-yet-exonerates-france/

Wizard of Oz , says: September 25, 2018 at 6:34 am GMT
@Anon Syria refused "land for peace" initiative in 1967 where it would get back Golan in return for peace. They never established diplomatic relations and are technically in the state of war. Which raises a couple of questions. One is whether the deal is still open. Another is why a secular régime in Syria, like that of Assad, would not recognise Israel now in return for something substantial which might be money rather than territory.
Colin Wright , says: Website September 25, 2018 at 6:36 am GMT
@Anon

Syria refused "land for peace" initiative in 1967 where it would get back Golan in return for peace. They never established diplomatic relations and are technically in the state of war. 'Syria refused "land for peace" initiative in 1967 where it would get back Golan in return for peace '

Uh huh. Hey, look. The Zionist lied. I'll be. https://www.thedailybeast.com/no-israel-didnt-offer-to-trade-the-west-bank-for-peace-in-1967

jilles dykstra , says: September 25, 2018 at 7:53 am GMT
@Anon

Syria refused "land for peace" initiative in 1967 where it would get back Golan in return for peace.

They never established diplomatic relations and are technically in the state of war. Moshe Dayan, in an interview with an Israeli paper, stated that 95% of border incidents with Syria were deliberately provoked by Israel

jilles dykstra , says: September 25, 2018 at 7:55 am GMT
@Ronald Thomas West

"The downing of the Russian plane through Israeli contrivance created a situation that could easily have escalated into a war involving Moscow and Washington"

I don't doubt Israeli contrivance but I expect there is possibly a wider contrivance involving Netanyahu's poodle Macron:

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/full-analysis-russian-disinfo-campaign-blames-israel-for-il-20-plane-downing-yet-exonerates-france/

&

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/more-experts-confirm-that-france-took-down-il-20-identify-friend-foe-system-did-not-fail/

&

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/major-russia-defies-israel-to-now-supply-s-300-to-syria/

Thought provoking material from Joaquin Flores at Ft Russ News. Was it actually the French? Macron worked for Banque de Rothschild in Paris

Vojkan , says: September 25, 2018 at 8:13 am GMT
@Ronald Thomas West

"The downing of the Russian plane through Israeli contrivance created a situation that could easily have escalated into a war involving Moscow and Washington"

I don't doubt Israeli contrivance but I expect there is possibly a wider contrivance involving Netanyahu's poodle Macron:

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/full-analysis-russian-disinfo-campaign-blames-israel-for-il-20-plane-downing-yet-exonerates-france/

&

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/more-experts-confirm-that-france-took-down-il-20-identify-friend-foe-system-did-not-fail/

&

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/major-russia-defies-israel-to-now-supply-s-300-to-syria/

Thought provoking material from Joaquin Flores at Ft Russ News. Was it actually the French? The Auvergne frigate is an anti-submarine ship equipped with surface-to-air missiles for self-defence Aster 15, with a range of max 30 km. Unless the French have modified it in the mean time, which is unlikely since it was launched too recently for that in my opinion, in 2015, to turn it in an air-defence ship equipped with the more advanced Aster 30 missiles, with a range of 100-120 km, I doubt they were within striking distance of the IL-20 when it was hit. On the other hand, it is possible that they have participated in the Israeli attack against Syria, given that they're equipped with cruise missiles and that ships of the same class have participated in previous attacks against Syria.

Anyway, I don't think it is wise of Russia to play down French involvement for the sake of Russian-French relationship. France under Macron is a shit country but the French are too vain to admit that they have elected a complete moron as president. There is no comparison with Erdogan's Turkey. Erdogan has way more substance than the Rotschild puppet Macron.

LondonBob , says: September 25, 2018 at 8:18 am GMT
Bolton and Pompeo have really excelled themselves over this. Been almost a blackout on reporting over this, at least after initial reporting of the incident. A major world leader slapping down Israel is not something the media wish people to see, might get the wrong idea.
Ronald Thomas West , says: Website September 25, 2018 at 9:21 am GMT
@Vojkan

The Auvergne frigate is an anti-submarine ship equipped with surface-to-air missiles for self-defence Aster 15, with a range of max 30 km. Unless the French have modified it in the mean time, which is unlikely since it was launched too recently for that in my opinion, in 2015, to turn it in an air-defence ship equipped with the more advanced Aster 30 missiles, with a range of 100-120 km, I doubt they were within striking distance of the IL-20 when it was hit. On the other hand, it is possible that they have participated in the Israeli attack against Syria, given that they're equipped with cruise missiles and that ships of the same class have participated in previous attacks against Syria.

Anyway, I don't think it is wise of Russia to play down French involvement for the sake of Russian-French relationship. France under Macron is a shit country but the French are too vain to admit that they have elected a complete moron as president. There is no comparison with Erdogan's Turkey. Erdogan has way more substance than the Rotschild puppet Macron.

Erdogan is a paranoid criminal who has back-stabbed every player he's ever done business with not to mention his intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan, is an alumnus of the Turkish branch of al-Qaida. Head and shoulders above Macron? I suppose that's possible

animalogic , says: September 25, 2018 at 9:52 am GMT
@Uncle Sam

If Russia shot down Israeli aircraft or bombed the airbase from which they took off, or even obliterated Israel, America would do nothing but bitch and complain. The American military does not want a war with Russia, because they know they cannot win a conventional war with Russia. I would go so far as to say that even if Russia sank American warships including an aircraft carrier America would not go to war.

America does not go to war with countries that have nuclear weapons and the means to deliver them to the continental United States. That is why she would bend over backwards to prevent a war with countries like Russia, China or North Korea, and the reason these countries need not fear America. The prevention of nuclear war is the underlying premise of American foreign policy. It has been since the nuclear age began. America would only use its nuclear weapons if the American mainland is hit with nuclear weapons.

America would accept the loss of hundreds or even thousands of its servicemen rather than have the continental USA turned into a wasteland. I'm inclined to agree with your assessment of US unwillingness to fight a nuclear power, but .I also can't forget that the US ruling elites are pathological. Psychotic with hubris, greed & egoism. The "exceptional", the "indispensable" nation .& worse, the wagging dog to the Israeli tail.

steinbergfeldwtizcohen , says: September 25, 2018 at 10:28 am GMT
Israel has Zero goodwill. They are a pariah nation. I'm sure that will be interesting to watch as U.S. power evaporates. It proves to me that hubris overwhelms strategy; the Jews are the architects of their own destruction.
Vojkan , says: September 25, 2018 at 11:03 am GMT
@Ronald Thomas West

My understanding is the Auvergne class frigate has Aster 30 capability from launch, depending on the configuration ... retrofit would only be necessary in case it had not been initially equipped - In the French denomination, the Auvergne is a FREMM, anti-submarine, not FREDA, air-defence. The French FREMM, if the French MoD doesn't lie, is equipped with 16 missiles Aster 15 for self-defence. The FREDAs are equipped with 16 more missiles Aster 30. Let's say that the Auvergne is in fact equipped with Aster 30 instead of Aster 15 missiles, I say instead because there would be little room left for its alleged main capabilities if equipped with both, the likelihood that the French would fire one at a Russian reconnaissance plane is still less than the plane being hit by mistake by Syrian air-defence.

Why would the French down a distant slow moving Russian reconnaissance plane? It would make sense if the plane was much closer to the Auvergne, in which case an Aster 15 would have done the job. The thing is that it seems that as much as the Il-20 was between the Syrians and the Israelis, Israelis were between the French and the Russian plane.

Unless the French and the Israeli hardware are fully integrated, you have to have a hell of a confidence in your stuff to fire a missile to down the Russian plane in such circumstances. Though the Aster 30 has vertical launch and anything is possible. I can be wrong but I just find it unlikely.

Greg Bacon , says: Website September 25, 2018 at 11:05 am GMT

The Israelis for their part were using four F-16 fighter bombers to stage a surprise night attack on several sites near Latakia, close to the airbase being used by the Russians.

Not only that, but the IDF LIED to Russia, stating they were going to attack targets in N. Syria, not around Latakia.

It appears that French frigate did fire on Syria, in the hopes that Russia would respond, then Macaroni would cry out to NATO for help under Article 5, which says, "An attack against one is an attack against all" and off we'd go to who knows where, maybe WWIII.

Israel needs to be dis-armed of its NBC arsenal; nukes, biological and chemical weapons, which they will deny having, but as usual, it's just another LIE coming from a nation filled with religious zealots who think some G-d they created will protect them from nuclear bursts and that they have the G-d given right to kill any Gentile they want, w/o repercussions.

Vojkan , says: September 25, 2018 at 11:09 am GMT
@Ronald Thomas West

Erdogan is a paranoid criminal who has back-stabbed every player he's ever done business with ... not to mention his intelligence chief, Hakan Fidan, is an alumnus of the Turkish branch of al-Qaida. Head and shoulders above Macron? I suppose that's possible...

And Macron is an egomaniac with and Oedipus complex who oftens makes non-sensical sentences that send his admirers into trance. The only plus of Macron compared to Erdogan is that he knows his masters. The down side is that he doesn't know his own country, while Erdogan does. So yes, it is possible.

Fiendly Neighbourhood Terrorist , says: Website September 25, 2018 at 11:27 am GMT
@Ronald Thomas West

"The downing of the Russian plane through Israeli contrivance created a situation that could easily have escalated into a war involving Moscow and Washington"

I don't doubt Israeli contrivance but I expect there is possibly a wider contrivance involving Netanyahu's poodle Macron:

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/full-analysis-russian-disinfo-campaign-blames-israel-for-il-20-plane-downing-yet-exonerates-france/

&

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/more-experts-confirm-that-france-took-down-il-20-identify-friend-foe-system-did-not-fail/

&

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/major-russia-defies-israel-to-now-supply-s-300-to-syria/

Thought provoking material from Joaquin Flores at Ft Russ News. Was it actually the French? I left a response on the Fort Russ article asking them to explain exactly why French naval personnel would wish to sacrifice their lives for the greater glory of the gerontophiliac juvenile war criminal in Paris.

How, I asked Fort Russ to explain, did the monsieurs on the French tin can know that Russia wouldn't shoot back and send them all to Davy Jones' Locker? Fort Russ' response? It deleted my comment rather than defend its claim. I'm through with Fort Russ.

KenH , says: September 25, 2018 at 11:31 am GMT
The Nuremberg standard was only set up to be used against goyim and goy nations who don't have Jewish occupation governments. Israel must be pretty stupid as if wider, regional war breaks out then Tel Aviv should be considered a legitimate target and in the event of a nuclear war no doubt Russia has nukes destined for Tel Aviv and rightly so.
Fiendly Neighbourhood Terrorist , says: Website September 25, 2018 at 11:38 am GMT
@Justsaying

Trump's infamous campaign slogan of MAGA quickly mutated into MIGA which is the originally intended version anyways. Obedience to Israel has become a norm in presidential election campaigns. Even the disenfranchised minority caucuses, including and especially the Black one is firmly in Israel's pockets now. The Black leadership role has now been essentially reduced to making the odd noise after the shooting of an unarmed Black by a White cop.

"The Black leadership role has now been essentially reduced to making the odd noise after the shooting of an unarmed Black by a White cop."

As a brown person in Asia I grew up inculcated with the idea that I must always be in solidarity with black people in America and they would be with me (it was the 1970s, Malcolm X was still a fresh memory, Muhammad Ali still strode the scene like a colossus, and Martin Luther King Jr was still thought of as a hero in most circles).

Today, black Americans are people so wallowing in self abnegation that they mass voted for the racist war criminal Killary Clinton, owing to whose actions black people in America were incarcerated in hitherto unknown numbers; due to whose crimes black people in Haiti were looted to destitution; because of whom black people in Libya are literally being sold as slaves. Black Americans parade around saying "black lives matter", but are more than happy voting for war criminals who loot Haitian blacks, enslave Libyan blacks, massacre Somali blacks, deprive Sudanese blacks of life saving drugs, and plot to imperialistically occupy Africa, a continent of black people. Forget about us brown people, to American blacks in 2018, black lives do *not* matter.

Only virtue signalling and tribal identity matters. Nothing else.

Malcolm X would spit on them.

Mike P , says: September 25, 2018 at 12:02 pm GMT
@Vojkan In the French denomination, the Auvergne is a FREMM, anti-submarine, not FREDA, air-defence. The French FREMM, if the French MoD doesn't lie, is equipped with 16 missiles Aster 15 for self-defence. The FREDAs are equipped with 16 more missiles Aster 30. Let's say that the Auvergne is in fact equipped with Aster 30 instead of Aster 15 missiles, I say instead because there would be little room left for its alleged main capabilities if equipped with both, the likelihood that the French would fire one at a Russian reconnaissance plane is still less than the plane being hit by mistake by Syrian air-defence. Why would the French down a distant slow moving Russian reconnaissance plane? It would make sense if the plane was much closer to the Auvergne, in which case an Aster 15 would have done the job. The thing is that it seems that as much as the Il-20 was between the Syrians and the Israelis, Israelis were between the French and the Russian plane. Unless the French and the Israeli hardware are fully integrated, you have to have a hell of a confidence in your stuff to fire a missile to down the Russian plane in such circumstances. Though the Aster 30 has vertical launch and anything is possible. I can be wrong but I just find it unlikely.

Why would the French down a distant slow moving Russian reconnaissance plane?

One might as well ask, why were the French on the scene in the first place?

In the scenario being discussed here, the French did not shoot for self defence, but because they were told to. Macron would be the perfect lapdog for the job.

Respect , says: September 25, 2018 at 12:58 pm GMT
@Fiendly Neighbourhood Terrorist

I left a response on the Fort Russ article asking them to explain exactly why French naval personnel would wish to sacrifice their lives for the greater glory of the gerontophiliac juvenile war criminal in Paris. How, I asked Fort Russ to explain, did the monsieurs on the French tin can know that Russia wouldn't shoot back and send them all to Davy Jones' Locker?

Fort Russ' response? It deleted my comment rather than defend its claim.

I'm through with Fort Russ.

Never underestimate colonialist France .

France a real FUKUS country ( France -UK-US )

Ronald Thomas West , says: Website September 25, 2018 at 1:02 pm GMT
@Fiendly Neighbourhood Terrorist

I left a response on the Fort Russ article asking them to explain exactly why French naval personnel would wish to sacrifice their lives for the greater glory of the gerontophiliac juvenile war criminal in Paris. How, I asked Fort Russ to explain, did the monsieurs on the French tin can know that Russia wouldn't shoot back and send them all to Davy Jones' Locker?

Fort Russ' response? It deleted my comment rather than defend its claim.

I'm through with Fort Russ. Well, Bill, Russia practices entirely too much self-restraint to my taste too, but I suspect you underestimate the ego-priapism of the French (you should see the exaggerated 'packages' on the statues of their military heroes), it's not like that culture plays with a full deck or level mentality. Bottom line: Russia doesn't want World War III and the priss Gauls are perfectly willing to take advantage of that in the negative, you might better understand the Western gang mentality. Insofar as assigning a modicum of 'normalcy' (rationality) to the French militarist idiots, it'd be a mistake, they might notice they'd backed-buttocks into the nuclear launch button if you separated them from on-ship lover with a pry-bar. Sort of like Dien Bien Phu and catastrophic political-military miscalculation.

Gerontophiliac? Rumor has it rather Macron is in love with his Muslim beating bodyguard. The 'elderly' woman seems to be great cover

ISmellBagels , says: September 25, 2018 at 1:05 pm GMT
The Israelis using the hotline just a minute before the shoot down is very similar to when the yid army gives notice to a Palestinian family just a minute before blowing up their house. They think it's all funny.
Respect , says: September 25, 2018 at 1:33 pm GMT
The French destroyed Libia https://www.veteranstoday.com/2015/06/28/hillary-libya/

There are French colonial troops in 5 african countries https://www.businessinsider.com/frances-military-is-all-over-africa-2015-1?IR=T

France steals about 400.000 million euros per year from African ex-colonies with their currency, the CFA franc ( Communnaute Francophone Africaine, currency ) https://africasacountry.com/2018/06/its-time-to-end-the-cfa-franc

Never underestimate French colonialism .

annamaria , says: September 25, 2018 at 1:38 pm GMT
@Ronald Thomas West

Well, Bill, Russia practices entirely too much self-restraint to my taste too, but I suspect you underestimate the ego-priapism of the French (you should see the exaggerated 'packages' on the statues of their military heroes), it's not like that culture plays with a full deck or level mentality. Bottom line: Russia doesn't want World War III and the priss Gauls are perfectly willing to take advantage of that in the negative, you might better understand the Western gang mentality. Insofar as assigning a modicum of 'normalcy' (rationality) to the French militarist idiots, it'd be a mistake, they might notice they'd backed-buttocks into the nuclear launch button if you separated them from on-ship lover with a pry-bar. Sort of like Dien Bien Phu and catastrophic political-military miscalculation.

Gerontophiliac? Rumor has it rather Macron is in love with his Muslim beating bodyguard. The 'elderly' woman seems to be great cover... It is highly implausible that "Micron" has any power. The same can be said about the imbecile UK Parliament that allowed Mr. Gavin Williamson (a trained salesperson knowledgeable in fireplaces) to become a Secretary of Defence. Gavin's only virtue is his superb sensitivity to the needs of mega-war profiteers and the Friends of Israel in the UK.

Here is an analysis of the 9/17 event in Syria by Thierry Meyssan: http://www.voltairenet.org/article203086.html

20 September 2018: "The Chief of Staff for the Israëli Air Force, General Amikam Norkin, arrives in a hurry to present his version of events. Once these proofs were checked and compared with other recordings, it transpired that Israël was lying straight-faced."

"On 17 September 2018, France, Israël and the United Kingdom carried out a joint operation against Syrian targets.

1. A British Torpedo took off from Cyprus to land in Iraq. During the flight, it violated Syrian air space in order to scan the Syrian defences and make the allied attack possible.

2. Less than an hour later, four Israëli F-16s and a French frigate, L'Auvergne, fired on targets in the Syrian governorate of Lattakia. The Syrian air defences protected their country by firing their S-200s against the French and Israëli missiles.

3. During the battle, an F-16 used a Russian Ilyushin Il-20 as a shield.

The cowardice of the British and French leaders led them to censor all information concerning their responsibility in this operation . London made no comment, and Paris denied the facts. Neither the BBC, nor France-Television dared to mention the subject. For these two countries, more than ever, t he reality of external politics is excluded from the democratic debate.

In case the White House should find an acceptable narrative of the facts for its electors, Russia could forbid the United Kingdom, France and Israël from making any intrusion into the maritime, terrestrial and aerial space of Syria without the authorisation of Damascus.
London and Paris would have to cease their threats of bombing under whatever pretext at all (false chemical weapons) and withdraw their special forces. This measure would be valid for all protagonists in general, except for the United States and, in Idlib, for Turkey."

-- Neither the United Kingdom nor France nor Israël has a head of state. These states are indeed headless.

Vojkan , says: September 25, 2018 at 1:50 pm GMT
@Mike P
Why would the French down a distant slow moving Russian reconnaissance plane?
One might as well ask, why were the French on the scene in the first place? In the scenario being discussed here, the French did not shoot for self defence, but because they were told to. Macron would be the perfect lapdog for the job. I agree Macron being the perfect lapdog for the job. I nevertheless find the scenario on Fort-Russ unlikely because of the relative positions of the actors, if they were their true positions, when the Russian plane was hit.
Jean de Peyrelongue , says: Website September 25, 2018 at 1:56 pm GMT
Russia's MOD story is clear: the IL-20 had been flying around Idlib and was coming back when 4 fighters from Israel bombed Latakia and having accomplished their mission and also noticed of the incoming IL-20, instead of running away, decided to stay around for another objective. One of the fighter came close to the IL-20 which was going to land, and he gave him the "Judas' kiss" calling for the Syrian DCA to shoot down the IL-20.

It was not an accident, it was a pre-planned murder: Note that the Syrian DCA became ready only 10′ after the bombing of Lattakia and that the israelis had plenty of time to run away.

It would be interesting to know if these fighters communicate with Israel before deciding to carry out this murder.

I am glad to see that Russia is not behaving like the US when the USS Liberty was attacked by Israel. By deciding to send the S300 to Syria , improved their communication system and jammed airplanes communication systems when attacking Syria, Russia is giving an appropriate answer which is going to improve drastically the defense capabilities of Syria and "cooled some aggressive hot heads".

[Sep 25, 2018] Consequences - TTG

Notable quotes:
"... VV Putin and S Shoigu have quickly and calmly moved to insure that another incident like the IL-20 shoot down does not occur again. After laying the blame for the incident squarely on Israel, both men announced Syria will receive a major upgrade to their air defense system. Russian will deliver S-300 systems to the Syrians within the next two weeks. ..."
"... In other developments, Russian Senator and former Air Force commander Viktor Bondarev announced the establishment of a no-fly zone in Latakia to prevent a repeat of the IL-20 aircraft tragedy. He added that "any unauthorized objects in the sky over Hmeimim Airport will definitely be eliminated." I'm sure that remark was meant for an Israeli audience. I'm also certain that VV Putin personally informed Netanyahu of this in one of their recent phone calls. ..."
"... In addition to the S-300s and no-fly zone, Russian radio electronic combat assets will suppress communications, radars and satellite navigation of any combat aircraft attacking targets in Syria. A Russian Su-35S has reportedly intercepted a US F-22 over Syria. Russian has also asked for permission to station fighters and bombers at the Nojeh Air Base in NW Iran. The bear is seriously pissed. ..."
"... We are unhappy because the Izzies are unhappy. ..."
Sep 25, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

VV Putin and S Shoigu have quickly and calmly moved to insure that another incident like the IL-20 shoot down does not occur again. After laying the blame for the incident squarely on Israel, both men announced Syria will receive a major upgrade to their air defense system. Russian will deliver S-300 systems to the Syrians within the next two weeks.

If Russia already has S-300 systems under their control in Syria, these systems will probably be turned over the Syrians and new Russian systems will be brought in. Otherwise, new systems will be flown in directly to the Syrians. I would think the former would be the most reasonable way to upgrade the Syrian air defense system within two weeks unless the Russian have already quietly flown them in. In either case, Russian technicians and trainer will surely work with their Syrian counterparts for well past the two weeks stated.

In other developments, Russian Senator and former Air Force commander Viktor Bondarev announced the establishment of a no-fly zone in Latakia to prevent a repeat of the IL-20 aircraft tragedy. He added that "any unauthorized objects in the sky over Hmeimim Airport will definitely be eliminated." I'm sure that remark was meant for an Israeli audience. I'm also certain that VV Putin personally informed Netanyahu of this in one of their recent phone calls.

In addition to the S-300s and no-fly zone, Russian radio electronic combat assets will suppress communications, radars and satellite navigation of any combat aircraft attacking targets in Syria. A Russian Su-35S has reportedly intercepted a US F-22 over Syria. Russian has also asked for permission to station fighters and bombers at the Nojeh Air Base in NW Iran. The bear is seriously pissed.

I guess we'll soon see if the Israelis are feeling froggy.

TTG

Laurent K , an hour ago

I don't know for the Israelians but US seems very unhappy with the decision:

https://www.washingtonpost....

Pat Lang Mod -> Laurent K , 11 minutes ago
We are unhappy because the Izzies are unhappy.

[Sep 25, 2018] Russia Beefs Up Syria's Air Defenses - Tells Hotheads To Cool Down

Notable quotes:
"... I think the second of your two proposals is much the most likely. ("They were waiting/hoping Russia/Syria would strike the French ship in which case they and the UK planes would attack, justifying a NATO full assault from the NATO ships in the Med and probably WW3.") ..."
"... The US had at least three Major destroyers, two nuclear subs and the "Truman" Aircraft carrier in the Med.The UK Tornados were airborne and so were (certainly) a bevy of US aircraft. ..."
"... I suspect the "scenario" was to have a Syrian missile "threaten" (fired at....) the French Frigate Auvergne, which would have been the excuse for a massive US/NATO/UK/Israeli attack on the Syrians. (but NOT necessarily the Russians, as this would have led to WWIII*** or IV). The French were sending up missiles for just this purpose. The Syrians had to be "seen" firing first at a NATO ship. The Russian Il-20 had to be eliminated as well as it might have picked up compromising proof of the NATO "plan". ..."
"... This is very close to the scenario several years ago, where the US force moved to the far end of the Med. and an Israeli plane fired two missile from behind them, towards Syria to provoke a Syrian response aimed at the US ships. The Russian Radars picked this up and loudly called the bluff. Israel then suddenly said that the missiles were "practice" and dropped them in the sea. ..."
"... What fascinates many analysts is the stubbornness and stupidity of US policy-makers. The more they try to prolong the US unipolar moment, the more incentive they give to other countries to jump on the multipolar bandwagon. ..."
"... Even countries that probably have deep ties with the United States on an oligarchic level will have no alternative other than to modify and redesign their strategic alliances over the next 30 years. The United States continues along the path of diplomatic arrogance and strategic stupidity, mired in a civil war among its elites, with no end in sight. ..."
"... Shoigu: "We're convinced that the implementation of these measures will cool down the hotheads and will prevent rash actions that might threaten our servicemen. If not, we'll be forced to react based on the evolving situation." ..."
"... I can't help thinking of that old US joke, only this time it's real: "The beatings will continue until morale improves." ..."
"... Bolton now says that the Outlaw US Empire will remain in Syria as long as Iranians are there. Well, numerous ethnic Iranians live within Syria. Given his attitude, you'd think he'd be clamoring for Iranians living within the Empire to be rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Bolton reminds me of McCarthy: Big mouth and booze-boosted courage 100% devoid of a morality or ethical principals. ..."
"... It was I believe of the assumption (early analyses of the event) scenario: actually a cruise missile being fired from a a sub, unidentified sub. and was reported from a Cypriot source If i do remember right (that all were the initial hours of the event) that later (after days) morphed in to air to ground being fired from Israel jets? ( I believe it was close to Christmass) ..."
"... So, basically Russian MoD claims that Israel AirForce DID NOT alerted Russia about their operation, that culminated in the misfortunate downing of Il-20. ..."
"... Answering to another poster about the flightradar apps. I wouldn't trust what CIA or DoD could/would and should have been using for propaganda purposes to mess, with evidence or to try to build false leads in trying to promote their narratives. Western sources are in question, as of course Eastern too. For instance Iran banned the Telegram app. according to them there was a version that was been used as a spy tool disguised as civilian application software. ..."
"... Russia declared NO FLY ZONE over LATAKIA ! https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-russia-establishes-no-fly-zone-over-latakia-province-diplomat/ Russia are slow to react , but they run Fast :)! ..."
"... funny how bolton never mentioned anything about israels responsibility for making war on syria...bombing buildings and accidentally or otherwise being directly responsible for the downing of IL-20 where 15 russians died seems not to even cross his mind...that is a vacuous mind indeed.. the hypocrisy is regularly on display from the usa.. if it isn't bolton, it is haley, or some other doofus, talking head from the usa.. ..."
"... an alternative speculation on this is the IL-20 had a lot of valuable intel data with it that was removed from the theatre.. that would suggest the act here on israels part was intentional.. i suspect it was an unintended accident, but one that has big ramifications for israel... i continue to believe we are ramping up to a major war and moving more and more in this direction.. this is another step in the same direction.. i also believe that russia sees it coming and is doing what it feels is the best they can do in this environment.. ..."
"... Shoigu says there will now be "centralised control over all of Syria's air defence facilities and capabilities, the monitoring of airspace and prompt targeting". ..."
"... In other words, Russia will be able to control who gets targeted and shot at. That might be what Israel wants. Russia ensures its planes don't get shot down and in return Israel knows their friend Russia has assumed centralized control over air defenses and they no longer have to worry about independently controlled Syrian missiles ..."
Sep 25, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

stonebird , Sep 24, 2018 2:52:46 PM | link

KarlofI@67--
Thanks
Frances @64

I think the second of your two proposals is much the most likely. ("They were waiting/hoping Russia/Syria would strike the French ship in which case they and the UK planes would attack, justifying a NATO full assault from the NATO ships in the Med and probably WW3.")

The US had at least three Major destroyers, two nuclear subs and the "Truman" Aircraft carrier in the Med.The UK Tornados were airborne and so were (certainly) a bevy of US aircraft.

I suspect the "scenario" was to have a Syrian missile "threaten" (fired at....) the French Frigate Auvergne, which would have been the excuse for a massive US/NATO/UK/Israeli attack on the Syrians. (but NOT necessarily the Russians, as this would have led to WWIII*** or IV). The French were sending up missiles for just this purpose. The Syrians had to be "seen" firing first at a NATO ship. The Russian Il-20 had to be eliminated as well as it might have picked up compromising proof of the NATO "plan".

This is very close to the scenario several years ago, where the US force moved to the far end of the Med. and an Israeli plane fired two missile from behind them, towards Syria to provoke a Syrian response aimed at the US ships. The Russian Radars picked this up and loudly called the bluff. Israel then suddenly said that the missiles were "practice" and dropped them in the sea.

*** I reckon we are IN WWIII as sanctions and asymetric warfare are ....warfare. So next is WWIV

karlof1 , Sep 24, 2018 2:54:18 PM | link

Federico Pieraccini provides an Autumnal Equinox update of the Big Picture situation, concluding:

"What fascinates many analysts is the stubbornness and stupidity of US policy-makers. The more they try to prolong the US unipolar moment, the more incentive they give to other countries to jump on the multipolar bandwagon.

"Even countries that probably have deep ties with the United States on an oligarchic level will have no alternative other than to modify and redesign their strategic alliances over the next 30 years. The United States continues along the path of diplomatic arrogance and strategic stupidity, mired in a civil war among its elites, with no end in sight."

It's UNGA time again, so we'll get to see the arrogance and stupidity play out in public.

Grieved , Sep 24, 2018 2:54:50 PM | link
Shoigu: "We're convinced that the implementation of these measures will cool down the hotheads and will prevent rash actions that might threaten our servicemen. If not, we'll be forced to react based on the evolving situation."

And it's a good time to remember that Russia always leads with its best terms. If forced to continue negotiating, the terms get increasingly tough.

~~

I can't help thinking of that old US joke, only this time it's real: "The beatings will continue until morale improves."

;)

karlof1 , Sep 24, 2018 4:36:52 PM | link
juliania @39--

I suspect Zionist arrogance never allowed them to even consider consequences as they'd gotten away with similar attacks. IMO, the Zionist act differed little from their targeted killings of Palestinian protesters in Gaza. This cartoon I found on Twitter is close to being correct. I said it was Russia's USS Liberty moment, but Russia's reaction wasn't anything like the bent-over passivity displayed by LBJ.

Bolton now says that the Outlaw US Empire will remain in Syria as long as Iranians are there. Well, numerous ethnic Iranians live within Syria. Given his attitude, you'd think he'd be clamoring for Iranians living within the Empire to be rounded up and sent to concentration camps. Bolton reminds me of McCarthy: Big mouth and booze-boosted courage 100% devoid of a morality or ethical principals.

Greece , Sep 24, 2018 4:37:38 PM | link
KarlofI@67--
Thanks
Frances @64
I think the second of your two proposals is much the most likely. ("They were waiting/hoping Russia/Syria would strike the French ship in which case they and the UK planes would attack, justifying a NATO full assault from the NATO ships in the Med and probably WW3.")

The US had at least three Major destroyers, two nuclear subs and the "Truman" Aircraft carrier in the Med.The UK Tornados were airborne and so were (certainly) a bevy of US aircraft.

I suspect the "scenario" was to have a Syrian missile "threaten" (fired at....) the French Frigate Auvergne, which would have been the excuse for a massive US/NATO/UK/Israeli attack on the Syrians. (but NOT necessarily the Russians, as this would have led to WWIII*** or IV). The French were sending up missiles for just this purpose. The Syrians had to be "seen" firing first at a NATO ship. The Russian Il-20 had to be eliminated as well as it might have picked up compromising proof of the NATO "plan".

This is very close to the scenario several years ago, where the US force moved to the far end of the Med. and an Israeli plane fired two missile from behind them, towards Syria to provoke a Syrian response aimed at the US ships. The Russian Radars picked this up and loudly called the bluff. Israel then suddenly said that the missiles were "practice" and dropped them in the sea.

*** I reckon we are IN WWIII as sanctions and asymetric warfare are ....warfare. So next is WWIV

Posted by: stonebird | Sep 24, 2018 2:52:46 PM | 72

Excellent find!

It was I believe of the assumption (early analyses of the event) scenario: actually a cruise missile being fired from a a sub, unidentified sub. and was reported from a Cypriot source If i do remember right (that all were the initial hours of the event) that later (after days) morphed in to air to ground being fired from Israel jets? ( I believe it was close to Christmass)

Also as a answer to what you mentioned above I also quote this post from another poster:

Russian MoD explicitly denies claims made earlier by Israeli MoD

"At 22:03 a Syrian anti-aircraft missile engaged a larger and closer target – Il-20 airplane. The commander reported on the fire on board and emergency descent. At 22:07 the Russian Il-20 survey airplane went off the radars. Meanwhile, the Israeli jets did not leave for their air space but stayed in the region and continued patrolling in the air till 22:40."

and "I would like to stress that during negotiations via the deconfliction channel, the representative of the Israeli Air Force Headquarters reported on the targets assigned to the Israeli aircraft in north Syria. The dialogue was held in Russian. The Russian Defence Ministry has a record of the talk.

.....

As you can see on the map, the Israeli jets delivered strikes not in the north of the Syrian Arab Republic but in Latakia region which is the western province of the country. Besides, the city of Latakia is located on the western coast."

So, basically Russian MoD claims that Israel AirForce DID NOT alerted Russia about their operation, that culminated in the misfortunate downing of Il-20.

Some other operation was announced, indeed. But not this one.

Now, that is quite a claim.

Posted by: Arioch | Sep 24, 2018 9:13:41 AM | 18

Ok, so now we have a clearer picture.

According to Russian MoD the IL20 since the first 7 or 10 minutes the Israeli group was "in the picture" it was already going down in flames hit by the S-200 at 22:07, which had already tracked the targets and fired upon at 22:03. Though the Israel group stayed "in the picture" at least until 22:40 , this time performing a second mission, of CAP, first one was probably a Strike mission to Syrian coasts. So this leads me to assume there were 4 MISSIONS in operation for the Israeli Air force or allies happening to be in the region. 1 Strike, 1 CAP, 1 a third party trying to remove evidence from the floating debri of the IL-20 (data modules/equipment etc) 4 another delivery mission to insert a sleeper package, right beneath Syrian defence noses and what would be (in a few minutes) the Russian SAR area in trying to acquire the parts of the downed plane.

The "sleeper" can always be something that can be activated at later dates. (IDF used to send artificial rocks that were hiding opto/aqustic equipment during Russian ships supply runs, during time Russians were trying to establish base at Latakia and israelis were trying to spy on the ships unloading stuff)

So in all I believe this was a calculated mission from Israel, not only to kill the IL20 but to establish other advantages during time of chos etc.
This is about the Israelis, do not trust them, even if they say the sun is shining outside you should go an check it out yourself.

Answering to another poster about the flightradar apps. I wouldn't trust what CIA or DoD could/would and should have been using for propaganda purposes to mess, with evidence or to try to build false leads in trying to promote their narratives. Western sources are in question, as of course Eastern too. For instance Iran banned the Telegram app. according to them there was a version that was been used as a spy tool disguised as civilian application software.

kemi , Sep 24, 2018 4:51:31 PM | link
Russia declared NO FLY ZONE over LATAKIA ! https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-russia-establishes-no-fly-zone-over-latakia-province-diplomat/ Russia are slow to react , but they run Fast :)!
james , Sep 24, 2018 6:24:20 PM | link
@80 juliania... you might be right and there was some direct connection to idlib, or the peace agreement turkey and russia reached just prior to this event.. i mostly think of it as a series of events where israel didn't foresee the end result... the term 'hothead' that i believe shoigu used in the past 24 hours as reason for deploying the s-300s, applies directly to israel as i see it..

meanwhile boltons comments.. "Russian plans to supply Syria with a S-300 missile system would be a "significant escalation" by Moscow, US National Security Advisor John Bolton said on Monday." https://www.rt.com/newsline/439235-us-bolton-russia-syria/

funny how bolton never mentioned anything about israels responsibility for making war on syria...bombing buildings and accidentally or otherwise being directly responsible for the downing of IL-20 where 15 russians died seems not to even cross his mind...that is a vacuous mind indeed.. the hypocrisy is regularly on display from the usa.. if it isn't bolton, it is haley, or some other doofus, talking head from the usa..

an alternative speculation on this is the IL-20 had a lot of valuable intel data with it that was removed from the theatre.. that would suggest the act here on israels part was intentional.. i suspect it was an unintended accident, but one that has big ramifications for israel... i continue to believe we are ramping up to a major war and moving more and more in this direction.. this is another step in the same direction.. i also believe that russia sees it coming and is doing what it feels is the best they can do in this environment..

@90 usa=isis..here is another article from smoothie today that you might want to read and consider...

http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2018/09/fast-thoughts-on-issue-of-projection.html

uncle tungsten , Sep 24, 2018 7:08:59 PM | link
With one dopey, hubris driven blunder the israeli and yankee governments have lost the lot. Russia has grasped air dominance as a shield for Iran, Turkey, Lebanon, as well as Syria. The Russians have cemented the security of allies in the region. (Not that Turkey could see or appreciate that)

Now Iran has an advance proxy defence at the entire Syrian western border. Lebanon is no longer a permanent cringing victim and will find expansion and other changes in its public and political mind. Syria and Lebanon are no longer the captive of israeli predation as their airspace and seaspace are more secure.

The israelis and yankees will not stand for this as it has totally transformed the military theatre to their exclusion. Now Russia has visited on them the same medicine as they dish out on Russia's western border region. Watch for madness and histrionics and more blundering, stupidity.

Peter AU 1 , Sep 24, 2018 7:54:12 PM | link
S-400 to Syria, response to Turkey shooting down the SU-24.
S-300 to Tartus and upgrading and linking of Syrian systems to Russian command, response
to US attack threats at the time of the Aleppo offensive.
Now Russian spec S-300 spread throughout Syria as a response to latest US threats of attack and the Israeli downing of the IL-20.

Thinking about this, fast delivery of S-300 to Syria may have been decided on even before the downing of the IL-20. The short term deal with Erdogan giving time to get the extra S-300 systems in place before the main attack on Idlib occurs.

Pft , Sep 24, 2018 9:07:32 PM | link
Shoigu says there will now be "centralised control over all of Syria's air defence facilities and capabilities, the monitoring of airspace and prompt targeting".

In other words, Russia will be able to control who gets targeted and shot at. That might be what Israel wants. Russia ensures its planes don't get shot down and in return Israel knows their friend Russia has assumed centralized control over air defenses and they no longer have to worry about independently controlled Syrian missiles

That explains how quickly Russia was able to act and "suggests" perhaps a false flag forcing Syria to cede more control of its air defences to Russia ? It also explains why Russia is not worried about Israelis reponse to them giving Syria S300 since they will control targetting and can override Syrian operators.

Not married to this hypothesis , just throwing it out there

Yeah, Right , Sep 24, 2018 9:24:03 PM | link
@114 Frances. One possibility is that the Russians will ship in more S-400 for their own use, thereby allowing them to hand over existing S-300 installations to the Syrian Army.

That would allow for the "two week delivery" to the Syrians, since all they need to do is take the keys and drive the units out of the Russian base.

Note that if this is how the Russians do it then the Syrian S-300 will definitely be the non-export version.

frances , Sep 24, 2018 9:45:17 PM | link
reply to:

"That would allow for the "two week delivery" to the Syrians, since all they need to do is take the keys and drive the units out of the Russian base. Note that if this is how the Russians do it then the Syrian S-300 will definitely be the non-export version."

Posted by: Yeah, Right | Sep 24, 2018 9:24:03 PM | 116

You could be right re the systems, I do think the "two weeks" statement is the time frame in which the system will be live, not when they will be delivered.
Russia has no reason to trust Israel whatsoever, any time line would be misleading IMO.

[Sep 24, 2018] Not only Russian and (allegedly) Israeli and French aircraft and missiles were in the air. Civilian radar also tracked British Royal Air Force aircraft, which, unusually, had switched on their transponders and gone into holding patterns." If true, this strongly suggests a set-up and with NATO involvement

Notable quotes:
"... Exactly. It's obvious the Israelis intended for the French ship to be attacked, setting off god knows what chain of events. ..."
"... Israel is certainly responsible for precipitating the incident, but the accusations that Israel somehow purposely caused Syria to shoot down the airplane - as if the Syrians were helpless to prevent it - are without merit. ..."
"... Some salient facts: Syrian air defenses either knew the location of the Russian plane or they didn't. If they didn't know the plane was there, then that is a problem of coordination between Russian and Syrian military forces. Given that the Russian and Syrian AD networks are supposed to be integrated, I'd say this is the less likely option. If the Syrians did know the plane was there, then the Syrians are to blame for poor fire discipline and probably incompetence. Deliberately shooting at enemy aircraft when a friendly aircraft is in the line of fire is a big no no in air defense doctrine (and a big no no as a general rule for any use of force), especially with a weapon as unwieldy as an SA-5. ..."
"... The so-called integrated networks between the Russian and Syrian AD systems appears to have not been working. Or someone was asleep, or in panic, at one end. I vote for panic. Those Syrian missileers are under serious pressure by Assad to bring down an Israeli aircraft, which is probably affecting their nerves and their judgment. ..."
"... Does Israel really care? It seems that Bibi Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman believe they can act with impunity since no one has held them to account to date. ..."
"... Putin was explicit in his conversation with Bibi that Israel not only violates Syria's airspace but violated previous agreements with Russia on matters of attacking Syrian/Iranian targets. ..."
"... There will be consequences and Putin also was explicit today when stated that, and I quote, "everyone will notice them". While it is a sad day for Russia and is agony for families of the crew, it is also clear (and thank God) that France and her ship had no hand in it whatsoever. ..."
"... It seems to me that Putin's response was too 'soft'. Unlike Shoigu's. Perhaps there is some divergence between Russian political and military policies with regard to Israel. What happens as a result of this tragedy will clarify matters. Putin cannot afford to alienate his military (and thus the Russian people) for the sake of Israel. ..."
"... Right. One must ask why Putin is acting this way. He has actually taken Trump off the hook. If the offensive had gone in Trump would have been under a lot of pressure to take military action when the WH drama played out. ..."
"... The DMZ agreement prevents that, and now he takes this soft line over this bit of Israeli cleverness that cost Shoigu 14 men for no good reason, Curious. One might think he does not want to rock the boat before the mid term. ..."
"... Bingo! Plus a chance for Turkey to clean up her act a bit. It is a good old anecdote about two bulls (old and young) standing on the hill looking down at the cows' herd. ..."
"... IMO, the new deal between R+6 and Turkey on Idlib for time being is smart ..."
"... It's a salami slicing strategy VS. an open between R+6 and entire west while Turkey playing both sides and collect concessions. IMO R+6 can better afford buying time than the scarce resources while they all are under economic sanctions. ..."
"... A timeline of the Israeli F-16's actions that resulted in the downing of the IL-20 in Izvestia. It was completely intentional. The planes were within several hundred meters of each other. The Israeli's set up the IL-20 knowing beforehand it would be destroyed. https://iz.ru/790550/kirill... ..."
"... Yes. Anyone who wants to absolve the Israelis of guilt in this matter is just a sap. ..."
"... Perhaps in your time in Russia the Kremlin was a monolith. It doesn't seem so now, certainly as far as the expression of differing views are concerned (eg, Shoigu's vs Putin's). Such differing views, publicly expressed, do represent their institutions' views. I have no doubt that Russia's military is very unhappy with Israel's actions in this incident. And, would like to teach Israel a lesson. But they don't make policy (theirs is only one input), and they follow the policies ultimately decided by the state. ..."
"... I think there will be 'visible' changes to Russia's security posture in Syria, as Putin has unambiguously stated..and probably very quickly...the objective of those changes will be to minimize the potential of any such provocations succeeding going forward...the Israelis going forward will need to pull in their horns, and their media is already discussing this... ..."
"... There is a growing sentiment, that Russia is handling too softly the attacks on its armed forces. The lack of visible or spectacular retaliations, counteractions is making an impression of a very narrow set of choices in Russia's Syria policy. ..."
Sep 20, 2018 | disqus.com

John Gilberts 2 days ago ,

In reporting the shoot-down of the Russian IL-20, Harretz reported that "Not only Russian and (allegedly) Israeli and French aircraft and missiles were in the air. Civilian radar also tracked British Royal Air Force aircraft, which, unusually, had switched on their transponders and gone into holding patterns." If true, this strongly suggests a set-up and with NATO involvement.

Vicky SD John Gilberts 2 days ago ,

Exactly. It's obvious the Israelis intended for the French ship to be attacked, setting off god knows what chain of events.

Andy a day ago ,

Israel is certainly responsible for precipitating the incident, but the accusations that Israel somehow purposely caused Syria to shoot down the airplane - as if the Syrians were helpless to prevent it - are without merit.

Some salient facts: Syrian air defenses either knew the location of the Russian plane or they didn't. If they didn't know the plane was there, then that is a problem of coordination between Russian and Syrian military forces. Given that the Russian and Syrian AD networks are supposed to be integrated, I'd say this is the less likely option. If the Syrians did know the plane was there, then the Syrians are to blame for poor fire discipline and probably incompetence. Deliberately shooting at enemy aircraft when a friendly aircraft is in the line of fire is a big no no in air defense doctrine (and a big no no as a general rule for any use of force), especially with a weapon as unwieldy as an SA-5.

Eugene Owens Andy a day ago ,

Andy - Regarding IFF: Smoothie down below claims the Syrians were never given Russian IFF technology and codes.

But the two Russian-manned S-400 systems certainly had them. The so-called integrated networks between the Russian and Syrian AD systems appears to have not been working. Or someone was asleep, or in panic, at one end. I vote for panic. Those Syrian missileers are under serious pressure by Assad to bring down an Israeli aircraft, which is probably affecting their nerves and their judgment.

smoothieX12 . blue peacock 2 days ago ,

Does Israel really care? It seems that Bibi Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman believe they can act with impunity since no one has held them to account to date.

Yes she does, otherwise CO of IAF wouldn't have been on his way to Moscow and Bibi urgently calling Putin. Once one gets more complete details of the event, such as teeny-weeny fact of Russia not providing Syrian AD (and with a good reason) with own IFF technology and codes--things become much more clearer. This was confirmed today.

Of course military counter-intelligence still has to do its due diligence but it increasingly begins to look more as FUBAR rather than some "special" operations.

Most likely, in fact highly likely, IAF F-16s were detected and tracked (and even possibly locked on) by Syrian S-200 and they "masked" (the oldest trick in the book) by descending IL-20.

Putin was explicit in his conversation with Bibi that Israel not only violates Syria's airspace but violated previous agreements with Russia on matters of attacking Syrian/Iranian targets.

There will be consequences and Putin also was explicit today when stated that, and I quote, "everyone will notice them". While it is a sad day for Russia and is agony for families of the crew, it is also clear (and thank God) that France and her ship had no hand in it whatsoever.

Is Putin between a rock and a hard place in Syria? He's committed significant capabilities to assist Assad in regaining control of Syrian territory, but FUKUS and Turkey are playing a spoilers game with the possibility that they could enter the Syrian conflict with an even larger force structure.

Actually, he didn't commit "significant" capabilities. They are very moderate by Russia standards. You want to see significant capabilities--Google Vostok 2018. That's significant. The appearance of new capabilities in Syria is long overdue, precisely for the reason that it is Russia who is keeping a barrel to Turkey's temple, not the other way around. They are needed their anyway just in case FUKUS decides to respond to absolutely unexpected and evil chemical weapons attacks by Assad.

FB Ali smoothieX12 .2 days ago ,

It seems to me that Putin's response was too 'soft'. Unlike Shoigu's. Perhaps there is some divergence between Russian political and military policies with regard to Israel. What happens as a result of this tragedy will clarify matters. Putin cannot afford to alienate his military (and thus the Russian people) for the sake of Israel.

Pat Lang Mod FB Ali2 days ago ,

Right. One must ask why Putin is acting this way. He has actually taken Trump off the hook. If the offensive had gone in Trump would have been under a lot of pressure to take military action when the WH drama played out.

The DMZ agreement prevents that, and now he takes this soft line over this bit of Israeli cleverness that cost Shoigu 14 men for no good reason, Curious. One might think he does not want to rock the boat before the mid term.

smoothieX12 . Pat Lang2 days ago ,

Right. One must ask why Putin is acting this way. He has actually taken Trump off the hook. If the offensive had gone in Trump would have been under a lot of pressure to take military action when the WH drama played out.

Bingo! Plus a chance for Turkey to clean up her act a bit. It is a good old anecdote about two bulls (old and young) standing on the hill looking down at the cows' herd.

Pat Lang Mod smoothieX12 .2 days ago ,

Yup "let's walk down and do them all ..."

Kooshy smoothieX12 .a day ago ,

IMO, the new deal between R+6 and Turkey on Idlib for time being is smart, I think for R+6 is the right strategy for now. IMO the thinking behind it was, it's better to keep Turkey on this (Astana) side of the war rather than let her loose spoiler or worst to let her go back to the West/Arab/Israel alliance and allow re arming the jihadis. It's a salami slicing strategy VS. an open between R+6 and entire west while Turkey playing both sides and collect concessions. IMO R+6 can better afford buying time than the scarce resources while they all are under economic sanctions.

Bill Herschel Pat Langa day ago ,

A timeline of the Israeli F-16's actions that resulted in the downing of the IL-20 in Izvestia. It was completely intentional. The planes were within several hundred meters of each other. The Israeli's set up the IL-20 knowing beforehand it would be destroyed. https://iz.ru/790550/kirill...

Pat Lang Mod Bill Herschela day ago ,

Yes. Anyone who wants to absolve the Israelis of guilt in this matter is just a sap.

smoothieX12 . FB Ali2 days ago ,

Perhaps there is some divergence between Russian political and military policies with regard to Israel.

This divergence is mostly a fantasy of Western political class and media. They project their own view on how their own government operates (or rather does not) onto Kremlin and that is why they always wrong.

FB Ali smoothieX12 .a day ago ,

Perhaps in your time in Russia the Kremlin was a monolith. It doesn't seem so now, certainly as far as the expression of differing views are concerned (eg, Shoigu's vs Putin's). Such differing views, publicly expressed, do represent their institutions' views. I have no doubt that Russia's military is very unhappy with Israel's actions in this incident. And, would like to teach Israel a lesson. But they don't make policy (theirs is only one input), and they follow the policies ultimately decided by the state.

Many other factors need to be taken into account in the finalization of the State's policies. The policies of the Russian state are expressed by its head (ie, Putin).

FB FB Ali2 days ago ,

I think there will be 'visible' changes to Russia's security posture in Syria, as Putin has unambiguously stated..and probably very quickly...the objective of those changes will be to minimize the potential of any such provocations succeeding going forward...the Israelis going forward will need to pull in their horns, and their media is already discussing this...

Again, I don't think we must necessarily assume that the goat is Israel here...yes they were involved in what was clearly a plot, but it is also very possible that the Russian plane was downed by the French or British...

Bálint Somkuti FB Ali2 days ago ,

There is a growing sentiment, that Russia is handling too softly the attacks on its armed forces. The lack of visible or spectacular retaliations, counteractions is making an impression of a very narrow set of choices in Russia's Syria policy.

smoothieX12 . Bálint Somkuti2 days ago ,

There is a growing sentiment, that Russia is handling too softly the attacks on its armed forces.

Growing among who? Armchair strategists? Granted, I am one myself.

[Sep 23, 2018] "White Helmets" is used in preference to the alternative, all too well associated in the popular imagination with the acme of American culture: the Western.

Sep 23, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

Cortes September 21, 2018 at 2:41 pm

"White Helmets" is used in preference to the alternative, all too well associated in the popular imagination with the acme of American culture: the Western.

And in the classic commercial way, it provides a twofer, since the white helmet first gained widespread popularity with the Village People, so it clicks with the whole LGBTQ touchy feely approach to world affairs we're always being told is essential. Real world hard hats tend to be in high-vis, almost painfully bright colours – orange, red, maybe blue.

White? In the Levant, where half or more of the buildings are white to reflect the sun?

Mark Chapman September 21, 2018 at 10:41 pm
Those are really bad. But I don't see much to link them to the White Helmets – just one guy with what I guess is their insignia on the back of his shirt, and nobody wearing the famous white helmets. It almost looks like someone deliberately making a fake which is full of holes, to implicate the White Helmets in making fake films. Just playing devil's advocate here. It would be very easy indeed for the White Helmets to disown these videos if they do not gain any traction.
Patient Observer September 22, 2018 at 2:20 pm
IIRC, the Russian government said a number of videos were shot with most being of low quality and would go straight to YouTube. Two were of sufficiently high cinematic quality to be released to Western media outlets.

However, with the recent agreement to stop military action in Idlib, it would seem that there is no longer an opportunity to use the videos as a justification for a Western military attack.

Indeed, the Idlib agreement has removed any pretext for Western attacks for the foreseeable future. That is big. The military phase of the war in Syria seems to be over.

[Sep 23, 2018] One minute warning was a part of Israeli plan

Sep 23, 2018 | www.unz.com

The scalpel , says: Website September 21, 2018 at 8:04 pm GMT

@Andrei Martyanov

.It all sounds like a pure Syrian IFF fuck-up, not an Israeli conjob.
When Powers was shot down in his U-2 over USSR, the other downed aircraft was Soviet Aviation of PVO MiG-17 (or 19--don't remember from the top of my head). A classic case of "friendly fire". Andrei, I have never seen you blow so much smoke or work so hard to quell emotions I guess it may be justified in doing what one can to stop WWIII. Maybe there are other reasons.

You are usually very careful to make sure that, in your writing, 2+2 = 4. This time, perhaps for the above reasons, not so much. You claim that most posts on this thread are emotional rants or trolls, yet you have spent most of your efforts trying to calm emotions and not addressing more serious flaws in the official story.

Harold Smith rightly pointed out that the F16s did not end up behind the IL20 by mistake. This was not some joy ride by the F16s. It was a well planned intentional operation. The Israelis knew the habits and capabilities of the IL20 and made plans accordingly using cover from the IL20 as their method to penetrate within the envelope of the S200s. The 1 minute warning was a part of that plan. Any more warning would have exposed the F16s to much more danger.

The Israelis knew a one minute warning was inadequate but gave it just for its value of plausible deniability. They probably expected the S200s to hold their fire but they had no way of being sure of that. Instead, they made an intentional plan, using the IL20 as cover and intentionally putting the IL20 at risk of shoot down in order to protect their F16s. The one minute warning was good for plausible deniability, nothing more.

Then we see Netanyahu rushing to de-escalate. The only thing he can plausibly say to Putin is that this was intentional but done without his knowledge or permission. To claim it was a "tragic error" is a joke. Would Putin believe that? Not likely. Thus we have a whole delegation flying to Moscow to attempt to bolster that argument.

Not that the political players give a damn about it, but Israel's actions here are blatant violations of international law, probably war crimes, and well, just plain immoral. But it is only regular guys like me that care about stuff like that.

[Sep 23, 2018] Let's put it this way, once Russians and Americans begin to kill each-other, Israel goes immediately down. In fact, it will cease to exist as a state. But who wants to pay such a price? Bibi knows that.

Sep 23, 2018 | www.unz.com

Andrei Martyanov , says: Website September 21, 2018 at 8:49 pm GMT

@VICB3 Please see VicB3 Comment above.

Thanks.

VicB3

-Israel has a history of false flag operations.

She does and this latest event could have been (with high degree of probability) precipitated by Russian-Turkey-Iranian arrangement on Idlib, because isolation of Israeli-friendly (or rather openly supported by her) most radical Islamic groups will happen and that means Israel losing one of her most important pieces of strategy of keeping ME destabilized. But then again–a good proof of effectiveness of Russia's actions in the area, isn't it? Good ol' classic cliche: the flak is heavy, that means we are over target.

-Israel has a fleet of quiet diesel-electric subs.

Yes, she does–German built.

-It has been shown that diesel electric subs have in the past easily come within striking distance of U.S. carriers.

True, even nukes (subs) have penetrated ASW "shield" and conducted lengthy trailing of CBGs many times.

-If Israel wanted to suck the United States into a shooting war in Syria, it would make sense to sink the Truman with one of it's subs, blaming in on Russia. The United States egged on by its NeoCon contingents and in a fit of emotionalism – think 9/11 – would almost certainly react before thinking.

Ahh, not quite. Recall what happened with Kursk, the first act of the United States was to have CIA Director be on the first flight to Moscow. No, it doesn't work like this and, I have suspicion that, however deplorable Israel's policies are, Israel proper intelligence and military people are on the order of magnitude smarter, however deviously, and calculating than American neocons most of whom are dumb as fvcks and good only in bribery and mass-media tantrums. Reaction of Israel in all this situation is the best proof.

-Of course, one something like this did happen, you'd have a war. And war is a wild thing that, once turned loose, does what it wants and is out of control.

Let's put it this way, once Russians and Americans begin to kill each-other, Israel goes immediately down. In fact, it will cease to exist as a state. But who wants to pay such a price? Bibi knows that.

Andrei Martyanov , says: Website September 22, 2018 at 9:05 pm GMT
@Erebus

Let's put it this way, once Russians and Americans begin to kill each-other, Israel goes immediately down. In fact, it will cease to exist as a state.
Can you expand on that?

Unless you're simply pointing out that escalation to a large scale nuclear exchange means all states "will cease to exist', this is a non-trivial statement that begs explication.

Can you expand on that?

Israel is a known "owner" of nuclear weapons and is the nation which, depending on scenario, has the ability to attack pretty much anything in Europe. Possible counter-force scenario between Russia and US will involve "killing" of Israel's nuclear deterrent, as it will be with European NATO members (UK and France), but Israel is tiny and any nuclear strike there is, basically, a death sentence. This is in a nutshell–of course contingencies vary but I am sure Israel's nuclear sites are in the targeting data base of Russia's nuclear triad. That is until Israel gets the message and gets back to daddy (or mommy) and that is what is in play right now. It will take some time, though.

[Sep 23, 2018] 'Criminal negligence' or disregard to Russia-Israel ties MoD details chronology of Il-20 downing -- RT World News

Notable quotes:
"... "We believe that the blame for the Russian Il-20 aircraft tragedy lies entirely with the Israeli Air Force," ..."
"... "the military leadership of Israel either has no appreciation for the level of relations with Russia, or has no control over individual commands or commanding officers who understood that their actions would lead to tragedy." ..."
"... "a clear violation of the 2015 Russian-Israeli agreements." ..."
"... The misleading information provided by the Israeli officer about the area of strikes did not allow the Russian Il-20 airplane to move timely to a safe area. ..."
"... "preferred target" ..."
"... "The Israeli jets saw the Russian Ilyushin Il-20 and used it as a shield against the anti-aircraft missiles ..."
"... , while they carried on maneuvering in the region," ..."
"... The actions of the Israeli fighter pilots, which led to the loss of life of 15 Russian servicemen, either lacked professionalism or were an act of criminal negligence, to say the least. ..."
"... "This is an extremely ungrateful response to all that has been done by the Russian Federation for Israel and the Israeli people recently," ..."
"... "ensure there were no shelling attacks on Israeli territory" ..."
"... "a six-year hiatus." ..."
"... "safe distance for Israel," ..."
"... "A total of 1,050 personnel, 24 MLRSs and tactical missiles, as well as 145 pieces of other munitions and military equipment were withdrawn from the area," ..."
"... In view of the above, the hostile actions committed by the Israeli Air Force against the Russian Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft cross the line of civilized relations. ..."
Sep 23, 2018 | www.rt.com

Criminal negligence' or disregard to Russia-Israel ties: MoD details chronology of Il-20 downing Published time: 23 Sep, 2018 08:21 Edited time: 23 Sep, 2018 17:18 Get short URL © Russian Defense Ministry A minute-by-minute account of the Il-20 downing shows Israel's culpability and either its military bosses' lack of appreciation of relations with Moscow, or their control of commanding officers, the Russian defense ministry said. "We believe that the blame for the Russian Il-20 aircraft tragedy lies entirely with the Israeli Air Force," said spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov, before revealing a detailed account of events leading to the downing of the Russian Il-20 military aircraft on September 17. The plane was shot down by the Syrian air defense units as Israeli's F-16s effectively used it as a cover during the attack on its neighbor.

The report featured previously undisclosed radar data and details of communications between Russian and Israeli militaries, and concluded that "the military leadership of Israel either has no appreciation for the level of relations with Russia, or has no control over individual commands or commanding officers who understood that their actions would lead to tragedy."

Read more FILE PHOTO. Russian IL-20M. © Alexander KOPITAR / AFP 'You are to blame for downing of Il-20 and death of its crew,' Russia tells Israel Misinformation & 'criminal negligence'

On the evening of September 17, the Russian Ilyushin IL-20 with 15 crew on board was circling over the Idlib de-escalation zone on a special reconnaissance mission, when four Israeli F-16 fighter jets left their country's airspace and flew over the neutral Mediterranean waters towards the Syrian coast. The Israeli Air Force gave the Russian side less than a minute's warning before dropping the precision-guided glide bombs, leaving virtually no time for any safety maneuvers, Konashenkov said, calling such actions "a clear violation of the 2015 Russian-Israeli agreements."

Moreover, the Israeli military failed to provide the location of their jets or properly specify their targets, claiming they were going to attack several 'industrial facilities' in northern Syria, close to the Il-20's area of operation. The misinformation prompted the Russian Command to order the recon plane back to the Khmeimim air base. The Israeli jets, however, instead almost immediately attacked the western Syrian Latakia province.

The misleading information provided by the Israeli officer about the area of strikes did not allow the Russian Il-20 airplane to move timely to a safe area.

Once the Syrian air defenses responded to the initial strike, the Israeli jets switched on radar jamming and pulled back, apparently preparing for another attack. One of the Israeli jets then came closer to the Syrian coast and approached the Russian plane, which was preparing to land at that time.

An Israeli jet approaching the Russian plane at a time when the Syrian anti-air missile was launched © Russian Defense Ministry

The Israeli pilot must have been well aware of the fact that the Il-20 has a much larger radar cross-section than his F-16, and would become a "preferred target" for the Syrian air defense units, who use different friend-or-foe systems with the Russians, Konashenkov said. Thus, for the Syrians, the reconnaissance plane could appear as a group of Israeli jets.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/Qg9GliGS0RY

"The Israeli jets saw the Russian Ilyushin Il-20 and used it as a shield against the anti-aircraft missiles , while they carried on maneuvering in the region," Konashenkov said during the news briefing.

The actions of the Israeli fighter pilots, which led to the loss of life of 15 Russian servicemen, either lacked professionalism or were an act of criminal negligence, to say the least.

Finally, the Israeli jets carried out their maneuvers in the immediate vicinity of the Khmeimim air base, which is used both by military and civilian aircraft, including passenger planes, the ministry's spokesman emphasized, saying that the reckless actions of the Israeli pilots could also have posed a threat to any passenger or transport aircraft that may have happened to be there at that time.

Israel 'crossed the line of civilized relations' with 'ungrateful response'

Israel's negligent behavior amounts to a flagrant violation of the very spirit of cooperation between the countries, Konashenkov stated, noting that Russia has never broken its commitment to the deconfliction agreement – it has always informed Israel about their missions in advance and has never used its air defense capabilities against the Israelis, even though their airstrikes sometimes put the Russian servicemen in danger.

Read more FILE PHOTO An Israeli F-16 fighter jet during the Blue Flag drill November 25, 2013 © Amir Cohen Israeli army blames Damascus for Russia's Il-20 downing, mourns death of crew – statement

Russia has sent as many as 310 notifications to the Israeli Air Force Command, while the latter appeared to be reluctant to show the same level of commitment, notifying only 25 times even though its jets carried out more than 200 strikes against targets located in Syria over the past 18 months alone.

"This is an extremely ungrateful response to all that has been done by the Russian Federation for Israel and the Israeli people recently," Konashenkov said.

The Russian military supported the Syrian military operation in the Golan Heights to "ensure there were no shelling attacks on Israeli territory" anymore, thus allowing the UN peacekeeping mission to resume patrolling of the contested border between Syria and Israel after "a six-year hiatus."

Russia also managed to secure the withdrawal of all Iran-backed groups from the Golan Heights to a "safe distance for Israel," more than 140 kilometers to the east of Syria, the spokesperson said, adding that this was done at the request of Tel Aviv. "A total of 1,050 personnel, 24 MLRSs and tactical missiles, as well as 145 pieces of other munitions and military equipment were withdrawn from the area," Konashenkov told journalists.

The Russian Defense Ministry had provided assistance in preserving Jewish sacred places and graves in the city of Aleppo. Putting Russian Special Forces soldiers' lives in danger, it also organized the search for the remains of some Israeli servicemen that died during the past conflicts in an area where the Syrian forces were combating Islamic State (IS, former ISIS) terrorists at that time.

In view of the above, the hostile actions committed by the Israeli Air Force against the Russian Ilyushin Il-20 aircraft cross the line of civilized relations.

While Israel said that it mourned the deaths of Russian troops, the IDF statement following the incident shifted all the blame for the incident solely on Damascus, and its Iranian and Lebanese allies.

[Sep 23, 2018] Israel to Continue Military Op in Syria Despite Il-20 Downing Lieberman - Sputnik International

Sep 23, 2018 | sputniknews.com

Israel to Continue Military Op in Syria Despite Il-20 Downing – Lieberman © REUTERS / Baz Ratner Middle East 16:21 23.09.2018 (updated 17:58 23.09.2018) Get short URL Topic: Russian Il-20 Military Plane Shot Down Over Syria (29) 8 1 25 Russia blames Israel for the destruction of the Il-20, which cost the lives of 15 servicemen, after it emerged that around the time if its demise, Israeli fighter jets were in immediate proximity to the Russian plane. The Russian Ministry of Defense accused the Israeli Air Force of providing misleading information about the area where planned air strikes on Syrian targets were to take place, violating an agreement with Russia, and shortly afterwards Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman stated Israel won't ditch conducting operations in Syria to thwart Iran's military presence there, despite the tragic Il-20 incident. The Russian Defense Ministry released detailed information on Il-20 crash in Syria © Photo : Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation WATCH 3D Reconstruction of Il-20 Downing in Syria, Released by Russian MoD

"We have been operating prudently and responsibly and only in cases where we've had no other choice. So nothing has changed or will change. This is our policy," Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman told the local radio station Kan in an interview published Sunday morning.

"We won't let Syria be turned into a main Iranian military facility against the Israeli state. We continue to act and we have all the necessary means and opportunities to this end," he noted.

Flicker of Hope for Effective Dialogue

According to Lieberman, Israeli military servicemen continue to pin their hopes on good communication, which they established with Russian military units in Syria three years ago to avoid potential conflicts.

IL-20 © Photo: arms-expo.ru Israel Can't Get Away With Il-20 Downing in Syria – IR Scholars

"The whole incident is under examination and control. We have an ongoing dialogue. The general picture and facts are all clear, and I think the situation will be resolved," Lieberman said.

Israel has yet to admit guilt in the Il-20 downing. It disputes Moscow's statements over the issue, according to which, Israeli F-16 fighter aircraft used the Il-20 as a shield their latest air attack on Syria and essentially put it in the line of retaliating fire opened by the Syrian air defense.

Tel Aviv, meanwhile, claimed the anti-aircraft shooters fired "chaotically and haphazardly" having failed to make sure there were no Russian aircraft in the fire zone. According to information provided by the Israeli side, by the time the Il-20 was destroyed after being hit by a Syrian S-200 missile, the four F-16s were already well on their way home.

READ MORE: Intel Chief Boasted of IAF's 'Precision' Just Before Il-20 Shootdown -- Reports

Israel said it has been allegedly targeting Iranian military facilities in Syria, with Iran and Syria flatly denying the claims.

On September 17, a Il-20 military plane disappeared from the Russian radar screens, while on its way back to the Syrian airbase Hmeymim, which lies 35 kilometers away from the Mediterranean shore. According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, at around the same time, four Israeli F-16 military jets attacked Syrian targets in Latakia, having informed the Russian side just one minute prior to the attack.

The ministry went on to state that by hiding behind the Russian jet, the Israeli pilots thereby subjected it to an attack by the Syrian air defense units, which left a total of 15 Russian military servicemen killed in the aircraft destruction.

[Sep 23, 2018] Attempt to blame Putin

Notable quotes:
"... "none of this would in any way exculpate the Israelis for the very simple reason that had the Israelis warned the Russians on time this entire tragedy might have been avoided even if the prime culprits are cowardly Israeli pilots, less than competent Syrian air defense crews or too trusting Russians. " ..."
"... No, none of this would have happened if Putin had refused to allow his bosom buddy Nazinyahu to bomb his ally, Syria, with impunity. ..."
"... It is definitely worth reading not only the quoted article but other commentaries, because the inventors of shutzpah are now collectively dancing on the graves of the 15 Russian officers. ..."
Sep 23, 2018 | www.unz.com

Andrei Martyanov , says: Website September 21, 2018 at 1:24 pm GMT

@J Since the Russians largely control the Syrian antiair defenses, one could also conclude that they share the responsibility in downing their own aircraft. Maybe the Israelis overestimated Russian readiness and response capabilities. In Tzahal, one minute is a lot of time. As Putin said, it was a tragic fuckup.

In Tzahal, one minute is a lot of time.

No, this can not be true!!! I always knew that Tzahal operates on millisecond increments. In fact, it can also travel back in time. You know, because they are that good.

Fiendly Neighbourhood Terrorist , says: Website September 21, 2018 at 1:48 pm GMT

"none of this would in any way exculpate the Israelis for the very simple reason that had the Israelis warned the Russians on time this entire tragedy might have been avoided even if the prime culprits are cowardly Israeli pilots, less than competent Syrian air defense crews or too trusting Russians. "

No, none of this would have happened if Putin had refused to allow his bosom buddy Nazinyahu to bomb his ally, Syria, with impunity. Russia is being treated with contempt by the zionazi pseudostate for the simple reason that the Zios were bombing a "target" right next to the Russian Hmeimim airbase.

Nor is the loss of the Il 20 something minor. It was a very expensive, highly capable system manned by extremely well trained, hard to replace, valuable crew, each of whom had many years of irreplaceable experience. Do *not* attempt to whitewash that.

The Saker needs to stop defending the zionazi stooge and capitalist roader Putin. His "restraint" is making Russia look like a pushover and emboldening its enemies. What is the Amerikastani aircraft carrier Harry Truman doing in the Mediterranean right now, a health cruise?

Fiendly Neighbourhood Terrorist , says: Website September 21, 2018 at 1:57 pm GMT
There is absolutely nothing stopping Putin from ordering his bosom buddy Nazinyahu to immediately stop all bombing of Syria, on the pain of having his zionazi war criminals being shot out of the air. What exactly is preventing Putin from doing this, assuming that the S400 actually works as advertised? Can any of the professional Putinite propaganda purveyors, as despicable a breed as the Trumpets, Obamopologists, and Hillarybots, explain?
Kiza , says: September 21, 2018 at 2:03 pm GMT
@Felix Keverich

First, let me start by a very simple and primitive question:

Why in the world has nobody considered that the Israelis might have truly screwed-up?

'Careless' is the word I would use. Israelis are being careless, because they never have to pay a price for their aggressions and their mistakes. Putin encourages this carelessness , when he refuses to impose costs on Israel. The lesson Israelis are learning from this incident is that Russia is weak, and Putin has "little choice", but allow Israelis free hand in Syria. This is what Israelis newspapers are saying, check this out:

https://twitter.com/DanielS22647562/status/1043070311355301889 It is definitely worth reading not only the quoted article but other commentaries, because the inventors of shutzpah are now collectively dancing on the graves of the 15 Russian officers. Just as they placed sofas to watch the destruction of Gaza. Thank you for the link Felix.

Much better reading Harretz than the awe of our two Armchair Marshals, Saker and Martyanov, at the level of the IDF delegations sent to Moscow, to ensure that the Russian military does not get any "reserved" ideas (reserve the right to huff & puff).

Here is my favorite piece from this Jewish BS machine above:

unconfirmed sources from Syria have reported that Russian military police abducted and are brutally interrogating officers and soldiers from the Syrian air-defense battery that fired the fateful missile

But, but I naively thought that the Russians discovered a secret link which proves that those now brutally interrogated Syrians did 911 , not the Iraqis accused before.

I do understand that Putin does not have any good option now and that his premature and dumb commentary about the "accident" was for his own ass-covering not to protect those Jews who made such a total ass of him. But whenever the Russians die, as when the SU-24 pilot died, he learned nothing and continues on making and trusting the deals with the sponsors of terrorism.

Finally, I do note that the smart people, such as Israel Shamir, keep their mouths shut for now, till the fog clears and the emotions blow-over. I am looking forward to his next article to understand the feelings in the Russian military regarding Putin.

Andrei Martyanov , says: Website September 21, 2018 at 2:23 pm GMT
@Kiza It is definitely worth reading not only the quoted article but other commentaries, because the inventors of shutzpah are now collectively dancing on the graves of the 15 Russian officers. Just as they placed sofas to watch the destruction of Gaza. Thank you for the link Felix.

Much better reading Harretz than the awe of our two Armchair Marshals, Saker and Martyanov, at the level of the IDF delegations sent to Moscow, to ensure that the Russian military does not get any "reserved" ideas (reserve the right to ... huff & puff).

Here is my favorite piece from this Jewish BS machine above:


unconfirmed sources from Syria have reported that Russian military police abducted and are brutally interrogating officers and soldiers from the Syrian air-defense battery that fired the fateful missile
But, but I naively thought that the Russians discovered a secret link which proves that those now brutally interrogated Syrians did 911 , not the Iraqis accused before.

I do understand that Putin does not have any good option now and that his premature and dumb commentary about the "accident" was for his own ass-covering not to protect those Jews who made such a total ass of him. But whenever the Russians die, as when the SU-24 pilot died, he learned nothing and continues on making and trusting the deals with the sponsors of terrorism.

Finally, I do note that the smart people, such as Israel Shamir, keep their mouths shut for now, till the fog clears and the emotions blow-over. I am looking forward to his next article to understand the feelings in the Russian military regarding Putin.

Much better reading Harretz than the awe of our two Armchair Marshals, Saker and Martyanov

Do you want me to prove, using you as an example, for all other present here hysterical non-men, that none of you have any idea of what was and is going on by me merely introducing a simple tactical-technical parameter which defines tactical reality in any radar systems. I'll give you hint–it is reported to all military radar operating units (from ground to the sea) and is logged and accounted for (with proper adjustments in procedures) every single day, sometimes on 12 hour increments. This factor could be of prime importance, especially against the background of old S-200 AD complex. Are you game? Then we will compare who are real "armchair strategists" here.

Felix Keverich , says: September 21, 2018 at 2:59 pm GMT
@Andrei Martyanov

Much better reading Harretz than the awe of our two Armchair Marshals, Saker and Martyanov
Do you want me to prove, using you as an example, for all other present here hysterical non-men, that none of you have any idea of what was and is going on by me merely introducing a simple tactical-technical parameter which defines tactical reality in any radar systems. I'll give you hint--it is reported to all military radar operating units (from ground to the sea) and is logged and accounted for (with proper adjustments in procedures) every single day, sometimes on 12 hour increments. This factor could be of prime importance, especially against the background of old S-200 AD complex. Are you game? Then we will compare who are real "armchair strategists" here. This is some irrelevant technical mumbo-jumbo. Kiza was making a comment about political side of the issue:

Israelis have no respect for Russia and Putin. They feel emboldened by Putin's weak reaction.

Andrei Martyanov , says: Website September 21, 2018 at 4:28 pm GMT
@Felix Keverich This is some irrelevant technical mumbo-jumbo. Kiza was making a comment about political side of the issue:

Israelis have no respect for Russia and Putin. They feel emboldened by Putin's weak reaction.

This is some irrelevant technical mumbo-jumbo.

Well, then I am sure you will treat your future illnesses (God forbids you to become ill, stay healthy) at Voodoo doctors, since all this medical mumbo-jumbo is irrelevant. I heard Haiti Voodoo healthcare is great and very-very affordable.

Kiza was making a comment about political side of the issue:

Only few posts here are real comments, most of them is some hysterical weeping in an adrenaline deprived organisms upon understanding that Israel is not going to be destroyed immediately by Russians. Hence, your posts included, either hysterical reactions or trolling, mostly, sorry for being blunt, by people who have zero knowledge of Russia in general, and her military in particular. So, a wonderful unification of pseudo-patriots and all kinds of ignorant trolls happened. It is rather interesting to observe.

[Sep 23, 2018] I will be watching the Russian Mayday parades with photos of killed relatives in a totally different light from now on – those people in the photos are the victims of the Russian elite

As if in any other country this situation is different...
Putin priority was avoiding larger confrontation, which if spun out of control can lead to WWIII. And I think he was right trying to downplay the situation.
Sep 23, 2018 | www.unz.com

Kiza , says: September 21, 2018 at 5:18 am GMT

This is terribly empty ramble and it is time to stop reading this rambler. But before I stop I will quote myself:

My critique of Putin is not that he did not kill back the Turks, the US military and the Israelis, it is that he keeps making agreements with the non-agreement capable sponsors of terrorism and then entrusts the lives of his soldiers to such agreements.

In other words, the four Israeli planes should have never been tagged "friendlies", which was obviously the Putin's standing order to the Russian military based on his agreement with these sponsors of terrorism. The rest in this tragic event for Russia is what usually happens in war – fear, huge and costly mistakes, and incompetence all around.

Saker, I hope you and Martyanov both, as a reward for your insightful writing about the panicking Israeli pilots, get to read your recent articles to the 10-year old daughter of one of the Russian officers killed.

You two are the Marshals of all the Armchair Generals that you laugh at. With "intellectuals" such as you, now I understand why the Russian always die in wars like cattle and win wars by sacrificing the most/only valuable human capital (why do they call such 'a Pyrrhic victory' when it should be called 'a Russian victory'). I will be watching the Russian Mayday parades with photos of killed relatives in a totally different light from now on – those people in the photos are the victims of the Russian "elite" and the self-declared Russian Armchair Marshals.

The unfortunate Syrians are the beggars, so they cannot be choosers who their "friends" are.

J , says: Website September 21, 2018 at 6:49 am GMT
Since the Russians largely control the Syrian antiair defenses, one could also conclude that they share the responsibility in downing their own aircraft. Maybe the Israelis overestimated Russian readiness and response capabilities. In Tzahal, one minute is a lot of time. As Putin said, it was a tragic fuckup.
Harold Smith , says: September 21, 2018 at 7:18 am GMT
"I tried to post a short commentary suggesting that before we jump to conclusions about anything, we ought to wait for the fact to come out."

Well Putin didn't waste anytime jumping to the conclusion that it was an "accident," right? I blame him for being too quick to say that.

And I blame him for allowing the Israeli attacks to continue for so long. Something bad (for Russia) was bound to happen eventually. And they're war crimes, aren't they? It would've been okay with everybody if it was a Syrian plane that went down?

"So why is everybody assuming that the Israelis carefully planned the whole thing?"

King David Hotel, USS Liberty, 9/11, etc.

"First, let me start by a very simple and primitive question: Why in the world has nobody considered that the Israelis might have truly screwed-up?"

When someone "screws up" during the commission of a crime, a crime "evincing a depraved indifference to human life" and someone dies because of it, it's known in Western jurisprudence as a "depraved heart murder" not an "accident."

http://www.duhaime.org/LegalDictionary/D/DepravedHeartMurder.aspx

"At this point, I need to ask another question: what would the Israelis gain from shooting down the Il-20?"

You could also ask for example: what did they gain by running over Rachel Corrie with a bulldozer? And the answer would be the same IMO: They do what they do because they're evil.

hunor , says: September 21, 2018 at 7:46 am GMT
Mr. you are a very naïve person. One doesn't have to be a
Putin or Jew hater to see with clarity. In fact we the gojims are the ones
who is in our face is being hated, and planed to be destroyed. They declaring
a new world order. The very word of new implies a departure from what we
have today, a culture of nation states. The very word of order implies Dictatorial slavery.
According to Assange , we are the last generation of free people.
The western countries being overrun by primitives who are the biological
weapons of the elites, one economical crises and everybody is against everybody,
until only the well protected elites remain. The murder of a highly trained
Russian military persons were premeditated planed murder. In earlier
analysis of yours you called this form of warfare " leapfrogging " . And the
hollywooding of the Izraeli leadersip, is a part of deceiveing the gojim.
The did what they do best they draw blood of the gojim, and getting away
with it again with an explanation, playing on our fears of not to escalating further.
Putin calling it an accident, he remind me of an other historic figure
who's name was Marshall Emanuel Grouchy. He was Napoleon's trusted general
in 1815 at waterloo , when he heard the battle drums he started to march with his
units to the opposite direction away from the warzone, so the French army was slathered.
What does it count if they are the best and bravest and have a best missile systems,
if they are being mislead and betrayed? Try to analyzing that.
judeo-christian , says: September 21, 2018 at 8:23 am GMT
What's funny is that The Saker wants to stick to the "facts" but all he gives is, when you read his article closely is apologizing for the failure of Russian policy with regards to the Israelis, a mix of contradictions, Putin-ifallibility and the usual "Russia good, rest meh"
Andrei Martyanov , says: Website September 21, 2018 at 1:21 pm GMT
@hunor Mr. you are a very naïve person. One doesn't have to be a
Putin or Jew hater to see with clarity. In fact we the gojims are the ones
who is in our face is being hated, and planed to be destroyed. They declaring
a new world order. The very word of new implies a departure from what we
have today, a culture of nation states. The very word of order implies Dictatorial slavery.
According to Assange , we are the last generation of free people.
The western countries being overrun by primitives who are the biological
weapons of the elites, one economical crises and everybody is against everybody,
until only the well protected elites remain. The murder of a highly trained
Russian military persons were premeditated planed murder. In earlier
analysis of yours you called this form of warfare " leapfrogging " . And the
hollywooding of the Izraeli leadersip, is a part of deceiveing the gojim.
The did what they do best they draw blood of the gojim, and getting away
with it again with an explanation, playing on our fears of not to escalating further.
Putin calling it an accident, he remind me of an other historic figure
who's name was Marshall Emanuel Grouchy. He was Napoleon's trusted general
in 1815 at waterloo , when he heard the battle drums he started to march with his
units to the opposite direction away from the warzone, so the French army was slathered.
What does it count if they are the best and bravest and have a best missile systems,
if they are being mislead and betrayed? Try to analyzing that.

One doesn't have to be a Putin or Jew hater to see with clarity

So, you do then, I assume, have now or had in the past Form 1A clearance to know how and what Tactical and Operational Manuals describe in terms of setting Air Defense systems, establishment of communications networks ah, never mind–I am sure "Jews The Almighty" bible of yours gives all necessary answers. Including describing issues of angular separation of targets, principles of development of command decisions from tactical to operational level and other irrelevant crap.

[Sep 23, 2018] PUTIN DOESN'T BLINK AS ISRAEL TAKES DOWN RUSSIAN AIRCRAFT IN HUGE ATTACK ON SYRIA TO DERAIL PEACE IN IDLIB by Jonathan Azaziah

Notable quotes:
"... Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments on the matter were much more Measured. His detractors, in their usual hysterical cacophonies, called him "soft". As always with Putin though, one must read between the lines. Ever the defuser, ever the peace-maker, he called what took place a "chain of tragic and chance circumstances". But later on, he made it clear that it was a "serious incident" that "requires a response". ..."
"... And then said in no uncertain terms, "As for retaliatory measures, they will be aimed first and foremost at further ensuring the safety of our military personnel and facilities in Syria. And these will be steps that everyone will notice." ..."
"... Zionists played such an odious role in the Russian-Georgian War. ..."
"... massacred the crew of the USS Liberty with the goal of blaming Egypt and starting WW3 between–you guessed it–the US and the Soviet Union. We were only minutes away from a US nuclear strike on Cairo when the Americans realized it was an 'Israeli' attack. ..."
"... Gulf War was 'Israeli' terrorist Yitzhak Shamir threatening to drop an atom bomb on Baghdad ..."
Sep 23, 2018 | www.fort-russ.com
The 'Israelis' really done did it now, didn't they? Flirting with WW3 like never before. After spending billions of dollars over the last several weeks across the Zionist media, telling the world that Baby-Seal-Clubbing, Puppy-Eating Assad was about to gas totally-vegan-completely-democratic-pro-LGBTQIA Al-Qaeda terrorists in Idlib–with chemical arms he doesn't have, mind you–they were completely caught off-guard with a massive bombshell.

Vladimir Putin had negotiated a demilitarization agreement with Neo-Ottoman "sultan" Erdogan, thus, at least in theory, averting a potential bloodbath in the last Takfiri-occupied city in Syria. The prospect of the war on the hardened Syrian battlefields finally being over proved too much for the voracious colonizers in "Tel Aviv". They simply couldn't bear seeing all of their miserable efforts, arming, training, financing and giving medical treatment to these Wahhabi mercenaries for nearly 8 years now being OFFICIALLY kaput.

Panicking, they mobilized, and in a throwback to the 1956 Tripartite Aggression against Egypt, they enlisted the help of an old ally: the French ZOG. France launched missiles from the Mediterranean to throw off Syria-Russian radar trajectories while the 'Israelis' went forward with a huge aerial assault, bombing Lattakia, Tartous, Hama and Homs all at once. As of now, at least two Syrian soldiers have been martyred and about a dozen others have been wounded. The most copious number of casualties however came from the Russian side. An Ilyushin IL-20 electronic surveillance plane was downed in the carnage and 15 Russian servicemen were murdered. 'Israel' decided to play a game of Yahoudling Roulette and used stealth tech to shadow the Russian vessel so when Syrian air defenses responded, they'd hit the Ilyushin IL-20 , not the 'Israeli' occupation air force's murder-plane. And that's exactly what happened.

The Russian military, which laid out the anatomy of the aggression in full, was fuming, "We consider these provocative actions by 'Israel' as hostile. Fifteen Russian military service members have died because of the irresponsible actions of the 'Israeli' military." Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu phoned genocidal war criminal Avigdor Lieberman and is said to have screamed his head off at the 'Israeli' War Minister. He further revealed that 'Israel' called in its attack plans on the Russian-'Israeli' deconfliction line JUST ONE MINUTE before the attack–another blood-soaked confirmation that it wasn't an "accident" as the artificial "Tel Aviv" regime is claiming but a deliberate act of war. Shoigu also told Lieberman that Russia "reserves the right to use further countermeasures" in response to the slaughter of its men. That Lieberman has refrained from speaking on it and IOF itself is yet to apologize reveals the level of culpability at the highest levels of the Zionist occupation's "defense" establishment.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's comments on the matter were much more Measured. His detractors, in their usual hysterical cacophonies, called him "soft". As always with Putin though, one must read between the lines. Ever the defuser, ever the peace-maker, he called what took place a "chain of tragic and chance circumstances". But later on, he made it clear that it was a "serious incident" that "requires a response".

And then said in no uncertain terms, "As for retaliatory measures, they will be aimed first and foremost at further ensuring the safety of our military personnel and facilities in Syria. And these will be steps that everyone will notice." This could mean Russia finally stepping into the throes of the Resistance-Axis-'Israeli' battle and 86ing 'Israeli' aerial movements in Syria. It could mean heavier and more advanced weapons not just to the Syrian state but Iran too. Not that the Islamic Republic needs it of course, as its weapons industry is robust and brilliant, but extra hardware never hurts. We shall soon see.

The Halakhic-Talmudic entity is obviously acting out of desperation and Kabbalistic irrationality. Thus, why would Vladimir Putin, who is trying to END the war on Syria, give the 'Israelis' an excuse to EXPAND the war on Syria in a maddening scenario that will lead to more tragedies, more destruction and more death? It's just not in his ideological DNA. Art of War 101: Win without fighting. Putin gets that–more so than ever with Syria on the verge of total liberation from Takfiri terrorism.

Find Out More > 64,337

He doesn't need to subscribe to some cliched concept of machismo, puff out his chest and behave like a brute just to satisfy the bloodlust of armchair geopolitical "big shots" who don't know their feet from their earlobes, let alone how to confront the Dajjalic-Judaic NWO. The man's trying to avert a nuclear catastrophe–and with 'Israel' and its Samson Option in the mix, that's not hyperbole. Granted, Russia has every right to blast 'Israel' to Jahannam for this atrocity and truth be told, the payback's truly been coming ever since the Zionists played such an odious role in the Russian-Georgian War. But the 'Israelis' executed a warmongering trick And Russia found calm in the heat of the moment, managing not to fall for it. No need to blow the impending triumph now, so it once again boils down to what Ayatollah Sayyed Ali Khamenei calls Strategic Patience–derived from Imam Hassan (A.S.)

Indeed, the aim of 'Israel' here was as blatant as anti-Gentile racism in the Old Testament and the Talmud: The Zio-Tumor planned for Russia to respond on the spot to the aggression, taking out 'Israeli' aircraft and then drawing the US into a wider war Or In an even more cataclysmic calculation, Russia being enveloped in the chaos, mistakenly hitting France and triggering a full-blown NATO retaliation. Either way, the Jews' designs were to bring about a third world war, rendering the US, Russia and the Resistance Axis destroyed or bled out beyond repair, with nobody but 'Israel' left to pick up the pieces and claim global kingship. Lunatic behavior you say? Nutty Netty finally throwing out the Goy baby blood with the matzoh? You wouldn't be entirely wrong. But you wouldn't be entirely right either. For provocations of this nature–those that would lead to a nuclear conflict between two superpowers–are a time-tested Zionist tradition.

In 1954, Egyptian-Jewish Mossad agents carried out Operation Susannah aka the Lavon Affair, planting bombs in US targets to be blamed on the "Muslim" Brotherhood in hopes of getting Washington to attack Egypt and by extension, the Soviet Union. During the Naksa of 1967, 'Israeli' warplanes massacred the crew of the USS Liberty with the goal of blaming Egypt and starting WW3 between–you guessed it–the US and the Soviet Union. We were only minutes away from a US nuclear strike on Cairo when the Americans realized it was an 'Israeli' attack. Then in the Tishreen War, Golda Meir openly pondered about dropping a nuke on Damascus, which wouldn't have killed Syrians alone but Soviet military advisors, yet again setting the stage for Soviet-American conflict.

The reason for the monstrous Gulf War was 'Israeli' terrorist Yitzhak Shamir threatening to drop an atom bomb on Baghdad if the US didn't rein in Saddam Hussein after the maneuver against Kuwait. And how many times have you heard Zionists outright say they wanna see mushroom clouds over Tehran? From vile millennial commentator Jacob Wohl to neocon wacko John Bolton, Hebrew University orientalist Vladimir Mesamed to casino billionaire Sheldon Adelson. This type of psychopathy is the lifeblood of World Zionism.

Ultimately, while Putin's coolness has temporarily staved off an escalation, what should be elucidated for him and the entire Russian establishment now more than ever is that 'Israel' has no respect for Russia's people inside Syria or anywhere else for that matter. "Deconfliction" and "partnership" are but illusions that 'Israel' flexes out of convenience and ignores when inconvenient. According to the Jewish supremacist thinking that guides the illegitimate 'Israeli' regime, a Gentile is a Gentile. Period.

And any Gentile helping out the enemies of "Eretz Yisrael" will be a dead Gentile. Especially when they're Orthodox Christian Russians assisting a unified bloc of Husseini Muslims and fighting as one unit to defeat Zio-Imperialism. Zion's next move depends entirely on Russia's retaliation. One thing's for sure: This was as brazen as brazen gets and "chosenite" arrogance aside, it is not a card that can be played again. In the mean time, we recite Al-Fatiha for the souls of the SAA and Ilyushin IL-20 Lattakia martyrs and pray that the Idlib demilitarization agreement holds. Syria and its allies have all suffered enough.

[Sep 23, 2018] RUSSIA'S IL-20 DOWNING RESPONSE - THIS IS WHAT NEEDS TO HAPPEN NEXT - Fort Russ

Sep 23, 2018 | www.fort-russ.com

VeeNarian (Yerevan) 3 days ago ,

This RF position regarding Israel is utter rubbish and sadly brave Russian heroes have paid the ultimate price. When did Israel ever attack Al-Nusra and IS or the reverse? Israel and FUKUS are allies to these head-choppers in Syria.
Israel attacks the very forces that are at war with the head-choppers: Syria, Iran and Hezbollah.
How on Earth did the RF leadership get so confused?
I am not at all impressed.
All my respect to the lions of the Russian armed forces in Syria who are being lead by donkeys.

Boxwood tree • 3 days ago ,

I have this to say the IDF and the French frigate seemed to coordinate their attack to get the desired outcome. This means they would have had to have a schedule of the IL 20's flight plans. This Israeli attack was well planned. I wonder if the Russian government realizes this. I have read nothing to say that they did realize it. And the Israeli's must have well coordinated it with the French who are some of their best friends. Russia needs to break off relations with the French and especially the Israelis. Israel is a friend to no one.

[Sep 23, 2018] Urgent Britain, US, France plan to strike Russian base in Syria

Sep 23, 2018 | www.fort-russ.com

Britain has readied its troops on the island of Cyprus for a collective strike by Western countries on Syria.

The Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak states that, the blow will be inflicted by the troops of the United States, Britain and France within the next 24 hours.

According to sources, a total of 22 targets have been identified in Syria, which will be destroyed by Western aviation – these are facilities in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Hama, Deir ez Zor, and Rakka. In particular, it is planned to strike the area of ​​the Russian military base in Tartus.

[Sep 23, 2018] Russia Capable of Closing Syrian Airspace for Israel - Senior Russian MP

Notable quotes:
"... The evidence released by the Russian Defense Ministry on the circumstances of the Il-20 downing left no doubt that the Israeli Air Force was to blame for the tragedy, the lawmaker stressed, adding that it was impossible to challenge this conclusion "based on an impartial minute-by-minute analysis of the facts." ..."
"... According to Klintsevich, the list of gross violations of mutual agreements committed by Israeli pilots occupies more than one page and the ministry pointed to each of them. ..."
Sep 23, 2018 | sputniknews.com

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia may take steps to prevent further incidents involving the Israeli Air Force jets and has all the capabilities to close the Syrian airspace for Israeli military aircraft if it becomes necessary, a member of the Russian parliament's upper house's defense committee, Frants Klintsevich, told Sputnik on Sunday.

"The essence and meaning of our response is to completely eliminate the possibility of such incidents in the future. We, for example, have all the necessary resources to completely close the Syrian airspace for Israel, and this is only one of the options," Klintsevich said.

WATCH 3D Reconstruction of Il-20 Downing in Syria, Released by Russian MoD The evidence released by the Russian Defense Ministry on the circumstances of the Il-20 downing left no doubt that the Israeli Air Force was to blame for the tragedy, the lawmaker stressed, adding that it was impossible to challenge this conclusion "based on an impartial minute-by-minute analysis of the facts."

According to Klintsevich, the list of gross violations of mutual agreements committed by Israeli pilots occupies more than one page and the ministry pointed to each of them.

"How will this tragedy affect Russia's relations with Israel? It is clear that it is up to the leadership [of Russia] how to address this issue, and I can only make assumptions. I think that the decision will be made taking into account the long-standing good relations between Russia and Israel, and therefore a sharp u-turn like the abolition of a visa-free regime, not to mention something more serious, is hardly possible here," he said.

READ MORE: Israel's Take on IL-20 Incident Undermines Tel-Aviv's Ties to Russia -- Scholar

In general, Klintsevich believes that much will depend on Israel's reaction to the conclusions of the Russian Defense Ministry.

"In connection with this, I consider the statement of Israeli Defense Minister [Avigdor Lieberman], who said today that the attacks on Syria would continue , to be counter-productive. This rhetoric can only aggravate the situation, I do not think that this development of events meets the interests of Israel," the Russian lawmaker concluded.

Russian Defense Ministry Says Israeli Air Force Responsible for Il-20 Downing (VIDEO) Earlier in the day, the Russian Defense Ministry reiterated, during a briefing on circumstances of the September 17 downing of a Russian Il-20 plane in Syria, that the Israeli Air Force was to blame for the incident. According to the ministry, the actions of the IAF pilots, which led to the death of 15 Russian servicemen, either lacked professionalism or were an act of criminal negligence.

[Sep 23, 2018] Report on Findings of Russian IL-20 Shot Down in Syria

Sep 22, 2018 | www.plenglish.com

Moscow, Sep 22 (Prensa Latina)

Military sources reported on Saturday the discovery of the remains of the Russian IL-20 aircraft shot down 27 kilometers west of the Syrian province of Latakia, and remains of 15 soldiers on board the aircraft.
Along with the Syrian town of Banias, ships of the Russian Navy are carrying out in the Mediterranean Sea a search operation for the lifeless bodies of the soldiers, whose plane was completely destroyed last September 17.

Moscow blamed Tel Aviv for the incident, considering that at least four F-16 fighters used the IL-20 as a parapet to evade the fire of the Syrian antiaircraft defense, which caused an S-200 battery to fire on the Russian aircraft.


[Sep 23, 2018] Putin, Israel and the downed Il-20 by The Saker

Notable quotes:
"... both sides emphasized the importance of the states' interests and the continued implementation of the deconfliction system" ..."
Sep 23, 2018 | www.unz.com

Next, let's assume that this is simply the typical case of Israeli arrogance (not a myth!) and that they decided to inform the Russians as late as possible. Does that at all entail that the maneuver of the Israeli F-16s pilots to seek cover from the S-200 missile was something they had planned in advance? Does anybody bother to look at the actual (as opposed to Hollywood) record of the Israeli Air Force during past wars when they were actually challenged by a reasonably capable air defense? There is a detailed discussion (in Russian) about this here which can be summarized like this: as soon as the Israelis start losing aircraft their martial prowess rapidly vanishes. Now please recall this: the Israelis have had recent losses, some admitted, some denied, but there is no doubt that they are tense and very concerned. Bottom line: I would fully expect the Israeli pilots to freak out and seek cover as soon as they are told by their warning system that they are being painted by a radar in tracking mode (the S-200 has a semi-active radar homing guidance system). If that is the case, and I am not saying that this is the only possibility, then the fault is of the Israeli pilots, not of their commanders or the Israeli state as a hole. Yes, the command responsibility is the one of the state, but not the guilt for having engaged in such an evasive maneuver (besides, knowing the price placed by Israeli on goyim lives , this would be just so typical, would it not )

At this point, I need to ask another question: what would the Israelis gain from shooting down the Il-20? They sure ain't gonna frighten the Russians (Russian military don't scare easy) and the Il-20 will be replaced. Scaring the Iranians or Hezbollah? Forget it – not happening. Maybe there was a real lucrative target that they destroyed? Yes, maybe, be so far we don't know anything about this. So what would be the point?

Then the "sister question": what would the Israelis risk by deliberately shooting down a Russian EW aircraft? Well, in theory, they would risk having their aircraft shot down and their airbases engaged with Russian missiles. That is highly unlikely, I will admit, and the Israelis probably understand the Russians very well (many of them being from Russia). But could they be sure that the local commanders would not order an immediate retaliation (as their current rules of engagement do authorize them to!)? Let me remind everybody that this Spring, the USA was not so sure at all, and following the words of the Russian ambassador that " not only missiles but their launchers would be destroyed " the USN and Air Force decided to shoot as little as possible and from as far as possible. As for the British sub, its captain decided to cancel the planned missile strike entirely (they were being shadowed by two Russian subs). Seems to me that the potential risks of that kind of operation would be pretty high, while the potential rewards rather unclear.

Those who insist that this was a deliberate Israeli act need to come up with a halfway credible explanation not only for how this was done, but also why this was done.

Now, like many others, I despise the Israeli racist, genocidal rogue state with all my heart. But that does not prevent me from being capable of imagining a scenario in which the Israelis simply screwed-up. Believe it or not, but my disgust for Zionist ideology does not at all entail a boundless belief in some Israeli infallibility.

Finally, let look at this: today (Sept 20 th ) an IDF delegation led by Air Force Commander Maj.-Gen. Amikam Norkin is in Moscow. Also participating in the trip are the Head of the Foreign Relations Division, Brig.-Gen. Erez Meisel and other officers from the Intelligence, Air Force and Operations Divisions. Does anybody believe that all these officers went to Moscow just to thumb their noses at the Russians? Or maybe they all traveled to Moscow to present some totally non-credible excuses which will only infuriate the Russians further?

My guess is that they have something exculpatory (at least in part) to show.

If the Russians conclude that the Israelis did it deliberately, I will support a strike on Israeli air bases. If the Russians conclude that the Israelis cannot be trusted to abide by any agreements (which I think is indisputable), then I think that the Russians should declare an air exclusion zone over the Russian forces (a 100km radius or so). I also think that it is high time to keep a pair MiG-31BMs on 24/7 combat air patrol high over Syria (they can come quite close to replacing a much more expensive and vulnerable A-50U AWACS).

At this time (Sept 20 th 20:37 GMT) all they have announced is that " both sides emphasized the importance of the states' interests and the continued implementation of the deconfliction system" . If that is all that the Russians decide, then I will find it wholly inadequate and I will predict a further surge in frustration against not only the government, but against Putin himself. But, for the time being, we need to wait and see what the Russian investigation will reveal. Only then can we begin cheering Putin or calling him names.

There is also this possibility: the Russians would decide on an air exclusion zone and tell the Israelis, but both sides would decide to keep this secret in order for Israel to save face (because if the Russians declare an air exclusion zone, this will create a safe heaven for Hezbollah and all the other militias which would be a political disaster for Bibi Netanyahu). So we might never find out.

Finally, I want to add one more thing which is rarely, if ever, mentioned.

The S-200 is a pretty old air defense system. We also know that it does not have a Russian IFF. However, the Russians have declared several times that the Russian air defense network and the Syrian one were integrated. This is what best explains, at least in part, the very high number of US cruise missiles intercepted in April. The problem is that the way the S-200 (and most modern air defense systems) works is that the S-200 is fully integrated into a larger air defense network administered by automated air defense management systems which is operated by a higher echelon air defense command. This means that the Syrian air defense crew did not simply detect the incoming missiles and fire off one of their own. At the very least, this decision was taken by a higher echelon Syrian air defense command. Now we know that the time was extremely short and, hence, the Russian air defense personnel might not have had the time to take protective action, especially not when dealing with a large, slow and vulnerable moving EW aircraft (the fact that this aircraft flew un-escorted is definitely a Russian mistake!). Still, we know that the Russians have many early warning capabilities which the Syrians do not have (AWACS, space based, shipborne radars, over-the-horizon radars, etc.) and there is a pretty decent chance that somebody could have done something to prevent what happened. True, since the Israelis and Russians had an agreement, the Russians therefore classified the Israelis as "non-threat", but it does not take a genius to understand that four Israeli F-16 flying towards the Latakia Governorate are up to no good and that this warrants immediately going on full alert.


Bill65 , says: September 21, 2018 at 8:43 am GMT

Can The Saker tell us what right Israel has to bomb targets in Syria ? The Russians were invited in to save Syria as were the Iranians and Hezbollah but Israel is on the side of the attackers of Syria .
Proud_Srbin , says: September 21, 2018 at 9:21 am GMT
You are absolutely correct.
USA responded in similar fashion when Israel sunk "Liberty" with greater loss of american lives.
Most of Israeli population are God's chosen people and can do no wrong.
God placed them on Earth to watch over us and even gave us his son to civilize us.
Praise the Lord!
anon , [317] Disclaimer says: September 23, 2018 at 6:14 am GMT
@Bill65 Can The Saker tell us what right Israel has to bomb targets in Syria ? The Russians were invited in to save Syria as were the Iranians and Hezbollah but Israel is on the side of the attackers of Syria . One of the first courses in law school is intentional torts. The intent, an act expressing that intent, and damages are the only requirement in many torts. The tort of Battery; intent does not have to be an intent to cause the harm that actually occurred.. Merely expressing an intent in some kind of action satisfies the element of intent; it does not matter to assignment of liability if the actual harm was unintended.

In criminal law: A holds up a bank, five cops show up, B shoots his gun at the ceiling, the bullet bounces and kills one of the cops,and starts a fire in the bank A is probably guilty of murder, Arson and attempted robbery.

so if while intending to shoot target victim A, the shooter instead accidentally or otherwise shoots innocent non targeted victim B, the intent requirement for Battery is satisfied. Hence Israel, and each and every one of its leaders, might be liable. w/o regards to a showing that the intended target was unharmed, while a different innocent was unintentionally harmed. Its the harm caused by an expression of an intention that produces the liability. It does not matter that the harm happened to an unintended party.

Trespass to chattel, interference with a chattel which results in injury to the possessor or injury to a person or thing in which the possessor of the chattel has a legally protected interest(like life and assets) results in liability for trespass. If Israel without privilege touches a Indian Snake Charmers Snake, causing Snake Charmers Snake to bite a Russian bystander, Israel probably liable for the injury to the Russian bystander.
But there is more, the doctrine of transferred intent applies. Here the intent in four other torts (battery, assault, trespass to land or false imprisonment) can be substituted to satisfy the requisite intent for trespass to chattel. If Israel intends to destroy Syrian dams with weapons and missiles, and instead causes a Syrian response that kills Russian soldiers and planes, the tort would hold Israel liable for the damage to the plane and the deaths of the Russians. IANAL. There is a lot to this intent thing, but generally, I understand, when intent is established, especially if unlawful trespass or criminality is part of the expression of the intentional act, that Intent element in the tort would be satisfied.

The Tort of Extreme and Outrageous conduct; behavior "that reaches beyond all possible bounds of decency; atrocious, utterly intolerable in a civilized community ( such as invading a sovereign nation; attacking its assets and killing its inhabitants). Here the expression of intent is in the outrageous behavior, the persons harmed might not even be known to the person who engaged in the Tort of Extreme and Outrageous conduct.

IANAL and I would appreciate it if a lawyer would make these point clear and clarify my understanding of these principles, especially as they might apply to the situation at hand.
My point here is the intent and transfer of intent principles suggest Israel intended unauthorized trespass, acts of aggression and war, and it is indifferent to liability for the crime or damages that conducting war against Russia was unintended.

Moreover, it seems to me unlikely that Israel would plan an attack, and not coordinate it with Russia, when such an attack was so close to Russian Assets and Russian Personnel. Israel had to know the risk of killing Russians and destroying Russian assets was likely (Scienter?), which suggest to me Israel intended to use Syrian technical limitations as a means to punish Russia for protecting Syria. [ Res ipsa Loquitur comes to mind]. Wonder how a Jewish court and Jewish judge would rule on this one?

[Sep 23, 2018] Russians reiterated the official position that " The blame for the downed Russian plane and for the death of the crew lies entirely on the Israeli side ". ENTIRELY.

Notable quotes:
"... Israel forces should never have entered the Syrian airspace to begin with. Syrians wouldn't then needed to defend themselves. ..."
"... Russians had precise data that showed Israel's F-16 set up the Russian plane to be shot by the S-200. ..."
"... Israelis only gave less than a minute warning. ..."
"... The Russian military man interviewed in the article clearly stated that the only thing that the Russians were waiting to hear from that meeting was Israel recognizing it was to blame. All the rest (data from investigation, blaming Syrians, etc) was useless. Russia had already made up its mind and had its own very detailed data. ..."
"... The interview ends with a question about what will the consequences/reaction be . The reply is ""We are military men. We have the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, we have the Minister of Defense. Whichever order from them we shall receive, such and we will execute". ..."
"... If the order from Shoigu is to deliver S300 anti-missile defence systems to Syria (as the Russian interviewers must surely be expecting), then the actions of the Israeli F-16 fighter pilots will have dealt a severe blow to Israel and Satanyahu's machinations over the years, kissing up to Moscow, will have come to nothing. And 15 Russian military personnel will not have perished in vain. ..."
Sep 23, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

Nat

September 21, 2018 at 10:20 am
Interesting interview of a member of the Russian delegation about how the meeting between the Russian and Israeli Air Force Commanders went: https://www.kp.ru/daily/26885.7/3928752/

Main points:
– Russians reiterated the official position that " The blame for the downed Russian plane and for the death of the crew lies entirely on the Israeli side ". ENTIRELY.

– Israelis blamed it on the Syrians/Assad.

– Russians rejected this argument, countering with the following points:

Israel forces should never have entered the Syrian airspace to begin with. Syrians wouldn't then needed to defend themselves. Russians had precise data that showed Israel's F-16 set up the Russian plane to be shot by the S-200. Israelis only gave less than a minute warning.

Then concluded with repeating the position "The blame lies entirely on the Israeli side ".

– Israeli said their data showed their F-16 didn't set up the Russian plane, and was in fact back in Israel by the time the plane was shot down.

– Russians flat out said their had contradictory data and relied on them and on the Syrian data.

– Israeli played ignorance about the one minute warning. Supposedly they weren't aware Russian planes were flying at that time and needed warning.

– Russians said they could not believe the F-16 radars did not see the Russian plane, and went back to their three points (Anyway F-16 had no right to be in Syria, Russian had data that showed F-16 set up their plane and rules of pre-warning were not followed).

The Russian military man interviewed in the article clearly stated that the only thing that the Russians were waiting to hear from that meeting was Israel recognizing it was to blame. All the rest (data from investigation, blaming Syrians, etc) was useless. Russia had already made up its mind and had its own very detailed data.

The interview ends with a question about what will the consequences/reaction be . The reply is ""We are military men. We have the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, we have the Minister of Defense. Whichever order from them we shall receive, such and we will execute".

Jen September 21, 2018 at 1:51 pm

If the order from Shoigu is to deliver S300 anti-missile defence systems to Syria (as the Russian interviewers must surely be expecting), then the actions of the Israeli F-16 fighter pilots will have dealt a severe blow to Israel and Satanyahu's machinations over the years, kissing up to Moscow, will have come to nothing. And 15 Russian military personnel will not have perished in vain.

And FUKUS, who had been expecting a Russian attack on the French frigate the Auvergne so that Article 5 in the NATO treaty could be invoked, or new sanctions against Russia declared and passed, will be left with egg on their faces.

The Russian reaction to the whole incident seems very like its earlier reaction when the IOC banned Russia from sending its team to the Winter Olympics earlier this year: go along with the ban, do the opposite of what your enemies expect you to do (which is to react in the heat of the moment and do something in the short-term that you will later regret in the long-term) and put your enemies in positions where they not only have to justify their stance against you but fail spectacularly in doing so because their stance was based on lies and spite in the first place.

moscowexile September 21, 2018 at 9:21 pm
And yet on other sites (RI, Sputnik, RT) many are howling about "Vlad" the Coward.

I think many who hold such an opinion are, if not trolls, then 12-year-old American (USA) kids (mostly), who were weaned on computer video games such as "Modern Warfare" and who have been imbued with the notion that "might is right" and that "God is on our side" etc.

Patient Observer September 21, 2018 at 11:27 am
No climb down and I suspect the Russian military position was approved by the Big Guy.
Mark Chapman September 21, 2018 at 11:45 am
Nonsense – Russia is weak, and this amounts to an approval of Israeli attacks by Putin.

Those F-16's must be faster than any other version built, or else the S-200 has an ungodly long time of flight, if the Syrians fired it against an attack but the Israeli planes were already back over their home base by the time the missile reached their previous position. What does the Syrian radar history say?

Nat September 21, 2018 at 12:52 pm
According to the Russians, the Syrian radar history is different from the Israeli version. "- Израильтяне выворачивались: "Когда сирийская армия выпустила ракеты, попавшие в российский самолет, израильские самолеты ВВС уже находились на израильской территории". А с нашей стороны тут же прозвучало, что у нас есть другие данные. Другие документы. Есть они и у сирийского командования ПВО. Тут надо основательно сверить данные. Буквально по минутам и секундам.".

So Russia has the timeline of the events down to the second and all of it shows that the Israeli pilots set the IL-20 under the fire of the Syrian S-200. The Israeli also perfectly know what they did. It looks like Russia is letting the Israeli "investigate" as a way to give Israel a very small window of opportunity to recognize its guilt and take action itself.

Mark Chapman September 21, 2018 at 10:32 pm
I suspected as much; If the Syrian and Russian intercept records agree, then there is a good chance the Israelis faked their radar data and flight records. But then, they fancy themselves the masters of such clever fakes that they can make anyone do what they want them to do.
Nat September 21, 2018 at 1:25 pm
By the way Mark, the Russians had the same reaction you had to the Israeli claim: "Когда они это сказали, наши чуть со стульев не попадали" ("When they said that, our guys in the delegation almost fell off their chairs").
yalensis September 21, 2018 at 2:09 pm
Israelis are acting like some crooked lawyer trying to get their crooked client out on a technicality. "Oh, we didn't know We tried to warn them blah blah blah "
They can blow as much smoke as they like, but the bottom line is, their planes should not be flying over Syria. Period.
Oh, everybody knows the reason they are up there and dropping bombs: Trying to do some harm to Hezbollah. But Hezbollah are invited guests within Syrian space. Israelis are uninvited guests. And everybody knows what Alexander Nevsky had to say about uninvited guests!
Jen September 22, 2018 at 3:16 am
Well that's what you call chutzpah.

[Sep 23, 2018] The Syrian ceasefire proves how far Putin has come out on top by Patrick Cockburn

Notable quotes:
"... The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East ..."
Sep 23, 2018 | www.unz.com

There is a striking note of imperial self-confidence about the document in which all sides in the Syrian civil war are instructed to come to heel. This may not happen quite as intended because it is difficult to see why fighters of al-Qaeda-type groups like Hayat Tahrir al-Sham should voluntarily give up such military leverage as they still possess. The Syrian government has said that it will comply with the agreement but may calculate that, in the not so long term, it will be able to slice up Idlib bit by bit as it did with other rebel enclaves.

What is most interesting about the agreement is less its details than what it tells us about the balance of forces in Syria, the region and even the world as a whole. Fragile it may be, but then that is true of all treaties which general Charles de Gaulle famously compared to "young girls and roses – they last as long as they last". Implementation of the Putin-Erdogan agreement may be ragged and its benefits temporary, but it will serve a purpose if a few less Syrians in Idlib are blown apart.

The Syrian civil war long ago ceased to be a struggle fought out by local participants. Syria has become an arena where foreign states confront each other, fight proxy wars and put their strength and influence to the test.The most important international outcome of war so far is that it has enabled Russia to re-establish itself as a great power. Moscow helped Assad secure his rule after the popular uprising in 2011 and later ensured his ultimate victory by direct military intervention in 2015. A senior diplomat from an Arab country recalls that early on in the Syrian war, he asked a US general with a command in the region what was the difference between the crisis in Syria and the one that had just ended with the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya. The general responded with a single word: "Russia."

It is difficult to remember now, when Russia is being portrayed in the west as an aggressive predatory power threatening everybody, the extent which it was marginalised seven years ago when Nato was carrying out regime change in Libya.

Russia was in reality always stronger than it looked because it remained a nuclear superpower capable of destroying the world after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 just as it was before. It should be difficult to forget this gigantically important fact, but politicians and commentators continue to blithely recommend isolating Russia and pretend that it can be safely ignored.

The return of Russia as a great power was always inevitable but was accelerated by successful opportunism and crass errors by rival states. Assad in Syria was always stronger than he looked. Even at the nadir of his fortunes in July 2011, the British embassy in Damascus estimated that he had the backing of 30 to 40 per cent of the population according to The Battle for Syria: International Rivalry in the New Middle East by Christopher Phillips, which should be essential reading for anybody interested in Syria. Expert opinion failed to dent the conviction among international statesmen that Assad was bound to go. When the French ambassador Eric Chevallier expressed similar doubts about the imminence of regime change he received a stern rebuke from officials in Paris who told him: "Your information does not interest us. Bashar al-Assad must fall and will fall."

[Sep 22, 2018] Downing of Russian Jet Israel Fears Putin Will Clip Its Wings in Syria

Sep 22, 2018 | www.veteranstoday.com

The Russian plane downing incident is not yet settled between Moscow and Jerusalem, despite President Vladimir Putin's relatively forgiving statement and despite Israel's sending its air force commander to Russia on Thursday morning.

... ... ...

Asked Thursday morning whether shooting down the Russian aircraft would affect the Israeli air force's freedom of action over Syria, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman performed more evasion maneuvers than the Russian Ilyushin pilots did on Monday night. Lieberman, who was interviewed on Army Radio's program "Dekel-Segal," failed to provide a real response. No doubt the party mainly responsible for the incident is Syria, whose air defense operated "unprofessionally and irresponsibly," as Lieberman described it. But Moscow does not appear inclined to forgive – and will likely try to extract practical advantages from Israel's embarrassment.

Israel is convinced it has good explanations for what happened. The air force's inquiry showed that the Syrians launched massive anti-aircraft fire when the Israeli planes were already back in Israel's sky. The warning to the Russians, Israel says, was given in keeping with the time frame agreed upon between the two states since they set up the mechanism to prevent friction between Israeli and Russian aircraft in September 2015.

The Russian plane was shot down mainly because of a communication failure – between Israel and Russia, between the Russian aerial control system or between the Syrians and their Russian patrons. Israel denies the first possibility – and this is probably what the air force chief Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin told his hosts. Moscow must direct its complaints toward the Syrians. If there's truth in the reports that arrests were carried out in Syria's aerial defense ranks, it appears Russia has been doing that as well. Intelligence Minister Yisrael Katz said on Thursday that Putin refused to answer a call from Syrian President Bashar Assad right after the incident.

Israel hopes the Russians will make do with closing the aerial space for a week, and not impose further restrictions – such as banning Israel from flying near their bases in the north of Syria, in a way that could limit the Israeli presence in Syria's air space to Damascus and south of it. According to foreign media, some of the Israeli air strikes were carried out from a great distance outside Syria's territory. However, such a Russian restriction could spur the Iranians, the Assad regime and Hezbollah to establish an attack-safe space in the north of Syria. In the long run, it could also enable Iran to continue to strengthen its military hold in this region and expand the weapon smuggling operations to Lebanon.

[Sep 22, 2018] An Analysis of the Downing of Russia's Il20 with 15 Onboard - Veterans Today News - Military Foreign Affairs Policy

Sep 22, 2018 | www.veteranstoday.com

https://us-u.openx.net/w/1.0/pd?plm=6&ph=2857f3e0-a998-4d70-b5c1-b19a3d6766a1&gdpr=0

  1. Peter Johnson September 22, 2018 at 3:36 pm It seems to me that the safest place for a small single engine light plane to position itself, once picked up by enemy radar, would be on the far side of a large Soviet-Era 4-engined kerosene-guzzler. A basic heat-seeking Soviet missile like what Syria is probably operating would simply home in on the only heat source it can see -- the big hot target covering the light little jets. Log in to leave a comment
  2. Yaridanjo September 22, 2018 at 1:54 pm This scenario means that the Israelis teamed with the French in an attempt to get the Russians to attack the French frigate. Since France is a NATO. ally, the USA would have to attack the Russians which is what Israel wanted to happen. Again, Edgar Cayce was right about Russia being the 'hope of the world' as Putin did not fall for this trap. Log in to leave a comment
  3. Yaridanjo September 22, 2018 at 1:49 pm Kind of makes sense to me:
    http://82.221.129.208/pages/.yz0.html
    Uh-oh: Analysis indicates France shot down Russian plane ON PURPOSE.
    "That Russia noted French missile launches but didn't say what or who they hit. And before the Russians said anything about the attack the French denied they had any involvement in the attack.
    Instead, Russia went along with the story the U.S. et.al. prepared in advance, which doesn't fit what facts we know about the situation, that Syrian Air Defenses shot down the IL-20 by mistake.
    Both the French denial and the U.S. statements about Syrian air defenses being the culprit came before anything official came from the Russians.
    My comment: This quote is from a caption in the main report, which is not very long and has all the details. I suggest this as a definite read. Key: the Russians confirmed that supplementary friend/foe targeting systems did not fail, even though the S-200 did not have them embedded within the system. The supplemental systems prevented the Syrians from doing the shoot down despite the missile system not having them itself. The supplemental systems confirmed it was not the Syrians that shot it down." Log in to leave a comment

[Sep 22, 2018] Russia has begun stepping up operations off the coast of Syria following the downing of a military aircraft

Sep 22, 2018 | badrepublic.wordpress.com

From Haaretz :

Russia has begun stepping up operations off the coast of Syria following the downing of a military aircraft, media outlets in Cyprus reported on Thursday. Russia reportedly decided to close areas near Cyprus to air, land and sea movement from Thursday until next Wednesday for the sake of military operations. Sources in Israel confirmed the report

An Israel Defense Forces delegation headed by the commander of the air force, Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin departed Thursday to Moscow to present the findings of its inquiry into the incident.

[Sep 22, 2018] We came within a whisker of WW3, and are probably lucky we can still type

Sep 22, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

peter , Sep 20, 2018 5:51:10 AM | link

< The best explanation I've heard yet is that Israel and the US (who had full knowledge and okayed the raid) expected the Russians to sink the French frigate that was blasting away. Kind of cynical but c'est la vie. Article V would be immediately be invoked and the US and Nato would have their casus bellum to smash Syria and send the Russians packing.>

If it's true then Putin handled things brilliantly. The Israelis have pissed away any existing trust between them and Russia with their one minute warning and did exactly that thing that everybody's going on about, namely hiding behind the IL20 to draw the S200. It's unlikely they'll enjoy the freedom in the future to target Iranian and Hezbollah targets in Syria at their leisure.

Because the false flag was was exposed and then their threat of attack if there was any violence in Idlib was stymied by Putin and Erdo's agreement the US is left with few options. The most obvious one would be a full-on unprovoked attack against Syria. I don't think the American people would be happy about that. They are getting really tired of all the bullshit in the ME.

Please don't give Trump a pass because the boogeyman deep state made him do it. He's the fucking president and they don't get no passes.

cdvision , Sep 20, 2018 11:41:28 AM | link

Peter @71. That's my reading as well. We came within a whisker of WW3, and are probably lucky we can still type. Once the Israelis are put in their place then Putin needs to have a strong word with Trump. And of course the frogs will get payback.

[Sep 22, 2018] Putin Keeps Cool And Averts WWIII As Israeli-French Gamble In Syria Backfires Spectacularly

Sep 22, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Robert Bridge via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

By initiating an attack on the Syrian province of Latakia, home to the Russia-operated Khmeimim Air Base, Israel, France and the United States certainly understood they were flirting with disaster. Yet they went ahead with the operation anyways.

On the pretext that Iran was preparing to deliver a shipment of weapon production systems to Hezbollah in Lebanon, Israeli F-16s, backed by French missile launches in the Mediterranean, destroyed what is alleged to have been a Syrian Army ammunition depot.

What happened next is already well established : a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft, which the Israeli fighter jets had reportedly used for cover, was shot down by an S-200 surface-to-air missile system operated by the Syrian Army. Fifteen Russian servicemen perished in the incident, which could have been avoided had Israel provided more than just one-minute warning before the attack. As a result, chaos ensued.

Whether or not there is any truth to the claim that Iran was preparing to deliver weapon-making systems to Hezbollah in Lebanon is practically a moot point based on flawed logic. Conducting an attack against an ammunition depot in Syria – in the vicinity of Russia's Khmeimim Air Base – to protect Israel doesn't make much sense when the consequence of such "protective measures" could have been a conflagration on the scale of World War III. That would have been an unacceptable price to achieve such a limited objective, which could have been better accomplished with the assistance of Russia, as opposed to NATO-member France, for example. In any case, there is a so-called "de-confliction system" in place between Israel and Russia designed to prevent exactly this sort of episode from occurring.

And then there is the matter of the timing of the French-Israeli incursion.

Just hours before Israeli jets pounded the suspect Syrian ammunition storehouse, Putin and Turkish President Recep Erdogan were in Sochi hammering out the details on a plan to reduce civilian casualties as Russian and Syrian forces plan to retake Idlib province, the last remaining terrorist stronghold in the country. The plan envisioned the creation of a demilitarized buffer zone between government and rebel forces, with observatory units to enforce the agreement. In other words, it is designed to prevent exactly what Western observers have been fretting about, and that is unnecessary 'collateral damage.'

So what do France and Israel do after a relative peace is declared, and an effective measure for reducing casualties? The cynically attack Syria, thus exposing those same Syrian civilians to the dangers of military conflict that Western capitals proclaim to be worried about.

Israel moves to 'damage control'

Although Israel has taken the rare move of acknowledging its involvement in the Syrian attack, even expressing "sorrow" for the loss of Russian life, it insists that Damascus should be held responsible for the tragedy. That is a highly debatable argument.

By virtue of the fact that the French and Israeli forces were teaming up to attack the territory of a sovereign nation, thus forcing Syria to respond in self-defense, it is rather obvious where ultimate blame for the downed Russian plane lies.

"The blame for the downing of the Russian plane and the deaths of its crew members lies squarely on the Israeli side," Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu said.

"The actions of the Israeli military were not in keeping with the spirit of the Russian-Israeli partnership, so we reserve the right to respond."

Russian President Vladimir Putin, meanwhile, took admirable efforts to prevent the blame game from reaching the boiling point, telling reporters that the downing of the Russian aircraft was the result of "a chain of tragic circumstances, because the Israeli plane didn't shoot down our jet."

Nevertheless, following this extremely tempered and reserved remark, Putin vowed that Russia would take extra precautions to protect its troops in Syria, saying these will be "the steps that everyone will notice."

Now there is much consternation in Israel that the IDF will soon find its freedom to conduct operations against targets in Syria greatly impaired. That's because Russia, having just suffered a 'friendly-fire' incident from its own antiquated S-200 system, may now be more open to the idea of providing Syria with the more advanced S-300 air-defense system.

Earlier this year, Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu reached an agreement that prevented those advanced defensive weapons from being employed in the Syrian theater. That deal is now in serious jeopardy. In addition to other defensive measures, Russia could effectively create the conditions for a veritable no-fly zone across Western Syria in that it would simply become too risky for foreign aircraft to venture into the zone.

The entire situation, which certainly did not go off as planned, has forced Israel into damage control as they attempt to prevent their Russian counterparts from effectively shutting down Syria's western border.

On Thursday, Israeli Major-General Amikam Norkin and Brigadier General Erez Maisel, as well as officers of the Intelligence and Operations directorates of the Israeli air force will pay an official visit to Moscow where they are expected to repeat their concerns of "continuous Iranian attempts to transfer strategic weapons to the Hezbollah terror organization and to establish an Iranian military presence in Syria."

Moscow will certainly be asking their Israeli partners if it is justifiable to subject Russian servicemen to unacceptable levels of danger, up to and including death, in order to defend Israeli interests. It remains to be seen if the two sides can find, through the fog of war, an honest method for bringing an end to the Syria conflict, which would go far at relieving Israel's concerns of Iranian influence in the region.


CoCosAB , 1 minute ago

The TERRORISTS keep doing the same **** all the time... And ***** PUTIN keeps cool!

Fecund Stench , 2 minutes ago

'There will, however, be some form of no-fly zone and as Vladimir Putin stated Russia will take "the steps that everyone will notice."'

http://thesaker.is/some-fast-thoughts-on-il-20-andrei-martyanov/

Failure to notice bespeaks complicity in the Ziomedia.

toady , 12 minutes ago

"...if it is justifiable to subject Russian servicemen to unacceptable levels of danger, up to and including death, in order to defend Israeli interests."

Surely a few dozen Russians isn't comparable to all the Jews that died in the holocaust.

Just as all the Jews that died in the holocaust aren't comparable to all the the Russians that died in wwII.

isn't religion and the victim mentality a fun game to play?

JoeTurner , 13 minutes ago

Israel must have its lebensraum.....

bh2 , 45 minutes ago

Putin is not going to initiate WWIII over Syria or any military action within it. The outcome in Syria affects Russian national interests. But unlike Crimea, it does not affect any of Russia's vital national interests.

rejected , 35 minutes ago

If Syria was to shoot down one (1) American jet with one (1) pilot the US would respond like it was Pearl Harbor and Syria for sure isn't vital to America's national interests unless one considers results like Libya a national interest.

rejected , 1 hour ago

I seriously doubt Putin will allow the S-300 to Syria. Like the US, Russia is controlled by the 5th column Jews inside Russia itself except the control is not as complete as in the US. The Russian plane is Russia's USS Liberty.... and it is possible, and IMO that it was France that shot down the plane. The fact that they fired missiles at the same time and that has disappeared down the memory hole is very suspicious.

The West is out of control They talk International law but consider them selves above it. Israel, France, UK, US have no 'right' to attack Syria. They have no right to be within Syrian borders. They are now all allied with the terrorists and provide them with weapons. Israel actually provides for their wounds at Israeli hospitals.

By the old definition of terrorist, it is the West that fits the description.

As for Mr. Putin,,, He has done what was unthinkable a short time ago. He has allowed the murder of Russians. Not once,,, not twice,,, but now three times with only a whimper. He actually defended the aggressors this time. This will only serve to make them double down. If any more Russians are murdered it will be he who is guilty by lack of action. Even Somalia fought back when the US tried an attack.

The author here defends Putin as acting with a cool head as the author, like so many cowards thee days, dismisses those fifteen lives. He will also be responsible when the next batch of Russians are sacrificed for world peace as the Western marauders, the US especially, murders their way to world domination like Germany's Hitler and France's Napoleon.

It was Russia that saved the world from those two dictators and is why Russia stands proud today. It is Russia's history to savagely defend Russians and Russia. Today with thousands of Russians killed by Ukrainian Nazis supported and armed by the West (MAGA) and now Russians killed in Syria by the West with little to no response from Russia other than "Its against international law" and authors like this that nonchalantly discard Russian lives as necessary for world peace.

Mr. Putin just needs to hand over the keys to Russia,,, for world peace of course.

[Sep 21, 2018] One must ask why Putin is acting this way.

Sep 21, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

[Sep 21, 2018] Israeli F-16s Scrambled to Cover Behind the Russian Il-20 Because They Had Been Painted by Syrian Air Defense Radars

Sep 21, 2018 | russia-insider.com

And so it starts. Russia must attack Israel, no -- she must obliterate it, Putin is "soft", the world is coming to an end, Zionists are in control of Kremlin, Russia turns another cheek. And on, and on, and on. The chorus of noble warriors with the evils of Zionism is getting louder with each day. Behind this hysteria surrounding the tragedy of Russian VKS' IL-20 somehow crucial and widely publicized news have been ignored completely. It is no surprise they were ignored by all kinds of "specialists" in strategy, politics, and armchair strategists (I am one myself). The news are pretty simple. Lt. General Alexander Ionov, former Deputy Chief of Main Staff of Russian Air Force from 1991 through 2001, stated to popular Russian media Zvezda that it is guaranteed that Syrian Air Defense forces were not provided with compatible IFF equipment and codes .

For those who don't know what IFF (Interrogator Friend-Foe) is -- it is electronic system which provides both a defense against friendly fire and easy radar identification of friendly forces. On older radar friendly forces would usually be marked with arches (below or above) radar marks of the targets and that is how one knows how not to shoot at them. The IFF technology is extremely sensitive as are the "codes" on which it runs. It wasn't provided, and for a good reason, to Syrian Forces. So, the question, in this case which will be asked by laymen is: but what about "full integration" of Russian and Syrian Air Defenses. It is a legitimate question.

... ... ...

Reaction of Israel following the events is telling -- she went into the full damage control mode with Netanyahu urgently calling Vladimir Putin. He offered the Commander of Israeli Air Force to be immediately on his way to Moscow, all diplomatic, informational, government channels between Israel and Russia got immediately engaged.

This was a very telling sign of a real panic and confusion on the Israeli side which also immediately offered condolences. This is not an act of war, as many would love it to be, some out of often justified hatred of Israel hoping for Russia to dispose of this "evil", others purely out of adrenalin rush in anticipation of TV picture of people killing each other.

But the issue of interaction between Russia and Syrian forces is real and it is not easily addressed for a number of purely military and cultural reasons. But some conclusions can already be made:

1. There will be no "annihilation" of Israel, nor will there be any shooting war between Russia and Jewish State as many would love and lust it to be;

2. There will, however, be some form of no-fly zone and as Vladimir Putin stated Russia will take " the steps that everyone will notice ." Obviously this important statement by the head of Russian State got drowned in the ocean of rage and speculations, and confusion I may add, but this has become a familiar pattern by now.

3. Issue of ROE and interaction -- the most important one. Specialists must review protocols and tactical procedures. Engagement caveats must be strictly enforced.

... ... ....

In the end, this tragedy, should serve as a real serious lesson and, in a military sense a warning that one better stick to the agreements or things may spiral out of control very fast . Israel decided that it is allowed to break agreements. Israel should ask Turkey what happens when one does Russia wrong -- Turkish Air Force knows it too well after shooting down Russian SU-24. It got grounded. Now Turkey is a situational ally of Iran and Russia in the region. As per larger geopolitical sense -- just wait and see. But I made myself explicit on that matter not for once. I might as well repeat myself -- dogs bark, but caravan passes on .

[Sep 21, 2018] Setting up the Russian Il-20 to Be Shot Down Is a Win-Win for Israel by Marko Marjanović

This story looks more and more strange: Il-20 was a military plane. why russina interceptors were not in the air immediately after Israeli planes approached Il-20? Were everybody drunk in the command center?
Sep 18, 2018 | russia-insider.com

Russia has no good options here. Russian military retaliation brings the absurdly pro-Israeli American public opinion and Washington establishment into play. Doing nothing signals weakness and invites more provocations

It's technically possible the Russian Il-20 surveillance plane was downed only as a result of stupidity and incompetence on the Israeli and Syrian side, and without a devious Israeli plan to set it up. Militaries almost always are among the stupidest and incompetent of all government bureaucracies so it's in the realm of possibility.

Nonetheless, the fact that Israel this time failed to give adequate warning to Russia is a strong indicator the IDF at the very least wanted to use the Russian plane there to cover their fighters, which it must have known would put it at a certain amount of risk. If so then I think Israel may have done it in safety of knowing that if a Russian plane is blown out of the sky by Syrians -- even if the IDF is ultimately responsible -- it's a win-win for Israel.

Think about it. Just hours after calling off the Idlib offensive in a massive concession to Erdogan and indirectly to the West, Putin is repaid by a Russian military plane being shot down as result of an Israeli attack on Syria. Talk about egg on face. When Turkey ambushed and shot down a Russian Su-24 on the Syrian-Turkish border in November 2015, Moscow limited its response to economic sanctions. This eventually helped moderate the extent of Turkish ambition in Syria. End to tomato imports however won't do much to impress Israel.

If Putin sticks to economic and diplomatic means of retaliation alone Russia will look comparatively weak. This will embolden the hawks in Washington who will have an easier time selling the idea pushing Russia around in Syria and hitting Assad does not actually risk WW3 – thus increasing the chances of what Israel really wants in Syria; more chaos and for the war to never end.

At the same time, if Russia retaliates militarily instead, this – thanks to the unparalleled amount of sympathy Israel enjoys in the US – also boosts the likelihood of what Israel wants. Imagine for example that Russia declares its forces in Syria will from now on under certain conditions actively participate in the defense of host country against Israeli airstrikes and actually fired against them the next time. What effect would that have? A likely result would be a war fever in the US. Wacky Protestant Evangelicals, Russia-hating Liberals and Trumpian Israel-Firsters could all unite under the banner of protecting tiny, pluck, democratic Israel from the menacing Russian bear. It would be like the narrative on the 2008 Georgian-Russian war (in which Georgia attacked the even tinnier South Ossetia along with Russian peacekeepers) except it would resonate far more so because it's sainted Israel.

For Russia its US relations would deteriorate even more, more US financial would be a certainty (it already is, but the pace would be ramped up), and the chance of US muscle stretching in Syria and the associated dangers of a US-Russian clash in the region would go up. Meanwhile for Israel the result would be a flurry of popular and diplomatic support from the Americans with a possible bump in military aid. Not a bad deal at all huh?

Inevitably whatever happens some will end up criticizing Putin for not doing enough to restore Russia's military honor. Other will question the wisdom of setting up shop in Syria in 2015 when Israelis and the Americans were already deeply involved in the conflict militarily and involving Russia in this dangerous mess in the first place. Both will be correct.

Correct also will be those who will note that Russia's intervention (any innocent civilians it killed or maimed aside) in Syria did a lot of good, but that neither Russia's nor Syria's position is all-powerful and that sometimes it's wiser to swallow your pride and keep your eyes on the finish line.

Of course, others will say that with Idlib offensive postponed and potentially called off for good, Putin may already be showing signs he may be happy, or may think it wiser, to leave things only half-finished.

[Sep 21, 2018] Alksnis question: "and the death of Il-20 and its crew? The defense Ministry tells us stories that Israeli fighters were hiding behind the Il-20, attacking Latakia, and so the Syrians shot down our plane. Why wasn't the Il-20 covered by our fighters?

Sep 21, 2018 | www.kp.md

Israeli F-16 really " hid " behind our Il-20. Not a fairy tale. We and the Syrians have documents of objective control. But "why Il-20 is not covered by our fighters" - this is now the leadership of the Ministry of defense and understands... It is a reasonable question.

On the one hand, we clearly stepped on the same rake.

And on the other Il-20 worked in the area of reach of our base in Hamim and his defense was enough of the modern s-400.

But the fact of the matter is that no one attacked him.

This is a tragic coincidence, multiplied by the provocation of the Israelis. I think conclusions will be drawn. And, in the near future.

[Sep 21, 2018] Great Interview on the Il-20 Shootdown With a Russian Air Defense Colonel by Viktor Baranets

A better translation of KP article
This story looks more and more strange: Il-20 was a military plane. Why Russian interceptors were not in the air immediately after Israeli planes approached Il-20? Were everybody drunk in the command center? Or have orders to stand down like in 9-11.
Notable quotes:
"... - What in your opinion, as a professional, could be the cause of the error of the Syrian air defense that brought down our IL-20? ..."
"... - By the way, does our Il have a system warning of a missile attack from the ground or from the air? ..."
"... - Why then did our Il not make an anti-missile maneuver, at least? ..."
"... - And how do you picture it? ..."
"... "But they say that we had such a deal with the Israelis as well?" ..."
"... - What kind of plane is it, IL-20? ..."
"... - What tasks could our Il-20 solve in the eastern part of the city, where he died? ..."
"... - Information has already leaked that the IL-20 allegedly tried to minimize the effectiveness of Israeli missile attacks on Latakia. Where are our military facilities? ..."
Sep 21, 2018 | russia-insider.com
- What in your opinion, as a professional, could be the cause of the error of the Syrian air defense that brought down our IL-20?

- There is in aviation such a tricky reception - "air camouflage". It seems that the Israelites used it. They gathered over our huge IL-20 on top of a sort of "stack", because of which the marks from both our reconnaissance aircraft and the Israeli F-16 merged. And the Syrian S-200 could not strike at them at that moment, since the "own-alien" identification system, sewn into the brains of anti-aircraft missile systems, did not allow it. But this system is only set up to prevent the rocket from launching on its own, but when it is already released, it can not be re-targeted.

However, the rocket itself is so arranged that its homing head catches a stronger signal. And the IL-20 reflecting the surface is much larger than that of the fighter. Naturally, the missile grabs the most powerful target and goes to it .

And then when the Israeli fighters changed course, on the screen of the C-200 there were marks of "stranger". And the Syrian air defense opened fire. Here, I am sure, our plane and ran into a "friendly" missile.

In addition, do not forget that the S-200 is an old weapon. And the training of Syrian air defense specialists, to put it mildly, often leaves much to be desired ...

- By the way, does our Il have a system warning of a missile attack from the ground or from the air?

- Of course have.

- Why then did our Il not make an anti-missile maneuver, at least?

- And how do you imagine such a maneuver of a huge airy machine? In which the area of ​​only one wing is 14 square meters! This is not a fighter that can tinker away and escape from the enemy's rocket ...

In any case, the perpetrators of the tragedy are the Israelis. They provoked her. And they must bear responsibility for this.

- And how do you picture it?

- Simply ritual statements, of course, will be too little. Our loyalty was dismissed by the Israelis! In a day they freely invade the airspace of sovereign Syria . And when we are asked, why our air defense in Syria allowed this, we somehow answer that we cover only our bases Khmeimim, Tartous and our own naval group in the Mediterranean.

After this tragedy, it would be logical to declare that we close the sky of Syria from uninvited guests and we will knock them down as enemy planes. In this case, of course, to close the space over Syria we would need a three times denser concentration of air defense systems.

Well, as for the armies and their allies, we allowed them to fly only in strictly defined zones and they do not yet poke their nose into other areas.

"But they say that we had such a deal with the Israelis as well?"

- Yes there is. Israelis bypass our facilities. They mainly "hammer" their enemy - "Hezbollah", but at the same time they strike not only military but also civilian Syrian targets. There are already a lot of sacrifices. It is time to put them in their place.

- What kind of plane is it, IL-20?

"Oh, I can tell you about it all day!" Both in the school, and in the academy passed the exams. Yes, and in Syria in the "womb" climbed ... But briefly, it is a plane of electronic intelligence and electronic warfare.

It is equipped with an infrared scanner, optical sensors. There is also a lateral radar.

There is a station of detailed electronic intelligence "Kvadrat-2" and radio intercept equipment "Cherry". At our VKS such planes of pieces 20. And all of them have passed a deep modernization. Our "Ilyusha" have well proven themselves in Syria, coordinating the attacks of the Russian Air Force on terrorists.

He also has another unique "chip" - he can correct the flight of the cruise missiles "Caliber" when they approach the target ... Do you remember the launch of our missiles from the water area of ​​the Caspian Sea? Their attacks would be less accurate, if not for the high-class work of the IL-20 operators. I will say more. Our ground-attack planes and bombers are precisely reaching the target, also with the help of IL-20 equipment. But enemy locators do not see them at this time, its anti-aircraft missile systems simply do not observe anything on their screens, thanks to the operation of the radio-electronic countermeasure equipment installed on our reconnaissance aircraft ...

What else? Still, the IL-20 has four powerful engines. They can provide the aircraft with a speed of up to 700 kilometers per hour. Empty it weighs somewhere under 34 tons. Can climb to a height of 10 kilometers ...

- What tasks could our Il-20 solve in the eastern part of the city, where he died?

- Such a universal machine is capable of solving many problems - from opening the air situation to jamming ...

- Information has already leaked that the IL-20 allegedly tried to minimize the effectiveness of Israeli missile attacks on Latakia. Where are our military facilities?

- I do not exclude that it had such a task.

[Sep 21, 2018] "The-French-frigate-shot-it-down" is yet another blatant diversion/dilution/dispersion narrative from the Masters of Narrative and their minions elsewhere and here, who know better than the Russian MoD

Sep 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

stonebird , Sep 20, 2018 9:42:35 AM | link

Peter @70
Here is the link to the Luongo article where he explains the idea that it was the French Frigate (L'Auvergne) which fired missiles, (Where? Were they the ones that shot down the Russian plane?) and who was to be the bait for a missile riposte by the Syrians. In order to provoke a NATO article 5 attack.
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/09/19/israel-failed-attempt-start-wwiii-beginning-end-syria.html

I have seen one tweet (unconfirmed) that says that Putin has closed air and Sea space off Syrian coastline. Logical, if they are looking for the remains of their plane with highly sensitive electronics on board. Also I suspect that this "exclusion zone" may become permanent.
------
General note; The above article is also on Zero hedge BUT; comments don't come up. I hope you are all aware that comments can be silenced at anytime and not necessarily by the web site itself. Happened to me about two months ago (FT). On contacting them, it "appears" it was due to something in my computer ad blocker. For various reasons this is probably not the reason. See also what happened to Paveway - I think censorship is far more prevalent than we assume. (Paveway; my sympathy, I found it was the frustration of not being able to post - that was difficult to support !)
-----
@85
It is also possible that the French were suckered in, easy enough probably to send a message saying "all systems go for an attack on Syria", by whoever wanted them to fire. ie Israel or US.

(@83. I had written the post above before your post "surfaced" and I saw it.)


John Gilberts , Sep 20, 2018 9:44:24 AM | link

Gift to the Sultan - Text of Russia-Turkey Agreement of September 17, 2018, Establishing Turkish Protectorate of Idlib

http://johnhelmer.net/gift-to-the-sultan-text-of-russia-turkey-agreement-of-september-17-2018-establishing-turkish-protectorate-of-idlib/#more-19788

Kiza , Sep 20, 2018 10:05:16 AM | link
"The-French-frigate-shot-it-down" is yet another blatant diversion/dilution/dispersion narrative from the Masters of Narrative and their minions elsewhere and here, who know better than the Russian MoD. Far from a binary choice in the movie, for each red pill the pill-pushers push hundreds of blue ones.
stonebird , Sep 20, 2018 10:12:38 AM | link
The comment on Putin closing Syrian air and Sea space comes from Haaretz, not an anonymous tweet - sorry.
Russ , Sep 20, 2018 10:34:43 AM | link
Posted by: xLemming | Sep 20, 2018 7:22:07 AM | 78

Zionism has NOTHING to do with Judaism!

Yes, Zionism started out an atheist movement with a Dawkinsesque contempt for Judaism. The Zionists only glommed onto Judaism in 1967 when they saw how a religious angle could enhance their war propaganda.

Sunny Runny Burger , Sep 20, 2018 10:57:50 AM | link
Everyone (including me) assumes way too much but I can't help interpret some recent stuff I read elsewhere (not here) as to imply that everyone is encouraged to object to a white lie so as to possibly encourage others to also consider it to be a white lie in the best interests of the entire world. So I'll do just that.

Spudski & Tony Cartalucci and then also pogohere, viking3, and Kondor speaks sense, at least from this perspective.

I feel no obligation to believe we know the truth about what happened nor do I believe the Russians truly expect anyone with critical thinking skills to necessarily believe that the fake jews (by any name or entity) managed to do anything but send some missiles into Syria. How close or far from the truth such an official line is doesn't seem all that important if what was at stake was a provocation and escalation into a much bigger war. Russia obviously and sanely does not want a bigger war because they know it will easily be the biggest and last war.

If the "dragging missiles" story is what it takes to do so then so be it. The story seems to require that:
- the missile IFF is locked on launch rather than actively reassessed until impact
- there is no destruction mechanism from missile control
- the missile doesn't distinguish between a fighter jet at some speed and a slow plane
- the missile potentially (depending on whether those jets buzzed the EW plane closely) didn't distinguish between chasing something far away and something suddenly being right in front of it
- the EW plane was powerless against an old-ish or at least export version of a missile produced by themselves
- the EW plane does not have a range of flares and evasive procedures
- the EW plane couldn't EW it out of existence
- the EW plane wasn't aware of the situation
- the EW plane wasn't aware of being locked on by the missile at any point
- the EW plane wasn't aware of the possibility of such
- the Russian (not Syrian) control of the integrated systems (both Russian and Syrian) as well as the superior Russian situational awareness in the region's airspace just sat idly by and didn't do anything between the launch and the missile coming anywhere close to the vicinity of the EW plane

To me it's a fucking tall order to believe all those things when instead it could be -- as examples -- :
- the fake jews shot it down
- the boiling frogs shot it down (figuratively run by a fake jew)
- the fake americans shot it down (figuratively run by a fake jew)
- the poor brits shot it down (figuratively run by a fake jewess)
- someone else did something
- something entirely different happened

At this point I would like to point out that even some fake jews are very nice people, in fact superbly awesomely nice people much nicer than me, but at the same time some other fake jews (like those "leaders" alluded to) obviously aren't anywhere close to nice, or sane, or intelligent, or even have a shred of a sense of actual self-preservation never mind a thought for the rest of us all.

So no I don't believe the Russians believe that anyone believes they actually want anyone to believe that story :D

Instead I think they want people like me and at least some others here to believe that they do know we won't believe it and that we'll instead believe it is whatever was required for Russia to salvage whatever they could from whatever actually happened. To make thing better from a bad situation rather than worse.

And then also that they want to encourage us to believe that and tell others we believe that by claiming they don't want us to do so...

And that is what I'll believe, but I might of course be utterly wrong :D

[Sep 20, 2018] AFP published a denial by France that it launched any missiles

Sep 20, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 , Sep 19, 2018 3:40:51 PM | link

Peter AU 1 @10--

AFP published a denial by France that it launched any missiles. Since Russia doesn't make false accusations like the Outlaw US Empire and its vassals, the French are likely lying. Viewing all the radar telemetry as specialists do would detail the entire attack--and there were numerous sea and land based Russian radars in action that evening. A question I've asked and not provided an answer as yet is related to many saying the flight plan of the IL-20 was known in advance so the attack could be prepared in advance: Was the IL-20 flight plan public knowledge? I know there're websites dedicated to tracking airplane flights, but do they include military aircraft (I looked at Plane Flight Tracker and Flight Radar24, which only seem to track civilian craft)?

Does knowing there was a deception plan involving the IL-20 made ahead with NATO collusion make any real difference in either the short or long term? Perhaps for the long term as the faulty policy's already been modified by establishing the no fly zone.

[Sep 20, 2018] If the military deconfliction agreement is similar to or the same as that with the US, then Israel should have given advance notice through that deconfliction channel. Going by statements by the Russian military and Putin, Israel has abused this agreement as did the US in their attack on Dier Ezzor.

Sep 20, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Peter AU 1 , Sep 19, 2018 4:18:54 PM | link

karlof1 16
From what I have read recently, Russia has a military deconfliction hotline with Israel the same as they do with US. With the US, this has involved giving each other advanced notice of flight plans and targets within Syria. The Israeli planes were in international airspace at the time, but was the IL in Syrian airspace when the attack took place. Russia may well have been giving Israel notice of Russian flight plans within Syria as part of the deconfliction agreement.
If the military deconfliction agreement is similar to or the same as that with the US, then Israel should have given advance notice through that deconfliction channel. Going by statements by the Russian military and Putin, Israel has abused this agreement as did the US in their attack on Dier Ezzor.


karlof1 , Sep 19, 2018 5:37:28 PM | link

Peter @22--

Info being disseminated/obtained through that channel was one of my unwritten possibilities, and it's quite likely that the IL-20 did a routine patrol along a similar route daily thus very predictable. Not much remaining to speculate on now. The policy's been drastically modified and announced for all to see as promised. I doubt if it will deter Zionist attacks against Syria from Jordanian airspace, but we'll need to just wait and see about that. If the French did indeed lie about their involvement, I'd expect their ambassador to Russia being called to the Kremlin to explain, but I haven't read any notice of that. IMO, this horse's now beaten to a pulp. At least we learned how many refused to see that Shoigu and Putin were on the same page thus revealing their previously hidden biases.

Peter AU 1 , Sep 19, 2018 6:38:00 PM | link
karlof1 30

The response by some of the regulars was disapointing... same happened in the leadup to the southwest offensive when many believed Putin had 'sold out' to Netanyahu.
I researched Putin in the months after MH17. He now has a long track record and never changes. The only thing predictable about Putin in a situation like this is he will pull off what nobody predicts.

oldenyoung , Sep 19, 2018 6:38:34 PM | link
finally got to the bottom of what i wanted to know...a ranking colonel in Russian military(2nd in command at AD system in HMeimim) gave a briefing(pain to translate)...

The s200 in syria does have a rudementary IFF system...but once it has locked a foe target and is launched, it cannot be retargeted...it chases its foe...the IDF pilots ran behind the IL20 and matched speed once they had been launched on...the s200 followed them and detonated on the largest piece in its target area, the IL20...just like a decoy...
so...the IDF provoked an s200 launch by attacking syria SAA positions and a government production facility, and then pulled in behind the IL20 to save their own asses...intentionally destroying it...
that is an outright blatant act of war...no wonder Ru military is MAD...they know what happened

regards

OY

spudski , Sep 19, 2018 7:26:10 PM | link
FWIW, Tony Cartalucci posted an article yesterday on NEO re the latest developments in Syria.

He concludes with the following:

"It is not to Russia's advantage to sink French frigates or expose the full capabilities of its air defense systems to shoot down a handful of Israeli warplanes to satisfy public desires for immediate revenge or to protect nonexistent notions of Russian invincibility.

Instead, it is to Russia's advantage to simply win the proxy war in Syria. Just as in 2015 when calls for immediate revenge were made regarding a Turkish-downed Russian warplane, Syria, Russia, and Iran will continue moving forward – slowly and methodically – to secure Syrian territory from foreign proxies seeking to divide and destroy the country, springboard into Iran, and eventually work their way into southern Russia.

Avenging serial provocations is infinitesimally less important than overall victory in Syria. The fate of Syria as a nation, Iran's security and stability as a result, and even Russia's own self-preservation is on the line. The awesome responsibility of those who have planned and executed Syria's incremental victory over proxy forces backed by the largest, most powerful economies and military forces on Earth could greatly benefit from a public able to understand the difference between short-term gratification and long-term success and how the former almost certainly and recklessly endangers the latter."

The greatest possible "revenge" to exact upon those who inflicted this war upon the Syrian people, is their absolute and total defeat.
https://journal-neo.org/2018/09/18/syrian-russian-victory-only-way-to-avenge-israeli-french-strikes/

oldenyoung , Sep 19, 2018 7:31:28 PM | link
smoothie on his blog has 2 links to the briefing by the 2nd in command of the AD battalion...i have trouble posting html links that i have had to translate...
regards

OY

oldenyoung , Sep 19, 2018 7:36:21 PM | link
http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2018/09/some-fast-thoughts-on-il-20.html

but here is the link to smoothies

regards

OY

[Sep 20, 2018] Decoding Putin's Response To Attack In Syria by Tom Luongo

Russia needs to be very careful as NATO has huge military advantage int he area.
Sep 20, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Tom Luongo,

The fog of war and geopolitics makes initial responses to the attack on Russian and Syrian forces recently difficult to assess.

Russian President Vladimir Putin's response seemed timid and was at odds with statements from his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and more recent statements from Russia's Foreign Ministry.

Putin backed off on explicitly blaming Israel for the downing of the IL-20 ELINT aircraft which killed 15 Russian servicemen, but made it clear he holds them responsible for the attack as a whole.

My thoughts on what the goals of the attack were are the focus of my latest article at Strategic Culture Foundation.

It was obvious to me that this attack was designed as a provocation to start World War III in Syria and blame the Russians for attacking a NATO member without proper cause , since the Syrian air defense forces were the ones responsible for shooting down the plane.

Lying us into war is a time-honored American political tradition, whether we're talking Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor or the Gulf of Tonkin. All of these incidents were avoidable by Presidents intent on getting into a conflict while simultaneously playing the victim card by getting the other side to shoot first.

I'm sorry if that is a controversial statement but the historical record on them is very, very clear.

From Strategic Culture:

The setup is pretty clear. Israel and France coordinated an attack on multiple targets within Syria without US involvement but with absolute US knowledge of the operation to provoke Russia into going off half-cocked by attacking the inconsequential French frigate which assisted Israel's air attack.

Any denunciation of sinister intent by Israeli Defense Forces is hollow because if they had not intended to provoke a wider conflict they would have given Russia more than one minute to clear their planes from the area .

That would constitute an attack on a NATO member state and require a response from NATO, thereby getting the exact escalation needed to continue the war in Syria indefinitely and touch off WWIII.

This neatly bypasses any objections to a wider conflict by President Trump who would have to respond militarily to a Russian attack on a NATO ally. It also would reassert NATO's necessity in the public dialogue, further marginalizing Trump's attacks on it and any perceived drive of his for peace.

Now take that basic, honestly off-the-cuff, analysis of what happened and mix it with a skillful bit of decoding of Russia's statements on the attacks by Fort Russ News and you have, I think, a pretty clear picture of what the intent was and why P utin seemed to downplay the event calling it a " chain of tragic circumstances, because the Israeli plane didn't shoot down our jet."

My hat is off to Joachin Flores for his analysis here. It is long and involved and worth your time to read. I will summarize it here. His thesis? Putin is trying to save Russian/French relations by not naming France as the culprit for the lost plane and the 15 men.

That Russia noted French missile launches but didn't say what or who they hit. And before the Russians said anything about the attack the French denied they had any involvement in the attack.

Instead, Russia went along with the story the U.S. et.al. prepared in advance, which doesn't fit what facts we know about the situation, that Syrian Air Defenses shot down the IL-20 by mistake.

Both the French denial and the U.S. statements about Syrian air defenses being the culprit came before anything official came from the Russians.

This is a classic "preparing the narrative" technique used by the West all the time. Seize the story, plant seeds of doubt and put your opponent into a rhetorical box they can't wiggle out of with the truth.

MH-17, Skripal, Crimea, chemical weapons attacks in Ghouta, Douma etc. These operations are scripted.

And Flores is exactly right that this script was going off as planned with one small problem.

The Russians went along with it.

Russia, and Putin, did the one thing that makes this whole thing look like a frame job, it accepted the narrative of Israeli malfeasance in the interest of stopping a wider conflict by accusing and/or attacking a NATO member, France.

Flores makes the salient point that the S-200 friendly fire scenario is highly unlikely. That, in fact, France shot down the plane, was prepared to accept blame (which it did by preemptively denying it was involved) and destroy what was left of Russian/French relations.

Now Russia can use the excuse of Israeli betrayal as justification for upgrading Syria's air defenses. Citing the very thing that caused the tragic death of their soldiers, antiquated air defense systems which didn't properly identify friend from foe.

It may be a lie, but since when did that matter in geopolitics?

And as I point out in my other article

This is Israel's worst nightmare. A situation where any aerial assault on targets within Syria would be suicide missions, puncturing the myth of the Israeli air force's superiority and shifting the delicate balance of power in Syria decidedly against them.

This is why Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu worked Putin so hard over the last two years. But, this incident wipes that slate clean. This was a cynical betrayal of Putin's trust and patience. And Israel will now pay the price for their miscalculation.

Giving Syria S-300's does not avenge the fifteen dead Russian soldiers. Putin will have to respond to that in a more concrete way to appease the hardliners in his government and at home. His patience and seeming passivity are being pushed to their limit politically. This is, after all, a side benefit to all of this for the neoconservative and globalist hawks in D.C., Europe and Tel Aviv.

But, the real loss here for Israel will be Russia instituting a no-fly zone over western Syria. Any less response from Putin will be seized upon by and the situation will escalate from here. So, Putin has to deploy S-300's here. And once that happens, the real solution to Syria begins in earnest.

And it means that if the FUKUS alliance -- France, the U.K. and the U.S. -- want an invasion of Syria they will have to do so openly without a casus belli. And this is something we have avoided for five years now.

Because lying us into war is how we maintain the illusion of fighting wars of conquest under the rubric of Christian Just War Theory which supports our national spirit of manifest destiny.

* * *

Join my Patreon because you don't like war-mongers.


turkey george palmer , 15 hours ago

Ok, what of the assets mixed in with the idlib bunch. The FUKUS has pretty valuable people in that group and maybe some information the west dos not want made available to Russia. I think Putin can get some of those people and use them.

There's some other things the US has over there that they don't want anyone to be able to show on TV

africoman , 18 hours ago

With the downing of the IL-20 ELINT aircraft which killed 15 Russian servicemen, by the aggressions of Israhell

Putin's response seemed timid/weak and was at odds with strong statements from his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu who put the blame directly on Israhell condemning and more recent statements from Russia's Foreign Ministry.

Putin backed off on explicitly blaming Israel, saying it was chain of reaction that caused the situation etc instead of pining it to that parasite

Yes, i observed the tondown by Putin, maybe we don't know the big boys like Putin knew what is at stake than 15 Russian service men,RIP

It seems to me Putin/Russia is in the game for greater good than such provocation by the middle finger and are paying dearly.

Russia didn't stick her nake for nothing as i said above,geopolitics and long term national interest etc

The attack by Israhell came just after the "Idlib liberation deconfliction zone" deal reached with Russia/Putin & Turkey/Erdogan after many hours of talk

That was something, not seen/wanted by the enemy of Syria.

So it was expected, provokation?

Maybe Putin's answer/response not verbally, it would gonna come practically, by ratcheting up the defensive shield of Russian position and eventually upgrading Syrian air defense, as both are now targeted if they pursue liberating Idlib from the filthy jihadist infestations, including Iran.

The USA/UK warned Russia/Syria/Iran if they dare touch their 'rebel boys' then we will respond UNSC dramatic talk on which what i found it interesting was that

the Syrian ambassador to UN,Dr.Bashar Jaafari exposed their hypocrisy asking the absurdity that if they will let say 15,000 'rebels' aka terrorist in manchester city doing terrorism and they will let Russia wanted to do same.

So i see toning down of Vlad is good in avoiding another provocation by Israhell/USA

One can see, Israhell blamed Syria right, then if Syria increased her ability of defense then that will be seen as danger/aggression by Israhell

that is the statu quo there, criminals

OverTheHedge , 20 hours ago

There is another interpretation, over at MoonOfAlabama, which seems to be more sensible than the doom-laden war-mongering rhetoric in this article.

As explained at this blog: http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2018/09/some-fast-thoughts-on-il-20.html

1. Israel and Russia have a deconfliction agreement, so Russia would have notified Israel about its IL-20 flight plans.

2. Israel would have agreed not to have fighter aircraft in that area, as part of the agreement.

3. Israeli fighter planes used the IL-20 to mask their run in, which is a breach of the agreement, and just rude, frankly. Israel appears to believe that agreements don't apply.

4. The Syrian air defence saw the Israeli planes, targeted and locked on. Panic in the cockpit.

5. The Israeli pilot(s) used the bulk of the IL-20 to mask their radar reflection, and the S-200 missile, being old and dim, went for the biggest radar cross-section. In other words, the Israeli pilot saved his life by sacrificing the russian plane. Note that the missile itself doesn't do IFF, and can't be recalled or retargeted once it is in the air. It has a brain that an Atari 200 would be embarrassed by.

Whether this was in the plan, or just a brown trouser moment, is another question. If there happened to be a civilian airliner in the vacinity, would the Israeli pilot have done the same?

So, Israel is at fault for ignoring the agreement with Russia, and attacking despite russian presence in a restricted area. It all went wrong. Lots of Israeli damage control with Russia - offers to send the Israeli air force commander to Moscow to grovel in person, etc. You can conspiracy theory as much as you like, and the French missile is not included in the above, but I like ****-up over conspiracy, and idiot commanders not considering the consequences more likely than vast overarching 200 move secret plans to rule the universe by Thursday.

NB - the above is not my work, just in case you thought I was clever (unlikely, I know).

rita , 21 hours ago

Putin as usual is brilliant, unlike the others who are continually trigger happy trying desperately to inflate the situation in Syria!

RG_Canuck , 21 hours ago

Agreed, but I would like to see Putin grab that little frog by the te$ticle$ until he gets on the ground and begs for mercy.

Posa , 22 hours ago

I totally agree with this interpretation. The tide is running with Russia-friendly right-wing European parties who eventually will depose the Macron- Merkel axis, thanks to the Social Dems accepting a flood of refugees from Bush-Clinton-Obama Regime Change War Crimes. The writing is on the wall and Putin does not want to disrupt the inevitable flow of events by being suckered into firing the first shots.

Loss of personnel and aircraft is accepted as war-time casualties... BUT I also agree that retaliation will be more subtle, coming in the form of upgrades to defense of Syrian air space defense. Of course, if Putin really wants to stick it to France- Israel he can also complete the deal with Iran to sell the S series upgrades to Iran.

BrownCoat , 22 hours ago

Some of the interpretation is accurate. Some is Russian spin. The part I liked best was:

"whether we're talking Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor or the Gulf of Tonkin."

Darn right accurate! I would have added WMD's in Iraq to the list.

indus creed , 12 hours ago

According to Joel Skousen, Russia and China are not yet militarily ready to take on West. Then again, Skousen used to be a CIA asset. Whom to believe these days?

Joiningupthedots , 23 hours ago

It changes nothing.

Russia, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah won the war.

The West is desperately trying to turn Syria into another Libya and is desperately failing.

ZeroLounger , 23 hours ago

A video on one of the links describes large quantities of captagon were seized, along with motorcycles and weapons, near Palmyra.

So a war fueled by meth, basically.

thisandthat , 11 hours ago

Always was, at least since ww2

Is-Be , 23 hours ago

Because lying us into war is how we maintain the illusion of fighting wars of conquest under the rubric of Christian Just War Theory which supports our national spirit of manifest destiny

I'm getting the distinct impression that monotheism is a very bad idea.

A curse upon Charlemagne the Butcher and Oathbreaker!

Captain Nemo de Erehwon , 1 day ago

The fog of war and geopolitics makes initial responses to the attack on Russian and Syrian forces recently difficult to assess.

That would have been excellent one-line article. But no. We have to expand on it.

Yellow_Snow , 12 hours ago

Just heard that Russia is indeed setting up a 'No Fly Zone' and will be doing Naval training/testing in zones around Syria... between 0 and 19000 altitude

IsaHell has attacked Syria by air 200 times while the world has stood by...

S-400 needs to get deployed - now is the time - what's the point of having these SAM's and never using them...

Needs to stop

DEMIZEN , 1 day ago

the Russian heads will stay cool. militarily, it is too early to move in and go full ****** with air defences the Jews are too close and will study their gear and structure.

Russian voter is beginning to rise eyebrows i assume, and Putins reputation is taking a hit. i bet there will some tough Putin videos following this mess to restore his image in public. Russian public wants Jewish blood, but i cant see a good immediate response.Revenge is best served cold.

this mess will be followed up with more gear and more training for SAA, you cant blame Syrian Army for any of this, they sacrifice two dozens of soldiers on a good day. most of Syria SAM crews were executed in the first months of the war.

ships will keep coming. SAA will keep growing, Russians will likely focus on Ukraine and EU diplomacy now. Assad and Kurds need to sit down and look at the option. Opposition in idlib will disarm or die.Guerillas w/o insignia will keep hitting SDF. US will leave AL Tanf. Its going to be a slow winter.

BrownCoat , 22 hours ago

Putin's reputation is not taking a hit!

What did Israel achieve in this attack? No one is reporting. Maybe Israel wanted to hit Iranian militia units that were concentrating for the attack on Idlib before the units were redeployed. We don't know.
Israel did not claim any success, just an attack without the loss of any F-16s.

In the eyes of Russians, Putin stood up to the "evil empire" once again. The cost was 15 soldiers. Russian's mothers are very vocal about sons coming home in body bags. That causes social unrest. Support for Putin does not waver however. The deaths are the price Russia pays to protect the mother land.

The author is correct that Putin's restraint shows skill and courage. Putin's weakness was assigning blame for the 15 soldiers. Assigning blame was probably the work of some sycophantic underlings.

turkey george palmer , 15 hours ago

Ok, what of the assets mixed in with the idlib bunch. The FUKUS has pretty valuable people in that group and maybe some information the west dos not want made available to Russia. I think Putin can get some of those people and use them.

There's some other things the US has over there that they don't want anyone to be able to show on TV

africoman , 18 hours ago

With the downing of the IL-20 ELINT aircraft which killed 15 Russian servicemen, by the aggressions of Israhell

Putin's response seemed timid/weak and was at odds with strong statements from his Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu who put the blame directly on Israhell condemning and more recent statements from Russia's Foreign Ministry.

Putin backed off on explicitly blaming Israel, saying it was chain of reaction that caused the situation etc instead of pining it to that parasite

Yes, i observed the tondown by Putin, maybe we don't know the big boys like Putin knew what is at stake than 15 Russian service men,RIP

It seems to me Putin/Russia is in the game for greater good than such provocation by the middle finger and are paying dearly.

Russia didn't stick her nake for nothing as i said above,geopolitics and long term national interest etc

The attack by Israhell came just after the "Idlib liberation deconfliction zone" deal reached with Russia/Putin & Turkey/Erdogan after many hours of talk

That was something, not seen/wanted by the enemy of Syria.

So it was expected, provokation?

Maybe Putin's answer/response not verbally, it would gonna come practically, by ratcheting up the defensive shield of Russian position and eventually upgrading Syrian air defense, as both are now targeted if they pursue liberating Idlib from the filthy jihadist infestations, including Iran.

The USA/UK warned Russia/Syria/Iran if they dare touch their 'rebel boyes' then we will respond UNSC dramatic talk on which what i found it interesting was that

the Syrian ambassador to UN,Dr.Bashar Jaafari exposed their hypocrisy asking the absurdity that if they will let say 15,000 'rebels' aka terrorist in manchester city doing terrorism and they will let Russia wanted to do same.

So i see toning down of Vlad is good in avoiding another provocation by Israhell/USA

One can see, Israhell blamed Syria right, then if Syria increased her ability of defense then that will be seen as danger/aggression by Israhell

that is the statu quo there, criminals

pluto the dog , 19 hours ago

To paraphrase Jean-Marie le Pen- Putin has described the Jewish takeover of Russia in 1917 and the slaughter of 62

million Christian Slavs that followed as "an incident of history" - and best forgotten.

Putin is so deep in bed with Jewish oligarchs - and Bibi - it aint funny. LOL

Pleas note - the figure of 62 million dead is the most accurate yet. Was deduced by researchers who had access to Kremlin archives for short period of time after the Soviet Union imploded. So round that down to approx. 60 million and you will be safely in the ball park.

Mustahattu , 20 hours ago

FUKUS alliance? More like FUCKUS alliance.

OverTheHedge , 20 hours ago

There is another interpretation, over at MoonOfAlabama, which seems to be more sensible than the doom-laden war-mongering rhetoric in this article.

As explained at this blog: http://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2018/09/some-fast-thoughts-on-il-20.html

1. Israel and Russia have a deconfliction agreement, so Russia would have notified Israel about its IL-20 flight plans.

2. Israel would have agreed not to have fighter aircraft in that area, as part of the agreement.

3. Israeli fighter planes used the IL-20 to mask their run in, which is a breach of the agreement, and just rude, frankly. Israel appears to believe that agreements don't apply.

4. The Syrian air defence saw the Israeli planes, targeted and locked on. Panic in the cockpit.

5. The Israeli pilot(s) used the bulk of the IL-20 to mask their radar reflection, and the S-200 missile, being old and dim, went for the biggest radar cross-section. In other words, the Israeli pilot saved his life by sacrificing the russian plane. Note that the missile itself doesn't do IFF, and can't be recalled or retargeted once it is in the air. It has a brain that an Atari 200 would be embarrassed by.

Whether this was in the plan, or just a brown trouser moment, is another question. If there happened to be a civilian airliner in the vacinity, would the Israeli pilot have done the same?

So, Israel is at fault for ignoring the agreement with Russia, and attacking despite russian presence in a restricted area. It all went wrong. Lots of Israeli damage control with Russia - offers to send the Israeli air force commander to Moscow to grovel in person, etc. You can conspiracy theory as much as you like, and the French missile is not included in the above, but I like ****-up over conspiracy, and idiot commanders not considering the consequences more likely than vast overarching 200 move secret plans to rule the universe by Thursday.

NB - the above is not my work, just in case you thought I was clever (unlikely, I know).

not-me---it-was-the-dog , 20 hours ago

" If there happened to be a civilian airliner in the vacinity, would the Israeli pilot have done the same? "

only civilian airliners over syria......as far as i can tell, are from iran. so, answer would be yes.

Southerly Buster , 18 hours ago

Have you not just described the 'official' story, a " chain of tragic circumstances."

Nothing 'alternative' or 'clever' with the MoA's interpretation.

not-me---it-was-the-dog , 21 hours ago

no-fly zone over western syria? no.

no-fly zone over lebanon.

.........you read it here first.

rita , 21 hours ago

Putin as usual is brilliant, unlike the others who are continually trigger happy trying desperately to inflate the situation in Syria!

RG_Canuck , 21 hours ago

Agreed, but I would like to see Putin grab that little frog by the te$ticle$ until he gets on the ground and begs for mercy.

Posa , 22 hours ago

I totally agree with this interpretation. The tide is running with Russia-friendly right-wing European parties who eventually will depose the Macron- Merkel axis, thanks to the Social Dems accepting a flood of refugees from Bush-Clinton-Obama Regime Change War Crimes. The writing is on the wall and Putin does not want to disrupt the inevitable flow of events by being suckered into firing the first shots.

Loss of personnel and aircraft is accepted as war-time casualties... BUT I also agree that retaliation will be more subtle, coming in the form of upgrades to defense of Syrian air space defense. Of course, if Putin really wants to stick it to France- Israel he can also complete the deal with Iran to sell the S series upgrades to Iran.

BrownCoat , 22 hours ago

Some of the interpretation is accurate. Some is Russian spin. The part I liked best was:

"whether we're talking Fort Sumter, Pearl Harbor or the Gulf of Tonkin."

Darn right accurate! I would have added WMD's in Iraq to the list.

indus creed , 12 hours ago

According to Joel Skousen, Russia and China are not yet militarily ready to take on West. Then again, Skousen used to be a CIA asset. Whom to believe these days?

Joiningupthedots , 23 hours ago

It changes nothing.

Russia, Syria, Iran and Hezbollah won the war.

The West is desperately trying to turn Syria into another Libya and is desperately failing.

ZeroLounger , 23 hours ago

A video on one of the links describes large quantities of captagon were seized, along with motorcycles and weapons, near Palmyra.

So a war fueled by meth, basically.

thisandthat , 11 hours ago

Always was, at least since ww2

Is-Be , 23 hours ago

Because lying us into war is how we maintain the illusion of fighting wars of conquest under the rubric of Christian Just War Theory which supports our national spirit of manifest destiny

I'm getting the distinct impression that monotheism is a very bad idea.

A curse upon Charlemagne the Butcher and Oathbreaker!

Baron Samedi , 23 hours ago

Had my champagne and a bottle of potassium iodide in my pocket ...

dibiase , 23 hours ago

" Join my Patreon because you don't like war-mongers."

nice touch. 181 people pay 1500 a month a for few articles like this a month...

gdpetti , 23 hours ago

Israel is a kill zone anyway, no smart 'Jews' live there, only psychos and the downtroddened Palestinians and other 'jews'... christians, moslem etc.

Russia has to deal with its own "Jews" and Western friendlies remember: http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=176526

Like China, Putin is thinking the long game... not a quick score before the next commercial timeout... and he's a chess player, so thinking ahead to the next set of moves is the norm.... when this is lost, so is life.. think of Caesar as an example of those that don't know when to say when... when to stop and smell the roses... when to consolidate operations before the next set are begun.

What will the West do when their plans do go as planned? Sit around in the Med Sea for how long? The Kurds will get played as the fools they are, same as always... this is the basic script of all of our lives here in 'Purgatory'.. a school in self conscious awareness.. and this is how we learn.... how many times does a lesson need to repeat before we learn? THink of the example of Neo in that film 'The Matrix'.... "You've been done that street before Neo..."

15 lives lost.... but no excuse yet given to start WW3 and lose many, many more... the idiot puppets in the Western capitals get frustrated and lose their sanity.. as their OWO puppet show is steered over the cliff by their own puppet masters in the SG... 'out with the OWO, in with the NWO'... the best puppets are those that never even think they could be one.... and so it goes.

pluto the dog , 23 hours ago

Putins in bed with Bibi just like Trump is. And Putins daughter is married to a ******* ****. Does that sound familiar?

Yous are gonna be waitin a long time for WW3 to start

Blankone , 22 hours ago

What? Is Putin's daughter really married to a ***.

Holy ---, Just like all of Trump's kids who have married.

Damn

pluto the dog , 20 hours ago

Putins daughter now divorced from his buddy Nikolai Shamalovs son Kirill

no one in Russia is allowed to talk about this stuff

below link takes you to photo of Nikolai Shamalov. Please examine photo - looks very ashkenazi to me LOL

https://www.stormfront.org/forum/t1136705/

Blankone , 6 hours ago

The links of the stormfront article lay things out well.

I have the bad feeling again. I knew Putin's background was Russian mafia/corruption in taking over from Yeltsin and that Putin was catering to the jews, but this was a surprise.

Damn

Jung , 20 hours ago

She is married to a Dutchman and many were angry with them about MH17, so they left the Netherlands. Don't worry about what he is, Putin knows his Grand Chessboard and has to avoid problems with his fifth column in Russia (a group of Jewish people with a lot of clout.

One of these is not like the others.. , 23 hours ago

12$ a month!

Who do you think I am, Rothschild??

(I looked at the patreon link).

Is-Be , 23 hours ago

Here's a novel idea, France.

How about protecting France? It is, after all, called a Defence Force.

Or do tired eyes deceive me?

RG_Canuck , 21 hours ago

Defence Farce, more like it.

ZeroLounger , 23 hours ago

It appears that Armageddon is underway before our very eyes.

Buy stawks.

Is-Be , 23 hours ago

You have Armageddon, we have Ragnarok.

The difference is, we don't lust after Ragnarok.

Odin fears Ragnarok, for his doom is fortold.

Only Ask and Embla survive Ragnarok.

eyesofpelosi , 20 hours ago

Yes, the three (***/christian/islam) "*** cults" really WANT the end for all things. Sickening, childish, and...evil. I'm a follower of Hela for the most part, yet I do not "rush what is inevitable" either, lol.

terrific , 23 hours ago

The FUKUS alliance. Who thought that one up? It's hilarious.

FreeEarCandy , 23 hours ago

A false flag attack on any Christian historical site within Israel is all Israel needs to do to drag the west into starting WW3. Historically, we know Israel has special place in their heart for Christians.

besnook , 1 day ago

putin will respond in a way to get the most roi. he played this masterfully. concede on issues when you have a lot to gain and nothing to lose.

tel aviv has a red dot on it's forehead now.

Captain Nemo de Erehwon , 1 day ago

The fog of war and geopolitics makes initial responses to the attack on Russian and Syrian forces recently difficult to assess.

That would have been excellent one-line article. But no. We have to expand on it.

Yellow_Snow , 1 day ago

Russia should use Syria as a testing ground for the S-400 and the new S-500 systems... A No fly Zone and 'hot' testing site

BrownCoat , 22 hours ago

It would be nice for the West, but...

1. Creating a No Fly Zone would force Russia to respond to any infraction. That reduces Putin's options and diverts effort from Russia's objectives in Syria.

2. Installing S-400 or S-500 or S-999 would only show Israel and the US the capabilities of these advanced weapon systems. According to the author, the S-300 is sufficient to keep Israeli planes in check.

Yellow_Snow , 12 hours ago

Just heard that Russia is indeed setting up a 'No Fly Zone' and will be doing Naval training/testing in zones around Syria... between 0 and 19000 altitude

IsaHell has attacked Syria by air 200 times while the world has stood by...

S-400 needs to get deployed - now is the time - what's the point of having these SAM's and never using them...

Needs to stop

caconhma , 1 day ago

Prostitutin is a CIA asset and a total POS.

Shemp 4 Victory , 23 hours ago

Yeah, you're the adequacy, of course.

Your reactions are worthy of Pavlov's dog. You, I suppose, were trained with the same methods.

Victor999 , 21 hours ago

Throw him a treat.

Anunnaki , 1 day ago

Putin is a Ziomist

Brazen Heist II , 1 day ago

Rooting for the collapse of FUKUS and Pissraeli imperialism.

But evil takes time to weaken because evil still has much more power than it deserves.

Putin is playing the long game, he knows these devils don't value anything they preach, and they are sore losers about Syria, and he is neutering their scumbag behaviour, which may seem like acquiesence to some, but it is merely realpolitik because he knows the FUKUS + Pissrael can overpower Russia if they are united, esp when Russia is seen to strike back with force directly.

They were united in Syria until their ragtag army of headchoppers fell apart, thanks to Russian and Iranian realpolitik. So Russia, like China and Iran, is biding its time and deflecting some big hits, taking a few blows, but they are in it for the victory in the long run which means weakening the FUKUS + Pissraeli imperialist alliance through attrition and clever maneuvering.

ThanksChump , 1 day ago

This analysis is compelling. It would be nice to have corroborating evidence that it was the French vessel that shot down the IL-20, but even without that evidence, this story satisfies the Occam's Razor test. This was a major gamble against a better player.

So, is Assad going to get new S-300 or new S-400 systems? The Iranians might feel slighted if Assad gets S-400s.

DEMIZEN , 1 day ago

the Russian heads will stay cool. militarily, it is too early to move in and go full ****** with air defences the Jews are too close and will study their gear and structure.

Russian voter is beginning to rise eyebrows i assume, and Putins reputation is taking a hit. i bet there will some tough Putin videos following this mess to restore his image in public. Russian public wants Jewish blood, but i cant see a good immediate response.Revenge is best served cold.

this mess will be followed up with more gear and more training for SAA, you cant blame Syrian Army for any of this, they sacrifice two dozens of soldiers on a good day. most of Syria SAM crews were executed in the first months of the war.

ships will keep coming. SAA will keep growing, Russians will likely focus on Ukraine and EU diplomacy now. Assad and Kurds need to sit down and look at the option. Opposition in idlib will disarm or die.Guerillas w/o insignia will keep hitting SDF. US will leave AL Tanf. Its going to be a slow winter.

nowhereman , 1 day ago

OOOH Nastradamus

DEMIZEN , 1 day ago

i actually knew your were going to comment.

BrownCoat , 22 hours ago

Putin's reputation is not taking a hit!

What did Israel achieve in this attack? No one is reporting. Maybe Israel wanted to hit Iranian militia units that were concentrating for the attack on Idlib before the units were redeployed. We don't know.
Israel did not claim any success, just an attack without the loss of any F-16s.

In the eyes of Russians, Putin stood up to the "evil empire" once again. The cost was 15 soldiers. Russian's mothers are very vocal about sons coming home in body bags. That causes social unrest. Support for Putin does not waver however. The deaths are the price Russia pays to protect the mother land.

The author is correct that Putin's restraint shows skill and courage. Putin's weakness was assigning blame for the 15 soldiers. Assigning blame was probably the work of some sycophantic underlings.

sevensixtwo , 1 day ago

Who's going to say, "The Israelis attacked behind the Russian plane because they knew it would mess up the radar on the S-200?"

BrownCoat , 22 hours ago

We don't know what caused the IL-20 destruction. Was it a French rocket? Was it a Syrian or Russian working the missile defense system? My hunch is "friendly fire," but I wasn't there.

Hindsight, the pilot should have disobeyed his flight plan and left the theater when the SHTF. The plane could have landed in Cyprus. The pilot would have gotten grief (and probably a demotion), but he would have saved the plane and its crew.

Mister Ponzi , 15 hours ago

You're making the mistake to let your emotions dominate your analysis. First, Russia does not owe Syria (or any other Arab country for that matter) anything. As The Saker some time ago rightly pointed out: Where was the Arab support for Russia in Chechenya or Georgia? Which Arab country does recognize the indepence of Abkhasia, South Ossetia or Transnistria? What was their reaction to Western sanctions against Russia? And how do they support Russia in the case of Donbass or Crimea? Russia is in Syria only for her own interest and will do the things that help her most. This will support the Assad government only in those areas where the interest is aligned. If it were in Russian interest (which it isn't) they wouldn't hesitate to get rid of Assad. Second, of course they give their S400s to Turkey because Turkey is the big prize out there strategically. Sure, Erdogan is a despicable politicians whose actions evoke memories of the darkest periods of the Ottoman Empire. But Russian foreign policy is not driven by the hysterical human rights howling the West usually displays (but only against governments that are not pro-Western) but by Realpolitik. You may welcome it or reject it you must always analyze Russian foreign policy through this lens. Would Russia tear Turkey out of the NATO phalanx if they could? Of course! Turkey would be a tremendous loss for NATO strategically. This explains Russia's attitude towards Erdogan including the chatter that it was Putin who warned Erdogan of the coup that was underway. Third, the claim that Russia is too passive has been discussed so extensively that anyone who wanted to understand the arguments of both sides and to weigh the pros and cons could have done so, therefore, I'm not going to repeat the discussion here. For those who do not support warmongering or cry "*****" all the time you can find a more balanced analysis of the Russian position here:

http://thesaker.is/reply-to-paul-craig-roberts-crucial-question/

zoghead , 1 day ago

Obviously a well planned operation and huge assault. No one is talking of the missiles fired on Homs, Tartus and Latakia.

"One minute notice" by Israel, is patently unfair.

And the innocent US who took no part, but had a few nuclear subs and half a dozen warships loaded and ready . . waiting for high noon!

Putin needs to get serious, or this will repeat in short time.

FBaggins , 1 day ago

Putin in dealing with three sociopath governments of three sociapathetic nations (Isreal, the UK and the US) whose people are unable to elect leaders independent of the the sociopath unelected puppet masters. He is not going to take the death of 15 servicemen lightly and the sociopaths know this, but he is also not going to start WWIII over the incident. Sociopaths like Netanyahu who want to escalate conflict in the area for the growth of Israel are unpredictable.

Putin's job is to drive out the terrorist and stabilize the nation which is exactly the opposite of what Israel, the UK and the US set out to do, but those nations continue to support and even pay the terrorist insurgents they initially sent into Syria. They are sociopaths because they do not give a rap about all of the killing and destruction they have directly caused with their destabilization and regime change efforts to serve their own designs. The entire world is aware of their crimes and increasingly will turn away from any reliance on these nations or on their money.

The Ram , 1 day ago

FUKUS - forgot the 'I'. Should be written - I FUK US The 'I' being the real leader of the pack.

Posa , 22 hours ago

Wrong. Getting into a shooting war at precisely the time when the US poodles in the EU are ripe to be deposed would be a huge strategic mistake WHICH THE Anglo-Americans ARE TRYING to provoke... not taking the bait is a smart move... in contrast to the USSR in Afghanistan, for example, which became their Vietnam.

justdues , 1 day ago

Here is the oh so predictable Blankbrain with his usual demands that Putin act like a punch drunk street thug and lash out at every provocation . Putin is way smarter than you CIA/Mossad boy and those of us that aint in a hurry to see our loved ones vaporised thank God for that.

[Sep 20, 2018] Every time one of these incidents happens, a flood of "chicken-hawks" come out of the woodwork demanding that Russia should "release the S700s" and "shoot everything down," etc.

Notable quotes:
"... Russia has a clear mission in Syria: that is to re-establish control of Syria for the Assad government and prevent radical Islamic groups from taking over and using Syria as a home (and a launching pad for exporting their twisted views back into Russia). Once that happens, if they are smart, they will go home. Avoiding entanglements with countries like Turkey and Israel are part of that goal. To get themselves embroiled into the vipers nest (like the Americans have done) would be pure stupidity. ..."
"... So yes, Russia will likely do nothing about this, except perhaps change their own tactics to make it less likely to happen again. ..."
"... But this incident does do one very important thing: it exposes the complete and utter fraud and moral bankruptcy of the zionist controlled west and their corporate media who will not report this story and will decline to comment on why exactly Israel gets to bomb Syria at will. ..."
"... NoseytheDuke , says: September 19, 2018 at 7:12 am GMT ..."
"... I have to say that this comment reveals you to be the adult in the comments 'room' so far Greg. ..."
"... Kiza , says: September 19, 2018 at 4:39 pm GMT ..."
"... Here is an excellent summary in English from the Russian state cominiques: http://johnhelmer.org/?p=17934#more-17934 . ..."
"... The only totally wrong thing in this article is the discussion whether the IFF of the Russian S200 system should have prevented the shoot-down of a friendly plane (both made in the same country). Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) is a system which prevents the launching of a missile against your own plane in a complex air battle environment. Now the Jewish 5th column in Russia is muddying the water (they are good at this) saying that it is a Russian screw up being blamed on Israel and John Helmer appears to have picked this up as fact. ..."
"... But, the truth is that IFF works to prevent a launch against a friendly target. It also prevents the missile from hitting a friendly plane under the standard mode of operation of targeting radars called CW. But CW mode is also a major vulnerability of targeting radars, because it can be jammed or spoofed to protect a foe, most Western planes are equipped with good CW counter measures. This is why the S200 system has been designed for semi-automous operation of its missiles. In the last part of the missile's trajectory, the missile can hone in on a target in the absence of a CW signal illuminating its intended target. When the Israeli small fighter jets took cover "behind" a big IL20, the missile honed in on it because the missile's own radar and logic selected the largest target as the most lucrative. ..."
"... Therefore, there was never a Russian screw up of any kind in this. ..."
"... Please keep in mind that Israelis are the World's experts in Russian radar systems because many Jews were involved in their design and some have immigrated to Israel. A few years ago, Israel even hired a Cyprian older and export model of S300 to train its pilots against them. Knowing how much plannng goes into bombing missions, knowing that IL20 because it was EW was a constant cruising presence in the air, and that Israelis attacked targets right next to the biggest Russian airbase in Latakia (where there was potential for the Russian involvement), it is really hard to believe that this outcome was not deliberate. ..."
"... Ultimately, the Israelis are happy with Putin's statements and unhappy with Shoygu's. Please observe the photo of Putin with Nutty Yahoo in Helmer's article, Putin's face is so self-happy. Makes you wish someone would slam a rifle butt into the moron's mug. ..."
"... The final irony is the one several people mentioned online – if the Syrians were operating an S300VM, the most modern version of the targeting radar, quite resistant to CW counter measures, the IL20 shootdown almost certainly would not have happened. Furthermore, if the Russian S400 was permitted to engage Israeli planes, it would have been the four Israeli F16s bathing in the Mediterranean Sea and body parts of Israeli pilots being collected instead of the Russian. On both options, Shoygu said yes and Putin said no. So who is to blame? Perhaps Putin is the Jewish 5th column in Russia. ..."
"... In my next comment I intend to outline what I think the Russians should have been and should be doing, how to deal with the Coalition of the Lovers of Terrorism. ..."
"... Harold Smith , says: September 19, 2018 at 4:44 pm GMT ..."
"... "Basically, 4 Israeli aircraft were sent on a bombing mission against targets near the Russian facilities in Khmeimim and Tartus (which, by itself, is both stupid and irresponsible). " ..."
"... I see it differently: ..."
"... Basically, 4 Israeli aircraft were sent on a mission to (indirectly) bring down a Russian plane, under the pretense of bombing Syrian targets. The object being to exploit Putin's apparent weakness and use it to trash his political popularity (and perhaps damage the morale of the Russian military). ..."
Sep 20, 2018 | www.unz.com

Greg S. , says: September 19, 2018 at 3:48 am GMT

Every time one of these incidents happens, a flood of "chicken-hawks" come out of the woodwork demanding that Russia should "release the S700s" and "shoot everything down," etc.

These people are idiots and should be ignored. The Saker is coming dangerously close to being one of these idiots himself.

Russia has a clear mission in Syria: that is to re-establish control of Syria for the Assad government and prevent radical Islamic groups from taking over and using Syria as a home (and a launching pad for exporting their twisted views back into Russia). Once that happens, if they are smart, they will go home. Avoiding entanglements with countries like Turkey and Israel are part of that goal. To get themselves embroiled into the vipers nest (like the Americans have done) would be pure stupidity.

So yes, Russia will likely do nothing about this, except perhaps change their own tactics to make it less likely to happen again.

But this incident does do one very important thing: it exposes the complete and utter fraud and moral bankruptcy of the zionist controlled west and their corporate media who will not report this story and will decline to comment on why exactly Israel gets to bomb Syria at will.

NoseytheDuke , says: September 19, 2018 at 7:12 am GMT
I have to say that this comment reveals you to be the adult in the comments 'room' so far Greg.
Kiza , says: September 19, 2018 at 4:39 pm GMT
Here is an excellent summary in English from the Russian state cominiques: http://johnhelmer.org/?p=17934#more-17934 .

The only totally wrong thing in this article is the discussion whether the IFF of the Russian S200 system should have prevented the shoot-down of a friendly plane (both made in the same country). Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) is a system which prevents the launching of a missile against your own plane in a complex air battle environment. Now the Jewish 5th column in Russia is muddying the water (they are good at this) saying that it is a Russian screw up being blamed on Israel and John Helmer appears to have picked this up as fact.

But, the truth is that IFF works to prevent a launch against a friendly target. It also prevents the missile from hitting a friendly plane under the standard mode of operation of targeting radars called CW. But CW mode is also a major vulnerability of targeting radars, because it can be jammed or spoofed to protect a foe, most Western planes are equipped with good CW counter measures. This is why the S200 system has been designed for semi-automous operation of its missiles. In the last part of the missile's trajectory, the missile can hone in on a target in the absence of a CW signal illuminating its intended target. When the Israeli small fighter jets took cover "behind" a big IL20, the missile honed in on it because the missile's own radar and logic selected the largest target as the most lucrative.

Therefore, there was never a Russian screw up of any kind in this.

Please keep in mind that Israelis are the World's experts in Russian radar systems because many Jews were involved in their design and some have immigrated to Israel. A few years ago, Israel even hired a Cyprian older and export model of S300 to train its pilots against them. Knowing how much plannng goes into bombing missions, knowing that IL20 because it was EW was a constant cruising presence in the air, and that Israelis attacked targets right next to the biggest Russian airbase in Latakia (where there was potential for the Russian involvement), it is really hard to believe that this outcome was not deliberate.

Ultimately, the Israelis are happy with Putin's statements and unhappy with Shoygu's. Please observe the photo of Putin with Nutty Yahoo in Helmer's article, Putin's face is so self-happy. Makes you wish someone would slam a rifle butt into the moron's mug.

The final irony is the one several people mentioned online – if the Syrians were operating an S300VM, the most modern version of the targeting radar, quite resistant to CW counter measures, the IL20 shootdown almost certainly would not have happened. Furthermore, if the Russian S400 was permitted to engage Israeli planes, it would have been the four Israeli F16s bathing in the Mediterranean Sea and body parts of Israeli pilots being collected instead of the Russian. On both options, Shoygu said yes and Putin said no. So who is to blame? Perhaps Putin is the Jewish 5th column in Russia.

In my next comment I intend to outline what I think the Russians should have been and should be doing, how to deal with the Coalition of the Lovers of Terrorism.

Harold Smith , says: September 19, 2018 at 4:44 pm GMT
"Basically, 4 Israeli aircraft were sent on a bombing mission against targets near the Russian facilities in Khmeimim and Tartus (which, by itself, is both stupid and irresponsible). "

I see it differently:

Basically, 4 Israeli aircraft were sent on a mission to (indirectly) bring down a Russian plane, under the pretense of bombing Syrian targets. The object being to exploit Putin's apparent weakness and use it to trash his political popularity (and perhaps damage the morale of the Russian military).

And I think Putin calling this calculated act of mass murder an "accident" was a serious blunder which made the mission a smashing success.

anon , [228] Disclaimer says: September 19, 2018 at 5:42 pm GMT
The Israeli air force had warned the Russian forces in Syria only one minute before the strike. A Russian IL-20 electronic warfare airplane (red line) was preparing to land at the Russian airport near Latakia just as the Israeli attack (blue) happened
moonofalabama

Israeli claims that its plane had returned by the time Russian was hit
They also claimed they warned Russia

So in one minute the warned, tried to bomb and then safely returned to Israel

Erebus , says: September 20, 2018 at 8:14 am GMT
Joaquin Flores has the most interesting analysis I've seen to date. It's just far enough out there to be true.
In a nutshell, he says it was the French (who pleaded innocence before anyone accused them), in an attempt to destroy the prospect of good relations between the EU & Russia. That, and to disrupt the deal made with Turkey regarding Idlib. The latter having made irrelevant NATO's plans to go live in Syria.
Putin/Shoigu did an end run by blaming the Israelis for the scenario. That opens possibilities, including a no-fly zone.

What is most important is that Russia avoided being lured into a PR and diplomatic catastrophe with France, which is what Atlanticists hoped for and tried to execute.

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/full-analysis-russian-disinfo-campaign-blames-israel-for-il-20-plane-downing-yet-exonerates-france/

Pat Kittle , says: September 20, 2018 at 9:37 am GMT
Putin surely knows Israel did 9-11, specifically to get the US to fight wars for terrorist Jews.

A superb response to this latest (((outrage))) would be for Putin to make a top priority of exposing the war crimes of terrorist Jews. But he hasn't yet, so that possibility is unlikely.

Sadly ironic that the greatest enemy of Russia and the US is none other than the Terrorist Theocracy of Eretz Ysrael.

Harold Smith , says: September 20, 2018 at 2:13 pm GMT
@Erebus Joaquin Flores has the most interesting analysis I've seen to date. It's just far enough out there to be true.
In a nutshell, he says it was the French (who pleaded innocence before anyone accused them), in an attempt to destroy the prospect of good relations between the EU & Russia. That, and to disrupt the deal made with Turkey regarding Idlib. The latter having made irrelevant NATO's plans to go live in Syria.
Putin/Shoigu did an end run by blaming the Israelis for the scenario. That opens possibilities, including a no-fly zone.

What is most important is that Russia avoided being lured into a PR and diplomatic catastrophe with France, which is what Atlanticists hoped for and tried to execute.
https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/full-analysis-russian-disinfo-campaign-blames-israel-for-il-20-plane-downing-yet-exonerates-france/ Flores has an interesting view, but I have a few questions:

He says the French "early denial" doesn't make sense because the French weren't accused of anything at the time they denied involvement, but IIRC didn't the Russians mention early on that they detected missile launches from the French ship? So maybe the French were responding to what they took as an implicit accusation?

Also, if it was not a Syrian S-200 SAM that brought the IL-20 down, how does Flores explain the conspiuous inability of the Syrian S-200 system to take down any of the Israeli planes?

Finally, do the French have the guts to shoot down a Russian plane, murdering everyone on board in cold blood in an unprovoked attack? Granted Putin's not trigger happy, but the Russians have previously indicated that they would attack launch platforms if any of their personnel or assets were threatened. In light of that I don't think I would want to be on a ship whose mission is to test Russian resolve.

nsa , says: September 21, 2018 at 1:30 am GMT
@Johnny Rico

It reminds me of the Israeli attack on the USS Liberty
How so? Aside from the fact that Israel was involved in both incidents. Ricostein is correct ..there is a major difference between Il-20 and the USS Liberty. This time the jooies didn't strafe the lifeboats ..

[Sep 20, 2018] A hoped-for goal of this FUKUS stunt.may have been Russia's retaliation in order to launch Libya style operation against Syria

Sep 20, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Mark Logan , 18 hours ago

I wonder if Putin is down playing this because he wants to get it over with so Russia can go home. A hoped-for goal of this FUKUS(IZ?) stunt.may have been retaliation. Wouldn't put it past them.
Pat Lang Mod -> Mark Logan , 17 hours ago
I earlier made this remark to FB Ali " One must ask why Putin is acting this way. He has actually taken
Trump off the hook. If the offensive had gone in Trump would have been
under a lot of pressure to take military action when the WH drama played
out. The DMZ agreement prevents that, and now he takes this soft line
over this bit of Israeli cleverness that cost Shoigu 14 men for no good
reason, Curious. One might think he does not want to rock the boat
before the mid term."
SteveC -> Pat Lang , 13 hours ago
Saving their own skins may, to the Israeli pilots, seem like a good reason. Many would reasonably dispute this of course, especially the Russians
cofer , 21 hours ago
www.pravdareport.com/amp/ne...
FB Ali -> cofer , 20 hours ago
One must remember that Pravda is now an 'opposition' newspaper.

This playing down of Putin's reaction to the shooting down of the IL-20 appears to be part of a Western media 'op'. One gets no such impression from the Tass reports, eg, http://tass.com/politics/10... .

cofer -> FB Ali , 18 hours ago
The question is, are the quotes attributed to Putin accurate and what does it mean?
www.nytimes.com/2018/09/18/...
FB Ali -> cofer , 15 hours ago
That is not the right question. To get the full import of what was said one must have not only accurate quotes but complete ones.

I don't think the NYT headline, or the tilt of its report, represent correctly Putin's reaction to this incident.

[Sep 19, 2018] Guardian journos are proclaiming themselves the bastion of free speech, when in reality they are the enemies of it.

Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

I gave up on the Guardian's comment site myself, 10 years ago, as the censorship on there made it pointless. Has something changed?

There was one prolific commenter there, MrPikeBishop, who was so popular, he was even commissioned to write articles above the line. Then one day, bam, he is banned, and his entire posting history gone. That did it for me; little emperors not fit to clean his boots, just rubbed him out. I spat on the site that day and never went back. Proclaiming themselves the bastion of free speech, when they actually the enemies of it.

Actually, I was caught out here in the UK, by the demise of the old five pound note, and then the ten pound note, because I stopped reading and watching MSM years ago. It's worth it, to get their irritating buzzing out of my head.

Back to the linked Guardian article; this is indeed interesting – these questions asked by the journalist:

– Who really did shoot down this plane? Was it an accident or did France and/or Israel attack?
– Are Russia publicly accepting a false narrative to avoid having to retaliate?
– Do they even understand how close we're coming to global war, whenever a NATO country operates in Syria?
– How long can we rely on Russian common sense to avoid WWIII?

[Sep 19, 2018] Does Israel really care? It seems that Bibi Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman believe they can act with impunity since no one has held them to account to date.

Sep 19, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

smoothieX12 . -> blue peacock , 14 hours ago

Does Israel really care? It seems that Bibi Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman believe they can act with impunity since no one has held them
to account to date.

Yes she does, otherwise CO of IAF wouldn't have been on his way to Moscow and Bibi urgently calling Putin. Once one gets more complete details of the event, such as teeny-weeny fact of Russia not providing Syrian AD (and with a good reason) with own IFF technology and codes--things become much more clearer. This was confirmed today. Of course military counter-intelligence still has to do its due diligence but it increasingly begins to look more as FUBAR rather than some "special" operations. Most likely, in fact highly likely, IAF F-16s were detected and tracked (and even possibly locked on) by Syrian S-200 and they "masked" (the oldest trick in the book) by descending IL-20. Putin was explicit in his conversation with Bibi that Israel not only violates Syria's airspace but violated previous agreements with Russia on matters of attacking Syrian/Iranian targets. There will be consequences and Putin also was explicit today when stated that, and I quote, "everyone will notice them". While it is a sad day for Russia and is agony for families of the crew, it is also clear (and thank God) that France and her ship had no hand in it whatsoever.

Is Putin between a rock and a hard place in Syria? He's committed significant capabilities to assist Assad in regaining control of Syrian territory, but FUKUS and Turkey are playing a spoilers game with the possibility that they could enter the Syrian conflict with an even larger force structure.

Actually, he didn't commit "significant" capabilities. They are very moderate by Russia standards. You want to see significant capabilities--Google Vostok 2018. That's significant. The appearance of new capabilities in Syria is long overdue, precisely for the reason that it is Russia who is keeping a barrel to Turkey's temple, not the other way around. They are needed their anyway just in case FUKUS decides to respond to absolutely unexpected and evil chemical weapons attacks by Assad.

FB Ali -> smoothieX12 . , 11 hours ago
It seems to me that Putin's response was too 'soft'. Unlike Shoigu's.

Perhaps there is some divergence between Russian political and military policies with regard to Israel. What happens as a result of this tragedy will clarify matters. Putin cannot afford to alienate his military (and thus the Russian people) for the sake of Israel.

Pat Lang Mod -> FB Ali , 9 hours ago
Right. One must ask why Putin is acting this way. He has actually taken Trump off the hook. If the offensive had gone in Trump would have been under a lot of pressure to take military action when the WH drama played out. The DMZ agreement prevents that, and now he takes this soft line over this bit of Israeli cleverness that cost Shoigu 14 men for no good reason, Curious. One might think he does not want to rock the boat before the mid term.
smoothieX12 . -> Pat Lang , an hour ago
Right. One must ask why Putin is acting this way. He has actually
taken Trump off the hook. If the offensive had gone in Trump would have
been under a lot of pressure to take military action when the WH drama
played out.

Bingo! Plus a chance for Turkey to clean up her act a bit. It is a good old anecdote about two bulls (old and young) standing on the hill looking down at the cows' herd.

Pat Lang Mod -> smoothieX12 . , 15 minutes ago
Yup "let's walk down and do them all ..."
smoothieX12 . -> FB Ali , an hour ago
Perhaps there is some divergence between Russian political and military policies with regard to Israel.

This divergence is mostly a fantasy of Western political class and media. They project their own view on how their own government operates (or rather does not) onto Kremlin and that is why they always wrong.

Bálint Somkuti -> FB Ali , 5 hours ago
There is a growing sentiment, that Russia is handling too softly the attacks on its armed forces. The lack of visible or spectacular retaliations, counteractions is making an impression of a very narrow set of choices in Russia's Syria policy.
smoothieX12 . -> Bálint Somkuti , an hour ago
There is a growing sentiment, that Russia is handling too softly the attacks on its armed forces.

Growing among who? Armchair strategists? Granted, I am one myself.

uncle tungsten -> smoothieX12 . , 9 hours ago
Hahahahha good try smoothie but with due respect I take it you meant a "white helmets chemical weapons attack". It is ok now to drop the myth and speak truth to the war criminals hiding within the white helmets.

The Israeli government delights in taking sniper shots and seeing innocents accidentally killed. In this case they were attacking Stria to sabotage their fight against UN declared terrorists. Disgraceful and an abandonment of all that is held high in civil society.

smoothieX12 . -> uncle tungsten , an hour ago
Hahahahha good try smoothie

Yeah, I am not evidently very good in conveying sarcasm.

David Habakkuk , 7 minutes ago
All, re the Joaquin Flores piece.

I would normally totally discount this as the wrong kind of 'conspiracy theory', and I think that is still very highly likely to be the most appropriate response. It would be surprising if the French were prepared to leave a 'smoking gun' on the deliberate shooting down of a Russian aircraft, and the explanation Flores gives of this does seem tortuous.

However, there do seem to be some puzzles about the French – and British – roles which need sorting out.

At the outset, the Russians were clearly pointing to the French.

What may have survived, when that story was replaced by the far more plausible one of a 'friendly fire' incident provoked by the Israelis, is the suggestion that the French frigate was firing missiles.

So in 'Haaretz' this morning, we found Anshel Pfeffer writing that 'France denied any involvement in the downing of the Russian Ilyushin Il-20, but, interestingly, did not deny launching missiles.'

(See https://www.haaretz.com/mid... .)

Moreover, he goes on to write that:

'Something was obviously going on Monday night. Not only Russian and (allegedly) Israeli and French aircraft and missiles were in the air. Civilian radar also tracked British Royal Air Force aircraft, which, unusually, had switched on their transponders and gone into holding patterns – most likely to avoid being somehow involved in the exchange of fire over Latakia. The Ilyushin Il-20 was not so fortunate.'

It would not seem inherently so terribly surprising if indeed the French vessel did fire missiles. However, I am curious as to what kinds of explanations of this seem most plausible.

Likewise, the RAF switching on transponders is not so very odd. However, it would seem to make the one minutes's notice given to the Russians stand out even more than it did already.

Obviously, this could easily be explained by 'cock-up' – Israeli fighters seeking safety by hiding behind the Russian plane, and the 'deconfliction' not working according to plan.

It could also, however, be explained by conspiracy. And if there was an Israeli conspiracy, then questions might at least arise as to whether there was prior knowledge on the part of others, which raises the possibility of either tacit, or active, encouragement..

Albano Pina , 3 hours ago
Joaquín Flores has an interesting, however unconfirmable, reading of the facts.
See here: https://www.fort-russ.com/2...
Anyway, after what happened in the last 60 hours, if FUKUS still wants to take an early military iniciative, it must do it bluntly, without justifications, by means of grossly evident provocation or direct attack. The white helmets/gas attacks mantra became, somehow, a bit awkward.
Pat Lang Mod -> Albano Pina , an hour ago
Joaquin Flores? I don't read other blogs or similar sources. Too busy with DC sources.
Walrus , 4 hours ago
Putins measured diplomacy and apparent charitable responses to deliberate provocations have two downsides' Russian public opinion of /Putin as "weak" and the emboldening of American neocons. At some point Putin, goaded or not, is going to have to respond with force.
william mcdonald -> Walrus , an hour ago
I believe when it happens, they will see some real "shock and awe."
PRC90 , 10 hours ago
The question of a passive homing SAM navigating it's way to the largest radar cross section within it's arc, and not to the smaller returns from alleged nearby strike aircraft was raised in relation to MH17. If this occurred here then IAF casual reliance on a misplaced belief in the competence of the SAA air defences may be a tenuous way to blame Israel.
However, Russian EW data hoovered up during the attack may show another story.

Another obvious question is the 'one minute' warning time given by IAF. The Russians would have been aware of the ingressing F16's and probably their actual takeoff's but did not clear their own IL-20 aircraft out of the airspace ahead of them, possibly indicating that an IAF presence was a regular and normal event not necessarily resulting in strikes. What is on IAF / US EW data as intercepted Russian voice and data link material may show the details of that - not that anything but the cherry picks will ever be released.

Lauren Johnson , 11 hours ago
FWIW Joaquin Flores at Fort Russ argues the French did it and Russians have a disinfo campaign going for diplomatic reasons:

https://www.fort-russ.com/2...

Snow Flake -> Lauren Johnson , 2 hours ago
elegantly argued narrative.
luke8929 , 15 hours ago
Is the hotline between the Russians and the Israeli's still in place because if it is then the Russians are giving tacit approval for future strikes, its not as if the Russians are going to get the call and say no we don't approve of this one and the IAF is going to turn around and go home. This isn't the same as the hotline between the Russians and the US as they both have a common enemy, ISIS, Al Qaeda etc. The US isn't intentionally targeting the Syrians and Iranians, the Israeli's are specifically targeting them and they are supposed to be Russian allies. I don't see how the Russians get a pass on this until they completely stop all IAF activity directed at Syria.

[Sep 19, 2018] Russia Not Received Data From Israel on Situation With IL - 20 in Syria - Peskov

Sep 19, 2018 | sputniknews.com

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia has not yet received data from Israel on the situation with the IL-20 aircraft crash in Syria, experts will examine it in due time, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Wednesday.

[Sep 19, 2018] Putins measured diplomacy and apparent charitable responses to deliberate provocations have two downsides' Russian public opinion of /Putin as "weak" and the emboldening of American neocons.

Sep 19, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Walrus , 11 hours ago

Putins measured diplomacy and apparent charitable responses to deliberate provocations have two downsides' Russian public opinion of /Putin as "weak" and the emboldening of American neocons. At some point Putin, goaded or not, is going to have to respond with force.
william mcdonald -> Walrus , 9 hours ago
I believe when it happens, they will see some real "shock and awe."
Eugene Owens -> william mcdonald , 5 hours ago
I believe Putin's response will be more subtle. Something by the GRU rather than by force. What? I have no clue. Some type of blackmail? I would bet they have plenty of dirt on the Israeli Defense Minister, Mad Dog Avigdor. Or perhaps giving more of a greenlight to IRGC/Hez? Not that they need one but he has reportedly in the past discouraged them, and kept them away from the Golan. Speedily completing the Syrian S-300 build-up. Funding Hamas? Exposure of Israeli meddling in the Ukraine? Assisting the IRGC in an attack or two on Israeli interests in Europe or Latin America or ...? All of the above? Plenty of other indirect non-kinetic options are available to them.
marc b. -> Eugene Owens , 4 hours ago
not sure the MOD or the man on the street will be placated with a subtle but brilliant chess move. they are likely looking for more of a kick in the balls. what is this, the 3rd strike what with the turks and americans already?

[Sep 19, 2018] Another obvious question is why only the 'one minute' warning time was given by IAF.

Sep 19, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

PRC90 , 18 hours ago

The question of a [edited !] semi-active homing SAM navigating it's way to the largest radar cross section within it's arc, and not to the smaller returns from alleged nearby strike aircraft was raised in relation to MH17.

If this occurred here then IAF casual reliance on a misplaced belief in the competence of the SAA air defences may be a tenuous way to blame Israel. However, Russian EW data hoovered up during the attack may show another story.

Another obvious question is the 'one minute' warning time given by IAF.

The Russians would have been aware of the ingressing F16's and probably their actual takeoff's but did not clear their own IL-20 aircraft out of the airspace ahead of them, possibly indicating that an IAF presence was a regular and normal event not necessarily resulting in strikes.

What is on IAF / US EW data as intercepted Russian voice and data link material may

[Sep 19, 2018] Whet crew of Il-20 was doing when Israeli jets approach it and fly above and form a bookshelf formation?

Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

parrhesiastes on September 19, 2018 , · at 8:23 pm EST/EDT

Maybe the landing approach thesis works – experts in Russ aviation would know if Russ equivalent to(US/UK) AN/APS-13 aft approach radar, used since 1942 in a series of versions, was/is fitted to Il20 in question.

Seems that anybody smart enough to build radar would fit tailradar in combat zone, and leave it on. Note actual radar may have been superseded by an infra red detector a question for experts. Has been long time since 1942, technical methods improve. And the search radars?

Ok, pilot, engineer, copilot are doing approach and busy and everybody else just being inattentive? F 16 were not tracked the entire time? Again, maybe. Radar works at 6000 feet and horizon still 152 km away F16 can't sneak up unseen fast but not that fast

I always maintain situational awareness in war zones, helps to live longer.

software of S200 can not target friendlies, system was is integrated.

[Sep 19, 2018] Destroying Syria is primary for US Hegemony and Israeli dominance

Notable quotes:
"... Exactly. The zionazis want Syria. They are activating all their options and working overtime to keep their proxies employed against Syria. If the zionazis cant take Syria, it means they don't get to have Lebanon either. It also means their attempt to wreck Iran and reduce it to a failed state is a non starter. ..."
Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

vot tak on September 19, 2018 , · at 1:00 pm EST/EDT

"Also, speaking of Syria: has anybody noticed that the agreement between Turkey and Russia has removed any justification for a US attack on Syria and that the Israelis have organized their latest little bloody stunt right after this deal was announced?"

Exactly. The zionazis want Syria. They are activating all their options and working overtime to keep their proxies employed against Syria. If the zionazis cant take Syria, it means they don't get to have Lebanon either. It also means their attempt to wreck Iran and reduce it to a failed state is a non starter.

Larchmonter445 on September 19, 2018 , · at 1:21 pm EST/EDT
Syria is the keystone. The geography is a primary target for the destruction of ME. It has cultural and economic ties that bind most of the region. Destroying Syria is primary for US Hegemony and Israeli dominance.

But Turkey, Iran, Iraq and now Russia stand in the way. With Hezbollah, Lebanon is joined to the alliance against the US-Israeli aggression. And strategically, Jordan will facilitate what it can to stabilize the region.

This alienation of Putin and the Russian military and people by Israel, the US, UK and France will long be remembered across the Motherland. Syria now more than ever is a land of sacrificed sons of Russia. The stakes are now eternal.

Anonius on September 19, 2018 , · at 3:06 pm EST/EDT
This is exactly the point. People, commentators, should never forget that about half of Israel's Jewish population are Russians (or used to be, I suspect dual citizens). These people have extended families in Russia. Putin knows what he is doing. He can not alienate people at home.
Katherine on September 19, 2018 , · at 4:50 pm EST/EDT
The two preceding comments seem to be mutually exclusive, i .e., in direct contradiction:

1. "This alienation of Putin and the Russian military and people by Israel,"

2. "This is exactly the point. People, commentators, should never forget that about half of Israel's Jewish population are Russians (or used to be, I suspect dual citizens). These people have extended families in Russia. Putin knows what he is doing. He can not alienate people at home."

But, "the point" in (1) seems, actually, to be the exact opposite.
So, has the incident alienated Russians from Israel? Or, can Russia not "afford" to be alienated from Israel because there are too many Russian Israelis?

Or is it the other way around? That Russian Israelis will not stand for their government's treatment of Russia? Somehow I suspect that Russian/ex-Soviet Israelis won't give a flying eff about their govt's treatment of Russia, and the same goes for their relatives inside Russia. They hated the USSR and couldn't wait to get away. Why does Putin have to cater to the views of these emigres to Israel, Russian Israelis, or to their families back in Russia? How do the latter differ from Zionists in the USA who have dual loyaties?

BTW, it is my understanding that the USA paid for the resettlement of Soviet Jews in Israel in the eighties, not the USSR .

Katherine

[Sep 19, 2018] Russia does not have a fifth column in Israel, it is probably the other way round.

Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

Occasional Poster on September 19, 2018 , · at 4:00 pm EST/EDT

1.3 million Russians in Israel, are Russian jews, and are likely identify primarily as jewish.

Their aims and concerns, are jewish ones. Their likely only concerns regarding Russia, are that Russia does not obstruct Israeli ambitions, and that the network of jewish influence in Russia does not diminish, but thrives. Their interest is for Russia to be another of Israel's golems, like the USA is.

I moot that true Russian interests, conflict with their own, and they will absolutely follow their own. Same as AIPAC in the USA, and equivalents everywhere else.

Their ancestral home country might be Russia, but I moot there is nothing Russian about them.

All my humble opinion. I stand to be corrected. Russia does not have a fifth column in Israel, it is the other way round.

[Sep 19, 2018] E>e are now faced with the imminent threat of either an Anglo/Zionist victory in Syria or WW3

Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

Bob on September 19, 2018 , · at 3:31 pm EST/EDT

Look, I'm not a military expert, but I have followed the events in the Middle East fairly closely for over 30 years. I, and many others, have stated repeatedly that Russia's clearly demonstrated unwillingness to use its military forces to protect Syria from Western and US strikes can only lead to disaster.

The entire Russian policy in Syria has been confused and riddled with contradictions from the very beginning. The situation in 2015 was:
1. The Syrian government was on the verge of losing a war against jihadi forces.
2. Those jihadi forces were largely foreign and were organized, funded and directed by the
Anglo/zionists.
3. The Russians could not match the conventional forces that could be brought to bear in the region by the Anglo/zionists.
4. Any Russian intervention could only succeed if the Anglo/zionists were deterred from intervening directly by the presence of Russian forces and the fear of a wider war (that could go nuclear).

Now given those four facts, which I presume nobody seriously disagrees with, the Russian operation in Syria was always based upon maintaining the fear in the minds of the military planners in Tel Aviv and Washington that any direct interference with Russian forces in Syria would mean war with Russia. This was the most important single job of the Russian forces in Syria maintaining the deterrent capability vis-a-vis the Anglo/zionists.

How do you maintain deterrence? You do so by enforcing your red lines EVERY TIME they are challenged. Russian inability to clearly define their red lines in Syria and to enforce those red lines each and every time they were tested has led us to a point where the Russians no longer have any credibility in Syria.

My crystal ball says that within the next 30 days, not only will the US massively strike the SAA and the Assad government, but that they will impose a no fly zone over all of Syria to ground the Russian and Syrian air forces. What will the Russians do in response? They will have a choice between war and defeat Everything they have done to this point, indicates that they will do whatever they need to do to avoid a direct military confrontation with the Anglo/zionist forces. Imagine if you were a military planner in Tel Aviv or Washington, how could you convince anyone that there was any credible threat that Russia would go to war over Syria?

You couldn't and hence we are now faced with the imminent threat of either an Anglo/zionist victory in Syria or WW3.

Christian W on September 19, 2018 , · at 4:23 pm EST/EDT
The Anglo-Zionists are losing in Syria. Russia, Syria and Iran are winning. That is why the ZioNazis are desperate and moving in themselves, now that their proxies have been defeated. There is no way the ZioNazis can impose a no-fly zone over Syria. If they start shooting at Russian jets the answer will come in the form of nuclear armed missiles. Israel will be taken out in a matter of minutes and made uninhabitable as it has no strategic depth. It does not even take nuclear missiles to achieve the destruction of Israel. If I were Israeli I would not be best pleased with the insane Netanyahu, but Israel at this point seems quite psychotic.

The Russian forces have a standing order to defend themselves with the strongest means available to any attack. Israel managed to create a situation where the fog of war made things less clear but Israel still attacked Russia directly. It is in Israel's and NATO's interest to confuse things in Syria to keep Russia from pursuing it's strategies to the end. It's only Idlib left now, once the remaining Jihadi proxies have been blown out of their holes (a matter of a few months, much less if Turkey lends a hand) the turn will then come to the turncoat Kurds in the East and they will be dealt with just like the jihadis were dealt with.

This is the scenario that is giving Israel and NATO fits, but they cannot stop it without going to war with Russia. Israel cannot possibly survive such a war, so they want to pull in NATO to do the dirty work while Israel itself sits it out on the sidelines. It won't work of course.

Occasional Poster on September 19, 2018 , · at 4:25 pm EST/EDT
@ Bob,

I am one of the armchair warriors, but hell I don't know, I could be wrong, and I sincerely hope that I am.

That said, I do understand the 'wait and see' logic. My only concern with it, is that if the slow and steady strategy is superior to enforcing red lines, then the problem is that the enemy is not stupid.They in turn will see that either a greater provocation is needed, else they need to find a new weak spot to poke.

Zog wants the Russians to fail, and Assad replaced by their puppet, really badly. They are not going to sit back and think 'dammit, we lost, out-smarted by those pesky Russians.'

Again, I hope to be wrong. But the nasties in ZOG HQ are as devious, nasty, and fanatical as they come. If plan A fails, plans B, C and D are lined up.

Big picture, the Shia crescent needs Iraq fully on board, and the yanks out. Then Russia (and Iran) has an uninterrupted air corridor to the theatre, and that doesn't rely on the ever unreliable Turkey..

Zog sees this too. I'm not aware that anybody really focuses on this, but Iraq is really the key. The Sunnis won't like it, but ISIS was their gambit, and it failed. If Iraq becomes free of US control, and joins the Shia Crescent, we will hear Zog's screams all over the world.

That's worth waiting for.

[Sep 19, 2018] Open Thread Russian Plane Brought Down in Syria

Sep 19, 2018 | off-guardian.org

The questions raised: Who really did shoot down this plane? Was it an accident or did France and/or Israel attack? If France are attacking Russia/Syria what prompted this? What do they have to gain? Is it possible for Syria to "accidentally" bring down an allied plane? Don't they have IFFs? Are Russia publicly accepting a false narrative to avoid having to retaliate? Will Russia retaliate against Israel? They have claimed that right already. What will they expect to extract as a quid pro quo on this issue? How will the media report this? Will they call it a "near miss"? That's surely what it was. Do they even understand how close we're coming to global war, whenever a NATO country operates in Syria? How long can we rely on Russian common sense to avoid WWIII?


Admin says September 19, 2018

What do you think Putin should have done?

Your reply needs to acknowledge the following:

1) the neocon hardline and Israel are currently trying to manufacture an excuse for a massive attack on Syria, aimed at widening the war.

2) the Israeli action was aimed at provoking a military response from Russia/Syria that could be used as such an excuse.

3) a widened war would play into western hands and destroy Russia's current ascendancy

What action should Russia take that would punish Israel but avoid giving the neocon hardliners exactly what they wanted?

Admin says September 19, 2018
Try to remain calm.

I notice you don't advocate that Russia should have immediately retaliated militarily. All the things you do advocate (well, most) – quite rationally – would not have shown any results as yet, so we don't know they haven't been done, do we?

But, to repeat, you don't defeat a man who is trying to lure you into a fight by punching him in the face. Intelligence is underrated by the non-intelligent. Subtlety is unappreciated by the crass. The Russian govt's actions tend to be both subtle and intelligent – whether you approve of them or not, and so can go unappreciated by many on all sides of the debate.

As to ascendancy – Syria was intended to be a new Libya by now. That this has been avoided, that the various terrorists are in retreat, that the country remains largely functional, and all without direct confrontation between east and west (so far), is an achievement anyone with any intelligence should recognise, and which the Russia government has every right to be proud of.

Forgive me, but people have been saying variants of "if Putin doesn't DO SOMETHING HUGE right now he's going to burn" for at least the last four years, and they are still saying it, despite the fact he hasn't burned (and neither have we), and, if their sage advice had been followed, we might all be cinders on a dead and cindered planet right now.

ragheadthefiendlyterrorist says September 19, 2018
The only reason it hasn't come to that yet is that the ground was not prepared fully before. Russia is slowly being pushed back to the ropes, the average Western citizen is being conditioned to racially hate Russians (did you read Nikki Haley's comment today that Russians are culturally conditioned to lie and cheat?) and the consent is being steadily manufactured. As I said in my original comment, by showing "restraint" and not that he has teeth, Putin is encouraging his country's enemies. Personally, I don't give a damn about what he does about people he doesn't like, but he's not a private citizen; he is in control of Russia, for good or ill. Most of my Russian friends, all of the far left variety, despise him, incidentally, but that's neither here nor there. The simple fact is that if Russia is to avoid a big war it has to actively deter one, not act like someone attempting to disarm an armed drunk by logical words and sweet reason. That is not going to work.
Paul X says September 19, 2018
If the Russians got a cruise missile down the funnel of the French frigate Auvegne (assuming there is a funnel) what do you think NATO would do? Would they shrug and say it serves Macron right or would they take off the safety locks and blast Russia from every direction in order to protect their partner who had been so 'wrongly' attacked? Haven't they been waiting for the chance for years? Aren't they already loaded up expecting the 'chemical weapons' shout to go up this very week? It would be vey foolish of Russia to take the bait of these provocations and it makes for uneasy reading when Westerners, sitting comfortably in safety, complain that Russians aren't prepared to die for us in large enough numbers to keep them safe. You first guy!
Paul X says September 19, 2018
When provoked so blatantly you need to look to see what the guy is hiding behind his back. In this case the West had built up their forces for a full scale attack on Syria as soon as the White Helmets released their video of choking children filmed a week or so ago. Putin disappointed them by coming to an agreement with Turkey that means the jihadis are further isolated and pushed into possible conflict with radicals.

The time scales of the agreement are vague/unknown but it's unlikely we will see a Jihadi Caliphate set up under Turkish protection.

Like the Syrians it's the crazy foreign fighters that alarm the Turks, the Chinese especially of whom there are 6000 heavily armed in the South. Turkey is keen to see the extremists pushed South making it difficult for them to enter Turkey. Putin's reaction is far more sensible than firing the gun for a major conflict which Russia is most unlikely to win.

Russia is still on track to squeeze the jihadis into smaller and smaller areas where they might be eliminated. It might make liberals happy to see Russia sacrifice herself a la 1941 but it's not going to help anybody except their enemies.

You can't help thinking Putin knows exactly what he's doing.

Admin says September 19, 2018
There can never be a non-nuclear war between the US and Russia. Every strategist worth anything knows this. It's the belief – created by the PNAC neocons – that this isn't true that drives the hardcore nuts in Washington and London and elsewhere.

This is the problem. They are delusional and believe they can fight a limited war with Russia. Those who know they are wrong, and that any such war would go nuclear very very fast are stuck in a profound dilemma. – How to defend oneself and one's interests while avoiding the conflict the lunatics want, which will destroy life on earth?

Answers on a post card please for anyone who thinks they can do better than the current Russian govt is doing.

白矛 says September 19, 2018
It's a complex web.. one has to bear this in mind.. the inter-relationships.. the connections.. Putin for example has to tread the razor edge and fight with one hand tied behind his back due to the Zionist influence atop the Russian hierarchy .
Matt says September 19, 2018
S-200 uses the SAHR guidance system. The radar signal is fairly wide, and if multiple objects fall within the signal, the one with the largest cross-section will be targeted. The Russian IL is much larger than the American F-16. Larger missiles like the 200's 5V21 also tend to hit from above (they come down in a parabolic arc after the motors burned out). So if the F-16's stayed a little behind and below the IL they'd basically guarantee the IL get's killed.

As "Partisangirl" claims, but does not properly understand, Russia integrated Syrian AD into their network some time ago. The purpose of such a integration was to avoid similar accidents.

One problem: That was only for the newer stuff.

A Pantsir, for example, can be told where targets are and what to shoot at by a larger system (they work in a pyramid hierarchy). S-200s are older than h*ll though. It's basically a dumb system from the 60's. (even dumber than a BUK)
What it'll do is spot a target, fire the missile and then when the missile "thinks" it's in the right area (the kill box), it's seeker head goes active (it's a semi active seeker). It starts looking for radar 'reflections' and then homes in on the biggest one it can see. It doesn't actually know what it's looking at and doesn't care. Just goes for the shiniest thing it can detect.

My favourite part is how all these lies are held up as if they merit discussion and as if they deserve to be given equal treatment with what actually happened. It's like holding a "discussion" as to whether or not Aliens rule the Earth.

grandstand says September 19, 2018
I tend to agree with you, on the whole, Mulga, about issues to do with Israel, though perhaps not so stridently. But on this occasion I think Matt is honestly telling things how he sees it.

On the other hand, one should ask why Israel is arbitrarily attacking targets in a sovereign country that is not threatening it. Of course, the answer is that this is what Israel does with impunity – witness USS Liberty among many others. On this occasion, it appears, from what I have read, that Israel was targeting the delivery of Iranian S300 copies to Syria – that is weapons to defend from this kind of attack in future. In reality, far from attacking Israel, Syria has even done nothing about recovering territory lost to Israel in 1967, though in international law Israel – that Israel signed up to – it should be given back to Syria. A few days ago, Israel attacked Damascus airport during an international fair with many visitors and potential for massive loss of life. It seems clear that Israel is trying (probably with US approval) to provoke a response.

Putin always keeps his eye on the long term view but it is time for him to put a stop to this activity if he is to maintain credibility with his allies and his voters. This attack will serve to weaken Putin's hitherto Israel friendly stance unless he wants to lose support in Russia. Putin is the best friend Israel has in Russia. It seems that Russian military is saying that there will be a response – much stronger than Putin.

grandstand says September 19, 2018
On the other hand – re my previous comment, Matt, IAF was clearly using the Russian ELINT plane as cover. It is tantamount to using civilians as human shields. Though the crew were Russian military, they were not involved in the action, apparently, and Israel had agreed not to target Russian assets in Syria. One cannot absolve Israel on this and the Russian military know it. They will be looking to Putin to permit a response.
Jen says September 19, 2018
Then you surely would not object if Russia were to ask Israel to hand over the pilots involved so they can explain in a Russian military court or a similar setting their actions and the thinking and expectations that motivated them to hide their jets in the Ilyushin transport plane's radar shadow.
Yarkob says September 19, 2018
israel is breaking international law (again) its pilots, and their commanders and any FAO they use, are criminals. plain and simple
Guest Columnist says September 19, 2018
Yes, there is a large element of theatre at play in this conflict. What many people don't want to accept is that they have no way of knowing what the entire truth is. All the information about situations and events comes from partisan organizations with vested interests. Expecting the side one personally favours to present objective truths is wishful thinking at best, downright delusional at worst.

The post-truth era means everybody walks around believing they have 'figured out' the truth, no hard evidence required, but they can't all be right can they?

It's neoliberal individualism gone mad.

Harry Law says September 18, 2018
Not so long ago Netanyahu was pleading with Putin [successfully] not to supply the S300 anti aircraft system [defensive] to Syria, at the same time Israel was the first country to get a fleet of F35's [offensive] from the US. Putin defers far to much to the US/Israel, we now see the results. Incidentally how come Saudi Arabia can buy the S400 system, when they were one of the instigators of Syrian regime change. Russia's "partners" want Syria destroyed, the warmonger McCain always said the US should take on Syria and that Russia would 'do nothing', was he right?
Admin says September 18, 2018
Let's recall the realities here and not succumb to hysteria. One of the reasons these provocations are happening is that Russia is winning in Syria, militarily and politically. Loading...
Big B says September 18, 2018
What are the realities: we are not being told?

Harry has touched on an important point: that Russia and Israel are becoming closer and closer strategic Russophone partners. Russia was the first country in the world to recognise W Jerusalem as Israel's capital (before even Trump). There was only one foreign dignitary at the May 9th Victory Parade their growing economic, military and cultural ties (Customs Union negotiations and visa free travel for instance) cannot be ignored.

The IDF's 200 strikes in 18 months must lead to serious consideration of tacit Russian approval because they could be quite quickly stopped without it? But that would escalate the situation. Where does Iran stand in this, because VVP made quite clear to Netanyahu that Iran was Russia's principle strategic partner in the region. Is that set to change?

Netanyahu has met VVP what, three times this year, behind closed doors. What was said, and what agreements were made? It is also reputed that they have a direct one-to-one encrypted comms network (though I can't confirm it was activated). But that they are in regular contact is undoubted.

There is a lot more going on beneath the surface than first meets the eye. VVP's relations with Netanyahu blurs the boundaries and greys the narrative. The fact that VVP is saying it "looks accidental" doesn't ring true it looks anything other than accidental to me. Was there a communication breakdown as VVP is in Hungary?

I do not know, and based on what we have been told, neither does anyone else. The FS Auvergne fired missiles just as the Il-20 HQ went off screen. They weren't firing at the IDF, I wouldn't be too sure they were "window dressing" for them either. Whatever went on, we are being kept in the dark. Not precipitating WW3 is a good thing. Other than that, Russia's foreign policy and ME relations are a 3D chess game that we know little of the motivation behind: but I can infer that Russia's strategic needs are primary. At what point can that be labelled imperialist?

Frankly Speaking says September 18, 2018
"What are the realities: we are not being told?"

Are you expecting to be spoon fed? And by the biased BBC, Guardian, etc!

It's pretty clear that Assad has won with Putin's support. China is on side too as evidenced by recent military manoeuvres. What is happening now is the US, UK, France, Israel, Turkey, Saudi just saving face and been allowed the odd small success or two.

However, Israel royally fucked up last night and Netanyahu will lose a plane or three if he tries it again.

Big B says September 18, 2018
You didn't really read my comment: this "odd small success " has happened 200 times in the last 18 months with the downing of how many IDF planes 1? Russia providing S-300s, or S-400s, or upgrading the 1960's SAM 2s would secure Syrian airspace. But these supplies are not forthcoming. Because Israel will not allow them.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/liberman-to-russian-media-israel-did-not-join-western-action-against-moscow/

The situation is a lot more complex: and no, I don't want to be spoonfed by the BBC. The Saker posits a "Zionist 5th Column" in Russia that VVP has to accommodate. You seem to want a simplistic ZioNATO v Russia narrative, all I am saying it is a lot more nuanced than that. And I didn't get that from the Graun!

Big B says September 19, 2018
200 IDF strikes in 18 months, that could be stopped by turning on their S-400s, would be an instance.. Israel has lobbied successfully to prevent Syria from securing its own airspace. The majority of these attacks are to prevent Assad acquiring what Haaretz terms "lethal weaponry" a euphemism for Iranian supplied air defences that could secure Syrian airspace. As could a Russian declared NFZ (though the IDF would just standoff over Lebanon or the Med, and not penetrate Syrian airspace). Or Russian supplied S-300s.

So my answer is yes and no. The Russophone alliance of Russia and Israel seems to be ascendant over Syrian sovereignty. Or it was, until Monday. There appears to have been a breakdown in the de-confliction agreement, or a deliberate misuse and provocation by Israel. The jury is out on that one for the moment. If the attacks are stopped, I would tend to agree with you.

There is the small matter of the international silence surrounding the FS Auvergne firing missiles concurrent with the downing of the Il-20 HQ. These either hit the Il-20 or Latakia. Has anyone considered the Il-20 WAS the target? That there was no accident, but a deliberate targeting? Did the IDF or French take out the Russian early warning system and electronic warfare capability to leave Latakia vulnerable? I don't know, and Rothschild Macron said no! It is worth considering though, I feel.

Integrated into the systems view of militaristic, imperialistic, and sub-imperialistic, and extractivist proliferation: it hardly matters who did what when. They are not giving us an insight into their collective insanity and power games, where the stakes are humanities very survivability. Russia only seemed to remember on Monday that the serial numbers on the MH-17 BUK, means it was made in 1986. What else have they forgotten? What else do they not know?

Humanity has no strategic allies within the global neoliberal ruling class. Arming the world is a "pro-conflict policy", wouldn't you agree? Where militaristic proliferation can't facilitate peace: the only possible de-confliction becomes system change? There are good and bad actors within the current globally hegemonic cultural system: VVP is possibly the best, so it would be unfair to heap the woes of an essentially evil system upon him especially in isolation. So it must fall to those outside the transnational globally integrated system to call out where this insanity will lead. That's you and me?

What I am suggesting is rather than the inevitably favourable comparison of VVP, and well, just about anyone else let's look at the bigger picture. International World Capitalism, as Guattari termed it, has faced us with the choice of three suicides. Without a radical transformation of the oppressed consciousness (a la Guattari, Deleuze, Freire, Bookchin, Naess, but better still the secular Buddha) there will soon enough come the day that does not dawn Monday night was a foreshadowing of that very day?

Admin says September 19, 2018
The idea a head of state can function as a moral paragon is naive of course. Putin pursues Russia's interests, not world peace and brotherhood. But at the same time we can't ignore the fact he does so while adhering to the requirements of international law far more than the west does. In that sense, he has some claim to respect from those who value ethical conduct. Whatever his motives may be this fact deserves to be stated and made clear.
manfromatlan says September 18, 2018
Ronald Reagan and the US were complicit in the downing of KAL Flight 007. Similar moves afoot again to build up military race between Russia and US and bog Russia in Syria https://www.nybooks.com/articles/1985/09/26/the-fate-of-ke007-an-exchange/
vexarb says September 18, 2018
BTL SyrPer, vot tak on September 18, 2018 · at 12:22 pm EST/EDT

Interesting take from an israeli.

Israel Unlikely to Fly Freely Over Syria After Il-20 Incident – Ex-Official

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201809181068132500-israel-syria-il-20-incident-airspace/

"Israel is unlikely to freely use Syrian airspace in the wake of the crash of a Russian Il-20 military aircraft over the Mediterranean Sea, Yakov Kedmi, a former high-ranking Israeli intelligence official, told Sputnik.

"There was an agreement between Israel and Russia that the actions of Israel in Syria's airspace would not endanger lives of Russian troops. Israel breached this commitment What happens next will depend on the position of Israel. Most likely, Israel will no longer be able to enjoy the same freedom in the sky of Syria as it did before the incident," Kedmi said.

"Israel's attack in itself, regardless of the consequences, was an irresponsible step, because there is not a single facility on the territory of Syria that might have been used by Iran and whose destruction would have justified an attack on it, which could endanger the Russian troops," Kedmi said."

Mulga Mumblebrain says September 19, 2018
The idea that Israel would honour ANY 'agreement' made with anyone is quite mirth-inducing.
archie1954 says September 18, 2018
The US must be the worst nation on the face of the Earth. Everywhere it goes, death and destruction follow. To top it all off, the blatant hypocrisy is too much to handle. America is treacherous and duplicitous in the extreme. It has supported terrorists of all stripes in the Middle East and elsewhere for its own selfish geopolitical reasons. It is an entity not to be trusted, ever!
Cassandra says September 18, 2018
admin you might find some answers to your questions here:

http://www.voltairenet.org/article202998.html

Regarding (the long tradition of ) British-French-Israeli collusion

"Not only Russian and (allegedly) Israeli and French aircraft and missiles were in the air. Civilian radar also tracked British Royal Air Force aircraft, which, unusually, had switched on their transponders and gone into holding patterns – most likely to avoid being somehow involved in the exchange of fire over Latakia." (source: Haaretz)

we should remember Sykes-Picot and "Operation Revised" (the 1956 Suez-deception)

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0005/The%20Protocol%20of%20Sevres%201956%20Anatomy%20of%20a%20War%20Plot.html

"The documentary evidence does not leave any room for doubt that at Sèvres, during the three days in late October 1956, an elaborate war plot was hatched against Egypt by the representatives of France, Britain and Israel. The Protocol of Sèvres is the most conclusive piece of evidence for it lays out in precise detail and with a precise time-table how the joint war against Egypt was intended to proceed and shows foreknowledge of each other's intentions .

The central aim of the plot was the overthrow of Gamal Abdel Nasser. This aim is not explicitly stated in the protocol but it emerges clearly and unambiguously from all the records of the discussions surrounding it. Yet each of the three partners had a very different perspective on this war plot, and it was not at all clear how even the agreed aim was to be achieved.
The French were the most straight-forward, unwavering and unabashed advocates of military force. As far as they were concerned, Colonel Nasser supported the Algerian rebels and that, along with his nationalization of the Suez Canal Company, was enough to justify a war to overthrow him. For their part, the French did not need any further pretext for taking military action. It was the British, unwilling to incur Arab hostility by appearing as ally of Israel, who needed a pretext and Israel was able and willing to provide it but only at a price. Israel also required the elimination of Nasser's air force, for which task Britain alone had the heavy bomber bases sufficiently near at hand."

https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/USO/chp1_p2.html (Col.Fletcher Prouty's insights into the engineered "Suez Crisis")

MI6, the CIA the long history of covert ops in Syria

https://www.youtube.com/embed/511W2O-fPrY?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent

John Gilberts says September 19, 2018
I was also struck by the Haaretz report that "Something strange was definitely in the air over Syria on Monday night with British and French forces reportedly present." I hope this open thread may bring more information on this alleged NATO involvement. I am beginning to think this incident may have rather more actors than we've been told. Loading...
grandstand says September 19, 2018
Yes – agreed. FUKUS ships have moved closer to the Syrian coast in the last few days, presumably in anticipation of an attack (chemical or otherwise) that they could justify a response to. The Russians have been doing a great job in the (non-Western) media of predicting potential chemical fake attacks and thereby defusing them. The one minute warning from Israel suggests the possibility (no more than that) that the Israelis saw the ELINT plane approaching the airfield and quickly decided to use it as cover for whatever reason.

As I've said in other posts, the Israelis have narrowed Putin's options. Of FUKUS +I they are the easiest to pick off.

A very different and is some ways attractive theory is presented here:

https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/full-analysis-russian-disinfo-campaign-blames-israel-for-il-20-plane-downing-yet-exonerates-france/

I am not totally convinced – Matt's view on the capability of the Syrian SAMs seems more convincing and it is not clear that Russian fighters could have scrambled in time, especially as the Israelis had agreed not to target Russian assets, but if true it perhaps is a clever – nay Machiavellian – way of opening up options for Putin vis-a-vis his Israeli/Russian Jewish oligarchs and hanging the Israelis out to dry.

Paul X says September 19, 2018
Is there any information about whether the Auvergne did or didn't fire missiles? The Syrians (and Russians?) said they had witnessed the firing of missiles which seemed to be aimed at the same government buildings as that being attacked by Israel which suggests collusion. Loading...
Admin says September 19, 2018
Apparently France is denying it
Philpot says September 18, 2018
The US and NATO's compliant poodles are clearly willing to risk WWIII as they think Russia will simply back down when they instigate open warfare and regime change in Syria. My own belief is that poor honest broker Russia has been left to decide the fate of world peace. Personally, for all our futures, I believe Russia must declare a no fly zone over Syria – anyone entering to bomb will be at mercy of S400. Otherwise this will continue and if the US gets Syria it will be Iran next and WWIII – that is, armageddon.
Gary Weglarz says September 18, 2018
The entire of the West has now become simply a huge collective criminal enterprise operating completely outside the bounds of international law and threatening to bring about armageddon in the process. Of course one would never know this by reading or watching Western media where our clueless psychopathic leaders are portrayed as gallantly fighting for "human rights" and "democracy" through "regime change" and endless slaughter.
vexarb says September 18, 2018
BTL SyrPer Auslander on September 18, 2018 · at 7:54 am EST/EDT

Israeli plane apparently passed just in front of the plane, SAA got a lock, Israeli doglegged left, missile lost lock and chose the biggest target ..our plane. Israel violated protocol, called one minute before the attack, not enough time for our bird to get out of the way. The french frigate was window dressing.

It was a setup.

europeannewright says September 18, 2018
Interesting that both Trump and Macron involved both stooges is the Israel military trying to trigger the third European War ? Loading...
Rigged Democracy says September 18, 2018
Here are a couple of quotes that show how far the system has been rigged/corrupted:

"one of the things we need to do is give young Jewish people the confidence to be proud of their identity – as British, Jewish and Zionist too .. There is no contradiction between these identities and we must never let anyone try to suggest that there should be ..
"You can also count on my commitment to Israel's security .. I am clear that we will always support Israel's right to defend itself."
– UK Prime Minister Theresa May, at the United Jewish Israel Appeal

"I've never seen a President -- I don't care who he is -- stand up to them (Israel). It just boggles the mind. They always get what they want. The Israelis know what is going on all the time. I got to the point where I wasn't writing anything down. If the American people understood what a grip these people have got on our government, they would rise up in arms. Our citizens certainly don't have any idea what goes on."
– U.S. Navy Admiral and former head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Thomas Moorer

Paul X says September 18, 2018
The BBC report no longer mentions the French frigate. Vanished!
0use4msm says September 18, 2018
The significance of direct military involvement by Israel and France is that the facade of a "civil war" (albeit by proxy) can no longer be maintained. The only thing that prevents it from being a regular war between nations is the omission of a declaration.
SO. says September 18, 2018

Is it possible for Syria to "accidentally" bring down an allied plane? Don't they have IFFs?

Yup, and kinda. It's perfectly possible to do it and IFF doesn't really work the way a lot of people think. (IFF transponder beacon works by transmitting a signal to the ground station or launcher).

If the ground station recognises the beacon it labels the aircraft as friendly and either denies launch permission or warns the operator beforehand.

However with a system like the S-200 that will not actually matter. The SA-5 (S-200) is an old system from the 60's which uses a semi active radar homing missile and how it works is quite simple.

When the ground system detects a target it illuminates the target with it's radar like a torch and launches the missile.

The missile then follows the radar reflection from the target until it gets close enough to detonate, goes bang, shoots plane down.

However the beam from the radar 'torch' can be quite wide (miles wide), F-16's are quite small, IL-20's quite big.. and the missile itself is pretty dumb.

As such by hiding in behind the larger aircraft the smaller aircraft can almost guarantee an incoming missile will prioritise the large aircraft reflection and kill that instead. It doesn't actually matter if the missile was launched against the smaller target in the first instance or if IFF came into play. The missile itself is too dumb to care. It just goes for the largest thing it can see.

BigB says September 18, 2018
Thanks for clearing that up: but it raises the question that the Il-20 was on a pre-planned flight path known in advance to both Russian and Syrian air traffic control (whom I believe are sitting next to each other?) Knowing what you have just posted (which I do not doubt) it can hardly be termed "accidental"?

I suspect the FS Auvergne fired its Aster missiles, but I'm not expecting a clarification of that. The situation is greyed by the burgeoning Russian-Israeli Russophone alliance. A simple narrative will not be forthcoming, I suspect.

SO. says September 18, 2018
The IL-20's been on station flying figure 8's on constant rotation for months so it's flight and landing path would be known to everyone with half assed radar or even functional eyeballs.
Paul X says September 18, 2018
Putin can't afford to get it wrong – for everybody's sake. His power is limited. He has done an excellent job in defeating the West in Syria but how could he react to missiles from the French frigate without triggering a massive NATO attack not just on Syria but Russia? In the current climate and the West's readiness it could happen in hours. He has always emphasised he puts Russian interests first – and those included eliminating thousands of Russian Jihadis before they returned home to create mayhem. He has never said he'll take on the World. So the French missiles were a mirage and the plane an accident? Well that's better than an even bigger war maybe?
vexarb says September 19, 2018
@BigB. Igor Bundy ABTL SyrPer supplies additonal info plus timeline, concludes that attack from only 4 planes is not lkely.

Russia not received data from #Israel on situation with IL-20 in #Syria – Peskov
https://sptnkne.ws/j9ce

-#Russia launched an S-400 missile/s against the Israeli jets which were dropping bombs 100Km away, so we're kept in the dark for now.

-#Russia responded immediately to the attack before the il-20M was lost Because the S-200 missiles were launched 20 min after the first wave.

-The attack lasted about 50 min, so only 4 F-16 doing the bombing is unlikely

Paul X says September 18, 2018
If the French and Israeli's attacked at the same time then they must have liased with each other. Or conspired is another way of putting it. Shades of 1956? But nowadays there wouldn't be the slightest outrage at such a collusion; it's oar for the course. And where is the missing partner, the UK? "No longer up to it" the French would say. "Too busy" say the Brits. NB which bit of Syria are the French after this time? Or do they see it descending into the chaos of a Libya, their last successful destabilisation.
Jo says September 18, 2018
Note Russian and IDF planes in direct line from s-200 being fired ..with French frigate ..looks like deliberate coordination to provide cover for each .but if frigate attacked then IDF planes available to directly attack Bashir in Damascus .and frigate to provide a source of provocation for excuse for Nato forces to launch their massive attack they desparately wish to do .especially as Putin agreed no military attack in Idlib ..and Russian MoD presentation yesterday it was a Ukraine BUK .in fact it is tempting to say Nato did this to get back at Russian MoD and punish them for this and expose in any way Russia's belief in trust and agreements and hotlines as a laughing stock ..and they have succeeded .a Russian plane shot down by an outdated Russian missile launched by Syria and Russia failing to supply s-300 but Turkey and everyone else can have s-400 which might ? have not ended up like this.
And did not Russia promise to deal with the "launch source" of any more missiles against Syria since the previous lot? Surely their are Russians in Latakia
Paul X says September 18, 2018
But you seem to be expecting or encouraging Russia to take on the World when in fact it's resources are limited
Jo says September 19, 2018
The elephant in the room is Iran .no responses from them yet even though Israel uses excuses to say it is defending itself from them and continues to attack what tjey call Iranian assets or anything they might vaguely claim have any connections to Iran ..does Iran follow Putins example to keep calm and carry on .thinking their"partnership" is being put to the test as of course it is in order to provoke it to invite a response by usa and associates .does it say to Putin enough is enough we are going to do our thing as you have said Russia is only in Syria to protect its own interests so cannot we do the same ..what options covert or overt does Iran have one wonders ..
David Macilwain says September 18, 2018
One question you didn't ask is whether this act, which appears to be an Israeli provocation assisted by the French, is related to the Sochi talks/agreement? Seems that supporters of the Syrian Opposition, of which France is right behind Turkey, might not like the agreement, partly because it stalls the plans for a "Syrian gas attack" by removing the pretext.
However I think the wider question is why and how has France been involved in this, described on SBS as "Israeli and French forces conducting aerial attacks on Syrian State assets"? Israel is a law unto itself, but France's intervention without any pretext whatsoever is a blatant war crime and escalation. The whole thing looks like a provocation, and one wonders when Russia will break. If Putin was unhappy having to make a peace agreement with the psycho Erdogan, he will be more unhappy now.
Paul X says September 18, 2018
If Russia was 'obliged' to retaliate to Israeli or French attacks its inherent weaknesses would be exposed. It remains a relatively poor country and Putin must be well aware it can't take on the US, Israel, the KSA and the other Gulf Emirs as well as France and the UK. It's done a fantastic job saving Syria but it can't take on The Rest of the World. If it has accepted Syrian missile defences brought it down that may well be the way out of a bigger war – this time.
manfromatlan says September 18, 2018
Putin's main interest is preserving Russian interests. Here, turning the other cheek likely is the best course. Loading...
writerroddis says September 18, 2018
I agree, Paul X. These are not only perilous waters, but untested to boot. In fact not one of the military powers you cite has had its strength tested against a non third world adversary. I know there are infantile tendencies crying "bring it on!" – as though speaking of a long awaited prize fight involving their heavyweight boxer of choice – but saner voices can only express alarm and profound dismay at what Western rulers seem bent on dragging us into. I say enough of this macho nonsense about who would prevail. I do take some comfort in the possibility – https://www.unz.com/tsaker/book-review-losing-military-supremacy-the-myopia-of-american-strategic-planning-by-andrei-martyanov/- that US military power is overstated, but it is comfort of the bleakest possible kind. Loading...
archie1954 says September 18, 2018
The point is this, Russia can take on the whole World if it had to, but it would be a pyrrhic victory, because to do so would require nuclear weapons which no nation could survive. However, Russia has many allies, the largest of which is China, so it probably would only be taking on one major opponent, the US and a few of its erstwhile allies (France, Britain etc.), not by any stretch of the imagination, the whole World!
Paul X says September 18, 2018
China is even weaker than Russia and not long ago said it was 10 years behind the US in military terms and it's hard to see they'd welcome a bit of sacrifice to pull Putin's chestnuts out of the fire. That Alliance is for the future. Right now a full blooded NATO response would be quite enough. Many in America would be delighted if Russia used a nuke; total annihaltion of Russia would follow, something they've been dying to do for 75 years. And of course they might go for the First Strike.

[Sep 19, 2018] You probably can call shooting down IL-20 a NATO attack

Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

Littlejohn on September 19, 2018 , · at 6:02 pm EST/EDT

I have to agree up to a point that this attack was a "full test of the EW capabilties of the western & Israel armies". This was not just an Israeli attack. Israel just supplied four attack jets. The French were (as Russia observed) firing missiles. British aircraft were high overhead providing surveillance and attack data. U.S. surveillance aircraft similar to the IL-20 are more or less full-time orbiting off the Lebanon/Syria coasts gathering data, probing electronic systems and providing aerial data link relays for the planes and ships below. We should all stop calling this an "Israeli attack". It was basically a NATO attack on Syria.

It's evident that the Russian and Syrian forces were not prepared for such a combined attack as this.

NATO "won" overwhelmingly.

And this was just a "warmup" for the next, bigger attack to come. Russia must up it's game drastically or it's going to face a crushing defeat in the next attack.

[Sep 19, 2018] "Israeli military delegation led by air force commander to travel to Moscow to share information on Il-20 plane crash.

Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

JJ on September 19, 2018 , · at 4:48 pm EST/EDT

"Israeli military delegation led by air force commander to travel to Moscow to share information on Il-20 plane crash.

The Israeli military delegation led by Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Amikam Norkin will travel to Moscow on September 20 with information about the crash of a Russian Il-20 reconnaissance aircraft off the Syrian coast that killed 15 military personnel, the IDF press service said Wednesday."

Will be interesting to see how or maybe if it correlates with Russian intelligence?

[Sep 19, 2018] on September 19, 2018 at 3:31 pm EST/EDT

Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

The entire Russian policy in Syria has been confused and riddled with contradictions from the very beginning. The situation in 2015 was:
1. The Syrian government was on the verge of losing a war against jihadi forces.
2. Those jihadi forces were largely foreign and were organized, funded and directed by the
Anglo/zionists.
3. The Russians could not match the conventional forces that could be brought to bear in the region by
the Anglo/zionists.
4. Any Russian intervention could only succeed if the Anglo/zionists were deterred from intervening
directly by the presence of Russian forces and the fear of a wider war (that could go nuclear).

Now given those four facts, which I presume nobody seriously disagrees with, the Russian operation in Syria was always based upon maintaining the fear in the minds of the military planners in Tel Aviv and Washington that any direct interference with Russian forces in Syria would mean war with Russia. This was the most important single job of the Russian forces in Syria maintaining the deterrent capability vis-a-vis the Anglo/zionists.

How do you maintain deterrence? You do so by enforcing your red lines EVERY TIME they are challenged. Russian inability to clearly define their red lines in Syria and to enforce those red lines each and every time they were tested has led us to a point where the Russians no longer have any credibility in Syria.

My crystal ball says that within the next 30 days, not only will the US massively strike the SAA and the Assad government, but that they will impose a no fly zone over all of Syria to ground the Russian and Syrian air forces. What will the Russians do in response? They will have a choice between war and defeat Everything they have done to this point, indicates that they will do whatever they need to do to avoid a direct military confrontation with the Anglo/zionist forces. Imagine if you were a military planner in Tel Aviv or Washington, how could you convince anyone that there was any credible threat that Russia would go to war over Syria? You couldn't and hence we are now faced with the imminent threat of either an Anglo/zionist victory in Syria or WW3. Reply

Christian W on September 19, 2018 , · at 4:23 pm EST/EDT

The Anglo-Zionists are losing in Syria. Russia, Syria and Iran are winning. That is why the ZioNazis are desperate and moving in themselves, now that their proxies have been defeated. There is no way the ZioNazis can impose a no-fly zone over Syria. If they start shooting at Russian jets the answer will come in the form of nuclear armed missiles. Israel will be taken out in a matter of minutes and made uninhabitable as it has no strategic depth. It does not even take nuclear missiles to achieve the destruction of Israel. If I were Israeli I would not be best pleased with the insane Netanyahu, but Israel at this point seems quite psychotic.

The Russian forces have a standing order to defend themselves with the strongest means available to any attack. Israel managed to create a situation where the fog of war made things less clear but Israel still attacked Russia directly. It is in Israel's and NATO's interest to confuse things in Syria to keep Russia from pursuing it's strategies to the end. It's only Idlib left now, once the remaining Jihadi proxies have been blown out of their holes (a matter of a few months, much less if Turkey lends a hand) the turn will then come to the turncoat Kurds in the East and they will be dealt with just like the jihadis were dealt with.

This is the scenario that is giving Israel and NATO fits, but they cannot stop it without going to war with Russia. Israel cannot possibly survive such a war, so they want to pull in NATO to do the dirty work while Israel itself sits it out on the sidelines. It won't work of course.

Occasional Poster on September 19, 2018 , · at 4:25 pm EST/EDT
@ Bob,

I am one of the armchair warriors, but hell I don't know, I could be wrong, and I sincerely hope that I am.

That said, I do understand the 'wait and see' logic. My only concern with it, is that if the slow and steady strategy is superior to enforcing red lines, then the problem is that the enemy is not stupid.They in turn will see that either a greater provocation is needed, else they need to find a new weak spot to poke.

Zog wants the Russians to fail, and Assad replaced by their puppet, really badly. They are not going to sit back and think 'dammit, we lost, out-smarted by those pesky Russians.'

Again, I hope to be wrong. But the nasties in ZOG HQ are as devious, nasty, and fanatical as they come. If plan A fails, plans B, C and D are lined up.

Big picture, the Shia crescent needs Iraq fully on board, and the yanks out. Then Russia (and Iran) has an uninterrupted air corridor to the theatre, and that doesn't rely on the ever unreliable Turkey..

Zog sees this too. I'm not aware that anybody really focuses on this, but Iraq is really the key. The Sunnis won't like it, but ISIS was their gambit, and it failed. If Iraq becomes free of US control, and joins the Shia Crescent, we will hear Zog's screams all over the world.

That's worth waiting for.

[Sep 19, 2018] Russia options are limited

Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

Woogs on September 19, 2018 , · at 1:39 pm EST/EDT

Which is why the provocations won't stop. Honestly, I don't see how Putin can think he can shrug them off and continue with the job at hand in Syria. He will try but Zion will continue to double-down.

I believe the West has seen enough of their schemes foiled by Putin and his playing the long game. The strategy now is to take the long game from him. The advantage in this goes to the West as they can be as provocative as they want while Russia has to be careful not to be seen as an aggressor lest it wreck Nord Stream, Turk Stream and the thaw in relations with Germany.

Putin has sounded conciliatory, maybe even weak in some eyes. He did, however, note that Russia's attitude towards this incident is expressed in the MoD statement, which is noticeably less conciliatory.

Perhaps that, along with some concrete actions (I favor a limited no-fly zone), will deter outside interference while the essential work at Idlib can continue. We can only hope.

[Sep 19, 2018] It is a promise or threat being honored. For months we have we have been hearing high ranking American officials openly advocating that their goal in Syria was to make as many as possible Russian military return home in body bags

Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

Stanley Laham on September 19, 2018 , · at 5:24 pm EST/EDT

May I remind you Saker that this incident was not just a provocation. It is a promise or threat being honored. For months we have we have been hearing high ranking American officials openly advocating that their goal in Syria was to make as many as possible Russian military return home in body bags. From Senators to directors of intelligence have unabashedly and unapologetically said so openly on American TVs. And they are doing it whenever possible.
So the question for Mr. Putin is whether he's gonna let them continue with impunity. I don't know how old most commentators on this site are, but for those who remember the denouement of the Vietnam war you will remember that the only war the US ever lost was when the American people had enough of hundreds of their soldiers returning home every week in body bags.
Kampfbeobachter on September 19, 2018 , · at 6:49 pm EST/EDT
remember the Tu 20 was used a RADAR shield for the 4 Israeli F-16. These are obviously aircraft and operate from an Israeli military base.The Russians know the geographical coordinates of these bases to the accuracy of a few meters. The Russian SSBM can stay in the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea Flotilla can repeat their Deir ez Zoor feat again testing the Iron Dome an Davids Sling in the process.
This potential threat will cause the Israeli military planers some sleepless nights.
I have read that the fire works capabilities of Hezbollah have somewhat improved in recent years. The possible components of a "no fly zone" over Israel and western Syria. Not that it will happen but making the protection racket in Washington foam at their Snouts is worth something too. IMHO
bored muslim on September 19, 2018 , · at 3:49 pm EST/EDT
Lets not forget China has people (Special Forces, Logistics people, medics etc) on the ground in Syria. Some brigades of the special forces are embedded with the Syrian Arab Armies Tiger Division and 4th Armored Division. The spearheads of most campaigns.

China has major plans foe the Levant, as far as connectivity with the OBR Silk Roads. They already have plans to rebuild Syria.

With cheap Chinese weapons, and a large volume of such, the Arabs, Assyrians of Syria will achieve their ultimate victory. The same applies to Iraq, where the U.S. , British and French position looks more and more precarious.

By 2030, the U.S., Britain and France will have been expelled from the MENA/Central Asian regions, only to have China fill the vacuum. Russia or not, China is coming, its rising fast.

­
Rob from Canada on September 19, 2018 , · at 4:34 pm EST/EDT
I agree with you 100% that there is no hope for the Western globalist elite. That's because they're incompetent, psychopathic, loser scum who are only a few bricks short of a load and their ponzi scam is only a few moves from mate.

https://www.traditionalright.com/the-deep-state-speaks/

cstahnke on September 19, 2018 , · at 6:59 pm EST/EDT
I wouldn't say that at all. They are still in positions of power with enormous economic and military sources. They are in decline but not that far down the road. Russia won't act strongly because the US/NATO/Israel/Saudi alliance is waaaaay more powerful and still very united in the Imperial project. Only a very tight China-Russia-Iran alliance would cause the Empire to hesitate to play their current game of continual micro-aggressions against Russia/Syria/Iran. Putin will not respond because he does not have as close an alliance with the Chinese as the US has with their "allies (vassals)." Washington can no longer dictate terms in world affairs but is more influential than Russia/China/Iran and any other minor players.
B.F. on September 19, 2018 , · at 2:25 pm EST/EDT
Kfeto
You need to do your homework before posting comments. Erdogan had nothing to do with with the shooting of that Russian SU-24. This was done behind his back, with pro-US elements in Turkey hoping to create a rift between Russia and Turkey. It was a provocation. The pilot of that Turkish F-16 was a Turk of Albanian origin, who was subsequently placed under arrest. When the US instigated that coup d'etat against Erdogan, it was the Russians who both warned him and saved his life, as his plane was targeted by Turkish F-16's flown by conspirators, who backed off, having Russian Sukhois behind them and Russian missiles in Syria pointing at them.

The shooting of that Russian reconnaissance plane in Syria was another provocation, Israel hoping to provoke Putin to retaliate and starting a mass war in Syria, bearing in mind that NATO brought additional ships to the Syrian coast. It did not work, as Putin stayed cool. However, Russian and Syrian AA missile systems have now become integrated. When it comes to this latest provocation, it could have been greater than it appeared. Commentators have pointed to that French frigate firing a missile. What kind of missile was that ? An AA missile, or a cruise missile ? Did the French shoot that Russian plane down ? If so, then we were facing a very real threat of wider war, because had the Russians retaliated, then NATO would have had an excuse to attack Syria, now that it's little false flag plan has been exposed, another chemical "attack" by Assad, as if Assad was foolish enough to do such a thing.

The point is that Putin does not fall for provocations. He has proved it again.

bored muslim on September 19, 2018 , · at 3:38 pm EST/EDT
I concur. Israel is a rogue state, and this was a provocation.

A firm response is required. The world is watching. Anything short of a firm response would negate Vostok 2018.

Does Putin stand with, and behind his own Minister of Defense, who layed the blame firmly on Israel.

Russia needs to secure Syrian and Lebanese airspace to Israeli provocations. AS a starting point. And Russia should make a lot of noise at the U.N., giving them a headache there, as well as points against the U.S..

Israeli arrogance should not be let go by superpower Russia.

[Sep 19, 2018] NATO ships are still off the Syrian coast. Why ? For what purpose ? Just keeping them at sea must cost millions of dollars. Are they waiting for something ?

Sep 19, 2018 | thesaker.is

B.F. on September 19, 2018 , · at 3:19 pm EST/EDT

amarynth
You are correct. I am wondering what really happened. Officially that Russian plane was mistakenly shot down by Syrians, who were targeting Israeli F-16's that were hiding behind the Russian plane. Both the Syrian radar operators and their Russian advisors must have known about that Russian reconnaissance plane, making such a mistake improbable, but not impossible. Then we have reports of that French frigate firing a missile. What kind of missile was that ? An AA missile, or a cruise missile ? No additional data has been provided. I wonder why.

NATO ships are still off the Syrian coast. Why ? For what purpose ? Just keeping them at sea must cost millions of dollars. Are they waiting for something ?

That false flag chemical "attack" which the US planned, hoping to frame Assad, has been exposed. Putin and Erdogan make a deal on Idlib. After that we have that Israeli attack, with the French giving a helping hand. Was NATO provoking Putin to make a retaliatory attack, either against Israel or against that French frigate ? Time will tell. However, as The Saker has stated, Russians have patience.

Stanley on September 19, 2018 , · at 5:48 pm EST/EDT
Patience is not always a virtue. Stalin paid dearly for his patience with Hitler even though his plans for Lebensraum and expansion eastward were not hidden. Careful Mr. Putin that you not pay dearly for your patience with the American Empire when it's plan "Project for a New American Century" has been clearly spelled out.
Veritas on September 19, 2018 , · at 3:32 pm EST/EDT
Yes Saker as you say let's wait and see what the Russian response will be.

Over the years – this always is the knee jerk reaction of the armchair warriors and anti-Putin/Russia trolls – whenever Russia is attacked in Syria or elsewhere. Some still don't learn that Russia is slow to saddle and quick to ride. The MOD statements have already set down who is to blame and a reply to this disgusting provocation will be answered in their own way and in their own time. Putin also agreed with the MOD statements and hinted himself to watch this space.

"Also, speaking of Syria: has anybody noticed that the agreement between Turkey and Russia has removed any justification for a US attack on Syria and that the Israelis have organized their latest little bloody stunt right after this deal was announced?"

This was a very important point, I also noted. I also read that the II-20 plane was returning from reconnaissance over Idlib and was just coming into land .take from that what you will ..

[Sep 18, 2018] Israel did not warn the command of the Russian troops in Syria about the planned operation

Notable quotes:
"... At the same time as the Israeli air force attacked, a Russian frigate (red) near the coast detected missile launches from the French Frigate Auvergne (blue) nearby. The French frigate carries air, ship and land attack missiles. France denied "any involvement in the incident." But it seems that this only referred to the IL-20 incident and did not deny launching missiles. ..."
"... Israel (and France?) are deliberately provoking the Syrian and Russian forces. It hopes for a response that allows it play the victim and to call on U.S. President Trump for help and protection. The help would come in the form of a U.S., British and French attack on the Syrian government and Syrian military targets. ..."
"... something stinks...The Syrian and russian AD systems are linked together for the express purpose of not shooting themselves...The IL20 should have been a big friendly target, and not targetable by syrian AD... ..."
"... At the same time, Israel is constantly working to prevent our enemies from arming themselves with advanced weaponry. Our red lines are as sharp as ever and our determination to enforce them is stronger than ever. ..."
"... This week we will mark, in synagogues and cemeteries, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of our people, and the day on which, 45 years ago, we absorbed a bloody attack that cost us thousands of victims. ..."
"... If Israel did not attack Syria without any legal pretext, none of this would have happened. Why do the USA and its NATO allies stand by and watch as Israel commits so many acts of naked aggression? ..."
"... Because USA and NATO are wholly owned subsidiaries of Israel. Besides, the USA does not sit idly by - it actively supports Israel. ..."
Sep 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

dan , Sep 18, 2018 6:36:35 AM | link

<). This agreement takes away the chance of an imminent wider war in which the U.S. and some of its allies would use a fake 'chemical attack' as a pretext to launch missiles against a large number of Syrian government targets and military positions.>

A peaceful solution of the Idleb situation is unsatisfying for Israel. The successful Syrian defeat of the Jihadi enemy inside the country would allow Syria and its allies to concentrate their forces against Israel. Israel wants the Syrian government destroyed and the country in chaos.

On Sunday September 16 Israel tried to hit an Iranian Boeing 747 freight plane at Damascus airport. The plane allegedly carried an Iranian copy of the Russian S-300 long range air defense System for the Syrian army.

On Monday around 10:00pm local time 4 F-16 jets of the Israeli airforce, coming from the sea, launched missiles against at least three targets on Syria's coast. The strike came only hours after Israel released satellite images of what it called "strategic targets" in Syria. The integrated Syrian and Russian air-defenses responded.

The Israeli air force had warned the Russian forces in Syria only one minute before the strike. A Russian IL-20 electronic warfare airplane (red line) was preparing to land at the Russian airport near Latakia just as the Israeli attack (blue) happened.


Source: Russian defense Ministry - bigger

The IL-20 was hit 35 kilometers off the coast by a S-200 air-defense missile fired by the Syrian military towards the Israeli attack. There were 15 Russian soldiers on board of the plane which were likely all killed. Russian ships search for survivors. Some wreckage of the plane was found at sea 27 kilometers west of the village of Banias.


IL-20 electronic warfare version - bigger

The Israeli attack came out of the same direction as the Russian IL-20. The large 4 propeller plane creates a much bigger radar reflection than the small F-16s fighter jets. The S-200 missiles have a semi-active radar homing seeker . These are passive detectors of a radar signal which is provided by an external source, in this case the Syrian and Russian radars on the ground. While the missile was aimed at the F-16 its seeker likely mistook the larger radar reflection of IL-20 for the intended target.

At the same time as the Israeli air force attacked, a Russian frigate (red) near the coast detected missile launches from the French Frigate Auvergne (blue) nearby. The French frigate carries air, ship and land attack missiles. France denied "any involvement in the incident." But it seems that this only referred to the IL-20 incident and did not deny launching missiles.

Even more was going on says Haaretz :

Not only Russian and (allegedly) Israeli and French aircraft and missiles were in the air. Civilian radar also tracked British Royal Air Force aircraft, which, unusually, had switched on their transponders and gone into holding patterns – most likely to avoid being somehow involved in the exchange of fire over Latakia.

The Russian Defense Ministry accuses the Israeli government of a deliberate set up:

"Israel did not warn the command of the Russian troops in Syria about the planned operation. We received a notification via a hotline less than a minute before the strike, which did not allow the Russian aircraft to be directed to a safe zone," Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said.

After the Israeli attack the Syrian state TV showed the headquarters of the Technical Industries Agency near Latakia on fire. Other targets were near Jableh, south of Latakia, and Homs. At least ten people were wounded due to these attacks.

The Russian military spokesman also accused Israel of "hostile action" against Russian forces:

"We see these provocative actions of Israel as hostile," Konashenkov said, adding that 15 Russian servicemen were killed as a result of the "irresponsible actions" of Israel's Defense Forces, which violated "the spirit of the Israeli-Russian partnership."
According to the spokesman, the Russian Defense Ministry reserves the right to an "adequate response" following the Israeli attack.

Israel (and France?) are deliberately provoking the Syrian and Russian forces. It hopes for a response that allows it play the victim and to call on U.S. President Trump for help and protection. The help would come in the form of a U.S., British and French attack on the Syrian government and Syrian military targets.

Russia will certainly take revenge for the Israeli provocation, but will likely do so in the political arena. On Netanyahoo's personal request Russia had stopped the delivery of original Russian S-300 long range air-defense missiles to the Syrian military. These would have been less likely to veer off towards the wrong target. In consequence an Iranian 747 was damaged and 15 Russian soldiers were killed. Netanyahoo can forget about any further such 'favors' from Moscow.

Posted by b on September 18, 2018 at 06:09 AM | Permalink

Comments next page " I am not sure. Give it more time to play out. Everyone is scurrying about trying to figure out the next move right now. Yom Kippur is just around the corner, the Israelis are quiet...


Arioch , Sep 18, 2018 6:41:32 AM | link

If that interpretation holds water I can see two variants.

Remember, recently Russia told they upgraded all electronics within old Soviet S-125 and S-200 missiles in Syria. Russia also allegedly retrained Syrian Arab Army personnel and plugged their stations into Russian AD network.

Option 1: Israeli indeed were hiding behind IL-20. They did not intended harm to it, they merely were shielding themselves from Syrian AD, effectively disabling the station. They did not expect Syrians to actually fire in anger with such a complicated dynamic geometry.

Option 2: Israeli just demonstrated that despite all the fanfares about Russian upgrading and drilling Syrian Arab Army air defensed, SAA is still only SAA.

Afterall back then in Egypt IAF successfully challenged Soviet air force. So they probably still are highly skilled in both technological and psychological aspects of air warfare.

oldenyoung , Sep 18, 2018 6:43:51 AM | link
something stinks...The Syrian and russian AD systems are linked together for the express purpose of not shooting themselves...The IL20 should have been a big friendly target, and not targetable by syrian AD...

regards

OY

timbers , Sep 18, 2018 6:46:50 AM | link
Umm....didn't some say Syrian didn't need S300. How's that werk'in out fer yah????

And why does't Iran have S400 but Saudi Arabia and Turkey do? How's that gonna werk out fer yah?

Harry , Sep 18, 2018 6:49:33 AM | link
I don't get why Israel would backstab friendly superpower, which kept SAA and Iran off its back and allowed to bomb Syria without any consequences. Even refused S-300 delivery to SAA (what to speak of S-400, which is offered to countries like Turkey and Saudis). Israel might be panicking, but I only see negative outcome out of this mess.

Russia was always way too lenient in such situations in the past, therefore I don't expect much in response. There wont be military reaction, and after some Israel's concessions (IMHO Israel will offer something in one shape or another) there might even not be overt political response. I still doubt Russia will hand over S-300 to SAA, at the most Russia might threaten with it but wont follow through.

If Iranian Bavar 373 was really destroyed in Damascus international airport as Magnier suspects, it would be a damn shame. That's what Syria really needs now.

Realistic , Sep 18, 2018 6:51:07 AM | link
In all honesty, the reality of Russia's weakness is there if you want to see it. There will be no delivery of S-300s to Syria, there will be no retaliation by Russia towards Israel.

"Political" retaliation is tantamount to "imaginary" retaliation, much like many declare Putin having won in Syria even as the war has not even ended.

Zanon , Sep 18, 2018 6:54:05 AM | link
On Netanyahoo's personal request Russia had stopped the delivery of original Russian S-300 long range air-defense missiles to the Syrian military. In consequence a Iranian 747 was damaged and 15 Russian soldiers were killed. .

Exactly, only way forward now is to give Syria S300 otherwise this killing will occur again - if Putin do not do this he is way more dumb than we can imagine apparently.

Tom Welsh , Sep 18, 2018 6:54:28 AM | link
What cannot be denied by anyone is that all this harm was deliberately caused by Israel. It openly boasts of having bombed Syria hundreds of times "to attack Iranian targets". But that is no excuse at all! International law, the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Principles forbid any nation to attack another nation that has not declared war on it, unless by order of the UNSC.

If Israel did not attack Syria without any legal pretext, none of this would have happened. Why do the USA and its NATO allies stand by and watch as Israel commits so many acts of naked aggression?

It is perfectly obvious that all American and NATO talk of the "rules-based international order" are self-serving hypocritical lies. The only rule that they recognize is "We are always right, and we may do whatever we wish".

It is time for Russia (and, if possible, China and other nations) really to hurt Israel and its co-conspirators by any means they can.

Nils , Sep 18, 2018 6:57:36 AM | link
How do you know all this?

Aranian Boeing hit? Is there any photographic evidence?

Russian airplane shot down as the missile mistook the target? Who told you this?

As we have seen with the fake US, France and Uk attack on Barzeh, Damascus, on a science institute that was already demolished, not a single rocket was launched then, we must be very careful to check all information.

somebody , Sep 18, 2018 7:00:06 AM | link
Attacking Latakia from the Mediterranean is a huge provocation in itself never mind what happened to the Russian plane.

Israel would have needed US backing if not incitement for this and it surely had.

The significance I suppose is that Israel has clearly taken sides now there is no longer trying to balance policy towards Russia.

Either the US forced them or the Russian deal with Turkey was too much.
I don't see how this can end well.

Response will be neither political nor military. It will be asymmetric.

Mina , Sep 18, 2018 7:05:26 AM | link
Le Monde manages to make no reference to Israel in its online title frontpage
https://www.lemonde.fr/proche-orient/article/2018/09/18/avion-russe-abattu-en-syrie-confusion-dans-la-region-de-lattaquie_5356629_3218.html

The BBC is for once a little bit more honest
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-45556290

Realistic , Sep 18, 2018 7:05:47 AM | link
@10 There will be no response. Russia will move in more assets and hope it will scare Israel off, but it won't.
Arioch , Sep 18, 2018 7:06:08 AM | link
@Nils #9

> Russian airplane shot down as the missile mistook the target? Who told you this?

a wide number of online media said it, attributing to Russian MoD

sadly, MoD's site itself is very rarely updated about Syria


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now that gets interesting.

RusMoD announces publishing extra information on #MH17 Boeing downed over Ukraine
https://twitter.com/mod_russia/status/1041679984287522816
ENG: https://twitter.com/mod_russia/status/1041680008018894848

Coincidence theory says it is unrelated, but who knows....

Antares , Sep 18, 2018 7:13:28 AM | link
"Israel wants the Syrian government destroyed and the country in chaos."
Combining the fact that the war is almost lost for the Anglosaxion axis and the stubborn moves pushing for more war could mean that Israel is only after the Golan Heights and not (yet) after Syria or Iran. They don't care about other's losses.
Zanon , Sep 18, 2018 7:15:25 AM | link
As few of us here have tried to point out so many times months ago here - Russia is weak and have nothing against US/Nato/Israel.
Whats worse is that Russia have appeased the same states so many times and now we see what this appeasement leads to.

Will it lead to anything, any return by Russia? No and that is why this will end with the bombing of Assad, there is no other way around this.

Sad day for Syria and humiliating for Russia being played by Israel/France, rather ridiculous.

pB , Sep 18, 2018 7:17:25 AM | link
every time russia shows itself to be a rational diplomatic actor, they get a kick in the teeth. the future is bleak.
craigsummers , Sep 18, 2018 7:38:50 AM | link
"........This agreement takes away the chance of an imminent wider war in which the U.S. and some of its allies would use a fake 'chemical attack' as a pretext to launch missiles against a large number of Syrian government targets and military positions......."

The Russian government is still stuck on inventing false theories on the downing of MH17 so their supposed intel about Britsh intelligence working with the "terrorists" to create a false flag chemical attack in Idlib is nothing more than propaganda i.e., more Russian lies. Most recently, the Russian government lied when they denied there was a chemical attack in Douma. According to the Russian MOD, this was all staged by the White Helmets.

To prove this point, the state-owned journalists at Channel 1 "staged" the staging of the chemical attack - and showed it on Russian television according to the Moscow Times ("Russian TV Uses Film Stills as Proof Syria Chemical Attack Was Staged": https://themoscowtimes.com/news/russian-tv-uses-film-stills-as-proof-syria-chemical-attack-was-staged-61249). Other lies have been exposed concerning the Douma chemical attack including that a child (used for pro Russian propaganda to prove the staging of the attack) was (secretly) interviewed at a Russian military complex in Damascus (Russian TV interview with Syrian boy was secretly conducted at army facility https://interc.pt/2K8gEd2 by @RobertMackey).

I agree that the downing of the Russian military plane is potentially a serious breech of the Russian-Israeli agreement. Israel was able to conduct airstrikes against Iranian military targets in Syria mostly unopposed by Russia. This certainly is in danger of changing. Russia could arm Syria with the S-300 missile defense system which would force Israel to change their tactics.

Mina , Sep 18, 2018 7:44:04 AM | link
Why can't Russia recall its ambassador and cut diplomatic relations? KSA/Qatar, KSA/Canada did, so it is the new normal, no?
Out of Istanbul , Sep 18, 2018 7:44:52 AM | link
With sufficient jamming and electronic counter measures (ECMs) in use, the semi-active seeker could have been tricked into a space close enough to the Il-20 that a detonation would damage/destroy it. It doesn't mean the system was garbage, or that the system even actively targeted the Russian plane, just that it was close enough that a detonation would destroy it. Using the radar section of the larger plane was an aggressive tactic, the interaction between the use of ECM and the S-200 might not have been understood to cause the destruction of the Russian plane although most certainly the risks were known and the attack wasn't called off.

This was certainly a well wrapped up provocation. Few people here seem to know that any Russian attack on NATO assets in the Mediterranean is grounds for invoking Article 5. I don't think NATO would care whether it was an accident or not, they seem to fabricate false flags at their leisure. Israel isn't in NATO so the mediterranean sea will be a less reliable battle space for them, unfortunately they can continue to violate Lebanese airspace at will.

As for improving the air defense system in Syria, S-200/300/400, aren't especially useful at suppressing these types of Israeli aggressions as many of them can be carried out without entering Syrian airspace or by using cruise missiles. For those types of attacks, Tor/Pantsir are the best you can do. But remember, even if the interception rate is 90%, if Israeli launches a 500 glide bombs, cruise missiles, or air to ground missiles, 50 would still get through to damage Syrian infrastructure. All in all, such use rates of weapons just feeds the MIC in the US...

A political or asymmetrical response is best. There will also be a repositioning of Russian assets in the region, not necessarily to deter future Israeli aggression but to strengthen the Russian negotiating position. The Russians might also be willing to ignore the loss of life for a technological transfer or two...

Zanon , Sep 18, 2018 7:45:50 AM | link
craigsummers

Actually you are lying/spreading propaganda. Nothing of what you just said refute that rebels in Douma might create false flag attacks as they have earlier before western attacks.

H , Sep 18, 2018 8:03:32 AM | link
The Syrians would have known about which Russian planes were in the area so it's hard to see how they could have shot one down unless they're just incompetent.
Robert McMaster , Sep 18, 2018 8:10:00 AM | link
The politics of this is very bad for Russia. Toadying Isreal and getting kicked for it. Failing to arm Syria is noted by other states, partners. This is where you will wind up with the ever-weak Russians. This incident emboldens Isreal, the U.S, UK. Take strong action and Russia (and China) will just whine and fold. Disheartens all those who have been counting on Russia.

You can hardly count the damage this bad behaviour by Russia is and will cause.

EtTuBrute , Sep 18, 2018 8:15:09 AM | link
Here is what an appropriate response with balls would look like:

"Israel has bombed Syria over 200 times in the past 18 months.

Syrian attacks on Israel: Zero

Syria is an Ally of the Russian Federation. Israel's latest aggression has costs 15 Russian lives.

Any further attack on Syria by Israel (or anyone else) will be met with the full force of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, including its nuclear arsenal, if deemed appropriate.

We understand an attack on Israel (or other western US ally) could be met with retaliation on Russian interests in Syria or on Russian soil.

To be clear, any attack on Russian interests will be met with the destruction of the attack's source, be it sea, air or land based. Any attack on Russian soil will be met with a devastating full scale Nuclear attack on American soil, leading to possible MAD.

It appears therefore that the future of the world now depends on Israel's desire to pursue its aggression towards Syria, a country that has never attacked Israel, or any of the other nations waging war against it since 2012 now, covertly or not.

We strongly encourage our western partners to work with Israel to maintain peace and strategic balance in the world, and with Russia in its efforts to reinstate Syrian sovereignty over its own territory.

We trust it is in everyone's interest to avoid any further unnecessary and potentially catastrophic escalation."

but yeah, we will get some ban on israeli dates, nuts and hummus imports to russia and maybe they will offer to pay for the funerals as well. until next time, the russian bear is patiently turning into a nice furry rug for the west to walk on again. for now..

laserlurk , Sep 18, 2018 8:18:43 AM | link
It is hard to tell really what is the background of this incident. Question is what french ship was doing there and did it really fire missiles?

Russia is carefully balancing in this triade between Turkey, Israel and Iran and had surely anticipated some sort of suchlike provocations. Israel could have just entraped itself with this attack way across the russian red line - that is for sure. So I doubt that we will see more of such adventures in the days to come, unless of course Russia's retaliation renders Israel to comply with agreed rules of engagement and Israel refuses to understand those. Then we will see wider kinetic events over the Med theater and I am sure it will not end up well for opponents of Syria and its allies.

Zanon , Sep 18, 2018 8:25:58 AM | link
Robert McMaster

I wonder what they are up to overall, Idlib deal with Turkey for example, just days before an assualt, what did they expect? How would that deal end anything by letting rebels/terrorists a way out?
THe russians doesnt seems to have a general plan for why they are in Syria anymore.

donkeytale , Sep 18, 2018 8:27:52 AM | link
This seems plausible and also fitting with both the US statement about the attack as well as my belief Israel, not the US, is obviously the most interested anti-Assad party on the ground (and in the air). I don't doubt Russia will manage to extract some measure of revenge in time and agree it will by necessity be diplomatic in nature.

b, your even handed assessments continue to impress. Your journalism gains credibility in time. I know many here are surprised and bitterly disappointed the attack on Idleb has not already commenced and will be delayed indefinitely at least beyond the US midterm elections.

Russ , Sep 18, 2018 8:29:55 AM | link
I can't argue with any of these criticisms of the Russians. For all the attempts to depict the Turkey deal as some kind of masterstroke, the fact remains that Putin planned to attack in Idleb and then caved in to extortion (the false flag threat) in a way that never works and only emboldens the extortionist. With these Zionist attacks we're already seeing the result.
Ian , Sep 18, 2018 8:34:27 AM | link
I predict the Russian response would be to deny the airspace around large Russian air assets such as the IL-20. The IDF would find it difficult to use this tactic again.
Robert Browning , Sep 18, 2018 8:36:40 AM | link
Why the French battleship?? Is Trump hostile to Jew trouble making?
somebody , Sep 18, 2018 8:40:03 AM | link
Posted by: Realistic | Sep 18, 2018 7:05:47 AM | 12

Russia can begin sharing more information with Hezbollah. They can give protection to Hezbollah.

Lots of possibilities.

Russia is restricted by a lot of its citizens living in Israel. But that applies to Netanyahu, too.

Jackrabbit , Sep 18, 2018 8:42:21 AM | link
I don't believe this attack had anything to do with the Idlib agreement.

Just another Israeli attack on Syria.

AG17 , Sep 18, 2018 8:48:48 AM | link
What was France doing there.. why no one asking about the British military aircraft on the radar in that area
imo , Sep 18, 2018 8:49:51 AM | link
@23 [EtTuBrute | Sep 18, 2018 8:15:09 AM] -- "Syria is an Ally of the Russian Federation. Israel's latest aggression has costs 15 Russian lives."

Interesting deep core values issue here, imo.

Whether 15 Russian lives, or 25m (+/-) in WW2 -- what does it matter in the (western) public perception business?

Very little perhaps: either (a) they (Russians) are just grunt stupid comrade-cogs in a communist machine and don't matter all that much (the value of a Palestinian vs an Israeli etc); and/or (b) even they themselves (Russians) don't give a f_ck about an individual's identity representing a nation's pride and sovereignty -- something that the USA (and others) at least claim (when it suits them).

Hard to read but basically it's well past 'who gives a toss' what Russia thinks and feels -- it's what they do (or don't do) that counts ... and they don't do much these days except for patience. Where's the need for 'respect' in that?

Tel Aviv; Paris; London; and Washington are just rolling around on the floor laughing, imo.

SlapHappy , Sep 18, 2018 8:55:46 AM | link
The Russians should sink a couple of Israel's Dolphin submarines; that would send the appropriate message.
Oui , Sep 18, 2018 9:07:39 AM | link
Yep!

Fucking Israelis Stirring Up Big Trouble

Jackrabbit , Sep 18, 2018 9:08:02 AM | link
Russ @27:
Putin planned to attack in Idleb and then caved in to extortion

No. This erroneous belief shows the true danger in the view that 'Erdogan has turned east'.

Putin wasn't scared off. He simply failed to plan for Erdogan's mischief: he was played by Erdogan.

Here's what happened:

1) Erdogan needed cover for his full occupation of Idlib.

2) USA threats underscored Erdogan's humanitarian cover story.

3) A war against Turkey would simply be too costly. So a Turkish occupation will not be contested.


<> <> <> <> <> <>

Putin gambled on Turkey. But Erdogan has been playing both sides. And Erdogan's Islamist orientation means that his sympathies lie with the Jihadi's.

Pat Lang said that R+6 should have moved to take Idlib after Aleppo. He has now been proven right.

Oui , Sep 18, 2018 9:09:05 AM | link
@b

Tongue twister .. typo Idelb should read Idleb ;)

Mina , Sep 18, 2018 9:09:36 AM | link
In his press conference with Orban just now, Putin recalled that a Turkish jet had voluntarily downed a Russian plane (meaning Ergo knew yesterday what was coming? thus his grim?) and that in this case it was not voluntarily that the Russian plane had been put down but that very visible measures would be taken to step up the Russian presence on Syrian ground...
partizan , Sep 18, 2018 9:09:59 AM | link
i believe in none of this shit.
sarz , Sep 18, 2018 9:18:29 AM | link
https://www.rt.com/news/438728-putin-israel-syria-plane/

Putin says it was a tragic set of circumstances.

somebody , Sep 18, 2018 9:20:43 AM | link
Posted by: Russ | Sep 18, 2018 8:29:55 AM | 27

No. This was a Russian "win", as they got Turkey to cooperate. Turkey can now find out which Syrian "rebels" it does indeed control and eliminate the rest with Russia. Both, Turkey and Russia, granting the Syrian army it will not get attackes.

It was clear in the run up that "the West" threatened to attack in case the Syrian army and Russia attacked Idlib. Cooperation with Turkey means Syria reached its goals without the attack.

Putin has now called the downing of the Russian plane "looks like a chain of tragic circumstances". This will have cost Netanyahu.

b , Sep 18, 2018 9:22:37 AM | link
@craigsummers

The U.S. alleged that Sarin and Chlorine was used in Douma, based on the propaganda group White Helmets and other militants.

The Syrian observatory did not report a gas attack. It said that several people suffocate from dust after their shelter collapsed.

The OPCW, which took samples and analyzed them, found no trace of Sarin or similar and found no evidence for the use of Chlorine gas.

Several 'western' journalist went to Douma and talked to witnesses. All, including the medical personal in the nearby clinic, denied that any such a thing happened.

You can read all of that in detail here: Syria - OPCW Issues First Report Of 'Chemical Weapon Attack' in Douma

The claimed Douma attack was obviously fake.

Julian , Sep 18, 2018 9:23:51 AM | link
Re: Posted by: H | Sep 18, 2018 8:03:32 AM | 21
The Syrians would have known about which Russian planes were in the area so it's hard to see how they could have shot one down unless they're just incompetent .

Or the Syrians are just extremely frustrated with the Russians 'slow-playing' the whole situation and wanted an ' 'excuse' to 'accidentally' shoot down the wrong plane.

Oops.

Sorry Vlad, bet this wouldn't have happened if we had a more up-to-date air defense system. S-300, or S-400 say.

Pity we haven't been able to get one of those to defend ourselves........

astabada , Sep 18, 2018 9:25:55 AM | link
@Arioch 13

The revelations about MH17 were already happening before the incident. For example the Russians disclosed that they used the serial number of the missile (published by the JIT) to identify the manufacturing plant, the production date as well as the ownership.

Julian , Sep 18, 2018 9:27:53 AM | link
Re: Posted by: donkeytale | Sep 18, 2018 8:27:52 AM | 26

Re - an attack on Idlib being delayed beyond the US Mid-Terms.

What about TurkStream? When is that online? 2020?

Yeah, the attack on Idlib might be delayed a whole lot longer than a few months.

How long has the attack on the Golan been delayed since the Golan Heights was stolen?

radiator , Sep 18, 2018 9:40:42 AM | link

Posted by: sarz | Sep 18, 2018 9:18:29 AM | 40
Putin says it was a tragic set of circumstances

I would expect this. No use in official blaming (MOD statements will be sufficient to make it clear that they know who's behind this), just make sure that such a thing won't happen again. Iirc he finished the press conference stating that russia must improve the coordination and communication of their defense and that would take place and will be noticed by everyone.
After all there's still a possibility that this particular incident was an accident after all.

paul , Sep 18, 2018 9:49:57 AM | link
What a lovely day yesterday for sadomasochist Putin. In the morning he got
Kalen , Sep 18, 2018 9:50:35 AM | link
Do you really believe those explanations? S400 could shut down F15 over Tel-Aviv, what they hell happened. I know for the fact that Syrian SAA have liaisons/instructors in very unit, shooting down Russian Spy airplane is impossible with this technology especially near Russian base with S400 that suppose to track all the Israeli Air Force bases and telling us that they were notified by Israel minutes before attack is a lie , they were not notified at all, as it takes minutes to Israeli jets to get into position to fire which Russian knew as soon as F15s took off.

It is charade people, the only reasonable explanation is that Putin was nice not to illuminate with combat radar Israeli F15 as long as they were outside of Syrian territory. Israel rarely did
it, did not have to.

.

somebody , Sep 18, 2018 9:50:37 AM | link
46
RT has a slightly different translation.

"Russia will investigate the incident, Putin said, adding that Moscow will boost security of Russian troops in Syria following the incident. He said that these will be "the steps that everyone will notice.""

paul , Sep 18, 2018 9:53:49 AM | link
in the morning he got to kiss his Master Erdogan's ring. In the evening Israel and Nato (France) gave a blazing demonstration of their TOTAL disrespect for Russia and Putin. This morning Putin gets to humiliate his military people, who FINALLY spoke some strong words vs Israel, only to be submarined by Putin who blithely forgave Israel entirely. Putin can't stoop and bow enough to Russia's and the world's enemies.

As I've said before, I suspect the military hierarchy, or part of it, is increasingly frustrated with the impossible and dishonorable situations Putin puts them in.

Red Corvair , Sep 18, 2018 9:56:33 AM | link
@Dan
I'm not so sure the Israelis are so "quiet":
"Earlier this month, an Israeli military official said the Jewish state has struck over 200 Iranian targets in Syria over the past 18 months."
US News, AP, September 17, 2018.
https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2018-09-17/syrian-tv-reports-suspected-israeli-strikes-on-state-company

According to the "Israeli official", that gives an average of about 11 Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria PER MONTH for the last 18 months...
Your definition of "quiet" Israelis ??

Mina , Sep 18, 2018 9:59:24 AM | link
People here forget that it is the EU who is 100% backing Ergo (and giving him extra ideas?) because they don't want 1 single extra refugee to cross either the Syrian or the Turkish borders into Europe.
radiator , Sep 18, 2018 10:02:07 AM | link
@49 yes i wasn't trying to be literally accurate ;). Imho "everyone will notice" is a strong statement, that's what I was trying to point at.
Palloy , Sep 18, 2018 10:09:01 AM | link
Russia has its own S-400 systems defending Latakia, so it can defend itself and doesn't need Syria's S-200s.
They would have been watching the Israeli F-16s on radar, and then they get a phone call saying an attack is happening in one minute. Russia must have said "OK", because they didn't blow the F-16s out of the sky. All they have to say to Israel is "Next time it will NOT be OK." and Israel will have to stop it's invasions.

The hairy-chested Americans here are calling Putin weak, but he can't afford to make any over-reaching mistakes, and all decent, responsible human beings are glad of that. Do you want to have WW3 just to show how much "balls" you've got?

venice12 , Sep 18, 2018 10:09:18 AM | link
@6

STRONG IS NOT WHO FIGHTS WARS, STRONG IS WHO AVOIDS WAR.

pantaraxia , Sep 18, 2018 10:11:35 AM | link
Putin says it was a tragic set of circumstances.


Could there be a more passive response. Sounds like it came straight from the U.S. State Dept.. The only thing missing was some twisted version of how Israel has every right to protect itself even when using a Russian airliner as cover for an illegal missile strike against a Russian ally.

No mention of agency or responsibility for initiating this "tragic set of circumstances".

The reality is the jews have every western government AND Russia under their thumb and they can do whatever the f*ck they want with no fear of actual reprecussions other than some tepid verbal wet noodle lashing at worst.

Zanon , Sep 18, 2018 10:13:10 AM | link
Putin keep humiliating himself:

Israeli army blames Damascus for Russia's Il-20 downing, mourns death of crew – statement
https://www.rt.com/news/438712-idf-statement-il20-downing/

Putin on Israel's role in Il-20 downing: 'Looks accidental, like chain of tragic circumstances'
https://www.rt.com/news/438728-putin-israel-syria-plane/

Russian weird weak attitude begin to scare me.

Laguerre , Sep 18, 2018 10:19:40 AM | link
Quite an infestation of pro-Israeli trolls today, much more than usual. I guess they're trying to put over a point.
Arioch , Sep 18, 2018 10:19:50 AM | link
@astabada #44

> The revelations about MH17 were already happening before the incident

So just like many voices here claim Russia MUST immediately hurt Israel in a painful way, someone could had decided that Russian MoD should be punished painful way within few hours from their transgression.

Or it could be about "dominating news cycle" - when hot headlines are about Russian Military craft downed, who would lok into other information about Russian MoD right now? thus the new statements on MH17 are getting flushed into the memory hole.

bevin , Sep 18, 2018 10:30:53 AM | link
What appears to have happened is that an Israeli pilot used an old pilot's trick on the air defence system. Perhaps the French frigate was in on game, too.
The obvious next move is for the pilot to be court-martialled and a report/whitewash issued to establish that he was acting on his own initiative.
One of the less recognised problems with this situation is that, in the stand-off between the Deep State and the Presidency, local military commanders are able to make their own policy choices. In some cases, of course, these will reflect the dual loyalties which are increasingly to be found among military men who are unsure who they are fighting for but understand that nobody ever lost promotion by taking Israel's side.
mickey , Sep 18, 2018 10:30:58 AM | link
Arioch suggest Russian plane down in Syria to be a direct response to Russia's recent proof that the MH17 Boeing over Ukraine was shot down by Kiev using missiles produced in Ukraine by the government at Kiev.
Nil says the downed Russian airplane in Syria was intentional?
Somebody says somebody (USA, Saudia Arabia, or CIA, Mossad, or M16) forced
the war b/c/e Russian deal with Turkey was too much

Harry says he d/n understand why Israel would backstab friendly superpower, which kept SAA and Iran off its back and allowed to bomb Syria without any consequences. Even refused S-300 delivery to SAA (what to speak of S-400, which is offered to countries like Turkey and Saudis). Julian blames Russia for failing to give S-400 to Syria ( I agree, but the fact that Putin refuses to arm Syria with s-400 is very revealing indeed)

Welsh says It is time for Russia (and, if possible, China and other nations) really to hurt Israel and its co-conspirators by any means they can.8 Slaphappy thinks sinking Israeli Dophin Subs is the solution. Out of Istanbul reminds that any Russian attack on NATO assets in the Mediterranean is grounds for [NATO to invoke} Article 5. EtTuBrute wants total war,

R. Browning asks Why the French battleship? (B/b French owned Syria after WWI?

Realistic says no Russian Response, b/c Russia lacks the depth in-might to respond

I agree with Partizan, none of this shit explains the situation. Something else is behind this and most likely its oil and gas.

Arioch , Sep 18, 2018 10:38:44 AM | link
Reportedly, Israeli MoD issued an official statement, that

1. They express condolences.
2. They lay the responsibility with Assad, Hisbollah and Iran. Israeli jets were bombing Assad's plants producing W.M.D. that Hisbollah threatened Israel with.

3. When IAF jets were attacking Syria the IL-20 was not yet in AD's fire range.
4. When SAA AD started shooting missiles IAF jets were already back in Israeli air space after the attack was completed. SAA AD allegedly were shooting in panic everywhere without getting situational awareness

5. Israel allegedly would supply Russia with all the relevant documents and facts to investigate the accident.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

1,2 - usual diplomatic bla-bla.
3,4 - if true (and Russian radars should have enough coverage to check it), shows both incompetence of SAA AD personnel and lack of AD integration (S-200 station only started reacting to the attack after the attack, they were not alerted in advance about IAF jets approaching, despite Russian AVACS in air)
5 - now that seems to be some rather strong language. Israel seems either heavily bluffing or freaked out. Or both.

Arioch , Sep 18, 2018 10:44:19 AM | link
@Tom Welsh #8

> International law, the UN Charter and the Nuremberg Principles forbid any nation to attack another nation that has not declared war on it, unless by order of the UNSC.

Arent's Syria and Israel at war for many decades? Same way like USA and DPRK?

Cassandra , Sep 18, 2018 10:46:26 AM | link
It seems that ME "colonial" history is repeating itself ...
(Anglo-French-Israeli deception 2.0.. with the US "kicking-ass" or was it "leading?" from behind)

https://ratical.org/ratville/JFK/USO/chp1_p2.html

http://users.ox.ac.uk/~ssfc0005/The%20Protocol%20of%20Sevres%201956%20Anatomy%20of%20a%20War%20Plot.html


The documentary evidence does not leave any room for doubt that at Sèvres, during the three days in late October 1956, an elaborate war plot was hatched against Egypt by the representatives of France, Britain and Israel.

The Protocol of Sèvres is the most conclusive piece of evidence for it lays out in precise detail and with a precise time-table how the joint war against Egypt was intended to proceed and shows foreknowledge of each other's intentions. The central aim of the plot was the overthrow of Gamal Abdel Nasser (F: his support for Algerian „rebels", UK: his nationalisation of Suez Canal) This aim is not explicitly stated in the protocol but it emerges clearly and unambiguously from all the records of the discussions surrounding it.

For him [Ben Gurion] the protocol was not something to be ashamed of but a major achievement. It represented a military pact with two great powers against a common enemy, albeit a secret and awkward pact. Britain's persistent cold-shouldering of Israel was disappointing and disconcerting. But Ben-Gurion felt that the protocol at least gave him a guarantee against betrayal by Perfidious Albion.


...An even more intriguing conversation took place at the end of this one. It concerned French assistance to Israel in developing nuclear technology. Details of this second conversation only emerged in 1995 when Shimon Peres published his memoirs. The relevant passage reads as follows:
Before the final signing, I asked Ben-Gurion for a brief adjournment, during which I met Mollet and Bourgés-Maunoury alone. It was here that I finalized with these two leaders an agreement for the building of a nuclear reactor at Dimona, in southern Israel... and the supply of natural uranium to fuel it. I put forward a series of detailed proposals and, after discussion, they accepted them.[40]... A year later, in September 1957, when Bourgès-Maunoury was prime minister, France delivered to Israel a nuclear reactor which was twice the capacity previously promised.[41]
...it shows that the French were determined to go to war at almost any price and for their own reasons, not, as Abel Thomas later claimed, in order to save Israel. Secondly, it reveals the full extent of the incentives that the French were prepared to give Israel in order to induce her to play the part assigned to her in the war plot against Egypt. Thirdly, it confirms the impression that Israel did not face any serious threat of Egyptian attack at that time but colluded with the European powers to attack Egypt for other reasons. Taken together, the two private conversations at Sèvres thus drive a coach and horses through the official version which says that Israel only went to war because if faced an imminent danger of attack from Egypt.

(Source: The Protocol of Sèvres,1956: Anatomy of a War Plot by Avi Shlaim)


How could Putin ever think he could trust Netanyahu or the IDF???

craigsummers , Sep 18, 2018 10:46:49 AM | link
@42

According to the July 6 interim report (INTERIM REPORT OF THE OPCW FACT-FINDING MISSION IN SYRIA REGARDING THE INCIDENT OF ALLEGED USE OF TOXIC CHEMICALS AS A WEAPON IN DOUMA, SYRIAN ARAB REPUBLIC, ON 7 APRIL 2018 - 2.6):

"..........The FFM team visited Locations 2 and 4, where it observed the presence of an industrial gas cylinder on a top floor patio at Location 2, and the presence of a similar cylinder lying on the bed of a top floor apartment at Location 4. Close to the location of each cylinder there were crater-like openings in the respective reinforced concrete roofs. Work is ongoing to assess the association of these cylinders with the incident, the relative damage to the cylinders and the roofs, and how the cylinders arrived at their respective locations ........."

At the very least, the OPCW has not made a final determination. According to a recent UN report (Jerusalem Post: U.N: "Assad regime guilty of more chemical weapons attacks this year" https://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/UN-Assad-regime-guilty-of-more-chemical-weapons-attacks-this-year-567026):

".......These incidents bring to 39 the total known Syrian chemical attacks, a UN official said. BY REUTERS SEPTEMBER 12, 2018 13:35

GENEVA - Syrian government forces fired chlorine, a banned chemical weapon, on a rebel-held Damascus suburb and on Idlib province this year, in attacks that constitute war crimes, United Nations human rights investigators said on Wednesday. The three incidents bring to 39 the number of chemical attacks which the Commission of Inquiry on Syria has documented since 2013, including 33 attributed to the government, a UN official told Reuters. ........"To recapture eastern Ghouta in April, government forces launched numerous indiscriminate attacks in densely populated civilian areas, which included the use of chemical weapons," it said, referring to incidents on Jan. 22 and Feb. 1 in a residential area of Douma, eastern Ghouta, outside the capital ........A surface-to-surface, improvised rocket-assisted munition had been used in the two Douma incidents, it said. "Specifically the munitions documented were built around industrially-produced Iranian artillery rockets known to have been supplied to forces commanded by the (Syrian) government," the report added. In the northwest province of Idlib - where the United Nations fears a major imminent assault by Syrian and Russian forces against the last rebel-held stronghold - chlorine was also used on February 4, the UN report said."Government helicopters dropped at least two barrels carrying chlorine payloads in the Taleel area of Saraqeb," it said, adding that at least 11 men were injured. "Documentary and material evidence analyzed by the Commission confirmed the presence of helicopters in the area and the use of two yellow gas cylinders" ........"

This only confirms what Bellingcat determined months ago( https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/04/29/pieces-matter-syrias-chlorine-bombs-douma-chemical-attack/). In addition, Assad has ALREADY used chemical weapons in Idlib according to the UN report! Again, the OPCW has yet to publish a final determination on the gas cylinders at Douma.

Ace Hanlon , Sep 18, 2018 10:47:57 AM | link
Putin pathetic. The least he should have done is to DEMAND that Israel stop attacking Russia ally Syria.
Alaric , Sep 18, 2018 10:48:00 AM | link
Russians are now saying Israeli warplane(s) launched missiles from near the French frigate so they don't believe the French launched anything.

If true, Israel just tried to start WW3.

Trisha Driscoll , Sep 18, 2018 10:48:21 AM | link
Sadly, those 15 Russian aircrew were just pawns in a bigger game. True of any lower ranks serving in the military.

Having pulled this trick once, I doubt the Israelis will be able to do it again. It was a clever stunt, but with essentially minor military impact. And I doubt the Israelis anticipated the destruction of the IL-20 by a Syrian SAM.

Lastly, I think it takes much more strength to resist the impulse to respond in kind to such provocations, which could easily lead to uncontrollable escalation. What's important is the end game, not these pin-pricks.

xLemming , Sep 18, 2018 10:53:35 AM | link
@64 cs

Nice hasbara you got there... jpost? bellingcat? Really?!
Why not quote Nikki Haley while you're at it...

Bandit , Sep 18, 2018 10:53:36 AM | link
@craigsummers

I am sorry to see others waste their precious time refuting your obvious bullshit propaganda with which you tainted this site. Considering you are a paid troll, you have nothing better to do with your time, whereas many worthy commentators on this site have actual jobs and, for the most part, credible, non-biased information to share. I hope that in the future, when one such as you comes to dump on this site, you will immediately be called out as a troll and left to mire in your own bs.

Mina , Sep 18, 2018 10:53:36 AM | link
"Putin says it was a tragic set of circumstances."
Coming after 3 weeks of European MSM explaining every day with the help of "experts" that the Russians and their bloodthirsty Syrian allies are going to slaughter 3 million innocent civilians in Idlib, it might not be such a bad move.
Hoarsewhisperer , Sep 18, 2018 10:56:35 AM | link
...
After all there's still a possibility that this particular incident was an accident after all.
Posted by: radiator | Sep 18, 2018 9:40:42 AM | 46

Yes - an "accident" CAUSED by "Israel" using the IL-20 as cover for a sneak attack. The Russian plane was preparing to land so its flight path was predictable and anticipated.
The altitude of the F-16s relative to the IL-20, at the time the F-16s were targeted by Syrian AD, will be the significant factor in apportioning blame.
One wonders how Chutzpah-ish Bibi is feeling right now?

Les , Sep 18, 2018 11:01:46 AM | link
It was already covered in the early days of the Ukrainian conflict that rebels overran a Ukrainian air defense base and acquired the launcher and missiles. It's not a new theory or propaganda. It still doesn't change US intelligence analysts' estimation that the civilian aircraft was downed by mistake. Over a period of a month, the rebels shot down 3 aircraft while 900 passenger jets safely passed through the airspace.

summers' stuff is late stage propaganda. It is rehashing old material that has already been settled.

Yonatan , Sep 18, 2018 11:03:18 AM | link
Harry @5

"I dont get why Israel would backstab friendly superpower, which kept SAA and Iran off its back and allowed to bomb Syria without any consequences."

Because they don't give a fsck. The official Israeli response to the incident is that it was all Assad's fault, or Hezbollah, or Iran, certainly not poor innocent israel.

https://z5h64q92x9.net/proxy_u/ru-en.en/https/colonelcassad.livejournal.com/4464659.html

The Israeli attack was also coordinated with a zero-notice missle launch from a French ship. It all ties in with former CIA director Mike Morrell's statement that Russia should pay a price by having Russians killed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fp40QzZYCUw

Mina , Sep 18, 2018 11:20:22 AM | link
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-war-aleppo-murder-isis-middle-east-robert-fisk-not-over-yet-a8535866.html
Zanon , Sep 18, 2018 11:34:43 AM | link
Ace Hanlon

Yes Putin is "pathetic" and I am sure thats the conclusion the military throughout european nations today recognize.
He could have said and done alot after this attack, instead he conceades that it was a "mistake" that Israel apparently bomb Syria like this causing these deaths.

Vladimir Poostain , Sep 18, 2018 11:36:19 AM | link
Russia can choke on a dick. What do they call 15 dead Russians? A start.
Zanon , Sep 18, 2018 11:36:38 AM | link
Netanyahu tells Putin he expresses regret at loss of Russian lives
"Netanyahu stressed the importance of continuing coordination in the security area between Israel and Russia, which prevented many losses on the both sides over the past three years," the press service said on Tuesday, after Putin and the Israeli PM spoke by telephone.
https://www.rt.com/news/438743-netanyahu-putin-regret-lives/

Too bad the chinese dont sell these weapons needed to Syria, they need all the help they could get now.

John Gilberts , Sep 18, 2018 11:37:24 AM | link
"Putin directly contradicts his own Defense Minister. Putin: 'tragic chain of circumstances' Russian MoD: 'Israeli F-16s carrying otu the air strikes used the Russian plane as cover to allow them to approach their targets on the ground w/out being hit by Syrian anti-aircraft fire."

https://twitter.com/MarkSleboda1/status/1042070177209307139

To Israel all things are permitted.

Piotr Berman , Sep 18, 2018 11:51:22 AM | link
"..........The FFM team visited Locations 2 and 4, where it observed the presence of an industrial gas cylinder on a top floor patio at Location 2, and the presence of a similar cylinder lying on the bed of a top floor apartment at Location 4. Close to the location of each cylinder there were crater-like openings in the respective reinforced concrete roofs. Work is ongoing to assess the association of these cylinders with the incident, the relative damage to the cylinders and the roofs, and how the cylinders arrived at their respective locations........." cited by craigsummers

This does not look like an aerial chemical attacks, but biased investigators tend to obfuscate the obvious by delaying conclusions. I heard that a gas cylinder with faulty valve can make a "decent missile" and pierce a few ceilings, but this happened when it is propelled by the pressured gas, and "crater like opening suggests a bomb with explosives. It was reported that dust raised by the shockwave led to suffocation, so those two different reports match. An industrial cylinder would neet to be propelled in some way that is not known to me, or used in some combination with explosive bomb, suggesting a very sophisticated guidance system, basically, a hitherto unknown weapon system. By the way of contrast, bringing the cylinder to the location and breaking it with a small explosive does not require any unknown technologies.

CarlD , Sep 18, 2018 11:53:37 AM | link
Somebody at the Russian MOD will be sacked for differing from Putin's opinion of
the downing being due to a "tragic set of circumstances."

Shoigu reserves the "right to retaliate" while Putin is all in favor of forgetting the
incident...

Bodes ill for Shoigu's permanence at this post. No doubt he will be put
in retirement shortly due to "ill health". Unless, of course, he resigns from his
functions in retaliation for Putin's indifference to the fate of the rank and file Russian
servicemen.

Time will tell.

karlof1 , Sep 18, 2018 12:00:32 PM | link
The Zionist Abomination's 100% responsible for the shootdown. Yes, it was tragic as Putin said, but his defense officials are correct in their assessment and Putin knows that. Russia's response depends quite a bit on Russian public opinion about the Zionist Abomination and how it responds. I'd call this Russia's USS Liberty Moment. Given Zionist's murder Palestinians daily, whatever moral conscious they might retain won't feel much sorrow or remorse, an attitude likely not understood by Russians, although Russian media informs its public about Zionist atrocities.

Syrians will also have feelings about this too. I imagine some will wonder why their stalwart ally seems so feckless with the Zionists, not understanding just how Evil they are. And I'm certain SAA will be livid at Zionists--and the Outlaw US Empire--for causing this "mistake."

Ultimately, however, Russia's policy of not attacking Zionist aircraft engaging Syrian targets has reaped what it sowed. If Russia had used its air defenses against Zionist planes when they first had opportunities to do so, this "mistake" would never have occurred.

Pnyx , Sep 18, 2018 12:12:01 PM | link
I really hope that Russia will not only denying favors to Israels rotten government. The MSM now use the IL-20 incident to avoid speaking about the reckless attack itself which is a blatant violation of international law and carries unimaginable dangers. A Third World War could start anytime soon. It's an unbearable gamble with the life of Millions.
Russ , Sep 18, 2018 12:12:18 PM | link
Posted by: somebody | Sep 18, 2018 9:20:43 AM | 41

Cooperation with Turkey means Syria reached its goals without the attack.

I thought Syria's goal was to redeem its territory.

Jose Garcia , Sep 18, 2018 12:16:27 PM | link
Some here express that Putin should do this or why he didn't do that. It's easy to express those opinions from the comforts of home. Never having bullets fly over their heads, or having to pick up the remains of their comrades, blown to bits right in front of them. And to confront the families of those killed and explain to them why they will never return. Yes Putin will never go through those things. But if he should act in such a cavalier manner, he is finished in all intent and purposes. And from what I can see, Putin doesn't want an all out war. War is for warmongers who never experience the hell they so desire.
Peter AU 1 , Sep 18, 2018 12:18:37 PM | link
Putin - "Most certainly, we have to sort the case out most seriously. And our attitude to the tragedy is outlined in the Russian Defense Ministry's statement," he stressed.
https://sputniknews.com/world/201809181068137705-russian-plane-shot-syria-putin-chain-events/
karlof1 , Sep 18, 2018 12:18:42 PM | link
EuraisaFuture is back online and Korybko has 3 short pieces on the incident, which can be accessed from this latest of the 3, which provides news of a communication by the Zionists expressing condolences of a sort. More will certainly develop over the rest of the day and week.
Mataman , Sep 18, 2018 12:30:35 PM | link
@84 It isn't cavalier to publicly call out Israel for what they did--violate international law by attacking a sovereign nation without provocation, killing Russian soldiers. Stating this FACT, instead of calling a sequence of unfortunate circumstances, would be the appropriate action. Then you don't look like a dog with it's tail between it's legs. And then you force the Israelis to publicly make more and more absurd claims to get out of their predicament. Then you also publicly announce that you will give Syria all the air defenses it needs to prevent any further Israeli intrusions into it's airspace. None of this is cavalier. Make the Israelis stomp their feet and have tantrums and cry about Iran all they want. But Syria will be closed to them. There is a way to diplomatically, but firmly call out bad behavior and enforce consequences for it. Putin acting like he's been spanked by Netanyahu was not the way to do it. It was disgraceful. And unless he turns course rapidly and decisively he is finished for all intents and purposes. If I were a Russian soldier, I wouldn't risk my life in the Syrian theater when my commander in chief told the world that I'm worth less than an Israeli life.
ken , Sep 18, 2018 12:41:17 PM | link
15 Russian soldiers killed by the actions of Israel and the French. Mr. Putin calls this a Tragic Chain of Events.

Yes,,, the events are allowing the Israeli's to bomb Syria at will,,, over 200 times. The events are not allowing Syria a decent air defense system that can determine Friend or Foe.

My question is how much longer are the families of killed Russians and other Russians going to allow appeasement after appeasement. Exactly what good are all the new weapons Russia purports and the 25 ships they have in the Med. The West bragged about killing the 50 or so Russian Mercs,,,soon they'll be bragging about the 15 dead Russian active duty soldiers.

I can sympathize with Mr. Putin not wanting to start a greater war but resolve is just as important as hardware. He may want to get his forces ready for a larger fight. BUT only if he intends to fight.

Appeasement never ever in world history worked.

adamski , Sep 18, 2018 12:43:04 PM | link
Tricky times...
Thanks, B for the sober summary.
So many unknown unknowns.
Maybe Israeli attacks on Syria will cease altogether now as in the Golan?
How many strikes then out?
ken , Sep 18, 2018 12:51:36 PM | link
To #84

Then Russia might as well surrender and get it over with because bullies never quit bullying until stopped.

Timothy Hagios , Sep 18, 2018 12:54:03 PM | link
There are several things to consider:

1) There was a substantial amount of time between the incident and the time official statements were made. Undoubtedly there was a bunch of negotiation and deliberation. We have no way of knowing what was agreed upon and for whose benefit the agreements were made.

2) If they truly wanted to appease Israel, why admit to the incident at all? Militaries cover up unflattering incidents all the time.

3) What is the statute of limitations for retaliation? If an Israeli plane mysteriously goes down a week from now, would that be a better or worse response than launching an attack today?

Steve , Sep 18, 2018 12:55:49 PM | link
This is the only time I cannot share b's optimism about Russia's action. For some reason, it seems that the Apartheid Israel is not only controlling the USA and Europe but also Russia. It is such a shame that the Russian government is giving so much latitude to Israel. To be frank, I think the punishment of Israel would come from some Asian nation or the Middle East itself. This state of affair cannot continue any longer, sooner than later some capable force would realize that Russia, like Europe and the USA, is nothing but the Zionist playground.
Bart Hansen , Sep 18, 2018 12:56:59 PM | link
84 - Jose is correct, and there is too much premature armchair saber rattling here.

Putin's job is to protect the RF from another war, improve the lives of his people, sell gas and wheat to the rubes of the EU and keep Syria from being savaged like was done to Iraq and Libya.

Harry Law , Sep 18, 2018 12:57:41 PM | link
Russia losing all those citizens in WW2 looks 1ike an accident and unfortunate chain of events [Putin on loss of IL-20 aircraft] because Hitler invaded Poland.
ALAN , Sep 18, 2018 12:59:08 PM | link
Tom Welsh | Sep 18, 2018 6:54:28 AM | 8
Has Turkey taken military occupation of Canton Afrin as a result of its understandings with Russia on the sight of the world? Were not you silent about the legal ground for such a criminal act by Putin / Erdogan?
Yul , Sep 18, 2018 1:02:16 PM | link
@ Laguerre #58

They are being paid by the Israeli government.
Schools and Unis have just started - some need the cash

Hoarsewhisperer , Sep 18, 2018 1:12:28 PM | link
Somebody at the Russian MOD will be sacked for differing from Putin's opinion of the downing being due to a "tragic set of circumstances."
Shoigu reserves the "right to retaliate" while Putin is all in favor of forgetting the incident...
Bodes ill for Shoigu's permanence at this post. No doubt he will be put in blah blah blah...
Time will tell.
Posted by: CarlD | Sep 18, 2018 11:53:37 AM | 80

Don't hold your breath waiting for Putin to 'correct' Shoigu.
Putin does diplomacy. Shoigu does Trouble (with a capital T).

xLemming , Sep 18, 2018 1:13:44 PM | link
@81 k & 87 m

I reluctantly admit this event & Putin's reaction are ominous

I have been waiting with bated breath for the other shoe to drop regarding Russia/China's involvement in the NWO, and sadly this event just might be it

Until now the whole 3D chess thing worked as an excuse to be patient

But this is indeed Russia's USS Liberty moment, and he is sounding a lot like LBJ in his handling of it

He could have said nothing, and let the MoD statements stand, and let Netanyahoo & Israel squirm while the incident is thoroughly investigated. It would have cost Putin nothing to do so IMHO, and would have had a sobering influence on the guilty party(s). But his statement excuses everyone, and let's them off the hook, free to offend again, which detracts from the where the spotlight should be: Israel's repeated, flagrant, unprovoked attacks on Syria

Say it ain't so Vlad - say it ain't so!

Yul , Sep 18, 2018 1:14:00 PM | link
To all those who can't understand the fact that Putin is so agreeable to Israel;
Guess who are the oligarchs supporting him - Jewish Russians as well the Jewish electorate.
On the other other side of the coin - how many Russian Jews live and vote in Israel.Those who did vote plumped largely for President Vladimir Putin.It take two to tango.

FWIW: Some 12,000 Russian citizens living in Israel voted at 14 polling stations across the country -- out of 120,000 Israelis who were eligible to vote in the Russian election.

T , Sep 18, 2018 1:14:27 PM | link
Will MOA change the Headline: Russia has now backed down saying Israel did not shoot down the Russian plane

(cause "it was all an accident")

b - be honest, and change the headline please.

"In less than 24 hours Moscow has gone from accusing Israel of the shootdown of a Russian jet in a "deliberate provocation," to striking a far more conciliatory tone with Russian president Vladimir Putin calling the incident the "result of a chain of tragic circumstances."

https://www.tabletmag.com/scroll/271144/russia-backs-off-blaming-israel-for-downed-jet

Putin: Downing of Russian plane appears to be accident, not deliberate

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/252169

And where are all the cucks praising Russian-Israeli cooperation?

Guys, people all over forums are laughing at Russia. I wonder what's next? Israel or the US "mistakingly" bombing a russian base and killing soldiers there? And then the cucks crying how "tragic" the "mistake" it was?

ALAN , Sep 18, 2018 1:15:07 PM | link
CarlD | Sep 18, 2018 11:53:37 AM | 80
Right!
Putin does not gamble his relations with Israel. Hor him Israel is a much & more important than the surrounding all Arab countries, because its networks represents the world's financial, political, military, scientific and intelligence depth. In addition, there are 1. 5 million Israeli russian speaking citizens.
xLemming , Sep 18, 2018 1:17:39 PM | link
And furthermore, this might be a WTF moment for those in the Russian military (as others have noted), as well as those in SAA, IRGC & Hzb...

Not looking good Vladimir...

frances , Sep 18, 2018 1:18:23 PM | link
I read an excellent post on SouthFront that I think is worth posting here:
" John Brown • 2 hours ago

This deal with Erdogan is better than I thought, as the Russian army will enter Idlib in large numbers escorted by the Turkish army without even having ot fight any battles at all.

This is why Israel downed the Russian military transport plane to try to wreck this deal which is huge victory for Syria.

The S-200 was fired at the F-16 earlier which drew the missile out towards the IL-20, then the F-16 kept the IL-20 in a line-of-sight between it and the missile, probably till the missile was out of range of identifying friend or foe, and used the heat signature to kill the nearest thing..

The deal also helps Russia and Syria by Erdogan is giving them a shield to free the rural areas of Latakia Idlib and Homs which they would have to do first any way. The Oct 15 deadline gives the Russians plenty of time to bomb the crap out of the militants. The buffer zone will also be territory Syria won't have to fight for as the Israeli terrorists will have to pull back and Russia has more time to greatly strengthen Syrian air defenses.

The fact that Israel attacked today in Latakia in a temper tantrum proves this was a good deal to make for Syria. If the militants don't cooperate, they get hammered anyway. Nothing to lose. A very smart move by Putin again as well as Erdogan. I am sure China is helping financially by helping Turkey out with USSA Israeli sanctions and to get out from under the IMF."

james , Sep 18, 2018 1:21:40 PM | link
i agree with these posts below..

"I don't believe this attack had anything to do with the Idlib agreement. Just another Israeli attack on Syria."
Posted by: Jackrabbit | Sep 18, 2018 8:42:21 AM | 31

"Russia has its own S-400 systems defending Latakia, so it can defend itself and doesn't need Syria's S-200s.
They would have been watching the Israeli F-16s on radar, and then they get a phone call saying an attack is happening in one minute. Russia must have said "OK", because they didn't blow the F-16s out of the sky. All they have to say to Israel is "Next time it will NOT be OK." and Israel will have to stop it's invasions.

The hairy-chested Americans here are calling Putin weak, but he can't afford to make any over-reaching mistakes, and all decent, responsible human beings are glad of that. Do you want to have WW3 just to show how much "balls" you've got?"
Posted by: Palloy | Sep 18, 2018 10:09:01 AM | 54

"STRONG IS NOT WHO FIGHTS WARS, STRONG IS WHO AVOIDS WAR."
Posted by: venice12 | Sep 18, 2018 10:09:18 AM | 55

"Quite an infestation of pro-Israeli trolls today, much more than usual. I guess they're trying to put over a point."
Posted by: Laguerre | Sep 18, 2018 10:19:40 AM | 58


@80 carld... i don't share your view on that!


karlof1 , Sep 18, 2018 1:24:01 PM | link
It seems that most agree with my assessment that Russian policy is primarily at fault as I wrote @81. There's really no avoiding that fact, especially for Russians, which is likely to act like a stick stuck in the throat. The Zionists offer help with an "investigation" of the event, which is pure BS as the event's already been investigated, the facts revealed, and the responsible party and its criminal motive named. I'm sure numerous members of Syria's General Staff are privately--perhaps--saying "we told you so" regarding Russia's non-engagement policy. Maybe even Assad too.

Need to see Russian language media and Duma member reactions as Putin will need to address them. I wonder if the Kremlin Security Council discussed how they'd respond to such an event as another shootdown was very likely to occur.

On the question: Would having the S-300 system made any difference? Only if it had previously been used successfully to down Zionist aircraft and thus become seen as a credible deterrent to such attacks. But I doubt in this situation if its targeting system would have been able to differentiate between the larger and smaller targets.

Daniel , Sep 18, 2018 1:31:23 PM | link
This is perplexing. While Putin evidently whitewashes the Israeli act of war, he also dictates a firm message to Israel via MOD Shoigu. Russia used to be more consistent and firm when it was part of the the socialist USSR. Today everything is about capitalist profit and "win-win." However, the U.S. population believes it is entitled to the world's resources by divine right, like Israel, and has indeed viewed itself as the New Israel. Nevertheless, much of the blame also goes to Iran for exaggerating its influence in Syria and Iraq and thus playing into Israeli propaganda. Iran has also refused to defend its own assets in Syria and has deferred to Russia and/or Syria for protection. Hezbollah likes to boast about its victories but is ineffectual (or more probably unwilling to retaliate) against Israeli use of Lebanese airspace to attack Syria. Russia is infested with the Zionist lobby and a fifth column of Christian Zionists who work with George Soros on the left to pass superstitious anti-gay laws and then attack Russia for foreign-financed "human rights violations," leading to CIA-backed extremism on the left (Pussy Riot) and right (anti-immigrant white supremacy). The FSB seems content to facilitate the destruction of its own country; one cannot blame institutional treason and/or spinelessness on one man (Putin). The bottom line is that "World War III or bust" has always been the NATO/Israel endgame and is a natural outgrowth of deep-seated, centuries-long tendencies in Western civilisation. Citizens of the West are guilty for passively voicing useless resistance against a ruthless oligarchy that only respects force. If Westerners and their victims are unwilling to take up arms against the oligarchy (not that I would advocate that), then they shouldn't complain about the ceaseless wars and corruptions. They should just accept their status as slaves unto death without the faux protesting.
Peter AU 1 , Sep 18, 2018 1:40:17 PM | link
Defence minister Sergei Shoigu's statement on the shootdown at Russian military website here.
https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12196031@egNews

Putin's public comment on the shootdown, which was in answer to a journalists quest is at the Presedent of Russian Federation website here.
https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12196031@egNews


Thread seems to be full of troll and couch potatoes spewing crap. Putin makes it quite clear the statement by the Russian military that Israel is responsible is Russia's official position.

james , Sep 18, 2018 1:45:21 PM | link
@105 karlof1... did you see what @54 palloy wrote? here it is again that i would like to emphasize..

"Russia has its own S-400 systems defending Latakia, so it can defend itself and doesn't need Syria's S-200s.
They would have been watching the Israeli F-16s on radar, and then they get a phone call saying an attack is happening in one minute. Russia must have said "OK", because they didn't blow the F-16s out of the sky. All they have to say to Israel is "Next time it will NOT be OK." and Israel will have to stop it's invasions."

@107 peter au... fully agree.. israel is responsible for this.. anything else is obfuscation!

Lochearn , Sep 18, 2018 1:46:24 PM | link
What seemed like a big mistake by Israel has, in the space of a few hours, been turned into a victory for Israel and a humiliation for Russia courtesy of the Russian president. I don't think Putin is going to live this down. He looks weak and hesitant. Netanyahu just punched him in the mouth and he's slunk off to a corner, his reputation as a tough guy shot to pieces. While he has done a great job redeveloping Russia clearly his time has come. I don't believe this is about the Israeli 5th column. It's more about how Israel manages to bend all politicians to its will. All except Kennedy of course who had been well schooled in such matters by his father. And which is why he and his brother had to be taken out. Nixon was a borderline case which is why he only got Watergated.
Guerrero , Sep 18, 2018 1:46:51 PM | link
In any complex chess position, one does well to maintain the possibility of the other side to make a blunder.
Daniel , Sep 18, 2018 1:50:37 PM | link
@ 107

There also seems to be a concerted propaganda effort by the MSM to claim that Russia supports Israel's attacks on alleged Iranian infrastructure in Syria, including Lebanese Hezbollah. The New York Times is asserting that Russian restraint has facilitated hundreds of Israeli airstrikes on Syria over the past year, and goes on to aver that Israel and Russia closely coordinate activities to limit Iranian influence in Syria. The MSM clearly hope to drive a wedge between Russia and its regional partners, even though equal or greater blame should go to Iran for its own hesitancy to confront Israel. Hezbollah could have easily used its ever-growing post-2006 expertise to target Israeli electronic and air assets over Lebanon but has not done so, though Israel always utilises Lebanese (or Jordanian) airspace to attack Syria. Everyone likes to blame Putin but lets Iran, Syria, and the rest of the Russian military/diplomatic establishment off the proverbial hook. Besides, Hezbollah has not done itself any favours by promoting anti-Semitic "Jews-control-the-world" canards on its al-Manar TV channel, which only discredits the otherwise worthy cause of anti-Zionism and only plays into hard-right Zionist hands. Bashar al-Assad, for his part, made numerous flawed efforts to appease Israel and the West in the years prior to the 2011 intervention. He privatised certain sectors of the economy; allowed Syria's arch-enemy, the pro-Zionist Muslim Brotherhood (Hamas), to set up offices; and in general tried to compensate for his inferiority and lack of experience. When his father Hafez died in 2000, even the MSM paid grudging respect, something they have not done to Bashar. Bashar, like Gaddafi, Khrushchev, and other revisionists, was always trying to abandon the pan-Arab, anti-Zionist, socialist agenda of his father and seek "peaceful coexistence" with the West. Yet everyone blames Putin. Sigh...

james , Sep 18, 2018 1:52:02 PM | link
@P36 jackrabbit... i have a few problems with the quote from you below.. first off, it suggests that the path syria-russia-iran has taken to regain syria could have been done differently and more effectively.. that is a 64,000 question that ignores a number of events that could or might have happened along the way to change everything at the place syria is now.. so, i disagree with you on this and think banding all the 'moderate headchoppers' and families in idlib was a smart move and one that is still being worked out.. pat lang was wrong on this from day one and doen't look at more right at this point as i see it..

"Pat Lang said that R+6 should have moved to take Idlib after Aleppo. He has now been proven right."

partizan , Sep 18, 2018 1:58:54 PM | link
"Syria - Israel's Provocation Kills Russian Soldiers - Moscow Will Take Political Revenge"

FAKE NEWS

Peter AU 1 , Sep 18, 2018 2:05:33 PM | link
@ james it was the same in the leadup to the southwest offensive - trolls swamping the threads saying Russia had sold out Syrian ect and many of the regulars joining the troll chorus.
truthcrusades , Sep 18, 2018 2:13:45 PM | link
Vladimir Putin calls it a "tragic mistake". This was a deliberate provocation that made fools out of the Russian side for allowing the Israeli attacks on Syria. Russian servicemen die and Putin stands with the Israeli provocateurs, ridiculous.
Peter AU 1 , Sep 18, 2018 2:18:10 PM | link
Segy Shoigu - "The head of the Russian defense Ministry reported that it had informed the defense Minister of Israel Avigdor Lieberman that Russia will not leave unanswered actions of the Israeli air force in Syria, which killed Russian soldiers."

Putin - "Our attitude towards this tragedy is set forth in a statement by our Defence Ministry, and has been fully coordinated with me."

https://function.mil.ru/news_page/country/more.htm?id=12196031@egNews
http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/58586

partizan 112 it you that is fake, not the news.

Jackrabbit , Sep 18, 2018 2:20:26 PM | link
james @111

You are probably right. Hindsight is 50-50 and this hasn't fully played out.

My point larger point is just that if Putin had been more distrustful of Erdogan, then maybe he would've done things differently. If Erdogan doesn't keep his part of the bargain that has just been struck and never relinquishes Idlib, then Putin will have lost his Turkish gamble. It's already looking pretty dicey.

Some counter this view by saying that Putin is "playing the long game". I disagree. The Empire has awoken and is defending its hegemonic vision. This is a 'race' (at times a game of chicken) that neither side can afford to lose.

Zanon , Sep 18, 2018 2:20:30 PM | link
truthcrusades

Yes, what the cause of this attitude is is hard to say, some post above mention israel lobby in Russia.
Bullies shouldnt be met with acceptance, if you are a leader of big power like Russia and someone cause the deaths of 20 people from your army, you cant just say, it was a mistake.

Anya , Sep 18, 2018 2:21:57 PM | link
The downing of the Russian plane was premeditated.

Most likely, the holo-biz 'survivors' used electronic rerouting, which the Russians should have done long time ago against the nest of the bloody Bolshevik progeny and supremacists madmen like Miliekovski (Bibi) and the former night-club bouncer Avi Lieberman.

The Jewish Fifth Column in Russia should feel the heat. Their Israeli relatives and best friends are guilty of the premeditated murder of Russians.

The Jewish Power in action: https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/09/nato-warships-amassed-by-syria-just-before-attack-on-lattakia/
"Combat vessels from the Second Standing NATO Maritime Group (NATO Maritime Group 2) moved closer to Syria's borders on the 16th of September, according to monitoring data from Western naval forces. In retrospect, we can see this sudden buildup as related to the French/US/Israeli strike on Lattakia and the downing of the Russian il-20 aircraft carrying 14 Russian soldiers
In particular, the eastern Mediterranean is now being patrolled by the Canadian Navy frigate HMCS Ville de Quebeс, by the Greek navy ship Elli and by the Dutch Navy frigate HNLMS De Ruyter, the latter being the group's flagship.
In addition to the aforementioned vessels, three American destroyers (USS Carney, USS Ross and USS Winston S. Churchill) are already in the region, as well as the USS 6th Fleet Admiral USS Mount Whitney. The waters are also being patrolled by at least three Los Angeles-class US nuclear submarines. According to Western observers, the armament of the current US naval group in the Mediterranean includes more than 200 Tomahawk cruise missiles."

http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/the-anne-frank-test/

Jackrabbit , Sep 18, 2018 2:22:44 PM | link
correction @118

I disagree ... with the notion that Putin has the luxury of time.

dh-mtl , Sep 18, 2018 2:22:53 PM | link
The agreement on Idlib reminds me of the Minsk agreements, of 2015.

When the Minsk agreement was signed, many people called Putin a traitor and a weakling for abandoning the Lugansk and Donetsk republics. However looking back over the last 3 1/2 years we can see the true sense of the Minsk agreement.

1. Legitimization of the republics.
2. Commitment of Ukraine to federalization, which Ukraine had no intention of carrying out.
3. Tying the hands of the West because of 'The Minsk Agreement'.

Since then the conflict has been frozen. And every day Ukraine gets weaker and its Western owners throw away more money and credibility on a lost cause.

The Idlib agreement looks similar. What are likely results of this agreement?
1. Consolidating the exclusion of the U.S. from western Syria.
2. Positioning Turkey as the actor with responsibility to fight the U.S. coalition's Jihadis in Idlib. When combined with the situation with the Kurds, it consolidate's Turkey's position as a Russian ally and American foe.
3. Opening up transportation routes linking Damascus with Aleppo.
4. Freezing the conflict while a diplomatic solution is achieved, without the participation of the U.S. coalition.

It looks like a good deal for Syria and Russia. No wonder Israel was so furious.

Regarding Putin's reaction to the Il-20 downing, it looks like vintage Putin to me. He will not make a show of it, but will address the issue firmly, with action, not words, but on the terms and timing of his choice.
All of the commentators on this blog who denigrate Putin do not properly appreciate recent history.

Jackrabbit , Sep 18, 2018 2:25:05 PM | link
Correction @121

I disagree ... with the notion that SCO has the luxury of time.

Beibdnn. , Sep 18, 2018 2:25:13 PM | link
@T and all the experts. Russia is in a very difficult position. It has absolutely treacharous enemies quite apart from supposed allies on all sides. The U.S.A. is even trying to destroy Orthodox Christianity to further isolate Russia. I have no doubt that there has been some very intense diplomacy behind the scenes. Remember, vengence is a dish served cold, the western attitude for immediate gratification, e.g. Russia taking immediate and probably recklessly stupid retalitatory action won't serve either their or Syria's agendas, doesn't mean that action won't be taken. Putin is only human, we all make mistakes, if the situations were reversed, the U.S.A. Wouldn't even make it to 3rd world level.............
xLemming , Sep 18, 2018 2:27:55 PM | link
@107 & 113 p

I understand what you and other like-minded individuals are saying...

There are some in the blogosphere, like Brandon Smith, who have been quite accurate regarding how current geopolitical events have unfolded, although admittedly I had trouble with his viewpoint on Russia/China being part of the charade

And then there are others, like Jim Stone, God bless him, who has blinders on regarding Trump, in whom I believe his faith is misguided

I try to listen to and read many sources, draw conclusions from that and mete out my trust accordingly & sparingly, as I try to navigate my own place in this crazy world

I gave Putin the benefit of the doubt for the longest time, biting my tongue on many occasions & to be happily proven wrong, and I wish to be proven wrong here again...

*IF* Putin indeed said, "it was only an accident", then the optics of such are not good, as they excuse evil, and undermine the good and those who are in harms way.

Other than that, totally enjoy your comments & those of others... as they say, "iron sharpens iron"

Greece , Sep 18, 2018 2:31:12 PM | link
I studied the incident of the downed ILYUSHIN in LATAKIA, SYRIA, and after confirming the location of the ISRAELI JETS, when they fired their missiles, from multiple journalist sources, South East of Cyprus with a direct line of sight with the AKROTIRI BRITISH NAVAL SPY BASE, it seems that the Israeli Air Force has the following technology which according to my oppinion was responsible for the downing of the Russian airlane: FUEL ADDITIVES WITH ELEMENTS THAT CAN LATCH ON TO METALIC OR OTHER SURFACES UPON BEING SPRAYED IN THE ATMOSPHERE, ACTING AS FALSE TARGET/FALSE SIGNAL IDENTIFIER. If the Russian plane flew through the wake/plumes the Israeli jets left behind with deliberate manuevers, in order for the plume to be intercepted by Russian flight path, then you can have some type of technology to make use of this extra signal/return multiplier to confuse S-200 Syrian air defense not programmed to counter such a threat, therefore electronically "painting" the Russian plane as an "Israeli jet". I believe that other enablers were used, the type of weather control/microwave for the creation of and or handling metalic additive plume particles as a standing wavethat can later could be moved around or dispersed in patterns for a brief amount of time in order to create a "curtain" of nano material that could latch on to surfaces in order to "paint" them as targets regardless of what kind of material it is.
Al-Haza , Sep 18, 2018 2:32:26 PM | link
@karlof1

That's about the same assessments I've made. At this moment I don't blame the Zionists in Israel and why should anyone blame them. Putin has allowed freehand to the Zionists and Nato to attack Syria and Iran often forestalling the progress of his troops and that of his allies made. Why did Putin and his policy makers think that the Zionist regime attacks was going to be confined to targets of SAA/Iran/Hezbolah? If he's not going to protect his troops and that his allies, Putin should quit/withdraw from the Syrian arena and leave the country to it's fate.

Peter AU 1 , Sep 18, 2018 2:33:13 PM | link
125 "*IF* Putin indeed said,"

if if if... why not read the official fucking transcript of what Putin said and then "if" is no longer needed along with the other gossip.

james , Sep 18, 2018 2:34:20 PM | link
@115 peter au.. indeed!

@118 / 123 jackrabbit.. thanks.. i agree with your last line @118.. hard to know what putin is thinking here, but i am sure he sees the inevitability of what is going on.. their is no stop to this as i see it.. the whole world is going to be brought into this conflict..

in the past it was saddam had weapons of mass destruction.. it is now assad has chemical weapons and is going to gas his people.. basically it is the same pitch and many will go along with it, for all sorts of different reasons..

international law as practiced by the west is now a complete joke.. for israel to not be held accountable for it's actions yesterday is to continue with this joke/facade about international law..

@122 dh-mtl - i agree.. i think the deal is good.. however, no amount of good deals is going to stop the warmonger nations from pursuing their ambitions in syria as witnessed yesterday.. israel continues to get a pass for whatever it does, so that it can claim the golan heights or whatever whacked in the head thing it is thinking here..

partizan , Sep 18, 2018 2:35:46 PM | link
"SARH (semi-active radar homing seeker) missiles require tracking radar to acquire the target, and a more narrowly focused illuminator radar to "light up" the target in order for the missile to lock on to the radar return reflected off target. The target must remain illuminated for the entire duration of the missile's flight ."

So what are the chances that s-200 "...missile was aimed at the F-16 its seeker likely mistook the larger radar reflection of IL-20 for the intended target." as is stated in an article?

Of course a possibilities are endless, in theoretical domain. But it would require sloppy operators (unlikely that would be a Syrians in this case) to mistook the airplane loaded with all kind of electronics for an interceptor.

Deschutes , Sep 18, 2018 2:36:39 PM | link
"Netanyahoo can forget about any further such 'favors' from Moscow." and "Russia will certainly take revenge for the Israeli provocation, but will likely do so in the political arena." Nonsense. The Israelis as usual have the upper hand and will play Russia as their little bitch. Putin is no match for Netanyahu and the IDF. The Russians always come across as a slow-witted giant who nobody really likes or respects. The Israelis always have better strategy and better connections. Look at the USS Liberty attack. Or look at 9-11 which was a Mossad operation, and how that 'terror attack' played so very well for the Zionists (at America's expense!). The Israelis are masters at false flag attacks to frame another target, be it playing Palestinian terrorist to justify more attacks on them; dressing up as Arab ISIS terrorists to further paint Muslims as evildoers who must be crushed; or in this instance getting Syria to shoot down the Russian plane then blame it all on the Syrians. Israel can pretty much do as it pleases over Syria, and nobody can stop them: they fly wherever they want, blowing up buildings, airports, military outposts etc and nobody so much as lifts a finger to stop them. When will somebody grow some balls and seriously kick some Israeli ass? Maybe never? Holy crap.
Zico , Sep 18, 2018 2:42:24 PM | link
Putin won't lift a finger against his moneymen in Tel Aviv. Most of Russia's moneymen have homes in Tel Avi. He has a soft spot for them.

For starters, the whole deal between the Russian military and the IDF was a BS one. I'm surprised the Syrian military command didn't make noise about it. Basically, the two militaries agreed for Russia to turn a blind eye on any Israeli military agression on Syria. With friends like this, who needs enemies.

I sometimes think Syria/Russia's alliance restricts Syria's ability to deal decisively against the IDF. I hope now this incident changes that. But I won't hold my breathe.

Bibi will fly over to Moscow and moan about some Iranian presencc in Syria(which Russia doesn't like, btw) and all will be forgotten.


Syria seriosuly NEEDS to look elsewhere for her air defence needs. Heck, even Turkey's getting S-400 but Syrian can't have it because....reasons.

Greece , Sep 18, 2018 2:47:04 PM | link
I think the real target of israel was not Ilyushn but Putin, considering all the weird posts that flooded the internets, blaming Putin for everythink.
Iranians calimed that israeluses heavy weather control on them, the other day, I DIDN'T SEE ANYONE EVEN REPOSTING THAT STUFF.Such hypocrisy in this world...
kral , Sep 18, 2018 2:47:37 PM | link
How can the Russians provide AD to Syria without incorporating automatic friend-or-foe recognition that allows only hostile aircraft to be targeted?

Was the relevant transponder in the IL-25 not working for some reason? Was it a software glitch? Was the Syrian equipment so old that it could not provide this safety measure without further modification? Or did the Syrians turn off this feature deliberately because they did not understand how to use it?

The answers will probably never be publicly known but the Israelis have shot themselves in the foot here by violating their de-confliction agreement with Russia.

laguerre , Sep 18, 2018 2:49:19 PM | link
yet more Israeli trolls, eg 131
Peter AU 1 , Sep 18, 2018 2:57:45 PM | link
karlof1 earlier in the thread linked to some pieces on the shootdown by Korybko
https://eurasiafuture.com/2018/09/18/initial-reaction-to-the-russian-israeli-crisis/
https://eurasiafuture.com/2018/09/18/russian-israeli-tensions-are-in-the-interests-of-the-us-and-iran/
https://eurasiafuture.com/2018/09/18/the-russian-israeli-crisis-climb-down-in-progress/

His take on the blogosphere is spot on but also his theory that and american Israeli faction in Israel engineered the situation to move deliberately put Israel on bad terms with Russia might have something.
Israel has never joined the US sanctions against Russia and Netanyahu told Trump to stand down in southwest Syria after Russia had worked its diplomacy.
I believe there is also a large voting block of ethnic Russians in Israel that may be a little pissed off about the shootdown.

partizan , Sep 18, 2018 2:58:43 PM | link
kral | Sep 18, 2018 2:47:37 PM | 134

i doubt that the Syrians handle this given the type of aircraft involved. IL-25 is allegedly shot down just off the Syrian coast where Russian have state of the art radars. In addition bunch of naval ships similarly equipped.

Grieved , Sep 18, 2018 3:07:53 PM | link
Well, with 136 comments as I write, this thread took remarkably little time to scan, but it did involve seeing who was the poster before reading. You can always tell when military actions are the topic because the troll budget goes up. When it's Israel to blame, there's no limit to the lies.

I do wish people would follow the Internet's earliest learned lesson - do not feed trolls, because they make more points when you engage, and all they want is to fill the quota. Learn to ignore.

Good to see some of the regular and proven commenters coming in now. Lochearn at #110, is that really you, or an impostor?

Israel has crossed a line. Russia had every reason to trust that line, the same as we don't check our alarms every 10 minutes but simply wait for them to go off.

Anyone who believes that Russia will forget or forgive the deliberate death of 15 Russians has no idea who they're dealing with.

The responses (there will be more than one) will be whatever Russia decides is best for its interests.

I shall wait.

Peter AU 1 , Sep 18, 2018 3:09:42 PM | link
forgot to check for typos before posting my last comment.

kral 134 From what I read some time ago the S-200 warhead has a kill range of 150 meters and is armed with a proximity fuse. If that is right, the missile would only need to pass with 150 meters of the Russian plane while tracking the Israeli planes or missiles to take it out.

WJ , Sep 18, 2018 3:12:37 PM | link
@100,

Indeed. The brilliance of the Israeli strategy of provocation is that it will make the domestic political scene in Russia increasingly difficult for Putin to navigate in Syria. The more often Russian troops are killed or injured, the more quickly one half of the Russian populace demands action or withdrawal; the more they demand it, the harder it will be for Putin to maintain their support. For Israel and others are betting that he will never actually retaliate. They are creating a situation which is designed to make Russia's presence in Syria an impossible political situation for Putin himself.

Deschutes , Sep 18, 2018 3:18:42 PM | link
@140 - very insightful post. Kudos!
et Al , Sep 18, 2018 3:19:11 PM | link
Doesn't Putin operate a 'three day rule'?
WJ , Sep 18, 2018 3:24:14 PM | link
@142,

Putin's not Jesus.

Zico , Sep 18, 2018 3:24:20 PM | link
Another interesting point to note. Russia, Iran and Turkey recently had a meeting on the situation in Syria. The agreed to get rid of the rats in Idlib. Suddenly Putin turns around and makes a deal with ONLY Turkiye.


It's becoming clear that Turkiye , Russia and (behind the scenes)Israel, are on the same side when it comes to Iran's presence in Syria. Syrians themselve don't have a say in their own country anymore.

The Syrian army now needs permission from a foriegn power to liberate their own land. Turning the other cheek only invites more slaps.

At this rate, Syria may well forget about Idlib. Turkey won't leave. The US won't leave either. Welcome to bulkinazation 101.

Lozion , Sep 18, 2018 3:24:39 PM | link
@138 MoAites in the know adhere to our own BDS movement, so to speak..
SlapHappy , Sep 18, 2018 3:26:52 PM | link
Attention Zionist trolls: please go sell your bullshit someplace else, everyone here knows you're the problem on this planet.
xLemming , Sep 18, 2018 3:34:53 PM | link
@128 p

My statement was based on that "if", which was rhetorical

But as Caitlin Johnstone aptly put it recently, unless we can embrace something with one of our 5 senses, we have no choice but to trust, or not, as we all engage in a "shared, consensual narrative". The trick is discerning the correct narrative, and that, in part, is why I am here

BTW no need for vulgarities - it undermines your argument

CarlD , Sep 18, 2018 3:36:31 PM | link
It is very unfortunate that Putin said what HE said because not saying anything
would have been way better than what he said.

I was very unhappy when Pres Putin dismissed the killing of Russian Mercs by
the US by saying that they were "unauthorized individuals", if I am not mistaken.
But lets face it, these were Russians! Working for the good side, at that. Wasn't
their unnecessary deaths worth some solidarity?

Why should Putin be more sensitive to the "plight" of Russian Israelis than to that
of these Russian citizens that became soldiers of fortune through necessity?

I do admire Putin, but I have to grasp the reality that his compass shows a different
North than ours who would like to see the Beast reined in.

What will Zhirinowsky say or think when he hears Putin's statement? What will the
rank and file servicemen think? How will the Douma react?

Truly, there Putin is on his own. Either he doesn't realize how much his words are
hurting him, or he is a man that can swim against the current and demonstrate
great courage.

Some say Netanyahu and Putin are friends. It must have come about recently
because on Victory day Parade. Putin did distance himself from Benyamin.
He was definitely rude to Netanyahu.

This deconfliction line between Israel and Russia's militaries point to the fact
that Israel has been bombarding Syria with the blessings of the Kremlin all
these times.

Iranians are obviously not well seen by the Kremlin and should not count on
the Russians as allies. If Russia knows every time an Israeli attack is going
to occur on Syria and looks the other way so as not to hinder Israel destructive
work, how much of an ally are they to Bashar el Assad?

Their presence is therefore limited to fighting the Takfiris and other potential
threats to the Russian Motherland. Thinking that it is better to fight them
away from home.

Jordan, Israel, Turkey, the US, France, England, Saudi Arabia, Qatar et tutti quanti
may abuse Syria ad libitum and ad nauseam. This is of no concern to the Russians.

Seen with these glasses, then all Putin's actions and omissions become predictable.

Russia will retaliate only if it is directly and unequivocally attacked. Not as a collateral
casualty but as a primary target.

This may hurt our feelings as we see it as treason to the cause. But we must remember
that Russia has it's priorities and aims.

Grom , Sep 18, 2018 3:37:06 PM | link
Dear all, guys & girls, дамы и господа,
first of all let me express my deepest condolences for the tragic loss of the 15 Russian SPECIALISTS who perished as the result of the Il-20 shootdown. I want to stress that I'm deeply surprised, shocked, and disturbed, not only by this horrendous provocation, but also by the incredibly *inaccurate* and *dismissive* description of what happened and of the ultimate victims of this whole tragedy.
Why are these 15 Russian casualties summarily described just as "servicemen" or "crewmen"?
These were not "simple" прапорщики or privates - what we are all forgetting is that these 15 servicemen were:

1) Highly experienced engineers and technicians
2) Electronic Warfare specialists
3) SIGINT Experts

It literally takes *decades* in order to induct, train, and build the skills and experience of such highly prized military personnel. Merely calling them "crewmen" or "servicemen" is highly inappropriate and inaccurate - let's therefore pay due respect to these fallen - as these were not "ordinary soldiers"!

Next - the loss of the Il-20 is nothing short of *devastating* for both the Russians and the Syrians. That plane was a specialized electronic warfare asset regularly patrolling (and securing) the surrounding airspace - and...Il-20s don't grow on trees!!! Let me underscore this - the loss of this aircraft is an absolutely *devastating* loss that will cost the Russians and the Syrians dearly - notwithstanding the fact that Israel certainly won't offer any compensation for this human and material loss.

Final points and hard questions (and I haven't seen many questions being raised about this so far....happy to hear/read your take on this!):

1) The Russians saw the Israeli F-16 way before they got so close to Latakia and to the Il-20. Why did they allow the Israelis to get *so dangerously close* to their prized asset - the Il-20 - and the the Khmeimim airbase?

2) What about the Russian EW-systems? While it is understandable that the Il-20 was on a landing approach and maybe not actively using its EW/radar systems - what about the other defensive assets deployed in the area? What about the Khmeimim-based EW systems like the Krasukha? What about the array of surveillance/tracking radar systems that Russia operates?

3) Why was the Il-20 not escorted??? I thought that after the downing of the Su-24 by Turkey, the Russians had decided to mandatorily escort major air assets such as bombers, tankers, surveillance planes etc? How come the flight of 4x F-16s could approach the Il-20 unimpeded with no interception/shadowing taking place beforehand?

4) What about Russian-Syrian coordination??? We know that the S-200s operated by the Syrians had been upgraded/serviced - this *must* have included the surveillance/tracking radars, as well as the IFF systems. So how could the Syrian SAM crews even fire the missile? Even if the Israelis claim that they informed the Russians just short of a minute or so before the strike, the Russians *must have seen - AND - tracked* the flight of the F-16s well in advance and even from their take-off, so they *should have informed* the Syrians.

5) What about Israeli EW-capabilities? Are Israeli F-16s now equipped with systems that allow them to fool Russian & Syrian radars and EW systems to the point where they can fly and approach a highly hostile area literally *undisturbed*, and be so confident that missiles fired at them will miss the target and hit the "friendlies" instead???

6) What about the role of the French here? What about the "Auvergne" frigate? Did it fire any munitions as indicated by the Russians? If yes, then why and at which target? Shouldn't Russia lodge an official complaint and demand explanations from Paris? Did the Israelis coordinate the strike in any form or way with the French?

Food for thought folks...we all need to get to the bottom of this - too many questions - and too few answers...
My message to the Russian (political) leadership: LISTEN to the Konashenkovs, to the Shoigus, to the Gerasimovs...and do whatever is necessary to STOP THIS.
'Nuff said.....

Grom

Red Ryder , Sep 18, 2018 3:38:42 PM | link
@138, Grieved,

With wisdom again . . .

I concur.

Israel broke the bond of trust. They will see in many ways and means that they bought the S-300 for Syria and eventually, a NO FLY over Lebanon, Jordan, Syria and Iraq and Turkey. The S-400s will be linked and all anyone in a military aircraft has to do is call and ask for permission from Moscow/MOD/VVP. It's coming. Russia is in Syria to stay for 50+ years. And thus, it and its neighbors will be under the Russian missile defenses, integrated as a whole network.

In this Levant neighborhood, all the leaders want peace. Only Israel wants war.

The ME is wider and includes the psychos and sociopaths of Israel and Saudi Arabia and UAE. They want proxy war and US Centcom wars. But Russia has taken Turkey away and soon Iraq will be removed from US hegemony, also.

The Chinese are finishing an exercise as "ally" of Russia in Vostok 2018. They are seeing and feeling how Russia fights wars. This may give them the confidence to militarily join anchoring the ME for OBOR Silk Road development. They have much at stake in securing a peace. And just may join with a stout presence of the PLA. They should and now they might finally come.

The Chinese will be operating the port at Haifa, so it means they hold stakes in Syria and Iraq as well as Israel. In their own commercial interests and in President Xi's dream of BRI they have to invest a military presence. The time is perfect.

They intend to invest billions in reconstructing Syria. They should build their own military infrastructure base in Syria.

Their work with Russia in Vostok 2018 will make their presence inside Syria feel very comfortable.

michaelj72 , Sep 18, 2018 3:40:03 PM | link
well you go and let israel attack 'iranian' targets inside Syria some 200 times in two years or so, and ya don't expect any of your forces to ever get caught in the cross-fire?.....Well, russia, ya finally got caught.

more info here
http://news.trust.org/item/20180918140009-ol11r

"....But the ministry said it held Israel responsible because, at the time of the incident, Israeli jets were attacking Syrian targets and had only given Moscow one minute's warning, putting the Russian aircraft in danger of being caught in cross-fire..."

rcentros , Sep 18, 2018 3:50:29 PM | link
Free ride for Israel again. NutYahoo plays the fiddle and Putin dances to the lively tune.
et Al , Sep 18, 2018 3:57:42 PM | link
#138 Grieved.

I wholeheartedly agree.

Pete , Sep 18, 2018 3:58:00 PM | link
Perhaps Israel deflected the SAMs and shot the Russian aircraft down themselves?
Jackrabbit , Sep 18, 2018 3:58:50 PM | link
"Putin showed weakness" is silly.

He can't talk about secret accommodation for Israel - but he can end it .

<> <> <> <> <> <>

The 'accomodation' stemmed from Putin's view that Russia had no interest in getting involved in the Israel-Iran conflict. A wise choice because drawing Russia into that fray could lead to WWIII.

Who is directly responsible for the downing of the plane is irrelevant. Israel clearly fucked with Russia by not giving them adequate warning.

xLemming , Sep 18, 2018 3:59:46 PM | link

@ 135 L

How is Deschutes an Israeli troll? He despises Zionists.

Now c.summers is an Israeli troll, as he excuses and/or ignores their evils

rcentros , Sep 18, 2018 4:25:27 PM | link
Now Moon Over Alabama is censoring ... so I'll repeat the deleted post ...

Free ride for Israel again. NutYahoo plays the fiddle and Putin dances to the lively tune.

Ragheb , Sep 18, 2018 4:26:19 PM | link
would be nice to see Syrian and Russian forces attack Israel launching sites. AA defenses not nearly sufficient. Especially when most targets are cheap cruise missiles and not expensive aircraft.
rcentros , Sep 18, 2018 4:27:15 PM | link
My apologies. Moon Over Alabama did not delete my post -- it was on the second page. I guess my emotions are running high. If I could delete the 2nd post I would.
Pft , Sep 18, 2018 4:32:20 PM | link
Israel controls Russia as much as it does the USA. Putin is a philo-semite. The Chief Rabbi of Russia is known as Putins Rabbi , he is from Brooklyn, a rabbi of the same orthodox sect as Kushner, Felix Sater and a couple of Putins biggest oligarch suporters . Many of Russias top oligarchs also have Israeli passports. Putins already met Bibi 3 times this year and trade and tourism between the 2 countries is booming with more than 60 flights from Israel to Moscow daily. A Russian academic is being tried for holocaust denial for daring to question some of the numbers. The media in Russia is just as pro-Israel as in US. The powerful Israeli lobby is global.


Bottom line, IMO there will be no revenge taken other than a token response to appease Russias military. Putting aside his pro Israeli stance, Putin knows an attack on Israel is the same as an attack on the Israeli controlled US . Not going to risk that for Syria, not for 14 soldiers. Thats just being smart. Weak, but smart.

Fernando Arauxo , Sep 18, 2018 4:41:44 PM | link
Only thing Russian should do is place snipers all over the place and enable the Arabs to kill 15 Israeli soldiers. Once that is done, no more bullets. Blood demands blood. Russia has to punish the Jews somehow, if not the bear is WEAK.
Zanon , Sep 18, 2018 4:41:53 PM | link
Pft

Indeed no response will be given - this is probably already buried in Russia.
Putin admitted that there as only a "mistake", only problem Putin will run into these "mistakes" unless he take pre cautions (i.e. S300) to defend SAA/Russian army, or how many will die next time? Could he afford it?

Oui , Sep 18, 2018 5:01:05 PM | link
So it appears to be true Bibi Netanahau send a Yom Kippur warning to Israel's foes in Syria with "accomplices" Russia, Turkey and Iran.
At the same time, Israel is constantly working to prevent our enemies from arming themselves with advanced weaponry. Our red lines are as sharp as ever and our determination to enforce them is stronger than ever.

This week we will mark, in synagogues and cemeteries, Yom Kippur, the holiest day of our people, and the day on which, 45 years ago, we absorbed a bloody attack that cost us thousands of victims.

somebody , Sep 18, 2018 5:02:48 PM | link
Posted by: Russ | Sep 18, 2018 12:12:18 PM | 84

I thought Syria's goal was to redeem its territory.

From whom? Syrians? With 5 million refugees outside of Syria?
From a nation of 22 million. With 3 million refugees in Turkey alone.

Zachary F Goldberg , Sep 18, 2018 5:06:53 PM | link
If Israel did not attack Syria without any legal pretext, none of this would have happened. Why do the USA and its NATO allies stand by and watch as Israel commits so many acts of naked aggression?

Because USA and NATO are wholly owned subsidiaries of Israel. Besides, the USA does not sit idly by - it actively supports Israel.

juliania , Sep 18, 2018 5:09:44 PM | link
Thanks to karlof1 for the 3 links, to PeterAU1 for the two links to Russian response to the mishap, also to Grieved for reminding us how seriously Russia will be assessing a response, and b, of course, for bringing the matter before us in his always competent posting.

Here is a translation of part of what Putin had to say:

"...First of all, I would like to express condolences to the families of the dead.

As for your comparison with the downing of our plane by a Turkish fighter, this was a different situation. The Turkish fighter deliberately shot down our aircraft.

In this case, it is more a chain of tragic circumstances because an Israeli fighter did not down our aircraft. It goes without saying that we must get to the bottom of this. Our attitude towards this tragedy is set forth in a statement by our Defence Ministry, and has been fully coordinated with me.

As for reciprocal action, this will be primarily aimed at ensuring additional security for our military and our facilities in the Syrian Arab Republic. These steps will be seen by everyone..."

Because of the phrasing Putin has carefully used, I would place considerable emphasis on the fact that only one minute warning was given by the Israelis of this dangerous situation occurring in the region of a busy Syrian airport such as Latakia has to be. Israel certainly knows that Russian planes are using that airfield. Why only a one minute warning? would be my question. And from the answer to that would flow measures taken to avoid the occurrence which would detract considerably from Israel's freedom to operate in that manner in that region in future. Whether that will be Russia's only response is at the moment a matter of speculation. We shall have to wait and see.

Lets have some patience, and in the interim it wouldn't hurt to pray for peace. And also for the families of those airmen.

Zanon , Sep 18, 2018 5:10:57 PM | link
somebody

From whom?
Have you missed that Idlib is occupied from the Syrian state?

U.N. Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura said there was a high concentration of foreign fighters in Idlib, including an estimated 10,000 fighters designated by the U.N. as terrorists, who he said belonged to the al-Nusra Front and al Qaeda.
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-un/un-fears-chemical-weapons-in-syria-battle-with-10000-terrorists-idUSKCN1LF157
karlof1 , Sep 18, 2018 5:11:14 PM | link
Grom @149--

Must agree with you about the loss of such invaluable specialists. You asked excellent questions. Presumably the Zionist jets were over international waters and may have been their often in the past without incident. The lack of escort presence is important, but we don't know current RuAF SOP. Did Russian air defense assets open fire? Some locals say yes; some say no. Only Russia knows for certain; I don't recall them saying so in their briefing. Some of your questions I've already addressed in previous postings, so won't comment on them again.

However, I will reiterate that besides Zionist aggression ultimately being at fault, Russian policies share some of the blame. For example, what legal difference is there really between a Zionist air raid and a terrorist rocket barrage? Both are illegal, terror attacks on the Syrian populace. Russia stated its reason for intervening was/is to stamp out terrorists and their ism. Zionism is one of those isms as it's based on the application of terror; a look into Zionist history proves that--even Zionists admit they're terrorists!!! This thus begs the question: Why the double standards--something Putin and Russians have stated they abhor on numerous occasions--in response to Islamic Terrorism and Zionist Terrorism? That's my question for Mr Putin. If I could, I'd ask him directly.

Lochearn , Sep 18, 2018 5:13:05 PM | link
@ 138 Grieved

I have no idea where that comment came from. Thanks for letting me know and for seeing it was not the sort of thing I would write. I wrote a while ago that I had been hacked.

Yes, those of us who have been here a long time now are not suddenly going to dismiss Mr Putin for one remark. I think it's his style to understate, to row back a bit from strong language, but that doesn't mean there won't be consequences for this action. I looked at Saker's blog and he is very critical as he has been for some time now - hence the link with Paul Craig Roberts. Fort Russ, which is run by Joaquin Flores took issue with Saker. I find Joaquin an interesting intellect. I thought his analysis of Turkeys plans for Idlib quite brave in the sense of forecasting (please Google fort russ this is how Syria will seize Idlib).

I think Israel was furious its hopes for a confrontation of the Syrian alliance with Turkey in Idlib had been dashed by an agreement the contents of which we are still not quite sure.

pogohere , Sep 18, 2018 5:28:07 PM | link
oldenyoung @3

J. Flores @ FortRuss agrees with you in an article to be posted after the site he edits recovers from an attack:

Written within the context of the disinfo wars the author analyses more fully in the yet to be posted article:

Excerpted:

"Secondly, readers will take note of the inclusion of the French denial. This French denial is bizarre and entirely out of place, since no one accused France.

. . .

The French 'early denial' when no accusation was made, means that the West had planned for France to be blamed, the French authorities were prepared to carry out their script and deny the accusations that the Russians were 'obviously' going to make.

Then something happened, and Russia didn't make that accusation. But there were the French authorities, going forward with the script, and in an incoherent way which really exposes what they were up to, and tells us all quite clearly what was planned, and yet all the while Russia doesn't at all blame France. Ridiculous, brilliant, absurd.

. . .

The aim of the Atlanticists is to have France do it, have France be blamed, and to cause a massive public relations problem, that Putin would have to respond to, by naming, blaming, the French, and seeking to hold them accountable. How will the French and Russian publics, respectively, take this? Not well, and it doesn't work well for the Eurasia project either. Macron will eventually be out, and it's politically near-impossible to hold the leader of a country, although temporary, responsible without blaming a whole people for something. Once you throw in the work of French media spin-doctors, they will absolutely succeed in twisting it not as a Macron problem but a problem that Russia has with blaming France and all the French by extension.

. . .

The IFF system, and the situation in Syria, is not at all like the situation in the Georgian war ten years ago, when at the time there were some official Russian reports of there being difficulties separating Georgian from Russian aircraft. This is because MiGs are identical to MiGs. IFF systems at the time are not the same as today, with integrated transponders which make auto-locking impossible from the start. The Syrian Army at Lattakia does not, in reality, operate as a separate army. There, they have what is known as an integrated command, at least insofar as these issues are concerned. So the SAA couldn't have attacked or locked onto a Russian plane, because the transponder data in real time that is part of newer IFF systems actually would mean there would have to be an intentional manual override over the computerated 'no-lock possible' response the S-200's computer system would have automatically generated for a Russian plane of any kind.

The S-200 has an extremely high accuracy, not more than a bit different from the S-400 for a single target, and specifically a target of this size and speed, it would have had to 'miss' the Israeli plane in question, which only has a 10-15% chance of doing, but then proceed to then actually hit the Russian plane. But not only hit the Russian plane, but critically so. This is all we can ascertain once we realize that auto-locking without manual override onto the Russian plane with the IFF transponder in direct connection with the SAA (Russian joint command) at Lattakia, is practically impossible unless we say there was an American asset working at the controls of the SAA's Lattakia computer.

. . .

The Putin-Erdogan deal reached yesterday indeed offers the strong probability for Syria to win without engaging in a needless conflict, and the promises of FUKUS attacks to be realized. Still, though they were anyhow, for no discernible reason given. Israel and France simply attacked in response to Turkey's cunning move. So time is on Russia's side.

That the aim of yesterday's surprise attack is punishment for the Turkish 'about face', which FRN stated as a very likely possible outcome, (for the record), is evident in that stories from RT and Sputnik reporting on the event had official statements, and not randomly so, saying that these attacks will not deter or reverse the Turkish-Russian agreement on the final resolution of Idlib.

What's needed now for the Atlanticists of FUKUS is to damage these relations as much as possible, Turkey vs. Russia, and Russia vs. France, and to cause Russia to blame France instead of blaming Israel.

This was a calculation, that Russia would not blame Israel due to the successful media hologram that Russia created that Israel has an inviolable special relationship (they do not, to this extent), and that instead that Russia will blame France. They did not expect Russia to accept the Western MSM Atlanticist narrative that the SAA had shot down the Russian plane either.

Between blaming France or Israel, the US expected Russia to blame France. Between blaming Syria or France, the US expected Russia to blame France. Between blaming Syria or Israel, the US expected Israel to be blamed.

They did not expect this hybrid of 'somewhat' blaming Israel for doing 'tricky stuff' in the air, the motives being hard to prove or qualify.

If Russia was to avoid an MH-17 situation in reverse, they had to think with agility. Russia has the physical evidence, the flight data, and the missile launch data. If they were going to blame France, which was mostly expected, it would have been a UNSC charade, a General Assembly charade, and a media charade with 'Putin blaming France' and Russia being accused of having possession of the evidence from which their case is made, and therefore the evidence being dodgy or even manufactured entirely.

The crash remains of the IL-20 are going to absolutely show that it was hit with a missile, any fragments etc. required to establish that, will show that's an Aster missile, or similar, like the missiles used in the S-200's. But they aren't going to show that the impact is consistent with a small missile carried by Israeli planes, or by gun strafing from an attack plane.

This is why Russia could not blame Israel,

Lochearn , Sep 18, 2018 5:32:28 PM | link
Apologies: Flores' article - this is how Turkey will seize Idlib. I was overcome by the intelligence of the hack, copying and pasting things I had said in different contexts.
karlof1 , Sep 18, 2018 5:36:07 PM | link
Meanwhile, some initial results of the Idlib deal : "Al-Nusra Front, Jaish al-Izza, Islamic Turkistan Party and Hourras Addin refused the Russian-Turkish deal." That implies they will not withdraw as they're supposed to as agreement stipulates. So, it appears that unless the Turks can get them to change their mind, that come Oct 10, they'll be attacked. Oh, as I noted on yesterday's thread on this topic, related Syrian offensives in the region will continue--the war on the Outlaw US Empire's terrorists hasn't stopped. Indeed, the intensity of ongoing operations is likely to escalate. I haven't yet watched Almassian's video linked at the above tweet.
alaff , Sep 18, 2018 5:37:06 PM | link
I very much doubt that the Russian leadership will somehow seriously answer Israel. The spinelessness of Russian politics sometimes simply amaze (it's worth recalling, for example, the epic with the seizure of Russian diplomatic property by the US authorities - there was no intelligible answer from Russia, and still(!) there's no answer).

Well, maybe Israel will make some statement that everything that happened is a "pure accident". Maybe Netanyahu will fly to Putin to talk "like friends". But not more.

Certainly, there will not be a disruption of diplomatic relations with Israel (now many in Russia call for it), no retaliatory attacks on Israeli forces, nor the withdrawal of Russian military police from the Golan Heights (who provide there security for the Israeli "zone of interests"). S-300 ADS complexes will still not be delivered to Syria.

By the way, many "link" this incident with 17 September breakthrough agreements between Putin and Erdogan. I don't know, maybe there is some sense in this. But I would pay attention to the other. Against the backdrop of this tragic incident, everyone somehow "suddenly forgot" the recent extremely important event - the media briefing of the Russian Defense Ministry in connection with the establishment of the belonging of the missile which shot down Boeing MH17 in 2014. Russian Ministry of Defense provided more facts, unconditionally determining the fault of Ukraine for the downed Boeing. Western curators of the Ukrainian regime were shyly silent, MSM "did not notice" this important news. Look at the first pages of CNN, BBC, The Guardian, The Telegraph, The New York Times etc... There's not even a word about the new findings that indicate the direct fault of Ukraine. The tragedy with the downed Russian plane somehow "very successfully" and "in time" diverted the attention of the "world community" away from the sensational data provided by the Russian Defense Ministry.

Just an observation...

Peter AU 1 , Sep 18, 2018 6:18:19 PM | link
Looking at the flightpaths of the Israeli aircraft and missiles, it seems likely the Russian plane would not have been in the target radar when the S-200 missiles were launched. The targets have the flown across behind the Russian aircraft causing it to be illuminated by the targeting radar after the missiles were launched. According to wikipedia the S-200 travel aT 2.5km per second. At 35km offshore that is a minimum of 14 seconds from launch, most likely longer depending how far the S200 batteries are from the coast. Plenty of time to pull the targeting radar across so it also illuminates the Russian plane after missile launch.
karlof1 , Sep 18, 2018 6:27:04 PM | link
Aha! Finally found a partial copy of the Memorandum of Understanding arrived at in Sochi , which only shows the first 6 points thus its partialness. As noted in previous comment, the terrorists have already rejected abiding by it, so points 5&6 will not be undertaken, meaning the SAA's free to begin Idlib Dawn. Any barflies think Turks will convince terrorists to alter their stance?
Ian , Sep 18, 2018 6:31:56 PM | link
Red Ryder @150:

China isn't coming to the shit storm without a UN resolution. Far too many chefs in the kitchen. Besides, the OBOR can always be adjusted to the situation.

Harry , Sep 18, 2018 6:32:54 PM | link
@ Jose Garcia | 85
Some here express that Putin should do this or why he didn't do that. It's easy to express those opinions from the comforts of home. Never having bullets fly over their heads, or having to pick up the remains of their comrades, blown to bits right in front of them. And to confront the families of those killed and explain to them why they will never return.

Lets ignore for a second keyboard warriors. However always turning second cheek doesnt work in geopolitics and wars. If not overtly, then covertly Russia should have said to Israel: Niet! And either MADE SURE that Israel never attacks Syria again (and put Russian soldiers in harms way), OR provide the means to Syria to defend itself.

Russia hasnt done either. End result? There will be MORE dead Russian soldiers in the future. Why Israel thinks it can bomb Syria 200x in last few years and get away with it? Because Russia doesnt allow Syria to defend themselves. Why Israel doesnt bomb Lebanon since 2006? Because they KNOW they would be in the World of hurt if they do. Russia should have done the same in Syria, but they overplayed "but Israel are our best buds!" hand and got screwed in the process. If Russia doesnt stop Israel even now, guess what happens next? Exactly, more dead Russians (and Syrians, Iranians, etc).

karlof1 , Sep 18, 2018 6:43:19 PM | link
Harry @177--

Yes, we agree; it's Russian policy that must change.

OT--Korean Summit--

Southfront provides this report about what's happening North of the DMZ, and provides a glimpse at what the US-driven propaganda line is as published within RoK. FYI, Moon and wife just completed a tour of RoK children's hospitals prior to heading North. Please note that Moon and Kim are on the same page when it comes to dealing with Outlaw US Empire.

[Sep 18, 2018] The radical Israeli zionists are convinced, it seems, that a peaceful, secular, stable Syria will seek to invade and destroy Israel. That's delusional

Sep 18, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

Northern Star September 18, 2018 at 2:19 pm

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/18/syri-s18.html

"Saint Jimmy (Russian American) • 7 hours ago

Poor Zionist Israel and sad little has been France. It was over for them in Syria, anyway. However, the Russian/Turkish deal about Idlib was too much, as it settled the fates of Idlib, ISIS, and Syria in a mostly peaceful way. That was too much for the little hate filled Nazis in Israel and the silly, puffed up pervert Macron. They had to create an incident and desperately attempt to provoke Syria and Russia into a violent response to draw the US into a shooting war again in Syria. As could have been predicted, it failed.

Israel looks like a spoiled, dangerous, psychotically paranoid state to me, right now. The radical Israeli zionists are convinced, it seems, that a peaceful, secular, stable Syria will seek to invade and destroy Israel. That's delusional. I suspect that Israel is also aware of its rapidly declining support among all Americans – rich, middle class, poor, Christian, Muslim, AND Jewish and is desperate to reverse the trend. Their problem is that the harder they try to reverse their declining popularity, the faster it declines."

"Kalen • 4 hours ago
In 2015 while ISIS controlled half of Syria, while Al-Qeada another quarter preparing to oust Assad , US flew only 8 sorties over Syria per day , with less than one combat sortie per day.

In October Russians landed 50 combat aircraft and with direct support from strategic bombers from Russian bases in RF flew at peak 200 combat missions a day.

Putin could have closed Syria airspace but he did not, and that would have ended US, and Israelis illegal aggression but instead Putin via his decisions encouraged it.

Putin however , stated that he is in Syria to fight terrorists and not to to support Assad. That was a logical absurd that revealed entire charade of Putin involvement which was characterized with excellent relations with Israeli aggressor all these years.

Why Putin insists on losing all the credibility is beyond me, especially that his suppose stupidity and gullibility costed many Russian military lives but most of all unnecessary Syrian lives as this war could have been ended long time ago.

Russia apparently joined others who thrive on misery of Syrian war."

Apparently 14 Russian personnel were murdered by the Zionist vermin who are playing with nuclear fire as we all know but I suspect some of you are being a bit like the ostrich myth in your acknowledgment of this hard fact. Kalen is spot on.

Remember the '56 Suez crisis? Russia did not fuck around with Eden in the UK or whoever was running France.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Suez_Crisis#Soviet_threats
The difference now and Suez then is that the USA has is now allied withIsrael and two played-out has been former world powers-UK and France. So the USA ,France,Israel and the UK need to be hard bitch slapped by Putin just as Khrushchev would have done.

"Nikita Khrushchev's much publicized threat expressed through letters written by Nikolai Bulganin to begin rocket attacks on 5 November on Britain, France, and Israel if they did not withdraw from Egypt was widely believed at the time to have forced a ceasefire.[349] Accordingly, it enhanced the prestige of the Soviet Union in Egypt, the Arab world, and the Third World, who believed the USSR was prepared to launch a nuclear attack on Britain, France, and Israel for the sake of Egypt.[349] Though Nasser in private admitted that it was American economic pressure that had saved him, it was Khrushchev, not Eisenhower, whom Nasser publicly thanked as Egypt's saviour and special friend.[349] Khrushchev later boasted in his memoirs:

The terrorist Zionist bastards STFU and eventually withdrew in the usual tradition of the IDF:

"The Israelis refused to host any UN force on Israeli controlled territory and left the Sinai in March 1957. Before the withdrawal the Israeli forces systematically destroyed infrastructure in Sinai peninsula, such as roads, railroads and telephone lines, and all houses in the villages of Abu Ageila and El Quseima. Before the railway was destroyed, Israel Railways captured Egyptian National Railways equipment including six locomotives[341] and a 30-ton breakdown crane."

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/09/syria-israel-provocation-kills-russian-soldiers-russia-will-take-political-revenge.html#more

Northern Star September 18, 2018 at 2:31 pm
https://syria360.wordpress.com/2018/09/18/russian-ministry-of-defense-warns-israel-there-will-be-consequences-for-actions-that-caused-the-fatal-crash-of-il-20/

[Sep 18, 2018] Putin and Erdogan Plan Syria-Idlib DMZ

Sep 18, 2018 | theduran.com

As I recommended in a post on September 10th , Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan jointly announced on September 17th, "We've agreed to create a demilitarized zone between the government troops and militants before October 15. The zone will be 15-20km wide," which compares to the Korean DMZ's 4-km width . I had had in mind the Korean experience, but obviously Putin and Erdogan are much better-informed about the situation than I am, and they have chosen a DMZ that's four to five times wider. In any case, the consequences of such a decision will be momentous, unless U.S. President Donald Trump is so determined for there to be World War III as to stop at nothing in order to force it to happen no matter what Russia does or doesn't do.

What the Putin-Erdogan DMZ decision means is that the 50,000 Turkish troops who now are occupying Idlib province of Syria will take control over that land, and will thus have the responsibility over the largest concentration of jihadists anywhere on the planet: Idlib. It contains the surviving Syrian Al Qaeda and ISIS fighters, including all of the ones throughout Syria who surrendered to the Syrian Army rather than be shot dead on the spot by Government forces.

For its part, the U.S. Government, backed by its allies and supported in this by high officials of the United Nations, had repeatedly threatened that if there occurs any chemical-weapons attack, or even any claimed chemical-weapons attack, inside Idlib, the U.S. and its allies will instantaneously blame the Syrian Government and bomb Syria, and will shoot down the planes of Syria and of Russia that oppose this bombing-campaign to conquer or 'liberate' Syria from its Government. The U.S. has announced its determination to protect what one high U.S. official -- who is endorsing what Trump is doing there -- "the largest Al Qaeda safe haven since 9/11." He admits it, but he wants to protect them from being bombed by Syria and by Russia.

During recent weeks, the U.S. military has increasingly said that even if the jihadists they've been assisting to assemble the materials for a chemical-weapons attack fail to carry it out or to stage one, any attempt by Syrian and Russian forces to destroy the jihadists (which the U.S. side calls 'rebels') in Idlib will be met with overwhelming U.S.-and-allied firepower. That would spark WW III, because whichever side -- Russia or U.S. -- loses in the Syrian battlefield will nuclear-blitz-attack the other side so as to have the lesser damage from the nuclear war and thus (in military terms) 'win' WW III, because the blitz-attack will destroy many of the opposite side's retaliatory weapons. In a nuclear war, the first side to attack will have a considerable advantage -- reducing the number of weapons the other side can launch.

If, on the other hand, the DMZ-plan works, then Turkey's forces will be responsible for vetting any of Idlib's residents who try to leave, in order to prohibit jihadists and their supporters from leaving. Once that task (filtering out the non-dangerous inhabitants and retaining in Idlib only the jihadists and their supporters) is done, the entire world might be consulted on whether to exterminate the remaining residents or to set them free to return to the countries from which they came or to other countries. Presumably, no country would want those 'refugees'. That would answer the question.

America's Arab allies, the oil monarchies such as the Sauds who own Saudi Arabia and the Thanis who own Qatar, and which have funded Al Qaeda and the Muslim Brotherhood, would then be put on a spot, because if they say "Exterminate them!" then their clergy who have provided the moral imprimatur upon those families' ownership of those nations, will either be in rebellion or else will themselves become overthrown either by their own followers or else by their monarch -- overthrown from below or from above.

Alternatively, after Turkey's forces in Idlib will have allowed release from Idlib of all who will be allowed out, Syria's and Russia's bombers will simply go in and slaughter the then-surrounded jihadists and take upon themselves the responsibility for that, regardless of what the leaders of the U.S. and its allied governments might say.

On the night of September 17th in Syria, there were missile-attacks "from the sea" against several Syrian cities; and those attacks could have come from either Israel's or America's ships, or from other U.S.-allied ships. Russian Television bannered, "Russian plane disappears from radars during Israeli attack on Syria's Latakia – MoD" and reported:

A Russian military Il-20 aircraft with 14 service members on board went off the radars during an attack by four Israeli jets on Syria's Latakia province, the Russian Defense Ministry said.
Air traffic controllers at the Khmeimim Air Base "lost contact" with the aircraft on Wednesday evening, during the attack of Israeli F-16 fighters on Latakia, said the MOD.Russian radars also registered the launch of missiles from a French frigate in the Mediterranean on the evening of September 17.
The attack on Latakia came just hours after Russia and Turkey negotiated a partial demilitarization of the Idlib province

If the missiles were authorized by President Trump, then WW III has already begun in its pre-nuclear stage. However, if the attacks were launched by Israel's Netanyahu, and/or by France's Macron, without U.S. authorization, then the U.S. President might respond to them by siding against that aggressor(s) (and also against what he used to call "Radical Islamic Terrorists"), so as to prevent a nuclear war.

Late on September 17th, Al Masdar News bannered "NATO warships move towards Syrian coast" and reported "The NATO flotilla cruising off the Syrian coast reportedly consists of a Dutch frigate, the De Ruyter, a Canadian frigate, the Ville de Quebec, and a Greek cruiser, the Elli." Al Qaeda and ISIS have influential protectors.

Ultimately, the decision will be U.S. President Trump's as to whether he is willing to subject the planet to WW III and to its following nuclear winter and consequent die-off of agriculture and of everyone, in order to 'win' a nuclear war, such as America's aristocracy has especially championed since the year 2006. The nuclear-victory concept is called "Nuclear Primacy" -- the use of nuclear weapons so as to win a nuclear war against Russia, instead of to prevent a nuclear war. That concept's predecessor, the "Mutually Assured Destruction" or "M.A.D." meta-strategy, predominated even in the U.S. until 2006. Trump will have to decide whether the purpose of America's nuclear-weapons stockpiles is to prevent WW III, or is to win WW III.

In Russia, the purpose has always been to have nuclear weapons in order to prevent WW III. But America's President will be the person who will make the ultimate decision on this. And Idlib might be the spark. Netanyahu or Macron might be wanting to drag the U.S. into war even against Russia, but the final decision will be Trump's.

The ultimate question is: How far will the U.S. go in order to continue the U.S. dollar as being the overwhelmingly dominant global currency?

-- -- -- -- --

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010 , and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity .

[Sep 18, 2018] The Israeli pilots used the Russian plane as cover and set it up to be targeted by the Syrian air defense forces.

Sep 18, 2018 | www.unz.com

bj , says: September 18, 2018 at 10:48 am GMT

Update–"The Israeli pilots used the Russian plane as cover and set it up to be targeted by the Syrian air defense forces. As a consequence, the Il-20, which has radar cross-section much larger than the F-16, was shot down by an S-200 system missile," the statement said.

http://theduran.com/russian-mod-il-20-downed-by-syrian-missile-after-attacking-israels-f-16s-used-it-as-cover/

[Sep 17, 2018] Attacking an international airport in close proximity to an event hosting thousands of civilians from around the world has a degree of hideousness about it that recalls the terrorism waged by Begin and his gang prior to Israel being carved out of Palestine.

Sep 17, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Karlof1 , Sep 16, 2018 5:23:28 PM | link

I reported this yesterday . All war crimes are serious, but attacking an international airport in close proximity to an event hosting thousands of civilians from around the world has a degree of hideousness about it that recalls the terrorism waged by Begin and his gang prior to Israel being carved out of Palestine. The Zionist attack must be called what it is -- an act of terrorism.

[Sep 17, 2018] The Dirty Dozen: 12 lies they tell you to anaesthetise you for the upcoming bombing of Syria by Peter Ford

Notable quotes:
"... There are more babies than jihadis in Idlib ..."
"... The reports [of the imminent chemical weapons 'attack'] must be truebecause Asad has done it before. ..."
"... The OPCW report on Douma was flawed because the Russians and ..."
"... Syrians caused delay ..."
"... Asad uses chemical weapons because they frighten large numbers of people into fleeing ..."
"... The OPCW won't be able to investigate because it won't ..."
"... The upcoming strikes are not aimed at regime change. ..."
"... It's all Russian disinformation ..."
"... There won't be enough time for parliamentary debate. ..."
"... MPs can't be told what is planned because it would ..."
"... eopardise the safety of service personnel. ..."
"... There are going to be massacres/a bloodbath/genocide. ..."
"... People have nowhere to go ..."
"... We can't tell you which armed groups we support because it would make them targets for Asad ..."
Sep 17, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

The propaganda mills of the British and American governments - spokespersons, media, think tanks - are working overtime churning out 'talking points' to justify the upcoming large scale bombing of Syria on the pretext of use of prohibited weapons.

Here is a guide from a former insider to the top dozen of these lies.

  1. There are more babies than jihadis in Idlib . As it happens this gem of moral blackmail is untrue. There are twice as many jihadis (about 100,000) as babies (0-1 year) (55,000). What is this factoid meant to say anyway? Don't try to free an area of jihadis because you might harm a lot of children? The Western coalition scarcely heeded that consideration in razing Mosul and Raqqa in order to crush ISIS. They are still pulling babies out of the rubble in Raqqa.
  2. The reports [of the imminent chemical weapons 'attack'] must be truebecause Asad has done it before. False. Since 2013 when Asad gave up chemical weapons under supervision of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) the OPCW have not visited the sites of alleged attacks in jihadi-controlled areas but have accepted at face value 'reports' from pro-jihadi organisations like the White Helmets and the Syrian American Medical Society, along with 'evidence' from hostile intelligence agencies. In the case of the one site the OPCW did visit, Douma, their report said they found no evidence of sarin, no untoward traces in any of the blood samples taken from 'alleged victims' (their term), no bodies and only ambiguous evidence of use of chlorine.

3. The OPCW report on Douma was flawed because the Russians and Syrians caused delay . False. As documented in the OPCW report delay was caused by UN bureaucracy and jihadi snipers. The inspectors do not say their findings were to any significant degree invalidated by the delay.

  1. Asad uses chemical weapons because they frighten large numbers of people into fleeing . False. They don't. This desperate argument is trotted out to counter the fact that Asad would have to be stupid to use chemical weapons knowing what the result would be and that he would derive minimal military benefit. To date not one of the alleged chemical attacks has precipitated an exodus any greater than flight caused by the legendary 'barrel bombs'. The inhabitants of Douma by their own testimonies given to Western journalists were even unaware there might have been an attack until they heard about it in the media.
  2. The OPCW won't be able to investigate because it won't b e safe . A feeble excuse to preempt calls for establishing facts before bombing. The Turks escort Western journalists into Idlib. They have hundreds of troops there and the jihadis kowtow to them because they control all logistics. The Turks could escort OPCW. And wouldn't the jihadis be keener than anybody for the inspectors to visit if their claims were true?
  3. The upcoming strikes are not aimed at regime change. False. The plan is to decapitate the Syrian state with attacks on the presidency. Failing that the aim is to make Idlib a quagmire for the Russians. Anything to deprive Asad and Putin of victory, regardless of whether it prolongs the war.
  4. It's all Russian disinformation . Yeah, like the arms inspectors before the Iraq war who said no WMD in Iraq. Reality: the Russians have got great intelligence on what Western powers with their jihadi clients are up to and are calling out the phoney moves.
  5. There won't be enough time for parliamentary debate. Pull the other one. Reality: the government are terrified of a rerun of 2013 when Labour and 30 brave Tory MPs voted against bombing, causing Cameron and then Obama to back off.
  6. MPs can't be told what is planned because it would j eopardise the safety of service personnel. How low can you stoop? Feigning concern for flyers when it's really just about keeping the people in ignorance of how big the strikes are going to be.
  7. There are going to be massacres/a bloodbath/genocide. False. We heard all this hysteria before Aleppo, before Eastern Ghouta and before the campaign in the South. All vastly exaggerated. The Syrian Arab Army has not been responsible for a single massacre, while the jihadis have been responsible for many (source: quarterly reports of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria).
  8. People have nowhere to go . False. The Russians have opened safe corridors but the jihadis are not allowing people to leave. They can still leave for the northern border strip which Turkey controls, where there are camps, and many (including jihadi fighters) will be able to cross temporarily into Turkey.
  9. We can't tell you which armed groups we support because it would make them targets for Asad . Really? You think he doesn't know? Isn't it because you are terrified it will come out that we have been supporting some real head-choppers?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ford_(diplomat)

[Sep 17, 2018] The Bluffer's Guide to Bombing Syria By Peter Ford

Notable quotes:
"... or, The Dirty Dozen: 12 lies they tell you to anaesthetise you for the upcoming bombing of Syria ..."
"... There are more babies than jihadis in Idlib ..."
"... The reports [of the imminent chemical weapons 'attack'] must be truebecause Asad has done it before. ..."
"... The OPCW report on Douma was flawed because the Russians and ..."
"... Syrians caused delay ..."
"... Asad uses chemical weapons because they frighten large numbers of people into fleeing ..."
"... The OPCW won't be able to investigate because it won't ..."
"... The upcoming strikes are not aimed at regime change. ..."
"... It's all Russian disinformation ..."
"... There won't be enough time for parliamentary debate. ..."
"... MPs can't be told what is planned because it would ..."
"... eopardise the safety of service personnel. ..."
"... There are going to be massacres/a bloodbath/genocide. ..."
"... People have nowhere to go ..."
"... We can't tell you which armed groups we support because it would make them targets for Asad ..."
Sep 17, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

or, The Dirty Dozen: 12 lies they tell you to anaesthetise you for the upcoming bombing of Syria

The propaganda mills of the British and American governments - spokespersons, media, think tanks - are working overtime churning out 'talking points' to justify the upcoming large scale bombing of Syria on the pretext of use of prohibited weapons.

Here is a guide from a former insider to the top dozen of these lies.

  1. There are more babies than jihadis in Idlib . As it happens this gem of moral blackmail is untrue. There are twice as many jihadis (about 100,000) as babies (0-1 year) (55,000). What is this factoid meant to say anyway? Don't try to free an area of jihadis because you might harm a lot of children? The Western coalition scarcely heeded that consideration in razing Mosul and Raqqa in order to crush ISIS. They are still pulling babies out of the rubble in Raqqa.
  2. The reports [of the imminent chemical weapons 'attack'] must be truebecause Asad has done it before. False. Since 2013 when Asad gave up chemical weapons under supervision of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) the OPCW have not visited the sites of alleged attacks in jihadi-controlled areas but have accepted at face value 'reports' from pro-jihadi organisations like the White Helmets and the Syrian American Medical Society, along with 'evidence' from hostile intelligence agencies. In the case of the one site the OPCW did visit, Douma, their report said they found no evidence of sarin, no untoward traces in any of the blood samples taken from 'alleged victims' (their term), no bodies and only ambiguous evidence of use of chlorine.

3. The OPCW report on Douma was flawed because the Russians and Syrians caused delay . False. As documented in the OPCW report delay was caused by UN bureaucracy and jihadi snipers. The inspectors do not say their findings were to any significant degree invalidated by the delay.

  1. Asad uses chemical weapons because they frighten large numbers of people into fleeing . False. They don't. This desperate argument is trotted out to counter the fact that Asad would have to be stupid to use chemical weapons knowing what the result would be and that he would derive minimal military benefit. To date not one of the alleged chemical attacks has precipitated an exodus any greater than flight caused by the legendary 'barrel bombs'. The inhabitants of Douma by their own testimonies given to Western journalists were even unaware there might have been an attack until they heard about it in the media.
  2. The OPCW won't be able to investigate because it won't b e safe . A feeble excuse to preempt calls for establishing facts before bombing. The Turks escort Western journalists into Idlib. They have hundreds of troops there and the jihadis kowtow to them because they control all logistics. The Turks could escort OPCW. And wouldn't the jihadis be keener than anybody for the inspectors to visit if their claims were true?
  3. The upcoming strikes are not aimed at regime change. False. The plan is to decapitate the Syrian state with attacks on the presidency. Failing that the aim is to make Idlib a quagmire for the Russians. Anything to deprive Asad and Putin of victory, regardless of whether it prolongs the war.
  4. It's all Russian disinformation . Yeah, like the arms inspectors before the Iraq war who said no WMD in Iraq. Reality: the Russians have got great intelligence on what Western powers with their jihadi clients are up to and are calling out the phoney moves.
  5. There won't be enough time for parliamentary debate. Pull the other one. Reality: the government are terrified of a rerun of 2013 when Labour and 30 brave Tory MPs voted against bombing, causing Cameron and then Obama to back off.
  6. MPs can't be told what is planned because it would j eopardise the safety of service personnel. How low can you stoop? Feigning concern for flyers when it's really just about keeping the people in ignorance of how big the strikes are going to be.
  7. There are going to be massacres/a bloodbath/genocide. False. We heard all this hysteria before Aleppo, before Eastern Ghouta and before the campaign in the South. All vastly exaggerated. The Syrian Arab Army has not been responsible for a single massacre, while the jihadis have been responsible for many (source: quarterly reports of the UN Independent Commission of Inquiry on Syria).
  8. People have nowhere to go . False. The Russians have opened safe corridors but the jihadis are not allowing people to leave. They can still leave for the northern border strip which Turkey controls, where there are camps, and many (including jihadi fighters) will be able to cross temporarily into Turkey.
  9. We can't tell you which armed groups we support because it would make them targets for Asad . Really? You think he doesn't know? Isn't it because you are terrified it will come out that we have been supporting some real head-choppers?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Ford_(diplomat)

[Sep 17, 2018] Lawrence Wilkerson on the Neocons Plan: War in Syria, Then Iran by Adam Dick

Notable quotes:
"... he has seen "no proof" that Assad "ever used chemical weapons" and disparages the reputability of the White Helmets organization whose claims have been used to build support for US military actions in Syria. ..."
"... Wilkerson states: "My serious concern is about the way [US National Security Advisor John Bolton] and others in their positions of power now are orchestrating a scenario whereby Donald Trump, for political reasons or whatever, can use force in a significant way against Assad and ultimately Iran, because Iran's forces are there, and ultimately against Russia, because their forces are there in Syria, and this is most disquieting." ..."
Sep 14, 2018 | www.antiwar.com

Interviewed Tuesday by host Sharmini Peries at The Real News , Lawrence Wilkerson, a College of William & Mary professor and former chief of staff for United States Secretary of State Colin Powell, warned that "the neoconservative agenda" for an escalated United States war on Syria followed by war on Iran has had a "resurrection" in President Donald Trump's administration.

Regarding talk about the US taking military action in Syria in response to potential allegations of the use of chemical weapons – false flag or otherwise – in the country, Wilkerson comments that the war advocates are "looking for every excuse, any excuse, all excuses, to reopen US operations, major U.S. operations, against [President Bashar al-Assad] in Syria, always realizing that the ultimate target is Tehran." Tehran is the capital of Iran.

Addressing previous allegations of chemical weapons use by the Syria government that were used to justify US military actions in the country, Wilkerson, who is an Academic Board member for the Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity, states that he has seen "no proof" that Assad "ever used chemical weapons" and disparages the reputability of the White Helmets organization whose claims have been used to build support for US military actions in Syria.

Wilkerson further warns that the neoconservative agenda regarding war on Syria and Iran also threatens both conflict between the US and Russia and the long-term bogging down of US military forces in major conflict.

Wilkerson states: "My serious concern is about the way [US National Security Advisor John Bolton] and others in their positions of power now are orchestrating a scenario whereby Donald Trump, for political reasons or whatever, can use force in a significant way against Assad and ultimately Iran, because Iran's forces are there, and ultimately against Russia, because their forces are there in Syria, and this is most disquieting."

The neoconservatives' military plan, argues Wilkerson, is "a recipe for" the US military being in the region for "the next generation" with significant force "mired even deeper in this morass" and with the "day after day" attrition of dollars and lives.

Watch Wilkerson's complete interview here: https://www.youtube.com/embed/6mtpeouo_X8

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity .


Herb Fitzell2 days ago ,

While it is good to hear a voice in opposition to the warmongering among U.S. profiteers, it is unfortunate Wilkerson is "unaware" of any documented uses of chemical weapons by the Assad regime. The U.N. documentation can be found here.
https://pulsemedia.org/2018...

But a just solution for the use of chemical weapons by one regime can't be implemented by another regime which itself has so recently used them.
https://www.washingtonpost....

It is inconceivable that Wilkerson would be unaware of the use of such weapons and the war crimes committed by U.S. forces, especially on the tail end of Bolton's cowardly retreat from the ICC. Wilkerson almost certainly knows; but if he doesn't know, that simple bit of ignorance by a war "professional" underscores the fact that those who make war their business are themselves the real threat the whole world over -- no matter their organization. We've had far more than enough of their expertise and protection. Indeed, we would be immensely better off without any of it.
Wilkerson is no doubt trying to make amends for the crimes of his former boss, Colin Powell. But, once again, shouldn't Powell himself be one of the main witnesses and defendants bearing testimony before the ICC, and perhaps even Wilkerson himself?

Thanks, but no thanks. I, for one, have had far more than enough of all the protection and expertise of all the heroes, experts and profiteers who claim to be protecting us. We would all be better off if all of them would sit down, throw all their weapons and arms industries away, accept a greatly reduced bank account, and quietly fade into the sunset.

George Herb Fitzell2 days ago ,

Good piece well written & concise. The craziest aspect of stiring up the morass of danger these shallow hawks are crafting is the vast danger to their own heartland that these reckless actons could ignite.
Are they in possession of some secret weapon which would bar America from effects of the inevitable thermonuclear pushback????? The last reports I have seen don't show anything better than 1 in 3 intercepts of of ICMS in the best of setup test circumstances. 66% of the Russian answer would certainly end much of the good life we enjoy. The smouldering cities would be an unbearable albatross of shame for longer than decades, more like centuries. All those responsible would end up not much better than the worst of the victims still alive on the losing side. They would find no safe quarter with the entire world as the avengers!!!!!

Herb Fitzell George2 days ago ,

Thanks George. Your points are excellent. It's almost as if well-reasoned points don't matter anymore, and that's the most worrisome aspect of our modern political life in the U.S. Our current president was the leading birther and many millions more are at least as ignorant. Add to that the apocalyptic yearning for the end times by heretical Christians in the USA and we have political dynamic as insane as anything ISIS dreamed up. The Prince of Peace would climb down from His cross to turn Ted Cruz's congressional table over before Raytheon could count the profits of the cruise missiles Ted would use to carpet bomb Mideast civilians. But Ted - due to his selfless love of America - would certainly insist Jesus climb back up on His cross just before casting the final vote for congressional approval to unleash the bombs he would drop on Him. The Christian Taliban was a far greater threat than the one in Afghanistan. It wasn't clear to many when Jesus was whispering in W's ear, but it should be clear after the consequences of our wars.

Luchorpan Herb Fitzella day ago ,

You're too partisan. Plenty of Christians are against these stupid wars. The "Christian Zionists" are heretics. They believe things that simply are not Christian, ergo not really Christians.

It's just a new cult, as Wicca is a cult, as many crazed ideologues are cult-like, especially those seeking secular paradise by following secular prophets like Marx.

Herb Fitzell Luchorpana day ago ,

What's the basis for saying I'm too partisan? I did not say plenty of Christians are not against these wars. I realize the vast majority of the world's Christians do oppose U.S. wars. In fact, I am a Christian myself. But I do live in the USA and heretical Christian ideologues on the Right have been calling the shots. This has increasingly been the case ever since Falwell and Robertson supported the Guatemalan genocide in the 80s. Right-wing Christian heresy in the USA is a real genocidal threat.

Luchorpan Herb Fitzell20 hours ago ,

I appreciate that you see them as heretics also. Too many Americans, including "smart" Americans, are pulled along by media orgs, not thinking for themselves, and the Christian Zionists really help in providing a dedicated pressure group, directing sentiment. I pray I can help counter them; I'm quite motivated myself.

Dems also like the warring and meddling though. It's just a different group. GOP was fairly critical of Serbian War under Clinton. Then the US was nuked in 2000 with the election of Dubya.

Herb Fitzell Luchorpan14 hours ago ,

Well said. I wish you much success.

Luchorpan Georgea day ago ,

Greenland might survive.

O rly Herb Fitzell6 hours ago ,

"What we see in Syria is not a "civil war", but a war on civilians."

what a garbage article.

Dennis Boylon Herb Fitzellan hour ago ,

You are wrong. There was no proof of any chemical attacks. In fact Sy Hersh reported on that event. Your own link shows a so called "white helmet" in staged action. lol. That report has no credibility.

Dennis Boylonan hour ago ,

https://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n...

Herb is posting US propaganda.

Dennis Boylonan hour ago ,

http://www.moonofalabama.or...

[Sep 17, 2018] The Syria Deception: Al Qaeda Goes To Hollywood

Sep 17, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 , Sep 16, 2018 6:09:47 PM | link

The Grayzone Project , unfortunately edited by Max Blumenthal, has released a video: The Syria Deception: Al Qaeda Goes To Hollywood . I've yet to watch, but it's been viewed by a few people I respect like those at ElectronicIntifada; so, despite Blumenthal's affiliation, I posted the link.
George Lane , Sep 16, 2018 6:14:01 PM | link
@karlof1, I know Max Blumenthal is not liked at this website for understandable reasons, but his recent work particularly on Nicaragua which cut against the grain of corporate media narrative deserves to be lauded.

[Sep 16, 2018] While some countries may be trying to get off the sinking ship called "Assad must go", Israel is doing what Israel does best, flout international law and launch another attack on Syria

Sep 16, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Tom , Sep 16, 2018 2:02:48 AM | link

While some countries may be trying to get off the sinking ship called ""Assad must go", Israel is doing what Israel does best, flout international law and launch another attack on Syria. What makes this attack particularly dangerous is that it attacked Damascus International airport and environs. Currently the 63rd Damascus International Fair is taking place near the airport. A total disregard for civilians. A shot over the bow of those nations that wish to invest in Syria. Some Syrian civilians don't count for much, especially in the eyes of FUKUS. They just need to be liberated from the baby killer Assad to share in all the freedoms available in Idlib. Not to worry, Nikki Haley will rise to the occasion in defence of that other indispensable nation.

#31 The Germans called the Canadian Corp Stormtroopers. My grandfathers brother fought at Passchendaele and was gassed by the Germans. He suffered from that for the rest of his life until he died in 1972.

[Sep 16, 2018] A typical White helmet rescues always had a small diesel fire and usually some white smoke, a bunch of rescuers who ran into the building while the commenter gave a speech, and then rescuers ran the rescued infants past the camera while the narrator gave a 'moral' speech.

Sep 16, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Charles Wood , Sep 16, 2018 2:19:48 AM | link

The White Helmets as a brand had their website first registered by Ali Weiner of Purpose Inc (Brooklyn advertising agency) on 2014-08-11T19:50:31Z

I had noticed their activity shortly after that date but it wasn't labelled White Helmets as such. I recall a series of setpiece rescues with someone who looked like Hadi Alabdullah giving a running comment and speeches denouncing Assad.

The setpiece rescues always had a small diesel fire and usually some white smoke, a bunch of rescuers who ran into the building while the commenter gave a speech, and then rescuers ran the rescued infants past the camera while the narrator gave a 'moral' speech.

guidoamm , Sep 16, 2018 1:07:32 AM | link

Peter Au 1 @ 10

Regarding snuff videos, I always wondered whether or not this operation overlapped:

US Gov Spent $500M For Al Qaeda Propaganda Videos

[Sep 16, 2018] The Dutch have come forward with a report by Wilibrord Davids on the legality of participating in the Iraq War. The ruling was a devastating blow to the Dutch as it was illegal under International Law

Notable quotes:
"... The Dutch story is not so much about the White Helmets as it is about support for Al Qaeda linked groups . Two groups mentioned in Nieuwsuur ..."
"... The blinded political support for the US by top Dutch political leadership has been clear since the support for the Iraq bombardment and invasion by the US/UK military in 2003. ..."
"... The Dutch Christian (?) Democrats were led by PM Balkenende and FM Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Jaap was rewarded with the job as Secretary General of NATO and did such a wonderful job on expansion to the border with Russia. Looking back he is sorry - "The West should respect the red lines of Russia." ..."
"... The politicians adopted a policy that all future support on intervention would be reviewed by an International Law expert ..."
Sep 16, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Oui , Sep 16, 2018 3:12:10 AM | link

I'm from The Netherlands also

Thx b for your in depth analysis!

The Dutch story is not so much about the White Helmets as it is about support for Al Qaeda linked groups . Two groups mentioned in Nieuwsuur were Jabhat al-Shamiya and the Sultan Murad Brigade. The Dutch took a pick from a long list of Assad "opposition" fighters provided by the CIA.

The blinded political support for the US by top Dutch political leadership has been clear since the support for the Iraq bombardment and invasion by the US/UK military in 2003.

The Dutch Christian (?) Democrats were led by PM Balkenende and FM Jaap de Hoop Scheffer. Jaap was rewarded with the job as Secretary General of NATO and did such a wonderful job on expansion to the border with Russia. Looking back he is sorry - "The West should respect the red lines of Russia."

In latest twist of events, PM Mark "the Conservative Atlanticus" Rutte has declared all information about the Dutch support for terror groups in Syria a "state secret" not to be divulged by parliament and the media. Sounds very much like Birma's Aung San Suu Kyi who defends the arrest and conviction of two Reuters journalist on the British 1919 State Secrecy Act.

The Netherlands with its capitol The Hague has been the center for International Law ever since Carnegie's Peace Palace. The ICC has a prominent place in a new complex of buildings in The Hague and is under full attack by ally the US in name of John Bolton a great friend, no?

The Dutch have come forward with a report by Wilibrord Davids on the legality of participating in the Iraq War. The ruling was a devastating blow to the Dutch as it was illegal under International Law.

The politicians adopted a policy that all future support on intervention would be reviewed by an International Law expert. In this case that would have been André Nollkaemper – Dean and Professor of Public International Law at the Faculty of Law of the University of Amsterdam. Of course he was not consulted by PM Mark Rutte of MH17 fame.

[Sep 15, 2018] FUKUS Turkey are now al-qa ida s allies. (editorial)

Notable quotes:
"... FUKUS equals France, the UK and the US. It appears that the policy of this tri-partite re-birth of the Entente Cordiale has changed with regard to Syria since the middle of August. Before that change FUKUS seemed to have acknowledged and conceded the inevitability of an R+6 offensive that would re-capture all of Idlib Province in NW Syria. ..."
"... That seems changed. The province is now occupied and dominated by the jihadi fighters of hayat tahrir al-sham ..."
"... These jihadis are quite different from the ISIS (daesh) fighters of the Islamic State. The US, Syria, Iraq, France and the UK have successfully fought ISIS all over Syria and Iraq when FUKUS was not busy Accidental-Bombing (neologism) the Syrian Army. ..."
"... FUKUS and the Lord of the White House (LOTWH) have traditionally made a clear distinction between ISIS and the other jihadi groups like HTS. Over the years of the Syrian Civil War FUKUS has insisted, and still does, that HTS is somehow a "freedom fighter" group along with the rag-tag Free Syrian Army unicorns. ..."
"... jisr al-shughur ..."
"... My Fearless Forecast - In the end, the Russians and Syrians will say to hell with this and launch the offensive ..."
"... I suspect the Whitehouse has decided to "think big" and intends to put Russia in her place by destroying the attacking formations of the SAA and any Russian assets that attempt to intervene. ..."
"... To help the impeachment of such a guy is outside of the national interests of Russia. We can't now overstep the mark in Syria. Trump has to leave the line of fire as a fine fellow, but not as a fool and a loser. ..."
"... At least the US probably doesn't want the terrorists from Russia and China etc to be killed. Good reasons in their minds to try to stop any attack on Idlib. ..."
"... It clear that the US, UK and France have not yet given up on the partition of Syria at the bequest of Israel and Saudi Arabia. ..."
"... This mother of all poker games has to end. The stakes are high for all, but for Russia they are sky high. Accepting a permanent Jihadistan right next to its strategic assets in Syria would be an invitation to the Borg to turn Idlib into an endless sink for Russian resources. ..."
"... I did consider whether Russia may agree to Turkey's offer to jointly police the region. But again, the Borg would surely use every opportunity to foment unrest and force Russia to pour ever more peacekeeping troops in. Besides, any territory still under rebel control is an excuse for the shadow Syrian government to retain legitimacy, so a future 'spontaneous' Arab spring can bring them to power. That can't be permitted. ..."
"... As for the Sultan, he deserves everything he gets. Next time he gets wind of an imminent coup in Ankara, Putin will doubtless have something more urgent to do than call up his buddy there. Erdogan talks of Turkey being "constrained to Anatolia" and blames Ataturk for 'betrayal' of the National Pact. Well we can all wish events 100 years ago went differently, but guess what, what's why they call it history. I think this reality is about to smack him in the face big time. ..."
"... Does Trump have any core beliefs? Or will he tack without care to the wind of his new "friends?" It depends on that. ..."
"... He went on to say that "the fact that they are just people who have settled in Idlib, like in a fortress, and want a truce – it's not true. From there they actively carry out military operations, using the support they somehow receive from abroad. ..."
"... If the false flag happens anyway then f*ck FUKUS and go all in. Until then maintain extreme pressure on the perimeter. Jihadist are unable to rule and the province will collapse on its own in due time. Time is on the side of R+6. ..."
turcopolier.typepad.com

FUKUS equals France, the UK and the US. It appears that the policy of this tri-partite re-birth of the Entente Cordiale has changed with regard to Syria since the middle of August. Before that change FUKUS seemed to have acknowledged and conceded the inevitability of an R+6 offensive that would re-capture all of Idlib Province in NW Syria.

That seems changed. The province is now occupied and dominated by the jihadi fighters of hayat tahrir al-sham (HTS). This is the cover name of al-qa'ida in Syria. You may probably remember them as the folks who attacked the US on 9/11. If you do, that would be a correct memory.

These jihadis are quite different from the ISIS (daesh) fighters of the Islamic State. The US, Syria, Iraq, France and the UK have successfully fought ISIS all over Syria and Iraq when FUKUS was not busy Accidental-Bombing (neologism) the Syrian Army.

FUKUS and the Lord of the White House (LOTWH) have traditionally made a clear distinction between ISIS and the other jihadi groups like HTS. Over the years of the Syrian Civil War FUKUS has insisted, and still does, that HTS is somehow a "freedom fighter" group along with the rag-tag Free Syrian Army unicorns.

That was certainly the view of the late Saint John of Arizona. In the aftermath of his passing and the subsequent media hysteria, the LOTWH seems to have accepted the wisdom of St. John in perceiving the "true" nature of HTS. In other words the US seems now to be fully "on board" as the protector of HTS's redoubt in Idlib Province.

The French, still deep in the embrace of Macronisme and the Brits with their desire to continue to be "players" are also "on board" In pursuit of these newly adopted neocon policy ambitions for al-qa'ida in Syria, Ambassadors Jeffrey and Haley have threatened Syria, Iran and Russia with hellfire and damnation if they dare to try to Make Syria Whole Again (MSWA - need a vowel in there somehow) by launching the offensive so fully prepared at this date. Meanwhile the Sultan Tayyip and his crew at the summit of Turkworld are doing their best to outplay everyone in an effort to effectively annex as much of NW Syria as possible.

To that end Tayyip has warned the Syrians against trying to re-capture these lands of the Fertile Crescent, hoping perhaps to see Turkish taught there as the mandatory medium of communication in the manner of German in Alsace-Lorraine from 1871-1918.

Turkey is reinforcing its "Observation Posts" all around the perimeter of Idlib Province whilst the White Helmets Film Troupe (WHFT) have a number of possible new Oscar winner "documentaries" in production at their FUKUS sponsored jisr al-shughur facility.

My Fearless Forecast - In the end, the Russians and Syrians will say to hell with this and launch the offensive. pl

Posted at 12:05 PM in As The Borg Turns , France , government , Iran , Israel , Middle East , Russia , Syria , Turkey | Permalink | 42 Comments


TTG , a day ago

I also have no doubt the R+6 will launch the Idlib offensive. The Tiger Force began carrying out limited offensive operations along the Hama-Idlib axis, clearing out some jihadi forward entrenchments. SouthFront reports the elimination of a senior jihadi commander by SAA artillery strikes.

The artillery was called in by a deep reconnaissance patrol. SouthFront called this a special operation. Sounds more like standard infantry operations to me. We'll see a lot more of this while the R+6 continues talks with the Turks.

Michael -> TTG , a day ago
I fully agree with you and the editorial of our guest. Surely The Sultan was to be reluctant to give back Idilib and even more Afrin, the problem of his balancing acts is that he can not conceive surviving by aligning again with the USA and/or the jihadists.

And might not survive at all if he does not pretend to defend them. I will let President Putin explain to him that he can not burn all bridges and all ships, for that effect a meeting is scheduled in Sotchi.

Foot note: It seems there was some PR operation by the HTS (MofA today)

Michael -> Pat Lang , a day ago
I am aware of that Sir,

I just thought it was an elegant way of showing appreciation for your nice evaluation of this situation developments.

Indeed the stage is set, the situation can drag a little more, as a preliminary Erdogan must have some face saving, the SAA will slowly start the crescendo and hopefully the USA and the Russian will avoid bringing the whole house down.

But I confess being an optimist.

Walrus , 19 hours ago
I am concerned by Two thoughts.

(1) I suspect the Whitehouse has decided to "think big" and intends to put Russia in her place by destroying the attacking formations of the SAA and any Russian assets that attempt to intervene. To NOT do so opens the door to the possibility that Russia "wins " out of an engagement in Idlib and the. one thing Trump hates is being seen as a loser. If we engage, we will "go big".

(2) I am extremely worried about the naval dimension. Submarines are presently active on both sides and are naturally regarded as "prey" by surface ships and vice versa "even in peacetime " (my emphasis) there is therefore a non zero probability of a fatal incident right effing now.

Neither Putin nor Trump can afford to back away if an engagement starts

FB -> Walrus , 7 hours ago
I agree with this in principle...a similar take is developed here in quite some detail on the Saker blog, translated from the Russian...
'Russia has a difficult task in Idlib now. It consists not of repelling an American attack, but of not repelling it too strongly. Trump opts for an attack not because he wants to win against the Russians in Syria, but because he wants to win against the globalists back home in America, and to do this on the eve of congressional elections. I.e., the reasons for America's attack against Syria are purely internal.

If Russia hits Trump in Syria too strongly, it risks drowning him instead of somehow supporting his menacing image and helping him to win [in elections – ed]. Simply because Trump is favorable to Russia – he breaks too well everything that the American power of the last few decades has been based on.

To help the impeachment of such a guy is outside of the national interests of Russia. We can't now overstep the mark in Syria. Trump has to leave the line of fire as a fine fellow, but not as a fool and a loser.

John Waddell , 20 hours ago
As they don't believe that the Russians and Syrians will kill them all. Turkey and the Europeans really don't want their terrorists fleeing over the border escaping an onslaught and heading home.

At least the US probably doesn't want the terrorists from Russia and China etc to be killed. Good reasons in their minds to try to stop any attack on Idlib.

VietnamVet , a day ago
Colonel,

It clear that the US, UK and France have not yet given up on the partition of Syria at the bequest of Israel and Saudi Arabia. This all may be the art of the bluff by the Supremo Ugly American; but, keeping an unwinnable war going for 17 years is crazy. It worked once before. I think NATO cannot give up on the strategic strategy of using Jihadists to take down the Kremlin.

Al Qaeda is concentrated in Idlib Province. They are a real threat to the Russian Federation.

Doubtful but perhaps, Russia will be content to take small bites and bits of the province in a policy of containment and the Sultan keeps a Turkish token?

But even with this accommodation, the risks of a shooting war between nuclear powers remains extreme. If they weren't insane, the power elite would recognize that the use of proxy forces against Russia, Iran and China is against the best interests of American citizens.

Barbara Ann , a day ago
This mother of all poker games has to end. The stakes are high for all, but for Russia they are sky high. Accepting a permanent Jihadistan right next to its strategic assets in Syria would be an invitation to the Borg to turn Idlib into an endless sink for Russian resources.

I did consider whether Russia may agree to Turkey's offer to jointly police the region. But again, the Borg would surely use every opportunity to foment unrest and force Russia to pour ever more peacekeeping troops in. Besides, any territory still under rebel control is an excuse for the shadow Syrian government to retain legitimacy, so a future 'spontaneous' Arab spring can bring them to power. That can't be permitted.

As for the Sultan, he deserves everything he gets. Next time he gets wind of an imminent coup in Ankara, Putin will doubtless have something more urgent to do than call up his buddy there. Erdogan talks of Turkey being "constrained to Anatolia" and blames Ataturk for 'betrayal' of the National Pact. Well we can all wish events 100 years ago went differently, but guess what, what's why they call it history. I think this reality is about to smack him in the face big time.

If Russia caves in here the Borg will just push it to the limit elsewhere (Ukraine?) and assume she will do likewise. No, it is time to call it & find out who is bluffing. FUKUS - well that is the most apt acronym of all - we sure asked for it. I concur Colonel and pray that what Tidewater said here recently is right; that a short, sharp conventional war is what results.

Araminta Smade , a day ago
My Fearless Forecast - In the end, the Russians and Syrians will say to hell with this and launch the offensive. Pl

Though it's not directly linked I think that Putins putting forward of his 2 GRU guys is a FU signal to the Brits in particular and the West in general. He's had enough of backing off. We are coming to one of those moments in history where the talking stops and the fighting begins.

We will be at war with Russia within six months!

FB -> Araminta Smade , a day ago
Yeah those two 'tourists' do look the part don't they...I would say they are probably GRU or something similar...but nobody 'poisoned' the Skripals...that's total kabuki theater...another Potemkin village production from the reality masters...

Something is afoot here though...perhaps these two were lured to Salisbury as part of a frame up plot, perhaps by Skripal himself...or perhaps the Brits caught wind of their plans to visit [on some standard spying mission, certainly not assassination] and put in motion the elaborate hoax...

But for professional assasins to come direct from Moscow and back...and use gas of all things...guys like this can snuff you out with a paper bag and not leave a trace...

Mark Logan -> Araminta Smade , a day ago
War with Russia?

My fearless forecast is the neocon FUKUSes have allowed themselves to be fooled by the LOTWH's habit of telling whoever happens to be in front of him whatever it is the LOTWH thinks they wish to hear.

If shove should come to push...the LOTWH will at most bomb another empty airfield and declare victory.

Michael , 2 hours ago
Can we discern the SAA chipping at the Idlib province by small installments ? completing its isolation except from turkey ?
corroding slowly defense and logistic infrastructures in Idlib while keeping the Russian air show on the remnants of ISIS ?
When the unseen 90 % of the iceberg melt the whole goes belly-up, formidable and spectacular "dentelle" of ice.

From an other perspective: communication, the attention of the public is not used to focus for a too long time on the same topic. Smoking Lavrov talk now of containment, our Turkish partner, more palavers.
One must remember the Chinese 15 billions fiancial aid to Turquey. Promised or delivered ? more to come ?

Delays surely up to the mid-terms, no , not related.
First votes results are difficult to guess, except of course if Russians are really the master of interfering and getting theirs (many) favorites elected, but seriously who can say what the winner Party, Presidential side or opposition will do ?

aleksandar , 2 hours ago
1- There is NO NATO involvement in Syria. And a lot of Nato members will like to see these djihadists vaporized ( Poland, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and so )
2- I tend to agree will Bill Herschel, 53 days to wait, Idlib is surrounded,
R+6 have plenty of time to cure this abscess.
This battle has already begun, skirmishes every days to test
djihadist lines of defence and attrition (air power.+ Arty.) This
phase can go on days and days,
3 - The question about what turkey will do is nonsense.
The only question is what turkey can do militarily.
It's clear that they have no enough manpower to stop SAA.
Take also a look at a syrian map, East , along M5, distance between Turkish observation posts is about 15 miles ( 25 km ).
The average attack front for a regiment is 0.7 miles with 3 coys front and 1 rear.
SAA can engage a whole division there.
That why I think that M5 is the main objective and East front the only where SAA can be engaged in full strenght and speed.
Eugene Owens , 3 hours ago
An attack by ground forces will probably not start until sometime after the Erdogan/Putin meeting at Sochi on this coming Monday.

And as was claimed by an unnamed Damascus source in Al-Masdar News yesterday, the attack will have limited objectives: Al-Ghaab Plain (SW Idlib), Jisr Al-Shughour (SW Idlib), and Abu Dhuhour area (SE Idlib). Although there are still SAA/Russian discussions regarding a thrust towards Saraqib.

If the AMN article is true, Idlib is going to be nibbled one bite at a time. After Jisr Al-Shughour and Abu Dhuhour areas are stabilized there will be another bite. Perhaps the next offensive will be for Maarat al-Nu'man or perhaps to clear the area west of Aleppo City, or wherever. Eventually retaking all of the M5 highway, and after that all of Idlib (next year?). Makes sense to me.

But there is also a danger of an alleged Turkish threat to Tal Rifa'at north of Aleppo. Does that threat come from Ankara? Or does it come from a low level TSK commander on the scene?

GreenZoneCafe , 11 hours ago
Does Trump have any core beliefs? Or will he tack without care to the wind of his new "friends?" It depends on that. View Hide
Bill Herschel , 18 hours ago
Words from a man deserving of respect... who should stop smoking:

"BEIRUT, LEBANON (8:30 P.M.) – Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov stated that reports of the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) ramping up for an offensive in Idlib with the support of Russian troops is an "unscrupulous representation of facts." He made the statement during a plenary meeting alongside top German and Russian officials in Berlin on Friday.

"What is being passed for an offensive by the Syrian Arab Army with the support of Russian troops is an unscrupulous representation of the facts," Lavrov said.

According to the Russian foreign minister, the Syrian and Russian troops "only react to the forays coming from the Idlib area."

He went on to say that "the fact that they are just people who have settled in Idlib, like in a fortress, and want a truce – it's not true. From there they actively carry out military operations, using the support they somehow receive from abroad."

53 days.

Harlan Easley , 21 hours ago
Russia and the SAA need to hold off. Too many variables that could go disastrously wrong and fast. I for one second do not doubt the FUKUS intention of staging a false flag. After this Trump will order an attack that must dwarf the other 2 because of all the reasons we know.

Also you must take Turkey's position into account. So far Iran, Russia, and Turkey seem to be negotiating in good faith. Erdogan's position must be taken into account. He still has a large army nearby not to mention the straights of Bosporus. The heat of this festering wound must be slowly relieved. The 3 nations Iran, Turkey, and Russia are the only ones who can resolve this in my opinion. Erdogan must be allowed to save face.

If the false flag happens anyway then f*ck FUKUS and go all in. Until then maintain extreme pressure on the perimeter. Jihadist are unable to rule and the province will collapse on its own in due time. Time is on the side of R+6.

Barbara Ann -> Harlan Easley , 17 hours ago
Disagree. The enemy will always find a casus belli if he wants to fight, backing down just leads him to believe you are weak. The time has come for Russia to show the exact opposite. If they were not willing to go all the way they had no business joining the Syrian game.

Putin has already blinked, further delay will allow Turkey to consolidate its position diplomatically and militarily. Astana gave Erdogan his Golden Bridge and after failing to do anything (at best) about AQ in Idlib for a year, he is now bringing tanks and heavy artillery into Syria.

Let FUKUS go all in and let's see what their voters think when they see their countries at war with a first rate military power.

Bill Herschel , a day ago
LOTWH as well as his party see catastrophe looming on November 6, 53 days from now. And they have very few arrows in their quiver to prevent it. Riding St. John of Arizona's shroud into war in Syria is probably the only way to help their cause here in the U.S. After all, Schumer, Biden, Obama, and probably even Sanders would be on board.

Can Russia wait 53 days before attacking? Well, it depends on what you mean by attacking. They're already attacking. They have been at war in Syria since September 30th (and undoubtedly before) 2015. They certainly can "appear to wait" at the very least.

Does Russia give up a military advantage by waiting. Only if NATO will immediately come to Turkey's aid when Russia starts annihilating their troops. That of course is what Erdogan is counting on. He wouldn't be flexing his muscles if he thought he was facing Russia alone.

But perhaps a related question is, "Has Russia given up a military advantage by not invading Ukraine? By instead permitting a smoldering war to go on and on?" I say they have not.

Russia/SAA will wait at least 53 days.

Barbara Ann -> Bill Herschel , 17 hours ago
Idlib will be well on its way to being part of the Turkish Republic of Northern Syria in 53 days unless they act now.
jnewman , a day ago
So FUKUS = allies-Qaida's?
Pat Lang Mod -> jnewman , a day ago
allies + HTS
alaric , a day ago
I'm quite confident that Erdogan is trying to annex Idlib.

That said, Erdogan cannot simply acquiesce to the Iranian/Russian plan, thus appearing like their agent either. There are by some estimates nearly 50K jihadists in Idlib. Where will they go when the Russian's and Syrians start attacking in earnest? Some will die fighting but many will try to escape to Turkey. Openly cooperating with Russia and Iran is not going benefit US, Turkish relations either. Erdogan survived one coup attempt but that doesn't exclude another attempt or severe economic warfare on Turkey.

There may be a few skirmishes with between Turkish troops and Syrian aligned groups but i suspect Erdogan will leave in the end with only limited damages because Erdogan really has no allies now and Turkey is in a bit of economic and other trouble. I'm sure he'll bring some of the Turkish aligned troops that he can control with him or at least he'll set them loose on the Kurds somewhere in Syria but he will gradually surrender Idlib, privately at least.

Remember the US expulsion is the main issue after Idlib is liberated. The borg will try to keep Idlib occupied as long as possible.

Kooshy -> alaric , a day ago
IMO Turkey is in no position to piss off the Russian and Iranians, in a totally breaking way. Turkey gets 70% of her gas from Russian and Iranians as well as some of her oil.
In no way she can replace that with LNG from Qatar or Algiers. In many odd ways, Turkey is a aliened F*ed country. European and American put pressure on her with devaluing her currency and finances. Russian and Iranians can stop her growth by limiting her energy draw. It's a tough zigzag environment to survive in a changing world order. Iran has many centuries of experiencing how to balance powers in her favor. Turks and Arabs don't, that's why Iranians were able to survived the European colonialism as well as this last 40 years, and Turks and Arabs couldn't.

[Sep 15, 2018] The Dike Breaks - Netherland Ends Support For White Helmets Terrorist Propaganda

Notable quotes:
"... Volkskrant daily ..."
"... 21stCenturyWire ..."
"... 'white helmets' itself is a product of 'Purpose' a Brooklyn based organisation with offices in London and Rio de Janeiro. Their 'Team' shows what they are - an upmarket media communications company. The Purpose Team ..."
"... White helmets, by the sound of it, sounds like something cooked up in London. Just another in a very long line. A very well-connected Arab friend says if you want something cooked up you go to London not Washington. ..."
"... While the concept of false flags is becoming almost mainstream I have been researching "projects that were built to fail." ..."
"... When you write government I assume US empire. The support by them for terrorists is just another facet, along with the military, NSA, CIA, FBI, etc. of paying as many and varied as needed to control or eliminate the rest of us. ..."
Sep 15, 2018 | >www.moonofalabama.org

The Netherland just announced that it is ending its support for al-Qaeda's propaganda gang, the "White Helmets". It also ends its support for the so called Free Syrian Police. Last week the Netherlands shut down its "non lethal" support for the Free Syrian Army after Dutch news organizations found that members of these groups were accused of terrorism by their General Prosecutor.

According to the Volkskrant daily (in Dutch), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ended the support for the White Helmets after its Directorate for International Research and Policy Evaluation issued a critical report about them. For the White Helmets, which had received €12.5 million from the Dutch government, it lists the following issues:

The seemingly intentional lack of transparency practically guarantees that much of the more than $150 million the White Helmets received from various governments will have flown into the private pockets of the people who organize the scam.

This blog published several pieces about the White Helmets, mostly pointing out their obviously faked media productions:

For background information on the White Helmets the earlier pieces by Vanessa Beeley's at 21stCenturyWire ´are still the best: Syria's White Helmets: War by Way of Deception – Part I and Part II – Syria's White Helmets: 'Moderate Executioners' .

Vanessa Beeley, Eva Barlett (vid) and others have tried for years to point out the nefarious scheme behind the propaganda scam "White Helmets". Roger Waters rightly calls them (vid) a "fake propaganda construct for terrorists". But 'western' media loved the dramatic fake photos and videos the White Helmets produced, partly because they could put them into print and on screen free of any charge. Whoever criticized them and questioned their narratives was publicly smeared and derided .

The Volkkrant notes:

It is the first time that a Western government states that there are problems with the project.

It will not be the last time. More people will take note, look into the issue and pressure their governments to end their support. As the Dutch know well, once the dikes break it is impossible to stop the flood. The relentless work of a few engaged writers put pressure onto the dike and finally broke it. The White Helmet scam will soon come under a flood of public scrutiny and will be swept away into some dark corner of history.

Just a month ago Germany's Foreign Minister Maas, also known as a "well styled NATO call boy", met the White Helmets front man Raed al-Saleh, who was denied entry into the U.S. , and promised him more money. Maas also lauded the recent 'evacuation of White Helmets' from the Quneitra and Daraa area to Israel which was just another scam. Israel used the White Helmet cover to evacuated a number of terrorists commanders it had paid and equipped for years in its war on Syria.

Maas and his NATO colleagues in other countries will soon be asked about the Dutch example. Can they refute the analysis the Foreign Ministry of their NATO ally Netherland made? Can Maas explain what happened with the €17 million Germany gave to them? In who's pocket did they end up?


bjd , Sep 15, 2018 3:55:53 PM | link
RT just reported that now chlorine has been delivered to the militants in Syria. One wonders if this little crack in the solid front might now throw a monkey wrench in their cinematographic projects.
SL , Sep 15, 2018 3:56:48 PM | link
I'm from Holland and actually very surprised: never expected Holland to stop funding "Syrian projects" just like that...Still too late and much harm is done already, but nevertheless happy to hear this. Not 100% sure though if Holland stopped all funding of FSA groups
Petri Krohn , Sep 15, 2018 4:32:29 PM | link
HOW WE EXPOSED THE WHITE HELMETS

My friend Vanessa Beeley has been most effective in promoting the fact that the White Helmets are closely linked to al-Qaeda terrorists, but I too must claim some of the credit for exposing the White Helmets. The fact that still needs more exposure is that the White Helmets actually kill children for their fake propaganda videos.

This is what I wrote on the issue two years ago, quoting from the original discussion on ACLOS in March 2015:

Al-Qaeda's propaganda wing the #WhiteHelmets did not win this year's Nobel Peace Prize, despite the massive propaganda campaign by Western sponsors of terror. The prize would have been vital if the United States were to attack Syria in support of their proxy terrorists. I am not at all sure the Norwegian Nobel Committee can act independently. They will serve the Empire's interests when pushed to. Crucial to the outcome may have been the effort to expose the White Helmets and their war propaganda. I will link bellow to some of the people who have been most vocal in bringing the truth out.

This is the discussion that first brought the White Helmets to my attention. ACLOS was working on solving the Sarmeen gas attack hoax of March 2015. I believe the White Helmets are involved in actually murdering people to produce their propaganda for war. The photo above may show one of their victims.

Al-Nusra Font (Jabhat al-Nusra) is the official franchise of al-Qaeda in Syria and works closely with the White Helmets.

Petri Krohn - 27 March 2015 (03:21 UTC)
- The same original content from the first attack has been distributed on YouTube with two different logos. One logo is the al-Nusra logo that is also seen in these three videos distributed by Coordinating Srmin. The other logo is blue and yellow and is also seen on the ambulance and the back of the medic. This means that the Coordinating Committee, al-Nusra, and the ambulance team and their propagandists are all tied closely together. This calls into question the neutrality of the reporting and the videos.

Charles Wood - 27 March 2015 (03:31 UTC)
- I've seen a group calling themselves "White Helmets" who are active on twitter and have some link to the alleged gas attack videos. I think they are Civil Defence? Or at least say they are. Links to Jabhat al-Nusra tends to say they aren't neutral.

Petri Krohn - 2 April 2015 (02:23 UTC)
- The White Helmets claim to be a civil defense force specializing in digging up victims from bombed out buildings. They may in fact be a US State Department funded infowar operation for intervention and a war of aggression in the name of a "No-Fly Zone" to protect civilians.

Caustic Logic (Adam Larson) - 2 April 2015 (12:58 UTC)
- Here's their site: https://www.whitehelmets.org/ Good news, they're "unarmed and neutral." Their issue is barrel bombs, often filled with chlorine, and they don't mention the weird type of chlorine with unusual symptoms... and how there's a neutral need for a "no fly zone." Linked to by an activist video compilation I left a helpful comment at (if it remains)

Oh, and it specifies "the Syrian Civil Defence - known as the White Helmets." They're the ones with the blue and yellow logos, and I presume the black-and-yellow blankets. Maybe they're like a new non-neutral replacement for the Syrian Arab Red Crescent, who continue cooperating with the government and won't even need to try operating in areas like this. I wonder if there are any issue with the SARC that would lead to such a replacement plan?

Charles Wood - 2 April 2015 (23:47 UTC)
- Their website looks like it came out of some smart New York or London Advertising Agency. In fact it did. It's an obvious branding exercise using the iconic white helmet as the easy to remember visual key.

I've done some basic snooping and it's associated with The Syria Campaign. I guess the idea is to move up Google rank by cross-linking the sites.

'white helmets' itself is a product of 'Purpose' a Brooklyn based organisation with offices in London and Rio de Janeiro. Their 'Team' shows what they are - an upmarket media communications company. The Purpose Team

Certainly no Syrians were involved in creating the White Helmets!

Source: http://acloserlookonsyria.shoutwiki.com/wiki/Talk:White_Helmets

b , Sep 15, 2018 4:40:57 PM | link
@Petri - didn't know you were with the first to notice them. Well done!
stan van houcke , Sep 15, 2018 4:52:45 PM | link
I quote: 'It is encouraging to read that Netherland is showing some moral backbone against the blatant propaganda of failing empire.' as a senior Dutch journalist I have to temper your enthousiasm. the dutch mainstream-media knew about this since at least 2013, but preferred to keep silent about this. the msm in the netherlands are just as corrupt as in the USA and the UK, as I have been pointing out on my weblog for many years now.
Peter AU 1 , Sep 15, 2018 5:00:33 PM | link
Charles Lister at one point list consultant to a marketing and product management company in Doha. I forget the name now but looked them up at the time. Had very professional looking website and specialized in that sort of work according to their blurbs. Run onto a few others in that part of the world as well. Both ISIS and white helmets have been marketed with the help of snuff movies.
ben , Sep 15, 2018 5:26:16 PM | link
Love to see this story here in the U$A, but alas, probably never happen..
Peter AU 1 , Sep 15, 2018 5:33:41 PM | link
The Shaikh Group based in Dubai rather than Doha is the company Lister was involved with. Their marketing website here http://theshaikhgroup.ae

And anther Shaikh Group website here - this time saying they are based in Cyprus. https://shaikhgroup.org/about_the_shaikh_group/
"The Shaikh Group (TSG) is a political consultancy focused on the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. Our mission is to facilitate dialogue with the peoples of the region and between states in the region, as well as with key international actors. TSG aims to advance practical initiatives that promote peace, tolerance, mutual security, and shared economic prosperity."

james , Sep 15, 2018 5:38:14 PM | link
thanks b.. great coverage on a positive development and kudos to @6 petri as well.. thanks for continuing to shine a light on this..
all the comments are very helpful and informative. thank you..
Mike Maloney , Sep 15, 2018 6:04:56 PM | link
I first noted a whiff of bullshit on May 7, 2015. You don't have to be a super-sleuth to detect the smell of excrement. You just need to read the newspaper with a skeptical eye:
In " Syria Is Using Chemical Weapons Again, Rescue Workers Say " Anne Barnard and Somini Sengupta earn their pay as propagandists for the USG by filing another fallacious story about Syria's use of chemical weapons; fallacious because it is sourced to a "civilian defense" NGO called White Helmets . An inspection of the group's web site -- Barrel Bombs! -- linked to in the Barnard-Sengupta article, leaves one with the distinct impression that it is a CIA front. The allegations of White Helmets are then amplified by USG officials. This is the old familiar propaganda pattern. You have an "Astro-Turf" organization, an ersatz citizen group of some sort that has been mocked up by a foreign intelligence agency, make a specious charge, and then that charge is taken up by the United States in the United Nations Security Council
bjd , Sep 15, 2018 6:30:54 PM | link
@iano (15)
They didn't realize that them going public with that last one had an implied admittance that they themselves hack into Russian systems (for what it's worth of course -- I personally don't believe one iota of that story).
karlof1 , Sep 15, 2018 6:54:07 PM | link
Will the dike breaking cause Germany not to send troops to Syria ? Will we read about the crime the Zionist Abomination tried to commit by attacking Syria's International Fair ?

I'd be remiss not to thank Petri Krohn for his efforts! We just need several million more dedicated souls like his so we can overthrow BigLie Media, which is a Hydra infecting most every nation.

When looked at uncompromisingly, the support by governments for terrorists--which existed prior to and has greatly escalated since the end of WW2--assaults every person on the planet--not just the people under the terrorist's guns . Instead of promoting wellbeing, violence and war is promoted and praised! And BigLie Media works overtime to manufacture consent for policies antithetical to the public good.

Lochearn , Sep 15, 2018 7:02:29 PM | link
White helmets, by the sound of it, sounds like something cooked up in London. Just another in a very long line. A very well-connected Arab friend says if you want something cooked up you go to London not Washington.

While the concept of false flags is becoming almost mainstream I have been researching "projects that were built to fail." So far I have found Gallipoli in 1915 and the Bay of Pigs and possibly the choice of Haig as top man in WW1 – the Brits wanted as inefficient a general as possible so the war could continue.

My attention got distracted by a very brilliant Australian general who arrived in Gallipoli and then went on to the Western Front. John Monash had 3 problems: he was an Aussie so a "native," his parents were German and they were Jewish. Monash created the blueprint of the "blitzkrieg." In the Battle of Hamel in July 1918 he used tanks to shield troops, he used aircraft to spot artillery and drop fresh munitions and hot food onto the battlefield and a whole host of other innovations. A talented musician he envisioned his plan as an orchestral piece. The battle was won in 93 minutes. What is interesting is that the two most prominent Aussie journalists, C. Bean and Keith Murdoch (father of the demonic Rupert) were antisemitic and lobbied the Australian PM of the time to get rid of Monash, calling him a "pushy Jew." On the contrary, Monash was just a brilliant man who cared very much for his troops.

Jim MacGregor and Gerry Doherty are doing amazing work on the origins and the conduct of WWI.

psychohistorian , Sep 15, 2018 7:07:40 PM | link
@ karlof1 who wrote: "When looked at uncompromisingly, the support by governments for terrorists--which existed prior to and has greatly escalated since the end of WW2--assaults every person on the planet--not just the people under the terrorist's guns."

When you write government I assume US empire. The support by them for terrorists is just another facet, along with the military, NSA, CIA, FBI, etc. of paying as many and varied as needed to control or eliminate the rest of us.

Will the number ever get to paying 1/2 of the population in the old adage reflecting the hubris of this social structure under the God of Mammon?

Lochearn , Sep 15, 2018 7:22:05 PM | link
@ 19

When you write government I assume US empire

It has never has been the US empire. It has been the British/Jewish bankers/US empire.

karlof1 , Sep 15, 2018 7:28:40 PM | link
Lochern @18--

Interesting premise, "built to fail." Perhaps the assumptions those projects were based on were grossly incorrect causing them to fail. Monash performed the #1 rule of the general line officer: do the utmost to protect your troops and provide them with the tools to achieve victory--such was not the performance of most WW1 general line officers on either side.

Lochearn , Sep 15, 2018 7:38:26 PM | link
@21 google Gallipoli: The Untold Story – 'The first casualty of war is truth.'
psychohistorian , Sep 15, 2018 7:51:52 PM | link
@ Lochearn who is correcting my genealogical representation of empire

Yes, you are more correct than I. That said, does it go back even further to the founding of monotheistic religions? We are referring to social control by an elite in my mind more than the Jewish bankers part of your genealogy. I admit to the bankers part but see that bankers group as the encourage/control entity for the other monotheistic religions.

Has that system dynamic changed/evolved seriously since the Roman era? We have usury. We have inheritance. We have banking. The concept of private property evolved along with the mythical moral fig leaf of rule-of-law. We call it the Western form of "civilization".

Anyway, you are right and I lose track of how to communicate on what level.

karlof1 , Sep 15, 2018 8:08:57 PM | link
Lochern @22--

I know all about Gallipoli and went to the battlefield. IMO, Churchill's premises about Turkish military ability were all wrong--grossly so as it was proven. Everything went wrong on top of that. As was the case on every WW1 battlefield, soldiers were wasted without any thought by the general line officers. The Aussies I shared the excursion to the battlefield with were very boisterous the night before, but very silent and reverent the next morning as we walked the ground where so many of their brethren were slaughtered without thought.

I recently watched a two-part video on the 75th anniversary of the Kursk victory followed by one about the battles for Crimea. 80% casualties was the norm for both sides! At times I find it difficult to reconcile my childhood play with little green plastic soldiers and the reality of war I learned later. I know I'm not alone. There was a massive effort by European and American publics during the 1920s & '30s to outlaw war, and they came very close to succeeding. Some say they did but were betrayed by their governments and associated "Liberty Leagues." What's important is that it was once done, so it can and must be done again .

Sorry for the harangue. I'm just pissed that Obama the Criminal is being given an "ethics in government" award by the University of Illinois when he ought to be in prison along with so many other members of governments past and present.

karlof1 , Sep 15, 2018 8:42:45 PM | link
OT!! Was going through my Twitter line-up and came upon one by Chinahand that provides a link to a trove of Soviet-era science texts that are now translated and freely available online!
Mischi , Sep 15, 2018 8:52:51 PM | link
bevin, I have two comments about your comment. Firstly, did you know that the average height of Americans is decreasing? Perhaps it's due to immigration. They used to rank 3rd tallest in the world in 1914 but now rank 37th. Also, I don't think the Scots were as powerful as you think they were. I only just found out today that slavery for Scottish colliers existed until a hundred years ago. I find it hard to believe that Scots would even be accepted into British high society with such prevailing attitudes.

http://www.scottishmining.co.uk/429.html

Mischi , Sep 15, 2018 8:54:16 PM | link
sorry, I didn't finish my thought about the decreasing height of American males. I was going to say that it may be due to immigration, but I think it's another symptom of rampant capitalism.
Alaric , Sep 15, 2018 9:14:29 PM | link
The Dutch have taken two shots against the official Anglo Zionist narrative on Syria within a week. Interesting.

I wonder if elements of the empire are now trying to stop the perverse leadership of FUKUS and their Israeli/neocon bosses so as to avoid a conflict with Russia and to let the Syrians end the jihadists in Idlib. Europe cannot have an AlQaida and other jihadist run Syria anymore than Russsia can. The jihadists will use idlib to plan ops against Europe. Europe would also suffer most from an armed a conflict with Russia.

Discrediting the white hatted phonies and the other jihadists in Syria certainly helps Assad, Russia and Iran.

jrkrideau , Sep 15, 2018 9:15:24 PM | link
@ 35 Mischi

I think it's another symptom of rampant capitalism.

I think you have both. Rampant poverty and malnutrition (capitalism) plus more immigrants from Northern Hispanic countries and parts of Asia where mean stature is a bit less than the existing population (immigration)

Good luck on teasing out which is which.

karlof1 , Sep 15, 2018 9:40:46 PM | link
Terrorists relocating to UK . People demand to know where and why!
Pft , Sep 15, 2018 9:46:43 PM | link
Mischi@34

Its worse than just height decreasing. IQ, testosterone levels, life expectancy, fertility rates all declining

Capitalism is a tool of the followers of Jacob Frank, Bakunin and Malthus

Malthus believed in promoting premature death: disease, starvation, war, resulting in what is called a Malthusian catastrophe, which would return population to a lower, more "sustainable," level. Among the policies promoted by Malthus were:

"Instead of recommending cleanliness to the poor, we should encourage contrary habits. In our towns we should make the streets narrower, crowd more people into the houses, and court the return of the plague. In the country, we should build our villages near stagnant pools, and particularly encourage settlement in all marshy and unwholesome situations. But above all, we should reprobate speci c remedies for ravaging diseases; and those benevolent, but much mistaken men, who have thought they were doing a service to mankind by projecting schemes for the total extirpation of particular disorders."

Bakunin believed violence was necessary to purge the world of the old order to create the new. Every state thus became the enemy, and the enemy was attacked using terrorism and assassination. In his own words, Bakunin sought, "the unchaining of what is today called the evil passions and the destruction of what is called public order," and made the declaration: "Let us put our trust in the eternal spirit which destroys and annihilates only because it is the unsearchable and eternally creative source of all life -- the passion for destruction is also a creative passion".

And Frank taught the "holiness of sin" . The more radical Frankists sought nihilism," and reversal of values, symbolized by the change of the thirty-six prohibitions of the Torah into positive commands. Evil is good and Good is Evil. The secret religion of the NWO philosopher kings (global elite)

[Sep 15, 2018] since September 9, the White Helmets have been staging rehearsals of an alleged chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun, Russian officials say in the same statement, claiming that the rehearsals feature up to 30 civilians, including a dozen children aged 8-12.

Sep 15, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

Patient Observer September 12, 2018 at 8:21 am

Russia has infiltrated the While Helmets:

https://www.rt.com/news/438282-white-helmets-film-chemical-attacks/

The Russian military details that on September 11, the White Helmets and terrorists from Tahrir al-Sham (commonly known as Al-Qaeda in Syria) held a meeting following the filming process, in which they selected two out of nine videos for future transfer to the United Nations and the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW). The remaining videos are to be used for propaganda on social media networks due to the poor quality, the military claims.

At the same time, since September 9, the White Helmets have been staging rehearsals of an alleged chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun, Russian officials say in the same statement, claiming that the rehearsals feature up to 30 civilians, including a dozen children aged 8-12.

Further claims by the Russian military indicate the White Helmets, along with the terrorists, are preparing an "actual use of poisonous chorine-based substances" on the people participating in the filming of the fake videos.

On-the-scene preparations of places for explosions of toxic substances is carried out by members of Hurras al-Din terrorist group (or the Guardians of Religion Organization, which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda), the statement claims.

The militants have selected 22 children and their parents from several villages in the Aleppo governorate who will play parts in staging fake chemical weapon attacks.

Another group of children is comprised of orphans kidnapped from refugee camps, who are meant to be used for the footage of death scenes. It is currently kept in one of the buildings of the Ikab prison controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group.

Signs of activities to prepare staged chemical weapon attacks were reported in Kafir-Zait, the military claims, also naming two villages where toxic chemicals have been delivered to stage provocations.

Some nice outtakes would be helpful – forcing the kids to line up next to chlorine canister, "disciplining" unruly kids who go off script. etc. Every goddamned MSM reported, producer and executive who knew or should have known of this children's snuff film should be arrested, charged, tried and found guilty of murder for hire. The death penalty would be too lenient. Involved politicians and their masters would be next. As for the perpetrators, let Syria deal with them.

[Sep 15, 2018] "The United States does not seek to fight the Russians" a Pentagon spokesman said. "However, the United States will not hesitate to use necessary and proportionate force to defend US, coalition or partner forces

Sep 15, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

Northern Star September 12, 2018 at 2:51 pm

All Stooges should read this wsws article and the accompanying comments

Why?

Bcuz I-NS-say so !!!!!

http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/09/12/pers-s12.html

"The Pentagon made clear that US forces are fully prepared to engage Russian troops. "The United States does not seek to fight the Russians" a Pentagon spokesman said. "However, the United States will not hesitate to use necessary and proportionate force to defend US, coalition or partner forces."

Really?? What psychopaths in the pentagon think this to be the case

Americans need to understand that complete psycho ccksckers like Groeteschele are as real in 2018 as they were in 1964 .

http://www.tcm.com/mediaroom/video/429672/Fail-Safe-Movie-Clip-Convicts-And-File-Clerks.html

Mark Chapman September 13, 2018 at 12:18 pm
Don't you get it?? You have no right at all to be in Syria, forming 'partnerships' with 'rebels' or anyone else!! Get the fuck out!! Your presence is a violation of sovereignty, as you were not invited by the elected government!

[Sep 15, 2018] No US Interests Are Served by Trump s Endless, Illegal War in Syria by Daniel Larison

This just demonstrates the level of capture of the USA by Israeli lobby. But there is also some geopolitical play for the USA in this region and in this sense Syria is just a continuation of Iraq and Libya.
The goal of dominance over middle East (which correlates with Israel goals) and its oil is probably one of the driving force of those wars.
Notable quotes:
"... The issue is not only whether U.S. interests are affected but whether they are affected enough to justify the participation of the U.S. military in a foreign war -- which should entail a higher standard. ..."
"... The Trump administration's Syria policy is just one of many parts of its foreign policy that make a mockery of the idea that Trump puts American interests first. ..."
"... A continued U.S. military presence in Syria has nothing to do with protecting Americans or the citizens of our treaty allies, and so it has nothing to do with self-defense or the defense of allies. There is no international mandate for a U.S. military mission in Syria, and our forces are in Syrian territory in defiance of the Syrian government's wishes. ..."
"... Congress has not voted for any of this, and the public is probably only vaguely aware that there are U.S. forces in Syria. Americans did not vote for any of this, they haven't consented to it, their representatives have never debated or authorized any of it. I doubt that most Americans would support it once they were made aware of it, but the point is that the question has never been put before the voters or their representatives. ..."
Sep 11, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

No U.S. Interests Are Served by Trump's Endless, Illegal War in Syria

Paul Pillar objects to the Trump administration's policy of committing the U.S. to oppose Iran's military presence in Syria, and he observes that this decision has been made without any debate or Congressional authorization:

That shift warrants much more scrutiny and debate than it is getting. U.S. service members are being dispatched to a foreign war for the purpose of somehow getting one Middle Eastern state that has had a longstanding security relationship with another Middle Eastern state to remove its personnel from that second state [bold mine-DL].

Exactly how are U.S. interests supposedly affected by whether those personnel stay or go? The only Americans who might be harmed under one scenario but not the other are the very soldiers who are being dispatched.

The Syrian-Iranian alliance has existed for decades, going back to when the two states shared an adversary in the form of Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq.

The issue is not only whether U.S. interests are affected but whether they are affected enough to justify the participation of the U.S. military in a foreign war -- which should entail a higher standard.

Pillar's description of the administration's policy shows us how absurd it is. It makes no difference to U.S. vital interests if Iran keeps some military personnel in Syria, and it certainly isn't something that we should be risking the lives of American soldiers to change. If Syria's hostile neighbors don't like that, it is not the responsibility of our government to fix it for them. The Trump administration's Syria policy is just one of many parts of its foreign policy that make a mockery of the idea that Trump puts American interests first.

No U.S. interests are served by an endless, illegal war in Syria , and by risking a larger conflict with the Syrian government and its patrons this policy poses a threat to U.S. and international security.

A continued U.S. military presence in Syria has nothing to do with protecting Americans or the citizens of our treaty allies, and so it has nothing to do with self-defense or the defense of allies. There is no international mandate for a U.S. military mission in Syria, and our forces are in Syrian territory in defiance of the Syrian government's wishes.

Our forces have no legitimate reason to be there, and there is no legal basis for keeping them there. The Trump administration is risking war with as many as three governments in order to occupy part of someone else's country indefinitely for the sake of an unachievable goal that has no connection to U.S. security in the first place.

Congress has not voted for any of this, and the public is probably only vaguely aware that there are U.S. forces in Syria. Americans did not vote for any of this, they haven't consented to it, their representatives have never debated or authorized any of it. I doubt that most Americans would support it once they were made aware of it, but the point is that the question has never been put before the voters or their representatives.

Posted in foreign policy , politics . Tagged Russia , Iran , Syria , Paul Pillar , Donald Trump .

[Sep 13, 2018] Heather Nauert (Spokesperson for the United States Department of State): The United States and the international community continue to support the heroic work of White Helmets

Sep 13, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

james , Sep 13, 2018 12:04:56 AM | link

@47 den lille abe / 49 pft.... i mentioned it on the syrian thread yesterday... here is my comment from that thread...

"yer local scam news from the usa daily press briefing.. aside from acknowledging the horrific nature of 9-11 inflicted on the usa, there is of course no mention of the horrors that it inflicted on many many more in the countries outside of the usa, thanks the usa's phony war on terrorism..but of course, how can you have a war on terrorism, when you are the terrorism globally? more fun stuff at the link, if you like being propagandized..

https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2018/09/285807.htm

from heather nauert - "Next, and this is also related to Syria, I'd like to highlight this: The Assad regime and Russia continue to falsely accuse the White Helmets through a massive disinformation campaign, leaving its volunteers at significant risk. Many of you are familiar with the good work that the White Helmets has – that they have done and that they continue to do. The White Helmets are a humanitarian organization that has saved thousands of lives and continues to save civilian lives after bombardments by Russian and regime military forces. The United States and the international community continue to support their heroic work."

ben , Sep 13, 2018 1:29:43 AM | link

Censorship in the USA from Black Agenda Report:

https://blackagendareport.com/first-they-came-alex-jones-then-rt-and-syrian-tv

"Russian and Syrian news services in the US have been censored, but you can still get streaming jihadist propaganda from al Qaeda-controlled Idlib Province."

[Sep 12, 2018] "Staged Filming of False Flag 'Chemical Attacks' Has Begun in Idlib

Notable quotes:
"... It is remarkable the extent to which Israeli concerns dominate those of the United States, which now has a foreign policy that often is not even remotely connected to actual U.S. interests. ..."
"... Congress and the Special Counsel are investigating Russia's alleged interference in America's political system while looking the other way when Israel operates aggressively in the open and does much more damage. ..."
Sep 12, 2018 | www.unz.com

annamaria , September 11, 2018 at 2:43 pm GMT

@Tyrion 2
Target Syria

Will a new war be the October Surprise

No. Don't you get bored of being wrong? Have any of your predictions come true? America and allies are quite at peace with how Syria is unfolding. If you don't get that, you don't get anything. "Staged Filming of False Flag 'Chemical Attacks' Has Begun in Idlib:" https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-11/russian-defense-ministry-says-filming-mock-chemical-attack-has-begun-idlib

From the comment section:

1. "The only way for Syria and Iran and Russia to defend Syria is to clearly tell Washington, London, Paris (the main ZOGs) and Israel that attacks on Syria will be responded to by attacks on Israeli military and intel sites. The introduction of any nuclear device of any size will result in a full-scale nuclear response.

That is the only play otherwise Syria simply bleeds to death as t he Jews get their puppets to keep fomenting terror and dropping bombs on SAA efforts to fight those terrorists . We come to the moment when Russia either defends Syria by hitting Israel or it decides to accept the Long Death of Anglo-Zionist megalomania."

2. "I really do wish Russia would just instantly bomb Israel. That would be the best way to separate us from that satanic rope around our necks."

3. "I call everyone in the military to disobey orders for attacking anything in Syria except Isis. Need to spread this on social media. Don't be mercenaries of Israel ."

-- Your "most victimized" have squandered all and any sympathy for your "incomparable sufferings" by promoting the ongoing slaughter in the Middle East. The Jewish State and its subordinate zionized US have become the gravest danger to humanity.

reiner Tor , September 11, 2018 at 4:20 pm GMT
This whole issue is so surrealistic. The last time the OPCW didn't confirm their accusations, but now they know who is going to commit a chemical attack right now, and they don't even wait for the actual events to be cocksure about it. Apparently they want a nuclear Mexican standoff. This is the problem that last time maybe Russia wasn't convincingly committed to a nuclear war, and so they are trying to explore this perceived weakness. It will get to a point where the US will call Russia's "bluff" which will turn out not to have been a bluff.

annamaria , September 12, 2018 at 3:45 pm GMT

@APilgrim

Jews undermined and destroyed their own society, as routinely as they undermine Western Civilization. The OT reveals the historic pattern of Hebraic self-destruction, and depravity; which was repeated in the 1st Century, and chronicled by Josephus.

Jews are not as problematic, as the Muhammadans.

So, 1st things 1st. The ziocon-supported "rebels" of A Qaeda (see Washington Post editorial written by Israel firsters) are preparing a children sacrifice for the glory of the the mythical Eretz Israel: https://www.rt.com/news/438282-white-helmets-film-chemical-attacks/

"The militants have selected 22 children and their parents from several villages in the Aleppo governorate who will play parts in staging fake chemical weapon attacks.

Another group of children is comprised of orphans kidnapped from refugee camps, who are meant to be used for the footage of death scenes. It is currently kept in one of the buildings of the Ikab prison controlled by Jabhat al-Nusra terrorist group.

Signs of activities to prepare staged chemical weapon attacks were reported in Kafir-Zait, the military claims, also naming two villages where toxic chemicals have been delivered to stage provocations."

-- Not a peep from the "humanitarian" Jewish State that has been waiting impatiently a resumption of the slaughter of civilians in the sovereign State of Syria. Nothing pleases the Jewish State more than the death of kids in Syria, Iraq, Libya, and Iran. This is your tribeswoman:

" Paul Joseph Watson reported that at least 29 different Syrian rebel groups are pledging allegiance to the Nusra Front, an al-Qaeda affiliate group responsible for killing American troops in Iraq.

"Syrian rebels have been responsible for a plethora of atrocities, from terrorist attacks and massacres, to forcing people to become suicide bombers, to attacks on Christian churches and making children carry out grisly beheadings of unarmed prisoners," Watson wrote.

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has even admitted to BBC that these Syrian rebels on the same side as the U.S. in Syria are terrorist groups President Obama has been openly supporting the Syrian rebels "

Jeffrey Sachs from Columbia University told the MSNBC panel: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-10/how-explain-causes-syrian-war-2-minutes

"We know they sent in the CIA to overthrow Assad. The CIA and Saudi Arabia together in covert operations tried to overthrow Assad. It was a disaster. Eventually, it brought in both ISIS as a splinter group to the jihadists that went in, it also brought in Russia.

So we have been digging deeper and deeper and deeper. What we should do now is get out, and not continue to throw missiles, not have a confrontation with Russia."

Why? -- Because of the pressure from the Jewish Power: http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/49245.htm

"Syria is only part of a much larger problem. It is remarkable the extent to which Israeli concerns dominate those of the United States, which now has a foreign policy that often is not even remotely connected to actual U.S. interests.

Congress and the Special Counsel are investigating Russia's alleged interference in America's political system while looking the other way when Israel operates aggressively in the open and does much more damage. Netanyahu and his crew of unsavory cutthroats are hardly ever cited for their malignant influence over America's political class and media. Bomb Syria? Sure. After all, it's good for Israel."

-- The bloody, murderous, perfidious Jewish Power is guilty of the rivers of blood and mounds of human flesh in Syria. Close your holo-biz museums already.

[Sep 12, 2018] Amazing that the Veterans' letter was sent on the 9/11 in protest to the US government support for Al Qaeda.

Sep 12, 2018 | www.unz.com

annamaria , says: Next New Comment September 11, 2018 at 10:20 pm GMT

@RVBlake Cheney stated he had "other things to do" during the Vietnam War. Bolton stated he had no intention of dying in a war that was already lost. Ironic, given the eagerness with which both chickenhawks send young Americans to their bloody end in desert wars. Yes, the American veterans, who put their lives on the line for the US, are urging POTUS to think carefully over the situation in Syria: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-11/intel-veterans-urge-president-trump-step-back-brink-syria , whereas the chickenhawks (the majority of them in the zionists' pockets) and the Israel-firsters cannot wait to see more slaughter in Syria.

An excerpt from the letter by Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity:
"The Israelis, Saudis, and others who want unrest to endure are egging on the insurgents, assuring them that you, Mr. President, will use US forces to protect the insurgents in Idlib, and perhaps also rain hell down on Damascus. We believe that your senior advisers are encouraging the insurgents to think in those terms, and that your most senior aides are taking credit for your recent policy shift from troop withdrawal from Syria to indefinite war."
-- It is obvious that the "senior advisers" and "senior aides" are opportunists and traitors whose children (with their elders) should be sent to Idlib ASAP to get a shot of reality.

Amazing that the Veterans' letter was sent on the 9/11 in protest to the US government support for Al Qaeda.

[Sep 12, 2018] Colin Wright

Sep 12, 2018 | www.unz.com

says: Website Next New Comment September 12, 2018 at 5:52 am GMT 200 Words @Tyrion 2 I get it. You're Palestinian. You're aggrieved. Every single year for 70 years your guys have refused to come to a deal and every single year your hand has gotten weaker. That must be hugely frustrating.

But best for you that you live in the real world. 3 random comments from you on an interesting but minor and consistently prognosticatarily incorrect site is not the real world.

Israel doesn't want Iran in Syria long-term. Everyone else but hardline elements of the Iranian state agree, so they have now been pushed.

That is the end of the matter, along with some reasonable autonomy for the Kurds. It'd be lovely for them to have a proper sovereign country over all of the areas they'd like to lay claim to, but the Kurds appreciate their position and play with the hand they are dealt.

Also, making up phrases and putting them in quotes as if I have ever said them is strikingly dishonest. ' Israel doesn't want Iran in Syria long-term '

If so, then we have another example of the Israelis figuring out how to cleverly screw themselves.

Of course secular dictator Assad would never have invited Islamic Republic of Iran troops into Syria -- not in a month of sundays.

not until Israel engineered the transformation of the 'Arab Spring' in Syria into a prolonged and bloody civil war in which a desperate Assad would take whatever help he could get -- like Islamic Republic of Iran troops.

Now Israel's got Iranians in Syria. And of course they made a bitter enemy out of Iran in the first place with their campaign of assassinations and terrorist bombings in Iran.

This is even better than Israel's creation of Hezbollah and sponsorship of Hamas. It would appear that all we have to do is sit back and let the Zionists scheme themselves into total defeat. I wonder what their next stroke of genius is going to be?

[Sep 12, 2018] US Again Cries 'Chemical Warfare' in Syria by Scott Ritter

Sep 12, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

Author's Update 9/12/18: The Syrian government, backed by Russian airpower and Iranian advisors, is preparing to undertake a major offensive designed to retake the province of Idlib from opposition forces. The newly appointed State Department Special Representative for Syria, Jim Jeffreys, claims that there is "Lots of evidence" that Syria is preparing to use chemical weapons, specifically chlorine gas, in support of the Idlib operation.

For its part, Russia claims to have specific intelligence that al Qaeda affiliates, working in conjunction with the White Helmet organization, is preparing to stage a chlorine gas attack designed to look like it was done by the Syrian government. The U.S. has warned that it would launch a major military strike against not only the Syrian government, but also Russian and Iranian targets in Syria, if chemical weapons were used in Idlib.

The issue of provenance is as relevant today as when this article was originally written, with the OPCW still assessing information to determine how the chlorine canisters discovered at Douma got there, and who was responsible for their use. The Douma incident stands as a case study against the rush to judgment when it comes to the attribution of blame, and is even more relevant today, when the mere allegation of chemical weapons use in Syria could lead to a major escalation in the fighting:

This summer the international monitoring organization tasked with investigating an alleged chemical weapons incident in the Damascus suburb of Douma on April 7 quietly published an interim report listing its preliminary findings.

Interestingly, the report, issued by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the Nobel Peace Prize-winning agency mandated to implement the provisions of the Chemical Weapons Convention, noted that "no organophosphorus nerve agents or their degradation products were detected" on the scene -- more simply put, there was no evidence of Sarin nerve agent present at the incident site, despite wide speculation otherwise at the time of the incident.

In fact, this speculation, for which the Trump administration insisted it had evidence, was used as an excuse for the U.S., France, and the UK to launch a coordinated bombing campaign against the Syrian government on April 12.

The report also notes that "various chlorinated organic chemicals" were detected, along with traces of high explosives. The "chlorinated organic chemicals" listed by the OPCW are commonly found in residential environments; several are by-products of chlorinated drinking water. The OPCW report does not provide any information about the concentrations of these chemicals, nor their physical location in relation to the victims alleged to have been killed or injured in the incident. The OPCW is continuing to assess these findings for their significance before reaching any conclusion about their relevance and meaning.

These interim findings are a far cry from the statements made by various American officials in the aftermath of the Douma incident, for which they blamed the Syrian government. On April 13, 2018, Secretary of Defense James Mattis briefed the press following the strike on Syria. In attacking Douma, Mattis said, the Syrian government "decided to again defy the norms of civilized people, showing callous disregard for international law by using chemical weapons to murder women, children and other innocents." Mattis later added that "we have the intelligence level of confidence that we needed to conduct the attack," noting, "we're very confident that chlorine was used. We are not ruling out sarin right now."

Trump's Rush to Judgment on Syria Chemical Attack No U.S. Interests Are Served by Trump's Endless, Illegal War in Syria

In the same briefing, Mattis was joined by General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who elaborated on the nature of the targets struck, noting that they were "specifically associated with the Syrian regime's chemical weapons program," including one that "was the primary location of Syrian sarin and precursor production equipment."

The specificity of language used by Secretary Mattis and General Dunford, declaring Syria to have a chemical weapons program with a storage facility containing sarin nerve agent precursor production equipment, and that target modeling was conducted that took into account chemical-specific information in order to mitigate collateral damage, implied a degree of certainty backed by intelligence information that the OPCW findings simply do not support.

While the military attack on Syria in the aftermath of the Douma allegations represents the ultimate manifestation of poor intelligence, the genesis of the Douma intelligence failure did not begin with the Pentagon, but at the Headquarters of the OPCW in The Hague, Netherlands. There, the OPCW maintains an information cell within a situation center tasked with, among other things, collecting all-source information relating to the use of chemical weapons, providing initial assessments of all information with respect to its credibility, and then drafting reports based upon this analysis for use by the OPCW.

According to the OPCW interim report, the information cell monitored media reports about an alleged chemical weapons incident in Douma on April 7 and initiated a search of open-source information to assess the credibility of that allegation. The major sources of information used by the information cell in this task included news media, blogs, and the websites of various non-governmental organizations. The information cell assessed the credibility of the allegation as "high," and as such the director-general of the OPCW ordered an investigation.

The OPCW has not detailed the methodology used by the information cell regarding its assessed findings. The sources of the images and initial information coming out of Douma, however, were known to be closely affiliated with the Jihadist group Jaish al-Islam, which controlled Douma during the time of the alleged chemical attacks. The "media association" run by Jaish al-Islam, claims that "media is a soft power through which social pressure is practiced," a statement that should have guided the analysis of any product derived from sources affiliated with that entity. Jaish al-Islam was, at the time of the alleged chemical weapons attack, on the verge of being annihilated by the Syrian Army (indeed, the very next day, April 8, Jaish al-Islam agreed to a ceasefire arrangement which led to the evacuation of thousands of its supporters and their families from Douma.)

Another important factor is the medical findings published by the NGO Syrian-American Medical Society, or SAMS. On April 8, SAMS, in association with Syrian Civil Defense (better known as the "White Helmets"), released a press statement reporting that the day before, "more than 500 cases -- the majority of whom are women and children -- were brought to local medical centers with symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent. Patients have shown signs of respiratory distress, central cyanosis, excessive oral foaming, corneal burns, and the emission of chlorine-like odor."

The SAMS/White Helmet press release went on to note that, "During clinical examination, medical staff observed bradycardia, wheezing and coarse bronchial sounds," adding that, "The reported symptoms indicate that the victims suffocated from the exposure to toxic chemicals, most likely an organophosphate element."

"Organophosphate" is a buzzword for sarin nerve agent. And the SAMS report makes clear that its evaluation of the clinical symptoms present among the Douma victims are also linked to chlorine exposure. The problem with the SAMS/White Helmet narrative is that sarin and chlorine don't mix, a fact known to chemical warfare experts and duly documented in a U.S. Army study. In short, chlorine serves as a catalyst that promotes the decomposition of sarin nerve agent, meaning that if both substances were either combined or released together, the sarin would rapidly decompose.

Moreover, there seems to have been no effort on the part of the OPCW information cell to postulate alternative explanations about what could have caused the casualties that were depicted in the Douma videos. French intelligence, relying on an analysis of the same open-source information used by the OPCW information cell, noted that the symptoms observed in the images and videos "are characteristic of a chemical weapons attack, particularly choking agents and organophosphorus agents or hydrocyanic acid."

Two observations emerge from that statement. First is that the French have sustained the flawed predicate that chlorine and sarin were used together ("choking agents and organophosphorus agents"), which is an impossibility due to the inherent incompatibility of the substances. Second, the French had assessed that the symptoms observed were characteristic of exposure to hydrocyanic acid, a solution of hydrogen cyanide in water. Hydrogen cyanide is not associated with either chlorine or sarin nerve agent. It is, however, commonly linked to smoke emanating from structure fires. Eyewitness accounts from Douma indicated that there had been dozens of victims from the aerial bombardment that was ongoing, including many who died of asphyxiation in basements filled with smoke from fires ignited by the bombing.

That the OPCW information cell did not at least consider the possibility of a structure fire as the source of the victims observed in the images is indicative of a myopic approach toward analysis when it comes to the issue of alleged chemical weapons use in Syria.

This narrow-mindedness is in large part derived from the history of the OPCW in Syria, and the close operational bonds that organization has developed with anti-regime organizations such as SAMS and the White Helmets. The OPCW's investigation of an alleged use of sarin nerve agent in the village of Khan Shaykhun in April 2017 revealed that it had provided training to the White Helmets on chemical sampling. It had also developed a working relationship with SAMS and the White Helmets concerning the identification of alleged victims of chemical weapons incidents, and the collection of medical samples used in investigating alleged chemical weapons events.

The front-loading of analytical conclusions by the OPCW information cell in the Douma case infected everything that followed. The State Department issued a statement on April 8 noting that "The Duma victims' symptoms, reported by credible medical professionals and visible in social media photos and video, are consistent with an asphyxiation agent and of a nerve agent of some type." While the statement is ostensibly sourced to SAMS, the White Helmets, and Douma Revolution, had the OPCW not endorsed these conclusions, but instead provided a more balanced assessment derived from logic (i.e., chlorine and sarin don't mix) and the consideration of other possibilities (structure fires), perhaps the State Department would have been more measured in its own assessment.

Instead, Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, drawing upon the same imagery used by the OPCW, made an emotional case that chemical weapons were used by the Syrian government in Douma. "I could hold up pictures of survivors," she told the Security Council on April 9. "Children with burning eyes. Choking for breath. I could hold up pictures of first responders. Washing the chemicals off of the victims. Putting separate respirators on the children. Families lying motionless with babies still in the arms of their mothers and fathers.

"I can hold up pictures of all of this killing and suffering for the council to see. But what would be the point?" she added. "The monster who was responsible for these attacks has no conscience. Not even to be shocked by pictures of dead children."

Haley's melodrama was matched by President Donald Trump, who tweeted "Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria." Five days later, the U.S.-French-British bombing commenced.

That the U.S. diplomatic and intelligence communities allowed themselves to be manipulated in such a fashion should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with their respective records regarding Iraqi weapons of mass destruction or Iranian nuclear weapons. At the end of the day, however, the decision to use military force should be based on something more than intelligence "assessments" driven by incomplete and possibly misleading information -- there should be a concerted effort to ascertain the truth before acting.

In the case of Douma, "truth" (i.e., a factual determination as to whether chemical agent was used) was the domain of the OPCW, and in particular the inspectors of the Fact-Finding Mission organized and mandated to carry out inspections of alleged chemical weapons usage inside Syria. The assessments conducted by the OPCW information cell, however flawed, resulted in the director-general ordering an investigation to be conducted into the Douma allegation. Rather than supporting the OPCW's efforts in this regard, however, the United States began to attack the credibility of any findings that might accrue from such an investigation by pushing a narrative that held that the Syrian government and their Russian allies were deliberately delaying the access of OPCW inspectors to the Douma site in order to allow evidence of their guilt to degrade.

"Syrian regime forces and their allies are denying international monitors access" to the site of the alleged chemical attack in Douma, the State Department proclaimed on April 8. President Trump ran with this, declaring in a tweet that the "area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world." Interestingly, these announcements pre-dated the initial request of the OPCW to send inspectors to Syria by two days -- a request which was made at the same time both Syria and Russia were formally requesting the OPCW to come to Syria to investigate the Douma allegations.

However, the OPCW report clearly shows that both the Syrian and Russian governments fully cooperated with the OPCW to provide secure access to Douma, and that any delays that occurred were due to legitimate security issues impacting inspector safety.

Now it looks like the reason the Americans and others accused Russia and Syria of delaying the work of the OPCW inspectors is that they suspected -- no matter how much argued to the contrary -- conclusive evidence wasn't there to justify the April 12 military strikes. The United States laid out a military campaign predicated in large part by the notion that Syria continued to possess stocks of deadly sarin nerve agent and was using them against its own people. If one accepted at face value that sarin nerve agent was, in fact, used against Douma, then it automatically followed that there could be sarin-affiliated targets inside Syria worthy of attack.

But if the underlying assumption that sarin nerve agent was used has been proven false, then what does that say about the quality of the intelligence information and associated analysis used to justify American military action? Was the intelligence assessment regarding sarin precursor production equipment based on intelligence independent of the allegations of sarin use put forward by SAMS and the White Helmets, or colored by that erroneous conclusion?

American intelligence is currently being used to bolster charges of malfeasance in North Korea and Iran, and to sustain the potential use of military force if either situation deteriorates further. In a world where the memory of the WMD fiasco in Iraq is still fresh, one would hope that the U.S. intelligence community would attempt to avoid the mistakes of the past, where intelligence was shaped to conform to a political decision developed independent of facts. Given what the OPCW report has revealed, it appears that in the case of Douma, this lesson was forgotten or ignored. Going forward, it is essential that this not be the case, if for no other reason that a war with either North Korea or Iran will be far more consequential than a one-time missile attack against Syria.

Scott Ritter is a former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD.

[Sep 12, 2018] US Says Assad Has Approved Gas Attack In Syria's Idlib

Sep 12, 2018 | www.mintpressnews.com

The incredibly alarming report continues :

During the debate this year over how to respond to the second attack, Mr. Trump's national-security team weighed the idea of hitting Russian or Iranian targets in Syria , people familiar with the discussions said. But the Pentagon pushed for a more measured response, U.S. officials said, and the idea was eventually rejected as too risky.

A third U.S. strike likely would be more expansive than the first two, and Mr. Trump would again have to consider whether or not to hit targets like Russian air defenses in an effort to deliver a more punishing blow to Mr. Assad's military.

Last week the French ambassador, whose country also vowed to strike Syria if what it deems credible chemical allegations emerge, said during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Idlib : "Syria is once again at the edge of an abyss."

With Russia and Iran now in the West's cross hairs over Idlib, indeed the entire world is again at the edge of the abyss.

[Sep 11, 2018] Is Donald Trump Going to Do the Syria Backflip by Publius Tacitus

Highly recommended!
Such an unexpected metamorphose ? Or was it unexpected. See Amazon.com The Truth About Trump eBook Michael D'Antonio
Notable quotes:
"... Trump's new saber rattling against Syria, Russia and Iran goes beyond pure irony and will certainly fuel rumors embraced by critics that he is becoming senile. When Trump was running for the Presidency, he sang a radically different tune: ..."
"... If Vladimir Putin wants to launch airstrikes inside Syria, that's no problem for Donald Trump, who said Wednesday that he believes Russia's military moves in Syria are targeting ISIS and that the United States shouldn't interfere. ( https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/30/politics/donald-trump-syria-don-lemon/index.html ) 1 October 2015 ..."
"... However, Trump did note the complexity of the situation on the ground in Syria, pointing out in reference to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad that Putin "is an Assad person" and "the United States doesn't like Assad". He went on to condemn the Obama administration for "backing people who they don't know who they are", and to warn that rebels backed by the United States "could be Isis" ..."
"... President Donald Trump warned Syria and its allies Russia and Iran on Monday against attacking the last major rebel stronghold of Idlib province in the country's northwest. "President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province," Trump wrote on Twitter. "The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" ( https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/03/politics/trump-syria-tweet-assad-rebel-idlib/index.html ) 4 September 2018 ..."
"... In a recent discussion about Syria, people familiar with the exchange said, President Trump threatened to conduct a massive attack against Mr. Assad if he carries out a massacre in Idlib, the northwestern province that has become the last refuge for more than three million people and as many as 70,000 opposition fighters that the regime considers to be terrorists. ( https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-says-syria-plans-gas-attack-in-rebel-stronghold-1536535853?mod=mktw ) 9 September 2018 ..."
Sep 11, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Trump's new saber rattling against Syria, Russia and Iran goes beyond pure irony and will certainly fuel rumors embraced by critics that he is becoming senile. When Trump was running for the Presidency, he sang a radically different tune:

Donald Trump accused his Republican presidential rivals on Friday night of wanting to "start World War III over Syria," and suggested that the United States should instead let Russia deal with the problem. ( https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-politics/wp/2015/09/25/donald-trump-let-russia-fight-the-islamic-state-in-syria/?utm_term=.a3579167cd97 ) 25 September 2015

If Vladimir Putin wants to launch airstrikes inside Syria, that's no problem for Donald Trump, who said Wednesday that he believes Russia's military moves in Syria are targeting ISIS and that the United States shouldn't interfere. ( https://www.cnn.com/2015/09/30/politics/donald-trump-syria-don-lemon/index.html ) 1 October 2015

Addressing Russia's intervention in the Syrian conflict, which has so far disproportionately targeted rebel-held areas with no Isis presence, Trump expressed confidence that Vladimir Putin would eventually target the Islamic State. "He's going to want to bomb Isis because he doesn't want Isis going into Russia and so he's going to want to bomb Isis," Trump said of the Russian president. "Vladimir Putin is going to want to really go after Isis, and if he doesn't it'll be a big shock to everybody."

However, Trump did note the complexity of the situation on the ground in Syria, pointing out in reference to Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad that Putin "is an Assad person" and "the United States doesn't like Assad". He went on to condemn the Obama administration for "backing people who they don't know who they are", and to warn that rebels backed by the United States "could be Isis". ( https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/13/donald-trump-foreign-policy-doctrine-nation-building ) 13 October 2015.

That was then. Now Trump is chest thumping and trash talking Syria and Russia like the recently deceased John McCain. He now appears ready to lead the NeoCon Conga line into an escalation of the war in Syria:

President Donald Trump warned Syria and its allies Russia and Iran on Monday against attacking the last major rebel stronghold of Idlib province in the country's northwest. "President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province," Trump wrote on Twitter. "The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don't let that happen!" ( https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/03/politics/trump-syria-tweet-assad-rebel-idlib/index.html ) 4 September 2018

In a recent discussion about Syria, people familiar with the exchange said, President Trump threatened to conduct a massive attack against Mr. Assad if he carries out a massacre in Idlib, the northwestern province that has become the last refuge for more than three million people and as many as 70,000 opposition fighters that the regime considers to be terrorists. ( https://www.wsj.com/articles/u-s-says-syria-plans-gas-attack-in-rebel-stronghold-1536535853?mod=mktw ) 9 September 2018


The Beaver , 5 hours ago

PT,

The flip-flopper Erdogan is at it again :

In an Op-Ed in WSJ:
https://www.wsj.com/article...
"Moderate rebels played a key role in Turkey's fight against terrorists in Northern #Syria; their assistance and guidance will be crucial in Idlib as well"

Yep wonder where all those moderate rebels aka foreign jihadis came through after landing in IST.
Putin told him off in Tehran and now he is back on the fence or on the FUKUS side.
Guess Qatar must be pushing him to play nice by flooding him with billions .

WSJ is really hoping to get the war going . This is a second article /op-ed two days in a row.

David Optional Guyatt , 8 hours ago
Fisk is an old school journalist who doesn't sport a parting in his tongue. I've found him to be very reliable in his reporting. His latest report reveals that despite considerable searching over a 2 day period, he could find no massed Syrian troops around Idlib ready for the looming ground battle.

It's not like you can miss 100,000 men and all the supporting equipment; armoured vehicles,, kitchens, field hospitals, tent cities etc. No Hezbollah, no Russians.

Which raises the question: are we being played here?

https://www.independent.co....

Don Bacon , 13 hours ago
The US has no more authority to interfere in Syria domestic affairs than Syria has to interfere in US domestic affairs.
>Syrian President Bashar Assad has authorized his forces to use chlorine gas in the assault on the last significant rebel redoubt in the country, The Wall Street Journal reported Sunday. Who can doubt the Wall Street Journal?
>The Protocol for the Prohibition of the Use in War of Asphyxiating, Poisonous or other Gases, and of Bacteriological Methods of Warfare, usually called the Geneva Protocol, is a treaty prohibiting the use of chemical and biological weapons in international armed conflicts.
> The Protocol was Signed at Geneva June 17, 1925, and Entered into force February 8, 1928, and the convention were ratified by President Ford on January 22, 1975.
>Chlorine itself is not a chemical weapon. It's a toxic industrial chemical that is very useful to purify water. It's really very important to have clean water to avoid water borne diseases. But chlorine is a chemical agent that effects the eyes and the ability to breath. When mixed with water it produces hydrochloride acid. It's not a very efficient chemical weapon because we can sense it when it's not very toxic yet. So you can run away. Using chlorine gas is not prohibited as such, but using chlorine gas as a weapon is prohibited in international armed conflicts.
blue peacock -> Don Bacon , 10 hours ago
"The US has no more authority to interfere in Syria domestic affairs than Syria has to interfere in US domestic affairs."

When has this prevented the US from intervening as it pleases over the last 100 years?

Jack , 14 hours ago
PT,

We can be certain that the jihadi White Helmets will stage an "outrage" event, since Bolton and Nikki have already stated what the US response would be. The media I'm sure have their playbook already figured out and ready to create the necessary media hysteria.

The last two times Trump fired a few missiles and called it a day. Woodward however claims that his "anonymous" sources say that Trump wanted to assassinate Assad and Mattis walked it back to token missile strikes. Woodward also claims that the #Resistance in the White House are doing whatever they want and Trump is for all intents and purposes rather clueless about what they're up to. If this has any credence would it be possible that Bolton and Nikki and the other ziocons in the White House orchestrate a provocation by the jihadis that will then be setup to "we need a muscular response to show who's boss". You know the all too familiar argument that the US needs to act to retain credibility.

All this is coming just before the mid-terms which is a pivotal election for Trump. If he loses the House then he's up shit creek with Dems running all kinds of investigations and Mueller emboldened. How does he calculate the political implications of a deeper military engagement in Syria? IMO, many who supported him in the last election will not be very happy and their enthusiasm may waver which could be the difference in close races. OTOH, there is a perception that his economic team and policies are making a positive difference and that is benefiting the Deplorables.

Obama lost big time in his first mid-terms and did very poorly for the Democrats in both federal and state elections during his term as president. Yet the Democrat establishment has continued to back him. That may not happen with Trump as the GOP establishment will find the opportunity to go back to their traditional ways if Trump can't hold the House.

Biggee Mikeee , 14 hours ago
He told us here, we just didn't listen: Play Hide

[Sep 11, 2018] Greg Bacon

Sep 11, 2018 | www.unz.com

says: Website Next New Comment September 11, 2018 at 7:13 am GMT 200 Words

The United States, which has trained and armed some of the trapped gunmen and even as recently as a year ago described the province as "al-Qaeda's largest safe haven since 9/11

Since we've been told a gazillion times al Qaeda did 9/11 and now, the Pentagon is using it's resources to fund, equip, train and protect al Qaeda and their CIA-created spin-off groups, the White House needs to answer this question:

Since the US is now supporting the terrorist outfit we've been told did 9/11, that means that either al Qaeda didn't do 9/11 and we've been lied to ever since or the USG is now officially a terrorist regime, since we support–in endless ways–the group that you said attacked the US on 9/11, al Qaeda.

They can only choose one answer.

Did Ynet make a mistake and accidentally release the pre-written PR too early?

BREAKING NEWS
Report: Chlorine gas attacks in Idlib
Ynet|Published: 09.10.18 , 10:36

Syrian president Bashar Assad used chlorine gas in his attacks on the rebels last stronghold in Idlib, reported an American source to the Wall Street Journal.

It has further been reported that US president Donald Trump threatened "a massive attack" against Assad's regime if he commits a massacre in Idlib.

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5346705,00.html

/n

annamaria , says: Next New Comment September 11, 2018 at 1:43 pm GMT

@Greg Bacon

The United States, which has trained and armed some of the trapped gunmen and even as recently as a year ago described the province as "al-Qaeda's largest safe haven since 9/11
Since we've been told a gazillion times al Qaeda did 9/11 and now, the Pentagon is using it's resources to fund, equip, train and protect al Qaeda and their CIA-created spin-off groups, the White House needs to answer this question:

Since the US is now supporting the terrorist outfit we've been told did 9/11, that means that either al Qaeda didn't do 9/11 and we've been lied to ever since or the USG is now officially a terrorist regime, since we support--in endless ways--the group that you said attacked the US on 9/11, al Qaeda.

They can only choose one answer.

Did Ynet make a mistake and accidentally release the pre-written PR too early?


BREAKING NEWS
Report: Chlorine gas attacks in Idlib
Ynet|Published: 09.10.18 , 10:36

Syrian president Bashar Assad used chlorine gas in his attacks on the rebels last stronghold in Idlib, reported an American source to the Wall Street Journal.

It has further been reported that US president Donald Trump threatened "a massive attack" against Assad's regime if he commits a massacre in Idlib.

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-5346705,00.html

"Since the US is now supporting the terrorist outfit we've been told did 9/11, that means that either al Qaeda didn't do 9/11 and we've been lied to ever since or the US Government is now officially a terrorist regime, since we support the group that you said attacked the US on 9/11, al Qaeda."
-- This is an excellent Q for the ADL, AIPAC, White House, State Department, satanic Pompeo, "patriotic" Cheney (the greatest traitor to the USA citizenry), and the richly decorated US brass serving the Jewish Power, financiers, and mega war-profiteers.

2017: " 20 veterans a day commit suicide. The numbers come from the largest study undertaken of veterans' records by the VA " https://www.cbsnews.com/news/suicide-among-veterans-higher-states/

annamaria , says: Next New Comment September 11, 2018 at 2:43 pm GMT
@Tyrion 2

Target Syria
Will a new war be the October Surprise
No. Don't you get bored of being wrong? Have any of your predictions come true? America and allies are quite at peace with how Syria is unfolding. If you don't get that, you don't get anything. "Staged Filming of False Flag 'Chemical Attacks' Has Begun in Idlib:" https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-11/russian-defense-ministry-says-filming-mock-chemical-attack-has-begun-idlib

From the comment section:

1. "The only way for Syria and Iran and Russia to defend Syria is to clearly tell Washington, London, Paris (the main ZOGs) and Israel that attacks on Syria will be responded to by attacks on Israeli military and intel sites. The introduction of any nuclear device of any size will result in a full-scale nuclear response.
That is the only play otherwise Syria simply bleeds to death as t he Jews get their puppets to keep fomenting terror and dropping bombs on SAA efforts to fight those terrorists . We come to the moment when Russia either defends Syria by hitting Israel or it decides to accept the Long Death of Anglo-Zionist megalomania."

2. "I really do wish Russia would just instantly bomb Israel. That would be the best way to separate us from that satanic rope around our necks."

3. "I call everyone in the military to disobey orders for attacking anything in Syria except Isis. Need to spread this on social media. Don't be mercenaries of Israel ."

-- Your "most victimized" have squandered all and any sympathy for your "incomparable sufferings" by promoting the ongoing slaughter in the Middle East. The Jewish State and its subordinate zionized US have become the gravest danger to humanity.

[Sep 10, 2018] Merkel want to illegally bomb Syria like her puppetmaster Trump

Sep 10, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Zanon , Sep 9, 2018 4:32:39 PM | link

Germany May Join Possible Western Airstrikes on Syria - Reports
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201809091067884784-germany-may-join-western-airstrikes-damascus/

[Sep 10, 2018] The only way that FUKUS can prevent R+6 from taking Idlib is to convince Turkey to enter Idlib for humanitarian reasons.

Notable quotes:
"... SAA and Russia can defeat 50-70,000 jihadis but they can't take Idlib if Turkey (backed by FUKUSI) opposes them. Would Russia start WWIII over Idlib? FUKUSI/NATO might well bet that Putin will not. ..."
"... The scariest game of chicken since the Cuban missile crisis is developing. Yet Westerners are mostly in the dark and pro-Russia "analysts" just believe in the magic of Putin and the inevitable defeat of AZW Empire. LOL. ..."
Sep 10, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Jackrabbit , Sep 9, 2018 10:57:13 PM | link

james, Alaric

I think you got the wrong impression. I'm not commenting on the accuracy of the reporting. That's why I gave the additional info that it was from an unnamed official BUT from a major MSM outfit.

I replied specifically to james @8 because the report (if true) would fit his astral timeline (even though I'm not a believer in astrology LOL).

<> <> <> <> <> <> <>

Whether you believe it or not (I have some reservations also), the report is consistent with warnings USA has made and with Russia's military build-up (they seem to have not dismissed USA as a paper tiger like some at MoA).

Here's my logic, FWIW:

1) FUKUS has committed themselves to taking some sort of action is there is a CW attack of any kind. As a result, the jihadis will almost certainly conduct one.

2) If Idlib is liberated, FUKUS has much less justification for remaining in Syria. And direct confrontation with R+6 is possible.

3) The only way that FUKUS can prevent R+6 from taking Idlib is to convince Turkey to enter Idlib for humanitarian reasons.

4) The price for Erdogan to enter Idlib is high and INCLUDES demonstrable military support from FUKUS - that means a willingness by FUKUS to take military action.

5) FUKUS proves their commitment to support Erdogan's movement into Idlib with a strong response to any CW 'incident'.

SAA and Russia can defeat 50-70,000 jihadis but they can't take Idlib if Turkey (backed by FUKUSI) opposes them. Would Russia start WWIII over Idlib? FUKUSI/NATO might well bet that Putin will not.

The scariest game of chicken since the Cuban missile crisis is developing. Yet Westerners are mostly in the dark and pro-Russia "analysts" just believe in the magic of Putin and the inevitable defeat of AZW Empire. LOL.

Alaric , Sep 9, 2018 11:26:55 PM | link
Jackrabbit @51

I concur. This is a very dangerous situation but a late Sunday anonymous threat is suspect.

Either

A) Someone is trying to make a threat without actually doing so (bluffing)

or

B) Donald dumb didn't make that threat, a neocon did perhaps to make the Don look crazy or because neocons are out of viable options.

It's possible the source provided legit info I guess but recall Donald dumb had the Secretary of State call the Russians to get them out of harms way before his first strike so I'm skeptical.

[Sep 10, 2018] US Says Assad Has Approved Gas Attack In Idlib, Setting Stage For Major Military Conflict

Sep 10, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com
At this point there's not even so much as feigning surprise or suspense in the now sadly all-too-familiar Syria script out of Washington.

The Wall Street Journal has just published a bombshell on Sunday evening as Russian and Syrian warplanes continue bombing raids over al-Qaeda held Idlib, citing unnamed US officials who claim " President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has approved the use of chlorine gas in an offensive against the country's last major rebel stronghold."

And perhaps more alarming is that the report details that Trump is undecided over whether new retaliatory strikes could entail expanding the attack to hit Assad allies Russia and Iran this time around .

That's right, unnamed US officials are now claiming to be in possession of intelligence which they say shows Assad has already given the order in an absolutely unprecedented level of "pre-crime" telegraphing of events on the battlefield .

And supposedly these officials have even identified the type of chemical weapon to be used: chlorine gas .

The anonymous officials told the WSJ of "new U.S. intelligence" in what appears an eerily familiar repeat of precisely how the 2003 invasion of Iraq was sold to the American public (namely, "anonymous officials" and vague assurances of unseen intelligence) -- albeit posturing over Idlib is now unfolding at an intensely more rapid pace :

Fears of a massacre have been fueled by new U.S. intelligence indicating Mr. Assad has cleared the way for the military to use chlorine gas in any offensive, U.S. officials said . It wasn't clear from the latest intelligence if Mr. Assad also had given the military permission to use sarin gas , the deadly nerve agent used several times in previous regime attacks on rebel-held areas. It is banned under international law.

It appears Washington is now saying an American attack on Syrian government forces and locations is all but inevitable .

And according to the report, President Trump may actually give the order to attack even if there's no claim of a chemical attack, per the WSJ:

In a recent discussion about Syria, people familiar with the exchange said, President Trump threatened to conduct a massive attack against Mr. Assad if he carries out a massacre in Idlib , the northwestern province that has become the last refuge for more than three million people and as many as 70,000 opposition fighters that the regime considers to be terrorists.

And further :

The Pentagon is crafting military options , but Mr. Trump hasn't decided what exactly would trigger a military response or whether the U.S. would target Russian or Iranian military forces aiding Mr. Assad in Syria , U.S. officials said.

Crucially, this is the first such indication of the possibility that White House and defense officials are mulling over hitting "Russian or Iranian military forces" in what would be a monumental escalation that would take the world to the brink of World War 3.

me title=

The WSJ report cites White House discussions of a third strike -- in reference to US attacks on Syria during the last two Aprils after chemical allegations were made against Damascus -- while indicating it would "likely would be more expansive than the first two" and could include targeting Russia and Iran .

The incredibly alarming report continues :

During the debate this year over how to respond to the second attack, Mr. Trump's national-security team weighed the idea of hitting Russian or Iranian targets in Syria , people familiar with the discussions said. But the Pentagon pushed for a more measured response, U.S. officials said, and the idea was eventually rejected as too risky.

A third U.S. strike likely would be more expansive than the first two, and Mr. Trump would again have to consider whether or not to hit targets like Russian air defenses in an effort to deliver a more punishing blow to Mr. Assad's military.

Last week the French ambassador, whose country also vowed to strike Syria if what it deems credible chemical allegations emerge, said during a U.N. Security Council meeting on Idlib : "Syria is once again at the edge of an abyss."

With Russia and Iran now in the West's cross hairs over Idlib, indeed the entire world is again at the edge of the abyss.

developing...


Jack Oliver ,

You must read this - Bolton is definitely FUCKING insane !

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.rt.com/usa/438023-icc-dead-war-crimes-bolton/amp/

Zero Point ,

LOL Wall Street Journal citing unnamed sources again. Anyone that gives this more than 0.0003 seconds worth of attention is a barely functional retard. Haha, looking at the comments below, we have a bunch of Charley Brown's running up to kick a football held by Lucy. Fuckin moron cunts.

Bokkenrijder ,

Trump has already written and signed the order for the attack, the only thing that needs to be added is the appropriate date for when Israel gives the green light

Wake up Trumptards!

Citium ,

Ok after all those thumbs down when I called Trump part of the swamp? You guys still agree that he wants to help the American people?

Get a grip. Y'all are getting Hoodwinked like Obama's first term. Increasing debt, increasing military expansion to police the globe, stimulus in he form of tax cuts to corporations who barely pay taxes, his inability to control Jeff sessions, his increase in deficits, expanded the surveillance state and takes credit for the Federal reserve all time high fake market.

Are you guys fucking delusional? Q is mossad, Alex Jones is mossad. Wake up. Both parties hate you and this is all Kabuki theater.

[Sep 10, 2018] Should Assad subsequently fall - and that is the actual aim of intervention - then Syria will become another anarchic wasteland ruled over by fundamentalist warlords.

Notable quotes:
"... We know the proceeds will go unmentioned into offshore havens and the London property market. Britain would derive no geopolitical benefit as a whole. The benefits would accrue only to a kleptocracy who think they have a right to use our country as a loan shark's leg-breaker. ..."
Apr 20, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

Vermithrax , 13 Apr 2018 15:39

Freedland recently put this argument on Newsnight.

It is flawed to the point of dishonesty.

He talks of removing assets as if the process was being conducted under laboratory conditions. There are ten nations enmeshed in a warzone with numerous factions under no one's control. It is magical thinking that cannot be achieved and will only result in rapid, uncontrolled escalation. The idea that there will be no collateral damage is laughable and I regret to suggest that it is deliberately misleading.

Moreover, in engaging Assad when he is on the brink of victory, the Syrian Civil War will be extended. The Syrian people will then pay the price.

Should Assad subsequently fall - and that is the actual aim of intervention - then Syria will become another anarchic wasteland ruled over by fundamentalist warlords. The spiral of migration will be renewed bringing loons wrapped in the dispossessed to our own streets. Worse, the militants next stop will be Lebanon and then Israel will be directly involved. Freedland advocates acting against Assad without even attempting to predict the consequences. At the very least I would expect the usual misdirection 'of course this time we must have a plan for rebuilding Syria', secure in the knowledge that by that time there will be another crisis and Syria can be left in entropy.

No good can come from military intervention. The satisfaction of commentators that the right thing has been done is an irrelevance. The right thing is always just public relations. Every bit of ruthless geopolitics has to have a casus belli to make the killing all righteous and unavoidable. It has always been thus. For resources to be expended on this kind of scale there has to be a rock solid bit of bankable realpolitik. In this case its the struggle for regional hegemony between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Syria can either be part of a supply chain selling Sunni gas/oil to Europe or Shi'a gas/oil to Europe. This is about killing Syrians for the glory of Saudi Arabia. You can see why there has to be a casus belli because thats not something that can be sold. We know the proceeds will go unmentioned into offshore havens and the London property market. Britain would derive no geopolitical benefit as a whole. The benefits would accrue only to a kleptocracy who think they have a right to use our country as a loan shark's leg-breaker.

It is therefore my contention that Freedland is promoting an immoral act that will have serious consequences without offering any serious improvement in the situation. This is arguably the most dangerous situation since the Cuban Missile crisis and an analysis that advocates pouring oil on the flames is either ridiculously stupid or calculatedly duplicitous.

thousandautumns -> balancedman , 13 Apr 2018 15:39
"Up to" 13,000 "opponents" killed over five years during a period of war. I'm assuming that number of "opponents" includes a large number of out and out terrorists who have thrown the country into chaos.
Brianto , 13 Apr 2018 15:39
What is Porton Down manufacturing?
oldeborr , 13 Apr 2018 15:38
The UK and France bares a heavy responsibility for the current situation in Syria. The cavalier attitude that the ConDems took to international law during the Arab spring encouraged the Saudi s and their proxies to distablise the recognised Govt. Assad is no paragon of virtue, but prior to the insurgency steps were in place to make the country a better place for its citizens, and whilst its true political dissent was not allowed, people could live their lives and go about their business in safety.

[Sep 09, 2018] The Yinon Plan, is an Israeli strategic plan to ensure Israeli regional superiority stipulates reconfiguration of its geo-political environment through the balkanization of the surrounding Arab states into smaller and weaker states.

Sep 09, 2018 | www.unz.com

annamaria , says: September 6, 2018 at 4:24 pm GMT

@Sam Shama Bibi is a showman, that much is clear. You seem to be making equivalencies, not in evidence.

If you believe that the captain of the flight group was an insider to some alleged conspiracy, then it must have been unique, one which ran down from the ranks of the top brass all the way to the active operation captains. A tall order to believe. It would also require you to believe that in the many friendly fire incidents, involved personnel never commit errors judging the size of a vessel etc. Again, not the case. Indeed, Bibi is a shoah-man.
Meanwhile, the Jewish Al Qaeda has been on the march in Syria: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-09-05/israels-military-censor-removed-news-report-detailing-idf-support-syrian-armed
Comment section: " The Zionist Plan for the Middle East, also known as the Yinon Plan, is an Israeli strategic plan to ensure Israeli regional superiority. It insists and stipulates that Israel must reconfigure its geo-political environment through the balkanization of the surrounding Arab states into smaller and weaker states.
When viewed in the current context, the war on Iraq, the 2006 war on Lebanon, the 2011 war on Libya, the ongoing war on Syria, not to mention the process of regime change in Egypt, must be understood in relation to the Zionist Plan for the Middle East. The latter consists in weakening and eventually fracturing neighboring Arab states as part of an Israeli expansionist project.
"Greater Israel" consists in an area extending from the Nile Valley to the Euphrates"
– In short, the genocidal wars in Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, and Syria are the result of the Jewish aspiration for "greatness." Another Bolshevik plan that is causing the enormous tragedy for the innocent civilian populations, thanks to Jewish supremacist ideology and sadism.

" the Syrian Army had routinely recovered weapons and supplies [for Al Qaeda] with Hebrew inscriptions from insurgent positions were in reality accurate even though widely dismissed at the time in international media. -- And who owns the MSM? http://www.inspiretochangeworld.com/2016/10/six-jewish-companies-control-96-worlds-media/

"Wars Were Planned – Seven Countries In Five Years:"

The success of Oded Yinon plan, in pictures:
Lybia:
Iraq:
Syria:

[Sep 09, 2018] If the SAA and allies wait more than a week they may lose their initiative as surely something spectacular is being devised, they need to keep moving fast right through the chemical stunt and what ever the reaction is.

Notable quotes:
"... The desperate panic of the US shows very clearly that there are many US special forces in Idlib embedded with the terrorists, who are in danger of capture (hence interrogation - the US would be less worried about their lives than releasing information about ther support for the terrorist chemical weapon attacks). ..."
"... On Turkey, the US are obviously trying to blackmail Turkey, and subject massive pressure to turn them. But it seems all the more implausible that Turkey would go back to the US side when the US is apparently planning to consolidate the Kurdish state ..."
"... No doubt the US is planning to use their ISIS proxy massively during Idlib. ..."
"... IMO, Erdogan doth protest too much as he created the terrorist occupation of Northern Syria and Idlib Province, had lots of time to get his terrorists separated from the more extreme (or perhaps they're all extreme which is why they can't/won't be separated), and deserved to be in a cell at The Hague instead of negotiating in Tehran. Turks deserve better leadership than that provided by Erdogan, but unfortunately both Turks and the world are stuck for the moment with Erdogan. ..."
"... Quite what the Turks are up to seems to me not clear. Obviously they have to defend (politically) their conquest of Afrin, which was anti-Kurd, but executed by Sunni Jihadis. Will they defend the jihadis in Idlib? That seems to me less evident. They may do nothing. ..."
"... According to Russian sources, Erdogan has said the ceasefire would not apply to designated terrorists, so in that sense, the long-established de-escalation / reconciliation process would apply to Syrians (only) in Idlib who renounce violence and support a peaceful political process. ..."
"... There have been reports that HTS has executed a Syrian doctor, Dr. Hussein Aydin (sp ?) in Idlib city for refusing to cooperate with the forthcoming WH false flag. ..."
"... As suspected, the Israeli rescue operation for 800 WH in southern Syria was intended to allow them to extract a number of their operatives. That was only possible because Israel had control of the border. ..."
"... The same won't be true of any UK operatives still in Idlib, especially if Turkey does clamp down hard (can always hope). No wonder the UK is playing the Skripal card for all its worth. ..."
"... I have been listening to the UNSC meeting, and both France and Kuwait were quite insistent that the poor civilians in Idlib are in dire need of increased humanitarian aid, which they insist should be delivered by Turkey. I smell a rat. ..."
"... The "underpants" plan was most likely concocted by Israel-firsters. The context: The Jewish State has been arming the Al Qaeda in Syria with Israel-made weaponry: http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/11/how-the-us-and-israel-support-al-qaeda-in-south-syria.html ..."
"... At the same time, the Jewish State has been arming the neo-Nazi in Ukraine with Israel-made rifles: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-10/major-israeli-daily-our-government-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine ..."
"... There is a bit of self-contradiction in the US govt statements. They admit it's a civil war. That implies there is more than one side. But then the goal is stated that there is to be one leader to be approved by ALL Syrians. That is not possible. It's not even possible in the US. ..."
"... The administration spokesperson called for "a stable, nonthreatening government acceptable to all Syrians and the international community, unlike our own situation here in the United States" Apparently his full quote was cropped before going out to the stenos. ..."
"... I find this observation apt: "A senior #Russia/n diplomat in a private talk following #TehranSummit: "There's no "moderate opposition" in #Idlib left. All the folks who wanted to reconcile w/ #Assad, make deals w/ #Moscow already did so in other regions. What's moved to Idlib are die-hard radicals" ..."
"... After Khamenei's meeting with Erdogan , he met with Putin and then the rest of the team. His narrative's bold yet measured as with this example: "One of the cases on which #Iran and #Russia can cooperate is harnessing the United States; because the United States is a threat to the humanity and it is possible to harness it." More of the meeting is available in English on Khamenei's own website , the existence of which I just discovered. Enlightening reading to be sure! ..."
"... While Britain crumbled in compliments of the OPCW experts it had bought for the act, Russia dealt the most powerful bomb attack in Idlib, clearing the way for the Syrian army to destroy the last enclave of American suckers. And thus it struck a blow to the British political elite. After all, all the dances around the Scripals and the subsequent sanctions are designed to prevent what Russia is doing now in Idlib. Not prevented. And this is a demonstration of the weakness of the British ruling class, capable only of biting stealthily behind its heels. ..."
Sep 09, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 , Sep 7, 2018 12:31:49 PM | link

It's a good morning in my corner of the planet, and thanks for all the feedback, particularly Pft @50!

So far, no False Flag attack has occurred in concert with the Tehran Summit or UNSC meeting as many anticipated, which is very positive. Statements coming out of Tehran are very diplomatic. The comment I made at Sputnik 's report centered on Erdogan's having created his Idlib dilemma himself and what he could do to atone for his moral failings for the entire Syria debacle he helped to cause. A Joint Statement was published, of which point #2 was aimed directly at the Outlaw US Empire and the UN:

"2. Emphasized their strong and continued commitment to the sovereignty, independence, unity and territorial integrity of the Syrian Arab Republic as well as to the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and highlighted that they should be respected by all. They reiterated that no actions, no matter by whom they were undertaken, should undermine these principles. They rejected all attempts to create new realities on the ground under the pretext of combating terrorism and expressed their determination to stand against separatist agendas aimed at undermining the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria as well as the national security of neighboring countries."

What I'm missing is a transcript of the joint news conference as the snippets offered by TASS only cover specific, yet important, points, this one being most important as Putin calls for terrorists to "... wisen up, stop putting up resistance and lay down their arms."

So far, I've seen nothing from the UNSC meeting, but it's only just after noon there.

Anunnaki , Sep 7, 2018 1:03:55 PM | link
This is such amazing insights. Like a game of Risk for real. Thanks for the truth and not the presstitute bullshit: aka sympathy for Al Qaeda
Jason , Sep 7, 2018 2:21:09 PM | link
If the SAA and allies wait more than a week they may lose their initiative as surely something spectacular is being devised, they need to keep moving fast right through the chemical stunt and what ever the reaction is. PMUs should bring a force to the border and publicly demand to be unmolested in an assault on ISIS around Al Tanf. Any supposed guerrilla assault by Arabs in the NE should begin at the onset of the Idleb offensive. If there were a cost for the SDF/US occupation at the same time as the US population is told we must defend Al Qeada in Idleb the whole narrative maybe harder to explain to the US. Also where is China? If they aren't going to commit special forces or advisors as they hinted, than a strong statement about the need and right of the Syrian people to eliminate these jihadi forces on the world stage would help the whole situation quite a bit.
BM , Sep 7, 2018 2:24:06 PM | link
The desperate panic of the US shows very clearly that there are many US special forces in Idlib embedded with the terrorists, who are in danger of capture (hence interrogation - the US would be less worried about their lives than releasing information about ther support for the terrorist chemical weapon attacks). I hope Russia will not allow any of them to escape. They should try to jam their communications.

On Turkey, the US are obviously trying to blackmail Turkey, and subject massive pressure to turn them. But it seems all the more implausible that Turkey would go back to the US side when the US is apparently planning to consolidate the Kurdish state, which is an existential threat to Turkey far greater than anything (else) the US can threaten them. Is it possible that Erdogan is bluffing in his resistance to the Idlib battle, as Kabuki theatre for Washington? (And also as Kabuki for the terrorists, whose turning against Turkey he fears).

BM , Sep 7, 2018 2:37:03 PM | link
PMUs should bring a force to the border and publicly demand to be unmolested in an assault on ISIS around Al Tanf. ... Also where is China?
Posted by: Jason | Sep 7, 2018 2:21:09 PM | 21

That's a good point about the Iraqi PMU's bringing a force to the border near al Tanf. Otherwise any ISIS forces pursued by Russia could take refuge on the Iraqi side which Russia is not allowed to bomb. No doubt the US is planning to use their ISIS proxy massively during Idlib.

I am surprised the Chinese are not bringing in their new drones for testing in Idlib.

karlof1 , Sep 7, 2018 2:42:33 PM | link
Not every portion of the Turkish Wall with Syria's watched/defended as this photo attests . The Russian commentary reads: "Likely supporters of the militants of the "moderate opposition" flee to Turkey, in connection with the approach of the beginning of the Syrian army operation in Idlib province."

IMO, Erdogan doth protest too much as he created the terrorist occupation of Northern Syria and Idlib Province, had lots of time to get his terrorists separated from the more extreme (or perhaps they're all extreme which is why they can't/won't be separated), and deserved to be in a cell at The Hague instead of negotiating in Tehran. Turks deserve better leadership than that provided by Erdogan, but unfortunately both Turks and the world are stuck for the moment with Erdogan.

Laguerre , Sep 7, 2018 3:03:21 PM | link
Quite what the Turks are up to seems to me not clear. Obviously they have to defend (politically) their conquest of Afrin, which was anti-Kurd, but executed by Sunni Jihadis. Will they defend the jihadis in Idlib? That seems to me less evident. They may do nothing.
Yonatan , Sep 7, 2018 3:08:39 PM | link
According to Russian sources, Erdogan has said the ceasefire would not apply to designated terrorists, so in that sense, the long-established de-escalation / reconciliation process would apply to Syrians (only) in Idlib who renounce violence and support a peaceful political process. In this context, the Russians offer their support.

https://z5h64q92x9.net/proxy_u/ru-en.en/rusvesna.su/news/1536328450

There have been reports that HTS has executed a Syrian doctor, Dr. Hussein Aydin (sp ?) in Idlib city for refusing to cooperate with the forthcoming WH false flag.

Irrespective of the weak, venal Erdogan's inability to commit, the 'mealy-mouthed outcome' is just words. Idlib is going to be cleared by the SAA, Iran, Hezbollah, RuAF and others. Turkey will have no alternative but to seal its border to stop the terrorists streaming through or face their wrath if they do. Maybe the opposition position that Erdgan should deal with Assad over this is a result of them seeing this potential outcome.

As suspected, the Israeli rescue operation for 800 WH in southern Syria was intended to allow them to extract a number of their operatives. That was only possible because Israel had control of the border.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/four-rebel-commanders-flee-to-israel-as-syrian-army-takes-over-quneitra/

The same won't be true of any UK operatives still in Idlib, especially if Turkey does clamp down hard (can always hope). No wonder the UK is playing the Skripal card for all its worth.

wagelaborer , Sep 7, 2018 4:15:43 PM | link
I have been listening to the UNSC meeting, and both France and Kuwait were quite insistent that the poor civilians in Idlib are in dire need of increased humanitarian aid, which they insist should be delivered by Turkey. I smell a rat.
Anya , Sep 7, 2018 5:43:21 PM | link
The "underpants" plan was most likely concocted by Israel-firsters. The context: The Jewish State has been arming the Al Qaeda in Syria with Israel-made weaponry: http://www.moonofalabama.org/2014/11/how-the-us-and-israel-support-al-qaeda-in-south-syria.html

At the same time, the Jewish State has been arming the neo-Nazi in Ukraine with Israel-made rifles: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-10/major-israeli-daily-our-government-arming-neo-nazis-ukraine

This looks like a final stage of the unraveling of the Holocaust business.

Jackrabbit , Sep 7, 2018 5:45:02 PM | link
FYI I'm not advocating an attack on Idlib. I'm not saying that Putin is 'soft' or anything like that. Russia, Syria, and Iran gambled on bringing Turkey into their coalition. Maybe that was a gamble worth taking. But now they pay the price. Turkey has a veto on Idlib attack. I'm sure game plans will be properly adjusted.
Curtis , Sep 7, 2018 6:01:43 PM | link
There is a bit of self-contradiction in the US govt statements. They admit it's a civil war. That implies there is more than one side. But then the goal is stated that there is to be one leader to be approved by ALL Syrians. That is not possible. It's not even possible in the US. And no lesson was learned from the latest forgotten war - Libya - which now has 3 governments amid anarchy caused by US/NATO/Qatar/S-A actions. Maybe Assad should invoke the memory of Lincoln who was faced with a rebellion and ask what business is it of the US to interfere.
karlof1 , Sep 7, 2018 6:01:58 PM | link
Comic Relief at UNSC as Haley had to sit and endure Syria's Bashar Al-Jaafari's presentation--she usually leaves the hall!
Curtis , Sep 7, 2018 6:04:45 PM | link
DW just had a segment on the meeting in Tehran of Putin, Erdogan, and Rouhani. They claimed a desire to separate the "moderate" from HYAT but admitted that while Erdogan did not want any refugees, Turkey had supported the terrorists in the past. Ha ha. That's tough, Erdogan. You must reap what you have sown.
Bart Hansen , Sep 7, 2018 6:16:09 PM | link
The administration spokesperson called for "a stable, nonthreatening government acceptable to all Syrians and the international community, unlike our own situation here in the United States" Apparently his full quote was cropped before going out to the stenos.
karlof1 , Sep 7, 2018 6:35:58 PM | link
I find this observation apt: "A senior #Russia/n diplomat in a private talk following #TehranSummit: "There's no "moderate opposition" in #Idlib left. All the folks who wanted to reconcile w/ #Assad, make deals w/ #Moscow already did so in other regions. What's moved to Idlib are die-hard radicals"

I don't know from what source came the idea that the Liberation of Idlib's been postponed. Putin specifically said there'll be no ceasefire on live TV so all the Turks back home would learn the hard truth.

After Khamenei's meeting with Erdogan , he met with Putin and then the rest of the team. His narrative's bold yet measured as with this example: "One of the cases on which #Iran and #Russia can cooperate is harnessing the United States; because the United States is a threat to the humanity and it is possible to harness it." More of the meeting is available in English on Khamenei's own website , the existence of which I just discovered. Enlightening reading to be sure!

jmichael72 , Sep 8, 2018 1:41:28 AM | link
@59 redrooster

Until the Vostok-2018 joint military exercises with China are over (Sept 17), I don't believe Russia will give the go-ahead on a full-scale assault of Idlib. If a chemical weapons attack is faked, things could get hot real fast, and Russia will need all the involved military assets in place.

There is no immediate risk of Syria losing the initiative, the offensive need not be rushed. Plenty of intelligence to gather in the meantime, probing and softening of positions, feints designed to fix the enemy in place and reveal supply lines...and diplomacy, the Russians seem to take diplomacy pretty seriously.

I don't see what Turkey gets playing for time.

pogohere , Sep 8, 2018 3:00:08 AM | link
Karlofi@39
Jackrabbit@44
James@51

See: Russia's asymmetric response is very painful.

https://cont.ws/@alex-haldey/1054552

machine translated from the original Russian; excerpted:

The fact is that Russia pursues its policy without regard to their provocations. She defeated the Wahhabis trained by the West in the Caucasus, snatched Crimea from under the nose. The US scenario in Ukraine broke. Restores the EAEC. In Syria, Russia completely threw the Anglo-Saxon West off the pedestal, which he held there all the post-war 50 years. That is, with its bombing of Igilov barmaleyov, Russia has broken the main ribs of the rigidity of the geopolitical world contour built by the Americans. This is a disaster, which the Anglo-Saxon world has nothing to answer nuclear to Russia.

While Britain crumbled in compliments of the OPCW experts it had bought for the act, Russia dealt the most powerful bomb attack in Idlib, clearing the way for the Syrian army to destroy the last enclave of American suckers. And thus it struck a blow to the British political elite. After all, all the dances around the Scripals and the subsequent sanctions are designed to prevent what Russia is doing now in Idlib. Not prevented. And this is a demonstration of the weakness of the British ruling class, capable only of biting stealthily behind its heels.

But worst of all, the actions in Idlib demonstrate the US weakness. Trump is completely zamordovan - not their rivals, and Russia. Exactly. Russia has revealed the preparations for the provocation of the Khimatki in Idlib, which the United Nations has declared throughout the world. And all this was heard. With all the details, includes the number of barrels and their color, as well as a description of the ways of delivering chlorine from Idlib and places of their secret storage. All the trumps of Americans are shone. There is absolutely no sense in the operation.

But the operation will be. The match will take place in any weather. The United States has already outlined the places on which they will strike rocket-bomb strikes. The assault will be more decisive than the previous time. Preparation is as if the US is confident - the chlorine attack will take place. Then, when they decide in the US. Not in Damascus, but in Washington. That is, in general, all masks are dropped and the States openly prepare for aggression with provocation in a sovereign country where they are open in the status of an occupier. And even if there is no chemotherapy at all, the American blow will take place. Too much Russian was battered by bombs of American protégés. They are too close to defeat, for which the reason for finding Americans in Syria will disappear. How can this be allowed? The impact of prestige is necessary and it will be, even if the Sun falls to the ground and the Mississippi will flow backwards. Only prestige is not visible.

States are increasingly falling from the strategy to tactics. The attack on Syria is necessary for Americans not because they will decide something in the outcome of the campaign. He will not decide anything, because the US needs to introduce its ground forces to change the course of the war, with all the ensuing consequences - the death of the military and the clash with Iran, Syria and Russia. And even with Turkey. With China silently standing behind them. This is a guaranteed defeat, the global consequences of which are unpredictable. The first thing that can be seen is the collapse of NATO. The second Vietnam will crush not only the American president, but the US itself. Therefore, the Americans will score a goal of prestige and leave the lost match. They will strike at Syria, where again Russian intelligence will reveal in advance the alleged targets of the strike, withdraw the Syrian leadership from there, and then again a lot of exploding Tomahawks seeps from the fields of Idlib,

Russia in Idlib is now a difficult task. It does not consist in repelling an American attack, but in not getting it off TOO MUCH. Trump goes to the attack not because he wants to defeat the Russians in Syria, but because he wants to defeat the globalists in America. And do it on the eve of the congressional elections. That is, the reasons for the American attack on Syria are purely internal. If Russia gives too much in Syria to Trump on snot, she risks drowning him, instead of somehow supporting his formidable image and helping to win. Simply because Trump is beneficial to Russia - it's too cool he breaks everything on what the American power of the past decades was based. Turning such a guy into an idiot and helping his impeachment is beyond the national interests of Russia. We can not now overstep the stick in Syria. Trump must come out of the shelling with a good man,

That is, the fate of the United States is now in Russia's hands. And Russia is leading America according to its plan, lowering it slowly and controllably - although the US remains the world hegemon and very much at the same time beating Russia with sanctions. But Russia does not loose her teeth on the throat of the States. At the same time, Berlin, supported by Moscow's cheap gas, is on the brink of London in Europe.

It's very painful to understand this to the British and Americans. It is so painful that no collapse of the ruble and Hochma in Salisbury with the filing letters of local clerks from the OPCW, who were intimidated by British special services, can not satisfy this pain. Russia responds asymmetrically - by continuing to do what has become the cause of such insane and ineffective actions by London and Washington. After the United States has fired back from Damascus, Russia and Syria will continue to squeeze Idlib and squeeze him. And after that they will build a "big Chinese wall" around Deir-ez-Zor and not a single mouse will slip out of there, especially with oil. We have already shown by the example of Erdogan how easily caravans with oil are bombed, Russia does not want to allow its exports from Syria. And the US will have to withdraw from there. And the subject of negotiations with Russia will be the preservation of the US face in this history of their next defeat. In the meantime, Russia needs to try very hard not to let Trump get missiles to where they do not need to, and yet not expose him as a weakling and a symbol of American disgrace. Russia should give Trump the opportunity to finish his important business. The second such president the United States will not have, as Russia will not have a second Gorbachev.

[Sep 09, 2018] A country where an immigrant Sikh girl can become a neocon ambassador

Notable quotes:
"... We Americans are totally subject to ziocon propaganda when it comes to Middle East affairs. Anyone that disagrees with that viewpoint is immediately labeled anti-semitic and now banned from social media and of course from the TV talk shows. ..."
"... Jack posed an interesting question, how does someone like Putin respond to an irrational US who in their delusions can easily escalate military conflict if their ego gets bruised when it is shown that they don't have the unilateral power of a hegemon? ..."
"... Always thought that Nikki Haley was the price Donald Trump had to pay to get Sheldon Adelson's large campaign contributions in 2016. Adelson was Trump's second biggest contributor. So was recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. Sheldon got his money's worth. https://www.investopedia.co... ..."
"... Nikki Haley's Sikh origins may have something to do with her anti-Muslim feelings. ..."
"... it is hypocritical in the extreme for the U.S. to be criticising anyone for killing people anywhere after what they have been doing in the Middle East. According to Professor Gideon Polya the total avoidable deaths in Afghanstan alone since 2001 under ongoing war and occupation-imposed deprivation amount to around three million people, about 900,000 of whom are infants under the age of five (see Professor Gideon Polya at La Trobe University in Melbourne book, 'Body Count: Global Avoidable Mortality Since 1950' and Washington DC-based Physicians for Social Responsibility study: http://www.psr.org/assets/p... . ..."
"... Is it in our DNA that we can't learn lessons from our interventionist experience in the Middle East? Looks like Iraq is spinning out of control once again. I'm sure many including the Shia may reminisce favorably to the Sadam years despite his tyranny. https://ejmagnier.com/2018/... ..."
"... We are indoctrinated with the idea that all people are basically the same. In fact this is only true at the level of basics like shelter, food, sex, etc. We refuse to really believe in the reality of widely varying cultures. It makes us incapable, as a group, of understanding people who do not share our outlook. i have been dealing with this all my life as a delegated "ambassador" to the "others." ..."
"... In this context, if you were Vladimir Putin and knowing that President Trump is completely ignorant when it comes to history and policy details and has surrounded himself with neocons as far as foreign policy is concerned and Bibi has him eating out of his hands, how would you deal with him if he starts to get belligerent in Syria and Ukraine? ..."
"... Did the Syrians get upset by General Sherman's destructive march through South Carolina? No. It was a mistake for the US ever getting involved in Syria, with forming, equipping and training foreign armies and shadow governments including replacement prime ministers, all in violation of the UN Charter. ..."
"... Trump is more savagely and ignorantly aggressive. ..."
"... Trump, Nikki and Bolton have been tweeting warnings about the Idlib offensive and already accusing Assad if there are any chemical attacks. Wonder why? Lavrov has also made comments that he expects a chemical use false flag. Not sure about this post on Zerohedge, but if it has any credibility then it would appear that the US military is getting ready for some kind of provocation. ..."
Sep 08, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

"In her statement during the UN Security Council briefing, Haley said that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and its "enablers," Russia and Iran have a playbook for the war in Syria. First, they surround a civilian area. Next, they make the "preposterous claim that everyone in the area is a terrorist," thus making all civilians targets. That is followed by a "starve and surrender" campaign, during which Syrian security forces keep attacking until the people no longer have food, clean water, or shelter. "It's a playbook of death. The Assad regime has spent the last seven years refining it with Russia and Iran's help."

According to her it has happened many times before, in July 2018 it happened in Dara'a and the southwest of Syria, where Syrian forces "trapped and besieged civilians." In February 2018, it was Ghouta. In 2017 it was Aleppo, and prior to that places like Madaya and Hama.

According to her, Assad's government has left the country in ruins. "The atrocities committed by Assad will be a permanent stain on history and a black mark for this Council -- which was blocked over and over by Russia from taking action to help," Nikki Haley said." SF

------------

Well, strictly speaking, her parents were immigrants, not she. She was born in Bamberg, South Carolina, a little town in the Piedmont that is majority Black. Her parents were professional people at Amritsar in the Punjab. Haley is the surname of her husband. Nikki is a nickname by which she has long been known. As governor, she was in favor of flying the Confederate flag on the Statehouse grounds before the Charleston massacre of Black Christians at a Bible study session. They were killed by an unstable white teen aged misfit whom they had invited to join their worship. After that Nikki discovered that the Confederate flag was a bad and disruptive symbol. It was a popular position across the country and Nikki became an instant "hit," the flavor of the month so to speak.

I suppose that she was supposed to be an interesting and decorative figure as UN ambassador. She is quite pretty and the South Carolina accent adds to the effect.

The positions she has taken at the UN with regard to the ME are similar to those expressed by her boss, President Trump. They are largely reflections of images projected by the popular and mass media operating as Zionist propaganda machines. I don't believe that the State Department's INR analytic bureau believes the crapola that she spouts with such hysteric fervor. I don't believe that my former friend David Satterfield believes the crapola. So, where does she get ideas like the ones quoted above? IMO she is trying to out-Trump Trump. DJT is a remarkably ignorant man concerning the geo-politics of just about everything in the ME. He appears to have once seen the film, "Exodus" and to have decided on the basis of Paul Newman's performance as Begin that the situation was and is quite simple - Israel good! Everyone else bad! Nikki's depth of knowledge appears to be just about the same.

She also appears to me to be in receipt of a stream of opinion from various Zionist and anti-Muslim groups probably related to the anti-Muslim ravings of Maronite and other Christian ME extremists.

These groups cannot seem to understand that alliances shift as does policy. They don't seem to understand that Israel's policy in Syria is no longer regime change. They never seem to have understood that the Syrian government is the protector of the religious minorities against Sunni jihadi fanatics.

They don't seem to understand that the Syrian government has no choice but to recover Idlib Province, a piece of Syria's heartland. pl

https://southfront.org/us-ambassador-to-un-goes-wild-claims-russia-syria-iran-seek-to-kill-civilians-destroy-schools-and-hospitals-in-idlib/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikki_Haley

Posted at 10:31 AM in As The Borg Turns , government , Iran , Middle East , Politics , Russia , Syria , Turkey | Permalink | 2 Comments


Don Bacon , 19 hours ago

Haley's "playbook" is used by the US but not by Russia & Iran as she claims, with all civilians being targeted. Instead, Russia & Iran have taken warfare to a higher and better level, allowing the armed factions to surrender their arms and get on a bus or be killed, and many of them took the bus to preserve their lives until the final offensive. A third option, which many of them took, was to join the SAA and fight against their former comrades. All of this statecraft was revolutionary, and was not at all as Haley described, including the crocodile tears over Syrian lives which has never been honest especially considering the level of support Assad has within Syria.
Jaime -> Don Bacon , 16 hours ago
I agree it is revolutionary, at least in modern times in the western world. I wonder if it will set a "trend": a more humane way to wage war. I am sure it will be studied in war colleges.
Jonathan A. Goff , a day ago
Pat,

One observation I had while thinking about the Ambassador Haley quote you provided (which I think supports the point you were making in your post):

When the US was in a somewhat similar situation during the occupation of Iraq, where Sunni militants were in open rebellion and controlling towns like Fallujah, our response wasn't wildly different to the Syrian government's response. The US gov't at the time typically labeled any armed resistance "terrorists", and while they might acknowledge that there were civilians in those territories in addition to terrorists, they were just "human shields" and "regrettable collateral damage". Did the US try a little harder, and have a bit better of technology, training, etc, and do a little bit better of trying to limit damage to civilians when crushing those uprisings? Yes. But we're mostly talking modest quantitative differences in response, not fundamentally morally superior qualitative differences. I bet you if you took pictures of towns like Fallujah, Sadr City, etc, after US counter-insurgency operations, and mixed them in with pictures of trashed Syrian towns that had just been liberated from rebel groups, and showed them to Nikki Haley, or frankly any neocon, they'd have a hard time telling the difference.

~Jon

Biggee Mikeee -> Jonathan A. Goff , 21 hours ago
As I was reading this topic Raqqa and Fallujah came to mind. In the case of Fallujah I don't recall if the civilians were given an opportunity to evacuate. They were not in ISIS controlled Raqqa. In any event Haley's blather at the UN is for the consumption of the rubes.
O rly -> Biggee Mikeee , 18 hours ago
as far as i recall in the battle for fallujah, only women and children were permitted to leave during the siege.and during the siege of Mosul they were dropping leaflets telling people not to try and leave.
Jonathan A. Goff -> Biggee Mikeee , 19 hours ago
And giving civilians a chance to evacuate doesn't help as much as one would think if the insurgents/rebels really do want to use them as human shields.

~Jon

stevenwithavee -> Jonathan A. Goff , 16 hours ago
Speaking to young marines in the aftermath of the second assault on Fallujah I learned that although women and children were allowed to pass the checkpoints but men of fighting age (also known as the father, brother or husband who was driving the families out of the city) were sent back into the city.
jdledell , 16 hours ago
In talking with people here in the U.S. about Syria there is the total lack of understanding of Assad's Alawite government. There are a couple million Christians in Syria and it is Assad's government that protects them from the Saudi sponsored Sunni headchoppers who would like to eliminate Christians, Jews, and Shia from the Middle East. Perhaps, the Alawites being an offshoot of Shia makes them sensitive to minority religions. However, mentioning Assad evokes strong negative reaction among U.S. Christians, similar to Trumps "lets kill them all". On my one visit to Damascus, traveling on my U.S. Passport rather than my Israeli one, The Christians I met were uniformly positive about Assad and the need for Assad to control the ENTIRE country.
blue peacock -> jdledell , 15 hours ago
Thank you for providing your direct experience of the views of Christian Syrians you met there.

Unfortunately none of those views ever make it to either to our print or broadcast media. We Americans are totally subject to ziocon propaganda when it comes to Middle East affairs. Anyone that disagrees with that viewpoint is immediately labeled anti-semitic and now banned from social media and of course from the TV talk shows.

Jack posed an interesting question, how does someone like Putin respond to an irrational US who in their delusions can easily escalate military conflict if their ego gets bruised when it is shown that they don't have the unilateral power of a hegemon?

Bag Man , 17 hours ago
Always thought that Nikki Haley was the price Donald Trump had to pay to get Sheldon Adelson's large campaign contributions in 2016. Adelson was Trump's second biggest contributor. So was recognition of Jerusalem as the Israeli capital. Sheldon got his money's worth. https://www.investopedia.co...
Pat Lang Mod , 20 hours ago
Somebody said that Nikki's nonsense is for "the rubes." Nah, you town people are just as gullible.
ex-PFC Chuck , 17 hours ago
There's a disturbing piece up today at WaPo by Karen De Young asserting the USA is doubling down in Syria. From the piece, emphasis by ex-PFC Chuck:
"We've started using new language," [James] Jeffrey said, referring to previous warnings against the use of chemical weapons. Now, he said, the United States will not tolerate "an attack. Period." "Any offensive is to us objectionable as a reckless escalation" he said. "You add to that, if you use chemical weapons, or create refu­gee flows or attack innocent civilians," and "the consequences of that are that we will shift our positions and use all of our tools to make it clear that we'll have to find ways to achieve our goals that are less reliant on the goodwill of the Russians."

Jeffrey is said to be Pompeo's point person on Syria. Do any of you with ears closer to the ground than those of us in flyover land know anything about this change of tune?

Biggee Mikeee , 19 hours ago
.Iraq PM urged to quit as key ally deserts him over unrest.

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al-Abadi faced calls to resign yesterday as his alliance with a populist cleric who won May elections crumbled over deadly unrest shaking the country's south. The two leading groups in parliament called on Abadi to step down, after lawmakers held an emergency meeting on the public anger boiling over in the southern city of Basra.,...

The Conquest Alliance of pro-Iranian former paramilitary fighters was "on the same wavelength" as Sadr's Marching Towards Reform list and they would work together to form a new government, Assadi said. Abadi, whose grouping came third in the May polls, defended his record in parliament, describig the unrest as "political sabotage" and saying the crisis over public services was being exploited for political ends. http://news.kuwaittimes.net...

Has McGurk been outmaneuvered by the Iranians?

The Beaver -> Biggee Mikeee , 18 hours ago
According to Elijah Magnier :
Soleimani 1- Brett McGurk 0
Matina Zia , 20 hours ago
Nikki Haley's Sikh origins may have something to do with her anti-Muslim feelings. According to J. D Cunningham, author of 'History of the Sikhs (Appendix XX)' included among the injunctions ordained by Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth guru, 'a Khalsa (true Sikh) proves himself if he mounts a warhorse; is always waging war; kills a Khan (Muslim) and slays the Turks (Muslims).'

Aside from this, it is hypocritical in the extreme for the U.S. to be criticising anyone for killing people anywhere after what they have been doing in the Middle East. According to Professor Gideon Polya the total avoidable deaths in Afghanstan alone since 2001
under ongoing war and occupation-imposed deprivation amount to around three million people, about 900,000 of whom are infants under the age of five (see Professor Gideon Polya at La Trobe University in Melbourne book, 'Body Count: Global Avoidable Mortality Since 1950' and Washington DC-based Physicians for Social Responsibility study: http://www.psr.org/assets/p... .

Pat Lang Mod -> Matina Zia , 20 hours ago
I really doubt your numbers. What is your stake in this discussion?
Fred -> Matina Zia , 12 hours ago
Your good professor sounds like a great piece of work. "Body Count. Global avoidable mortality since 1950" Perhaps we should have stopped all that foreign aid in the '50s.
stevenwithavee -> Matina Zia , 15 hours ago
The under five mortality figures from Afghanistan (1 in 5) are a problem that preceded our involvement by many years. However, the failure of the international community to make any significant progress over the last 17 years would be a legitimate criticism.
Jack , 20 hours ago
Sir

Is it in our DNA that we can't learn lessons from our interventionist experience in the Middle East? Looks like Iraq is spinning out of control once again. I'm sure many including the Shia may reminisce favorably to the Sadam years despite his tyranny. https://ejmagnier.com/2018/...

Pat Lang Mod -> Jack , 19 hours ago
We are indoctrinated with the idea that all people are basically the same. In fact this is only true at the level of basics like shelter, food, sex, etc. We refuse to really believe in the reality of widely varying cultures. It makes us incapable, as a group, of understanding people who do not share our outlook. i have been dealing with this all my life as a delegated "ambassador" to the "others."
Jack -> Pat Lang , 19 hours ago
Thank you, Sir. It makes perfect sense with the End if History and all those beliefs.

In this context, if you were Vladimir Putin and knowing that President Trump is completely ignorant when it comes to history and policy details and has surrounded himself with neocons as far as foreign policy is concerned and Bibi has him eating out of his hands, how would you deal with him if he starts to get belligerent in Syria and Ukraine?

Barbara Ann -> Jack , 4 hours ago
Jack

You may be interested in a recent article in Unz by SST's own 'smoothieX12' in response to Paul Craig Roberts asking how long Russia should continue to turn the other cheek: http://www.unz.com/article/...

Biggee Mikeee -> Jack , 19 hours ago
Earlier today, the two leading groups in Parliament called on Abadi to step down. http://news.kuwaittimes.net...
Don Bacon , 21 hours ago
Did the Syrians get upset by General Sherman's destructive march through South Carolina? No. It was a mistake for the US ever getting involved in Syria, with forming, equipping and training foreign armies and shadow governments including replacement prime ministers, all in violation of the UN Charter.

A new PM was at the top of H.Clinton's to-do list as Secretary of State. My favorite Assad replacement candidate was Ghassan Hitto from Murphy Texas, but he only lasted a couple months. here

GreenZoneCafe , 21 hours ago
I don't trust converts except for the adjustment from Protestant to Catholic or vice versa. I suppose shifts from one madhab to another, or between Buddhist schools are also ok.

Sad that in a moment of crisis,so many of the rising political stars of both parties are so hollow to the point of dangerousness.

blue peacock , 21 hours ago
Col. Lang

Has anything really changed much with our policies in the ME in the past 50+ years? Haven't we been deeply influenced/controlled by Israeli interests in this period, maybe even beyond if the attacks on USS Liberty are taken into account? Is the Trump administration just following in the traditions of Reagan, Bush Père et fils, Clinton and Obama, or is there a qualitative difference?

Pat Lang Mod -> blue peacock , 21 hours ago
Trump is more savagely and ignorantly aggressive.
GreenZoneCafe -> Pat Lang , 20 hours ago
Trump talks tough but has an aversion to military action. Is that real aggression, or just bullshit for the Bubbas?

North Korea, Syria are examples. He's left the door open to talking to Iran.

Trump won the Republican primaries calling out the Iraq war as a mistake!

Relative to others, dovishness is a Trump virtue. The Tucker Carlson line.

Contrast with Obama, who bombed Libya and pumped weapons into Syria. We'd probably be at war with Russia in Syria and Ukraine if Hillary had won.

blue peacock -> GreenZoneCafe , 19 hours ago
Trump, Nikki and Bolton have been tweeting warnings about the Idlib offensive and already accusing Assad if there are any chemical attacks. Wonder why? Lavrov has also made comments that he expects a chemical use false flag. Not sure about this post on Zerohedge, but if it has any credibility then it would appear that the US military is getting ready for some kind of provocation.

https://www.zerohedge.com/n...

Maybe this is all just "positioning" and "messaging" but maybe not. With Bibi, Nikki, Bolton and Pompeo as THE advisors, does anyone have a clue what Trump decides, when, not if, the jihadi White Helmets stage their chemical event in Idlib?

GreenZoneCafe -> blue peacock , 17 hours ago
We'll see. The most I expect is another cruise missile attack to the same empty coordinate.
Pat Lang Mod -> GreenZoneCafe , 17 hours ago
That will be true if trump sees Nikki and her real bosses for what they are.
Biggee Mikeee , a day ago
I think they understand. I think they view this as a temporary setback.

[Sep 08, 2018] Ayatollah Khamenei: Iran, Russia can cooperate to contain US-Trump

Sep 08, 2018 | www.veteranstoday.com

Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei says the developments in Syria and the US defeat in the Arab country show that Washington can be contained.

The Leader made the remarks in a Friday meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who traveled to Tehran to participate in a key trilateral summit on Syria, hosted by Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and also attended by Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

"Cooperation between Iran and Russia on the Syrian issue is a prominent example and a very good experience of bilateral cooperation," the Leader said.

Ayatollah Khamenei added that the two countries can expand cooperation on global issues, saying, "One of the cases that the two sides can cooperate with each other is to contain the US, because it is a danger to humanity and it is possible to contain it."

The Leader stated that the Americans suffered a real defeat in Syria and failed to achieve their goals.

Ayatollah Khamenei also said sanctions imposed by the US on Iran, Russia and Turkey are a very strong common ground for strengthening cooperation, and urged Tehran and Moscow to develop political and economic relations and follow up on the agreements of the summit in Tehran.

The Leader stressed the importance of pursuing non-dollar transactions in trade.

Europeans did not fulfill JCPOA commitments: Ayatollah Khamenei

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ayatollah Khamenei said Iran has so far remained committed to a multilateral nuclear agreement, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), reached between Iran and the P5+1 group of countries in 2015.

"But the Europeans did not carry out their duties, and it is not acceptable that we completely fulfill our commitments within the JCPOA while they don't," the Leader pointed out.

The Leader praised the Russian president's approach to the nuclear deal, adding that the Islamic Republic would adopt a stance on the JCPOA which would meet its national interests.

Although the US now raises Iran's missile program and regional developments, their problem with the Islamic Republic relates to issues beyond them, Ayatollah Khamenei said.

The Leader added that the US has been seeking to topple the Islamic Republic over the past 40 years, but Iran has managed to make substantial advancements during this period.

"The resistance of the Islamic Republic and its advances are another successful example that the US can be contained," Ayatollah Khamenei said.

The Leader also pointed to the deplorable situation of the Yemeni people and their killing at the hands of Saudi Arabia, adding, "The Saudis will definitely fail to achieve a result in Yemen and will not be able to bring the resilient Yemeni people to their knees."

During the meeting, which was also attended by Iranian First Vice President Es'haq Jahangiri, the Russian president said he held very fruitful and good negotiations with President Rouhani on mutual issues of interest, including the situation in Syria.

Iran and Russia discussed the expansion of relations in all fields, particularly in the economic and trade sectors, Putin added.

He said the US is putting obstacles, including banking restrictions, in the way of the development of Tehran-Moscow relations, and added that Washington is making a strategic mistake by limiting financial transactions.

The Russian president expressed regret that the remaining sides to the JCPOA failed to fulfill their commitments under the deal after the US withdrawal.

He said although the Europeans announce that they are seeking ways to keep the nuclear accord alive, they are following the US due to their dependence on Washington.

[Sep 08, 2018] Turkey, Russia seek Idlib consensus in Tehran

Sep 08, 2018 | www.atimes.com

The leaders of Turkey and Russia met Friday with their Iranian counterpart to reach a consensus on Syria's last opposition-held province.

Ankara and Moscow back opposing sides in the northwest province of Idlib – the former the armed opposition, and the latter the government troops poised for an offensive to retake the province.

Hossein Jaberi Ansari, a senior aide to Iran's foreign minister, told state TV on Thursday the final statement for the summit had already been "finalized" by senior representatives of the three countries. If approved by the three presidents, it will be issued after the meeting, Mehr News Agency reported.

The Tehran meeting comes against the backdrop of US sanctions against all three participating countries. While Idlib is expected to top the agenda, the trio are also expected to discuss mechanisms for minimizing the impact of US financial pressure.

"Turkey has limited options but to concede to Russia on Idlib given the diplomatic row with Washington and the recent US decision to solidify Kurdish control of northern Syria," said Joe Macaron, a fellow at the Washington-based Arab Center.

"Turkey will have to decide in this summit whether to join the battle and influence it, or stay put and let the Russians and Iranians lead it. There is a lot at stake in what could arguably be the last territorial battle of the Syrian civil war," he told Asia Times.

Syria's prime minister Imad Khamis, in a Thursday speech in Damascus, vowed the opposition-held province "will soon return to the embrace of the homeland."

The International Committee of the Red Cross, in anticipation of a destructive offensive, has called on all parties to protect civilians in Idlib – many of whom fled government offensives in other parts of the country and have scarce means to sustain their families through another displacement.

"Intensified fighting in the vast Idlib area will put tens of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of people on the move," Fabrizzio Carboni, regional director for the Near and Middle East, said in a statement.

Residents in southern Idlib told Asia Times they witnessed multiple air strikes Friday, which they believed to be Russian. A ground incursion has yet to begin.

Al-Ais crossing, the gateway for trade between government-held southern Aleppo province and opposition-held territory bordering Idlib, remained open as of Friday morning, locals said.

[Sep 07, 2018] Israel Armed, Funded 12 Different Syrian Rebel Groups

Sep 07, 2018 | news.antiwar.com

Israel Armed, Funded 12 Different Syrian Rebel Groups Rebels assumed Israel would save them during southern offensive

Jason Ditz Posted on September 6, 2018 Categories News Tags Israel , Syria

New reports on Israel's arming and funding of Syrian rebel groups reveals that no less than 12 rebel factions, all in southern Syria, were on the receiving end of Israeli aid. This included weapons, ammunition, money, and even some armored vehicles .

The story about arming Syrian rebels actually broke Wednesday with the Jerusalem Post, though Israeli military censors shut this down quickly. Once the foreign-based Foreign Policy came out with its own version Thursday, Israeli media were quick to follow, suggesting the censors gave up on trying to keep this secret.

Foreign Policy interviewed rebels from the Syrian groups, and suggested that they "feel betrayed" because they had assumed Israel would intervene militarily to save them from the Syrian offensive, and that never happened.

This sense of abandonment has been common among rebels getting foreign subsidies, as they've often assumed there was a deep commitment to the rebellion, as opposed to just a brief alliance of convenience. Several Syrian rebel groups have similarly lashed the US for "betrayal" during the war.

One rebel was quoted saying "This i a lesson we will not forget about Israel. It does not care about the people. It does not care about humanity. All it cares about is its own interests." Israel confirmed it ended funding for rebels in July, when the last rebels in the south lost.

It's unsurprising that Israel didn't commit militarily to southern Syria during the offensive, since Russia was backing the attack on the rebels, and almost certainly would've moved against Israel if they had.

[Sep 07, 2018] Syria war - US has seen evidence chemical weapons being prepared

Sep 07, 2018 | bbc.co.uk

The new US envoy for Syria has said there is "lots of evidence" that Syrian government forces are preparing to use chemical weapons in Idlib.

Jim Jeffrey said an anticipated offensive against the last major rebel-held area would be a "reckless escalation", Reuters reported.

The Syrian government has repeatedly denied ever using chemical weapons.

Russian planes have bombed rebel areas in the north-western region as troops mass for the expected offensive.

It comes as a summit is due to take place in Iran on Friday between the leaders of Russia and Iran, which both support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, and Turkey, which has backed some rebel factions.

The UN has warned of a humanitarian catastrophe if an all-out assault takes place and Turkey fears a new influx of refugees across its border.

[Sep 07, 2018] Mattis lies. Jihadists will> try to divert responsibility for their own crimes onto Syrians who just want peace in all of Syria with no more cowardly attacks on Syrians going about their own business

Sep 07, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 , Sep 6, 2018 5:17:08 PM | link

CarlD @43--

I'm on record saying we're already in the midst of a Hybrid Third World War that began on 11 Sept 2001 when the Outlaw US Empire attacked itself, although some will argue it began with Clinton's illegal siege of Serbia. True, it hadn't gone global yet in either instance, but neither did WW2 become global when Japan invaded China in 1931.

Much depends on how desperate Neocons are to obtain their Full Spectrum Dominance policy goal as they've declared both Russia and China to be hostile powers interfering with the Empire's God-given right to control Eurasia.

ger , Sep 6, 2018 5:21:38 PM | link
Why does Mattis lie about chemical weapons among his terrorist pals? Well ... liars lie and Mattis admits he has 'zero intelligence'. US foreign policy in a nut shell. MoronsR/US.

Bobby , Sep 6, 2018 7:21:28 PM | link

Mattis lies as always like when they did attack Syria the last time with France and GB.

They are nations of war criminals , no respect for the international laws , use force to get their agenda and keep colonizing the poor countries who do not have the ways to defend themselves , that where the Russian should get in with stern warning of possible war with west and the Zionist state which along with their Zionist friends in the USA rule the policy of western civilization if their was one.

They are not civilized but wolves in sheeps Coates.

Shame on the western Christianity, in the name of God they will go and kill whom do not bow to our needs.

Posted by: Bobby | Sep 6, 2018 7:21:28 PM | link

Pft , Sep 6, 2018 7:24:18 PM | link

Karlof1@47

Since the US was recovered by Cecil Rhodes and Rothschild on behalf of the money power in the City of London the US has been in a permanent world war against lesser nations starting from 1898.

Since then we have invaded /occupied 65 countries with special forces deployed in over 130 countries at present. In the period 1950-2005 there have been 82 million avoidable deaths from deprivation (avoidable mortality, excess deaths, excess mortality , deaths that did not have to happen) associated with countries occupied or invaded by the US in the post-1945 era. Another 24 million by our little master Israel.

I dont have figures from 2006-2018 but between Israel, Us and Nato it could be as high as 15 million in Syria,, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Palestine, Pakistan. Total since 1950 approaches 120 million in avoidable deaths.

Debsisdead , Sep 6, 2018 8:15:36 PM | link
None of the American bluster matters a toss. There is nothing they can do. Sure maybe they will ruffle a few feathers on the periphery and that p's me off - not as much as the innocents they will kill & maim will be p1ssed - it won't change anything.

This day has been coming for Idlib since the day about 3 years ago when Syria , Iran and Russia agreed to use it as a dumping ground for the credulous morons who follow the 'jihadis' around like flies on dogsh1t.

If there ever was such a thing as a moderate armed fighter, they should never have agreed to share a country retreat with al Qaeda and Daesh since this endgame was plain to see from the get go.

If the 'moderates' had shot thru to somewhere else, they and their families would have no worries now.

Instead they bunked up with arseholes, either because the moneymen in Turkey KSA & UAE said to or because they were too weak willed to stand up for themselves.

Whichever it was, nothing will go for the better as long as they try and divert responsibility for their own foolishness onto Syrians who just want peace in all of Syria with no more cowardly attacks on Syrians going about their own business.

[Sep 06, 2018] How Obama and Netanyahu Overplayed Their Hand in The Arab Spring

Notable quotes:
"... While Syria's long serving President Hafez al-Assad was criticised by Iraq for his apparent eagerness to enter into an armistice with Israel in 1974 and while Hafez appeared to be on the verge of recognising Israel in the mid-1990s, recent revelations brought to the world's attention by former US Secretary of State John Kerry indicate that his son and current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad drafted a letter to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking to enter into discussions regarding Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights in exchange for Syria entering into a Jordanian style peace agreement with Tel Aviv. ..."
"... A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, ..."
"... As such, Russia looks to balance the ambitious of each of these players against one another in order to attain a regional equilibrium in which Moscow plays the role of both benign power broker and economic partner. ..."
"... the so-called Arab Spring was supposed to pave the way for a future Greater Israel, that too is now dead as Russia would not let Tel Aviv threaten the long term territorial integrity of Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon or any other Middle East state. ..."
"... When viewed with the benefit of hindsight, the gamble that Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu took in 2011 to forfeit good relations with politically stagnant, diplomatically compromised and generally malleable Arab Nationalist leaders in order to attempt and fracture the political structures and territorial unity of multiple Arab states has backfired in extraordinary fashion. ..."
"... While in 2010 Russia was scarcely a major factor in the region and while Iran did not have much influence in the Arab world outside of southern Iraq and parts of southern Lebanon, today the opposite is very much the case. As a result, while a combination of Israeli-US pressure and internal pettiness helped render many once proud Arab Nationalist states impotent, the omnipresence of Russia as the only regional power with a desire and ability to balance Iranian, Turkish, Arab and Israeli interests means that while Israel's existence is now guaranteed, its expansionist aims are permanently dead. In this sense, the Arab Spring was in reality, an Israeli winter. ..."
Sep 06, 2018 | www.eurasiafuture.com

At the beginning of 2011 while Iraq was still on its knees following the illegal 2003 US/UK invasion, the rest of the Arab world was generally calm, domestic politics was predictable and most importantly from the American and Israeli perspective, the revolutionary fervour that underpinned the Arab Nationalist revolutions of the mid-20th century had largely given way to pragmatic and at times self-effacing secular Arab regimes that posed no serious military or diplomatic challenge to America's desired pro-Israel status quo in the region. At the beginning of 2011, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak looked and acted unsinkable. Crucially, this included his unsinkable loyalty to the United States and Israel. The same was true in Jordan's monarchy while in Libya, Muammar Gaddafi had given up on the Arab Nationalist cause in order to pursue what he believed was a more tangible and potentially more rewarding Pan-African cause. Crucially, not long after trading Arab Nationalism for Pan-Africanism, Gaddafi established normal relations with the United States and its traditional partners in 2003.

While Syria's long serving President Hafez al-Assad was criticised by Iraq for his apparent eagerness to enter into an armistice with Israel in 1974 and while Hafez appeared to be on the verge of recognising Israel in the mid-1990s, recent revelations brought to the world's attention by former US Secretary of State John Kerry indicate that his son and current Syrian President Bashar al-Assad drafted a letter to Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asking to enter into discussions regarding Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Golan Heights in exchange for Syria entering into a Jordanian style peace agreement with Tel Aviv.

In a rational environment, Netanyahu and Obama should have been utterly contented with the fact that an Arab world which was once united behind the cause of Palestinian justice had gradually capitulated while even Arab Nationalist hold out Syria was on the verge of doing much the same. But rather than being content with getting concessions from the Arab world that as comparatively recently as the mid-1970s would have sounded fantastical, Washington with Israel's clear consent and cooperation instead decided to light a fuse beneath the Arab world.

The so-called Arab Spring began with "protests" in Tunisia in December of 2011. But the real coming out party for America and Israel's new policy of 'lead from behind regime change' in the Arab world was in Egypt. It was in Cairo on the 25th of January that a combination of genuine demonstrators, paid agitators and terrorists took to Tahrir Square to protest government policies. The protests eventually lead to the downfall of President Mubarak who had governed the country since 1981.

Mubarak had many genuine home grown opponents to be sure and this is before one accounts for opposition from proscribed terror groups including and especially the Muslim Brotherhood. And yet it was only when the United States officially withdrew support for Mubarak that a full regime change came to pass which itself paved the way for a highly unstable Muslim Brotherhood regime led by Muhammad Morsi.

Unable to facilitate the kinds of lead from behind protests in Libya that were rather easy to foment in an Egyptian society where a great deal of genuine discontent served to cover the true intentions of the Obama administration in the Arab world, the US decided to accuse Libya's government of crimes against the Libyan people including an accusation of mass rape committed by soldiers that turned out to be as fake as the 2002 allegation that Iraq maintained stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. While most Libyans were too busy enjoying the benefits of Africa's most generous welfare state to protest, the US began preparing for a full scale military attack on Libya while France and Britain became the public face of America's biggest war on an Arab state since the 2003 invasion of Iraq.

It was around the same time in early 2011 that provocations against the Syrian government of Bashar al-Assad were staged near the Jordanian border in the city of Daraa. Unlike in Libya there was a measure of discontent in Syria due to a five year long drought which severely impacted domestic agriculture. Likewise, in spite of modest economic reforms, the economy was largely stagnant. Be that as it may, genuine discontent in Syria was not only less than in Libya but less than in Egypt. From the US perspective this became all the more reason to fan the flames of long latent sectarian divisions and likewise it became the private excuse for offering arms and funds to individuals who later formed anti-government militias and terror groups.

The results of this so-called Arab Spring have led to instability in Egypt under Muslim Brotherhood rule which itself led to the politically and economically stagnant government of Abdel Fattah el-Sisi. In LIbya what was once Africa's most stable and prosperous nation, a failed state peppered with terrorist training camps and slave auctions has developed which itself has led to the worst migrant crisis in the modern history of Afro-European relations. In Syria, the war which began in 2011 is still being fought and while an end is in sight, Syria is still a long way away from peace.

The mutual desire of the United States and Israel to weaken Arab Nationalist governments and retard the advancement of progressive Arab unity long predates the tragic events of 2011. But while 1996 saw arch-neocon Richard Perle draft A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm, a radical anti-Arab foreign policy paper presented to Benjamin Netanyahu as a kind of gift, by 2010, many of the goals contained in A Clean Break had already been achieved through co-opting Arab states into a policy of submission which supplanted the radicalism of previous decades.

What had not been achieved by 2010 however was the realisation of anything approximating the Yinon Plan , a controversial policy proposal advocating for the creation of a so-called "greater Israel" that was first published in 1982 in the Israel journal Kivunim. The Yinon Plan called for the aggressive expansion of Israeli territory into Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon.

While the Yinon Plan was based partly on modern far-right notions of political expansionism and in other parts based on the most extreme interpretations of Zionist mythology, the idea of intentionally weakening once powerful Arab Nationalist states in the region was clearly an attempt to begin the early stages of what could have become expanded political influence and territorial domination throughout the Middle East for Israel.

Today however, it would appear that the plan has backfired for two largely unrelated reasons. First of all, the agitations of Iraq's Shi'a majority population in Iraq combined with the phenomenon of a Shi'a Islamic Resistance spreading to Syria as a means of countering extremist Sunni Takfiri groups including Daesh, along with the increased influence of Hezbollah in Lebanon has made a once isolated Islamic Republic of Iran a major player in much of the northern half of the Arab world. Thus, as Arab Nationalist states and political movements in the northern half of the Arab world have weakened a militarily resurgent Iran has only become stronger and as such is something of a bulwark against Yinon's map of a Greater Israel.

But the rise of Iran has also led to another major development, the long term importance of which is still being overlooked as much in the Arab world as in the west. Russia has returned to the Middle East as a major player only unlike during the Cold War, Russia is now on exceptionally good terms with every major player in the region including multiple rivalling Arab states, Turkey, Iran and crucially both Palestine and Israel.

As such, Russia looks to balance the ambitious of each of these players against one another in order to attain a regional equilibrium in which Moscow plays the role of both benign power broker and economic partner. As a result, the old Arab Nationalist dream of liberating Palestine is virtually dead as Russia views the importance of safeguarding Israel's territory as on-par with that of all of its neighbors. That being said, while the so-called Arab Spring was supposed to pave the way for a future Greater Israel, that too is now dead as Russia would not let Tel Aviv threaten the long term territorial integrity of Syria, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon or any other Middle East state.

When viewed with the benefit of hindsight, the gamble that Barack Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu took in 2011 to forfeit good relations with politically stagnant, diplomatically compromised and generally malleable Arab Nationalist leaders in order to attempt and fracture the political structures and territorial unity of multiple Arab states has backfired in extraordinary fashion.

While in 2010 Russia was scarcely a major factor in the region and while Iran did not have much influence in the Arab world outside of southern Iraq and parts of southern Lebanon, today the opposite is very much the case. As a result, while a combination of Israeli-US pressure and internal pettiness helped render many once proud Arab Nationalist states impotent, the omnipresence of Russia as the only regional power with a desire and ability to balance Iranian, Turkish, Arab and Israeli interests means that while Israel's existence is now guaranteed, its expansionist aims are permanently dead. In this sense, the Arab Spring was in reality, an Israeli winter.

[Sep 03, 2018] Provocations Have A History Of Escalating Into War by Paul Craig Roberts

Sep 03, 2018 | www.unz.com

The Russian Government and President Putin are coming under pressure not from US sanctions, which are very good for Russia as they force Russia into independence, but from Russian patriots who are tiring of Putin's non-confrontational responses to Washington's never-ending insults and military provocations. Russian patriots don't want war, but they do want their country's honor defended, and they believe Putin is failing in this job. Some of them are saying that Putin himself is a West-worshipping Atlanticist Integrationist.

This disillusinonment with Putin, together with Putin's endorsement of raising the retirement age for pensions, a trap set for him by Russia's neoliberal economists, have hurt Putin's approval ratings at the precise time that he will again be tested by Washington in Syria.

In many columns I have defended Putin from the charge that he is not sufficiently Russian. Putin wants to avoid war, because he knows it would be nuclear, the consequences of which would be dire. He knows that the US and its militarily impotent NATO allies cannot possibly conduct conventional warfare against Russia or China, much less against both. Putin also undersrtands that the sanctions are damaging Washington's European vassals and could eventually force the European vassal states into independence that would constrain Washington's belligerence. Even with Russia's new super weapons, which probably give Putin the capability of destroying the entirety of the Western World with little or no damage to Russia, Putin sees no point in so much destruction, especially as the consequences are unknown. There could be nuclear winter or other results that would put the planet into decline as a life-sustaining entity.

So, as I have suggested in many columns Putin is acting intelligently. He is in the game for the long term while protecting the world from dangerous war.

Whereas I endorse Putin's strategy and admire his coolness as a person who never lets emotion lead him, there is nevertheless a problem. The people in the West with whom he is dealing are idiots who do not appreciate his statesmanship. Consequently, each time Putin turns the other cheek, so to speak, the insults and the provocations ratchet upward.

Consider Syria. The Syrian Army with the help of a tiny part of the Russian Air Force has cleared all areas of Syria but one of the American-instigated-financed-and-equiped forces sent by Washington to overthrow the Syrian government.

The remaining US proxy force is about to be eliminated. In order to save it, and to keep a Washington foothold that could permit a restart of the war, Washington has arranged yet another false flag "chemical attack" that the presstitute and obiedient Western media will blame on Assad. President Trump's National Security Adviser, a crazed, perhaps insane, Zionist Neoconservative, has told Russia that Washington will take a dim view of the Syrian/Russian use of chemical weapons against "Assad's own people."

The Russians are fully aware that any chemical attack will be a false flag attack orchestrated by Washington using the elements it sent to Syria to overthrow the government. Indeed, Russia's ambassador to the US explained it all yesterday to the US government.

Clearly, Putin hopes to avoid Washington's orchestrated attack by having his ambassador explain the orchestration to the American officials who are orchestrating it. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-08-30/russian-ambassador-gave-intel-us-officials-showing-planned-chemical-provocation
This strategy implies that Putin thinks US government officials are capable of shame and integrity. They most certainly are not. I spent 25 years with them. They don't even know what the words mean.

What if, instead, Putin had declared publicly for the entire world to hear that any forces, wherever located, responsible for an attack on Syria would be annihiliated? My view -- https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/08/29/a-book-for-our-time-a-time-that-perhaps-has-run-its-course/ - and that of Russian patriot Bogdasarov- https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/08/a-russian-response-to-a-new-us-attack-on-syria-should-include-sinking-the-carriers-not-just-shooting-at-their-missiles/ - is that such an ultimatum from the leader of the country capable of delivering it would cool the jets of Russophobic Washington. There would be no attack on Syria.

Bogdasarov and I might be wrong. The Russian forces deployed around Syria with their hypersonic missiles are more than a match for the US forces assembled to attack Syria. However, American hubris can certainly prevail over facts, in which case Putin would have to destroy the sources of the attack. By not committing in advance, Putin retains flexibility. Washington's attack, like its previous attack on Syria, might be a face-saver, not a real attack. Nevertheless, sooner or later Russia will have to deliver a firmer response to provocations.

I am an American. I am not a Russian, much less a Russian nationalist. I do not want US military personnel to be casualties of Washington's fatal desire for world hegemony, much less to be casualties of Washington serving Israel's interests in the Middle East. The reason I think Putin needs to do a better job of standing up to Washington is that I think, based on history, that appeasement encourages more provocations, and it comes to a point when you have to surrender or fight. It is much better to stop this process in its tracks before it reaches that dangerous point.

Andrei Martyanov, whose book I recently reviewed on my website, recently defended Putin, as The Saker and I have done in the past, from claims that Putin is too passive in the face of assaults. https://russia-insider.com/en/russia-playing-long-game-no-room-instant-gratification-strategies-super-patriots/ri24561 As I have made the same points, I can only applaud Martyanov and The Saker. Where we might differ is in recognizing that endlessly accepting insults and provocations encourages their increase until the only alternative is surrender or war.

So, the questions for Andrei Martyanov, The Saker, and for Putin and the Russian government is: How long does turning your other cheek work? Do you turn your other cheek so long as to allow your opponent to neutralize your advantage in a confrontation? Do you turn your other cheek so long that you lose the support of the patriotic population for your failure to defend the country's honor? Do you turn your other cheek so long that you are eventually forced into war or submission? Do you turn your other cheek so long that the result is nuclear war?

I think that Martyanov and The Saker agree that my question is a valid one. Both emphazise in their highly informative writings that the court historians misrepresent wars in the interest of victors. Let's give this a moment's thought. Both Napoleon and Hitler stood at their apogee, their success unmitigated by any military defeat. Then they marched into Russia and were utterly destroyed. Why did they do this? They did it because their success had given them massive arogance and belief in their "exceptionalism," the dangerous word that encapsulates Washington's belief in its hegemony.

The zionist neoconsevatives who rule in Washington are capable of the same mistake that Napoleon and Hitler made. They believe in "the end of history," that the Soviet collapse means history has chosen America as the model for the future. Their hubris actually exceeds that of Napoleon and Hitler.

When confronted with such deluded and ideological force, does turning the other cheek work or does it encourage more provocation?

This is the question before the Russian government.

Perhaps the Russian government will understand the meaning of the orchestrated eulogies for John McCain. It is not normal for a US senator to be eulogized in this way, especially one with such an undistinguished record. What is being eulogized is McCain's hatred of Russia and his record as a warmonger. What Washington is eulogizing is its own committment to war.

[Sep 02, 2018] US Strategy in Syria: 'Create Quagmires Until We Get What We Want

Sep 02, 2018 | thenewkremlinstooge.wordpress.com

ET AL September 2, 2018 at 6:05 am

Antiwar.com : US Strategy in Syria: 'Create Quagmires Until We Get What We Want'
https://news.antiwar.com/2018/08/31/us-strategy-in-syria-create-quagmires-until-we-get-what-we-want/

In 2013, top Obama Administration officials described their policy in the Syrian War as one of keeping the war going. The administration wanted a big seat at the table for a political settlement, which officials clarified meant ensuring that the war kept going so that there was never a clear victor https://news.antiwar.com/2013/10/02/cia-in-syria-train-moderate-rebels-but-not-so-many-that-they-win/
####

Remember kids, it's Trump that is evil, not Obama.

Now if we are honest, this is a time worn strategy of Washington regardless of which vessel is currently president of the United States. Roll back to Bosnia where self-proclaimed leader of Bosnia Alija Izebegovic was close to signing the UN's Cutilhiero's peace plan. Whence flies in Warren Zimmerman who sidles up to Izzyb and sayz " You don't have to sign it if you don't want to. We've got your back. " Fast forward two and a half years, slightly over 100,000 dead and a Dayton Peace plan that is rather similar to the Cutilhiero one.

Whether it is I-rack asking April Glaspie if it is ok to sort out the dispute with Kuwait, Izzyb and all the way forward to Saakashiti, being Washington's lesser ally ends to be quite deadly. Apparently some lessons are never learned.

[Aug 31, 2018] That's the siren song: "Mr. President we can guarantee victory in the Midterms and your re-election, if you just let us do some conventional damage in Syria."

Aug 31, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Bill Herschel 10 hours ago

Very, very worrisome:

http://www.gonavy.jp/CVLoca...

http://www.unz.com/article/...

Apparently, U.S. aircraft carriers are toast in the face of Russian stand-off cruise missiles as well as other munitions. So I guess if Bolton and Pompeo are getting ready for war in Syria, they will keep the carriers in port. Wait... the carriers are in port. In passing, about a trillion dollars down the tubes.

GW Bush found out very quickly the incredible advantage of being a wartime President. The simpleton got re-elected on it. 40 kidnapped kids murdered with chlorine gas with the cameras rolling. Small price to pay for being a successful wartime President.

That's the siren song: "Mr. President we can guarantee victory in the Midterms and your re-election, if you just let us do some conventional damage in Syria."

[Aug 31, 2018] John Bolton is, I believe, the scariest character in Trump's administration

Aug 31, 2018 | consortiumnews.com

Jessika , August 31, 2018 at 9:55 pm

John Bolton is, I believe, the scariest character in Trump's administration. How did Trump pick him? It makes no sense, but this whole mess literally makes none. There has got to be a way to get him out of there. Sheldon Adelson's money is the connection between Trump, Haley, Bolton. Bolton wants war with Iran, has been intent on it since Bush 2 administration. He is quite dangerous, and has connections to Netanyahu and even Meir Dagan of Mossad. I can't copy this link to Gareth Porter's article but maybe Joe or someone can, it's cited below. Everyone should read it. The facts in the article are quite alarming about Bolton. With all the political drama going on from the Mueller probe, there are possibilities of dreadful consequences, and I think Bolton could bring disaster. He may be the origin as well as the mouthpiece of this latest provocative threat about Assad using chemicals. Here is the article:

"The Untold Story of John Bolton's Campaign for War with Iran", by Gareth Porter, in The American Conservative, March 22, 2018.

[Aug 29, 2018] Bolton calls on Al-Qaeda to stage more chemical attacks in Syria by Diana Johnstone

Notable quotes:
"... Beyond the tattered veil of moral superiority that is US war propaganda, Bolton's words were clearly a very public command to Al-Qaeda and co-extremists to stage yet another fake chemical attack. ..."
Aug 29, 2018 | consortiumnews.com

Arby , August 28, 2018 at 5:06 pm

"When Trump revoked his security clearance earlier this month, former CIA chief John Brennan got his chance to spew his hatred in the complacent pages of The New York Times. Someone supposed to be smart enough to head an intelligence agency actually took Trump's joking invitation as a genuine request. "By issuing such a statement," Brennan wrote, "Mr. Trump was not only encouraging a foreign nation to collect intelligence against a United States citizen, but also openly authorizing his followers to work with our primary global adversary against his political opponent.""

In the meantime, we can read, in Eva Bartlett's blog post titled "Bolton calls on Al-Qaeda to stage more chemical attacks in Syria," the following:

== =
In a move that was entirely predictable, the US administration is once again threatening to bomb Syria if there is a "chemical weapons attack".

This was entirely predictable because that chemical attack script has been read out, with salty crocodile tears, fake concern, and mocked indignation by US talking heads over the years -- since 2012, in fact, when former US President Obama himself drew his red line on Syria.

The latest script-reader to toe the chemical hoax line is President Trump's national security adviser, John Bolton, who on August 22, stated: " if the Syrian regime uses chemical weapons we will respond very strongly and they really ought to think about this a long time."

Beyond the tattered veil of moral superiority that is US war propaganda, Bolton's words were clearly a very public command to Al-Qaeda and co-extremists to stage yet another fake chemical attack.

[Aug 26, 2018] Trump and Corbyn by Israel Shamir

Notable quotes:
"... The idea is Israeli, the operational plans are British, weapons and vessels are American, and a possibility for confrontation grows stronger each day. ..."
"... And with the legal noose around Trump's neck, he will be more than willing to play along for just one more breath (which is all they'll really need him for). ..."
Aug 26, 2018 | www.unz.com

As a new military confrontation over Syria is impending, thought out by Israel, prepared by the British and executed by the US, the West's future depends greatly upon two mavericks, the US President Donald Trump and the UK Opposition Leader Jeremy Corbyn. These two men are as different as you can make. One is for capitalism, another one is a socialist, but both are considered soft on Russia, at least they do not foam at the mouth hearing Putin's name. Both are enemies of Wall Street and the City, both stand against the Deep State, against NATO, both are enemies of globalism and of world government. One is a friend of Israel, another is a friend of Palestine, but both are charged with racism and anti-Semitism.

It is a quaint peculiarity of our time, that anti-Semitism is considered the great and unforgivable sin, trading places with Christ Denial. Negative attitude to Christ-denying Jews had been de rigueur at its time, and the Church, or its Tribunal, the Inquisition, had tried the charged. Nowadays, the heavily Zionists MSM is the accuser, the judge and jury, considering anti-Zionists attitude as a worst sort of racism. The two leaders aren't guilty as charged, but the MSM court dispenses no acquittals.

Racism is indeed an ugly trend (though greed is worse), and hatred of Jews qua Jews is not nice, either. (You wouldn't expect a different answer from the son of Jew parents, would you?) Jews are entertaining, clever, cunning, sentimental and adventurous folk, able to do things. They can be good, that's why the Church wants to bring them to Christ. If they were inherently bad, why bother with their souls? Are Jews greedy? Everyone would sell his grandma for a fistful of dollars, but only a Jew would actually deliver, say Jews. Jews tend to preach and claim high moral ground, but that is a tradition of the Nation of Priests. However, universalism and non-racism is not their strong point, and it is amazing that they appointed themselves the judges on racism.

... ... ...

In the British establishment, pro-Zionists forces decided to side with the Washington War Party to push us close to war. The recent visit of the British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt (the man on the shortlist of Israel's agents within the British establishment) to Washington where Hunt delivered a speech calling for full-out war on Russia, "has been read as an intervention on the side of the anti-Russian faction in the split and divided US administration", said the Guardian .

The speech is just an opening, missiles will follow soon. Today, I was informed by my contacts, the Russians have delivered a demarche to the State Department, warning the Americans to desist from their plans to attack Syria. Russian intelligence learned that eight tanks containing chlorine have been delivered to Halluz village of Idlib province where the group of specially trained militants has already been deployed in order to simulate the rescue of the victims of chemical attack. The militants were trained by the British private military company Olive (which had merged with the American Constellis Group.

The operation, the Russians say, had been planned by the British intelligence services to justify an impending airstrike directed against Syrian military and civil infrastructure. For this strike, USS The Sullivans guided missile destroyer with 56 cruise missiles onboard arrived to the Persian Gulf, and the US Air Force bomber B-1B with 24 cruise Air-to-Surface Missiles had been flown to the Al-Udeid air base in Qatar.

The idea is Israeli, the operational plans are British, weapons and vessels are American, and a possibility for confrontation grows stronger each day. The success of Corbyn would put a stop to these plans of war. But will he have a chance?


renfro , says: August 26, 2018 at 6:27 am GMT

Trump and Corbyn are coming to the point from different sides. They are fighting a strong and well-entrenched adversary. Both are tired, both are full of imperfections, but they offer us a chance to save our beautiful world from destruction.

Should I laugh or cry at Trump saving us from another ... Israel inspired war?

NO ONE has ever been more Jew mobbed up than Trump is. In case no one has noticed what Trump is actually doing -- –The Jew neocon crew that gave us Iraq is back and going after Iran.

Here is his latest: .I believe this is 6th one I have identified on here as Fifth Column Zionists Trump has put in sensitive positions.

Trump names Zionists security expert to senior intelligence post | The

https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-names-Zionists-security-expert-to-senior-intellige&#8230 ;

3 days ago – Appointment of Samantha Ravich comes after president taps Trump names Zionists security expert to senior intelligence post .
WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump chose as the deputy chairwoman of the intelligence advisory board a Zionists national security expert who is well known in the pro-Israel national security community.
Ravich, a former deputy national security adviser to vice president Dick Cheney, is a senior adviser to the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, an influential hawkish pro-Israel think tank. She is also a senior adviser to the Chertoff Group, founded by Michael Chertoff, a homeland security secretary in the George W. Bush administration, and has worked with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. One of her specialties is combating extremists.

https://forward.com/fast-forward/408749/trump-names-Zionists-pro-israel-security-expert-to-senior-intelligence-post/

Ravick has also worked with the pro-Israel community helping to raise money for Israel Bonds .
Ravich does not require confirmation.

Also Tuesday, Jeffrey Gunter, a dermatologist from Los Angeles, was nominated as the ambassador to Iceland. Gunter, a board member of the Republican Zionists Coalition, must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate

ICELAND REALLY NEEDS A Zionists DERMATOLOGIST AMBASSADOR

http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Douglas_Feith

Ravich also worked with Douglas Feith, PaulWolfowitz and Richard Perle in drumming up the war on Iraq
They worked on creating "wiring diagrams" showing relationships among terror groups. For example, they concluded
"Iraq trains Palestinian terrorists associated with PFLP, PIJ, Hamas, ANO, PLF, Ansar al-Islam which has direct ties to al-Qaeda[5]"
Samantha Ravich, studied the charts and reported back to Scooter Libby. Wolfowitz personally

https://assets.aspeninstitute.org/content/uploads/files/content/docs/asg/ASGChallengeTextwCOVER.pdf

At Aspen Ravick showed her hand in advancing a anti Russia policy to get Russia to stop supporting Iran, her suggestion is to basically undermine Russia economically and financially in order to make them kow tow to the US.

chris , says: August 26, 2018 at 7:20 am GMT

Wow, quite a revelation Saker putting the pieces of this puzzle together!

And with the legal noose around Trump's neck, he will be more than willing to play along for just one more breath (which is all they'll really need him for).

Miggle , says: August 26, 2018 at 7:29 am GMT

Cook points out that by conceding ground, Corbyn betrayed Palestinians and betrayed anti-Zionist Jews who were expelled by droves from Labour. Even Tony Greenstein, a Zionists nationalist though anti-Zionist, had been expelled; the same Tony Greenstein who attacked me and Gilad Atzmon for our anti-Semitism (I responded to him here). He was also sent home packing. The late Hajo Meyer, a Holocaust survivor and defender of Palestinian rights, a personal friend of Corbyn, had been denounced. Palestinians were betrayed, and we should care about them more than about Zionists fine feelings.

Very sad -- Corbyn caving in and sacking anti-Zionists including anti-Zionist Jews from his party. Horrible if he's betrayed the Palestinians. Maybe not aggressive enough. Is he a leader?

Anyway, British voters, please show your support for him.

[Aug 25, 2018] Seize the transnational corporations to rebuild Syria-, by Thierry Meyssan

Notable quotes:
"... The United States, which had been planning the war against Syria since 2004, does not want to part with a penny. According to the Trump administration, this war was created by the Bush Jr. administration and led by the Obama administration. However, these two administrations were not serving the interests of the US people, but those of a transnational financial class. Not only did they destroy Syria, but also the US economy. Thus it is not for Washington to pay, but these people and the transnational corporations directly implicated in the war. ..."
"... The engagement of these corporations in the implementation of Admiral Arthur Cebrowski's plan to destroy the states and societies of the Greater Middle East can probably be explained by their certainty that they would thus gain access to the region's natural resources, under the protection of the Western armies. ..."
Aug 25, 2018 | www.voltairenet.org

The United States, which had been planning the war against Syria since 2004, does not want to part with a penny. According to the Trump administration, this war was created by the Bush Jr. administration and led by the Obama administration. However, these two administrations were not serving the interests of the US people, but those of a transnational financial class. Not only did they destroy Syria, but also the US economy. Thus it is not for Washington to pay, but these people and the transnational corporations directly implicated in the war.

For example, the United States investment fund and rival of the Carlyle Group, Henry Kravis' KKR (market value 150 billion dollars). It employs General David Petraeus and transferred funds and weapons to Al-Qaeda and Daesh [ 2 ]. Or Japanese automobile manufacturer Toyota, which furnished all of Daesh's new vehicles (market value 170 billion dollars) [ 3 ]. Or again, Caterpillar, the manufacturer of construction machines, which sold to the jihadists the tunnel-building machinery necessary for the construction of their underground networks (market value 76 billion dollars). Not to mention the Franco-Swiss cement producer Lafarge-Holcim, which produced 6 million tonnes of cement for the construction of their bunkers (market value 40 billion dollars) [ 4 ], etc.

The engagement of these corporations in the implementation of Admiral Arthur Cebrowski's plan to destroy the states and societies of the Greater Middle East can probably be explained by their certainty that they would thus gain access to the region's natural resources, under the protection of the Western armies.

Making the multinationals pay does not exclude obtaining damages from certain states like Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar or Turkey, which financed, or certain of whose citizens publicly financed the jihadists.

[Aug 25, 2018] The White Helmets are saddling up for another ride

Aug 25, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Looks like now they do not even care if this will be exposed as false flag operation.

"The United States has warned Russia that it would be ready to strike Syria again if President Bashar Assad and his government use chemical weapons in the country, the Bloomberg news agency said on Friday citing own sources.

According to the agency's sources, the warning was conveyed by National Security Adviser John Bolton to his Russian counterpart, Nikolai Patrushev, during their Thursday's meeting in Geneva, Switzerland.

The agency says that Washington "has information that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad may use chemical weapons as he seeks to recapture one of the country's last rebel-held areas" – in the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib.

During the talks with Patrushev, Bolton said the United States would respond with s tronger military action that it has used in Syria in the past – in 2017 and 2018." Bloomberg and AMN

*********

"Militants of Hay'at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), aided by British intelligence, are preparing to stage a chemical attack in northern Syria that will be used as a pretext for a new missile strike by the U.S., the UK and France on facilities of the Damascus government, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov announced on August 25.

"According to the information confirmed simultaneously by several independent sources, the active terrorist grouping Hayat Tahrir al-Sham is plotting a new provocation with the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government forces against civilians in the Idlib province A special group of terrorists who have been trained by specialists of the UK private military company Olive to handle chemical warfare agents has also arrived in the area of Jisr ash-Shughur ," Konashenkov said, according to the Russian news agency TASS.

Konashenkov revealed that the U.S. is already preparing for the new missile strike. According to the statment, the US Navy's destroyer Sullivans with 56 cruise missiles on board arrived in the Persian Gulf several days ago while a B-1B strategic bomber of the US Air Force armed with AGM-158 JASSM air-to-surface missiles was redeployed to the al-Udeid air base in Qatar.

"The actions by Western countries contrary to public statements are aimed at another dramatic escalation of the situation in the Middle East and at disrupting the peace process on the territory of Syria," Konashenkov warned.

Earlier this week, the U.S., the UK and Franc released a joint statement , in which they condemned the alleged use of chemical weapons by the Damascus government. The three countries vowed to "respond appropriately to any further use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime."" SF & Russian MoD

---------------

Bolton, Pompeo and the neocons have made it clear that they at least have not abandoned Regime Change in Syria as their objective. Whether or not Mattis and Votel are fully on board with this is unclear to me. They may well be playing some separate game of their own involving a madcap desire to maintain a US dominated zone in Syria east of the Euphrates River. Trump's hand is not visible in this for me. Power appears to have fractured in Washington with regard to ME policy

The Regime Changers seem to believe they will have another bite at the apple during the Idlib liberation campaign when a White Helmet style "gas attack" can be staged and then used to obtain Trump's acquiescence in a sizable set of attacks against Syrian forces this time as well as facilities.

The Israelis seem to be out of the game on this one having made a deal with Russia and Syria over stability on the Golan front line.

Well, good for them. pl

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/us-warns-russia-of-new-strike-on-syria-if-assad-uses-chemical-weapons-bloomberg/

https://southfront.org/u-s-prepares-new-strikes-on-government-facilities-in-syria-russian-military/

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/russia-accuses-us-britain-france-of-preparing-to-carry-out-new-strikes-against-syrian-govt/

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-jihadists-preparing-chemical-weapons-provocation-in-idlib-russian-mod/

Posted at 10:34 AM in As The Borg Turns , Borg Wars , Syria | Permalink

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[Aug 17, 2018] Lavrov Gives Tillerson a Brilliant History Lesson on US Interventionism

The same day one year ago...
Aug 17, 2017 | www.youtube.com

Ali Haider , 1 year ago (edited)

Russians are really brilliant...salute you Russia 

Phil Newmann , 1 year ago

Tillerson. What a high HYPOCRISY. The US has murdered more than 10 million people in the last 13 years and you say Assad is a war criminal for defending his own country?

Morbius1963 , 1 year ago

Tillerson makes no mention of the democratic wishes of the Syrian people.

Sangam Sangam , 9 months ago

Assad killed terrorist in Syria sent and trained by US.

tom parankewich , 1 year ago

He forgot to say they want pipelines to go through Syria pure and simple .

Ds Vic , 1 year ago

Lavrov is a beauty! Making illmericans look dumb as usual.

[Aug 14, 2018] Why Did 51 American State Department Officials 'Dissent' Against Obama and Call for Bombing Syria?

Aug 14, 2018 | www.unz.com

renfro , August 14, 2018 at 7:25 pm GMT

@Colin Wright

Yea it was suppose to be Hillary. Under her 51 US State Dept. officials demanded Obama bomb Syria.

Why Did 51 American State Department Officials 'Dissent' Against Obama and Call for Bombing Syria?

https://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2016/06/why-did-51-american-state-department-officials-dissent-against-obama-and-call-for-bombing-syria.html

51 U.S. diplomats who still haven't grasped the negative outcomes of the disastrous wars launched since 2002, the solution is to bomb the world into America's image. In an internal dissent cable addressed to Barack Obama, seasoned diplomats have urged airstrikes on the government of Bashar al-Assad in Syria.
Chas Freeman, former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, told me he found the cable "unusual" in two respects. First, it garnered a large number of signatures. Most of those who signed the cable, a State Department official told me, were "rank and file" diplomats, such as a deputy to U.S. Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford and a secretary in the Near East Bureau. They had a good understanding of the current situation in the region. The second reason this cable is unusual, said Ambassador Freeman, is that the signatories "are arguing for rather than against the use of force." Over the past 40 years, diplomats have used the "dissent channel" to caution against a rush to war. Now these diplomats are asking for an intensification of war.

A former ambassador told me that many of the diplomats have great fealty to Hillary Clinton. Could they have leaked this cable to boost Clinton's narrative that she wanted a more robust attack on Damascus as early as 2012? Is this a campaign advertisement for Clinton, and a preparation for her likely Middle East policy when she takes power in 2017? Clinton certainly advocated tougher military action in Syria. She joined CIA chief David Petraeus to push for a U.S.-backed rebel army in 2012, and she argued for air strikes when there was no appetite for this in the White House.

[Aug 08, 2018] Ten Bombshell Revelations From Seymour Hersh's New Autobiography

Highly recommended!
Aug 08, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Here are ten bombshell revelations and fascinating new details to lately come out of both Sy Hersh's new book, Reporter , as well as interviews he's given since publication...

1) On a leaked Bush-era intelligence memo outlining the neocon plan to remake the Middle East

(Note: though previously alluded to only anecdotally by General Wesley Clark in his memoir and in a 2007 speech , the below passage from Seymour Hersh is to our knowledge the first time this highly classified memo has been quoted . Hersh's account appears to corroborate now retired Gen. Clark's assertion that days after 9/11 a classified memo outlining plans to foster regime change in "7 countries in 5 years" was being circulated among intelligence officials.)

From Reporter: A Memoir pg. 306 -- A few months after the invasion of Iraq, during an interview overseas with a general who was director of a foreign intelligence service, I was provided with a copy of a Republican neocon plan for American dominance in the Middle East. The general was an American ally, but one who was very rattled by the Bush/Cheney aggression. I was told that the document leaked to me initially had been obtained by someone in the local CIA station. There was reason to be rattled: The document declared that the war to reshape the Middle East had to begin "with the assault on Iraq. The fundamental reason for this... is that the war will start making the U.S. the hegemon of the Middle East. The correlative reason is to make the region feel in its bones, as it were, the seriousness of American intent and determination." Victory in Iraq would lead to an ultimatum to Damascus, the "defanging" of Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Arafat's Palestine Liberation Organization, and other anti-Israeli groups. America's enemies must understand that "they are fighting for their life: Pax Americana is on its way, which implies their annihilation." I and the foreign general agreed that America's neocons were a menace to civilization.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/nUCwCgthp_E

* * *

2) On early regime change plans in Syria

From Reporter: A Memoir pages 306-307 -- Donald Rumsfeld was also infected with neocon fantasy. Turkey had refused to permit America's Fourth Division to join the attack of Iraq from its territory, and the division, with its twenty-five thousand men and women, did not arrive in force inside Iraq until mid-April, when the initial fighting was essentially over. I learned then that Rumsfeld had asked the American military command in Stuttgart, Germany, which had responsibility for monitoring Europe, including Syria and Lebanon, to begin drawing up an operational plan for an invasion of Syria. A young general assigned to the task refused to do so, thereby winning applause from my friends on the inside and risking his career. The plan was seen by those I knew as especially bizarre because Bashar Assad, the ruler of secular Syria, had responded to 9/11 by sharing with the CIA hundreds of his country's most sensitive intelligence files on the Muslim Brotherhood in Hamburg, where much of the planning for 9/11 was carried out... Rumsfeld eventually came to his senses and back down, I was told...

3) On the Neocon deep state which seized power after 9/11

From Reporter: A Memoir pages 305-306 -- I began to comprehend that eight or nine neoconservatives who were political outsiders in the Clinton years had essentially overthrown the government of the United States -- with ease . It was stunning to realize how fragile our Constitution was. The intellectual leaders of that group -- Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, and Richard Perle -- had not hidden their ideology and their belief in the power of the executive but depicted themselves in public with a great calmness and a self-assurance that masked their radicalism . I had spent many hours after 9/11 in conversations with Perle that, luckily for me, helped me understand what was coming. (Perle and I had been chatting about policy since the early 1980s, but he broke off relations in 1993 over an article I did for The New Yorker linking him, a fervent supporter of Israel, to a series of meetings with Saudi businessmen in an attempt to land a multibillion-dollar contract from Saudi Arabia . Perle responded by publicly threatening to sue me and characterizing me as a newspaper terrorist. He did not sue.

Meanwhile, Cheney had emerged as a leader of the neocon pack. From 9/11 on he did all he could to undermine congressional oversight. I learned a great deal from the inside about his primacy in the White House , but once again I was limited in what I would write for fear of betraying my sources...

I came to understand that Cheney's goal was to run his most important military and intelligence operations with as little congressional knowledge, and interference, as possible. I was fascinating and important to learn what I did about Cheney's constant accumulation of power and authority as vice president , but it was impossible to even begin to verify the information without running the risk that Cheney would learn of my questioning and have a good idea from whom I was getting the information.

4) On Russian meddling in the US election

From the recent Independent interview based on his autobiography -- Hersh has vociferously strong opinions on the subject and smells a rat. He states that there is "a great deal of animosity towards Russia. All of that stuff about Russia hacking the election appears to be preposterous." He has been researching the subject but is not ready to go public yet.

Hersh quips that the last time he heard the US defense establishment have high confidence, it was regarding weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. He points out that the NSA only has moderate confidence in Russian hacking. It is a point that has been made before; there has been no national intelligence estimate in which all 17 US intelligence agencies would have to sign off. "When the intel community wants to say something they say it High confidence effectively means that they don't know."

5) On the Novichok poisoning

From the recent Independent interview -- Hersh is also on the record as stating that the official version of the Skripal poisoning does not stand up to scrutiny. He tells me: "The story of novichok poisoning has not held up very well. He [Skripal] was most likely talking to British intelligence services about Russian organised crime." The unfortunate turn of events with the contamination of other victims is suggestive, according to Hersh, of organised crime elements rather than state-sponsored actions –though this files in the face of the UK government's position.

Hersh modestly points out that these are just his opinions. Opinions or not, he is scathing on Obama – "a trimmer articulate [but] far from a radical a middleman". During his Goldsmiths talk, he remarks that liberal critics underestimate Trump at their peril.

He ends the Goldsmiths talk with an anecdote about having lunch with his sources in the wake of 9/11 . He vents his anger at the agencies for not sharing information. One of his CIA sources fires back: "Sy you still don't get it after all these years – the FBI catches bank robbers, the CIA robs banks." It is a delicious, if cryptic aphorism.

* * *

6) On the Bush-era 'Redirection' policy of arming Sunni radicals to counter Shia Iran, which in a 2007 New Yorker article Hersh accurately predicted would set off war in Syria

From the Independent interview : [Hersh] tells me it is "amazing how many times that story has been reprinted" . I ask about his argument that US policy was designed to neutralize the Shia sphere extending from Iran to Syria to Hezbollah in Lebanon and hence redraw the Sykes-Picot boundaries for the 21st century.

He goes on to say that Bush and Cheney "had it in for Iran", although he denies the idea that Iran was heavily involved in Iraq: "They were providing intel, collecting intel The US did many cross-border hunts to kill ops [with] much more aggression than Iran"...

He believes that the Trump administration has no memory of this approach. I'm sure though that the military-industrial complex has a longer memory...

I press him on the RAND and Stratfor reports including one authored by Cheney and Paul Wolfowitz in which they envisage deliberate ethno-sectarian partitioning of Iraq . Hersh ruefully states that: "The day after 9/11 we should have gone to Russia. We did the one thing that George Kennan warned us never to do – to expand NATO too far."

* * *

7) On the official 9/11 narrative

From the Independent interview : We end up ruminating about 9/11, perhaps because it is another narrative ripe for deconstruction by sceptics. Polling shows that a significant proportion of the American public believes there is more to the truth. These doubts have been reinforced by the declassification of the suppressed 28 pages of the 9/11 commission report last year undermining the version that a group of terrorists acting independently managed to pull off the attacks. The implication is that they may well have been state-sponsored with the Saudis potentially involved.

Hersh tells me: "I don't necessarily buy the story that Bin Laden was responsible for 9/11. We really don't have an ending to the story. I've known people in the [intelligence] community. We don't know anything empirical about who did what" . He continues: "The guy was living in a cave. He really didn't know much English. He was pretty bright and he had a lot of hatred for the US. We respond by attacking the Taliban. Eighteen years later How's it going guys?"

8) On the media and the morality of the powerful

From a recent The Intercept interview and book review -- If Hersh were a superhero, this would be his origin story. Two hundred and seventy-four pages after the Chicago anecdote, he describes his coverage of a massive slaughter of Iraqi troops and civilians by the U.S. in 1991 after a ceasefire had ended the Persian Gulf War. America's indifference to this massacre was, Hersh writes, "a reminder of the Vietnam War's MGR, for Mere Gook Rule: If it's a murdered or raped gook, there is no crime." It was also, he adds, a reminder of something else: "I had learned a domestic version of that rule decades earlier" in Chicago. "Reporter" demonstrates that Hersh has derived three simple lessons from that rule:

  1. The powerful prey mercilessly upon the powerless, up to and including mass murder.
  2. The powerful lie constantly about their predations.
  3. The natural instinct of the media is to let the powerful get away with it.

* * *

... ... ...

[Aug 07, 2018] More Lies About the White Helmets by Philip Giraldi

Notable quotes:
"... Is resettling a terrorist front group in the West a good idea? ..."
"... The White Helmets ..."
"... The Washington Post ..."
"... Syria conflict: White Helmets evacuated by Israel. ..."
"... The BBC story could have been written by the White Helmets themselves or by their press department. Or alternatively by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. First of all, the Israelis do not do humanitarian gestures. They helped bail out the White Helmets at the request of the U.S. because capture by the Syrians would have produced embarrassing revelations about how the group was funded and what its affiliation with terrorists was all about. And Israel's denial of involvement in Syria is nonsense, unless one considers demonstrated collaboration with the terrorist groups punctuated by nearly weekly bombing and missile attacks to be non-involvement. ..."
"... The British too are into the deception up to their eyeballs. The comment by Hunt and Mordaunt is complete fabrication regarding what the White Helmets represent. The same goes for the BBC account of how the group developed, which comes directly from the White Helmet's own propaganda division as amplified by Hollywood and the U.S. and U.K. governments. ..."
"... The White Helmets travel to bombing sites with their film crews trailing behind them. Once at the sites, with no independent observers, they are able to arrange or even stage what is filmed to conform to their selected narrative which consistently promotes tales of government atrocities against civilians to encourage outside military intervention in Syria and bring about regime change in Damascus. The White Helmets were, for example, the propagators of the totally false but propagandistically effective claims regarding the government use of so-called "barrel bombs" against civilians. ..."
"... Peter Ford, British Ambassador in Damascus from 2003-2006, recently described the group in an audio interview saying, "The White Helmets are jihadi auxiliaries. They are not, as claimed by themselves and by their supporters simple rescuers. They are not volunteers. They are paid professionals of disinformation." ..."
"... All their activities are directed at mobilizing Western opinion behind the jihadis with whom they associate. They co-locate their centers with the Al-Qaeda organization known as Al-Nusra and with other militant groups such as Jaish al-Islam. They have in the past been shown associating with and waving the flags of ISIS." ..."
"... The group is currently largely funded by a number of non-government organizations (NGOs) as well as governments, including the United States, Britain and some European Union member states. The U.S. has directly provided $23 million through the USAID (US Agency for International Development) as of 2016 and almost certainly considerably more indirectly. ..."
"... Perhaps the most serious charge against the White Helmets consists of the evidence that they actively participated in the atrocities , to include torture and murder, carried out by their al-Nusra hosts. There have been numerous photos of the White Helmets operating directly with armed terrorists and also celebrating over the bodies of execution victims and murdered Iraqi soldiers. The group's jihadi associates regard the White Helmets as fellow "mujahideen" and "soldiers of the revolution." ..."
"... The White Helmets were and are part and parcel of the attempt to overthrow a legitimate government and install a regime friendly to western, American and Israeli interests. For Israel in particular the ongoing chaos in Syria was and is part of its plan for dividing all of its neighbors into warring ethnicities and sects, making them less viable as threats to the Jewish state. ..."
Aug 07, 2018 | www.unz.com

Is resettling a terrorist front group in the West a good idea?

When is a terrorist group not a terrorist group? Apparently the answer is that it ceases to be terrorist when it terrorizes someone who is an enemy of the United States. The most prominent recent example is the Mujaheddin e Khalq (MEK), a murderous Iranian Marxist cult which assassinated five Americans in the 1970s as part of its campaign against the Shah's government. It was removed from the State Department terrorist list in 2012 by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after it had promised not to kill any more Americans but really because it had bought the support of prominent politicians to include Elaine Chao, Rudy Giuliani, Newt Gingrich, and John Bolton. It also had the behind the scenes endorsement of both the Israeli Mossad and CIA, both of whom have been using it in their operations to kill Iranians and damage the country's infrastructure. Someone high up in the federal government, perhaps Hillary or even President Obama himself, must have decided that terrorists who kill only Iranians deserve a get out of jail free card from the State Department.

There are other examples of cynical doublespeak from the Syrian conflict, including labeling rebels against the Damascus government "freedom fighters" when in reality they were as often as not allied with the al-Qaeda affiliated group Al-Nusra or even with ISIS. Frequently they received training and weapons from Washington only to turn around and either join Al-Nusra and ISIS as volunteers or surrender their weapons to them.

But perhaps there is no bigger fraud making the rounds than the so-called White Helmets. The recent media coverage derives from the documentary The White Helmets , which was produced by the group itself and tells a very convincing tale promoted as "the story of real-life heroes and impossible hope." It is a very impressive piece of propaganda, so much so that it has won numerous awards including the Oscar for Best Documentary Short last year and the White Helmets themselves were nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. More to the point, however, is the undeniable fact that the documentary has helped shape the public understanding of what is going on in Syria, describing the government in Damascus in purely negative terms.

The fawning Hollywood and Congressional depictions of the group go something like this: "the White Helmets are an 'heroic' impartial non-government humanitarian volunteer group that engages in 'first response' emergency rescue and medical treatment for all those who have been impacted by the fighting in Syria. The Syrian government hates the group because it assists victims of the fighting who are either rebels or living in rebel held areas. Recently, with the Syrian Army closing in on the last White Helmet affiliates still operating in the country, the Israeli government, assisted by the United States, staged an emergency humanitarian evacuation of the group's members and their families to Israel and then on to Jordan."

Virtually all the mainstream media coverage of the White Helmets is bogus, but by far the most ridiculous account of the Exodus from Syria came from the BBC. For those who are not familiar with it, the BBC, which once upon a time had a reputation for journalistic integrity, has become one of the worst pro-government propaganda shills of all time. Reading its articles is even worse that having a similar go at The Washington Post , which is the prime newspaper exemplar of fake news and phony journalism pretending to be a respectable news source in the United States. Let's face it, Donald Trump has a point. Nearly all of the mainstream media lies persistently these days but some sources are worse than others. People complain about Fox, and rightly so, but CNN is the absolute pits when it comes to slanting its coverage, as is MSNBC.

BBC's article is entitled Syria conflict: White Helmets evacuated by Israel. It makes the following statements, many coming directly from Israeli official sources, regarding the White Helmets, its activities and the group's relationship to some governments, to include Britain:

"The IDF said they had 'completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization and their families', saying there was an 'immediate threat to their lives.' The transfer of the displaced Syrians through Israel was an exceptional humanitarian gesture." "Although Israel is not directly involved in the Syria conflict, the two countries have been in a state of war for decades. Despite the intervention, the IDF said that 'Israel continues to maintain a non-intervention policy regarding the Syrian conflict.'" "A statement from Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt and International Development Secretary Penny Mordaunt said: 'White Helmets have been the target of attacks and, due to their high profile, we judged that, in these particular circumstances, the volunteers required immediate protection. We pay tribute to the brave and selfless work that White Helmet volunteers have done to save Syrians on all sides of the conflict.'" "Their official name is the Syrian Civil Defense and it began in early 2013 as an organization of volunteers from all walks of life, including electricians and builders. Its main task soon became to rescue civilians in war zones in the immediate aftermath of air strikes, and it says its volunteers have saved the lives of more than 100,000 people during the civil war."

The BBC story could have been written by the White Helmets themselves or by their press department. Or alternatively by the Israeli Foreign Ministry. First of all, the Israelis do not do humanitarian gestures. They helped bail out the White Helmets at the request of the U.S. because capture by the Syrians would have produced embarrassing revelations about how the group was funded and what its affiliation with terrorists was all about. And Israel's denial of involvement in Syria is nonsense, unless one considers demonstrated collaboration with the terrorist groups punctuated by nearly weekly bombing and missile attacks to be non-involvement.

The British too are into the deception up to their eyeballs. The comment by Hunt and Mordaunt is complete fabrication regarding what the White Helmets represent. The same goes for the BBC account of how the group developed, which comes directly from the White Helmet's own propaganda division as amplified by Hollywood and the U.S. and U.K. governments.

Just as important as what is said about the White Helmets' activities is the exclusion of a great deal of credible negative reporting on the group. The carefully edited scenes of heroism under fire that have been filmed and released worldwide conceal the White Helmets' relationship with the al-Qaeda affiliated group Jabhat al-Nusra and its participation in the torture and execution of "rebel" opponents. Indeed, the White Helmets only operate in rebel held territory, which enables them to shape the narrative both regarding who they are and what is occurring on the ground.

Exploiting their access to the western media, the White Helmets thereby de facto became a major source of "eyewitness" news regarding what was going on in those many parts of Syria where European and American journalists were quite rightly afraid to go. It was all part of a broader largely successful "rebel" effort to manufacture fake news that depicts the Damascus government as engaging in war crimes directed against civilians, an effort that led to several attacks on government forces and facilities by the U.S. military.

The White Helmets travel to bombing sites with their film crews trailing behind them. Once at the sites, with no independent observers, they are able to arrange or even stage what is filmed to conform to their selected narrative which consistently promotes tales of government atrocities against civilians to encourage outside military intervention in Syria and bring about regime change in Damascus. The White Helmets were, for example, the propagators of the totally false but propagandistically effective claims regarding the government use of so-called "barrel bombs" against civilians.

Peter Ford, British Ambassador in Damascus from 2003-2006, recently described the group in an audio interview saying, "The White Helmets are jihadi auxiliaries. They are not, as claimed by themselves and by their supporters simple rescuers. They are not volunteers. They are paid professionals of disinformation." He noted particularly the large size of the organization's "press department", saying, "This gives us an idea what the priority is for this very dubious organization. All their activities are directed at mobilizing Western opinion behind the jihadis with whom they associate. They co-locate their centers with the Al-Qaeda organization known as Al-Nusra and with other militant groups such as Jaish al-Islam. They have in the past been shown associating with and waving the flags of ISIS."

The group is currently largely funded by a number of non-government organizations (NGOs) as well as governments, including the United States, Britain and some European Union member states. The U.S. has directly provided $23 million through the USAID (US Agency for International Development) as of 2016 and almost certainly considerably more indirectly. Max Blumenthal has explored in some detail the various funding resources and relationships that the organization draws on, mostly in Europe and the United States.

Perhaps the most serious charge against the White Helmets consists of the evidence that they actively participated in the atrocities , to include torture and murder, carried out by their al-Nusra hosts. There have been numerous photos of the White Helmets operating directly with armed terrorists and also celebrating over the bodies of execution victims and murdered Iraqi soldiers. The group's jihadi associates regard the White Helmets as fellow "mujahideen" and "soldiers of the revolution."

So Israel's celebrated rescue of the White Helmets was little more than a theatrical performance intended to perpetuate the myth that the al-Assad government was thwarted in an attempt to capture and possibly kill an honorable non-partisan group engaged in humanitarian relief for those caught up in a bloody conflict seeking to oust a ruthless dictator. The reality is quite different. The White Helmets were and are part and parcel of the attempt to overthrow a legitimate government and install a regime friendly to western, American and Israeli interests. For Israel in particular the ongoing chaos in Syria was and is part of its plan for dividing all of its neighbors into warring ethnicities and sects, making them less viable as threats to the Jewish state.

The 800 White Helmets rescued reportedly will be resettled in the U.S., Britain and Germany. One hopes those coming to America can end up in Los Angeles, where they would presumably mingle with Hollywood big shots and the usual snowflakes while working on their next documentary. As some of them are most certainly radical Jihadists, it will be interesting to observe exactly how that will play out.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is www.councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected].

[Aug 07, 2018] A "Tour d'horizon" of the ME - Lang's opinion

Aug 07, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

4. China is teasing us all with the idea that it may send troops to participate in the Idlib offensive. Their twin objectives would probably be to insure a foot in the door with the SAG for contracts in reconstruction as well as a desire to kill as many Uighur Muslims as possible in Idlib before they escape and return to western China.

[Aug 03, 2018] Syria war US-led strikes on Raqqa may be war crimes, Amnesty International says

Jun 05, 2018 | www.cnn.com

Airstrikes by the US-led coalition in Raqqa, Syria, probably breached international humanitarian law and potentially amount to war crimes, according to a report by Amnesty International that is being hotly contested by the Pentagon.

The rights group accuses the coalition of killing and injuring thousands of civilians in attacks that were at times "disproportionate or indiscriminate," during its offensive to flush ISIS militants from their de facto capital. "The coalition's claims that its precision air campaign allowed it to bomb (ISIS) out of Raqqa while causing very few civilian casualties do not stand up to scrutiny," said Amnesty's senior crisis response adviser, Donatella Rovera. "On the ground in Raqqa we witnessed a level of destruction comparable to anything we've seen in decades of covering the impact of wars."

... ... ...

The report, "War of Annihilation," details the loss of civilian life in Raqqa, based on interviews with 112 civilians at the sites of 42 coalition airstrikes. It illustrates the cases of four civilian families who, between them, lost 90 relatives and neighbors, including 39 from one family alone. Almost all were killed by coalition airstrikes, the report alleges.

... ... ...

The coalition's offensive in Raqqa began a year ago, with US, British and French forces taking part. Tens of thousands of airstrikes were carried out in the city, Amnesty said, adding that US forces "admitted to firing 30,000 artillery rounds during the offensive." It said US forces were responsible for 90% of coalition strikes.

[Jul 29, 2018] Russia can mediate a grand bargain on Syria

Jul 25, 2018 | blogs.rediff.com

The prevailing impression is that Russia plays a hugely influential role in the Syrian conflict. But it is equally the case that there are serious limits to what Russia can do and/or is willing to do to influence the future trajectory of the conflict.

Russia and the US have managed through joint efforts to bring the conflict in southwestern Syria to an end. This has been possible because the Syrian government forces undertook the operations against extremist groups in Daraa province without involving the Iranian military advisors or Hezbollah (overtly, at least.) In turn, this provided Israel with a a face-saving pretext to swallow the bitter pill – namely, accept the fait accompli of the decimation of its proxy groups in the border region with Syria.

However, Israel still swears that it will ensure the rollback of Iranian presence in all of Syria. PM Netanyahu is meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin on July 11 to discuss the subject ahead of the Helsinki summit on July 16 between President Trump and Putin.

What are the prospects of Russia playing ball with Israel and Trump to "evict" the Iranians from Syrian soil? Frankly, "zero". When asked for comment on the subject at a media interaction in Moscow on July 4, this is how Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov responded:

Evidently, what Lavrov meant was that the Iranian presence in Syria is "legitimate" under international law. He then added:

So, what we get here is the Russian position, as follows: 'It is not for Moscow (or for Washington) to dictate to Tehran that it should not indulge in any presence outside its territorial borders in foreign countries. The Iranian presence in Syria cannot be viewed in isolation without taking into consideration the highly complicated Middle East security situation where regional states are pursuing policies in their self-interests which are often working at cross purposes. Therefore, the solution – in Syria or elsewhere in the region – lies in the regional states resolving their differences at the negotiating table.'

Lavrov was frank in underscoring that it is "absolutely unrealistic" to demand that "Iran should leave, stay within its borders, and everything will be wonderful."

However, this doesn't mean that there is nothing for Trump and Putin to discuss at Helsinki regarding Iran. Interestingly, NSA John Bolton held out some meaningful signals during his CBS News interview last Sunday when asked about Helsinki summit. He said:

Significantly, this has been the second time in the past 3 weeks that the Trump administration taken note of certain moderation in Iran's regional policies lately. (Trump himself had flagged this earlier – twice – during his press conference in Singapore following the summit with Kim Jong Un on June 12.)

Clearly, what Lavrov said on Wednesday need not necessarily be the last word. Lavrov met Iranian FM Zarif on the sidelines of the foreign minister level meeting of the remaining guarantors of the Iran deal (EU, UK, France, Germany, Russia and China) in Vienna today. Trust Russian diplomacy to work on an approach that somehow connects the various dots in the jigsaw puzzle – Iran nuclear deal, sanctions against Iran, Syrian conflict, Israel-Iran tensions, US-Iran standoff, energy security and so on. The point is, Russia is uniquely placed – on talking terms with both the US and Israel on one side and Iran and Syria on the other side.

[Jul 27, 2018] Natylie's Place Analysis Book Reviews on U.S. Foreign Policy and Russia

Jul 27, 2018 | natyliesbaldwin.com

Alexander Mercouris cuts through the hyperbole and provides a detailed analysis of what actually went on at the Helsinki Summit between Putin and Trump. Some pertinent excerpts include the following regarding rumors of a "grand bargain" to sell out Iran in Syria to appease Israel, the Gulf states and Washington, which was always a fairy tale:

On the subject of Syria, in the weeks leading up to the summit there were some media reports suggesting that Donald Trump was coming under pressure from Israel, the Saudis and the United Arab Emirates to agree a deal at the summit with Putin whereby Russia would be granted sanctions relief and possibly even recognition of Crimea, US troops in Syria would be withdrawn, and in return the Russians would agree that Iranian forces would be expelled from Syria.

The Russians were clearly worried by these reports. Not only did they go out of their way to deny them, but Putin and Lavrov held talks in Moscow on 12th July 2018 with Ali Akbar Velayati, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei's Special Adviser on International Relations, in order to reassure the Iranians that they were not true.

.Contrary to what some people are saying, I think it is most unlikely that Putin would have given Netanyahu any assurances that Russia would act to rein in Iranian activities in Syria.If Netanyahu asked Putin for such assurances (which I also think unlikely) Putin would almost certainly have told him what the Russians always say when faced with requests for such assurances: Iran and Syria are sovereign states and Russia cannot interfere in arrangements two sovereign states make with each other.

I suspect that the source of some of the stories about a 'grand bargain' between Putin and Trump involving the role of the Iranians in Syria is the regular discussions the Russians have with the Israelis, the Iranians and the Syrians whereby the Russians routinely pass on to the Iranians and the Syrians Israeli concerns about the presence of Iranian forces in Syria in particular locations as well as Israeli concerns about specific actions which the Iranians take.

.The Russians are not engaged here in discussions over some sort of 'grand bargain' to remove all Iranian troops from Syria, which as I have said they would see as counterproductive and impossible. Rather they are engaged in the classic diplomatic exercise of conflict prevention: keeping the Israelis, the Iranians and the Syrians informed about each other's moves and red lines in order to prevent an uncontrolled escalation of the conflict between them, which might risk an all-out war, which nobody wants, and which the Russians are doing their best to prevent.

Recent reports of an understanding between the Israelis, the Iranians and the Syrians supposedly brokered by the Russians whereby Iranian forces agreed not to participate in the Syrian army's ongoing military operations in south west Syria close to the Israeli occupied Golan Heights are a case in point.

The Iranians and the Syrians agreed to this, not because the Russians forced them to but because it is in their interest to. The Syrian army does not need Iranian help to defeat the Jihadis in southwest Syria so keeping the Iranians away from the area allows the Syrians to clear the area of the Jihadis without risking a military confrontation with Israel.

[Jul 23, 2018] A link to an article on how Western NGOs and terrorist groups hire Syrian refugees as actors in their videos through social media sites

Jul 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Jen , Jul 22, 2018 6:29:55 PM | 21

Basil @ 11:

Thanks for posting those links. I just had a look at Vanessa Beeley's blog and found a link to an article on how Western NGOs and terrorist groups hire Syrian refugees as actors in their videos through social media sites (in particular social media sites that advertise jobs).

https://en.insidesyriamc.com/2018/07/12/breaking-syrian-opposition-and-western-ngos-hire-actors-for-chemical-weapons-provocation/

Unfortunately (and understandably perhaps, given the risk that might be involved) the people at Inside Syria Media Center did not go far enough in their investigation to find out where the money to pay the actors in these "documentaries" comes from.

[Jul 23, 2018] Christianity was formed after Jesus was executed to protect the money lenders as a protest against debt slavery

Notable quotes:
"... You don't need to "evacuate" aid workers & paramedics, because they have nothing to offer, nothing to fear and want to stay and help people. You DO evacuate special forces & trained proxies. Because you spent money putting them there and the last thing you want is them getting caught or killed. ..."
"... So this is basically a brilliant way of getting hundreds of key ISIS figures our of Syria and resettled into Western countries. Just tidy them up and give them a white helmet. Do these sound like White Helmets to you? ..."
"... Who cares what actually happens to the real White Helmets, the West certainly don't. Especially as the real White Helmets and their families were mainly up in the north, Idlib, hundreds of miles from the Israeli border with no way of getting there. This is a sham. The key ISIS operatives are getting out via Israel while the ones that don't matter are on buses to Idlib, currently blocked as they try to pass through Iranian controlled territory. ..."
Jul 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

White Helmets are connected to Mo$$ad and MI6

adam gadahn , Jul 22, 2018 3:16:00 PM | 4
White Helmets "Rescued" By Israel Via Golan Heights In Overnight Operation

why?

You don't need to "evacuate" aid workers & paramedics, because they have nothing to offer, nothing to fear and want to stay and help people. You DO evacuate special forces & trained proxies. Because you spent money putting them there and the last thing you want is them getting caught or killed.

So this is basically a brilliant way of getting hundreds of key ISIS figures our of Syria and resettled into Western countries. Just tidy them up and give them a white helmet. Do these sound like White Helmets to you?

Maadeh Nassar "The Commander of the 'Golan Knights Brigade", Ahmad Al-Nuhas Commander of the "Brigade of the Sword of the Levant", Alaa Halaki "Commander of the Ababel army" and Abu Ratib Nassar, leader of the 'Golan Knights Brigade" escape to Israelearly this morning.

No, me neither.

Who cares what actually happens to the real White Helmets, the West certainly don't. Especially as the real White Helmets and their families were mainly up in the north, Idlib, hundreds of miles from the Israeli border with no way of getting there. This is a sham. The key ISIS operatives are getting out via Israel while the ones that don't matter are on buses to Idlib, currently blocked as they try to pass through Iranian controlled territory.

as for the cia,mi6 mossad sas white helmets they put out a statement thanking george clooney and asking for the return of the oscar lost somewhere in the syriana

adam gadahn , Jul 22, 2018 3:24:56 PM | 5

White Helmets are Mo$$ad and MI6. A branch of AlQaeda terrorists. The one we were told did 9/11(LOL!). 800 members and their families rescued and will go to germany,Canada, France and Britain. Possible US too.

the rescue mission This shows you clearly who was behind the war in Syria. through idf heliborne operations of ISIS leaders, especially the foreign ones. Netanyahu said that TRUMP and Trudeau asked him to evacuate them.


lol lol
into talmud infinity
my life already

[Jul 22, 2018] Israel helping move 800 White Helmets out of Syria via Jordan report -- RT World News

Notable quotes:
"... "members of a Syrian civil organization and their families" ..."
"... "additional European countries." ..."
"... "due to an immediate threat to their lives," ..."
"... "an exceptional humanitarian gesture." ..."
"... "humanitarian aid to civilians, women and children" ..."
"... "will not accept any Syrian refugee to our territory." ..."
"... "political solution." ..."
"... If you like this story, share it with a friend! ..."
Jul 22, 2018 | www.rt.com

Some 800 members of the controversial Western-backed White Helmets will be brought to Jordan through Israel to be reportedly resettled later in the UK, Canada, and Germany. The UN is overseeing the exodus. Hundreds of the self-described aid workers, who operate exclusively in rebel-held areas, have crossed into Israel from southwestern Syria overnight on Sunday, German tabloid Bild reported, citing its own correspondents in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights.

Evacuation of white helmets plus families still ongoing here at syrian israeli border. Plan is to drive asap to jordan. @BILD pic.twitter.com/KcBOdduM2t

-- Paul Ronzheimer (@ronzheimer) July 22, 2018

The White Helmets' passage has been facilitated by Israel, according to Bild, which reports they have been transferred through an Israeli military base. The evacuation kicked off at 9:30 pm local time on Saturday and was expected to continue into the night. Several roads were put on lockdown by the army and police as part of preparations for the exodus.

On Sunday morning, the IDF's Twitter account confirmed that Israeli forces had evacuated "members of a Syrian civil organization and their families" at the request of the US and "additional European countries." In a number of subsequent tweets, the military said that some "civilians" were rescued from southern Syria "due to an immediate threat to their lives," and because Israel wanted to make "an exceptional humanitarian gesture."

Following an Israeli Government directive and at the request of the United States and additional European countries, the IDF recently completed a humanitarian effort to rescue members of a Syrian civil organization and their families

-- IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 22, 2018

The civilians were subsequently transferred to a neighboring country. Israel continues to maintain a non-intervention policy regarding the Syrian conflict and continues to hold the Syrian regime accountable for all activities in Syrian territory

-- IDF (@IDFSpokesperson) July 22, 2018

It did not clarify to which organization, if any, the evacuees belonged.

Israel previously admitted that it has been providing humanitarian assistance to Syrian militants, treating over 1,000 wounded rebel fighters in its hospitals. According to Israel's ex-Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon, the assistance was granted under the condition that the militants would not let Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and Al-Qaeda affiliated fighters slip into Israel and would not do any harm to the population of Druze villages.

Read more FILE PHOTO © Hosam Katan White Helmets are helping Syrian militants prepare 'false flag' chemical attack – Idlib residents

However, Israel has been adamant about not taking in Syrian refugees, with hawkish Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman stating last month that while the Jewish state keeps providing "humanitarian aid to civilians, women and children" camped on the Syrian side of the border, it "will not accept any Syrian refugee to our territory."

It is supposed that the White Helmets will not stay in the Jewish state for longer than is needed to transport them to the Jordanian border. The transfer has been confirmed by Jordanian Foreign Ministry spokesman Ambassador Mohammad al-Kayed, as cited by Ammon News.

Al-Kayed said that Jordan had granted the request on purely humanitarian grounds after Britain, Canada and Germany each reportedly pledged to take in a share of the White Helmets fleeing what they describe as potential persecution by Damascus. Last month, Jordan, which already hosts some 1.3 million displaced Syrians, said it won't take any more in, stressing the need for a "political solution."

Once in the Jordanian territory, the Syrians will be confined to a specially designated restricted area where they will stay for a maximum of three months until handed over to one of the Western countries, Al-Kayed noted , adding that the scheme should not place any additional burden on Jordan, as the organization of their passage has been arranged by the UN.

Read more White Helmets member walks on the rubble of destroyed buildings in Eastern Ghouta © Abdulmonam Eassa / AFP 'Propaganda organization': White Helmets 'engage in anti-Assad activities' – author Sy Hersh to RT

It's yet unclear how the members of the White Helmets, who have on multiple occasions been reported as dealing with Al-Qaeda-linked militants, will be distributed among the potential recipients, with Bild reporting that it is yet unknown how many of them will come Germany's way.

A looming evacuation of the White Helmets from Syria was first reported by CBS News on July 14. The broadcaster reported that the issue was raised by US allies in conversations with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the two-day NATO summit on July 11- July 12.

Reportedly, UK Prime Minister Theresa May personally interceded on the White Helmets' behalf during Trump's visit to the UK, a day after the summit.

On Friday, CBS News reported that the operation was to be launched "very quickly" and proceed in accordance with a joint plan, thrashed out by the US, the UK and Canada.

If you like this story, share it with a friend!

[Jul 22, 2018] MSM has made patently false claims about Douma false flag: the coverage can be viewed as classic fake news case

Jul 22, 2018 | caucus99percent.com

Millions of YouTube viewers have been captivated by the 'Syrian hero boy' who manages to rescue a little girl while under gunfire. Now a group of Norwegian filmmakers have told BBC Trending they are behind it. They say it was filmed on location in Malta this summer with the intention of being presented as real. Lars Klevberg, a 34-year-old film director based in Oslo, wrote a script after watching news coverage of the conflict in Syria. He says he deliberately presented the film as reality in order to generate a discussion about children in conflict zones. Were they comfortable making a film that potentially deceived millions of people? "I was not uncomfortable," Klevberg said. "By publishing a clip that could appear to be authentic we hoped to take advantage of a tool that's often used in war; make a video that claims to be real. We wanted to see if the film would get attention and spur debate, first and foremost about children and war. We also wanted to see how the media would respond to such a video."

A tool that's often used in war; make a video that claims to be real. Well, that sounds like warmongering propaganda to me, but hey, if Norwegian filmmakers want to wrap it up in a candy coating of concern for children, well, that, too is a tool that's often used in war. When all else fails, the proponents of war always pull out "save the little children." It used to be "keep that brute from molesting your women," but now that women are emancipated, sort of, it's usually "save the little children."

gjohnsit on Wed, 07/18/2018 - 5:35pm

On April 20, CNN finished a report on fake news with this statement :
If the channels are monetized -- which InfoWars has previously claimed they are -- the major newspapers could have unknowingly supported disinformation and conspiracy.
Ads also appeared on The Jimmy Dore Show channel, a far-left YouTube channel that peddles conspiracy theories, such as the idea that Syrian chemical weapons attacks are hoaxes.

Jimmy Dore questioned whether the attack even happened, and if it did happen, who did it.
That made him a kook, even with liberals.

I apologize and stand corrected. Someone needs to do something about the Jimmy imposter who looks like him, has the same show name, and posts videos with titles saying Syrian chemical attacks are a false flag operation. I don't get why someone would do him dirty like that.

-- Ana Kasparian (@AnaKasparian) 24 April 2018

Yea. False Flag Attack. That would be nuts, amirite?
So the OPCW released their first report on the Douma chemical attack.

The OPCW released the results of their fact-finding mission regarding allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma on April 7, 2018. The mission included on-site visits to collect environmental samples, interviews with witnesses, and data collection. The OPCW writes that lab analysis of the samples "show that no organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties." The report does state that "explosive residues" and "various chlorinated organic chemicals" were found in samples from two sites. The fact finding mission team is still working on drafting final conclusions.

No organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties."

These findings contradict the White House assessment which was released on April 13th, just days after the alleged attack. "A significant body of information points to the regime using chlorine in its bombardment of Duma, while some additional information points to the regime also using the nerve agent sarin," the White House stated.

Without waiting for a proper investigation President Trump ordered the United States military to drop more than 100 Tomahawk missiles on Damascus. The U.S. relied on alleged blood and urine data to justify this attack, but the OPCW makes no mention of any blood or urine samples.

Despite the fact that the interim OPCW report only mentions chlorine two times, the corporate media ran several headlines which state that chlorine was found in the samples. "Interim OPCW report finds proof of chlorine used in Syria's Douma," Al Jazeera wrote. Reuters ran a story titled "Chemical weapons agency finds 'chlorinated' chemicals in Syria's Douma," and later issued a correction to clarify that it what the OPCW found was "'various chlorinated organic chemicals' instead of chlorine." The BBC also changed its headline from "chlorine gas" to "possible chlorine."

So the OPCW found evidence of a chlorine attack then? No, that isn't what they reported. Check out what the MilitaryTimes said about the report.

The team said in its initial report on Douma that two industrial gas cylinders were discovered at different locations in the town: one on a top-floor patio and the other on a bed in a top-floor apartment. It said it is working to establish how they got there and whether they are linked to the alleged attack.

The team said it "needs to continue its work to draw final conclusions regarding the alleged incident and, to this end, the investigation is ongoing."

Louis Charbonneau, the U.N. director for Human Rights Watch, said the OPCW should "move quickly to finish its investigation and determine whether a chemical weapon attack occurred."

So this is essentially what we know and don't know:

1) no nerve agent attack happened
2) the OPCW still hasn't determined if a chemical attack occurred, despite the mainstream media saying otherwise (i.e. fake news).
3) the only chlorine found was in cylinders on the top floors of apartments.

As for those cylinders, is it likely the Syrian army would sneak them into rebel-held areas, and carry them to top floors before releasing the chlorine?
Or would they more likely simply drop the chlorine from helicopters?

4) Jimmy Dore has not been proven wrong, and some of what Dore has claimed has been proven right. Only the MSM has made patently false claims.

So the people doing the most screaming about fake news are the ones most wrong.

[Jul 19, 2018] A Tale of Two Poisonings by Philip Giraldi

Notable quotes:
"... Repeated requests by Russia to obtain a sample of the alleged nerve agent for testing were rejected by the British government in spite of the fact that a military grade nerve agent would have surely killed both the Skripals as well as anyone else within 100 yards. As the latest British account of the location of the alleged poison places it on the door handle of the Scripals' residence, the timetable element was also unconvincing. That meant that the two would have spent three hours, including a stop at a pub and lunch, before succumbing on a park bench. Military grade nerve agents kill instantly. ..."
"... Nevertheless, the politically weak May government, desperately seeking a formidable foreign enemy to rally around against, insisted that Russia, almost certainly acting under orders from Vladimir Putin himself, carried out the killing of a former British double agent who had been released from a Kremlin prison in a spy swap and who was no longer capable of doing any damage to Russia. Putin apparently did all that in spite of the fact that he had an election coming up and would be the host of the World Cup in the summer, an event that would be an absolute top priority to have go smoothly. ..."
Jul 17, 2018 | www.unz.com

Poisoning enemies has a long history with Augustus Caesar's wife Livia allegedly a master of the art, as were the Borgias in Renaissance Italy. Lately there has been a resurgence in allegations regarding the use of poisons of various types by several governments. The claims are particularly damaging both morally and legally as international conventions regard the use of poisonous chemical compounds as particularly heinous, condemning their use because they, when employed in quantity, become "weapons of mass destruction," killing indiscriminately and horribly, making no distinction between combatants and civilians. Their use is considered to be a "war crime" and the government officials who ordered their deployment are "war criminals," subject to prosecution by the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

There are two important poisoning stories that have made the news recently. Both are follow-ups to reporting that has appeared in the news over the past few months and both are particularly interesting because they tend to repudiate earlier coverage that had been largely accepted by several governments as well as the media and the chattering class of paid experts that appears on television.

The first story relates to the poisoning of former Russian intelligence agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in March. There was quite a bit that was odd about the Skripal case, which relied from the start " on circumstantial evidence and secret intelligence." And there was inevitably a rush to judgment. British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson blamed Russia less than forty-eight hours after the Skripals were found unconscious on a bench in Salisbury England, too soon for any chemical analysis of the alleged poisoning to have taken place.

British Prime Minister Theresa May threw gasoline on the fire when she addressed Parliament shortly thereafter to blame the Kremlin and demand a Russian official response to the event in 36 hours, declaring that the apparent poisoning was "very likely" caused by a made-in-Russia nerve agent referred to by its generic name novichok. The British media was soon on board with a vengeance, spreading the government line that such a highly sensitive operation would require the approval of President Vladimir Putin himself. The expulsion of Russian diplomats soon followed with the United States and other countries following suit.

Repeated requests by Russia to obtain a sample of the alleged nerve agent for testing were rejected by the British government in spite of the fact that a military grade nerve agent would have surely killed both the Skripals as well as anyone else within 100 yards. As the latest British account of the location of the alleged poison places it on the door handle of the Scripals' residence, the timetable element was also unconvincing. That meant that the two would have spent three hours, including a stop at a pub and lunch, before succumbing on a park bench. Military grade nerve agents kill instantly.

The head of Britain's own chemical weapons facility Porton Down even contradicted claims made by May, Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, and British Ambassador in Moscow Laurie Bristow. The lab's Chief Executive Gary Aitkenhead testified that he did not know if the nerve agent was actually produced in Russia, a not surprising observation as the chemical formula was revealed to the public in a scientific paper in 1992 and there are an estimated twenty countries capable of producing it. There are also presumed stocks of novichok remaining in independent countries that once were part of the Soviet Union, to include Russia's enemy du jour Ukraine, while a false flag operation by the British themselves, the CIA or Mossad, is not unthinkable.

Nevertheless, the politically weak May government, desperately seeking a formidable foreign enemy to rally around against, insisted that Russia, almost certainly acting under orders from Vladimir Putin himself, carried out the killing of a former British double agent who had been released from a Kremlin prison in a spy swap and who was no longer capable of doing any damage to Russia. Putin apparently did all that in spite of the fact that he had an election coming up and would be the host of the World Cup in the summer, an event that would be an absolute top priority to have go smoothly.

Now there has been an actual death in Amesbury near Salisbury that has been attributed to novichok. On June 30 th , Charlie Rowley and Dawn Sturgess were admitted to hospital after being found unconscious. Sturgess died eight days later. The May government has not yet blamed it on Putin or even on a clumsy Russian operative that might have inadvertently left behind a vial of poison or a used syringe, though Home Secretary Sajid Javid came close to that when he suggested that Russia was using Britain as a "dumping ground for poisons." Police suggestions that the poisoned couple appear to have handled novichok infused material of some kind before succumbing appears to be contradicted by inability to find the actual source of the alleged exposure.

British government dancing around the issue notwithstanding, there have been suggestions that the closest source of more novichok might well be the U.K. government labs at nearby Porton Down, only seven miles from Salisbury and Amesbury, which increases suspicion about the original story promulgated by Downing Street. Would the British government actually poison an expendable ex-Russian spy and his daughter to divert attention from a domestic political problem at home? It's worth considering as the "blame it all on Putin narrative" becomes even less credible.

The second story comes from Syria, where there is also a Russian hand as Moscow is aiding the government of Bashar al-Assad. The by now notorious April 7, 2018 alleged chemical attack on the rebel-held Syrian city of Douma was widely blamed by Western countries and the mainstream media on Assad's forces. This resulted in a decision by U.S. President Donald Trump to order massive U.S.-led retaliatory airstrikes against targets reportedly involved in chemical production in and around Damascus.

Trump blamed "animal Assad" for "using nerve agents" and both the media and most European governments followed that line, concluding that Damascus had ordered the chemical attacks a mere moments after videos purporting to show scores of chemical attack victims first surfaced from rebel sources, long before U.S. intelligence could have made its own assessment. A 5-page White House assessment released on April 13th, just days after the alleged attack asserted that sarin was used at Douma , claiming that "A significant body of information points to the regime using chlorine in its bombardment of Duma, while some additional information points to the regime also using the nerve agent sarin."

Independent sources warned at the time that not a single neutral observer was on the ground to confirm that chemical agents launched by the Syrian government had, in fact, been used, but were ignored. All of the sources reporting the attack were either affiliated with the rebels who occupied the area or were not physically present in Douma.

Now, finally, three months later, there has been a credible independent report on what was determined about the attack through chemical analysis of traces recovered in Douma. A preliminary report published last Friday by the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) found no traces of any nerve agent like sarin at the site. The OPCW report states this clearly : "No organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties."

This means that the Trump Administration claimed to have details relating to an event in a foreign country that it did not know and could not actually confirm to be true. And it used that as a justification for ordering an airstrike that killed people and destroyed targets in Syria. Will the White House respond to the OPCW report and apologize, possibly to include reparations for an unjustified attack on another sovereign nation? Don't hold your breath.

The Salisbury and Douma attacks are illustrative of just what happens when a government is prepared to dissimulate or even lie to go the extra mile to make a case to justify preemptive action that otherwise might be challenged. Theresa May is, unfortunately, still in power and so is Donald Trump. In a better world an outraged public would demand that they be thrown out of office and even possibly subjected to the tender ministrations of the International Criminal Court in The Hague. With power comes accountability, or at least that should be the rule, but it is a dictum that has for some time been ignored. Even given that, one might hope that the blunders will not be repeated, but there is not even any assurance that either May or Trump is much given to "lessons learned" or that a Mike Pence or Boris Johnson would be any better. That is our tragedy.

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is www.councilforthenationalinterest.org, address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is [email protected].


FKA Max , Website July 17, 2018 at 4:29 am GMT

Putin apparently did all that in spite of the fact that he had an election coming up and would be the host of the World Cup in the summer, an event that would be an absolute top priority to have go smoothly.
[...]
Would the British government actually poison an expendable ex-Russian spy and his daughter to divert attention from a domestic political problem at home? It's worth considering as the "blame it all on Putin narrative" becomes even less credible.

Mr. Giraldi,

these were my thoughts at first too, but I looked into the case quite extensively over the last several weeks and came to the conclusion that Putin actually had more of a motive than the British government, et al.

This is my evolution on the Skripals' case:

On Skripal I'm not entirely certain, since I haven't really looked into the case. Also the timing of the incident seems to be not what Putin would have chosen, in my opinion, since it was too close to the soccer World Cup events/celebrations in Russia, and Putin usually tries to be conciliatory with the West before big sporting events like that in Russia, e.g. when he released Khodorkovsky early before the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, for example.

https://www.unz.com/article/revisiting-litvinenko-what-really-happened/#comment-2401031

As I said before, I was agnostic about the Skripal case and tried to keep an open mind about it and not reflexively blame it on (the) Russians (government), but you providing me with this additional information makes me actually more of a believer in the official Western narrative now.

https://www.unz.com/article/revisiting-litvinenko-what-really-happened/#comment-2401541

I'm reaching here, and this is pure speculation on my part, but could it be that the Skripals were poisoned ( March 4, 2018 ) by Putin, et al. to distract from the 200+ Russian mercenaries allegedly killed by U.S. airstrikes in Syria ( February 7, 2018 ) http://www.unz.com/tsaker/book-review-losing-military-supremacy-the-myopia-of-american-strategic-planning-by-andrei-martyanov/#comment-2406731 before the Russian election ( March 18, 2018 )?

https://www.unz.com/article/revisiting-litvinenko-what-really-happened/#comment-2407120

Repeated requests by Russia to obtain a sample of the alleged nerve agent for testing were rejected by the British government in spite of the fact that a military grade nerve agent would have surely killed both the Skripals as well as anyone else within 100 yards.

They mention that only 3 known cases of Novichok agent poisoning had been treated before the cases of the Skripals, so there was very little guidance and experience to go on in how to treat Yulia and her father. https://www.unz.com/article/revisiting-litvinenko-what-really-happened/#comment-2401824

Skripals doctor: 'We expected them not to survive' – BBC News

tac , July 17, 2018 at 5:25 am GMT
@FKA Max

You should watch a recent interview with Walter Litvinenko (father of the deceased Alexander Litvinenko) to hear his startling admissions:

jilles dykstra , July 17, 2018 at 7:17 am GMT
It was hilarious to watch yesterday evening, as the presidential plane had been underway for two and a half hours, the consternation on CNN.
As I expected, the vague accusations about Russian meddling in the elections continued this morning, on CNN.
I remember an interview on CNN before the elections, someoen said 'if Trump wins', the two of CNN burst into laughter.
I do hope Trump survives, politically and fysically.
Luckily is it not very ease to murder a president these days.
On top of that, Sept 11 made many all over the world quite suspicious.
I for one never believed that Russia would be so stupid as to try to murder two former spies in such a stupid way, and without any motive.
MH17 is a similar case.
Assad also is not stupid, he had no interest whatsoever to use poison gas in Syria.
How Arafat died we still do not know, that was done professionally, or maybe not, if I had to kill him I would try to make his death look natural, a clear cause.
Who had a motive is quite clear.
Greg Bacon , Website July 17, 2018 at 9:18 am GMT
Until the unhinged May lets Yulia go free–if she's still alive–and go back to Russia and tell her side of the story, nothing will change.

The so-called Deep State and its willing toady, the corrupt, lying MSM are accomplices in this False Flag and they are the ones that should be in the dock at the ICC. But since the ICC is part of the Deep State, don't expect this to happen.

This Russian bashing has gotten completely out of hand. And now that Putin has stated that the sleazy Russian thief oligarch Browder helped launder 400 million to the DNC-Clinton Mob, it's going to get very interesting, if not dangerous for humanity.

They need a BIG distraction to get the sheeple's thought off the truth that there is NOTHING to the Putin-Trump election meddling, anything might happen, even a repeat of the Israeli masterminded 9/11 False Flag.

Does 'Lucky Larry' own anymore asbestos-laden skyscrapers?

EliteCommInc. , July 17, 2018 at 10:02 am GMT
i would love to make a formal complaint about conspiracies because there are people who will and do make trouble for others. it has taken me a long time to come to that place – but it is no joke as dr. geraldi no doubt knows.

however, one needs the evidence and what has been lacking in all these accusations whether its russia and us elections, chemical weapons in syria, or supposed poisoning of three people formerly associated with russia, there is suspicion, and there is narrative, but little in the way of facts. and if any of these accusations were concerning single individual battling mere gossip and innuendo or other nefarious behaviors, i have learned to discount nothing. look if you can't bring a coupon into a store, wait for coffee without people launching into fits of fear of life . . . then who knows what triggers people's self defense. it apparently dos not take much for the supposed superior people to make their inferiors look off kilt. i just take it granted that when i leave my house, on occasion, i have visitors – as "nutty" as that sounds.

but these cases have multiple researchers and resources to bar on the matter and yet, the evidence is either mere narrative, contradicted or has a variety of explanations just as reasonable or more reasonable. but what we have is an entire population engaged in manufacturing not one but several cases in which the president of the us actually engaged in treason based on sketchy financial dealings with russian banks and financial elites.

and i think this article makes the case that people with power who engage in wielding accusations should be held to the standard of providing evidence. and while i am a little uncomfortable with our president engaging in open debate with our intel community from overseas, his objection is well put. the process of evidence collection and by independent objective observers is unreasonable. yet he found it quite convenient to buy the argument by the same intel agencies for said use in syria. the election is over, but the war about the election, the level of dislike of the elected , i think it is fair to say has never been so widespread and deep such that members of the government or government agencies would sign up to press the matter.

and quip reflctions about the damage being done and "it's all in one's head" just are insufficient to address the issues.

frankly, i think the country's not outraged because they are "drama fatigued" last week in attempting to capture a stray kitten who disappearance has me overly stretched – i never used to like cats – bells rang and doors closed indicating that she had in fact been enclosed on the patio – around two am or so – only to discover a cute little skunk was the detainee. whose release required navigating around the house twice because the door locked actually worked. sometimes the evidence doesn't doesn't reveal what was expected.

as for the kitten, evidence suggests she managed to punch her way through a steel mesh garage vent. now i suspect that someone recently punched a hole in those mesh barriers, but that is speculation on my part, even likely speculation. however, minus the proof that is all it is. a mysterious frustrating event.

who knows maybe the cat and the skunk are pals.

All we like sheep , Website July 17, 2018 at 10:47 am GMT
With the sad demise of the woman of the couple, the continuing make-up story in MSM makes the twist that the nerve agent was found in a perfume bottle. While of these two non-Russian people (who allegedly were former drug-addicts) one may suspect that they pick up any strange bottle from the ground and have a sniff at it, this is completely surrealistic in the case of the Skripals. The difference couldn't be bigger between these two couples. Anyhow, the clue that brings them four together is the vicinity of Porton Down, where chemical weapons are stored & tested.
dearieme , July 17, 2018 at 10:55 am GMT
If I had to guess at what's been going on in Salisbury I'd wonder if a lunatic/evil employee at Porton Down has smuggled out something nasty and is amusing himself with it.
Moi , July 17, 2018 at 11:15 am GMT
Mr. Giraldi, you're telling me the American and Brit governments lie. Who'd have thunk

ps: do we still have people locked up in Gitmo without being charged of a crime? Just wondering

prusmc , Website July 17, 2018 at 11:52 am GMT
@All we like sheep

The author laments that May and Trump are still in office.
She will last longer than he will. Trump will be out in three months either by impeachment and conviction or by other means. None of this clandestine stuff like poisoning but by a military coup. I remember the era of 7 Days in May but that was not serious just a storey teller weaving a good yarn. Today, we have members of Congress and large numbers of the media(probably over 50 percent) calling for a Armed Forces take over.
The probable stumbling block is how to skip Pense and go directly to Speaker Paul Ryan. Or how to dispense with the chain of succession entirely and enshrine Hilary or recall Obama until the emergency is over.
Is Mad Dog the man or will McMaster lead the coup? Remember, anyone wearing more than one star made the elite grade during the Obama regime and some of the one stars had formative years as O-6 and O-5 while Obama ruled supreme.

The Alarmist , July 17, 2018 at 11:52 am GMT

"Military grade nerve agents kill instantly."

Quickly, not instantly. If you had an atropine pen handy, you might survive, though it would leave you immobilised and dazed. If the Skripals were dosed, it would likely have been at or near the bench where they were found. Residue on their clothing might be weak enough to not kill the constable.

Michael Kenny , July 17, 2018 at 12:34 pm GMT
Clearly, Putin's American supporters see the summit as a flop from their champion's point of view.
Tyrion 2 , Website July 17, 2018 at 12:58 pm GMT
@The Alarmist

The only thing the Salisbury incidents provide evidence for is that our culture is prone to hysterical outrage over anything relating to Russia or Putin.

And that's true even if it were rogue elements in the Russian security services.

ploni almoni , July 17, 2018 at 1:44 pm GMT
@FKA Max

Similarly, I was initially skeptical about the Moon landings but with time I have to the conclusion that they are plausible.

rbc , July 17, 2018 at 1:47 pm GMT
What I really loved about the coverage of the Skripal "poisoning" were the pictures of the cops wearing hazmat suits to clean up the park bench. In the same shot birds were hopping around apparently unaffected by the deadly nerve gas. So we're to believe that this stuff could kill a big cop but not a 2 pound pigeon .
Jake , July 17, 2018 at 3:16 pm GMT
British secret service and its 3 main children – CIA, Mossad, Saudi General Intelligence Agency – are morally capable of committing any horror imaginable against civilians, even their own.

The Anglo-Zionist Empire is desperate to find the One Ring That Rules Them All.

Jake , July 17, 2018 at 3:18 pm GMT
@rbc

That's no more absurd than thousands of things promoted as truth by the WASP empires over the past 400 years.

Felix-Culpa , July 17, 2018 at 4:15 pm GMT
@Jake

Yes, like that the Protestant Revolt which still gets called a "Reformation" was anything other than a looting operation.

AnonFromTN , July 17, 2018 at 4:22 pm GMT
@Biff

That's so naïve. When you commit a crime and have witnesses in your custody, you make sure they never talk. "Elementary, Watson", as Holmes used to say.

jacques sheete , July 17, 2018 at 4:24 pm GMT

Shaping a story to fit the agenda

That's why we have "journalists" and "historians," mass media and skoolink (yooniversities included), and I find it amazing that the stories change as fast as the agendas.

edNels , July 17, 2018 at 5:32 pm GMT
@NoseytheDuke

Oh "These Kids today" that old refrain again, and it's getting old too, all the emphasis on kids anyway, from concerns about posterity, to the unending posturing about faux parent related concerns sublimated in one way or another to the other mantra: " oh the Children" thing that phony liberal types do.

But to the point:

What a pity Western "Intelligence" seems to have never heard the story of The Boy Who Cried 'Wolf'.

When do these little monsters ever get a chance to hear childhood stories nowadays glued to their carry style devices, wearable devices, soon inserted devices , to hear any of the old wisdom? It now isn't all that likely. It is more the kids teaching the kids in a modern high tech reality version of Lord of the Flies scenario.

When they are inevitably inducted into the professions as they will, replacing remnants of earlier generations that maybe still had been somewhat exposed to folk tales and stories, or better TV of earlier times, well, don't be surprised that the rank and file of the intelligence industry, like elsewhere is unable personally to easily navigate anything, much less possessing inborn sensibility gained from age old culture and all that. Could it be in the whole Fake News genre too, it seems to indicate some dialectic flaw in thinking, (a priori as it were.) I feel like it's coming from youngsters lacking any frame of reference/experience blundering, not being held to account!
The Brat Pack was given free reign and away they go arrogant to a fault

What was folk knowledge is a cumbersome, anachronistic, vestigial relic of another era, sought to be replaced soon, by robots.

Who needs the f'n brats ?

Bill jones , July 17, 2018 at 5:47 pm GMT
The political filth really have no shame, do they?
chris , July 17, 2018 at 6:12 pm GMT
@jilles dykstra

I think we know that Arafat was poisoned.

exudd1 , July 17, 2018 at 6:39 pm GMT
@Fran Macadam

Well said. Agree completely. Thanks.

Z-man , July 17, 2018 at 6:41 pm GMT
@prusmc

None of this clandestine stuff like poisoning but by a military coup. I remember the era of 7 Days in May but that was not serious just a storey teller weaving a good yarn. Today, we have members of Congress and large numbers of the media(probably over 50 percent) calling for a Armed Forces take over.

Watching too many old movies now , haven't we? LOL!!

The probable stumbling block is how to skip Pense and go directly to Speaker Paul Ryan. Or how to dispense with the chain of succession entirely and enshrine Hilary or recall Obama until the emergency is over.

Ok, now you need to be put down or at least committed. LOL

FKA Max , Website July 17, 2018 at 7:00 pm GMT
@tac

I'm glad Litvinenko Sr. is taken care of in his old age by the Russian state:

BAD CHEMISTRY? Ft. Walter Litvinenko, Father of Alexander Litvinenko

Although he chose to leave Russian of his own will, the authorities were unlikely to welcome him back and his dramatic u-turn looks like a calculated attempt to smooth the way for his return to the country of his birth.

Clearly relishing Mr Litvinenko senior's propaganda gift in the run-up to a presidential election expected to be won by Vladimir Putin next month, Russian state TV said the unhappy exile had run out of money and that electricity and gas had been cut off to his tiny Italian flat for non-payment of bills.
[...]
Alexander Goldfarb, the co-author of a book about the murder and a friend of the late Litvinenko, accused Russian TV of acting in an irresponsible and inhumane manner, saying the Kremlin's propaganda chiefs had exploited his grief and troubled psychological condition.

"They used the troubled psychological state of an elderly man for propaganda purposes in order to whitewash Alexander's killers," he said.

"Walter is going through a really tough time in connection with his wife's death a few months ago and feels lonely. It happens with old people."

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/russia/9057560/Alexander-Litvinenkos-father-calls-his-son-a-traitor.html

Salisbury poisoning: Skripals 'were under Russian surveillance' – http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-44717835

http://www.unz.com/article/revisiting-litvinenko-what-really-happened/#comment-2403171

Skripals 'were under Russian surveillance' – BBC Newsnight

Newsnight's Diplomatic and Defence Editor, Mark Urban, reveals that the Skripals 'were under Russian surveillance' and that he personally had several meetings with Sergei Skripal last year.

AnonFromTN , July 17, 2018 at 7:01 pm GMT
@Bill jones

Did they ever have shame? The world would be much better place if they did.

Bill Jones , July 17, 2018 at 7:40 pm GMT
@FKA Max

"Newsnight's Diplomatic and Defence Editor, Mark Urban, reveals"

Newsnight's Diplomatic and Defence Editor, Mark Urban, claims

there, fixed that for you.

Sean , July 17, 2018 at 8:52 pm GMT
Did you hear the one about the couple who found a bottle of perfume?

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/6794418/police-have-grainy-cctv-of-russian-spooks-who-carried-out-novichok-attack-on-ex-spy-sergei-skripal-and-his-daughter/

As Mad Frank said, two men together always looks suspicious. https://www.theguardian.com/world/video/2018/mar/06/russian-spy-mystery-cctv-emerges-of-two-people-police-are-looking-for-video

I am very embarrassed for the GRU , they are even more incompetent than the French Secret Service combat swimmers who blew up the that Greenpeace ship. Russia should have sent a Spetsnaz veteran with his trusty entrenching tool to deal with Skripal. Or maybe one of their Kamikazi exploding dogs.

ThreeCranes , July 17, 2018 at 9:18 pm GMT
@tac

Maybe Putin did have them killed or poisoned because Russian intelligence had uncovered their plot to explode a dirty bomb in London which had been set up so as to implicate the Russians. The plotters were foiled and hoist by their own petard.

AnonFromTN , July 17, 2018 at 10:10 pm GMT
@Sean

I tell you a secret. GRU agents, on direct orders from Putin, killed JFK, burnt Giordano Bruno, crucified Christ, and poisoned Socrates. What's more, they are also responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs. Didn't you suspect that?

Sean , July 17, 2018 at 10:16 pm GMT
@Tyrion 2

Rogue elements once, but not twice. Why is anyone's guess, the eliciting of hysterical outrage ?

Sean , July 17, 2018 at 10:29 pm GMT
@ThreeCranes

Russia seems to be burning its bridges with the West, which may be a deliberate long term strategy by Putin.

Sean , July 17, 2018 at 10:45 pm GMT
@AnonFromTN

I did not even know those you named had ever been in the GRU, let alone they were British moles.

If you wake up and there is snow all over the ground, that is circumstantial evidence that it snowed in the night. When a Russian poisons Russians there is not all this Technical Tom sophistry, and motive is important especially when it supports the circumstantial evidence.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/indepth/brilliant-russian-engineer-poisoned-dozens-of-his-colleagues-at-top-secret-defence-plant-and-left-them-bald-in-botched-revenge-plot-aimed-at-his-boss/ar-AAvHyBm

Prison is full of people who say they are innocent.

unseated , July 18, 2018 at 12:20 am GMT
@prusmc

Trump will be out in three months either by impeachment and conviction or by other means.

I have a friend who said that to me a year ago and another who said it six months ago.

Colin Wright , Website July 18, 2018 at 2:13 am GMT
' Theresa May is, unfortunately, still in power and so is Donald Trump. In a better world an outraged public would demand that they be thrown out of office '

At least in the case of Trump, the problem with rejecting him is, as it always has been, the alternative.

It's literally oppressive that to date, no superior alternative to Trump has emerged. However, like it or not, one hasn't.

bjondo , July 18, 2018 at 2:45 am GMT
@FKA Max

Alexander Goldfarb the promoter of Pussy Riot?

He's certainly legit.

AnonFromTN , July 18, 2018 at 2:55 am GMT
@Colin Wright

Is there a superior alternative to May? If there is, why didn't Brits get rid of that embarrassment? Next to her even John Major looks like an outstanding statesman.

Wally , July 18, 2018 at 2:58 am GMT
@Colin Wright

said:
"It's literally oppressive that to date, no superior alternative to Trump has emerged. However, like it or not, one hasn't."

You mean that little rich 'Marxist' Latina is not a viable alternative?

'Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the 'girl from the Bronx,' raised in one of wealthiest US counties'

https://www.theblaze.com/news/2018/06/30/report-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-the-girl-from-the-bronx-raised-in-one-of-wealthiest-us-counties

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez says: 'Occupy All ICE Offices, Borders, U.S. Airports', 'Occupy All of It'

https://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2018/07/17/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-occupy-all-ice-offices-borders-u-s-airports-occupy-all-of-it/

Intelligent Dasein , Website July 18, 2018 at 3:03 am GMT
Every time I think about it, I do find it truly astonishing that we (the USA) launched a missile salvo into Syria based on an obvious and now proven false flag, and very few people seem to care. This is one of those glaring, "hidden in plain sight" contradictions to the narrative which tells me that, while the Deep State is finally losing some ground, its liquidation is far, far from over and all kinds of things are going to fall apart as this thrashing monster slowly sinks beneath the waves.
Wally , July 18, 2018 at 3:07 am GMT
@prusmc

said:
"Trump will be out in three months either by impeachment and conviction or by other means. "

Yawn. Heard that on election night

'The Left needs to face reality: Trump is winning' : https://nypost.com/2018/06/30/the-left-needs-to-face-reality-trump-is-winning/

Wizard of Oz , July 18, 2018 at 3:24 am GMT
@dearieme

Yes, interesting that PG has only now brought to a UR article that rather obvious possible connection between Porton Down and the nearby poisonings.

I don't think it is one of his major areas of attention. Why else would he include with Trump the unfortunate May as someone he would like to see people rise up against and throw out of office for offences unstated?

Wizard of Oz , July 18, 2018 at 3:27 am GMT
@AnonFromTN

Her performance on Skripal right or wrong is hardly worth mentioning when deciding whether and when she has to go. Compared to Brexit give it a 2 per cent weighting.

Colin Wright , Website July 18, 2018 at 3:29 am GMT
@Wally

My guess is that we haven't heard the last of Ms. Hyphen-Cortez.

"Ocasio-Cortez hedges criticisms of Israel– 'I may not use the right words'
US Politics Philip Weiss on July 15, 2018

Rising Democratic star Alexandria Ocasio-Cortex, soon to go to Congress from NY, all but apologized for using words "massacre" and "occupation" about Israel, saying she spoke as an "activist," and she is no expert on the Middle East and is willing to "learn and evolve." '

She's trainable.

NoseytheDuke , July 18, 2018 at 4:26 am GMT
@Wizard of Oz

Her performance has included telling bald-faced lies, lies that are easily exposed as lies too. This is rarely if ever going to add weight to any personal brand, let alone that of a political leader. She's toast!

byrresheim , July 18, 2018 at 11:45 am GMT
@Felix-Culpa

Indeed, sir.
Indeed.

L Garou , July 18, 2018 at 12:55 pm GMT
The sun never sets on the crimes of the British Empire..

[Jul 19, 2018] Lies About Putin and Syria by Ilana Mercer

Jul 12, 2018 | www.unz.com

On just about every issue, in 2016, candidate Trump ran in opposition to Sen. Lindsey Graham. Donald Trump won the presidency; Lindsey Graham quit the race with a near-zero popularity, as reflected in the polls.

The People certainly loathe the senator from South Carolina. A poll conducted subsequently found that Graham was among the least popular senators.

No wonder. Graham is reliably wrong about most things.

But being both misguided and despised have done nothing to diminish Sen. Graham's popularity with Big Media, left and right. Thus were his pronouncements accorded the customary reverence, during a July 10 segment, on Fox News' "The Story."

Which is when he told anchor Martha MacCallum that, "Putin is not doing anything good in Syria."

Then again, Lindsey is being consistent. The revival of "one of the world's oldest Christian communities," in Syria , is not something the senator we've come to know and loathe would celebrate.

It's true. "A new Syria is emerging from the rubble of war," reports The Economist, a magazine which is every bit as liberal and Russophobic as Graham and his political soul mate, John McCain, but whose correspondents on the ground -- in Aleppo, Damascus and Homs -- have a far greater fidelity to the truth than the terrible two.

"In Homs, the Christian quarter is reviving. Churches have been lavishly restored; a large crucifix hangs over the main street." 'Groom of Heaven,' proclaims a billboard featuring a photo of a Christian soldier killed in the seven-year conflict. And, in their sermons, Orthodox patriarchs praise Mr. Assad for saving the Christian communities."

Don't tell the ailing McCain. It'll only make him miserable, but thanks to Putin, Assad "now controls Syria's spine, from Aleppo in the north to Damascus in the south -- what French colonists once called la Syrie utile (useful Syria). The rebels are confined to pockets along the southern and northern borders."

"Homs, like all of the cities recaptured by the government, now belongs mostly to Syria's victorious minorities: Christians, Shias and Alawites (an esoteric offshoot of Shia Islam from which Mr. Assad hails). These groups banded together against the rebels, who are nearly all Sunni, and chased them out of the cities." (" How a victorious Bashar al-Assad is changing Syria ," The Economist, June 28, 2018.)

A Christian teacher in Homs rejoices, for she no longer must live alongside neighbors "who overnight called you a kafir (infidel)."

The teacher's venom is directed at John McCain's beloved "rebels." Internet selfies abound of McCain mixing it up with leading Sunni "rebels," against whom Putin and Bashar al-Assad were doing battle. Who knows? McCain may even have taken a pic with the infamous "rebel" who decapitated Syrian Franciscan monk Father Francois Murad .

Ignoramuses McCain and Graham had both urged the US to send weapons to the "rebels" -- even as it transpired that the lovelies with whom McCain was cavorting on his sojourns in Syria liked to feast on the lungs of their pro-Assad enemies. A devotee of multiculturalism, Lindsey could probably explain the idiosyncratic cultural symbolism of such savagery.

Infested as it is by globalist ideologues, the permanent establishment of American foreign policy refuses to consider regional, religious, local, even tribal, dynamics in the Middle East. In particular, that the "good" guys in Syria -- a relative term -- are not the Islamist "rebels," with whom the senior Republican senator from Arizona was forever frolicking; but the secular Alawites.

You likely didn't know that Alawites like al-Assad also "flinch at Shia evangelizing. 'We don't pray, don't fast [during Ramadan] and drink alcohol,' says one."

Under Putin's protection, the more civilized Alawite minority (read higher IQ), which has governed Syria since 1966, is in charge again. Duly, reports the anti-Assad Economist, "Government departments are functioning. electricity and water supplies are more reliable than in much of the Middle East. Officials predict that next year's natural-gas production will surpass pre-war levels. The railway from Damascus to Aleppo might resume operations this summer. The National Museum in Damascus, which locked up its prized antiquities for protection, is preparing to reopen to the public."

Good thinking. The "rebels" would have blown Syria's prized antiquities to smithereens.

Given that Islamists are not in charge, the specter of men leaving their women and fleeing Syria has had an upside. Syrian women dominate the workforce. Why, they're even working as "plumbers, taxi-drivers and bartenders." Had Sen. Graham, his friends the "rebels," and their Sunni state sponsors won -- Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Qatar -- would this be possible? Turkey is currently sheltering "Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, a group linked to al-Qaeda, and other Sunni rebels."

Aligned against the Christian-Shia-Alawite alliance are Israel and America, too. They've formed a protective perimeter around rebel holdouts.

Before the breakthrough, when Sunni rebels were gaining ground, Syria's "women donned headscarves," and "non-Muslim businessmen bowed to demands from Sunni employees for prayer rooms. But as the war swung their way, minorities regained their confidence." "Christian women in Aleppo [now] show their cleavage, the internet is unrestricted and social-media apps allow for unfettered communication. Students in cafés openly criticize the regime."

Contra the robotic sloganeering from Lindsey, Nikki Haley and the political establishment, Russia has been pushing Bashar al-Assad to open up Syria's political process and allow for the revival of "multiparty politics."

Alas, the once bitten Assad is twice shy. His attempts, a decade ago, to liberalize Syrian politics resulted in the ascendancy of Sunni fundamentalism, aka Lindsey Grahamnesty's rebels. (The nickname is for the Republican senator's laissez-faire immigration policies, stateside.)

As has Russia called "for foreign forces to leave Syria," Iran's included. Iran commands 80,000 Shia militiamen in Syria. "Skirmishes between the [Iranian] militias and Syrian troops have resulted in scores of deaths. Having defeated Sunni Islamists, army officers say they have no wish to succumb to Shia ones."

It all boils down to national sovereignty. So as to survive the onslaught of the Sunni fundamentalist majority, the endangered Alawite minority formed an alliance with the Iranian Shia, also a minority among the Ummah. Now, civilized and secular Syrians want their country back. In fact, many Syrian "Sunnis prefer Mr. Assad's secular rule to that of Islamist rebels."

Ilana Mercer has been writing a weekly, paleolibertarian column since 1999. She is the author of " Into the Cannibal's Pot: Lessons for America From Post-Apartheid South Africa " (2011) & " The Trump Revolution: The Donald's Creative Destruction Deconstructed " (June, 2016). She's on Twitter , Facebook , Gab & YouTube

[Jul 18, 2018] Syria and geopolitics of oil

Jul 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Peter AU 1 , Jul 17, 2018 6:46:40 PM | 141

Daniel,

It is noticeable that Trump's US attack any Syrian forces coming too close to US occupied zones of al Tanf and Dier Ezzor. Also Trumps takeover of the Deir Ezzor oilfields where US forces simply set up bases or forward posts in the ISIS occupied area.

Under Trump, US has set up a number of new bases in Syria. On the other hand, no concern about Afrin and Manbij. The Deir Ezzor area is Arab tribes and this and al Hasakah (Kurd/Arab?) is the top end of the Persian Gulf/Mesopotamia oil field.

US now controls al Hasakah and half of Deir Ezzor province. The have been ongoing efforts by the US under Trump to take Al Bukamal. US has a base just south of Al Bukamal in Iraq. US bases are now thick throughout Mesopotamia, with more being built.

Also a new base being installed in Kuwait.

The US controls the Arab shore of the Persian gulf, it now has many bases in Iraq and Syria. The only thing missing is the oil rich strip of Iran running alongside the Persian gulf and Mesopotamia.

[Jul 16, 2018] Big Oil s has a long history of compromising national security for profit

Notable quotes:
"... How different is it really from the past 70+ years (since that 45' meeting between FDR and the then ruler of KSA), and especially since the "oil shocks" of the 1970's ? The Trumpians are little more direct and crude in their wording, but that is really the only difference I see. ..."
"... Putin's announcement after Turkey's shooting down of a Russian jet that Turkey has been systematically facilitating ISIS oil sales illustrates how the terror-entity has become a figleaf to justify military action. ..."
"... As INSURGEintelligence has previously reported, there is significant evidence that high-level elements of Turkish government and intelligence agencies have covertly sponsored Islamist terrorist groups in Syria, including ISIS, and that this has involved permitting black market oil sales. ..."
"... Why, however, did Vladimir Putin wait until the murder of a Russian pilot before announcing Russia's possession of intelligence on Turkish state-sponsorship of ISIS? ..."
"... There can be little doubt that Putin had previously been more interested in protecting Russian relations with Turkey as an emerging gas transshipment hub to Europe, under which he and Erdogan planned to build the multibillion Russia-Turkey gas pipeline, Turkish Stream  --  now suspended after the recent diplomatic furore. ..."
"... It has become increasingly clear that the US-led coalition strategy is aimed primarily at containment of the group's territorial ambitions within Syria. ..."
"... In this context, as Russia and Iran consolidate their hold on Syria through the Assad regime  --  staking the claim to Syria's untapped resources in the Mediterranean  --  the acceleration of Western military action offers both a carrot and a stick: the carrot aims to threaten the Assad regime into a political accommodation that capitulates to Western regional energy designs; the stick aims to replace him with a more compliant entity comprised of rebel forces backed by Western allies, the Gulf states and Turkey, whilst containing the most virulent faction, ISIS. ..."
Jul 03, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Peter AU 1 | Jul 2, 2018 1:17:16 AM | 28

The Saudi's. Interesting watching them agree to whatever Trump wants. The most recent one was Trump telling them to raise oil output. The Saudi's now are very pro zionist and will back them against the Sunni Palestinians no matter what. If Trumps tells them to pay for a US war or occupation they pay. If they are told to by lots of useless junk from the US MIC, they buy it and manage to pull a twisted smile when Trump turns the screws about billions being peanuts.

Seems very much like KSA is now an expendable asset for the US, and their only chance of survival is a lot of 'yes sir, how high sir'.

Philippe , Jul 2, 2018 2:01:24 AM | 30

@ Peter AU 1 | Jul 2, 2018 1:17:16 AM | 28

How different is it really from the past 70+ years (since that 45' meeting between FDR and the then ruler of KSA), and especially since the "oil shocks" of the 1970's ? The Trumpians are little more direct and crude in their wording, but that is really the only difference I see.

Posted by: Peter L. | Jul 1, 2018 11:21:17 PM | 23

Look no further than the first sentence of the text you quote. It has been documented a few times, including in the Intercept, that there were some very serious money flows towards a certain foundation run by the family of the named person. Money flows that originated in the Gulf. Money flows that were related to what happened in Libia.

Daniel , Jul 2, 2018 2:30:17 AM | 32
Peter AU1, KSA has been a client state of the US ever since FDR muscled in on Great Britain's deal in 1845.
somebody , Jul 2, 2018 10:52:45 AM | 43
That would have something to do with Big Oil's long history of compromising national security for profit

Russia effectively dried up oil deliveries by ISIS from Syria and Iraq via Turkey .

This here is Nafez Ahmeed on what went on when splitting up Syria was considered feasible.

Putin's announcement after Turkey's shooting down of a Russian jet that Turkey has been systematically facilitating ISIS oil sales illustrates how the terror-entity has become a figleaf to justify military action.

As INSURGEintelligence has previously reported, there is significant evidence that high-level elements of Turkish government and intelligence agencies have covertly sponsored Islamist terrorist groups in Syria, including ISIS, and that this has involved permitting black market oil sales.

Why, however, did Vladimir Putin wait until the murder of a Russian pilot before announcing Russia's possession of intelligence on Turkish state-sponsorship of ISIS?

There can be little doubt that Putin had previously been more interested in protecting Russian relations with Turkey as an emerging gas transshipment hub to Europe, under which he and Erdogan planned to build the multibillion Russia-Turkey gas pipeline, Turkish Stream  --  now suspended after the recent diplomatic furore.

US, British and French military operations have been similarly inconsistent, inexplicably failing to shut down ISIS supply lines through Turkey, failing to bomb critical ISIS oil infrastructure including vast convoys of trucks transporting black market oil, and refusing to arm the most effective and secular Kurdish ground forces combating ISIS.

It has become increasingly clear that the US-led coalition strategy is aimed primarily at containment of the group's territorial ambitions within Syria.

....

As Russia expands its military presence in the region in the name of fighting ISIS, the US, Britain and France are now scrambling to ensure they retain a military foothold in Syria  --  an effort to position themselves to make the most of a post-conflict environment. As the US Geological Survey Minerals Yearbook put it:

"Most of the international investors who pulled out of Syria following the deterioration of the safety and security situation throughout the country are expected to remain so until the military and political conflicts are resolved."

In this context, as Russia and Iran consolidate their hold on Syria through the Assad regime  --  staking the claim to Syria's untapped resources in the Mediterranean  --  the acceleration of Western military action offers both a carrot and a stick: the carrot aims to threaten the Assad regime into a political accommodation that capitulates to Western regional energy designs; the stick aims to replace him with a more compliant entity comprised of rebel forces backed by Western allies, the Gulf states and Turkey, whilst containing the most virulent faction, ISIS.

[Jul 14, 2018] Is Washington Playing Iran's Useful Idiot in Syria The American Conservative

Notable quotes:
"... Damascus and Moscow welcomed Iran's critical contribution to defeating the opposition and giving Washington and its allies a diplomatic bloody nose in the bargain. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov acknowledges that Iran's presence in Syria -- at the invitation of the regime -- is legitimate and that it would be "unrealistic" to demand its ouster. ..."
"... But instead of viewing the end of the war as an opportunity to lessen Iran's value to the regime and to reduce its footprint in the country, Washington is continuing heedlessly with failed policies created for an environment that no longer exists. As long as the fighting continues and the regime's efforts to reassert sovereignty over the entire country are frustrated by U.S. deployments in the northeast and southeast, Iran's military presence in the country is secure. Likewise, Washington shows no sign of reconsidering international sanctions against the regime, which also forces Syria into the arms of Tehran. ..."
"... A colorblind appraisal of the effects of U.S. policy in Iraq and now Syria would suggest that Washington is either brilliantly in cahoots with Iran to the latter's benefit or is being outplayed by weaker but more clear-eyed players. My vote goes squarely to the latter. ..."
"... Confronted with the disintegration of its diplomatic and military strategy, the Trump administration is reduced to playing spoiler, obstructing the inevitable restoration of the regime's sovereignty over the country and continuing the punishing sanctions that have removed the battered but resilient Syrian private sector from international capital and commercial markets. This policy fails on two fronts -- it creates more gratuitous misery for the Syrian people and it undermines the stated U.S. objective of reducing and removing Iranian and Hezbollah influence in the country. Indeed, continuing to pursue the current policies will leave the U.S. isolated among friends (Jordan and Israel) as well as frenemy Russia, and will postpone rather than speed the day that Iran leaves Syria. ..."
Jul 13, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

Washington has been on the offensive against the Islamic Republic of Iran for close to half a century. Largely as a result, Iran, a rounding error in the superpower sweepstakes, has gone from strength to strength, challenging American power throughout the region, most notably in Iraq and Syria.

U.S.-led regime change in Iraq created Tehran's historic opportunity to return to Baghdad for the first time since the creation of the Ottoman caliphate in the 15th century. This unscripted but entirely predictable outcome was no mean feat, all the more so for being the opposite of what Washington intended.

The Bush administration knew that it no longer wanted Saddam in the chair, but could not think beyond this one, giant, uncharted leap into the future. Iran has a far greater and more lasting interest in the affairs of its neighbor and often bitter enemy. As a consequence, the mullahs are playing a far longer, and more successful, game.

The legacy of unintended consequences continues to define Washington's policy towards Iraq a generation after the first Gulf War ended. And so too with Syria. In both countries, U.S. shortcomings have created a historic opportunity for Iran to enhance its influence in Arab arenas that when not actively hostile to it (Iraq) are at best lukewarm (Syria).

Are al-Qaeda Affiliates Fighting Alongside U.S. Rebels in Syria's South? How U.S. Iran Policy Hurts Iran and America

When asked about Syria's relationship with Iran, Farouk Shara'a, longtime foreign minister and vice president, once explained to a mutual friend, "You don't have to love the woman you are sleeping with."

Syria has been in bed with Iran for decades. Saddam's war against Iran in the '80s, the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon, and most recently the war against the Assad regime in Syria, have conspired to throw these two unlikely allies into a cold embrace.

Washington has been oblivious to this essentially ambivalent Syrian attitude towards Iran, and remains equally so to the opportunities it creates to reduce Iran's footprint in postwar Syria. Now that the war is winding down, the value of Iran's military contribution to Syria is declining. In parallel, Syria's interest in reducing the power of its erstwhile Iranian and Russian friends over its destiny increases.

Damascus and Moscow welcomed Iran's critical contribution to defeating the opposition and giving Washington and its allies a diplomatic bloody nose in the bargain. Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov acknowledges that Iran's presence in Syria -- at the invitation of the regime -- is legitimate and that it would be "unrealistic" to demand its ouster.

But while Iran's wartime contribution proved critical to victory, neither Assad nor Putin was displeased to distance Iranian-backed elements from the recent battle front in the south. Neither has an interest in enabling Tehran to pursue a postwar Syrian agenda towards Lebanon and Israel. Nor is either enamored with Iran's continuing efforts to reshape the Syrian military in its image. On these important issues, Iran stands all but alone against an invisible, de facto coalition that includes Washington and the EU alongside Israel, Moscow, and the Assad regime itself.

But instead of viewing the end of the war as an opportunity to lessen Iran's value to the regime and to reduce its footprint in the country, Washington is continuing heedlessly with failed policies created for an environment that no longer exists. As long as the fighting continues and the regime's efforts to reassert sovereignty over the entire country are frustrated by U.S. deployments in the northeast and southeast, Iran's military presence in the country is secure. Likewise, Washington shows no sign of reconsidering international sanctions against the regime, which also forces Syria into the arms of Tehran.

A colorblind appraisal of the effects of U.S. policy in Iraq and now Syria would suggest that Washington is either brilliantly in cahoots with Iran to the latter's benefit or is being outplayed by weaker but more clear-eyed players. My vote goes squarely to the latter.

Apart from the lingering campaign against ISIS, in every other respect the U.S. effort in Syria is imploding. Washington under Obama and now Trump has been forced to uneasily acknowledge the regime's staying power. It has now been reduced to bickering over the details of Syrian constitutional reform in the postwar era, a waste of time if ever there was one. Lately, the U.S. secretary of state, from his respected perch, has personally threatened Iran's key military strategist and architect of its advances in Iraq and Syria, Qassem Sulemani, a sure sign that the policymaking process at State is frozen.

In the field, Washington has ignominiously abandoned allies in the southern front. And in the northeast, the Kurds have embarked on the road back to Damascus, imperiling Washington's deployment there.

Confronted with the disintegration of its diplomatic and military strategy, the Trump administration is reduced to playing spoiler, obstructing the inevitable restoration of the regime's sovereignty over the country and continuing the punishing sanctions that have removed the battered but resilient Syrian private sector from international capital and commercial markets. This policy fails on two fronts -- it creates more gratuitous misery for the Syrian people and it undermines the stated U.S. objective of reducing and removing Iranian and Hezbollah influence in the country. Indeed, continuing to pursue the current policies will leave the U.S. isolated among friends (Jordan and Israel) as well as frenemy Russia, and will postpone rather than speed the day that Iran leaves Syria.

Geoffrey Aronson is chairman and co-founder of The Mortons Group and a non-resident scholar at the Middle East Institute.



Janwaar Bibi July 12, 2018 at 11:24 pm

A colorblind appraisal of the effects of U.S. policy in Iraq and now Syria would suggest that Washington is either brilliantly in cahoots with Iran to the latter's benefit or is being outplayed by weaker but more clear-eyed players. My vote goes squarely to the latter.

US foreign policy is controlled by the Israeli lobby and to a lesser extent, by the Saudi lobby. The illegal and unprovoked attacks by the US on Iraq, Libya and Syria were done at the behest of these lobbies. The only country that has benefited from all this bloodshed is Israel, which now dominates the Middle East.

Since this obvious truth cannot be said out aloud, we need to pretend we don't know who is behind all the mayhem in the Middle East, like this pointless article does.

Procivic , , July 13, 2018 at 12:55 am
The writer can't see the forest for the trees. Successive U.S. administrations have behaved irresponsibly to enhance Israel's position in the guise of bring "democracy" to the region. Washington's failures have created ongoing misery in Iraq, a failed state in Libya and the destruction of the ancient land of Syria.

The U.S. continues to
pretend it had no role in the creation of the huge refugee problem that followed its interventions in Libya and Syria.

No lessons learned, the folly is being played out daily in Yemen where the Pentagon is leading the a campaign of death and destruction alongside its "democratic" allies, the Salman clan of Arabia and the sheikhs of the Persian Gulf minnow petrostates.

Genesee Hike , , July 13, 2018 at 8:11 am
"the stated U.S. objective of reducing and removing Iranian and Hezbollah influence "

I've yet to see a compelling reason for this "stated objective". If you want to argue that it's an American interest because the Israel Lobby wants it, well, OK, there are politicians who can be bribed to do Israel's will, but no real American would agree.

One of these days an American president will make an "opening to Iran" as Nixon once made one to China. Surely we can bury the hatchet with Iran for the sake of a grand bargain that accomplishes America's one real interest in the Middle East, which is to free ourselves of the various parasites who entangle us in their messes, and get the hell out of there. Some of us hoped that Trump might be that president, but it wasn't meant to be.

Krzysztof Hołubicki , , July 13, 2018 at 8:59 am
As far as Procivic and Genesee Hike comments are concerned -- they are perfectly right and down to the point.
the piper will be paid , , July 13, 2018 at 11:36 am
"The U.S. continues to
pretend it had no role in the creation of the huge refugee problem that followed its interventions in Libya and Syria."

Which is ridiculous. When you bomb, invade, and arm insurgencies in people's countries, a lot of people run away. Everybody knows that.

In the case of our bombing, invading, and/or arming insurgencies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, and Syria, a lot of people ran away.

Millions ran into Turkey. Millions more ran through Turkey into Greece and then up through the Balkans into other NATO countries. And still more came up from Africa and sailed away from the shores of ruined Libya to our NATO allies Italy, Spain, and France.

We did this. Everybody knows we did it. It's absurd to deny it. What's worse is that many of the allies destabilized by the refugees warned or even begged us not to start those wars. With no American interest at stake, no real risk assessment, and no exit strategy formulated, we did it anyway.

Sid Finster , , July 13, 2018 at 12:07 pm
Much simpler explanation: For decades, the United States has been the loyal servant of Israel, and to a lesser extent, Saudi Arabia, faithfully carrying out its masters' every dictate.

As an unintended consequence of Israeli/Saudi policy, Iran has grown much stronger.

The only reason that the US foreign policy establishment is rushing headlong into a war with Iran is because Israel and Saudi Arabia are terrified of the Iran that they have created.

[Jul 09, 2018] Syria in Perspective Fabricating Incidents to Incriminate The Syrian Government. Peter Ford Global Research - Centre for Res

Notable quotes:
"... Statement by Peter Ford , British Ambassador to Syria, 2003-6, Representative of the Commissioner General of UNRWA, 2006-14 ..."
"... Peter Ford will also be speaking at Imperialism on trial, a series of speaking events being held in four cities in the United Kingdom ( July 2018). For details see below at foot of article. ..."
"... 'we visited 44 sites and interviewed 112 civilian residents' ..."
"... '[they] launched air strikes on buildings full of civilians using wide area effect munitions ' ..."
"... 'we found no information indicating that fighters were present' ..."
"... 'they used unguided mortars and unguided artillery' ..."
"... 'there is strong evidence that the attacks violated international law' ..."
"... 'they fired projectiles above houses photos showed burning elements coming into contact with civilian buildings'. ..."
"... 'people hiding in basements were terrified' 'hundreds were killed and thousands injured' ..."
Jul 09, 2018 | www.globalresearch.ca

Syria in Perspective: Fabricating Incidents to Incriminate The Syrian Government. Peter Ford 38th UN Human Rights Council : Side event organised by the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, Geneva 27 June 2018 By Peter Ford Global Research, July 04, 2018 Patreon 3 July 2018 Region: Middle East & North Africa Theme: Media Disinformation , US NATO War Agenda In-depth Report: SYRIA

Statement by Peter Ford , British Ambassador to Syria, 2003-6, Representative of the Commissioner General of UNRWA, 2006-14

Peter Ford will also be speaking at Imperialism on trial, a series of speaking events being held in four cities in the United Kingdom ( July 2018). For details see below at foot of article.

***

The objective of this meeting is to show Syria in perspective. That is, Syria as she really is after eight years of war, not as she is almost universally portrayed in the West.

A brave stand by the Commission of Inquiry on Syria over alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma

I shall look at the broad picture, but I want to zero in by dealing with the report presented yesterday by the Commission on Syria.

I am not going to endorse that report but I want to begin by congratulating the Commission for standing firm and refusing to make premature pronouncements about the alleged use of prohibited weapons in Douma.

In doing so the Commission obviously angered those in the US administration and elsewhere who are impatient to see the West bombing its way to regime change in Syria. Hence the petulant leaks to the New York Times of a rejected earlier draft of the Commission report, and hysterical accusations against the Commission.

The body which actually has prime responsibility for determining what occurred or did not occur in Douma is the OPCW. Its investigations are not yet complete. Perhaps worried that the outcome might not be what Washington wants, the US administration had clearly been pinning high hopes on the Commission for producing a report which would suit the administration's purpose of retrospectively justifying the illegal US/UK/French bombing of Syria in April – and more importantly, of conditioning opinion for the next, bigger aggression.

Conditioning Western opinion for the next aggression

Make no mistake, conditioning opinion for the next Western air strikes is crucial for the coming phase of the Syria conflict.

Imagine that today you are a leader of one of the armed groups, in Deraa, say. You have seen how gullible Western governments and media are.

You have seen how easy it is to fabricate incidents to incriminate the Syrian government . You don't even need to stage a false flag operation, that is one where you yourself use chemical weapons in order to pin the blame on Assad. You did that in 2013 only the former Commissioner, Carla Del Ponte, to veer off message by stating that there was strong and concrete evidence that the rebels had stocks of sarin and had used it.

The UN hierarchy intervened quickly to row back on what Carla Del Ponte had blurted out. So you, the jihadi leader, felt confident in staging more false flag incidents, as with the Khan Sheykhoun incident in April 2017. You knew that the OPCW inspectors would not actually visit the site, because your jihadi forces made sure it was unsafe. You knew that that – incredible as it may seem – would not stand in the way of the inspectors, in violation of their own protocols, accepting as genuine ground samples, photographs and other evidence provided by your auxiliaries, the White Helmets. You knew the inspectors would not demand biological samples.

You were worried when some of your coached witnesses in an excess of zeal presented themselves to hospitals too early and were logged as being treated even before Asad's planes had left Sheyrat air base. The inspectors, however, relegated this killer fact to an appendix to their report. It was of course ignored.

Douma was a bigger challenge because you, the jihadi leader, left it so late that the inspectors were actually able to visit the site. But you were confident that your Western paymasters would bomb Asad without waiting for the investigation. And then when the investigation, delayed by the bombing, was finally about to get under way it was a simple matter to engineer more delay and deterioration of evidence by having your sleeper cells left behind fire a few shots. You knew the West would blame Russia and Asad. You knew also that even though the Russians found the people seen in the key video of the incident and had them recount here in Europe the true story of what happened, the Western media would prefer to believe you, the accomplice of Al Qaida.

Pentagon acting as Al Qaida air wing

You really cannot believe your luck. You have lost the war but here is the Pentagon willing to act as Al Qaida's air wing as long as you just provide them with a credible staged incident.

To get the US, UK and France to go to war, a lower standard of evidence is needed than it takes to get a conviction for a parking ticket.

After Douma Western leaders swore that next time the gloves would be off, and reports emerged that Plan A for Douma had been to target Asad himself and his command centres, though the Russians nixed that. So what do you, the jihadi commander, do now? Well obviously you start planning the next fake attack. You would be a fool not to.

Thus , my friends, a repeat of Douma is fated to occur. Unless, that is, sufficient doubt emerges about the Douma charade, the Douma hoax, to give Western governments pause in assuming that their public opinions will swallow a repeat dose and allow them to risk a much more serious confrontation with Russia and Iran.

Against the background of that likely scenario, we see what a crucial service the Commission has performed by refusing to join in the conditioning of opinion by pronouncing on Douma.

Siege warfare is not the unique vice of the Syrian government

Enough praise for the Commission. Now for some caveats

I quote:

'we visited 44 sites and interviewed 112 civilian residents'

'[they] launched air strikes on buildings full of civilians using wide area effect munitions '

'we found no information indicating that fighters were present'

'they used unguided mortars and unguided artillery'

'there is strong evidence that the attacks violated international law'

'they fired projectiles above houses photos showed burning elements coming into contact with civilian buildings'.

'people hiding in basements were terrified' 'hundreds were killed and thousands injured'

Horrendous, yes? Shocking, yes?

These are quotes not from the Commission report but from the Amnesty International report on the siege of Raqqa by the Coalition. They put into its right context the Commission's report on the siege of Douma.

But while the Commission apparently want to indict Syrian leaders for war crimes, those who conducted the siege of Raqqa, reported on by the Commission in an earlier report, are just gently admonished for not taking enough precautions.

It is remarkable that the Commission have ignored the Amnesty International report in their latest offering, even though Amnesty International called for international investigation and action.

Crimes of aggression

Other issues are also ignored.

The Commission is mandated to investigate not only human rights law but also 'abuses and violations of international law (HRC 21/26)'. The crime of aggression is such a violation, indictable under the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court.

The Commission cannot trespass on the territory of the OPCW, as it has done, damagingly, in earlier reports, producing the endlessly cited factoid that there have been 34 chemical weapons attacks since 2013, while on the other hand timidly ignoring issues arising under the purview of the Rome Statute.

The unprovoked attacks by the US, UK and France on Syria following the liberation of Douma are barely given a mention in the latest report.

Other acts of illegality are ignored.

Is it not a violation of international law to give immense military, financial and propaganda support to armed groups operating in the territory of a member state of the UN?

Is it not a violation to establish without permission military bases on the territory of a member state? The US has several thousand troops in Syria, and does not even attempt to justify their presence in terms of international law. British forces are present too, and the British government ludicrously tries to justify their presence on the far fetched grounds that they are protecting Iraq against ISIS.

Is it not a violation to use military force to prevent the forces or allied forces of a member state from taking control of state oil assets, and to kill scores if not hundreds in the process, as occurred in the vicinity of Deir Ez Zor?

Is it not a violation of international law to occupy a pocket of a state's territory, 55 kilometres deep, as at Al Tanf on Syria's border with Iraq, and shamelessly proclaim a readiness to use military force to prevent that state's forces' from entering in order to root out jihadis being rebadged, equipped and trained behind American shields?

Is it not a violation of international law to invade Syrian territory as Turkey has done, and to establish a de facto occupation authority?

Is it not a violation of international law to dispose of part of a state's territory as Turkey and the US have purported to do over the district of Manbij, and to connive at keeping out the forces of the lawful government?

Is it not a violation to bomb alleged sites of chemical weapons which had been recently inspected by OPCW inspectors and found to give no grounds for concern?

Is it not a violation to direct unilateral coercive measures against a state without any international mandate to do so?

And finally, is it not a breach of international law for Israel to launch more than a hundred unprovoked bombing raids on Syria, some hundreds of kilometres away from Israel?

The Commission pass over in embarrassed silence all these very serious violations.

Forced displacement

The Commission's report makes much of alleged forced displacement. This is a classic example of misleading framing.

What the Syrian government has done in terms of negotiating terms for local surrenders could equally be framed as humane treatment of a vanquished foe, offering them a choice between staying in the locality and accepting government jurisdiction, or leaving with their families for another destination controlled by their fellow insurgents. So excellent was this choice that the Coalition used the same procedure at the end of the siege of Raqqa, allowing thousands of ISIS fighters to escape.

I am afraid that on this count the Commission have been dupes of opposition propaganda.

Two possible futures for Syria

I shall conclude by taking a forward look at where Syria is heading.

There are basically two possible futures for Syria.

Spoiler strategy of the West

First there is the future as the Western powers are trying to shape it.

At the moment the US and its satellites realise that Asad has the military upper hand and will be hard to dislodge just by military means. They have therefore a multi-pronged spoiler strategy:

Prevent Asad regaining control of the North East, with its important oil and gas assets.

Try to hamper trade and communications across the border with Iraq, by actions which include refraining from crushing ISIS in its remaining redoubts, from where it can remain a thorn in the Syrian government's side

Use sanctions to keep the Syrian economy weak

Prevent international aid for reconstruction from reaching Syria

Keep Syria depopulated by discouraging return of refugees to Syria

Use the Geneva negotiations and the fiction of 'transition' to claw back in the negotiating chamber what has been lost on the battlefield

Weaken Syria militarily by securing with Israeli assistance withdrawal of Iran and its allies

Stand by ready to cripple government forces using the pretext of a chemical weapon attack

This future has no vision for what might occur if the strategy succeeds. No conception of what would fill the void if Asad was toppled. As with Iraq, the West wreaks destruction and hopes for the best.

A military solution

The second future is this:

The gradual recovery of the entirety of Syrian territory under the present government. A major step forward is being made currently in the South. That will leave just the North and North East. Talks are already under way with the Kurds. The status quo in these areas is unsustainable and the Kurds know it. The Kurds need Syrian government protection against Turkey. Some changes in the constitution will bring the Kurds on board.

The Idlib campaign to bring that area under the government control may be brutal but can only have one outcome.

Essentially what we shall see is a military solution. With the recovery of the South the Syrian government will control areas where 80% of Syrians live. All the pious talk about there only possibly being a political solution is just that, pious talk . Essentially what we shall see is a return to the status quo ante, with some modification for the Kurds.

This is the perspective I think is the most likely to prevail for Syria, and the one desired by most, war weary Syrians. The war will have been waged on Syria, primarily from outside, for nothing.

Western powers, get used to it.

Stop trying to delay the inevitable and prolonging the agony.


Featuring Peter Ford (former UK Ambassador to Syria and Bahrain), Eva Bartlett (investigative journalist), Professor Peter Kuznick (Co-Author with Oliver Stone , Untold History of the United States), Adam Garrie , (Director, Eurasia Future), Ken Livingstone (Former Mayor of London), Rev Andrew Ashdown (Doctoral Research Student in 'Christian-Muslim relations in Syria'), Catherine Shakdown (goepolitical analyst and writer) and more!

This series of events being held in four cities in the United Kingdom offers an alternative narrative on global politics and war, to that presented by the mainstream media.

Imperialism on Trial – July 2018 Anti-Syrian Blame Game Escalates: Who is Behind Killings of Civilians? UK Tour Dates: London – Tuesday July 10 Bloomsbury Baptist Church 235 Shaftesbury Ave. 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM BST [Doors open at 6:15] Eva Barlett, Peter Kuznick, Peter Ford, Adam Garrie, Rev Andrew Ashdown https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/imperialism-on-trial-tickets-47772122705?aff=es2 London – Wednesday July 11 Bloomsbury Baptist Church 235 Shaftesbury Ave. 7:00 PM – 10:00 PM BST [Doors open at 6:15] Eva Bartlett, Peter Kuznick, Peter Ford, Neil Clark, Adam Garrie https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/imperialism-on-trial-tickets-47281318697 Birmingham – Thursday July 12 Quaker Meeting House 40 Bull Street 6:45 – 9:15 BST [Doors open at 6:15] Eva Bartlett, Peter Kuznick, Ken Livingstone, Peter Ford, Catherine Shakdam https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/imperialism-on-trial-tickets-47282457102 Liverpool – Sunday July 15 Liverpool Irish Centre 6 Boundary Lane 7:00-10:30PM BST [Doors open at 6:30] Eva Bartlett, Peter Ford, Peter Kuznick, Dan Glazebrook, Gerry Maclochlainn. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/imperialism-ontrial-tickets-47282789095 Manchester – Monday July 16 Manchester Irish Centre 1 Irish Town Way 7:00 – 10:30PM BST [Doors open at 6:30] Eva Bartlett, Dan Glazebrook, Gerry Maclochlainn, Michael Pike, Rev Andrew Ashdown https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/imperialism-on-trial-tickets-47283231418 The original source of this article is Patreon Copyright © Peter Ford , Patreon , 2018

[Jul 09, 2018] Israel supported Al Qaeda in Syria: Former Mossad Chief

Notable quotes:
"... that Israel provided "tactical" assistance to Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, throughout the Syrian civil war. ..."
"... The fact that Halevy chose the Qatari government-funded Al Jazeera to make his revelation is even more noteworthy considering the fact that Qatar is also a major financial supporter of Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria. ..."
Jul 09, 2018 | www.unz.com

redmudhooch , July 5, 2018 at 9:14 pm GMT

Israel: Our # 1 ally! Don't forget that! No matter how many American goyim they murder! No matter how many billions they leech out of us while we can't even afford health care or decent education for goyim chilluns! Number 1!

Israel supported Al Qaeda in Syria: Former Mossad Chief

https://www.timesheadline.com/world/israel-supported-al-qaeda-syria-former-mossad-chief-7229.html

Special Report. In an interview with the Qatar-based news network Al Jazeera, Efraim Halevy, the former head of Mossad confirmed what many in the Middle East and around the world already surmised: that Israel provided "tactical" assistance to Jabhat al-Nusra, the Syrian affiliate of Al Qaeda, throughout the Syrian civil war.

The fact that Halevy chose the Qatari government-funded Al Jazeera to make his revelation is even more noteworthy considering the fact that Qatar is also a major financial supporter of Jabhat al-Nusra in Syria.

Reports from UN observers in the Golan Heights confirmed regular contact between Israel Defense Force officers and armed Jabhat al-Nusra and Islamic State terrorists at the Syrian-Israeli border.

... ... ...

Halevy said it was "humane" for Israel to provide medical assistance to wounded Syrian terrorists but that such "humaneness" would never be extended to Shi'a Hezbollah fighters from Lebanon who have been fighting against the Sunni jihadist terrorists in Syria. Israel's "humaneness" was also shown for all the world to see in Gaza, where it murdered hundreds of children, old men, and women in incessant bombing attacks on highly populated areas.

annamaria , July 6, 2018 at 3:21 pm GMT
@Momus

"Jewish IDF medics are treating and saving the lives of Syrian civilians "
Are you serious? There are documented instances of Israeli saving the lives of ISIS -- the anti-civilian power unleashed by the US/Israel machinations in the Middle East. This has been accepted even by the US brass. http://www.inspiretochangeworld.com/2016/12/heres-us-israel-al-qaeda-isis-work-together-syria/
Meanwhile, in Ukraine, on a border with Russia, the Kagans/Banderites putsch in Kiev have produced the results that should be of interest for the 52 main Jewish organizations in the US as well as for sanctimonious Israel that continues extracting reparations for the WWII-related "special" Jewish sufferings: https://www.fort-russ.com/2018/07/ukraine-abducts-journalists-to-exchange-for-terrorists/
"On July 5th, Kiev announced that it is willing to expand the list of prisoners that Ukraine is ready to exchange for Ukrainians being held in Russia. Among those intended for exchange is the coordinator of the Volunteers of Victory movement, Elena Yurevich (Odnovol), arrested for organizing a Victory Day celebration outlawed by Ukrainian authorities. "

[Jul 09, 2018] 'Propaganda organization' White Helmets 'engage in anti-Assad activities' author Sy Hersh

Another version: skripals were him by members of Russian mafia
Jul 09, 2018 | www.youtube.com

Although some members of the Western-supported White Helmets may be in the business of saving lives, the group is also a 'propaganda organization,' author Sy Hersh has told RT's 'Going Underground.'

The Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist also spoke about reporting in the United States and how it changed under the Obama administration, as well as the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury, UK.

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[Jul 09, 2018] Heated Debate: Kevork Almassian vs. FSA opposition representatives

Jul 09, 2018 | www.unz.com

@SolontoCroesus

"TTG", one of SST's trusted writers, posted this report that you didn't read in NYTimes or hear on C Span:
Carrots and Sticks in Syria - TTG 03 Jul 2018
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/07/carrots-and-sticks-in-syria-ttg.html

. . . possible diplomatic breakthrough in southwest Syria. The core of this breakthrough was and remains an intense effort to speed peace negotiations between Damascus and various opposing forces in Syria. It was key to the SAA's recent successes in reducing the eastern Ghouta, Homs and even the Yarmouk refugee camp pockets. The same methodology has enabled the rapid recent success in Daraa. This effort is spearheaded by the Russian Reconciliation Center based at Khmeimim Air Base in Latakia. In addition to pushing peace deals, it coordinates relief aid to newly reconciled areas.

This carrot of reconciliation would not be effective without the stout stick which the SAA has become. We are all familiar with the formidable Tiger Force and the growing list of their combat successes. That success is being reinforced and replicated throughout the SAA by the Russians. Units are being reorganized and re-equipped along the Russian Army model without destroying what the Syrians themselves built over years of painful combat experience. Units raised independently of the SAA, including those trained and advised by the IRGC and Iranian Green Berets, will be folded into the SAA. This is also happening with some former rebels who have reconciled with Damascus. We could learn something from this experience given how we screwed the pooch with the Iraqi and Afghani armies. . . .

there's more at SST
http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/07/carrots-and-sticks-in-syria-ttg.html

Three days ago, Pat Lang passed along reports from Haaretz and Almasdar that "Israel accepts Syrian control up to the UNDOF Line"

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/07/httpswwwalmasdarnewscomarticleisrael-wants-only-syrian-pro-govt-forces-near-border-haaretz.html

but you probably heard that from Jake Tapper. Or Sean Hannity.

RobinG , July 5, 2018 at 12:21 am GMT

Speaking of Syria:

Osama Abo Zayd , Former Spokesman of the Free Syrian Army former Syrian opposition chief negotiator at the Astana talks.
Kevork Almassian , founder of SyrianaAnalysis and Syrian Analyst.
Danny Makki , a freelance journalist and commentator on the Syria conflict, specialising in Syria's relations with Russia and Iran.
Yahya al-Aridi , Spokesman for the Syrian Negotiation Commission.

Heated Debate: Kevork Almassian vs. FSA & opposition representatives

[Jul 09, 2018] Only a small fraction of reporters are reliable truthtellers and not misinformers/ disinformers/ propagandists/ self-censorer-for-job-security.

Jul 09, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Corruption of OPCW by Western militarists


Al-Pol , Jul 8, 2018 2:42:04 AM | 33

James @23 . The OPCW FFM did visit a warehouse and suspected chemical weapon facility ...but dismissed them both rather quickly.
"2.7 Based on the equipment and chemicals observed during the two on-site visits to the warehouse and the facility suspected by the authorities of the Syrian Arab Republic of producing chemical weapons, there was no indication of either facility being involved in the production of chemical warfare agents. "
Al-Pol , Jul 8, 2018 2:58:18 AM | 34
So when did the OPCW start putting out "interim" reports ? It appears to be both a confession and a plea (to their main sponsors). A confession that they haven't got anything at all to back up the original "Sarin attack" stories and a plea to any possible "experts" out there who may be able to bend the flimsy evidence they have into evidence of a chlorine attack. The media is just jumping the gun, probably in the knowledge that those "experts" will be found before the final report comes out.
uncle tungsten , Jul 8, 2018 4:06:48 AM | 35
These are issues upon which circumstances of war or peace can turn. The OPCW is a disgrace and discredits itself by being equivocal with language. The authors of its reports know damn well what the consequences of imprecise language can be and how a glib turn of phrase can inspire a holocaust response to a civilian population confined to a city where a belligerent warmonger state can leap on their reports and rain devastation.

NOT GOOD ENOUGH! Shame on the OPCW for publishing a document that has been immediately twisted. Shame on every senior scientist and every senior administrator for allowing this to happen.

It would have taken no time at all to use text that was tight enough to leave no room for gaming by belligerent media and state actors. This is a disgusting performance by a critical party on which the whole world relies for competency.

Tuyzentfloot , Jul 8, 2018 5:52:01 AM | 36
Maybe some of the journalists are being dishonest but I see mainly confirmation bias.
The mainstream 'knows' that Assad uses chemical weapons. The mainstream also makes a distincion between formal and informal thinking. Example about the Yemen war. in general the war is seen as a proxy war with Iran, but even now I encounter articles which mention this as claims or suspicions. This is not because there are doubts, but because they are trying to get things right formally. On this type of formal statements the press is often willing to be corrected, but it will not change any minds because it's just about the distinction between 'strictly speaking' and 'extremely plausible'.
So in this case the OPCW mentions something about chlorine, but it leads nowhere. Well, OPCW are being formal, so they can't state hard conclusions. Informally the hint is enough to conclude(confirm) that even though there is no hard proof chlorine weapons were used. Strong confirmation bias at work. Maybe you can just call this bad journalism. I prefer to see it as a proof that the commonsense of the mainstream is way off.
@SomeGuy

I think you'll find that the reputation of the reporter, journalist and/or analyst is more important than the site you visit to get your news. Some sites -- those I consider to be corrupted (e.g., TruthDig)-- will publish articles from many different authors, only a small fraction of which are reliable truthtellers and not misinformers/ disinformers/ propagandists/ self-censorer-for-job-security. I understand that this is a little pedantic, but I just want to be clear: you should specifically be asking who to go to rather than where to go for news and information.

Individual preferences will vary based on where you're from, what langauge(s) you speak and what your interests are. As a layman and US expat residing in Germany, I've whittled my primary sources of English geopolitical news down to b at Moon of Alabama, Craig Murray, and Opinion contributors at RT English. For the awful state of US affairs, I read RT, look out for stories by Ray McGovern and Philip Giraldi, Glen Ford and Margaret Kimberley, Chris Hedges, The Saker and Ron Unz. Unz Review links to several of the above sources in its "Alternative Media" list near the bottom of its homepage. A quick internet search can lead you to the others.

In general, Western truthseekers must follow the money: stay away from authors funded by Western governments, media, NGOs, and billionaire philanthropies/foundations/organizations. Most Western truthtellers are freelancers that establish and maintain their own websites and rely only on reader contributions or supplement their income with book sales and speaking engagements.

@SomeGuy

I think you'll find that the reputation of the reporter, journalist and/or analyst is more important than the site you visit to get your news. Some sites -- those I consider to be corrupted (e.g., TruthDig)-- will publish articles from many different authors, only a small fraction of which are reliable truthtellers and not misinformers/ disinformers/ propagandists/ self-censorer-for-job-security. I understand that this is a little pedantic, but I just want to be clear: you should specifically be asking who to go to rather than where to go for news and information.

Individual preferences will vary based on where you're from, what langauge(s) you speak and what your interests are. As a layman and US expat residing in Germany, I've whittled my primary sources of English geopolitical news down to b at Moon of Alabama, Craig Murray, and Opinion contributors at RT English. For the awful state of US affairs, I read RT, look out for stories by Ray McGovern and Philip Giraldi, Glen Ford and Margaret Kimberley, Chris Hedges, The Saker and Ron Unz. Unz Review links to several of the above sources in its "Alternative Media" list near the bottom of its homepage. A quick internet search can lead you to the others.

In general, Western truthseekers must follow the money: stay away from authors funded by Western governments, media, NGOs, and billionaire philanthropies/foundations/organizations. Most Western truthtellers are freelancers that establish and maintain their own websites and rely only on reader contributions or supplement their income with book sales and speaking engagements.

[Jul 09, 2018] Sic Semper Tyrannis No nerve or other chemical agent at Douma - OPCW

Jul 09, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

[Jul 09, 2018] White helmets and Douma false flag are typical intelligence guided propaganda operation

Jul 09, 2018 | www.youtube.com

digital tyranny , 6 days ago

Americans need to strapped to chairs with their eyes clamped open, Clockwork Orange style. and shown endless loops of the horrors and war crimes being done in their names.

Susan Raby-Dunne , 6 days ago

I would just take issue with one thing in this interview, chlorine was used in WWI and it WAS lethal the way it was used in 1915. People and animals died in April and May of 1915. There were also a few "chlorine bombs" lobbed that had some effect early in the war. So for him to say chlorine is not lethal is false. It's not very effective but can work in certain circumstances.

Richard Llewellyn , 5 days ago

Hersh has lost his balls he is trying to play safe how sad. Grow a pair Hersh, you wrote about the first Syrian Sarin attack that Hillary Authorized that killed over 800 men women and children. How the Sarin came from Lybia transported through Turkey and given to ISIS.

Deborah Anne Weber , 6 days ago

Chlorine WAS used as part of agent Orange, the defoliant - in Vietnam. The Chlorine by product created was TCDD, specifically 2, 3, 7, 8-Tetrachlorodibenzo-P-dioxin - a byproduct of Chlorine. TCDD is cancer-causing and causes other nasty health effects...

Liberum Oratio , 5 days ago

White helmets have been caught out staging things, even had 1 of their members pretend to be hurt or dead for photos. Typical Islamics full of taqiyya and hatred for everything else blaming anything and everything for their own disasterous ideology.

mike brabant , 6 days ago

I watched programs on the White Helmets in Syria and the stories told by witnesses that said their loved ones were trapped in bombed out buildings and they asked them for help retrieving their children and the White Helmets told them get them out yourself?? Also people said that their clothes were always spotless in a war zone??? The White Helmets headquarters was vacated and there was ISS flags still on the walls where they were for months at a time?? These are no do gooders that's for sure!!!!

acidpunx , 3 days ago

Its very hard to find any evidence the white helmets have saved 1 life but i have loads of them working with ISIS and making fake videos or playing with half dead/dead children with syringes,ask civilians in Syria and so far never heard of them

[Jul 09, 2018] Alt-media websites that you probably can mostly trust

Jul 09, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Here's the New York Times telling similar lies in fancy video form from June 24th

Yaj , Jul 8, 2018 5:41:43 PM | 59
Here's the New York Times telling similar lies in fancy video form from June 24th:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/24/world/middleeast/douma-syria-chemical-attack-augmented-reality-ar-ul.html


Based on this leaked version of the report, which doesn't prove anything more than the final version:


https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/20/world/middleeast/un-syria-eastern-ghouta.html


PDF:

https://int.nyt.com/data/documenthelper/50-united-nations-commission-doc/865546bdd15e4bb35f11/optimized/full.pdf#page=1


Surprised MofA didn't comment on these inventions.

Harry , Jul 8, 2018 9:54:23 PM | 60
The OPCW report included a helpful table showing its "biomedical" test results. Apparently they took plasma samples. All negative for all chems.

[Jul 08, 2018] Syria - OPCW Issues First Report Of Chemical Weapon Attack in Douma

From comment of chet380, Jul 7, 2018 7:03:08 PM (19): "Notwithstanding the counter-evidence and the strong counter-arguments, the decision by the OPCW to include references to 'chlorinated chemical compounds' guaranteed that the 'attack' scenario would continue to be advanced.Is it possible that the UK, US and/or France put pressure on the OPCW to make the inclusion so they would not have to admit they were wrong and that they were fooled? The fraud of the White Helmets should have been exposed by the OPCW inspection, but this interim report will give them continued life."
Notable quotes:
"... Interestingly the MI6 outlet in Coventry, the Syrian Observatory For Human Rights (SOHR), does not confirm a 'gas' incident. ..."
"... The "Sarin" organophosphate use the 'rebels' claimed is thereby debunked. No degradation products of such chemicals were found. The "various chlorinated organic chemicals" are unsurprising. Chlorine is widely used for water purification and cleaning and "chlorinated organic chemicals" will be found in any household. ..."
"... The preliminary OPCW report says nothing about the concentrations in which these substances were found. Without knowing the concentrations, which may may be extremely low, one can not come to further conclusion. The report includes none of the witness statements the fact finding mission took. In various TV reports the medical personal of the one hospital involved in the stunt said that none of their patients were affected by chlorine or chemical weapons. ..."
"... After the 'rebels' claimed the 'chemical attack' and published their staged videos of stacked bodies U.S. President Trump tweeted that he would retaliate for the strike. Politically he could not pull back from that even when Secretary of Defense Mattis voiced his doubts about the 'rebel' claims. Trump attacked Syria with a series of cruise missiles most of which were shot down by the Syrian air defense. A civil chemical laboratory was destroyed during the attack but no one was hurt. ..."
"... They cannot admit everything was staged. And the report is not at all clear, so anyone can give it the desired spin. ..."
"... They didn't find anything relevant. See Appendix 3 of the report. There's no mention of traces of chlorine which I would find hard to believe anyway, they refer to chloride Cl- as in NaCl (table salt) or organic chlorides, of which they do name at least one. ..."
"... The Guardian employs Olivia Solon, a digital journalist (whose specialty is in writing about and recommending particular IT consumer hardware or software products) based in California, with no knowledge or access to knowledge about Syria, its politics or history, to write an article defending the White Helmets and defame the investigative journalists Eva Bartlett and Vanessa Beeley. That practice seems to be par for the course for The Guardian and other print and online newspapers. ..."
"... And yes, the corporate MSM is definitely profit-driven. When "news" was separate from "entertainment," there was some free press possible, but once they were combined, any imaginary wall between sponsors and newscasters was removed. ..."
"... Here in the US, CBS was founded by William Paley, who had been in charge of radio propaganda for the US Army Office of Psychological Warfare. CBS was owned by Westinghouse, which became the world's largest military contractor during WW II. ..."
"... Neither CBS and NBC ever generated even 5% of their parent companies revenues. The real profits were in consumer products and war. And so, not just their news, but all of their programming promoted world views that encouraged consumption and war. ..."
"... Almost all reporters covering international news are working for the various government and private intelligence agencies/think tanks and many domestic reporters as well. ..."
"... This has been the case for over 50 years if not a century. Many of the critical reports are likely written by the agencies/think tanks. Many CIA interns work at MSM for example and reporters are recruited as early as college if not high school through thr corporate government education system. ..."
"... Regarding comments of journalists, the problem may not always be with them. There have been countless discussions on the influence of intelligence agencies. Most people would choose to do the right thing when given the choice. However, if the choices are following orders or "suicide by nailgun", most people would choose to live another day. ..."
"... The British-created Anglo-American funded black propaganda organisation, the so-called White Helmets were the primary source for the claims of Sarin use by the SAG in Douma. In as just world, the White Helmets as proven liars would now become international pariahs. That they will still be hailed as heroes in the West and western MSM so just how sick the West and western MSM really are. Perhaps now that the OPCW is free to cast blame for "chemical weapons incidents", they should name and shame the United Kingdom for its black propaganda. ..."
"... Well, we all knew a false flag op was pending. So here it is. Also Trump is a POS. ..."
"... When the White Helmets and the rebels staged the 'Douma' chemical attack they were probably expecting that Douma would not be liberated and that no serious inspection would take place to debunk the 'fake' attack. That was bad luck for them. Contrary to the other chemical "attacks" locations, an inspection on location has taken place early enough and the masks may be falling. ..."
"... There are critically important information here from Vanessa Beelley False Flag Fail: How Syrian Civilians Derailed White Helmet 'Chemical' Stunt in Eastern Ghouta that Bernhardt has not mentioned. ..."
"... The White Helmets specifically stated that the protesters had ruined their chemical attack and ruined their communications with the UN, and that the Americans would not come to their assistance because of it. This incident explains important aspects of the false flag: ..."
"... 1) So close to impending defeat, the terrorists were really desperate to induce the Americans to save them, and really believed they would do so; ..."
"... the conflicting signals given out by the MI6 proxies SOHR I would read as a damage limitation act specifically in response to the civilian protest; ..."
"... It would appear that MI6 feared news of this protest would be spread, so that they needed to protect their proxies. ..."
"... Unfortunately, despite this information being published by Vanessa Beeley, I haven't seen any other mention of it. The protesters endangered their lives by this protest, at least one of them [or another hostage? - this is not clear] was shot dead for it, and all of them were sentenced to death. They deserve due publicity for it and it is really important to an understanding of the incident as a whole. ..."
"... Bernhardt, I am afraid I don't share your apparent confidence in this OPCW report. It is far too little and lopsided after months of investigation, and appears to be designed to test the waters for a decision confirming that chlorine was used as a weapon, and to coordinate with the MSM to prepare the ground for such a decision. In that case, the MSM reaction to the report is highly consistent with such an objective. ..."
"... Why did the the report make no caveats about the chlorine compounds, why did they include no data about concentrations, why did they emphasise the chain of custody of the (probably trivial) chrorine compound samples (and only those samples), why no information on witness testimony, why no mention of the witness testimony in the Hague, why mention (totally irrelevant) testimony of alleged witnesses in Turkey and biological samples taken in Turkey for which no plausible chain of custody exists? ..."
"... This report is a scandal, an outrage. This report itself is a false flag, it is designed to appease those observers who know the incident was a false flag by using carefully ambiguous wording, while preparing the ground for a full-blown 99% dishonest and 100% misleading report condemning the Syrian government. ..."
"... For Trump self inflicted ego wound somebody will pay. ..."
"... If the OPCW can no longer be trusted; then what? The U.S. has done an admirable job of destroying trust between countries. ..."
"... Nice article, however I tend to disagree partially on the last part, the US administration and the alleged rebels are two faces of the same coins, rebels are funded by the administration from various sources and they acr in response to commands from it, see the southern command operations where this approach of command was openly divulged by various reports and accounts. The reason for the Administration to get into Syria was to further weaken the middle eastern countries for a specific and obvious reason, and each strike and wall destroyed goes into this direction..the bigger picture explains it all.. ..."
"... So, as expected, this latest OPCW report will have no effect on the establishment narrative. The good guys vs bad guys scenario is the only approved version, and with no alternative versions being offered in the MSM, it is the one that the most people will believe. ..."
"... I suspect some of the stupidest staged events are just experiments to monitor how many people will simply buy anything. ..."
Jul 08, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Syria - OPCW Issues First Report Of 'Chemical Weapon Attack' in Douma

On April 7 2018 Syrian 'rebels' claimed that the Syrian government used chlorine gas and Sarin in an attack on the besieged Douma suburb near the Syrian capital Damascus. They published a series of videos which showed the dead bodies of mainly women and children.

During the night the incident allegedly happened Douma was hit with artillery and air strikes in retaliation for earlier deadly attacks by some 'rebels' splinter groups on Damascus city. Jaish al-Islam, the main 'rebel' group in Douma, had already agreed to leave towards Idleb governorate.

The claim of the 'chemical attack' was made shortly after U.S. President Trump had announced that he wanted U.S. troops to leave Syria. It was designed to "pull him back in" which it indeed did.

Moon of Alabama published several pieces on the issue:

It seemed obvious from the very first claims of the 'gas attack' that it did not happen at all. The Syrian government had no motive to use any chemical weapon or an irritant like chlorine in Douma. It had already won. The incident was obviously staged, like others before it, to drag the U.S. into a new attack on Syria.

Even a prominent opposition outlet said that no 'chemical attack' had taken place. As noted on April 9:

Interestingly the MI6 outlet in Coventry, the Syrian Observatory For Human Rights (SOHR), does not confirm a 'gas' incident. In its version of events some 40 people died after their shelter collapsed:

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights issued a higher death toll, saying at least 80 people were killed in Douma, including around 40 who died from suffocation. But it said the suffocations were the result of shelters collapsing on people inside them.

Main stream media, which have quoted SOHR for years, now ignore it and report of a 'chemical attack' as if it were a proven reality.

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) send a Fact Finding Mission (FFM) to Douma and investigated the incident. Today it published an interim report and some technical results:

OPCW designated labs conducted analysis of prioritised samples. The results show that no organophosphorous nerve agents or their degradation products were detected in the environmental samples or in the plasma samples taken from alleged casualties. Along with explosive residues, various chlorinated organic chemicals were found in samples from two sites, for which there is full chain of custody. Work by the team to establish the significance of these results is on-going. The FFM team will continue its work to draw final conclusions.

The "Sarin" organophosphate use the 'rebels' claimed is thereby debunked. No degradation products of such chemicals were found. The "various chlorinated organic chemicals" are unsurprising. Chlorine is widely used for water purification and cleaning and "chlorinated organic chemicals" will be found in any household.

In the technical notes of the OPCW report note that one of its laboratory found "dichloroacetic acid", "trichloroacetic acid", "chloral hydrate", "trichlorophenol" and "chlorphenol" in some of the samples its fact finding mission took at the claimed incident sites. These are all substances that are no surprise in any upbuild environment and especially within any home. Dichloroacetic acid" is for example "a trace product of the chlorination of drinking water". Chloral hydrate is likewise "a minor side-product of the chlorination of water when organic residues such as humic acids are present". The other substances are also not uncommon and of various household uses.

The other OPCW laboratory found only "No CWC-scheduled chemicals" and "2,4,6-trinitrotoluene" residues in the samples. Trinitrotoluene, also known as TNT, is an explosive widely used in military ammunition. The second laboratory does not report the chlorinated organic chemicals the other laboratory found.

The preliminary OPCW report says nothing about the concentrations in which these substances were found. Without knowing the concentrations, which may may be extremely low, one can not come to further conclusion. The report includes none of the witness statements the fact finding mission took. In various TV reports the medical personal of the one hospital involved in the stunt said that none of their patients were affected by chlorine or chemical weapons.

After the 'rebels' claimed the 'chemical attack' and published their staged videos of stacked bodies U.S. President Trump tweeted that he would retaliate for the strike. Politically he could not pull back from that even when Secretary of Defense Mattis voiced his doubts about the 'rebel' claims. Trump attacked Syria with a series of cruise missiles most of which were shot down by the Syrian air defense. A civil chemical laboratory was destroyed during the attack but no one was hurt.

The now published preliminary OPCW report reinforces the doubts about the 'rebel' claims. There was no 'chemical attack' in Douma. The incident was staged.

One hopes that Trump has learned from this episode and will in future refrain from violent threats over incidents for which no plausible and vetted evidence is provided.

Posted by b on July 6, 2018 at 03:23 PM | Permalink

Comments


Zanon , Jul 6, 2018 3:57:54 PM | 1

Remember the propaganda in the western media and among politicians, they lied and lied, and people like us here were right in our doubts.

Western media again act as warcriminal psyop agent, not to mention a useful idiot for the terrorists!

Ort , Jul 6, 2018 4:03:05 PM | 2
Thanks for this report, even though in my case you're "preaching to the choir".

I wish I could share your closing optimism: "One hopes that Trump has learned from this episode and will in future refrain from violent threats over incidents for which no plausible and vetted evidence is provided."

Hope springs eternal. But even though I'm not rabidly anti-Trump, I think he will remain unwilling to refrain, or is incapable of refraining, from impulsively responding with bluster, bombast, and chauvinistic bumptiousness when his buttons are pushed, regardless of the validity of the stimulus.

Trump, whose narcissism is second to no one's, is devoid of the introspective humility contemplated by the axiom "Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me"; his ego will not process the possibility that he can ever be fooled.

Alas! Trump is definitely a "Threaten first and ask questions later" kind of guy.

psychohistorian , Jul 6, 2018 4:13:31 PM | 3
Thanks for the report b. I was surfing the net as I prepared a meal and saw that the BBC is pushing this hard.

The BBC is even writing about the April chemical weapon scam as being added proof.....sad

The elite keep trying to start a war with anyone to keep the focus off their failure as the "leaders of the free world" BS. When are the elite going to realize their temper tantrums aren't working?

I hope they don't get their shooting war and I hope their economic war provides their final undoing.....think of the waste of human and other resources over the past 70 years.....let alone the centuries that the private finance/property scam has been going on.

Yag , Jul 6, 2018 4:24:04 PM | 4
And liquid chlorine (household bleach) combined with another common household chemical used around the world will release chlorine gas.
Pnyx , Jul 6, 2018 4:38:34 PM | 5
Still, Ard-Tagesschau says the following (originally in German): "In the battles for the Syrian rebel stronghold Duma, chlorine gas was apparently used in April. The OPCW found traces of this in gas cylinder residues."

Sure enough I agree with you B, but for the MSM the OPCW report reads different.

They cannot admit everything was staged. And the report is not at all clear, so anyone can give it the desired spin.

b , Jul 6, 2018 5:04:07 PM | 6
"The OPCW found traces of this in gas cylinder residues." Claiming that the OPCW found "traces of chlorine" is like claiming one found "traces of oxygen" or "traces of hydrogen" when one found water (H2O).

The occurrence of a basic element in a compound is not a "trace" of the basic element. That's chemistry 001. Journalists nowadays seem to lack most basics of higher education.

Hmpf , Jul 6, 2018 5:14:09 PM | 7
@5 Pynx

They didn't find anything relevant. See Appendix 3 of the report. There's no mention of traces of chlorine which I would find hard to believe anyway, they refer to chloride Cl- as in NaCl (table salt) or organic chlorides, of which they do name at least one.

What to expect from the 'Tagesschau' - same old, same old. They're making stuff up again, almost certainly out of willful ignorance and bias.

@6 b
I figure it's even worse than that. They're not even asking the most basic question: Am I a competent person?
My guess is a great many of these folks avoid asking that question on purpose.

Jen , Jul 6, 2018 6:06:36 PM | 8
Pnyx @ 5, B @ 6, Hmpf @ 7:

It would seem that a common (and deliberate) ploy used by the MSM these days is to use journalists with no particular knowledge, experience or insight in an area to write articles that need that knowledge or experience.

The Guardian employs Olivia Solon, a digital journalist (whose specialty is in writing about and recommending particular IT consumer hardware or software products) based in California, with no knowledge or access to knowledge about Syria, its politics or history, to write an article defending the White Helmets and defame the investigative journalists Eva Bartlett and Vanessa Beeley. That practice seems to be par for the course for The Guardian and other print and online newspapers.

Plus The Guardian and others rely on dubious sources like Bellingcat and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, whose credentials are laughable at best, as "experts" in their chosen areas of reporting.

All the Western MSM are now entirely driven by the pursuit of sales revenue and profit and are now no different from outlets peddling entertainment. No surprise really when news media outlets are now owned by the same individuals or corporations that own film studios, TV stations, online media and TV channels, book and comics publishers, and games publishers.

Daniel , Jul 6, 2018 6:35:53 PM | 9
Jen @8. Great point on the strategy of using "journalists" with no background in the topic they're tasked to 'report."

And yes, the corporate MSM is definitely profit-driven. When "news" was separate from "entertainment," there was some free press possible, but once they were combined, any imaginary wall between sponsors and newscasters was removed.

Still, considering who owns the MSM, I'd say their main purpose is not to sell commercials, but to sell the most profitable "products" of their owners.

Here in the US, CBS was founded by William Paley, who had been in charge of radio propaganda for the US Army Office of Psychological Warfare. CBS was owned by Westinghouse, which became the world's largest military contractor during WW II.

NBC was owned by GE, which was also one of the largest military contractors in the world.

Neither CBS and NBC ever generated even 5% of their parent companies revenues. The real profits were in consumer products and war. And so, not just their news, but all of their programming promoted world views that encouraged consumption and war.

Pft , Jul 6, 2018 6:56:32 PM | 10

Almost all reporters covering international news are working for the various government and private intelligence agencies/think tanks and many domestic reporters as well.

This has been the case for over 50 years if not a century. Many of the critical reports are likely written by the agencies/think tanks. Many CIA interns work at MSM for example and reporters are recruited as early as college if not high school through thr corporate government education system.

Everyone likes to supplement their income and many are convinced its their patriotic duty to disseminate propaganda. For some its a chance to join the elite class, even at a low level. Obviously getting the 6-8 corporate entities that own 80% of the media to go along is not difficult especially as those who go rogue will be punished by members of the business roundtable responsible for most advertising , which would of course dry up as punishment

Now monitoring the internet and social media with big data analytics allows almost Total Information Awareness. They can see in real time whats working and to what extent and what is not. They can then fill holes or modify the story as needed. They know they dont need to get 100% believability. This is why they have not shut down dissenting comments. They are useful, for now.

I suspect some of the stupidest staged events are just experiments to monitor how many people will simply buy anything. At some point they will feel confident enough to simulate an alien invasion of beings capable of taking human form. This will necessitate martial law which thw fearful will gladly accept, and a global governement led by the countries with the largest space force. Funny how the US still needs Russian Rockets to launch satellites so its Space Force has a way to go yet. I guess I wont be around for the fun since time is not a friend of old men

Ian , Jul 6, 2018 7:01:03 PM | 11

Regarding comments of journalists, the problem may not always be with them. There have been countless discussions on the influence of intelligence agencies. Most people would choose to do the right thing when given the choice. However, if the choices are following orders or "suicide by nailgun", most people would choose to live another day.

Timothy Hagios , Jul 6, 2018 7:05:17 PM | 12
Pft @ 10

Speaking of experiments to monitor how many people will believe anything, some good claims from the MSM come to mind: 40% of North Koreans are on crystal meth, the Russians killed the last clown in Aleppo, and the Breatharians (people who purportedly survive on only air and sunlight).

james , Jul 6, 2018 7:06:44 PM | 13
thanks b... unfortunately, i tend to see it much like what @8 jen says... these folks are unsure about their next pay check and are happy to write with a chatham house /scl / cambridge analytica slant knowing what is expected of them.. they ask no questions and are unwilling to articulate the false flags that have shaped all this discussion of opcw and chemical attacks in syria.. in this respect i also agree with @5 pnyx... they are unwilling or unable to raise these questions for fear of dismissal.. more and more people recognize what a poor state the msm is in today.. that is my hope anyway..
ben , Jul 6, 2018 7:47:04 PM | 14
b said:"One hopes that Trump has learned from this episode and will in future refrain from violent threats over incidents for which no plausible and vetted evidence is provided."

Unfortunately, probably no one here in the land of theater, will ever hear about this report. As to DJT, he'll do whatever it takes to enhance his appearance with the morons. His learning curve only bends toward his own enhancement. To him and his minions, truth doesn't matter...

Mark2 , Jul 6, 2018 8:19:28 PM | 15
There's unlikely to be any real investigative journalism regarding opcw reports, considering the papers in uk are owned by mega millionaires who profit from war and the Middle East land grab.oil ect. Plus the owners featured largely in the off shore tax haven leaks- relavent here not so much regarding tax, but what that hidden money is invested in, Gun running, slave labour, buying rebels? It's a small world, media moguls own it.
bevin , Jul 6, 2018 8:33:50 PM | 16
Try these Mark2

https://skwawkbox.org/2018/07/07/bbcs-outright-fake-news-tonight-on-douma-chlorine-attack/
https://skwawkbox.org/2018/07/07/video-bbc-news-joins-fake-news-scandal-over-opcws-douma-chlorine-report/

Ghost Ship , Jul 6, 2018 8:43:25 PM | 17
The British-created Anglo-American funded black propaganda organisation, the so-called White Helmets were the primary source for the claims of Sarin use by the SAG in Douma. In as just world, the White Helmets as proven liars would now become international pariahs. That they will still be hailed as heroes in the West and western MSM so just how sick the West and western MSM really are. Perhaps now that the OPCW is free to cast blame for "chemical weapons incidents", they should name and shame the United Kingdom for its black propaganda.
Mark2 , Jul 6, 2018 8:55:31 PM | 18
Thanks Bevin @ 16
I do follow that site, but had'nt looked recently. Really Good, no doubt your aware of 'the canary ' good article on this subject! Both sites I recommend to one and all.
fast freddy , Jul 6, 2018 9:01:43 PM | 19
Well, we all knew a false flag op was pending. So here it is. Also Trump is a POS.
Daniel , Jul 6, 2018 9:24:19 PM | 20
Thanks, bevin for the links to yet another site I'll be trying to find the time to visit. :-)

Both of those articles lay out the BBC BS succinctly and clearly.

Virgile , Jul 6, 2018 10:12:59 PM | 21

When the White Helmets and the rebels staged the 'Douma' chemical attack they were probably expecting that Douma would not be liberated and that no serious inspection would take place to debunk the 'fake' attack. That was bad luck for them. Contrary to the other chemical "attacks" locations, an inspection on location has taken place early enough and the masks may be falling.

james , Jul 6, 2018 10:40:08 PM | 22
@21 virgile... exactly.... all the money the usa/uk have sunk into the white helmets and etc - and very little to nothing to show for it..
chet380 , Jul 6, 2018 10:59:46 PM | 23
@3 Psychohistorian --

Your early call that the MSM would go with the chlorine findings to support the attack is proving true across the board -- there is not a chance that an admission of having been mistaken is going to happen.

adamski , Jul 7, 2018 12:19:58 AM | 24
Chloral Hydrate...?! This was an old school sedative medication. Seems appropriate somehow.
V , Jul 7, 2018 12:36:26 AM | 25
Finally, straight shooting from the OPCW. About time...
Red Ryder , Jul 7, 2018 1:20:06 AM | 26
It is Highly Likely that all the gas attacks were staged as false flags. Exceedingly Likely.
fairleft , Jul 7, 2018 1:37:18 AM | 27
james @13 I think it's clearly true, not just a hope, that fewer and fewer people take the media seriously. Those who still watch mainstream and cable 'news' programs are a pretty small minority, and the MSNBC/FOX side of that is probably acknowledged even by most of its consumers, as 'my side' comfort food rather than 'news' as we used to understand it.

The media's lock-step Western-Empire perspective _is_ frightening, but we also need to remember recent election results that have gone against the empire's wishes. Just a couple days ago in Mexico, for example. Real alternative and real (whether socialist, left, right, or libertarian) populist media is having an impact, I think, and we may be able to turn things around in the West before the next world wars start.

BM , Jul 7, 2018 2:00:06 AM | 28

There are critically important information here from Vanessa Beelley False Flag Fail: How Syrian Civilians Derailed White Helmet 'Chemical' Stunt in Eastern Ghouta that Bernhardt has not mentioned.

Vanessa Beeley interviewed at least two witnesses who - seeing that the government forces were about to liberate Hamouriya village in Douma from the terrorists under whose control they had suffered for 6 years and thereby feeling empowered - on 6th March at 3pm decided to publicly protest against the terrorists by marching through Hamouriya carrying Syrian national flags. They were met by members of the White Helmets and the terrorists, who blamed them explicitly for ruining their chemical weapons false flag.

Critically importantly, the White Helmets had already released news for the claimed false flag that morning and the night before, and they had already collected 30 dead bodies from all over Douma and brought them to the hospital, and had already started filming.

The protest critically negated the propaganda message of the false flag chemical attack - if the Syrian Army had really been dropping chemical weapons on Hamouriya the night before with intent to kill civilian women and children, why would the civilians immediately afterwards start marching through the city carrying Syrian national flags, and having raised the flag at key points in the city? It makes the whole flase flag [even more] implausible. The White Helmets then wrapped one hostage in a Syrian flag and shot him dead as a warning. Fortunately the two witnesses interviewed (and hopefully most of the protesters) were able to escape soon afterwards with the help of the nearby Syrian Army.

The White Helmets specifically stated that the protesters had ruined their chemical attack and ruined their communications with the UN, and that the Americans would not come to their assistance because of it. This incident explains important aspects of the false flag:

1) So close to impending defeat, the terrorists were really desperate to induce the Americans to save them, and really believed they would do so;

2) Having already announced the false flag the previous night and having collected so many dead bodies in preparation, the existence of the protest creates a credibility problem for the terrorists and White Helmets, to which they seem to have responded with various conflicting signals;

3) In particular, the conflicting signals given out by the MI6 proxies SOHR I would read as a damage limitation act specifically in response to the civilian protest;

4) It would appear that MI6 feared news of this protest would be spread, so that they needed to protect their proxies.

Unfortunately, despite this information being published by Vanessa Beeley, I haven't seen any other mention of it. The protesters endangered their lives by this protest, at least one of them [or another hostage? - this is not clear] was shot dead for it, and all of them were sentenced to death. They deserve due publicity for it and it is really important to an understanding of the incident as a whole.

Bernhardt, I hope you will update the article above to include some of Vanessa Beeley's reporting on this incident.

BM , Jul 7, 2018 2:20:22 AM | 29
Bernhardt, I am afraid I don't share your apparent confidence in this OPCW report. It is far too little and lopsided after months of investigation, and appears to be designed to test the waters for a decision confirming that chlorine was used as a weapon, and to coordinate with the MSM to prepare the ground for such a decision. In that case, the MSM reaction to the report is highly consistent with such an objective.

Why did the the report make no caveats about the chlorine compounds, why did they include no data about concentrations, why did they emphasise the chain of custody of the (probably trivial) chrorine compound samples (and only those samples), why no information on witness testimony, why no mention of the witness testimony in the Hague, why mention (totally irrelevant) testimony of alleged witnesses in Turkey and biological samples taken in Turkey for which no plausible chain of custody exists?

Posted by: V | Jul 7, 2018 12:36:26 AM | 25
Finally, straight shooting from the OPCW.
About time...

This report is a scandal, an outrage. This report itself is a false flag, it is designed to appease those observers who know the incident was a false flag by using carefully ambiguous wording, while preparing the ground for a full-blown 99% dishonest and 100% misleading report condemning the Syrian government.

The correct response to this report is very loud and active and persistent protest against it.

The Russians should make very strongly worded complaints and criticisms about it both at the OPCW and at the UN (maybe they have, I wouldn't know).

V , Jul 7, 2018 2:31:49 AM | 30
BM | Jul 7, 2018 2:20:22 AM | 29

You may be correct; we'll see...

Kalen , Jul 7, 2018 3:09:25 AM | 31
For Trump self inflicted ego wound somebody will pay.
V , Jul 7, 2018 7:09:29 AM | 35
Mark2 | Jul 7, 2018 6:29:06 AM | 34

So, following your logic (which I mostly agree); what value/good are elections?
None, near as I can tell.
Time for something new?
But then I digress; what to do about false flag chemo attacks?

If the OPCW can no longer be trusted; then what? The U.S. has done an admirable job of destroying trust between countries.

dfnslblty , Jul 7, 2018 9:25:39 AM | 39
¿Has anyone here read Peter Ford's piece on OPCW? I believe it fits somewhere in the discussion. Unfortunate this choir is so small. Keep writing and Protest Loudly!
Mike , Jul 7, 2018 9:29:28 AM | 40
Hi
Nice article, however I tend to disagree partially on the last part, the US administration and the alleged rebels are two faces of the same coins, rebels are funded by the administration from various sources and they acr in response to commands from it, see the southern command operations where this approach of command was openly divulged by various reports and accounts. The reason for the Administration to get into Syria was to further weaken the middle eastern countries for a specific and obvious reason, and each strike and wall destroyed goes into this direction..the bigger picture explains it all..
Mike , Jul 7, 2018 9:35:41 AM | 41
... to clarify , every "regime" that threatens Israel openly is to be brought down ... Libya, Iraq,, Sudan, Yemen, Syria, Iran , Egypt's Nasser and the list goes on..
bevin , Jul 7, 2018 10:22:39 AM | 42
More on the BBC and this story:
https://skwawkbox.org/2018/07/07/bbc-forced-to-correct-douma-gas-story-after-skwawkbox-exposes-fake-news/

And Craig Murray too:

"Yesterday the OPCW reported that, contrary to US and UK assertions in the UN security council, there was no nerve agent attack on jihadist-held Douma by the Syrian government, precisely as Robert Fisk was execrated by the entire media establishment for pointing out. The OPCW did find some traces of chlorine compounds, but chlorine is a very commonly used element and you have traces of it all over your house.

The US wants your chicken chlorinated. The OPCW said it was "Not clear" if the chlorine was weaponised, and it is plain to me from a career in diplomacy that the almost incidental mention is a diplomatic sop to the UK, US and France, which are important members of the OPCW.

"Trump's reaction to yet more lying claims by the UK government funded White Helmets and Syrian Observatory, a reaction of missile strikes on alleged Syrian facilities producing the non-existent nerve agent, was foolish. May's leap for British participation was unwise, and the usual queue of Blairites who stood up as always in Parliament to support any bombing action, stand yet again exposed as evil tools of the military industrial complex.

"Hillary Clinton, true to form, wanted more aggressive military action than was undertaken by Trump. Hillary has been itching to destroy Syria as she destroyed Libya. Libya was very much Hillary's war and – almost unreported by the mainstream media – NATO bombers carried out almost 14,000 bombing sorties on Libya and devastated entire cities...."

If you put Murray, MoA, The Skwawkbox, Strategic Culture, Dissident Voice and a few of the better aggregators together you've got a better Daily Newspaper than The Guardian or Le Monde ever was, far better.

By the way, unless I'm mistaken (it wouldn't be a first!) Ghandi was asked what he thought about Western Civilisation when he replied that "It would be a good idea". It still is an idea worth looking into. It would look just like socialism.

james , Jul 7, 2018 10:50:35 AM | 43
@27 fairleft.. i hope you are correct on that..

@28 BM... i think it was daniel who left that link here at moa a few days ago.. i read it..

@29 BM.. i tend to agree with you, but see @6 b for more clarity...

@32 pft... it is my observation that the msm in the usa is so usa centric, they know shit about canada, or the rest of the world.. i could be wrong, but that is my general view on what ''americans'' consume for news in the usa.. the indoctrination is heavy.. i would like to think people like @33 V are the norm, but i mostly think people are tuned out of the news - excluding the older generation - above 60 or 70 especially - who still consume the shit via the tv..

@41 mike.. in other words, the usa foreign policy is built around looking after israel.. most here at moa would agree with that.. will the usa ever get it's head out of israels ass? one can hope, lol..

craig murrays post from today that bevin quotes @42.. good comments bevin!

et Al , Jul 7, 2018 10:53:24 AM | 44
Motherboard.com: Japan Just Executed the Leaders of an LSD-Fueled Doomsday Science Cult
https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/gy3xex/what-is-aum-shinrikyo-sarin-attack

####

This one was real, but even the Aum Shinrikyo sect showed all those years ago how how difficult it is to pull off an effective chemical weapons attack, requiring an enclosed space like the metro system. But that's never the point. Instilling mass fear and panic, not to mention being 'news friendly' is what makes such attacks, sponsored proxy false-flag or not, so enduringly popular . To borrow a well known ad phrase ' Once you pop, you can't stop '

Noirette , Jul 7, 2018 11:00:54 AM | 45
Journalists nowadays seem to lack most basics of higher education. b.

Yes + they have zero comprehension of basic numbers. Amazing. (Nobody wants to read my exs..) Nowadays, they are not supposed to have any knowledge whatsoever; they have become scribal hacks, merely write, film, show, expose, what they are told or do haphazard copy-pasta.

They are bought servants, nah compradors, and their presence is completely useless (A.I. and some guidance, input from above by 7 -say- very smart ppl would do the job faster and cheaper, for the whole W world) they are actors whose function is to pretend that a 'fourth estate' is necessary to uncover facts, inform the populace, air dissenting points of view, have debates, and so on Lies.

(comes to mind, book https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udo_Ulfkotte)

Aware they are past their sell-date, one can smell the desperation. The reaction is to become more subservient, toe the line, preserve what can be, become more in-groupy and shaft colleagues who might stray away from the prescribed hyper-rigid guide-lines. Collectively, they have fantastic potential power and means of control (network savvy, present at the switches, etc.) but they are so dumbed down and terrified of status and monetary loss they are like deer caught in the headlights, to stay on track they secretly pray at dawn, conjure the fates, or whatever. The mansion with pool, the ginormous mortgage, Junior, etc. in the US. In France, the monetary aspect is less vital; being excluded from the movers and shakers, the in-ppl, the heady, sexy, wonderful Parisian life.. no.. no.. help

Part of how a 'post-truth' environment comes about. The other driver is the underlying aim, i.e. the imposition of one narrative over another, the Rovian creation of realities which can only be managed by wielding power violent enough to make the 'other - the people - the adversary' accept and bow down to the proffered narrative, and never object, call out the lies. Using this template requires careful calculations which, it appears, have gone off kilter in the US.

Maybe one should consider that there were never any Chem-WMD attacks in Syria at all (pace Seymour Hersh, heh, but that is a personal beef of mine..) - there are always limited hangout ppl who try to cobble up one narrative with another and make a living out o that.

Curtis , Jul 7, 2018 11:10:52 AM | 46
So far, I'm seeing BBC (as above), al Jazeera, ABC, Reuters, Qatar Tribune twisting the report to say it was a Chlorine attack. PressTV, RT, and Sputnik News say the report clears SAA.
Rob , Jul 7, 2018 1:36:25 PM | 50
And then there's this: https://www.nytimes.com/reuters/2018/07/06/world/europe/06reuters-syria-crisis-chemicalweapons.html
and this: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/25/world/middleeast/syria-chemical-attack-douma.html
both from the New York Times.

The latter is an absurd "virtual crime scene" in which crack reporters claim to prove that the Syrian government used chemical weapons on their own people.

So, as expected, this latest OPCW report will have no effect on the establishment narrative. The good guys vs bad guys scenario is the only approved version, and with no alternative versions being offered in the MSM, it is the one that the most people will believe.

Mark2 , Jul 7, 2018 2:24:33 PM | 55
Den Kelley Abe @ 53

O k see if I can help, kind of kill or cure! The shock to us all may be to much ! There is no squirrel ! They made it up, yes I know it's kind of tuff !we all looked for a squirrel they distracted us. There was no people poisoned by Russians in Salisbury, Amesbury the chlorine attack in Syria yes made up.What the tv and papers said was a lie, to program us all like a laptop !!!

Whilst we were out squirrel huntin, they got through half of world 3 we never noticed. They formed a dictatorship. Sold all your urban buildings services and council houses to one an other. And devalued us all by about 60% But i'l go easy for now. Couse from there on things went down hill !!! Warm regards

Patrick Armstrong , Jul 7, 2018 7:14:13 PM | 61
By the way, I read somewhere recently that Chlorine rapidly degrades Sarin and therefore no one would use them together. But I can't find the reference now. Can anybody help?
fast freddy , Jul 7, 2018 8:12:38 PM | 62
47. hrc = Bloodthirsty killer; sociopath coming out the gate. Likewise. POS. Trump was not a mass murderer until a couple months in. Didn't take him long to join the club.
Guerrero , Jul 7, 2018 8:43:14 PM | 63
Posted by: Jen | 8Pnyx @ 5, B @ 6, Hmpf @ 7:
It would seem that a common (and deliberate) ploy used by the MSM these days is to use journalists with no particular knowledge, experience or insight in an area to write articles that need that knowledge or experience.

I wonder if these "news reporters" were not selected based upon their "sex appeal" to a superior?

Posted by: Pft | @10

I suspect some of the stupidest staged events are just experiments to monitor how many people will simply buy anything.

I agree. These zany false flag events might be designed to map the approach to an asymptote .

(In analytic geometry, an asymptote (/ˈæsɪmptoʊt/) of a curve is a line such that the distance between
the curve and the line approaches zero as one or both of the x or y coordinates tends to infinite stupidity)

[Jul 06, 2018] Ralph Peters is a nice example of the nuttiest neocons around

The rant of a coddled establishment chickenhawk, who is quite overrated, relative to the positions accorded to him (Nasty people don't deserve kindness.)
Notable quotes:
"... When Tucker Carlson on his prime time program last July 11, 2017, demanded that Peters provide facts and figures for his accusations, Peters immediately exploded and implied that program host Carlson was a "Hitler apologist." It was a classic argument and instance of reductio ad Hitlerum. ..."
"... Ralph Peters is one of the nuttiest neocons around, and Fox was smart to dump him. I recall an article long ago where he suggested that the US Govt. should address the drug addition problem in the USA by assassinating drug dealers on the streets in the USA ..."
"... He lives off scraps from neocons by selling his soul for BS talking points and collects a monthly check from Uncle Sam after 20 years of sitting at a desk doing BS intel work, as I once did for a year. It seems he missed his chance at killing commies in Nam by touring Europe, as Fred Reed explained ..."
"... Last week, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, received well deserved praise for taking to task the permeating anti-Russian biases. The highlight of Carlson's exchanges was his encounter with Ralph Peters, who for years has spouted grossly inaccurate propaganda against Russia. Antiwar.com and Russia Insider, are among the counter-establishment English language venues commenting on the Carlson-Peters discussion. The US foreign policy establishment realist leaning National Interest carried a lengthy piece on Carlson's challenge to the neocon/neolib foreign policy perceptions. For the record, more can and should be said in reply to Peter's comments. ..."
"... Peters' characterization of Russia targeting civilian areas is disingenuous. Over the years, the matter of collateral damage is something periodically brought up in response to those killed by US and Israeli military actions. ..."
"... Some Kiev regime elements positively reference the 1995 Croat ethnic cleansing of Krajina Serbs (known as Operation Storm) as a solution for ending the rebel position in Donbass. Russia doesn't seek a massive refugee problem in Donbass and some other parts of the former Ukrainian SSR. As is, a sizeable number of Ukrainian residents have fled to Russia. ..."
Jul 06, 2018 | www.unz.com

Or, recall those on-camera Fox News Russia experts -- think here of General Jack Keane or the unhinged Colonel Ralph Peters who literally foamed at the mouth when talking about Putin, calling him "the new Hitler," and who asserted that Putin had committed "worse crimes" than the German dictator. (Peters is so anti-Russian that he finally left the Fox News network in March 2018 )

When Tucker Carlson on his prime time program last July 11, 2017, demanded that Peters provide facts and figures for his accusations, Peters immediately exploded and implied that program host Carlson was a "Hitler apologist." It was a classic argument and instance of reductio ad Hitlerum.

Carlton Meyer , Website June 14, 2018 at 4:50 am GMT

Ralph Peters is one of the nuttiest neocons around, and Fox was smart to dump him. I recall an article long ago where he suggested that the US Govt. should address the drug addition problem in the USA by assassinating drug dealers on the streets in the USA.

He lives off scraps from neocons by selling his soul for BS talking points and collects a monthly check from Uncle Sam after 20 years of sitting at a desk doing BS intel work, as I once did for a year. It seems he missed his chance at killing commies in Nam by touring Europe, as Fred Reed explained:

https://fredoneverything.org/dulce-et-decorum-est-if-someone-else-has-to-do-it/

Mikhail , Website June 14, 2018 at 10:28 pm GMT

@Carlton Meyer

Peters has been hardcore anti-Russian and anti-Serb. His views are quite collapsible. Regarding one of his mass media appearances

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2017/07/17/dnc-kiev-regime-collusion-isnt-americas-best-interests.html

Last week, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, received well deserved praise for taking to task the permeating anti-Russian biases. The highlight of Carlson's exchanges was his encounter with Ralph Peters, who for years has spouted grossly inaccurate propaganda against Russia. Antiwar.com and Russia Insider, are among the counter-establishment English language venues commenting on the Carlson-Peters discussion. The US foreign policy establishment realist leaning National Interest carried a lengthy piece on Carlson's challenge to the neocon/neolib foreign policy perceptions. For the record, more can and should be said in reply to Peter's comments.

Peters falsely claims that Russia hasn't made a concerted effort in confronting ISIS. In one of his more accurate moments, CNN's Wolf Blitzer said that the ISIS claimed shoot down of a Russian civilian airliner over Egypt, was in response to Russia's war against ISIS. You've to be either a liar or clueless to not recognize why Russia has actively opposed ISIS. The latter sees Russia as an enemy, while having a good number of individuals with roots in Russia and some other parts of the former USSR.

Peters' characterization of Russia targeting civilian areas is disingenuous. Over the years, the matter of collateral damage is something periodically brought up in response to those killed by US and Israeli military actions.

Peters offers no proof to his suspect claim that Russian President Vladimir Putin kills journalists. There're numerous anti-Putin advocates alive and well in Russia. That country does have a violence problem. Recall what the US was like in the 1960s thru early 1970′s. For that matter, Bernie Sanders isn't blamed for the pro-Sanders person who attempted to kill Republican lawmakers.

Given the situations concerning Kosovo and northern Cyprus, Peters is being a flat out hypocrite regarding Crimea. Donbass is a civil conflict involving some Russian support for the rebels, who're overwhelmingly from the territory of the former Ukrainian SSR. These individuals have a realistic basis to oppose the Kiev based regimes that came after the overthrow of a democratically elected Ukrainian president.

During the American Revolution, most of the pro-British fighters were said to be colonists already based in America. Furthermore, the American revolutionaries received significant support from France. With these factors in mind, the Donbass rebels don't seem less legit than the American revolutionaries.

Some Kiev regime elements positively reference the 1995 Croat ethnic cleansing of Krajina Serbs (known as Operation Storm) as a solution for ending the rebel position in Donbass. Russia doesn't seek a massive refugee problem in Donbass and some other parts of the former Ukrainian SSR. As is, a sizeable number of Ukrainian residents have fled to Russia.

Putin isn't anti-US in the manner claimed by Peters. Moreover, Peters is clearly more anti-Russian (in a narrow minded way at that) than what can be reasonably said of how Putin views the US. Putin's obvious differences with neocons, neolibs and flat out Russia haters isn't by default anti-US. He was the first foreign leader to console the US following 9/11. The Russian president has been consistently on record for favoring better US-Russian ties (even inquiring about Russia joining NATO at one point), thereby explaining why he has appeared to have preferred Trump over Clinton.

Some (including Trump) disagree with that view, which includes the notion that the Russians (by and large) prefer predictability. As a general rule this is otherwise true. However, Clinton's neocon/neolib stated views on Russia have been to the point where many Russians felt willing to take a chance with Trump, whose campaign included a comparatively more sympathetic take of their country. At the same time, a good number of Russians questioned whether Trump would maintain that stance.

[Jul 03, 2018] 'Propaganda organization': White Helmets 'engage in anti-Assad activities' author Sy Hersh

Jul 03, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

richardstevenhack a day ago Must see interview with Sy Hersh, investigative reporter. [SPOILER: He does NOT talk about the infamous tape about Seth Rich.]

'Propaganda organization': White Helmets 'engage in anti-Assad activities' – author Sy Hersh

Play Hide

https://cdn.embedly.com/widgets/media.html?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fembed%2FvPRagJKxED4%3Ffeature%3Doembed&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DvPRagJKxED4&image=https%3A%2F%2Fi.ytimg.com%2Fvi%2FvPRagJKxED4%2Fhqdefault.jpg&key=21d07d84db7f4d66a55297735025d6d1&type=text%2Fhtml&schema=youtube

Sy has a new book out called "Reporter" A Memoir" which is mostly autobiographical about his career as a reporter, with references to his My Lai massacre reporting, his start with the Chicago papers as a crime reporter, and later experiences.

Very interesting comments on My Lai, on the Syrian war and the chemical attack incidents. He has pretty much nothing to say about the British Skripal incident except that he's been told by people in the US that Skripal was reporting to one of Brit intelligence agencies on Russian Mafia activity in Europe - which he says pretty much indicates who might have wanted to poison Skripal.

[Jun 28, 2018] What is John Bolton s role in Trump s ME drama?

With Mueller Trump is on a very short leash indeed, so I doubt that he has great freedom of maneuver.
Notable quotes:
"... Trump has a free hand from his base to negotiate peaceful coexistence with Russia, but he nevertheless must successfully deal with the passion of the neocon wing of the Borg (foreign policy establishment). They still swoon at the thought of the ongoing renewal of the Cold War. ..."
"... John Bolton is an arch-neocon, a neocon's neocon. Trump has sent him to Moscow to arrange an agenda, date and location for a meeting with Vladimir Putin. IMO this is a stroke of genius. What it does is put an enemy of good US-Russia relations in charge of arranging the schedule for discussions to improve US-Russia relations. In LBJ's vulgarism, Bolton is going to be inside the tent peeing out rather than outside peeing in. Having arranged the meeting, he will be personally invested in its success. How sweet that is! ..."
"... People want to believe so badly. I also want to believe, but I live in the real world. What happened the last time Trump made noises about leaving Syria to its own devices, most recently in April? Instant false flag, that's what. With Trump, it's worked twice already, I see no reason that it will not work a third or fourth time, or as often as needed. ..."
"... Without Russia as a selected enemy the US Army, with its expanding budget and end-strength has no important raison d'être , and what will the Borg do about that? First we can expect a large increase in the "Russia-bad" propaganda, similar to that on Iran (the greatest state sponsor of this and that). So I suppose Bolton is busy on his back-channel, etc. ..."
"... Between the end of Peace of Vienna and the start of Peace of Yalta there was a 50-year interval - filled with 2 world wars. Let us hope it be different this time. ..."
"... My biggest concern remains that Bibi's support itself will not guarantee acquiescence from the ultra-nationalist elements in Israel and their supporters elsewhere, who want to drag the US into the war. If the folks that carried out Khan Sheikhoun & other false flag CW attacks can be controlled, peace may have a chance. Otherwise, Trump's hand could still be forced. ..."
"... A stroke of genius. Bolton either demonstrates his obedience or is sacked, along with most of other neocons, for trying to spike the upcoming Putin summit. ..."
Jun 28, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

(editorial)

On a gestalt basis it seems to me from all the bits and pieces of information and rumor that DJT is attempting "The Deal of the Century!" (an episode or two of his soon to be award winning series on the subject of "The Greatest President.")

Russian cooperation in this is clearly needed. Trump is blessedly lacking in ideological fervor. His Deplorable base is also a bit short on ideology being focused on wages, prices, taxes and other everyday living issues. Their patriotism expresses itself in devotion to the flag and the anthem and a willingness to serve in the armed forces, something increasingly absent in the "resistance."

Trump has a free hand from his base to negotiate peaceful coexistence with Russia, but he nevertheless must successfully deal with the passion of the neocon wing of the Borg (foreign policy establishment). They still swoon at the thought of the ongoing renewal of the Cold War.

John Bolton is an arch-neocon, a neocon's neocon. Trump has sent him to Moscow to arrange an agenda, date and location for a meeting with Vladimir Putin. IMO this is a stroke of genius. What it does is put an enemy of good US-Russia relations in charge of arranging the schedule for discussions to improve US-Russia relations. In LBJ's vulgarism, Bolton is going to be inside the tent peeing out rather than outside peeing in. Having arranged the meeting, he will be personally invested in its success. How sweet that is!

Trumps is IMO trying for a grand ME bargain to be achieved with Russian help:

  1. Peace in Syria in the context of abandonment of regime change. Trump the pragmatist recognizes that the R+6 forces have won the civil war and, therefore he wishes to accept the sunk costs of previous American ineptitude in Syria and to walk away. US Embassy Amman has signaled to the FSA rebels in SW Syria that they should not expect the US to defend them. This is a traditional American stab in the back for guerrilla allies but the warning indicates to me that some group in the US Government (probably the CIA) has enough conscience to want to give warning. As soon as that warning was issued the rate of surrenders to the SAA rose.
  2. The US has thus made it clear that the SAA and Russian forces in Syria have a free hand in the SW and it seems that Israeli air and missile attacks are unlikely against the SW offensive. This has been insured through a Russian mandate that Hizbullah and IRGC dominated Shia militias stay out of the fight in Deraa and Quneitra Provinces.
  3. The Egyptians have been talking to Hamas about their willingness to enter into a hudna (religiously sanctioned truce) with Israel. Hamas has frequently offered this before. Such truces are renewable and are often for 10 years. Kushner's team thinks it has attained Natanyahhu's support for this. The deal would supposedly include; a Gaza-Egyptian industrial zone in the area of Raffa, an airport, a seaport. In return Hamas would be expected to police the truce from their side of the border. People on SST who have deep access in Israel doubt the sincerity of apparent Israeli assent, but there is little doubt I think that DJT considers this part of the Grand Bargain he is attempting to forge.

Nowhere in any of this is anything concerning Iran and I assume that regime change remains the policy. Nor is there anything about Saudi Arabia and the UAE's mercenary manned war in Yemen. Ah, well, pilgrims, everything in its time. pl


Sid Finster , 9 hours ago

People want to believe so badly. I also want to believe, but I live in the real world. What happened the last time Trump made noises about leaving Syria to its own devices, most recently in April? Instant false flag, that's what. With Trump, it's worked twice already, I see no reason that it will not work a third or fourth time, or as often as needed.
Don Bacon , 9 hours ago
Without Russia as a selected enemy the US Army, with its expanding budget and end-strength has no important raison d'être , and what will the Borg do about that? First we can expect a large increase in the "Russia-bad" propaganda, similar to that on Iran (the greatest state sponsor of this and that). So I suppose Bolton is busy on his back-channel, etc.
Pat Lang Mod -> Don Bacon , 9 hours ago
I suppose you mean the US Armed Forces, not the US Army.
Don Bacon -> Pat Lang , 6 hours ago
No, I mean the Army is especially invested in Europe and has been. I attended C&GSC at the peak of Vietnam and in exercises they were still mostly concerned with the Fulda Gap, division trains, etc. Big Army. Similar to how Army is going now, back to their roots so to speak. Even when they claimed they were short of funds, they found a way to send forces to Europe based on the claims that after Crimea, Russia was (and is) a threat to. . .the U.S.?

Peace with Russia would be a severe blow to Army especially with the shift to Indo-Pacific which involves Navy and Marines, and Army not much. I know Army was greatly involved with island operations in WWII, but China is not Japan regarding imperialism, IMO, and anyhow island invasions are not popular in Army.

So I look for a beefed up "Russia threat" campaign to counter Trump, and insider Bolton to be a big part of it.

Terra Cotta Woolpuller -> Pat Lang , 4 hours ago
Good analysis of the political implications of having Bolton establishing a summit as it worked with Pompeo. Always keep your friends close and your enemies closer good way to clean up the nest of venomous asps.
Michael Stojanovic , 9 hours ago
Qatar/Turkey may be an impediment/wild card, given it's Muslim brotherhood connections and leanings and strong backing for Hamas.
Pat Lang Mod -> Michael Stojanovic , 8 hours ago
It seems that Hamas has agreed.
Michael Stojanovic -> Pat Lang , 6 hours ago
Gen Sisi must have made an offer too good to resist. We know the House of Saud will finance it. Are they going to political legitimatize Hamas, turn Gaza in a statelet ? Perhaps Hamas sees, or is being threaten with the money spigot being turned off ? The only way to get money will be their share of offshore Natural Gas ? All for Hamas perhaps ? Nothing buys peace faster then lining a whole lot of pockets. With more money and Airports and a Shipping port, opens dangerous doors. Is Israel ready for that ? How will that be monitored ? So many damn questions. This may prove more problematic then the status quo, in the long run. Something does have to be done, the conditions in Gaza are unacceptable.
smoothieX12 . , 10 hours ago
Excellent analysis. In related news, a week or so ago semi-official Russian Vzglyad made a first media shot across the bow for Iran in which it stressed that the manner of Iran's "presence" in Syria is a complicating factor.
Babak Makkinejad -> smoothieX12 . , 9 hours ago
Russia cannot dislodge Iran out of Syria. And why should she try? And to what purpose?

Is there a new ABM Treaty in the works? Another SALT? Another Peace of Yalta?

smoothieX12 . -> Babak Makkinejad , 8 hours ago
Russia doesn't want to "dislodge" Iran from Syria but she needs Iran out of the border area with Israel. This is the key to a new arrangement, including, in the long run, Iran's security.

Is there a new ABM Treaty in the works? Another SALT? Another Peace of Yalta?

First two are important but are not clear and present danger for Russia for a number of reasons. Militarization of space is more important now. The last point, however, is extremely important because either there will be some kind of new geopolitical arrangement or we will see probability of a global military conflict grow exponentially.

Babak Makkinejad -> smoothieX12 . , 7 hours ago
Iranians do not need to be at the border area. All they need is to deploy their true and tested method of arming Syria with tens of thousands of precision rockets aimed at Haifa and Tel-Aviv. It worked for North Koreans.

No global peace is in the works.

Between the end of Peace of Vienna and the start of Peace of Yalta there was a 50-year interval - filled with 2 world wars. Let us hope it be different this time.

smoothieX12 . -> Babak Makkinejad , 5 hours ago
Between the end of Peace of Vienna and the start of Peace of Yalta there
was a 50-year interval - filled with 2 world wars. Let us hope it be
different this time.

It must be different, plus I disagree with historic parallel--two entirely different paradigms both in warfare, geopolitical balance and media.

Barbara Ann , 10 hours ago
Well I certainly wish The Greatest President luck. Who knows, I'm done underestimating the guy.

My biggest concern remains that Bibi's support itself will not guarantee acquiescence from the ultra-nationalist elements in Israel and their supporters elsewhere, who want to drag the US into the war. If the folks that carried out Khan Sheikhoun & other false flag CW attacks can be controlled, peace may have a chance. Otherwise, Trump's hand could still be forced.

The point of maximum danger appears to be at hand, given your characterization of the Daraa op as "betting the farm". Today's grant of new powers to the OPCW to apportion blame (designed to side-step the Russian veto at the UNSC) now means this body can effectively determine casus belli . Let us pray the OPCW will not have reason to exercise its new powers in Syria.

Tony , 11 hours ago
Let the hand wringing begin...
https://www.bbc.com/news/wo...
EEngineer , 12 hours ago
A stroke of genius. Bolton either demonstrates his obedience or is sacked, along with most of other neocons, for trying to spike the upcoming Putin summit.

On topic #2. If the SAA isn't feeling it's oats by now, forcing them fight a major battle that culminates a campaign by themselves would seem to be the ideal way to exorcise any remaining self doubts and engender a lasting esprit de corps. Stupid is what stupid does... Once these guys finish up in the SW and head east enforce it'll be show time.

[Jun 27, 2018] The SAA is rapidly clearing out the foreign terrorists in the south of the country

Jun 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Nerrian | Jun 26, 2018 5:04:54 PM | 12 Syria Update

The SAA is rapidly clearing out the foreign terrorists in the south of the country.

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dgn35-7X4AEhYdF.jpg

The entire Lajat area has been cleared almost cutting in half the eastern territory occupied by terrorists.

The SAA is now advancing in two main areas:

1. The SAA is surrounding Daara city from the north. The southern half of Daara city is held by terrorists. Once surrounded, the terrorists in the eastern part of the south of Syria will be cut off.

2. The SAA is now clearing out Al Hrak and will be moving down south clearing out the remaining terrorists in the eastern Daara countryside.

The goal is to secure the Nasib border crossing. Once secured, the flow of terrorists and weapons into Syria will be a major step closer to being stopped.

I assume that once the SAA surrounds Daara city, that the terrorists in the south of the city will just be contained while the massive SAA forces ready to start phase 2 of the anti-terror campaign.

Once they are ready the SAA will move on to clearing out the western Daara countryside all the way to both the Jordan and Palestine borders with Syria.

Activity by the US regime trying to play the same tired old UN and other 'humanitarian' organization games. The SAA is making such rapid advance that it will most likely be moot. Still waiting for the US regime's next fake chemical attack.

Per , Jun 26, 2018 6:18:33 PM | 14
Today I was pleasantly surprised to find a short piece on Syria in Swedish MSM that looked like perfectly honest reporting. It depicted the Homs "rebels" in a very bad light, and though they didn't spell it out, it was an unequivocally pro-government piece.

Makes me think the efforts of the empire have shifted somewhere else. So where aren't we looking?

Here is the link (Swedish): https://sverigesradio.se/sida/artikel.aspx?programid=83&artikel=6984187

[Jun 25, 2018] Are al-Qaeda Affiliates Fighting Alongside US Rebels in Syria's South?

Jun 25, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

DARAA, Syria – At first glance, all appears calm in this southern Syrian city where protests first broke out seven years ago. Residents mill around shops in preparation for the evening Iftar meal when they break their daily fast during the holy month of Ramadan.

But the tension is nonetheless palpable in this now government-controlled city. A few weeks ago, Russian-brokered reconciliation talks in southern Syria fell apart when Western-backed militants rejected a negotiated peace.

Whether there will now be a full-on battle for the south or not, visits last week to Syria's three southern governorates, Daraa, Quneitra, and Suweida, reveal a startling possibility: al-Qaeda's Syrian franchise -- the Nusra Front -- appears to be deeply entrenched alongside these U.S.-backed militants in key, strategic towns and villages scattered throughout the south.

U.S. media and think tanks obfuscate this fact by referring to all opposition fighters as "rebels" or "moderates." Take a look at their maps and you only see three colors: red for the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and its allies, green for opposition forces, black for ISIS.

No More Utopian Dreams on Syria War Without a Rationale

So then, where is the Nusra Front, long considered by Western pundits to be one of the most potent fighting forces against the SAA? Have they simply -- and conveniently -- been erased from the Syrian battle map?

Discussions with Syrian military experts, analysts, and opposition fighters during my trip revealed that Nusra is alive and kicking in the southern battlefields. The map below specifically identifies areas in the south controlled by Nusra, but there are many more locations that do not appear where Nusra is present and shares power with other militants.

Despite its U.S. and UN designation as a terrorist organization, Nusra has been openly fighting alongside the "Southern Front," a group of 54 opposition militias funded and commanded by a U.S.-led war room based in Amman, Jordan called the Military Operations Center (MOC).

Specifics about the MOC aren't easy to come by, but sources inside Syria -- both opposition fighters and Syrian military brass (past and present) -- suggest the command center consists of the U.S., UK, France, Jordan, Israel, and some Persian Gulf states.

They say the MOC supplies funds, weapons, salaries, intel, and training to the 54 militias, many of which consist of a mere 200 or so fighters that are further broken down into smaller groups, some only a few dozen strong.

SAA General Ahmad al-Issa, a commander for the frontline in Daraa, says the MOC is a U.S.-led operation that controls the movements of Southern Front "terrorists" and is highly influenced by Israel's strategic goals in the south of Syria -- one of which is to seize control of its bordering areas to create a "buffer" inside Syrian territories.

How does he know this? Issa says his information comes from a cross-section of sources, including reconciled/captured militants and intel from the MOC itself. The general cites MOC's own rulebook for militants as an example of its Israel-centricity: "One, never threaten or approach any Israeli border in any way. Two, protect the borders with (Israeli-occupied) Golan so no one can enter Israel."

To illustrate the MOC's control over southern militants, Issa cites further regulations: "three, never take any military action before clearing with MOC first. Four, if the MOC asks groups to attack or stop, they must do so."

What happens if these rules are not upheld? "They will get their salaries cut," says Issa.

The armed opposition groups supported by the MOC are mostly affiliated with the Free Syrian Army (FSA), itself an ill-defined, highly fungible group of militants who have changed names and affiliations with frequency during the Syrian conflict.

Over the course of the war, the FSA has fought alongside the Nusra Front and ISIS -- some have even joined them. Today, despite efforts to whitewash the FSA and Southern Front as "non-sectarian" and non-extremist , factions like the Yarmouk Army, Mu'tazz Billah Brigade, Salah al-Din Division, Fajr al-Islam Brigade, Fallujah al-Houran Brigade, the Bunyan al-Marsous grouping, Saifollah al-Masloul Brigade, and others are currently occupying keys areas in Daraa in cooperation with the Nusra Front.

None of this is news to American policymakers. Even before the MOC was established in February 2014, Nusra militants were fronting vital military maneuvers for the FSA. As one Daraa opposition activist explains: "The FSA and al-Nusra join together for operations but they have an agreement to let the FSA lead for public reasons, because they don't want to frighten Jordan or the West . Operations that were really carried out by al-Nusra are publicly presented by the FSA as their own."

Efforts to conceal the depth of cooperation between Nusra and the FSA go right to the top. Says one FSA commander in Daraa: "In many battles, al-Nusra takes part, but we don't tell the (MOC) operations room about it."

It's highly doubtful that the U.S. military remains unaware of this. The Americans operate on a "don't ask, don't tell" basis with regard to FSA-Nusra cooperation. In a 2015 interview with this reporter , CENTCOM spokesman Lieutenant Commander Kyle Raines was quizzed about why Pentagon-vetted fighters' weapons were showing up in Nusra hands. Raines responded: " We don't 'command and control' these forces -- we only 'train and enable' them. Who they say they're allying with, that's their business."

In practice, the U.S. doesn't appear to mind the Nusra affiliation -- regardless of the fact that the group is a terror organization -- as long as the job gets done.

U.S. arms have been seen in Nusra's possession for many years now, including highly valued TOW missiles , which were game-changing weapons in the Syrian military theater. When American weapons end up in al-Qaeda hands during the first or second year of a conflict, one assumes simple errors in judgment. When the problem persists after seven years, however, it starts to look like there's a policy in place to look the other way.

It's also not difficult to grasp why U.S. maps patently ignore evidence of Nusra embedded among U.S.-supported militias. The group, after all, is exempt from ceasefires, viewed as a fair target for military strikes at all times.

In December 2015, UN Security Council Resolution 2254 called for "Member States to prevent and suppress terrorist acts committed specifically by Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as Da'esh), Al-Nusra Front (ANF), and all other individuals, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with Al Qaeda or ISIL, and other terrorist groups, as designated by the Security Council" (emphasis added). Furthermore, the resolution makes clear that ceasefires "will not apply to offensive or defensive actions against these individuals, groups, undertakings and entities."

This essentially means that the Syrian army and its allies can tear apart any areas in the south of Syria where Nusra fighters -- and "entities associated" with it -- are based. In effect, international law provides a free hand for a Syrian military assault against U.S.-backed militias co-located with Nusra, and undermines the ability of their foreign sponsors to take retaliatory measures.

That's why the Nusra Front doesn't show up on U.S. maps.

In an interview last week, Syrian president Bashar al-Assad blamed the sudden breakdown of southern reconciliation efforts on "Israeli and American interference," which he says "put pressure on the terrorists in that area in order to prevent reaching any compromise or peaceful resolution."

Today, the Israeli border area with Syria is dotted with Nusra and ISIS encampments, which Israel clearly prefers over the Syrian army and its Iranian and Hezbollah allies. The Wall Street Journal even reported last year that Israel was secretly providing funding for salaries, food, fuel, and munitions to militants across its border.

In early June, two former Islamist FSA members (one of them also a former Nusra fighter) in Beit Jinn -- a strategic area bordering Syria, Lebanon, and Israel -- told me that Israel had been paying their militia's salaries for a year before a reconciliation deal was struck with the Syrian government. "Every month Israel would send us $200,000 to keep fighting," one revealed. "Our leaders were following the outside countries. We were supported by MOC, they kept supporting us till the last minute," he said.

Earlier that day, in the village of Hadar in the Syrian Golan, members of the Druze community described a bloody Nusra attack last November that killed 17: "All the people here saw how Israel helped Nusra terrorists that day. They covered them with live fire from the hilltops to help Nusra take over Hadar. And at the end of the fights, Israel takes in the injured Nusra fighters and provides them with medical services," says Marwan Tawil, a local English teacher.

"The ceasefire line (Syrian-Israeli border) is 65 kilometers between here to Jordan, and only this area is under the control of the SAA," explains Hadar's mayor. "Sixty kilometers is with Nusra and Israel and only the other five are under the SAA."

Israel is so heavily vested in keeping Syria and its allies away from its borders, it has actively bolstered al-Qaeda and other extremists in Syria's southern theater. As Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon famously explained in 2016, "In Syria, if the choice is between Iran and the Islamic State, I choose the Islamic State." To justify their interventions in the battle ahead, the U.S. and Israel claim that Iranian and Hezbollah forces are present in the south, yet on the ground in Daraa and Quneitra, there is no visible sight of either.

Multiple sources confirm this in Daraa, and insist that that there are only a handful of Hezbollah advisors -- not fighters -- in the entire governorate.

So why the spin? "This is a public diplomacy effort to make the West look like they've forced Iran and Hezbollah out of the south," explains General Issa.

The U.S., Israel, and their allies cannot win this southern fight. They can only prolong the insecurity for a while before the SAA decides to launch a military campaign against the 54-plus-militias-Nusra occupying the south of Syria. The end result is likely to be a negotiated settlement peppered with a few "soft battles" to eject the more hardline militants.

As one SAA soldier on the scene in Daraa tells me: "Fifty-four factions in a small area shows weakness more than it shows strength." And their cooperation with the Nusra Front just makes the targets on their backs even larger.

Sharmine Narwani is a commentator and analyst of Mideast geopolitics based in Beirut.

[Jun 21, 2018] The pieces of the Syria puzzle are beginning to fall into place

Jun 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

james | Jun 21, 2018 3:44:33 PM | 4

can anyone tell me if the de-escalation zone that was agreed upon by russia - usa - jordan - over a year ago, is supposed to remain in effect still? it is my understanding it was going to last a year.. the year is over, but the usa seems to be bellyaching, or better yet - israel is giving the usa a bellyache so as to look after itself, lol..

Peter AU 1 , Jun 21, 2018 4:15:43 PM | 7

Any de-escalation zone agreed to by Russia is always conditional on Al Qaeda and ISIS being cleared from that zone by the locals. Although the US may try to claim AQ in the south as moderates, the protected south western ISIS pocket on all maps remains unchanged. If my memory is right, Russian military maps at one stage showed and area for a southern de-escalation zone but US were claiming a much larger area was included.
karlof1 , Jun 21, 2018 4:21:28 PM | 8
james @4--

No, it's no longer in effect due to terrorist attacks on civilians and SAA. Indeed, it died almost as soon as was born. Outlaw spokespeople always tried to make the area bigger than it was and still operational when it wasn't. Best source for all this is Russian Ministry of Defense's press conferences and detailed presentations.

Second would be Foreign Ministry's Zakharova's weekly pressers. Sorry, but no time to look for proper links. You'll need to trust me!

Pundita , Jun 21, 2018 9:39:49 PM | 31
A late comment on the southern Syria situation - I wasn't free before.

I'm sure the current idea of an offensive is limited to East Deraa, clearing the area east of the city of Deraa, unless it is felt that Israel is not going to defend the jihadis on the cease-fire line. Touch-and-go. Israel indicates that it's going to defend the jihadis, and no attack will take place. Reserved till later.

Posted by: Laguerre | Jun 21, 2018 5:11:35 PM | 11

The pieces of the Syria puzzle are beginning to fall into place. Thierry Meyssan contributes a big piece with his 6/20 article, "Germany and Syria"

http://www.voltairenet.org/article201579.html

Some of the revelations are nothing short of staggering.

[Jun 21, 2018] The NYT's front page propaganda piece on the Ghouta chemical attack

Jun 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Hey B please parse the NYT's front page propaganda piece on the Ghouta chemical event in today's paper "Horrific Details on Syria Chemical Attacks Left Out, for Now, From U.N. Report".

Posted by: Jason | Jun 21, 2018 2:22:19 PM | 1

[Jun 21, 2018] The Diseased, Lying, Condition of America's 'News'Media by Eric ZUESSE

Notable quotes:
"... the 'news' media don't care about that evil, and that falsehood, and that dangerousness -- they do it anyway, and none of them attacks the others for perpetrating this vicious war-mongering lie, that lying provocation to yet more and worse war than already exists there. ..."
"... accepted the request from Syria's Government, for assistance in protecting Syria's Government, ..."
Jun 21, 2018 | www.strategic-culture.org

Both President Trump and former President Obama are commonly said in America's 'news' media to be or to have been "ceding Syria to Russia" or "ceding Syria to Russia and Iran," or similar allegations. They imply that 'we' own (or have some right to control) Syria. That's not only a lie; it is a very evil and harmful one, dangerously goading the US President to go even more against Russia (and Iran) (and, of course, against Syria ) than has yet been done -- but the 'news' media don't care about that evil, and that falsehood, and that dangerousness -- they do it anyway, and none of them attacks the others for perpetrating this vicious war-mongering lie, that lying provocation to yet more and worse war than already exists there. And the fact that none is exposing the fraudulence of the others on this important matter, is a yet-bigger additional scandal, beyond and amplifying the media's common lying itself. Because they all function here like a mob, goading to more and worse invasions, and doing it on the the basis of dangerous lies -- that America, and not the Syrians themselves, own Syria.

These lies simply assume that America (probably referring to the US Government, but whatever) somehow "has" or else "had" Syria (so that America can now 'cede' it, to anyone); and this assumption (that the US somehow owns Syria) is not only an imperialistic one (which is bad, and wrong, in itself), but it reduces to nothingness the rights (in the minds of the American public) of the Syrian people, to control their own land . That lie is what America's 'news'media won't expose, but instead they all cooperate with it, when they're not actually participating, themselves, in spreading these lies.

What they are doing is also to slur Russia, and to slur Iran, for having accepted the request from Syria's Government, for assistance in protecting Syria's Government, against the tens of thousands of jihadists who had been recruited throughout the world by the Saudi-American alliance, to overthrow and replace Syria's Government, to replace it with one that would be appointed by the Saud family ('America's ally'), the fundamentalist-Sunni royal family who (as the absolute monarchy there) do actually own Saudi Arabia -- a monarchical dictatorship, which the US Government calls an 'ally'.

The evilness of this imperialistic assumption, which is being constantly spread by the US-and-allied 'news'media, is as bad as is its falseness, because "America" (however one wishes to use that term) never had, never possessed, any right whatsoever to control Syria. Of course, neither does Russia possess such a right, nor does Iran, but neither Russia nor Iran is asserting any such right; both instead are there to protect Syria's national sovereignty, against the invaders (including the US, and the Sauds' regime). But the US-and-allied 'news'media don't present it that way -- the honest way -- not at all. Such truths are instead suppressed.

I was immediately struck by this false and evil assumption that the US owns Syria, when reading the June 15th issue of The Week magazine. It contained, under its "Best Columns" section, a piece by Matthew Continetti ( "Obama Too Good for America" ), which says, among other falsehoods, "Obama was wrong about a lot of other things, too, like ceding Syria to Russia." That phrase, "ceding Syria to Russia" rose straight out from the page to me as being remarkable, stunning, and not only because it suggests that America owns that sovereign nation, Syria. I was especially struck by it because the CIA has several times attempted Syrian coups and once did briefly, in 1949, overthrow and replace Syria's democratically elected President. But is that really something which today's America's 'news'media should encourage the American public to be demanding today's American politicians to be demanding from today's American President? How bizarre, even evil, an idea is that? But it is so normal that it's a fair indication of how evil and untrustworthy today's American 'news'media actually are. I just hadn't noticed it before.

Publishing such a false and evil idea, without any accompanying commentary that truthfully presents its context and that doesn't simply let the false and evil allegation stand unchallenged -- that instead lets it be unchallenged both factually and morally -- is not acceptable either factually or morally, but then I checked and found that it's the almost universal norm, in today's US 'news'media. For examples:

On 17 April 2018, CBS News headlined "Lindsey Graham 'unnerved' after Syria briefing: 'Everything in that briefing made me more worried'" and presented that US Senator saying, "It seems to me we are willing to give Syria to Assad, Russia, and Iran." He was criticizing President Trump as being "all tweet and no action." He wanted more war, and more threat of war. But when President Obama had repeatedly denied in public that only the Syrian people should have any say-so over whom Syria's leaders ought to be, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon repeatedly contradicted the US President's viewpoint on this, and he said, "The future of Assad must be determined by the Syrian people." If the American people have become so dismissive of international law as this, then is it because the US 'news'media start with the ridiculously false presumption that "America" (whatever that refers to) is the arbiter of international law, and therefore has the right to dictate to the entire world what that law is, and what it means? Is America, as being the dictator over the whole planet, supposed to be something that Americans' tax-dollars ought to be funding -- that objective: global dictatorship? How does that viewpoint differ, then, from perpetual war for perpetual 'peace' -- a dictum that's enormously profitable for America's big 'Defense' contractors, such as Lockheed Martin, but that impoverishes the general public, both in America, and especially in the countries (such as Syria) where 'our' Government drops bombs in order to enforce its own will and demand, that: "Assad must go!"

In fact, as any journalist who writes or speaks about the Syrian situation and who isn't a complete ignoramus knows, Bashar al-Assad would easily win any free and fair Presidential election in Syria, against any contender. His public support, as shown not only in the 2014 Syrian Presidential election , but also in the many Western-sponsored opinion-polls in Syria (since the CIA is always eager to find potential candidates to support against him), show this.

On 17 December 2016, Eric Chenoweth, a typical neocon Democratic Party hack, headlined "Let Hamilton Speak: Recapturing American Democracy" , and he wrote: "Trump's statements and appointments make clear he intends to tilt American policy to serve Russian interests: ceding Syria to Russia by ending support to pro-Western rebels; possibly lifting economic sanctions and recognizing the annexation of Crimea; proposing an alliance with Russia in the war on terror while remaining uncommitted to the defense of NATO allies, in particular the Baltic countries vulnerable to Russian aggression. Restoring American Democracy When they meet on December 19, Republican Electors who reflect on their constitutional duty should not then affirm Trump's election." Those "pro-Western rebels" in Syria were actually led by Al Qaeda's Syrian branch. Without them, the US regime wouldn't have had any "boots on the ground" forces to speak of there. In fact, the US regime has actually been fronting for the Saud family to take over control of Syria if and when Syria's Government falls. The Saud family even selected the people who in the U.N. peace talks on Syria represent 'the rebels' -- the Sauds, who have been Syria's enemy ever since 1950, selected 'Syria's opposition', who were now seeking to take over Syria if and when 'America's moderate rebels' succeed. Both Al Qaeda and ISIS are actually fundamentalist-Sunnis, like the Saud family are, and Assad's Government is resolutely non-sectarian. Assad himself is a non-Islamist Alawite Shiite secularist, which virtually all fundamentalist Sunnis (such as the Sauds are) are taught to despise and to hate -- especially because he's Shiite. The US regime knows that neither it, which is considered Christian, nor Israel, which is theocratically Jewish, could practically succeed at imposing rule in Syria, but that maybe the Sauds could -- so, they are the actual leaders of the 'pro-Western' forces, seeking to replace Syria's secularist Government. Overthrowing Syria's Government would be their victory. It would be the Saud family's victory. But this fact is kept a secret from the American public, by the US 'news'media.

Back on 17 September 2016, shortly before the change in US Administrations, Obama bombed the Syrian Government's garrison in Der Zor, or Deir Ezzor, which is the capital of Syria's oil-producing region. He did it in order to enable ISIS forces, which surrounded the city, to rush in and conquer it. Obama did this only eight days after his Secretary of State, John Kerry, had conceded to the demand by Sergei Lavrov, Russia's Foreign Minister, Russia's demand that in a cease fire, Russia be allowed to continue bombing not only ISIS there, which Kerry agreed should continue to be bombed by both the US and Russia, but also Al Qaeda's forces -- which until 9 September 2016, Obama refused to allow to be bombed during a cease-fire. But, finally, after a year of deadlock between Russia and the United States on that crucial issue, Kerry and Lavrov both signed a cease-fire agreement, and it allowed both ISIS and Al Qaeda-led forces to continue being bombed. (Russia had been bombing both, ever since 30 September 2015, when Russia began its bombing campaign in Syria.) That cease-fire went into effect on September 12th. Then Obama, unannounced -- and a great disappointment to his Secretary of State, who wasn't informed of this in advance -- broke the agreement, by bombing the Syrian outpost in Deir Ezzor -- and that's the moment when Vladimir Putin quit his efforts to get agreements from Obama, because Putin now recognized that Obama was totally untrustworthy.

Already by late September of 2015, even prior to Russia's having been requested by President Assad to enter the war in order to speed up the defeat of what Washington still calls 'the rebels', it was clear that Washington (actually Riyadh) wasn't going to take over Syria; and Americans were -- and are -- being taught by the 'news'media, that this was because Obama was 'weak' and didn't care enough about 'human rights' in Syria, and about 'democracy' in Syria. So, on 28 September 2015, Matt Purple at the libertarian "Rare Politics" site, headlined "Pentagon admits that the Syrian rebels it trained handed over weapons to al Qaeda" , and he wrote "Neoconservatives wail that President Obama is ceding Syria to Russia -- but the reason the Russians are taking the lead is precisely because America has sidelined itself." But the US regime hadn't at all "sidelined itself"; it continued -- and it continues to this day -- its invasion and occupation of that land. Trump's policy on Syria is basically a continuation of Obama's -- and it's not at all "ceding Syria to Russia," or "ceding Syria to Russia and Iran."

Because of America's 'news'media, it still isn't "ceding Syria to the Syrians" -- as Ban ki-Moon and international law would. That wouldn't be profitable for Lockheed Martin etc. (whose biggest customers other than the US Government are the Sauds, and Trump alone sold $400 billion of US weapons to them ); so, it's not done.

Syria's sovereignty is utterly denied by the US regime, but if the US regime were to succeed, the big winners would actually be the Saud family.

Do the American people have sovereignty, over 'their' ( our ) Government? US 'news'media effectively ban that question. Perhaps what controls the US Government is the Saudi-Israeli alliance: the Sauds have the money, and the Israelis have the lobbyists. Of course, the US 'news'media are obsessed whether Russia controls the US Government. That diversionary tactic is extremely profitable to companies such as General Dynamics, and America's other weapons-manufacturers, which thrive on wars -- especially by selling to the Sauds, and to their allies (and, obviously, not at all to Russia).

[Jun 21, 2018] Mad Dog Mattis, the destroyer of Raqqa, frets about losing moral authority by Finian Cunningham

Notable quotes:
"... "shake and bake" ..."
"... For Mattis to lament during a speech at a naval college last week that America's moral authority is being eroded by Putin is a symptom of the delusional official thinking infesting Washington. ..."
"... Mattis told his audience: "Putin aims to diminish the appeal of the western democratic model and attempts to undermine America's moral authority." He added that the Russian leader's "actions are designed not to challenge our arms at this point but to undercut and compromise our belief in our ideals." ..."
"... It is classic "in denial" ..."
"... "What a powerful delusion Mattis and Western leaders like him are encumbered with," ..."
"... "The US undercuts and compromises its own avowed beliefs and ideals because it has lost any moral integrity that it might have feasibly pretended to have due to decades of its own criminal foreign conduct." ..."
"... "America's so-called moral authority is the free pass it gives itself to topple democracy in Ukraine, replacing it with neo-Nazis; it has turned economically prosperous Libya into a wasteland, after murdering its leader Muammar Gaddafi; it funds and openly sponsors the MKO terror group in Iran for regime change in Tehran; and it is neck deep in fueling the Saudi coalition's genocidal war in Yemen." ..."
"... Despite this litany of criminality committed by the US with the acquiescence of European allies, Washington, says Martin, "preaches a bizarre doctrine of 'exceptionalism' and somehow arrogates a moral right to dominate the world. This is the fruit of the diseased minds of sociopaths." ..."
Jun 20, 2018 | www.rt.com

Jun 20, 2018, RT Op-ed The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

It's parallel universe time when US Pentagon chief James 'Mad Dog' Mattis complains that America's "moral authority" is being undermined by others – specifically Russian leader Vladimir Putin. This is the ex-Marine general who gained his ruthless reputation from when illegally occupying US troops razed the Iraqi city of Fallujah in the 2004-2005 using "shake and bake" bombardment of inhabitants with banned white phosphorus incendiaries.

A repeat of those war crimes happened again last year under Mattis' watch as Pentagon chief when US warplanes obliterated the Syrian city of Raqqa, killing thousands of civilians. Even the pro-US Human Rights Watch abhorred the repeated use of white phosphorus during that campaign to "liberate" Raqqa, supposedly from jihadists.

These are but two examples from dense archives of US war crimes committed over several decades, from its illegal intervention in Syria to Libya, from Iraq to Vietnam, back to the Korean War in the early 1950s when American carpet bombing killed millions of innocent civilians.

For Mattis to lament during a speech at a naval college last week that America's moral authority is being eroded by Putin is a symptom of the delusional official thinking infesting Washington.

According to Mattis, the problem of America's diminishing global reputation has nothing to do with US misconduct – even though the evidence is replete to prove that systematic misconduct. No, the problem, according to him, is that Russia's Putin is somehow sneakily undermining Washington's moral authority.

Mattis told his audience: "Putin aims to diminish the appeal of the western democratic model and attempts to undermine America's moral authority." He added that the Russian leader's "actions are designed not to challenge our arms at this point but to undercut and compromise our belief in our ideals."

The US Secretary of Defense doesn't elaborate on how he thinks Russia is achieving this dastardly plot to demean America. It is simply asserted as fact. This has been a theme recycled over and over by officials in Washington and Brussels, other Western government leaders and of course NATO and its affiliated think-tanks. All of which has been dutifully peddled by Western news media.

It is classic "in denial" thinking. The general loss of legitimacy and authority by Western governments is supposedly nothing to do with their own inherent failures and transgressions, from bankrupt austerity economics, to deteriorating social conditions, to illegal US-led wars and the repercussions of blowback terrorism and mass migration of refugees.

Oh no. What the ruling elites are trying to do is shift the blame from their own culpability on to others, principally Russia. American political analyst Randy Martin says that Mattis' latest remarks show a form of collective delusion among Western political establishments and their aligned mainstream news media.

"What a powerful delusion Mattis and Western leaders like him are encumbered with," says Martin. "The US undercuts and compromises its own avowed beliefs and ideals because it has lost any moral integrity that it might have feasibly pretended to have due to decades of its own criminal foreign conduct."

Read more This is America: Outrage at Trump is phony, US leaders have praised dictators for decades

The analyst added: "America's so-called moral authority is the free pass it gives itself to topple democracy in Ukraine, replacing it with neo-Nazis; it has turned economically prosperous Libya into a wasteland, after murdering its leader Muammar Gaddafi; it funds and openly sponsors the MKO terror group in Iran for regime change in Tehran; and it is neck deep in fueling the Saudi coalition's genocidal war in Yemen."

Despite this litany of criminality committed by the US with the acquiescence of European allies, Washington, says Martin, "preaches a bizarre doctrine of 'exceptionalism' and somehow arrogates a moral right to dominate the world. This is the fruit of the diseased minds of sociopaths."

This week, three headline-making issues speak volumes about America's declining moral authority.

... ... ...

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he is a Master's graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. For over 20 years he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organizations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Now a freelance journalist based in East Africa, his columns appear on RT, Sputnik, Strategic Culture Foundation and Press TV.

[Jun 18, 2018] Aircraft of the American coalition bombarded one of our military positions in the area of Al-Hari southeast of Albu Kamal

Notable quotes:
"... "Aircraft of the American coalition bombarded one of our military positions in the area of Al-Hari southeast of Albu Kamal" ..."
Jun 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Oui | Jun 17, 2018 11:13:00 PM | 21

Syria state media says US-led coalition hits regime position in east

Syrian state media said overnight Sunday to Monday that US-led coalition aircraft had carried out a deadly strike on a regime position in the country's east near the Iraqi border.

"Aircraft of the American coalition bombarded one of our military positions in the area of Al-Hari southeast of Albu Kamal" town in Deir Ezzor, state news agency SANA reported a military source as saying, adding a number of people had been killed.

Dave G , Jun 17, 2018 7:04:41 PM | 14
Interesting article from the Independent. Just like in Syria, alqaeda is our ally now:

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/al-qaeda-group-leader-claims-fighting-alongside-us-backed-coalition-forces-yemen-a7713321.html

Red Ryder , Jun 17, 2018 9:06:59 PM | 15
Not US air strike, not coalition air strike, thus an Israeli air strike, right?

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201806181065498477-usa-bombs-syrian-positions/

Read the US denials and they finger who else but IDF?

Doing what the US wants done and what Israel rationalizes as its next war--Syria/Iran.

Russia would know. De-confliction would have been arranged if US or coalition.

[Jun 18, 2018] ASSAD US and Israeli intervention prevents reconciliation in Syria (Interview) by Frank Sellers

Notable quotes:
"... Assad is adamant that the price demanded by the Americans, that of absolute US hegemony, is one that Syria will never pay ..."
"... For the Americans, there is a general principle they follow in dealing with any problem in the world. The only price they ask for is absolute hegemony, regardless of the issue and the place. Of course, we shall never provide that price; otherwise we wouldn't have fought this war for years . We have been fighting for the independence of Syrian decision-making, for the Syrian homeland, and for the unity of Syrian territory. As for Iran in particular, let me be very clear: the Syrian-Iranian relationship is a strategic one not subject to a deal in the south or in the north. This relationship, in terms of its implications and results on the ground, is linked to the present and future of the region ..."
Jun 18, 2018 | theduran.com

Assad is adamant that the price demanded by the Americans, that of absolute US hegemony, is one that Syria will never pay

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad revealed in a recent interview with Iranian media al-Alam TV that attempts at achieving non military resolutions to conflicts inside Syria via reconciliation is being actively prevented by intervention from Israel and the US. He is adamant that the price demanded by the Americans, that of absolute US hegemony, is one that Syria will never pay. Video of the interview is furnished below in English, courtesy of Press TV , followed by a transcript obtained from Syria 360 Internationalist News Agency . Added emphasis on certain statements is mine.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/RbLONDCe3Ro

13 June، 2018
Damascus, SANA

President Bashar al-Assad affirmed that the Syrian south is in front of two options; reconciliation or liberation by force, indicating that at this point, there are no concrete results for a simple reason which is Israeli and American interference, for they put pressure on the terrorists in that area in order to prevent reaching any compromise or peaceful resolution.

The President added in an interview given to Iran's Al-ALAM TV that the Syrian-Iranian relation is strategic not subject to a deal and it is linked to the present and future of the region , affirming that neither Syria nor Iran has floated this relationship on the international political bazaar for it to be subject to haggling.

President al-Assad affirmed that since the beginning of the war, particularly when it started to have a clear military nature on the southern front in particular, the Israelis used to shell Syrian forces continuously, and consequently provide direct support to the terrorists. Israeli artillery and aircraft are the terrorists' artillery and aircraft Despite Israeli support to the terrorists, we have been doing our job, and the Syrian Army is fighting its way towards the southern front, and has liberated a number of areas within the limits of its capabilities. So, with or without its approval, the decision is a Syrian one, and this is a national duty we shall carry out.

Following the full text of the interview;

Question 1: Mr. President, there are many issues which we will talk about, but in the light of the victories you have achieved, the main focus remains the south of Syria. What's happening exactly, or what is the nature of what is happening in the south of Syria?

President Assad: To put it simply, after the liberation of al-Ghouta, it was suggested that we should move south. We were faced with two options, as is the case in all other areas in Syria: reconciliation or liberation by force. At this point, the Russians suggested the possibility of giving reconciliation an opportunity, similar to what happened in other areas, in order to restore the situation that prevailed before 2011. In other words, for the Syrian Army to be deployed in that area, which is an area of confrontation with the Zionist enemy. And of course the terrorists should leave the area. This proposition suits us. Up till now, there are no concrete results for a simple reason which is Israeli and American interference; for they put pressure on the terrorists in that area in order to prevent reaching any compromise or peaceful resolution . That is how the situation stands now.

Question 2: So, it hasn't been decided whether to move towards a military operation or towards reconciliation?

President Assad: No, contacts are still ongoing between the Russians, the Americans, and the Israelis, while nobody is communicating with the terrorists, because they are mere tools, and they implement what their masters decide ultimately. This is what happened, i.e. there was an opportunity to reach reconciliation, but the American and Israeli interference prevented that possibility .

Question 3: Of course, this is the reality there. But on the other hand, there are those who talk about many things taking place in the south. Mr. President, is there a certain deal, what is the price? Is there really a price for concluding this deal in the south? Let me talk frankly about the issue of getting the Iranians to leave the southern region in return for al-Tanf, for example. What did the Americans demand, or let's say, what was the price the Americans asked to approve the reconciliation process in the south?

President Assad: For the Americans, there is a general principle they follow in dealing with any problem in the world. The only price they ask for is absolute hegemony, regardless of the issue and the place. Of course, we shall never provide that price; otherwise we wouldn't have fought this war for years . We have been fighting for the independence of Syrian decision-making, for the Syrian homeland, and for the unity of Syrian territory. As for Iran in particular, let me be very clear: the Syrian-Iranian relationship is a strategic one not subject to a deal in the south or in the north. This relationship, in terms of its implications and results on the ground, is linked to the present and future of the region. Consequently, it is not subject to the price tags of the international bazaar. Neither Syria nor Iran has floated this relationship on the international political bazaar for it to be subject to haggling. The proposition was made by the Israelis with the objective of provoking and embarrassing Iran. At the same time, this comes in line with the international propaganda campaign launched against Iran regarding the nuclear file. It is not a separate issue; for everything happening now is linked to Iran in order to create an international position against it. As for us in Syria, the decision concerning our land is an exclusively Syrian decision. We are fighting the same battle, and when we have a decision concerning Iran, we will talk about it with the Iranians and not with any other party .

Question 4: Of course, we will talk more about Iran and in more detail, but since we are talking about the southern front, let's explore it further. Practically, in the same context, there is the MOC which hasn't stopped its operations since the beginning of the war on Syria about eight years ago. It is working and is still active, and is directly linked to the Israelis. But we have noticed recently that it has been reactivated, and there are more communications. Mr. President, does this mean that the Syrian state is practically moving towards a military decisive action in the south regardless of the consequences, whether things reach a stalemate or not? Is a decisive action in the cards for the Syrian leadership?

President Assad: No, MOC has nothing to do with this decision. MOC has been linked to the presence and the role of the terrorists since the beginning of the war on Syria. That's why it existed: in order to lead them militarily. Consequently, the continued existence of this operations room means the continuation of the role given to these terrorists, i.e. they are equipped and prepared to carry out more terrorist acts. MOC is linked to the terrorists and not to the role of the Syrian state. Our role has nothing to do with it. Our decision has been clear from the beginning: we will liberate all Syrian lands. As to when to move south, north, east, or west, this is a purely military issue. But regardless of MOC, we have moved towards the south and we are giving the political process a chance. If that doesn't succeed, we have no other option but to liberate it by force.

Question 5: But there is a confrontation in the south, and the issue is not limited geographically to Syria in the larger political sense. There are the Americans, the Russians, the Iranians, the Israelis, and Hezbollah. All these parties are there in the area. What does that mean? How are you going to deal with this?

President Assad: You are talking about two axes: one supporting terrorism, and represented by the US, Israel, and some flunkies in the region including some Arab and non-Arab states, and an anti-terrorist axis. The first axis supports terrorism and seeks hegemony, while the second axis seeks independence. So, there can be only one result for this confrontation, i.e. the victory of one of these axes. At least, as far as the anti-terrorist axis is concerned, it will not give up the process of cleaning Syria and the region of terrorism and will not give up on the unity of Syrian territory .

As to the other axis, will it change as a result of the reality on the ground? Let's wait and see. But in terms of substance and convictions, it will not change, while in terms of the political practices dictated by reality and the facts on the ground, it might.

Question 6: Will the Americans leave al-Tanf?

President Assad: The Americans say they are ready, but everyone knows that the Americans are historically professional liars in politics. So why should we believe them? Also, we have to wait and see.

Question 7: Mr. President, what's happening now in Jordan? Is it linked to what's happening on the southern front in particular, i.e. is it linked to what is being plotted in that region, in your view?

President Assad: In fact, the only information we have is what we hear in the media. In any case, we wish Jordan stability, not chaos, because the latter will have a negative impact on us.

Question 8: Since we are talking about the south, let's close this file. Mr. President, what would make the Israeli occupation agree to the return of the Syrian Army to the borders, i.e. a return to the situation which existed at the beginning of 2011, after seven years of repeated Zionist attempts, directly and indirectly, to undermine the Syrian state, the regime in Syria, and stability in Syria. Why would it agree now to the return of the Syrian Army to the borders and to the occupied Golan?

President Assad: Certainly, neither conviction, morality, nor international law means anything to the Israelis. Since the beginning of the war, particularly when it started to have a clear military nature on the southern front in particular, the Israelis used to shell Syrian forces continuously, and consequently provide direct support to the terrorists. Israeli artillery and aircraft are the terrorists' artillery and aircraft. That applies to Jabhat al-Nusra of course . Nothing is going to change this Israeli approach. As far as we are concerned, Israel's approval had no role at all. Despite Israeli support to the terrorists, we have been doing our job, and the Syrian Army is fighting its way towards the southern front, and has liberated a number of areas within the limits of its capabilities. So, with or without its approval, the decision is a Syrian one, and this is a national duty we shall carry out.

Question 9: So, a return of the Syrian Army is better than having resistance in the Golan, for instance?

President Assad: For the Israelis?

Journalist: Yes.

President Assad: I think the two options are bad for the Israelis. Both of them are bad. Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah has repeatedly talked about Syria's relationship with the resistance and a Syrian role in the resistance. So, how would the Israelis choose between two bad things for them?

Question 10: As you said, Mr. President, Israel has financed, supported, and more dangerously was capable of enlisting a large number of Syrians, some of whom were treated inside occupied Palestine. They talked about it. In the future, how would you deal with this large number of Israeli agents? Maybe some of them were misled and Israel might have exploited the financial and living conditions of some; and some have chosen to side with the Israelis. How would you deal with them in the future?

President Assad: This is true; we cannot put everyone in the same basket. There are different reasons for moving in this wrong direction; and these people have wronged the homeland and every Syrian citizen. Ultimately, they are the children of this homeland, and we all bear responsibility for this problem, not only those who have done wrong. When crime, for instance, becomes widespread in a certain country, the whole society bears responsibility for this crime, not only the security agencies or the criminals themselves. The first thing that should be done is to accommodate these people. Second, we need to address the root causes which led to this case of weak patriotism. The causes here are many and complicated, and the scope of this interview doesn't allow for all of them to be mentioned.

Question 11: In the same context, while you are talking about restoring the Syrian air defense systems and confronting the Zionist occupation, statements have been made by leaders of the Israeli entity that they will strike at the depth of Syrian territory. How would you deal with that situation, particularly that balance has been achieved recently, i.e. balance between Israeli aggressions and Syrian responses?

President Assad: Basically, we haven't stopped responding. First of all, we haven't stopped fighting terrorists, and at the same time we haven't stopped responding to Israeli aggression within the capabilities available to us, militarily and technically. Moreover, the more these capabilities improve; the response will be better and higher. But in fact the strongest response to Israel now is to strike the Israeli army existing in Syria which consists practically of the terrorists .

Journalist: You consider them an Israeli army?

President Assad: Of course, for they are acting clearly and starkly in Israel's interest. The first acts they carried out were attacks against the air defense systems. What is the link between air defense systems and the terrorists acting as infantry on the ground? This was an Israeli order. It was an Israeli-American order because it is the same thing. So, they are Israel's army inside Syria; and the first strike against Israel, politically, militarily, and in every other area, is to strike Israel's terrorists inside Syria, whether they belong to ISIS, al-Nusra, or the other groups linked to the Israeli plan and strategy.

Journalist: If Israel escalates, are you prepared to respond more forcefully?

President Assad: This is what's happening. It is escalating, and we are responding. Ultimately, we are fighting the war within the capabilities available to us, and we are doing our best within these capabilities. A response does not need a political decision. I stress that responding or not responding is not a political decision. It is a national decision, and it was taken from day one. But implementing this decision depends on what we can do militarily and not politically.

Question 12: In terms of capabilities, there is one issue in the media which we are always following, i.e. the S300 Russian missiles. Russia says, "We will deliver these missiles", and then says, "We will not deliver them", which means that the issue is not clear. What is happening exactly? Why this Russian hesitation, in your view, in delivering the S300 missiles to Syria, while some other countries have been seeking S400, i.e. they are ahead of us in this regard.

President Assad: You know that military action and military considerations are part of political considerations. Consequently, a statement, even if it is of a military nature, carries at the same time political messages. So, why did the Russians say that they want to send or not send? This is a statement that the Russians should be asked about because it might be part of their political tactics. As to the military aspect of the statement, which concerns Syria, it's not our custom to talk about the weapon which will be delivered or not delivered. The evidence was that the weapons used in response to the last two aggressions, the tripartite aggression and after that the Israeli aggression, were not announced by Syria. We traditionally do not announce cases of a technical military nature.

Journalist: So, even the nature of the response is not linked to the issue of the S300 missiles?

President Assad: No. The same applies. Even if the S300 missiles will be provided or not provided, we will not say that they were delivered to Syria. A weapon is used when it must be used.

Journalist: Is there a possibility that you have developed certain weapons?

President Assad: This remains a possibility. In any case, the result is the same: weapons shouldn't be talked about until they are used. Weapons announce themselves only when they are used.

Question 13: Mr. President, let's return to the political aspect, since we are talking about the southern front. Regarding the general situation, in light of all that has been achieved on the Syrian arena today, the most prominent actor is the tripartite alliance, or what is being called the tripartite alliance. I mean Syria, Iran, and Russia. What is the nature of this alliance? Is it a temporary alliance, in the sense that it is linked to fighting terrorism or to certain developments on the Syrian arena? Recently, we have started to see – or let's say some have focused on certain points in order to show – a certain fracture in this alliance. What is your take on that and what is the actual reality of this alliance?

President Assad: If we talk first about the Syrian-Iranian part, for 40 years, and in the different conditions that the Middle East region has gone through, this alliance remained solid. So, there is no reason to say that it is temporary or otherwise. The new element in the war on Syria is the Russian element, and that's why this tripartite alliance came into existence. Our relationship with Russia is now about seven decades old. Despite the fluctuations and the fall of the Soviet Union, the rule of President Yeltsin, and the deterioration of these relations to a large degree for us, it has never reached the stage of reversing this relationship with Syria. Russia continued to deal with Syria as a friendly state, and we have imported everything from Russia, including weapons, during the different stages of the sanctions imposed on Syria. It is not in the nature of the Russians to build temporary or self-serving alliances or to sell out on relations in order to get deals done. The relationship is definitely a strategic one, but the political statements allowed for these speculations.

These statements also aim at sending messages in different directions. Maybe, sometimes the language or the choice of particular terminology might not be helpful and might take the statement in a different direction at odds with the content of the statement. This happens from time to time. However, these statements shouldn't be taken out of context: the Russian view of the relationship with Iran is a strategic one. As for Syria, the Russians do not interfere in Syrian affairs. If they have a certain opinion, they raise it with us and say that in the end, the decision is that of the Syrian leadership and the Syrian people. This is a constant principle for Russia. Therefore, the alliance is a strategic one, and if there are differences, such differences happen within the Syrian state, and you see differences within the Iranian state and within the Russian state. It is natural for us to differ on daily tactical details, for why conduct a dialogue if we agree on everything? We meet extensively in order to reach agreement.

Journalist: So, this tripartite alliance is being consolidated.

President Assad: Of course. This is dictated by reality, interest, and international changes that make it necessary for this alliance to be consolidated. As long as the other axis supports terrorism, and as long as we, together with Iran and Russia, feel the danger of terrorism, not only in Syria, but also on all these countries and on the whole world, and as long as Syria, Iran, and Russia realize the importance of abiding by international law, these facts make the existence of this alliance necessary.

Question 14: But there are those who say that Syria will get a price if the Iranians leave Syrian territories. Is there a certain political, moral, or military price in this regard?

President Assad: As I said in the beginning, as long as this relationship is not floated in the bazaar, they cannot offer a price, and the answer will be clear. That's why they don't dare suggest this price. This issue was raised by different countries, including Saudi Arabia for instance, at the beginning of the war, and not only at the beginning, but at different stages. The proposition was that if Syria cut its relationship with Iran, the situation in Syria will be normal. This principle is basically rejected by us.

Journalist: So, there were initiatives, so to speak, made in this regard by Saudi Arabia.

President Assad: During the war?

Journalist: Yes.

President Assad: Of course, more than once, and in a clear manner.

Journalist: Directly?

President Assad: Directly. The relationship with Iran was the basis for every proposition; and Saudi Arabia's position on this subject is public. I'm not revealing a secret.

Question 15: An issue is raised, whether in Syria, Iran, or Lebanon, about the nature of Iranian presence in Syria. Some call them Iranian advisors. Even the Syrian Foreign Minister used the same term. At the same time, we notice that there are Iranian martyrs. Frankly, Mr. President, what is the nature of Iranian presence in Syria now?

President Assad: The term adviser is sometimes used in a broad manner, i.e. these advisers have been with us, through the longstanding relationship with Iran, even before the war, because the military relationship is close. When a military formation moves to a fighting position, the adviser becomes a fighter. So, the word can be used in different senses. There are certainly Iranian advisers in Syria, and there are groups of Iranian volunteers who came to Syria, and they are led by Iranian officers. Iran has fought with and defended the Syrian people. It offered blood. That's why when we say "advisers" this is a generic term, but this doesn't mean that we are ashamed of any Iranian presence, even if it is official. But we use the word "advisers" because there are no regular Iranian fighting units in Syria.

Journalist: Full formations.

President Assad: Exactly. There are no battalions, or brigades, or divisions. First, we can't hide them, and then why should we be ashamed of that? When we invited the Russians legally to come to Syria, we were not ashamed of that. And if there were an Iranian formation, we would announce it, because such relations need agreements between the two states endorsed by parliaments. Such relations cannot be concealed.

Journalist: And you invited Iranian advisers to come?

President Assad: Of course, from the beginning we invited the Iranians, and then we invited the Russians. We needed the support of these countries, and they answered the call.

Journalist: Mr. President, you said more than once that there are no Iranian bases in Syria.

President Assad: That's correct.

Journalist: Why there are no Iranian bases, while we notice that there are a number of Russian bases?

President Assad: There's nothing that prevents the existence of such bases as long as Iran is an ally as is Russia.

Journalist: This means that if Iran requested the existence of such bases, you would agree?

President Assad: If we ask. We will ask them to agree. I mean that we could ask for the existence of such forces to support us. Iran has never asked and does not have an interest except in fighting terrorism. But the evolution of the war made it necessary to develop the nature of this presence.

This happened as far as the Russians are concerned. In the beginning, Russian support, like Iranian support, was different from what it is today. The support for terrorism has developed internationally and globally when the Syrian Army confronted those terrorists, and with that Russian and Iranian military presence developed. At a certain stage, we found – with the Russians of course – that the existence of air bases was necessary to provide air support to the Syrian Army. And now, if we find, in cooperation, coordination, or dialogue with the Iranians, that there is a need for Iranian military bases, we will not hesitate. But now, Iranian support in its present form is good and effective.

Question 16: Why haven't you visited Iran so far, although you visited Russia more than once?

President Assad: That's correct. In fact, there was a scheduled visit to Iran a few months ago, and it was postponed and not cancelled. It was postponed because of an emergency in Syria related to the development of battles. There is certainly no reason which prevents such a visit, and I'll visit Iran hopefully soon on the earliest opportunity. This is natural, but the issue is logistic, no more, no less.

Question 17: Mr. President, I move to another file. Last week, it was the Jerusalem International Day, and the Palestinian cause is going through its most difficult stages. We are talking about the "deal of the century", and moving the American Embassy to occupied Jerusalem. What do you have to say about Palestine? Is Syria still capable of supporting the Palestine cause? Basically, wasn't one of the most important objectives of the war on Syria to get Syria out of the axis of resistance and to prevent it from supporting resistance, whether in Lebanon or Palestine?

President Assad: The Palestine context, since 1948 up till now, has been a complicated one, because the regional context is complicated. Of course, it is complicated because the colonial West, which is particularly supportive of Israel, has always created elements which aim at one single thing. First, to drive to desperation the Arab citizen who is historically attached to the cause of Palestine and who has always considered it a pan-Arab cause that touched him even on the national level.

The other objective has been to distract the Arab peoples together with states or societies in general to marginal causes so that they do not have time to think about Israel. And they have succeeded to a great extent, most recently through the so-called Arab spring which has aimed at destroying the political, military, and psychological infrastructure of Arab societies.

Nevertheless, recent development have proven that the Arab people is still conscientiously attached to the cause of Palestine. As for Syria – since it has been part of these plots to undermine the Arab condition in general – first, for Syria to support the cause of Palestine, it should first of all destroy the Israeli army in Syria. Restoring stability in Syria, striking terrorism, and foiling the Israeli plot in Syria is certainly part of supporting the cause of Palestine. The support might be indirect with direct consequences, but these direct consequences are linked to the internal Palestinian condition. We shouldn't forget that the Palestinians are divided between groups which resist Israel and are genuinely linked to the cause of Palestine, and other groups which are against the resistance and support surrenderist and defeatist peace, while there are other groups which use resistance as a title in order to achieve their political objectives under the slogan of religion. This is of course the Muslim Brotherhood's approach.

Question 18: Are you prepared to offer whatever the resistance asks of you, whether in the form of political, military, or any other form of support?

President Assad: Politically, we haven't changed. The Palestinian question for us is still as it was ten years ago and decades ago. It hasn't changed. As to what we can offer, this has to do with two things: first, Syria's current capabilities; and there's no doubt that the priority is given now to cleaning Syria of terrorism. Second, it has to do with the Palestinian condition and the parties with which we can deal within the Palestinian arena.

Question 19: Since we are talking about resistance, there is the other side. In addition to some countries which stood beside Syria in fighting terrorism, there was also a role played by the resistance in Lebanon, particularly Hezbollah, which provided a great deal and contributed to fighting terrorism. What do you say, Mr. President, to resistance fighters and families of martyrs and the wounded?

President Assad: When all these groups of resistance get together to defend Syrian soil and Syrian citizens, including the Lebanese resistance and the brothers who came from Iraq some of whom reproached me for not mentioning them by name, I take this opportunity to stress that there are brothers from Iraq to whom we give the same weight of any resistance fighter who came from any other country.

There are also the families of resistance fighters who came from Iran and sacrificed their blood in Syria. We should put all these in the same basket next to the Syrian martyrs, fighters, and their families. To those I say that all the letters, the words, the sentences, and the whole of literature are much less than a single drop of blood. Therefore, words are of a much lesser value than what they have offered. What's more important is what history will write about them.

In fact, when we talk about writing history, we need to highlight that history needs a strategy and needs tactics, but the fact remains that strategy without implementation on the ground has no value. It remains mere thought which we might include in books and essays. But the reality is that these individuals in these countries, this group of resistance fighters, not politics, write history. I would like to use the answer to this question to express to them all my love, respect, and appreciation, and my reverence to the fighters, the wounded, and martyrs, and to all their families who are courage incarnated and who sent these individuals to Syria to defend it and fight terrorism, so that these families become models of morality and principles for present and future generations.

Question 20: Have you asked Hezbollah to leave Syria? A few days ago His Eminence Sayyed Hasan Nasrallah talked about this issue and said that nobody can get us out of Syria unless the Syrian leadership asked us to do so.

President Assad: The battle is long and ongoing. When we talk about this tripartite alliance – and if we consider it a quadruple alliance when we add Hezbollah, we talk about the tripartite alliance in terms of the states included, but in the end Hezbollah is a basic element in this war – the battle is long, and the need for these military forces will continue for a long time. When there is a need, and when Hezbollah, Iran, or others believe that terrorism has been eliminated, they will tell us that they want to go home. As Sayyed Hasan said, they have families and daily interests, which is normal, but it is still early to talk about this subject.

Question 21: Up till now, there are still areas under the control of terrorism and areas under occupation. At the same time, regretfully, some Arab countries, and here I am talking particularly about Saudi Arabia, announced that it is ready to send forcers to Syria. On the other hand, a few days ago popular tribal units were formed to resist occupation. Are these really popular resistance units? Do they receive support from the Syrian government? Does this mean that the army cannot liberate those areas, and that's why it is asking for the help of the tribes? What is the nature of this issue?

President Assad: There are different forms of this resistance which appeared a few years ago. In the beginning they were fighting ISIS before they started to fight the occupiers. They were against ISIS in the central and eastern regions, and there were cases where they appeared in other regions which were not given media coverage and about which we hear sometimes through information and indications.

Now, this situation has started to expand. So, it's not one single case. There are a number of cases which might be individual sometimes, or in the form of small groups not affiliated to an organization. In any case, our position as a state has been from the beginning to support any act of resistance, whether against terrorists or against occupying forces, regardless of their nationality, i.e. American, French, Turkish, or Israeli. We support these resistance forces based on our national role as a government.

Question 22: What about Saudi Arabia and sending Saudi forces to Syria?

President Assad: First, when we talk about a state, we should assume that such a state can take decisions independently. That's why we will not talk about the role of Saudi Arabia. You better ask me about the American decision on this issue.

Question 23: On the other hand, there are a number of Arab countries which we talk about and which had a role or contributed to the role or to the destruction of Syria. These countries are now trying to get to Syria through the reconstruction process. What do you say in this regard, particularly that these countries are the ones which have capital and huge financial power? How are you going to deal with that?

President Assad: Reconstruction in Syria is not a cause for concern for us. It needs two factors: first, the human factor which is more important than the financial factor. When a country like Syria possesses the human factor, the financial cost will be less when it comes to reconstruction. This is self-evident, and we possess all these factors despite the fact that many competent and qualified Syrians have immigrated because of the war.

But we still have the capability to start reconstruction. And the evidence is clear now, for the state is moving forward and reconstruction has begun. As to money, the Syrian people have financial capabilities, capital, most of which is not in Syria, but outside Syria. But there is capital waiting for reconstruction to begin, so it will begin investing. On the other hand, there are the friendly countries which have capabilities and have the desire; and we have the desire to have them participate in reconstruction, so that they benefit and we Syrians benefit from this process. In the end, we do not need those countries and we will never allow them to be part of reconstruction.

Journalist: Never?

President Assad: Absolutely.

Journalist: Not even if there was a need in this regard, I mean in terms of financial resources?

President Assad: Financial resources are not everything. As I said, this is available. There are different sources in the world and in Syria for capital.

Question 24: With these tough years, we are talking about the legendary steadfastness of the Syrian Army, the Syrian people, the Armed Forces. If you wanted to talk about two cases, the most difficult case or incident that you have encountered during these years, and on the other hand the best and most beautiful case.

President Assad: It is natural, at the heart of the military battle, for the best and worst cases to be linked to the development of the military battle. If I say that the worst cases were when terrorists used to control a certain area, this is self-evident, but it is related more to specific battles, particularly when the area is strategic or the city is big with a large population. Consequently, the impact will be much greater psychologically and in terms of morale.

But there was an ongoing situation which we are still living and we must think about: when a martyr or a group of martyrs fall, and this is ongoing on a weekly basis for us, we must think that a family lost a dear one who cannot be compensated. He might be compensated by achieving victory at a certain stage, but on the family, psychological and human level, you cannot compensate a dear one lost to a certain family, or maybe a friend. This is a very painful situation which we have lived and continue to live. This will not stop until the war itself stops. But there were painful cases at the beginning of the war, when you see this huge lack of patriotism. They were perhaps a minority, but a large minority, of individuals who were prepared to sell the homeland and trade it together with their principles, if they had ones, in return for money or a certain interest, in addition to a certain percentage of extremism.

On the other hand, there were victories, particularly when victories started in the city of al-Qsair in 2013, and culminated in the city of Aleppo in 2016, that was the beginning of the major victories. That was followed by Deir Ezzor, and today we are living the joy of liberating Damascus and its countryside. This is a situation we have all lived through, and you were with us, and I am sure you feel the same joy.

Question 25: Have you felt tired at a certain moment? Have you felt hesitant at a certain moment, in light of all the decisions you have taken, have you ever, even for a moment, thought of leaving? Haven't you said to yourself: let me save my family and resign, as some people did at a certain point in time?

President Assad: This question might be raised in a personal manner. When I am faced with a personal situation as an individual, I might feel despair after a few months. I might feel tired or bored or I might want to move to a different situation, or give up. That is possible.

Journalist: As an individual?

President Assad: Of course, as an individual, but the case you are proposing is not personal, it is national. Imagine yourself in a different condition, perhaps building something on your own. You feel tired, but when you see a large number of people helping you build it and share the same determination, you forget the tiredness.

Now we are in a national situation. We are talking about millions of Syrians. When you see a shell striking and victims falling anywhere in Syria, you feel frustrated. But when you see life being restored to the same area after one hour, your psychological condition changes. When you see that the electricity worker, the oil worker, the teacher, the employee, are moving side by side with fighters, moving without despair and without tiredness, how can you feel tired? This is a collective condition not related to me as a person. It has to do with our human condition when we are together as a society. How do we live? This defines whether you are tired or not. Would the Syrian society have arrived at this stage of despair and surrender, I would certainly have been with it. I would have surrendered because I do not have the necessary elements for steadfastness. This is self-evident.

Journalist: Thank you very much, Mr. President, for giving us this opportunity, and for your candidness in answering these questions. Thank you very much.

[Jun 17, 2018] Al-Qaeda claims it is 'fighting alongside' US-backed coalition forces in Yemen by Bethan McKernan

May 02, 2018 | independent.co.uk

Remarks from leader of al-Qaeda's branch in Yemen about de facto alliances have potential to undermine Yemeni government-allied fighters

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Al-Qaeda claims it is 'fighting alongside' US-backed coalition forces in Yemen | The Independent Qasim al-Rimi, who has led the branch of the global jihadist movement known as al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (Aqap) since his predecessor was killed in 2015, told the group's media arm al-Malahem on Sunday that his followers were de facto aligned with an array of forces in the complex conflict.

"We fight alongside all Muslims in Yemen, together with different Islamic groups," he said, including "the Muslim Brotherhood and also our brothers among the sons of (Sunni) tribes."

While al-Rimi did not elaborate on what he meant by "alongside", many Sunni tribal militias, as well as the pan-Arab Muslim Brotherhood movement and conservative Salafis, are allied to the exiled Yemeni government fighting against Shia rebels known as Houthis who seized control of the capital Sanaa in 2014.

The militias receive extensive funding and arms from the US-backed Saudi-led coalition, which has supported President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi with air strikes and ground troops since March 2015.

Yemen's civil war has killed more than 10,000 people to date and left more than half of its 27 million strong population reliant on food aid. The international community has condemned the Saudi Arabian bombing campaign , which is thought to be responsible for most civilian deaths.

[Jun 16, 2018] White Helmets A tool for 'regime change' in Syria that's too important to stop funding

Notable quotes:
"... "The Pentagon planners have probably finally realized just how important the White Helmets are to the regime change operation," ..."
"... "The fact that they have been so successful in proving fake imagery and fake evidence just means that they can be relied upon whenever there is a need for a pretext for another missile attack or even a full-scale invasion." ..."
Jun 16, 2018 | www.rt.com

Washington's decision to resume funding for White Helmets after a brief freeze highlights how important the controversial group is for the US-promoted regime-change agenda, journalists and Syrian conflict observers have told RT. "The Pentagon planners have probably finally realized just how important the White Helmets are to the regime change operation," Mike Raddie, co-editor of BSNews and an anti-war activist, told RT. "The fact that they have been so successful in proving fake imagery and fake evidence just means that they can be relied upon whenever there is a need for a pretext for another missile attack or even a full-scale invasion."

The anti-war activist recalled how the so-called Syria Civil Defence units, better known as the White Helmets, have been instrumental in the justification of the US strikes on Syria in April of 2017, and the trilateral strikes by the UK, France, and the US in April 2018.

[Jun 13, 2018] How False Flag Operations Are Carried Out Today by Philip M. GIRALDI

Highly recommended!
When the media is controlled by people responsible for false flag operation chances to use investigation to discredit this false flag operation, no matter how many evidence they have is close to zero
In other word false flag operation is perfect weapon for the "sole superpower" and due to this status entail very little risks.
Notable quotes:
"... Today's false flag operations are generally carried out by intelligence agencies and non-government actors including terrorist groups, but they are only considered successful if the true attribution of an action remains secret. ..."
"... False flags can be involved in other sorts of activity as well. The past year's two major alleged chemical attacks carried out against Syrian civilians that resulted in President Donald Trump and associates launching 160 cruise missiles are pretty clearly false flag operations carried out by the rebels and terrorist groups that controlled the affected areas at the time. ..."
"... Because the rebels succeeded in convincing much of the world that the Syrian government had carried out the attacks, one might consider their false flag efforts to have been extremely successful. ..."
"... The remedy against false flag operations such as the recent one in Syria is, of course, to avoid taking the bait and instead waiting until a thorough and objective inspection of the evidence has taken place. The United States, Britain and France did not do that, preferring instead to respond to hysterical press reports by "doing something." If the U.N. investigation of the alleged attack turns up nothing, a distinct possibility, it is unlikely that they will apologize for having committed a war crime. ..."
"... The other major false flag that has recently surfaced is the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury England on March 4 th . Russia had no credible motive to carry out the attack and had, in fact, good reasons not to do so. ..."
"... Unfortunately, May proved wrong and the debate ignited over her actions, which included the expulsion of twenty-three Russian diplomats, has done her severe damage. Few now believe that Russia actually carried out the poisoning and there is a growing body of opinion suggesting that it was actually a false flag executed by the British government or even by the CIA. ..."
"... The lesson that should be learned from Syria and Skripal is that if "an incident" looks like it has no obvious motive behind it, there is a high probability that it is a false flag. ..."
Apr 26, 2018 | www.strategic-culture.org

False Flag is a concept that goes back centuries. It was considered to be a legitimate ploy by the Greeks and Romans, where a military force would pretend to be friendly to get close to an enemy before dropping the pretense and raising its banners to reveal its own affiliation just before launching an attack. In the sea battles of the eighteenth century among Spain, France and Britain hoisting an enemy flag instead of one's own to confuse the opponent was considered to be a legitimate ruse de guerre , but it was only "honorable" if one reverted to one's own flag before engaging in combat.

Today's false flag operations are generally carried out by intelligence agencies and non-government actors including terrorist groups, but they are only considered successful if the true attribution of an action remains secret. There is nothing honorable about them as their intention is to blame an innocent party for something that it did not do. There has been a lot of such activity lately and it was interesting to learn by way of a leak that the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) has developed a capability to mimic the internet fingerprints of other foreign intelligence services. That means that when the media is trumpeting news reports that the Russians or Chinese hacked into U.S. government websites or the sites of major corporations, it could actually have been the CIA carrying out the intrusion and making it look like it originated in Moscow or Beijing. Given that capability, there has been considerable speculation in the alternative media that it was actually the CIA that interfered in the 2016 national elections in the United States.

False flags can be involved in other sorts of activity as well. The past year's two major alleged chemical attacks carried out against Syrian civilians that resulted in President Donald Trump and associates launching 160 cruise missiles are pretty clearly false flag operations carried out by the rebels and terrorist groups that controlled the affected areas at the time. The most recent reported attack on April 7th might not have occurred at all according to doctors and other witnesses who were actually in Douma. Because the rebels succeeded in convincing much of the world that the Syrian government had carried out the attacks, one might consider their false flag efforts to have been extremely successful.

The remedy against false flag operations such as the recent one in Syria is, of course, to avoid taking the bait and instead waiting until a thorough and objective inspection of the evidence has taken place. The United States, Britain and France did not do that, preferring instead to respond to hysterical press reports by "doing something." If the U.N. investigation of the alleged attack turns up nothing, a distinct possibility, it is unlikely that they will apologize for having committed a war crime.

The other major false flag that has recently surfaced is the poisoning of Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury England on March 4th. Russia had no credible motive to carry out the attack and had, in fact, good reasons not to do so. The allegations made by British Prime Minister Theresa May about the claimed nerve agent being "very likely" Russian in origin have been debunked, in part through examination by the U.K.'s own chemical weapons lab. May, under attack even within her own party, needed a good story and a powerful enemy to solidify her own hold on power so false flagging something to Russia probably appeared to be just the ticket as Moscow would hardly be able to deny the "facts" being invented in London. Unfortunately, May proved wrong and the debate ignited over her actions, which included the expulsion of twenty-three Russian diplomats, has done her severe damage. Few now believe that Russia actually carried out the poisoning and there is a growing body of opinion suggesting that it was actually a false flag executed by the British government or even by the CIA.

The lesson that should be learned from Syria and Skripal is that if "an incident" looks like it has no obvious motive behind it, there is a high probability that it is a false flag. A bit of caution in assigning blame is appropriate given that the alternative would be a precipitate and likely disproportionate response that could easily escalate into a shooting war.

Tags: CIA

[Jun 12, 2018] Is Putin really ready to ditch Iran by The Saker

Notable quotes:
"... In Syria the goal of Israel, the US, Saudis and other Gulf satrapies was the same: eliminate a strong secular regime that keeps the country unified and convert Syria into a bunch of impotent warring Bantustans. ..."
"... Israel wanted to make sure that there is no Syria to fulfill UN SC resolution and retake its Golan Heights, and have a chance of creating additional occupied "security areas" at will; Saudis and allied satrapies wanted to build oil and gas pipelines through Syrian territory without having to ask the permission of real government; the US wanted to promote Israeli and Saudi interests and create Libya-like chaos, making Syrian territory free-for-all playground. ..."
"... Russian intervention ruined those plans. Moreover, it appears that Iranian, Hezbollah, and other forces supporting Assad submitted to overall Russian military planning and possibly command: the war became pretty successful all of a sudden; high-ranking Iranian commanders are no longer killed in Syria on a regular basis. Thus, Russia foiled Israeli, Saudi, and the US plans. But it is important to keep in mind that Putin did this to promote Russian interests in the region, not Iranian or even Syrian. For the most part these interests coincide, but when they don't, Russian actions might look like a "betrayal" of partners, even though Russia cannot betray anyone there, as it did not pledge allegiance to anyone. ..."
"... Russia (both under tsars and in Soviet times) used to put too much effort into a thankless task of saving the world and learned its lesson. ..."
"... Yes, the string of ME wars (Syria is not an exception: remember Somalia, Libya, turmoil in Egypt, Yemen, etc) is part of the global war between the US Empire and Russia, where Russia seeks lasting order and balance of interests, whereas the Empire creates chaos in the hopes of getting new puppets and generally dominating, on behalf of Israel and itself. ..."
"... Yes, the US Empire is on the decline, hence the US policies are becoming more and more hysterical. In essence, no enemy undermines the US in the ME and all over the world more than it undermines itself. That's how all dominant Empires in history ended: by committing suicide. ..."
"... Bottom line is, Putin's Russia fends for itself, entering into long- and short-term deals with anyone (even Erdogan, who is as trustworthy as a used car salesman), as long as those deals serve its interests. ..."
"... Objectively, Russia cannot let the Empire (or Israel, for that matter) vanquish Assad or Iran. However, Putin tries to minimize the costs for Russia, and therefore will avoid direct confrontation with Israel or the Empire as long as possible. That's the whole story, the rest is fantasy. ..."
Jun 12, 2018 | www.unz.com

Let's look at that thesis from a purely logical point of view. First, what were the Israeli goals initially? As I have explained it elsewhere , initially the Israelis had the following goals:

Bring down a strong secular Arab state along with its political structure, armed forces, and security services. Create total chaos and horror in Syria justifying the creation of a "security zone" by Israel not only in the Golan but further north. Trigger a civil war in Lebanon by unleashing the Takfiri crazies against Hezbollah. Let the Takfiris and Hezbollah bleed each other to death, then create a "security zone", but this time in Lebanon. Prevent the creation of a Shia axis Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon. Break up Syria along ethnic and religious lines. Create a Kurdistan which could then be used against Turkey, Syria, Iraq, and Iran. Make it possible for Israel to become the uncontested power broker in the Middle-East and force the KSA, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and all others to have to go to Israel for any gas or oil pipeline project. Gradually isolate, threaten, subvert and eventually attack Iran with a wide regional coalition of forces. Eliminate all centers of Shia power in the Middle-East.

Now let's stop right here and ask a very simple question: if Putin and Netanyahu were on the same side all along, what should Putin have done to aid the Israelis? I submit that the obvious and indisputable answer is: absolutely nothing . By the time the Russian initiated their (very limited but also very effective) intervention in Syria those plans were well under way towards full realization!

The undeniable truth is that Putin foiled the initial Israel plan for Syria.

In fact, Hezbollah and Iran had already intervened in Syria and were desperately "plugging holes" in a collapsing Syrian front. So, if anything, Putin has to be the one to be credited for forcing the Israelis to give up on their "plan A" and go to plan "B" which I described here and which can be summarized as follows:

Step one, use your propaganda machine and infiltrated agents to re-start the myth about an Iranian military nuclear program. ( ) If Trump says that the JCPOA is a terrible deal, then this is so. Hey, we are living in the "post-Skripal" and "post-Douma" era – if some Anglo (or Jewish) leaders say "highly likely" then it behooves everybody to show instant "solidarity" lest they are accused of "anti-Semitism" or "fringe conspiracy theories" (you know the drill). So step one is the re-ignition ex nihilo of the Iranian military nuclear program canard. Step two is to declare that Israel is "existentially threatened" and ( ) and let the dumb Americans fight the Iranians.

As I have explained it in great detail here , Russia does not have any moral obligation to protect anybody anywhere, not in the Middle-East and most definitely not Syria and/or Iran. I have also explained in great detail here why Putin also has a lot of pragmatic internal reasons for not getting Russia involved in a major war in the Middle-East.

Finally, as I have explained here , the Israelis are clearly baiting Iran by striking Iranian (or, more accurately, Iranian-linked or Iranian-supported) targets in Syria. They hope that Iran's patience will come to an end and that the Iranians will retaliate with enough firepower to justify not only an attack on (relatively low value) Iranian-linked targets in Syria but on Iran proper, thus leading to a guaranteed Iranian retaliation on Israel and The Big Prize: a massive US attack on Iran.

Now let's look at Russian actions once again. If Putin was "on the same side with Netanyahu all along", he would be helping the Israelis do what they are doing, that is baiting the Iranians, right? But what did Putin really do?

It all began with a statement by Foreign Minister Lavrov who declared that all foreign forces must leave Syria. It is my understanding that no direct quote exists from Lavrov's initial statement, only interpreted paraphrases . Lavrov also made some clarifying comments later, like this one . But let's not get bogged down in trying to decide which was an off-the-cuff comment and which one was "official", but let us begin by noticing this: even before Lavrov's comment on "all foreign forces" the same Lavrov also said that " all US forces must leave Syria after the defeat of the terrorist forces ". May I also remind everybody here that Israel has been illegally occupying the Syrian Golan for years and that the IDF exactly fits into the definition of "foreign force in Syria"? It gets better, according to the Syrians and, frankly according to common sense and international law, the Syrians say that all foreign forces must leave Syria except those legally requested to stay by the Syrian government . So when the Russians say that all foreign forces including Iranians (assuming Lavrov really said that) must leave Syria they have absolutely no legal or other authority to impose that, short of a UNSC Resolution endorsing that demand. Considering that the Israelis and the USA don't give a damn about international law or the UNSC, we might even see a day when such a resolution is passed, enforced on the Iranians only, and ignored by the Israelis. The trick here is that in reality there are rather few Iranian "forces" in Syria. There are many more "advisors" (which would not be considered a "force") and many more pro-Iranian forces which are not really "Iranian" at all. There is also Hezbollah, but Hezbollah is not going nowhere , and they are Lebanese, not Iranian anyway. No doubt the Israelis would claim that Hezbollah is an "Iranian force" but that is basically nonsense. And just to add to the confusion, the Russians are now being cute and saying: " of course, the withdrawal of all non-Syrian forces must be carried out on a mutual basis, this should be a two-way street ". I suggest that we can stop listing all the possible paraphrases and interpretations and agree that the Russians have created a holy (or unholy) mess with their statements. In fact, I would even submit that, what appears to be a holy (or unholy) mess, is a very deliberate and crafty ambiguity .

According to numerous Russian sources, all this rhetoric is about the southern part of Syria and the line of contact (it ain't a border legally speaking) between Syria and Israel. The deals seem to be this: the pro-Iranian forces and Hezbollah get out of the south, and in exchange, the Israelis let the Syrians, backed by Russian airpower and "advisors" regain control of southern Syria but without any attempts to push the Israelis out of the Golan which they illegally occupy. Needless to say, the Syrians are also insisting that as part of the deal, US forces in southern Syria must pack and leave. But, frankly, unless the US plans to have tiny (and useless) US enclaves inside Syrian controlled territory I don't see the point of them staying. Not only that, but the Jordanians seem to be part of this deal too. And here is the best part: there is some pretty good evidence that Hezbollah and Iran also are part of the deal . And, guess what? So are the Turks .

This sure looks like some kind of major regional deal has been hammered out by the Russians. And if that is really the case, then that would also explain the tense denials in Israel and Iran , followed by more confirmations (also here ) And, just to make things even more confused, we now have Stoltenberg (of all people!) saying that NATO would not assist Israel in case of an Iranian attack which, considering that the NATO Secretary General has no power, that NATO is about 80%+ made up of the USA and that the US now has permanent a "tripwire" force inside Israel and could claim to be under attack, is utter nonsense, but still amusing to note as "adding to the chaos".

And then there is the apparent Syrian plan to kick out the US from northern Syria which, predictably, Uncle Sam don't like too much . So the two sides are talking again .

If all this looks to you like evidence for the thesis that "Putin and Netanyahu were on the same side all along", then I wonder what it would take to convince you otherwise because to me this looks like one of three things:

some kind of major regional deal has been made or some kind of major regional deal is in the process of being hammered out or some kind of major regional deal has been made but nobody trusts anybody else and everybody wants to make that deal better for itself

and, of course, everybody wants to save face by either denying it all or declaring victory, especially the AngloZionists.

So let's ask the key question: is there any evidence at all that Putin and/or Assad is/are "ditching Iran"?

Away from the realm of declarations and statements and back to the world

Let's begin with a simple question: What does Iran want above all else?

I submit that the overwhelming number one priority of Iran is to avoid a massive US attack on Iran.

Conversely, triggering such an attack on Iran is the number one objective of the Israelis . They are rather open about that too. They latest idea is to create a " military coalition against Iran " while trying to please NATO by joining anti-Russian exercises in Europe .

Not because of a non-existing Iranian nuclear program threatening Israel, but because Iran offers a most successful, and therefore dangerously competing, alternative civilizational model to both the AngloZionist Empire and the Saudi-Wahabi version of Islam. Furthermore, unlike (alas!) Russia, Iran dares to openly commit the "crime of crimes", that is, to publicly denounce Israel as a genocidal, racist state whose policies are an affront to all of civilized mankind. Finally, Iran (again unlike Russia, alas!) is a truly sovereign state which has successfully dealt with its 5th columnists and which is not in the iron claws of IMF/WB/WTO/etc types (I wrote about that last week so I won't repeat it here).

I also submit that Iran also has as a top priority to support all the oppressed people of the Middle-East. Resisting oppression and injustice is a Quranic imperative and I believe that in its Iranian interpretation this also extends to non-Shia Sunnis and even Christians and Jews, but since I know that this will trigger all sorts of angry accusations of being naive (or even a Shia propagandist) I will concede that helping the oppressed Shia in the region is probably more important to the Iranian leaders than helping all the other oppressed. In secular terms, this means that Iran will try to protect and assist the Shia in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon and I see absolutely nothing wrong with that at all. In fact, considering the amazing mercy shown by Hezbollah to the SLA in southern Lebanon in 2000, and the fact that currently, the Syrian security forces are acting with utmost restraint in the parts of Syria which have accepted the Russian deal (this even has some Russian analysts outright worried ) I think that Iranian-backed forces liberating Syria from Daesh are the best thing which anybody could hope for.


mikkkkas , June 7, 2018 at 5:41 am GMT

A long good article obviously based on Eliah magnier's piece on a new ROE (rules of engagement) and a possible deal in southern Syria: https://ejmagnier.com/2018/06/03/deal-or-no-deal-us-forces-to-exchange-al-tanaf-for-iran-and-hezbollah-in-the-south-of-syria/ . It seems the Saker has finally come out victorious from his battle with his dystopian ghosts after an endless stream of depressive "the-end-is-nigh" and "Putin has turned in the towel" articles.

"My personal evaluation is that Putin is playing a very complex and potentially dangerous game. He is trying to trick not one, but many "devils", all at the same time." Of course you knew that all along, didn't you? Welcome back! i truly really mean that.

Paranam Kid , June 7, 2018 at 10:14 am GMT
Saker, your argument hinges on 2 premises:
1. Russia is not ethically obliged to defend either Syria or Iran
2. Putin is playing a very clever, complex, dangerous game "trying to trick not one, but many "devils", all at the same time."

Re 1: the whole 'game' in Syria and the wider ME is not about noble obligations, it is all about power and influence. Russia has tried to portray itself as the new power broker, believing that defeating Daesh with the help of Iran, Hezbollah and the SAA was enough to attain that status. Russia seems to believe it can stay on the sidelines concerning the ZioNazi statelet's & the US's incessant provocations of Syria and Iran; Russia also stayed on the sidelines when the FUKUS trio bombed Syria over the fake chemical attack.

Unfortunately for Russia, that sideline position has only encouraged, and continues to encourage, the muderous, psychopathic war criminals in Washington and Jerusalem to ever more boldness because they see Russia's position as weakness. And that increasing boldness is risking a major unplanned confrontation that puts humanity in danger. So Russia DOES have an ethical obligation, if not to its 2 allies (which I do not agree with) then certainly to the world.

As for your 2nd premise, unless you have access to Putin's inner circle and are privy to his thinking, it is completely speculative, seemingly given in by an urge to defend Putin's inaction.

Incidentally, in 2011 Russia/Putin promised Assad those S300′s, and basically reneged on that (signed?) promise to its ally? Ethically this is unacceptable, no matter how you spin it.

animalogic , June 7, 2018 at 11:00 am GMT
Perhaps not one of Saker's better articles. But core point has value: there is a deal. Putin

is

dealing with a soggy bag of spitting devils.
I dont discount the possibility of war: especially if the zionist can manufacture appropriate circumstances. However, ulimately Iran is (relatively) a side show.
The Empire is still committed to sanctions/propaganda/
diplomatic/political means to its ultimate goals of regime change in Russia, followed by further intensified action against an isolated China.
Yes, the Zionist ghost in the Empire Golom itches to lash out militarily. But as we know, they both like enemies such as Gaza, or Iraq, Libya & Syria until the Russians said "enough !". They like enemies sufficiently small as to match their courage & moral vision .

Felix Keverich , June 7, 2018 at 2:22 pm GMT
@Horst

As a Russian I thought this text is pretty funny, because it reminded me of a classic debate going on the Russian internet: "Путин слил" (Putin sold out) vs "Путин хитрый план" (this is all part of an eleborate 3-D chess combination). Clearly, Saker is inclined towards the "3-D chess" explanation.

Felix Keverich , June 7, 2018 at 2:38 pm GMT
@Quartermaster

It wasn't a "defensive war". Leaving out the fact that Israel's existence itself is not entirely legitimate as the Arabs never recognised the UN mandated partition of Palestine, it was Israel that started the war of 1967 by attacking Egypt, Syria's ally.

Russians are not conducting ethnic cleansing in Crimea or Donbass, herding native population into reservations like Gaza, killing those, who try to escape – you know, all these things that Israel is doing.

Horst , June 7, 2018 at 2:49 pm GMT
@Felix Keverich

Thank you. Your insightful comment has somehow transformed my initial experience from an exercise in futile reading into a significant and thoughtful -- nope! Sorry. This is a repeat offence. 4,000 words of meandering foolishness is unredeemable. The Saker's writing, in nearly every case, and over a long period of time, shows him to be a disingenuous hack who delivers bulky loads of zero.

anon [228] Disclaimer , June 7, 2018 at 3:43 pm GMT
The Empire's propaganda machine denies and obfuscates this, and those who believe it don't see i"

A NYT scribe was quoted by Globalresearch and ?Huffingtonpost saying :"Americans eagerly and passionately want to believe something ,something , coming out of government " just to feel good and and confident.

They have not stopped trying .

AnonFromTN , June 7, 2018 at 4:18 pm GMT
Personally, I hate unsolicited advice, but I am tempted to give it to the Saker: read what you wrote at least once and edit in the process, so that your writing does not feel like a stream of consciousness, where one has to fish for pearls of meaning in the muddy waters of endless text. You are not a politician, your job is not to generate content-free verbal diarrhea.

Back to substance. In Syria the goal of Israel, the US, Saudis and other Gulf satrapies was the same: eliminate a strong secular regime that keeps the country unified and convert Syria into a bunch of impotent warring Bantustans.

Israel wanted to make sure that there is no Syria to fulfill UN SC resolution and retake its Golan Heights, and have a chance of creating additional occupied "security areas" at will; Saudis and allied satrapies wanted to build oil and gas pipelines through Syrian territory without having to ask the permission of real government; the US wanted to promote Israeli and Saudi interests and create Libya-like chaos, making Syrian territory free-for-all playground.

Russian intervention ruined those plans. Moreover, it appears that Iranian, Hezbollah, and other forces supporting Assad submitted to overall Russian military planning and possibly command: the war became pretty successful all of a sudden; high-ranking Iranian commanders are no longer killed in Syria on a regular basis. Thus, Russia foiled Israeli, Saudi, and the US plans. But it is important to keep in mind that Putin did this to promote Russian interests in the region, not Iranian or even Syrian. For the most part these interests coincide, but when they don't, Russian actions might look like a "betrayal" of partners, even though Russia cannot betray anyone there, as it did not pledge allegiance to anyone. There is no moral dimension to the events: Putin is purely pragmatic, rational rather than moral. Russia (both under tsars and in Soviet times) used to put too much effort into a thankless task of saving the world and learned its lesson.

Yes, the string of ME wars (Syria is not an exception: remember Somalia, Libya, turmoil in Egypt, Yemen, etc) is part of the global war between the US Empire and Russia, where Russia seeks lasting order and balance of interests, whereas the Empire creates chaos in the hopes of getting new puppets and generally dominating, on behalf of Israel and itself.

Yes, the US Empire is on the decline, hence the US policies are becoming more and more hysterical. In essence, no enemy undermines the US in the ME and all over the world more than it undermines itself. That's how all dominant Empires in history ended: by committing suicide.

Bottom line is, Putin's Russia fends for itself, entering into long- and short-term deals with anyone (even Erdogan, who is as trustworthy as a used car salesman), as long as those deals serve its interests.

Objectively, Russia cannot let the Empire (or Israel, for that matter) vanquish Assad or Iran. However, Putin tries to minimize the costs for Russia, and therefore will avoid direct confrontation with Israel or the Empire as long as possible. That's the whole story, the rest is fantasy.

AnonFromTN , June 7, 2018 at 8:30 pm GMT
@Marcus

Well, I know some history, about 100 times more than an average US citizen. Stalin's USSR pushed for the creation of Israel and then supplied it (via satellites) with weapons to fight Arab neighbors. Later the USSR took a strong pro-Arab anti-Israeli position. The position of Yeltsin's Russia did not matter, as the regime was run by traitors dismantling and looting everything. Putin's Russia is quite neutral, in a sense that Putin does not want to fight Israel, but does not want to be seen as her friend, either. Israeli intelligence considers Russia an unfriendly country, even though Russia pays pensions to Russian Jews who emigrated to Israel, including military pensions to WWII vets. Bibi carefully avoids any confrontation with Russia, even though Putin's interference in Syria thwarted Israeli goal of turning it into something like Somalia or Libya.

My point is, Putin acts out of self-interest, avoiding direct confrontations wherever possible, but firmly moving towards his goals. That includes his dealings with Syria, Israel, Turkey, Iran, China, North Korea, and would include dealings with Devil himself, if such a personage existed. Nothing personal, strictly business. That's what the Saker studiously refuses to see.

AnonFromTN , June 8, 2018 at 3:58 pm GMT
@Marcus

Well, Putin maintains close relations with Assad government in Syria, Hezbollah, Iran, and Turkey, all of which Israel considers foes. He is not particularly friendly with the US and many of its vassals who provide political cover for Israeli crimes. However, Putin does not want to be seen as a foe of Israel, either. He talks to Netanyahu on the regular basis and likely has some situational deals with Israel. At least Israel studiously avoids any confrontations with Russian military forces in Syria. Russia reciprocates by avoiding direct confrontations with Israeli forces, even when they clearly break international law. You can call it prudent policy or a bargain with the Devil, depending on your preferences.

WorkingClass , June 9, 2018 at 6:36 am GMT
Putin blunted Imperial aggression for the first time since Washington's defeat in Vietnam. How this can be construed as cooperation with Israel is a mystery.

Saker defends Putin and Russia. That's why his detractors (Zionist scum) hate him. Why are Zionist trolls working to discredit Saker if Putin is one of them?

I too found this piece difficult to read. I think because is takes so long to refute a proposition that is so obviously false.

WJ , June 10, 2018 at 2:07 pm GMT
@Momus

Israel has had a covert and now an overt role in the war in Syria, from the beginning. It is laughable nonsense to proclaim they have protected Assad. They have provided material support and medical aid to injured jihadists so they can return to Syria and continue their mass murder.

Beefcake the Mighty , June 10, 2018 at 2:13 pm GMT
I don't think this is really too complicated. Now that the war in Syria is winding down and legitimate Russian interests have been secured (much praise goes to them for as well saving the Syrian people from Zio-American terror), we are starting to see that Russian and Iranian interests are diverging. Since they were never identical, this should not be too surprising.

The fact is, the relationship between Russia and Israel is complicated, and Russia has no problem with a Zionist state in the Middle East. Whatever one may think of Israel, it's presence/existence does not conflict with Russian interests. If Iran wishes to escalate the fighting to attack Israel, it should not expect Russian sympathy on the matter. (And Assad's government should know when to declare victory and go home.)

jilles dykstra , June 10, 2018 at 2:44 pm GMT
@Beefcake the Mighty

You really think Putin does not know that the tail is wagging the dog, the dog with the neocons and AEI, that want the USA to conquer the whole world militarily ?
You obviously did not read the article, or it does not fit your prejudices.
A ME without an Israel would solve a lot, a USA without AIPAC and whatever could solve many remaining problems.

Baron , June 10, 2018 at 3:00 pm GMT
The headlines in Israeli newspapers about the closeness between Putin and Bibi may be a clever ploy to hide just the opposite, there's no deal between Russia and Israel, the latter can offer the former little as you say yourself.

The best option for Putin would be to stick with Iran, get the country into the Chinese run Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (both China and Russia have hinted as such), this will boosts the organisation clout, and deter the US from attacking Iran.

RadicalCenter , June 10, 2018 at 3:41 pm GMT
@Horst

I always look forward to The Saker's writing. He's a zealot, to be sure, and he needs a proofreader / editor. But his intelligence, moral decency, desire to educate, and dedication to what he thinks is right, are all plain to see.

Beefcake the Mighty , June 10, 2018 at 3:56 pm GMT
@jilles dykstra

Israel is the primary source of instability in the ME, and Organized Jewry is the driving force behind much global chaos and subversion, no doubt. Putin unquestionably knows this. (He has publicly spoken about the Jewish role in the early Bolshevik state, and his purge of the worst Jewish oligarchs engendered much of the insane hostility towards him by the neocons etc. Curiously he did pass a law banning Holocaust denial, however.)

However these twin malefactors will not go away quietly, and Putin/Russia knows this as well. Organized Jewry and their brain-dead Bible-thumper bots in America may want global conflagration, but Russia does not so they are properly proceeding with caution. They are under no obligation to help the Iranians expand the fighting.

pyrrhus , June 11, 2018 at 1:42 am GMT
@Paranam Kid

Yes, I disagree with the proposition that Russia doesn't have to defend Iran, which borders Russia and has ethnic Russians. In fact, Putin cannot allow the Anglo-Zionists to control Iran, because that would threaten Russia in several ways. Putin would have to go all in to prevent a successful attack on Iran.

L.K , June 11, 2018 at 5:13 am GMT
@Beefcake the Mighty

Hey Beef,

I'll have to disagree a bit with you on this

Iran is NOT "escalating" anything, nor is it trying to attack Israel. This is a red herring being used against Iran much like the nuclear file BS. Be careful with the anti-Iranian propaganda. If there is a country more demonized than Russia, it is surely Iran.

Direct Iranian military presence in Syria is relatively small, even if Iranian backed militias(many of them Syrian) are included. Iran has a defense pact with Syria and has been invited by the Syrian government to help just like Russia.
The Iranian support is often overlooked but it has been crucial to hold and defeat the mercenaries/jihadists backed by the ZUSA led coalition.
Mark Sleboda, during a RT CrossTalk debate, stated clearly that without Iran, ISIS and Al Qaeda could not have been defeated in Iraq and Syria.
As for Syria, I really don't understand your statement. The Syrians will seek, and rightly so, to restore all of their country.
Obviously there are differences within the Syrian-Iranian-Russian alliance in Syria, and Zionist officials & propaganda will try exploit any rifts I doubt they'll succeed, though they may use their media to pretend they achieved something
B of MoA is very much pro-Russia, a retired German army officer, have a look at:
Syria – Israel Falsely Claims Iran Pull-Back Deal With Russia – Again

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2018/05/syria-israel-falsely-claims-iran-pull-back-deal-with-russia-twice.html

Israel loves to pretend that it is an important country which can move other governments to do its bidding.

1. Russia has no way to keep Iran out of Syria or to tell Iranian advisors and militia where to go or not to go. The Syrian government will not do away with its best ally, Iran, which came to its help before Russia came in and will continue to help while Russia lowers its presence in the conflict. Were Russia to play "either-or" hardball with the Syrian government the decision would likely be against Russia and for Iran.

2. Iran already announced that it will not take part in the upcoming Daraa operation in southwest Syria.

Also important to understand the situation; RUSSIA HAS REACHED THE END OF THE ROAD IN SYRIA, SO DAMASCUS WILL CONTINUE TO FIGHT ON WITH ITS REMAINING ALLIES
Elijah J Magnier

https://ejmagnier.com/2018/05/28/russia-has-reached-the-end-of-the-road-in-syria-so-damascus-will-continue-to-fight-on-with-its-remaining-allies/

Vojkan , June 11, 2018 at 7:21 am GMT
Several thoughts after the article.

"As for the Israelis, they would make Satan himself look honest and are ideologically incapable of honesty (or even decency)."

I would have written "naturally" rather than "ideologically", but notwithstanding, the Saker knows it, I know it, and I have a hard time believing that Putin doesn't know it. Actually, I believe everybody knows it, some just dare not say it or have more interest in pretending, that's all. The corollary is that you can never trust a single word an Israeli utters. It's like the punch line of an old Serbian joke about a monk tempted by the devil to break his fast only to get exposed before his fellow monks. When the monk asks "but why?", as there seems to be no gain for the devil, he's answered "I never tell the truth".

Unlike the Saker, I don't see this turning into a hot war, which doesn't mean that I see the Anglo-Zionist imperialists getting along with Russia. They will go more and more into hysterics mode but that is a sign of impotence. If I were Russian, I would just let the USA bleed its taxpayers white through defence spending, knowing that the psychopaths in New York, Washington DC, Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem are crazy but not suicidal. I believe they have realised that a hot war against Russia is now unwinnable. They had a window of opportunity that is now closed.

It seems to me that the Saker calls Russian Jews "zionists" just in order to avoid calling them Jews. As I wrote before, Russian Jews don't descend from Judea, they descend from Khazars, a tribe originating from the shores of the Black Sea that espoused Judaism in the early Middle Age. Russia is their homeland, not Israel, and though Judaism plays a big role in why they feel entitled, they want to rule Russia for the sake of ruling Russia, not for Israel, and not because they are USA's 5th column. The bolsheviks didn't give a damn about Israel. They wanted Russia. And they wanted the whole world incidentally. Confusing the Russian "Jewish problem" to Zionism is a huge mistake. It is a domestic problem, not a foreign imported one. With or without Israel, it remains the same, unlike the American "Jewish problem". If you remove Russia-obsessed Jews and hard-core Zionists from the picture, the remainder of USA Jews actually contribute to the richness of American society.

All that said, though the whole article often slides from fact-based analysis into wishful thinking, I generally agree that the Russian approach is the only possible sensible one. Putin is guided by the principle that "doing no harm" does indeed less harm than inflicting harm to punish harm. So far, it works, even though a lot of people are frustrated by what they perceive as bad guys' impunity. Refusing to punish the bad guys because it would entail too much "collateral damage" is a sign of humanity, not weakness. I praise Putin for it.

chris , June 11, 2018 at 5:25 pm GMT

So who is the biggest threat to the Shia and, I would argue, to all the people of the Middle-East? The Takfiris of Daesh of course.

This is quite a non-sequitor after listing Israel's goals in the region; as we all know, Daesh, Alqueda, etc. are the tools. They cannot supply themselves, they only achieve success if they are sponsored by other powers, as they have been all along.

The truth is that Israel, unlike Iran, has very little to offer Putin or Russia.

What about calling off the Empire from their necks?

(I generally agree with 90% of the analysis, 100% of the tone and direction, but every week or so there seems to be one or two statements that are just glaringly inconsistent in the Saker's articles, like he was fulfilling some contractual obligation or something)

Beefcake the Mighty , June 11, 2018 at 5:40 pm GMT
@L.K

You are right of course, I did not mean to give that impression, Iran is definitely unfairly maligned. However, if they continue supporting Hezbollah, they should not be surprised if Israel works out a deal with Russia to strike these assets (while duplicitously hitting Syrian government forces), because this is simply not Russia's particular fight. The only question would be how far Israel would push the envelope, and what Russia would do then.

[Jun 12, 2018] Betting the Farm in SW Syria

Jun 12, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

richardstevenhack , 10 hours ago

The Russian Ministry of Defense has accused the Free Syrian Army and US Special Forces with preparing a new chlorine attack in Deir ez-Zor province in Syria.

BREAKING: Rebels, US forces preparing ANOTHER false flag chemical attack in Syria
http://theduran.com/breakin...

The Russians claim intel from three separate sources that chlorine gas containers have been brought into the area.

Walrus , 3 hours ago
My Jewish Uncle said in a quiet moment with my Dad that the problem with Jewish behaviour is that they always go one step too far. I would have been about Twelve at the time but I still remember that conversation. As Col. Lang states, Syria is "betting the farm" in this operation, my guess is that Israel will do likewise and try to destroy the SAA. I have no idea if the U.S. will intervene with more than logistic support.

To do otherwise than attack, in my view, would condemn Israel to living with a capable and reinvigorated Syria for the foreseeable future. This is an unacceptable risk to Israel. The concentration of the major units of the SAA so close to the Israeli border is both an irresistible opportunity to the current Israeli Government and a direct provocation in terms of "territory marking" (the polite term) by Syria.

This is the time for the last throw of the (non nuclear) dice by the Netanyahu Government. Russia must know this as well. Presumably Russia and Syria have made prudent air defence plans for this eventuality.

If Israel and the U.S. had any common sense they would acquiesce to the destruction of the last of the Jihadists and concentrate on building a new working relationship with Syria and eventually Iran.

Sid Finster , 11 hours ago
Lest anyone still doubt that the United States will not withdraw from Syria until forced out or until Syria is turned into a failed state.
Rok Steady , a day ago
In biblical times south west syria had 3 cities that were designated "cities of refuge" by the israelites
ISL , a day ago
Dear Colonel, Beginning with the interpretation that this is an attempt to collapse the resistance through a massive force commitment, do you think that such a decision could be made without Russian concurrence?

If ISIS supporting air support (US, Israeli) can be prevented from entering the fray, then the risk is low.

Perhaps the unbelievably poor performance of US missiles against Russian air defenses could have provided Russia the confidence to effectively warn off Israel / US.

Otherwise, Syria risks all the investment that Russia has made.

Makoshark -> ISL , 11 hours ago
My money is on SAA's bombing of Golan upon last Israeli attack.
New rule: you bomb me, your civilians flock to the shelters*.
As of today it is working: provocations, loud mouthing, no more attacks.

Russia is playing Good Cop here. Carving out some face-saving for Bibi.

*2006 Lebanon campaign was devastating for the alleged Israel's military superiority. They didn't lost because of casualties: actually, their numbers are those of a successful campaign.
They just couldn't afford the prolonged psychologic backslash of a powerful, defiant foe's retaliation.
It took 10 years of downplaying the débâcle to rebuild confidence in their Army.
Syrians are not the only ones betting a lot in a possible all-out confrontation.

Mattias Dahlström -> Makoshark , 5 hours ago
Dominant powers are used to be able to attack weak countries with impunity. Long range fires until time is right to close in. What Hezbollah and Syria has shown is that there is a political price to pay, and an economical one as well if the army is mobilized and exports/imports through a port like Haifa are interrupted.
richardstevenhack , a day ago
How many insurgents are they up against in these locations? How many insurgents remain in idlib? One can't assess the operation's chances without knowing the composition of the enemy.

As the Colonel suggests, it will be interesting to see whether Israel goes along with whatever agreement they allegedly got from Putin to stay out of Israel's argument with Iran in Syria. I suspect that even though no Iranian forces will be involved in this operation, Israel will claim there are and use that as an excuse to attack SAA forces.

It then becomes interesting as to whether Russia will react to that. Russia said in 2016 that "anyone" attacking SAA forces would be shot down. So far that "anyone" appears to have not included Israel, allegedly because Israel has only attacked Hizballah and Iranian forces in Syria (not counting the numerous times they've shelled SAA forces in exchange for alleged shelling inside Israel.) If Israel attacks SAA forces, that excuse will no longer hold.

As I've said, to me it appears inevitable that at some point Russia is going to have to confront Israel's military aggression in the region either diplomatically or militarily, whether it wants to or not.

Pat Lang Mod -> richardstevenhack , a day ago
The Idlib pocket will be the really tough thing. They should have cleared it just after they captured Aleppo City.
Simion Glaber -> Pat Lang , 7 hours ago
With respect, Colonel: do you think the strategy of relocating jihadis to Idlib and encouraging them to fight amongst themselves has, in the long run, failed to give an advantage? My sense has been that Syria used Idlib as a dumping ground; since the territory was within its own borders, this allowed it to contain any possible side-effects that might accrue following the expulsion of conquered jihadis.

No NATO, Turkish, nor other Middle Eastern states have been able to avail themselves of some sort of excuse that would be read something like "Syria is not managing its borders competently; we need to intervene".

As an outsider with no direct experience in this sort of thing, it also seems to me--from the reports I've read, over the last year or so--that the jihadis in Idlib have been doing a very good job of killing themselves.

What role Turkey will play in the endgame, however: that, I agree, appears to be a wildcard.

From the reports I've read about the constant infighting, Turkey's inability to establish control or obeisance over the area, and Syria's own intention to either push the southern enclaves back into Israel or destroy them, I honestly can't see how eliminating Idlib would have done anything other than:

A) Remove the pressure on Turkey to make sure those jihadis didn't slip back into its border
B) Give the neighboring nations that would be forced to absorb the jihadis a UN-validated excuse to "aid" the "Syrian people" by "restoring order"
C) Given Israel even more time to prepare the Daraa resistance, and
D) Removed the (as we have seen) oft-used military option of "Deportation to Idlib" from the lexicon of SAA alternatives to "complete and total destruction of a largely civilian-inhabited enclave"

This question is sincere. It seems, to me, that in the larger political sphere of things, the Idlib tactic has been a resounding success: beat a enclave down, deport the remaining enemies to a contained area where they will be forced to fight for survival against other enemies, and rest easy that there will be no international declarations for intervention in a conflict that has spilled over into neighboring countries.

From a military standpoint: yeah, destroying Idlib would have eliminated a power center. But wouldn't the troops that survived have simply moved into the various pockets we've seen so completely eliminated in the last six months or so? Wouldn't that have simply reinforced the attackers on Damascus & Hama, and hardened those troops into a fight-to-the-death mentality?

Pat Lang Mod -> Simion Glaber , 7 hours ago
It remains to be seen whether jihadis infighting in Idlib Province will weaken them all enough to make them easy meat when the time comes to re-take the province. There is a trade off there the result of which is not yet clear to me. There is also the problem of Erdogan's intentions and whether he will in the end try by hook or crook to hang on to the province which would make a spectacular addition to the Turkish holding in Hatay. His "observation posts" worry me and they should worry the R+6. IMO he intends to keep the Afrin District of Aleppo Province if he can as well as other territories farther to the east including some in Iraq.
EEngineer , a day ago
Then I would wager that the Russians expect that any Israeli/US response, and their subsequent reaction, to be over by the time the World Cup starts so as not to ruin the show. Or is this timeline setup to upstage the Singapore summit? Either or both. Regardless, any response would have to be quick and heavy for the message to get through quickly enough. Given the logistical setup time for such an operation, we can infer that Putin drew Netanyahu a bright red line on the subject during his last visit to Moscow. This would mean Putin is also pot committed. Is this the correct view of the table? If so, then the big question is does Bibi call or fold?
Pat Lang Mod -> EEngineer , a day ago
I would say another week or so after the rebel presence east of the M5 is cleaned up.
Eugene Owens , a day ago
As of last night, the 9th and 15th Divisions and the SSNP were reported to be still engaged heavily against Daesh in Suweida.

[Jun 12, 2018] Hala Jaber's interview with the Syrian President

Jun 12, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Interesting that the Daily Mail article on Hala Jaber's interview with the Syrian President was not open for BTL comments. I presume this could be because many DM readers might well agree with Bashar al Assad on much of what he says about Britain's role in the West's war against Syria and the White Helmets in particular. As a whole, DM readers tend to be much more skeptical about the MSM in Britain than, say, followers of The Guardian or the BBC.

Posted by: Jen | Jun 10, 2018 5:01:28 PM | 8


mauisurfer , Jun 10, 2018 11:07:36 PM | 18

Assad interview:

>
> Question 14: Russia appears to be making a lot of decisions about Syria, whether about foreign troops withdrawing to deals being struck with Israel over southern Syria, to which weapons you may or may not have. Does Russia now make your decisions?
>
> President Assad: Russia is fighting for the international law, and part of this international law is the sovereignty of different countries, of the sovereign countries, Syria is one of them. Their politics, their behaviors, their values are not about interfere or dictate; they don't. We've had good relations with Russia for more than six decades now, nearly seven decades.

They never, during our relation, try to dictate, even if there are differences; because there is a war and because there's high dynamism now in the region, it's natural to have differences between the different parties, whether within our government or other governments; Russia-Syria, Syria-Iran, Iran-Russia, and within these governments, that's very natural, but at the end the only decision about what's going on in Syria and what's going to happen, it's a Syrian decision. No one should have any doubt about this, regardless of the statements that you may hear, because I know on which base the question is.
>
> Question 15: So, why has Russia not given you the S300 they promised for years, at a time when Israel is striking Syria practically every week, and why is Russia coordinating these strikes' targets behind the scenes with your enemies?
>
> President Assad: Russia never coordinated with anyone against Syria, either politically or militarily, and that's contradiction; how could they help the Syrian Army advancing and at the same time work with our enemies in order to destroy our army?
>
> Journalist: But they usually know in advance where the attacks are going to happen
>
> President Assad: No, no, that's not true, that's not true, definitely. We know the details. Regarding the S300, why they announced it and then they stopped talking about it, you better ask the Russian officials. It's a political statement, they have their own tactics. But whether they send it or they're going to send it or not, this is a military issue; we don't talk about it.
>
> Question 16: Senior Pentagon officials have warned they will militarily retaliate should you mess with their alliance. Are you ever going to get rid of the US military presence in Syria, are you prepared to fight them directly?
>
> President Assad: Since the beginning of the war, the Americans and their allies haven't stopped threatening Syria, they haven't stopped supporting the terrorists, and they haven't stopped attacking us directly on numerous occasions. But in spite of this we have been advancing against the terrorists, and we have said that we're going to liberate every inch of Syria regardless of any statement or any attack. This is our land and this is our duty; it's not a political opinion, it's a national duty. We're going to advance in that direction regardless of the military or political position of our adversaries.
>
> Question 17: You've said that you will take back every inch of Syrian territory, how long you anticipate this will take you?
>
> President Assad: This is not only about the Syrian Army and the terrorists, or about the events within the border of our country, otherwise I would have given you, let's say, maybe a precise timeframe. But I have always said that in less than a year we can solve this conflict, it's not very complicated. What has made it complicated is the external interference. The more we advance, the more support the terrorists have from the West. Look, for example, we were about to achieve reconciliation in the southern part of Syria only two weeks ago, but the West interfered and asked the terrorists not to follow this path in order to prolong the Syrian conflict. So, we think the more advances we make politically and militarily, the more the West, especially US, UK, and France, will try to prolong it and make the solution farther from the Syrians. But in spite of this, we are closing the gap between the two.

> Question 22: Your wife is British, and you've lived in London for many years, is there anything in particular that you miss from your days there?
>
> President Assad: I lived in London, I learned as a doctor. It's impossible for you to live in a city and you don't feel there is a special link with that city or with the people that you work with on a daily basis. So, you miss maybe this relation, but you live sometimes in contradiction; that the same city that you like is the same country that's been attacking your country, which is not good.

read whole interview here


https://sana.sy/en/?p=139864

psychohistorian , Jun 10, 2018 11:28:58 PM | 19 Jackrabbit , Jun 11, 2018 12:15:52 AM | 20
Noirette @4

I'm still up in the air about this. It seems to me that the US establishment is united against Russia, socialism (in any form) , and the middle class (squeezing them economically to enrich themselves and reduce resources available to activists) . Some have summarized these elite proclivities as neo-feudalism and neoliberal/NWO hegemony.

Looking at the US political system, it has worked remarkably well for The Powers That Be (TPTB). Democratic Party failures (their focus on identity politics, corruption, etc.) have destroyed the progressive left. Yet, while Hillary is recognized as very establishment, the media portrays the Democrats and Republicans as being in constant struggle.

Would Hillary have doubled down in Syria with a 'no-fly' zone that could lead to WWII? I think not. I think the 'smart' move was to do exactly what Trump did. I think the establishment knows this. And I think we should also assume that the top people (Hillary, Obama, McCain, Feingold, Schumer, etc.) know that the "Russian influence" investigation is bogus.

It's difficult not to see (by now) that Trump is a faux populist President like Obama. They both had crazy opposition that called into question their loyalty to America (Trump was a leader of the anti-Trump 'birther' movement). And both found reasons to betray promises made to their base (Obama: nice-guy "bipartizanship"; Trump: seeming reasonable attitude toward Russia fuels "Russian influence" investigation) . Both said they would extract US from foreign wars. Both said they would fight corruption (Obama: "most transparent administration in history"; Trump: "drain the swamp") . Both gave big tax cuts to the wealthy.

Trump just nominated Gina Haspel for CIA Director and she was confirmed quickly. Suprisingly (or not) Gina Haspel was recommended by John Brennan(!), who was (supposedly) a leader in the Obama Administration efforts against Trump.

So, while I can see the outlines of a struggle ("elite civil war") between Muslim Brotherhood-Hillary-Soros "globalists" and Saudi-Trump-Netanyahu "nationalists", I am very skeptical about whether it is real or put-on. TPTB have gotten very good at controlled opposition and psy-ops. (Consider: Obama's "Change You Can Believe It" and the oft-repeated claims that he was anti-Israel; as well as the White Helmets.)

What might shed some light on this is the very curious Orlando Pulse Nightclub (OPN) attack in June 2016 and (what appears to be) the uneventful demise of ISIS. When wars are lost, there are bound to be people that are outraged on the losing side. Especially when those people are religious fanatics and ideologues.

IMO there were clear reasons for the San Bernadino (SB) and OPN attacks. SB was about pluging a whole in the narrative (Russia was attacked within weeks of entering the Syrian conflict but USA had not been attacked despite bombing ISIS for over a year) , and it seems clear that the OPN attack was meant to influence the Presidential election. The attack seems to favor Hillary because of her experience and Democratic Party's large and vocal gay constituency, but Trump actually won the exchange between himself and Hillary by pointing out that Saudi Arabia provides no rights to gays. The attack was attributed to "domestic terrorism" but may have helped Trump in making his case for leaving Syria. In any case, afaik Hillary refrained from bringing up the attack during the remainder of the campaign.

Note: In what I wrote earlier, I had speculated that OPN was ordered by a rouge op ordered by an ISIS sympathizer that bought into the goodcop-badcop routine run by Hillary-Trump. That's because both candidates seem to have ignored the attack for most of the remaining race (as though it was an embarrassment) .

Then we have the curious case of MbS's elevation. Would that have been done without CIA approval/guidance? Was it related to the (anticipated) reigning in of ISIS? Isn't it reasonable to assume that there are there Saudis that are angry with the setback in Syria and the failure (from their perspective) to do "what ever it takes" to win (i.e. more support to ISIS)? Was/is the elite civil war (along with "Russian influence" allegations) part of a rouse to mollify ISIS sympathizer discontents and thereby forestall 'blowback'?

This line of thinking leads to questions about the Vegas attack (covered up to look like a lone nut?) and MbS's "shakedown" of wealthy Saudis weeks later. It might also shed some light on the apparent coup attempt against Erdogan in July 2016 - about 6 weeks after OPN. (I still maintain that strengthening Erdogan HELPED the 'Assad must go! effort - a real coup would've meant disruptive civil unrest in Turkey.)

What do you think? Is there an elite civil war? Or just more psy-op where minor differences and/or opinions of a very small minority is blown up to look like a real conflict?

PS Apologies for the lengthy comment.

[Jun 06, 2018] Despite the fact that Trump folded, for the foreseeable future the Neocons will continue to focus their energy on trying to impeach Trump by the Saker

This article on almost a year old but thinks are developing as predicted. Which increases its value.
"... Since when did Trump become an expert on political science and world history anyway? Who does he think he is lecturing? Yet another US middle school classroom?! Does he not realize that a good number of the countries represented at the UN consider themselves Socialist?! Furthermore, while I don't necessarily disagree with the notion that Socialist and Communist ideas have often been a disaster in the 20th century, Socialism in the 21st century is an entirely different beast and the jury is still very much out on this issue, especially when considering the social, political, economic, ecological, psychological and even spiritual disaster Capitalism is now proving to be for much of the planet. Being the President of a country as dysfunctional as the US, Trump would be well-advised to tone down his arrogant pontifications about Socialism and maybe even open a book and read about it. ..."
"... My guess is that all they want is to send a clear messages to the Comprador elites running most countries that this is the "official ideology of the AngloZionist Empire" and if they want to remain in power they better toe the line even if nobody takes this stuff seriously. Yup, back to a 1980s Soviet kind of attitude towards propaganda: nobody cares what everybody else really thinks as long as everybody continues to pretend to believe the official propaganda. ..."
"... Ever since the Neocons overthrew Trump and made him what is colloquially referred to as their "bitch" the US foreign policy has come to a virtual standstill. ..."
"... Because, and make no mistake here, if the US cannot get anything constructive done any more, they retain a huge capability to disrupt, subvert, create chaos and the like. ..."
"... However, the US themselves are now the prime victim of a decapitated Presidency and a vindictive and generally out of control Neocon effort to prevent true American patriots to "get their country back" (as they say) and finally overthrow the regime in Washington DC. ..."
Notable quotes:
"... Since when did Trump become an expert on political science and world history anyway? Who does he think he is lecturing? Yet another US middle school classroom?! Does he not realize that a good number of the countries represented at the UN consider themselves Socialist?! Furthermore, while I don't necessarily disagree with the notion that Socialist and Communist ideas have often been a disaster in the 20th century, Socialism in the 21st century is an entirely different beast and the jury is still very much out on this issue, especially when considering the social, political, economic, ecological, psychological and even spiritual disaster Capitalism is now proving to be for much of the planet. Being the President of a country as dysfunctional as the US, Trump would be well-advised to tone down his arrogant pontifications about Socialism and maybe even open a book and read about it. ..."
"... we all know who Trump's puppet-masters are nowadays so we know what to expect ..."
"... Trump is now clearly fully endorsing that fairytale that "The West" (in which Trump now hilariously includes Poland!) has defeated Hitler and saved the world. The truth is that the Nazis were defeated by the Soviets and that all the efforts of the Poles, French, Brits and even Americans were but a minor (20% max) sideshow to the "real event" (Those who still might believe in this nonsense can simply read this ). Yet again, that the Americans would feel the need to appropriate for themselves somebody else's victory is, yet again, a clear sign of weakness. Do they expect the rest of the planet to buy into this nonsense? Probably not. ..."
"... My guess is that all they want is to send a clear messages to the Comprador elites running most countries that this is the "official ideology of the AngloZionist Empire" and if they want to remain in power they better toe the line even if nobody takes this stuff seriously. Yup, back to a 1980s Soviet kind of attitude towards propaganda: nobody cares what everybody else really thinks as long as everybody continues to pretend to believe the official propaganda. ..."
"... Ever since the Neocons overthrew Trump and made him what is colloquially referred to as their "bitch" the US foreign policy has come to a virtual standstill. ..."
"... Because, and make no mistake here, if the US cannot get anything constructive done any more, they retain a huge capability to disrupt, subvert, create chaos and the like. ..."
"... However, the US themselves are now the prime victim of a decapitated Presidency and a vindictive and generally out of control Neocon effort to prevent true American patriots to "get their country back" (as they say) and finally overthrow the regime in Washington DC. ..."
"... It appears that for the foreseeable future Trump will continue to focus his energy on beating Obama for the status of "worst President in US history" while the Neocons will continue to focus their energy on trying to impeach Trump ..."
"... I still maintain that the worst President in history (excluding possibly Woodrow Wilson) was Bill Clinton (strongly influenced, no doubt, by Hillary.) Sure, the 90′s were a great time in America, but Clinton's evil actions (signing NAFTA, the Crime Bill, ignoring Bin Laden, and repealing Glass-Steagall to name just a few) had not yet come to fruition. ..."
"... Consider that the scene he bought into is the product of 70 years of constant propaganda aimed at the American psyche and how successful that has been. ..."
"... Hillary would not have done anything different than Trump. Trump is a dumb shit sycophant of the Deep State just like Hillary. ..."
"... "Step by step the US is getting closer to a civil war" That pretty much says it all. All it will take is for US troops to get an unexpected butt kicking somewhere, sometime. ..."
Sep 20, 2017 | www.unz.com

Late this morning, outraged emails started pouring in. My correspondents reported "getting sick" and having their "heart ache". The cause of all that? They had just watched Trump's speech at the UN...

You can read the full (rush, not official) text here or watch the video here . Most of it is so vapid that I won't even bother posting the full thing. But there are a few interesting moments including those:

"We will be spending almost $700 billion on our military and defense. Our military will soon be the strongest it has ever been"

This short sentence contains the key to unlock the reason behind the fact that while the US military is extremely good at killing people in large numbers, it is also extremely bad at winning wars. Like most Americans, Trump is under the illusion that spending a lot of money "buys" you a better military. This is completely false, of course. If spending money was the key to a competent military force, the US armed forces would have already conquered the entire planet many times over. In reality, they have not won anything meaningful since the war in the Pacific.

...then he suddenly decided to share this outright bizarre insight of his:

The problem in Venezuela is not that socialism has been poorly implemented, but that socialism has been faithfully implemented. From the Soviet Union to Cuba to Venezuela, wherever true socialism or communism has been adopted, it has delivered anguish and devastation and failure.

Since when did Trump become an expert on political science and world history anyway? Who does he think he is lecturing? Yet another US middle school classroom?! Does he not realize that a good number of the countries represented at the UN consider themselves Socialist?! Furthermore, while I don't necessarily disagree with the notion that Socialist and Communist ideas have often been a disaster in the 20th century, Socialism in the 21st century is an entirely different beast and the jury is still very much out on this issue, especially when considering the social, political, economic, ecological, psychological and even spiritual disaster Capitalism is now proving to be for much of the planet. Being the President of a country as dysfunctional as the US, Trump would be well-advised to tone down his arrogant pontifications about Socialism and maybe even open a book and read about it.

I won't even bother discussing the comprehensively counter-factual nonsense Trump has spewed about Iran and Hezbollah, we all know who Trump's puppet-masters are nowadays so we know what to expect . Instead, I will conclude with this pearl from The Donald:

In remembering the great victory that led to this body's founding, we must never forget that those heroes who fought against evil, also fought for the nations that they love. Patriotism led the Poles to die to save Poland, the French to fight for a free France, and the Brits to stand strong for Britain.

Echoing the nonsense he spoke while in Poland, Trump is now clearly fully endorsing that fairytale that "The West" (in which Trump now hilariously includes Poland!) has defeated Hitler and saved the world. The truth is that the Nazis were defeated by the Soviets and that all the efforts of the Poles, French, Brits and even Americans were but a minor (20% max) sideshow to the "real event" (Those who still might believe in this nonsense can simply read this ). Yet again, that the Americans would feel the need to appropriate for themselves somebody else's victory is, yet again, a clear sign of weakness. Do they expect the rest of the planet to buy into this nonsense? Probably not.

My guess is that all they want is to send a clear messages to the Comprador elites running most countries that this is the "official ideology of the AngloZionist Empire" and if they want to remain in power they better toe the line even if nobody takes this stuff seriously. Yup, back to a 1980s Soviet kind of attitude towards propaganda: nobody cares what everybody else really thinks as long as everybody continues to pretend to believe the official propaganda.

[Sidebar: When my wife and I watched this pathetic speech we starting laughing about the fact that Trump was so obscenely bad that we (almost) begin to miss Obama. This is a standing joke in our family because when Obama came to power we (almost) began to miss Dubya. The reason why this is a joke is that when Dubya came to power we decided that there is no way anybody could possibly be worse than him. Oh boy where we wrong! Right now I am still not at the point were I would be missing Obama (that is asking for a lot from me!), but I will unapologetically admit that I am missing Dubya. I do. I really do. Maybe not the people around Dubya, he is the one who truly let the Neocon "crazies in the basement" creep out and occupy the Situation Room, but at least Dubya seemed to realize how utterly incompetent he was. Furthermore, Dubya was a heck of a lot dumber than Obama (in this context being stupid is a mitigating factor) and he sure did not have the truly galactic arrogance of Trump (intelligence-wise they are probably on par)].

In conclusion, what I take away from this speech is a sense of relief for the rest of the planet and a sense of real worry for the US. Ever since the Neocons overthrew Trump and made him what is colloquially referred to as their "bitch" the US foreign policy has come to a virtual standstill. Sure, the Americans talk a lot, but at least they are doing nothing. That paralysis, which is a direct consequence of the internal infighting, is a blessing for the rest of the planet because it allows everybody else to get things done. Because, and make no mistake here, if the US cannot get anything constructive done any more, they retain a huge capability to disrupt, subvert, create chaos and the like.

But for as long as the US remains paralyzed this destructive potential remains mostly unused (and no matter how bad things look now, Hillary President would have been infinitely worse!). However, the US themselves are now the prime victim of a decapitated Presidency and a vindictive and generally out of control Neocon effort to prevent true American patriots to "get their country back" (as they say) and finally overthrow the regime in Washington DC.

Step by step the US is getting closer to a civil war and there is no hope in sight, at least for the time being. It appears that for the foreseeable future Trump will continue to focus his energy on beating Obama for the status of "worst President in US history" while the Neocons will continue to focus their energy on trying to impeach Trump , and maybe even trigger a civil war. The rest of us living here are in for some very tough times ahead. As they say in Florida when a hurricane comes barreling down on you "hunker down!".

Dan Hayes , September 19, 2017 at 11:36 pm GMT

The Saker,

Netanyahu has spoken, stating that Trump has given the boldest, most courageous UN speech that he has ever heard. Well that settles that with the prescient oracle rendering his definitive and omnipotent judgment!

FKA Max , Website September 20, 2017 at 2:02 am GMT

For What It's Worth, Trump Great On Immigration, Refugees At U.N. Today

http://www.vdare.com/posts/for-what-its-worth-trump-great-on-immigration-refugees-at-u-n-today

A lot of old friends didn't like President Trump's UN speech today because it didn't break cleanly with UniParty foreign policy! E.g. Paul Craig Roberts' comments here. But it did contain these revolutionary comments on immigration and refugee policy ! The latter especially significant because Trump has to set the quota for U.S. quota for refugees (actually expedited, subsidized, politically favored immigrants) in the next few days. Who knows what Trump will do! But Hillary would never even have said it
[...]
For the cost of resettling one refugee in the United States, we can assist more than 10 in their home region.
[...]
For decades, the United States has dealt with migration challenges here in the Western Hemisphere. We have learned that, over the long term, uncontrolled migration is deeply unfair to both the sending and the receiving countries.

For the sending countries, it reduces domestic pressure to pursue needed political and economic reform, and drains them of the human capital necessary to motivate and implement those reforms.

For the receiving countries, the substantial costs of uncontrolled migration are borne overwhelmingly by low-income citizens whose concerns are often ignored by both media and government.

peterAUS , September 20, 2017 at 2:35 am GMT

Disagree with most of the article, of course. Agree with these three:

The Americans talk a lot, but at least they are doing nothing. That paralysis, which is a direct consequence of the internal infighting .

No matter how bad things look now, Hillary President would have been infinitely worse!) ..

The rest of us living here are in for some very tough times ahead.

Fidelios Automata , September 20, 2017 at 3:13 am GMT

I still maintain that the worst President in history (excluding possibly Woodrow Wilson) was Bill Clinton (strongly influenced, no doubt, by Hillary.) Sure, the 90′s were a great time in America, but Clinton's evil actions (signing NAFTA, the Crime Bill, ignoring Bin Laden, and repealing Glass-Steagall to name just a few) had not yet come to fruition.

Robert Magill , September 20, 2017 at 3:40 am GMT

Assuming the keen political insight Trump exhibited to get himself the job he sought still exists, perhaps all this insane blather is proof it continues. Consider that the scene he bought into is the product of 70 years of constant propaganda aimed at the American psyche and how successful that has been.

Then imagine Trump feeding the ravenous American mindset for the status quo while actually working around it. Brilliant! Then again, if he truly means what he says, all is lost.

http://robertmagill.wordpress.com

Realist , September 20, 2017 at 7:47 am GMT

@peterAUS

Hillary would not have done anything different than Trump. Trump is a dumb shit sycophant of the Deep State just like Hillary.

FKA Max , Website September 20, 2017 at 10:50 am GMT

@FKA Max

The speech was reportedly written by Stephen Miller, a.k.a. Darth Vader to many in the mainstream media,
- https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trumps-strikingly-conventional-un-speech/2017/09/19/876cb41a-9d75-11e7-9c8d-cf053ff30921_story.html?utm_term=.6df8b480a4d8

Thank you Stephen Miller! He must be reading Peter Singer:

International support for countries bearing the greatest refugee burden also makes economic sense: it costs Jordan about €3,000 ($3,350) to support one refugee for a year; in Germany, the cost is at least €12,000.
- http://www.unz.com/isteve/im-not-sure-why-but-this-headline-cracks-me-up/#comment-1746720
Another threat to the Church is the illegal immigration control movement. If this movement succeeds, and what is perceived by Latin Americans and other governments as an escape valve is shut off, these governments would logically say, "Our demographic course cannot continue." These governments would have little choice but to confront the Church and say, "If we are to survive as governments, then we must get serious about population growth control. Otherwise, we in Latin America are destined to become a sea of chaos. We, as Latin Americans, must make family planning and abortion services fully available and encourage their use." Turning off the valve to illegal immigration is therefore a serious threat to the power of the Church.
- http://www.unz.com/article/rule-or-ruin/#comment-1623864 This is Michael Anton on Trump's UN speech:

President Trump's Message: Make The United Nations Great

In fact, he's strengthened our alliances in meetings in Washington with key allies, by going to foreign capitals - the trip to France and the Bastille Day with America's oldest ally, with which the United States has in recent years had something of a rocky relationship – was strengthened enormously by that visit to Paris this year. And the president has, you know, both on a personal level and on an alliance level, really strengthened the alliance with France and with President Macron. In fact, he met with him yesterday and had a very, extremely positive and friendly meeting where they talked substantive business, but they also talked about the history of the alliance and reminisced a bit about the grandeur of that trip to Paris in July.

http://www.npr.org/2017/09/19/552025707/president-trumps-message-make-the-united-nations-great

The French president's suggestion that African women are breeding like animals and must be restrained by an enlightened elite awakens primordial terrors in the hearts of the mainstream Left and Right.
[...]
If Europeans are replaced with Africans, Western Civilization will disappear. The choices are simple: The West, yes or no? The white race, yes or no? Our rulers have exhausted all other options.

http://www.unz.com/article/trumps-warsaw-speech-and-the-real-clash-of-civilizations/#comment-1946225

Peter Singer on How Political Correctness Let African Population Growth Run Amok for a Generation

The outrage evoked by Macron's remark, however, appears to have little to do with its inaccuracy. Macron violated a taboo that has been in place since the International Conference on Population and Development, held under the auspices of the UN in Cairo in 1994. The conference adopted a Programme of Action that rejected a demographically driven approach to population policies, and instead focused on meeting the reproductive-health needs of individuals, especially women. Population targets were out; rights were in.

http://www.unz.com/isteve/peter-singer-on-how-political-correctness-let-african-population-growth-run-amok-for-a-generation/

I would like to explain what led me to conclude that Emmanuel Macron has an "Alt Right" worldview.

http://www.unz.com/article/collateral-damage/#comment-1955020

Don't lose hope
[...]
I shared this video here at the Unz Review before, but I would like to share it again, because it best encapsulates and captures what I personally associate with term "Alt Right"

http://www.unz.com/article/the-system-revealed-antifa-virginia-politicians-and-police-work-together-to-shut-down-unitetheright/#comment-1967326

French army band medleys Daft Punk following Bastille Day parade

The Scalpel , Website September 20, 2017 at 1:35 pm GMT

"Step by step the US is getting closer to a civil war" That pretty much says it all. All it will take is for US troops to get an unexpected butt kicking somewhere, sometime.

Studley , September 20, 2017 at 2:04 pm GMT

Churchill himself, one of a long list of Anglo-genocidal killers (according to The Saker's last post) admitted that, "The Red Army tore the guts out of The Wehrmacht." Is this even in dispute?

In Russian thinking therefore, with only 20% contribution by American/UK Commonwealth forces, we subtract that, and this is the diplomatic question. Why would Stalin's T34s not have rolled up to The English Channel and installed compliant Communist regimes in France/Belgium/Holland as they did in Eastern Europe?

They did the same in North Korea by installing the grandfather (Kim Il-Sung) of this young 'Rocket Man' in 1945 at the conclusion of the fighting against Japan in the far-east.

[Jun 06, 2018] >John Bolton is now part of the Cambridge Analytica scandal

Notable quotes:
"... There is no indication that Bolton was aware that Cambridge Analytica was exploiting the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users -- but he was certainly aware that it was using an extensive trove of personal data to target voters ..."
"... What Bolton was paying Cambridge Analytica to do is, perhaps, more damning than his use of the shady data firm. "The Bolton PAC was obsessed with how America was becoming limp wristed and spineless and it wanted research and messaging for national security issues," Wylie told the Times . "That really meant making people more militaristic in their worldview," he added. ..."
"... "That's what they said they wanted, anyway." Cambridge Analytica produced fear-mongering advertisements aimed at drumming up support for Bolton and other hawkish Republicans. The relationship between the firm and the Super PAC grew "so close that the firm was writing up talking points" for Bolton after only a few months of collaboration. ..."
Jun 06, 2018 | newrepublic.com

Speaking at CPAC in 2017, John Bolton boasted that his Super PAC's implementation of "advanced psychographic data" would help elect "filibuster majorities" in 2018. According to a New York Times report published on Friday, Bolton's Super PAC paid $1.2 million to Cambridge Analytica, the British firm that has come under scrutiny for its misuse of Facebook data to influence voters. Bolton's Super PAC, moreover, was heavily funded by the Mercer family, who gave millions to Cambridge Analytica during the 2016 presidential campaign.

There is no indication that Bolton was aware that Cambridge Analytica was exploiting the personal data of tens of millions of Facebook users -- but he was certainly aware that it was using an extensive trove of personal data to target voters. "The data and modeling Bolton's PAC received was derived from the Facebook data," Christopher Wylie, the co-founder of Cambridge Analytica turned whistleblower, told the Times . "We definitely told them about how we were doing it. We talked about it in conference calls, in meetings."

What Bolton was paying Cambridge Analytica to do is, perhaps, more damning than his use of the shady data firm. "The Bolton PAC was obsessed with how America was becoming limp wristed and spineless and it wanted research and messaging for national security issues," Wylie told the Times . "That really meant making people more militaristic in their worldview," he added.

"That's what they said they wanted, anyway." Cambridge Analytica produced fear-mongering advertisements aimed at drumming up support for Bolton and other hawkish Republicans. The relationship between the firm and the Super PAC grew "so close that the firm was writing up talking points" for Bolton after only a few months of collaboration.

[Jun 05, 2018] With MBS supposedly dead, how will Saudi will change their oil policy? How much longer will the Saudi and international press be able to remain silent on this?

Notable quotes:
"... My own hunch is that these reports may well be true. How long can the Saudis (and the Western media) conceal what has happened? ..."
"... Second, I believe the trip by our Secretary of State was in response to the incident of April 21st. My hunch is the Crown Prince was gravely wounded and later perished at a Military Hospital. ..."
"... Third, the night of the incident a twitter user named CivMilAir tracked the Royal Medevac jet leaving the airport near the gunfire and documented the airplane turning off its transponder. There was speculation concerning whether or not it was the Crown Prince that night on that thread. There was even push back from other twitter users based in Saudi Arabia. Even one demanding to know how this twitter user obtained this information. ..."
"... Fifth, the outrage at the German Government and the reports from German businesses that the door to trade has been slammed shut this past month. I attribute this to the one and only exile prince from the Royal family, Saudi Prince Khaled Bin Farhan. living in Europe. He was granted asylum by Germany. There were 3 other exiles but they have been tricked or kidnapped back to Saudi Arabia. This Prince was advocating for the removal of the Crown Prince as recently as March 23, 2018. ..."
"... Sixth, I noticed this week in the news that Crown Prince "MBS" has consolidated his control further this week by taking operational control of the construction and cyber security industries in the country. 35% of the Bin Laden group was basically stolen. I watched an interview of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal after his release from detention and he was clearly shaken. He was playing a confidence game where everything would go back to normal and mention how the Bin Laden group was back working on his projects. Then this? 35% gone overnight. Cyber security crack down or internet crackdown coming in Saudi Arabia? ..."
"... Seventh, there is no way that MBS approved the recent arrest of the feminist. Not after his carefully cultured PR campaign in the United States. ..."
"... Eight, where's Waldo? ..."
"... Here is my speculation. Al-Qaeda will be the cover story. Crown Prince MBS was killed by members of the Royal Family and other powerful individuals he made enemies with in his short rule. ..."
"... The Royal family members who supported MBS are furious at Germany for the above stated reasons and lashing out in all directions. Threatening to invade Qatar if Russia provides them the S-400. I believe even President Trump's bizarre threat to put huge tariffs on German luxury automobiles because the German public doesn't want to buy crappy American cars like the Chevy Impala is his frustration over one of his essential architects on the plan to change regime's in Iran being eliminated. ..."
"... A lot of torture and indiscriminate arrest is going on at this very moment in Saudi Arabia. The family appears split and trust lost. Time will tell. ..."
"... It would appear that there's no one in charge in SA at the moment. One can now expect a period of confusion, and lots of infighting between various factions trying to assert dominance, or just survive. ..."
"... Considering MbS's policies, I think his exit is better for the Middle East. His tilt of SA policy towards the US and Israel is likely to be reversed. ..."
"... All you need to know is that Mr. Media Roadshow decided overnight to shun video cameras, and not come out for Pompeo. The guy is dead as a door knob. He made way too many enemies during the forced corporate retreat he hosted at the Ritz. ..."
"... myself , i think the attack succeed in wounding and ultimately kill the prince , otherwise why no public appearance at all ? ( if i recall , muslim have to be buried no more than 24 hours after death so that's why i assume he was wounded at first and the medical team failed to keep him alive) ..."
"... In Assad's interview with RT he pointed out that the "opposition" first attacked Syria's air defenses at the beginning of the "civil war". Hillary wanted a "no-fly zone" over Syria. All that's missing is Victoria Nuland. ..."
"... The playground version: The neocons and Netanyahu think they're playing Trump, who in turn thinks he's use them. MbS wanted to be one of the cool kids and tried to get in on the action and might have gotten himself dead in the process. ..."
Jun 05, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

FB Ali , a day ago

Re Saudi Arabia: I have previously referred to reports regarding the death of the Saudi Crown Prince, MbS, as a result of the AQ attack on his palace on April 21. Now, pictures are circulating of his funeral.

There is so far no official announcement, but that means nothing.

My own hunch is that these reports may well be true. How long can the Saudis (and the Western media) conceal what has happened?

Pat Lang Mod -> FB Ali , a day ago
If he was killed in the April 21 incident that would explain why the women activists have now been targeted.
FB Ali -> Pat Lang , a day ago
Agree. There is also the report that he was not at the Graduation Ceremony of the King Abdul Aziz Military College on May 19. (As Defence Minister, he would have been expected to attend).
Harlan Easley -> FB Ali , 17 hours ago
I have been following the story. A few things. Yes, I have seen the pictures of the funeral and his actual corpse prepared for burial under #mbs at twitter. The pictures are not the best. The size of the corpse and the nose and receding hairline along with the cheekbones and body size could definitely be MBS along with the eyes.

Second, I believe the trip by our Secretary of State was in response to the incident of April 21st. My hunch is the Crown Prince was gravely wounded and later perished at a Military Hospital.

Third, the night of the incident a twitter user named CivMilAir tracked the Royal Medevac jet leaving the airport near the gunfire and documented the airplane turning off its transponder. There was speculation concerning whether or not it was the Crown Prince that night on that thread. There was even push back from other twitter users based in Saudi Arabia. Even one demanding to know how this twitter user obtained this information.

Fourth, the recent trip of the Lebanon Prime Minister being called to Saudi Arabia when his schedule indicated no such trip.

Fifth, the outrage at the German Government and the reports from German businesses that the door to trade has been slammed shut this past month. I attribute this to the one and only exile prince from the Royal family, Saudi Prince Khaled Bin Farhan. living in Europe. He was granted asylum by Germany. There were 3 other exiles but they have been tricked or kidnapped back to Saudi Arabia. This Prince was advocating for the removal of the Crown Prince as recently as March 23, 2018.

https://www.middleeastmonit...

And he asserted that he receives emails and other forms of communications from disaffected family members and the security services desiring for a change to be made.

Sixth, I noticed this week in the news that Crown Prince "MBS" has consolidated his control further this week by taking operational control of the construction and cyber security industries in the country. 35% of the Bin Laden group was basically stolen. I watched an interview of Saudi Prince Alwaleed bin Talal after his release from detention and he was clearly shaken. He was playing a confidence game where everything would go back to normal and mention how the Bin Laden group was back working on his projects. Then this? 35% gone overnight. Cyber security crack down or internet crackdown coming in Saudi Arabia?

Seventh, there is no way that MBS approved the recent arrest of the feminist. Not after his carefully cultured PR campaign in the United States.

Eight, where's Waldo?

Finally, here is what I find so fascinating. The KIng of Saudi Arabia is reported to have dementia. Unfortunately, I have a great deal of experience with this dreadful disease. My stepfather. 16 years. There is no King in charge of Saudi Arabia. In fact, if MBS was killed like I believe there is no legitimate line to the next ruler. Survival of the Fittest.

Here is my speculation. Al-Qaeda will be the cover story. Crown Prince MBS was killed by members of the Royal Family and other powerful individuals he made enemies with in his short rule.

The Royal family members who supported MBS are furious at Germany for the above stated reasons and lashing out in all directions. Threatening to invade Qatar if Russia provides them the S-400. I believe even President Trump's bizarre threat to put huge tariffs on German luxury automobiles because the German public doesn't want to buy crappy American cars like the Chevy Impala is his frustration over one of his essential architects on the plan to change regime's in Iran being eliminated.

A lot of torture and indiscriminate arrest is going on at this very moment in Saudi Arabia. The family appears split and trust lost. Time will tell.

FB Ali -> Harlan Easley , 2 hours ago
Thank you for that excellent rundown of events. I tend to agree with your "speculation".

It would appear that there's no one in charge in SA at the moment. One can now expect a period of confusion, and lots of infighting between various factions trying to assert dominance, or just survive.

Considering MbS's policies, I think his exit is better for the Middle East. His tilt of SA policy towards the US and Israel is likely to be reversed.

Vicky SD -> Harlan Easley , 4 hours ago
All you need to know is that Mr. Media Roadshow decided overnight to shun video cameras, and not come out for Pompeo. The guy is dead as a door knob. He made way too many enemies during the forced corporate retreat he hosted at the Ritz.
EEngineer -> FB Ali , 17 hours ago
This is news to me. How big do you think the resulting power struggle would be if MbS was killed or incapacitated? I can envision outcomes that range from 2nd page news all the way up to Archduke Ferdinand grade but I don't have any feel for the probabilities.

If true, would it cause you to see the events of the last month in the region in a different light?

disqus_f5ibuyVBnZ -> FB Ali , 4 hours ago
Brigadier,

With MBS dead, how will Saudi react to MBS's previous Israel's right to exist scenario, along with Jerusalem being declared Israel's capital and the embassy move by DT?

How much longer will the Saudi and international press be able to remain silent on this?

Who do you think will now ascend the Saudi throne as heir apparent?

J.

SurfaceBook -> FB Ali , 8 hours ago
FB Ali , sir , it is so hard to get info in the AQ Attack that allegedly mortally wound MBS.. as for the shooting reported as a wayward drone , i recall this video (anyone can confirm the skyline if this is saudi city near palace ?) , the gunfire last for long time , far too long to be guards firing on a drone.

myself , i think the attack succeed in wounding and ultimately kill the prince , otherwise why no public appearance at all ? ( if i recall , muslim have to be buried no more than 24 hours after death so that's why i assume he was wounded at first and the medical team failed to keep him alive)

do you think this is the 'blowback' from the massive shakedown that the prince did to his seniors ?

Play Hide
Bill Herschel , 18 hours ago
Has DT done a single thing that has helped Israel? I would say no. In Assad's interview with RT he pointed out that the "opposition" first attacked Syria's air defenses at the beginning of the "civil war". Hillary wanted a "no-fly zone" over Syria. All that's missing is Victoria Nuland.

Your post vividly depicts how isolated Israel has become. I reiterate DT has done nothing to help Israel and everything to harm it. One is permitted to ask what's going on.

EEngineer -> Bill Herschel , 3 hours ago
The playground version: The neocons and Netanyahu think they're playing Trump, who in turn thinks he's use them. MbS wanted to be one of the cool kids and tried to get in on the action and might have gotten himself dead in the process.

All the while Putin and the SCO crew wait and play for time as they tangle each other up into an ever larger mess of their own making hoping to avoid, or minimize, whatever conflict is necessary to get them all to accept the coming multi-polar world order.

Perhaps in the future when they make a movie about this period it will be called "A Deal Too Far".

/sarcasm

Pat Lang Mod -> Bill Herschel , 6 hours ago
The Israelis are quite pleased with him, but then, it is true tht they are short sighted fools.

[Jun 01, 2018] Illusion: The international campaign to unseat Bashar Assad is really an Izreaili campaign. In reality, secular nationalist Arab regimes were eliminated by the USA as regimes hostile to neoliberalism and neoliberal globalization

Corruption of those regime just made the task eaier, as resentment againt them can be easily eploited.
Jun 01, 2018 | www.unz.com

reiner Tor , May 25, 2018 at 8:36 pm GMT

@Polish Perspective

This is the essence of the JQ. Jewish interest transcends borders and so it is futile to speak of "Israel wants" when essentially all the major Jewish orgs are very Zionist and in effect act as a fifth column within their respective host nations.

The big mistake of Jew-aware people and organizations is (and has always been in the past) to treat Jews based on that perceived unity as if they were a monolithic organization, which they aren't.

Hitler thought that Jews were pushing the US (and previously the UK) to enter the war. (He was not wrong.) He thought that a good way to make them stop this would be to threaten European Jews. He thought that if American Jews saw that a war might endanger the very lives of all European Jews (and his threats beginning in January 1939 were quite explicit in that regard – "if Jews succeed in pushing the world into a world war once again, the result will be the extermination of European Jewry"), then American Jews might be deterred from pushing the US into the war.

Hitler's calculations would've been correct, if Jewry were monolithic organization, which it is not. If there was a World Jewish Committee which would regularly meet, then they'd coolly and rationally examine the possibilities, and perhaps decide that the destruction of the National Socialist German Reich was not worth the destruction of European Jewry. They might try to engage in talks with the Germans to get Jews out of Europe in exchange for guaranteed peace, or something.

But Jewry was totally decentralized. Hitler's anti-Jewish threats merely had the effect of making Jews (including influential Jews) more determined in their anti-German or anti-Nazi hatred, and so strengthened their push for war.

I'm afraid a similar strategy (which I had proposed just this week) would probably lead to similar results: if Russia started threatening Israel in response to American policies (pushed by American Jewry), the result would be a strengthening of resolve and would make Israel (whose policies are currently not very hostile to Russia, for example they don't participate in any sanctions or embargoes against it) also explicitly hostile to Russia.

So I'm not sure what a strong Russian stance against Israel would accomplish. I understand for example utu, since he'd be delighted if a nuclear war broke out between Israel and Russia, but I can understand why Russians (including Putin and Karlin) don't really want to risk it for Arabs.

[May 31, 2018] Journalists and academics expose UK's criminal actions in the Middle East by Julie Hyland

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... The reports delivered during the four-hour meeting provided a devastating exposure of the connection between propaganda and censorship by the media and the warmongering of governments in Britain, the United States and across the world. ..."
"... Professor Piers Robinson (Chair in Politics, Society and Political Journalism) spoke on the rebranding of government propaganda as "public relations." Drawing on his research into the Iraq war, he cited material from the Chilcot Inquiry into the war confirming the systematic manipulation and exaggeration of "intelligence" on Iraq's supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction. This included discussions between the US and British governments over how the 9/11 terror attacks could be used for regime change operations, under the slogan of the "war on terror", which Robinson described as a propaganda slogan for mobilising support for military operations. ..."
"... Stuart gave a presentation on his examination of film recorded by BBC personnel at Atareb Hospital in Aleppo on August 26, 2013 purporting to show the aftermath of a napalm-style bombing by Syrian government forces. The footage was broadcast the same evening that parliament delivered a shock vote against a military attack on Syria. He showed that much of it was staged. Not only did this potentially include the use of military casualty trauma simulations, but BBC personnel were travelling in vehicles displaying ISIS flags and alongside senior members of the western-funded White Helmets. ..."
"... It was impossible to have a functioning democracy without a functioning fourth estate, he said. This had been the gold standard but was no longer the case. Henningsen noted widespread popular opposition to war in the US that successive presidential candidates had sought to manipulate, only to betray once in power -- from George W. Bush to Barack Obama and Donald Trump. ..."
"... The mainstream media have enormous assets and resources but claim democracy is threatened by "fake news", when they are the purveyors of fake news and the real threat to democracy. ..."
May 31, 2018 | www.wsws.org

"Government propaganda and the war on terror from 9/11 to Syria"

Media on Trial held a successful event in Leeds on Sunday, in the face of sustained efforts to prevent the meeting taking place.

The group was formed by Frome Stop War, based in Somerset. Working with academics, investigative journalists and other interested parties and individuals, and drawing on the illegal 2003 invasion of Iraq, Media on Trial seeks to "cultivate public scepticism when faced with establishment and corporate media's partisan reporting at times of conflict". It held well-attended meetings in Frome and London last year. Its success in exposing the ongoing regime-change operations in Syria, and government/media propaganda to this end, has made its members the subject of an organised media smear campaign, culminating in efforts to silence it altogether.

" Government propaganda and the war on terror from 9/11 to Syria" was booked at Leeds City Museum. But in an assault on free speech, Labour-run Leeds City Council in West Yorkshire cancelled the event .

Sheila Coombes speaking at Media on Trial

Sheila Coombes (Frome Stop War) has reported that the ban, made on May 3 -- World Press Freedom Day -- came after a series of attacks on several of the featured speakers by the Huffington Post , Guardian and Times newspapers as "Assad Apologists".

Among those targeted were Professor Piers Robinson (University of Sheffield), Professor Tim Hayward (University of Edinburgh) -- both of the Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media (WGSPM) -- and investigative journalist Vanessa Beeley.

Having travelled to Leeds to check out the venue, Coombes was told that Leeds City Council had cancelled the event, suggesting that "security issues" were involved. She was informed that it was a blanket ban and that no other council-run venue would host it.

Less than an hour after she had been informed, the Yorkshire Post ran an online article welcoming the ban, followed by a similar report in the Huffington Post . The speed of publication suggests that these media outlets were aware of the ban before Coombes herself had been informed.

Piers Robinson speaking at the Media on Trial event

Coombes reports that she was in contact with police regarding security arrangements for the event and that she had been informed by the police officer in charge that he had advised Leeds City Council there was "no intelligence to assess a threat". A second alternative private venue was also cancelled.

Media on Trial was forced to keep details of the third venue secret until shortly before it was due to open and restrict entrance to those who had already purchased tickets. The panel was eventually able to go ahead on Sunday at the Baab-ul-llm Islamic education centre, one of the few venues prepared to stand in defiance of this campaign of censorship. Approximately 200 people attended.

The reports delivered during the four-hour meeting provided a devastating exposure of the connection between propaganda and censorship by the media and the warmongering of governments in Britain, the United States and across the world.

Professor Piers Robinson (Chair in Politics, Society and Political Journalism) spoke on the rebranding of government propaganda as "public relations." Drawing on his research into the Iraq war, he cited material from the Chilcot Inquiry into the war confirming the systematic manipulation and exaggeration of "intelligence" on Iraq's supposed Weapons of Mass Destruction. This included discussions between the US and British governments over how the 9/11 terror attacks could be used for regime change operations, under the slogan of the "war on terror", which Robinson described as a propaganda slogan for mobilising support for military operations.

Robert Stuart is an independent researcher whose presentation on the "irregularities" in the BBC Panorama documentary, "Saving Syria's Children," encouraged film producer and writer Victor Lewis-Smith to tear up his BBC contract in disgust.

Robert Stuart speaking at the Media on Trial event

Stuart gave a presentation on his examination of film recorded by BBC personnel at Atareb Hospital in Aleppo on August 26, 2013 purporting to show the aftermath of a napalm-style bombing by Syrian government forces. The footage was broadcast the same evening that parliament delivered a shock vote against a military attack on Syria. He showed that much of it was staged. Not only did this potentially include the use of military casualty trauma simulations, but BBC personnel were travelling in vehicles displaying ISIS flags and alongside senior members of the western-funded White Helmets.

Professor Tim Hayward (Environmental Political Theory) questioned the morality of the media presenting information that was untrue and its implications for democracy and society. He questioned the media's complicity in glorifying jihadi figures, despite this being in contravention of the British governments' own anti-terror laws. He drew attention to broadcasts on Channel 4 that provided flattering accounts of British women signing up for jihad. The media were guilty of inverting the truth and placing a "lockdown" on information that breached the rudiments of journalistic integrity.

American journalist and broadcaster Patrick Henningsen (21st Century Wire), drew attention to the unprecedented conditions in which the meeting was being held, "in secret, in a tent".

It was impossible to have a functioning democracy without a functioning fourth estate, he said. This had been the gold standard but was no longer the case. Henningsen noted widespread popular opposition to war in the US that successive presidential candidates had sought to manipulate, only to betray once in power -- from George W. Bush to Barack Obama and Donald Trump.

The mainstream media have enormous assets and resources but claim democracy is threatened by "fake news", when they are the purveyors of fake news and the real threat to democracy.

Peter Ford is a former UK ambassador to Syria (2003–2006) and now Director of the British Syrian Society. He noted that the government had been forced to convene the Leveson Inquiry into the media after the phone-hacking scandal involving Murdoch's News of the World . But those actions were trivial in comparison with the real charge sheet that needed to be presented against the media: that of "war mongering and aiding and abetting war mongering".

Vanessa Beeley is an international investigative journalist and photographer who had reported from inside Syria (including East Aleppo), Egypt and Palestine. She played an important role in exposing Syria's White Helmets as an arm of western propaganda and regime change operations.

She delivered a moving account of the situation within Syria and the capital Damascus. In addition to detailing the role of the White Helmets and other institutions financed and backed by western governments, Beeley noted that, especially following the Second World War, pro-war propaganda was deemed a threat to peace. The Nuremberg Trials in 1946 characterised propaganda to facilitate war as a serious crime against humanity; one of the gravest that could be committed. Today, those who advocate peace and the defence of international law are smeared and silenced, while those who promote war are being lauded in the media.

In the short time available for questions, contributions were made, including the possibility of practical action against war-mongering.

Julie Hyland, speaking for the World Socialist Web Site , was greeted warmly by the audience for raising that the high point of the international campaign of smears and censorship is the attack on Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder who is in grave danger of eviction from the Ecuadorian Embassy and extradition to the United States.

Henningson replied that the embassy had determined to cut Assange's internet access and personal communications while Syria was being targeted for military strikes. "I don't underestimate the influence of Julian Assange at those critical times. His own website was taken offline as the air strike by the US, Britain and France were happening, along with several other web sites". He added, "Julian Assange is being silenced because they don't want someone like him to have a platform".

Video of the Media on Trial Leeds event can be viewed here

[May 28, 2018] Shatter Syria into small statelets is the neocons goal; It was also one of the original goals of Iraq invasion too

Notable quotes:
"... Shatter Syria and Iraq Into Many Small Pieces ..."
"... By WashingtonsBlog ..."
"... February 25, 2016 ..."
"... With several of the "Clean Break" paper's authors now holding key positions in Washington, the plan for Israel to "transcend" its foes by reshaping the Middle East looks a good deal more achievable today than it did in 1996. Americans may even be persuaded to give up their lives to achieve it. ..."
"... "[T]he actual purpose was to blow the country to smithereens: to atomize it, and crush it, so that it would never rise again. ..."
"... "When we invaded and occupied Iraq, we didn't just militarily defeat Iraq's armed forces – we ..."
"... dismantled their army ..."
"... , and their police force, along with all the other institutions that held the country together. The educational system was destroyed, and not reconstituted. The infrastructure was ..."
"... , and never restored. Even the physical hallmarks of a civilized society – ..."
"... electrical plants ..."
"... water facilities ..."
"... – were bombed out of existence or else left to fall into disrepair. Along with that, the spiritual and psychological infrastructure that enables a society to function – the bonds of trust, allegiance, and custom – was ..."
"... , leaving Iraqis to fend for themselves in a war of all against all. ..."
"... By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya , Global Research, November 2006) ..."
www.defenddemocracy.press
Shatter Syria and Iraq Into Many Small Pieces

By WashingtonsBlog
February 25, 2016

... ... ...

Its roots can be traced, at least in part, to a paper published in 1996 by an Israeli thinktank, the Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies. Entitled "A clean break: a new strategy for securing the realm", it was intended as a political blueprint for the incoming government of Binyamin Netanyahu . As the title indicates, it advised the right-wing Mr Netanyahu to make a complete break with the past by adopting a strategy "based on an entirely new intellectual foundation, one that restores strategic initiative and provides the nation the room to engage every possible energy on rebuilding Zionism "

***

The paper set out a plan by which Israel would "shape its strategic environment", beginning with the removal of Saddam Hussein and the installation of a Hashemite monarchy in Baghdad.

With Saddam out of the way and Iraq thus brought under Jordanian Hashemite influence, Jordan and Turkey would form an axis along with Israel to weaken and "roll back" Syria. Jordan, it suggested, could also sort out Lebanon by "weaning" the Shia Muslim population away from Syria and Iran, and re-establishing their former ties with the Shia in the new Hashemite kingdom of Iraq. "Israel will not only contain its foes; it will transcend them", the paper concluded.

***

The leader of the "prominent opinion makers" who wrote it was Richard Perle – now chairman of the Defence Policy Board at the Pentagon . Also among the eight-person team was Douglas Feith, a neo-conservative lawyer, who now holds one of the top four posts at the Pentagon as under-secretary of policy .

***

Two other opinion-makers in the team were David Wurmser and his wife, Meyrav (see US thinktanks give lessons in foreign policy , August 19). Mrs Wurmser was co-founder of Memri, a Washington-based charity that distributes articles translated from Arabic newspapers portraying Arabs in a bad light. After working with Mr Perle at the American Enterprise Institute, David Wurmser is now at the State Department, as a special assistant to John Bolton, the under-secretary for arms control and international security.

A fifth member of the team was James Colbert, of the Washington-based Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs (Jinsa) – a bastion of neo-conservative hawkery whose advisory board was previously graced by Dick Cheney (now US vice-president), John Bolton and Douglas Feith.

***

With several of the "Clean Break" paper's authors now holding key positions in Washington, the plan for Israel to "transcend" its foes by reshaping the Middle East looks a good deal more achievable today than it did in 1996. Americans may even be persuaded to give up their lives to achieve it.

Read also: On Northern Syria Front Line, U.S. and Turkey Head Into Tense Face-off

(Before assuming prominent roles in the Bush administration, many of the same people – including Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, John Bolton and others – advocated their imperial views during the Clinton administration via their American think tank, the "Project for a New American Century".)

Thomas Harrington – professor of Iberian Studies at Trinity College in Hartford, Connecticut – writes :

[While there are some good articles on the chaos in Iraq, none of them] consider whether the chaos now enveloping the region might, in fact, be the desired aim of policy planners in Washington and Tel Aviv .

***

One of the prime goals of every empire is to foment ongoing internecine conflict in the territories whose resources and/or strategic outposts they covet .

***

The most efficient way of sparking such open-ended internecine conflict is to brutally smash the target country's social matrix and physical infrastructure.

***

Ongoing unrest has the additional perk of justifying the maintenance and expansion of the military machine that feeds the financial and political fortunes of the metropolitan elite.

In short divide and rule is about as close as it gets to a universal recourse the imperial game and that it is, therefore, as important to bear it in mind today as it was in the times of Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, the Spanish Conquistadors and the British Raj.

To those -- and I suspect there are still many out there -- for whom all this seems too neat or too conspiratorial , I would suggest a careful side-by side reading of:

  1. a) the "Clean Break" manifesto generated by the Jerusalem-based Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies (IASPS) in 1996

and

  1. b) the "Rebuilding America's Defenses" paper generated by The Project for a New American Century (PNAC) in 2000, a US group with deep personal and institutional links to the aforementioned Israeli think tank, and with the ascension of George Bush Junior to the White House, to the most exclusive sanctums of the US foreign policy apparatus.

To read the cold-blooded imperial reasoning in both of these documents -- which speak, in the first case, quite openly of the need to destabilize the region so as to reshape Israel's "strategic environment" and, in the second of the need to dramatically increase the number of US "forward bases" in the region .

To do so now, after the US's systematic destruction of Iraq and Libya -- two notably oil-rich countries whose delicate ethnic and religious balances were well known to anyone in or out of government with more than passing interest in history -- , and after the its carefully calibrated efforts to generate and maintain murderous and civilization-destroying stalemates in Syria and Egypt (something that is easily substantiated despite our media's deafening silence on the subject), is downright blood-curdling.

And yet, it seems that for even very well-informed analysts, it is beyond the pale to raise the possibility that foreign policy elites in the US and Israel, like all virtually all the ambitious hegemons before them on the world stage, might have quite coldly and consciously fomented open-ended chaos in order to achieve their overlapping strategic objectives in this part of the world.

Antiwar's Justin Raimondo notes :

Iraq's fate was sealed from the moment we invaded: it has no future as a unitary state. As I pointed out again and again in the early days of the conflict, Iraq is fated to split apart into at least three separate states: the Shi'ite areas around Baghdad and to the south, the Sunni regions to the northwest, and the Kurdish enclave which was itching for independence since well before the US invasion. This was the War Party's real if unexpressed goal from the very beginning: the atomization of Iraq, and indeed the entire Middle East. Their goal, in short, was chaos – and that is precisely what we are seeing today.

Read also: Waeponizing Humiliation

***

As I put it years ago :

"[T]he actual purpose was to blow the country to smithereens: to atomize it, and crush it, so that it would never rise again.

"When we invaded and occupied Iraq, we didn't just militarily defeat Iraq's armed forces – we dismantled their army , and their police force, along with all the other institutions that held the country together. The educational system was destroyed, and not reconstituted. The infrastructure was pulverized , and never restored. Even the physical hallmarks of a civilized society – roads , bridges , electrical plants , water facilities , museums , schools – were bombed out of existence or else left to fall into disrepair. Along with that, the spiritual and psychological infrastructure that enables a society to function – the bonds of trust, allegiance, and custom – was dissolved , leaving Iraqis to fend for themselves in a war of all against all.

" What we are witnessing in post-Saddam Iraq is the erasure of an entire country. We can say, with confidence: We came, we saw, we atomized."

Why? This is the question that inevitably arises in the wake of such an analysis: why deliberately destroy an entire country whose people were civilized while our European ancestors were living in trees?

The people who planned, agitated for, and executed this war are the very same people who have advanced Israeli interests – at America's expense – at every opportunity. In " A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm ," a 1996 document prepared by a gaggle of neocons – Perle, Douglas Feith, James Colbert, Charles Fairbanks, Jr., Robert Loewenberg, David Wurmser, and Meyrav Wurmser – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was urged to "break out" of Israel's alleged stagnation and undertake a campaign of "regime change" across the Middle East, targeting Lebanon, Libya, Syria, Iraq, and eventually Iran. With the exception of Iran – and that one's still cooking on the back burner – this is precisely what has occurred. In 2003, in the immediate wake of our Pyrrhic "victory" in Iraq, then Prime Minister Ariel Sharon declared to a visiting delegation of American members of Congress that these "rogue states" – Iran, Libya, and Syria – would have to be next on the War Party's target list.

( Indeed .)

And Michel Chossudovsky points out :

The division of Iraq along sectarian-ethnic lines has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for more than 10 years .

What is envisaged by Washington is the outright suppression of the Baghdad regime and the institutions of the central government, leading to a process of political fracturing and the elimination of Iraq as a country .

This process of political fracturing in Iraq along sectarian lines will inevitably have an impact on Syria, where the US-NATO sponsored terrorists have in large part been defeated.

Destabilization and political fragmentation in Syria is also contemplated: Washington's intent is no longer to pursue the narrow objective of "regime change" in Damascus. What is contemplated is the break up of both Iraq and Syria along sectarian-ethnic lines .

The formation of the caliphate may be the first step towards a broader conflict in the Middle East, bearing in mind that Iran is supportive of the al-Maliki government and the US ploy may indeed be to encourage the intervention of Iran.

The proposed re-division of both Iraq and Syria is broadly modeled on that of the Federation of Yugoslavia which was split up into seven "independent states" (Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia (FYRM), Slovenia, Montenegro, Kosovo). According to Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya, the re division of Iraq into three separate states is part of a broader process of redrawing the Map of the Middle East.

Read also: Statement from Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter on Current U.S.-North Korea Relations

The above map was prepared by Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters. It was published in the Armed Forces Journal in June 2006, Peters is a retired colonel of the U.S. National War Academy. (Map Copyright Lieutenant-Colonel Ralph Peters 2006).

Although the map does not officially reflect Pentagon doctrine, it has been used in a training program at NATO's Defense College for senior military officers". (See Plans for Redrawing the Middle East: The Project for a "New Middle East" By Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya , Global Research, November 2006)

Breaking Apart Syria

Similarly, Neooconservatives in the U.S. and Israel have long advocated for the balkanization of Syria into smaller regions based on ethnicity and religion. The goal was to break up the country, and to do away with the sovereignty of Syria as a separate nation.

In 1982, a prominent Israeli journalist formerly attached to the Israeli Foreign Ministry allegedly wrote a book expressly calling for the break up of Syria:

All the Arab states should be broken down, by Israel, into small units . Dissolution of Syria and Iraq later on into ethnically or religiously unique areas such as in Lebanon, is Israel's primary target on the Eastern front in the long run.

It is well-documented that – in 1996 – U.S. and Israeli Neocons advocated : Weakening, containing, and even rolling back Syria.As Michel Chossudovsky points out :

Destabilization and political fragmentation in Syria is also contemplated: Washington's intent is no longer to pursue the narrow objective of "regime change" in Damascus. What is contemplated is the break up of both Iraq and Syria along sectarian-ethnic lines.

In 2013, former Israeli diplomat Alon Pinkas said :

Let them both [sides] bleed, haemorrhage to death: that's the strategic thinking here. As long as this lingers, there's no real threat from Syria.

Indeed, in May 2015, one of the key architects of the Iraq war – John Bolton – said:

The Arabs divided between Sunnis and Shias – I think the Sunni Arabs are never going to agree to be in a state where the Shia outnumber them 3-1. That's what ISIS has been able to take advantage of.

I think our objective should be a new Sunni state out of the western part of Iraq, the eastern part of Syria run by moderates or at least authoritarians who are not radical Islamists. What's left of the state of Iraq, as of right now, is simply a satellite of the ayatollahs in Tehran. It's not anything we should try to aid.

In September 2015, Pentagon intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart said that he has "a tough time" seeing either Iraq or Syria really coming back together as sovereign nations.

Dan Sanchez noted last week:

In general, Israel ideally prefers regime changes that result in the installation of stable puppets. That is Plan A. But Plan B is to balkanize . Better to divide and conquer than to countenance a "rogue" (independent) neighbor.

So it is noteworthy that Israel is endorsing its Plan B for Syria just when its enemies are making it plain that Plan A (" Assad Must Go ") is not happening any time soon.

And SecState John Kerry confirmed just yesterday that "Plan B" is to break Syria up into different states.

[May 27, 2018] Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is Run by MI6

May 27, 2018 | www.informationclearinghouse.info

"Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" is Run by MI6?

On Sources And Information - The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights

By Moon Of Alabama

May 26, 2018 " Information Clearing House " - The Syrian Observatory For Human Rights (SOHR) claims to be a one person shop in Coventry, Britain. But that is only the front story. It is part of a larger organization and the intelligence infrastructure used to wage war on Syria.

A few commentators have recently criticized that I used SOHR as a source in some of my pieces. Here is why.

SOHR is not a pure propaganda operation like the White Helmets are . It is relatively truthful in its reporting of events and casualties in Syria. The total casualty count of the war SOHR gives is likely too high due to some estimates it uses in its bottom numbers. But an early check of its detailed accounts showed that its reports from incidents on the ground were mostly correct.

SOHR's numbers have been quoted by about every news outlet in the world, usually in pro-rebel propaganda pieces. But it is not the observatory that turns the information it collects into propaganda. The media do that when they quote SOHR without the necessary caveats or when they disregard it where its information contradicts the official story. The examples below show that this is now often the case.

One of the first descriptions of the one man who allegedly runs SOHR is in a Reuters portrait from late 2011:

With only a few hours sleep, a phone glued to his ear and another two ringing, the fast-talking director of arguably Syria's most high-profile human rights group is a very busy man.

"Are there clashes? How did he die? Ah, he was shot," said Rami Abdulrahman into a phone, the talk of gunfire and death incongruous with his two bedroom terraced home in Coventry, from where he runs the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

When he isn't fielding calls from international media, Abdulrahman is a few minutes down the road at his clothes shop, which he runs with his wife.

The idea that one man alone could keep track of all casualties in Syria, or stay in contact with so many local contacts on the ground, never made sense. It is simply too much work for one man who also runs a shop and cares for a family. It was obvious that there was more behind it.

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SOHR's main function was to keep a current casualty count of the war in Syria. The Reuters piece noted:

According to the observatory's latest figures, 3,441 civilians and 1,280 security forces have been killed.

The overall number in the casualty count SOHR gave did make sense. The categorization of the numbers did not. The numbers led casual readers assume that only one side of the war in Syria was armed. The numbers could not explained how the security forces were killed. It took a while before people woke up to that mismatch and asked SOHR. It willingly answered the question . But only few reports, like this one from June 2012 , used the answer and explained the mismatch to their readers:

Those killed since March last year comprised 9,862 civilians, 3,470 soldiers and 783 army deserters, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

The Britain-based watchdog counts rebel fighters who are not deserters from the army as civilians.

This was a technical correct but crude mislabeling of killed "civilians", most of which were in fact anti-government fighters. But SOHR did not hide its dubious categorization. Anyone who asked was provided with the caveat above. But only few journalist asked despite the obvious mismatch in the casualty numbers and even fewer put the caveat into print. You will hardly find it in any current news piece that uses SOHR numbers.

Patrick Lang, a trained military spy and former Middle East chief of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency, asserted several times that the "Syrian Observatory for Human Rights" is run by MI6, Britain's foreign intelligence service.

Peter Hitchens recently reported that SOHR is at least partially financed by the British Foreign Office:

Talking of war, and Syria, many of you may have noticed frequent references in the media to a body called the 'Syrian Observatory for Human Rights', often quoted as if it is an impartial source of information about that complicated conflict, in which the British government clearly takes sides. The 'Observatory' says on its website that it is 'not associated or linked to any political body.'

To which I reply: Is Boris Johnson's Foreign Office not a political body? Because the FO just confirmed to me that 'the UK funded a project worth £194,769.60 to provide the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights with communications equipment and cameras. ' That's quite a lot, isn't it? I love the precision of that 60p. Your taxes, impartially, at work.

MI6 is subordinated to the British Foreign Office. The paltry sum of £195,000 pounds was surely not the only money Rami Abdulrahman received for more than seven years of daily work. There must be a rather large organization behind the dozens of news items and tweets the observatory puts out each and every day.

The SOHR reports often contain valuable information.

Over the last year, as the Syrian government side regained more and more ground, a new phenomenon arose. SOHR appeared less in western media reports on Syria. Its version of events was often missing in stories that involved U.S. operations. The reason was simple. SOHR continued to report somewhat truthful versions of events while the propaganda moved further away from reality.

Here are several incidents of many more where SOHR contradicted the official western propaganda tale. In reports about these incidents in the New York Times and elsewhere the SOHR's version of the events was simply ignored.

On October 13 2017 the U.S. coalition made a deal with the Islamic State to give free passage for ISIS fighters from the besieged Raqqa to south-east Syria. The U.S. military, which leads the coalition, loudly denied that it was involved.

SOHR disagreed :

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights received information from Knowledgeable and independent sources confirming reaching a deal between the International Coalition and the Syria Democratic Forces in one hand; and the "Islamic State" organization in the other hand, and the deal stated the exit of the remaining members of the "Islamic State" organization out of Al-Raqqah city.

In January 10 2018 SOHR reported that the U.S. coalition released 400 ISIS fighters from prison and that at least 120 of them joined the Syrian Democratic Forces led by Kurdish fighters and U.S. special forces. It confirmed several U.S. attacks which had killed dozens of civilians in east Syria. The U.S. military denied that it let ISIS fighters go and it denied all civilian casualty claims.

On April 8 2018 the White Helmets propaganda organization claimed that a chlorine gas attack in East-Ghouta had killed dozens.

SOHR disagreed . It reported of people suffocating after their shelter came down on them. It did not report of any gas incident or casualties:

[A]mong the casualties there are 21 civilians including 9 children and 3 women were killed as a result of suffocation caused by the shelling which destroyed basements of houses as a result of the violence bombardment that stopped about an hour ago on Douma area.

Witnesses on the ground and especially the doctors in the field hospital in east-Ghouta also spoke of suffocation and breathing problems caused by dust clouds after intense aerial bombing and artillery strikes.

On April 16 the U.S. launched a large cruise missile attack against Syria "in retaliation" for the fake gas attack in east-Ghouta. It claimed that all 105 cruise missiles hit the three intended targets.

SOHR disagreed :

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights managed to monitored interception by the regime forces to tens of missiles which targeted their positions and military bases in the Syrian territory, where several intersected sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory, that the number missiles that were downed, exceeded 65 missiles, of the total number of missiles fired by the Trio Coalition ...

SOHR also said that eight targets were attacked but only three received hits. The SOHR report is consistent with witness reports, earlier published U.S. targeting plans and with statements by the Syrian and Russian military.

On May 24 2018 Syrian positions in east Syria near the T-2 pumping station were first attacked by ISIS and then by U.S. airplanes. The U.S. denied to have attacked there.

SOHR disagreed :

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights learned from several reliable sources that the airstrikes that were carried out on sites of the pro-regime gunmen in Desert Deir Ezzor; have caused human losses, where the Syrian Observatory documented the killing of at least 12 pro-regime gunmen of non-Syrian nationalities, as a result of the airstrikes that were carried out by warplanes believed to belong to the International Coalition , which targeted positions of the above-mentioned forces near the 2nd Station "T2", which is more than 65 km away of al-Bokamal city in Deir Ezzor Desert, while others were injured with varying severity, and the death toll is expected to rise because there are some people in critical situation.

The Russian, Syrian or Iraqi air force are generally not operating in the east, southwards of the Euphrates. Only U.S. coalition planes are flying there. It is thus very likely that the SOHR report is correct.


Patrick Lang, the former DIA Middle East chief and a trained spy, always urges to distinguish between information and its source. A reputable source can give bad information. A source with a bad repute may nonetheless make correct claims.

There are a few simple rules I use to come nearer to the truth:

SOHR, despite being an intelligence outlet of a government hostile to Syria, can be regarded as a relatively reliable source. Some of its reports may well be wrong or slandered. But that should not prevent one from using it.

[ Moon of Alabama is currently asking for donations. Please support this site.]

This article was originally published by " Moon Of Alabama " -

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Information Clearing House.

See also:

RT Outs Rami Abdulrahmn (SOHR), Source of Lies and Vitriol Against Syria

[May 20, 2018] Missiles' Exchange Rate by Evgeniy Satanovskiy

Notable quotes:
"... Evgeniy Satanovskiy ; Originally appeared at VPK , translated by J.Hawk exclusively for SouthFront ..."
May 20, 2018 | www.veteranstoday.com
Written by Evgeniy Satanovskiy ; Originally appeared at VPK , translated by J.Hawk exclusively for SouthFront

Washington's declaration of withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, which is something that President Trump threatened to do for a fairly long time, and the exchange of strikes between Iran and Israel, have become the focus of attention of the international media.

Incidentally, what's typical is that in spite of the possibility of escalation, a big Iran-Israel war, and especially a direct clash in Syria between the US and Russia and even US and Iran, are far from inevitable. An analysis of events suggests restraint on part of all concerned. It's no accident Iran fired not on the internationally recognized territory of Israel but the Golan Heights which nobody in the world officially considers part of Israel. And even then only military facilities were struck.

At the same time, the Tehran-Jerusalem conflict is far from exhausted, and it may evolve in several unpredictable directions. This includes the struggle for power and resources within the Iranian elite, where the military and security officials are openly opposed to President Rouhani's people. As far as the US violation of the Iran deal is concerned, Trump inflicted severe damage on "Atlantic solidarity." It can't be ruled out that his main goal was to subordinate NATO allies to Washington and undermine the EU's economic potential, both of which are unacceptable to European capitals.

The smoldering Iran-Israel confrontation in the meantime entered an active phase. On early morning of May 10, Al-Quds units launched rockets at military sites on Gola heights. This event followed weeks of gradual escalation of Israeli attacks against Iranian positions in Syria, including the May 9 strike on a supposed IRGC-linked facility in southern suburbs of Damascus. The initial Iranian and Syrian volley which consisted, according to the IDF, of at least 20 rockets, provoked a retaliation against targets in western Syria including around Damascus. IDF press service announced that it struck dozens of Al-Quds sites in Syria. They included Iranian intelligence units controlled by Al-Quds, its headquarters, military and logistical facilities, an Iranian military camp north of Damascus, Al-Quds weapons storage in the Damascus international airport, information systems linked to Al-Quds, outposts and observation points in the buffer zone. An Iranian launcher unleashing rockets against Israel was hit. Israeli aircraft also attacked Syrian air defense units which opened fire in spite of warnings.

US intelligence sources state that Israeli aircraft operated over the Lebanese airspace to minimize losses. IDF announced some Iranian rockets were intercepted by Iron Dome. Iranians delivered a significant response to the constant Iranian attacks, and that fact by itself means a new phase of the Syria war which is now additionally complicated by the Jerusalem-Tehran conflict. Moreover, Israel brought its forces on the Golan into full readiness some three days earlier, and the preparations included restoring bomb shelters there.

Prime Minister's Reconnaissance

Israel's PM Netanyahu arrived in Moscow with the clear goal of ascertaining Russia's position and the degree of its military involvement in the Iran-Israel confrontation in Syria. The main issue were Moscow's efforts to modernize Syria's air defenses which would greatly complicate future Israeli airstrikes and Russia's ability to deter Iran from future rocket strikes. But this kind of mediation is only possible if Israel were to abandon preventive airstrikes, which it's not about to do. But if Iranian rocket strikes are repeated, it might mean an IDF land operation on Israel's northern borders, leading to the possibility of a direct clash with Iranians and Lebanese.

On the other hand, Netanyahu's very visit to Moscow for the Victory Day, him walking by the side of President Vladimir Putin as part of the Immortal Regiment, was supposed to demonstrate the "closeness of positions." It was a signal to both Iran and the United States. PM's departure abroad, while his country was in full battle readiness due to the expected Iranian strike would have appeared odd if the Israeli leadership expected a serious war. However, the missile exchange was predictable. Right up until this latest escalation, both Israeli and US sources emphasized the growing likelihood of an Iranian military response. Tehran increased shipments of weapons and equipment to Syria, and warned more than once that Israeli strikes on its positions in Syria would not go unanswered.

Even so, Iran is inclined to avoid a big war with Israel, particularly since it's trying to strengthen its positions in Syria and preserve the strength of its own forces. Its most important priority is completing the suppression of anti-Assad enclaves in the central and southern parts of Syria which would shift the center of gravity of operations not toward Israel but toward Idlib and the regions east of Euphrates. That's where the question of Saudi presence in Syria will be decided, which is a more important priority for Iran, given its efforts to establish the "Shia Crescent", than the Israeli sector. Jerusalem is also not interested in a prolonged armed conflict with Tehran.

The Bomb and Rocket Show

Israel and Iran de-facto enacted an impressive show in the Syrian stage with the aim of communicating their political stances to the world community. The main issues are the Iran nuclear deal (JCPOA) and its US abrogation, followed by political isolation of the US by its allies. This worries Israel. Netanyahu's demonstration of "intelligence documents" on the eve of Washington's withdrawal from JCPOA accusing Iran of cheating had no effect on the EU, which may ignore US sanctions. By provoking Iran, Israel sustained a high degree of tension which made defending JCPOA harder for the EU, due to Iran's "aggressive acts."

Strikes on Israeli targets were supposed to harden US positions, and provoke the US to enter into a direct confrontation with Syria and Iran. Experts believe that Israel is not prepared for an independent military campaign against Iran, which it demonstrated during the Obama years. That's what Pentagon counted on, hence the "calm" reaction from Washington. The US did not comment on the Al-Quds strikes on the IDF forward positions on the Golan and referred questions to Israeli government. This means diplomatic support.

Iran demonstrated to Europe possible consequences of the US withdrawal from JCPOA and negatively reacted to Israeli PM's growing "understanding" with Moscow. Several sources have indicated this action was backed by IRGC "hard-liners".

US analysts believe Iran and Israel are not about to expand their conflict at beyond the borders of Syria, but there is risk that their clashes may slip from under control. They suppose that the diplomatic approach to Moscow had no result. But it's extremely important for Israel not to cause a conflict with Russia in Syria, while maintaining close cooperation with the US and adopt a more aggressive stance toward Iran. The last round of strikes and counter-strikes represents a serious danger of escalation, giving Jerusalem an opening to pursue more active measures against Iran's presence in Syria. There is also a danger that Iran-Israel clashes will spread to Lebanon and potentially draw in Russia and the US.

In Syria's east, according to the Pentagon, there are more frequent clashes between US-supported Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) and Shia militias. Iranian and Syrian air defenses face the risk of confusing US coalition and Israeli aircraft. Pro-Iranian militants in Syria could strike US targets. Russia's priority in this situation is undoubtedly the de-escalation of Iran-Israel conflict, in view of the risks it poses to Russian forces and aims in Syria.

The US is also inclined in favor of de-escalation, in order to avoid being drawn into a full-scale combat in Syria, which Washington doesn't need. It's aim is to preserve a relative stability zone east of Euphrates, where political alternatives to Damascus may be established among the local Sunnis. This requires time and absence of local fighting. On the other hand, Israel's strikes draw away pro-Iran forces toward Syria's south, away from Eurphrates. But Israel is not prepared for a constant conflict on the Golan, in addition to Southern Lebanon and Gaza.

More concerns!

Political scientists' discussions in international media revolve around the following questions: will the US attack Iran? Will there be a big war? Will US actions lead to IRGC "hawks" coming to power in Iran, causing a resumption of the nuclear program? Will the region collapse into chaos that will be remotely controlled from the US, after it leaves from the Middle East and the Gulf region? Will the US force its will on the EU? What is Russia to do in this situation?

It seems Washington is not about to strike Iranian targets either in Iran or Syria. At least not during the period until November 4, which is the date of reimposition of sanctions on Iran -- the US is introducing sanctions so that it doesn't have to fight. All the more since their strikes don't solve anything, and can't influence anything. The center of gravity of US policy toward Iran is not military action, but rather attempts at economic strangulation in order to facilitate social ferment. Without the US, none of its allies will engage in a full-scale war with Iran.

This kind of conflict means that, apart from personnel and economic losses, Saudi Arabia and UAE will not be able to pursue the diversification of economy they proclaimed. This also applies to Israel, which wants to participate in the stand-off with Iran only jointly with the US, by incentivizing the US to exit JCPOA and launch a preventive strike. These steps have thus far been resisted by the Pentagon which is against any military operations until when pro-Iran forces openly attack US military presence in the region. This is the main guarantee that US will not strike Iran in the foreseeable future, in spite of all the rhetoric and prognoses made by Iranian leaders.

Iranians, Europeans, and Americans will seek ways to reach an acceptable compromise before November 4. Tehran will be in a waiting mode, without leaving JCPOA, and sound out EU positions. There are yet no grounds to believe IRGC "hawks" will come to power. Their last attempt to strengthen their positions in Iranian power structure during the recent social unrest was a failure. The ultraconservatives' leader and former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, is still under house arrest. IRGC dissent was crushed by the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who never allowed the IRGC, rather than the reformers, to seize the role of the dominant competitor to the clerics in the struggle for power in Iran. Instead, the reformers have grown stronger thanks to the clerics' efforts to use them against the security bloc.

As far as the EU is concerned, Rouhani's words are quite telling. He said the following in a phone conversation with Angela Merkel: "I call on the EU, in particular France, UK, and Germany, to adopt a firm position to guarantee Iranian interests within the signed agreement." This concerns the sale of oil, gas, and finance. Merkel confirmed Berlin is sticking to the agreement as long as Iran fulfills its obligations. She also spoke in favor of expanding the list of countries participating in the talks with Iran on its ballistic missile program, and on developments in the region, including in Syria and Yemen.

France's Economy and Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire commented on the US decision to abandon JCPOA and reimpose sanctions on radio station Europe 1: "It's time to shift from words to action from the point of view of economic sovereignty." Europe, according to Le Maire, should not be a US vassal. He said that he'll meet with his British and French counterparts in late May "to see what can be done in response to the US". He noted that EU already work on endowing Europe with financial instruments that would make it independent of the US. he reminded that in 1996 the Council of Europe adopted a resolution on protecting the union against extraterritorial sanctions. "This turns the US into an economic gendarme of the planet, and think it unacceptable," said Le Maire.

For Russia, any serious conflict in the Middle East is automatically to its long-term benefit, both economically (because Europe and Asia lose hydrocarbon sources which cannot be compensated by US LNG or fracked oil) and politically. It accentuates Russia's potential as a military superpower and a guarantor of borders of this or that country, not to mention its prospects for arms conflicts. The conflict moreover does not concern Russia directly, though it does signal the end of the unipolar world order.

This makes clear what Moscow ought to do: nothing other than what it's been doing so far. Hover above the fray, and bring to a logical conclusion its current policy in Syria. JCPOA is a matter for the US, EU, and the Arab world. Here the main tasks for the Russian diplomats is to say the right things and express concern. Other forms of diplomacy will be more effective, particularly the military-political one, as in Syria or Afghanistan. Russia won't be able to exploit EU's unhappiness with the US, or become a bridge between the EU and Iran, which is what some Russian experts are calling for.

In the first of the two, the relations with Russia are not as critical. US remains the key EU partner, in spite of differences on certain trade issues and JCPOA. The biggest factor here is the volume of economic losses caused by loyalty to Washington. Once the losses from Iran sanctions, aluminum, steel, and iron sanctions, the growth of own expenditures on defense, and the rest, start to exceed the volume of bilateral trade with the US, the degree of EU loyalty toward Washington will decline dramatically. Secondly, EU does not need Russia to organize its relations with Iran.

Trump is trying to re-establish Washington's total dominion over America's European, Arab allies. It's a strategy, not a tactic. Therefore it's pointless to talk about the US leaving the Middle East. They won't go anywhere as long as Russia is there. It's a matter of geopolitics. It's another matter that Trump, as a businessman, is first and foremost trying to finance US presence there at the expense of allies, and much of what he does is driven by that goal. Many experts don't consider that factor, and instead they try to explain his actions on the basis of political scientists' and diplomats' ideas and opinions on how international relations ought to be based, in accordance with "rules of the game" worked out by these same political scientists and diplomats.

Trump is not bound by tradition. He's an entrepreneur, of the adventurist variety. That's what brought him to power in spite of all the opposition and predictions to the contrary made even by leaders of the party in whose name he won. This victory convinced him he's on the right course, since it brings him desired results. He operates internationally as if it were a speculative business: raises and lowers stakes, bluffs, demolishes his partners' expectations, whenever he considers it beneficial.

Trump pays attention to nothing but the final result, and if it's something other than expected, he easily claims that's what he was after, and that's what the US needs, it's just that nobody realized it before. It's enough to remember the Qatar and "Arab Four" confrontation which he provoked, and from which he benefited by signing arms contracts with both sides and obtaining unprecedented financial commitments from them in spite of their sincere belief that each of the sides in the confrontation will get from Trump what they wanted. There is no doubt that even with Iran his goal is not the same as what he's publicizing.

Evgeniy Satanovskiy (President of the Middle East Institute), with materials from Yu. Shcheglovin

[May 20, 2018] Syria Sit-Rep - Liberating The M5 Lifeline

May 20, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

What Syria currently needs are more Pantsyr systems. It urgently needs to replace the old S-200s with the modern and mobile BUK-2. These systems make way more sense for the Syrian battlefield than the famed S-300. They also have the advantage of being significantly cheaper.

For a more general discussion of Russia's role in Syria beyond the S-300 nitpicking, I highly recommend the latest piece by Elijah Magnier: Russia is in the Middle East to halt the war, not take part in the Iran-Israel Conflict.


Peter AU 1 , May 19, 2018 3:01:41 PM | 5

congress-to-consider-recognition-of-israeli-sovereignty-over-golan-heights/
"Rep. Ron DeSantis (R., Fla.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, introduced on Thursday a resolution that could lead to an historic recognition by the United States that the contested area fully belongs to Israel, according to a copy of the amendment obtained by the Washington Free Beacon."
psychohistorian , May 19, 2018 4:21:12 PM | 13
@ b who wrote: "Deterrence, as established after the last Israeli attack, is the only available means."

Nice journalism again b. You set a great example that I wish others would follow.

Deterrence is the only available means within this theatre of WWIII, I agree. But I believe that this war will be won/lost on the "socio/economic" front.

On the one side we have the current God of Mammon, private finance/property, usury and ongoing inheritance "caste" system and on the other is commucapitasocioism that exist currently as the NOT God of Mammon types but that have to relate to it. There is lots of evidence that core global financial institutions don't need to be privately held and that the whole overarching debt burden that currently exists is irrational.....and since conventional war is supposedly limited to not nukes, the only other alternative to attempt to force capitulation/compliance is economic war

I am all for your scenario of the battle being taken to the Golan Heights so that issue gets worked and hopefully resolved.

Laguerre , May 19, 2018 4:26:34 PM | 15
Israelis overflying Lebanon, and launching missiles from there, is not going to stop soon, I would say. I can think of a number of reasons. One is that it is not particularly effective. Syrian progress has not been affected by the attacks. Two is that trying to prevent it is politically complicated, Hizbullah is not in government, and the others are more nuanced. Three is that Russia supplying Syria to defend itself is one thing, supplying Hizbullah in Lebanon is quite another, not official government activity.
Winston , May 19, 2018 5:41:53 PM | 21
Putin has much bigger fish to fry.The way NATO is fracturing over the
Syrian mess and Isreal is isolating itself, a stalemate on the ground
actually is Russia's best approach.
He doesn't have to win, everybody else has to lose.
This a marathon not a sprint.
Pax Americana's true Achilles heel is global reserve currency status.
Everything the US tries erodes that further and quicker.
Time is on Putin's side and has nearly tolled out for Pax Americana.
Breadonwaters , May 19, 2018 6:27:49 PM | 25
If i were Russ, with the hulking huge US armed forces against me, i think i would make damn sure i didn't use my ace cards in the hole until it was the final lay down. I still don't understand what was supposed to have happened in the black sea ...what, the russ could shut down all electronic systems on a modern US warship , and they used it in peacetime? Makes no sense to me. Why show your hand?
Piotr Berman , May 19, 2018 8:17:00 PM | 32
... heard a voice say to him, "Paul, Paul, why do you persecute me? I am Putin, whom you are persecuting,"

Paul in his anti-Putin posts makes two mistakes.

First, if RF under Putin leadership were about to sell Syria to bidders like USA, Israel, the last few years were a very strange way to do it, as one can see from the maps illustrating this article. This progress was achieved in large part with Russian weapons, training and air support, and we know that before Russia stared to provide air support and training, the results were that SAA was barely surviving.

Second, there exists a logic of total war that may command all resources of societies, and states may have to plan for that, but in this conflict, allies of Syria are engaged in limited war, and its logic is absolutely different. Vast majority of actions can be counteracted, so there is a huge scope for fruitless escalations. Putin has to make a case for RF expending "life and treasures" to Russian people, and fruitless escalations are textbook examples to avoid.

So what can be a solution that avoids such traps? I do not want to speculate in a limited post, but solutions cannot be obvious -- hence not counteracted in time. With the results so far, Putin seems a better player than Netanyahu, Obama etc. so one should not be as hasty with condemnations as Paul.

Kiza , May 19, 2018 8:19:42 PM | 33
Excellent comments here is usual. I do support the notion of Putin is sitting on the river bank and waiting for the dead body of his enemy to float by. Whether this is the best strategy or not, that is another matter. But Russia has suffered significant human losses facing this empire in decline. It is understandable that Putin feels that waiting patiently may be the best approach.

The enemy will die from the self-inflicted financial wounds. Israel & US are becoming desperate as time is not on their side: rushing to recognise Israeli sovereignty over Golan Heights to steal its oil (thanks Peter AU). Only God knows what will happen to Israel once the dead body of its US overused and abused host (the nag) floats by, but it will indubitably be fully deserved.


b was a bit off in his simplified explanation on the air defences. The sophisticated S-300 is more a symbol than battle reality for a country almost seven years at war. It would take a year just to train well the local crews. Pantsyrs in Lebanon would be really nice, but it reads like a joke. For Russia to put them in the hands of Hezbollah or a Hezbollah dominated Lebanese government against Israel is not a serious suggestion. I find it fascinating that Putin took on the chin the Israeli threats to destroy S-300 potentially to be delivered to Syria. Perhaps, the idea of S-300 delivered to Syria was Putin letting his generals start a rumour, for Putin to gain some concessions from Israel later on. Nutty really rushed to Moscow to solve that one and the air attacks appear to have stopped a few days later.

[May 20, 2018] Exclusive: Dangerous Phase of Terrorism, Trump's Israeli Connections Proved (Updated)

Notable quotes:
"... "the United States has links with terrorist 'Islamic State', also known as Daesh Daesh a tool of US After it [the US] dropped the [mother of all] bomb on Afghanistan, it did not eliminate Daesh the terrorist group has been supplied weapons by the United States forces The US Army helicopters and army bases are being used to provide assistance to ISIS terrorists I do not differentiate at all between Daesh and America Reports of American assistance to the terrorists are coming from all over the country." ..."
"... "Trump's standards, his comments about the Orlando shooting have been reckless and self-serving. They are also dangerous for the country the strongest remaining force that propels the Islamic State is the Islamophobia of Trump and his European counterparts, argue senior intelligence strategists for the U.S.-led coalition. Inflammatory, xenophobic statements about Muslims reinforce the jihadists' claims that they are Muslim knights fighting against an intolerant West. Trump unwittingly gives them precisely the role they dream about." ..."
"... "In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough! The United States will be immediately implementing much tougher Extreme Vetting Procedures. The safety of our citizens comes first!" ..."
May 20, 2018 | www.veteranstoday.com

By VT Senior Editors - May 20, 2018 1 1043

By Sajjad Shaukat

Modern history of terrorism shows that it has gone through distinct phases, with shifting missions, messages, and means of mobilizing. But, owing to the US President Donald Trump's Israeli connections, terrorism has entered a dangerous phase.

Everyone knows that Al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban were created by the American CIA to fight against the former Soviet Union in Afghanistan.

In this regard, former British Foreign secretary, Robin Cook stated, "Throughout the 1980s, he [Bin Laden] was armed by the CIA and funded by the Saudis to wage jihad against the Russian occupation of Afghanistan."

Osama bin-Laden (Col. Tim Osman) with Ziggy Brzezinski

The then US National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski met Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden and said about the militants (Mujahideen), "We know of their deep belief in God, and we are confident their struggle will succeed because, you are fighting against the infidel Russians."

However, one of the alarming phases of terrorism started when, after fulfilling their interests, Washington left Afghanistan in particular and Pakistan in general to face the fallout of a prolonged conflict -- terrorism and instability.

These Mujahideen who pulled the Russians out of Afghanistan, later become the Taliban, Al-Qaeda (new version) and the Muslim Brotherhood, Islamic State group (also known as ISIS, ISIL and Daesh). They got the label of terrorists.

After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, former US President Bush (41), in connivance with his Zionist-advisers, saw Islamic fundamentalism as a great threat. Since then, sometimes, Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda have routinely been used by the US and some Western countries as a scapegoat to malign Pakistan for 'de-nuclearisation,' as the latter is the only nuclear country in the Muslim World. Sometimes, the bogeyman of Al-Qaeda was raised to achieve their goals of external policy, and sometimes to pacify their public, including the opposition. In all cases, the secret underlying purpose was to safeguard the interests of the Zionists and Israel.

The new frightening phase of terrorism started after the September 11 tragedy inside the United States. In this regard, US President George W. Bush (43) and neo-conservatives crossed all the limits in protecting the political, economic and religious interests of the Jews and Israel at the cost of Muslims and patriot Americans.

Just after the 9/11 catastrophe, statements of Bush, high officials of his administration and Zionist-controlled media deliberately developed chauvinism and extremism among the Americans. There had been an organised campaign against the Muslims in the US and other western countries. Its main themes were that Islam and the Muslims were the true cause of terrorism.

President Bush used the phrase, "crusade against the evil-doers", adding to the perception that the ongoing 'different war' against terrorism is actually a war against the Muslim countries. Inside the US, suddenly, every Muslim found himself divested of his nationality. Arrests, detentions and harassment of the Muslims by the CIA and the FBI in the US were other steps which still continue.

Brushing aside Israeli atrocities on the Palestinians, American unity was projected with such force as to allow no questioning of US policy.

Under the cover of the 9/11 catastrophe, a pre-planned strategy of the neo-conservatives headed towards a series of unexpected developments and events. Bush warned the world to choose sides by saying, "either you are with us or with terrorists." It was due to employment of pressure-diplomacy on the weak states – Muslim countries like Pakistan, Indonesia, Libya etc. – that almost all the Arab states joined Bush's anti-terrorism war. By manipulating public emotion about the 9/11 carnage, Bush also got the sympathies of almost all the major Western countries including NATO states, which also joined the fake global war on terror.

Meanwhile, making Osama and Al-Qaeda scapegoats, a number of fake video messages were telecast on various TV channels and websites by some Zionists to obtain Israel's anti-Muslim goals. For example, during the November 2004 elections in the US, a fake video helped the incumbent president George W. Bush to gain a lead over John Kerry.

Can a leopard change its spots?

It is well-known that, in a tape released on December 27, 2001, the authenticity of which is not in question, Osama denied any involvement in the September 11 tragedy.

However, later, two video tapes appeared to validate his guilt in relation to 9/11, because the main aims of the Bush administration were to provoke American public outrage against the Muslims and to justify a global war on terror -- the occupation of Afghanistan and Iraq to possess energy resources of Central Asia and Iraq, including proxy wars in other Middle Eastern countries and to get their support for a propaganda campaign against Pakistan and Iran.

Other actions of the Bush era – such as America's state-sponsored terrorism in the volatile Islamic countries; persecution of Muslims through torture, detentions and arrests; CIA and FBI-operated facilities; and radicalization of the western Christians against the Muslims – provided a golden chance for India and Israel to accelerate the systematic genocide of the Palestinians and Kashmiris, and protected the real architects of the 9/11 tragedy.

While President Barack Obama stated during his first election-campaign that he would rectify the blunders committed by his predecessor in the name of war on terror, he continued them in their worst form to secure the illegitimate interests of Israel.

The Obama Administration continued with various techniques of ruthless terror and extrajudicial killings of innocent persons through illegitimate drone attacks, as in Iraq; and created more collapsed states such as Libya, Yemen and Syria, thus opening the door for Al-Qaeda and ISIS.

If the double game of President Bush franchised Al-Qaeda at the global level, President Obama's dual policy franchised both Al-Qaeda and ISIS as part of the anti-Muslim campaign, and left no stone unturned in advancing the agenda of the Zionists, Israeli lobbies and the neoconservatives in the pretext of a phony global war on terror.

Secretly, President Obama authorized the CIA to create ISIS. His perennial, covert support of the Israeli atrocities against the Palestinians. He was silent about the smuggling of oil by ISIS to some European countries whose governments have also not taken action against those companies which were exporting oil from ISIS-controlled regions of Iraq. He was silent about the CIA-assisted Al-Qaeda (Al-Nusra Front), ISIS militants and rebel groups who were fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's government to achieve the aims of a Greater Israel. All of this comprised Obama's double game.

Training and supply of arms by CIA and Israeli Mossad to these terrorist outfits and medical treatment of their militants in Israeli hospitals, including arrests of some CIA and Mossad agents in Syria and Iraq have also verified the Western connections. Yet, as part of the dual strategy, America and its Western partners have also been waging a war against ISIS.

But at the same time, CIA and Mossad openly support this terrorist group and its linked terror outfits, in accordance with the covert aims of Tel Aviv, not of America.

In this respect, the Russian TV channel, Russia Today (RT) reported on September 24, 2017 "The Russian Ministry of Defense has released aerial images which they say show US Army special forces' equipment north of the town of Deir er-Zor, where ISIS militants are deployed. US Army special units provide free passage for the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) through the battle formations of Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) terrorists Despite that the US strongholds being organized at them

"This could mean that the US military staff feel absolutely safe in the area which is held by the terrorists All of the images were taken from September 8 to 12. The photos show several Cougar infantry mobility vehicles and Hummer armored vehicles of the US Army Special Forces, according the Russian MoD data In this case, securing IS assistance for an unopposed advance of US backed SDF forces could enable the SDF, widely seen as a US proxy, to seize strategically important (and oil rich) territory in Deir ez-Zor that otherwise would soon be retaken by rapidly advancing Syrian Army. If so this once again will raise questions as to what the true purpose of US forces-purportedly in Syria to fight IS-actually is. Earlier in September, Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major General Igor Konashenkov accused the SDF of collusion with ISIS terrorists.SDF militants work to the same objectives as IS terrorists."

According to Global Research Canada (Centre for Research on Globalization), "In other words, ISIS, al-Nusra, and so-called SDF forces are virtually the same thing – US-recruited, -armed, -funded and -directed cutthroat killers, waging naked aggression against Syria and its people

"The Pentagon's so-called Operation Inherent Resolve so far is silent on Russia's damning evidence Separately, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moualem accused Washington of working with its terrorist assets in Syria, including al-Nusra, to undermine Astana peace talks Russia's Defense Ministry saying its intelligence revealed US forces together with al-Nusra terrorists tried halting the successful advance of government forces east of Deir Ezzor Russian airpower smashed their offensive. Sergey Lavrov condemned the US-led coalition for refusing to combat al-Nusra, calling it absolutely unacceptable According to Russia's Defense Ministry, nearly 90% of Syrian territory held by ISIS is now liberated. Moscow will respond appropriately to any US efforts to impede the campaign to free Syria entirely from control by terrorists."

Intel Agencies' and False Flag Events

In the case of Asia and particularly South Asia, well-entrenched in Afghanistan and some Gulf states, intelligence agencies such as CIA, Indian RAW, Mossad and MI6 are assisting various terror outfits, including Al-Qaeda and particularly ISIL, in order to achieve the covert goals of the US-led countries against Pakistan, Syria, Iraq China, Russia, Iran, Turkey, Somalia, Yemen etc. and even Afghanistan, which are being destabilized by various forms of terrorism-related assaults, and which have continued in one way or the other.

In this context, a news item was published by all the leading dailies of Pakistan on October 8, 2017 regarding the statement of Afghanistan's Former Afghan President Hamid Karzai who, while dismissing criticism of Russian ties with the Taliban and echoing Russian claims of American support to the ISIS terrorists, told Voice of America (VOC) that

"the United States has links with terrorist 'Islamic State', also known as Daesh Daesh a tool of US After it [the US] dropped the [mother of all] bomb on Afghanistan, it did not eliminate Daesh the terrorist group has been supplied weapons by the United States forces The US Army helicopters and army bases are being used to provide assistance to ISIS terrorists I do not differentiate at all between Daesh and America Reports of American assistance to the terrorists are coming from all over the country." (It also includes Karzai's revelations to VOC of April 20, 2017 and Newsweek's report of the same day).

In an exclusive interview with Al Jazeera's UpFrontaired on November 10, 2017, Karzai again disclosed that the US government had allowed ISIL to flourish inside Afghanistan. He said, "In my view under the full presence, surveillance, military, political, intelligence, Daesh [ISIL] has emerged And for two years the Afghan people came, cried loud about their suffering, of violations. Nothing was done the US administration of President Donald Trump used ISIL as an excuse to drop a massive bomb on Afghanistan in April 2017 And the next day, Daesh takes the next district in Afghanistan That proves to us that there is a hand in it and that hand can be no one else but them [the US] in Afghanistan."

In September 2015, the Russian-led coalition of Iran, Iraq, the Syrian army-the National Defense Forces (NDF) and Lebanon-based Hezbollah started breaking the back of the ISIS terrorists, Al-Qaeda's Al-Nusra Front and the rebels in Syria and Iraq. In response, Israel's Mossad, which already had clandestine contact with ISIS, directed this outfit to plan the November 13 terror attacks in Paris in connivance with the French home-grown militants.

Similarly, when Russian-led forces began retaking many cities from the control of these insurgents, on the other side, agents of Mossad who were in collaboration with the CIA sympathizers and the ISIL militants arranged various sorts of terror attacks in Europe and the US.

Through all these false-flag terror operations, the US and Israel wanted to obtain their covert aims against Russia and the Muslims.

Mossad had also provided US President Donald Trump with an opportunity to manipulate various terror assaults of Europe and America to win the US presidential election and to reunite America and Europe, as a rift had been created between America and its Western allies, especially Europe on a number of issues, including NATO. And, President Trump left no stone unturned in implementing anti-Muslim policies, while speaking openly against the Muslims and Syrian immigrants.

Trump had started exaggerating the threat of Islamophobia, while some incidents were not linked to ISIS, but were the result of self-radicalization by individual actors.

Regarding the shooting at the gay night club in Orlando (Florida) which killed at least 49 individuals on June 12, 2016, The Washington Post in an article, under the caption, "Trump's reckless, dangerous Islamophobia helps the Islamic State", wrote on June 13, 2016,

"Trump's standards, his comments about the Orlando shooting have been reckless and self-serving. They are also dangerous for the country the strongest remaining force that propels the Islamic State is the Islamophobia of Trump and his European counterparts, argue senior intelligence strategists for the U.S.-led coalition. Inflammatory, xenophobic statements about Muslims reinforce the jihadists' claims that they are Muslim knights fighting against an intolerant West. Trump unwittingly gives them precisely the role they dream about."

In this regard, Khaled A. Beydoun opined on the Aljazeera multimedia network on March 13, 2016,

"The world brand Trump is becoming synonymous with expansion of racism and incitement of Islamophobia I think Islam hate us, said Donald Trump, 24 hours before the Republican presidential debate in Miami is a call to his voting base, to further galvanise them around a disdain for Islam that not only heightens hateful fervour at his rallies, but incites violence on American blocks and pushes bigots to the ballot box the statement is rooted in the very ignorance and hate which made him the darling of bigots and surged him up the polls Islamophobia the suspicion and fear of Islam and its 1.7 billion adherent-is political ideology for Trump."

Nevertheless, the incident of shooting at the gay club in Orlando not only exposed that false flag operation, but also endorsed other false flag terror-attacks in the US and Europe. In this connection, in an interview with Brazilian TV on June 14, 2016, the ex-wife of the Orlando shooter Omar Mateen Sitora Yusufiy revealed that American FBI pressured her to keep quiet about his homosexuality.

While Mateen had been dubbed as an Islamic terrorist by the American politicians, senior officials and commentators following reports that he had pledged allegiance to the ISIS, the FBI wanted to downplay the personal and self-hating nature of the assault.

President Obama stated on June 12, 2016, "Federal authorities had made no definitive judgment on the killer's motivation, and whether he was inspired by or directed by Islamic State or other terrorist groups."

Obama clarified by explaining "Orlando shooting was the result of Mateen's personal resentment in relation to the gay club."

Similarly, the teenager Ali David Sonboly who killed 9 people in Munich had no connection with the ISIS. Police investigation revealed that he was "a mentally troubled person" and police also discovered extremist material, linked to the attack by Andres Behring Brevik, the white supremacist who murdered 77 persons in Norway in 2011.

Likewise, the shooting in the French city of Nice was also a false flag terror-act, as CIA-Mossad arranged it with the help of ISIS, which used homegrown terrorists of France.

At least eight people were killed on October 31, 2017 when the driver of a pickup truck hit people on a cycle path in Lower Manhattan, New York City near the World Trade Centre. The vehicle then hit a school bus, injuring two adults and two children on board.

According to the US media reports,

"American investigators found ISIS-related images and videos on Saipov's cellphone handwritten notes in Arabic near the truck that indicated allegiance to the Islamic State But investigators had not uncovered evidence of any direct or enabling ties between Mr. Saipov and ISIS and were treating the episode as a case of an "inspired" attacker Police records show he was arrested in Missouri last year over a traffic fine. Almost immediately, as investigators began to look into Mr. Saipov's history, it became clear that he had been on the radar of federal authorities. Three officials said he had come to the federal authorities' attention as a result of an unrelated investigation."

However various conflicting reports show that, as with previous terror attacks in the US and Europe, the New York terror attack was likely a false flag operation conducted by Mossad in connivance with some CIA operatives and the ISIS terrorists. It might also be an individual act of Saipov, who had been inspired by the extremist agenda of ISIS.

Even then, responsibility goes to the agents of these intelligence agencies, who have already been radicalizing the Muslims and Christians by dividing them on religious lines, in order to fulfill the Zionist agenda of Israel. Contradictory and anti-Muslim statements of the pro-Israeli, Donald Trump, about the terror assaults have further verified collaboration of agencies.

Tweeting his immediate reaction, President Trump said,

"In NYC, looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. Law enforcement is following this closely. We must not allow ISIS to return, or enter, our country after defeating them in the Middle East and elsewhere. Enough! The United States will be immediately implementing much tougher Extreme Vetting Procedures. The safety of our citizens comes first!" He did not elaborate further.

Regarding the New York terror attack of November 2, 2017, President Trump again tweeted about immigration, calling for an end to "chain migration lets people bring their whole family with them, who can be truly evil."

President Trump first introduced the screening process during the election campaign on a pledge to indefinitely ban the Muslims from entering the United States -- his campaign aides later tried to finesse as a broader policy aimed at implementing "extreme vetting" for immigrants from certain countries. As president, he introduced a ban on arrivals to the US from a number of mainly-Muslim countries.

While America's Western partners, especially European countries had strongly condemned Trump's travel ban on the Muslim countries as discriminatory and violations of human rights, in a statement, the American Civil Liberties Union – a civil rights group – said that the term "extreme vetting" was a "euphemism for discriminating against Muslims."

It is noteworthy that 59 people were killed and more than 500 others injured on October 1, last year, when a gunman-an American national, Stephen Paddock opened fire on concertgoers from the Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada. Next day , through its Amaq propaganda agency, ISIL, claimed responsibility for the incident, disclosing that, "the Las Vegas attacker is a soldier of the Islamic State in response to calls to target coalition countries -- converted to Islam several months ago" -- but provided no evidence to support the assertion." Senior US homeland security officials said that there was no evidence Paddock had links to international or domestic terror groups or ISIS.

On social media, many individuals had pointed out that if Paddock had been a Muslim, if he had shouted "Allahu akbar" before he opened fire on all those concertgoers in Las Vegas, the term "terrorist" would have been used almost immediately to describe him, as a link to Islamist terrorism would be assumed even without evidence.

To what extent President Trump wants to obtain Israeli illegitimate goals at the cost of Muslims and the patriot Americans could be judged from the terrorism-related assaults which occurred in the Spanish city of Barcelona on August 17, 2017 and in her town of Cambrils on August 18, 2017. After condemning the terror attacks and offering US assistance to Spain, the US President Trump suggested "fighting terrorism by executing Muslims with bullets dipped in pigs blood."

India's Anti-Muslim and Anti-Pakistan Agenda

It also deserves particular attention that since the fundamentalist party BJP led by the Indian Prime Minister Narindra Modi came to power in India, it has been implementing anti-Muslim and anti-Pakistan agenda. Encouraged by the BJP, assaults on Muslims, Christians and other minorities by the Hindu extremist parties might be cited as instance. India which has strategic partnership with Israel has perennially been manipulating the double game of the US-led West regarding world phenomena of terrorism in connection with Pakistan and Afghanistan.

In wake of Modi's aggressive diplomacy, India has continued shelling in Pakistani side of Kashmir which remains a nuclear flashpoint between both the neighbouring countries.

Emboldened by the President Trump, both Tel Aviv and New Delhi have been equating the 'wars of liberation' in Palestine and Kashmir with terrorism. Their main purpose is to divert the attention of the West from their own state terrorism, while employing delaying tactics in the solution of these issues.

Israel Criticizes the UN and Obama

It is worth-mentioning that Obama's anti-Muslim policies were clearly exposed. Therefore, before the end of his tenure, President Obama wanted to rectify his blunders. In this context, on December 23, 2016, the US abstained and allowed a UN Security Council resolution condemning Israeli settlement construction in the occupied territories of the Palestinians to be adopted, defying extraordinary pressure from Israeli PM Netanyahu's government, which was in alliance with the US President-elect Donald Trump.

In a statement, Netanyahu's office accused the Obama administration of "colluding" with the UN and said it looked forward to working with Trump, as well as Israel-friendly members of Congress, "to negate the harmful effects of this absurd resolution."

Netanyahu called the resolution "shameful" and said Israel would not abide by its terms and continue the construction of the settlements.

In this connection, in a series of tweets, posted on December 28, 2016, Donald Trump harshly criticized the Obama's policies on the settlement issue and reiterated his support for Israel. He questioned the effectiveness of the UNO, saying, "it's just a club for people to have a good time."

US' Jerusalem Embassy and Palestinian Massacre

Despite criticism, Trump Administration announced the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem on May 14, this year.

The same day witnessed a ceremony attended by Netanyahu and the administration of President Trump who buried the peace process and the two-state solution, killing any hope in the minds of the people of the Middle East as a whole with the possibility of peace in the region.

On the same day, Israeli security forces shot and killed at least 58 Palestinians and wounded more than 2700 during mass protests along the Gaza border.

Donald Trump tweeted, "A great day for Israel", as he delivered on his promise to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Trump who had already vowed to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, and had nominated an ambassador in David Friedman who was supportive of settlers by pledging that the Palestinians would no longer have a platform at the UN when he becomes president on January 20, had said, last year, "We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U.S the beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.) Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching."

Besides, Trump's strong backing of the NATO-like alliance by the Saudi Arabia -- the Sunni-countries against Iran and accusing Tehran of promoting terrorism and motivating religious extremism among the Muslims and Christians, Jews and Hindus show his clear links with Tel Aviv.

Nonetheless, President Trump's Israeli connections were undoubtedly proved on May 14, this year, when he implemented his decision of December 6, 2018 by officially recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and reversed nearly seven decades of American foreign policy and set in motion a plan to move the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv to the fiercely contested Holy City.

In this regard, Trump had stated, last year, "Today we finally acknowledge the obvious: that Jerusalem is Israel's capital This is nothing more or less than recognition of reality. It is also the right thing to do. It's something that has to be done."

America's Western allies who had disavowed Trump's move, which reversed decades of US neutrality on the status of Jerusalem have again denounced Trump's move.

Over the US Embassy move, perennial killings of the Palestinians, strong reaction was seen in the Islamic World in particular and the Western World in general.

The European Union's foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, called on Israel to respect the principle of proportionality in the use of force and show restraint, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a similar appeal.

President of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Mahmoud Abbas, furious over the embassy ceremony, stated that he would not accept any peace deal proposed by the Trump administration. He also urged the international community to condemn the massacres carried out by Israeli troops in Gaza, and officials of the PLO said that the Palestinians would file a war crimes complaint against Israel in the International Criminal Court over settlement construction.

Egypt, a key Israeli ally, condemned the killings of Palestinian protesters, while the UN human rights chief, Zeid Ra'ad al-Hussein, decried the shocking killing of dozens.

Turkey recalled its ambassador to the United States, saying it "disregarded the legitimate rights of the Palestinian people" and would "not serve peace, security and stability in the region." It also recalled its ambassador to Israel after a massacre of Palestinians on the Gaza border. South Africa, a fervent supporter of the Palestinians, also recalled its ambassador for consultations.

Muslim leaders called on May 18, 2018 for an international force to be deployed to protect Palestinians after hundreds of protesters were shot dead by Israeli forces on the Gaza border.

At a special summit of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) held in Istanbul on May 18, this year, following the call of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to address the Israeli-Palestinian crisis in Gaz. The OIC has condemned the US decision to move its embassy to Jerusalem as part of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of the Israeli state, and decried the deaths of more than 60 Palestinians. Earlier, Erdoğan stated that Israel will never be permitted to "steal" Jerusalem.

The OIC leaders also pledged to take appropriate political and economic measures against countries that followed the United States in moving their Israel embassies to contested Jerusalem from Tel Aviv. It said that the violence should be put on the agenda of the U.N. Security Council and General Assembly, and called on the United Nations to investigate the killings.

The summit was also attended by Jordan's King Abdullah, a US close ally whose Hashemite dynasty is custodian of Muslim sites in Jerusalem. Abdullah stated: "The U.S. decision five months ago to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital had weakened the pillars of peace and deepened the despair that leads to violence."

Iran's President Hassan Rouhani called on Muslim countries "to totally cut their relations with the Zionist regime [Israel] and also to revise their trade and economic ties with America".

Trump's Israeli connections could also be judged from the unrealistic statement of Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the UNO, who told an emergency meeting of the Security Council that Israel had acted with restraint. She dismissed suggestions that the violence was related to the opening of the US Embassy in Jerusalem.

In condemnation of Trump's unilateral step to move the US Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, besides protests and rallies which were held in East Jerusalem, the West Bank and Gaza, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters held demonstrations in other Islamic countries such as Iran, Turkey, Pakistan etc. where the protesters burnt American and Israeli flags. Even in Jordan, protesters near the heavily-defended US Embassy in Amman chanted: "America is the head of the snake. No U.S. Embassy on Jordanian soil."

Hamas leader Ismail Haniya have stated the US decision on recognising Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transfer of the American Embassy to Jerusalem are a war declaration against Palestinians.

At present, savage crimes committed by the US-backed Israeli forces against the Palestinians continue unabated.

Undoubtedly, angry elements within the Islamic countries, especially the pro-Arab states may react against America and its interests in the form of terrorism and other violent actions. Unquestionably, the US president's move on Jerusalem will create new risks for all of Washington's allies in the Middle East, as the decision will offer extremist groups a valuable opportunity to capitalise on anti-US sentiment and direct such anger towards regimes which are close to the US and non-confrontational towards Israel.

Notably, Akayed Ullah, a 27-year-old Bangladeshi immigrant with a pipe bomb strapped to his body set off an explosion at one of New York's busiest commuter hubs on December 11, 2017, leaving five people injured. According to the US media, the suspect told investigators that he detonated a crude bomb after he spotted a holiday display and did it in the name of ISIS to avenge the deaths of Muslims around the world, law enforcement officials said. The concerned American officials stated that there is no evidence that Ullah, an electrician, had any direct contact with the ISIS. But, he said "his anger over U.S. bombings in ISIS-controlled territory and recent Israeli actions in Gaza , fueled his desire to carry out a suicide bombing."

Now, we can witness that terrorism-related attacks in the Middle East, South Asia, Africa, Europe, America and elsewhere in the world have, rapidly, been increasing.

Mossad is playing a key role in terror assaults, as Israel will prefer a nuclear war between Russia and the US-led West to avoid the two-state settlement of the Israeli-Palestinian issue. Atomic war could also erupt between Pakistan and India, as New Delhi also avoids solution of the Kashmir issue. While fanatic leaders are in power in the US, India and Israel, their connivance may culminate into 'clash of civilizations', particularly between the Muslim and the Christians worlds.

We can conclude that terrorism has entered the dangerous phase and Trump's Israeli connections have undoubtedly been proved.

It is the right hour that loyalist Americans, non-Zionist Jews and peace-loving citizens of every other religious community should play their positive role for global peace by stopping the division of the international community on religious and cultural lines.

Sajjad Shaukat writes on international affairs and is author of the book: US vs Islamic Militants, Invisible Balance of Power: Dangerous Shift in International Relations

Email: [email protected]

[May 14, 2018] After US administration announced that America would no longer be funding the white helmets propaganda outfit in the UK parliament an opposition member of parliament was practically foaming at the mouth with rage and demanded of prime minister Mrs May that the UK would be continuing to fund the white helmets

Notable quotes:
"... When she assured him that the UK was fully behind the white helmets and that funding would remain in place, there was a cheer from around the house. I'm amazed that Bolton allowed the administration to cut off funding when even the UK idiots in parliament want to fund the propaganda arm of the head choppers. ..."
May 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: john wilson | May 12, 2018 8:06:41 AM | 7

The question we all want to know is, did Trump appoint lunatic Bolton entirely of his own volition, or was he forced to appoint this psychopath? The reach of the US deep state seems to be limitless. A curious thing happened the other day when someone in the US administration announced that America would no longer be funding the white helmets propaganda outfit. Over here in the UK parliament an opposition member of parliament was practically foaming at the mouth with rage and demanded of prime minister Mrs May that the UK would be continuing to fund the white helmets.

When she assured him that the UK was fully behind the white helmets and that funding would remain in place, there was a cheer from around the house. I'm amazed that Bolton allowed the administration to cut off funding when even the UK idiots in parliament want to fund the propaganda arm of the head choppers.

[May 13, 2018] Russia goals in Syria vs Iran and Hezbollah goals

May 13, 2018 | www.unz.com

Frankie P , May 13, 2018 at 11:00 am GMT

@utu

I am a supporter of the Resistance. I support resistance to American hegmony, the idea of a unipolar world with the rest of the nations following American dictates. I support resistance by American citizens against the ideas of American exceptionalism, ongoing foreign belligerence that benefits only the Military Industrial Complex and a certain "shitty little country in the Levant". I support resistance to the Zionist State, the ongoing crimes perpetrated by the Zionists against both the indigenous Palestinians in their own nation and against their neighboring Arab countries. I support American resistance to the stranglehold that supporters of Israel enjoy on the political system in the US.

Therefore, I support actors such as China and Russia in that they are cooperating to balance the unbridled hubris and exceptionalism of my country, providing a balance, a multi-polar future. Iran has become a lynchpin in this geopolitical competition, being positioned smack in the middle of a horizontal (OBOR/BRI initiative) and vertical (Russia's energy cooperation ideas) axis of the future.

I support Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon (Hizbollah) in their desire to remain independent, complete nations while supporting the Palestinians and fighting against the Zionists.

I am not so naive, however, to imagine that all the components of the resistance have similar goals in specific areas, in this case the Syrian situation. It is more than curious to see people saying that Putin "sold out" Syria and Iran. Do you not consider that Putin is acting for the benefit of the Russian nation and Russian interests, and not for the benefit of the rest of the resistance and their program? Do you not realize that without the Russian action in support of the Assad administration, he would certainly have lost his nation, a nation that would currently be a destabilized basket case, a series of fragments falling under control of various Sunnite head choppers, Kurdish militias, and government remnants?

It is important to consider the objectives of the resistance players in Syria, both short- and long-term. Russia's objectives in Syria have been to keep the nation united and integrated, under the control of the current legitimate government until democratic elections can be held at some future date. Russia wants to prevent a radical Sunni movement from threatening its southern flank, sending activists to radicalize the Sunni populations in its Caucasus region. Another more recent objective of Russia in this long-term goal is to keep the Americans out of Syria as much as possible, hoping that the cessation of military action and the return of Syrian government control will lead to removal of all US troops.

The Russian goals do NOT include the destruction of the Zionist State, the return of the Golan Heights to Syria, or the emancipation of the Palestinian people. It is very important to keep this in mind.

The goals of the providers of the boots on the ground that saved the Syrian government, namely Hizbollah, Iran, and the Iraqi Shiite militias, extend beyond the scope of the Russian goals, at least as far as long-term targets are concerned. These players certainly share the Russian goals of shoring up the Assad regime, destroying the Daesh forces, both mercenary and local, and returning Syria to the stable ally that it was. There are more goals for these forces, though, and these goals are clear for all to see.

Hizbollah wants the return of all Lebanese territory to Lebanon. Hizbollah, Iran, and Syria want the return of the Golan Heights to Syrian control. They rightfully see the stabilization of the situation in Syria, the massing of their forces, hardened, battle tested forces, as an excellent opportunity to engage Israel and take back territory.

They realize that the Syrian air defenses are much improved, and although Israel is still able to attack Syrian targets with impunity, there is more risk.

They have made plans and accumulated missiles, accurate, precision missiles that will be able to attack Israeli military positions in the Golan Heights, for example, the IDF electronic surveillance / EW positions on Mt. Hermon. These provide the Israelis with direct line-of-sight to most of the Damascus Plain. What would happen if Syria/Iran/Hizbollah used a precision missile strike to take out the Israeli's eyes, as well as the AD jammers and other equipment? All of these players also want a fair and just solution for the Palestinian people, the recovery of their ability to determine their own future on terms that are acceptable to them. I support these goals. I am not Putin.

Remember, an escalation in military action between the Israelis and the Syrian/Iranian/Hizbollah forces in southern Syria will be viewed by Russia as a greater risk for its own troops, and a greater chance that the US will interfere more forcefully in the country. The Russians want to avoid this. Do I like this? Of course not. Keep in mind my own views, and the forces of the resistance that I said that I support. Do I feel that the Russians sold out thier allies? No way. Do you really think that the generals of the IRGC and Hassan Nasrallah are unaware of the fact that R

[May 12, 2018] Why Is Israel Behaving Like Hitler's Germany by Publius Tacitus

Notable quotes:
"... Überfall auf den Sender Gleiwitz ..."
"... Prowokacja gliwicka ..."
"... Sender Gleiwitz ..."
May 12, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

I wonder what is the Hebrew for the word Gleiwitz?

The Gleiwitz incident (German: Überfall auf den Sender Gleiwitz ; Polish : Prowokacja gliwicka ) was a covert Nazi German attack on the German radio station Sender Gleiwitz on the night of 31 August 1939 (today Gliwice , Poland), widely regarded as a deceitful false flag operation staged along with some two dozen similar German incidents on the eve of the invasion of Poland leading up to World War II in Europe .

The Israeli missiles launched yesterday (Wednesday/Thursday) against Iranian military forces in Syria were real. My old "friend" TTG did an excellent job of documenting the timeline of the attack/retaliation ( see here ) in his latest twisted post. But it was a trumped up attack. A pretext for hitting Iranian forces. Iran did not initiate this action. Israel claims it was retaliating against an unprovoked Iranian missile/rocket strike in the Golan Heights. Israel had been planning this strike for several days. How do I know? I received the following message from a military buddy monitoring the situation last Monday. He wrote:

Looks like Israel is getting froggy. They're stepping up their non-kinetic ops against Syrian AND Russian tech...jamming the shit out of certain air defense systems.

Could be gearing up for a strike package, could just be trying to degrade the battle space air picture to support another objective or conceal a capability they're testing. Hard to tell at this point.

Now we know. They were prepping their strike against Iranian targets. I understand why Israel is terrified of having Iranian military personnel and equipment based in Syria. But launching weak-ass preemptive strikes, like Israel did yesterday, does nothing more than to arouse the furor of those unjustly attacked. Iran understands that revenge is a dish best served cold. They are not going to rush out and start thowing blind haymakers. They will hurt Israel and will make it count.

It is not a mere coincidence that Israel's bombing barrage came on the heels of Donald Trump's announcement that the United States was withdrawing from Obama's Iran deal. This was coordinated fully with Israel, who in turn decided to hit Iranian targets inside Syria. It was designed specifically to feed the meme that Iran is a rogue state.

But there is irony in this action. Israel used a ploy that Hitler's Nazi Germany wielded. Hitler and the Wehrmacht were keen on coming up with a casus belli for war against Poland. I grant you that the Nazi invasion of Poland is in another league from what Israel did in Syria against Iranians. But we should not ignore the possibility that Israel's unprovoked attacks are likely to spawn future retaliation by the Iranians. When that happens Israeli leaders will be under pressure to punch back. That means we will be traveling the road of tit-for-tat, which usually winds up in Escalation City and full blown war.

[May 12, 2018] A curious thing happened the other day when someone in the US administration announced that America would no longer be funding the white helmets propaganda outfit. Over here in the UK parliament an opposition member of parliament was practically foaming at the mouth with rage and demanded of prime minister Mrs May that the UK would be continuing to fund the white helmets.

Notable quotes:
"... When she assured him that the UK was fully behind the white helmets and that funding would remain in place, there was a cheer from around the house. I'm amazed that Bolton allowed the administration to cut off funding when even the UK idiots in parliament want to fund the propaganda arm of the head choppers. ..."
May 12, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: john wilson | May 12, 2018 8:06:41 AM | 7

The question we all want to know is, did Trump appoint lunatic Bolton entirely of his own volition, or was he forced to appoint this psychopath? The reach of the US deep state seems to be limitless. A curious thing happened the other day when someone in the US administration announced that America would no longer be funding the white helmets propaganda outfit. Over here in the UK parliament an opposition member of parliament was practically foaming at the mouth with rage and demanded of prime minister Mrs May that the UK would be continuing to fund the white helmets.

When she assured him that the UK was fully behind the white helmets and that funding would remain in place, there was a cheer from around the house. I'm amazed that Bolton allowed the administration to cut off funding when even the UK idiots in parliament want to fund the propaganda arm of the head choppers.

[May 12, 2018] Bolton diplomacy: "We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York." by B

Notable quotes:
"... John Bolton is a ruthless man : ..."
"... In early 2002, a year before the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration was putting intense pressure on [José] Bustani to quit as director-general of the [Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons]. ..."
"... Bolton continued, according to Bustani's recollections: "You have 24 hours to leave the organization, and if you don't comply with this decision by Washington, we have ways to retaliate against you." ..."
"... John Bolton was also behind a campaign against the IAEA and its chief Mohamed ElBaradei. ElBaradei's phone was tapped and rumors were launched against him to oust him from his office. ..."
May 12, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Originally from: MoA - Countdown To War On Iran

John Bolton is a ruthless man :

In early 2002, a year before the invasion of Iraq, the Bush administration was putting intense pressure on [José] Bustani to quit as director-general of the [Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons].
...
Bolton -- then serving as under secretary of state for Arms Control and International Security Affairs -- arrived in person at the OPCW headquarters in the Hague to issue a warning to the organization's chief. And, according to Bustani, Bolton didn't mince words. "Cheney wants you out," Bustani recalled Bolton saying, referring to the then-vice president of the United States. "We can't accept your management style."

Bolton continued, according to Bustani's recollections: "You have 24 hours to leave the organization, and if you don't comply with this decision by Washington, we have ways to retaliate against you."

There was a pause.

"We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York."

José Bustani successfully negotiated to get OPCW inspectors back into Iraq. They would have found nothing. That would have contradicted the U.S. propaganda campaign to wage war on Iraq. When Bustani did not leave voluntarily, the U.S. threatened to cut the OPCW's budget and "convinced" other countries in the executive council to kick him out .

John Bolton was also behind a campaign against the IAEA and its chief Mohamed ElBaradei. ElBaradei's phone was tapped and rumors were launched against him to oust him from his office.

The U.S. administration, the neoconservatives and the media are running a remake (recommended) of the propaganda campaign they had launched to wage war on Iraq. This time the target is Iran:

As with Iraq, it's easier for Bolton and Netanyahu to achieve that goal if they discredit the current system of international inspections. Bolton has called the inspection efforts established by the Iran nuclear deal "fatally inadequate" and declared that "the International Atomic Energy Agency" is "likely missing significant Iranian [nuclear] facilities." In his 2015 speech to Congress attacking the Iran deal, Netanyahu insisted that "Iran not only defies inspectors, it also plays a pretty good game of hide-and-cheat with them."

Anyone who counters their propaganda must go. Bolton, who demands to bomb Iran , is back in charge. One of his natural targets is the IAEA which certifies that Iran sticks to the nuclear deal. It seems that Bolton succeeds with his machinations:

The chief of inspections at the U.N. nuclear watchdog has resigned suddenly, the agency said on Friday without giving a reason.

The departure of Tero Varjoranta comes at a sensitive time, three days after the United States announced it was quitting world powers' nuclear accord with Iran, raising questions as to whether Tehran will continue to comply with it.

Varjoranta, a Finn, had been a deputy director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency and head of its Department of Safeguards, which verifies countries' compliance with the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, since October 2013.

Another casualty is the State Department bureaucrat who certified Iran's compliance with the nuclear deal:

One of the State Department's top experts on nuclear proliferation resigned this week after President Donald Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, in what officials and analysts say is part of a worrying brain drain from public service generally over the past 18 months.

Richard Johnson, a career civil servant who served as acting assistant coordinator in State's Office of Iran Nuclear Implementation, had been involved in talks with countries that sought to salvage the deal in recent weeks, including Britain, France, and Germany -- an effort that ultimately failed.
...
The office Johnson led has gone from seven full-time staffers to none since Trump's inauguration.

The man who launched the war on Iraq now gets awards . Netanyahoo is agitating for war on Iran just like he agitated for war on Iraq. Shady groups of nutty "experts" peddle policy papers for 'regime change'. U.S. "allies" are put under pressure. With their willingness to "compromise" they actually further the prospect of war . When they insist on sticking to international rules malign actors prepare measures to break their resistance. All that is still just a "shaping operation", a preparation of the battlefield of public opinion. This buildup towards the war will likely take a year or two.

What is still needed is an event that pushes the U.S. public into war fever. The U.S. typically uses false-flag incidents - the Tonkin incident, the sinking of the Maine, the Anthrax murders - to create a psychological pseudo-rationale for war. An Israel lobbyist begs for one to launch war on Iran.

One wonders when and how a new 9/11 like incident, or another Anthrax scare, will take place. It will be the surest sign that the countdown to war on Iran has started.

Posted by b on May 12, 2018 at 06:35 AM | Permalink


glitch , May 12, 2018 7:15:41 PM | 132

John Bolton's a man? Does a coward who instigated others to fight get to be called a man? Likewise Cheney Bush Clinton Obama Trump Bibi etc etc etc.
Easy to be ruthless when others take the risks and pay the costs.
fairleft , May 12, 2018 7:12:43 AM | 4
isn't the same unity throughout the powers that be, particularly in the mainstream media, that there was when Bush was President. Trump through the hatred he generates theoughout the 'upper crust', makes it hard for many deep staters to get on board a war drive he would lead.

And as you said, b, Trump needs a real or false flag, one with many casualties, and something that won't fall apart from lack of evidence and a few days of rational scrutiny. Sounds like a job for the Saudi mercenaries, Al Qaeda or ISIS.

Peter AU 1 , May 12, 2018 7:14:53 AM | 5
People in high places are leaving due to team Trump threats.
Receiving mail from team trump employed black cube is no small thing. Kudos to you b for sticking with it.
Two thoughts on US going to war with Iran. 10 It will destroy the US or certainly the US empire and hegemony. 2) Iran needs plenty of help and respect during and after as they will destroy the US. Not physically, but they will destroy US power.
Gesine Hammerling , May 12, 2018 8:04:24 AM | 6
What do those ziocons have in their hands that lets them get away with it over and over again?
john wilson , May 12, 2018 8:06:41 AM | 7
The question we all want to know is, did Trump appoint lunatic Bolton entirely of his own volition, or was he forced to appoint this psychopath? The reach of the US deep state seems to be limitless. A curious thing happened the other day when someone in the US administration announced that America would no longer be funding the white helmets propaganda outfit. Over here in the UK parliament an opposition member of parliament was practically foaming at the mouth with rage and demanded of prime minister Mrs May that the UK would be continuing to fund the white helmets. When she assured him that the UK was fully behind the white helmets and that funding would remain in place, there was a cheer from around the house. I'm amazed that Bolton allowed the administration to cut off funding when even the UK idiots in parliament want to fund the propaganda arm of the head choppers.
somebody , May 12, 2018 8:16:55 AM | 8
Iran is quite safe. Regime change is possible in the US.
Jen , May 12, 2018 8:24:06 AM | 9
I am just curious to know how much influence John Bolton can exercise as National Security Advisor: is his position part of the President's Executive Office and does he (Bolton, that is) have a department to answer to him and a budget? Is his position any more secure than, say, Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State?
Ian , May 12, 2018 8:44:16 AM | 10
Gesine Hammerling @6:

Mementos from Epstein Island.

ralphieboy , May 12, 2018 8:52:43 AM | 11
The more that Trump is pushed into a corner by investigations of various scandals, the more he needs something to distract from them. A war in a far-off country would be the perfect thing to get people rallying around the President.
Ian , May 12, 2018 8:53:49 AM | 12
Jen @9:
From what I understand, Pompeo is much higher on the food chain. The SoS is in the line of succession; advisors are not. I believe the position is just a single individual with closer access to the POTUS.
Harry , May 12, 2018 8:59:01 AM | 13
I said it many times before, and I can safely repeat it again, there wont be a hot war with Iran. Entire NATO couldnt defeat Iran, and US would go alone (maybe Israel would piggyback few shots). It would end as catastrophe for US and de-facto end as the main superpower. Pentagon (and even CIA) are many things, but suicidally stupid isnt one of them, neither is Trump, or even Nutjobyahoo.

What we will see is more sanctions (to try to create civil unrest) and another "color revolution" endeavor, and it will fail too.

Anon , May 12, 2018 9:05:51 AM | 14
Harry

Top 3 nato countries could take out Iran military within a day, but nato cannot invade, occupy it in my opinion.

john , May 12, 2018 9:11:27 AM | 15
Gesine Hammerling says:

What do those ziocons have in their hands that lets them get away with it over and over again

notwithstanding your ziocons , you got an hour and a half ?

Jen says:

I am just curious to know how much influence John Bolton can exercise as National Security Advisor

maybe you should ask Condoleezza Rice?

somebody , May 12, 2018 9:12:09 AM | 16
14 " take out " ?
A P , May 12, 2018 9:12:42 AM | 17
Trump coopted by the neo-cons? Exactly what lever would they have on Trumpty Dumbdy that isn't already public knowledge? Misogyny, Philandering?... already tried that pussy-grabbing Stormy front. Financial improprieties? That Trump Inc. was/is a serial bankrupt corporation, even screwing low-income students and any building contractor it could?... Old news. That Trumpty Dumbdy is too stupid to read the full documentation presented to him, that he can't write/deliver a coherent, logical line of thought?... obvious from well before the day he officially declared his candidacy.

Trump (and his real estate "empire") was and is a product of the Rothschild cabal, and he was deliberately foisted on the US electorate to be the only one in the country Killary could beat... OOPS!

So we are now seeing Plan-B, where Trumpty is manipulated and browbeaten to shed the few shreds of intelligence and decency he still possessed. All the Deep State/Rothschild-enablers have to do is appeal to Trumpty's fragile ego, or Melania's emotional jags, and they are in control.

But even Bolton's ilk must know Russia and China will not stand by while FUKUS/Nutty/MBS openly attack Iran. Iraq, Afghanistan and Libya show the likely course of events where the Zionists are allowed to carry on with the Yinon Plan. Syria is the line in the sand, despite Erdogan trying to play the US off Russia for historical gotcha gains. Don't forget, Erdogan owes his life to Putin, who ensured the US coup failed by targeting the rogue Turk jets tasked with shooting Erdogan's plane down... I'd bet the Turk pilots were told that if they even turned on their targeting systems, they would be shot down... self preservation is a strong deterrent.

Israel/Saudi on their own cannot withstand even Syria, Hizbolla and Iran directly, even if the russian military only backstopped the Syrian alliance. Ahe US public won't tolerate another Iraq debacle, as zero body bags landing at Edwards AFB is the limit. Let alone that Iran would be Iraq on steroids especially for the several 1,000 in the western Syria caldron. It's a big caldron right now, but with Russian-manned mobile S-400's/etc. protecting all Syrian, Iranian and possibly Iraqi airspace, those soldiers/mercenaries are sitting ducks after the first bomb lands in Iran.

Harry , May 12, 2018 9:13:12 AM | 18
@ Anon, first look up what type of strategy Iran has against US invasion, its literally impossible to take it out in 10 years, let alone in one day :)
morongobill , May 12, 2018 9:15:41 AM | 19
@14:"Top 3 nato countries could take out Iran military within a day"- highly doubt that.

Ian- agree but don't forget Kissinger and Nixon.

Robert Snefjella , May 12, 2018 9:18:08 AM | 20
Apologies if following musings are a bit disjointed.

American chronic hostility towards Iran, and long standing American economic and informational and low-level war gainst Iran, has an insane, out-of-touch with reality, ideological/mythological tinge/component to it. I won't try a broad psycho-analysis, or assemble many possible reasons why that might be.

But among those possible components there is a long standing implacable totalitarian bent to US power wielders, reflected in their ordained geo-political communications in the United States. The American economic sanctions and continuously variously hostile policy towards Cuba over more than half a century is an example. The former 'brothel dof the Caribbean' was apparently fine for the US, and the death squad ridden countries of Central America are quite acceptable, but Cuba out of the capitalist orbit? Cuba as attempting a different ideology, and approach: terrible recalcitrant. The very demon of the hemisphere.

In his revelatory book The Praetorian Guard, former CIA John Stockwell noted that as he was growing up, basically nobody questioned the prevailing American ideology and system. Real searching basic debate was absent. Within the context of a culture where freedom of speech is technically prioritized, lauded as an ideal, somehow self-censorship and discussion is limited to within-the-box of convention, thus discussion as scripted theatre, propaganda, dominated overwhelmingly.

No real debate, but what was repeated ad infinitum were messianic messages'we swear allegiance to the flag', we're number one, we're the free world, we're the good guys.

After the JFK coup d'etat, basically everything in American media became an exercise in controlling all political discourse and trying like crazy to make sure pretense prevailed. This was if anything accentuated after the 9/11 false flag treasonous mind-f**k.

There was also a deadly military doctrine adopted by the US after WW2, when segments of US power decided to go for global military domination, basically permanent war and war preparation. The cliche is that the first casualty of war is truth, but in the case of the United States, doubly so, as that train had already left the station.

The United States is a kind of astonishingly cautionary historical example of the deranged trajectory that dishonesty, pretense and censorship as normalized and dominant will ensure. So many natural advantages, but the external manifestation of the US became mass murder and subterfuge; internal problems of the US are festering, metastisizing, and tens of millions of Americans are deeply demoralized, anxiety ridden, emotion-related drug-medication-dependent.

Back to Iran. A few years ago while driving in the evening I turned on the car radio and the first words I heard from a (Jewish) talk show host on a Toronto station was the question: Do you think the Americans have the balls to nuke Iran? Really bizzarre sick question that apparently could be sent out glibly and sefely into the Canadian political discussion universe as an intellectual feat. And on numerous occasions for many years it has been commonplace in Canadian mass media to depict Iran in a hostile, negative light. And as German writer Udo Ulfkotte bravely told us before his untimely death, the CIA also influences and controls and thus contaminates much of European mass media communication.

So the American insanity and dishonesty and war mongering is playing itself out on a broad stage, (witness the truly crazy pathetic British government's behaviour of late) and crazy people do crazy things, so yah, Iran is still in the crosshairs. But there is a kind of desperate, fading, dated quality to the American obsession with 'evil Iran', and lies and make-believe and insanity cannot escape colliding with reality. The collision can make a helluva a mess, but at some point hopefully the pendulum swings towards a reassertion of sanity and decency and honesty.

How many times will Americans shoot themselves in the foot for Israel and fairy tales?

somebody , May 12, 2018 9:21:32 AM | 21
11 Yep, Reagan and Thatcher were there before. Reagan "was strong" in Grenada and Thatcher in the Falklands.

At present Pompeo seems to try to snatch North Korea from Russia and China .

Bolton seems to plan for war there, too .

I guess the US will have to get clear about their priorities.

ken , May 12, 2018 9:29:33 AM | 22
@ somebody.

"But even Bolton's ilk must know Russia and China will not stand by while FUKUS/Nutty/MBS openly attack Iran"

It appears Putin and Russia have decided to sit all this out. While Putin was enjoying the Victory Parade with Netanyahu,,, Netanyahu was bombing his ally Syria. Putin was all smiles and so far all we hear is crickets.

Putin will sell his S-400 systems to anyone that wants them EXCEPT Syria and all they want is the S-300.

I don't know what's going on but as far as Russia is concerned I wouldn't bank on their helping Iran.

China? China can be purchased like cloths on a rack.

No,,, I think it's pretty open right now for the US to attack Iran. Whether it can survive a war with Iran is doubtful,,, but that's never stopped them before.

Anon , May 12, 2018 9:31:07 AM | 23
somebody

Harry

Yes "take out" as I defined not through occupation/invasion but fighter jet strikes and/or from sea. That wont take more than 1 day for 3 top Nato nations.

Nev , May 12, 2018 9:37:59 AM | 24
I wonder what is going through the minds of Kim and the South Korean leadership. It is obvious that the US is not agreement capable. What sort of guarantees can the US provide. Even if China and Russia provide guarantees it may not be enough. Kim sees that if a deal is made, then the crippling sanctions could be reimposed or remain. Kim and his sister are not stupid.
Pft , May 12, 2018 9:56:51 AM | 25
Neocons and Bolton are Trotskyites. Permanent Revolutionists

The ruling elite never really knew how dumb people were until the internet and social media. With the help of Trumps supporter and Facebook investor Thiel and his company Palintir and Facebook to help them figure out all the data they collected, they know they can make the cattle believe anything without making it believable to anyone with an IQ under 120

The few that figure it out without being members of the cult are isolated and inconsequential.

Plato told us what he hoped would happen. Leo Straus who is the godfather of the neocons emphasized Platos Noble Lie which is behind all of todays fake news/history . Plato was heavily influenced by Irans Zoroastrianism

I believe elements behind the reformation in the 16th century and Sabbateans from the 17th century, Frankists , Freemasons and Jesuits from the 18 th century and Zionists , and Martinists and Marxists from the 19th century joined forces to create a NWO that is a Luciferian cult of Global Synachrists

The neocons are the latest manifestation of the Synarchists, and unfortunately for the world this means global terror much like the Rothschild back Trotsky hoped to accomplish in
the 20th century before being thwarted by Stalin. It also means the end of Religion as Neocons corrupt Protestant Christianity, in US and Across the Atlantic while CIA controlled Jesuit Pope Francis destroys Catholicism. Zionism and the Holocaust wiped out Torah believers and the GWOT and neocons are proceeding to destroy Islam after corrupting it with Islamism with help from the Saudi Arabias corrupt Wahhabism which has spread Islamic extremism along with US and Israel

For those who believe the US can be destroyed, you are in denial. There is no stopping the US/Israel//British/EU alliance. The only hope is that once the perpetual revolution is over that the philosopher kings described by Plato will be merciful. Unfortunately, given many of them are neo-malthusians who think most of humanity are worthless consumers of Gaias precious resources, i am not optimistic

Kalen , May 12, 2018 9:59:21 AM | 26
However you would define war US (Israel) and Iran is at war footing for decades, nothing new here, so I would not panic here that Bolton would do something.

It cannot be more clear that as much as Trump is a flaccid clown of ignorance and belligerence to cover up his tax evasion crimes from Muller, Bolton plays role of barking poodle that all, did not get anything done what global oligarchic interests tell him or he will be put down.

And Please do not compare Iran to Iraq especially after two Iraqi wars, Iran is in position to cause major damage to global oligarchic interests and hence there will be no escalation despite fire and fury rhetoric as it was in NK case, it is all about reintegration of Iranian oligarchy to global oligarchic country club and what we witness is negotiating of condition of selling out Iranians to neoliberal globalists and by that advance a step in isolating Russia to achieve the same purpose, surrender to globalism.

Also I do not see Netanyahu welcoming hundreds of Iranian missiles landing in Tel Aviv as Saddam only shot few Soviet museum item at Israel and back then all hit their however random targets. There would be no random targets this time so there would be death and vital damage, not to mention that Israel could loose Golan Height in the process. Also there is no way in hell for US to invade Iran, or gather 600k troops as it was in 1991 for one quarter Iran size Iraq.

I know that spreading fear brings clicks but here on this blog we know better than that.

Hoarsewhisperer , May 12, 2018 9:59:52 AM | 27
Don't underestimate Trump. He came to office on an audacious promise to drain The Swamp. It's a very specialized task. It was never going to be easy and I'm quite certain that he went in knowing that his first misjudgment would probably be his last. I don't know how to drain The Swamp but if Trump thinks he can then I do too. I've been pleasantly surprised at his ability to engage with senior officials on the World Stage and appear Presidential. Compared with bumbling fools like Ronny Raygun, Jimmy Carter and Dubya, Trump leaves them for dead in the "100% on the ball" stakes. Whilst I'm waiting, with fingers crossed, I console myself with the following thoughts:

1. Hillary would have been worse.
2. The non-people he wants to neutralise are the worst bunch of scum and arseholes on the planet.
3. Since he's the only person with a Swamp plan, we shouldn't be too picky about his timing and tactics.
4. Trump is an extremely clever individual.

james , May 12, 2018 10:04:17 AM | 28
thanks b... and thanks for the Atlantic article from peter beinart... i thought it was a good article.. here's a quote from it "More than 60 percent of Republicans, according to a March Pew Research Poll, think the United States was right to invade Iraq. George W. Bush's approval rating among Republicans, according to a January CNN poll, is 76 percent." and "It's rare to see non-Americans on political talk shows. That matters because non-Americans overwhelmingly think pulling out of the Iran deal is nuts. And non-Americans are more likely to raise fundamental questions about American nuclear policy -- like why America isn't pushing for inspections of Israel's nuclear program, and why America keeps demanding that other nations denuclearize while building ever more nuclear weapons of its own."

then you can read @20 Robert Snefjella post - thanks robert - and note the radio interview from toronto..

sorry to say, but this 'neo-con' term is a quick term to describe so much of what looks like the koolaid american citizens drink regularly.. and there is plenty of it to go around in canada too..

americans by and large look like a nation of idiots, spoon fed everything they know..

i tend to agree with harrys view @13... colour revolution will continue.. but unlike harry, i do believe the bombs will fall and we will enter some type of ww3 scenario.. the usa-israel are too much led by the neo con koolaid to step away from any of their ongoing insanity.. i just can't see the insanity stopping with rational, reasonable people having a say.. so, maybe i don't fully agree with harry other then in the short term..

ralphieboy , May 12, 2018 10:16:15 AM | 29
@ Hoarsewhisperer #11

I agree with your assessment that Trump is a very clever individual - when it comes to manipulating the media and distracting from his words and actions, but I disagree with every other assertion you have made and find that he has filled his administration with grifters and con artists that rival the days of Grant or Harding.

And if you have grown up in America under DACA and are about to be deported or are losing your health insurance coverage because key provisions of ACA have been overturned, just try reciting "Hillary would have been worse!"

Menschmaschine , May 12, 2018 10:17:56 AM | 30
Utter nonsense. The US and Israel are coward bullies. They will pounce when the odds are good, but they are quite rational about when they are not. There have been endless threats and sabre rattling by the US and Israel against Iran for decades, but they never followed through. They will most certainly not do so now, when the relative military position of Iran is better than ever. And this "crying wolf" article will join the the countless others written before on the junkpile of historical falsification...
Eric , May 12, 2018 10:28:56 AM | 31
There is a strong delusion that maintains its satanic grip on the "leadership" in DC.
The depiction of Mordor in Tolkien's "Fellowship of the Rings" series is very fitting in describing the present pure evil and absolute darkness of those who plan for war and destruction in the secret chambers in the upper echelons of our society.

What will stop the madness, death, and destruction that has rained down and continues to rain down on so many millions of hapless men, women, and children in the Middle East and abroad? Will it take a few US cities completely destroyed and hundreds of thousands of Americans vaporized before the insanity of US Empire is stopped?

I pray for peace for the sake of my children and grandchildren. I pray for a "great awakening" amongst the nations of the world to demand an end to the evil US/Zionist madness before it is too late.

Ian , May 12, 2018 10:31:16 AM | 32
Well, Bolton may be up to his usual tricks again. U.N. nuclear watchdog's inspections chief quits suddenly
Red Ryder , May 12, 2018 10:39:41 AM | 33
Any US attack on Iran will be by air, not ground. Though special ops will be inserted in the Afghan border provinces (where the last protests were the largest, fertile ground for insurgents).

Missiles of all kinds will fall on the regime, the military, the Quds, the militias.

And it will be huge, maybe the largest, heaviest attack ever. Once the air defenses are down, bombers will cover the major infrastructure sites with the heaviest bombing since Belgrade and Nam.

Only when the UNSC convenes, probably, no sooner than five or six days, will the attack slow or cease.

Iran will have been set back a few decades. That is the soft goal. The harder goal will be the insurgency and destabilization of the regime and final regime change.

It will take nothing special for this attack to happen. Trump has already made up his mind.

When it will happen is when the US and Israel feel they can suppress the Hezbollah missile threat. Until they have a workable plan for that, not much can happen on a large scale.

But it will come. Small or large, a missile attack will come to Iran. The regime is in the sights of the Hegemon.

Ghost Ship , May 12, 2018 10:44:28 AM | 34
>>>> Anon | May 12, 2018 9:05:51 AM | 14
Top 3 nato countries could take out Iran military within a day, but nato cannot invade, occupy it in my opinion.

Rubbish.

I assume you're referring to countries other than the United States. In which case, you do know that Germany has about half-a-dozen airworthy attack aircraft, the Royal Navy and France's aircraft carriers would require just about every ship in the other European navies to protect them and part of the reason the British and French begged the United States to intervene in Libya was because they'd run out of PGMs.

Give the European NATO countries a couple of years to build up their forces and force projection skills and European NATO might be in a position to bomb Iran, but as soon as they started building up their forces in the Gulf States, Iran could go to the UNSC to demand that this obvious aggression should be stopped and when FUKUS veto any resolution, Iran has carte blanche to launch preemptive strikes across the Persian Gulf. End of European NATO's war on Iran

And after the Iraq fiasco, I suspect the only country that would go to war without a UNSC resolution is the United States. Germany would almost certainly decide to sit it out, France most probably would and the UK would probably also sit it out.

Finally, even if the top 3 NATO countries did try to get away with a limited air attack, the best response for Iran would be to sink every ship in the Persian Gulf and go on doing so until the United States invades and becomes bogged down in a quagmire far worse than Iraq or Afghanistan.

Curtis , May 12, 2018 10:47:07 AM | 35
I have to agree with those who say a direct attack on Iran is imminent. Sure, some would love this to happen whether Yahoo or Bolton but for now will be happy to apply the "squeeze" of sanctions, ostracism/propaganda. The goal seems to have been to destroy and if not that, then to set the countries back ... under the thumb as it were.

Yes, the US with some assistance could rip Iran's military apart but not take over the country. A majority are somewhat satisfied with the theocratic setup. They know the history with the US/West. And how would Iran react? Long range attacks on Israel or much closer-to-home attacks on the Gulf States and the Saudis as well as blocking at Hormuz? Saddam lobbed a few Scuds at Israel and Riyadh but didn't have much. Iran has more and better missile tech ... which TPTB are going after now ... while Yahoo still pushes "nuclear programs" since he knows (like Iraq) there are no real weapons there.

lysander , May 12, 2018 10:54:54 AM | 36
The US will do everything possible to reimpose sanctions. Hence gaining control of the IAEA and inspection process. This is designed to offer the Europeans a face saving way to back down and submit to US will regarding sanctions. It will probably succeed. Europe, whether it likes it or not, is playing good cop in the game.

War, as in an actual US attack in Iran itself, is pretty much out if the question. A false flag designed to be blamed on Iran and big enough to warrant a war will be placed under enormous scrutiny. Not by the US MSM, of course, but by the rest of the world and the alternative media.

The fact is, before anyone can attack Iran, they have to win in Syria and it doesn't look like they are going to.

As far as sanctions, Iran's best bet may be to give the EU 3 weeks to prove its intent to confront the US (which is unlikely) Then Iran can resume its civilian nuclear development at the fastest possible pace, with the offer to discontinue once the US returns to the JCPOA.

Don Bacon , May 12, 2018 11:06:27 AM | 37
Peter Beinart, the author of the "As with Iraq" piece above, gets all wound up in the details of nuclear inspections and forgets that in 2003 he supported the misbegotten Iraq invasion and war because a (supposed) peaceful aftermath would help the people of Iraq, and so the people who oppose the war were wrong.
The truth is that liberalism has to try to harness American military power for its purposes because American tanks and bombs are often the only things that bring evil to heel. Opposing this war might have helped liberals retain their purity, but it would have done nothing for the people suffering under Saddam. If liberals are betrayed a second time in the Gulf, hawkish liberalism may well go into temporary eclipse. But one day we, and they, will need it again. . . here

That's akin to the position that Trump has taken on Iran.
In this effort, we stand in total solidarity with the Iranian regime's longest-suffering victims: its own people. The citizens of Iran have paid a heavy price for the violence and extremism of their leaders. The Iranian people long to -- and they just are longing, to reclaim their country's proud history, its culture, its civilization, its cooperation with its neighbors. . . here
Old Microbiologist , May 12, 2018 11:12:51 AM | 38
IMHO what we are seeing are the last ditch efforts of a failing nation. Russia isn't sitting it out but is taking a wait and see attitude. The same for China. All the bluster and twitter tweets in the world mean nothing until someone actually does something. Israel managed to shoot off a massive strike which at best was 50% effective. This was against "old" Pantsir S-1 systems which were quite effective. No one has seen the S-300 yet in action and Russia is holding it back keeping the ECM signature still secret until it is absolutely necessary. Russia cannot fight the US or Israel in Syria. They simply doesn't have the forces present. But, what they can do is push gently and make the FUKUS+I over-commit. Don't forget that the US is working at a current $22 Trillion of debt and these debacles are going to burn money faster than they can print. In the mean time Russia/China are creating an alternate economic system to bypass the petrodollar and especially the SWIFT banking. That is in place and perhaps we will see more countries deciding to bail on the dollar and join the growing crowd.

The US has demonstrated a complete lack of respect for sovereignty and has so far reneged on every treaty. This means that the US is at best an unreliable partner. The South Koreans have wised up seeing that the US is very willing to sacrifice the entire peninsula and every soul living there to kill off the DPNK. That should scare the bejeezus out of every nation friendly to the US anywhere in the world. They are losing friends so fast now it is scary. This only forces the inevitable and the US is going to have to bet the farm to try and keep the hegemony alive. It won't work and the US has the worst record of war fighting imaginable. They can't beat the goat-herders in Afghanistan for example over a span of now 17 years. Fighting a real military such as Iran would be impossible and especially if China throws in her weight. Iran is very important to China and to a lesser extent Russia as well. There is no danger of the US or NATO winning there. However, this could break the bank if it goes south. So, what we are seeing is an existential threat to the US in the form of rebellion against the dollar. Finally, we are seeing countries that have the weight of forces (nuclear) with serious resistance. It is for this reason we are not seeing a counter-attack against Israel. As Napoleon said "Never interfere with the enemy when he is in the process of destroying himself".

james , May 12, 2018 11:15:39 AM | 39
@37 don.. peter beinart in the articles states he was wrong on iraq and this previous movement..
A P , May 12, 2018 11:18:36 AM | 40
The two FUKUS mass missile attacks on Syria, as well as Israel's latest jab, were a test of the Russian systems and general Syrian ability to interdict said missiles. If the missiles can't get through even at such short range, it is obvious Israeli/FUKUS aircraft can't either. Attempting the same "air war" stunt in Iran will just give the US MIC a big boost replacing virtually every piece of hardware sent over Iran airspace.

Again, the US soldiers/mercenaries currently in eastern Syria are in a caldron-in-making. They can no longer count on escaping via land transport through Iraq or Turkey, and without any air support/transport, they are trapped. Does anyone think the US public will tolerate the Deep State sacrificing about 5,000 soldiers/mercenaries immediately after the bombing of Iran starts? The handful of body bags from other recent US misadventures were not well-received at home, so the potential for another Vietnam?

Iran will not be the turkey-shoot Iraq was, Saddam was still under the delusion Rumsfeld's handshake gave him immunity from Deep State/Zionist machinations. Iran's leadership is under no such delusion, remembering the admitted 1953 CIA overthrow of democratically elected Mossadegh and the installation of the Shah.

Putin and Assad know time is on their side, and the longer they can delay a major FUKUS/Israeli/Saudi offensive, the better prepared they are and the less effect Zionist propaganda has worldwide. The IDF murdering unarmed Palestinians using a Gandhiesque tactic of showing how venal Nuttyyahoo's regime is... like Britain in India... there is no way to make this slaughter seem justified, and attempting to keep it out of the public consciousness has not worked.

bevin , May 12, 2018 11:20:20 AM | 41
"But it will come. Small or large, a missile attack will come to Iran. The regime is in the sights of the Hegemon."
That would be 'former Hegemon'.
The likelihood of war other than the predictable guerrilla campaigns launched from abroad, campaigns with which Iran has been successfully dealing for decades, seems to me to be low.
While everyone is watching Iran and Syria, the most important developments are those taking place in Korea, where some sort of peace agreement seems inevitable. And where anything short of war will mean an immense strengthening of the positions of Russia and China.Not least because Japan and Taiwan will be forced to adjust to the new reality.
In Korea... and in western Europe.
This is where the worst cracks in the US hegemonic facade are beginning to show: the logic of Eurasia and the illogic of Atlanticism are inescapable. The western european economies, including Germany's, France's and (the weakest link of all?) Italy's are dying for access to the eastern markets. Historically Germany has shared its technologies and culture with Russia, which has been the great source of its raw materials and food. The ending of the Iran deal seems to be the excuse needed to slip back into that relationship.
Those who rave against Putin's 'betrayal' understand nothing. It is necessary to lower the tension internationally in order for the tectonic movements, which are already well advanced, to settle.
Bolton and the warmongers depend on perpetuating war but all the momentum, internationally, is against war. The propaganda which has been their main weapon, is failing, their credibility is rapidly declining.
Outside Israel, the rump of the Saud family court which supports the Riyadh regime and the degenerated dregs of NATO trotskyism-inhabited by elderly, aethereal creatures who live in the Academy and know nothing of the world- the only people who want war are the speculators. And they are just as happy to have peace, anything that excites the market.
Those who claim that Iran could be defeated in a couple of days are, presumably, talking of nuclear weapons. Do they really believe that such an attack would not be deterred by Iran's allies?
A P , May 12, 2018 11:27:52 AM | 42
Trump is "clever", not intelligent. He is the personification of "bullshit baffles brains" methodology. Indications are he is marginally literate, as all info briefs have to be a couple pages at most and point form. It is obvious he has no patience to work through the finer details of complex situations, simply taking the position of whatever of his advisers can spread the BS in the most eloquent or forceful way.

But mostly whatever panders to his ego. Make Trumpty think he is being "the decider" (like Gerge W. Stupid) or that he is being the "tough guy" and he'll sign or say anything.

lysander , May 12, 2018 11:27:54 AM | 43
@ 33, It took NATO 73 days to bring Serbia down, and in the end it required trickery (promising Milosovich he can stay then color revolutionizing him out)

Serbia did not have the means to close the straights of Hormuz. Nor did it have a missile arsenal that could strike at several regional US bases. Nor could it destroy Saudi and Kuwaiti oil refineries. Nor did Serbia have several thousand US ground troops in easy reach.

Serbia also had the misfortune of being attacked during the weakest point in Russian history since the 1600s. Russia is quite certain to help Iran because it has a strong interest in Iran repelling a US attack. Even if you believe Russia is 100% cynical, they will have an enormously strong reason to see the US bogged down for a decade and bled white.

The Pentagon is aware of all of this and they aren't idiots. The fact is, the US was in a much better position to attack Iran in 2006 or 7, and they still didn't do it, because it was a terrible idea even back then. They will not do it now when it is a much worse idea.

Simply put, if attacking Iran were so easy, they would have done it a long, long time ago.

Now, attempts to destabilize and possibly preach rebellion to Iran's minorities, that they will do (without much success) But open war is a line they won't cross.

imo , May 12, 2018 11:30:30 AM | 44
@38 -- "This was against "old" Pantsir S-1 systems which were quite effective. No one has seen the S-300 yet in action and Russia is holding it back keeping the ECM signature still secret until it is absolutely necessary."

My reading is the S-300 has a range that would cover commercial airports in Tel-Aviv and it is probably too much risk for Putin to deliver these to Damascus in case an 'event' occurs and a civilian jet goes down. In any case, some suggest there are more effective equipment solutions for Syrian defense/response. Of course, in the wryly Russian way, Israeli destruction of "old" Pantsir S-1 systems simply opens up the rational and legal opportunity to provide a whole lot of 'new' updated replacement Pantsir S-1 systems. Background: https://sputniknews.com/military/201804171063644024-pantsir-top-facts/

psychohistorian , May 12, 2018 11:30:45 AM | 45
I think that the UN has always been mostly a circus court for empire....make it look like US is benevolent.

So now when the fig leaf comes off in public people are aghast. Empire only works like empire and when the wheels start to come off, the whole facade is exposed for the dog and pony show it has always been.

Will this be enough to change the world of global private finance? Iran, remember, refuses to become a member of the Western banking/elite cabal.

So just why might Trump be directed to attack Iran in his regular pompous manner. Is this a religious war we are fighting for Israel?

NO!!! It is all about the continuation of the Western form of social organization that has as its core religion the God of Mammon. Those at MoA who read me know that the God of Mammon that I write about have the tenets of private finance and property along with the rules of inheritance which has resulted in the elite of the past few centuries.

I continue to posit that all that is happening relates to that issue and the struggles around it not discussed in public for whatever reasons.

But carry on educating me and others about all the proxy shit going down and its relevance to how our society works....or doesn't........I want evolution and I want it this morning!!!!!!!

Jackrabbit , May 12, 2018 11:44:12 AM | 46
The coming "war on Iran" will be an excuse for all kinds of mischief. Some possibilities:
>> seizing western Iraq
further isolate Syria by blocking Iran-Syria land route

>> attack and occupation of Lebanon
to clear Hezbollah and allow for Israeli land grab up to Litani river (a goal previously expressed)

>> new round of terror attacks (from new/re-branded groups) focused on Syria, Iranian, and Russian interests (with a few attacks on the West to muddy the waters)
The psychological part of a war of attrition

>> intensified Ukraine-Russian frictions
full court press

>> ISIS expansion into Central Asia
accelerate what has already begun

>> Shut down of North Stream and Turk Stream
expect the 'cage match' with "recividist nations" to get nasty

Laguerre , May 12, 2018 11:45:50 AM | 47
Curious how things have calmed down on the Israel front. Things not gone quite as well as hoped? Or perhaps it is that they've figured out that there's nothing to do. SOHR, opposed to the Syrians, but with good telephone connections in Syria, has now come up with a list of a handful of Iranian dead. So I suppose a few Iranian camps were actually hit. But the only actual videoed strikes were against Syrians. It's what you'd call a nothing-burger, much like the 102 missile strike.

And this is the launch of a campaign against Iran?? Strange way of showing it. In my view, the US and Israel are so boxed in by their constraints, that it's very difficult to act decisively. No casualties, so no overflights of Syria, let alone Iran. No interruption of Gulf oil exports, as the Gulfies wouldn't like it. Gulf emirates not to be overturned. I'm sure I can think of some more....

imo , May 12, 2018 11:49:45 AM | 48
@40 -- "The handful of body bags from other recent US misadventures were not well-received at home, so the potential for another Vietnam?"

More likely an unlearned repeat of 'rhyming' history with Trump playing Jimmy Carter and the "5,000 soldiers/mercenaries" playing the suckers (in summer heat). How's the Big 'D' going to negotiate that deal over the mid-terms?

But that was Democrat 'smart' -- perhaps this re-mix will be closer an up-scaled rerun of Reagan's Iran–Contra scandal? Who's playing Oliver North?

fairleft , May 12, 2018 11:51:49 AM | 49
Robert Snefjella | May 12, 2018 9:18:08 AM | 20

Another great post. Thank you. Implied I think in your musings is, 'What will people remember of the U.S.' in a hundred years? The 20th century popular music. Blues, Jazz, Rock 'n Roll, and Country & Western for starters.

Anon , May 12, 2018 11:57:18 AM | 50
Ghost ship

Completely nonsense.

When have UNSC ever done to stop aggression by the same states that commit the aggression?
The topic wouldnt even raised in the UNSC.
Of course Iran wont start a "preemptive" war. Not atleast since that will be a suicide mission for themselves.

Anon , May 12, 2018 12:00:07 PM | 51
Lysander

Russia wont do anything then (us attack on iran), just look how they treated previous US wars, everytime people have said the same that RUssia will help and repel an attack, it have never happend and will never happen.

lysander , May 12, 2018 12:03:32 PM | 52
At 51...uh, you do realize Russia has an expeditionary force that is actually fighting and keeping Syria alive as we post, right? Perhaps they are not fighting as much as you would like, but they are fighting and Syria continues to exist because of it. As regards Iran, if Iran falls the Syria falls and Russian bases will be gone. Fortunately for all, that won't happen.
NemesisCalling , May 12, 2018 12:11:36 PM | 53
It is difficult to say what kind of scope the false flag would need to be to rally public opinion at home for an Iranian incursion. In many ways, pre-9/11, the antiwar movement was much stronger as was shown by the rallies against leading up to the Iraqi invasion. And yet this couldn't forestall it.

OTOH, independent media has come a long way in its reach and so cries of "false flag" have already been sounded, and, by and large, I believe America is fatigued with the ME. It is doubly ironic that dems like Schumer have been crying foul against DJT for playing soft with NoKo. I know that the current dem/lib establishment has thrown its antiwar credentials out the window, in favor of color revolutions, freedom, and LGBTQUIOGDTFBJK rights to fornicate in public spaces, but, my god, I would never have imagined the globalists to be THAT stupid in their disregard for basic human needs the world over for soverignty and national pride.

People have touched on it before, but is this whole current theater just an old money vs. new money second showing? The return of the repressed, with the globalist/neolib model being rundowned and usurped by nationalist oligarchs? It would seem the DJT has chosen to err to the old money side to the betterment of the world. And I, for one, as an American would rather have my elites localized so we would actually have access to their asses when we decide to put a pitchfork up them. It is very difficult to get past TSA with weaponized peasant tools.

Laguerre , May 12, 2018 12:13:00 PM | 54
Israel doesn't want war with Iran – it prefers crisis in Tehran . Anshel Pfeffer, Ha'aretz.

Israel's a bit late there then. The disturbances were at the beginning of the year. They're over now. The effect of the sanctions will be to swing people behind the regime, for the moment, at any rate.

Anon , May 12, 2018 12:30:10 PM | 55
lysander

No thats wrong too, Russia is not on a mission to save Syrians state, they are in Syria due takfiri threat. Nothing else, as we all see proof of past days...

As for your other statment, I am well sure that Syria have fallen long long before Iran (if they ever do that).

Lozion , May 12, 2018 12:44:53 PM | 56
@52 Lysander. I agree (btw never mind anon's trolling attempts). Simply put, the road to Tehran goes through Damascus and last I checked the Jasmine City was doing fine ;) If US/KSA/IL attempts a hot war on Iran it will only precipitate its fall..
Jose Garcia , May 12, 2018 12:55:54 PM | 57
Am reminded of the 3 Stooges, whenever I read about these warmongers, like " Bombs Away" Bolton. Moe tells a group of people, "We will fight till the last drop of.....", then points to Curly and finishes, "....your blood!" These bastards love war, but never are at the front line, fighting and dying along side our best. They sit at their plush offices and conference halls in the best hotels, sipping champagne and eating the best foods, making six or seven figure incomes. While our brothers, neighbors, fathers, sons, uncles die overseas, or come back a mental mess, and get crapped on by out government. What these no good for nothing rat bastards need is to experience the hell they unleash upon us and the rest of the world.
les7 , May 12, 2018 1:05:51 PM | 58
@32 thanks Ian for that link. good catch!
Rhisiart Gwilym , May 12, 2018 1:08:01 PM | 59
anon is clearly of the 'cakewalk', 'all be over by Christmas' school of strategic (lack of) intelligence. LOL!
john , May 12, 2018 1:09:24 PM | 60
NemesisCalling says:

I believe America is fatigued with the ME

i read this line a lot, from all spheres, and it always perplexes me. to be fatigued you'd have to be overwhelmed, inundated, and i'd wager that the ME and what's going on there hardly crosses the vast majority of minds in more than a peripheral way, you know, like beyond certain key words they hear on tv.

one thing's for sure though, the ME is most definitely fatigued with America!

james , May 12, 2018 1:16:32 PM | 61
@59 rhisiart... a broken clock is right twice a day!!

many fine posts, excluding the anons of moa, lol.. thanks..

Don Bacon , May 12, 2018 1:20:52 PM | 62
Looks like there might not be a Coalition Of The Willing in any anti-Iran military operation. Quite the opposite, it's a further lessening of US world hegemony.
. . .Cartoon of Trump giving the middle finger Goodbye, Europe! in Der Spiegel.
Don Bacon , May 12, 2018 1:23:47 PM | 63
@ Ian 32
U.N. nuclear watchdog's inspections chief quits suddenly
The IAEA is not a UN agency.
Anon , May 12, 2018 1:30:35 PM | 64
Don Bacon

Dont bet on that,

May, Trump Agree to Counter Iran's 'Destabilising Activity' - Downing Street
https://sputniknews.com/europe/201805121064380224-usa-uk-iran-sanctions-pressure/

WJ , May 12, 2018 1:31:06 PM | 65
Why are commentators assuming that, *if* the US does launch a war of aggression against Iran, it will do so in tandem with its NATO allies--and the UK, France, and Germany in particular? It is doubtful that these allies will even abide by the new US economic sanctions imposed upon Iran. Why think that they will be willing, or even politically able, to follow the US orders for war?

b is right that the neocons are setting up a replay of the 2001-2003 Iraq propaganda campaign. But the global and domestic conditions that enabled the success of that campaign no longer hold. The US is far weaker now than then; Iran is more powerful and unified than Iraq ever was; NATO countries have hundreds of billions of dollars of trade contracts in place or projected with Iran; Russia and China are far stronger. It just doesn't add up.

NemesisCalling , May 12, 2018 1:31:57 PM | 66
@60 john

I suppose what I was trying to say is that the narrative TPTB have spun over the last twenty years has gone beyond the realm of convoluted to the average American and now has completely unwound into chaos. It was only three years ago that we were being told about the surging threat of ISIS to Americans. Well...that didn't last long...and now they are back to Iran which the west knows very little about and really doesn't care to. Us Americans like the good guy/bad guy fight. But if you can't drum up a good enough backstory for the black hats, I'm afraid that the average American will simply change the channel.

That being said...a compelling backstory isn't really needed for pyschopaths to wage their war anyway.

Jackrabbit , May 12, 2018 1:33:28 PM | 67
Lorizon @56

I believe you are referring to Anon as troll.

"anon" (small 'a') makes valuable contributions.

Jackrabbit , May 12, 2018 1:34:39 PM | 68
Typo: Lozion
MIschi , May 12, 2018 1:35:05 PM | 69
Russia has probably delivered the S-300 to Syria but isn't saying.

https://sputniknews.com/military/201805111064353749-russia-s300-supplies-syria/

Also, Putin and Lavrov always talk to other parties that they aren't getting along with, hence Netanyahu's invitation to the Victory Day parade.

les7 , May 12, 2018 1:38:08 PM | 70
Several here ave wondered what kind of false flag could motivate the populace in NA and the EU to support an attack on Iran. May I propose one?

First stage - Israel (using the EW cover from AlTanf) bombs the Iranian nuclear plant. Radiation release threatens tens of thousands.

Second stage - Supposed 'Iranian' counter-attack sets oil tankers ablaze (For maximum PR effect do not sink them) in the Hormuz straights closing the gulf to shipments of Gulf sourced oil. Oil prices temporarily spike to over $200 a barrel,

Europe's supply of oil is cut drastically, industries world-wide are paralysed and the US (secure with its' supply sourced outside the gulf)is free to ride to the rescue - all while RUSSIA (and China) have NO LEGITIMATE REASON to oppose the aggression.

Don Bacon , May 12, 2018 1:39:56 PM | 71
bevin 41
The likelihood of war other than the predictable guerrilla campaigns launched from abroad, campaigns with which Iran has been successfully dealing for decades, seems to me to be low.
Yes, the US Army is demonstrably weak especially for any foreign invasion.

Historically Germany has shared its technologies and culture with Russia, which has been the great source of its raw materials and food. The ending of the Iran deal seems to be the excuse needed to slip back into that relationship.
And also China's BRI -- coming up June 28-- -- The China Germany BRI Summit 2018

As the first and third largest exporters globally, China and Germany will prove crucial drivers of trade along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st-century Maritime Silk Road. Together these form the Belt and Road Initiative, a landmark shift in the global economic order that will touch over 65 countries across four continents.
The China Germany BRI Summit 2018 will dispel myths on what the Belt and Road Initiative means for the world, tackle the challenges for global financial institutions and corporations looking to leverage the initiative, and identify the enormous opportunities in M&A, capital markets and trade finance. here .
ninel , May 12, 2018 1:42:37 PM | 72
Iran Breaks the Rules of Engagement: Israel Takes Its Revenge, and Syria and Iran Impose the Golan Equation, May 10 2018

https://www.globalresearch.ca/iran-breaks-the-rules-of-engagement-israel-takes-its-revenge-and-syria-and-iran-impose-the-golan-equation/5640231

@ Anon 64
Dont bet on that, May, Trump Agree to Counter Iran's 'Destabilising Activity' - Downing Street
OMG, not the powerful UK military!! (heh)
Besides, haven't you heard? The UK isn't in Europe any more, or soon won't be.

Posted by: Don Bacon , May 12, 2018 1:45:05 PM | 73

@ Anon 64
Dont bet on that, May, Trump Agree to Counter Iran's 'Destabilising Activity' - Downing Street
OMG, not the powerful UK military!! (heh)
Besides, haven't you heard? The UK isn't in Europe any more, or soon won't be.

Posted by: Don Bacon | May 12, 2018 1:45:05 PM | 73 /div

WJ , May 12, 2018 1:46:54 PM | 74
Don Bacon @71,

The extremely complex entanglement of Germany with (roughly) the NATO/EU alliance on the one hand and Russia/China on the other is a prime reason why I do not believe that Germany (which is by far the biggest economy in the EU) will be able to be strong armed or enticed into signing up with another Zionist driven US war of aggression with a country as major as Iran.

xpat , May 12, 2018 1:48:26 PM | 75
Re the possibility of a "united front" of western powers confronting Iran, the truth is that no one knows for certain at this point how it this will play out.

We have to remember the deafening silence of the western media during the obvious Skripjal-Ghouta fakery, so there's a good chance the US/Israel axis will again have a relatively free hand to concoct any number of escalating false flags, not all of which will stick, but some probably will. So that is a cause for concern re any future "coalition".

As for enforcing the sanctions, I've seen people argue both ways - that this is a bridge too far for Europe, and accepting it will both do too much economic damage and make Europe appear too obviously as US toadies; and OTOH, Europe will be blackmailed into knuckling under when confronted with illegal US fines and secondary sanctions.

wenlich , May 12, 2018 1:51:06 PM | 76
@59 Lysander

> Curious how things have calmed down on the Israel front. Things not gone quite as well as hoped?

This is all that needs to be noted about the absurdity of even the idea that the US regime is capable of attacking Iran.

This delusion appears to be the same type thinking as the "Generals Always Fight the Previous War" saying.

The days of the Israeli regime flying at will over countries bombing at will are over. And the days of the US regime parking an aircraft carrier off the coast of a country and leisurely taking out its air defense network are long gone.

Russian air defense and electronic warfare tech are now being shown to be significantly superior to US regime offensive capabilities in real world combat. So much so that the most common reaction has been to try to rationalize the fact with crazy conspiracy theories about behind the scenes wink and nod agreements between the US regime and Russia.

Trump foolishly trying to attack Iran to distract from his political problems would end up as the first modern US regime leader who lost an aircraft carrier and ten dollar gas prices.

Israeli's were cowering in their sewers while their junk air defense network repeatedly failed to defend against a minor Syrian retaliatory barrage while Syrians in Damascus were cheering on their rooftops as their Russian air defense network knocked Israeli missiles from the sky.

Syria smacking down the Israeli regime is going to have Trump's military advisors sitting him down and giving him a hard dose of reality about the Israeli/Saudi/Neocon delusions about attacking Iran.

FB Ali , May 12, 2018 2:00:04 PM | 77
Old Microbiologist, @ #38, above has a good handle on the current situation in the region.

I agree with his views.

Ian , May 12, 2018 2:08:08 PM | 78
Don Bacon @63:

According to Reuters it is. :p

Don Bacon , May 12, 2018 2:19:50 PM | 79
Pompeo(US) and Zarif(Iran) are currently making the diplomatic rounds, the former looking for a new & improved plan, and the latter emphasizing that the US never adhered to the old plan and united opposition to sanctions is in everyon'e best interest.
from the Iran statement:
Since taking office, Mr. Trump has not only made explicit and official statements against the agreement in violation of its provisions, but has in practice also failed to implement U.S. practical – and not merely formal commitments under the JCPOA. The Islamic Republic of Iran has recorded these violations in numerous letters to the Joint Commission convened under the JCPOA, outlining the current U.S. Administration's bad faith and continuous violations of the accord. Thus Mr. Trump's latest action is not a new development but simply means the end of the obstructionist presence of the United States as a participant in the JCPOA. . . here

The apparent US line now, as before, is to "change the regime's malign behavior" which is ridiculous and thus doomed.
A P , May 12, 2018 2:22:57 PM | 80
@ MISchi 69: There have been Russian-operated S-400's in Syria for years. Even the US propaganda rags admit it is significant in reducing FUKUS attacks.
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-34976537

http://www.janes.com/article/74500/second-russian-s-400-in-syria-confirmed

So just because Russia isn't giving the SAA S-300's doesn't mean Syria has no protection. The fact the updated S-200s and Pantsirs are doing the job reasonably well will give FUKUS and Israeli/Saudi military planners pause. Note that the cowardly Israeli jets attack from Lebanese or Jordanian airspace.

And Nuttyyahoo merely crashed the Victory Day festivities, and Putin is too gracious a host to kick Nutty out. But the body language between them was obvious, Putin was not happy to see Nutty trying to capitalize on Putin's good manners.

Don Bacon , May 12, 2018 2:29:46 PM | 81
@ Ian 77
According to Reuters it is.
Reuters doesn't take comments so I'm telling you (and others), if you don't mind, because you are misleading people with something that isn't true.
Don Wiscacho , May 12, 2018 2:29:47 PM | 82
As much as Bolton and his ilk would love to attack Iran, I have to disagree that a full-fledged war is likely. USrael will ratchet up tensions all they can, hoping that Iran will take the bait and actually respond, but the only way an actual war MAY be fought is with a massive false flag attack. However, it took a massive false flag attack to allow the neocons to invade Iraq, so said black op would have to be on that magnitude. Here's the thing though, the neocons seem to be getting worse at false flags and more over the world ain't buying them like they used to.
Sure you can get your European lackeys to sign up to a few sanctions, but will anyone actually support the utter tanking of the world economy? Because that will be the end result of war with Iran and behind closed doors everyone knows this. Look up the Millennial War Games simulation that pitted the US against Iran. And how did that $200 million exercise turn out? The US had to "refloat" its fleet in order to win. Using older Chinese anti- ship missiles the Iranians decimated US naval assets. The US hasn't developed counter measures against these while the Iranians have undoubtedly improved on these missiles. No matter what happens to its ground forces and population centers, shipping in the Persian Gulf will be shut down. That one action will raise the price of oil to over $200 a barrel overnight, possibly much higher. And with that the global economy will be left in tatters. Too many of the world's leaders understand this completely and simply will not go along with the US and line up against Iran like they did with Iraq.
Mischi , May 12, 2018 2:35:20 PM | 83
no, Netanyahu was invited. I read about it a week before the parade. Lavrov always says that you don't need to negotiate with your friends, but you do with your enemies. Hence the invite.

Like the Godfather said in the eponymous movie "Keep your friends close but your enemies closer."

Anon , May 12, 2018 2:38:30 PM | 84
Don Bacon

UKs military is of course far stronger than Iran,
we will see renewed sanctions against Iran and EU will be onboard and have already mentioned they "need" to pressure Iran more.

Don Bacon , May 12, 2018 2:40:47 PM | 85
The attacks on Iran will be only financial, not military, is my guess. The big news in the military sector is often on cyber attacks. Cyber will be a "new military front."

Financial is akin to cyber. No shooting. The military experts don't discuss financial, I guess because the U.S. is the only country capable of it, controlling world finance as it does. But a full-on sanctions regime on another small country like Iran could do a lot of damage and hurt a lot of people, as it did in Iraq previously. Sort of like what the U.S. did to Japan to precipitate the war in the Pacific, except Iran's reactions must be much more limited.

So the big question is Europe, and if it is able to legislate any significant counter-sanction laws that would encourage Iran-Europe business. France looks good on this, Germany is more significant.

Laguerre , May 12, 2018 2:41:18 PM | 86
I do wish people would stop calling themselves Anon. It's very difficult to know which is which. It's easy enough to anonymise yourself with a distinctive handle. Maybe b should ban it as a handle.
Chipnik , May 12, 2018 2:56:50 PM | 87
60

Many years ago I got to hear Sir Edmond Hillary speak to the assembled students at my school, just a few years after his amazing climbing feat. No multimedia or lasers pointers or cheesy-brand tee-shirt cannons, ... just an electric performance by an incredible man that shaped my life, one foot at a time.

Several decades later, I watched SEH demonstrate Simple Green soap at REI. So incredibly sad. I'll never forget either presentation. The Man in the Moon had become another Soapy Salesman.

At the same time I first heard SEH speak, my father, an international businessman, brought home a Buddhist monk exchange student from Asia for the holiday. It was spellbinding to meet a bright and well-off monk, who knew all this amazing arcane reality, that we call the Wheel. It shaped my entire approach to the summit.

Several decades later, in fact, just recently, I watched a performance by a Tibetan monk troupe, after which they essentially begged for sponsors for the remaining exiled monks now starving in India by the 1000s. They are dying out, like the 1,000s, the 10,000s of aboriginal valley cultures that once walked the Earth.

Soapy Sales and Starving Monks, who only decades ago were both sitting on Top of the World. Kind of like everyone's experience, even John Bolton's, former UN ambassador, now a sleazy salesman-demonstrator for Death Inc, too proud to sell soap, or to busker for alms. He's pathetic.

So let me bring it on home.

A student of mine is a senior monk in Asia. His charge is to free the spirits of the just dead. Not the two monks chanting and incense and sprinkling with flower petal water in front of a cherished photo. No, he blesses the *dying*, the human roadkills from the reckless Chinese Escalades bombing through SEAsian commute traffic, the black and blue herion addicts with the needle still in their arm, bright red blood bubbling out of their noses, the raped, strangled, discarded and bloating young girls, dumped in the nearest rice paddy ditch.

He gets those calls. He never talks about his work, never shows the horror pictures or trashes the perps. He sends selfies, pics of meals, flowers and temples. So I asked him, doesn't this bother you at night, the carnal evil, the rape, the murder? Don't you wanna see justice done?

He said simply, we're all going to die, many of us soon, we have very little time away from the Wheel. We should spend every precious second of free time uplifting those who are below us, the poor, the infirm, the feeble, the indentured, the slave, ...because we're all gonna die as beggars some day. We should hold faith with the beggars.

Bolton is a sick fuck, in a pantheon of sick fucks. Why squander a nanosecond meditating on any of them? They are nothingness, the void. MoA seems to have a fascination with evil and death, and making Death's bit players into pop-idols. Selling a different brand of soap, I guess.

OJS , May 12, 2018 3:04:21 PM | 88

Israeli Air Force Strikes Gaza Strip, More Than 20 Missiles Fired

Israeli having free hands bombings not only Syria and in Gaza too. Syrians and Palestinians lives dun matter?

What if.... Regime changes in Syria and Iran will the killing stops?

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-12/israeli-air-force-strikes-gaza-strip-more-20-missiles-fired

lysander , May 12, 2018 3:06:13 PM | 89
@70, les7

Closing Hormuz would likely be the Iranian response to a sustained bombing campaign. A single strike on a nuclear facility could elicit a missile strike on the attacking party (US, Isreal or both.) Or it could involve multiple attacks on vulnerable US troops in Iraq and Syria. Iran has several rungs in its escalation ladder. It doesn't have to jump to the top one all at once.

Laguerre , May 12, 2018 3:07:58 PM | 90
re Don 84

Of course financial sanctions are the main, if not the only, US war-winning tactic available today. Mainly the control of the VISA and SWIFT exchange systems. But I'm not financially knowledgeable. It was one reason that Iran signed in 2015. I remember well, about 10 years ago, the husband of an Iranian student arriving with $20K (?) sewn into his overcoat, to pay for his wife's studies.

However, the US has used this tactic so often now, that people must be looking to ways of getting round the problem. I'm not quite sure how much success they may have had. People talk about Russia-China erecting a parallel to the SWIFT system. I hope this does happen, though it must be expensive. Non-US allies need it.

A P , May 12, 2018 3:36:24 PM | 91
@lLaguerre: Russia already has set up its version of SWIFT. As has China, as well as both agreeing to transactions in rubles/yuan first for petroleum, then recently for all other trade, to bypass the US$ SWIFT system. The US gets a "cut", every time a corporation/country converts from local currency to US$, then again when that same US$ cash is converted to the currency of the second trading partner. To avoid this, non-US countries keep US$ reserves to trade between themselves. This scam was set up at Bretton Woods after WW2 when the US economy was the only economy/industrial-base left unscathed.

https://www.rt.com/business/424108-russia-rostec-swift-alternative/

"In 2017, the head of the Central Bank, Elvira Nabiullina, said at a meeting with President Vladimir Putin that Russia is ready for disconnection from SWIFT."

Cyril , May 12, 2018 3:36:53 PM | 92
Because of their large inertia, these things, when they get moving, cannot be stopped and proceed to the inevitable. The ziocons have pushed the boulder and it's starting to roll.

That is what a lot of panicky people said in 2013, that Obama's invasion of Syria was inevitable because Assad was gassing his people in Ghouta. It didn't happen. As it turned out, the "massive momemtum" was in the Zionist propangda, hoping to sucker the U.S. into the Middle East again.

Cyril , May 12, 2018 3:40:31 PM | 93
[Bolton:] "We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York."

What an ass Bolton is. I hope Bustani replied with "We know where you live."

Lozion , May 12, 2018 3:47:06 PM | 94
@67/68 hence @85. Agreed, using anon as a handle only lowers the signal-to-noise ratio at MoA. This isnt Reddit nor should it become, IMO..
james , May 12, 2018 3:48:57 PM | 95
i think swift and bis are linked in with imf.. unfortunately i don't know how it all works, but russias central bank is part of imf.. the way imf is set up favours the developed countries over the developing countries.. they have some other tricks to keep control over it too, but i do believe it is tricky navigating moving away from it all, which is why the financial system is the first line of action to put other countries deemed out of line - into line.. some have tried to get the imf to change without success which is why i believe brics was working towards an alternative.. of course the b in brics went thru a type of regime change under a different facade and i am not sure where they are at with that at this moment in time...
WJ , May 12, 2018 3:50:46 PM | 96

Julian Assange
@JulianAssange
There is something very odd about the Joseph Mifsud story and the role of the UK in the 2016 US presidential election:
(thread)
5:07 PM · Mar 22, 2018


DEVELOPING: A major new front is opening in the political espionage scandal. In summer 2016, Brennan with his FBI liaison Strzok, along with help from Kerry @ State, were trying to set Russian espionage traps for minor players in the Trump campaign through cultivated intel assets

-- Paul Sperry (@paulsperry_) May 11, 2018

A P , May 12, 2018 3:51:01 PM | 97
@MISchi: Israel may have been "invited", but only as a standard diplomatic courtesy, not as a "guest of honour" as the MSM and Hasbara would have us beleive. The US was probably invited too... and didn't have the grace to show up? The US and EU were for sure in 2014, but "boycotted" it over the US coup in Ukraine. Nuttyyahoo was just looking for MSM cover for the illegal bombing he knew was going to happen, making it look like Putin was "in on it".

I'd guess Putin is simply giving Nutty all the rope Nutty needs to hang himself in the court of world public opinion. When I see an official statement from Putin (or any Russian senior official) saying Putin gave any approval of Israel's past and present illegal incursions in Syria, let alone the illegal occupation of the Golan, I'll believe Nutty being at the Victory Parade was some sort of endorsement by Putin of Nutty's insanity.

karlof1 , May 12, 2018 4:01:47 PM | 98
I agree with Lysander's logic. Iran will not be attacked in the "normal" manner; it will be asymmetrical. The performance of not-so antiquated air defenses in Syria are the big game changer as Iran has those and its own S-300 version. Plus all those big stationary targets. Plus, I figure Bolton has a target on his back, as do other neocons--you don't murder over a million without creating some enemies. I see lots of bluster to foment as much chaos as possible to accentuate the asymmetrical impact. But as for an actual military assault, Bolton and company are a decade plus too late.

To negate the potential effect of another Operation Northwoods, I think it wise to pull up those old pdf docs and spread them around the world via social media--a move I'm frankly surprised has yet to be made--along with some additional contemporary context.

A P , May 12, 2018 4:03:42 PM | 99
@james: The Russian central bank is a member of the IMF/World Bank/BIS/SWIFT system as are nearly every other central bank in the world. Not being "in" this club severely restricts the ability to do international trade. Russia and China are quietly spearheading the move to conduct international trade in local currencies, outside the US$-reserve-currency scam (sorry, system). Both Russia and China have set up alternative systems, which along with the SCO/AIIB offer participating countries a way to side-set US economic terrorism and sanctions. The Rothschilds may have managed to stall the BRICS for now, but that won't last long.
A P , May 12, 2018 4:04:38 PM | 100
sorry, should be "side-step".

[May 09, 2018] Trotskyist Delusions, by Diana Johnstone

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... There could be no eye witnesses to such sadism, and the very extremism sounds very much like war propaganda – Germans carving up Belgian babies. ..."
"... The notion that Assad himself infected the rebellion with Islamic fanaticism is at best a hypothesis concerning not facts but intentions, which are invisible. But it is presented as unchallengeable evidence of Assad's perverse wickedness. ..."
"... a beleaguered state very much at the mercy of a rapacious Western imperialism that was seeking to carve the country up according to the appetites of the US government and the International Monetary Fund ..."
"... In reality, a much more pertinent "framing" of Western intervention, taboo in the mainstream and even in Moscow, is that Western support for armed rebels in Syria was being carried out to help Israel destroy its regional enemies. ..."
"... The Middle East nations attacked by the West – Iraq, Libya and Syria – all just happen to be, or to have been, the last strongholds of secular Arab nationalism and support for Palestinian rights. ..."
"... There are a few alternative hypotheses as to Western motives – oil pipelines, imperialist atavism, desire to arouse Islamic extremism in order to weaken Russia (the Brzezinski gambit) – but none are as coherent as the organic alliance between Israel and the United States, and its NATO sidekicks. ..."
"... No other mention of Israel, which occupies Syrian territory (the Golan Heights) and bombs Syria whenever it wants to. ..."
"... The Trotskyists keep yearning for a new revolution, just like the Bolshevik revolution. Yes, but the Bolshevik revolution ended in Stalinism. Doesn't that tell them something? Isn't it quite possible that their much-desired "revolution" might turn out just as badly in Syria, if not much worse? ..."
"... In our era, the most successful revolutions have been in Third World countries, where national liberation from Western powers was a powerful emotional engine. Successful revolutions have a program that unifies people and leaders who personify the aspirations of broad sectors of the population. Socialism or communism was above all a rallying cry meaning independence and "modernization" – which is indeed what the Bolshevik revolution turned out to be. ..."
"... "In the context of a global neoliberalism, where governments across the board were enacting the most pronounced forms of deregulation and overseeing the carving up of state industries by private capital, the Assad government responded to the heightening contradictions in the Syrian economy by following suit -- by showing the ability to march to the tempo of foreign investment while evincing a willingness to cut subsidies for workers and farmers." The neoliberal turn impoverished people in the countryside, therefore creating a situation that justified "revolution". ..."
"... This is rather amazing, if one thinks about it. Without the alternative Soviet bloc, virtually the whole world has been obliged to conform to anti-social neoliberal policies. Syria included. Does this make Bashar al Assad so much more a villain than every other leader conforming to U.S.-led globalization? ..."
"... One could turn that around. Shouldn't such a Marxist revolutionary be saying: "if we can't defeat the oligarchs in the West, who are responsible for the neoliberal policies imposed on the rest of the world, how can we possibly begin to provide class-struggle leadership in Syria?" ..."
"... The trouble with Trotskyists is that they are always "supporting" other people's more or less imaginary revolutions. They are always telling others what to do. They know it all. The practical result of this verbal agitation is simply to align this brand of Trotskyism with U.S imperialism. The obsession with permanent revolution ends up providing an ideological alibi for permanent war. ..."
May 05, 2018 | www.unz.com

I first encountered Trotskyists in Minnesota half a century ago during the movement against the Vietnam War. I appreciated their skill in organizing anti-war demonstrations and their courage in daring to call themselves "communists" in the United States of America – a profession of faith that did not groom them for the successful careers enjoyed by their intellectual counterparts in France. So I started my political activism with sympathy toward the movement. In those days it was in clear opposition to U.S. imperialism, but that has changed.

The first thing one learns about Trotskyism is that it is split into rival tendencies. Some remain consistent critics of imperialist war, notably those who write for the World Socialist Web Site (WSWS).

Others, however, have translated the Trotskyist slogan of "permanent revolution" into the hope that every minority uprising in the world must be a sign of the long awaited world revolution – especially those that catch the approving eye of mainstream media. More often than deploring U.S. intervention, they join in reproaching Washington for not intervening sooner on behalf of the alleged revolution.

A recent article in the International Socialist Review (issue #108, March 1, 2018) entitled "Revolution and counterrevolution in Syria" indicates so thoroughly how Trotskyism goes wrong that it is worthy of a critique. Since the author, Tony McKenna, writes well and with evident conviction, this is a strong not a weak example of the Trotskyist mindset.

McKenna starts out with a passionate denunciation of the regime of Bashar al Assad, which, he says, responded to a group of children who simply wrote some graffiti on a wall by "beating them, burning them, pulling their fingernails out". The source of this grisly information is not given. There could be no eye witnesses to such sadism, and the very extremism sounds very much like war propaganda – Germans carving up Belgian babies.

But this raises the issue of sources. It is certain that there are many sources of accusations against the Assad regime, on which McKenna liberally draws, indicating that he is writing not from personal observation, any more than I am. Clearly, he is strongly disposed to believe the worst, and even to embroider it somewhat. He accepts and develops without the shadow of a doubt the theory that Assad himself is responsible for spoiling the good revolution by releasing Islamic prisoners who went on to poison it with their extremism. The notion that Assad himself infected the rebellion with Islamic fanaticism is at best a hypothesis concerning not facts but intentions, which are invisible. But it is presented as unchallengeable evidence of Assad's perverse wickedness.

This interpretation of events happens to dovetail neatly with the current Western doctrine on Syria, so that it is impossible to tell them apart. In both versions, the West is no more than a passive onlooker, whereas Assad enjoys the backing of Iran and Russia.

"Much has been made of Western imperial support for the rebels in the early years of the revolution. This has, in fact, been an ideological lynchpin of first the Iranian and then the Russian military interventions as they took the side of the Assad government. Such interventions were framed in the spirit of anticolonial rhetoric in which Iran and Russia purported to come to the aid of a beleaguered state very much at the mercy of a rapacious Western imperialism that was seeking to carve the country up according to the appetites of the US government and the International Monetary Fund ", according to McKenna.

Whose "ideological lynchpin"? Not that of Russia, certainly, whose line in the early stages of its intervention was not to denounce Western imperialism but to appeal to the West and especially to the United States to join in the fight against Islamic extremism.

Neither Russia nor Iran "framed their interventions in the spirit of anticolonial rhetoric" but in terms of the fight against Islamic extremism with Wahhabi roots.

In reality, a much more pertinent "framing" of Western intervention, taboo in the mainstream and even in Moscow, is that Western support for armed rebels in Syria was being carried out to help Israel destroy its regional enemies.

The Middle East nations attacked by the West – Iraq, Libya and Syria – all just happen to be, or to have been, the last strongholds of secular Arab nationalism and support for Palestinian rights.

There are a few alternative hypotheses as to Western motives – oil pipelines, imperialist atavism, desire to arouse Islamic extremism in order to weaken Russia (the Brzezinski gambit) – but none are as coherent as the organic alliance between Israel and the United States, and its NATO sidekicks.

It is remarkable that McKenna's long article (some 12 thousand words) about the war in Syria mentions Israel only once (aside from a footnote citing Israeli national news as a source). And this mention actually equates Israelis and Palestinians as co-victims of Assad propaganda: the Syrian government "used the mass media to slander the protestors, to present the revolution as the chaos orchestrated by subversive international interests (the Israelis and the Palestinians were both implicated in the role of foreign infiltrators)."

No other mention of Israel, which occupies Syrian territory (the Golan Heights) and bombs Syria whenever it wants to.

Only one, innocuous mention of Israel! But this article by a Trotskyist mentions Stalin, Stalinists, Stalinism no less than twenty-two times !

And what about Saudi Arabia, Israel's de facto ally in the effort to destroy Syria in order to weaken Iran? Two mentions, both implicitly denying that notorious fact. The only negative mention is blaming the Saudi family enterprise for investing billions in the Syrian economy in its neoliberal phase. But far from blaming Saudi Arabia for supporting Islamic groups, McKenna portrays the House of Saud as a victim of ISIS hostility.

Clearly, the Trotskyist delusion is to see the Russian Revolution everywhere, forever being repressed by a new Stalin. Assad is likened to Stalin several times.

This article is more about the Trotskyist case against Stalin than it is about Syria.

This repetitive obsession does not lead to a clear grasp of events which are not the Russian revolution. And even on this pet subject, something is wrong.

The Trotskyists keep yearning for a new revolution, just like the Bolshevik revolution. Yes, but the Bolshevik revolution ended in Stalinism. Doesn't that tell them something? Isn't it quite possible that their much-desired "revolution" might turn out just as badly in Syria, if not much worse?

Throughout history, revolts, uprisings, rebellions happen all the time, and usually end in repression. Revolution is very rare. It is more a myth than a reality, especially as Trotskyists tend to imagine it: the people all rising up in one great general strike, chasing their oppressors from power and instituting people's democracy. Has this ever happened?

For the Trotskyists, this seem to be the natural way things should happen and is stopped only by bad guys who spoil it out of meanness.

In our era, the most successful revolutions have been in Third World countries, where national liberation from Western powers was a powerful emotional engine. Successful revolutions have a program that unifies people and leaders who personify the aspirations of broad sectors of the population. Socialism or communism was above all a rallying cry meaning independence and "modernization" – which is indeed what the Bolshevik revolution turned out to be. If the Bolshevik revolution turned Stalinist, maybe it was in part because a strong repressive leader was the only way to save "the revolution" from its internal and external enemies. There is no evidence that, had he defeated Stalin, Trotsky would have been more tender-hearted.

Countries that are deeply divided ideologically and ethnically, such as Syria, are not likely to be "modernized" without a strong rule.

McKenna acknowledges that the beginning of the Assad regime somewhat redeemed its repressive nature by modernization and social reforms. This modernization benefited from Russian aid and trade, which was lost when the Soviet Union collapsed. Yes, there was a Soviet bloc which despite its failure to carry out world revolution as Trotsky advocated, did support the progressive development of newly independent countries.

If Bashar's father Hafez al Assad had some revolutionary legitimacy in McKenna's eyes, there is no excuse for Bashar.

"In the context of a global neoliberalism, where governments across the board were enacting the most pronounced forms of deregulation and overseeing the carving up of state industries by private capital, the Assad government responded to the heightening contradictions in the Syrian economy by following suit -- by showing the ability to march to the tempo of foreign investment while evincing a willingness to cut subsidies for workers and farmers." The neoliberal turn impoverished people in the countryside, therefore creating a situation that justified "revolution".

This is rather amazing, if one thinks about it. Without the alternative Soviet bloc, virtually the whole world has been obliged to conform to anti-social neoliberal policies. Syria included. Does this make Bashar al Assad so much more a villain than every other leader conforming to U.S.-led globalization?

McKenna concludes by quoting Louis Proyect: "If we line up on the wrong side of the barricades in a struggle between the rural poor and oligarchs in Syria, how can we possibly begin to provide a class-struggle leadership in the USA, Britain, or any other advanced capitalist country?"

One could turn that around. Shouldn't such a Marxist revolutionary be saying: "if we can't defeat the oligarchs in the West, who are responsible for the neoliberal policies imposed on the rest of the world, how can we possibly begin to provide class-struggle leadership in Syria?"

The trouble with Trotskyists is that they are always "supporting" other people's more or less imaginary revolutions. They are always telling others what to do. They know it all. The practical result of this verbal agitation is simply to align this brand of Trotskyism with U.S imperialism. The obsession with permanent revolution ends up providing an ideological alibi for permanent war.

For the sake of world peace and progress, both the United States and its inadvertent Trotskyist apologists should go home and mind their own business.

[May 04, 2018] >MoD accidentally reveals British drones firing thermobaric missiles in Syria

May 04, 2018 | dronewars.net

By Chris Cole on 02/05/2018 • ( 5 )

The Ministry of Defence has revealed for the first time – seemingly accidentally – that British drones are firing thermobaric weapons in Syria. The disclosure comes in an Freedom of Information (FoI) response to Drone Wars detailing the use of Reaper drones over the previous three months.

In the response, officials give a breakdown of the type of Hellfire missiles fired, stating that 19 AGM-114N4 and 44 AGM-114R2 had been used. The 'N' version of the missile uses a Metal Augmented Charge (MAC) warhead that contains a thermobaric explosive fill using aluminium with the explosive mixture. When the warhead detonates, the aluminium mixture is dispersed and rapidly burns. The sustained high pressure explosion is extremely damaging, creating a powerful shock wave and vacuum. Anyone in the vicinity is likely to die from internal organ damage.

Thermobaric weapons, sometimes called 'vacuum' weapons have been condemned by human rights groups and, as the Times reported in 2008 , "the weapons are so controversial that MoD weapons and legal experts spent 18 months debating whether British troops could use them without breaking international law." The 'debate' came to an end when a 'Yes Minister' solution was offered – they "redefined" the weapon as an 'enhanced blast missile'.

  1. Andrew Holden 02/05/2018 • 6:39 pm

    Weapons are intended to be harmful against the proper targets! This is used against specific 'enclosed' targets. It's actually intended to increase lethality in a closely defined area such as single floor of a target building or a particular building in a compound. So, the intention behind its use is to minimize collateral damage and civcas. Accuracy (hits what you aim at) and precision (with the right intended effect).

  1. markgubrud490204058 02/05/2018 • 6:56 pm

    Chris, this cannot be accurate:

    "The resultant sustained high pressure is extremely damaging, creating a vacuum which sucks everything in and anyone in the vicinity is likely to die from asphyxiation before the pressure shreds their internal organs."

    Obviously it takes seconds if not minutes to die from asphyxiation. The pressure wave takes place in milliseconds. It does not create a "vacuum which sucks everything in" although it may be powerful enough to create a wake in which there is an instantaneous, partial vacuum. This would be followed by another shock, so bodies will be kicked in one direction and then the other.The disruption of internal organs by blast shock will be the main mode of lethality.

  1. davidhambling 03/05/2018 • 9:25 am

    The 'vacuum' myth has been around since thermobarics started being used, as Mark Gubrud rightly says its the positive phase does the damage. AFAIK there is only one good study http://fotkica.com/UploadsN/26096_525776119_ADFHealth_4_1_03-06.pdf
    Lung damage is the killer.

    We have actually known about the UK use of these weapons for some time The MoD, by the way, does not believe that there is such a thing as a 'thermobaric' weapon -- as far as they are concerned it's purely a marketing term with no real meaning. Which is convenient.

    This is not the only thermobaric weapon being used out there, though these days they are cloaked with terms like 'enhanced blast'.

[May 01, 2018] It is disgusting how anti-war pre-president Trump becomes Hillary copycat after election: another Obama-style bait and switch maneuver to deceive US electorate

Notable quotes:
"... disgusting how anti-war pre-president trump becomes military pandering trumpanyahoo after election...his handlers, knowing he will need them in the near future, set him to constantly stroke the military every opportunity he has... ..."
"... The Western globalist billionaires and elites are ultimately responsible for any aggression coming from Israel. If they can conquer and control Iran and take over its oil and gas reserves, risking the fate of the millions of people in Iran, Syria and in Israel, then the losses to them will be incidental. ..."
"... I'm sure I'm missing some of the many "dots" but it logic suggests that both Obama and Trump are faux populists that - at least in foreign policy (where Presidential powers are greatest) - are greatly influenced by foreign(albeit "allied") interests. ..."
"... IMO Apologists for the faux populists also play an important part. They respond voraciously to the "crazy opposition" and thereby keep alive faith in the faux hero. ..."
"... Faux populist leaders seem to be a natural fit for our inverted totalitarian form of government. Perhaps any Empire will naturally gravitate to such a compromised government? Funny thing is, most Americans would say that USA is NOT an Empire. ..."
May 01, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Not that there was much doubt who was behind it, but two days after "enemy" warplanes attacked a Syrian military base near Hama on Sunday, killing at least 11 Iranians and dozens of others, and nobody had yet "claimed responsibility" the attack, US officials told NBC that it was indeed Israeli F-15 fighter jets that struck the base, NBC News reported .

Ominously, the officials said Israel appears to be preparing for open warfare with Iran and is seeking U.S. help and support .

"On the list of the potentials for most likely live hostility around the world, the battle between Israel and Iran in Syria is at the top of the list right now," said one senior U.S. official.

The US officials told NBC that Israeli F-15s hit Hama after Iran delivered weapons to a base that houses Iran's 47th Brigade, including surface-to-air missiles. In addition to killing two dozen troops, including officers, the strike wounded three dozen others. The report adds that the U.S. officials believe the shipments were intended for Iranian ground forces that would attack Israel.

Meanwhile, as we reported yesterday, the Syrian army said early on Monday that "enemy" rockets struck military bases belonging to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. According to several outlets, the strikes targeted the 47th Brigade base in the southern Hama district, a military facility in northwestern Hama and a facility north of the Aleppo International Airport.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday that Israel on Tuesday morning had four problems, one more than the day before: "Iran, Iran, Iran and hypocrisy." The comment came one day after Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu "revealed" a cache of documents the Mossad stole from Iran detailing the country's nuclear program, which however critics said were i) old and ii) not indicative of Iran's current plans.

"This is the same Iran that cracks down on freedom of expression and on minorities. The same Iran that tried to develop nuclear weapons and entered the [nuclear] deal for economic benefits," Lieberman said.

"The same Iran is trying to hide its weapons while everyone ignores it. The state of Israel cannot ignore Iran's threats, Iran, whose senior officials promise to wipe out Israel," he said. "They are trying to harm us, and we'll have a response.

Iran's Defense Minister Amir Khatami threatened Israel on Tuesday, saying it should stop its "dangerous behavior" and vowing that the "Iranian response will be surprising and you will regret it." Khatami's remarks came Following Netanyahu's speech which Khatami described as Israeli "provocative actions," and two days after the strikes in Syria.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a potential hint at the upcoming conflict, Haaretz writes that two and a half weeks after the bombing in which seven members of Iran's Revolutionary Guards were killed at the T4 base in Syria, Israel is bracing for an Iranian retaliation for the Syrian strikes (and if one isn't forthcoming, well that's what false flags are for).

As Haaretz writes, the Iranians' response, despite their frequent threats of revenge, is being postponed, screwing up Iran's war planning. It's also possible that as time passes, Tehran is becoming more aware of the possible complex consequences of any action. Still, the working assumption of Israeli defense officials remains that such a response is highly probable.

The Iranians appear to have many options. Revenge could come on the Syrian border, from the Lebanese border via Hezbollah, directly from Iran by the launch of long-range missiles, or against an Israeli target abroad. In past decades Iran and Hezbollah took part, separately and together, in two attacks in Argentina, a suicide attack in Bulgaria and attempts to strike at Israeli diplomats and tourists in countries including India, Thailand and Azerbaijan.

In any case, Lebanon seems all but out of bounds until the country's May 6 parliamentary elections, and amid Hezbollah's fear of being portrayed as an Iranian puppet. The firing of missiles from Iran would exacerbate the claims about Tehran's missile project a moment before a possible U.S. decision on May 12 to abandon the nuclear agreement. Also, a strike at a target far from the Middle East would require long preparation.

* * *

For now, an Israeli war with Iran in Syria is far from inevitable: the clash of intentions is clear: Iran is establishing itself militarily in Syria and Israel has declared that it will prevent that by force. The question, of course, is whether this unstable equilibrium will devolve into a lethal escalation, or if it will somehow be resolved through peaceful negotiation. Unfortunately, in the context of recent events, and the upcoming breakdown of the Iran nuclear deal, the former is looking like the most likely outcome.

BullyBearish -> FireBrander Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:30 Permalink

disgusting how anti-war pre-president trump becomes military pandering trumpanyahoo after election...his handlers, knowing he will need them in the near future, set him to constantly stroke the military every opportunity he has...

Chupacabra-322 -> BullyBearish Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:36 Permalink

The Western globalist billionaires and elites are ultimately responsible for any aggression coming from Israel. If they can conquer and control Iran and take over its oil and gas reserves, risking the fate of the millions of people in Iran, Syria and in Israel, then the losses to them will be incidental. The Western-globalist-Zio-hawk Axis no doubt feels it has to act now against Iran in case everything settles down in the ME with the Syrian war cooling off. Any expansion of Israeli turf or getting control of resources to the north would be stymied with further waiting and allowing both Syrian and Iranian defense systems to be further fortified. The Israelis appear to be completely confident that if they can instigate a war with Iran that it will be backed by the US, the UK, France and other NATO nations.

That confidence could only come from the Western elites running things. However, after their last fizzled false-flag poison-gas attack in Syria, the support by many NATO nations for more Axis aggression may not be that solid. So what does the Israeli tough talk and threats mean at this time? Perhaps it means that Israel is in the process of concocting a massive and much more sophisticated false-flag attack, like the taking out of a US war ship and blaming Iran for starting the war.

Remember Five points:

  1. Isreal will fight to the very last American Soldiers Death.
  2. The Zionist screams in Pain as he Stikes you.
  3. The Yinon Plan.
  4. Operation TALPIOT.
  5. Qatari Pipeline Petro Dollar Vs. Russia / China Petro Yaun.

One bright aspect is the Anti-Isreal / Jew Zionist movement is gaining steam. More & more Individuals are speaking openly against Israel's War Crimes, False Flag involvements, The Yinon Plan along with Pro Zionist immigrantion policy of migrating Muslim's & Arabs to the EU & US without fear of retribution. Pro migration policy which supports territory boarder expansion via the Yinon Plan & ethnic cleansing & migration of Arabs & Muslim's.

Not to mention the Billions in US foreign aid, AIPAC, ZioNeoConFascist NGO's & dual Israeli Citizen's which hold Political Office in CONgress. Which must be outlawed.

Jackrabbit , May 1, 2018 3:44:58 PM | 31
As people become more disillusioned with Trump I think it's worthwhile to spend a moment to take stock of what happened in th 2016 election.

1) The US President is the primary determinant of US foreign and military power. The President is much weaker when addressing domestic policy / internal affairs. Any small, paranoid nation with ambitious plans in its neighborhood would want ensure that they have the President's ear ( or his balls). Too much at stake to take chances. And political influence is even easier when you've developed close relation with an oil-rich ally (Saudis) with deep pockets.

2) US democracy is money-driven and no real populist stands much of a chance.

3) Despite a groundswell of discontent on both the left and the right, here were only two populists that ran in the election (note: I'm not counting Rand Paul's because he didn't make an outright populist appeal - he merely spoke in a sensible way.

4) When Obama was President, he was kept in line by the "Birthers". Trump is kept in line by the allegation of Russian interference.

5) "Never Trump-ers" were mainly Jewish (AFAIK) and almost certainly pro-Israel. The Never Trump campaign began in earnest with Kagan's Op-Ed in February 2016 ( some might date it to Bloomberg's public statement in January 2016 that neither Sanders or Trump could be allowed to win).

6) AFAIK Pro-Israel oligarchs (like Saban, Soros, Bloomberg) are big donors to Democratic Party. Hillarry and DNC are known to have colluded against 'sheep-dog' Sanders. Wouldn't Hillary just as easily collide FOR Trump (the Cinton's And Trump's are known to have had close ties - and their daughters are still close).

I'm sure I'm missing some of the many "dots" but it logic suggests that both Obama and Trump are faux populists that - at least in foreign policy (where Presidential powers are greatest) - are greatly influenced by foreign(albeit "allied") interests.

IMO Apologists for the faux populists also play an important part. They respond voraciously to the "crazy opposition" and thereby keep alive faith in the faux hero.

Faux populist leaders seem to be a natural fit for our inverted totalitarian form of government. Perhaps any Empire will naturally gravitate to such a compromised government? Funny thing is, most Americans would say that USA is NOT an Empire.

Jackrabbit , May 1, 2018 3:58:01 PM | 33
I should point out that "kept in line" (point #4) appears to be a convenience needed to excuse the faux populist's betrayals.

Both Obama and Trump seem more than willing to do as they are told.

And don't bother citing Obama's Iran deal as "proof" that Obama was independent. IMO That deal was made simply to buy time because regime-change in Syria was taking longer than expected. It is foolish to think that Obama did everything the establishment wanted but refused IN THAT ONE MATTER.

[May 01, 2018] Why Is Israel Desperate To Escalate Syrian Conflict by Nauman Sadiq

May 01, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

After seven years of utter devastation and bloodletting, a consensus has emerged among all the belligerents of the Syrian war to de-escalate the conflict, except Israel which wants to further escalate the conflict because it has been the only beneficiary of the carnage in Syria.

Over the years, Israel has not only provided medical aid and material support to the militant groups battling the Syrian government – particularly to various factions of the Free Syria Army (FSA) and al-Qaeda's Syrian affiliate al-Nusra Front in Daraa and Quneitra bordering the Israel-occupied Golan Heights – but Israel's air force has virtually played the role of the air force of the Syrian jihadists and has conducted more than 100 airstrikes in Syria and Lebanon during the seven-year conflict.

Washington's interest in the Syrian proxy war is mainly about ensuring Israel's regional security. The United States Defense Intelligence Agency's declassified report of 2012 clearly spelled out the imminent rise of a Salafist principality in northeastern Syria (Raqqa and Deir al-Zor) in the event of an outbreak of a civil war in Syria.

Under pressure from the Zionist lobby in Washington, however, the Obama administration deliberately suppressed the report and also overlooked the view in general that a proxy war in Syria will give birth to radical Islamic jihadists.

The hawks in Washington were fully aware of the consequences of their actions in Syria, but they kept pursuing the ill-fated policy of nurturing militants in the training camps located in the border regions of Turkey and Jordan to weaken the anti-Zionist Syrian government.

The single biggest threat to Israel's regional security was posed by the Shi'a resistance axis, which is comprised of Iran, the Assad administration in Syria and their Lebanon-based surrogate, Hezbollah. During the course of 2006 Lebanon War, Hezbollah fired hundreds of rockets into northern Israel and Israel's defense community realized for the first time the nature of threat that Hezbollah and its patrons posed to Israel's regional security.

Those were only unguided rockets but it was a wakeup call for Israel's military strategists that what will happen if Iran passed the guided missile technology to Hezbollah whose area of operations lies very close to the northern borders of Israel.

In a momentous announcement at an event in Ohio on March 29, however, Donald Trump said, "We're knocking the hell out of ISIS. We'll be coming out of Syria, like, very soon. Let the other people take care of it now."

What lends credence to the statement that the Trump administration will soon be pulling 2,000 US troops out of Syria – mostly Special Forces assisting the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces – is that President Trump has recently sacked the National Security Advisor Lieutenant General H.R. McMaster.

McMaster represented the institutional logic of the deep state in the Trump administration and was instrumental in advising Donald Trump to escalate the conflicts in Afghanistan and Syria. He had advised President Trump to increase the number of US troops in Afghanistan from 8,400 to 15,000. And in Syria, he was in favor of the Pentagon's policy of training and arming 30,000 Kurdish border guards to patrol Syria's northern border with Turkey.

Both the decisions have spectacularly backfired on the Trump administration. The decision to train and arm 30,000 Kurdish border guards had infuriated the Erdogan administration to the extent that Turkey mounted Operation Olive Branch in the Kurdish-held enclave of Afrin in Syria's northwest on January 20.

After capturing Afrin on March 18, the Turkish armed forces and their Free Syria Army proxies have now cast their eyes further east on Manbij, where the US Special Forces are closely cooperating with the Kurdish YPG militia, in line with the long-held Turkish military doctrine of denying the Kurds any Syrian territory west of River Euphrates.

It bears mentioning that unlike dyed-in-the-wool globalists and "liberal interventionists," like Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, who cannot look past beyond the tunnel vision of political establishments, it appears that the protectionist Donald Trump not only follows news from conservative mainstream outlets, like the Fox News, but he has also been familiar with alternative news perspectives, such as Breitbart's, no matter how racist and xenophobic.

Thus, Donald Trump is fully aware that the conflict in Syria is a proxy war initiated by the Western political establishments and their regional Middle Eastern allies against the Syrian government. He is also mindful of the fact that militants have been funded, trained and armed in the training camps located in Turkey's border regions to the north of Syria and in Jordan's border regions to the south of Syria.

According to the last year's March 31 article for the New York Times by Michael Gordon, the US ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley and the recently sacked Secretary of State Rex Tillerson had stated on the record that defeating the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq was the top priority of the Trump administration and the fate of Bashar al-Assad was of least concern to the new administration.

Under the previous Obama administration, the evident policy in Syria was regime change. The Trump administration, however, looks at the crisis in Syria from an entirely different perspective because Donald Trump regards Islamic jihadists as a much bigger threat to the security of the US than Barack Obama.

In order to allay the concerns of Washington's traditional allies in the Middle East, the Trump administration conducted a cruise missile strike on al-Shayrat airfield in Homs governorate on April 6 last year after the alleged chemical weapons attack in Khan Sheikhoun. But that isolated incident was nothing more than a show of force to bring home the point that the newly elected Donald Trump is an assertive and powerful president.

More significantly, Karen De Young and Liz Sly made another startling revelation in the last year's March 4 article for the Washington Post: "Trump has said repeatedly that the US and Russia should cooperate against the Islamic State, and he has indicated that the future of Russia-backed Assad is of less concern to him."

Mindful of the Trump administration's lack of commitment in the Syrian proxy war, Israel's air force conducted an airstrike on Tiyas (T4) airbase in Homs on April 9 in which seven Iranian military personnel were killed. The Israeli airstrike took place after the alleged chemical weapons attack in Douma on April 7 in order to convince the reluctant Trump administration that it can order another strike in Syria without the fear of reprisal from Assad's backer Russia.

Despite scant evidence as to the use of chemical weapons or the party responsible for it, Donald Trump, under pressure from Israel's lobby in Washington, eventually ordered another cruise missiles strike in Syria on April 14 in collaboration with Theresa May's government in the UK and Emmanuel Macron's administration in France.

What defies explanation for the April 14 strikes against a scientific research facility in the Barzeh district of Damascus and two alleged chemical weapons storage facilities in Homs is the fact that Donald Trump had already announced that the process of withdrawal of US troops from Syria must begin before the midterm US elections slated for November. If the Trump administration is to retain the Republican majority in the Congress, it will have to show something tangible to its voters, particularly in Syria.

The fact that out of 105 total cruise missiles deployed in the April 14 strikes in Syria, 85 were launched by the US, 12 by France and 8 by the UK aircrafts shows that the strikes were once again nothing more than a show of force by a "powerful and assertive" US president who regards the interests of his European allies as his own, particularly when he has given a May 12 deadline to his European allies to "improve and strengthen" the Iran nuclear deal, otherwise he has threatened to walk out of the pact in order to please Israel's lobby in Washington.

Finally, the Trump administration will eventually realize at its own risk that placating the Zionist lobby is unlikely if not impossible because Israel has conducted another missile strike in Aleppo and Hama on Sunday (April 29) in which 26 people, including many Iranians, have been killed and 60 others wounded.

According to NBC , the blast at the Brigade 47 base in Hama which serves as a warehouse for surface-to-air missiles was so severe that it caused 2.6 magnitude earthquake and shockwaves were felt as far away as Lebanon and Turkey. This seems like a last-ditch attempt by Israel to further escalate the conflict and to force the Trump administration to abandon its plans of withdrawing US troops from Syria.

Nauman Sadiq is an Islamabad-based attorney, columnist and geopolitical analyst focused on the politics of Af-Pak and Middle East regions, neocolonialism and petro-imperialism .

[May 01, 2018] Israel is the main beneficiary of Syria war and the US hostility to Iran including Trump attempt to withdraw from JCPOA

May 01, 2018 | www.unz.com

EliteCommInc. , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:41 am GMT

@EliteCommInc.

Still we are talking about dismissing a lot of financial benefit, I suspect that even Pres Macron hedged his press for a better deal while keeping what's in place considered that potential loss.

Note:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/iranian-nukes-scaremongering-netanyahu-strikes-again/comment-page-1/#comment-8485205

-- -- -- -- -- –

" The missiles under development do not in any way threaten the United States and they were not in any event part of the agreement and should not be considered a deal breaker."

They already tried this argument when those tests were conducted and failed. It's clear as day, such tests are not on the table. Not with this agreement.

EliteCommInc. , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:49 am GMT
"But who will tell him? Will it be John Bolton or Nikki Haley or Mike Pompeo? I doubt it."

That is how his previous advisers were caught in a double bind. They supported action in Syria, but not Iran. Yet taking action in Syria was part of taking action against Iran. It appears they got squeezed by their own agenda.

renfro , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:06 am GMT
I've been Bolton watching .he's fired and replaced almost everyone on Trump's in house security council and is now firing the homeland security team members.
Trump , besides being mobbed up with Russian Jewish mafia in his personal business, is now fully Zionized and Neoconned in the WH. He's also sweating blood over what may come out of Cohen so he's in the perfect enraged and unbalanced mental state to unload his frustrations by pushing the button on whoever the Jew Fifth Column and Neo psychos tell him to.

Given the choice between decimating Iran with another ME war and the complete collapse of the US ..I am praying for a 1920′s like total meltdown of WS and the whole financial system.

That seems to me to be the only possible event other than a bloody revolution that would bring our corrupt and unreformable government to a screeching halt.

Yep people would suffer some but tough shit .maybe, just maybe they would wake and realize IT'S THE CORRUPTION STUPID .both foreign and domestic.

utu , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:17 am GMT
Breaking the Iran deal is the only pre-election promise that Trump is going to keep. Not that Trump necessarily knew it or planned it. Trump could be stopped if there was an opposition in this respect. Trump's decision will approved by Democrats. People in American, including the whole Congress are too afraid to say anything positive and constructive about Iran just as they are too afraid to object to monolithic anti Putin's Russia narrative that was constructed in last 18 months.

Everything that took place since the election seems to be a part of the Deep State maneuvering to get Trump exactly to this point. Bombing Syria, conflict with Russia and attack against Iran is the only place where Trump can get fully bi-partisan consensus.

Wizard of Oz , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:38 am GMT
@NoseytheDuke

A pity PG published before hearing the latest whether Netanyshu's news is true or false – not that he could have anticipated it.

I had just come across a circular current affairs email from a former very senior Australian public servant with interests in Foreign Affairs and Treasury matters. I have done my best to extract the relevant parts to paste below. To save time you could go straight to "Netanyahu". I would be interested in your or PG's analysis. It seems unlikely that the documents would all be fake but if some have been "adjusted" you might find yourself searching for the fake as a needle in a haystack.

Israel's Discovery of Secret Iranian Nuclear Policy

It is difficult to understate the importance of Israel's "discovery" that, after in 2005 Iran signed a deal with the US (under Obama) and major European countries, it did not in fact comply with the agreed restrictions on its nuclear activity in return for the lifting of sanctions which included considerable US dollar "reserves". The press conference by Israel PM Netanyahu and initial reactions from Trump are reported in the attached Trump on Iran. This report appeared in my inbox at about 10 am this morning but was not mentioned on "our" ABC's lunch time news. Another one for CEO Michelle Guthrie to explain.

Israeli PM Netanyahu told the press conference in Jerusalem that "After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide its secret files," he said. "In 2017 Iran moved its nuclear weapons files to a highly secret location in Tehran."It is amazing that Mossad was able to penetrate the Iranian hiding place and then smuggle the 55,000 pages of documents and 183 CDs back to Israel. Netanyahu rightly describes Israel's ability to acquire the archive as marking "a massive intelligence coup".

The "atomic archive" was compiled by Iran with the express purpose of preserving its secretive nuclear weapons plan known as Project Amad, which aimed to "design, produce and test five warheads, each with a 10 kiloton TNT yield, for integration on a missile. "That is like five Hiroshima bombs to be put on ballistic missiles," asserted Netanyahu.

Netanyahu outlined Project Amad as containing five key elements described by the Times of Israel thusly: "Designing

[I lost something here]

Trump Proclaims Netanyahu Announcement on Iran Shows 'I've Been 100% Right'
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President Donald Trump listens during a news conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the East Room of the White House, Friday, April 27, 2018, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

by MICHELLE MOONS30 Apr 2018Washington, DC2,238

From a White House Rose Garden podium this afternoon, President Donald Trump declared that he has been "100 percent right" on continued Iran nuclear development and brand new evidence from the Israeli Prime Minister proves that.
Moments before President Trump and Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari held a joint press conference in the White House Rose Garden on Monday afternoon, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took to televisionairwaves.

Netanyahu announced that he was in possession of intelligence that proves Tehran has been running a secret nuclear weapons development program (see report below on what Netanyahu said).

President Trump was asked about Netanyahu's announcement moments later during the joint press conference. He was also asked if he had made a decision on whether to pull out of the Iranian nuclear deal and if Trump does decide to pull out, does it send the wrong message to North Korea regarding a potential nuclear deal there.

"No, I think it sends the right message," remarked Trump. "In seven years that deal will have expired and Iran is free to go ahead and create nuclear weapons. That's not acceptable. Seven years is tomorrow."

"If anything it's proven right, what Israel has done today with the news conference and Prime Minister Netanyahu just gave a very I got to see a little bit of it," said Trump. "That is just not an acceptable situation."

"I've been saying that's happening," said Trump. "They're not sitting back idly they're setting off missiles which they say are for television purposes. I don't think so."

"We'll see what happens," said Trump who remarked that many have said they believe they know what he's going to do, hinting that they believe he is going to pull out of the Iran nuclear deal. A decision on whether to pull out will be made on or before May 12.

"That doesn't mean we won't negotiate a real agreement," President Trump assured. He added that the current agreement "wasn't approved by too many people and it's a horrible agreement for the United States, including the fact, Mr. President [Buhari], that we gave Iran 150 billion dollars and 1.8 billion in cash. Nigeria would like some of that."

"You know what we got? We got nothing," Trump said of the Iran deal.

Trump concluded, "I think if anything, what's happening today and what's happened over the last little while and what we've learned has really shown that I've been 100 percent right."

Follow Michelle Moons on Twitter @MichelleDiana

Read More Stories About:
Big Government, Breitbart Jerusalem, Middle East, Benjamin Netanyahu, Donald Trump, Iran, iran deal, Iran Nuclear Deal, Israel, nuclear weapons

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Watch: Netanyahu – 100,000 Secret Files Prove Iran 'Lied Big Time' About Nukes
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by AARON KLEIN30 Apr 201811,417

TEL AVIV -- In a dramatic press conference in Jerusalem aimed at the international community, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday unveiled a cache of secret files he says were obtained from inside a hidden Iranian site and clearly demonstrate that Tehran maintained a secret nuclear weapons program despite declarations to the contrary.
Netanyahu explained that the structure of the U.S.-led international nuclear agreement was in part based on deceptive Iranian descriptions of its previous nuclear work. He said Iran's failure to disclose its secret program while misleading the world shows the nuclear deal is "based on lies based on Iranian deception."

The Israeli leader presented evidence that Iran continued research for a nuclear weapons program even after signing the 2015 nuclear deal.

"Iran's leaders repeatedly deny ever pursuing nuclear weapons," Netanyahu began. "Tonight I'm here to tell you one thing: Iran lied."

"After signing the nuclear deal in 2015, Iran intensified its efforts to hide its secret files," he said. "In 2017 Iran moved its nuclear weapons files to a highly secret location in Tehran."

Netanyahu said the secret nuclear files prove the following:

Iran lied about never having a secret nuclear program. Second, even after the deal it continued to expand its nuclear program for future use. Third, Iran lied by not coming clean to the IAEA. Finally, the nuclear deal is based on lies based on Iranian deception.

The prime minister's speech was based on 55,000 pages of documents and 183 CDs that Netanyahu said were smuggled out of an "atomic archive" painstakingly preserving Iran's secretive nuclear program so that the country would have the option of restarting its nuclear weapons activities after the nuclear deal expires or in the case of Tehran prematurely bolting the agreement. Israel's ability to acquire the archive marks a massive intelligence coup for the Jewish state.

"Iran lied. Big time," Netanyahu said of the half-ton of material obtained by Israel.

The trove, Netanyahu added, contains "incriminating documents, incriminating charts, incriminating presentations, incriminating blueprints, incriminating photos, incriminating videos and more."

He said Israel shared the material with the U.S., and that "the United States can vouch for its authenticity."

The "atomic archive" was compiled by Iran with the express purpose of preserving its secretive nuclear weapons plan known as Project Amad, which aimed to "design, produce and test five warheads, each with a 10 kiloton TNT yield, for integration on a missile."

"That is like five Hiroshima bombs to be put on ballistic missiles," asserted Netanyahu.

Netanyahu outlined Project Amad as containing five key elements described by the Times of Israel thusly: "Designing nuclear weapons, developing nuclear cores, building nuclear implosion systems, preparing nuclear tests and integrating nuclear warheads on missiles."

Netanyahu said that in 2003, Iran shut down the version of Project Amad that existed at the time and instead divided its nuclear program into both covert and overt components. Besides archiving the material for future use, Netanyahu said Iran continued to research nuclear weapons.

Netanyahu called on President Donald Trump to "do the right thing" as the May 12 deadline to recertify the nuclear agreement approaches.

"The right thing for the United States. The right thing for Israel. And the right thing for the peace of the world," he concluded.

Realist , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:52 am GMT
Trump is a nutless, brainless asshole. He truly is a Zionist puppet.
Cloak And Dagger , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:57 am GMT
Well, Trump's trumpeting that he was 100% correct about Iran after Netanyahu's latest lies about Iran could go in one of two ways:

1. Despite knowing that Netanyahu is lying through his teeth about Iran's nuclear aspirations (while avoiding any mention of Israel's own stolen nukes), Trump could use this as a fig leaf and choose to pull out of the Iran deal. The timing of this coincides with Iran dropping the dollar, the same thing Ghadaffy and Saddam did before getting destroyed. Interestingly, Russia and China may drop the dollar too. It is unlikely that they will pull out of the deal. The UK and France might, but Germany probably won't as its interests lie with Russia. So, even if the US pulls out of the deal, Iran still wins, and Israel/US become increasingly isolated.

2. Trump is just blowing smoke and won't pull out of the deal, or maybe, congress won't let him. Constitutionally, the Iran deal is a treaty, and I believe congress (Israeli territory) has a say in it – but they have not really been upholding the Constitution, so that may not matter. But, assuming he does not tear up the deal, Iran still wins.

So, either way the wind blows, it really doesn't matter to Iran. We are a has-been power.

jilles dykstra , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 7:00 am GMT
Macron worked at the Rothschild Bank.
Cloak And Dagger , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 7:01 am GMT
Meanwhile, Israel is poking the Russian bear in Syria by striking at an Iranian depot there, killing many. Whether Russia provided S-300 systems to Syria or not, Iran is likely to provide their own version of the S-300. Israel's days may be numbered. War clouds darken the skies.

Something wicked this way comes

animalogic , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 7:15 am GMT
@RobinG

"The strategy of dragging the US into a regional conflagration couldn't be more clear."
Israel: like a brain tumor or brain parasite, it degenerates its host's reasoning capacity to the point where the host loses all concept of its own personal interests.

Thirdeye , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 7:18 am GMT
Renewed sanctions may or may not shut defiant Asian bankers out of the American market but they sure as hell would shut American banks out of the Asian market. The message would be clear: anyone doing business with an American bank would be subject to arbitrary actions of the US government.
Brabantian , Website Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 7:26 am GMT
Big elephant in the room, is Russia's indulgence of Israel, letting the Israelis kill Iranians and others in Syria, as they just did despite Vladimir Putin's empty 'warning' to Netanyahu Putin who refuses to give Syria Russia's advanced missile defences that would block Israeli attacks on his alleged 'ally'

A sentiment amongst Arabs & MidEast Muslims is that you cannot trust the white or European governments, they may help you in part out of self-interest (e.g., Russia in Syria), but they seem to always cut a deal with Israel

V. Putin always chummy with 'Putin's Rabbi' Berel Lazar of the Mossad-tied Chabad Jewish religious cult, Putin a 'Russo-Zionist' who has Unz's 'The Saker' Andrei Raevsky distracting from Putin's deep Israeli ties

But then there is Netanyahu's powerful new presentation re Iran

CalDre , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 7:55 am GMT

Those who argue that the withdrawal of the U.S. from JCPOA will be countered by the continued cooperation of the other signatories to the agreement are, one might unfortunately note, somewhat delusional. The U.S. has tremendous leverage in financial markets.

Probably Trump will fuck over China on the Korean Peninsula and EU on Iran.

The Bolshevik MSM will blame it on nationalism as it leads to the collapse of the dollar, as the rest of the world stops bowing to US treachery and criminality (yes, sanctions are war crimes).

This will lead to a move for a global currency or the like.

Trump is being set up for failure. He was a buffoon (Orangutan) to begin with, not very bright, far too egotistical and morally depraved, a perfect Shabbath goy for the ((bankers).

El Dato , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 8:28 am GMT
@NoseytheDuke

The moment you are looking old on TV: Showing off 156 apparently exfiltrated CDs when these can all be put on a single USB stick.

El Dato , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 8:33 am GMT
@RobinG

Yeah, it's coming in FAT and HEAVY.

Interestingly, this latest strike does not seem to have been detected or countered by any Syrian air-defense assets. Serious business.

Momus , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 8:33 am GMT
More turgid, tin foil hat prose from Phillip.

Iran's clear intent to build nukes, threaten Israel and control militarily and via a Shite theocracy centered in Teheran, a vast swathe of the Middle East and Western Asia is a good thing?

Netanyahu/IDF has the prescience, balls and military to destroy the Mullahs dream and the sooner he does it the better for the world.

Petardos , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 8:38 am GMT
What about Israel `s Samson Option ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option
padre , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 8:40 am GMT
@Mark James

Actually, they are doing it all the time.They utter a lie, then deny it, but use it as an excuse later on, as if they didn't deny it at all!

Gordon Bennett , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 8:45 am GMT
Excuse me for stating the glaringly obvious here – but Israel already does illegally posses nuclear weapons.
Greg Bacon , Website Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 9:43 am GMT
Any American that doesn't want to fight and die for the glory of Apartheid Israel is a neo-Nazi anti-Semite!

We should be glad to see our sons and daughters getting killed for Israel's regional expansion plans and not complain when gasoline goes to $10 a gallon, after all, it's for our friend and ally Israel that we suffer this minor inconvenience.

Everyone knows that his Imperial Majesty Netanyhau needs a to expand the invasion of Syria with the carpet-bombing of Iran, to help keep Bibi our of prison for corruption, fraud and perjury.

Look how prescient Bibi was in regards to our invasion of Iraq!

FLASHBACK: Netanyahu Said Iraq War Would Benefit The Middle East

"If you take out Saddam, Saddam's regime, I guarantee you that it will have enormous positive reverberations on the region the test and the great opportunity and challenge is not merely to effect the ouster of the regime, but also transform that society and thereby begin too the process of democratizing the Arab world."

https://thinkprogress.org/flashback-netanyahu-said-iraq-war-would-benefit-the-middle-east-7836f0b7bc49/

Dan Herman , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 9:59 am GMT
What is the mass and weight of all these documents and CDs, which were removed by Israel in Iran from a Vault?

1/2 ton?

1 ton?

2 tons?

How this much mass and weight got out from the Vault? in Iran and then loaded into a plane in Iran?

Boggles the mind!

Jim Christian , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 10:48 am GMT
The pressure on Iran MIGHT be a backdoor incentive to stop sharing ANYTHING with North Korea, ever again. No nuclear fuel, no triggers, no missiles. War with either is simply unthinkable and tipping over governments leaving only rubble, dangerous rubble this time with either, is NOT an option.

Israel can pretty much HAVE Syria, I guess, but we aren't going to send the troops and Bibi is going to have to handle Iran at his own peril. Our interest, our TRUE further interest with Iran at this point with the UN sitting on them is to deprive North Korea of any further tech. Hence, the "noise" over the deal with Iran. Hope so, anyway.

It's the fallout, real and contrived.

El Dato , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 10:58 am GMT
@Momus

Woah don't be so transparent, bro/sis.

You are working for a paycheck, don't just phone it in. Be convincing. E.F.F.O.R.T. Use assorted words that indicate a sprightly, bright mind, not a poor home-office worker. Come on.

NoseytheDuke , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:03 am GMT
@Wizard of Oz

I'm 99.999% sure that he's lying, I saw a brief clip of him and his lips were moving.

It would be a wonderful day for peace in the ME if Iran had not 5 but 10 nukes ready to launch. I doubt that they'd be launched but they would serve as an excellent deterrent to Nuttenyahoo's murderous insanity.

jilles dykstra , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:11 am GMT
@Dan Herman

How many with knowledge of arabic, and knowledge of the Iranian nuclear program, will get the opportunity to investigate if this is not a massive fraud ?
I suppose months will be needed to investigate.
And even is there is such an investigation, and the conclusion would be fraud, who would dare to say so, and who would believe it ?
I did not see that Netanyahu invited anyone to investigate.

Moi , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:12 am GMT
@Realist

You nailed it!

Moi , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:17 am GMT
@Brabantian

Putin is weak. Put pressure on him and he folds. Any people who trusts an outsider are stupid–sadly, Arabs, in particular, and Muslim, in general, keep doing this over and over again. Insanity? Dumb Arabs got snookered by Lawrence of "Arabia"/Britain into fighting Turkish Muslims. Now those Arabs are "enjoying" life under the American jackboot.

jilles dykstra , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:18 am GMT
@RobinG

This is not a regional conflagration, as the USA Civil War was not, as the Spanish Civil war was not, as the Korean civil war was not, as the Saudi Yemen conflict is not.

Moi , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:20 am GMT
Phil is a good man, but if America wants to be Israel's bitch, hey, that's it's choice.
EliteCommInc. , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:25 am GMT
@Momus

then do it. If it's the right thing do it. Go it and do so without the US. Israel is so sure and insightful -- go for it. Have at it.

I don't get the crying over holding Israel's hand. Make that choice.

I am sure that Israeli intelligence is as correct about this as they were WMD in Iraq.

Have at it. What;s with all hmmmm and hahing -- get on it. Make that choice.

EliteCommInc. , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:26 am GMT
@Jim Christian

You do realize that we have already sent troops to Israel.

Seamus Padraig , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:28 am GMT
@Momus

Netanyahu/IDF has the prescience, balls and military to destroy the Mullahs dream and the sooner he does it the better for the world.

Oh yeah? Then why doesn't he?

You know why? Because the Israelis are scared shitless of the Iranians. Think about it: they can't even handle Hezbollah! They're not going to try their luck with Iran. Oh no! Here's what they're going to do (or at least try to do): they're gonna try and get their big, dumb Washington golem to attack Iran for them.

Now, let's see what Russia and China do. They've already successfully blocked USreal's attempt at overthrowing the Syrian government. Are they gonna sit back and let them go after Iran? Somehow I doubt it.

El Dato , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:31 am GMT
@jilles dykstra

How many with knowledge of arabic, and knowledge of the Iranian nuclear program

Farsi, not Arabic. These are Persians, man.

I suppose months will be needed to investigate.

I don't think so.

The IAEA verification programme is still on.

They (the IAEA) can emit an official statement RIGHT THIS EVENING.

Tell Nethanyahoo to STFU and get out of here and re-affirm compliance under the treaty.

NOBODY is forbidding Iran to keep reams of paper with concentric circles (apparently drawn by someone who believes he thinks this should look like) on it in safes – or PowerPoint presentations on CDs for that matter.

Do they have an undeclared stash of HEU somewhere? No? Then end of story.

Seamus Padraig , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:36 am GMT

As one informed observer has noted, "a train wreck is probably coming, with very damaging consequences that are hard to predict."

You know, I agree with Giraldi's basic premise that the JPCOA is a good idea–at any rate, it would be a good idea if Washington were under saner management.

But the way things are going these days, I say: bring it on! Let Chump go ahead and unilaterally cancel the agreement. Either: a.) this will cause a huge rift within NATO; or b.) all the Euro-muppets will finally see who it is that really runs their continent and revolt against their own Quisling rulers.

The U.S. and Israel are also expressing concern about Iranian ballistic missile capability. Again, ballistic missiles would appear to be a weapon that Israel alone seeks to monopolize in its neighborhood because it seeks to regard itself as uniquely threatened, that is, always the victim.

Don't those crazy mullahs realize who the real victims are here? You know, I think Iran needs to start building some Holocaust memorials!

The U.S. has tremendous leverage in financial markets. If it chooses to sanction Iran over its missiles while also re-introducing the old sanctions relating to the nuclear developments, it would be a brave European or Asian banker who would risk being blocked out of the American market by lending money or selling certain prohibited goods to the Iranians.

Which means what? It means that Iran, off limits to USraels' various puppet-states, falls ever deeper into the Chinese orbit, thereby strengthening the new Eurasian system that is forming. Again: bring it on!

El Dato , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:38 am GMT
@Dan Herman

Israeli Removal-from-Premises Operations are the best in the world!

Frankie P , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:48 am GMT
@jilles dykstra

Jaysus Jilles,

You put some relatively coherent comments on this site once in a while, but "knowledge of arabic" to understand documents and CDs from Iran? WTF is wrong with you, man!

Frankie P

Frankie P , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:53 am GMT
@Moi

Exactly! Phil is a good man, put in years working for US intelligence, the US government, the US military perhaps (I forget). He is unable to make the jump that is necessary. Council for the National Interest indeed! Phil, make the jump. Realize and accept that the US is history, the population is brainwashed and your trying to edumacate them will result in bupkis! Then start supporting the powers that will bring down the US (China, Russia, Iran, Syria, Iraq, etc), because they are the ones that will get to Israel and its fifth column. The parasite has taken over the host; the host must die in order to eradicate the parasite.

Long live the resistance.

Frankie P

Stirred , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:54 am GMT
It's absolutely imperitive for the "Resistance" that US withdraws from the nuclear accord, for it to win.
It's the golden chance for the human race to rid itself of the Anglo-Wahabi-Zionist scum. The evil empire needs controlled wars, the Resistance needs full blown war. Unless that happens, elites will maintain their grip over the socio-economical factors. This scum has infected the institutions so deep, nothing short of a full blown war will accomplish this. It's harsh sure, but ain't truth always is ?
James Brown , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 11:55 am GMT
@Brabantian

"Big elephant in the room, is Russia's indulgence of Israel"

There is no elephant in the room. Russia is in Syria because Putin was invited by his friend and war criminal, The King of Israel. Russia is playing the bad/good cop role.
Only a fool can't see that.

"A sentiment amongst Arabs & MidEast Muslims is that you cannot trust the white or European governments"

If the Arabs themselves are in bed with European and American governments, I don't believe that is correct to say that "sentiment" exist.

Maybe among some young honest Arabs, who are irrelevant.

Even The House Saud, the "protector of Islam's holiest sites" is in the bed with the enemies of Arabs/Islam. She has always been. Today, only those we are willingly blind, can't see it.

The House of Saud is as much Muslim as American Presidents are Christians. or Tony Blair is a Christian.

Again, only naîve readers take "The Saker" seriously.
The man is not only a bad writer but a very bad propagandist. Same standard of Propaganda than MSM.

Paul Craig Roberts is more intelligent and a better writer than "The Saker", but he is so obssessed with the tree that he refuses to see the forest.
PCR is a religious man. Sometimes beliefs impede you to see the reality.

Jake , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 12:15 pm GMT
@NoseytheDuke

Not only would every true-blue WASP Evangelical buy a used car from Bibi, but most would tip him afterward.

Fruits of the Judaizing heresy Anglo-Saxon Puritanism.

Jake , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 12:18 pm GMT
@Stirred

Anglo-Wahhabi-Zionist scam

Perfect turn of phrase. But make certain to stress that the means to today's alliance were planted in the 19th century by the Brits.

Quartermaster , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 12:45 pm GMT
The Mullahs have been working with the NorKs on nukes. The Iranians started violating the agreement before the ink was dry on the parchment. Anyone that truly believes the Iranians gave up their efforts to get nukes is a hot prospect to buy the Brooklyn bridge.
El Dato , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 12:53 pm GMT
@Stirred

Can't we at least wait until magic nanotech is real so that we can rebuild afterwards?

El Dato , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 12:55 pm GMT
@James Brown

Russia is in Syria because Putin was invited by his friend and war criminal, The King of Israel. Russia is playing the bad/good cop role.
Only a fool can't see that.

Sounds farfetched and there is no evidence.

prusmc , Website Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 12:59 pm GMT
@Wizard of Oz

So the US gave Iran $150 billion and $1.5 billion in cash and Nigeria would like some of that. A lot of places would like some of that including the deplorables in the US. If it was a waste and a fraud to give it to Iran why repeat the scenario with Nigeria or an of the 140 plus contries/states/ nations seeking a US handout?

DESERT FOX , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 12:59 pm GMT
Trump will pull out of the nuclear agreement with Iran because this is what Netanyahu and the ziocons who control the U.S. gov want and the Zionists have controlled the U.S. gov for over 100 years and this control has given us wars and debt and destruction both here in America and around the world.

If anyone doubts that Israel controls the U.S. gov , just remember that Israel did 911 and got away with it.

Johnny Smoggins , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:00 pm GMT
@Momus

Jews are religious psychopaths and so are Moslems. Why exactly is it better to have the former, rather than the latter, be the big dog in the Middle East?

For all their other faults, I don't recall Moslems in the West trying to take over the media, entertainment industry, education and financial systems and government in order to undermine and ultimately destroy the host nation and advance their own race.

Vojkan , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:03 pm GMT
@jilles dykstra

Strange how many people believe that France is pursuant of her own national interest in spite of Macron being a zio-bankster puppet. France has been infected by Zionists ever since de Gaulle had to resign and is therefore as untrustworthy as the USA or the UK.
The French simply play the role the globalist mafia assigns them at any given moment.

redmudhooch , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:14 pm GMT
Just remember Iran, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan .. have never attacked America, probably never will, unless provoked to do so, which is exactly what we are doing now.

Who has attacked America? Israel, Saudis, Pakis, our allies and traitors within our own "government". Let that sink in. That is who our "government" is now. Allied with the enemy. Traitors, every one of them that kiss Israels ass, sell the Saudis billions in weaponry, send billions in taxpayer foreign aid.

9/11, Lavon affair, USS Liberty, JFK assassination, Las Vegas Massacre, many more that we still don't know of because they control the media.

The Israelis and traitors are cooking up a false flag right now as we speak to justify war with Iran. The provocations don't seem to be working fast enough

ChuckOrloski , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:21 pm GMT
@jilles dykstra

Jilles Dykstra astutely noted:
"I did not see that Netanyahu invited anyone to investigate."

Hi Jilles,

He also will not invite anyone to investigate Israel's advanced (rogue) nuclear weapon systems. Refer to link, below?

Thank you!

http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/05/01/560274/Israel-Benjamin-Netanyahu-Iran-nuclear-deal

Wade , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:21 pm GMT

It is, on the contrary, an American interest not to have another nuclear proliferator in the Middle East in addition to Israel, which Washington has never dared to confront on the issue.

Mr. Giraldi, thanks again for another great article. However, I'm proud to say for the first time I am able to correct you on something. It is not true that Washington has never stood up to Israel on it's obtaining nuclear weapons. In point of fact John F Kennedy stood up to them on it and demanded that the international community be able to inspect Dimona. This was such an acrimonious issue between Kennedy and David Bin-Gurion that it ultimately resulted in the latter retiring from office:

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2016-04-21/concerned-about-nuclear-weapons-potential-john-f-kennedy

Shortly after our president's untimely death the Israelis stole hundreds of pounds of enriched uranium from Apollo, Pennsylvania, probably deliberately transferred to them in fact by NUMEC:

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-book/nuclear-vault/2016-11-02/numec-affair-did-highly-enriched-uranium-us-aid-israels

Today, more is publicly known about the NUMEC affair than ever before. In 2009 The FBI released a detailed statement that was made in 1980 by a former NUMEC employee who said he started work at Apollo in February 1965 and was fired in October 1978 by the present owner, Babcock and Wilcox, Inc., for job abandonment following an alleged job-related illness. The former employee said he encountered armed strangers on the uranium plant's loading dock one night in early 1965. He said they were loading what appeared to be canisters of HEU onto a truck in racks that he had not seen before. He also saw a shipping manifest that said the material was heading to a ship bound for Israel on the Zim-Israel shipping line. He said that a NUMEC manager later threatened him to keep his mouth shut about what he had seen. From the mid 1980s through 2009, the FBI also declassified some of its other reports from the 1960s and into the early 1970s. Those reports indicated that Zalman Shapiro, throughout the time he headed NUMEC, collaborated with a number of Israeli officials.

Kennedy's death marks the end of an era when Washington (sometimes) acted independently of Israel. From November 22, 1963 onward every US president has happily cooperated with Israel in foreign affairs.

But then again I'm sure you know all of this history. I wonder though how many people have pondered its implications.

Dissident X , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:27 pm GMT
the most salient quote in the world today

" Even the generals in the Pentagon favor continuing it [the JCPOA] as do U.S. close allies Germany, France and Britain. The ability of Israel and its Lobby to dominate U.S. foreign policy formulation in certain areas is thereby exposed for what it is: sheer manipulation of our system of government by a small group dedicated to the interests of a foreign government using money and the political access that money buys to achieve that objective."

https://www.rt.com/news/425566-iran-netanyahu-presentation-response/

Israel has no right to comment on Iran's nuclear activities as the Jewish state is not party to a non-proliferation agreement. Netanyahu and Israel "are in no position to accuse Iran of anything, they're not part of the nuclear deal, they're not even a member of the [Nuclear Proliferation Treaty]," Hamed Mousavi, Professor of political science at the University of Tehran, told RT.

"And we have to remember that Israel is the only regime in the region that actually has nuclear weapons," he concluded.

I implore all readers to spread the word for people to do a minimal amount of research about these people that threaten the very existence of the biosphere on Earth (such a lovely little blue planet), the best place to start is " The Controversy " by Douglas Reed
You can find it online by using a search engine using those tags.
Protect your identity.
Avoid google.

Cold N. Holefield , Website Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:28 pm GMT
@Brabantian

Russia & Israel are Birds of a Feather as far as I'm concerned. They both make EVERYTHING about them. It's ALL about them. Always. How they're a People . A Proud People with a Proud Heritage . Blah blah blah blah ..ad nauseum.

Both of them also play the Victim Card in perpetuity and as cover for their Predations .

It's telling that NO ONE, whether it be The Mainstream Media or The Alternative Media , investigates the Nexus between Israel & Russia. Afterall, Israel is comprised of more than few Soviet/Russian Jews and Putin is very concerned about Russians in the Diaspora .

https://www.jpost.com/International/US-surprised-Israel-did-support-UN-vote-on-Ukraines-territorial-integrity-348564

Among the members that did not vote were Iran, Lebanon and Israel.

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Ukraine-thanks-Israel-for-support-on-Crimea-at-UN-515467

In December 2016, Kiev voted for UN Resolution 2334, demanding that Israel cease "settlement activity," which led to a short crisis between Jerusalem and Kiev, but things are now back on track.

Israel, however, must balance its relations with Ukraine with Jerusalem's close relations with Moscow.

SumDood , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:34 pm GMT
Only an idiot thinks that Iran is honest. Only an idiot thinks that Iran has peaceful intentions. And only an idiot thinks that Iran under the mullahs is a better place for its citizens than Iran under the Shah.

Iran has been attacking other countries and groups for decades. Do you people not remember the hostages? Attacking tankers in the gulf? Funding the Beirut barracks attack?

If you want to whine about how bad America and Israel are, you need to find a "victim" that isn't a bloodthirsty gang of Farsi terrorists.

Different name please , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:44 pm GMT
Had to laugh. This has been clear for as long as the US Government has made treaties with the Native Nations.
"They and others also have noted that U.S. exit from the agreement will mean that other nations will negotiate with Washington with the understanding that a legal commitment entered into by the President of the United States cannot be trusted after he is out of office."
Bodyguard of Ois , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:49 pm GMT
For all the people who are warning me how the evil foreign Zionazis run America, let's look how your fearless leader Bibi got his start. Recruited at MIT, immediate big job with BCG, the Mormon spooks' slush fund, then prompt, inexplicable Obama-style preferment by DCI Bush and NOCmeister Schultz, then up like a rocket.

"Netanyahu was spotted at MIT in 1973 and the grooming began there when he was in his early twenties. After graduating, he received a high paying job at Boston Consulting. His boss was Ira Magaziner (CFR). But he quit the job in 1979, returned to Israel, starting selling furniture at the Rim company, then organized an anti-terror convention. Inexplicably, the CFR sent a team of their biggest guns including George Bush Sr, Richard Perle and George Shultz to this unknown 27 year old's get-together. Once the convention was over, Netanyahu returned to work selling home furniture for three years until 1982, when Washington Ambassador Moshe Arens invited him to be his deputy. He claimed the choice was indirectly made by those who came to his convention and "were impressed with his performance." That means Bush and Shultz pressed Arens to bring Bibi to Washington. From there, they pushed his career higher. In 1985, Shultz chaired another anti-terror convention in Washington supposedly organized by Netanyahu. By the time Bibi was UN Ambassador, Schultz visited him every time he was in New York, and that was often."

http://thebarrychamishwebsite.com/newsletters/elad.htm

So don't gimme this Jew business. Netanyahu is CIA's homonculus. Israel will cease to exist the instant they quit doing CIA's dirty work. CIA says jump and Israel says how high. The whole US government says how high. This all comes back to your National Command Authority, which is CIA.

wealstarrr , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 1:55 pm GMT
@Jake

@ Jake

Hi,

you seem to have some invaluable knowledge that I'm after. Can you please get in touch via other means so that we can discuss this ?

My E-mail: [email protected]

Vojkan , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 2:02 pm GMT
@SumDood

Whatever the nature of the political rule in Iran, there's a signed multilateral agreement.
Whatever you believe the intentions of the Iranians are, civilised people judge actions using evidence, not alleged intentions, notwithstanding that regarding intentions, I'd trust an Iranian over an Israeli any time.
As for the "land bridge" to the Mediterranean, we common sense people call that a road and we believe roads are good for trade and therefore for peace.

anon [119] Disclaimer , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 2:03 pm GMT
@Realist

That makes two of them. Macron is a Rothschild stooge.

Joe Hide , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 2:10 pm GMT
Mr. Giraldi,
I generally like Your work.
Let's look at this logically though.
North Korea is not launching missiles overs Japanese waters or doing nuclear testing. Is it a coincidence that this happened under Trump's short time in office. Ditto for the Syrian and Iraq terrorists being de-funded, weapons shipments being stopped, and satellite /drone / etc military info sources canceled with their forces then being crushed? Ditto for the massive governmental changes in Saudi Arabia? Ditto for FAIRER trade agreements with China. Ditto for unemployment rates for AfroAmericans being the lowest in decades? .ON and ON..
So why assume that because French president ..Macaroni.., who is a former Rothchild banker, has any integrity in his opinions about Iran?
The poor Iranians, like the North Koreans, Syrians, and Iraqis, have suffered enough. My assumption here is that the Iranian people will one day idolize Donald Trump, for saving them from their oppressors. These oppressors include their own religious hierarchy, the international bankers, the globalists, the Obama's, the Bushes, the Clinton's, and other pychopathic and narrissitic power hungry predators. Of course Trump, is just the tip of the spear. We know that components of the military, intelligence services, and other powerful forces are openly and secretly supporting this movement toward transformation.
Cold N. Holefield , Website Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 2:12 pm GMT
@SumDood

And only an idiot thinks that Iran under the mullahs is a better place for its citizens than Iran under the Shah.

I'll add ..

And only an idiot thinks that Iran under the Shah was a better place for its citizens than Iran would have been under Mossadeq had the CIA not murdered him to reseat the Shah.

Cold N. Holefield , Website Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 2:21 pm GMT
@Dissident X

Are The Koch Brothers and The Mercers Jewish? They have no qualms about destroying the Biosphere and they are Trump Supporters . I know Stephen Miller is Jewish and he's one of two people to miraculously survive Trump's Stalinesque Purges .

If you're a Trump Supporter , you're an Israel Supporter and a Zionist Supporter and you're an enemy of the Palestinians and the imminent war with Iran is your doing by virtue of your support.

Gran Capitan , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 2:37 pm GMT
@Bodyguard of Ois

Very good , I allways wondered about who was in command USA or Israel

Jake , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 2:48 pm GMT
@Johnny Smoggins

That is because the inheritors of the Ishmaelite/Islamic part of Semitic culture operate differently than does the Jewish part.

But it is foolish unto death to assume that they are not at least equally rotten and equally ruinous.

ChuckOrloski , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 2:50 pm GMT
@Johnny Smoggins

With notable objectivity, Johnny Smoggins wrote:
"For all their other faults, I don't recall Moslems in the West trying to take over the media in order to undermine and ultimately destroy the host nation and advance their own race."

Hi Johnny Smoggins,

Bingo! A totalitarian control-priority (characteristic) is media takeover.

America's mighty Jewish Corporate Media had the advantage of an expert "blueprint" to follow, & of course, unlimited financial means & devotional will to do it.

Please consider perusing "Protocols of Zion," in particular

[MORE] # 12, (published in Russia, 1905), & linked below?

http://crowds.virginia.edu/ma01/Kidd/thesis/pdf/Protocols.pdf

Libya's & anti-Zionist Colonel Qaddafi wrote a "Green Book" designed to help direct Islamic nations in developing society's based upon Allah's "Protocols," the Quran.*

Soon after Qaddafi's barbaric murder, no one here @ U.R. requires reminder of how ZUS Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, boasted about the evil deed in a now famous "sound bite"?

Thanks, Smoggins!

*. For those interested, Cynthia McKinney has written valuable articles on the late-Qaddafi's humane social engineering plans.
Forgive me had I misidentified the works as "Green Book"? Likely U.R. commenter "Talha" knows more & better than I.

MarkinLA , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 2:58 pm GMT
@Cloak And Dagger

Constitutionally, the Iran deal is a treaty,

I am not so sure about that. It was never voted on in the affirmative with a 2/3 Senate vote. They had a goofy vote where it only could be undone by a 2/3 Senate vote. Every treaty we seem to have done (like NAFTA) has never followed the Constitution for treaties. They pretend it is something else and only a simply majority in Congress is needed.

SolontoCroesus , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 3:02 pm GMT
What might be in the Cohen files captured by FBI?

Would the American people "forgive" him for whatever those sins were/are?

In 50 years, what would be remembered most about Trump, that he diddled little boys on some Russsian Jewish oligarch's yacht, or that he gave the green light to US men & women to be diddled by zionist Jews and their shabbas goy to destroy Iran for the benefit of Israel, after which those same zionist Jews will pull the plug on Wall Street, abandon the USA if not actively set out to destroy it, as zionists and banksters move on to better opportunities.

We've seen this play before, quite a few times and over millennia, and the ending was always the same: the state that hosted Jews ended up destroyed by those Jews, and those Jews benefited and moved on to plow fresh fields.

We are told that zionist Jews pray Psalm 137 every day; Rabbi Marvin Heir, founder of the Wiesenthal Center, recited verses from Psalm 137 in the invocation at Trump's inauguration –

" "By the rivers of Babylon, we wept as we remembered Zion If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, may my right hand forget its skill. The do-er of all these shall never falter," Hier said, the words taken from the Biblical Psalm 137. . . .
Hier . . . believed to be the first rabbi to speak at a presidential inauguration since 1985. . . .
has known the parents of Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner for decades. . . . have also been generous donors to the Simon Wiesenthal Center. . . ."

Hier did not recite the ending verses of Ps. 137:

Daughter Babylon, doomed to destruction,
happy is the one who repays you
according to what you have done to us.
Happy is the one who seizes your infants
and dashes them against the rocks.

Our latest grandchild is not yet 3 months old.

Susan Rice's mushroom cloud imagery was phantasmagorical and calculated to induce fear.

Biblical images conjured by "seizing your infants and dashing them agains the rocks," and "slaying the first-born of Egyptians" and "slaying the ten sons of Haman and 75 000 innocent Persian" may or may not be mythical; it is certain that these scenes form a central part of Jewish religious celebration.

It is equally certain that Jews in Israel target Palestinian children, TODAY, to maim them or to kill them

h/t http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/04/the-idf-is-the-most-moral-army-in-the-world-decameron-wonders-whatever-happened-to-human-rights.html

Based on Israel's own YNet News, https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3342999,00.html , it is certain that Jews carried out mass killings of millions of Russians and Ukrainians.

Ronen Bergman has written and spoken of Israel's use of assassination "more than any other nation," to "change history."

At what point must we see a pattern and take it seriously?

When do Christians run out of cheeks and turn, instead, to ensuring a safe future for their "posterity?"

Isn't that what United States founding documents promised, and isn't that why we spend so much of our treasure and energy -- to ensure that OUR posterity -- our grandchildren -- can grow up free of fear of having their brains dashed against the rocks in service to a psychopathic god?

chris , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 3:08 pm GMT
@Wizard of Oz

"It is amazing that Mossad was able to penetrate the Iranian hiding place and then smuggle the 55,000 pages of documents and 183 CDs back to Israel.

I like that: Mossad was able to smuggle the documents "back" to Israel, where they originally came from.

Dissident X , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 3:09 pm GMT
@Cold N. Holefield

Your comment is gibberish , in the context of my comment, and it makes me doubt that you are a real, individual person.

You have no idea what I do or don't support, above and beyond my belief that the more people who know about the 2500 years of the Torah-Pharisees-Talmud adherents objectives and methods, the better off the world will be.

I encourage you to read " The Controversy ", by Douglas Reed , and thereby educate yourself.

If you are real person, please explain your gibberish, and/or refrain from commenting on my comments, in the future.

BTW: though I see no relevance to my comment, whatsoever, I am no particular supporter of the current POTUS, beyond the fact that he won the contest as fairly as it is won, according the way the actual system works; that is definitely NOT to say that I support or believe in said system. And I will say that at the time I believed he was less bad than his cheating opponent in the general election, and I have not changed that belief.

Shill-be-gone!

MarkinLA , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 3:10 pm GMT
@Quartermaster

Who cares? Atomic bomb technology is 70 years old and any physics graduate student could probably produce a functional uranium bomb design. The sooner the Iranians have a bomb the sooner Adolph Netanyahu will have to stop crying about attacking Iran or do it and bring about a war that might end Israel for good.

bjondo , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 3:26 pm GMT
ben yammerin nuthinyahoo.
been yammerin' nuthin the live long day.
'cept lies.
been hammerin' yammerin' lies.
nuthinyahoo,
the chief rabbi of lies.
Miro23 , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 3:27 pm GMT
@Cloak And Dagger

Interestingly, Russia and China may drop the dollar too. It is unlikely that they will pull out of the deal.

The alternative for a world Reserve Currency would be the Euro. The Euro block is about the same size economically as the US, it doesn't run big trade deficits and it's a large oil importer (i.e. Saudi Dollar balances could be replaced with Euro balances).

Problem that the Saudis don't have a choice in the matter – the US forces them to hold Dollars, and the Chinese won't accept the reality that the Yuan is insufficiently traded to make it a world currency.

So the Russians alone could switch to Euros (require payment for their oil and gas in Euros) which would encourage the Europeans to reduce their Dollar balances. Europeans would in fact need a dual system – reserve Dollars for ME (non-Iranian) oil and reserve Euros for Russian oil and gas.

This would already be bad for the US financial system, and much worse if third party countries followed the Russian lead.

RobinG , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 3:31 pm GMT
@jilles dykstra

Are you having a "senior moment?" This is almost as dumb as your "Arabic in Iran" comment.

manorchurch , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 3:44 pm GMT
@NoseytheDuke

Would anyone buy a used car from this man?

What? $20,000 for that 2005 Kia? Oh, Bibi, you giveaway artist you! It's worth waaaaaaaay more than that? How about $50,000? Or a $million? No amount is too much for Congress to give YOU, sweet Bibi McCree!

Andrei Martyanov , Website Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 3:44 pm GMT

The U.S. and Israel are also expressing concern about Iranian ballistic missile capability. Again, ballistic missiles would appear to be a weapon that Israel alone seeks to monopolize in its neighborhood because it seeks to regard itself as uniquely threatened, that is, always the victim. It is an argument that sells well in the U.S. Congress and in the media, which has apparently also obtained traction in the White House. It is nevertheless a fake argument contrived by the Israelis.

Exactly. Israel wants to stop what is unstoppable–other nations' in the region desire for technological modernization. This modernization means, inevitably, better armed forces and this Israel doesn't like. In fact, Israel BSed so many people for such a long time that now her actual legitimate security concerns are simply drowned in the flood of Israel-inspired threat inflation and other BS she "sells" in the US.

annamaria , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:01 pm GMT
Could God the Almighty smash this despicable cockroach Jeffrey Feltman? http://www.voltairenet.org/article200978.html
"After the vain attempt in 2004 by Secretary of State Colin Powell to transform the Arab League into a regional tribunal, Western aggression began with the assassination of Lebanese ex-Prime Minister Rafic Hariri, in 2005. The US ambassador in Beïrut at that time, Jeffrey Feltman – who probably organised this crime himself – immediately accused Presidents Bachar el-Assad. yet false witnesses were unmasked, and the accusation collapsed.
13 years later, Jeffrey Feltman is the number 2 of the United Nations, and the business at hand is the alleged chemical attack on the Ghouta. The main suspect is, as usual, President el-Assad."
– Who is Jeffrey Feltman? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeffrey_D._Feltman
"Jeffrey Feltman was born to Jewish parents in Greenville, Ohio, in 1959 Feltman served in the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv from 1995–98 He served in Embassy Tel Aviv as Ambassador Martin Indyk's Special Assistant on Peace Process issues from 2000-01. He then moved to the U.S. Consulate General in Jerusalem "
-- Jeffrey Feltman is a ziocon arsonist, a dangerous member of the Fifth Column of Israel-firsters in the US. Feltman is a bloody slanderer, a criminal.
Mark Presco , Website Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:02 pm GMT
This is a verbose article that tries to be too clever by half. It is all old news.

The whole reason for the JCPOA agreement was that we already knew Iran was developing nuclear weapons. All Netanyahu (proved) is that Iran lied about it.

Anyone who believes that Iran won't continue to pursue nuclear weaponization regardless of what deals it signs is naive in the extreme. It can can only be made more difficult.

Anyone want to speculate that Israel has already smuggled a nuke into Iran and is perfectly happy to let Iran believe it?

Don't misunderstand me. I am not supporting Shiite hegemony. Just observing.

Johnny Smoggins , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:09 pm GMT
@Jake

I'm under no illusions about Moslems, friend. I want neither in the West at all. But too many Whites, mostly stupid Christ cuck types, act as apologists for the Jews and Israelis and allow them to get away with far too much.

Johnny Smoggins , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:13 pm GMT
@ChuckOrloski

"Please consider perusing "Protocols of Zion,"

I own a copy. What's most unsettling about that book, fraud or not, is how perfectly it describes the machinations of organized Jewry.

annamaria , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:20 pm GMT
@Momus

It would be great if Bibi had enough prescience to bring up his son to become a decent human being.
Enjoy: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/09/middleeast/israel-netanyahu-son-strip-club-recording-intl/index.html
"In the tape, Yair Netanyahu, now 26, can be heard demanding money from Ori Maimon -- the son of Kobi Maimon, an Israeli gas tycoon.
"My father did a good deal for you, brother," Yair is heard telling Ori. "We fought in the Knesset for it, brother," Yair then continues saying. "My father battled for it, I remember."
That's when Yair asks Ori for a little over $100.
"You are crying over 400 shekels," Yair taunts Ori. "My father sorted your father out with 20 billion dollars and you are crying over 400 shekels?" he adds, laughing.
The 400 shekels was "for the whore," Yair says.
Later, Roman Abramov, another friend of Yair, who joined the two at the strip club, tells the men, "This conversation should not get out. God save us. God, if this gets out, it will be hell."
A while later again, Yair asks: "Speaking of whores, what is open at this hour?"

annamaria , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:24 pm GMT
@Greg Bacon

There had been a minor historical correction since recent events in Kiev. -- It is alright to be neo-Nazi Zionist now: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yX4fA0E5j_4

annamaria , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:29 pm GMT
@James Brown

"James Brown," could you just stick with MSM? Your post smells hasbara to high heaven.

EugeneGur , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:29 pm GMT
@Moi

Putin is weak. Put pressure on him and he folds.

If Putin is weak, who is strong? Show me anybody else in this entire damn world with guts enough to resist the US gang?

Putin and Russia have been under pressure for at least 10 years and so far haven't folded. All Putin is doing is trying to protect the Russian people from the worst of it. After all, he is the President of Russia, not Iran or Syria, and his prime responsibility is to the citizens of Russia.

Z-man , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:32 pm GMT
The full court press for war on Iran has taken place today (4/30). The Zionist controlled cable networks had Bibi Nut-n-yahoo on wall to wall coverage. Of course Trump followed the Zionist party line like the good NY Real Estate guy he is and ate all the tripe that Nut'n-yahoo made up (with the Mossad imprimatur) to convince the public to follow the Zionist party line. I hope there is much push back but I have my doubts.
ChuckOrloski , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:33 pm GMT
@annamaria

annamaria discussed the rather obscure activities of "cockroach," Jeffrey Feltman.

Hi annamaria,

Below is Jewish Corporate Media, Fox News Division's, brief interview with Israeli Ambassador to the ZUS on JCOPA.

Please annamaria, for sake of "Continuing Education," watch this stilted discussion in correspondence with Protocols of Zion, # 12, which I linked within comment 72?

Thank you!

annamaria , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:33 pm GMT
@SumDood

Hey, hasbarist, have you forgotten this?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7uEXeByqhg&feature=youtu.be

WorkingClass , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:49 pm GMT
Israel wants the U.S. to destroy Iran. We all get that. So the easy understanding regarding Trump's behavior is that he is an Israeli. America First was a lie. I don't believe Trump is an idiot or a mad man. But a case can be made. It's possible that Trump is controlled and is not really commander of U.S. forces. If this is so and he does not tell us about it he is a coward. Any way I turn it Trump is an idiot, a mad man, a coward or a Jew.

I'm a deplorable. That doesn't change. Trump gave us an identity and Clinton gave us our name. Trump beat down the door. God bless him. But once he was inside he was all alone. We deplorables desperately need leadership. Trump ain't it.

MarkinLA , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 4:50 pm GMT
@SumDood

Only an idiot thinks that Iran is honest.

Only an idiot thinks that Israel is honest. With two liars lying constantly, who to believe? Maybe it is best to tune both of them out and stay out of it..

Rurik , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:06 pm GMT
@EliteCommInc.

" . . . it is a major foreign policy objective of the Israeli government and its powerful U.S. lobby."

This was almost too painfully humorous to continue.

why was it painfully humorous, because it's (obviously!) true?

Germany as well as Denmark supported attacking Syria

other than tepid words about Assad being 'held to account', or made to 'atone', when has Germany ever suggested it would 'green light or 'pull the trigger for an 'attack' on Syria?

renfro , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:18 pm GMT
@Realist

Wonder which Jew wrote this speech for Trump? Gotta get more vomit bags.

President Donald Trump Proclaims May Jewish History Month

May 1, 2018 By JTA

(JTA) -- President Donald Trump proclaimed May Jewish Heritage Month.

In his statement issued by the White House on Monday, Trump said that "Jewish Americans have helped guide the moral character of our Nation."

President George W. Bush first proclaimed May Jewish Heritage Month in 2006, and it has been proclaimed annually by the sitting president ever since.

The statement also said: "They have maintained a strong commitment to engage deeply in American society while also preserving their historic values and traditions. Their passion for social justice and showing kindness to strangers is rooted in the beliefs that God created all people in his image and that we all deserve dignity and peace."

He added that: "Through their actions, they have made the world a better place."

Trump also wrote that the "contributions of the Jewish people to American society are innumerable, strengthening our Nation and making it more prosperous," noting that Jewish Americans have served in all levels of government and served in the U.S. military, as well as contributed to the arts and established philanthropic and volunteer networks. He also noted the Nobel prizes won by Jewish Americans

Read more: undefined/fast-forward/400110/mahmoud-abbas-jews-caused-holocaust-with-their-social-behavior/

anon [228] Disclaimer , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:18 pm GMT
@SolontoCroesus

"Ronen Bergman has written and spoken of Israel's use of assassination "more than any other nation," to "change history.""

And then the Jews spread the rumors of the existence of a secret cult- that works and has been working for centuries assassinating dissidents and leaders . They live in Iraq and Iran They smoke Hashish and they assassinate after being duped by the mixture of the religion and the smoke.

Wally , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:20 pm GMT
@Realist

The alternative was Hillary.

Now imagine that.

renfro , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:26 pm GMT
@Brabantian

Big elephant in the room, is Russia's indulgence of Israel,

It may be that Putin's fall back position, in the event that Israel is successful in dragging the US into Iran, is to let the US further its own demise. He knows the Jews are destroyers of nations and they will destroy the US eventually.

Rurik , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:31 pm GMT
@Momus

Iran's clear intent to build nukes, threaten Israel and control militarily and via a Shite theocracy centered in Teheran, a vast swathe of the Middle East and Western Asia is a good thing?

Yes! Of course it's a good thing, when you consider the alternative.

Iran didn't attack our Navy ship in a cowardly and treacherous act of war, now did they?

Iran didn't send its Mossad to film the WTC being attacked with planes full of terrified American men, women and children, or start dancing in wild celebration when the planes exploded into the towers, slaughtering all those Americans horrifically. It was Israelis who did that, knowing those attacks were going to happen, and not warning us Americans, because they wanted us to get slaughtered, and cheered about it, as the flames were still burning Americans and people were dropping from the towers to their horrible deaths.

Israel gets billions upon billions of dollars of largess from the American people, and that's how they repay our generosity, by laughing at our slaughtered citizens?

I honestly don't know of any Iranians who would have laughed at 9/11, even considering all the evils that the ZUSA has perpetrated on Iran over the decades (always on Israel's behalf of course)

So yes, absofuckinglutely, I'd prefer Iran to have nukes and hegemony if anyone in the Middle East is to have them/it. Certainly more so than fanatical, murderous, criminal, treacherous, cowardly Israel.

Bibi belongs at the end of a rope, not lecturing the rest of the planet on his pretexts (lies) for more wars.

anon [228] Disclaimer , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:39 pm GMT
@Wizard of Oz

We have created a world where A and master of A can have 1000 to 100 of nukes, where these psychopaths can threaten with nuclear bombs but Iran or Syria can't have nukes.
This is accecpted as normal by not only the very psychopaths like Netanyahu or Yalom or B'lom or S 'lom or Kagan-Kristol- Kushner-Kaplan-Kruthammer but by the folks going around nonchalantly their daily businesses in local cafe, offices,restaurant,hotel,street shows,school debates,town hall meetings , water fountain discussions in offices and during breaks from works.

These same sob also say how Muslim imposed dhimmitudes on the rest of non Muslims and how they treated their conquered citizen . One of their favorites is this – Church or Synagogue or teh Temple couldn't be higher than the Mosque in the vicinity. This they use to justify abominable attitude to Muslims which then transform into pre-conscious hatred and animosity to the Arabs/Palestine/Iran.

renfro , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:43 pm GMT
@prusmc

So the US gave Iran $150 billion and $1.5 billion in cash

Typical example of falling for the pundit media.
The US did not GIVE Iran any money.
The money came from Iran's US 'frozen funds' .Obama 'released' their money, it was not US money.

renfro , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 5:50 pm GMT
@Wade

Thanks for posting that.

People need to ask who profited from Kennedy's murder Israel .not Russia or Cuba.

Seamus Padraig , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:02 pm GMT
@Bodyguard of Ois

Bibi wasn't elevated to anything by the CIA; he was already Zionist royalty, his father having been Ze'ev Jabotinsky's personal secretary: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benzion_Netanyahu

(Jabotinsky–for those who don't know–was a radical Zionist who fought with the Irgun terrorist group against the Brits, and it was he who first came up with the 'Greater Israel' plan that the Netanyahoos have dedicated themselves to ever since.)

Bibi's older brother Yonatan was a commander of an elite IDF commando unit which successfully staged a raid at Entebbe, Unganda in 1976. Yonatan probably was the heir-apparent, but alas, he was killed during the raid, so Bibi had to fill in.

Nice try, hasba-rat! Now go peddle your Noam-Chomsky nonsense elsewhere

anon [228] Disclaimer , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:05 pm GMT
@Cold N. Holefield

Are The Koch Brothers and The Mercers Jewish?

Can they survive without supporting each and every Jewish agenda? Can they make money unless they wet their toes in the cesspool operated ,maintained,and enriched by the Jewish monetary system of control?

They can't.

renfro , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:09 pm GMT
@SumDood

Funding the Beirut barracks attack?

Israel is responsible for the Beirut attack.

https://www.wrmea.org/1995-march/israel-charged-with-systematic-harassment-of-u.s.-marines.html

Israel Charged With Systematic Harassment of U.S. Marines
By Donald Neff

It was 12 years ago, on March 14, 1983, that the commandant of the Marine Corps sent a highly unusual letter to the secretary of defense expressing frustration and anger at Israel. General R.H. Barrow charged that Israeli troops were deliberately threatening the lives of Marines serving as peacekeepers in Lebanon. There was, he wrote, a systematic pattern of harassment by Israel Defense Forces (IDF) that was resulting in "life-threatening situations, replete with verbal degradation of the officers, their uniform and country."

[MORE]
Barrow's letter added: "It is inconceivable to me why Americans serving in peacekeeping roles must be harassed, endangered by an ally It is evident to me, and the opinion of the U.S. commanders afloat and ashore, that the incidents between the Marines and the IDF are timed, orchestrated, and executed for obtuse Israeli political purposes."1

Israel's motives were less obtuse than the diplomatic general pretended. It was widely believed then, and now, that Israeli Defense Minister Ariel Sharon, one of Israel's most Machiavellian politician-generals, was creating the incidents deliberately in an effort to convince Washington that the two forces had to coordinate their actions in order to avoid such tensions. This, of course, would have been taken by the Arabs as proof that the Marines were not really in Lebanon as neutral peacekeepers but as allies of the Israelis, a perception that would have obvious advantages for Israel.2

Barrow's extraordinary letter was indicative of the frustrations and miseries the Marines suffered during their posting to Lebanon starting on Aug. 25, 1982, as a result of Israel's invasion 11 weeks earlier. Initially a U.S. unit of 800 men was sent to Beirut harbor as part of a multinational force to monitor the evacuation of PLO guerrillas from Beirut.
The Marines, President Reagan announced, "in no case would stay longer than 30 days."3 This turned out to be only partly true. They did withdraw on Sept. 10, but a reinforced unit of 1,200 was rushed back 15 days later after the massacres at the Palestinian refugee camps at Sabra and Shatila that accompanied the Israeli seizure of West Beirut. The U.S. forces remained until Feb. 26, 1984.4
During their-year-and-a-half posting in Lebanon, the Marines suffered 268 killed.5 The casualties started within a week of the return of the Marines in September 1982. On the 30th, a U.S.-made cluster bomb left behind by the Israelis exploded, killing Corporal David Reagan and wounding three other Marines.6

Corporal Reagan's death represented the dangers of the new mission of the Marines in Lebanon. While their first brief stay had been to separate Israeli forces from Palestinian fighters evacuating West Beirut, their new mission was as part of a multinational force sent to prevent Israeli troops from attacking the Palestinian civilians left defenseless there after the withdrawal of PLO forces. As President Reagan said: "For this multinational force to succeed, it is essential that Israel withdraw from Beirut."7

"Incidents are timed, orchestrated, and executed for Israeli political purposes."

Israel's siege of Beirut during the summer of 1982 had been brutal and bloody, reaching a peak of horror on Aug. 12, quickly known as Black Thursday. On that day, Sharon's forces launched at dawn a massive artillery barrage that lasted for 11 straight hours and was accompanied by saturation air bombardment.8 As many as 500 persons, mainly Lebanese and Palestinian civilians, were killed.9

On top of the bombardment came the massacres the next month at Sabra and Shatila, where Sharon's troops allowed Lebanese Maronite killers to enter the camps filled with defenseless civilians. The massacres sickened the international community and pressure from Western capitals finally forced Israel to withdraw from Beirut in late September. Troops from Britain, France, Italy and the United States were interposed between the Israeli army and Beirut, with U.S. Marines deployed in the most sensitive area south of Beirut at the International Airport, directly between Israeli troops and West Beirut.

It was at the airport that the Marines would suffer their Calvary over the next year. Starting in January 1983, small Israeli units began probing the Marine lines. At first the effort appeared aimed at discovering the extent of Marine determination to resist penetration. The lines proved solid and the Marines' determination strong. Israeli troops were politely but firmly turned away. Soon the incidents escalated, with both sides pointing loaded weapons at each other but no firing taking place. Tensions were high enough by late January that a special meeting between U.S. and Israeli officers was held in Beirut to try to agree on precise boundaries beyond which the IDF would not penetrate.10

No Stranger to the Marines

However, on Feb. 2 a unit of three Israeli tanks, led by Israeli Lt. Col. Rafi Landsberg, tried to pass through Marine/Lebanese Army lines at Rayan University Library in south Lebanon. By this time, Landsberg was no stranger to the Marines. Since the beginning of January he had been leading small Israeli units in probes against the Marine lines, although such units would normally have a commander no higher than a sergeant or lieutenant. The suspicion grew that Sharon's troops were deliberately provoking the Marines and Landsberg was there to see that things did not get out of hand. The Israeli tactics were aimed more at forcing a joint U.S.-Israeli strategy than merely probing lines.

In the Feb. 2 incident, the checkpoint was commanded by Marine Capt. Charles Johnson, who firmly refused permission for Landsberg to advance. When two of the Israeli tanks ignored his warning to halt, Johnson leaped on Landsberg's tank with pistol drawn and demanded Landsberg and his tanks withdraw. They did.11

Landsberg and the Israeli embassy in Washington tried to laugh off the incident, implying that Johnson was a trigger-happy John Wayne type and that the media were exaggerating a routine event. Landsberg even went so far as to claim that he smelled alcohol on Johnson's breath and that drunkenness must have clouded his reason. Marines were infuriated because Johnson was well known as a teetotaler. Americans flocked to Johnson's side. He received hundreds of letters from school children, former Marines and from Commandant Barrow.12 It was a losing battle for the Israelis and Landsberg soon dropped from sight.

But the incidents did not stop. These now included "helicopter harassment," by which U.S.-made helicopters with glaring spotlights were flown by the Israelis over Marine positions at night, illuminating Marine outposts and exposing them to potential attack. As reports of these incidents piled up, Gen. Barrow received a letter on March 12 from a U.S. Army major stationed in Lebanon with the United Nations Truce Supervisory Organization (UNTSO). The letter described a systematic pattern of Israeli attacks and provocations against UNTSO troops, including instances in which U.S. officers were singled out for "near-miss" shootings, abuse and detention.13 That same day two Marine patrols were challenged and cursed by Israeli soldiers.1

Two days later Barrow wrote his letter to Secretary of Defense Caspar W. Weinberger, who endorsed it and sent it along to the State Department. High-level meetings were arranged and the incidents abated, perhaps largely because by this time Ariel Sharon had been fired as defense minister. He had been found by an Israeli commission to have had "personal responsibility" for the Sabra and Shatila massacres.15
Despite the bad taste left from the clashes with the Israelis, in fact no Marines had been killed in the incidents and their lines had been secure up to the end of winter in 1983. Then Islamic guerrillas, backed by Iran, became active. On the night of April 17, 1983, an unknown sniper fired a shot that went through the trousers of a Marine sentry but did not harm him. For the first time, the Marines returned fire.16

The next day, the U.S. Embassy in Beirut was blown up by a massive bomb, with the loss of 63 lives. Among the 17 Americans killed were CIA Mideast specialists, including Robert C. Ames, the agency's top Middle East expert.17

Disaffected former Israeli Mossad case officer Victor Ostrovsky later claimed that Israel had advance information about the bombing plan but had decided not to inform the United States, a claim denied by Israel.18 The Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility. Veteran correspondent John Cooley considered the attack "the day [Iranian leader Ayatollah] Khomeini's offensive against America in Lebanon began in earnest." 19
Still, it was not until four months later, on Aug. 28, that Marines came under direct fire by rocket-propelled grenades and automatic weapons at International Airport. They returned fire with M-16 rifles and M-60 machine guns. The firefight resumed the next day with Marines firing 155mm artillery, 81mm mortars and rockets from Cobra helicopter gunships against Shi'i Muslim positions. Two Marines were killed and 14 wounded in the exchange, the first casualties in actual combat since the Marines had landed the previous year.20

From this time on, the combat involvement of the Marines grew. Their actions were generally seen as siding with Israel against Muslims, slowly changing the status of the Marines as neutral peacekeepers to opponents of the Muslims.21 Israel could hardly have wished for more. The polarization meant that increasingly the conflict was being perceived in terms of the U.S., Israel and Lebanon's Christians against Iran, Islam and Lebanon's Shi'i Muslims.
Accelerating the Conflict

Israel accelerated the building conflict on Sept. 3, 1993 by unilaterally withdrawing its troops southward, leaving the Marines exposed behind their thin lines at the airport. The United States had asked the Israeli government to delay its withdrawal until the Marines could be replaced by units of the Lebanese army, but Israel refused.22 The result was as feared. Heavy fighting immediately broke out between the Christian Lebanese Forces and the pro-Syrian Druze units, both seeking to occupy positions evacuated by Israel, while the Marines were left in the crossfire. 23On Sept. 5, two Marines were killed and three wounded as fighting escalated between Christian and Muslim militias.24
In an ill-considered effort to subdue the combat, the Sixth Fleet frigate Bowen fired several five-inch naval guns, hitting Druze artillery positions in the Chouf Mountains that were firing into the Marine compound at Beirut airport.25 It was the first time U.S. ships had fired into Lebanon, dramatically raising the level of combat. But the Marines' exposed location on the flat terrain of the airport left them in an impossible position. On Sept. 12, three more Marines were wounded. 26
On Sept. 13, President Reagan authorized what was called aggressive self-defense for the Marines, including air and naval strikes.27 Five days later the United States essentially joined the war against the Muslims when four U.S. warships unleashed the heaviest naval bombardment since Vietnam into Syrian and Druze positions in eastern Lebanon in support of the Lebanese Christians.28 The bombardment lasted for three days and was personally ordered by National Security Council director Robert McFarlane, a Marine Corps officer detailed to the White House who was in Lebanon at the time and was also a strong supporter of Israel and its Lebanese Maronite Christian allies. McFarlane issued the order despite the fact that the Marine commander at the airport, Colonel Timothy Geraghty, strenuously argued against it because, in the words of correspondent Thomas L. Friedman, "he knew that it would make his soldiers party to what was now clearly an intra-Lebanese fight, and that the Lebanese Muslims would not retaliate against the Navy's ships at sea but against the Marines on shore." 29

By now, the Marines were under daily attack and Muslims were charging they were no longer neutral.30 At the same time the battleship USS New Jersey, with 16-inch guns, arrived off Lebanon, increasing the number of U.S. warships offshore to 14. Similarly, the Marine contingent at Beirut airport was increased from 1,200 to 1,600.31

A Tragic Climax
The fight now was truly joined between the Shi'i Muslims and the Marines, who were essentially pinned down in their airport bunkers and under orders not to take offensive actions. The tragic climax of their predicament came on Oct. 23, when a Muslim guerrilla drove a truck past guards at the Marine airport compound and detonated an explosive with the force of 12,000 pounds of dynamite under a building housing Marines and other U.S. personnel. Almost simultaneously, a car-bomb exploded at the French compound in Beirut. Casualties were 241 Americans and 58 French troops killed. The bombings were the work of Hezbollah, made up of Shi'i Muslim guerrillas supported by Iran.32
America's agony increased on Dec. 3, when two carrier planes were downed by Syrian missiles during heavy U.S. air raids on eastern Lebanon.33On the same day, eight Marines were killed in fighting with Muslim militiamen around the Beirut airport.34
By the start of 1984, an all-out Shi'i Muslim campaign to rid Lebanon of all Americans was underway. The highly respected president of the American University of Beirut, Dr. Malcolm Kerr, a distinguished scholar of the Arab world, was gunned down on Jan. 18 outside his office by Islamic militants aligned with Iran.35

On Feb. 5, Reagan made one of his stand-tall speeches by saying that "the situation in Lebanon is difficult, frustrating and dangerous. But this is no reason to turn our backs on friends and to cut and run."36
The next day Professor Frank Regier, a U.S. citizen teaching at AUB, was kidnapped by Muslim radicals.37 Regier's kidnapping was the beginning of a series of kidnappings of Americans in Beirut that would hound the Reagan and later the Bush administrations for years and lead to the eventual expulsion of nearly all Americans from Lebanon where they had prospered for more than a century. Even today Americans still are prohibited from traveling to Lebanon.
The day after Regier's kidnapping, on Feb. 7, 1984, Reagan suddenly reversed himself and announced that all U.S. Marines would shortly be "redeployed." The next day the battleship USS New Jersey fired 290 rounds of one-ton shells from its 16-inch guns into Lebanon as a final act of U.S. frustration.38 Reagan's "redeployment" was completed by Feb. 26, when the last of the Marines retreated from Lebanon.
The mission of the Marines had been a humiliating failure -- not because they failed in their duty but because the political backbone in Washington was lacking. The Marines had arrived in 1982 with all sides welcoming them. They left in 1984 despised by many and the object of attacks by Muslims. Even relations with Israel were strained, if not in Washington where a sympathetic Congress granted increased aid to the Jewish state to compensate it for the costs of its bungled invasion, then between the Marines and Israeli troops who had confronted each other in a realpolitik battlefield that was beyond their competence or understanding. The Marine experience in Lebanon did not contribute toward a favorable impression of Israel among many Americans, especially since the Marines would not have been in Lebanon except for Israel's unprovoked invasion.
This negative result is perhaps one reason a number of Israelis and their supporters today oppose sending U.S. peacekeepers to the Golan Heights as part of a possible Israeli-Syrian peace treaty. A repeat of the 1982-84 experience would certainly not be in Israel's interests at a time when its supporters are seeking to have a budget-conscious Congress continue unprecedented amounts of aid to Israel.

EliteCommInc. , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:19 pm GMT
@Rurik

I am unclear what you are on about.

1. I thought it was a great line -- a funny turn of phrase.

2. You might want to keep my comments in the context they are delivered.

3. Removing the comments from their context and asking what they mean -- doesn't make any sense to me. My comments are about the issue of whether the Europeans would be on board breaking the agreement. I have been one who contended that would not be inclined to forego the financial loss. But when France, Germany, Denmark, and Great Britain joined or supported the faux chem use response. It suggested that the quid pro quo was in and supports Dr. Giraldi's position that the Europeans are not as tied to the financial gains as I might think.

4. Caveat: Pres Macron's press here suggests they may not have to choose. Which bolsters the position that the money matters. time will tell.

Your comments about atonement and what not are in some other field and as far as I can tell well off the mark. .

renfro , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:20 pm GMT
@Bodyguard of Ois

Oh, here we go again.. the old CIA did it meme the jooos are innocent, innocent I tell you!

I've heard them all ..the US uses Israel to 'colonize' Palestine, the Israel Palestine fight is the evil white man's fault for holocausting the jews, the US uses Israel to 'expand its empire', the WASP are controlling the Jews ad nausea.

tac , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:20 pm GMT
US Officials: Israel Preparing For War With Iran, Seeking US Support

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-01/us-officials-israel-preparing-war-iran-seeking-us-support

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-officials-say-israel-behind-latest-syria-strike-preparing-for-war-with-iran/

Knesset gives power to PM to declare war with single vote backing

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/knesset-power-pm-declare-war-single-vote-backing-180501073134283.html

Re: Strike on Hama & Alleppo:
There is unsubstantiated report that Israeli F-15 flying over Jordan via Eastern route whilst blending in with US coalition forces:

Here's how #Israel attacked #Syria on 29/4/2018 using the Coalition fly zones against the #SAA

Israel after many attempts to penetrate the Syrian airspace from the west, they're now using the east, which is poorly covered by radars, where they can blend within the Coalition jets pic.twitter.com/hKr5IEZaj6

-- Wael

RobinG , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:23 pm GMT
@annamaria

Just when I thought it was safe to turn on the radio . there was Danielle Pletka. (Today's "Washington Journal" on CSPAN.) Didn't you post some background on her, or was it someone else? (I'm just hoping there's an antidote )

anon [228] Disclaimer , Next New Comment May 1, 2018 at 6:24 pm GMT
A judge in the US has issued a default judgement requiring Iran to pay more than $6bn to victims of the September 11, 2001 attacks that killed almost 3,000 people, court filings show.
Monday's ruling in the case – Thomas Burnett, Sr et al v. The Islamic Republic of Iran et al – finds "the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, and The Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran" liable for the deaths of more than 1,000 people as a result of the September 11 attacks, Judge George B Daniels of the Southern District Court of New York wrot
Iran is ordered to pay "$12,500,000 per spouse, $8,500,000 per parent, $8,500,000 per child, and $4,250,000 per sibling" to the families and estates of the deceased, court filings say.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/05/judge-iran-pay-6bn-victims-911-attacks-180501120240366.html

How does the anti Iran narrative work? Each and every lever has been joined just like it would be in a jungle by the poachers and in a Chicago street by the Latino gangs . Then they call it a democracy with rule of law reigning supreme .

renfro , May 1, 2018 at 6:25 pm GMT
@SolontoCroesus

BRAVO !!!!!

[May 01, 2018] I'm astonished that anyone would think that Putin doesn't understand the US or what is going on in the Syria theater.

Notable quotes:
"... Israel is annoying everyone in the Syrian theater. Note well that the scale of impact is in the "annoying" range. Kind of like the "bluster" of the US but even more constrained by forces on the ground all around it. ..."
"... No one in the region believes that Russia or Iran have failed at anything. Observers simply hope they have the good fortune to see the revenge, knowing that they may never know how Iran counters - if in fact it ever does. ..."
"... Russia is working to move the final resolution of Syria into political methods rather than military - this is very important to keep in mind with all appraisals of the situation. It's time to repeat that Russia is working for peace, not to win battles. The two efforts are very different, and create different tactics. ..."
"... I echo that feeling. The explosions in Hama and Aleppo, for which there still remains no official report, have kicked up rampant speculation and many strange comments on this site. ..."
"... The idea that Russia is all bluster, has no clue what's going on, has abandoned Syria, or that the whole Russian exercise is due to Putin "begging to be admitted in the Western Club," flies in the face of facts on the ground. ..."
"... Putin is where he says he is. He was already part of the club (G8) and he left because the club was filled with jackasses. Putin is forming his own club, with Xi. ..."
May 01, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Grieved | Apr 30, 2018 9:24:11 PM | 107

Thanks to posters for links to Garrie on a possible "white hat" false flag and to Magnier for a plum-rich storytelling of how Israel is on the losing end of a shift in the balance of power, something that as yet it cannot admit to itself.

Israel is annoying everyone in the Syrian theater. Note well that the scale of impact is in the "annoying" range. Kind of like the "bluster" of the US but even more constrained by forces on the ground all around it.

I'm astonished that anyone would think that Putin doesn't understand the US or what is going on in the Syria theater. Russian commanders are in constant contact with all forces that bear on the situation, including those of the US, and Israel. And Putin has spelled out on numerous occasions - in interviews, from the Valdai Club, from his remarks directly to journalists and his people - what the empire is doing.

No one has lost face in this latest event, except Israel with Netanyahu's inane presentation, currently being called out as empty by Europeans.

No one in the region believes that Russia or Iran have failed at anything. Observers simply hope they have the good fortune to see the revenge, knowing that they may never know how Iran counters - if in fact it ever does.

Russia is working to move the final resolution of Syria into political methods rather than military - this is very important to keep in mind with all appraisals of the situation. It's time to repeat that Russia is working for peace, not to win battles. The two efforts are very different, and create different tactics.

With each situation that Russia confronts, from military attacks to diplomatic property seizures, Russia looks for the peace dividend. Armchair punters are watching one horse race, while Russia is looking decades down the road and asking what it takes to create stability that endures, out of each situation.

Don Bacon , Apr 30, 2018 10:13:44 PM | 113
@Grieved 107

Yes, some don't appreciate the giant step that Putin took moving into Syria to oppose The Leader Of The Free World™ with its president Obama threatening that Russians would soon be going home in body-bags.

But Russia survived and endured, and made a major point that right can win over might.

The strategy was brave and the tactics were revolutionary, including the busing of combatants away from combat. Credit where credit is due, Putin is a winner at home and abroad, as in Syria (and Crimea, BTW).

Activist Potato | May 1, 2018 1:04:41 AM | 123

"I'm astonished that anyone would think that Putin doesn't understand the US or what is going on in the Syria theater." Posted by: Grieved | Apr 30, 2018 9:24:11 PM | 107

I echo that feeling. The explosions in Hama and Aleppo, for which there still remains no official report, have kicked up rampant speculation and many strange comments on this site.

The idea that Russia is all bluster, has no clue what's going on, has abandoned Syria, or that the whole Russian exercise is due to Putin "begging to be admitted in the Western Club," flies in the face of facts on the ground.

Putin is where he says he is. He was already part of the club (G8) and he left because the club was filled with jackasses. Putin is forming his own club, with Xi.

Castellio | May 1, 2018 1:14:02 AM | 125

Putin sees the west much more clearly than the west sees him.

[Apr 30, 2018] What was used on attack on ammunition depots?

Notable quotes:
"... The report of the attack registering 2.6 on the Richter scale suggests that at least one hit was something VERY big. ..."
Apr 30, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Robet James Parsons , Apr 30, 2018 5:50:46 PM | 76

Embedded in the news story (link below) is a video claimed to be of one of the bombs dropped during the attack described in the news story.

I have no way of knowing yet how many bombs were dropped in all nor what they were exactly. The report of the attack registering 2.6 on the Richter scale suggests that at least one hit was something VERY big. I am inclined to believe that this blast in the video is entirely independent of the earth-shaking explosion.

The explosion in the video is obviously of a uranium-based warhead. The brilliant white flash is NOT a nuclear (fission or fusion) flash (no mushroom shaped up-draft), and it is followed immediately by a scattering of equally brilliant white sparks and leaves a major fire burning. The sparks are bits of the warhead (which is actually made of a uranium-based alloy -- at least 95% uranium) designed to shatter upon ignition in order to give access to air (oxygen) to all the metal mass of the warhead, thus enabling it all to burn simultaneously (i.e. within a few seconds of the initial ignition) and create maximum heat/destruction. The smaller the pieces, the better they burn in such an explosion.

When the uranium is ignited, it burns at +/- 6,000°C. creating heat on par with a nuclear explosion (but without that horribly inconvenient mushroom-shaped cloud). This one looks like a thermobaric bomb (a reworked up-graded, "enhanced", uraniumized version of the "daisy cutter" first used in Vietnam).

Visible near the end of the (brief) video are other, small explosions, which could be of the same magnitude but much farther away or which could be the result of other weapons near the same site but of much smaller power.

This bomb appears to be similar to those used in southern Lebanon in 2006. The United Nations Environmental Program's post-conflict assessment unit found that those warheads had been made of low enriched uranium.

Noteworthy, and in contradiction to the official version of an attack on arms depots, is the lack of any cascade of explosions that such an attack would trigger among the arms in the depot. After the invasion of Iraq, there was an attack on a United States arms depot, and it was recorded on a fair number of videos, some quite good, all, as far as I know, long since flushed down the memory hole. The noise of the depot's arms exploding was unmistakable, and there were major firey elements flying everywhere from those secondary explosions. There is none of that here.

Iranian missiles destroyed in 'bunker busting' Syria strikes: Report
#SyriaWar

Hama and Aleppo attacks destroy major arms depots and cause minor earthquake, according to reports, days after Israel threatened Iran
http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/syrian-army-says-enemy-rocket-attacks-strike-military-bases-886095650

No news site is perfect -- much less infallible. However, Middle East Eye I have found to be one of the more reliable. Hence, I am inclined to take seriously anything that they publish, even when it does not seem to make sense to me.

R.J.P.

From the resistance , Apr 30, 2018 6:28:00 PM | 80
@Posted by: Robet James Parsons | Apr 30, 2018 5:50:46 PM | 76

The fire-station in Homs 35km away from the strike main point was also targeted in a clear intend to avoid fire-fighters going to suffocate the huge fires in the aftermath, which is a despicable act much in line with Israel usual behavior.

Also, by attacking the "Zainabydoun Brigade", where the young died soldiers belonged, Israel is clearly trying to provoke the Shia sector of the resitance, and especially Hezbollah,in the verge of the Lebanese Parlimentary Elections to be hold 6th May, where hezbollah could well consolidate, more if needed, its role as one of the main political forces in Lebanon with which Israel and the US will find it more difficult to continue labelling it as a terrorist organization...

Menschmaschine , Apr 30, 2018 7:04:54 PM | 83
The strike on the Aleppo targets (only some civilian buildings were hit, either there was a glitch or they simply didn't care what they hit) seems to have been carried out by Israeli aircraft releasing glide bombs from turkish (and/or US) controlled air space, similar to the 2007 warehouse attack.

As for the Hama strike, it seems that for the first time ballistic missiles instead of cruise missiles were used. These are more challenging targets than subsonic cruise missiles because of their high speed (The Scud for instance reaches Mach 5 / 1.7 km/s).

The "Pantsir", the most modern short range AD system in Syrian service is suitable for targets up to a speed of Mach 3 / 1 km/s. A new high speed missile for the system should enable it for target speeds of several km/s, but it is only scheduled to become available in 2019.

The most modern medium range system is the "Buk" which is able to combat targets with a speed of up to 1.2 km/s in the M2 version. The M3 version gets up to 3 km/s but it is only available since 2016 and therefore not likely to be in Syrian service.

Syria does not have modern long range air defense systems with ABM capability like S300/S400. Note that because of the target speed the range of an AD system is lower against ballistic missiles, S-400 with its standard 48N6DM missile has a range of 240 km against aircraft, but only 60 km against ballistic missiles. Therefore the Russian S-400 system in Khmeimim was not in a position to do anything against the strike.

So the current capabilities of Syrian AD against ballistic missile threats don't look too good - the S-300 really is needed.

karlof1 , Apr 30, 2018 7:11:34 PM | 85
Canthama at SyrPers provides this from the SAA's FB:

Canthama: "I believe this an important statement from the folks of the SAA FB (not official SAA but with ex SAA and with deep connections to the SAA leadership).

"It confirms some of the info we shared early today, limited damaged, but it brings hints of a possible attack from the ground and not long distance missiles, that would explain the lack of SyAAD activity. Worth following this info."

SAA FB:"We had a long post regarding last night and we were asked to put it on hold for the time being. We can however say that almost all the speculations and analysis that are circulating social media are false.

"A storage depot was hit by GBU-39B glide bombs not coming from the sea or South/West; the attack is highly suspected to be ground launched but we cannot confirm this.

"The type of ammunition targeted was insignificant, grad rockets and several other domestic munition; there was no sophisticated weaponry whatsoever; also, the level of attack was insignificant as well.

"What created the huge explosions was the fact that one of the major storage depots caught fire and exploded which resulted in what you saw.

"No side publicly claimed responsibility for the attack but that doesn't mean the Syrian command isn't aware of the side and the intention.

"Finally, and this message is to those in non-official military media; in cases of foreign aggression no one should be spreading any sort of information that they aren't sure of, rather they should wait an official statement or only stick to the aftermath in their reports, rather than jumping into spreading rumors and analysis-based reports then calling it news.

"For the time being, we cannot answer more than what's written here but perhaps soon we can have a long explanation posted."

Canthama recommends this piece by Adam Garrie which I too find interesting. However, Garrie's incorrect about the lack of fatalities; Canthama specifically posted these four--Captain Fadi Othman, Lt Hassan Zuhair, Suleiman Mohsen Al Malhami, Yahya Mohammed Alsaleem--out of an initial 13 reported KIA.

Don Bacon , Apr 30, 2018 8:10:43 PM | 90
@karlof1 85
the [GB-39B glide bomb] attack is highly suspected to be ground launched but we cannot confirm this.
Mar 10, 2015
Boeing, Saab Unveil Ground Launched SDB
The system essentially sticks a GBU-39B small diameter bomb, widely used by the US military and a number of international customers, on the front of a M26 rocket. The M26 is set to be demilitarized by 2018 under a set of cluster munitions treaties, meaning the GLSDB program would essentially be recycling an item that countries were planning to stockpile or scrap.
The weapon is designed to be launched out of a multiple launch rocket system (MLRS), used by a number of US allies already, avoiding the need to design a new launch system. That MLRS can hold six weapons per pod, with two pods per vehicle. . . here
There would be evidence of the rocket, methinks.
Sea Breeze , Apr 30, 2018 8:18:55 PM | 91
@timbers 87

"I'm still in shook Putin didn't place 300s in Syria long, long ago"

Shocked? Lol

Israel ordered Putin not to sell the S-300 to Syria 7 years ago. It is a well known info. "Western Partners" demanded that Russia never sells anything like that to Syria. Russia also complied with US sanctions against Iran and refused to sell them the S-300 until the JCPOA was signed. Even now, Russia offers the S-400 to Turkey and Saudi Arabia but not to Iran.

Not only that, but there is an agreement between Putin and Netanyahu where Russia allows Israel to bomb targets in Syria without any retaliation. You see, Putin is begging to be admitted in the Western Club, as an equal. This is why he is doing those things. But they still don't want him, as they want full control over Russia. They do not recognize "equals". What he wants is that several different oligarhies carve up the world between themselves (multipolar world), and so that his group can control Russia and the surrounding areas (its sphere of influence). What they want is only one oligarchy to rule them all (unipolar world).

Syria is just a chip for Putin in that game to be part of the NWO.

[Apr 30, 2018] An absolutely stunning breaking interview of the Syrian independent member of parliament Fares Shehabi by the BBC hardtalk program

Notable quotes:
"... It's getting harder and harder to tell what's really going on. Sites like this are useful, but can only read between the lines: they simply do not have the resources to independently uncover and vet primary sources of information. More the pity that our establishment news organizations are totally corrupt and have no credibility. That's a bigger loss than one might at first realize. ..."
Apr 30, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

anon , Apr 30, 2018 2:36:12 PM | 27

https://www.bitchute.com/video/IF7ZwfM4tQQK/

This is an absolutely stunning breaking interview of the Syrian independent member of parliament Fares Shehabi by the BBC hardtalk program. The MSM typically try to aggressively browbeat non-western interviewees that they disagree with. Unfortunately, most of the interviewees either get cowed or they get emotional and angry.

Fares Shehabi instead is factually and rationally aggressive, fact by fact, counter-argument by counter-argument, not allowing the BBC interviewer to shut him up. It is a model of how to deal with the MSM.

The MSM have already managed to get the interview wiped off youtube. but it is still available here

http://www.syrianews.cc/syrian-mp-fares-shehabi-pummels-bbc-colonialist-sackur/

download it and upload it and torrent it everywhere you can so that they cannot wipe it off the net.

crossposted

TG , Apr 30, 2018 3:11:12 PM | 35
It's getting harder and harder to tell what's really going on. Sites like this are useful, but can only read between the lines: they simply do not have the resources to independently uncover and vet primary sources of information. More the pity that our establishment news organizations are totally corrupt and have no credibility. That's a bigger loss than one might at first realize.

That said, it's interesting that Israel seems to be going real crazy now and not acting as it usually does through its proxies in Washington. I posit two possible interpretations, based on what I would expect as blowback from Trump's latest Syrian missile strike.

1. The US strike really was successful, Russian air defenses are impotent against US weaponry, and Israel and the US elites feel that it's now open season on Israel and Iran etc. Open skies, blast away!

2. The US strike was a failure, and Russian air defenses are potentially totally changing the game. Israel and US elites are going nuts and determined to strike hard and fast before the window of opportunity closes, and because they are just in general pissed off at having been defied ('how dare they defend themselves from our holy humanitarian missile strike?'). Israel is determined to build momentum for war before the military option becomes untenable. Even if Russian air defenses really are that good, the West can still prevail in the middle east through overwhelming massed attacks... for now...

Note that my thinking posits that our elites will go crazy regardless of what happens - which fits with past experience, but is not perhaps what Karl Popper would have called "falsifiable."

From the resistance , Apr 30, 2018 3:58:55 PM | 47
By the huge ammount of trolls totally blocking comments at RT English ( and I suppose at any other media )with thousands of botted likes under their comments to rise them to the top of view, I would say they are preparing something big, since I have not seen this level of trolling ( which implies having RT news about this topic blocked for comments as if a DDOS attack would be happening in fact ) since the beginning of the Syrian war at some MSM where I started commenting supporting Syria.
Anonymous_1 , Apr 30, 2018 4:41:20 PM | 59
From the resistance

Re: trolls at RT commenting commenting and liking troll comments to many thousands.
I have seen this before so its not a new thing, I wonder who initiate this, most likely western states spy orgs.

[Apr 30, 2018] MoA - Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf - But Something Bigger Is Up (Updated)

With Russia neutralized by upcoming football World championship due to Putin's love for large sport events, there are preparation of something similar to Sochi events (EuroMaydan color revolution in Ukraine)
Notable quotes:
"... This can all be easily followed all the way back to before the Iranian nuclear deal and a policy paper out of Brookings on how to set up Iran for war. Basically, it states make a deal with Iran then prove that although the West did its best, Iran broke the deal in whatever manner. Appears they have all the actors lined up. Now it begins. The war of words then war. Like we haven't seen this before. ..."
"... I'd missed this: US-led jets bombed pro-Assad forces advancing on Deir Ezzor: Report http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-jets-bomb-pro-government-fighters-syria-operation-1276052674 International law anyone? Its dead in the west. ..."
"... doesn't make sense ...FUKUS does war on Iran, Iran closes the Gulf ...oil goes to 200/ barrel ....US does a superb imitation of a Dead Fly. ..."
"... Looks to me like Trump is groveling before the Saudis for keeping the petrodollar. ..."
"... Putin who sees only the reality that the US remains both enviably rich and powerful cannot understand how unstable and dangerous it has become. ..."
Apr 30, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org
Netanyahoo To Again Cry Wolf - But Something Bigger Is Up (Updated)

Updated below
---

U.S. President Trump wants to end the nuclear agreement (pdf) with Iran and wants to eliminated Iranian forces in Syria which support the Syrian government. Something is being prepared to make that happen.

Last week General Joseph Votel, commander of CENTCOM - the U.S. military command for the Middle East, was in Israel. It was the first ever visit of a CENTCOM commander to Israel which usually works with the European command EUCOM.

Yesterday former CIA director and now Secretary of State Pompeo visited Israel. A few hours later Israel bombed two ammunition depots in Syria which are supposedly related to Iran. This was a clear attempt to provoke Iran into some reaction.

The Israeli defense minister Lieberman just visited Washington DC and only today came back to Israel.

Now the Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahoo loudly announced that he will hold a press conference to present a "huge amount of new and dramatic information on the Iranian nuclear program". He will allege that Iran cheats on the nuclear agreement (JCPOA).

Netanyahoo is a notorious liar and warmonger. In September 2002 he lied (vid) to the U.S. congress:

There is no question whatsoever that Saddam is seeking and is working and is advancing towards the development of nuclear weapons – no question whatsoever"

Only yesterday he promoted a false story that claimed Arabs in Israel had disrupted a minuted of silence for some people killed in a flash flood.

The IAEA says that Iran is in full compliance with the JCPOA. If there were any serious intelligence about any Iranian deviation from the nuclear agreement it would be presented to the IAEA and the six signature powers of the agreement. The IAEA would investigate and report back. If Iran cheated it would be put back under serious international sanctions. That Netanyahoo wants to present something publicly makes it very likely that he has nothing of relevance.

We hear that the documents he is said to present were compiled by one Christopher Steele and assembled with the help of one Sergej Skripal and his MI6 handler [redacted]. They will show that Iran attempts to buy yellowcake uranium from Niger .

This new comedy stunt by Netanyahoo is tightly coordinated with the Trump administration. Trump's national security advisor John Bolton has worked with the Zionists since early 2000 to push for a war on Iran:

During multiple trips to Israel, Bolton had unannounced meetings, including with the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, without the usual reporting cable to the secretary of state and other relevant offices. Judging from that report on an early Bolton visit, those meetings clearly dealt with a joint strategy on how to bring about political conditions for an eventual U.S. strike against Iran.

Behind Trump, Netanyahoo and Bolton is one financier, the militant Zionist and casino magnate Sheldon Adelson. He financed Trump's and Netanyahoo's election campaigns and the various think tanks that create anti-Iranian propaganda and paid Bolton.


bigger

Trump wants to leave the nuclear agreement but the other signers, China, Russia, the UK, France and Germany want to keep it up. Just leaving the JCPOA without cause will increase doubt over any agreement the U.S. wants to make on other issues. The allegations Netanyahoo will put forward, no matter how ridiculous they may be, could give Trump some excuse to put new sanctions on Iran without actually leaving the agreement.

But even that does not explain all the recent meetings and visits by the various Israeli and U.S. officials. French soldiers and mercenaries from the UAE have entered north-east-Syria. What for? The Saudis are on board with any operation against Iran.

Something big is up and we do not know yet what it might be.

---
Update

That was lame. Netanyahoo just finished his show (vid). He claimed that Israel got access to an Iranian archive of its former nuclear program dating from 1999 to 2003. In 2007 a U.S. National Intelligence Estimate found that Iran stopped all nuclear weapon research in 2003 after the U.S. had destroyed Iran's then arch-enemy Iraq. In 2011 the IAEA reported in detail of Iran's former "structured program". It agreed that it had stopped in 2003.

All that Netanyahoo now claims to have acquired is old and known stuff. He refers to an AMAD plan Iran had as if that was some new intelligence. But the IAEA documented AMAD and its development in 2011 (PDF, Annex, page 5). He uses the archive documents of known former programs to declare that Iran has cheated and is not trustworthy. He says that gives Trump reason to disavow the nuclear agreement the U.S. and others had signed with Iran. That is bullshit.

I had expected better from him. Some well forged documents or something more dramatic. This was just nonsense.

My feeling is that this was a diversion from an upcoming military(?) operation against Iran or its assets in Lebanon, Syria or Iraq.


Fantome , Apr 30, 2018 1:18:54 PM | 1

Absolutely correct b. Something's cooking and it won't take long for the world to find out what it was.

Also, when responding to the Iranian threats to re-start their nuclear program, Mr Trump appears to have an answer pretty resolute i.e "They won't be starting anything, you can bank on that"

One more thing I like to add. If Mr Trump withdraws US from the deal which is also endorsed by the UNSC, US will loose to IRAN in the war that follows-up.

BX , Apr 30, 2018 1:20:34 PM | 2
Well, what's up is war. Syria and Iran are still missing in the trophy collection.
spudski , Apr 30, 2018 1:25:09 PM | 3
Right now Netanyahu on CNN - Iran lied. Claims Israel has lots of stolen files.
Fantome , Apr 30, 2018 1:27:11 PM | 4
Already happening

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-30/watch-live-netanyahu-addresses-israel-dramatic-news-about-iran

Now, I'll make sure I link this MoA article everywhere in the comments.

john wilson , Apr 30, 2018 1:32:07 PM | 5
OH no! not the yellow cake saga again. Well, if they can get away with the Syrian chemical weapons attack that the white helmets can fix with a hose pipe, then anything goes. It looks as though the Skripal affair has lots more secrets to reveal. This story just keeps on giving and giving, although if you looked for it in MSM you wouldn't find anything on it. I don't understand why the missile defense system doesn't appear to activate for the Iranian contingent in Syria. Is it because this was a surprise attack and the Syrians?Russians were caught off guard, or are the Iranians left to fend for themselves as far as air bombardment is concerned? I get the feeling that the West is probing and poking the bear a bit at a time with a stick to get a reaction. They may well be sorry what they wish for.
fastfreddy , Apr 30, 2018 1:36:25 PM | 6
Doesn't look like fake anti-establishment, swamp-drainer, poseur Trump has given himself ANY leeway...

with which he might counter or to move away from the numerous neocon nut cases hell-bent for WW3 whom he has permanently invited to his war cabinet golden shower party.

Anonymous_1 , Apr 30, 2018 1:36:55 PM | 7
Netanyahu is probably the most dangerous leader in this world, the raw lying and propaganda, its heinous. Not to mention this sick lunatic in Israel have some 300 nukes already themselves, IN SECRET!

Now he have come up with fake documents, trying to justify a war!
Same jewish state that whine about antisemitism, this people are not sane...

Hopefully west dont accept this blatant sicko, because as usual, its not Israel that want to wage the war, no, the war must be fought by
goyim europeans and especially americans.

With ugly pack of morons as Trump, POmpeo, Bolton, it doesnt look good.

This war hysteria just come weeks after the illegal and dangerous bombing of Syria. Netanyahu clarly is a psychopath.

Jayhawk2018 , Apr 30, 2018 1:37:18 PM | 8
What is going on with those s300s? Russia needs to give Syria/Iran the means to defend themselves from these repeated acts of Israeli aggression. It should not be so easy for Israel to take out Iranian forces.
Christian Chuba , Apr 30, 2018 1:40:17 PM | 9
The only way to kick the legs out of Iran in a manner that Israel cares about which would also hurt Assad would be to destroy Hezbollah. The only chance of doing that would be to go full war crime mode and use the most vicious thermobaric or possibly tactical nuclear weapons.

If we did that or enabled the Israelis to do that then we will have reached total depravity. At this point I believe the U.S. public is okay with bombing anyone as long as U.S. lives are not lost. If the Israelis do it we cheer, if we do it then it shows the rest of the world who is boss.

LJ Smith , Apr 30, 2018 1:40:54 PM | 11
This can all be easily followed all the way back to before the Iranian nuclear deal and a policy paper out of Brookings on how to set up Iran for war. Basically, it states make a deal with Iran then prove that although the West did its best, Iran broke the deal in whatever manner. Appears they have all the actors lined up. Now it begins. The war of words then war. Like we haven't seen this before.
Anonymous_1 , Apr 30, 2018 1:48:43 PM | 12
I'd missed this: US-led jets bombed pro-Assad forces advancing on Deir Ezzor: Report http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/us-jets-bomb-pro-government-fighters-syria-operation-1276052674 International law anyone? Its dead in the west.
fastfreddy , Apr 30, 2018 1:48:46 PM | 13
Nuttyyahoo is dangerous BECAUSE he is thoroughly enabled by the FUKUS, but especially the US in EVERY way - politically, monetarily, morally, and and he is promoted on every television network and mainstream media outlet.

Trump has become increasingly dangerous because he has surrounded himself with Pompeo, Bolton, Nikki Haley, Nuttyyahoo...

ben , Apr 30, 2018 1:52:18 PM | 14
Holy jumping f***, the "yellow cake" BS again. You'd think these war mongering morons could be more inventive.
Jared , Apr 30, 2018 1:54:26 PM | 15
Where will it end? Russia allows it to continue. Then remains who? Pakistan? Are we profitting? US has become monster.
Peter AU 1 , Apr 30, 2018 2:03:51 PM | 16
"That was lame."

US/UK/Israel are not even trying for convincing narratives now. Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria. Maybe the zionists figure they have F35 bugs ironed out and its time to put it to work against Iran.

fastfreddy , Apr 30, 2018 2:03:57 PM | 17
Nikki Haley aka Nimrata Randhawa, is obviously a mental lightweight and a "yes man" for positive reinforcement & public relations/messaging purposes.

The others are genuinely depraved, lunatic warmongers whom maintain the ability to string together sentences.

Wonder where the Kagans are in all this. Cheering from the sidelines? Seems they'd be invited.

Tannenhouser , Apr 30, 2018 2:13:18 PM | 18
Didn't an American Green Beret from IIRC a nuke snoop/radiological team just die reecently in Niger?
Cyrus , Apr 30, 2018 2:20:01 PM | 20
Actually Iran has a long-time investment in uranium mines in Namibia, from the Shah's time, and Ahmadinejad even visited Niger in Apr 2013 while that country was looking to diversify its uranium sales away from the French Areva. There's nothing "secret" about any of this, uranium is a fuel for reactors.
Hoarsewhisperer , Apr 30, 2018 2:20:13 PM | 21
...
What I like about this story is that, even though smearing Iran doesn't make any sense, narratives that don't make sense are 'normal' for that bloodthirsty experiment in social engineering known as "Israel". One wonders whether, if the "Israelis" are serious about attacking Iran, then shouldn't they be encouraged to give it a try, just to see what happens?

If they're not worried about blowback from Iran and Hezbollah, why should anyone else lose any sleep over it?

When Medvedev was President of Russia he said in an interview (with Zacharia) on a US network that ab attack on Iran would create an "unimaginable refugee catastrophe". Ironically (or Russian-ly), he didn't say for whom it would be catastrophic...

Cyrus , Apr 30, 2018 2:25:01 PM | 22
Also, there was actually never any evidence of a nuclear weapons research program prior to 2003 either. The IAEA has specifically gone on record stating in 2009 that it has "no concrete proof that this is or has been a nuclear weapons program in Iran". Gareth Porter has written more about the 2003 allegations and Israel's later attempts to undermine the NIE by insisting that there was evidence of "continued" nuclear weapons work. The worst that the IAEA could ever say it actually found in Iran, were "fragmented and incomplete feasibility studies" that were "relevant to" nukes -- none of which is in any way a violation of the NPT which actually ENCOURAGES the sharing of technology "relevant to" nuclear weapons including data from nuclear test explosions.
karlof1 , Apr 30, 2018 2:26:38 PM | 23
Wow! The anti-corruption probe into Nuttyyahoo's activities must be coming close to arresting him; so, to avoid arrest, he must start an actual war of aggression. Only problem is the Zionists like their Outlaw allies are incapable of actually defeating anyone they might attack.

What the Zionists are scared to death of is becoming irrelevant; their Airstrip 1 existence no longer of any value to the Imperialist Empires that created the Zionist state for their own geopolitical machinations. Is there any real reason to militarily attack the Zionists beyond reclaiming Golan? If Lebanon becomes strong enough--I'd argue it's already--then a simple containment policy coupled with the international BDS movement will be more than enough to facilitate internal political change within the Apartheid State over time--containment will take several years to work as it did on South Africa. Zionist racism has destabilized itself. Talk about a state ripe for being Color Revolutionized. Those are the reasons for the easily seen and rebutted lies of a very desperate politico wanting very much to avoid prison for crimes he committed against his own nation, not the many War Crimes against others.

Breadonwaters , Apr 30, 2018 2:34:35 PM | 25
doesn't make sense ...FUKUS does war on Iran, Iran closes the Gulf ...oil goes to 200/ barrel ....US does a superb imitation of a Dead Fly.
Ort , Apr 30, 2018 2:36:07 PM | 26
B.: I had expected better from him. Some well forged documents or something more dramatic. This was just nonsense.
______________________________________________

This is another example of a trend I've been on about lately. You're quite right; the quality of the Western/ME hegemony's Big Lies is deteriorating markedly before our eyes. But only the minority who are willing and able to keep their eyes wide open seem to notice.

It's hard to tell if the proliferation of weak and incredible fabrications is based on the Big Liars' belief that the public is, or has become, so benighted and bamboozled that they'll swallow anything, or if it's an indication that they are running on empty. But, whether it's due to hubris or degenerate incompetence, it indeed looks as if they aren't even trying any more.

Then again, as you also point out, Bibi's anticlimactic histrionics are on a par with his comical September, 2012 performance at the UN, where he produced that cartoon drawing of a "bomb" in order to flog the typically mendacious and hysterical claim that the noble, harmless State of Israel was in imminent danger of destruction from the "Iranian bomb".

It's one thing when zealous Hasbarists, amateur or professional, troll/spam Internet comments boards with their rigidly fatuous, fantastic, Zionist Israel-serving talking points. One expects unsophisticated, fully-indoctrinated True Believers to spew rote talking points and dogma that insult the intelligence of anyone outside the Zionist Hive Mind.

But the fact that Israel's leaders and authorities shamelessly rely on such childish props to sell their genocidal policies and actions suggests both hubris and abiding contempt for the rest of the world.

It's hard to believe that Bibi and his allies and supporters don't know that they're insulting the rest of the world's intelligence. I think there's a word for this. Chutzpah, maybe?

anon , Apr 30, 2018 2:36:12 PM | 27
https://www.bitchute.com/video/IF7ZwfM4tQQK/

This is an absolutely stunning breaking interview of the Syrian independent member of parliament Fares Shehabi by the BBC hardtalk program. The MSM typically try to aggressively browbeat non-western interviewees that they disagree with. Unfortunately, most of the interviewees either get cowed or they get emotional and angry.

Fares Shehabi instead is factually and rationally aggressive, fact by fact, counter-argument by counter-argument, not allowing the BBC interviewer to shut him up. It is a model of how to deal with the MSM.

The MSM have already managed to get the interview wiped off youtube. but it is still available here

http://www.syrianews.cc/syrian-mp-fares-shehabi-pummels-bbc-colonialist-sackur/

download it and upload it and torrent it everywhere you can so that they cannot wipe it off the net.

crossposted

Don Bacon , Apr 30, 2018 2:48:38 PM | 29
@Peter AU 1 16
Sounds like F-35 was used to hit the ammo dumps in Syria
What's your reason for saying this. We established at the previous threat that GBU-39 glide bombs were used. They are a stand-off weapon and I believe that the F-35 is incapable of carrying them.
spudski , Apr 30, 2018 2:54:45 PM | 30
anon @ 27

The interview appears to be deleted from the second link also.

Anonymous_1 , Apr 30, 2018 2:55:47 PM | 31
spudski 30

No I just watched its there. Scoll down a bit.

spudski , Apr 30, 2018 2:58:00 PM | 32
Thanks very much, Anonymous @31.
Sid2 , Apr 30, 2018 2:59:38 PM | 33
"unhinged" = arrogance turns into stupidity? The latest in the continuing Net-job droning on and on "war with Iran" might not go as well as he expects, given resistance to withdrawal from the JCPOA. A more easily applied application of "arrogance turns into stupidity" is the White House Correspondents Dinner this weekend roasting Press Sec Sanders. James Woods' response did it nicely at "low class trash." More of this sort of thing will indeed be "a gift" to the Republicans in the upcoming elections.

http://theduran.com/james-woods-crushes-white-house-correspondents-dinner-comedian-michelle-wolf/

Fec , Apr 30, 2018 3:01:09 PM | 34
https://southfront.org/israeli-air-force-allegedly-used-gbu-39-small-diameter-bombs-in-last-night-strike-on-syria/

Indication of F-35I being used.

rs it seems is to skillfully debunk them, these are ironically two sides of the same coin of unsubstantiated hope of making any difference anymore.

Alaric , Apr 30, 2018 3:43:34 PM | 41

Israel will not risk Jews so they will stick to launching air strikes from Lebanon. All of the characters will be happy to use another mercenary army of goys to attack the Syrian gov and it's allies. Especially attractive might be to use these to buttress the SDF to hold onto eastern Syria or to attack Turk aligned forces.

Posted by: Alaric | Apr 30, 2018 3:43:34 PM | 41 /div

Likklemore , Apr 30, 2018 3:48:57 PM | 42
b,

unfortunately the majority only read headlines. In a world where evidence matters not, details of Bibi Nuttuyahoo's claim 1999-2003 is a side show. Bibi is setting the stage for his managing director, D. J. Trump, to "honourably" withdraw from the JCPOA on May 12 and to pressure the other signatories.

There are somethings larger - I do hope someone (Russia or China) will grant Iran their nuclear umbrella. And Kim, do make a note to self. The Anglo-Zionists are deep in pretexts to coverup:

  1. the black swan flying under heavy wings with $230 trillion global debt must be brought down. Not nearly enough in the ESF.
  2. Revelations on the recent 100 missiles hoax to retaliate for the 'chemical attack' that was not. Can't disappear Robert Fisk's expose - he is widely read..
  3. Christoper Steele's Case on the dock wherein he will be deposed. Oh wait, where is he in hiding with the Skripals?

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

@ 8, re Russia delivery of S-300s to Syria. Don't count on it as Israel's and Russia's militaries "have an arrangement to avoid aerial conflict over Syria." Last week Russia's Ambassador to Israel made that clear.

meme , Apr 30, 2018 3:49:50 PM | 43
Looks to me like Trump is groveling before the Saudis for keeping the petrodollar. Hence he is walking out of the Iran deal despite its geopolitical risk, and trying to show some fireworks in Syria. What's the half life of this show? More, or less than Trump's average ejaculation time?
Don Bacon , Apr 30, 2018 4:08:50 PM | 49
I've no doubt that for a lot of people the question of F-35 usage anywhere near a combat zone is a so-what issue, but for those of us who have struggled for years to bring some truth about this fault-filled much-delayed program through the fog of corruption, it's important to maintain that the current fleet of expensive pre-production F-35 prototypes is truly worthless.
Anonymous_1 , Apr 30, 2018 4:09:58 PM | 50
Likklemore
@ 8, re Russia delivery of S-300s to Syria. Don't count on it as Israel's and Russia's militaries "have an arrangement to avoid aerial conflict over Syria." Last week Russia's Ambassador to Israel made that clear.

Uh, that is the reason Russia should use S300. Then, there wouldnt be any "aerial conflict" over Syrian sovereign airspace to begin with.

Don Bacon , Apr 30, 2018 4:13:42 PM | 51
@ frances 48
US&Co . . will hit Iran before the football playoffs
And how might they "hit Iran?" Do you mean hit the country itself with a military attack?
Don Bacon , Apr 30, 2018 4:15:24 PM | 52
Israel has said that it will take out any S-300 in Syria, and that would include any nearby Russians.
Fec , Apr 30, 2018 4:20:22 PM | 54
@ 52 Don Bacon

Apparently, Pantsirs have to be in place to protect the S-300s.

https://ejmagnier.com/2018/04/29/syria-russia-is-teaching-israel-the-naughty-boy-a-lesson-and-iran-is-watching/

imoverit , Apr 30, 2018 4:20:46 PM | 55
@ frances

I think the World Cup is playing a big role in the decision making as you have said. There is a lot at stake: investments already made and international exposure also. I can't wait for it to be finished so we can get back to war !! (sarc)

Anonymous_1 , Apr 30, 2018 4:32:44 PM | 56
Israel could start its assassination program, carry out sabotage, airstrikes, there is no limit to the sick regime and the sick western media acceptance of the same unhinged behavior by Israel.
charles drake , Apr 30, 2018 4:38:45 PM | 58
the hero of hebrew history above is a great man did obaama not give him 30 billion in war arms.
did germany not give him 5 free dolphin class submarines for samson option.
does german public funds pay compensation cover amounting to a trillion euros by the year 2070.
the man is a god he can drop and fire depleted uraniun ,drop dialed down nuke bombs kill president,primeminister sell usa top secret files to china and russia via operation talpiot can he not listen and blackmail the world.
who else can kill gaza semites by the 10s of thousands and then call critic anti-semite
this man benji is a king maker bow down for you are not fit to lick his precious fingers
Curtis , Apr 30, 2018 4:44:15 PM | 60
Does NuttyYahoo's document collection include the plans for nuclear triggers that the CIA gave to them via Operation Merlin?
karlof1 , Apr 30, 2018 4:45:37 PM | 61
Et al--

Russia began its Syria intervention with an S-400 deployed in Latakia and has introduced several more since, one being in Sept 2017 . Syria also has the BUK-M2E AA system and the Pantsir to go with its older and upgraded S-200 systems along with who knows what else. Just what was off loaded from Russian supply vessels under the cover of smoke last week (don't know if such veiling's continuing)? My guess is more AA systems of the type causing Zionists on both sides of Atlantic to freakout.

As for the Zionists attacking Iranian military bases, those Iran uses in Syria are joint-use with Syria regardless of what's said by Zionists; so, any such attack will need to be aimed at Iran proper. The consequences for the region would be horrible--particularly for Zionists and Saudis: Dimona would be leveled as would Saudi oil infrastructure. The fallout and other pollution would be appalling. If the Zionists want to keep their skin, they'll arrest Nutty before he gets his get-out-of-jail war started.

Zionists know they've lost and are contained and constrained, so they're moving into desperation mode. Too bad they lack the courage to put a pistol to their head and pull the trigger.

Laguerre , Apr 30, 2018 4:47:05 PM | 63
I have trouble in believing that Trump will really attack Iran, just because of some new fake evidence from Netanyahu. N's been trying this forever. The basic point is that Trump's electorate don't want real war, with American deaths. So far, it's been like that, 102 missiles following 59 Tomahawks, and no effect.
Anonymous_1 , Apr 30, 2018 4:58:29 PM | 64
Laguerre

Trump is dumb enough, Pompeo, Bolton, Trump, I mean you cant get worse, these are the most sick hawks and Trump have already showed that he could attack states illegally Syria, with no proof whatsoever. Stop hoping on Trump.

somebody , Apr 30, 2018 5:00:07 PM | 65
Posted by: TG | Apr 30, 2018 3:11:12 PM | 35

Israel is in a position to attack, but not to defend. Israel's problem is not Iran but the Palestinians. John Helmer seems to think that Russia has decided on electronic warfare , that would be reason for panic as Israel's (and US) stuff is completely dependent on electronics.

Robert D , Apr 30, 2018 5:12:43 PM | 68
Its absolutely disgusting to see comments on social media majorities uncritically belive Netanyahu.
Laguerre , Apr 30, 2018 5:16:15 PM | 69
"Trump is dumb enough," yes but not to the degree where he has to justify American dead.

lysias , Apr 30, 2018 5:43:03 PM | 73

There were a number of reasons for the Balfour Declaration, but one of the major ones was defense of the Suez Canal, vital for communications to India. The Turks had already attacked the canal twice by 1917. The Brits wanted a local group on the spot that would help to defend the canal. A Jewish settlement filled the bill.

Posted by: lysias | Apr 30, 2018 5:43:03 PM | 73 /div

lysias , Apr 30, 2018 5:47:03 PM | 74
And in 1956 they did precisely that. But by that time the British Empire was too far gone to be able to make proper use of that support.
Bakerpete , Apr 30, 2018 5:48:45 PM | 75
@Cyrus | Apr 30, 2018 2:20:01 PM | 20
As background knowledge that most overlook, Iran is one of the top sources for uranium ore, unfortunately it is contaminated with molybdenum making it almost useless for high grading. That is a primary reason for their investment in uranium in Africa.
Perimtr , Apr 30, 2018 5:53:21 PM | 77
Russia's non-intervention in the attack last night will only encourage further attacks.
bevin , Apr 30, 2018 7:13:34 PM | 86
There is nothing new about Netanyahu's nonsense-as everyone seems to realise: the only justification for his party and his particular brand of fascism is the belief that there can be no peace for Jewish people generally, and Israelis in particular until all potential opponents have been wiped out or terrorised into slavery. And he has managed to convince most Israelis of this-something which means that in moral and political, and probably clinical terms too, they are insane- beyond the reach of reason.

What is new and makes the situation very dangerous is that the US is going along with this for the ride. It has run out of ideas on how to deal with the gathering storm of consequences from eighty years of arrogance and careless neglect of the inevitable fall out from its self indulgent policies. And Trump, under constant pressure from the idiots running the Deep State, has no conception of the implications of the little games that he is playing and encouraging others (see Netanyahu above) to play. In his mind he is starring in an extempore version of the Godfather.

Way down at the bottom of things worth mentioning is the fact that the UK government is in an even bigger crisis. It is clearly doomed unless the world ends first, which is something it is happy to consider. May and her allies (who include the Blairite Labour party and almost all the political class including the SNP and the Liberals) will (as the recent attacks in Syria showed) go along with Trump whatever happens, which means that the other 'eyes' the White Commonwealth of Canada, Australia etc will do the same.

This is the problem with empires in decline, they become suicidal. And having reconciled themselves with death they lose any inhibitions.
Poor old Putin just doesn't understand that: for years it has been clearer and clearer that Russia and China were rational, legalistic and diplomatic while the 'west' reverted to its barbaric ways, defying rules, breaking treaties, laughing at international law, drunken berserkers running amok employing the weapons that they have been accumulating for decades because fearing that the end is near they fear nothing else. The future holds no hope for them.

Putin who sees only the reality that the US remains both enviably rich and powerful cannot understand how unstable and dangerous it has become.

As to China, nothing surprises its leadership any more which is why it spends all day lifting weights and eating high protein foods, ready to defend itself and studiously avoiding involvement.

timbers , Apr 30, 2018 7:33:08 PM | 87
I'm still in shook Putin didn't place 300s in Syria long, long ago. He really can be behind the curve at times. How could have thought the Empire would not grow more brazen in aggression?
JohninMK , Apr 30, 2018 7:38:16 PM | 88
Here is a well thought out thread that analyses Bibi's claims. Including that Israel probably hacked into the IAEA systems to get some of the data, in particular a photo of the 'new' storage site.

https://twitter.com/yarbatman/status/991064102314369025

fairleft , Apr 30, 2018 8:05:02 PM | 89
Excellent bevin @86.

Here is former Sweden foreign minister Carl Bildt, in a tweet immediately after Netanyahu's remarks: "Nothing really new in @netanyahu Iran speech. Confirms that Iran closed down nuclear weapons program in 2003. Continued technology efforts. In principle all of this well known. No allegation that Iran cheats on 2015 nuclear deal."

Don Bacon , Apr 30, 2018 8:30:39 PM | 93
@bevin 86

the US is going along with this for the ride

No, for the money. The simple fact is that AIPAC and Israel have an iron grip on each and every member of the US Congress. It's been established that Israel rules, and Congressmembers get "contributions" and trips to Israel and other perks. On the other hand, if any Congress member who gives a slight little anti-Israel (i.e. anti-Semitic) peep will become an ex-Congressmember. It's happened, with highly-financed opposition to a deviant's transgression at the next biannual election. One example is Cynthia McKinney (links broken.

Yeah, Right , Apr 30, 2018 8:33:06 PM | 94
@52 I don't understand that argument, Don. The Russians can unload any S-300 delivery at Tartus. There is zero chance that the Israelis will bomb them while they remain inside a Russian military base.

And those missiles can stay there while the Russians train up the Syrians in their use. Again, attacking while they remain inside Tartus is a no-go. And the S-300's are road-mobile. They can be driven out of Tartus to their eventual operational deployment, which means that they leave the protection of Tartus only when they are capable of defending themselves.

Or, in short: Israeli plans are predicated on taking out those missiles before they can be made operational. But they can be made operational while they are still inside a Russian military base protected by S-400 defences, and by the time they leave that protection the Syrians are already able to shoot down any attackers.

AriusArmenian , Apr 30, 2018 8:59:52 PM | 100
It is hard to lose money on a bet that the US and its Anglosphere and EU vassals will double down on stupid. The US heaps one disaster on top of another, it causes the suffering and death of millions, and Americans don't shed a tear.

[Apr 30, 2018] Tracing the Rush to War by Craig Murray

Notable quotes:
"... Today, Theresa May is claiming -astonishingly – that the UK attack on Syria is "to deter chemical weapons attacks in Syria and the UK". I don't think the motive for a Skripal false flag could be more starkly demonstrated. ..."
"... It is also worth noting that the most ardent supporters of this military action, outside Saudi Arabia and Israel, are the Blairites in the UK and the Clinton Democrats in the USA. The self-described "centrists" are actually the unhinged extremists in today's politics. ..."
"... This attack on Syria is, beyond doubt, a huge success for the machinations of Mohammed Bin Salman. Please do read my post of 8 March which sets out the background to his agenda, and I believe is essential to why we find our nations in military action again today. Despite the fact the vast majority of the people do not want this ..."
Apr 30, 2018 | www.unz.com

April 14th • Just Who's Pulling the Strings?

March 4 2018 Sergei and Yulia Skripal are attacked with a nerve agent in Salisbury

March 6 2018 Boris Johnson blames Russia and calls Russia "a malign force"

March 7 2018 Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia arrives in London for an official visit

March 13 2018 Valeri Gerasimov, Russian Chief of General Staff, states that Russia has intelligence a fake chemical attack is planned against civilians in Syria as a pretext for US bombing of Damascus, and that Russia will respond militarily.

March 19 2018 Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia arrives in Washington for an official visit

April 8 2018 Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman of Saudi Arabia arrives in Paris for an official visit

April 8 2018 Saudi funded jihadist groups Jaysh al Islam and Tahrir al-Sham and UK funded jihadist "rescue group" The White Helmets claim a chemical weapons attack occurred in their enclave of Douma the previous day – just before its agreed handover to the Syrian army – and blame the Syrian government.

April 11 2018 Saudi Arabia pledges support for attack on Syria

April 14 2018 US/UK/French attack on Syria begins.

I have always denied the UK's claim that only Russia had a motive to attack the Skripals. To denigrate Russia internationally by a false flag attack pinning the blame on Russia, always seemed to me more likely than for the Russians to do that to themselves. And from the start I pointed to the conflict in Syria as a likely motive. That puts Saudi Arabia (and its client jihadists), Saudi Arabia's close ally Israel, the UK and the USA all in the frame in having a powerful motive in inculcating anti-Russian sentiment prior to planned conflict with Russia in Syria. Any of them could have attacked the Skripals.

Today, Theresa May is claiming -astonishingly – that the UK attack on Syria is "to deter chemical weapons attacks in Syria and the UK". I don't think the motive for a Skripal false flag could be more starkly demonstrated.

We do not yet know how many children and other civilians have died so far in what the media always pretend are magically "pinpoint" attacks on Syria. Denying the "collateral damage" is part of the neo-con playbook. The danger is that they will not stop but continue to push, testing how far they can go in weakening Syrian government forces to promote their jihadist allies on the ground, before they spark a real Russian reaction. That way madness lies.

It is also worth noting that the most ardent supporters of this military action, outside Saudi Arabia and Israel, are the Blairites in the UK and the Clinton Democrats in the USA. The self-described "centrists" are actually the unhinged extremists in today's politics.

This attack on Syria is, beyond doubt, a huge success for the machinations of Mohammed Bin Salman. Please do read my post of 8 March which sets out the background to his agenda, and I believe is essential to why we find our nations in military action again today. Despite the fact the vast majority of the people do not want this

[Apr 29, 2018] The Guardian has become tabloid.

Apr 29, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: Quentin | Apr 22, 2018 12:29:41 PM | 7

The Carla Ortiz and Jimmy Dore exchange is fascinating. Each in her/his own way is superb. The Guardian has become boulevard press = tabloid. Nearly every day before and even after the US election Mrs. Clinton gloated on the front page. Bernie Sanders was no where to be seen nearly until the election. Now the Guardian is priming its readers for the stomach-churning royal wedding coming up. No, no more Guardian for me. And they have the gall to ask for money to turn out articles praising the White Helemts. No! Curtis , Apr 22, 2018 12:32:23 PM | 8

Anonymous 4
BBC took on Vannessa Beeley recently, too. Will NYT and WaPo be next? The anti-Russia agenda continues along with the anti-truth-in-Syria agenda.

AriusAmerican 5
During the Bush II fiasco, there were anti-war protests. The protests disappeared after Obama took office. And he was given a Nobel Peace Prize for talking about peace. But everyone went along with Obama's wars. No protests. And that's how they like it. They want support and tend to get it from the MSM and party lackeys. And if they don't get support, the one thing they don't want are massive protests, calls to congress, etc. As long as there's little to no resistance their war agenda continues.

Curtis , Apr 22, 2018 12:49:24 PM | 9
PS
The HuffPoUK article tears into Beeley but at the bottom has a Russian submission to the Security Council of a report she did of the White Helmets. That report negates the article/story! HuffPoUK claims this is part two of a series and that part three will "look at evidence presented against the White Helmets." That should be interesting.

Anonymous2 | Apr 22, 2018 1:50:23 PM | 12

Curtis

"The anti-Russia agenda continues along with the anti-truth-in-Syria agenda."

I dont get it why these journalists are against finding out what happend (since we dont know that yet)? Most of these morons have no idea about the conflict at all, and all of a sudden start writing like they are veteran journalists and have profound knowledge about Syria.

Why is there such a hatred? Is it brainwashing?


[Apr 29, 2018] Macron and Syria

Support of Trump strikes after false flag in Douma characterizes him as neocon and imperialist.
Notable quotes:
"... I know nothing of France, but that Macron fellow seems to be a pure-blooded little weasel. ..."
"... His Rothschild past is well-know, his weasel-like behavior with Trump and Mayhem is typical, he cleverly outmaneuvered the electorate to put his "new party" in power, full of unknowns, after manipulating the weak "socialist" Hollande in the previous government. ..."
"... His domestic policy is to privatise everything, remove the rights workers have gained over the last 70 years, get rid of 120000 jobs (as if others have not tried this for 200 years in France, and it has not helped!) and to do it quickly before people can follow each step. ..."
Apr 29, 2018 | consortiumnews.com
Zachary Smith April 21, 2018 at 12:53 pm

Bashar was compelled to return to Syria and become the nominal political leader after the death of his very tough, ruthless father, Hafez al-Assad.

The other day I saw a passing reference to something I'd never before known – that Richard Nixon paid a state visit to Damascus to see that ruthless father. I was gratified the author mentioned the Bushie use of Syria as a place to torture people. Both the Nixon visit and the routine torture transactions with Syria show that "we" were ok with Syrian dictators – just as we were with all those other dictators coddled by the US.

But when Holy Israel finally gets around to setting up Land Grab #3, suddenly Assad is an obstacle.

France To Revoke Major Award From Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad
Briana Koeneman , Katherine Biek Apr 17, 2018

The Legion of Honor is France's highest award. It's presented to citizens who have "demonstrated outstanding merits in the service of the nation, in a military or a civilian capacity."
.
.
.

The move comes just days after France, Britain and the U.S. launched military strikes on targets in Syria in response to the reported chemical attack. Syria has denied any involvement in the alleged attack.

Genuine Hero Assad suddenly become dirtbag Assad. Except for his success in defeating the latest NATO aggression, what had changed? I know nothing of France, but that Macron fellow seems to be a pure-blooded little weasel.

Reply

rosemerry , April 21, 2018 at 4:41 pm

Micron(sic) has nothing to recommend him but deviousness. His Rothschild past is well-know, his weasel-like behavior with Trump and Mayhem is typical, he cleverly outmaneuvered the electorate to put his "new party" in power, full of unknowns, after manipulating the weak "socialist" Hollande in the previous government.

His domestic policy is to privatise everything, remove the rights workers have gained over the last 70 years, get rid of 120000 jobs (as if others have not tried this for 200 years in France, and it has not helped!) and to do it quickly before people can follow each step.

If the workers do not work together, not only the railways, but the rest of public services, will go and we'll be as bad as the USA, which Micron (sic) obviously admires.

We did not know of his likely international delusions of grandeur, but nothing would surprise me now.

backwardsevolution , April 21, 2018 at 9:18 pm

rosemerry – good post. I read where Macron's election team was composed of some of the same Americans that got Obama elected. They just hopped on a plane and repeated the process in France.

[Apr 29, 2018] Oil, Izreal, Syria, and Kirkuk to Haifa pipeline

Apr 29, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

mauisurfer , Apr 28, 2018 3:28:49 PM | 8

I was unable to post this earlier, your site would not accept it somehow, so trying again now:

> The oil agenda I discovered and experienced was to supply Iraq oil to Israel. The players were the neoconservatives in the Bush Administration, their favorite Iraqi -- Dr Ahmed Chalabi and the Israeli government. One of the motives was because Israel was paying a huge premium for its oil imports and this premium had just started in the late1990s. The agenda called for the reopening of the old Kirkuk to Haifa pipeline and its significant expansion. When this pipeline plan became unattainable in the 2nd half of 2003 then Chalabi took other actions to get inexpensive Iraqi oil to Israel.

> A much more credible explanation for intentionally destroying the Syrian export pipeline than what Secretary Rumsfeld told the NY Times was found in the British press. The Guardian, a London newspaper, quoted a retired CIA agent just after the Syria pipeline attack. "It has long been a dream of a powerful section of the people now driving the Bush administration and the war in Iraq to safeguard Israel's energy supply.

Rebuilding the old Kirkuk to Haifa pipeline would transform economic power in the region, cutting out Syria and solving Israel's energy crisis at a stroke."

please read full details...

so only now does anyone realize the motive was to give iraq oil to israel again we see israel/aipac/zionists rule usa govt, making war against iraq/libya/syria for benefit of israel

https://www.juancole.com/2018/04/iraqi-israel-years.html

Bakerpete , Apr 29, 2018 10:27:09 AM | 78
Not related to this topic but still very interesting in that it is east of the Euphrates.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804291064011445-syria-army-sdf-us-backed-forces-euphrates/

[Apr 29, 2018] Western Media Complicit in War Crimes

Apr 29, 2018 | www.strategic-culture.org

This week saw an horrendous massacre of up to 50 women and children at a wedding party in Yemen, carried out by the US, British and French-backed Saudi air force.

Two wedding halls in Hajjah Province were obliterated in the air strikes. Body parts were strewn among the debris in a hellish scene.

Among the carnage, a little boy was found by civilian rescuers clinging desperately to the body of his dead father. He refused to let go of his father's bloodied corpse, clinging to the hope that his parent was still alive.

There was hardly any coverage of the slaughter in Western news media.

Yet the incident was nothing other than a massacre of civilians by Saudi warplanes, armed and fueled by the US, Britain and France. A war crime.

Abominably, the Hajjah bombing was just one of many such war crimes committed by the Western-backed Saudi regime on Yemen over the past three years.

Contrast that Western media indifference to Yemen's suffering with the saturated coverage given to an unverifiable, and as it turns out, fabricated incident in Syria over an alleged chemical-weapons attack in Douma on April 7.

Videos of dubious provenance were played over and over on Western media purporting to show children suffering from chemical exposure in Syria. Strangely, the pitiful scene of the Yemeni wedding hall massacre and the little boy among the carnage gained negligible Western media coverage.

A week after the Douma incident, on April 14, after much hysterical condemnation of the Syrian government and its Russia ally, US President Donald Trump and his British and French counterparts ordered a barrage of missile strikes on Syria in what was supposed to be revenge for the alleged atrocity in Douma.

Trump, Theresa May and Emmanuel Macron made anguished statements about "human suffering" in Syria. On Yemen, they say nothing.

This week, Russian authorities facilitated testimonies by families from Douma at the Hague headquarters of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons. British and American officials decried it as Russian "theatrics" without even bothering to listen to the testimonies.

Children who had previously appeared in dubious videos released by the militants in Douma, testified that they were orchestrated unwittingly for a propaganda video on April 7 purporting to show chemical weapons had been used. It turns out that no chemical weapons were used. Medics in Douma confirmed that too.

The Douma incident was undoubtedly a false flag. There was no chemical-weapons attack. It was a brazen fiction amplified by Western media.

Shamefully, Western media this week have blatantly dropped the Douma "story" probably in light of the evidence emerging about the false flag.

But based on that stunt, the US, France and Britain launched over 100 missiles on Syria. The US-led air strikes were based on a lie. The strikes were therefore a grave violation of international law. A war crime.

The Western media in their reckless, hysterical coverage of the Douma incident alleging a chemical-weapon attack thus stand accused of complicity in the subsequent criminal US-led air strikes.

But where is the Western media coverage and outcry over a real atrocity which happened this week in Yemen? Like many other real atrocities that have occurred in Yemen from Western-backed Saudi air strikes, the Western media act as conduits for covering up the crimes by omitting to report on the horror.

Another distorted priority in Western media was the massive coverage given to an incident this week in Toronto where some deranged individual killed 10 pedestrians with a van. A terrible crime in Toronto no doubt. But nothing on the scale of dozens of women and children being butchered in Yemen by US, British and French-backed Saudi warplanes.

The near-complete absence of reporting on the barbarity inflicted in Yemen with the support of Western governments is an example of how Western media operate like propaganda services.

No wonder that Western governments get away with such crimes in Yemen and elsewhere when the news media in those countries are shamefully derelict in reporting on the crimes of Western governments, and holding the latter to account.

To accuse Western media of being derelict is perhaps too generous a criticism. They are in fact complicit in war crimes by their deliberate distortion and omission.

Their complicity is compounded by their arrogance in proclaiming to be "independent, professional journalism". It is sickening when Western media outlets continually boast about their "excellence in journalism". Celebrity self-inflated journalists like Christiane Amanpour at CNN or Stephen Sackur at the BBC talk about "digging for truth and understanding" and "hard talking".

Why isn't Amanpour digging for "truth and understanding" in the blood-soaked rubble of Yemen; why isn't Sackur hard-talking to Western foreign ministers about their crimes in Yemen and Syria, like he rudely tried to do recently with Russia's Sergei Lavrov? They don't because they are vastly overpaid propaganda artists in the service of imperial power.

These people, like the news organizations they work for, are vile charlatans. The Western media are propaganda cleaners for their criminal governments. This week's distortion about a false flag in Syria and the horror in Yemen is the proof.

Tags: Syria Yemen Propaganda

[Apr 29, 2018] The conflict in Syria has never been a "civil war", and the anti-government forces are almost entirely Israel-Saudi-U.S. Axis-supported terrorist mercenaries, not "rebels".

Notable quotes:
"... I'll also post another great article (up above) on "color revolutions" and "hybrid wars". It might surprise you at how easy it is for outside parties, who want to overthrow a government, go about doing it nowadays. They can't just walk in. They need a reason. The color revolutions and these new hybrid-type wars do the trick. Please read it. ..."
Apr 28, 2018 | consortiumnews.com
Bashar al-Assad was a mild-mannered ophthalmologist living in London with his British-born wife. When his rash elder brother Basil was killed in a car crash, Bashar was compelled to return to Syria and become the nominal political leader after the death of his very tough, ruthless father, Hafez al-Assad. Bashar's main role was mediating between powerful factions in Damascus and trying to modernize his nation (while managing the police state inherited from his father).

In 2011, the U.S., Britain, Israel and Saudi Arabia ignited an uprising in Syria using often fanatical jihadists. The shy, retiring Bashar was forced to become war leader in a ruthless civil conflict as his nation disintegrated.

President Trump, whose B-52 bombers are ravaging Afghanistan, Somalia and Yemen calls Assad a 'monster.' Some of his relatives are indeed ruthless. But very many Syrians think of Assad as their nation's only hope of returning to normalcy.


Abe , April 21, 2018 at 5:51 pm

The conflict in Syria has never been a "civil war", and the anti-government forces are almost entirely Israel-Saudi-U.S. Axis-supported terrorist mercenaries, not "rebels".

Terrorist groups were set loose on Syria in early 2011, when the U.S. and its "allies" launched a "dirty war" dressed up by the media as a popular "revolution".

Armed terrorists infiltrated Syria and staged attacks against Syrian civilians and security forces during March 17-18, 2011 demonstrations in Daraa, a city in southwestern Syria, just north of the border with Israel's "good neighbor" Jordan.

In Daraa in 2011, as in Ukrainian capitol Kiev in February 2014, roof top snipers targeted both police and demonstrators.

The U.S. continues to train terrorist fighters at a base in the Jordanian town of Safawi, close to Daraa. CIA-trained terrorists cross into Syria from Jordan along the 320-kilometer (198-mile) shared border. Most fight with Al-Qaeda affiliates while the rest join the ranks of the ISIS/ISIL/Daesh.

The so-called "humanitarian mandate" paraded by the US and its "allies" is sustained by false flag attacks: killing civilians in a "regime change" campaign to break the legitimacy of governments in the Middle East that refuse to abide by the diktats of Washington and its "allies".

backwardsevolution , April 21, 2018 at 5:29 pm

This is a great article on "color revolutions" and "hybrid wars". The author says:

"Here's how it works. Pre-planned destabilizing forces, a combination of foreign citizens and domestic so-called 'opposition', even if they are not officially affiliated with a political party, either hijack legitimate protests or engineer their own conditions for one, and then provoke the government into responding with force. The goal is to delegitimize the state domestically and internationally, and weaken it to the point where an urban guerrilla offensive eventually topples it.

Even if it fails to overthrow the authorities, the resultant destabilization spreads throughout the region and creates a favorable strategic environment for US foreign policy, such as a pretext for regional military deployment. There are also scenarios where it can be used to create a secessionist movement within the targeted state, in which case it markets itself to certain ethnic, religious, or regional groups in order to gain supposed 'legitimacy'. [ ]

The idea to keep in mind is that Color Revolutions aren't spontaneous, but are engineered destabilization movements with concrete geopolitical goals. [ ]

Also remember that there is a distinction between legitimate protests and Color Revolutions, but the US is dangerously blurring the line between the two in order to hide its strategic intent and gain a certain plausible deniability over its involvement. When foreign NGOs and internationally affiliated opposition members are involved, that's usually a red flag, as well as statements in support of the movement from the US State Department or local American embassy.

If a protest seems to support American strategic interests, more often than not, it actually does, and the US has some kind of direct or indirect role in bringing it about, even if 9 out of 10 of the participants don't realize this. Always be alert, and if you keep in mind that the US has weaponized Color Revolutions and engineers them for geopolitical purposes, then you'll be more fully prepared to counter this new type of weapon."

Hybrid wars -- you take a peaceful protest (maybe citizens complaining about prices being too high), you put your stooges into the crowd and on a few rooftops with sniper rifles. Shots are fired into the crowd, maybe a few innocent people are shot and killed. The citizens look around and see the government soldiers standing on the periphery. Thinking they had taken the shots, they start to maybe throw some rocks or bricks at the soldiers. The soldiers and government are paralyzed. Do they shoot at the protesters, at their own citizens? Maybe one soldier, fearing for his life, does shoot a citizen, and then the fun begins.

The goal is to create chaos, have the citizens think their own government initially fired into the crowd and killed some innocent people. This gives the Western government, who wanted to overthrow the country's leader anyway, an excuse to go in. Of course, the NGO's have already been in the country engineering this whole event.

https://thesaker.is/the-geography-of-color-revolutionary-threats-to-the-brics-countries/

This isn't the exact article I read before (it was longer), but it will do.

Dave P. , April 21, 2018 at 7:55 pm

Backwardsevolution -- It seems like they are starting something -- may be another color revolution -- in Hungary right now, with all these protests. Orban's party just won the parliamentary election resoundingly with 67% of the vote. And EU started threatening Hungary with some sort of sanctions a few days ago. And now for the last two or three days we are seeing these protests.

We have to remember that only in big cities like Budapest or Moscow in those countries, all sort of West's NGO's, including Soros's have bought some followers, along with the West,s intelligence agencies, to start these demonstrations in the beginning stage. I think they are kind of sending the signal to the Austrian Government too to line up behind EU, US or else. I don't think the West will let Orban govern Hungary unless he follows their line.

Jim DiEugenio April 21, 2018 at 5:00 pm

Looks to me like the Arab Spring was incubated by some of our NGO's

https://www.nytimes.com/2011/04/15/world/15aid.html

And this is limited hangout NY Times.

Jessika, April 21, 2018 at 2:52 pm

Thomas Gilroy's comment overlooks the brief mention by Mr Margolis of the role of Western interventionism and particularly the CIA in the "Arab Spring" movements of Syria and the Middle East. There are numerous articles on the Internet about this for anyone who doesn't care to regurgitate the US Establishment narrative but wants to dig deeper. Ahmed Bensaada has written a book, "Arab Spring: Made in the USA". We don't live in Syria, therefore we have to rely on media sources for information. The Establishment has even cooked up a term for questioning their dominant story, "Alt". 21st Century Wire journalists Vanessa Beeley and Eva Bartlett have first-hand knowledge of several years in Syria of what has been called a "Civil War" but is a proxy war for Israel and for multinational corporations' profits.

Delia Ruhe, April 21, 2018 at 2:16 pm

Good to hear from Eric Margolis again after having lost touch with his work a few years ago. I'm now reminded of how much I've missed his voice. He's one of those (to me, a lefty) rare conservatives who believes that people should not be propagandized by their government and its MSM stenographers, and that evidence, facts, and truth are the essence of journalism. He also doesn't get hysterical about liberalism – or what passes for it in the US.

In the rest of the West, "liberal" means something quite different than what it does in the US, where Democrats become "left" when Republicans do a lurch farther "right." So it's always amusing to hear American conservatives attack liberals as "godless" socialists and communists and enemies of the sacred free market instead of the lynch-pin that keeps the political spectrum fastened to the centre of the liberal democratic system, orbited by several varieties of leftism and several varieties of rightism. In reality, there hasn't been a "left" in American politics since Eugene Debs. Even FDR wasn't a lefty; he was a welfare capitalist who practiced the right relation of public and private spheres -- which is far more than you can say about those lunatics who follow Grover Norquist and have devoted their careers to dragging a moribund government into the bathroom and drowning it in the bathtub.

Smart conservatives avoid all this misapprehension and the hysterics that go with it. Margolis is one of these – and we need more like him.

backwardsevolution, April 21, 2018 at 4:59 pm

Thomas – ever since reading your post, I've been searching for a very interesting article you might want to read (I'll keep searching for it). This article states that the war in Syria DID NOT start because of the three boys writing graffiti on a wall, but started in a smallish town in Syria before that event even happened. The reporter had gone to talk to the religious leader who oversaw the town. This religious leader said that the day before the uprising, some outsiders had come into the town, and that it was these outsiders who were instrumental in firing shots from rooftops (just like in Ukraine) in order to start a riot. It was a great article. I'll try to find it.

I'll also post another great article (up above) on "color revolutions" and "hybrid wars". It might surprise you at how easy it is for outside parties, who want to overthrow a government, go about doing it nowadays. They can't just walk in. They need a reason. The color revolutions and these new hybrid-type wars do the trick. Please read it.

Marko, April 21, 2018 at 9:09 pm

I suspect this article by Steven Sahiounie is the one you're referring to :

The day before Deraa: How the war broke out in Syria

http://hahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/syria-crisis/1135-day-before-deraa.html

backwardsevolution, April 21, 2018 at 9:41 pm

Marko – that's the article! I couldn't get to it with your link, but you gave me the name of the article, and so I found it. As soon as I saw the picture, I knew that that was the article. It's been awhile since I read it, so I hope I didn't do it too much injustice.
Here's the link that works for me:

https://ahtribune.com/world/north-africa-south-west-asia/syria-crisis/1135-day-before-deraa.html

Thanks again, Marko.

Marko, April 21, 2018 at 8:54 pm

The Revolutionary Distemper in Syria That Wasn't – Stephen Gowans

http://gowans.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/the-revolutionary-distemper-in-syria-that-wasnt/

Syria: NOT A Revolution! – Syriana Analysis

http://youtube.com/watch?v=8prwbWLa7f0

Jessika, April 21, 2018 at 1:45 pm

Great article, was on Lew Rockwell's site this morning. Doesn't really talk about Assad's control after his autocrat father, which seems a change from the hardline elder, but like the "autocrat" demonization of Putin uses the past to shape present public perception. I read that after Macron got France to take part in the F.UK.US strike, Assad voluntarily relinquished the French Legion of Honor award bestowed to Syria by DeGaulle, rather than Syria being ordered to give it back.

It does appear that Britain's participation via Mrs. Mayhem (thanks to another CN commenter, sorry i can't name but great.sobriquet!) harkens back to the colonial Great Powers conflicts of WWI and defeat of the Ottoman Empire, and as we know Britain had a large hand in creation of the state of Israel.

mike k, April 21, 2018 at 1:41 pm

Anyone in the way of US oil grabs is demonized. The American public just eats it up; it gives them a guilt free ticket to vent their taste for violence. The victims of that violence are just some dark skinned natives who don't count, and probably had it coming for defying Uncle Sam. Like in Yemen now. Americans love to be in on a genocide, always have. You can count on us to cheer on the bullies, especially when they are waving the red white and blue. It just makes you feel good to be the toughest guys on the block. Go-git-em! Our brave (hired) heroes will take care of those damn gooks!

JIm DiEugenio, April 21, 2018 at 12:48 pm

Eric is on the right track on this. I was unaware until I read a book called The Devil's Game that the British had tried to undermine any pan Arabist, secular movements in the Middle East. And that policy extended back to the twenties. The Brits actually backed the Muslim Brotherhood. The idea behind this was that it would be easier to negotiate with royal families in the area for petroleum deals. And BP was a major company in the field.That policy was picked up on by John Foster Dulles when Nasser recognized China and refused to join the Baghdad Pact. Dulles then decided to back Saudi Arabia against Nasser's pan Arabist movement.

This is why Israel does not really seem to oppose what is happening to Syria, a secular state that Nasser tried to form a union with. The more fundamentalist the Middle East becomes, the less choice the USA has except to ally itself with Israel no matter what the country does. In fact, it was Israel that backed the formation of Hamas in order to outflank Fatah and make the Palestinians seem more part of the Arab terrorist movement.

Berna, April 24, 2018 at 12:00 pm

Anon- "Israel is the sole US motive behind the Syria fiasco;" That is a highly simplistic, narrow, and uneducated viewpoint. It does not take into account that Israel's actions are almost completely predictable as it will do whatever it feels is militarily necessary whether or not the US approves. The US is not in Syria on Israel's account. US policy is and has been since the beginning of the Cold War to oppose Russian influence anywhere in the world, from Vietnam to Nicaragua to Afghanistan to Iraq to Libya to Syria. Meanwhile, Israel and Russia have very strong relations. Russia is Israel's primary source of oil. The two countries have a visa free agreement and a free trade agreement.

[Apr 29, 2018] A fact hidden under the cone of silence imposed by the western MSM is that the present president (Assad) and the parliament of Syria were elected under democratic conditions observed by international election observers under the new constitution in 2014

Apr 29, 2018 | consortiumnews.com

Gen Dao April 22, 2018 at 2:02 am Mr. Margolis, thank you very much for this helpful article. In future articles I wonder if you might not want touch on points such as the below:

* Bashar Assad's father was truly a ruthless strongman, but it should not be forgotten that during almost his entire time as president (and continuing up to the present) the Muslim Brotherhood declared war on the secular Ba'athist government and engaged in an armed struggle to overthrow the Syrian government and establish Sharia law instead. If the armed Muslim Brotherhood had declared war on the US government and even gone so far as to capture a whole US city, how differently from Assad Sr. do you think US presidents would have acted?

* On blogs I have several times encountered the claim from leftist former political prisoners in Syria that Syria does not torture leftist political prisoners but only suspected Muslim Brotherhood members and other jihadists, i.e., militants who are trying to overthrow the Syrian government using violence. Have you researched this point?

* It's important to remember that Bashar Assad's government did respond to many of the popular political demands made in March and April of 2011, before the demos were completely taken over by the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda in Syria. Several draconian security laws were repealed by parliament, and in 2012 a new democratic Syrian constitution was passed. I wonder how many NYT or WaPo reporters or State Dept. "specialists" have even read this new constitution, which can be found online? How many other Middle Eastern constitutions can even compare with it?

* Moreover, the Ba'athists in Syria have always been much more responsive to minority points of view than most Middle Eastern governments. The Assads are themselves members of a minority Shia school of Islam and have been constantly demonized by Sunni theologians in Saudi Arabia and the gulf states, so the Assads have been comparatively careful about protecting minority rights and maintaining multicultural and multifaith dialog. Hence the strong support for Assad shown by Syrian Christians, for example. This is almost never mentioned by the western MSM.

* Another fact hidden under the cone of silence imposed by the western MSM is that the present president (Assad) and the parliament of Syria were elected under democratic conditions observed by international election observers under the new constitution in 2014. Assad won his race for president against two opponents. Therefore Assad and the current Syrian parliament are the legitimate government of Syria. The next elections will be held in 2021, so if belligerent western nations professing to respect democracy are interested in "regime change," they will have to wait until 2021, when the Syrian people will indeed make that decision themselves. Demanding an arbitrary change in the Syrian government before then is equal to negating the 2014 elections and demanding illegal interference in the domestic affairs of Syria, aka neo-colonialism. The parallel with the US-supported anti-democratic coup in Ukraine in 2014 is striking.


PJB , April 21, 2018 at 5:19 pm

A friend of mine has a relative who worked with Bashar al-Assad during his opthalmology training in the UK. I asked what his relative thought of Assad's personality. The answer: a normal guy and "certainly not a psychopath".

In the YouTube clip below there is a speech of Assad's, 10 months into the Syrian war, to a crowd that could number a million in Damascus is Churchillian in scope and style. He does come across as a mild-mannered doctor, thrust by fate into leading his nation against foreign backed head-chopping fanatics. As a result, the enthusiasm of the crowd dwarfs anything any Western politician could receive from supporters.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=kZyqJnaOQa8

The speech is subtitled and worth listening to. You'd never ever see it in the Western mainstream media.

backwardsevolution , April 21, 2018 at 9:07 pm

PJB – thanks for posting that. I like Assad. As you say, he was thrust into being the leader of Syria. I watched a video where a western reporter was saying to Assad something like, "But you kill people in your prisons," to which Assad replied, "Yes, that is what is done here, that is the Arab way of dealing with criminals and terrorists." He wasn't condoning it, but just stating that that is way things are done there. He couldn't change it if he tried, as he too has his own lords and nobles (the religious leaders/his political enemies) who would stab him in the back.

ranney , April 21, 2018 at 5:12 pm

I wondered when someone would mention that the US sent prisoners to Syria to be tortured before we decided that Syria was a monster. This was common information a few years ago, but now not mentioned.

Also not mentioned is the help that Syria gave to the US in attempting to accommodate Iraqi refugees during our war against "Al Quaeda". I recall stories about that because the refugees were complaining that there was no work and living places were hard to find. I imagine that's is true but it seemed to me that Assad was doing his best to try to help, although the situation was indeed chaotic.

A while back there was an article and an interview with Assad's wife, who seemed to me to be a lovely person, well educated and genuinely loving of her husband who we can all understand has been learning his job of state craft on the fly, not having been trained for it (unlike his brother) and who never wanted it anyway. This article is no longer referred to or the fact that Assad's wife is a beautiful, modern well educated British woman.
Articles about Assad in the States do not mention the fact that Assad has offered the rebels safe passage to Turkey or to the Kurds or somewhere (I'm rather vague about that) and has been actively providing the evacuated citizens of Douma with food, clothing, medicine and everything else that he can do to help.

I note that there are no calls in this country for contributions to help the refugee citizens of Douma (or any other city in Syria), and I have seen no calls from the UN to donate either. I wonder why??

[Apr 29, 2018] Useful idiots for White helmets or dirty accomplices?

Apr 29, 2018 | consortiumnews.com

Stephen J. , April 21, 2018 at 7:04 pm

More info on "media" at link below.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --
ROBERT BRIDGE | 21.04.2018
Useful Idiots? New Yorker Magazine Fails Litmus Test for Media Impartiality on Syrian War

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/04/21/useful-idiots-new-yorker-magazine-fails-litmus-test-for-media-impartiality-syrian-war.html

Stephen J. , April 21, 2018 at 6:54 pm

Interesting article at link below.
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- –
APRIL 20, 2018
A Tale of Two Atrocities: Douma and Gaza

by DOUG NOBLE

The mainstream media once again have enthusiastically endorsed Donald Trump's latest strike on Syria, pulled off without Congressional approval and in blatant violation of US and international law . (emphasis added)

[read more at link below]

https://www.counterpunch.org/2018/04/20/a-tale-of-two-atrocities-douma-and-gaza/

Stephen J. , April 21, 2018 at 6:49 pm

See link below on "media" and "Syria Strikes." Are illegal acts of war "okay"?
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- –
APRIL 18, 2018
Out of 26 Major Editorials on Trump's Syria Strikes, Zero Opposed
ADAM JOHNSON

None of the top 100 newspapers questioned the US's legal or moral right to bomb Syria, and all accepted US government claims to be neutral arbiters of "international law."
[read more at link below]
https://fair.org/home/out-of-20-major-editorials-on-trumps-syria-strikes-zero-opposed/

[Apr 28, 2018] Our Useless Clients and Trump's Misguided Plan for Syria by Daniel Larison

Notable quotes:
"... The U.S. military presence in Syria is illegal, and the same would be true of any occupying force provided by U.S. clients. Instead of looking for a substitute occupation force or maintaining one of our own, the U.S. should accept that controlling any part of Syria is not worth the costs and risks that go along with it. ..."
www.antiwar.com
Trump's misguided plan to replace U.S. forces in Syria with Egyptians, Saudis, and others has run into the entirely predictable problem that none of our clients wants to do it:

The Trump administration is struggling to assemble a coalition of Arab military forces to replace U.S. troops battling Islamic State militants in eastern Syria, a roadblock that could indefinitely delay President Trump's goal of pulling American forces out of the country, U.S. officials said.

Allies in the region are deeply skeptical about sending their troops -- and many are even reluctant to contribute funds -- to help stabilize cities and towns liberated from Islamic State, according to senior U.S. officials, if the United States intends to pull out, as Trump has threatened.

It comes as no surprise that these governments have no interest in taking Trump up on this offer. Each of them has other more pressing concerns than policing parts of Syria, some have no interest in opposing the Syrian government, all of them are ill-equipped for the task at hand, and it would be a terrible mistake to invite these governments to occupy Syrian territory in any case. That doesn't mean that the U.S. has to keep its forces in Syria, but it should remind us how useless our clients are to the U.S.

The U.S. military presence in Syria is illegal, and the same would be true of any occupying force provided by U.S. clients. Instead of looking for a substitute occupation force or maintaining one of our own, the U.S. should accept that controlling any part of Syria is not worth the costs and risks that go along with it. The U.S. has no business fighting in Syria, and it has no authority to keep its forces there, so a complete withdrawal from Syria is the only appropriate and legal course of action open to the U.S.

[Apr 28, 2018] The Syria Narrative Comes Apart With Sen. Richard Black by Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams

Apr 26, 2018 | www.antiwar.com

Strange how the media seems to have moved away from Washington's claims about a "chemical attack" in Syria just as more and more evidence comes to light that seriously undermines the US narrative.

The media is reduced to accusing those who question the narrative -- even with evidence -- of being "conspiracy theorists." Virginia State Senator Richard Black is a retired US military officer and JAG officer with a Purple Heart earned in Vietnam.

He is not buying the mainstream media and Trump Administration claims about the attack. He has followed the Syria war closely and in 2016 even took a trip to Syria. He joins today's Ron Paul Liberty Report to shine the light on the falsehoods being spread:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/nUXDEvt2bfw

Reprinted from The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity .

Basu Deb • 10 hours ago

A very rational discussion. The few rational people in the US political arena!

[Apr 27, 2018] Syria Oil Play

Apr 27, 2018 | www.unz.com

Y. V. , April 26, 2018 at 1:43 am GMT

Rothschild's Syria Oil Play

(excerpt, emphasis added)

"In February 2013, guarded by its well-paid ISIS mercenaries, New Jersey-based Genie Energy was granted an oil exploration permit in the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights of southern Syria.

[...]

Genie Energy's strategic advisory board includes Royal Dutch/Shell owner Lord Jacob Rothschild, former US Vice-President Dick Cheney, Newscorp (Fox News & Wall Street Journal) Chairman Rupert Murdoch, former US Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers, former US Energy Secretary Bill Richardson, former CIA Director & Dyncorp insider James Woolsey & former Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu.

[...]

"A leaked CIA document from 1983 reveals the Rothschild plan for Syria. The document, written by CIA officer Graham Fuller, argues that the West should, "bring real muscle to bear against Syria" by toppling then-Syrian President Hafez al-Assad, replacing him with a pro-banker puppet, and cutting Syria's weapons supply line from Russia."

"This would then pave the way for a City of London-controlled oil & gas pipeline which would originate in Qatar."

"The pipeline is to run north through Bahrain, Saudi Arabia & Jordan before crossing Syria and entering Turkey on its way to Europe. Such a huge volume of gas would help the bankers end Russia's Gazprom stranglehold on natural gas imports into Europe."

[...]

Even before 1983, Western intelligence agencies had backed Syria's Muslim Brotherhood in a clandestine war to remove the elder Assad.

[...]

"With Genie Oil drilling in the occupied Golan and the race to build a City of London-controlled pipeline continuing apace, one can be sure that despite the upper hand which Assad and his Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah backers have gained in the Syrian war of late, Rothschild and his minions will be serving up more pretexts to keep a war-weary President Trump fighting for their empire in Syria."

"It's up the the American people to back the President's urge to leave by making it loud and clear that its time for the US to get out of Syria, and out from under the thumb of the City of London banksters."

https://hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com/2018/04/25/rothschilds-syria-oil-play/#more-3593

[Apr 27, 2018] @Ian56 full ten minute Skype interview with BBC news night is truly epic.

Apr 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

WJ | Apr 27, 2018 12:22:52 AM | 83

For those who have not seen it, @Ian56 full ten minute Skype interview with BBC news night is truly epic.

They keep trying to make a fool of him and he keeps destroying them all.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=sFbPG6fOU1M

[Apr 27, 2018] Syrian Forces Discover UK, German-Made Chemical Weapons Depot In Douma

Apr 27, 2018 | muraselon.com

Syria's government forces have discovered a depot of German and UK-manufactured chemical weapons left by terrorists in the town of Douma, a Syrian official says.

"In the depot with chemical weapons left by terrorists in Douma, we have found chemicals from Germany, the United Kingdom, from the Porton-Down laboratory in Salisbury," Russia's Sputnik news agency cited Syria's Deputy Ambassador to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) Ghassan Obaid as saying after a briefing in The Hague on Thursday.

Obaid called on OPCW inspectors to visit the site and expressed hope that the inspection will ultimately prove the allegations against Damascus to be wrong.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's had said earlier that containers with chlorine and smoke bombs made in the UK and Germany had been discovered in the territories freed from militants in Eastern Ghouta region in the suburb of the capital city of Damascus.

[Apr 27, 2018] White Helmets "gas cilinders" fake now exposed

Apr 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

New false-flag operations against Damascus are "possible, since our American partners are once again threatening to take military action against Syria, but we will not allow that," Russia's permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Aleksandr Shulgin, said during a press conference in The Hague on Thursday.

"Two gas cylinders, allegedly dropped by the government forces from helicopters, were found in two apartments."

One of the cylinders lacked any makeshift upgrades, such as fins, to make it usable as an aerial munition, and, surprisingly, it was not even deformed .

"It's quite peculiar that the cylinder was not deformed, which doesn't fit its purported fall from a big altitude on concrete floor."

The other cylinder, while fitted with some crude fins, also remained in nearly pristine condition despite its "fall."

"The cylinder has partially retained impermeability and is almost undamaged, which is impossible after a fall from some 2,000 meters , the usual altitude used by the Syrian army helicopters," Kirillov said.

The cylinder was likely hauled by the "authors of the staged video" from outside, the official stated, as "multiple chips and dragging marks at the stairwell" indicated. An apartment below was being used by its owner to breed chickens, and all the livestock miraculously "made through the so-called chemical attack alive," according to Kirillov.

[Apr 27, 2018] Western intelligence and White helmets -- a team working toward common goal

Apr 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

jayc | Apr 27, 2018 12:30:57 AM | 84

A reporter for the Tampa Bay Times speaks with Sue Gordon, who is described as principal deputy director of the Office of National Intelligence.
http://www.tbo.com/news/military/macdill/Howard-Altman-Why-we-re-so-sure-Assad-is-to-blame-for-chemical-attacks_167665718

Assignation of guilt for the alleged chemical attack in Douma continues to be based on assumptions on Assad's "intent and capabilities" and the White Helmets videos. Interesting to have such a weak response direct from a senior intelligence bureaucrat.

Her response gets even weaker when asked about claims the videos were faked: "It just doesn't seem consistent with what the rebels would do."

[Apr 27, 2018] The cylinder was likely hauled by the "authors of the staged video" from outside, the official stated, as "multiple chips and dragging marks at the stairwell" indicated. An apartment below was being used by its owner to breed chickens, and all the livestock miraculously "made through the so-called chemical attack alive

Apr 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

BM | Apr 27, 2018 11:15:19 AM | 109

Wow! The supposed Douma 'chemical attack' killed so many humans, but the chickens survived unharmed. Luckily the Porton Down assassins were not around to cremate the inconvenient avian witnesses, unlike the Skripal guineapigs and cat.

"Russian experts performed a detailed analysis of the information on the ground," Major-General Igor Kirillov, the head of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection (RKhBZ) Troops, said. "Two gas cylinders, allegedly dropped by the government forces from helicopters, were found in two apartments."
...
The cylinder was likely hauled by the "authors of the staged video" from outside, the official stated, as "multiple chips and dragging marks at the stairwell" indicated. An apartment below was being used by its owner to breed chickens, and all the livestock miraculously "made through the so-called chemical attack alive," according to Kirillov.

Presentation to OPCW

[Apr 27, 2018] Syria/Russia have assembled a large body of evidence regarding the White Helmets, the staged filming and other falsifications which show convincingly that no chemical attack occurred; Westerm MSM journalists covering Douma should be prosecuted as war criminals in Hague

Notable quotes:
"... Now giving odds on the OPCW report being "inconclusive" --- if I were planning a campaign of fake chemical attacks I would first want to be sure my assets were in place at the OPCW. There is reason to assume that every committee and group of the UN is infiltrated with US assets. ..."
"... "France's Ambassador to the OPCW Philippe Lalliot called the display of Syrians in The Hague 'obscene.'" Apparently it is obscene to present evidence but not staged videos with shaving cream sprayed on the faces of dead bodies. ..."
"... Even better is the unintentionally hilarious comment by the U.K. envoy: "The OPCW is not a theater," said Peter Wilson, Britain's envoy to the watchdog in a statement. ..."
"... Syrian dirty war Backfires on International Media i like how Elijah Magnier refers to the msm - "Salafist Wahabist apologists".... think i will use that too.. ..."
"... I thought western media had sunk as low as it could go until I seen the MSM articles on the witnesses from Douma that are appearing at the Hague. The witnesses are termed 'unidentified people', even though the boy and the doctor, and perhaps several others appeared in the white helmet video and all witnesses are named. ..."
Apr 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Babyl-on | Apr 26, 2018 12:35:35 PM | 2

Syria/Russia have assembled a large body of evidence regarding the White Helmets, the staged filming and other falsifications which show convincingly that no chemical attack occurred.

Now giving odds on the OPCW report being "inconclusive" --- if I were planning a campaign of fake chemical attacks I would first want to be sure my assets were in place at the OPCW. There is reason to assume that every committee and group of the UN is infiltrated with US assets.

Mike Maloney , Apr 26, 2018 12:43:26 PM | 6

A sweet headline from Reuters: " Russia presents unharmed Syrians at OPCW, Western allies stay away .

"France's Ambassador to the OPCW Philippe Lalliot called the display of Syrians in The Hague 'obscene.'" Apparently it is obscene to present evidence but not staged videos with shaving cream sprayed on the faces of dead bodies.

nhs , Apr 26, 2018 12:46:27 PM | 9
White Propaganda and Perception Management: the origins of 'chemical weapons' false flag operations
WJ , Apr 26, 2018 1:01:59 PM | 11
Mike Maloney @6,

Even better is the unintentionally hilarious comment by the U.K. envoy: "The OPCW is not a theater," said Peter Wilson, Britain's envoy to the watchdog in a statement.

james , Apr 26, 2018 5:14:14 PM | 38
Syrian dirty war Backfires on International Media i like how Elijah Magnier refers to the msm - "Salafist Wahabist apologists".... think i will use that too..
karlof1 , Apr 26, 2018 5:12:23 PM | 37
Sid2 @28--

911's been discussed here from time-to-time. Most agree it's a major false flag. I see it as the implementation of the Operation Northwoods plan from 1962 (2 smallish pdfs) for essentially the same geopolitical goals. Such discussions have previously occurred on Open Threads where they belong. As you see, I really don't have anything to discuss as I've already made my conclusion and judgement.

mk , Apr 26, 2018 6:02:21 PM | 41
karlof1 @37

false flag attack... very interesting to see now how the Skripal affair and the Douma incident are going to develop. Because if, for instance, Douma will be widely (i. e. in Western societies) acknowledged as a false flag attack, and we are pretty close to that - then this opens a door for the acceptance of former false flag attacks (the so-called conspiracy theories).

Don't want to go into detail here, but I'm convinced that the majority of terror attacks in the West in the last twenty years were false flag, i.e. the official story doesn't reflect what really happened.
From my own research I can say that for 9/11, London 7/7, Boston 2013, Nizza 2016, Berlin 2016.

Again, I don't want to discuss that stuff here. My point is that the unmasking of Douma as a staged event, or Skripal as false flag, could make these former staged events fall like domino pieces. Not in days or weeks, but over the years.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 26, 2018 7:29:31 PM | 58
I thought western media had sunk as low as it could go until I seen the MSM articles on the witnesses from Douma that are appearing at the Hague. The witnesses are termed 'unidentified people', even though the boy and the doctor, and perhaps several others appeared in the white helmet video and all witnesses are named.

[Apr 27, 2018] Douma false flag created possibilities for Syria to acquire the S300 and deny US and Israeli air supremacy.

Apr 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: Harry Law | Apr 26, 2018 6:32:50 PM | 47

That US,UK and French aggression on 14th April which caused the loss of 3 buildings and no casualties could go down as the biggest own goal of this war on Syria. Now it is possible that Syria will acquire the S300 and deny US and Israeli air supremacy.

They can stop Israeli Jets lobbing missiles from Lebanese airspace, they also have the range to lock on to Israeli Jets taking off from Israeli airfields. Israel is very concerned, as they should be. The Syrians should thank Trump, May and Macron.

[Apr 27, 2018] Russia "will not allow" another US attack on Syria premised on a false flag event...

Apr 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

WJ | Apr 26, 2018 8:35:12 PM | 62

Russia "will not allow" another US attack on Syria premised on a false flag event...

That's a strong statement if accurate, and represents a tightening of the noose around US freedom of action in theatre.
https://www.rt.com/news/425256-russia-wont-allow-attack-syria/

[Apr 27, 2018] It seems to me that the reason none of the MSM are doing any investigating/reporting of the Salisbury affair, apart from official handouts, is that the government have slapped a D-Notice over the whole incident and it is not possible to report that a notice has been issued.

Apr 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Lil Bub , Apr 26, 2018 6:22:01 PM | 44

Sid2 , Apr 26, 2018 6:25:43 PM | 45
On the Skripal affair, the best information I've found (trying to keep up) is at Craig Murray's blog (the following page as the most recent discussion):

As with this interesting comment:

Clive P April 22, 2018 at 12:29

I have been reading the blogs for some time but this is my first post. Like Craig I was a senior civil servant but in the ministry of defence not the fco. I had plenty of dealings with all three intelligence agencies. It seems to me that the reason none of the MSM are doing any investigating/reporting of the Salisbury affair, apart from official handouts, is that the government have slapped a D-Notice over the whole incident and it is not possible to report that a notice has been issued.

Here is another theory as to what happened. The Russians pardoned Skripal and allowed him to leave (spy agencies have an understanding that agents will always be swapped after an interval – it's the only protection they have and helps recruitment). In the UK Skripal would have been thoroughly debriefed by MI6 and MI5 (his ex-handler lives near Salisbury). If at some point they discovered that Skripal was giving them false information, perhaps he was told to do so by the FSB as a condition of his release, lives may have been endangered/lost. If he also was also involved in the 'golden showers' dossier then elements in the US would have a reason to act as well. The whole incident was an inside job not to kill him, hence the use of BZ, but to give him a warning and a punishment. The whole thing is being treated as though the authorities know exactly what went on but have to cover it up.

A D notice is subsequently clarified in the thread as classified/off limits by the UK government.

Sorry, not clear on the BZ reference, as to what this means.

Would appreciate additional links with info from recent days.

[Apr 27, 2018] Back during Obama s attempts to portray Iran as having a nuclear weapons program, one poll taken of US citizens found seventy-one percent believed Iran not only had a nuclear weapons program, but that Iran actually had nuclear weapons.

Notable quotes:
"... CNN Poll: American believe Iran has nuclear weapons ..."
Apr 27, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

richardstevenhack a day ago

"The gullibility involved in that is impressive."

Back during Obama's attempts to portray Iran as having a nuclear weapons program, one poll taken of US citizens found seventy-one percent believed Iran not only had a nuclear weapons program, but that Iran actually had nuclear weapons.

CNN Poll: American believe Iran has nuclear weapons

http://politicalticker.blog...

I just watched the movie "Beirut" last night, currently in some theaters. Premise was a State Department diplomat (Jon Hamm) living in Beirut in the 1970's has his wife killed during a terrorist incident involving a Palestinian boy living with the diplomat and his wife. Ten years later, after the Lebanese civil war but before the Israeli invasion, a CIA friend of his (Mark Pelligrino) is kidnapped and the former diplomat who is now a lawyer doing labor negotiations is brought in to negotiate his release.

The movie is well done and well acted. The villains are the terrorists, the PLO, and the US government types in charge of the negotiations who try to hamstring the lawyer for reasons which are developed. The Israelis get rough treatment, trying to convince the US types to allow the CIA agent to be killed so the US will give the Israelis the green light to invade Lebanon (which, of course, they eventually did.)

One may quibble with the representation of Beirut and the various factions and historical accuracy of the movie, but as a spy thriller it mostly works. I'd recommend seeing it.

I went to see it mostly because Rosamund Pike plays the diplomat's CIA "handler" - and she's drop dead gorgeous as well as an Oscar-nominated actress (for "Gone Girl", which I also recommend.) It's worth seeing the movie for her alone.

Julius HK -> richardstevenhack , 18 hours ago

"Beirut" is a stupid, cheap, disgusting Israeli propaganda movie, filmed in Morocco, only meant to denigrate Lebanon and the Lebanese. You only have to look at some posts on Lebanese social media to see how most Lebanese talk about this Zionist fabrication thru and thru. No one in his right mind will see this crookedly contrived balderdash.

[Apr 27, 2018] Roger Stone said that he has known John Bolton since the Reagan years. Stone claims Bolton is not a neocon warmonger but a guy who is a staunch believer in the old doctrine of peace through strength.

Apr 27, 2018 | www.unz.com

Anonymous [201] Disclaimer , April 24, 2018 at 11:36 am GMT

Roger Stone said that he has known John Bolton since the Reagan years. Stone claims Bolton is not a neocon warmonger but a guy who is a staunch believer in the old doctrine of peace through strength. Interesting as Stone despises neocons. Bolton went to Yale undergrad and Yale Law. Haley has a degree in accounting from Clemson, a mediocre land grant public university in South Carolina.
Anonymous [196] Disclaimer , April 25, 2018 at 12:04 am GMT
Ok, you all, I have a personal story about John Bolton that I'm gonna drop here. This story comes from someone who used to live next door to John Bolton in Bethesda (or Chevy Chase?). Bolton's former (and current?) neighbor is a Harvard-trained medical doctor and a liberal Jewish guy. He has two daughters who are now grown. One is now a veterinarian in North Potomac. Anyway, his daughters were like 10 and 12-years old when they would water Bolton's plants when he was away on travel. One time when Bolton was traveling he asked the older girl to water his plants and he'd pay her $25. She agreed. Then a few days later she had something come up and would not be able to do it and asked her younger sister if she could take care of it she could have the full $25. The younger sister agreed. After Bolton returned from his trip the younger sister went over to Bolton and explained what happened and that she, not her older sister, had taken care and watered his plants. Bolton told her that he was not going to pay her because the agreement was strictly between him and her older sister. That was last interaction they had with Bolton. End of story.

[Apr 26, 2018] Israel basically dictates Washington's official policies in the Mideast, it is Israel every bit as much as either occupied Washington or subservient Saudi Arabia that is probably most responsible for the anti-Assad chaos and carnage inside Syria.

Apr 26, 2018 | www.unz.com

mark green , April 25, 2018 at 3:37 am GMT

@Paul C.

This is a fairly good discussion. But only because it's on television. Otherwise, information and chatter of this quality is commonplace on the internet or any area that's free of Jewish censorship. My recent dinner with James Petras was more informative. (But maybe I'm just boasting).

But Sachs (Jewish) does pull a fast one, claiming that the destabilization of Syria is due to US and Saudi meddling. Ok. He's mostly right on that. But there's more. And surely Sachs know it.

Sachs leaves out Israel in this discussion even though Israel has actually attacked and bombed Syrian positions inside Syria at least three times over the past seven years.
'
Zionists worldwide have been trying to get Assad overthrown for decades. Israel and Syria are, in fact, still in a technical state of war since Israel seized Syrian territory in 1967 during the Six Day War.

In June of that year (just before the USS Liberty was attacked by Israeli forces) the Jewish State preemptively invaded Syria. Israel still occupies Syria's Golan Heights and intends to keep the Golan.

Plus, since Israel basically dictates Washington's official policies in the Mideast, it is Israel–every bit as much as either occupied Washington or subservient Saudi Arabia–that is probably most responsible for the anti-Assad chaos and carnage inside Syria.

This manufactured Syrian 'civil war' that has cost no less than 500,000 lives and the displacement of millions.

Sachs–like all loyal Zions–purposefully deflected attention away from Israel in this discussion, even though he knew better. In effect, Sachs deceived. He lied for Israel.

RobinG , April 25, 2018 at 5:11 am GMT
@mark green

" ..Israel has actually attacked and bombed Syrian positions inside Syria at least three times over the past seven years." LOL. Try, in the last seven weeks!

Sure, Israel is most responsible. But as for Sachs, since this point was already discussed under Pat Lang's article, I'll just quote myself.

Okay, Sachs has corpses in his closet. But, IMO, take gold where you find it . limited hangout or not.

If your adversary speaks some truth, that doesn't make it a lie. Plus, you're not going to get every angle covered n every clip. The fact that he called out US covert fomentation of regime-change in Syria [on major network TV!!!] makes this golden.

Paul C. , April 25, 2018 at 6:42 pm GMT
@mark green

I agree. Sachs nor anyone on TV will mention that Israel is driving all of this. I thought the reveal of the operation name was good, Timber Sycamore. I'm hopefully using this 5 minute interview to wake up a friend or two who actually still believe "the news" (MSM).

I was listening to an older interview, below, from 2008 with Daryl Bradford Smith and Texe Marrs as they discuss the worldwide scourge that is zionism. I know you're well versed in it Mark but I'd recommend UR readers give it a listen. It explains how long this has been going on and details many atrocities.

In the interview, it mentions that Neocon Michael Ledeen wants to use the US to destroy Syria. The term "mission accomplished" fits here. Just a continuation of the PNAC plan.

https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v%3DmhNlCReErlo&source=gmail&ust=1524766853565000&usg=AFQjCNGdA195-paEOf2xuDmCkPN6lSIDXg

[Apr 26, 2018] Apparently Trump is backtracking on the US Troop pullout from Syria, or he was lying in the first place when he made that announcement:

Apr 26, 2018 | www.unz.com

tac , April 25, 2018 at 2:53 pm GMT

@RobinG

Apparently Trump is backtracking on the US Troop pullout from Syria, or he was lying in the first place when he made that announcement:

the head of the US military's Central Command, Gen. Joseph Votel, arrived in Israel to reassure the head of the National Security Council, the IDF Chief of Staff and other senior defense officials that Americans have no "immediate plans" to leave Syria , and will continue supporting Tel Aviv's means of maintaining security and stability on its border

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/top-us-general-tells-israel-that-trump-is-not-pulling-troops-out-from-syria-reports/

[Apr 26, 2018] By over a year in office, Agent Orange proved that (A) He lack experience of dealing with the key issues arising in his new job, and (B) he does not understand the quote from the other Donald who isn't a duck about "known unknowns"

This looks like taken directly from Godfather. "Mafia style governance" in other words ;-)
Notable quotes:
"... The experts just make it up, the pols know this but unless they can prove the military bosses are lying, they have to go along with it. ..."
"... We, us the people, we die, that is our role ..."
"... 'Not in my name': Galloway calls on British public to reject calls for Syria military action: https://www.rt.com/uk/423805-galloway-syria-war-uk/ ..."
"... But who cares about us? Now is Trump and the brainwashed journalists that want a war, nothing seems to be able to stop and reverse this sickness. ..."
Apr 11, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Debsisdead | Apr 11, 2018 8:47:26 AM | 56

By now 18 months in office, agent orange will have reached the same SOP as everyone else who has political power does when
they are dealing with circumstances where A) they lack much experience of dealing with the issue, and B) there are to quote that other donald who isn't a duck. "There are many 'known unknowns'".

That is you must defer to the 'experts' not because you necessarily believe their assessment to be correct, but because they are the types whose job it is to make such assessments. So that if things do go tits up, king mandarin cannot be blamed. He was acting upon "the best advice available at the time" & if things work out then the trumpet can trumpet his genius strategy. If they don't work out that's tough, but the bossfella did his/her part.

This has long been held to be the only way an elected leader can survive a war. Everything is a gamble, so unless you really know what you are doing/have great outside the loop intelligence, following the advice of the military bosses is really the only option they can see. They are weak, vain, self-obsessed and incapable of understanding how Jo/Joe Shitkicker feels about stuff.

A couple of examples.

The first worked out OK for humans but bad for the warmongers. When GH Bush snared Iraq into Gulf War 1, the plan had always been to use Iraq's reclamation of their traditional lands from the Anglo American puppets as an excuse to grab all of Iraq - Kuwait's oil was running out, which was why the emir had been siphoning off Iraqi oil in the first place. So the American led band of greedies, crooks & charlatans chased the retreating Iraqis back - bombing shooting and poisoning em with depleted uranium absolutely mercilessly. But for whatever reason (who knows? honour, honesty, maybe even humanity or maybe someone paid him off we will never discover the truth) Norman Schwarzkopf wasn't down with such ruthless murder.

He publicly declared the military objectives had all been met and continuing on wasn't just pointless it was inhumanity approaching a war crime. GH Arsefeatures must have been ropeable, but he knew going against Norm's advice was just too fraught. If anything, absolutely anything went wrong with what was a pretty damned risky plan, as Iraq hadn't been put under siege for long at all before the attack, there were big numbers of Iran/Iraq war veterans - troops who hadn't been deployed in Kuwait waiting in Iraq. Bush would take the fall as he had gone against 'expert' advice. No redemption thatcher style for him, so he declared victory and began the siege which junior tried to finish.

The second example? This is a link to part 17 of a 26 part documentary on the 1914 to 1918 half of the 20th century eurowar. It is made by the bbc, but I hasten to add during an all too brief moment in the 1960's when the BBC had been forced to resile from spewing spurious tales - propaganda, and calling it fact.

If you haven't seen this series I strongly suggest you get a copy and watch it. This is the people who fought, chiefly the shitkickers in the trenches on all sides doing the talking. In addition there is input from the pols' & military bosses via daily journals & diaries.

Episode 17 is about Ypres which was a piece of Belgian western front which protruded east across the line the Austro/German troops occupied, aka a salient.

The Brits held the western side, Germany the other. By 1917 everyone was well sick of the war and the politicians had begun to distrust the judgement and sometimes the motives of the military. The Battle of the Somme which cost more than a million brit casualties had been fought in the summer of 1916, nothing had been gained. More than a million young men had died for nothing - absolutely fucking nothing. Now that the summer of 1917 was approaching the army wanted another 'offensive'. Ypres was the battlespace they had selected. Once a beautiful town even more striking architecturally than Bruges, Ypres was leveled by the arseholesi - few if any of whom were Belgium.

So all the brit military bosses (army & navy - the airforce hadn't taken off yet [pun alert]) were meeting with all the political leaders in the cabinet room.

Lloyd George, the consummate brit pol of the early 20th century, was Prime Minister and he was extremely skeptical of any big plan, as logic dictated that when both sides were as dug in & evenly matched as the allies & axis were, the chances of either side achieving anything beyond the deaths of another million or two humans were slim as New York model.

Watch the doco - Lloyd explains how Haig and his gang had bundles of colourful maps with arrows pointing every which way, plus a fine art in talking absolute bullshit.

When Lloyd George detects that some of the more gullible pols are lapping up Haig's nonsense, so he interjects with his doubts - that any further "send em over the top" strategies can achieve anything other than the death of millions more humans.

The meeting adjourns for lunch. When they all come back the Sea Lord, Admiral Jellicoe, the man now believed to be responsible for the brit navy's worst maritime disaster ever, the 1916 battle of jutland where 5000 brit sailors were killed in the space of a few hours and Admiral Beatty who was Jellicoe's 2IC was heard to say offhandly "I say, there seems to be something wrong with our bloody ships today". Thousands of men die and the elitist prick believes it's time to be droll. Check out pix of Beatty he always wore his naval cap 'rakishly' forever playing the jaunty gentleman sailor.

Anyway Jellicoe whose incompetence as the head of the British Grand Fleet resulted in badly designed ships adopting really dangerous explosive handling practices was so bad the brits had to make him out to be a hero & promoted him to First Sea Lord, pipes up at the Ypres meeting straight after lunch , with the claim that the attack must go ahead because if the Germans keep control of Zeebrugge which is a Belgian port just north of Ypres that was in German hands & was being used as a submarine base, England will face famine and mass starvation within a few months as the navy cannot protect their shipping supplies to england.

It was complete nonsense which Haig and Jellicoe likely dreamed up at lunch. We know it was a crock because Lloyd George was left with no alternative but to approve warmonger/mass murderer Haig's plan. The battle went ahead, another million or so died in what the diggers termed the worst bloody stunt of the war. Long story short; the farmland around Ypres was like Dutch lowland, constructed below sea level. The artillery barrages had wrecked the drainage system and the entire battle space turned to mud blood, and corpses - fall into a shellhole which was easy on the slippery duckboards and you're toast, the mixture of bacteria bubbling away in the Ypres Soup guaranteed that if you could swim with a full pack and gear, any cut or wound would become irretrievably infected. The medics played catch up footy behind gangrene, chopping bits off a bloke until there was nothing left.

These then are the roles:

The experts just make it up, the pols know this but unless they can prove the military bosses are lying, they have to go along with it.

We, us the people, we die, that is our role

ps watch the doco and see how documentaries can be made.

test , Apr 11, 2018 9:12:52 AM | 65

radiator

'Not in my name': Galloway calls on British public to reject calls for Syria military action: https://www.rt.com/uk/423805-galloway-syria-war-uk/

But who cares about us? Now is Trump and the brainwashed journalists that want a war, nothing seems to be able to stop and reverse this sickness.

[Apr 26, 2018] The Skripal case and Douma false flag in Syria are clumsy, amateur attempts to push the US empire into war

Apr 11, 2018 | www.unz.com
Giuseppe , April 10, 2018 at 12:10 pm GMT
I challenge anyone to name a modern war prosecuted by the US government and its allies that did not involve at its root the direct fabrication of blatant lies on enormous levels, both as a casus belli and also to manipulate public opinion in favor of hostilities.

The clandestine activity represented by these *provocations* isn't even good spycraft. The Skripal case and the latest use of chlorine gas in Syria are risible, clumsy, amateur attempts to wangle the empire into war that the callowest rube could see through. And yet, it's working its magic on the media. The politicians, suborned by the war machine, give unanimous bipartisan assent.

What the hell is going on?

JoaoAlfaiate , April 10, 2018 at 12:35 pm GMT
@Giuseppe

Saddam's WMD, Gulf of Tonkin, etc., etc. And now a ridiculous false flag attack in Syria. Did it take place at all? But the narrative is all. The press in the USA is more effectively controlled and conformist than in Germany in the late 1930s and nobody goes around beating up journalists or sending them to a KZ. The Syrian Gov't is winning the civil war, things are going well but what Assad really needs is to have the crap bombed out of his military by Uncle Sam. What transparent bullshit.

[Apr 26, 2018] Real Journalist Shreds CNN On Air Over S-y-r-i-a Coverage

This was a great talk show. Many excellent points made, depicting neoliberal propaganda as "it is". Must see video.
Notable quotes:
"... That's exactly what we did. Cancelled our cable six months ago and joined TYT ..."
"... All corporate media outlets romanticize and support death and destruction because they believe the public loves it. So give em what they want, and corporate media profits skyrocket. Sad and shameful. ..."
Apr 19, 2018 | www.youtube.com

The Jimmy Dore Show , 1 year ago (edited)

Next LIVE Jimmy Dore Show may 1 & May 22nd Get your tickets here: http://bit.ly/2lAFl8h Check Below For The Many Ways You Can Support Our Show:

Yung Progressive , 1 year ago (edited)

I wonder how proud Bernie would be if he watched any of Jimmy Dores videos.. My TOP "Progressives" Bernie/Tulsi/Nina/Jimmy/Ronan but there are PLENTY of other great progressives that I forgot to mention. #Bernie2020 #Tulsi2020 #JusticeDems2018

Orlando Olmo , 1 year ago

Your totally clueless if your only resource is CNN or any other establishment state TV. They are not journalists, they are spokesmen.

C. Binion , 1 year ago

Rachel Maddow is another compromised "journalist" failing to cover Syria. Jimmy, I know you see Maddow the same way I do, so I thought you and your subscribers would want a heads-up on Aaron Mate's April 12, 2017 article at the Intercept, "MSNBC's Rachel Maddow Sees a 'Russia Connection' Lurking Behind Every Corner." The article includes a video showing Maddow repeatedly pounding the drum about alleged Russian influence on Trump.

The Intercept's quantitative study of all 28 Rachel Maddow episodes in the six-week period between February 20 and March 31, showed 53 percent of the broadcasts were Russia-focused segments. Mate points out "the 'above all else" focus on Russia lacks concrete supporting evidence."

The article also mentions Maddow is often dubbed one of the smartest TV journalists, but in my view, if she's so smart, why isn't she honest?

The public doesn't need "smart but unethical" journalists, because they are a dime a dozen. We need news people with astuteness and integrity combined. Some of the world's most destructive people have been brilliant but evil. Anyway, the article is a good read.

bubba r , 1 year ago

Can't we show some pictures of the people WE kill, the children WE kill when we drop our bombs? Someone pointed out how they show pictures of our missles when they are launched and none of the damage we do. And we only show pictures of the dead people when THEY drop bombs, etc. Shouldn't we also show the people we kill.

Emy Sanchez , 1 year ago

That's exactly what we did. Cancelled our cable six months ago and joined TYT, and support several independent youTubers including Jimmy Dore. We need independent media especially now

Rick Blanton , 1 year ago

The American public, by in large, have no sympathy for the innocent civilians who suffer the horrific bombing attacks carried out by the U.S. Military. All corporate media outlets romanticize and support death and destruction because they believe the public loves it. So give em what they want, and corporate media profits skyrocket. Sad and shameful.

[Apr 25, 2018] Why did the Russians allow Israel so much freedom in Syria..from the start of their Syrian project?

Apr 25, 2018 | www.unz.com

Ben Sampson

why did the Russians allow Israel so much freedom in Syria..from the start of their Syrian project?

I could never understand that..it seemed/seems so obviously contradictory and counter-productive. And why is Putin ever so conscious to 'compromise' with Israel - in Israel's favor no less..all the time?

Oh my! these things make no sense in modern reality, nor in historical perspective. the Khazars have no reason to love Russia/Russians..indeed have every reason to hate them, and desire to eliminate Russia/Russians. and it seems clear the 1917 Revolution turned into a Khazar revenge for the destruction of old Khazaria with Russian collusion..not to mention the German invasion the intent of which surely was to destroy Russia, bring whatever remaining Russian rump to its knees in perpetual servitude..the Russian 'Fatherland' forever under rape of its resources by the global capitalists

But this is not something I tear my hair out at the roots over. I think Putin is a fine politician and a very smart man.. But he is still a politician. and as per the way politicians operate, and the way Jews handle politicians and politics globally, the way Putin behaves relative to Israel suggests the Zionists have something on him that is serious enough to discipline his behavior in their favor..in Israels favor

Putin has no reason at all, as a real Russian patriot, charged with the protection of the collective Russian interest, to be as conscientious, solicitous, of Israeli interest as he is. that he is is not a good sign at all. from afar I would like to trust Putin, revere him as the current savior of the world, but cant go all the way with him. I dearly appreciate the fact that he appears bent on prevention of ww3. that is a globally commendable fact, one I am sure the world appreciates

but that Russian/Israeli-Jewish thing is rather unseemly and very concerning

CK , April 25, 2018 at 4:41 pm GMT

@Ben Sampson

Why expand the war that they are winning into a bigger war that is less likely of victory?

The Izzies have learned that their planes are no longer safe attacking from Syrian airspace, the S-300 mean that the Izzies will no longer be safe attacking Syria from Lebanese airspace.

From what I have read of him President Putin is a strategist as well as a Patriot.

There are still some shrinking pockets of rebellion in Syria, then there is the Turkish acquisition of Northern Syria to unwind, slowly slowly catchee monkee.

[Apr 25, 2018] The British dishonorable military officers run White Helmet rank-and-file: Any Qs about le Mesurier' and Tilley' devotion to militant Islamists and fanatical Israelis when good money is paid for the devotion?

Apr 25, 2018 | www.unz.com

annamaria , April 25, 2018 at 5:39 pm GMT

Know your war criminals, particularly the dishonorable military officers: "UNMASKING THE WHITE HELMETS," http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/04/harper-unmasking-the-white-helmets.html

-- Here is the terrorist camp in Turkey, run by a British officer James le Mesurier:

"James le Mesurier founded both Mayday Rescue and the White Helmets after "retiring" from the British Army and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Mayday Rescue's annual budget is $35 million, with the funds coming from USAID, the UK Conflict Security and Stability Fund, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To date, an estimated 3,000 recruits have been through the Mayday Rescue training programs and deployed into 120 different locations in rebel-held parts of Syria."

-- Here is another dishonorable British officer, Paul Tilley:

"Tilley ran British government communications during the Libya invasion, working directly out of 10 Downing Street. In November 2014, soon after le Mesurier was founding Mayday Rescue and the White Helmets, Tilley "retired" from the British service to found the strategic communications firm. Incostrat provides the social media and other communications services for Mayday and the White Helmets."

– Any Qs about le Mesurier' and Tilley' devotion to militant Islamists and fanatical Israelis when good money is paid for the devotion??

[Apr 25, 2018] HARPER UNMASKING THE WHITE HELMETS

Apr 25, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

British government official agencies are the patrons, managers and funders of the White Helmets, who have been the go-to source for the mainstream Western media reporting on the ongoing Syrian war. For good measure, the U.S. State Department's Agency for International Development (USAID) has kicked in $23 million to finance Mayday Rescue, the cutout between the White Helmets and the British Ministry of Defense, the Home Office, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and 10 Downing Street. This is all a matter of public record, yet no Western major media outlet has bothered to include these "data points" in their lavish coverage of the White Helmets.

Mayday Rescue was founded by James le Mesurier, who founded both Mayday Rescue and the White Helmets after "retiring" from the British Army and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Mayday Rescue has its headquarters in Istanbul, Turkey, where it runs a training program for the White Helmet recruits. Mayday Rescue's annual budget is $35 million, with the funds coming from USAID, the UK Conflict Security and Stability Fund, and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. To date, an estimated 3,000 recruits have been through the Mayday Rescue training programs and deployed into 120 different locations in rebel held parts of Syria.

Another element of the British government flowchart backing the White Helmets is the communications and media firm Incostrat, founded by Paul Tilley, another British Army veteran, who ran the Ministry of Defence's Strategic Communications for the Middle East and North Africa. Tilley ran British government communications during the Libya invasion, working directly out of 10 Downing Street. In November 2014, soon after le Mesurier was founding Mayday Rescue and the White Helmets, Tilley "retired" from the British service to found the strategic communications firm. Incostrat provides the social media and other communications services for Mayday and the White Helmets.

All very neat.

In January 2015, the British Ministry of Defence renamed its Security Assistance Group (SAG) the 77th Brigade. The name change was in honor of the legendary World War II era British special warfare operator Orde Wingate, who as a Major General in the British Army founded the 77th Indian Infantry Brigade, which conducted "long-range penetration" operations in the CBI theater. The renamed current 77th Brigade, according to its own website, conducts "non-lethal engagement and legitimate non-military levers as a means to adapt behaviors of opposing forces and adversaries," including information activities and outreach. By its own public description, the 77th Brigade is "an agent of change." They are nowadays referred to as "Twitter Troops" and "Facebook Warriors."


The Beaver , 10 hours ago

Harper,

Another good one on the same topic:

http://www.middleeasteye.ne...

The Guardian revealed it was spending £2.4m ($3.3m) for private contractors to deliver "strategic communications and media operations support to the Syrian moderate armed opposition", in what was described as Britain running a "Free Syrian Army press office".

Jaish al-Islam (Army of Islam), a newly formed coalition of around 50 Islamist factions funded by Saudi Arabia, was one of the groups considered by Britain to be part of the "moderate armed opposition".

blue peacock , 11 hours ago
Why is the British government so into neocon themes or are they merely acting at the behest of our neocons?

The British Deep State clearly have a bee in their bonnet about Putin & Russia. Maybe that's why they acted to take down Candidate Trump during the last election.

Valissa Rauhallinen -> blue peacock , 8 hours ago
The Brits have a long history of antagonistic relations with Russia. The phrase "The Great Game" originally referred British-Russian power ploys in central Asia in the latter half of the 19th century. Pax Americana has "inherited" some aspects of the British Empire and British Imperialism. No wonder the Brits want to play along with us in that area. They have history there. The force of that not to be underestimated.

I bought this book a couple of years ago, but have not done more than skim it yet. The reviews are helpful for getting an idea of what it's about.

The Great Game: The Struggle for Empire in Central Asia, by Peter Hopkis https://www.amazon.com/Grea...

BTW, my current preference is to use the "neocon" label in a more limited fashion referring to those who espouse that philosophy directly. I think most people working for the empire aren't philosophical true believers so much as ambitious opportunists who tend to be flexible in their ideology. After reading more history, I came to develop a fondness for that old fashioned label "imperialist." It explains much on it's own. No extra political ideology is required.

Pat Lang Mod -> Valissa Rauhallinen , 6 hours ago
I use neocon the same way.
Fred S -> blue peacock , 11 hours ago
blue peacock,

"... they acted to take down Candidate Trump during the last election."
That would be the collusion everyone is looking for.

Pat Lang Mod -> Fred S , 4 hours ago
It is very clear that the WH operation is a brain child of the Clinton/Obama regime with British and Saudi participation. The British actually have conducted the operation.
Rob -> blue peacock , 8 hours ago
More to do with Saudi and Arab interests. Doesn't help that they are aligned with Zionists on this matter, but I wouldn't say neocons are the key factor.

As for Russia the obsession mystifies me; Neocons, Rupert Murdoch, exiled oligarchs and associated riffaff in London throwing money around, institutional inertia from the cold war?

Pat Lang Mod -> Rob , 6 hours ago
@Londonbob - There is little doubt that the UK is running these projects with money from USAID (State) and the Saudis.
DianaLC , 5 hours ago
Thank you for this information. I come here often to get a different perspective from what I hear non-stop on popular "news" outlets.

I had this problem when I was teaching research writing. The journalism majors researched only by calling someone to get nice quotations about the "facts"--as their source told them. They did not believe in doing any other sort of research really. Got to beat those deadlines, you know.

robt willmann , 6 hours ago
Good description.
Les Priest , 6 hours ago
Harper,

Orde Wingate!! Wingnut extraordinaire, as only England can produce them. A proto White Zionist & Likudnik. The Israelis see him as almost a founding father! I think there's even a statue. He's put out as a military genius but, really he was one of those special forces types who hover between tactical & operational levels, which disguises the lightweight effect of their operations: Preferably against light opposition. What he set up in the CBI theatre was glamorized, at the time, because the Brits had screwed up the defence of Burma so badly. Britain's fading glory, & the Indian Army's biggest & best operations awaited Slim (General). Read; 'Quartered Safe Out Here'.

kao_hsien_chih -> Les Priest , 4 hours ago
Yup. That was my first reaction: Orde Wingate was practically the original Christian Zionist, a real nutjob in terms of his personal beliefs and politics. Rather telling, if he's seen as the patron saint of the White Helmets.
Adrestia , 7 hours ago
Tomorrow 26-4 the Russians are flying a number of Syrians to the Netherlands for a press conference of the Russian delegation with the OPCW.

We'll see if the Syrians will be able to access the Netherlands. Considering the neocon-puppy-status of our glorious prime-minister (who might have to step-down because of repeatedly lying to parliament) I wouldn't be surprised if this will be refused.

[Apr 25, 2018] The US claim of 100% effectiveness of their weapons system and 0% of the Syrian/Russian systems, this is plainly nonsense.

Apr 25, 2018 | www.unz.com

MarkU , April 25, 2018 at 6:43 am GMT

I can think of two other important questions, what is the point of lying? and who exactly do they think they are fooling?

Firstly it is worth saying that both sides are likely to exaggerate the effectiveness of their systems, deliberately or otherwise. Let us start with the US claim of 100% effectiveness of their weapons system and 0% of the Syrian/Russian systems, this is plainly nonsense. Even with no air defences at all a certain number of malfunctions would be expected to happen. The Syrian/Russian claims are also likely to be wrong, many of the claimed intercepts were just as likely to be malfunctions.

So what is the point of lying?

First off, a reputation for unreliability is bad for sales, pure and simple. Nobody is going to be enthusiastic about spending large amounts of money on stuff that doesn't work very well, this would apply equally to both sides.

Secondly, the appetite of the general public for war in general and superpower confrontation in particular is going to be somewhat diminished if it is perceived that the other side is technologically equal or even superior. This factor is logically going to be more important to the side likely to initiate conflict.

So who do they think they are fooling?

Potential customers for weapons systems are usually not going to be naive enough to take the manufacturers claims at face value, they are likely to employ their own experts to assess the various claims. They will not be completely immune to deception of course.

Each other. Neither side would want their opponents to have the best information available, for obvious reasons. It is notable that both sides appear to have declined to fully commit their latest equipment, the Russians in particular. It is likely that both sides have reasonably good intelligence on what happened, neither side is likely to be fooled easily.

The general public are the most obvious targets of deception and the most easily fooled. It is one thing to risk a superpower conflict when your population in general is confident that you have a clear technological edge and are likely to escape the worst. It would be quite another matter to get the public on board if they believed they were up against a more or less equal opponent and were likely to get thoroughly nuked. Once again this logic applies far more strongly to the side likely to initiate a conflict for they are the ones who must manufacture consent. For this reason it would appear that the Russians have somewhat less motivation to lie than their US counterparts.

Johann , April 25, 2018 at 4:08 pm GMT
@MarkU

They lie because they can and after lying their pathetic lives away they are not even aware that they are lying. Hilary can fall down the steps in front of hundreds of cameras and lie that she did not fall. Joe Biden can lie to a reporter that he graduated number one in his law class and totally ignore the school records that he graduated in the bottom of his law class.

[Apr 25, 2018] Are the Russians Correct by W. Patrick Lang

Notable quotes:
"... The "attack" on Syria had two purposes: a saving of face, and a disposal of old ordnance. ..."
"... I suspect that only Israel had any real interest in saving the face of their hired boogeyman. Trump being a flunky of Israeli, he did what he had to do. ..."
Apr 25, 2018 | www.unz.com

At the same time it is clear that there was an understanding between the governments to insure that Russian red lines were not crossed. The evidence for the Douma gas attack is non-existent. The film evidence has now been thoroughly de-bunked as part of the information operations (propaganda) of the White Helmets scheme funded by the Saudis and largely conducted by the UK info warriors of 77 Regiment. It seems clear that US DoD was not privy to that IO project and for that Reason SECDEF Mattis was blind-sided by the deception. The struck targets (successful or not) have long been known to the US IC as facilities of the former Syrian Government chemical warfare programs. The Russians were told to stay out of those areas and so a reasonable compromise was made with a president easily fooled by social media and under heavy pressure by a population equally easy to deceive.

Nevertheless, most of the missiles failed and that failure must be dealt with.


CanSpeccy , Website April 25, 2018 at 4:46 am GMT

In an age of fake news, fake food, fake sex, Trump has taken the next logical step, by introducing fake war to keep the NeoCon Bastards off his back.
anonymous [107] Disclaimer , April 25, 2018 at 8:26 am GMT
Col. Pat Lang at his best -- explaining how military systems and strategies work.

But Lang wrote: "It seems clear that US DoD was not privy to that IO project and for that Reason SECDEF Mattis was blind-sided by the deception."

That would not have happened if Mattis -- and Trump -- included Phil Giraldi and Unz forum, as well as Lang's own SST in their daily intelligence diet.

Phil Giraldi exposed the White Helmets almost a year ago --

https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/the-fraud-of-the-white-helmets/

Unz has provided a platform for Ron Paul's Liberty Report interview of Vanessa Beeley's reporting on Syria/White Helmets

http://www.unz.com/video/ronpaullibertyreport_the-ngos-pushing-a-new-syria-war-with-guest-vanessa-beeley/

and for Eva Bartlett's on-the-scenes coverage of White Helmets activities in Syria.

The Corbett Report can be found on the Unz Forum. Corbett painstakingly deconstructed a Guardian hit-piece on Beeley, Bartlett and Tim Anderson, reproducing the emails in which the Guardian journo accused those independent correspondents of collusion with a Russian propaganda effort

https://steemit.com/news/@corbettreport/an-open-letter-to-olivia-solon

Unz Forum also hosts the Jimmy Dore show which amplified a corporate-media interviews of Jeffrey Sachs, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_O2TRzA2ezk , who told (what is presumably) a large audience that US has been engaged in the deliberate destabilization of Syria and killing of Syrian citizens since at least 2012, (and that it should STOP!);

Sachs named Operation Timber Sycamore,

http://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/scarier-than-john-bolton/#comment-2302872

Three Green Berets were killed in Jordan as part of Timber Sycamore http://www.worldinwar.eu/timber-sycamore-the-cias-syrian-regime-change-operation/

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/08/02/world/middleeast/cia-syria-rebel-arm-train-trump.html?mtrref=www.google.com&gwh=684B48451C194C2DD4F4ACB98226AA8B&gwt=pay

Mattis knew none of this?

m___ , April 25, 2018 at 8:27 am GMT

Media, keeping scores, rigged experiments

.

False flags, needed, on both sides. In the West that means catching of-handed the media, all media, all alternative media, by infusing lies, firehosing bloat, short attention span snippets to decoy and on, nothing yet invented to the rescue. That seems to work still, since the public still baits the flying dung, a given, and the scribes and editors, the graphically endowed complying.

Military back and forth, "arena" sports, pro-wresling, nothing more, nothing much. The better teams can as well play video games to see who "wins". War is essentially obsolete, makes the superstructures of the war machines on all sides obsolete. The main reason is environmental toxicity which blows back with a vengeance, war having no impact on population numbers, war having an impact on migration numbers and directions though. The migration effects of local wasteland wars seems to be interpreted by dumb elites globally as desirable(herding and how to herd large numbers of humanoids), a learning experiment. Our guess, in the long term, an unefficient weapon.

The information interchanges, essentially deciding on the rules of the local experiment, of the major players, open up views on how a global elite can function. For now in the early stages, but since global rule is unavoidable, an encouraging phenomenon.

The back country, our "gens de rien", our "deplorables" yet do not, will never, understand what is driving their sorry asses. The middle class of "shepherd dogs" tow the line of the de facto power, no independent thinking to be expected. The internet is as obfuscating as the printed press and TV ever was. Give or take, seventy percent of it ignorance of writer-editors, thirty percent of incapacitation to see anything but career and individual interests in the short term.

Technology(hard and soft, as they go together) has been wrestled from the hands of independent players, the major example being Asssange, who had an impact on the exact granular outliers, where it matters, and has been put aside silently by the ones, the only ones that should be grateful and could have had an impact on using chaos of the masses, globally, to counter the dummer, short-term policies of the elites, and pressure for faster and cleaner global rule. The middle class as a whole sucks up to power, they have done so always historically.

In all, the world goes well, the Chinese are ahead, the Russians and most independant power nuclei(Iran, Brasil(fell of the wagon), Turkey, most of Asia), now align themselves regarding systemic thinking. Nationalism of course is dead most local elites know this, even in the US, and probably Putin, the overt advertising to the Russians just a decoy. Sunny Islam has no rational stategy, and in the short term, bets everything on breeding.

Consumerism(dead man walking), has truly dumbed down the masses globally, regarless of other factors. It has been the biggest success of capitalism Western style. Again the world goes well for having global rule act more decisively, where it matters, to step up local experiments into global strategy, in the long term.

The main problem to be addressed, since it affects all other burning issues, as ecological toxicity, and on, by reinforcing these positive tendencies. One single person less, has at least a fifty percent larger impact than any other measure of redress on survival of the human race per individual. The local experiments of global attitudes hopefully are a start to smarter elites behaviour. Our elites have failed for a long time now, anything progress has been a detour to decay and sludge, and timeliness is pressing.

jimmyriddle , April 25, 2018 at 8:46 am GMT
I think you mean 77th Brigade (a propaganda and psi ops unit).

The 77th Regiment were the East Middlesex -- and were disbanded in 1881.

BTW, the 77th Brigade takes its number from the Chindits -- Orde Wingate's Indian Army special operations unit, who carried out deep penetration raids against the Japanese in Burma.

Wingate was a rather fanatical Zionist and helped set-up the Haganah, the precedecessors of the IDF.

Randal , April 25, 2018 at 9:17 am GMT
My inclination has been to believe the Russian side from quite early on, mostly on the basis that the claimed US targeting spread simply doesn't seem credible. To aim 76 missiles and guided bombs at the Barzeh "complex" seems ludicrous overkill, for a small group of basically civilian buildings that once were part of the chemical weapons program but according to recent OPCW inspections are no longer in use as such. The spread suggested by the Russians, on the other hand, seems much more credible for a punitive strike, especially if you assume the US did not expect Syrian only defences to work effectively and thus did not plan for much redundancy.

As this becomes more widely accepted, it makes the US action in Syria much less of a defeat for Russia (because they had to stand by and watch their ally get pummelled) and much closer to something that is actually a win for Russia and an embarrassment for the US. It all helps to push the credibility of Russian air defences to still higher levels.

If the Russian government goes through with the suggested plan to deliver the promised S300 systems to Syria in response, then this will have been a major defeat for those behind this shameful incident and this shameful war -- primarily the Israelis and US Israeli lobby, along with the Saudis. Doing so would be the absolute best way to make those behind the attack grind their teeth in frustration, so hopefully Russia will go through with it this time rather than coming to some "compromise" with Israel.

At some point, Russia needs to end the impunity Israel has to strike at Syria at will, and to declare an exclusion zone over the whole of Syria for all un-invited foreign air forces (ideally this would include a deal with Lebanon to allow that country also to exclude Israeli air operations from its own airspace). The need to rebuild Syria is endlessly hampered by regular attacks and the threat of them. Once the recovery of territory on the ground is complete or nearly so, the best way to do this would seem to be to first make the Syrian air defences, backed up by Russian forces in extremis, strong enough for the task. Then to authorise the Syrians to retaliate to Israeli strikes on a tit for tat basis with missile attacks on Israeli territory. Then to announce a full exclusion of US and other intruding air forces, perhaps in conjunction with an offensive to recover territories in the east after Idlib has been settled.

Imo this is what the Russians need to do if they are to bring the Syrian matter to a successful conclusion, but it will mean some more tense confrontations with the various US sphere forces.


anonymous [340] Disclaimer , April 25, 2018 at 9:29 am GMT

Mr. Lang sounds like Mr. Buchanan in his latest piece published here: someone who considers himself dissident, but who thoughtlessly accepts that his Uncle Sam is the good guy.

The article, especially this paragraph

"The US has been committed to global war for seventeen years. This has been a special kind of war waged against Islamist guerrillas and terrorists worldwide. Such a war often demands equipment quite different from that used against states, especially a peer state. In that context relatively scarce funds have not been devoted to product improvement on things like TLAM (Tomahawk). Instead the funds available have been devoted to UAVs (drones) and the incredible costs of large ground forces in the absence of conscription. The Obama Administration liked to use the armed forces but did not think of them with anything like the high priority it gave to its social programs. The resulting sequester of defense funding played a role in the decline of US equipment efficacy against that of the Russians. There will be a change in that funding."

begs some questions:

1. Does Mr. Lang support the attack on the alleged "Syrian government chemical warfare connected sites"? He sounds like he does. But why?

2. Does Mr. Lang support US military conscription? He sounds like he does. But why?

3. Does Mr. Lang believe that more money should be spent on US military equipment like Tomahawk missiles for use against the government forces of Syria and Russia? He sounds like he does. But why?

I also wonder why Mr. Unz sees this new author as "interesting, important, and controversial," with a "perspectiv[e] largely excluded from the American mainstream media."

Ronald Thomas West , Website April 25, 2018 at 9:31 am GMT
"Are the Russians Correct?"

Well, they can make stupid mistakes:

https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2018/04/25/loud-clear-commits-suicide/

Ronald Thomas West , Website April 25, 2018 at 9:58 am GMT
@Ronald Thomas West

Oh yeah, 'on topic' there's this:

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804251063880424-syrian-army-air-defense/

and this

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804251063884207-opcw-chemical-weapons-syria-damascus/

Anonymous [201] Disclaimer , April 25, 2018 at 10:42 am GMT
@anonymous

Phil Giraldi exposed the White Helmets almost a year ago –

https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/the-fraud-of-the-white-helmets/

Unz has provided a platform for Ron Paul's Liberty Report interview of Vanessa Beeley's reporting on Syria/White Helmets

http://www.unz.com/video/ronpaullibertyreport_the-ngos-pushing-a-new-syria-war-with-guest-vanessa-beeley/

and for Eva Bartlett's on-the-scenes coverage of White Helmets activities in Syria.

Is the Trump Administration/DoS trying to gaslight us?

US State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert yesterday: we "are very grateful for all the work the White Helmets continue to do.. on behalf of the US government and coalition forces.. I just exchanged emails with them the other day peoples bills are still being paid..'

Kafka , April 25, 2018 at 10:53 am GMT
@anonymous

Speaking of being the 'good guys':

http://thesaker.is/ask-yourselves-are-we-the-bad-guys/

makes a case of why we are in fact the bad guys.

anna , April 25, 2018 at 12:21 pm GMT
Maybe there is another possibility.
Merely speculating.
Mr. Trump claims he sent 100 plus missiles to impress whoever he needs to impress. They are satisfied. He looks tough.But he sends in only 20.
The Russians claim he sent in 100 and they nullified 2/3. They look good.
If 2/3 of 100 were nullified, should there not be more random craters with missile remnants or duds recovered by the Syrians?
Nate 43 , April 25, 2018 at 1:36 pm GMT
Why would you want our missiles to work against the Russians? This debacle has given us at least another six months of relative peace. The SAA can now continue clearing out jihadist in the East. FUKUS won't try again after making some adjustments to harden the electronics, but that will take some time. The only other option would be an overwhelming attack, winning through sheer numbers, but in that case the Russians will certainly counterattack, & I don't think CENTCOM wants to find out first hand how effective Russian offensive missiles systems are.

Note: If I were to guess, the Tomahawk attack was almost completely neutralized. It was the B-1, firing at relatively close range, that scored the hit on the "chemical weapons complex." This is why the Russians are sending the S-300 to Damascus.

anonymous [425] Disclaimer , April 25, 2018 at 2:39 pm GMT
Russia is going to ship the s-300 to Syria. Looks like Trump skunked the Jews again. When are the Jews going to smarten up and stop attacking Trump?

https://www.haaretz.com/middle-east-news/syria/russia-says-will-deliver-new-air-defense-systems-to-syria-soon-escalating-tensions-with-israel-1.6029530

Randal , April 25, 2018 at 3:04 pm GMT
@Yak-15

If Russia declared Syria an exclusion zone Israel would call that bluff within weeks.

Presumably it wouldn't be a bluff, and presumably the need for it not to be a bluff is why the Russians haven't done it yet.

In that theater of operations the Israelis would absolutely massacre the Russian presence and any reinforcements. Israel would easily take apart any integrated air defense system and accompanying ground units the Russians could employ by combined commando raid, ground incursion and air/missile strikes.

This appears to be pure fantasy.

Regardless, Israel isn't going to go to war with Russia merely to defend its freedom to attack Syria any time it wants. For all the wailing by Israel advocates, it just isn't that important to them. So long as they can get away with it, they'll do it. When they are forced to stop, they'll stop.

I believe if Israel sees its existence threatened it will act decisively.

Israel's existence is not meaningfully threatened by the loss of their ability to launch illegal attacks on Syria at will. The idea that it is, is a lie put about by the Israel lobby to rationalise and justify its actions.

manorchurch , April 25, 2018 at 3:08 pm GMT

Is the Trump Administration/DoS trying to gaslight us?

LOL. Why, yes, now that you mention it. Quelle surprise , eh?

The "attack" on Syria had two purposes: a saving of face, and a disposal of old ordnance.

I suspect that only Israel had any real interest in saving the face of their hired boogeyman. Trump being a flunky of Israeli, he did what he had to do.

Old ordnance or semi-0ld, revenue must be generated for the MI-complex. The bigger it grows, the more maintenance it requires. Disposal of old weaponry is just a form of cashflow. The wealthy and powerful insist on remaining wealthy and powerful. Your money is required to maintain that wealth and power. You will surrender your money to the powerful, or you will die. A simple equation.

Oniric , April 25, 2018 at 3:18 pm GMT
Russians are correct

F-UK-US always lie , they ( and their propaganda machine MSM ) would never let reality contradict their " dreams "

tac , April 25, 2018 at 3:38 pm GMT

New air defense systems will soon be delivered to Damascus

the Syrian Defense Ministry "analyzed in detail" the results of the missile attack of the United States and its allies.

"Based on it, a number of changes have already been introduced into the air defense system of the country, which will further increase its reliability ," Rudskoy said.

While the air defense systems were not named, it is widely believed to be the S-300 system.

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/official-russian-announcement-of-new-air-defense-systems-to-be-delivered-to-syria-video/

Anonymous [240] Disclaimer , April 25, 2018 at 3:40 pm GMT
The latest Syria bombing: tactically irrelevant, it showed the foundation of the F.UK.US-Israel empire, air power, ineffective and was a major strategic defeat.

[Apr 25, 2018] If Mattis didn't know about it, then he should have done and likewise with Trump

Apr 25, 2018 | www.unz.com

Some of you do not understand the degree of compartmentation in government. It is nothing like a monolith. The WHs are largely funded by USAID which is part of State Department, and administered by the UK. There is no particular reason why Mattis would know much about it. It is possible that Trump doesn't know much about it.


Herald , April 25, 2018 at 6:13 pm GMT

@Patrick Lang

If Mattis didn't know about it, then he should have done and likewise with Trump. Ignorance of the hard facts by either of these men is scarcely believable and even if true would be totally inexcuseable.

Randal , April 25, 2018 at 6:44 pm GMT
@RobinG

"Lange didn't support the strike but he saw it as the best of a lot of bad options."

Better than the option of allowing a real investigation?

At the crucial moment, Lang published the following on his website. More than likely it was seen by Mattis:

An appeal to James Mattis

I beseech you, sir, to consider the possibility that the supposed chlorine gas attack at Douma, Syria may have been a carefully constructed propaganda fraud on the part of the rebels encircled in Douma. Such a fraud would have as its purpose the elicitation of exactly the kind of response that we are seeing in the Western media. The rebels have been defeated in East Gouta Their fighters and families are being evacuated to Turkish occupied Jarabulus by air-conditioned bus. How would it benefit the Syrian government to make such an attack in this situation?

I hope that you will determine the exact facts of what occurred at Douma before any action is taken.

I recommend that you send someone competent to Syria to make an on the ground investigation.

W. Patrick Lang

Colonel (Ret.) US Army

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/04/an-appeal-to-james-mattis.html

L.K , April 25, 2018 at 7:19 pm GMT
@Herald

If Mattis didn't know about it, then he should have done and likewise with Trump. Ignorance of the hard facts by either of these men is scarcely believable and even if true would be totally inexcuseable.

So true but I'm pretty sure they knew.

JerseyJeffersonian , April 25, 2018 at 8:32 pm GMT
@RobinG

RobinG,

It were wise to consider that Mattis' access to information might be being impeded – actively and/or passively – by the NeoCon bitter enders installed during the previous administrations, people who believe that it is their job to do so. (We have been seeing this very thing from the bitter enders at the FBI and the "Justice" departments in their plotting against the new administration, yes? So you have an example of that right in front of your eyes.)

With that understanding, and given Col. Lang's likely experience of this sort of obstruction by hostile underlings, his appeal to Mattis might be seen as an admonition to dig a little deeper, & to press his underlings about their truthfulness. So, Mattis could indeed be misinformed, and precisely because of the compartmentalization that you accede. Hence the letter going hand in hand with his worries about active and/or passive obstruction in access to vital information, or the existence of contrary intelligence and interpretation.

[Apr 24, 2018] The anti-Russia agenda continues along with the anti-truth-in-Syria agenda

Apr 24, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Curtis | Apr 22, 2018 12:32:23 PM | 8

Anonymous 4

BBC took on Vannessa Beeley recently, too. Will NYT and WaPo be next? The anti-Russia agenda continues along with the anti-truth-in-Syria agenda.

AriusAmerican 5

During the Bush II fiasco, there were anti-war protests. The protests disappeared after Obama took office. And he was given a Nobel Peace Prize for talking about peace. But everyone went along with Obama's wars. No protests. And that's how they like it. They want support and tend to get it from the MSM and party lackeys. And if they don't get support, the one thing they don't want are massive protests, calls to congress, etc. As long as there's little to no resistance their war agenda continues.

somebody , Apr 22, 2018 2:23:31 PM | 16
PS
The HuffPoUK article tears into Beeley but at the bottom has a Russian submission to the Security Council of a report she did of the White Helmets. That report negates the article/story! HuffPoUK claims this is part two of a series and that part three will "look at evidence presented against the White Helmets." That should be interesting.

Posted by: Curtis | Apr 22, 2018 12:49:24 PM | 9

The White Helmets tried to recruit Roger Waters

The October 2016 dinner invite was delivered to Waters by a representative for the Corniche Group, an international holding company belonging to the family of the London-based Saudi billionaire Hani Farsi. Farsi was seeking Waters' presence at a fundraising dinner he had organized on behalf of The Syria Campaign.
bevin , Apr 22, 2018 2:04:47 PM | 14
Beeley and others are getting the same sort of treatment that Alan Winnington and Wilfred Burchett- both of whom had their passports revoked, by respectively the British and Australian government.
Winnington told the truth about the Korean war in the Communist Daily Worker while Burchett, beginning with his reports of Hiroshima, which told the truth about nuclear bombs, later repeated the offence in Korea and Vietnam.
Their names will be remembered long after the last bits of jewelry and expensive furnishings have been auctioned off from the homes of the whores who work for the bourgeoisie.

[Apr 23, 2018] Tucker Carlson reporting on Syria

Notable quotes:
"... Last week, after a series of controversial prime-time episodes of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," which questioned whether it is in America's best national security interest to overthrow Bashar al-Assad in Syria; what the ultimate end-game looks like, considering the post-coup mess America's made of Libya and Iraq; and if the recent alleged chemical warfare assault on children was actually the work of Assad or even if it happened -- Tucker Carlson was M.I.A. from his own show Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights. ..."
"... I hear Tucker Carlson is MIA in the USA. Has he been Arkanicided? ..."
"... He recently did an interview totally challenging the permanent state spin on world affairs. As much as I detest the conservatives I absolutely value his honesty and calm tenacity. ..."
Apr 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

vbo | Apr 23, 2018 9:26:58 AM | 98

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/317991/string-theories-tucker-carlson-and-the-unspeakabl.html

We're nearing apocalypse if I'm out here carrying water for Fox News' Tucker Carlson, who is hopefully not being water-boarded as I type this.

Last week, after a series of controversial prime-time episodes of "Tucker Carlson Tonight," which questioned whether it is in America's best national security interest to overthrow Bashar al-Assad in Syria; what the ultimate end-game looks like, considering the post-coup mess America's made of Libya and Iraq; and if the recent alleged chemical warfare assault on children was actually the work of Assad or even if it happened -- Tucker Carlson was M.I.A. from his own show Wednesday, Thursday and Friday nights.

MadMax2 , Apr 23, 2018 5:45:39 PM | 130

Tucker Carlson has a tweet up from four hours ago, saying that he will be back on Fox News tonight, after three days off.
Posted by: lysias | Apr 23, 2018 4:13:07 PM | 123

Let's see if he continues to entertain any truth on Syria. One of the most outstanding pieces of MSM busting work there recently. Thought he was on the edge of getting Ben Swann'd on the back of that effort, or maybe even some threatened with some mild waterboarding.

uncle tungsten , Apr 23, 2018 6:32:16 PM | 134
Thanks for the Carla Ortiz post b. She is a great and brave reporter.

I hear Tucker Carlson is MIA in the USA. Has he been Arkanicided?

He recently did an interview totally challenging the permanent state spin on world affairs. As much as I detest the conservatives I absolutely value his honesty and calm tenacity.

[Apr 23, 2018] Syrian Narratives the Worthy, the Scurvy, and the Topsy-Turvy by Wendy Davis

Syria civil war is the result of a attempt to stage a color revolution in the country, exploiting temporary economic difficulties, mistakes by Assad government, overpopulation and lack of water. Money were supplied mostly by the USA and Saudi.
Empire does creates its own reality. Syria is a nice example of the reality that the US empire creates...
Notable quotes:
"... To start this conflict and then keep its fires burning the US and its Satellites have spent billions of dollars. It's curious that the New York Times has recently uncovered the criminal role that the CIA played in the Syrian war, reporting that members of the Obama administration have told them that Saudi Arabia is sponsoring the absolute majority of overseas unannounced overseas wars, to keep the role played in them by Washington a secret. At times the US and Saudi Arabia would share their intelligence, while in some cases Riyadh just hand out large sums of money to CIA operatives, without asking any questions. ..."
"... Back in 2013 the CIA and Riyadh have agreed on launching an operation under the code name the Timber Sycamore that is aimed at toppling Syria's elected officials through the continuous training and supported provided to all sorts of radical militants. ..."
"... And again, h/t Jacob Freeze, more Imperial Scurvy: 'Syria Will Stain Obama's Legacy Forever; The arc of history is long, but it won't ever judge the president's Syria policy kindly', David Greenberg, foreignpolicy.com , Dec. 29, 2016, accompanied by the obligatory photos of the White Helmuts 'saving' wee chirren. ..."
"... In fact many Syrians did not want civil war -- understandably enough since the human and material costs would be devastating. Second, large numbers of Syrians who had no fondness for Assad had even greater reason to fear what might come after him: very likely some combination of radical jihadi forces. Indeed, victorious jihadis might likely then have gone on to wage an internecine power struggle among themselves, just like the civil war among the Afghan mujahideen after the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1988; it all but destroyed the country." ..."
"... "The world has learned that any state that does not accept the U.S.-designed order in the Middle East by definition becomes a "rogue regime" -- hence losing any sovereign rights on the international scene. And Washington's policies have all along been heavily driven by Israel's own regional agenda. It's a bitter pill then: acceptance of Assad's remaining in power until the international order can eventually craft some new political process that offers more representative government there ." (blink, blink) ..."
"... "We believe Bashar's weaknesses are in how he chooses to react to looming issues, both perceived and real, such as the conflict between economic reform steps (however limited) and entrenched, corrupt forces, the Kurdish question, and the potential threat to the regime from the increasing presence of transiting Islamist extremists. This cable summarizes our assessment of these vulnerabilities and suggests that there may be actions, statements, and signals that the USG can send that will improve the likelihood of such opportunities arising." ..."
"... To Hasan, the Syrian State's position on the political spectrum is unrelated to its goals: overcoming sectarian and other divisions in the Arab world, safeguarding Syria's political independence, and achieving economic sovereignty. Nor does it matter that Damascus is engaged in a struggle against (to use Hasan's own words) "rapacious U.S. foreign policy", "Saudi-inspired extremism" and "Israeli opportunism" -- in other words, the aggression of conservative and reactionary forces that are more powerful individually to say nothing of collectively than the Syrian State by many orders of magnitude. To the Mahatma, all of these considerations are irrelevant, and all that matters in the evaluation of Assad's political orientation is whether the methods Damascus has used to defend the gains it has made in the direction of asserting its right to equality and sovereignty are methods that that are suitable to a State in periods of stability, normalcy and safety. It's as if what Hasan deplores about a war cabinet, for example, is not the war that made the war cabinet necessary, but the very fact that a war cabinet was created in response to it, as if carrying on in the regular manner could somehow make the war go away." ..."
"... Gowans added a bit more reality on Hasan's 'diatribe' today with: ' Meet Syria's real mass murderers' ..."
"... Related, of course: William Blum's ' Overthrowing other people's governments: The Master List' (since WW II) Spoiler alert: it's a long list ..."
Apr 23, 2018 | caucus99percent.com

https://www.youtube.com/embed/zGEc-CMsrQs?version=3&rel=1&fs=1&autohide=2&showsearch=0&showinfo=1&iv_load_policy=1&wmode=transparent

The Worthy: According to RT : Jeffrey Sachs , economist, UN special adviser, and Colombia University professor told MSNBC's Morning Joe program that the current situation in Syria is a "US mistake that started seven years ago."

Those seven years have been a "disaster," he said, recalling a covert CIA operation called 'Operation: Timber Sycamore. ' The US "started a war to overthrow a regime."

"This is what I would call the 'Permanent State.' This is the CIA, this is the Pentagon wanting to keep Iran and Russia out of Syria, but we have no way to do that. And so we have made a proxy war in Syria.

"And so, what I would plead to President Trump is: Get out, like your instinct told you Get out. We've done enough damage in seven years," he said."

'Operation Timber Sycamore And Washington's Secret War On Syria; To start this conflict and then keep its fires burning the US and its Satellites have spent billions of dollars' by Martin Berger: DIA Docs: West Wants A "Salafist Principality In Eastern Syria" By Robert Barsocchini , mintpressnews.com

In part:

"To start this conflict and then keep its fires burning the US and its Satellites have spent billions of dollars. It's curious that the New York Times has recently uncovered the criminal role that the CIA played in the Syrian war, reporting that members of the Obama administration have told them that Saudi Arabia is sponsoring the absolute majority of overseas unannounced overseas wars, to keep the role played in them by Washington a secret. At times the US and Saudi Arabia would share their intelligence, while in some cases Riyadh just hand out large sums of money to CIA operatives, without asking any questions.

Back in 2013 the CIA and Riyadh have agreed on launching an operation under the code name the Timber Sycamore that is aimed at toppling Syria's elected officials through the continuous training and supported provided to all sorts of radical militants. Under the deal the Saudis contribute both weapons and large sums of money, and the CIA takes the lead in training the rebels on AK-47 assault rifles and tank-destroying missile. Moreover, Turkey, Jordan and Qatar have all been involved in this criminal design, even though exact amounts of money that the above mentioned states handed over to the CIA will always remain a secret. Still, the New York Times states that Saudi Arabia has been the major sponsor throughout all this time, allocating billions of dollars in a bid to bring down the government of Bashar al-Assad."

More from the internal NYT 'U.S. Relies Heavily on Saudi Money to Support Syrian Rebels', NYTimes.com , Jan. 23, 2016

"WASHINGTON -- When President Obama secretly authorized the Central Intelligence Agency to begin arming Syria s embattled rebels in 2013, the spy agency knew it would have a willing partner to help pay for the covert operation. It was the same partner the C.I.A. has relied on for decades for money and discretion in far-off conflicts: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Since then, the C.I.A. and its Saudi counterpart have maintained an unusual arrangement for the rebel-training mission, which the Americans have code-named Timber Sycamore.

By the summer of 2012, a freewheeling feel had taken hold along Turkey's border with Syria as the gulf nations funneled cash and weapons to rebel groups -- even some that American officials were concerned had ties to radical groups like Al Qaeda.

The C.I.A. was mostly on the sidelines during this period, authorized by the White House under the Timber Sycamore training program to deliver nonlethal aid to the rebels but not weapons. In late 2012, according to two former senior American officials, David H. Petraeus, then the C.I.A. director, delivered a stern lecture to intelligence officials of several gulf nations at a meeting near the Dead Sea in Jordan. He chastised them for sending arms into Syria without coordinating with one another or with C.I.A. officers in Jordan and Turkey.

Months later, Mr. Obama gave his approval for the C.I.A. to begin directly arming and training the rebels from a base in Jordan, amending the Timber Sycamore program to allow lethal assistance. Under the new arrangement, the C.I.A. took the lead in training, while Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency, the General Intelligence Directorate, provided money and weapons, including TOW anti-tank missiles."

And again, h/t Jacob Freeze, more Imperial Scurvy: 'Syria Will Stain Obama's Legacy Forever; The arc of history is long, but it won't ever judge the president's Syria policy kindly', David Greenberg, foreignpolicy.com , Dec. 29, 2016, accompanied by the obligatory photos of the White Helmuts 'saving' wee chirren.

Self-explanantory in the main, but:

"Since the Syrian uprising began in 2011, Americans have regarded the carnage there as essentially a humanitarian disaster. For Obama, contemplating his legacy, the awful death and destruction that Syria has suffered -- the 400,000 deaths, the wholesale wasting of civilian neighborhoods, the wanton use of sarin gas and chlorine gas and barrel bombs, the untold atrocities -- has raised the old question of how future generations will judge an American president's passivity or ineffectuality in the face of mass slaughter."

Here Barsocchini features some of the docs that are hard to read on the pdfs: 'DIA Docs: West Wants A "Salafist Principality In Eastern Syria" , Robert Barsocchini , 26 May, 2015, Countercurrents.org, (plus he helpfully adds a few related definitions, and more history re: the Sauds.

Clearly this is the Scurvy : Graham E. Fuller 's 'What is the U.S. Fighting for in Syria?, ( former senior CIA official), April 18, consortiumnews.com, and he did he did face some strong objections in the comments, but not enough, imo, as did Sybil Edmonds' hits on Bartlett and Beeley even as he got some of it right, of course. A few bits:

"The power struggle between the Assad regime and the array of diverse insurgents has oscillated over seven years. Initially, when the government faced the first outbreak of domestic insurgency in 2011 , it appeared that he might not last long in the evolving Arab Spring. But he proved resilient."

[wd here: Ah, the CIA-George Soros, anti-Communist Otpor- sponsored Arab Spring ; have you forgotten your roots, dude?]

"He was willing to strike back ruthlessly at the early uprisings and nip them in the bud. He was aided by the fact that the Syrian population was itself highly ambivalent about any collapse of his government. As regional regimes went it was unquestionably autocratic but not more brutal than usual in the region -- at least not until early insurgent forces challenged the regime's existence and Damascus began to show real teeth.

In fact many Syrians did not want civil war -- understandably enough since the human and material costs would be devastating. Second, large numbers of Syrians who had no fondness for Assad had even greater reason to fear what might come after him: very likely some combination of radical jihadi forces. Indeed, victorious jihadis might likely then have gone on to wage an internecine power struggle among themselves, just like the civil war among the Afghan mujahideen after the withdrawal of Soviet forces in 1988; it all but destroyed the country."

"The world has learned that any state that does not accept the U.S.-designed order in the Middle East by definition becomes a "rogue regime" -- hence losing any sovereign rights on the international scene. And Washington's policies have all along been heavily driven by Israel's own regional agenda. It's a bitter pill then: acceptance of Assad's remaining in power until the international order can eventually craft some new political process that offers more representative government there ." (blink, blink)

Worthy from Caitlin Johnstone , the Worthy: ' America's Long History of Trying to Determine Who Rules Syria' , April 12, 2018, consortiumnews.com; some excerpts:

" The 2006 William Roebuck Cable

A December 13, 2006 cable published by WikiLeaks reveals how five years prior to the beginning of the violence, the US government (USG) was seeking out weaknesses of the Assad government which could be exploited to undermine it. William Roebuck, an official at the US embassy in Damascus, said this in his summary of the cable:

"We believe Bashar's weaknesses are in how he chooses to react to looming issues, both perceived and real, such as the conflict between economic reform steps (however limited) and entrenched, corrupt forces, the Kurdish question, and the potential threat to the regime from the increasing presence of transiting Islamist extremists. This cable summarizes our assessment of these vulnerabilities and suggests that there may be actions, statements, and signals that the USG can send that will improve the likelihood of such opportunities arising."

(She links to more information on that at Truthout.org , Oct. 9)

" The 1986 CIA Memo

A CIA document declassified last year exposed a plot to overthrow the Syrian government by provoking sectarian tensions all the way back in 1986. Here are a few juicy excerpts : [wd here: I'll provide a couple]

"We believe that a renewal of communal violence between Alawis and Sunnis could inspire Sunnis in the military to turn against the regime."

"Sunni dissidence has been minimal since Assad crushed the Muslim Brotherhood in the early 1980s, but deep-seated tensions remain–keeping alive the potential for minor incidents to grow into major flareups of communal violence Excessive government force in quelling such disturbances might be seen by Sunnis as evidence of a government vendetta against all Sunnis, precipitating even larger protests by other Sunni groups."

"Mistaking the new protests as a resurgence of the Muslim Brotherhood, the government would step up its use of force and launch violent attacks on a broad spectrum of Sunni community leaders as well as on those engaged in protests. Regime efforts to restore order would founder if government violence against protestors inspired broad-based communal violence between Alawis and Sunnis."

Rebutting the Scurvy and Topsy-Turvey : On April 21, the good Stephen Gowans deconstructed some creepiness at the Intercept in his ' Mehdi Hasan, beautiful soul, and his diatribe against the consequential Left'

"If it wasn't already clear, The Intercept's Mehdi Hasan, wants us to know he's a beautiful soul. In an April 19 diatribe against "Bashar al Assad apologists," Hasan professes his distaste for war crimes, torture, and dictatorship, no matter the source, but devotes particular attention to the violence and restrictions on political and civil liberties attributable to the Syrian president. Assad, Hasan concludes, "is a war criminal even if he didn't gas civilians," and leftists should stop defending him. The journalist, who once worked for the Qatari monarchy's mouthpiece Al Jazeera , then proceeds to recite a litany of charges against Assad, some undeniable, some unproved or unprovable. One gets the impression that he's peeved that the latest chemical weapons allegations against the Syrian government, ridiculously thin to begin with, and now largely demolished by Robert Fisk's reporting , have failed to stick." [snip]

" Hasan has turned the distinction between goals and methods on its head . In Hasan's view, leftists are defined not by what they're trying to achieve, but by the methods they use. Torture, dictatorship, abridgement of civil liberties, warfare that produces collateral civilian casualties -- all these things, according to Hasan, are signs of a contra-left political orientation. Thus, he argues, with illogic, that "Bashar al-Assad is not an anti-imperialist of any kind, nor is he a secular bulwark against jihadism; he is a mass murderer, plain and simple ." The illogic is evident in the false dichotomy that lies at the center of his argument. Mass murderer (if indeed Assad can be so characterized) does not exclude anti-imperialist and secular bulwark against jihadism; but in Hasan's world, mass murderer and secular anti-imperialist are mutually exclusive. They are so to Hasan, because he has transfigured Leftism into the concept of avoiding all choices that have potentially awful consequences.

The beautiful soul retreats from the political struggles of the real world into impotent moral posturing, where no choices are ever made, because the consequences of all choices are awful to one degree or another. Success, then, in any political struggle is transformed from acting on the world to change it into avoiding any step that might have terrible consequences -- a recipe for impotence, paralysis and failure. To the beautiful soul, the only leftist political movement that is worthy of support is the one that fails, never the one that comes to power and implements its political program and fights to overcome opposition to it.

To Hasan, the Syrian State's position on the political spectrum is unrelated to its goals: overcoming sectarian and other divisions in the Arab world, safeguarding Syria's political independence, and achieving economic sovereignty. Nor does it matter that Damascus is engaged in a struggle against (to use Hasan's own words) "rapacious U.S. foreign policy", "Saudi-inspired extremism" and "Israeli opportunism" -- in other words, the aggression of conservative and reactionary forces that are more powerful individually to say nothing of collectively than the Syrian State by many orders of magnitude. To the Mahatma, all of these considerations are irrelevant, and all that matters in the evaluation of Assad's political orientation is whether the methods Damascus has used to defend the gains it has made in the direction of asserting its right to equality and sovereignty are methods that that are suitable to a State in periods of stability, normalcy and safety. It's as if what Hasan deplores about a war cabinet, for example, is not the war that made the war cabinet necessary, but the very fact that a war cabinet was created in response to it, as if carrying on in the regular manner could somehow make the war go away." [snip]

"So, faced with these enormous challenges, what should Assad do? Whatever it is, Hasan can't say. The best The Intercept writer can do is demand: "Is it the only way you know how to oppose" US, Saudi and Israeli aggression? Well, it does, indeed, appear to be the only way the Syrian government knows how to resist forces many times stronger than itself. But if not this way, then what way? "Should we shoot balloons at the opposition?" Assad once asked another beautiful soul."

Gowans added a bit more reality on Hasan's 'diatribe' today with: ' Meet Syria's real mass murderers'

Related, of course: William Blum's ' Overthrowing other people's governments: The Master List' (since WW II) Spoiler alert: it's a long list, and ends:

"Q: Why will there never be a coup d'état in Washington?

A: Because there's no American embassy there.

[Apr 23, 2018] Former Saudi Ambassador to the United States and Director General of Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency Prince Turki al Faisal debated Ambassador Hossein Mousavian, a former spokesman for Iran's nuclear negotiators

Apr 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

mauisurfer | Apr 23, 2018 2:38:05 PM | 120

The central rivalry of Muslim Mideast is Saudi v Iran.

Here is the rivalry at its highest level.

In Tampa, Florida, former Saudi Ambassador to the United States and Director General of Saudi Arabia's intelligence agency Prince Turki al Faisal debated Ambassador Hossein Mousavian, a former spokesman for Iran's nuclear negotiators and chairman of the foreign policy committee of Iran's National Security Council.

The lively discussion touched on each country's view of its security environment and the broader issues affecting the Iran-Saudi relationship.

Partial transcript of debate here:

https://lobelog.com/a-saudi-iranian-dialogue-on-regional-security/

[Apr 23, 2018] Very, very, very touching video of a child's testimony on the atrocities of ISIS in Deir Ezzor.

Apr 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: NemesisCalling | Apr 23, 2018 12:57:52 AM | 76

Very, very, very touching video of a child's testimony on the atrocities of ISIS in Deir Ezzor. He is one brave boy. Syria I am sure is full of brave children by now.

The interviewer does a great job with the child, as well. Unlike White Helmets that goad and egg on rehearsed responses, when they are not forcibly picking up children and moving them to point B where they douse them with water from a hose and then are quickly lifted into the arms of another man and taken to point C where they are promptly left alone and afraid as the camera man films their tears of confusion.

[Apr 22, 2018] A very large amount of ammunition and equipment captured by SAA in East Qalamoun

Who paid for this amount of ammunition delivered to rebels? Are those from Libya courtesy of Obama and Hillary clinton ?
Apr 22, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com
aleksandar , 6 hours ago
More about East Qalamoun
Some details of #SAA's confiscation ( from 24 Resistance Axis )

3 h24 in East #Qalamoun:

Djihadists have even built an iron track for handling inside their ammo depots !

Eugene Owens , 12 hours ago
Thanx TTG.

IMHO the negotiations for the East Qalamoun pocket were critical since it overlooks the the M5 Hiway between Damascus and Homs. But even more importantly the Syrian Air Defenses will be much better when early warning radars are set up on the peaks there.

There is at least one suggestion that only part of the FSA in East Qalamoun will be evacuated, and the remainder will be inducted into a pro-Assad NDF:

View Hide

[Apr 22, 2018] Here is a video of someone who was in Aleppo documenting events at the fall of Allepo, and is also discussing the White Helmets issue on the Jimmy Dore Show

Apr 22, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Clonal Antibody , 8 hours ago

Here is a video of someone who was in Aleppo documenting events at the fall of Allepo, and is also discussing the White Helmets issue on the Jimmy Dore Show

Carla Ortiz Shocking Video From Syria Contradicts Corp. News Coverage

Play Hide

[Apr 22, 2018] Beware Of White Helmets Bearing News by Ann Wright

Notable quotes:
"... RT's Arabic service also tracked down an 11-year old boy filmed in the "attack," and found him in completely good health and able to answer questions of the RT reporter. He told her he was with his mother when they were urged to enter the clinic. "We were outside," the boy said, and they told all of us to go into the hospital. I was immediately taken upstairs, and they started pouring water on me." ..."
"... US still paying White Helmets despite $200mn-aid freeze for Syria recovery, State Dept. confirms | 20 April 2018 ..."
"... This shit just keeps getting deeper, and so many questions to ask, but the main question is why would Trump ever believe any intelligence agency was telling him the truth? The last time I looked, it was the intelligence agencies that lied, leaked, and this time set Trump up. ..."
Apr 22, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Ann Wright via ConsortiumNews.com,

The celebrated White Helmets of Oscar fame appeared to have made their own feature film in Duma on the night of the alleged chemical attack...

At the center of the controversy over an alleged chemical attack in the Damascus suburb of Duma on April 7 are the White Helmets, a self-described rescue operation about whom an Oscar-winning documentary was made.

Reporter and author Max Blumenthal has tracked the role of the White Helmets in the Syrian conflict. He reported that the White Helmets were created in Turkey by James Le Mesurier, a former British MI5 agent. The group has received at least $55 million from the British Foreign Office and $23 million from the U.S. Agency for International Development as well as millions from the Kingdom of Qatar, which has backed a variety of extremist groups in Syria including Al Qaeda.

Blumenthal writes, "When Defense Secretary James Mattis cited 'social media' in place of scientific evidence of a chemical attack in Duma, he was referring to video shot by members of the White Helmets. Similarly, when State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert sought to explain why the US bombed Syria before inspectors from the OPCW could produce a report from the ground, she claimed , 'We have our own intelligence.' With little else to offer, she was likely referring to social media material published by members of the White Helmets. "

The reference to social media as evidence in the most serious decision a leader can make -- to engage in an act of war -- is part of a disturbing trend. Then Secretary of State John Kerry pointed to "social media" as evidence of the Syrian government's guilt in a 2013 chemical attack in the same Damascus suburb. But as Robert Parry, the late founder and editor of this site, pointed out in numerous reports, Syrian government guilt was far from a sure thing.

Rather than wait for the arrival of a team of experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to assess whether chemicals had even used in this latest incident, Trump gave the order to bomb.

Gas!

The possible role of the White Helmets in the latest alleged chemical attack was first revealed by veteran Middle East reporter Robert Fisk, writing for The Independent . In "The Search for Truth in the Rubble of Douma-And One Doctor's Doubts Over the Chemical Attacks," Fisk reported that he tracked down 58-year-old Syrian doctor Assim Rahaibani.

A White Helmet (Photo: whitehelmets.org)l

The doctor told Fisk that he learned from fellow physicians who were on duty at the clinic the night of the attack. Rahaibani said patients were brought in by "jihadi gunmen of Jaish el-Islam [the Army of Islam]" in Duma and that the patients appeared to be "overcome not by gas but by oxygen starvation in the rubbish-filled tunnels and basements in which they lived, on a night of wind and heavy shelling that stirred up a dust storm."

Rahaibani told Fisk, "I was with my family in the basement of my home three hundred metres from here on the night but all the doctors know what happened. There was a lot of shelling [by government forces] and aircraft were always over Duma at night – but on this night, there was wind and huge dust clouds began to come into the basements and cellars where people lived. People began to arrive here suffering from hypoxia, oxygen loss."

Rahaibani continued:

"Then someone at the door, a 'White Helmet,' shouted 'Gas!', and a panic began. People started throwing water over each other. Yes, the video was filmed here, it is genuine, but what you see are people suffering from hypoxia – not gas poisoning."

Fisk writes that, " There are the many people I talked to amid the ruins of the town who said they had 'never believed in' gas stories – which were usually put about, they claimed, by the armed Islamist groups. These particular jihadis survived under a blizzard of shellfire by living in other's people's homes and in vast, wide tunnels with underground roads carved through the living rock by prisoners with pick-axes on three levels beneath the town. I walked through three of them yesterday, vast corridors of living rock which still contained Russian – yes, Russian – rockets and burned-out cars."

Significantly, Fisk reported that locals told him that White Helmets left with jihadists bused out of Duma in a deal made with the Syrian government and Russia, which provided security for the transfer.

Other Reports

Other reporters have corroborated what Fisk found. Reporter Pearson Sharp of One America News, a conservative Christian TV network and supporter of President Trump, interviewed doctors and witnesses at the clinic. They also said there was no chemical attack and that strangers came into the clinic and shouted "Gas!" and filmed the reaction.

RT's Arabic service also tracked down an 11-year old boy filmed in the "attack," and found him in completely good health and able to answer questions of the RT reporter. He told her he was with his mother when they were urged to enter the clinic. "We were outside," the boy said, and they told all of us to go into the hospital. I was immediately taken upstairs, and they started pouring water on me."

* * *

Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel. She was also a US diplomat and was in US Embassies in Nicaragua, Grenada, Somalia, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Sierra Leone, Micronesia, Afghanistan and Mongolia. She resigned from the US government in March 2003 in opposition to the lies the Bush administration was stating as the rationale for the invasion, occupation and destruction of Iraq. She is the co-author of "Dissent: Voices of Conscience." Tags Politics

Slippery Slope -> BaBaBouy Sun, 04/22/2018 - 18:51 Permalink

Terrorists with White Helmets.

house biscuit -> Slippery Slope Sun, 04/22/2018 - 18:53 Permalink

It just goes to show how little They respect your intelligence "I got it, I got it: we'll use white hats.....the dumb fucks will never know..."

Government nee -> house biscuit Sun, 04/22/2018 - 18:59 Permalink

White helmet = CIA freelancer. Shoot to kill (tyranny).

JohninMK -> Government nee Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:05 Permalink

OPCW have completed their first sampling. Now we wait.

BorraChoom -> JohninMK Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:48 Permalink

The director of the OPCW, Ahmet Uzumcu, a former career diplomat with the Turk foreign ministry – a former Turk ambassador to the Zionist Apartheid State (7-28-1999 to 6-30-2002). He was also, amazingly, Turkey's former representative to NATO. Being a Turk with qualifications like this would make anyone suspect that his credibility was fragile to nil.

blindfaith -> shovelhead Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:24 Permalink

Money wise you are correct. Almost 100 million dollars....what the hell are they eating filet, Russian Caviar, and drinking Cyrstal Champagne?

BorraChoom -> blindfaith Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:41 Permalink

US still paying White Helmets despite $200mn-aid freeze for Syria recovery, State Dept. confirms | 20 April 2018

Butifldrm -> BaBaBouy Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:14 Permalink

This shit just keeps getting deeper, and so many questions to ask, but the main question is why would Trump ever believe any intelligence agency was telling him the truth? The last time I looked, it was the intelligence agencies that lied, leaked, and this time set Trump up.

blindfaith -> Butifldrm Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:21 Permalink

Since his son in law enjoys parties out on the Hampton with George Soros, perhaps ol' George can fill him in and carry the "facts" back to Trump....first hand. CNN waits.

Quantify -> Butifldrm Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:55 Permalink

Trump is doing what he can. They are just kicking the nests to keep the bees and hornets stinging each other.

johnnycanuck -> Butifldrm Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:59 Permalink

Trump is a huckster, and is all in for anything related to scamming Americans and anyone else who would believe what he says or does. It has nothing to do with 'Intelligence'.

trgfunds -> BaBaBouy Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:29 Permalink

LOL apparently the only "victims" are small children who are perfectly dressed! "CALL MACY'S WE NEED MORE KID MODELS ASAP"

Vilfredo Pareto -> trgfunds Sun, 04/22/2018 - 20:39 Permalink

I noticed on the previous alleged gas attack the oppo seemed to look for the whitest kids possible. I guess they couldn't find enough this time, but dress them up nice for the cameras lol.

toady Sun, 04/22/2018 - 18:47 Permalink

Ha! That's what I was saying before the tomahawk strike... is there a way to target the white helmets first? Save us from their lies in the future.... I guess we'll be forced to leave that heavy lifting to Assad and Putin.

johnnycanuck -> toady Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:48 Permalink

"jihadi gunmen of Jaish el-Islam [the Army of Islam]" Galloway posed a question to the British Government and people that deserves an answer from the likes of their PM. 'Why are we supporting a group that calls itself the Army of Islam?'

chunga Sun, 04/22/2018 - 18:49 Permalink

This and the Skripal poison story have been met by a great deal of skepticism.

VWAndy -> chunga Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:20 Permalink

Well maybe because they stink on ice and everyone thats pulled their head out of their ass noticed. Even taken at face values both of these stories and many others defy basic logic.

chunga -> VWAndy Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:30 Permalink

The lack of any reasonable motives followed by fake supporting evidence is about as basic as it gets.

VWAndy -> chunga Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:35 Permalink

Demonstrably false by their own statements no less.

VWAndy Sun, 04/22/2018 - 18:52 Permalink

Team fiat is very well funded.

I am Groot Sun, 04/22/2018 - 18:53 Permalink

White helmets = Stormtroopers = Disney = Crisis actors. Nuff said. Expect David Hogg to be protesting guns in Syria any day now.

Government nee -> I am Groot Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:01 Permalink

Hogg stays in the rear, waiting for someone packing' the gear.

hongdo Sun, 04/22/2018 - 18:55 Permalink

18 intelligence agencies counting social media. Used to be called open source. It's free and seems to have more influence than the other expensive 17.

It must of been bitter for a combat "Mad Dog" to have to rely on social media pansies instead of his tough guy intel crew.

chunga -> hongdo Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:10 Permalink

That's especially embarrassing since, if this was a staged fake event, the official experts fell for it or more likely pretending they fell for it. I'm not sure but MSM might still be pretending to fall for it*.

A good journalist would be there finding out about the "White Helmets" for example, who is in charge and by what authority they have being there.

* long list of pretenders includes congress and the dotard.

shovelhead -> hongdo Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:19 Permalink

Lol. tough guy intel crew. Ok, we saw it on you tube...Bombs away. That's a wrap.

spoonful Sun, 04/22/2018 - 18:56 Permalink

The possible role of the White Helmets in the latest alleged chemical attack was first revealed by veteran Middle East reporter Robert Fisk, writing for The Independent . Actually, Vanessa Beely reported it almost a week before the honorable Mr. Fisk

http://tapnewswire.com/2018/04/ukc-vanessa-douma-false-flag/

JohninMK -> spoonful Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:07 Permalink

Yes but the Indy is owned by a Russian!

thisandthat -> JohninMK Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:26 Permalink

"They took our rags!"

VWAndy -> spoonful Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:13 Permalink

Its all good. Nice to see other people can see right thru the bs.

thisandthat -> VWAndy Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:28 Permalink

"They preemptively arrived at the scene."

Crash N. Burn Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:07 Permalink

Posted this in a thread yesterday:

Emails reveal White Helmets tried to lobby ex-Pink Floyd frontman Roger Waters

"Rogers did not respond to either email, according to journalist Max Blumenthal, who obtained the messages. Instead of giving the stage to the White Helmets during his Barcelona concert, Waters denounced the organization.

"The White Helmets is a fake organization that exists only to create propaganda for jihadists and terrorists.""

WTFUD -> Crash N. Burn Sun, 04/22/2018 - 19:22 Permalink

RW, despite his Jewish Heritage, has loooooong been outspoken against Israeli fuckery in Syria, Palestine, Lebanon etc etc

Not to the same scale/degree as Norm Finkelstein, but he's an intellectual and does it for a living; not that RW's isn't real smart.

Fact is, due to his music he can reach so many more ordinary people. Shows you how fucking dumb Clooney & his White Helmets are approaching Waters, oblivious to the fact he's been calling out Zionists/Others for decades.

We need more great people like him in the struggle.

[Apr 22, 2018] The Final Nail in the Russian Collusion Conspiracy Theory Coffin Comes at a Price by by Nathan McDonald

In no way MSM will drop "Russiagate" theme. They are way too invested in it. Douma attack changes nothing at all, contary to the author claims.
Notable quotes:
"... the Russian Conspiracy Theory -- rammed down the throats of everyone around the globe since Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States -- has finally been laid to rest. ..."
"... Russia may or may not act, but it is rather unlikely that they will -- at least in the short term -- as the full combined might of the West is still an overwhelming force that no one nation can contend with. Russia knows this, and they are not stupid. But this is not to say that things cannot, nor will not, change in the future. ..."
"... Meanwhile, the chatter of Russian collusion, via the corrupt and dying MSM has petered out, as even those suffering from an extreme case of brainwashing find it hard to comprehend how a puppet can so easily slap its master across the face and get away with it. ..."
"... If President Trump was truly a puppet of Vladimir Putin -- or at least once was -- then parties in the know would have promptly released the evidence, destroying Trump in the process. The reason why it hasn't happened is simply because the evidence doesn't exist. ..."
"... Hilariously, it is the MSM who cry wolf about fake news and conspiracy theories, while at the same time, pushing their own half-truths, fake news and conspiracy theories. ..."
"... It is sad to see how far the "guardians of the truth" have fallen and how decadent the MSM has become. They are so greedy and corrupt that they have pushed us towards a path that places the West on the precipice of war with a global, nuclear power. ..."
"... The Demorats need impeachment to fire up their base and get their cash. They filed a lawsuit to generate propaganda points for the MSM to wallow in. ..."
"... The Main Stain Media are still pushing the Russia Narrative every chance they get, as a side show now, a little jab here a little jab there not really attached to anything. ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com
Written by Nathan McDonald, Sprott Money News

Well, it came at a risk. It came at a gamble.

But the Russian Conspiracy Theory -- rammed down the throats of everyone around the globe since Donald Trump was elected the 45th President of the United States -- has finally been laid to rest.

With a resounding boom as the missiles landed in Syria, the hopes and dreams of the MSM proving that President Trump is simply a Russian puppet were shattered in one swift tactical strike.These strikes came at a great risk, as they hit key Syrian assets -- assets that President Putin and his Russian forces vowed to protect. Acting together with its joint allies , Britain and France, the United States struck out against Syria for what the Western Intelligence community claims were chemical attacks against the Syrian civilian population, orchestrated by its own government.

Whether or not these claims are true is debatable (and highly suspect) but regardless, the chips have fallen, and we are now in a precarious position as the West once again plunges itself, ham-fisted, back into the cold war era.

Russian leaders have vowed that there will be consequences for these acts against an ally they have sworn to protect. Yet to this date, no retaliation has seemed to occur.

Russia may or may not act, but it is rather unlikely that they will -- at least in the short term -- as the full combined might of the West is still an overwhelming force that no one nation can contend with. Russia knows this, and they are not stupid. But this is not to say that things cannot, nor will not, change in the future.

Still, this has come at a cost. Russia has once again been forced into further isolation, as its Western peers condemn their actions and threaten them with even more trade sanctions. Pushed to the point of desperation, who knows what actions they will take in the coming years?

Meanwhile, the chatter of Russian collusion, via the corrupt and dying MSM has petered out, as even those suffering from an extreme case of brainwashing find it hard to comprehend how a puppet can so easily slap its master across the face and get away with it.

If President Trump was truly a puppet of Vladimir Putin -- or at least once was -- then parties in the know would have promptly released the evidence, destroying Trump in the process. The reason why it hasn't happened is simply because the evidence doesn't exist.

Hilariously, it is the MSM who cry wolf about fake news and conspiracy theories, while at the same time, pushing their own half-truths, fake news and conspiracy theories.

It is sad to see how far the "guardians of the truth" have fallen and how decadent the MSM has become. They are so greedy and corrupt that they have pushed us towards a path that places the West on the precipice of war with a global, nuclear power.

The final nail in the Russian collusion coffin has been put in place, but at what cost?

Only time will tell.

Itinerant -> New_Meat • Sat, 04/21/2018 - 18:51 Permalink

A dumb article: The Russians have not vowed anything. As Lavrov has stated publicly, "there will be consequences" is a factual observation, not a vow to revenge anything. Revenge does not help. It is not the way Putin thinks -- Putin thinks in terms of interests and the trade off between risks/costs and benefits.

Arctic Frost -> Frilton Miedman • Sun, 04/22/2018 - 11:28 Permalink

"With 4 indictments, 2 guilty pleas, not sure how anyone thinks it's over. AS for the Syria attack. . . "

Four indictments that have NOTHING to do with Trump colluding with Russia and are SOLEY upon the people indicted. Two guilty pleas for "lying" which your side is advocating that lying is no longer an issue we should care about.

AS FOR SYRIA: Interesting you put the Syria strike on Putin when it was obviously led by Britain and France or are we now to believe they along with Trump are Putin puppets too? However, you do seem to be FINALLY admitting your "NGO"'s are nothing but state sponsored shams intent on manipulating the world wide masses to believe their propaganda. After all it was YOUR people who claimed there was a supposed chemical attack and demanded retaliation.

Keep spinning in circles, as the dog who chases his tail is in a world all of his own making.

Reaper • Sat, 04/21/2018 - 09:58 Permalink

BS. The neo-cons know the strike was deliberately ineffective. The Demorats need impeachment to fire up their base and get their cash. They filed a lawsuit to generate propaganda points for the MSM to wallow in.

JailBanksters • Sat, 04/21/2018 - 09:59 Permalink

The Main Stain Media are still pushing the Russia Narrative every chance they get, as a side show now, a little jab here a little jab there not really attached to anything.

We haven't seen anything like this since the Russians were accused of hacking the Federal Election, over to you Bob.

Well that's right Jim, and now for something completely different.

Written by Nathan McDonald, Sprott Money News

[Apr 22, 2018] The Crisis Is Only In Its Beginning Stages by Paul Craig Roberts

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... This popular question completely misses the point. The US attack on Syria is a clear and indisputable war crime against a sovereign country regardless of whether Syria used a chemical weapon in driving the Washington supported terrorists from Douma. ..."
"... It is unlikely that the UN Security Council will condemn Washington, which pays 25% of the UN's budget. Moreover, the Security Council is loaded up with Washington's vassals, and they will not vote to censure their liegelord. ..."
"... Putin is wasting his time taking the matter to the Security Council, unless his purpose is to prove that every Western institution is completely corrupt. ..."
"... During the entirety of the Cold War no US ambassador to the UN spoke aggressively and disrespectfully to the Soviet representative as Nikki Haley speaks to the Russian ambassador. During the Cold War no American president would have tolerated Nikki Haley. The crazed bitch would have instantly been fired. ..."
"... Until Washington is effectively resisted, Washington's European vassals, the UN Security Council and the OPCW will stand with Washington. ..."
Apr 17, 2018 | www.unz.com

Many, including Russia's President Putin, have asked why the US launched an illegal attack on Syria prior to the chemical weapons inspectors examining the site of the alleged chemical attack.

This popular question completely misses the point. The US attack on Syria is a clear and indisputable war crime against a sovereign country regardless of whether Syria used a chemical weapon in driving the Washington supported terrorists from Douma. No one acted to stop Washington's war crime. Some of Washington's vassals, such as Germany and Italy, refused to participate in Washington's war crime, but no one attempted to block it. The impotent UN Security Council, to which Russia is wasting its time appealing, the EU, NATO, Russia and China themselves did nothing to stop Washington's Nazi era war crime.

Russia said that if Washington's attack harmed its citizens, there would be military consequences, but Russia did not protect its ally Syria from the attack.

Perhaps it doesn't matter as Washington's attack was carefully conducted so as to have no effect except to serve as a face-saver for Trump. Apparently no one was killed and no damage was done to anything real except to a facility in which anti-venom for snake bites was being produced.

On the other hand, it does matter, because of the perception that the American presstitutes have created that it was a great victory for America over the evil Syrian government and the evil Russian government that supports them. This perception, which the presstitutes have created with their fake news, justifies the war crime and will lead to more attacks on Syria.

It is unlikely that the UN Security Council will condemn Washington, which pays 25% of the UN's budget. Moreover, the Security Council is loaded up with Washington's vassals, and they will not vote to censure their liegelord.

Putin is wasting his time taking the matter to the Security Council, unless his purpose is to prove that every Western institution is completely corrupt. As most informed people already know this, I don't understand the point of proving the known. Putin should read Eric Zuesse's article before he puts too much faith in the UN. https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/04/17/how-us-has-virtually-destroyed-un.html

As I have written on a number of occasions, I admire Putin's Christian character of sidestepping the beatings he continuously takes from Washington in order to save the world from the massive deaths of a world war. The problem is that by turning the other cheek, Putin encourages more aggression from Washington. Putin is dealing with neoconservative psychopaths. He is not dealing with common sense.

During the entirety of the Cold War no US ambassador to the UN spoke aggressively and disrespectfully to the Soviet representative as Nikki Haley speaks to the Russian ambassador. During the Cold War no American president would have tolerated Nikki Haley. The crazed bitch would have instantly been fired.

The Russian government is captured by delusion if the Russians believe that the US government, in which Nikki Haley is Trump's choice to be America's spokesperson to the world, in which the crazed neoconservative war monger John Bolton is a principal influence over US military and foreign policy, and in which the President himself is under threat of indictment for wanting to normalize relations with Russia, has any prospect of avoiding war.

The best chance of preventing the oncoming war is Russian-Chinese-Iranian unity and a defeat for American arms in a regional context not worth the Washington psychopaths launching of nuclear weapons. Until Washington is effectively resisted, Washington's European vassals, the UN Security Council and the OPCW will stand with Washington. Once Washington experiences a defeat, NATO will dissolve and with this dissolution Washington's ability to threaten other countries will lose its cover and evaporate.

[Apr 21, 2018] Amazingly BBC newsnight just started preparing viewers for the possibility that there was no sarin attack, and the missile strikes might just have been for show

Highly recommended!
Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: Paul Cockshott | Apr 20, 2018 6:56:29 PM | 41


Paul Cockshott , Apr 20, 2018 6:56:29 PM | 41

Amazingly BBC newsnight just started preparing viewers for the possibility that there was no sarin attack, and the missile strikes might just have been for show, i plying Trump did it for political reasons. Narrative changing a bit.
Anonymous , Apr 21, 2018 2:47:25 AM | 57
#Germany's state media senior correspondent (who is in Damascus right now & also visited Douma) on primetime evening news on German television: "#Douma chemical attack is most likely staged. A great many people here seem very convinced."

https://twitter.com/Brasco_Aad/status/987432370595876864

Fran , Apr 21, 2018 2:55:06 AM | 58
Karlofi#35 and frances#18
Michael Quinn on Russia Insider is wondering about the same thing too: Tucker Carlson MIA for 2 Days After Exposing Syria Gas Hoax - Deep State Revenge?

I too hope he will return soon, he seems to be one of the last sane voices of the msm. Hopefully high viewer rates help to bring him back, but he wouldn't be the first one to vanish from the screen, despite high ratings.

[Apr 21, 2018] It s a tough old world and we are certainly capable of a Salisbury set-up and god knows what else in Syria.

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... It is perfectly possible that the British government manufactured the whole Salisbury thing. We are capable of just as much despicable behavior and murder as the next. ..."
"... Tucker Carlson of Fox News has it nailed down.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M28aYkLRlm0 ..."
"... This "civil war" has been nothing but a war for Syrian resources waged by western proxies. ..."
"... So now, In desperation borne out of their impending defeat, the imperialists have staged a chemical attack in a last throw of the dice to gain popular support for an escalation in military intervention. Like military interventions of the past, it is being justified in the name of humanitarian intervention. ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

wheelbarrow1 , 13 Apr 2018 14:37

Why is the prime minister of the United Kinkdom on the phone discussing whether or not to bomb a Sovereign country with the highly unstable, Donald Trump?

Can she not make up her own mind? Either she thinks it's the right thing to do or it isn't. Hopefully, the person on the other end of the phone was not Trump but someone with at least half a brain.

Proof, let's have some proof. Is that too much to ask? Apparently so. Russia is saying it's all a put up job, show us your facts. We are saying, don't be silly, we're British and besides, you may have done this sort of thing before.

It is perfectly possible that the British government manufactured the whole Salisbury thing. We are capable of just as much despicable behavior and murder as the next.

Part of the Great British act's of bravery and heroism in the second world war is the part played by women agents who were parachuted into France and helped organize local resistance groups. Odette Hallowes, Noor Inayat Khan and Violette Szabo are just a few of the many names but they are the best known. What is not generally know is that many agents when undergoing their training in the UK, were given information about the 'D' day landings, the approx time and place. They were then dropped into France into the hands of the waiting German army who captured and tortured and often executed them.

The double agent, who Winston Churchill met and fully approved of the plan was Henri Dericourt, an officer in the German army and our man on the ground in France. Dericourt organized the time and place for the drop off of the incoming agents, then told the Germans. The information about the 'D' day invasion time and place was false. The British fed the agents (only a small number) into German hands knowing they would be captured and the false information tortured out of them.

Source :- 'A Quiet Courage' Liane Jones.

It's a tough old world and we are certainly capable of a Salisbury set-up and god knows what else in Syria.

I_Wear_Socks , 13 Apr 2018 14:37
From The Guardian articles today that I have read on Syria, it makes absolutely clear that if you in any way question the narrative forwarded here, that you are a stupid conspiracy theorist in line with Richard Spencer and other far-right, American nutcases.

A more traditional form of argument to incline people to their way of thinking would be facts. But social pressure to conform and not be a conspiratorial idiot in line with the far-right obviously work better for most of their readers. My only surprise it that position hasn't been linked with Brexit.

ChairmanMayTseTung , 13 Apr 2018 14:37
Did anyone see the massive canister that was shown on TV repeatedly that was supposed to have been air-dropped and smashed through the window of a house, landed on a bed and failed to go off.

The bed was in remarkable condition with just a few ruffled bedclothes considering it had been hit with a metal object weighing god knows what and dropped from a great height.

MartinSilenus -> ChairmanMayTseTung , 13 Apr 2018 14:36
"More than 40 years after the US sprayed millions of litres of chemical agents to defoliate"

The Defoliant Agent Orange was used to kill jungles, resulting in light getting through to the dark jungle floors & a massive amount of low bush regrowing, making the finding of Vietcong fighters even harder!

It was sprayed even on American troops, it is a horrible stuff. Still compared to Chlorine poison gas, let alone nerve gases, it is much less terrible. Though the long term effects are pretty horrible.

"Some 45 million liters of the poisoned spray was Agent Orange, which contains the toxic compound dioxin"
http://theconversation.com/agent-orange-exposed-how-u-s-chemical-warfare-in-vietnam-unleashed-a-slow-moving-disaster-84572

120Daze , 13 Apr 2018 14:36
Who needs facts when you've got opinions? Non more hypocritical than the British. Its what you get when you lie and distort though a willing press, you get found out and then nobody believes anything you say.anymore. The white helmets are a western funded and founded organisation, they are NOT independent they are NOT volunteers, The UK the US and the Dutch fund them to the tune of over $40 million. They are a propaganda dispensing outlet. The press shouldn't report anything they release because it is utterly unable to substantiate ANY of it, there hasn't been a western journalist in these areas for over 4 years so why do the press expect us to believe anything they print? Combine this with the worst and most incompetent Govt this country has seen for decades and all you have is a massive distraction from massive domestic troubles which the same govt has no answers too.
LiviaDrusilla -> Bangorstu , 13 Apr 2018 14:36
LOL are you having a larf?

The same organisation that receives millions of quid in funding from USAID?

Whose 'executive director' used to work for USAID?

Who have campaigned for 'no fly zones' (ie US bombing)?

Who are affiliated to the Iranian terrorist group MEK?

Who only happen to run hospitals in 'rebel' held areas?

You have a strange idea of 'politically neutral'. Your 'NGO' are fighting for an Islamist state. Enjoy them.

Dominique2 , 13 Apr 2018 14:32
https://www.theguardian.com/world/shortcuts/2013/sep/01/winston-churchill-shocking-use-chemical-weapons

""I am strongly in favour of using poisoned gas against uncivilised tribes," [Winston Churchill] declared in one secret memorandum."

The current condemnation by the international community and international law is good and needs enforcement. But no virtue signalling where there is none.

CaptTroyTempest -> StoneRoses , 13 Apr 2018 14:27
But we're still awaiting evidence that a chemical attack has been carried out in Douma, aren't we? And if an attack was carried out, by whom. But before these essential points are verified, you feel that a targeted military response is justified. Are you equally keen for some targeted military response for the use of chemical weapons, namely white phosphorus, in Palestine by the Israaeli military? Unlike Douma, the use of these chemical weapons in the occupied territories by the IDF's personnel is well documented. But we haven't attacked them yet. Funny that.
CMYKilla , 13 Apr 2018 14:26
Instead of "chemicals" why not just firebomb them - you know like we did to entire cities full of women and children in WW2?

Hamburg 27 July 1943 - 46,000 civilians killed in a firestorm
Kassel 22 October 1943 - 9,000 civilians killed 24,000 houses destroyed in a firestorm
Darmstadt 11 September 1944 - 8,000 civilians killed in a firestorm
Dresden 13/14th February - 25,000 civilians killed in a firestorm

Obviously we were fighting Nazism and hadn't actually been invaded - and he is fighting Wahhabism and has had major cities overrun...

Maybe if Assad burnt people to death rather than gassing them we would make a statue of him outside Westminster like the one of Bomber Harris?

Tom1982 , 13 Apr 2018 14:24
Remember the tearful Kuwaiti nurse with her heartrending story of Iraqi troops tipping premature babies out of their incubators after the invasion in 1990? The story was published in pretty much every major Western newspaper, massively increased public support for military intervention............................and turned out to be total bullshit.

Is it too much too ask that we try a bit of collective critical thinking and wait for hard evidence before blundering into a military conflict with Assad; and potentially Putin?

BlutoTheBruto , 13 Apr 2018 14:21
Didn't General Mattis quietly admit at there was no evidence for the alleged Sarin attacks last year by Assad?

http://www.newsweek.com/now-mattis-admits-there-was-no-evidence-assad-using-poison-gas-his-people-801542

Hmmmm.... call me skeptical for not believing it this time around.

AwkwardSquad , 13 Apr 2018 14:19
Well, this is the sort of stuff that the Israelis would be gagging for. They want Assad neutralised and they are assisting ISIS terrorists on the Golan Heights. They tend to their wounded and send them back across the border to fight Assad. What better than to drag the Americans, Brits and French into the ring to finish him off. Job done eh?

Are you sure you are not promoting an Israeli agenda here Jonathan?

Incidentantally what did we in the west do when the Iraqis were gassing the Iranians with nerve agents in the marshes of southern Iraq during the Iran Iraq War? Did we intervene then? No, we didn't we allowed it to happen.

I say stay out it.

dannymega -> fripouille , 13 Apr 2018 14:18
Come on frip, you have to admit there was absolutely no motive for Assad's forces to carry out this attack. Why do you think the Guardian and other main stream media outlets are not even considering the possibility the Jihadi rebels staged it to trigger western intervention? I know, I know.. it's all evil Assad killing his own people for no other reason than he likes butchering people... blah blah. The regime change agenda against Syria has been derailed, no amount of false flag attacks can change the facts on the ground.
Preshous , 13 Apr 2018 14:18
Tucker Carlson of Fox News has it nailed down.... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M28aYkLRlm0
ChairmanMayTseTung , 13 Apr 2018 14:16
More than 40 years after the US sprayed millions of litres of chemical agents to defoliate vast swathes of Vietnam and in the full knowledge it would be have a catastrophic effect on the health of the inhabitants of those area, Vietnam has by far the highest incidence of liver cancer on the planet.

Then more recently we have the deadly depleted uranium from US shells that innocent Iraqis are inhaling as shrill voices denounce Assad.

CodeNameTwiglet , 13 Apr 2018 14:15
The Syrian people are heroically resisting and defeating western imperialism. This "civil war" has been nothing but a war for Syrian resources waged by western proxies.

So now, In desperation borne out of their impending defeat, the imperialists have staged a chemical attack in a last throw of the dice to gain popular support for an escalation in military intervention. Like military interventions of the past, it is being justified in the name of humanitarian intervention.

But if we have a brief browse of history we can see that US & UK governments have brought only death, misery and destruction on the populations it was supposedly helping. Hands off Syria.

[Apr 21, 2018] This guy skipped past the censors. He explains how there has been lots of Western intervention against Syria.

Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

GuardianFodder -> LeftOrRightSameShite , 13 Apr 2018 15:36

This guy skipped past the censors.

He explains how there has been lots of Western intervention against Syria.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-vwKk4pADCw

[Apr 21, 2018] A remarkable part of Syrian constitution that the USA wants to be modified or abandoned

Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 | Apr 19, 2018 1:33:09 PM | 77

It's no wonder the Outlaw US Empire desires radical modification of the current Syrian Constitution as it contains this remarkable passage:

"The Syrian Arab role has increased on the regional and international levels over the past decades, which has led to achieving human and national aspirations and achievements in all fields and domains. Syria has occupied an important political position as it is the beating heart of Arabism, the forefront of confrontation with the Zionist enemy and the bedrock of resistance against colonial hegemony on the Arab world and its capabilities and wealth . The long struggle and sacrifices of our people for the sake of its independence, progress and national unity has paved the way for building the strong state and promoting cohesion between the people and their Syrian Arab army which is the main guarantor and protector of the homeland's sovereignty, security, stability and territorial integrity; thus, forming the solid foundation of the people's struggle for liberating all occupied territories."

Perhaps the entire passage ought to be bolded, but I chose to emphasize just that part. Last year, Assad made a speech emphasizing the need to continue to advance the philosophy of Pan Arabism, and his orations highlighting the goal to recover all Syrian lands show his constitutional adherence to what he swore to uphold. Clearly, his convictions give him courage, and that courage is replicated by most of Syria's citizenry and its SAA.

[Apr 21, 2018] The White Helmets claim to support all Syrian people although when Jaish al-Islam surrendered to the SAG and were exiled to northern Aleppo (or where ever), all the White Helmets fled with Jaish al-Islam.

Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Ghost Ship | Apr 21, 2018 5:59:05 AM | 70

Further points about the White Helmets and East Ghouta.

The White Helmets claim to support all Syrian people although when Jaish al-Islam surrendered to the SAG and were exiled to northern Aleppo (or where ever), all the White Helmets fled with Jaish al-Islam. I've always thought that volunteer first responders were honor-bound to stay with the people they support so the White Helmets are really there to support terrorists like Jaish al-Islam. As that fat f**k, victor of East Aleppo and high-ranking terrorist official, Sheikh Abdullah al-Muhaysini, said "the White Helmets are the civil defence of the mujahadeen" and only the the mujahadeen.

There have been stories in the western media claiming that the doctors in Douma who had the balls to stay behind with their patients (unlike the ball-less White Helmets) and were denying the attack involved chemical weapons were intimidated by the regime - not something the reporters actually in Douma seemed to detect, which suggest that people on the ground in terrorist-controlled areas felt some degree of safety with the Syrian government, enough at least to risk their lives.

Looking back at Aleppo only about 65% of the local population stayed behind to go under government control, while in East Ghouta it seems that 80% of the local population stayed behind to go under government control even those who fled a while back to government-controlled areas. It looks like the Syrian government really has turned the corner with its real "heart and minds" approach.

[Apr 21, 2018] White Helmets in Douma play the same role as Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress played in Iraq WDM fiasco

It looks more and more that everything was staged and everything was controlled by Western intelligence agencies with the specific goal.
Notable quotes:
"... That kind of reminds me of when Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress were explaining how to get rid of Saddam without plunging Iraq into mayhem and destabilising the wider region. ..."
"... If the price of selling arms to Saudi Arabia is having to stage nerve agent attacks in the UK and in Syria, one has to ask: Is it really worth it? ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

Paul Crow , 13 Apr 2018 15:43

Read Robert Fisk in the Independent. He, as always, has nailed it. The Brits and the US have no authority to take action with their past record of use of Chemical and Atomic weapons.
Celtiberico , 13 Apr 2018 15:42

The Syrian Negotiation Commission has called for action to deter Assad from killing civilians. What they envisage is that each time Assad launches a deadly attack on noncombatants, allied forces reply by taking out one of the strategic assets he uses to kill civilians. It could be an airfield, it could be a command centre. If the target were aircraft, that would simultaneously inflict a cost on the regime and deprive it of the means of dropping its barrel bombs and toxic, yellow cylinders. The objective would be to make Assad pay a price for killing his own people, a price he has not paid until now. Eventually, or so runs the hope, he would be deterred.

That kind of reminds me of when Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress were explaining how to get rid of Saddam without plunging Iraq into mayhem and destabilising the wider region.

Krautolivier , 13 Apr 2018 15:40
If the price of selling arms to Saudi Arabia is having to stage nerve agent attacks in the UK and in Syria, one has to ask: Is it really worth it?
oldeborr , 13 Apr 2018 15:38
The UK andcFrance bares a heavy responsibility for the current situation in Syria. The cavalier attitude that the ConDems took to international law during the Arab spring encouraged the Saudi s and their proxies to distablise the recognised Govt. Assad is no paragon of virtue, but prior to the insurgency steps were in place to make the country a better place for its citizens, and whilst its true poltical dissent was not allowed, people could live their lives and go about their business in safety.

[Apr 21, 2018] In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Blix said, "I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media."

Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

harveybrown , 13 Apr 2018 15:37

In an interview on BBC 1 on 8 February 2004, UN Weapons Inspector, Hans Blix accused the US and British governments of dramatizing the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in order to strengthen the case for the 2003 war against the government of Saddam Hussein.
Ultimately, no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction were ever found.

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Blix said, "I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media."

[ It is interesting to note that Allan Ramsay likewise deplored "a friendly alliance between the camp and the counting-house" for exactly the same reasons (Letters on the Present Disturbances, p.34). Ramsay maintained that of the evil consequences of such alliance "the two last wars carried on by England against France and Spain, furnish a most melancholy illustration. To obtain the sole and exclusive commerce of the western world, in which the French and Spaniards were their rivals, was the modest wish of our merchants, in conjunction with our Americans. The fair, and truly commercial, method of effecting this would have been, by superior skill, industry and frugality, to have undersold their rivals at market: but that method appearing slow and troublesome to a luxurious people, whose extraordinary expences* required extraordinary profits, a more expeditous one was devised; which was that of driving their rivals entirely out of the seas, and preventing them from bringing their goods at all to market. For this purpose, not having any fleets or armies of their own, the powers of the State were found necessary, and they applied them accordingly" (ibid., pp.32 f.).

Knorr, K. E. 'Ch02-Part2 British Colonial Theories 1570-1850'. In British Colonial Theories, 1570-1850. The University of Toronto Press, 1944. ]

[Apr 21, 2018] Douma, US imperialism, and While Helmets

Sacrificing women and children to achieve nefarious goals such as preparing the ground for invasion dictated by economic or geopolitical interests is a typical Western intelligence agencies plot.
Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com
OlivesNightie , 13 Apr 2018 15:46

The notion of inaction, of standing by and watching as Assad kills and kills and kills, racking up a death toll in Syria of 500,000

On May 12, 1996, Madeleine Albright defended UN sanctions against Iraq on a 60 Minutes segment in which Lesley Stahl asked her "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" and Albright replied, "We think the price is worth it."'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbIX1CP9qr4

[Apr 21, 2018] The UN report on previous attacks confirmed that Assad's allegation that a video had been staged have solid ground. It concludes that the patients on the video "appear relatively unaffected by the typical symptoms.

Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

StephenDaedalus -> JackDowland , 13 Apr 2018 15:47

Sure, here's the UN OPCW investigation report which directly blames the Assad forces for chemical attacks. Take as much time as you need.

https://undocs.org/S/2016/738

I couldn't find the paragraph which directly blames Assad's forces.

I note it does refer (at para 44) to Assad's allegation that a video had been staged. It concludes that the patients on the video "appear relatively unaffected by the typical symptoms.

No red eyes, tearing, paleness, sweating, cyanosis or breathing difficulties can be observed from the footage. The patients interviewed in the video show little or no signs of having been exposed to a toxic chemical".

This is also consistent with other documented attempts of video-making to trigger the western bombs.

Surely you can see why people might at least reserve judgment about the latest video emanating from Jaish al-Islam controlled territory?

[Apr 21, 2018] White Helmets tend to be hard line Islamists and send out propaganda videos

Notable quotes:
"... "Charities"? Lol. I'll bet money nearly all of those 'charities' are actually PR fronts for thuggish Islamist rebels. ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

LiviaDrusilla -> Bopstar, 13 Apr 2018 16:17

"Charities"? Lol. I'll bet money nearly all of those 'charities' are actually PR fronts for thuggish Islamist rebels.

A bit like how all the Syrians the Guardian manages to reach for 'skype interviews' are positively desperate for massive aeriel bombardment of their own country, chastising the west for not supplying the bearded types with anti-aircraft missiles and even suggesting targets for American bombs.

brambalus -> 1liesalot , 13 Apr 2018 16:16
I have recently taught two Syrian professionals. Of course Assad is evil, but they tell me that some of the rebel militias are much more brutal and intolerant than Assad and if they win Syria will go the way of Libya.

They also told me (which shocked me somewhat) that the White Helmets tend to be hard line Islamists and send out propaganda videos which Western media fail to question thoroughly.

[Apr 21, 2018] When the dust has settled in Syria and people get round to writing their memoirs the White Helmets will be revealed to be nothing more to the British government than a sophisticated black propaganda op

Notable quotes:
"... The "Mannequin challenge" is regarded by many here as demonstrating that the White Helmets are a black op. but I suspect it was a sophisticated effort to discredit the reporting by Vanessa Beeley of the connections between the White Helmets and Al Qaeda/Al Nusra/HTS that seems to have worked. ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Ghost Ship | Apr 19, 2018 5:39:32 AM | 25

When the dust has settled in Syria and people get round to writing their memoirs the White Helmets will be revealed to be nothing more to the British government than a sophisticated black propaganda op.

Their name Syrian Civil Defence means that Syria's real civil defence is invisbile and suggests that the White Helmets are part of an alternative Syrian government.

Their nickname, White Helmets, how can anyone believe they're a black propaganda op?

Their MO, helping people and videoing it even though they seem to only help certain people and disappear when the video cameras stop running.
That they're involved in certain very dubious acts with the terrorists just suggests how evil the Syrian government must be to "force" their opponents to behave in this way and allow their supporters in the West to overlook their murderous brutal nature.

The "Mannequin challenge" is regarded by many here as demonstrating that the White Helmets are a black op. but I suspect it was a sophisticated effort to discredit the reporting by Vanessa Beeley of the connections between the White Helmets and Al Qaeda/Al Nusra/HTS that seems to have worked.


Emily , Apr 19, 2018 6:20:32 AM | 28

24 Ghost Ship
Some back up for you.
The founder James le Mesurier
British Intel
https://www.mintpressnews.com/james-le-mesurier-british-ex-military-mercenary-founded-white-helmets/230320/
http://21stcenturywire.com/2015/10/23/syrias-white-helmets-war-by-way-of-deception-part-1/
https://wikispooks.com/wiki/White_Helmets
uncle tungsten , Apr 19, 2018 6:44:58 AM | 30
@Ghost Ship 24. Total BS logic and totally slanted commentary. I would expect this level of 'analysis' in Guardian commentary but they don't allow commentary.

The White Helmets are terrorist killers who sometimes put on white helmets and do propaganda that only ever supports their terrorist faction. They are guilty of direct and complicit in crimes against humanity and they are fully funded by the UK and USA.

The barbarity of the white helmets is in no way a barometer of how bad Assad is. It is a barometer of the disgraceful terrorism unleashed by western nations against Syrian people and its government. The white helmets are a measure of the depraved warmongering of the west, saudi and israeli governments.

someone , Apr 19, 2018 10:50:07 AM | 49
@ Virgile #42
Where have the White Helmets from Douma gone??

Future will tell, but Russian journalists found one of their victims at Douma:

https://www.instagram.com/p/Bht2xhwHTKt/

S , Apr 19, 2018 11:05:07 AM | 53
I second b's recommendation to watch the Ikhbariya TV short documentary on the alleged attack (16 min). Here are 13 doctors and nurses who actually worked at the Douma hospitals at the time of the alleged attack stating plainly that nothing of the sort happened: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSrRV-zdNic
Babyl-on , Apr 19, 2018 11:28:36 AM | 58
I think it is clear the "Chemical attack" did not happen. If you are the Empire you surly have your operatives securely, and secretly stationed within any "independent" OPCW body, especially if you intend to use "chemical attack" as your justification to slaughter innocent people for the interests of the AngloZionist/Wahhabi Empire.

Martin Scorsese could not have done a better job. From the grad seines of men in haz-mat suits around Surrey to the suffocating children in Duma it could hardly be better orchestrated.

The Empire only needs 30-35% agreement in the public to be successful and so far they have at least that.

Noirette , Apr 19, 2018 1:19:05 PM | 76
Who is stalling the investigation.. ..? A much more complex affair than the present hype and simultaneous denial (different factions) of the Douma 'chem attacks.'

White Helmets are not just masquerades of 'charities' who support the Agressors (US-uk-isr etc.), yes the WH make these clumsy in ya-face false 'savior' vids and so on as propaganda in Syria. But they fulfill other functions, the 'theatrical' actions on the ground and the vids don't justify the expense, which is considerable. Happily I can finally quote ppl more courageous than myself:

Syria: The Darker Side of the NGO Complex. Preying on Children of Conflict.

Feb 2017, 21st Cent Wire, with V. Beeley. (vid 38 mins.)

http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/02/24/syria-the-darker-side-of-the-ngo-complex-preying-on-children-of-conflict/

Anonymous , Apr 19, 2018 4:07:44 PM | 100
The "White Helmets" were supported by murdered British MP Jo Cox . Although apparently a loyal soldier to the war party, Jo became a nuisance to her leftist intellectual husband and to the war party, so an assassin was called in and a patsy was arranged.
Lochearn , Apr 19, 2018 4:51:05 PM | 107
A few days ago (April 14, @314) Bakerpete kindly linked to an article on blogmire.com which discusses the famous Karl Rove quote about how they, the actors, create reality and while we study that reality they have already moved on. A quote from Rob Slane (thank you) from the article:

"Yet while I'm doing so, the narrative is moving on. I'm falling into exactly the trap that Karl and his disciples have laid. They want two sorts of people: those who just blindly accept that it was the Russians wot did it, or that it was Assad wot did it; and those who spend their time asking questions about the official explanations. The first group call the second group conspiracy theorists and nutters. The second group call the first group dumb sheeple. And the Globalist Deep State laughs and laughs and laughs as the two groups battle it out to make sense of what has happened, leaving it free to march on to create the next reality. Truly I tell you, these Bolsheviks have learnt their Hegelian Dialectics well."

If Rove has set a trap for us, is it a trap we can get out of or avoid falling into in the first place? And if so, how? If Karl Rove wants these two sorts of people, who are the people he doesn't want because I want to be one of them. Do I try to predict their next fucking move? Instead of waiting for today's zerohedge article to appear with the headline "Will Armenia Be The Next Victim of Western-backed Regime Change" and thinking I should have guessed that one, maybe I should have been poring over maps, articles weeks, months ago, and gleefully coming up with the solution: the next area of conflict will be Armenia. Take that, Karl Rove. But then what?

Or I could go backwards into history to examine where the real power has always been, how it is wielded, who exactly has wielded it and for what purposes, in order to come up with patterns and likelihoods of future behaviours and realities. That road gets lonelier the further you travel down it, and cold winds there await you.

PavewayIV , Apr 19, 2018 11:14:33 PM | 144
Jen@115 - "...If that's the case, then wouldn't spraying victims of a chlorine gas attack with water - the White Helmets' standard first-response catch-all medical treatment - only make most of their symptoms worse?"

I think the mystery visitors to the Douma clinic were just yelling "Gas attack!" without specifying chlorine as they started the water-dousing panic. They were not White Helmets.

Flushing skin/hair/eyes with reasonable amounts of water would dilute and wash away any hydrochloric/hypochlorous acid that it happened to create. Spritzing with a spray bottle would probably be a bad idea for decontamination.

Jesrad@128 - Eglin is home to the stateside part of CENTCOM and the 4th MISG (formerly PsyOps). Deception of or otherwise 'shaping the opinions of' the American public is part of their mission. Whatever they don't do, the DoD and State Department does through their various propaganda efforts directed at American citizens, who are compelled to pay for that propaganda. Funding Middle East wars is kind of a self-licking ice-cream cone when PsyOps is part of the budget. Thus, my endearing love for CENTCOM - the pall bearers of western democracy.


All - The endless Syrian CW narrative has a much more strategic purpose in case anyone forgot. Israel - SCUDS - CWs. That's why Libya and Iraq were suppose to be and existential threat to Israel that justified ANY preemptive protective attack. And that was exactly why Assad/Syria was suppose to be such a threat to Israel - remember? They can't let the CW narrative die.

Israel needs to keep its own people terrified of Assad's 'hidden' CW-tipped missiles. Americans must fully believe Assad has a hidden CW stockpile for use on Israel. That way, when Israel uses the Assad (or maybe ICRG) CW missile false flag to justify a preemptive, protective attack (and land grab), Americans will willingly send their sons and daughters to die in a war against them for Israel. Nobody will even question it in the US. I can see Wolf Blitzer rolling around under a coffee table in Tel Aviv with his gas mask on backwards and the air raid sirens wailing in the background. CNN: "Wolf! Wolf... for God's sake... Can you hear me? Are you OK, Wolf? Any Sarin symptoms yet? DAMN YOU, Gasser Assad!"

[Apr 21, 2018] The couple Merkel/Sauer knows exactly how to evaluate that so-called evidence in Douma false flag

Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Hmpf | Apr 20, 2018 5:51:46 AM | 165

@163 WillyW

Angela Merkel is not stupid - things are way worth than that.
She's got a PhD in physical chemistry, and what's rather mind-boggling in that context is the fact that her husband Joachim Sauer is a professor of chemistry and one of the worlds foremost experts in surface chemistry.
In the 2000s this guy was in the top 30 list of the worlds most extinguished chemists - let that sink in for a second.
The couple Merkel/Sauer knows exactly how to evaluate that so-called evidence, yet... - as I said the situation is way worse as generally anticipated.

[Apr 21, 2018] And another twist to the Duma saga

Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

And another twist to the Duma saga - STUNNING coincidence? Chlorine containers from Germany and smoke bombs from Salisbury (Skripal poisoning) found in Syria

Posted by: Fran | Apr 19, 2018 11:38:27 AM | 60


Christian Chuba , Apr 19, 2018 12:48:16 PM | 68

'Chlorine is undetectable' - b
"If, as the terrorist supporters claim, Chlorine was used in the 'chemical attack', the OSCE investigators are unlikely to find any physical evidence of it. Chlorine dissipates and leaves no unique traces in the dead body." - B

Does the OPCW have any coroners? I believe it leaves scarring in the lungs

"Chlorine required a concentration of 1,000 parts per million to be fatal, destroying tissue in the lungs , likely through the formation of hydrochloric acid when dissolved in the water in the lungs (2Cl2 + 2H2O → 4HCl + O2)"

It has been less than two weeks. There should be bodies available to examine unless Assad has carted them off to his Crematorium in Damascus where he disposes of his victims in front of his bust of Adolf Hitler.

Pnyx , Apr 19, 2018 12:49:59 PM | 69
Well, to answer the final question, it is indeed possible...
Thanks for the peace very well done B. But here comes more work to do. The NZZ today is publishing a peace about Belgian firms selling 96 t of Isopropanol to Syria which is described as precursor substance needed for the manufacturing of Sarin, between 2014 and '16(Nervengift, https://www.nzz.ch/international/syrien-belgische-firmen-liefern-stoff-fuer-nervengift-ld.1378789) insinuating the Assad did this. What do you make out of this? It seems to me this is an important matter to counter.
jawbone , Apr 19, 2018 12:54:11 PM | 71
CC @66 -- Re: Autopsies of Douma victims

Could be possible, unless the White Helmets took them all up to Idlib with them on the buses? Heh.

I can't recall where I read it, but it was stated that the bodies of the Douma victims had been buried. Nothing about where.

[Apr 21, 2018] If Edmond Mulet is involve in Douma gas investigation, Syria Arab Republic and Russia Federation are guilty.

Notable quotes:
"... The Russians are stopping the investigation, the BBC informed me, numerous times. Of course they forgot to mention all the real reasons that the UN want to slow them down. Once the OPCW find nothing, they can say 'those pesky Russians stalled the investigation, so that we wouldn't find evidence'. It's brilliant really. Just like the tired old plots from the movies, the UN need some new story writers. Shabby, stale and predictable, to say the least. ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

OJS | Apr 19, 2018 5:29:47 PM | 113

@Don Bacon | Apr 19, 2018 4:26:47 PM | 103

..The joint UN-OPCW team was headed by Guatemalan Edmond Mulet who was presumably vulnerable to blackmail because he was once active in child trafficking as described here.

If Edmond Mulet is involve in Douma gas investigation, Syria Arab Republic and Russia Federation are guilty. Beside a child trafficking he's a fucking anti Dr. Assad.. Pls read NYT below...

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/29/opinion/syria-chemical-weapons-united-nations-security-council.html

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR

How the Security Council Failed the Syria Chemical Weapons Investigators and Victims
By Edmond Mulet

Dec. 29, 2017

"....From August 2015 to October 2016, a team of investigators looked into eight cases of the use of chlorine as a chemical weapon and one case involving the use of sulfur mustard. Three attacks were attributed to the Syrian government and one to the Islamic State. The Security Council failed to reach agreement on any consequences for these crimes.

A few weeks after an April 4 sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun, Syria, which killed approximately 100 and injured at least 200, I accepted the job to lead the investigative team....."


Jen , Apr 19, 2018 6:12:34 PM | 116

This information was posted by Christian Chuba @ 68:

'... Does the OPCW have any coroners? I believe [chlorine gas] leaves scarring in the lungs

"Chlorine required a concentration of 1,000 parts per million to be fatal, destroying tissue in the lungs, likely through the formation of hydrochloric acid when dissolved in the water in the lungs (2Cl2 + 2H2O → 4HCl + O2)" ...'

If that's the case, then wouldn't spraying victims of a chlorine gas attack with water - the White Helmets' standard first-response catch-all medical treatment - only make most of their symptoms worse? The eyeballs need irrigation with water but other symptoms must be treated differently.

From CDC website: symptoms of chlorine poisoning
https://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/chlorine/basics/facts.asp

Blurred vision

Burning pain, redness, and blisters on the skin if exposed to gas. Skin injuries similar to frostbite can occur if it is exposed to liquid chlorine

Burning sensation in the nose, throat, and eyes

Coughing

Chest tightness

Difficulty breathing or shortness of breath. These may appear immediately if high concentrations of chlorine gas are inhaled, or they may be delayed if low concentrations of chlorine gas are inhaled.

Fluid in the lungs (pulmonary edema) that may be delayed for a few hours

Nausea and vomiting

Watery eyes

Wheezing

From WWI: The Medical Front
http://www.vlib.us/medical/gaswar/chlorine.htm

"... The first effect of inhalation of chlorine is a burning pain in the throat and eyes, accompanied by a sensation of suffocation; pain, which may be severe, is felt in the chest, especially behind the sternum. Respiration becomes painful, rapid, and difficult ; coughing occurs, and the irritation of the eyes results in profuse lachrymation. Retching is common and may be followed by vomiting, which gives temporary relief. The lips and mouth are parched and the tongue is covered with a thick dry fur. Severe headache rapidly follows with a feeling of great weakness in the legs; if the patient gives way to this and lies down, he is likely to inhale still more chlorine, as the heavy gas is most concentrated near the ground. In severe poisoning unconsciousness follows; nothing more is known about the cases which prove fatal on the field within the first few hours of the "gassing," except that the face assumes a pale greenish yellow colour. When a man lives long enough to be admitted into a clearing station, he is conscious, but restless; his face is violet red, and his ears and finger nails blue ; his expression strained and anxious as he gasps for breath; he tries to get relief by sitting up with his head thrown back, or he lies in an exhausted condition, sometimes on his side with his head over the edge of the stretcher in order to help the escape of fluid from the lungs. His skin is cold and his temperature subnormal; the pulse is full and rarely over 100. Respiration is jerky, shallow and rapid, the rate being often over 40 and sometimes even 80 a minute ; all the auxiliary muscles come into play, the chest being over-distended at the height of inspiration and, as in asthma, only slightly less distended in extreme expiration. Frequent and painful coughing occurs and some frothy sputum is brought up. The lungs are less resonant than normal, but not actually dull, and fine riles with occasional rhonchi and harsh but not bronchial breathing are heard, especially over the back and sides ..."

AntiSpin , Apr 19, 2018 7:03:30 PM | 123
@103, quoting Edmund Mulet

". . .and the Syrian Government was accountable for the release of sarin in an April 2017 attack in Khan Shaykhun, the head of a Security Council-mandated investigation said Tuesday."

That may be what he said "on Tuesday", but here's what the actual UN report said on October 26th of 2017:

"To date the Mechanism has not found specific information confirming whether or not an SAAF Su-22 operating from Al-Shayrat airbase launched an aerial attack against Khan Shaykhun on 4 April 2017."

To the best of my knowledge there has been no subsequent report, so the above quote is the official final statement on the results of the investigation, regardless of anything that Mr. Mulet may have said at some later date.

Also, if one reads the entire report, he will find numerous hintings, not so very subtle, about false flag possibilities, and also hinting that the reader should not take everything in the report at face value. It is a very interesting read, for those things if for no other reason.

Grieved , Apr 19, 2018 9:55:42 PM | 139
So now we live at a moment in history when non-establishment actors have investigated the alleged attack in Douma before the OPCW even gets there. And as is clear, and as b posits, this stalling action holding up the visit is to allow time for someone - anyone, please - among the establishment forces to come up with a counter to the truth already revealed.

I suspect that the evidence on video - captured by simple enough cameras and spread through the Internet around the world now - combined with the fact of numerous ordinary folks strolling around the killing field without suffering any harm, has made this false flag untenable beyond any saving of face.

Propaganda only works to crowd out the truth, so that people never encounter the truth. But propaganda doesn't work in open battle against the truth, when people are hearing both sides. The process takes time, but like water it wears down the tallest wall.

What's really good is that the enemy has shown repeatedly that it doesn't understand the failure of its tactics, and so it keeps using the old playbook. And with each ploy, the tactics fail more miserably, and the true evidence accumulates more forcefully. And probably here in Douma they'll tangle themselves in even more ridiculous fabrications just to keep the OPCW away forever.

So maybe it won't be this one. Maybe this isn't the ploy that builds and builds to leave a big enough smoking gun to discredit the entire western apparatus. Perhaps we are not quite there yet. But it's obvious that Russia thinks we're getting closer.

I'll call it now and say we are in the post-tipping point age of the information war.

The next ploy will fail even more miserably. And the one after that will fail even worse. And very soon, who knows, a smoking gun could appear that brings the common people out in their multitudes, in one of those synchronicity moments of truth that the aristocrats and privileged functionaries of the establishment fear more than anything in creation.

Gumby , Apr 20, 2018 2:23:24 AM | 154
@103
@112
@122

Even more than Mulet's child trafficking, one should look at his role in the coup in Haiti. Mulet, acting on behalf of the UN, attempted to intimidate president Preval into leaving the country on election day. He indicated that the results of the election would not be accepted if they were not in line with American objective. http://cepr.net/blogs/haiti-relief-and-reconstruction-watch/haitis-former-president-preval-has-credible-charges-that-un-tried-to-remove-him

Mulet was in close contact with Hillary Clinton's State Department during this period. Search his name in Wikileaks' diplomatic cables, and you'll come up with numerous results.

In essence, he's a tool of western power. The JIM report was just one more act to bolster the Western narrative. Also, note that his UN-OPCW JIM report was not accepted by either the UN or the OPCW. After the rejection, he wrote the aforementioned op-ed for the New York Times , and he most likely was the source of a leak of OPCW test results to Reuters , which supposedly linked all the sarin attacks to the Syrian government. This article has been essential in providing "independent" confirmation of Assad's guilt, even though it's essentially just leftovers from the politicized JIM investigation.

Recently, Mulet has popped up on 60 Minutes and the neocon Vice News as a talking head to keep the "Assad gasses his own people" narrative alive. On Vice he explicitly advocates for the FUKUS air strikes.

All around, a shady character and Western fixer.

duplicitousdemocracy , Apr 20, 2018 7:00:03 AM | 176
The Russians are stopping the investigation, the BBC informed me, numerous times. Of course they forgot to mention all the real reasons that the UN want to slow them down. Once the OPCW find nothing, they can say 'those pesky Russians stalled the investigation, so that we wouldn't find evidence'. It's brilliant really. Just like the tired old plots from the movies, the UN need some new story writers. Shabby, stale and predictable, to say the least.
Harry , Apr 20, 2018 7:34:41 AM | 179
@ Nick Bailey | 171

Or OPCW could spike samples themselves, they are falsifying reports for years now, and thats a fact, not just "highly likely."

Don Bacon , Apr 20, 2018 8:51:04 AM | 185
A big part of being the "leader of the free world" is to manage events to fit the narrrative.

Given the US/UK strategy of fake chemical attacks to be blamed on Russia and Syria it is important that the work of the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons be managed. OPCW reports deriving from Fact Finding Missions either have to be buried or prevented.

The OPCW employs an FFM when requested by a country, with the resulting report sent to that country only. The Salisbury FFM was requested by UK, the FFM report was sent to UK, where it was buried and will never be publicized.

Douma has a different dynamic because the FFM was requested by Russia, with the ensuing report bound to be made public, so it was necessary to prevent the FFM from doing its job. That's when the US puppet Peter Drennan with his Keystone Kops UN police agency was injected into Douma, to prevent the FFM from taking place.

Christian Chuba , Apr 20, 2018 11:43:12 AM | 198
UN-OPCW JIM report
Gumby @153 -
"Also, note that his UN-OPCW JIM report was not accepted by either the UN or the OPCW"

Okay, I know that people will say that it was rejected at the UN because of the Russia UNSC veto trump card but do you have a reference to the OPCW rejection?

Assad coercing witnesses in Douma

Yikes, I read the BBC link. I was hoping to find an obvious falsehood because the WH's and NGO's have been getting sloppy lately but it's the perfect lie . They claim 'to have heard from' people who have had their families threatened.

So how does one go about refuting this? The lying NGO's in the UK are basically saying that they got a cell phone call from one of the medical workers left in Syria. Oh, and they can't tell you who because they will face reprisals. I hate those lying SOB's.

james , Apr 20, 2018 1:52:29 PM | 208 Gumby , Apr 20, 2018 2:15:41 PM | 209
Christian Chuba @198

I may have been a bit imprecise there because the OPCW process is extremely murky. But basically, after Russia vetoed the JIM report at the UN, the U.S. made a proposal to the OPCW Executive Council to condemn the Syrian government for its use of chemical weapons. I'm not positive, but my understanding is that if this proposal had succeeded, it would have essentially adopted the JIM report as an official OPCW document. There's very little reporting on this maneuvering around this, but here's what the AP said:

Members of the OPCW's Executive Council were scheduled to meet later Friday to debate their response to the report.

A draft decision put forward by the United States, Colombia, Estonia and Saudi Arabia is expected to be discussed.

It calls for the council to demand that the Syrian government immediately stop using chemical weapons and to express "its strong conviction that those responsible for the use of chemical weapons must be held accountable," according to a copy of the draft text seen by The Associated Press.

Executive Council decisions are generally adopted by consensus, but with the United States and its allies at loggerheads with Russia and its supporters, it is likely to be put to a vote.


https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2017-11-24/opcw-chief-unfortunate-that-syria-probes-mandate-blocked

The U.S. was forced to withdraw its proposal. Again, the specifics of this are murky, but you can read Sputnik 's brief report on that here. Russia doesn't have veto power on the OPCW-EC, meaning, I assume, that the resolution was going to fail in the EC by a vote.: https://sputniknews.com/world/201711241059415284-us-syria-rejection-opcw/

The upshot of all this is that Mulet's JIM Report is not an official document of either the UN or the OPCW. Its official status now is essentially just the opinion of its authors.

Gumby , Apr 20, 2018 2:17:14 PM | 210
By the way, regarding the UN, it's obviously true that Russia exercised it's veto power against adopting the JIM report. And they also used their veto power to strike down the proposal to extend the JIM's mandate (which, thanks to the U.S., was voted on before the JIM's report was even released). However, it's worth noting that the U.S. has a comfortable built-in majority at the UN, which essentially necessitates a veto to combat. Even many of the states that backed the U.S. on both of these proposals agreed with Russia that the JIM was flawed. Russia further argued that its work had become completely politicized. Which is not surprising given Mulet was head of it

Here's a summary of the UN debate on extending the JIM: https://www.un.org/press/en/2017/sc13040.doc.htm

Note for example, the comments by the Ethiopian ambassador:

TEKEDA ALEMU (Ethiopia) expressed regret that the Council had not been able to adopt the draft resolution since the Mechanism had been created on the basis of consensus. Ethiopia had voted in favour of the text because there remained credible allegations of chemical weapons use in Syria, he said, adding that renewing the mandate should ensure continuity of the Mechanism's work. Despite today's outcome, Ethiopia was hopeful that the Council' unity would be restored and compromise found, because failure to renew the mandate would be send the wrong message to the perpetrators. However, today's outcome should not be interpreted as an a priori endorsement of the Mechanism's report, he cautioned, emphasizing that its final version was expected to establish clear responsibility for the two incidents mentioned. Those responsible for the use of chemical weapons should be punished on the basis of robust and conclusive evidence, he said, underlining, however, that it was impossible to overlook the concerns of the Russian Federation and Bolivia, which was the reason why politicization must be avoided.

[Apr 21, 2018] Speaking of propaganda outlets

Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

james | Apr 19, 2018 9:35:58 PM | 136

Speaking of propaganda outlets.. how about the usa state dept daily briefings? it is another prime example!

https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2018/04/280609.htm

example -

" QUESTION: Syria, to pick up on where we were on Tuesday with the OPCW still not having gotten access to Duma and apparently still that situation is still the same. One, do you have anything to say about that? And secondly, you and I had a little bit of a conversation about potential – your belief that the Russians and/or Syrians are tampering with any evidence of the chemical attack. Does the continued delay give you more concern that that might be the case?

MS NAUERT: Yeah. So to address both your questions, we can confirm that the OPCW team has still not been able to enter Duma in Syria. It is now 12 days since the attack took place on men, women, and children, those innocent civilians, in Syria. We have credible information that indicates that Russian officials are working with the Syrian regime to deny and to delay these inspectors from gaining access to Duma. We believe it is an effort to conduct their own staged investigations. Russian officials have worked with the Syrian regime, we believe, to sanitize the locations of those suspected attacks and remove incriminating evidence of chemical weapons use.

We have also watched as some people have seemingly been pressured by the government to change their stories about what actually occurred that night. We have reports from credible people on the ground who have indicated that they have been pressured by both Russia and Syria to change their stories, to try to change their stories so that it doesn't appear that Russia and Syria are responsible for those attacks. We certainly know that Syria is responsible for those attacks."

[Apr 21, 2018] Napalm is worse than chemical weapons. So are white phosphorous and Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME) used by "Israel" against Palestinians

Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Why is nobody questioning NATO's theatrical assertion that chemical weapons are the worst-of-the-worst? Quite frankly, I don't buy it.

Here's a What's Left article from mid-2015 which examines that specious and overblown claim from several perspectives and concludes that it's hokum...

Rethinking Chemical Weapons https://gowans.wordpress.com/2015/06/27/rethinking-chemical-weapons/

Imo, the only reason NATO's unimaginative weasels, dorks and 'boffins' chose chemical weapons on which to base their childish smear campaign is that Ordinary Citizens are less familiar with chemical weapons, and their effects, than with most of the violent methods used to kill and maim people in times of war (and peace).

Posted by: Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 19, 2018 9:23:59 AM | 43

Hoarsewhisperer , Apr 19, 2018 9:39:57 AM | 46
Napalm is worse than chemical weapons.
So are white phosphorous and Dense Inert Metal Explosives (DIME) used by "Israel" against Palestinians.
They're worse because the intention is to maim without killing.
Tobin Paz , Apr 19, 2018 10:53:39 AM | 50
@43 Hoarsewhisperer
Napalm is worse than chemical weapons.

I don't know whether to laugh or cry at the irony. So we have Bolton in his first week on the job and Mattis "The Butcher of Fallujah" authorize an illegal missile strike in response to an "alleged" chemical weapons attack... both members of the Bush administration that used white phosphorus and napalm in Iraq.

And who reported it at the time... none other than George Monbiot and The Guardian:

The US used chemical weapons in Iraq - and then lied about it

Until last week, the US state department maintained that US forces used white phosphorus shells "very sparingly in Fallujah, for illumination purposes". They were fired "to illuminate enemy positions at night, not at enemy fighters". Confronted with the new evidence, on Thursday it changed its position. "We have learned that some of the information we were provided ... is incorrect. White phosphorous shells, which produce smoke, were used in Fallujah not for illumination but for screening purposes, ie obscuring troop movements and, according to... Field Artillery magazine, 'as a potent psychological weapon against the insurgents in trench lines and spider holes...' The article states that US forces used white phosphorus rounds to flush out enemy fighters so that they could then be killed with high explosive rounds." The US government, in other words, appears to admit that white phosphorus was used in Falluja as a chemical weapon.

...

There were widespread reports that in March 2003 US marines had dropped incendiary bombs around the bridges over the Tigris and the Saddam Canal on the way to Baghdad. The commander of Marine Air Group 11 admitted that "We napalmed both those approaches". Embedded journalists reported that napalm was dropped at Safwan Hill on the border with Kuwait. In August 2003 the Pentagon confirmed that the marines had dropped "mark 77 firebombs". Though the substance these contained was not napalm, its function, the Pentagon's information sheet said, was "remarkably similar". While napalm is made from petrol and polystyrene, the gel in the mark 77 is made from kerosene and polystyrene. I doubt it makes much difference to the people it lands on.

[Apr 21, 2018] Syria - Who Is Stalling The OPCW Investigation In Douma

Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Why has the fact finding mission (FFM)of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) not visited Douma?

The OPCW inspectors are held up by the United Nations Department of Safety and Security (UNDSS) which has a say about any movement of UN aligned organizations in areas that might be dangerous. The UNDSS is led by an Australian police / intelligence officer. The holdup seems to be intended.

On Sunday April 8 videos were published of an alleged 'chemical attack' in Douma near Damascus. At that time the area was under control of Jaish al-Islam, a Salafi terrorist organization financed by Saudi Arabia. The various videos from terrorist supporters like the 'White Helmets' were unconvincing. They showed obviously arranged scenes of an alleged 'barrel bomb' and manipulated bodies of dead children that had been moved and decorated with shaving foam to superficially fit the claims of a 'chemical incident'. Another video showed people in a hospital being doused with water for no apparent reason.

An often quoted opposition news outlet, the Syrian Observatory in Britain, denied that a 'chemical attack' had happened. It reported on April 8 of suffocation after a shelter collapsed due to bombing:

[I]n among the casualties there are 21 civilians including 9 children and 3 women were killed as a result of suffocation caused by the shelling which destroyed basements of houses as a result of the violence bombardment that stopped about an hour ago on Douma area.

The 'chemical incident' was likely faked. It suspiciously happened just a few days after U.S. President Trump had announced the he wanted the U.S. military to leave Syria. A year earlier a similar incident was claimed to have happened after a similar announcement by Trump. The U.S. had responded to the 2017 incident by bombing an empty Syrian airfield. A day after the incident the Salafi terrorists of Jaish al-Islam gave up and left the area under a ceasefire deal arranged with the help of the Russian military in Syria. The ceasefire deal does not allow the Syrian army to enter the area, only the Russian military police is allowed.

Russian military police immediately entered the area and investigated the house where, allegedly, people were killed by 'chemical weapons'. They found no evidence that such an event had taken place. The Syrian government asked the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical aWeapons (OPCW) to investigate the case.

Many international news teams have since visited the area where the incident allegedly took place. The also visited the field hospital shown in one of the opposition videos. Doctors at that hospital deny (vid) that any patient of theirs had been affected by a chemical attack. The cases they had seen had breathing difficulties caused by the inhalation of dust thrown up through exploding bombs and artillery. Alleged 'victims' shown in the hospital video claim (vid) they were paid to perform.

The regime-change shills are denying that any claims of the hospital staff working in the now government controlled Douma could be true. Medics are liars, unless they are controlled by Jihadis. See for example this shoddy propaganda piece by the Guardian: Syrian medics 'subjected to extreme intimidation' after Douma attack by Martin Chulov in Beirut and Kareem Shaheen in Istanbul. karlof1 , Apr 19, 2018 12:56:35 PM | 72

According to Lavrov , the UN security team did come under fire by terrorists who were tipped off as to who they were and when they'd arrive. Lavrov's comment echoes that made by Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, who observed "Someone does not want an unbiased professional investigation to take place."
partisan , Apr 19, 2018 12:59:08 PM | 73
Syrian boy from the Chemical video found by Russian TV crew in Duma.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JPFaEG9vJT4

[Apr 21, 2018] When the FO is headed by Boris 'Serial liar' Johnson it becomes very hard to know who to believe. But when neoliberal MSM cut somebody on air, you know is it better to beleave this guy

Notable quotes:
"... Sky News cuts of British General. https://southfront.org/sky-news-cuts-off-former-british-general-while-he-questiones-douma-chemical-attack / ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

Kokkos , 13 Apr 2018 15:41

Sky News cuts of British General. https://southfront.org/sky-news-cuts-off-former-british-general-while-he-questiones-douma-chemical-attack /
TheKingOfHate , 13 Apr 2018 15:41
"Russian claims that UK staged Syria gas attack 'a blatant lie'"

When the FO is headed by Boris 'Serial liar' Johnson it becomes very hard to know who to believe.

JBigglesworth , 13 Apr 2018 15:41
Further to my post on Russell-Moyle's Tweet:

Lloyd Russell-Moyle
(@lloyd_rm)
It is worth noting that the British Government approved exports of dual use precursors for chemical weapons including sarin to Syria between 2004 and 2012, after the civil war began and after Assad was accused of using gas. CAEC report (2015): pic.twitter.com/TsvthAcZRR

April 13, 2018

Further down his thread is a tweet where someone has a screen-grab of a Mail Online story from 2013. It talks about leaked information about clearance given by the US Government for a British security company to stage a chemical weapons attack in Syria in order to provide a pretext for bombing.

I have no idea whether this is true or whether it was genuinely from Mail Online, perhaps someone with more know-how than me could find out.

At first, I laughed at the Russian suggestion that the attack on Douma had been staged. Now I'm not so sure.

[Apr 21, 2018] Operation Timber Sycamore and Douma false falg

Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

Jay_Q123 , 13 Apr 2018 15:36

Your article appears to apportion blame solely to Assad and you don't even attempt to address the opposition in Syria. Nobody seriously questions that the Syrian governments war has killed many thousands and thousands of civilians. How can you not refer to the international jihad and the make up of these fighters, as well as the sieges they laid on villages, town and cities and the cruelty they inflicted upon the people?

The Syrian Arab Army is a composite of Sunni, Shia, Christians, and different ethnicity's, what convinces you that they have in any way wantonly killed civilians? The soldiers have family all over Syria, plus no mention of the 300,000+ civilians that have been liberated from Eastern Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta in the last several months.

I find this article very bizarre indeed. The most simple explanation for the disaster in Syria is that a sovereign state protected its national interest from an international contingent of mercenaries. There are Moroccans and Chechnyans, Uighurs and Brits, Saudis as well as Syrians in this armed army. What other options did a state such as Syria have when fighting against ISIS, Al Qaida, Al Nusra and 'The Army of Islam', Jaysh Al-Islam? All have which have direct connections to our major ally in the region, Saudi Arabia.

Somebody correct me if I am wrong but I can not find any reference at all to the enemy in this article. It's written as if the 8 year war has simply been an extermination war against civilians and completely out of context with reality.

Check out Operation Timber Sycamore for more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_Sycamore

BoomersStealingMoney , 13 Apr 2018 15:32
The west stoked and funded the Wahabists. Secular Asad is our buffer against the Saudi version of Islam.

Whatever happens we cannot let the Saud version of Islam win.

The Sauds have spread their Wahabi version of Islam using oil money. And we have armed the Sauds.

Justin Thyme , 13 Apr 2018 15:31
The USA and WMD@S

US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld helped Saddam Hussein build up his arsenal of deadly chemical and biological weapons. As an envoy from President Reagan 19 years ago, he had a secret meeting with the Iraqi dictator and arranged enormous military assistance for his war with Iran. Mr Rumsfeld, at the time a successful executive in the pharmaceutical industry, still made it possible for Saddam to buy supplies from American firms. They included viruses such as anthrax and bubonic plague, according to the Washington Post.
The USA provided $1.5 billion worth of Pathogenic, toxigenic and other biological research materials were exported to Iraq; 1985-89.

1) US based company, Alcolac International exported mustard gas to Iraq; 1987-88.
2) Almost 150 foreign companies supported Saddam Hussein's WMD program; 1975-
3) US directly attacked Iran by hitting Iran's oil platforms; 1987.
4) US directly attacked Iran's navy in unproportioned and unreasonable war; 1988.
5) US shot down Iranian civilian airliner in the Iranian territory; 1988.

This is the equivalent of a pathological paedophile giving a sermon against child abuse when the US preaches its corrupt moral practices regarding Syria!!!

[Apr 21, 2018] The scientific service of the german Bundestag calls the bombing contrary to international law

Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

The scientific service of the german Bundestag calls the bombing contrary to international law: http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/syrien-bundestags-gutachten-verurteilt-vergeltungsschlag-von-usa-und-co-a-1204004.html

Posted by: Anonymous | Apr 20, 2018 11:25:51 AM | 197

[Apr 21, 2018] S-300 as Carrot and Stick

Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

S-300 as Carrot and Stick

RT has an article out this morning quoting Lavrov (whose diction is always, impeccably, exact)

to the effect that Russia now has "no reason to *not* supply its S-300 missile system to Syria"
in light of the US strike. Several well-sourced Syrian accounts were reporting the sale of S-300s
to Syria as a done deal, but I think this is premature. Lavrov is asking the US and Israel to give
Russia a reason not to provide the S-300 to Syria. Lavrov is saying the fate of the S-300 in the
MIddle East is now open for renegotiation. On the other hand, Lavrov knows that neither the US
nor Israel can be trusted to abide by the terms of any negotiated outcome. So in the *best* case
scenario, he may be hoping to gain by this gambit a significant (if temporary) reduction of US / Israeli
/ Saudi military interference in the Russian attempt to bring Syria to political settlement.

Would Israel rather: (1) see the US withdraw from a Syria that does not have the S-300?
(2) see the US remain within a Syria that does have the S-300?

The US will not bomb any Syrian S-300s while Russia is around. Israel would have to
take this task on itself. But does Israel *really* want to take on this task? Given that
it could go very badly in any number of ways?

Posted by: WJ | Apr 20, 2018 11:12:32 AM | 194 Don Bacon , Apr 20, 2018 11:20:44 AM | 195

@193
The S-300 carrot & stick has legs.
> May 30, 2013 - Israel could overcome advanced S-300 anti-aircraft missiles if they were deployed in Syria but any strikes on the system would be difficult.
> Dec 1, 2015 - For Israel, more problematic have been Russia's plans to sell the less advanced, but hardly less problematic S-300 missile system to both Syria and Iran
likklemore , Apr 20, 2018 1:38:08 PM | 204
Apologies if this is already posted:

Coming after the RF Military spokesmen suggested Syria should be allowed S-300 air defense, Mr Lavrov joins:


Lavrov: After US-led strikes, Russia has 'no moral barriers' on S-300 deliveries to Syria
RT

Following the US-led bombardment of Syria last week over an alleged chemical attack by Damascus, Russia says it has no reason to not supply its S-300 missile system to Syria, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

Moscow agreed with its international partners about 10 years ago to not deliver the S-300 to Damascus. "We took into consideration their argument that this would destabilize the situation, despite the missile systems being a purely defensive system," Lavrov said in an interview to RIA Novosti.

But given the latest spiraling of the crisis – in particular the use of the alleged Douma chemical attack as pre-text for striking Syria – things may take a U-turn. While around a decade ago, Moscow "heeded" the calls of its partners and put the deliveries on hold, the Russian foreign minister said it now has "no such moral obligation."

In the wake of the US-led operation on Syria, Russia said it may consider sending supplies of S-300 missile systems to Damascus. Moscow believes it is "possible to return to mulling over the issue, and not only with regard to Syria but also to other states as well," Russian General Staff Spokesman General Sergey Rudskoy stated[.]

And in other news, DNC today filed $multi-million lawsuit against Russia, Trump and Wikkileaks for conspiring to defeat Hillary in 2016.
ZH link

Guess they filed this action without knowing Rudy Guiliani has just joined Trump's legal team.

First question for Plaintiff: Why was the FBI denied access to the hacked servers?

His name was Seth Rich

Oh, and good luck collecting from Russia and Wikkileaks.


[Apr 21, 2018] Trump and Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: A P | Apr 19, 2018 9:13:10 AM | 41

Trump and Hanlon's Razor: Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

The rest of the Rothschild/Zionist/Deep State swamp has long hidden behind such useful idiots, including most of the elected/bureaucratic/bankster/militarist puppets infesting NATO countries.

The Rothschilds et. al. cannot avoid the label of malice, as they have long acted purposefully on the declaration in the mid-1700's: "I care not who sits on the British throne, the man who controls the money supply controls the Empire... and I control the money supply." Baron Mayer Rothschild

"If my sons wanted no wars, there would be none." Baron Mayer Rothschild's wife.

For 300 years the Rothschilds have controlled the political and economic levers that resulted in the endless line of wars. The Balfour Declaration by which the British gov't stupidly endorses to this day was written to (and largely by) the Baron Rothschild of that day.

Attempting to discern intent by the visible layer of the otherwise well-disguised Rothschild Promised Land agenda is a fools errand.

"By deception thou shalt do war." The Mossad motto. The Rothschild modus oprandi.

/div> div
div
ralphieboy , Apr 19, 2018 9:32:18 AM | 45
@A P #41

"For 300 years the Rothschilds have controlled the political and economic levers that resulted in the endless line of wars. The Balfour Declaration by which the British gov't stupidly endorses to this day was written to (and largely by) the Baron Rothschild of that day."

If we have allowed these people to yank our chains for the past three centuries, then it must be because they are a f*ck of a lot smarter and more motivated than the rest of us stupid Gentiles.

But we believe in a system in which the smartest and most motivated should rise to the top...

[Apr 21, 2018] The outcome is that the US can no longer count on air superiority anywhere in the world where Russian air defences operate

Notable quotes:
"... The treaties which promise US allies that an attack on them will draw US military support for their collective defence – Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO), Article 4 of the Australia New Zealand US Treaty (ANZUS), Article 3 of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio), and the Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan and Israel defence treaties – are dead letters. ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: Likklemore | Apr 20, 2018 8:46:38 PM | 48

If you haven't read John Helmer's " Bear and sitting Duck suggest it be added to your weekend read.

@ S 33

Thanks for clarifying.

A few snips:

US President Donald Trump didn't mean to start a revolution. President Vladimir Putin tried persuading him not to. But on April 14 the revolution was launched by American warplanes, surface ships and a submarine.

The outcome is that the US can no longer count on air superiority anywhere in the world where Russian air defences operate, backed by Russian command-and-control systems. Without air superiority, the US has no force multiple on the ground of the magnitude required for the Pentagon to attack; that is, the ratio of American men and firepower the Pentagon calculates for making sure their enemies on their ground can be defeated.

This is revolutionary, and has spread instantly to every war front -- the Russian lines with NATO; the Korea-Japan front; the Taiwan Straits and South China Sea for China; and the Indian Ocean for India and Pakistan.

The treaties which promise US allies that an attack on them will draw US military support for their collective defence – Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty (NATO), Article 4 of the Australia New Zealand US Treaty (ANZUS), Article 3 of the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Rio), and the Japan, Philippines, South Korea, Taiwan, Pakistan and Israel defence treaties – are dead letters.

So long, shock and awe – that was the American warfighting doctrine against people who lack Russian-standard defences. [.]

The S-300, which Iran and Greece operate, and the S-400, which guards the Russian naval and air bases in Syria and which Turkey is acquiring, are capable of striking both aircraft and missiles. This is the game-changer for Syrian defence against Israel if the S-300 is delivered, as the Russian Defence Ministry is now proposing. [.]


LINK

Oh my, NuttyYahoo is on the phone.

[Apr 21, 2018] Russia has transferred forty Pantsir-S1 air defense systems to Syria' Air Defence

Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

tayacase , 13 Apr 2018 15:50

Russia has transferred forty Pantsir-S1 air defense systems to Syria' Air Defence.
This is the latest air defence technology (the system is in service since 2012) - a combined short to medium range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapon system against aircrafts, helicopters, precision munitions, cruise missiles and UAVs.

https://southfront.org/russia-delivered-40-pantsir-s1-air-defense-systems-to-syria-state-media /
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantsir-S1

[Apr 21, 2018] There's no good option in Syria by Jonathan Freedland

You face the same the liars with the sexed up dossier who went on to murder hundreds of thousands in Iraq and Libya. This is all too reminiscent of previous interventions
Consider WW1, Suez, Iran 1953, Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen and every other western militarily intervention in the ME - whether directly or by proxy - and identify one that hasn't just caused more instability, death, violence and displacement than there was already?
Apr 21, 2018 | www.theguardian.com

e are caught between a rock, in the form of the recklessness of Donald Trump, and a hard place, shaped by the cruelty of Bashar al-Assad. This is the choice that now confronts citizens and their representatives in Britain, France and the US. The reasons to resist signing up for any project led by Trump should be obvious, with the newly published testimony of James Comey, the FBI director he fired, providing a fresh reminder.

Trump is a congenital liar who is devoid of empathy, a narcissist with a nihilist's view of the world. These are not mere character defects; they have a bearing on the decisions the de facto leader of any action in Syria would take. Among the reasons I opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq was my fundamental distrust of George W Bush and his circle, especially on the matter of motive. Trump, with his tweeted mood swings – first, vowing to withdraw from Syria altogether, then threatening an imminent missile bombardment, then signalling a delay – makes Bush look like a statesman.

But even if a moral paragon were sitting in the Oval Office, there would be grounds for restraint. The record of past western military interventions in the Middle East is bloody and shaming, as the peoples of both Iraq and Libya can testify. Barack Obama, no gung-ho cowboy, was the commander-in-chief in the latter case. And yet what was originally billed as a discrete military action to prevent an impending civilian slaughter in Benghazi escalated into a bombardment that led to regime change and mayhem. It stands as a textbook illustration of western bombs' ability to make a bad situation worse.


LiviaDrusilla -> BullNakano , 13 Apr 2018 16:26

It's clear now that although Assad has 'won' the war a status quo of him ruling a predominately Sunni country can't be returned to. He seeks to terrorise and punish the Syrian people under the protection of Russia and Iran.

Even though the army which has made such huge sacrifices for the Syrian state is about 70% Sunni?

The US and her allies have to intervene, otherwise the rule of international law is worthless.

Why? Even if your premise above were true, which it isn't, why is it our job to intervene in every country with an imperfect system? Or are you proposing we bomb every Middle Eastern country where people are privileged and granted citizenship merely on account of their religion?

dannymega -> mjlnkc , 13 Apr 2018 16:26
Yes, because Assad wants to be bombed by the West just as he is winning, I know - makes perfect sense.
solidstae -> John Favre , 13 Apr 2018 16:25
I love these guys who won't do their own research. Why not? Axe to grind? This is just one example from 2013. There's more but I'm too busy to look up public shit for you.

https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/may/6/syrian-rebels-used-sarin-nerve-gas-not-assads-regi /

GLT24 -> Squiddlywidget , 13 Apr 2018 16:18
Spot on look what happened to Sadaam after he switched to the Euro for Iraq oil sales.
Ghaddafi had similar plans.
Without reserve currency status and petrodollar with US economy will collapse under the $21T dollar debt.
Russia and China have recently agreed a bilateral trade agreement which cuts out the dollar.
The US cannot permit this ...as always follow the money.
Some people murder others for political and ideological reasons the military industrial complex starts wars and conflicts ,murdering millions for profit....evil personified
Squiddlywidget , 13 Apr 2018 16:10
Could this whole drama be because China and Russia are ditching the petrodollar?
I watched the video of the attack and it looks fake to me.. those children are not crying because of chlorine.. they have their eyes wide open..first thing you do when you have chlorine in your eyes is touch your face and close your eyes..whole thing looks dodge..just my opinion. Those children are wide eyed and looking at the camera..something you wouldn't do if you'd just been gassed.

[Apr 21, 2018] CIA, MI6 and rebels: Rebels can be genuine protesters but they will brutally used by CIA and MI6 for nefarious purposes

Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

junglecitizen -> LeftOrRightSameShite , 13 Apr 2018 15:44

We, along with the US, France and Gulf states have supported, armed and trained "rebels" in Syria the whole time. We've had, as have others, special forces operating inside Syria


So, there would never be rebellions against totalitarian dictators if it weren't for the CIA and MI6.

I don't buy this. It's very convenient if you're an anti-war person who doesn't want to face an ethical dilemma. But it's not real.

[Apr 21, 2018] The vast majority of supposed 'NGO's' are fronts for jihadists 'rebels' who want an Islamist state

NGO now are favorite cover of intelligence agencies.
Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

MartinSilenus -> imperium3 , 13 Apr 2018 14:13

"Remarkable how Saddam Hussein gassing Iranian troops by the thousand, while world powers helped him do it and covered for him at the UN is treated as a minor exception to non-use of chemical"

He also used poison gas to kill thousands of his own Kurdish civilians, the Reagan administration was in many ways a moral cesspit. They knew exactly what he was doing. A spokesman said the Iranians - who never used Chemical Weapons on principle - used the poison gas, on Iraqi Kurds. I think Reagan never really understood this, that is my assessment of his character, he saw what reality he wanted to see, but nothing else.

LiviaDrusilla -> Bangorstu , 13 Apr 2018 14:12
There has been no independently gathered or assessed medical evidence. None.

What is this 'NGO' you speak of? The vast majority of supposed 'NGO's' are fronts for jihadists 'rebels' who want an Islamist state.

wryape , 13 Apr 2018 14:12
" Back then the death toll in Syria stood at around 100,000. More than 400,000 have died since that day. The proof is there if we can bear to look at it. Inaction, too, can be deadly"

And how many died after the war was "won" in Iraq. And how many would have died trying to remove assad. Toppling assad would almost certainly not have brought peace. Your analysis is simplistic and blinkered and definately doesn't contain any proof of anything. Sometimes there's just not a solution. The current proposed bombing campaign smacks of somethingmustbedoneism. Those responsible for the gas attacks must face justice. But it might have to be further down the line.

NHSmonami -> Laurence Bury , 13 Apr 2018 14:12
Western countries have been guilty of mudering hundreds of thousands in starting Middle East wars.

[Apr 21, 2018] Whose sarin by Seymour M. Hersh

Notable quotes:
"... 19 December 2013 ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | www.defenddemocracy.press

19 December 2013

Barack Obama did not tell the whole story this autumn when he tried to make the case that Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons attack near Damascus on 21 August. In some instances, he omitted important intelligence, and in others he presented assumptions as facts. Most significant, he failed to acknowledge something known to the US intelligence community: that the Syrian army is not the only party in the country's civil war with access to sarin, the nerve agent that a UN study concluded – without assessing responsibility – had been used in the rocket attack. In the months before the attack, the American intelligence agencies produced a series of highly classified reports, culminating in a formal Operations Order – a planning document that precedes a ground invasion – citing evidence that the al-Nusra Front, a jihadi group affiliated with al-Qaida, had mastered the mechanics of creating sarin and was capable of manufacturing it in quantity. When the attack occurred al-Nusra should have been a suspect, but the administration cherry-picked intelligence to justify a strike against Assad.

In his nationally televised speech about Syria on 10 September, Obama laid the blame for the nerve gas attack on the rebel-held suburb of Eastern Ghouta firmly on Assad's government, and made it clear he was prepared to back up his earlier public warnings that any use of chemical weapons would cross a 'red line': 'Assad's government gassed to death over a thousand people,' he said. 'We know the Assad regime was responsible And that is why, after careful deliberation, I determined that it is in the national security interests of the United States to respond to the Assad regime's use of chemical weapons through a targeted military strike.' Obama was going to war to back up a public threat, but he was doing so without knowing for sure who did what in the early morning of 21 August.

Read also: A looming provocation? Turkey, Syria and the refugees

He cited a list of what appeared to be hard-won evidence of Assad's culpability: 'In the days leading up to August 21st, we know that Assad's chemical weapons personnel prepared for an attack near an area where they mix sarin gas. They distributed gas masks to their troops. Then they fired rockets from a regime-controlled area into 11 neighbourhoods that the regime has been trying to wipe clear of opposition forces.' Obama's certainty was echoed at the time by Denis McDonough, his chief of staff, who told the New York Times : 'No one with whom I've spoken doubts the intelligence' directly linking Assad and his regime to the sarin attacks.

Read more at https://www.lrb.co.uk/v35/n24/seymour-m-hersh/whose-sarin

SOURCE www.lrb.co.uk

[Apr 21, 2018] Timber Sycamore

A classified U.S. State Department cable signed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reported that Saudi donors were a major support for Sunni militant forces globally, and some American officials worried that rebels being supported had ties to Al Qaeda.[14]
Notable quotes:
"... Read more at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_Sycamore ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | www.defenddemocracy.press

Timber Sycamore 20/04/2018 Timber Sycamore was a classified weapons supply and training program run by the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and supported by various Arab intelligence services, most notably that of Saudi Arabia . Launched in 2012 or 2013, it supplied money, weaponry and training to rebel forces fighting Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian Civil War . According to U.S. officials, the program has trained thousands of rebels. President Barack Obama secretly authorized the CIA to begin arming Syria's embattled rebels in 2013. [3] However, the CIA had been facilitating the flow of arms from Libya to Syria "for more than a year" beforehand in collaboration with "the UK ( United Kingdom ), Saudi Arabia and Qatar ."

The program's existence was suspected after the U.S. Federal Business Opportunities website publicly solicited contract bids to ship tons of weaponry from Eastern Europe to Taşucu , Turkey and Aqaba , Jordan. One unintended consequence of the program has been to flood the Middle East's black market with weapons including assault rifles, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades. The U.S. delivered weapons via Ramstein – supposedly in breach of German laws.

In July 2017, U.S. officials stated that Timber Sycamore would be phased out, with funds possibly redirected to fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), or to offering rebel forces defensive capabilities.

... ... ...

According to American officials, the program has been highly effective, training and equipping thousands of U.S.-backed fighters to make substantial battlefield gains.[2][19] American officials state that the program began to lose effectiveness after Russia intervened militarily in the Syrian Civil War.[19] David Ignatius, writing in The Washington Post, remarked that while the CIA program ultimately failed in its objective of removing Assad from power, it was hardly "bootless": "The program pumped many hundreds of millions of dollars to many dozens of militia groups. One knowledgeable official estimates that the CIA-backed fighters may have killed or wounded 100,000 Syrian soldiers and their allies over the past four years."[8]

... ... ...

U.S.-backed rebels often fought alongside al-Qaeda's al-Nusra Front, and some of the U.S. supplied weapons ended up in the hands of the al-Nusra Front, which had been a major concern of the Obama administration when the program was first proposed.[10]

... ... ...

The program remains classified,[14][10] and many details about the program remain unknown, including the total amount of support, the range of weapons transferred, the depth of training provided, the types of U.S. trainers involved, and the exact rebel groups being supported.[18] However, The Canberra Times reported that two thousand tons of Soviet era weapons were delivered to Aqaba as recently as April 2016.

Read more at https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_Sycamore

[Apr 21, 2018] Neoliberal media and goverment talking points

Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

creelo -> sejong , 13 Apr 2018 14:57

We're now in a strange position where the media is actually behind the government. May is doubtful about bombing because she's a politician and so has to constantly monitor her popularity, but the only people left still writing in 'newspapers' are still programmed to want war and bombing because it always used to sell.

"Since you're here..."

HarrytheHawk -> JackDowland , 13 Apr 2018 14:56
'There is overwhelming evidence...'

Where?

Let's see it.

You might want to show it to James Mattis while you're at it as he doesn't seem to be willing to settle for accusations.

Jazzfunk23 , 13 Apr 2018 14:56
The UN duly investigated and in October concluded unambiguously that the Assad regime had used sarin gas.

You omitted to mention that the same report also concludes that ISIL deployed Sulphur Mustard, isn't this the same gas that France claims to have evidence regarding the recent incident?

Besides, how much evidence do we need? Even before Douma, Assad's use of chemical weapons had been documented seven times this year alone.

The link you provided to back-up this claim contains no substantiative evidence to attribute those incidents to Assad.

Clearly both sides in this conflict appear to have used chemical weapons, making assumptions or false accusations of blame at this stage is incredibly dangerous. I'm in total agreement with Jeremy Corbyn, we need a solid investigation on which the international community can act. Any potential escalation of this awful conflict must be avoided at all costs, particularly when it involves a nuclear armed superstate, considering the on-going humaitarian crisis in Syria and how it has already affected the world. Furthermore we must not allow a cabinet of a minority government to make any final decisions on the UK involvement in further militrary action, our elected representatives MUST be allowed to debate and decide a course of action, otherwise our democracy is in a far worse state than I could have possibly imagined.

thatotherbloke , 13 Apr 2018 14:54
Theresa May leads a minority government propped up by an unlawful bung to a right wing extremist group. May, her Cabinet of half wits and her self serving party have a mandate for sweet FA, and that includes killing people in our name.
sejong , 13 Apr 2018 14:52
MSM has gone full neocon on Syria.

Bomb like it's 2003.

psoptim11 , 13 Apr 2018 14:52
There is massive, overwhelming opposition in the UK to May's attempt to join Trump & Macron in bombing Syria and to by-passing our democratic parliament, but who would have thought it?

The media are generally presenting Theresa May with a free ride to cause death and destruction on a massive scale. Claiming she's joining an international coalition (even though it consists of only 2 other countries) and having the backing of the Cabinet and therefore possessing the authority to go to war.

The reality is that she's virtually politically isolated and working in defiance of the British people. Labour - and most other opposition parties, including the Lib Dems, SNP, Plaid, and the Greens are totally against military intervention and calling for a full, democratic debate in Parliament.

Then the Conservative Party itself is bitterly divided over the issue.

And only 22% of British people would support the war effort, according to a poll in the Times.

The timing is being forced by Donald Trump and the US, so where's the substance in the Conservative claim that they're 'taking back control'?

And then any intervention is likely to cost billions, so what about The Deficit? And what about that magic money tree?

Moreover, the Government maintain we cannot allow such inhumanity in Syria to go unchallenged. So where is the outcry at defenceless citizens being killed in Gaza? And in Yemen? And in Saudi Arabia? What accounts for the blatant double standards? What are they not telling us?

And why does the British Goverment justicfy selling all these lethal and inhumance weapons to these countries in the first place?

Where is the media reminding the Government of what happened in Iraq, in Libya and in Afghanistan?, whenever we intervened?

Where is the media remembering the findings of the Chilcott Report?

If this was Labour nationalising the railways or expropriating land in an emergency bill to launch a massive house-building programme, the BBC and mass media would quote every adversary and critic they could muster and express total outrage at any attempt to by-pass Parliament.

The Syrian conflict is a hugely complex quagmire and we enter it at our peril. We need a much more objective Press to scrutinise Government policy, before this lunacy unravels and triggers a seriously calamitous hot war between the Superpowers, from which we'd all be losers.

Jeremy Corbyn is often mocked and scorned by the media for his measured reactions, but his call for the UK to use its influence to defuse tensions makes him one of the only responsible and mature political leaders around right now!!

dumbwaiter , 13 Apr 2018 14:52
The government and the BBC have been using the words "suspected chemical attack" in Syria and that Russia is "highly likely" to be responsible for the Salisbury affair.

Now if that isn't official doubt I don't know what is.

Still May happy to drop bombs on this basis without parliamentary approval (if Donald says so that is)!

[Apr 21, 2018] OK - its the We Cannot Do Nothing, Therefore We Must Do Something, Therefore We Must Bomb Them argument.

Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

bubmachine , 13 Apr 2018 14:39

OK - its the We Cannot Do Nothing, Therefore We Must Do Something, Therefore We Must Bomb Them argument.

Convinced? No.

DZ76 , 13 Apr 2018 14:39
This is pathetic. The mouthpieces of the British government (Guardian and BBC) have spent the last week on a steady pendulum of demanding war, shitting themselves, then when the rhetoric calms down a bit, demanding war again. The U.K., its security agencies and its house-trained media are destabilising the world.

[Apr 21, 2018] How about some basic honesty about the role the US and it's allies have played in fostering and continue if this civil war

Notable quotes:
"... How about some basic honesty about the role the US and it's allies have played in fostering and continue if this civil war. That, coupled by a complete retreat of US imperial neoliberal ambitions across the entire region, you know, might just be incredibly effective ..."
"... Are we seriously going to pretend we and our allies haven't provided financial, technological, diplomatic, political and military support to this extremely heterogenous group of rebels, without which the whole uprising (a legitimate uprising, sure, but certainly not a viable one) would have been over in a few months, without any of the atrocities, tragedies and destruction of the past 6 years? ..."
"... For Europe and the US to have any credibility the double standards applied has to come to an end ..."
"... Sorry but the arguments in the article don't hold water. Reeks of the longstanding agenda of the war profiteers and the Clinton gang to invade this country. On hypocritical reasons. ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

HoublaHoubla , 13 Apr 2018 14:44

Here's an idea Jonathan for another solution. How about some basic honesty about the role the US and it's allies have played in fostering and continue if this civil war. That, coupled by a complete retreat of US imperial neoliberal ambitions across the entire region, you know, might just be incredibly effective
notndmushroom , 13 Apr 2018 14:42

But nor can we watch the brutal dictator slaughter his own people

Why not? We're watching Israelis shoot and kill unarmed Palestinians, we're watching our favourite Saudis bomb and kill Yemeni civilians, we're watching our Nobel-winning inspirational Myanmar leader oversee the persecution, massacre and forced displacement of an entire people, we're watching the North Korean leader oppress and starve his people while stepping closer to a nuclear war against a currently volatile superpower, we're watching the Philipino head of state launching a literal war against low-level drug dealers and junkies, we're watching several central Asian dictators imprison and torture dissidents and oppress their people while robbing them of their national wealth, we're watching the Chinese and Russian leaders do pretty much the same, we're watching the Turkish leader kidnap dissidents from EU countries, imprison thousands of alleged dissidents and invade a neighbouring country to fight against part of said countries' inhabitants, we're watching corrupt politicians, media and judges completing the final touches of a coup in the fifth largest country in the world, and then there's Africa, which is a whole other chapter.

What specifically is it about Syria that made you decide that yeah, all these things are pretty bad, but that's the one thing we really have to do something about?

Perhaps that was why, five years ago, the House of Commons voted to leave the Assad regime untouched. Back then the death toll in Syria stood at around 100,000. More than 400,000 have died since that day. The proof is there if we can bear to look at it. Inaction, too, can be deadly.

Inaction? Really? Are we seriously going to pretend we and our allies haven't provided financial, technological, diplomatic, political and military support to this extremely heterogenous group of rebels, without which the whole uprising (a legitimate uprising, sure, but certainly not a viable one) would have been over in a few months, without any of the atrocities, tragedies and destruction of the past 6 years?

fishandart , 13 Apr 2018 14:42
For Europe and the US to have any credibility the double standards applied has to come to an end. Israel has to comply with UN resolutions and the US has to stop using its veto to block those resolutions that seek to make Israel comply to international standards of acceptable behaviour.

If we can't do that we can forget getting Assad or Putin or anyone else to respect anything we have to say. As it stands the so called West has no moral authority in the Middle East.

Ziontrain , 13 Apr 2018 14:41

But nor can we watch the brutal dictator slaughter his own people

Why is this supposed slaughter such an imperative when we seem to approve of and even profit from selling weapons to slaughters elsewhere in the region

Sorry but the arguments in the article don't hold water. Reeks of the longstanding agenda of the war profiteers and the Clinton gang to invade this country. On hypocritical reasons.

[Apr 21, 2018] Pay for what? Be President of a country marked out for regime change by the West and successfully managing to fight off the West's proxy armies of terrorists over seven years in defence of that country?

Notable quotes:
"... Conveniently missing from this short history of Syria: That the US was actually heavily involved using the CIA in getting rid of Assad. Had that not been the case, perhaps there would have been no prolonged civil war. ..."
"... Oh, I know challenging the holy West and its exceptional leading nation is verboten nowadays, but can we at least be honest about what is really going on today? Syria is being punished for not joining the coalition of the willing in 2003 by being subjected to the same illegal war by false claim as Iraq was then. ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

MightyBuccaneer , 13 Apr 2018 14:14

Conveniently missing from this short history of Syria: That the US was actually heavily involved using the CIA in getting rid of Assad. Had that not been the case, perhaps there would have been no prolonged civil war.

It would be just another dictator, the likes of which can be found all over the world without columnists noticing it.

Strangely though, all that is deplored is that the US didn't do even more. That they didn't also do a full blown invasion.

NewWorldOutOfOrder , 13 Apr 2018 14:14
"Why, of course, the people don't want war. Why would some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best that he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece. Naturally, the common people don't want war; neither in Russia nor in England nor in America, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy or a fascist dictatorship or a Parliament or a Communist dictatorship

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country."

– Hermann Goering (as told to Gustav Gilbert during the Nuremberg trials)

Briar , 13 Apr 2018 14:14
Pay for what? Be President of a country marked out for regime change by the West and successfully managing to fight off the West's proxy armies of terrorists over seven years in defence of that country?

Oh, I know challenging the holy West and its exceptional leading nation is verboten nowadays, but can we at least be honest about what is really going on today? Syria is being punished for not joining the coalition of the willing in 2003 by being subjected to the same illegal war by false claim as Iraq was then.

solidstae , 13 Apr 2018 14:14
Assad has always acted in this like any other authoritarian government anywhere in the Middle East would, fighting a civil war. Israel is just as ruthless when facing a threat to its authority.

This mess was financed, planned, egged on and armed by the U.S., it's junior partners and its clients in Turkey and the Gulf. And it goes back years before the rebellion against Assad. The Wahabbi rebels have been given billions in cash, arms and training, funneled through Turkey and the Gulf states.

Now we have Washington, London and Paris shrieking outrage and promising revenge against a strongman they unleashed as the result of yet another regime change adventure. And then there's the incredible hypocrisy and cynicism of using Al-Qaeda affiliated actors to do it.

Assad's wartime iteration, like ISIS, is the result of American greed, ambition, pride and the old imperialist bent for aggression as a way of imposing its geopolitical will.

[Apr 21, 2018] These children are not the casualties of a gas attack

Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

gragor , 13 Apr 2018 13:48

Watch the Unbearable video gain. The children are no foaming at the mouth, their colouration is not cyanotic, they do not appear to be in respiratory distress. The premise of the argument is not based on fact. These children are not the casualties of a gas attack. GROW UP and recognize the propaganda.
minutehands , 13 Apr 2018 13:38
The article takes a self-righteous moral high ground while calling for some vague affair of violence. I can't help but notice that these articles by people who pretend to be moderates and centrists have a habit of turning reality and morality on their head. It's dangerous and very Orwellian stuff.
entropyrules , 13 Apr 2018 13:44
The question that I struggle to answer is, "Are journalists like this actually duped by propaganda themselves, or are they knowingly part of the process of dissemination?"
What I do not struggle to see is that they are undoubtedly part of the prevailing neolib/neocon philosophy which we rapidly need to dismantle.
ChairmanMayTseTung , 13 Apr 2018 13:36
Cui bono?

Who would gain by getting the US back on the ground in Syria?
Who would gain from Russia and the US coming into conflict?

Rogue elements in the US?
Israel certainly
ISIS terrorists?
Saudi Arabia?

[Apr 21, 2018] First Joust by Israel Shamir

Trump strangely immature twits on Douma attack disqualify his as a statesman.
Notable quotes:
"... the strike has been definitely an act of aggression against a sovereign state despite an objection of a permanent SC member, namely Russia. ..."
"... Now the gates of hell are open, international law has been demolished, and this happened because Putin agreed to accommodate Trump's strike, said Ivashov. ..."
"... I'd consider that a good conclusion of the fictional chemical weapons story. The story has fallen to pieces altogether, anyway. The poisoning of Skripal ended with the old spy in good health; with Boris Johnson being caught lying; with [the chemical weapons control body] OPCW refusing to connect Skripal's poison to Moscow; and with Brits keeping Miss Skripal incommunicado under duress, away from her fiancé and the rest of her family, a clear sign of a collapsing story. ..."
"... The Syrian part of this story collapsed as well, after Robert Fisk , one of the very best British Middle East observers (next to David Hirst) visited Douma and delivered a report straight from the donkey's mouth, i.e. as told by a doctor of the clinic videoed by the White Helmets. ..."
"... The Russians actually located some people who are seen in the video, and they say it was staged. ..."
"... An interesting bit of data, proving that preparations for the strike were carried out before the alleged attack, has been published by the Cyprus banking community blog. They say the British air base of Akrotiri on Cyprus had its perimeter urgently strengthened (by the British company Agility) on April 5, that is before the alleged Douma gas attack ..."
"... The OPCW could dispel the mist around both cases, that of Skripal and that of Douma, but do not hold your breath. It appears that OPCW is as integrated into the machinery of the Masters of Discourse as any other international body. Refusal of OPCW to allow Russia to take part in Skripal investigation, despite the clear requirement of its own charter, makes its conclusion doubtful, at best. ..."
"... While inability of OPCW inspectors to enter Douma despite all efforts of Damascus and Russians to facilitate their entry tells us they are not eager to investigate; like they weren't eager to enter Khan Sheykhun last year. ..."
"... please! Trump validated an obvious false flag – again – and launched the strikes before any kind of investigation could have challenged it – again. He's no "hero". He's a weak man at best . Please don't insult real heroes and real bravery. ..."
"... if somebody looks like an idiot, behaves like an imbecile, speaks like a stupid asshat it's very likely you are dealing with an idiot. Stupid bringing boltons and haleys to his circus just had some unforeseen by idiot consequencies. ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | www.unz.com

... Let us face it: Putin did not stop the strike and he didn't make the offender pay a price for this breach of the Law of Nations.

... ... ...

What is worse, Trump's strike destroyed what was left of the international law structure established by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin. These three giants created the UN and its Security Council in order to avoid such eventualities by forbidding aggression, and the strike has been definitely an act of aggression against a sovereign state despite an objection of a permanent SC member, namely Russia.

Now the gates of hell are open, international law has been demolished, and this happened because Putin agreed to accommodate Trump's strike, said Ivashov.

... ... ...

The Russian military experts here in Moscow told me that out of a hundred missiles fired by the US and their allies, only one or two were modern cruise missiles ("nice and smart") and they destroyed the research institute in Barzeh. (It was not a "chemical weapons centre", just a chemical research institute; it's destruction was a copy-paste of Bill Clinton's bombing of the pharmaceutical factory in Sudan over a similar pretext.)

All other missiles were old and at the end of their service; they had to be utilised somehow, and so they were. A few of them might have been downed by Syrian anti-aircraft fire, others fell without inflicting much damage.

The Russian experts who were in contact with the US military told me that the US military used this occasion for retraining and refreshing reserve pilots; what they call "a milk run". This combination of old missiles and less experienced pilots helped to lower the efficiency of the strike. And both sides, the Russians and the Americans, admitted that the deconfliction line was operative all the time, to avoid eventualities.

I'd consider that a good conclusion of the fictional chemical weapons story. The story has fallen to pieces altogether, anyway. The poisoning of Skripal ended with the old spy in good health; with Boris Johnson being caught lying; with [the chemical weapons control body] OPCW refusing to connect Skripal's poison to Moscow; and with Brits keeping Miss Skripal incommunicado under duress, away from her fiancé and the rest of her family, a clear sign of a collapsing story. Hopefully, Jeremy Corbyn will be able to use May's debacle for his political advantage.

The Syrian part of this story collapsed as well, after Robert Fisk , one of the very best British Middle East observers (next to David Hirst) visited Douma and delivered a report straight from the donkey's mouth, i.e. as told by a doctor of the clinic videoed by the White Helmets. He said:

"There was a lot of shelling [by government forces] and aircraft were always over Douma at night – but on this night, there was wind and huge dust clouds began to come into the basements and cellars where people lived. People began to arrive here [to the clinic] suffering from hypoxia, oxygen loss. Then someone at the door, a "White Helmet", shouted "Gas!", and a panic began. People started throwing water over each other. Yes, the video was filmed here, it is genuine, but what you see are people suffering from hypoxia – not gas poisoning."

The Russians actually located some people who are seen in the video, and they say it was staged. (Western media says they were threatened into saying what they said). I have more trust in Fisk's report, than in the Russian one, but that may be my own prejudice. Anyway, both versions are not mutually exclusive, they do not contradict each other, but they undermine the fake story that provided the cue for the strike.

An interesting bit of data, proving that preparations for the strike were carried out before the alleged attack, has been published by the Cyprus banking community blog. They say the British air base of Akrotiri on Cyprus had its perimeter urgently strengthened (by the British company Agility) on April 5, that is before the alleged Douma gas attack . The second British air base, Dhekelia, carried out similar works on April 12, a week later, before the decision to strike had been adopted by the British government. The Dhekelia works were done with great speed and urgency, and road-constructing equipment had to be taken from the nearby villages of Xylotympou and Ormideia. The payment to the local workers had been routed via HSBC bank in Hong Kong, they say. And indeed these bases (forcibly retained by Britain) were used for the strike on Syria.

The OPCW could dispel the mist around both cases, that of Skripal and that of Douma, but do not hold your breath. It appears that OPCW is as integrated into the machinery of the Masters of Discourse as any other international body. Refusal of OPCW to allow Russia to take part in Skripal investigation, despite the clear requirement of its own charter, makes its conclusion doubtful, at best.

While inability of OPCW inspectors to enter Douma despite all efforts of Damascus and Russians to facilitate their entry tells us they are not eager to investigate; like they weren't eager to enter Khan Sheykhun last year.

Meanwhile, the Western media and the Jihadi groups on the ground are busy to create a new web of lies instead of the old one. Now they say the Fisk report is suspicious because he was allowed in by the Russians. We can learn of their attitudes from the following twit

"Salih @Salih90119797 Apr 17 More

Replying to @Elizrael

We salute Israel in spite their crimes in Palestine we hope they'll continue their strikes every part of Syria; Iran regime should comedown"

These "Islamic rebels" are actually Israel's stooges rather than warriors of the Prophet. Anyway, people who manufactured these beautiful and complicated simulacra, are still around, and doubtless they will prepare a new one, if it will be necessary. In my view, the two presidents have made heroic efforts at saving their countries and mankind from destruction; both risked their good names, their positions, their reputatiosn to go that far. Trump minimized the bombing, Putin minimized the response.

Both have made some mistakes. Mr Putin made his big mistake when he gave Israel carte blanche to bomb Syria whenever she feels like it. Israeli strikes (and there were more than a hundred of them last year) created the air of permissiveness and that allowed Trump to follow in Israel's footsteps. If Israel bombs Syria, and Russians do not react, why can't Trump? It appears unfair for the US to be bested by its satellite. If you permit Tom to grab your girlfriend's pussy without a single objection, you must be expect that Dick and Harry will try to repeat this feat. Israel created the precedent, the US used it.

I asked Senator Alexey Pushkov, the head of the foreign relations committee, whether he doesn't think it was a mistake, in hindsight. He justified the policy saying that Russia came to Syria in order to fight jihadi groups, ISIS, Al Qaeda et al, not Israel. Russia is friendly to Israel, Iran and Turkey, and it does not want to sort out local disagreements. Pushkov stressed that Russia always censured Israeli raids on Syria, though it didn't act against them. As a matter of fact, if Russia criticized Israel, it was done very, very quietly. The only time this condemnation was made public, happened just now, when the Israeli strike occurred in a very tense moment.

Mr Trump made a mistake when he fired the missiles instead of firing Mueller. But anyway, thank you, Mr Trump, for limiting the damage. Try to complete the withdrawal from Syria, while at it.


Felix Krull , April 19, 2018 at 7:22 am GMT

What is worse, Trump's strike destroyed what was left of the international law structure established by Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin.

That was accomplished by Tony Blair, Bill Clinton and Gerhard Schroeder when they bombed Kosovo without an SC resolution – simultaneously transforming NATO from a defensive pact to an instrument of US imperialism.

Renoman , April 19, 2018 at 9:26 am GMT
The truth can't be hidden any more the army can't just run amuck at will. Trump and Putin are playing the long game they don't want war they can make more money elsewhere. It's a new day thank God.
Andrei Martyanov , Website April 19, 2018 at 1:10 pm GMT

General (Ret) Leonid Ivashov, an important Russian military observer

I would avoid, despite his high public profile, Ivashov as entirely reliable contemporary military observer. At least I would be very cautious when referencing him. He has his moments but many of his "predictions", not to speak of advice, were not exactly prescient, to put it mildly. Paradoxically, it was his consistently grim, almost to the point of being apocalyptic view of Russia all long that I simply stopped paying attention to him. obviously, reality turned out to be much different. In the end, him "cooperating" with Dugin is not exactly a good sign.

Andrei Martyanov , Website April 19, 2018 at 1:39 pm GMT

This would be too good a result even for the best, latest, and most update systems. The unimpressive outcome of the attack can be explained easier by Trump's decision to minimise the damage, as indeed the Israeli military says.

Anything Israel's military says on this issue is irrelevant and, as always, driven by purely ideological and political considerations. Here is a taste:

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-04-19/new-russian-weapons-alarm-israel-may-trigger-next-syrian-crisis

Israel's worst nightmare is competent and properly armed Syrian Air Defense and this is precisely where it is going right now in the area. Per best–subsonic TLAMs of any variety represent with appropriate targeting within integrated system easy targets for something like S1s, which were created from the inception as anti-TLAM systems. Recent IAF strike in Syria (about couple weeks ago) was to prevent deployment of Iranian TOR-M1 in Syria. So, Israelis' opinions on this issue can not absolutely, especially having IDF "stellar" record of bluster and boasting, be taken seriously. Here is an opinion of high ranking US military-intelligence officer which is rather revealing.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/04/trumps-big-flop-in-syria-by-publius-tacitus.html

Herald , April 19, 2018 at 4:03 pm GMT
@Felix Krull

Kosovo was Blair's first real taste of bombing the innocents and how he liked it. It was hardly surprising to see the veteran warmonger popping up yet again after the Douma hoax and as always he was calling for bombs as the solution. It's always bombs with Blair and it seems he just can't help himself. Which ever side Blair is backing is certain to be the side which is wholly in the wrong. This is the trusted Blair principle and with its 100% record of success, it will save hours of research trying to get a handle on just where the real blame lies in any given crisis. Interestingly, you could substitute the US for Blair and you would get the same result.

Anonymous [232] Disclaimer , April 19, 2018 at 4:38 pm GMT

The main question is whether this Russian fight aversion will encourage the Americans to carry out a future strike, or whether Trump will rein in his adversaries.

Any potential future strikes will diminish Russian fight aversion. Previous Russian restraint was commendable and useful but that part of the conflict is over now. Too many people "in charge" never experienced – or even contemplated – real, personal, consequences for their actions. This will have to change.

In my view, the two presidents have made heroic efforts at saving their countries and mankind from destruction; both risked their good names, their positions, their reputatiosn to go that far. Trump minimized the bombing, Putin minimized the response.

Nigga please! Trump validated an obvious false flag – again – and launched the strikes before any kind of investigation could have challenged it – again. He's no "hero". He's a weak man at best . Please don't insult real heroes and real bravery.

Seamus Padraig , April 19, 2018 at 5:04 pm GMT

Mr Trump made a mistake when he fired the missiles instead of firing Mueller.

My sentiments exactly.

jilles dykstra , April 19, 2018 at 5:48 pm GMT
@RadicalCenter

Putin does not want the last world war.

James Brown , April 19, 2018 at 5:59 pm GMT
@Herald

Well, I don't know how you can be certain that it isn't Putin. Those writing the script might well choose Putin or create another monster to play the role. Putin has been called the new Hitler by the well known democrat and war criminal: Hillary Clinton; and by the clown pretending to be a man and British foreign secretary : BoJo. But I'm not sure that Russia will play the role of Germany. It may well be China. In that case, Hitler will be the Chinese "dictator"

It will be the "whites" against the yellow peril. The MSM and Hollywood, will of course "educate" the masses about this new danger for western "democracy" and "values".. I dare predict that even Russia will be on board

AnonFromTN , April 19, 2018 at 6:31 pm GMT
That's unfair competition. Putin is a normal human being, clearly superior in every way compared to intellectually handicapped nonentities like Trump, Merkel, Macron, May, etc. The West needs Nixons, De Gaulles, and Kohls to stand a chance.
AnonFromTN , April 19, 2018 at 6:38 pm GMT
@James Brown

Suicidal policies of the US have achieved almost impossible: an alliance between Russia and China. Russian poet Alexandr Blok wrote more than 100 years ago the poem "Scythians". Here is a relevant part of it (translated by Alex Miller):

We shall abandon Europe and her charm.
We shall resort to Scythian craft and guile.
Swift to the woods and forests we shall swarm,
And then look back, and smile our slit-eyed smile.

Away to the Urals, all! Quick, leave the land,
And clear the field for trial by blood and sword,
Where steel machines that have no soul must stand
And face the fury of the Mongol horde.

But we ourselves, henceforth, we shall not serve
As henchmen holding up the trusty shield.
We'll keep our distance and, slit-eyed, observe
The deadly conflict raging on the field.

We shall not stir, even though the frenzied Huns
Plunder the corpses of the slain in battle, drive
Their cattle into shrines, burn cities down,
And roast their white-skinned fellow men alive

Steve Naidamast , April 19, 2018 at 7:14 pm GMT
Normally I enjoy Israel Shamir's reporting. However, in this piece he writes as a military analyst, which he is not.

On the one hand there is nothing to be gained by using satire to describe the recent strike on Syria. There is nothing funny about it politically or militarily.

Next, it has already been reported on other sites that the Syrian military hardware used to deflect the large majority of US missiles has been heavily upgraded to support better responses even when using rather dated missile technology.

Israel Shamir has also recently written in other pieces that Putin has little liking for Isreal's Netanayu and that in all of the meetings the two had, the Israeli prime minister received very little to nothing as Putin ignored his requests.

It has also been reported that Syria will receive the upgraded S-300 missile systems. And it is expected they will be moved into the hands of Syrian troops rather quickly.

In terms of US hardware, there is really no such thing as "old" as much of the hardware is junk in any case. Since the Vietnam Conflict, US military suppliers have attained a very well deserved reputation for producing low quality weaponry with only a few exceptions withstanding (ie: F-16). In fact, all of the recent, major US military systems that have been placed into operations or trial-testing have proven to be less than adequate for their tasks.

Finally, quite a number of military analysts have already demonstrated that Russian missile technology is, at the minimum, ten years in advance of similar US technology. Right now there is no contest.

The Russians know how to build exceptional equipment at a fraction of the cost that the US spends on similar equipment. And they will continue to do so.

This is the single reason that the US did not go for the throat in this recent attack as foolish as it was. What we have now is similar to the US Army facing the Wehrmacht in WWII; there was no contest between the two as German soldiers and their equipment were far and away the best in the world at the time. This time however, the US will not be able to count on overwhelming numerical superiority and its manufacturing prowess to subdue a well armed adversary since it has lost both a long time ago

Mark Presco , Website April 19, 2018 at 7:36 pm GMT
This article is a lot of useless verbiage focusing on the kabuki theater by which the masses need to be distracted.

The reason for this madness has nothing to do with any of the reasons stated. My best guess is that It has to do with the global ponzi scheme that is the US dollar. Trump goes along with it because he has been counseled that this is necessary to prevent a global economic collapse. Same for France and Britain. This discredits the conspiracy theory that the global elite want a collapse.

What amazes me is that Russia knows what the real reason for this insanity is, but they also stick to the prescribed talking points. As do the author and most of the commenters

seeing-thru , April 19, 2018 at 8:40 pm GMT
@James Brown

The reason (for Putting being in bed with Israel and generally doing nothing) could be something as simple as Russia's recognition that it is in no position to take on the US-Israel combine. Why resist when you fear getting your nose bloodied?

I suspect that if Putin could turn the clock back, he would do so and rewrite his March 1 speech to refrain from bragging about weaponry and abilities that he himself does not seem to believe in. He is normally a man of very few words, invariably polite in the old nineteenth century style. So what got into him on March 1?

anon [228] Disclaimer , April 19, 2018 at 10:18 pm GMT
@jilles dykstra

Yes but those psychopaths don't mind And they don't mind reminding Putin " you don't want WW3 .Do you ?"
then those psychopaths use the rational thinking on the part of Putin as an endorsement of their cunning treacherous anti human anti citizen anti civilizatioanl activities .

WorkingClass , April 19, 2018 at 11:07 pm GMT
Well, Trump lost me. He is too much like his enemies. The Deplorables are in desperate need of leadership. But none of that matters with regard to Syria. What matters is Imperial aggression, having been blunted, must finally be stopped at Damascus. And this must be done without provoking a nuclear war. Putin has made much progress toward this end. If he is successful he will get full credit. Trump will get none.

Playing rope a dope is painful and makes a fighter appear weak. The Anglo/Zio Empire is in steep decline. Time favors Putin.

Israel is NOT on good terms with Russia. Israel, along with Saudi Arabia, France, Briton and the United States, is AT WAR with Russia. The difference is the Israelis must keep their options open. When the U.S. is just another big country in the Americas Russia will be the arbiter of peace in the region. Israel may have to come to terms with the Palestinians and may have to give up claims on Lebanon and Syria.

Sowhat , April 20, 2018 at 1:15 am GMT
@jilles dykstra

Now, with the neocon madman, Bolton, on board, we will watch our MIIC storm Syria and confront Russia so that manipulating-Israel can keep Syria's Golan heights which it now occupies. The true Endgame, of course, is not Syria but IRAN. THE Neocons hold grudges longer than any.

AnonFromTN , April 20, 2018 at 1:24 am GMT
@James Brown

I agree, civilization-wise Russia is a lot more West than East. The only difference is, over many centuries Russians learned to live peacefully side-by-side with Muslims and Buddhists, who represent the Eastern civilization.

That's why I called the alliance between Russia and China almost impossible. It is quite unnatural. The only driving force for it is the US policy of provoking both Russia and China at the same time. The US and its obedient vassals in the EU succeeded in building high level of distrust in Russia, so that ordinary people (not oligarchs, but looks like Putin got a taste for being popular among the real people, not just the most successful thieves) consider China a lot more trustworthy than the West. While there is certain level of respect for the US in Russia, maybe because its bullying is naively straightforward, a large chunk of the population simply despises spineless, subservient, and utterly hypocritical Europe. I left Russia in 1991. Back then this was unthinkable. Things changed.

A few years ago Pat Buchanan rightly wrote that Obama administration made sure that when the US needs Russia as a counterbalance against China, Russia won't be there for them. Trump faithfully continues this suicidal policy. China has money (enough to finance Russian projects, projects in Asia and Africa, and seriously undermine the US dollar by introducing oil futures trading in yuans at the same time), whereas Russia has weapons. Both have very determined people (as quite a few events in Syria clearly showed). Bottom line is, the US with all its sidekicks stands no chance against Russia or China separately, and even less chance against both of them together. I am sure that, being unnatural, the alliance between Russia and China won't live long after the downfall of the US from its position in the world. But the way things stand now, it will certainly last until that downfall.

Personally, I am not sure that Pax Sinica is going to be any better than Pax Americana, but history shows that all dominant Empires eventually lose that position. In the last 20-30 years the US elites did everything to speed up the demise of this particular Empire.

Big Al , April 20, 2018 at 4:08 am GMT
This is the 4th round of jousting in Syria by my count

1) September 17, 2016 – US warplanes "accidentally" hit Syrian airbase right after cease-fire
2) April 7, 2017 – Trump fires Tomahawks at airbase to punish Assaf for chemical weapons
30 February 7, 2018 – US decimated pro-regime and Russian mercenary forces
3) April 13, 2018 – UK/US/ France fire missiles to punish Assad for chemical weapons

This latest one had the makings of beginning a bigger war but through back channels they both backed down. To their credit, neither military wants to get in to a direct conflict.

James Brown , April 20, 2018 at 4:43 am GMT
@AnonFromTN

"A few years ago Pat Buchanan rightly wrote that Obama administration made sure that when the US needs Russia as a counterbalance against China, Russia won't be there for them. Trump faithfully continues this suicidal policy"

One can not dismiss "stupidity" as an explanation. To be an American president one needs only strong voice, presentation skills and to be ready to serve american"national interest" which is of course private interests of different groups being the "Israel national interest" and MIC the most important ones. They're interlinked.

That said, I don't believe those who really have power in the USA and tell the President what to do, are stupid. So this apparent "US policy of provoking both Russia and China at the same time" seems to me unconvincing. We do not have enough information to know what is really going on.
The division between East and West is an artificial one. Of course "west" is not christian any more. And I don"t know if we can say that "west" was really christian once.
Anyway, Christianity wouldn't have existed without the "East". The Greek Miracle is a Myth. Plato wouldn't have existed without the "East".

"Personally, I am not sure that Pax Sinica is going to be any better than Pax Americana"
Well, historically Chinese empire seems to be less aggressive than any other empire we know of.
They are not interested in civilizing the barbarians But maybe that isn't true anymore.
Empires, like people, do change.

James Brown , April 20, 2018 at 5:52 am GMT
@NoseytheDuke

Thank you. Of course the Russian proverb, if it exists, is "Don't talk with clowns but with the director of circus " . Circus not "circle"

jilles dykstra , April 20, 2018 at 5:58 am GMT
@Sowhat

Grudge ?
I fear the hatred among Muslims against Israel and the USA is greatly underestimated.
Maybe Norman Finkelstein understands, in speeches he explained why Israeli jews are of the opinion that there never can be peace between them and surrounding Muslims, because of what the zionists did, and still do, to Palestinians.
Therefore, I suspect, the Israeli plans, to a large extent already executed, to destabilise the whole Middle East.
Putin therefore is their big enemy.
Now Germany is about to buy USA Predators, I predict more terrorist acts in Germany

yurivku , April 20, 2018 at 11:16 am GMT

If Trump hasn't been skinned yet by the neocons in Washington, it's because he judiciously brought into his camp the worst warmongers, John Bolton and Nikki Haley as human shields in the case of a neocon attack: nobody can accuse a man whose security adviser is Bolton and the UN ambassador is Haley of being soft on Putin. Now they can't voice their indignation. As they say in the army, it's better to have them inside the tent pissing out than outside the tent pissing in.

if somebody looks like an idiot, behaves like an imbecile, speaks like a stupid asshat it's very likely you are dealing with an idiot. Stupid bringing boltons and haleys to his circus just had some unforeseen by idiot consequencies.

As for Putin – it's pure shame, even have no desire to speak about his slick policy. He's surely not an idiot, but his goals more and more differ from mine.

Toy gun , April 20, 2018 at 2:53 pm GMT
I hope this praise of Trump is a rhetorical device. The US has committed to law that is immutable by Congress, which says the US must refrain from use or threat of force (UN Charter Article 2(4).) "But we used armed force in a feckless, half-assed way" doesn't cut it.

What this sissy fight tells us is that the memory of JFK has taught Trump to choose his options from the menu – bomb this or that or the other thing. Bitch about the menu, ask for other options, like peace, and CIA will kill you. As such, Trump is irrelevant to US conduct. He does what CIA will let him do. US policy continues unchanged.

Jean de Peyrelongue , April 20, 2018 at 3:28 pm GMT
I disagree in presenting the aggression on Syria as a fight between Trump and Putin.

This aggression against Syria is a terrorist act made by coward and criminal people throwing bombs and running away. (If they are real christians, they should realized that they have committed a mortal sin). Yet, on the positive side, it has showned that neither Trump nor Putin want a real war and the Apocalypse.

Russia in not fighting the Empire because the Empire is managed by the Devil but because the Empire want to bring Russia to mercy. Russia has no choice; Russia has to fight to avoid "de passer sous le joug".
The Chinese are dealers and traders, the Empire is their biggest customers, they dont want to kill their customers as long as they can do business with him. That is probably the rationale to avoid them being dragged into a conflictual situation.

Both Russia and China are not driven against the Empire by idelogy, only Iran is, and when Iran is fighting against the Empire, Iran is figthing the Devil.

Russia is involved in the Middle-East crisis almost by accident. The 2 Chechnya wars gave Russia some real allergy to the terrorists and Tartus is also an important outpost on the Mediterranean Sea.

The Middle-East crisis is driven by Israel and the Zionists and as long as the zionists are running the Empire, the crisis will go on. They want to reduce all the Arabs in the Middle-East to the state of the Palestinians in Gaza. The victims are the people of Syria, Lybia, Irak, the Yemen and Lebanon and the US, the UK and France do not care.

The US with theirs Europeans dominions are fighting there on behalf the Zionists.

Only a major worldwide economic crisis could bring down the Empire, bring peace to the Middle-East and push the Israelis to an other migration.

FB , April 20, 2018 at 4:34 pm GMT
A heads up to an excellent article by Jim Jatras today

Did the West Just Lose World War III by Forfeit?

Jatras an excellent commentator who has long experience in DC as a senate advisor and US diplomat asks the questions that this silly article by Yoda Shamir fails to ask

' The question remains: will the US peacefully relinquish its position as the sole arbiter of authority, legality, and morality in a unipolar world in favor of a multipolar order where Russia's and China's legitimate interests and spheres of influence are respected? Or will we continue to risk plunging mankind into a global conflict?..'

Jatras also gives a great 35 thousand foot overview of the events of recent days and some of what is being discussed going forward in terms of Syria

And oh yes he does address only tangentially the entire thesis of the silly Yoda Shamir article here

' There was even some speculation that the whole thing was a charade worked out in cooperation with the Russians.

Even if true (and it's unlikely) the mere fact that Trump would have to engage in such a ruse speaks volumes about the weakness of his position.

"Whatever Trump says, America is not coming out of Syria," writes Patrick Buchanan. "We are going deeper in. Trump's commitment to extricate us from these bankrupting and blood-soaked Middle East wars and to seek a new rapprochement with Russia is "inoperative"..'

So much for Yoda Shamir's joustfest

comparing these two articles is a prime example why Jatras is a respected commentator

and Yoda Shamir is a silly claymation figure

FB , April 20, 2018 at 4:56 pm GMT
@seeing-thru

' 3. Russia is in reality militarily weak and tottering economically. Very plausible, very plausible indeed. Putin's March 1st boastful speech then makes perfect sense as the desperate bluff of the desperate leader of a desperate state '

Yet another koolaid addict popping up out of nowhere here on Unz and spreading manure lavishly

This crapola is not what guys with inside info are reporting such as this post on Col Pat Lang's blog

' Another friend who has spoken with military commanders in the CENTCOM AOR told me:

All of the knowledgeable aircraft commanders are usually scared shitless about the prospect of a legitimate air-to-air skirmish with a SU-30 or any Russian air superiority fighter '

And this about Russian air defense capability

' Any air defense engineer with a security clearance that isn't lying through his teeth will admit that Russia's air defense technology surpassed us in the 1950′s and we've never been able to catch up. The systems thy have in place surrounding Moscow make our Patriot 3′s look like fucking nerf guns '

And speaking of Col Lang he has some thoughts today about the koolaid drinkers on this very website

' I wrote a piece for the Unz Review yesterday. You can see it over there. There were over a hundred comments. Most of them were favorable, but some were just awful '

Col Lang's UR article here

No wonder PCR doesn't care to hear from commenters/trolls like this know-nothing 'seeing=thru'

Nobody is interested in more bullshit we get plenty of that as is

white_boy , April 20, 2018 at 5:05 pm GMT
@Thirdeye

The Russians are predestined to fight 'the West'
Instinctively they have always known this
Rationally they have always tried to explain it away
War and Peace can be read as a coming of age story of the Russian Nation
Somehow the Russian Elite is more susceptible to the lure of 'the West' than the Russian commoner
The commoner knows in her gut that 'the West' is her mortal enemy
No doubt that Russia will eventually go all the way against 'the West'
Dragging her feet is just the way Russia always has behaved in existential conflicts
When Napoleon and Hitler came knocking on her door she behaved no different
This time it is different though
I sense that Russia will want to finish this conflict for good
I expect they will go full Carthago on 'the West', erasing them from history

white_boy , April 20, 2018 at 8:26 pm GMT
@AnonFromTN

Russian leaders do seem remarkably sensible, especially when viewed from a western country where hysteria is the norm.
It is because of this sensibility I fear the worst. The mass-delusion gripping the Western political class disconnects them from reality, I can't see this ending well. I would not be surprised if a Western politician announced: "We need to destroy the world in order to save it"
Once the Russian Leaders realize the extent of Western delusion the sensible thing to do might be wiping them out for good.
The only problem with this solution would be that I would be wiped out as well.

FB , April 20, 2018 at 8:48 pm GMT
@James Brown

The nature of power is evil. It's not about "Jewish power". It's about Power.

Agree completely

Also would say that the whole Israel wagging the US dog is not realistic either

Look rationally at the Empire structure we see the vassals like EU and Nato states plus Japan South Korea, Taiwan etc always falling obediently in line

Just today Assad called France a 'Slave' and sent back his silly French Legion of Honor award that they gave him in 2001

Slave just about nicely sums it up

Yet Israel is able to operate with more freedom than the galley slaves why is that ?

It's because Israel is the most valuable of the empire's properties an unassailable fortress in the most geopolitically important region

One could argue that the power of the US Jewish lobby is the thing that let's Israel exercise the kind of independence that the slaves cannot

I have no truck with calling Israel out on its crimes against the Palestinians that has to stop but Israeli society is much smarter and realistic than koolaidland US

FB , April 20, 2018 at 9:09 pm GMT
Another good article heads up

From Conn Hallinan probably the only good writer CounterPunch has left

AnonFromTN , April 20, 2018 at 9:34 pm GMT
@white_boy

I hope it won't come to that, as I live in the US. The hysteria is scary, though. Here it is fuelled by sore losers, Killary and her handlers: she and most of them are guilty of so many crimes (real criminal offenses that put normal people to jail for many years) that they need a distraction. MIC also wants justification for even more money thrown into its maw. Their greed and the perfidy of various self-proclaimed liberals endanger us all.

Miro23 , April 20, 2018 at 10:48 pm GMT
@FB

Yet Israel is able to operate with more freedom than the galley slaves why is that ?

It's because Israel is the most valuable of the empire's properties an unassailable fortress in the most geopolitically important region

One could argue that the power of the US Jewish lobby is the thing that let's Israel exercise the kind of independence that the slaves cannot

In fact quite the opposite. Little Israel controls half a continent (North America) in the same way that little (Imperial) Britain controlled the Indian sub-continent. When Great Britain lost India (the Jewel in the Crown) its power was gone, and when Israel loses the US (its Jewel in the Crown) it's power is also gone.

[Apr 21, 2018] Ruling Class Operatives Say the Darndest Things On Devils Known and Not

Notable quotes:
"... New York Times ..."
"... his deep conviction ..."
"... tired of trying to solve other people's problems in the Middle East ..."
Apr 21, 2018 | www.counterpunch.org

"Solving Other People's Problems in the Middle East"

Establishment journalists and politicos write and say the darndest things, advanced as common sense under the sway of reigning nationalist and imperial ideology. Take the New York Times ' chief White House correspondent Peter Baker. In a page-one "news analysis" last Sunday, Baker wrote the following about Donald Trump's recent missile strike on Syria:

"The strike brought home Mr. Trump's competing impulses when it comes to Syria -- on the one hand, his manful chest-thumping intended to demonstrate that he is the toughest one on the international block, and on the other, his deep conviction that American involvement in the Middle East since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, has been a waste of blood and treasure .He did little to reconcile those impulses with his retaliatory strike to punish the government of President Bashar al-Assad for a suspected chemical attack a week ago that killed dozens of people. But then again, he reflected the contradictions of an American public that is tired of trying to solve other people's problems in the Middle East ." (emphasis added).

The sheer tonnage of bullshit contained in this short passage is striking. Baker lacked the decency to note that (as everybody knows) Trump's missile spasm was intended to distract U.S. public attention from his troubled political situation at home. It was a transparent dog-wag that worked for a day or two.

[Apr 21, 2018] Macron as greedy neocon. His support of Douma false flag attack is related to selling weapons to Saudi monarchy

Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

RudolphS 13 Apr 2018 16:17

Most baffling is is French president Emmanuele Macron's fierce reaction. There's no other nation which has suffered so much from terrorist attacks as France. And yet now its president is determined to use his fighter planes as the de facto airforce for the the jihadi extremists. Macron went even as far as making his statements with the Saudi prince at his side, the leader of a country which is known for funding the jihadis!

Weird times.

Jay_Q123 -> RudolphS 13 Apr 2018 16:25

Macron just got back from a few days hanging on out with the Saudi Arabian elite, who have

AndiMcDodle -> ManUpTheTree , 13 Apr 2018 14:51

Agreed Macron is so proud about the weapons Saudi Arabia bought of him. And strangely enough Saudi Arabia supports the ISIS head choppers in Syria, I think of a coincidence. And I didn't mention the gaz pipeline crossing Syria, that if Russia/Assad win, will be beyond the control of Europeans, a real bummer, given that Russia controls the supply east of Germany. I guess civilian death, is the only thing in the forefront of the France/UK/US preoccupations. Surely, they wouldn't condone civilians dying for geo-political reasons?
NapoleonXIV -> Richmar , 13 Apr 2018 14:48
Yes, I remember Rice, Cheney, Bush, and Rumsfeld telling the world that they had evidence that Saddam was hoarding WMD. I'm still waiting to hear what it was. Now M. Macron spouts the same ambiguous nonsense expecting us to take his word for it.

Trump publicly states that US troops are being withdrawn from Syria. The next thing you know, Assad is allegedly gassing civilians. That makes a whole lot of sense doesn't it? If there's a sure-fire way of making sure you're on the wrong end of a bit of American 'shock and awe,' it's gassing innocents. Assad must have a death wish; or so they'd have us believe. The more I read about this fiasco, the more I think David Icke is the most rational man on the planet.

Ziontrain -> rustledust74 , 13 Apr 2018 14:47
From Pinochet to Mobuto, Kagama and many more, I'd think you'd better to review what the policy of the west actually IS.

[Apr 21, 2018] But where is the incontrovertible proof that the regime is in fact responsible for the attack rather than 'rebel groups' now on the point of final defeat, who'd wish to draw in the major NATO powers

Western neoliberal governments lost the remnants of patina of legitimacy on international scene and now look like bloodthirsty predators, they always were.
Apr 21, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

Labourist , 13 Apr 2018 14:46

But where is the incontrovertible proof that the regime is in fact responsible for the attack rather than 'rebel groups' now on the point of final defeat, who'd wish to draw in the major NATO powers? Why would the regime afford the US, France and UK the pretext to do one thing that'd undermine Assad's otherwise certain victory? The timing seems odd indeed while Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Israel act with impunity against minority populations. Each of the latter has form and interest the destruction of Syria in this proxy war.
comrade1 , 13 Apr 2018 14:50
Let me see if I have this right....

The UK thinks it's "highly likely" Assad is to blame for the chemical attack. France says it has evidence Assad is responsible but won't say what it is. US Secretary of Defence Mattis believes a chemical attack took place but says there's no evidence. And depending on the day of the week, Russia believes there was either no chemical attack or if there was then it was staged by the UK.

And for good measure we appear to be going headlong into war on the basis of all this.

SMKirov -> ID9265089 , 13 Apr 2018 14:46
The UN investigations concluded that the chemicals had come from Syrian Army stocks which there wasn't much doubt about to start with. Where they were less conclusive was the matter of who had deployed them given the capture of large stocks of munitions by the terrorists early in the war. On the basis of cui bono? it seems more likely that it was the terrorist side who sought to provoke Western intervention by staging chemical incidents rather than the Syrian Government who had little to gain and much to lose from the use of any kind of WMD.
ReLuke631 , 13 Apr 2018 14:45
We never learn.

First Blair holding onto an idiot's shirt tails to attack a Middle Eastern country based on hearsay and no coherent withdrawal policy. Now we have May and Macron holding the hands of an even bigger idiot whose populist thoughts change by the minute so no hope of any withdrawal plan.

Does May and her hawks (Gove, Johnson) really want to be compared with Trump, Kim, Putin, Assad, W Bush, Blair et al in the history books?

solidstae , 13 Apr 2018 14:45
The rebels in Syria have a history of using sarin, chlorine and mustard gas against troops and civilians. But Washington, London and Paris are completely dummy on this. Not a whisper. Rather straight to accusations and threats against the regime they have been trying to overthrow for years.

I don't know who did it. But I know who lies every time they take a breath if they consider it in their interests. Truth is the first casualty. I don't believe any of them.

irishinrussia , 13 Apr 2018 14:45
Noticeable that the Guardian live coverage provides Western refutations of Russia's claims of evidence regarding a staged false attack, but doesn't actually cover the evidence the Russians have provided - testimony from medical staff who claim to be witnesses. Now I'm not so stupid as to take these claims as gospel, the Russians are just as capable as anyone of finding a couple of fake or pressured witnesses. However the failure of the Western press to even elaborate on the evidence, even just to ridicule and debunk it, is suspicious.

[Apr 20, 2018] The most simple explanation for the disaster in Syria is that a sovereign state protected its national interest from an international contingent of mercenaries.

Apr 20, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

harveybrown , 13 Apr 2018 15:37

In an interview on BBC 1 on 8 February 2004, UN Weapons Inspector, Hans Blix accused the US and British governments of dramatizing the threat of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, in order to strengthen the case for the 2003 war against the government of Saddam Hussein.
Ultimately, no stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction were ever found.

In an interview with The Guardian newspaper, Blix said, "I have my detractors in Washington. There are bastards who spread things around, of course, who planted nasty things in the media."

[ It is interesting to note that Allan Ramsay likewise deplored "a friendly alliance between the camp and the counting-house" for exactly the same reasons (Letters on the Present Disturbances, p.34). Ramsay maintained that of the evil consequences of such alliance "the two last wars carried on by England against France and Spain, furnish a most melancholy illustration. To obtain the sole and exclusive commerce of the western world, in which the French and Spaniards were their rivals, was the modest wish of our merchants, in conjunction with our Americans. The fair, and truly commercial, method of effecting this would have been, by superior skill, industry and frugality, to have undersold their rivals at market: but that method appearing slow and troublesome to a luxurious people, whose extraordinary expences* required extraordinary profits, a more expeditous one was devised; which was that of driving their rivals entirely out of the seas, and preventing them from bringing their goods at all to market. For this purpose, not having any fleets or armies of their own, the powers of the State were found necessary, and they applied them accordingly" (ibid., pp.32 f.).

Knorr, K. E. 'Ch02-Part2 British Colonial Theories 1570-1850'. In British Colonial Theories, 1570-1850. The University of Toronto Press, 1944. ]

Jay_Q123 , 13 Apr 2018 15:36
Your article appears to apportion blame solely to Assad and you don't even attempt to address the opposition in Syria. Nobody seriously questions that the Syrian governments war has killed many thousands and thousands of civilians. How can you not refer to the international jihad and the make up of these fighters, as well as the sieges they laid on villages, town and cities and the cruelty they inflicted upon the people?

The Syrian Arab Army is a composite of Sunni, Shia, Christians, and different ethnicity's, what convinces you that they have in any way wantonly killed civilians? The soldiers have family all over Syria, plus no mention of the 300,000+ civilians that have been liberated from Eastern Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta in the last several months.

I find this article very bizarre indeed. The most simple explanation for the disaster in Syria is that a sovereign state protected its national interest from an international contingent of mercenaries. There are Moroccans and Chechnyans, Uighurs and Brits, Saudis as well as Syrians in this armed army. What other options did a state such as Syria have when fighting against ISIS, Al Qaida, Al Nusra and 'The Army of Islam', Jaysh Al-Islam? All have which have direct connections to our major ally in the region, Saudi Arabia.

Somebody correct me if I am wrong but I can not find any reference at all to the enemy in this article. It's written as if the 8 year war has simply been an extermination war against civilians and completely out of context with reality.

Check out Operation Timber Sycamore for more: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timber_Sycamore

[Apr 20, 2018] Should Assad subsequently fall - and that is the actual aim of intervention - then Syria will become another anarchic wasteland ruled over by fundamentalist warlords.

Apr 20, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

Vermithrax , 13 Apr 2018 15:39

Freedland recently put this argument on Newsnight.

It is flawed to the point of dishonesty.

He talks of removing assets as if the process was being conducted under laboratory conditions. There are ten nations enmeshed in a warzone with numerous factions under no one's control. It is magical thinking that cannot be achieved and will only result in rapid, uncontrolled escalation. The idea that there will be no collateral damage is laughable and I regret to suggest that it is deliberately misleading.

Moreover, in engaging Assad when he is on the brink of victory, the Syrian Civil War will be extended. The Syrian people will then pay the price.

Should Assad subsequently fall - and that is the actual aim of intervention - then Syria will become another anarchic wasteland ruled over by fundamentalist warlords. The spiral of migration will be renewed bringing loons wrapped in the dispossessed to our own streets. Worse, the militants next stop will be Lebanon and then Israel will be directly involved. Freedland advocates acting against Assad without even attempting to predict the consequences. At the very least I would expect the usual misdirection 'of course this time we must have a plan for rebuilding Syria', secure in the knowledge that by that time there will be another crisis and Syria can be left in entropy.

No good can come from military intervention. The satisfaction of commentators that the right thing has been done is an irrelevance. The right thing is always just public relations. Every bit of ruthless geopolitics has to have a casus belli to make the killing all righteous and unavoidable. It has always been thus. For resources to be expended on this kind of scale there has to be a rock solid bit of bankable realpolitik. In this case its the struggle for regional hegemony between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Syria can either be part of a supply chain selling Sunni gas/oil to Europe or Shi'a gas/oil to Europe. This is about killing Syrians for the glory of Saudi Arabia. You can see why there has to be a casus belli because thats not something that can be sold. We know the proceeds will go unmentioned into offshore havens and the London property market. Britain would derive no geopolitical benefit as a whole. The benefits would accrue only to a kleptocracy who think they have a right to use our country as a loan shark's leg-breaker.

It is therefore my contention that Freedland is promoting an immoral act that will have serious consequences without offering any serious improvement in the situation. This is arguably the most dangerous situation since the Cuban Missile crisis and an analysis that advocates pouring oil on the flames is either ridiculously stupid or calculatedly duplicitous.

thousandautumns -> balancedman , 13 Apr 2018 15:39
"Up to" 13,000 "opponents" killed over five years during a period of war. I'm assuming that number of "opponents" includes a large number of out and out terrorists who have thrown the country into chaos.
Brianto , 13 Apr 2018 15:39
What is Porton Down manufacturing?
oldeborr , 13 Apr 2018 15:38
The UK andcFrance bares a heavy responsibility for the current situation in Syria. The cavalier attitude that the ConDems took to international law during the Arab spring encouraged the Saudi s and their proxies to distablise the recognised Govt. Assad is no paragon of virtue, but prior to the insurgency steps were in place to make the country a better place for its citizens, and whilst its true poltical dissent was not allowed, people could live their lives and go about their business in safety.

[Apr 20, 2018] The Great Game Comes to Syria by Conn Hallinan

Apr 20, 2018 | www.counterpunch.org

An unusual triple alliance is emerging from the Syrian war, one that could alter the balance of power in the Middle East, unhinge the NATO alliance, and complicate the Trump administration's designs on Iran. It might also lead to yet another double cross of one of the region's largest ethnic groups, the Kurds.

However, the "troika alliance" -- Turkey, Russia and Iran -- consists of three countries that don't much like one another, have different goals, and whose policies are driven by a combination of geo-global goals and internal politics. In short, "fragile and complicated" doesn't even begin to describe it.

How the triad might be affected by the joint U.S., French and British attack on Syria is unclear, but in the long run the alliance will likely survive the uptick of hostilities.

But common ground was what came out of the April 4 meeting between Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani, and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meeting in Ankara, the parties pledged to support the "territorial integrity" of Syria, find a diplomatic end to the war, and to begin a reconstruction of a Syria devastated by seven years of war. While Russia and Turkey explicitly backed the UN-sponsored talks in Geneva, Iran was quiet on that issue, preferring a regional solution without "foreign plans."

"Common ground," however, doesn't mean the members of the "troika" are on the same page.

Turkey's interests are both internal and external. The Turkish Army is currently conducting two military operations in northern Syria, Olive Branch and Euphrates Shield, aimed at driving the mainly Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) out of land that borders Turkey. But those operations are also deeply entwined with Turkish politics.

Erdogan's internal support has been eroded by a number of factors: exhaustion with the ongoing state of emergency imposed following the 2016 attempted coup, a shaky economy , and a precipitous fall in the value of the Turkish pound. Rather than waiting for 2019, Erdogan called for snap elections this past week and beating up on the Kurds is always popular with right-wing Turkish nationalists. Erdogan needs all the votes he can get to imlement his newly minted executive presidency that will give him virtually one-man rule.

To be part of the alliance, however, Erdogan has had to modify his goal of getting rid of Syrian President Bashar Assad and to agree -- at this point, anyhow -- to eventually withdraw from areas in northern Syria seized by the Turkish Army. Russia and Iran have called for turning over the regions conquered by the Turks to the Syrian Army.

Moscow's goals are to keep a foothold in the Middle East with its only base, Tartus, and to aid its long-time ally, Syria. The Russians are not deeply committed to Assad personally, but they want a friendly government in Damascus. They also want to destroy al-Qaeda and the Islamic State, which have caused Moscow considerable trouble in the Caucasus.

Russia also wouldn't mind driving a wedge between Ankara and NATO. After the U.S., Turkey has NATO's second largest army. NATO broke a 1989 agreement not to recruit former members of the Russian-dominated Warsaw Pact into NATO as a quid pro quo for the Soviets withdrawing from Eastern Europe. But since the Yugoslav War in 1999 the alliance has marched right up to the borders of Russia. The 2008 war with Georgia and 2014 seizure of the Crimea were largely a reaction to what Moscow sees as an encirclement strategy by its adversaries.

Turkey has been at odds with its NATO allies around a dispute between Greece and Cyprus over sea-based oil and gas resources , and it recently charged two Greek soldiers who violated the Turkish border with espionage. Erdogan is also angry that European Union countries refuse to extradite Turkish soldiers and civilians who he claims helped engineer the 2016 coup against him. While most NATO countries condemned Moscow for the recent attack on two Russians in Britain, the Turks pointedly did not .

Turkish relations with Russia have an economic side as well. Ankara want a natural gas pipeline from Russia, has broken ground on a $20 billion Russian nuclear reactor, and just shelled out $2.5 billion for Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft system.

The Russians do not support Erdogan's war on the Kurds and have lobbied for the inclusion of Kurdish delegations in negotiations over the future of Syria. But Moscow clearly gave the Turks a green light to attack the Kurdish city of Afrin last month, driving out the YPG that had liberated it from the Islamic State and Turkish-backed al-Qaeda groups. A number of Kurds charge that Moscow has betrayed them .

The question now is, will the Russians stand aside if the Turkish forces move further into Syria and attack the city of Manbij, where the Kurds are allied with U.S. and French forces? And will Erdogan's hostility to the Kurds lead to an armed clash among three NATO members?

Such a clash seems unlikely, although the Turks have been giving flamethrower speeches over the past several weeks. "Those who cooperate with terrorists organizations [the YPG] will be targeted by Turkey," says Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Bekir Bozdag said in a pointed reference to France's support for the Kurds. Threatening the French is one thing, picking a fight with the U.S. military quite another.

Of course, if President Trump pulls U.S. forces out of Syria, it will be tempting for Turkey to move in. While the "troika alliance" has agreed to Syrian "sovereignty," that won't stop Ankara from meddling in Kurdish affairs. The Turks are already appointing governors and mayors for the areas in Syria they have occupied.

Iran's major concern in Syria is maintaining a buffer between itself and a very aggressive alliance of the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia, which seems to be in the preliminary stages of planning a war against the second-largest country in the Middle East.

Iran is not at all the threat it has been pumped up to be. Its military is miniscule and talk of a so-called "Shiite crescent" -- Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon -- is pretty much a western invention (although the term was dreamed up by the King of Jordan).

Tehran has been weakened by crippling sanctions and faces the possibility that Washington will withdraw from the nuclear accord and re-impose yet more sanctions. The appointment of National Security Advisor John Bolton, who openly calls for regime change in Iran, has to have sent a chill down the spines of the Iranians. What Tehran needs most of all is allies who will shield it from the enmity of the U.S., Israel and Saudi Arabia. In this regard, Turkey and Russia could be helpful.

Iran has modified its original goals in Syria of a Shiite-dominated regime by agreeing to a "non-sectarian character" for a post-war Syria. Erdogan has also given up on his desire for a Sunni-dominated government in Damascus.

War with Iran would be catastrophic, an unwinnable conflict that could destabilize the Middle East even more than it is now. It would, however, drive up the price of oil, currently running at around $66 a barrel. Saudi Arabia needs to sell its oil for at least $100 a barrel, or it will very quickly run of money. The on-going quagmire of the Yemen war, the need to diversify the economy, and the growing clamor by young Saudis -- 70 percent of the population -- for jobs requires lots of money, and the current trends in oil pricing are not going to cover the bills.

War and oil make for odd bedfellows . While the Saudis are doing their best to overthrow the Assad regime and fuel the extremists fighting the Russians, Riyadh is wooing Moscow to sign onto to a long-term OPEC agreement to control oil supplies. That probably won't happen -- the Russians are fine with oil at $50 to $60 a barrel -- and are wary of agreements that would restrict their right to develop new oil and gas resources. The Saudi's jihad on the Iranians has a desperate edge to it, as well it might. The greatest threat to the Kingdom has always come from within.

The rocks and shoals that can wreck alliances in the Middle East are too numerous to count, and the "troika" is riven with contradictions and conflicting interests. But the war in Syria looks as if it is coming to some kind of resolution, and at this point Iran, Russia and Turkey seem to be the only actors who have a script that goes beyond lobbing cruise missiles at people.

[Apr 20, 2018] The Syrian situation was made far worse by the USA / France and the UK arming extremist Islamic groups during the ' Arab Spring ' in an attempt to depose the legitimate ruler of a sovereign nation.

Notable quotes:
"... The best solution being that he defeats all rebel forces as quickly as possible. The UN Chemical Weapons people can then go in ( or even before ) and try to collect some evidence. ..."
"... It is all about oil and supremacy in the region. Since when has our government or that of any western Country - cared about their people. Canon fodder - that is what we are. ..."
Apr 20, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

Artusov , 13 Apr 2018 15:56

'.....Given Russia's presence, it would not be easy...... '

Understatement of the century. If you start bombing strategic military targets you are quite, likely to hit Russian planes and troops.

As I said yesterday - What is the point ? Assad ( helped by his ally Russia ) has all but won the war ( which makes his use of chemical weapons surprising / a big mistake ) - The best solution being that he defeats all rebel forces as quickly as possible. The UN Chemical Weapons people can then go in ( or even before ) and try to collect some evidence.

Meanwhile, the Saudis are bombing Yemeni children with UK manufactured bombs.

The Syrian situation was made far worse by the USA / France and the UK arming extremist Islamic groups during the ' Arab Spring ' in an attempt to depose the legitimate ruler of a sovereign nation.

We don't say much about China's interference in Tibet these days, do we ?

Or the effect of Agent Orange in the Vietnam War ?

MartinSilenus -> Norman_Finklesteen , 13 Apr 2018 15:50
"here are many, many notable historians who state the death toll as high as 135,000 "

The biggest single death toll in WWII was the low level firebombing of Tokyo, large areas of Japans capital city were wiped out. With houses as flammable as you can ever imagine, an unimaginably horror filled event. The Japanese death toll was around 100,000 dead. You are saying more died in Dresden?

"On this day, U.S. warplanes launch a new bombing offensive against Japan, dropping 2,000 tons of incendiary bombs on Tokyo over the course of the next 48 hours. Almost 16 square miles in and around the Japanese capital were incinerated, and between 80,000 and 130,000 Japanese civilians were killed in the worst single firestorm in recorded history."
https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/firebombing-of-tokyo

mudlark123 -> BoomersStealingMoney , 13 Apr 2018 15:50
It is all about oil and supremacy in the region. Since when has our government or that of any western Country - cared about their people. Canon fodder - that is what we are.
rockyrex -> LordThumpworthy , 13 Apr 2018 15:50
OK so let's attack Saudi for what they are doing in Yemen. And Myanmar for their behaviour. Then there's Mexico, where the cartels keep murdering people. Really, let's apply the same standards everywhere.

How will this proposed action change anything? The Syrians have hidden everything that matters, the Russians will get 90 minutes warning of the targets .... It's a PR exercise on the usual lines of "Something must be done .... this is something ..... "

[Apr 20, 2018] Russia has transferred forty Pantsir-S1 air defense systems to Syria' Air Defence

Apr 20, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

tayacase

, 13 Apr 2018 15:50
Russia has transferred forty Pantsir-S1 air defense systems to Syria' Air Defence.
This is the latest air defence technology (the system is in service since 2012) - a combined short to medium range surface-to-air missile and anti-aircraft artillery weapon system against aircrafts, helicopters, precision munitions, cruise missiles and UAVs.

https://southfront.org/russia-delivered-40-pantsir-s1-air-defense-systems-to-syria-state-media /
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pantsir-S1

[Apr 20, 2018] It is hard to be pro interventionist after the epical f*up in Iraq and Libya and previous chemical weapons false flag staged by jihadists

Israeli's deep incursions in Syria and the bombing of military bases also used by Russian military have provided a lot of information about the capabilities and limitations of the Russian military technology deployed in Syria.
Apr 20, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

StephenDaedalus -> JackDowland , 13 Apr 2018 15:47

Sure, here's the UN OPCW investigation report which directly blames the Assad forces for chemical attacks. Take as much time as you need. https://undocs.org/S/2016/738

I couldn't find the paragraph which directly blames Assad's forces.

I note it does refer (at para 44) to Assad's allegation that a video had been staged. It concludes that the patients on the video "appear relatively unaffected by the typical symptoms. No red eyes, tearing, paleness, sweating, cyanosis or breathing difficulties can be observed from the footage. The patients interviewed in the video show little or no signs of having been exposed to a toxic chemical".

This is also consistent with other documented attempts of video-making to trigger the western bombs.

Surely you can see why people might at least reserve judgment about the latest video emanating from Jaish al-Islam controlled territory?

LiviaDrusilla -> SummerPatch , 13 Apr 2018 15:47
As I've said , I consider the term 'putinbot' - infantile and indicative of a lack of logical argumentation as it is - as a compliment, since it appears to be code for those who retain the ability to think for themselves and not fall glumly for the latest official line.

since the OPCW proved it was Putin who tried to murder British civilians with nerve agents.

Actually, they proved no such thing, but in any case it's irrelevant to the discussion at hand.

BoomersStealingMoney -> thousandautumns , 13 Apr 2018 15:47
I would like to cargo the arm chair generals into the battlefield of Syria. Let Assad deal with them.
OlivesNightie , 13 Apr 2018 15:46

The notion of inaction, of standing by and watching as Assad kills and kills and kills, racking up a death toll in Syria of 500,000

On May 12, 1996, Madeleine Albright defended UN sanctions against Iraq on a 60 Minutes segment in which Lesley Stahl asked her "We have heard that half a million children have died. I mean, that's more children than died in Hiroshima. And, you know, is the price worth it?" and Albright replied, "We think the price is worth it."'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FbIX1CP9qr4

Kokkos -> dharps , 13 Apr 2018 15:46
And who presents the Summons to the United States for Vietnam....and the other countries, where they used chemicals.
BabylonianSheDevil03 -> grumpybrewer , 13 Apr 2018 15:46
From tomorrow the weather in some parts of the UK stops being an utter bastard and starts to look like spring. The sun will get its hat on, hip, hip, hip, hooray! Go out and listen to the birds, look at the blossom. Lots of good in the world.
DZ76 -> DZ76 , 13 Apr 2018 15:46
Just in case anyone asks for an example of US diverging from Israeli objectives (I realise that I did not elucidate on that in my post), US air strikes have focused entirely on ISIS and have, up to now, left the Iranian Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah alone. There's no doubt that the Americans are very closely tied to Israeli objectives, but they certainly aren't being controlled by a 'Zionist elite'.

America still fights for America. As I outlined above, it's really only the British government that doesn't appear to have anything even beginning to resemble an independent foreign policy.

BoomersStealingMoney , 13 Apr 2018 15:45
Not a single terrorist attack on British soil has been inspired by Shiah Islam. And yet we arm the Wahhabis to dislodge the secular Assad. Our government is crooked.
georgina45 -> Squadra , 13 Apr 2018 15:45
I watched RT for the first time last night and it was interesting.

But right now its like we are being ruled by lunatics. It is absolutely sickening. Quite literally some moron in the White House is tweeting, 'My bombs are bigger than yours' and 'The missiles are coming.' And they still let him in rule one of the most powerful countries on the Earth with a vast mass of WMD and Theresa May is trying reason with a fucking moron. Hey Guardian if Trump is talking like this my swearing is the least of our problems, so please don't moderate. We need someone to Moderate the madmen.

TheKingOfHate -> mikew67 , 13 Apr 2018 15:45
How do you compare a serial killer with twenty kills to one with one kills? Why, they're both serial killers. /That's/ how we compare the blood on our hands to those drenched to our shoulders.
billhicks00 , 13 Apr 2018 15:44
The red line is the use of chemical weapons it seems. Bullets, conventional weaponry and starvation are OK.
junglecitizen -> LeftOrRightSameShite , 13 Apr 2018 15:44

We, along with the US, France and Gulf states have supported, armed and trained "rebels" in Syria the whole time. We've had, as have others, special forces operating inside Syria

So, there would never be rebellions against totalitarian dictators if it weren't for the CIA and MI6. I don't buy this. It's very convenient if you're an anti-war person who doesn't want to face an ethical dilemma. But it's not real.
Celtiberico , 13 Apr 2018 15:42

The Syrian Negotiation Commission has called for action to deter Assad from killing civilians. What they envisage is that each time Assad launches a deadly attack on noncombatants, allied forces reply by taking out one of the strategic assets he uses to kill civilians. It could be an airfield, it could be a command centre. If the target were aircraft, that would simultaneously inflict a cost on the regime and deprive it of the means of dropping its barrel bombs and toxic, yellow cylinders. The objective would be to make Assad pay a price for killing his own people, a price he has not paid until now. Eventually, or so runs the hope, he would be deterred.

That kind of reminds me of when Ahmed Chalabi and the Iraqi National Congress were explaining how to get rid of Saddam without plunging Iraq into mayhem and destabilising the wider region.

[Apr 20, 2018] Skripal and Douma incidents were preceded by extremely intense diplomatic activity between Saudi Arabia, Washington, Paris and London this year, with multiple top level visits between capitals, is presumably supposed to be coincidence.

Apr 20, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

dumbwaiter -> Kevin Watson, 13 Apr 2018 15:50

I'm going to post a comment by another user posted yesterday as he said it far more eloquently than I could

R Reddington InterestedReader2 1d ago

Your just another armchair warrior.

So you think going to war is a good idea well you first then and dont forget your flack jacket and rifle.

The media onslaught has moved past the attack in Salisbury by a "weapon of mass destruction" (quoting Theresa May) which could only be Russian, except that was untrue, and was extremely deadly, except that was untrue too. It now focuses on an attack by chemical weapons in Douma which "could only be" by the Russian-backed Assad regime, except there is no evidence of that either, and indeed neutral verified evidence from Douma is non-existent. The combination of the two events is supposed to have the British population revved up by jingoism, and indeed does have Tony Blair and assorted Tories revved up, to attack Syria and potentially to enter conflict with Russia in Syria.

The "Russian" attack in Salisbury is supposed to negate the "not our war" argument, particularly as a British policeman was unwell for a while. Precisely what is meant to negate the "why on earth are we entering armed confrontation with a nuclear power" argument, I do not know.

Saudi Arabia has naturally offered facilities to support the UK, US and France in their attempt to turn the military tide in Syria in favour of the Saudi sponsored jihadists whom Assad had come close to defeating. That the Skripal and Douma incidents were preceded by extremely intense diplomatic activity between Saudi Arabia, Washington, Paris and London this year, with multiple top level visits between capitals, is presumably supposed to be coincidence.

I am not a fan of Assad any more than I was a fan of Saddam Hussein. But the public now understand that wars for regime change in Muslim lands have disastrous effects in dead and maimed adults and children and in destroyed infrastructure; our attacks unleash huge refugee waves and directly cause terrorist attacks here at home. There is no purpose in a military attack on Syria other than to attempt to help the jihadists overthrow Assad. There is a reckless disregard for evidence base on the pretexts for all this. Indeed, the more the evidence is scrutinised, the dodgier it seems. Finally there is a massive difference between mainstream media narrative around these events and a deeply sceptical public, as shown in social media and in comments sections of corporate media websites.

The notion that Britain will take part in military action against Syria with neither investigation of the evidence nor a parliamentary vote is worrying indeed. Without Security Council authorisation, any such action is illegal in any event. It is worth noting that the many commentators who attempt to portray Russia's veto of a Syria resolution as invalid, fail to note that last week, in two separate 14 against 1 votes, the USA vetoed security council resolutions condemning Israeli killings of unarmed demonstrators in Gaza.

The lesson the neo-cons learnt from the Iraq war is not that it was disastrous. It was only disastrous for the dead and maimed Iraqis, our own dead and maimed servicemen, and those whose country was returned to medievalism. It was a great success for the neo-cons, they made loads of money on armaments and oil. The lesson the neo-cons learned was not to give the public in the West any time to mount and organise opposition. Hence the destruction of Libya was predicated on an entirely false "we have 48 hours to prevent the massacre of the population of Benghazi" narrative. Similarly this latest orchestrated "crisis" is being followed through into military action at a blistering pace, as the four horsemen sweep by, scything down reason and justice on the way.

[Apr 20, 2018] How come other countries are not getting involved in a Iraq 2.0 just the same warmongers who want to test their new toys... USA, France and us

Apr 20, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

ISON2015 -> uncommodified , 13 Apr 2018 15:25

As much bad as Assad did, nothing is more worse than the killings on civilians done my the "freedom fighters". Why is it for us Syria so important? How come other countries are not getting involved in a Iraq 2.0 just the same warmongers who want to test their new toys... USA, France and us... fighting a fight that costs us so much, plus the Brexit, plus the eventual payment afterwards , I really do not understand. What the frick are we doing in Middle East? Is there a English colony that we have forgotten? Or a France colony or even a USA colony? This strikes me as a fight for either resources or for influence or for pleasing the master Israel. I am clear of how this White Helmets operate , Eva Bartlett told us, and do not forget that there are plenty of vids on the whole internet of how they operate "Lights camera action" actors.

[Apr 20, 2018] How neoliberal MSM twist facts

Apr 20, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

Ruby4 , 13 Apr 2018 14:15

Labour calls for the attack on Douma to be "fully investigated". That sounds unarguable. But then what? Jeremy Corbyn issued the same call after the chemical attack that killed at least 74 at Khan Sheikhoun a year ago: demanding there be a "UN investigation and those responsible be held to account". The UN duly investigated and in October concluded unambiguously that the Assad regime had used sarin gas. But Corbyn greeted that verdict with silence.

The report that Mr Freedland provides a link to, actually says:

"5. While the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in the Syrian Arab Republic works to establish the facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic chemicals for hostile purposes in the country, it is not mandated to reach conclusions about attributing responsibility for chemical weapons use. 1 Following a determination by the FactFinding Mission that a specific incident in the Syrian Arab Republic involved or likely involved the use of chemicals as weapons, the Mechanism conducts an investigation to identify, to the greatest extent feasible, the perpetrators, organizers, sponsors or those otherwise involved. In conducting its investigation, the Mechanism relies on findings of the Fact-Finding Mission regarding the use of chemicals as weapons in each incident and pursues a rigorous independent examination of the available information surrounding such use so as to identify, to the greatest extent feasible, those responsible."

It doesn't appear to be claiming to be concluding "unambiguously that the Assad regime had used sarin gas." Am I missing something here?

Mr Freedland's allegation that "Corbyn greeted that verdict with silence" is highly suspect:

"RT:Today, Moscow says it has evidence that rebels have used sarin gas. Earlier Britain said that Assad forces were behind the chemical attack. But why didn't Britain and the US come forward with the same sort of hard evidence that Russia has come forward with?

JC: That's an interesting question. I can't speak for the British or the US governments, but they made these allegations about the use of chemical weapons – and there are apparently stocks of chemical weapons being held in Syria, which may well have fallen into opposition hands, or may still be in government hands, or maybe both – but the assertion was made that they had been used. But no hard evidence came up, and indeed, there was a great deal of skepticism surrounding the evidence that was never presented. And the Russian evidence today appears much stronger, and they said they were going to put that evidence in the hands of the United Nations - that has got to be a good thing. However, proving or not proving this doesn't end the crisis, there has to be the rapid resumption of talks by Geneva too, all parties must be involved – including Iran. If we're to bring about a settlement, there's got to be involvement of Iran, as well as all the different parties in Syria."

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/syria-chemical-weapons-evidence-926 /

[Apr 20, 2018] As the British government release shedloads of crocodile tears over their paid for White Helmet video footage, and moan like spiteful children how they want to bomb more people, let look at some other inconvenient facts

Apr 20, 2018 | discussion.theguardian.com

Metreemewall , 13 Apr 2018 15:27

This post by Just in Thyme has just been mode rated:

"As the British government release shedloads of crocodile tears over their paid for White Helmet video footage, and moan like spiteful children how they want to bomb more people, let look at some other inconvenient facts.

The Yemeni Ministry of Human Rights announced on March 25 that the Saudi-led war had left 600,000 civilians dead and injured since March 2015. The United Nations says a record 22.2 million Yemenis are in need of food aid, including 8.4 million threatened by severe hunger. Meanwhile the Saudis shovel their bits of silver into the empty coffers of the NATO warmongers.

Who said money cannot buy influence, Its was the UK that backed Britain backed Saudi Arabia's election to the United Nations top human right's body as part of a vote trading deal – despite the Gulf State's appalling abuse record. Secret cables reportedly show that Britain approached Saudi Arabia about the trade ahead of the 2013 election for membership of the Human Rights Council (UNHRC). The Saudi regime has executed 135 people since January on charges ranging from murder to witchcraft.

The lynch mob government, we all voted for, and this is what democracy is really all about???"

Would anyone like to say why?

[Apr 20, 2018] Stench of hypocrisy British 'war on terror' strategic ties with radical Islam by John Wight

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... British governments, both Labour and Conservative, have, in pursuing the so-called 'national interest' abroad, colluded for decades with radical Islamic forces, including terrorist organizations. They have connived with them, worked alongside them and sometimes trained and financed them, in order to promote specific foreign policy objectives. Governments have done so in often desperate attempts to maintain Britain's global power in the face of increasing weakness in key regions of the world, being unable to unilaterally impose their will and lacking other local allies. Thus the story is intimately related to that of Britain's imperial decline and the attempt to maintain influence in the world. ..."
"... But whereas Sharif Hussein was a follower of orthodox Sunni Islam, Ibn Saud adhered to the radical doctrine of Wahhabism, which Winston Churchill was moved to describe as " bloodthirsty ..."
"... British support for the mujahideen, married to the huge support provided by Washington, was indispensable in the eventual success of these self-styled 'holy warriors' in taking control of a country that had embraced modernity and turning it into a failed state mired in religious oppression, brutality, backwardness and poverty. ..."
"... Britain, along with the US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, covertly supported the resistance to defeat the Soviet occupation of the country. Military, financial and diplomatic backing was given to Islamist forces which, while forcing a Soviet withdrawal, soon organized themselves into terrorist networks ready to strike Western targets. ..."
"... Islamic resistance ..."
"... We trust the Western leaders are prepared for the enormous beneficial possibilities that could just possibly open up if the Afghan rebellion were to succeed. ..."
"... Manchester, England is home to the largest Libyan community in Britain, and there is strong evidence to suggest that when the Libyan uprising broke out MI6 facilitated the ability of Libyan Islamists in Britain to travel to Libya to participate in the fighting. Among them was Salman Abedi, who it is thought received military training in the country before being allowed to return to the UK thereafter. ..."
"... This brings us on to Syria and, as with Libya, the question of how so many British Muslims have been able to travel from the UK to Syria via Turkey to take part in the anti-Assad insurgency since 2011? It also brings into sharp focus a policy that has veered between the ludicrous and the reckless. ..."
"... As for the recklessness of Britain's actions in Syria, look no further than the country's recent participation in the illegal missile strikes that were carried out in conjunction with the US and France, justified on the basis of as yet unproven allegations that Syrian government forces had carried out a chemical weapons attack on Douma, just outside Damascus. The only beneficiaries of such actions by the Western powers are Salafi-jihadist groups such as ISIS (whom it was later reported took advantage of the missile strike to mount a short-lived offensive), Al-Nusra and Jaysh al-Islam. ..."
"... The latter of those groups, Jaysh al-Islam, is a Saudi proxy. It was the dominant group in Douma and throughout Eastern Ghouta until the district's liberation by the Syrian Army and its allies with Russian support. ..."
Apr 20, 2018 | www.rt.com

Britain's strategic relationship with radical Islam goes back decades and continues to this day. There is no more foul a stench than the stench of hypocrisy, and there is no more foul a hypocrisy than the British government painting Bashar al-Assad as a monster when in truth he and the Syrian people have been grappling with a twin-headed monster in the shape of Salafi-jihadi terror and Western imperialism. Both are committed to destroying Syria as an independent, non-sectarian state, and both are inextricably linked.

Author and journalist Mark Curtis charts in detail the contours of this history in his book 'Secret Affairs: Britain's Collusion with Radical Islam':

" British governments, both Labour and Conservative, have, in pursuing the so-called 'national interest' abroad, colluded for decades with radical Islamic forces, including terrorist organizations. They have connived with them, worked alongside them and sometimes trained and financed them, in order to promote specific foreign policy objectives. Governments have done so in often desperate attempts to maintain Britain's global power in the face of increasing weakness in key regions of the world, being unable to unilaterally impose their will and lacking other local allies. Thus the story is intimately related to that of Britain's imperial decline and the attempt to maintain influence in the world. "

As far back as the First World War, when the Middle East began to assume strategic importance in the capitals of Western imperial and colonial powers, the British ruling class went out of its way to identify and recruit loyal local proxies in pursuit of its regional objectives. Britain's relationship with the Arab tribal chief, Ibn Saud, who would go on to establish Saudi Arabia in the early 1930s, began in 1915 with the Darin Pact, demarcating the territory then controlled by Saud as a British protectorate.

The following year, the Arab Revolt against the Ottomans erupted. Begun and inspired by Saud's fierce rival, Sharif Hussein, head of the Hashemite Arab tribe, the revolt was heavily bankrolled and supported by the British – a period immortalized in the exploits of British military agent T E Lawrence, known to the world as Lawrence of Arabia.

But whereas Sharif Hussein was a follower of orthodox Sunni Islam, Ibn Saud adhered to the radical doctrine of Wahhabism, which Winston Churchill was moved to describe as " bloodthirsty " and " intolerant ." Regardless, when it came to its imperial interests there was no tiger upon whose back the British ruling class was not willing to ride during this period, and which, as events have proved, it has not been willing to ride since.

The most egregious example of this policy, one that continues to have ramifications today, was the support provided by the UK to the Afghan mujahideen in the late 1970s and 1980s. The insurgency's objective was the overthrow of Kabul's secular and left-leaning government, whose crime in the eyes of the Islamist insurgency's US and UK sponsors was that it had embraced the social and economic model of Moscow rather than Washington during the first Cold War.

British support for the mujahideen, married to the huge support provided by Washington, was indispensable in the eventual success of these self-styled 'holy warriors' in taking control of a country that had embraced modernity and turning it into a failed state mired in religious oppression, brutality, backwardness and poverty.

Mark Curtis again:

" Britain, along with the US, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, covertly supported the resistance to defeat the Soviet occupation of the country. Military, financial and diplomatic backing was given to Islamist forces which, while forcing a Soviet withdrawal, soon organized themselves into terrorist networks ready to strike Western targets. "

While Washington's primary role in channeling military and financial support to the Afghan mujahideen, known as Operation Cyclone , may until have succeeded in overshadowing London's role in this dirty war, declassified British government cabinet papers which were made public in 2010 and reported in the UK media make grim reading.

They reveal that three weeks after Soviet forces arrived in Afghanistan at the request of the Afghan government in Kabul, struggling to deal with an insurgency that had broken out in the countryside, the Thatcher government was planning to supply military aid to the " Islamic resistance ." A confidential government memo provides a chilling insight into the insanity that passed for official policy: " We trust the Western leaders are prepared for the enormous beneficial possibilities that could just possibly open up if the Afghan rebellion were to succeed. "

It will be recalled that out of the ensuing collapse of Afghanistan emerged the Taliban, under whose rule the country was turned into a vast militant jihadist school and training camp. Many of the most notorious Islamist terrorists began their careers there, fighting the Soviets and then later broadening out their activities to other parts of the region and wider world. In this regard, Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaeda loom large.

Other notorious names from the world of Salafi-jihadism for whom Afghanistan proved indispensable include the Jordanian Abu al-Zarqawi, who founded Al-Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) during the US-UK occupation, an organization that would over time morph into ISIS.

Abdelhakim Belhaj and other Libyan Islamists cut their jihadist teeth in Afghanistan in the 1980s. Returning to Libya, they formed the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group (LIFG) in the eastern city of Benghazi. Though the group may have been disbanded in 2010, having failed to topple Gaddafi despite repeated attempts to assassinate the Libyan leader with, it's been claimed , the support of Britain's MI6, former members of the LIFG, including Belhaj, were important actors in the 2011 Libyan uprising.

By way of a reminder, the uprising in Libya started in Benghazi and would not have succeeded without the air support it received from NATO. Britain's then prime minister, David Cameron, was key in pushing for that air support and the sanction of the UN under the auspices of Security Council Resolution 1973. Though protecting civilians was central in wording of this UNSC resolution, it was shamefully distorted to justify regime change, culminating in Gaddafi's murder by the 'rebels.'

Staying with the LIFG, in the wake of the Manchester suicide-bomb attack in May 2017, which left 23 people dead and 500 injured, the fact that the bomber, a young Libyan by the name of Salman Abedi, was the son of a former member of the LIFG, did not receive anything like the media attention it should have at the time.

Manchester, England is home to the largest Libyan community in Britain, and there is strong evidence to suggest that when the Libyan uprising broke out MI6 facilitated the ability of Libyan Islamists in Britain to travel to Libya to participate in the fighting. Among them was Salman Abedi, who it is thought received military training in the country before being allowed to return to the UK thereafter.

This brings us on to Syria and, as with Libya, the question of how so many British Muslims have been able to travel from the UK to Syria via Turkey to take part in the anti-Assad insurgency since 2011? It also brings into sharp focus a policy that has veered between the ludicrous and the reckless.

Emblematic of the former was ex-prime minister David Cameron's claim , which he made during a 2015 Commons debate over whether the Royal Air Force should engage in air strikes against ISIS in Syria, that fighting as part of the Syrian were 70,000 moderates.

As for the recklessness of Britain's actions in Syria, look no further than the country's recent participation in the illegal missile strikes that were carried out in conjunction with the US and France, justified on the basis of as yet unproven allegations that Syrian government forces had carried out a chemical weapons attack on Douma, just outside Damascus. The only beneficiaries of such actions by the Western powers are Salafi-jihadist groups such as ISIS (whom it was later reported took advantage of the missile strike to mount a short-lived offensive), Al-Nusra and Jaysh al-Islam.

The latter of those groups, Jaysh al-Islam, is a Saudi proxy. It was the dominant group in Douma and throughout Eastern Ghouta until the district's liberation by the Syrian Army and its allies with Russian support.

Given the deep and longstanding ties between London and Riyadh; given the fact, reported towards the end of 2017, that British military personnel were embedded in a training role with Saudi forces in Yemen; given the news that a British special forces sergeant was killed in northern Syria at the end of March this year while embedded with the Kurds, revealing for the first time that British troops were operating in the country on the ground – given all that, the question of who else British special forces and military personnel may be embedded with in Syria is legitimate.

In the context of the British state's long and sordid history when it comes to riding the back of radical Islam in pursuit of its strategic objectives, readers will doubtless draw their own conclusions.

Read more

John Wight has written for newspapers and websites across the world, including the Independent, Morning Star, Huffington Post, Counterpunch, London Progressive Journal, and Foreign Policy Journal. He is also a regular commentator on RT and BBC Radio. John is currently working on a book exploring the role of the West in the Arab Spring. You can follow him on Twitter @JohnWight1

[Apr 19, 2018] The biggest damage from the strikes on Syria was to the credibility of the US, French and Airstrip One governments. In the days of dubya at least some effort was put into the false flags

Apr 19, 2018 | www.unz.com

RobinG , April 19, 2018 at 4:22 am GMT

More from Douma, with Pearson Sharp -

OAN'S PEARSON SHARP REFUTES MSM REPORTS OF ALLEGED SYRIAN CHEMICAL ATTACK

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iD9C9koRmro&feature=youtu.be

WhiteWolf , April 19, 2018 at 4:23 am GMT
The biggest damage from the strikes on Syria was to the credibility of the US, French and Airstrip One governments. In the days of dubya at least some effort was put into the false flags.
Carlton Meyer , Website April 19, 2018 at 4:30 am GMT
Great article, except the USA did not "acquire the Philippine Islands", it invaded! The Syrian disaster is best explained by a Columbia University professor, who was mistakenly booked on MSNBC, as Jimmy Dore explains:

Bombshell Professor Stuns MSNBC Panel On Syria - YouTube

[Apr 19, 2018] The Neocons Are Selling Koolaid Again! by W. Patrick Lang

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... Middle East Policy ..."
"... Such people, then and now, fervently believe in the Manifest Destiny of the United States as mankind's best hope of a utopian future and concomitantly in the responsibility of the United States to lead mankind toward that future. Neocons believe that inside every Iraqi, Filipino or Syrian there is an American waiting to be freed from the bonds of tradition, local culture and general backwardness. ..."
"... Local rulers must be removed as the principal obstacle to popular emulation of Western and especially American culture and political forms. In the run up to the invasion of Iraq I was often told by leading neocon figures that the Muslims and particularly the Iraqis had no culture worth keeping and that once we had created new facts, (a Karl Rove quote) these people would quickly abandon their old ways and beliefs as they sought to become something like Americans. ..."
"... This notion has one major flaw. It is not necessarily correct. Often the natives are willing to fight you long and hard to retain their own ways. In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War the US acquired the Philippine Islands and sought to make the islands American in all things. The result was a terrible war against Filipino nationalists who did not want to follow the example of the "shining city on a hill." No, the "poor fools" wanted to go their own way in their own way. The same thing happened in Iraq after 2003. The Iraqis rejected occupation and American "reform" of their country and a long and bloody war ensued. ..."
"... I am told that the old neocon crew argued as hard as possible for a disabling massive air and missile campaign intended to destroy the Syrian government's ability to fight the mostly jihadi rebels. John Bolton, General (ret.) Jack Keane and many other neocons argued strongly for this campaign as a way to reverse the outcome of the civil war. James Mattis managed to obtain President Trump's approval for a much more limited and largely symbolic strike but Trump was clearly inclined to the neocon side of the argument. What will happen next time? ..."
"... Paul Wolfowitz infamously told the US Senate "we chose to use the fear of nuclear weapons because we knew that would sell." ..."
"... The current US is rather like a cross country trip in bad weather. The vehicle is bogged down in deep mud, giving the driver and occupants two options 1) Look out the windows and say, "We're bogged down in deep mud. What are we going to do?" 2) Refuse to look out the windows and say, "There's something wrong with this vehicle. Can we fix the engine?" ..."
"... Well clearly the US's European satrapies don't share directly in the US updated Manifest Destiny idea, but the US sphere elites in general are fully indoctrinated in the universalist ideology of internationalist social-liberalism and "democracy"-uber-alles (where "democracy" – whether in Republican, constitutional monarchic or other form – is in reality a kind of managed gerrymander to keep the established and US-favoured elites safely in control and ensure "populists" are excluded by any means necessary), and sees itself as on a mission to promote the spread of US style liberal (managed) "democracy" throughout the world (except where it's currently inconvenient to push it too hard for reasons of temporary expedience, such as in places like Saudi Arabia). ..."
"... The current breed of opportunists operating without any kind of responsibility makes the international corps of political whores-in-charge. These politicians look at the Blairs (a $100 million fortune) and Cheney & Bush (both getting richer with every day) and they know that the opportunisms, however criminal, will be rewarded by the "deciders." The incompetent and sycophantic politicians in the EU/UK governments have zero regards for their citizenry. We can be absolutely sure that there are no idealists among the leading UK politicians in power. ..."
"... Short answer, F,UK were the world's leading imperial powers before WWII and seek to leverage American military and financial power to restore some degree of imperial power. The Atlantic Charter and the UN Charter were bitter pills for the old empires. France sought to override the UN Charter by force in Vietnam and Algeria, but lacked the wherewithall. Britain, France, and Israel sought to override it by force in the 1956 Suez Crisis until Daddy Ike told them that it wasn't cool. The umbrella of American power is their best remaining means of re-establishing imperial power. It puts the onus on the US for violations of international law, but promises them some restoration of imperial power in MENA. ..."
"... "Making the world safe for democracy" was the sales pitch for preserving the F, UK empires long before there was Israel. That effort was driven largely by American Blue Blood bankers who had risky investments in the UK war effort. American Jews were suspected of loyalty to the Kaiser because they loathed the Russian Tsar. ..."
Apr 19, 2018 | www.unz.com

In 2004 I published an article in the journal, Middle East Policy that was entitled "Drinking the Koolaid." The article reviewed the process by which the neocon element in the Bush Administration seized control of the process of policy formation and drove the United States in the direction of invasion of Iraq and the destruction of the apparatus of the Iraqi state. They did this through manipulation of the collective mental image Americans had of Iraq and the supposed menace posed by Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. Not all the people who participated in this process were neocon in their allegiance but there were enough of them in the Bush Administration to dominate the process. Neoconism as it has evolved in American politics is a close approximation of the imperialist political faction that existed in the time of President William McKinley and the Spanish-American War. Barbara Tuchman described this faction well in "The Proud Tower."

Such people, then and now, fervently believe in the Manifest Destiny of the United States as mankind's best hope of a utopian future and concomitantly in the responsibility of the United States to lead mankind toward that future. Neocons believe that inside every Iraqi, Filipino or Syrian there is an American waiting to be freed from the bonds of tradition, local culture and general backwardness. For people with this mindset the explanation for the continuance of old ways lies in the oppressive and exploitative nature of rulers who block the "progress" that is needed. The solution for the imperialists and neocons is simple. Local rulers must be removed as the principal obstacle to popular emulation of Western and especially American culture and political forms. In the run up to the invasion of Iraq I was often told by leading neocon figures that the Muslims and particularly the Iraqis had no culture worth keeping and that once we had created new facts, (a Karl Rove quote) these people would quickly abandon their old ways and beliefs as they sought to become something like Americans.

This notion has one major flaw. It is not necessarily correct. Often the natives are willing to fight you long and hard to retain their own ways. In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War the US acquired the Philippine Islands and sought to make the islands American in all things. The result was a terrible war against Filipino nationalists who did not want to follow the example of the "shining city on a hill." No, the "poor fools" wanted to go their own way in their own way. The same thing happened in Iraq after 2003. The Iraqis rejected occupation and American "reform" of their country and a long and bloody war ensued.

The neocons believe so strongly that America must lead the world and mankind forward that they accept the idea that the achievement of human progress justifies any means needed to advance that goal. In the case of the Iraq invasion the American people were lectured endlessly about the bestialities of Saddam's government. The bestialities were impressive but the constant media display of these horrors was not enough to persuade the American people to accept war. From the bestialities meme the neocons moved on to the WMD meme. The Iraqi government had a nuclear weapons program before the First Gulf War but that program had been thoroughly destroyed in the inspection regime that followed Iraq's defeat and surrender. This was widely known in the US government because US intelligence agencies had cooperated fully with the international inspectors in Iraq and in fact had sent the inspectors to a long list of locations at which the inspectors destroyed the program. I was instrumental in that process.

After 9/11 the US government knew without any doubt that the Iraqi government did not have a nuclear weapons program, but that mattered not at all to the neocons. As Paul Wolfowitz infamously told the US Senate "we chose to use the fear of nuclear weapons because we knew that would sell." Once that decision was made an endless parade of administration shills appeared on television hyping the supposed menace of Iraqi nuclear weapons. Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were merely the most elevated in position of the many vendors of the image of the "mushroom shaped cloud."

And now we have the case of Syria and its supposed chemical weapons and attacks. After the putative East Gouta chemical attack of 2013, an OPCW program removed all the chemical weapons to be found in Syria and stated its belief that there were no more in the country. In April of 2017 the US-Russian de-confliction process was used to reach agreement on a Syrian Air Force strike in the area of Khan Sheikoon in southern Idlib Province. This was a conventional weapons attack and the USAF had an unarmed reconnaissance drone in the area to watch the strike go in against a storage area. The rebel run media in the area then claimed the government had attacked with the nerve gas Sarin, but no proof was ever offered except film clips broadcast on social media. Some of the film clips from the scene were ludicrous. Municipal public health people were filmed at the supposed scene standing around what was said to be a bomb crater from the "sarin attack." Two public health men were filmed sitting on the lip of the crater with their feet in the hole. If there had been sarin residue in the hole they would have quickly succumbed to the gas. No impartial inspection of the site was ever done, but the Khan Sheikoon "gas attack" has become through endless repetition a "given" in the lore of the "constant Syrian government gas attacks against their own civilians."

On the 4th of April it is claimed that the Syrian Government, then in the process of capturing the town of Douma caused chlorine gas to be dropped on the town killing and wounding many. Chlorine is not much of a war gas. It is usually thought of as an industrial chemical, so evidently to make the story more potent it is now suggested that perhaps sarin was also used.

No proof that such an attack occurred has been made public. None! The Syrian and Russian governments state that they want the site inspected. On the 15th of April US Senator Angus King (I) of Maine told Jake Tapper on SOTU that as of that date the US Senate Select Committee on Intelligence had not been given any proof by the IC or Trump Administration that such an attack had occurred. "They have asserted that it did" he said.

The US, France and the UK struck Syria with over a hundred cruise missiles in retaliation for this supposed attack but the Administration has not yet provided any proof that the Syrian attack took place.

I am told that the old neocon crew argued as hard as possible for a disabling massive air and missile campaign intended to destroy the Syrian government's ability to fight the mostly jihadi rebels. John Bolton, General (ret.) Jack Keane and many other neocons argued strongly for this campaign as a way to reverse the outcome of the civil war. James Mattis managed to obtain President Trump's approval for a much more limited and largely symbolic strike but Trump was clearly inclined to the neocon side of the argument. What will happen next time?

Colonel W. Patrick Lang is a retired senior officer of U.S. Military Intelligence and U.S. Army Special Forces (The Green Berets). He served in the Department of Defense both as a serving officer and then as a member of the Defense Senior Executive Service for many years


Chet Roman , April 19, 2018 at 5:15 am GMT
The most important part of this article on neocons and their policies is what was never mentioned: Israel. While superficially the neocons may claim they believe in the Manifest Destiny of the United States to impose American democracy on other cultures, the truth is that below the superficial is a deep and unquestioning obedience to further Zionist policies and the promotion of Israel über alles. Syria is a prime example of this and any article on U.S. policies regarding regime change or bombing Syria that leaves out a mention of Israeli influence is all foreplay and nothing else and just about as satisfying.
HooperHooper , April 19, 2018 at 5:18 am GMT
@Carlton Meyer

I understand your point, but Col. Lang's statement of acquired is correct. The USA "acquired" the Phillipine islands as a result of the treaty ending the Spanish-American war. There was a following military occupation and war against nationalist rebels, but that doesn't make his wording incorrect.

Wally , April 19, 2018 at 5:25 am GMT
But who are the "Neo-Cons"? Who is their loyalty to?

http://www.codoh.com

joseph51 , April 19, 2018 at 7:04 am GMT
The neocons have a right to their opinion and their desired world order, just like anyone else. What they DO NOT have, is the right to perpetrate WARS OF AGRESSION, which include both War Crimes an Crimes Against Humanity under its purview, to reach those goals. Under our Constitution and system of government ONLY Congress is legally authorized to declare war on another nation. Congress has NOT declared war on the sovereign nation of Syria, there is no self defense issue here and such an attack has not been approved by the United Nations so, IT IS NOT UP TO THE PRESIDENT AND SOME GROUP OF HIS ADVISORS.

Those in the military have sworn an oath to defend the Constitution. You are not obligated to obey obviously criminal orders, in fact you are obligated to defend against all those violating our Constitution. By God, do your duty.

Where is Congress? They should be making sure that these criminals do not exercise authority that is reserved to Congress. By not preventing these crimes the military and Congress become accomplices and accessories to the most heinous crime defined by mankind WAR OF AGRESSION.

Any and all those in authority who ordered past attacks and or order future attacks are guilty of WAGING AGGRESSIVE WAR. Any one who assisted in any way are accomplices, and/or accessories to the crimes and are equally guilty and subject to arrest and prosecution without time limit. The excuse of following orders will not be accepted.

If the neocons actually carry out the criminal act of "a disabling massive air and missile campaign intended to destroy the Syrian government's ability to fight the mostly jihadi rebels," don't be surprised if the Russians and Chinese vaporize the United States.

Ronald Thomas West , Website April 19, 2018 at 7:25 am GMT

the putative East Gouta chemical attack of 2013

I have to wonder why, with the known facts of this 2013 attack in the public domain, our 'other IC' never goes there except with the most vague allusions. Here is the 2013 attack in known detail:

https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2018/04/15/what-can-be-known-vs-what-will-be-known/

I'm no fan of 'Realpolitik', let the chips fall as they should. In fact, the reality of 2013 should inform us of the reality of 2018, and where to bring the pressure to pop the abscess – before the abscess becomes WWIII

Randal , April 19, 2018 at 7:44 am GMT
Great to see Colonel Lang added to the list of Unz writers. His direct expertise and experience in ME military and intel matters are unsurpassed, and as someone who has been intentionally excluded from the mainstream media because of his determination to express inconvenient truths that the powerful would prefer remain unsaid, he fits perfectly into the Unz mission statement: "A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media."

After the putative East Gouta chemical attack of 2013, an OPCW program removed all the chemical weapons to be found in Syria and stated its belief that there were no more in the country.

Let's recall whilst considering this point that the OPCW is not some anti-American bureaucracy uninfluenced by US power. Here is what happened to an OPCW leader who crossed the US neocons:

"We can't accept your management style," Bolton told Bustani in 2002, as Bustani recounted to The Intercept.

"You have 24 hours to leave the organization, and if you don't comply with this decision by Washington, we have ways to retaliate against you," he reportedly continued. After a pause, Bolton reportedly said, "We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York."

Bustani was taken aback by Bolton's directness, but did not back down, according to The Intercept.

Bustani eventually was forced to step down after the US convinced its allies in the organization to rally against him, according to The Times. He was forced out by a stunning vote of 48 to 7 and 43 abstentions.

http://uk.businessinsider.com/john-bolton-threatened-family-of-brazilian-diplomat-iraq-war-2002-2018-3

If the OPCW appears to be cooperating suspiciously with US objectives on an issue, that's credible. The contrary, not so much.

On that note, let's also recall that the OPCW inspected one of the main targets of the recent US action, claimed by the US and its collaborators to be an active chemical weapons site, the Barzeh research centre, in 2017:

He said it's "totally incorrect" that chemical weapons were being developed there. "The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) visited here and didn't report anything wrong with this place."
.
CBS News looked into the OPCW report from Barzeh and it noted the Syrians had delayed the visit for security concerns, but didn't find any red flags.

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/syria-airstrikes-brazeh-complex-damascus-2018-04-14/

Realist , April 19, 2018 at 8:19 am GMT
@WhiteWolf

In the days of dubya at least some effort was put into the false flags.

The shallowness and insouciance of Americans has rendered that superfluous.

Mishra , April 19, 2018 at 8:27 am GMT
While I certainly agree with the gist of this essay, the following quotation is news to me and I'd appreciate a citation–I can't find it anywhere.

Paul Wolfowitz infamously told the US Senate "we chose to use the fear of nuclear weapons because we knew that would sell."

English Outsider , April 19, 2018 at 9:05 am GMT
I have long been a fan of Colonel Lang's stand against the current neocon policy in the Middle East. Here I find the most authoritative account of the thinking behind the Syrian disaster I have seen.

I am still puzzled by the support given by our European and UK politicians to this destructive policy. Is it merely a matter of catching the crumbs from the neocon's table? Our politicians surely can't think they're exceptional too. Though in a way one hopes they might be – I no longer believe that those politicians represent the thinking of the great mass of people in Europe and the UK.

SolontoCroesus , April 19, 2018 at 9:09 am GMT
@Chet Roman

Lang spelled that out in "Drinking the Koolaid," the 2004 article mentioned in the first sentence.

He wrote:

" . . .single-minded intensity in pursuing his goals was nothing new for [Douglas] Feith. In July 1996, he had been a principal author of a study prepared for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. This paper advocated abrogation of the Oslo accords and the launch of a new regional balance-of-power scheme based on American-Israeli military dominance with a subsidiary military role for Turkey and Jordan . The study was produced by the "Institute for Advanced Strategic and Political Studies" (IASPS), a Jerusalem-based Likud-party-linked think tank, and was called "A Clean Break: A New Strategy for Securing the Realm." In it, Feith and company wrote,

"Israel can shape its strategic environment, in cooperation with Turkey and Jordan, by weakening, containing and even rolling back Syria. This effort can focus on removing Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq -- an important Israeli strategic objective in its own right -- as a means of foiling Syria's regional ambitions."

The study-group leader was Richard Perle . Other members of the team included Charles Fairbanks Jr., a longtime friend of Paul Wolfowitz since their student days together at the University of Chicago; and David Wurmser , an American Enterprise Institute Middle East fellow, and his wife, Meyrav Wurmser , who headed the Washington, DC office of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI). Her boss in that group was a retired Israeli intelligence officer, Yigal Carmon.

On July 8, 1996, Richard Perle presented the "Clean Break" document to Netanyahu, who was visiting Washington. Two days later, the Israeli prime minister unveiled the document as his own regional foreign-policy design in a speech before a joint session of the U.S. Congress.

http://www.mepc.org/journal/middle-east-policy-archives/drinking-kool-aid?print

Regulars on Unz forum regularly mention "A Clean Break," but noting the "regional balance-of-power scheme based on American-Israeli military dominance with a subsidiary military role for Turkey and Jordan, " and given the amount of money and military aid US taxpayers provide to Israel, why is this group hiring, training and arming "moderate rebels" to "foil Syria's regional ambitions" rather than carrying out the mission themselves?

Also, and based on comments by US Congressman Steven Russell (R-OK) (among others) in appearances on C Span, where praise is lavished on Jordan's king Abdullah, it appears Jordan is still on board the aging ship Clean Break , tho Turkey is threatening mutiny.

https://www.c-span.org/video/?444201-5/washington-journal-representative-steve-russell-r-ok-discusses-congress-role-syria-conflict

The same actors -- including the sociopathic Michael Ledeen– of this neocon cabal have been reading the same script from the run-up to war with Iraq

to the fulfillment of their obsession with attacking Iran:

Notice that fifteen years on, the neocon criminal gang has added new, younger members, i.e. Richard Goldberg and Michaela Dodge. Goldberg is fanatically pro-Israel from his Jewish day school primary school to his anti-BDS activities in Illinois government and anti-Iran achievements in US senate.

SolontoCroesus , April 19, 2018 at 9:23 am GMT
@Carlton Meyer

Disagree because Jimmy Dore made a mistake in heaping so much praise on Sache without knowing who he was. In my opinion, Jeffrey Sachs's appearance on MSNBC is a smokescreen, political cover to exonerate the Deep State, banister predators and Israel firsters from complicity in the destruction of Syria. Sachs was a leading actor, together with George Soros, Paul Wolfowitz and Jonathan Bush, brother-in-law of the late, sainted Barbara Bush, in the Rape of Russia in the Yeltsin years.

h/t The Saker, complete w/ transcript: https://thesaker.is/the-rape-of-russia-saker-blog-exclusive-interview/

EliteCommInc. , April 19, 2018 at 10:04 am GMT
Our southern neighbors are the largest threat to the US than any Middle Eastern State.

I will continue to contend to drop the label "neoconservative" because it is inaccurate. What we have are those who desire intervention for political and mercantilism *economic" ambitions -- interventionists.
-- -- -- -- -- -- –

" I was often told by leading neocon figures that the Muslims and particularly the Iraqis had no culture worth keeping and that once we had created new facts, (a Karl Rove quote) these people would quickly abandon their old ways and beliefs as they sought to become something like Americans. This notion has one major flaw. It is not necessarily correct. Often the natives are willing to fight you long and hard to retain their own ways. In the aftermath of the Spanish-American War the US acquired the Philippine Islands and sought to make the islands American in all things."

I am unclear why you are equivocating here. It is entirely incorrect as demonstrated throughout the region repeatedly.

Seamus Padraig , April 19, 2018 at 10:05 am GMT
@Chet Roman

True. I love Col. Lang's blog and have followed it for years now. He's really good at military strategy, and–as a ME specialist–is very helpful in analyzing and predicting events in Syria, Iraq, etc. But the main thing that's missing at his blog ('Sic Semper Tyrannis') is any analysis of Israel's role in this. There's no mention of the Oded Yinon plan, or the Clean Break memo, or the 'Pearl Harbor-type event' paper. And while Lang is very good at pointing out the absurdity of Washington's statements relative to reality, he's not so good at untangling propaganda from what really motivates the highest-level people who are behind all of this . Hint: it's not 'democracy promotion'.

jilles dykstra , April 19, 2018 at 10:12 am GMT
I wonder if the neocons have any idea about forward. Their forward for me is just world domination, that what Franklin Roosevelt already tried, but what failed miserably. In 1946 the Soros then, Bernard Baruch, in vain pleaded for a world government, that is, the USA governing the world. Stalin and Mao tse Tung had other ideas.

We now have Putin, the Chinese government, India, Iran, IS, the other BRICS countries, I think the majority of Muslims, most S and Middle American countries, with other ideas. Even on German sites debate exists on the continuing USA occupation. Soros' conflict with Hungary is there for anyone to see.

Fool Macron states that the EU must have more power, to destroy increasing nationalism. He does not see that with more EU power nationalism rises. Shortly before the Brexit referendum someone in Britain said 'they even interfere with vacuum cleaners'.

Ivan K. , Website April 19, 2018 at 10:18 am GMT
You're just wasting your nerves, and time. Just looking at what is done rather than what is being said, I see the world geopolitically moving in a splendid direction, with practically enlightened leaders in the major three countries. I see a false flag that had cost no lives, Syria becoming invincible to both NATO and Israel – a dream come true, I also see Russia firmly establishing itself on the Med for a first time, a forging of peace between the two Koreas after 60 years. All those are results to which the White House under Trump crucially contributes. (*)

In the rest of the world, we can see improvement in the living conditions in most parts of the world unparalleled in history.

The biggest problem are the European & American chattering and fear-mongering classes, imperialists and anti-imperialists alike. Surprisingly, they look like two sides of a same coin. On his website, Mr. Patrick Lang speaks about Mr. Trump, his president, in the most pejorative terms, while he has the highest praises for Collin Powell, who steadily and with a pronounced servility served the neocons. It was exactly Mr. Lang that, by serving Collin Powell, assisted the neocon dominance in the White House, and, among else, the Iraq disaster. Our greatest enemy demons are those inside ourselves.

(*) Trump's critics want to have their cake and eat it: Trump is wrong because of his stupendous warmongering, and by being such "a moron" as to be disastrous for his mad plans. Occam's Razor applied to those two extraordinary observations points to the solid likelihood they are illusions. Illusion-making would be consistent with what I know about DJT personally anda fine a tit-for-tat to what the msm do to him. When surrounded by open mouths of beasts, throw them a bone or two.

iffen , April 19, 2018 at 11:34 am GMT
@Chet Roman

The most important part of this article on neocons and their policies is what was never mentioned: Israel.

Yeah, one has to willfully ignore the overwhelming historical evidence of the perfidious Jewish cabal dragging TR and his "conscripts" by the nose up San Juan Hill.

Jake , April 19, 2018 at 11:37 am GMT
If the Neocons would follow the example of (atheist or perhaps actual demon worshipping, socialist/Marxist, drug addict, bisexual) Jones and his main female inner circle and its largely black male inner circle of enforcers and also drink the kool-aid and die, then we'd be happy they were making a batch.

The world would become safer and more sane.

iffen , April 19, 2018 at 11:43 am GMT
@Randal

Great to see Colonel Lang added to the list of Unz writers.

Yes, excellent addition.

Seamus Day , April 19, 2018 at 12:20 pm GMT
@Michael Kenny

Trump has made a complete mess of this and "next time" thus inevitably means something much more solid. He has dug himself deeper into the Russiagate hole and there's only one way out. Since Putin is totally bogged down in Syria, there's no hurry on "next time". All Putin can do is sit and wait for it to happen. Trump will probably have to act before the midterms.

I think this whole charade served another purpose. And Nikki Haley's comments added to it ("we will never be friends with Russia and will we smack Russia whenever we want"). It allowed the Russians to start thinking the unthinkable. Unleashing the nuclear genie and using MAD to end the madness. I believe it will create a ramping up of nuclear forces in Russia. I don't believe the option was really on the table until the false flag and the completely irrational and unhinged response from the West. Preceded by the other ludicrous Skripal affair which the U.S. and other Western countries accepted as true and evicted Russian officials based on it. I think in the final hours before the missile strikes of last Friday it was a somber mood among Russian military planners and there was a a begrudging willingness to consider the unthinkable nuclear option. Now I think it is fully on the table and Russian planners will start thinking and visualizing about scenarios and will make its future use more real and thus much easier to undertake. In fact, merely thinking about and visualizing about scenarios will create an excitement which will animate their future decision. If the Punjabi Clemson accounting major, Nimrata Randhawa, is correct and will not be friends with Russia and smack them whenever "we" want, you'd better get right with God and live your final days virtuously because the end of the world as we know it is at hand.

for-the-record , April 19, 2018 at 12:30 pm GMT
@Randal

Regarding Barzah/Barzeh, here is the actual OPCW document dated 23 March 2018 referring to the November 2017 inspection:

In accordance with paragraph 11 of Council decision EC-83/DEC.5, the second round of inspections at the Barzah and Jamrayah facilities of the SSRC was concluded on 22 November 2017. The results of the inspections were reported as an addendum (EC-87/DG.15/Add.1, dated 28 February 2018) to the report entitled "Status of Implementation of Executive Council Decision EC-83/DEC.5 (dated 11 November 2016)" (EC-87/DG.15, dated 23 February 2018). The analysis of samples taken during the inspections did not indicate the presence of scheduled chemicals in the samples, and the inspection team did not observe any activities inconsistent with obligations under the Convention during the second round of inspections at the Barzah and Jamrayah facilities

https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/EC/88/en/ec88dg01_e_.pdf

Interestingly, this document is not particularly easy to find, for some (no doubt innocent) reason it has not (yet?) been included among the list of "Progress Reports" on the OPCW site:

https://www.opcw.org/special-sections/syria/related-official-documents/

Miro23 , April 19, 2018 at 12:41 pm GMT

Such people, then and now, fervently believe in the Manifest Destiny of the United States as mankind's best hope of a utopian future and concomitantly in the responsibility of the United States to lead mankind toward that future. Neocons believe that inside every Iraqi, Filipino or Syrian there is an American waiting to be freed from the bonds of tradition, local culture and general backwardness.

So the Neocons want to better the lives of Iraqis, Filipinos and Syrians by "introducing" them to the American way of life?? – Such kind and well meaning people.

The current US is rather like a cross country trip in bad weather. The vehicle is bogged down in deep mud, giving the driver and occupants two options 1) Look out the windows and say, "We're bogged down in deep mud. What are we going to do?" 2) Refuse to look out the windows and say, "There's something wrong with this vehicle. Can we fix the engine?"

The US as a society, isn't going anywhere until it can face reality, and have an open and frank public debate about the Israeli/Zionist subversion of US institutions.

Carlton Meyer , Website April 19, 2018 at 12:45 pm GMT
@HooperHooper

Your view is a common myth. Why do people assume the Philippines belonged to Spain, who could give it away? Anyway, by the time the American Army arrived, there was an established Filipino government and a large regular army that was running the nation. Just a few tiny pockets of Spanish troops remained waiting for rescue. After the Americans saved them, they attacked and invaded the Philippines, fighting the regular Army for over a year until it was destroyed, then the resulting insurgency. The US military conquered the Philippines beginning with the bloody "Battle of Manila".

DESERT FOX , April 19, 2018 at 12:48 pm GMT
The fact is that Israel and the dual citizen ziocons aka neocons control the U.S. gov and proof of this is that Israel did the attack on the WTC on 911 and got away with it, and also did the attack on the USS LIBERTY and got away with that, and numerous other subversive things that would take a book to document, and got away with it all.

Israel is destroying America.

Seamus Padraig , April 19, 2018 at 1:05 pm GMT
@Mishra

Lang may have been loosely paraphrasing here. The version I'm familiar with is:

"The truth is that for reasons that have a lot to do with the U.S. government bureaucracy, we settled on the one issue that everyone could agree on which was weapons of mass destruction as the core reason," Wolfowitz was quoted as saying in a Pentagon transcript of an interview with Vanity Fair.

Inter alia: https://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2003-05-30-wolfowitz-iraq_x.htm

Z-man , April 19, 2018 at 1:09 pm GMT
@Chet Roman

The Zionist Entity, the great albatross around America's neck. In a way it was fine that W. Patrick Lang did not mention the Zionist Entity by name. It's smart not to mention it all the time as it can be like 'beating a dead horse' among other things . Not mentioning it directly and just saying Neocon deflects the accusation of the anti-'S' label but in a subtle manner associates Zionism with Neocons, which can be a more persuasive way to make the point without screaming, like me (lol), that it's the same thing.

Ozymandias , April 19, 2018 at 1:16 pm GMT
" administration shills appeared on television hyping the supposed menace of Iraqi nuclear weapons. Vice President Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "

I propose that international politics would be greatly clarified if we were to place a 'CFR' next to the name of every member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

Patrick Lang , Website April 19, 2018 at 1:33 pm GMT
@Carlton Meyer

Spain ceded the Philippine Islands to the US at the end of the Spanish American War.

anonymous [340] Disclaimer , April 19, 2018 at 2:01 pm GMT
@Seamus Padraig

If so, that's awfully sloppy, even for a paraphrase, and in no way a legitimate use of quotation marks.

Mike Whitney , April 19, 2018 at 2:04 pm GMT
I'm very glad to see Colonel Pat Lang writing for the Unz review. His own website–Sic Semper Tyrannis– is one of the best, most informative sites on the internet. It is "must read" for anyone who wants to follow national security issues, Syria, Ukraine and beyond.

Lang doesn't mince words or pull his punches. And his analysis is never short of brilliant. This is really a great addition for the Unz Review. Good work, Ron and a hearty "Welcome" to Colonel Lang!

SolontoCroesus , April 19, 2018 at 2:52 pm GMT
@Svigor

re:

"This is what you get when you have too much Jewish influence over opinion. Friedlander says "regime change never works," but obviously it does, sometimes, like in Japan and Germany after WWII. "

WWII actions against Japan and Germany were not "regime changes" that "worked," they were total wars of destruction, conquest and genocide of the German people, in the case of Germany, which lost ~10 of its pop. while Japan lost ~5%.

Japan has recovered, to a certain extent, probably because Japan's adversary was not Jews. Germany is still a fully occupied and de-culturalized state. Witness, for example, the Thompson article where Hindemann is compelled to discuss "Nazis" totally out of context.

Wally , April 19, 2018 at 3:06 pm GMT
@jilles dykstra

Another hasbarist in disguise has spoken. "To themselves" only after satisfying the demands of "that shitty little country". http://www.codoh.com

anon [228] Disclaimer , April 19, 2018 at 3:38 pm GMT
"I was often told by leading neocon figures that the Muslims and particularly the Iraqis had no culture worth keeping and that once we had created new facts, (a Karl Rove quote) these people would quickly abandon their old ways and beliefs as they sought to become something like Americans. This notion has one major flaw. It is not necessarily correct."

Only the meanest culture -free bastards can get away with this as a policy statement . It is millions times worse when someone condones it by saying " It is not necessarily correct"

SolontoCroesus , April 19, 2018 at 3:41 pm GMT
@Svigor

That argument rests on assumptions that I consider ugly, a-historical, and counterproductive. What was done to Germany and Japan -- and to the former Ottoman empire as well as Iran -- from ~1907 'til today, was precipitated by some of the world's greatest psychopaths. They are still at large. THAT is the problem, not "HBD."

anon [228] Disclaimer , April 19, 2018 at 3:44 pm GMT
@SolontoCroesus

One of the reasons Tom Friedman supplied for his support to Iraq war among many similar excuses, was the support Saddam offered to the suicide bombers. One of the reason the terrorist one day may think is the support given by the Zionists to the bombers attacker gentile politicians .

SolontoCroesus , April 19, 2018 at 5:16 pm GMT
@Chet Roman

Come to think of it, I mostly agree with this comment: Col. Lang conflated American operating principle of "Manifest Destiny" with the zionist / neoconservative ideology (psychopathology).

imo the process is more subtle: Manifest Destiny/Anglos and zionist/neoconservatives share mythological roots in Abrahamism, which posits that the "chosen" have a lock on truth, morality and god, and that they have the right and obligation to destroy anyone who fails to subscribe to that truth and their overlordship of it -- Evangelical Christians and Anglicans hold this concept fast.

The zionist twist on this is twofold: First, Jews believe they are the ordained by god to be in charge; Jews have been chosen by god to "teach the world ethics, to drag the rest of the world kicking and screaming to behave morally." http://www.aish.com/sp/ph/96037069.html Apparently, some Jews really believe this.

Second, but the larger zionist agenda is to establish Jews as a hegemonic if not global imperial power from a base in Israel, and they are using USA treasure, political and military power as its tool to achieve what are, ultimately, Jewish goals.

To be sure, US policymakers, elites, and tens of thousands of ordinary citizens willingly and/or unwittingly subscribe to a similar predatory and dominating agenda. But if (when?) Jewish zionists achieve their goals, US will be discarded like toilet paper.

It's useful to recognize that the early leaders of the zionist movement -- Herzl, Nordau, Pinsker and others -- recognized early on that Jews needed the support of a major power to achieve their goals, and solicited that support from the German kaiser, the Ottoman sultan, and the British.

When Chaim Weizmann's activities to gain British support were successful, the same zionist Jews who had earlier petitioned Germany and Ottoman turned violently against those same powers and brought about their destruction. Germany's destruction was maneuvered in short order; the destruction of the Ottoman empire successor states has taken longer.

Maybe those Arabs aren't so dumb after all.

EliteCommInc. , April 19, 2018 at 5:43 pm GMT
@Svigor

there are plenty of interventionists on the press for democracy and "capitalism" as cause for stabilizing regions that are not Jews or all that active in Zionists policies.

The desire to regime change in North Korea and parts of Africa are not all that beneficial to Zionist ambitions. I am not all convinced that Israel is a democracy. But it's clear that neither Libya, Iraq or Afghanistan are going to raving democratic capitalist states – every. Muslim faith precludes such a system. even if said states did embrace democracy -- there is no evidence and would in all likelihood not reflect what exists in the US. Because what exists in the US is founded on a particular history and environment and inter-relational dynamics.

The grand narrative they advance would be attractive as policy even minus the existence of Israel.

-- Cutting off nonsense at the pass: I do think Israel has a right to exist. –

Patrick Lang , Website April 19, 2018 at 5:44 pm GMT
@Seamus Padraig

Ah, you want me to propagandize for your preferred positions. You want me to scream every day that the JEWS did it. You are supposed to be able to read between the lines and understand the truth of things. You are more of sa simpleton than I had thought. You should stay off my blog.

jilles dykstra , April 19, 2018 at 5:57 pm GMT
@SolontoCroesus

There was neither regime change nor unconditional surrender in Japan. Germany was destroyed, physically and politically. Indoctrination of the Germans with their guilt for two world wars, and the murder of six million jews, goes on to this day. But even this indoctrination is crumbling.

Many Germans do not see how the country they live in, that should just have a defensive army, cooperates in wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Many Germans see how the poor jews who survived the holocaust treat the Palestinians. Germany now is going to buy Predators:

https://kenfm.de/keine-kampfdrohnen/

Trans 'No drones for battle'.

RobinG , April 19, 2018 at 6:06 pm GMT
@SolontoCroesus

Okay, Sachs has corpses in his closet. And yes, Dore is dopey. (Sachs has been on MSNBC many times. It was no mistake.) But, IMO, take gold where you find it . limited hangout or not.

If your adversary speaks some truth, that doesn't make it a lie. Plus, you're not going to get every angle covered n every clip. The fact that he called out US covert fomentation of regime-change in Syria makes this golden.

Here's the clip without Jimmy Dore's interruptions, only 5 min.

Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs on Syria

Anon [673] Disclaimer , April 19, 2018 at 6:23 pm GMT
If you split the difference between two extremes, you end up pleasing no one and being attacked by both sides. Democracy is a flower that smells sweet and ends up in the pipe of every crackpot loon in history. In this world, facts and reality matter. Ideology is the shortcut that retards use to move the masses towards easy solutions that make life hard.

Blood and religion form bonds. Ideas just make the stupid angry and the smart embrace theories and abandon reliable methods. New ideas can be beneficial or they can be fair, they rarely can be both. Without winners there are no losers. Unless you benefit from work, there is no incentive to do it.

There are no simple solutions. There are no complex problems. Problems can always be simplified by division and parsing. Solutions can only be simplified to avoid the hard facts and avoid actually solving them.

What has any of this have to do with the subject? These are the things you need to bring to the table.

Discussing this issue will lead to nothing but overly emotional hype and obfuscation. Using the above can stop the endless appeals to emotionalism that carries the masses away from facts.

Patrick Lang , Website April 19, 2018 at 6:24 pm GMT
@Chet Roman

I'll say to you what I say to others. I beat up the Zionists both here and in Israel all the time but I am not going to say that all Jews are responsible for the ills of the world. As for the neocons their agenda is much larger than just Zionism.

Randal , April 19, 2018 at 6:30 pm GMT
@English Outsider

I am still puzzled by the support given by our European and UK politicians to this destructive policy. Is it merely a matter of catching the crumbs from the neocon's table? Our politicians surely can't think they're exceptional too.

Well clearly the US's European satrapies don't share directly in the US updated Manifest Destiny idea, but the US sphere elites in general are fully indoctrinated in the universalist ideology of internationalist social-liberalism and "democracy"-uber-alles (where "democracy" – whether in Republican, constitutional monarchic or other form – is in reality a kind of managed gerrymander to keep the established and US-favoured elites safely in control and ensure "populists" are excluded by any means necessary), and sees itself as on a mission to promote the spread of US style liberal (managed) "democracy" throughout the world (except where it's currently inconvenient to push it too hard for reasons of temporary expedience, such as in places like Saudi Arabia). There might well be a psychological component akin to Stockholm Syndrome, whereby people like Blair, Macron etc see the power of the US and the US exceptionalist ideology over their countries, know they are subordinate to it, and seek to internalise a wider version of it for themselves so that they can tell themselves that when they are serving Washington's objectives and profiting handsomely thereby, they are actually doing it for their own noble ideals.

Then of course, human beings being human, there are also other self-serving motivations underlying the idealist pretext – collaboration for personal gain with the jewish/Israeli lobby that is hugely powerful in the UK and Europe as well as in the US, military-industrial types wanting to boost the status and budgets of the military, etc. These are the real motivations, as opposed to the legitimising pretext that is the supposedly noble ideal of American exceptionalism or internationalist social liberalism.

Lately the British regime's enthusiasm for the interventionist project seems to be greater even than that of the US regime, for instance.

Titus I , Website April 19, 2018 at 6:37 pm GMT
@Chet Roman

The American Empire is facing a historical junction: does become a mercenary putative force for Zionist Israel or Will the USA priorize its own NATIONAL interests over Israeli. The prize of becoming a Zionist surrogate will mean the progressive deterioration of the American empeirein the Middle East, and the world. America faces severe national debt, decaying infrastructure, and internal social fragmentation. On the other hand Israel is poised to become the ENERGY hub for the European, African, Asian economies,without Israeli OIL supply lines all those economies will be paralyzed. Furthermore American blind,almost irrational support for Israel will mean more dangerous terrorists attacks and more frequent..The Trump presidency is in fact a Neocon presidency, the democratic decision making (war) process is dead, and this Syrian war means that it doesn't matter whom iselected president ultimately AIPAC, Israel, make the final decisions.

annamaria , April 19, 2018 at 6:51 pm GMT
@RobinG

More from The Jimmy Dore Show: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=292&v=_O2TRzA2ezk

kemerd , April 19, 2018 at 7:06 pm GMT
I don't know if anyone outside US believes so called "theoretical background"of the neocons that they think US is the pinnacle of the human civilization that they want to export their model to the other places in the world, etc. This is so absurdly stupid is that it is hard to believe anyone would buy it. All of what they do just talks volumes about what they care for: money and power; the rest, as can be understood from their lousy "philosophy", are just details.

I also think that their affection to Israel is fake. People in the power positions do not have such dispositions. I am sure there is some genuine idiots among US political class who buys what they actually say but most of them just ride the tide while it is useful for them. I am sure that once Israel loses its usefulness for the ones who actually wield power inside US political class, Israel would also be trashed just like Arab countries they destroyed.

RobinG , April 19, 2018 at 7:17 pm GMT
@English Outsider

Don't assume US neocons are calling all the shots. It was Sarkozy (goaded by Zionist Bernard Henri Levy) took the lead to attack Libya. And at least some believe London is still the core of Imperialist aggression.

Yesterday, for the first time, a Russian general pierced this lie on RT when he stated that there was proof that the UK was behind the well-orchestrated and completely staged "gas attacks" in Douma.

Yes, you read that right, he said the UK. Not the US, not Israel, not Saudi Arabia, but the UK. Those of you familiar with my writing know that I am constantly pointing my finger at the City of London for the lies, deception, and wars which dominate the headlines of their propaganda rags."

Crown Bulldog Attacks Syria

https://hendersonlefthook.wordpress.com/2018/04/14/crown-bulldog-attacks-syria/

As fort the "[non] thinking of the great mass of people," since when does that matter?

annamaria , April 19, 2018 at 7:17 pm GMT
@English Outsider

"Is it merely a matter of catching the crumbs from the neocon's table? "

-- Correct. The current breed of opportunists operating without any kind of responsibility makes the international corps of political whores-in-charge. These politicians look at the Blairs (a $100 million fortune) and Cheney & Bush (both getting richer with every day) and they know that the opportunisms, however criminal, will be rewarded by the "deciders." The incompetent and sycophantic politicians in the EU/UK governments have zero regards for their citizenry. We can be absolutely sure that there are no idealists among the leading UK politicians in power.

To believe that American ruling class (which is heavily zionized) has any idealistic motivations instead of a rabid drive for money and power is an illusion. The majority of the US politicians are committed to the criminal enterprises, whether local or global, when the enterprises promise a gesheft, which is the only criterion.

SolontoCroesus , April 19, 2018 at 8:14 pm GMT
@Svigor

OK. I understand the basic thing you are saying in #69. I don't get your bit about HBD being the reason regime change won't work wrt Arabs.

WHY will regime change "not work w/ Arabs" ? Is it because Arab states have fewer and less complex political structures and institutions? That surely does not apply to Iran, but then Iran is not Arab (tho many Arabs are in the Iranian population. Thus, Iran is already a more complex culture than USA/Europe is willing to be).

I cannot buy the notion that Arabs as Arabs are biologically capable of lesser civilizational attainment -- different, maybe, but it takes an exceptionalist to claim that civilization A is superior to civilization B, for solely biological reasons.

Svigor , April 19, 2018 at 8:27 pm GMT
@RobinG

Reading the Wikipedia article on Timber Sycamore, I'm struck by the significance of Sachs' omission; TS is a US program, but the overall effort it's a part of is more of a Sunni Arab project than an American one. Saudi Arabia is providing more money and weapons, Jordan is hosting the effort, Qatar gives money, etc; it's a US-backed Sunni program.

I'm talking about the moral component; I think our Zionist interventionist policies are stupid, not in American interests, and really only serve Zionist interests. but it's not really "our" mess, as Sachs states, so much as a Sunni/Zionist mess.

SolontoCroesus , April 19, 2018 at 8:39 pm GMT
@Patrick Lang

hmmm.

Glad you made that distinction, between zionists and neocons.

Zionism is just about the most complex -ism on the planet.

Neocons are just what they say they are: Trotskyites in Beltway drag. Trotskyites dominated the Jerusalem Conference in 1979 when GWOT was birthed; G H W Bush did doula duty.

I wonder what the linkage is between Jabotinsky and Trotsky? Both are revolutionaries, both advocate violence. Jabotinsky picked up on that change in Jewish behavior from petitioning from a posture of subservience– shtadlones – to demanding, with arrogance; Netanyahu is his worthy acolyte.

Neocons have some genuine psychopaths among them -- the world would be a better place if an ice axe were wielded in Ledeen's vicinity.
It's consistent with what Ronen Bergman told Brian Williams http://www.nbcnews.com/video/rock-center/46318982#46318982
"Israel has long used assassination against its enemies, "hoping that by taking out individuals, they can alter, change the course of history,"

JerseyJeffersonian , April 19, 2018 at 9:44 pm GMT
@Svigor

Svigor,

It would be really nice if it were possible to "put this tired, tattered old straw man to bed", but it is not likely to happen. The radical Zionists immediately use criticism of Israel to conflate criticism of Zionism with anti-Semitism. This is made far easier for them by the confusion around "Jewishness" that is deliberately (and conveniently, for their purposes) cultivated; is being a Jew a racial thing, a religious thing, a cultural thing regardless of the individual Jew's adherence to and practice of the tenets of Judaism? This ambiguity opens the door for claims that criticisms of the excesses of radical Zionism are at root leveled against all Jews regardless of their actual beliefs, political behaviors, and their self-perception regarding their roles in the life of the nation. Of course, true anti-Semites do in fact hold all Jews responsible for the actions of rabid Zionists, so everybody "wins".

Except for real flesh and blood Jews, who are individuals with their own agency. My oldest friend is a Jew, I work with Jews, I make classical music with Jews. So I will never buy the blanket condemnation of Jews qua Jews. Do I wish that more American Jews would distance themselves from and be more critical of the "professional Jews" who are in leadership roles at radical Zionist organizations? Yes, but I have some sympathy for why this does not happen. As a historically disparaged minority, albeit with some reasons for that status, the reluctance is self-enforcing; there is a disincentive to talk smack on your "community" for fear of the ostracism, and reputational and career damage that might follow (there is no reasoning with one-issue fanatics, after all).

Look at how blacks who lodge criticism of the behaviors of some in their community make out. Not too well, even when the criticisms are justified, and the ills perpetuated by these criticized behaviors work to the detriment not only of individual blacks, but also to the perception of blacks in general in the wider society.

So I think that Col. Lang is justified in his refusal to tar all Jews with the sins and excesses of some portion of that community. This seems to me to be intellectually and morally correct. Certainly it serves to help put the criticisms of NeoConservatism out there while yet insulating him to a degree from the blanket charges of anti-Semitism. And indeed, the NeoCons are not strictly radical Zionists, and some among them have other motivations behind their actions.

Thirdeye , April 19, 2018 at 9:56 pm GMT
@English Outsider

Short answer, F,UK were the world's leading imperial powers before WWII and seek to leverage American military and financial power to restore some degree of imperial power. The Atlantic Charter and the UN Charter were bitter pills for the old empires. France sought to override the UN Charter by force in Vietnam and Algeria, but lacked the wherewithall. Britain, France, and Israel sought to override it by force in the 1956 Suez Crisis until Daddy Ike told them that it wasn't cool. The umbrella of American power is their best remaining means of re-establishing imperial power. It puts the onus on the US for violations of international law, but promises them some restoration of imperial power in MENA.

Looking at the parade of toads that have occupied the White House in recent years, I have more and more respect for Eisenhower's balls in the 1956 crisis. Such a move by an American President seems unimaginable today.

Anon [425] Disclaimer , April 19, 2018 at 10:31 pm GMT
Neocon-run Twitter took out Red Elephants account.

Twitter bans Red Elephants but lets CNN have many accounts. Twitter favors Official Lies of the Conspiratorial Deep State against Speculative Dissent of Free Thinkers. PC is War against ASK SPEECH. We are not supposed to ASK questions of the Globalist Power.

According to Rules of Political Correctness, ASK SPEECH is not FREE SPEECH. Don't you dare ASK Questions. Just accept the Answers provided by Ministry of Propaganda or MSM that colludes with Deep State of NSA, CIA, FBI, Wall Street, and Hollywood. PC says we should Ass-kiss than Ask Questions.

World is divided between Askingers and Ass-Kissers. Those who ask questions of the power and those who ass-kiss the power. Unsurprisingly, most people in power got there by ass-kissing and being ass-kissed. We must ASK WHY.

Thirdeye , April 19, 2018 at 11:00 pm GMT
@Chet Roman

"Making the world safe for democracy" was the sales pitch for preserving the F, UK empires long before there was Israel. That effort was driven largely by American Blue Blood bankers who had risky investments in the UK war effort. American Jews were suspected of loyalty to the Kaiser because they loathed the Russian Tsar.

bjondo , April 20, 2018 at 2:09 am GMT
@RobinG

In addition to corpses in his closet, wonder how much looted Russian loot in his off-shore account(s)?

[Apr 19, 2018] Effectiveness of anti cruse missiles weapons: 47 of the 71 intercepts they claim were done by modern Pantsir and Buk systems that Syria purchased around 2010.

Notable quotes:
"... The Russians have clearly prepared for such an attack ever since the Shayrat strike the very powerful Russian radars in Syria are capable of tracking any flying object and the Syrian SAM batteries are networked into that system and are fed that radar data in real time ..."
"... As for the Pantsir yes this point defense system is the perfect tool to shoot down cruise missiles it is the successor of the Tor SAM system that was designed specifically to shoot down T-hawks ..."
"... The older SAMs did not perform badly according to the Russian MoD assessment the S125 is a 1950s era system that the Serbs used to down two F117s and an F16 much more difficult targets than a T-hawk ..."
Apr 19, 2018 | www.unz.com

Zogby , April 18, 2018 at 7:45 pm GMT

In case people missed it, The Russian MOD published more detailed statistics about the attack which can be found here

http://tass.com/defense/1000148

If taken at face value, one detail that stands out is that the Russians' original boast that the missile attack was thwarted by "old Soviet-era air defense" is not true. 47 of the 71 intercepts they claim were done by modern Pantsir and Buk systems that Syria purchased around 2010. The older systems had noticeably worse performance than the modern systems.

The other interesting tidbit there is that the Russian General claims that "the survey of this and other facilities revealed neither this number of ammunition fragments nor the corresponding number of craters". In other words, as FB states above, that even though 25 missiles hypothetically got through in the attacks on Barzeh and Djaramani, the damage on the ground does not correspond to that many missiles.

FB , April 18, 2018 at 1:36 pm GMT

@The Scalpel

' I don't believe that "the fix was in" because the runways of major military airports were targeted. There was no guarantee that the Pantsir and Buk's would be as effective as they were. I don't see Putin happily agreeing to have those airport runways put out of commission. a bit of deconfliction, yes, a total charade, no '

I agree with this on the basis of sound logic. There is no way that we can know the facts about what kind of communuication and coordination [if any] took place behind the scenes. But we have a lot of inconsistencies in the US narrative first we were told that eight targets were going to be hit then, post facto, it was just three.

One of the sites the Barzeh research center in Damascus area was supposedly hit 76 times this on an area of about one acre [half a hectare...5,000 square meters]. Looking at high quality pictures of the site after the attack it is clear that adjacent buildings only meters from the targeted site are undamaged as are light poles surrounding the whole complex as well as stands of pine trees again only meters away

The idea that 76 450kg high explosive warheads detonated here is visibly absurd and is quite easy to analyze technically using accepted and authoritative engineering methods for explosive effects

As I have done on my comment on another thread

I consider it proven beyond doubt that there is no chance whatsoever that 76 missiles hit that site I doubt it would even be one tenth of that

And it is also logical to ask why would you even launch 76 missiles on a one acre complex that has three buildings a single T-hawk can take out a building or even a ship as seen on the pentagon show off video below

The answer is obvious of course no military professional would send 76 missiles on one small target that is simply bullshit

So that brings us to the next logical question if they did not send 76 missiles at Barzeh where did they go ?

Well that's what makes the story of airfields targeted but the missiles intercepted believable

Let's remember we are dealing with Proven Liars here everybody knows that recetly Phil Giraldi had an article here titled 'Liars Lying About Everything '

Not to mention that Robert Fisk has now blown the Douma 'chemical attack' story out of the water

Philip Owen , Website April 18, 2018 at 3:29 pm GMT
The few pictures I've seen of interception attempts were all too high in the sky to be targetting a TLAM or a Storm Shadow which are ground following missiles. They need to fly high enough to avoid power lines but that's it. (Apparently in Iraq 1, hitting power lines was the main mechanism by which they and most lost US Marine Corps helicopters were destroyed ).
exiled off mainstreet , April 18, 2018 at 4:39 pm GMT
The professional military people knew what was at stake in limiting the damage engendered by the war crime engaged in to placate the neocon power structure. Since armageddon was at stake, even according to Mattis's own statements, he apparently was able to rein Trump in to some degree, according to this contribution and more clearly from some other reports. We now also have increasing proof that the "chemical weapons" thing was a provocation, though the yankee regime's worldwide propaganda wurlitzer keeps playing the same nihilist song. I agree with others who have concluded that if Mattis is eliminated, that is when we will have to worry. Presumably, for now, since the normal secrecy is combined with a laudable profound survival instinct, the military will keep a lid on any investigations this generates. If not, as Whitney has indicated, we are in deep shit.
FB , April 18, 2018 at 4:41 pm GMT
@Philip Owen

Quick question Tampon Phil

What exactly do you know about the flight characteristics of cruise missiles ?

Over on the other thread you first tried to argue that the Barzeh site I discussed in my technical analysis was not the site of the missile strike

Then when I provided a sat image released by the pentagon and published in newspapers around the world confirming definitively that the site I analyzed in my original comment was indeed the site of the missile strike you said this

' I didn't say it was a fake picture. I said it was a demolition site. The same site being demolished as a conjecture. The best alternative at the moment is that the payloads were not 450 kg '

I then pointed out to you the physical fact of flight that removing 450 kg from the nose of a winged cruise missile would shift its center of gravity in the aft direction and make the missile unflyable

Not being able to argue with the laws of physics you then suggested that the 450 kg warhead was replaced by an equal weight with less explosive power since we had already established that the lack of damage to nearby structures was inconsistent with 76 claimed T-hawk hits on that small site

At which point I mentioned that your statements were on a level with the Prince Charles infamous 'tampon' phone call hence your new nickname Tampon Phil

Now here you are again just asking for more punishment

Ok as a start you may wish to review my technical discussion of the T-hawk flight characteristics on the 800 lb Gorilla thread

You may also wish to consult a topographical map of Syria to see some of the mountains that these cruise missiles would have to fly over to reach those inland targets

You will note the north to south mountain chain along the coast including the Anti-Lebanese Mountains that rise to 10,000 ft

My discussion of the T-hawk technical characteristics in that link above includes such crucial parameter as wing loading and thrust to weight ratio which determine this flight vehicle's climb rate and turn rate

' The few pictures I've seen of interception attempts were all too high in the sky to be targetting a TLAM or a Storm Shadow which are ground following missiles.

They need to fly high enough to avoid power lines but that's it '

And how do they get over those mountains Tampon Phil ?

Are they ground following there too ?

And also please let us know the scaling method you used to determine the height of those missiles from photos that would be helpful

FB , April 18, 2018 at 10:49 pm GMT
@Zogby

Thanks for the Tass article link

Yes there is no question that the US would have targeted Syrian airfields apparently a few did get through at one airfield but the others were fully rejected

Laymen who know nothing about aircraft or missiles do not understand the complexities and detail involved they simply accept the brochure 'information' presented on wikipedia and such about the capabilities of such flight vehicles

This does not shed any light on a fascinating and important subject important because now we have had some air combat between US and Nato airpower [Ship, sub and air launched cruise missiles vs. Russian air defenses]

Clearly the Russians won there was not a single death on the Syrian side the US did destroy a few buildings most notably the Barzeh research center in the Damascus area

We can tell the Russians won this round because the US is claiming completely ridiculous stuff that they launched 76 T-hawks with a combined TNT tonnage of nearly 40 tons yet little pine shrubs standing 20 feet away are completely intact

I mean how stupid ?

Clearly the US is claiming such a high number of attacks on the three buildings that they did hit because they failed to hit those airfields and we know that they failed to hit those airfields because if they did we would have satellite imagery being boastfully released

You can tell as much by the information that is withheld as you can by the information they give out

Now for some basic technical facts cruise missiles are not hard to shoot down once they are spotted but the hard part is spotting them because they are small and thus do not bounce back strong radar reflections

They can fly close to terrain although this is not always the case as I have explained previously and depends on the ingress route and the type of terrain along that flight path ie if it is required to fly over mountainous terrain it must fly quite high

In 1999 the Serbs shot down a number T-hawks with their 1950s era Soviet equipment here is the remains of one T-hawk airframe in the Belgrade Aviation Museum

Once spotted on radar the T-hawks and similar subsonic cruise missiles are sitting ducks they have no means of evading missile shots either from an air to air missile launched from a fighter jet or a surface to air missile launched from an air defense battery

A fighter jet relies on a radar warning receiver to alert the crew that it has been targeted by a missile shot and the crew can instantly commence evasive maneuver which is basically going into a steep banked turn so as to break radar lock and evade the missile shot

Cruise missiles have no such RWR and it would be pointless to equipment with such since they have very poor turning performance

This is due to their very high wing loading which is the ratio of wing area to aircraft weight a T-hawk weighs about 3,000 lb but has a wing area of only about 10 square feet for a wing loading of 300 lb/ft^2

That is about three times as high as a passenger jet's wing loading and as much as five times higher than a fighter jet

Think of wing loading and how it relates to maneuverability by considering a person carrying a backpack if that person is running and they need to change course having that extra weight on their back will not let them zigzag like a runner carrying no weight

The same is true for climb performance think of carrying 100 lb in your backpack and climbing up a set of stairs

The physical laws of flight performance are based on Newtonian Mechanics and cannot be argued with

The thrust to weight ratio of a cruise missile is about comparable to that of a passenger jet the thrust of the T-hawks Williams turbofan engine is about 700 lb against a weight of 3,000 lb that is less than 0.25 thrust to weight

A powerful fighter like an F15 will have a thrust to weight ratio of close to unity or even above ie it's engine thrust is actually equal to or greater than its weight and the airplane can thus climb straight up like a rocket

So the key in defending against subsonic cruise missiles which fly at about the same speed as passenger jet, about 500 mph [800 km/hr] is to pick them up on radar

The Russians have clearly prepared for such an attack ever since the Shayrat strike the very powerful Russian radars in Syria are capable of tracking any flying object and the Syrian SAM batteries are networked into that system and are fed that radar data in real time

We also saw in some of those missile intercept videos near the Damascus airport that Syrian jets were taking off and landing this is because the jets would use their onboard radar to find the cruise missiles and data link that info back to the SAM batteries

A fighter is easily capable of taking down a cruise missile with an AA shot also but this all comes down to pilot skill and training something which the SyAAF may not be dealing with on a regular basis considering their focus on the fight against ground targets in Jihadist areas

As for the Pantsir yes this point defense system is the perfect tool to shoot down cruise missiles it is the successor of the Tor SAM system that was designed specifically to shoot down T-hawks

The older SAMs did not perform badly according to the Russian MoD assessment the S125 is a 1950s era system that the Serbs used to down two F117s and an F16 much more difficult targets than a T-hawk

The S200 is a huge missile with a 350 km range exceeded only by the latest S400 long range missile introduced into service only a couple of years ago

It flies extremely fast 2,500 m/s which is about Mach 8 it is even faster than the new S400 missiles which fly at 2,000 m/s by comparison the USN Raytheon SM6 air defense missile used on Aegis missile ships flies only at M3.5 about 1,000 m/s

The high speed of the S200 is actually its disadvantage against a slow moving target like a cruise missile the laws of physics tell us that the faster the vehicle is flying, the larger its turn radius will be thus the big S200 is not going to do well against cruise missiles this is not surprising

Overall the Russian MoD version of events is certainly way more credible than the US version which is full of holes

[Apr 19, 2018] Trump's Missile Fiasco: Did the Pentagon collaborate with Moscow on which targets to hit? by Mike Whitney

Looks like it was all about Turkey. "Turkey seems to me to be the swing state here. You cannot isolate Russia without Turkey. Not only do they uncork themselves form the Black Sea , there will be no NATO fodder with casualties that no one cares about. Turkey is a big chunk of NATO. This is to sy nothing about trade. Sanction sound nice and dandy in the US, but in Turkey it wrecks their economy."
Notable quotes:
"... Suffice it to say, that the information from these US-funded organizations is invariably unreliable. Their sole task is to create a justification for more carnage. ..."
"... In fact, the appointments of warhawks John Bolton and Mike Pompeo to the national security team, suggests that Trump may be planning a major escalation in the near future. The president has aligned himself with a Zionist right-wing fringe who see the conflict as a proxy-war with Iran that must be won in order to establish US-Israeli regional hegemony and maintain a stranglehold on vital resources and pipeline corridors. Trump's missile attack is just a minor skirmish in that much larger war. ..."
"... I am a card carrying deplorable. I prefer Trump to Mueller. But I can no longer defend Trump. He is a Zionist first and an American second. ..."
"... I don't believe that "the fix was in" because the runways of major military airports were targeted. There was no guarantee that the Pantsir and Buk's would be as effective as they were. ..."
"... If Trump gets in trouble for a fake missile attack in response to a fake chemical weapons attack that made use of non-existent WMD, then what can I say? ..."
"... Regardless of Trump's ignorance, who still believes in presidents having real power by status of function alone, Obama never mattered neither, the pot-shots were a worthy experiment on how to apply global rule, by global consensus ..."
"... "Or perhaps we should judge Trump by the company he keeps. Bolton in Washington and Israel/Saudi Arabia in the MENA. The scum of the earth." ..."
"... Yes, I base my opinion of Trump's loyalties on exactly that. It started with his appointment of Nikki Haley and all the Trumpeteers on ZH chanting "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". Just seeing the way his choices of neocons and Goldman Sachs thieves for his inner circle were being defended by people who claimed to have voted for him kept me from defending Trump. ..."
"... Turkey seems to me to be the swing state here. You cannot isolate Russia without Turkey. Not only do they uncork themselves form the Black Sea , there will be no NATO fodder with casualties that no one cares about. Turkey is a big chunk of NATO. This is to sy nothing about trade. Sanction sound nice and dandy in the US, but in Turkey it wrecks their economy. ..."
"... Seems to me that Trump is trying to walk a tightrope here he likely knows the 'chemical' attack is a false flag and his response was designed to appease the zios without actually causing much damage ..."
Apr 19, 2018 | www.unz.com

In short, the attacks accomplished nothing except, perhaps, to temporarily mollify the warmongering western media and their bloodthirsty puppetmasters in the foreign policy establishment.

The fact that Trump felt compelled to launch the attacks before the chemical weapons inspectors from the OPCW had even touched down in Damascus, shows that Washington is not interested in providing justifications for its criminal aggression. Similar to claims of Russia hacking the 2016 US elections or the alleged use of toxic nerve agent in the Skripal incident, the case against Syrian President Bashar al Assad was based on the thin gruel of uncorroborated allegations by jihadist-linked organizations on the ground whose long history of staging provocative incidents to foment a crisis is part of the public record. We're not going to waste our time on that nonsense here. Suffice it to say, that the information from these US-funded organizations is invariably unreliable. Their sole task is to create a justification for more carnage.

... ... ...

Some readers will remember that Trump tacitly revealed his motivation for the attacks in a tweat he delivered just days before the incident. Here's what he said on April 11:

"Much of the bad blood with Russia is caused by the Fake & Corrupt Russia Investigation, headed up by the all Democrat loyalists, or people that worked for Obama. Mueller is most conflicted of all (except Rosenstein who signed FISA & Comey letter). No Collusion, so they go crazy!" The Real Donald Trump

What Trump is saying is that his real enemy is Mueller not Putin. It's Mueller, the bigwig Dems and the media that are fomenting this Russphobic hysteria and trying to destroy Trump. And that's what precipitated the 'wag the dog' scenario that unfolded on April 14th. Trump was trying to get his enemies off his back by incinerating a few empty buildings in Syria. And, it almost worked, but now information is beginning to leak-out that could be damaging to both Trump and his chief lieutenants.

... ... ...

...how does one explain this tidbit from RT:

"Before we took the action, the United States communicated with the Russian Federation to reduce the danger of any Russian or civilian casualties," (US Ambassador to Russia) Jon Huntsman said, claiming that "all the targets were linked with the Assad regime's illegal chemical weapons program."

The US ambassador to Russia said that the US strikes were coordinated with Russia to avoid a great power confrontation." (RT)

Military analyst Publius Tacitus is even more explicit in a post at Colonel Pat Lang's website, Sic Semper Tyrannis. He says:

"Russia was told where we were going to strike. Russia in turn warned the Syrians. Both the Syrians and the Russians evacuated key personnel and equipment from the target sites. Any claim by the United States that we caused devastating damage or destroyed essential capabilities is total fantasy." (Trump's big Flop in Syria", Publius Tacitus, Sic semper Tyrannis)

... ... ...

In any event, we can see that the April 14 missile attacks were largely a symbolic muscle-flexing exercise that was aimed at pacifying Trump's domestic rivals rather than punishing Assad for crimes he never committed. (It is worth mentioning that there have been many credible reports that the US used banned substances in its siege of Raqqa last year.) The fact that Putin limited his response to a perfunctory denunciation, suggests that Trump achieved his objectives. (In other words, he avoided WW3) Here's part of what Putin said:

"Russia condemns in the strongest possible terms the attack against Syria, where Russian military personnel are assisting the legitimate government in its counterterrorism efforts.

Through its actions, the US makes the already catastrophic humanitarian situation in Syria even worse and brings suffering to civilians. In fact, the US panders to the terrorists who have been tormenting the Syrian people for seven years, leading to a wave of refugees fleeing this country and the region.

The current escalation around Syria is destructive for the entire system of international relations." (Kremlin, RU)

Putin is right. Washington's support for the Sunni extremists in Syria has prolonged the war and turned the country into a smoldering wastelands. Unfortunately, it does not look like the US is going to throw in the towel anytime soon. In fact, the appointments of warhawks John Bolton and Mike Pompeo to the national security team, suggests that Trump may be planning a major escalation in the near future. The president has aligned himself with a Zionist right-wing fringe who see the conflict as a proxy-war with Iran that must be won in order to establish US-Israeli regional hegemony and maintain a stranglehold on vital resources and pipeline corridors. Trump's missile attack is just a minor skirmish in that much larger war.


reiner Tor , April 17, 2018 at 2:03 pm GMT

I'd find it scary if it turned out that Dunford had to defy orders to avoid WW3. It'd confirm that Trump was actually insane.
WorkingClass , April 17, 2018 at 2:38 pm GMT
"What Trump is saying is that his real enemy is Mueller not Putin."

What the failure to withdraw from Syria is saying is that Mueller is Commander In Chief.

Or perhaps we should judge Trump by the company he keeps. Bolton in Washington and Israel/Saudi Arabia in the MENA. The scum of the earth.

I am a card carrying deplorable. I prefer Trump to Mueller. But I can no longer defend Trump. He is a Zionist first and an American second.

Dan Hayes , April 18, 2018 at 4:35 am GMT
Mike Whitney:

Prof Emeritus Steve Cohen essentially concurs with your analysis. Tonight Cohen expressed concern that the national drumbeat against Trump essentially checkmates any efforts to repair US-Russian relations.

As an aside, UR readers are referred to Robert Fisk's very recent report in the UK Independent that the purported Syrian gas attack actually arose from artillery-induced asphyxiation in underground tunnels.

The Scalpel , Website April 18, 2018 at 5:56 am GMT
I don't believe that "the fix was in" because the runways of major military airports were targeted. There was no guarantee that the Pantsir and Buk's would be as effective as they were. I don't see Putin happily agreeing to have those airport runways put out of commission. a bit of deconfliction, yes, a total charade, no. This could have quite easily escalated
jilles dykstra , April 18, 2018 at 6:58 am GMT
Why fiasco ? The effectiveness of anything can only be judged by knowing what the objective was. Those who want Syria, or/and Assad attacked, most of them, have the idea that something was done. Difficult for USA propaganda media to state that Trump did nothing.

Then there now is the fact that Syrian systems are quite capable of resisting missile attacks. Possibly Israel will think twice before launching another attack. So in my opinion, what Trump did is possibly a great success.

Seamus Padraig , April 18, 2018 at 7:50 am GMT
If Trump gets in trouble for a fake missile attack in response to a fake chemical weapons attack that made use of non-existent WMD, then what can I say? It's really Trump himself more than the neocons who's to blame. His refusal to grow a pair and stand up to Washington will ultimately be his downfall.

What Trump is saying is that his real enemy is Mueller not Putin. It's Mueller, the bigwig Dems and the media that are fomenting this Russphobic hysteria and trying to destroy Trump. And that's what precipitated the 'wag the dog' scenario that unfolded on April 14th.

It's long past time for Trump to fire Mueller. The fake 'RussiaGate' investigation is over and didn't find anything actionable. How much longer is Trump going to allow this little fishing expedition to go on?

Trump was trying to get his enemies off his back by incinerating a few empty buildings in Syria. And, it almost worked, but now information is beginning to leak-out that could be damaging to both Trump and his chief lieutenants.

As a candidate, Trump never hesitated to call out the BS in DC. But if, as president, he goes along with this kabuki-theater, then he deserves what he gets.

Realist , April 18, 2018 at 8:55 am GMT
@reiner Tor

I'd find it scary if it turned out that Dunford had to defy orders to avoid WW3. It'd confirm that Trump was actually insane.

I don't know about insane but he is certainly a feckless, nutless POS.

m___ , April 18, 2018 at 11:35 am GMT
Regardless of Trump's ignorance, who still believes in presidents having real power by status of function alone, Obama never mattered neither, the pot-shots were a worthy experiment on how to apply global rule, by global consensus. Next to it, Gaza comes to mind, even the South African government of "natives" see the potential for Boers containment as inspired by Gaza.

Pot-shots, latter Russia moves, Chinese containment attitudes:

By experimenting, science progresses, the science of governing, the size of experiments, containment, all these goodies that matter and can make for advancements in efficiently, ruling the human mess into survival. Building data, in a few years, resulting into something of predictability in a global context, over longer periods of time. More of this dipping into the chest of tools.

The element to be accented: local experiments, global intent.

Twodees Partain , April 18, 2018 at 12:10 pm GMT
@WorkingClass

"Or perhaps we should judge Trump by the company he keeps. Bolton in Washington and Israel/Saudi Arabia in the MENA. The scum of the earth."

Yes, I base my opinion of Trump's loyalties on exactly that. It started with his appointment of Nikki Haley and all the Trumpeteers on ZH chanting "keep your friends close and your enemies closer". Just seeing the way his choices of neocons and Goldman Sachs thieves for his inner circle were being defended by people who claimed to have voted for him kept me from defending Trump.

I figured that he was getting support from a pool of neocons and that made him one of them.

DESERT FOX , April 18, 2018 at 12:42 pm GMT
The missile attacks confirmed Israels control over the U.S. gov which was proven by the fact that Israel did 911 and got away with killing some 3000 Americans. Israel and her ziocons control the U.S. gov lock stock and gun barrel and are destroying America.

Assad has never used gas attacks on the Syrian people , these attacks were perpetrated by the CIA and the MOSSAD and MI6 and NATOs Operation Gladio, these people are satanist war mongers straight from HELL.

God bless Assad and Syria and Putin and Russia for standing against these satanic forces that are HELL bent on destroying Syria.

Carroll Price , April 18, 2018 at 3:05 pm GMT
"We'll know our disinformation program is complete when everything the American people believe is false." CIA director William Casey (CIA director, 1981-1987)

gwynedd1 , April 18, 2018 at 4:51 pm GMT

@WorkingClass

Turkey seems to me to be the swing state here. You cannot isolate Russia without Turkey. Not only do they uncork themselves form the Black Sea , there will be no NATO fodder with casualties that no one cares about. Turkey is a big chunk of NATO. This is to sy nothing about trade. Sanction sound nice and dandy in the US, but in Turkey it wrecks their economy.

gda , April 18, 2018 at 5:58 pm GMT
@reiner Tor

What a bunch of shite. It just shows that Mike Whitney and his fans have no idea of what is actually going on behind the scenes, and continue to glom on to the MSM shrieks of Mueller and Russia, Russia, Russia.

If you believe this had anything whatsoever to do with Mueller then you're a chump and clearly don't even deserve to be enlightened. I would suggest turning off the CNN, but you're already infected.

Mueller has been cock-blocked and Trump is in command. The revelations to come from the IG Report and more are going to be delicious. There will be much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

gda , April 18, 2018 at 6:03 pm GMT
@Michael Kenny

Sorry mate, Trump Derangement Syndrome seems to have taken over your brain. Turn off the CNN and take the red pill.

gda , April 18, 2018 at 6:05 pm GMT
@FB

Robert Fisk? Seriously? LOL

anonymous [353] Disclaimer , April 18, 2018 at 6:11 pm GMT
The point was to send a message to Assad that the US and it's allies are able and willing to take action should he try to cross the red line drawn around Saudi Arabia. Once the war winds down and the Syrian state starts regrouping and rebuilding there's naturally going to be a payback time against the regional actors who poured so many resources into trying to demolish the Syrian state. This means Saudi Arabia which is vulnerable in a number of ways. SA is a huge customer and spends billions in the US and allied countries and is thus under the US umbrella of protection as a valuable ally. There's bound to be a lot of nervousness in Riyadh right now so the US must demonstrate a willingness to act militarily to them.
gda , April 18, 2018 at 6:16 pm GMT
@Realist

So he's brought NATO to the table regarding funding, is about to solve the greatest crisis/threat to the world by bringing NK to the table re; Denuclearization, and has plans to solve the ME situation (which you clearly know nothing about) using the GCC.

Yet he's a feckless, nutless POS.

You seem to be somewhat lacking in judgement. Beyond redemption with your TDS. A crazed loon.

Did you miss the first part of the IG's report? Do you realize what's to come? Nah, it's all Russia, Russia, Russia nonsense with your ilk.

Keep it up – you keep us amused with your ignorant thrashing about.

Anon [425] Disclaimer , April 18, 2018 at 7:46 pm GMT
Redemption of Sachs?
Herald , April 18, 2018 at 7:48 pm GMT
@The Scalpel

You raise points of doubt and effectively deal with them yourself. Putin would have been very unlikely to have been involved in any detailed negotiations over targets. These would have been dealt with by his military commanders. If airfields were targeted then it would appear details were indeed known to the Syrian defenders. This goes some of the way to explain the abysmal success rate of the US missiles in this fiasco as Mike Whitney and many others rightly call it. So a hoax it certainly was and one to compare with the hoax gas attack in Eastern Ghouta.

Moi , April 18, 2018 at 9:14 pm GMT
@WorkingClass

Trump is in the pockets of the Zionists, and has become a Zionist because the one thing he understands is which side his bread is buttered on. To make sense of anything we do in the ME, you only need to ask one question: "What does Israel want."

Carroll Price , April 18, 2018 at 9:29 pm GMT
@Sean

It just seems like a very dangerous ploy for a meaningless reward (the natural resources Syria and strategic importance of Syria are very modest).

Maybe true, except for the fact that Syria, under Assad's leadership serves as a convenient land route over which sophisticated weapons produced in Iran are delivered to Hezbollah defense forces in Lebanon. In my opinion, this is the primary reason behind current US and Israeli efforts being made to destroy Assad. The bottom line is that Israel has been attacking it's weak neighbors for such a long time, until they simply find it impossible to live with the reality of being unable to invade Lebanon on the slightest pretext. In addition and more ominous, Hezbollah's leader Hassan Rouhani has publically stated that Hezbollah defense forces may eventually extend their protection to the Palestinian people held captive in the Gaza Strip

Sowhat , April 18, 2018 at 9:38 pm GMT
This is what tomfoolery looks like- when "I love mah Generals" and you allow them to "lead the way."
At the same time we have a "three-pete" of the absolutely idiotic accusations that Assad used chem-WMDs on his own civilians. Everyone that uses the internet can ferret out the truth. This isn't ten years ago. This is 2018. Doesn't Intel realize how immature they appear? I'm not only mad as hell, I'm SO disappointed in just how stupid the Government of the United States appears to anyone with half a brain.
I'm ashamed of the Country I thought I loved.
GourmetDan , April 18, 2018 at 9:48 pm GMT
@WorkingClass

I am a card carrying deplorable. I prefer Trump to Mueller. But I can no longer defend Trump. He is a Zionist first and an American second.

Seems to me that Trump is trying to walk a tightrope here he likely knows the 'chemical' attack is a false flag and his response was designed to appease the zios without actually causing much damage

KA , April 19, 2018 at 1:53 am GMT
Iran doesn't want to escalate the situation and give Trump any leverage on Iran deal. Iran wants to deprive any moral political or legal supports from EU to USA on this. Trump pulls out. Rest remains same. This will give Iran moral political and legal authorities to pursue its nuclear program with China and Russia . This will have domino effects on other areas of these 3 countries – how to conduct business internationally.

So a choreographed coordinated attack works for Iran. Trump is happy. His base angry. His enemies can't go after him for few hours or days . Mad madam prostitute Nick Halley has to be soothed by Kudlow telling her she was not a demented rat.

anon [119] Disclaimer , April 19, 2018 at 2:16 am GMT
@AnonFromTN

Why are many commenters so excited? Everything is appropriate: fake missile strike in response to fake chemical weapons use.

That's a good way to put it. Just wish Trump had exercised more restraint in his tweet, he should not have called Assad a "monster". The real monsters are right here in the US, the Israel Lobby and the Deep State led by Rod Rosenstein the fucking weasel, and the biggest monster of them all is right there in the White House with him, Mike Pence, the one who hired Rosenstein, Nikki Haley, Mike Pompeo, John Bolton. Pence the Ziocon has been working hard to subvert Trump since Day 1. He wants to be president.

[Apr 18, 2018] Ever heard of the British Army s 77th Brigade?

Notable quotes:
"... It turns out that news reports citing UOSSM tend *also* to cite or refer to "French intelligence," especially if the report has to do with local conditions or events within Syria. So perhaps the "partnership" between the UOSSM and the White Helmets in Syria represents, in large part, the coordination of British and French military propaganda/intelligence services ..."
"... I had already heard that French intelligence was using Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as cover in Syria, but was not aware that UOSSM in Syria is likely--at least in part--another French intelligence front. ..."
"... My own impression is that the NGO-ification of military and state intelligence of the degree and sophistication we see in Syria is a relatively recent phenomenon, predicated in part on the disseminating capacities of social media platforms. Is this right? ..."
"... My wife and I stopped donating to MSF a few months ago, based on their evident lack of neutrality in Syria. ..."
Apr 18, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Pat Lang Mod -> Wj , a day ago

Ever heard of the British Army's 77th Brigade?
Wj -> Pat Lang , a day ago
PLang,

No, but you just sent me down a fascinating rabbit hole. From what I can tell, there is the already established link between White Helmets and Mayday Rescue, which seems to be an extension of or front for the 77th.

It turns out that news reports citing UOSSM tend *also* to cite or refer to "French intelligence," especially if the report has to do with local conditions or events within Syria. So perhaps the "partnership" between the UOSSM and the White Helmets in Syria represents, in large part, the coordination of British and French military propaganda/intelligence services.

I had already heard that French intelligence was using Doctors Without Borders (MSF) as cover in Syria, but was not aware that UOSSM in Syria is likely--at least in part--another French intelligence front. How common is this kind of multinational coordination of intelligence/propaganda front groups, if that is what this is?

My own impression is that the NGO-ification of military and state intelligence of the degree and sophistication we see in Syria is a relatively recent phenomenon, predicated in part on the disseminating capacities of social media platforms. Is this right?

TTG -> Wj , a day ago
Wj,

"How common is this kind of multinational coordination of intelligence/propaganda front groups, if that is what this is?"

The coordination and interoperability among these special operations units is intense and has grown rapidly over the last decade. Even in the 80s this joint combined exchange training was the norm. Now it extends into live operations.

This 77th Brigade is an odd mashup linking civil affairs and PSYOP capabilities, but kept within the Tier 1 special operations community. I never heard of it before, but it's a logical progression. We probably have a similar military capability, but i have no idea what it is.

JJackson -> TTG , a day ago
I note it also has close links to the close ties with the 361st Civil Affairs Brigade.
Peter C. -> Wj , 7 hours ago
My wife and I stopped donating to MSF a few months ago, based on their evident lack of neutrality in Syria. The reply from their Donor Relations office did nothing to dispel that impression. In it, MSF admitted that "extreme insecurity has forced us to remove our medical teams from the front lines of the conflict. As a result, in order to do what we can to help alleviate the suffering of Syrians, we have partnered with several hospitals and medical clinics to provide support, with medical supplies and expertise from a distance...Though our teams may not be physically present on the front lines, we receive regular reports..."

I think we can guess who those "reports" are from.

[Apr 18, 2018] Douma Chemical Attack False Flag Operation EXPOSED!

Looks like people were bombed and the shelter became full of dust and smoke. That led to some suffocations. Later this was played as chemical attack.
The scenario is classic. Put artillery near residential houses and mercilessly shell residential building on government side killing civilians. Wait for return fire which produce its own set of victims. Stage the false flag operation based on return fire victims and the fact that civilians suffered.
Apr 18, 2018 | www.youtube.com

Annie , 15 hours ago (edited)

Thanks for this video. I have had a gut-full of the west and it's lies to take over countries in the Middle East. It's making me sick. What's happening on a daily basis to the people of Palestine and Syria are war crimes, pure and simple.

The country I live in, Australia, is not on the side of the good guys. We were not on the right side in Libya and Iraq either. I'm so sick of this shit. This is all so the US and their creepy allies, including the head-choppin' Saudis, can put a pipeline through Syria to Europe to compete with Russia and so they can use Syria as a jumping off point to invade Iran. Poor Iran.

The CIA threw out their Democratically elected leader and installed a Dictator who they kept in place for 48 years, using the Shah's brutal secret police. The US hates the Iranians for chucking the puppet out. Iran had every right to do so. God knows how they must feel being under constant threat. Israel have been assassinating their citizens for years and launched the Stuxnet virus (with help from the US) to attack their infrastructure, accidentally infecting the world, including Australia at the time. Thanks to them, every group in the world now has the code for that virus. They modified the code and released it again behind Obama's back.

Israel's illegal nukes can't reach Iran but they will definitely use them against Iran if they can get into Syria to use it as a base for attack. Then what happens to the world? Israel have demonstrated clearly, their disinterest in Human Rights. The only people on the planet they care about are Israelis. Damn Israel and damn the US. Macron is a wanna-be Napoleon and Theresa May is Thatcher- Lite. Both of them are sucking on the tail-pipe of that clown, Trump and are keeping the world in a state of perpetual war. Hands off Syria, wankers!

madex4u , 6 hours ago

The western media has covered up so much lies about Syria and Iraq that only few still brainwashed people believe their fake news

M.K. Styllinski , 9 hours ago (edited)

Aside from this video, there is now overwhelming evidence confirming that this was yet another false flag chemical attack designed to demonise Assad. This isn't the first time. Libya, Yemen, Somalia, Iraq, the Balkans - all suffered a similar fate designed to hoodwink the public in supporting war and resource grab.

it was only a couple of years ago that Assad and Russia were subjected to the same scenario and proven to be utterly false. How long must we swallow these crimes? History is replete with the same state-sponsored crimes against populations. Governments are not acting in our best interests and never have.

Therefore, there is absolutely no excuse for people to believe the utter bullshit spread around the mainstream media which excels in poor journalism and is determined to push this disgusting propaganda on behalf of their respective governments and intel agencies.

Until the public is prepared to comprehend that such false flag attacks are a long used formula by US-NATO for carving up the Middle East then it will continue with impunity. I hope everyone shares this video on social media in order to counter lazy thinking and the obvious lies that characterize what passes for news.

ameen ayob , 3 hours ago

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/syria-chemical-attack-gas-douma-robert-fisk-ghouta-damascus-a8307726.html

[Apr 18, 2018] The video is definitely genuine. I watched it all, and it looked very credible

White Helmets are a jihadists propaganda team
Apr 18, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com
FarNorthSolitude , a day ago
Can't vouch for the authenticity - video claims to be interviewing 13 staff from the hospital at Douma. It's from a news service privately owned and loyal to Assad. Definitely some of the same info emerging from Fisk and Sharp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vSrRV-zdNic&feature=youtu.be

Play Hide

disqus_Z5X4Hq25Pl -> FarNorthSolitude , 9 hours ago
The video is definitely genuine. I watched it all, and it looked very credible. Fisk mentioned that the doctors present at the event in their ER were away in Damascus and not available - there were obviously here making this video. It may be that they were under some constraint, and not able to speak entirely freely.

LaGuerre

[Apr 18, 2018] The magnitude and complexity of the task Russia took on when it agreed to intervene in Syria.

Edited for clarity...
Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Hoarsewhisperer | Apr 18, 2018 4:28:52 AM | 105

The Colonial ratfuckers recent unprovoked, lie-based attack on Syria got me wondering about Russia's apparent impotence. I'm quite uncomfortable with that notion but can't dismiss it completely because I can't get a 'handle' on what Russia's strategy is.

Steve Gowans' latest commentary on Syria sets out his summary of US/NATO's Permanent War agenda in Syria.

https://gowans.wordpress.com/2018/04/16/a-prolonged-war-in-syria-is-on-the-us-agenda/

Despite its pessimism (if one takes it as a 'realistic' assessment), it goes a long way toward explaining the magnitude and complexity of the task Russia took on when it agreed to intervene in Syria.

Being pessimistic, it doesn't broach the subject of potential Bright Sides to the conflict, or the flaws in the US/NATO Strategy.

One rather obvious flaw which came to mind is the fact that Neoliberal Colonialism has inflicted pain on almost every country on the planet and have recently underlined their God-given right to continue doing so ad nauseum - without opposition or consequences.

[Apr 18, 2018] An excellent summary of the whole Syrian war right up to the present

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

apHarri | Apr 18, 2018 6:41:29 AM | 109

An excellent summary of the whole Syrian war right up to the present, should open the minds of friends, family and colleagues still partially under the MSM propaganda spell but starting to realise the truth not what they've been told.

Listen and share:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wHsfc49Y_Fk

[Apr 18, 2018] IRGC-controlled Syrian militia declares jihad against US forces in Syria

Israel is very concerned about Iranian forces in Syria, and the US should also take note.
Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Don Bacon | Apr 18, 2018 11:09:19 AM | 137

IRGC-controlled Syrian militia declares jihad against US forces in Syria

Syrian militia led by Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) declared jihad on April 6 against US and allied forces in Syria. Since 2017, the US has twice come into direct contact with the group. The IRGC is likely to boost its military support to the group as it explores avenues to drive the US out of Syria.

The Baqir Brigade (AKA Liwa al Baqir or Liwa al Imam al Baqir) published on its social media page a statement with the Baqqara Tribe, to which its members belong. The tribe claims descent from the fifth Shiite Imam, Muḥammad al Baqir, the brigade's namesake. The group's open declaration features a militia logo that is a replication of the rising hand and AK-47 in the official logo of the IRGC and militias under its control. . .

here

The US military units in Syria are not in a contiguous force. Vulnerable US "bases" in Syria are small spread-out outposts, totaling (they say) 2,000 troops plus probably several thousand contractors . . .(latest report on Iraq and Syria (combined) here .)

[Apr 18, 2018] I don't find anything convincing about this FUBAR administration intention to go to full scale war in Syria. Certainly it is not a government fit to go to another war (not having won a war in fifty years, not for lack of trying).

Notable quotes:
"... The simple fact is that Syria [government] controls the majority of the populated part of the country, and gaining more every day. The US can do nothing about it on a lasting basis. That's clear and pretty convincing. ..."
"... The French "explanation" for a chemical attack (Assad's ostensible need to create negative PR for himself by sadistically punishing people who did not leave town on the Idlib Express) is literally the only theory true believers can come up with. ..."
"... Almost as funny as the Pentagon's "all 100+ missiles we fired successfully hit their targets" and then showing pictures of the sites with barely any debris visible and no large craters. ..."
Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Don Bacon | Apr 18, 2018 11:18:07 AM | 139

@WJ 131

I find all this pretty convincing.

Myself, I don't find anything convincing about the FUBAR administration you describe. Certainly it is not a government fit to go to another war (not having won a war in fifty years, not for lack of trying).

The simple fact is that Syria [government] controls the majority of the populated part of the country, and gaining more every day. The US can do nothing about it on a lasting basis. That's clear and pretty convincing.

Moshe Mossad Schlomostein , Apr 18, 2018 11:26:30 AM | 140

@7 Cassandra,

The French "explanation" for a chemical attack (Assad's ostensible need to create negative PR for himself by sadistically punishing people who did not leave town on the Idlib Express) is literally the only theory true believers can come up with.

Because killing and punishing Syrians who chose not to collaborate with the forces fighting the state totally makes sense....if you desperately need a gas attack story to keep your narrative from unraveling.

Almost as funny as the Pentagon's "all 100+ missiles we fired successfully hit their targets" and then showing pictures of the sites with barely any debris visible and no large craters. Must have been brand new super duper nano missiles or something. Sadly the average dimwit will believe it because for him the "news" is a proxy for thinking. Besides( everybody knows the "news" is never wrong.

[Apr 18, 2018] CBS correspondents as members of White Helmets

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

ninel | Apr 18, 2018 9:33:17 AM | 122

A correspondent for US network CBS gained access to the alleged attack site in Douma on Monday. Seth Doane spoke to residents of a building where at least 30 bodies are reported to have been found.

"All of a sudden some gas spread around us," one man said. "We couldn't breathe, it smelled like chlorine."

Another resident, who said many members of his family were among those killed, showed the CBS crew a yellow compressed gas canister that appeared to have punched a hole in the roof of the building. The canister looked similar to others photographed in the wake of other alleged chlorine attacks.

A Swedish journalist who also visited the building in Douma said he had felt a discomfort in his throat and smelled a strong odour as he entered its basement.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-43792120

[Apr 18, 2018] The videos showing persons (White Helmets?) rushing into the site of the alleged chemical attack and pouring water on the "victims" speak for themselves.

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

"All of a sudden some gas spread around us," one man said. "We couldn't breathe, it smelled like chlorine."
_____________________________________

The videos showing persons (White Helmets?) rushing into the site of the alleged chemical attack and pouring water on the "victims" speak for themselves. Likewise, the ancillary first-person reports by medical personnel: 1) affirming that there were no symptoms of chemical poisoning among the dead or injured, and 2) corroborating the reports of third parties rushing in and clamoring "Gas!", "Chemical attack!", etc.

It's obvious enough to any observer with a modicum of rational skepticism that this is the old "fait accompli" version of the Big Lie: just keep repeatedly and firmly insisting that X took place (or X never happened), until a critical mass of complacent, credulous, and submissive useful idiots accept the assertions as fact.

It wouldn't surprise me if, along with all that water being thrown around, a few White Helmet-types also poured around, or even boiled, some ordinary household laundry bleach to provide the unmistakable whiff of chlorine gas in the air.

In sleight-of-hand and similar deceptions, once the audience buys into the premise, it only takes minimal cues to reinforce the fake reality projected by the illusion-master.

Posted by: Ort | Apr 18, 2018 2:03:48 PM | 162 dewn , Apr 18, 2018 2:04:39 PM | 163

@Peter AU

I agree calling him "an actor" is wrong, however this particular boy, according to their (the boy and his father) interview did this for food, he wasn't affected by the dust and smoke event.

[Apr 18, 2018] Syrian boy Hasan Diab, who was presented in a staged White Helmets video as a victim of a chemical attack in Douma, revealed the details of its filming.

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

S | Apr 18, 2018 2:23:51 PM | 165

Rossiya 24 TV channel has interviewed a Syrian boy named Hasan Diab who participated in the filming of the "chemical attack" video. Here is my translation of the article:

Syrian boy Hasan Diab, who was presented in a staged White Helmets video as a victim of a chemical attack in Douma, revealed the details of its filming.

"We were in a basement. Mom told me there's nothing to eat today, we'll only eat tomorrow. We heard someone yelling on the street, they yelled "go to the hospital". We ran to the hospital, and as soon as I have entered, they grabbed me and started to douse me with water. Then they put us on a bed with other people." -- said the boy during his appearance on Rossiya 24 channel.

The channel's military reporter Evgeniy Poddubny noted that the boy was compelled to take part in the video.

"The boy had nothing to eat, he was offered rice, dates, and cookies for this filming." -- said Poddubny.

Hasan's story was confirmed by his father, who added that there had been no chemical attach in the town.

"When I found out that my child was in the hospital, I asked for time off at my work and ran there. There were no chemical weapons whatsoever. I smoked on the street and felt nothing. I entered the hospital and saw my family. The militants gave me dates, cookies, and rice for participating in that filming and let us go home. My child was fine." -- the boy's father told the channel.

[Apr 18, 2018] Macron Napoleonic complex

Apr 18, 2018 | russia-insider.com

In the space of a few days Macron has:

Inadequacy much? How needy for recognition is this guy?

CHUCKMAN 9 hours ago ,

France used to produce some pretty fine leaders, but lately, it's like a different place.

Hollande was the most ridiculous, gutless thing we ever saw. He was laughably pompous and ineffective and dishonest and even cowardly, vis a vis the US.

Macron probably ranks second worst. He's making a mess of France, he's blubbering all kinds of nonsense about the EU, he's busy putting troops in Syria against all international law, he is not liked by the people, and he is virtually a French doormat for America.

Sarkozy showed the odd bit of promise, but he was largely talk with no worthy efforts. And he was immensely corrupt. Imagine taking 20 million euros from Qaddafi and then participating in the scheme to kill him? Or the case of the senile woman who was France's wealthiest woman, from whom he took many millions for his campaigns, doing so in private without other members of the family or strict legal supervision.

Hard to see the same country we saw in de Gaulle's time and that of his immediate successors.

Muriel Kuri 8 hours ago ,

'I am an equal of Putin' - well, he's right in a way - they're both leaders of a country. Beyond that, there is NO comparison. Maybe he admires Putin - which is good, if he tries to emulate him, even better because Putin, after all, is one of the few great current leaders of the world. Macron has a very long way to go, but with many years experience, if he gets the chance, MAY become a better leader than some, but never will be the match of Putin.

[Apr 18, 2018] No coherent or rational narrative behind US action in Syria, but rather a series of self-contradicting escalations and de-escalations, depending upon who holds the strongest hand at any given moment

The simple fact is that the US failed to overthrow Assad and thus is defeated in Syria, and the recent episodes are merely the dying throes of a defeated neoliberal empire
Notable quotes:
"... The truth of this scenario is * one* thing that leads Russia to point out that the US is essentially incapable of acting as a rational international "partner." ..."
Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

WJ | Apr 18, 2018 10:57:39 AM | 135

Don Bacon @123,

I agree with almost everything you say. But, from my perspective, your account and the account of Kori Schake simplifies and somewhat idealizes the mechanism of--call it--"US policy." What Trump himself wants the US to do in Syria--disengage completely--may very well be true. But "US policy" is not determined by what Trump wants, but by the negotiations and struggles between the President and other powerful state-corporate factions. The ongoing nature of these negotiations and struggles produces no coherent or rational narrative behind US action in Syria, but rather a series of self-contradicting escalations and de-escalations, depending upon who holds the strongest hand at any given moment.

The truth of this scenario is * one* thing that leads Russia to point out that the US is essentially incapable of acting as a rational international "partner." It is not *just* the US's deception that makes this so, but the fact that not even the US' deception in recent years can be gamed, because there is no *single* coherent aim behind it: not even American deception can be trusted, in other words.

I find all this pretty convincing. And so I am less certain than some others that *anybody* is yet in a position to say what the US will do or not do in relation to Syria in the next few weeks or months. I do think that a careful reading of several reports coming out of the White House since late February suggest that Trump is neither in control of nor even always aware of the concrete policies toward Syria and Russia that have been planned and implemented by his administration. So while I hope that you are right, and that everybody is able to recognize what is obvious--that there is no way for the US to "win" in Syria at this point without risking nuclear war--I am unfortunately not convinced that this is so.

[Apr 18, 2018] Damage inflicted and the number of rocket that hit university campus

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Indrid Cold | Apr 18, 2018 11:06:21 AM | 136

We dont have to rely on seeing missile parts to know the Pentagon is lying about the air strikes. We have high resolution pictures of the target site at the research center and we have the claim that they hit that site with 76 cruise missiles with 1000 lb warheads! The level of damage does not match that claim. Not even close.

Carefully examine the photos. One building is still heavily intact...maybe 30-40 %. Only the smaller one is obliterated. But notice, not only are these rather small college campus size buildings, each one is hollow. They all have an open courtyard inside. So they are in fact smaller than they first appear. It would take no more than 3 or 4 missiles to destroy each one, if that.

We are looking at a strike from about 10 missiles, not 76.

That is an absurd claim, and they were forced into it because that was the only site they could show extensive damage on. The other two shown were much too small to obscure the truth. This claim of an electronic attack and the Syrians firing at phantom targets is also absurd. While Russia certainly networked the Syrian long range radars to tighten up their airspace, most of Syria's guns and missile systems are elderly.

They are not even digital nor can they be slaved to a network. For a buk system, for example, to fire on a target...the operator must acquire that target on his tracking and guidance radar on the launcher. If the target cant be detected (it's not really there) by the guidance radar, no launch is possible. It doesn't matter if the networked surveillance radar tells them something is out there, the guidance radar must lock onto something to fire.

Even more so for some of their other systems. The only thing they would possibly launch towards a phantom target would be an s 200, on the chance that its semi active homing head would be operational by the time it was near the presumed target...sort of like getting a jump on the target.

[Apr 18, 2018] Theresa May and her family personally have made possibly millions, by the illegal and unsanctioned attack on Syria the other day

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Emily | Apr 18, 2018 3:42:56 AM | 100

We have been hearing stories of the financial political corruption increasingly common here in Britain and in high places.

However confirmation now of one of the most sordid stories - buried of course by the British apology for news - our MSM.

Theresa May and her family personally have made possibly millions, by the illegal and unsanctioned attack on Syria the other day.

The British media is silent. But Russia Today has now exposed what is clearly - I would say in the eyes of most - a resigning matter.

Her family blatantly and it seems secretly making money out of her disgusting warmongering. Her hands covered in blood from Iraq, Libya, Syria etc etc profiting every time Bae systems are involved. You couldn't make it up - as they say.

https://www.rt.com/uk/424392-may-husbands-capital-group/

[Apr 18, 2018] Rand Paul Tells Wolf Blitzer He Thinks Syria Gassing Was False Flag

Apr 18, 2018 | www.defenddemocracy.press

This happened 3 hours ago. Wolf Blitzer can't believe his ears he does his best to argue the other side, saying well, France and UK joined the bombing, so it must true, you aren't suggesting everyone was wrong or something? – are you suggesting the president had bad intelligence? – but Paul isn't buying.

This is great TV:

https://www.youtube.com/embed/K4V3jQCi8-o

"I still look at the attack and say, you know, either Assad must be the dumbest dictator on the planet -- or maybe he didn't do it. I have yet to see evidence that he did do it,"

"The only thing that would galvanize the world to attack Assad directly is a chemical attack. It killed relatively few people compared to what can be killed with traditional bombs and so you wonder really what logic would there be for Assad to be using chemical weapons,"

We have a feeling this bombing is going to turn into a major scandal as it becomes clear what is intuitively obvious – it was a false flag, and this time they're going to get caught on it.

Was the whole thing 3D chess on Trump's part? Did he deliberately go along with the hoax knowing that he would make sure the hoaxers get caught?, and finally free himself from the neocon morons in Washington?

Published at https://russia-insider.com/en/breaking-rand-paul-tells-wolf-blitzer-he-thinks-syria-gassing-was-false-flag-video/ri23194?mc_cid=fd2d25d4a9&mc_eid=4021fa169b

[Apr 18, 2018] The US Deep State doesn't want to "conquer" any country. Then they'd have to pay the bill for the destruction they caused... think an actual Marshall Plan, not the Iraq and Afghan Debacles. It is not trying to "win". It is trying to destroy those countries' ability to function outside the iron-fist influence of the IMF/BIS

Notable quotes:
"... Trumpty Dumbdy is trapped, just trying to convince his base that he really is getting the US out ..."
Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

A P | Apr 18, 2018 1:42:41 PM | 160

The US Deep State doesn't want to "conquer" any country. Then they'd have to pay the bill for the destruction they caused... think an actual Marshall Plan, not the Iraq and Afghan Debacles. It is not trying to "win". It is trying to destroy those countries' ability to function outside the iron-fist influence of the IMF/BIS/etc. banks/economy.

... ... ..

As for US operations in Syria being handed off "to others", i.e. to Prince's latest iteration of Blackwater/Xi/Academia, the last we heard of Erik was trying to sell a budget airforce/drone system to countries in Africa. What a joke.

Not going to happen in Syria, because Russia, Iran, Hezbolla and Syria would have no qualms about directly assaulting Prince's Kurd/Arab/Wahabbist mercenaries... Eric may be a self-serving parasite, but he's not stupid enough to directly take on the Russian military, or even the SAA for that matter. Especially with no NATO air cover...

Killary is not around to unilaterally impose a Libya-style no-fly-zone.

Trumpty Dumbdy is trapped, just trying to convince his base that he really is getting the US out of being Israel's and the Rothschilds' bitch, but that is not a potential reality.

It would involve dismantling the FED and cutting off the yearly $multi-billion military aid tap to Israel. I doubt he is smart or informed enough to comprehend the situation he is in. Any sane, intelligent person would walk away and tell the Zionist/Rothschild/Deep State to find another patsy.

[Apr 18, 2018] Catch 22 in Douma false flag

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Anon | Apr 18, 2018 4:10:40 AM | 103

So what will happen now?

... ... ...

[Apr 18, 2018] There was a credible interview of an ISIS commander sometime last year, he stated that they had direct guidance and on-the ground advisors from many countries

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

English Outsider | Apr 17, 2018 5:19:54 PM | 44

I've been puzzling over the frequent claims that Western Special Forces were "embedded" with the Jihadists.

This is an article by Seymour Hersh, via a comment on SST by "ISL", about the Khan Shaykhun alleged poison gas attack -

https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165905578/Trump-s-Red-Line.html

- and this is the passage that caught my attention:-

"One reason for the Russian message to Washington about the intended target was to ensure that any CIA asset or informant who had managed to work his way into the jihadist leadership was forewarned not to attend the meeting. I was told that the Russians passed the warning directly to the CIA. "They were playing the game right," the senior adviser said."

We know that Syrian Intelligence had penetrated many Jihadist groups. It is therefore likely that Western Intelligence agents had done the same.

Could the existence of such "assets" or "informants" account for the frequent reports that there are Western Special Forces embedded with the Jihadis?

Could that also account for the fact that if those Western "assets" are in place then neither the Syrians nor the Russians would wish to expose them when they are found amongst groups of defeated or surrendered Jihadists? That would account for the frequent complaints on the more partisan pro-Syrian websites that the Russians keep passing up the chance of a propaganda victory by putting such "assets" on public display when found.

The whole question of Western support for the Jihadists in Syria is a vexed one. For my part I believe that we went further than merely hoping they'd unseat Assad. We were instrumental in supplying arms, training, and indeed foreign Juhadists. We did this on the transparent pretext that we were helping "moderate" rebels. We ourselves were therefore largely responsible for the death and destruction visited on the Syrian people.

But, for all the claims made, I've seen no proof put forward that we went further than that and were directing or assisting the Jihadist onslaught. Nor that we were doing this indirectly through mercenaries and the like. This is in contrast to our activities in the Ukraine, where it was clear that Western forces of one sort or another were directing or assisting the Ukrainian forces.

Perhaps there's been no proof put forward because it simply didn't happen in Syria. Those claimed "embedded" Western Forces were merely intelligence "assets" of the type Sy Hersh refers to. Is this a reasonable conclusion to come to on the basis of what is known of our involvement in the Syrian conflict?

jonku , Apr 17, 2018 5:42:55 PM | 46

English Outsider 44

"I believe that we went further than merely hoping they'd unseat Assad."

There was a credible interview of an ISIS commander sometime last year, he stated that they had direct guidance and on-the ground advisors from many countries, implied US, UK, and Israel at least were supplying things like maps, satellite data and other information about their opponents. He spoke of a fully equipped, modern command center.

In addition there is US news about training, arming and paying these attackers. The US has supplied false end user certificates for literally tons of armaments and munitions bought from eastern European countries that have ramped up factories to produce AK-47s, ammunition and more. The EUCs state that the destination for the weapons is US however they are passed on to rebel forces.

I believe "we" went further than merely hoping too.

sejomoje , Apr 17, 2018 5:51:13 PM | 47
Oh there is proof all right. Guys like this African American "muslim" , a "former comedian" who was on some sort of embedded mission in Aleppo. His cover was of a religious "journalist". Take away the beard and the "bio" and he's clearly a spec ops guy. During Aleppo's "fall"(liberation) he was filming himself in the location where days later, piles of massacred locals were found after the jihadis were bussed away. Sorry no link maybe someone can help me out.
Castellio , Apr 17, 2018 6:03:33 PM | 52
@44

It's a good question.

My response: where's the distinction between "arming and training" and "directing and assisting"?

Then, if you do find a distinction there: where's the distinction between "arming and training in the field" and "directing and assisting"?

Jen , Apr 17, 2018 6:09:38 PM | 53
English Outsider @ 44:

The Syrian Arab Army apparently found a makeshift chemistry lab in East Ghouta in mid-March this year after the area was liberated from the jihadis. Sharmine Narwani was one of the first journalists if not the first or only reporter to visit the site. You can see some of the photos taken of the site and the equipment (some of it with American brand names) within at this link:
https://steemkr.com/ghouta/@syrianaanalysis/terrorists-own-chemical-weapons-sharmine-narwani-reveals-shocking-info-from-ghouta

The Bulgarian journalist Dilyana Gaytandzhieva has been investigating a massive covert weapons shipment network linking eastern Europe and the Caucasus region (Azerbaijan in particular) to Turkey, Saudi Arabia and the UAE, apparently supervised by the CIA and other Western intel agencies. Weapons and equipment from eastern European countries were being flown under diplomatic cover by the state Azerbaijani airline company Silk Way Airlines to the Middle East and then forwarded on to jihadi groups in Syria and Iraq.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-28/journalist-interrogated-fired-story-linking-cia-and-syria-weapons-flights

Buzzfeed.com has been running a series of reports on a small US firm Purple Shovel which has been running weaponry from eastern Europe including Belarus to Syrian jihadi groups:
https://www.buzzfeed.com/aramroston/the-secret-arms-deal-behind-americas-syria-fiasco?utm_term=.ramx5rxgq#.ycr7Oq7NB

Jen , Apr 17, 2018 6:18:52 PM | 55
English Outsider @ 44:

More information from Bulgarian newspaper Trud (Gaytandzhieva's employer before she was fired) including copies of documents about the Silk Way Airlines "diplomatic" flights between Europe and the Middle East in which weaponry - some of it heavy weaponry - was flown to Saudi Arabia and other Gulf oil sheikhdom sponsors of the jihadis in Syria. These documents implicate not only the US but also several EU countries including Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany and Sweden.

https://trud.bg/350-diplomatic-flights-carry-weapons-for-terrorists/

If Gaytanzhieva sounds familiar to some MoA barflies, that's because she's the one who tweeted about Vil Mirzayanov's million-dollar home in Colorado in a recent MoA post on the Skripal poisoning incident.

English Outsider , Apr 17, 2018 6:26:48 PM | 56
Jonku @ 46,

Thanks. The information in your penultimate paragraph is near as dammit certain. Also Israeli assistance, though the report from a UN observer was of an observation made at a distance. Also there's a lot of murky stuff about MI6 or their pals doing propaganda work though I doubt we'll ever get to the bottom of that. If it wasn't Obama romancing, then his admission that they "didn't throw a bunch of airstrikes" at ISIS when they were going into Iraq, and that that was to put pressure on the then Iraqi government, is further proof that we weren't interested in saving the local populations from atrocities but were using ISIS for our own purposes. I suppose my intense disillusionment with Obama stems from the realisation then that he'd swallowed the Brzezinski nonsense and had bought into the Grand Chessboard; and tough luck on the pawns. That was when for me he ceased to be the mouthy, ineffectual but well intentioned loser and became the standard model Drone King. Welcome to the world of the neocon psychos, Mr President.

So there's all that. As you say, we did go further than "merely hoping".

But where's the proof for the pre-penultimate paragraph? Are the Syrians now showing journalists round the remnants of the command centre? Are the more credible pro-Syrian journalists giving us chapter and verse? Do we not undercut our true statement that we've visited mayhem on the Syrians by advancing that further unproved statement that our forces fought with the Jihadis?

Maybe it'll come out later, but nothing solid's come out yet and there's been time for it. That's why I put in my query. Maybe we should put up or shut up on that one.


By the way, "we" means just that. We voted the bastards in, after all.

ben , Apr 17, 2018 9:40:36 PM | 72
English Outsider @ 44: This is where it all began, and still continues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Cyclone

Hiring Jihadists to destabilize other governments is no secret..

[Apr 18, 2018] Douma Chemical Attack False Flag Operation Exposed

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

https://youtu.be/vSrRV-zdNic

" I think there was a pre-planned coordination to stage this chemical attack."

Posted by: John Gilberts | Apr 17, 2018 6:43:21 PM | 58

[Apr 18, 2018] Russian show with Yakov Kedmi really surprised and disturbed me

Apr 18, 2018 | thesaker.is

Paul II on April 15, 2018 , · at 10:40 am UTC

What about a fourth type of retaliation, cleaning out the financier/Zionist/pro-Western/liberal infestation inside Russia? This wouldn't require China's approval, and would lead to a much healthier and stronger Russia in the long run.

In my view, China has done far more to get itself out of AZ control and on the path to pursuing its national interests than Russia has. It is depressing to read most Russian blogs as they keep harping on what needed to be done years ago.

Martin Giuffrida on April 15, 2018 , · at 12:12 pm UTC
Yes and this Russian show with Yakov Kedmi really surprised and disturbed me:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VwYcItJp4O8&t=1s

[Apr 18, 2018] Neoliberal propagandists and warmongers at Guardian return to their Iraq war glory

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Babyl-on | Apr 17, 2018 2:14:29 PM | 8

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/apr/17/syria-crisis-medics-intimidated-over-douma-gas-attack

I can hardly believe that I actually read an article like this.

First they delay the OPCW then they claim that Russia and Syria cleaned up the site - several acres where gas was spread all over but those Russians caN clean it all in 24 hours, every trace. They can also hide all the bodies.

Now we here that the medical staff are intimidated and can't say who was treated for what?

But...but...where are the 500 victims???

This is shear desperation and totally P-A-T-H-E-T-I-C

WJ , Apr 17, 2018 2:14:30 PM | 9

@5 Chevrus,

The attempt to coordinate a ground assault of Damascus with a US-Nato aerial bombardment leading to the decapitation of the regime was a key part of the original March plan as reported by Theyssan, Magnier, and in a recent Sputnik article detailing the capture of embedded U.K. operatives in Ghouta. There were reports on the night of the strike of coordinated al-Islam and Daesh ground attacks in the country, but I do not know the details. In general, I think the US-UK played through the original March script with modifications occasioned by necessity, and are now thinking through a plan to repeat that script somehow. Others disagree. We are probably all wrong.

WJ , Apr 17, 2018 2:18:28 PM | 12
@8,

The public will totally buy it. We have been conditioned to fear the Russians for a reason after all. Anybody in their vicinity would tell them what they want to hear--otherwise they could get Skripaled.

WJ , Apr 17, 2018 2:26:30 PM | 13
@8,

Also, the source for the Guardian piece turns out to be a kind of international White Helmets parent group--the UOSSM. They played a role in the 2017 chemical attack investigation and later had to withdraw their testimony as unqualified: http://theindicter.com/uossm-admits-that-doctor-reporting-alleged-khan-shaykhun-
aerial-attack-was-not-qualified-to-do-that/

[Apr 18, 2018] Propaganda war around Douma false flag: It's gone well beyond craven. As Murray wrote, it's now Goebbels Land

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 | Apr 17, 2018 3:55:46 PM | 35

Geroman documents on his Twitter via retweets Swedish and Dutch news stations falsifying translations of Syrians being interviewed. One example:

"#Swedish @TV4 totally lying when they interview this woman totally wrong translation. Woman says USA, @TV4 translates " Russia, Iran & regime must leave our lands"."

It's gone well beyond craven. As Murray wrote, it's now Goebbels Land.

Mina , Apr 17, 2018 5:20:51 PM | 45

35

I noticed the same misleading translations of Syr refugeed on French radios and tvs for years

Posted by: Mina | Apr 17, 2018 5:20:51 PM | 45 /div

[Apr 18, 2018] The sinister role of French intelligence ion Douma event and attempts to hide their involvement

Notable quotes:
"... In other words, French intelligence blows. (I am referring to the discovered caches of chemical weapons and the elaborate tunnel-structures under Douma.) ..."
Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

WJ | Apr 17, 2018 11:22:20 PM | 77

From declassified French intelligence dossier on 4/7/18 Douma:

- The French services do not have any information to support the thesis that armed groups in Ghouta have sought to obtain or have had chemical weapons.

In addition, they believe that a manipulation of massively disseminated images from Saturday, April 7 is not credible, especially since the groups present in the Ghouta do not have the means to carry out a communication maneuver of such magnitude.

In other words, French intelligence blows. (I am referring to the discovered caches of chemical weapons and the elaborate tunnel-structures under Douma.)

[Apr 18, 2018] That fancy tunnel with the chemical factory looks like "Made In USA". Very impressive

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 | Apr 17, 2018 12:52:30 PM | 118

...Meanwhile, yet another chemical weapons warehouse facility was discovered in the tunnels under Douma. If you've yet to take a look into those massive catacombs, I'm reposting the link to the video of them .

fastfreddy , Apr 17, 2018 1:53:03 PM | 124

118

That fancy tunnel looks like "Made In USA". Very impressive.

[Apr 18, 2018] Rand Paul throws Wolf Blitzer a big curve ball on CNN, says he is suspecting this is another false flag...

Notable quotes:
"... War stories, however, have a habit of growing darker. For the same 58-year old senior Syrian doctor then adds something profoundly uncomfortable: the patients, he says, were overcome not by gas but by oxygen starvation in the rubbish-filled tunnels and basements in which they lived, on a night of wind and heavy shelling that stirred up a dust storm ..."
Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

oldenyoung | Apr 17, 2018 7:18:40 PM | 62

Finally some traction...Rand Paul throws Wolf Blitzer a big curve ball on CNN, says he is suspecting this is another false flag...

https://russia-insider.com/en/breaking-rand-paul-tells-wolf-blitzer-he-thinks-syria-gassing-was-false-flag-video/ri23194

regards

OY

Don Bacon , Apr 17, 2018 7:41:01 PM | 63
from the Independent

The search for truth in the rubble of Douma – and one doctor's doubts over the chemical attack

Exclusive: Robert Fisk visits the Syria clinic at the centre of a global crisis

This is the story of a town called Douma, a ravaged, stinking place of smashed apartment blocks – and of an underground clinic whose images of suffering allowed three of the Western world's most powerful nations to bomb Syria last week. There's even a friendly doctor in a green coat who, when I track him down in the very same clinic, cheerfully tells me that the "gas" videotape which horrified the world – despite all the doubters – is perfectly genuine.

War stories, however, have a habit of growing darker. For the same 58-year old senior Syrian doctor then adds something profoundly uncomfortable: the patients, he says, were overcome not by gas but by oxygen starvation in the rubbish-filled tunnels and basements in which they lived, on a night of wind and heavy shelling that stirred up a dust storm. . . .
here

[Apr 18, 2018] Trump just can stop lying

Notable quotes:
"... They've had a weekend to work on the damage control strategy (as they say) and the Wall Street Journal has a slobbery article about how Bolton yielded to Mattis and agreed to fewer targets. ..."
"... If it's true that 2/3 of the missiles were intercepted and the WSJ article is mainly cover up propaganda, it's actually pretty cleverly done (and scary, frankly). I wonder how much of the war history I've been taught over the years is accurate. ..."
"... Trump, lying sack of shit bragging about Bolton and successful hit on Syria.: They didn't shoot one down. The equipment didn't work too well their equipment! blah-blah-blah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W9jS3-gt7w ..."
"... This is the lying ass many of you still can't condemn! Get over it already - he's a Zionist quisling, always was and still is! ..."
Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Joanne Leon | Apr 16, 2018 4:35:56 PM | 19

They've had a weekend to work on the damage control strategy (as they say) and the Wall Street Journal has a slobbery article about how Bolton yielded to Mattis and agreed to fewer targets.

If it's true that 2/3 of the missiles were intercepted and the WSJ article is mainly cover up propaganda, it's actually pretty cleverly done (and scary, frankly). I wonder how much of the war history I've been taught over the years is accurate.

"Trump Bowed to Pentagon Restraint on Syria Strikes"
https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-bowed-to-pentagon-restraint-on-syria-strikes-1523837509

Circe , Apr 16, 2018 4:37:08 PM | 20

Trump, lying sack of shit bragging about Bolton and successful hit on Syria.: They didn't shoot one down. The equipment didn't work too well their equipment! blah-blah-blah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8W9jS3-gt7w

This is the lying ass many of you still can't condemn! Get over it already - he's a Zionist quisling, always was and still is!

[Apr 18, 2018] More on the Skripal/Douma false flag connection

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Neve | Apr 16, 2018 3:52:13 PM | 2

Two great links at OffG

"The Skripal event and the Douma "gas attack" – two acts in the same drama?"
http://off-guardian.org/2018/04/14/the-skripal-event-and-the-douma-gas-attack-two-acts-in-the-same-drama/


"More on the Skripal/Douma false flag connection"
http://off-guardian.org/2018/04/15/46325/

[Apr 18, 2018] US Reporter in Douma Nobody Heard or Saw Anything Like a 'Chemical Attack'

Apr 18, 2018 | sputniknews.com

An American journalist who gained access to the war-torn town of Douma, where the US, France and the UK charged that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad used chemical weapons against civilians, says he found "no evidence" of a chemical weapons attack. "We were brought in with a government escort and shown the areas where the chemical attack allegedly happened. We were able to speak with residents in the area. We were even able to visit the hospital where the White Helmets showed the videos of people being hosed down," reporter Pearson Sharp of OAN revealed in a report from the ground in Syria Monday.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lSXwG-901yU

"When I went into the town, we didn't know what to expect, but we were brought to one of the neighborhoods close to where the attack happened. I spoke with a number of residents, probably about 10 residents in that neighborhood. This was about a block and a half from where the attack supposedly happened Um, not one of the people I had spoken to in that neighborhood said that they had seen anything or heard anything about a chemical attack on that day [Saturday, April 7]," Sharp said.

© Sputnik / Yazan Kalash 'Intellectual Dwarfs That Created Narrative on Syria Should Be Ashamed' - Researcher

The reporter said he later spoke with another 30 to 40 residents of the town. "I went up to random people. I know there's a lot of concern from people that the residents being interviewed are plants -- they're Russian operatives or they're staged interviews or things like that. We just randomly went up to different people -- nobody came up to us -- and interviewed probably 30 to 40 people. Consistently, not one person in the town said they heard anything about an attack," Sharp said.

​"When I asked them what they thought the chemical attack was, they told me -- all of them -- it was staged by the rebels who were occupying the town at that time. They said it was a fabrication or a hoax. When I asked why, they told me it was because the rebels were desperate and needed a ploy to help the get the Syrian Army off their back so they could escape," he continued.

© AP Photo/ Hassan Ammar Syrian Air Defenses Intercept Missiles Fired by US, UK, France (VIDEO)

"Residents told me the terrorists staged this to get Western powers to attack the Syrian Army, so they could escape."

Following the alleged incident in Douma, Trump, UK Prime Minister Theresa May and French President Emmanuel Macron authorized a military operation to fire missiles at a chemical research facility near Damascus, a weapons storage site and a command base on Friday night. Damascus and Moscow maintain that there was no chemical attack by the Syrian state in Douma.

[Apr 18, 2018] MSM do not want to embarrass Trump

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

daffyDuct | Apr 17, 2018 8:59:55 PM | 147

One America News Network reporter finds no evidence of chem attack: https://youtu.be/lSXwG-901yU

Sputnik covered it: https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804171063629688-us-reporter-douma-wa/

The report is nowhere to be found on the OANN site. Don't embarrass the Trumpster!

"One America News Network (abbreviated as OANN), is an American conservative cable news television channel launched on July 4, 2013 that is owned by Herring Networks, Inc. The network is headquartered in San Diego, California, and operates a news bureau in Washington, D.C. and New York City.

Originally launched with the intention of targeting a conservative and center-right audience,OAN states a goal of delivering credible national and international news coverage throughout the day while its prime time political talk shows illustrate a conservative perspective.According to the Washington Post, the channel has risen to greater prominence due to its pro-Trump coverage."

[Apr 18, 2018] Blatant exploitation of the delay of arrival of OPCW inspectors to Douma for propaganda purposes

The delay definitely represents a blunder by Syrian government from propaganda purposes, but war is war and may be British tried to do some additional troubles. Who knows. It now exploited to the fullest extent possible.
Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org
james , Apr 17, 2018 9:56:26 PM | 74
usa daily propaganda press briefing from today..
https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2018/04/280553.htm

"Part of the concern, Matt, is the longer that it takes to get OPCW inspectors in to take a look at soil samples and other information that they can get on the ground, that delay further degrades any evidence that's on the ground. So that is our chief concern. We want them to be able to get in as quickly as possible, as safely as possible, but we also want that evidence to be as pure as possible for their investigation."

you mean like how the UK gave that same opportunity to russia when it first blamed russia for the skripal event? righto..

matt lee last response "QUESTION: Okay. But – so – but you're just saying then – because the bottom line here is you're saying, "Just trust us."

"QUESTION: But you've not mentioned sarin. You've – or has that actually been --

MS NAUERT: In that background briefing, that was mentioned. We have information that leads us to believe that both chlorine and sarin were used in the attack.
...
QUESTION: Hi. Thanks. You still stand by the proof that you say the U.S. has on this, right? You --

MS NAUERT: I certainly do, yes. "

" QUESTION: Could I ask – hi. Could I ask you to square to – square for us your desire to have the inspectors go in and establish the veracity of evidence on the one hand, but on the other hand your rush to attack and strike Syria? Could you square that for us?"

MS NAUERT: The United States has excellent intelligence gathering. Other countries do as well. We do not take these decisions, we do not make these decisions, lightly. As we saw what happened with information that led us to believe that sarin and chlorine gas were used in this most recent attack, the United States, the UK, and France got together, had conversations about telling Bashar al-Assad that this has to stop. And we believe in the efforts that took place on Friday night that we showed them that we are very serious about this, and that the world will stand up, the world will act together, and we will not tolerate the use of these illegal chemical weapons to kill innocent men, women, and children.

QUESTION: Right. I am trying to understand that the inspectors, the OPCW inspectors, were supposed to go in on Saturday, and the strike happened Saturday morning. I mean, they could've waited, like 20 hours, 24 hours, to ensure that the whole world can see that evidence.

MS NAUERT: Okay, Said, once again, we have our own intelligence. We have our own intelligence. The OPCW is something that we back strongly, but it can also take quite a bit of time for the OPCW to gather its information and compile a report. If we look back to last year – and I can have my colleagues double check this right now – I think it took quite a few months, at least several months, before the OPCW was able to come out with its official report about what substance was used on the ground in Khan Shaykhun.

So I would ask you: Should the United States and her allies wait around for Bashar al-Assad to use more chemical substances on his people? Should we wait around for that formal investigation that could take months and months when we have seen nine chemical attacks take place this year alone? I think the United States was right in its decision, backed by our allies, to take action and show Bashar al-Assad that he will be held to account."

see the link for more stupidity..


[Apr 18, 2018] Chinese position of Douma false flag

Apr 18, 2018 | thesaker.is

Anonymous on April 15, 2018 , · at 9:55 am UTC

The Chinese newspaper the Global Times agrees with the Saker:

"Washington's attack on Syria where Russian troops are stationed constitute serious contempt for Russia's military capabilities and political dignity. Trump, like scolding a pupil, called on Moscow, one of the world's leading nuclear powers, to abandon its "dark path." Disturbingly, Washington seems to have become addicted to mocking Russia in this way. Russia is capable of launching a destructive retaliatory attack on the West. Russia's weak economy is plagued by Western sanctions and squeezing of its strategic space. That the West provokes Russia in such a manner is irresponsible for world peace Western countries continue bullying Russia but are seemingly not afraid of its possible counterattack. Their arrogance breeds risk and danger."

Graeme - Australia on April 15, 2018 , · at 5:28 pm UTC
Yes, I also follow the Global Times editorials, and have friends in China

Simon Chow nails it, in my opinion

America is playing checkers (or some other child's game). Russia is playing Chess, and we know how good they are at that. China is playing Chinese Chess and that is fking impossible to understand for a westerner subtle does not cover it .. and China has the father (godfather?) of all generals and military strategists, Sun Tzu . go figure

I agree, the fat lady is out there somewhere warming her vocal chords.

Sarmis2014 on April 15, 2018 , · at 11:30 pm UTC
Talking about chess In my humble opinion all the suffering and foreign occupation of Syria could end in less than a month if Russia would have the guts to threaten (behind closed doors or overtly) that if the attacks and occupation of Syria will not stop Russia will provide the weapons necessary to nullify the military superiority of Israel to all relevant enemy of Israel and of course to Syria. The timed leak in the news that Russia considers providing S-300 to Syrian is a good start but obviously not firm and strong enough, According to Paul Craig Roberts "to restate the point once again, the passivity of the Putin government in the face of Washington's aggressiveness is leading directly to nuclear war and the end of life on earth". I think Russia can be "passive" by not attacking US but can be very engage by threatening were it hurts the most the safety of Israel. Cheers
Anonymous on April 15, 2018 , · at 11:33 pm UTC
It is an old metaphor. I think it was used on Atimes years ago: Americans play Monopoly, Russians play chess. Someone added (it could have been me) and Chinese play Go! That was a response: Americans play poker, the game of the 'achievers'. The response was: Americans play poker with loaded dices' and if their bluff is called, they pull the gun and 'take it all'. If I am not mistaken, the verbal joust originated in Australia!
Graeme - Australia on April 16, 2018 , · at 1:13 am UTC
Yes, Go 围棋

From the rules:
• Sacrifice: Allowing a group to die in order to carry out a play, or plan, in a more important area.

Interesting

From the Global Times

'Drill a warning to secessionist forces'

The news that the People's Liberation Army will conduct live-fire military exercises in the Taiwan Straits on April 18 has shocked Taiwan. It is a clear warning against recent pro-independence activities on the island, especially head of Taiwan's administrative authority Lai Ching-te's advocacy for independence.

Secessionists should not fantasize that the US will come to their rescue, even though the US had passed the Taiwan Travel Act. National unity is in the core interest of China, which is determined and capable of shattering any foreign intervention. Once Beijing decides to take action, it won't be stopped by any other force.

We believe that if the mainland were to take a military strike against "Taiwan-independence" forces, Washington would have no effective means other than protest.

The planned military drills will be a reconfirmation of Beijing's bottom line. Let the bombing and shooting drills alert Taiwan, rather than letting them actually occur on the island. The mainland does not wish to end the Taiwan question with a military showdown, however, how the situation develops depends on how much rationality remains in the Taiwan administration.

The Ukraine, North Korea .. Sth China Sea .. Syria

Russia, cold war
China, trade war

America is somewhat busy at the moment.

Could it take on a direct confrontation over Taiwan?

I think Syria is too strategically important to be 'allowed to die' .. but, then, I cannot play Go

Interesting ..

Anonymous on April 16, 2018 , · at 1:56 am UTC
What about the 'rumors' that China will build a base in Vanuatu? "We would view with great concern the establishment of any foreign military bases in those Pacific Island countries and neighbours of ours," Mr Turnbull said. Ahem!
Graeme - Australia on April 16, 2018 , · at 4:20 am UTC
Yes, I wonder what Mr Turnbull would say if it was America doing the same thing?

Oh that's right . does not need to . already has a base here in Australia

Although, Australia has little choice, I believe. We still need a big brother. Although that is getting very very complicated.

Australia's geography will determine its future .. IS determining its future

Anonymous on April 16, 2018 , · at 10:54 pm UTC
Australia has a 'Big Moma' already, the owner of it, actually.
Anonymous on April 16, 2018 , · at 2:36 am UTC
Could America take on a direct confrontation over Taiwan?

If Taiwan is 500 kilometers off the coast from California, America just might give it a try. But alas, Taiwan is 500 kilometer off the coast from Fujian Province. Only a deranged America would take the bite. Let's see if America is deranged. Lately there are signs it is down that slippery slope.

Graeme - Australia on April 16, 2018 , · at 4:30 am UTC
What I meant, is the China is choosing its timing and confrontation very carefully

America is the next door neighbour who has watched the plum ripen every day, fearing that pesky Chinese neighbour will steal it and eat it

Not being careful, or just being plain dumb, the American knocked over a hornets nest and and now too busy dealing with the angry hornets to keep an eye on the plum

Timing is everything

[Apr 18, 2018] Voting in UN on Russian resolution

Apr 18, 2018 | thesaker.is

Serbian girl on April 15, 2018 , · at 10:17 am UTC

Excellent analysis by the Saker!

Here is a list of the non-permanent members of the UNSC: (the year indicates the end of their two year term)

Bolivia (2018)
Côte d'Ivoire (2019)
Equatorial Guinea (2019)
Ethiopia (2018)
Kazakhstan (2018)
Kuwait (2019)
Netherlands (2018)
Peru (2019)
Poland (2019)
Sweden (2018)

Every single country (!) on this list- except for Bolivia – abstained in the latest UNSC vote to stop aggression against Syria Russia, China, Bolivia voted in favor. USA, UK, France vited against. With just ONE vote the resolution would have passed

Kazakhstan is a member of the SCO..why did they not join Russia and China to support this resolution?? I am beginning to think the SCO is just hype.

One thing's for sure: I'm going to miss Bolivia when their term ends this year

Anonymous on April 15, 2018 , · at 1:28 pm UTC
Incorrect analysis.

The resolution was never going to pass. The US, the UK and France all posses the veto power of a permanent member of the UNSC. Thus, it does not matter how many voted in favor. The resolution was defeated.

I think I remember seeing at least one statement from another country that said that there was purpose of voting in favor of a veto'd resolution. Why bother. Especially when the US is infamous for blackmailing and armtwisting nations that vote against them. It was only a few months ago that Nutti Nikki declared the US was 'taking names' of those who opposed the.

There isn't any reason to vote for a resolution that is already and certainly veto'd. Actually, you see this alot also in bodies like the US Congress. Once a side has the votes to know they won (or lost), then a single vote doesn't mean anything. Thus a congressperson can vote a way that pleases the voters (or the lobbyists) and know that they are doing so with no impact on whether the measure passes or fails. You sometimes see members of congress voting for and against the same bill so they can take either position in the next campaign!

Serbian girl on April 15, 2018 , · at 3:20 pm UTC
Anonymous, you are of course correct. It's the SC and not the GA so any veto will bring down the resolution. Thank you for correcting my mistake. I also understand perfectly your point about tactical voting.

However:

It would send a powerful message to the empire (and the world) if Russia were not so isolated in her diplomatic efforts, even if a resolution is vetoed!..As Saker mentioned above noone seems to care about the higher values of international law. By keeping a low profile and abstaining these countries are basically confirming that there is no diplomatic way to stop the aggression.

tomo on April 15, 2018 , · at 6:36 pm UTC
what is happening to Russia funnily reminds me of what happened to me as a kid – I was maybe 9.
there was a bully in our neighborhood park where we used to play – he was 3 or 4 years older than most of us. He used to beat all of us individually (I was the youngest in the group) – but then I would come behind him when he was not looking and hit him with a brick etc.
so one day all the kids gathered (not sure whose idea it was – not mine – but I approved and joined them) and agreed to circle the bully and at 1..2..3..we were all to jump at him and to start beating him I thought it was a great idea.
so we went there and did that – 1..2..3 – I jumped on the bully and started kicking him – only to realize that everybody else just stayed where they were. I was the only one fighting him Even my brother didn't join me.
I hope the same thing does not happen to Russia – but if it does – just be prepared – and never trust psychopathic Anglo – west
Anonymous on April 15, 2018 , · at 1:33 pm UTC
Bolivia has a democracy that has elected governments that actually favor their people over corporations, and god forbid, that don't favor foriegn (American) corporations over their own people.

Thus, the US has already declared Bolivia an enemy. They don't seem to be number 1 on the American kill list, but they are already on the list.

Anonymous on April 15, 2018 , · at 1:46 pm UTC
At this point in time, the UNSC is blocked to both sides. Neither side can pass a UNSC resolution against the other. One side had 2 and now 3 vetos. The other side has 2 vetos. Nothing is passing.

Which means that neither side can claim UNSC sanction for their wars. Which in turn really makes any war illegal. Not that any of the Axis of Evil care about that. For the record, Trump violated the US Constitution in two ways (at least) by attacking Syria, thus, if the system were honest, he would now be impeached. Of course, the system is not honest, but it is highly rigged.

Since Russia and China don't seem to be starting any wars of aggression, that lack of ability to get a UNSC certificate for wars of aggression won't matter much to them. But, also don't expect them to pass anything condemning the Axis of Evil through the UNSC.

The UNSC is now only for making speeches. Both sides then use these messages in their psyOps operations. PsyOps is the right word because both sides now view propaganda as warfare by other means.

Vietnam brought forth the term "hearts and minds." That's what they psyOps wars are fighting over. The hearts and minds of everyone. Or at least those who are paying attention, and of course getting more to pay attention to your psyOps is a part of the battle as well.

The UNSC is thus a tool in these psyOps wars. The Russians make their case. Nutti Nikki screams, rants and threatens. Each is then used as propaganda both at their own people at home and at the rest of the world. It will stay that way as long as no one repeats the Soviet mistake of the Korean War era and gets so fed up with it that they don't bother to show up and cast their veto.

Anonymous on April 15, 2018 , · at 2:17 pm UTC
One interpretation of these comments is that diplomacy is just a bunch of fancy talk to create fodder for psyops. While NATO and other military organizations may view it that way, from another perspective, making speeches in a public meeting like this, where a resolution is on the line, can serve to entrench or resolve conflict. As part of a larger diplomatic strategy.
one minion on April 16, 2018 , · at 12:37 am UTC
The 'hearts and minds' concept originated in the Malaya campaign in the 50's–counter-insurgency–and it was never about hearts and minds, it was about 'killing people in order to save them'– a precursor of 'humanitarian intervention' –basic BS, in other words.
Part of the so-called psyop then was head-chopping of communist Chinese by the British soldiers, I seem to recall.
Francis Lee on April 15, 2018 , · at 1:55 pm UTC
Kazakhstan is one of the founding members of the Eurasian Economic Union. But it has always made its position clear that its membership is based upon economic and not political union. So its vote was not all that surprising. It's called hedging your bets.

[Apr 18, 2018] Possible sup ply of Russian S300 to Syria

Apr 18, 2018 | thesaker.is

Lysander on April 15, 2018 , · at 9:48 am UTC

Saker,

Russia has a lot of options and none of them involve attacking US/NATO forces directly. And General Rudskoy already hinted at one of them, the S300 to Syria and to possibly some other countries. A great idea, but only one of Russia's options.

Following from that, the first thing Russia should do, a long with Iran, Hizbullah and Syria, is exactly what it has been doing: securing more and more of Syria. Since the last time AZ axis did this, Syria's situation on the ground is much improved. By the next time they try, it will be much better still. Eyes on the prize.

Next, the S300. Russia has to impose a painful cost to the enemy without triggering a war. That's where Israel comes in. Russia needs to help Syria (Russia should not do this herself) to bring down a handful of Israeli jets and capture their pilots alive. You will see immediately of the situation changes once 2, 3 or 4 of those most precious of souls are captured. Your head will spin. They will trade whatever they have to to get them back. Capturing American pilots would not have anywhere near the same effect. And British or French pilots? Don't make me laugh. Nobody really cares about the hired help.

Russia also has the option of soft retaliation. The empire has troops all over the world and faces insurgencies in many places. I'm just sayin'. Sometimes accidents happen when you are fighting insurgencies.

Believe me, I understand how disgusted you are by the situation. But this has been Russia's role in the world forever. Defending Europe and the world from the mongols, the Prussians, the Swedes, Napoleon, the Turks, Hitler has earned Russia zero gratitude. But nevertheless, many of us see. Even I, who am not a Christian, can see the analogy clear as day.

Amir on April 15, 2018 , · at 10:36 am UTC
Sinking gas/oil platforms of Levithian field by "unknown assistants" might be a similar "symbolic" response. Similar to US attack of uninhibited buildings, this response by a third party against an ally of US (nominally ally, in reality the master) would send the message, without too much of a risk.
pogohere on April 16, 2018 , · at 8:24 pm UTC
Your comments about the Israeli reaction to the loss of its planes and the capture of their pilots is right. Read the Israeli press and especially the comments that follow the stories. Israeli hubris is not to be believed. The commenters (much less the article authors) can´t acknowledge that US missiles were shot down (albeit, with integrated modern radars, electronic interference, etc, acknowledged) by Syrians with Soviet era junk.

[Apr 18, 2018] The USA bombings do not hinder the progress of the Syrian army

Notable quotes:
"... Yes it is annoying that USA keeps bombing Syria, and yes it ruins the lives of the families that lose loved ones in such attacks. But they do not hinder the progress of the Syrian army. Which likely will have wrapped up everything that is politically easy to wrap up in Syria this year. The border with Israel, Idlib and the kurds being the last more politically difficult parts. ..."
Apr 18, 2018 | thesaker.is

Anonymous on April 15, 2018 , · at 9:40 am UTC

The consequence has not come yet. Those that expected that Russia would sink every American vessels and fire of off thermonuclear weapon at Washington, has no real connection to reality.

Such an action would be the dream of neocons and liberals in the western world. Russia will win as long as they can avoid a full on attack on Syria by USA and getting themselves dragged into a conflict with USA or one of its clients.

Yes it is annoying that USA keeps bombing Syria, and yes it ruins the lives of the families that lose loved ones in such attacks. But they do not hinder the progress of the Syrian army. Which likely will have wrapped up everything that is politically easy to wrap up in Syria this year. The border with Israel, Idlib and the kurds being the last more politically difficult parts.

In reality, Russia and Assad won from this attack I think, it made them look good internationally, it made USA look bad, Trumps supporters are in an uproar right now.. This is not like last year when the democrats supported his attack and his base kinda thought it was acceptable..

This time everyone thinks Trump is a lunatic, even his most fanatic supporters such as Alex Jones that has been being over backwards to protect Trump have lost hope in him

Here Alex actually cries when he finds out what Trump did
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Myz5vBDPH6c

When Russia unified with Crimea, it lost the international moral initiative which it had, now, it is absolutely regained it. This attack while it caused no damage to Russia or the war effort for Syria also gives Russia an excuse to do whatever it wants back.

The consequence of the USA strike could be something like.
1. Giving Syria better and "forbidden" in the style of S400 or S300.
2. Giving Syria more and more advanced pansirs.
3. Giving Syria advance anti-ship missiles, enabling them to take out every USA ship off their coast.
4. Arming groups that oppose USA over the world state actors or non-state actors, either covertly or openly with advanced weapons.
5. Revealing classified information about USA that perhaps USA got Russia to agree it would not reveal. Could be anything, proof perhaps that the USA gold reserve is empty perhaps that USA did 9/11, anything really.
6. A purge of USA backed fifth columnists inside of Russia.

The consequence will be something alone the line of causing long term severe consequence for USA but causing no problem for Russia or even being beneficial.

"Russia's ambassador to the U.S. warned there would be "consequences" for the strike on Syria, and that a "pre-designed scenario" was underway."
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/04/13/russia-warns-of-consequences-for-us-led-strike-on-syria.html

[Apr 18, 2018] The Barzeh Institute in Damascus was part of a larger complex, Damascus no. 1 Tech institute

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Noirette | Apr 17, 2018 2:44:22 PM | 16

The Barzeh Institute in Damascus was part of a larger complex, Damascus no. 1 Tech institute, HIAST. (higher inst. of app. sci. and tech.)

https://hiast.edu.sy/en/about-us

https://hiast.edu.sy/en/contact-us

It is well respected in some European countries (exchange of students, graduates, qualifications, etc. .. see the relations with France for ex.) I couldn't turn up a map of the district with clear labels / the damage this article gives it a try (don't agree with all it says, see maps):

Sott news

It was (imho) just an ordinary lab facility, probably over-used, for multiple purposes, incl. training students. The very idea that chem weapons were developed / produced there is grotesque. Note that in the pix of the rubble (google it) one can intuit that it was at least partially emptied out before the attack. The usual stuff which spills about, like furniture, computers, file cabinets, curtains, piles of paper, sci. equipment like huge fridges, lab benches, blackboards, endless chairs, lights, etc. is missing.

[Apr 18, 2018] War is peace for these guys for key members of Trump administrqation

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: james | Apr 17, 2018 12:03:14 PM | 110

OT i liked this post i just read at craig murrays site, so i am reposting it...

"Hatuey
April 17, 2018 at 16:11

Let's get back to basics here.

If there's 2 countries in the world that are definitely not in a position to be arguing that we need to bomb anyone in the middle east, it's Britain and America. Jesus Christ almighty, that should be the unquestionable starting point in any discussion about human rights there. The middle east looks like World War Z because of these crackpots.

Once bustling modern cities in the middle east, with hospitals, universities, water, and everything you'd expect to find in a European city, are now crumbling lifeless carcasses because of these nutters.

War is peace for these guys. I mean that. Where we worry about war, they worry about peace. Because who is going to buy their guns and ammo if there's peace? And that's all they are selling. Coffee's for closers. The more misery and division they sow, the more sales they reap."

[Apr 18, 2018] I would think the Pentagon would like to test the Russian defense systems, and the Russians can't be completely sorry they got the opportunity to see how those new systems worked under operational conditions. The winners are the arms manufacturers.

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Valtin | Apr 17, 2018 2:36:59 PM | 131

These skirmishes (not skirmishes to those who live or die because of them), even ones that are war crimes, as this was, seem to me to be in large part ways in which the major powers test out their combat systems. I would think the Pentagon would like to test the Russian defense systems, and the Russians can't be completely sorry they got the opportunity to see how those new systems worked under operational conditions. The winners are the arms manufacturers. The losers are everybody else.

[Apr 18, 2018] There is nothing like American policies in the Trump era. Even the president is not necessarily the last word

Notable quotes:
"... Actually, there is nothing like "American policies" in the Trump era. The Washington Post carried two reports this week underlining the utter confusion within the Trump administration. Even the president is not necessarily the last word. ..."
"... One of these two astonishing reports titled Trump a reluctant hawk has battled his top aides on Russia and lost (here) narrates shocking details on how the former NSA in the White House HR McMaster simply hoodwinked a bumbling Trump into approving the proposal to expel 60 Russian diplomats from the US last month: ..."
"... The second WaPo report (here) narrates how even the famous Nikki Haley can no longer pretend to be Trump's authoritative voice. ..."
Apr 18, 2018 | blogs.rediff.com

Actually, there is nothing like "American policies" in the Trump era. The Washington Post carried two reports this week underlining the utter confusion within the Trump administration. Even the president is not necessarily the last word.

One of these two astonishing reports titled Trump a reluctant hawk has battled his top aides on Russia and lost (here) narrates shocking details on how the former NSA in the White House HR McMaster simply hoodwinked a bumbling Trump into approving the proposal to expel 60 Russian diplomats from the US last month:

The next day, when the expulsions were announced publicly, Trump erupted, officials said. To his shock and dismay, France and Germany were each expelling only four Russian officials The president, who seemed to believe that other individual countries would largely equal the United States, was furious that his administration was being portrayed in the media as taking by far the toughest stance on Russia

Growing angrier, Trump insisted that his aides had misled him about the magnitude of the expulsions. "There were curse words," the official said, "a lot of curse words."

The second WaPo report (here) narrates how even the famous Nikki Haley can no longer pretend to be Trump's authoritative voice.

I'm reminded of Roman Emperor Caligula (AD 37-41). He had a favorite horse by name Incitatus whom he once planned to designate as Roman consul. Caligula used to hold parties for friends in the steed's grand stables. In a fit of exuberant joy, he once named Incitatus a Minister of State.

The Trump presidency has not quite reached that point yet, but bizarre things are happening in the Washington Beltway – like in Caligula's decadent Rome in decline and fall. India will be well advised to keep distance.

[Apr 18, 2018] Transcripts of Lavrov interview by the BBC

Notable quotes:
"... Lavrov knows the game and he handled it in a mature, sensible way. ..."
"... Thanks for the Lavrov interview transcript - I never could have watched it. Lavrov is 100% real, and the other guy is just an English punk, of the false-tough-rude kind that they have specialized in producing for, all of my life certainly, and perhaps for much longer before then. ..."
"... But it's indicative. No BBC interviewer would normally be that unprofessional. I've got used to BBC presenters moving well clear of the neutral zone but this was out of the ordinary. The interviewer would not have been permitted to employ that attack dog approach were there not a strong consensus behind it. ..."
"... That aggressive and bull-headed consensus is what we've also seen in the Commons and in public statements. I've seen a little of American TV recently and it's equally strong there. ..."
Apr 17, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 | Apr 17, 2018 6:03:18 PM | 51

Some, like me, prefer to read transcripts than watch interview videos. Here's the BBC/Lavrov HardTalk interview transcript. One is clearly all about objectivity while the other promotes fantasies. It's entirely possible to remain calm when the facts are on your side, which tells you why the BBC reporter's agitated.

dh , Apr 17, 2018 6:56:59 PM | 60

@51 Thanks for the transcript. Stephen Saker is being intentionally provocative and impolite. His audience expects it. It's really just entertainment.

Lavrov knows the game and he handled it in a mature, sensible way.

Grieved , Apr 17, 2018 9:34:07 PM | 71
@51 karlof1

Thanks for the Lavrov interview transcript - I never could have watched it. Lavrov is 100% real, and the other guy is just an English punk, of the false-tough-rude kind that they have specialized in producing for, all of my life certainly, and perhaps for much longer before then.

But more than that, thanks for this: "entirely possible to remain calm when the facts are on your side"

Wonderful observation. Something I had never quite seen.

English Outsider , Apr 17, 2018 2:51:55 PM | 132
HD @ 74.

"I just got done watching Lavrov's interview on Hard Talk, which was painful. It's deja vu all over again for anyone who remembers MSM tactics in 2002-2003."

Very painful indeed. I watched it all through and wished I hadn't.

But it's indicative. No BBC interviewer would normally be that unprofessional. I've got used to BBC presenters moving well clear of the neutral zone but this was out of the ordinary. The interviewer would not have been permitted to employ that attack dog approach were there not a strong consensus behind it.

That aggressive and bull-headed consensus is what we've also seen in the Commons and in public statements. I've seen a little of American TV recently and it's equally strong there.

We've been thwarted in the Ukraine, knocked back in Syria, and R2P is losing the little hold it had. Do we, in this extraordinary BBC interview, see a hint of desperation on the part of our rulers and mentors?

[Apr 18, 2018] G7 Leaders Statement on Syria. Welcome to the 'rules based international order'...

What bunch of despicable liars. All G7 ;-)
Notable quotes:
"... "We the G7 Leaders...fully support all efforts made by the US, the UK and France to degrade the Assad regime's ability to use chemical weapons and to deter any future use, demonstrated by their actions taken on April 13. This response was limited, proportionate and necessary..." ..."
Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

John Gilberts | Apr 17, 2018 3:25:33 PM | 27

G7 Leaders Statement on Syria.

https://pm.gc.ca/eng/news/2018/04/16/g7-leaders-statement-syria

"We the G7 Leaders...fully support all efforts made by the US, the UK and France to degrade the Assad regime's ability to use chemical weapons and to deter any future use, demonstrated by their actions taken on April 13. This response was limited, proportionate and necessary..."

Welcome to the 'rules based international order'...

[Apr 18, 2018] Neoliberal stooge Macron and "Operation Stormy Daniels" in Syria

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Cassandra | Apr 17, 2018 2:02:34 PM | 4

President Macron recently stated that he has „proof" that CW were used in Douma and that is was the Syrian Army. Now the French govt has released the „evaluation nationale" but it seems no-one is paying attention to it.

https://www.defense.gouv.fr/content/download/528742/9123389/file/180414%20-%20Syrie%20-%20Synthe%CC%80se%20-%20Les%20faits.pdf

After reading the document carefully one can only reach one conclusion:

There is NO PROOF whatsover in this evaulation and it is obviously addressed to an audience considered to be incapable of critical thought. The format of the document is rather revealing because it contains no offical ID from a French „service" or ministry (just „Republique Francaise") and the authors are unknown (so no official takes personal responsibility for its content, like the phony „assessment" on CW released by the WH in 2017)

https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/3553049/Syria-Chemical-Weapons-Report-White-House.pdf

In order to find out who committed a crime, forensic evidence is extremely important, as we all know from detective thrillers and court-room dramas. But in this case, there is NO FORENSIC EVIDENCE (no criminal investigation by a CSI-unit). There are only unverified pics and videos posted on YouTube by the White Helmets (WH).

It is impossible to verify WHERE these pics/vids were taken and also WHEN because the metadata have been tempered with. The WH of course have NO CREDIBILITY whatsoever, being a cover for the massive „strategic information" (incessantly demonizing Assad) created by MI6, who also ran the massive PR for the artificial „rebels" in Syria. (See voltairenet.org for more on this).

And yet this is the basis for the „assessment" of the French govt. They write that
„French experts have analyzed the symptoms (visible in the pics and vids) which can be described as follows (respiratory distress, asphyxiation, cyanosis, skin-burns, excessive salivation, etc.) Taken together, these symptoms are characteristic für a CW-attack, especially for suffocating-agents. The use of asthma-sprays supports the thesis that such agents were used."

So instead of a forensic examination and autopsy, all we get is an interpretation of symptoms to fit the frame of the Assad-gasses-his-own-people horror-narrative. To this, they add statements from anonymous people working (in Douma) for medical NGOs like UOSSM (created in France in 2011, PR-front group) and SAMS (US directed front group) who claim that about a hundred people „stormed" their health facilities in Douma and at least 40 died as a result of the CW-attack.

They use medical staff of course as „CREDIBILITY-ENHANCERS" because in general people tend to trust doctors, nurses and paramedics, hence the „White Helmets" (and the faux „nurse" telling the heat-wrenchning, invented tale of the incubator-babies in Iraq)
I asked a friend who works for one of the biggest chemical companies in Germany (BASF) about the symptoms and he said they are consistent with a chlorine-exposure but that does NOT mean that it could ONLY have been chlorine. Very similar symptoms occur when people have been exposed to SMOKE-INHALATION (German: Rauchgasvergiftung)

And now it gets really interesting because a video has been released by Russian and Syrian TV stations in which two medical students who work for the emergency department of the Douma hospital, say that the people shown in the WH-video had indeed been exposed to SMOKE-INHALATION. (see links below)

A house in Douma had been hit by an airstrike which caused a fire in the lower floors and the partial collapse of the upper floors. So these people had breathing difficulties and were taken to the emergency dept of the hospital where they were given first aid. Suddenly some men appeared and shouted „this was a gas-attack!". They then began to douse the patients with cold water (from a hose), which caused panic (children screamed of course). These „dramatic" scenes were filmed then the strangers disappeared as quickly as they had arrived.

I cannot verify if these medical students told the truth, but given the political context, I have much more reason to believe them than the White Helmets or the French DGSE.

Just one more thing, the brochure from BASF about the dangers of chlorine contains one sentence that caught my eye:

„Wasser verstärkt die oxidative und ätzende Wirkung von Chlor"
(Water exacerbates the corrosive effect of chlorine (because hydrochlorid acid is formed through the moisture

So why would medical experts then hose down these alleged „chlorine" victims? Of course they would not. So this too, seems to show that the whole scene was staged.

Cassandra , Apr 17, 2018 2:08:32 PM | 7
Pt.2: WHY WOULD ASSAD DO IT?

The French govt also argues that the use of CW in East-Ghouta was both in a tactical and strategical sense a military stroke of genius but I'll spare you the BS except for one argument:

The „strategic" aspect was that Assad wanted to punish the civilians in „rebel-held" areas and by creating „terreur et panic" they achieved their aim of surrender.

„Because the war is not over for Assad, he wants to demonstrate thru these ruthless attacks, that resistance is futile "

This is baloney of course because the Russians and the SAA are winning and have painstakingly negotiated with the „rebels" and arranged for them to be evacuated in buses to Idlib. (Can anyone imagine the US-military doing such a thing after 7yrs of war?)

AND President Assad knows very well that the civilians in rebel-held areas were captives, treated like slaves, starved for food (sold by the rebels at exorbitant prices) and brutally executed if they refused to live under Sharia-law. So there was absolutely no need to „punish" them for anything.

(„Good heavens!") fmr. British military brass (even SF) now disagree with the French „evaluation" and their own government:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5616533/Former-head-Britains-special-forces-says-Assad-doesnt-need-use-gas.html

but the French stick to their surreal script .

„Given the operational situation in Eastern-Ghouta on April 7, we estimate with high-confidence that the responsibility (for the non-existent CW-attack) can be attributed to the Syrian Regime".
(Sound familiar?)

And finally they put in this „disclaimer" when they say

„Les services francaises are not in the possession of any information which would support the thesis, that these armed groups in East-Ghouta have endeavored to acquire CW for themselves or that they were already available to them."/BLOCKQUOTE>

(Now that is a BIG Lie even the MSM knows that the "rebels" have used CW (i.e.in Aleppo see Scott Ritter on this, Carla del Ponte, Seymour Hersh, Vanessa Beeley, etc.)

„Furthermore we regard a manipulation of the released pictures as implausible, because the groups present in Ghouta had no access to the means necessary to exercise a communication-manouver of this magnitude"

this absurd claim does not even deserve a comment )

The biggest lie comes at the end when they claim that

Assad has not declared all his CW to the OPCW,
has kept a clandestine CW-programm all the time (since 2013
has intensified the use of CW continually and that the Russians are in on this.

And then follow the (by now familiar) highly-manipulative phrases which are supposed to be imprinted on our brains now:

Undoubtedly a chemical attack was launched against civilians on April 7 in Douma
There is no other plausible scenario then the action of the SAA as part of a major offensive to retake East-Ghouta
Russia has undeniably actively supported these operations and the clandestine policy of the SARG for the use of CW

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=56&v=Q5HULURIyas
https://www.emedicinehealth.com/smoke_inhalation/article_em.htm#when_to_see_a_doctor_for_smoke_inhalation
https://www.basf.com/documents/corp/de/sustainability/employees/occupational-medicine/medical-guidelines/Chlor_D_BASF_medLeitlinien_D003.pdf (German)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syria-chemical-attack-al-qaeda-played-donald-trump_us_58ea226fe4b058f0a02fca4d (Scott Ritter)

WJ , Apr 17, 2018 2:07:22 PM | 6 Cassandra , Apr 17, 2018 2:08:32 PM | 7
Pt.2: WHY WOULD ASSAD DO IT?

The French govt also argues that the use of CW in East-Ghouta was both in a tactical and strategical sense a military stroke of genius but I'll spare you the BS except for one argument:

The „strategic" aspect was that Assad wanted to punish the civilians in „rebel-held" areas and by creating „terreur et panic" they achieved their aim of surrender.

„Because the war is not over for Assad, he wants to demonstrate thru these ruthless attacks, that resistance is futile "

This is baloney of course because the Russians and the SAA are winning and have painstakingly negotiated with the „rebels" and arranged for them to be evacuated in buses to Idlib. (Can anyone imagine the US-military doing such a thing after 7yrs of war?)

AND President Assad knows very well that the civilians in rebel-held areas were captives, treated like slaves, starved for food (sold by the rebels at exorbitant prices) and brutally executed if they refused to live under Sharia-law. So there was absolutely no need to „punish" them for anything.

(„Good heavens!") fmr. British military brass (even SF) now disagree with the French „evaluation" and their own government:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5616533/Former-head-Britains-special-forces-says-Assad-doesnt-need-use-gas.html

but the French stick to their surreal script .

„Given the operational situation in Eastern-Ghouta on April 7, we estimate with high-confidence that the responsibility (for the non-existent CW-attack) can be attributed to the Syrian Regime".
(Sound familiar?)

And finally they put in this „disclaimer" when they say

„Les services francaises are not in the possession of any information which would support the thesis, that these armed groups in East-Ghouta have endeavored to acquire CW for themselves or that they were already available to them."/BLOCKQUOTE>

(Now that is a BIG Lie even the MSM knows that the "rebels" have used CW (i.e.in Aleppo see Scott Ritter on this, Carla del Ponte, Seymour Hersh, Vanessa Beeley, etc.)

„Furthermore we regard a manipulation of the released pictures as implausible, because the groups present in Ghouta had no access to the means necessary to exercise a communication-manouver of this magnitude"

this absurd claim does not even deserve a comment )

The biggest lie comes at the end when they claim that

Assad has not declared all his CW to the OPCW,
has kept a clandestine CW-programm all the time (since 2013
has intensified the use of CW continually and that the Russians are in on this.

And then follow the (by now familiar) highly-manipulative phrases which are supposed to be imprinted on our brains now:

Undoubtedly a chemical attack was launched against civilians on April 7 in Douma
There is no other plausible scenario then the action of the SAA as part of a major offensive to retake East-Ghouta
Russia has undeniably actively supported these operations and the clandestine policy of the SARG for the use of CW

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=56&v=Q5HULURIyas
https://www.emedicinehealth.com/smoke_inhalation/article_em.htm#when_to_see_a_doctor_for_smoke_inhalation
https://www.basf.com/documents/corp/de/sustainability/employees/occupational-medicine/medical-guidelines/Chlor_D_BASF_medLeitlinien_D003.pdf (German)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/syria-chemical-attack-al-qaeda-played-donald-trump_us_58ea226fe4b058f0a02fca4d (Scott Ritter)

Piotr Berman , Apr 17, 2018 2:42:02 PM | 15
Re: but the French stick to their surreal script .

„Given the operational situation in Eastern-Ghouta on April 7, we estimate with high-confidence that the responsibility (for the non-existent CW-attack) can be attributed to the Syrian Regime".

I guess this is a matter of national pride and tradition. They invented surrealism after all. Although "we estimate with high-confidence that" could be also impressionistic: impressions are the higher truth.

Re: otherwise they could get Skripaled. ??? Does it mean "Do what we say if you do not want to share the fate of your pets", slow, painful death?

WJ , Apr 17, 2018 2:53:06 PM | 19
@15,

Yes. We are all just Guinea Pigs to Putin!

UOSSM looks to be a prime front for French military intelligence. Perhaps their recent "testimony" is not unrelated to the problems Macron
is having spelling out what, exactly, the French intelligence confirming the attack amounts to.

The thing is, France, if you want to play with the big boys here, you first need to do a much better job of impoverishing your citizens, lowering the level of their education, worsening their health care, and removing all domestic safety nets to the extent that you can.

Your citizens are uppity and skeptical because they have the relative leisure to think. Remove from them this leisure, and then they too will believe.

You moron.

English Outsider , Apr 17, 2018 11:24:46 PM | 78
Castellio@52

You say -

"Then, if you do find a distinction there: where's the distinction between "arming and training in the field" and "directing and assisting"?"

Unless we're logic chopping I have to confess I can find none. I think Putin's noble but as yet ineffectual UN Speech - "Do you even now not realise what you have done?" - will search us home in the coming years, as the facts of what we have done or caused to be done in Syria surface.

Many years ago I read an account by a young woman in Germany of her experiences up to 1945. Melitta Maschman had been a convinced Nazi and proud of the achievements of the Nazi years. That pride shines through her account, even though the account was written long after she had rejected her earlier convictions. Those convictions had been real enough too. From memory - I don't choose to read the book again - she was one of the few who attempted to keep the fight going even after the end of the war.

Melitta Maschman had a journey to make. Slowly, after the war, she had to come to terms with the fact that the time she had been so proud of was a time of horror. That the fighting men whose achievements she had been so proud of were also implicated in - or responsible for, as you imply the distinction is hair-splitting - the atrocities of the Eastern Front.

I think her account might have been genuine, as was her post-war rejection, though of course one can never tell from a book. Genuine or not, on a less dramatic, less monumental scale, that's the journey English and American patriots must slowly prepare for too. You must not be too critical if some of us are still reluctant to make that journey.

Thank you for your reply.

[Apr 18, 2018] US Says Russia Hacked Syrian Attack Evidence As Russia Finds Rebel Chemical Weapon Lab

Apr 18, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Update : Interfax reports that the Russian military has discovered a rebel-owned chemical weapons lab in Douma.

The Russian Defense Ministry says that components for Mustard Gas production were discovered along with cylinders of chlorine at a alb belonging to militants in Douma.

Additionally, Moscow has said it is stunned by a French statement that Russia is obstructing OPCW experts from entering Syria's Douma (echoing Ambassador Ward's). the Russian foreign ministry confirms OPCW expoerts are already in Douma.

* * *

And on the game goes...

While Russia's foreign ministry warns that Western powers are interfering with OPCW's work in Syria (noting that the chemical weapons experts' access to Douma is being hampered by remaining militants, supported by Washington), as Caitlin Johnstone details , we are now being told by US officials (and I assure you I am not making this up) that if the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons doesn't find evidence that the Syrian government conducted a chemical weapons attack in Douma last week, it's because Russia hid the evidence .

"It is our understanding the Russians may have visited the attack site," reports U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Ward.

"It is our concern that they may have tampered with it with the intent of thwarting the efforts of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission to conduct an effective investigation."

Via Caitlin Johnstone,

I guess the idea is that this international top-level investigative team on which tremendous credibility has been placed by the western world can be thwarted by Russians showing up with a Hoover and spraying some Febreze in the air like a teenage stoner when mom comes home? I'm not sure, but given the immense dearth of evidence we've been seeing in support of the establishment Douma narrative and the mounting pile of evidence contradicting it, it sure does sound fishy.

Now that the jihadist-occupied suburb of Douma has been retaken by the Syrian government, western journalists have been allowed in to poke around and start asking questions, and so far it isn't looking great for the propaganda machine .

The Independent 's Robert Fisk has published a report which affirms the story so many westerners have been dismissing as Kremlin propaganda for days now after interviewing a doctor from the hospital of the area where the Douma attack was supposed to have occurred. Dr Assim Rahaibani told Fisk that what was in actuality an outbreak of respiratory distress among occupants of a dusty oxygen-deprived tunnel was made to look like the aftereffects of a chemical weapons attack when a member of the White Helmets started shouting about a gas attack in front of a bunch of video cameras. Everyone panicked and started hosing themselves down, but in the video, according to Rahaibani, "what you see are people suffering from hypoxia  --  not gas poisoning."

This report was independently backed up by a reporter from One America News Network named Pearson Sharp, who gave a detailed account of his interviews with officials, doctors, as well as many civilians on the street Sharp says he deliberately selected at random in order to avoid accusations of bias. Many people hadn't even heard that a chemical weapons attack had taken place, and the ones who had said it was staged by Jaysh al-Islam. The staff at the hospital, including a medic-in-training who was an eyewitness to the incident, gave the same story as the account in Fisk's report.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/lSXwG-901yU

The increasing confidence with which these unapproved narratives are being voiced and the increasing discomfort being exhibited by empire loyalists like Ambassador Ward indicate a weakening narrative in the greater propaganda campaign against the Assad government and its allies, but don't hold your breath for the part where Fox News and the BBC turn around and start asking critical questions of the governments that they are meant to be holding to account.

The journalists who have been advancing the establishment narrative on Syria aren't about to start reporting that they've gotten the entire Syria story assballs backward and have been promoting a version of events manufactured for the benefit of CIA-MI6-Mossad agendas. You're not about to see CNN, who last year staged a fake scripted interview with a seven year-old Syrian girl to manufacture support for escalations against Assad, suddenly turn around and start asking if we're being told the full story about what's happening Syria.

Watch them closely. Watch how they steadfastly ignore the growing mountain of evidence and keep promoting the Syrian regime change agenda that the western empire has been working toward for decades . Watch them dismiss all evidence they can't ignore as Kremlin propaganda and shift the narrative whenever things start to look bad for them. Those riding the crest of the wave of establishment media are too far gone into the blob to ever admit error and change. The least among us aren't about to stop constructing a public reality tunnel which depicts them as heroes of truth, tear it all down, and start advancing a narrative which makes them look like fools at best and villains at worst. It will not happen.

Luckily for us, it doesn't need to. Internet censorship is still far from closing the door on our ability to network and share information, and we've been very effective at sowing skepticism among the masses. The war propagandists are not nearly as good at their jobs as they want to believe, and we can beat them.

They work so hard to manufacture support for war because they require that consent. If the oligarchs try to launch a war against a disobedient nation amidst very clear opposition from the public, they will shatter the illusion of freedom and democracy that their entire empire is built upon, and then they're exposed. Corporatist oligarchy has succeeded in weaving its web of dominance because its oppression has thus far remained hidden and its depravity disguised as humanitarianism. They cannot expose themselves by transgressing a loud NO from the public or else the masses will realize that everything they used to believe about their country, their government and their world is a lie.

They won't risk that. We can force them into retreating from open war by circulating facts and information and keeping a healthy level of skepticism circulating among the public. Watch them squirm, move goalposts and shift narratives, and point and yell about it whenever it happens. We can win the media war against the propagandists. We have truth on our side.

* * *

Internet censorship is getting pretty bad, so best way to keep seeing my daily articles is to get on the mailing list for my website , so you'll get an email notification for everything I publish. My articles and podcasts are entirely reader and listener-funded, so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook , following my antics on Twitter , checking out my podcast , throwing some money into my hat on Patreon or Paypal , or buying my new book Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers .


Give Me Some Truth -> Dickweed Wang Tue, 04/17/2018 - 12:42 Permalink

That fact-finding body (OPCW) could change the whole paradigm IF it finds conclusive evidence this was a false flag event, and IF they trumpet their findings to the world, and IF people get all the real ramifications of such a potential finding/announcement.

This said, I fully expect their "findings" to be a masterpiece of ambiguous language and weaslespeak.

This body after all is a creation of politicians and bureaucrats answering to many governments. They, almost certainly, will "punt."

... But if by some miracle they don't ...

adonisdemilo -> Give Me Some Truth Tue, 04/17/2018 - 13:02 Permalink

@Give Me Some Truth,

The OPCW had better release their findings if they contradict the "official" narrative before they fly out from Douma as they could well end up like the passengers on MH17.

That in itself will be another problem because the "good guys" will know within minutes that Russia did it.

BarkingCat -> Give Me Some Truth Tue, 04/17/2018 - 13:03 Permalink

"No conlusive evidence was found" will be the finding which either side can spin to their desire.

Russia - there is no evidence so there was no attack

US - the evidence was no conclusive but only because enough time has passed that it degraded to the point where a good sample could not be located.....and Russia kept the inspectors from the site in order for this to happen.

No minds will be changed.

[Apr 18, 2018] A small problem with Saudi Prince promise to send troops in Syria: approximately 70% of Saudi troops would defect to ISIS in no time!

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Tom | Apr 17, 2018 11:48:43 PM | 151

#111 and #144. Saud Arabia already have "troops" in Syria, Jaysh al-Islam and the rest of their inbred motley crew. That's the problem. If that happens, poor Kurds, stuck between rock and a hard place. My bet is that 70% of Saudi troops would defect to ISIS in no time!

[Apr 18, 2018] British government humor: what take us in Salisbury million of pound and several months Russians can do in Douma in one day

Apr 18, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: Tom | Apr 17, 2018 11:35:38 PM | 14 8

I saw an interesting tweet over at Charles Shoebridge. " To be clear, I don't dispute that as UK govt says cleaning up nerve agent may 'cost millions and take months'. But I do dispute that the same UK govt and media saying this can also with any consistency then suggest Russia has cleaned up Douma in just a few days. Jihadists claim that sarin was used as well as chlorine.

[Apr 17, 2018] Trump mulls Syria strike as Russia accuses Britain of staging alleged chemical attack

Was the goal of the attack to initiate Russia turkey split? If so the attack was very nasty, has typical for British imperial provocations sophistication, and was pretty successful.
Notable quotes:
"... Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said images of victims of the purported attack were staged with "Britain's direct involvement." ..."
Apr 13, 2018 | www.chicagotribune.com

...The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke with Macron and the two leaders agreed to coordinate their actions to avoid further military escalation in Syria. It was unclear how this might influence the direction of events.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said images of victims of the purported attack were staged with "Britain's direct involvement." He provided no evidence.

[Apr 17, 2018] Trump's Attack on Syria Shows the US Still Considers Itself a Global Policeman by Katrina vanden Heuvel

As Global times put it: "One of the major characteristics of the Trump administration's diplomacy is willfulness and recklessness, as if the all-mighty US has the right to do everything. However, the stronger a country is, the greater the responsibility it has to maintain world peace and order."
Apr 17, 2018 | www.thenation.com

Trump's Attack on Syria Shows the US Still Considers Itself a Global Policeman | The Nation The attack demonstrates that the United States still considers itself to be not simply the indispensable nation but a global policeman above the law. With the president claiming the right to use military force anywhere without congressional authorization -- and Congress so supine that, with few honorable exceptions, it does not object -- and the foreign-policy establishment across the board claiming the right to use force in direct, open, and arrogant violation of international law, we have reached the point where the US president acts as cop, judge, jury, and executioner.

With this president, of course, illegality has become the norm. Trump and our allies unleashed the attack even as the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was traveling to Syria to provide an independent, authoritative investigation of the attack on Douma and determine whether or not in fact chemical weapons were used, and if so, by whom. Trump preferred, in Alice in Wonderland fashion, sentence first, verdict after.

To protect the Syrian people from the horrors of alleged chemical-weapons use, we unleash missiles and bombs on the Syrian people. To enforce an alleged -- and, if true, grotesque -- violation of the international chemical-weapons ban, we trample the international ban on wars of aggression. Yes, yes, Trump says the mission was "perfect," and called it -- in an absurd echo of George W. Bush's infamous 2003 pronouncement about the Iraq War -- "mission accomplished." The media feature the tactical questions of how and what and when. We hear all the usual nonsense about smart weapons, surgical bombing.

This raid -- celebrated by neocons and their liberal interventionist allies alike -- derives from America's unipolar moment after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Then the heady liberal interventionists decided, in Madeleine Albright's words , that the United States was the "indispensable nation," that we could act because "we stand tall and we see further than other countries into the future." From that came the arrogant assumption that the United States could scorn the same international laws that it had championed at Nuremberg after World War II.

Former State Department official Anne Marie Slaughter spoke for the bipartisan consensus when she tweeted, "I believe that the US, UK & France did the right thing by striking Syria over chemical weapons . [even] if it is illegal under international law. But it at least draws a line somewhere & says enough."

We have arrogated to ourselves the right to attack other sovereign countries when they offend our judgments of proper behavior -- about human rights, against civil war on the European continent, against chemical weapons. Of course, we do not attack our allies such as Saudi Arabia in Yemen, or Israel in Gaza for engaging in such activities.

... ... ...

Seeing growing violence in Syria -- sparked by revolt generated by Assad's brutal reign -- Obama decided that like Ben Ali in Tunisia and Hosni Mubarak in Egypt, Assad must go. Even though Assad posed no threat to the United States, Obama dispatched the CIA and Special Forces to train and arm the insurgency against Assad. But many of those arms, ostensibly intended for "democratic" rebel forces, ended up in the hands of ISIS and other terror groups. The conflicts between Assad, Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Turks, and Persians grew more complex. Iran and Russia came to the aid of a sovereign head of state that the United States, in conjunction with its Gulf "allies," had been waging aggressive war to topple.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have been killed; millions uprooted...

Katrina vanden Heuvel is editor and publisher of The Nation.

[Apr 17, 2018] Winners and losers in Trump's Syria attack

Notable quotes:
"... In the absence of a coherent US strategy toward Syria, this latest attack may even stoke the fires of Syrian nationalism. ..."
"... Of course, new regional alignments will become inevitable. Turkey and Israel have backed the US attack. ( here ) The Turks' bazari instincts are legion and President Recep Erdogan senses a historic opportunity to project Turkish power into Syria and realize his "neo-Ottoman" dream. Trust him to overreach. ..."
"... Israel is a bit down due to the messy confrontation at the Gaza border ; or else, it would have jumped into the fray. Israel's best bet will be that the US keeps an open-ended military presence in a Syria that is balkanized and weak and is in no position to reclaim the lost territory in the Golan Heights that are under Israeli occupation since 1967. ..."
"... Tehran has hinted at "regional consequences." But Iran's style will be to avoid direct conflict with the US and opt instead to intensify its political work and consolidate its wide networking with various groups on the ground, which systematically keep undermining the US presence in Syria and Iraq. No doubt, Iran will intensify the politics of "resistance" against Israel. ..."
Apr 17, 2018 | blogs.rediff.com

The US President Donald Trump's mind took a fourth U-turn in almost as many days on Friday since he began speaking about his decision to withdraw the American forces from Syria and leave it to "others" to handle the endgame in the conflict. He swung to the extreme threatening a rain of missiles on Syria, only to back-track a day later to hint there might not be any attack at all, and finally to announce a joint US-UK-France attack on Friday.

If the former US Deputy Secretary of State Nicholas Burns, an experienced career diplomat, got the impression that POTUS was playing a video game, it comes as no surprise. Indeed, the most striking thing about the US strike on Syria is its futility of purpose beyond a symbolic value to impress the domestic constituency that POTUS is a forceful decision-maker, who unlike his predecessor Barack Obama, lays down 'red lines' and follows up.

Actually, it is a cowardly stance. Trump hastened to strike just hours before the investigation by the team from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was due to begin in Douma – as if time was running out to act with impunity. Clearly, Trump felt the compulsion to be seen acting. He had no authorization from the Congress nor did he secure a mandate from the UN Security Council to launch aggression against a UN member country.

The indignation and outrage in the statement by the UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will be widely shared by the world community:

"There's an obligation, particularly when dealing with matters of peace and security, to act consistently with the Charter of the United Nations and with international law in general. The UN Charter is very clear on these issues.

"The Security Council has primary responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. I call on the members of the Security Council to unite and exercise that responsibility. I urge all Member States to show restraint in these dangerous circumstances and to avoid any acts that could escalate the situation and worsen the suffering of the Syrian people."

Both the constitutionality of Trump's decision and the legality of the US attack under international law is highly questionable . However, the extenuating fact is that historically, the domestic public opinion rallies behind the POTUS when the US is at war abroad. For Trump's crumbling presidency, that is an over-riding consideration today.

On the other hand, the attack on Syria was carefully choreographed. Paris has disclosed that Moscow was informed in advance. Indeed, "deconfliction" proceedures were under discussion between the Pentagon and Russian Defence Ministry for the past 2-3 days. The attack clinically targeted alleged chemical weapon sites in three cities in Syria – Damascus, Hom and Hama. No military bases or assets were attacked. The missiles scrupulously avoided locations where there could be Russian personnel. Care was taken to avoid "collateral damage". In fact, there has been no reported casualty. On the whole, it is as if a riveting fireworks show has been conducted.

The Syrians claim they shot down a number of incoming missiles. But like in the Sherlock Holmes story, the dog didn't bark – not a single move has been reported by Russia to intercept the incoming missiles. Moscow simply watched a brawl unfold between the US, UK and France on one side and the Syrian regime on the other. Moscow instead turned on its propaganda apparatus to take the maximum advantage of the senseless, almost bizarre missile attack. If the OPCW team turns in a 'Nil' report from Douma shortly, Russian propaganda can be trusted to go for Trump's jugular veins.

The US attack will not create any new facts on the ground. The comprehensive victory of the Syrian regime of President Bashar Al-Assad in the 7-year conflict is becoming an irreversible reality. Arguably, this could be the last waltz of the western interventionist powers in Syria who had hoped to overthrow the regime and failed miserably. In the absence of a coherent US strategy toward Syria, this latest attack may even stoke the fires of Syrian nationalism.

Russia has spoken of "serious consequences", without elaborating. Will Russia escalate the situation? Seems unlikely. It is hard to see a Russian reaction on the ground – although Moscow is watchful that the western strategy ultimately threatens the Russian presence in Syria. Much depends on the next western move. The NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg is expected in Ankara on Monday.

In a strongly-worded statement, President Vladimir Putin has warned that the "escalation in Syria is destructive for the entire system of international relations. History will set things right, and Washington already bears the heavy responsibility for the bloody outrage in Yugoslavia, Iraq and Syria." Russia proposes to convene an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council "to discuss the aggressive actions by the US and its allies," Putin said.

Of course, new regional alignments will become inevitable. Turkey and Israel have backed the US attack. ( here ) The Turks' bazari instincts are legion and President Recep Erdogan senses a historic opportunity to project Turkish power into Syria and realize his "neo-Ottoman" dream. Trust him to overreach.

Israel is a bit down due to the messy confrontation at the Gaza border ; or else, it would have jumped into the fray. Israel's best bet will be that the US keeps an open-ended military presence in a Syria that is balkanized and weak and is in no position to reclaim the lost territory in the Golan Heights that are under Israeli occupation since 1967.

All eyes are on Iran. But Tehran will not speak its mind . Tehran's eyes are cast on the May 12 deadline when Trump must decide on the sanctions waiver to the July 2015 nuclear deal. The big question now is whether Trump would tear up the Iran nuclear deal in the present circumstances when the US needs the support of its European allies.

Syria constitutes Iran's defense line. Significantly, even as Trump was ratcheting up rhetoric against Syria, the powerful Iranian statesman Ali Akbar Velayati, advisor to Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei landed in Damascus on Wednesday, met President Assad and toured Douma, the alleged site of the chemical attack. It was a defiant gesture and act of solidarity with Assad.

Tehran has hinted at "regional consequences." But Iran's style will be to avoid direct conflict with the US and opt instead to intensify its political work and consolidate its wide networking with various groups on the ground, which systematically keep undermining the US presence in Syria and Iraq. No doubt, Iran will intensify the politics of "resistance" against Israel.

The Russia-Iran partnership in Syria is steadily morphing into an alliance, which is in mutual interests. The defeat of the US-Israeli-Saudi containment strategy against Iran may turn out to be the most significant and enduring outcome of this US attack on Syria.

Posted in Diplomacy , Military , Politics .

Tagged with Iran , Russia , Syria , Turkey , UN .

No comments "

By M K BhadrakumarApril 14, 2018

[Apr 17, 2018] Trump opens a Pandora's box in Middle East

Notable quotes:
"... Col.-Gen. Rudskoi chose his words carefully by hinting that Russia could also supply countries other than Syria (eg., Venezuela, North Korea, Lebanon, Iraq, etc.) The remark stems from President Vladimir Putin's hugely significant statement on Saturday regarding US attack on Syria when he said, inter alia: "The current escalation around Syria is destructive for the entire system of international relations. History will set things right " ..."
"... Trump's impetuosity to attack Syria is in defiance of the international system and it may open a Pandora's box. Ironically, Israel, as "frontline state", has the highest stakes if the unwritten understanding between the US and Russia unravels. (Moscow had collaborated with the Barack Obama administration and Israel to slow down the supply of S-300 missiles to Iran.) Equally, Turkey will have to think twice before venturing into further land grab in Syria if Damascus regains control of its air space. ..."
"... The Israeli think tank The Institute for National Security Studies had done a very informative paper in 2013 entitled Syria, Russia, and the S-300: Military and Technical Background. ..."
Apr 17, 2018 | blogs.rediff.com

There is no triumphalism in the US, Britain or France over the missile strike in Syria on Friday. The mood is rather defensive. Indeed, evidence is still lacking on the alleged chemical attacks in Douma, which was the alibi for the missile strike. There are no tall claims, either, as regards the effectiveness of the missile strike in military terms.

On the contrary, Damascus is in upbeat mood. April 14 has been declared a day of celebrations. After all, the Syrian forces single-handedly faced the Western assault. The Russian reports underscore that Syrian air defence system was highly effective. The Defence Ministry said in Moscow on Saturday that there haven't been any Syrian casualty. Moscow attests that the Syrians shot down as many as 71 missiles out of the total 103 fired by the US, UK and France. Neither Washington nor London and Paris has so far contradicted the Russian assessment.

President Donald Trump is the solitary voice crowing about the missile attack. He tweeted bombastically:

But Trump was grandstanding in front of the domestic audience and avoided making any specific claims about the success of the strike by his "smart" missiles. In sum, this has been a theatrical show.

The military balance in Syria now comes into play. For the Syrian regime, this is baptism under fire. Only recently, the Syrians had shot down an Israeli jet. Now they have scored 70% hit on Friday.

The Syrians are equipped with Soviet-era air defence systems developed in the 1960s. What if the Russians upgrade the systems? This is exactly what the head of Russian General Staff's Main Operations Directorate Colonel-General Sergei Rudskoi hinted in Moscow on Saturday:

"A few years ago, taking into account a pressing request from some of our partners, we abandoned the supplies of the S-300 missile systems to Syria. Considering the latest developments, we deem it possible to get back to discussing this issue, not only in relation to Syria, but to other countries as well."

No doubt, it will be a game changer if Russia equips the Syrian army with deterrent power to inflict unaffordable costs on potential aggressors. Iran has shown how such a strategy can work when it helped the Hezbollah in Lebanon to acquire deterrence against Israel.

In fact, Jerusalem Post newspaper has highlighted the Russian general's remark. The paper notes that if Moscow carries out the threat, "Israel's air superiority is at risk of being challenged in one of its most difficult arenas And it could be just a matter of time before an Israeli pilot is killed." The JP report adds,

Col.-Gen. Rudskoi chose his words carefully by hinting that Russia could also supply countries other than Syria (eg., Venezuela, North Korea, Lebanon, Iraq, etc.) The remark stems from President Vladimir Putin's hugely significant statement on Saturday regarding US attack on Syria when he said, inter alia: "The current escalation around Syria is destructive for the entire system of international relations. History will set things right "

Trump's impetuosity to attack Syria is in defiance of the international system and it may open a Pandora's box. Ironically, Israel, as "frontline state", has the highest stakes if the unwritten understanding between the US and Russia unravels. (Moscow had collaborated with the Barack Obama administration and Israel to slow down the supply of S-300 missiles to Iran.) Equally, Turkey will have to think twice before venturing into further land grab in Syria if Damascus regains control of its air space.

The Israeli think tank The Institute for National Security Studies had done a very informative paper in 2013 entitled Syria, Russia, and the S-300: Military and Technical Background. Read it here .

[Apr 17, 2018] Trump and TV

Notable quotes:
"... maybe someone could tell him the white helmet propaganda videos he's watching are paid for by usa-uk... it might slow him down a bit... ..."
Apr 17, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

"There is no truth to the rumor that, after watching an episode of "Gilligan's Island" on TV, President Trump ordered a search party sent out for the passengers and crew of the S.S. Minnow.

But there might be some truth that he does tend to get carried away with what he sees on television. We saw that last week when he launched a missile strike on the basis of what he admitted was his emotional reaction to a video.

james • 7 hours ago

maybe someone could tell him the white helmet propaganda videos he's watching are paid for by usa-uk... it might slow him down a bit...

[Apr 17, 2018] Trump Strikes Syria (And the Possible Consequences) by Dave Majumdar

Notable quotes:
"... Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for ..."
"... . You can follow him on Twitter: ..."
Apr 17, 2018 | nationalinterest.org

... ... ...

Virginia Senator Tim Kaine (D-VA) was one lawmaker who opposed Trump's strike on Syria -- noting that only Congress has the power to authorize the use of force except in cases of self-defense. "President Trump's decision to launch airstrikes against the Syrian government without Congress's approval is illegal and -- absent a broader strategy -- it's reckless," Kaine said in a statement. "Today, it's a strike on Syria -- what's going to stop him from bombing Iran or North Korea next? The last thing Congress should be doing is giving this president a blank check to wage war against anyone, anywhere."

Michigan Republican Congressman Justin Amash agreed. "These offensive strikes against Syria are unconstitutional, illegal, and reckless," Amash said in a tweet . "The next speaker of the House must reclaim congressional war powers as prescribed in Article I of the Constitution. @SpeakerRyan has completely abdicated one of his most important responsibilities."

... ... ...

International Law

Trump's strike on Syria is a violation of international law and the United Nations Charter -- to which the United States is a party -- according to a number of legal experts. "This military action is illegal," Hina Shamsi, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's National Security Project, said in a statement . "In the face of constitutional law barring hostile use of force without congressional authorization, and international law forbidding unilateral use of force except in self-defense, President Trump has unilaterally launched strikes against a country that has not attacked us -- and without any authorization from Congress. Doing so violates some of the most important legal constraints on the use of force."

...the Russian government has reacted with fury to the Trump's strike on Syria -- and is promising there will be consequences. "The worst apprehensions have come true. Our warnings have been left unheard," Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said in a statement. "A pre-designed scenario is being implemented. Again, we are being threatened. We warned that such actions will not be left without consequences. All responsibility for them rests with Washington, London and Paris. Insulting the President of Russia is unacceptable and inadmissible. The U.S. – the possessor of the biggest arsenal of chemical weapons – has no moral right to blame other countries."

Iran's Reaction

Iran, which also has forces engaged in Syria, condemned the allied attack. "The attack is the blatant violation of international laws, as well as ignoring the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Syria," Bahram Qasemi, spokesman for Iran's Foreign Ministry, said . "No doubt the US and its allies that are engaged a military intervention in Syria without any substantiated document and before any final report of the Organization for Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), and have supposed themselves as the world police and judge, are responsible for regional and international repercussions of the adventure, and should be held accountable."

... ... ...

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest . You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar .

[Apr 17, 2018] The Guardian view on bombing Syria: a decision for parliament. Editorial

Apr 17, 2018 | www.theguardian.com

Theresa May's decision to authorise British military action over the skies of Syria by royal prerogative rather than obtaining the backing of parliament was the wrong thing to do. Even if the prime minister thinks it was done for the right reasons. It was wrong because the government's plans should have been articulated so that MPs could have had a chance to endorse – or reject – a motion to bomb Bashar al-Assad's weapons factories. It was wrong because there was no emergency – an exception used when after a debate MPs retrospectively endorsed action against Muammar Gaddafi's Libya . It was wrong because only prime ministers can recall parliament – and there was time to do so. It was wrong because decisions about how to police the unlawful use of weapons of mass destructive terror in Syria turn upon judgment rather than available facts.

Parliament is the best place to assess whether the use of military force serves the overall interests of a nation in such cases. This is especially true of a government without a majority of its own. Jeremy Corbyn's resurrection of an old idea for a war powers act , which would force the PM not to authorise the active and large-scale deployment of British forces overseas without the approval of the House of Commons, ought not to be dismissed.

But it should be accompanied by a wider recognition that the days of self-regulation of cabinet government are over. Observing the parliamentary convention would be better than creating an act where fractious disagreements over the precise nature of the circumstances in which the law is to be applied – especially in a situation as fluid and volatile as war – prevail.

[Apr 17, 2018] Chemical weapons investigators enter Syria's Douma district report - Global Times

Apr 17, 2018 | www.globaltimes.cn

Investigators of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) entered the Douma district in east of Syrian capital Damascus on Tuesday to start investigating the allegations of chemical weapons use, state TV reported.

No more details were disclosed about the entry of the team to the previously rebel-held district, where an alleged gas attack by Syrian troops reportedly killed dozens of people and triggered off the US-led joint airstrikes on Syria on Saturday morning.

Syria has strongly rejected the allegations as fabrication by the rebels and Western countries to justify a military attack on the country.

The OPCW investigators, who arrived in Damascus on Saturday, have held several meetings with Syrian officials.

The Syrian government and its ally Russia had urged the OPCW to send a team to Douma to investigate the alleged use of chlorine gas.

Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal Mekdad said his government is keen to cooperate with the investigators, state news agency SANA reported.

Mekdad said that the investigators had held meetings with the Syrian government and discussed about carrying out its work with transparency, impartiality, and accuracy.

The US-led military strike on Syria has been widely criticized for prejudgment before the investigators reach a conclusion on if there was a gas attack or who should be responsible for it.

It is not the first time that the Syrian government has been accused of using chemical weapons. In April, 2017, the US launched a similar missile attack on a Syrian air base in the central province of Homs over the same allegation.

[Apr 17, 2018] Robert Fisk Reports Head of Douma Clinic Denies Chemical Weapons Attack by Craig Murray

Notable quotes:
"... It also says a great deal about our media that one of the greatest living British journalists is employed only by The Independent, a newspaper which has become extremely marginal, while other genuine greats like Jon Pilger, with a fantastic pedigree, do not have access to UK mainstream media at all. 60,000 people on average are reading my journalism here every day, but no mainstream outlet will carry it. ..."
Apr 16, 2018 | www.defenddemocracy.press

Robert Fisk is one of the very few excellent investigative journalists still employed in the UK. He is twice winner of the British Press Awards ' Journalist of the Year prize, and seven time winner of the British Press Awards' Foreign Correspondent of the Year. He is extremely smart and knows the Middle East very well. He has just made his way – not accompanied by Russian or Syrian government officials – to Douma and this is what he reports.

If you care to search for Robert Fisk on twitter, the attacks on his reputation and integrity at this very moment from achieve nothing neo-con trolls and media lackeys are astonishing. He is in Douma – they are at their desks.

--- Audio link deleted ---

It also says a great deal about our media that one of the greatest living British journalists is employed only by The Independent, a newspaper which has become extremely marginal, while other genuine greats like Jon Pilger, with a fantastic pedigree, do not have access to UK mainstream media at all. 60,000 people on average are reading my journalism here every day, but no mainstream outlet will carry it.

* is an author, broadcaster and human rights activist. He was British Ambassador to Uzbekistan from August 2002 to October 2004 and Rector of the University of Dundee from 2007 to 2010. https://www.craigmurray.org.uk

[Apr 17, 2018] Probable sequence of event in Douma false flag operation

Highly recommended!
Apr 17, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Eric Bloodaxe , Apr 15, 2018 11:22:31 AM | 30

Douma False Flag.

The Russians have in their pocket (filmed I believe) a notable at the Douma (only) hospital (can't remember who) that has described the White Helmets filming as; a bomb destroyed the top floor of the hospital and the film crew moved bodies and kids to the basement and doused them with hoses and sprayed them with Ventolin (asthma inhaler – blue). This provided the film used to justify the Cruise missile attack Fri 13th. 2018.

The Russians have rumbled the Douma false flag and the OECD chemical weapons investigators are on their way to the Douma hospital (basement) to find no chemicals, they report in a few weeks.

Lavrov has said that the British ordered the Douma rebels to make a chemical warfare White Helmets type movie fast, in desperation, since the Russians/SAA forces attack was moving fast and they could obtain support bombing. The whole of East Ghouta has been taken by the SAA.

A decent video exposure on TV, or even a simple web search, completely debunks the 'White Helmets' that filmed the fake gas attack in the Douma hospital in East Ghouta. Re. my earlier email.

May didn't wait (in panic) for parliament approval and went ahead with military action (8 of our missiles wasted at £6.3M).
The 11 'handlers' (said to be officers) are not in the hands of the Russians (who have swopped theirs for ours previously) but are held by the SAA and could well have have spilled the beans. If they are paraded (filmed) and spill the beans things will get ugly for May et al.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 15, 2018 11:54:09 AM | 33

Eric Bloodaxe 30

Two medics from the Douma hospital have been interviewed on video. I ran onto the videos a day or so back, but cannot find them at the moment.

A bombed building collapsed and caught fire, trapping people in the basement who died of smoke and dust inhalation and asphyxiation. Some wounded were taken to the hospital, some with injuries, others needed treatment only for smoke and dust inhalation. This is when the film crew rushed in shouted chemicals and told everyone to douse themselves with water.

There are two videos of the dead. One I think is actually taken where the people died. The frothing around the mouth and other discharges look genuine. These victims were then moved to a different place and videoed to make the 'CW' attack seem more widespread. This is the second video where bodies are obviously dumped and some shaving cream applied.

[Apr 17, 2018] The long hand of Bolton

Apr 17, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

CE , Apr 15, 2018 12:38:18 PM | 34

@16 "The long hand of Bolton"

I've posted the following deep in the previous thread, so here for those who missed it:

As to the OPCW making "political decisions", The Intercept had an interesting piece by Mehdi Hasan recently, about a certain John Bolton.

In 2001, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell had penned a letter to [OPCW head José] Bustani, thanking him for his "very impressive" work. By March 2002, however, Bolton -- then serving as under secretary of state for Arms Control and International Security Affairs -- arrived in person at the OPCW headquarters in the Hague to issue a warning to the organization's chief. And, according to Bustani, Bolton didn't mince words. "Cheney wants you out," Bustani recalled Bolton saying, referring to the then-vice president of the United States. "We can't accept your management style."

Bolton continued, according to Bustani's recollections: "You have 24 hours to leave the organization, and if you don't comply with this decision by Washington, we have ways to retaliate against you."

There was a pause.

"We know where your kids live. You have two sons in New York."

[Apr 17, 2018] Busted! Roger Waters(Pink Floyd) Hits "White Helmets"as Terrorists

Apr 17, 2018 | www.veteranstoday.com

The Syrian Civil Defense, more commonly known as the White Helmets, has emerged as one of the most effective propaganda tools for Islamist militants in Syria, with the group staging numerous provocations to draw in foreign military intervention to aid the militants in their quest to establish Shariah law in the Arab state. English singer Roger Waters, who was a member of the Pink Floyd rock band, slammed the White Helmets as "a fake organization that exists only to create propaganda for jihadists and terrorists," during a concert in Barcelona on April 13. His comments were met with cheers from the crowd.

He said the White Helmets encourages governments in the West to attack Syria and he called on people living in Europe and North America to urge their governments not to do so.

"If we were to listen to the propaganda of the White Helmets and others, we would be encouraged to encourage our governments to start dropping bombs on people in Syria. This would be a mistake of monumental proportions for us as human beings," Mr. Waters insisted.

"What we should do is go and persuade our governments not to go and drop bombs on people. And certainly not until we have done all the research that is necessary so that we would have a clear idea of what is really going on. Because we live in the world where propaganda seems to be more important than the reality of what is really going on."

The White Helmets have been suspected of having ties to the al-Qaeda* franchise, with members of the organization reportedly assisting affiliates of the terrorist group in executions and other human rights violations.

Many took to social media to praise Mr. Waters for lifting the White Helmet's façade and exposing the group.

Spanish crowd erupts in cheers as @rogerwaters calls the White Helmets a "fake organization" fronting for jihadist insurgents and denounces the Western bombing of Syria. Bricks in the wall of imperial deceptions are crumbling. https://t.co/B515yQUkKY

-- Max Blumenthal (@MaxBlumenthal) April 15, 2018

Until a few days ago, I knew very little about The White Helmets, other than hearing about their 'good works' .Having tried to find out more about them -- I now think they're a bunch of Islamist-allied charlatan scumbags, who should have ALL Govt funding withdrawn IMMEDIATELY.

-- Heather McDougall (@heatherm999) April 14, 2018

Roger Waters dispenses some truth serum on the #WhiteHelmets to his audience. pic.twitter.com/m9ciHnqWU5

-- Syricide (@Syricide) April 15, 2018

He nails it.

-- Eyjafjallajökull (@eyafjallajokull) April 15, 2018

Bravo Roger.

-- Eddie (@eddhowes) April 15, 2018

Mr. Waters is one of many who have been very vocal in their opposition to the strikes against Syria by the US, France and the UK, which were supposedly carried out in retaliation to an alleged chemical attack in the city of Douma earlier this month.

[Apr 17, 2018] 'No release of chemicals is best proof there were none' employee of bombed Syrian research site

Apr 17, 2018 | www.rt.com

An engineer at the now-bombed-out research facility north of Damascus, which the US claims was the heart of Syria's chemical weapons program, says the labs were making medicine and testing toys for safety. RT Arabic correspondents have visited one of the main targets of the US-led missile attack on Syria, the Scientific Studies and Research Center in the Barzeh district in northern Damascus. The three-story building was pelted with 57 Tomahawk missiles launched from US warships and 19 air-to-surface missiles, the Pentagon said.

The massive bombardment left it lying in ruins, with its walls and roof almost completely collapsed and lab equipment scattered around.

The morning after the strike, several media outlets, including RT, AFP, CBS News and others were given a tour to the former research facility, now little more than a pile of rubble.

[Apr 16, 2018] Russia's Red Lines in Relations with America by Stephen Lendma

Apr 16, 2018 | stephenlendman.org

n ( stephenlendman.orgHome – Stephen Lendman )

How much more US hostility toward Russia will it tolerate before declaring unacceptable red lines were crossed?

Washington and Moscow are on opposite sides of endless war in Syria – a US imperial project from day one of hostilities.

According to neocon Russophobe Nikki Haley and US ambassador to Moscow Jon Huntsman, further (illegal) Trump administration sanctions on Russia are coming, likely Monday.

They'll be imposed for Kremlin involvement in combating US-supported terrorists in Syria – cutthroat killers falsely called "rebels."

According to Haley, Russian enterprises allegedly "dealing with equipment related to Assad and any chemical weapons use" will be targeted.

No Syrian CWs exist, the nation's entire stockpile destroyed in 2014, confirmed by the OPCW. Yet according to Haley (and other lunatic fringe Trump administration Russophobes), Damascus has undisclosed CWs. Moscow is "covering this up."

The Big Lie persists. No evidence supports it. Facts on the ground never deter Washington from pursuing it diabolical imperial agenda.

US administrations and bipartisan congressional members consistently blame sovereign independent nations for US high crimes committed against them.

Haley falsely accused Moscow of aggressive behavior, turning truth on its head, claiming the Kremlin facilitated the alleged Douma CW incident.

Medical personnel on the ground treated no one for toxic poisoning, no one killed, ill or harmed, no CW residues found by Russian technical experts at the alleged site.

The false flag incident was staged to blame Syria and Russia for a nonevent – the Big Lie used as a pretext for US-led terror-bombing of Syrian sites, followed by more illegal sanctions on Moscow coming Monday.

On Sunday, OPCW inspectors arrived in Douma to inspect the site of the alleged CW attack, according to Syria's Deputy Foreign Minister Ayman Soussan.

AMN news said following US-led terror-bombing of Syrian sites, Russia is sending government forces more weapons and heavy equipment.

According to Southfront, the Pentagon lied, claiming all missiles fired struck Syrian targets – at the same time expressing concern about mission results.

An internal probe will be conducted to produce a more accurate after-action report, including why Syrian air defense systems downed most incoming missiles – reportedly 71 of 103 fired.

Washington intends permanent occupation of Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. According to Assad UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari, one-third of the country is illegally occupied by US forces, adding:

Security Council debates omit discussing this key issue. Along with terrorists permanent SC members America, Britain and France support, Damascus faces "three aggressors:" Washington, London and Paris. "We are a state," Jaafari stressed, "the sovereignty of which has been violated by a permanent member of the UNSC."

The international community ignores this core issue of the conflict, along with US-led aggression, using terrorists as foot soldiers, pretending endless war is "civil."

After the latest US-led aggressive incident on a sovereign state, what's next? Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the Kremlin has "obvious red lines," adding Moscow will do all it can to pull East/West relations out of a dangerous "political nosedive." Addressing the issue diplomatically assures continued failure, along with weakness, encouraging Washington to slam Russia and Syria harder.

Dealing with hegemonic America requires using the only language it understands – challenging it forcefully. Pursuing failed policies assures making a bad situation worse ahead. Washington isn't likely to step back from the brink unless pushed. Diplomacy is futile, accomplishing nothing, encouraging greater US hostility, including endless aggression in Syria and tough anti-Russia actions.

Washington's rage for global dominance likely assures an eventual East/West showdown. Responding weakly to hostile US actions assures more to come, likely harsher than already. When will Russia respond with toughness – better to risk it in Syria than be forced to act in defending its heartland.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org ( Home – Stephen Lendman ). Contact at [email protected] .

My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III."

[Apr 16, 2018] America's Fling With the Kurds Could Cause Turkey and NATO to Split by Mark Perry

Notable quotes:
"... "This is clientism," the senior military officer with whom I spoke explains. "All of these guys have served together and trust each other. And, you know, this is the way it works. The U.S. Central Command has the Middle East as a client and the European Command has the Europeans and Turkey as clients. But if you take a look at Mattis and the people around him, well, you know, it's all Centcom. ..."
"... Erdogan emphasized three growing concerns he has that America's temporary and "transactional" support for the YPG is becoming permanent. This same official went on to note that, in his opinion, it's not a coincidence that Trump floated the idea of withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria ("I want to get out," he said. "I want to bring our troops home") -- a suggestion that did not go over well with Centcom partisans at the Pentagon. ..."
Apr 16, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

In fact, just how "ugly" the relationship has become is fast becoming a matter of public debate. During his March visit, Scaparrotti appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee to give testimony on the challenges facing his command. While most members focused on Russia and cyberwar issues, Virginia Senator Tim Kaine explored the U.S.-Turkey dust-up, hinting that it might be time for the U.S. to dampen its YPG ties. Scaparrotti didn't disagree, while soft-pedaling the disagreements over the issue that he's had with Votel and Centcom. "Where do we want to be in a year, two years and five years?" he asked. "With a close NATO ally like Turkey, we know that we want to maintain and strengthen our relationship. So that's the long-term objective and if we look at the long-term objective, it can begin to inform what we're doing today with respect to NATO." The senior military officer with whom I spoke proved a willing translator: "What Scaparrotti is saying is that the real marriage here is between the U.S. and Turkey. The YPG is just a fling."

But convincing James Mattis of that is proving difficult, in part because Scaparrotti is outgunned. Every defense secretary surrounds himself with people he can count on and who he listens to. But for Mattis almost all of them have had experience in the Middle East -- and at Centcom. There's Mattis himself (a former Centcom commander), JCS Chairman Joseph Dunford (who served with Mattis in Iraq), Joint Staff Director Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie, Jr. (a Marine who served in both Afghanistan and Iraq), retired Rear Admiral Kevin M. Sweeney (the former Centcom executive officer), Rear Admiral Craig S. Faller (a Mattis advisor, and a Navy commander during both the Afghan and Iraq wars), and current Centcom commander General Joseph Votel -- the former commander of the U.S. Special Operation Command ("a trigger puller," as he was described to me by a currently serving officer). Votel is the most outspoken YPG supporter of any of them, and because he's the combatant commander, his support carries weight.

"This is clientism," the senior military officer with whom I spoke explains. "All of these guys have served together and trust each other. And, you know, this is the way it works. The U.S. Central Command has the Middle East as a client and the European Command has the Europeans and Turkey as clients. But if you take a look at Mattis and the people around him, well, you know, it's all Centcom. So Scaparrotti is worried, and he ought to be. We don't want to be sitting around 30 years from now reading historical pieces with titles like 'Who Lost Turkey?'"

Even someone as careful in his public utterances as Admiral James Stavridis, who once held Scaparrotti's command and is now the dean of the Fletcher School at Tufts University, is raising concerns. While he waves off the "who lost Turkey" formulation as "a trope that is moving around the Internet," he told me in an email exchange that "it would be a mistake of epic proportions to allow Turkey to drift out of the transatlantic orbit" -- a repeat of the warning issued by Scaparrotti to Mattis in March. But like Scaparrotti, Staviridis is slow-rolling his disagreement. "This is a distinction without a difference," the senior officer and NATO partisan with whom we spoke says. "By drifting out of NATO, Stavridis means leaving. He's as worried as anyone else."

Concerns over Turkey are probably a surprise in the White House, given its almost daily crisis over the looming Russia-gate investigation, but they shouldn't be. The president has had extended telephone exchanges with Turkish President Tayyip Erodogan twice in the last three weeks. While the White House has refused to give details of these conversations, the Turkish official with whom we spoke told TAC that in both conversations (on March 23 and again on April 11), Erdogan emphasized three growing concerns he has that America's temporary and "transactional" support for the YPG is becoming permanent. This same official went on to note that, in his opinion, it's not a coincidence that Trump floated the idea of withdrawing U.S. troops from Syria ("I want to get out," he said. "I want to bring our troops home") -- a suggestion that did not go over well with Centcom partisans at the Pentagon.

On April 3, the same day Trump issued his let's-get-out statement, Joseph Votel and Brett McGurk appeared at the U.S. Institute of Peace, arguing that the U.S. needed to stay in. "The hard part, I think, is in front of us," Votel said, "and that is stabilizing these areas, consolidating our gains, getting back to their homes. There is a military role in this," he went on to say. "Certainly in the stabilization phase."

The Votel appearance was exasperating for those worried about NATO's future, and for those concerned that the endless conflicts in the region are draining the defense budget of badly needed funds to rebuild U.S. military readiness. For them, a group that now includes a growing number of very senior and influential military officers, "stabilization" is not only a codeword for "nation building," it signals support for a mission that is endangering the future of NATO, the institution that has guaranteed peace in Europe for three generations.

"It's not worth it," the senior military commander who spoke with TAC concludes. "On top of everything else, it puts us on the wrong side of the political equation. This whole thing about how the enemy of my enemy is my friend is a bunch of bullshit. The enemy of my enemy is now making an enemy of our friend. I don't know who we think we're fooling, but it sure as hell isn't Turkey. And it isn't the American people either."

Mark Perry is a foreign policy analyst, a contributing editor to The American Conservative, and the author of The Pentagon's Wars (2017).

[Apr 16, 2018] Macron takes fire for Syria attack

Macron is a neoliberal. As such he is a Washington marionette. So what other behaviour you would expect from him ? He is no Charles de Gaulle
And UN charter was violated by the USA already so many times, that it is difficult to take its existence seriously. The USA clearly view itself above the law at least since 1991.
"Ten days ago, President Trump was saying 'the United States should withdraw from Syria.' We convinced him it was necessary to stay." Thus boasted French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday, adding, "We convinced him it was necessary to stay for the long term."
Apr 16, 2018 | www.presstv.com

On Monday, the head of the far-left France Insoumise party, Jean-Luc Melenchon, said that there was no proof of the chemical attacks which were used as a pretext to the US-led strikes.

"It's in this context that morals and the adherence to the resolution of the United Nations does not fully prove advantageous, that we intervened, without any proof. I'm not saying without certainty or conviction. I'm not saying that intelligence services are incapable of evaluating the situation," he added.

"But according to international law and international action, we can only act based on proof confirmed by institutions that are responsible. However, these institutions were in the process of conducting their investigations at the time of the strikes," he said during parliamentary debate on the airstrikes.

He further noted that strikes were carried out without a mandate from the United Nations "I'm adding that not only did we not have any mandate from the United Nations, but we did not at all consider any regional organization involved in the situation in Syria, or at least Western ones," he added.

Melenchon went on to stress that the attacks were carried out without consideration of "the people in whose name we claim to act."

The leader of the far-right Front National, Marine Le Pen, also said that Macron had not offered any evidence of the use of chemical weapons by the Syrian regime.

On Sunday, Macron defending the strikes claiming that he convinced US President Donald Trump to keep troops in Syria. Wh ,> 1 hour ago

Think about it, the three stooges strikes chemical sites irresponsibly in order to make them
airborne to kill more civilians. Fortunately non of the sites that were bombed did NOT have
any airborne of chemical syndrome, that meant there were no chemical weapon at those
sites. Douma must have been targeted but those missiles were shoot down. They will make
false flag again in order to destroy Douma to erase false evidence.

[Apr 16, 2018] Tracing the Rush to War by Craig Murray

Notable quotes:
"... And in the later articles posted here, he writes: "That puts Saudi Arabia (and its client jihadists), Saudi Arabia's close ally Israel, the UK and the USA all in the frame in having a powerful motive in inculcating anti-Russian sentiment prior to planned conflict with Russia in Syria. Any of them could have attacked the Skripals." ..."
Apr 16, 2018 | www.unz.com

I have never ruled out the possibility that Russia is responsible for the attack in Salisbury, amongst other possibilities. But I do rule out the possibility that Assad is dropping chemical weapons in Ghouta. In this extraordinary war, where Saudi-funded jihadist head choppers have Israeli air support and US and UK military "advisers", every time the Syrian army is about to take complete control of a major jihadist enclave, at the last moment when victory is in their grasp, the Syrian Army allegedly attacks children with chemical weapons, for no military reason at all. We have been fed this narrative again and again and again.

We then face a propaganda onslaught from neo-con politicians, think tanks and "charities" urging a great rain of Western bombs and missiles, and are accused of callousness towards suffering children if we demur. This despite the certain knowledge that Western military interventions in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya have had consequences which remain to this day utterly disastrous.

I fear that the massive orchestration of Russophobia over the last two years is intended to prepare public opinion for a wider military conflict centred on the Middle East, but likely to spread, and that we are approaching that endgame. The dislocation of the political and media class from the general population is such, that the levers for people of goodwill to prevent this are, as with Iraq, extremely few as politicians quake in the face of media jingoism. These feel like extremely dangerous times.


Ronald Thomas West , Website April 16, 2018 at 4:58 am GMT

Precisely what is meant to negate the "why on earth are we entering armed confrontation with a nuclear power" argument, I do not know

Well, Craig, you could try bringing some heat here:

https://ronaldthomaswest.com/2018/04/15/what-can-be-known-vs-what-will-be-known/

^ It beats singing to the choir

ValmMond , April 16, 2018 at 5:08 am GMT
I stopped reading at:

"I have never ruled out the possibility that Russia is responsible for the attack in Salisbury"

Time for timid half-truths is over. If by now you haven't identified the Skripal affair as the joint UK/US production it is, Act I of the AngloZionist war on Syria, Russia and humanity, your analysis isn't worth the pixels it's written on. There is zero doubt. Case closed. Especially after this:

https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2018/04/15/swiss-governmental-lab-identifies-the-substance-used-on-the-skripal-case-as-being-linked-to-the-nato/

I wish you realize that appeals to skepticism and lines like "I'm not fan of Putin/Assad" get you nowhere. You are facing a brutal, fact-twisting, intellect-insulting, lying, propaganda machine. Any concession you make to their "arguments" comes with the smell of blood. They'll mock your "moderate" views and will try to make you look weak and foolish as Sky-news did. You can't be only half-brave, half-informed and half-right. And why engage those shameless liars if not to destroy completely their blatant lies?

Wally , April 16, 2018 at 5:44 am GMT
BREAKING: British-US Toxin, Not Novichok used in Salisbury Attack

https://principia-scientific.org/breaking-british-us-toxin-not-novichok-used-in-salisbury-attack/

Swiss lab says 'BZ toxin' used in Salisbury, not produced in Russia, was in US & UK service

jilles dykstra , April 16, 2018 at 7:39 am GMT
Who pulls the strings ?

When Hungary prepared democratically laws to stop Soros meddling in Hungary Soros phoned Brussels, spoke to Juncker and Tusk, the next day Timmermans tried to intimidate the Hungarian government.

Just now there have been Hungarian elections, anti migration and anti Soros Orban was elected.

European parliament member Sargenti now wants to take Hungary's voting right in the EU away.

Sargenti is on the 231 member list that seem to be followers of Soros.

As Jimmy Carter once said 'those that want war do not expect that they themselves are going to be hurt'.

That in the next world war anyone will be more than hurt, killed, the war mongers do not understand, cannot believe.

Randal , April 16, 2018 at 10:03 am GMT
@ZummaZero

Please, why don't you mention the other possibilities, instead of "the Russian one"?

Bit harsh to criticise Craig Murray on that score. I see your point, and it would be a valid point to raise with an establishment journo who has been generally an effective part of the anti-Russia propaganda campaign, but Murray has discussed the other options on many occasions (and been the brunt of some pretty harsh establishment bullying in response).

In this case, it can safely be regarded as just efficient writing.

Vojkan , April 16, 2018 at 11:12 am GMT
Even if Assad did use gas, which he obviously didn't, who the heck are the Americans, the British, and the French to lecture anyone on morality, given that they unlike Assad did practice chemical warfare, and killed uncounted millions around the globe with "conventional" means in order to loot them, and to "punish" Assad as the bankster with an Oedipus complex Macron put it?
Tsar Nicholas , April 16, 2018 at 11:21 am GMT
@ValmMond

I think you are being unfair.

Mr Murray lost his job because he stood up for the right thing in 2004 and he has been abused ever since. His sanity has been called into question ever since he suggested the British government weren't telling the truth. His brief period in an instiuttion after Blair sacked him has been brought up more than once.

I suspect Craig's position of apparent open-mindedness has arisen from a lengthy Sky News TV interview with the appalling Kay Burley. He was careful in an eighteen minute segment not to give cause for Burley to label him as a Putin bot. He was most careful not to take the focus off the weakness in the British government's position and I think that was correct.

As soon as you see the tissue of lies emanating from London the innocence of Moscow follows naturally. Mr Murray was correct not to allow himself to be provoked by Kay Burley and she was visibly annoyed by her failure.

Sky News tried to bury the confrontation but somebody recorded it and you can find the interview at craigmurray.org

TT , April 16, 2018 at 2:49 pm GMT

The ever excellent Campaign Against the Arms Trade is back in the English High Court again today in its continuing attempts to ban arms sales to Saudi Arabia. It is against UK law to sell arms to a country which is likely to use them in breach of international humanitarian law , and that Saudi Arabia consistently and regularly uses British weapons to bomb schools, hospitals and civilians is indisputable.

Why didn't the High Court ban arm sales to UK army, which is using them in breach of international humanitarian law, consistently & regularly since its colonial era, in Vietnam & Korea wars, Blair's Iraq WMD illegal war, Cameron's illegal Libya bombing, and now May's illegal attack to Syria.

Saudi arabia Yemen's war pale in comparison to UK long history of atrocities. What a British hypocrite law enacted in a kangaroo judicial system? A country of government infested with shameless warmonger liars & paedophiles, yet popularly elected by its people. What a great Anglosaxon-West civilization & glorious demoncrapcy system to be spread around the world for easy subversion & regime change.

Proven guilty Iraq war criminal Tony Blair is walking free, repeating his same lies again to push for illegal Syria attack. Yet not a single war protest from UK people. Touch a LBGT issue or Trumps visit, British will gone hysteria protest in London, oh what a great nation. World Capital of paedophiles, war criminals & pathological liars.

How can God save the Queen that connive criminals, with stolen wealth soaking with innocents blood.

EliteCommInc. , April 16, 2018 at 3:53 pm GMT
I appreciated the frame you provided. That's a very serious charge against Great Britain -- sadly, I found it a somewhat compelling and disconcerting.

I suspect that in all of this there are fears that it's a response to enemies without as opposed to enemies from within. I have no idea where this notion comes from -- that states can act as authority for UN missions without the consent of the UN. Great Britain's press here sounds very much like the legal gymnastic of the US to invade Iraq and has much weight -- I agree.

The chaos in Libya, Syria, the Ukraine is the direct result of US and EU manipulation. I just don't know how to support "wrongness" on so many levels and consider myself a person of integrity. The humanitarian crisis in all of the regions is exacerbated by our own violations of law and foreign policy best practices.

Pale hobo , April 16, 2018 at 4:10 pm GMT
Not a bad article, but superficial. Does not address the why question and the huge ideological difference between Russia and the 'West' which leads to war.
Zumbuddi , April 16, 2018 at 4:21 pm GMT
@ValmMond

Agree. Resisting lying provocation to war should be done with what ZUSA terms "moral clarity." Said another way, No Quarter, No Mercy. If the need is felt to characterize Assad, the only things that needs be said are that he is the legitimate leader of a sovereign nation, and that attempts to topple him, by ZUSA & Anglos, are in direct violation of United Nations charter.

Greg Bacon , Website April 16, 2018 at 5:02 pm GMT

I have never ruled out the possibility that Russia is responsible for the attack in Salisbury, amongst other possibilities.

And I have never ruled out the word which can not be spoken, that ISRAEL was behind both attacks, to justify getting their US/UK/French lackeys to do in Syria what they can not without taking losses, attacking Syrian cities with cruise missiles.

Poisoned toothpaste and exploding phones: New book chronicles Israel's '2,700' assassination operations

Poisoned toothpaste that takes a month to end its target's life. Armed drones. Exploding mobile phones. Spare tyres with remote-control bombs. Assassinating enemy scientists and discovering the secret lovers of Muslim clerics.

A new book chronicles these techniques and asserts that Israel has carried out at least 2,700 assassination operations in its 70 years of existence. While many failed, they add up to far more than any other western country, the book says.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/mossad-assassinations-israel-foreign-operations-arafat-book-shin-bet-ronan-bergman-interviews-a8181391.ht

The main beneficiary of the recent cruise missile attacks against Syria is Israel, so let's be honest and see what happens.

From an April 2003 Haaretz article:

The war in Iraq was conceived by 25 neoconservative intellectuals, most of them Jewish, who are pushing President Bush to change the course of history. Two of them, journalists William Kristol and Charles Krauthammer, say it's possible.

This is a war of an elite. [Tom] Friedman laughs: I could give you the names of 25 people (all of whom are at this moment within a five-block radius of this office) who, if you had exiled them to a desert island a year and a half ago, the Iraq war would not have happened.

http://www.haaretz.com/news/features/white-man-s-burden-1.14110

Mike P , April 16, 2018 at 7:37 pm GMT
@James Brown

So, aside from selling weapons to Syria and Iran – and thus, giving up control over those weapons – what exactly should Putin have done to continue receiving your approval? Start WW3?

Another question: if this is just a staged play of good cop, bad cop – why does the puppet master behind the scenes not advance the plot? Why the need for silly diversions into the bucolic English countryside, and for embarrassing cameos by French boy princes?

Mike P , April 16, 2018 at 8:36 pm GMT
@Stonehands

Not sure where you are from, but some countries – particularly those that have experienced it at home – consider war a serious business, not quite the same as a bar brawl in Dodge City.

Anon [425] Disclaimer , Website April 16, 2018 at 8:51 pm GMT
Western Media are turning into a Laughing Gas attack.
paul23 , April 16, 2018 at 8:58 pm GMT
I keep hearing that the Qatar – Europe pipeline is the source of the Syria War, what I cant understand if their so desperate for this why does it need to go through Syria, theres`s other ways like across SA and up the red sea?
Antiwar7 , April 16, 2018 at 9:03 pm GMT
@ZummaZero

In Murray's first post on the Skripal story, he lists other possible suspects as Orbis Intelligence (who produced the Steele dossier) and the state of Israel:

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2018/03/russian-to-judgement/

And in the later articles posted here, he writes: "That puts Saudi Arabia (and its client jihadists), Saudi Arabia's close ally Israel, the UK and the USA all in the frame in having a powerful motive in inculcating anti-Russian sentiment prior to planned conflict with Russia in Syria. Any of them could have attacked the Skripals."

SolontoCroesus , April 16, 2018 at 9:16 pm GMT
@Sean

The West would simply like him to meet his obligations and stop gassing people as there is an international agreement against killing people that way. Why can't he just stick to the normal use of high explosives to blast them to pieces?

Why can't he just stick to the normal use of high explosives to blast them to pieces?

Because that process is still under Israeli patent protection??

ValmMond , April 16, 2018 at 9:49 pm GMT
@Stonehands

Didn't he and various generals plainly state that retaliation would be swift and immediately delivered to any such platform?

Yes, if Russian military assets in Syria are targeted or hit. The US strike was the warfare equivalent of a plate smashing fit thrown by a hysterical tranny. Just a loud demonstration of impotence and fishing for attention. It's better handled unanswered. Now, if the tranny decides to go in a full abuser mode, Putin may seriously mess up her makeup.

[Apr 16, 2018] The Bolton-Pompeo Package

Notable quotes:
"... Given that a key function of that position is to ensure that the bureaucracy provides the relevant options and most accurate information to the president before major national security decisions, it is hard to think of anyone more ill-suited to that duty. Bolton's method of policy formation has been to try to bully any part of the bureaucracy that does not subscribe to his personal agenda, and to try to bully away any part of the truth that does not serve his objectives. ..."
"... The Senate is about to have an opportunity to weigh in on another highly important foreign policy position, that of secretary of state, for which President Trump has nominated Mike Pompeo. Senators ought to consider that nomination in tandem with the appointment of Bolton as national security adviser, even though the Senate formally has a role with only one of those appointments and not with the other. Senators should consider the two as a package deal. They should not vote to confirm Pompeo if they are uncomfortable with either part of the package. ..."
"... The main reason to approach the Pompeo nomination this way is that the nation currently has a president who, sad to say, needs restraint. He will need restraint all the more during the coming months as troubles of his own making increase the chance that he will lash out in destructive ways . ..."
"... But both Pompeo and Bolton are more likely to accentuate Trump's impulses than to restrain them. Bolton got his job because the sort of things he says on Fox are more what Donald Trump likes to hear than the briefings that H.R. McMaster gave him, which evidently were too long for Trump's taste or for his short attention span. ..."
"... Pompeo did not rise so quickly from being a relatively junior congressman functioning as a partisan attack dog to where he is now, on the verge of occupying Thomas Jefferson's chair, by telling Trump what he needs to hear rather than what he wants to hear. ..."
Apr 16, 2018 | nationalinterest.org

This week John Bolton assumes the job of national security adviser. Given that a key function of that position is to ensure that the bureaucracy provides the relevant options and most accurate information to the president before major national security decisions, it is hard to think of anyone more ill-suited to that duty. Bolton's method of policy formation has been to try to bully any part of the bureaucracy that does not subscribe to his personal agenda, and to try to bully away any part of the truth that does not serve his objectives. Bolton's objectives are characterized by never meeting a war or prospective war he didn't like. He still avows that the Iraq War -- with all the costs and chaos it has caused, from thousands of American deaths to the birth of the group that we now know as ISIS -- was a good idea. That someone with this perspective has been entrusted with the job Bolton now has is a glaring example of how there often is no accountability in Washington for gross policy malpractice.

Appointments as national security adviser are not subject to Senate confirmation. If they were, it would be appropriate for the Senate to react as it did the last time Bolton came before that body as a nominee for a job that does require confirmation. In 2005 the Senate turned down his nomination to be ambassador to the United Nations. The Senate review brought to light some of the uglier aspects of Bolton's conduct in his previous job as an undersecretary of state. President George W. Bush gave him a recess appointment to the U.N. job, but fortunately that meant there was a time limit to the destruction Bolton could wreak in that position.

https://lockerdome.com/lad/9521689830966886?pubid=ld-7032-4043&pubo=http%3A%2F%2Fnationalinterest.org&rid=nationalinterest.org&width=637

The Senate is about to have an opportunity to weigh in on another highly important foreign policy position, that of secretary of state, for which President Trump has nominated Mike Pompeo. Senators ought to consider that nomination in tandem with the appointment of Bolton as national security adviser, even though the Senate formally has a role with only one of those appointments and not with the other. Senators should consider the two as a package deal. They should not vote to confirm Pompeo if they are uncomfortable with either part of the package.

The main reason to approach the Pompeo nomination this way is that the nation currently has a president who, sad to say, needs restraint. He will need restraint all the more during the coming months as troubles of his own making increase the chance that he will lash out in destructive ways . The copious commentary during the fifteen months of the Trump presidency about having "adults in the room" to restrain the worst urges of an inexperienced and impulsive president speaks to an important truth. Whether adult supervision of this sort succeeds or fails depends on the collective impact of all of the president's senior subordinates. To the extent any one subordinate is especially influential in this regard on foreign policy, it probably is the national security adviser who is best positioned either to accentuate or to restrain Trump's impulses. Having Bolton in that job makes the restraining ability of the secretary of state all the more important.

But both Pompeo and Bolton are more likely to accentuate Trump's impulses than to restrain them. Bolton got his job because the sort of things he says on Fox are more what Donald Trump likes to hear than the briefings that H.R. McMaster gave him, which evidently were too long for Trump's taste or for his short attention span. P

Pompeo's winning of favor with Trump, during what reportedly has been lots of face time with him at the White House during the past year, has a similar dynamic. Pompeo did not rise so quickly from being a relatively junior congressman functioning as a partisan attack dog to where he is now, on the verge of occupying Thomas Jefferson's chair, by telling Trump what he needs to hear rather than what he wants to hear.

Senators hold up confirmation of nominees, and sometimes vote against them, for all kinds of reasons unrelated to the resumé of the nominee. It would be proper for them to vote against a nominee for secretary of state partly because of who the national security adviser is, given that both of them are in service to an unstable president.

There are other reasons to consider Pompeo and Bolton in tandem. In several respects they are two hazardous peas in a pod. On North Korea, Bolton's bellicose posture is matched by Pompeo's statements about seeking ways to "separate" Kim Jong Un from his nuclear weapons , suggesting a priority to regime change over keeping a volatile situation on the Korean peninsula from blowing up. Both Pompeo and Bolton, along with Trump, have sworn eternal hostility to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), the multilateral agreement that closed all possible paths to an Iranian nuclear weapon. Neither man bothers to explain how destruction of the agreement, which would free Iran to produce as much fissile material as it wants and would end the intrusive international inspections of the Iranian program, could possibly

[Apr 16, 2018] Paul Craig Roberts Has One Awkward Question For Washington Warmongers

Apr 16, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

US officials and the presstitutes tell us that the illegal US missile attack on Syria destroyed chemical weapons sites where chlorine and sarin are stored/manufactured.

This satellite image, taken Monday morning, shows the Barzah Research and Development Center in Damascus after it was struck by coalition forces.

If this were true, would not a lethal cloud have been released that would have taken the lives of far more people than claimed in the alleged Syrian chemical attack on Douma?

Would not the US missile attack be identical to a chemical weapons attack and thus place the US and its vassals in the same category as Washington is attempting to place Assad and Putin?

What about it, you chemical weapons experts?

Do chemical weapons only release their elements when they explode from intended use but not when they explode from being militarily attacked?

There is no evidence in Syria of chemical residue from the chemical weapons facilities allegedly destroyed by US missiles.

No dead victims.

No reports of hospitals treating Syrian casualties of the American chemical attack.

How can this be if such sites were actually hit?

When I was a Wall Street Journal editor newspapers had competent journalists to whom such a question would occur. But no more. Stephen Lendman takes the New York Times to task for its unprofessionalism . The NY Times is no longer a news source. It is a propaganda megaphone.


BennyBoy -> QueenDratpmurt Mon, 04/16/2018 - 12:51 Permalink

The OPCW said there was no chlorine and sarin there.

Remember when....March 31, 2005 - The Commission on the Intelligence Capabilities of the United States Regarding Weapons of Mass Destruction reports that the intelligence community was "dead wrong" in its assessments of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction capabilities before the US invasion.

EuroPox -> BennyBoy Mon, 04/16/2018 - 12:54 Permalink

That is the site that the Pentagon says was hit with 76 missiles!

19 JASSMs and 57 Tomahawks!

Does anybody believe them?

SafelyGraze -> EuroPox Mon, 04/16/2018 - 12:59 Permalink

the lendman article suggests that missiles deliberately targeted and destroyed non-chem-weapons sites that were being used to develop anti-cancer drugs.

that information is completely mistaken because otherwise the official reports would be incorrect.

hugs,
nyt subscribers

JRobby -> SafelyGraze Mon, 04/16/2018 - 13:03 Permalink

Good argument just because it sure DOESN'T look like a large scale chemical manufacturing site........

But it is destroyed.

D503 -> JRobby Mon, 04/16/2018 - 13:19 Permalink

And on the left here you'll see our chemistry lab cleverly disguised as an office building. We have no need for any of the essential components such as reasonable delivery methods, power supply, storage tanks, pipes, etc. We're cutting edge, unlike all those American plants:

https://www.iscgrp.com/projects/

JimmyRainbow -> Klassenfeind Mon, 04/16/2018 - 13:10 Permalink

ever heard of the ship extra built to burn the nerve gas shit out on sea?

there is one, maybe just one worldwide

and if it were so natural and clean to just burn the shit, why the ship?

hundreds of tons nikki said.

a vial enough to kill a town. something always escapes.

additionally the rubble does not look burnt at all

another nice story: there is a phosgen producing site in germany,

phosgen is a weapon-gas but also used in fabrication of plastic.

the whole reactor is shielded by a few 1000 tons of alcohol because that neutralizes phosgen.

in densly populated germany no risk is taken

[Apr 16, 2018] Russia Reveals Who Staged Syria Gas Attack, As US Claims Moscow May Have Tampered With Site

Apr 16, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

The Russian envoy to the chemical weapons watchdog group, OPCW, said that non-governmental organizations (NGOs) funded by the UK and US carried out the April 7 chemical attack in the Damascus, Syria suburb of Douma.

Russia's permanent representative to the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), Alexander Shulgin, said Russia has irrefutable evidence that there was no chemical weapons incident in Douma .

"Therefore, we have not just a "high degree of confidence ," as our Western partners claim, but we have incontrovertible evidence that there was no incident on April 7 in Douma and that all this was a planned provocation by the British intelligence services, probably, with the participation of their senior allies from Washington with the aim of misleading the international community and justifying aggression against Syria," he stated. - Sputnik

Shulgin added that the US, UK and France are not interested in conducting an objective investigation of the attack site. " They put the blame on the Syrian authorities in advance, without even waiting for the OPCW mission to begin to establish the possible facts of the use of chemical weapons in Syria ," he said.

The nine-member OPCW mission people has yet to deploy to the city of Douma according to the organization's Chief, citing pending security issues.

"The Team has not yet deployed to Douma. The Syrian and the Russian officials who participated in the preparatory meetings in Damascus have informed the FFM Team that there were still pending security issues to be worked out before any deployment could take place . In the meantime the Team was offered by the Syrian authorities that they could interview 22 witnesses who could be brought to Damascus ," OPCW Director-General Ahmet Uzumcu said as quoted by the organization.

The Russian Envoy says that the controversial " White Helmets " were one of the anti-Assad "pseudo-humanitarian NGOs" which staged the event. As Disobedient Media and others have reported, the White Helmets are funded in large part by the United States.

"The Syrian Civil Defense Force (aka the White Helmets) is funded in part by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) . Included here are two links showing contracts awarded by USAID to Chemonics International Inc. (DBA Chemonics). The first award was in the sum of $111.2 million and has a Period of Performance (POP) from January 2013 to June 2017. It states that the purpose of the award will be to use the funds for managing a " quick-response mechanism supporting activities that pursue a peaceful transition to a democratic and stable Syria ." The second was in the sum of $57.4 million and has a POP from August 2015 to August 2020. This award was designated to be used in the " Syria Regional Program II " which is a part of the Support Which Implements Fast Transitions IV (SWIFT IV) program." Via Disobedient Media

https://www.youtube.com/embed/8aAaReVn2I4

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Moscow says they have confirmed that " these structures [NGOs] on a fee-based basis cooperate with the governments of the United States, the UK and some other countries ."

Russian experts who conducted the verification of reports on the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian city of the Douma, found participants of video filming, presented as evidence of the supposedly occurring chemotherapy, according to the Russian Envoy to OPCW . - Sputnik

"Everything has been developing according to the script that was prepared in Washington. There is no doubt that Americans are playing the 'first violin' in all of this . The United States, the United Kingdom, France and some other countries after the "fake" addition from the White Helmets and their ilk in Douma, immediately pounced upon the Syrian authorities with accusations," Shulgin said.

Meanwhile, the U.S. has alerted the OPCW that Russia "may have tampered" with the chemical attack site in Douma ...

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"It is our understanding the Russians may have visited the attack site," U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Ward said at a meeting of the OPCW in The Hague on Monday.

" It is our concern that they may have tampered with it with the intent of thwarting the efforts of the OPCW Fact-Finding Mission to conduct an effective investigation ," he said. His comments at the closed-door meeting were obtained by Reuters .

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov shot back in a BBC interview, saying " I can guarantee that Russia has not tampered with the site ."

Earlier, Britain's delegation to the OPCW accused Russia and the Syrian government of preventing the international watchdog's inspectors from reaching Douma.

The inspectors aim to collect samples, interview witnesses and document evidence to determine whether banned toxic munitions were used, although they are not permitted to assign blame for the attack. - Reuters

"Unfettered access is essential," the British delegation said in a statement. "Russia and Syria must cooperate."

Moscow says the OPCW delay is due to the Western air strikes. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the British accusation that Russia was to blame for holding up the inspections was "groundless".

"We called for an objective investigation. This was at the very beginning after this information [of the attack] appeared. Therefore allegations of this towards Russia are groundless ," Peskov said.

***

On Friday we reported that Russia's foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow has "irrefutable evidence" that the attack - which allegedly killed over 40 people, was staged with the help of a foreign secret service.

" We have irrefutable evidence that this was another staged event, and that the secret services of a certain state that is now at the forefront of a Russophobic campaign was involved in this staged event ," he said during a press conference according to AFP.

According to defense ministry spokesman, Major General Igor Konashenkov, the Kremlin has evidence that Britain was behind the attack.

Quoted by Reuters , he said: " We have... evidence that proves Britain was directly involved in organising this provocation ."

As RT further adds , the Russian Defense Ministry presented what it says is " proof that the reported chemical weapons attack in Syria was staged." It also accused the British government of pressuring the perpetrators to speed up the "provocation." During a briefing on Friday, the ministry showed interviews with two people, who, it said, are medical professionals working in the only hospital operating in Douma, a town near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

During a briefing on Friday, the ministry showed interviews with two people, who, it said, are medical professionals working in the only hospital operating in Douma, a town near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

During a briefing on Friday, the ministry showed interviews with two people, who, it said, are medical professionals working in the only hospital operating in Douma, a town near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

In the interviews released to the media, the two men reported how footage was shot of people dousing each other with water and treating children, which was claimed to show the aftermath of the April 7 chemical weapons attack. The patients shown in the video suffered from smoke poisoning and the water was poured on them by their relatives after a false claim that chemical weapons were used, the ministry said.

"Please, notice. These people do not hide their names. These are not some faceless claims on the social media by anonymous activists. They took part in taking that footage," said Konashenkov.

"The Russian Defense Ministry also has evidence that Britain had a direct involvement in arranging this provocation in Eastern Ghouta," the general added, referring to the neighborhood of which Douma is part. " We know for certain that between April 3 and April 6 the so-called White Helmets were seriously pressured from London to speed up the provocation that they were preparing ."

According to Konashenkov, the group, which was a primary source of photos and footage of the purported chemical attack, was informed of a large-scale artillery attack on Damascus planned by the Islamist group Army of Islam, which controlled Douma at the time. The White Helmets were ordered to arrange the provocation after retaliatory strikes by the Syrian government forces, which the shelling was certain to lead to, he said.

The UK rejected the accusations, with British UN Ambassador Karen Pierce calling them "grotesque," "a blatant lie" and "the worst piece of fake news we've yet seen from the Russian propaganda machine."

https://www.youtube.com/embed/LKE6YKw5Y40

So when will Moscow release their evidence for the whole world to see? Or is it maybe waiting for the US to first release its own proof that Assad launched the attack?

If so, we'll be waiting for a long time.

[Apr 16, 2018] Russia Has Indisputable Evidence Douma CW Incident Fake by Stephen Lendman

Notable quotes:
"... "We managed to find direct participants in the shooting of this video and interview them. Today we are presenting a live interview of these people," ..."
"... "Douma residents in detail told us how the filming was conducted, in what episodes they took part themselves and what they did." ..."
Apr 16, 2018 | stephenlendman.org

Russia Has Indisputable Evidence Douma CW Incident Fake ( stephenlendman.orgHome – Stephen Lendman )

Sergey Lavrov explained indisputable evidence proves the April 7 Douma CW incident was staged by special services of a foreign country. The guilty one is either America, Britain, France, Israel, or perhaps elements from these countries working together. Lavrov said the following: "The mission of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has set off to Syria not so quickly and without abundant enthusiasm but under our and Syrian pressure.

It is due to arrive in Damascus in the morning of April 14." "We expect the mission to go without any delay to Douma where Russian specialists who examined this place have not found any confirmations of the use of chemical weapon." "We have the irrefutable data that this (CW incident) was staged. (S)pecial services of a country, which is now seeking to be in the first ranks of the Russophobic campaign, were involved in this staged event." The incident was fake, no evidence of toxic substances found in Douma, no one ill or hospitalized from chemical exposure, no one dead. Syria's UN envoy Bashar al-Jaafari said US-supported terrorists

"acquired chemical substances from Libya a long time ago from the Libyan stock."

"This operation was facilitated by the Turkish intelligence, Saudi intelligence and the American and French intelligence services. They smuggled chemicals from Libya to Istanbul on board of civilian airlines and the guy who was in charge of transporting these substances was a guy named Haitham al-Qassar," adding: Damascus "denied maybe 1001 times similar to 1001 nights Arabian nights using any chemical substances against our own people."

"And we provided all the necessary and required justifications for saying that. So it's time to digest and metabolize what we are saying."

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman General Igor Konashenkov slammed America and other Western countries for making "indiscriminate and unfounded accusations" against Syria, adding:

"The Russian Defense Ministry has plenty of evidence that on April 7, a planned provocation was carried out in Douma with the aim of misleading the world community."

"The provocation's real purpose today is clear to everyone – to prod the United States to launch missile strikes against Syria."

Russia has clear evidence of Britain's involvement in the scheme. Video and other images of the fake incident were staged.

"We managed to find direct participants in the shooting of this video and interview them. Today we are presenting a live interview of these people,"

Konashenkov explained.

"Douma residents in detail told us how the filming was conducted, in what episodes they took part themselves and what they did."

It was staged, not real, a transparent hoax exposed to the light of day.

After the filming, individuals involved fled with foreign help. Days leading up to the April 7 incident,

"London put pressure on representatives of the so-called White Helmets group in order to facilitate the implementation of the provocation," Konashenkov added. East Ghouta is totally liberated, over 170,000 residents evacuated to safety, including around 63,000 US-supported terrorists and family members. Syrian forces now control the enclave, things stabilizing so residents can return home if they wish.

"Russia reserves the right to counter any attack on Syria," RT reported.

VISIT MY NEW WEB SITE: stephenlendman.org ( Home – Stephen Lendman ). Contact at [email protected] . My newest book as editor and contributor is titled "Flashpoint in Ukraine: How the US Drive for Hegemony Risks WW III." www.claritypress.com/LendmanIII.html

[Apr 16, 2018] Why Do They Tell US Transparent Lies by Paul Craig Roberts

Apr 16, 2018 | www.unz.com

US officials and the presstitutes tell us that the illegal US missile attack on Syria destroyed chemical weapons sites where chlorine and sarin are stored/manufactured. If this were true, would not a lethal cloud have been released that would have taken the lives of far more people than claimed in the alleged Syrian chemical attack on Douma? Would not the US missile attack be identical to a chemical weapons attack and thus place the US and its vassals in the same category as Washington is attempting to place Assad and Putin?

[Apr 16, 2018] Syria bombing of chemical facilities is yea another haox

Apr 16, 2018 | caucus99percent.com

The first videos and photos that have emerged on social media show what appear to be the strikes by the US, the UK and French militaries in the Syrian capital.
Syrian state TV reported that Syria's missile defenses shot down 13 missiles south of Damascus.

The Chairman of the United States Army Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford, however, said he was not aware that any missiles were intercepted, adding that the military has yet to assess the operational data. He confirmed that manned aircraft were involved in the airstrikes that hit three facilities in Syria that the US claims are part of its chemical weapons program.

One of the targets was a scientific research center in the greater Damascus area, Dunford said. The second was "a chemical weapons storage facility" in the vicinity of Homs, which, according to Dunford, housed sarin and chemical weapons precursors. The third target was also located near Homs and was identified by the general as a Syrian Army command post and storage facility.

[Apr 16, 2018] Fucking amateur hour. The site supposedly hit by 70 missiles still standing

Apr 16, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Joiningupthedots Mon, 04/16/2018 - 14:50 Permalink

The blast area of just ONE cruise missile is 150ft/2 = 7000m/2

How many hit this target allegedly? You can even see the matrix caused by the layering of the photo shopping software when you zoom right in (its not present on the first photo) Fucking amateur hour LMAO

tangent Mon, 04/16/2018 - 16:15 Permalink

There really is not even a conspiracy theorist out there who would suggest it was a Syrian government operation any way. Only batshit crazy raving lunatics have suggested it was the Syrian government. This is clearly the stupidest thing Trump has done. It makes the USA look like a bunch of circus freak losers. Very sad and shockingly insane. This is the stupidest piece of propaganda in modern history. The USA looks very, very bad. It looks like, from any reasonable perspective, that they are actively aiding terrorists on purpose. Wow. Interesting cosmetics. Interesting optics.

Its almost as if the USA government hates itself and actually wants a nuclear war where everyone dies. I think the only thing that should be considered is whether the nutty freaks in charge are actually humans. Humans are a great disappointment, so likely, yes, human beings really can be that mentally deficient. Trump really is such a level of mental retard that he hates himself and wants to be nuked, so he bombs Syria knowing full well they have nothing to do with it. He hates his career now and wants out.

[Apr 16, 2018] There is no magic way to make this stuff go away. Incineration doesn't solve the problems of the metal containers. All of this stuff would be making its way into their environment, causing illness and death in the coming years. It takes decades to properly neutralize this stuff. Lighting it up with Tomahawks definitely isn't the best way, and without a doubt some of it would be immediately released into the surrounding area. However small or not so small that amount is:

Apr 16, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Canadian Dirtlump -> Pearson365 Mon, 04/16/2018 - 12:40 Permalink

So the barrels of chlorine that we've seen multiple times that the West / Saudis have provided to the "rebels" are stored inertly?

How is that?

The calling card of this false flag is the simple fact that such a crude munition was used.

Gimme a break Walter White jr.

gatorengineer -> Canadian Dirtlump Mon, 04/16/2018 - 12:52 Permalink

chlorine gas is no big deal. Sarin is destroyed by fire.... There is a reason everyone stores these away from People. Not saying Orange is right, by any means in fact the opposite, but this story is a bit of a reach.

Decoherence -> gatorengineer Mon, 04/16/2018 - 13:33 Permalink

Not necessarily. There is no magic way to make this stuff go away. Incineration doesn't solve the problems of the metal containers. All of this stuff would be making its way into their environment, causing illness and death in the coming years. It takes decades to properly neutralize this stuff. Lighting it up with Tomahawks definitely isn't the best way, and without a doubt some of it would be immediately released into the surrounding area. However small or not so small that amount is:

https://www.popsci.com/technology/article/2013-09/fyi-chemical-weapons-

RAT005 -> Decoherence Mon, 04/16/2018 - 14:51 Permalink

I used to manage a small apartment complex swimming pool. Dry Chlorine was mixed into a 40gal concentrated tank and a small squirt was pumped into the filter circulation all day long. A newbee once lifted the top off the tank to have a look inside. Lucky I was there (telling him, don't do thattttttt) I about had to carry him out of the room. There would be reports all over that area if a few hundred gallons or more of Chlorine had been blasted into the air.

[Apr 16, 2018] Alas, this is far from over! by The Saker

Russia can do nothing alone. NATO is way too strong.
Notable quotes:
"... my honor is called solidarity ..."
"... my honor is loyalty ..."
"... by not taking any action the Russians also failed to deter any future attacks. But what could the Russians have done? ..."
"... Sic transit gloria mundi ..."
"... Trump demonstrated that the U.S. can still bomb non nuclear countries without regard for the Constitution, international law or common decency. The Deplorables demonstrated that elections will not change anything. Only the death of the U.S. dollar will end Anglo/Zio Imperial aggression. ..."
"... Russia was outgunned, so they did not respond. It was probably a wise decision. They did damage control admirably, and now have an opportunity to improve the Syrian arsenal with obvious justification. ..."
"... Slowly but surely, Russia is tightening the noose in Syria. Air defenses are improving. ..."
"... My precious, too many players want to start a real war between the Mercans and Russians. Aside from the casual suspects (KSA and Israel), Chinese also objectively benefit from the confrontation, which explains their aloofness. Should this come to a nuclear war, Chinese will be the one and only winner. For this old smart monkey is still sitting on the tree, and nothing has changed since Chairman Mao times. ..."
"... For Iran, this war will certainly enhance the Iran-Russia axis and thus may postpone the US aggression. Turkey loves it too because it can play both sides. ..."
"... Ironically, only the USA and Russia will be the biggest losers regardless of the outcome. ..."
"... In UNSC, China has surprisingly took abstained neutral stand, allowing it to play the coordinator role & denying US UK Fr to get any legit for attack. This avoid relegating UNSC into two sides shouting. Nikki Harley was thus preempted her wish of striking with or without UNSC mandate since all ended agreed to let UN conduct independent inspection. Overall, this continue to lock US UK Fr inside UNSC framework. ..."
"... The general idea seems to be containment of Russia, hemming them in within their own borders and cutting them off from being able to extend their influence outward. ..."
"... As part of this any allies of theirs such as Syria come under attack; if the west can't own them then they're to be reduced to chaos and rendered into costly burdens for the Russians. ..."
"... It's all a very cynical and calculated plan that fits into the overall picture of encircling the Russians to stymie their development and influence. NATO expansion up to their borders, the Ukraine coup, encirclement, picking off vulnerable allies, economic warfare and political subversion without end, the pattern is clear. At some point an actual clash might come about, not necessarily now with Syria as the trigger but somewhere all along the entire line of points of friction. Unfortunately it seems inevitable that something bad is going to happen somewhere down the line as the irresistible force meets the immovable object. ..."
"... As a fervent anti-war activist since the sixties, I have been appalled at all the regime change the US has and continues to do around the world including both military covert operations and economic warfare. Well Putin had me at his 2007 Munich speech. ..."
Apr 15, 2018 | www.unz.com

Let's begin by a short summary of events.

About a month ago Nikki Haley announces to the UNSC that the USA is ready to violate the rules of this very self-same UNSC should a chemical attack happen in Syria Then the Russians announced that they have evidence that a chemical false flag is being prepared in Syria Then a chemical attack (supposedly) takes place (in a location surrounded and, basically, controlled by government forces!) The OPWC sends investigators (in spite of western powers loudly proclaiming that no investigation was needed) The AngloZionists then bomb Syria Next, the UNSC refuses to condemn the violation of its own rules and decisions Finally, the US Americans speak of a 'perfect strike'

Now tell me -- do you get a sense that this is over?

If you tell me that 32/103 is hardly perfect, I will reply that you are missing the point. In fact, if anything, 32/103 is further incentive to bomb again!

Let's look at the differently for a second and ask this: what has the AngloZionist attack actually demonstrated?

The western general public is so terminally zombified that false flag attacks can now be announced 4 weeks in advance The Europeans now live by the motto " my honor is called solidarity " (a variation of the SS motto " my honor is loyalty ") Led by the USA, western countries have no objections to wars started in violation of their own national laws The UN Security Council has no objections to wars started in violation of the UN Charter and International Law The PRC leaders, in their infinite wisdom, act as if they have nothing personal at stake and act like bystanders The Israelis, via the UN Neocons, are now in total control of the Empire and use it to "clean house" next door

Oh, I hear the objections. They go something like this:

But the attack was a dismal failure! So what? the Empire did not pay any price for executing it. But the US Americans did blink! The attacked from Jordanian airspace and from the Red Sea! They avoided the Russians completely! They are afraid of them! So what? They still bombed a Russian ally with total impunity. But, surely you are not suggesting that the Russians should have started a war against the USA over a strike which did not even kill a single person?

No, of course not, but by not taking any action the Russians also failed to deter any future attacks. But what could the Russians have done?

Now *that* is the right question!

Let's look at it a little closer. Roughly speaking, the Russians have a choice of 3 types of retaliatory measures: political, economic and military. However, each one of them has a specific set of prerequisites which are currently problematic to say the least:

Measures Political Economic Military
Prerequisites Assumes a minimal amount of decency, integrity and respect for the rule of law by the rest of the planet. Assumes that other countries, especially China, would be willing and able to support such measures. Assumes that Russia has the military capability to defeat the AngloZionist "coalition".
Current reality Russia can moan, bitch, complain, protest, appeal to higher values, logic or facts -- nobody gives a damn. The Chinese and the rest of them are not willing to do anything at this time to support Russia. Russia can militarily defeat the AngloZionists, but only by risking the future of our planet.

This really can be summarized a simple sentence: the AngloZionist Hegemony is a threat for the entire planet, but nobody besides Russia and Iran is willing to take it on. Ain't that an irony!

The so-called "Christian West" has become a willing host for its Zionist parasite and the only ones with the courage and moral integrity to take it on are Orthodox Christians and Muslims! Sic transit gloria mundi indeed

But what is even more important is this: while it is true that the US Neocons did not succeed in delivering the kind of massive attack they would have wanted to, and while it is true that the US attack was just about as lame as can be, you need to completely forget about these facts. Facts simply don't matter. And neither does logic. All that matters are perceptions!

And the perception is that "we" (the AngloZionist rulers and their serfs) "kicked" Assad's "ass" and that "we" will "do it again" if "we" feel like it. That is all that matters in the Empire of Illusions which the AngloZionist Hegemony has become.

As soon as you understand that, you also will have to agree that Trump was right: it was a "perfect strike" (again, not in reality, but in the world of illusions created around it).

So now we come full circle.

The AngloZionist Hegemony demands that the entire planet bows down and worships it . Except for Russia and Iran, everybody meekly goes down on their knees or, at most, meekly looks away. In their own delusional reality, the 'Mericans feel empowered to smack down Russia or Iran at anytime. There is nothing Iran can do to stop them, and while Russia can, she can only do that at the risk of the future of our entire planet.

Now you tell me -- do you really think this is over?


aleksandar , April 15, 2018 at 3:02 pm GMT

" There is nothing Iran can do to stop them "

That's clearly a civilian assertion. By no way, the US can defeat Iran, unless they are ready to send 500 000 grunts there. And they are not. No US president will survive a 10 000 body bag return.

They can use air power for sure, but that will never be enough to force Iran to bow.And I'm quite sure the Russian will provide them everything they have to help Iran.And China probably too.

Without even mentioning destruction of Barbaric Saudi and closin Ormuz strait. It's clearly not over but the US are not as powerful as you think.

Antonio , April 15, 2018 at 3:05 pm GMT
Well, firstly, I don't think the future of our planet is at risk, if you mean by that extinction of life on Earth. Current arsenals can't do that, even in the worst case scenario. Nor even can they extinct human race either. Lots of deaths? Yes, sure. Extinction? Nope.

Secondly, there is no rule of law because there is no punishment. Once punishment is delivered, things will change quickly. I agree with you that political or economical punishment will not work. But military punishment will do. Sink some US carriers or destroy some Israel bases, and you will see how they become well-behaved.

(BTW, the EU stopped being Christian long ago.)

Diversity Heretic , April 15, 2018 at 3:16 pm GMT
The best advice that I could give Russia would be what Reese says to Sarah Connor about the Terminator (substitute AngloZionist Empire).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKbZMIP4XUE

WorkingClass , April 15, 2018 at 3:36 pm GMT
Trump demonstrated that the U.S. can still bomb non nuclear countries without regard for the Constitution, international law or common decency. The Deplorables demonstrated that elections will not change anything. Only the death of the U.S. dollar will end Anglo/Zio Imperial aggression.
Anonymous [392] Disclaimer , April 15, 2018 at 3:52 pm GMT
Uhhh no.

It is not only Russia and Iran that does not bow down. North Korea, Cuba, Venezuela, Phillipines, China etc. Etc. These countries have done as much as the Russians have. Its not like Russia sank a carrier or anything and it's not like Russia is defender of the world on a crusade to defend the planet. They are only acting because they are in the crosshairs.

If America was targeting Cuba, Russia would not say or do anything against America.

El Dato , April 15, 2018 at 7:56 pm GMT

If you tell me that 32/103 is hardly perfect

True if true. US says this was all in the pipe, 5 by 5:

Warship ruse and new stealth missiles: How the Syria attack unfolded

While both vessels [USS Winston Churchill, USS Donald Cook] carry as many as 90 Tomahawk missiles -- the main weapon used in the Friday evening strike on Syria -- neither ship in the end fired a shot. Instead, according to a person familiar with White House war planning, they were part of a plan to distract Russia and its Syrian ally from an assault Assad's government could do little to defend itself against.

It worked. Pentagon officials on Saturday said they faced little resistance to their targeted attack on what they said were three Syrian chemical weapons facilities. Most of the Syrian countermeasures, including defensive ballistic missiles, were fired after U.S. and allied weapons hit their targets, Lieutenant General Kenneth McKenzie said Saturday.

"No Syrian weapon had any effect on anything we did," McKenzie said. He described the joint U.S., French and U.K. strike as "precise, overwhelming and effective."

Where can I get correct assessments? For, umm . research yeah.

The Scalpel , Website April 15, 2018 at 8:17 pm GMT
Russia was outgunned, so they did not respond. It was probably a wise decision. They did damage control admirably, and now have an opportunity to improve the Syrian arsenal with obvious justification.

Slowly but surely, Russia is tightening the noose in Syria. Air defenses are improving. The next step is likely to be an arsenal of anti-ship missile's. If necessary ICBMs might follow some sort of mutual defense treaty.

At some point, Syria itself will be able to deliver the bloody nose to the USA that is so necessary for justice and world peace. That point will be reached when Syrian abilities to inflict pain outweigh the costs of escalation

JR , April 15, 2018 at 8:54 pm GMT
Probably Saker didn't see this yet.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1098059.shtml

China supporting Russia using reasoning in line with the Saker.

Antonio , April 15, 2018 at 8:55 pm GMT
@El Dato

@ElDato: Try borrowing some observation time from these guys

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spot_Image https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapidEye
peterAUS , April 15, 2018 at 9:26 pm GMT

Facts simply don't matter. And neither does logic. All that matters are perceptions!

Yup.

There is nothing Iran can do to stop them, and while Russia can, she can only do that at the risk of the future of our entire planet.

Not quite. Or, the regime in Kremlin could've stopped all this had it acted, properly , a couple of years ago. Opportunity missed.

Now you tell me -- do you really think this is over?

Of course not. This is just a starter.

aleksandar , April 15, 2018 at 10:06 pm GMT
@El Dato

Nowhere, stay tuned to Radio Pentagon, that's all you can understand anyway.

Smeagol , April 16, 2018 at 12:16 am GMT
My precious, too many players want to start a real war between the Mercans and Russians. Aside from the casual suspects (KSA and Israel), Chinese also objectively benefit from the confrontation, which explains their aloofness. Should this come to a nuclear war, Chinese will be the one and only winner. For this old smart monkey is still sitting on the tree, and nothing has changed since Chairman Mao times.

For Iran, this war will certainly enhance the Iran-Russia axis and thus may postpone the US aggression. Turkey loves it too because it can play both sides.

Ironically, only the USA and Russia will be the biggest losers regardless of the outcome. It seems they both realize that and are treading carefully. But can they manage to get out of the clinch? And for how long they can be avoiding the all-out conflict? So no, -- it's definitely ain't over. We hates it, but the best is yet to come.

Linda , April 16, 2018 at 4:52 am GMT
You forget ballsy little Bolivia defends Russia in UN with both votes and condemnation of barking Nikki. It looks like they are offering all they have -- moral condemnation of Empire and her vassals.
Linda , April 16, 2018 at 5:21 am GMT
This is a very interesting post from Zaid Fadel at Syrian Perspective. https://syrianperspective.com/2018/04/attack-on-syria-big-flop-air-defenses-robust-massive-failure-for-trump-may-macron-and-the-usual-gang-of-idiots.html

The reason I give it a lot of weight is that the night before the bombing, either Vanessa Beasley or Eva Bartlett called in to Israeli News Live and gave 12 points explaining what Syria was expecting to happen and it seems it pretty well went down as they had said. I'm sorry I can't find the broadcast link. Apparently the Russians said if the strike went into a second day they would strike back even if Russians were not hit. Looks like the "strike" was pretty well pre-determined by both sides.

Gave each side a look at the others capabilities and allowed US a chance to waste missiles and Northrup sell new ones. Same old, same old.

Every time my country says or does something insane (which is often) this Lee Greenwood song goes thru my mind with modified lyrics. "Ashamed to be an American, where I'm duped to think I'm free".

hunor , April 16, 2018 at 7:27 am GMT
" This is far from over ! "

How can it be over ? It is a war in progress. One side of the warring party is creating they own reality, and present it on the world stage with absolute conviction, and determination. This fake reality is part of the war game , it should not be considered as lies or staged events. It is war ! Fake reality is part of the repertoire , just like the missiles. It is war , no rules just brutal conflict.

The other side not understanding any of it. They are running around , like chickens in the rain. UNSC talk , talk and talk some more. Nobody give a them. They are counting how many missiles they intercepted , they are analyzing , they are theorizing . Do something you are about to be wiped off !

Robert Magill , April 16, 2018 at 10:50 am GMT
This is theatre;

Act 2 . China sells tickets. Total now of two hundred missiles used; nothing much destroyed. Top brass satisfied. Neocons, mollified. Audience, US, asleep in our seats as usual.

Act 3 . The big love scene: Trump and Putin do Romeo & Juliet, audience confused. Back to sleep. China offers no refunds.

https://robertmagill.wordpress.com/2018/04/15/women-of-the-world-summit-2/

TT , April 16, 2018 at 1:36 pm GMT

Measures Political Economic Military

Prerequisites

Current reality

The Chinese and the rest of them are not willing to do anything at this time to support Russia. Russia can militarily defeat the AngloZionists, but only by risking the future of our planet.

Saker correctly pointed out Russia is showing unnecessary weakness in only moaning & bitching with empty threats that nobody bother, relegating itself to a weakling gas station.

But to falsely accused China & the rest not willing to do anything at this time to support Russia is too far fetch, a foolish remark like a whining self pitied child blaming everyone for his own spilled milk.

Does Saker expect its few allies China, NK, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, SAA to launch attack on US Nato when RuA refused/not permit?

Economically, China is known to have financially back the entire costly war, signed numerous huge deals worth hundreds of Bil with Russia to booster its sanctioned economy, deliver re-construction materials, medicine & food for tens of millions soldiers & Syrians. A astromical cost.

Military, it has also supply lot of weapons & ammunition under so called old contract with SAA, sent in its most senior advisors & Special forces to help fighting & get train, esp to mop up Uyghur ISIS terrorists(CIA assets).

It even cut short a mammoth 40 vessels Liaoning a/c strike group drill in SCS to declare a unprecedented proximate live firing drill in Taiwan Straits, literally forcing existing USN three strike groups to tied down in SCS. This sent a very clear signal that if US start a hot war in Syria with Russia, China might open another war front to take back Taiwan which USM will be overstretched to defend.

Also China despatched its Defense Minister in a high profile visit to Russia, declaring its military solidarity with Russia against US tyranny (a rare glaring mentioned of US name directly) . This sent a very strong signal to USM, China may intervene directly or asymmetrically.

China also took an unusual hard stand in a looming trade war, threatened to fight at all cost without slight compromise, hence refusing Trumps any leeway to back down while he up ante to save face.

China foreign ministry further declare the trade war will not limit in trade but shall utilize all asymmetric tools, including non cooporation in strategic issues, sanction of US hugely profiting investments in China. Also Trumps redneck farming vote bank was purposely targeted to pressure him in coming Nov election. With China $4T war chess & US people resistance, US can ill afford to fight China if Syria war breakout. Every major war will see USD artificially hike >30% historically for expenditure mileage.

In UNSC, China has surprisingly took abstained neutral stand, allowing it to play the coordinator role & denying US UK Fr to get any legit for attack. This avoid relegating UNSC into two sides shouting. Nikki Harley was thus preempted her wish of striking with or without UNSC mandate since all ended agreed to let UN conduct independent inspection. Overall, this continue to lock US UK Fr inside UNSC framework.

China Prez Xi also in Baao seminar announced expedite opening of China huge financial market. This stirred the world into frenzy to prepare for huge investment, skillfully denied US ability to pull EU, Jp & others to joint US trade war. All US financier & trade bodies will loathe any trade or hot war that will derail their golden opportunity.

What else happen behind door we won't know. But whatever we can see now, China has done every heavy lifting it could, very comprehensive & well plan, short of attacking USM in Syria which it can't with limited projection force.

Yet Saker is accusing China & others are doing NOTHING to help Russia, when Putin is refusing to even take down a Israel airfield as a warning to USM. Killing a chicken to frighten the monkey.

Is Saker demonstrating a typical Russian nature, unappreciative & endless blaming, always ready to throw ally under bus? This might explain why Russia has few or no true trusted ally, even ex-Soviet countries. Assad Syria & Iran interest are seen routinely been sacrificed.

Will China one day decided Russia is not a trusted ally afterall to reconsider US G2 invitation?

TT , April 16, 2018 at 1:51 pm GMT
@Linda

I think one US ally in ME also abstained to refuse support of US proposal, Qatar?

c matt , April 16, 2018 at 2:51 pm GMT
@aleksandar

I think the point of the article was precisely that the US is not as strong as it thinks. Hence, the attack was all for "show" so the US can perpetuate the delusion it can handle Russia/Iran. The danger is that this delusion may cause a major misstep, especially if (when) the US starts believing it's own bullshit and really pokes the bear.

anonymous [187] Disclaimer , April 16, 2018 at 2:56 pm GMT
The general idea seems to be containment of Russia, hemming them in within their own borders and cutting them off from being able to extend their influence outward.

As part of this any allies of theirs such as Syria come under attack; if the west can't own them then they're to be reduced to chaos and rendered into costly burdens for the Russians.

It's all a very cynical and calculated plan that fits into the overall picture of encircling the Russians to stymie their development and influence. NATO expansion up to their borders, the Ukraine coup, encirclement, picking off vulnerable allies, economic warfare and political subversion without end, the pattern is clear. At some point an actual clash might come about, not necessarily now with Syria as the trigger but somewhere all along the entire line of points of friction. Unfortunately it seems inevitable that something bad is going to happen somewhere down the line as the irresistible force meets the immovable object.

Linda , April 16, 2018 at 3:18 pm GMT
The problem here is that moving to a multi-polar world will require many countries to contribute what and where they can as we fight a very entrenched international Cabal. But, the largest responsibility lies with the people living within the Evil Empire and its vassal states. Those whose counties are committing these atrocities need to step up and call foul on their own governments. This is difficult to do since the Project Mockingbird press continues to spew unbelievable lies on a non-stop basis. But those lies are getting more and more difficult to believe. Unless your brain is totally disconnected, you have to realize that what they are saying is inconsistent and illogical.

Besides calling and berating my representatives, signing petitions, etc. I have taken to wearing a teeshirt with a picture of Putin and the Russian bear (Putin in a suit, not riding the bear bare chested).

I wear it to all social events for the purpose of starting a discussion. Most Americans are not engaged. They have little trust in their government and most feel like there is nothing they can do about it. I live in the mountain west where people are more libertarian and more willing to fight. I try to provide them with ammunition and point them to places to go to get "real" news. I tell them not to "believe" any news, but get a variety of points of view and use their own minds to determine what is true.

A few years ago, I was very disturbed when I kept hearing Dr. Stephen Cohen say that Putin was the greatest statesman of our time. As I had studied Soviet history in school, I had sort of kept abreast of what was happening in Russia. As an economist, I was aware of how the West, especially the USA, came to help Russia with Democracy and "free markets". It was obvious to me that we were just assisting in selling Russia by the pound to the moneyed class. I had followed Dr. Cohen over the years as well. But sceptical of his assessment of Putin, I have gone back and watched and read almost everything Putin has said and watched what Russia has done and I believe Dr. Cohen is correct.

As a fervent anti-war activist since the sixties, I have been appalled at all the regime change the US has and continues to do around the world including both military covert operations and economic warfare. Well Putin had me at his 2007 Munich speech. The one the West called a rant.

Finally someone was calling out this criminal behavior on an international stage! Putin has continued with these messages and as far as I can see, Russia is operating accordingly. No one country, not Russia, not China, no one can destroy this international Cabal on its own. It will take a concerted effort of all peace seeking people from around the world to force their governments on a different path. Starting in my case with the people of the USA.

[Apr 16, 2018] Do Brits try top prevent OPCW team getign to the site?

Apr 16, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Dangerclose Mon, 04/16/2018 - 13:09 Permalink

I emailed the OPCW yesterday. I asked for the location of the Douma inspection team at precisely the time the research center was attacked. I heard that they were at the airport and only hours away from the site. I thought this would give credence to the theory that the site was attacked just so it would interfere with a proper inspection. They declined to release any info for the protection of their workers and the integrity of their work. I guess we will have to wait for the report.

[Apr 16, 2018] Syria: chemical weapons inspectors barred from Douma site

That's very suspicious. Do Brits try top prevent OPCW team getting to the site?
Apr 16, 2018 | www.theguardian.com
Russia and the Syrian regime have been accused by western diplomats of denying chemical weapons inspectors access to sites in the town of Douma, where an attack killed dozens and prompted US-led missile strikes over the weekend.

Russia and Syria had cited "pending security issues" before inspectors could deploy to the town outside Damascus, said Ahmet Üzümcü, the director-general of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, at a meeting of the OPCW's executive council.

Syrian authorities were offering 22 people to interview as witnesses instead, he said, adding that he hoped "all necessary arrangements will be made to allow the team to deploy to Douma as soon as possible".

Meanwhile, the Trump administration delayed action on sanctions against Russians suspected of helping Syria's chemical weapons programme, contradicting remarks on Sunday by the US envoy to the UN, Nikki Haley.

[Apr 16, 2018] Trump Hits Russia With New Sanctions Over Syria Gas Attack

Apr 16, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Occams_Razor_Trader Sun, 04/15/2018 - 16:32 Permalink

Lindsey Graham with tits. Those who want war never have to fight it!

FBaggins -> Occams_Razor_Trader Sun, 04/15/2018 - 16:33 Permalink

I Am a Syrian Living in Syria: "It was Never a Revolution nor a Civil War. The Terrorists are sent by your Government"

American People, Please Help Us

by Mark Taliano

https://www.globalresearch.ca/i-am-a-syrian-living-in-syria-it-was-neve

Adolph.H. -> FBaggins Sun, 04/15/2018 - 16:34 Permalink

It would be legitimate to wonder if the U.S. MIC will stealthily add to the long list of sanctimonious sanctions the interdiction for any western vassal state to buy the vastly superior Russian weapon systems in a not so distant future. One can feel it coming. Needless to say this kind of short sighted vision will be the straw that will break the camel's back.

These sanctions are ultimately going to hurt more the USA than Russia because little by little countries are leaving the American sphere of influence for the more balanced and reasonable Eurasian one. Nobody wants to stay with a maniac like Nikki or a fool like trump...

The Americans will be begging to be integrated once they hit the bottom.

[Apr 16, 2018] PressTV-US in direct ties with Syria terrorists Rouhani

Notable quotes:
"... Rouhani told Putin that the joint military strikes against Syria were an "aggressive measure" aimed at boosting the defeated terrorists' morale. ..."
"... He warned that if aggression and blatant violation of international regulations were to become easy and cost-free, "we would witness new instability in the regional and international system." ..."
"... The Russian president, for his part, said the strikes conducted by the US and two Western countries against Syria under any pretext were a blatant violation of international law and an international crime. ..."
"... Putin said the missile attack on Syria was carried out before the announcement of the results of investigations into the use of chemical weapons in the Arab country. ..."
"... Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that the Western countries' so-called proof of the purported use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government in the town of Douma was "ludicrous" for experts. ..."
Apr 16, 2018 | www.presstv.com

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani says the "aggressive" US move to carry out military strikes against Syria reveals that Washington has direct ties with terrorists.

"The Americans showed such a reaction when they felt that the terrorists were dislodged from an important region like Eastern Ghouta," Rouhani said in a phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday, a day after US-led strikes on Syria.

The strikes, conducted by the United States, France and Britain, hit three sites, one in Damascus, and two in the city of Homs, which US President Donald Trump claimed were "associated with the chemical weapon capabilities" of the Syrian government.

The tripartite Western countries announced that strikes were carried out as a punitive measure against Damascus for a suspected poison gas attack they claimed was purportedly conducted on April 7 by the Syrian government on Douma, the largest town in Eastern Ghouta near the Syrian capital, which reportedly killed 60 people and injured hundreds more.

Rouhani told Putin that the joint military strikes against Syria were an "aggressive measure" aimed at boosting the defeated terrorists' morale.

He warned that if aggression and blatant violation of international regulations were to become easy and cost-free, "we would witness new instability in the regional and international system."

"The attack by the US and its allies against Syria showed that we are facing new problems and issues in the way of a final fight against terrorism in Syria and that we must have more consultation and cooperation with each other," the Iranian president told his Russian counterpart.

In a telephone conversation with his Syrian counterpart, Bashar al-Assad, on Saturday, Rouhani denounced recent airstrikes against Syria, saying such attacks ran contrary to the principles of international law and were considered as a blatant sign of support for terrorism.

"At a time that terrorists are suffering a defeat in Syria on a daily basis, such aggressive act certainly means support for these defeated groups," the Iranian president said.

Read more:

US-led attack on Syria, international crime: Putin

The Russian president, for his part, said the strikes conducted by the US and two Western countries against Syria under any pretext were a blatant violation of international law and an international crime.

Claims about the use of chemical weapons in Syria are baseless and against the realities on the ground, he added.

Putin emphasized that Tehran and Moscow have a common stance on many regional and international developments.

Both Tehran and Moscow are giving Damascus a helping hand in its countrywide counter-terrorism battles. Iran has been offering military advisory assistance to the national Syrian army, while the Russian air force is providing air cover to its ground operations.

Putin said the missile attack on Syria was carried out before the announcement of the results of investigations into the use of chemical weapons in the Arab country.

He added that the United Nations was founded to build consensus among countries, adding that it should not serve the political interests of certain powers, because it would create more chaos on the international scene.

The Russian president emphasized that acts of aggression would not stop his country's fight against terrorism and extremism in the region, particularly in Syria.

He also stressed the importance of more efforts and consultation among Iran, Russia and Turkey in order to restore peace and stability to Syria after the US-led military strikes.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Saturday that the Western countries' so-called proof of the purported use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government in the town of Douma was "ludicrous" for experts.

PressTV-West's proof of chemical attack 'ludicrous': Russian FM The Russian foreign minister says the Western countries' so-called proofs of suspected chemical attack in Douma are "ludicrous" for experts.

The Russian top diplomat added that Washington, London and Paris told Moscow that there were purported "irrefutable facts" as for the suspected chemical attack, so that, they could justify the strikes that they had delivered earlier in the day.


TAXCOLLECTOR2017, 1 hour ago

Part of the false premise was that Assad used chemicals on the terrorists. When John Kerry said they were rebels and they needed US support the US has never admitted they are terrorists. As if US support and presence among the terrorists is irrelevant. Nothing they have done since 2013 has changed what began in 2011 7 years waited and everyone knows how it began in Syria. It's only now that the Zionists are having to answer the facts here. Then again, the facts have answered themselves.
Usa , 1 hour ago
The USA always fights terrorists, they fought Taliban's, Alqaeda. But they ignore ISIS? Rings bells....They created ISIS, Taliban and Alqaeda
Marek Kolenda , 3 hours ago
Only Russian S409 or S500 can destroy B1 bombers flying on highest altitude.
TAXCOLLECTOR2017 , > Marek Kolenda 1 hour ago
Those bombers are sitting in Turkey.
Bozek Jilek , 4 hours ago
The US gave BILLIONS in Weapons, Arms and Training to Moderate headchoppers and then pretended to be fighting them, but then rushed into Syria to protect them when they started losing, hoping and dreaming to get rid of Bashar Assad.
TAXCOLLECTOR2017 , > Bozek Jilek 1 hour ago
The John Kerry speech was all about supporting them in 2013.
Nari, 4 hours ago
The west know where their meat comes from! It comes from the slaughterhouse! Yet those animal lovers still enjoy the protein the meat offers. So long as they don't see the kill they will eat the meat.

Point here is the western public know their leaders are behaving badly when it comes to foreign policy but just as long as the public are spared the gore it's fine to continue to run the national policy (country) despite the horrific ongoings of their foreign policy!

How far one can play stupid will ultimately be determined by what is important to them. If being liked and accepted is their first priority then people will play dumb till they reach the grave. Passive people only short change themselves! Take your gaze from off the floor and look at the people you fear, dislike, or are brainwashed about. Being powerless is a choice!

TAXCOLLECTOR2017 , Nari 1 hour ago
No one ever gave them permission. Most don't take insults well. Few even know the diatribe is controlled, and would never admit it. That's a tough wall to penetrate.
Miriam , 5 hours ago
Just listen to the regurgitated (weak) excuses by UK politicians and journalists in defence of the right to withhold vital information by the intelligence services because it comes under the term "classified". How convenient to keep secret from the public incriminating material/data that would irreparably damage the reputation of the government and its secret services when such information would reveal overwhelming guilt in a terrorist act committed under cover.
NO MORE ZIONISTS , 7 hours ago
STOP FRANCE TERROR --- French President Emmanuel Macron has said that he convinced US President Donald Trump to keep troops in Syria.

Macron made the remarks in an interview broadcast by BFM TV, RMC radio and Mediapart on Sunday, where he also defended his country's participation in the joint air strikes on Syria.

"We convinced him it was necessary to remain there...We have complete international legitimacy to act in this framework," he said. "We have three members of the (United Nations) Security Council who have intervened."

The announcement was made several hours after US Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said that the US would not pull American troops out of Syria until its goals were accomplished.

Stafford , 8 hours ago
It is well known although often forgotten that the USA intervenes both clandestinely and overtly in the internal affairs of sovereign states. With the Syrian terrorists, there has been circumstantial but no particular identification of US activity in specifically supporting with weaponry the forces against the Syrian Government in the media. It would be useful if the full text of the OPCW findings about alleged events in Syria were made public.

[Apr 16, 2018] I can only imagine what Putin et al are thinking. They know they and Assad were not behind that attack, and they know we know, or should know. What this means is that they will have to come to view our government the same way America used to view the Communists. As dangerous, fanatical lunatics.

Apr 16, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

RedDwarf Sun, 04/15/2018 - 17:03 Permalink

Great, I voted for Trump in the hopes he would not be a warmonger since Hillary certainly was. Looks like I should not have bothered after all.

I can only imagine what Putin et al are thinking. They know they and Assad were not behind that attack, and they know we know, or should know. What this means is that they will have to come to view our government the same way America used to view the Communists. As dangerous, fanatical lunatics.

Once you come to view someone not as a rational actor, but as deranged, the dynamics change, and in very dangerous ways. You cannot appease or come to terms with a lunatic. All reasonable options begin to disappear, leaving behind only the last resorts.

[Apr 16, 2018] Will Russia retaliate? Kremlin accuses the US of 'hooliganism' and breaking international law at highly charged UN meeting after warning White House 'there will be consequences' over Syrian airstrikes

Apr 14, 2018 | dailymail.co.uk

The Kremlin has accused the US, the UK and France of 'hooliganism' and breaking international law, after a coordinated series of missile strikes on Syrian airbases last night. The accusations come as Russia continues to claim chemical attacks by Assad's forces on his own people were staged by civilian volunteer force the White Helmets. At a highly charged emergency Security Council meeting, in New York, Russian diplomat Vassily Nebenzia condemned the strikes as 'unleashing a wave of chaos.' Russia demanded a vote on a UN resolution condemning 'the aggression' against Syria, but this was struck out by the Security Council.

... ... ...

In a heated exchange with his American counterpart Nikki Haley, Nebenzia said: 'Why are you seeking to plunge the Middle East into such difficulties, provoking one conflict after another, pitting one state against another?

... ... ...

A resolution needs at least nine 'yes' votes to be approved.

The vote reflected the deep divisions in the U.N.'s most powerful body, which has been paralysed in dealing with the seven-year Syrian conflict and chemical weapons use in the country.

... ... ...

Despite the coalition attacks, Russian channels continue to insist the chemical attacks were staged by the White Helmets.

A video shared on the embassy's official twitter channel appeared to show two Syrian doctors who were in Douma, the scene of the attack, declaring that no patients had symptoms specific to chemical bombs.

The tweet was accompanied with the post: 'Breaking - people from the White Helmets "chemical attack" video explain how it was staged. Retweet to beat jihadist lies!'

General Disarray, Boom Town Wish You Were Here, United Kingdom, about 9 hours ago

Yes Russia will retaliate and the UK will more than likely be the target....

[Apr 16, 2018] To Secure Democratic Vote Pompeo Masks Regime Change Agenda

Notable quotes:
"... And if there's no chance that we can fix it I will recommend to the president that we do our level best to work with our allies to achieve a better outcome and a better deal. ..."
Apr 16, 2018 | therealnews.com

... ... ...

SPEAKER: What is your view as to whether America should withdraw unilaterally from the Iran nuclear agreement?

MIKE POMPEO: I want to fix this deal. That's the objective. I think that's in the best interest of the United States of America.

SPEAKER: But if the agreement cannot be changed. My question is pretty simple. We're running very close to a deadline on certification.

MIKE POMPEO: And if there's no chance that we can fix it I will recommend to the president that we do our level best to work with our allies to achieve a better outcome and a better deal.

SHARMINI PERIES: Pompeo is a member of the Tea Party movement, and is generally viewed as a pro-war hardliner who has previously vowed to cancel the Iran agreement ...

... ... ...

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, let's just take the issue of Iran, for starters. There he said at the hearing that he would not try to get out of the Iran nuclear deal, that he wants a better deal. But in the past he's talked about getting out of the Iran nuclear deal. And not only that he said that regime change is the only way to deal with Iran. And as CIA director he also downplayed the CIA's assessment that Iran was complying with the deal although at the hearing he said he has no reason to deny that Iran is complying. So he says very different things and in different places. But I think his actions and his statements in the past speak louder than the words at the hearing, which were quite deceptive, and he's trying to win over Democrats. So he was evasive on some of the issues that he has been very clear about in the past, such as striking Iran, North Korea, and certainly he was open about the president's right to bomb Syria.

... ... ...

SHARMINI PERIES: Right. Now, speaking of Syria and the tensions that are arising with Russia over the chemical attack that Russia now says, and in fact Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, is on record saying they have information that some one else, some other country, initiated this attack in Syria. This is really a heightening the tension between Russia and the United States. So let me go to you on this, Phyllis, first, and then we'll go back to Medea. But your take on this rising tension between U.S. And Russia?

PHYLLIS BENNIS: This is a very, very dangerous moment, when we have Trump, with all of his own proclivities towards war and against diplomacy, surrounding himself by what looks like a clear war cabinet. The danger of escalation in Syria is very serious. It could lead to a direct clash between the two most powerful nuclear weapon states in the world, the United States and Russia. You have completely opposite claims emerging from Washington and Moscow, with the U.S. claiming that they know, even though they also agree that they don't have information, but they know that chemical weapons were used as they were used by the regime in Syria. They seem to know a lot for a government that admits it doesn't know anything yet.

The Russians, on the other hand, have variously said that another country might be involved. Another Russian diplomat has said that there was no chemical attack at all. So for myself, I don't actually believe any of these claims by any of the governments. I'm waiting to hear what the report is of the team that's on its way to D ouma right now, the town outside of Damascus where the alleged chemical weapons attack occurred. The team of the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons. That's the the internationally acknowledged, internationally credible team that will be determining whether or not chemicals were used, what chemicals were used if there were any, who was affected, what delivery systems, et cetera. They are not mandated to determine who fired or who gave the orders to fire. That's a much more political question that will come back to the Security Council and may stall there, we don't know.

But at the moment we don't know at all what happened in Douma on that weekend 10 days ago. So I think that we need to do everything possible to ramp down this level of rhetoric. When the U.S. continues to talk about the inevitability of new strikes against Syria, knowing that this is a direct violation of both, again, international law and U.S. domestic law and threatens the possibility of retaliation against U.S. troops in the region, U.S. warships in the Mediterranean, U.S. warplanes in the skies, and, most importantly, threatens the possibility, the likelihood, of killing more Syrian civilians. We are facing a very, very urgent crisis even before we get to the possibility of serious escalation.

So this is something that Congress needs to take very seriously. And unfortunately in what we've seen in the Pompeo hearing there was simply not enough, not enough pushing for this candidate to be the supposed leader of diplomacy in the United States, to push him on the necessity not of saying well, we hoped that we could have a diplomatic solution, but if not well then nothing is off the table. That's not OK. That's not acceptable to the U.S. chief diplomat. And we are simply not hearing enough pressure to make that position known.

... ... ...

But I was going to put it in the context of remember that we have Bolton as the national security adviser, who did not have to have a confirmation hearing. This is why somebody like Jeff Merkley, a senator from Massachusetts, came out and said he will not vote for Pompeo because he recognizes it as part of this larger cabinet, that this is a war cabinet, and therefore a vote for Pompeo is a vote for war. So I would say continue the fight not to get a confirmation for Mike Pompeo.

SHARMINI PERIES: Phyllis, is that even possible?

PHYLLIS BENNIS: Absolutely. And it's crucial. This is exactly what we need to be focusing on right now. The way the votes come down, it's very, very tight. There are at least, at least one Republican, Rand Paul, who has said he will vote against Pompeo. It looks like McCain will not be there because of his illness. That cuts out two votes. So it's certainly a possibility. But it's going to take an enormous amount of work. Enormous numbers of phone calls and visits and protests and threats of not voting back those members of Congress who, who would go ahead and vote for this person as being the new head of diplomacy. This is as urgent as it gets.

SHARMINI PERIES: All right, Phyllis. I thank you so much for joining us. Phyllis is with the Institute for Policy Studies New Internationalism Project. And Medea Benjamin, thank you so much for joining us. And Medea's from Code Pink. Thank you both.


0040 13 hours ago ,

Nonsense lead . The regime change trope is totally bi-partisan as yesterdays air strikes clearly indicate. Pompeo etal like most American federal government officialdom are now lackeys and on the payrolls of the MIC , CIA, and banksters. There is no Iran nuclear deal , Trump is right about that . Iran has moved under Russia's nuclear umbrella as North Korea is now under China's, making the rush to develop nukes unnecessary at the present time. Obombers treaty was/is a worthless face saving effort, after the destruction of Libya.. Trump increasing represents the wishes of the duopoly, not the electorate, his latest terror attack on Syria bumped his popularity 5% across Americas, knocking down the looming Stormy scandal perhaps...

neoconbuster 14 hours ago ,

Phyllis: "But at the moment we don't know at all what happened in Douma on that weekend 10 days ago."

We do know, because we listen daily to the other side of the story too. There was NO Chemical attack . The White Helmets filmed the deception.

These two Workers of the Douma Hospital's Emergency room, are eyewitnesses of the Lie that was sold by the Western MSM, which is a tool of the Deep State:

-Syrian Eyewitnesses Reveal How Douma Provocation Was Made- (Published by Sputnik, on Apr 13, 2018)

https://www.youtube.com/wat...

Howie Lisnoff 15 hours ago ,

Arguing for a right-wing Congress to overturn decades of executive war making "privilege" is a bit of a lost cause at this point. Pompeo is the latest iteration in a long line of those at the State Department who have ditched diplomacy in favor of war.

gustave courbet > novychelovek

Consistent theme in caricatures of other nations/groups relates to their inherent "otherness." Be it Clapper's comment about Russians being "genetically driven" to "co-opt," or Kim Jong-un's reputation as a madman, or Iran's fundamentalist world view, they have in common the tendency to project a fundamentally irrational disposition on one's adversaries.

In reality, most governments, be they pseudo-democratic, theocratic, etc are motivated by pragmatic self-interest. In Iran's case, they can use history to compare non-nuclear states to nuclear powers in regards to US bellicosity and see a clear pattern.

[Apr 15, 2018] There is a very large discrepancy between the Russian Ministry of Defense report of strike and the description in the Pentagon briefing on the strike

The key unknown is how many rockets were decoys this time
Notable quotes:
"... Were dummy missiles launched to deceive the Syrian defenses? ..."
"... The Pentagon and their friends in the lame stream corp. would never lie to the Amerikan Sheeple would they;-) ..."
"... A dummy cruise missile makes no sense. In order to have similar range/flight characteristics with the real one, you will need more of less the same engine/fuel/navigation/guidance system. And gain what? The cost of the terminal guidance sensor and the explosives? ..."
"... A very important essay that I completely agree with. http://thesaker.is/ask-yourselves-are-we-the-bad-guys/ ..."
"... Let anyone think that anyone in NATO actually cares about the use of chemical weapons, I will point out that the single biggest chemical attack in the last decade--if not well beyond that -- was when the vetted, moderate rebels poisoned the water supply to Damascus early last year. The water was unusable for weeks and killed a lot more than 40 people. ..."
"... The psychopath and sociopath UK/US/France & Co would always trample any rules or laws that they set up to pursue their intestests, be it $$$, be it resources, be it military and/or ideological dominance. ..."
"... War is about propagnda as much as about bombing itself, if not more important. US Army is lying and is confident its helper the MSM will get its message through American people's brains. ..."
"... RT, PressTV, Global Times and other government-affiliated sources are generally more objective than western mainstream media, but I worry that they may omit certain info that is uncomfortable to them. ..."
"... I think I will walk over to my neighbour and de declare his house and car and wife a "vital national interest" and see what happens..... ..."
"... Note that the US Navy ships were in the Red Sea not the Mediterranean - that is to keep them further away from Russia's Kinzhal missiles based in Southern Russia. Immediately after the strike Russia sealed an agreement for the use of a base in Iran - ships in the Red Sea no longer safe! ..."
"... There is nothing new about this. The Empire never accepts its mistakes and failures until its too late. Lets just hope they never kick this habit until its too late. ..."
"... FWIW, the attack pattern yesterday is pretty much what one would expect from a wide-area, short-range air defense probe, not a strike mission. The US and Israel already have the general geographical positions of longer- and mid-range air defense radars and communications networks mapped out for the time being. Taking those out will necessarily mean killing Russian soldiers. They'll only do that when they go all out. ..."
"... Or it was a successful SIGINT/mapping mission, not a strike mission, and neither the Pentagon nor Tel Aviv care to advertise that fact. Russian command staff plays the 'old, dumb Soviet generals' throwback act and brags about their supposed air defense success. In the meantime, they know exactly what happened and why FUKUS did it, and don't care to advertise that fact. Everything is intel to them. ..."
"... Just 22 per cent of the public would support a cruise missile attacks against Syrian military targets, a new poll shows. 43 per cent of the British public oppose missile strikes on Syria, according to the latest YouGov research commissioned by the Times. A significant 34 per cent of respondents said 'don't know'. ..."
"... The high failure rate of these 'Made in USA' missiles will be used to sell the missile stock update in addition to the allocated $10.8 billion for modernization and additional nuclear warhead capabilities. Smedley Butler could have never imagined just how much of a racket war (especially the one of terror) would turn out to be. ..."
"... 100 missiles from US, UK and France is a political commitment, not just a military test. At any rate, the military failure is also a political failure. A year's effort since the 59 Tomahawk attack hasn't improved the success rate. Must be very worrying for the US military. ..."
"... They already pretty much destroyed whatever small chances Trump ever had at being re-elected ..."
Apr 15, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org
report of strike and the description in the Pentagon briefing on the strike. According to the Pentagon only three places related to non-existing Syrian chemical weapons were targeted:
This combined military strike was directed against three distinct Syrian chemical weapons program targets.
...
In summary, in a powerful show of allied unity, we deployed 105 weapons against three targets.

It does not make any sense to send 35 cruise missiles against each of those not hardened, not defended targets like the now destroyed Barzeh research center which was a small two story building complex (pic of destruction) and had been declared free of chemical weapons and weapon research by the OPCW. Why would the U.S. military use such a high number of precision weapons against only three targets? This is extremely unusual and does not make sense at all.

The Russians , as well as other sources on the ground, report in detail of many more targets:

At least six airports were targeted according to the Russian report. The Pentagon reports no strike on Syrian airports but claims to have launched a way too high number of cruise missiles for each of the claimed three target. The Syrian opposition outlet SOHR reports of eight targets and says that at least 65 of the cruise missiles were downed by the Syrian air defenses. The Russians say 71 were shot down while the Pentagon says none of its cruise missiles were hit.

At least three other sources confirm the Russian version of events. The Pentagon is lying. The attack was a U.S. attempt to disable the Syrian air force by destroying its airports. It failed and the Pentagon is hiding that failure. Will the U.S. media report this discrepancy?

Not unrelated to the strike on Syria is the Skripal case where the mysteries continue to pile up.

Use the comments as open thread ...

10:42 AM | Comments (127)

igybundy , Apr 15, 2018 10:58:10 AM | 1

I saw a couple of parts of missiles and maybe Russian MOD needs to display the pieces they have collected. Most amerikans believe their invincibility. In fact they want a second round and Russia does seem to agree there will be another attack before May 12th now that idlib part deux has started.. ghouta was only to stop the US from taking the city while the army was busy in idlib.
Don Bacon , Apr 15, 2018 11:05:42 AM | 2
The legality of the US strike has (rightfully) been questioned.

UN Charter, Article 2:

-All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice, are not endangered.

-All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

Article 51 of the Charter covers self-defense.

Nothing in the present Charter shall impair the inherent right of individual or collective self-defence if an armed attack occurs against a Member of the United Nations, until the Security Council has taken measures necessary to maintain international peace and security. Measures taken by Members in the exercise of this right of self-defence shall be immediately reported to the Security Council and shall not in any way affect the authority and responsibility of the Security Council under the present Charter to take at any time such action as it deems necessary in order to maintain or restore international peace and security.

Obviously the US has not been attacked by Syria so SecDef Mattis has reworded the self defence law. "But as far as the legal authority under the Article II of the Constitution, we believe the president has ever reason to defend vital American interests, and that is what he did here tonight under that authority." here

What "vital American interests" in Syria are being defended? Of course no reporter asked that vital question. Mattis has said that if Syria employs its chemical weapons against its citizens then it might do the same against US troops so it must be stopped. Of course the US troops are in Syria illegally, claiming to be anti-ISIS but actually trying to overthrow the Syria government.

So the US creates a vital American interest by illegally occupying a country with military forces and then has to defend that interest against that country. That's how to Make America Great Again?. . .No.

Burt , Apr 15, 2018 11:10:28 AM | 3
Were dummy missiles launched to deceive the Syrian defenses?
Den Lille Abe , Apr 15, 2018 11:10:43 AM | 4
105 missiles at 3 targets ? How stupid do they think we are ? No I think b might be on to something, a failed attempt to hit the Syrian airforce, it could be credible....
Ghost Ship , Apr 15, 2018 11:17:28 AM | 5
Are Guardian columnists ignorant or what? The latest ignoramus/useless idiot is Andrew Rawnsley :
Syria has paid a terrible price for the west's disastrous policy of doing nothing

Has he really missed all the shit the United States, United Kingdom, France, etc. have been doing in Syria or has he just received a large well-padded brown envelope from MbS? If the US and others such as the democratically-elected governments of Qatar and Saudi Arabia had stayed out of Syria, the whole shitpile would have been over in weeks if not days. It's Obama, Clinton, Sakozy, Cameron and all the other useless idiots who are responsible for the mess in Syria.

A P , Apr 15, 2018 11:19:30 AM | 6
"What "vital American interests" in Syria are being defended? It is Zionist/Israeli/Rothschild interests being advanced, see the Oded Yinon Plan. The groundwork for this plan began before the Balfour Declaration, and was simply transferred to the US via the privately-owned banking cartel, Rothschild-controlled Federal Reserve (created in 1913) when the British Empire sank into irrelevance for the Zionists post WW1. Don't forget the Barn Rothschild in the 1700's saying "I care not who sits on the British throne, he who controls the money supply controls the Empire... and I control the money supply." So the US Empire is controlled by those who control the US-peto-dollar money supply... the US Federal Reserve.

This is why so much of US "foreign policy" makes no logical sense. But include the Rothschilds/AIPAC/etc., plus the Saudi wahabbists and US "policy" makes completely logical sense.

goldhoarder , Apr 15, 2018 11:26:07 AM | 7
I hope the US is telling the truth actually. The number of US ships heading that way suggests they want to have so many missles to launch they will just overwhelm the air defenses. This is scary shit.
Don Bacon , Apr 15, 2018 11:26:47 AM | 8
Regarding the legal basis for the attacks, Jon Schwarz has an article up: Donald Trump Ordered Syria Strike Based on a Secret Legal Justification Even Congress Can't See . . .How can this be constitutional, given the fact that Article I, Section 8 of America's founding document declares that "The Congress shall have Power To declare War"?

The problems with that line of thinking, it seems to me, are two:

  1. Saying that the Congress has the power to do something doesn't mean that the president can't do the same thing.
  2. A brief attack upon another country doesn't rise to the level of a war, and obviously Trump did not declare war on Syria.
Burt , Apr 15, 2018 11:33:30 AM | 9
The most important event following the strike was the vote in the Security Council on the Russian resolution condemning the strike. It lost the vote, but voting with Russia were Bolivia, thank you to the truly democratic President of Bolivia, Evo Morales, and China. China. Let that sink in for a moment. China. Four nations abstained, so there was a very easy way for China to say, "I don't have a dog in this fight," and abstain. Or, China, could have voted against the resolution, joining its trading partners the U.S., Britain, France, Sweden, Poland, etc. But China voted in favor.

This clearly means that when the U.S. starts bombing Russian installations anywhere, they will have to deal with the Chinese as well as the Russians. This will not happen.

jo6pac , Apr 15, 2018 11:34:40 AM | 10
The Pentagon and their friends in the lame stream corp. would never lie to the Amerikan Sheeple would they;-)
Erlindur , Apr 15, 2018 11:35:21 AM | 11
@Burt | Apr 15, 2018 11:10:28 AM | 3

A dummy cruise missile makes no sense. In order to have similar range/flight characteristics with the real one, you will need more of less the same engine/fuel/navigation/guidance system. And gain what? The cost of the terminal guidance sensor and the explosives?

Bakerpete , Apr 15, 2018 11:36:07 AM | 12
A very important essay that I completely agree with. http://thesaker.is/ask-yourselves-are-we-the-bad-guys/
shargash , Apr 15, 2018 11:37:42 AM | 13
The Pentagon claims that 76 missiles hit Barzeh. Ludicrous.
J Swift , Apr 15, 2018 11:41:08 AM | 14
I think I was a little late to the discussion on another thread, so if you don't mind I think I'll re-post here:

b (and several commenters) are correct that this Syrian attack was a win for Russia. Russian S-400 and other defensive countermeasures were 100% effective--not a single iFUKUS aircraft penetrated Syrian airspace and US naval vessels were prevented from striking Syria. As for the swarm of gnats, the Syrians were allowed to test their own metal and in spite of creative attack vectors also received an exemplary grade (unlike the US, Russia and its allies seem very good at "teaching a man to fish"), even against Trump's new, improved missiles. Sure, iFUKUS is able to save a little face by announcing a perfect win, just like they announced the virtually perfect strike last year (even though Syrian aircraft were taking of from there within a few hours). And I also fear the naval buildup is a signal that this is not the last chapter in this book, but as for this particular chapter there is a reason the Syrians are celebrating.

I haven't heard any more about the Russian report that the French didn't actually do anything--they probably kicked the Russian shin under the table and hissed "Shut up! We already cashed the Saudi check!" The MbS visits to the three protagonists removes any doubt about the real reason for this attack, but the French definitely seem to be losing enthusiasm for a swim after dipping their toes in the water and finding it way too hot. [Actually, AP noted that the French might have been tasked with a second wave attack, but when at some point during the first wave Russia scrambled its aircraft (photos were posted on SyPers, I think, showing Russian aircraft buzzing around a couple days earlier prominently displaying anti-ship missiles), the second wave was nixed. This actually sounds quite plausible.]

I think the consequences Russia promised will be mostly in the refusal to let the whole chemical false flag industry story drop. There was an announcement that Russia knew for a fact that Britain had ordered the E Gouta false flag, which seems like a pretty strong statement and would indicate not only might the good guys have captured iFUKUS terrorist trainers fessing up to some of their involvement, along with reportedly captured British CW munitions, but I recall from a year or so ago an Iranian general chuckling and remarking that they had penetrated all of the iFUKUS command centers and knew everything that was going on. Russia might be privy to intercepted communications as well, although they no doubt don't want to burn their assets.

Likewise they were tipped by someone at the Swiss lab about the Skripal affair. There was a reason it was Russia who was clamoring to get the OPCW involved (as the proper authority for this type alleged incident), and it looks like it's paying off. In spite of the Brits' attempt to carefully limit the scope of that involvement--like a TV lawyer, "Just answer the misleading question! Yes or No? Did the Porton Down lab find evidence of a toxin that is something like an organophosphate?" Yes, BUT... was obviously the answer the Brits did not want to get out. So the Skripals were hit with BZ to make a scene and get them into isolation, where the frame-up of Russia could begin by carefully seeding A-234 about to make the case; but they got nervous when the OPCW inspectors finally arrived that the "evidence" might be too degraded, since that's what this type of non-persistent agent does, so they re-applied fresh, new samples straight from the lab. Unfortunately this was duly noted by some brave scientist, that the "evidence" was simply too perfect, and Russia was tipped off. But now that this evidence is in the hands not just of Russia but of third parties, May and BJ are going to look very bad indeed.

Den Lille Abe , Apr 15, 2018 11:47:26 AM | 15
I think I will walk over to my neighbor and de declare his house and car and wife a "vital national interest" and see what happens.....
Anon , Apr 15, 2018 11:48:39 AM | 16
Putin: Further Western Strikes in Syria Contrary to Int'l Law Will Lead to Chaos https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804151063585034-syria-actions-violations-chaos/

Haley responds: US to Impose Sanctions on Russia Over Support of Assad - Envoy to UN https://sputniknews.com/us/201804151063584536-haley-us-troops-syria/

Best wore if Haley catch a brain stroke, that would save peace.

Timothy Hagios , Apr 15, 2018 12:03:32 PM | 17
Let anyone think that anyone in NATO actually cares about the use of chemical weapons, I will point out that the single biggest chemical attack in the last decade--if not well beyond that -- was when the vetted, moderate rebels poisoned the water supply to Damascus early last year. The water was unusable for weeks and killed a lot more than 40 people.
Peter AU 1 , Apr 15, 2018 12:05:37 PM | 18
Looking at Trump's string of tweets for the morning of April 11, it looks very likely he had to act on Syria or be impeached. Any time both side of congress and senate are in unison, Trump faces impeachment. This is also the reason Mattis and the pentagon under him are lying about the Ghouta CW and the effectiveness of the US strike. I doubt there will ever be any major attacks on Syria or the Russian forces there under Trump, though there may be more symbolic moves if Trump is facing impeachment. Even symbolic moves have to be sold to the swamp as highly detrimental to Syria and Russia.

Russia will not act when Trump makes these moves.

Jesrad , Apr 15, 2018 12:07:24 PM | 19
At the beginning of the missile attack, twitter had numerous claims of hits on areas where none ever occurred. Here's one https://syria.liveuamap.com/en/2018/14-april-local-sources-damascus-airport-is-completely-destroyed This corresponds to a target where Russia claims numerous missiles were interdicted. Perhaps these twitter accounts had expected a different outcome?
Mina , Apr 15, 2018 12:19:04 PM | 20
Just to say... What a community! And what a host!! B should be super-proud. Probably the sole bar in the world where you walk in and find people discussing and arguing basing themselves on the UNSC live or on official documents and reports released by governements and organisations. I doubt you'll find a university where the elite applies the rules followed here.
Mina , Apr 15, 2018 12:27:10 PM | 21
#1 May 12th, coz the opening of the US embassy in Jerusalem is supposed to happen a couple of days later. Is that what all the build up of an 'invicible armada' is about?
frances , Apr 15, 2018 12:30:13 PM | 22
There is an interesting analysis by A Russian Admiral as to why the attack had such limited success: sputniknews.com/analysis/201804151063583839-syria-us-missile-strike

It makes sense, they had no time to coordinate and probably thought they had a soft target in Syria if they avoided all the Russian sites. Wrong and it is interesting that the full weapon complement was 300 missiles, perhaps to defend if Russia did attack?

Pnyx , Apr 15, 2018 12:34:25 PM | 23
Regarding the 'successful strikes'; my thoughts precisely B. It is telling that nobody in the MSM world was commenting the striking discrepancy not in terms of missile hits but in terms of targets. Obviously FUKus tried to weaken the Syrian airport infrastructure and failed badly.

There are rumors the intention was to add more attack rounds but that this intention was thwarted by the start of the Russian combat aircraft.

frances , Apr 15, 2018 12:39:13 PM | 24
@ Jesrad | Apr 15, 2018 12:07:24 PM | 19

Yes, this map is really interesting, the text from 2 days ago goes into detail on strikes that never happened. And if you refresh the site, all the 2 day ago "strikes" on the map disappear. Nice catch!!

Peter AU 1 , Apr 15, 2018 12:40:34 PM | 25
Re missiles used in the recent strike on Syria.

Both Tomahawk and air to surface missiles were used. I had read one report of missile coming in over Idlib province. These where most likely lauched by the Brits whos planes took off from Cyprus. They may have launched them off the coast of Turkey, flying over Hatay province Turkey, and Idlib.

US launched air to surface missiles from Jordan. One or more US ships in the Red Sea launched Tomahawks.

There have been a number of comments that thius or that cannot be right because Tomahawks do not do this or that, but what air to surface missiles were used and what are their flight characteristics?

The brits launched 8? (I forget their name at the moment) according to Russia MoD. The US tried a few of its new 'smart' missiles (6?), but what other types did US launch from the air?

Amongst this mix, I think there would be quite a variation in flight characteristics.

Den Lille Abe , Apr 15, 2018 12:57:27 PM | 26
@ Peter AU! 25

Brimstone ? The Brits use Brimstone.

Anon , Apr 15, 2018 12:59:49 PM | 27
Trump has just given jihadis a thousand reasons to stage fake flag operations after this attack
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_LKsn4ZutxQ
frances , Apr 15, 2018 1:01:26 PM | 28
In follow-on to my earlier post at 22. Jim Stone has some info on why the attack stopped (recall that they had 300 missiles available for this):

"I am going to stick with my assessment that something big was going to happen that caused the U.S. to stop the attack. All the cruise missiles could report their status to the launch site, and the U.S. was sitting there watching them vanish before they reached their targets. "reporting back" was early 90's tech, that the cruise missiles had even then.

So it would have been ominous to watch them vanish, And then suddenly, Russian planes were in the air, preparing to attack. That did happen, regardless of whatever any claims are.

And within 20 minutes (before they reached their targets) it was suddenly announced that the attack which was supposed to last for days was suddenly over, after only about an hour. Something big happened, and no one is saying what. My guess is that Russia made the right threat."

mali , Apr 15, 2018 1:04:37 PM | 29
Don Bacon @2,

Laws and rules are designed and laid out for the yellow/brown/black people and the powerless small potatoes to obey and follow through.

The psychopath and sociopath UK/US/France & Co would always trample any rules or laws that they set up to pursue their intestests, be it $$$, be it resources, be it military and/or ideological dominance.

Remember how the Westerners came to "discover" America and then claimed it theirs without ever asking permission from the indigenous American who had been living there long before they came. Till now they've been whitewashing their illegal squatterings and killings as "given" to them because they're "exceptional people" blessed by God .

Remember how the British demanded China to legalise the drug trade when it ran into 20 million tael silver trade deficit. When China refused, they used guns and boats to force China to take their opium for exchange of China's fine silk, tea and porcelain.

Remember how the stolen diamonds and rubies from India are still sitting on the British crowns, which are worn by HM Queen.

Stealing, lawlessness and bullying are all impregnated in UK/US/Fr's DNA.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 15, 2018 1:07:21 PM | 30
After my post @18 I read a recent piece at SST by J. J notes the posture of Trump recently. Arms folded, a look of dejection or defeat. He has only had this look since being pushed into the Syria strike. The lunatics that are called elected representatives in the US may soon vote Trump out of office. They want Syria destroyed and Russia crushed under their heel. That is when we will see war.
mali , Apr 15, 2018 1:08:24 PM | 31
shargash @ 13

War is about propagnda as much as about bombing itself, if not more important. US Army is lying and is confident its helper the MSM will get its message through American people's brains.

Anon , Apr 15, 2018 1:16:43 PM | 32
More escalation tommorow by US: More sanctions against Russia to be announced on Monday - Haley https://www.rt.com/usa/424212-us-sanctions-russia-haley/
mali , Apr 15, 2018 1:17:28 PM | 33
Anon @16

Just shows how schizophrenic US has become. iFUKUS will not back awy from further attacks, I'am sure. Hope Russia is now decided to supply Syria with S-300 or even S-400.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 15, 2018 1:18:16 PM | 34
mali 31

It is not so much the people the US army is trying to deceive but congress. If they cannot pull it off, they will have to go to war with Russia.

farm ecologist , Apr 15, 2018 1:20:19 PM | 35
Since this is an open thread...

Does anybody know of a good news aggregator that does not censor/weed out publications that do not conform to "preferred narratives"? Google News seems to have gotten worse (almost no western indy media at all) as of late and it's become practically useless. NewsNow is a little better but seems to include a limited number of sources. RT, PressTV, Global Times and other government-affiliated sources are generally more objective than western mainstream media, but I worry that they may omit certain info that is uncomfortable to them.

Suggestions?

mali , Apr 15, 2018 1:27:05 PM | 36
I think I will walk over to my neighbour and de declare his house and car and wife a "vital national interest" and see what happens.....

Posted by: Den Lille Abe | Apr 15, 2018 11:47:26 AM | 15
---------------------------------------------------------
LOL

mali , Apr 15, 2018 1:29:04 PM | 37
Peter AU 1 @ 34

You mean the US army is trying to deceive the congress?

BM , Apr 15, 2018 1:38:46 PM | 39
The Pentagon claims that 76 missiles hit Barzeh. Ludicrous.
Posted by: shargash | Apr 15, 2018 11:37:42 AM | 13

Barzeh is also in a densely built-up residential area, according to Sputnik. 76 missiles to hit a few small buildings and only 4 / 8 / 12 for whole aerodromes? That's because Barzeh is a residential area and the missiles are "for the protection of civilians" after all ...

Note that the US Navy ships were in the Red Sea not the Mediterranean - that is to keep them further away from Russia's Kinzhal missiles based in Southern Russia. Immediately after the strike Russia sealed an agreement for the use of a base in Iran - ships in the Red Sea no longer safe!

meme , Apr 15, 2018 1:39:38 PM | 40

There is nothing new about this. The Empire never accepts its mistakes and failures until its too late. Lets just hope they never kick this habit until its too late.

frances , Apr 15, 2018 1:41:55 PM | 41
@Peter AU 1 | Apr 15, 2018 1:07:21 PM | 30
I agree, he looks flummoxed but he is a tough guy and he may be able to fight though, although the Bolton hire is scary.
The plus side is the US strike was not a success, no matter how the msm tries to spin it. This may explain why the US is going to issue all new, shiny Russian sanctions tomorrow.
The new sanctions and this strike will also serve the deep state's objective of blocking any meeting between Putin and Trump, or maybe not, Putin his a shrewd apple and may see through all of this.
Phodges , Apr 15, 2018 1:45:34 PM | 42
Whatreallyhappened.com is good news aggregator. There is also rense.com
Ninel , Apr 15, 2018 1:49:34 PM | 43
Given relative high success rate of Russian air defence systems, the US just helped prove and advertise the effectiveness of Russian military equipment. I would be interested to know if Russian military equipment sales go up in the weeks to follow.
mali , Apr 15, 2018 2:07:38 PM | 45
Bakerpete @12

Thank you for the excellent article. Very powerful and insightful introspection! Hope more people will be able to read it.

WJ , Apr 15, 2018 2:07:41 PM | 46
@Peter Au,

In response to your #24 on earlier thread, I concur. I suggest that to understand the U.K./US Salisbury--Ghouta plot, all readers should read https://sputniknews.com/military/201804121063460158-british-forces-syria-ghouta/

  1. Magnier's latest here: https://ejmagnier.com/2018/04/15/the-us-secret-plan-on-damascus-foiled-the-russian-role-before-and-after-the-us-uk-france-attack-revealed/
  2. Sputnik or Global research write up of Fars news agency account here: https://sputniknews.com/military/201804121063460158-british-forces-syria-ghouta/
  3. Thierry Meyssan's March 20 piece at Voltaire here: https://www.voltairenet.org/article200232.html

The pieces fit together nicely.

Don Bacon , Apr 15, 2018 2:11:35 PM | 47
This is what some anonymous entity posted at Breaking Defense:(excerpt follows)

The missiles struck at the heart of the Syrian chemical weapons enterprise, taking out three sites, one in Damascus, and two further north near the city of Homs, that produce and story[sic] chlorine and sarin precursor materials. The strike was remarkable for the number of widely dispersed assets used to hit the three targets:

It's not yet clear which bases the allied aircraft launched from, although the B-1s probably came from al-Udeid in Qatar and Anglo-French aircraft from Europe.

NOTE: "Arabian Gulf" suggests someone in the Pentagon, especially Navy. That's what they do.

PavewayIV , Apr 15, 2018 2:11:41 PM | 48
b - "The attack was a U.S. attempt to disable the Syrian air force by destroying its airports."

Do you mean the runways, specifically? The tactic of grounding aircraft by damaging runways is used, but it is understood as a temporary (hours, maybe a day or two) at best no matter how big the crater. Several smaller craters or a deeper crater require more effort to repair, but do not substantially increase the time the runway is unuseable (hours, days). Typical western scenarios have cruise missiles or stand-off weapons taking out the air defenses first, followed by aircraft using precision munitions to destroy all the aircraft and infrastructure.

FWIW, the attack pattern yesterday is pretty much what one would expect from a wide-area, short-range air defense probe, not a strike mission. The US and Israel already have the general geographical positions of longer- and mid-range air defense radars and communications networks mapped out for the time being. Taking those out will necessarily mean killing Russian soldiers. They'll only do that when they go all out.

They need a better picture of the quantity/type of short-range systems defending the longer-range systems, or short-range systems deeper inside Syria that may not have been noticed or ever turned on. Any intel is intel - positions will change, but you'll know to focus on an area tomorrow to pinpoint targets if you know they are there today.

On an attack like the one yesterday, you attempt to get a few cruise missiles inside or beyond the longer-range defenses. You want to appear to attack deeper, high-value targets (actual or suspected) that may defended with short-range SAM systems. Those systems (Pantsirs in the case of Syria) don't fire up their radars revealing their presence until a missile gets close enough. So you have to make that happens. You want to make sure they are nervous about a significant attack and watching for one. I think that part went swimmingly.

The cruise missiles don't even have to strike anything. Probe one site, then maneuver to the next one and probe it. Or probe a site approaching from one direction/altitude, then divert and approach from a different one. You don't even have to have a specific target - just buzz an area to see if its defended at all and by what equipment. Everything, including the cruise missile itself, is gathering data and sending it off to someone. At the end of the mission, run the missile into a plausible target or destroy it. See? It wasn't a probe, it was a failed strike mission. There were xx number of apparent attacks, so there must have been xx number of cruise missiles fired. Hah - your expensive cruise missiles are worthless!

It failed and the Pentagon is hiding that failure.

Or it was a successful SIGINT/mapping mission, not a strike mission, and neither the Pentagon nor Tel Aviv care to advertise that fact. Russian command staff plays the 'old, dumb Soviet generals' throwback act and brags about their supposed air defense success. In the meantime, they know exactly what happened and why FUKUS did it, and don't care to advertise that fact. Everything is intel to them.

Soviet leadership were psychopaths and didn't quite understand the US. The Russians, today, know what psychopathy looks like from up close. The current crop running Israel and the US are just not that clever. Russia can see right through them and realize how dangerous they are. They know exactly where this is going and what's at stake.

Israel and the US are still obsessed with the success of the 1967 Six Day War. Land-grabs, resource-stealing and Arab-killing require total air dominance first. That is being arranged. Exhausted opponent forces like the Egyptian troops Israel was facing in 1967? Check - that is the job of the Saudi and US Special Forces al Qaeda and ISIS contingents - Syrian troops are determined but exhausted today, and have lost most of their military equipment. [By the way, the Egyptian troops sent to the Sinai in '67 were exhausted because they had been fighting the flip-flop army of northern Yemeni tribes. Nobody defeats the flip-flop army!]

I'm not an army guy so can't speak to whatever the ground invasion of Syria will look like. The writing is on the wall for me about the Syrian air defenses, though. Russia interrupted the 'destroy all air defenses' phase for a few years, but the Israeli-firster US deep state demands we finish the job. For Christ's sake, they exhumed Bolton's corpse and a week later Tomahawks are flying. The US Administration and Pentagon have been well-sheckel'd and properly trained to kiss the ring of MbS for easy cash. Time to earn that pay... er, make the little people earn that pay. The way to Iran is through Syria and the Israelis and Saudis are getting impatient.

Galvanize , Apr 15, 2018 2:11:47 PM | 49
I wonder how likely it is that the missiles flying towards Barzeh were seen at the time as missiles that overshot any strategic targets and considered as a lower priority by the air defense forces. Because the three targets the Pentagon got to parade around feel like a waste of missiles intended to make intercepts look less efficient than they were.
Paul , Apr 15, 2018 2:13:18 PM | 50
Another hypothesis about the scrambling of Russia jets well after the show started is perhaps to be found in reference to B1 bombers. Although strike points of US cruise / crude missiles can perhaps be extrapolated from flight paths, the BI (stealth) bombers could fly in relatively close and launch at targets at the last minute.

The fighters may have scrambled to head that off.

Don Bacon , Apr 15, 2018 2:19:49 PM | 51
Coming up for Trump (in addition to his increased domestic problems) is North Korea. Probably President Kim will now be even more disinclined to disarm than he previously was. The US: "Trust us, if you disarm we won't take advantage of your weakness.". . .uh-huh.
fast freddy , Apr 15, 2018 2:20:52 PM | 52
Paveway, Makes sense. However, we now are informed that Russia is delivering more and more sophisticated anti-aircraft weapons systems to Syria in response to this attack.
Don Bacon , Apr 15, 2018 2:27:11 PM | 53
@47
Notice the absence of the destroyer Donald Cook. On that we have this article from Stars & Stripes: (excerpt)
As images of sick or dying children flooded global media all week, the U.S. guided-missile destroyer USS Winston Churchill was en route to the Mediterranean to join a flotilla of allied warships, including another U.S. destroyer, the USS Donald Cook.

It was a ruse.

While both vessels carry as many as 90 Tomahawk missiles – the main weapon used in the Friday evening strike on Syria – neither ship in the end fired a shot. Instead, according to a person familiar with White House war planning, they were part of a plan to distract Russia and its Syrian ally from an assault Assad's government could do little to defend itself against.

Robet James Parsons , Apr 15, 2018 2:40:44 PM | 54
Without having read all the posted comments, but while in the process of putting together an opinion piece analysis for a French-langauge newspaper in Switzerland, I can say that the French were involved. The number of weapons used can be explained by a simple fact: everybody was testing weapons. After such tests, on the manufaturers' websites, one usually finds the desigation "battle tested" for those thus tested. This increases their salability.

More later perhaps, as time and analysis allow.

ben , Apr 15, 2018 2:43:41 PM | 55
One thing should be perfectly clear by now. The corporate empire's goals will never change. Regime change, and a failed state in Syria, are a must to further the global hegemony desired.. And, all for the sake of profits.. Hopefully, the alliances strong enough to blunt this monstrous goal, are not involved in the "war show" going on...
james , Apr 15, 2018 2:55:13 PM | 56
thanks b! this is informative..

@46 wj - thanks for those links..

@48 paveway... thanks.. ditto @52 ff's comment to you..

Peter AU 1 , Apr 15, 2018 2:59:54 PM | 57
mali 37
Yes. Congress, senate... they seem to have the belief that if the US launches a devastating strike on Syria without caring if Russians are killed, that the Russians will back off and run home. Pentagon knows that if they do this, Russia will strike back and with the lunatics in congress and senate trying to run the asylum, this will quickly lead to MAD.
james , Apr 15, 2018 3:06:38 PM | 58
@ 46 link to magneir is worth reading.. i am quoting the last part which is especially interesting..

"Turkish President Erdogan expressed his support and later satisfaction with the US strikes on Syria. Russia answered by asking him to deliver the city of Afrin to the Syrian government. Iran's special envoy for Syrian affairs Ali Akbar Velayati overtly stated that the next objective is Idlib. Therefore, it is now feasible for Turkey to pull out of its dozen observation bases around Idlib, even as Russia pulled out of Afrin prior to the Turkish attack. And Russia expects Erdogan to cancel the previously agreed sale of the S-400 missiles any day.

Thus, the compass points to Idlib, Rastan, Jisr al-Shoughour and the Syrian Army forces gathering in rural Lattakia, ready to divide Idlib after liberating the many villages around it.

This will bring the world to the next "chemical attack" appointment in the next operational theatre of the Syrian army and its allies. Would the US stand by al-Qaeda? Why not? It has never really been a question of the use of chemical weapons, since the US holds the largest stockpile of chemical weapons worldwide: the real issue is the defeat of the US faced with the dominance of Russia over the Levant."

also for anyone who missed it.. i was away friday, but the daily usa press briefing propaganda sheet from friday rarely disappoints!'
https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/

james , Apr 15, 2018 3:08:14 PM | 59
craig murrays latest from today https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/
frances , Apr 15, 2018 3:38:56 PM | 61
Posted by: PavewayIV | Apr 15, 2018 2:11:41 PM | 48
Really interesting, thank you! Could it be that this assessment worked both ways; Russia now knows what the US knows and will make its info moot? As fastfreddie noted, Russia is going to bring Syria new equip. I am inclined to think, even in the face of your excellent comment, that this was intended to be a serious hit.

I believe our latest Axis of Evil had every intention of destroying all of Damascus, the Syrian infrastructure, airports, planes, all except for the Russian sites. They were surprised by Syrian capabilities and cut the mission short.

When the State Dept did their show and tell on the mission, they did not look like people who had won, they looked like people who had just had an unsettling experience.

The sudden announcement that the US is putting new sanctions on Russia on Monday may be their way of saving face as these are new, new sanctions from what I have read so far.

Laguerre , Apr 15, 2018 3:46:55 PM | 62
The proportion of missile failure was even greater than for the 59 Tomahawk attack a year ago on the Sha'ayrat airbase. In a year they haven't been able to find a solution. This is quite grave for the US military.
Paul , Apr 15, 2018 3:46:58 PM | 63
I know Russia has staked out a willingness to continue to exercise diplomacy, but might they at least float some demurs about hosting Macron in Russia in May?
NemesisCalling , Apr 15, 2018 3:47:01 PM | 64
I think whatever your opinion of the strikes on Friday evening (stateside), there are only two worldviews for which you would frame and fit the events to line up with that worldview.

I was trying to explain why this is happening to my wife on Friday and why America feels the need to get its rocks off by launching tomahawks. She had catholic parents who believe in certain issues of eschatology, namely nuclear war, and have drilled the idea into her since what I am hoping was a safe age to do so. Nonetheless, the intricacies of the Syrian conflict is only understood by years of following the events. And so it is difficult to unpack these intricacies on her, (would she even care to understand these) just like how it is difficult to respond to a friend at work when they comment on Assad gassing his own people.

I discovered the Saker's blog during the flareup in Donbass and watched as the airport there changed hands to the east in a ridiculous display of wanton destruction. From there, the Syrian war became important to me. Almost four years later and we sit watching the final moments, hoping for peace, but knowing the diabolical forces inhabit our western governments which will not relinquish their Wolfowitz Doctrine. This we know.

Which leads me to my thought about the two worldviews and which Trump no doubt plays a large part:

To my mind, one can either FEEL that this is indeed a desperate moment of the west OR you feel that the elites in the west are resigning themselves to the fate of jumping ship, arranging their finances for the move, and are getting ready to leave western nations (particularly the US) with the check. In other words, these assholes just order the fanciest lobster in the tank, ordered more than one drink, and are getting ready to sneak out the bathroom window because they can't pay.

So does Donald Trump really LOVE America? Is he a true-believer in the west and is dissed so hard by Sparta that he feels compelled to go all-in? In my mind, it would be better if he weren't and so would let America fall into the hundred-year darkness which we are about to descend. And not from nuclear winter will we be shrouded in the cloth of the untouchables, but from weening ourselves from centralized gov't teets. The only question is, will Putin and co. and Europe's vassal-states allow these orchesTRAITORS to slip themselves into their realm, cryogenically-frozen to be awoken centuries from now at the right moment when centralization and globalization again stretches its gnarled-limbs out upon the unsuspecting world.

If the guns stand down, that may be the only thing we can hope for. Certainly never expect the fine-feathered elite to be brought before the court of public opinion. But then again...Putin is a wily fox.

les7 , Apr 15, 2018 3:51:06 PM | 65
@ PavewayIV

I love the thinking and analysis. I saw this as combining two major purposes

1) political - to give Trump his diversion, and marshal wavering supporters to show he is a man of action. By attacking the sites the OPCW had certified were chemical sites (even though empty and de-activated for years) he can claim to have acted decisively without laying the ground for longer-term US involvement.

2) Militarily - the strike was to identify and weaken the SAS Air Defence system. Targeting airports is futile. Targeting the Air defence network (radars, mobile missile launchers) is critical. All the airports targeted were key air defense nodes controlled by the SAA (my guess is others in the north near Aleppo are controlled by Russian elements). Israel claimed it had destroyed most of the Syrian air defense network in Southern Syria recently. While factually untrue, it does indicate the direction of their concern (and US concern).

On this level, the 100 missile strike was a test and probably gave the US their much needed info on the electronics of a larger operation. Once the carrier strike group arrives, with a first wave capability that numbers over 1000 missiles, we will see the real results of this confrontation.

If this confrontation was won by the Russians, the CSG will threaten, make a show of force, claim success and back off. It dare not risk a 71 % failure for a 1000 missile attack. If the US feels it has the electronic warfare info it needs to overwhelm the Syrian systems, IMO it will go for another attack lasting days as the US (pentagon and political types) have been humiliated by Putin for too long to let it slide. They will still avoid the Russians but they will not leave a bridge, electrical plant, water plant or other piece of infrastructure undamaged.

WJ , Apr 15, 2018 3:52:50 PM | 66
@Frances,

Or perhaps what you say is true of the preplanned air attack that was originally to follow the ground invasion of Damascus by citizen militias (al-Islam led by embedded U.K., US, and Jordanian operatives) in response to a false flag chemical attack in Ghouta. The rhetorical script was for the most part followed even as the purpose and force of the attack had changed: the purpose was now to distract from the impending revelations of the U.K. /US Salisbury-Ghouta conspiracy; the force had to account for the presence of Russian troops across the whole of Syria, as opposed to isolated in one quadrant of the country, as had been the plan when the original conspiracy was hatched. The Russian discovery of this plot--in early to mid February--undermined the UK US major operation that was to take down Damascus, leading to a partitioned Syria the major hub or which would be controlled by US and Israel. No wonder why everybody hates the Russians.

james , Apr 15, 2018 3:53:23 PM | 67
this link from march 16th needs much wider exposure.. Terrorist capabilities laid bare in an Eastern Ghouta chemical lab

i had seen it when it came out and various posts related to it, but in light of what has happened the past month, it really needs continued and greater exposure for many more people to see...

Piotr Berman , Apr 15, 2018 3:54:26 PM | 68
Posted on Labour List.

Just 22 per cent of the public would support a cruise missile attacks against Syrian military targets, a new poll shows. 43 per cent of the British public oppose missile strikes on Syria, according to the latest YouGov research commissioned by the Times. A significant 34 per cent of respondents said 'don't know'.

Voters from all main parties were overall against launching cruise missile attacks, but the majority (51 per cent) of 2017 Labour voters oppose the move while the Tories are almost evenly split (33 per cent support strikes, 34 per cent oppose).

However, at 61 per cent, a majority do believe the Syrian government or their allies were "probably" responsible for the chemical attack in Douma. Only 10 per cent said they thought "the claims are fabrications" or "something else happened".

Over the weekend it was reported by Syrian opposition activists and medics on the ground that over 40 people were killed in a suspected chemical attack on a rebel-held town near the capital.

The Syrian government and Russia deny both the involvement of Assad, president of Syria, and that chemical weapons were used.

The new YouGov results seem to suggest the British public opposes intervention. But asked whether they would support the enforcement of a 'no-fly zone' over Syria, an overwhelming 60 per cent said they would back the move.

Deputy political editor Steve Hawkes tweeted: "YouGov polls says 22% back airstrikes – 60% a no fly zone. Presumably they have no idea what a no fly zone would trigger".

-----------------

As we can see, the public is thoroughly miseducated by the media but suspicious. The good news is that Corbyn will not suffer for his very cautious anti-intervention position, but the imperialists do not suffer particularly either. It is interesting why there is such a gap between agreeing that "Syrian government is guilty" and supporting the airstrikes.

I can see three reasons for half of the public being in the 61% that believe that "Syrian government probably did something nasty" and 78% "bombing is Syria is ill-advised". One is the conviction that UK (and the other Western countries) support atrocities perpetrated by KSA etc., so there is no need to follow from "atrocities" to "stop selling arms", and even less with "intervention".

The second reason is that a large part of the public does not care about human rights in the Middle East but worries that "Islamist" and/or chaos can be a disastrous replacement of the current government. Even if they believe that it is tyrannical and "guilty".

Third, the wisdom of bombing "just a bit, not to change situation too much" is hard to absorb -- not impossible, but at par with assorted total BS, like improving your luck by purchasing a crystal (apologies to crystal owners here, perhaps I should change the example).

notheonly1 , Apr 15, 2018 3:57:37 PM | 70
It does not make any sense to send 35 cruise missiles against each of those not hardened, not defended targets

Well, not including the costs for the launches, these missiles go for about $ 1.4 million a piece. Times 100, makes for a quick $ 140 million bucks.

The high failure rate of these 'Made in USA' missiles will be used to sell the missile stock update in addition to the allocated $10.8 billion for modernization and additional nuclear warhead capabilities. Smedley Butler could have never imagined just how much of a racket war (especially the one of terror) would turn out to be.

As long as the US and its vassals make a living off of killing innocent people somewhere else, there will be no end to 'missile strikes', or worse. Since an all out nuclear conflict would also ruin the profit model of the armament industry, it will be as unlikely to happen as peace.

Mankind needs a lot more evolving in order to survive the psychopathy of its warmongers, war profiteers, poliwhores and presstitutes.

Is there anybody that believes weapons could ever be outlawed on planet earth? The probability of that happening is equal to the probability for lasting peace.

cdvision , Apr 15, 2018 4:00:04 PM | 71
BM @39

Not only did Russia seal a deal to use 2 Iranian military airfield, part of the deal was to locate S300 and Pansir systems. And thats only the bits publically admitted.

So thats the Arabian gulf tied up, and forget about attacking Iran.

A lot of the confusion re success rates and targets is, IMHO, down to the Russian electronic warfare systems, which seem formidable.

Laguerre , Apr 15, 2018 4:12:12 PM | 73
re Don 48
FWIW, the attack pattern yesterday is pretty much what one would expect from a wide-area, short-range air defense probe, not a strike mission.
I'm not sure I agree with that. 100 missiles from US, UK and France is a political commitment, not just a military test. At any rate, the military failure is also a political failure. A year's effort since the 59 Tomahawk attack hasn't improved the success rate. Must be very worrying for the US military.
les7 , Apr 15, 2018 4:19:42 PM | 77
@ 47 don Bacon

Thanks for that list. It is very informative. As an aside it seems as though they took a page from Russia's book (shooting Kalibr missiles from the Caspian) and were trying to earn some cred for their flagging tomahawk sales.

I think the real message, a bit subtle but definitely not lost on the Russians, is that any action in the Syrian theater will immediately bring into play forces from a very wide area.

The US is sending a message about their logistical reserves and their willingness to use it.

This can only be bad news for those hoping for a limited engagement. IF the US is willing to immediately broaden the scope of the confrontation, then escalation will jump up the steps 2 and 3 at a time.

flamingo , Apr 15, 2018 4:56:54 PM | 81
Thank you b for this treasure of analysis and commmenters. The intellectual effort of all are reassuring.

and thank you Swift @14. That is an interesting surmise and the truth, if it ever emerges will be fascinating. I suspect Theresa May and her manbag Boris are soon for the knackery but whether it comes as a party spill or a no confidence vote will be worth watching. Trump cannot be at all comfortable with the realisation that the top government funtionaries of PM, MI6 plus'retired' spies like Christopher Steele were putting the dirt dossier together that was intended to get Hillary Clinton elected and now cripples his presidency.

I did notice reports that Sergei Skripal was working on a project with Steele's company and SCL/Cambridge Analytica on a Petersburg activity. Not seen anything further but perhaps there will be diamonds in the dust there too. SCL, being led by the tightest UK Tory and deep state gang, is bound to be unravelled by good journalim and loony british hubris in the near future.

telescope , Apr 15, 2018 5:00:52 PM | 83
This was the last US missile attack on Syria. These things simply don't offer any payoff anymore. They already pretty much destroyed whatever small chances Trump ever had at being re-elected, highlight growing military impotence of the West, enhance international standing of Russia and Iran, and lead to increased refugee inflows into Europe. It's all loss and no benefit for the western powers at this point. Russians get to test and hone their newest weaponry at small cost, while America is being reduced to permanent damage control and lying to cover up previously lies. US reputation is already in tatters.
In the longer term all of the factors that doom the West - demography, racial tensions, fiscal unraveling, economic atrophy - will only worsen.
Russians will have to apply extraordinary efforts in order to lose Cold War 2.0. Gorbachev would be able to do it. But not Putin, the best geopolitical poker player in the world, as David Stockman puts it.
ben , Apr 15, 2018 5:01:32 PM | 84
One case in point @ 82:

https://davidcayjohnston.com/

Bakerpete , Apr 15, 2018 5:03:05 PM | 85
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1098059.shtml
Bakerpete , Apr 15, 2018 5:09:18 PM | 86
@telescope 83
Regarding Gorbachev, I've long had the feeling that he deliberately collapsed the Soviet Union. You have to consider the times and the obvious trajectory of the Soviet Union's economy and the pressure put on them by the US. I think Gorbachev saw this and said "okay, you want to be king of the world here ya go". However there was a much longer game involved and Gorbachev, and anyone else paying attention, could see the trajectory the US was on as well. I believe the long game of collapse and rebuild was planned for and that Putin was carefully groomed for his role. It's working.
Woogs , Apr 15, 2018 5:16:21 PM | 87
With all that's going on, why Russia doesn't announce it will no longer be giving US astronauts rides to the space station, effective immediately, is beyond me.
telescope , Apr 15, 2018 5:21:21 PM | 88
86
USSR was destroyed by SDI cartoons (those were inexplicably played on Soviet TV 24/7), Russian's desire to freely travel abroad, and Soviet Union's overall senility and loss of ideological underpinnings. Gorbachev was simply a final result of the deep rot, just like Trump is in the USA today.
les7 , Apr 15, 2018 5:22:22 PM | 89
@83
You desperately underestimate the malign intent of the powers that be. Suppose Ukraine just 'happens' to erupt in full scale war and Russia intervenes to prevent the slaughter of Russian residents? Now put that together with another false flag chemical attack near Idlib or Jisr al Shugur. Do you really think there would not be enough MSM driven outrage to launch another round of attack??? - perhaps in mid to late May??

Why else is the Saudi backed force of JAI (who have boasted about using chemical attacks) be attacking ISIS in the Idlib pocket other than to control the sites that will be used (and to collect bodies for proper preparation)??

I have been predicting a major false flag against Russia (to be played out in Syria and the Ukraine) early in the World cup match process (close to the quarter finals) for months now.

Everything about the present only adds more weight to that analysis. What you see as Trump's impotence and defeat will be portrayed then as patient tolerance that was rewarded with Russian betrayal - all to call for and justify a major confrontation.

Ghost Ship , Apr 15, 2018 5:27:34 PM | 90
>>>> BM | Apr 15, 2018 1:38:46 PM | 39
Kinzhal missiles based in Southern Russia

The Khinzal is the navalised version of the Tor surface-to-air missile system, not an anti-ship missile. Perhaps you are thinking of Kalibr cruise missile which include an anti-ship version. BTW, RAF Akrotiri on Cyprus is within range of Kalibr cruise missiles launched from the Buyan-M (probably the most potent warship for the price in the world today) of the Caspian Sea Flotilla and neither the Royal Navy nor the US Navy have any capability on the Caspian Sea.

From wikipedia:

an all-weather low to medium altitude, short-range surface-to-air missile system designed for engaging airplanes, helicopters, cruise missiles, precision guided munitions, unmanned aerial vehicles and short-range ballistic threats (Anti-Munitions). Originally developed by the Soviet Union under the GRAU designation 9K330 Tor, the system is commonly known by its NATO reporting name, SA-15 "Gauntlet". A navalized variant was developed under the name 3K95 "Kinzhal", also known as the SA-N-9 "Gauntlet". Tor was also the first air defence system in the world designed from the start to shoot down precision guided weapons like the AGM-86 ALCM day and night, in bad weather and jamming situation. Tor can detect targets while on the move. The vehicle must stop intermittently when firing, although trials are being conducted to eliminate this restriction.

Given that the RuAF seems to have scared off the USAF over Syria, it makes more sense for the Russians to deliver Tor systems rather than S-300/S-400 to deal with the next wave of cruise missiles when it arrives.

fast freddy , Apr 15, 2018 5:27:38 PM | 91
Art of The Deal was obviously ghost written. We can all bear witness to the fact that Twitter Trump is barely capable of writing a complete, coherent, adult-styled sentence.

That said, we cannot know what the idiot's principles may be.

His history demonstrates that he is a grande scale con man - rip-off artist. He has used bankruptcy laws to his benefit to avoid paying his bills. Many have suffered in their "artful dealings" with the disgusting sob.

That said, Hillary and the most of Democrats are on the same page.

Laguerre , Apr 15, 2018 5:29:48 PM | 92
re 87 woogs. there's absolutely no need for Russia to do anything. That's Johnson's idea, that the events will lead Russia into retaliation. But quite false, who would they?
michaelj72 , Apr 15, 2018 5:30:32 PM | 93
b says and asks,
"...The Pentagon is lying. The attack was a U.S. attempt to disable the Syrian air force by destroying its airports. It failed and the Pentagon is hiding that failure. Will the U.S. media report this discrepancy?..."

the Ministry of Truth and Propaganda will not acknowledge or look into this discrepancy, you can be certain. It would create too much cognitive dissonance, the reporter/analyst would be called a putin sympathizer or puppet for questioning too much the Ministry's version of things

Peter AU 1 , Apr 15, 2018 5:32:28 PM | 94
fast freddy

Have you ever seen the very good comedians/satirists interviewed off screen when they are being themselves? Very smart people that pick up on and emphasize character traits. Trump is one of these.

flamingo , Apr 15, 2018 5:33:35 PM | 95
The treachery of Erdoghan knows no limit. I gather that when an actual invasive move is made (other than the the failed 'uprising' of the last five years) that it will come through Turkey assisted eagerly by the overexcited Erdoghan. I dont believe Russia or anyone can ever control him other than with force.

The Idlib battle to finally clear out the Sunni killers will certainly trigger another fake CW 'attack' as the loss of that many 'freedom fighters' will be intolerable. The current terrorist force in Idlib is elemental to the western/israel/sunni fantasy of conquer Syria then Iran. Leaving the sunni killers bottled up to fester with each other and occasionally promoting factional killing sprees may be a better intermediate strategy for Syria. Time is short though, a major US battle fleet is approaching.

This current world war is slow motion and drawn out but it is a world war and we all must work hard to stop the lunacy.

Ghost Ship , Apr 15, 2018 5:33:40 PM | 96
>>>> Paul | Apr 15, 2018 2:13:18 PM | 50
Although strike points of US cruise / crude missiles can perhaps be extrapolated from flight paths, the BI (stealth) bombers could fly in relatively close and launch at targets at the last minute.

You are confusing the B-1, which is not stealthy, with the B-2 which is. Because of the engineering support they need after each mission, the B-2s have to fly from their base in the US although I believe they can also operate out of Guam. As there was no need to enter Syrian airspace to launch missiles, the B-1 was used instead. Also there is the slight problems that might arise for the US MIC if a B-2 was shot down in Syrian airspace.

fast freddy , Apr 15, 2018 5:36:53 PM | 97
It is true that the triangularly shaped B2 Stealth bmobers operate from Guam.
A P , Apr 15, 2018 5:38:16 PM | 98
Russia HAS stopped shipments and technical "cooperation" of the RD180 rocket engines the US uses to launch to the space station AND to launch US military/spy satellites. So the US gov't will have to rely on Musk or Branson to get their crap into space? Russia has also ended tech exchanges in the nuclear industry, which means the US won't be able to retrofit Soviet/Russian design nuke power plants ot use US-design fuel bundles. Like they were trying to do in Ukraine.
WJ , Apr 15, 2018 5:39:49 PM | 99
@83 and 89,

I think that short term 89 is likely right, while long term (10 years or so) 83 is likely also right. But can we make it that far? The US knows only one game, and it can't win that game any longer. But denial is a bitch.

Jackrabbit , Apr 15, 2018 5:42:38 PM | 100
PavewayIV

About three months ago you were convinced that an attack on Lebanon was imminent. Isn't now the best time for such an attack?

A full-blown war with Syria would activate Hezbollah in Lebanon anyway. So why not attack Lebanon first while everyone is expecting an attack on Syria?

I would not be surprised to see a false flag attributed to Hezbollah just before or just after arrival of US fleet.

After an invasion of Lebanon, Syrian and Iranian governments may declare war. At which point, attacking Syria would be legal.

Woogs , Apr 15, 2018 5:43:34 PM | 101
@92Laguerre:More sanctions tomorrow, a completely ineffective UN and a promise by the incoming Secretary of State to not let Russia succeed in any sphere tells me that yes, Russia needs to do something. Nothing militarily speaking, but something. If not, soon the only option will be a military one.
Don Bacon , Apr 15, 2018 5:52:30 PM | 102
@ Laguerre 92
there's absolutely no need for Russia to do anything

Yes, it's important that US targets like Russia stay principled and legal, and not petty and churlish. That's what impresses people and especially other governments who favor order over disorder. FM Lavrov is especially strong in that department.

Iran serves as an outstanding example of a country which has been a US target for most of the last fifty years yet has remained principled and has not only persevered but has benefited. Iran said years ago that the US could not be trusted but they would join a treaty anyhow, to "curb their nuclear ambitions" in silly US terminology. And look how that is turning out. I look for North Korea to be similar despite all the US bluster, especially that coming from the new US SecState Pompeo who has recently enjoyed his news of hundreds of dead Russians. This sort of bad attitude is not one to be copied in a world we expect to be orderly.

telescope , Apr 15, 2018 5:52:41 PM | 103
89
Ukraine won't "erupt in a full-scale war". That chapter is over. It's a country that is fast withering away in every regard - and is on course to being a land of dying old people with a total of 16 million in population by 2050. There are no resources there for even a limited offensive campaign. Increased skirmishes and belligerent jawboning is all that Kiev is good for. Even the IMF is staying clear of this money-losing opportunity.
What's far more likely is that within 3-5 years we'll see Odessa, Kherson, Zaporozhye and Nikolayev People's Republics emerging there, while in the west Poland, Romania and Hungary will get emboldened enough to present their land claims on Ukraine's Stalinist territorial additions.
Ghost Ship , Apr 15, 2018 5:55:07 PM | 104
Meanwhile in Syria :
The rebels in the eastern Qalamoun region of Damascus have agreed to turn in their heavy weapons and to leave this area after a successful round of talks with the Syrian Arab Army (SAA) and Russian Reconciliation Centre.

According to the agreement, the rebel forces in the key town of Dumayr will begin leaving for northern Syria in the 48 hours.

The remaining rebels in the nearby towns of Al-Nassiriyah, Rahebah, and Jayroud are negotiating with the government currently, but they are expected to accept the agreement as well.

The rebel factions currently present in this part of the Qalamoun Mountains are the following: Ahmad Al-'Abdo Brigade and and Jaysh Thuwar Al-Sham of the Free Syrian Army (FSA).

No doubt there'll be more talk of sieges and ethnic cleansing from the western MSM but with the imminent attack by the SAA on ISIS and other rebels in Yarmouk, Damascus is beginning to look securely under the control of the SAG/SAA and as the idiots in Washington/London/Paris don't understand, whoever controls Damascus controls Syria. How things have changed since the Harasta Army vehicle depot came under attack a few weeks ago.

Jackrabbit , Apr 15, 2018 5:57:58 PM | 105
Trump apologists

Trump is the Republican Obama. The follow the same model of government: faux populist leader dogged by crazy critics that want to derail a righteous agenda.

Obamabots gave similar excuses. Real populists simply don't get have a chance of being elected in US money-driven elections.

Why was there only two populists running for President in 2016?

Sanders, Hillay's sheepdog, destroyed the movement that would been the best check on the establishment and the rush to war. That movement was never going to be allowed to take root. Trump, a friend of the Clinton's was probably meant to prevail.

Rome had bread and circuses. We've got crumbs and tweets.

michaelj72 , Apr 15, 2018 5:58:46 PM | 106
an important thing that no one seems to be noticing or remarking upon is the split in the western powers....

if the russians are to be believed, France did not fire any missiles, though I seem to recall from the US Ministry of Peace and Propaganda that supposedly the French destroyer launched some 6-9 missiles or something...

Italy and Germany did not participate, nor Canada, which makes me wonder, why? I think that mainland europe knows where the future is, and it ain't with the US, a failing power, it's with the One Belt One Road designs by china which will connect Europe through Russia, Turkey and the central asian nations to China and the far East.

the Brits are US poodles to the end, they will walk over the cliff into nuke war with the US if the Empire demands it, but the others seem to be hesitating or are not on board. There are simply too many historical, economic and future connections with Russia and China et. al. to be had by mainland Europe. in spite of the EU going along with many sanctions....now. the future will be different in the long run.

also of note is that the Brits and the US have been and are the world's main naval powers for over 250 years, and the One Belt is about naval (through the northern Arctic route, dominated by russia) but most importantly land transport/connection of all the EurAsian landmass...

Syrians are gearing for National Day celebrations on April 17 commemorating the evacuation of the last French soldier and Syria's proclamation of full independence and the end of the French mandate of Syria on 17 April 1946. This will be especially noteworthy this year given the recent display of colonial power frustration.

Posted by: Don Bacon , Apr 15, 2018 6:02:15 PM | 107

Syrians are gearing for National Day celebrations on April 17 commemorating the evacuation of the last French soldier and Syria's proclamation of full independence and the end of the French mandate of Syria on 17 April 1946. This will be especially noteworthy this year given the recent display of colonial power frustration.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 15, 2018 6:02:15 PM | 107 /div

mauisurfer , Apr 15, 2018 6:02:21 PM | 108
Bakerpete @86
Serious suggestion for you
read Gorbachev, His Life and Times
by William Taubman
Taubman is prof at Amherst
also wrote "Nikita Khruschev"
which won a Pulitzer
Also excellent is Stephen F Cohen,
Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia
In USA people say "everyone is entitled to an opinion", so maybe you are entitled to your view.
In England, they say "you are not qualified to have an opinion", and maybe they are right about your views on Gorbachev, because I do not believe you have informed yourself about the Gorbachev era.
Please read these books and then tell us if your view is influenced by what they say.
I found all of them free online, do you know where/how to look for them? Any decent library will have them.
Bakerpete , Apr 15, 2018 6:15:57 PM | 109
@mauisurfer 108
Thanks for the reference however I have read both Taubman and Cohen. I would regard that I fall somewhere in the middle; I have an opinion that I'm quite willing to take responsibility for and yet I am not qualified. If you mean, do I have a degree, published work, personal access to Gorbachev. Yet, I read very widely, can think for myself, don't have a "reputation" to uphold and am quite comfortable being proven wrong.
Primarily "you are not qualified to have an opinion" is simply the polite English way of saying "shut up and don't question your betters. Know your place."
Jen , Apr 15, 2018 6:17:50 PM | 110
Farm Ecologist @ 35:

If you live in the US, you can try Jeff Rense's website (www.rense.com) and Zero Hedge (www.zerohedge.com). Rense.com aggregates news from many different sites (including most recently RT.com, Sputnik and PressTV) and blogs (Paul Craig Roberts, Ron Paul), many of them quite dubious (Tomato Bubble). Zero Hedge is mainly a financial news blog with a libertarian / free market bias that aggregates articles from other sites including MoA.

You can try Off-Guardian (www.off-guardian.org) and 21stCenturyWire (www.21stcenturywire.com) as well.

howard in nyc , Apr 15, 2018 6:27:14 PM | 111
The guy who ghostwrote Art of the Deal felt guilty and confessed his sins in a New Yorker piece during the campaign (he didn't feel bad enough to give the money back). I found it entertaining and it revealed a bit about Thump.

New Yorker interview with Thump's ghostwriter from June 2016)

Thump was a regular feature of the tabloid newspapers for three decades before his election. Merely by virtue of living in New York and reading the papers during that time, Thump's personality and behavior were on full display, and his character (he has none) and principles (he has one - his own self aggrandizement) have long been readily evident. His habits of saying anything, lying constantly, contradicting himself frequently, and regularly breaking contracts and screwing over business associates were repeatedly on public display. Believe me, I had no interest in this person, but I couldn't avoid learning all about him unless I ceased to consume news (which, ironically, I have eliminated about 98% of my prior rate of MSM reading and viewing in recent years).

New Yorkers knew. If we had an actual news media and an actual democratic electoral process featuring a true and rational dissemination and processing of relevant information during a campaign season, the rest of the country would've known.

Knowing this clown as I do certainly does not make him predictable, as his nature is unpredictability. Not due to craft, or 4th dimensional chess acumen, but due to dishonesty, lack of character, and utter lack of principle save the principle of Me. He is many things, but unique ain't one of them, particularly among the political leadership class.

(@Ben 75 above) Government we deserve infuckingdeed.

Jen , Apr 15, 2018 6:27:27 PM | 112
Dear Bernhard,

While reading Vanessa Beeley's blog, I saw mentioned in the comments forum a new fake Syrian humanitarian organisation called Violet Syria. As the name suggests, its "members" wear violet and purple-coloured uniforms. These "aid workers" were spotted assisting with evacuations of jihadis and their families from East Ghouta recently.

Here is a link to Violet Syria's website:
http://violetsyria.org/en/

VS's partners include International Rescue Committee (President: David Miliband, former UK Foreign Secretary), the Qatari Red Crescent, the Asfari Foundation and Danish Muslim Aid.

Bakerpete , Apr 15, 2018 6:31:48 PM | 113
Farm Ecologist @ 35:
Unfortunately if you want a good cross section of information you'll need to do the legwork yourself and collate the data in your head. Here are some of the sites I visit regularly; Zerohedge, Automatic Earth, Strike The Root, Strategic-Culture, Sputnik International, Global Times, Russia Insider, Unz Review, New Eastern Outlook, Dispatches form the Asylum, Vineyard of the Saker, Viable Opposition, etc.
Each has it's own focus and bias.
Lozion , Apr 15, 2018 6:40:20 PM | 114
So, if I try to deconstruct what just happened to its simplest elements:

-SAAD had a 69% kill ratio on 103 missiles fired (71 downed).
- No Russian systems fired.
-Syria is rumored to possess up to 40 Pantsir S1 launchers that may have been used friday.
-Now talk is RU may deploy newer (S-300VM Antey-2500) batteries to bolster SAAD capabilities.
-Ghouta has fallen leaving too few boots on the ground to exploit any successful aerial offensives.
-Such an offensive would take a massive multi-nation sustained campaign to degrade SY air defenses with probable RU casualties, the reddest of all lines with catastrophic consequences.

Therefore, I cant see how the US can even strike again with effective results if more CW attacks are staged..


ninel , Apr 15, 2018 6:42:05 PM | 115
http://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-43776015/syria-chemical-attack-girl-seen-in-hospital-video-speaks


Syria 'chemical attack': Girl seen in hospital video speaks
This is the story of Masa, who survived the suspected chemical attack in Syria, in her own words.

Speaking on Sunday alongside her mother, she described how she and her family were hiding in a basement when a "barrel" dropped.

cdvision , Apr 15, 2018 6:44:24 PM | 116
les7 @65

I'm reading more and more that its the Russian Electronic Warfare that's the clincher.

See, for example: https://southfront.org/pentagon-is-concerned-about-results-of-syria-strike-prepares-to-launch-internal-probe-sources/

So, a 1000 missile strike is just as vulnerable, maybe more so.

The defeat of a 1000 missile strike (assuming Russia didn't destroy the launchers in the early stages) would effectively win WW3 for Russia.

You can bet the farm they are prepared for such a strike.

I echo what another poster said that the guys manning those Pantsir units must have balls of steel.

From the resistance trench with love , Apr 15, 2018 6:46:06 PM | 117
@Posted by: Jackrabbit | Apr 15, 2018 5:42:38 PM | 100

But, why is that you concede such credibility to this commenter who is developing the most oustanding theories, even when claiming he is not a military man ?... I do not blame you, since he sounds so self-assured, even when claiming that soviet leadership were psychopats , with all his cuajo , and he remains so self-assured as before, even when, here this is me who am pretty sure, the psychiatrist he is not either....

After reading that unsubstantiated assertion, more proper of a totally brainwashed American than of the smart-ass he pretends to be, I will be considering everything he writes from now on with a grain of salt....

Sliding in such a way finish with any intended analyst, as happens to The Saker, with his usual grudges against everything which could sound soviet or his rancid grudges against everything which could sound catholic.....

Absolute never exist on the face of Earth, nobody has the exclusive of anything, neither races, countries, nor religions....Continue looking for the white guys in white hats and black guys in black hats ...

oldenyoung , Apr 15, 2018 7:03:18 PM | 118
Trump lies at all times, about both sides of an issue...is impossible to tell where he stands by that...

The trick to Trumpty Dumpty is to ignore EVERYTHING he says...and only watch what he does...

Increased MIC budget

hired Pompeo, bolt-on, and haspel

fired the missiles

USS TRUMAN group is inbound

big eyes and big ears for now...

am hoping the syrians and russians have all the evidence and possibly some prisoners to parade thru the UNSC and shove it in the Wests face...

Regards

OY

Ragheb , Apr 15, 2018 7:03:50 PM | 119
wonder if Russia could retaliate against US by arming Taliban.now engaged in direct combat with US troops.
farm ecologist , Apr 15, 2018 7:05:25 PM | 120
Thanks, Jen and Bakerpete.

I am familiar with some of these sites and will be sure to have a look at the ones previously unknown to me. I totally agree that remaining well-informed informed requires ongoing effort.

The impetus for my request was to find a way to get a brief overview of current international events before I start my "real" job each day. Thanks to the helpful suggestions of MoA readers I am confident that this can be done.

frances , Apr 15, 2018 7:05:54 PM | 121
Posted by: Don Bacon | Apr 15, 2018 6:02:15 PM | 107
re Syrian National Day on April 17th.
The US may have planned on that day being a mockery, didn't work. But then again, the US flotilla with its 1000 missiles arrives on May 14th.
Russia needs to get some container ships in play, fast.
Jackrabbit , Apr 15, 2018 7:07:13 PM | 122
From the resistance

I didn't concede anything. In fact my comment essentially points out his mistaken expectation.

PavewayIV has made valuable contributions to our discussion. No one gets it right all the time.

Your comment strikes me as an attempt to derail the discussion via personal attacks.

frances , Apr 15, 2018 7:16:34 PM | 123
Therefore, I cant see how the US can even strike again with effective results if more CW attacks are staged..
Posted by: Lozion | Apr 15, 2018 6:40:20 PM | 114
The answer to how the US&Co can strike is: volume. If they can bring more missiles to bear than Syria has in place then they will be able to overwhelm them, that includes Russia's systems UNLESS Russia takes the battle to them and hits the ships, then all hell will break lose which given the people involved may be what they want. Remember Russia announced their new weaponry but they don't have them in production in large measure. If you were going to attack them with any chance of winning you have to do so sooner than later. The US is stupid enough and desperate enough to chance it IMO.
frances , Apr 15, 2018 7:22:04 PM | 124
Posted by: cdvision | Apr 15, 2018 6:44:24 PM | 116
Fantastic news, thank you, it negates my fears of conventional Syrian and Russian ground weaponry being overwhelmed mentioned in my earlier post (123).
ab initio , Apr 15, 2018 7:42:31 PM | 125
What is Russia's red line? Clearly, unprovoked cruise missile attacks on a country they purportedly militarily support and are deeply engaged in does not cross their red line.
Babyl-on , Apr 15, 2018 8:02:13 PM | 126
@Bert #9

It has been Pentagon policy sense very early in the Cold War - and even during times when they were arguing between themselves - that war with Russia would mean war with China and vice versa, that policy is unchanged. Along with the underlying policy of "Global full spectrum domination." These policies have not changed for decades ad are not about to change now.

Anti_republocrat , Apr 15, 2018 8:05:40 PM | 127
@ J Swift, 14
Good post but I have 1 correction. S400s were not used. Syria has no S300s or S400s. Hope they get some S300s soon. Russia didn't engage except for some jamming.

[Apr 15, 2018] Who is speaking the truth Moscow or DC. One or the other, or both by J

The one clear lesson from the Syrian Adventure is that the Establishment does not tell the truth to the Plebes. The worst manifestation is their belief in their own propaganda...
Notable quotes:
"... Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU ..."
"... Note to DoD: Russian MOD has said they'll be sending the Syrians S300 systems to defend their air-spaces in the near future. What do you think the success or failure rate was? I'll go with those who see a probable 50% knock-down rate. Some claim that DoD and MOD had a line of communication to deconflict and choreograph the missile strikes, so both would look good in the outcome. I dunno, it's possible. Now to the 'good stuff'..... ..."
"... Russian FM Lavrov claims he has irrefutable evidence that a Foreign State was involved in the Douma False Flag Chemical, stuff. ..."
"... So to whom is Russian FM Lavrov referring to? It'll eventually come out in the wash just exactly whom FM Lavrov was talking about. FM Lavrov has an excellent record of not bluffing, he only says things when he can back it up. ..."
"... The one clear lesson from the Syrian Adventure is that the Establishment does not tell the truth to the Plebes. The worst manifestation is their belief in their own propaganda ..."
"... If however the paid for propaganda from the white helmets has been used to substantiate claims of chemical weapon attacks - as we know it has - then the USA is on shaky ground in terms of ''facts''... that the usa-uk-france - opted to do this attack prior to OPCW investigation tells anyone all they need to know here as i see it.. ..."
Apr 15, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Memo to OSD Mattis : Thank you, Thank you, THANK YOU for being the only adult in the room, and walking back the know-nothings Bolton and crew from the precipice of what in the end would have been nuclear confrontation. (I hope this not just a temporary reprieve, especially given the NEOCONs continuing hammering for nuclear confrontation)

Note: The NEOCONS will push for President Trump to fire General Mattis as some are saying will happen in the coming days, if that happens as some say is coming, as the expression goes -- duck. Sadly, President Trump's body language doesn't bode well, he had a dejected look of a man defeated. Maybe he was just worn out with the incessant whispers of the Bolton NEOCON/LETS-GO-TO-WAR IDIOTS who want to crack our planet in half.

I wouldn't have blamed Trump if he had headed for the liquor cabinet and had a couple, but he's not built that way. In that way, Trump appears to be like Putin, he's got better things to do than drown his sorrows. Who get's the Liar of the Week Award, D.C. or Moscow?

For their claims of strike success versus more defense success regarding the 'allied?' strike on Syrian facilities whose intelligence data is probably as old as Methuselah (20 plus years old at least), who is truthful and who isn't? DoD claims success with their missiles, Russian MOD says NOT and claims that 71 out of 103 were neutralized by the Soviet (notice I didn't say Russian) built Air Defense Systems currently in use by the Syrians.

Note to DoD: Russian MOD has said they'll be sending the Syrians S300 systems to defend their air-spaces in the near future. What do you think the success or failure rate was? I'll go with those who see a probable 50% knock-down rate. Some claim that DoD and MOD had a line of communication to deconflict and choreograph the missile strikes, so both would look good in the outcome. I dunno, it's possible. Now to the 'good stuff'.....

Russian FM Lavrov claims he has irrefutable evidence that a Foreign State was involved in the Douma False Flag Chemical, stuff. Could he be referring in cloaked terms to the U.S. and its CIA, the U.K. and their MI6, the Israelis and their Mossad? Both MI6 and Mossad are known to use Misdirection aka False Flag as one of their trade-craft tactics.

So to whom is Russian FM Lavrov referring to? It'll eventually come out in the wash just exactly whom FM Lavrov was talking about. FM Lavrov has an excellent record of not bluffing, he only says things when he can back it up. Now for some news that is both bad and good given one's perspective, it appears that Moscow has D.C. in a corner, militarily and economically speaking.

On the military side, according to a Belgian economist, the U.S. aircraft industry is 40% dependent on Russian sourced titanium that's used in the production of both military and civilian aircraft. In space operations, the U.S. is dependent on bilateral cooperation with Russia as Russia supplies rocket engines for use in commercial and satellite launches. Imagine a total embargo by Moscow, 'could' hamper D.C.'s intelligence gathering (in space anyway). The Russian Federation economic blockade of U.S. imports of tobacco and wines and spirits would put sad/grim faces on U.S. business. On the economic side, the U.S. appears to have more muscle than Moscow, and 'could' choke the Russian economy, which Russia has a trump card in it's pocket -- it's force of arms. So who is telling the truth, Moscow or D.C.? One or the other, or both? J

VietnamVet , 5 hours ago
The one clear lesson from the Syrian Adventure is that the Establishment does not tell the truth to the Plebes. The worst manifestation is their belief in their own propaganda:

The Steele Dodgy Dossier is facts. It was used to get a FISA Warrant to cover the bugging of Trump Tower. Guccifer 2.0 is a GRU Colonel who took down Hillary Clinton. Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer visited a secret Putin Contact in Prague. Russia is behind the nerve gas attacks In Salisbury England and Syria.

They must. In the Shadow World of the Dump Trump Coup; Media, Contractors and Political Appointees; Russians are heinous villains subverting democracy; otherwise, they are living on borrowed time awaiting to see if the DOJ Inspector General and Americans connect the dots.

A war with Russia enriches their compatriots (in the short term) and avoids a day of reckoning.

james , 7 hours ago
if given a choice over who is telling the truth verses lying - i think the choice is obvious and it is based on facts... Russia is telling the truth and the USA is lying... it is not all black and white like that..

If however the paid for propaganda from the white helmets has been used to substantiate claims of chemical weapon attacks - as we know it has - then the USA is on shaky ground in terms of ''facts''... that the usa-uk-france - opted to do this attack prior to OPCW investigation tells anyone all they need to know here as i see it..

Larvov - now there is a true statesman, unlike the shrill USA ambassador - Nikki Haley, who replaced a previously very shrill USA ambassador - Samantha Powers... the USA is skating on very thin ice as i see it..

chris chuba , 8 hours ago
OT but closely related topic: both the U.S. and France have outed themselves. The 'Intelligence Assessments' are based on 'open source' and evidence collected from NGO's. In other words, nothing other than the nonsense that was already shown to the MSM but the MSM reported the French and U.S. claims as if it was something new.

http://www.dailystar.com.lb...
http://www.thedrive.com/the...

"Jeff Seldin

@jseldin
""We've got symptoms described in reports of media, NGOs and other open sources" per the 2nd sr administration official "Those symptoms don't come from #chorine. They come from nerve agents""

On Topic: In the 'war zone post' they are using the argument that evidence of any damage proves that the Syrians failed to intercept any missiles at any location. A classic straw man argument.

[Apr 15, 2018] Thereasa may as warmogering neocon in best Madeleine Albright style

Notable quotes:
"... She will face an almighty row in the coming days over going ahead without consulting Parliament. Her defence is that "security and operational reasons" meant the attack had to go ahead overnight. That won't wash with her political critics, and Labour is also pushing for more clarity on the legal justification. ..."
Apr 14, 2018 | www.bbc.com

Originally from" PM faces 'almighty row' over Syria strikes by Laura Kuenssberg

...In 2013, Theresa May's predecessor tried and failed to get approval for military action against President Assad. There was international alarm, then as now, about his suspected use of chemical weapons. But MPs rejected David Cameron's plan and he didn't try again to persuade Parliament it was necessary.

This time, she has avoided that particular obstacle by taking action alongside the US and France while MPs are away.

Time and again at a press conference at Downing Street this morning the prime minister spelled out the strikes that took place overnight were limited, targeted and a response to the suspected use of chemical weapons in Douma.

With no clear indication of public support or consent, she time and again was at pains to say that she had authorised action for a specific reason - to punish President Assad for gassing his own people, as the government believes he has.

She will face an almighty row in the coming days over going ahead without consulting Parliament. Her defence is that "security and operational reasons" meant the attack had to go ahead overnight. That won't wash with her political critics, and Labour is also pushing for more clarity on the legal justification.

... ... ...

[Apr 15, 2018] UK government rather emphasises the need to protect the population of Syria

Apr 15, 2018 | www.gov.uk

Legally, the claim to enforce international law on chemical weapons by violent means would return the world to the era before the advent of the UN Charter. The Charter allows states to use force in self-defence and, arguably, for the protection of populations threatened by extermination at the hands of their own government. The use of force for broader purposes of maintaining international security is also possible. However, such action is subject to the requirement of a mandate from the UN Security Council.

This arrangement tries to balance the need of states to preserve their security in the face of an actual or imminent attack through self-defence when strictly necessary with the need to ensure that force cannot be used as a routine tool of international politics. Hence, international law since 1945 precludes military strikes in retaliation - to teach other states a lesson, as it were - or by way of reprisal. Reprisals are acts that are in principle unlawful, but they can be excused because they aim to force a state back into compliance with its international obligations.

Hence, in 1981 Israel was condemned by the UN Security Council when it attacked the Osirak nuclear reactor in Iraq. Israel had argued that it might contribute to the production of weapons of mass destruction in the future. A US attack against an alleged chemical weapons facility in Sudan in 1998 in response to US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania was also criticised.

In this instance, the three states mounting the air strikes have taken it upon themselves to force Syria into compliance with its obligations under the Chemical Weapons Convention. Syria joined the Convention in 2013 as part of the diplomatic settlement that followed the failure of the UK, and the US, to go through with threatened air attacks after gruesome chemical attacks in Eastern Ghouta. The Convention prohibits the production, possession and use of chemical weapons. No fewer than 192 states have signed.

Syria was also subjected to additional duties contained in mandatory Security Council resolution 2118, reinforcing these obligations and providing for the destruction of its chemical weapons stockpile. In an impressive example of international co-operation, also involving Russia, this was largely achieved a year later, by September 2014.

Russian veto

However, since then, there have been some 40 recorded instances of alleged chemical weapons use in Syria. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has the ability to dispatch fact-finding missions to determine whether such weapons have actually been used.

A special joint mechanism was set up by the OPCW and the Security Council with a mandate to assign responsibility for such uses. However, after the mechanism pointed the finger at the Assad government last year, Russia vetoed its renewal.

An attempt to establish a new mechanism empowered to determine responsibility for the latest use of chemical weapons in Douma failed this week, again due to a Russian veto in the Security Council. Russia's own proposed investigatory mechanism, which was opposed by the Western states and others, would have lacked that power.

The three states intervening in Syria now argue that there was no prospect of obtaining a mandate from the Council to confront chemical weapons use by Syria. In striking Syria, they claim to have fulfilled an international public order function of defending the credibility of the prohibition of the use of chemical weapons in general terms, and enforcing Syria's obligations in particular.

This argument is somewhat reminiscent of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, supposedly to enforce Baghdad's disarmament obligations imposed by the Security Council in the absence of clear Security Council authorisation. Moreover, in April of last year, President Trump launched 59 cruise missiles against the Syrian air-base at Shayrat. It was claimed that the installation had been involved in a chemical attack in the town of Khan Sheikhun, again to restrain further chemical weapons use.

The blockage in the Security Council on Syria opens up some space for this kind of argument. The Chemical Weapons Convention provides for referral of grave instances such as the Douma attack to the Security Council for enforcement action. But the Council could not even agree on a mechanism to establish responsibility, not to speak of more decisive action to repress future uses of such weapons.

The claim of the three states involved to act instead of the Council, as the world's enforcement agent of a highly important international rule, is of course being resisted by some. Russia has already asserted that the attacks flagrantly violate the prohibition of the use of force. The UN secretary general has also emphasised the need to respect the primacy of the Security Council.

Humanitarian suffering

The arrogation of the functions of the Council by a group of states claiming to act in the common interest therefore reflects the reality of the present, little Cold War between Russia and the West. The breakdown of the consensus that facilitates the operation of collective security necessarily results in unilateral acts and, in consequence, further division.

In addition to the general interest in maintaining the obligation to refrain from chemical weapons use, Mrs May also referred to the protection of civilians from further chemical attacks to alleviate further humanitarian suffering. This, in fact, is a stronger and more persuasive legal argument in favour of the strikes.

In fact, the formal legal argument put forward by the UK government sometime after the prime minister addressed the nation does not rely on the claim to enforce the terms of the chemical weapons convention or of resolution 2118.

In 2013, when the use of force was expected after the Ghouta attack, the UK already expressly invoked the doctrine of humanitarian intervention. A good argument has been made that states can act in cases of overwhelming humanitarian necessity that cannot be addressed by any other means to protect populations in danger of imminent destruction.

The doctrine of forcible humanitarian action gained credence throughout the 1990s when it was applied to rescue the Kurds of northern Iraq and the Marsh Arabs in the south of Iraq from destruction by Saddam Hussein. It was later employed unopposed in cases including Liberia and Sierra Leone.

However, international division about its application emerged in the wake of the operation on behalf of the Kosovo Albanians of 1999.

Since then, the UN has embraced the concept that international action can be taken to rescue a population under immediate threat. However, the doctrine of responsibility to protect (R2P) was narrowed down to cover operations mandated by the Security Council. Still, a number of states claim a right to act when the Council cannot.

Innocent civilians at risk of destruction should not pay the price for a political blockage at UN headquarters in New York. Others, including Russia and China, oppose humanitarian intervention.

The application of this doctrine is not restricted to uses of chemical weapons against civilian populations. However, given the uncontrollable and indiscriminate effect of chemical weapons, their use against civilians offers perhaps the clearest trigger for the application of this doctrine.

In this instance, the UK points to the history of repeated uses of chemical weapons by the Syrian government, adding that it is "highly likely" that further such attacks would follow. Given the failure of previous attempts to rein in this practice, and the present blockage in the Security Council, it is argued that no means other than the use of force were available to secure the humanitarian objective of the operation.

Moreover, it is asserted the force used was strictly limited and specifically targeted at objects connected with the objective of degrading the capacity to launch future chemical attacks and deterring such attacks in the future. These arguments conform to the legal requirements for humanitarian intervention.

It could also be argued that the attacks aim to preserve the national security of the states involved in the attacks, by way of an extensive right to self-defence. Diluting the protection stemming from the prohibition of the use of chemical weapons in recent practice posed a threat to all states.

Of course, every state may defend itself, under some circumstances even before an armed attack aimed at it has landed on its territory. But the attack must be imminent, leaving no choice of means and the response must be proportionate to the attack.

In the run-up to the Iraq war of 2003, there was the famous 45-minute claim concerning Iraq's supposed weapons of mass destruction. Laying the ground for an argument of anticipatory self-defence against a strike that might come in the future, the UK argued that Iraqi weapons of mass destruction might reach UK military bases in Cyprus with minimum warning.

But there was no evidence that Baghdad was contemplating such an attack and the argument was abandoned. Similarly, there is no suggestion in this instance that Syria was preparing to launch an attack against the US, UK or France.

Marc Weller is Professor of International Law in the University of Cambridge and the editor of the Oxford University Press Handbook on the Use of Force in International Law.

[Apr 15, 2018] US and imperialist allies launch strikes against Syria

Notable quotes:
"... World Socialist Web Site ..."
"... Völkischer Beobachter ..."
"... RT.com reported: "According to Konashenkov, the group, which was a primary source of photos and footage of the purported chemical attack, was informed of a large-scale artillery attack on Damascus planned by the Islamist group Army of Islam, which controlled Douma at the time. The White Helmets were ordered to arrange the provocation after retaliatory strikes by the Syrian government forces, which the shelling was certain to lead to, he said." ..."
"... Despite vehemently denouncing the Russian claims, neither Washington nor London made any attempt to factually refute them. In contrast to the categorical statements of the Russian government, backed up by video testimony, Theresa May has only claimed it was "highly likely" that Syria carried out the attack. But even that was more definite than the statements of Defense Secretary Mattis, who declared the United States was still "looking for the actual evidence." ..."
Apr 14, 2018 | www.wsws.org

The World Socialist Web Site condemns the strikes against Syria carried out Friday night by US, French and British forces. The attack is a flagrant and illegal act of aggression. The administrations of American President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Theresa May are guilty of a war crime, which poses the danger of triggering a conflict with nuclear-armed Russia.

The pretext for the attack on Syria is unproven allegations that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's military forces used banned chemical weapons against US-backed rebel militias in the city of Douma. Russia, which has significant military contingents in Syria to support Assad's government in its seven-year civil war against predominantly Islamist-based militias, has categorically rejected the US and allied propaganda. It has openly accused British intelligence of pressuring Syrian rebel organisations to manufacture a video that purports to show victims of a chemical weapons attack.

A team from the ostensibly independent Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) was scheduled to arrive in Douma to carry out an inspection of the alleged site this weekend. Trump's order to initiate strikes was calculated to pre-empt such an inspection and a confirmation by the OPCW that the entire pretext for any attack on Syria was a lie.

The fraudulent basis for the assault was underscored shortly after Trump's broadcast, during the subsequent press briefing by his defense secretary, General Jim Mattis. Mattis could not provide any coherent details as to the US accusations. Moreover, contradicting the president's vow of a protracted campaign against Syria, the general appeared to indicate that there would be no more action apart from the missile strikes that had already taken place.

If this does prove to be the case, the action ordered by Trump will fall far short of what was being demanded within the American political and media establishment.

Given the extreme vitriol directed against Bashar al-Assad, there is no doubt that advocates of a military strike expected that any attack would include an attempt to assassinate the Syrian president.

A column in the German journal Die Welt provided one indication of the homicidal nature of what large sections of the imperialist ruling class internationally want unleashed against Syria. It declared: "War against Assad should be guided by one goal Can the Assad regime be exterminated (auslöschen) with a missile strike?" In using the term "auslöschen" to refer to the Syrian president, the German publication adopted a term associated with the extermination of the Jews under the Nazis -- that is, using language that could have appeared in Hitler's Völkischer Beobachter .

Far from the destruction of the Assad government, however, the strike against Syria appears to have had minimal impact. The Russian military has boasted that Syrian air defenses shot down most of the missiles fired into Syria, and that none of its personnel or assets in the country were impacted. Bashar al-Assad reportedly walked to his office on Saturday morning.

At this point, the attack has served primarily to underscore the debacle facing the US-led imperialist intrigues for regime-change in Syria. It will most likely not be long before sections of the American political and media establishment are accusing Trump of a climb-down and capitulation to Vladimir Putin. Demands will inevitably be made for far more extensive, and murderous, operations.

The propaganda campaign justifying the attack on Syria was concocted to provide a pretext for a massive military onslaught -- not one-off missile strikes.

Facing the prospect of a military rout of its Islamist proxy forces fighting to overthrow the Syrian government, the decision for an escalation was made in Washington and London, and it was left to the CIA, MI6 and their Syrian agents to manufacture a pretext.

On Friday, the Russian Ministry of Defense provided the most coherent and logical account given so far regarding the incident in Douma on April 7, which the Western press has unanimously proclaimed a chemical weapons attack on civilians by the Assad government.

"We have irrefutable evidence that it was another staged attack, and the special services of a state which is in the forefront of the Russo-phobic campaign had a hand in staging it," Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said.

The Russian Defense Ministry showed a video interview with two people, one of whom was a medical student working at Douma's only operational hospital. The witnesses said that after a Syrian Army artillery barrage hit a building, people suffering from smoke inhalation were being treated at a hospital. Then, unknown individuals -- later revealed to be associated with the CIA-backed Syrian rebel "White Helmets" -- ran into the hospital screaming that there had been a chemical weapons attack. They encouraged the victims to douse each other with water, which they then proceeded to film.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov stated: "We know for certain that between April 3 and April 6 the so-called White Helmets were seriously pressured from London to speed up the provocation that they were preparing."

RT.com reported: "According to Konashenkov, the group, which was a primary source of photos and footage of the purported chemical attack, was informed of a large-scale artillery attack on Damascus planned by the Islamist group Army of Islam, which controlled Douma at the time. The White Helmets were ordered to arrange the provocation after retaliatory strikes by the Syrian government forces, which the shelling was certain to lead to, he said."

Despite vehemently denouncing the Russian claims, neither Washington nor London made any attempt to factually refute them. In contrast to the categorical statements of the Russian government, backed up by video testimony, Theresa May has only claimed it was "highly likely" that Syria carried out the attack. But even that was more definite than the statements of Defense Secretary Mattis, who declared the United States was still "looking for the actual evidence."

With the initiation of attacks on Syria, the US and its allies have signaled that the unravelling of the nominal reasons for war is irrelevant. Their onslaught is driven by far deeper causes than the lies used to justify them.

What is taking place is directly in line with the analysis of imperialism made by the great 20th century Marxists, Lenin and Trotsky. World imperialism is undertaking a new re-division of the world. Britain and France want to be recognized as full-scale participants in the new carve-up of the Middle East and its effective recolonization: their oil corporations do not want to be left out of the plunder.

All of the governments participating in this new onslaught are crisis-ridden and lack any electoral legitimacy. The vast gulf between them and their populations is expressed in the fact that none of them has been able to create any broad-based support for war. According to one YouGov poll, only 22 percent of the British population supports a military strike on Syria.

Moreover, the launching of a major new military campaign is seen in London, Paris, and Washington as a means of implementing police-state rule, including mass censorship, to prop up their crisis-ridden governments in the face of mounting popular opposition and a growing strike movement by the working class.

This new conflict will not stop with the attack on Syria, just as the expansion of war did not stop with the invasion of Iraq. The stage is being set for a confrontation with Iran, Russia and, ultimately, China. More and more, imperialist policy is acquiring a completely reckless and unhinged character.

So far, the ruling class has been able to rely on the absence of any organized resistance to war. But popular anti-war sentiment will inevitably take on active forms and meet up with rising opposition to austerity and the destruction of democratic rights.

The World Socialist Web Site Editorial Board

[Apr 15, 2018] Syria: What Just Happened?

Apr 15, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

by Tyler Durden Sun, 04/15/2018 - 17:30 112 SHARES Authored by Eric Zuesse via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

What happened right after the second direct U.S.-missiles invasion of Syria, which had occurred on the night of April 13th, could turn out to have momentous implications - far bigger than the attacks themselves...

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons headlined on April 14th, in the wake of this U.S.-UK-France invasion of Syria that was allegedly punishing Syria's Government for allegedly having used chemical weapons in its bombing in the town of Douma on April 7th, "OPCW Fact-Finding Mission Continues Deployment to Syria" , and reported that:

The Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) will continue its deployment to the Syrian Arab Republic to establish facts around the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma.

The OPCW has been working in close collaboration with the United Nations Department of Safety and Security to assess the situation and ensure the safety of the team.

This means that the effort by the U.S. and its allies on the U.N. Security Council, to squash that investigation , has failed at the OPCW, even though the effort had been successful at blocking U.N. support for that specific investigation .

The OPCW is not part of the U.N., nor of any country; it, instead (as introduced by Wikipedia ):

is an intergovernmental organisation and the implementing body for the Chemical Weapons Convention, which entered into force on 29 April 1997. The OPCW, with its 192 member states, has its seat in The Hague, Netherlands, and oversees the global endeavour for the permanent and verifiable elimination of chemical weapons.

In conformity with the unchallenged international consensus that existed during the 1990s that there was no longer any basis for war between the world's major powers, the Convention sought and achieved a U.N. imprimatur, but this was only in order to increase its respect throughout the world. The OPCW is based not on the U.N. Charter but on that specific treaty, the Chemical Weapons Convention, which was formally approved by the U.N.'s General Assembly on 30 November 1992 and was then opened for signatures in Paris on 13 January 1993. According to the Convention's terms, it would enter into effect 180 days after 65 nations signed it, which turned out to be on 29 April 1997.

So, although the treaty itself received U.N. approval, the recent Russian-sponsored resolution at the U.N.'s Security Council to have the U.N. endorse the OPCW's investigation of the 7 April 2018 Douma incident, did not receive U.N. approval. It was instead blocked by the U.S. and its allies . Nonetheless, though without a U.N. endorsement, the OPCW investigation into the incident will move forward, despite the invasion.

This fact is momentous, because a credible international inspection, by the world's top investigatory agency for such matters, will continue to completion, notwithstanding the effort by the U.S. and its allies on the U.N. Security Council, to block it altogether. This decision was reached by the OPCW -- not by the U.N.

Among the 192 signers of the Chemical Weapons Convention are U.S., Russia, and Syria, as well as China, Iran, and Iraq, but not Israel, nor North Korea and a very few other countries. So: all of the major powers have already, in advance, approved whatever the findings by the OPCW turn out to be. Those findings are expected to determine whether a chemical attack happened in Douma on 7 April 2018, and, if so, then perhaps what the specific banned chemical(s) was(were), but not necessarily who was responsible for it if it existed. For example, if the 'rebels' had stored some of their chemical weapons at that building and then Syria's Government bombed that building, the OPCW might not be able to determine who is to blame, even if they do determine that there was a chemical attack and the chemical composition of it. In other words: science cannot necessarily answer all of the questions that might be legal-forensically necessary in order to determine guilt, if a crime did, in fact, occur, there.

If the investigation does find that a banned chemical was used and did cause injuries or fatalities, then there is the possibility that its findings will be consistent with the assertions by the U.S. and its allies who participated in the April 13th invasion. That would not necessarily justify the invasion, but it would prove the possibility that there had been no lying intent on the part of the U.S.-and-allied invaders on April 13th.

However, if the investigation does not find that a banned chemical was used in the Syrian Government's bombing of that building, then incontrovertibly the U.S.-and-allied invasion was a criminal one under international laws, though there may be no international court that possesses the authority to try the case .

So: what is at stake here from the OPCW investigation is not only the international legitimacy of Syria's Government, but the international legitimacy of the Governments that invaded it on April 13th. These are extremely high stakes, even if no court in the world will possess the authority to adjudicate the guilt -- either if the U.S. and its allies lied, or if the Syrian Government lied.

For us historians, this is very important. And, for the general public, the significance goes much farther: to specific Governments, to their alleged news media, and to the question of: What does it even mean to say that a government is a "democracy" or a "dictatorship"? The findings from this investigation will reverberate far and wide, and long (if World War III doesn't prevent any such findings at all).

* * *

Investigative historian Eric Zuesse is the author, most recently, of They're Not Even Close: The Democratic vs. Republican Economic Records, 1910-2010 , and of CHRIST'S VENTRILOQUISTS: The Event that Created Christianity .

[Apr 15, 2018] Now artificially concentrated in

Apr 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Red Ryder | Apr 14, 2018 5:59:38 PM | 96

Next Astana meeting in one month, May 14-16, exact date not yet set.

Meanwhile, in Idlib, the crazies are killing one another, as they have for over a year. The Russian plan of pouring all the "retreaters" into one province was brilliant. The Russians knew each group of AQ, al Nusra and ISIS terrorists would fight one another.

Turkey will protest and try to protect "their guys" but the inevitable will occur. Putin already allowed Turkey to do its thing against the Kurds. Afrin, and its months long ground assaults Olive Branch massacres of Kurds is all Erdogan will get.

If he sticks his nose in the final destruction of the Idlib holdouts, he will get slapped down by Russia.

His place at the table of big three is dependent on agreeing with Putin. The Kurds are looking to make a deal with Putin for a piece of the Syrian pie.

The US is betting they can scuttle Astana and force everyone to their manipulation of the Geneva talks.
But Astana has always set the terms and conditions. Geneva is just the use of the UN. If the US forces the issue, Geneva will be left at the station, so to speak.

The Syrian Opposition, which boycotted Sochi Peace talks in January, have no place to go but the battlefield. If they don't get into the political development of Syria, they will lose all relevance.

The US is trying to get an insurgency war started to keep the conflict going, to justify their staying in Syria.

I suspect the Russian Aerospace will have the last vote on such insurgency. And maybe a few thousand of Kadyrov's Chechen Spetsnaz who have all the experience in Chechnya, and all the credibility as Sunnis in Syria to destroy such a bogus insurgency.

The coming summer and autumn will be interesting times.

Ukraine, the World Cup, and the winding down of "civil war" in Syria.

[Apr 15, 2018] Russia accuses the United Kingdom of having a part to play in the Ghouta affair

Notable quotes:
"... Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, has denounced from Moscow the role of a Russia-phobic, Western secret service in the White Helmets' staging of the alleged chemical attack in the Ghouta, the rural region at the gates of Damascus, the Syrian capital. ..."
"... Both these declarations took place when Syria had just announced new witnesses regarding the alleged chemical attack, manipulated by Western powers to heighten international tension regarding Syria. ..."
Apr 15, 2018 | www.voltairenet.org

Sergey Lavrov, the Russian Minister for Foreign Affairs, has denounced from Moscow the role of a Russia-phobic, Western secret service in the White Helmets' staging of the alleged chemical attack in the Ghouta, the rural region at the gates of Damascus, the Syrian capital.

The spokesperson for the Russian army, Igor Konachenkov, has for his part, directly challenged the United Kingdom.

Both these declarations took place when Syria had just announced new witnesses regarding the alleged chemical attack, manipulated by Western powers to heighten international tension regarding Syria.

Translation
Anoosha Boralessa

[Apr 15, 2018] The fact finding mission of the OPCW has arrived and will start its work

Apr 15, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

michaelj72 | Apr 14, 2018 8:37:01 PM | 135

the fact finding mission of the OPCW has arrived and will start its work

BREAKING: #OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team has arrived in Damascus, #Syria to commence its work.
7:30 AM - 14 Apr 2018

https://twitter.com/OPCW/status/985163343223803904?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fsouthfront.org%2Fsumming-up-results-of-us-uk-france-strike-on-syria-statements-and-speculations%2F&tfw_creator=southfronteng&tfw_site=southfronteng

[Apr 15, 2018] Russia Has 'Irrefutable' Proof Syrian Gas Attack Staged by 'Foreign State' by Patrick Fleming

Apr 15, 2018 | russia-insider.com

In a shocking revelation yesterday, at a news conference in Moscow with Dutch politician Stef Blok, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia has proof that the Syria gassing was a false flag staged by the 'special services of a foreign state':

"We have irrefutable evidence that it was another staging, and the special services of a state which is in the forefront of the Russophobic campaign had a hand in the staging,"

This is important because if Lavrov is not bluffing, and his record is excellent on this, he usually only says this kind of thing if he can back it up, it will be a political bombshell in the West over the coming weeks, where large segments of the electorate are furious at their governments for the missile attacks, and are questioning the justification for launching them.

Indeed, the only explanation of the attacks that makes any logical sense is that it was a false flag, because, as has been exhaustively discussed everywhere except the mainstream media (which for some reason avoids this speculation), Assad would have no conceivable motive for using gas, because he has won the war, and doing so would only bring in US intervention. The circumstances certainly do look like a classic false flag situation.

The main suspects for such a false flag would be, MI6, CIA, or Mossad, or some combination of them collaborating, as they often do. No other allied state, like Saudi Arabia or even ISIS would do this without approval and oversight from one of these big three.

On the surface it looks like the US/UK/French attack looks suspect at best, because it was rushed into action before any convincing proof was presented.


This post first appeared on Russia Insider

Anyone is free to republish, copy, and redistribute the text in this content (but not the images or videos) in any medium or format, with the right to remix, transform, and build upon it, even commercially, as long as they provide a backlink and credit to Russia Insider . It is not necessary to notify Russia Insider . Licensed Creative Commons

[Apr 15, 2018] ISIS, financied by Saudi Arabia, used chemical,chlorine weapons multiple times in #Syria Iraq according a report from last year

Apr 15, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Anon | Apr 14, 2018 4:42:55 PM | 81

ISIS, financied by Saudi Arabia, used chemical, chlorine weapons multiple times in #Syria & Iraq according a report from last year:
https://www.facebook.com/wikileaks/posts/1630460566989049

[Apr 15, 2018] was designed to reverse

Notable quotes:
"... Moon of Alabama ..."
Apr 15, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Trump's publicly announced decision to order the U.S. military out of Syria. The Saudi financed Salafi 'rebels' in Douma collected bodies, probably from another incident, and stacked them up in one apartment to stage a scene and to create fake videos of a 'chemcial attack' which they falsely attributed to the Syrian government.

Trump pretended to fall for the videos and tweeted threats against Syria and Russia. Russia threatened to respond with strong force should any U.S. attack hurt its soldiers or interests in Syria.

The UK and France, who like the U.S. were only recently visited by the Saudi clown prince and showered with fresh Saudi billions, jumped onto the case. France now admits that its 'intelligence' of the Douma incident is solely based on the obviously staged youtube videos and claims made by 'western' financed propaganda operations who cooperate with the Jihadis.

Yesterday the Russian Defense Ministry accused Britain of having organized the 'chemical incident':

Today, there are other evidences at the disposal of the Russian military department, which testify to the direct participation of Great Britain in organizing this provocation in the Eastern Ghouta.

The Russian party knows for certain that from April 3 to 6, representatives of the so-called White Helmets were influenced by London for the speedy implementation of the provocation prepared in advance .

The White Helmets received information that Jaysh al-Islam militants were to conduct a series of powerful artillery shelling of Damascus on April 3 to 6.

This will promote a response from the government troops, which the White Helmets' representatives will have to use to carry out provocations with alleged chemical weapons.

The 'White Helmets' are financed by the British government and are led by a 'former' British military intelligence officer. The direct accusations against Britain may have been a factor in the hasty launch of last night's strike. Another was surely the arrival of technicians of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Damascus. These will today investigate the alleged incident in Douma and will likely find that it did not take place. That the three countries did not even wait for preliminary results from the investigation must be seen as an admission of guilt. They know that the 'chemical attack' did not take place.

The U.S. military was wary of any potential conflict with Russia. Intense negotiations took place over the last week between the Pentagon and the Russian defense ministry. Secretary of Defense Mattis is said to have talked Trump out of a more serious strike. World War III was avoided.

Last night some 107 missiles and cruise missiles were fired against two research sites and eight military airports in Syria by U.S., French and British forces. The Russian and Syrian forces were warned. People and equipment had been moved. The Russian forces did not directly respond as their areas in Syria were not targeted. The Syrian air defense managed to shoot down or divert 71 of the incoming missiles before they reached their target. The Pentagon claims that none of its missiles were destroyed or diverted from its aim. A well known Syrian opposition outlet disagrees with the Pentagon's claim:

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights managed to monitored interception by the regime forces to tens of missiles which targeted their positions and military bases in the Syrian territory, where several intersected sources confirmed to the Syrian Observatory, that the number missiles that were downed, exceeded 65 missiles ...

A 60 to 70% air defense success rate against incoming missiles is stunning. Most of these will have been killed by the Pantsir-S1 systems Russia supplied to Syria. Every Syrian military airport is now protected by such short range systems and while eight were targeted only one was hit .

One of the targets that were hit was the undefended Barzah Scientific Research Center near Damascus. The Pentagon claims that chemical weapons are made or stored there. That claim is obviously a lie:

The same holds for the Jaramana facility hit by the strikes. The Pentagon's claim that the strikes hit Syrian 'chemical production and storage facilities' is a lie.

No one has been reported killed by the strikes. The Russian Defense Ministry assessment says that three people were injured. Further assessments of the strikes can be found here: 1 , 2 and 3 .

What will be the consequences of these strikes?

Last weeks push by the media, by interventionists and by neoconservatives for a wider war on Syria (and Russia) has now been calmed down. Even John McCain, who always wants more wars, seems somewhat satisfied .

The President of Russia Vladimir Putin issued a strong statement :

An act of aggression against a sovereign state that is on the frontline in the fight against terrorism was committed without a mandate from the UN Security Council and in violation of the UN Charter and norms and principles of international law.

The Chinese government likewise laments the violation of international law and the UN charter.

In ordering the strike President Trump also broke U.S. law specifically the War Powers Resolution.

A Security Council meeting will take place today but, as the U.S., Britain and France have vetos, will have no consequences.

One issue the U.S. is certainly not happy about is the successful demonstration of the Russian supplied air defenses which was used last night against the U.S. strikes. This announcement from the Russian Defense Ministry statement will create additional headaches:

It is to be stressed that several years ago given the strong request by our western partners, Russia opted out of supplying the S-300 AD systems to Syria. Taking into account the recent incident, Russia believes it possible to reconsider this issue not only regarding Syria but other countries as well .

More countries will now be able to buy and receive state-of-the-art Russian air defense equipment. Future interferences by the U.S. as well as Israeli strikes against Syria will become significantly more risky. When Syrian receives the S-300 systems it will have the reach to detect and attack any Israeli plane flying over Lebanon. Israel has often used Lebanese airspace to attack targets in Syria. It will soon lose that luxury.

Syria, Iran and Hizbullah all issued statement promising retaliation for the attack. Their responses will likely come on the ground against U.S. targets and assets in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria and Israel. The Syrian people in Damascus could observe the success of the air defenses and were quite happy with it. They will respond with more support for their government and its plans to liberate all of Syria.

Trump evaded the public pressure created by the fake 'chemical attack' with a more or less symbolic airstrike. He tweeted " Mission Accomplished! " I expect that he will continue to press for an end of U.S. operations in Syria. Whoever instigated the faked attack has won nothing.

Trumps reaction to the incident is also an invitation to Jihadis and those who influence them to repeat such stunts whenever it suits them.

The Pentagon keeps the option open for such further 'chemical attack' stunts and U.S. strikes. It today claimed that Syria still has additional chemical weapon facilities. If this were really the case why isn't the U.S. demanding an inspection and dismantling of these facilities by the OPCW? Syria has signed the Chemical Warfare Convention and would have to accept that.

The obvious U.S. disregard for any international law and for the international organizations like the UN, the OPCW and IAEA will have serious consequences. The U.S. can now surely forget about its desire for an disarmament agreement with North Korea. Russia, China and others will use the example of last night's strikes to disregard international law when it will suit them. There will be no more favors like holding back S-300 systems or adhering to U.S. sanctions against other countries.

In the end the instigators of the incident, the U.S., and its partners in crime will have hurt themselves more with these strikes than they hurt Syria.

---
Previous Moon of Alabama posts on the 'chemical attack' in Douma and its consequences.

April 8 - Syria - Timelines Of 'Gas Attacks' Follow A Similar Scheme (Update II) April 9 - Syria - Any U.S. Strike Will Lead to Escalation April 11 - Syria - A U.S. Attack Would Be Futile - But Serve A Purpose - by M. K. Bhadrakumar April 11 - Trump Asks Russia To Roll Over - It Won't April 12 - Syria - Threat Of Large War Recedes But May Come Back April 13 - Syria - Manipulated Videos Fail To Launch World War III - Updated

Posted by b on April 14, 2018 at 01:09 PM | Permalink

Comments next page "


Nuff Sed , Apr 14, 2018 1:15:15 PM | 1

F/UK/US. Love it!

Now to find a way to work Israel into the formula.

michael weddle , Apr 14, 2018 1:25:40 PM | 2
Analysts now chime in their esteemed opinions. Here's mine!

https://steemit.com/syria/@michaelweddle/trump-s-powerful-missile-attack-draws-comparison-to-citizen-militia-attack-on-unprotected-oregon-bird-sanctuary

Qualtrough , Apr 14, 2018 1:26:47 PM | 3
I don't want to give Putin any ideas, but a very simple and elegant solution would be for Russia to supply Syria and Iran with some turn key nukes. Game, set, match.
norm , Apr 14, 2018 1:29:04 PM | 4
the knowns are known
the unknowns will be known soon
north south east and west syria
gas and chemical weapons sites will
be revealed.
not to mention the mobile labs
hero nikki haley un said just now
we are locked and loaded and ready for action jackson.
the mobile labs the fixed buildings
the buildings that become gas labs overnight
all must be targeted after salsbury fair
is it not crystal clear what putin and henchman assad has in store for
innocent uk,france and usa usa not forgetting little isreal.
we must wack a mole
at every known and uknown breach of the rules of sea law and reptile humanity
xor , Apr 14, 2018 1:32:29 PM | 5
Seems like a nice assessment of what is known at this moment.

" There are no casualties among civilians and Syrian military servicemen after the US missiles strikes, according to preliminary data, Head of the Russian General Staff's Main Operations Directorate Sergei Rudskoi told reporters at a press briefing in the Russian Defense Ministry on Saturday. "
No casualties from US-led strikes on Syria, emphasizes Russia's General Staff

Sounds like diplomatese for "our red line doesn't seem to have been crossed". Let's hope things calm down now.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 14, 2018 1:34:22 PM | 6
Russia is now talking of delivering S-300's to Syria and other countries. China may well help with financing this, perhaps even manufacturing.
Global times editorial from 27th March

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1095361.shtml
"....It is beyond outrageous how the US and Europe have treated Russia. Their actions represent a frivolity and recklessness that has grown to characterize Western hegemony that only knows how to contaminate international relations. Right now is the perfect time for non-Western nations to strengthen unity and collaborative efforts among one another. These nations need to establish a level of independence outside the reach of Western influence while breaking the chains of monopolization declarations, predetermined adjudications, and come to value their own judgement abilities.

It's already understood that to achieve such international collective efforts is easier said than done as they require foundational support before anything can happen. Until a new line of allies emerges, multi-national associations like BRICS, or even the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, need to provide value to those non-Western nations and actively create alliances with them.

What Russia is experiencing right could serve as a reflection of how other non-Western nations can expect to be treated in the not-to-distant future. Expelling Russian diplomats simultaneously is hardly enough to deter Russia. Overall, it's an intimidation tactic that has become emblematic of Western nations, and furthermore, such measures are not supported by international law and therefore unjustified. More importantly, the international community should have the tools and means to counterbalance such actions...."

Nuff Sed , Apr 14, 2018 1:34:34 PM | 7
The attack by FUKUS on Syria, which was not sanctioned by the UN, is therefore a war crime. Yet, the motion to condemn this war crime failed to pass the UN Security Council just now with a margin of 8 to 3 with 4 abstentions. Just another episode of FUKUS turning the UN into a farce.
Lozion , Apr 14, 2018 1:39:04 PM | 8
Rudskoy did not mention use of the Pantsir S1 in his assesment though I ve read about 40 systems were deployed in Syria but thats academic, a 69% kill ratio is excellent. This isnt Libya, if the Coalition of the Killing wants to seriously degrade SyAAD, it will take major hardware..
David Bailey , Apr 14, 2018 1:45:32 PM | 9
"Trump evaded the public pressure created by the fake 'chemical attack' with a more or less symbolic airstrike. He tweeted "Mission Accomplished!" I expect that he will continue to press for an end of U.S. operations in Syria. Whoever instigated the faked attack has won nothing."

I really hope this is true, Trump seemed to offer the hope of a saner America, and I hope he is still on the side of peace.

norm , Apr 14, 2018 1:49:13 PM | 10
the democratic depleted uranium beatings will infinity continue
until
assad gives up his hidden gas agents
he says he has none left yet ignores the bell pottinger site intel group rita katz white helmets movie facts not on the ground
the man is crazy crazy
Anon , Apr 14, 2018 1:49:25 PM | 11
Here we go,

US and its pathetic european allies vote DOWN Russian resolution of deescalation!
https://www.rt.com/news/424171-unsc-russia-resolution-syria/

Bakerpete , Apr 14, 2018 1:52:31 PM | 12
Indeed a good question is what next. I disagree that Russia and China will disregard international laws, it's working for them. In particular Putin is very strongly on the side of lawful actions. You notice how few of the "coalition" there were? Yes, some others mouthed support but I would assess as a sop for the fools. This has demonstratebly weakened all three quite deeply. The legal pursuit of the poison investigation is something I see vigorously done and as publicly as possible. How desperate will the guilty be? Will trouble be stirred up in Ukraine? The ME has been a safe place for the most part for wholesale slaughter because it's far from Europe, but Ukraine? Still, I can't see what else can be done in ME without escalating quite a bit.
cj , Apr 14, 2018 1:59:42 PM | 13
Hi,
RT (OPCW) has just reported that the Skripal's poison is likely 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate (BZ) -- an atropin like drug. Could be that the doctors knew this from the beginning, the symptoms of an anti-cholinesterase and an M2 anti-muscarinic are very different. For example the nerve agent would give you a slow heart rate (Bradycardia [until you had the AVN node takes over]) whereas the BZ would speed it up a Tachycardia. Also you would have very low levels of functional cholinesterase in your plasma after a nerve gas attack-- BZ ought not to change that.
So I think this fits with the Consultant's letter to the Times, which underlines that the Skripal's toxin was not an anticholinesterase (nerve agent)-- it was something else, BZ, a very British toxin. So we finally get to the bottom of it, it's beginning to make sense. It certainly isn't the Russians and it looks like a real false flag-- the only question is `who done it?'. May is basically busted she made an idiot of herself, she'll simply have to go.
Yul , Apr 14, 2018 1:59:48 PM | 14
@ Nuff Sed #1
Unfortunately for AIPAC Israel is not part of the permanent UNSC. It was the WAGS covering the UNSC who came up with FUKUS !
Bakerpete , Apr 14, 2018 2:08:07 PM | 15
@13 Just a bit of a clarification that is important. OPCW didn't identify the poison, that was from the Swiss lab. This provides weasel room for the British.
paul , Apr 14, 2018 2:08:09 PM | 16
This article is so painfully truthful and so willfully wrong. Yes, yes, what FUKUS did (brilliant acronym) was evil and wrong and all about lies and might makes right, but SO EFFING WHAT?! Russia doesn't operate on the basis of truth and righteousness. Russia and its apologists specifically eschew any such basis for Russian policies, enthusiastically embracing real-politik and machiavelli - ie Might Makes Right! The vicious games that Russia has played with its AA systems, dangling them to states that desperately need it, like Iran and Syria, but never giving it to them or delaying unconscionably, while doling it out generously to states that do not need it or deserve it, like Saudi Arabia and Turkey. Geez, Russia makes a point, almost a religious principle, of making the most nookie with the worst leaders and states in the world. It encourages the rogue actors, those who sneer the most at international law, whilst claiming to stand by international law. For God's sake, Putin's best friend seems to be Netanyahu.

Putin needs to start putting real friends before fake new ones, truth before lies, and needs to decide whether he wants to be on the side of the bullies or on the side of the bullied. Yes building bridges is important. But Putin isn't doing that. He's clearly on the side of the global bullies. He just wants to be in the gang. If that perception is wrong, let him change it.

So prove me wrong, Putin. Follow through on those s-300s to Syria. Throw in some s-400s. They would have prevented last night. BUT YOU WON'T WILL YOU? No you damn well won't and your apologists will still defend you. But I think more and more people, all around the world and in Russia too, are beginning to see through you, to that ugly heart of ice.

chunga , Apr 14, 2018 2:21:15 PM | 17
Another explanation for Trump's about face on pulling out of Syria is this. He knows that when FBI (who he is unwilling or unable to reel in) raided Cohen's office they're likely to have found evidence of raunchy dishonest conduct along with bribes and other crap. No one is responsible for his embarrassing behavior but him and he may prefer to do as he's told rather than be shown as a louse and a cad.

Apparently the missiles weren't "make believe" missiles they were pretending to fire, they were fired but most of them just got shot down.

radiator , Apr 14, 2018 2:25:07 PM | 18
My first or maybe second thought on this would be, that Russia and the US compromised on a way so both can save their faces. US gets to bomb something, russia does not take casualties and doesn't have to prove their "retaliatio against launch platmforms" (have they actually said that at all?).
It seems this strike does have no tactical or strategic impact at all. Both can declare themselves top dog.

Maybe it's been agreed on, that mainland syria will stay syrian with russian protection? Following (german) mainstream media, parallel to jingo rhetorics there have been some "Assad won and we'll have to come to terms with it" voices lately. This would be my explanation from an armchair point of view.

After Ghouta and the rest of the smaller terrorist enclaves have been cleared, it will be interesting to see what will happen to the eastern border / kurdish occupied territory. What we've seen in the last week might be a prelude to a bigger confrontation in eastern syria? Any thoughts? Cheers.

Anon , Apr 14, 2018 2:26:42 PM | 19
Where does the info of BZ come from? Is this something Russia has spread? Or was it in the OPCW report? I dont follow..
Kaiama , Apr 14, 2018 2:26:57 PM | 20
@paul
Gavin Williams would like a word with you: go away and .... ..
cj , Apr 14, 2018 2:31:32 PM | 21
Hi Bakerpete,
sorry about that-- I thought the Swiss were part of the OPCW. But I am pretty sure the Consultant's letter is important in this context-- it's not an nerve agent. So if it is BZ then -- why did it take so long for them to recover? Did they get a very large dose? [An alternative idea is that a compound like BZ might be useful in treating nerve gas poisoning, and the Swiss lab is seeing that. But I don't think it would be any better than atropin in treating acetylcholine overload].
Certainly this whole episode needs a thorough analysis-- it has really soured our relationship with Russia, and brought us closer to an extermination event. We can't afford any more messing around a real war would set us back a thousand years-- it'd would be the end of science for sure.
Rob , Apr 14, 2018 2:34:47 PM | 22
@Bakerpete (15). I might be wrong about this, but I believe that the Swiss lab performed the chemical analysis for the OPCW, and yet the OPCW withheld key portions of the lab's report. One can reasonably infer that the OPCW is dominated by the Empire and may not be trustworthy.
Hoarsewhisperer , Apr 14, 2018 2:36:37 PM | 23
Nice work, b!
Fewer than 24 hours have passed since the Colonial Christian ratfuckers attacked Syria on the basis of "evidence" they faked, and anyone interested in the unvarnished truth can Read All About It at MoA.
How long will it take MSM to catch up? 1 year? 5 years? 20?
TJ , Apr 14, 2018 2:37:11 PM | 24
@13

Chemical Weapons: Anticholinergic Incapacitating Agents (BZ)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=665A_9Bth6s

"the central nervous systems effects tend to be delayed, you can have a prodomol period of several hours"
https://youtu.be/665A_9Bth6s?t=598

All the evidence points at this moment to BZ being the only chemical that effected the Skripals, that the government engaged in perjury at the Court of Protection and that the Skripals were deliberately unnecessarily put into a coma ( Offence against the Person?) to avoid them being able to communicate or otherwise interfere with the governments ongoing criminal activity.

TJ , Apr 14, 2018 2:41:23 PM | 25
@21 Induced coma by the hospital not BZ.
Ort , Apr 14, 2018 2:42:26 PM | 26
Re: "Big Noise: Apocalyptic Tweets, Limited Strikes" by Patrick Cockburn
_____________________________________

Sorry if this was mentioned in the previous comments thread, but Cockburn matter-of-factly asserts... well, see this excerpt:

Possibly it was the Syrian government's frustration at the continued resistance of part of Jaysh al-Islam, the Saudi-backed jihadi movement in Douma, that led it to use chlorine gas. It had done so before without provoking an international reaction, but this time authentic-looking video was broadcast around the world showing dying children gasping for breath. The pictures provoked a wave of international fury which culminated in the US-led airstrikes on 14 April.
I'm not sure what to make of it-- but the bland, cut-and-dried insertion of this controversial assertion towards the end of the article makes my crap detectors tingle mightily.

Also, there seems to be an implicit contradiction between the unequivocal claim that the Syrian government used chlorine gas and the coy "authentic-looking video". I suppose he's implying that the videos may be fake, but the underlying charge isn't.

This seems to be another example of the trend of having it both ways-- something like Glenn Greenwald buying into the "Assad did it" mantra, while simultaneously insisting that he's opposed to the Western interventions justified by such smears and slanders.

So, what's up with Cockburn?

blah , Apr 14, 2018 2:49:46 PM | 27
"Hi,
RT (OPCW) has just reported that the Skripal's poison is likely 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate (BZ) -- an atropin like drug."

But apparently the Swiss Lab is not going along with Lavrov. I wonder where Lavrov's idea came from.

https://twitter.com/samagreene/status/985210806013976576

Well someone's wrong, and if it's Lavrov it seems there are people in the diplomatic corps who don't know what has happened yet is tasked to go out and advocate. Not getting basic facts right looks really, really bad.

Anon , Apr 14, 2018 2:50:53 PM | 28
Good short video summary on the dire situation Trump have put the world in:


On Syria: Columbia international affairs professor & UN advisor, Jeffery Sachs
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/984941909339787264

Bakerpete , Apr 14, 2018 2:51:32 PM | 29
@Rob 22 It would be very good is the Swiss did the analysis for OPCW which would make it much more "authentic". I would regard the opaque report from OPCW to be just typical legal caution more than something suspicious, at least for now.
@TJ 25, good reminder of the induced coma.
mrd , Apr 14, 2018 2:51:36 PM | 30
b.
Would you pull @2 down, please. It's intentionally offensive, misleading and should not be on here.
Thanks.
Bakerpete , Apr 14, 2018 2:51:42 PM | 31
https://www.theautomaticearth.com/2018/04/ours-but-to-die-and-die/
Grieved , Apr 14, 2018 2:58:18 PM | 32
Excellent summary of the situation. Thanks, b - we can always get the straight dope here.

Along with Bakerpete up-thread, I also disagree that Russia and China will use the lawlessness of the US as reason to flout international law.

We have a world without the ability to enforce the agreements between nations. This is not a sustainable situation, and there are only two ways to fix it. Either, nations walk away from existing conventions, form alliances of strength with others, and grow the new order out of the barrel of a gun. Or, nations work to contain the rogue actors, and to preserve and reinforce the existing conventions, and make them work wherever they can.

The frameworks and means for both options are largely in place in the world, with diplomatic relations, treaties, security and trade associations, and the like.

But what would it cost to create, for example, an alternative United Nations, versus the cost of living with the existing one? What would it take Geo-politically for such a thing to occur? China, with massive future heft in the world, could contemplate such a future project, and so could Russia. I assume there is body of analysis that gets continually updated, addressing this very scenario.

But we're not quite there yet with feasibility. We move closer every time the US pulls stunts like last night, especially as two European nations join in the same lawlessness. It remains to be seen how far in Europe this lawless rot will spread. How will domestic politics punish people like May and Johnson, for example - and Trump for that matter? It remains to be seen.

I haven't studied this at all, but I suspect this problem of lawlessness must become more of a front-burner topic in the coming years. And reality being what it is, there are probably countless shades of gray possible in my simplistic either/or presentation. The question must begin to be asked around the world: how do we get the west to obey the laws of the world?

Lawfulness can only be enforced by strength of arms, and Russia has shown great dominance here over the US. And the west is waning as the multi-polar world is waxing, and this dynamic is everything - the relative strengths change almost daily, and this sets the pace of things and the timetable for things.

As far as I'm concerned, MAD is back, and the US is cowed by it. And MAD not only prevents conventional warfare, it also allows it, in various offshore theaters. And I think the US is cowed by Russia's conventional weaponry, but hides behind MAD as a way not to acknowledge this fear. The US inflicted a great defeat on itself on Friday night, and the multi-polar world won a great victory. This has changed the relative strength equation in ways that have yet to be seen.

But one of the ways, perhaps, is that nations can turn up the volume on the nagging question, how do we get the west to obey its own laws and agreements? I have great faith in the sanity of the world's nations to solve this growing dilemma, and I'll be interested to watch it happen.

Musings on a wonderful Saturday - we are all still alive, and only the missiles, and not the sky, fell.

A P , Apr 14, 2018 2:59:17 PM | 33
Sorry b, Trumpty Dumbdy wasn't "pretending" to fall for those fake videos. It would seem Mattis managed to talk some sense into the Orange Genius, probably on the strength that he was the only one in the room that didn't draft dodge. Chickenhawks like Bolton and Trumpty (bone spurs) would hate being reminded what cowards they were when called to "defend" the banksters' wars.

Bolton wrote in his Yale 25th reunion book "I confess I had no desire to die in a Southeast Asian rice paddy. I considered the war in Vietnam already lost."[ Ross Goldberg and Sam Kahn, "Bolton's conservative ideology has roots in Yale experience" Archived September 24, 2010, at the Wayback Machine., Yale Daily News, April 28, 2005.]

So why would Bolton think continuing/escalating the war in Syria (and going after Iran asap) was a good idea, as it is "lost" to the US? Maybe because the Rothschilds want the Zionist Oded Yinon plan to succeed no matter how many non-Jews die to make it happen?

So Trumpty wasted at least $100 million to find out even decades-old Russian S-150/200 anti-missile tech is more than adequate against the US' crap Tomahawk systems. The US missiles are about as "smart" as its president and the neo-con thinktanksters. Raytheon stock to jump. I wonder where Raytheon gets its titanium? Not from Russia anymore.

james , Apr 14, 2018 3:01:51 PM | 34
thanks b.. excellent overview and commentary to which i fully agree with..

i can't understand how france can get away with their proof statement based on this "The French services analysed the testimonies, photos and videos that spontaneously appeared on specialized websites, in the press and on social media in the hours and days following the attack." france is more pathetic then i thought... as for the timing of this.. yes - do it prior to the opcw inspection and do it bypassing international law... this will end badly and this is just act 1 in what is going to be an escalation into ww3 that is coming down the pike..

there is no way anything is going to change here... the west is committed to it's propaganda, false flags and white helmet videos while ignoring international protocol.... how this that going to end favourably? it's not... thanks for the update..

Dee Wrench , Apr 14, 2018 3:03:22 PM | 35
Operation Stormy Daniels was a fail...

Back to the missing Skripals and the genocide of Palestinians by the satanic AshkeNAZI regime.

cdvision , Apr 14, 2018 3:04:04 PM | 36
This is a major win for Syria and Russia.

1. it is clear the West would not dare to confront Russia directly. The world (particularly China and Europe) will have noted this.

2. The West dare not field its air forces over Syria.

3. it must be very worrying how poorly the stand-off weapons performed.

4. the West is fragmenting, judging by the number of countries that refused to join in, and even internally in the US - witness the statements of Mattis and his extreme discomfort in having to lie at the press conference. And as the truth emerges on the Syria and Skripal false flags, and it will, then the West will fragment even more.

5. if I were shopping for air defences well there is only one place I would be looking now.

Jackrabbit , Apr 14, 2018 3:05:00 PM | 37
From a cynical point of view. The vow by Syria, Iran, and Hizbullah to retailiate is very concerning.

It opens the door to false flags and war with Iran.

We can't assume that this whole episode has played out.

<> <> <> <> <> <>

As for OPCW inspectors: FUKUS will just say that Russia's control of the site allowed them to manipulate the site as well as "eyewitnesses".

Rowbi , Apr 14, 2018 3:06:39 PM | 38
Its a message, and the goal is:
Bachar quit power or we strike Syria like Lyria (falling of state, blow-of infrastructures).
For US/UK/FR a permawar in Syria is needed for futur false-flags.
Bobby , Apr 14, 2018 3:08:34 PM | 39
If every nation member of the united nation stand up to the criminals members such as USA , Great Britain ( not so great after all ) , France and Israel may these members will pay for illegal behavior , but it seems no body cares for this reason they get away with criminal U.N. human behavior.
The international community should move the United Nation head quarter out of New York City.
I think The BRICS should sick rogother more and stand up against the Christian west ( I emphasize the Christian ) because in the name of Jesus and Christianity , they do the worst of the worst against humanity from occupation , colonization and on and on to keep their Christian belly full of food on the back of the poor and unfortunate.
blah , Apr 14, 2018 3:09:40 PM | 40
"But apparently the Swiss Lab is not going along with Lavrov. I wonder where Lavrov's idea came from.

https://twitter.com/samagreene/status/985210806013976576"

The article they link to is a week old before they even tested. It's unlikely the PR person in control of the twitter account knows anything except for recent news articles.

That being said, Lavrov is making a pretty big claim out of left field. Completely unnecessarily as I have no doubt novichoks could be manufactured to frame Russia. If Lavrov is wrong he's shooting himself in the foot.

cdvision , Apr 14, 2018 3:10:01 PM | 41
Rowbi @38

The war in Syria is lost for the West.

I now expect Russia will speed things up massively. The gloves will come off.

And there will be piles of discarded white helmets found in Syria.

james , Apr 14, 2018 3:11:12 PM | 42
@36 cdvision.. i agree..
james , Apr 14, 2018 3:12:10 PM | 43
@37 jr - i agree with your view as well.. it is hard to work around this..
Peter AU 1 , Apr 14, 2018 3:13:35 PM | 44
Going by b's take, the symbolic strike has taken pressure off Trump. The strike has showcased what old refurbished Soviet systems and a scattering of Pantsirs can achieve.
Russia would not have held back with its own systems free of charge. Today we hear from Russia the findings of the Swiss scientists re OPCW Skripal samples.
A number of players have put in a big effort into cornering Trump into attacking Syria and Russia.
It would be good if the price Russia charged for the strike was solid intel on the conspiracy that can be made public.
Anon , Apr 14, 2018 3:14:10 PM | 45
blah

I dont see where Lavrov was wrong? Could you summarize? Lavrov's comment comes today, that report is from 5th of april?

Anon , Apr 14, 2018 3:16:01 PM | 46
Germany, France, UK, US to discuss next steps in London on Sunday after Syria strikes

https://www.rt.com/newsline/424174-germany-france-uk-us/

So will the west keep bombing or or will they start a regime change process? Psychopaths.

Berkman , Apr 14, 2018 3:18:33 PM | 47
Don't know who runs this site but the content is suis generis. Absolutely gold.
cdvision , Apr 14, 2018 3:19:31 PM | 48
Anon @46

They would be better employed re-arranging the deckchairs on the Titanic.

I expect Germany to halt their ambitions (maybe not publicly - so expect some bullshit press release).

The reality is: there is nothing they can do.

ashley albanese , Apr 14, 2018 3:22:16 PM | 49
The Australian Media coverage has been on the back back burner through all this .
Ultimately Australia's geostrategic position is made more vulnerable if there is continuing breakdown of International law and precedence . Many in Australia have been warning (for thirty years) that Australia's craven support for the Anglo resource wars in Western Asia will boomerang back on Australia's own safety and security. I fear my country will one day need a ' rules based order ' that she has so singularly ignored .
Peter AU 1 , Apr 14, 2018 3:22:31 PM | 50
@40

Your username adequately describes your comments.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 14, 2018 3:29:30 PM | 51
ashley albanese 49

Our anglosphere politicians, while standing behind big brother and hurling insults at Russia and China will leave us in a very bad position when the US is defeated, and it will be defeated by China/Russia combined.
If their is any sort of shooting war, there will be some extremely pissed off victors.

TJ , Apr 14, 2018 3:30:30 PM | 52
@27 The lab is pointing to an article here-

https://www.nzz.ch/international/kein-zweifel-am-nowitschok-resultat-ld.1374775

It is an interview with Stefan Mogl head of the Department of Chemistry in the laboratory. Mogl is so brilliant a chemist he was able to identify nerve gas from video in an attack back in 2013, no science needed-

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/nerve-gas-expert-stefan-mogl-symptoms-indicate-nerve-agent-a-918041.html

My assumption at this point is that Mogl is a Western government asset and has been told to sell Novichok as the chemical that effected the Skripals.

aaaa , Apr 14, 2018 3:31:19 PM | 53
@26
While I tend to think of this as an orchestrated event by the anti-Syrian fighters, let's keep in consideration that there is a nonzero chance that individual units used chemical weapons. AFAIK The Syrian government prohibits the use of chemical weapons, but we're still mired in the fog of war. The OPCW may just announce findings that are totally contrary to Russian claims.

Syria's military may not have a rigid structure, so there's always a possibility that some idiots attached to the SAA conducted a chemical weapon attack. That's why a formal investigation needs to be conducted.

The Western coalition's behavior was one of "I don't care, we're going to stage a show of force". They're going to run with whatever events they can use to forward their agenda, which is the continued desire for regime change, countering Iranian influence, and/or for Syria to be stuck in a state of war.

Ultimately, Syria + Iran + Russia need to win the peace ASAP

farm ecologist , Apr 14, 2018 3:34:22 PM | 54
@13 cj
From a pharmacological perspective, it would be difficult to find a drug more dissimilar to anticholinesterases than 3-Quinuclidinyl benzilate (BZ, also called QNB), as the former would cause activation of all acetylcholine receptors (both muscarinic and nicotinic), while the latter would inhibit the activity of muscarinic acetylcholine receptors.

Antimuscarinic drugs may be used clinically in small doses, e.g., in eye exams to dilate the pupils. Overdoses as you point out would cause heart rate to increase, as well as dry mouth, and involuntary muscle jerking. If they reach the brain, such drugs are incapacitating, causing sedation, amnesia, delirium, hallucinations, and agitation.

Some of these effects are consistent with the reported symptoms of the Skripals when they were found (MoA March 16):
Meanwhile, a doctor who was one of the first people at the scene has described how she found Ms Skripal slumped unconscious on a bench, vomiting and fitting. She had also lost control of her bodily functions.
It's hard to know exactly what symptoms the last statement refers to, but drugs like this would tend to reduce gastrointestinal activity, so it's not clear if this is a perfect match.

cdvision , Apr 14, 2018 3:34:30 PM | 55
ashley albanese @49

Don't worry. As usual Australia is 5 years behind events. But is a pragmatic country, and can and will change sides when it suits. In reality most trade is with SE Asia, and there are plenty of Asians in Aus, but few Americans. There is no love of America.

And anyhow, the Commonwealth Games is on and Aus have a bagful of medals. So what do you expect the media to report?

I wouldn't mind sending Julie Bishop to the Syria front line, though.

BTW I live in Sydney.

paul , Apr 14, 2018 3:35:44 PM | 56
Reports indicate an Iranian base in Syria has been hit, once again, by Israel. Each such incident, in which Russia's allies in Syria are attacked by air with impunity, sends a strong message about Putin and about Russia. At this point, Putin has to be considered complicit in these attacks. Putin preaches about international law, but his behavior preaches Might Makes Right. Why does Putin continue to refuse to give Syria the robust air defense it needs if National Sovereignty is to mean anything for Syria? Or is it only those who have powerful militaries that get to not only have sovereignty for themselves, but get to have their neighbor's sovereignty as well?
WJ , Apr 14, 2018 3:45:36 PM | 57
b, I agree with this: "The direct accusations against Britain may have been a factor in the hasty launch of last night's strike. Another was surely the arrival of technicians of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in Damascus."

But I disagree that "Last weeks push by the media, by interventionists and by neoconservatives for a wider war on Syria (and Russia) has now been calmed down." There are mixed messages coming out. Mattis emphasizes "one-off" strike and strongly implies that US strike ensures that no more chemical attacks could be forthcoming "for years;" other officials spoke of the strike as a whole as an initial "wave", and May seems to be committed *both* to the position that Assad's chemical munitions have been destroyed *and* to the position that these strikes represent the new normal of FUKUS strong diplomacy against the "regime." I think there is still an ongoing power struggle between military lifers like Mattis and generals in field and anglozionist bureaucrats in FUKUS governments and anything could still happen, especially with the increased pressure on U.K. re Skripal and Ghouta. This is exactly the kind of situation in which Israel could tip the scales, disastrously.

To follow up on the question of strategic implications of the success of the Syrian air-defense, I wonder what the likely take away for Russia and US military intelligence is from this strike? Was it too symbolic to relay any legit insight as to US ballistic capabilities and Russian ability to thwart them? The success of even the older technology manned by the Syrians (if Russia really did not use anything of its own) might lead one to infer that the S-400's success rate against a similar volume of incoming threats (90-110) might near 100% effectiveness. Is the US worried that the only way to overcome the S-400 (given Syria's own success) would involve launching missiles in such large quantities at a time (say 300-400 per wave) as would prove operationally difficult, perhaps impossible, to sustain in a limited theatre. Another way of putting this: might the US now think that no direct but limited attack upon Russian interests is even possible, given the superiority of contemporary Russian defensive ballistic technology?

PavewayIV , Apr 14, 2018 3:50:01 PM | 58
Added a comment @260 on the thread for the Syria - Threat Of Large War Recedes But May Come Back thread regarding the Swiss lab's BZ finding. In hindsight, the OPCW weasel-like wording is twice as damaging as they only confirmed that Spiez (the Swiss Porton Down) found the same thing as Porton Down. The BZ part was omitted and only available in the classified report, because the public can't handle the truth! (without stringing up their leaders from lamp-posts).

BZ has nothing to do with whatever they used in Ghouta for the false flag. I remember there was a suspicious chemical attack in Homs in 2012 where some of the victims showed signs consistent with BZ, but others seemed more like nerve agent exposure.

Regarding the attack yesterday, there is only one thing of significance:

Russia did not use any of their SAMs AFIK. This was a Syrian-only response just like when Israel attacks. Radar help from the Russian network as usual, but it was only Syrian air defenses that intercepted the incoming Tomahawks and Storm Shadows with their short- and medium-range SAMs.

I can think of nothing whatsoever that would piss of the Russian military commanders more than taunting them by forcing them to play such a deadly game.

Russia certainly would have defended against attacks directed at their bases. That's where you have kind of a WW III problem, though. Tomahawk and Storm Shadow cruise missiles would never use a direct path - they program in complex mid-course paths and the missiles are programmed to approach the target from whatever direction is best. It may look like it's zig-zagging towards one base, then turn abruptly mid-course and target another, then another. You can't tell where their target is on radar until they actually hit something. Any of the Tomahawks fired from the Red Sea ship(s) or a B-1 over at Tanf may be targeting Damascus, or they may continue on and take out Tartous - you just don't know.

See the problem with that for Russia? They would normally just assume any modern cruise missile traveling any direction within several hundred km of their base is a direct threat, and the aircraft/ship that fired it are also direct threats. The US would do the same. Nobody is going to wait until it's obvious they are the target.

Russia had two choices last night:

1) Depend ENTIRELY on assurances from the US/UK/France that Russian sites/personnel would not be targeted and no missiles would turn at them the last minute. That's insanely risky by ANY nations' standards, especially if the neighborhood bully is making such a promise to you.

2) React like any normal military and assume any approaching cruise missile or launching aircraft/ship is targeting you. You make the problems go away - that's your job. Then WW III starts, with ZATO shrieking about an unprovoked attack on our aircraft/ships.

I have to wonder what Mattis and Dunford are thinking today. They, more than anyone in the nuthouse, have to understand the effect this cheap-assed, dishonorable, humiliating trick has on Russian commanders and Putin.

Bakerpete , Apr 14, 2018 3:54:12 PM | 59
@44 Peter: That's a very interesting idea.
Emily Dickinson , Apr 14, 2018 3:57:29 PM | 60
To the questions raised above regarding Lavrov's relying on an identification by a Swiss lab of the chemical used against the Skripals:

The linked article in German can be translated on line and, as noted above, this is really just a statement by the head of that lab, Sefan Mogl, BEFORE the Swiss lab's results, that he was sure Porton Down must have been correct in identifying the agent as a Novichok because it's such a highly regarded lab.

https://www.nzz.ch/international/kein-zweifel-am-nowitschok-resultat-ld.1374775

Of course, this doesn't really explain where Lavrov got his information, but the RT story certainly made it sound as though the Russians had somehow gotten a copy of the full classified report to the OPCW.

Christian Chuba , Apr 14, 2018 3:58:33 PM | 61
Information War Israel vs. Russia

Regarding the plethora of comments 'both sides got what they wanted, the U.S. played the hero, and Russia got off with a slap on the wrist'. Yeah but Russia is continuously cast as the supervillain in one more deed that will remain in the collective mind of the west.

Putin / Russia have the attitude, don't be distracted by the information war, keep your eye on the prize. Okay but you risk dying the death of a thousand cuts. Now contrast this with tiny Israel who has a zero tolerance policy on any negative publicity. If you say something bad about Israel you disappear, people complain about it but hey, as distasteful as it is, it looks legal to me. A columnist who uses the word Zionist is not guaranteed a job anywhere, that's hardball and it looks like the Israeli way pays dividends to them.

The Russian punching bag way? Don't know. People say the 'Empire is dying' is it, or is it getting its second wind. Maybe Trump / May are the new Reagan / Thatcher, or worse yet, think they are (Hearing 'God Save the Queen' in my head, make it stop)

Peter AU 1 , Apr 14, 2018 3:59:23 PM | 62
PavewayIV 58

The way you have put it there makes me feel more strongly that Russia demanded a very high price from the US to hold back. It will be interesting to see what happens in the coming days and weeks. Already, Russia has named the toxin that was used against the Skripals.

Emily Dickinson , Apr 14, 2018 3:59:27 PM | 63
Correction at 60: "Stefan Mogl"
james , Apr 14, 2018 4:01:22 PM | 64
everything you need to know about usa-uk-france and all the other weak kneed poodles on the world stage...
"Russia's UNSC resolution calling to stop aggression against Syria does not receive enough votes."

i guess nikki haley was trying to stay positive and walked out on this to have her nails polished or?

Christian Chuba , Apr 14, 2018 4:02:03 PM | 65
The French Intelligence Report

You have GOT to be kidding me. I am actually shocked they would admit to this piece of crap but then again, the sheep in the U.S. just heard, 'French Intelligence confirms Assad's guilt'. So chalk one up in the Information War, drip, drip, drip.

They actually said, they just reviewed the videos and trust the groups who took them. Oh, and that it was new production, not recycled images. That is the only thing I believe that it was freshly staged.

james , Apr 14, 2018 4:04:58 PM | 66
@58 paveway.. thanks..

@62 peter.. what do you think that price would be? you might be right.. i am not sure how that would work..

james , Apr 14, 2018 4:05:57 PM | 67
@65 christian.. that report makes the french look like a bunch of bozos..
cdvision , Apr 14, 2018 4:06:20 PM | 68
PavewayIV @58

You have to assume in the last week that the Russians pointed out(in rather chilling terms) what would happen to the US if Russians were harmed or targeted. Gerasimov spelled this out earlier.

And don't forget there are 4500 American hostages in their mini-bases in Syria that would now be mince-meat.

I happen to think, after said warning, that Mattis and Dunford pulled this thing back from the abyss.

Fantome , Apr 14, 2018 4:08:11 PM | 69
Amidst all this mayhem and confusion, has anybody noticed how Assad has shows more quality then any other leader/politician of this time ? He withstands the most brutal bloodbath by the terrorists for seven continues years, and has seen the country through against the most powerful adversaries of this age by not only his intellect but also his restrain and above all his courage.

I've grown respect for the man.

And just for the record-

Hillary - Assad must go
David Cameroon - Assad must go
John Kelly - Assad must go
Barak Obama - Assad must go
And many others, all of them GONE

But guess who's still there and even more dominating then every passing year.

Formerly T-Bear , Apr 14, 2018 4:10:19 PM | 70
Ok, can go for BZ, clean forgot about that one, funny what falls between the memory cracks in something like 50 years, there were no cracks in the memory when it started. BZ was not regarded as a dangerous type nerve agent, rather an agent used to incapacitate and hinder. That it produced effects similar to drug OD was reason for resistance to nerve agent which usually was Sarin (an aerosol) or VX (an oily mist that covered everything - touch at risk). Mystery abated. Watching the head of Porton Down sit there and lie (blinking eyes a la Tony Blair), gave the suspicion why Porton Down could not identify source was because Porton Down was it. Not a wonder they ID so quickly, they had the stuff in stock. Perfidious Albion, when will ye ever learn. But this could not happen to a finer set of home isle grown political scoundrels and charlatans. Now to watch the tangled web woven unravel. Best part of living in interesting times that.
Fantome , Apr 14, 2018 4:12:58 PM | 71
Amidst all this mayhem and confusion, has anybody noticed how Assad has shows more quality then any other leader/politician of this time ? He withstands the most brutal bloodbath by the terrorists for seven continues years, and has seen the country through against the most powerful adversaries of this age by not only his intellect but also his restrain and above all his courage.

I've grown respect for the man.

And just for the record-

Hillary - Assad must go
David Cameroon - Assad must go
John Kelly - Assad must go
Barak Obama - Assad must go
And many others, all of them GONE

But guess who's still there and even more dominating with every passing year.

TJ , Apr 14, 2018 4:14:09 PM | 72
The terrorists May, Macron and Trump work for are not impressed with the strike on Syria-

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/jaysh-al-islam-militants-call-us-led-strikes-on-syria-farce-reports/

Bill , Apr 14, 2018 4:15:41 PM | 73
Any excuse to demonise Russia and Syria. If it wasn't chemical weapons it would be because Assad micturated on Trump's rug.
usikpa , Apr 14, 2018 4:19:15 PM | 74
@60 Indeed, there was a press conference during which Lavrov pointed out that

1) there was a full classified report to the OPCW prepared by the Swiss.
2) Russia got a hold of it (leak by Swiss?)
3) Lavrov quoted the report as saying:

"Based on the results of the examination, the traces of the toxic chemical BZ and its precursors belonging to the chemical weapons of the second category in accordance with the Convention on the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons are found in the samples. The BZ is a nerve agent temporarily disabling a person. Psychotoxic effect is achieved in thirty- sixty minutes after application and lasts up to four days. This recipe was in the arsenal of the US Army, Great Britain and other NATO countries. In the USSR and Russia, the development of such chemical no connections were made" (Google translated from https://ria.ru/world/20180414/1518659174.html)

4). He then proceeded with a question to the OPCW if the quote had been true why
these findings by the Swiss experts were later dropped from the final document released to everyone

"If, of course, the OPCW refutes the very fact of using the laboratory of the city of Spiez, then it would be interesting to hear these explanations," he concluded.

blah , Apr 14, 2018 4:26:27 PM | 75
"2) Russia got a hold of it (leak by Swiss?)"

Not saying this happened, but leaking a fake report to the Russians so they go on a tangent making wild claims would be a great dark PR trick. And one I hope they considered.

Anon , Apr 14, 2018 4:29:45 PM | 76
blah

You are wrong. Makes no sense spreading fake info on something that can be verified or not, but it wouldnt surprise me if the Spiez Lab change its phrasing after the pressure they sure must encounter now from the west.

Gesine Hammerling , Apr 14, 2018 4:35:34 PM | 77
BTW, German Focus magazine has Vitaly Churkin speak to the Security Council:

http://archive.is/ZcfvP

He died more than a year ago.

lysias , Apr 14, 2018 4:36:54 PM | 78
@71

Fidel Castro sure outlasted a lot of U.S. presidents who wanted him gone.

blah , Apr 14, 2018 4:37:13 PM | 79
"You are wrong. Makes no sense spreading fake info on something that can be verified or not, but it wouldnt surprise me if the Spiez Lab change its phrasing after the pressure they sure must encounter now from the west."

Sure it could make sense. If you can get someone to make statements they think are true but are verifiably false then from a PR standpoint it makes their future statements seem less reliable. It can make that person seem crazy or guilty.

Anon , Apr 14, 2018 4:41:34 PM | 80
blah

So its a conspiracy theory now?
You cant spread fake info on something that physically say something else, thus Lavrov will of course not spread this info if he wasnt sure it
was factual. You suspect Lavrov is a moron. I believe hes not.

Anon , Apr 14, 2018 4:42:55 PM | 81
ISIS, financied by Saudi Arabia, used chemical,chlorine weapons multiple times in #Syria & Iraq according a report from last year:
https://www.facebook.com/wikileaks/posts/1630460566989049
Michael Weddington , Apr 14, 2018 4:46:13 PM | 82
I think I read that Russia is entitled to the full OPCW report because they are an involved state party.
Pat Bateman , Apr 14, 2018 4:47:36 PM | 83
What was the point? Last night's attack was like coming home to find your house has been burgled, only to realise that they took the cushions and then left.

If the chemical 'attack' was staged, or that the US and its allies were in on it - thereby explaining the rush to strike before the investigation of the OPCW - what was the purpose if the strikes resulted in seemingly material damage? If not to bring down the Syrian Government then what? To scupper Syrian peace efforts? I don't follow.

There's a bigger picture here but I can't quite see it.

Salisbury and Douma coming so close together is surely too much of a coincidence. Was Assad not in fact the real target, but Russia .?

james , Apr 14, 2018 4:47:53 PM | 84
@81 anon... would be good if you could link direct to wikileaks.. thanks

See more of Wikileaks on Facebook, lol.. fuck'm...

norm , Apr 14, 2018 4:51:04 PM | 85
it looks like iran has set up gas and chemical weapons bases possibly nay probably mobile maybe mobile analysis states that the labs could be a combination of both fixed and mobile possibly caravan winnebago portacabin on wheels.

these folks in syria just will not lie dowm.

At Least 20 Dead After Israeli Warplanes Strike Iranian Military Base In Southern Syria: Reports

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-14/unidentified-warplanes-strike-iranian-military-base-southern-syria-skynews-arabia?sort_by=thread&sort_order=ASC&items_per_page=50&page=0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C1

james , Apr 14, 2018 4:51:10 PM | 86
@ pat 83... i think there are a few reasons for what seems irrational... it appears that the usa-uk-france - are being good servants to israel and the neo cons on the one hand... it saves some face for trump.. it also cements the idea is some weak minds that they wouldn't do this unless they had proof, even though we know that is b.s. and, it is an ongoing motion that is ultimately leading towards more of the same and ultimately ww3... the west is saying - we will believe the white helmet videos immediately and we will wait for the facts after, but the facts we don't really care about as they can be manipulated by russia/syria.. that is what i get from all this... - basically slow grind to ww3.. i give it to 2020..
Anon , Apr 14, 2018 4:57:02 PM | 87
Iran should have kicked out western ambassadors after this assault on Syria. Again, the response are so pathetically weak.
Peter AU 1 , Apr 14, 2018 5:03:13 PM | 88
james 66

Its just a thought at the moment on Russia charging a heavy price, but if that were the case, then rock solid info on the conspiracy to frame Russia and corner Trump into attacking Syria and Russia.
If that where the case, then the Swiss scientist findings may be part of it.
The US would have better access to that type of intel as the US neocons and Zionists are part of the conspiracy. Something like this would be of benefit to both Trump and Russia, yet it would be a heavy price as the US military would be passing on what I guess would be classified secrets.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 14, 2018 5:08:13 PM | 89
@82

Russia does have the full OPCW report. The Swiss findings are not included in the report.

Pnyx , Apr 14, 2018 5:21:48 PM | 90
"F.U.K.U.S. Strikes Syria - Who Won?"
Obviously nobody. This is a lose lose lose game for everybody. And I'm sure this time they won't wait a year to attack again. The MSM are still producing propaganda enough to fill whole libraries. In no time they will prepare the next fairy tale. The Israeli government tries hard to get a reaction from Iran in order to start the real shooting. They want war, and it's easier to trigger one than to avoid it. So they will succeed.
Bakerpete , Apr 14, 2018 5:35:25 PM | 91
This is likely silly speculation however with Douma being cleared of terrorists I was wondering if the missile attack was used to destroy remaining evidence of US and friends support for said terrorists.
james , Apr 14, 2018 5:39:08 PM | 92
@88 peter.. thanks.. we'll see...
Michael Weddington , Apr 14, 2018 5:52:14 PM | 93
@89
From the unclassified OPCW report:
"12. The name and structure of the identified toxic chemical are contained in the full classified report of the Secretariat, available to States Parties."

https://www.opcw.org/fileadmin/OPCW/S_series/2018/en/s-1612-2018_e_.pdf

Pft , Apr 14, 2018 5:53:17 PM | 94
These low level attacks work for all the states involved except Syria. Having enemies is essential to control those at home. Using weapons feeds the MIC's hungry beast. Flouting international and domestic law reinforces the idea that the law is what they say it is. They are above the law. Feeding the public obvious lies without being challenged by MSM provides assurance the propaganda machine is working well and reinforces the belief that their citizens are stupid or weak. Nothing to fear there.

Russia has the respect from the US they crave, even if its only fear of military conflict with an army that can fight back. The market for their weapon systems/missile defense has never been better and they have more leverage over countries that may be on the US radar in negotiating trade/military deals

The take home here is we have an Evil Empire not bound by international law or constrained by their own domestic law since the democratic processes that enforce the laws have been broken and exist in name only. They will do whatever they choose. Russia and China will go along and exploit the opportunities presented, taking care direct military conflict is avoided. The oligarchs must be protected and a foreign enemy directs anger away from themselves over their increasing neoliberal policies that feed the oligarchs

This is a well scripted soap opera. No wonder Hollywood has not time for making good movies. Enjoy the show.

David , Apr 14, 2018 5:56:59 PM | 95
Copy-pasting this comment from another blog. Thought the points were salient...

"Consequences of the failed Syrian strike ..

1) Trump looks like .
a) a fool who believes anything on social media
b) a loudmouth blowhard who's tweet is much worse than his bite.
c) has people wondering if he isn't some combination of senile and insane.
2) The US military looks powerless and ineffective (again).
3) The jihadists suffered a major defeat. They played their Trump Card with the fake chem weapons attack and all it got them was a blown up dismantled old lab complex.
4) Israel showed they are equally powerlless and ineffective with their weak and symbolic attack on the T-4 airbase.
5) Everyone now knows that it is highly likely that Theresa May is a baldfaced liar.
6) Everyone now knows that Germany will not stand with this coalition.
7) Everyone now knows that even older Russian/Soviet air defense systems can stop a US missile strike.
8) Everyone now knows that Israel and the US are afraid to fly into Syrian airspace and challenge those old air defenses. They only launch weak attacks from very long range.
9) Everyone now knows that the governments of the UK and the US both hate democracy. Trump didn't follow the US Constitution and get even a fig-leaf "use of force" resolution. May had to directly overturn the Parliamentary democracy and launch her attack on only her say so.
10) The US just lost access to rocket engines and titanium parts.
11) Everyone now knows that if they are Putin's ally then the US can't hurt them."

Red Ryder , Apr 14, 2018 5:59:38 PM | 96
Next Astana meeting in one month, May 14-16, exact date not yet set.

Meanwhile, in Idlib, the crazies are killing one another, as they have for over a year. The Russian plan of pouring all the "retreaters" into one province was brilliant. The Russians knew each group of AQ, al Nusra and ISIS terrorists would fight one another.

Turkey will protest and try to protect "their guys" but the inevitable will occur. Putin already allowed Turkey to do its thing against the Kurds. Afrin, and its months long ground assaults Olive Branch massacres of Kurds is all Erdogan will get.

If he sticks his nose in the final destruction of the Idlib holdouts, he will get slapped down by Russia.

His place at the table of big three is dependent on agreeing with Putin. The Kurds are looking to make a deal with Putin for a piece of the Syrian pie.

The US is betting they can scuttle Astana and force everyone to their manipulation of the Geneva talks.
But Astana has always set the terms and conditions. Geneva is just the use of the UN. If the US forces the issue, Geneva will be left at the station, so to speak.

The Syrian Opposition, which boycotted Sochi Peace talks in January, have no place to go but the battlefield. If they don't get into the political development of Syria, they will lose all relevance.

The US is trying to get an insurgency war started to keep the conflict going, to justify their staying in Syria.

I suspect the Russian Aerospace will have the last vote on such insurgency. And maybe a few thousand of Kadyrov's Chechen Spetsnaz who have all the experience in Chechnya, and all the credibility as Sunnis in Syria to destroy such a bogus insurgency.

The coming summer and autumn will be interesting times.

Ukraine, the World Cup, and the winding down of "civil war" in Syria.

Paul , Apr 14, 2018 6:02:20 PM | 97
@ cj 13
I need some chemistry help-- Lavrov's statement does not help us (me) see any link between known OPCW statements on Salisbury and this new chemical "BZ". From what you and others say, BZ does not seem to correspond in any plausible way to what Porton Down (or UK govt) has publicly said: Novichoks, or from that class of agents or a closely related agent". Yet Mr. Lavrov's claims seem to suggest that BZ is not inconsistent with the OPCW confirmation of Porton Down's identification of the substance (what substance--biophysical analysis of metabolites in blood and tissue? Or bench quality (vs. weapons grade) high purity substances found elsewhere--doorknobs, park bench...
PavewayIV , Apr 14, 2018 6:07:13 PM | 98
Porton Down - officially the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) - tested the samples and prepared a classified report for that mean-assed May guy and parliament.

May says Novichok - Russia did it and must be disciplined.

DSTL Chief Gary Aitkenhead (Ache-in-head, get it?) pokes head out of rabbit hole and says that his scientists only identified substance as 'a Novichok-like military-grade nerve agent' - that's it. Said they didn't make any determination where it came from. Not their job. MI6 and that May guy made that conclusion on source with additional, secret alternative facts.

Russia cries foul becuause they're allowed to see either the DSTL technical report (classified by UK and unwilling to share with Russia). May: "How DARE you question the British Empire! We'll get the OPCW to confirm your guilt." UK delegation to the OPCW requests technical assistance to verify findings.

OPCW collects Salsbury samples, sends of to some of their five permanent labs. I'm surprised they didn't send to Porton Down - one of the five - and then hide that fact. In any case, the Swiss Spiez Lab (Spy's - get it?)gets original DSTL analysis, analyzes the new samples and confirms Porton Down's findings. Sends classified full analysis and report back to OPCW.

OPCW prepares the Technical Assistance Report for UK based on their original request, which was for independent confirmation of DSTL/Porton Down findings. The UK did NOT ask for nor specify the name of the agent to be confirmed. Just yes/no - do you agree with Porton Down's findings or not?

UK then tells OPCW Technical Secretariat they can share the still-classified yes/no report with the rest of the OPCW party states. The otherwise sanitized report either had some information on the chemical structure without naming it, or the Russians found out what Spiez found. Russians look at it and say, "What the hell? That's BZ!"

Technical Secretariat prepares dumbed-down summary report as well for public consumption - obviously without any of the technical detail identifying it as BZ. Russia now demanding that UK and/or OPCW release the full Technical Assistance Report or the full Porton Down/Spiez analysis.

That will be considered and rejected, of course. None of the other OPCW members apparently know or are willing to disclose the BZ detail. Evil gasser Russia left to twist in the wind.


Zico , Apr 14, 2018 6:09:37 PM | 99
Russia's reaction's very suspicious. Has something been agreed behind close doors???
CE , Apr 14, 2018 6:13:58 PM | 100
The FUKUS article on ACLOS was long overdue, so today I finally created it .

[Apr 14, 2018] Into the Abyss by Publius Tacitus

Apr 14, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

I believe that the risk of war with Russia over Syria is growing rather than diminishing. Although Donald Trump has toned down his idiotic tweet taunts and is no longer vowing an imminent response, he still has painted himself into a PR corner and his only avenue of escape is to launch cruise missiles against some obscure Syrian military or political target.

This will not be a mere repeat of the fireworks show from April of 2017, when Trump ordered up a cruise missile strike on an isolated airfield in the aftermath of another staged "chemical" attack by Syrian rebels. Trump blamed that supposed attack on Assad but did nothing in terms of even marginally hurting Syrian military capabilities. But it was a feel good political moment. Trump beat up the kid in a wheel chair and won praise as a tough guy.

Today the stakes are higher for Trump. The neocons and interventionist hawks are reminding him that his attack last year accomplished nothing of import. And then they ramp up the stakes by declaring that a failure to really hurt the Syrian military means that Trump is just a white version of Obama. Trump is being told by many politicians on both sides of the aisle and a horde of pundits that he has drawn a red line and must enforce it.

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff has issued a Warning Order to the relevant units and an Alert/Deployment Order. This means that US forces are moving into position to launch military operations when given the order to EXECUTE by Donald Trump.

We are not yet at that moment, but it appears to be nigh. Scuttlebutt is that SecDef Mattis and CIA Acting Haspel are urging caution because there is no supporting intelligence for the claim that a "chemical weapon" was used. In fact, there is not even confirmation about the supposed civilian casualties.

I find it precious listening to the bipartisan parade of politicians and pundits decrying the "murder" of innocent woman and children. I don't see those same folks decrying the bombings of Hiroshima or Nagasaki. But hey, if you easily are shocked by hypocrisy then you will be in a catatonic state if you even cursorily follow events and pronouncements in Washington, DC.

Here is what I think is going on. Mattis and Haspel are arguing for a delay in order for the OPCW to get on the ground and conduct an initial assessment of what really happened. The problem is that the OPCW is unlikely to find anything. But that will not be taken as proof that the Syrians or Russians are innocent. The pressure for a strike will still be on.

Continue reading "Into the Abyss? by Publius Tacitus" "

[Apr 14, 2018] Syria strikes All the latest updates USA News

Apr 14, 2018 | www.aljazeera.com

Five things to know about the US-led strikes in Syria

  1. According to US President Donald Trump, "the purpose of our actions tonight is to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons".
  2. The US and its allies launched more than 100 strikes on Syria in a "one-time shot", officials at the Pentagon said. According to a Syrian government official, around 30 missiles were fired in the attack, and a third of them were shot down.
  3. The US used Tomahawk cruise missiles in its strikes in Syria, which were fired at multiple targets in the country, a US official said.
  4. Joseph Dunford, Washington's top general, said the "precision strikes" hit three targets: A scientific research centre near Damascus that is allegedly connected to the production of the chemical weapons; a chemical weapons storage facility near Homs; a command post near the capital.
  5. Russia's ambassador to the US warned that there would be consequences for the strikes, adding that it was not acceptable to insult Russia's president.
Iran: Strikes are 'flagrant violation of international law' UN chief urges restraint after strikes on Syria Iran warns of 'regional consequences' of strikes US Democratic leaders cautiously welcome decision on strikes US Republican leaders praise Trump's decision on strikes Syria state TV: Strikes targeting position in Homs were thwarted Syria state TV: Only material losses at research centre near Damascus Strikes in Syria did not hit areas near Russian bases: Moscow Protesters in Damascus rally against US-led strikes: reports Amnesty urges Trump to take in Syrian refugees Russia: 'Pre-designed scenario is being implemented'

me title=

Washington informed Tel Aviv of attack: sources Pro-Assad official: Targets evacuated prior to attack NATO chief: I support actions of US and allies Syrian opposition leader: All attacks on civilians must stop Russia: Syria hit as country had 'chance for peaceful future' 'Three targets hit' US top general: US did not notify Russia of targets US chairman of joint chiefs of staff: First wave of attacks ends Syrian state media says US-led strikes hit army depots Russia warned 'such actions won't be left without consequences' Mattis: 'Right now, this is a one-time shot' Syrian state TV: Syrian air defences responded to attack Explosions heard in Damascus Emmanuel Macron confirms France's involvement UK's Theresa May: Strikes meant to 'deter the use of chemical weapons' Trump: 'I ordered precision strikes'

[Apr 14, 2018] It could well be the Douma provocation was not completely spontaneous use of victims of Russian air strike against militants, that caused fire in the upper levels of the building and death from inhaling smoke in the shelter under it (according to witness accounts), but one stage of multistage attack on Syrian government

Apr 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Russians interviewed several Syrian paramedics and a doctor, who provided additional information

WJ , Apr 13, 2018 5:12:26 PM | 14

I am sorry for re-posting this comment on this thread. But I was wondering what others thought about the possible scenario outlined below.
  1. There is a Russian claim on April 13 that operatives from either UK, US, or France were involved in the production of the fake attack. (I am betting these operatives are UK--either SAS or MI6 field agents). (But it is probable there are also US operatives there--likely CIA.)
  2. There have been several to my knowledge unconfirmed reports from April 12 that UK, Israeli, and Jordanian[!] operatives embedded with Jaysh al-Islam in Ghouta were captured by the SAA.
  3. There is an older late-March report of a UK led conspiracy to directly attack Damascus in mid-March in the hopes of overturning the Syria government. The attack was to be coordinated with the Skripal poisoning in the UK and would involve a false-flag chemical attack; ostensibly followed by the US/NATO decapitation of Damascus from the air. That comes from Thierry Meysann here: http://www.voltairenet.org/article200232.html
  4. On February 18 the Syrian campaign against Ghouta began with full intensity. The campaign was presented as a human rights disaster by all Western media outlets.
  5. On March 17 Russia announced its awareness of at least two planned false-flag chemical attacks: one in Eastern Ghouta involved "American instructors [who] have trained several groups of insurgents near al-Tanfa in order to hold provocations with chemical weapons in the south of Syria."

Putting it all together:

If you compare Thierry Meysann's theory from mid-March here: http://www.voltairenet.org/article200232.html with the April 12 *unconfirmed* report of captured UK operatives in Ghouta here: https://sputniknews.com/military/201804121063460158-british-forces-syria-ghouta/ you will note that they are generally consistent although containing very different details:

Meysann presents the plot as involving the coordination of Skripal's poisoning with the staging of a chemical attack in Ghouta, leading to a US/NATO led bombing of Damascus.

Sputnik presents the plot as involving a "ground assault in Damascus" led by UK, Israeli, and Jordanian operatives supported by massive air support from US/NATO.

One *possibility*, then, is something like this: the coordinated false-flag chemical attack in Ghouta was originally to lead to another "Syrian" citizen-led mini uprising against the Assad regime: This "Syrian" uprising, which would really be led by UK/US/Israel/Jordanian operatives who could pass as Syrians, would aim to infiltrate Damascus from Ghouta and blow a couple things up; meanwhile, the Skripal affair plus the false chemical attack plus the false "Syrian" citizen ground-resistance in Damascus would propel the world to call for US/NATO decapitation of the "regime".

This--or something like it--is perhaps what Russia discovered was afoot, and why Russia and the SAA so zealously sought to clear out Ghouta from February 18 onward. Russia was aware that by clearing out Ghouta quickly enough, the full ground attack on Damascus could be thwarted in time; but there was still the possibility that a chemical attack might be staged nonetheless. Hence their announcement on March 17. This effectively told the UK/US that the larger planned coup had been discovered and was not going to happen. The staged attack of April 8 was supposed to be part of a larger coordinated rush upon Damascus, which would ensure that the staged attack could never be properly investigated. The US/NATO would bomb the evidence to smithereens.

It was ultimately perhaps a stupid decision for these operatives to go through with the staged attack once one could no longer be sure that it would not be investigated owing to the US/NATO bombing it was supposed to be coordinated with. We'll see.

This could be all wrong. It's just one possible reconstruction. But I don't find it immediately *im*plausible. Should I?

[Apr 14, 2018] "Remember the Maine!"

Notable quotes:
"... "This is where it gets very interesting and dangerous. Russia has drawn its own redline. Putin and his Generals know for a fact that there was no chemical weapon of any kind used in Syria. They recently warned the world that this kind of staged event was in the offing. They know what they have and have not done on the ground and know the lies spilling from Washington, London and Paris are vicious calumny. They are not a punching bag and are not going to sit back and do nothing. ..."
"... As PT stated, it is unlikely that DJT's ego could accept the sinking of a US Navy ship or a demonstration of the ineffectiveness of some of our missiles. The temptation for him to raise the stakes in escalation would be overwhelming. Remember, the neocons would be whispering in his ear that if we push the Russians just a little more they will submit to "The Greatest President." ..."
"... If an all out nuclear exchange occurred between the US and Russia both countries would be wrecked. Do we really want to risk that? pl ..."
Apr 14, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

I have the following comment today from a retired Russian officer.

********

"This is where it gets very interesting and dangerous. Russia has drawn its own redline. Putin and his Generals know for a fact that there was no chemical weapon of any kind used in Syria. They recently warned the world that this kind of staged event was in the offing. They know what they have and have not done on the ground and know the lies spilling from Washington, London and Paris are vicious calumny. They are not a punching bag and are not going to sit back and do nothing.

A lot will depend on the "structure" and the "weight" of a possible salvo and how respective militaries will communicate with each-other. It was indicated strongly by Pentagon that they are trying to do their utmost in avoiding hitting of Russian regulars in Syria. I am sure that if within the range of namely Russia's (not Syria's) AD assets any TLAM will be shot down--this is so to speak "not that big of a deal" scenario. Washington draft-dodgers, however, push for attack on specifically Russian assets, including Damascus and recently including Douma where alleged attack took place. The reason being bombing the place of staging of this false flag into oblivion and then saying that no we can not prove that attack didn't happen. Obviously, it is not the case anymore, since Douma in under control of SAA and Russian MPs.

Most people in Pentagon and, obviously, some in the so called IC understand consequences of attacking Russians directly--they know the score, they have calculated probabilities for a number of contingencies and none of them, obviously, looks good for CENTCOM assets in the area. But for the BORG there is no way back--and the reasons for that are way larger than Syria. We are talking about global realignment and major shift in power balance. This is not an easy thing to take to self-proclaimed "exceptional" people in Washington plus add here their utter lack of grasp of scales and proportions involved in a purely military aspect--it is difficult to those who never spent a day in uniform and whose military "expertise" is limited to few seminars on strategy and weapons and on, not always first class, work by Congressional Research Service. Thus, on American side we have today not rational players." Pen Name - Smoothiex12

-------------

In my opinion Smoothiex12 speaks truth. The Russians have decided that they will fight us if there is more than a symbolic punitive strike in Syria, a strike in retaliation for an event that even the US MSM now speaks of as "suspected," "alleged" and "reported." The US went to war against Spain over a suspected attack on the armored cruiser USS Maine. The ship was at anchor in Havana harbor. It exploded and sank and although the US Navy could not at the time determine the cause, the Hearst newspaper chain insisted that the Spanish government had destroyed the ship. The same newspapers had been propagandizing the American people for months with wild tales of the "monstrous" deeds of the Spaniards toward the Cuban revolutionaries who were trying to end Spanish rule of the island. This sensationalist grab for circulation triggered war with Spain. Many years later the US Navy determined that a smoldering fire in a coal bunker heated a metal wall and that this had detonated the magazine of the ship on the other side of that bulkhead. Today we have 24/7 TV news vying for ratings. Nothing else matters for them. They neither understand Syria, nor do they understand what the outcome would be of a US-Russian war that escalates from a regional response to use of nuclear weapons against the two homelands.

Mike Pompeo smugly told the US Senate yesterday that American air strikes had killed "a couple hundred" Russians recently. He obviously likes that idea. At the same time the Russian government has sent its key political, societal, and scientific cadres to deep underground shelters built during the Brezhnev era and Russian state media have told the citizenry to prepare itself for World War III.

As PT stated, it is unlikely that DJT's ego could accept the sinking of a US Navy ship or a demonstration of the ineffectiveness of some of our missiles. The temptation for him to raise the stakes in escalation would be overwhelming. Remember, the neocons would be whispering in his ear that if we push the Russians just a little more they will submit to "The Greatest President."

If an all out nuclear exchange occurred between the US and Russia both countries would be wrecked. Do we really want to risk that? pl

[Apr 14, 2018] Airstrikes Against Syria Would Set Off a Powder Keg by Daniel Larison

"Monica styles"... Trump is fighting fore survival with Tomahawks trying to solve his problem with junfoism.
Notable quotes:
"... "[I]f this president can decide unilaterally to bomb Syria, I worry that he can make the same decision about North Korea or Iran or other nations. And these decisions are not supposed to be made without consultation and voting by Congress." Unfortunately, Congressional leaders have shown no signs of wanting to hold a debate or have a vote before the attack takes place. ..."
"... The Trump administration has not offered a public legal justification for last year's strikes, and it seems unlikely to offer one this time. That is probably because there is no plausible interpretation of the law that permits the president to initiate hostilities against foreign governments on his own when the U.S. has not been attacked. ..."
"... Daniel Larison is a senior editor at ..."
"... where he also keeps a solo blog . He has been published in the ..."
"... Front Porch Republic, and ..."
"... . He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago. Follow him on Twitter . ..."
Apr 14, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
It begins: Trump announces a series of joint air strikes on Syrian targets Friday. An explosion after an apparent US-led coalition airstrike on Kobane, Syria, as seen from the Turkish side of the border, near Suruc district, 24 October 2014, Sanliurfa, Turkey Shutterstock/orlok UPDATE 9 p.m.ET : President Trump announces joint air strikes with the UK and France against Syrian targets in retaliation for suspected chemical attack a week ago in Douma.

One year since the U.S. illegally launched 59 cruise missiles at Syrian government forces in response to an alleged chemical weapons attack, the Trump administration is preparing to take similar military action despite an increased risk of escalation that could lead to the start of a wider war.

The U.S., France, and Britain have been preparing to strike the Syrian government over the last several days, and Syria's Russian patron has threatened the "gravest consequences" in response to an attack. Russia didn't respond to last year's one-off airstrikes, but Moscow isn't likely to tolerate a larger U.S. attack carried out with other governments. Syria's government and its allies seem more willing to fight back than they were a year ago, and that should give the Trump administration and our European allies pause. There is a greater risk of great power conflict erupting in Syria than there has been at any time since the end of the Cold War, and if Russian military personnel are killed by U.S. or allied strikes there is no telling how quickly things could deteriorate there and in other parts of the world.

President Trump's public statements have strongly suggested that an attack will be happening soon, going so far as to taunt Russia on Twitter that they should "get ready" for the "new" and "smart" missiles that the U.S. would be using. Some members of Congress have insisted that the president lacks the legal authority to launch an attack on Syria without their authorization. As Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Virginia) put it , "[I]f this president can decide unilaterally to bomb Syria, I worry that he can make the same decision about North Korea or Iran or other nations. And these decisions are not supposed to be made without consultation and voting by Congress." Unfortunately, Congressional leaders have shown no signs of wanting to hold a debate or have a vote before the attack takes place.

The Trump administration has not offered a public legal justification for last year's strikes, and it seems unlikely to offer one this time. That is probably because there is no plausible interpretation of the law that permits the president to initiate hostilities against foreign governments on his own when the U.S. has not been attacked. There is no provision in international law that allows a U.S. attack on another government without explicit Security Council authorization, and we know that this authorization that will never be forthcoming in this case because of Russia's veto. While the attack is being sold as the enforcement of a norm against chemical weapons use, it isn't possible to uphold an international norm while violating the most fundamental rule of international law.

To date, the U.S. and its allies have presented no definitive evidence to support their claims against the Syrian government. It is entirely plausible that the Syrian government is guilty of using chlorine or sarin against its enemies and the civilian population, but there has been no real effort on the part of the U.S. and its allies to prove their accusation before deciding to act as executioners. Regardless, the U.S. and its allies have no authority to punish the Syrian government, and in doing so they may do significant harm to international peace and security.

A U.S.-led attack on the Syrian government could lead to war with Russia or Iran or both at once, and there is also a danger that it could help set off a war between Israel and Iran. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said earlier this week that Israel would not "allow" an Iranian military presence to be established in Syria. The prime minister's threat came on the heels of Israeli strikes inside Syria that reportedly killed seven Iranians serving alongside the Syrian regime's forces. Iran has threatened retaliation for the attack, and it has the ability through Hizbullah to make good on that threat if Israel carries out additional strikes. Israel might use a U.S.-led attack on Iran's allies in Syria as an excuse to strike more Iranian targets, and Iran might then respond in kind with missile attacks on Israel. Lebanese, Syrian, and Israeli civilians would all suffer if that happened, and it would make an already chaotic international situation even worse.

It is a measure of how divorced from U.S. and allied security our Syria policy has become that our government is seriously preparing to launch another illegal attack on a government that hasn't attacked us and doesn't threaten us or our allies. Attacking the Syrian government won't make the U.S. or any other country more secure, and it will likely weaken the government just enough to prolong Syria's civil war and add to the suffering of the civilian population. It is a perfect example of a military intervention that is being done for its own sake with no connection to any discernible interests or strategy. No one stands to gain from such an attack except for the ideologues that have incessantly demanded deeper U.S. involvement in Syria for the last six years.

Daniel Larison is a senior editor at TAC, where he also keeps a solo blog . He has been published in the New York Times Book Review, Dallas Morning News, Front Porch Republic, and The Week . He holds a PhD in history from the University of Chicago. Follow him on Twitter .

[Apr 14, 2018] Syria - Manipulated Videos Fail To Launch World War III

Trump launched more then 100 rockets against military and civil object in Syria. Russia decided to stand still as none of Russia army positions was targeted.
Notable quotes:
"... I dont agree at all, I dont know where this optisim comes from, we are closer to war in a long time, no way west will back now ..."
"... Can Russia prove Brit involvement? IMO, Russia wouldn't be making the statements it's now making if it wasn't 100% certain. And as I posted at previous thread, Russian rhetoric is vociferous in a manner I've never seen previously -- Mad as Hell and not going to take it anymore is my bet. ..."
"... The tipping point was when Johnson(?) compared them to Nazis. The Russians did all the hard work in defeating the Nazis, losing 26 million in the process. They have stopped using the term 'partners' when refering to NATO country diplomats. They now use the term 'correspondents'. That is a subtle sign that they no longer have any respect for the respective countries. They have described the US as 'non-negotiation-capable'. I suspect the UK falls into that now. ..."
"... No one should be surprised of the manipulated videos. Wait until computer altered (DeepFake) videos become more realistic. It will be difficult to separate the lies from the truth. ..."
"... I fear Madman Bolton will prevail over Mad Dog Mattis. The Washington Post has a believable analysis that Trump has too much at stake. He wants to win after blaming Obama on failure. The New York Post has reported a whole entire armada U S warships steaming towards the Middle East. It's up to the Russians now to decide the fate of humankind. ..."
"... Get real, this whole fake chemistry exercise was a great success.....in taking the Gaza shooting gallery off the world press's front pages, just as MH17 was with Operation Protective Edge ..."
"... The "chemical attack" hoax was likely rushed into being as the window of opportunity was rapidly closing. The previous hoaxes relied on tight control of the locations, and the inability to do so this time will prove its undoing. Russian proof of UK involvement could well consist of intercepted communications -- such as arranging the satellite transmissions necessary for dissemination of the videos. ..."
"... Regarding US/UK cover-up attempt. IMO, there are too many witnesses -- hundreds if not several thousands -- and other forms of physical evidence besides testable residues -- which don't exist because there was never any chemical attack. The domestic morass both Trump and May are in require nearly continuous distractions but are vastly different. ..."
"... I fear that the hordes of loonies will convince him to launch an attack to disrupt the OPCW investigation and even target Douma claiming that civilians have been evacuated and only evil storm troopers are there. ..."
"... I hope you're right, but the dotard Donald has shot off so much nonsense that drawing back now might not be an option. He has a notoriously fragile ego, and he needs to at least fire off some missiles to prove his "big hands". ..."
"... The chemical " attack " investigation reminds me of the UN inspectors just before the Iraq war. TPTB can easily make it look like they've " gave peace a chance ", then another attack occurs, forcing the investigators to leave the area. Trump will then have the excuse to launch another strike. I hope Trump is trolling the Zios. ..."
"... The great question is - can 'Western' industry keep burning without explicit , bargain price control of SIBERIAN resources. According to Chomsky the U S has international interests and controls garnering the economic wealth of 50% of the planet . ..."
"... That is *very* interesting. The date corroborates the hypothesis of a premeditated orchestration of the Skripal poisoning with the planned US/NATO decapitation of Damascus in late March (which was to be justified on the basis of Skripal + staged chemical attack + fake "Syrian" unrest in Damascus). ..."
"... It appears that this was done by the same British agency affiliated with individuals involved in creating the utterly fabricated documents used to falsely claim there was collusion between my campaign and Russia. This gives evidence that part of the British government not only attempted to block my election, and then over-turn it, but to falsely lead the US into a war. ..."
"... We have started to root out members of the US deep-state, McCabe, Comey, Ohr and others who have been involved in attempting to overturn a democratic election and foment dangerous hostility with Russia. There will be more of them outed soon. The DOJ Inspector General's report, just released in part, and Congressional investigations show that the conspiracy involved both US officials and associates of British intelligence agencies. This recent evidence of British officials attempting to get the US into a war suggests they were also involved in the intervention in US politics. ..."
"... Its not impossible that there is a rogue element in MI6, but I don't believe they would act without approval by CIA - which may indicate a rogue element there also. I can't (at this stage) believe the UK Govt is in on this. May and Johnson don't have the balls for this; after all, they can't even tell Junker to fuck off. ..."
"... What seems clear to me (based on everything I have read on this board, other blogs like Syrpers, alt news sources and the MSM) is that, beginning with the start of the assault on East Ghouta and intensifying as the SAA and allies achieved unexpectedly rapid success, the reaction of the Coalition of Cruelty has been increasingly strident, with the UK being particularly virulent in its rhetoric. ..."
"... Diplomatic decorum has broken down and the forms and norms of international law no longer being paid even lip service. There is a panicked quality to the false flags that suggest they are improvising on the go. I think this indicates that the western alliance against Assad has already suffered, or is about to suffer, a catastrophic setback in their plans to overthrow the Syrian Government and that the Russians still hold the initiative. ..."
"... It seems to me we're seeing two major elements at work. One is the practically solid wall of propaganda in the media, and two is the biased international institutions, heavily weighted in favor of the previous rulers of the planet, the western world. ..."
"... The propaganda doesn't mean much, because the people who believe it are almost by definition powerless. But it does require a narrative in order to work, and that story-line doesn't have to hold water very tightly, because the media have the populace pretty well saturated. But the flimsiness of the story creates a problem when it's used in more rigorous arenas - which it is, because it forms part of the overall culture generally believed by the institutions, and also believed by the propagandists over time, simply because it forms part of the culture. ..."
"... So the answer to save Syrian lives from their regime is to kill more Syrians. No one will be allowed to kill more women and children than the great western alliance. Have we not said this enough? ..."
"... Well I was wrong. Looks like US and cronies had to strike before any OPCW report. ..."
Apr 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Today the Russian Defense Ministry accused Britain of having directed the staged attack:

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman, Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov, released statements by medics from Douma's hospital who said a group of people toting video cameras entered the hospital, shouting that its patients were struck with chemical weapons and causing panic. The medics said none of the patients were hurt by chemicals.

Here are videos of that hospital scenes from the 'rebel' propaganda outlets. The 'treatment' by the 'rebels', dousing with water and administering some asthma spray, is unprofessional and many of the 'patients' seem to have no real problem. It is theater. The real medical personal is seen in the background working on a real patient.

The people in the video scenes were "rent-a-mob" actors which the Russians say they have found. They also found the medics and videotaped their statements . They Russian government claims to know the main culprit:

"Today, the Russian defense ministry has other evidence proving the United Kingdom's direct involvement in the organization of this provocation in Eastern Ghouta," [Igor Konashenkov, the defense ministry's spokesman] said.

An OPCW technical team has arrived in Damascus. It will investigate the scene and talk to the witnesses.

Cause of the recent panic were a few videos by several propaganda outlets associated with Takfiri 'rebels' in Ghouta. These videos immediately looked staged to me. Yes, they showed dead people - mainly children - in a basement or apartment. But the bodies were not in the place where they had died and were probably not, as was claimed, killed by chemical weapons.

In the videos some 20 dead children and a few women lie on the floor as if they were thrown in there. The scene was obviously manipulated several times. The various videos show the bodies in different positions. They have been moved around for presentation. Later videos show, for example, a baby in diapers on top of two older kids. In an earlier video that baby is not there.

The 'rebel' claim that the people were killed by chlorine and a nerve agent: "Look, the dead have foam at their mouth." (Foam at the mouth is wrongly assumed to be a sure symptom of exposure to a nerve agent.)

Yes, they have foam at their mouth. But it seems to be shaving foam and/or some white gel, not a human secretion. We have seen this trick before .

Compare for example this video from the scene uploaded by فادي عبد الله on Apr 7, 2018 at 20:49:26 UTC with this video from the same scene by Yaser AlDoumani2 uploaded on Apr 7, 2018 at 22:43:16 UTC.

A screenshot from the first video (graphic):


bigger

The corridor where the cameraman stands at that moment is filled with dead bodies. The body with the white bonnet on its head lies in a backroom. The detail picture below is turned 180 degree:


bigger

A screenshot from the second video. The body with the white bonnet has been moved from the backroom to the corridor and added to a pile of other bodies.


bigger

Detail of the body with the white bonnet turned 180 degree:


bigger

It is the same body with the same cloth in a different position. It seems obvious that shaving cream or something similar has been added to the body after it was moved. The shaving cream simulates "foaming at the mouth".

Stephen McIntyre found and collected several other discrepancies between the various videos from the scene.

The people shown have died. They probably suffocated after a shelter collapsed as the Syrian Observatory reported on that day . But the videos were likely not made at the scene of that incident. The bodies had been moved and manipulated. There were likely no chemical weapons involved in their death.

It would have made no sense at all for the Syrian government to launch a 'chemical attack' on a nonmilitary target in the Douma situation. Its imminent victory was already guaranteed. The 'rebels' and their supporters had their reasons to fake such an 'attack'. It was an attempt to drag the U.S. into destroying the Syrian government and its army. It nearly succeeded.

The various 'leaks' and media claims around the staged 'attack' have reached comical grounds.

CNN headlined today: Biological samples from Syria attack site test positive for chlorine and nerve agent, official says :

Biological samples from the area of the alleged chemical attack in Syria have tested positive for chlorine and a sarin-like nerve agent, according to a US official familiar with the US analysis of the test results.
...
Medical sources and activists in Syria said blood, urine and hair follicle samples were smuggled in batches to Turkey after rebel groups and their families were pushed out of the area by the Assad regime, CNN reported earlier on Friday.

The sources did not know what happened to the samples after they reached Turkey.

That chain of evidence is joke and the claim is nonsense. There is simply no way to diagnose chlorine exposure in blood, urine or hair samples.

The Center of Disease Control notes of Chlorine exposure:

Laboratory criteria for diagnosis:

Biologic: No biologic marker for chlorine exposure is readily available.
...

Chlorine is highly reactive. When it enters the bloodstream it turns into chloride and associates with sodium and potassium and other basic elements. The natural chloride level in a body is already quite high and changes often. We all eat and naturally dispose of table salt, aka sodium chloride, each and every day. The chloride level in a body can be measured but it is not a criterion for chlorine exposure. The 'official' who made those claims to CNN is lying.

The evidence for a 'chemical attack' in Douma is simply not there. The videos provided by the 'rebel' propaganda outlets are manipulated. Medical personal in Douma dispute their propaganda claims.

Secretary of Defense Mattis spoke out and U.S. allies refused to swallow the faked evidence. Donald Trump pulled back from his earlier aggressive threats. There will likely be no bombing of Syria and in consequence no violent conflict with Russia.

Trump already began to change the headlines. He just pardoned Dick Cheney's former errant boy Scooter Libby. He is preparing the grounds for pardoning his own staff should they be caught up in the Mueller investigation.

This will give the media enough material to cover throughout the weekend and to forget about attacking Syria.

The staged 'chemical attack' was designed to draw Trump back into the conflict over Syria after he announced that he wants the U.S. military to pull out. Has it changed his mind? Will those who initiated this stunt, probably the Brits, try again?

Will Russia be able to prove its claim of British involvement? If so could it free Yulia Scripal ?

Posted by b on April 13, 2018 at 04:12 PM | Permalink

Comments


oldenyoung , Apr 13, 2018 4:22:23 PM | 1

new video from russian defense...interviewed doctors at the only hospital in douma

https://southfront.org/russian-defense-ministry-releases-testimonies-of-doctors-from-syrias-duma/

regards

OY

Anon , Apr 13, 2018 4:23:15 PM | 2
I dont agree at all, I dont know where this optisim comes from, we are closer to war in a long time, no way west will back now, no way, the attack will create a huge impact and will come sudden, I suspect within 2 weeks.
karlof1 , Apr 13, 2018 4:27:09 PM | 3
Can Russia prove Brit involvement? IMO, Russia wouldn't be making the statements it's now making if it wasn't 100% certain. And as I posted at previous thread, Russian rhetoric is vociferous in a manner I've never seen previously -- Mad as Hell and not going to take it anymore is my bet.

My question: When the proof is presented by Russia will Western media be allowed to show it? IMO, it will be presented Saturday in enough time for it to be front and center on the Sunday political talk shows--IF it's going to be shown and discussed.

Ken , Apr 13, 2018 4:35:29 PM | 5
I'm hoping you're correct in your outlook. I too am pessimistic after so much bluster and weapons put in place. This is no time to relax. People in the USA should call their Representatives and the White House. There are previously planned antiwar protests in several cities this Sunday.
https://www.springaction2018.org/
Likklemore , Apr 13, 2018 4:43:14 PM | 6
Posted at ZeroHedge:

"State Department spokesperson Sara Huckabee, in today's briefing, said they have "proof" the Syrian government is behind the gas attack." Let's see it. Need to know source of proof. Colin Powell is that you?

Anonymous , Apr 13, 2018 4:46:18 PM | 7
Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 13, 2018 4:27:09 PM | 3

"Russian rhetoric is vociferous in a manner I've never seen previously--Mad as Hell and not going to take it anymore is my bet."

The tipping point was when Johnson(?) compared them to Nazis. The Russians did all the hard work in defeating the Nazis, losing 26 million in the process. They have stopped using the term 'partners' when refering to NATO country diplomats. They now use the term 'correspondents'. That is a subtle sign that they no longer have any respect for the respective countries. They have described the US as 'non-negotiation-capable'. I suspect the UK falls into that now.

Ian , Apr 13, 2018 4:48:27 PM | 8
No one should be surprised of the manipulated videos. Wait until computer altered (DeepFake) videos become more realistic. It will be difficult to separate the lies from the truth.

Tannenhouser @4:

That two weeks is related to a claim of the USS Truman Carrier Group (CVN, 6DDG and 4SSGN) leaving port. Apparently it takes two weeks to get from CONUS to Syria.

Thorvid , Apr 13, 2018 4:53:21 PM | 9
In reply to Karlof1:

I certainly hope that the Russian evidence is made public ASAP, and that it is sold and beyond doubt.

We need to stop the accusations, counter accusation, counter counter accusation. This is becoming like two children in the back seat of the car winding each up to an inevitable fight.

Unfortunately is will never be allowed on the British MSM, so it will be up to the likes of us to make sure it is as widely known as possible! If incontrovertible evidence isn't presented soon, i fear more incredulous accusations will be made for example these ones:-

apparently British 'intelligence' services have just made the discovery that the Russian GRU have had both the Skripal's under surveillance for FIVE YEARS.

Additionally

The British copy of Russian secret services Assassination Manual, (otherwise known by it's working title of "How to totally bodge an assassination and ensure your enemies know it was you" [*jk*]), contains a section on how to kill someone by door knob.

This will be used as further 'proof' of guilt! And therefore justification for immediate military strike, possibly before Monday, so Prime Minster May dosn't have to face the embarrassment of having to back down and have a vote in parliament, (which in theory at least she could lose, but in practice will win due to the total lack of opposition, and 2 years of propaganda since the last vote), after they return from Easter Recess.

karlof1 , Apr 13, 2018 4:58:11 PM | 11
Yet another chemical weapons factory uncovered in town of Aftris within Eastern Ghouta. I've lost count; is that 4 or 6 within the last two weeks?
Lucretius Harbinger , Apr 13, 2018 5:04:10 PM | 12
I fear Madman Bolton will prevail over Mad Dog Mattis. The Washington Post has a believable analysis that Trump has too much at stake. He wants to win after blaming Obama on failure. The New York Post has reported a whole entire armada U S warships steaming towards the Middle East. It's up to the Russians now to decide the fate of humankind.
the pessimist , Apr 13, 2018 5:17:21 PM | 15
Suggestion the attack will occur tonight (before inspectors arrive): WaelAlRussi If they don't the momentum will dissipate completely. More people will publicly question the (evidence free assertions) claims. British parliament may try to vote, etc. Plus markets are closed till Monday (and besides it's Friday the 13th).

Hopefully this will not be so.

karlof1 , Apr 13, 2018 5:20:47 PM | 17
Thorvid @9--

Yes, shouting match must end.

Can't recall where I read this info, but elder Skripal was being surveilled by FSB cause working with MI6 and Ukrainian regime. So, he was being watched, but just how closely? Perhaps to the point where Russia knows UK's lying. In other words, Mr. Skripal remains in employ of MI6.

Jen , Apr 13, 2018 5:21:34 PM | 18
Karlofi @ 11: The SAA found a makeshift chemical laboratory near Shifouniyeh in East Ghouta in mid-March. Sharmine Narwani was one of the first journalists (or probably the only journalist) at the scene just after it was discovered. I do not know of any others found until the one discovered in Aftris. It could be that news about the Shifouniyeh CW lab has spread like wildfire across Middle Eastern news media and Western news blogs.

In other news, the SAA found a jihadi film studio (including cameras and filming equipment) in Saqba in East Ghouta.

Bakerpete , Apr 13, 2018 5:23:19 PM | 19
There is a tempo to this, move/counter-move. Russia has the momentum at the moment but Britain and friends will regroup and come at it again. I'm afraid the British government has moved beyond the point of retreat. I'm just stunned by the clumsy, mendacious actions of the British government; they've completely lost control of this.
Peter AU 1 , Apr 13, 2018 5:24:22 PM | 20
This is a comment I posted earlier at SST...

Trump set his street creds with the MOAB and the 60 Tomahawk missiles early on as the crazy man, the Dr Strangeglove type riding the missile. the US congress and senate is a drunken lynch mob living in Hollywood hallucinations. If Trump makes the wrong move they will lynch him. When he rides the missile, the drunken mob cheers and say he looks very presidential. Mad Dog has his street creds in his name. He is the military expert and when trump rides the missile, mad dog talks to the crowd and the crowd listens.

Each time Trump rides the missile I think he really is crazy, he's going to do it this time.
........

The main problem for the US is mass delusion. They (Clinton types) will take the US to a point that that Russia has no option to destroy it. Like Putin was/is a man for his time in Russia, Trump is to the US. He does not live in the delusion. He uses twitter to work the delusional mob.

sadness , Apr 13, 2018 5:28:21 PM | 21
Get real, this whole fake chemistry exercise was a great success.....in taking the Gaza shooting gallery off the world press's front pages, just as MH17 was with Operation Protective Edge
WJ , Apr 13, 2018 5:30:37 PM | 22
@15 pessimist,

There's also this: https://twitter.com/BabakTaghvaee

Rumors of agreement between Russia and Israel entailing removal of Iranian troops from Syria for guarantee of purely symbolic strike by US. Have no idea if accurate.

Or is US racing to bomb Ghouta before the extent of its deception becomes impossible any longer to deny? If there is *political* desperation behind the UK/US urgency to strike quickly, things could get out of hand.

WJ , Apr 13, 2018 5:36:52 PM | 23
@ 15,

Also: Russia now approved to use Iranian airfield in Hamedan exchange for airfield's use of Pantsir and S-400 SAM defenses: https://twitter.com/BabakTaghvaee

To me, this agreement suggests somebody is anticipating a more than "symbolic" imminent strike.

jayc , Apr 13, 2018 5:40:36 PM | 25
The "chemical attack" hoax was likely rushed into being as the window of opportunity was rapidly closing. The previous hoaxes relied on tight control of the locations, and the inability to do so this time will prove its undoing. Russian proof of UK involvement could well consist of intercepted communications -- such as arranging the satellite transmissions necessary for dissemination of the videos.

That the medical personnel who describe the WH theatrical performance can be seen in the WH videos adds tremendous credibility to the notion of a hoax. This will be confirmed when the OPCW arrives and the 500 alleged wounded victims will have vanished, and the tests on the rent-a crowd from the videos show nothing. It is predictable that all of this will be obscured or greatly downplayed by the West's media - but credibility is going to take a massive hit, both globally and with a sizeable minority of the population. The May government is in serious jeopardy now.

Z , Apr 13, 2018 5:43:48 PM | 26
Both medics are saying that it happened on April 8th, but the videos are dated April 7th.
karlof1 , Apr 13, 2018 5:47:44 PM | 27
WJ @22--

Regarding US/UK cover-up attempt. IMO, there are too many witnesses -- hundreds if not several thousands -- and other forms of physical evidence besides testable residues -- which don't exist because there was never any chemical attack. The domestic morass both Trump and May are in require nearly continuous distractions but are vastly different. Events on the global stage are moving in a direction no longer controllable by UK/US as in the past--their unipolar moment is burning up upon reentry, but that reality is brutally ignored. And US/UK behavior over this false flag is helping other NATO vassals to reassert their independence. A massive demonstration's been called for UK this Monday. Perhaps the Social Media weapon so touted during Arab Spring will finally bite back with a vengeance those who initially manipulated it.

WJ , Apr 13, 2018 5:49:48 PM | 28
@ jaye 25,

"[UK] credibility is going to take a massive hit, both globally and with a sizeable minority of the population. The May government is in serious jeopardy now."

This is what I fear @14. It could lead the UK/US to do something drastic: like bombing away the evidence... Arguably this is how Russia is reading the situation. If an attack comes in the next 24 hours it will be partly through UK political desperation and things could go south fast.

Anonymous , Apr 13, 2018 5:55:34 PM | 30
Posted by: WJ | Apr 13, 2018 5:12:26 PM | 14

The earliest link I have come across refering to captured British (SAS?) officers, plus some Saudis, is this one from 8 March 2018 (interesting timing wrt Skripal). It includes a photograph of one of the alleged military officers. Subsequent captures seem to have been kept tightly under wraps -- those captured were allegedly trying to escape disguisd as civilians. The 11 British seem to have been captured en masse at two villages in the east Ghouta area.

https://z5h64q92x9.net/proxy_u/ru-en.en/https/diana-mihailova.livejournal.com/1722839.html

Tannenhouser , Apr 13, 2018 5:55:39 PM | 31
@21. Im not sure it would have made the front page anyways....Either way interesting thought. Kinda like the OJ white bronco right when Rwanda was seeing the worst of it, IIRC, or Bruce Springsteen's anti war anthem Wrecking Ball being obliterated by Hannah Montana's bondage suit wrecking ball.
Christian Chuba , Apr 13, 2018 6:05:37 PM | 32
I fear that the hordes of loonies will convince him to launch an attack to disrupt the OPCW investigation and even target Douma claiming that civilians have been evacuated and only evil storm troopers are there.

I am hoping that when I read PS 68:30 ... Scatter the nations who delight in war that it was not a coincidence. That the forces gathering against Syria will disperse.

Cycloben , Apr 13, 2018 6:08:33 PM | 33
I hope you're right, but the dotard Donald has shot off so much nonsense that drawing back now might not be an option. He has a notoriously fragile ego, and he needs to at least fire off some missiles to prove his "big hands".
Pnyx , Apr 13, 2018 6:30:19 PM | 34
I still disagree. No doubt everything's correct what you state about the videos and so on, but the war preparations are still on. The mass media did not change tune, and most important Tronald is not this peace loving guy you make him seem. As long as the OPCW people are in Syria of course nothing will happen, but after they leave it's shooting time.
Ian , Apr 13, 2018 6:39:13 PM | 36
The chemical " attack " investigation reminds me of the UN inspectors just before the Iraq war. TPTB can easily make it look like they've " gave peace a chance ", then another attack occurs, forcing the investigators to leave the area. Trump will then have the excuse to launch another strike. I hope Trump is trolling the Zios.

Tannenhouser @13:

Yes, deployments are planned well in advance, especially carrier groups. But, adding a few more ships shouldn't be too difficult. More importantly, their orders can change on a whim. The top speed of their ships is classified which means they can reach the area much sooner. The two week journey could be seen as a delay tactic, to allow cooler heads to prevail. Maybe they'll get "lost" and find themselves on an island. ;)

ashley albanese , Apr 13, 2018 6:42:06 PM | 37
The great question is - can 'Western' industry keep burning without explicit , bargain price control of SIBERIAN resources. According to Chomsky the U S has international interests and controls garnering the economic wealth of 50% of the planet .

Would be interesting to read a space-age rewrite of Lenin's , ' Imperialism as the Highest Stage of Capitalism ' at this juncture - and let us hope it is not a puncture !

WJ , Apr 13, 2018 6:44:36 PM | 38
Anonymous @30,

Thank you. That is *very* interesting. The date corroborates the hypothesis of a premeditated orchestration of the Skripal poisoning with the planned US/NATO decapitation of Damascus in late March (which was to be justified on the basis of Skripal + staged chemical attack + fake "Syrian" unrest in Damascus).

If I might conjecture a bit further, perhaps the Skripal attack was rushed on account of the East Ghouta campaign that had begun in mid-February. Perhaps the fear was that East Ghouta might be cleared before the Skripal attack could supply the link to the staged chemical attack. (Perhaps the original chemical attack was not to be "staged" but was intended to be real: a *real* false-flag chemical attack is after all what Russian intelligence suggests.)

The odd thing--or perhaps it is not odd--is that one could make the case that the UK/US has more or less kept to original script of the play-act, even as it has been shredded before us. They have after all strongly *insinuated* that there is a link between Skripal and East Ghouta. They are *acting* as though the staged chemical attack really happened. The next step in the plan was to be a civil "Syrian" ground insurrection in Damascus leading directly to a US/NATO aerial decapitation. The civil "Syrian" ground insurrection has been taken away from them. But might they not decide to conclude the last act as planned anyhow? If this is right--and thankfully it is probably not--we should expect to see a major bombardment campaign begin within 24 hours or so.

karlof1 , Apr 13, 2018 6:48:12 PM | 40
Perhaps a tad OT. Tom Engelhardt pens an interesting essay: "A Tale of American Hubris Or Five Lessons in American Defeat." Excerpt:

"Shakespeare would have been fascinated by the hubris of America's leaders in these years (and that was before Mr. Hubris Himself even hit the White House). It couldn't be clearer today that the military-first grab for an all-American planet proved strikingly too much for the U.S. to swallow by an Iraqi mile. It never even came close to happening. When the history of American decline is written, perhaps it will be said that never was there a great power whose leaders so effectively took it down themselves simply by wanting too much too badly and by woefully misunderstanding the nature of power on this planet. For Washington, the urge to make Earth into its imperium proved the equivalent of a submarine putting a torpedo into its own bow."

Paul , Apr 13, 2018 6:49:18 PM | 41
Yes, as Mercouris has suggested, control of the crime scene in Ghouta may make a pre-emptive NATO strike more likely, to intimidate the inspectors and destroy evidence.

Russia's claim to have proof of Western instigation of the whole false flag might also increase chances of early strike--to change the subject. Perhaps the Russians would rather the strike come now than wait for the carrier group to arrive.

bevin , Apr 13, 2018 6:57:25 PM | 42
The great weakness in the Russian position is that the Kremlin and Russian government generally is riddled with western agents.
This means that the unequivocal warnings that Russia is giving are muted by reassurances from Fifth Columnists that there will be no retaliation and that Russia is afraid of the US.
Such misunderstandings are what lie at the roots of war between powers: each feels that the other will back down, until they don't.
I hope that I am wrong and that the neo-cons are not feeding false intelligence from their agents in Russia to Bolton and Trump. But given the amateurish nature of the current White House-very much like the idiocy which prevailed in 2003- rationality is likely to be overborne by loud mouths and bravado.
Hermius , Apr 13, 2018 6:57:27 PM | 43
Of course, if the OPCW inspectors fail to find evidence of a chemical attack in Douma, then it opens up a whole new can of worms for the west.....who lied? who produced the videos? who published them? Why? Have previous CW attacks been fake now? And...more importantly....why did our media fall for these fakes hook, line and sinker....nearly bringing us to the edge of a global war....
C I eh? , Apr 13, 2018 6:57:27 PM | 44
History repeats itself with remarkable synchronicity. Tsar Putin sent his virtual pro Russian alt-media fleet to Donald Trump's rescue, to assist with US withdrawal from Syria, whilst UK Zionist media did everything in it's power to block the move, from Skirpal to E. Ghouta.

U.S. Civil War: The US-Russian Alliance that Saved the Union

http://www.voltairenet.org/article169488.html

How A Russian Czar Saved America

http://mikethehistoryguy.blogspot.ca/2013/10/how-russia-czar-saved-america.html

We have just experienced a fully staged Cuban Missile Crisis type event, to cover for the US withdrawal from Syria, and it seems to have bought Donald Trump some time, at least until UK controlled Zionist media regains it's senses and comes back for more.

Of course it's more like 1862-3 than 1865, and whereas the Union was easily going to win the first Civil War this time the balance of forces is almost reversed, expecially in terms of the psychological battlespace, and excluding the US military which remains firmly committed to the Union and Donald Trump, nothwithstanding the multitude of chicken shit weasels like David Petraeus.

Next up, the Congressional Battle of Gettysburg in Novemeber.

Bill , Apr 13, 2018 6:59:07 PM | 45
The only think Yulia can do to save her life is to escape and try to get to the russian embassy asap.
also the reason state department ngo's are banned in many countries is because they try to stir up trouble for uncooperative governments.
Tannenhouser , Apr 13, 2018 7:00:02 PM | 46
@36 Stranger things have happened. We do live in bizzaro world where diplomats are told to leave countries for telling the truth.
cdvision , Apr 13, 2018 7:36:53 PM | 47
You can bet the farm that Russia has been monitoring all signals traffic throughout Syria. Once the Ghouta capture was underway they likely jammed signals in that area, which could be why the white helmets still went ahead thinking the larger plan was still in play.

All in all, a very sloppy job by MI6. And it would have been signed off with the US/CIA.

Christian Chuba , Apr 13, 2018 7:37:38 PM | 48
"Of course, if the OPCW inspectors fail to find evidence of a chemical attack in Douma, then it opens up a whole new can of worms for the west.....who lied? who produced the videos? who published them? Why? Have previous CW attacks been fake now?" - Hermius

This is what should happen if we were not on Bizzaro earth and we had a moderately, competent press corp. It would be an actual 'bombshell report' not their moronic 'bombshell reports' on an insignificant flunky getting indicted.

Think about it. The ONE place where inspectors had access to an alleged chemical attack proves to be a hoax. Any logical person would then think, 'Hmmm ... maybe the other times, where we only relied on videos, those were faked too'.

Jack , Apr 13, 2018 7:39:38 PM | 49
As previous Ambassador to Syria Peter Ford has stated. "
Corbyn and the British Labour Party wil make hay"
Rob , Apr 13, 2018 7:54:41 PM | 50
Let us hope that the Russian evidence is more convincing than the Skripal evidence put forward by the British government, which amounted to nothing.
Mother of God! , Apr 13, 2018 7:57:40 PM | 51
Melania loves her son. And considering how much trouble the Donald has to be in since she found out (at the same time the entire western world found out) what he was up to while she was in hospital going thru childbirth pain, well, maybe she just glared over at the pillow next to hers last night and said "Husband, you are NOT allowed to risk burning the world my son lives in no matter what anybody else demands, do I make myself clear?" and thereby saved the world. (From the Zionists.) Hell hath no fury?
WJ , Apr 13, 2018 8:04:52 PM | 52
@50 Rob,

Clearly you have not seen the secret just-released and totally legit British Intelligence Dossier!! You cannot make this shit up:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2018/04/13/russia-hacked-yulia-skripals-emails-five-years-tested-novichok/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Bazza McKenzie , Apr 13, 2018 8:10:24 PM | 53
The Syria affair cannot be separated from US politics and the war by the deep state, the lyin' media and the Dems to overthrow Trump's presidency -- and if Russia has solid evidence about UK false flag it may give Trump the ammunition to break the Gordian knot.

Trump's policy since he started campaigning was to get out of Syria because he sees it as wasteful and counterproductive AND he understands the real conflict for the US is with China, which is getting stronger, and spending US resources in the ME weakens the US relative to its most critical opponent. And the deep state has frustrated each attempt he made to withdraw from Syria.

If Russia has the goods on the UK, Trump could take the public position "I was totally outraged by the apparent gas attack in Syria and ready to punish those responsible. Unfortunately I have discovered that it was a hoax staged by officials of the UK government with the deliberate intent to drag the US into war. That war could have escalated with the involvement of Russia to ultimately claim millions of lives, many of them American. This is absolutely intolerable behavior from any country and certainly from one that is supposed to be an ally. I have demanded that the British government identify and prosecute all those officials involved in planning and conducting this attempt to entrap the US into war.

It appears that this was done by the same British agency affiliated with individuals involved in creating the utterly fabricated documents used to falsely claim there was collusion between my campaign and Russia. This gives evidence that part of the British government not only attempted to block my election, and then over-turn it, but to falsely lead the US into a war.

We have started to root out members of the US deep-state, McCabe, Comey, Ohr and others who have been involved in attempting to overturn a democratic election and foment dangerous hostility with Russia. There will be more of them outed soon. The DOJ Inspector General's report, just released in part, and Congressional investigations show that the conspiracy involved both US officials and associates of British intelligence agencies. This recent evidence of British officials attempting to get the US into a war suggests they were also involved in the intervention in US politics.

Mr Mueller's role as special counsel is being terminated, since it is clear the premise was a seditious hoax perpetrated by corrupt agents in the US government assisted by parties, and apparently officials, in the UK. Mr Rosenstein is removed from his position and will be investigated for his role in the criminal acts. I repeat that the US Government expects very swift action by the UK Government to publicly identify and prosecute all those responsible for this hostile action against the US."

It would retrospectively validate Trump's strong comments about Assad, coupled with the sad fact that he had been deliberately misled by the agencies and UK government which had attempted to block and destroy his presidency, so no blame for him. It would allow him to cleanly walk away from Syria while destroying part of the US deep state attacking him and placing them as culpable in attempting to get the US into a war. It would of course force May and Johnson to resign with a complete reshuffle in the UK, since the UK, which is not loved by continental Europe, would be totally isolated if the US Government declared it involved in hostile actions against the US.

cdvision , Apr 13, 2018 8:23:21 PM | 54
Bazza @53

Its not impossible that there is a rogue element in MI6, but I don't believe they would act without approval by CIA - which may indicate a rogue element there also. I can't (at this stage) believe the UK Govt is in on this. May and Johnson don't have the balls for this; after all, they can't even tell Junker to fuck off.

Bazza McKenzie , Apr 13, 2018 8:31:27 PM | 55
cdvision @ 54

I agree May and Johnson may not be directly involved but British officials have been running UK policy and operations, especially on foreign affairs, for centuries. The politicians are mainly there to provide cover and pretend it is a democracy. However, it is long accepted in the UK political theater that ministers resign when their officials are caught misbehaving. Since neither May nor Johnson are serious supporters of Brexit, their resignations might benefit that as well.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 13, 2018 8:33:19 PM | 56
cdvision 54

I think the English or anglo deep state revolves around the monarch. May and Johnson are part of it, small time players, not decisions makers. They act out their roles as politicians, the script already written.

Kaiama , Apr 13, 2018 8:40:51 PM | 57
New York, April 14, IRNA/SANA: If the United States, Britain, and France believe or think that they can attack us and violate our sovereignty, then we will have to apply Article 51 of the UN Charter which gives us the justified right to defend ourselves. This is not a threat, like how they threaten us; this is a promise. We will not allow anyone to violate our sovereignty," al-Jaafari affirmed.

Syria'sresponse might be to hit any number of exposed assets situated within Syria.
We already know what the Russians have said.

WJ , Apr 13, 2018 8:52:33 PM | 58
Trump making announcement in 8 minutes.
cdvision , Apr 13, 2018 8:58:25 PM | 59
Kaiama @57

I posted yesterday that there are 4500 American hostages in their mini-bases in Syria. They must be worried.

Russia has been given permission again by Iran to base heavy bombers on Iran's military airfields. This gives the lie to those who said Russia would back down. And it provides a base to complete the cleanup in Syria quickly, which I'm sure they will do.

An interesting part of the deal to use Iran's airfields is that S400 and Pantsirs will be based there also. Saudi Arabia and Israel take note!

Activist Potato , Apr 13, 2018 9:01:30 PM | 60
"This could be all wrong. It's just one possible reconstruction. But I don't find it immediately *im*plausible. Should I?"
Posted by: WJ @ 14

Acknowledging that we know little for certain - from the vantage point of a computer screen with all of the disinformation, propaganda and half-truths flying around the net - about what is actually happening in and around the war zone, yours is certainly a plausible scenario in my view.

What seems clear to me (based on everything I have read on this board, other blogs like Syrpers, alt news sources and the MSM) is that, beginning with the start of the assault on East Ghouta and intensifying as the SAA and allies achieved unexpectedly rapid success, the reaction of the Coalition of Cruelty has been increasingly strident, with the UK being particularly virulent in its rhetoric.

Diplomatic decorum has broken down and the forms and norms of international law no longer being paid even lip service. There is a panicked quality to the false flags that suggest they are improvising on the go. I think this indicates that the western alliance against Assad has already suffered, or is about to suffer, a catastrophic setback in their plans to overthrow the Syrian Government and that the Russians still hold the initiative.

Notwithstanding the statements that have been made at various times from western leaders and officials about Assad "winning the war" and "Assad can stay," I think it is obvious that plans to topple his government were never shelved - merely changed. This was evidenced by the continuing tenacious activity of supposedly defeated ISIS and encircled "rebel" groups - these formations would have surrendered long ago if they weren't continuing to be supported from the outside and believed that "help was coming." I don't think the Russians have been fooled by any of it, but they must move in measured increments and "play the game" to avoid provoking the kind of reaction we are now seeing and which still has the potential to blow up, literally, in everyone's faces.

Who knows what will happen? I prefer to think that saner heads will prevail, but I also think they will not if US/UK/French/Israeli planners are not convinced that Russia will respond with equal force. I remember reading or hearing somewhere (I can't recall exactly where, sorry) John McCain telling somebody questioning him, early in the Syrian intervention, that "Russia will do nothing" if the US imposes a no-fly zone. He repeated it more than once. I think that is part of the War Party calculus. This makes me nervous about the idea of negotiating even a back-door "Trump face-saving strike" (an option some are hoping for), as this will cause Russia to lose face, as well as the initiative after recent increasingly forceful statements they have made.

If I were a gambler, I would put my money on the US & UK backing down in the most face-saving way possible. Time is on Syria's side. But I will not breathe comfortably until that US carrier strike group sailing east is come and gone from the Mediterranean.

Circe , Apr 13, 2018 9:17:22 PM | 64
Will you start condemning effing Trump once and for all for the effing opportunist that he really is???

It's not Trump that wants to hold back on strikes on Syria; it's Mattis! The only reason the strikes didn't happen yesterday is because Mattis disagrees with Trump on the scope of this military operation and they have not come to an agreement. Believe it or not, your darling Trump wants a SUSTAINED and BROAD attack on Syria, yes a PROLONGED ATTACK and Mattis is warning him not to take that route. Mattis also wants more facts regarding the chemical attack before any military action is taken.

If Trump egomaniac got his way; the bombing would have started already! Trump wants nothing more than to look like the hero right now and distract from his sordid legal troubles.

When are you going to dump the Trump Kool-Aid and be honest about who Trump really is; nothing more than a Zionist stooge lusting for power!

https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-seeks-large-strike-in-syria-mattis-urges-caution-1523651589

http://thehill.com/policy/defense/383107-mattis-halted-two-opportunities-to-strike-syria-this-week-report

Trumpshit, a guy who was doing a predecessor to Stormy when guys his age were being shipped off to Vietnam and he was getting repeated deferrals for being an entitled sob, has no problem bombing Russians, Syrians and Iranians to save his ass once again!

Circe , Apr 13, 2018 9:21:20 PM | 67
OMG! That bastard got his way! They're bombing Damascus now! P.O.S.!!!!!!!
Christian Chuba , Apr 13, 2018 9:21:24 PM | 68
Operation, 'End OPCW Investigation' underway

I must avoid all network 'news' at all cost. First the bombing then the TV host orgasms. I can't stand these people.

Grieved , Apr 13, 2018 9:21:27 PM | 69

It seems to me we're seeing two major elements at work. One is the practically solid wall of propaganda in the media, and two is the biased international institutions, heavily weighted in favor of the previous rulers of the planet, the western world.

The propaganda doesn't mean much, because the people who believe it are almost by definition powerless. But it does require a narrative in order to work, and that story-line doesn't have to hold water very tightly, because the media have the populace pretty well saturated. But the flimsiness of the story creates a problem when it's used in more rigorous arenas - which it is, because it forms part of the overall culture generally believed by the institutions, and also believed by the propagandists over time, simply because it forms part of the culture.

The second aspect, which is the subverted institutions, is more complex, of course. But not necessarily very sinister. It almost seems that the culture alone is enough to produce the desired thinking and outcomes, until it starts being challenged. Then it takes pressure or better lies.

What we're seeing today is an absolute lack of better lies. The bar has been set so low over the decades that no one knows how to come up with really clever lies anymore. So when the wall begins to crack, all that's left is pressure. Hasty, ill conceived, brute pressure.

Surely this is what we're seeing? The absurdities of this time are going to get even more surreal. I had to walk away from Trump's tweets, coming after a month of May and Bojo - the human stomach is not meant for this.

And it has been really distressing to see so many good people across the internet fooled by all this inept theater and cheap lying, such that they ignore the balance of forces that are so clear to see.

~~

Russia is in a so-called information war, but it's really based on the two elements above, the narrative on the one hand and influence with the institutions on the other. And the two go together, but the old rulers of the planet are no longer as strong, and the whole world knows there is a changing of the guard, so even the institutions know that eventually the future will come, and with enough protective force that they can resist the diminishing pressure.

I think Russia understands all this very well, in its own concepts, and deals with it admirably well. Changing of the guard is like Dr. Assad's position in Syria before the Russians came, and even since. There have been a lot of battles, a lot of tactics sacrificed to preserve strategy, a lot of struggles and few clear wins. Until. Until the tide turns, and one day it becomes indisputable who is winning.

It's important to take the longer view, and not get caught up in the theater and lies. Don't worry, there will be plenty of opportunities to practice this ;)

Circe , Apr 13, 2018 9:25:27 PM | 72
Well P.O.S. Trump managed to change the subject in the news by going on a killing spree in Damascus!

Damn him - I hope Mueller nails his ass!

Rufus , Apr 13, 2018 9:25:50 PM | 73
Wish the title of this blog post was true. But Trump is "so Presidential"...
Stumpy , Apr 13, 2018 9:31:22 PM | 77
Trump already began to change the headlines. He just pardoned Dick Cheney's former errant boy Scooter Libby. He is preparing the grounds for pardoning his own staff should they be caught up in the Mueller investigation.

In so doing, also thumbing nose at ziocons who outed Plame in retaliation for Joe Wilson's "impertinence."

Pnyx , Apr 13, 2018 9:32:15 PM | 78
3 hours ago I wrote, it would be shooting time after the end of the OPCW mission. I was to optimistic. Now lets wait for the Russian reaction. Or the Iranian one, I guess Iran could be the real target.
the pessimist , Apr 13, 2018 9:32:27 PM | 79
@74 yes but no idea to what effect except downing missiles
Stumpy , Apr 13, 2018 9:32:44 PM | 80
Pisser!

So the answer to save Syrian lives from their regime is to kill more Syrians. No one will be allowed to kill more women and children than the great western alliance. Have we not said this enough?

Peter AU 1 , Apr 13, 2018 9:32:50 PM | 81
Well I was wrong. Looks like US and cronies had to strike before any OPCW report.
Stumpy , Apr 13, 2018 9:34:24 PM | 82
Lastly, Prince bin salmon paid in advance. Note taken.
the pessimist , Apr 13, 2018 9:36:43 PM | 83
Russian Duma approved adequate response to military strikes, sanctions both economic and political. By morning we'll have some idea what that means - assuming the nukes aren't launched
Stumpy , Apr 13, 2018 9:41:38 PM | 84
Trisha Driscoll | Apr 13, 2018 4:54:26 PM | 10

Good for you! Keep up the pressure. I used to have a good rep in Frank Wolf, but he was replaced by a business-friendly empty head.

howard in nyc , Apr 13, 2018 9:41:49 PM | 85
This is sad and unnecessary, although anticipated by the crew here. I refuse to tune into any TV news or mainstream internet source, cause I am a big fan of truth. RT television is too damn slow to report breaking news (it is 4am in Moscow, but still). So, I come here for the play by play of tonight's action.

Two twitter feeds I am following are Vanessa Beeley's ( @VanessaBeeley ) and one someone here pointed at the other day (sorry I don't remember who), @WithinSyriaBlog .

Any other recommendations? With luck, this will be limited to just blowing up some shit tonight, limited casualties, and that will be it. Sure hope so.

Alaric , Apr 13, 2018 9:42:04 PM | 86
This looks like an impotent strike on a mostly abandoned air base and building. It's thats it then this is no big deal but Russia must reply not necessarily by killing people but there must be a response
Circe , Apr 13, 2018 9:45:10 PM | 87
How do you like your Trump savior now??? Strikes are being launched from MULTIPLE locations, including Turkey, Qatar, UAE and Jordan

Yesterday and earlier many here were being lulled into a false sense of complacency by the usual dose of Trump Kool-Aid while I warned several times that I had an uneasy feeling there was an element of surprise involved and the strikes were still coming.

Your Tinpot Trump, Zionist stooge is finally showing all his true colors.

the pessimist , Apr 13, 2018 9:46:00 PM | 88
1st wave from east (Turkey?) 2nd wave underway.
norm , Apr 13, 2018 9:53:22 PM | 89
remember hans blix anyone he was trying to investigate weapons in north south east and west baghdad but was not allowed to finish

only half of the opcw had turned up the rest arriving sat

destroying proofs
why would strikes be happening in the exact place being investigated.

Rob , Apr 13, 2018 9:54:47 PM | 90
The fact that the Empire could not wait for the OPCW team to arrive in Syria and do the work necessary to determine if there was a chemical release speaks volumes. The war lovers do not care about verification. They want a war whose main purpose is to topple Assad. I do not see that happening. Meanwhile, the citizens of the countries launching the attack will almost certainly remain completely in the dark as to actual facts. Their governments and news media are intent on keeping them ignorant.
Plod , Apr 13, 2018 9:56:09 PM | 91
From Bundy>
quote
Scientific research center in Barzeh (not)!Jumrya is hit
Along with Mazzeh AB.

First wave fired from the east is now over.. More are expected. The ships in the med have not taken part in this.
.
.
.
The 2nd wave of attack began now.

Wave after wave of cruise missiles hitting Syria; it is not stopping. Over 40 minutes of cruise missiles.

They are avoiding all Russian areas but bombing civilian areas as well.
.
.
.

Most of the missile attack has been foiled as of 8 minutes ago. Civilian research center and Red Crescent Housing Center in heavily-populated Barzeh was hit.

US struck one of Damascus' most densely populated suburbs. Jaramana reporting strikes.

Civilian casualties are being reported in Damascus as at least 2 residential areas have been struck by the US-led force's missiles. At least 4 dead in one of the strikes.
endquote

WJ , Apr 13, 2018 9:59:50 PM | 92
@87,

This follows the script set out in the Sputnik article linked by me above. I am very afraid that they decided to double down on the March operation as planned even as it was fallling apart around them. My fear is that, if they do, it will be very hard to keep the conflict from escalating.

Stumpy , Apr 13, 2018 10:00:00 PM | 93
Ironically, having used the OPCW to support their Skripal conclusion, the FRUKUS is in a bind if OPCW comes back with a negative.

As far as bombing the evidence out of existence, we have Russian MPs providing security in East Ghouta as well as providing security for OPCW once they arrive.

Zugzwang!

WJ , Apr 13, 2018 10:05:19 PM | 94
Fuck. Three reports that the RUssian Air Force is active.
Plod , Apr 13, 2018 10:05:40 PM | 95
MOre from Bundy:

Many missiles were downed.

RUSSIAN FIGHTER JETS ARE TAKING OFF FROM LATAKIA BASE RIGHT NOW. HEADING TOWARDS DAMASCUS

The 2nd wave is now over And it came from the west over Lebanon.
.
.
.
US is facing great difficulty hitting its targets in Qtaifah missile base north of Damascus, a third wave is still incoming

Dumays airbase was hit, it is an emptied off everything.

13 US missiles were shot down over al-Kaswa south of Damascus

US launched dozens of decoy missiles, Syrian air defense was able to reveal them according to al-Mayadin

All targeted sites have no Russian air assets or personal present.

Alaric , Apr 13, 2018 10:06:15 PM | 96
Yes this was clearly an attempt to hit before the OPCW and to silence the Russian proof that is was staged by the U.K.

But um where is Russia? No military or public response yet.

jawbone , Apr 13, 2018 10:06:24 PM | 97
WIll the OPCW scientists go ahead with the investigation? Or just get the hell out of Damascus?

[Apr 14, 2018] Trump's strikes on Syria risk retaliation, escalation in a war he wants to avoid

Notable quotes:
"... this strike is illegal. Anybody care? Hello? Anybody? ..."
"... This has huge implications for escalation if Iran and Russia see this as the opportunity to push Trump who they see as flaky and fragile with little understanding of geopolitics ..."
Apr 14, 2018 | www.washingtonpost.com

... ... ...

Possible scenarios for a retaliation include attacks by Iranian-backed militias against U.S. forces in the Middle East, stepped-up incidents against U.S. forces and their allies within Syria or "asymmetric responses" such as cyberattacks entirely outside the theater itself.

It remains unclear whether the strike will prevent Assad's forces from turning to chemical weapons in the future as the leader seeks to extend his reach across the country while consolidating gains in the civil war.

... ... ...

But the military intervention also comes as Washington has all but given up on seeking the removal of Assad more than seven years into Syria's civil war. Trump wants the Pentagon to withdraw US troops after the Kurdish-led militia Washington is backing in Syria finishes off the remnants of the Islamic State terror group.

The departure of U.S. troops, military strategists say, will probably pave the way for Assad's consolidation of control in the country, backed by Russia, Iran and the Lebanese militia Hezbollah.

The result is what Defense Secretary Jim Mattis described in congressional testimony on Thursday as "contrary impulses." On the one hand, Trump wants the United States to have nothing to do with Syria. On the other, he wants to dictate norms of behavior on Syria's battlefield that upset him when violated.

... ... ...

Pollack suspects that the Syrian regime and Iran won't retaliate against the United States because they are ascendant on a battlefield that Trump has promised to leave, and they won't want to engage in any action that could prevent a U.S. departure that would amount to a big win for them.

Russia could have more of a motive to retaliate, Pollack said, even though before last year's attack on Assad's airfield, U.S. forces warned Russia in advance . "Russia is the wild card out there," Pollack said, because President Vladimir Putin's interests are bigger than Syria. "They are about how much [the United States is] allowed to act unrestrained and how much does he want to demonstrate that he can fight back."

... ... ...

phil100a 17 minutes ago

Innocents die by the 100's of thousands in Syria while great powers play geopolitical chess. It's sickening.

Eisenhower warned us about the Military-Industrial complex - and here we are. Assad is a murdering thug, but how can we say we are that much better after what we have done in Iraq and Afghanistan.

I want to believe we are a good people; I know that there is no American POTUS who would do exactly what Assad has done, but we have killed WAY more innocents than Assad.

I don't know what the answer to this is. I would like to see Assad hanging upside-down, dead as a door nail, like Mussolini. I don't feel tat kind of animus toward people on our side of the globe just as responsible for mayhem and death. Maybe there's something fundamentally wrong with me. If so, I have millions - 10's of millions - that share my malady.

kropotkin jr

Sooooo . . . this strike is illegal. Anybody care? Hello? Anybody?

kiwifella, 58 minutes ago(Edited)

What an unmitigated mess. This has huge implications for escalation if Iran and Russia see this as the opportunity to push Trump who they see as flaky and fragile with little understanding of geopolitics. And the biggest risk in this sense is that Trump lacks the knowledge or temperament to listen to sage advise preferring to surround himself with sycophants and to believe in his ill-informed gut instinct. Oh, and Fox and Friends...

Really, what could possibly go wrong...

kiwifella, 1 hour ago(Edited)

This whole scenario reminds me of JFK's insightful comment: ""Those who foolishly sought power by riding the back of the tiger ended up inside."

sherm1, 1 hour ago

Is this the Trump Doctrine? If any nation uses chemical weapons against external enemies, or internal disturbances, the United States of America declares the right to militarily attack that nation, regardless of its political, economic, or security relationship to that country at the time.

The purpose of this doctrine is to insure that military violence is conducted using conventional weaponry, and in no way takes s pro or con position about the use of military violence carried out in this manner. In cases where chemical weapons are necessary to compensate for a deficit of conventional weaponry, the United States of America will assist, as required, in correcting that deficit.

National sovereignty of any nation is a determination that the United State of America makes on a case by case basis.

somewhatrserious, 1 hour ago(Edited)

The United States of America recognizes Syria as a sovereign state. Syria is a member of the United Nations. Case by case basis? A nation is, or it is not, sovereign. There is no case by case unless we have withdrawn recognition. To my knowledge, we have not.

presned, 1 hour ago

The risk doesn't seem so great. Russia is a basket case economy, run down and down at the heels. Syria is a goner, wasted and ruined. Iran is so self occupied with dreams of controlling the Middle East it hasn't much to fall back on but dreams that will fail. It is difficult to imagine what Russia wants except the saving of its military base in Syria......the cost grows higher while Russian resources drain. The Middle East is heading for a division with Iran, Russia and Syria running a limp show while Saudi Arabia, Egypt, UAI, Qatar and the other Sunni countries ally with Israel, the US and Europe. Iran's dreams of domination will die with Syria and a bankrupt Russia.

[Apr 14, 2018] The Deep State Closes In On The Donald

Apr 14, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Yet here is the even more unexplainable part of this sorry episode that amounts to the Deep State waging the Donald. The remaining rebels capitulated on Sunday and the government re-upped the evacuation deal. That is, the remnants of Jaish al-Islam are now all dead or have boarded busses--along with their families---and are already in Idlib province.

That's right. There is no opposition left in Douma and it has been liberated by the Syrian army, including release of the 3,200 pro-government hostages who had been paraded around the town in cages by the Saudi Arabia funded warriors of Islam who had terrorized it.

According to the Syrian government, no traces of chemicals or even bodies have been found. They could be lying, of course, but with the OPCW investigators on the way to Douma who in their right mind would not wait for an assessment of what actually happened last Saturday?

That is, if you are not caught up in the anti-Russian hysteria that has engulfed official Washington and the mainstream media. Indeed, the Syrian government has now even welcomed the international community to come to Douma, where the Russians claim there is absolutely nothing to see:

Speaking with EuroNews, Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizov, said "Russian military specialists have visited this region, walked on those streets, entered those houses, talked to local doctors and visited the only functioning hospital in Douma, including its basement where reportedly the mountains of corpses pile up. There was not a single corpse and even not a single person who came in for treatment after the attack."

"But we've seen them on the video!" responds EuroNews correspondent Andrei Beketov.

"There was no chemical attack in Douma, pure and simple," responds Chizov. "We've seen another staged event. There are personnel, specifically trained - and you can guess by whom - amongst the so-called White Helmets, who were already caught in the act with staged videos."

In short, if they are lying, it would not be hard to ascertain. Presumably, the Donald could even send Jared Kushner--flack jacket and all---to investigate what actually happened at Douma.

Alas, the Donald has apparently opted for war instead in a desperate maneuver to keep the Deep State at bay.

Either way, we think he's about done, and in Part 2 we will explore why what's about to happen next should be known to the history books, if there are any, as "Mueller's War".

[Apr 13, 2018] Live updates Syria under military attack on Trump's orders

Notable quotes:
"... People think this is about Syria, it is not. It's about oil price. Watch on Monday and the days following oil price will rocket up, and Iran, Russia, US will all be celebrating privately. The Chinese stock market will fall because oil will cost them more. ..."
Apr 13, 2018 | www.presstv.com

Syrian state TV said that the attack hit the country's army depots in the area of Homs, Reuters reported.

A Reuters witness said that at least six loud explosions were heard in Damascus with smoke rising over the Syrian capital where a second witness said the Barzah district, the location of a major Syrian scientific research center, was also hit in the strikes.

Meanwhile, Syrian state television reported that "Syrian air defense blocks American, British, French aggression on Syria." It added that 13 missiles were shot down.

The US has been threatening Damascus with military action since April 7, when a suspected chemical attack on the Syrian town of Douma, Eastern Ghouta, reportedly killed 60 people and injured hundreds more. The Syrian government has already strongly denied using chemical munitions in the flashpoint town.

Joe ,

People think this is about Syria, it is not. It's about oil price. Watch on Monday and the days following oil price will rocket up, and Iran, Russia, US will all be celebrating privately. The Chinese stock market will fall because oil will cost them more.

[Apr 13, 2018] US and allies launch strikes on Syria chemical weapons sites

Clinton redux: Trump is fighting for survival with Tomahawks launched on Syria.
Apr 13, 2018 | www.bbc.com

US prepared to "sustain" strikes until Syrian regime stops using chemical agents - Trump
Media caption US prepared to "sustain" strikes until Syrian regime stops using chemical agents - Trump

President Donald Trump says he has approved US military strikes against Syrian chemical weapons sites, in collaboration with the UK and France.

The strikes are in response to an alleged chemical attack on the Syrian town of Douma last week.

"A combined operation with the armed forces of France and the United Kingdom is now underway," President Trump said in an address to the nation.

Explosions were reported near the Syrian capital Damascus.

"We are prepared to sustain this response until the Syrian regime stops its use of prohibited chemical agents," President Trump said.

UK Prime Minister Theresa May confirmed British involvement, saying there was "no practicable alternative to the use of force".

But she also said the strikes were not about "regime change".

UK strikes carried out by four Tornado jets hit a military site near the city of Homs, which is believed to have housed precursor materials for chemical weapons, the ministry of defence said.

French President Emmanuel Macron also confirmed his country's participation in the operation.

The strikes were ordered "on targets associated with the chemical weapons capabilities" of the Syrian government, Mr Trump said.

The US president said the purpose was "to establish a strong deterrent against the production, spread and use of chemical weapons".

"These are not the actions of a man, they are the crimes of a monster instead," he said of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Syria has denied carrying out the attack and its ally, Russia, had warned that Western military strikes would risk starting a war.

Presentational white space

A US official told Reuters news agency that Tomahawk cruise missiles were being used against multiple locations in Syria.

The agency also quoted a witness in Damascus as saying "at least six loud explosions" were heard in the capital.

Syrian state television also confirmed strikes on Damascus. The country's air defences have also been deployed, reports say.

British-based monitoring group the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said strikes had hit the Syrian Scientific Research Facility in the capital, along with several military sites.

Map showing airbases in Syria and suspected chemical weapons bases

[Apr 12, 2018] Syria - Threat Of Large War Recedes But May Come Back

Apr 12, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Syria - Threat Of Large War Recedes But May Come Back

The expected U.S. attack on Syria last night did not happen.

Today U.S President Trump seemed to pull back from his earlier attempt to pressure Russia over a faked chemical incident in Ghouta, Syria:

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump - 10:15 AM UTC - 12 Apr 2018
Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all! In any event, the United States, under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our "Thank you America?"

Over night high level military and political negotiations between Russia and the U.S. continued with at least some success:

Elijah J. Magnier @ejmalrai - 12:49 PM UTC - 12 Apr 2018
#BreakingNews
#Russian sources told me: possibility of war on #Syria has gone down from 9 to 5/10. Diplomatic contacts with #USA never stopped. It was acknowledged that the possible war on #Syria serves no purposes but to create a war situation where worse case scenario can happen

A war on Syria has been ongoing for over seven years. It will continue for another two or three years. But Trump's recent threat of a large U.S. air or missile campaign against the country has probably been defused.

Trump is certainly under pressure to attack Syria. U.S. media, the neoconservatives and Zionists are pushing for it. The CBS News graphic department revealed their real aim:


bigger

What made Trump blink? Was it the lack of evidence his Secretary of Defense Mattis acknowledged ? Or was it the earlier reluctance of Britain to become a partner in crime? Was it the threat of Russian retribution?

Cont. reading: Syria - Threat Of Large War Recedes But May Come Back

11:41 AM | Comments (130)

[Apr 12, 2018] Haley, Trump and the art of going bombastic over false flag attack

Notable quotes:
"... Of course no one say the obvious, an attack would be illegal under all circumstances. ..."
"... The dotard has only himself to blame with his completely idiotic "animal Assad" tweets. His complete loss of face is all of his making. He needs to seek professional help for his bipolar disorder. Something is seriously wrong inside that toupee'd dome of his. ..."
"... Same as Greenwald and Tucker Carlson: They both condemn US intervention in Syria yet never once mention US is breaking international laws by illegally inserting itself inside and occupy Syria. ..."
"... In the video that went viral, Carlson interviewed a lawyer but he never once directly asked or even alluded to the legality of US's presence in and possible attack on Syria. It seems to me that it never came across his mind about the fact the US should also abide by international law and rules. ..."
Apr 12, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Chris | Apr 12, 2018 11:51:55 AM | 1

Wow. I am breathlessly awaiting the firing of the shrieking harpy Haley, now that we know she went in front of the UNSC and spouted wild claims with no backing evidence.

I suspect I will run out of breath first.

test , Apr 12, 2018 11:59:55 AM | 2

Of course no one say the obvious, an attack would be illegal under all circumstances.
abierno , Apr 12, 2018 12:11:26 PM | 4
... and when does the UNSC discuss the 2800 elderly, women and children who perished under Jaish al-Islam which are referenced in this article? What retaliation against these groups is POTUS willing to undertake, particularly since this is only a small percentage of civilian deaths under this and other Saudi supported groups? When can we expect the redoubtable ambassador from the US to give voice to the outrage of all these civilian deaths? If she can say that Assad's hands are covered in blood, these groups and their nation state supporters are literally drowning in the blood of innocents.
karlof1 , Apr 12, 2018 12:13:25 PM | 5
IMO, a big fissure within NATO was created by Trump's threat as neither Germany or Turkey would go along, nor Italy, Hungary and Greece, and likely including Spain and Portugal too. Clearly, the risks outweighed any potential gain.

Another page is turned, and now on to the next act in the drama.

Browning , Apr 12, 2018 12:14:11 PM | 6
b, you state "The CBS graphic department revealed their real aim." However, you did not explicitly point out that the map shown is a map of Iran, not Syria. I was floored when I saw that on the news last night. I appreciate your subtlety.
Cycloben , Apr 12, 2018 12:16:28 PM | 7
The dotard has only himself to blame with his completely idiotic "animal Assad" tweets. His complete loss of face is all of his making. He needs to seek professional help for his bipolar disorder. Something is seriously wrong inside that toupee'd dome of his.
Pnyx , Apr 12, 2018 12:18:33 PM | 8
I disagree. The phrase "Never said when an attack on Syria would take place." is not a sign that the threat of large war did recede. It means 'Military told me, we need to wait some days till everything is in place' namely the aircraft carrier. Magnier may have a vast web of information but is looking to the situation one sided. You shouldn't give too much attention. And you shouldn't fall for your own belief of a mainly non militaristic Tronald. His delusions of grandeur and his nihilism will prevail. Look at the MSM instead. They're intensifying their Manichean narrative, this is typical for times you want to go to war. And they will.
Jose Garcia , Apr 12, 2018 12:19:53 PM | 9
He doesn't want a further escalation. Everyone is egging him on. But I'm glad he has somewhat pulled back a bit. We'll see in the coming few weeks.
harrylaw , Apr 12, 2018 12:20:30 PM | 10
What annoys my is J Cole [Informed comment] and Joshua Landis do not mention International Law and the UN Charter or the OPCW. Both take it as established fact that Chemical Weapons have been used by the"regime" without any investigation as to whether a chemical attack has taken place at all or who was responsible for it [the Russians are sure a chemical attack did not take place] These two Professors care not for any kind of due process nor are they willing to follow the rules of International Law.
Bakerpete , Apr 12, 2018 12:34:30 PM | 14
https://sputniknews.com/news/201804121063487824-international-lawyers-strike-against-syria-illegal/
Babyl-on , Apr 12, 2018 12:38:52 PM | 15
"France has evidence Assad regime used chemical weapons in Syria, says Macron – live" Breathless minute by minute coverage at the Guardian

Simultaneously "Pentagon Does Not Have Evidence of Chlorine, Sarin Use in Syria's Douma - Mattis" Sputnik - using direct quotes reports.

What a glorious world!

Chris , Apr 12, 2018 12:47:11 PM | 16
And right on cue, the harpy speaks:

"Nikki Haley, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, on Thursday said the U.S. has enough proof to act in response to an alleged chemical attack in Syria, and President Donald Trump is looking at all his options."

I guess zero = enough.

With the OPCW inspectors set to arrive tomorrow and begin work on Sat, my best guess is the war has been delayed. Not enough time to destroy the evidence.

test , Apr 12, 2018 12:47:26 PM | 17
Babyl-on

" using direct quotes reports."

Uh no he didnt say that, this is what Mattis said according to Sputnik.

""There have been a number of these attacks. In many cases, you know we don't have troops, we're not engaged on the ground there, so I cannot tell you that we had evidence, even though we had a lot of media and social media indicators that either chlorine or sarin were used," Mattis said, speaking to members of the House Armed Services Committee on Thursday."

mali , Apr 12, 2018 12:54:06 PM | 20
harrylaw @ 9

Same as Greenwald and Tucker Carlson: They both condemn US intervention in Syria yet never once mention US is breaking international laws by illegaly inserting itself inside and occupy Syria.

In the video that went viral, Carlson interviewed a lawyer but he never once directly asked or even alluded to the legality of US's presence in and possible attack on Syria. It seems to me that it never came across his mind about the fact the US should also abide by international law and rules.

The Western loves to preach to us that law and order as well as rule-based international order yet US/UK/France & Co have always acted above the international laws and rules, which were actually set up by the Western themselves to frame/tame other countries.

Likklemore , Apr 12, 2018 12:55:32 PM | 21
b,

In an early morning tweet Trump claimed credits:

"[.]. The U.S., under my Administration, has done a great job of ridding the region of ISIS. Where is our Thank You, America?"

Donald J. Trump @realdonaldrump 06:15 12 April 2018

~ ~ ~ ~ ~
Twitter-in-Chief, what a twat.


We will see if this war planning is diffused or is it just a delay until May Day. Perhaps he will now fire Rosenstein, create a furious distraction. The guy does not recognize how deep are his troubles.

a bee , Apr 12, 2018 12:59:05 PM | 22
I believe there is a lot of wishful thinking in the interpretation of Trump's tweet

this tweet is in response to criticism

1. that he is giving the Russians notice of the attack (and that means he has colluded w/ the Russians)
2. he is basically stating that he isn't..
3. Top on his mind is the Russia probe - he even interrupted a meeting w/ Generals yesterday to go into a diatribe about it

Never said when an attack on Syria would take place. Could be very soon or not so soon at all!

Tuan , Apr 12, 2018 1:01:39 PM | 23
Kd@18: No, Rumour on https://www.facebook.com/Syrianewsdaily/.
I'm not sure if it's true, but if it comes to nuclear war, all the nuclear powers are doomed, on board or not. China will not be allowed to sit and watch the firework, so it's certainly their interest to ensure that there is no nuclear war. In this case, the only option is to call the US bluff and force it to back down before their insanity subsume them entirely.
mali , Apr 12, 2018 1:01:47 PM | 24
British who are against the possible illegal attacks on Syria can write to their MP to ask for a parliment vote on this issue:

If you are also concerned you can write to the PM here https://email.number10.gov.uk/and your MP here

Bakerpete , Apr 12, 2018 1:02:04 PM | 25
A good article with useful links.
https://russia-insider.com/en/trump-blinking-syria-russian-ability-hit-back-too-risky-him/ri23099
A P , Apr 12, 2018 1:08:46 PM | 26
The Rothschilds are losing patience, they don't want to wait another 200 years for their Zionist Greater Israel plan to be fulfilled.

Britain could only take the plan so far, so in the early 1900's the Rothschilds jumped on the US/Federal Reserve bandwagon.

karlof1 , Apr 12, 2018 1:35:40 PM | 27
While Trump tweeted, Assad had this to say :

"Whenever the Syrian army achieves victory in the field, some western countries rise their voices and intensify their movements in an attempt to change the track of events."

His conference with Iranian Supreme Leader's Top Adviser for International Affairs Ali Akbar Velayati exuded a confidence that was likely received as reassuring by Syria's public. Assad's comment reflects the reality of the Terrorist Coalition's behavior since Russia's entry turned the tide.

The Turks apparently were instrumental in getting the Outlaw US Empire to deescalate.

While CBS was airing its propaganda, Hannity on Fox (beginning about 2:30 in video, although watch entirely for overall context) really stirred the pot beginning with the "Clinton Crime Family," then "Meuller Crime Family," "Comey Crime Family," "Deep State Crime Family," and ending with Trump's tweet about the underlying reason for the intense anti-Russia hysteria. Now I seldom agree with Hannity, but this broadcast hits on all the big injustice related issues being covered up by Russiagate. Hannity will need to eat the words he spoke at end regarding Putin/Russia, but his partisan attack on the several Crime Families is spot on and actually serves the interest of all Americans.

Cassandra , Apr 12, 2018 1:38:54 PM | 28
Just one more thing that really pisses me off about the media right now:

(besides the fact that they just regurgitate the constant stream of lies being fed to them and print headlines like "France has proof Assad regime used CW" just because Macron SAID so. There is no further reference to it in the article, so repetition of empty claims are all we need to be "convinced")

They have all -even RT - accepted the (insane) premise that the US has a right (or even a "moral obligation" to bomb Syria ("inflict enough pain on Assad's regime") and they talk about "military options" as if it was just a normal thing to do.

Organized violence against a sovereign state (military, economic, covert or other) is not an "option". It is a CRIME. It is the SUPREME CRIME.

What the US, UK, France and their deranged ME-allies have done to Syria is beyond evil. Hundreds of thousands are dead or wounded, millions have become refugees or displaced persons, children are traumatized, the country lies in ruins and the US now illegally occupies the part of Syria where the oilfields are.

President Assad and the brave men of the SAA have fought for seven yrs against the foreign-backed, SF-led "moderate" head-choppers, defending their country and - even more so- their people but they are portrayed in the media as if they were the evil aggressors. (Imagine, you lived in Syria and it happend to you..)

And the worst of it is, that the very people who organized all these crimes against humanity still get away with the unbearable charade of posing as moral authorities (!) and urging "retaliation" in Syria for the suffering of those poor kids ("poisoned" by the "animal" Assad).

Can anyone pls point out to the Donald, that these videos are just "the incubator babies" PR-scam on steroids?

Of all the disgusting things that are part of this kind of propaganda, the weaponisation of empathy is the worst ...what makes us human is being turned into an instrument for the destruction of whole societies ..

I hate (a word I rarely use) the "churnalists" who enable this demoniziation of Russia, Iran and Syria and pave the way for WW III. These spineless journos should be indicted and punished for aiding and abetting USrael/UK and French imperial aggression.

(Sorry for the rant ... )

CanSpeccy , Apr 12, 2018 1:48:05 PM | 29
It's interesting that the former Russian Spy, Sergei Skripal, and his daughter, Yulia, had a seafood lunch several hours before developing symptoms of poisoning.

The timing of the onset of symptoms is consistent not with nerve agent poisoning but with seafood poisoning.

Seafood poisoing is generally due to the presence of botulinum toxin, which inhibits release of acetylcholine at the neuromuscular junction, thereby causing paralysis and, in severe cases, death by asphyxiation.

To counter the toxin, it would be normal to treat patients with an acetylcholine esterase inhibitor, aka a nerve agent, to maximize the effect of whatever small quantity of acetylcholine is still being produced.

If the Salisbury Trust Hospital where the Skripals were taken for treatment consulted with the people at Britain's nearby Porton Down chemical and biological weapons research lab, they may very well have been supplied by Porton Down with a small dose of British-made Novichok for use as a botulinum toxin antidote: the perfect set-up for the British Government incitement to Russophobia.

lysander , Apr 12, 2018 1:54:54 PM | 30
" Was it the threat of Russian retribution?"

Yes, it was because of that and not any other reason. A completely incredible false flag was never an impediment before, but the prospect of an uncontrolable escelatory spiral that ends in your country's nuclear aniahlation concentrates the mind like nothing else. The US being abandoned by Britain and France was also a function of the above. If those ex-empires dreaming of long gone imperial glories could have joined in the slaughter of a helpless country, they would have done so without a second though and bragged about it. But if it meant facing the business end of a Kaliber then the thrill wears off pretty fast.

I love the idea I have in my head of behind the scenes negotiations between the US and Russia about maybe a allowing a "small" strike on a Syrian target with the Russians responding, No problem! Then we can sink a small British or French vessel and we can call it even. Perhaps sending they are they sacrificial lamb, May and Macaroni thought better of the whole affair. And the idea that Germany(?!?!) was ever even considering an attack on Russia simply boggles the mind. I'm sure Merkel nixt that idea without a second's thought.

lysander , Apr 12, 2018 1:57:01 PM | 31
Sensing not *sending. And the spell check turned Macron into Macaroni, but perhaps that's appropriate.
test , Apr 12, 2018 2:06:01 PM | 32
The attack is coming, Trump is decieving make people believe "oh he stepped back, no war this time good.." only to see Trump bomb the next day when no one is prepared.
TJ , Apr 12, 2018 2:09:07 PM | 33
Mattis: No evidence on Syria chemical attack, but I believe there was one ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ based on social media posts-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWlXTBaN1Sc

mauisurfer , Apr 12, 2018 2:12:53 PM | 34
Juan Cole knows a lot about Iran and mideast, and especially about religion (he is a Bahai). I have learned a lot by reading his blog for years. When he was appointed to a professorship at Yale, I was enthused. When this appointment was vetoed by zionists on the Yale Board, I expressed my regret.
But he lost his perspective when he joined the Hillary team. Clearly he was expecting an appointment as Assistant Sec/State for Near Eastern Affairs. His devoted support for Hilary destroyed his ability to appreciate/respect the truth. He became a partisan cheerleader, and this only increased after Trump won the election.
I used to comment on his blog, but when he began supporting Hillary, he censored my comments. He never once refuted them, just censored them because they brought up facts that he did not want known/discussed.
So I have lost all respect for Juan Cole.
dahoit , Apr 12, 2018 2:13:46 PM | 35
Macron was feeling the heat of french demonstrations.
Mike Maloney , Apr 12, 2018 2:16:43 PM | 36
I agree with Lysander @31. Russia's very clear statement that there would be a military response to a U.S. attack must have caused the reevaluation.

With U.S. aircraft downed, there would have to be a new AUMF, a new congressional vote. Same thing with France and Britain. But a new AUMF would be difficult if not impossible to clear congress/parliament. That's what short-circuited Obama's plan to bomb Damascus in 2013. The Brits voted no. Obama decided he had to go to Congress for approval. The public was overwhelming opposed. So the vote was pulled and Obama accepted Russia's offer for Syria to destroy its CW stocks.

Unless it's another one-off strike on a military airfield, Trump will need a new AUMF. And he won't be able to get one.

telescope , Apr 12, 2018 2:19:03 PM | 37
Russia is being tested because its eagerness to organize flawless World Cup is being exploited as a perceived vulnerability. Once that event has passed three months from now, Moscow is bound to become more assertive. The whole western campaign of pressure can only last one more year even in the best case. It's based on fear and weakness, not on strength and confidence. And there will be more and more weakness with each passing day. Once the latest Keynesian stimulus wears off in October 2019, the US will be set on relentless "japanization" (nearly permanent recession, mounting debt, rapidly aging population), but from the far more inferior starting point than that of Japan. Given America's low savings rate, massive trade deficits, racial tensions, and skills-deficient population, the decline will be significantly more unpleasant, very likely violent.
Russia will absolutely win the Cold War 2.0, because all it has to do to achieve it is wait it over. All of the hard work at destroying the West is actually done in the western capitals, by the western governments themselves.
Chris , Apr 12, 2018 2:33:29 PM | 38
@Cassandra your words are appreciated and pretty much in line with my own feelings.

I notice that you have to look hard to even find mention of Mattis' latest testimony before the House Armed Services committee. This confirms to me that the media machine is colluding to bury any story line that doesn't fit the "Assad done it" narrative.

What we have now is analogous to the "Yellow Journalism" era in the late 1800's/early 1900s. No pretense to objectivity. Simply outrageous and scary. Thank goodness for this blog, sputnik news, zerohedge and a few other alternative media sources.

@29 - please don't judge everyone in US based on our horrible government and media. There are lots of us who cannot stand what has happened and have voted for guys like Ron Paul who would have made a real difference. There is no longer any way to vote your way out of this and probably hasn't been for at least 20 years.

ab initio , Apr 12, 2018 2:34:35 PM | 39
It seems that the US is working with the Russians to identify a few "token" targets to appease the ziocon war hawks.

In any case the fact that the US, UK & France are willing to militarily strike a sovereign nation based on fake charges with no due process or verification of evidence shows how far down the rabbit hole the west has sunk.

The UK is a good example. They made dubious claims of a Russian nerve gas attack and then proceeded to act out by expelling Russian diplomats. Now despite 80% of the British people polled opposed to strikes on Syria the May government has authorized these attacks.

Another is France. Macron claims he has evidence that the Syrian government used chemical weapons while providing no proof. And he is going to participate in these attacks.

When will the toothless court in the Hague charge these people for war crimes? They reek of hypocrisy with all their righteousness as they haul hapless African dictators to lecture them on morality.

Circe , Apr 12, 2018 2:38:03 PM | 40
Pompeo just replied to Cory Booker that Trump has the authority to strike Syria right now without consulting Congress, without a resolution or act of Congress. The President has NO authority to strike unless there is an imminent threat!

I fear that all this walk back might be a ruse to fool Syria and Russia into a false sense of complacency. Again, think Operation Fortitude and replace location of attack with date of attack. Deception is a military strategy.

Kami , Apr 12, 2018 2:38:40 PM | 41
The dubious Juan Cole was an enthusiastic supporter of the Iraq War till it went south.
james , Apr 12, 2018 2:39:13 PM | 42
thanks b! good overview...

"Joshua Landis and J.R. Cole, swallow the propaganda nonsense hook, line and sinker. They sold out. Their job and reputation requires that they stick to the prevalent narrative." ain't that the truth...

Yul , Apr 12, 2018 2:44:38 PM | 43
He is not bombing today because quite a few Israelis including govt are travelling to Poland for the Shoah anniversary. Once everyone is back home, then the US and the allies will go for it. They may even spare Douma with the excuse that they don't want to interfere with the OPCW team and teh so-called site of CW attack.

However there are other specific sites that they want to bomb.

test , Apr 12, 2018 2:54:07 PM | 44
More mobilization for war

US Spy Planes Reportedly Land in Crete Amid Tensions in Syria
https://sputniknews.com/military/201804121063486976-us-aircraft-mediterranean-deployment/

WJ , Apr 12, 2018 3:01:50 PM | 45
@ Mike Maloney 39,

That is a very astute comment. Any escalation with consequences requiring the congressional reauthorization of force will be avoided, because despite all the propaganda the "leaders" recognize that the people will come out en masse against yet another war. Perhaps Russia has calculated as much, and has ensured the US that any strike will result in just enough American casualties to force the issue back home.

Angustry , Apr 12, 2018 3:02:32 PM | 46
RUSSIA defeated ISIS .... NOT America ..... WWII replay.
The chaos in Syria was winding down. The TRAITORS in the Pentagon had spent 24 months at $10MILLION a DAY bombing sand. ISIS continued to hold miles long parades of OUR equipment complete with flags on clear, dry, sunny days, and the TRAITORS in the Pentagon "could not seem to bomb them". ..
https://forzanuova-us.org/2........
http://original.antiwar.com...
Then the Russians came in and blew the ISIS asses off. Have you noticed the parades ENDED.
ISIS has ZERO antiaircraft abilities. the TRAITORS in the Pentagon could have dropped bombs from HOT AIR BALLOONS ....... We KNOW who the Pentagon is working for and it is NOT America.
That would be a "tragedy" for Turkey and Israel who are BOTH genocidally flooding White, CHRISTIAN Europe with muslum invaders ............. that war had to get going again .....
Deliberately creating refugees to genocidally flood Europe ............ Israel and Turkey dream of splitting Syria between them ....

ISIS is completely surrounded by supposed enemies.
http://govtslaves.info/2017/12/us-war-on-isis-is-the-biggest-lie-since-the-2003-iraq-invasion-heres-the-proof/
Everyone of the countries surrounding ISIS is SUPPOSEDLY an ally of the USA.
http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/02/27/553786/syria-Israel-Daesh
Time for the USA to take a good hard look at it's "allies".
Our "intelligence" agencies should have identified and destroyed those who are supplying ISIS but have not ...... WHY?!
"our" Generals have not destroyed those who are supplying ISIS ............ WHY?!
http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13960411000599 US transfering ISIS leaders?! SDF IS ISIS by another name.
http://theantimedia.org/war-on-isis-biggest-lie-since-2003/
You know DAMN WELL WHO supplies their weapons, that kill American Troops.
http://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/07/16/what-role-has-israel-played-in-the-refugee-crisis/
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/how-america-armed-terrorists-in-syria/
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-06-19/i...syrian-rebels-years
http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/04/27/bulgarian-weapons-sent-to-terrorists-in-syria-through-saudi-arabia/
http://21stcenturywire.com/2013/03/10/an-international-war-crime-us-and-british-backed-weapons-airlift-from-croatia-to-syria/
The FIRST thing a general that WANTS TO WIN a war does ..... is cut off enemy supplies. Time to clean out the Traitors.

Hal Duell , Apr 12, 2018 3:03:40 PM | 47
Watching this latest episode of the war in Syria play out, I am reminded of the eye-patched Israeli general, Moshe Dayan, of Seven Day War fame. He extolled the benefits of appearing to be willing to lash out like a mad dog as a means of keeping one's foes at bay.
Are we consistently underestimating Donald Trump? He did create a billion dollar global enterprise and then get himself elected POTUS. He may play the goat (or mad dog), but I suggest he is no fool.
Angustry , Apr 12, 2018 3:04:07 PM | 48
Trump looks like a pubescent boy --- "I HAD MY FINGERS CROSSED"
BM , Apr 12, 2018 3:12:11 PM | 49
Posted by: Mike | Apr 12, 2018 12:10:17 PM | 3
I think you missed the point. I don't think Trump blinked. Trump said he wanted troops out in six months. The deep state and Israel went wild. Then comes the fake chem attack and they are all howling at the moon to attack Asaad. Trump wants out not in deeper so he raises the ante. If we are going to attack, we are going to go BIG. He knows Russia will have to respond. The deep state hacks don't mind killing other people, but they don't want to die, so the chickenhawks chicken out. Trump ran on ending the wars. He said a couple of weeks ago he wanted out of Syria in six months. The person with the widest range of behavioral strategies is typically going to prevail in any encounter. That is basic NLP. Trump has no problem making an ass of himself in public in negotiation. That is why the politicians can't stand him. I think he won this round. They will have to impeach or kill him to win.

I agree 100% with you Mike, that is exactly how I read it also, but you put it more succinctly than I could. Trump is mad, unpredictable and dangerous - but not dangerous in the way that Bolton is*. Despite apparently having some very stupid qualities, he certainly also has great intelligence abilities (nobody is either "always intelligent" or "always stupid", rather everybody has a complex mixture of qualities).

If we take the premise that he thought the East Gouta chemical weapons attack allegations were stupid and totally implausible, what would he have to do, given the political situation he has with Russiagate and the illogical attacks on him there? If he ridicules the ridiculous allegations he will be attacked in the same way that he is attacked for ridiculing the ridiculous Russiagate allegations. He will be accused again of being a "Putin-stooge". Therefore it would be fitting to his character to instead APPEAR to be enthusiastic about the attack, while subtly blocking it. If there was no attack, then the OPCW team when they arrive are not going to find signs of it. Mike's idea of upping the ante here comes in very handy, because it means the attack has to wait for more forces to arrive, especially the carrier group that will take over a week.

By reacting hard and fast in favour of bombing Syria before there is any evidence he is satisfying the warmongers and preventing the warmongers from attacking him - but by demanding a huge attack he guarantees that it has to wait until after OPCW arrives and finds nothing. Once OPCW go in and find nothing, anybody who criticises Trump for not bombing Syria will find themselves in difficulties! He can safely call it off.

If instead he rejected military action from the outset, he would be attacked very hard by his opponents. Likewise if he said "wait for the investigation first" he would be attacked especially by the media for "believing Putin". After the OPCW go in and prove there was no CW attack anyway, Trump's opponents would (a) blame Trump for not wanting to bomb Syria, and (b) blame Trump for "sabotaging" the OPCW investigation, implying that there was really a CW attack.

NOTE: I am not defending Trump's behaviour, it is stupid, immensely dangerous, and catastrophic for international relations - and illegal. I am just describing what I think is probably his point of view to justify the assertion that maybe Trump has no intention of starting this war. It is bluff.

* Why would Trump appoint Bolton? Maybe because of similarities in their personalities (that would be very bad news if that was the reason). But there is another possibility - maybe Trump thinks Bolton is such a useless and incompetent madman and such an idiot that Trump can use Bolton to deflect the cravings of the warmongers and transform - through Bolton - their policies into something so patently absurd that they self-destruct. (Bolton will not see through the above, for example, he is probably foaming at the mouth in his battle lust right now). When those policies self-destruct who does Trump blame? Of course Bolton and the other the warmongers. Again this is a dangerously reckless and destructive way of running government, but appears to fit in with Trump's personality.

Trump, of course, is a purely domestic president. He has no idea about international relations, and probably does not even care about international relations.

Laguerre , Apr 12, 2018 3:16:42 PM | 50
Posted by: dahoit | Apr 12, 2018 2:13:46 PM | 36
Macron was feeling the heat of french demonstrations.
Not the demonstrations. In France, unlike Britain, you can't get the nation behind the government by going to war. People will just say f*ck off. More this is old French policy, going back to the Mandate. Macron is not very experienced in foreign policy, and he's just going along with established rules. A mistake, I think, as he hasn't thought out what might happen if the situation escalates.

If I understand correctly, as I didn't watch it, these remarks were made in the course of a major interview which was highly signaled in advance, but addressed to the present strikes in France. Syria was a little by-issue.

C I eh? , Apr 12, 2018 3:16:44 PM | 51
Are you writing on behalf of the British government b? Since when do Saudis become responsible for Britsh ops just because they happened to be required to fund them, as in, pay us or we'll kill you.

This entire episode has been one big joke on the Rothschild UK. The holders of the Trump's twitter account needed to cover for a US withdrawal. The UK based Deep State have lost their bid to keep the US officially involved. Untill Trump is removed prolonging this war is now entirely up to the Brits.

Next stop: Trump abandons NATO!

CarlD , Apr 12, 2018 3:17:25 PM | 52
Fellow posters, please help me!

I am trying to recall a lie perpetrated by the then minister of defense in Israel
that said publicly that Israel was not prepared or readyto go to war ,not at least
for a full six months.

The very next day at sunrise, they struck the Egyptian Air force on the ground
and made mincemeat of it.

Was it 1967?

Thanks

Pat Bateman , Apr 12, 2018 3:23:11 PM | 53
@8

Agreed. A sloppy tweet that tries to disguise already giving the game away. Nothing else.

BM , Apr 12, 2018 3:27:05 PM | 54
Posted by: BM | Apr 12, 2018 3:12:11 PM | 53

Just to add to the above: maybe Trump called up Teresa May and said "Well you know Teresa, just between you and me, the CW attack if it ever occurred at all was probably a false flag because why on earth would Assad do such a CW attack when he is having so much success; but as you know it is US policy to eliminate Assad so I think if we go in at all we should really go in BIG." May then has doubts!

mauisurfer , Apr 12, 2018 3:29:50 PM | 55

robert fisk remembers what usa and uk pretend to forget
>
> But it's a different war that I'm remembering today. It's the Iran-Iraq war between 1980 and 1988, when Saddam Hussein invaded Iran. When the Iranians re-crossed their own border and stormed into Iraq years later, Saddam used gas on thousands of Iranian soldiers – and civilians, for there were nurses and doctors at the war front.
>
> Funny how we forget this now. We don't talk about it. We have forgotten all about it. Talk about the "normalisation" of chemical warfare – this was it!
>
> But in our desire to concentrate minds on Syria, we're not mentioning the Iran gassings – Iran being another one of our present-day enemies, of course – and this may be because of our lack of official memory.
>
> More likely it's because of what happened: the institutionalisation of chemical warfare, the use of chemicals by Saddam who was then an ally of the West and of all the Gulf Sunni states, our frontline Sunni hero. The thousands of Iranian soldiers who were to die were referred to on Iraqi radio after they crossed the frontier. The "Persian insects" had crossed the border, it announced. And that's how they were treated.
>
> For the precursors for the Iraqi gas came largely from the United States – one from New Jersey – and US military personnel later visited the battlefront without making any comments about the chemicals which were sold to the Iraqi regime, of course, for "agricultural" purposes. That's how to deal with insects, is it not?
>
> Yet not a soul today is mentioning this terrible war, which was fought with our total acquiescence. It's almost an "exclusive" to mention the conflict at all, so religiously have we forgotten it. That was the real "normalisation", and we allowed it to happen. Religious indeed, for it was the first great battle of the Sunni-Shia war of our time. But it was real.
>
> Of the thousands of Iranians who were asphyxiated, a few survivors were even sent to British hospitals for treatment. I travelled with others on a military train through the desert to Tehran, the railway compartments packed with unsmiling young men who coughed mucus and blood into white bandages as they read miniature Korans.
>
> They had blisters on their skin and, horrifically, more blisters on top of the first blisters. I wrote a series of articles about this obscenity for The Times, which I then worked for. The Foreign Office later told my editors that my articles were "not helpful".
>
> No such discretion today. No fear of being out to get Saddam then – because in those days, of course, the good guys were using the chemicals. Don't we remember the Kurds of Halabja who were gassed by Saddam, with gas which the CIA told its officers to claim was used by the Iranians?

https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/theresa-may-syria-war-uk-chemical-weapons-attack-iran-iraq-thatcher-russia-a8300881.html

Laguerre , Apr 12, 2018 3:43:36 PM | 56
Evidently nothing has happened yet because the assets are not yet in place, as indicated by Paveway and Don. Mattis seems to be restraining. Trump himself won't be keen on a long war. So a Big Bang to satisfy the US. Putin will go along with that.
test , Apr 12, 2018 3:48:15 PM | 57
UK Cabinet 'Agreed on Need To Take Action' in Syria

https://sputniknews.com/news/201804121063497538-uk-cabinet-action-syria-agree/

Laguerre , Apr 12, 2018 3:56:58 PM | 58
re test 57

But they took two hours to agree it, instead of the single hour expected. There was opposition.

WJ , Apr 12, 2018 4:02:55 PM | 59
@56,

"Mattis seems to be restraining." Agreed. "Seems" being the word under pressure here.

From what I have read today on Southfront and Sputnik, Mattis is now essentially claiming, somewhat unbelievably, that no decision has yet been made by the President on whether there will be a strike at all. This statement--if indeed it is that--would appear to run directly counter to what every major US, UK, and French official--including Trump!--has been claiming for around two days now.

The most optimistic reading of this is that Mattis remains in direct contact with Russian generals and has determined on the basis of some kind of miraculous professionalism (I know....) that there is no way a U.S. led strike of the sort initially proposed could avoid escalating beyond containment.

So what will happen now--again, optimistically--is either a negotiated smaller symbolic strike that will prove amenable to both US and Russian political needs, or a deus ex machina that somehow allows the US and NATO to walk back the strike they had already basically guaranteed. I don't see this latter option as a real option, frankly.

But the way that Mattis has set things up hinges on the *convincing* production of evidence of chemical weapon use by Assad in East Ghouta. How will the US pull this off, exactly, given that Russia controls the "crime scene"?

Kami , Apr 12, 2018 4:06:14 PM | 60
France declares chemical weapons use a "red line", Saudi Arabia crosses it with false flag.

The Oompa Loompa is clueless.

OJS , Apr 12, 2018 4:07:30 PM | 61
@test | Apr 12, 2018 3:48:15 PM | 57

I'm not a warmonger, but love to see Putin sink one of the submarine.

"According to the UK's Daily Telegraph newspaper, British submarines have been ordered to move within missile range of Syria, as strikes against the Assad regime are expected as early as Thursday night."

WJ , Apr 12, 2018 4:08:34 PM | 62
@56 again,

Well shit. That was quick: http://www.msnbc.com/craig-melvin/watch/u-s-officials-syria-samples-test-positive-for-chlorine-gas-1209354819536

Bill , Apr 12, 2018 4:13:13 PM | 63
It was always British intention to cause chaos in Syria, looks like they are going to have another go st killing more people. Quite illegal of course but it's what Israel and paymaster Rothschild want.
CarlD , Apr 12, 2018 4:18:14 PM | 64
Les dés sont jetés.

Le vin est tiré, il fut le boire...

So much for the optimists.

Mataman , Apr 12, 2018 4:18:50 PM | 65
@29 B and others here have covered the seafood poisoning angle previously. But you cannot get botulism from fish unless it is improperly preserved (so some sort of brine or oil preservation). The Clostridium bacteria responsible for producing botulin toxin are anaerobic, and thus not found in fresh seafood. Additionally, the Skirpals did not demonstrate the classic symptoms of botulism.
Ace Hanlon , Apr 12, 2018 4:20:28 PM | 66
Even long time Trump supporter Nigel Faragd strongly opposed to strike on Syria.
Laguerre , Apr 12, 2018 4:21:33 PM | 67
Posted by: WJ | Apr 12, 2018 4:08:34 PM | 62

So tele declarations are supposed to be proof? I'd prefer actual evidence.

test , Apr 12, 2018 4:24:27 PM | 68
Laguerre

Why do you prefer that?, Any attack will be illegal.

james , Apr 12, 2018 4:30:47 PM | 69
@ 67 laguerre... why can't you just let the white helmets convince you of the merits of this with tele or video presentation? you have to give the royal press - heather nauert, nyt, wapo and wsj a few days to put it in print!!
Ace Hanlon , Apr 12, 2018 4:32:48 PM | 70
US has used cluster bombs, napalm, white phosphorous, and depleted uranium munitions. Does not the purported horror at the alleged use of poison gas look a trite hypocriitical?


CarlD , Apr 12, 2018 4:33:22 PM | 71
Laguerre, 67

Suivant que vous serez puissants ou miserable, les jugements de cour
vous rendrons blanc ou noir.

The powers that want war do not care for proof. They want to convince
the hapless public that they are doing the right thing.

Since they are certain to win the war, they know they will not be Nuremberged.

Bill , Apr 12, 2018 4:33:40 PM | 72
The OPCW inspectors have to be stopped from visiting Douma, hence the urgency as they are expected to arrive on scene at the weekend.. Cynical.
james , Apr 12, 2018 4:36:06 PM | 73
@70 ace... the exceptional nation is also the hypocritical nation... go figure...
ritzl , Apr 12, 2018 4:49:13 PM | 74
Add Stephen Zunes (Univ. San Francisco) to the "hook, line, and sinker" list. I wish someone would/could shed light on "why" these seemingly discerning (in other areas; eg. Palestine) don't seem to even as basic common sense questions when "analyzing" Syria. It's bizarre, but common (so maybe not bizarre, just irrational).
Likklemore , Apr 12, 2018 4:52:32 PM | 75
Tass reports that Russia has convoked a UNSC meeting with the Secretary-General to attend in an attempt to:

[.] "preventing the war in Syria against the background of Washington's threats, adding that a direct military standoff between Russia an United States cannot be ruled out in current circumstances.

The immediate priority is to avert war.

Russia's U.N. Envoy Nebenzya, when asked whether he meant war between Russia and the United States, the Russian diplomat replied, "We cannot exclude any possibility, unfortunately because we saw messages that are coming from Washington, they were very bellicose. They know we are there"[.]

Meeting is expected to be held on Friday.

xor , Apr 12, 2018 4:59:28 PM | 76
Assuming the USA/IS/UK/FR... war project for destruction in the middle east will enter a new phase soon whereby Russia will be directly attacked or have no other way than to respond, I wonder how events will unfold. Like the diplomacy and Shayrat Airbase, Russia on many cases gave the USA and its vassals so desperately craving for war the benefit of the doubt but that time is now long over and it responds in kind. You expel our diplomats? We expel your diplomats. Quid pro quo, an eye for eye, a tooth for a tooth. The Russian military presense in Syria is not so close to home which makes it difficult to defend so they would easily be wiped out I think albeit not without a heavy fight. But there is not a chance Russia would cave in and submit because the whole Russian Federation would be next. Assuming the war escalation remains conventional then Russia might strike at places that are closer to home and that are easier to defend and supplied. The USA, so far from home, has built a giant meat buffer in Europe where they planted many bases on the Russian border so they would probably bear the brunt. If then by some NATO pretext, Russia would be attacked on it's own soil I doubt it will remain limited to conventional warfare but maybe the USA would have already pressed some red button earlier, Bolton clearly is a fan. Let's hope this is just a far off horror scenario which will never unfold.
mrr52 , Apr 12, 2018 5:04:14 PM | 77
Apr 7, 2018 Ziad Fadel at SyrianPerspective.com reported the capture of 11 British officers in Eastern Ghouta. See also Farsnews "http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=l3970122001526" for more information on the plot to attack Damascus from Eastern Ghouta that was foiled by the Syrian-Russian operations.

Apr 12, 2018 Ziad reports capture of American, Israeli and Saudi forces in Eastern Ghouta (source Truthmonger)
here

Apr 12 2018 - See also this vimeo of Russian radio program here provided by another commenter Robert Sneffjella on The Vineyared of the Saker blog. Apparently, Chinese analysts believe many Americans (~200?) were killed in Eastern Ghouta.

In addition to the captured forces, the US sudden rush to hysteria and May's abrupt u-turn regarding the unproven Douma chemical weapon attack may be explained in part by possible war crime evidence abandoned in Douma by the militants, evidence that may point directly at the US, UK, Israel, and Saudi Arabia. A large scale attack on Syria may have as its primary purpose the destruction of this evidence. To defuse tension, perhaps Syria and Russia should negotiate release of the remaining US and UK personnel and find a mutually beneficial agreement with the US regarding the evidence.

mali , Apr 12, 2018 5:04:55 PM | 78
Dr Bashar Al-Jaafari at the #UN speech on the arrival of the #OPCW in #Syria

The first OPCW inspection group consisiting of 4 persons has arrived in Beruit on Thursday. The second group is supposed to arrive on Friday but Dr Bashar Al-Jaafari said OPCW didn't say how many persons would be in the second group when Syrian Embassy in Brussel asked for their passports to issue them visa. OPCW did nt provide passports for the second team, so Syria decided to issue them visa at the border between Lebanon-Syria.

It seems a bit strange that OPCW wouldn't either state numbers of people coming nor provide passports ahead so that Syrian government at least who are coming. Guess US/UK/France & Co would want to insert some of their preferred "experts" in the second team.

Russians and Syrians on the E. Ghouta ground should be alert.

Danny C , Apr 12, 2018 5:05:23 PM | 79
Were going to see another attack on an empty airbase. Russia will be notified in advance. Ive read that Syria already moved most of their more modern aircraft to the Russian air bases. Some of the more brain dead Trump supporters will be thrilled that he did something. It obviously wont be anything big. Theyre not going to risk war with Russia and I don't think the Russians are bluffing, they've invested too much to simply watch the Syrian government be destroyed now.

Although it wont be, it should be a wake up call that he needs to be more careful before he jumps on Twitter. Like you said, hes forced now to do something even if some of us are wise enough to see this response will be all for show.

mali , Apr 12, 2018 5:10:46 PM | 80
Juat take a look at how rude Nikki Haley and US delegats are when Syria's permanent representative to the UN, Dr. Bashar Jaafari is making speech at a UNSC meeting on Monday.

She and her US team simply refused to listen to what the Syrian would say! That's why they live in a parellel world.

flamingo , Apr 12, 2018 5:11:31 PM | 81
Thank you for the rant cassandra @28, my feelings too. I have been ranting a lot too as I believe we are owed a forensic report on the Skripals plus a read of their statements to any and all authorities that interviewed plus a detailed statement of the hospital diagnosis and response.

This no ordinary circumstance. The world has been driven to the brink of war, millions of people are threatened by the consequences. This is not a time 'to respect the privacy' of two people when the ultimate life of so many is threatened.

The grim reaper, Tony Blair, came out salivating for blood just to remind us of the consequences of lies and deceit as the drivers of war.

We are owed a full and frank exposure of the facts, preferably in an international court, but certainly in an independent report. Failing that, speak up Yulia, we need to hear the story.

AntiSpin , Apr 12, 2018 5:16:49 PM | 82
@62 - re MSNBC claims:

That was nothing but a bunch of empty verbiage -- totally meaningless. They could not say where or whom the "samples" came from, could not say who gathered the samples, could not say who transported the samples, could not say who delivered the samples, could not say what US entities received the samples, could not say what US entities tested the samples.

No source, no chain of custody.

But we're just supposed to believe all those altogether unsupported assertions.

james , Apr 12, 2018 5:19:18 PM | 83
@80 mali.. they walked out before they could hear it! i liked what the syrian ambassador said too.. maybe she has a weak stomach for the truth?
Red Ryder , Apr 12, 2018 5:22:59 PM | 84
The first four OPCW inspectors have arrived at Douma. They are free to go anywhere. Russian military protection.
The rest due tomorrow. By Saturday they will have all the facts in their notebooks.

Not a scrap of evidence. No residue, no corpses, no doctors reporting any victims, no hospital visits by victims.

A total False Flag. Russian experts were there the next day. Not a trace of any substance.

Dead were from suffocation (dust, plaster, cement).

The facts exist and its impossible to twist. The terrorists gave up too swiftly. The Russians went right to the site and videotapped everything within 24 hours.

This isn't Salisbury. It's Douma. And the Americans know they can't sell the False Flag.

The Russian Generals talking to the Chief of Staff Dunsford and others have made it clear. You can bomb the desert like you did for four years. But that's it.

US does not want a piece of Russian payback.

Just mark a few buildings with Iranian and Hezbollah flags and slogans out in the middle of nowhere and the US will blow them up for Bibi. Call it a success. Trump remains #1 in the mirror, USA is great again. Blah, blah, blah.

You can sell American Exceptionalism to all the dopes of Main Street. They actually believe this shit.

steven t johnson , Apr 12, 2018 5:24:33 PM | 85
The notion that Trump is secretly anti-war is absurd, no matter how many times people assume it. Trump campaigned on a platform of winning. There's no reason to credit his inaction to anything but his repeated discovery that loser generals won't guarantee an easy win. That's why so many professionals are being ditched in my opinion.

Trump is emboldened by Xi's opportunism and cowardice. Xi's recent rebuff of North Korea, coupled with his surrender on trade, suggest that Trump et al. think they can take out Kim Jong Un personally, then simply pick up the pieces. Very likely Xi thinks the same. Both have a surprise coming.

The war in Syria will continue indefinitely, based in Idleb, with Turkish clandestine support from Afrin, with Israel in the Golan Heights and the Kurds in the east. Russia's massive investment in a victory has failed because Putin never had an endgame. Russia will bleed money for a naval base of dubious value (save in Putin's addled brain,) even as the fascist menace in Ukraine builds and builds.

WJ , Apr 12, 2018 5:27:38 PM | 86
@82,

I agree. With the possible qualification that ultimately they don't so much care what we believe as they want (perhaps) to break Mattis' hold on Trump by piling on the narrative of inevitability. That they still need to do this suggests, to me at least, that Mattis is at least holding out. Perhaps I am wrong.

james , Apr 12, 2018 5:29:17 PM | 87
@85 steve...'putin never had an end game'... oh really? lol... you ought to be able to get a gig with the us armed forces with that attitude!
Lester , Apr 12, 2018 5:34:47 PM | 88
Chris @38


ALL you Americans had to do was NOT vote Democrat or Republican if you were serious about wanting change.

You don't. You're not honest.

Even the bastard who pretends to be (controlled) opposition keep erasing my posts at this blog.

'b,'

Whoever you are, you're an insidious and dishonest piece of crypto-Jewish shit.

Emily , Apr 12, 2018 5:35:56 PM | 89
Syria - Threat Of Large War Recedes But May Come Back

It has come back with war criminal Theresa May and her decision tonight.
Opinion polls show most Brits DO NOT SUPPORT THE BOMBING.
And it is totally unacceptable that she is seemingly refusing a parliamentary vote to give her authority.
Britain is shamed.

Scotch Bingeington , Apr 12, 2018 5:44:35 PM | 90
@ Chris | 1

"...the shrieking harpy Haley..."

Tom Luongo called her "US Embarassment to the UN" -
https://russia-insider.com/en/neocons-wont-get-away-it-time-too-many-people-have-woken/ri23068

I liked that a lot, made me chuckle.

Christian Chuba , Apr 12, 2018 5:46:43 PM | 91
"The notion that Trump is secretly anti-war is absurd, no matter how many times people assume it. " - steven t johnson @85

Steven, don't you get it, Trump is playing 4 dimensional Chess, no wait, make that 10 dimensional Chess :-)

ritzl , Apr 12, 2018 5:47:59 PM | 92
Oh, and sadly, Greenwald is in this group of "Assad is evil", evidence-free weirdness.

https://twitter.com/EvaKBartlett/status/983506825344700416

He compared Eva Bartlett to some flaming nutter because she challenged him on his, again, evidence-free contention that Assad uses CW as a habit. It was a truly strange and disheartening exchange.

GG does important and courageous work. I hope someone, in the post-mortem of this anti-Syria/Kill!! frenzy (hopefully resolved in favor of letting Syrians determine the future of their own country) probe why these seeming do-gooders went the counter-factual route on Syria, separate from all their other seeming inclinations. And by probe I mean harsh and relentless, answer-seeking, but not defamatory, questioning.

harrylaw , Apr 12, 2018 5:54:10 PM | 93
Interesting take by the young Putin.....
In recent documentaries, Putin has shared candid memories of his youth in a working-class neighborhood of St. Petersburg -- then known as Leningrad. He said he learned lessons there that have lasted a lifetime.
"The streets of Leningrad taught me 50 years ago that when a fight is inevitable, you must strike first," was one of the recollections.
Another telling episode was an encounter with a rat in a seedy entrance of his crumbling apartment building. After he cornered the rodent, it turned back on him and attacked.
"She ran forward and chased me, jumping from one flight of stairs to another and even tried to leap on my head," he recalled in an interview for a recent documentary. "You shouldn't try to corner anyone."
Interestingly enough George Galloway was asked on his talk show tonight, If you were Putin what would you do if the US,UK and France attacked Syria? He said I would come out with all guns blazing. I agree with that, the West will never stop trying to destroy Syria, the 'West' needs to be given a bloody nose.


WJ , Apr 12, 2018 6:01:20 PM | 94

Anyone have confirmation of this? Serbian account claiming

"Today in a TV show on RTS1, military analyst Mr Lazanski said that the likelihood that the US will give up its attack on Syria is less than 1%, since 2 Arab countries, very close US allies, already paid for attacking Syria. The money is already handed over, and that's it, he said."

https://mobile.twitter.com/wesna_josic/status/984523972787232770

Saudi Arabia and Jordan?

daffyDuct , Apr 12, 2018 6:01:28 PM | 95
This idea has undoubtably been covered before, but I wanted to post anyway.

Perhaps what is developing in Syria has much to do with weapons sales.

Maybe what the West is trying to set up is a "limited" battlefield test of Russian deterrence systems versus NATO systems.

Can Russian systems can be overwhelmed, or will they hold?

This is an opportunity - war is good business.

eric k , Apr 12, 2018 6:07:07 PM | 96
Leak of targets US might bomb
https://sputniknews.com/us/201804121063498907-syria-eight-possible-target-report/
Jen , Apr 12, 2018 6:15:12 PM | 97
CanSpeccy @ 29: Mataman @ 65 is right, B has already covered the possibility of seafood poisoning in a previous post. Just go back to the Main page and skip back a few posts.

It's known that the Skripals ate seafood risotto at the Zizzi's Restaurant outlet in Salisbury just before their collapse on the bench in The Maltings shopping mall. I checked the menu online and found the risotto contains mussels. Mussels are notorious as a source of shellfish poisoning.

Fact sheet on seafood poisoning - notice that some of the symptoms of particular forms of shellfish poisoning mimic symptoms of nerve gas poisoning:
http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/Infectious/factsheets/Pages/seafood_poisoning.aspx

It's quite possible also that some of the garnishings in the risotto may have come from improperly canned food (the main source of botulin poisoning) so you may still be right.

There has been news that the Zizzi's Restaurant Salisbury outlet is to be destroyed along with the Skripal house. One can understand why the Skripal house might have to be destroyed (a cheap form of decontamination) but why the restaurant should be destroyed if it has not been tested for the presence of "nerve gas agent" is another issue altogether. The alacrity with which the British government and police authorities are destroying valuable evidence (including the bodies of the Skripals' pet guinea pigs and cat - the guinea pigs having died of thirst and the cat put down after being found in a state of starvation) is suspicious in itself and might suggest the actions of a criminal covering his/her tracks.

WJ , Apr 12, 2018 6:20:35 PM | 98
@96

From Sputnik link: targets include "two Syrian airfields, a research center and a chemical weapons facility."

Lol. Let's hope so.

mauisurfer , Apr 12, 2018 6:21:40 PM | 99

christian pastor chuck baldwin writes

> "What is it going to take for Christians and conservatives to snap out of this war fever? What is it going to take for them to give up this ignoble infatuation with Zionist Israel?"

> When Israel attacks Syria and/or Lebanon, as it clearly intends to do, Hezbollah will retaliate with its missiles, some of which will surely be directed towards the Mashabim Air Base, which will be targeted to inhibit the base's ability to bomb Lebanon. And once Washington is well and truly engaged in what is referred to as "force protection," Israel will undoubtedly widen the conflict by drawing Iran in through attacks on that country's identified bases in Syria that are supporting the al-Assad government. The bigger war will suddenly become America's responsibility after Israel inevitably proves itself incapable of handling the escalation.
>
> During the recent bilateral military exercises, Air Force Lieutenant General Richard Clark enthused that American soldiers are "prepared to die for the Jewish state" and also added that they would "probably" be under the command of Israeli Air Force General Zvika Haimovitch, who would decide on the involvement of U.S. personnel. Haimovitch commented "I am sure we will find US troops on the ground to defend the state of Israel."
>
> Does anyone really believe that Syria was behind the latest gas attack in that country? Does anyone seriously believe that Syria was behind the previous gas attack in that country a year ago? For that matter, does anyone truly believe that Syria was behind the gas attack of its own people back in 2013?
>
> Think about it: The U.S. military has been actively engaged in a surreptitious effort to overthrow the Syrian government for years. The U.S. government -- along with Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Great Britain -- created, supported, and funded ISIS with the intention of overthrowing President Assad. After the last gas attack, President Trump bombed Syria in "retaliation." The U.S. government is looking for any excuse to destroy the Syrian government (and Iran's). And just as Trump is talking about removing troops from Syria, Assad decides to launch another gas attack against his own people? You must be kidding! Only the most naïve people on the planet would believe such a cock and bull story.
>
> Everyone knows that it was Israel that launched those illegal airstrikes against Syria this week in what can only be regarded as the first wave of Israeli/U.S. airstrikes against Syria. The Israeli government has not even tried to deny it. And this comes on the heels of IDF soldiers murdering 20 unarmed (unless you count teenagers who throw stones and rocks at combat soldiers who are wearing body armor and carrying machine guns as being "armed") Palestinian protesters (many of them shot in the back by Israeli snipers) a few days ago.
>
> The only reason the United States (and Israel) can get by with these unconstitutional and unconscionable acts of aggression in the Middle East is because the vast majority of evangelical Christians who put the warmongering politicians in office have been propagandized to believe that these wars for Israel are "holy" wars. They believe that the Rothschild Zionist State of Israel is a reincarnated Biblical Israel. They further believe that this reincarnated Israel is divinely appointed to have all of the land that God gave to Old Testament Israel under the Abrahamic Covenant. But as theologian Adam Clarke (1760 - 1832) wrote in his commentary on the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 15:18, "This promise was fully accomplished in the days of David and Solomon." And so it was. But because Christians have been brainwashed by Scofieldism, they believe that wars fought against any Arab country -- no matter how unconstitutional, no matter how illegal, no matter how murderous, no matter how aggressive, no matter how horrific -- are in accordance with "God's plan for Israel" and, therefore, divinely justified.
>
> It is of no concern to these misguided Christians how many of their own Christian brothers and sisters are being slaughtered by the U.S. and Israeli militaries in these wars. It is of no concern to them how many innocent men, women, and children of all faiths are being killed in these wars. It is of no concern to them that global nuclear war could break out at any time as a result of these wars. They think these are "holy" wars. They also believe that before American cities melt in a nuclear Armageddon they are going to be "raptured" to heaven and escape all of the consequences of their misinterpreted Biblical prophecies and mindless political perversions.
>
> If America's Christians were not so blinded by faux-Israel and false theology about Israel, they would be able to see the world (especially the Middle Eastern world) in a MUCH different light.
> But here we are: on the precipice of World War III. And for what? To remove a democratically elected leader in a nation that has attacked NO ONE and that poses absolutely NO threat to the United States -- or Israel, for that matter -- and against whom there is NO evidence that he launched a gas attack against his own people.
> What is it going to take for Christians and conservatives to snap out of this war fever? What is it going to take for them to give up this ignoble infatuation with Zionist Israel? What is it going to take for them to start being Americans again and stop cheering for these warmongering politicians who believe the United States is some sort of glorified global cop?


https://chuckbaldwinlive.com/Articles/tabid/109/ID/3728/Is-Trump-Ready-To-Join-Israel-In-Launching-War-Against-Iran-And-Syria.aspx

Jen , Apr 12, 2018 6:23:38 PM | 100
WJ @ 94: Methinks Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

[Apr 12, 2018] Bolton And Mattis Feud Over Syria Strike As Assad Evacuates Weapons

Note dramatic change of Zero hedge audience attitude toward Trump. And generally ZeroHedge attracts people who were former Trump base.
Apr 12, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Mattis said that the U.S. aim in Syria is to defeat Islamic State, not "to engage in the civil war itself." But referring to the use of chemical weapons, Mattis said that " some things are simply inexcusable, beyond the pale " and require a response. - Bloomberg

The Wall St. Journal reports that Mattis "brought those concerns directly to the White House on Thursday, where White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said the national security team didn't agree on a response."

Exactly two weeks ago Mattis met Bolton - telling the bemoustached bringer-of-death "I heard you're actually the devil incarnate, and I wanted to meet you."

... ... ...

"If these strikes start, it could end very tragically and it's impossible to predict the outcome -- that's the nature of military actions," said Russian Senator Frants Klintsevich in a phone interview, adding that there are "no madmen" among Trump's top military advisors. " These are professionals who aren't populists and know what this could lead to. "

Meanwhile, Russia's ambassador to the UN, Vassily Nebenzia issued a stark warning on Thursday that there was a danger the war could escalate beyond Syria because of Russia's military presence.

"We cannot exclude any possibilities [of war between Russia and the U.S.] unfortunately because we saw messages that are coming from Washington," Mr. Nebenzia said. " They were very bellicose. "

In an attempt to settle things diplomatically, Russia asked for an open Security Council emergency meeting on Friday morning, calling for UN Secretary-General António Guterres to brief the council, according to the Wall St. Journal .

Meanwhile, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) says they are sending a team of investigators to Syria on Saturday to collect samples from the site of the alleged chemical attack last weekend.


algol_dog -> Gen. Ripper Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:30 Permalink

Will Bolton be sending his grandchildren to the front?

ne-tiger -> algol_dog Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:32 Permalink

Fucking orange clown, that's why the fucktard brought in Bolton.

BaBaBouy -> ne-tiger Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:35 Permalink

Thump Hired Bowlton, End Of Story ...

You don't need to be Einstein to see where this is Going...

directaction -> ne-tiger Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:36 Permalink

That maniac, Trump, has sure surrounded himself with a swarm of sick, twisted, psychotic mass killers.

Walter White -> ne-tiger Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:37 Permalink

orange clown will send his kids to war...yes?

Truther -> ne-tiger Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:37 Permalink

HANG THE MOTHER FUCKERS.. HANG THEM ALL.

dirty fingernails -> ne-tiger Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:38 Permalink

Mad props to Mattis for calling him the devil incarnate to his face even if couched tactfully.

But remember, Bolton is just a scare tactic, he isn't really a demented bloodthirsty demon. He wants to go balls out against a nuclear power over a false flag but it's a bluff. /s

Walter White -> ne-tiger Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:37 Permalink

orange clown will send his kids to war...yes?

Truther -> ne-tiger Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:37 Permalink

HANG THE MOTHER FUCKERS.. HANG THEM ALL.

dirty fingernails -> ne-tiger Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:38 Permalink

Mad props to Mattis for calling him the devil incarnate to his face even if couched tactfully.

But remember, Bolton is just a scare tactic, he isn't really a demented bloodthirsty demon. He wants to go balls out against a nuclear power over a false flag but it's a bluff. /s

VladLenin Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:32 Permalink

Let's see. Who's responsible for toppling (or trying to) one strong man after another in the Middle East and leaving the place in a shit storm? USA! USA! USA!

carlnpa Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:32 Permalink

Trump

Leave Syria alone, your interference will result in the slaughter of the Christians that remain in Syria.

besnook Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:32 Permalink

will someone remind these guys that they haven't won a war in awhile. they are not very good at this war stuff so maybe they should stop.

Steaming_Pile Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:33 Permalink

And the academy award for best makeup artist goes to.....

RationalLuddite Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:35 Permalink

while President Trump told reporters on Thursday "We're looking very, very seriously, very closely at that whole situation, and we'll see what happens, folks, we'll see what happens. It's too bad that the world puts us in a position like that."

The lack of self awareness and the victim mentality in this cry-bully statement is breathtaking. Akin to projectile vomiting on someone them blaming them for smelling disgusting. Extraordinary .

besnook Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:35 Permalink

for once in my life i wish i could watch undoctored video of people throwing parties because the usa army is in town.

khnum Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:36 Permalink

Is there a Praetorian guard they used to handle these situations quite efficiently

Gregor Samsa Thu, 04/12/2018 - 21:38 Permalink

"It was very disconcerting when I saw that an attack is planned on Mosul, an attack is planned. ... Why do we have to talk about it? Why? I never saw anything like this. Every time we are going to attack somebody, we explain. We're going to attack, we'll be attacking at three, noon on March 25. I don't know, unless you disagree with me, wouldn't it be better if we were going to go after Mosul to not say anything and do it, as opposed to announcing -- they're announcing all over television they're planning to attack Mosul." -- Donald J. Trump

[Apr 12, 2018] Trump chooses impulse over strategy as crises mount

Apr 12, 2018 | www.washingtonpost.com

In a White House known for chaos, the process of developing the U.S. response to the Syrian government's alleged latest gas attack was proceeding with uncharacteristic deliberation, including several national security briefings for President Trump.

But then Wednesday morning, Trump upended it all with a tweet -- warning Russia, the Syrian government's backer, to "get ready" because American missiles "will be coming, nice and new and 'smart!' "

White House advisers were surprised by the missive and found it "alarming" and "distracting," in the words of one senior official. They quickly regrouped and, together with Pentagon brass, continued readying Syria options for Trump as if nothing had happened.

But the Twitter disruption was emblematic of a president operating on a tornado of impulses -- and with no clear strategy -- as he faces some of the most consequential decisions of his presidency, including Syria, trade policy and the Russian interference probe that threatens to overwhelm his administration.

"It's just like everybody wakes up every morning and does whatever is right in front of them," said one West Wing aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to share a candid opinion. "Oh, my God, Trump Tower is on fire. Oh, my God, they raided Michael Cohen's office. Oh, my God, we're going to bomb Syria. Whatever is there is what people respond to, and there is no proactive strategic thinking."

The president has been particularly livid in the wake of Monday's FBI raids on the home, office and hotel room of Cohen, his longtime personal attorney. In the days after, he has seriously contemplated a shake-up at the Justice Department in the hopes of curbing the expanding probe by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, whose referral led to the Cohen raids. Trump is considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein, who is overseeing the probe, several people familiar with Trump's private comments said.

By Trump's admission Wednesday on Twitter, Mueller's investigation into Russian election interference and possible obstruction of justice has consumed "tremendous time and focus." And in denying allegations of wrongdoing, the president seemed to equivocate in a parenthetical aside: "No Collusion or Obstruction (other than I fight back)," he wrote.

On trade, meanwhile, the president is grappling with the potential economic fallout of his threatened tariffs, especially within the agriculture sector, which could harm some of the rural states that carried him to electoral victory -- all against the backdrop of his ongoing effort to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement more favorably for the United States.

Trump also finds himself facing the surprise retirement of House Speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.), signaling more turmoil for the fractious Republican Party heading into the midterm elections.

These and other pivotal developments come as many of the guardrails that previously helped stabilize the president -- from West Wing aides to clear policy processes -- have been cast aside, with little evident organization or long-term strategy emanating from the White House.

This portrait of Trump in the current moment comes from interviews with 21 administration officials, outsider advisers, lawmakers and confidants, many of them speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details and conversations.

Save for his Wednesday morning tweet, the president's Syria deliberations have largely been the exception to the chaos engulfing the White House, underscoring the high stakes of a decision, White House officials said.

President Trump, second from right, speaks in the Cabinet Room of the White House on Monday. (Susan Walsh/AP)

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders said Wednesday afternoon that Trump continues to review options for a military strike in Syria and that his tweet should not be read as an announcement of planned action.

"We're maintaining that we have a number of options, and all of those options are still on the table," Sanders said. "Final decisions haven't been made on that front."

The National Security Council met Wednesday afternoon at the White House, chaired by Vice President Pence, to finalize options that could be presented to the president, Sanders said. She said Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, national security adviser John Bolton and other senior officials have been in regular contact with their counterparts from Israel, Saudi Arabia, France, the United Kingdom and other partners around the world as the administration weighs its military options for Syria.

Yet Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) said Wednesday afternoon that he had yet to hear from Trump or other administration officials about impending action in Syria.

"I have no idea. So far, it appears to me to be bluster," Corker said. "Then I saw a tweet come out about us working with Russia right after we're getting ready to bomb them, so I mean, who knows? Unfortunately, there are a lot of things announced by the administration that never come to pass or evolve."

The more general question of U.S. engagement in Syria has confounded and divided the administration. Officials at the White House and Pentagon, for instance, were blindsided by Trump's pronouncement at a rally in Ohio in late March that U.S. troops would be leaving Syria "very soon," and in the first hours after the speech, they scrambled to get a sense of what he meant.

Trump initially told aides that he wanted U.S. soldiers and Marines to leave in 48 hours -- an impossible timeline that alarmed the Pentagon and sent officials racing to dissuade him, two U.S. officials said.

Eventually, Mattis and others persuaded Trump to give the military another six months to wipe out the remnants of the Islamic State. The timeline was far from ideal but was viewed as a major victory compared with Trump's original timeline, officials said.

Senior U.S. officials describe a president who is operating largely on impulse, with little patience for the advice of his top aides. "A decision or statement is made by the president, and then the principals -- Mattis or Pompeo or Kelly -- come in and tell him we can't do it," said one senior administration official. "When that fails, we reverse-engineer a policy process to match whatever the president said."

On a potential shake-up at the Justice Department, Trump has been receiving a range of advice and has sent mixed signals about his intentions. Within the White House, advisers have largely counseled caution and urged him not to make changes. White House Chief of Staff John F. Kelly and counsel Donald McGahn have tried to calm Trump several times, as has Ty Cobb, the White House lawyer handling the Russia probe.

Yet others, including many in the president's orbit who don't work in the White House, have counseled a more aggressive approach, saying the raid of Cohen's home and business crossed a line. This advice has left White House staff on edge, nervous about what the president might do.

Trump, for instance, yelled about Rosenstein and Attorney General Jeff Sessions for several hours Monday and has continued to complain about them since. But some described his complaints as just "venting," with one outside adviser saying that while the president is "steamed and unhappy," that doesn't necessarily mean he's prepared to take action.

"I heard or saw nothing that would suggest he was planning to make a change at the Department of Justice," said Alan Dershowitz, a retired Harvard Law School professor who dined at the White House with Trump on Tuesday night. He said they mainly discussed the Middle East and Russia.

Rosenstein, meanwhile, seems to have made peace with any eventuality, said one person who has had a conversation with him. He understands he might be squarely in Trump's crosshairs, and "is ready for whatever comes and confident in his own behavior."

Trump has also devoted a portion of his days to trade policy. Over the past eight weeks, the president has initiated trade disputes with several of the largest countries in the world, driving forward pronouncements without fully vetting most of them with key aides.

In some cases, he has backpedaled on his vow to impose steep tariffs on countries such as Germany, Canada and Mexico. But he has also refused to waive tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Japan, a major U.S. security ally and trading partner.

Some Senate Republicans fear that Trump's loosely formed trade war with China could end up cratering the agriculture industry at a time when many Midwestern farmers are preparing to plant crops. China has promised to impose tariffs on U.S. farm exports as a way of retaliating against Trump's planned tariffs. The White House promised to backstop U.S. farm groups, but they have yet to share what they would do or how they would do it.

"I don't know what kind of cockamamie scheme we could come up with that would be fair," Sen. Pat Roberts (R-Kan.) said Tuesday.

Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Tex.) was similarly frustrated by Trump's trade agenda. "I think the president has some ideas about trade that are not generally shared by the Republican conference," he said.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told his frustrated ranks during a closed-door lunch this week to call Trump and air their trade-related worries, according to a person familiar with the Kentucky Republican's remarks. Roberts and others planned to meet with Trump on Thursday to discuss the matter.

[Apr 12, 2018] The US destroyed posrt war international law

Notable quotes:
"... This is developing into a pattern where when it looks like Trump is cornered in to doing something, he jumps aboard the neo-con bus and drives it straight towards the cliff. ..."
"... You asked about Trump and Bolton. Trump was inexplicably a fan of Bolton early on. ..."
"... Trump with his "get ready Russia" tweet ensured all knew the stakes involved in a US attack on Syria. It pulles people out of apathy. From that point on he sits back and waits for others to stop the bus. "Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and "smart!" You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!" ..."
Apr 12, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

che , Apr 12, 2018 7:00:38 PM | 107
Juan Cole took exactly the same position before the attack on Libya, he is a F'ing CIA troll plant, what a phony, especially revealing he promotes this B.S. which any 5th grader sees is phony. Infuriating. He is a totally compromised piece of shit, I actually used to read his phony blog in the run up to attacking Libya he was all for it, I even reached him by e mail saying he would lose all credibility and he even responded as if I was out of my mind. He lost all credibility with me, I don't give a dog turd what he has to say about anything, and now this. He is a war criminal and should be boycotted if he is still teaching.
Thirsty , Apr 12, 2018 7:05:16 PM | 108
@ 107 same sentiments Juan Cole is an imperialist scholar justifying war's and is as culpable for the deaths and destruction of Libya ... I wonder how he explains to his students the proliferation of slave-markets and terrorist gangs in 'liberated' Libya
Peter AU 1 , Apr 12, 2018 8:41:57 PM | 119
james 118

I am probably a bit influenced by Pat Lang's belief that Trump spends his time watching TV news but it is looking like Trump is far smarter than that. This is developing into a pattern where when it looks like Trump is cornered in to doing something, he jumps aboard the neo-con bus and drives it straight towards the cliff.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 12, 2018 8:54:49 PM | 121
The two sides of Trump are his history of speaking out against useless costly wars, and the other side that has increased US military spending and his belief that US should have kept the Iraqi oil. I guess Trump has no objection to a war if the US will profit from it, but is not interested in the neo-con ideological wars.
Sad Canuck , Apr 12, 2018 9:11:10 PM | 122
It's a sign of the times that the only apparently sane adult in Trump's cabinet is nicknamed "mad dog". But don't worry. Everyone has already forgotten all about the butchery in Gaza and we can get back to "normal" business.
dh , Apr 12, 2018 9:29:58 PM | 124
@123 Money is power and prestige in Trump world. He genuinely believes that the people with the most money are smarter than the rest.
Hooshidar Daragahi , Apr 12, 2018 9:31:14 PM | 125
What I see on the screen is a map of IRAN not Syria. Is this a "Freudian Slip" or what ?
Jackrabbit , Apr 12, 2018 9:32:16 PM | 126
BM @49

You asked about Trump and Bolton. Trump was inexplicably a fan of Bolton early on. In an NBC show Meet the Press" appearance in August 2015 Trump cited Bolton as one of the people whose views he respects on Foreign Policy, leading Mother Jones, a left-oriented magazine to write: Donald Trump's Curious Relationship With an Iraq War Hawk : The tycoon decries the US invasion of Iraq but embraces one of its architects .

A must read to refresh your memory of Trump's position on Middle East when he was a candidate.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 12, 2018 9:36:43 PM | 129
Trump with his "get ready Russia" tweet ensured all knew the stakes involved in a US attack on Syria. It pulles people out of apathy. From that point on he sits back and waits for others to stop the bus. "Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and "smart!" You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!"
imo , Apr 12, 2018 9:44:59 PM | 130
@122 - "Everyone has already forgotten all about the butchery in Gaza and we can get back to "normal" business."

I tend to agree: UK poisoned front door knobs (unfortunately not #10 D Street); Apartheid racist Zio-fascism murdering indigenous protesters in Gaza; and Spanky Trump and his bordello babes -- not to forget the end of post-2007/9 BS market 'QE' capitalism at hand.

Basically the UK gov need a distraction from a rise of real traditional Labour sentiment (traitor & warmonger Tony Blair can't seem to nail Corbyn) -- and on the whole they just can't seem to accept they won't rate well in World Cup. Sour grapes?

imo , Apr 12, 2018 10:02:28 PM | 133
Covers the essentials -- one of his better ones, imo.

Paul Joseph Watson's "ANOTHER STUPID F**KING WAR"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=179&v=k-WuPFlMThw

[Apr 12, 2018] This looks like war to me. The only question is how big and can it be confined to the ME and Mediterranean

Monica Lewinsky redux ?
Apr 12, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Pat Lang Mod , 13 hours ago

This looks like war to me. The only question is how big and can it be confined to the ME and Mediterranean.
im cotton -> Pat Lang , 9 hours ago
I am not under the illusion that the US is the cause of all the world's ills, but if our government had at least some half-sane foreign policy which involved cooperation with Russia and China--among other nations--on issues of mutual concern, the world would be a far better place. Instead it's nothing but our-way-or-the-highway confrontation.

Our exceptionalism blinds us to any consideration that there are other people, places, and nations with valid interests. Working through those interests with the goal of mutual benefit to all parties would truly make America great again, not this nonsense. The world is not always a zero sum game.

Randal -> Pat Lang , 12 hours ago
Wouldn't want to be in Putin's seat right now - he's got some very tough calls to make, and none of the choices are good.

If Russia were really the US's enemy, it might be argued that Trump had done good to put him in that position. But why on earth should Russia be regarded as an enemy of the US, except when the US chooses to make it one with actions like this proposed war against its ally?

Daily Planet Hashgraph rules a -> Pat Lang , 2 hours ago
Col Lang, thanks for all you've done in service to the U.S and continue to do by getting this message out to the rest of the nation through your network.
james -> Pat Lang , 4 hours ago
pat, i am going to go out on a limb and say i don't believe any attack will
happen soon.. if anything happens i think april 24th is close to the
time it will happen... and if that date passes, i think it is unlikely
to happen in the way it is being anticipated at present.. and - wait for it..... that is based off the astrology!
Timothy Hagios -> Pat Lang , 10 hours ago
What I see as a major factor is that Russia probably can't afford a small tit-for-tat exchange. If Russia and the US knock down a couple of each other's planes and then try to cool things off militarily, Russia will almost certainly face massive economic consequences, probably involving the cancellation of the Nord Stream II at a minimum. This means that Russia needs to either do nothing or respond with such force that the west cannot simply change tactics and critically escalate the economic pressure.
Kooshy -> Timothy Hagios , 7 hours ago
Did you had your dinner with Alan Deshowitz too ?
james -> Kooshy , 6 hours ago
based on their comments - they are essentially parroting israels hopes and wishes..
Sid Finster , 13 hours ago
Please do not misunderstand me, I respect your struggle, Colonel, even if it is futile.
Do you remember Iraq's desperate attempts to avoid war in 2003?

All those efforts, all the massive protests in the West were to no avail, because the Empire had made up its mind that it wanted war, and was perfectly willing to lie to get that war.

"Mobile WMD factories"

"Yellow cake"

"Aluminum tubes" ZOMG. Aluminum. Tubes.

In spite of crimes on a hitlerian scale, nobody in the United States or UK leadership paid any price at all, not on a personal level, not on a professional level. Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Blair and the others walk the streets freely, treated as Elder Statesmen and Wise Leaders, in spite of the fact that they are directly responsible for hundreds of thousands of deaths, trillions of dollars wasted, and not only that, but every doomsayer's prediction with regard to Iraq came to pass.

If the west had one tenth the respect for "the rule of law" that it professes, every last one of these Elder Statesmen and more would hang. At the same time, if Saddam Hussein truly had nuclear weapons, the west would have to think twice, just as it cannot force its will on North Korea.

The moral of this sad story? There is no reasoning with sociopaths. They can be dealt with only from a position of strength, if you have rewards to give them that they cannot otherwise take, or punishments to had out that they cannot avoid.

Reward and punishment is what sociopaths understand.

DH -> Sid Finster , 6 hours ago
""Aluminum tubes" ZOMG. Aluminum. Tubes."

lol seems like a lifetime ago. A sad development is that Rumsfeld's 'you to go war...' had entered the national psyche as a saying to be paraphrased. Guilty.

Artemesia -> Sid Finster , 6 hours ago
So who were the sociopaths in the room when Hitler allowed the British to depart Dunkirk; when Hitler offered numerous peace offers to Britain; when the German government offered more-than-generous terms to Poland to settle the Danzig question?
You wrote earlier, Sid Finster,
"Sociopaths care nothing for logic or morality of they stabs in the way of something they want. Like the Reichstag fire.
I don't understand why people refuse to see that we are run by sociopaths, or, at a minimum, by people indistinguishable from sociopaths."

In a recent comment the failure of comparison of Syria to the Reichstag fire was explained.
Reductio ad Hitlerum is equally intellectually suspect.

How did so many people get to be sociopaths? I suggest that one element is that almost the entire nation has been systematically misinformed about its own history, and trained like puppy-dogs to load all culpability on 'that guy,' thereby escaping accountability and also insight, characteristics of -- a sociopath.

Before we start diagnosing sociopathology and offering "reward and punishment" treatment, we might do well to do precisely what major decision makers in the current situation have failed to do: examine the situation from all sides, rationally, based on sound evidence (movies & TV don't count).

Rep. Carol Maloney and seven other congressmen are sponsoring the "Never Again Education Act" to "teach American Students about the Holocaust." https://www.algemeiner.com/... This is an extremely dangerous measure that must be struck down before it takes hold. The Holocaust is already taught in US public schools, and taught in a way that permits no critical analysis but only acquiescence. When a school district in California assigned students to study the issue and prepare a critical analysis of it, the school district was severely chastised, made to rescind and counteract the assignment, monitored for several years to ensure "Holocaust compliance." This is not an intellectually sound study of history, this is dogmatic tyranny. It produces --- sociopaths.

Timothy Hagios -> Sid Finster , 9 hours ago
On several occasions, I have encountered individuals who are psychologically incapable of constructing boundaries for their personal conduct. Instead of determining what they should not do for themselves, they rely on their boss (or anyone else who's above them) to knock them back when they go to far. And then they get to the top...
JoeC , 15 hours ago
Interesting develops in Russia reported by John Helmer - a potential major shift in power from oligarchs to defense interests and indications that the government to be formed by Putin will essentially be a war cabinet (and without Medvedev). All of this seems driven by the unrelating and largely imaginary criticism of Russia by the US, UK, etc. and the lack of any willingness to have honest assessments of the negative claims like the Syria "chemical attacks": http://johnhelmer.org/?p=17...
smoothieX12 . -> JoeC , 10 hours ago
Last Russian Presidential elections were not about electing the President of Russian Federation, they were about electing a Supreme Commander. Most Russians understand that, US national security apparatus and media do not. It is simply beyond their grasp and experiences.
Eric Newhill , 14 hours ago
I am afraid this is a fait accompli. Thank you for trying. At least your honor is clean, which is much more than can be said for too many in a position to influence. I weep for our nation.
As an aside, Trump won't be re-elected, but I don't think he cares at this point - he may not even complete his first term. PT was wrong. The coup has not failed. It marches on. Trump's lack of character has revealed itself. He should make a stand now on his principles. Engaging in war with Syria and Russia isn't going to save his presidency. They will overthrow him anyhow as an example of what will happen to anyone else that The People elect as oppose to the deep state.
Biggee Mikeee -> Eric Newhill , 11 hours ago
(aka mikee)

Eric:
I voted for Trump but he lost my support over a year ago.
Time to finally accept the fact that Trump has no principles.
Trump's statement last week about pulling troop's out of Syria was a half-assed attempt at cover for what came about a few days later. Mulshine's try at running interference for Trump is a comical continuation of that cover. It's a dog and pony show. Don't fall for it.

Who has the ultimate responsibility?

View Hide
Fred -> Eric Newhill , 12 hours ago
Eric,

Now everyone will have a reason to get rid of Trump, then bankrupt his family to boot. Not to worry, Bombing Bolton will win another war and we'll be greated as liberators from Damascus to Moscow. Evidence? Who cares if the evidence is even more fabricated than the Fusion GPS crap. Would anyone in the intellegence community lie? On a bright note Little Rocket Man won't have to worry about his future after Big Rocket Man proves his point.

Eric Newhill -> Fred , 9 hours ago
Fred,
Pour encourager les autres
John Minnerath -> Eric Newhill , 13 hours ago
Eric Newhill,
I fear you may be right. Trump is getting hammered from every side right now.
He may extricate himself, but the quicksand in the swamp is getting deeper.
Sid Finster -> John Minnerath , 13 hours ago
The funny part is that russiagate conspiracy theorists will scream "Putin puppet!" even as the ICBMs are launched. The "Trump is fighting the Deep State" conspiracy theorists will insist that this is eleven-dimensional chess or something equally stupid, even as they go up in a mushroom cloud.

At least it would be funny, if it were not actually happening.

Eric Newhill -> John Minnerath , 13 hours ago
John,

Then again, just when all appears lost a glimmer of hope is offered. Teresa May is hedging now. Maybe it wasn't gas. Maybe Assad didn't do it - inspectors are needed on the ground at the site: http://www.breitbart.com/lo...

chris chuba , 15 hours ago
This is my hometown guy. I was surprised by the number of people there (as well as other places) who are absolutely 100% convinced about the fact that there was a chemical attack and Assad must be guilty because they saw the footage of the victims foaming from their mouths on TV. Yikes.

Perhaps I should blame the networks. In all of the coverage that I saw, they simply streamed out the video as if it came from one of their foreign correspondents. If the networks had any sense of professionalism they would have put up a caption,

'This footage is unverified, it was obtained by rebel activists'

or words to that effect.

james -> chris chuba , 11 hours ago
get your white helmet videos!!!! hot off the press!!!!
james , 11 hours ago
thanks for stating all that pat.. i am happy to see your word is reaching some of the msm! can you get your press secretary to run your ideas by the nyt, wapo and wsj too? that would be a switch for what they regularly offer!
Pat Lang Mod -> james , 11 hours ago
I have been excluded from the MSM by the Ziocons. i don't know why Mulshine talks to me nor do I know why he and Tucker Carlson still are employed.
james -> Pat Lang , 11 hours ago
your comment confirms the idea that alternative views are not being heard in the msm... the msm appears to be one big hall of mirrors with generally the same message being sent out - one that conforms with the ziocons..
RaisingMac -> james , 9 hours ago
I may be dating myself here, but I can still remember 25 years ago, when Col. Lang was a regular guest on the old McNeill/Lehrer News Hour on PBS. He always gave excellent, informed commentary. I was so glad a couple of years ago, when--quite by accident--I found this blog on the internet. It's been a go-to source for me ever since. It's a pity that informed experts like Col. Lang aren't often featured by our MSM anymore; but the again, that's why I now mostly avoid the MSM.
Paul Mulshine -> james , 4 hours ago
I think the real problem is not so much ideology but the fact that the current crop of journalists have little experience with dust-ups in the "developing" world and therefore have to trust inside-the-Beltway "experts" who have no expertise.
VietnamVet , 9 hours ago
Colonel,

Thanks. You've kept your honor.

House Speaker Paul Ryan to retire. "Paul Ryan is abandoning the ship before it
sinks - Chicago Tribune". No doubt to get his cut. But, I guess he never got the briefing
that if the USA goes to war with the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin has more
than enough nuclear weapons to spare one to target Janesville, WI. Will he have time to realize that it all was for nothing?

Babak Makkinejad , 9 hours ago
All:

I believe this episode demonstrates the soundness of my observation a few months ago that the best course of action for the United States is to cut and run from Syria as well as Afghanistan and a number of other such places.

US has demonstrated that she could be easily manipulated and her actions could lead to World War III.

Sid Finster -> Babak Makkinejad , 5 hours ago
The neocons seem to see WWIII as a feature and not a bug.

Witness the articles suggesting that we can "win" a nuclear war. I am reminded of the scene from Dr. Strangelove when General Buck Turgidson suggested "not more than ten, twenty million dead, TOPS!"

Fred , 14 hours ago
Trump should fire a few generals and recall Dempsey back to duty.
DH -> Fred , 7 hours ago
"Kerry asks Dempsey to back him up Dempsey declines, causing Rand Paul's ally to burst out laughing." [I created this clip on C-SPAN, booya!]

https://www.c-span.org/vide...

RaisingMac -> Fred , 9 hours ago
Dempsey was good. So was Gen. Flynn.

[Apr 12, 2018] Listening to Russian experts (short report about the mood on Russian prime time TV)

Notable quotes:
"... Next, there was an consensus view that pleading, reasoning, asking for fairness or justice, or even for common sense, was futile. The Russian view is simple: the West is ruled by a gang of thugs supported by an infinitely lying and hypocritical media while the general public in the West has been hopelessly zombified. The authority of the so-called "western values" (democracy, rule of law, human rights, etc.) in Russia is now roadkill. ..."
"... There was also a broad consensus that the US elites are not taking Russia seriously and that the current Russian diplomatic efforts are futile (especially towards the UK). The only way to change that would be with very harsh measures, including diplomatic and military ones. Everybody agreed that talking with Boris Johnson would be not only a total waste of time, but a huge mistake. ..."
"... Reach your own conclusions. I will just say that none of the "experts" was representing, or working for, the Russian government. Government experts not only have better info, they also know that the lives of millions of people depend on their decisions, which is not the case for the so-called "experts". Still, the words of these experts do reflect, I think, a growing popular consensus. ..."
Apr 12, 2018 | thesaker.is

They all agreed that the AngloZionist (of course, they used the words "USA" or "Western countries") was only going to further escalate and that the only way to stop this is to deliberately bring the world right up to the point were a full-scale US-Russian war was imminent or even locally started.

They said that it was fundamentally wrong for Russia to reply with just words against Western actions. Interestingly, there also was a consensus that even a full-scale US attack on Syria would be too late to change the situation on the ground, that it was way too late for that.

Another interesting conclusion was that the only real question for Russia is whether Russia would be better off delaying this maximal crisis or accelerating the events and making everything happen sooner. There was no consensus on that.

Next, there was an consensus view that pleading, reasoning, asking for fairness or justice, or even for common sense, was futile. The Russian view is simple: the West is ruled by a gang of thugs supported by an infinitely lying and hypocritical media while the general public in the West has been hopelessly zombified. The authority of the so-called "western values" (democracy, rule of law, human rights, etc.) in Russia is now roadkill.

There was also a broad consensus that the US elites are not taking Russia seriously and that the current Russian diplomatic efforts are futile (especially towards the UK). The only way to change that would be with very harsh measures, including diplomatic and military ones. Everybody agreed that talking with Boris Johnson would be not only a total waste of time, but a huge mistake.

To my amazement, the notion that Russia might have to sink a few USN ships or use Kalibers on US forces in the Middle-East was viewed as a real, maybe inevitable, option. Really – nobody objected.

Reach your own conclusions. I will just say that none of the "experts" was representing, or working for, the Russian government. Government experts not only have better info, they also know that the lives of millions of people depend on their decisions, which is not the case for the so-called "experts". Still, the words of these experts do reflect, I think, a growing popular consensus.

Source: The Saker

[Apr 12, 2018] I am beginning to think that impeaching Trump is a good idea. He is ready to unleash another war on fase premises destroying the stability of the world. He truly is a bull in a china shop

Notable quotes:
"... If the chemical attack on Douma really is fictitious – as the Russians insist it is – then for the first time their control of the crime scene puts the Russians in a strong position to prove it. ..."
"... The point was made forcefully by Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia at the UN Security Council session today, and it also received indirect backing from the UN Secretariat, who admitted that they could not confirm that a chemical weapons attack had happened, and who called upon all sides to show restraint until a proper investigation of the incident had taken place. ..."
"... By now it should surprise no-one that the fact that the Russians are in control of the crime scene and may on this occasion be able to prove conclusively that no chemical weapons attack happened in Douma, instead of deterring a US attack, is actually making it more likely. ..."
"... This is because the credibility of the various 'witnesses' to the Douma attack – who are of course the same witnesses who were previously 'witnesses' to the 2013 East Ghouta and the 2017 Khan Sheikhoun attacks – is now on the line, as is the credibility of those Western governments – first and foremost the US government – who believed or who pretended to believe them. ..."
"... We call upon Western politicians to scale down their hawkish rhetoric, to meaningfully consider possible repercussions and to cease the reckless spill over of threats to global security. What military misadventures of the West brought about is well known to us if we consider the examples of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya. ..."
"... And nobody invested you with the power to act as policemen of the world and as investigators, procurators, judges and executioners all at the same time. ..."
"... We call for your return to the legal fold to comply with the U N Charter and to jointly tackle problems that arise, rather than attempting at each step to advance your egotistical geopolitical game. All of the energy needs to be focused on support for the political process in Syria, to which it is necessary to constructively pull the efforts of all influential players. Russia always stands ready to engage in such cooperation ..."
"... RobinG posted Haley's UN diatribe from yesterday. She hammered away at the "pictures of dead babies" theme. What an embarrassment to the American people. ..."
Apr 12, 2018 | www.unz.com

Art , April 11, 2018 at 8:42 pm GMT

For the sake of world peace – I am beginning to think that impeaching Trump is a good idea. He is doing harm to the stability of the world. He truly is a bull in a china shop. Upsetting America's internal status quo is a good thing – but upsetting the worlds equilibrium is another. The only country in the world that Trump has not pissed off – is Israel – how totally and completely disgusting.

Am not there 100% yet – but getting close.

Think Peace -- Art

redmudhooch , Next New Comment April 12, 2018 at 12:59 am GMT
@Art

You know who Mike Pence is right? Cause he's next in line. Anyway could this be the reason they're so horny to attack now?

Russia controls Douma, guarantees impartial investigation; that makes US attack MORE likely

http://theduran.com/russia-controls-douma-guarantees-impartial-investigation-us-attack-more-likely/

As a result of the total surrender of the Jihadis previously in control of Douma on Sunday, it is the Russian military who this time are in control of the alleged crime scene.

This has put the Russians in a position where for the first time they are able both to invite the OPCW inspectors to attend the crime scene and to provide them with protection if they are there, whilst at the same time monitoring and supervising their work.

If the chemical attack on Douma really is fictitious – as the Russians insist it is – then for the first time their control of the crime scene puts the Russians in a strong position to prove it.

The point was made forcefully by Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia at the UN Security Council session today, and it also received indirect backing from the UN Secretariat, who admitted that they could not confirm that a chemical weapons attack had happened, and who called upon all sides to show restraint until a proper investigation of the incident had taken place.

Nebenzia followed this up by inviting OPCW inspectors to the scene as early as tomorrow Tuesday.

By now it should surprise no-one that the fact that the Russians are in control of the crime scene and may on this occasion be able to prove conclusively that no chemical weapons attack happened in Douma, instead of deterring a US attack, is actually making it more likely.

This is because the credibility of the various 'witnesses' to the Douma attack – who are of course the same witnesses who were previously 'witnesses' to the 2013 East Ghouta and the 2017 Khan Sheikhoun attacks – is now on the line, as is the credibility of those Western governments – first and foremost the US government – who believed or who pretended to believe them.

I would add that not only is the credibility of the US government and of other Western governments on the line. So is the credibility of Western journalists who also believed or pretended to believe the 'witnesses'.

SolontoCroesus , Next New Comment April 12, 2018 at 1:38 am GMT
@redmudhooch

Ron Unz posted a video of the Russian envoy's speech at UN today (Apr 11 18).

Rough notes from near the end to the conclusion of his remarks:

"And you are misguided if you think tha thou have friends So called friends of yours are only those who cannot say no to you. And this is the sole criterion for friendship in your understanding . Russia has friends and unlike yourselves we do not have adversaries.

We do not view the world through that prism. And yes, international terrorism, that is our enemy. However, we continue to propose cooperation. This need to be respectful and mutual cooperation, it needs to go towards resolving real and not imagined problems. And you should be just as interested as we are in such a cooperation.

///

26 min: As permanent members of the Security Council, we bear the main responsibility for the maintenance of international peace and security. Through the relevant channels, we already conveyed to the US that armed force under mendacious pretexts against Syria, where, at the request of the legitimate government of the country, Russian troops have been deployed, could lead to grave repercussions.

We call upon Western politicians to scale down their hawkish rhetoric, to meaningfully consider possible repercussions and to cease the reckless spill over of threats to global security. What military misadventures of the West brought about is well known to us if we consider the examples of Yugoslavia, Iraq and Libya.

And nobody invested you with the power to act as policemen of the world and as investigators, procurators, judges and executioners all at the same time.

We call for your return to the legal fold to comply with the U N Charter and to jointly tackle problems that arise, rather than attempting at each step to advance your egotistical geopolitical game. All of the energy needs to be focused on support for the political process in Syria, to which it is necessary to constructively pull the efforts of all influential players. Russia always stands ready to engage in such cooperation .

To conclude, Mr. President, I wish to take this opportunity to request an open briefing of the Security Council on the outcomes of the UN assessment mission in Raqqa and the situation in the Rahman camp. We see the way of members of the Commission attempting to create a smoke screen around this issue, which is a result of their actions in Syria, including the operations to rain Raqqa to the ground through bombings. No chemical provocations will divert attention from this, from what you've done. Thank you.


Nikki Haley was in the room and listening.

RobinG posted Haley's UN diatribe from yesterday. She hammered away at the "pictures of dead babies" theme. What an embarrassment to the American people.

[Apr 11, 2018] An interesting perspective on why the crisis has escalated to this point is made by Adam Garrie

Syria invasion by the USA with Arab monarchies and several Western "partners in crime" is nothing but an attempt to correct disastrous results of Saddam removal which essentially gave the country for free to Iran. Not they try to convert Syria into Sunni country hostile to Iraq/Iran and that requires removal of secular Assad government.
Apr 11, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 , Apr 11, 2018 1:29:37 PM | 99

An interesting perspective on why the crisis has escalated to this point is made by Adam Garrie along the lines of Zhirinovsky's nationalist critique of Putin's policy/rhetoric to NATO/Outlaw US Empire acts. Excerpt:

"In respect of Syria, Russia is guilty of presuming that in fighting a war against terrorism that the entire world ought to have supported, that even its enemies in the US and Europe would somehow allow Russia to go about its business in Syria, owing to the greater good of eliminating terrorist groups like Daesh, al-Qaeda and their clones from the face of the earth.

"This was a false premise from the beginning as Russia should have known all too well. Russia should not have been so naive in presuming a nonchalant attitude from the western, as when it comes to the western imperial quest for global dominance, they will do anything to subdue Russia, no matter how many objectively gruesome allies the west will need to associate itself with in the process. There is even a clear blueprint regarding this western attitude. Its author was an English academic called Halford Mackinder whose so-called "heartland theory" portrayed Russia as a necessary "pivot area" that western imperialists would need to subdue in their wider ambition to conquer China and the wider Asian world."

There are some aspects of this position I agree with. But then neither Garrie, Zhriniovsky or I are Russia's President having to weigh a great number of issues, which is why I find it difficult to criticize Putin/Lavrov's overall efforts and thrust. China's Xi now appears to be willing to emerge from behind the shadows to exert its pressure on events. As I alluded to in my comment above, it's quite likely Russia will encourage/allow Syria to use its anti-ship missiles in retaliation, which subtly shifts the dynamic.

Timothy Hagios | Apr 11, 2018 2:41:46 PM |

Russia's main impediment is that it cannot allow the conflict to become purely economic, as it is more vulnerable economically than militarily.

Thus Russia needs to respond to an attack either by doing nothing or by striking with such force that the West is not given the option of creating an economic blockade while maintaining its economic advantages.

One option would be to strike Saudi oil fields, which would be devastating to the West without necessarily leading to a full-blown nuclear war.

[Apr 11, 2018] Israel has no qualms about being a dishonest and lying inciter of a mass murder while pretending sanctimoniously on some "superior morality" and "eternal victimhood."

Notable quotes:
"... AIPAC's vulgarity is legendary. Despite the Jewish power in the US and the UK, the Israel-firsters are a miserable lot incapable of maintaining the standards of decency. ..."
Apr 11, 2018 | www.unz.com

annamaria , April 12, 2018 at 12:14 am GMT

@anon

Saudis will be used as useful idiots by Israelis.

Israel has no qualms about being a dishonest and lying inciter of a mass murder while pretending sanctimoniously on some "superior morality" and "eternal victimhood."

AIPAC's vulgarity is legendary. Despite the Jewish power in the US and the UK, the Israel-firsters are a miserable lot incapable of maintaining the standards of decency.

[Apr 11, 2018] Right now Jews and Arabs have joined forces to suppress the Persians. What happens AFTER the Persians are diminished? Do Israel and Saudi Arabia turn on each other?

Notable quotes:
"... It must be pointed out that obviously, Saudi and Israeli goals are mutually incompatible. Saudi Arabia cannot be the premier power in the Middle East while Israel retains much influence. Similarly, Israel cannot be hegemon while the Arabs, in the form of Saudi Arabia, remain powerful. ..."
"... So you paint a scenario where Jews and Arabs have joined forces to suppress the Persians. What happens AFTER the Persians are diminished? Do Israel and Saudi Arabia turn on each other? Do they divvy up the Middle East? Do they jointly turn against the Turks? Does one ally with the Turks to gang up on the third? ..."
"... What's the end game? ..."
Apr 11, 2018 | www.unz.com

myself April 11, 2018 at 11:12 pm GMT

@renfro

Saudi's motive was to prevent its spreading Shia influence in the region because it was a threat to the Sunni throne i.e.,their place as the leading Kings and rulers of the ME

Israel's motive was of course to destroy all states like Syria and Iran who might resist their aim of being the supreme hegemon of the ME.

I see the pattern, broadly speaking. Let's suppose you're correct.

It must be pointed out that obviously, Saudi and Israeli goals are mutually incompatible. Saudi Arabia cannot be the premier power in the Middle East while Israel retains much influence. Similarly, Israel cannot be hegemon while the Arabs, in the form of Saudi Arabia, remain powerful.

Bit of layman's background.

The modern region we know as the "Middle East" has 4 ethnic-cultural poles. The Israelites and Persians have been there since antiquity, the Arabs became a force with the coming of Islam, and finally Asian interlopers, the Turks, smashed in while fleeing from their Inner Mongolian homelands.

So you paint a scenario where Jews and Arabs have joined forces to suppress the Persians. What happens AFTER the Persians are diminished? Do Israel and Saudi Arabia turn on each other? Do they divvy up the Middle East? Do they jointly turn against the Turks? Does one ally with the Turks to gang up on the third?

What's the end game?

renfro, April 12, 2018 at 12:38 am GMT

@myself

What happens AFTER the Persians are diminished? Do Israel and Saudi Arabia turn on each other? Do they divvy up the Middle East?

Yes they will turn on each other -- the enemy of my enemy is my friend -- for awhile, not forever

Israel will never quit trying to rule the ME and dip its beak into other countries wealth and resources. Saudi will never let them have that much control over Arab countries as that would be as threatening to their throne as Iranian influence.

Both think they will be able to control and out smart each once their current mutual goal is achieved.

[Apr 11, 2018] It is long passed the time when any thinking person took Trump tweets seriously

Highly recommended!
Trump became really deranged. For a world leader to behave in such a way is unexcusable. Now even Trump supporters think that he should be removed
But the goal of the USA in Syria is establishing Saudi-friendly Sunni theocracy remains unchanged, since Obama unleashed this war using Libyan weapons and Islamic mercenaries/volunteers They want to compensate with Syria the fact that Iraq now went to Iran sphere of influence instead being a countervailing force during Saddam rein.
Notable quotes:
"... This latest Trump-Tweet about "Russia to be ready for new, smart missiles raining down on Syria" is also a negotiating ploy and to save face. Stock markets, even in this volatile times, have hardly budged, and the gold price is where it has been for the past year. ..."
Apr 11, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Aren Haich , Apr 11, 2018 3:38:48 PM | 141

It is long passed the time when any thinking person took Trump-Tweets seriously. Trump, himself doesn't take them seriously and considers them as 'negotiating tactics'. Remember the tweets: "Fire & Fury the World has Never Seen Before", "Little Rocket Man" and "Bigger Nuclear Button", which then ushered in the prospect of a meeting between Trump and Kim Jong Un?

This latest Trump-Tweet about "Russia to be ready for new, smart missiles raining down on Syria" is also a negotiating ploy and to save face. Stock markets, even in this volatile times, have hardly budged, and the gold price is where it has been for the past year.

There will probably be a well-restricted cruise missile attack on some Syrian-Iranian base with Russia pre-warned. The long-promised meeting between Trump and Putin will emerge in the news to discuss the future of Syria. Trump's desire to pull out of Syria will then come about naturally and as the result of consultations with Putin.

[Apr 11, 2018] Syria - A U.S. Attack Would Be Futile - But Serve A Purpose by M. K. Bhadrakumar

Notable quotes:
"... The UN has refused to confirm there has been any attack at all. Russia and Syrian government insist there has been no attack and have approached the Organization for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for an international investigation. The good thing is that the OPCW is deputing two teams of experts to go to Douma later this week. Russia has offered to give them full security protection. ..."
"... Logically, punishment follows a crime that has been committed and it seems no crime has been committed. ..."
"... Perhaps, Trump is indulging in doublespeak and the backdrop could be the criticality that has arisen over Robert Mueller's investigation into his collusion with Russia, which has now dramatically expanded in scope. The FBI raid on the office of Trump's attorney in the White House is a very serious development. Trump is just inches away from being implicated in the charges against him leveled by porn star Stormy Daniels. ..."
"... A US attack on Syria can distract attention from the stormy controversy that may arise if at this point Trump axes Mueller and derails the investigation against him. There are precedents when beleaguered American presidents resorted to diversionary tactic. Bill Clinton fired cruise missiles at Kandahar when the scandal over Monica Lewinsky peaked and he was facing the prospect of impeachment. ..."
"... A US That brings us back to the alleged chemical attack in Douma last weekend. Who would have staged a false flag operation? The finger of suspicion points toward Israel's role. Israel is desperately keen that the US should have a permanent military presence in Syria. ..."
"... Under strong pressure after the raid on his lawyer's office Trump has obviously decided to strike ..."
"... https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/984022625440747520 ..."
Apr 11, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

The United Nations Security Council turned down a compromise resolution on Syria, proposed by Sweden and seconded by Russia seeking investigation on the alleged chemical attack in Douma. Five countries supported the resolution with two permanent members – United States and Britain – opposing it. Earlier, a resolution on the same lines which was supported by Russia and China was also opposed by the US and Britain.

This is a significant political and diplomatic victory for Russia insofar as only two other countries joined the US and Britain to oppose the Swedish resolution. Six countries abstained.

The big question is whether this development portends an impending US attack on Syria, bypassing the UN. The UN has refused to confirm there has been any attack at all. Russia and Syrian government insist there has been no attack and have approached the Organization for the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for an international investigation. The good thing is that the OPCW is deputing two teams of experts to go to Douma later this week. Russia has offered to give them full security protection.

So Trump has a major decision to make. Logically, punishment follows a crime that has been committed and it seems no crime has been committed. This appears to be a false flag operation – that is, a fabrication with a view to trigger a sequence of events. That was how the US invaded Iraq in 2003 and it is an established fact today that Saddam Hussein did not have any program to develop weapons of mass destruction, as then US Secretary of State Colin Power had misled the UN Security Council. (Powell later admitted that he was misled by his own administration.)

One difference in the present case is that Trump has been on record that he wants the American military presence in Syria to end. That stance and the present threat to launch an attack on Syria are contradictory. Because, a US attack on Syria will have serious repercussions, including possibly a showdown with Russia, which would mean a US drawdown in Syria may not be possible in a conceivable future.

Perhaps, Trump is indulging in doublespeak and the backdrop could be the criticality that has arisen over Robert Mueller's investigation into his collusion with Russia, which has now dramatically expanded in scope. The FBI raid on the office of Trump's attorney in the White House is a very serious development. Trump is just inches away from being implicated in the charges against him leveled by porn star Stormy Daniels. The CNN says, "There could be dark and unprecedented times ahead." A US attack on Syria can distract attention from the stormy controversy that may arise if at this point Trump axes Mueller and derails the investigation against him. There are precedents when beleaguered American presidents resorted to diversionary tactic. Bill Clinton fired cruise missiles at Kandahar when the scandal over Monica Lewinsky peaked and he was facing the prospect of impeachment.

A US That brings us back to the alleged chemical attack in Douma last weekend. Who would have staged a false flag operation? The finger of suspicion points toward Israel's role. Israel is desperately keen that the US should have a permanent military presence in Syria. To that end, Israel is fueling tensions that will take matters to a point that a US withdrawal from Syria somehow gets stalled. This is also the impression conveyed by DebkaFile, the Israeli website with links to the intelligence, which specializes in disinformation tactic.

M.K. Bhadrakumar served as a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service for over 29 years, with postings including India's ambassador to Uzbekistan (1995-1998) and to Turkey (1998-2001).

This column was first published at Indian Punchline , Mr. Bhadrakumar's personal blog. It is republish here with his permission.


ab initio , Apr 11, 2018 3:27:40 AM | 4

Trump is like a cornered rat. The Deep State's Team Mueller is moving from the Russia collusion nothingburger to investigating everything else about Trump including his past sex life and business deals. There's a possibility of something there that could cause a perjury trap or an indictment for violating some obscure criminal statute. Now they may have important documents seized from his personal attorney Michael Cohen.

The same Cohen who was allegedly in Prague meeting with the Russians according to MI6 man Christopher Steele who wrote parts of the Steele Dossier which turned out to be a fabrication.

In the mean time his DOJ and AG is slow rolling the investigation into the conspiracy against him by Obama's top law enforcement and intelligence officials. The Deep State continues to confound Trump. He doesn't seem to have a good strategy against their continuous attacks on him.

Bhadrakumar believes a Wag the Dog confrontation with Russia may bail him out. I don't think so. The Deep State are out to get him. They failed the first time when the American voters in the mid-west didn't buy their electoral propaganda. Now they are executing their insurance policy using Team Mueller as the attack dog.

David , Apr 11, 2018 4:11:33 AM | 9
British retired General Richard Barrons has just confirmed on BBC Radio 4 that a Russian attack on American ships offshore Syria would result in a wider war. Macron (France), seems on board. I dunno if this signals a UK about-face or if
Alaric , Apr 11, 2018 4:39:26 AM | 12
Israel, the Israeli lobby and Saudi Arabia are the greatest threats to mankind.


That said it wouldn't hurt Russia to increase its military capabilities in Syria as a deterrent and Iran and Russia need to end this conflict already. The slow grinding victory provides too many opportunities for Israel, Saudi and the neocons to create trouble. China should help.

Lastly, Israel and Saudi should be struck if Syria is attacked. Those two promote wars because they have impunity. The risk and damage of war must be theirs too.

test , Apr 11, 2018 4:43:51 AM | 14
This is absurd!

"The failure of an "innocuous" draft in support of an impartial investigation into the alleged chemical incident in Syria's Douma is a "litmus test which speaks volumes," Russia's UN envoy Vassily Nebenzia said. The draft was based on, and "almost completely copied," an earlier proposal by Sweden. Nebenzia argued that the proposal was stonewalled simply because it ultimately came from Russia."
https://www.rt.com/news/423762-syria-investigation-draft-rejected/

Seems like states like Sweden, Nethetlands, Poland cover the coming warcrime of US bombing in the UN while US, UK, France will be the ones that do the bombing.

Pat Bateman , Apr 11, 2018 4:45:46 AM | 16
Bhadrakumar predicted that Putin would sell out Assad about 5 years ago. I have stopped reading his opinion pieces since then. Still, this post makes a refreshing change from your obsession with EJ Magnier's point of view, b. You need to step back, take a look and use your own gut on this.

The Americans know this latest 'attack' is bullshit and its planning predates any FBI raid on Trump's attorney. The Russians were calling this out a month ago. At the same time that they were being accussed of poisoning the Skripals. There has been scant consideration of the link between the two. Yet it is a chain of events that was designed to bring us to the point where the US could form a military alliance with the likes of Britain and France (Britain of course already exposed to 5 weeks of anti-Russia chemical weapon hysteria, thereby setting up a win in the minds of the public and in parliament for a vote on intervention/payback) will launch an attack on the seat of power in Damascus.

This is going to be shock and awe, and Putin is not going to stop it. When dozens of Russians were killed in the East by US bombing recently, there was no response. Only a denial that these men ever existed. It was the green light the US axis needed to power up the engines for the attack we are about to witness.

The only question that remains is whether Assad will be left standing.

David , Apr 11, 2018 5:15:40 AM | 20
"The Turkish newspaper Yeni Safak states that, the blow will be inflicted by the troops of the United States, Britain and France within the next 24 hours.

According to sources, a total of 22 targets have been identified in Syria, which will be destroyed by Western aviation – these are facilities in Damascus, Homs, Tartus, Hama, Deir ez Zor, and Rakka. In particular, it is planned to strike the area of ​​the Russian military base in Tartus."

Neb , Apr 11, 2018 5:29:58 AM | 24 test , Apr 11, 2018 5:31:10 AM | 25
Add this warfare US wage on Russia

US sanctions spark 'black Monday' on Russian stock market
http://tass.com/economy/998640

US playing with fire now, isnt there anyone that could stop this madness?

Neb , Apr 11, 2018 5:34:57 AM | 26
BEIRUT (Reuters) - Russia's ambassador to Lebanon said any U.S. missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launch sites targeted, a step that could trigger a major escalation in the Syrian war.


https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-diplomat/russian-envoy-to-lebanon-any-u-s-missiles-fired-at-syria-will-be-shot-down-idUSKBN1HI0PU

Perimtr , Apr 11, 2018 5:40:55 AM | 27
Sputnik is citing NYTimes as saying Trump is considering large attack, Turkish source cited as saying 22 targets including those with Russian troops are being considered https://sputniknews.com/us/201804111063429837-trump-mulls-strike-syria-chemical-attack/
psychohistorian , Apr 11, 2018 5:42:04 AM | 28
The following is a short posting from Reuters

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Wednesday it hoped all sides involved in Syria would avoid doing anything that could destabilize an already fragile situation in the Middle East and made clear it was strongly opposed to a possible U.S. strike on its ally.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attends a meeting of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Qatar's Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia March 26, 2018. REUTERS/Sergei Karpukhin
The United States and its allies are considering whether to hit Syria over a suspected poison gas attack that medical relief organizations say killed dozens of people in the rebel-held town of Douma near Damascus on Saturday.

The Kremlin said on Wednesday allegations that Syrian government forces had carried out the chemical weapons attack were not based on real facts and said it wanted an impartial investigation into the incident.

Asked about comments by Russia's ambassador to Lebanon who said that any U.S. missiles fired at Syria would be shot down and the launch sites targeted, the Kremlin said it did not want to comment on such matters.

"As before, we would like to hope that all sides will avoid any steps that a) are not provoked by anything and b) could significantly destabilize an already fragile situation in the region," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a conference call with reporters.

Reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Katya Golubkova

Neb , Apr 11, 2018 5:51:28 AM | 29
Murray is back

The Four Horsemen Gallop By

The media onslaught has moved past the attack in Salisbury by a "weapon of mass destruction" (quoting Theresa May) which could only be Russian, except that was untrue, and was extremely deadly, except that was untrue too. It now focuses on an attack by chemical weapons in Douma which "could only be" by the Russian-backed Assad regime, except there is no evidence of that either...


https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/

07564111 , Apr 11, 2018 6:01:01 AM | 31
@ 23

yes,and this is a large part of that reason. Israel needs both land and water and also the Syrian and Lebanese oil and gas.

Racing toward disaster: Israel's unsustainable population bomb

http://www.jpost.com/Jerusalem-Report/Racing-toward-disaster-Israels-unsustainable-population-bomb-504249

test , Apr 11, 2018 6:08:57 AM | 32

I am bit annoyed by the hype in here by some,
Russia has said that they COULD respond IF US strike RUSSIANS inside Syria.
Russia have of course communicated this and WHERE russians are located for US NOT TO bomb these places.
Outside the box ... , Apr 11, 2018 6:22:12 AM | 33
"Trump has been on record that he wants the American military presence in Syria to end."

I suspect some of the apparent paradox in recent statements about Trump's troops 'leaving Syria' relate to the future definition of Syria. Erdogan's on the same script with returning occupied territories to the 'rightful owners' etc.

No one NATO-side is leaving (voluntarily): the old Syria is 'off the map' as far as they are concerned and the new borders will be drawn -- a la Palestine -- wherever it is convenient, and by definition, meeting Trump's and Erdogan's criteria.

Hmpf , Apr 11, 2018 6:37:51 AM | 34
@32
Well, that's a bit short-sighted. One of these days, Russia needs to make a stand, as it doesn't make sense at all to let the 'coalition of the willing' incinerate the Syrian Arab Forces and Syrian civilian infrastructure. After all, what would it be worth fighting for/having forces deployed once the primary reason for having forces there has vanished.
xpat , Apr 11, 2018 7:00:27 AM | 37
@32

I agree. I'm no expert, but I also can't see this being a Libya/Iraq re-run; history has moved too far for that, I believe. The forces opposed to NATO/Israel have made too much progress, and have everything to lose if the US tries something more than symbolic measures. Also, I'm hoping that Russia has something up its sleeve to make the US feel some pain without triggering WWIII. To me it's the latter that's the risk, not some replay of Libya.

b , Apr 11, 2018 7:09:35 AM | 40
Under strong pressure after the raid on his lawyer's office Trump has obviously decided to strike

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/984022625440747520

Donald J. Trump
‏Verified account @realDonaldTrump

Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and "smart!" You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!
10:57 AM - 11 Apr 2018

b , Apr 11, 2018 7:09:35 AM | 40 Babyl-on , Apr 11, 2018 7:13:20 AM | 41
"Destroying Syria's air force is one option for Trump"

Ewen MacAskill Defence and intelligence correspondent

Yes, the "liberal" Guardian the "progressive" Guardian full of peace loving people seeking peace in the world. They would never ever warmonger would they?

col from oz , Apr 11, 2018 7:23:15 AM | 42
16 Pat
Putin recently: "What is the world without Russia in it."
Sounds like a man who will fight. He said with a heavy heart. Also don't you know Russia has Hawks too - the men who walk in with briefcases-
So what will happen? Putin has the assets in Southern Russia, properly fly time 13 minutes. Ship killers missiles which are indefensible. I hope Trump goes small or equal to last time with forwarding warmings. If not I think Putin statement about the 'world' comes into play. For the world sake I hope sanity prevails.
Jen , Apr 11, 2018 7:39:46 AM | 43
Reading comments suggesting, as Xpat @ 37 puts it, that Syria will be a re-run of the Iraqi and Libyan invasions ignores the fact that the US, the UK, France and other Western nations already have boots on the ground in the form of "advisors" among the jihadis, of whom very many - most likely even the great majority of them - come from foreign countries. In other words, Syria has already been subjected to a de facto global invasion. Moreover many of these "advisors" plus perhaps US and other soldiers wearing rebel insignia and uniforms have been captured by the SAA recently in East Ghouta.

Also Syrian society is not really comparable to what Libya was in 2011 and Iraq in 2003. Libya could be overcome because the eastern part of the country, centred around Benghazi, was less loyal to the Libyan government than the western part. In Iraq, there was significant Shi'ite resentment towards Saddam Hussein's government - and Shi'ites were one of the larger religious groups in that country. On the other hand, there is much less sectarianism in Syria. Syria also adopted a new constitution and political reforms in 2012 which made the country a parliamentary democracy and reduced the Ba'athist Party to just another (albeit large) political party with no special privileges.

Christian Chuba , Apr 11, 2018 7:45:46 AM | 44
1. Can the OPCW investigate without a UNSC resolution?

2. I bet that Poland voted with the U.S., UK, and France because of, how shall I say, a little puppetry?

'Dance for me Pinocchio, dance. We might have a little shipping problem with those fancy weapons that you just bought.'

somebody , Apr 11, 2018 7:52:55 AM | 45
Posted by: b | Apr 11, 2018 7:09:35 AM | 40

:-))

never underestimate the Donald's gift for contradicting himself

Donald J. Trump ‏@realDonaldTrump


Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?

Russia watched the Donald playing chicken with North Korea and drew conclusions.

It is an extremely dangerous game, playing chicken, should you decide not to play chicken.

Jen , Apr 11, 2018 7:53:40 AM | 46
07564111 @ 31: Any way of finding out how Israel uses water and whether the country is able to fulfill its water needs or has to import water?

There are old online newspaper articles about how Israel had to import tens of millions if not several hundred million cubic metres of water from Turkey. This was during Ariel Sharon's period as Prime Minister (2001? - 2006). Most recent articles are now about how Israel conserves its water resources and uses desalination and recycling - but not much about whether such conservation measures are enough to supply all of its needs and certainly nothing about Palestinians' access to water.

Interestingly Israel limits water use in agriculture but seems not to limit water use in settlements in the West Bank, compared to the severe limitations placed on Palestinians.
https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2016/06/israel-cuts-water-supplies-west-bank-ramadan-160614205022059.html
https://electronicintifada.net/blogs/adri-nieuwhof/israeli-settlers-use-six-times-more-water-palestinians-new-report

Perimetr , Apr 11, 2018 7:56:53 AM | 47
Maybe someone should tell Trump that Russia *is* ready . . . Russian military forces are on combat alert.
Mina , Apr 11, 2018 7:57:23 AM | 48
Considering the deep silence of Arab states, will we see KSA and Egypt join the so-called coalition and attack Shiites simultaneously in Yemen and Syria? KSA certainly dreams of it.
Willy2 , Apr 11, 2018 8:02:13 AM | 49
- In the 1st quarter of 2017 there was someone who said that there was a "Civil war" going on in the US between the Democrats and the Republicans. For a long time I thought that this person had "gone bonkers". But now with Mueller and the FBI raiding the offices of Trump's lawyer Micheal Cohen I have changed my mind. There certainly is such a "civil war" going on. And I fear this "Civil War" will NOT increase "stability" in the US political system.
- David Stockman made a prediction that Trump won't be president when the year 2019 starts.
Leaks of British military personnel captured during the military operation in the eastern Ghouta.

Posted by: Leaks , Apr 11, 2018 8:02:40 AM | 50

Leaks of British military personnel captured during the military operation in the eastern Ghouta.

Posted by: Leaks | Apr 11, 2018 8:02:40 AM | 50

/div
paul , Apr 11, 2018 8:03:18 AM | 51
The claim in this article that Assad's victory is a fait accomplis is often heard these days. I think it is flaming bunkum. Assad is doomed. He's been set up by his pal Putin, who repeatedly allowed Syria's enemies to reset, to consolidate and strengthen their positions. Now Assad 'governs' a chunk of Syria that is crammed full of desperate people and destroyed infrastructure but lacks resources. Russia appears ready to work out deals with the US and Turkey and Israel in which they will be guaranteed control over large pieces of Syria. Assad is in the way of that process going forwards. I doubt he will survive the coming bombing. If he is smart, he has already left Syria. Perhaps Russia will allow him to take refuge in Russia, if he finally bows to Russia's 'realpolitik'. Meanwhile Russia is sending the usual signals that they will only respond to attacks on Syria that directly affect Russia (in an undeniable way). Perhaps a bit of symbolic fracas will happen between Russia and the US just to keep up appearances a little bit. Humanity desperately needs some people with good hearts to take on some leadership roles, but instead we get a steady diet of realpolitik creepos.
07564111 , Apr 11, 2018 8:15:10 AM | 52
Tweet from Trump warns that an attack is coming.

https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/984022625440747520?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

All Russian forces at home and in Syria are now mobilized.

Mina , Apr 11, 2018 8:18:35 AM | 53
If indeed they have foreigners, they will be paraded on TV and the West will blame the evil dictator to use such practices (another problem is how you prove that the bearded guy is here for SF and not for djihad as any kid). This and the OPCW landing (it's always possible to bomb something in Abu Kamal while people travel between Damascus and the Ghouta) will have a flavor of Irak 2003 redux.
Mina , Apr 11, 2018 8:21:53 AM | 54
Poor Hamid, he has been calling to bomb Syria since 2011 and now he will see that this happens only when there is something to gain from it against the Palestinians... F*ing idiot!
https://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/opinion/media-mass-deception-180409092703608.html

[Apr 11, 2018] Syria is essentially the USA and Israel attempt to reverse Iran gains after toppling of Saddam by creating a Sunni states hostile to Iraq and Iran instead of Assad government

Douma false flag should be judged as a part desperate attempt to reverse gains of Assad in the civil war and create a Sunny theocracy to compensate for loss on Iraq as a countervailing force for Iran due to Bush Iraq war blunder.
Notable quotes:
"... So Putin was so ignorant that he didn't realize that Syria is a strategic/political extension of Iran into Israel's neighborhood? I don't buy it. Russia wasn't naive about anything, has enjoyed major success in Syria and there's no reason to question its actions.. ..."
"... One side is telling lies. It always amazes me at just how uncritical the media are when really important things are at stake. For me, the rush to action before any investigation betrays that its not the facts that count but what the US wants. Who said shoot first and ask questions later? ..."
"... "Assad's regime and Assad himself will disappear from the map and the world if the Iranians do try to harm Israel or its interests from Syrian territory," said senior officials in the defense establishment. ..."
"... So, perfect time for Israel to fabricate claims of an attack from Syria, or maybe stage one somehow to justify their planned 1) assassination of Assad, 2) further destruction of Syrian/Russian air defenses and 3) wide-scale attacks on Iranian anything in Syria. Syria will, of course, deny any attacks on Israel. But the seed for the coming narrative has already been planted with the strikingly odd suggestion of Iranians 'borrowing' Syrian army systems. If Israel can't provoke Syria or Iran to attack, then it will just have to make one happen. ..."
"... Libya is a huge lesson for both Russia and China for their believing the perfidious AZ's preaching of high moral and of law and order. Since then on Rrussia and China are not afraid to use their UN veto rights to fight against the treacherous US/UK/Fr. ..."
"... Syria is surely a very important part of Russia's long term strategy, i.e. its navy base in E. Mediterranrean, for such a foodhold in warm see water had Russia Empire fought quite a few wars, gas and oil business, grain export to ME. ..."
Apr 11, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Timothy Hagios | Apr 11, 2018 2:41:46 PM |

Russia's main impediment is that it cannot allow the conflict to become purely economic, as it is more vulnerable economically than militarily.

Thus Russia needs to respond to an attack either by doing nothing or by striking with such force that the West is not given the option of creating an economic blockade while maintaining its economic advantages.

One option would be to strike Saudi oil fields, which would be devastating to the West without necessarily leading to a full-blown nuclear war.

Don Bacon , Apr 11, 2018 2:42:49 PM | 124

@99
So Putin was so ignorant that he didn't realize that Syria is a strategic/political extension of Iran into Israel's neighborhood? I don't buy it. Russia wasn't naive about anything, has enjoyed major success in Syria and there's no reason to question its actions..
Kaiama , Apr 11, 2018 2:43:37 PM | 125
One side is telling lies. It always amazes me at just how uncritical the media are when really important things are at stake. For me, the rush to action before any investigation betrays that its not the facts that count but what the US wants. Who said shoot first and ask questions later?
Pft , Apr 11, 2018 2:58:44 PM | 128
When really smart people do crazy things you know you are missing something important. Why would anyone in their right mind risk a war with Russia and vice versa? They woulnd't unless it was part of a mutually agreed script.

Perhaps what happens next is Trump lobs a few missiles on Syria and takes out the USS Donald and blames Russia for that . Like the USS Maine and USS Maddox. Putin has already helped make such an allegation believable.

Then we can Prepare for a long Fake War like in Orwells 1984 with skirmishes in places like Iran, Syria and Ukraine. The real enemy and target is the constitution and the people, including those in the Democratic West.

A war with a credible enemy replaces the GWOT which was running on fumes. Putin so kindly made Russia a credible threat to the people with his public announcement of their new weapons. That was no accident. This will be the end of even the illusion of Democracy, which is all we have.

Trump will be given dictatorial powers and we may prepare for the Internet kill switch to be flipped. Maybe Putin and Trump will join China's President as Presidents for life.

Pnyx , Apr 11, 2018 3:01:15 PM | 129
Kalen 9:52:11 AM | 9


I understand your Trotskyist point of view which has many merits. Currently we have nothing but reactionary regimes all over the planet, of course including the Russian and the Chinese one.

But still there are some crucial differences. It is the west bloc which wants to inflame the world, not the Russians and the Chinese. You're right when you speak about an appeasing Russian approach, but we may not know some important factors.

For instance to an all confrontational stance you need a prepared army in your back. Maybe this wasn't the case some years ago. I assume now it's different. Some in the west want go to war, and even if its not clear if the economic situation is that bad, that it leaves war as the only 'solution' I'm afraid they will succeed. You should not overestimate the power of rationality.

PavewayIV , Apr 11, 2018 3:04:31 PM | 131
From JPost:

SENIOR SECURITY OFFICIALS: IF IRAN ACTS AGAINST ISRAEL, WE'LL TOPPLE ASSAD

If the Iranians act against Israel from Syrian territory, Syrian President Bashar Assad and his regime will be those that pay the price."

That is the clear message from senior officials in the Israeli defense establishment and IDF after the top adviser to Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei called a strike on the Syrian T-4 air base "Israel's crime" and said the alleged act would "not remain without response."

"Assad's regime and Assad himself will disappear from the map and the world if the Iranians do try to harm Israel or its interests from Syrian territory," said senior officials in the defense establishment.

"Our recommendation to Iran is that it does not try to act, because Israel is determined to continue on this issue to the very end," the officials said.

And the most telling statement:

Expanding on Liberman's comments, security officials believe that Iran may try to retaliate to the alleged Israeli attack, either with Iranian weapons transported into Syria from Iran or by "borrowing" Syrian army systems.

So, perfect time for Israel to fabricate claims of an attack from Syria, or maybe stage one somehow to justify their planned 1) assassination of Assad, 2) further destruction of Syrian/Russian air defenses and 3) wide-scale attacks on Iranian anything in Syria. Syria will, of course, deny any attacks on Israel. But the seed for the coming narrative has already been planted with the strikingly odd suggestion of Iranians 'borrowing' Syrian army systems. If Israel can't provoke Syria or Iran to attack, then it will just have to make one happen.

Note this is all happening at a time when the US is removing swapping carrier strike groups in the Middle East. The Roosevelt and pals left the Persian Arabian Gulf a while back to provoke the Chinese conduct operations in the South China Sea.

So, no vulnerable carriers in the area right now and not enough destroyers to launch any kind of sizeable Tomahawk attack.

The Truman CSG with 6,500 sailors just left Newport. It will reach the Mediterranean with six guided-missile destroyers, a guided-missile cruiser and even a German and Danish frigate. The Roosevelt CSG only had three destroyers and a cruiser. The Truman CSG will join the guided-missile destroyer Donald Cook, already in the Mediterranean, which is apparently being used to bait the Russians for now. I half-expect that to be hit soon in an Israeli false-flag to 'repurpose' the CSG arriving next week. The Israelis tried the same thing with the Liberty (to be blamed on UAR/Egypt) in order to drag the US into their Six-Day War.

In any case, there is simply not enough imaginary 'chemical weapons sites' to target in any cruise missile attack. The real intent of Israel and the US will be (IMHO) to completely destroy any Syrian air defense capability once and for all. The Syrian Air Force aircraft are a secondary, far less important target. Without any air defense, the Israeli and Coalition of Evil can pick them off one-by-one. This scenario puts Russia in a difficult position: it would have to fire its own SAMs at any aircraft attacking Syria - something it has not done before. Anything missiles fired at Israeli aircraft up until now has been from Syrian air defense sites - the Russians only provide a network for all Syrian/Russian radars.

Neither the US nor Israel are going to do much on the ground in Syria until they have unrestricted air dominance - at least over their head-chopper safe zones. The US has their DEMC and FSA MaT mercs ready to seize the entire Syrian/Iraqi border, and they can't be bothered with pesky Russian or Syrian aircraft interfering with that land-grab.

CarlD , Apr 11, 2018 3:12:36 PM | 133
Libya vs Syria

8 years ago, Russia was just in the process of fixing the basket caseshe had become in 1992. Her power had not yet been restored as is the case now. Also, the internal situation was not what it is now with a just reelected popular President. Russia may assert herself now. She was not yet as well wed with China and Iran.

A good parallel could be the rise of Germany from 1933 to 1939. From ashes to glory.

Don Bacon , Apr 11, 2018 3:13:31 PM | 134
Mattis: US 'still assessing' suspected Syria chemical weapons attack.

Defense Secretary James Mattis said Wednesday that the United States and its allies were "still assessing" reports of a chemical weapons attack in Syria, and that they are working on options to respond.

"We're still assessing the intelligence, ourselves and our allies. We're still working on this," Mattis told reporters at the Pentagon prior to meeting with defense officials from the Netherlands. . . here

That's a good sign (so far).

psychohistorian , Apr 11, 2018 3:15:16 PM | 135
@ PavewayIV with his scenario on the Syria battle plan of empire

Thanks...I don't like what you say but will accept its potential because of your contacts. I don't think the Western coalition will be successful but can't say why.....more of a hope

I am beginning to think this situation is like an iceberg with only a bit showing and tons existing below the surface.......I will ask again....what is China doing during this bullying of its neighbor?

In a way I am glad to see this crisis developing and hope that it resolves the centuries long cancer of private finance in our social contract.

Don Bacon , Apr 11, 2018 3:17:01 PM | 136
@134
Perhaps Mattis read Pat Lang's plea: An appeal to James Mattis
C I eh? , Apr 11, 2018 3:19:51 PM | 137
In November a 'blue wave' will sweep up Congress for Clintonites, soon after which Trump will be impeached.

Russia + US friends are organizing a preemptive WW3 lightshow to establish facts between your ears, as in, a new Cold War.

Why? Because the War on Terror advantages the Clintonite Deep State 'Octopus' crime family; best to have a new Cuban Missile Crisis now rather than chance an uncontrolled scenario under Pence.

I'm not sure how the show will play out but certainly both Russia and it's US 'partners' will achieve their desired goals including the strengthening of large nation states as against the medievil multipolar NWO preffered by the Transnational Zionist elite and which Tillerson was working hard to create before he was fired via the same twitter account now being used to play up the drama in this spirit of the WWF.

mali , Apr 11, 2018 3:28:03 PM | 138
NemesisCalling @71, Circe @66

Libya is a huge lesson for both Russia and China for their believing the perfidious AZ's preaching of high moral and of law and order. Since then on Rrussia and China are not afraid to use their UN veto rights to fight against the treacherous US/UK/Fr.

Syria is surely a very important part of Russia's long term strategy, i.e. its navy base in E. Mediterranrean, for such a foodhold in warm see water had Russia Empire fought quite a few wars, gas and oil business, grain export to ME.

There is no doubt Russia will defend its interest in Syria, but at price will it be willing to pay?

That's why I talk about "vital national interests" , for which Russia will not hesitate for a second to sacrifice tens of thousands, millions or even tens of millions of Russian lives, such as Chechen War, Stalingrad War.

19.10.1950 China sent hundreds of thousands of soliers with rudiment weapons, almost no air support and even no adequate winter uniform to fight against so-called UN Army consisting of 23 countries (US/UK/Australia/Canada/France/Turkey/Netherlands/Belgium/S. Africa,etc.). It succeeded in pushing away US Army from Chinese-Korean border to the 38th parallel with 366,145 death and injured from Chinese Army.

I am sure the brave Syrian Army and Syrian people are and will be fighting for their motherland until the last drop blood as they have been doing for the past 7 years. With Russian soldiers embedded in SAA, S-400 and Russian Navy are on high alert, any strikes US & Co want to make against Syria, they have to think of the possible consequence of their fatal self-destruction.

Take a look at what Bakerpete @68 wrote about Sun Tzu: The fundamental strategies of Sun Tzu are 1). a leader must look after and improve his own people first, 2). leading an opponent to defeat himself is the very best outcome and 3). whether victorious or not open combat should be regarded as a failure.

psychohistorian @60

From what I read China has been and is doing:

Western MSM does report this kind of information because MSM want to bury it to leave you with the impression that 1). Russia is alone/isolated in this whole Syrian war issues; 2). to portrait China as selfish/heartless/not caring ; 3) to disheaten the supporters of resistence to the AZ Empire, a typical divide and rule tatics.

Since the time of Mao, China has always been a vocal and firm supporter of the liberation movement of ME people, esp. Palestinians.

Don Bacon , Apr 11, 2018 3:40:20 PM | 142
The US military operational chain of command runs from the President to the Secretary of Defense to the Combatant Commanders. In this case it is: Trump--Mattis--Votel.
dan , Apr 11, 2018 3:49:57 PM | 143
Open letter to the dipshits who are planning to nuke each other....

Just get on with it, please. Im sick of waiting for the inevitable. Every day, doom porn. Im over it. Just stop talking shit, and nuke each other already. Or else shut up and go home. For fucks sake, this shit is gonna give me an ulcer, its like Im stuck in traffic that has slowed down because they think theres gonna be an accident, and don't wanna miss the potential carnage, and all I wanna do is get home. If the US and EU are such suicidal idiots, they deserve it. Whoever sets this off, it doesn't matter, you all die, leaving me to my rural southern hemisphere subtropical peace.

Its Darwinism 101. As much as I like you all, you've had it coming for a while. Slaughtering each other like fucking animals for centuries, blaming everybody else, and pissing on the rest of us while trying to convince us its rain. Keep your pipelines, your WMDs and your ridiculous elections. Keep your Houses of "Lords", your apeshit crazy senates, and your "democracies". Im ready to kick back and watch them all get vaporized by your fear and insatiable greed, to watch your "smart" bombs land on your own fucking heads. All I ask is just please, for goodness sake, leave us poor third world fuckers out of it. Weve seen enough...
Thanks

Don Bacon , Apr 11, 2018 3:52:07 PM | 144
Syria news:
> 11 Apr. Russia issued a NOTAM* to close an area next to Syrian territorial waters to conduct missile exercises on 11-12, 17-19 and 25-26 April, 10.00- 18.00 Moscow time. Opponent's unauthorized strikes shall be planned accordingly.
> Russian military police will be deployed in Douma from 12 Apr. . . here

*NOTAM -- A Notice to Airmen (NOTAM) is a notice filed with an aviation authority to alert aircraft pilots of potential hazards along a flight route or at a location that could affect the safety of the flight. - wiki

Don Bacon , Apr 11, 2018 4:05:44 PM | 145
It was a week ago today that Turkey, Iran and Russia met in Ankara to discuss ending the Syria conflict. While the three leaders differ on overall strategies they agree on opposing Washington.

What were the outcomes of the Ankara summit? According to Kerim Has, a Moscow State University lecturer, the most concrete and clear result of the summit was the emphasis of all sides on Syria's sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity. It's clear that neither the negotiators nor the forces on the ground will accept the creation of a sovereign patch in Syria under Ankara's control. . . here

How can the US get back in the picture? Perhaps some bombs and missiles might work? Not really. In fact it will backfire.

[Apr 11, 2018] Syria govt has said Douma has only one hospital, and it received no patients with symptoms of exposure to chemicals. But WHO says about 500 people reached "medical centers" with symptoms of exposure to chemicals

Notable quotes:
"... After reading more about WHO's Health Cluster partners in Syria, it seemed clear that the Syrian AMERICAN Medical Society was at least one likely source for the reports of 500 chemical victims. ..."
"... And SAMS, like the While Helmets, appears to have motives unconnected to health care. ..."
Apr 11, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

MarkMosby , Apr 11, 2018 12:56:15 PM | 87

Syria govt has said Douma has only one hospital, and it received no patients with symptoms of exposure to chemicals.

But WHO says about 500 people reached "medical centers" with symptoms of exposure to chemicals.

What medical centers is the WHO referring to? If they're brick-and-mortar clinics with names, fact checking should be easy. Why haven't they specified?

http://tass.com/world/999006

Emily Dickinson , Apr 11, 2018 1:44:15 PM | 106
Regarding the WHO statement that 500 people turned up with chemical-attack symptoms, this is identified as coming from "Health Cluster partners." From their webpage:

"There are 50 Health Cluster partners at the global level and more than 700 partners in countries – this is a collective force guaranteeing that the response to health emergencies becomes more timely, effective and predictable. These partners include international organizations and UN agencies, nongovernmental organizations, national authorities, specialized agencies, affected communities, academic and training institutes and donor agencies."

http://www.who.int/health-cluster/partners/en/

This raises the question: Exactly who were these "partners" on the ground in an area under the control of the jihadists?

Emily Dickinson , Apr 11, 2018 2:47:45 PM | 126
@Emily Dickinson | Apr 11, 2018 1:44:15 PM | 106
This raises the question: Exactly who were these "partners" on the ground in an area under the control of the jihadists?

I guess the NGO that provided the false information to WHO about 500 chemical weapons patients is the Syrian American Medical Society. SAMS are known for promoting false-flag chemical weapons provocations in Syria and for having direct connections to the organizers and killers. By their own admission they have been involved in staging almost 200 false-flag chemical weapons massacres in the last 7 years.

See this tweet from April 5, 2018:

SAMS @sams_usa on Twitter

"Dr. Morad is here today to be an inspiration to all of us." Today, 1 year after the sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun, UN Ambassador @nikkihaley delivered remarks at a UNSC briefing on chemical weapons w/Dr. Morad as her guest. SAMS has recorded almost 200 such attacks in 7 yrs

Posted by: Petri Krohn | Apr 11, 2018 2:30:23 PM | 120

@ WJ at 111 and Petri Kohn 120:

I would guess the answer is yes to both of your deductions. After reading more about WHO's Health Cluster partners in Syria, it seemed clear that the Syrian AMERICAN Medical Society was at least one likely source for the reports of 500 chemical victims.

And SAMS, like the While Helmets, appears to have motives unconnected to health care.

[Apr 11, 2018] Trump Asks Russia To Roll Over - It Won't

It might well be that letting Erdogan snack on Afrin was a masterful investment by Putin. With Turkey opposed to NATO intervention, Iraq not daring to collaborate overtly (no popular support, no majority support among the various armed forces) and Iran working in concert with Russia to support Syria, opponents of NATO bombing or other escalation can painfully and rather gradually retaliate against any Us forces ont he ground. Tanf enclave might suffer.
The current plan is to remove all enclaves in the core Syria, so the majority of people can live securely and securely travel, with highways and railroads cleared from jihadists obstacles. When people work for themselves they do not need such an enormous external aid, and the benefits of the trade with the West (and the access to Western financial services) are overrated.
Notable quotes:
"... Russia said it would destroy the platforms that launch the missiles, not only the missiles themselves. Did nobody explain the difference to Trump? ..."
"... It is cynical to say that "Russia needs us to help with their economy". The US under Trump is waging economic war on Russia by implementing more and more economic sanctions. The last round on Friday targeted Russian industrialists, many of whom are not even aligned with Putin. Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, disliked in the Kremlin, lost 15% of his fortune. The Rubel plummeted against the dollar for two days in a row. U.S. Treasury stooges are now traveling in Europe to press European banks to shut down all services for Russian companies. ..."
"... Well that could be some incriminating info on Trump, perhaps? No idea but interesting poins though. ..."
"... It seems shocking that Russia establishment did not know that US is a fearful bully, or dollars were too good. ..."
"... Just to remind people's that in 2011 it was Medvedev representative of Russian western oligarchic lobby (friendly with Obama and neocons) in Kremlin who was in charge during Arab Spring. It is well documented fact that Assad pleaded with Medvedev in March 2011 for Moscow to deliver already ordered and paid for in 2008 dozens of new combat helicopters as well as massive amount of parts to refurbish and upgrade Russian made warplanes that were also withheld not to upset Israel and US at that time. ..."
"... None of that happened at that time, while at the same time Quadaffi was thrown under the bus by Russians and Chinese UN non veto of the planned NATO agression on Libya, appeasement or coincidence? ..."
"... Once the shooting starts it will only stop if one side decides to stand-down. Which side will do that? Seems politically unacceptable for either side to appear as the loser. Will the fools who started the war stop shooting when their ships wind up on the bottom of the Mediterranean? ..."
"... US war economy needs to offload some ammo in the name of defense. Walking that fine line between raising stock price and getting your arse kicked. ..."
"... MOA is definitely part of this 'collective intelligence of millions of people debunking the lies in real time'. ..."
"... These Neoconservative power-mongers are asking you to accept universal serfdom at their hands or World War III with Russia. You can live as slaves in a pan-global oligarchy of overlapping corporate and bureaucratic interests or you can be nuked. It's your choice. You have 24 to 48 hours to decide. ..."
"... I believe the National Security State's and Israel's goal is to kill Assad at any cost. Chaos is Syria is the goal. Iran would be next step. ..."
"... This is illegal - from the article: "Trump has no authority to order an attack on the Syrian government, which has not attacked the U.S. and doesn't pose any threat to America or its allies. There is no international mandate for military action against Syria, and there is no vital American interest at stake that might conceivably justify an attack." ..."
"... Consider the leaders of the antagonists; May, Macron, Netanyahu, Trump. Each is weak and in trouble internally and are either not driving this madness or are in need of distractions. ..."
"... To fully appreciate the Israeli calls to murder Asad you got to remember that a good part of the ppl who took to the streets in 2011 were thinking Asad is a Mossad spy because after all he had never liberated the Golan. ..."
"... Visit to #EasternGhouta today. Zamalka residents told me that they were displaced from their homes by #NusraFront fighters fm EU, officials told me over 280 British passport holders among them. I was also told these "fighters" will go to #Idlib - Turkey - back to EU. ..."
"... The gloves are off for the alternative media: 21stCenturyWire was taken offline last night (Sibel Edmonds can rejoice). Fort-Russ, SyriaNews.cc and others are also down. Southfront was under attack. ..."
"... Houthis firing tickets at Riyadh and Aramco. Looks like the Houthis at least have the right idea about an effective asymmetric response. ..."
"... One more thing. The current scenario is a prime set-up for demonstrating the old truth that a real war takes on a life of its own very quickly, and can quickly and unexpectedly (i.e. in an "unplanned" way) get out of control. ..."
"... Putin shows again that he is a mature person compared to Trump and it vassals in the EU: Putin: The world is getting more chaotic, but we hope that common sense will prevail https://www.rt.com/news/423835-putin-world-chaos-common-sense/ ..."
"... Trump is a lying ass who insults the intelligence of anyone who would humiliate themselves surrendering to his mega-ego manipulation. When the heat is on, he has no problem throwing his own friends and associates under the bus. ..."
"... I posted the following comment on the past thread but haven't seen it said here so will add. I wonder what China is doing behind the scenes. This seems to me like the time that China needs to stand next to Russia and say NYET! ..."
"... The US are about to attack Syria no matter the findings of OPCW. An attack to try and destroy the Syrian military to prevent the last pockets of jihadis being destroyed. The fake gas attack is a figleaf that will simply be ignored if it falls apart. ..."
"... It is only normal that Putin and Xi will only act forcefully when Russia and China's respectively vital national security under direct threat . Any rational government leaders will do the same except the corrupt ones that would put its moneyed-ones/ruling class' and Isreal's interest ahead of that of their own countries and citizens. ..."
"... Syria has weapons to target US warships, so it's not just Russian retaliation at issue. One of the more powerful verbal truths was hurled at Outlaw US Empire by Russia's UNSC Ambassador who in essence said the world doesn't need/want your hegemony any longer -- act civilized or shut the fuck up! ..."
"... maybe these tweets are some kind of hail mary subversive action by the Donald? letting everyone know about what's coming. I mean, to announce defensive measures would be quite common, but announcing a strike some hours or days beforehand is not seen that often. ..."
"... Trump appears not to understand how deep are his troubles: with Mueller's grab of his personal Attorney's files- Russiagate has morphed into a sex scandal; his base is growing restless over undelivered campaign promises. Trump does Twitter diplomacy and Russia is not amused. The "Russia needs US to help with their economy" is weird. Only 8 months ago Congress passed legislation 419-3 imposing sanctions against Russia, which Trump signed, that limits his authority to lift them. ..."
"... As Putin says, if you know a fight is inevitable, then hit first. ..."
Apr 11, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Trump Asks Russia To Roll Over - It Won't

Donald Trump may perceive these bad cop/good cop tweets as a serious way to negotiate with Russia. They ain't.

Donald J. Trump - @realDonaldTrump - 10:57 AM UTC - 11 Apr 2018
Russia vows to shoot down any and all missiles fired at Syria. Get ready Russia, because they will be coming, nice and new and "smart!" You shouldn't be partners with a Gas Killing Animal who kills his people and enjoys it!
Donald J. Trump - @realDonaldTrump - 11:37 AM UTC - 11 Apr 2018
Our relationship with Russia is worse now than it has ever been, and that includes the Cold War. There is no reason for this. Russia needs us to help with their economy, something that would be very easy to do, and we need all nations to work together. Stop the arms race?

Russia said it would destroy the platforms that launch the missiles, not only the missiles themselves. Did nobody explain the difference to Trump?

There is reason that U.S. relations with Russia are now worse than they have been for some time and Russia is not responsible for these. The GW Bush administration killed the Anti-Ballistic-Missile treaty which guaranteed Mutually Assured Destruction and thus strategic stability. The Obama administration launched a trillion dollar program to ramp up U.S. nuclear capabilities and ballistic missile defense with the aim of achieving superiority in a nuclear conflict.

It is cynical to say that "Russia needs us to help with their economy". The US under Trump is waging economic war on Russia by implementing more and more economic sanctions. The last round on Friday targeted Russian industrialists, many of whom are not even aligned with Putin. Aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska, disliked in the Kremlin, lost 15% of his fortune. The Rubel plummeted against the dollar for two days in a row. U.S. Treasury stooges are now traveling in Europe to press European banks to shut down all services for Russian companies.

nhs , Apr 11, 2018 9:34:35 AM | 1

Syria, Gaza, Skripal fiasco: in their agony to change the balance of the geopolitical game, the Western clowns repeatedly expose themselves through hypocrisy and sloppy actions
oldenyoung , Apr 11, 2018 9:45:29 AM | 5
I believe VVPutins measured responses to provocations, relates to a reasonable and prudent understanding of what resources he has to use in conflict situations...his resources are not unlimited, and he would prefer not to use them at all, if possible... He has hawks in his own country that want a serious shooting war with the West... Putin himself cannot keep the lid on WW3, solely by himself...
adamski , Apr 11, 2018 9:51:39 AM | 7
I think this is the first time Russia has explicitly threatened to retaliate against hostile platforms. Presumably they're feeling confident in themsleves.
laserlurk , Apr 11, 2018 9:51:54 AM | 8
b. a very good points there,

Just my few centjes:

Russia will have to response to any U.S. strike on Syria. It needs to do so to keep face and the faith of its allies. But it also needs to so in a way that avoids further escalation.

That would have to be manyfold stronger response then awaited from US strategic planners. Dangerous game if not impossible to achieve with conventional deterrent.

Something that is very strong, in a different theater and not attributable?

Well that could be some incriminating info on Trump, perhaps? No idea but interesting poins though.

Kalen , Apr 11, 2018 9:52:11 AM | 9
It is all true but narrative of b how we got he on a brink of shooting war with US is one sided. Two are needed to tango and Russia tangoed too long enticed by potential benefit for few oligarchs and detriment to the nation.

Just seven years past and despite unquestioned positive role that Russian played in Syria mostly to reduce pain and suffering of Syrian people what I read here is unnecessary whitewashing of Russian initial stand that did nothing but encouraged US and NATO gangsters to reek chaos that caused tens of thousands dead and injured. It seems shocking that Russia establishment did not know that US is a fearful bully, or dollars were too good.

Just to remind people's that in 2011 it was Medvedev representative of Russian western oligarchic lobby (friendly with Obama and neocons) in Kremlin who was in charge during Arab Spring. It is well documented fact that Assad pleaded with Medvedev in March 2011 for Moscow to deliver already ordered and paid for in 2008 dozens of new combat helicopters as well as massive amount of parts to refurbish and upgrade Russian made warplanes that were also withheld not to upset Israel and US at that time.

Assad was not invited to Moscow at that time while he repeatedly declared that his military will be able to defeat terrorist insurgence financed by the CIA in a matter of weeks if Syrian Army is resupplied and paid for already contracts executed.

None of that happened at that time, while at the same time Quadaffi was thrown under the bus by Russians and Chinese UN non veto of the planned NATO agression on Libya, appeasement or coincidence?

Russian got their pay off for playing western game in MENA when in 2012 Putin was barely elected in a quite ridiculous political charade facing CIA/Soros funded failed Moscow Spring which actually started slippery slope of open western anti-Russian hysterical embellishments.

What was even more puzzling for those not so sophisticated political analysts was Putin inconsistent actions and declarations especially in regard to Syria between 2012 and 2014 when he joined US phony peace talks and calling on Assad removal from his post in a some sort of democratic process only to find out that US do not want peace in Syria but some Saudi run fiefdom friendly to Israel.

The same appeasement to the west was in Putin attitude to Ukraine until 2014 and its 23 millions of ethnic Russians tolerating rapidly growing western financed Nazism as well his tolerance of Russia connected Ukrainian oligarchic theft that plunged the country into economic depression enabling political instability.

At that time Russian minorities in Baltic States were also viciously attacked by security forces as well by discriminating Nuremberg -- like laws making them, most born there, second class citizen restricted in ownership and civil rights to organize and to maintain their culture and language.

All those Putin foreign policies of weakness and submission to the west and that included reluctance in approach to alliances with China were in sharp contrast to his extreme push to revamp entire military of Russian with enormous like for Russia military investments and extremely rationalizing it giving them 5 year term to accomplish massive changes while dropping hype about future fancy technologies for simple solutions that effectively will defend the country from western aggression.

Putin knew what was coming so why Kremlin policies of appeasement and hence encouragement of bullying and aggression. Who was really in charge?

In fact Putin reacted only when Russian vital national security was directly threatened in 2014 in Crimea where navy bases are located and in 2015 when he realized that western trained and funded terrorist army commanded by Chechnya Russian speaking terrorists is being prepared to invade Chechnya after Assad was deposed and the only maditeranian navy base was threatened.

As always in history policy of appeasement of a bully leads to the same thing ultimate confrontation, more delayed more costly it is.

So is Putin as Xi for that matter is about to submit their nations to the western oligarchy even more for their personal advancement at the global oligarchic table or they split which means war.

I do not think war is coming they have too good thing going and their power is not threatened by the enslaved people.

07564111 , Apr 11, 2018 9:54:30 AM | 10
US Air Force E-4B Nightwatch 73-1677 MATH01 now airborne from Wright-Patterson, destination unknown. Watch site .. https://twitter.com/CivMilAir
V. Arnold , Apr 11, 2018 9:55:28 AM | 11
Russia roll over? The U.S. totally fails to understand the Russian character; failing that is a total failure for any hope of resolving this conflict without war. Russia will never "bend the knee" to anybody, much less the U.S., in all of its corruption and contempt for true Christian values. The U.S. in fact has no idea of the adversary they face; a sure path to defeat!
Perimtr , Apr 11, 2018 9:55:32 AM | 12
Once the shooting starts it will only stop if one side decides to stand-down. Which side will do that? Seems politically unacceptable for either side to appear as the loser. Will the fools who started the war stop shooting when their ships wind up on the bottom of the Mediterranean?

How long before somebody decides it's better to use em then lose em and launches a preemptive strike? You can bet both sides will launch on warning if a shooting war is in progress.

mymy , Apr 11, 2018 9:56:23 AM | 13
If a shooting war starts then use it as an excuse to destroy the financiers first. Throw off their yoke world wide.
Jackrabbit , Apr 11, 2018 10:01:24 AM | 14
Putin should get a twitter account. Would they dare to deny him an account? Twitter war is better than real war.
imo , Apr 11, 2018 10:04:07 AM | 15
Indeed, one of his better ones. "Bolton Whispers War In Trump's Ears" http://brothernathanaelchannel.com/watch_video.php?v=1262
Don Bacon , Apr 11, 2018 10:07:59 AM | 17
A key factor is the OPCW, which ought to be deploying to Douma soon. OPCW Will Deploy Fact-Finding Mission to Douma, Syria
THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- 10 April 2018 -- Since the first reports of alleged use of chemical weapons in Douma, Syrian Arab Republic, were issued, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) has been gathering information from all available sources and analysing it. At the same time, OPCW's Director-General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü, has considered the deployment of a Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) team to Douma to establish facts surrounding these allegations.
Today, the OPCW Technical Secretariat has requested the Syrian Arab Republic to make the necessary arrangements for such a deployment. This has coincided with a request from the Syrian Arab Republic and the Russian Federation to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Douma. The team is preparing to deploy to Syria shortly. . . . here
There has been no OPCW report on Salisbury early this week as promised.
test , Apr 11, 2018 10:12:14 AM | 18
Don Bacon

" There has been no OPCW report on Salisbury early this week as promised." Just wait soon we will read: "BBC: Chemicals used to poison Skirpal, made in secret lab in Syria"

Don Bacon , Apr 11, 2018 10:15:02 AM | 19
@17: OPCW has said findings will be only on substance, not on source.
MadMax2 , Apr 11, 2018 10:20:49 AM | 20
US war economy needs to offload some ammo in the name of defense. Walking that fine line between raising stock price and getting your arse kicked.
Pandos , Apr 11, 2018 10:22:56 AM | 21
"Ceterum autem censeo israelinem delendam esse" (English: "Furthermore, (moreover) I consider that israel must be destroyed") Cato the Wise
Bill H , Apr 11, 2018 10:24:26 AM | 22
When I was in high school I was 6'3" and weighed 235, starting linebacker and the team's leading tackler. My father, who tended to intimidate me, made it very clear to me that big men do not use their size and strength to their own advantage, and that if he ever heard that I was bullying anyone, or even throwing my weight around, he would make me rue the day. He set the example, as he was himself a rather gentle giant type.

There was two exceptions to the rule. First, if I was ever picked upon myself, I was required to allow three strikes and then I could impose whatever violence I wished upon my tormentor. Second, if I observed someone smaller being bullied I was free to persuade the bully to desist using whatever means I had available to me.

My father was not Russian, but I suspect his forefathers would have understood Putin's quite well.

imo , Apr 11, 2018 10:24:42 AM | 23
WTF!!!... how can we grok this murderous in-ya-face shit? israeli-minister-the-time-has-come-to-assassinate-assad
financial matters , Apr 11, 2018 10:28:36 AM | 24
I've liked Tom Luongo's take on things. MOA is definitely part of this 'collective intelligence of millions of people debunking the lies in real time'. Luongo

'We live in an age where the speed of communication is too much for these people to maintain their lies for very long, if at all.' (this is why the war mongers look for a fast response)

'Defy the West however you have to Mr. Putin. It's obvious Mr. Trump isn't up to the job.

These Neoconservative power-mongers are asking you to accept universal serfdom at their hands or World War III with Russia. You can live as slaves in a pan-global oligarchy of overlapping corporate and bureaucratic interests or you can be nuked. It's your choice. You have 24 to 48 hours to decide.

You (DT) have to signal that you are in charge and not the paper-hangers and criminals you were elected to fight against. You want our continued support earn it. Because this is not Making America Great Again.'

Don Bacon , Apr 11, 2018 10:31:37 AM | 25
Most likely, in my opinion, a US attack would be against four to six Syrian airfields, an expansion of last year's attack on one airfield. Syria would currently be moving its aircraft to more protected airfields. Cratered runways can be repaired quickly. Perhaps some command & control centers would also be hit. This would make a big splash, but have little or no long-term results.
simjam , Apr 11, 2018 10:36:32 AM | 26
I believe the National Security State's and Israel's goal is to kill Assad at any cost. Chaos is Syria is the goal. Iran would be next step.
A Bee , Apr 11, 2018 10:36:53 AM | 27
This is illegal - from the article: "Trump has no authority to order an attack on the Syrian government, which has not attacked the U.S. and doesn't pose any threat to America or its allies. There is no international mandate for military action against Syria, and there is no vital American interest at stake that might conceivably justify an attack."

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/trump-prepares-to-launch-his-illegal-attack-on-syria/

Bakerpete , Apr 11, 2018 10:37:44 AM | 28
Consider the leaders of the antagonists; May, Macron, Netanyahu, Trump. Each is weak and in trouble internally and are either not driving this madness or are in need of distractions.

If Russia responds to an attack I would think it needs to hit those who need to be hurt the most; those in the background. Hitting Israel I believe would be a mistake as it is the most likely to cause a panic and trigger something really stupid. I'm in the camp that believes Russia and China (in particular) are working as hard as possible to manage the US collapse and will back off as much as possible. America's self-destruction is ongoing and the safest thing to do is give it the space it needs. Yes, many innocent people are dying but the alternative is many millions dying.

fastfreddy , Apr 11, 2018 10:42:41 AM | 31
At least half of the American populace is shot through with a deep abiding ignorance.

I wonder if Trump is really as ignorant as he seems or if he is simply reciting his stupid lines. Compromised by blackmail. Christ, what more shit can they pile on him openly? He's in deep shit already. Surely they've got something on him in secret that would destroy him utterly. He seems like a genuinely ignorant ass. Very believable if its theater.

Don Bacon , Apr 11, 2018 10:47:06 AM | 32
@27
US presidents have been ordering attacks on other countries forever w/o repercussions. It goes 'way back, to the extermination of the Native Americans.
test , Apr 11, 2018 10:48:38 AM | 33
fastfreddy

Why blame it on Americans though? I live in Europe and there are equal, perhaps even more idiots here that just wish to start off a war with Russia.

Julian , Apr 11, 2018 10:51:12 AM | 35
Russia needs to announce its has discovered who is arming and funding the terrorists!! Call these countries it and make it explicit that in the event of any US strikes Russia will hold these countries responsible for the conflict and take whatever measures it deems appropriate.

And who are these countries?? Why - 5 Arab Monarchies of course!! Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Bahrain & Jordan. Plenty of juicy infrastructure targets there to destroy in an symmetrical response. Don't worry about sinking the USS Sitting Duck - strike asymmetrically

Mina , Apr 11, 2018 10:52:56 AM | 36
To fully appreciate the Israeli calls to murder Asad you got to remember that a good part of the ppl who took to the streets in 2011 were thinking Asad is a Mossad spy because after all he had never liberated the Golan.
Bill , Apr 11, 2018 10:57:27 AM | 37
British and American forces have been destroyed on a large scale in the Ghouta region, with the 22nd regiment of the SAS, those surviving the pinpoint Russian bombing, that is, having to flee on buses in disguise. This is the reason for Skripal plan and the chemical weapons false flag. This anyway is according to this incendiary report which is worth a watch whatever you make of it. https://vimeo.com/263728681
mali , Apr 11, 2018 10:58:50 AM | 39
vanessa beeley's visit to E. Ghouta
Visit to #EasternGhouta today. Zamalka residents told me that they were displaced from their homes by #NusraFront fighters fm EU, officials told me over 280 British passport holders among them. I was also told these "fighters" will go to #Idlib - Turkey - back to EU.

European jihadists are on their way back to Europe. You reap what you sow.

fastfreddy , Apr 11, 2018 11:02:42 AM | 41
CIA-controlled mainstream international media is evidenced by the concealment of Western "ISIS" backers operating in plain sight.
mali , Apr 11, 2018 11:03:37 AM | 43
quote @ 4

GDP is not the only deciding fact of a war. How many hundred time is US' GDP to that of Afaghanistan's Taliban? Yet US can't win Taliban in its 17-year long war.

WJ , Apr 11, 2018 11:04:14 AM | 44
One important issue that many commentators are not addressing is determining the real purpose of this strike:

1. Is the purpose merely symbolic, and so undertaken with an eye as much toward domestic politics in the US and UK as toward Syria? If so, then Russia will be unofficially advised of the strike in advance, targets will be so-called "chemical factories" made up for the US-UK public's consumption, maybe a few airfields, and that is that.

2. But what if the purpose is not merely symbolic? What if Israel and the US have decided that, with the now-complete clearing of Ghouta by the Syrian Army, this is their last plausible chance to decimate the political infrastructure of Syria, break the country, and divide it up once and for all? If that is the true purpose of the strike, then there is simply no way it can be undertaken without leading to Russian casualities. Furthermore, its end result--a Syria transformed into Libya--would be *precisely* the thing that motivated Russia to get involved in the first place. For Putin, neither unanswered Russian casualties, nor such an immense, costly, and public foreign policy failure as Syria would then have proven to be, are without domestic political consequence. Putin would almost necessarily have to respond militarily in such an event.

So far, however, it remains unclear which kind of strike the proposed strike will be. The publicity, international coalition, etc. all point to the second kind of strike--the shock and awe destruction of a nation kind of strike--but the official rhetoric coming from the US and France is ambiguous.

I am betting that the US/UK/France is partly motivated and pressured by Israel to undertake the second kind of strike, but recognizes that this will put Putin in an impossible situation, and will likely result in a great number of US and NATO casualities, escalation to world war, and quite possibly nuclear conflict. Were I Russia, I would let the US-UK know that a symbolic strike is acceptable, and work out an understanding of targets, etc. that Russian troops should avoid. I would also let them know that anything stronger will not only be defended proportionately, but will immediately result in Russia's asymmetrical attack upon significant Western interests in the region. Everybody will know this means Israel.

But what do I know. The U.S. can't be trusted, and doesn't act as a rational state-actor, and that is the problem.

0use4msm , Apr 11, 2018 11:05:09 AM | 45
The gloves are off for the alternative media: 21stCenturyWire was taken offline last night (Sibel Edmonds can rejoice). Fort-Russ, SyriaNews.cc and others are also down. Southfront was under attack.
WJ , Apr 11, 2018 11:09:47 AM | 46
@45,

I noticed that too about 21stCW and Southfront. Craig Murray's blog has also been under attack and was down intermittently yesterday. This makes me fear that the kind of strike envisioned is a nation-destroying kind of strike, not merely a symbolic slap in the face. The domestic preparations seem to be pointing in this direction.

Julian , Apr 11, 2018 11:09:52 AM | 47
Houthis firing tickets at Riyadh and Aramco. Looks like the Houthis at least have the right idea about an effective asymmetric response. https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-11/wtirbob-slides-after-big-surprise-crude-build-record-production
CarlD , Apr 11, 2018 11:18:23 AM | 48
Putin just said, according to RT: "The World is getting more chaotic, but we hope that common sense will prevail". My interpretation of this sentence is that Putin is absolutely determined not to refuse engagement and will take this to its consequences. He "hopes" common sense will prevail but doesn't expect it.
mali , Apr 11, 2018 11:23:44 AM | 49
Bill H @22: That's good parenting we need in this world.

0use4msm @45: Before the war starts, the Establishment/Deep State/War Party needs to muffle the voices telling the truth so as to get its propaganda messages to everyone to manufacture consensus.

WJ , Apr 11, 2018 11:25:08 AM | 52
One more thing. The current scenario is a prime set-up for demonstrating the old truth that a real war takes on a life of its own very quickly, and can quickly and unexpectedly (i.e. in an "unplanned" way) get out of control. For example, what if the US and NATO decide upon a merely symbolic strike that avoids every Russian troop or piece of military equipment in the area? But what if Israel, disappointed with this result, uses the cover of the NATO strikes to engineer its own attack upon either U.S. troops (with the intent to make it appear to be Syrians or Iranians) or Russian troops (with the intent to make it appear to be US or NATO)? Suddenly we are in a world war.

So even a merely symbolic strike is extremely dangerous to everybody's interests given the context of the conflict and the parties who are really driving it.

I have to say that everything keeps pointing back to Israel. And I have to wonder whether there has not been a pre-arrangment made between Russia and Iran (who has promised retaliation for the bombing a couple of days ago) that involves the immediate decimation of Israeli military interests if certain contingencies materialize.

mali , Apr 11, 2018 11:26:39 AM | 53
Faked CW Attack Pix : same dead bodies, same location.
Gesine Hammerling , Apr 11, 2018 11:30:22 AM | 54
Cross fingers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKQlQlQ6_pk
test , Apr 11, 2018 11:31:21 AM | 55
Putin shows again that he is a mature person compared to Trump and it vassals in the EU: Putin: The world is getting more chaotic, but we hope that common sense will prevail https://www.rt.com/news/423835-putin-world-chaos-common-sense/
Circe , Apr 11, 2018 11:33:46 AM | 57
Trump is a lying ass who insults the intelligence of anyone who would humiliate themselves surrendering to his mega-ego manipulation. When the heat is on, he has no problem throwing his own friends and associates under the bus.

Trump is all about and for Trump. Hence the name on all the buildings, golf courses and if he has his way Trump boulevard; USS Carrier Trump, Trump Airport, Trump City, Trump World. He's the embodiment of what America stands for: absolute depraved power begot through military and economic tyranny.

So he's telling Putin, don't look at all those sanctions and the billions I'm pouring into the arms race; just believe your lying eyes; I come in peace, reeely. Trump thinking: We smoked peace pipe with Native Americans; today the ones that survived the genocide live on reservation; while we have the tomahawks and live in ivory towers. We're in the Pacific, in Eastern Europe, almost all over the Middle East. You think we're going to let you (or China) mess with our supremacy?

'Nuf said.

Chris , Apr 11, 2018 11:40:54 AM | 58

... ... ...

@44 - nice summary and I hope we don't end up scenario number 2. As you say the US, UK and now France no longer behave as rational state actors. Some Russian put it well - "not agreement capable." I am hoping maybe Russia has some back channels directly to US generals and maybe Chinese ones as well.

A bee , Apr 11, 2018 11:46:00 AM | 59
Join anti-war marches April 15 / List of nationally coordinated regional mobilizations, April 14-15

https://iacenter.org/2018/03/30/nyc-end-u-s-wars-at-home-abroad-april-15/

psychohistorian , Apr 11, 2018 11:47:30 AM | 60
I posted the following comment on the past thread but haven't seen it said here so will add. I wonder what China is doing behind the scenes. This seems to me like the time that China needs to stand next to Russia and say NYET!

Thanks for the forum for online community b. It has been very meaningful for me and I am sure others. Hopefully it will continue to be through this coming world event. I apologize in advance for the aggressive actions of my country ruled by the world elite.....sad

Since I posted this comment on the other thread I have been thinking that China should cash in enough US Treasuries today to get the attention of my country's puppets.

Peter AU 1 , Apr 11, 2018 11:51:21 AM | 61
The US are about to attack Syria no matter the findings of OPCW. An attack to try and destroy the Syrian military to prevent the last pockets of jihadis being destroyed. The fake gas attack is a figleaf that will simply be ignored if it falls apart. The US would have taken some readings on Russian EW last year and now think they can defeat it. Russia will most likely save the S-300 and S-400 systems for aircraft and rely on EW and close in defenses for taking out missiles. Syrian bases will most likely take some hits.

The two Russian bases are sovereign Russian territory so any strikes against them are the same as attacking Russia mainland.

Nothing on whether Russian personal are still spread through the Syrian military or have been pulled back to the bases. I would think they are still at their jobs and like the pilots and spetnaz will stand their ground against the ISIS/AQ airforce and navy.

Circe , Apr 11, 2018 11:57:58 AM | 62
@51

It is naive to think that the Zionist tail wags the imperial dog.

Not so naïve when Zionists control finance, government, media and technology.

mali , Apr 11, 2018 11:59:09 AM | 63
Kalen @9

It is only normal that Putin and Xi will only act forcefully when Russia and China's respectively vital national security under direct threat . Any rational government leaders will do the same except the corrupt ones that would put its moneyed-ones/ruling class' and Isreal's interest ahead of that of their own countries and citizens.

As much as we would like to have the counter balance to the reckless US Empire, but we have to be realistic.

test , Apr 11, 2018 12:01:42 PM | 64
Since US have thousands of troops inside Syria, how come no effort to infiltrate, target etc this group in case of an attack?
aaaa , Apr 11, 2018 12:03:47 PM | 65
I don't imagine Russia responding much, beyond marginal countermeasures. The Russians have had numerous instances of 'falling short' in Syria, so I don't know why this would be different. I think the major mistake will be the comical repeat of the same judgment errors that Putin/Russia makes; the thinking that they can trust the West at their word.

The wild cards will be Hezbollah and Iran. They could bypass Russia and wage their own battles. I'm not sure how successful they would be, but they may be willing to make big sacrifices.

I think there's a power struggle over Syria between Russia and Iran, because Russia is more self-interested, and is completely locked in to the global economy

Circe , Apr 11, 2018 12:12:35 PM | 66
@63
As much as we would like to have the counter balance to the reckless US Empire, but we have to be realistic.

And if everyone thought this way, Goliath and Hitler would rule the world. Resistance to the Empire should be instinctual second nature and counter balance is greatest check on supremacy.

aaaa , Apr 11, 2018 12:13:39 PM | 67
Furthermore, I think the Western coalition will hit hard. They've clearly planned this assault out, and probably have the objective of obtaining full air superiority. Unless prevented I think there will be a rollback of major gains by the SAA. Russia's going to look really bad at the end of this if they don't have any aces up their sleeves
Bakerpete , Apr 11, 2018 12:15:31 PM | 68
My personal belief is that Putin has a very deep understanding of Sun Tzu and his actions over that past 18 years appears to confirm that. The majority of those reading Sun Tzu misread him as some great war strategist which is far too simplistic. Some fundamental tenants are that a leader must look after and improve his own people first, leading an opponent to defeat himself is the very best outcome and whether victorious or not open combat should be regarded as a failure.
test , Apr 11, 2018 12:20:34 PM | 69
circe 66

Actually Mali is fully correct, you need to understand that its not Russia that is about to be attacked but Syria. No one likes the psychos in EU/US/Nato that wage war like this but honestly, there is no realistic resistance to these super military powers. I hate it too but we must be realistic. Also NATO+US+EU states outmatch Russia easily in power politically, military, there is no way Russia could win such a war if this escalates too far.

karlof1 , Apr 11, 2018 12:24:03 PM | 70
Syria has weapons to target US warships, so it's not just Russian retaliation at issue. One of the more powerful verbal truths was hurled at Outlaw US Empire by Russia's UNSC Ambassador who in essence said the world doesn't need/want your hegemony any longer -- act civilized or shut the fuck up! The voting on the 3 failed UNSC resolutions shows that sentiment's agreed to by an increasing number of nations. And as expected, the Unipolar power seeking Outlaw US Empire and its puny vassal nations are trying to stem the rising Multipolar Alliance tide, which they are failing at and they no it, thus their desperation.

Then we have the captured operatives and NATO/Zionist supplied illegal weapons and associated factories for their production. IMO, enough evidence currently exists to convict NATO, GCC, and the Zionists for numerous war crimes in Syria and Iraq--evidence that's increasingly hard to ignore by the actual International Community--a Community that's no longer cowed by the Outlaw US Empire as they sign on to the Russo/Sino vision of future possibilities.

And that's what our ongoing Hybrid Third World War's all about--the drowning Outlaw US Empire's quest for global hegemony versus the vast majority of nations wanting a peaceful Multipolar world that seriously addresses the several major crises humanity currently faces besides HWW3. IMO, if the Empire and its vassals attack, their international standing will hit rock bottom and serious ostracism will commence.

NemesisCalling , Apr 11, 2018 12:26:02 PM | 71
@63 mali

I appreciate this sentiment from you and many other posters, including the Saker, who has repeatedly claimed that Russia is not obliged in any sense to save Syria from the bloodthirsty hegemon. But there are many, including myself, who feel that the term "Russia's interest" does include an intact Syria, and that, any way you want to slice it, if Syria falls, this is not only a major and irrevocable blow to the balance of power in the ME, but also will serve to further cage in and cripple Russia economically.

If the Russians had been set-up better in Libya to thwart the west blitzkreig on Gaddafi, then a showdown would have potentially occurred there. Now because of the Russian foothold in Syria, the west seems very reluctant to order a full-on shock-and-awe. Russia knows this and will not back down. That is why every dirty trick in the book is being played right now. Russia will not just go silently into the night. This is a very desperate situation...it is not nor will ever be easy for Russia to do nothing.

aaaa , Apr 11, 2018 12:31:44 PM | 73
@69 Valid point, but Russia will see a major investment in money and lives become undone. To capitulate, watch Shock&Awe II, and see hoards (re)overtake D-E-Z and allepo would be demoralizing to a degree that may be akin to how Germans felt when the Allied troops crossed the Rhine river
farm ecologist , Apr 11, 2018 12:33:22 PM | 74
Two observations based on past US aggressive actions:

1) The US rarely if ever directly attacks a country that can genuinely fight back. Look at how threats against North Korea died down after it became evident that they had successfully developed nuclear weapons.

2) Americans have a very low tolerance for casualties among their armed forces (that's why they mostly just drop bombs from a safe height). Look at how a single soldier encountering an IED in northern Syria a few weeks ago was followed in short order by Trump's apparent decision to withdraw troops. What would happen if dozens or hundreds started having "unfortunate accidents"?

b , Apr 11, 2018 12:33:24 PM | 75
Backtracking ?
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is still assessing intelligence about last weekend's suspected chemical weapons attack in Syria, U.S. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Wednesday, striking a cautious tone hours after President Donald Trump threatened missile strikes.

Asked if he had seen enough evidence to blame Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces for the attack, Mattis said: "We're still assessing the intelligence -- ourselves and our allies. We're still working on this." He did not elaborate.

Mattis also restated that the U.S. military stood ready to provide military options, if appropriate, and as determined by Trump.

"Stood ready to provide"? Does that mean that it has not yet been asked? Weird writing ...
Steve , Apr 11, 2018 12:35:57 PM | 76
After reading Trump's tweets on the Nato countries news site, I started to wonder what type has Donald Trump been doing business with and made profits. Must be crooks with very low intelligence. If his tweets are anything to gauge his intelligence with. Does really think Russia would shake by his ignorant tweets. Israel is the problem. Russia has been too lenient. Like a typical spoilt-child, Israel behaves with impunity in the international community. All these absurd theaters are simply to divert attention from the coward and criminal activities of Israel in Palestine.
radiator , Apr 11, 2018 12:37:45 PM | 77
maybe these tweets are some kind of hail mary subversive action by the Donald? letting everyone know about what's coming. I mean, to announce defensive measures would be quite common, but announcing a strike some hours or days beforehand is not seen that often.
hobo , Apr 11, 2018 12:38:26 PM | 78
Trump had dinner last night with Alan Deshowitz, Jared Kushner and other advisors, primarily to discuss the situation in Syria and mid-east policy. So Dershowitz, the chicken little of anti-Semitism, whose philosophy of life is encapsulated in "is it good for the Jews" is suddenly the go-to expert on mid-east policy. Sounds like a replay of George Bush's infamous 'six Jews and the president' meeting regarding the fate of Palestine.

This will not end well.

ab initio , Apr 11, 2018 12:39:58 PM | 79
We'll see what Russia does if the US, UK, France and Israel bombs Syria. Bluster is one thing but moving up the escalation ladder is another thing.

The West has destroyed the international legal framework that they created after WWII by flouting international law and the UN charter. They have acted with impunity for many decades. The whole Skripal affair and now using this false flag as pretext are just new examples where facts don't matter.

This will be a major test for Putin. It will be interesting to see how far up the escalation ladder he is willing to climb.

Clueless Joe , Apr 11, 2018 12:40:39 PM | 80
Looks like Mattis is really the last adult in the room, knows this is dodgy, knows and is on record saying previous cases were dodgy as well (like was told to Obama back in 2013). One can hope he can convince Trump, and won't be fired. Bonus points if there's a shooting match and Mattis puts Bolton in his right place, near the dustbin.

"Russia said it would destroy the platforms that launch the missiles, not only the missiles themselves. Did nobody explain the difference to Trump?"

What I hope is that some smart general will explain to Trump what it would mean for US supremacy, if Russia happened to sink an aircraft carrier - considering their force projection is based on that, and are one half of the US military might (the other being, obviously, nukes).

james , Apr 11, 2018 12:45:22 PM | 83
@81 test.. i think you are wrong... the reason russia is in syria has a lot to do with what happened in libya.. they didn't want to see that again... i think the line is drawn here in syria... i do not believe russia will back down here as you suggest.. we can wait and see..
Chris , Apr 11, 2018 12:45:58 PM | 84
@65 - I have to question the statement that Russia is completely locked into the global economy. They produce their own oil, have their own finance system that can be separated from the west now that the alternative clearing network with China (SWIFT replacement) is online.

And don't forget that the sanctions of the past 5 years have probably backfired on the West by making Russia stronger. Domestic agriculture and industry has had to fire up in order to substitute for imports no longer available.

radiator , Apr 11, 2018 12:50:55 PM | 85
Again, Syria is NOT such a big interest for Russia and thefore wont make a sacrifice for it. Period.

One might think, given the last 20 years, that overthrowing Syria would not be the last chapter of the regime change story. Who'd be next? Probably a "westernized" or failed-state Iran. From there, strategically? Maybe nothing more, maybe some of the former ussr-republics would see uprising? There's more ways than all-out nuclear war to have russia cut down to size.

Likklemore , Apr 11, 2018 12:55:41 PM | 86
Trump appears not to understand how deep are his troubles: with Mueller's grab of his personal Attorney's files- Russiagate has morphed into a sex scandal; his base is growing restless over undelivered campaign promises. Trump does Twitter diplomacy and Russia is not amused. The "Russia needs US to help with their economy" is weird. Only 8 months ago Congress passed legislation 419-3 imposing sanctions against Russia, which Trump signed, that limits his authority to lift them.

Big question; we just read Iran has declared it stands with Syria. What about China? April 03 China's new defense minister went to Moscow to signal to the `United States Russia and China's military are close. China is also pissed over the recent U.S.-Taiwan Act. Did we mention the South China Sea provocations?

(Unable to provide links due mobile device)

Noirette , Apr 11, 2018 12:59:45 PM | 89
Consider the leaders of the antagonists; May, Macron, Netanyahu, Trump. Each is weak and in trouble internally and are either not driving this madness or are in need of distractions. Bakerpete 28.

Bakerpete you express a common pov I'm not crit. it, I have expressed similar in near time past. But. One might just as easily argue the reverse: as these 'leaders' are in touble at home - imho quite acute for Macron (social unrest and much pol oppo, though it will come to nothing for next two years) and Trump (PTB, deep state scissions and attacks on his person which likewise won't grip just now, but that situation is far more volatile, unpredictable), less dire for May and Netanyahu, > that these 'homey disturbances' serve to obscure, cover up, distract people from murderous, disastrous foreign policies.

To clarify a simple ex. Some class of workers will demonstrate, strike, .. to preserve their salaries (rightly so) say in F, -- completely occupied with that they have no care or time for foreign policy (e.g. Syria)..

john , Apr 11, 2018 1:02:56 PM | 90
radiator says:

There's more ways than all-out nuclear war to have Russia cut down to size

not really

Christian Chuba , Apr 11, 2018 1:07:44 PM | 91
The problem with allowing 'symbolic strikes'

Is that the Jihadists now have the formula, 1. fake WMD attack, 2. watch Trump's even larger attack against the brave Syrian army, 3. rinse and repeat. The Russians will either have to fight or leave Syria.

My stomach is in knots. The evil people who are running my country are war criminals. My only comfort is that they cannot lie their way out of God's judgment.

OJS , Apr 11, 2018 1:09:05 PM | 92
Also NATO+US+EU states outmatch Russia easily in power politically, military, there is no way Russia could win such a war if this escalates too far.

Posted by: test | Apr 11, 2018 12:20:34 PM | 69

This is NOT about winning. It's about humans' lives and continuous endless wars and regime changes. Should we allow the super military powers dictates human lives? Fuck NATO, EU, US, UK, Germany, France....

Russia Federation will return to The Soviet Union or further break up if Putin let Trump off the hook. China, if Xi Jinping did not retaliate immediately against Trump, more than 1.4 billion's Chinese will stave. Do you think China can win (trades or military) if she decides to fight US?

It's not about winning but stands your ground or return to when China a century of humiliation under the western power and Japan.

Christian Chuba , Apr 11, 2018 1:11:18 PM | 93
The Stock Market

I cannot believe how oblivious the stock market and the U.S. public is to the possibility of war. Everyone here has the popcorn ready and is waiting for the midnight plumes like it's the 4th of July. We are talking about Trump's attorney, the Chinese give back to avoid the trade war, and we seem to think that the Russians will accept their overdue punishment because deep down inside, all evildoers know that they deserve to be punished by the Almighty U.S.

We are a nation of self-righteous morons. Pride comes before a fall.

radiator , Apr 11, 2018 1:12:10 PM | 94
not really

I didn't mean "geographically", although that would surely be a great goal. All this land and its resources for only so few people, they surely belong to the strongest, not the ones that happen to live there.

Christian Chuba , Apr 11, 2018 1:16:23 PM | 95
Also NATO+US+EU states outmatch Russia easily in power politically, military, there is no way Russia could win such a war if this escalates too far.

I'll chime in here. This is a misconception. What does 'winning' mean? It's not like the West is going to take Moscow. The Russians will use nukes before they let that happen. Can the west kick Russia out of Syria? Sure but only after the Russians sink a few capital ships and possibly an aircraft carrier and then we have Syria on our hands. No one in the West will consider that a win worth celebrating.

Will the west try an all out blockade on Russia?
Maybe but again Russia has the nuclear war card. If an all out embargo can destroy Russia then as Putin says, 'what good is a world without a Russia'. A few sanctions fine but they can't deprive Russia the ability to trade oil with China, India, or South America.

OJS , Apr 11, 2018 1:17:49 PM | 96
.... This will be a major test for Putin. It will be interesting to see how far up the escalation ladder he is willing to climb.

Posted by: ab initio | Apr 11, 2018 12:39:58 PM | 79

I can't predict Putin, but I know Xi Jinping will never stand for it.. Xi has made it clear repeatedly China will retaliate.

Likklemore , Apr 11, 2018 1:24:48 PM | 97
@ b 75


If the media is credible.....WHO has given cover. 7 Hours ago, CNN, the Sun.co.uk, BBC and Sputniknews reporting 'WHO states 500 people showed signs of chemical attack in Syria." That was quick because only 24 hrs early WHO requested access to E. Ghouta.

We are at the point where the global debt ($237 trillion) will never be repaid, needs to be extinguished. Other than taking Russia's landmass and resources, What better way than WW111? When all else fails, The solution is war.

Perimetr , Apr 11, 2018 1:26:53 PM | 98
There appears to be a universal assumption here that Russia will choose to wait, to respond to a US-French-UK-Israeli attack. This makes sense if you base your assumptions on the actions of Russia during recent history. However, I am not so sure that will be the case. As Putin says, if you know a fight is inevitable, then hit first.

One other assumption seems to be that a Russian response will somehow be measured, to be more or less in proportion to the attack. I am not so sure about that, either. If the damned fool neocons go ahead with this insanity, then I think all bets are off.

We do not know the extent of Russian offensive or defensive capabilities. I think the Russians have been playing a waiting game for as long as possible, hoping that push would not come to shove, but if it did, then they would be fully prepared with both conventional and unconventional capabilities.

Not long now before we find out.

[Apr 11, 2018] Trump's Rush to Judgment on Syria Chemical Attack by Scott Ritter

Apr 11, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
President Trump, Vice President Pence, and Defense Secretary Mattis. (DoD) On Sunday, President Trump announced his intention to make those responsible for an alleged chemical weapons attack on Douma, including the Syrian government and its Russian and Iranian allies, pay a "big price" for their continued disregard for international law. The next day U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley declared that "The United States is determined to see the monster who dropped chemical weapons on the Syrian people held to account."

President Trump reinforced his call for action on Monday, noting that the United States would not sit back in the face of the alleged use of chemical weapons by Syria. "It will be met, and it will be met forcefully," the president said, adding that those responsible for the attack will be held accountable, whether it was Syria, Russia, Iran or "all of them together." Trump noted that a decision to use military force would be made "over the next 24 to 48 hours."

The pronouncements of imminent military action by the United States are not made in a vacuum. Russia, which has considerable military forces deployed inside Syria, including advanced military aircraft and anti-aircraft missile batteries, has rejected the allegations of chemical weapons use by Syria as a "fabrication," and promised that any attack on Syria would result in "serious repercussions." Russian forces inside Syria have reportedly been placed on "full alert" as American naval vessels capable of launching cruise missiles have arrived off the Syrian coast.

The United States and Russia appear to be heading toward a direct military confrontation that, depending on the level of force used and the number, if any, casualties incurred by either side, carries with it the risk of a broader conflict. While Russian (and Syrian) claims of innocence regarding the alleged chemical weapons attack cannot be accepted at face value, the fact that the United States has not backed up its own claims with anything other than a recitation of accusations made by rebel groups opposed to the regime of Bashar al-Assad is problematic insofar as it shows a rush to judgement on matters of war. Given the potentially devastating consequences of any U.S.-Russian military clash over Syria, it would be better for all parties involved to wait for a full and thorough investigation of the alleged attack before any final decision on the use of force in response is made.

There are two versions of what happened in Douma, a suburb of Damascus home to between 80,000 and 150,000 people. The one relied upon by the United States is provided by rebel forces opposed to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. According to the Violations Documentation Center (VDC), a non-profit organization comprised of various Syrian opposition groups funded by the Asfari Foundation and George Soros' Open Societies Foundation , at approximately 12 p.m. the Syrian Air Force attacked the vicinity of the Saada Bakery using munitions believed to contain "poisonous gas." The VDC cited eyewitness accounts from members of the Syrian Civil Defense, or "White Helmets," who described the smell of chlorine and the presence of numerous bodies assessed to have succumbed from gas sourced to a Syrian "rocket." Later, at 7 p.m., a second air strike struck an area near Martyr's Square, again using munitions assessed by eyewitnesses to contain "poisonous gas." Doctors from the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS) described symptoms that indicated that a nerve agent had been used. Images of victims in the locations allegedly attacked were released by a rebel-affiliated social media entity known as the "Douma Revolution" and the "White Helmets."

Douma is part of a larger district known as Eastern Ghouta which has, since 2012, been under the control of various militant organizations opposed to the regime of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. In early February 2018, the Syrian Army, supported by the Russian Air Force, began operations to recapture the Eastern Ghouta district. The joint Syrian-Russian offensive was as brutal as it was effective -- by March, Eastern Ghouta had been split into three pockets of resistance at a cost of more than 1,600 civilian dead. Two of the pockets capitulated under terms which had the opposition fighters and their families evacuated to rebel-held territory in the northern Syrian province of Idlib. Only Douma held out, where Salafist fighters from the "Army of Islam" (Jaish al-Islam) refused to surrender. On April 5, the situation had deteriorated inside Douma to the point that the rebel defenders had agreed to negotiations that would lead to their evacuation of Douma; the very next day, however, these discussions had broken down, and the Syrian military resumed its offensive. The air attacks described by the VDC occurred on the second day of the resumption of hostilities.

There is a competing narrative , however, provided by the Russian government and those sympathetic to its position. After the breakdown of negotiations between the Douma rebels and the Russian government on April 6, the story goes, the Syrian government offensive to liberate Douma resumed. The Douma rebels, faced with imminent defeat, fabricated the allegations of a chemical attack. Russia had warned of such a provocation back in March 2018, claiming the rebels were working in coordination with the United States to create the conditions for a massive American air attack against Syrian government infrastructure.

Shortly after the Syrian government resumed its offensive against Douma (and after the opposition forces publicized their allegations of Syrian government chemical weapons attacks), the rebel resistance inside Douma collapsed, with the fighters agreeing to be evacuated to Idlib. The Russian military was able to dispatch units to the sites of the alleged chemical weapons attacks and conduct a survey. According to the state-run Russian news, no evidence of a chemical weapons attack was discovered. Representatives of the Syrian Red Crescent who claim to have worked in Douma stated that they have seen no evidence of any chemical weapons use there, either.

Beyond providing a competing narrative, however, Russia has offered to open up Douma to inspectors from the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons , or OPCW, for a full investigation. This offer was echoed by the Syrian government , which extended an official invitation for the OPCW to come to Douma. On April 10, the OPCW announced that it would be dispatching an inspection team "shortly" to carry out this work. The forensic technical investigatory capabilities of an OPCW inspection team are such that it would be able to detect the presence of any chemical agent used in Douma. While the investigation itself would take days to conduct and weeks to process, its conclusions would, under these circumstances, be conclusive as to the presence of any prohibited substance.

One major drawback to any OPCW investigation is its inability to assess responsibility for the presence of any banned substances detected. In prior investigations inside Syria, the OPCW was able to operate as part of the United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism (JIM) , an entity specifically empowered by Security Council resolution to make such determinations. The mandate of the JIM was not extended , however, after Russia expressed its displeasure over what it deemed to be the inaccurate and politicized findings regarding previous allegations of chemical weapons use by the Syrian government. The United States has submitted a resolution to the Security Council demanding that a new investigatory body be formed that would be able to provide attribution for any chemical weapons attack inside Syria; whether Russia would veto such a resolution or allow it to be passed has yet to be seen.

The bottom line, however, is that the United States is threatening to go to war in Syria over allegations of chemical weapons usage for which no factual evidence has been provided. This act is occurring even as the possibility remains that verifiable forensic investigations would, at a minimum, confirm the presence of chemical weapons (thereby contradicting the Russian claims that no such evidence was detected by its troops), and if the Security Council passes a resolution allowing for a properly mandated investigation team, actual attribution could be assigned.

Moreover, President Trump's rush to judgment on Syrian guilt is being done in a highly politicized environment, coming as it does on the heels of an FBI raid on the offices of the president's personal attorney . In times such as this, a president is often attracted by the prospect of "looking presidential" in order to offset personal problems (one only need to look at President Clinton's decision in August 1998 , at the height of the Lewinsky scandal, to launch cruise missile attacks on Afghanistan and Sudan.)

If America is to place its military in harm's way, it needs to be in support of a cause worthy of the sacrifice being asked of those who serve. Giving the OPCW time to carry out its investigation in Syria would allow a fact-based case to be made whether military force was justified or not, as well as support a determination of whether or not the risks associated with the use of force were warranted. Pulling the trigger void of such information, especially when Trump is distracted by personal political issues, is not something the American people, nor their representatives in Congress, should tolerate.

Scott Ritter is a former Marine Corps intelligence officer who served in the former Soviet Union implementing arms control treaties, in the Persian Gulf during Operation Desert Storm, and in Iraq overseeing the disarmament of WMD. He is the author of Deal of the Century: How Iran Blocked the West's Road to War .

[Apr 11, 2018] I think that the read target of attack in Syria is the Nord Stream II pipeline.

Apr 11, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Hagios | Apr 11, 2018 8:50:17 AM | 58 I think that the read target here is the Nord Stream II pipeline. They're currently unwilling to cancel it out of economic considerations, but they think that they could get away with cancelling it if NATO attacks Syria and Russia responds with "unprovoked aggression." NATO's attack IMO will be just large enough that Russia has to respond, then Trump and co. will cease further military action and continue with economic warfare.

Posted by: Timothy

[Apr 11, 2018] Why the Latest Syria Gas Attack Allegations Are Almost Certainly Bunk

Apr 11, 2018 | russia-insider.com

First, the reports are "unverified", according to The Wall Street Journal [1] and British Foreign Office [2] and are unconfirmed, according to the US State Department [3]. What's more, The New York Times noted that it "was not possible to independently verify the reports," [4] while The Associated Press added that "the reports could not be independently verified." [5]

Second, according to The Wall Street Journal, it isn't "clear who carried out the attack" [6] assuming even that one was carried out.

Third, the "unverified photos and videos" [7] which form the body of (unverified) evidence, were produced by two groups which have an interest in fabricating atrocities to draw the United States more deeply into the Syrian conflict. Both groups, the White Helmets and Syrian American Medical Society, are funded by Western governments [8], which openly seek regime change in Syria and therefore have an interest in producing a humanitarian pretext to justify stepping up their intervention in the country. The Western government-funded White Helmets and Syrian American Medical Society are allied with anti-government jihadists and are active only "in opposition-controlled areas." [9] They, too, are clearly interested parties.

Trump's recent musings about ending the US military occupation of nearly one-third of Syrian territory, including the country's richest oil fields, was swiftly met by Pentagon opposition, led by US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis. The US president reluctantly accepted a continued occupation, so long as it ends in a matter of months rather than years.

Fabricating an atrocity would pressure Trump to maintain the US occupation indefinitely and possibly escalate US military intervention in Syria, much to the pleasure of Islamist insurgents, their White Helmet and Syrian American Medical Society allies, and US war planners.

If that is the intention, the maneuver appears to have met with success. Trump reacted on Twitter to the unverified (and unverifiable) reports, by dehumanizing Syrian president Bashar al-Assad as an "animal," who the US president said was responsible for a "humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever." That the US State Department acknowledged that the reports were unconfirmed failed to restrain the "shoot-from-the-hip" Trump.

Fifth, a chemical attack by the Syrian government would be manifestly self-defeating, and therefore would seem to be highly unlikely. The Syrian Arab Army is on the cusp of an all but inevitable victory in Eastern Ghouta. Why would it cancel its gains by handing the United States a pretext to continue its military intervention in Syria, in the aftermath of Trump signalling his intention to withdraw US troops?

Seventh, much of the discourse about chemical weapons in Syria implicitly assumes the Syrian government has them, despite the country cooperating with the Organization for the Prevention of Chemical Weapons to eliminate them years ago.

Finally, allegations of chemical weapons use are routinely made against the Syrian government, and while, through repetition, have been transfigured into received truths, have all proved to be unverified. Jim Mattis acknowledged this at a February 2 news conference.

Q: Just make sure I heard you correctly, you're saying you think it's likely they have used it and you're looking for the evidence? Is that what you said?

SEC. MATTIS: We do not have evidence of it we're looking for evidence of it .

Q: So the likelihood was not what your -- you're not characterizing it as a likelihood? I thought I used -- you used that word; I guess I misunderstood you.

SEC. MATTIS: Well, there's certainly groups that say they've used it. And so they think there's a likelihood, so we're looking for the evidence.

Q: So there's credible evidence out there that both sarin and chlorine --

SEC. MATTIS: No, I have not got the evidence, not specifically. I don't have the evidence.

What I'm saying is that other -- that groups on the ground, NGOs, fighters on the ground have said that sarin has been used. So we are looking for evidence. I don't have evidence, credible or uncredible. [11]

Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence, but neither is it evidence of guilt. The complete lack of evidence, along with a political context that favors the production of spurious allegations, suggests that the latest chemical weapons claims are -- like all that have preceded them -- dubious at best.

Source: What's Left


1. Raja Abdulrahim, "Dozens killed in alleged chemical-weapons attack in Syria," The Wall Street Journal, April 8, 2018.
2. Ben Hubbard, "Dozens suffocate in Syria as government is accused of chemical attack," The New York Times, April 8, 2018.
3. Hubbard.
4. Hubbard.
5. Zeina Karam and Philip Issa, "Syrian rescuers say at least 40 people killed in eastern Ghouta has attack," The Associated Press, April 8, 2018.
6. April 8.
7. Abdulrahim, April 8.
8. Raja Abdulrahim, "Syria airstrikes hit hospitals in rebel territory," The Wall Street Journal, February 5, 2018; Louisa Loveluck and Erin Cunningham, "Dozens killed in apparent chemical weapons attack on civilians in Syria, rescue workers say," The Washington Post, April 8, 2018.
9. Abdulrahim, April 8; Abdulrahim, February 5.
10. Hubbard.
11. Media Availability by Secretary Mattis at the Pentagon, Secretary of Defense James N. Mattis, Feb. 2, 2018,

[Apr 11, 2018] Twelve of the 15 council members backed the measure, including France, Britain, African countries, Kazakhstan and Kuwait. Bolivia voted against the draft resolution, while China abstained

Apr 11, 2018 | www.unz.com

anonymous [204] Disclaimer , April 10, 2018 at 9:18 pm GMT

China again showed that is a petty US COLONY

[Russia on Tuesday vetoed a US-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution that would have set up an investigation into chemical weapons use in Syria following an alleged toxic gas attack in rebel-held Douma.
It was the 12th time that Russia has used its veto power at the council to block action targeting its Syrian ally.

Twelve of the 15 council members backed the measure, including France, Britain, African countries, Kazakhstan and Kuwait. Bolivia voted against the draft resolution, while China abstained.]

Why petty China always cave in with US. In the latest resolution China AGAIN abstained. China is a petty colony and people must boycott its garbage, that is called goods. Chinese criminal 'leaders' still have their slave mentality. They are nothing but petty slaves in the service of the mass murderers.
They also voted for illegal sanctions against Iran, N. Korea and any other country that American criminals and mass murderers wanted to kill their children. Chinese petty 'leaders' are as criminals as US mass murderers. Down with petty colonies and cowards chinese 'leaders'.

Even Bolivia, a small country has more courage than the petty chinses. Long live Bolivia

[Apr 11, 2018] California Democrat Zoe Lofgren and Michigan Republican Justin Amash are circulating a bipartisan letter to President Trump, insisting that he seek Congressional authorization before striking the government of Syria.

Apr 11, 2018 | www.unz.com

RobinG , April 11, 2018 at 4:17 am GMT

@SolontoCroesus

"Red Crescent Says No Evidence of Chemical Attack in Syria's Douma"

Yup. Not that it matters to the War Bitch. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws-ko2SD-HY&feature=youtu.be UNSC meets to discuss reports of chemical attack in Syria Streamed live

There's some resistance (Building, I hope.)

California Democrat Zoe Lofgren and Michigan Republican Justin Amash are circulating
a bipartisan letter to President Trump, insisting that he seek Congressional authorization before striking the government of Syria.

Defend our Constitution and oppose endless war.
Urge your Representative to sign the Lofgren-Amash letter against unconstitutional war.

Phone calls are best: US Capitol Switchboard (202) 224-3121, ask for your Rep. by name.
You can leave a message after hours. (Name, zipcode, request.)
The White House: (202) 456-1111

There is also a petition for you to sign:

https://www.change.org/p/back-repzoelofgren-justinamash-potus-must-get-authorization-before-striking-Syria

Sign @RepZoeLofgren-@JustinAmash: @POTUS must get authorization before striking Syria

H/T to Robert Naiman of "Just Foreign Policy" for this Alert.

[Apr 11, 2018] With all these 'gas victims' churned out by the white helmets how is it that no such 'martyr' graves have ever turned up ?

Apr 11, 2018 | www.unz.com

FB , April 11, 2018 at 12:48 am GMT

@redmudhooch

' Don't know how true it is, but this is what Veterans Today says about the captured spooks and weapons lab '

Thanks for the links

Gordon Duff [Vietnam Marine grunt veteran] and Jim Dean of Veterans Today are well meaning fellows and are on the 'right team' so to speak

They are often dismissed as Conspiracy Kooks and they sometimes go a bit over the top

I suspect this is because they rely on sources that are perhaps somewhat unreliable [VT says some of these sources are ex intel guys...so some truth bending might go with the territory...]

Here is what we do know last month the Syrian government did say it found a 'rebel' chemical weapons workshop and this was reported in Sputnik and RT

Reuters ran a one-sentence 'report' on this

What has been documented much more extensively especially in RT and Sputnik are huge conventional weapons caches seized by the SAA as it liberates various locations from terrorists often these weapons are visibly stamped with manufacturer data plates from US and Nato countries

This is beyond doubt

So the logical question is how are these holed up bearded fanatics in Ghouta who are surrounded on all sides getting this stuff for the last five years ?

There is a logistics question here who and how has been smuggling this into the besieged enclave [including possibly chemical weapons] ?

That is really cloak and dagger stuff no doubt and actual verifiable info would be very hard to come by

So there could be some truth to this idea that various Western spooks or at least contractors are involved in this game of smuggling in everything from guns to chlorine [which is readily available]

However it is doubtful that these personnel would have been caught by the advancing SAA

Even if SAA did capture various Nato operators or agents there it might not be something that the Russian side would publicize [I'm just guessing as a layman here...Mr. Giraldi would certainly have a much better grasp on the nuts and bolts of such things...]

So overall I think this is a case where VT is perhaps a bit too optimistic

Still reading Duff and Dean is always helpful for instance we have this

' We are still waiting for the first verifiable report of a jhadi and or family that has been killed by one of these "attacks", or a cemetery of the gassed martyrs, or even a headstone for such.

The amateur script writers forgot about that part '

That's a very good observation

With all these 'gas victims' churned out by the white helmets how is it that no such 'martyr' graves have ever turned up ?

Or this observation as to how those chemicals might be used that the headchoppers are cooking up in their workshops

' As for what these could be used for, how about throwing into a cellar filled with human shield pro-Damascus family members to generate a nice pile of bodies for our "un-free" Western media '

We do know that the Jaish headhcoppers just released a whole bunch of Syrian prisoners that they had been holding in on of their 'jails' as part of the evacuation deal many of them women these freed prisoners have now been evacuated and taken to a sports stadium in Damascus for reunion with family

Photo showing the buses with the freed prisoners below

On March 26 even the French AFP ran this story

' In the largest city of the East Ghouta district, Douma, civilians and military personnel have been liberated from the "jail of repentance," where they were kept prisoners for years by Jaish al-Islam terrorists '

There were hundreds of women and children from the city of Adra, which was captured by terrorists in December 2013. Adra is one of the largest industrial cities in the suburbs of Damascus.

"In such places, extremists tortured the abducted people, forcing them to repent of their sins. Thus, they wanted to realize the doctrine of a peaceful revolution. But what sins do children, who were the greatest number in the prison, have to repent?" the source asked.

According to the source, there were 3,500 inmates in the prison. The terrorists used them as a human shield to put pressure on the Syrian army, which did everything possible to save the lives of the people of the city '

So these are the 'good guys' for whom Dump is sending the United States to war ?

If he is as stupid as all that then I certainly hope that the Russians don't pull their punches

At this point Dump is beyond redemption the sooner his disillusioned base cuts him loose the better

L.K , April 11, 2018 at 2:01 am GMT
@FB

FB:

Gordon Duff [Vietnam Marine grunt veteran] and Jim Dean of Veterans Today are well meaning fellows and are on the 'right team' so to speak

No, they most certainly are NOT. The problem is not with them talking about conspiracies, conspiracies do take place all the time
Problem is these guys are disinformation, especially Duffy.

http://www.bollyn.com/14934/

Gordon Duff: 9-11 Disinfo Toad

The fact that Gordon Duff is a "disinfo toad" is certainly no secret. He has openly admitted that "about thirty percent of what is on Veterans Today is patently false" and that at least forty percent of what he writes is "purposely partially false".

Gordon Duff, senior editor of the website Veterans Today, published an article on May 20, 2014, that can only be described as rank disinformation that is meant to obscure the truth about 9-11. To deliberately spread lies about what caused the deaths of thousands of people on 9-11 is an egregious and unforgivable offense. The Duff article, which was edited by Jim W. Dean, is so full of errors that it cannot be taken seriously, except perhaps as evidence of his role as an agent of disinformation about 9-11.

Also, both Duff and Dean were 100% supporters of the ZUS/NATO war on Libya, and became furious when several readers protested and confronted them in the comment sections, which led to censorship. Maybe Duffy boy's defense contracts he claims to have in Africa and the ME had something to do with that.

[Apr 11, 2018] Red Crescent Says No Evidence of Chemical Attack in Syria's Douma

Apr 11, 2018 | www.unz.com

Sparkon , April 10, 2018 at 10:15 pm GMT

Red Crescent Says No Evidence of Chemical Attack in Syria's Douma

Patients treated by aid group not exposed to any chemical agents
Jason Ditz Posted on April 9, 2018

The Syrian Red Crescent issued a statement Monday dismissing the allegations of a weekend chemical weapon attack in the city of Douma. The statement insisted their medical personnel in the city had found no evidence any such attack took place.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/04/09/red-crescent-says-no-evidence-of-chemical-attack-in-syrias-douma/

Y ou might think it would be easier if not more foolproof for the warmongers to stage a fake chemical attack in Syria by 2018 than it was staging the false flag attack on the WTC in 2001, but even this simple but bogus narrative crumbles under perfunctory inspection, and the lies stick out like a pitchfork in a goat's ass, or UA 175 stuck in the middle at WTC 2, a lie for the ages frozen in pixels.

Not that obvious lies have been any detriment to the warmongers of the past, even when George W. Bush told his whopper about watching the first WTC crash on the boob tube because "the TV was obviously on."

Well, Shrub is part of the ruling oligarchy, so he's an untouchable with royal jelly or something, like Blair, who probably caught it from the Queen.

In October 2001, Rudy Giuliani was even knighted by Her Royal Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, who bestowed upon the NYC mayor the modest title of Knight Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire ostensibly for his "outstanding help and support to the bereaved British families in New York."

Of course, successful destruction of WTC evidence had nothing to do with Rudy's award in the same way that BBC's foreknowledge of WTC 7′s destruction was just one of those doggone quirky things that happen, during false flags, when the evils hacks can't get their timing right.

Just one more thing. I noticed that the slim 9/11 articles section has been removed from the front page at Unz Review. Linh Dinh's article from August 13, 2017 "George Orwell and Mohammed Atta Were Here" can be found under his name, as can the earlier sole entry in the now-defunct 9/11 section, author Philip Giraldi's 10-25-2016 article "9/11 Truth?" which drew over 1,000 comments.

densa , April 10, 2018 at 10:28 pm GMT
After seeing the 3 Stooges, May, Macron and Trump, locking arms to start another war, I'd like ours (Larry?) to know that if he becomes a wartime president, it will be difficult to spend weekends in Mar Largo golfing. Think about it.
olontoCroesus , April 11, 2018 at 12:02 am GMT
@Sparkon

Red Crescent Says No Evidence of Chemical Attack in Syria's Douma
Patients treated by aid group not exposed to any chemical agents
Jason Ditz Posted on April 9, 2018
The Syrian Red Crescent issued a statement Monday dismissing the allegations of a weekend chemical weapon attack in the city of Douma. The statement insisted their medical personnel in the city had found no evidence any such attack took place.

https://news.antiwar.com/2018/04/09/red-crescent-says-no-evidence-of-chemical-attack-in-syrias-douma/

Crisis Group's Sam Heller wordsmiths a different question, the next question:
Can the U.S. Respond to the Syria Chemical Weapons Attack without Risking Escalation?

After a seemingly sanguine introduction –

So far, no international party has said definitively or presented conclusive evidence that the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad was responsible for the chemical weapons use. . . .

Heller tightens the frame to fit a preconceived image:

While the lack of access makes it difficult to immediately verify, chemical weapons use would be consistent with past behaviour by the Syrian government. The government has repeatedly employed chlorine and, more infrequently, sarin gas against areas under rebel control , as documented by nonpartisan international bodies such as the United Nations-established Joint Investigative Mechanism and the Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Syrian Arab Republic. Chemical attacks fit within a broader strategy the government has used of targeting civilians and fighters alike in rebel-held areas. Through brutal means, this strategy renders these areas highly dangerous and ultimately unlivable, permitting no viable alternative to government control.

That last bit is problematic: if gassed "areas are rendered unlivable," will the British be holding hosts of quiet funerals for fallen White Helmet rescuers who entered the areas and came in body-contact with victims?

Heller next constructs a scenario intended to provide a rationale for the Syrian government to have made the attack, then reports that

"Syria's T-4 airbase was hit by an apparent Israeli airstrike on the morning of 9 April, although it remains unclear whether the strike was related to the Douma chemical attack. . . . from Lebanese airspace . . . killing seven Iranians. . . . "

Though Israel declined to comment, Heller noted that

"Israel also struck the T-4 base in February, after an Iranian drone it said was launched from the base entered Israeli airspace. "

If all is fair in love and war, one must forebear pointing out the hypocrisy of Israel attacking a Syrian target from Lebanese airspace in retaliation for Iran flying drones over Israeli airspace. However, the same logic conveys the right to Iran and/or Syria and/or Russia to attack an Israeli launching site in retaliation for its attacks on Syria.

But even wars have rules, that civilized people comply with -- statesmen like Sergei Lavrov and Vladimir Putin understand this. But when the adversary/aggressor is a psychopath who disdains convention's rules and limits, then what?

Israel is not like a drunk or addict that has hit the wall -- such a person is, at that point, ready for intensive rehabilitation. But a psychopath is not in that category.

What huge imago made
A psychopathic god?
– W H Auden

How does one deal with a psychopath?
How does one deal with a rabid dog? Can a rabid dog be medicated, or re-trained?
What signals do Israelis send about how an entity that fails to comply with demanded norms should be treated? Israelis insist that such entities respond "only to force." Projection may be as close to insight as a psychopath can get.

If it is the case that Israel can only be dealt with by force, that the rabid dog must be put down, then what are we to make of Phil Weiss's recent claim that Israel's attacks on Palestinians has caused American Jews to distance themselves from Israel.
Does that mean they will ignore the mad dog as long as it does not roam on their street, or does that mean they will agree that for the good of their own neighborhood as well as the entire community, the dog must be put down?

[Apr 11, 2018] Powell Iraq WDM presentation and recent Syria chemical attack: some analogies

Apr 11, 2018 | www.unz.com

jacques sheete


The press in the USA is more effectively controlled and conformist than in Germany in the late 1930s
Who controlled the press there and then?

What can be said about the control and conformity of the Soviet, British and American press of the time?


...and nobody goes around beating up journalists or sending them to a KZ.
That's probably because the usual thugs don't need to do that any longer since they control virtually everything.

A couple of anecdotes to illustrate my point.:

2 of the reasons we don't hear much about mobsters these days are that the press and judiciary are owned by them and if you do get something published, you run the risk of getting snuffed. They probably don't stop at mere blinding anymore.

Victor Riesel was an American newspaper journalist and columnist who specialized in news related to labor unions. In 1956 a mobster threw sulfuric acid in his face on a public street in Chicago causing his permanent blindness.

"Treason is a strong word, but not too strong to characterize the situation in which the Senate is the eager, resourceful, and indefatigable agent of interests as hostile to the American people as any invading army could be." This indictment launched a nine-part series of articles entitled "Treason of the Senate."

-David Graham Phillips, Cosmopolitan magazine, February 1906

In 1911 Phillips was shot multiple t imes by Fitzhugh Coyle Goldsborough, a Harvard-educated scion of a prominent Maryland family, at Gramercy Park in New York City.

JoaoAlfaiate , April 10, 2018 at 2:40 pm GMT

The intent of my post was to show that the MSM here is conformist and doesn't like to stray far from what the USG is claiming and what other journalists are writing. Rather than explore the topics you raise, as worthy of exploration as they might be, I thought I'd offer what newspapers around the USA were saying about Saddam's WMD after Powell's UNSC speech; seems a bit more germane.

The Powell evidence will be persuasive to anyone who is still persuadable.

The Wall Street Journal

Piling fact upon fact, photo upon photo Wednesday, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell methodically demonstrated why Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein remains dangerous to his own people, Iraq's neighbors

The Los Angeles Times

On Wednesday, America's most reluctant warrior, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, presented succinct and damning evidence of Saddam's enormous threat to world peace.

Arizona Republic

Saddam Hussein's illicit arsenal of biological and chemical weapons, as well as the equally illicit means that he possesses to deliver them, poses a tangible and urgent danger to U.S. and world security. Millions of innocent lives are at risk.

Dallas Morning News

At some point, the world chooses to believe President George W. Bush and Secretary Powell or the international community chooses to side with Saddam Hussein and those who broadcast his lies to the world. Powell has painstakingly presented a strong case against Iraq.

Greenville News/South Carolina

Iraq is busted. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell laid out the case clearly. No one hearing Powell's presentation to the United Nations Security Council could doubt Iraq's actions and intentions.

Jacksonville Times-Union/Florida

The threat is real and at our door. Sept. 11, 2001, stripped away the belief that the United States can peacefully coexist with evil. Prove it, they said. Powell has.

Charleston Daily Mail/West Virginia

We are a country always loath to fight unless provoked. The reluctance of Americans to initiate a war needlessly does the nation credit. But this is not a needless war, nor is it unprovoked. Powell laid out the need, and explained the provocation, in step-by-step fashion that cannot be refuted without resorting to fantasy.

Chicago Sun-Times

The Dispatch repeatedly has called on the Bush administration to make a compelling case that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein is developing weapons of mass destruction and hiding these efforts from U.N. inspectors. Yesterday, Secretary of State Colin Powell made that case before the Security Council.

Columbus Dispatch

Powell has methodically proved Iraq's failure to comply with U.N. mandates. With each passing day, Iraq's own choices move it closer to a war that full compliance would prevent.

Indianapolis Star

Secretary of State Colin Powell's 90-minute presentation to the U.N. Security Council, buttressed with surveillance photographs and recorded phone conversations, should remove all doubt that Iraq's Saddam Hussein has developed and hides weapons of mass destruction, in violation of U.N. resolutions.

Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel

Powell's speech to the U.N. Security Council presented not just one 'smoking gun' but a battery of them, more than sufficient to dispel any lingering doubt about the threat the Iraqi dictator poses.

Denver Post

The United States has made a compelling case that Iraq has failed to rid itself of weapons of mass destruction. This failure violates the U.N. Security Council resolution of late last year which ordered Iraq to disarm. As a consequence and it is a grave one, the Security Council must act now to disarm Iraq by force.

Salt Lake City Tribune

Powell has connected enough dots to tie Iraq to al-Qaeda and show that this alliance is a threat to all of Europe as well as the United States.

Manchester Union Leader

In fact, the speech provided proof that Saddam continues to refuse to obey U.N. resolutions. Any amount of time he has now to comply fully and openly with U.N. demands should be measured in days or a few weeks – and no longer.

Portland Press-Herald/Maine

[Apr 11, 2018] Syrian chemical weapon attacks happen whenever the rebels are about to be defeated.

Apr 11, 2018 | www.unz.com

OMG , April 10, 2018 at 10:35 am GMT

These ridiculous, suicidal gas attacks by Assad seem to coincide not only with battleground victories against the head-choppers, but co-incidentally with Israel's murderous attacks on unarmed Palestinians "throwing stones".

What nobody seems to have picked up is the emphasis – and red lines – on Gas; gas, gas attacks. Why is gas so much worse than being dismembered, disembowelled, and mutilated by high explosives? Certainly I would favour unconsciousness and death by gas before being smashed to pieces by depleted uranium.

These relentlessly repeated claims are an exercise with the dual purpose of providing a subliminal message about the greatest tragedy in human history, repeated ad nauseam. The massive 'gassing' of European Jews some 65 years ago. Lest we forget.

Simon in London , April 10, 2018 at 11:25 am GMT
It does look rather like those Syrian chemical weapon attacks that happen whenever the rebels are about to be defeated.

I am pretty sure that it was not ordered within the British government and that most of the British government don't know where it came from, but are willing to believe it was Russia.

While the CIA does have plenty of form on assassinations, the risk if they were found to be assassinating in Britain seems quite high due to the close CIA links with the UK intelligence sector. But CIA agents could have paid someone else to do it.

Mossad is the one group that can act freely in the UK, has a record of assassinating scientists, engineers etc here, and unlike CIA, can take the risk of being caught. So it's a possibility – OTOH Israel has shown a lot less anti-Russian hatred than the US Deep State has.

Normally I'd assume it was indeed Russia – I thought there was plenty of evidence the Polonium poisoning was Russia – and it still seems possible, but US or Mossad must be at least equally likely in this case. It's just possible it could have been British initiated but I doubt it.

I do think it's most likely the person who actually poisoned them was not an employee of any agency.

[Apr 11, 2018] Unfortuntely, even among friends and aquaintances, the story about evil Assad killing Children is often readily believed

White Helmets was the greatest war propaganda invention since Goebbels "big lie"
The sheeple might realize that they were duped only when it's too late... It's all very darwinian: Elite is too nasty and common people are too stupid and too busy with surviving in economic uncertainty to decipher lies
Notable quotes:
"... "the West is ruled by a gang of thugs" ..."
"... It is depressing to see that there are very few people in the MSM speaking out for reason. One of the few ones is Tucker Carlson. ..."
"... The US, British etc. taxpayer funded propaganda arm of Islamists, the media trained "white helmets" are delivering videos that look almost as real as Hollywood products and most of the sheeple in the western world don't question their propaganda narrative. ..."
"... Well here you go Dutti. Both Glen Greenwald and Amy Goodman are out there in media land championing the 'truth' for good old Isramerika. ..."
Apr 11, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Stuck on Zero -> IridiumRebel Tue, 04/10/2018 - 23:16 Permalink

No other nation will go to war with the U.S. They are too smart. All they have to do is wait till we burn ourselves out and fight amongst ourselves.

IridiumRebel -> Stuck on Zero Tue, 04/10/2018 - 23:18 Permalink

This is my hope.....

beepbop -> IridiumRebel Tue, 04/10/2018 - 23:23 Permalink

"the West is ruled by a gang of thugs"

Those THUGS are Jewish Neocons/Zionists/Bolsheviks. They've got the USG in their pockets. They're the HIDDEN HAND .

Let's tell it like it is.

Dutti -> DownWithYogaPants Tue, 04/10/2018 - 23:38 Permalink

It is depressing to see that there are very few people in the MSM speaking out for reason. One of the few ones is Tucker Carlson.

Unfortunately, even among friends and acquaintances, the story about "evil Assad killing Children" is often readily believed.

The US, British etc. taxpayer funded propaganda arm of Islamists, the media trained "white helmets" are delivering videos that look almost as real as Hollywood products and most of the sheeple in the western world don't question their propaganda narrative.

Very sad and disheartening.

FBaggins -> Dutti Tue, 04/10/2018 - 23:45 Permalink

Well here you go Dutti. Both Glen Greenwald and Amy Goodman are out there in media land championing the 'truth' for good old Isramerika.

http://www.thetruthseeker.co.uk/?p=168513

[Apr 10, 2018] Amazing Paul Joseph Watson video exposes false flag Syrian chemical weapons hoax

Notable quotes:
"... This funding was used, if not entirely, then in part to finance the White Helmets. The Syrian Civil Defense Force website lists Chemonics as its primary supporter alongside NGO Mayday Rescue, who operate out of offices in Turkey, Jordan and Dubai. ..."
"... Academy Award winning ..."
Apr 10, 2018 | theduran.com

Via RT

The specialists "found no traces of the use of chemical agents" after searching the sites, the statement said. The center's medical specialists also visited a local hospital but found no patients that showed signs of chemical weapons poisoning. "All these facts show that no chemical weapons were used in the town of Douma, as it was claimed by the White Helmets ," the statement said, referring to the controversial "civil defense" group that was among the first to report about the alleged attack.

" All the accusations brought by the White Helmets, as well as their photos allegedly showing the victims of the chemical attack, are nothing more than a yet another piece of fake news and an attempt to disrupt the ceasefire ," the Reconciliation Center said.

Via Disobedient Media

The Syrian Civil Defense Force (aka the White Helmets) is funded in part by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) . Included here are two links showing contracts awarded by USAID to Chemonics International Inc. (DBA Chemonics).

This funding was used, if not entirely, then in part to finance the White Helmets. The Syrian Civil Defense Force website lists Chemonics as its primary supporter alongside NGO Mayday Rescue, who operate out of offices in Turkey, Jordan and Dubai.

Zerohedge concludes

Of course, that didn't stop Netflix from producing an Academy Award winning documentary about the White Helmets. We're sure recently added board member and former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice is happy considering all of the taxpayer money the previous administration spent funding the group.

#WhiteHelmets psywar continues. Embedded with Al Nusra/Al Qaeda, funded by UK,US,Holland, EU over $ 60m. pic.twitter.com/lB78N0FOUr

-- vanessa beeley (@VanessaBeeley) September 8, 2016

[Apr 10, 2018] Douma Chemical Attack Another Link in the Chain of Staged Provocations by White helmets and thier handlers

Notable quotes:
"... As before, all "evidence" boils down to White Helmets' report and a video going viral that does not look or sound very convincing. There was no independent verification. The White Helmets have iffy reputation , to put it mildly. The organization is known to pursue political interests of outside actors. ..."
"... No explanation was given to a simple question: what does Syria's government need this attack for? It is victorious everywhere and the operation in Eastern Ghouta has been a success. Douma is the last remaining stronghold still controlled by rebels in the area and will be liberated soon. It's a matter of a few days. The army's combat actions are supported by Russian aviation. What does Syria's government stand to gain by using CW? Nothing. ..."
"... Syria army units are operating in Douma. By launching an attack, the Syrian government would hit its own troops, This argument appears to be largely missing in Western media reports. President Trump has recently promised to withdraw American forces from Syria. Why would President Assad give him a pretext to renege on his word? ..."
Apr 10, 2018 | www.strategic-culture.org

What happened in Syria on April 7 had been expected. While raising hue and cry over the alleged chemical attack in Douma, a rebel-held suburb of the capital, Western officials and media wasted no time to put the blame on the Assad government.

The US State Department issued a statement saying that by shielding Damascus Moscow has breached its international commitments. The administration immediately called on Russia to cease its support of Syria's government. President Trump wants an international action. As usual, few people in the West raised their voices to emphasize the need to investigate first and make conclusions afterwards.

It strikes the eye that Moscow's warnings about a CW provocation being prepared to dash the rising hopes for peaceful settlement in Syria appear to be forgotten! The Defense Ministry shared the information that the ringleaders of Jabhat al-Nusra and the Free Syrian Army were plotting false flag chemical attacks in areas under their control. Moscow warned but the West did not listen.

It's the same old song and dance. Last year, the Syrian government was blamed for a sarin gas attack on Khan Sheikhun that prompted a US cruise missile strike on a Syrian air base. The American president's approval ratings went up as a result. This time, the alleged attack occurred right after the Russia-Turkey-Iran summit that took place in Ankara on April 4 to promote the Syria conflict settlement.

As before, all "evidence" boils down to White Helmets' report and a video going viral that does not look or sound very convincing. There was no independent verification. The White Helmets have iffy reputation , to put it mildly. The organization is known to pursue political interests of outside actors.

No explanation was given to a simple question: what does Syria's government need this attack for? It is victorious everywhere and the operation in Eastern Ghouta has been a success. Douma is the last remaining stronghold still controlled by rebels in the area and will be liberated soon. It's a matter of a few days. The army's combat actions are supported by Russian aviation. What does Syria's government stand to gain by using CW? Nothing.

Syria army units are operating in Douma. By launching an attack, the Syrian government would hit its own troops, This argument appears to be largely missing in Western media reports. President Trump has recently promised to withdraw American forces from Syria. Why would President Assad give him a pretext to renege on his word?

But the world "indignation" against Russia-supported President Assad benefits the extremists a lot. They are cornered and need time to take a breath and receive support. Actually, the ballyhoo raised in the West is their only chance to at least slow down the offensive. A government forces' victory in Douma would deal a heavy blow to terrorist groups, sounding the death knell for the rebellion. Sounds simple but that's what it is. There is each and every reason to believe the incident was staged by terrorists.

Right after the alleged attack, they asked for talks. The ringleaders believe that this is their chance for a negotiated truce. The militants keep their fingers crossed hoping that NATO member states which clandestinely support them will get involved one way or another. Just last February, Secretary of Defense James Mattis warned Syria of "dire consequences" if it executed chemical strikes. French President Macron said he would order strikes if CW were used. It's worth noting that today the US president's National Security Team is led by a person known as a trigger happy hawk advocating the use of force as a foreign policy tool.

The US and France have been harboring plans to launch a joint operation in Syria for some time. Only a few days ago, a contingent of French forces arrived in Manbij to join American allies there. Actually, a NATO operation has been launched leaving Turkey, a bloc's member, out in the cold. It's an open secret that the US-led coalition pursues the goal of partitioning Syria to "contain" Russia, roll back Iran, win the support of rich Persian Gulf Arab states to boost lucrative arms trade and bolster the US and France's clout in the Middle East.

It would be naïve to think that the chemical attack in Syria and the Skripal scandal are two separate events. They are links in the same chain. With the spy poisoning case leading nowhere , the anti-Russia campaign needs a new impetus. The alleged CW attack is a good pretext to spur the efforts. But any strike in Syria would pose a risk to the lives of Russian servicemen. It could make Moscow respond. The US-led coalition is playing with fire. And as in the Skripal case, the reaction is the same - blame first, wait for the results of investigation second. It just shows that the West is not interested in the truth. It's looking for new pretexts to damage Russia's reputation and thus reduce its global clout.

[Apr 10, 2018] Matt Lee is good, but he won't dare to state that the State Dept is behind the staging of these fake attacks, obviously fake to anyone with an ounce (milligram?) of sense.

Apr 10, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: james | Apr 10, 2018 8:37:56 PM | 60

daily press propaganda briefing from today....

https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2018/04/280339.htm

highlights..

"MS NAUERT: Yes. So this is obviously an interagency process. The United States, through the White House, through the State Department, and others of well – as well, have been having conversations with our allies and partners overseas. Deputy Secretary – pardon me. Acting Secretary John Sullivan spoke on two occasions with Foreign Minister[1] Boris Johnson of the UK yesterday. I believe a readout was provided of that call.

We are looking for a coordinated response, whatever that response might be, to the situation in Syria."

kinda like the coordinated response over the skripal affair? very good... bozos unite...

ms nauert... "So the United States is convinced and knows that some sort of a chemical weapon was used."

matt lee question - "QUESTION: The President, though, was pretty clear that there was going to be a price to pay. I mean, he literally said that. Why – since April 6th of last year, when he – when they ordered the missile strikes in Syria, and now – or until this last incident – there have been numerous uses of chemical weapons that have been alleged in Syria. What makes this one hit that threshold that a price has to be paid?

MS NAUERT: I think, Matt, to answer that question, we have to look at the number of attacks that have taken place, the pace, how quickly these attacks are now taking place. This will be the ninth attack using some sort of chemical substance this year alone. It used to be that when attacks would take place the world would stand up and take attention and it has become, in the view of the U.S. Government and many others as well, far too common. So I think it's taken the world to stand up and say this is unacceptable; this is horrific, and we can't stand for this anymore."

on the israel missiles.. it is all about iran, lol. apparently israel is allowed to bomb other countries.. no questions asked..

"QUESTION: Okay. This has to do with Iran. And Israel struck Iranian targets at Syria's T-4 Airbase on Sunday, which is the second time in as many months. Do you share Israel's concern about Iran's presence in Syria?

MS NAUERT: We have talked about this a lot, that Iran supports Hizballah. Iran has sent not only fighters but also equipment into Syria. Iran has been a bad actor in Syria and other parts around the world. They have further destabilized the country of Syria. They have also bolstered the regime of Bashar al-Assad, enabling the regime to be able to commit attacks against innocent civilians, not just in Eastern Ghouta and elsewhere, but around the country as well. Of course we're absolutely concerned about Iran's presence or meddling, whether it be through proxies, in the country of Syria."

Don Bacon , Apr 10, 2018 8:50:37 PM | 61

@ 60
Matt Lee (AP) is good, but even he won't ever charge the State Dept with being behind the staging of these fake attacks, obviously fake to anyone with an ounce (milligram?) of sense. If he did, he would no longer be enabled by State to ask the first question and enjoy other perks in these State Dept follies. So it's a waltz around minor issues, never getting to the basic truth of what's going on.
Yul , Apr 10, 2018 8:55:36 PM | 62
This is a very good interview with Ambassador Ford ( not the S*t disturber Robert Ford circa 2011)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j_Z1f84Ps8&feature=youtu.be

[Apr 10, 2018] US Ambassador to Nato Kay Hutchison said she hoped allies like Britain would join with Washington in a "concerted and joint effort" against President Bashar al-Assad.

Notable quotes:
"... US Ambassador to Nato Kay Hutchison said she hoped allies like Britain would join with Washington in a "concerted and joint effort" against President Bashar al-Assad. ..."
"... And a squadron of British special forces - both SAS and SBS - are supporting elite American Delta force soldiers on the ground. ..."
Apr 10, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

daffyDuct | Apr 10, 2018 8:25:51 PM | 58

Sorry for the long post

Syria crisis: Live updates as 'coalition warplanes spotted flying over Iraqi border' ahead of possible airstrikes
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/syria-crisis-live-updates-coalition-12341114

Coalition warplanes are reportedly heading towards Syria as Britain appears ready to join the US and France in airstrikes.

Civilian airlines have been asked to clear airspace over Syria for the next 48 hours, according to reports.

And Theresa May has indicated Britain will stand with the US in bringing justice to dictator Bashar al-Assad over the barbaric chemical attack in Douma last weekend that left around 70 dead.

But UK and US forces were said to be gathering to launch a wave of Tomahawk cruise missiles at Assad's defences. Eurocontrol said the warning applies for the next 72 hours.

Announcement on US action in Syria 'imminent'

The US is due to make an announcement on action in Syria shortly, according to reports.

Fox News, President Trump's favoured network, is reporting live that an update is "imminent".

RAF crews could be diverted from attacking Islamic State positions in Iraq and Syria to smash Assad's remaining chemical weapons silos.

Teams flying Tornado bombers will hit large buildings and bunkers with deadly Storm Shadow missiles, capable of smashing into complexes before obliterating them.

They will be accompanied by Typhoon crews capable of providing air-to-air fighter protection against Russian air-crews but also able to launch air-to-ground missiles.

British RAF drones and spy planes will hoover up radio and phone chatter to conduct "battle damage assessment" missions to examine the targets after they are hit.

US Ambassador to Nato Kay Hutchison said she hoped allies like Britain would join with Washington in a "concerted and joint effort" against President Bashar al-Assad.

And a squadron of British special forces - both SAS and SBS - are supporting elite American Delta force soldiers on the ground."

[Apr 10, 2018] The Russians began jamming some smaller U.S. drones several weeks ago, the officials said

Apr 10, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Don Bacon | Apr 10, 2018 7:16:07 PM | 52

NBC News
Russia has figured out how to jam U.S. drones in Syria, officials say

Four U.S. officials said Russia's signal scrambling has seriously affected military operations.
WASHINGTON -- The Russian military has been jamming some U.S. military drones operating in the skies over Syria, seriously affecting American military operations, according to four U.S. officials. The Russians began jamming some smaller U.S. drones several weeks ago, the officials said.

Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., reacted to the news of Russian scrambling Tuesday by saying "Russia wants to undermine our interests at every turn. It is insane to think that Russia is anything but an adversary," said Sasse.

Duh. This cornhusker struggles to understand the situation. Apparently he's missed the colorful Haley news lately, with the Russians' hands covered with blood, and also all the sanctions put on Russia for nothing, etc.. . Insane.. . . That's what passes for a senator these days.

[Apr 10, 2018] It seems Gilbert Doctorow has become much less optimistic about the chances to avoid a US-Russian nuclear war.

Apr 10, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Perimetr | Apr 10, 2018 6:19:36 PM | 47

It seems Gilbert Doctorow has become much less optimistic about the chances to avoid a US-Russian nuclear war. He says that We Are in the Last Days Before All Hell Breaks Loose .

[Apr 10, 2018] OPCW issued a statement saying it had accepted an invitation from the Syrian government and is preparing a team to travel to Syria

Notable quotes:
"... There they found "no trace of any use of chemical weapons," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Tuesday. He said Russia would propose a U.N. Security Council resolution that would mandate international experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to go to Syria to investigate, under the protection of Russian troops. ..."
Apr 10, 2018 | www.washingtonpost.com

But with Russia and Syria having strenuously denied from the outset that any kind of chemical attack occurred, and with Russian troops now deployed in Douma, it is unclear how much of an independent forensic investigation into the cause of the deaths will be possible. Russian troops entered the town Monday under the terms of a surrender deal reached with the rebels the previous day.

Russia says its representatives already have searched the area and could find no evidence that chemical weapons were used. Russian experts and members of the Syrian Red Crescent have visited the hospitals where the victims were treated, Russian officials say, and a video showed Russian troops arriving at the house where the bodies were found.

There they found "no trace of any use of chemical weapons," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters Tuesday. He said Russia would propose a U.N. Security Council resolution that would mandate international experts from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to go to Syria to investigate, under the protection of Russian troops.

The OPCW later issued a statement saying it had accepted an invitation from the Syrian government and is preparing a team to travel to Syria "soon."

Mohamad Katoub of the Syrian American Medical Society, which supported medical facilities in Douma before the Russians entered, said he doubted whether any meaningful evidence would remain. Local staffers are afraid to give testimony, he said. "In the current situation," he said, an investigation "is too hard."

Many of the activists, medical staffers and rescue workers with information about the attacks have since scattered, with many leaving Douma on buses headed north to rebel-held territory under the terms of the surrender deal reached Sunday between the rebels and the Russians. Among them was Marhoum, who spoke Tuesday from one of the buses.

[Apr 10, 2018] How to stage a false chemical attack?

Notable quotes:
"... How to stage a false chemical attack? See the Flag on the on the wall and how a pseudo-doctor leave a young patient to care for his buddy :( ..."
"... Both Trump and Mattis have cancelled travel plans. The Brits French US all want war in Syria. Russia needs to provide good protection to the OPCW team. ..."
Apr 10, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Yul | Apr 10, 2018 3:10:30 PM | 16

How to stage a false chemical attack? See the Flag on the on the wall and how a pseudo-doctor leave a young patient to care for his buddy :(

https://twitter.com/mostafabzzoun/status/983736009404964864

Peter AU 1 , Apr 10, 2018 3:44:57 PM | 22
Both Trump and Mattis have cancelled travel plans. The Brits French US all want war in Syria. Russia needs to provide good protection to the OPCW team.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_2016_Urum_al-Kubra_Aid_Convoy_attack

[Apr 10, 2018] US wants UN vote on Tuesday on Syria gas attack inquiry

Apr 10, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

The will shortly be a UNSC meeting on the suffocation case in Douma.

The U.S. will table this draft resolution

Note operational paragraph 19:

19. Underlines that the Security Council will thoroughly assess how to take action following the UNIMI's conclusions, and reaffirms in this regard its decision in response to violations of resolution 2118 to impose measures under Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter;

China and Russia will veto anything Chapter VII mentioning as I could probably be used to interpret it into something allowing for use-of-force - i.e. war.

Reuters reported: U.S. wants U.N. vote on Tuesday on Syria gas attack inquiry

The United States plans to call for a U.N. Security Council vote on Tuesday on a proposal for a new inquiry into responsibility for use of chemical weapons in Syria after reports of a poison gas attack on a rebel-held town, diplomats said.
...
"This is basically a diplomatic set-up," said Richard Gowan, the U.N. expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

"Russia will inevitably veto the U.S. resolution criticizing Assad, and Washington will use this to justify military strikes," he said. "A breakdown at the U.N. will also make it easier for France to justify strikes."

Russia will table this draft resolution .

The usual suspects hype the issue and push for a large war. I doubt that any significant strike will happen. The UK seems not be willing for now. The OPCW will deploy to Douma tomorrow and will likely find nothing of relevance.

Any attack will be completely without evidence that anything happened and Russia has threatened to strike back.

Hizbullah should let Israel know that it will be the main target of a response to a 'western' attack on Syria. We would then have the fun to see Netanyahoo lobbying Washington against war.

Posted by: b | Apr 10, 2018 1:46:04 PM | 3


Charles Michael , Apr 10, 2018 1:55:22 PM | 4

What happened at the last meeting of the UNGSC ?

looks like the US resolution was censured and a full investigation on the site decided, can anyone confirm.

Complementary to my last post number 176 ?
I repeat the source:
http://www.eurasiafuture.com/2018/04/10/breaking-opcw-accepts-syrian-and-russian-invitation-to-inspect-douma/

also on RT news et sur Interfax.

and Yes, Russia is not there to protect Bachar but to forbid the implementation of the takfirist terrorist state.
But if any stupidity inclined party attacks Russians in Syria retribution will follow.

James , Apr 10, 2018 1:55:30 PM | 5
b

If the strike does happen where do you think they will aim?

And will it have much impact on the state of play in the war?

Are the strikes part of a widening of the war with NATO?

Mike Maloney , Apr 10, 2018 2:15:44 PM | 6
Trump hates criticism. So his response is going to have to be bigger than last year's Tomahawk display, which was widely dismissed as impotent. The problem here of course is that it cannot be so much bigger as to demand a Russian response. I wouldn't be surprised if there were back channel negotiations going on with Russia over an amenable list of Syrian targets.

On the other hand, this could be the grand barbecue. Western governing elites might be convinced that Russia and Iran can be cowed by "shock and awe." In that case, we're at the beginning of the end.

meme , Apr 10, 2018 2:21:53 PM | 7
Looks like North Korea 2.0 in the making, aka NK2.0 Trumpem style
xor , Apr 10, 2018 2:39:34 PM | 8
Trump sinking so low he called his colleague Assad an animal. Accusing Russia and Iran of also carrying blame for "the chemical attack". Then with the same posture saying a response to "the chemical attack" will come within 48. And all this while right from the beginning he could have decided to not side with USA nurtured wahabbi terrorists in Syria and calling for an investigation first.

I really wonder if he and his war craving handlers will settle for a none-war-response. I think there will be some military attack. Maybe USA missiles launched from another nearby (NATO) country or from a (French/Israeli/...) war ship so the Russian response can be more easily framed by war inciting presstitutes as an attack on another "innocent" country.

OPCW heading to damascus would have been a good sign were it not for that other time when during their landing in Damascas another chemical attack was purpetrated by the USA nurtured wahabbi terrorists and blamed on Assad. Not that this would happen again now but I'm not putting my hopes on it.

Yul , Apr 10, 2018 3:47:21 PM | 23
What the heck?

Nikki Haley:
- "The U.S. has put forward a draft resolution we've held open & transparent negotiations [on the text] for weeks we made special efforts with one Council member (#Russia), adding paragraph upon paragraph "

For weeks?

The CW attack happened only last WE - didn't Trump bomb Syria for Sahaairat last year.
What are FrUKUS planning - or the darlings of Israel doing?

Yul , Apr 10, 2018 3:49:51 PM | 24
One more @RussiaUN veto on #Syria on @USUN draft resolution setting up an independent & impartial investigation mechanism on chemical weapons use.
@Chinamission2un abstains. 12 other members voted YES.

[Apr 10, 2018] There was no chemical weapons attack," Nebenzia told the council. "Through the relevant channels we already conveyed to the US that airstrikes under mendacious pretext against Syria where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed could lead to grave repercussions."

There is an interesting, probably greased by US and Uk governments money, connection between Guardian and white Helmets
Apr 10, 2018 | www.theguardian.com

"There was no chemical weapons attack," Nebenzia told the council. "Through the relevant channels we already conveyed to the US that armed forces under mendacious pretext against Syria – where, at the request of the legitimate government of a country, Russian troops have been deployed – could lead to grave repercussions."

A few hours earlier, Donald Trump said his administration was on the brink of deciding its response to the Douma attack. "We are meeting with our military and everybody else, and we'll be making some major decisions over the next 24 to 48 hours," he said at a cabinet meeting. "We are very concerned when a thing like that can happen. This is about humanity and it can't be allowed to happen."

Pressed by reporters, Trump went further, saying: "We'll be making that decision very quickly, probably by the end of today. But we cannot allow atrocities like that. Cannot allow it."

Trump ordered airstrikes against a Syrian airbase after a previous chemical weapons attack, in April last year. The latest use of poison gasprovoked from Trump unprecedented direct criticism of Putin, something he had previously been at pains to avoid.

... ... ...

In his address, Nebenzia suggested a visit to Douma by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) might be possible under Syrian and Russian military protection. The UK envoy to the UN, Karen Pierce, said the Russian proposal was "an offer worth pursuing" but she added that OPCW inspectors would have to have complete freedom of action and of access.

[Apr 10, 2018] Russia controls Douma, guarantees impartial investigation; that makes US attack MORE likely

Apr 10, 2018 | theduran.com

As a result of the total surrender of the Jihadis previously in control of Douma on Sunday, it is the Russian military who this time are in control of the alleged crime scene.

This has put the Russians in a position where for the first time they are able both to invite the OPCW inspectors to attend the crime scene and to provide them with protection if they are there, whilst at the same time monitoring and supervising their work.

If the chemical attack on Douma really is fictitious – as the Russians insist it is – then for the first time their control of the crime scene puts the Russians in a strong position to prove it.

The point was made forcefully by Russia's UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia at the UN Security Council session today, and it also received indirect backing from the UN Secretariat, who admitted that they could not confirm that a chemical weapons attack had happened, and who called upon all sides to show restraint until a proper investigation of the incident had taken place.

Nebenzia followed this up by inviting OPCW inspectors to the scene as early as tomorrow Tuesday.

By now it should surprise no-one that the fact that the Russians are in control of the crime scene and may on this occasion be able to prove conclusively that no chemical weapons attack happened in Douma, instead of deterring a US attack, is actually making it more likely.

This is because the credibility of the various 'witnesses' to the Douma attack – who are of course the same witnesses who were previously 'witnesses' to the 2013 East Ghouta and the 2017 Khan Sheikhoun attacks – is now on the line, as is the credibility of those Western governments – first and foremost the US government – who believed or who pretended to believe them.

I would add that not only is the credibility of the US government and of other Western governments on the line. So is the credibility of Western journalists who also believed or pretended to believe the 'witnesses'. That more than anything else explains the hysteria of the last 24 hours, with the extraordinary warlike statements from Donald Trump and Nikki Haley , and from certain Western journalists .

On any logic, since what actually happened in Douma is unconfirmed and disputed, and since the conditions for an objective investigation this time are there, the correct and proper thing to do is for no action to be taken until that investigation has taken place.

The reason that logic is not being followed, and why against all reason a military strike is likely, is because those who want a military strike do not want an objective investigation to take place, which might expose them as having acted previously on a false basis.

In other words, the military strike is not intended to punish the perpetrators of the alleged chemical strike in Douma. It is intended to make an objective investigation impossible.

There is something genuinely bizarre about the latest threatened military strike.

The Battle of East Ghouta is over. The Jihadis there – following their capitulation in Douma – have lost. A military strike now really would be a case of closing the stable door after the horse has bolted, and its military rationale appears to be non-existent. Moreover Donald Trump – the man who is supposed to be the President of the United States – was only a few days ago saying that US troops would be withdrawn from Syria "very soon".

Yet the US looks likely to launch a military strike – one which the Russians are warning risks dangerous escalation – not because it has any clear policy which requires such a strike, but because it is alarmed by a possible loss of face.

When a nuclear powered superpower launches military strikes for such frivolous reasons the situation in the world has become very bad and dangerous indeed

[Apr 10, 2018] The Ghouta Massacre near Damascus on Aug 21, 2013 was not a sarin rocket attack carried out by Assad or his supporters. It was a false-flag stunt carried out by the insurgents using carbon monoxide or cyanide to murder children and use their corpses as bait to lure the Americans into attacking Assad.

Notable quotes:
"... "The primary conclusion of this study, based on a pharmacological analysis of the video and photographic evidence, is that the Ghouta Massacre near Damascus on Aug 21.2013 was not a sarin rocket attack carried out by Assad or his supporters. It was a false-flag stunt carried out by the insurgents using carbon monoxide or cyanide to murder children and use their corpses as bait to lure the Americans into attacking Assad." ..."
Apr 10, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Imagine , a day ago

"Murder in the Sun Morgue" by Dr. Denis O'Brien (neuropharmacology expert):

"The primary conclusion of this study, based on a pharmacological analysis of the video and photographic evidence, is that the Ghouta Massacre near Damascus on Aug 21.2013 was not a sarin rocket attack carried out by Assad or his supporters. It was a false-flag stunt carried out by the insurgents using carbon monoxide or cyanide to murder children and use their corpses as bait to lure the Americans into attacking Assad."

288 pp. analysis. Also, some had slit throats:

https://www.scribd.com/document/230748990/Murder-in-the-SunMorgue

[Apr 10, 2018] Israeli officials have called on the US to attack the Syrian Army, following what they called a "shocking attack" in Douma

Notable quotes:
"... So the idea that the Israelis were trying to provoke a response directed against US assets in order to escalate the conflict seems plausible. But Syria didn't play. ..."
"... Seems like Israel was used to do the dirty work and get Trump out of the corner he had rapidly painted himself into. Trump's response to the fake Douma chemical attack was so over the top that he would have had to carry out a major attack on Syria to justify it. Major meaning much larger than the last one with 59 tomahawks. So probably a hundred tomahawks at least and against a more important target than last time. This the Russians have said they will not allow. So what to do? Have Israel launch a rather minor harassing attack against a base well away from Damascus and so relieve the pressure on Trump to do something. ..."
Apr 10, 2018 | thesaker.is

pessimist on April 09, 2018 , · at 1:21 am UTC

From RT: https://www.rt.com/news/423532-israel-syria-strike-us/

" Israeli officials have called on the US to attack the Syrian Army, following what they called a "shocking attack" in Douma. Israel's own crackdown on Gaza protesters was "self-defense" and not worthy of attention, they said.

Washington must launch a strike against Damascus in response to the alleged chemical attack in the city of Douma, the Israeli Strategic Affairs and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan told the Army Radio on Sunday, commenting on the reports coming from anti-government groups in Syria. Erdan also said he personally hopes that the US would take military action against the Syrian government, which he blamed for the attack, the Jerusalem Post reports. The minister added that the Douma incident shows the "need" for a US troop buildup in Syria.

The Israeli construction minister and former IDF major general, Yoav Galant, went even further and called for a military strike aimed directly against the Syrian president. "[Bashar] Assad is the angel of death, and the world would be better without him," Galant said. The Israeli opposition leader Isaac Herzog called on the US to take "decisive military action" against Syria."

So the idea that the Israelis were trying to provoke a response directed against US assets in order to escalate the conflict seems plausible. But Syria didn't play.

Confusion about the number, type, and source of missiles, and the fate of the synchronized ISIS attacks in various accounts.

Ngoyo on April 09, 2018 , · at 6:40 am UTC
Seems like Israel was used to do the dirty work and get Trump out of the corner he had rapidly painted himself into. Trump's response to the fake Douma chemical attack was so over the top that he would have had to carry out a major attack on Syria to justify it. Major meaning much larger than the last one with 59 tomahawks. So probably a hundred tomahawks at least and against a more important target than last time. This the Russians have said they will not allow. So what to do? Have Israel launch a rather minor harassing attack against a base well away from Damascus and so relieve the pressure on Trump to do something.

So far I'd say it looks like this is what happened. If so then the Russians wisely allowed Trump to save face. Hopefully that will allow things to blow over. Next couple days should tell.

[Apr 10, 2018] False Flag Chemical Attack In Douma Staged So Neocons Can Justify Invasion Of Syria

Notable quotes:
"... The Powers That Be ..."
"... Zio-Anglo-American Axis ..."
"... Greater Israel ..."
"... New World Order ..."
"... Syrian Observatory for Human Rights ..."
"... Given the Operation Gladio infrastructure that has been painstakingly put into place over years by NATO throughout the Levant, it's very easy to conduct these false flag attacks without being caught in the act. Of course, they are never perpetrated without detection since the CIA, MI6 and MOSSAD have their fingerprints all over these purposefully shocking assaults. ..."
"... "tore through a 50th-floor apartment in Trump Tower" ..."
"... Trump also went along with the patently false accusations that the British government aimed at Russia for the poisoning of the Skripals. Not only did Trump unquestioningly agree with the UK's absurd conclusions, he also expelled 60 Russian diplomats and officers based on an outright lie. ..."
Apr 10, 2018 | themillenniumreport.com

We live in an age when it is virtually impossible to confirm whether these incessant terrorist attacks are real or hoaxes. The Powers That Be have repeatedly demonstrated their capability and willingness to implement totally fake terror events. They have also shown their utter inhumanity in the execution of deadly and destructive terrorist operations.

The recent chemical attack in Douma, Syria could be either of these. However, that's not the point here. The critical issue is that these chemical attacks are being used by the Western powers to justify their illegal invasions of Syria. Even President Trump appears to be fully on board with this conspiratorial plot. Why is Trump aggressively pushing the Neocon agenda in Syria?

The Zio-Anglo-American Axis is quite determined to complete their Greater Israel project even though Putin's Russia has already wrecked their plans once. See: Putin's Russia Blows Up Scheme For 'Greater Israel'

Ever since Trump was elected, the same Zionist Neocons under W. Bush have been appointed to various positions in the West Wing. John Bolton is only the most recent and notorious of these hardcore warmongers. "Bolton appointment proves that Trump is being blackmailed! -- Q²

This continual stacking of the Trump administration with Russophobes and Iran haters is by purposeful design. It's also no accident of presidential fate that the Trump has allowed himself to be used to promote war for Israel. In fact, this particular date with Armageddon has been planned for centuries by the NWO globalist cabal.

The United States, United Kingdom and Israel have proven to the world community of nations that they will execute any false flag attack anywhere, anytime to advance their New World Order agenda. A big piece of that agenda is the Greater Israel project. Hence, the whole world has been witness to one false flag chemical attack after another.

The ZAAA leadership knows that photos of 'apparently' poisoned children -- piled on top of each other -- is guaranteed to trigger a knee-jerk reaction by the false accusers against the innocent accused. The British have established a whole network of fraudulent witnesses on the ground and throughout the UK who routinely provide false testimony about these staged chemical attacks. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights is one of those fake organizations; so are the utterly bogus White Helmets .

Given the Operation Gladio infrastructure that has been painstakingly put into place over years by NATO throughout the Levant, it's very easy to conduct these false flag attacks without being caught in the act. Of course, they are never perpetrated without detection since the CIA, MI6 and MOSSAD have their fingerprints all over these purposefully shocking assaults.

Why does President Trump always go along with these false accusations?

This crucial question must be answered and dealt with sooner than later. The link that follows discloses information that ought to concern every patriot who voted for Trump to stop the wars: Trump's Syria "Withdrawal" Was Textbook US Deception

The timing of Saturday night's fire that "tore through a 50th-floor apartment in Trump Tower" is quite suspicious. Is someone basically telling the POTUS to go with the Neocon plan to invade Syria or else his real estate -- worldwide -- will become vulnerable to arson and other 'mishaps'?

Trump also went along with the patently false accusations that the British government aimed at Russia for the poisoning of the Skripals. Not only did Trump unquestioningly agree with the UK's absurd conclusions, he also expelled 60 Russian diplomats and officers based on an outright lie.

The entire Novichok nerve agent affair can now be seen in its proper light. The British intelligence community carried out the attempted murder of the Russian double agent for various reasons; however, the most important was to smear the Kremlin. By flooding the mainstream media with false stories about the chemical poisoning by Russia, the real perps made it easier to associate the chemical attack in Douma with Putin's government.


KEY POINT: Skripal Affair Is Really About Toppling Theresa May's Government, Sabotaging Brexit


This plot will only thicken until the West has finished its conquest of the Middle East. Russia especially remains a target of the Neocon Zionists. The globalists will not rest until President Putin's government has been completely overthrown. They will employ every strategy and tactic necessary to force a regime change in Moscow as this article delineates: STRATFOR Chief Reveals Zio-Anglo-American Plot For World Domination .

The following SOTN article has been reposted in its entirety for those who want to read the real back story.

[Apr 10, 2018] Trump says the US will be pulling out of Syria and a week later White helmets spread diinforation about Assad poisoning civil population in Douma and Trump believe this propaganda calls Assad an animal and blames Putin.

Apr 10, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

chunga Sun, 04/08/2018 - 12:37 Permalink

The context of the entire Russia mania is ludicrous and the fake news is so ridiculous that war must be close.

A) Congress votes unanimously to sanction Russia for tampering the election by hacking and everybody in DC makes believe they've never heard of the dead staffer.

B) Putin decides to poison some guy right before their election using a special poison only Russia has. Their involvement in the "investiagtion" is forbidden,

C) The maverick outsider says the US will be pulling out of Syria and ~ a week later Assad decides to shoot chemicals at people like no one will ever find out. Trump calls Assad an animal and blames Putin.

There are a few possibilities. Trump could truly be a dotard moron and believe this shit or he's being strong-armed.

It's either that or some sort of wacko plan. Even the most ardent deplorables are having a hard time with this.

Griffin -> chunga Sun, 04/08/2018 - 18:20 Permalink

First reports about Syria chemical attack said at least 150 killed, according to white helmets. Shortly there after the number falls to 70.

https://www.reddit.com/r/worldnews/comments/8amk7l/150_dead_in_syria_ga

[Apr 09, 2018] The West has a strategy to support an insurgency using the leftovers and Kurds

Notable quotes:
"... Israel has the leftover al Nusra and AQ in the southwest to keep the 4th DEZ in turmoil at Daraa and Suweida. ..."
"... Please allow me to rephrase your statement that Putin has "never shown courage". The correct statement is that Putin has "never done anything stupid". Now, that makes sense. See the difference? ..."
Apr 09, 2018 | thesaker.is

Larchmonter445 on April 08, 2018 , · at 11:14 pm UTC

One common sense thought: no one wants a bigger or wider war. There is no nation that can handle it. The West has a strategy to support an insurgency using the leftovers and Kurds. We know the Kurds in Syria will not fight Assad's forces.

So, there are probably 30,000 fighters of various sorts the US and Turkey are still feeding and using.

As for the air space over Syria, that will eventually close to the US. All Putin has to do is move S 400 75-100 kms closer toward the East border from the West enclaves where they now defend.

The US will be grounded, unable to support their 14+ bases, and will have to leave.

Israel has the leftover al Nusra and AQ in the southwest to keep the 4th DEZ in turmoil at Daraa and Suweida.

But no one wants to put their Armed Forces into Syria.

So, what happens tonight and the next few days is missiles strikes, unless Bolton can convince the Military to do something enormous with a huge air strike. How Putin handles this depends on casualties and losses of Russian forces.

Since Russian advisers, Military Police and Reconciliation Officers are all over Syria North to South, West to East, it will be sheer luck that none are struck by cruise missiles or other weapons if they come into play.

The Lord Has Risen, and the forces of evil are rabid for more Death and Destruction.

Varughese on April 09, 2018 , · at 12:36 am UTC
Not exactly sure. Putin can move S-400 close to US presence but in order to Ground US, he needs to send a message saying that he can shoot them. And in all these episodes Putin never showed the courage. So you could place S-500 on door step of US airbase but still they will continue flying!
Anonymous on April 09, 2018 , · at 8:18 pm UTC
Please allow me to rephrase your statement that Putin has "never shown courage". The correct statement is that Putin has "never done anything stupid". Now, that makes sense. See the difference?
Taras 77 on April 09, 2018 , · at 3:06 am UTC
It is hard for me to put into words the utter disgust and anger I feel towards the zio con clowns in wash dc being led by the nose by Israel/mossad. But I guess, what the hell-zios do not care what average americas think or feel-they are the fodder..

Waiting to see what the Russians decide to do: http://johnhelmer.org/

Anonymous on April 09, 2018 , · at 3:25 am UTC
Might be Israeli that pretends to be USA hoping that Syria or Russia will think it is USA and fire at USA forces causing a wider war.. Israel has actually done actually this before.

Actually, Russia just said ti as well: https://www.rt.com/news/423545-israel-planes-syria-strike/

[Apr 09, 2018] ISIS is Finished So We Should Leave Syria Now by Gil Barndollar

Apr 06, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
Instead Donald Trump's team is inflating the threat, worried he'll rush away from war.

President Trump's unexpected pledge last week to pull U.S. troops out of Syria "very soon" has occasioned predictable wailing in predictable places .

The president also faced unsurprising pushback from his national security team, forcing him to clarify this week that the 2,000 troops there now will stay only until the mission to defeat ISIS, which is "coming to a rapid end," is finished. Of course his military advisors and many of his aides disagree.

A Pentagon spokesman has warned that ISIS is looking for " any opportunity to regain momentum ." Anonymous military officers speak of fumbling the ball " on the two yard line ." Officials tell reporters that while the group is "almost completely defeated," a string of renewed ISIS attacks could signal a resurgence.

Regardless of the outcome in Washington, Trump's instincts on Syria deserve discussion.

Unlike Afghanistan and Iraq, the operation in Syria has cost us very little blood and treasure, at least so far. Special operations forces (SOF) and "other government agencies" ably partnered with our largely Kurdish proxies to break the back of ISIS's nascent state. The group's conventional military power has been destroyed. Howev er menacing officials make it sound, it's been estimated that the Islamic State has fewer than 1,000 fighters left on the battlefield. Mosul, its largest city, was retaken by Iraqi security forces, while its de facto capital Raqqa was conquered by the Kurds. Palmyra and Deir ez-Zor are back in government hands. Areas of ISIS control are tough to even find on a map of the Syrian conflict.

For all these successes, however, we have been walking a knife's edge in Syria ever since openly intervening there in 2014. Deconfliction with Russia has not been flawless: Turkey shot down a Russian plane in 2015 and U.S. firepower reportedly killed hundreds of Russian mercenaries earlier this year. That knife's edge has only gotten sharper over the past two months, as Turkish troops invaded the Afrin region of northern Syria. Turkey's "Operation Olive Branch" exposed the elephant in the room: America's only successful proxy, the Syrian Kurds, are linked to Turkey's PKK, which Turkey, the European Union, and the U.S. have declared a terrorist group. Our NATO ally is now openly at war with our Kurdish partner, as American advisors do their best to stay off the frontline. In 2008, Vice President-Elect Joe Biden bluntly told Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai: "Pakistan is 50 times more important for the United States than Afghanistan." The same obvious wisdom applies in spades to Turkey and Syria respectively.

What of the Kurds? If recent reports are to be believed, American Special Forces are incensed they are being told to abandon a valiant, reliable battlefield ally. Squeezed between a revanchist Turkey and a stabilized Syrian state, Syria's Kurds are not likely to keep their independent project of Rojava. The United States declined to intervene to protect Iraq's Kurds last year, when Iraqi forces quickly seized the Kurdish "Jerusalem," oil-rich Kirkuk, after an abortive independence referendum. To pretend we have a greater will or ability to protect Syria's Kurds is folly.

The Kurds should ask Vietnam's Montagnards how they fared as an American proxy, or question the Palestinians about what they've gained from an American mediator . Loathe though we may be to admit it, America has been a fickle friend for the majority of small nations and peoples that have looked to her as a protector. Even many of our Afghan interpreters who served in American uniforms and cashed American paychecks have been abandoned to their enemies . Like a serial philanderer we can pretend that this time will be different, but the reality is that America seldom has the patience or stomach for sustained non-existential military intervention outside our hemisphere, particularly when casualties mount. The victims of pretending otherwise are seldom Americans; they are Vietnamese, Somalis, Iraqi Marsh Arabs, and many others. The current state of political polarization in Washington and the primacy of the 24-hour news cycle have only hardened this long-standing reality.

Left to their own devices, Syria's Kurds can probably work out a modus vivendi with Assad's government, which has other battles to fight and foreign backers of its own who would like to draw down their commitments. Battles between the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces and Assad's Syrian Arab Army have been few. Turkey has tolerated a Kurdish autonomous region on its border with Iraq -- but it will not do so with Kurds who remain affiliated with the PKK.

Regardless of Rojava's fate, ISIS may well regenerate. It already has the local ties and financial network to thrive as an insurgency in western Iraq. That, however, is a governance and security problem for Iraqis and Syrians, not Americans. The United States maintains an unparalleled ability to project military power and destroy targets around the world, both with standoff firepower and by putting troops into battle via air and sea. Should ISIS or another Salafist successor build any real base of power again in the Levant we can rapidly deploy combat power to destroy it. But staying there any longer remains a fool's errand.

Gil Barndollar served as a Marine infantry officer from 2009 to 2016. His writing has appeared in the Marine Corps Gazette , the Journal of Military Operations , and the Michigan War Studies Review .

Wheeling philosophe April 7, 2018 at 7:46 pm

"I don't like "abandoning an ally" like this, but that alliance was never going to be long lasting, and the Kurds have to have known that."

Yes. As a parting gesture, we could round up some of the louder-mouthed neocons and ship them over to "independent Kurdistan" to spend a few quiet hours with their erstwhile heroes. Let the Kurds vent their entirely understandable anger out on those who lied to and manipulated them with the same glib ease that they once lied to America about Iraq's WMDs.

SteveK9 , says: April 8, 2018 at 9:02 am
'Mosul, its largest city, was retaken by Iraqi security forces, while its de facto capital Raqqa was conquered by the Kurds. Palmyra and Deir ez-Zor are back in government hands.'

I'd like to correct a couple of things, ISIS was destroyed in Syria, by the Syrian Arab Army, and by Russia, Iran and Hezbollah. Mosuls and Raqqa were not 'retaken' or 'conquered'. They were utterly destroyed by aerial bombardment, which is about the only thing we are good at doing.

[Apr 09, 2018] US Says No Evidence Assad Behind Chemical Attack; But Will Retaliate Regardless Of UN Decision Zero Hedge

Apr 09, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

The US also said yet again that Russia is "ultimately bearing responsibility" for all chemical incidents in Syria, regardless of who carried them out, after rebel sources accused Damascus of gassing dozens in Eastern Ghouta's Douma. In other words, even if the "chemical attack" was carried out by US-backed "rebels", or better yet "ISIS", it's Putin's fault.

"The regime's history of using chemical weapons against its own people is not in dispute," said the US State Department, indicating, however, that it was relying on "reports," being unable to confirm the incident. "Russia ultimately bears responsibility for the brutal targeting of countless Syrians with chemical weapons."

UN Security Council meets

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council met on Monday to discuss the latest developments - said Staffen de Mistura, the UN Special Envoy to Syria. " Recent developments carry more than ever before " the risks contained within the multiple "fault lines in the Middle East" that could have " absolutely devastating consequences, which are difficult to even imagine ," the official said, underscoring the possibility that the crisis in Syria may spiral into a larger international security crisis.

"The United Nations is unable to independently verify or attribute responsibility for this attack, but we have all parties to show utmost restraint and avoid any further escalation or confrontation ," de Mistura said.

In other words - let's first chat about that chemical attack before WWIII breaks out.

Russia says Syria chemical attack is a fabrication

Unsurprisingly, Russian officials say they have found no trace of chemical weapons use while searching through Syria's Douma region - and say that photos of victims posted by the White Helmets are fabrications, according to Russia's Defense Ministry.

The specialists "found no traces of the use of chemical agents" after searching the sites, the statement said. The center's medical specialists also visited a local hospital but found no patients that showed signs of chemical weapons poisoning. "All these facts show that no chemical weapons were used in the town of Douma, as it was claimed by the White Helmets ," the statement said, referring to the controversial "civil defense" group that was among the first to report about the alleged attack.

" All the accusations brought by the White Helmets, as well as their photos allegedly showing the victims of the chemical attack, are nothing more than a yet another piece of fake news and an attempt to disrupt the ceasefire ," the Reconciliation Center said. - RT

As well documented by Disobedient Media and elsewhere, the White Helmets are an organization funded by the United States which operates throughout various regions within Syria to "help" the anti-Assad effort while snapping convenient photos of Assad's alleged regime-change-worthy atrocities. Via Disobedient Media

The Syrian Civil Defense Force (aka the White Helmets) is funded in part by United States Agency for International Development (USAID) . Included here are two links showing contracts awarded by USAID to Chemonics International Inc. (DBA Chemonics). The first award was in the sum of $111.2 million and has a Period of Performance (POP) from January 2013 to June 2017. It states that the purpose of the award will be to use the funds for managing a "quick-response mechanism supporting activities that pursue a peaceful transition to a democratic and stable Syria." The second was in the sum of $57.4 million and has a POP from August 2015 to August 2020. This award was designated to be used in the "Syria Regional Program II" which is a part of the Support Which Implements Fast Transitions IV (SWIFT IV) program.

This funding was used, if not entirely, then in part to finance the White Helmets. The Syrian Civil Defense Force website lists Chemonics as its primary supporter alongside NGO Mayday Rescue, who operate out of offices in Turkey, Jordan and Dubai.

**

Of course, that didn't stop Netflix from producing an Academy Award winning documentary about the White Helmets. We're sure recently added board member and former Obama National Security Advisor Susan Rice is happy considering all of the taxpayer money the previous administration spent funding the group.

[Apr 09, 2018] CIA stages gas attack pretext for Syria escalation by Patrick Martin

Notable quotes:
"... The "rebel" group now holding out in Douma, Jaysh al-Islam, part of the Islamist opposition to Assad that includes the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda as well as the remnants of ISIS, has itself been credibly accused of using chlorine gas in the course of fighting against Kurdish forces and civilians in Aleppo in 2016. That charge, made by the Kurds, was given extensive publicity by Voice of America, the propaganda arm of the US government. ..."
"... It is possible that Syrian warplanes struck a weapons cache belonging to the rebel group, causing the gas to leak out. More likely, the poison gas was deliberately released by Jaysh al-Islam, at behest of its CIA backers, to provide a pretext for US military intervention. Assuming, that is, that the reports of poison gas exposure are not simply manufactured by the US intelligence agencies for rebroadcast by a servile media. ..."
"... The latest provocation follows a well-worn pattern, from the lies over Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction" to the present. The American intelligence agencies give the signal. Nonstop coverage is immediately launched on cable television, then demands for action are made by the White House and congressional leaders, boosted by editorials written by CIA mouthpieces such as the New York Times. ..."
"... The brazen lies of the media are accompanied by breathtaking hypocrisy. The Times ..."
"... Washington Post ..."
Apr 09, 2018 | www.wsws.org

... ... ...

The "rebel" group now holding out in Douma, Jaysh al-Islam, part of the Islamist opposition to Assad that includes the Syrian branch of Al Qaeda as well as the remnants of ISIS, has itself been credibly accused of using chlorine gas in the course of fighting against Kurdish forces and civilians in Aleppo in 2016. That charge, made by the Kurds, was given extensive publicity by Voice of America, the propaganda arm of the US government.

It is possible that Syrian warplanes struck a weapons cache belonging to the rebel group, causing the gas to leak out. More likely, the poison gas was deliberately released by Jaysh al-Islam, at behest of its CIA backers, to provide a pretext for US military intervention. Assuming, that is, that the reports of poison gas exposure are not simply manufactured by the US intelligence agencies for rebroadcast by a servile media.

What is least likely, from a political standpoint, is that the Assad government, just as it was on the brink of final victory in Eastern Ghouta after more than five years of bitter fighting, should suddenly unleash a poison gas attack, which would have no military value but would invite a savage response from the Trump administration and the other Western powers. A Syrian government statement pointed this out, declaring that "an army that is progressing quickly does not need to use any kind of chemical weapons."

According to Al Jazeera and Russian news sources, Jaysh al-Islam has been so thoroughly defeated that it has struck an agreement to completely withdraw all its militia and their families from Douma over the next 48 hours or so. Russian troops will reportedly move in to take control of the city.

Iran's Foreign Ministry rebuffed the US claims of a gas attack in Douma. "Such claims and allegations by the Americans and some Western countries point to a new plot against the Syrian government and people, and are an excuse to take military action against them," a spokesman told the press.

The Russian government denounced the US campaign over the supposed gas attack as a political provocation aimed at justifying deeper US military intervention in the Syrian civil war. "The spread of bogus stories about the use of chlorine and other poisonous substances by government forces continues," the Russian Foreign Ministry said. "We have warned several times recently against such dangerous provocations. The aim of such deceitful speculation, lacking any kind of grounding, is to shield terrorists and to attempt to justify possible external uses of force."

The latest provocation follows a well-worn pattern, from the lies over Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction" to the present. The American intelligence agencies give the signal. Nonstop coverage is immediately launched on cable television, then demands for action are made by the White House and congressional leaders, boosted by editorials written by CIA mouthpieces such as the New York Times.

The brazen lies of the media are accompanied by breathtaking hypocrisy. The Times , the Washington Post , NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN and company downplay and cover up the atrocities carried out by American forces and their allies -- the incineration of Mosul and Raqqa, the gunning down of demonstrators in Gaza by the Israeli military, the mass killings in Yemen carried out with US support by Saudi Arabia, even as its crown prince is feted by the US ruling elite, and the ongoing slaughter in Afghanistan.

... ... ...

[Apr 09, 2018] An appeal to James Mattis

The rumor is that Trump himself is a false flag operation ;-)
Notable quotes:
"... I beseech you, sir, to consider the possibility that the supposed chlorine gas attack at Douma, Syria may have been a carefully constructed propaganda fraud on the part of the rebels encircled in Douma. ..."
"... The rebels have been defeated in East Gouta. Their fighters and families are being evacuated to Turkish occupied Jarabulus by air-conditioned bus. How would it benefit the Syrian government to make such an attack in this situation? ..."
"... If he wants to wage war on Syria, Iran and Russia, then he and his family can obtain Israeli citizenship and get themselves elected to the Likud Party. ..."
"... If this goes any further, I won't be voting for him in 2020 and I think many of his supporters feel the same, based on what I have gleaned here and there. ..."
"... Sadly, though, it appears Trump's doubling down on his chemical attacks idiocy and talking himself into a situation where he can't just walk away without doing something stupid even if he wanted t ..."
"... I doubt very much that Gen Mattis and all the other bigwigs involved are unaware of the truth of this incident. The White Helmets etc who staged it didn't do so in order to deceive these 'innocents', but rather to provide them with an excuse to intervene. A mere formality, but, for various reasons, important. ..."
"... The Brits blinked and did not punish the criminal liar Blair. Since then, the war profiteering based on lies has become a national pastime. ..."
"... the risks are asymmetric -- we in the US have very little to fear from war, the deciders have no family at risk, the corporations gain, the front line US soldier has a far lower risk than any other side, so I don't see how we get off the war-war-war track, sorry for the fatalism ..."
"... IAF attack was a classic probing action for SIGINT--what would "light up" in radio diapason during this attack on Russian side. The fact that Israel did not inform Russia, as it was always the case prior, but informed the US is pretty much self-evident fact of what transpired. The target, however, was chosen conspicuously away from any Russian assets in Syria. ..."
Apr 09, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

I beseech you, sir, to consider the possibility that the supposed chlorine gas attack at Douma, Syria may have been a carefully constructed propaganda fraud on the part of the rebels encircled in Douma. Such a fraud would have as its purpose the elicitation of exactly the kind of response that we are seeing in the Western media. The rebels have been defeated in East Gouta. Their fighters and families are being evacuated to Turkish occupied Jarabulus by air-conditioned bus. How would it benefit the Syrian government to make such an attack in this situation?

I hope that you will determine the exact facts of what occurred at Douma before any action is taken.

I recommend that you send someone competent to Syria to make an on the ground investigation.

W. Patrick Lang

Colonel (Ret.) US Army


smoothieX12 . , 7 hours ago

Colonel, my deepest respect and admiration for your integrity.
Eric Newhill , 4 hours ago
Trump supporters, like myself, sure as hell didn't elect the man to continue the forever war, let alone escalate it to include nuclear powers. We believed him when he said he would disentangle us from foreign engagements and focus on rebuilding our country. If he wants to wage war on Syria, Iran and Russia, then he and his family can obtain Israeli citizenship and get themselves elected to the Likud Party.

If this goes any further, I won't be voting for him in 2020 and I think many of his supporters feel the same, based on what I have gleaned here and there.

Randal , 6 hours ago
From your keyboard to Trump's eyes!

Sadly, though, it appears Trump's doubling down on his chemical attacks idiocy and talking himself into a situation where he can't just walk away without doing something stupid even if he wanted to:

Trump promises 'major decision' on Syria chemical attack

Barbara Ann , 4 hours ago
I would encourage all SST readers to Tweet/share this post and its important message to @SecretaryMattis
FB Ali , an hour ago
I doubt very much that Gen Mattis and all the other bigwigs involved are unaware of the truth of this incident. The White Helmets etc who staged it didn't do so in order to deceive these 'innocents', but rather to provide them with an excuse to intervene. A mere formality, but, for various reasons, important.
Pat Lang Mod FB Ali , an hour ago
My honor required this appeal.
Ani Pat Lang , an hour ago
Thank you. Thank you for being a moral compass.
TTG , 3 hours ago
I have sent emails to Senators Kaine and Warner and Representative Wittman asking them to do what they can "to temper our President's potential response to this incident" and "to ensure any response our nation undertakes in response to this incident is in the best interests and in the best traditions of our country."

I join Barbara Ann in encouraging all committeemen to contact their Senators and Representatives and/or "to Tweet/share this post and its important message to @SecretaryMattis."

Pat Lang Mod TTG , 3 hours ago
I understand from a source with access that there is no factual evidence at all. pl
TTG Pat Lang , 3 hours ago
I included this in my emails and included your appeal to Mattis.

"I have serious doubts as to who is responsible for this attack as well as past supposed chemical attacks in Syria. I also have serious concerns about the rush to judgment over these attacks and the motivations of those making this rush to judgment. My judgment in these matters is tempered by my thirty-three years as an Infantry and Special Forces officer and as a DIA intelligence officer."

I thought that was better than saying that all those lying ass clowns calling for attacks are chock full of crap.

Ani , an hour ago
Here are coming the bestest chemists:

"John Sullivan [Secretary of State] and Johnson [British Foreign Secretary] agreed that "this attack bore hallmarks of previous chemical weapons attacks by the Assad regime.." http://abcnews.go.com/Polit...

The Brits blinked and did not punish the criminal liar Blair. Since then, the war profiteering based on lies has become a national pastime.

As for the lawyering John Sullivan, "His clients include major oil and gas companies, consulting, accounting, and financial services firms, petrochemical companies, and manufacturers. He was also a member of President Bush's Management Council and a member of the Board of Directors of the Overseas Private Investment Corporation." https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

He looks like a Cheney-like opportunist. It is doubtful that he understands what a nuclear conflict could do to his children.

wisedupearly , an hour ago
Trump cannot be in a steady frame of mind given that the FBI has just raided the offices of Michael Cohen, Trump's longtime counsel, and seized all manner of financial records, emails etc. Most telling about this action is that the special counsel had no compulsion about executing a search warrant on the President's personal counsel.

Not sure how Gen. Mattis can get through to Trump if others are pushing the impulsive "fire and forget" narrative. I hope Gen. Mattis is a honest American, I pray he succeeds.

Ani , an hour ago
http://defence-blog.com/new... "The Russian military command suddenly puts troops on full combat alert, movements of combat vehicles and missile systems observe almost all over the country.

An activity of Russian troops is most notable in the Western part of Russia, near the borders with Ukraine and the Republic of Belarus, as well as in the Transbaikal region and the Far East. On April 8-9 active movements of a large number of military vehicles and tanks, also were seen moving of the Iskander missile systems with Air Defence support."

rakesh wahi , 4 hours ago
the risks are asymmetric -- we in the US have very little to fear from war, the deciders have no family at risk, the corporations gain, the front line US soldier has a far lower risk than any other side, so I don't see how we get off the war-war-war track, sorry for the fatalism
richardstevenhack , 5 hours ago
Trump is saying he will make a decision to attack Syria in the next 24-48 hours, possibly as soon as "end of day."

The Russians have stated any such attack will have "serious consequences."

I am interested in why Israel decided to use sub-launched cruise missiles this time. Since they also used aircraft, it can't be because they were concerned their aircraft might be shot down as in the previous case. Were they hoping that cruise missiles would be assumed to be US, thus preventing Syria or the Russians from responding? Or that the either Syria or the Russians would respond against US ships in the Med by mistaking the Israeli cruise missiles for US? Where were the cruise missiles launched from? Apparently they only launched 8 and 5 of them got shot down by Pantsir air defense. How could a mere 8 cruise missiles be mistaken for the US, which probably would have used many more? Which suggests that indeed Israel was trying some sort of provocation, but I can't figure out what.

Today it is being reported that Skripal is going to be shipped off to the US by Britain with a new identity. Nice way to make sure he never says anything to the press about what actually happened. I wonder how they intend to shut up Yulia given she's a Russian citizen. Can we predict that she will "decide" to accompany her father and thus be never heard from again?

smoothieX12 . richardstevenhack , 4 hours ago
IAF attack was a classic probing action for SIGINT--what would "light up" in radio diapason during this attack on Russian side. The fact that Israel did not inform Russia, as it was always the case prior, but informed the US is pretty much self-evident fact of what transpired. The target, however, was chosen conspicuously away from any Russian assets in Syria.

Per sub launched Israeli missiles--I don't know about that. Russia has more than enough ASW assets in and around Tartus, including recently deployed Il-38 with latest Novella ASW suite to know who and how. For now what is confirmed is the salvo of 8, most likely Delilahs, 5 of which were intercepted while three got through killing 3 and wounding 14 Iranians.

Unkhan , 5 hours ago
Agreed! Assad simply has the most atrocious timing for his irresistible chemical attacks. It's almost enough to make you ask: 'Cui bono?'

Thank you for this and for restoring the comments section.

will2713 , 6 hours ago
will2713 aka will2.718 short & sweet. Thank you Sir! Of course, they already know or should know it's a false flag attack, b/ it puts it on the record. Just a quibble, actually the headchoppers in Idlib don't want these terrible children, they are actually going to Jarablus from what I've read. Which brings up the next point, Jarablus [edit: was thinking of Jisr Shagour actually] has been raining fire on Latakia and presents a danger to the Russ bases, so will it be a game of musical chairs for these takfiris?
Pat Lang Mod will2713 , 6 hours ago
IMO the Borg knows only what it wants to know. Mattis is not a Borgist. pl
Prince Monolulu Pat Lang , 5 hours ago
Well, that's one shred of comfort in this mess. I hope Mattis sees through this, and Trump listens to him.

It's been a depressing 24 hours, listening to the Pavlovian responses of reasonably intelligent people whom I know. They have no idea that they are being softened-up for yet another installment of the Forever War. And a dangerous installment, with a very real risk of war with Russia.

Ani Prince Monolulu , 2 hours ago
Mattis is not the only one who must listen to the honest and competent people: It is the American Jewish Community at large that needs to act and quickly to put the breaks on Israel's criminal activities: http://www.unz.com/article/...

We all are entering a dangerous territory.

[Apr 09, 2018] Trump to Decide Soon Whether to Retaliate for Barbaric Act in Syria

Chemical false flag attacks is the traditional way Syria islamists are calling for the US air support. From comments: "After all they had lost in Douma - there were no point in Syrian gas attack - the fighting was done. Jaish al Islam must be having a great laugh at our expensive for falling for their trick of gassing their own people. Let us not help the Islamists."
Anther interesting comment: "With "experts" at president's disposal, seems to me moment Trump announced Syrian withdrawal, at least one should have anticipated - based on past occurrences - a gas attack aimed to engage US and therefore maintain US presence."
And another " including their mouthpieces at the times manufacture a chemical attack and claim Assad -- who has no reason whatsoever to do such things -- is some horrible monster that deserves to have bombs rained down on him. How totally corrupt the MIC has become."
That act reported by White helmets looks like a classic MI6 provocation. Russian investigation has shown that no attack took place. Moreover the rumors about this false flag were circulating long ago. Russians warned about this possiblity a month or so ago telling the jihadists prepare such provocation. Looks like all that was needed for Trump is a plausible justification -- the desire to "decapitate" Assad is too strong to resist.
Notable quotes:
"... Syria is a crappy place primarily because of insane overpopulation and limited water. Getting Assad out is not going to help with population or with water. Moving the entire Syrian population to Europe could be done and they are working on that. ..."
"... With "experts" at president's disposal, seems to me moment Trump announced Syrian withdrawal, at least one should have anticipated - based on past occurrences - a gas attack aimed to engage US and therefore maintain US presence. ..."
Apr 09, 2018 | www.nytimes.com

President Trump on Monday denounced the suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens of people in Syria over the weekend as a "barbaric act," and said he will make a decision in the next 24 to 48 hours about whether to retaliate militarily as he did to a similar assault last year.


is a trusted commenter Providence 6 hours ago

Congress has skirted their responsibility to authorize war in Syria and Trump is suggesting taking actions that could drag us into a deep and costly war. The American people deserve to hear this debated in Congress.

angel98 nyc 6 hours ago

Retaliate? They don't even know for sure who it was, could well have been an ally. The place is a mess of competing outside forces.

Retaliate - and therein lies the problem. Too much to ask that for once they think, discuss, decide a long term policy with other countries. Last time the 45th tried 'me-big-man-with-bomb' there was no follow up, nothing was done, what was the point? Look at me I have the biggest, noisiest fire cracker! Pathetic. Careless. Irresponsible. Uniformed. Murderous. The list is endless.

HenryJ Durham 5 hours ago

I suppose the President can launch a missile attack, or any military action, based on whatever authority from Congress permitted the US military to be fighting in Syria in the first place. The more fundamental issue is that Congress long ago ceded to the President its constitutional responsibility to declare war . This must be corrected with checks restored on the President's power to deploy the military at will. Otherwise, the US will continue to be in a perpetual state of war, which may be good for the extended military supply industry but damaging to country as a whole.

michael new york city 5 hours ago

What if.....what if this chemical attack was sanctioned not by Assad but by a state or a non-state force that wants the U.S. to retaliate?
Just why did this chemical attack follow Trump's announced desire to get out of Syria?
Why, also, is Israel urging us to attack now? Could it be to distract from the human rights catastrophe in Gaza?
We all know what John Bolton would have us do.
Where's the proof that this was Assad's work? More WMD ?

Ed Watters San Francisco 3 hours ago

Trump wined and dined MBS of Saudi Arabia who has been conducting airstrikes on Yemen with hundreds of casualties, as high as 68 civilian deaths in one day. It would be hard to imagine a better example of hypocrisy.

Llewis N Cal 1 hour ago

Syria is a part of a complex series of issues that make up the problem of Middle Eastern diplomacy. Trump does not have the capacity to manage any of this. Selling arms to the Saudis to continue their war in Yemen added to the Syrian problem. The cholera epidemic in Yemen is a form of biological warfare that is killing more civilians than chemical warfare in Syria. Starving the population of Yemen is also warfare. By supporting the Saudis we have lost the moral high ground in Syria.

Hector Bellflower 16 minutes ago

Was it the rebels again? Or is it chlorine again? Chlorine is used for several commercial and health purposes--to clean bottles, to clean water, and for refrigeration. So it is quite easy for a bomb or explosive to hit a container and then there is a serious gas problem. If pool acid and chlorine are stored together it might be worse when mixed. I do not believe Assad needs to use chemicals because he has Russians who will do air strikes on his enemies. I call fake news.

AGC Lima 16 minutes ago

The solution to Syria was obvious years ago, if you just wanted to see the obvious. And that was Syria as it had been for years, in peace, secular, under a government of Assad who, eventually, knew it had to evolve into a more democratic regime . Now that has changed, and all to Israel´s advantage. It seems as if the whole world has forgotten that the whole Middle East problem was born, and is still the Occupation of Palestinian Land. Israel is a thorn in Arab Middle East.The only one that has attacked ALL its neighbours !

judyweller Cumberland, MD 45 minutes ago

We should do nothing. We need to leave Syria to the Syrian. We can't and musn't involve our military in every tragedy in the world. There is no doubt in my mind that if we mistakenly and stupidly attack the Syrian Army we are aiding the Jihadist who planned thit attack. After all they had lost in Douma - there were no point in Syrian gas attack - the fighting was done. Jaish al Islam must be having a great laugh at our expensive for falling for their trick of gassing their own people. Let us not help the Islamists.

H. Torbet San Francisco 56 minutes ago

The US government LIES about everything. We know this. This has been proved repeatedly.

Yet, here we are with the US government, and its stenographers in the mainstream media, i.e., the stuff that's not Fake News, right, assuring us that Assad gassed his own people. Again.

Even if we could believe this, or even if we gave the government the benefit of the doubt for . . . what? . . . its integrity?, we are after all exceptional, right, how is this America's business?

Yes, other countries shouldn't gas their own people. But countries shouldn't commit war crimes either, and that goes on every day. America is as dirty as any other country. Despite our treaty obligations, even torture is legal here.

We're supposedly the richest country in the world, but we can barely keep our streets paved and lit. And not only that, but it is a proven fact that one dollar invested in domestic economics brings back much more return than one dollar spent on bombs. Trump is right. We need to stomp the madness in the Middle East. The oil companies can pay for their own security with all of the money they don't pay in taxes.

Right now our cities are clogged with people living in tents and defecating on the sidewalks and in the streets. Look at old pictures from the Depression. It looks the same today.

Let's deal with the real problems.

Pepperman Philadelphia 1 hour ago

The left is seeing Russians responsible for every wrong in the world. The right sees itself as the rescuer of the wrongs of the world. I pray that this does not move this country into a war with Russia.

Tony E Rochester, NY 1 hour ago

This nation needs a "policy". Something with careful thought and backed by facts, expert analysis, and wisdom; Aim first and carefully.

A "Shoot from the Hip" flourish that can be touted at the next Trump self congratulatory ego rally Will Not Do. Either this nation has a leader or it doesn't - Trump's move!

Cari408 Los Angeles 1 hour ago

One of the few things I liked about Trump was his anti-involvement stance in the middle east. We have SO MUCH to fix and worry about at home. Nothing that Trump does on immigration, environment, or anything else will make me more angry than dragging us into another war.

Jim Houghton 1 hour ago

I don't see any ink being given to the very likely possibility that the gas attack was a ploy by rebels to get the US (and their air cover) to stick around. If you ask the question, "Who benefits?" the Assad regime had nothing to gain by gassing a few civilians -- they're about to win the war, so why would they? OTOH, the rebels need us badly, and know that we will reflexively blame Assad.

Whole Grains USA 1 hour ago

Just a few days ago, Trump talked about withdrawing from Syria. Now, he says he will decide whether to attack Syria within the next couple of days. One day we're out, the next day we're in. And just a few days ago, Trump said he didn't like to reveal his military plans in advance. Now, he is announcing to the world that he is consideration retaliation against Syria. His contradictions make the U.S. look as if it is led by a very confused commander in chief.

david rush seattle 1 hour ago

Yes, chemical weapons are barbaric, but who launched the attack? Which faction in this complicated civil war? How does trump know the answer to this question when no one else does? Why would the U.S. "retaliate" based on speculation, especially after trump recently said, "we need to get out of there and leave it to someone else"? What good would military action do at this point? Are we anxious to put our "expensive new military" to the test? So many questions...and an administration unable / unwilling to answer them. Too bad trump can't simply tweet his way out of this one...

John Pittsburgh/Cologne 1 hour ago

The U.S. should respond militarily to Syria's gas attack only on two conditions:

1. The leaders of all key U.S. allies (European countries, Canada, Japan, S. Korea, Australia, etc.) sign a joint declaration of support for the action.

2. Each of these countries pays a population-weighted share of the expense of the U.S. military operation.

We are either all in this together, or it's not worth doing.

Let's find out if our allies are willing to back up their pious declarations of condemnation.

Willie Rowe Madison, Wi 48 minutes ago

His action was to support ISIS there among other things. You feel he should have kept supporting ISIS?

Student Nu Yawk 2 hours ago

I don't get it. Subjecting people, women, children and even men, to crushing, burning, lacerating and penetrating wounds is par for the course. It's war after all. But poison! Oh the (in)humanity!

Also, anyone think it's weird that Assad does this just when the US is making motions to pull out?

It is impossible to know what is really going on as the world's powers continue to fight this proxy war. The only thing that is certain is the continued suffering of the Syrian people - including the poor sods who will be conventionally incinerated by American "retaliation" in a day or so.

. . 2 hours ago

NYT, CNN, Twitter: Nothing fishy here. Everything makes total and complete sense

Douglas Girardot Connecticut 2 hours ago

The President should have no authority to declare war or commit troops, period. So far, there has been no urgent "national emergency," as required by the War Powers Resolution, which would justify the President to effectively declare war unilaterally and yet here we are, with presidents on both sides completely ignoring the Constitution, using the WPA as an enabler to bypass the text which says that only Congress can declare war.

e.s. cleveland, OH 2 hours ago

Seems Israel and Saudi Arabia can bomb/kill at will and we just acquiesce.

as new york 2 hours ago

Saddam used gas on the Iranians and we were good with that. It is not clear about this gas in Syria. These "freedom fighters" have no compunction about using civilians as human shields. How do we know the truth? They are various branches of Al Quaeda and given their huge birth rate they don't seem to place much weight on human life in the here and now....maybe they focus on the afterlife more. So why can't we just leave Assad alone and let him be the strong man there? Yes Syria is a crappy place primarily because of insane overpopulation and limited water. Getting Assad out is not going to help with population or with water. Moving the entire Syrian population to Europe could be done and they are working on that.

Bobby H Massachusetts 2 hours ago

Trump says he was getting us out of Syria. Much to my relief to this endless war.

And I'm pretty sure the president of Syria, Assad, whose regime has been under attack by both the US supported Syrian rebels and their ISIS allies did not want the US on their soil. So why would he do something like this? I don't believe he did. By the way if the US was not meddling over in the M.E. there would be no refugees and fewer immigrants.

Rob Pittsburgh 2 hours ago

"Conventional" deaths by artillery and bullets are perfectly acceptable - when bodies are vaporized, ripped and torn apart unrecognizably. But use a deadly gas and leave the corpses in "beautiful" condition - there you have crossed the line mister.

RR Wisconsin 2 hours ago

Lemme get this straight: The US policy doesn't care *how many* Syrians were killed; it only cares *how* they were killed? Nothing good can come from such an ethically bankrupt policy.

e.s. cleveland, OH 57 minutes ago

I would rather have Assad than those Jihadists the U.S., Israel, Saudi Arabia, etc. are backing. Just ask the Christians in Syria.

max byrd davis ca 2 hours ago

The president does not have the authority to bomb whenever he wants. If we had a Congress, it would its responsibility to authorize military action.

jhanzel Glenview, Illinois 2 hours ago

As painful as it is, the possession of chlorine is not in violation of the standards we all signed in to to stop chemical and biological weapons. Hence, the agreement under Obama, by almost all standards, worked well. Or at least unless we wanted a few hundred thousands troop on the ground to search the entire country. This use of chlorine is. Maybe Trump will propose a huge tariff on chlorine exports to Syria?

David Eike Virginia 2 hours ago

What is the logic for Assad to provoke the US right after Trump announces his intention to withdraw? Would it not be more strategic for the regime to hold off until US troops were withdrawn and then go after the rebels? Does Assad assume that the US response will be more moderate if we still have troops in country? Any chance this was a rogue action to delay or reverse US plans to withdraw? If so, who benefits from US continuing to maintain troops in Syria?

bmck Montreal 2 hours ago

With "experts" at president's disposal, seems to me moment Trump announced Syrian withdrawal, at least one should have anticipated - based on past occurrences - a gas attack aimed to engage US and therefore maintain US presence.

[Apr 09, 2018] US Will Respond To Syria Gas Attack Regardless Of Security Council's Decision

Notable quotes:
"... Nikki Haley claims that the US "Will Respond" To Syria Gas Attack Regardless Of Security Council's Decision ..."
"... Last year, the US destroyed more than a dozen aircraft, as well as oil storage facilities and other structures, and killed at least seven people when it fired 59 missiles at Syria's Shayrat Airbase following a chemical weapons attack that the US also pinned on the Syrian government. ..."
"... Both the UK and France have suggested they're considering military action in Syria. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said he and his French and US allies agree there should be "no impunity for those that use such barbaric weapons." ..."
"... However, Johnson added that Monday's emergency meeting of the UN Security Council would be "an important next step in determining the international response" and that "a full range of options should be on the table." ..."
Apr 09, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Nikki Haley claims that the US "Will Respond" To Syria Gas Attack Regardless Of Security Council's Decision

Update (4:15 pm ET): US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley said during an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council on Monday that the US would retaliate against the attack in Syria regardless of what the UN Security Council decides.

"History will record this as the moment when the Security Council either discharged its duty or demonstrated its utter and complete failure to protect the people of Syria. Either way, the United States will respond."

She described the victims in graphic terms.

"I could hold up pictures of babies lying dead next to their mothers, in their diapers, all lying together, dead, ashen blue, open eyed and lifeless, white foam bubbling from their mouths and noses."

Haley added that "the world must see justice done" in Syria.

* * *

Before heading into his Monday afternoon cabinet meeting, President Donald Trump condemned a chemical weapons attack in Ghouta, Syria during an impromptu press conference. The president said "even with the world as bad as it is, you just don't see things like that" before saying he'd decide on a response "probably by the end of today."

And while the US was "having trouble getting people in" to the town, Trump added that he would definitively determine which states were involved in the attack - be it Syria, Iran, Russia (or presumably all three).

https://www.youtube.com/embed/CFCy-5c_imc

With Trump and his most trusted advisors still debating the proper response, several anonymous Pentagon officials have told the Washington Examiner that the US is considering several options including a missile barrage similar to the strike carried out on a Syrian air base last year.

The Israeli F-15s launched a lethal strike on a Syrian airbase early Monday, killing 14 people with the US's tacit approval .

The options being considered now are similar to the options that were provided to the president before last year's strike. The US has several ships armed with tomahawk cruise missiles stationed in the region - including the USS Donald Cook, a guided-missile destroyer that just completed a port call in Cyprus and got underway in the eastern Mediterranean. The ship is within range of Syria and could presumably strike at any target the president orders.

Last year, the US destroyed more than a dozen aircraft, as well as oil storage facilities and other structures, and killed at least seven people when it fired 59 missiles at Syria's Shayrat Airbase following a chemical weapons attack that the US also pinned on the Syrian government.

But according to one official who spoke with the Examiner , Trump could be considering a "more robust" strike this time around, considering that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad didn't quite get the message last time.

Both the UK and France have suggested they're considering military action in Syria. UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson said he and his French and US allies agree there should be "no impunity for those that use such barbaric weapons."

However, Johnson added that Monday's emergency meeting of the UN Security Council would be "an important next step in determining the international response" and that "a full range of options should be on the table."

[Apr 09, 2018] Trump's Saber-Rattling on Syria by Daniel Larison

Notable quotes:
"... Trump's statement is a particularly stupid piece of revisionism on his part. Trump was opposed to Obama's threatened attack in 2013 , and then as president Trump ordered an illegal military attack on the Syrian government one year ago to punish it for an alleged chemical weapons attack. ..."
"... The danger in having an ongoing illegal military presence in Syria is that it exposes U.S. forces to unacceptable and unnecessary risks and creates the possibility of escalation with the Syrian government and its allies. If Trump orders another illegal attack on the Syrian government or the forces of any of its supporters, it could easily trigger a larger conflict. Russia has given an explicit warning against a U.S. attack this time, saying that it could trigger "the gravest consequences." Even if it doesn't lead to a larger conflict with a nuclear-armed major power, it isn't worth taking the risk for the sake of policing the conduct of a foreign civil war. ..."
"... If Trump were really interested in extricating the U.S. from war in Syria, he would not be engaged in mindless saber-rattling against the Syrian government and its allies. Unfortunately, Trump's bellicosity always seems to take over in these situations. That is what we get from Trump's anti-restraint foreign policy. ..."
"... But the odd thing is, the most stable and invested country in the region is Iran. Crazy as it might sound to an Iran-hater-dead-ender, the country we should be chatting with about Syria is Iran. If we genuinely cared about anything humanitarian. The two countries with the most likely influence over Bashar with the aim of mitigating his violence would likely be Iran and Russia. If we wanted to actually accomplish something we could quietly and diplomatically arrange that chat and encourage some beneficial influence there. ..."
"... If Assad is really the brute that the West portrays him to be he would have been toppled by now. That the Syrian population by and large has stood by him in 6 years of war should tell you something. I make a point to get most of the news about Syria from Christian organisations who live there – and they are all unequivocal. They are now beyond livid of what the US and its allies has allowed and even facilitated to happen there. Tthankfully for them they still have the Syrian Arab Army and Russia to protect them unlike their brethren in Iraq, one of the oldest Christian communities in existence which has been practically wiped out thanks to America's intervention. ..."
"... Clinton ignored the Russian objections to the West's unilateral recognition of Balkan breakaways. Bush, Saakashvili and the usual entourage of the neocon meddler travelling circus that nowadays haunts the Ukraine dismissed both the Russian warnings and the Russian military response. The result was utter failure. ..."
"... Putin might never see an opportunity for a similarly deadly and promising "play" in the circle jerk of Syria free-for-all invasions – Gulf states, Turkey, US, Israel – but if he should ever see an opening, I would expect him to seek another object lesson. His hand might not be strong, but he appears to play it well. ..."
"... Meanwhile, the Kurdish YPG and Syrian government troops ally against NATO partner Turkey, and the US military has repeatedly attacked Syrian regular military and boasts – by leak – about massacring Russian "private military contractors". ..."
"... Iran demonstrated in Iraq that US ineptitude combined with impunitivism provides many openings to stabilize, in a sense, the region. ..."
Apr 09, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

The president tweeted this out this morning in response to reports of a new chemical weapons attack by the Syrian government:

If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!

-- Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 8, 2018

Trump's statement is a particularly stupid piece of revisionism on his part. Trump was opposed to Obama's threatened attack in 2013 , and then as president Trump ordered an illegal military attack on the Syrian government one year ago to punish it for an alleged chemical weapons attack. He had no authority to do this, the attack was a flagrant breach of the U.N. Charter, and it apparently failed to discourage the Syrian government from carrying out similar attacks later on. The president ordered the "unbelievably small attack" that Obama administration threatened to launch in 2013, and it made no meaningful difference to the course of the war or the regime's behavior.

Trump tweeted out earlier in the day that "President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay." He didn't say what that "big price" was or how it will be "paid," but the fact that he thinks it is a good idea to make threats against the Syrian government's patrons bodes ill for the future of U.S. policy in Syria. The foreign policy establishment was beside itself last week when they thought that Trump wanted to withdraw from Syria, but they should be much more worried that he will launch an illegal attack and plunge the U.S. in even deeper.

The danger in having an ongoing illegal military presence in Syria is that it exposes U.S. forces to unacceptable and unnecessary risks and creates the possibility of escalation with the Syrian government and its allies. If Trump orders another illegal attack on the Syrian government or the forces of any of its supporters, it could easily trigger a larger conflict. Russia has given an explicit warning against a U.S. attack this time, saying that it could trigger "the gravest consequences." Even if it doesn't lead to a larger conflict with a nuclear-armed major power, it isn't worth taking the risk for the sake of policing the conduct of a foreign civil war.

If Trump were really interested in extricating the U.S. from war in Syria, he would not be engaged in mindless saber-rattling against the Syrian government and its allies. Unfortunately, Trump's bellicosity always seems to take over in these situations. That is what we get from Trump's anti-restraint foreign policy.


rayray April 8, 2018 at 2:32 pm

It's true that I'm no genius, but after reading as much as I can and thinking it over I still don't know who is the right horse to back, or what is the right side to be on in Syria. Assad is a brute, Isis are brutes, the other parties of opposition are useless, and etc., and none of it has anything to do with us anyway. To Daniel's point, we're keeping an army hanging around in a volatile and illegal situation for no discernible point.

Except to hate Iran.

The longterm on Syria doesn't look good for anyone. I'm guessing, because of his long history of ignorance and incoherence, Trump has no plan.

But the odd thing is, the most stable and invested country in the region is Iran. Crazy as it might sound to an Iran-hater-dead-ender, the country we should be chatting with about Syria is Iran. If we genuinely cared about anything humanitarian. The two countries with the most likely influence over Bashar with the aim of mitigating his violence would likely be Iran and Russia. If we wanted to actually accomplish something we could quietly and diplomatically arrange that chat and encourage some beneficial influence there.

romegas , says: April 8, 2018 at 3:36 pm
@rayray

If Assad is really the brute that the West portrays him to be he would have been toppled by now. That the Syrian population by and large has stood by him in 6 years of war should tell you something. I make a point to get most of the news about Syria from Christian organisations who live there – and they are all unequivocal. They are now beyond livid of what the US and its allies has allowed and even facilitated to happen there. Tthankfully for them they still have the Syrian Arab Army and Russia to protect them unlike their brethren in Iraq, one of the oldest Christian communities in existence which has been practically wiped out thanks to America's intervention.

b. , says: April 8, 2018 at 3:42 pm
"If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line "

Interesting view. Obama imagined he drew a "red line" that Assad was not to cross, and allegedly did. Trump's tongue apparently wore a Freudian slip when he rubi-conned this phrase into twitter.

To make this a turn worthy of Croesumpus, let us just say that if Trump crosses that red line of his own, a great war criminal will be destroyed.

b. , says: April 8, 2018 at 4:00 pm

"In early March 2008, Abkhazia and South Ossetia submitted formal requests for their recognition to Russia's parliament shortly after the West's recognition of Kosovo to which Russia was opposed. [The] Russian ambassador to NATO, warned that Georgia's NATO membership aspirations would cause Russia to support the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia."

Clinton ignored the Russian objections to the West's unilateral recognition of Balkan breakaways. Bush, Saakashvili and the usual entourage of the neocon meddler travelling circus that nowadays haunts the Ukraine dismissed both the Russian warnings and the Russian military response. The result was utter failure.

Putin might never see an opportunity for a similarly deadly and promising "play" in the circle jerk of Syria free-for-all invasions – Gulf states, Turkey, US, Israel – but if he should ever see an opening, I would expect him to seek another object lesson. His hand might not be strong, but he appears to play it well.

Meanwhile, the Kurdish YPG and Syrian government troops ally against NATO partner Turkey, and the US military has repeatedly attacked Syrian regular military and boasts – by leak – about massacring Russian "private military contractors".

Iran demonstrated in Iraq that US ineptitude combined with impunitivism provides many openings to stabilize, in a sense, the region.

[Apr 09, 2018] The big game is the eradication of Western sponsored terrorists and ending of the Syrian civil war

Apr 09, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Joiningupthedots Mon, 04/09/2018 - 08:48 Permalink

The big game is the eradication of Western sponsored terrorists and ending of the Syrian civil war.

This is on schedule and nothing can stop it. It will be over soon.

Russia sees EVERYTHING flying over the entire theatre and in due course the SAA will be supplied with the means to destroy the IDF over Lebanon also.

The IDF attacks are nothing more than an irritation and will be dealt with in the fullness of time. 5 from 8 is nothing to brag about at all. In mission planning terms its a disaster really and will lead to failure in a full war.

Only a direct attack on the Russian military will elicit a direct response from Russia. It has been stated publicly enough times.

Any response from Russia in that instance will come from missile launches from Russia (hundreds of them at that) The antagonists know this.

Syria is winning its war and that's all that matters.

God is The Son Mon, 04/09/2018 - 09:53 Permalink

Assad is fighting Sunni Insurgency, their all RADICAL. Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Gulf States are funding them. AL-Qaeda, ISIS, and all the other groups, all SUNNI's. This pocket in SYRIA is filled with Sunni's, their fighting force are all RADICALS.

Look at one of the groups that USA supported a Jihadist Sunni Division, who went to KITCHEN grab a cooking knife and cut off the head of 10 year old KID.

THE USA, FRANCE, UK, are all in BED with Sunni's, Ironically, It's Sunni's that are also committing TERROR attacks in EUROPE. Yet Jew Boss's in USA and EUROPE want make Sunni the Allies and SHIA the enemy.

Look at the CRIMINALITY going on.

[Apr 09, 2018] The US is in Syria illegally and that manes that guerilla attacks of the USA troops in occupied areas might intensify

Apr 09, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Mike Masr Mon, 04/09/2018 - 07:32 Permalink

US Interference and Regime Change Bullshit

"Secret cables and reports by the U.S., Saudi and Israeli intelligence agencies indicate that the moment Assad rejected the Qatari pipeline, military and intelligence planners quickly arrived at the consensus that fomenting a Sunni uprising in Syria to overthrow the uncooperative Bashar Assad was a feasible path to achieving the shared objective of completing the Qatar/Turkey gas link. In 2009, according to WikiLeaks, soon after Bashar Assad rejected the Qatar pipeline, the CIA began funding opposition groups in Syria."

Regime change is the only reason we or any of our proxies are there. We have NO GOOD REASON being there other than this BS.

Truth Eater Mon, 04/09/2018 - 07:34 Permalink

Dammit Trump! Get control of your staff and get out of Syria leaving the Kurds all the AA stinger missiles they need to take out Turk aircraft. And on the way out, rip the Turk invasion force to shreds, then just say, "oops, sorry."

davatankool Mon, 04/09/2018 - 07:38 Permalink

Massive Propaganda Push Re. Syria Gas Attack

William Dorritt Mon, 04/09/2018 - 08:08 Permalink

Israel wants the US to fight to the last American

one reason Israel remained silent even though it seems clear they had advanced knowledge of the 9-11 attack; and allowed them to proceed. Israelis Agents filming the attacks were arrested and later deported, more than 70 of them.

Fortunately, Bibi was ready to take the microphone minutes after the 9-11 attack and define the enemy for the American public, resulting in the deaths of thousands of American service men and $7 Trillion wasted in the shit hole middle east.

The Anglo Jewish Alliance continues to try to provoke a war between the US and Russia, Iran, and Syria.

Trump is right to get the US out of the shit hole as fast as possible, months not years.

Former CIA Steele claims that the Epstein Compromise Kiddie Sex tapes from the Lolita Express, the palm beach estate and probably six other Epstein properties are in Israel for Control-Blackmail purposes. The next time Bibi calls Trump, Trump should tell Bibi to fuck off. What happened on the 300ft yacht ?????

CFR and AIPAC and all Globalist and Foreign lobbyist organization must be registered as Foreign Agents, and forced to meet at the State Dept, and cut off from contact with the rest of the US govt.

JPMorgan Mon, 04/09/2018 - 08:12 Permalink

Israel is US by proxy.

DingleBarryObummer -> JPMorgan Mon, 04/09/2018 - 08:15 Permalink

+1

Perhaps if you flipped it around, it would be even more accurate.

RagnarRedux -> DingleBarryObummer Mon, 04/09/2018 - 08:34 Permalink

Correct.

Former CIA Intelligence Officer Michael Scheuer: Israel Owns US Congress

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_T1VrzdaKs

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Scheuer

Former CIA Operations Officer Valerie Plame: American Jews Are Starting Wars

http://www.newsweek.com/americans-jews-are-starting-wars-jewish-former-

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valerie_Plame

Former British Foreign Secretary & MP Jack Straw: Jewish Money Prevents Peace

https://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4445810,00.html

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jack_Straw

Lostinfortwalton Mon, 04/09/2018 - 10:04 Permalink

"a missile strike carried out overnight on a Syrian airfield was not the US's doing."

The Israelis only used US provided weapons from US provided aircraft.

BGO Mon, 04/09/2018 - 10:19 Permalink

The plan is for Israel to conduct however many cowardly missions it takes until their murderous ways are considered normalized behavior.

Someday in the not so distant future, israel hopes conversations such as "did you hear Israel told an incidious lie then killed a bunch of innocent people?" to which a typical brow beaten dufus responds "yes, but it had to be done," become as common place as banter about the weather.

Lizards. Lizards everywhere.

[Apr 09, 2018] Massive Propaganda Push Re. Syria Gas Attack by Glagaire

Apr 09, 2018 | www.investmentwatchblog.com

There is a thread currently trending about the most recent Syrian gas attack and I can't really tell if its populated by people with a serious deficiency in critical and analytical thought or whether its a deliberate attempt to control the narrative. However, after reading more comments than I ever want to repeat I have to assume this is a coordinated effort.

Looking at whats indisputably clear about the situation:

  1. There appears to have been a gas attack targeting civilians in Syria.
  2. If true, it constitutes a war crime.
  3. There has been no investigation and no evidence exists to assign responsibility.

There are a great many tangents this could take in terms of discussing who was responsible for past gas attacks in Syria, suffice to say there was a massive effort by Western governments to link them to the Syrian government and thus provide legitimation for greater direct intervention.

Given this there are a few extra points that are very clear:

  1. The Syrian Government was very clearly winning the military conflict by a wide-margin.
  2. Even the US is very clear in admitting the Syrian Government is not fighting against 'rebels' but against IS and Al Qaeda offshoots.
  3. These latter groups are equally open about their willingness to target civilians and have no qualms about slaughtering women and children. Whether the Syrian Government can be accused of similar crimes is a matter of debate, with the terrorist groups it is established fact.
  4. Despite this, the Syrian Government has repeatedly, and very recently, offered ceasefires that allowed these same terrorist fighters (and their families) to leave areas in which they were surrounded and almost certain to be overrun.
  5. The Syrian Government would have nothing at all to gain from using gas in the manner of the recent attack. It would generate no strategic military benefits, it would turn the civilian population against the government (bear in mind, the majority of the Syrian people, even the ones who dislike Assad, support the government as a far better alternative to power falling into the hands of the terrorist groups, most of whom came from outside Syria), and most importantly it might allow Western States to take military action that would be the only factor capable of changing the course of the conflict in a way that would benefit the terrorist groups.
  6. In contrast, the terrorist groups have every reason to carry out such attacks. Their ideology justifies any sacrifice as long as it furthers their cause and they have displayed a wanton disregard for any form of human life. They have long had access (through both Turkey and early seized Syrian Army stockpiles) to chemical weapons. And, they now have only months if not weeks left before their entire war in Syria grinds to a halt.

Despite the above, the thread originally linked is dominated by comments that do three specific things:

  1. Condemn Assad and the Syrian government for the attacks (with many suggesting it demands a strong military response).
  2. Calling out an imaginary Russian bot campaign they say is promoting pro-Assad propaganda DESPITE the fact that the thread is clearly overflowing with exactly the opposite type of voice.
  3. Denigrating (by means of Poisoning the Well, Ad Hominem and Appeals to Ridicule) a wide variety of alternative news sites and sources. For example, claiming that sites which have supported 9/11 Truth, or are in any way pro-Russia are automatically discredited and incapable of providing relevant information.

The reason I'm posting this is that the thread in question is one of the most glaring, and frankly depressing, examples I've seen of people taking a mainstream narrative and attempting to preemptively crush any and all dissenting views.

My one hope is that the majority of voices in that thread are deliberately manufacturing this attempt at framing the narrative. Because the alternative, that they represent the actual opinions of members of the voting public whose otherwise neutral viewpoints have been so easily swayed by propaganda of the most crude and blunt form, is unbelievably disheartening in regard to the viability of modern democracies and the ability of alternative news to help promote a better understanding of the complexities of modern war and the dangers involved in mainstream media efforts to reduce these issues to puppet-shows populated with morally black (Assad, Putin) and white ('rebel activists', the White Helmets) characters.

An interesting observation by Paul Joseph Watson. He may have something here. The coincidence appears to be a bit much.

1) Trump announces plan to pull out of Syria. 2) Deep state says no. 3) Massive chemical weapons attack bringing worldwide uproar, blamed on Russia/Syria despite them being on the verge of winning.

In 2017, MIT expert claimed the chemical weapons attack in Syria was staged. What are the odds its the same deal with this new one.

Alex Jones: All Evidence Points Towards False Flag In Syria. Chemical attack meant to keep US in Syria just as Trump announces withdrawal.

Timelines of 'Gas Attacks' in Syria Follow a Similar Scheme: An alleged new 'chemical incident' is similar to events we saw last year. We are told to believe that each time the U.S. pulls back from the war on Syria the Syrian government responds with a 'chemical attack' that pulls the U.S. back in.

When your enemy is nearly defeated, and final victory is at hand, gas your own people so that nations greater than yours will intervene and destroy you

[Apr 09, 2018] Tensions Rise in Syria as Israel Is Accused of Bombing Air Base

NYT continue to propagate this false flag day after Russian specialists inspected the area and found not signs of chemical attack.
Notable quotes:
"... Read comments and agree it seems to be staged to allow the US to be 'forced' to become involved. Ever the good guy, that US. ..."
"... There is no way that this Israeli attack was not coordinated with the Trump administration. ..."
"... Syria had the rebels cornered and had no reason to give US/anybody justification to attack. The Rebels had every reason to do this since their only hope is to get the US/NATO involved. ..."
Apr 09, 2018 | www.nytimes.com

Big power tensions in the Syria conflict, already running high after an apparent chemical weapons attack, ratcheted up again on Monday as Syria and Russia blamed Israel for early morning airstrikes on a Syrian military base that a conflict monitoring group said had killed 14 people, including fighters from Iran.

The strikes came a day after President Trump called President Bashar al-Assad of Syria an "animal" and warned him and his Russian and Iranian backers they would have a "big price to pay" after dozens of people were killed on Saturday near Damascus, in what rescue workers said was a chemical attack.

Russia did not respond immediately to the accusation, though a spokesman for President Vladimir V. Putin rejected Mr. Trump's inflammatory language. "Assad is the legitimate president of the Syrian Arab Republic," the spokesman, Dmitri S. Peskov, said. "It's hardly acceptable to apply that sort of abusive wording to a president."

American and French officials denied that their countries had carried out the airstrikes, and a spokesman for the Israeli military declined to comment.

The war in Syria has sucked in fighters from around the world, as well as global powers including Iran, Israel, Russia, Turkey and the United States, all of which are seeking to advance their interests in the Middle East while avoiding direct confrontations with the others.

[Apr 09, 2018] It remains unclear if US neocons staged Dauma provocation to prevent the US troops withdraval annonced by Trump

Apr 09, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

HopefulCynical -> Enoughalready Mon, 04/09/2018 - 07:56 Permalink

Someone didn't RTFA: " President Trump recently announced his intention to pull US troops out of Syria - although the neocons that now dominate the Trump national security team have been aghast at such a suggestion, and have managed to convince the president to slow-roll this. It remains unclear if they staged the false flag chemical attack in Syria with the help of Israel, or on their own. "

[Apr 09, 2018] Israel Launched Deadly Airstrike Against Syrian Airbase

Apr 09, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Despite President Trump adopting his harshest rhetoric yet to condemn Russia and the government of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad for an alleged chemical attack in rebel-held eastern Ghouta, a missile strike carried out overnight on a Syrian airfield was not the US's doing.

Instead, Russia and Syria have accused Israel of carrying out the strike on Syria's T-4 airfield, situated about halfway between Homs (Syria's third-largest city) and Palmyra (famously the site of ancient ruins). RT reports that two Israeli F-15 jets fired eight guided missiles at the airfield from Lebanese airspace. The jets never entered Syria.

Of these, Syrian air defenses intercepted five. The attack left roughly 14 people dead, including Iranians and Syrians, the Associated Press reported.

Russia and the Syrian military blamed Israel for a pre-dawn missile attack Monday on a major air base in central Syria , saying Israeli fighter jets launched the missiles from Lebanon's air space. A war-monitoring group said the airstrikes killed 14 people, including Iranians active in Syria.

Russia's Defense Ministry said two Israeli aircraft targeted the T4 air base in Homs province, firing eight missiles. It said Syria shot down five of them while the other three landed in the western part of the base. Syrian state TV quoted an unnamed military official as saying that Israeli F-15 warplanes fired several missiles at T4. It gave no further details.

Israel's foreign ministry had no comment when asked about the accusations.

Since 2012, Israel has struck inside Syria more than 100 times, mostly targeting suspected weapons' convoys destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah, which has been fighting alongside Syrian government forces.

Most recently, Israel hit the same T4 base in February, after it said an Iranian drone that had violated Israeli airspace took off from the base. The base, which was used as a launching pad for counter offensive attacks against Islamic State militants who were at one point stationed close by, is near the Shayrat air base, which was targeted by U.S. missiles last year in response to a chemical weapons attack.

Monday's missile attack came hours after President Donald Trump warned there would be a "big price to pay" after a suspected poison gas attack Saturday on the last remaining foothold for Syrian rebels in the eastern suburbs of Damascus. At least 40 people were killed in that assault, including families found in their homes and shelters, opposition activists and local rescuers said.

Eight missiles were launched by two Israeli Air Force F-15 jets at the T-4 airfield located about halfway between Homs and the ancient city of Palmyra. Israel previously launched a strike against the base back in February after an Iranian drone ventured into Israeli airspace, provoking an alarmed response.

This isn't Israel's first unprovoked attack on a Syrian military installation: most recently, Israel launched an attack against a government installation near Damascus almost exactly two months ago. Before that, the Israelis launched another unprovoked attack back in September.

Lebanon's Al-Mayadeen reported Monday that Israeli reconnaissance aircraft had been spotted close to the border with Syria during the attack. The missiles crossed Lebanese airspace over Keserwan and Bekaa before heading toward Syria.

France, which we had initially suspected might be behind the attack, along with Israel...
While the US was quick to pin the chemical attack in Ghouta - the last rebel stronghold in what's considered suburban Damascus - on Russia and Assad, the US jumped to a similar conclusion a year ago when Trump authorized a fusillade of tomahawk missiles to strike a Syrian airbase. It was later learned that the US had no proof to suggest that attack was orchestrated by Assad's government.

As for Israel's desire to provoke another regional war, it is understandable in light of growing Iranian influence on its border, while President Trump recently announced his intention to pull US troops out of Syria - although the neocons that now dominate the Trump national security team have been aghast at such a suggestion, and have managed to convince the president to slow-roll this. It remains unclear if they staged the false flag chemical attack in Syria with the help of Israel, or on their own.

Meanwhile, the Guardian says the IDF views the chaos in the West Wing as the latest sign that it must take matters into its own hands, and not wait for explicit US approval. However, with a UN Security Council meeting scheduled for Monday over recent events in Syria, we now wait to see what kind of response Russia and Assad will decide on, and how Moscow will respond to this provocation by Netanyahu, who has been friendly - at least superficially - with Putin in recent months.


topspinslicer -> J. Peasemold G Mon, 04/09/2018 - 07:30 Permalink

The jews will use madeline Albright reasoning of we had to kill the Syrian children to protect the Syrian children

EuroPox -> topspinslicer Mon, 04/09/2018 - 07:36 Permalink

The story is now getting widely confirmed. Looks like it was actually 4 jets not 2:

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-lebanese-military-confirm

2 for the attack and 2 to provide countermeasure support.

The Russian Defense Ministry has also said that medics in Douma received no patients with signs of chemical poisoning:
https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201804091063359321-douma-medics-pati

Slack Jack -> Manthong Mon, 04/09/2018 - 09:52 Permalink

This latest chemical attack in Syria is yet another FALSE FLAG.

Just like all the previous chemical attacks in Syria were FALSE FLAG attacks.

Just like the Skripal "chemical attack" in Britain was a FALSE FLAG attack.

Jim in MN -> nmewn Mon, 04/09/2018 - 09:20 Permalink

OK, let's take a moment to re-set the stage.

The natural regional powers are Iran, Turkey and Egypt. Just look at any population map and/or economic activity indicators.

Israel has only technology and 'influence' to create a temporary, brittle form of power. Saudis have only oil and 'influence', ditto.

Hence, by a short-term accident, Israel and KSA can effectively create death and destruction in the region, killing babies for their own greed and power.

BUT ONLY IF THE US HELPS. The IDF is essentially useless on the ground, ditto the Saudis, and neither can handle Russian intel and air superiority on their own.

So this populist insurrection is indeed a pivotal moment, coming as it does when the global balance is shifting toward Eurasian integration, global peace and prosperity. A 'Chinese Peace' with Russian muscle. The main idea being to not blow up shiny new Chinese ports, roads, etc.

So the tiny, tiny minority of war-mongering, globalist traitors in these very, very few countries (Israel, KSA, and the 'Five Eyes') has essentially NO other cards to play. Use WMDs against civilians, false flags, try to get their own killed to trigger war fever.

The very best part right now is: we're already past the tipping point. No one cares, and almost no one believes them.

Pretty much game over, but a very dangerous end game. I think we should round up all these sociopaths pronto before they murder more babies.

Faeriedust -> Jim in MN Mon, 04/09/2018 - 09:52 Permalink

Take it one step farther. The US public is on to the con. BUT the US economy still depends on the MIC. And the MIC depends on maintaining the constant state of little brush wars around the globe to sell their hardware. Every Israeli or KSA plane, missile, and bomb is stamped "Made in the USA". As China and Russia step in to impose peace in Eurasia and the Saudi oil runs out, the petrodollar ceases to be the world reserve currency. The US has two economic pillars: the MIC and Big Ag. With a failing currency and no customers for war toys, it becomes locked into the position of being a global commodity supplier: pork, wheat, corn, soybeans, peanuts. Historically, agricultural commodity suppliers are third-world nations, forced to accept low prices on highly-competitive products while paying high prices for monopolized industrial goods.

This is the END for global US dominance. One can understand why the PTB are desperate to keep going no matter what the resistance at home or abroad. A major war is likely. Victory is not.

optimator -> valjoux7750 Mon, 04/09/2018 - 09:08 Permalink

And if the Syrian Air Force launched missiles from Jordanian air space against an Israeli Air Base nothing would happen? By the way, the Golan Heights does not belong to Israel so they launched from Syrian territory. Whatever......hopefully no U.S. Ships are in the way.

ChaoKrungThep -> egerman Mon, 04/09/2018 - 08:50 Permalink

Five missiles out of eight shot down - by Syrian (old) defense systems. Not too bad. Russia is not there to stop Israel. It's there to stop Daesh, which it's done. Smart, patient, focused strategy.

strannick -> ChaoKrungThep Mon, 04/09/2018 - 08:56 Permalink

Putins patience is what keeps the peace. Like that Russian sub captain in the cuban missle crisis who wouldnt pull the trigger.

Pardon me thou bleeding piece of earth if i am meek and gentle with these butchers.

God bless and keep Vlad Putin. Pray for him.

[Apr 09, 2018] Syria conflict: Russia says no evidence of Douma chemical attack

Apr 09, 2018 | www.bbc.com

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said no evidence has been found of a chemical weapons attack in Syria's formerly rebel-held town of Douma.

He said Russian specialists and aid workers had visited the area. Rebel fighters have started leaving the town under a surrender deal.

Medical sources say dozens were killed in Saturday's alleged attack but numbers are impossible to verify.

The US and France threatened a "joint, strong response" to the alleged attack.

The United Nations Security Council is to discuss the allegations later on Monday.

The Russian denial came hours after a deadly attack on a Syrian military airport , which Moscow and the Syrian government blamed on Israel.

Missiles hit the Tiyas airbase, known as T4, near the city of Homs. Observers say 14 people were killed.

Israel, which has previously hit Syrian targets, has not commented. Syria initially blamed Washington for the strike, but the US, UK and France have all denied involvement.

It is unclear if the strike has anything to do with the suspected chemical attack.

[Apr 09, 2018] Russian Forces In Syria Are On Combat Alert As US Considers List Of Targets To Attack Government Forces - Reports

Apr 09, 2018 | southfront.org

Russian forces deployed in Syria, including S-400 and Pantsir-S1 air defense systems and Sukhoi Su-30SM multirole fighters, have been put on a combat alert, according to reports appearing from local sources in the country's provinces of Tartus and Latakia where Russian military facilities are located.

Meanwhile, the Israeli TV channel i24NEWS claimed citing US officials that the US military is going to provide President Donald Trump with "a set of options for carrying out strikes against the Syrian government".

"Both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and CENTCOM, the US forces in the Middle East, were compiling target lists and attack options to be presented to Trump and his national security team within hours, the officials said," i24NEWS wrote .

A few hours earlier, a group of Israeli top officials and public figures officially called on Trump to conduct missile strikes against Syrian government forces in response to the alleged chemical attack in Douma.

In turn, Trump forgot that no confirmation of condicting the attack by government forces had been provided and claimed that "Animal Assad" will pay a "big price". He also blamed "President Putin, Russia and Iran" for the incident.

Earlier, the Russian Foreign Ministry denounced the chemical attack reprots as "hoax" and warned that military actions against Syria could lead to the "gravest consequences."

The conflict Syria is on the brink of another large-scale escaltion.

[Apr 09, 2018] The VT site is really slow, but it works. The article looks explosive if true.

Apr 09, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

@22
The VT site is really slow, but it works. It looks explosive if true.

It links to this video in arabic which shows chemical weapons made in Germany and England (Salisbury!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=0&v=oEhUk73t8BA

Posted by: Norwegian | Apr 8, 2018 6:22:48 PM | 23


oldenyoung , Apr 8, 2018 6:25:08 PM | 24

and now there is this from South Front...

https://southfront.org/russian-forces-in-syria-are-on-combat-alert-as-us-considers-list-of-targets-to-attack-government-forces-reports/

hope this is just exaggerated...otherwise things are getting hardened fast...

PS...will try to paste some from VT...@22

oldenyoung , Apr 8, 2018 6:33:22 PM | 26
@22 text only...lots of good photos there...site is there for me. but it is very slow...


Last week, Russia and Syria announced the capture of British chemical weapon stockpiles in East Ghouta along with the capture of a "coalition" command and chemical weapons facility with all personnel. Taken from the combined statement censored from the western press, from March 25, 2018

"The Syrian Arab Army and with the help of Russian captured a shipment of chemical weapons destined for the Eastern Ghouta. These were British weapons produced at Porton Down in Salisbury. Russian suspects that the Skripal incident is related as by their records, Skiripal was working at Porton Down as a chemical weapons trafficker in partnership with a Ukrainian firm. Russia denies attacking Skripal but admits he was under surveillance for his activities involving support of terrorism in Syria and arms trafficking.

Russia also confirms that there are British, American, Israeli and Saudi intelligence officers who were caught by the Syrian army in one of the heavily fortified operations rooms during the invasion of the Syrian army and its allies of the East Ghouta."

VT asked the Syrian government for serial numbers and closeup photographs of chemical weapons used. Syria sent them to us today.

Today, the Syrian Army captured the following German made poison gas shells, shipped into Syria though Ukraine and Turkey and delivered to Jeish al Islam by a US CH53 helicopter, according to statements "allegedly" gotten from POW interrogations.

American, British and Israeli military personnel captured in Syria have confirmed they were ordered to stage chemical attacks in East Ghouta by their governments.

oldenyoung , Apr 8, 2018 6:35:39 PM | 27

[Apr 09, 2018] Israel shows clear interests in attacking Syria

Apr 09, 2018 | www.veteranstoday.com

[Apr 09, 2018] Proof Intel Drop, Trump, Bolton behind Syria chemical attacks, confirmed

This is probably fake news. There no real reason for foriegn chemical specialists to be present in such a dangerous area. Presntce of some chanical munitions is more probable, but again why would Great Britain intelligence services authorize such a shipment which is in direct violation of treates GB signed and chances of being caught are extremely high.
The article contains several pictures that were omitted...
Notable quotes:
"... How long US media and our own Congress can pretend they know nothing about who some of the major terrorist elements are that most are afraid to mention? Their house of cards is crumbling, and "they" will be more dangerous in that situation, as we are talking about some serious crimes here. ..."
"... "The Syrian Arab Army and with the help of Russian captured a shipment of chemical weapons destined for the Eastern Ghouta. These were British weapons produced at Porton Down in Salisbury. Russian suspects that the Skripal incident is related as by their records, Skiripal was working at Porton Down as a chemical weapons trafficker in partnership with a Ukrainian firm. Russia denies attacking Skripal but admits he was under surveillance for his activities involving support of terrorism in Syria and arms trafficking. ..."
"... Russia also confirms that there are British, American, Israeli and Saudi intelligence officers who were caught by the Syrian army in one of the heavily fortified operations rooms during the invasion of the Syrian army and its allies of the East Ghouta." ..."
Apr 09, 2018 | www.veteranstoday.com

Our pleading with Syria has been rewarded with these new photos. The SAA has US Coalition chemical weapons officers in custody; and Russia has told the US, Brits, Israelis, and Saudis that they will have to deal with Damascus.

How long US media and our own Congress can pretend they know nothing about who some of the major terrorist elements are that most are afraid to mention? Their house of cards is crumbling, and "they" will be more dangerous in that situation, as we are talking about some serious crimes here.

We are suspicious of why the Brits would throw together what appears to us to have been a sloppy false flag, even to use against Russia, for putting Russia's feet in the fire to get the Brits people back from Syria and keep this story out of major news distribution.

Is now the time for some of the really guilty to have to pay the piper? We shall see. But for that to happen, what is left of non-compromised public institutions has to step up to the plate, when they have shown a hesitancy to do so when their countries really needed them.

We hope they will get to see this and start asking the obvious questions Jim W. Dean ]

Today another chemical weapons stockpile was found in East Ghouta, produced in Germany, fully weaponized and commercially produced by Merck.

Merck was the primary producer of chemical weapons for Germany in World War I and George Merck founded the War Research Service along with Frank Olson in 1944, which using captured Germany and Japanese scientists and research facilities, took control of America's biological and chemical warfare production which continues to this day in facilities at Fort Meade, Maryland and at the Lugar Lab in Tibilisi, Georgia in partnership with the current government of Ukraine. Last week, Russia and Syria announced the capture of British chemical weapon stockpiles in East Ghouta along with the capture of a "coalition" command and chemical weapons facility with all personnel. Taken from the combined statement censored from the western press, from March 25, 2018

"The Syrian Arab Army and with the help of Russian captured a shipment of chemical weapons destined for the Eastern Ghouta. These were British weapons produced at Porton Down in Salisbury. Russian suspects that the Skripal incident is related as by their records, Skiripal was working at Porton Down as a chemical weapons trafficker in partnership with a Ukrainian firm. Russia denies attacking Skripal but admits he was under surveillance for his activities involving support of terrorism in Syria and arms trafficking.

Russia also confirms that there are British, American, Israeli and Saudi intelligence officers who were caught by the Syrian army in one of the heavily fortified operations rooms during the invasion of the Syrian army and its allies of the East Ghouta."

VT asked the Syrian government for serial numbers and closeup photographs of chemical weapons used. Syria sent them to us today.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/oEhUk73t8BA?feature=oembed

Today, the Syrian Army captured the following German made poison gas shells, shipped into Syria though Ukraine and Turkey and delivered to Jeish al Islam by a US CH53 helicopter, according to statements "allegedly" gotten from POW interrogations.

American, British and Israeli military personnel captured in Syria have confirmed they were ordered to stage chemical attacks in East Ghouta by their governments.

The Americans are still being held along with Israeli's while British prisoners are being negotiated for. Sources in Damascus told us that representatives of Oman in Damascus approached the Russian Office of Reconciliation on behalf of Britain for the return of British chemical warfare personnel.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/fWs29QSxAqs?feature=oembed

The shells in the above video are identified as VX gas from British stockpiles.

Russian officials in Syria informed Britain through Oman that they would have to directly deal with Syria for the return of their personnel. We have received no further information since, Damascus has remained silent on how or if negotiations were proceeding.

We do know that US Representative Tulsi Gabbard of Hawaii, a US Army combat veteran of Iraq, met with both President Assad and Donald Trump, in order to arrange for covert exchange, for substantial financial consideration, of captured Americans.

Initial introductions for this meeting were done by VT.

Israel bought back a Brigadier General (they claimed he was a colonel) in 2015 that we know about.

The recent gas attack in Syria, timed as the last terrorists were surrendering for relocation inside the Douma region of the Ghouta pocket, was planned personally by nominated presidential advisor John Bolton and President Donald Trump personally, according to highly placed sources.

Our sources in Russia, highest level, told us the attack was coming based on information they received from US and Israeli prisoners taken in East Ghouta after an evacuation attempt failed.

US casualty announcements in this effort have been released over the past few days as happening in other areas to cover US complicity in terrorism. This dishonors families of the dead, not just in the misuse of service members to support terrorism but in lying to families about combat deaths. This shame goes directly to coward Trump!

" The Marine Corps identified four Marines killed on Tuesday in a CH-53E Super Stallion helicopter crash near El Centro , Calif. The Marines were assigned to Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron (HMH) 465, Marine Aircraft Group 16, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing at Marine Corps Air Station Miramar.

"The loss of our Marines weighs heavy on our hearts," Maj. Gen. Mark Wise, commanding general of 3rd MAW, said in a statement.
"Our priority is to provide support for our families and HMH-465 during this critical time."

The four Marines killed in the crash were Capt. Samuel A. Schultz, First Lt. Samuel D. Phillips, Gunnery Sgt. Derik R. Holley and Lance Cpl. Taylor J. Conrad."

Other US casualties were listed as a US Air Force F16 that allegedly crashed at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and up to 6 Americans who the US claims were killed by "Kurdish forces" in the north of Syria.

All died in a failed combined US/Israel rescue operation to remove not only communications and command personnel but also chemical weapons operations teams as well.

Last week, VT Damascus received evidence that Americans, US Army Special Forces along with Israeli chemical weapons officers had been captured in East Ghouta. We were told that not only was a command facility captured with modern weapons but a stockpile of British made 81mm poison gas mortar shells, numbering in the hundreds, was seized as well.

Video's were viewed by former MOD weapons specialists who identified the green stripe on the shells seized in East Ghouta as VX gas from British stockpiles.

The Obama administration investigated alleged chemical attacks in 2012 and 2013 and advised Syria to turn over chemical stockpiles as a way of discouraging terrorists from continuing to stage chemical attacks to blame on Damascus.

Most efforts had their roots in Britain's MI6 and its affiliates, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the White Helmets.

The US is currently facing combined military operations against its occupied zone in Syria by Iraq, Syrian and Russian forces. The US has been told to remove forces from Syria or face a wider conflict.

The US and Russia have been at war against one another inside Syria for about a month now.

More coming

[Apr 09, 2018] Yes, and Trump is throwing shit and having a fit.

Notable quotes:
"... "It is regrettable to say that our Western partners had tried to disrupt today's session. In the beginning they offered to observe a minute of silence in memory of people killed in Khan Sheyhun, Idlib province, Syria. We proposed them to hold a moment of silence to remember all victims of chemical weapons, primarily in Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Iraq, and our partners somehow felt uncomfortable. [They] don't want to remember all victims of chemical weapons," said Shulgin." ..."
Apr 09, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: jawbone | Apr 8, 2018 2:16:44 PM | 8

Yes, and Trump is throwing shit and having a fit.

https://www.google.com/search?q=Trump+tweets&oq=Trump+Tweets&aqs=chrome.0.69i59j0l5.3987j1j7&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8

CNN on the tweeting:

https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/08/politics/donald-trump-syria-assad/index.html

FOX News:

http://fox5sandiego.com/2018/04/08/trump-tweets-big-price-after-reports-of-syrian-chemical-attack/

So nice of him to toss off t hreats on Orthodox Easter Sunday. What a guy.

Who's influencing him? Bolton? FOX? Pompeo? Where does Mattis stand?

Wonder who is actually influencing him.

****
Interesting article at RT about Jaysh al-Islam coming to an agreement with the Syrian government to leave Duma/Douma and go to Jarablus.
Published time: 8 Apr, 2018 13:56
Edited time: 8 Apr, 2018 15:05

The Islamist group is to leave Douma for the city of Jarablus within 48 hours, SANA reported, citing an official source. It said a deal to release all the prisoners has been reached. Damascus agreed to negotiate with one of the last major militant groups holding out in Douma in a bid to protect civilians and liberate abductees

The radical Islamist group, which has been accused of using civilians as human shields, earlier agreed to leave the enclave of Eastern Ghouta near the Syrian capital. Jaysh al-Islam will have to clear barricades and provide maps of minefields that they have laid in the area. The militants were set to begin withdrawing from the city of Douma on Sunday, the head of the Russian Defense Ministry's Syrian Reconciliation Center, Major General Yury Yevtushenko has said.

So...were the negotiations going on while supposedly Syrian was attacking with some sort of chem bombs?? Weird.

Also, the number of injured and dead has escalated very unbelievably. From about 15 to thoursands!!

somebody , Apr 8, 2018 3:01:17 PM | 9
8 the "chemical attack" was part of the negotiations. Trump is talking tough but Russia made a believable threat to hit back.

Posted by: Pat Bateman | Apr 8, 2018 1:08:29 PM | 2

Yes, there is a "strategy" to pretend Russia is a criminal worse than other countries. They even mentioned the word "weapons of mass destruction" again. It is a very real campaign in a run up to war.

This here from the opcw meeting

"It is regrettable to say that our Western partners had tried to disrupt today's session. In the beginning they offered to observe a minute of silence in memory of people killed in Khan Sheyhun, Idlib province, Syria. We proposed them to hold a moment of silence to remember all victims of chemical weapons, primarily in Vietnam, Cambodia, Iran, Iraq, and our partners somehow felt uncomfortable. [They] don't want to remember all victims of chemical weapons," said Shulgin."

It has become this transparent.

[Apr 09, 2018] The US media reports these attacks, based on information it gets from -- where? They give the names of organizations but don't reference any documents. Actually they are getting the information from a small US State Department office in Istanbul.

Apr 09, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Don Bacon , Apr 8, 2018 11:45:09 AM | 56

The US media reports these attacks, based on information it gets from -- where? They give the names of organizations but don't reference any documents. Actually they are getting the information from a small US State Department office in Istanbul. Details follow--

(CNN) -- Several Syrian activist groups Saturday reported that a brutal attack on the remnants of the rebel-held city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta left dozens of civilians dead and scores wounded. The groups -- including the White Helmets, the Douma Coordination Committee and the Ghouta Media Center -- said toxic gas inside barrel bombs dropped by helicopters over Douma caused people to suffocate and choke.

White Helmets activities have been well documented.
Douma Coordination Committee - they have used twitter and facebook in the past, but those media are not used currently.
Ghouta Media Center -- "opposition-affiliated"

wiki -- The Local Coordination Committees of Syria started in March 2011
LCCSyria is financed by donations from individual supporters.[7] This is further facilitated by the "Adopt a Revolution" initiative.[8] Furthermore, the Office for Syrian Opposition Support, which itself was founded by the United States Department of State and Foreign and Commonwealth Office[9] and is funded by the Friends of Syria Group, provides "material support" and "training assistance" to the LCCs

fom The Telegraph, Aug 26, 2012
Britain and US plan a Syrian revolution from an innocuous office block in Istanbul

An underground network of Syrian opposition activists is receiving training and supplies of vital equipment from a combined American and British effort to forge an effective alternative to the Damascus regime.
Dozens of dissidents have been ferried out of Syria to be vetted for foreign backing. Recipients of the aid are given satellite communications and computers so that they can act as a local "hub" linking local activists and the outside world.The training takes place in an Istanbul district where handsome apartment blocks line the steep slopes and rooftop terraces boast views over the Golden Horn waterway.Behind closed doors the distractions of outdoor coffee shops and clothing boutiques gives way to power point displays charting the mayhem sweeping Syria.

The schemes are overseen by the US State Department's Office of Syrian Opposition Support (OSOS) and Foreign Office officials. America has set aside $25 million for political opponents of President Bashar al-Assad while Britain is granting £5 million to the cause of overthrowing the regime.

Victoria Nuland, the State Department spokesman, confirmed the OSOS programme last week and said its full effect would only be seen when President Assad leaves office. "There are groups inside and outside Syria beginning to plan for that day-after and beginning to plan for how they might quickly stand up at least that first stage of transition so that we could move on when Assad goes, because he will go." . . . here

[Apr 09, 2018] Jaish al-Islam has agreed to leave Douma within the next 48 hours

Apr 09, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Grieved , Apr 8, 2018 11:24:57 AM | 52

Fort Russ is reporting that Jaish al-Islam has agreed to leave Douma within the next 48 hours, and will release their hostages as a condition of this BUT they don't cite a source for this news: BREAKING: Jaish al-Islam agree to leave Duma within 48 hours
psychohistorian , Apr 8, 2018 12:38:49 PM | 67
Here is a report about what is happening in Syria

DAMASCUS, April 8 (Xinhua) -- The Islam Army rebels will evacuate the Douma district east of Damascus and release the kidnapped people under a new deal reached Sunday with the Syrian government forces, state TV reported.

The priority of the new deal is the evacuation of the kidnapped people in the captivity of the Islam Army militants in Douma, the last rebel-held area in the Eastern Ghouta countryside of Damascus.

And the rebel group will evacuate Douma toward the rebel-held city of Jarablus in Aleppo province in northern Syria near the Turkish border.

Negotiations between the Islam Army militants and the Syrian government were renewed on Sunday about the situation in Douma after the militants asked to launch new negotiations with the government after they backed down on a previous deal that technically contained the same details in Douma.

The state TV said the Islam Army rebels, who have been in of Douma since 2012, have asked for negotiating with the Syrian government after two days of a wide-scale military offensive on Douma following the failure of the first agreement.

The Islam Army rebels backed down on the previous agreement with the Russians and the Syrian side for their evacuation from that district as well as rejecting to release thousands of kidnapped people.

The militants also launched mortar attacks on several residential areas inside Damascus.

A day earlier, the Syrian army stormed the frontlines of the Islam Army in Douma from farmlands east of that area amid a state of collapse and chaos among the militant group, according to state news agency SANA.

Douma was supposed to witness a similar destiny as other areas in the Eastern Ghouta, where 43,000 rebels and their families withdrew under a deal with the government toward rebel-held areas in northern Syria.

Three batches of the Islam Army and families withdrew from Douma recently, but as the fourth batch was preparing to leave, the agreement about Douma collapsed.

[Apr 09, 2018] What will be the next false flag?

Apr 09, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

n , Apr 8, 2018 11:11:18 AM | 49

The '666 government is urging a US military attack on Syria in response to the alleged chemical attack in Douma.

Since that would be likely to trigger a military conflict between the US and Russia, it also makes 666 involvement in the Salisbury story -- which has played a major role in the demonisation of Russia and the formation of an international anti-Russian coalition -- more likely.

"Construction Minister Yoav Galant, a former IDF major-general who is the security figure closest to Netanyahu, said 'Assad is the angel of death'". He seems to have got the Passover story seriously mixed up!

Surprise, surprise -- Israieli "opposition" leader Isaac Herzog also called for US military action against Syria.

"Zionist Union MK Nachman Shai demanded an emergency meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee to discuss the readiness of the Israieli Homefront for a Syrian chemical attack on Israiel." Will that be the next false flag?

[Apr 09, 2018] Evacuation of Syria's Douma back on track

Apr 09, 2018 | www.presstv.com

The first batch of prisoners released by terrorists in Syria's Douma has reached the capital city Damascus via the Wafedin humanitarian corridor.

The prisoners were released early on Monday as part of an evacuation deal reached between the Syrian government and Jaish al-Islam terrorists.

According to the so-called Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which is based in UK, the militant group has more than 3,500 prisoners and hostages in its prisons in Douma

The evacuations continue with scores of buses waiting to transport the terrorists and their families out of the besieged city.

In accordance with the deal reached earlier, the militants are permitted to leave along with their families in return for the release of all prisoners they have been keeping.

Earlier in the day, Russia's military said an operation would begin on Sunday to bring Jaish al-Islam militants out of their besieged enclave of Douma, located about 10 kilometers northeast of the center of Damascus.

The agreement came after two days of an intense military showdown in Douma, where Jaish al-Islam militants reneged on a previous agreement for their evacuation from the area, and refused to release thousands of kidnapped people.

Read More:

The militants also launched mortar attacks on several residential neighborhoods inside Damascus, which left several people killed and injured.

Eastern Ghouta, a besieged area on the outskirts of Damascus which is home to some 400,000 people, has witnessed deadly violence over the past few months, with foreign-sponsored militants launching mortar attacks on the Syrian capital in the face of an imminent humiliating defeat.

[Apr 08, 2018] Syria - Timelines Of Gas Attacks Follow A Similar Scheme

From comments: "I was quite surprised the rebels actually went ahead with the so-called gas attack. They didn't, US-France-UK-(Turkey) did. The rebels are the ones with guns and ammo, the alliance are the ones with actors and cameras. "
Notable quotes:
"... If Trump possesses one talent it must surely be the ability to spot a Con Artist pulling a fast one. If he can't connect the same dots that b has just done then Trump has to be an idiot, and I don't for a second believe that he is an idiot. ..."
"... Just one thing that I should point out: the Syrian Observatory is NOT claiming that there has been a chemical weapons attack on Douma. ..."
"... But the claim that those suffocations were the result of chlorine attack is being made by the white helmets, not (at least so far) by the SOHR. ..."
"... The best time for Putin to respond to a Western provocation isn't now, it's when he effectively has hundreds of thousands of Western hostages in his country - June/July. ..."
"... For White Helmets read Britain. They are British created, funded and operated. May's Government has to be deep in this as well. ..."
"... Never forget that May, Cameron and other conservative MPs crossed the floor of parliament and voted for Blair and the illegal attack on Iraq when Labour MPs refused to support him. ..."
"... I hope that this "news" will just fade away. Sad fact is that whatever Russians say or do it doesn't really matter anymore. A narrative and a rhetoric coming from the US is now at the so low level that any diplomatic language or a talk is rendered obsolete. ..."
"... I also think that is is not up to Trump, but more off to a military and the dark powers around Trump, that he doesn't really understand, to decide what is happing next. If anything. ..."
"... The hostage here is the world cup itself, just as the 2014 Olympics were. And in retrospect it was probably a mistake for Russia to host them, but then who could have predicted all this back in 2007 or 8? ..."
"... At any rate, Russia should resist provocations games or not. Retaliation, if any, should be covert and deniable. Unless the west is dumb enough to openly attack Russian forces. Then a hammer blow to the face is appropriate. ..."
"... If there was such a FF 'gas attack' as we have just seen in Syria while the World Cup was on and the US/UK response (as we've heard previously from Russian/Syrian sources) was to initiate strikes against Syrian Government installations, and then Russia has promised to respond if any of their personnel were killed in these strikes the Russians reserve the right (as they have repeatedly started) to strike back against any US/UK targets responsible for the strikes - ie - shooting US/UK planes out of the sky or sinking US/UK warships, destroyers or carriers in the Eastern Mediterranean. ..."
"... If that level of escalation were to occur (and take note I'm not saying it will because I don't believe Putin will take this bait), but if it were, where could the escalation lead on the part of the US/UK?? ..."
"... These areas are intensely scrutinized by the Russians and the SAA, drones, satellite. It would be good to get some footage of the White Helmets staging this, but of course they are embedded with all the rest of the fighting men elsewhere and are never anywhere near where all the children tend to be targeted. ..."
"... I am confident that JAYSH was not going to negotiate, until after they had finished the "job" for their paymasters...once that was completed, they are ready to negotiate again... ..."
"... But The Donald is saying that there are women and children amongst those affected by the supposed attack, but other sites are reporting on the astonishing fact that there are only children in the broadcast footage.. what amount to a staged play like that of Goutha years ago... ..."
"... July 16, 2017. Newswire. CIA Director Admits Fooling Trump Over Syrian Chemical Weapons Story ( ) The false flag attack, which actually originated from CIA rebel groups in the region, resulted in Trump launching Tomahawk missiles into Syria, killing 15 civilians. Posted because of some interest despite misleading title and dubious source. http://yournewswire.com/cia-trump-syria-chemical-weapons/ ..."
"... I am afraid. Have not been this afraid since election night when Hillary was almost elected. The world lucked out and survived to live another day. Has our luck run out? ..."
"... Sigh, here we go again, just like Skripal case, west acts with propaganda and psyops without any evidence. The stupid TRUMP will of course bomb Syria again along with the disgusting Macron cheered by EU and western media. ..."
"... In the US when a murder occurs and a suspect apprehended there is a trial that can take weeks or months, and the prosecution and the defense present their expert Witnesses. Then at the end of all that a jury usually decides where the person is guilty or not. On the other hand, when a crime is alleged in another country far far away from the US, such as an alleged gas attack in Syria, within days we know exactly who is responsible and on that basis are willing to commit arms, troops and spend billions of dollars to kill people in large quantities and destroy a country. One would think that given the stakes involved a little bit more care might be taken. ..."
"... "Gas" scares the bejesus out of rubes. Makes Great Drama. Triggers, then reinforces historical themes. "The fiend! He gassed his own people!" "Gas Chambers" (Cant' go there!). If there's gas, well, by golly there's got to be a ham-handed, asymmetrical "response" (motherfocker of all bombs!) from the "International Community". ..."
"... BTW, kudos to those who pegged the Skripal incident as prelude to some sort of chemical incident in Syria. It couldn't have been scripted better for a TV program. Oh, wait... ..."
"... The point is that the Russians have been preparing for just such an event for months. Was it not two months ago that the Russians put troops into Damascus to prevent a decapitating strike? A US strike would be a sort of Kursk Offensive, attacking into a well-prepared defence. ..."
Apr 08, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

March 30 2017: U.S. priority on Syria no longer focused on 'getting Assad out': Haley

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The United States' diplomatic policy on Syria for now is no longer focused on making the war-torn country's president, Bashar al-Assad, leave power, the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said on Thursday, in a departure from the Obama administration's initial and public stance on Assad's fate.

April 4 2017: Suspected gas attack in Syria reportedly kills dozens

World leaders expressed shock and outrage Tuesday at reports of a suspected chemical attack in northwestern Syria that killed scores of civilians, with one UK official suggesting the incident amounted to a war crime.

April 7 2017: Trump launches attack on Syria with 59 Tomahawk missiles

The U.S. military attacked a Syria-government airfield with 59 Tomahawk missiles on Thursday evening.

April 10 2017: US envoy Nikki Haley says Syria regime change is inevitable

The US ambassador to the United Nations, Nikki Haley, has told CNN that removing Syrian President Bashar al-Assad from power is a priority, cementing an extraordinary U-turn in the Trump administration's stance on the embattled leader.

The Khan Sheikhun incident had been faked. An international investigation found that half of the alleged casualties arrived in hospitals before the incident was said to have happened. Nothing followed after Haley's last announcement. The administration was apparently not willing to go beyond the one-off strike. The flip-flop was attributed to confusion or infighting within the Trump administration.


Qualtrough , Apr 8, 2018 6:48:54 AM | 1

There apparently is no limit to the number of lies that Americans will believe, as long as they are told to them by their government.
cdvision , Apr 8, 2018 6:53:42 AM | 2
I have the feeling that Russia is loosing patience, and if the US try something it will be big trouble. The speed with which Ghouta was taken caused problems for the West. I hope Russia will clean up Syria quickly; I think we are approaching a decisive moment.
DENNIS RHODES , Apr 8, 2018 7:24:43 AM | 3
All of these world leaders walk in lockstep together following the script handed to them. I would leave Damascus in a hurry if I was living there. The Zionists want to fulfil Isaiah 17.
bolasete , Apr 8, 2018 7:35:07 AM | 4
now we know why the skripals happened. the west is now, today, intent on russia's destruction. putin 'dies' or the west dies. not since the 1950's era of hiding under desks in elementary school have i felt as though i am living in the 'end times.'
Yeah, Right , Apr 8, 2018 7:45:54 AM | 5
If Trump possesses one talent it must surely be the ability to spot a Con Artist pulling a fast one. If he can't connect the same dots that b has just done then Trump has to be an idiot, and I don't for a second believe that he is an idiot.

Surely this is a golden opportunity for Trump to go off-script and shaft those who are trying to con him.

All it would take is one twitter post from him stating that only an dimwit would fall for such an obvious trap, and he will turn the tables on anyone who shouts that The USA Must Do Something About This!!!!!

Trump's retort would be devastating: there ya' go, Dimwit Number One.

Yeah, Right , Apr 8, 2018 8:12:22 AM | 6
Just one thing that I should point out: the Syrian Observatory is NOT claiming that there has been a chemical weapons attack on Douma.

It is claiming that there have been excessive civilian deaths, sure, including a large number who have suffocated in their shelters.

But the claim that those suffocations were the result of chlorine attack is being made by the white helmets, not (at least so far) by the SOHR.

Julian , Apr 8, 2018 8:24:27 AM | 7
World Cup starts on June 14. Do you really think Putin/Russia will do anything to jeopardize the hosting of that event this close to the finish line?

I really doubt it.

Who in Russia would be held responsible if a conflict started and the World Cup in Russia was cancelled??

Which Russian politician would be blamed by the people???

Putin will do nothing and will not be provoked. Do you know the best time to respond? It is actually during the World Cup when hundreds of thousands of EU and foreign nationals will be in Russia - effectively hostages that prevent the West taking over action against Russia - yep, it's that simple.

The best time for Putin to respond to a Western provocation isn't now, it's when he effectively has hundreds of thousands of Western hostages in his country - June/July.

Emily , Apr 8, 2018 8:28:21 AM | 8
Yeah/7: For White Helmets read Britain. They are British created, funded and operated. May's Government has to be deep in this as well.

Never forget that May, Cameron and other conservative MPs crossed the floor of parliament and voted for Blair and the illegal attack on Iraq when Labour MPs refused to support him.

Without Theresa May and David Cameron, Blair wouldn't have had the authority to attack.
The Iraqi blood is on her hands.
And Libyan blood.
And Syrian blood.
And now Salisbury and this.

The woman is a dangerous psychopath.

laserlurk , Apr 8, 2018 8:29:40 AM | 9
I hope that this "news" will just fade away. Sad fact is that whatever Russians say or do it doesn't really matter anymore. A narrative and a rhetoric coming from the US is now at the so low level that any diplomatic language or a talk is rendered obsolete.

UK will trumpet this as there is no tomorrow while Skripal case is, in their eyes, hopefully blurring away. Or so they might think.

I also think that is is not up to Trump, but more off to a military and the dark powers around Trump, that he doesn't really understand, to decide what is happing next. If anything.

lysander , Apr 8, 2018 8:49:04 AM | 10
@8, that is impossible. There is no way Russia will harm any of the soccer fans or stop them from leaving if they choose to leave.

The hostage here is the world cup itself, just as the 2014 Olympics were. And in retrospect it was probably a mistake for Russia to host them, but then who could have predicted all this back in 2007 or 8?

At any rate, Russia should resist provocations games or not. Retaliation, if any, should be covert and deniable. Unless the west is dumb enough to openly attack Russian forces. Then a hammer blow to the face is appropriate.

Julian , Apr 8, 2018 9:00:56 AM | 12
Re: Posted by: lysander | Apr 8, 2018 8:49:04 AM | 11

With due respect I think you misunderstand what I'm saying about 'hostages'.

If there was such a FF 'gas attack' as we have just seen in Syria while the World Cup was on and the US/UK response (as we've heard previously from Russian/Syrian sources) was to initiate strikes against Syrian Government installations, and then Russia has promised to respond if any of their personnel were killed in these strikes the Russians reserve the right (as they have repeatedly started) to strike back against any US/UK targets responsible for the strikes - ie - shooting US/UK planes out of the sky or sinking US/UK warships, destroyers or carriers in the Eastern Mediterranean.

If that level of escalation were to occur (and take note I'm not saying it will because I don't believe Putin will take this bait), but if it were, where could the escalation lead on the part of the US/UK??

Could it lead to Western military strikes of some sort or another?

Could it do that next week? Maybe.

Could it do that while Russia is hosting the World Cup worth hundreds of thousands of Western nationals in Russia? Of course not. The Western route of escalation is therefore blunted while the World Cup is being hosted while there is no such barrier on Russian response to Western provocation while the World Cup is being hosted.

Ie - if Russia did respond to US/UK strikes against Syria whilst the World Cup was being hosted by sinking a couple of US destroyers, what would happen then?

Perimtr , Apr 8, 2018 9:27:18 AM | 13
Given the level of Western insanity and the frequency of the outrages being perpetrated, I don't think we will have to wait several months to see all hell break loose.
b , Apr 8, 2018 9:38:31 AM | 14
Interfax
04/08 15:30 Russian Foreign Ministry warning: Military intervention in Syria under fabricated pretexts can have gravest consequences
Curtis , Apr 8, 2018 9:41:31 AM | 15
WaPo and NYT led the way on this story at news.google. WaPo said that Washington based non-profit Syrian-American Medical Society (SAMS) issued a joint statement with "opposition-linked Civil Defense" (the usual suspects - The White Helmets). There are lots of details on the attacks and damage at Douma but only a tiny mention that Jaish al-Islam launched rockets into densely populated Damascus. Why are there no reports of death and damage in those areas? And where did SAMS come from?
alaff , Apr 8, 2018 9:45:39 AM | 16
Worth to check out - East Ghouta, Syria. Report of Chinese analysts examined by Russian leading Middle East expert (UK/US military advisers in Syria, "Skripal case" hysteria etc.)

https://vimeo.com/263728681

Curtis , Apr 8, 2018 9:47:37 AM | 17
bolasete 4 re: end times
(though I hate to quote from Marvel/DC movie-verse) ...
Batman: We tend to act like the Doomsday Clock has a snooze button.
che , Apr 8, 2018 9:57:26 AM | 18
This is Trump's big chance to redeem himself with the U.S. military ( after "mindlessly" declaring his wish to leave Syria and the entire area ) and get down on his knees and suck Pentagon cock. He will obligingly do this ( as his girlfriends and wife do for him ) and "allow " ( as if he has a choice ) the U.S. war machine, to which he has conceded all civilian control, to respond to the obviously faked and staged false flag chemical attack, in any way they see fit. Russia has already announced that if their troops in Syria are attacked they will respond by Removing the source of that attack, i.e., sinking the ship that launched the missiles. So the U.S. military has lit the fuse and as has worried all of us for a very long time : God only knows where this is headed.
Gravatomic , Apr 8, 2018 9:57:51 AM | 19
These areas are intensely scrutinized by the Russians and the SAA, drones, satellite. It would be good to get some footage of the White Helmets staging this, but of course they are embedded with all the rest of the fighting men elsewhere and are never anywhere near where all the children tend to be targeted.

It's anybody's guess with Trump, remember he said he liked the element of surprise, well, it's hard to spring a surprise when the MSM, in Europe particularly, is literally screaming for a military response with top page headlines.

It was interesting last night watching various outlets over there and how from a seedling article, a little sidebar headline no pics, then came a weed of propaganda, they began every 3-4 hours nudging it to the top and the accusations got wilder and and wilder, ie calling it a 'nerve agent'...

morongobill , Apr 8, 2018 9:58:35 AM | 20
I think the fog is clearing on Trump's thoughts on the matter with his fierce tweet storm mentioning "Animal Assad."

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-08/trump-threatens-assad-putin-over-syrian-chemical-attack-russia-warns-gravest

This is starting to get serious.

Commenting is now turned back on at SST, look forward to b and others commenting there again. I think the whole idea there was to be like the Louis Rukeyser show in the old days, genteel host and guests, just an opinion, didn't work out.

oldenyoung , Apr 8, 2018 10:07:22 AM | 22
I am confident that JAYSH was not going to negotiate, until after they had finished the "job" for their paymasters...once that was completed, they are ready to negotiate again...

I would recommend not negotiating with Jaysh until the hostages have been released...I think their attitude will change quickly now that they are surrounded and no escape/rescue is possible...i wonder how many state agents are stuck inside douma? going to be very embarassing...and it sounds like SAA has a few in custody already...

regards

OY

somebody , Apr 8, 2018 10:09:04 AM | 23
Posted by: b | Apr 8, 2018 9:38:31 AM | 14

Yep, that is how WWIII starts, if they continue like this.

Sasha S , Apr 8, 2018 10:09:06 AM | 24
"I think the fog is clearing on Trump's thoughts on the matter with his fierce tweet storm mentioning "Animal Assad.""

But The Donald is saying that there are women and children amongst those affected by the supposed attack, but other sites are reporting on the astonishing fact that there are only children in the broadcast footage.. what amount to a staged play like that of Goutha years ago...

lysander , Apr 8, 2018 10:23:37 AM | 25
@ Julian, 12.

I think I understand your post better now, thanks for the clarification. I'm not sure that it makes a difference where the tourists are if I understand your 2nd comment correctly. If envision an escalation to full on war, then it really doesn't matter if the soccer fans are at home getting disintegrated by Russian nukes or in Russia getting disintegrated by American nukes.

So might as well wait until the finals.

Noirette , Apr 8, 2018 10:25:31 AM | 26
July 16, 2017. Newswire. CIA Director Admits Fooling Trump Over Syrian Chemical Weapons Story ( ) The false flag attack, which actually originated from CIA rebel groups in the region, resulted in Trump launching Tomahawk missiles into Syria, killing 15 civilians. Posted because of some interest despite misleading title and dubious source. http://yournewswire.com/cia-trump-syria-chemical-weapons/
dh , Apr 8, 2018 10:26:22 AM | 27
@19 Traffic down most likely. Hard to see the colonel retiring gracefully. Let's see how long he lasts this time....he makes a great target.
Don Bacon , Apr 8, 2018 10:31:06 AM | 28
Let's look on the bright side.

SecDef Mattis is a key player in this drama. Mattis didn't buy the fake attack a year ago which no doubt contributed to the flashy but ineffective US response. Putting the blame for this latest fake attack on Russia and Iran (a difference this time) suggests an asymmetric non-military response, one designed to grab headlines and then be forgotten. Trump has sanctioned Russia three times in the past month and bragged about it, so Putin is now his go-to enemy when fake news arises. That Trump strategy (or lack of it) strengthens Russia domestically and internationally, especially with China, so it works for Putin.

Carrie , Apr 8, 2018 10:35:37 AM | 29
Excellent reporting – as always – from Vanessa Beeley on the ground. Several posts from
Vanessa Beeley in Ghouta and Damascus
Breadonwaters , Apr 8, 2018 10:36:44 AM | 30
Perhaps the British false flag poisoning may have a dampening effect on world reaction to this false flag. There are many governments with egg on their face after rushing to throw out the russ diplomats.
psychohistorian , Apr 8, 2018 10:38:16 AM | 31
Thanks for the reporting b. It is looking like positions are hardening on both sides. Lets hope the bully side loses.
fast freddy , Apr 8, 2018 10:42:14 AM | 32
RE: World cup and potential hot war

Affluent Anglo Soccer guests in Russia would be need be detained for their own safety - a kind of twist on R2P. Very embarrassing for elite US, UK, EU jet-setting soccer fans to be detained for an indeterminate period. But for their own safety! Here, enjoy your borscht and caviar.

Don Bacon , Apr 8, 2018 10:42:40 AM | 33
re: SST
"17 million page views for SST and gone -- I am leaving you. Guest authors, commenters and the various troll nations may continue if you wish. I may start another blog under "Pat Lang's Blog" but there will not be comments. pl" -- Jun 8, 2017
Ghost Ship , Apr 8, 2018 10:47:01 AM | 34
The SAA launching a chemical attack on Douma makes no sense. The intention with chemical weapons was to deny areas of land to opposing forces. Now that most modern armies are supplied with effective protection against chemical weapons for individuals and vehicles, area denial no longer works except to the extent that wearing chemical protection suits hinders movement but this applies to both sides so nobody benefits and nobody loses.
librul , Apr 8, 2018 10:49:09 AM | 35
I am afraid. Have not been this afraid since election night when Hillary was almost elected. The world lucked out and survived to live another day. Has our luck run out?
Anon , Apr 8, 2018 10:50:55 AM | 36
Sigh, here we go again, just like Skripal case, west acts with propaganda and psyops without any evidence. The stupid TRUMP will of course bomb Syria again along with the disgusting Macron cheered by EU and western media.
fast freddy , Apr 8, 2018 10:55:05 AM | 37
che 18

That is the most plausible scenario. The "intensity" of the US "response" to the False Flag gas (always gas!) attack. remains to be seen. Pummeling airstrips are generally good stagecraft/showmanship and little else. Airstrips are quickly repaired and back up to speed in short order.

M , Apr 8, 2018 10:55:42 AM | 38
May be coincidental (not) but John Bolton takes his seat as the National Security Advisor tomorrow. I wonder if Ramjet will take his proton pill?
b , Apr 8, 2018 10:56:53 AM | 39
No gas attack says SOHR: Syrian Gov't: Rebels to Give Up Last Ghouta Suburb
Beirut (AP) -- An alleged gas attack killed at least 40 people in the eastern suburbs of Damascus, as Syrian rebels agreed to give up their last foothold in the area, medics and state media reported on Sunday.

...

Meanwhile, state news agency SANA said the Army of Islam group agreed to leave Douma on Sunday, after three days of intensive government shelling and bombardment.

...
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said at least 80 people were killed in Douma on Saturday, including around 40 who died from suffocation. But it said the suffocations were the result of shelters collapsing on people inside them.

"Until this minute, no one has been able to find out the kind of agent that was used," said Mahmoud, the White Helmets' spokesman, in a video statement from Syria.

Anon , Apr 8, 2018 10:59:08 AM | 40
Remember this bullshit is a friggin reprise of what happened on 1 year ago!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2017_Shayrat_missile_strike

"The 2017 Shayrat missile strike took place on the morning of 7 April 2017,[1][4] ..the strike was executed under responsibility of U.S. President Donald Trump, as a direct response to the Khan Shaykhun chemical attack that occurred on 4 Apri"

Give Syria S-400 damnit!

sermon , Apr 8, 2018 10:59:10 AM | 41
miss match in timings damn it. The syria event production should have happened same day as bell pottinger salsbury thus creating another libya quick all in nato depleted uranium party. with movie play and tv show timing and script and emotion are critical for engagement.
emotion is the gelling agent for consent that is why so many tv and radio news pundit are actor not journalist
Qualtrough , Apr 8, 2018 11:00:00 AM | 42
In the US when a murder occurs and a suspect apprehended there is a trial that can take weeks or months, and the prosecution and the defense present their expert Witnesses. Then at the end of all that a jury usually decides where the person is guilty or not. On the other hand, when a crime is alleged in another country far far away from the US, such as an alleged gas attack in Syria, within days we know exactly who is responsible and on that basis are willing to commit arms, troops and spend billions of dollars to kill people in large quantities and destroy a country. One would think that given the stakes involved a little bit more care might be taken.
fast freddy , Apr 8, 2018 11:02:01 AM | 43
"Gas" scares the bejesus out of rubes. Makes Great Drama. Triggers, then reinforces historical themes. "The fiend! He gassed his own people!" "Gas Chambers" (Cant' go there!). If there's gas, well, by golly there's got to be a ham-handed, asymmetrical "response" (motherfocker of all bombs!) from the "International Community".
Red Ryder , Apr 8, 2018 11:06:44 AM | 44
Happy Easter to all our Orthodox Christian friends around the globe. The message is 'never lose hope or live in fear'. Christ leads in this eternal battle against evil and Satan's minions. This war has brought all civilizations of the land together. The dying civilization of the ocean will wreck havoc until it expires. There are many paths to that ruin.

Confronting the Son of God is assuredly one of them. Naturally, the devils have chosen Orthodox Easter to launch this latest perfidy against Russia.

Rob , Apr 8, 2018 11:06:52 AM | 45
@morongobill #19. There is often a stark difference between what Trump says or tweets and what he actually does. Often he is speaking and acting for the benefit of various target audiences, sometimes on opposite sides, simultaneously. However, his bellicose response to the alleged chemical attacks in Syria is cause for worry. Trump is a bully, and he would not wish to appear weak by backing down from explicitly threatening rhetoric. Besides, he doesn't give a damn about killing Syrians or anyone else.

BTW, kudos to those who pegged the Skripal incident as prelude to some sort of chemical incident in Syria. It couldn't have been scripted better for a TV program. Oh, wait...

Anon , Apr 8, 2018 11:10:21 AM | 46
Trump is so stupid its amazing, I have given up on this moron, not only does he threaten Russia and Syria but he threats to bomb again!

President Trump: Will Meet Putin Soon "To Discuss The Arms Race, Which Is Getting Out Of Control"
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2018/03/20/president_trump_will_meet_putin_soon_to_discuss_the_arms_race_which_is_getting_out_of_control.html

Trump 'ideally' wants US troops out of Syria within 6 months
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2018/04/05/trump-ideally-wants-us-troops-out-syria-within-6-months.html

fast freddy , Apr 8, 2018 11:10:27 AM | 47
Brilliant Wordsmithery: Covfefe Normal Genius Trump discovers alliteration with "Animal Assad". That's Dr. Animal Assad.
Mina , Apr 8, 2018 11:11:08 AM | 48
Just a couple of days ago, the Syrian observatory was acknowledging the hostages problem: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/295020.aspx

And 2 days ago bbc arabic was running a headline all day about Russian mercenaries flow to Syria on regular commercial flights. There s a whole world out there in the propaganda addressed to Arab viewers. No time to check if alarabiyya and Aljazeera are now broadcasting the vids from duma 24/7 as they used to do

WorldBLee , Apr 8, 2018 11:24:21 AM | 51
Trump is a like a wind-up doll in that he can be easily led astray due to his complete lack of knowledge of foreign and military affairs. Just tell him children have been "gassed" and he gets angry and wants to strike back. The super hawks can thus wind up him whenever they really need to him to do something stupid. (I mean, other than the normal stupid things he does all the time on his own.)
psychohistorian , Apr 8, 2018 11:30:07 AM | 53
What will empire do now?

I don't see it as an Israel issue but a "who controls the tools of human exchange" issue that may be about to evolve.....or not

Certainly the entitlement of some folks will be affected by making finance a global public utility but I think that is a good thing....

Think of the potential of our species if we can evolve beyond the "social contract" we operate under currently....I am excited about the potential and measured about the chances of it all happening.

n , Apr 8, 2018 11:30:39 AM | 54
we need to come together as a world community forget about yesterdays semite children of palastine slaughter and deal with animal assad and the more important children of ghouta

Israeli officials: U.S. must strike in Syria
"Assad is the angel of death, and the world would be better without him."

The United States must attack the regime of Bashar Assad in Syria in response to the regime chemical gas strike on the Syrian town Douma that killed more than 70 people, Strategic Affairs and Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan said Sunday.

Speaking on Army Radio, Erdan, who is Netanyahu's number two in Likud, said he hoped US military action against the Assad regime would be taken again, as it was when the regime used chemical weapons against its people in the past.

http://www.jpost.com/Middle-East/Israeli-officals-US-must-strike-in-Syria-549144

Grieved , Apr 8, 2018 11:42:43 AM | 55
@24 Noirette - thanks for that link to the story of how Pompeo gamed Trump into the missile launch (not to call it a "strike") against Syria last year. I must keep that one for reference.

Good that Trump got those tweets off his chest. We can rest easier now. I wonder if he ever will understand how he's being played by the people around him? His sentimentality seems to be a weakness they can easily leverage.

Nothing will happen, of course. As lysander suggests, Russia probably will inflict some covert pain on US interests, while as b reports the FM has already warned of consequences if the US should be stupid enough to do something overt. I really like lysander's image of the hammer blow to the face as Russian retaliation.

Friends, we are seeing the last days of false flags and the last days of the world caring about western propaganda. How many Russian diplomats are left for vassal nations to expel? How many times can the UK government disgrace itself, or Trump have a meltdown on Twitter - and nothing serious ever happens? How many times do we need to see a fleet turn back from Korea - even assuming it could find its way there in the first place - or US missiles fail to strike their targets, whether in Syria or Yemen?

The greater the bluster, the more crystalline the result of no-result appears to the cooler heads of the world. Which shows that even when the dog doesn't bark in the night, still the caravan moves on.

Don Bacon , Apr 8, 2018 11:52:39 AM | 57
@Noirette 24
Help me out here -- how did Pompeo admit fooling Trump?
Hoarsewhisperer , Apr 8, 2018 11:56:27 AM | 58
Posted by: et Al | Apr 8, 2018 8:55:04 AM | 11
(..inundated by a chorus...I yield. pl)

Commendably quick, forthright and unequivocal.
One imagines it wasn't easy.

Don Bacon , Apr 8, 2018 12:08:02 PM | 59
It's the comedy hour in Washington.

from The Hill

Rep. Ted Lieu (D-Calif.) tore into President Trump after he put blame on former President Obama following reports of a chemical attack in Syria.
"Dear @realDonaldTrump: Remember when you launched cruise missiles at a largely empty field in Syria? That unconstitutional act didn't do very much," Lieu tweeted.

"Remember when you said last week that US is leaving Syria in six months? So what is your plan? You're the President now. Remember?"

Trump took to Twitter Sunday to condemn the attacks and rail against Obama. "If President Obama had crossed his stated Red Line In The Sand, the Syrian disaster would have ended long ago! Animal Assad would have been history!" Trump tweeted, referring to Syrian President Bashar Assad. . . here

dh , Apr 8, 2018 12:15:59 PM | 60
@49 "Just tell him children have been "gassed" and he gets angry and wants to strike back."

He does have a couple of options...neither very appealing. He can ignore the 'gas attack' and be called callous and uncaring. He can hold off and ask for more evidence and get told he's soft on Putin/Assad.

Alain , Apr 8, 2018 12:16:43 PM | 61
Imho i find the us statement pretty "soft". "verification" is better than "russia/assad did it". i don't think the us is going to "strike". the military paradigm has changed. they know, we hope.
Zico , Apr 8, 2018 12:17:39 PM | 62
Convenient timing to take the focus away for the IDF shooting Palestinian kids and journalist or the botched Skripal show. The new memo is Assad, gas, Iran, Russia, Putin - repeat.

Look everybody, over there!!!

You gotta hand it to these guys. They've perfected the art of fooling the masses very well.

imo , Apr 8, 2018 12:18:53 PM | 63
"Is Trump really willing to escalate towards that?"

More than likely willing and able to take it right up to the wire in the lead up to (and during)
the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia between 14 June to 15 July 2018.
Putin will be at his weakest. UK farce was just an appetizer.

Don Bacon , Apr 8, 2018 12:23:57 PM | 64
State : "We continue to closely follow disturbing reports on April 7 " . . .which we write, and we decided this time to pile on Russia. . ."Russia has breached its commitments to the United Nations as a framework guarantor. It has betrayed the Chemical Weapons Convention . . . yadda yadda". . . here
somebody , Apr 8, 2018 12:25:14 PM | 65
It is over. "Rebels" agreed to be deported to Idlib and release hostages.
Anon , Apr 8, 2018 12:25:49 PM | 66
Alain

I think you are badly wrong, US, France have said they would strike weeks before this, and now it happens, they will strike.

Noirette , Apr 8, 2018 12:40:51 PM | 68
Don Bacon, 55, Idk. link I posted seemed interesting enough.

There is no straight admission of course (re. > Pompeo fooling Trump) and the whole story may be made up,
but it has the the ring of truth in the sense that it fits with the US top echeleons are mired in dire,
multiple, crossed, struggles. The various factions of the US PTB are not unified, and fighting secretly under the radar,
there is no unified position from the US, so not from the UK either.

Ok?

Rob , Apr 8, 2018 1:10:36 PM | 69
@psychohistorian (67) Thanks very much for that posting of actual events on the ground in Douma. They are further reason to believe that the alleged chemical gas attack was not the work of the Syrian army. Clearly, the rebels were on the ropes and ready for a knockout blow. We must ask: What might the Syrian government have gained by poisoning civilians and incurring the wrath and condemnation of the "civilized" world? Absolutely nothing! From a military standpoint, it was completely unnecessary, and from a public relations standpoint, a predictable disaster. Hence, being rational actors, they would never have chosen to use chemical weapons under the circumstances. Why is this so hard for Western nations and their media to understand? The only reason that I can give is that it is in their interest not to understand. It does not comport with their agenda, which is to topple Assad and weaken Russia.
james , Apr 8, 2018 1:31:58 PM | 71
thanks b and thanks for the many insightful comments...

of course isis is being coddled by the west as a tool for the same agenda that has never been dropped... same deal the freaks in douma that are unwilling to negotiate... ditto oldenyoungs comments @22... don't worry oy - russia can see thru that..

@27 dh - yes.. we will see how long that lasts.. i made a comment, but it didn't show yet.. the guy is a crank at this point..

@30 Breadonwaters.. good point, but i wouldn't count on it.. the endless propaganda and false flags are relentless and i see no sign of it stopping.. maybe if the white helmets funding dried up, but that is highly unlikely as well..

@33 don bacon.. sst - 'as the stomach turns' a soap opera that periodically does or doesn't run..

@62 zico... i always ask the question 'what would israel want here?'...

meme , Apr 8, 2018 1:33:55 PM | 72
Is Trump about to have an interview with Mueller soon? Is he also trying to set up the US military to get a bloody nose in Syria? .. so that he can fire a few generals and to try and get back on his campaign promises about pulling back foreign wars?
Don Bacon , Apr 8, 2018 1:43:27 PM | 73
@Noirette 68
Ok?
Weeelll, okay. . . I will continue to value your comments.
Probably the main point here is that the CIA can't be trusted, which in its history has resulted in several comeuppances, and should again.
Don Bacon , Apr 8, 2018 2:09:25 PM | 76
Pat Lang: "Animal" Assad? Our beloved president has once again been watching a bit too much TV news. Does it ever occur to him to pick up the secure phone and call the watch officer at CIA, NSA or wherever and ask if they think the news reports are correct?

Sure, Pat. If we can't trust the Intelligence Community, then whom can we trust? Our own lyin' eyes?

Duglarri , Apr 8, 2018 2:11:20 PM | 77
Amazing. Absolutely amazing. There is a chance Assad did this -- but here's also a chance he would walk in front of a moving train, or jump out of an airplane. The question is, why? There's no military advantage to this. None. On the other hand, there is stupendous value to terrorists to conduct a false flag attack.

Americans. Being played by a fiddle, like complete idiots, for... ever.

NemesisCalling , Apr 8, 2018 2:26:02 PM | 80
As I recall, just a few weeks ago, the US was hitting the "Attack No.Ko." circuit hard. Not much came of it, as usual, and to what end DJT thinks these venting moments will lead, I don't have a clue. But it does follow that not much will come of this other than us plebs wondering why we have to live under this looming threat of annihilation. At the very least, maybe a few tomahawks will be unleashed on a few targetted shit-shacks which are being used by sheep herders. Wrong time to take a crap! The MSM needs a rating boost and exploding outhouses with a million-dollar tomahawk might be able to beat "American Idol" tonight. I'd tune in.
bruno , Apr 8, 2018 2:26:11 PM | 81
Duh, here we go again. Syria with help of Russian aerospace forces are winning the war. Why use WMD that would invite US retaliation??????The discredited NeoCons are not happy with the state of Syria instigated war.Again regime is winning.... And lo and behold Trumpster called for withdrawal of US forces that are illegally occupying a sovereign country. What are the NeoCon /Likudniks e to do???.Well..... stage a false flag opps of course. Syria was always the low hanging fruit on way to war with Iran folks.........
spudski , Apr 8, 2018 2:54:17 PM | 83
@ karlof1 75

I think there would be great personal danger to VVP if he went to DC.

Anon , Apr 8, 2018 3:04:54 PM | 84
spudski

Indeed, something Ive also thought about, I would never put my foot in the US if I were the leader of Russia.

I dont see them meeting now when Trump blow it over and over, Trump never seems to learn or he doesnt care, maybe the generals, and state dep. is in charge of the foreign policy. Hes just a puppet?

daffyDuct , Apr 8, 2018 3:13:15 PM | 85

White Helmets and the Mannequin Challenge. Something to remember at times like these.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zgl271A6LgQ

Perimetr , Apr 8, 2018 3:15:04 PM | 86
Regardless of who makes the decisions in the US, I seriously doubt that the Russians will back down from their thrice stated threat of direct retaliation against US forces, should the US hit Russian military personnel. The Russian red line has clearly been drawn and if the US crazies choose to cross it, look out.
Babyl-on , Apr 8, 2018 3:26:12 PM | 87
I watched the Security Counsel meeting the other day and I thought Russia really blew it. The Russian ambassador was sputtering and stammering and all over the map and did not provide or mention the ample evidence of the widespread ability to make these chemicals or any other evidence. While the British simply had to stay on script. Russia looked bad in my view.

Now, with the new "chemical attack" in recent hours BoJo is already calling for a prompt investigation and warns - Russia should not be allowed to stall it. Why was not Russia out first calling for an independent investigation and demanding proper procedures and observers?

Russia can't continue to just stand there and get punched.

Bakerpete , Apr 8, 2018 3:26:21 PM | 88
A question I've been mulling over for sometime that may appear unrelated to this thread but does have a general bearing.
In the lead up and during WW2, when did the German population begin to realize they were the bad guys?
Laguerre , Apr 8, 2018 4:04:41 PM | 94
I was quite surprised the rebels actually went ahead with the so-called gas attack. I suppose some sort of combination between a hard-line faction in Douma, desperate about being about to lose their last foothold, and nutters in the US, like Bolton. Far too late.

The point is that the Russians have been preparing for just such an event for months. Was it not two months ago that the Russians put troops into Damascus to prevent a decapitating strike? A US strike would be a sort of Kursk Offensive, attacking into a well-prepared defence.

I remain convinced that Trump is psychologically unwilling to go ahead with a major war, whatever the people around him.

Anon , Apr 8, 2018 4:18:09 PM | 96
Laguerre

Trump have recently added Bolton, Pompeo, I mean come on, its obvious that Trump have no "psychologically unwilling" traits about bombing another nation. He have done it before and will do it again, but beside its not only about Trump but also the ugly little guy in France, Macron that are as warmongering on Syria.

Laguerre , Apr 8, 2018 4:19:25 PM | 97
This gas attack is also, from the US point of view, a sort of "surge". An unwillingness on the part of the US to admit defeat. Something has to be done to put the US, currently losing, back into the game. Just that facing up to Russia is a bit more complicated than beating up poorly armed Arab tribes.
Don Bacon , Apr 8, 2018 4:22:27 PM | 98
@ Laguerre 94
I was quite surprised the rebels actually went ahead with the so-called gas attack. They didn't, US-France-UK-(Turkey) did. The rebels are the ones with guns and ammo, the alliance are the ones with actors and cameras.
frances , Apr 8, 2018 4:40:01 PM | 100
I am a bit confused, did the rebels agree to return to the agreement they defaulted on before or after the supposed "gas" attack? If before, it was a ruse (or the west set the up), if after, they may have been told by Russia to return to the agreement or be slaughtered. We live in interesting times and I am most unhappy about it.

[Apr 08, 2018] Russia warns of 'most serious consequences' if US strikes Syria over alleged chemical attack on its citizens - ABC News

Notable quotes:
"... Russia is warning the U.S. against any "military intervention" in Syria over the government's alleged chemical attack against civilians this weekend, saying any such response would be "unacceptable" and lead to the "most serious consequences". ..."
"... The foreign ministry in Moscow also says in a statement on its website that allegations of the chemical attack are "fabricated," suggesting the claims were invented by rebel forces and the Syrian Civil Defense known as the White Helmets. ..."
"... "We decisively deny that information," the head of Russia's Reconciliation Center in Syria, Major Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko, told Interfax, referring to allegations that the chemical attack was caused by a chlorine bomb dropped by pro-Assad forces. ..."
"... Yevtushenko said that after Douma has been retaken by the government, Russia is ready to immediately send its own chemical weapons experts in to "collect data that will confirm the fabricated character" of the allegations. ..."
"... ABC News' Elizabeth McLaughlin and Justin Fishel contributed to this report. ..."
Apr 08, 2018 | abcnews.go.com
Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP
WATCH Syria accused of launching new poison gas attack on civilians

Russia is warning the U.S. against any "military intervention" in Syria over the government's alleged chemical attack against civilians this weekend, saying any such response would be "unacceptable" and lead to the "most serious consequences".

The foreign ministry in Moscow also says in a statement on its website that allegations of the chemical attack are "fabricated," suggesting the claims were invented by rebel forces and the Syrian Civil Defense known as the White Helmets.

"It is necessary to warn again that military intervention under invented and fabricated pretexts in Syria, where at the request of the lawful government there are Russian military personnel, is absolutely unacceptable and can lead to the most serious consequences," the statement reads. "The aim of these false speculations, that have no basis, is to shield the terrorists and the irreconcilable radical opposition, who reject a political solution, at the same time while trying to justify possible armed strikes from outside."

The alleged attack on Saturday killed 40 in the rebel-held town of Douma, multiple opposition and rescue groups including told The Associated Press, which was unable to independently verify the reports.

It came a year and a day after President Donald Trump ordered dozens of strikes on a Syrian regime air base for its alleged use of sarin gas on April 4, 2017, that killed approximately 100 people, according to the the State Department. More than 30 of the victims were children. The government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad denied carrying out the attack.

Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets via AP
This image released early Sunday, April 8, 2018 by the Syrian Civil Defense White Helmets, shows a child receiving oxygen through respirators following an alleged poison gas attack in the rebel-held town of Douma, near Damascus, Syria. more +

President Donald Trump meanwhile blasted Russian President Vladimir Putin and the government of Iran for backing Assad, whom Trump dubbed "Animal Assad," in the country's years-long civil war.

Trump on Twitter called it a "mindless CHEMICAL attack" and blamed "President Putin, Russia and Iran " for backing the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad .

The State Department, while unable to confirm reports of chemical weapon use Saturday, called the alleged attack "horrifying."

"Reports from a number of contacts and medical personnel on the ground indicate a potentially high number of casualties, including among families hiding in shelters," Nauert said in a release. "These reports, if confirmed, are horrifying and demand an immediate response by the international community."

The United Nations also weighed in, saying that the alleged use of chemical weapons if true is "abhorrent."

"The Secretary-General is particularly alarmed by allegations that chemical weapons have been used against civilian populations in Douma," a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a statement. "While the United Nations is not in a position to verify these reports, the Secretary-General notes that any use of chemical weapons, if confirmed, is abhorrent, and requires a thorough investigation."

"It is critical that civilians be protected," the statement from spokesman Stephane Durjarric said. "There has also been shelling on Damascus city, reportedly killing civilians."

The Syrian government has always denied using chemical weapons against opposition forces or civilians.

But a U.N. war-crimes investigation found the Assad regime was responsible for the attack last year in Khan Sheikhoun.

The U.N. Commission of Inquiry on Syria found in September that Syrian government warplanes dropped a sarin bomb in that attack and that Syrian government forces have carried out more than two dozen chemical attacks in the course of the country's civil war.

Human Rights Watch has estimated the Syrian government has committed "at least five more chemical weapons attacks" since April 2017 when Trump ordered 59 Tomahawk missiles fired on a Syrian airbase. The missiles were fired after the U.S. said a year ago that Assad was responsible for a sarin gas attack on the area of Khan Sheikhoun in northwestern Syria, which killed over 100 people.

Russia's military, which has supported Assad, denied the Syrian army is behind the chemical attack in Douma in Eastern Ghouta on Sunday and accused Western countries of trying to use the alleged attack for their own ends.

"We decisively deny that information," the head of Russia's Reconciliation Center in Syria, Major Gen. Yuri Yevtushenko, told Interfax, referring to allegations that the chemical attack was caused by a chlorine bomb dropped by pro-Assad forces.

Yevtushenko said that after Douma has been retaken by the government, Russia is ready to immediately send its own chemical weapons experts in to "collect data that will confirm the fabricated character" of the allegations.

"We express our readiness, after the liberation of Douma from militants, to immediately send Russian specialists in radiological, chemical and biological protection for the collection of data, that will confirm the fabricated character of these statements," Yevtushenko said.

Yevtushenko then accused "a range of Western countries" of using the allegations of the attack to try to hinder the Russian-Syrian operation to pull out militants from Douma.

"For that, that theme beloved by the West, the use of chemical weapons by the armed forces of Syrian Arab Republic, is being used," Yevtushenko told Interfax. He also said the allegations were being made by groups like the White Helmets, which he accused of "being widely known for their fake news ."

The U.S., meanwhile, has supported Kurdish and Arab forces on the other side of the country as they attempt to eradicate ISIS forces from the country.

The Associated Press
FILE - This Feb. 2, 2018 file photo provided by the Syrian rebel group Army of Islam, shows a fighter with the Army of Islam rebel group, firing a weapon during clashes with government forces in Housh al-Dhawahira in the eastern Ghouta region near Da more +

It was less than a week ago that Trump announced during a rally in Ohio that he planned to get U.S. troops out of Syria "very soon." The timing of the comment caught even senior officials off-guard, a senior administration official and a U.S. official familiar with the matter told ABC News. He repeated that he wanted the U.S. military out of the country in a press conference on Tuesday.

"It's time. We were successful against ISIS," Trump said. "We'll be successful against anybody militarily, but sometimes it's time to come back home -- and we're thinking about that very seriously."

The White House walked back those claims a little on Wednesday, with press secretary Sarah Sanders telling reporters the president isn't going "to put an arbitrary timeline" on withdrawal.

ABC News' Elizabeth McLaughlin and Justin Fishel contributed to this report.

[Apr 08, 2018] Tensions mount amid Syria 'chemical attack'

Notable quotes:
"... Every time the legitimate Syrian army has the upper hand over the terrorists the west cries "chemical weapons by assad".Seriously. The world has to wake up. ..."
"... Well the ground was laid; with the other false flag chemical attacks, which were never properly investigated, then the Scripal Affair, now this. They probably think they have convinced enough people, through the controlled western media, to have majority support for an attack on Syria. This was the plan all along, to remove Assad, then onto Iran. One problem: Russia is blocking the way to final conquest- will they test Russia's resolve? This could get ugly very quickly, let us hope that reason, and sense prevail. ..."
Apr 08, 2018 | www.presstv.com

Tensions are escalating between the US and Russia as Washington says Moscow "ultimately bears responsibility for these brutal attacks," in reference to a reported chemical attack the US blames on the Syrian government.

"These reports, if confirmed, are horrifying and demand an immediate response by the international community," US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert said in a statement on Sunday. "The United States continues to use all efforts available to hold those who use chemical weapons, in Syria and otherwise, accountable The Assad regime and its backers must be held accountable and any further attacks prevented immediately."

Russia has dismissed as "bogus" reports of the chemical gas attack in Eastern Ghouta, while Damascus maintains that it has not launched any chemical attacks.

Nauert further called on the Kremlin to stop supporting the Syrian government.

"The United States calls on Russia to end this unmitigated support immediately and work with the international community to prevent further, barbaric chemical weapons attacks," she said.

PressTV-Reports of Syria's gas attack in Ghouta bogus: Russia Russia says reports that allege the Syrian government has conducted a chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta are "bogus."

Earlier in the day, US President Donald Trump said his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is to blame along with Iran.

Iran has strongly condemned the use of chemical weapons by any country in any part of the world, saying claims about a chemical attack by the Syrian government in Eastern Ghouta are "conspiratorial and illogical."

PressTV-Syria gas attack claims illogical, conspiratorial: Iran Iran rejects the 'conspiratorial and illogical' claims about an alleged chemical attack by the Syrian government in Eastern Ghouta.

Trump, military advisors clashing over Syria

The US, meanwhile, is suggesting that all options are on the table as White House homeland security adviser Tom Bossert said nothing should be taken "off the table."

The report came not long after Trump called for withdrawal of US troops from war-ravaged Syria.

Trump has reportedly been butting heads with his military advisers who disagree with immediate withdrawal.

A similar debate over Afghanistan finally ended with Trump acquiescing to indefinite presence of US military forces there.

PressTV-Debate: Alleged chemical attack in Syria This episode of The Debate is about the alleged chemical attack in Syria.

UNSC emergency meeting

The British mission to the United Nations has said in a tweet that the issue is being taken to the UN Security Council.

"UK, France, US, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden, Kuwait, Peru and Cote d'Ivore have called an emergency meeting of #UNSC to discuss reports of chemical weapons attack in #Syria. Meeting expected on Monday," it said.


h, 30 minutes ago

Let the people around the world to make a judgment ,WHO IS THE ANIMAL ,Trump or Assad ????
Minaret , 38 minutes ago
I wish Americans and other EU regimes are condemning Israeli killings of Palestininas in Gaza few days ago as they condemning this Syria and Russia
Rawson , 2 hours ago
"Tom Bossert said nothing should be taken ' off the table. ' " I suggest take that Fat Animal's turd off that table or the Evil House will stink like hell.
read it in its entirety at VETERANSTODAY dot,> 2 hours ago
Proof: Intel Drop, Trump, Bolton behind Syria chemical attacks, confirmed
Germany, Britain, America, Israel, VT provides proof of chemical warfare and war crimes.

By Gordon Duff, Senior Editor - April 8, 2018

We were also concerned that the longer "they" got away with doing this the more innocent people would be murdered by the alleged protectors of freedom and democracy in the world, but who we know to be currently be among the worst enemies of mankind.

Their house of cards is crumbling, and "they" will be more dangerous in that situation as we are talking about some very serious crimes here.

Today another chemical weapons stockpile was found in East Ghouta, produced in Germany, fully weaponized and commercially produced by Merck.

American, British and Israeli military personnel captured in Syria have confirmed they were ordered to stage chemical attacks in East Ghouta by their governments.

Alkhair,2 hours ago
The videos released by the Terrorist ( Shall I say Mercenaries ) show very clearly that the people were not affected by any chemicals. The Children seemed normal yet they were being hosed with water. There were many adults standing as though they were watching a drama. When the majority of ' terrorists haveleft why this tiny group insists resisting? My view is that they have been promised by USA that they will this drama will give USA a reason to display its ugly face. What about killings over two dozen and seriously shooting in legs to disable nearly 2000 people in Gaza? Is the Animal in Evil House not aware of it?
Soloh, 2 hours ago
The hooligans have been doing all possible to legitimize there illegitimate presence in Syria. Well I hope they are aware of the dangers in trying to bully Russia out....
best in the west ,> 2 hours ago

The USA and NATO are pathetic --- continually accusing Russia--china--iran--and syria of causing trouble when their is no evidence whatsoever -- sanctions against russia -- a trade war with china -- iran of causing chaos in the middle east.

And now syria again for as the USA are saying -- using chemical weapons -- i for one am totally sick and tired of the lies that are told by the insane USA and NATO and no doubt all good people around the world will see through their lies

So if their is to be a war then i am 100% behind Russia China Iran Syria North Korea -- and all other like minded countries -- though sadly any war will quickly turn into the last war ever -- as all life on planet earth will be DESTROYED.

Time Bomb , 3 hours ago
And....Not a Word or calls for an "emergency meeting" of the UNSC of the killing of Palestinians that is taking place daily by psychopathic snipers using live ammunition,

Not a word but all of them jump on the band wagon of the worst criminals in recent history and all are ready to swallow any of their lies. U.S. is just a Criminal and Rogue "state"!!!

Luke, 3 hours ago
False flags to help West save their terror legion, Russia should use all at their disposal and stop or severely retaliate when Trump now the puppet of neocons orders strikes. After than no more talks with rebels all should be pushed out of Douma to stop this game West is playing with lives of Syrians.
Joe , 3 hours ago
Every time the legitimate Syrian army has the upper hand over the terrorists the west cries "chemical weapons by assad".Seriously. The world has to wake up.
rainbow musoke, 4 hours ago
But why can't nations like Iran' Palestians Russia' Koreans 'Africa to initiate formation of a new world body to replace the current "UN"
A new body tasked with solving 22nd century challenges that this UN has shamelessly failed..eg the issue of Palestine, Golan, Korean penissula, poverty in Africa, sovereignty of weak states.. the list is big
Smiley,> 4 hours ago
Well the ground was laid; with the other false flag chemical attacks, which were never properly investigated, then the Scripal Affair, now this. They probably think they have convinced enough people, through the controlled western media, to have majority support for an attack on Syria. This was the plan all along, to remove Assad, then onto Iran. One problem: Russia is blocking the way to final conquest- will they test Russia's resolve? This could get ugly very quickly, let us hope that reason, and sense prevail.

[Apr 08, 2018] Syria gas attack claims illogical, conspiratorial

Apr 08, 2018 | www.presstv.com

Iran has strongly condemned the use of chemical weapons by any country in any part of the world, saying claims about a chemical attack by the Syrian government in Eastern Ghouta are "conspiratorial and illogical."

"Such claims and accusations by the Americans and some Western countries signal a new conspiracy against the Syrian government and nation and a pretext for military action against them," Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Bahram Qassemi said on Sunday.

He added that using such allegations as a pretext for a military intervention in Syria would "certainly aggravate the situation in this country and in the region."

He added that terrorists would be emboldened by any act of aggression which would not be in favor of peace, stability and security in the region and across the world.

"When the Syrian army has the upper hand on the battlefield against armed terrorists, it would not be rational for it to use chemical weapons," he pointed out.

Qassemi's comments came a few hours after militants and activists linked to them, including the so-called civil defense group White Helmets, claimed that government forces on Saturday had dropped a barrel bomb containing poisonous chemicals in Douma, Eastern Ghouta's largest town, killing and wounding dozens of civilians.

Damascus, in a statement released late on Saturday, strongly rejected the allegation and said that the so-called Jaish al-Islam Takfiri terrorist group, which has dominant presence in the town, was repeating the allegations of using chemical munitions "in order to accuse the Syrian Arab army, in a blatant attempt to hinder the Army's advance."

PressTV-Syria denies using chemical weapons in Douma The Syrian government denies terrorist claims about launching a chemical attack in the city of Douma in Eastern Ghouta.

"The chemical fabrications, which did not serve the terrorists and their sponsors in Aleppo and Eastern Ghouta, will not serve them today either, as the Syrian state is determined to end terrorism in every square inch of Syrian territory," read the statement.

Qassemi further said the Islamic Republic, in line with its principle policies and religious teachings and as a victim of chemical weapons itself, denounces the use of chemical weapons in any part of the world.

He added that the alleged chemical attack in Eastern Ghouta is not in conformity with the realities on the ground because the Syrian government has had appropriate cooperation with the United Nations.

Syria surrendered its stockpiles of chemical weapons in 2014 to a joint mission led by the US and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), which oversaw the destruction of the weaponry. Damascus has consistently denied using chemical weapons over the past years of conflict in the country.

Western governments and their allies, however, have never stopped pointing the finger at Damascus whenever an apparent chemical attack takes place.

[Apr 08, 2018] Syria war: Trump condemns Syria for 'chemical attack' on Douma

Looks like Skripal case was the stage one of the same false flag operation...
Notable quotes:
"... Both Syria and Russia deny a chemical attack took place and have reached an evacuation deal with the rebels. ..."
"... One video, recorded by rescue workers known as the White Helmets, shows a number of men, women and children lying lifeless inside a house, many with foam at their mouths. ..."
Apr 08, 2018 | www.bbc.com

US President Donald Trump has lashed out at Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and his allies Russia and Iran over a suspected chemical attack, saying there will be a "big price to pay".

Medical sources say dozens of people were killed in an attack on the rebel-held town of Douma on Saturday. The UN Security Council is expected to discuss the crisis on Monday. Both Syria and Russia deny a chemical attack took place and have reached an evacuation deal with the rebels.

Outrage at the alleged use of chemical weapons has been widespread with Pope Francis saying, "Nothing, nothing can justify the use of such devices of extermination against defenceless people and populations."

The European Union has called for an "immediate response by the international community".

What do we know about the attack?

One video, recorded by rescue workers known as the White Helmets, shows a number of men, women and children lying lifeless inside a house, many with foam at their mouths.

Other unverified footage shows young children crying as they are treated in a makeshift medical unit.

However, it has not been possible to verify independently what actually happened, or the actual number of dead.

The Union of Medical Care and Relief Organizations, which runs medical facilities in the Eastern Ghouta, told BBC News that 70 deaths had been confirmed.

According to the US-based Syrian American Medical Society, at least 48 people died , showing "symptoms indicative of exposure to a chemical agent".

More than 500 people were brought to medical centres with such symptoms, it said, quoting emergency services in Douma.

A doctor at an overwhelmed hospital in the rebel-controlled town told the BBC's Joel Gunter he had panicked as his own children coughed from gas seeping into the basement where they were hiding.

A medical student described in horrifying detail how he had treated a dying man.

End of Twitter post by @joelmgunter

Presentational grey line

A test of resolve

Analysis by James Landale, BBC diplomatic correspondent

The reported chemical weapons attack on the rebel-held enclave of Douma poses some hard questions.

For the civilians, the families and children there, can they continue to bear the terror, bloodshed and inhumanity being rained upon them?

For the militant rebel fighters, do they believe their struggle and continued resistance is still worth the price they and the civilians are being forced to pay by the Syrian government?

For Russia, how far is it prepared to defend its allies' apparent use of chemical weapons when its own apparent use of a nerve agent in the UK is subject to so much global condemnation?

And for the international community, how will it respond to what is clearly a test of its resolve one year on from the Khan Sheikhoun chemical attack?

Will the ritual condemnations be backed by military action in an attempt to deter President Assad's further use of chemical weapons? Or will the West believe that any escalation would simply prolong a conflict that many just want to end?

[Apr 08, 2018] Syria poison gas attack kills at least 40, activists and medics say

Apr 08, 2018 | www.foxnews.com

At least 40 people are reported dead in Syria -- including women and children -- after a suspected chemical gas attack on a rebel-held town near the capital on Saturday, as the State Department said the reports, if confirmed, would demand "an immediate response."

The Syrian American Medical Society and opposition-linked Syrian Civil Defense said in a joint statement that at least 40 people had died in the attack in Douma, about 10 miles east of Damascus, and over 500 people, mostly women and children, were injured and brought to medical centers.

The injuries included difficulty breathing, foaming at the mouth, and burning of the eyes, according to the organization. It said patients gave off a chlorine-like smell and some had blue skin, a sign of oxygen deprivation. The alleged attack occurred amid a resumed offensive by Syrian government forces after the collapse of a truce. The Russian-backed Syrian government denied that its forces had launched any chemical attack, Reuters reported . The government said rebels in Douma were in a state of collapse and spreading false news.

None of the reports could be immediately independently confirmed, both the Associated Press and Reuters said.

President Trump said on Twitter that the Syrian Army needs to open the area "immediately" for medical help and verification.

"Many dead, including women and children, in mindless CHEMICAL attack in Syria," Trump tweeted. "Area of atrocity is in lockdown and encircled by Syrian Army, making it completely inaccessible to outside world. President Putin, Russia and Iran are responsible for backing Animal Assad. Big price to pay. Open area immediately for medical help and verification. Another humanitarian disaster for no reason whatsoever. SICK!"

First responders said they found families suffocated in their homes and shelters, with foam on their mouths. The opposition-linked Syrian Civil Defense were able to document 42 fatalities but were impeded from searching further by strong odors that gave their rescuers difficulties breathing, said Siraj Mahmoud, a spokesman for the group, which is known as the White Helmets.

"Until this minute, no one has been able to find out the kind of agent that was used," Mahmoud said in a video statement.

[Apr 08, 2018] Syria chemical attack 'It was like my lungs were shutting down' Syria News

Looks like Aljazeera tried uncritically propogate the version of a gas attack put forward by the White Helmets. Which is not compete impossibility if a bomb or a shell hit a container with chorine gas stored buy the rebels. And there were large storage of chorine gas (something like 20 tons) discovered already in liberated from jihadists area or this province along with Western equipment to produce poison gas munitions.
This Abu Jaafar story smells fiction: after being poisoned he lost conscience was was saved by somebody. He was poisoned badly enough for his lungs being affected. Them miraculous he became a recue worker with enough strength to evacuate others.
Unlike the previous false flag now this area in under control of government forces.
Notable quotes:
"... Rescue workers and medical staff have said at least 85 people were killed in the chlorine gas attack - an accusation dismissed by the Syrian government as "farcical". ..."
"... Among those killed, witnesses said, were many women and children who had sought refuge in the basements of buildings to escape heavy bombardment by pro-government forces. ..."
"... The Syrian army said the offensive was in response to deadly shelling by Jaish al-Islam, the last remaining opposition group in Eastern Ghouta, on residential areas in Damascus. Jaish al-Islam denied the allegation. ..."
"... The group is currently in negotiations with the Russian army, a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad , over a possible evacuation deal, according to reports carried by state media and pro-Syrian opposition Orient TV. Last week, two other rebel groups reached evacuation agreements with the Russians, which resulted in about 19,000 people leaving for the northern province of Idlib. ..."
"... The chemical attack in Douma is the largest of its kind in Syria since April last year, when nerve agent sarin or a sarin-like substance was dropped onto the town of Khan Sheikhoun , killing at least 85 people. ..."
"... On Saturday evening, rescue workers posted videos on social media of people appearing to show symptoms consistent with a gas attack. Some appeared to have white foam around their mouths and noses. ..."
"... He explained many of those who lost their lives were still under destroyed buildings and have not yet been pulled from the rubble. ..."
"... "Others are instantly being buried by their families, so they aren't accounted for in terms of registered numbers," al-Khair said. ..."
Apr 08, 2018 | www.aljazeera.com

By his third frantic dash down the stairs, with a wet piece of cloth over his mouth and a little girl in each arm, everything went dark for Khaled Abu Jaafar.

"I lost consciousness. I couldn't breathe any more; it was like my lungs were shutting down," recalled the resident of Douma, in Syria's Eastern Ghouta .

"I woke up about 30 minutes later and they had undressed me and were washing my body with water," Abu Jaafar told Al Jazeera on Sunday. "They were trying to make me vomit as my mouth was emitting a yellow substance."

Abu Jaafar is one of the survivors struggling to cope with the effects of a chemical attack on Saturday in the besieged town of Douma, the last rebel stronghold near the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Rescue workers and medical staff have said at least 85 people were killed in the chlorine gas attack - an accusation dismissed by the Syrian government as "farcical".

Among those killed, witnesses said, were many women and children who had sought refuge in the basements of buildings to escape heavy bombardment by pro-government forces.

https://players.brightcove.net/665003303001/4k5gFJHRe_default/index.html?videoId=5744719159001

WATCH: Syria army advances in Eastern Ghouta as bombardment persists (2:38)

Abu Jaafar, a radio station worker, said that as panicked residents started running around after the attack, he rushed to one of these hideouts to check on his friends and help get people out.

"While people were in the shelters, some on the roof managed to see the gas bombs as they dropped from the planes," Abu Jaafar said, describing what he said was green gas emanating from the canisters falling from the sky.

"Those who saw them rushed to tell everyone in the basement to evacuate," he added. "I went up and down the stairs about three times to help evacuate children from the building."

Evacuation deals

The attack came on the second day of a fierce ground and air push by pro-government forces after a period of relative calm.

The Syrian army said the offensive was in response to deadly shelling by Jaish al-Islam, the last remaining opposition group in Eastern Ghouta, on residential areas in Damascus. Jaish al-Islam denied the allegation.

The group is currently in negotiations with the Russian army, a major ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad , over a possible evacuation deal, according to reports carried by state media and pro-Syrian opposition Orient TV. Last week, two other rebel groups reached evacuation agreements with the Russians, which resulted in about 19,000 people leaving for the northern province of Idlib.

They included fighters from the Faylaq al-Rahman and Ahrar al-Sham groups, their relatives and other locals. Rebel groups argued that the evacuation amounts to forced displacement, but gave in after weeks of intense bombardment. Meanwhile, remaining civilians continue to endure a bombing campaign and the effects of a crippling government siege that has been in place since 2013.

'Unbearable scenes'

The chemical attack in Douma is the largest of its kind in Syria since April last year, when nerve agent sarin or a sarin-like substance was dropped onto the town of Khan Sheikhoun , killing at least 85 people.

Symptoms of a chlorine attack include dyspnea and coughing, as well as intensive irritation of the mucous membrane and breathing difficulties.

On Saturday evening, rescue workers posted videos on social media of people appearing to show symptoms consistent with a gas attack. Some appeared to have white foam around their mouths and noses.

Abu Jaafar said that those who did not manage to evacuate their shelters died instantly.

"There were basements in other buildings with people who didn't see the gas in time. We entered those buildings and found bodies on the staircases and on the floor - they died while attempting to exit," he said.

Although some Douma residents rushed to various medical points, a shortage of supplies and doctors meant that treatment options were limited.

Activists said that several of Douma's clinics and ambulance teams had been hit during the bombardment campaign, largely disrupting the town's medical assistance capacity.

When we arrived to the roof of the building I was helping at, I saw the lifeless bodies of a mother in her 50s, with two of her adult daughters and a child with their arms around each other, all foaming at the mouth

Alaa Abu Yasser

Local activist Alaa Abu Yasser was also among those who tried to help evacuate people.

"I went to a building where about 35 people had died as a result of this attack; the scenes I saw were unbearable, it's like nothing I have ever seen even in the movies," he told Al Jazeera, describing the aftermath of the attack.

"As I approached the building, a father was crying hysterically as he dragged his feet towards us carrying his two children he was hugging them, smelling and kissing them after they suffocated to death," Abu Yasser added.

Several witnesses speaking to Al Jazeera said that during a chemical attack it is common practice for people to rush to the top floors and on the roofs of buildings in a bid to avoid inhaling the gas that tends to "stick to the ground".

"When we arrived to the roof of the building I was helping at, I saw the lifeless bodies of a mother in her 50s, with two of her adult daughters and a child with their arms around each other, all foaming at the mouth," said Abu Yasser.

"I mostly saw bodies of women and children in three separate rooms; they've been placed there to isolate the smell of the gas from those who survived," he added.

Although the White Helmets, a group of rescuers operating in opposition-held areas in Syria, and Syrian American Medical Society have given a death toll of at least 85, there are fears that the number of people killed in the attack could be higher.

"The rescue teams have not been able to document all the cases," local activist Mansour Abu al-Khair told Al Jazeera. "They're overwhelmed and cannot deal with the impact of the attack."

He explained many of those who lost their lives were still under destroyed buildings and have not yet been pulled from the rubble.

"Others are instantly being buried by their families, so they aren't accounted for in terms of registered numbers," al-Khair said.

"We expect the death toll to surpass 100," he added.

[Apr 08, 2018] The UK and France are in deep economic trouble and need an external enemy such as Russia using an incident such as the Skripal affair to deflect the people from focusing on removing their government leaders

Notable quotes:
"... The UK and France are in deep economic trouble and need an external enemy such as Russia using an incident such as the Skripal affair to deflect the people from focusing on removing their government leaders. If all else fails, the UK Royals will have a couple of weddings and babies to take up the front pages for most of this year. Meanwhile, like the Skripals, several UK/EU agents involved in the HillaryGate Steele dossier trail of evidence such as Christophe Steele, Joseph Mifsid, and Gianni Pittella have disappeared: ..."
"... In the UK case of May and BoJo, any alternative will result in a continuation of the decline of the society. To be honest, much of the decline is baked in structural with the loss of income from former "slave" colonies and the decline of North Sea oil and gas reserves. Staying in the EU against the will of the people will continue to further drain resources to Germany, which has structurally colonialized Western Europe. ..."
"... France, like the UK, has extracted the wealth from their former colonies and facing a reduction in tribute from these sources. Macron has attempted to maintain control of some colonies such as Mali and really wants to conquer Syria. I suspect the meetings between Macron and MbS will result in an agreement for Saudi Arabia to buy French weapons while France getting financial aid to expand French troop bases in Syria. ..."
"... Almost all sectors of the French society are protesting against the neo-feudal policies of Macron, FIRE economy participants and his dwarves in the National Assembly. There are strikes among: ..."
"... The EU is also experiencing internal dissent with the Visegrad four (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia) plus Italy and Austria and thus needs an external enemy to distract its members. I suspect that a Ukrainian invasion of DPR/LPR will once again be used as a flash point create "two minutes of hate" against Russia ..."
Apr 08, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Krollchem , Apr 8, 2018 5:18:42 PM | 18

The UK and France are in deep economic trouble and need an external enemy such as Russia using an incident such as the Skripal affair to deflect the people from focusing on removing their government leaders. If all else fails, the UK Royals will have a couple of weddings and babies to take up the front pages for most of this year. Meanwhile, like the Skripals, several UK/EU agents involved in the HillaryGate Steele dossier trail of evidence such as Christophe Steele, Joseph Mifsid, and Gianni Pittella have disappeared:

https://disobedientmedia.com/2018/04/all-russiagate-roads-lead-to-london-as-evidence-emerges-of-joseph-mifsuds-links-to-uk-intelligence/

https://via.hypothes.is/https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/the-mysterious-professor-at-the-center-of-the-russia-trump?utm_term=.paVe5QKjLR#.imWM6VNRLp

https://www.buzzfeed.com/albertonardelli/the-mysterious-professor-at-the-center-of-the-russia-trump?utm_term=.paVe5QKjLR#.imWM6VNRLp

In the UK case of May and BoJo, any alternative will result in a continuation of the decline of the society. To be honest, much of the decline is baked in structural with the loss of income from former "slave" colonies and the decline of North Sea oil and gas reserves. Staying in the EU against the will of the people will continue to further drain resources to Germany, which has structurally colonialized Western Europe.

France, like the UK, has extracted the wealth from their former colonies and facing a reduction in tribute from these sources. Macron has attempted to maintain control of some colonies such as Mali and really wants to conquer Syria. I suspect the meetings between Macron and MbS will result in an agreement for Saudi Arabia to buy French weapons while France getting financial aid to expand French troop bases in Syria.

Somehow, the current revolution in France is blacked out in the Western Media. Videos of the current revolution are common on Youtube such as: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g21_myERteQ

Almost all sectors of the French society are protesting against the neo-feudal policies of Macron, FIRE economy participants and his dwarves in the National Assembly. There are strikes among:

For a schedule of the rolling strikes in France see: http://www.cestlagreve.fr/

Macron has already deployed the CRS assassins and the street war will begin when EU police and military invade to crush to protestors. This will be far more violent than May 1968 and may usher in the 6th Republic. Unfortunately, Macron would prefer the cities to burn rather than resign and turnover the government to the President of the Senate.

The EU is also experiencing internal dissent with the Visegrad four (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic and Slovakia) plus Italy and Austria and thus needs an external enemy to distract its members. I suspect that a Ukrainian invasion of DPR/LPR will once again be used as a flash point create "two minutes of hate" against Russia :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4zYlOU7Fpk

These EU conflicts will not end peacefully as the system will fight back rather than step aside.

[Apr 07, 2018] Syria Showdown Trump Versus the Generals

Apr 07, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

GOP is done April 6, 2018 at 12:20 am

Why are you giving trump so much credit ? Trump is Pro-Israel and will do their evil bidding
polistra , says: April 6, 2018 at 4:15 am
Trump doesn't have any instincts. He's just playing the old DC game. Pretend that you want to do something, then act shocked after you didn't do it. Each party plays the game against the other party, each house of Congress plays the game against the other house, Presidents play it against Congress and the "courts".

===

This game wouldn't work in real life.

Example:

I shout to everyone in the house, "I'm going to the store to get groceries."

One hour later, after sitting in the living room watching TV, making no move toward the car, I shout again:

"See what happens? I tried, but these evil other-party spirits wouldn't let me. You need to vote these evil other-party spirits out of the house so we can have food!"

balconesfault , says: April 6, 2018 at 6:14 am
Huh you elect someone who says his military strategy will always be "listen to the Generals", and are then surprised when the Generals want to keep fighting?

Of course Trump will accede. He has no coherent and consistent policy just Fox News buzzwords spinning in his head. Now add John Bolton as his guiding light.

Stephen J. , says: April 6, 2018 at 7:25 am
Mr. Buchanan is correct the U.S. is: "in a country where we have no right to be "
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
The U.S. is in Syria illegally, and what is even worse it is reportedly supporting terrorists.
This is surely a crime, yet no charges have been laid. Why?

"Under U.S. law it is illegal for any American to provide money or assistance to al-Qaeda, ISIS or other terrorist groups. If you or I gave money, weapons or support to al-Qaeda or ISIS, we would be thrown in jail. Yet the U.S. government has been violating this law for years, quietly supporting allies and partners of al-Qaeda, ISIL, Jabhat Fateh al Sham and other terrorist groups with money, weapons, and intelligence support, in their fight to overthrow the Syrian government.[i] Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, December 8, 2016,Press Release.
https://gabbard.house.gov/news/press-releases/video-rep-tulsi-gabbard-introduces-legislation-stop-arming-terrorists
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -
Much more evidence on this and other matters at link below.
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2016/10/the-evidence-of-planning-of-wars.html

Michael Kenny , says: April 6, 2018 at 8:41 am
The important point in Syria is that Putin is irreversibly bogged down there. He sinks or swims with Assad, which means, sooner or later, sinks. He's a sitting duck who can do nothing but sit there and wait until the US chooses to attack him. So there's no harm in leaving him to stew. John Bolton's bête noire has always been Iran, which is supposed to be Putin's ally. Going after Iran will put Putin on the spot. He has to decide whether to back his "ally" or leave Iran in the lurch. Thus, putting Syria on the back burner and concentrating on Iran forces Putin either to discredit himself by abandoning his "ally" or to bog himself down in yet another conflict. Heads, Ukraine wins, tails, Putin loses!
Dan Green , says: April 6, 2018 at 9:59 am
Our military complex is very key to our security. With that said they plan and like war.
b. , says: April 6, 2018 at 10:00 am
On such hollow reed the imperial presidency, uneasily, rests.

The triad's synthesis: ISIS will never be "defeated".

Hubris, catharsis over is.

Stephen J. , says: April 6, 2018 at 11:25 am
More info on the treachery and criminality being enacted in Syria
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- –

"Our ally Kuwait has become the epicenter of fundraising for terrorist groups in Syria."
http://www.treasury.gov/press-center/press-releases/Pages/jl2308.aspx
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -

"Yes, folks, your tax dollars are going to support Islamist crazies in Syria. The same people who attacked Paris are being aided and abetted by the US – and if that isn't a criminal act, then there is no justice in this world." Justin Raimondo, November 25, 2015
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2015/11/24/turkeys-stab-in-the-back/
-- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- -- --

And much more info at the link below.
http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/05/the-war-gangs-and-war-criminals-of-nato.html

Anthony Ferrara , says: April 6, 2018 at 12:02 pm
The military industrial complex is nearly impossible to go up against in this country.
One Guy , says: April 6, 2018 at 1:03 pm
The USA has hundreds of military bases overseas. We should close most of them. Trump is saying the right thing, unfortunately, we all know he doesn't follow through (that NRA thing, that DACA thing, that wall thing, that coal thing, that lock-her-up thing, etc. etc).

Nothing will change.

Cynthia McLean , says: April 6, 2018 at 1:27 pm
The War Party is intent on building a permanent military base in Syria to fulfill US aspirations of full-spectrum dominance.
Fred Bowman , says: April 6, 2018 at 1:54 pm
Rest assure Pat that when "push comes to shove" that Trump will let the Generals have their way. To believe otherwise is foolishness.
Patrick , says: April 6, 2018 at 3:16 pm
It seems that the failure in Syria is related to the classical policy verse strategy conflict. The military is once again put in a difficult position when the civilian leadership tries to use a military solution to solve a diplomatic problem. The military was given the task to destroy ISIS but that goal will be impossible without Turkey's cooperation and the leader of that country has chosen a path toward appeasement by the United States or confrontation.

There seems to be credible evidence of Turkey's support for ISIS in the flow of combatants and military logistics into Syria as well as profiting from the sale and transport of ISIS controlled Syrian oil through Turkey. Now we are seeing Turkey invading Syria and ethnically cleansing our Kurdish allies from Syria's Northern Boarder. We still don't know what the Obama/Clinton CIA and State Department was up to in Benghazi, but it did seem to involve the flow of arms from Libya, and I have read reports that members of the Turkish government were meeting with the killed ambassador before the attack.

In Syria is appears that the Assad, Iranian and Russian alliance was more focused upon the rebels attempting to overthrow the government; rather than destroying ISIS. Once the United States leaves there may be greater tolerance for ISIS as long as the government is not threatened and ISIS may even be allowed to join that alliance to get some revenge against the Kurds who were allied with the U.S.

We saw the recent Russian test of US resolve using mercenaries with disastrous consequences. As long as the US remains in Syria there will be similar tests and what if is Turkey decides to test the resolve of US forces?

Our NATO partner Turkey seems to have become more of an enemy than a friend, and also more of a liability than an asset. Removing U.S. military assets from Turkey may be prudent, followed by its expulsion from NATO. Expelling Turkish citizens from other NATO countries and economic sanctions may be another strategy to make Turkey reconsider its continued belligerence.

JK , says: April 6, 2018 at 4:05 pm
I don't recall anyone forcing Trump to appoint to top positions people who flat out refuse his orders and block him from carrying out policy he campaigned on. There is a limit on how much sincerity you can attribute to a man who says one thing, does the exact opposite, and defend him as fighting some Don Quixotic struggle tilting at windmills.

[Apr 07, 2018] Ron Paul on Trump 'Just Kidding. We're Staying In Syria.'

Notable quotes:
"... After a neocon uprising in their various think tanks and journals and after a meeting with Defense Secretary Mattis, Trump did an about-face yesterday and grumbled that he'd keep them in for a while longer. ..."
Apr 05, 2018 | www.antiwar.com

Ron Paul and Daniel McAdams Posted on April 5, 2018

Just a week after President Trump told an Ohio audience that US troops would be removed from Syria "very soon" and brought back home "where they belong," he has again changed his tune.

After a neocon uprising in their various think tanks and journals and after a meeting with Defense Secretary Mattis, Trump did an about-face yesterday and grumbled that he'd keep them in for a while longer. Some say six months. Was Trump purposely misleading in Ohio, or is he really that pliable? Tune in to today's Ron Paul Liberty Report:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cAvgjvk_-0c

Bellahhwy52 days ago ,

If we brought back the draft and only allowed a small percentage to enlist, we would have far fewer and our wars would end far sooner because our so called leaders would have to answer to the people. As it is now somebody else pays the price so why should I care.

Thomas L. Knapp Mod Bellahhwy52 days ago ,

Vietnam established that precisely the opposite is true. Popular support or opposition can EVENTUALLY force a change at the top, but LBJ and Nixon were able to drag Vietnam out for a decade because they didn't have to talk people into enlisting, they just drafted them.

That's the practical effect, but even if it wasn't, slavery is evil, conscription is slavery, and those who attempt to implement it should be tarred, feathered, and dragged behind trucks until their bodies come apart.

Bastiat Thomas L. Knapp2 days ago ,

Well said Mr. Knapp.

Bruce MacKenzie10 hours ago ,

Senator Paul, It is time to put your cards on the table. Start exposing the crimes of your fellow congressmen and 'political cronies'. All are
guilty of crimes against humanity. Trump is draining the swamp. Either wade out or it is down the drain.

[Apr 05, 2018] Reflections on foreign affairs by M K Bhadrakumar

Notable quotes:
"... "Sir, it can be done (withdrawal of forces from Siachen). Yes, we certainly have the capability to ensure that Pakistani forces do not occupy the areas vacated by us." ..."
"... "Sir, Siachen is strategically far too important to be given up. No, Sir, it is no longer a burden financially, we can easily afford the costs." ..."
Apr 05, 2018 | blogs.rediff.com

The military is the same the world over. In 1992, the conversation would have gone like this in South Block:

Eighteen years later, circa 2010, the conversation probably had gone like this: Fortunately for the military, there is no more any conversation taking place regarding Siachen. It is a closed file. The only remaining issue now is about recovering the lost territories in POK, Gilgit and Baltistan. Period.

The generals the world over know how to run a long play around politicians. Their trump card is that politicians as a breed hate taking tough decisions because they don't want under any circumstances a failure on their hand. And so, they'd rather kick the can down the road – and that suits the generals.

This was exactly what happened to President Barack Obama who wanted to pull out of Afghanistan. The generals completely outflanked him and before he knew what he was doing, he allowed the "surge" in 2010 – and, zoom, the troop deployment shot up to 140000. Today, Obama is gone, but the generals are still there. The war is stupid and the generals too admit that it cannot be won. But nonetheless, they want an open-ended stay in Afghanistan.

In the final analysis, it is all about the corporate interests of the military – more budget allocation, more "good times", more empire building. And the war profiteers – military-industrial complex, think tankers, ex-faujis on the conference circuit, congressmen, the correspondents on the Pentagon press pool all travel in the gravy train at the tax payers' expense.

President Donald Trump is now facing the moment of truth. He has decided that the US troops should return home from Syria, but is facing resistance form the military. The generals have already decided that there shall be an open-ended military presence in Syria. In fact, they are busy planning more bases in Syria. The argument being touted is that the ISIS may stage a comeback. The real reason could be that the Pentagon wants to turn Syria into a theatre in the New Cold War to fight Russia. With a view to rally the Israeli lobby, the generals also invoke the spectre of Iranian influence in Syria .

Of course, the 2000 American troops cannot achieve any of the above objectives. But the generals are buying time and hoping that they can embark on "mission creep" (surreptitiously augment the scale of deployment as time passes). A report in the Washington Post discloses that Trump has had a bit of a faceoff with the generals regarding Syria. It will be interesting to see whether his decision gets implemented. My prognosis is that Trump will ensure that the troops come home "where they belong."

To my mind, the recent dismissal of Rex Tillerson as state secretary and HR McMaster as the NSA are harbingers of new national security strategies emerging. The straws in the wind are highly indicative – Trump's phone call to President Vladimir Putin to congratulate him on the election victory (ignoring NSA McMaster's pointed advice in writing against it); Trump's invitation to Putin to visit the White House; summary abandonment of the confrontation course and rhetoric against Russia over the Skripal spy case; the announcement in Washington that Russia is at liberty to replace the 60 expelled diplomats; and of course, the latest decision on drawdown in Syria.

One thing good about generals (the world over) is that once they sense that the politician has the spunk in him to force his will, they quickly backtrack and meekly obey. In this case, Defence Secretary James Mattis is also a retired four-star general who reads books. The WaPo story suggests that Trump has made it clear he's on leash. Successful generals usually have good political acumen. Trump has scattered Mattis' "coalition" and Mattis can't overlook the fate that befell Tillerson and McMaster.

The outcome of this titanic struggle for power and authority will also affect our region. The point is, if Trump prevails on Syria, the next battle of wits could be over Afghanistan. Ominously, Trump has spoken again in exasperation about the US wasting 7 trillion dollars in the Middle Eastern wars. Make no mistake, that figure includes the costs of the 17-year old war in Afghanistan as well.

[Apr 03, 2018] A new resistance group specifically formed to attack Imperial forces within Syria

Apr 03, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: karlof1 | Apr 1, 2018 8:08:45 PM | 31

Report about a new resistance group specifically formed to attack Imperial forces within Syria. The game is changing. This group will certainly give a push to Trump's wish to withdraw Imperial forces. Will its existence be reported by the west's Propaganda System?

Lozion , Apr 1, 2018 8:12:31 PM | 32

Quick Syrian update:

-Douma being liberated.
-A US and a UK serviceman killed in Manbij while in company of two female Kurdish fighters. See@jenanmoussa onTwitter.
-Reports of a US base being under attack by a pro-Gov militia near Raqqa as we speak.
-Next SAA operation to be the Eastern Qalamoon pocket.

Thats about it..

[Apr 02, 2018] The UK's persecution of Russia arises from two unreported incidents in Syria during operations in Eastern Ghouta

All this "door knob" hypothesis smells with MI5/MI6 falsification. An interesting note about stupid and evil presstitutes in NYT, who bought it.
Notable quotes:
"... The Skripal attack was clearly a total cock-up but that didn't matter. All the UK/US wanted was an/any excuse to vilify Russia – no evidence required, it is all Kabuki. That is why the 5-eyes (excluding NZ) and Nato (excluding Turkey) fell in line with the recent expulsions – no evidence required. The whole point was to show Putin that 'the West' doesn't need evidence – the more ridiculous the better! Everyone knows that Russia didn't do it... but will kick Russia anyway, if it continues on its current path. ..."
"... As for the Skripal "script" and its timing, my speculation is that its purpose was to set the stage for a false flag chemical attack to be blamed on Russia supported Damascus to sell an offensive from the southern flank by US forces in Jordan while missile strikes rained from the Eastern Med ..."
"... Graham: US leaving Syria would be 'single worst decision' Trump could make -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday cautioned President Trump against pulling American troops out of Syria, saying that doing so would be "a disaster in the making." ..."
"... Again the US has supported anti-government forces and invaded a foreign country, destroyed part of it while killing, injuring and displacing millions of people. The locals want the US out. Wouldn't we? ..."
"... NYT has a bombshell scoop! A material so poisonous that the Skripals have not died, and was spread by allegedly "[going] up to the front door" and smearing it on their outside door handle. This kind of stealth could only come from Russia and Putin... Bonus points attempted by doing a Nexis word search on what the CIA liars said regarding DNC emails.. ..."
"... So the Prime Minister said that Porton Down had positively identified the substance as a Novichok nerve agent. The statement from Porton Down says that their tests indicated that it was a Novichok agent or closely related agent. Are these two statements saying exactly the same thing? . . here ..."
"... If the nerve agent is so potent per NYT description, how came the Skripals went to the pub and restaurant having beers and food with no signs of discomfort after having touched the nerve agent smeared on their house door? ..."
"... This is nerve agent not timebomb. Just how stupid can NYT let itself be? ..."
Apr 02, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

miss lacy | Apr 1, 2018 8:37:03 PM | 34

@Lozion, no. 31 What do you think of the veracity of the following comment recently posted on Zero Hedge? Sorry, I have no links - just the comment:

'The UK's persecution of Russia arises from two unreported incidents in Syria during operations in Eastern Ghouta. In late February, the SAA's special force unit trapped a group of UK Special Forces in a siege, near Kafr Batna settlement. That incident occurred a few days after another unit of UK Special Forces was captured near Nashabiyah!

London didn't want to deal with Assad and sought to negotiate their release with Russia, with Oman as a mediator. Moscow replied that it was the jurisdiction of Syrian military authorities. Mattis's visit to Oman on March 11 was to attempt to secure the release of a US officer and two Israelis also captured in the same operation in Eastern Ghouta.

The UK and US governments (deep state?) see risks rising in Syria and since Russia refuses to back down, pressure on other fronts had to be increased to raise the stakes for Moscow.

The Skripal attack was clearly a total cock-up but that didn't matter. All the UK/US wanted was an/any excuse to vilify Russia – no evidence required, it is all Kabuki. That is why the 5-eyes (excluding NZ) and Nato (excluding Turkey) fell in line with the recent expulsions – no evidence required. The whole point was to show Putin that 'the West' doesn't need evidence – the more ridiculous the better! Everyone knows that Russia didn't do it... but will kick Russia anyway, if it continues on its current path.

Speculation: was the Skripal plan put together by the CIA (deep state) and MI6 (with UK government support) behind Trump's back, which pretty much forced him to go along with the expulsions etc., is that one of the reasons why he has now announced US troops will be leaving Syria altogether?'

Lozion , Apr 1, 2018 9:26:59 PM | 36

@33 miss lacy. Well, yes there have been reports of captured UK and other SF in East Ghouta along with denials so its confusing. There most probably were a few caught but this is such a delicate political matter that their release is I think negotiated in secret by the parties involved. A grey area seems to exist around SF since no one wants to have theirs paraded as war trophies, a tacit agreement of "dont ask, dont tell" is likely enforced.

As for the Skripal "script" and its timing, my speculation is that its purpose was to set the stage for a false flag chemical attack to be blamed on Russia supported Damascus to sell an offensive from the southern flank by US forces in Jordan while missile strikes rained from the Eastern Med but this was scraped in the nick of time due to the SAA's faster advance then expected and capture of militants chemical labs, leaving the UK to deal with the mess created by the failed op.

My opinion is that we went through a real CLOSE CALL around mid-March but thanks to Gerasimov, Shoigu and Rudskoy multiple warnings and rapid pace of the EG operation, we are still here to discuss it..

Don Bacon , Apr 1, 2018 9:52:33 PM | 37
news headline:

Graham: US leaving Syria would be 'single worst decision' Trump could make -- Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday cautioned President Trump against pulling American troops out of Syria, saying that doing so would be "a disaster in the making."

Which means it's probably a good idea. The claim in Washington is that Obama made a mistake in pulling troops out of Iraq. In fact, he had no choice because Bush-II had signed a treaty (w/o Senate advice & consent) to pull out in December 2010. So it was done. Obama had no choice.

Syria isn't the same, but it's similar. Again the US has supported anti-government forces and invaded a foreign country, destroyed part of it while killing, injuring and displacing millions of people. The locals want the US out. Wouldn't we?

I'm reminded of what Mike Hastie said. "One day while I was in a bunker in Vietnam, a sniper round went over my head. The person who fired that weapon was not a terrorist, a rebel, an extremist, or a so-called insurgent. The Vietnamese individual who tried to kill me was a citizen of Vietnam, who did not want me in his country. This truth escapes millions." --Mike Hastie, U.S. Army Medic, Vietnam 1970-71

daffyDuct , Apr 1, 2018 10:20:27 PM | 38
NYT has a bombshell scoop! A material so poisonous that the Skripals have not died, and was spread by allegedly "[going] up to the front door" and smearing it on their outside door handle. This kind of stealth could only come from Russia and Putin... Bonus points attempted by doing a Nexis word search on what the CIA liars said regarding DNC emails..

"LONDON -- British officials investigating the poisoning of Sergei V. Skripal, a former Russian double agent, believe it is likely that an assassin smeared a nerve agent on the door handle at his home. This operation is seen as so risky and sensitive that it is unlikely to have been undertaken without approval from the Kremlin, according to officials who have been briefed on the early findings of the inquiry.


Because the nerve agent is so potent, the officials said, the task could have been carried out only by trained professionals familiar with chemical weapons. British and American officials are skeptical that independent actors could have carried out such a risky operation or obtained the agent without approval at the highest levels of the Russian government -- almost exactly the same phrase that American intelligence agencies used in October 2016, when they first attributed the hacking of emails from the Democratic National Committee to a team of Russian hackers.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/01/world/europe/russia-sergei-skripal-uk-spy-poisoning.html

Don Bacon , Apr 1, 2018 10:22:08 PM | 39
Rob Slane has 20 more questions on Skripal:

Here's #4:

In her statement to the House of Commons on 12th March 2018, the British Prime Minister, Theresa May stated the following:

"It is now clear that Mr Skripal and his daughter were poisoned with a military-grade nerve agent of a type developed by Russia. This is part of a group of nerve agents known as 'Novichok '. Based on the positive identification of this chemical agent by world-leading experts at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down" [my emphasis added].
In the judgement at the High Court on 22nd March on whether to allow blood samples to be taken from Sergei and Yulia Skripal for examination by the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), evidence submitted by Porton Down to the court (Section 17 i) stated the following:
"Blood samples from Sergei Skripal and Yulia Skripal were analysed and the findings indicated exposure to a nerve agent or related compound . The samples tested positive for the presence of a Novichok class nerve agent or closely related agent " [my emphasis added].
So the Prime Minister said that Porton Down had positively identified the substance as a Novichok nerve agent. The statement from Porton Down says that their tests indicated that it was a Novichok agent or closely related agent. Are these two statements saying exactly the same thing? . . here
Don Bacon , Apr 1, 2018 10:27:51 PM | 40
@37 ...re: door handle, grabbed by both father and daughter exiting the apartment

Novichok nerve agents . . .Within the environment, these agents react with water to degrade, including moisture in the air, and so in the UK they would have a very limited lifetime.

mali , Apr 2, 2018 5:58:01 AM | 58
"Because the nerve agent is so potent, the officials said, the task could have been carried out only by trained professionals familiar with chemical weapons. "

daffyDuct @37
-------------------------------------------------
If the nerve agent is so potent per NYT description, how came the Skripals went to the pub and restaurant having beers and food with no signs of discomfort after having touched the nerve agent smeared on their house door?

This is nerve agent not timebomb. Just how stupid can NYT let itself be?

Happy Easter everyone!

[Apr 02, 2018] Trump has shown that he'll bend quickly to neocon pressure, with increased interest in foreign war

Notable quotes:
"... North Korea's negotiating position has not really changed with the announcement. They have repeatedly said for years they are willing to agree to denuclearization of the Peninsula in return for security guarantees. I find the media trumpeting this as a new development rather vexing. Anyways, China has been putting the screws on them since about September/October (Apparently, they told Kim Jongun they know they can't overthrow the DPRK government, but they can get rid of him personally), which is also why there have not been any new nuclear tests. ..."
"... I think Yves has got it right: USA threatens PRC with tariffs, so PRC pressures NK to make concessions to the USA. i.e. Two big guys screwing the little guy. ..."
"... In the USA, imperialist machtpolitik is a thoroughly bipartisan affair. It doesn't matter how faithfully NK or PRC might fulfill obligations. Trump's successors, whoever they may be, will simply apply more pressure and demand more concessions. They won't stop until somebody else stops them. ..."
Apr 02, 2018 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

Larry , March 30, 2018 at 8:04 am

I believe Trump could negotiate a deal. But I also believe he could blow up the whole talk before it even happens. He has shown that he'll bend quickly to neocon pressure, with increased interest in foreign war (Bolton hiring) and the ramping up of hostilities by bouncing Russians from the U.S. over the phony poisoning story in the UK.

a different chris , March 30, 2018 at 8:48 am

I don't disagree with your comment, but not comfortable with the term "bend to". Trump gets enamored with different people at different times, but he always is looking down at them. They may get enough rope to scare the rest of us, but they are still on a rope.

Bolton is horrible, but a lot of other horrible people have come and gone in this really quick year.

cocomaan , March 30, 2018 at 11:15 am

Bolton is horrible but probably won't last long. Nobody at Trump's ear has, including his own children.

Trump just announced that we're withdrawing from Syria. That's more than Obama ever did.

Part of being a nationalist demagogue is that you're not as interested in foreign wars unless they enrich the country. Not a single one of our wars does that. There's nothing interesting in mercantilism, for instance, that we can't do at home (drill baby drill).

I'm not saying I agree with that view, I'm just saying that if he's a nationalist demagogue, it only follows that he's not interested in, uh, "non-for-profit warmaking".

sgt_doom , March 30, 2018 at 2:57 pm

I am NO Trump fan or voter, but it does appear that he's the first one to apply sanctions to those specific Chinese banks handling the trade with North Korea.

Arizona Slim , March 30, 2018 at 6:32 pm

Uh-oh, I find myself agreeing with something that Trump is doing. Does that make me a backward deplorable?

Al Swearengen , March 30, 2018 at 8:45 am

(Somewhat) OT, but it strikes me that the best way to look at Trump is through the lense of what he is – the US version of Sylvio Berlusconi. A sleazy billionaire Oligarch with no core principles and a fondness for Bunga Bunga parties.

Rather than as LITERALLY HITLER as per the verbiage of hashtag the resistance.

Thus, rather than as a crazed madman bent on "evil" at all times one wonders whether Mr. Bunga Bunga would do a deal with Lil' Kim. Sure he would, assuming that the ruling military Junta allows him to. It might be in the interest of the latter to de-escalate this particular hotspot (as NK crisis/hype fatigue may set in) and simply push Iran as the next flashpoint to hype.

sgt_doom , March 30, 2018 at 2:59 pm

Indeed! They even sound quite similar -- I recall in a speech that Berlusconi gave when he was still the Italian president and the Italian left was screaming for his resignation, Sylvio claimed such demands were making him uneasy, since if he was to go home, and he had 20 homes, it would be difficult for him to decide which house or mansion to go to!

Brooklin Bridge , March 30, 2018 at 9:05 am

It seems the bottom line for negotiations with North Korea have little to do with this article which covers Trump's thoughts on nuclear proliferation between major powers that have massive stockpiles.

North Korea is mainly interested in protecting itself from regime change and from becoming a US outpost (as in target) butt up against China. It is hard to believe that Kim Jong-Un would get any advantage whatsoever out of dismantling his nuclear arsenal, however small. One assumes he is aware of Gaddafi in particular and US's track record on keeping it's promises – particularly over the span of different administrations – in general.

Brooklin Bridge , March 30, 2018 at 9:13 am

The above comment assumes full disarmament as the minimum condition of any "negotiation" since Trump has gone so far out of his way to make that clear.

Yves Smith Post author , March 30, 2018 at 12:06 pm

Oh, and now see the lead story at the Financial Times, China uses economic muscle to bring N Korea to negotiating table:

China virtually halted exports of petroleum products, coal and other key materials to North Korea in the months leading to this week's unprecedented summit between Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping.

The export freeze -- revealed in official Chinese data and going much further than the limits stipulated under UN sanctions -- shows the extent of Chinese pressure following the ramping up of Pyongyang's nuclear testing programme. It also suggests that behind Mr Xi's talk this week of a "profound revolutionary friendship" between the two nations, his government has been playing hard ball with its neighbour.

https://www.ft.com/content/8a2b2696-33f7-11e8-ae84-494103e73f7f

Yves Smith Post author , March 30, 2018 at 11:24 am

I would normally agree but Kim Jong-Un was just summoned to China. Not even given a state visit. The Chinese announced North Korea would denuclearlize:

North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un pledged his commitment to denuclearization and to meet U.S. officials, China said on Wednesday after his meeting with President Xi Jinping, who promised China would uphold friendship with its isolated neighbour.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-northkorea-missiles-china/china-says-north-koreas-kim-pledged-commitment-to-denuclearization-idUSKBN1H305W

China has heretofore pretended that it couldn't do anything about North Korea. It looks like Trump's tariff threat extracted China jerking Kim Jong-Un's chain as a concession. I don't see how Kim Jong-Un can defy China if China is serious about wanting North Korea to denuclearlize. Maybe it will merely reduce its arsenal and stop threatening Hawaii (even though its ability to deliver rockets that far is in doubt) and just stick to being able to light up Seoul instead.

Brooklin Bridge , March 30, 2018 at 2:25 pm

Agree. I wasn't aware of the details you mention above regarding the export freeze. (I won't use Google and my normal 'trick' doesn't work to get around FT's paywall – and I won't use the trial membership either). I'm hopeless.

Anyway, you make a very convincing case. I can only imagine that Kim Jong Un is one miserable scared rat. My point about a "silk noose" below was perhaps on the mark.

neo-realist , March 31, 2018 at 12:47 am

Kim might agree on paper or through an insincere promise to denuclearize, but I don't see a closed authoritarian regime like the North agreeing to an inspection regime that would insure that such a pledge would be lived up to. Reduction, but build-up on the sly w/o inspections.

China may be interested in a deal to the extent that it prevents a bloody war breaking out that they'll probably expend manpower to help clean up and it insures the security of a North Korean buffer that keeps American troops off their border; After all, they've got to keep the powder dry for "reunification" with Taiwan.

I also don't believe that the US would agree to concessions, such as removing American troops from the peninsula. the pentagon wouldn't like it, the hawks around Trumps wouldn't like it, and I believe the SK leadership would not be too crazy about the potential ramifications for their security with such an agreement.

Travis Bickle , March 30, 2018 at 9:19 am

But, can Trump (by extension, the US), make an agreement that can be relied on over its term?

For any hope of NK trusting any deal with the US he would have to stand by the Iranian deal. Then there's Bolton and the Neocon Will To War, for deeply pathological reasons which by nature cannot be debated.

In this case, the mere possibility of a "deal" is possible, but only if there is a third party to hold both of them to it.

Hello China?

ambrit , March 30, 2018 at 10:02 am

Did the Chinese call Kim to Beijing to reassure him? Carrot AND stick.

Brooklin Bridge , March 30, 2018 at 10:43 am

Presentation of a silk noose perhaps?

Brooklin Bridge , March 30, 2018 at 11:05 am

That's the crazy thing about this. What possible inducement could Kim Jong-Un have gotten to attend his own funeral? Why would anyone trust the US an inch?

I suppose if he can keep his own people in a suspended state of extreme propaganda, then he might be vulnerable to his own medicine, but that seems at odds with his behavior so far (such as the assassination of his uncle). If anything, he would be especially leery of anything coming out of the US.

And then can he really be that psyched out by Bolton, Pompeo and Torture Lady so that good cop Trump can hand him is own death certificate with a space for his signature?

Travis Bickle , March 31, 2018 at 2:15 pm

Whatever happened during this China trip, the overarching theme must have been how to manage the US. Here's one rough scenario:

NK 'disarms' to some definition, under the auspices of China, acquiring in return an explicit Chinese security umbrella for the buffer it presents between them and SK. Nobody really wants a unified Korea in any case. In return, the US vacates SK militarily, ever so discretely and over time.

Done correctly, and with the finesse necessary for Trump, China is in a position to extract all sorts of concessions from the US on other fronts as well. Nothing positive is going to happen here without China, and they hold most of the cards. If nothing positive happens, we have to consider the pressure that'd build on Trump to do something, anything, and that probably being something rash. (Better a big disaster over there than a mammoth one over here thinking).

gearandgrit , March 30, 2018 at 9:46 am

"he can't go willy nilly and set nukes a-flying just because it struck him as a good idea that day."

I mean sure. His "button" isn't literally connected to a missile somewhere, but he sure as hell can ask that nukes be fired whenever and wherever he wants. You could argue that someone in the chain of command would prevent that from happening, but that's more of a hope than a guarantee. For a really good read on how this all works and the history of the nuclear program I highly recommend https://www.amazon.com/Command-Control-Damascus-Accident-Illusion/dp/0143125788

With Bolton on board and seemingly everyone with half a brain, a little logic and the ability to hold their tongue for more than about 5 seconds out, I highly doubt anything will come of these negotiations. In fact, I'm more worried that the US will get steamrolled by China and NK.

Yves Smith Post author , March 30, 2018 at 11:13 am

That isn't true. See the link I provided, which you clearly did not bother to read. Various people can refuse his order as illegal. Former Secretary of State Jim Baker, in a Financial Times, before Trump was elected, said the same thing. Bolton is the National Security Adviser. He may have a lot of informal power by having direct access to the President, but he does not tie in to the formal chain of command, either at the DoD or State.

gearandgrit , March 30, 2018 at 12:09 pm

Oh I read it and I've read many other articles and a lot of non-fiction on the issue. Again, I would call your position and the position of this article hopeful at best. Trump has the football, he has the codes in his jacket pocket and everyone responsible for carrying out the order to launch has been raised up through a military system that ensures no one questions an order from their superior. Relying on various people to refuse his order as illegal in this system is not a fail-safe I feel comfortable with. I do find it interesting that you just assume I didn't read the article as if this one article is the end all be all on the subject.

David , March 30, 2018 at 12:31 pm

The article seems a bit confused about what it's trying to say. Stopping nuclear proliferation has been a major policy priority of the US and other western governments since the 1960s, and if I recall correctly it was one of Bolton's priorities when he was in Bush the Lesser's administration. It's something in which all of the declared nuclear powers have an interest, because the smaller the number of nuclear powers in the world, the greater the difference between them and the rest. This is much more important than wild fantasies about rogue attacks: if N Korea becomes a de facto nuclear power like India, Israel and Pakistan, then all sorts of other countries might be tempted to have a go, starting with S Korea (which has the capacity and has been caught cheating before). Whilst this risk is objectively small, an end to the NK programme would make it even smaller. I suspect the deal will be that NK denuclearizes and China guarantees its security: a non-nuclear NK will be even more of a client state than it is now.
Nuclear competition among the superpowers is quite different and involves a whole set of different issues.

Synoia , March 30, 2018 at 1:18 pm

since one of Trump's salient characteristics is to have no enduring principles

I beg to differ. He most certainly has enduring principles:

1. My Children
2. Me
3. My current wife.
4. My money

The exact order is debatable, situational, and probably not provable.

Edward E , March 31, 2018 at 3:20 pm

5. My Wall

Less warfare = more wall
But remember the last time Trump said something in Syria's favor? A chemical attack happened in small village for no logical reason and the hawks immediately took to framing Assad. Trump then backed off and took harder line on Assad, launching missiles into Syria.

So I'm inclined to think he wants a deal. But look out for screaming hawks immediately trying to scuttle anything.

Tomonthebeach , March 30, 2018 at 2:15 pm

Perhaps 30 years ago, Trump was an international defense luminary, but I see little evidence of the boasted emotional control and cool Trump claimed. He is unarguably a successful grifter. Is that what it takes to make peace? What happens when the other guy realizes he has been lied to by a congenital liar? Back to square 1.

In my take, the recent meeting between the heads of China and N Korea just Trumped any leverage the US might have had in peace talks. Trump will be there only if a scapegoat is needed. Both S. Korea and Japan have expressed doubts about our reliability as a defense shield against powerful China – Japan and the Koreans' neighbor. What Little Rocketman has likely achieved is diplomatically checkmating the US. Now Trump's tariff threats serve only to push US allies in the region closer to China. Should that turn out to be the case, the economic repercussions are as dangerous and unpredictable as nukes in the air or as Trump himself. I sure hope I got this all wrong.

RBHoughton , March 30, 2018 at 7:51 pm

"no enduring principles" is a feature of politicians everywhere today. Their concern is to represent the rich and their qualification is to present those biased arguments in a way that beguiles the electorate into supposing its a good idea for them as well. Step Two is the "who would have thought it?" response after the country catches on.

In former times the candidate for public office would assert his principles on the hustings and the voters would remember what they knew of him before voting. Sure, there were ambitious unreliable people who were willing to exchange their reputations for office but they were few. We should get back to those days.

We allowed our merchants and spooks to drive USSR to the precipice without any thoughts about the nukes they had. It appeared then that warheads supposedly in Ukraine were missing. We will likely discover what happened to them in due course. It is possible that surveillance of communications is the main reason they are not a thread for the time being but that does not mean they have dropped out of existence.

Thank you NC for introducing an issue that should concern economists as much as everyone else.

Coldhearted Liberal , March 30, 2018 at 8:57 pm

North Korea's negotiating position has not really changed with the announcement. They have repeatedly said for years they are willing to agree to denuclearization of the Peninsula in return for security guarantees. I find the media trumpeting this as a new development rather vexing. Anyways, China has been putting the screws on them since about September/October (Apparently, they told Kim Jongun they know they can't overthrow the DPRK government, but they can get rid of him personally), which is also why there have not been any new nuclear tests.

Don't forget the United States has itself promised to denuclearize, under the NPT.

Plenue , March 31, 2018 at 2:08 am

It would certainly bring me great pleasure if Trump of all people were to bring about some great positive change in regards to the Forever War with North Korea. Imagine all the whining liberals if Trump, unlike Obama, actually did something worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize.

Roland , March 31, 2018 at 3:42 pm

I think Yves has got it right: USA threatens PRC with tariffs, so PRC pressures NK to make concessions to the USA. i.e. Two big guys screwing the little guy.

PRC and NK leaders might think that all they have to do is get through a short patch of bad weather until 2020. If so, they are badly kidding themselves.

In the USA, imperialist machtpolitik is a thoroughly bipartisan affair. It doesn't matter how faithfully NK or PRC might fulfill obligations. Trump's successors, whoever they may be, will simply apply more pressure and demand more concessions. They won't stop until somebody else stops them.

[Apr 01, 2018] Russia China are working closely to counter the West for existential threat

Apr 01, 2018 | www.unz.com

TT , March 31, 2018 at 6:19 pm GMT

@Arioch

Russia & China are working closely to counter the West for existential threat, deeper & broader than what your self centered mind can imagine. Russia needs to save Syria for its own skin, and its last ME bastion of influence. When Syria down, Israel & Saudi gas will pipe to EU & cut off Russia lucrative EU gas deal & influence. Iran will be next to attack, hence complete ME oil & gas come under US UK Fr control, which can be utilized to sabotage Russia oil export.

China will be then blackmailed into submission for oil supply. Iran will be surrounded by US allied forces everywhere, fighting West moderate terrorists. Its existential war in Syria against West hedgmon control for Russia, China & Iran, not just propping up Assad. Russia has overwhelming sufficient military capability to fight US allies, backed by war hardened powerful Iran, SAA army, Hezbollah & Iraq Shiah fighters unmatched ground force.

USM knows it can't win such war without nuke, so it has to find either face saving exit or contented with current occupied oil rich land. It got nothing to do with Trumps stupidity to overstretch its military as you imagine.

China has been backing up Russia with big cheque book for last few years, signing hundreds of billions deals with upfront payments to prop Russia economy for prolong war.

Global times news mostly reflected the China think tank policy that they wish to propagate to West English speaking world. China has sensed West is hysteria tightening noose around Russia in EU foolish solitude movement with UK.

When Russia is down, China is next, vice versa. China special force has been operating in Syria to fight terrorists. Lot of weapons ammunition supply to SAA. Lot of money pump in to sustain Syria war & feed millions of Syrians. Who else do you think is paying these bills, West controlled UN Red cross?

Now China is largest economy & market by PPP term, with 50% w/w mfg capacity, its capable to inflict unacceptable damage to US economy in trade war. EU, Japan & Korea all have huge parts export to China for assembly, so none wanted the disastrous trade war that will suck down global trade.

So Trumpets is blowing hot air only to blackmail China, soon it will back down as WH already delay any tariffs to after June, seeking dialogue eagerly with Beijing.

You are just silly self centered like those Russians always throwing allies under bus, hence Russia will find it has no true ally and will forever licking its wounds alone until slaughtered by West.

[Mar 30, 2018] Donald Trump s Appointment Of John Bolton Means Regime Change Is Coming To Iran Sheep Media

Notable quotes:
"... It should also be noted that Bolton is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations , an organization whose members have influenced the state of geopolitics for the last few generations. Bolton was also a member of the neo-conservative, warhawk think tank, "Project for the New American Century," which was enthusiastically promoting the lie about Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction. ..."
"... In 2000, PNAC released a report titled Rebuilding America's Defenses which outlined a strategy of regime change in Iraq and beyond. Under a section titled "Creating Tomorrow's Dominant Force," the think tank wrote the following controversial line: ..."
"... "Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor." ..."
Mar 29, 2018 | asheepnomore.net

Donald Trump's Appointment Of John Bolton Means Regime Change Is Coming To Iran

March 29, 2018 By Sheep Media

This article was written by Derrick Broze and originally published at Activist Post

The latest neo-conservative warmonger to join the Trump Administration does not bode well for the people of Iran.

On Thursday Donald Trump announced that John Bolton, a former official in George W. Bush's administration and former ambassador to the UN, would be his new National Security Advisor. Bolton is a warhawk who called for the invasion of Iraq in search of non-existent weapons of mass destruction and has for years called for the invasion of Iran.

Middle East Eye collected a number of quotes from Bolton over the years that indicate his plans for Iran and other nations viewed as a threat to national security of the U.S. government. And by that I mean the people who secretly wield control of corporate and state power.

In 2009, Bolton said that regime change is "ultimately, the only thing that will stop Iran from getting nuclear weapons." As recent as 2015 Bolton call for a U.S./Israel joint bombing campaign."Such action should be combined with vigorous American support for Iran's opposition, aimed at regime change in Tehran."

Meanwhile, Senator Rand Paul questioned the appointment. "It concerns me that Trump would put someone in charge who is unhinged as far as believing in absolute and total intervention," Paul stated. Bolton's appointment was also criticized by Trita Parsi, leader of the National Iranian American Council.

Further, it seems that Bolton and former Mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani have already promised the regime change would be happening within the next year. "Just eight months ago, at a Paris gathering, Bolton told members of the Iranian exile group, known as the Mujahedeen Khalq, MEK, or People's Mujahedeen, that the Trump administration should embrace their goal of immediate regime change in Iran and recognize their group as a 'viable' alternative," The Intercept reports.

"The behavior and the objectives of the regime are not going to change and, therefore, the only solution is to change the regime itself," newly appointed National Security Advisor John Bolton told the crowd. The Intercept also noted that Iranian expatriate journalist Bahman Kalbasi reported that Bolton ended his talk by promising, "And that's why, before 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran!"

At a recent celebration of the Persian New Year, Rudy Giuliani promised the audience that "if anything, John Bolton has become more determined that there needs to be regime change in Iran, that the nuclear agreement needs to be burned, and that you need to be in charge of that country." Disturbingly, Giuliani reportedly led the crowd in a chant of "regime change!".

It should also be noted that Bolton is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations , an organization whose members have influenced the state of geopolitics for the last few generations. Bolton was also a member of the neo-conservative, warhawk think tank, "Project for the New American Century," which was enthusiastically promoting the lie about Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction.

In 2000, PNAC released a report titled Rebuilding America's Defenses which outlined a strategy of regime change in Iraq and beyond. Under a section titled "Creating Tomorrow's Dominant Force," the think tank wrote the following controversial line:

"Further, the process of transformation, even if it brings revolutionary change, is likely to be a long one, absent some catastrophic and catalyzing event – like a new Pearl Harbor."

Less than a year later, 10 of the 18 men who signed the paper became members of the Bush administration. The attacks of 9/11 would come soon after and the neocons had their "catastrophic and catalyzing event" and an excuse to invade Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, and soon possibly, Iran.

The men included Bush's Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, John Bolton, Zalmay Khalilzad, the White House liaison to the Iraqi opposition; William Kristol, editor of the conservative Weekly Standard magazine, and Richard Perle, chairman of the advisory Defense Science Board.

In addition to the well-known Pearl Harbor quote, the paper goes on to describe the eventual outcome of the initial regime change. "Thus, this report advocates a two-stage process of change – transition and transformation – over the coming decades." If the last 15 years of war, violence, and death in the Middle East have been the "transition" phase, John Bolton and Trump may be preparing to shift gears and move into the "transformation" phase – beginning with the invasion of Iran. However, based on PNAC's track record, they might be looking for a new catastrophic event to generate support for intervention in Iran.

So much for draining the swamp

H/T: Alt- Market.com

[Mar 30, 2018] Bolton Is the Opposite of an 'Honest Broker' The American Conservative

Mar 30, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

Sebastian Rotella reports on how many of the people that worked with Bolton remember his tendency to distort intelligence and ignore facts that contradicted his assumptions:

"Anyone who is so cavalier not just with intelligence, but with facts, and so ideologically driven, is unfit to be national security adviser," said Robert Hutchings, who dealt extensively with Bolton as head of the National Intelligence Council, a high-level agency that synthesizes analysis from across the intelligence community to produce strategic assessments for policymakers. "He's impervious to information that goes against his preconceived ideological views." [bold mine-DL]

That assessment lines up with what I understood about Bolton, and it points to one of the biggest problems with his appointment. I wrote this shortly before Trump announced that he was choosing Bolton:

The real danger is that he is such an ideologue that he would keep information from the president that contradicts his views and prevent Trump from getting the best available advice. Trump is poorly informed to begin with, and having Bolton as his main adviser on matters of national security and foreign policy would make sure that he stays that way.

Trump is especially susceptible to being manipulated by his advisers into endorsing the policies they want because he knows so little and responds so favorably to flattery, and he has shown that he is already more than willing to select a more aggressive option when he is told that it is the "presidential" thing to do. We should expect that Bolton will feed Trump bad or incomplete information, present aggressive options in the most favorable light while dismissing alternatives, and praise Trump's leadership to get him to go along with the hard-line policies Bolton wants. Bolton will run a very distorted policy process and he will be the opposite of an honest broker. That won't serve Trump well, and it will be terrible for our foreign policy.

[Mar 29, 2018] The US and Turkey are entrenched now. The US clearly has no intention of ever leaving.

Notable quotes:
"... Poor Assad. He rules a rump nation, whose huge population is devastated, whose structure and infrastructure is devastated, which is seeded and surrounded with enemies and whose resources have been stolen, whose borders are controlled by others, or deliberately not controlled as the case may be. Assad's Syria may end up looking like a huge Gaza. ..."
"... The US has proven again and again that over time, as the victim state crumbles, it is easier and easier to blame the ruler and the government. ..."
"... Just to remind people's that in 2011 it was Medvedev representative of Russian western oligarchic lobby (friendly with Obama and neocons) in Kremlin who was in charge during Arab Spring. ..."
"... It is well documented fact that Assad pleaded with Medvedev in March 2011 for Moscow to deliver already ordered and paid for in 2008 dozens of new combat helicopters as well as massive amount of parts to refurbish and upgrade Russian made warplanes that were also withheld not to upset Israel and US at that time. ..."
"... None of that happened at that time, while at the same time Quadaffi was thrown under the bus by Russians and Chinese UN non veto of the planned NATO agression on Libya, appeasement or coincidence? ..."
Mar 29, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

paul | Mar 28, 2018 6:42:09 PM | 32

To me, it's the same fairytale nonsense repackaged. The US can say what it wants but the Hegemon got exactly what it wanted out of this war - Syria is like a mouse with its tail under the cat's paw and it thinks it's alllllmoooost free. Russia is hoping the US will throw it a bone after devouring Syria, which it is in no hurry to do. The Hegemon is perfectly happy to keep building bases amongst oil fields while Syria crumbles.

Poor Assad. He rules a rump nation, whose huge population is devastated, whose structure and infrastructure is devastated, which is seeded and surrounded with enemies and whose resources have been stolen, whose borders are controlled by others, or deliberately not controlled as the case may be. Assad's Syria may end up looking like a huge Gaza.

The US has proven again and again that over time, as the victim state crumbles, it is easier and easier to blame the ruler and the government.

Assad's situation is horrific and he can thank Putin for that. Putin delayed entering the war, even though the example of Libya showed clearly what was coming, and when he did enter, he kept declaring peace prematurely, which inevitably allowed the US and its various puppets to reinforce, weapon up, consolidate territory and make new plans.

Mysteriously the enemies of Syria became stronger and stronger as they seemed to be defeated. This was in part because the proxy war slowly morphed into an open war. The US and Turkey are entrenched now. The US clearly has no intention of ever leaving. In fact, the Cat can take the rest of Syria any time it wants. The bear will do nothing. To the bear a mouse is just a mouse after all.

To me, it's the same fairytale nonsense repackaged. The US can say what it wants but the Hegemon got exactly what it wanted out of this war - Syria is like a mouse with its tail under the cat's paw and it thinks it's alllllmoooost free. Russia is hoping the US will throw it a bone after devouring Syria, which it is in no hurry to do. The Hegemon is perfectly happy to keep building bases amongst oil fields while Syria crumbles.

Poor Assad. He rules a rump nation, whose huge population is devastated, whose structure and infrastructure is devastated, which is seeded and surrounded with enemies and whose resources have been stolen, whose borders are controlled by others, or deliberately not controlled as the case may be. Assad's Syria may end up looking like a huge Gaza.

The US has proven again and again that over time, as the victim state crumbles, it is easier and easier to blame the ruler and the government.

Assad's situation is horrific and he can thank Putin for that. Putin delayed entering the war, even though the example of Libya showed clearly what was coming, and when he did enter, he kept declaring peace prematurely, which inevitably allowed the US and its various puppets to reinforce, weapon up, consolidate territory and make new plans.

Mysteriously the enemies of Syria became stronger and stronger as they seemed to be defeated. This was in part because the proxy war slowly morphed into an open war. The US and Turkey are entrenched now. The US clearly has no intention of ever leaving. In fact, the Cat can take the rest of Syria any time it wants. The bear will do nothing. To the bear a mouse is just a mouse after all.

Kalen , Mar 28, 2018 8:32:31 PM | 38
Just seven years past and despite unquestioned positive role that Russian played in Syria mostly to reduce pain and suffering of Syrian people what I read here is unnecessary whitewashing of Russian initial stand that did nothing but encouraged US and NATO gangsters to reek chaos that caused tens of thousands dead and injured

Just to remind people's that in 2011 it was Medvedev representative of Russian western oligarchic lobby (friendly with Obama and neocons) in Kremlin who was in charge during Arab Spring.

It is well documented fact that Assad pleaded with Medvedev in March 2011 for Moscow to deliver already ordered and paid for in 2008 dozens of new combat helicopters as well as massive amount of parts to refurbish and upgrade Russian made warplanes that were also withheld not to upset Israel and US at that time.

Assad was not invited to Moscow at that time while he repeatedly declared that his military will be able to defeat terrorist insurgence financed by the CIA in a matter of weeks if Syrian Army is resupplied and paid for already contracts executed.

None of that happened at that time, while at the same time Quadaffi was thrown under the bus by Russians and Chinese UN non veto of the planned NATO agression on Libya, appeasement or coincidence?

Russian got their pay off for playing western game in MENA when in 2012 Putin was barely elected in a quite ridiculous political charade facing CIA/Soros funded failed Moscow Spring which actually started slippery slope of open western anti-Russian hysterical embellishments.

What was even more puzzling for those not so sophisticated political analysts was Putin inconsistent actions and declarations especially in regard to Syria between 2012 and 2014 when he joined US phony peace talks and calling on Assad removal from his post in a some sort of democratic process only to find out that US do not want peace in Syria but some Saudi run fiefdom friendly to Israel.

The same appeasement to the west was in Putin attitude to Ukraine until 2014 and its 23 millions of ethnic Russians tolerating rapidly growing western financed Nazism as well his tolerance of Russia connected Ukrainian oligarchic theft that plunged the country into economic depression enabling political instability.

At that time Russian minorities in Baltic States were also viciously attacked by security forces as well by discriminating Nuremberg- like laws making them, most born there, second class citizen restricted in ownership and civil rights to organize and to maintain their culture and language.

All those Putin foreign policies of weakness and submission to the west and that included reluctance in approach to alliances with China were in sharp contrast to his extreme push to revamp entire military of Russian with enormous like for Russia military investments and extremely rationalizing it giving them 5 year term to accomplish massive changes while dropping hype about future fancy technologies for simple solutions that effectively will defend the country from western aggression.

Putin knew what was coming so why Kremlin policies of appeasement and hence encouragement of bullying and aggression. Who was really in charge?

In fact Putin reacted only when Russian vital national security was directly threatened in 2014 in Crimea where navy bases are located and in 2015 when he realized that western trained and funded terrorist army commanded by Chechnya Russian speaking terrorists is being prepared to invade Chechnya after Assad was deposed and the only Mediterranean navy base was threatened.

As always in history policy of appeasement of a bully leads to the same thing ultimate confrontation, more delayed more costly it is.

So is Putin as Xi for that matter is about to submit their nations to the western oligarchy even more for their personal advancement at the global oligarchic table or they split which means war.

I do not think war is coming they have too good thing going and their power is not threatened by the enslaved people.

[Mar 29, 2018] US political "top" certainly is not ready since they don't have competent enough people to recognize a disaster before it buries them. US military people certainly know the score but, as history teaches, in the times when US military has bad news--it is next to impossible to communicate it to the political top.

Mar 29, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

SmoothieX12 | Mar 28, 2018 3:19:25 PM | 3

The question remains: Is Washington prepared to accept its defeat and acknowledge that it has lost control of the world and pull out of Syria?

US political "top" certainly is not ready since they don't have competent enough people to recognize a disaster before it buries them. US military people certainly know the score but, as history teaches, in the times when US military has bad news--it is next to impossible to communicate it to the political top. In general, American "elites" do not have a grasp of the nature of the military power nor of its application.

That is why they are dangerous, not to mention that many of them have a proud history of draft dodging and egos larger than cathedral.

This all, against the background of a dramatic, precipitous really, decline of the always not very "intellectual" level of American power elites in the last 20 or so years. But then again, unprecedented anti-Russian hysteria in the West is a good indication that they are cornered.

[Mar 29, 2018] The question remains: Is Washington prepared to accept its defeat and acknowledge that it has lost control of the world and pull out of Syria?

I do not understand why the USA lost in Syria: the destruction of the country was goal and it is fully achieved... Partitioning is half-achieved. Jihadists were expandable from the very beginning. And it was Saudi who paid for their training and their salaries.
And how Putin can came back fighting having such a week hand: a sing country against a string Western alliance.
Mar 29, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Excellent article by Garrie regarding the Kim/Xi summit, complete with links to the full English language press releases by China, giving strong grounds for optimism.

Yes, Taiwan is the big pain, but it will always be Chinese and eventually return to its former status prior to 1949.

The Outlaw US Empire is unable to overcome the Eurasian Alliance currently being formed in virtually every possible sector--vision, resource base, financial, cultural, diplomatic, and military; especially their philosophy for providing for their citizenry and treatment of other nations. As one born within the Outlaw US Empire, far more opportunity and the promise of enhanced wellbeing exits in Eurasian Alliance nations than the declining Empire and most of its vassals. There is an alternative, so we refuse to assimilate into Borg.

Posted by: karlof1 | Mar 28, 2018 5:11:08 PM | 16 VK , Mar 28, 2018 5:15:42 PM | 18

The question remains: Is Washington prepared to accept its defeat and acknowledge that it has lost control of the world and pull out of Syria?

The UK, refusing to accept the loss of its imperial status, caused two World Wars, in vain: Germany still rose as the European superpower (only with 150 years delay) and the USA occupied the vacuum and became the sole capitalist superpower (later, the absolute superpower).

I hope, for the sake of humankind, that USA is more gratious.

Kitty , Mar 28, 2018 5:19:23 PM | 20
I don't understand why Putin doesn't come back fighting. Whilst the West sinks to gutter levels throwing every insult imaginable, blatantly lying and demonising Russia and especially Putin, somehow Russia remains dignified and tries to resolve things through the proper channels. Isn't it time they realised there is no reasoning with the West, they have to play dirty and beat them at their own game, They must have all kinds of dirt on the West . When will the gloves come off?

[Mar 28, 2018] redmudhooch

Mar 28, 2018 | www.unz.com

says: March 28, 2018 at 1:28 am GMT 200 Words @L.K Michael Scheuer may be better than the avg but he is still much LESS than honest when he talks about the wars in Iraq and Syria.

The reality is that ISIS, Al Qaeda in Syria(formerly known as Nusra Front) & all other Salafist groups which were, from day one, the real "rebel" fighting forces on the ground, were created/funded and armed by the ZUS led coalition, in order to overthrow the Syrian government & justify US meddling in Iraq and Syria. There is plenty of evidence for this, and yet M. Scheuer does not have much to say about it.
From Prof. Anderson's book "The Dirty War on Syria", we read:

In mid-2012, US intelligence reported two important facts about the violence in Syria.
Firstly, most of the armed 'insurgency' was being driven by extremist al Qaeda groups, and second, the sectarian aim of those groups was 'exactly' what the US and its allies wanted .
The DIA(Defense Intelligence Agency) wrote:
'The Salafist, the Muslim Brotherhood and AQI are the major forces driving the insurgency in Syria There is the possibility of establishing a declared or undeclared Salafist principality in eastern Syria (Hasaka and Der Zor), and this is exactly what the supporting powers [The West, Gulf monarchies and Turkey] to the [Syrian] opposition want, in order to isolate the Syrian regime' (DIA 2012).
The US also observed (and certainly did not stop) the channelling of arms from Benghazi
in Libya to 'al Qaeda groups' in Syria, in August 2012.
New Evidence US Backed ISIS - Ron Paul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo2GYQxopbM

Ex-DIA boss Michael Flynn: White House took "willful decision" to fund, train Syria Islamists ISIS
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccdeANvo2bg Agreed, no doubt ISIS was US/Israeli and probably many others creation. Probably many more groups have spawned from the original that we don't know of. No telling how many different states and corporations are funding these mercenary psychos for their own gain. I won't pretend to know everything that goes on over there, I try my best with the little time I have to keep up with the madness.
It would be nice if he or someone with inside info. and credibility would spill the beans on 9/11, he seems to walk a strait line when it comes to that issue too, maybe he just isn't ready to be involuntarily suicided.. He is pretty brave to rip into Israel the way he does.
He seems like a pretty honest well meaning dude. One of the few I've heard that I trust.

Sad but true:
FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States

https://www.theonion.com/fbi-uncovers-al-qaeda-plot-to-just-sit-back-and-enjoy-c-1819576375 Read More Replies: @ChuckOrloski redmudhooch wrote on: "FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States."

Hi redmudhooch,

Thanks for posting this!

The strategy makes perfect sense.

F.Y.I., Solzhenitsyn described a traditional Russian proverb on a person's natural eagerness to take revenge upon a bad other who does harm to a community.

The proverb goes like this : "Never interfere with someone powerful & bad because they are in the process of destroying themselves." Reply Agree/Disagree/Etc. More... This Commenter This Thread Hide Thread Display All Comments


denk , Next New Comment March 28, 2018 at 2:15 am GMT

Time for a UN resolution to bomb Langey, Pentagon .

https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/03/04/us-meddling-foreign-elections-cia-tradition-since-1948.html

Anon [425] Disclaimer , Website Next New Comment March 28, 2018 at 2:23 am GMT
How does someone become like Brennan?

Just naked obsession with Power? There's no rhyme or reason to his worldview except lust for power and control.

ChuckOrloski , March 28, 2018 at 10:52 am GMT
@redmudhooch

redmudhooch wrote on: "FBI Uncovers Al-Qaeda Plot To Just Sit Back And Enjoy Collapse Of United States."

Hi redmudhooch,

Thanks for posting this!

The strategy makes perfect sense.

F.Y.I., Solzhenitsyn described a traditional Russian proverb on a person's natural eagerness to take revenge upon a bad other who does harm to a community.

The proverb goes like this : "Never interfere with someone powerful & bad because they are in the process of destroying themselves."

[Mar 27, 2018] John Bolton Tapped for NSA What Does It Mean for US-Russia Relations

Mar 27, 2018 | www.strategic-culture.org

John Bolton Tapped for NSA: What Does It Mean for US-Russia Relations?

John Bolton, a Yale-educated lawyer known as a foreign policy hawk , has been appointed National Security Adviser (NSA), in a major reshuffle of President Trump's administration. He officially takes office on April 9. No Senate confirmation is required. Welcome back, Mr. Straight Talker!

Mr. Bolton has a long history of government service, including in the positions of Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and ambassador to the UN, the organization he once described as "no such thing" and wants to be defunded . John Bolton scorns international institutions and does not believe that engaging much with the world is in keeping with US interests.

This soon-to-be NSA is an experienced lawyer and "think tanker," as well as a foreign-policy pundit who has written a multitude of books and articles. He's a deft and ready speaker whose gift of gab can win over an audience at any time. The National Security Advisor-designate even considered entering the presidential races in 2012 and 2016.

In his frequent television commentaries , Mr. Bolton has always advocated tough approaches and never missed an opportunity to support using force rather than wasting time on fruitless diplomacy. For instance, he has advocated for a military option to solve the problem with North Korea and for boosting cooperation with Taiwan in order to irk China. He takes a very hard line on Iran. " To stop Iran's bomb, bomb Iran ," sums up his position.

Mr. Bolton believes the JCPOA was a blunder. He wants the US to push Iran out of Syria and topple President Assad's Tehran-friendly government. With his appointment, the chances of the US certifying the Iran nuclear deal appear to be somewhere between zero and zilch. Mr. Bolton has always been pro-Israel and backed the idea of a unilateral Israeli strike against Iran to knock out the facilities there related to its nuclear program.

The late Jesse Helms, a well-known hawk, once claime d Mr. Bolton would be the right man "to stand with at Armageddon."

The newest appointee has championed the idea of raising tariffs to unleash trade wars.

With these two very hawkish Republicans -- John Bolton and Mike Pompeo -- Donald Trump will be under strong pressure to adopt a get-tough approach to all major issues. Gina Haspel, another hawk, will have frequent access to Donald Trump in her role as the newly appointed CIA director. The spirit of Barry Goldwater lives on.

John Bolton has always been critical of Moscow and it is almost unanimously believed that his appointment does not augur well for US-Russia relations.

In response to President Putin's speech in which he unveiled the existence of his new super weapons, Bolton emphasized the need for "a strategic response ." He has called on NATO to offer a strong reaction to what is known as the Scripal case, expressing his conviction that the POTUS was considering such a response. The latest choice for National Security Advisor endorses the idea of providing Ukraine with lethal weapons and wants the West to take a much tougher stance on Russia. John Bolton will certainly advocate for expediting Georgia's and Ukraine's membership in the North Atlantic alliance, as well as granting those nations the status of Major Non–NATO ally of the US.

He strongly criticized President Obama's "reset policy." Yet despite all that, he never launched personal attacks against Vladimir Putin. He always seemed to genuinely enjoy his visits to Russia, including press conferences and visits to think tanks. Despite his tough talk, he has always been amicable and ready to communicate. He has a long list of personal acquaintances, including many in senior government positions and academia. John Bolton worked with Sergey Kiriyenko, Russia's First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration, back when the latter headed Russia's State Commission on Chemical Disarmament.

Mr. Bolton is an experienced negotiator on strategic arms-control issues. John Bolton was a strong advocate of the US withdrawal from the 1972 BM Treaty. He took part in the talks over the 2002 Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT) that was in effect until the New START went into force. John Bolton sees the New START as a unilateral disarmament agreement that is at odds with US interests. President Trump has also decried that treaty.

Being a hawk does not make him a hopeless prospect. He views the interests of his nation in his own way, but he wants America to lead, not perish in a war it can't win. His experience in strategic arms talks is invaluable. Mr. Bolton has a good understanding of security-related issues.

In 1980, Ronald Reagan was a Russia hawk, a tough guy no one could make a deal with. Remember his " joke " about dropping bombs on the USSR in five minutes? Or his "Evil Empire" speech? During his second term, the landmark INF Treaty was signed and the friendly environment of the US-USSR summits were proof that that bilateral relationship had clearly evolved beyond its Cold War roots.

The former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev believes that "He has already entered history as a man who was instrumental in bringing about the end of the Cold War." President Reagan ended the Cold War and made it possible to ease the nuclear tensions in the 1990s.

Agreements will remain elusive on many issues and negotiations on some key matters may even break down, but dialog on arms control will probably continue because it meets vital US interests and Mr. Bolton knows that well.

In the end, the decisions are made by the president, and while advisers may have influence, they only advise. President Trump has many people around him to help him see issues from different viewpoints.

Tags: NSA Bolton

[Mar 27, 2018] Here's John Bolton Promising Regime Change in Iran by the End of 2018

Mar 27, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Richardstevenhack Reply 26 March 2018 at 06:35 PM

Humans are primates. Thus, they are stupid, ignorant, malicious and fearful - mostly the latter. Pretty much explains everything in human history.

I subscribe to the concept of survival at any cost. But in a rational society that would entail being aware of the long-term consequences. This, however, is not a rational society.

Off topic - or maybe not given the topic of human heartlessness - here we have John Bolton:

Here's John Bolton Promising Regime Change in Iran by the End of 2018
https://theintercept.com/2018/03/23/heres-john-bolton-promising-regime-change-iran-end-2018/

Apparently he told the M.E.K. cult that the US would end Iran's leadership before the 40 year anniversary which is February 11, 2019.

That of course is absurd unless somehow the US manages to decapitate the Iranian leadership with an airstrike or nuclear attack. What actually will happen if the US attacks Iran is that Iran will fight for the next several decades until the US backs off. There is no chance short of nuclear bombardment for the US to "defeat" Iran. The US couldn't even "defeat" Iraq in less than five years and hasn't defeated the Taliban in Afghanistan in 17 years. Iran will be a far harder nut to crack than either of those.

Lobe Log has published a "John Bolton: The Essential Profile" which covers this lunatic.
http://lobelog.com/john-bolton-the-essential-profile/

Of note in that piece is how many diplomats both within the US State Department and the EU explicitly state they can't stand the guy.

[Mar 25, 2018] Erdogan is making progress toward ... What

Notable quotes:
"... So in the end the question boils down to: what will Russia do? Putin has a tendency to make asymmetric moves before committing to military action, and these are by definition hard to predict. While he is also cautious, he is also firm - so if Turkey manages to annex large portions of Syria, he is likely to respond to the exact degree that he sees these acts damaging Russian interests, if not so much Syria's interests. So the question will be how much does Putin think Turkey annexing parts of Syria actually damages Russian interests? ..."
"... Getting to politics for a moment, I read a lot of anti-Trump comments from people who were his supporters, angry over the recent spending. Bolton is not popular amongst the Trump base, actually that's a bit of an understatement. These mid-terms are set to give surprising results IMHO Americans do NOT want another war, they don't want more Neocons, and they don't want Socialists either. The Democrats have no clear direction (when they are asking Biden of all people to make a run for President you know they have run right out of ideas). I expect to see a rise of alternative candidates flowing into the political vacuum... probably isolationist, anti-immigration, anti-war, and perhaps even anti-deficit. ..."
"... The trouble with "simplistic pragmatism" is that humans and their motivations are not simple and their actions are seldom as simple as posited by economic determinism. Economic determinism as a badly flawed tool in analysis. ..."
"... Neutralizing the Kurds would be one more minority eliminated. Only more powerful nation states can stop him. Since Israel's and the USA's intention is permanent tribal warfare to divide Muslims; that leaves Russia or an Iraq and Iran alliance which both have Kurd problems themselves. ..."
"... The USA is sitting on an oil field in the middle of the Syrian desert by itself with Kurds heading home for the final battle with Turkey and the Euphrates Valley full of true believers that can only be controlled by a legitimate even-handed secular national police and army. We are in a World War right now. The world is one mistake or one first strike away from a nuclear war. ..."
"... The tribe is driven far more by the emotions, and sometimes by economic determinism, but rarely by reason. ..."
"... If we invaded Iraq for the oil, we sure f'd up. We surely didn't invade Iraq to remove Iran's main enemy, but we managed that too. ..."
Mar 25, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

The author of this piece agrees with my position that Turkey will not be leaving northern Syria unless forced to do so. Any number of crafty ploys are available to insure an indefinite presence leading in the end to a request from a puppet government for annexation to Turkey. The same thing is very likely to occur in northern Iraq.

What will Russia, Iran and the US do about such a progression of events? They are likely to do nothing. Inaction is always probable when larger issues of international economics and great power rivalries are barriers to action. pl

https://southfront.org/victories-and-diplomacy-of-turkey-what-to-expect-next/

Posted at 10:53 AM in Iraq , Middle East , Syria , Turkey | Permalink


JamesT , 25 March 2018 at 11:22 AM

Looking at a SouthFront video of Turkish Armed Forces progress in northern Syria, I found it discomforting how close the TAF appeared to Aleppo.
kemerd , 25 March 2018 at 12:34 PM
Apparently, Erdogan wants appoint a governor to Afrin, so yes he intends to stay there for long
james , 25 March 2018 at 01:09 PM
pat, that sounds like how turkey got hatay province in a roundabout way... it sure seems like ottoman dreams in sultan erdogans head, supported by a number of voters in apk..

i don't know that russia will be happy with erdogans 'moderate headchoppers' still acting on behalf of turkey either... the usa will probably remain happy so long as turkey doesn't try to interfere in project east of the euphrates kurdistan although i had seen an article they are in manjib at present, to show there support for the kurds/israel, lol..

Richardstevenhack , 25 March 2018 at 01:55 PM
The US won't act because they'd prefer to see Syria broken up. Iran doesn't have the standing to act and no capability to act militarily. Syria won't try to use military force because it can't compete with Turkey's military might.

That leaves Russia, which is supposedly committed to insuring the sovereignty of Syria. Russia can bring the issue up in the UNSC, but the US is likely to veto anything they propose. Russia doesn't want a war with Turkey (and vice versa), so military action is likely to be very much a last resort.

However, Putin has some leverage in Turkey, such as the S-400 sales as well as sanctions such as were taken after the shoot down of the Russian jet by Turkey. Whether this can be enough to force Turkey out of Syria is unclear, and perhaps unlikely.

Iraq is in a different position. There, Iran might have some say, albeit again not militarily, unless Iran tries to use Iraq's military against the Turks, which I find unlikely. I suspect Iran doesn't really care if Turkey takes over northern Iraq and puts down the Kurds since Iran has its own conflicts with those Kurds, having shelled them in the past.

Iraq will care because of the lost oil revenue if the Turks seize the northern oil fields and may try some military action, but that is likely to merely force Turkey to commit more troops. The US is likely to try to persuade Iraq not to turn this into full-scale war.

The real issue with Syria is how things play out after ISIS and Al Qaeda have finally been reduced to a minor terrorist group status. The question is what moves can Russia and to a lesser degree Syria and Iran make to force Turkey out. While there are probably a number of harassing moves they can make (what I mean by harassing moves are things like Russian sanctions.), in the end there are only three possible outcomes:

1) Harassing moves become expensive for Turkey, so it retreats.
2) Turkey does not retreat and the Three Amigos forego military action and give up harassing moves.
3) The Three Amigos ramp up full-scale military action forcing Turkey either into retreat or full-scale regional war.

In the latter case, I think Russia, Syria and Iran could make things hot enough for Turkey to retreat, if not actually defeat Turkey militarily. However, Turkey being a NATO member, this gives the US another shot at intervening on Turkey's side against Syria, which the US would be happy to do, depending on how much direct conflict with Russia that might entail.

So in the end the question boils down to: what will Russia do? Putin has a tendency to make asymmetric moves before committing to military action, and these are by definition hard to predict. While he is also cautious, he is also firm - so if Turkey manages to annex large portions of Syria, he is likely to respond to the exact degree that he sees these acts damaging Russian interests, if not so much Syria's interests. So the question will be how much does Putin think Turkey annexing parts of Syria actually damages Russian interests?

Tel , 25 March 2018 at 04:37 PM
Owning Kurdish territory is really about getting rich from oil revenue and Turkey has excellent infrastructure to achieve that, so yes they have every reason to stay. Put that together with Erdogan's self aggrandizing and he will not be able to resist the lure of both fame and fortune. He'll never give it back.

As a side effect, this also creates a unified Kurdistan. A wise Sultan could offer this as a bargaining chip: Kurds get sufficient autonomy and democratic elections within their own cultural group; while the Sultanate takes a largish share of the oil revenue. An uneasy but stable truce could come out of this. In the short term, let us see how well Turkish troops are respecting Kurdish civilians in Afrin. The news has been uncomfortably dark since the Turks took over. If the Kurds believe they will be massacred like the Armenians were, then they have no choice but to keep fighting to the bitter end, which could get ugly.

Iran would flip out if Turkish troops cross the border into Kurdish parts of Iran, so I don't expect such provocation (at least, not soon, perhaps later).

Baghdad will no doubt be angry about losing oil revenue to Turkey, but what can they do about it? They will complain, maybe move some troops around as a show, try not to lose too much territory but otherwise put up with it.

As for the USA... well if US troops ever clash with Turks that would be a perfect time for Trump to declare the finish of NATO. He talked about it, the Turks have done nothing to endear themselves with either America or Europe, and the EU has become pretty much a deadweight drain on US resources. Maybe better for everyone.

Getting to politics for a moment, I read a lot of anti-Trump comments from people who were his supporters, angry over the recent spending. Bolton is not popular amongst the Trump base, actually that's a bit of an understatement. These mid-terms are set to give surprising results IMHO Americans do NOT want another war, they don't want more Neocons, and they don't want Socialists either. The Democrats have no clear direction (when they are asking Biden of all people to make a run for President you know they have run right out of ideas). I expect to see a rise of alternative candidates flowing into the political vacuum... probably isolationist, anti-immigration, anti-war, and perhaps even anti-deficit.

turcopolier , 25 March 2018 at 05:06 PM
tel

Just can't escape that economic determinism can you? pl

Tel , 25 March 2018 at 05:33 PM
In a random universe, all strategies are as good as each other because no matter what you do the result is still completely random.

I don't believe in a random universe. There are some monks and ascetics who would walk past a pile of money on the table, uninterested in taking it up. Perhaps there are some retired old men who have come to value peace and quiet more than anything else. Erdogan is none of those things, he is attracted to both wealth and power.

Tel , 25 March 2018 at 05:50 PM
On the topic of determinism, not specifically the Middle East, but does explain a lot about what goes on in the Middle East, and a great general purpose framework as well:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rStL7niR7gs

I know there's additional nuance you can add to that, but even if you don't like the simplistic pragmatism you can't avoid some of the basic conclusions here. It also explains why Trump's pivot towards the Neocons is largely a sign of weakness.

turcopolier , 25 March 2018 at 05:51 PM
tel

"some retired old men" Yes, I have long been senile and other worldly. I am well known to be so. Actually, my objection is not that you think money and greed are important but that you think it determines the fate of nations. Have you taken the MBTI? Be honest. pl

turcopolier , 25 March 2018 at 06:00 PM
tel

The trouble with "simplistic pragmatism" is that humans and their motivations are not simple and their actions are seldom as simple as posited by economic determinism. Economic determinism as a badly flawed tool in analysis.

Was the VN War about a US attempt to seize the rubber plantations and fish sauce factories of VN? I suppose you think the US invaded Iraq for its oil. Your remark about Trump and the neocons is incomprehensible. pl

VietnamVet , 25 March 2018 at 06:24 PM
Colonel,

The Middle East is engulfed by tribal-mob wars sponsored by the Superpowers. Since the coup attempt and German withdrawal; joining Europe is not an option for Turkey. Recep Tayyip Erdogan will take and keep what he can. Neutralizing the Kurds would be one more minority eliminated. Only more powerful nation states can stop him. Since Israel's and the USA's intention is permanent tribal warfare to divide Muslims; that leaves Russia or an Iraq and Iran alliance which both have Kurd problems themselves.

The USA is sitting on an oil field in the middle of the Syrian desert by itself with Kurds heading home for the final battle with Turkey and the Euphrates Valley full of true believers that can only be controlled by a legitimate even-handed secular national police and army. We are in a World War right now. The world is one mistake or one first strike away from a nuclear war.

The Western Empire directed by corporate oligarchs is intent on flushing nation states down the drain. Yet, the Apocalypse can only be prevented by a Global Peace Treaty signed by the Middle East Nations and the Superpowers including Russia, China, European Union and the United States.

turcopolier , 25 March 2018 at 06:48 PM
VV

IMO neo-Ottoman irredentism is not "sponsored" by the superpowers. It is sui generis. pl

Peter VE -> turcopolier ... , 25 March 2018 at 06:50 PM
"Yes, I have long been senile and other worldly." If your current sharp wit and understanding of the world represents you in your dotage, I should not have to liked to spar with you when your were younger and more aware....

On the larger point which you are making, I have come to realize that we are ruled far more by our emotions than by the rationality we pretend to follow. Individuals act for personal reasons, which can include venality and emotion, as well as rationality. The tribe is driven far more by the emotions, and sometimes by economic determinism, but rarely by reason.

If we invaded Iraq for the oil, we sure f'd up. We surely didn't invade Iraq to remove Iran's main enemy, but we managed that too.

[Mar 25, 2018] Kunds are just a Trujan horse for keepin half of Syria petroleum reserves under the USA control. T

Notable quotes:
"... The trouble with bunker-bases is that everyone knows where they are and can circumvent them until the nuisance effect becomes overwhelming, leaving no sensible option other than to destroy them. If there's any logic to this strategy, it's way over my head... ..."
"... Your description reminds me of the Maginot Line and the "island" firebases used in Vietnam. But judging from what's being offloaded in Jordan, it looks like the Outlaw US Empire's offensive will come from there. Russia is also pouring in men and equipment. ..."
"... The rhetorical diplomatic screws are being tightened rapidly by Russia too--Outlaw US Empire's been formally accused of abetting terrorism at the recent meet at MoFA, which I linked to on open thread. ..."
"... There is no such a thing as "Kurdistan," especially in Syria, where only 6% of the population was Kurdish in 2010. Estimates today are as high as 10%, what with all the "immigrants" from Turkey, where 1/2 of all the world's Kurdish people live. Even in Iraq where there are far more Kurds than in Syria, and US/Israeli influence had permitted the creation of a Kurdish semi-autonomous region, when the Barzani gang bit off more than they could chew several months back, Iraqi forces moved in and shut that thing down. ..."
"... And there is no way the people of Syria are going to accept 6% of their population to declare 1/3 of the country (including 1/2 of its petroleum resources) a separate "Kurdistan." ..."
"... Personally, I'm ambivalent about the Kurds. But history is clear that the AAZ Empire uses and abuses them for Empire's geopolitical goals. President Assad has been remarkably patient with the Syrian Kurds, so I hope they realize they're best off realigning with their country, now that Turkey is showing them exactly how important they are to the Empire. ie. "we hope Turkey kills the minimum number of innocent Kurdish civilians." ..."
Mar 25, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Hoarsewhisperer , Mar 25, 2018 8:03:52 PM | 24

I'm increasingly mystified by the rumors(?) that the US has circa 20 military bases inside Syria. Do the Yanks not understand that all of Syria is within easy range of cruise missiles launched from Russia?

Can they not see that this base & bunker mentality, borrowed from their idiotically fruitless AfPak campaign, is a disaster waiting to happen?

The trouble with bunker-bases is that everyone knows where they are and can circumvent them until the nuisance effect becomes overwhelming, leaving no sensible option other than to destroy them. If there's any logic to this strategy, it's way over my head...

Don Bacon , Mar 25, 2018 8:34:04 PM | 25
@HW 24
Perhaps twenty US bases is high, but there is evidence of at least a dozen with ~1,500 troops. Most of the bases are in Kurdistan as shown here .
karlof1 , Mar 25, 2018 8:56:38 PM | 26
Hoarsewhisperer @24--

Your description reminds me of the Maginot Line and the "island" firebases used in Vietnam. But judging from what's being offloaded in Jordan, it looks like the Outlaw US Empire's offensive will come from there. Russia is also pouring in men and equipment.

The rhetorical diplomatic screws are being tightened rapidly by Russia too--Outlaw US Empire's been formally accused of abetting terrorism at the recent meet at MoFA, which I linked to on open thread.

Daniel , Mar 25, 2018 10:32:33 PM | 33
Apparently not needless to say, the Pentagon has not provided a map of the military bases they illegally constructed in Syria. Turkey did release such a map last year, and Don provides that snippet. This site shows those bases over the whole of Syria, including at al Tanf.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/is-the-expanding-u-s-military-presence-in-syria-legal/

Yes, the illegal US bases Turkey revealed were almost all in the region east/north of the Euphrates River that is clearly being promoted as one of those impotent statelets if the AAZ Empire succeeds in destroying the sovereign country of Syria.

There is no such a thing as "Kurdistan," especially in Syria, where only 6% of the population was Kurdish in 2010. Estimates today are as high as 10%, what with all the "immigrants" from Turkey, where 1/2 of all the world's Kurdish people live. Even in Iraq where there are far more Kurds than in Syria, and US/Israeli influence had permitted the creation of a Kurdish semi-autonomous region, when the Barzani gang bit off more than they could chew several months back, Iraqi forces moved in and shut that thing down.

And there is no way the people of Syria are going to accept 6% of their population to declare 1/3 of the country (including 1/2 of its petroleum resources) a separate "Kurdistan."

Personally, I'm ambivalent about the Kurds. But history is clear that the AAZ Empire uses and abuses them for Empire's geopolitical goals. President Assad has been remarkably patient with the Syrian Kurds, so I hope they realize they're best off realigning with their country, now that Turkey is showing them exactly how important they are to the Empire. ie. "we hope Turkey kills the minimum number of innocent Kurdish civilians."

[Mar 25, 2018] Watching videos of the "rebels" boarding the busses in East Ghouta, I saw a LOT of White helmets guys wandering around. As usual, they fled with the moderate headchoppers

Mar 25, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Daniel , Mar 25, 2018 5:52:36 PM | 22

Watching videos of the "rebels" boarding the busses in East Ghouta, I saw a LOT of White helmets guys wandering around. As usual, they fled with the moderate headchoppers.

But I noticed a LOT of guys in sparkling, new purple costumes assisting the retreat, so I enlarged a screen shot and saw they are another NGO called "Violet Syria."

So, I went to their website, and followed links to their "partners" and sure enough, all Western-funded "color revolution" types.

Violet Syria was founded in 2014 in Turkey, just as White helmets had been a year earlier. Their sponsors include the International Rescue Committee, whose President and CEO is David Miliband, a former Foreign Secretary of the United Kingdom.

This group may deserve a more thorough investigation.

[Mar 25, 2018] Hawks Always Fail Upwards by Daniel Larison

This is about American Imperialism and MIC. Neocons are just well-laid MIC lobbyists. Some like Bolton are pretty talented guys. Some like Max Boot are simply stupid.
Notable quotes:
"... What sort of political system allows someone with his views to serve in high office, where he helps talk the country into a disastrous war, never expresses a moment's regret for his errors, continues to advocate for more of the same for the next decade, and then gets a second chance to make the same mistakes again? [bold mine-DL] ..."
"... So by all means worry. But the real problem isn't Bolton -- it's a system that permits people like him to screw up and move up again and again. ..."
"... National Review ..."
Mar 25, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

The conclusion of Stephen Walt's column on John Bolton is exactly right:

Don't get me wrong: I'm not trying to "normalize" this appointment or suggest that it shouldn't concern you. Rather, I'm suggesting that if you are worried about Bolton, you should ask yourself the following question: What sort of political system allows someone with his views to serve in high office, where he helps talk the country into a disastrous war, never expresses a moment's regret for his errors, continues to advocate for more of the same for the next decade, and then gets a second chance to make the same mistakes again? [bold mine-DL]

So by all means worry. But the real problem isn't Bolton -- it's a system that permits people like him to screw up and move up again and again.

There is a strong bias in our foreign policy debates in favor of "action," no matter how stupid or destructive that action proves to be. That is one reason why reflexive supporters of an activist foreign policy will never have to face the consequences of the policies they support. Bolton has thrived as an advocate of hard-line policies precisely because he fills the assigned role of the fanatical warmonger, and there is always a demand for someone to fill that role. His fanaticism doesn't discredit him, because it is eminently useful to his somewhat less fanatical colleagues. That is how he can hang around long enough until there is a president ignorant enough to think that he is qualified to be a top adviser.

Bolton will also have reliable supporters in the conservative movement that will make excuses for the inexcusable. National Review recently published an article by David French in defense of Bolton whose conclusion was that we should "give a hawk a chance." Besides being evasive and dishonest about just how fanatical Bolton is, the article was an effort to pretend that Iraq war supporters should be given another chance to wreck U.S. foreign policy again. It may be true that Bolton's views are "in the mainstream of conservative foreign-policy thought," but that is an indictment of the so-called "mainstream" that is being represented. Bolton has been wrong about every major foreign policy issue of the last twenty years. If that doesn't disqualify you from holding a high-ranking government position, what does?

Hawks have been given a chance to run our foreign policy every day for decades on end, and they have failed numerous times at exorbitant cost. Generic hawks don't deserve a second chance after the last sixteen-plus years of failure and disaster, and fanatical hard-liners like Bolton never deserved a first chance.

French asserts that Bolton is "not extreme," but that raises the obvious question: compared to what?Bolton has publicly, repeatedly urged the U.S. government to launch illegal preventive wars against Iran and North Korea, and that just scratches the surface of his fanaticism. That strikes me as rather extreme, and that is why so many people are disturbed by the Bolton appointment. If he isn't "extreme" even by contemporary movement conservative standards, who is? How psychopathic would one need to be to be considered extreme in French's eyes? If movement conservatives can't see why Bolton is an unacceptable and outrageous choice for National Security Advisor, they are so far gone that there is nothing to be done for them and no point in listening to anything they have to say.

[Mar 25, 2018] The USA will keep dispensing tows to the Saudis for those moderate head choppers in Daraa and etc

Mar 24, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

janes 24 March 2018 at 04:08 PM

lol... americans are sore losers.. as b mentions in the syria post - they will keep dispensing tows to the saudis for those moderate headchoppers in daraa and etc... bolt-on might be able to grow a mustache like a russian, but he can't play chess like a russian!

[Mar 25, 2018] John Bolton is in all likelihood a Zionist asset due to the Israelis having some very powerful kompromat on him

Mar 25, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Outrage Beyond , 23 March 2018 at 09:04 AM

John Bolton is in all likelihood a Zionist asset due to the Israelis having some very powerful kompromat on him.

Numerous sources allege that Bolton forced his wife (now ex-wife) into group sex at a swinger's club. Did someone get it on film, tape, or some other recording media?

Given the extreme fervor of Bolton's Zionism, the answer seems obvious.

Dr. Puck -> LondonBob... , 23 March 2018 at 12:14 PM
Bolton, to me, is worse than McMaster, is decidedly a neocon, and may well end up being the intellectual impetus behind a shiny new war in the ME or the Korean peninsula.

Although Trump the candidate offered a sketch of his FP views, including his well known declaration about the catastrophic Iraq war, today one can itemize where the US military is currently robustly engaged.

If Bolton can dial back his hawkishness with respect to Russia, not mention--too much--Iraq, he and POTUS may likely find alignment about which will be the first regime to be targeted by our standoff capabilities. imao

Anna -> falcemartello ... , 23 March 2018 at 03:01 PM
Bolton is a dead hand of Cheney. "They are dead before they go..."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0Wn3Eey6dY
catherine -> semiconscious... , 23 March 2018 at 03:02 PM
I agree, people shouldn't imply, they should say straight out what they think.
So allow me.

It appears that the uber Israeli Sheldon Adelson who was the largest campaign donor to Trump and Nikki Haley and also employs John Bolton is dictating US policy to Trump.

If it trots and barks like an Adelson, then its a Adelson poddle.

https://www.politico.com/story/2017/10/13/nikki-haley-trump-iran-whisperer-243772

[Mar 25, 2018] Don't forget that Bolton was the one who immediately blamed the Hariri assassination on Syria

Mar 25, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Petri Krohn | Mar 24, 2018 11:37:39 AM | 79

@Rusty Pipes , Mar 24, 2018 8:09:45 AM | 75

Don't forget that Bolton was the one who immediately blamed the Hariri assassination on Syria.

Immediately assigning blame is one of the signs of a false-flag operation. If Mossad killed Hariri, Bolton would know about it. He would also know if Mossad whacked the Skripals.

The political dividing line in America may not be Left vs. Right or Democrats vs. Republicans or anti-war vs. pro-war but Russiagate believers vs. realist who know it is all a false-flag.

Thierry Meyssan believes that Rex Tillerson fell for the Skripal hoax and that is why Trump fired him. I said something similar here on MoA

[Mar 25, 2018] Basically McMaster started clearing out the Israel Zios in the department ...including several who violate security rules on top secret info

Mar 24, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

catherine -> Barbara Ann ... , 24 March 2018 at 04:32 PM

Thanks for link. What they are talking about is the ZOA report on why McMaster should be fired
Here is the full..and very long report.

https://zoa.org/2017/08/10371905-zoa-nscs-mcmaster-reassign-him-to-area-not-dealing-with-israel-or-iran/

Basically McMaster started clearing out the Israel Zios in the department ...including several who violate security rules on top secret info. The report list person after person McMaster canned and the ZOA is furious all their inside boys were turned out.

Very cleverly the report is presented to Trump as McMaster firing all the 'Pro Trumpers" because McMasters is ''anti Trump''.

So the ZOA are now Trump Loyalist..lol...just pledge your loyalty to Trump and he'll follow you like a puppy.

I am beginning to wonder though if there is a small but growing number of upper rank military that are trying to weed out the bomb Iran Zionist.

[Mar 25, 2018] Neocons Panting for President 'Mad Dog' Mattis by Daniel McAdams

Notable quotes:
"... The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East...For all the talk of ISIS and Al Qaida everywhere right now they're a very serious threat. But nothing is as serious in the long term enduring ramifications, in terms of stability and prosperity and some hope for a better future for the young people out there, than Iran. ..."
"... We know that vacuums left in the Middle East seem to be filled by either terrorists or by Iran or their surrogates or Russia In order to restore deterrence, we have to show capability, capacity and resolve. ..."
"... Using our special neocon-speak translator, we see that "capability, capacity and resolve" actually means "weapons, deployments, and wars." No wonder Kristol and company are touting this man as their savior. ..."
Apr 22, 2016 | www.ronpaulinstitute.org
The neocons have been in a panic this election season. One by one, their preferred choice for the Republican presidential nomination has been soundly rejected by the uncooperative American voting public. Sen. Lindsey Graham made a run for the nomination saying , "If you're tired of war, don't vote for me," and nobody did. Perhaps the idea of perpetual war to the very last US dollar is beginning to wear thin among Republican voters.

Though the two Republicans left standing, Sen. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump, have endorsed sending thousands of troops into the Middle East and even turning the sand into glass with a nuclear weapon, they are viewed as not reliably neoconservative enough for the Beltway bombardiers. William Kristol, absolutely forlorn over the American voter's rejection of the reliable Republican neocons in the race, has thrown his hat in with a very reliable Democrat neocon, Hillary Clinton. "I would rather see Hillary than Trump," said Kristol.

But such a move comes not without risk for the Kristol-ites. The neocons migrated from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party like a virus to a new host and one promising candidate does not a happy return necessarily make.

What to do? Again from Kristol: "We'll have to start a new party if it's Trump." And that's what they're doing. With the help of the compliant media, of course.

Thanks to Target Liberty for its diligence in "Mad Dog" spotting , we see the (former) house organ of the CIA, Time Magazine, joining the neocon cheering section behind the notion of a third party run by retired Major General James "Mad Dog" Mattis, former Commander of the US Central Command.

In an article with the fallacious title, Why Americans Want a Military General in the White House , Time wonders:

What is it about military leaders that has led so many voters to champion them for the Presidency? After all, it's not like the nation has emerged victorious from its recent wars. ... Retired Marine general James "Mad Dog" Mattis, who hung up his uniform three years ago, has fervent supporters who want him to run for President.
The very title of the article is a fraud. Who are these "Americans" who are clamoring for a General to become president? Neocons! What percentage to neocons make up of the US electorate? Re-read the first paragraph for an indication.

Why are the neocons panting like a dog in heat for "Mad Dog" Mattis? His speech today at the military-industrial complex funded Center for Strategic and International Studies tells the tale of the tape. What gets the Mad Dog all hot and bothered? War with Iran!

Barked the "Dog" today:

The Iranian regime, in my mind, is the single most enduring threat to stability and peace in the Middle East...For all the talk of ISIS and Al Qaida everywhere right now they're a very serious threat. But nothing is as serious in the long term enduring ramifications, in terms of stability and prosperity and some hope for a better future for the young people out there, than Iran.
And, in what must be music to the ears of all those inside the Beltway who have become rich robbing the rest of us to pay for their wars, Mattis spells out his foreign policy. In a word: War!
We know that vacuums left in the Middle East seem to be filled by either terrorists or by Iran or their surrogates or Russia In order to restore deterrence, we have to show capability, capacity and resolve.
Using our special neocon-speak translator, we see that "capability, capacity and resolve" actually means "weapons, deployments, and wars." No wonder Kristol and company are touting this man as their savior.

General George Washington was a reluctant political leader. He accepted the office of president only at the insistence of others. His preference after the battle was won was to hang up his guns and retire to hemp-growing and whiskey-distilling. In these days of increasingly political military officers , it seems the notion of civilian control of the military is, like the Constitution itself, just another anachronism.

Ladies and Gentlemen, we give you President Mattis:

  • The first time you blow someone away is not an insignificant event. That said, there are some a**holes in the world that just need to be shot.
    ( Business Insider )
  • I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you f*ck with me, I'll kill you all.
    ( San Diego Union Tribune )
  • Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they're so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact.
    ( San Diego Union Tribune )
  • Be polite, be professional, but have a plan to kill everybody you meet.
    ( San Diego Union Tribune )
  • You go into Afghanistan, you got guys who slap women around for five years because they didn't wear a veil. You know, guys like that ain't got no manhood left anyway. So it's a hell of a lot of fun to shoot them. Actually it's quite fun to fight them, you know. It's a hell of a hoot. It's fun to shoot some people. I'll be right up there with you. I like brawling.
    ( CNN )
  • I'm going to plead with you, do not cross us. Because if you do, the survivors will write about what we do here for 10,000 years.
    ( San Diego Union Tribune )
Woof woof!
Copyright © 2016 by RonPaul Institute. Permission to reprint in whole or in part is gladly granted, provided full credit and a live link are given.

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[Mar 24, 2018] I have to laugh at the people trying to portray Bonkers Bolton as somehow less insane than he is.

Mar 24, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Richardstevenhack 24 March 2018 at 06:03 PM

I have to laugh at the people trying to portray Bonkers Bolton as somehow less insane than he is.

Yesterday in my Youtube recommended list was at least half a dozen channels with headlines expressing horror at the appointment of Bolton as National Security Adviser. Clearly there has been a backlash in quite a few quarters that this appointment is simply lunatic - of a lunatic.

So naturally today we see people trying to play down the absolute stark insanity of Trump appointing this clown.

The only thing we can hope for is that before Bolton does too much damage that Trump gets tired of him, as he has everyone else in his administration, and fires him. But given Trump's history, all we can expect then is that he appoints Nikki Haley to the same post.

Russia, ever patient, issued a statement saying they're ready to work with Bolton. Privately they must be wondering why they didn't develop Novichok so they could use it on him.

Meanwhile the Democrats are trotting out all the hot women they claim had affairs with Trump. Hello, Democrats! Anyone remember Bill Clinton? At least Trump has a wife good-looking enough to maybe keep him home at night.

[Mar 24, 2018] Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton, who pressured intelligence officers to endorse his views of other rogue states, especially Syria and Cuba.

Notable quotes:
"... When the relevant analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) refused to agree with Bolton's language, the undersecretary summoned the analyst and scolded him in a red-faced, finger-waving rage. ..."
"... The director of INR at the time, Carl Ford, told the congressional committee considering Bolton's nomination that he had never before seen such abuse of a subordinate ..."
Mar 24, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

outthere 24 March 2018 at 04:50 PM

Paul Pillar says:

> The most egregious recent instances of arm twisting arose in George W. Bush's administration but did not involve Iraq. The twister was Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security John Bolton, who pressured intelligence officers to endorse his views of other rogue states, especially Syria and Cuba. Bolton wrote his own public statements on the issues and then tried to get intelligence officers to endorse them.

According to what later came to light when Bolton was nominated to become ambassador to the United Nations, the biggest altercation involved Bolton's statements about Cuba's allegedly pursuing a biological weapons program. When the relevant analyst in the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR) refused to agree with Bolton's language, the undersecretary summoned the analyst and scolded him in a red-faced, finger-waving rage.

The director of INR at the time, Carl Ford, told the congressional committee considering Bolton's nomination that he had never before seen such abuse of a subordinate -- and this comment came from someone who described himself as a conservative Republican who supported the Bush administration's policies -- an orientation I can verify, having testified alongside him in later appearances on Capitol Hill.

> When Bolton's angry tirade failed to get the INR analyst to cave, the undersecretary demanded that the analyst be removed. Ford refused. Bolton attempted similar pressure on the national intelligence officer for Latin America, who also inconveniently did not endorse Bolton's views on Cuba. Bolton came across the river one day to our National Intelligence Council offices and demanded to the council's acting chairman that my Latin America colleague be removed.

http://lobelog.com/how-john-bolton-handles-diverse-viewpoints-and-expert-analysis/

[Mar 24, 2018] Bolton plans to fire dozens of White House officials

Notable quotes:
"... The Wall Street Journal ..."
Mar 24, 2018 | www.veteranstoday.com
John Bolton, US President Donald Trump's incoming hawkish national security adviser, is reportedly planning a massive dismissal of staff at the National Security Council, aiming to remove dozens of White House officials.

Sources aware of the changes told Foreign Policy that Bolton is preparing to "clean house" and remove nearly all of the political appointees brought in by his predecessor.

"Bolton can and will clean house," one former White House official told Foreign Policy. One other source said, "He is going to remove almost all the political [appointees] McMaster brought in."

Another former official said that any National Security Council officials appointed under former President Obama "should start packing their shit."

Trump and Bolton see eye to eye on their hawkish foreign policy, especially when it comes to North Korea and Iran, and are equally averse to multilateral diplomacy, whether that means the UN or working with the European Union.

A history of bellicosity

Bolton, an outspoken advocate of military action who served in the administration of former US president George W. Bush, has called for action against Iran and North Korea.

"He is unabashed about this," said Mark Groombridge, a former top adviser to Bolton at the State Department and United Nations pointing to his views on preemptive warfare.

"He has no problems with the doctrine of preemption and feels the greatest threat that the United States faces is the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction."

The Washington Post reports that at the White House, Bolton is likely to reinforce Trump's "America First" view of the world. Both Trump and Bolton share a long-standing animosity toward any treaties, international laws or alliances that limit America's freedom to act on the world stage.

[Mar 24, 2018] Does Bolton appointment means the return to Monroe doctrine?

Mar 24, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

bevin | Mar 24, 2018 2:28:24 PM | 82

The more I think about it the more convinced I am that the real danger from Bolton is that, in Trumpian fashion, he will return to those good old days when the Cold War was ending and the US went hog wild in Central America.

Like a bruised and beaten bully who's just had his come-uppance in the pub who, returning home, angry and impotent beats up the wife and kids and threatens the neighbours, Uncle Sam is returning, his tail between his legs, from the middle east to his home turf.

Look out Cuba! Look out Venezuela!

The Contras are back in business. Ecuador-sorry Julian- looks about to crumble. Honduras, Paraguay, Haiti, Brazil and Argentina have all been rescued from their own people. Things are beginning to look like the 80s again except that this time there are hardly any 'communists' left to kill. Military dictatorships are back, death squads are bigger than ever.

And, best of all, from the Bolton/Trump viewpoint, the dangers of running into Russian or Chinese backed resistance is negligible, the money to be made is infinite. One Continent from north pole to south, run by a mafia based in Washington.

Its what Making America Great Again means-a return to the Monroe Doctrine and letting up on the mad dream of global hegemony. There's plenty of poor suckers for everyone to exploit a billion or so.

There's only one caveat-Israel. Israel undoubtedly wants a war with Iran, just as it wants to smash up Syria (or get the US to do it for them) but I just can't see the many local interested parties allowing it. Perhaps moving the Embassy to Jerusalem and getting the Guatemalans, Hondurans and Solomon Islanders to do the same, is all that they are going to get from Trump- a gesture without meaning. A con from the grifter himself.

[Mar 24, 2018] John Bolton: The Angriest Neocon by Adam Zagorin

Nov 16, 2007 | content.time.com

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice may have become accustomed to taking flak from Democratic (and even some G.O.P.) legislators when she testifies on Capitol Hill, but some of the most ferocious criticism she has recently faced comes from an unlikely source: John Bolton, the fiery conservative who served under Rice as U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations. In his new memoir, Surrender Is Not an Option: Defending America at the United Nations and Abroad, Bolton -- known to be close to Vice President Dick Cheney -- outlines some of the internal foreign policy battles in the Administration of George W. Bush, and paints President Bush himself as betraying his own gut instinct.

Bolton's book covers his childhood as the son of a Baltimore fireman, his days at Yale Law School and his service in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George H. W. Bush. But it's the brickbats he reserves for Rice and fellow diplomats and civil servants in the current Administration that grab the most attention. First as Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and then as U.N. ambassador, Bolton emerges as an outspoken unilateralist and an opponent of treaties and international institutions ranging from the Kyoto climate convention to the International Court of Criminal Justice. And he has been a vocal opponent, both inside and outside the Administration, of negotiations with North Korea and Iran over their nuclear programs.

Bolton's outspoken policy views have long been familiar, but what's most interesting about his new book is the sheer enthusiasm with which he has adopted the mantle of the most vocal neoconservative critic of the Bush Administration's foreign policy, only months after resigning from the Bush team when the Senate for the second time refused to confirm his nomination to the U.N. post.

Bolton accuses the Administration of laxity in dealing with a nuclear-armed North Korea and an Iran intent on obtaining the bomb, not to mention its efforts to arrange a Middle East peace conference. But implicit in Bolton's bomb-throwing is a startling admission: that his never-ending battle against "pragmatists" and those less ideologically committed inside the most conservative administration in decades has been lost. In an interview with TIME, Bolton said: "Secretary Condoleezza Rice is the dominant voice on national security and there is no one running even a close second; her ascendancy is undisputed."

So where does that leave Bolton allies like Cheney and his hard-line advisers, and the few remaining neocons scattered through the national security bureaucracy? "You will never know what the VP's exact interaction with the President is," says Bolton, "But the VP is still closer to the President's basic instincts than anyone else." Bolton's explanation for the shift in White House policy: "The President may be distracted by the Iraq war or other events... but there's no doubt that the President has moved heartbreakingly away from his own deepest impulses on the three principal issues of controversy (North Korea, Iran and Middle East peace); what is happening now is contrary to his basic instincts."

On Iran, Bolton says former Secretary of State Colin Powell was too intent on mollifying U.S. allies like France, Britain and Germany. This caused Powell to offer Iran too many "carrots" -- trade and commercial inducements -- if Tehran would rein in its pursuit of atomic materials. To a large degree Rice, in Bolton's view, perpetuated this strategy even though, he believes, there is almost no chance that Iran will give up its nuclear ambitions. As a result, he says, the U.S. has wasted time on "four and half years of failed diplomacy" indulging Iran with unnecessarily accommodationist negotiations, a period Iran has used to advance its nuclear acquisitions and research.

On North Korea, Bolton cites (unconfirmed) reports of the Hermit Kingdom's collaboration with Syria on a secret nuclear facility as evidence that the denuclearization deal between the U.S. and North Korea is not working. Talks with North Korea continue, he notes, and the U.S. looks set to invite Syria to its Middle East peace conference later this month. Uncomfortable issues are not being raised, Bolton charges, for fear of disrupting negotiations that he sees as pointless to begin with.

So what are the prospects for a return to the muscular unilateralism that Bolton favors? "There's a possibility that events in the external world will validate our position and give the President a means to return to his gut," the former U.N. ambassador told TIME. "But until and unless external events prove that current policies are on the wrong track, there is no countervailing or obvious force inside this administration that is going to produce a course correction. "

[Mar 23, 2018] MoA - John Bolton - The Man With A Hammer Is Looking For Nails

Notable quotes:
"... Kelly and, only later on Mattis will likely be the next to get fired. That will eliminate the last people with access to Trump who have some marginal sanity on war and peace issues. Trump will be completely isolated and easy to manipulate. ..."
"... Fortunately the media in the US has had it's credibility with just about everyone, including anti-Trump people, shredded and I don't think they'll be able to prepare people for a war like they did before the 2016 election, people are finally awake or have a sense of agency. ..."
"... If Mattis will be out at some point along with Kelly, thus destroying the tempering influence of these generals, who hated Iraq as much as Vietnam, the next question is how Trump's apparent judgment on Iraq as disastrous will play out with a Bolton crowd (Bolton one of the first signatories of PNAC in 1998) on what to do when the North Koreans say fuck you loudly and clearly. ..."
"... Trump has surrounded himself with real men who want to go to Tehran. Syria, not so much anymore. Besides, Ukraine 3.0 will be great until the Russians show up. The CIA's Dark Prince is already there. ..."
"... global oligarchy live in harmony while concocting massive Orwellian propaganda of great enemies that must be defeated at all cost, cost of your freedom and your purse. ..."
"... Face it b, Bolton is just a impotent loud barking dog to scare ordinary people for his temporary owner , a flaccid clown of global oligarchy. ..."
Mar 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

...He is also an exceptionally avid bureaucrat who knows how to get the things he wants done. That quality is what makes him truly dangerous. Bolton is known for sweet-talking to his superiors, being ruthless against competitors and for kicking down on everyone below him.

Soon Netanyahoo will have the cabinet in place in DC he always dreamed of. A hawkish Pompeo at State, a real torturer as head of the CIA and now Bolton are already sufficient to protect Israel's further expansion. Kelly and, only later on Mattis will likely be the next to get fired. That will eliminate the last people with access to Trump who have some marginal sanity on war and peace issues. Trump will be completely isolated and easy to manipulate.

Bolton has a hammer and he will find lots of nails. Like Hillary Clinton he will want to fight with Iran, North Korea, Russia, China and others in no particular order. He will want to destroy Syria. He is cozy with the Kurds and the Iranian terror cult MEK. He addressed (vid) their congress eight years in a row and made lots of money for saying things like this :

"[B]efore 2019, we here will celebrate in Tehran."

Bolton has little concern for U.S. allies except, maybe, for Israel.

His first priority will be to prevent the announced summit between Trump and Kim Jong-un. He will want more sanctions on North Korea and may argue for a 'preventive' strike against it. He does not care that such a strike will certainly kill tens of thousands of Koreans in the north and south and several thousand U.S. soldiers and civilians.

New sanctions on North Korea are problematic as Trump has just put additional tariffs on $60 billion of U.S. imports of Chinese goods. (The Chinese response is smart: Tariffs on U.S. agricultural goods from states that Trump won.) Why should China and Russia (and South Korea) help the U.S. to strangulate North Korea when they themselves are under fire? To prevent a U.S. strike that may come anyway the very next day?

The Europeans who were part of the nuclear agreement with Iran have to answer a similar question . Why offer Trump a 'compromise' over the JCPOA when the chances are now high that he will destroy it anyway?

What will Bolton do on Syria? Will he try to find a new agreement with Erdogan and drag Turkey away from endorsing Russia's polices in Syria? If he manages to do so, Syria's north will become a shared Turkish-U.S. entity and will be lost for a long time. New attacks on the Syrian government, from the north, south and east, where the U.S. re-trains ISIS into a new 'moderate rebel' army, would then open the next phase of the war.

So far the mean time of survival for Trump appointees is some six to eight months. Let us hope that John Bolton's appointment will - in the end - lower that average.

Posted by b on March 23, 2018 at 11:50 AM | Permalink

Comments


HnH , Mar 23, 2018 12:05:22 PM | 1

Trump wants war with Iran. The reasons are unknown to me, but the intention is very, very clear. The choices of Pompeo and Bolton confirm this.

If Trump gets this war, the short and medium term effects on world trade, and the oil trade in particular, will be absolutely devastating.

Iran will close the strait of Hormuz. The oil shipments will stop. Saudi Arabia may burn, Israel may get attacked. The US homeland may get attacked.

When the oil shipments stop, fuel shortages will occur, supermarkets will get empty, food prices will rocket.

God help us all.

harrylaw , Mar 23, 2018 12:10:50 PM | 2

Bomb Iran, is what Bolton advocated several years ago, this article 'The untold story of John Bolton's campaign for war with Iran' indicates he has not changed his mind http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-a-john-bolton-appointment-is-scarier-than-you-think-mcmaster-trump/
Altai , Mar 23, 2018 12:13:20 PM | 3
These appointments are weird. Ultimately Trump doesn't seem to have an appetite for large-scale war. What does seem like a dangerous possibility is if Bolton can et al can provoke a situation that traps Trump in his responses, maybe with a tight timeframe to respond and leads to a conflict starting that way.

Fortunately the media in the US has had it's credibility with just about everyone, including anti-Trump people, shredded and I don't think they'll be able to prepare people for a war like they did before the 2016 election, people are finally awake or have a sense of agency.

Ultimately it doesn't seem like Trump's election has changed much in terms of foreign policy among prospective successors. So it seems like eventually they will get their war with Iran during Trump's term or afterwards. It's utterly incredible how implacable the neo-cons are despite constant exposure over the last 15-20 years and with at least one President being elected on the basis of disgust with them. (Obama, could maybe include Trump too)

Tom Welsh , Mar 23, 2018 12:36:14 PM | 4
Kim Jong-un has no good reason for a "summit" with Trump. Indeed, there is no reason for him or his country to have anything to do with the USA or its catamites.

The best path for Korea is for North and South to plan reunification, as early as possible. They might as well retain the North's nuclear weapons, just in case anyone cuts up rough. If the Americans try to interfere, the nuclear weapons are there. Any American attempt to escalate, right on China's and Russia's front door, would meet with an extremely frigid response from them.

We must always remember that there was never any "North" or "South" Korea until President Truman's bureaucrats conjured them up out of thin air - apparently with the aid of a school atlas - to avoid the hideous tragedy of the whole of Korea "going communist". South Korea is an occupied nation, and should take immediate steps to kick the American occupiers out. By force if necessary.

Sid2 , Mar 23, 2018 12:38:17 PM | 5
Optimism on Bolton as relatively harmless in yesterday's thread is given an interesting perspective by this piece (from today), adding to b's pessimism above:

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/larison/bolton-and-the-north-korea-summit/

It seems the apparently contradictory move by Trump to appoint Bolton after getting rid of McMaster, who had a similar view to Bolton (North Korea had to be attacked because it is too late for diplomacy, their rocket programs too advanced), could be part of a scheme for a "big victory" effort by Trump who is, according to this view, amidst an artful deal-making moment of allowing faux-optimism re South-North Korean negotiations.

Bolton calls this "diplomatic shock and awe":

Bolton said Trump had short-circuited North Korea's plan of obtaining the capability to strike the United States with a nuclear weapon and then stretching out negotiations for months that could distract the American government before making an official announcement about achieving the capability. Bolton envisioned the meeting between Trump and Kim as an opportunity to deliver a threat of military action:

"I think this session between the two leaders could well be a fairly brief session where Trump says, 'Tell me you have begun total denuclearization, because we're not going to have protracted negotiations, you can tell me right now or we'll start thinking of something else.' "

Trump, who only a few weeks back condemned (again) the Iraq War as disastrous, may be thinking Bolton is just the man to nail down a quivering retreat of the North Koreans into denuclearizing or else, now that they've had a nice taste of how sweet it could be in talking with Moon and the South.

If Mattis will be out at some point along with Kelly, thus destroying the tempering influence of these generals, who hated Iraq as much as Vietnam, the next question is how Trump's apparent judgment on Iraq as disastrous will play out with a Bolton crowd (Bolton one of the first signatories of PNAC in 1998) on what to do when the North Koreans say fuck you loudly and clearly.

This analysis also points out how disturbed Asia is over this appointment, and indicates that despite his views McMaster had been working with South Korea on the problem, and now has been jerked. This sounds like what happened in Iraq also, jerking out people who were building relationships and replacing them with hardnose "bring 'em on" thinking from the brilliant leadership in that war.

p has surrounded himself with real men who want to go to Tehran. Syria, not so much anymore. Besides, Ukraine 3.0 will be great until the Russians show up. The CIA's Dark Prince is already there.

Posted by: Fec , Mar 23, 2018 12:38:24 PM | 6

Trump has surrounded himself with real men who want to go to Tehran. Syria, not so much anymore. Besides, Ukraine 3.0 will be great until the Russians show up. The CIA's Dark Prince is already there.

Posted by: Fec | Mar 23, 2018 12:38:24 PM | 6 /div

Kalen , Mar 23, 2018 12:54:25 PM | 8
I understand that Syrian situation can drive people insane but unfortunately it was and is interpreted wrongly as a preparation to nuke war, it is not. It is same old same old thing, it is just more exposed by internet.

US military is in shambles what they showed in Iraq and Syria last year is all they got, nothing more but a capability of a chicken hawk and D.C. is run by chicken hawks whose business is intimidation not war about which they have no idea and they know that US military can only take on shoeless peasants with dilapitated AK 47 and call it even like in Afghanistan which was utter defeat no one even here want to talk about.

Like Roman Empire before US emporium is an empty shell, and its myth is maintained by US INSTALLED ELITES to control their own populations.

Recent military posturing on all sides of a global country club dinner table is just nothing but bail out of MIC and its wall street backers .

Open your even globalization has been accomplished and global oligarchy live in harmony while concocting massive Orwellian propaganda of great enemies that must be defeated at all cost, cost of your freedom and your purse.

Face it b, Bolton is just a impotent loud barking dog to scare ordinary people for his temporary owner , a flaccid clown of global oligarchy.

Show must go on. 160 years after collapse of Roman Empire Roman circuses and theater continued like Nothing happened.

We are watching such a circus.

Sid2 , Mar 23, 2018 1:03:51 PM | 9
@7 James:

I see this confusing sentence--

"Bolton said Trump had short-circuited North Korea's plan of obtaining the capability to strike the United States with a nuclear weapon and then stretching out negotiations for months that could distract the American government before making an official announcement about achieving the capability."

--as, Bolton believes the North Koreans are playing around with negotiations only to delay toward capability, that Trump knows this, and all of it's a game toward resurrection of the hostilities.

This attitude suggests a foregone conclusion that the Trump-Kim meeting will fail, which could set up the next step at (from Bolton): "You see, it's hopeless, we just have to attack and take out this country, as we did with Iraq and are trying to do with Syria."


Charles Misfeldt , Mar 23, 2018 1:08:52 PM | 10
Israel has the Epstein tapes which show Trump having sex with underage girls, Saudi Arabia has billions of dollars to bribe Trump with arms deals, both of these immoral nations want Iran eliminated as an threat to their agendas. Israel and Saudi Arabia demand that Trump try and neutralize Iran before Trump is removed from office which will happen before his first term is up if this nation has any sense of self preservation. Trump is replacing those opposed to a war against Iran with those who support it. Trump is seriously compromised by foreign agendas.
Harry , Mar 23, 2018 1:09:52 PM | 11
My two cents:

1. Iran nuclear deal is dead, EU poodles will fall in line (but not entirely) with sanctions against Iran. I'm curious how Iran will respond, IMHO will restart all centrifuges and raise enrichment level? I still think its unlikely Iran would go for the nukes as ultimate deterrent.

2. US will be more involved in Syria. We can most definitely expect more false flag CW attacks and "retaliation" missiles. The big question mark if Russia will live up to its promise to retaliate on launch sites or US planes.

3. There will be no overt war against Iran, Pompeo/Bolton or not, US simply cannot win it. Covert - most definitely. More sabotage, assassinations, sanctions, etc.

It will be hard to do Libya 3.0 as well, but USrael might try anyway. Arm kurds and baluchis radicals, activate MEK network, it wont be anywhere as bad as in Syria, but some damage would be done. Thats the most what they can do.

Hoarsewhisperer , Mar 23, 2018 1:19:40 PM | 12
Bolton is a fruitcake. Imo Trump only hired him to expose his nuttiness and fire him. When he does, the World will breathe a sigh of relief and Trump's popularity will improve.
Bolton's Achilles Heel is that he doesn't do low-profile and talks too much.
james , Mar 23, 2018 1:25:51 PM | 13
@9 sid.. thanks.. i get that... i am more inclined to view bolton like @8 kalen.. it really does seem that way to me and if so, suggests trump is still in control and happy to have these bozos talk the talk, while knowing they are not able to walk the walk.. trump would throw a real monkey wrench in the spanner if he was to engage in the talks and come away with a positive resolution.. it would be a a nightmare for the military industrial complex and neo cons.. i still think he is capable of this...

@11 harry.. i hope you are wrong, but it is completely conceivable and tends to be the usa/israels pattern when confronted with a loss..

Fec , Mar 23, 2018 1:28:22 PM | 14
@ 12 When you're powerless, give the opposition what they want and hope they choke on it. Trump is being underestimated. Dunford, Mattis, Pompeo and Kelly lined up
behind Trump against Tillerson and the White Helmets in Ghouta.
Mike Maloney , Mar 23, 2018 1:48:20 PM | 15
Let's not forget about Venezuela. Story from McClatchy's D.C. bureau says Bolton considers Venezuela low-hanging fruit ripe for the plucking.
Emily , Mar 23, 2018 2:12:09 PM | 16
Bolton was named as one of Trump's very earliest supporters.
Right at the beginning.
Sounding alarm bells for many.
A few links to refresh some memories.
https://www.politico.com/story/2016/12/john-bolton-state-trump-232573
http://thehill.com/blogs/pundits-blog/international/310197-giving-bolton-place-at-state-would-undermine-trumps-own
http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-john-bolton-isnt-part-of-the-trump-administration/
https://edition.cnn.com/2017/08/29/politics/bolton-iran-deal-cancel/
DonFromWyoming , Mar 23, 2018 2:12:53 PM | 17
"libertarian hawk" is an oxymoron, kind of like saying "a peace-loving bomb-thrower".
Pnyx , Mar 23, 2018 2:21:12 PM | 18
"Trump will be completely isolated and easy to manipulate."
This is nonsense. And you know it B. But you still fancy your idea about a non-interventionistic Trump, and now, by the time this belief is definitely shattered, you try a reasoning dangerously near to 'wenn das der Führer wüsste'.
Sid2 , Mar 23, 2018 2:35:10 PM | 19
thanks to b for this excellent link and extensive discussion of Mattis:

https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/03/23/james-mattis-defense-secretary-how-to-succeed-in-trump-cabinet-without-getting-fired-217699

This discussion suggests why Mattis has been successful with a naïve blowhard president, including the following interesting comment:

John Bolton's arrival in April as the president's new national security adviser will give Mattis a more ardent and skillful adversary at the National Security Council. Mattis outranked McMaster in military terms and always considered him his junior, even though Mattis is retired. He likely won't view Bolton that way, and Bolton prizes his ability to corral the bureaucracy for his purposes.

We're looking at an upcoming contest Mattis vs. Bolton on such matters as wars with Iran, North Korea, and whoever.

Glad to see all the optimism here on how harmless Bolton is but would like a little more substance versus the automatic dismissals.

Jef , Mar 23, 2018 2:39:05 PM | 20
I don't see the financial thread in all of this and I seriously believe that is #1 on Trumps mind. He would love for his legacy to be the POTUS that turned around the global economic collapse and opened the door big business everywhere.

That is his history wrt foreign relations and he could care less for the "blow shit up" mentality. Not saying that he can't be talked into it, just saying he would prefer the headline "Trump opens up the world for more US business". I honestly think that he believes that a trade war (business by other means) leads to US becoming a Mfg powerhouse again. Those around him might convince him that blowing shit up will have the same outcome.

Banking/finance learned a long time ago that you are better off keeping your customers around to continue borrowing than imprisoning or kill them off. The world is a market place and Trump wants to "make deals-not war" as long as America gets the better part of the deal.

Only other thing that makes since is what CM @ 10 proposes, that Trump is compromised.

bevin , Mar 23, 2018 2:39:59 PM | 21
Kalen @8 you must have followed the Bolton divorce case.
Iran doesn't need nuclear weapons it just needs a treaty with Russia and China. It might be of assistance to the dimwitted in Washington if the treaty specifically stated that Iran is under a nuclear umbrella.
We ought to acknowledge that, as the camarilla of generals surrounding Trump turns into a junta of bullshitters and blowhards, the dictatorship in DC has never been anything more than an alliance between billionaires, bullshitters and the American Gestapo.
jayc , Mar 23, 2018 2:41:38 PM | 22
Bolton's presence will accelerate Europe's move away from the U.S. This is probably inevitable now.
dh , Mar 23, 2018 3:02:14 PM | 23
@20 Trump may be all about deals but he's having a terrible effect on the stock markets. If a trade war with China wasn't bad enough now they have Bolton to worry about.
Jose Garcia , Mar 23, 2018 3:17:23 PM | 24
What you mean about Bolt-man is he'll be safe in his office, while YOUR father, mother, son, uncle, brother, sister or other family member dies for HIS idea of how the world should be. "We will fight fight "till the last drop of.....your blood!" The "inside the Beltway" gangsters sicken me.
TJ , Mar 23, 2018 3:19:34 PM | 25
Bolton is not a libertarian, libertarians believe in the "non-aggression principle" -

https://www.theadvocates.org/2016/10/aggression/

Please correct this.

Augustin L , Mar 23, 2018 3:20:38 PM | 26
@ 10 Charles,
In New-York Trump's been known as The FRONT GOY even before the Atlantic city heist. Without Kompromat tapes they can bury him six million different ways before sunday...
Charles Michael , Mar 23, 2018 3:37:29 PM | 27
Pat lang SST was horrified by the prospect of Bolton nomination: Not Bolton! not him !

Yesterday Alastair Crooke published on Strategi Culture:
https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2018/03/22/is-north-korea-deal-stalking-horse-trump-mid-east-makeover.html

A day before Bolton got the job, still a very interesting read as usual, up to the end, because Nothing can go wrigth in DC those days, in fact nothing can be done.

Peter AU 1 , Mar 23, 2018 3:51:55 PM | 28
The Trump meeting with KJU, if it comes off, will give an indication of where Trump is headed. Much showtime shock and awe and hyperbole leading up to his suddenly agreeing to the meeting which caught all the US political animals on both sides of the fence by surprise.
Haley constantly yapping like an annoying little dog has achieved what? Haley seems be just another prop in the shock and awe show.
At the same time, Trump could miscalculate and stumble into major war, or he may be actually planning a war. Always room for both pessimism and optimism with Trump, depending on the day.
Laguerre , Mar 23, 2018 4:02:08 PM | 29
I rather agree with Kalen. Trump is genuinely a blowhard - loud mouth and little action.

Bolton is an unpleasant warmonger, though he didn't get much through before. He was never confirmed by the Senate as ambassador to the UN. Since then he's had various sidelined positions as thinktank fellow.

My impression of Trump is that he is too lazy to get the US into a major war. A major war would be a lot of work, and, whatever the advice from the help, I don't think he'd go for it. Especially he wouldn't like months or years in a nuclear bunker. He couldn't dandle young thighs at Mar-a-Lago. That would be a major argument.

An important issue with Trump is that he is unable to keep staff. He must be running out of potential candidates. That's why Bolton.

Don Bacon , Mar 23, 2018 4:24:18 PM | 30
re: "libertarian hawk" is an oxymoron . .Bolton is not a libertarian

Libertarianism (from Latin: libertas, meaning "freedom") is a collection of political philosophies and movements that uphold liberty as a core principle. There are various interpretations of what libertarianism means to various people, such as the freedom to do as one pleases.
Bolton is a libertarian in a national sense. His liberty is national liberty. He is anti-globalist and unilateralist, believing that the country's values should never be superseded by international agreements and treaties. This thinking coincides with Trump's position declared during the campaign. "We will no longer surrender this country or its people to the false song of globalism," Trump said in his defining foreign policy speech as a candidate in the spring of 2016. "The nation-state remains the true foundation for happiness and harmony. I am skeptical of international unions that tie us up and bring America down."
Following from this concept of national libertarianism, Bolton goes further to the ready and unilateral use of armed force to advance foreign policy, without bilateral or multilateral agreement. He's a hawk, but that's not unusual for Americans in government.

Lester , Mar 23, 2018 4:37:44 PM | 31
The planet isn't going to survive much longer with Americans and the Tribe infesting it. Fumigation is in order. Pack the Americans and the antisemite semites into an ICBM and send them flying into the heart of the sun. A solution as good as any other.
Sid2 , Mar 23, 2018 4:39:20 PM | 32
@ 27 and 20: thanks Charles re link to the Alastair Crooke article which reflects Jef's earlier comment: that is, Trump would likely say: me for war? hell no I'm a peace lover but I'll drive the good bargain including war threat as needed in my "art of making a deal"(hence tools to this end such as Pompeo and Bolton). Crooke makes a good point that Tillerson was too much a conventional diplomat; Trump likes tough, unpredictable guys like Mattis to model himself after.

But all this is in the fundamentals of the same megalomaniacal type thinking that drove/drives PNAC and smart-ass know-it-all-ism of the Iraq Invasion and continuation of this mindset (see Bremer) after "mission accomplished."

This mind-set at base is the problem. I call it megalomania, others might call it hubris on steroids, or daydreams of the psychopath. For me it's difficult to pull Trump out of this mindset, because he's essentially the same. At the same time HIS version of it clashes with State Department Egomania--possibly toward doing some good at times (as with changing the course of US action in Syria last year; as with low-key response to the Skripal nonsense at this time) but nonetheless presenting the possibility of a new set of tripwires a la invasion of Iraq 2003, in terms of North Korea-Iraq.

It seems apparent at this time that Trump is clueless that for North Korea to denuclearize that would mean a quid pro quo of US forces leaving South Korea--which will never be acceptable to the neocons or Trump.

Jason , Mar 23, 2018 5:18:16 PM | 33
I wonder if there are people in the military thinking about resigning before WW3? There is isn't even a believable narrative put forward in bombing Damascus nor Tehran except for murder, destruction and conquest, there is literally zero self defensive aspect. I wonder how special forces troops in Syria who are about to attack the Syrian army and Syrian people on the side if HTS, Al Qaeda, IS, Nouri al Zinki, FSA feel about their mission; many must know they are basically committing treason.
Lester , Mar 23, 2018 5:31:07 PM | 34
"Murder, destruction and conquest". That's as American as apple pie. Why would Americans be committing treason doing the Tribe's work?
worldblee , Mar 23, 2018 5:39:20 PM | 35
Bolton may or may not be a blowhard but the malignant idiocy that billows forth from his mouth is frightening in its combination of willful ignorance and unrestrained rage. He is the new National Insecurity Advisor--that would be his more accurate title.
Blessed Economist , Mar 23, 2018 5:43:29 PM | 36
How long will he last. There cannot be many rooms in the Whitehouse big enough to hold the ego of Trump and the ego of Bolton at the same time.
bevin , Mar 23, 2018 5:43:59 PM | 37
From Off Guardian:
"...as of today, it appears that long battle for Jobar and its neighboring suburbs is finally over after an agreement was put in place with the primary militant groups there.

"According to a military report from Damascus, the Syrian Army and Faylaq Al-Rahman have agreed to peace terms in four East Ghouta suburbs, with the latter agreeing to leave to Idlib.

"Based on the agreement, Faylaq Al-Rahman will surrender all of their weapons, except for their small arms; they will release all Syrian Army prisoners from their jails; they will inform the government of all explosives they placed around the suburbs of Zamalka, Jobar, 'Ayn Tarma, and Arbin; and agree to exit these suburbs on Saturday.

"The militants are now scheduled to leave these four East Ghouta suburbs by noon tomorrow..."

ashley albanese , Mar 23, 2018 5:46:05 PM | 38
Bhadrakumar writes bigger ' war in Syria is imminent ' .
Laguerre , Mar 23, 2018 6:16:30 PM | 39
It is evident that US policy in Syria is failing. The original plan was to divide Syria into weak independent cantons, much as the French wanted in the 1920s. The French didn't succeed. It would be surprising of the US did.

The only parts which remain, are the jihadis in Idlib, and the Kurds in Jazira. Two elements which are opposed to one another.

Supposing that the US wants to revive the war in Syria, as the Neocons do, what are they going to do? Decapitation of the regime in Damascus was a way of getting the Jihadis into power (you have to wonder about US support for jihadis). Unfortunately, the Russians put troops into Damascus a few weeks ago to prevent that. Otherwise it's a bit of a nothing. The Kurds can stay in Jazira, Nobody's going to stop them.

Du , Mar 23, 2018 6:39:55 PM | 40
Great analysis - as usual. The thing missing is that this guy is a rabid zionist and the White House is now a governorate of the AN orthodox American province of Israel.

[Mar 23, 2018] Hawks Resurgent in Washington by Philip Girald

Notable quotes:
"... Reprinted with permission from Strategic Culture Foundation ..."
Mar 22, 2018 | ronpaulinstitute.org

One of the most discouraging aspects of the musical chairs being played among the members of the White House inner circle is that every change reflects an inexorable move to the right in foreign policy, which means that the interventionists are back without anyone at the White House level remaining to say "no." President Donald Trump, for all his international experience as a businessman, is a novice at the step-by-step process required in diplomacy and in the development of a coherent foreign policy, so he is inevitably being directed by individuals who have long American global leadership by force if necessary.

The resurgence of the hawks is facilitated by Donald Trump's own inclinations. He likes to see himself as a man of action and a leader, which inclines him to be impulsive, some might even say reckless. He is convinced that he can enter into negotiations with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un with virtually no preparations and make a deal that will somehow end the crisis over that nation's nuclear weapons and ballistic missile programs, for example. In so doing, he is being encouraged by his National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and his Pentagon chief James Mattis, who believe that the United States can somehow prevail in a preemptive war with the Koreans if that should become necessary. The enormous collateral damage to South Korea and even Japan is something that Washington planners somehow seem to miss in their calculations.

The recent shifts in the cabinet have Mike Pompeo as Secretary of State. A leading hawk, he was first in his class of 1986 at the United States Military Academy but found himself as a junior officer with no real war to fight. He spent six years in uniform before resigning, never having seen combat, making war an abstraction for him. He went to Harvard Law and then into politics where he became a Tea Party congressman, eventually becoming a leader of that caucus when it stopped being Libertarian and lurched rightwards. He has since marketed himself as a fearless soldier in the war against terrorism and rogue states, in which category he includes both Iran and Russia.

Pompeo was not popular at the CIA because he enforced a uniformity of thinking that was anathema for intelligence professionals dedicated to collecting solid information and using it to produce sound analysis of developments worldwide. Pompeo, an ardent supporter of Israel and one of the government's leading Iran haters, has been regularly threatening Iran while at the Agency and will no doubt find plenty of support at State from Assistant Secretary of State for the Near East David Satterfield, a former top adviser of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Pompeo has proven himself more than willing to manipulate intelligence produce the result he desires. Last year, he declassified and then cherry picked documents recovered from Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan that suggested that al-Qaeda had ties with Iran. The move was coordinated with simultaneous White House steps to prepare Congress and the public for a withdrawal from the Iran nuclear arms agreement. The documents were initially released to a journal produced by the neocon Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Pompeo has a number of times spoken, to guarantee wide exposure in all the right places.

Pompeo's arrival might only be the first of several other high-level moves by the White House. Like the rumors that preceded the firing of Secretary of State Tillerson two weeks ago, there have been recurrent suggestions that McMaster will be the next to go as he reportedly is too moderate for the president and has also been accused of being anti-Israeli , the kiss of death in Washington. Former U.N. Ambassador John Bolton has been a frequent visitor at the White House and it is believed that he is the preferred candidate to fill the position. He is an extreme hawk, closely tied to the Israel Lobby, who would push hard for war against Iran and also for a hardline position in Syria, one that could lead to direct confrontation with the Syrian Armed Forces and possibly the Russians.

Bolton, who has been described by a former George W. Bush official as "the most dangerous man we had during the entire eight years," will undoubtedly have a problem in getting confirmed by Congress. He was rejected as U.N. Ambassador, requiring Bush to make a recess appointment which did not need Congressional approval.

Reprinted with permission from Strategic Culture Foundation

[Mar 23, 2018] Inglorious end of career of neocon McMaster

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... President Trump congratulated Vladimir Putin to his reelection as president of the Russian Federation. It was a matter of simply courtesy to do so. The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (aka the National Security Advisor), three star general McMaster, had advised him to not congratulate Putin. (McMaster now claims differently .) That was bad advice. But it became even worse when McMaster, or someone in his shop, promptly leaked this to the press. The usual Republican nutters like John McCain grumbled and Trump was furious. ..."
Mar 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

President Trump congratulated Vladimir Putin to his reelection as president of the Russian Federation. It was a matter of simply courtesy to do so. The Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs (aka the National Security Advisor), three star general McMaster, had advised him to not congratulate Putin. (McMaster now claims differently .) That was bad advice. But it became even worse when McMaster, or someone in his shop, promptly leaked this to the press. The usual Republican nutters like John McCain grumbled and Trump was furious.

Trump decided to fire McMaster the very next day. He had it coming. Both the White House Chief of Staff Kelly as well as the Secretary of Defense Mattis wanted McMaster out. Unfortunately for them Trump chose a replacement that they did not want and will find difficult to live with.

[Mar 23, 2018] Russian general gives US general some intel. US general gets the word up to Trump. Trump gets Pompeo to investigate and as a result sacks Tillerson. I also have Sydney harbour bridge for sale for the amazingly cheap price of a carton of beer and a packet of durries

This is about rather weak article Four days to declare a Cold War, by Thierry Meyssan - The Unz Review
Mar 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org
Peter AU 1 , Mar 23, 2018 2:12:59 AM | 77
Russian general gives US general some intel. US general gets the word up to Trump. Trump gets Pompeo to investigate and as a result sacks Tillerson. US generals tell Russian generals. Russian generals tell Syrian generals. Syrian generals - or perhaps Russian generals (unlikely) tell french journalist Therry Meyssan.

I also have Sydney harbour bridge for sale for the amazingly cheap price of a carton of beer and a packet of durries.

Alexander , Mar 23, 2018 4:56:55 AM | 80
@Peter AU

Haha I thought the same when I read that story. Trying to spin this as Trump saving the world from WW3 when he sacked Tillerson is just... a hillarious story to put it mildly. As unbelievable as the whole Skripal case itself. Thierry surely does uncover some good stuff every once in a while, but let's be fair he has more often than not floated some crazy theories that were subsequently proven to be false.

[Mar 23, 2018] "Trump Admin Approves $1BN Arms Deal With Saudi Arabia, Including 6,700 Anti-Tank Missiles" I wonder where those will end up??

Mar 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Posted by: Michael | Mar 22, 2018 8:51:00 PM | 39 ote> This from ZeroHedge...

"Trump Admin Approves $1BN Arms Deal With Saudi Arabia, Including 6,700 Anti-Tank Missiles"

I wonder where those will end up??


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-22/trump-approves-1-billion-arms-deal-saudi-arabia

This from ZeroHedge...

"Trump Admin Approves $1BN Arms Deal With Saudi Arabia, Including 6,700 Anti-Tank Missiles"

I wonder where those will end up??


https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-22/trump-approves-1-billion-arms-deal-saudi-arabia

/div

[Mar 23, 2018] John Bolton's Incompetence May Be More Dangerous Than His Ideology by Heather Hurlburt

Notable quotes:
"... President Trump was said to complain that Tillerson disagreed with him and McMaster talked too much. Bolton seems likely to combine both of those traits in one pugnacious, mustachioed package. ..."
"... Bolton may find that in this job, he's the midlevel munchkin. Remember, the national security adviser is supposed to be the coordinator, conciliator, and honest broker among Cabinet officials, managing a process by which all get a fair say and the president makes well-informed decisions. Outgoing National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster reportedly lost favor with Defense Secretary Mattis and Chief of Staff John Kelly for failing to defer to them, and for being too emotional . ..."
Mar 23, 2018 | nymag.com

John Bolton has been one of liberals' top bogeymen on national security for more than a decade now. He seems to relish the role, going out of his way to argue that the Iraq War wasn't really a failure, calling for U.S.-led regime change in Iran and preventive war against North Korea, and writing the foreword for a book that proclaimed President Obama to be a secret Muslim. He is a profoundly partisan creature, having started a super-PAC whose largest donor was leading Trump benefactor Rebekah Mercer and whose provider of analytics was Cambridge Analytica, the firm alleged to have improperly used Facebook data to make voter profiles, which it sold to the Trump and Brexit campaigns, among others.

Recently Bolton's statements have grown more extreme, alarming centrist and conservative national security professionals along with his longtime liberal foes. He seemed to say that the United States could attack North Korea without the agreement of our South Korean allies, who would face the highest risk of retaliation and casualties; just two months ago he called for a regime change effort in Iran that would allow the U.S. to open a new embassy there by 2019, the 40th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution and the taking of Americans hostage in Tehran. His hostility toward Islam points toward a set of extreme policies that could easily have the effect of abridging American Muslims' rights at home and alienating America's Muslim allies abroad.

As worrying as these policies are, it's worth taking a step back and thinking not about Bolton, but about his new boss, Donald Trump. Trump reportedly considered Bolton for a Cabinet post early on, but then soured on him, finding his mustache unprofessional. His choice of Bolton to lead the National Security Council reinforces several trends: right now, this administration is all about making Trump's opponents uncomfortable and angry. Internal coherence and policy effectiveness are not a primary or even secondary consideration. And anyone would be a fool to imagine that, because Bolton pleases Trump today, he will continue to do so tomorrow.

Yes, Bolton has taken strong stances against the policies of Russian President Vladimir Putin (though he has also been quoted praising Russian "democracy" as recently as 2013). That's nothing new: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, incoming Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, and outgoing National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster have called for greater pushback on Russia as well. But there's every reason to think that, rather than a well-oiled war machine, what we'll get from Bolton's National Security Council is scheming and discord – which could be even more dangerous.

President Trump was said to complain that Tillerson disagreed with him and McMaster talked too much. Bolton seems likely to combine both of those traits in one pugnacious, mustachioed package. Their disagreements are real – Bolton has famously pooh-poohed the kind of summit diplomacy with North Korea that Trump is now committed to. While Trump famously backed away from his support for the 2002 invasion of Iraq, courting the GOP isolationist base, Bolton continues to argue that the invasion worked, and seldom hears of a war he would not participate in. Trump attempted to block transgender people from serving in the military, but Bolton has declined to take part in the right's LGBT-bashing, famously hiring gay staff and calling for the end of Don't Ask, Don't Tell.

That's all substance. What really seems likely to take Bolton down is his style, which is legendary – and not in a good way. His colleagues from the George W. Bush administration responded to Trump's announcement with comments like "the obvious question is whether John Bolton has the temperament and the judgment for the job" – not exactly a ringing endorsement. One former co-worker described Bolton as a "kiss up, kick down kind of guy," and he was notorious in past administrations for conniving and sneaking around officials who disagreed with him, both traits that Trump seems likely to enjoy until he doesn't. This is a man who can't refrain from telling Tucker Carlson that his analysis is "simpleminded" – while he's a guest on Carlson's show. Turns out it's not true that he threw a stapler at a contractor – it was a tape dispenser. When Bolton was caught attempting to cook intelligence to suggest that Cuba had a biological weapons program, he bullied the analyst who had dared push back, calling him a " midlevel munchkin ." How long until Trump tires of the drama – or of being eclipsed?

Bolton may find that in this job, he's the midlevel munchkin. Remember, the national security adviser is supposed to be the coordinator, conciliator, and honest broker among Cabinet officials, managing a process by which all get a fair say and the president makes well-informed decisions. Outgoing National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster reportedly lost favor with Defense Secretary Mattis and Chief of Staff John Kelly for failing to defer to them, and for being too emotional .

Love Bolton or hate him, no one imagines he will be a self-effacing figure, and no one hires him to run a no-drama process. It's also hard to imagine that many of the high-quality professionals McMaster brought into the National Security Council staff will choose to stay. McMaster repeatedly had to fight for his team within the Trump administration, but Bolton seems unlikely to follow that pattern, or to inspire the kind of loyalty that drew well-regarded policy wonks to work for McMaster, regardless their views of Trump.

So even if you like the policies Bolton espouses, it's hard to imagine a smooth process implementing them. That seems likely to leave us with Muslim ban-level incompetence, extreme bellicosity, and several very loud, competing voices – with Twitter feeds – on the most sensitive issues of war and weapons of mass destruction.

[Mar 23, 2018] The worst thing about the appointment of anti-Iran hawk John Bolton is that the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party 100% supports war with Iran.

Mar 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

fairleft | Mar 23, 2018 12:37:30 AM | 72

The worst thing about the appointment of anti-Iran hawk John Bolton is that the Clinton wing of the Democratic Party 100% supports war with Iran. In fact Hillary was attacking Trump from the war hawk right on this issue in 2016 (of course alienating key voters as she did so). So, just like in 2002 with Iraq, the two-party mainstream and all the mainstream media will be overwhelmed by pro-war voices, and the arguments in favor of peace and basic sanity will be ostracized. Note in the RT piece below that the only Democrats expressing real, concrete concern/revulsion are the usual, sheepdog leftie suspects.

'Trump lining up war cabinet'? Bolton's elevation to NSC adviser fuels alarm

https://www.rt.com/usa/422084-trump-bolton-war-cabinet-reaction/

[Mar 23, 2018] 'Trump lining up war cabinet' Bolton's elevation to NSC adviser fuels alarm

Notable quotes:
"... "With the appointments of Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, @realDonaldTrump is successfully lining up his war cabinet. Bolton played a key role in politicizing the intel that misled us into the Iraq War. We cannot let this extreme war hawk blunder us into another terrible conflict," ..."
"... "John Bolton supports proactively bombing Iran & striking North Korea with nuclear weapons first without provocation. Appointing him to be Nat Sec Advisor is a grave danger to the American people & a clear message from @realDonaldTrump that he is gearing up for military conflict," ..."
"... "If you're always wrong on security, you're the wrong person to be National Security Advisor," ..."
"... "drumbeats of war." ..."
"... "absolutely the wrong person to be national security advisor now," ..."
"... "John Bolton was part of the effort to mislead the US into the disastrous Iraq war and has supported military action against North Korea and Iran. He was too extreme to be confirmed as UN ambassador in 2005 and is absolutely the wrong person to be national security advisor now," ..."
"... "John Bolton is a dangerous radical. President Trump's decision to make Bolton his National Security Advisor is deeply disturbing," ..."
"... "John Bolton has spent his entire career pushing fringe conspiracy theories, espousing radical ideas about multilateralism, and undermining key alliances across the world." ..."
"... Like this story? Share it with a friend! ..."
Mar 23, 2018 | www.rt.com

Donald Trump's cabinet reshuffles have fueled concerns, not least after the latest appointment of hawkish John Bolton as national security adviser, just days after installing a former CIA chief as the new secretary of state. On Thursday afternoon Donald Trump decided to sack Gen. HR McMaster from his national security adviser post, replacing him with John Bolton. The former US envoy to the United Nations will assume office on April 9 – just days after Mike Pompeo is set to replace Rex Tillerson as the new secretary of state.

READ MORE: Trump replaces national security adviser McMaster with John Bolton

The newly formed doublet has caused shockwaves among the Democrats, who have alleged that Trump seems to be preparing for war. Democratic Senator from Massachusetts Ed Markey warned that Trump is creating a "war cabinet," warning of "grave danger" following Bolton's appointment.

John Bolton supports proactively bombing Iran and conducting a first strike on North Korea without provocation. Appointing him to be Nat Sec Advisor is a grave danger to the American people and a clear message from @realDonaldTrump that he is gearing up for military conflict.

-- Ed Markey (@SenMarkey) March 22, 2018

"With the appointments of Mike Pompeo and John Bolton, @realDonaldTrump is successfully lining up his war cabinet. Bolton played a key role in politicizing the intel that misled us into the Iraq War. We cannot let this extreme war hawk blunder us into another terrible conflict," he tweeted.

"John Bolton supports proactively bombing Iran & striking North Korea with nuclear weapons first without provocation. Appointing him to be Nat Sec Advisor is a grave danger to the American people & a clear message from @realDonaldTrump that he is gearing up for military conflict," Senator Markey added.

John Bolton:
Wanted war w Cuba, arguing wrongly that Cuba had WMD
Wanted war w Iraq, arguing – wrong again – that Iraq had WMD
Believes – wrongly – that Islamic law is taking over America

If you're always wrong on security, you're the wrong person to be National Security Advisor

-- Senator Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) March 22, 2018

The choice of Bolton as the national security adviser has also been questioned by Senator Jeff Merkley from Oregon, who has pointed out many flaws with the new appointee's policies. "If you're always wrong on security, you're the wrong person to be National Security Advisor," Merkley tweeted.

This is dangerous news for the country and the world. John Bolton was easily one of the most extreme, pro-war members of the Bush Administration.

Imagine what havoc he could wreak whispering in Donald Trump's ear...I hear the drumbeats of war. https://t.co/A6ZIyORAM7

-- Rep. Barbara Lee (@RepBarbaraLee) March 22, 2018

Rep. Barbara Jean Lee of California's 13th congressional district was also disappointed by Trump's choice, claiming she is hearing the "drumbeats of war."

The President is surrounding himself with combative lawyers. He's replacing Tillerson and McMaster with Pompeo and Bolton.

It's almost like the President is preparing to go to war in the legal and foreign relations sense...

-- Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) March 22, 2018

Fears expressed by some Capitol Hill members and the public seem justified. The notoriously hawkish former United Nations ambassador was a chief architect of the George W. Bush administration's justification for the war in Iraq in 2003, that was based on false accusations that Baghdad possessed weapons of mass destruction.

This is one of the most dangerous developments I've seen in our foreign and nat'l security policy. Period. #Bolton #McMaster . https://t.co/aEl5aRn9fA

-- Steve Israel (@RepSteveIsrael) March 22, 2018

Trump's choice of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) director Mike Pompeo as the new secretary of state also made many in Washington uneasy. Unlike his predecessor, Rex Tillerson, Pompeo seems better aligned with Trump's confrontational foreign policy, namely on the Iran nuclear deal, on North Korea, and on the shift of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. Besides politicians, the American public also expressed concern about the feasibility of a looming armed conflict.

John Bolton was part of the effort to mislead the US into the disastrous Iraq war and has supported military action against North Korea and Iran. He was too extreme to be confirmed as UN ambassador in 2005 and is absolutely the wrong person to be national security advisor now.

-- Bernie Sanders (@SenSanders) March 22, 2018

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders called Bolton "absolutely the wrong person to be national security advisor now," recalling how he deceived the public about the Iraq war.

"John Bolton was part of the effort to mislead the US into the disastrous Iraq war and has supported military action against North Korea and Iran. He was too extreme to be confirmed as UN ambassador in 2005 and is absolutely the wrong person to be national security advisor now," Sanders tweeted.

"John Bolton is a dangerous radical. President Trump's decision to make Bolton his National Security Advisor is deeply disturbing," Congressman Brendan F. Boyle (PA-13) said in a written statement. "John Bolton has spent his entire career pushing fringe conspiracy theories, espousing radical ideas about multilateralism, and undermining key alliances across the world."

Like this story? Share it with a friend!

[Mar 23, 2018] Say what you will about Bolton he is a shrewd political animal. Here it looks as though he is trying to appear sane and reasonable....perhaps even likeable.

Mar 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

dh , Mar 23, 2018 12:13:22 AM | 69

@66 Say what you will about Bolton he is a shrewd political animal. Here it looks as though he is trying to appear sane and reasonable....perhaps even likeable.


https://www.yahoo.com/news/john-bolton-fires-back-against-004800253.html

[Mar 23, 2018] So on the 15th anniversary of the Iraq debacle, a neocon who cheered it on is rewarded with a national security post where he can cue up the attack on Iran that was always the ultimate prize for Israel's US stooges?

Mar 22, 2018 | www.nakedcapitalism.com


Jim Haygood , , March 22, 2018 at 7:31 pm

So on the 15th anniversary of the Iraq debacle, a neocon who cheered it on is rewarded with a national security post where he can cue up the attack on Iran that was always the ultimate prize for Israel's US stooges?

Guess we'll be out marching again, just like last time. Bolton's walrus mustache is the 21st century version of Adolph H's toothbrush mustache. Down with the Persian Untermenschen! /sarc

Carolinian , , March 22, 2018 at 8:50 pm

Of course while working for Cheney Bolton was pretty confident about getting Dubya to start a war with Iran and that didn't happen. Here's a backgrounder that suggests that Bolton is tight with both Adelson and the Mossad so one way of looking at this has Russia fading as a target and Iran falling under the bulls eye. Trump's recent friendly phone call with Putin was contrary to instructions from his NSC and therefore presumably McMaster.

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/why-a-john-bolton-appointment-is-scarier-than-you-think-mcmaster-trump/

Looked at optimistically it could be out of the frying pan and into a smaller frying pan (for us if not for Iran but that remains to be seen).

Of course looked at pessimistically it's terrible news but if the public and Congress are afraid of Trump gratuitously starting a new war then perhaps they should take away his power to do so. Seems the Constitution did have something to say about that.

barrisj , , March 22, 2018 at 10:21 pm

Tol'ja so these miserable wretches simply cannot die resurrection a promise any time a misfit administration takes power all that audition time on FoxNews paid off Trump stripping the cable channels of right-wing bloviators "best people for the jawb", don't you know.

[Mar 23, 2018] Let's get over the McMaster ouster. The fact is that he was completely unqualified to be the National Security advisor. McMaster was uneducated in history and international politics.

Mar 23, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Don Bacon , Mar 22, 2018 9:20:29 PM | 45

Let's get over the McMaster ouster. The fact is that he was completely unqualified to be the National Security advisor. McMaster was uneducated in history and international politics. McMaster (1) was excellent as an army unit leader and (2) obtained a PhD with a thesis that claimed that the US lost in Vietnam because generals weren't listened to, which is complete BS.
Now we may not like Bolton, but at least he's qualified. Does the NSA have the authority to start a war? No. The simple fact is that in the most likely war scenarios, Korea and Iran, the US has bases, ships etc. within easy reach of prospective enemies. Forward basing, it's called. The Pentagon knows this very well. They hate it when bases are destroyed and ships are sunk.
Currently the US is crowing about an evacuation exercise in Korea -- with a hundred people, when there are tens of thousands of Americans in South Korea endangered by any war.
So let's cheer up.
Jackrabbit , Mar 22, 2018 9:45:06 PM | 49
Don Bacon

As I understand it, Mc Master's thesis was worse than 'generals weren't listened to", it was that Generals knew what it would take to win but were reluctant to press their case.

I think McMaster's view gets watered-down and sugar-coated into: "Generals should provide true info to civilian authority" when it seems to me that the message he conveys to Generals is simply this: be stubborn; insist on full and unconditional support of civilian authority for any military action. We see this attitude reflected in "The Powell Doctrine" and now Trump's hand's-off approach to the military.

I see this as civilian authority (the President) essentially handing the keys to the Generals once any military action is authorized.

Don Bacon , Mar 22, 2018 9:57:49 PM | 55
@jr 49
Vietnam, a US attempt at nation-building within a nation (stupid), was a lost cause to begin with and so what generals "knew" was irrelevant.
Harry Truman got it right.
A couple of President Harry Truman quotes: "It's the fellows who go to West Point and are trained to think they're gods in uniform that I plan to take apart". . ."I didn't fire him [General MacArthur] because he was a dumb son of a bitch, although he was, but that's not against the law for generals. If it was, half to three quarters of them would be in jail."

Now currently generals aren't any smarter, they are still dumb SOBs who rise up by sucking up, but at least they are smart enough to realize that forward basing dooms any offensive attacks against countries that have the capability to counter-attack against US bases and ships. That would be North Korea and Iran, for starters. Bolton's ascendance won't change that simple truth, so the sky isn't falling.

Grieved , Mar 22, 2018 10:18:19 PM | 60
@45 Don Bacon

Yes, agreed, let's please cheer up. We live in a age of miracles, when Russia and China see fit to ally, and preserve, or create, world stability.

Trump has always been surrounded by completely vile people, and none of this has stopped Russia from laying down the gauntlet. Bolton is as much a nothing, I suggest, as Boris Johnson across the ocean. Neither of them holds power. The west doesn't hold power any longer. It's been checkmated at every turn - by Russia militarily and China economically.

Power is the ability to force things to your will, and it's backed up by a gun or it fails in the end. Trump's button may be big but it's old and maybe rusted and the odds are good it doesn't even work very well, especially against next generation jamming and hypersonic speeds.

So the west can bluster and parade its theater all it wants, it means nothing as the caravans all move on into the future. And even the theater is getting found out in advance now, with chemical-weapon caches and plans rendered visible before they can act.

As for the bluster, it only works on domestic populations, who have no power and thus cannot affect reality, and whose governments have no power and thus cannot use a mandate to war even if given one by their populations, gulled by propaganda. It's a useless, circular mechanism whose paradigm has ended, is defunct.

I find it encouraging beyond words to watch the real power on the ground in this Eurasian Century, as the west declines. And I'll quote just one last time, because I love the potency of this equation: "Power. The one quality of the human condition that you can't fake."

[Mar 22, 2018] 40 tons of chemical weapons left by militants found in Syria Russian MoD

Notable quotes:
"... "The Syrian Foreign Ministry pointed out that more than 40 tons of poisonous substances were found on the territories, liberated from terrorists," ..."
"... "preparing a provocation with the use of poisonous substances in order to blame the government forces of using chemical weapons against civilians." ..."
"... "has foiled the plans of the US-led coalition to strike key Syrian military targets in order to change the balance of power in favor of the so-called 'moderate opposition," ..."
"... "The shift in focus of the 87th session of the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) Executive Council from the Syrian chemical dossier to the unsubstantiated accusations against Russia over the chemical attack in Salisbury and the violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention only confirms the conclusion that the coalition's goals have been thwarted," ..."
Mar 22, 2018 | www.rt.com

Syrian medical staff take part in a training exercise to learn how to treat victims of chemical weapons attacks, in a course organized by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Gaziantep, Turkey, July 20, 2017 © Murad Sezer / Reuters Chemical weapon production facilities have been discovered in the areas liberated from militants in Syria, the Russian Defense Ministry says. More than 40 tons of chemical weapons were abandoned by retreating militants in the war-ravaged country, the ministry said on Wednesday. "The Syrian Foreign Ministry pointed out that more than 40 tons of poisonous substances were found on the territories, liberated from terrorists," Igor Kirillov, the commander of Russia's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Protection Forces, said on Wednesday. Read more Feb 16, 2005 - Baghdad, Iraq - An American soldier with the 1st Cavalry Division is treated after being shot in the volatile area of the Haifa Street neighborhood. © Robert King 15 years after Iraq War, same old MPs jump on chemical weapons claims in Skripal poisoning

The official was speaking at a press conference in Moscow concerning the poisoning of former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal. London and some of its Western allies blame the incident on Moscow, saying it has used a Russian-made nerve agent.

Kirillov said the West won't back off and is prepared to use any means necessary to discredit Russia. The official recalled the example of Syria's Khan Shaykhun.

The commander also criticized the international bodies for their refusal to work with Damascus in investigating the alleged chemical attacks in the country.

In late February, the Russian Reconciliation Center in Syria said it had obtained information that militants in the Damascus suburb of Eastern Ghouta had been "preparing a provocation with the use of poisonous substances in order to blame the government forces of using chemical weapons against civilians."

The release of this data "has foiled the plans of the US-led coalition to strike key Syrian military targets in order to change the balance of power in favor of the so-called 'moderate opposition," he said.

"The shift in focus of the 87th session of the OPCW (Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons) Executive Council from the Syrian chemical dossier to the unsubstantiated accusations against Russia over the chemical attack in Salisbury and the violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention only confirms the conclusion that the coalition's goals have been thwarted," Kirillov noted.

The alleged chemical attack in Khan Shaykhun in the Idlib Governorate took place on April 4, 2017 in an area controlled by Al-Nusra Front terrorist group. Up to 100 civilians were said to have been killed by sarin gas, released in an airstrike by Syrian government forces. Washington immediately rushed to blame Damascus for the attack and fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at the Shayrat Airbase, claiming it was the very compound from which jets allegedly armed with the chemical took off.

READ MORE: Syria's Eastern Ghouta militants prepare chemical attack provocation, Russian MoD tipped off

Syria, which was confirmed to have destroyed its sarin stockpiles under a deal brokered between Russia and the US in 2013, has denied the American accusations. Russia also pointed out that thorough impartial investigation of the incident never took place, with OPCW experts refusing to visit Khan Shaykhun. It has argued that the attack could have been staged.

[Mar 22, 2018] On reasons for the made in a hurry Novichok story and the last surprisingly sane admissions by those in charge of CENTCOM

Notable quotes:
"... They mentioned although the Turkish officials have said they are ready to help evacuation of al-Nusra Front (Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at or the Levant Liberation Board) terrorists from Eastern Ghouta to take them to Idlib, this seems to be a cover as they really mean to rescue their special foreign forces that among the ranks of the Al-Qaeda-affiliatetd Al-Nusra in Syria. ..."
"... According to the sources, a sum of 960 foreign agents have so far been transferred to these specific regions after the terrorist groups allowed evacuation of civilians on March 15... ..."
"... It seems that there is a significant effort by the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany to provoke a military confrontation with Moscow. How else are we able to interpret threats from Macron to strike Damascus, together with his ominous advice to foreign journalists not to go to Damascus in the coming days and, for those already there, to leave the capital immediately? There has even been chatter within diplomatic circles that suggest that UN personnel are leaving Damascus.... ..."
"... Russian military representatives have reiterated that in the event of an attack, they will respond by hitting both the missiles launched as well as the ships from which the missiles were launched ..."
Mar 22, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Sarah B 22 March 2018 at 03:52 PM

On reasons for the made in a hurry Novichok story and the last surprisingly sane admissions by those in charge of CENTCOM:

http://en.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13961229000496

"The sources said that after the army's expanding march in Eastern Ghouta and failure of the US-Israeli plot to conduct an effective offensive on Damascus, the US command center has rushed to to evacuate allied militants and agents operating for Israel, Jordan and NATO from the region.

They mentioned although the Turkish officials have said they are ready to help evacuation of al-Nusra Front (Tahrir al-Sham Hay'at or the Levant Liberation Board) terrorists from Eastern Ghouta to take them to Idlib, this seems to be a cover as they really mean to rescue their special foreign forces that among the ranks of the Al-Qaeda-affiliatetd Al-Nusra in Syria.

Therefore, the US has ordered Jeish al-Islam, Faylaq al-Rahman and other terrorist groups to allow evacuation of civilians from Eastern Ghouta to army-held regions in a bid to provide the ground for these foreign agents to also leave Ghouta in disguise and enable the Turkish intelligence service to send them to specified regions in al-Tanf and Northern Syria which are under the control of the US troops," they

.... According to the sources, a sum of 960 foreign agents have so far been transferred to these specific regions after the terrorist groups allowed evacuation of civilians on March 15... ."

Anna , 22 March 2018 at 09:17 AM
Are ziocons trumping the US non-zionized brass?- https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-21/if-us-plans-terrorist-false-flag-chemical-attack-justify-bombing-syria-russia-says

"According to reports, terrorists stationed in Al-Tanf received 20 tons of chlorine gas and detonators, disguised as cigarette packs, in order to attack in an area under the control of the terrorists that is densely inhabited by civilians. ...

It seems that there is a significant effort by the United States, the United Kingdom, France and Germany to provoke a military confrontation with Moscow. How else are we able to interpret threats from Macron to strike Damascus, together with his ominous advice to foreign journalists not to go to Damascus in the coming days and, for those already there, to leave the capital immediately? There has even been chatter within diplomatic circles that suggest that UN personnel are leaving Damascus....

Russian military representatives have reiterated that in the event of an attack, they will respond by hitting both the missiles launched as well as the ships from which the missiles were launched ."

--- As Zvika Haimovitch [head of the IDF's Aerial Defense Division] infromed us, the US troops will be "on the ground to be part of our deployment team to defend the State of Israel." http://www.infiniteunknown.net/2018/03/20/top-us-general-says-american-troops-should-be-ready-to-die-for-israel/

Casey -> Anna... , 22 March 2018 at 10:47 AM
Am I correct in assuming that the long-term US/UK/Israel plan is to use false-flag events blamed on P (spy poisonings, election tampering, MH17, Syria poison gas, etc.) to force R off the UNSC, then set up a Rus gov in exile (similar to the ploy used recently to steal Libyan cash), transfer the UNSC role to the exile Rus gov, and with all this to give the Rus elite sufficient political cover at home to "take out" an ever-popular P, by any means necessary?

Concurrently, a Syria false-flag gas attack is blamed on P, missiles launched on Syria to make sure Rus sinks a few Anglo warships and a few thousand expendable sailors are sunk, (as Ukraine warring restarts) then the open warfare, limited to the Med, with UK/US/Is certain they can outlast Rus, who will be stunned into surrender by the use of limited yield nukes?

Are the warmongers overplaying their hand? I keep seeing references to hair-on-fire hysteria of the elite doorkeepers being due to them seeing this trap in the Med as the last chance to take Rus out in a bid to try to save the NWO project.

[Mar 22, 2018] Does State Department have its own intel / black operations team in Syria? Thought it was a consumer not producer.

Mar 22, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Imagine -> james... 21 March 2018 at 02:33 PM

Because we all know the State Dept. is expert in hiring and directing jihadis to do dirty work. Thank heaven the CIA saved us!

...The whole thing smells like a dead fish.

The part about Porton Down getting creative with sarin samples' chain of custody has been alleged before, and I suppose State could have asked Britain to use its mercs to pull off an event.

However, since Sy Hersh points out embedded people were explicitly warned about the Apr '17 conventional attack ahead of time for their own safety (and the Syria plane cleared its mission with the Deconflict folks, and knew all along it was being tracked), the likelihood that a different group pulled the current sandbagging job must be considered.

So, fair question: Does State have its own intel / black operations team? Thought it was a consumer not producer.

[Mar 22, 2018] The Untold Story of John Bolton's Campaign for War With Iran by Gareth Porter

Another chickenhawk in Trump administration. Sad...
Notable quotes:
"... Bolton's high-profile advocacy of war with Iran is well known. What is not at all well known is that, when he was under secretary of state for arms control and international security, he executed a complex and devious strategy aimed at creating the justification for a U.S. attack on Iran. Bolton sought to convict the Islamic Republic in the court of international public opinion of having a covert nuclear weapons program using a combination of diplomatic pressure, crude propaganda, and fabricated evidence. ..."
"... Despite the fact that Bolton was technically under the supervision of Secretary of State Colin Powell, his actual boss in devising and carrying out that strategy was Vice President Dick Cheney. Bolton was also the administration's main point of contact with the Israeli government, and with Cheney's backing, he was able to flout normal State Department rules by taking a series of trips to Israel in 2003 and 2004 without having the required clearance from the State Department's Bureau for Near Eastern Affairs. ..."
"... During multiple trips to Israel, Bolton had unannounced meetings, including with the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, without the usual reporting cable to the secretary of state and other relevant offices. Judging from that report on an early Bolton visit, those meetings clearly dealt with a joint strategy on how to bring about political conditions for an eventual U.S. strike against Iran. ..."
"... Unfortunately, John Bolton is not just your typical neocon pathological liar and warmonger. Even by their abysmal standards he's pretty unhinged. He is one of the most dangerous people around these days. ..."
"... Bolton, Gen. Jack Keane, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters and the whole warmongering crowd that frequent the air waves at FOX will not rest until they have us at war with Iran and Russia. ..."
"... So Trump is thinking of hiring a loudmouthed incompetent who is a known conduit for botched Israeli spy service forgeries used to gin up war with Iran. What a sick farce. ..."
"... Bolton is a cancer for the US. As a warmonger, he thrives in hostile environnements so no wonder Bolton wants to create them with no regards for consequences. ..."
"... I doubt anyone will be surprised to learn that Bolton was duped by Israeli forgers (very droll story, by the way). You'd think that no serious person would consider giving him a National Security Council post, particularly given the current level of concern about "foreign meddling". ..."
"... I do not agree that Iran could prevent a conventional bombing/invasion of their country. But they could make it sooo expensive, the dollar ceases to be the world reserve currency, and if they do that, they will have done mankind a favor. ..."
"... But after the conquest, imagine the guerrilla war! The US basically had to fight an insurgency from amongst 5 million Sunni Arabs in Iraq. Iran is much more ethnically homogeneous. So even if you get some minorities to turncoat and work for the occupiers, you are still left with about 60 million ethnically Persian Shiites. That is a 12 times larger insurgency than what you had in Iraq. ..."
"... Bolton and Cheney must have been livid about Stuxnet, for all the wrong reasons ..."
"... Hiring a ghoul like Bolton will mark a new low even for the Trump administration. And that's saying something. These chickenhawk bastards should all be required to fight on the front lines of the wars they push. That was true, I'll guarantee you Bolton would shut up in a hurry. ..."
"... Gareth Porter is an investigative reporter and regular contributor to ..."
"... . He is also the author of ..."
"... Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter . ..."
Mar 22, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

Everyone knows Bolton is a hawk. Less understood is how he labored in secret to drive Washington and Tehran apart. By Gareth Porter March 22, 2018

John Bolton (Gage Skidmore/Flikr) In my reporting on U.S.-Israeli policy, I have tracked numerous episodes in which the United States and/or Israel made moves that seemed to indicate preparations for war against Iran. Each time -- in 2007 , in 2008, and again in 2011 -- those moves, presented in corporate media as presaging attacks on Tehran, were actually bluffs aimed at putting pressure on the Iranian government.

But the strong likelihood that Donald Trump will now choose John Bolton as his next national security advisor creates a prospect of war with Iran that is very real. Bolton is no ordinary neoconservative hawk. He has been obsessed for many years with going to war against the Islamic Republic, calling repeatedly for bombing Iran in his regular appearances on Fox News, without the slightest indication that he understands the consequences of such a policy.

His is not merely a rhetorical stance: Bolton actively conspired during his tenure as the Bush administration's policymaker on Iran from 2002 through 2004 to establish the political conditions necessary for the administration to carry out military action.

More than anyone else inside or outside the Trump administration, Bolton has already influenced Trump to tear up the Iran nuclear deal. Bolton parlayed his connection with the primary financier behind both Benjamin Netanyahu and Donald Trump himself -- the militantly Zionist casino magnate Sheldon Adelson -- to get Trump's ear last October, just as the president was preparing to announce his policy on the Iran nuclear agreement, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA). He spoke with Trump by phone from Las Vegas after meeting with Adelson .

It was Bolton who persuaded Trump to commit to specific language pledging to pull out of the JCPOA if Congress and America's European allies did not go along with demands for major changes that were clearly calculated to ensure the deal would fall apart.

Although Bolton was passed over for the job of secretary of state, he now appears to have had the inside track for national security advisor. Trump met with Bolton on March 6 and told him, "We need you here, John," according to a Bolton associate. Bolton said he would only take secretary of state or national security advisor, whereupon Trump promised, "I'll call you really soon." Trump then replaced Secretary of State Rex Tillerson with former CIA director Mike Pompeo, after which White House sources leaked to the media Trump's intention to replace H.R. McMaster within a matter of weeks.

The only other possible candidate for the position mentioned in media accounts is Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who was acting national security advisor after General Michael Flynn was ousted in February 2017.

Bolton's high-profile advocacy of war with Iran is well known. What is not at all well known is that, when he was under secretary of state for arms control and international security, he executed a complex and devious strategy aimed at creating the justification for a U.S. attack on Iran. Bolton sought to convict the Islamic Republic in the court of international public opinion of having a covert nuclear weapons program using a combination of diplomatic pressure, crude propaganda, and fabricated evidence.

Despite the fact that Bolton was technically under the supervision of Secretary of State Colin Powell, his actual boss in devising and carrying out that strategy was Vice President Dick Cheney. Bolton was also the administration's main point of contact with the Israeli government, and with Cheney's backing, he was able to flout normal State Department rules by taking a series of trips to Israel in 2003 and 2004 without having the required clearance from the State Department's Bureau for Near Eastern Affairs.

Thus, at the very moment that Powell was saying administration policy was not to attack Iran, Bolton was working with the Israelis to lay the groundwork for just such a war. During a February 2003 visit, Bolton assured Israeli officials in private meetings that he had no doubt the United States would attack Iraq, and that after taking down Saddam, it would deal with Iran, too, as well as Syria.

During multiple trips to Israel, Bolton had unannounced meetings, including with the head of Mossad, Meir Dagan, without the usual reporting cable to the secretary of state and other relevant offices. Judging from that report on an early Bolton visit, those meetings clearly dealt with a joint strategy on how to bring about political conditions for an eventual U.S. strike against Iran.

Mossad played a very aggressive role in influencing world opinion on the Iranian nuclear program. In the summer of 2003, according to journalists Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins in their book The Nuclear Jihadist , Meir Dagan created a new Mossad office tasked with briefing the world's press on alleged Iranian efforts to achieve a nuclear weapons capability. The new unit's responsibilities included circulating documents from inside Iran as well from outside, according to Frantz and Collins.

Bolton's role in a joint U.S.-Israeli strategy, as he outlines in his own 2007 memoir , was to ensure that the Iran nuclear issue would be moved out of the International Atomic Energy Agency and into the United Nations Security Council. He was determined to prevent IAEA director general Mohamed ElBaradei from reaching an agreement with Iran that would make it more difficult for the Bush administration to demonize Tehran as posing a nuclear weapons threat. Bolton began accusing Iran of having a covert nuclear weapons program in mid-2003, but encountered resistance not only from ElBaradei and non-aligned states, but from Britain, France, and Germany as well.

Bolton's strategy was based on the claim that Iran was hiding its military nuclear program from the IAEA, and in early 2004, he came up with a dramatic propaganda ploy: he sent a set of satellite images to the IAEA showing sites at the Iranian military reservation at Parchin that he claimed were being used for tests to simulate nuclear weapons. Bolton demanded that the IAEA request access to inspect those sites and leaked his demand to the Associated Press in September 2004. In fact, the satellite images showed nothing more than bunkers and buildings for conventional explosives testing.

Bolton was apparently hoping the Iranian military would not agree to any IAEA inspections based on such bogus claims, thus playing into his propaganda theme of Iran's "intransigence" in refusing to answer questions about its nuclear program. But in 2005 Iran allowed the inspectors into those sites and even let them choose several more sites to inspect. The inspectors found no evidence of any nuclear-related activities.

The U.S.-Israeli strategy would later hit the jackpot, however, when a large cache of documents supposedly from a covert source within Iran's nuclear weapons program surfaced in autumn 2004. The documents, allegedly found on the laptop computer of one of the participants, included technical drawings of a series of efforts to redesign Iran's Shahab-3 missile to carry what appeared to be a nuclear weapon.

But the whole story of the so-called "laptop documents" was a fabrication. In 2013, a former senior German official revealed the true story to this writer: the documents had been given to German intelligence by the Mujahedin E Khalq, the anti-Iran armed group that was well known to have been used by Mossad to "launder" information the Israelis did not want attributed to themselves. Furthermore, the drawings showing the redesign that were cited as proof of a nuclear weapons program were clearly done by someone who didn't know that Iran had already abandoned the Shahab-3's nose cone for an entirely different design.

Mossad had clearly been working on those documents in 2003 and 2004 when Bolton was meeting with Meir Dagan. Whether Bolton knew the Israelis were preparing fake documents or not, it was the Israeli contribution towards establishing the political basis for an American attack on Iran for which he was the point man. Bolton reveals in his memoirs that this Cheney-directed strategy took its cues from the Israelis, who told Bolton that the Iranians were getting close to "the point of no return." That was point, Bolton wrote, at which "we could not stop their progress without using force."

Cheney and Bolton based their war strategy on the premise that the U.S. military would be able to consolidate control over Iraq quickly. Instead the U.S. occupation bogged down and never fully recovered. Cheney proposed taking advantage of a high-casualty event in Iraq that could be blamed on Iran to attack an IRGC base in Iran in the summer of 2007. But the risk that pro-Iranian Shiite militias in Iraq would retaliate against U.S. troops was a key argument against the proposal.

The Pentagon and the Joint Chiefs of Staff were also well aware that Iran had the capability to retaliate directly against U.S. forces in the region, including against warships in the Strait of Hormuz. They had no patience for Cheney's wild ideas about more war.

That Pentagon caution remains unchanged. But two minds in the White House unhinged from reality could challenge that wariness -- and push the United States closer towards a dangerous war with Iran.



Stephen J. March 21, 2018 at 10:37 pm

I believe "War With Iran" is on the agenda. I wrote the article below some time ago. "Will There Be War With Iran"? Is it now Iran's turn to be subjected to the planned and hellish wars that have already engulfed Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen and Afghanistan and other countries? Will, the gates of hell be further opened to include an attack on Iran?

[read more at link below]

http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/02/will-there-be-war-with-iran.html

See also: Will the War Agenda of the War Criminals Result in Nuclear War? http://graysinfo.blogspot.ca/2017/02/will-war-agenda-of-war-criminals-result.html

Clyde Schechter , , says: March 21, 2018 at 11:37 pm
Unfortunately, John Bolton is not just your typical neocon pathological liar and warmonger. Even by their abysmal standards he's pretty unhinged. He is one of the most dangerous people around these days.
Procivic , , says: March 22, 2018 at 12:35 am
The re-emergence of Bolton is the result of Trump's electoral victory, a phenomenon that resembles the upheavals that followed when an unhinged hereditary ruler would take the reins of power in bygone empires.
Duglarri , , says: March 22, 2018 at 1:16 am
There's a big difference between the wars with Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and Somalia, and a war with Iran. The difference is, this is a war the United States could lose. And lose very, very badly. As Pompeo remarked, it would take "only" 2000 airstrikes to eliminate the Iranian nuclear facilities. But what will it take to land 20,000 marines on the northern coast of the Persian Gulf to secure the straits, and there fend off 1.7 million Iranian regulars and militia on the ground? How will the navy cope with hundreds and hundreds of supersonic cruise missiles fired in volleys? What about the S-300 missiles that are by now fully operational in Iran?

A look at the map shows that this is a war that the US simply cannot win.

Unless it uses nuclear weapons and simply sets out to kill every last man, woman, and child in Iran, all 80 million of them.

Which I suppose is not out of the question. As all options are sure to be on the table.

Minnesota Mary , , says: March 22, 2018 at 1:54 am
"Everyone worshipped the dragon because he had given his authority to the beast. They worshipped the beast also, saying, 'Who is like the beast? Who can fight against it?'" Revelation 13:4

Who can fight against the U.S/NATO? Bolton, Gen. Jack Keane, Lt. Col. Ralph Peters and the whole warmongering crowd that frequent the air waves at FOX will not rest until they have us at war with Iran and Russia.

wrap , , says: March 22, 2018 at 3:43 am
So Trump is thinking of hiring a loudmouthed incompetent who is a known conduit for botched Israeli spy service forgeries used to gin up war with Iran. What a sick farce.
Hanson , , says: March 22, 2018 at 4:58 am
The Boltons, Frums, and Boots of the world never have to fight the wars they start.
Julien , , says: March 22, 2018 at 5:54 am
Bolton is a cancer for the US. As a warmonger, he thrives in hostile environnements so no wonder Bolton wants to create them with no regards for consequences.
EliteCommInc. , , says: March 22, 2018 at 9:03 am
Well, we need the John Bolton's of this world for times in which a uncompromising use of force is required. But I don't need background to know that advocating for wars that serve little in the way of US interests because we simply are not in any "clear and present danger".

Odd that so many "old schoolers" have abandoned some general cliche's that serve as sound guide.

the freakshow (cont'd) , , says: March 22, 2018 at 9:41 am
Just when you think you've heard the last of the various catastrophes, blunders, and odd capering about involving Bolton, you hear that voice from the old late night gadget commercials barking "wait, there's more !!"

I doubt anyone will be surprised to learn that Bolton was duped by Israeli forgers (very droll story, by the way). You'd think that no serious person would consider giving him a National Security Council post, particularly given the current level of concern about "foreign meddling".

rta , , says: March 22, 2018 at 10:25 am
I wonder if people will finally realize that Trump was only draining the swamp so he could replace it with a cesspool.
Chris Mallory , , says: March 22, 2018 at 11:16 am
"The Boltons, Frums, and Boots of the world never have to fight the wars they start."

Hey now, Bolton's service in the Maryland National Guard made sure the North Vietnamese never landed in Baltimore. Can you imagine the horror if the Russians had captured our supply of soft shell crab?

Esther Haman , , says: March 22, 2018 at 11:27 am
John Bolton a 75 year old loser, a has Never-been, which is the mouth piece of the Zionists who keep him on the pay roll. He likes to hear his own voice and to feel important because he wants war with Iran or all the Middle East. He's actions and speeches are all emotional and lack logic and reasoning. So, what is he good for?!
Egypt Steve , , says: March 22, 2018 at 11:29 am
Re: "Well, we need the John Bolton's of this world for times in which a uncompromising use of force is required."

Not sure about that. We definitely need Roosevelts and Lincolns, Grants and Shermans and Eisenhowers and Pattons. I'm not clear on what function the likes of Bolton serve.

Kent , , says: March 22, 2018 at 12:16 pm
This article fails to address the why. Why does Bolton want war with Iran?
Steve , , says: March 22, 2018 at 12:38 pm
I do not agree that Iran could prevent a conventional bombing/invasion of their country. But they could make it sooo expensive, the dollar ceases to be the world reserve currency, and if they do that, they will have done mankind a favor.

But after the conquest, imagine the guerrilla war! The US basically had to fight an insurgency from amongst 5 million Sunni Arabs in Iraq. Iran is much more ethnically homogeneous. So even if you get some minorities to turncoat and work for the occupiers, you are still left with about 60 million ethnically Persian Shiites. That is a 12 times larger insurgency than what you had in Iraq.

And if the Iranians had any sense RIGHT NOW, they would make sure every family had a stock of 10 powerful anti-vehicle mines, REALLY powerful mines. Make sure all are safely buried with locations memorized. And make sure everyone had the training to use them, even older children (who will be the front-line guerrillas in 5 years).

So if that devil Bolton gets his way, his own country will pay a price too, and deservedly too. I want my country to be peaceful and friendly to the world like the Germans are now. But it may take the same type of "WWII treatment" to get my hateful war-loving countrymen to walk away from their sin.

Steve , , says: March 22, 2018 at 12:47 pm
The guerrilla war in Iraq was fought against only 5 million Sunni Arabs, the US occupiers having successfully pealed away the Kurds and Shia to be collaborators, or at least stay uninvolved with the insurgency.

But Iran is not just bigger than Iraq, but much more ethnically and religiously homogeneous. Imagine what kind of insurgency you might get from 60 million ethnically Persian Shiites?

My advice to the Iranians RIGHT NOW is to mass-produce the most lethal anti-vehicle mines possible and distribute them to the entire civilian population. Train everyone how to use them, then once trained, bury maybe 20 mines per family, all in known but hidden locations.

THAT will stop the Bolton/Zionist plan dead in its tracks.

b. , , says: March 22, 2018 at 1:46 pm
"Why does Bolton want war with Iran?"

Maybe it was a career-enhancing move. It is a legitimate question, along with "follow the money"? Regardless of why sociopaths like Keith Payne or John Bolton become obsessed with "winning nuclear war" or "bombing Iran" . How do they make a living? Who would bankroll somebody – over many decades – to not just consider or plan, but actively provoke illegal acts of aggressive war, against declared policy of the government and the demands of the Constitution they have sworn an oath to uphold?

It is also educational to see that the fabrications and other "war-program related activities" in regards to Iran resemble the same stovepipelines that provide the Iraq 2003 pretexts – with Powell reprising his role as useful idiot – which clashes badly with the "blunder" narrative that anybody in the US government actually believed Iraq had WMD – was beyond "the point of no return".

This also bodes ill for a Bolton-formulated policy on Korea, and any "National Security Advice" he would see fit to fabricate and feed to the Bomber In Chief.

Furthermore, we learn just how unhinged Cheney et.al. really were – expecting Iraq to be a mere stepping stone along their adventures on the "Axis of Evil" trail. If these are our gamblers, nobody would suspect them of counting cards.

b. , , says: March 22, 2018 at 2:04 pm
Bolton and Cheney must have been livid about Stuxnet, for all the wrong reasons
PAX , , says: March 22, 2018 at 2:49 pm
We must look into our very national soul and ask why are we entertaining a war with Iran? The answer is clear. It is to further the goals of a fanatical, right-wing, group of Zionists. When a truthful history is written about this era of endless wars, the errant and disgraceful behavior of this group will be clearly identified and they will not have anywhere to hide. You may fool some of the folks, some of the time, but not all the folks, all of the time.
Buzz Man , , says: March 22, 2018 at 3:21 pm
Hiring a ghoul like Bolton will mark a new low even for the Trump administration. And that's saying something. These chickenhawk bastards should all be required to fight on the front lines of the wars they push. That was true, I'll guarantee you Bolton would shut up in a hurry.
marvin , , says: March 22, 2018 at 3:32 pm
John "FIVE DEFERMENTS" Bolton is a filthy yellow bellied coward. Drag her/him to Afghanistan amd make IT serve in the Front Lines for the duration.
Tulsa Ron , , says: March 22, 2018 at 3:43 pm
Israel and the Zionists are exactly the "foreign entanglements" that George Washington warned us about. Bolton is a neocon-Zionist who wants the United States blood and taxes to ensure Israel's dominance of the Middle East.
Jeeves , , says: March 22, 2018 at 5:14 pm
So Gareth Porter cites his own Truthout article as authority for the assertion that the "laptop documents" are fabrications. Most of the cited article seems to be devoted to "Curveball", the impeached source of Iraqi intelligence, in order to prop up the bona fides of the German who claims the Iranian intelligence is a forgery. Any other sourcing for this allegation available?

Judging from a quick look at what else Truthout has on offer, I'm not sure about the credibility of Mr. Porter.

pirouz moghaddam , , says: March 22, 2018 at 7:41 pm
Thank you Mr. Porter for your insightful and intelligent articles, being that I am from Iran Originally brings tears to my eyes to even imagine such tragedy, I pray this will never happen. Having lived in America more than half of my life and having children that are Americans makes these thoughts even more horrifying . I am however thankful to read all the comments from so many intelligent , decent and true Americans and that gives me hope that such disaster will not take place. The people of Iran are decent and kind and cultured , I am hopeful that they will find their way and bring about a true democracy soon and again become a positive force to the humanity.
Gareth Porter is an investigative reporter and regular contributor to TAC . He is also the author of Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Iran Nuclear Scare . Follow him on Twitter @GarethPorter .

[Mar 22, 2018] McMaster to Resign as National Security Adviser, and Will Be Replaced by John Bolton - The New York Times

Mar 22, 2018 | www.nytimes.com

WASHINGTON -- Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, the battle-tested Army officer tapped as President Trump's national security adviser last year to stabilize a turbulent foreign policy operation, will resign and be replaced by John R. Bolton, a hard-line former United States ambassador to the United Nations, White House officials said Thursday.

General McMaster will retire from the military, the officials said. He has been discussing his departure with President Trump for several weeks, they said, but decided to speed up his departure, in part because questions about his status were casting a shadow over his conversations with foreign officials.

The officials also said that Mr. Trump wanted to fill out his national security team before his meeting with North Korea's leader, Kim Jong-un. He replaced Secretary of State Rex W. Tillerson with the C.I.A. director, Mike Pompeo, last week.

Officials emphasized that General McMaster's departure was a mutual decision and amicable, with none of the recrimination that marked Mr. Tillerson's exit. They said it was not related to a leak on Tuesday of briefing materials for Mr. Trump's phone call with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.

In the materials, Mr. Trump was advised not to congratulate Mr. Putin on his re-election, which the president went ahead and did during the call.

Advertisement Continue reading the main story

Mr. Bolton, who will take office April 9, has met regularly with Mr. Trump to discuss foreign policy, and was on a list of candidates for national security adviser. He was in the West Wing with Mr. Trump to discuss the job on Thursday.

[Mar 22, 2018] Bad news: Trump just picked John Bolton to be the new National Security Advisor.

Mar 22, 2018 | www.unz.com

Seamus Padraig , Next New Comment March 22, 2018 at 11:17 pm GMT

OT, but related.

Bad news: Trump just picked John Bolton to be the new National Security Advisor.

https://www.rt.com/usa/422081-trump-security-adviser-mcmaster-bolton/?utm_source=browser&utm_medium=push_notifications&utm_campaign=push_notifications

[Mar 22, 2018] Trump's National Security Chief Calls Russian Interference 'Incontrovertible'

Mar 22, 2018 | www.nytimes.com

MUNICH -- Just hours after the Justice Department indicted 13 Russians in what it charged was a broad conspiracy to alter the 2016 election, President Trump's national security adviser, Lt. Gen. H. R. McMaster, accused Moscow of engaging in a campaign of "disinformation, subversion and espionage" that he said Washington would continue to expose.

The evidence of a Russian effort to interfere in the election "is now incontrovertible," General McMaster said at the Munich Security Conference, an annual meeting of European and American diplomats and security experts, including several senior Russian officials. On Friday, just hours before the indictment, the top White House official for cyberissues accused Russia of "the most destructive cyberattack in human history," against Ukraine last summer.

Taken together, the statements appeared to mark a major turn in the administration's willingness to directly confront the government of President Vladimir V. Putin. Defense Secretary Jim Mattis and C.I.A. Director Mike Pompeo also attended the Munich conference, and while they did not speak publicly, in private meetings with others here they reiterated similar statements.

The comments highlighted a sharp division inside the administration about how to talk about the Russian covert efforts, with only Mr. Trump and a few of his close advisers holding back from acknowledging the Russian role or talking about a larger strategy to deter future attacks.

The indictment characterized the cyberattacks and social media fraud as part of a larger effort by Russia to undermine the United States. A senior administration official called the effort to confront Russia "a significant point of contention" within the administration.

After the indictment on Friday Mr. Trump declared in a Twitter post that "the results of the election were not impacted. The Trump campaign did nothing wrong -- no collusion!" He made no mention of Russia as a "revisionist power," the description used in his own National Security Strategy, or of the elaborate $1.2 million-a-month effort that the indictment indicated Russia's Internet Research Agency spent in an effort to discredit the election system and ultimately to support his candidacy.

Vice President Mike Pence, speaking this past week in Washington, misstated American intelligence conclusions about the election hacking, arguing "it is the universal conclusion of our intelligence communities that none of those efforts had any effect on the outcome of the 2016 election." The intelligence chiefs have said they have not, and cannot, reach such a conclusion.

Sergey V. Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, cited Mr. Pence's comments during the session here Saturday to make the case that Russia did nothing wrong. "So until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber," he said.

The man who served as the Russian ambassador to the United States during the period covered by the indictments, Sergey I. Kislyak, picked up on a favorite theme of Mr. Trump's: questioning the credibility of the F.B.I. and intelligence agency assessments.

"I have seen so many indictments and accusations against Russians," Mr. Kislyak said on Saturday afternoon. "I am not sure I can trust American law enforcement to be the most truthful source against Russians." He added, "The allegations being mounted against us are simply fantasies."

Mr. Kislyak, who has been caught up in the investigation because of meetings with Trump campaign officials during his time as ambassador, went on to cite a study, which he said he was keeping in his briefcase, that proved the "main source of computer attacks in the world is not Russia. It is the United States."

[Mar 21, 2018] Israel Quietly Begins Practicing for Possible War With Russia

Notable quotes:
"... Since Russia has asked Lebanon for a military cooperation agreement, which I believe was intended as a warning to Israel not to attack Lebanon again - because of the threat that Syria would become involved - I suspect that Russia is well aware of Israel's intentions. ..."
"... The addition of a US base in Israel and a commitment of US forces to support Israel in their wars means that there will be an increased likelihood of US conflict with Russia if Russia intervenes in a Israeli/US attack in Lebanon which extends into Syria. ..."
Mar 20, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Richardstevenhack 20 March 2018 at 03:03 PM

Israel Quietly Begins Practicing for Possible War With Russia

https://russia-insider.com/en/israel-quietly-begins-practicing-possible-war-russia/ri22844

Apparently Israel held a command-level war game under cover of the Cobra exercise where they continued to plan an attack on Lebanon and Syria, as well as what to do if "the Russian made trouble."

"We can achieve decisive victory over Hezbollah, and we don't need help from a single American soldier, but we cannot fight Iran alone," he stated last year. "I consider future cooperation with the U.S. much more important than anything we've had in the past."

Reading that in reverse supports my contention that Israel both continues to intend to degrade Hizballah and Syria's ability to be effective actors in a US/Israel war with Iran, and also that they intend to recruit the US in their next attack on Lebanon, with the goal of extending that war into Syria.

And that is regardless of the Russian presence in Syria.

Since Russia has asked Lebanon for a military cooperation agreement, which I believe was intended as a warning to Israel not to attack Lebanon again - because of the threat that Syria would become involved - I suspect that Russia is well aware of Israel's intentions.

The addition of a US base in Israel and a commitment of US forces to support Israel in their wars means that there will be an increased likelihood of US conflict with Russia if Russia intervenes in a Israeli/US attack in Lebanon which extends into Syria.

I don't think Russia would come to Lebanon's aid directly in support of Hizballah, but it's quite likely Russia would intervene if that war extended into Syria. Russia doesn't have the forces in country in Syria to directly intervene militarily but it could add additional forces or use its regional capabilities to intervene enough to complicate Israeli/US actions in Syria. But not without increasing the probability of escalation to a dangerous degree.

If Israel is not persuaded to stand down on its intentions to attack Hizballah and Syria, things could get much more ugly than the present Syrian crisis.

[Mar 21, 2018] Russia and Damascus understood from the contacts between Afrin and al-Hasaka that the YPG leaders would have preferred to abandon Afrin to Turkey rather than hand it over to Damascus...

Mar 21, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Fecund Stench , Mar 21, 2018 12:25:07 PM | 25

Elijah Magnier also had a good day:
In the last two years, in every single Syrian brigade or division, Russian special forces have been present, coordinating military operations on the ground and all air strikes...

The main control and command base is also led by Russian generals in connection with the military operations room in Moscow. This is where planning, information gathering and attack orders are given to the forces operating in Syria...

This is why the Russian generals have met with the YPG Kurdish leaders on several occasions, to communicate Damascus's will to control the Afrin enclave on the condition that the Kurds hand over the administration and all the weapons in possession of the YPG...

The Syrian Kurds wanted to believe - like the Iraqi Kurds - that the international community would play a positive role in protecting Afrin and that they would not be betrayed...

Russia and Damascus understood from the contacts between Afrin and al-Hasaka that the YPG leaders would have preferred to abandon Afrin to Turkey rather than hand it over to Damascus...

The Kurds have managed to face a single possibility: to migrate where the American forces are present and where they can offer protection to the occupying forces in the north-east of Syria...

Moscow has sided with Ankara, giving Turkey another chance to stand among the superpower's allies and managed to make a serious step forward with one of the largest NATO members...

[T]he speed of the battle led by Syria and Russia, has offered the government of Damascus an obvious victory over the jihadists in the Ghouta, expected in the coming weeks...

The Kurds of Afrin, not convinced to remain under the government of Damascus, have left the territory that is not their property to Turkey and used their people as human shields...

Erdogan is an indispensable actor that Moscow needs to stop the war in Syria.

[Mar 21, 2018] Votel's message is, "The military is not on board for an adventure in the Middle East whose sole purpose is to make the President a "Wartime" President."

Notable quotes:
"... Let us hope that Votel's message is, "The military is not on board for an adventure in the Middle East whose sole purpose is to make the President a "Wartime" President." ..."
"... Now I know that if the President says jump the military must say how high, but somehow I think that Votel's message is, "Congress, sane people, understand that reality is not set up to make Trump a hero in anything except his own mind." ..."
"... Let's see if we can actually exemplify what we spend $600 billion a year trying to ram down other country's throats. ..."
Mar 21, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Bill Herschel 20 March 2018 at 01:12 AM

The Midterm elections. The Midterm elections. Everything that transpires in Washington is about the Midterm elections. Let us hope that Votel's message is, "The military is not on board for an adventure in the Middle East whose sole purpose is to make the President a "Wartime" President."

Now I know that if the President says jump the military must say how high, but somehow I think that Votel's message is, "Congress, sane people, understand that reality is not set up to make Trump a hero in anything except his own mind."

Trump has been thoroughly outmaneuvered in Korea. The grandstand meeting with Kim will not end in war, because that war will be a really unpopular war. Iran is the only possibility. Let's see who's more powerful: Israel and Saudi Arabia, or the American people. Let's see if this really is a democracy. Let's see if we can practice what we preach to the rest of the world.

Let's see if we can actually exemplify what we spend $600 billion a year trying to ram down other country's throats.

[Mar 20, 2018] US, British, French forces directly involved in Syria war Russia FM

Mar 17, 2018 | defenddemocracy.press

Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says US, British and French special forces are "directly" engaged in the war on Syria and operating on the ground in the crisis-stricken country.

"There are special forces on the ground in Syria from the US – they no longer deny it – the UK, France and a number of other countries," Lavrov said in an interview to the Kazakh state broadcaster published on the Russian Foreign Ministry's website on Saturday.

"Thus, it's not so much of a 'proxy war,' but rather a direct involvement in the war," the Russian top diplomat said.

He further said the US-led coalition in Syria, which is purportedly fighting the Daesh Takfiri group, is "illegitimate" from the standpoint of international law and the UN Charter.

Read more at http://www.presstv.com/Detail/2018/03/17/555757/Russian-FM-Lavrov–US-UK-France-Syria-war

[Mar 20, 2018] "It is well known that Israel funds, arms and provides medical support for the fighters of Al Qaeda's Syrian branch, al-Nusra. According to the Daily Mail out of the goodness of its heart, Israel has rescued and saved some 2,000 Islamic fighters in South Lebanon.

Notable quotes:
"... extreme Muslim terrorists – salafists, Muslims Brotherhood, and AQI (i.e. Al Qaeda in Iraq) – have always been the "major forces driving the insurgency in Syria." ..."
Mar 20, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Anna -> The Twisted Genius ... , 20 March 2018 at 03:05 PM

"He's still saddled with trying to prevent a final consolidation of Syria in support of Israeli objectives while defeating what remains of ISIS. That's more than enough to handle."

-- Hard, indeed: The US Army at the mercy of ziocons.

"Israeli Military Make it Clear that They Support ISIS:" https://azvsas.blogspot.com/2016/07/israeli-military-make-it-clear-that.html "It is well known that Israel funds, arms and provides medical support for the fighters of Al Qaeda's Syrian branch, al-Nusra. According to the Daily Mail out of the goodness of its heart, Israel has rescued and saved some 2,000 Islamic fighters in South Lebanon."

-- "Newly-Declassified U.S. Government Documents: The West Supported the Creation of ISIS:"

http://washingtonsblog.com/2015/05/newly-declassified-u-s-government-documents-the-west-supported-the-creation-of-isis.html "...

extreme Muslim terrorists – salafists, Muslims Brotherhood, and AQI (i.e. Al Qaeda in Iraq) – have always been the "major forces driving the insurgency in Syria."

Dr. Puck said in reply to Bill Herschel... , 20 March 2018 at 03:05 PM
Thanks for this Bill.

Cognitive dissonance is dialed up to the max between my ears when I contemplate 'wagging the dog' in the autumn, Mr. Kushner's BFF the Crown Prince, and, all this talk about a newly unbridled POTUS trusting nothing now but his instincts. I sure hope Mattis and Votel are in agreement, but this report of commonsense does increase the dissonance.

Is North Korea coming off the table to make way for a shock and awe feast in Iran? Is a Kushner ME peace ultimatum going to moot the courageous General Votel?

One motive for a big war is the President wanting really badly to see what all those participants in his parade can manage to wreck--all for the purpose of MAGA.

Interesting times. . .

[Mar 20, 2018] The fact that the MSM is so silent makes me think the MSM wants Votel's statements to die in silence under the MSM Cone of Silence

Notable quotes:
"... "There would be some concern (in the region), I think, about how we intended to address that particular threat if it was not being addressed through the JCPOA. ... Right now, I think it is in our interest" ..."
"... "I don't know that that's our particular policy at this particular point. Our focus remains on the defeat of ISIS," ..."
Mar 20, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Tillerson had joined Defense Secretary Jim Mattis in pressing a skeptical Trump to stick with the agreement with Iran.

"There would be some concern (in the region), I think, about how we intended to address that particular threat if it was not being addressed through the JCPOA. ... Right now, I think it is in our interest" to stay in the deal, Votel said.

When a lawmaker asked whether he agreed with Mattis and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford's position on the deal,Votel said: "Yes, I share their position."

Mattis said late last year that the United States should consider staying in the Iran nuclear deal unless it was proven Tehran was not complying or that the agreement was not in the U.S. national interest.

A collapse of the Iran nuclear deal would be a "great loss," the United Nations atomic watchdog's chief warned Trump recently, giving a wide-ranging defense of the accord.

Iran has stayed within the deal's restrictions since Trump took office but has fired diplomatic warning shots at Washington in recent weeks. It said on Monday that it could rapidly enrich uranium to a higher degree of purity if the deal collapsed.

Syria

Votel also discussed the situation in Syria at the hearing.

During the Syrian army's offensive in eastern Ghouta, more than 1,100 civilians have died. Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, backed by Russia and Iran, say they are targeting "terrorist" groups shelling the capital.

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned on Monday that Washington "remains prepared to act if we must," if the U.N. Security Council failed to act on Syria.

Votel said the best way to deter Russia, which backs Assad, was through political and diplomatic channels.

"Certainly if there are other things that are considered, you know, we will do what we are told. ... (But) I don't recommend that at this particular point," Votel said, in an apparent to reference to military options.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was too strong to say that with Russia and Iran's help, Assad had "won" the civil war in Syria.

"I do not think that is too strong of a statement," Votel said.

Graham also asked if the United States' policy on Syria was still to seek the removal of Assad from power.

"I don't know that that's our particular policy at this particular point. Our focus remains on the defeat of ISIS," Votel said, using an acronym for Islamic State. " Zerohedge

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-18/us-centcom-chief-comes-clean-generals-three-stunning-admissions-mid-east

-----------------

Votel would never say anything like this if he were not in agreement with Mattis and Dunford. This is illustrative of a weakening of Israeli/AIPAC/Saudi influence in US Middle East policy. It will be interesting to see if Votel is rebuked for these statements. pl catherine , 19 March 2018 at 05:03 PM

After an hour of searches have not found a single major media outlet or press has quoted anything Votel said in the hearing about the Iran deal.
Instead they have headlines and coverage/quotes only about Russia's meddling in Syria.

Therefore the public will not know that those like Tillerson, Mattis and JCS Dunford all agree on keeping the Iran deal...they will only read bad Russia.

different clue , 19 March 2018 at 05:45 PM
Catherine notes that the MSM has said zero about what Votel, Mattis and Dunford have said or thought about Iran and Syria. Even if our host had not made his confirming statement about Votel's true commitment to his statements, I would have offered the secondary supposition that Votel's commitment to these statements is true.

I would say that because of the MSM silence on them that Catherine has noted. If Votel was making these statements as false-fog noise to hide the movement of men and materiel to use against Iran and Syria, as WillyBilly theorizes, the MSM would be broadcasting and highlighting the false-fog in order to keep the buildup hidden and keep Syria and Iran off guard.

The fact that the MSM is so silent makes me think the MSM wants Votel's statements to die in silence under the MSM Cone of Silence.

Meaning the MSM and its masters reject these statements but can only hope to starve them of attention because the MSM couldn't prevent Votel from making them.

[Mar 20, 2018] DID ISRAEL POISON SKRIPAL?

Notable quotes:
"... There are similarities the Skripal poisoning and the 1997 poisoning of Khaled Mashal in Jordan. The poison used may be the same fentanyl based mixture. ..."
"... The thing that really made me suspect Israel was the claim by Boris Johnson that Russia has a secret program that develops novichok type chemical weapons for assassinations ..."
"... I do not think the British found out about the alleged Russian program by themselves. They received the information, along with the disinformation from a foreign intelligence service. Most likely this was Israeli Mossad. Why would Mossad feed the British lies about a Russian assassination program, unless they wanted to pin their own assassinations on Russia. ..."
Mar 20, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org
Petri Krohn , Mar 20, 2018 12:13:12 AM | 81
In the previous open thread I posted a long analysis of the alleged war preparation of a NATO land invasion of Syria, which I later published on The Duran . The thing that prompted me to write this was Boris Johnson's latest allegations about a Russian assassination program. In the end I left this speculation out of the published version.
U.S. War Plans: Kurdish Land Bridge to Israel?

The United States may be about to start a land invasion of Syria. The offensive would start from the U.S. base at the Al Tanf border crossing and extend through Abu Kemal to the American and Kurdish-held areas on the eastern bank of the Euphrates. The troops would be supplied through Jordan. It is possible that Britain would also take part in this operation.

The 2,400 man strong U.S. 26th Marine Expeditionary Unit arrived in Haifa in Israel on March 14, 2018 aboard the three US Navy ships of the Iwo Jima amphibious ready group. The Marines may be on their way to the Al Tanf base through Jordan. Another 200 U.S. troops are said to have arrived in Al Tanf the previous week. Unconfirmed rumors claim that an additional 2,300 British troops also arrived at the base along with Challenger tanks and Cobra and Black Hawk helicopters.

It now seems evident that to real reason for the poisoning of Sergei Skripal‎ was to drum up British support for a war against Syria and Russia. One must must thus ask who would most gains from such a war. If my analysis below is correct, then the answer would be Israel. Several things make Israel a likely suspect for the poisoning:

  1. Israel has a long history of assassinations abroad.
  2. Israel is not a OPCW member and has an active CW program.
  3. Mossad can perform hostile actions in Britain and still be counted as friendly. If they got caught in the act, they would simply be deported in secrecy.
  4. There are similarities the Skripal poisoning and the 1997 poisoning of Khaled Mashal in Jordan. The poison used may be the same fentanyl based mixture.
  5. Netanyahu is the current prime minister of Israel. He also ordered the 1997 assassination attempt on Mashal.

The thing that really made me suspect Israel was the claim by Boris Johnson that Russia has a secret program that develops novichok type chemical weapons for assassinations. It is most likely true that Russian laboratories have been working in novichoks, like all major weapons laboratories in the West. The part about assassinations is disinformation.

I do not think the British found out about the alleged Russian program by themselves. They received the information, along with the disinformation from a foreign intelligence service. Most likely this was Israeli Mossad. Why would Mossad feed the British lies about a Russian assassination program, unless they wanted to pin their own assassinations on Russia.

[Mar 19, 2018] Votel, Mattis and Dunford must be on the same page.

Notable quotes:
"... "I don't know that that's our particular policy at this particular point. Our focus remains on the defeat of ISIS," ..."
Mar 19, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley warned on Monday that Washington "remains prepared to act if we must," if the U.N. Security Council failed to act on Syria.

Votel said the best way to deter Russia, which backs Assad, was through political and diplomatic channels.

"Certainly if there are other things that are considered, you know, we will do what we are told. ... (But) I don't recommend that at this particular point," Votel said, in an apparent to reference to military options.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham asked whether it was too strong to say that with Russia and Iran's help, Assad had "won" the civil war in Syria.

"I do not think that is too strong of a statement," Votel said.

Graham also asked if the United States' policy on Syria was still to seek the removal of Assad from power.

"I don't know that that's our particular policy at this particular point. Our focus remains on the defeat of ISIS," Votel said, using an acronym for Islamic State. " Zerohedge

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-18/us-centcom-chief-comes-clean-generals-three-stunning-admissions-mid-east

-----------------

Votel would never say anything like this if he were not in agreement with Mattis and Dunford. This is illustrative of a weakening of Israeli/AIPAC/Saudi influence in US Middle East policy. It will be interesting to see if Votel is rebuked for these statements. pl

Posted at 01:06 PM in As The Borg Turns , Borg Wars , Iran , Russia , Syria | Permalink

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catherine , 19 March 2018 at 02:50 PM


''This is illustrative of a weakening of Israeli/AIPAC/Saudi influence in US Middle East policy. It will be interesting to see if Votel is rebuked for these statements. pl ''


Hooray !!
I am sure the boys at JINSA and the Fifth Column will be furious....let them rage. The more they show themselves the better.

Willybilly , 19 March 2018 at 04:38 PM
We're still not out of the woods yet... Most of these statements are mostly disinformation in the fog of readying the troops!
catherine , 19 March 2018 at 05:03 PM

After an hour of searches have not found a single major media outlet or press has quoted anything Votel said in the hearing about the Iran deal.
Instead they have headlines and coverage/quotes only about Russia's meddling in Syria.

Therefore the public will not know that those like Tillerson, Mattis and JCS Dunford all agree on keeping the Iran deal...they will only read bad Russia.

Charles , 19 March 2018 at 05:13 PM
By whom of any significance would Votel be rebuked?
turcopolier , 19 March 2018 at 05:16 PM
charles

By the White House, the president, McMaster, etc. pl

turcopolier , 19 March 2018 at 05:19 PM
WillyBilly

i didn't say we were "out of the woods" but it is a good start. IMO all these statements by Votel are true and it took a good deal of courage to make them in public. pl

Willybilly said in reply to turcopolier ... , 19 March 2018 at 05:37 PM
I very much hope you're right .... and I am totally wrong
different clue , 19 March 2018 at 05:45 PM
Catherine notes that the MSM has said zero about what Votel, Mattis and Dunford have said or thought about Iran and Syria. Even if our host had not made his confirming statement about Votel's true commitment to his statements, I would have offered the secondary supposition that Votel's commitment to these statements is true.

I would say that because of the MSM silence on them that Catherine has noted. If Votel was making these statements as false-fog noise to hide the movement of men and materiel to use against Iran and Syria, as WillyBilly theorizes, the MSM would be broadcasting and highlighting the false-fog in order to keep the buildup hidden and keep Syria and Iran off guard. The fact that the MSM is so silent makes me think the MSM wants Votel's statements to die in silence under the MSM Cone of Silence. Meaning the MSM and its masters reject these statements but can only hope to starve them of attention because the MSM couldn't prevent Votel from making them.

Richardstevenhack , 19 March 2018 at 06:24 PM
"then we will have to have another way to deal with their nuclear weapons program," said U.S. Army General Joseph Votel."

Iran does not have and has never had a "nuclear weapons program" with the possible exception of a "feasibility study" back when they were afraid Saddam had one. I believe this was the opinion of the DIA in the run up to the 2007 Iran NIE which did not make it into the NIE. But this is consistent with the publicly available information and Iran's own statements.

Anna -> turcopolier ... , 19 March 2018 at 07:47 PM
"... these statements by Votel are true and it took a good deal of courage to make them in public."
-- If true they constitute a strong expression of patriotism. God, give us more outspoken patriots.
(This is a paradoxical time in the US when truth and patriotism are not a norm.)
Generalfeldmarschall von Hindenburg , 19 March 2018 at 08:13 PM
What had been happening and what I expect to see is that, as during the George II Administration, the US would loudly accuse Iran of breaking faith with agreements and demand unlimited access for 'inspectors'. The Iranians know how that cartoon ends, so they'd refuse, unlike Mr Saddam. And then the US would call on the client states in the EU to join them in tightening sanctions. Eventually provocation could be arranged and the US would "have no choice but to respond." - some patrol boats being shot at by Iranians as has happened. We all will recall how Obama was cast as a creampuf appeaseer when 'our boys' were caught zooming around Iranian waters.

Too many powerful actors on the American political stage have determined hat Iran must be collapsed (It was on the famous hit-list after all) for them to let this go.

[Mar 19, 2018] T he biggest hurdle for advances in Ghouta remains the prospect of brutal urban warfare

Mar 19, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Grazhdanochka 17 March 2018 at 06:11 PM

Things more or less moved from the Points and in the Direction and Pivots I expected and commented under the Colonels 'time-to-clean-up-the-homs-desert-pocket' Update in February, the biggest Hurdles to advances in Ghouta remains two Fold - the prospect of brutal Urban Warfare and the search for a more diplomatic Solution.

Whilst Idlib will no doubt fall under a similar Fate to a degree (Diplomacy will be necessary whilst low hanging Turkish Fruit remain). I do however propose a different conclusion which is possible that then simply acceptance of a divided Syria, at least in its current form.

Turkish Observation Posts largely at current prevent or more, Influence R+6 Activities in Eastern Idlib and Aleppo Province, the Door is still open in the South and West - Hama and Latakiya Provinces...

Through the 'Desert Hawks' previously the Syrian Government has demonstrated capability to advance through the Mountainous Warfare that Latakia demands, Ghouta far from simply securing the Syrian Heartland may be an action designed to free up large numbers of maneuver Units which should enable them not only to squeeze the North West but more seriously threaten Jisr Al Shugur... Likewise an advance in the South could force Opposition out of Hama Province ensuring Hama Cities security.

The ultimate goal depending on Force Ratios and scale of advance could be to render many of the Turkish Positions in East Idlib and Aleppo redundant, inducing a withdrawal from current Positions, or a negotiated Settlement....

The fact that Towns such as Kafarya and Foua remain isolated forces the R+6 to mount some Operation to ensure or negotiate their Position and indeed the Mountains of Latakia would position R+6 suitably to overlook much of Idlib to support where further advances can be made.

Colonel, I would respectfully suggest that War is a Combination of Factors - Economic being one along with Ideological Factors, this all weighs heavily on the Calculations for War, In Syria Case I suspect that those arguing for it not only included the Zionists, but also got consensus from those whom could argue its benefits in Economics and wider Geopolitics (EU relieved of Russian Energy for example)

By now I suspect the latter Advocates have ideally given up, but the Zionists are incapable of doing so, because unlike Economics they have literally made a Situation worse for the cause they serve.

[Mar 18, 2018] Russia says U.S. plans to strike Damascus, pledges military response

Notable quotes:
"... Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia's General Staff, said Moscow had information that rebels in the enclave of eastern Ghouta were planning to fake a chemical weapons attack against civilians and blame it on the Syrian army. ..."
"... He said the United States intended to use the fake attack as a pretext to bomb the government quarter in nearby Damascus where he said Russian military advisers, Russian military police and Russian ceasefire monitors were based. ..."
www.zerohedge.com

MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russia said on Tuesday it had information that the United States planned to bomb the government quarter in Damascus on an invented pretext, and said it would respond militarily if it felt Russian lives were threatened by such an attack.

Valery Gerasimov, head of Russia's General Staff, said Moscow had information that rebels in the enclave of eastern Ghouta were planning to fake a chemical weapons attack against civilians and blame it on the Syrian army.

He said the United States intended to use the fake attack as a pretext to bomb the government quarter in nearby Damascus where he said Russian military advisers, Russian military police and Russian ceasefire monitors were based.

Read more at

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-russia-usa/russia-says-u-s-plans-to-strike-damascus-pledges-military-response-idUSKCN1GP0TY

[Mar 18, 2018] Mattis' Weak Case for Supporting the War on Yemen by Daniel Larison

Notable quotes:
"... "Mattis' Weak Case for Supporting the War on Yemen" ..."
Mar 18, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

The Secretary of Defense has written to Congressional leaders to express his opposition to S.J.Res. 54, the resolution that would end U.S. involvement in the war on Yemen:

In a letter sent to congressional leaders Wednesday and obtained by The Washington Post, Mattis wrote that restricting military support the United States is providing to the Saudi-led coalition "could increase civilian casualties, jeopardize cooperation with our partners on counterterrorism, and reduce our influence with the Saudis -- all of which would further exacerbate the situation and humanitarian crisis."

He urged Congress not to impose restrictions on the "noncombat," "limited U.S. military support" being provided to Saudi Arabia, which is "engaging in operations in its legitimate exercise of self-defense."

The Pentagon has been putting forward very weak legal arguments against S.J.Res. 54, and Mattis' statement of the policy arguments against the resolution are not any better. The Saudi-led coalition would have great difficulty continuing their war without U.S. military assistance. U.S. refueling allows coalition planes to carry out more attacks than they otherwise could, so it is extremely unlikely that ending it could possibly result in more civilian casualties than the bombing campaign causes now. Mattis is taking for granted that U.S. military assistance somehow makes coalition bombing more accurate and less likely to result in civilian casualties, but that is hard to credit when coalition forces routinely target civilian structures on purpose and when the military admits that it doesn't keep track of what happens after it refuels coalition planes.

Secretary Mattis says that cutting off support could jeopardize cooperation on counter-terrorism, but the flip side of this is that continuing to enable the Saudi-led war creates the conditions for Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and the local ISIS affiliate to flourish. The coalition's war has made AQAP stronger than it was before, and AQAP members have sometimes even fought alongside coalition forces on the ground. Instead of worrying about whether the U.S. is jeopardizing cooperation with these states, we should be asking whether that cooperation is worth very much in Yemen.

He claims that the Saudis and their allies are engaged in "a legitimate exercise of self-defense," and this is simply not true. The Saudis and their allies were not attacked and were not threatened with attack prior to their intervention. Saudi territory now comes under attack because the coalition has been bombing Yemen for years, but that doesn't make continuing the war self-defense. If an aggressor launches an attack against a neighboring country, it is the neighbor that is engaged in self-defense against the state(s) attacking them.

Mattis also warns that ending support for the Saudi-led coalition would have other undesirable consequences:

As Mattis put it in his letter to congressional leaders Wednesday, "withdrawing U.S. support would embolden Iran to increase its support to the Houthis, enabling further ballistic missile strikes on Saudi Arabia and threatening vital shipping lanes in the Red Sea, thereby raising the risk of a regional conflict."

These claims also don't hold water. Iranian support for the Houthis remains limited, but it has increased as a direct result of the war. The longer that the war goes on, the greater the incentive the Houthis and Iran will have to cooperate. The absurdity of this intervention is that it was dishonestly sold as a war against Iranian "expansionism" and yet it has done more to aid Iran than anything Iran's government could have done on its own. Missile strikes on Saudi Arabia wouldn't be happening if the Saudis and their allies weren't regularly bombing Yemeni cities. If the coalition halted its bombing, the missile strikes would almost certainly cease as well. Continuing the war is a guarantee that those attacks will continue, and U.S. military assistance ensures that the war will continue. Every reason Mattis gives here for continuing U.S. support for the war is actually a reason to end it.

Shipping lanes weren't threatened before the intervention and won't be threatened after it ends. Yemenis have every incentive to leave shipping lanes alone, since these are their country's lifeline. Meanwhile, the cruel coalition blockade is slowly starving millions of Yemenis to death by keeping out essential commercial goods from the main ports that serve the vast majority of the population. Mattis is warning about potential threats to shipping from Yemen while completely ignoring that the main cause of the humanitarian disaster is the interruption of commercial shipping into Yemen by the Saudi-led blockade. The regional conflict that Mattis warns about is already here. It is called the Saudi-led war on Yemen. If one wants to prevent the region from being destabilized further, one would want to put an end to that war as quickly as possible.

Mattis mentions that the U.S. role in the war is a "noncombat" and "limited" one, but for the purposes of the debate on Sanders-Lee resolution that is irrelevant. It doesn't matter that the military assistance the U.S. is providing doesn't put Americans in combat. That is not the only way that U.S. forces can be introduced into hostilities. According to the War Powers Resolution , the U.S. has introduced its armed forces into hostilities under these circumstances:

For purposes of this joint resolution, the term "introduction of United States Armed Forces" includes the assignment of member of such armed forces to command, coordinate, participate in the movement of, or accompany [bold mine-DL] the regular or irregular military forces of any foreign country or government when such military forces are engaged, or there exists an imminent threat that such forces will become engaged, in hostilities.

Any fair reading of this definition has to apply to the regular U.S. refueling of coalition planes that are engaged in an ongoing bombing campaign. The U.S. is obviously participating in the "movement" of coalition forces when it provides their planes with fuel. Indeed, our forces are making the movement of their forces possible through refueling. U.S. involvement in the war on Yemen clearly counts as introducing U.S. forces into hostilities under the WPR, and neither administration has sought or received authorization to do this. No president is permitted to do this unless there is "(1) a declaration of war, (2) specific statutory authorization, or (3) a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces." There has obviously been no action from Congress that authorizes this, and there is certainly no emergency or attack that justifies it. U.S. involvement in the war on Yemen is illegal, and the Senate should pass S.J.Res. 54 to end it.


so it's blackmail March 15, 2018 at 11:00 am

"Mattis wrote that restricting military support the United States is providing to the Saudi-led coalition "could increase civilian casualties, jeopardize cooperation with our partners on counterterrorism, and reduce our influence with the Saudis -- all of which would further exacerbate the situation and humanitarian crisis.""

Wow. So MBS is blackmailing us. He's threatening to kill more civilians, to stop anti-terror cooperation, and to shut us out of other Saudi regional security decisions if we don't help him starve and wreck Yemen.

Maybe the situation is a little clearer, but how can anyone take Trump seriously after this embarrassing confession by Mattis?

We may assume that Trump has no self-respect, but doesn't he have any respect for his office? Is he really going to let this disgusting little torture freak jerk him around like this? When it implicates all Americans in Saudi war crimes?

SteveM , says: March 15, 2018 at 2:14 pm
Re: "Mattis' Weak Case for Supporting the War on Yemen"

Unfortunately, in this day of warped Military Exceptionalism as the civic religion, a 4-Star pedigree fronting weak arguments makes them essentially unassailable. No matter how immoral, idiotic or costly to the taxpayers.

Mad Dog Mattis got a free ride with his logically incoherent, hyper-belligerent pronouncements related to the National Security Strategy. Expect no different response to his perverse rationalizations of the Yemen catastrophe.

Generals and Admirals now pop off stupid and dangerous opinions right and left and are never challenged by an MSM that is bedazzled by anyone wearing stars on their shoulders.

Mattis' case for Yemen is not only weak, it's pathetic. Too bad the co-opted and seduced MSM will never suggest that to the public at large deluded by the omnipresent propaganda of the National Security State.

Nothing will change until the undeserved fawning adoration of the War Machine Elite is substantially attenuated.

Alex Ingrum , says: March 15, 2018 at 3:12 pm
The neocons will stop at nothing to bring down anyone they suspect of threatening Israel or U.S. military hegemony in the Middle East.

First, they lied about WMDs in Iraq and started a completely illegal war, killing millions and devastating that country for generations. That led directly to the creation of ISIS and the havoc it has wrought on both Iraq and Syria (and increasingly in other countries).

Then under Obama and Sec. Clinton, they allowed the military takeover of Egypt by the murderous and oppressive El-Sisi and launched an aggressive war of regime change in Libya, throwing both North African countries into turmoil.

Then they supported the brutal and savage ongoing Saudi war against Yemen to curb non-existent Iranian influence, followed by politically isolating Qatar for its supposed chumminess with Iran.

The neocons will do absolutely anything to bring down the Iranian regime, no matter how many foreign and American lives and destroyed to achieve that end.

b. , says: March 15, 2018 at 3:38 pm
The details of Mattis' letter of indulgence do not matter as much as the fact that he is willing to defend the indefensible. Even if his professed concerns were not only genuine, but actually reflected reality, he also has to know better than anybody else within the administration about the consequences of the US-backed Saudi/UAE invasion of Yemen.

Mattis has joined Graham and Albright in the "worth it" campaign to sustain and extend perfectly predictable atrocities.

If he wants to make the case that we cannot accept uncertainty with respect to an alleged Iranian aggression towards Saudi Arabia – and with even more unlikely acquiescence by the Houthi to let Iran use them the way the US uses the Kurds – or even assuming that Mattis wants to misrepresent possible Houthi blowback against Saudi Arabia as "Iranian" just for convenience – then it should be clear that he is claimng we can easily accept uncertainty with respect to Yemeni blowback against the US – blowback that he also uses to justify the US campaign inside Yemen, and that fueled Obama's pathological obsession with ideological cleansing in Yemen and other prospective "safe harbors".

Mattis is proving the validity of the actual Powell Doctrine – if you join it, you own it – both with respect to US co-belligerence in Yemen, and with respect to Mattis personally. He is also proving the observation that anybody who is willing to join an administration as criminal as that of Bush, Obama or Trump is unlikely to do any good – by their voluntary association they have irredeemably tainted themselves.

Uncle Billy , says: March 15, 2018 at 7:54 pm
We do not want to get in the middle of this Sunni vs. Shiite war. The Saudis want to destroy the Shiites in Yemen and we are fools at best and criminals at worst to help them. The people of Yemen are no threat to the US and for theAmerican Government to cooperate with the Saudis in the murderof Yemeni women and children is revolting.
Sisera , says: March 16, 2018 at 6:06 pm
Americans have heard for years that supporting "democracy" and popular uprisings throughout the Middle East are in our national interests, the basis being that oppressed people are more likely to resort to terrorism.

Yet in the cases of Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and now Yemen popular revolutions of Shias demanding equal rights are actually deemed a threat to our national security.

The neocons have gotten so deep in the Gulf/Israel v. Iran conflict that they're not even keeping to the ostensible reasons for interventionism.

[Mar 17, 2018] Russia Claims US Deploys Warships For Imminent Attack On Syria, Trains Militants For False Flag Attack Zero Hedge

Mar 17, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Well, it appears that Assad is a relentless glutton for punishment, because not even a year later, the WaPo reported two weeks ago that the US is considering a new military action against Syria for - what else - retaliation against Assad's latest chemical attack, which took place several weeks earlier.

How do we know Assad (and apparently, Russia) was behind the attack? We don't: in fact, former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, in a moment of bizarre honesty, admitted that he really doesn't know much at all about "whoever conducted the attacks. " But hey: just like it is " highly likely " that Russia poisoned the former Russian double agent in the UK - with no proof yet - so it is "highly likely" that a clearly irrational Assad was once again behind an attack which he knew would provoke violent and aggressive retaliation by the US, and once again destabilize his regime.

And so we now wait for that flashing, red headline saying that US ships in the Mediterranean have launched a missile attack on Syria, just like a year ago. Only this time Russia - which is allied with the Assad regime - is not planning to be on the defensive, and according to Russia's Defense Ministry, "US instructors" are currently training militants to stage false flag chemical attacks in south Syria, i.e., the catalyst that will be used to justify the US attack on Assad. The incidents, the ministry said, will be used a pretext for airstrikes on Syrian government troops and infrastructure.

"We have reliable information at our disposal that US instructors have trained a number of militant groups in the vicinity of the town of At-Tanf, to stage provocations involving chemical warfare agents in southern Syria," Russian General Staff spokesman General Sergey Rudskoy said at a news briefing on Saturday.

According to the Russian, "early in March, the saboteur groups were deployed to the southern de-escalation zone to the city of Deraa, where the units of the so-called Free Syrian Army are stationed."

"They are preparing a series of chemical munitions explosions. This fact will be used to blame the government forces. The components to produce chemical munitions have been already delivered to the southern de-escalation zone under the guise of humanitarian convoys of a number of NGOs."

And, using the exact same worn out narrative as last April, and every prior "chemical attack by the Assad Regime", the "planned provocations will be widely covered in the Western media and will ultimately be used as a pretext by the US-led coalition to launch strikes on Syria", Rudskoy warned.

"The provocations will be used as a pretext by the United States and its allies to launch strikes on military and government infrastructure in Syria."

Confirming the WaPo's report from early March, it now appears that an attack is imminent.

"We're registering the signs of the preparations for the possible strikes. Strike groups of the cruise missile carriers have been formed in the east of the Mediterranean Sea, Persian Gulf and Red Sea."

Rudskoy also warned that another false flag chemical attack is being prepared in the province of Idlib by the "Al-Nusra Front terrorist group, in coordination with the White Helmets." The militants have already received 20 containers of chlorine to stage the incident, he said.

Moscow and Damascus have repeatedly warned about upcoming chemical provocations, and have highlighted that banned warfare agents have been used by the militants. Of course, none of that matters to the Western press which has its marching orders to expose the bloodthirsty killer Assad as an irrational despot who will use the exact same military method month after month and year after year, knowing well the response he will get from the US.

Meanwhile, just a few days ago, Syrian government forces reportedly captured a well-equipped chemical laboratory in Eastern Ghouta. Footage from the facility has been published by the SANA news agency .

https://www.youtube.com/embed/v5_LH4514zg

The installation contained modern industrial-grade hardware of foreign origins, large amounts of chemical substances as well as crude homemade munitions ad their parts. It was unclear if the chemical lab was capable of synthesizing the novachok nerve gas used in the attempted murder of the Russian agent in the UK that has resulted in the latest diplomatic scandal involving Russia and the west.

[Mar 16, 2018] Since it seems that Russia promise to defend its men and women in Damascus has effectively staved off a US attack and the western alliance decided to frame Russia for something

Notable quotes:
"... Since it seems that Russia's steadfast promise to defend its men and women in Damascus has effectively staved off a US attack, the western alliance did the next best thing to attacking Russia in Syria – it decided to frame Russia for something that happened on English soil. - Let's Talk About Motive in The Skripal Case: Let's Talk About Syria ..."
Mar 16, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Grieved | Mar 15, 2018 3:46:39 PM | 124

Just read a very interesting supposition by Adam Garrie, which strikes a very true note:

Since it seems that Russia's steadfast promise to defend its men and women in Damascus has effectively staved off a US attack, the western alliance did the next best thing to attacking Russia in Syria – it decided to frame Russia for something that happened on English soil. - Let's Talk About Motive in The Skripal Case: Let's Talk About Syria

So, spite. Wounded ego.

And further demonstration of the west's pitiful lack of means to do anything much real in this world except kill people unprepared to fight back. What will it do as more and more prepare to fight back? Ask Kim. Ask Duterte, Maduro, Erdogan.

[Mar 16, 2018] How the Iraq War Destabilized the Entire Middle East

Notable quotes:
"... The New York Times ..."
"... The New York Times ..."
Mar 16, 2018 | www.counterpunch.org

How the Iraq War Destabilized the Entire Middle East by Mel Goodman

Photo by The U.S. Army | CC BY 2.0

As we approach the fifteenth anniversary of the unwarranted invasion of Iraq, which we are still paying for in so many ways, it is important to remember the misuse of intelligence that provided a false justification for war. It is particularly important to do so at this time because President Donald Trump has talked about a military option against North Korea or Iran (or Venezuela for that matter). Since there is no cause to justify such wars, it is quite likely that politicized intelligence would once again be used to provide a justification for audiences at home and abroad.

In 2002 and 2003, the White House, the Department of Defense, and the Central Intelligence Agency collaborated in an effort to describe the false likelihood of a nuclear weapons program that had to be stopped. In the words of Bush administration officials, the United States was not going to allow the "smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." On September 8, 2002, Vice President Cheney and national security adviser Condi Rice used that phrase on CNN and NBC's "Meet the Press," respectively, to argue that Saddam Hussein was "using his procurement system to acquire the equipment he needs to enrich uranium to build a nuclear weapon."

In October 2002, the CIA orchestrated a national intelligence estimate to argue falsely that Iraq was acquiring uranium from Niger for use in a nuclear weapon. Senior officials throughout the intelligence community knew that the so-called Niger report was a fabrication produced by members of the Italian military intelligence service, and several intelligence officials informed Congressional and White House officials that they doubted the reports of Iraqi purchases of uranium from Niger. Nevertheless, the national intelligence estimate spun a fictitious tale of a clear and present danger based on false reports of alleged stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons; nuclear weapons; unmanned aerial vehicles; and ties between Iraq and al Qaeda that were nonexistent.

In December 2002, President George W. Bush found the CIA's case for war inadequate and asked for "something that Joe Public would understand or gain a lot of confidence from." Bush turned to CIA director George Tenet and remarked, "I've been given all this intelligence about Iraq having WMD and this is the best we've got?" Instead of being truthful, Tenet replied, "Don't worry, it's a slam dunk!" Several days later, Alan Foley, the chief of the Weapons Intelligence, Proliferation and Arms Control Staff, told his analysts to prepare a briefing for the president. "If the president wants intelligence to support a decision to go to war," Foley said, "then it is up to the agency to provide it." In early January, CIA Deputy Director John McLaughlin gave the phony "slam dunk" briefing at the White House.

The Pentagon's Office of Special Plans distributed the unsubstantiated and flawed intelligence that not even the CIA would vouch for. The Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Douglas Feith supplied bogus intelligence to the White House on Iraqi WMD and links to terrorist organizations to make the case for war, and then "leaked" this intelligence to key journalists such as Judith Miller at The New York Times . Miller had a front page article in the Times on September 8, 2002, citing administration officials claiming that Saddam was seeking "specially designed" aluminum tubes to enrich uranium, the so-called "smoking gun." Several days later, President Bush inserted the Times' claim in his speech to the United Nations General Assembly.

The aluminum tube issue was central to Secretary of State Colin Powell's speech to the UN in February 2003, which was based on the phony CIA estimate from October 2002. As Powell's chief of staff, Lawrence Wilkerson wrote in The New York Times in February 2018, the secretary's "gravitas was a significant part of the Bush administration's two-year-long effort to get Americans on the war wagon. It was CIA Deputy Director McLaughlin who lied to Secretary of State Powell about the reliability of the intelligence in Powell's speech. McLaughlin was the central advocate for the phony intelligence on mobile biological laboratories that ended up in that speech.

President Bush would have gone to war with or without intelligence, and once again we are confronted by a president who might consider going to war with or without intelligence. Fifteen years ago, we had a CIA director from Capitol Hill who was loyal to the president and unwilling to tell truth to power. Once again, we have a CIA director, Gina Haspel, who is a White House loyalist and cannot be counted on to tell truth to power. She was one of the Agency's leading cheerleaders for torture and abuse, and sent the message that order the destruction of the torture tapes. And former CIA director Mike Pompeo, a neoconservative hardliner, is now secretary of state, who earned his new position by being a total loyalist who would never tell truth to power. Is there a voice for moderation left in the White House?

Bush's war destabilized the entire Middle East. Any Trump war could lead to the use of nuclear weapons that would destabilize the entire world.

[Mar 16, 2018] H.R. McMaster Gives The Kremlin a Double Bird Salute

Notable quotes:
"... "We believe that Russia was responsible for this attack, and we call on the Russian government to answer all questions related to this incident, and to provide full information to the OPCW [Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons]. No nation -- Russia, China, or anybody else, any other nation -- should be using chemical weapons and nerve agents," McMaster said, following what critics have called a belated Wednesday statement casting blame on Moscow for the attack on Skripal. ..."
Mar 16, 2018 | www.thedailybeast.com

If H.R. McMaster is on his way out of the White House, he's going out with two middle fingers raised and pointed in the direction of the Kremlin.

"Russia is also complicit in [Syrian dictator Bashar] Assad's atrocities," McMaster, President Trump's national security adviser, said Thursday during an appearance at a discussion of the Syrian civil war held at the U.S. Holocaust memorial museum.

His voice raised, McMaster used harsher and more moralistic language than his boss does in characterizing Russia's geopolitical influence, and unequivocally blamed the Kremlin for "the abhorrent nerve agent attack" on a former double agent, Sergei Skripal , and proposed "serious political and economic consequences" for Russian aggression.

"We believe that Russia was responsible for this attack, and we call on the Russian government to answer all questions related to this incident, and to provide full information to the OPCW [Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons]. No nation -- Russia, China, or anybody else, any other nation -- should be using chemical weapons and nerve agents," McMaster said, following what critics have called a belated Wednesday statement casting blame on Moscow for the attack on Skripal.

McMaster's brief remarks, lasting under 20 minutes, came as the Army three-star general is the subject of furious speculation that Trump will soon fire him and install hardliner ex-ambassador John Bolton atop the National Security Council. His capstone achievement thus far has been a Russia-and-China-centric security strategy that has been conspicuously out of step with Trump's rhetoric and actions toward both countries.

"Russia has done nothing to encourage Assad to ensure delivery of humanitarian aid, to respect ceasefires and de-escalation agreements or to comply with U.N. Security Council Resolution 2254's call for a U.N.-monitored political process," McMaster said.

Those remarks suggested that Trump got suckered during his 2017 rounds of personal diplomacy with Vladimir Putin. In November, Trump and Putin issued a joint statement firmly pledging support for what is known as the 2254 Process -- though critics considered it a cover for Moscow to continue ensuring support for its client, Assad -- that "took note" of Assad's "recent commitment to the Geneva process and constitutional reform and elections as called for under UNSCR 2254."

And that followed July's acquiescence from Trump and just-ousted Secretary of State Rex Tillerson signing onto a Russia-driven process centered around achieving ceasefires that McMaster said Russia was not respecting.

[Mar 15, 2018] Hysterical panegyric on Observer.com reminds the Hate Week speech delivered by an Inner Party member in the movie version of George Orwell's 1984 !

Notable quotes:
"... It's sad that people even watch things such as BBC,CBC,NBC,ABC, CNN, etc. when every one of them parrots the same talking points, and they have repeatedly been outed as disinfo and pure propaganda outlets. ..."
"... Most interesting to me is that people can now see where their MP's stand WRT war - because this sure smells like the run-up to Libya. We already knew where the US would stand, same position for nearly a century. ..."
"... Only bankers benefit from war, and with the current global debt bomb, they are all in for declaration of "force majeure"- rest assured on that. ..."
Mar 15, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

ashley albanese , Mar 15, 2018 4:18:50 PM | 129

Lying in bed listening to Australian government media propaganda . Endless parroting about the ' rules based order ' , ' the rising power of ( guess) and now Boris Johnson informing us that the world is insensed at Russian aggression . It is funny and absurd , sad and deadly !
SteveK9 , Mar 15, 2018 4:23:47 PM | 131
It's harder and harder to laugh at this nonsense. Just when you thought it could not get more ridiculous, something like this happens. I keep hearing that our masters are preparing us for war with Russia. All those people who keep saying 'war is coming', 'prepare for World War III', etc., you do realize that your life will be over, along with everyone you know, and ... human civilization?
Mister Roboto , Mar 15, 2018 5:58:41 PM | 143
When I read this hysterical panegyric on Observer.com (or at least as much of it as I could stomach), I couldn't help but think of the Hate Week speech delivered by an Inner Party member in the movie version of George Orwell's 1984 !
Oilman2 , Mar 15, 2018 7:03:54 PM | 150
It's sad that people even watch things such as BBC,CBC,NBC,ABC, CNN, etc. when every one of them parrots the same talking points, and they have repeatedly been outed as disinfo and pure propaganda outlets. The only "waking up" that I see anywhere is among those few that are neither progressive or conservative, and they are waking up to a nightmare. I am glad this is all talking - if fur truly starts flying, there isn't anywhere to hide from all this.

It's straight out of Bernays - just keep doubling down and throwing it up all over the media outlets. I get ashamed that critical thinking exists only in a few places like MOA. Yet even here, people seem to divide themselves right along the lines that all this claptrap designates at times.

All you need to sort this out is a simple exercise in "cui bono", same as ever - and Russia had nothing to gain, even in the intel arena.

Most interesting to me is that people can now see where their MP's stand WRT war - because this sure smells like the run-up to Libya. We already knew where the US would stand, same position for nearly a century.

Only bankers benefit from war, and with the current global debt bomb, they are all in for declaration of "force majeure"- rest assured on that.

[Mar 15, 2018] It seems Russia has managed to get revenge for actions that targeted its assets in Syria (I read an article that suggests the E. Ghouta push is hitting also US SF advisors) but they do not brag about it on twitter.

Notable quotes:
"... One might hope that an encrypted channel (that had been cracked) would provide a few minutes warning for our sailors to get overboard - the fact that carrier groups are useless against a peer power is accepted in naval circles since the 80s. ..."
Mar 15, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

ISL -> Jason ... 14 March 2018 at 11:47 AM

Jason,

That sounds like a Russian strategy. It seems Russia has managed to get revenge for actions that targeted its assets in Syria (I read an article that suggests the E. Ghouta push is hitting also US SF advisors) but they do not brag about it on twitter.

For example, I assess that the poor performance of the Tomahawk attack was EW (the other explanation being they are crap missiles), but in either case, Putin did not brag on twitter.

Also consistent with the Putin story about the rat per Luke8929.

One might hope that an encrypted channel (that had been cracked) would provide a few minutes warning for our sailors to get overboard - the fact that carrier groups are useless against a peer power is accepted in naval circles since the 80s.

[Mar 15, 2018] The U.S. foreign policy elite still wants the Middle East for its oil and its strategic location

Notable quotes:
"... A Rare Glimpse into the Inner Workings of the American Empire in the Middle East - The U.S. foreign policy elite still wants the Middle East for its oil and its strategic location. http://fpif.org/rare-glimpse-inner-workings-american-empire-middle-east/ ..."
"... Currently, all signs indicate the United States is increasing its hold over the Middle East ..."
"... Although the U.S. has constructed a kind of informal American empire, they believe that U.S. actions and polices are creating blowback that is bringing more conflict and violence to the region. ..."
"... Jeffrey insisted that it would be necessary to accept more death and violence if the United States was going to achieve its strategic objectives. This kind of trade-off, he believed, was simply how things worked in the area. Citing recent retaliatory actions by the Israeli and Saudi government against missile attacks, Jeffrey said that the high civilians death tolls that resulted from such operations had simply become one of the costs of military engagement in the region. ..."
Mar 15, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Valissa said in reply to blue peacock... 14 March 2018 at 12:45 PM

blue peacock, Jack

Apparently US policy in the ME is strongly about oil, though I expect basic geopolitics is the twin reason.

I've excerpted some key paragraphs, but suggest reading the whole thing if you want to know how The Borg thinks about the ME.

A Rare Glimpse into the Inner Workings of the American Empire in the Middle East - The U.S. foreign policy elite still wants the Middle East for its oil and its strategic location. http://fpif.org/rare-glimpse-inner-workings-american-empire-middle-east/

In recent testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, four former U.S. diplomats provided remarkably candid commentary on recent U.S. involvement in the Middle East, revealing a number of the most closely guarded secrets of U.S. diplomacy.

The four former diplomats emphasized the importance of the region's oil, spoke critically about the weaknesses of U.S. strategy, made a number of crude comments about U.S. partners, displayed little concern about ongoing violence, and called for more "discipline" throughout the region.

... Currently, all signs indicate the United States is increasing its hold over the Middle East .

The only problem, according to the former diplomats, is that the United States continues to face significant resistance. Although the U.S. has constructed a kind of informal American empire, they believe that U.S. actions and polices are creating blowback that is bringing more conflict and violence to the region.

...Indeed, Jeffrey insisted that it would be necessary to accept more death and violence if the United States was going to achieve its strategic objectives. This kind of trade-off, he believed, was simply how things worked in the area. Citing recent retaliatory actions by the Israeli and Saudi government against missile attacks, Jeffrey said that the high civilians death tolls that resulted from such operations had simply become one of the costs of military engagement in the region.
--------------

[Mar 15, 2018] Mattis is as dangerous warmonger as McMaster

Notable quotes:
"... The problem is that this would have some semblance of solubility were it not for Israel. Israel desperately, repeat desperately, wants the U.S. to go to war in a very big way in the ME. That could tip the scales. ..."
"... I hope you are wrong, but Trump sees very clearly what "Wartime President" did for the cipher Bush. It's the only straw left for him to grasp at ..."
Mar 15, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

FB Ali , 15 March 2018 at 12:00 AM

This post was about Mattis being the only "grown-up in the room".

I'm not sure that's something to be reassured about. Brian Cloughley is a seasoned military writer and analyst. A few years ago he wrote a piece on Mattis that was not very complimentary. If even half of it is right, we should all be worried.

The article is at: http://tinyurl.com/ycp8yta2

Bill Herschel , 15 March 2018 at 12:29 AM
Trump's mojo has evaporated. He has no coattails. He has negative coattails. So it is time for war.

The problem is that this would have some semblance of solubility were it not for Israel. Israel desperately, repeat desperately, wants the U.S. to go to war in a very big way in the ME. That could tip the scales.

I hope you are wrong, but Trump sees very clearly what "Wartime President" did for the cipher Bush. It's the only straw left for him to grasp at .

[Mar 14, 2018] Will the US then want to start some minutemen to Moscow to get back some Sarmats to Washington? I doubt it. I think the US will just bark a lot then and suck it up.

Mar 14, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Bandolero 13 March 2018 at 07:15 PM

PL

Do you really think a threat from Nikki Haley to attack is more credible when she repeats it several times?

I doubt it is. What did she threaten? From what I understand it was something like taking action and attack Syria like the US did it in April 2017 after the staged CW attack in Khan Sheikhun. The US fired several dozen uruise missiles worth plenty of Dollars on a military air field. Before the missiles were fired the US told the Russians the coordinates where they will hit, so as to ensure the US won't accidentally harm a Russian soldier. Of course, these missiles then hit nothing what had much worth, because everything of worth was qucikly removed before the missiles hit. So, does Nikki Haley now threaten a replay of that circus?

Anyway, the head of Russia's Gen. Staff V. Gerasimov seems not to be very impressed. He said today Russia will respond with certain measure to both "missiles" & "launchers" which are delivering these projectiles if the US attacks Syria again. So the US hits Syria and Russia hits the US launchers in response. So, and then what?

Will the US then want to start some minutemen to Moscow to get back some Sarmats to Washington? I doubt it. I think the US will just bark a lot then and suck it up.

[Mar 14, 2018] I note that the Russian threat came not from the Pres or the Prime Minister, or the FM. It came from the CDS. I think the orders for Russian air defense staff in Syria have been cut; shoot on launch. The Russians seem sure the attack will be on Damascus, in response to an imagined gas attack in East Ghouta. So probably air launched cruise missiles.

Notable quotes:
"... If the US strikes Syria, Russia has to choose whether to let it pass (as it did Trump's previous crime) or to respond. If the US misjudges the scale of its attack and Russia responds with actions that kill US military personnel, then the US regime faces the same choice, and open war is an easy outcome. On each occasion, there is a clear cost to not retaliating, and a psychological inclination not to just turn the other cheek. This is a profoundly dangerous situation, and parallels with 1914 are absolutely not out of place. ..."
Mar 14, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Jony Kanuck, 13 March 2018 at 05:09 PM

Colonel,

Yes & no to Aug'14. I'd go for July; the 'black swan event' has occurred, now what will the major powers do?

I note that the Russian threat came not from the Pres or the Prime Minister, or the FM. It came from the CDS. I think the orders for Russian air defense staff in Syria have been cut; shoot on launch. The Russians seem sure the attack will be on Damascus, in response to an imagined gas attack in East Ghouta. So probably air launched cruise missiles.

My black swan is Russian air defense knocking down a couple US strike a/c. In 1914, starting with Austro Hungary, everyone (Rus, Ger, Fra) then reacted instead of looking at how bad it could get. The Brits were the last in, reluctantly. Brit FM Grey said "The lights are going out in Europe, I don't know when we shall see them lit again".

Kooshy , 13 March 2018 at 04:32 PM
Colonel. Unfortunately you are perfectly right again with your analysis,for consequences of trending current affairs. My hunch is in this new west east war, Europe (except for UK) and east Asia, none of US main allies will side with US in a meaning full way, and that unwillingness to share will be the final nail in coffin of US centered world order based on UN, NATO and BW dollars.
JohnsonR , 13 March 2018 at 04:44 PM
"This is an August, 1914 moment."

I've been fearing that Syria is looking more and more like that for some time now.

The unimaginative ridicule the suggestion that open war between the US and Russia could result from events in Syria, because it is just too big a change in the world for them to comprehend it as a real possibility. But there is a clear route for escalation, and now the US regime has suggested how the initiation might occur.

If the US strikes Syria, Russia has to choose whether to let it pass (as it did Trump's previous crime) or to respond. If the US misjudges the scale of its attack and Russia responds with actions that kill US military personnel, then the US regime faces the same choice, and open war is an easy outcome. On each occasion, there is a clear cost to not retaliating, and a psychological inclination not to just turn the other cheek. This is a profoundly dangerous situation, and parallels with 1914 are absolutely not out of place.

I believe we would have been here a year ago if Clinton had won the presidency. Trump gave hope that it could be avoided, but it seems that hope was vain, whether because Trump lied or because he has been putty in the hands of the usual suspects around the US regime.

Fortunately, there will probably be many opportunities for either party to step off the escalation process before it reaches a nuclear exchange, and the prospect of that tends to concentrate even the minds of the powerful.

Let's be absolutely clear here, though - the US is wholly the party at fault here in creating this situation. Syria is a longstanding Russian/Soviet ally and it is the US regime's determination to overthrow the Syrian government that is creating the danger we now face. Granted, after that you can look at other parties involved in "influencing" the US regime towards war in Syria for their own self-serving ulterior motives, but in the end the US government and nation must be held responsible for its own choices and for allowing itself to be "influenced".

[Mar 14, 2018] I cannot see how the US de-escalates if a US carrier group is sunk. Winds of 1914 indeed. Perhaps after a few metropolitan areas are nuked in each country (and probably someone glasses the chosen people's country, Israel) saner minds in the US will pull back. Or not.

Notable quotes:
"... So the US is willing to risk escalation that in gaming always seems to lead to a nuclear weapons exchange for an action with zero strategic benefit! ..."
"... May God keep Mattis safe. ..."
"... Regarding that, SAA have cleared access now for reporters to a very dodgy looking plant in Shifuniyah, SE of Douma. One of them was Mrs Narwani here who shot a few photos on-site: ..."
"... I seem to recall that the usual suspects were hollering about how "chlorine barrel bombs" or whatever was used in Shifuniyah when it had already been taken by SAA at that point... ..."
Mar 14, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

ISL , 13 March 2018 at 05:58 PM

Dear Colonel,

Stripping away all the claptrap about unicorn rebels and chemical weapons and human rights, the US is publicly and clearly stating that it will directly militarily intervene in defense of its demonstrably failing Syria policy; however, not with a ground invasion - there is no stomach for that. This is moronic (to use Rex's lexicon) - a missile attack on Syria will have no strategic effect on the Syrian conflict.

Is it coincidence that Russia just very clearly signaled that it has the capability and will to counter the US military strategy directly? Whereas one suspects few in the administration believe that history has any relevance, Russia is very history aware. Russia practices, every year, a nationwide, civilian response to a major nuclear attack. One cannot imagine such an exercise in the US (it would interfere with our duty to shop).

I cannot see how the US de-escalates if a US carrier group is sunk. Winds of 1914 indeed. Perhaps after a few metropolitan areas are nuked in each country (and probably someone glasses the chosen people's country, Israel) saner minds in the US will pull back. Or not.

So the US is willing to risk escalation that in gaming always seems to lead to a nuclear weapons exchange for an action with zero strategic benefit!

May God keep Mattis safe.

Barish said in reply to Richard... , 13 March 2018 at 06:02 PM
"Will CNN praise Trump for his new appointments, just like they praised the US cruise missile attacks on Syria in April 2017 after the alleged chemical attack on Khan Shaykhun?"

Regarding that, SAA have cleared access now for reporters to a very dodgy looking plant in Shifuniyah, SE of Douma. One of them was Mrs Narwani here who shot a few photos on-site:

https://twitter.com/snarwani/status/973661866395361280

and wonders out loud where her colleagues from "Western" agencies are. There's also a video shot by Sama TV, with subtitles added by this Syrian Digital Media account here:

https://twitter.com/SyriaDM/status/973668324226883585

I seem to recall that the usual suspects were hollering about how "chlorine barrel bombs" or whatever was used in Shifuniyah when it had already been taken by SAA at that point...

JamesT , 13 March 2018 at 05:50 PM
Perhaps a small nuclear exchange against non-civilian targets is just what the world needs to realize this endless warmongering is not rational. If I were Putin, I would nuke the Ghawar field in KSA.

[Mar 14, 2018] Rumor has it that Trump is looking for an excuse to launch an attack on Syria which will be "bigger" than the last one, and apparently Ghouta and alleged "chlorine attacks" will be the excuse.

Notable quotes:
"... But it seems Trump intends Syria to be the next target. So the question remains how far will he go to attack Syria and how far will Russia go to defend Syria. If I were Putin, I'd be on the phone with Trump today reminding him that Russia has cruise missiles that can sink the entire US Med fleet (not in those terms, of course, but you get the idea.) He might also remind Trump that half the previous cruise missiles never reached their target even without Russian S-300's and Pantsirs being involved. This time, they might be. ..."
Mar 14, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Richardstevenhack 13 March 2018 at 06:27 PM

I predicted Tillerson would be out by end of last year. So I was off by three months...

Rumor has it that Trump is looking for an excuse to launch an attack on Syria which will be "bigger" than the last one, and apparently Ghouta and alleged "chlorine attacks" will be the excuse.

U.S. warns it may act on Syria as onslaught against Ghouta grinds on
https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria/u-s-warns-it-may-act-on-syria-as-onslaught-against-ghouta-grinds-on-idUKKCN1GO288

Apparently the US also believes Syria violated a de-confliction zone which might be another excuse for a US attack:

U.S. calls urgent meeting in Jordan after Syria strikes reports
http://www.jpost.com/Breaking-News/US-calls-urgent-meeting-in-Jordan-after-Syria-strikes-reports-544921

As I noted yesterday, some believe Putin explicitly mentioned attacks on Russia's allies as a reason to use nuclear weapons. Whether Putin considers Syria an "ally" justifying the use of nukes is unlikely in my opinion. North Korea and the implicit threat to China if China intervenes probably would qualify.

So hopefully Trump will go to meet Kim. Yesterday's Crosstalk pointed out that there's a lot the Deep State could do to derail that, assuming Trump is even truthful about his intentions. Personally I suspect Kim is using the talks between NK and SK as a means to drive a wedge between SK and the US. This would be to the good. Yesterday's Crosstalk suggested the best outcome would be to get the US "out of the room" and let the two Koreas work it out. The problem with that is that Kim wants US forces out of SK and while SK might agree to that, they'll have to talk it over with the US which will be highly resistant since those forces are there not just for NK but for China. Mark Sleboda suggested Trump might well be going to Korea not to make things better but to reinsert the US into the SK/NK negotiatons to sabotage them. We'll see.

But it seems Trump intends Syria to be the next target. So the question remains how far will he go to attack Syria and how far will Russia go to defend Syria. If I were Putin, I'd be on the phone with Trump today reminding him that Russia has cruise missiles that can sink the entire US Med fleet (not in those terms, of course, but you get the idea.) He might also remind Trump that half the previous cruise missiles never reached their target even without Russian S-300's and Pantsirs being involved. This time, they might be.

The last cruise missile attacks was around 50 missiles. So if Trump wants a "bigger" attack this time, will it be 100 missiles? Airstrikes by US jets against the SAA since the cruise missiles might be ineffective against ground troop positions? What happens if the Syrian air defenses - even without Russian help - shoot down a US jet attacking SAA forces a la the Israeli incident earlier? How does Trump react to that?

[Mar 14, 2018] For WP editors, a victory for legal army of Syria in their own country' is defying the INTERNATIONAL order

Mar 14, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

kooshy, 13 March 2018 at 09:29 PM

A very meaningful head line by Izvestia on Potomac, WP. For WP editors, a victory for legal army of Syria in their own country' is defying the INTERNATIONAL order. One wonders who are these International community, are Russians, Chinese, Iran and many others part of this community? Or this so-called community is another of US' international country clubs. Too bad, i think the international community should just STFU and live with it.

"Syrian military pushes for victory in Ghouta, defying international outcry"
https://goo.gl/StPpjp

[Mar 14, 2018] Trump Votes For Rexit - Torture Queen Will Head CIA - (Updated)

Looks like Tillerson was yet another Big Lie junkie whose entire worldview is based on bullshit
Notable quotes:
"... Mattis sometimes calming influence over Trump on military issues will now become less effective. ..."
"... Haspel would be in jail if former president Barack Obama had not decided against prosecuting the CIA torture crimes. Torturing prisoners is a war crime. Obstruction of courts and destruction of evidence are likewise crimes. ..."
"... This is getting messy for the empire. Trump wants to attack Iran and be friends with Russia. The US neo-cons want to attack both Iran and Russia. UK and France want to be friends with Iran and attack Russia. ..."
"... The current anti Russia propaganda ["axis of evil" ] - Haley, Macron, May. Veto wielding members of the UNSC Russia, China vs US, France, UK...? ..."
"... I think the US, UK and Israel want to battle Russia in Syria. There will be more collateral damage done to Russians. ..."
Mar 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

12:44 PM - 13 Mar 2018

Mike Pompeo, Director of the CIA, will become our new Secretary of State. He will do a fantastic job! Thank you to Rex Tillerson for his service! Gina Haspel will become the new Director of the CIA, and the first woman so chosen. Congratulations to all!

According to the anti Russian propagandists (vid) Tillerson got the job because Trump loves Russia and Tillerson was in good standing with Putin. The same people now claim that Tillerson was fired from his job because Trump loves Russia and Tillerson was not in good standing with Putin.

Neither is correct. The plan to oust Tillerson and elevate Pompeo to State has been rumored and written about for several month . The plan was "developed by John F. Kelly, the White House chief of staff". It had nothing to do with Russia.

Tillerson never got traction as Secretary of State. Congress disliked him for cutting down some State Department programs. Trump overruled him publicly several times.

There is some contradiction in the statements coming from the White House and the State Department. According to the Washington Post:

Trump last Friday asked Tillerson to step aside, and the embattled top diplomat cut short his trip to Africa on Monday to return to Washington.

Last Friday Tillerson suddenly fell ill while traveling in Africa and canceled several scheduled events.

... ... ...

Thus ends the 2018 insurrection at State.

With Tillerson leaving Secretary of Defense Mattis is losing an ally in the cabinet:

[I]t starts with me having breakfast every week with Secretary of State Tillerson. And we talk two, three times a day, sometimes. We settle all of our issues between he and I, and then we walk together into the White House meetings. That way, State and Defense are together.

Mattis sometimes calming influence over Trump on military issues will now become less effective.

CIA head Pompeo, the new Secretary of State, is a neoconservative with a racist anti-Muslim attitude and a special hate for Iran which he compared to ISIS . That he will now become Secretary of State is a bad sign for the nuclear agreement with Iran. The Europeans especially should take note of that and should stop to look for a compromise with Trump on the issue. The deal is now dead. There is no chance that a compromise will happen.

The new CIA director Gina Haspel is well known for actively directing and participating in the torture of prisoners at 'black sites':

Beyond all that, she played a vital role in the destruction of interrogation videotapes that showed the torture of detainees both at the black site she ran and other secret agency locations. The concealment of those interrogation tapes, which violated multiple court orders as well as the demands of the 9/11 commission and the advice of White House lawyers, was condemned as "obstruction" by commission chairs Lee Hamilton and Thomas Keane.

Haspel would be in jail if former president Barack Obama had not decided against prosecuting the CIA torture crimes. Torturing prisoners is a war crime. Obstruction of courts and destruction of evidence are likewise crimes.

Both, Pompeo and Haspel, will need to be confirmed by Congress. Both will receive a significant number of 'yes'-votes from the Democratic side of the aisle.

11:01 AM | Comments (41)


sejmon , Mar 13, 2018 12:16:49 PM | 6

I think last straw to fire him been TRex stance toward russians -give up Crimea and we cease sanction(WHAT A JOKE) same toward eastern republics of Ukraine LNR,DPR..good move VSGPDJT !!!!!!!!!!!!!

next Nicky H ?????

Peter AU 1 , Mar 13, 2018 1:15:53 PM | 15
This is getting messy for the empire. Trump wants to attack Iran and be friends with Russia. The US neo-cons want to attack both Iran and Russia. UK and France want to be friends with Iran and attack Russia.

The current anti Russia propaganda ["axis of evil" ] - Haley, Macron, May. Veto wielding members of the UNSC Russia, China vs US, France, UK...?

Red Ryder , Mar 13, 2018 1:31:53 PM | 16
Poor Syria. At least one more fierce year of war. But more likely, endless 2,3,4 more years of war. Israel and US are getting the rebels in Daraa (DEZ #4) primed to start up fighting again. I think the US, UK and Israel want to battle Russia in Syria. There will be more collateral damage done to Russians.
b , Mar 13, 2018 2:28:49 PM | 23
Tillerson just read a statement to the press:

(My notes)
Tillerson says:
- got call today, afternoon from president, also spoke to Kelly (implies that this was the firing)
- hopes for smooth transition
- Deputy Sec State Sullivan will be acting Sec State
- Tillerson job officially terminates March 31

to DoD and State:
- bound by office oath, support constitution, ...
- always stay by oath, (sounds crying)
to people in uniform:
- great relationship State DOD - thanks Mattis and Dunford, all soldiers
work review:
- DPRK pressure campaign was success
- Afghanistan commitment also
- Syria, Iraq - work remains
- nothing goes without allies, partner
- work to be done on China and "troubling behavior" of Russia
- predicts more isolation if Russia doesn't knee
- nothing on Iran

Didn't say thank you to Trump. Emphasized oath to constitution, not to president. Nothing on Iran, Saudis or Palestine.

This was a f*** you to the White House and its priorities. The endorsement by name of Mattis and Dunlap makes them targets.

b , Mar 13, 2018 2:41:53 PM | 27
A Professor for political science from the United Arab Emirates just posted this:
"History will record that a GCC country had a role in the sacking of the foreign minister of a great power, and this is only the beginning of more"

Interesting ...
https://twitter.com/hxhassan/status/973629082368921600

[Mar 13, 2018] My worst fears have been realized and it seems the U.S. and Israel are trying to provoke Russia into a reaction that will justify wider war for the purpose of "securing the realm"

There's some speculation, based on the timing and the targeting, that the recent Russian cruise missile attacks in Idlib may have targeted US SOF in retaliation for Deir Ezzor and northern Hama. The US couldn't respond because to do so would be an admission that SOF are working with HTS and HTS-supporting groups.
Notable quotes:
"... Russian military thinking seems to have reached the point now where the idea of using force intentionally in conflicts with peer-state adversaries has been almost completely ruled out. This seems a radical move. But there has been a clear recognition within this military that better strategic outcomes for Russia will result from the use of non-violent 'asymmetric warfare' activities rather than those which will or can involve the use of force -- such as conventional war or hybrid warfare. ..."
"... There's some speculation, based on the timing and the targeting, that the recent Russian cruise missile attacks in Idlib may have targeted US SOF in retaliation for Deir Ezzor and northern Hama. The US couldn't respond because to do so would be an admission that SOF are working with HTS and HTS-supporting groups. ..."
Mar 13, 2018 | www.unz.com

Sun Tzu , September 29, 2017 at 12:04 am GMT

@Anonymous

Russia defends the JCPOA but Israel and USA wants to renege on it. Russia agreed to General Soleiman's request to provide support for Syria. Russia and Iran are under economic sanctions from you know who and barter oil and gas in non dollar trade. Russia nixed Netanyahoo's request to keep Iran and PMUs or Hezbollah out of Quneitra. But according to you Russia is big bad wolf and Iran is sheep.

Sergey Krieger , September 29, 2017 at 1:34 am GMT
@Anon

The skin is quite real. Russia is learning lessons and prefer to fight enemies as far as possible before they attack or destabilize Russia proper. This whole article and stand off weapons is about Russia trying to fight enemies from a far and preventing threats from materializing destroying them before too late.

KenH , September 29, 2017 at 1:56 am GMT
All the talk of technical specs and capabilities of the various weapons systems are above my pay grade, but my worst fears have been realized and it seems the U.S. and Israel are trying to provoke Russia into a reaction that will justify wider war for the purpose of "securing the realm". Things in Syria were not to Israel's liking and Syria will not be bifurcated nor does it appear that a puppet leader subservient to America and Israel will supplant Assad.

This is probably why Israel attacked a Hezbollah position recently so they could stir things up a bit and try to regain some momentum towards their ultimate objective. Israel knows it can start another military conflagration then quietly exit the scene with little cost to itself while their American vassal will take over and do the rest. And if America doesn't take the bait then Izzy's innumerable agents in the media and Congress will scream anti-semitism and moan about how the president has turned his back on our greatest ally in the region until the desired outcome is achieved.

Bayan , September 29, 2017 at 3:06 am GMT
@survey-of-disinfo

Agree. In the long run the best thing for Iran is to stop its military involvement in Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon; and limit its relations to culture and economy. Iranian military coming into battle with American forces in these countries is no good for Iran. Furthermore, eventually Iraqis and Syrians will rebel against Iranian domination of their countries despite their religious affinities to Iran. That is the nature of the nation state. Iranians should be smart enough to understand this. It is a question of when to begin the withdrawal.

hunor , September 29, 2017 at 3:29 am GMT
@DESERT FOX

" the Zionist warmongers are going to destroy America and in case of war with Russia both nations will be destroyed ."

You nailed it that is the plan! Stack up the best and brightest of the Caucasian males against each other, Nato vs. Russia , with modern weapons they will most effectively wipe out each other.They are the only ones who can hinder the plan of NWO. , so they have to be discarded. the remaining goyims will be forcefully crossbred , and microchiped , hence NWO. Nirvana for some lunatics , humanity for none.

Kiza , September 29, 2017 at 6:12 am GMT
@Peripatetic commenter

Ok, what you say is true -- there has been no proof of S400 capabilities. This may be:

A) because Russia did not want to reveal its capabilities in the heavily monitored Syrian military theater, to avoid giving US and Israel a chance to develop counter measures

B) because they could not find a volunteer, such as you, till now who is willing to verify how poor the performance of S400 is by flying a military plane into its defensive zone.

Perhaps, the Russians also wanted to know how effective S400 would be in detecting F22 Raptors flying from Incirlik. Smaller Radar Cross Section typically means only detection at a reduced distance, not invisibility as the US MIC marketing says. This could have been an even more important task, relevant to the whole of mother Russia, than defending the Russian contingent in Syria.

unit472 , September 29, 2017 at 7:31 am GMT
@Talha

It depends on your war scenario. A US carrier hit by Iran might make its way home and be repaired. That was how the US Navy operated in WW2 before armored flight decks. Interestingly the British carriers operating off Okinawa absorbed kamikazi attacks and stayed on station while the wooden flight decks on American carriers were not so robust.

Today in a major war I tend to believe you go to war with what you have on day one and who can hit hardest in the first few days will prevail. There will be no time to move factories beyond the Urals or create an 'Arsenal of Democracy' out of range of enemy attack. In that scenario a carrier becomes, like everything else, an expendable platform.

Sergey Krieger , September 29, 2017 at 11:31 am GMT
@Dingo

One of the parties involved gotta be sane to avoid really bad things happening. It is Russia. You have to have similar historical experience and cultural background to understand and appreciate wisdom and restrain. Otherwise we all would have been like chimps throwing crap at each other at smallest cause, except we can throw a lot more dangerous things than doing.

EugeneGur , September 29, 2017 at 4:02 pm GMT
@Anonymous

the American brand is just more attractive. Sorry, comrades.

When go for it. You leaders, however, appear to be smarter and understand better what usually happens to the ones choosing such "attractive brand".

A strong and independent Iran is completely unpalatable to Russia. Why do you think Russia is in Syria? Because an Iranian gas pipeline to Europe would undermine Russian energy hegemony over Europe.

Of course. And that is precisely why Russia was instrumental in pushing that Iranian agreement through, the agreement that would lift the Iranian sanctions and allow Iran to sell its oil again. BTW your "attractive brand" people are trying their damnedest to renege on that deal.

Why does nutty yahoo fly to Moscow with meetings with Putin? Because they need to communicate securely.

If you mean Netanyahu, then of course he did want to meet in secret, because he tried to convince Putin to boot Iran out of Syria. Israel is getting positively hysterical about the Iranian presence in Syria. Iran, in case you haven't noticed, has not just the US but also Israel as its enemy. Putin, however, sent Netanyahu on his way. Russia maintains reasonably friendly relations with Israel but not about to let Israel dictate its actions.

jimmyriddle , September 29, 2017 at 10:41 pm GMT
When Bismarck was asked how he would defend German interests in Africa from French encroachment, he replied: "A sortie from Metz".

Nato has handily placed its toe in places where the Russians can slam a door on it whenever they need to.

Anonymous Disclaimer , September 29, 2017 at 10:52 pm GMT
@1RW

Not just the islands. Even Chinese ships have anti-missile defenses -- this was several years ago.

https://www.defensetech.org/2011/05/20/the-ten-barreled-ciws-of-chinas-aircraft-carrier/

Its now standard on the PLAN 052D and coordinated with their versions of AEGIS. The world doesn't stop developing weapons just because the US has gone dumb, you know.

NoseytheDuke , September 30, 2017 at 2:51 am GMT
@Dingo

I believe that an old saying with regards to Russian forces is that they are slow to saddle up but they ride very fast. This is advice to take to heart based on historical events alone.

eirzl , September 30, 2017 at 2:52 am GMT
@Ron Unz

Agree. Don't know for sure, but having operated in that military-legislative influence sphere for a time, I'd almost guarantee that this $700B defense increase was driven by the "surprise" effectiveness of Russian weapons systems. I'd bet that it's almost exclusively an RDTE increase on top of the ongoing O&M war fighting (re: imperial) budget structure of the last 15 years. It's been zero sum between those two categories, but I suspect now that's no longer the case.

Iain W , September 30, 2017 at 4:47 am GMT
@Thorfinnsson

Tomahawk is a dog slow museum piece. There is strong evidence that the Russians 'splashed' the first batch of Tomahawks fired at the Syrian airbase and that is why they had to fire a second batch. I think Russia 'EW' capabilities are not fully known and understood.

I don't think I would want to be on any US naval assets and have to try and shoot down multiple missiles. As one strategist commented – there are targets and there are subs. The article did not mention that these missiles can be launched in a number of ways – from land, sea, under the sea and from the air and outside the defensive capabilities of the intended targets.

Sergey Krieger , September 30, 2017 at 5:46 am GMT
@utu

How ironic. Meanwhile looks like that it has been working just fine for Rusian side which deployed miniscule resources in the region. The thing is that outcome pretty much confirms who is right and who is wrong. There is also no need to make rush moves at the moment. Things are going in right direction. It is not dick swinging contest if you have not noticed.

Buba Zanetti , September 30, 2017 at 11:05 pm GMT
They're both 800 lb gorillas, the only difference is the Russian gorilla is fluent in six languages and reads Tolstoy and Pushkin while the American gorilla has type 2 diabetes, a sixth grade education and spends its day jerking off to internet porn.
Sean , October 1, 2017 at 7:46 pm GMT
https://defenceindepth.co/2017/02/17/the-russian-militarys-view-on-the-utility-of-force-the-adoption-of-a-strategy-of-non-violent-asymmetric-warfare/

Russian military thinking seems to have reached the point now where the idea of using force intentionally in conflicts with peer-state adversaries has been almost completely ruled out. This seems a radical move. But there has been a clear recognition within this military that better strategic outcomes for Russia will result from the use of non-violent 'asymmetric warfare' activities rather than those which will or can involve the use of force -- such as conventional war or hybrid warfare.

Asymmetric warfare, of course, and in a nutshell, is a method of warfare employed by the weak against the strong where the former seeks to level the battlefield with the latter. The weaker party, using its own relative advantages, attempts to turn the strengths of its opponent into vulnerabilities, which can then be exploited. The means used are ones which, in essence, cannot be used in return -- reciprocated -- by the target ('asymmetrical' means that which cannot be mirror-imaged). Fundamentally, asymmetric warfare is all about activity that, rather than bludgeoning a target into strategic, operational and tactical defeats, actually manipulates it into them. And it is all done, ideally, with no use of force. As Sun Tzu, the 'father' of asymmetric thinking, told us, the acme of skill in the conduct of warfare is to defeat the adversary without the use of any force. See, for instance my book titled Asymmetric Warfare: Threat and Response in the 21st Century.
[...]

Other articles present similar arguments for the use of asymmetric warfare by the Russian military. The overall message for this military, and as the influential military newspaper Red Star (Krasnaya Zvezda) summed up last year, is that when it comes to the conduct of warfare in the current era, 'The main emphasis must be placed on asymmetrical means and methods'.

The principal aim of Russian asymmetric warfare is to create degrees of destabilisation (destabilizatsiya) within targeted states and within collectives of targeted states (e.g. NATO, EU). A target that is destabilised (in whatever sense) is one that, in Russian military thinking, is more susceptible to Russian leverage, i.e. it can be manipulated more easily.[...]

Conventional military assets are still needed, of course. But these days they may be seen to be acting in a supporting role for the asymmetric warfare campaign against NATO interests. Their outwardly sabre-rattling movements, deployments and activities are seen as means of creating 'indirect leverage' that can, in turn, manipulate western actors into making counter moves that actually suit Moscow's purposes.

The Russian military is now also employing asymmetric warfare methods that these western actors find very difficult to retaliate against on a like-for-like basis -- reciprocity is largely denied. Russian democracy has become very much a 'managed' one and this closes down many avenues of retaliation. Russia is also not open to cyber attack in the same way that western states are and defences in the country are more pronounced.

The Russian military can and is using non-violent asymmetric means to considerable strategic advantage against NATO. They are, wherever one looks, destabilising and manipulating to good effect. Given this continuing situation and the strategic results that are patently being produced in NATO countries, why would the Russian military need to consider the conventional use of force? What utility does it have?

Rabbitnexus , October 2, 2017 at 4:05 am GMT
@Priss Factor

No. You're thinking about the former Soviet Union. Russia is not the same thing. Also no, the USA military exists for no other purpose than profit making. It is the most corrupt on earth by its definition. The pentagon pays thousands of dollars for a bolt which exists with the same part number in a GM catalogue for less than ten dollars. That was years old but typical of the utter joke the US military is. Did we forget the 6 trillion dollars the Pentagon lost the day before 9/11 in 2001? Or the more recent announcement of a similar amount LOST? Nobody else even has a budget the size of the missing money in the US one.

Anonymous Disclaimer , October 2, 2017 at 5:38 am GMT
@Priss Factor

Russia is very corrupt in some ways -- but it has cleaned up on the military side. Remember that the US is only less corrupt because we define lobbying to be legal.

1RW , October 2, 2017 at 3:27 pm GMT
@peterAUS

They just produced Время Первых or "Spacewalker"

It's excellent propaganda and a great movie about the early Soviet Program. Actually a better space themed movie since I don't know when, maybe since Appolo 13. Which ironically is the American version.

Thirdeye , October 6, 2017 at 9:01 am GMT
@Randal

There's an understandable post-Soviet tendency in the US sphere to discount Russian capabilities in terms of high tech weapons.

There could be books written about the complete failure of the US to foresee Russia's achievement of parity+ with the West in advanced weaponry. The Donald Cook incident in 2014 gave a shock about Russian EW capabilities on the order of the shock the U2 incident gave about Soviet air defense capabilities. Something quietly queered the TLAM attack on the Syrian airbase earlier this year. The image that the US kept of Russia was left over from the 1980s, that the Soviet Army was a mighty but unwieldy big iron force with plenty of firepower but wanting in capabilities related to advanced technology. During the first Chechen War in 1996, the Russian Army was referred to in US media as a "glorified Third World army." That's an exact quote. The performance of Soviet-designed aerial weaponry, largely during the mideast wars of 1973 to 1982, gave a distinct impression of a disadvantage related to avionics. But that may have been misleading, as the performance of export aircraft could have been inferior to that of the home fleet. Either the US estimate of Soviet technology in the 1980s was way off or post-Soviet Russia developed advanced technology at a remarkable pace, even more so since it occurred during such chaotic times.

Thirdeye , October 7, 2017 at 12:39 am GMT
@peterAUS

There's some speculation, based on the timing and the targeting, that the recent Russian cruise missile attacks in Idlib may have targeted US SOF in retaliation for Deir Ezzor and northern Hama. The US couldn't respond because to do so would be an admission that SOF are working with HTS and HTS-supporting groups.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/10/syria-russia-issues-third-warning-against-us-cooperation-with-terrorists.html?cid=6a00d8341c640e53ef01bb09ca6f1a970d#comment-form

[Mar 13, 2018] No doubt much more still hidden in the terrorist enclaves given that the US/UK/France seem willing to attack Russian forces to ensure east Ghouta remains out of the Syrian governments hands

Mar 13, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Peter AU 1 | Mar 13, 2018 6:39:53 PM | 58

Sharmine Narwani has photographed the CW site in east Ghouta. It leads directly back to Saudi Arabia and the US
https://twitter.com/snarwani

Civilians that escaped from east Ghouta interveiwed, including a girl forced to appear in a Bana of Aleppo video. https://twitter.com/walid970721/status/973640510689763328

No doubt much more still hidden in the terrorist enclaves given that the US/UK/France seem willing to attack Russian forces to ensure east Ghouta remains out of the Syrian governments hands

[Mar 13, 2018] I think that Pompeo's nomination and his eventual confirmation brings the world closer to a US-Russia war

Notable quotes:
"... At the same time Russia has made it clear that they will fight to protect their ally and interests in Syria. They have been quite plain spoken about that and they included both US aircraft and ships in the threat. I note that the Admiral Essen, a Russian missile shooting frigate sortied from Sebastopol today. ..."
"... How long until Mattis is shown the door? ..."
"... Russia is another ball game altogether and as much as I'd like to see Trump and the US come out on top he's way out of league in this and the heavy pro Israel leaning is going to be trouble. ..."
"... Hopefully some smarter and cooler headed diplomats will keep things on an even keel ..."
"... How will he get along with Nikki, since in the past he has called a Punjabi-American a 'turban topper'? ..."
"... Pompeo's close relationship with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies -- a louder bunch of war mongers you would have a hard time finding -- makes the danger that much more palpable, I think. ..."
"... rkka , 13 March 2018 at 03:41 PM ..."
"... I have noted the smell of gunpowder in the air since the Kiev coup, though it is almost unbearably intense now ..."
"... Yes I remember Al Qaida. That several consecutive US administrations decided to threaten Russia in order to protect these terrorists was one of the reasons why I lost my trust in the US government and their political appendices here in Europe. ..."
"... Will CNN praise Trump for his new appointments, just like they praised the US cruise missile attacks on Syria in April 2017 after the alleged chemical attack on Khan Shaykhun? ..."
"... Just my view on things but something is just so very wrong in this country. ..."
"... In 2005 Satterfield was named as having provided classified information to an official of the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, AIPAC. According to documents, Satterfield had discussed secret national security matters in at least two meetings with AIPAC official Steven J. Rosen, who was subsequently indicted by the U.S. Justice Department (later quashed over the objections of the FBI ..."
"... As for Israel, they should be aware that if this ends up in a US vs Russia WW3, they will be wiped out - if not nuked by Russia, others will seize the opportunity offered by such chaos. There's simply no way that they're coming out of this war in a comparatively better situation, compared to the sorry state of other Western countries, than they are now - they'll be hit just as badly, and probably worse than some. ..."
"... If the US strikes Syria, Russia has to choose whether to let it pass (as it did Trump's previous crime) or to respond. If the US misjudges the scale of its attack and Russia responds with actions that kill US military personnel, then the US regime faces the same choice, and open war is an easy outcome. On each occasion, there is a clear cost to not retaliating, and a psychological inclination not to just turn the other cheek. This is a profoundly dangerous situation, and parallels with 1914 are absolutely not out of place. ..."
"... I believe we would have been here a year ago if Clinton had won the presidency. Trump gave hope that it could be avoided, but it seems that hope was vain, whether because Trump lied or because he has been putty in the hands of the usual suspects around the US regime. ..."
"... Let's be absolutely clear here, though - the US is wholly the party at fault here in creating this situation. Syria is a longstanding Russian/Soviet ally and it is the US regime's determination to overthrow the Syrian government that is creating the danger we now face. Granted, after that you can look at other parties involved in "influencing" the US regime towards war in Syria for their own self-serving ulterior motives, but in the end the US government and nation must be held responsible for its own choices and for allowing itself to be "influenced" ..."
"... I think Putin made his point(s) crystal clear on March 1st. Continually poking the bear only ends one way. What might the neocon/Trump reaction be to a carrier being taken out? Or closing of the Straits by air/sea denial? ..."
"... I do not wish to have either of these questions answered in any reality - simply because our government has come to believe they are invincible, and apparently, our military as well. ..."
"... The Russians seem sure the attack will be on Damascus, in response to an imagined gas attack in East Ghouta. So probably air launched cruise missiles. ..."
"... My black swan is Russian air defense knocking down a couple US strike a/c. In 1914, starting with Austro Hungary, everyone (Rus, Ger, Fra) then reacted instead of looking at how bad it could get. The Brits were the last in, reluctantly. Brit FM Grey said "The lights are going out in Europe, I don't know when we shall see them lit again". ..."
"... meanwhile, may and the uk want to frame russia without proof... this is a reoccurring theme, whether it is from the usa, uk or whoever.. it gets very tiring and not very believable or trustworthy.. ..."
Mar 13, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

At the UN Nikki Haley has now specifically threatened Syria and Russia with attack if the Syrian government does not halt its offensive in East Gouta and the Yarmouk camp. Both are near Damascus. These two places are mainly defended by jihadis, the largest group of which is Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS, the Al-Qa'ida branch in Syria. You remember Al Qa'ida. They were the people who attacked us on 9/11. Her threat is for retaliation for use of chemical weapons (chlorine)or just plain old "inhuman suffering" inflicted on the "Syrian People."

This does not seem an idle threat given the number of times she has repeated it. Someone is telling her to say this. She works for State and it probably is not Tillerson telling her to do this so my guess would be David Satterfield, the Assistant secretary of State for the Near East. He is someone who now runs with the wolves. That is how he got the job.

At the same time Russia has made it clear that they will fight to protect their ally and interests in Syria. They have been quite plain spoken about that and they included both US aircraft and ships in the threat. I note that the Admiral Essen, a Russian missile shooting frigate sortied from Sebastopol today.

I think that Pompeo's nomination and his eventual confirmation brings the world closer to a US-Russia war. If that happens it will be difficult if not impossible to keep the war from escalating toward the use of nuclear weapons. Israel wants war, a wrecking war with Iran. Israel wants the US to win that war for Israel. IMO Israel would be wrecked in such a war whatever the outcome. This is an August, 1914 moment. pl

http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-tillerson-ousted-20180313-story.html


Kerim , 13 March 2018 at 03:01 PM

Yes absolutely an August 1914 moment... That was my first thought when I heard the news. I think the tone on the Russian side has also markedly changed recently. They are losing patience
Phodges , 13 March 2018 at 03:15 PM
How long until Mattis is shown the door?
John Minnerath , 13 March 2018 at 03:19 PM
The No Ko thing was bluff and bluster against a 3rd rate disfunctional regime at the kiddie end of the statecraft pool.

Russia is another ball game altogether and as much as I'd like to see Trump and the US come out on top he's way out of league in this and the heavy pro Israel leaning is going to be trouble.

Hopefully some smarter and cooler headed diplomats will keep things on an even keel.

JPB , 13 March 2018 at 03:19 PM
A pox on both Pompeo and Haley I say. I have never trusted Pompeo. How does a Californian run and win a Congressional election in Kansas? Carpetbagger? Plus he got his Doctorate of Law degree from Harvard, which is another strike against him IMO.

How will he get along with Nikki, since in the past he has called a Punjabi-American a 'turban topper'? And I note that Nikki had a brother who served in Desert Storm while Pompeo reportedly sat it out.

I don't know anything about Satterfield. But I thought that Haley's job as United States Ambassador to the United Nations was a Cabinet level post and that she worked directly for the White House and not for the State Department. When did that change?

Willy B , 13 March 2018 at 03:20 PM
Pompeo's close relationship with the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies -- a louder bunch of war mongers you would have a hard time finding -- makes the danger that much more palpable, I think.
rkka , 13 March 2018 at 03:41 PM
I have noted the smell of gunpowder in the air since the Kiev coup, though it is almost unbearably intense now .
Peter AU , 13 March 2018 at 03:44 PM
With what has been occurring recently in Syria, now may make or break time for the US. If it loses to Russia in Syria/Iraq, US would most likely start losing in many places.
Richard , 13 March 2018 at 03:51 PM
Yes I remember Al Qaida. That several consecutive US administrations decided to threaten Russia in order to protect these terrorists was one of the reasons why I lost my trust in the US government and their political appendices here in Europe.

Will CNN praise Trump for his new appointments, just like they praised the US cruise missile attacks on Syria in April 2017 after the alleged chemical attack on Khan Shaykhun?

A.Pols , 13 March 2018 at 04:13 PM
Reminds me of a murder that happened near Charlottesville some years back. Two middle aged brothers who shared a home in the country got into an argument over the use of the air conditioner and one shot the other. Afterwards he was grief stricken and couldn't believe what he'd done. Alcohol was involved. So the thing was tragic and the more so because it was quite unnecessary.
DailyPlanet -> Kerim... , 13 March 2018 at 04:14 PM
Just my view on things but something is just so very wrong in this country. Yeah, this has been par for the course for so long that i am used to it but who the hell is in charge and what is the agenda?

" In 2005 Satterfield was named as having provided classified information to an official of the powerful pro-Israel lobbying group, AIPAC. According to documents, Satterfield had discussed secret national security matters in at least two meetings with AIPAC official Steven J. Rosen, who was subsequently indicted by the U.S. Justice Department (later quashed over the objections of the FBI ."

https://original.antiwar.com/alison-weir/2011/02/04/critical-connections-egypt-the-us-and-israel%C2%A0/

VietnamVet , 13 March 2018 at 04:18 PM
Colonel,

I agree. This is August 1914 being replayed again. The end of the second Gilded Age. Only the true believers and the Generals are left. The VA Secretary has to guard his office suite. EPA Administrator flies first class. Larry Kudlow, the rumored new economic czar, was fired from Bear Stearns for his cocaine habit.

Donald Trump wants the three Generals gone. Anything becomes possible even a Korean Peace Treaty. Correct me if I am wrong. But, without the Generals the President loses military and contractor backing. The 25th Amendment becomes a real possibility. The God of War is chuckling; if not a World War; then, at least, another American Civil War.

Peace, never.

Clueless Joe , 13 March 2018 at 04:25 PM
"Frighteningly, Mattis is now the adult and saner one in the whole administration" was exactly my thought a few hours ago...

As for Israel, they should be aware that if this ends up in a US vs Russia WW3, they will be wiped out - if not nuked by Russia, others will seize the opportunity offered by such chaos. There's simply no way that they're coming out of this war in a comparatively better situation, compared to the sorry state of other Western countries, than they are now - they'll be hit just as badly, and probably worse than some.

LondonBob , 13 March 2018 at 04:27 PM
I think you are being too pessimistic, still a lot of sound and fury signifying nothing. Trump is instinctively opposed to another war and knows it would be politically disastrous. The Iran deal being further undermined is more likely the middle path that will be trod.

I was very enthusiastic about Tillerson but he really hasn't looked up to it, the idea was better than the reality. Pompeo I don't know, superficially looks poor but I think he is cleverer than he lets on, and a lot is just rhetoric.

Kooshy , 13 March 2018 at 04:32 PM
Colonel. Unfortunately you are perfectly right again with your analysis, for consequences of trending current affairs. My hunch is in this new west east war, Europe (except for UK) and east Asia, none of US main allies will side with US in a meaning full way, and that unwillingness to share will be the final nail in coffin of US centered world order based on UN, NATO and BW dollars.
JohnsonR , 13 March 2018 at 04:44 PM
"This is an August, 1914 moment."

I've been fearing that Syria is looking more and more like that for some time now.

The unimaginative ridicule the suggestion that open war between the US and Russia could result from events in Syria, because it is just too big a change in the world for them to comprehend it as a real possibility. But there is a clear route for escalation, and now the US regime has suggested how the initiation might occur.

If the US strikes Syria, Russia has to choose whether to let it pass (as it did Trump's previous crime) or to respond. If the US misjudges the scale of its attack and Russia responds with actions that kill US military personnel, then the US regime faces the same choice, and open war is an easy outcome. On each occasion, there is a clear cost to not retaliating, and a psychological inclination not to just turn the other cheek. This is a profoundly dangerous situation, and parallels with 1914 are absolutely not out of place.

I believe we would have been here a year ago if Clinton had won the presidency. Trump gave hope that it could be avoided, but it seems that hope was vain, whether because Trump lied or because he has been putty in the hands of the usual suspects around the US regime.

Fortunately, there will probably be many opportunities for either party to step off the escalation process before it reaches a nuclear exchange, and the prospect of that tends to concentrate even the minds of the powerful.

Let's be absolutely clear here, though - the US is wholly the party at fault here in creating this situation. Syria is a longstanding Russian/Soviet ally and it is the US regime's determination to overthrow the Syrian government that is creating the danger we now face. Granted, after that you can look at other parties involved in "influencing" the US regime towards war in Syria for their own self-serving ulterior motives, but in the end the US government and nation must be held responsible for its own choices and for allowing itself to be "influenced" .

Oilman2 , 13 March 2018 at 04:48 PM
With NATO right on their border and Alaska on their other - there isn't anywhere for Russia to retreat to. They have ONE overseas base, and we wish to contest that, per our mouthpieces.

I think Putin made his point(s) crystal clear on March 1st. Continually poking the bear only ends one way. What might the neocon/Trump reaction be to a carrier being taken out? Or closing of the Straits by air/sea denial?

I do not wish to have either of these questions answered in any reality - simply because our government has come to believe they are invincible, and apparently, our military as well.


Jony Kanuck , 13 March 2018 at 05:09 PM
Colonel,
Yes & no to Aug'14. I'd go for July; the 'black swan event' has occurred, now what will the major powers do?

I note that the Russian threat came not from the Pres or the Prime Minister, or the FM. It came from the CDS. I think the orders for Russian air defense staff in Syria have been cut; shoot on launch. The Russians seem sure the attack will be on Damascus, in response to an imagined gas attack in East Ghouta. So probably air launched cruise missiles.

My black swan is Russian air defense knocking down a couple US strike a/c. In 1914, starting with Austro Hungary, everyone (Rus, Ger, Fra) then reacted instead of looking at how bad it could get. The Brits were the last in, reluctantly. Brit FM Grey said "The lights are going out in Europe, I don't know when we shall see them lit again".

james , 13 March 2018 at 05:10 PM
thanks for sharing your perspective pat..i agree things look ominous.. it is a shame it has gotten to this point, but with individuals like nikki haley and etc, doing all the talking points for israel and happily moving along in this relentless path, it is hard not to envision a confrontation that results in a wider war...

the usa is responsible for this is as @ 3 johnsonr points out and yes, in spite of the influences on the usa, it will be the usa that will be held responsible for it too... i wasn't around for 1914, but things don't look very good here..

meanwhile, may and the uk want to frame russia without proof... this is a reoccurring theme, whether it is from the usa, uk or whoever.. it gets very tiring and not very believable or trustworthy..

[Mar 13, 2018] Sic Semper Tyrannis HARPER WHAT IS DRIVING THE NEW PUSH FOR AUMF

Mar 13, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

james , 11 March 2018 at 10:11 PM

good question/s harper.. it looks like a positive development.. maybe some american politicians are coming to their senses? wishful thinking, but it is possible!

the fact the usa is in syria, under the pretext of going after isis is laughable.. very recently putin asked that the rubble city now known as raqqa, has many dead bodies still under the rubble.. perhaps aside from leveling raqqa, the usa could consider cleaning up the mess it is responsible for too..i guess that is too much to ask.. at present usa actions look like an attempt at partitioning syria.. so yes - someone in political office in the usa can ask about altering the course and direction of the usa has been on for a good number of years, especially now with this demonizing of russia on so many levels.. that would be really great..

james , 11 March 2018 at 10:13 PM
i read need to read my posts before posting... oh well.. putin asked the usa to clean up and bury the dead they are responsible for..maybe that falls to the 'free democratic syrian army' that are busy running off to afrin at the moment...
falcemartello , 12 March 2018 at 01:36 AM
I think some in the deep state or the people who really run pax-amaericana might of just got the message fromPutin's last address to the douma. Fuk with us or any of our allies IE IRAN,SYRIA,CHINA we will screww you six way of SUNDAY Hypersonic style.
Harry , 12 March 2018 at 06:57 AM
Its lucky so many ex CIA officers are seeking congressional office. Otherwise the peeple might put an end to us always being at war with East Asia.

https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2018/03/07/dems-m07.html

Barbara Ann , 12 March 2018 at 08:49 AM
Thanks for the update on the critical topic Harper, I've included links to the letter, The Hill's op-ed and Lee's Facebook video of the hearing below.

https://www.fcnl.org/updates/106-members-of-congress-call-on-speaker-ryan-to-hold-a-debate-and-vote-on-use-of-military-force-in-syria-1284

http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/politics/375911-congress-owes-the-american-people-a-war-debate

https://www.facebook.com/RepBarbaraLee/videos/10155871583927787/

Phodges , 12 March 2018 at 11:05 AM
It's anti-Trump optics.

Obama starts wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc...give him peace prize!

Trump fights wars in Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc...stop the mad man!

If Trump was ending these wars like he said he would, they would have to attack him for being weak and giving in to Putin

Bill H , 12 March 2018 at 11:05 AM
I would love to think that this is Congress waking up to its responsibility, but I suspect it is nothing more than a move to take a swipe at President Trump; to reduce his power and/or weaken him politically.
catherine , 12 March 2018 at 02:02 PM

If I remember correctly it was Saudi who set up Syria to begin with and sent Prince Bandar to organize and finance the anti Assad rebels. Pretty sure they were counting on the Israel Lobby to bring the US onboard given Syria was second leg after Iraq in their march to Iran per the Israeli 'Clean Break' plan.

Despite the total FUBAR Iraq turned out to be I don't see the Israelis giving up on their plan for Iran---all their propaganda says..''we are fighting Iran in Syria''. Since our congress is basically Israeli occupied territory I don't have any faith in their war decisions.

Yemen is another story...equally insane.


I welcome Russian involvement in the ME ....it might turn out to be the 'balancing act' the realist like Stephen Walt have talked about for years
except not quite the 'offshore balancing' they recommend. Both Russia and the US are now 'onshore' instead. imo the US should bow out...nothing in the ME is a'threat' to the US and we have zero benefits to gain in Syria or Iran.

Richardstevenhack , 12 March 2018 at 08:04 PM
I'm inclined to believe that this is an anti-Trump project but it may well have elements of concern about war with Russia. After all, most of Trump's detractors assume he is unpredictable and could start WWIII over an incident. Whether true or not, some people think so.

Witness the cruise missile attack on the Syrian airbase over bogus intel which DID result in a confrontation with Russia as Russia downed most of the cruise missiles using ECM according to reports (and despite a Pentagon denial which was clearly bogus given pictures of the airbase not being heavily damaged.)

And then we have the Russian contractors killed.

There was an article over at Russia Insider today that suggests the reason Putin announced the new Russian weapons systems was not just for Russian election PR (since Putin is going to win anyway) but was in reality because Russia feared an American attack in Syria. Putin explicitly said in his March 1st speech:

Quote

I should note that our military doctrine says Russia reserves the right to use nuclear weapons solely in response to a nuclear attack, or an attack with other weapons of mass destruction against the country or its allies, or an act of aggression against us with the use of conventional weapons that threaten the very existence of the state. This all is very clear and specific.

As such, I see it is my duty to announce the following. Any use of nuclear weapons against Russia or its allies, weapons of short, medium or any range at all, will be considered as a nuclear attack on this country. Retaliation will be immediate, with all the attendant consequences.

End Quote

Note the phrase "or its allies" - which at the moment is fairly limited to China, Syria, and maybe Iran (as well as lesser states like Belarus.)

I think it might be possible to include North Korea in the list, if Russia believes a US attack on North Korea - which would quite possibly involve nuclear weapons - might threaten to escalate against China, an ally.

Perhaps this is why someone convinced Trump to talk to North Korea. Did some Pentagon analysts or CIA analysts decide that Putin might be serious about Syria or North Korea based on some intel and then the Pentagon decided to back down on North Korea or some planned action against Syria?

I note Mattis seems to have bowed out on answering questions about North Korea, stating that the State Department is handling that.

[Mar 10, 2018] The frankly farcical nature of the 'Joint Investigative Mechanism' report into Khan Sheikhoun

Mar 10, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

David Habakkuk -> JohnB... , 04 February 2018 at 10:35 AM

JohnB,

In response to comment 2.

If you are interested in Higgins and 'Bellingcat', you might want be interested in a 'Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media' which has recently been set up by a group of British academics.

(See http://syriapropagandamedia.org .)

At the moment, work which has already been done is being prepared for publication on the site. However, some of it has already appeared on the blog of one of the members, Tim Hayward.

This includes a detailed discussion of the report of the 'Joint Investigative Mechanism' on the Khan Sheikhoun attack by Paul McKeigue.
His professorship, at Edinburgh, is in Genetic Epidemiology and Statistical Genetics. This means that, unlike most of us interested in these matters, with the obvious exception of Theodore Postol, he has a grasp of a lot of relevant science.

(See https://timhayward.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/khan-sheikhoun-chemical-attack-guest-blog-featuring-paul-mckeigues-reassessment/ .)

A basic tool of his trade is a technique called 'Bayesian analysis', one of whose many applications is to separate out genetic factors in disease from others. His use of it in the piece may make bits of it somewhat hard going for those of us whose scientific education stopped at school.

But if you are interested in a demonstration of the way that the kind of pure charlatanry propagated by Higgins and Kaszeta has come to be accepted uncritically by supposed impartial international bodies, you should read the piece.

Also on Hayward's blog is an article which was submitted to the Guardian's 'Comment is Free' page, in response to a piece by Olivia Solon smearing those who have had the temerity to suggest that the 'White Helmets' may be something less than a band of disinterested charity workers, and an account of the attempts of the 'Working Group' to get a response from the paper.

(See https://timhayward.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/the-guardian-white-helmets-and-silenced-comment/ .)

This has links to material on that organisation already published. A lot more work will be appearing on the 'Working Group' site.

David Habakkuk -> blowback... , 06 February 2018 at 11:42 AM

blowback,

In response to 36.

Thanks for the link. But what Mattis has said relates to the latest accusations, not early ones. Key paragraphs:

'A deadly sarin attack on another rebel-held area in April 2017 prompted President Donald Trump to order a U.S. missile strike on the Shayrat airbase, from which the Syrian operation is said to have been launched.

'"We are on the record and you all have seen how we reacted to that, so they would be ill-advised to go back to violating the chemical (weapons) convention," Mattis said.'

So he is not repudiating the conventional wisdom according to which sarin was used at Khan Sheikhoun, and the possibility of a military response to a fresh 'false flag' is left open. Unless he is basing his accusation on credible evidence, this to be blunt, comes close to inciting jihadists to atrocity.

The extent -- and unscrupulousness -- of the mounting propaganda campaign in relation to the recently claims is well brought out in a piece by Rick Sterling in 'Consortium News' on Sunday. Whether those involved are still hoping to precipitate a serious American military intervention, and whether those hopes might be realistic, I cannot say.

(See https://consortiumnews.com/2018/02/04/wmd-claims-in-syria-raise-concerns-over-u-s-escalation/ .)

This makes the detailed demonstration by Professor McKeigue of the frankly farcical nature of the 'Joint Investigative Mechanism' report into Khan Sheikhoun, to which I linked, all the more important. In addition to exposing the total dependence of its analysis on a completely incredible claim about the aircraft which is supposed to have delivered the chemical weapon, and discussing much other evidence, he brings out a key point about developments in 'chemical forensics' over the past years.

As well as the 1995 sarin attacks, the 2001 anthrax letter attacks led to an enormous investment of money and intellectual energy in the development of analytical techniques making it possible to identify perpetrators of chemical weapons incidents. A fascinating article entitled 'Tracing a Threat' by Bethany Halford in 'Chemistry & Engineering News World' in February 2012 provides a good picture of what the state of play was at that time.

(See https://cen.acs.org/articles/90/i6/Tracing-Threat.html .)

She quotes an expert called Joseph Chipuk, from a consultancy called 'Signature Science' in Austin, explaining how the 'spectra' -- different wavelengths of electromagnetic radiation associated with different 'impurities' in samples, including 'environmental' ones, such as soil, fragments of weapons, and clothing -- can be matched with reconstructions of possible 'synthetic pathways'.

The levels of sophistication of which this kind of analysis was already capable, he made clear, are close to breathtaking:

'To figure out signatures based on various synthetic routes and conditions, Chipuk says that the synthetic chemists on his team will make the same chemical threat agent as many as 2,000 times in an "almost robotic manner," following a database that tells them exactly what conditions to use. They then hand off the product to the analytical chemists, who look at all the tiny impurities that turn up along with the toxic chemical -- "the stuff that's down in the weeds," as Chipuk describes it. From there, the hundreds or, in some cases, thousands of spectra that are collected go to statisticians and computer scientists who work their magic to tease out the unique attribution signatures.'

At the end of the article, Halford quotes Chipuk again making clear that improvement is continuous in a way that is making it quite extraordinarily difficult to fool analysts who are genuinely looking for the truth -- as not only Dan Kaszeta but, very regrettably, key figures at the OPCW and some of its 'Designated Laboratories' do not appear to be:

'"The fact is that technology continues to improve, instrumentation continues to improve, and computers continue to improve. The chances of someone being able to slip by undetected are getting smaller and smaller," says Signature Science's Chipuk. "If you were to choose to do something like this, the science is going to catch up to you."'

In relation to the claims now being made, what is initially at issue is simply the question of whether the 'impurities' identified by the 'spectra' in samples from the incidents at Khan Sheikhoun, Ghouta, Saraqeb, and Khan Al-Asal match.

What characterised the 'hexamine hypothesis' as put forward by Kaszeta was the -- close to surreal -- suggestion that a single substance, hexamine, was a 'smoking gun'. To anyone who had taken the trouble to read easily accessible discussions of the methodology, such as Halford's piece, it would be apparent that it is simply ludicrous to base a claim on a single substance -- particularly given that hexamine is also used in explosives.

In the 'Reuters' report on 30 January, we were told:

'Two compounds in the Ghouta sample matched those also found in Khan Sheikhoun, one formed from sarin and the stabilizer hexamine and another specific fluorophosphate that appears during sarin production, the tests showed.'

(See https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-crisis-chemicalweapons-exclusiv/exclusive-tests-link-syrian-government-stockpile-to-largest-sarin-attack-sources-idUSKBN1FJ0MG .)

So we have an -- unidentified -- compound which supposedly establishes that the hexamine did indeed form part of the sarin production process, rather than of the explosive charge. And we are then told of the presence of another compound, which are told is 'another specific fluorophosphate': why not tell us which?

To anyone interested in actually making sense of the evidence, to have a mere two compounds mentioned, and those not adequately identified, suggests an alternative possibility: that people who knew details of the 'synthetic pathway' by which Syrian government sarin had been synthesised leaked them to those who were producing the substance for a 'false flag.' It would have been beyond the capabilities of a relatively primitive operation to produce any kind of close fit -- to get a couple of compounds to match would probably not have been difficult at all.

If this suspicious interpretation if false, there is a very simple way to refute it -- and General Mattis is in a perfect position to do this.

The close links between the American and British 'intelligence communities' have been stressed in comments on this thread. It is clear that in relation to Syrian chemical weapons, there was a division of labour.

Analysis of 'environmental' samples was concentrated at the British OPCW-certified facility, the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory at Porton Down in Wiltshire. Meanwhile, preparations for the dismantling of the Syrian chemical arsenal were the made at one of the two American OPCW-certified laboratories, the U.S. Army's Edgewood Chemical Biological Center in Maryland.

The destruction of the 581 tonnes of the sarin precursor methylphosphonyl difluoride, or DF, aboard the specially kitted out vessel 'M.V. Cape Ray' in the Mediterranean was announced in August 2014. In the extensive reporting on the preparations for this, it was made absolutely clear that -- as one would expect -- the vessel was equipped with a proper analytical laboratory, with OPCW scientists involved as well as those from the Edgewood Center.

(See https://www.chemistryworld.com/feature/eliminating-syrias-chemical-weapons/7390.article .)

In a post entitled 'Sentence First -- Verdict Afterwards?' shortly after the Khan Sheikhoun attack, and then in two 'open letters' to the members of our Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees, I pointed to the mass of evidence suggesting that the test results from different incidents did not match each other or those from the stocks destroyed on the 'Cape Ray.'

(See http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/habakkuk/ .)

The publicly available evidence, I argued, provided strong reason to believe that results from Porton Down and the OPCW confirmed the claim made by the Russians, supposedly on the basis of tests from their own OPCW-certified laboratory, that the sarin used at Khan Al-Asal and Ghouta was a 'cottage industry' product. This was also what Seymour Hersh claimed that tests carried out at Porton Down had revealed about the sarin used at Ghouta - he used the term 'kitchen sarin.'

What the Reuters report has -- perhaps inadvertently -- confirmed is that Porton Down had in fact tested 'environmental' samples from the Khan Al-Asal incident on 19 March 2013, the first where sarin was used in Syria, by suggesting that tests from that incident as well as those at Ghouta and Khan Sheikhoun matched the results from the stocks on the 'Cape Ray':

'Laboratories working for the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons compared samples taken by a U.N. mission in the Damascus suburb of Ghouta after the Aug. 21, 2013 attack, when hundreds of civilians died of sarin gas poisoning, to chemicals handed over by Damascus for destruction in 2014.

'The tests found "markers" in samples taken at Ghouta and at the sites of two other nerve agent attacks, in the towns of Khan Sheikhoun in Idlib governorate on April 4, 2017 and Khan al-Assal, Aleppo, in March 2013, two people involved in the process said.

'"We compared Khan Sheikhoun, Khan al-Assal, Ghouta," said one source who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the findings. "There were signatures in all three of them that matched."'

Can anyone seriously believe that if the tests we know to have been done on at Porton Down had established what this 'source' who does not have the guts to the identify himself claims, this fact would not have been trumpeted to the skies -- first when the results from Ghouta matched those from Khan Al-Asal, and then when both matched those from the 'Cape Ray'?

Allright -- sometimes the practically incredible turns out to be true. But if he has any evidence on which to base his claims, General Mattis should have the courage of his convictions, and order the disclosure of the relevant 'spectra.'

David Habakkuk -> Babak Makkinejad... , 07 February 2018 at 09:28 AM
Babak Makkinejad,

You are wrong about this. That the 'chain of custody' principle has been flagrantly violated in the reports of the 'Fact-Finding Mission' and the 'Joint Investigative Mechanism' is patently the case, and in itself reason why the almost unanimous acceptance of these in the MSM is scandalous. But that is a separate issue.

(See http://russiaun.ru/en/news/opcwun -- the whole document is well worth reading.)

The reasons why the test results from the various laboratories were critical were set out last April in my '"Sentence First -- Verdict Afterwards"?' piece, and the two 'open letters' to the members of the Defence and Foreign Affairs Committees pointing out the need for clarification as to what was being claimed about the test results.

Let me recap, and update.

An example of the kind of 'chemical forensics' one needs in incidents like this was provided by the analysis of test results on 'shell and soil' samples purporting to derive from the Khan Al-Asal incident on 19 March 2013 which formed part of the document from the Russian OPCW-certified laboratory which was submitted to the UN Secretary-General on 9 July that year.

On 4 September, as part of the attempt to stop the visible attempt to use Ghouta to create an unstoppable momentum towards the destruction of the Syrian government, more details of what looks like an expanded version of the original document were made public by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In it they claimed that:

'shell and soil samples contained nerve agents -- sarin gas and diisopropylfluorophosphate -- not synthesized in an industrial environment, which was used by Western states for producing chemical weapons during World War II.'

It was also made clear that the conclusions rested upon precisely the kind of very complex analysis Bethany Halford is describing:

'We highlight that the Russian report is extremely specific. It is a scientific and technical document containing about 100 pages with many tables and diagrams of spectral analysis of the samples. We expect that it will significantly assist in the investigation into this incident by the UN. Unfortunately, it has in fact not started yet.'

(See https://www.rusemb.org.uk/fnapr/3169 .)

Unfortunately, the detailed 'spectra' have not been released, but they have certainly been analysed by experts at the OPCW and that organisation's 'Designated Laboratories' in the West, including Porton Down. We know that the results from the materials tested on the 'Cape Ray' will show a sarin precursor 'manufactured in an industrial environment.'

To prove what Mattis and others want to claim it is necessary that the 'spectra' from none of the other tests match those in the Russian report, and the 'markers' from the 'Cape Ray' materials are the same as those from Khan Sheikhoun, Ghouta, and Khan Al-Asal. If there are serious 'chain of custody' problems, the 'markers' from the four sets of tests might not be sufficient to establish Syrian government culpability -- a lack of a match would be quite sufficient to establish that the indictment cannot be accepted as it stands.

As I brought out in my post last April, the publicly available evidence -- of which Hersh's 'Red Line and Rat Line' article and subsequent interviews form an important part -- strongly suggests the Russian claims that the toxin used in both Khan Al-Asal and also Ghouta was 'cottage industry', as they put it, or 'kitchen sarin', as he put it, are correct.

It is simply not a refutation of these claims to treat one compound supposed to validate the 'hexamine hypothesis', and an unspecified fluorophosphate, which could be the diisopropylfluorophosphate reported by the Russians, or hexafluorophosphate, as conclusive evidence. (The implications, or lack of them, would be quite different, depending on which compound it was.)

And all this hush-hush whisper-whisper from 'diplomats and scientists' who are not prepared to be identified, as well as assurances from that supposedly 'independent' expert Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon, only add to the grounds for scepticism. As I brought out in my post, he is under the strongest possible suspicion of having been involved in covering up, and quite possibly colluding in, the 'false flags.'

If they have evidence to support the case, then let Western governments produce the 'spectra' -- as also should the Russians. We do not need complete reports, which may need to be kept secret for perfectly good reasons -- simply the 'many tables and diagrams' which must exist. Once these were out in the open, then it would be much easier to have an informed argument.

Most of this ground I covered last April. However, there is some crucial new context. Part of this is provided by a report in 'The Intercept' last October, entitled 'NSA Document Says Saudi Prince Directly Ordered Coordinated Attack By Syrian Rebels On Damascus.' As it explains:

'According to a top-secret National Security Agency document provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden, the March 2013 rocket attacks were directly ordered by a member of the Saudi royal family, Prince Salman bin Sultan, to help mark the second anniversary of the Syrian revolution. Salman had provided 120 tons of explosives and other weaponry to opposition forces, giving them instructions to "light up Damascus" and "flatten" the airport, the document, produced by U.S. government surveillance on Syrian opposition factions, shows.'

(See https://theintercept.com/2017/10/24/syria-rebels-nsa-saudi-prince-assad/ .)

This was on 18 March -- the day before Khan Al-Asal. Further relevant context is provided by a piece in February 2017 on the 'Monitor on Massacre Marketing' site by Adam Larson, entitled 'What happened on March 19, 2013?' which is subtitled 'The First Bodies Tossed Across Obama's "Red Line" in Syria.'

(See http://libyancivilwar.blogspot.co.uk/2017/02/what-happened-on-march-19-2013.html .)

This starts by reviewing the -- ample -- evidence that the Khan Al-Asal attack came at a point where there was very visible enthusiasm on the part of a lot of people in the United States and Western Europe for intervention in support of the 'Assad must go' agenda, so that he had every incentive to avoid chemical weapons use, and the insurgents every incentive to produce a 'false flag.'

And Larson goes on to note that 'Ironically, the first solid news of the feared chemical attack came in the form of a Syrian government announcement on March 19 that their forces had been gassed by "terrorists" in a town just west of Aleppo" -- that is, the Shi'ite town of Khan Al-Asal.

There follow detailed reviews of the evidence of another incident on the same day, in which the victims appeared to be insurgents, at the Damascus suburb variously transliterated as Otaybah and Uteibah, and more fragmentary and puzzling evidence about events at Homs.

And Larson goes on to suggest that a three-pronged 'false flag' was planned for 19 March, in Aleppo, Damascus and Homs -- the country's three largest cities. This would obviously fit very well with the NSA intercept, in that it would suggest that the intent was to portray these as Assad's savage response to the attacks in Damascus, thus, hopefully, generating unstoppable momentum for American military intervention.

This seems to me eminently plausible, but it leaves open two possible interpretations of Khan Al-Asal. When insurgents who are difficult to control are given access to weapons like sarin, there is an obvious possibility of matters developing in unexpected directions, either as the result of their bungling an attack, or succumbing to the temptation to use it against government forces.

However, a different set of unintended consequences is also possible. It could be that Syrian intelligence, perhaps with the assistance of Russian and/or Iranian, and with a combination of 'SIGINT' and 'HUMINT' methods quite possibly being deployed, knew precisely what was going on -- and had double agents inside the groups preparing the 'false flags.'

Rather than wait until the inevitable chorus calling for all-out air strikes began, it could well have made sense to turn one of the incidents into a 'false flag' within a 'false flag.'

The anti-Assad camp would then have been effectively 'snookered.' They would have faced a situation where they would know that, if they acceded to the calls from the Syrians and Russians for a proper UN/OPCW investigation, making a rigorous use of 'chemical forensics', these would implicate the insurgents. And if the evidence suggested that it was these who had crossed Obama's 'red line', it would have been game and set, and probably match, to the Syrian and Russian governments.

Irrespective of people's views on what interpretation is plausible in relation to Khan Al-Asal, the important point is that strategies which rely strongly on convert action -- as the 'régime change' projects I outlined in the current post do -- are inherently liable to run out of control. The uncontrollability of their instruments, and the possibility of covert action meeting covert action in return, are always liable to generate unintended consequences which can escalate.

As soon as the possible that an impartial investigation would implicate the insurgents was real, in relation to Khan Al-Asal, irrespective of whether the imputation would have been justified, the alternative to facing a complete collapse of their projects in Syria, for Western governments, was inherently likely to be at best covering up, at worst colluding in, further 'false flags.' Moreover, intense pressure had to be mounted, to ensure that what were supposed to be sources of independent expertise supported their cover-ups.

This pattern, I am suggesting is common both to history of the 'StratCom' in which Christopher Steele has been involved, and that relating to chemical weapons use in Syria. Particularly when the 'Fourth Estate' ceases to do its job, a likely result is the progressive systematic corruption of institutions.

blowback , 04 February 2018 at 03:20 PM
David,

You have read one of the articles on what James Mattis said on Friday about sarin? He quite clearly states that the United States has no evidence that the Syrian government has used sarin. Given the way, the French, British, German, etc. intelligence services share information, that suggests that if James Mattis is speaking the truth then no one in NATO, except perhaps for Turkey given Erdogan's recent behavior, has any evidence either. This means that both incidents, East Ghouta and Khan Shaykhoun, and any other incidents that are alleged by the terrorists to have involved sarin are not what they are claimed to be in western msm and most western politicians. Bellingcat and all the other NGOs who have made similar claims about sarin are all wrong.

Mattis does claim that Syria has used chlorine.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-usa/u-s-mattis-says-concerned-about-syrias-potential-use-of-sarin-gas-idUSKBN1FM1VJ

[Mar 09, 2018] A conflict in North Korea, John, would be probably the worst kind of fighting in most people's lifetimes

Mar 09, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Don Bacon | Mar 9, 2018 10:24:50 PM | 39

Dickerson: "What keeps you awake at night?"
Mattis: "Nothing, I keep other people awake at night."
and. . .
MATTIS: A conflict in North Korea, John, would be probably the worst kind of fighting in most people's lifetimes.
Why do I say this? The North Korean regime has hundreds of artillery cannons and rocket launchers within range of one of the most densely populated cities on earth, which is the capital of South Korea.

We are working with the international community to deal with this issue. This regime is a threat to the region, to Japan, to South Korea, and in the event of war, they would bring danger to China and to Russia as well.

But the bottom line is, it would be a catastrophic war if this turns into combat, if we are not able to resolve this situation through diplomatic means. here

Don Bacon , Mar 9, 2018 10:56:44 PM | 41

We shouldn't expect that any meeting and talks would actually solve anything, because the DPRK and US positions are basically irreconcilable. DPRK wants the US out of Korea, US wants DPRK to denuke (disarm).

The DPRK strategy, probably, is to spawn endless meetings for a long time. The Vietnam peace talks serve as a model, first with the parties discussing the shape of the table, etc. I look for DPRK to play this game.

It's a basic east vs. west gambit, where the east has the patience to endure years whereas the west expects quick results.

[Mar 09, 2018] The US Ponders a Strike Against Syrian Government Forces What's Behind This by Peter Korzun

Mar 09, 2018 | ronpaulinstitute.org

The US is considering the option of military action against Syria. The alleged use of chemical weapons (CW) by the Syrian government, which is not backed by any solid evidence, is to serve as the pretext. Syrian President Assad is going to be "punished." On March 6, US President Trump and Israeli PM Netanyahu discussed the threat posed by Iran's presence in Syria and ways to counter it.

Chemical weapons? But why should Syria's President Assad use them if he has had no trouble winning with conventional weapons wherever he goes? Couldn't the rebels be using CW? Instances of that have been uncovered and confirmed. But no, US officials don't even bother to give a passing thought to such "unimportant and irrelevant" considerations. They know better who to blame and who deserves to be made to pay for the wrongdoings they believe have taken place. In April, 2017, the US delivered a missile strike against a Syrian military facility, in flagrant violation of international law.

It's worth noting that a group of US senators visited Israel in late February. According to them, a conflict between Israel and the pro-Iranian forces in southern Lebanon was imminent and that fighting would likely encompass Syria as well. Israel has been increasing its support of proxy groups in Syria recently.

Senator Lindsey Graham believes that Tehran is "testing" the US and Israel and that the administration is not doing enough to push back against Iran in Syria and throughout the Middle East.

[Mar 08, 2018] The root cause of all the western media nonsense happening right now, at least with regard to Syria is ti bully the USa into another expensive foreign war. That's what drives the western MAM coverage

Notable quotes:
"... in his latest piece today he seems to tap the root cause of all the western media nonsense happening right now, at least with regard to Syria and the Zionist dream - which we must remember, drives the western press: Tangled Web In The East Ghouta; Ghouta Has Got The Neocon Goat ..."
"... Zionists are united in pursuing a policy of complete hopelessness in order to assuage their own hurt feelings. They simply will not accept their own failures and are determined to bully the CIA into another miserable foreign adventure. ..."
"... Unable to stir the passions of the American public into supporting another foreign war, they have resolved to use the media as a substitute for the noisy demonstrations of which they fantasized in order to urge military action to stop the inevitable rise of the new alliance. ..."
Mar 01, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Grieved , Feb 28, 2018 9:53:13 PM | 50

Ziad Fadel is best known for his insider news and perspective on Syria and status on the ground - but in his latest piece today he seems to tap the root cause of all the western media nonsense happening right now, at least with regard to Syria and the Zionist dream - which we must remember, drives the western press: Tangled Web In The East Ghouta; Ghouta Has Got The Neocon Goat

It's a short piece, only 9 paragraphs, but here's a slice:

Zionists are united in pursuing a policy of complete hopelessness in order to assuage their own hurt feelings. They simply will not accept their own failures and are determined to bully the CIA into another miserable foreign adventure.

Unable to stir the passions of the American public into supporting another foreign war, they have resolved to use the media as a substitute for the noisy demonstrations of which they fantasized in order to urge military action to stop the inevitable rise of the new alliance.

The key here is that the US public is not being roused into caring about the Middle East. So this war must continue to take place in the media.

It's the only place there will be a win of any kind for the Zionists. But this will not manifest tangible facts.

And it will have nothing to do with reality on the ground.

[Mar 07, 2018] Vanessa Beeley Presents Expos on White Helmets at Swiss Press Club in Geneva

Mar 07, 2018 | www.unz.com

annamaria , March 6, 2018 at 3:06 am GMT

@peterAUS

Gloating about Syrian tragedy, peterAUS -- in an openly pro-Israel manner? Are you able to see the difference between opportunists (presstitutes and profiteers) and decent (principled and courageous) individuals? Here are some samples for you:
"Vanessa Beeley Presents Exposé on White Helmets at Swiss Press Club in Geneva:"

http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/11/28/vanessa-beeley-presents-new-white-helmets-expose-to-swiss-press-club-geneva/

"Is the UK FCO Financing Terrorism in Syria with Taxpayer Funds?" http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/12/02/white-helmets-local-councils-uk-fco-financing-terrorism-syria-taxpayer-funds/

"Journalist Interrogated, Fired For Linking CIA Weapons Shipments To Syrian Jihadists:" https://www.mintpressnews.com/journalist-interrogated-fired-linking-cia-weapons-shipments-syrian-jihadists/231348/

[Mar 07, 2018] Calls into question the role of the 'White Helmets.'

Mar 07, 2018 | www.unz.com

annamaria , March 5, 2018 at 7:34 pm GMT

@Carlton Meyer

The "free market" corruption begins on a level of personal dignity (morals). Both morality and patriotism are sorely lacking by the current US/UK power elite that has become a chimera composed of Cheney and the Lobby. We are dealing not so much with a "fraudulent" program as with deeply immoral bloody opportunists.

http://turcopolier.typepad.com/sic_semper_tyrannis/2018/03/syria-leaks-suites-propaganda-and-dividends-presented-by-publius-tacitus.html#comment-6a00d8341c72e153ef01bb09f8f311970d

From comment section. David Habakkuk said: " In relation to the 'White Helmets', the 'case for the prosecution' was set out in detail in a presentation by the journalist Vanessa Beeley to the Swiss Press Club in Geneva back in November, with Richard Labévière also involved – available, together with links to a range of supporting material, at

http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/11/28/vanessa-beeley-presents-new-white-helmets-expose-to-swiss-press-club-geneva/ .

The first appearance of the 'Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media' was in a letter submitted to the 'Comment is Free' section of the 'Guardian', and not published by them, in response to an article by Olivia Solon which attacked Beeley among others.

It claimed that critical discussion of the White Helmets in Syria has been 'propagated online by a network of anti-imperialist activists, conspiracy theorists and trolls with the support of the Russian government'.

The article rejected by the 'CiF' was reproduced, together with an account of the failure of the 'Guardian' either to publish it or to defend their decision not to, on Tim Hayward's blog in January. It contains links to material which calls into question the role of the 'White Helmets.'
(See https://timhayward.wordpress.com/2018/01/12/the-guardian-white-helmets-and-silenced-comment/ )

Concluding his demolition of the 'Joint Intelligence Mechanism' report into Khan Sheikhoun, also published on Hayward's blog, Paul McKeigue writes: 'The weight of evidence favouring the hypothesis of a managed massacre over a chemical attack has obvious implications also for the role of the White Helmets in this incident.'

(See https://timhayward.wordpress.com/2017/12/22/khan-sheikhoun-chemical-attack-guest-blog-featuring-paul-mckeigues-reassessment/ .)
This brings us back to a critical question about the 'false flag' chemical attacks in Syria, and in particular Khan Sheikhoun – that of whether the involvement of elements in Western élites is purely a matter of 'ex post facto' involvement in cover-ups, or whether 'ex ante' involvement in planning these operations may also be at issue.

And, of course, in relation to Benjamin Norman and other FCO people, prominent among them Matthew Rycroft and Boris Johnson, a question really does arise as to: 'What did they know and when did they know it?' "

- Olivia Solon -- a presstitute for Guardian
- Benjamin Norman -- a "diplomat" at the British Embassy in DC
- Matthew Rycroft -- a British "diplomat" at UN
- Boris Johnston -- a person of easy morals and Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, UK

[Mar 06, 2018] Actually there is almost a consensus in Turkey that the govt. should openly talk to Assad to prevent SR from breaking into pieces

Notable quotes:
"... Erdogan's guys seem to think that they need US support to stay in power. All sugar beet factories are being sold and the public think this has something to do with the Zarrab case in NY which is really undermining the Erdogan govt. No beet root factories means more Cargill domination in Turkey so people think Erdogan is bribing the Americans to stay in power. ..."
Mar 06, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

ConfusedPundit | Mar 5, 2018 3:23:34 AM | 44

@ Jackrabbit, PavewayIV

Turkish TVs accused Genie Energy (pointing out the shady guys on it's board) last night. The Turkish analysts base their claims on a network of foreign analysts which apparently think Genie Energy is 'solely' responsible for all the problems in Syria in that they planned the war and have been administering it to this day.

The analysts are drawing attention to the risk of AQ, ISIS, Nusra etc. or whatever people call them, let's say the head-choppers, going in to Turkey because they fear radical islamists are about to declare jihad against Turkey sometime in the near future. Erdogan's defense is this 'Assad is a mass murderer!' to keep the islamic fighters at bay. Actually there is almost a consensus in the country that TR govt. should openly talk to Assad to prevent SR from breaking into pieces (4?). It was Obama admin's idea to support the Islamists, Erdogan agreed to the plan and now he is stuck.

There are so many different groups in Syria especially in Idlib. I think instead of using names we need Pantone codes to identify these entities.

The OpOlive has been a success so far but the Turks suspect there will be a massive resistance in Afrin town center.

Erdogan's govt. maybe planning to use the potentiallly successful Afrin op to their benefit in the upcoming elections but the general public will not be satisfied because the real problem area is the East of Euphrates. Erdogan's guys seem to think that they need US support to stay in power. All sugar beet factories are being sold and the public think this has something to do with the Zarrab case in NY which is really undermining the Erdogan govt. No beet root factories means more Cargill domination in Turkey so people think Erdogan is bribing the Americans to stay in power.

Today the US embassy to Ankara is closed due to security risk according to the USembassy statement. Coincidentally the TR security forces detained 30 ISIS guys today. It's been 6 months and the US ambassador to Turkey has still not been appointed. In 3 days TR-US talks will begin as planned after Tillerson's visit.

So everybody is waiting for Erdogan, who was on a tour of Africa, to find out what's govt's plan for the next weeks because right now people don't know to which direction they are heading.

[Mar 06, 2018] I see Syria's main problem as divide and conquer attacks by foreign forces and Syria's vulnerability to these attacks.

Mar 06, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Peter AU 1 | Mar 5, 2018 4:59:30 PM | 78

oldenyoung "Does Syria have an Answer for their problem?"

Depends on what you consider is their 'problem'. I see Syria's main problem as divide and conquer attacks by foreign forces and Syria's vulnerability to these attacks.

I would look to Putin's strategy in the second Chechen war though Syria is far more complicated and many more groups than Chechnya. First Chechen war was Chechen's fighting for independence on the breakup of the Soviet Union. Wahabbis and Cia then moved in and second Chen war started or quickly devolved into a three way war. All Chechen vs Russia but also traditional Chechen vs wahabbi/CIA converts. Putin's deal with Kadyrov senior was along the lines that Russian Federation would protect the traditional Chechens from foreign attacks and Chechens would have a good deal of autonomy for their traditional culture, and in return Chechnya would give its loyalty to the Russian federation. A strength in numbers type deal from what I can make out. Also, it seems kadyrov junior as leader of Chechnya is only answerable to the president of the Russian and only deals direct one on one with the RF president.

I would guess that something along these lines is what Russia is looking for if there are any changes to the Syrian constitution.

[Mar 04, 2018] The Kurds have been coddled and supported by the US and Israel for many years as a long-term Israel 2.0 project. They would of course be used, marginalized, and ultimately cast out once the Zionists had their new and improved homeland, but the Kurdish dream of Kurdistan blinds them.

Notable quotes:
"... Putin's revelations show that the Russians feel the situation is becoming increasingly dangerous. There is just no way to talk sense into the Americans, just as it would have been futile to advise Britain against stopping their 20-year planning for a war with Germany in the years leading up to WWI, even if proceeding meant impoverishing their aristocracy and their country and sacrificing their young men. 31 per cent of Oxford's 1913 graduates were killed on French fields. I used to think self-preservation was stronger than greed but now I am not so sure. ..."
"... The US has carefully molded PYD ideology (via arms supply/bribes) to serve US interests, and THOSE interests are served by an independent Syrian Kurdistan - with their PYD lapdogs in charge, of course. ..."
"... I seriously doubt that statements from the current YPG/YPJ leadership represent 'the will of the average Syrian Kurd'. Militia leaders mostly just parrot the PYD party line - I would expect nothing less than that. ..."
"... I believe it is the PYD that mostly demands and independent Kurdistan/SDFistan in Syria to further consolidate their power and control, not the average Kurd. Nobody asks the average Kurd what it's like to live under the PYD's oppressive control today. ..."
"... Now imagine that the PYD is probably as corrupt as EVERY other US-supported (= bribed, CIA-moled) political party in CENTCOMistan proper. Sorry, but no amount of useless committees are going to vote corruption out of any future Syrian Kurd leadership. Why would anyone think otherwise? ..."
"... "Russia appears to have won at least a partial victory in Syria" because it actually took to the field and systematically attacked ISIS. This cannot be said of the U.S. "effort." Read this quote from a BBC story about how the U.S. cooperated with ISIS to allow it to escape destruction in Raqqah ..."
"... It is only western culture that puts a limit on presidential terms and calls anything else a dictatorship. Assad never left his country, apart from a couple of very short trips for meetings with Russian executive leadership, and has has held his country together in the toughest times. He seems popular, and the majority of Syrians may well wish to keep him as the leader of their country into the future. ..."
"... @ paveway "A broken, corrupt, useless Baathist government in Damascus." You could say the opposite. Syrian Government re-made. Re-focused with one of the world's best armies. Reoriented with regard to neoliberalism. How has a useless government resisted the combined strength of the Empire, Israel, Saudi and Gulf, UK and France to name just a few? ..."
"... You are forgetting that what triggered Erdogan was Mattis' assertion that US was training a 30,000 strong 'border force'. ..."
"... J Swift should add option #8: Erdogan insisted on attacking Afrin. If Russia denied Erdogan's wishes she risked a possible break with Turkey. Erdogan might have also pointed to the drone attack on a Russian base - conducted from Turkish-controlled territory, saying that than attack on the Kurds would help avenge this attempted 'false flag'. I bet that such an argument would've appealed to the Russians. ..."
Mar 04, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

J Swift | Mar 4, 2018 3:23:22 PM | 4

Afrin, and the games being played there, are a tough one to figure. I suspect that is partly because it's like a four-sided triangle, with each potential alliance carrying diametrically opposing pros and cons. Why would Russia tacitly green-light Turkish intervention?

Some thoughts: (1) The Kurds have been coddled and supported by the US and Israel for many years as a long-term Israel 2.0 project. They would of course be used, marginalized, and ultimately cast out once the Zionists had their new and improved homeland, but the Kurdish dream of "Kurdistan" blinds them.

(2) Every power in the ME (except Israel) is against the Kurds becoming too powerful, for precisely this reason, and the number one reason Russia agreed to loose the Turks on Afrin was because it was the showcase of Syrian Kurdish pomposity and refusal to submit to Syrian sovereignty, while simultaneously demonstrating what the Russians had been telling the Kurds in back channels for ages -- the US is just using you and will not help when you call.

(3) Russia or the SAA could not really directly attack the Kurds, both because they are the sympathetic darlings of western press, and it would drive them further into the arms of the US. Let the Turks be the bad guys, especially since that has the added bonus of increasing the split between the US and Turkey.

(4) The attack would serve to draw Kurds away from other areas in NE Syria they had expanded into as the military spearhead of the US. It will be much easier for Assad to turn or defeat the remaining Arab tribes, even though temporarily the US is doing everything it can to stave off this inevitable result. But at least you won't have the SAA directly fighting Kurds, which the US could use much more effectively to attempt to garner support for its actions.

(5) While the Russians had some historic pull with the Kurds, the US had effectively enticed them away with goodies and promises. For Russia to get the Kurds to back down in Afrin (and other areas) would be very difficult -- just not much direct leverage short of openly hitting them. But once the operation has achieved the (Russian) goals of suitably weakening and humbling the Kurds, Russia does have significant leverage against the Turks.

Russia already demonstrated once how much economic pain they could inflict on Turkey after the first plane shootdown, but also wisely not only reversed the sanctions but rewarded the apologies with even bigger rewards (meaning the pain of return to sanctions would be even more painful and embarrassing to Ergodan -- effectively probably guaranteeing the end of his rule).

So while not ideal to have Turkey inside Syria, Russia probably feels they can ultimately force a withdrawal, especially if Turkey's somewhat justified fear of a Kurdish stronghold is neutralized.

(6) Lastly, Russia could have a long term concept for how the Kurds -- suitably humbled and servient but still relatively strong and cohesive -- could be useful to Damascus. Russia had her own troublesome nomadic warriors roaming its south. It never could really completely subdue the Cossacks, until Catherine the Great (or perhaps it was Peter) had the bright idea to put them on the payroll, arm them and give them some autonomy, on the condition THEY be the shield against the constant attempts of encroachment by, you guessed it, the Turks. It worked brilliantly.

I would not bet much money on any of this, but those were some thoughts I thought I'd share on a dreary Sunday.

Laguerre , Mar 4, 2018 4:12:29 PM | 6

J Swift@4

You're presuming that Russia really did greenlight the Turkish attack on Afrin. I would be surprised. You suggest that the Syrians want to attack the Kurds. Nothing could be further from the truth. Syria prefers to entice the Kurds into preferring a future association, when the US has left. That's probably the main misdirection of your analysis - the Russians go firstly with Syrian interests, so were unlikely to encourage the Turks.

Lochearn , Mar 4, 2018 5:21:30 PM | 8
Putin's revelations show that the Russians feel the situation is becoming increasingly dangerous. There is just no way to talk sense into the Americans, just as it would have been futile to advise Britain against stopping their 20-year planning for a war with Germany in the years leading up to WWI, even if proceeding meant impoverishing their aristocracy and their country and sacrificing their young men. 31 per cent of Oxford's 1913 graduates were killed on French fields. I used to think self-preservation was stronger than greed but now I am not so sure.
PavewayIV , Mar 4, 2018 5:26:04 PM | 9
J Swift@4 - interesting observations, but I think you are assigning a single-minded nationalist sentiment to all Kurds when, in fact, it was mostly a construct of the US-usurped PYD political party and a result of US arms supply extortion. Yes to the US/Israeli schemes, but I have difficulty with believing "...the Kurdish dream of "Kurdistan" blinds them."

Nobody ever polled the Syrian Kurds about this. Indeed, the MSM has always tossed out this assertion without ANY backing and conflated Barzani's vision for 'his' Iraq with Syrian Kurds' initial desire for nothing more than survival. They were simply offered no other choice than a PYD-indoctrinated and controlled YPG/YPJ if they wanted to get a rifle and kill the ISIS invaders. The US has carefully molded PYD ideology (via arms supply/bribes) to serve US interests, and THOSE interests are served by an independent Syrian Kurdistan - with their PYD lapdogs in charge, of course.

The motivations of the YPG/YPJ are blurred today. A significant amount of their 'training' now consists of PYD indoctrination. The main purpose of the YPG/YPJ today in Syria seems to be the preservation of the PYD's power and control, not 'fighting ISIS'. I seriously doubt that statements from the current YPG/YPJ leadership represent 'the will of the average Syrian Kurd'. Militia leaders mostly just parrot the PYD party line - I would expect nothing less than that.

I believe it is the PYD that mostly demands and independent Kurdistan/SDFistan in Syria to further consolidate their power and control, not the average Kurd. Nobody asks the average Kurd what it's like to live under the PYD's oppressive control today. In fact, about the only bit of information that makes it out of there is that every committee at all layers seems to tax everything there while providing nothing of value besides a forum to complain about how nothing is getting done. That, and Arabs in majority Kurdish areas have found that some people are more equal than others under the PYD.

Now imagine that the PYD is probably as corrupt as EVERY other US-supported (= bribed, CIA-moled) political party in CENTCOMistan proper. Sorry, but no amount of useless committees are going to vote corruption out of any future Syrian Kurd leadership. Why would anyone think otherwise?

Kind of a toss-up, isn't it? A broken, corrupt, useless Baathist government in Damascus, or a broken, corrupt, useless Kurdish government in Qamlishi. I fail to see the desire of the little people Kurds to die for the latter - they're not getting a damn thing either way. And for whatever Kurdish nationalism they have, they were probably hoping for an independent, healthy Kurdistan, not a welfare-queen Kurdistan forever wrapped in the tentacles of US/Israeli interests and beholden to them for survival.

Col. B. Bunny , Mar 4, 2018 5:32:20 PM | 10
"Russia appears to have won at least a partial victory in Syria" because it actually took to the field and systematically attacked ISIS. This cannot be said of the U.S. "effort." Read this quote from a BBC story about how the U.S. cooperated with ISIS to allow it to escape destruction in Raqqah:
"Along the route, many people we spoke to said they heard coalition aircraft, sometimes drones, following the convoy.

From the cab of his truck, Abu Fawzi watched as a coalition warplane flew overhead, dropping illumination flares, which lit up the convoy and the road ahead.

When the last of the convoy were about to cross, a US jet flew very low and deployed flares to light up the area. IS fighters [were very scared]."

Thomas Friedman in the New York Times , describes the U.S. "pretend" war against ISIS:

"America's goal in Syria is to create enough pressure on Assad, Russia, Iran and Hezbollah so they will negotiate a power-sharing accord that would also ease Assad out of power."

Therefore, since the Islamic States' "goal is to defeat Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria  --  plus its Russian, Iranian and Hezbollah allies we could simply back off fighting territorial ISIS in Syria and make it entirely a problem for Iran, Russia, Hezbollah and Assad."

oldenyoung , Mar 4, 2018 6:20:24 PM | 11
I have been wondering today about the future of syria... It would appear that Assad's government will eventually hold enough territory to be sovereign again... Will elections be held at that time? Are there any viable candidates to run against assad? will the elections be allowed to be fair and "unmolested"? Will any new government be tolerated by anyone?

I am not knowledgeable on internal Syrian politics and any help would be welcome..

regards

OY

Peter AU 1 , Mar 4, 2018 6:21:32 PM | 12
The military Review article is hard going with the obligatory propaganda lines that contradict themselves, But one thing the author did pick up on is that Russia runs a number of strategies concurrently to get to a given goal.

Saker who's area of professional expertise was analyzing Soviet military, has often pointed this out. This is contrasted to US military thinking that has one strategy to get to a given goal and all resources are put into that strategy or line of advance. Very noticeable among the US military indoctrinated types at SST.

Peter AU 1 , Mar 4, 2018 6:28:28 PM | 13
oldenyoung 11

It is only western culture that puts a limit on presidential terms and calls anything else a dictatorship. Assad never left his country, apart from a couple of very short trips for meetings with Russian executive leadership, and has has held his country together in the toughest times. He seems popular, and the majority of Syrians may well wish to keep him as the leader of their country into the future.

Lochearn , Mar 4, 2018 6:45:20 PM | 14
@ paveway "A broken, corrupt, useless Baathist government in Damascus." You could say the opposite. Syrian Government re-made. Re-focused with one of the world's best armies. Reoriented with regard to neoliberalism. How has a useless government resisted the combined strength of the Empire, Israel, Saudi and Gulf, UK and France to name just a few?
Lochearn , Mar 4, 2018 7:05:01 PM | 15
@ paveway

I thought the YPG/YPJ follow PKK ideology not PYD ie. Murray Bookchin.

Ghost Ship , Mar 4, 2018 7:11:20 PM | 16
>>>> English Outsider | Mar 4, 2018 5:02:19 PM | 7
Has the man holding the two children appeared in other photographs? The face seems familiar.

He looks similar to Mr Alhamdo , a.k.a Abdulkafi , but I don't think they're the same person.

ben , Mar 4, 2018 7:21:32 PM | 17
February 28, 2018

Western Media Distorts Escalating Syrian War From TRNN: http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21207:Western-Media-Distorts-Escalating-Syrian-War

Good link @ 2..Thanks

Jackrabbit , Mar 4, 2018 7:40:27 PM | 18
J Swift, PavewayIV

You are forgetting that what triggered Erdogan was Mattis' assertion that US was training a 30,000 strong 'border force'.

J Swift should add option #8: Erdogan insisted on attacking Afrin. If Russia denied Erdogan's wishes she risked a possible break with Turkey. Erdogan might have also pointed to the drone attack on a Russian base - conducted from Turkish-controlled territory, saying that than attack on the Kurds would help avenge this attempted 'false flag'. I bet that such an argument would've appealed to the Russians.

Was it coincidence that the reaction to Mattis' remarks would result in an attack on Afrin only weeks before the Sochi talks? Talks that had already been delayed twice before to ensure that they went well. Well, we now have a report that the strategy of the "small group" included sabotaging the Sochi talks.

Even before that report came out I thought that sabotaging Sochi was what the attack on Afrin was all about so I predicted that after Sochi Erdogan would stop his attack on Afrin with some excuse. Later, I realized that the 'Assad must go!' Coalition needs to move refuges back. And taking Afrin might also be 'payment' for Erdogan to act more favorably toward USA. Northeastern Syria needs supply lines, after all. In that context "Olive Branch" makes sense as rapprochement with USA. (in line with the rouse that Gulen-CIA were responsible for the 2016 apparent coup attempt).

[Mar 04, 2018] What Kind of Victory for Russia in Syria?

It is a extensive assessment of the Russian Syria intervention.
Military Review is the professional journal of the U.S. Army. The authors appear to feel a certain envy...
Mar 04, 2018 | armyupress.army.mil

In sum, Russia appears to have won at least a partial victory in Syria, and done so with impressive efficiency, flexibility, and coordination between military and political action. ... Russia's "lean" strategy, adaptable tactics, and coordination of military and diplomatic initiatives offer important lessons for the conduct of any military intervention in as complex and volatile an environment as the Middle East.

Ghost Ship | Mar 4, 2018 11:35:34 AM | 1

Started reading that article from Military Review and while the authors are forced to state the obvious because of events on the ground, they also stick very close to the political views of the Washington foreign policy establishment (SST's Borg rather than the "Deep State") and its garbage narrative.

For example:

...the bloody-handed Assad regime...
No, it's Obama and Clinton who have the really bloody hands by interfering and allowing others such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, etc. to interfere in the internal affairs of another country. Certain commentators in the western msm have taken to comparing the alleged Russian hacking of 2016 election as equivalent to Pearl Harbor which is absolute BS, but what the United States and others have to done Syria is equivalent to if not worse than Pear Harbor.

I gave up reading the article after a few pages worth because it's just not worth my time to read so much crap.

[Mar 02, 2018] McMaster may be on his way out

Notable quotes:
"... According to MSNBC, H.R.McMaster may be on his way out , orchestrated by CoS Kelly and Sec Def. Mattis ..."
Mar 02, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

The Beaver , 01 March 2018 at 05:21 PM

According to MSNBC, H.R.McMaster may be on his way out , orchestrated by CoS Kelly and Sec Def. Mattis

[Feb 27, 2018] Syria vs Ukraine

Looks like Poroshenko is playing with fire. the longer Donetsk and Lugansk republics exists as a separate political entities the more difficult and costly will be to bring them back. Each year matters in this respect. After, say, ten year probably no compromise could ever emerge, unless Russia is weakened and /or dissolved into smaller statelets (the permanent problem for Russia is change of leadership, so 2024 will be a very important year, as Putin does not have any realistic successor who can continue his policies. So iether Russian "economic nationalists" (to borrow Bannon's term) or Pro-European faction will come to power. In both cases foreign policies change. Or the US economy crash again and military budget will be drastically cut, leaving no money for foreign military adventure and the protection of neoliberal empire. Direct attach might elicit Russian response and as such is highly risky (especially in view of Russia being pissed by the USA all the time now and might want to make Ukraine, as a US client, a boy for beating) , but periodic skirmishes just run this territory into wasteland that Syria regions now are. They also drive population out.
Notable quotes:
"... IMO the emerging partition is likely to last a long time. Syria is only 80 years old as a state and a prolonged de facto partition as opposed to wartime occupation can easily become more or less perm ..."
"... If the Kurds of Afrin throw themselves on the mercy of the Syrian government in Damascus then Kurdish autonomy is squashed in that enclave. And, when it is all said and done, isn't that what Erdogan really wants? ..."
Feb 27, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

turcopolier , 25 February 2018 at 11:06 PM

TTG et al

You don't understand what I mean. IMO the emerging partition is likely to last a long time. Syria is only 80 years old as a state and a prolonged de facto partition as opposed to wartime occupation can easily become more or less permanent as was the case with Turkey's acquisition of Hatay. pl

Yeah, Right said in reply to turcopolier ... , 26 February 2018 at 12:30 AM
I certainly don't dispute that Turkey is invading Afrin. And I agree with you that if things continue to stand as they are now then that invasion will continue until all of Afrin has been overrun.

But to simply extrapolate from what has happened into the future suggests that circumstances won't change or - if they do - that Erdogan will continue on like some wind-up automaton.

If the Kurds of Afrin throw themselves on the mercy of the Syrian government in Damascus then Kurdish autonomy is squashed in that enclave. And, when it is all said and done, isn't that what Erdogan really wants?

If the Kurds are too stupid or too proud to play that card then, yeah, sure, you and I both agree that they will be ground into the dirt.

But if they do supplicate to Assad then the situation changes.

You (I assume) believe that in that circumstance Erdogan will continue to grind on with this invasion regardless.

I believe he will beat his chest and then go home.

One of us will be wrong, and one of us will be right.

[Feb 26, 2018] Syria's probable future

Feb 26, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Editoria commnet

It seems to me that what is coming is a de facto partition of Syria. I doubt if there is an actual understanding or agreement on the subject but the actions of the players indicate that they comprehend what the outcome will be if present trends and actions continue.

IMO the SAG should have re-captured Idlib Province in the period immediately following their victory at Aleppo. The jihadist enemy was then on the run, disorganized and demoralized by defeat. The correlation of forces was very much in the government's favor. This did not happen.

Instead the SAG went east from Aleppo City to secure water and electric energy supplies for the re-construction of Aleppo. Success led to further and further exploitation to the east and the opportunity was lost to re-take the province. Whether or not the government still has the means or the will, or enough Russian support to re-capture the province is debatable. The Turks are busy conquering the Afrin district. Can anyone seriously doubt that they will succeed in the end? When that happens we will see an effective barrier against government control established farther south by Turkish forces closing up on their "observation posts" in Idlib Province. These OPs are IMO positioned to impede the SAA.

On the line of the Euphrates River a de facto frontier has already emerged between government control to the south and US/SDF to the north and east of the stream. Evidently the US intends to discourage a SAG/SDF reconciliation in the hope of maintaining the dream of eventual destruction of the Damascus government. The enclave around al-Tanf on the Jordanian border is yet further indication of American desire to impeded and embarrass SAG efforts to re-consolidate power. I think the US will cling to that enclave "until the last dog dies." (American modismo). What will be the administrative center of the US protectorate on the other side of the Euphrates? Will it be the former IS capital in the damaged city of Raqqa? Will the denizens of that be-deviled place see a proliferation of KFC and McDonald's. If so, will the franchisees be Chinese? The US is leaving Iraq, diverting forces to the unwinnable war in Afghanistan. Iraqi politics will encourage that departure. When that happens the US will be in possession of a landlocked territory in eastern Syria that is inhabited by people who don't like us very much even if necessity has made them our allies.

The SAG has massed a significant percentage of its mobile forces to capture the jihadi stronghold of East Ghouta. The preparatory fires have naturally excited the jihadis who hold the area and their media allies in the US and Europe. I expect that this size force will do an adequate job of jihadi cleansing in the near future and then move on to browner pastures. With the prospect of having to govern a rump Syria under Russian, Iranian and Chinese tutelage, the SAG will probably move to clean up the several rebel held pockets aligned north to south from the Jordanian border to north of Hama City.

Will the Syrian government acknowledge the loss of its territories? They will not. pl


b , 25 February 2018 at 12:56 PM

I doubt that the U.S. will be able to cling to the north-east. The Arabs there are already infuriated about the Kurds and their protectors.

/quote/
Balanche, who just returned from a three-week research trip to northern Syria, told Al-Monitor in a wide-ranging interview, "America's current policies will lead to America's defeat in Syria. At some point they will be forced to pull out because US soldiers will get blown up." Balanche said he had reached this conclusion after talking to scores of Arabs living under effective Kurdish control in the mainly Arab towns of Raqqa, Tell Abyad and Manbij.
http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2018/02/turkey-olive-branch-syria-slows.html
/endquote/

A story in today's NYT is supposed to show that the YPG is progressive and feminist. But what it describes as YPG success in Manbij is a push by force of anarcho-marxist and "liberal" values onto a conservative Sunni landscape. It's not going to end well.
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/24/world/middleeast/syria-kurds-womens-rights-gender-equality.html

Turkey will likewise have trouble holding onto the land it captures. It is using the worst goons one can find as front troops. They plunder, rape and kill for nothing without remorse. Resistance to them will build and express itself.

Russia and Syria currently allow Turkish bombing of Afrin. They will continue to do so until the Kurds come to their senses and submit to Damascus. Then the Turkish air superiority will end and without that its troops will be in trouble.

Last week Russia upped its fighter contingent in Syria by 12 machines and also added another AWACS type. It is at every turn emphasizing Syrian unity and sovereignty over its land. It will not stop its support and neither will Iran.

Jony Kanuck , 25 February 2018 at 02:43 PM
Colonel,
I am not going to be surprised when I hear of roadside bombs going off east of the Euphrates. The Syrian govt has probably been planning this for a while. Politically this has a few effects to recommend it; the US occupation will become more costly, painfully. The Kurds & US forces will have to react, thus pissing off the Arab population. Improvised explosive devices; Oh it's probably Islamic State remnants. I think the Russians will be behind this now too; I make Russian nationals casualties in the air attack on the Syrian probe(?) as five killed (names are out) & 11 wounded admitted to Moscow & St Petersburg hospitals (my Russian friends). The Presidential election in Russia is next month, so there needs to be plausible deniability.
I have not got the story straight about the air attack on the Syrian column; the Syrians & Russians are not really saying anything. Bernard's (Moon of Alabama) analysis is probably the most likely at this time: Wagner gets 25% of the proceeds from any oilfield liberated. I looked at pictures of the many funerals on the Syrian side after that incident. Syrians, particularly the ISIS Hunters, blame the Kurds for enabling the attack. More ethnic hatred stored up. When will Syria find peace?
different clue , 25 February 2018 at 03:35 PM
b,

(reply to comment 1)

If/when the Sunni Arab resistance you predict for the Kurd-controlled zone and the Turk-controlled zone arises, it will be a Cannibal Liver Eating Jihadi resistance. Probably an al qaeda type resistance.

The DC FedRegime would be well pleased with that, though it would never say so. The DC FedRegime would view that as an opportunity to help the CLEJ forces to establish 2 little jihadi emirates. The reason the DC FedRegime would want to help that happen would be an eventual hope of toppling Assad's successors sooner or later and finally someday turning Syria into a Jihadi Emirate.

One hopes that in the meantime, Russia/Iran/China/etc. fund up, rebuild, etc. the SAR zone of control to make it unconquerable and to give it its own fighting chance of retaking the Kurdish and Turkish zones someday maybe. One also hopes that the SARgov practices "extreme vetting" when deciding which refugees to allow back into its own zone of control. CLEJ sympathisers should never ever be allowed to return to SAR territory. Let them all go to the Kurdish and Turkish zones of control so they can all be kept on two concentrated places in case something can be done about them at some future time.

Peter AU , 25 February 2018 at 03:40 PM
The Idlib civilian population or what remain of them seem generally hostile to the Syrian government. If Syrian forces had retaken that territory early on, either the civilian population would have to be pushed back along with the jihadi's or many troops tied up controlling the hostile population. As time goes by, many seem to turn away from the jihadists and back towards the Syrian government.
ISL , 25 February 2018 at 03:51 PM
Dear Colonel,

I would argue that there has been a defacto partition of Syria for many years now; however, it is coalescing to four areas (There is an Israeli rebel controlled area, too), Your post raises the important question, will it stand?

I think the US partition will not stand because it will be costly, and I do not think President Trump will pay the price (President Hillary would have).
Just recently, Trump contradicted the meme by Tillerson and generals that the US is in Syria to stay until the SAG falls or the cows come home. I predict once the issues you raise become reality (landlocked territory surrounded by hostile locals), at some point Trump will inform the deep strategic, neocon thinkers around him "Out!" - our president clearly has no strategic instincts, and when his out will not be a request.

Meanwhile, the slowness of the Turkish progress suggests the purge did significant harm to their military capabilities.. I guess the question is would Turkey be willing to grind on in Northern Syria? If the grind is strong enough (certainly encouraged by Syria), then Kurds in Turkey will look towards seizing the opportunity, and then Turkey would have to pull back. IMO, Turkey can either support Idlib as an uncontrollable terrorist territory, or try (emphasis on try) to control the border Kurdish lands, but if they try both then they likely will fail at both.

Barbara Ann -> b ... , 25 February 2018 at 04:16 PM
I am not so sure the Afrin Kurds coming to their senses will save them now. Turkey has made it clear by attacking SAG forces entering Afrin that it considers them hostile. Erdogan wants his Lebensraum so Turks can "go everywhere our forefathers went on horse-back" .

Russia seems to be faced with the choice of risking outright war with Turkey (& maybe US) if it goes as far as shooting TAF planes down, or accepting the loss of Afrin & probably Idlib to bring an end to its involvement in the war. Purely in terms of its strategic assets in Syria why would the latter option be unacceptable to it? It is 4 weeks to the Russian Presidential elections, by that time there may not be much left of Afrin to save.

catherine , 25 February 2018 at 05:10 PM

The US might not inhabit anything in Syria.

"We're there for one reason: to get ISIS and get rid of ISIS, and to go home," Trump said on Friday, during a joint press conference with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at the White House. "We're not there for any other reason and we've largely accomplished our goal."

That was this week, next week might be different.

Yeah, Right , 25 February 2018 at 06:42 PM
"The Turks are busy conquering the Afrin district. Can anyone seriously doubt that they will succeed in the end?"

If the YPD insists on fighting to the bitter end then, yes, that is the assured outcome.

But if the Kurds in Afrin bend the knee towards Damascus in a humiliating and without-any-strings fashion then I think that Erdogan will proclaim that he has what he wants and then turn around and go home.

After all, his aim is to extinguish Kurdish independence of action. I don't think that he much cares about the details of how those aspirations are extinguished, just that they are.

An end-result where the Kurds in Afrin become supplicants to the Syrian central government should satisfy Erdogan, and he will be able to claim (rightly) that it was his actions that caused the Kurds to humiliate themselves in this manner.

Don't get me wrong: it's not enough that the YPG allow the Syrian Arab Army to fight alongside them; they have to hand their weapons over to the SAA and step aside (or, more likely, they have to agree to don SAA uniforms and take orders from SAA commanders).

Because I suspect that Russia is busy telling the YPG that they really, really, really need to roll over and show the belly to Assad.

And that the Russians have already asked Erdogan if this will satisfy him, and he has said "Yes".

The Twisted Genius , 25 February 2018 at 09:09 PM
pl,

The SAG has been enduring a de facto partition of Syria for years. I think it will take another several years for most, if not all, Syrian territory to once again come under SAG control. The Idlib area is seeing a new round of jihadi on jihadi violence. The more of this, the better. That may have been part of the SAG plan all along. The game with the Turks, FSA and Kurds is high risk. I do think the Kurds will eventually turn back to Damascus, but I don't know if the Turks will ever leave voluntarily. I do think we're playing a losing hand. Our presence there will only please Tel Aviv.

EEngineer , 25 February 2018 at 10:12 PM
Rather than permanent partition, could this just be the phase where the frog (Kurds) is slowly boiled? The Turks seem to be making slow work of Afrin. Perhaps this is a sign that the point isn't capturing of territory per se, but to just keep the heat on with an economy of force. After all, isn't the Turkish army big enough to swarm in and take the place easily? That's my tell that everyone seems to be playing for time. Once the Kurds throw in the towel, it's over. The real question is: just how stubborn are they? My guess: very...

Could Trump's recent declaration that the US is going to leave once ISIS is defeated setting the stage to declare victory and pull out? If the Kurds make a deal with Assad that would leave the US without even a fig leaf of legitimacy to be in Syria anymore.

LondonBob , 26 February 2018 at 05:00 AM
Turkey has an enormous current account deficit, their companies are heavily indebted, much of it in foreign currencies. They are reliant on Russian and Iranian gas. Erdogan would be a problem best handled in concert with the Russians, but I think Erdogan is smart enough to realise the US elites are more interested in their contrived new cold war. Hopefully the rumours are true and McMaster is off, but then I am not hopeful his replacement will be up to much either.

I think the Kurds will come to their senses sooner rather than later. I think you are right that the Turkish military is not up to much, and someone needs to call Erdogan's bluff.

ISL , 26 February 2018 at 11:38 AM
Dear Colonel,

Could not Syria simply treat east Syria as the Turks treat east Turkey? Its population is quite small, and concentrated by water (or the lack of water) resources? I.e., sustain a low grade guerilla war for a decade-ish until it tamps down, while making deals with some of the tribes to switch loyalty? Given the politics of US casualties, I cant see the US staying, particularly given that our friends would also be happy to cut our throats.

Your assessment that Idlib is another question as it can be kept permanently out of the Syria's control by shifting weapons and jihadis across the Turkish border ad infinitum. Turkey will never allow the same to Syrian Kurds, nor Iraq.

JohnsonR said in reply to Yeah, Right... , 26 February 2018 at 02:45 PM
As you suggest, the disagreement is based upon differing assessments of what Turkish objectives in Syria are. You think their only important goal is suppressing Kurdish independence, and that having achieved that they will go home.

You might be right, but personally, I'm with the gaffer here on this one. Erdogan has made enough noise about Assad to make it difficult for him to be in cooperation with him at all, and certainly gives the impression of having irredentist goals. Taking long term control of a slice of northern Syria seems like it would be a winning proposition for Erdogan. Certainly initial Turkish responses to so far limited Syrian moves in Afrin have the whiff of burned bridges about them, as far as both rhetoric and actual attacks are concerned.

Imo, Turkey will only leave Afrin if it is made to do so, and Syria alone probably cannot do that. But we shall see.

Wunduk , 26 February 2018 at 03:52 PM
The Kurdish areas maintained and still maintain Arabic-speaking bureaucracies, land registers, etc. While to some starry-eyed Westerners the story is told differently, on the ground the Syrian administrative tradition continues. I don't see this as a partition as long as the cadastre is still a unified system.

Could this in any way be compared to the Syrian involvement in Lebanon? I happened to be there when the Syrians had just crushed Michel Aoun, and I think this intervention was borne out of a Syrian desire to react to events, and led to the Syrian occupation as a result of backing their local clients, the desire to profit from the relative wealth of Lebanon. thanks to the Kuwait war, the opportunity was there, too.

With the added advantage that it is the Syrian indigenous structures that dominate life in East Syria. And I see no attempts to change this.

The difference to what we see now is that the Syrians in Lebanon respected the internal structures, and tried simply to make them work in their favor. The structures of Idlib (international and Islamist NGOs under the umbrella of an unstable coalition of AQ- and IS-inspired, enabled and directed groups) is different. Building went on without any regard for the cadastre, and I don't know if anyone has been kept around to run the whole thing. So it is chaos. Seems the Turks have something like that in mind for the are they now conquer in Afrin, too.

it will be good for Erdogan to be able to point out that he too, like Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, added territory in this case enlarged hinterland of Antioch (Hatay). With this he can fend off criticism by the nationalist military sympathizers. The violence is good for him, too, as everyone is now a patriot.

[Feb 25, 2018] US Aggression in Syria an Imperialist Blueprint

Feb 25, 2018 | www.strategic-culture.org

US Aggression in Syria – an Imperialist Blueprint

Syria's prolonged conflict and misery going into its eighth year is no accident. It is by design. American imperialist design.

First though, we note the increasing reprehensible absurdity in this conflict.

Turkey, which invaded Syria nearly a month ago in violation of Syria's sovereignty, this week accused Damascus of "terrorism" after the Syrian government sent forces to defend the northern area near Afrin under assault from Turkey.

Meanwhile, US forces, again illegally occupying Syria in violation of international law, claim to be fighting terrorist militia. Yet more often than not, the Americans are affording protection to various terrorist groups. Then when Syrian state forces advance to clear the terror groups, the US claims it is acting in "self-defense" by massacring whole units of the Syrian army.

Further absurdity is due to France, which has been bombing Syria illegally along with the US and Britain, warning Iranian militia, who are legally present in Syria owing to Damascus' approval, that they have to withdraw from the country.

As if the situation couldn't get any more bizarre, Israel has carried out more than 100 air strikes on Syria, claiming that the aggression are "acts of self-defense".

The Syrian government of President Assad is the sovereign authority of the country, as recognized by UN resolutions. It has the right to defend its nation and to reclaim areas which have been usurped by illegally armed groups. Virtually all of these insurgents are foreign-backed proxies who have been waging a war for regime change according to the designs of their foreign sponsors.

The only armed forces legally present in Syria are those of Russia, Iran and associated militia who have been requested legally by the Syrian government to assist in defending the state from a foreign-backed war.

It is within the sovereign right of the Syrian government to take back all areas, including the suburb of East Ghouta near the capital Damascus. The district has been held under siege by foreign-backed extremists going by the name of Jaysh al Islam who are affiliated with internationally proscribed terror groups Al Nusra Front and Islamic State.

The impetus to liberate East Ghouta has come about because the militants have been firing mortars at nearby Damascus with deadly results.

Not only are Western states violating international law by militarily hampering the Syrian army and its allies in rescuing the country from foreign insurgents, the Western governments and media are mounting a propaganda campaign in an attempt to tie the Syrian state forces' hands behind their backs by distorting their legal duty as "barbarism".

Out of the half million people who have died in the past seven years of war in Syria, it is estimated that nearly half of that total were members of the Syrian army.

Added to the Western calumnies over Syria are claims that Syrian state forces have been using chemical weapons on civilian populations. The evidence points in fact to the Western-backed so-called jihadists who have been stealthily using these weapons for false-flag propaganda stunts.

To understand the chaotic conflict in Syria, we must refer to the decades-old imperial designs that the US and its allies have had towards the country. The Americans and the British governments going back to Eisenhower and Churchill in the 1950s wanted to destabilize and subjugate the Arab republic – a former French colony.

In 1996, a new generation of imperialists in Washington led by Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, David Wurmser and other neoconservatives formulated the "Clean Break" strategy. The strategy in conjunction with Israel sought to destabilize and "roll back" Syria because of its alliance with Russia, Iran and Hezbollah.

More widely, the neoconservatives in Washington openly declared their aim of balkanizing the entire region in order to, in their calculation, make Israel more secure. Syria and Iraq were top priorities for US-imposed chaos.

Significantly, the Clean Break strategy designated Turkey as a key partner to the US and Israel for implementing this plan.

The same American neoconservative planners went on to occupy key positions at the Pentagon and State Department during President George W Bush administrations. There is every reason to believe their stratagem of organized chaos – as a way of exerting hegemony over the oil-rich Middle East – continues to be the guiding, albeit tacit, policy of the US government under President Trump.

Russia, Iran and Hezbollah largely helped Syria bring the war to a close at the end of last year with the widespread routing of foreign-backed insurgents. However, a subsequent peace process

brokered by Russia, Iran and Turkey has lost momentum. The violence in Syria appears to be re-igniting.

The increasingly overt military presence of US and Turkish forces, as well as Israeli incursions, is the clearest factor in the resurgence of conflict. More than ever, the US and its allies are operating on a brazen imperial design to dismember Syria and its territorial integrity.

This is nothing short of criminal aggression by Washington following a deliberate plan for regional domination. This imperialist intrigue should be called out for what it is by the United Nations. But rather than upholding the UN Charter, the body's senior figures are joining

in the Western chorus of condemning Syria for defending its national rights.

The UN is appearing like the ineffectual League of Nations in the 1930s when it pandered to Nazi and fascist aggression. What the US and its allies are doing now in Syria is a repeat – fanning the flames of wider war in the Middle East.

Laws and sovereignty are being smashed at will and yet the Western media and UN are blind to the aggression. Indeed, they are turning reality on its head, by blaming victim-states for the aggression.

The straightforward bottom line is that the US, Turkey, Israel and other NATO powers must withdraw from Syria. Respect Syria's sovereignty and desist from criminal intrigues for regime change. This is a minimum of abiding by international law.

If these protagonists persist in their criminal schemes, the region is heading for a conflagration sparing no-one.

[Feb 25, 2018] Ron Paul Warns We Can't Continue To Run The World

Feb 25, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Via SputnikNews.com,

We can't continue to run the world... sentiment toward the US has started to shift too; there was a time when we were welcome... We often have a foreign policy, especially in the last several decades, of being the dominant power. We pressure people; if they do what we tell 'em, we send them more money, since we can print the world currency. And if they don't do what we tell 'em, then we have to participate in a little aggression by bombing and doing these kinds of things.

Former Texas Congressman and leading libertarian thinker Dr. Ron Paul has shared his views on President Trump's job as president after his first year in office, the situation in Syria and the renewed debate on gun control in the wake of the Florida school shooting.

Trump's Year in Office

Sputnik: Donald Trump has been in office for over a year. What is your general assessment of his job as president?

Ron Paul: Mediocre; probably not worse than the other options. But I don't think presidents really have much control. I think the deep state – the people behind the scenes and the shadow government, who control the monetary system, who control our foreign policy and the welfare state, and are connected to the media and the military-industrial complex. – I don't think the presidency is as important as it's made out to be. But everybody talks about it; it's a political thing, and they keep churning the issue and directing everybody to ask 'is Trump a good guy or a bad guy, and are we going to impeach him or what's going to happen', rather than [asking] what kind of philosophy do we have: why do we have this philosophy of welfare-warfare, spend money, run up debt and let the central bank print all that money.

They don't even talk about it; the major parties, including Trump, they sign even more controls on us when it comes to FISA courts and spying on us. In spite of the fact that government officials like the FBI and others actually spy on our own president, he supports this; he passes and signs bills on that. So that really raises questions about 'does the president really have much to say', and I think he has much less to say than a lot of people believe. I believe that if he had stuck to his guns and had a different relationship with Russia and started bringing troops home and not aggravating things, he wouldn't have been tolerated. Something would have happened.

Syria and America's Place in the World

Sputnik: Moving on to the Middle East, in your reports you've stated that with so many countries controlling territory in Syria, there's very little left for the Syrians. Do you think there's a good chance that government forces can regain control of the country?

Ron Paul: I do. I think there will always be a Syria. What it's going to look like is the big problem. At the moment, it's hard to predict and say that the people who have invaded -- the Turks, the Israelis, the United States will leave. They're going to have to suffer a defeat somewhere along the way. That may occur soon –another defeat like Aleppo. That might make them think differently, but it's still a hotbed

Sputnik: There's an ongoing campaign in the east of Demascus in Eastern Ghouta, with media portrayals of it in the West comparing the ongoing campaign to Srebrenica and what happened in Bosnia. Why do you think this is, and how is the situation being portrayed in the West? Do Americans know what's actually going on?

Ron Paul: I think this, indirectly, may be a subtle bit of good news You know Aleppo was seen as a return of Syrian territory, and a lot of people moved back! Everybody said that 'it's Assad who wants to kill his people and gas his people,' and yet they all moved back after the fighting stopped. So maybe this is one of the last desperate stands [for the anti-Damascus forces], at least for the part of Syria where Assad is stronger

Sputnik: The UN has been commenting on this to emphasize how bad things are in Syria, and particularly in Eastern Ghouta. But the situation was also really bad in Mosul in Iraq, with recent video footage showing the results of US airstrikes. Where do you think the UN was then?

Ron Paul: Probably cheering them on. We often have a foreign policy, especially in the last several decades, of being the dominant power. We pressure people; if they do what we tell 'em, we send them more money, since we can print the world currency. And if they don't do what we tell 'em, then we have to participate in a little aggression by bombing and doing these kinds of things. My argument from the day they started, back to 1998 – I argued don't mess around with sanctions on Iraq, it'll lead to war.

Someday, we'll go broke. I don't think that we all of a sudden will have a reasonable foreign policy. I think it's going to be financial. I believe it was the financing of the Soviet system that brought it down as much as anything; that's the way most authoritarian empires end, and I think that's the way our system is going to end. Who knows when that's going to happen, but we can't continue to do what we're doing.

We can't continue to run the world. Our deficit's exploding. I think the sentiment toward the United States has started to shift too; there was a time when we were welcome, and were on the side of trying to help people, but right now it's on the side of expanding our controls around the world.

... ... ...

You can find the complete audio from Dr. Paul's full interview with Sputnik below

[Feb 25, 2018] Donald Trump is reckless on Syria. It's his worst foreign policy folly by James Bovard

Notable quotes:
"... Last year on the campaign trail, crowds roared when Donald Trump denounced his opponent as " trigger-happy " Hillary. But President Trump is rapidly incarnating the vice he condemned. Nowhere is this more evident than in Syria, where Trump's recklessness risks dragging America into a major war. ..."
"... Four years ago, Trump warned in a tweet : "If the U.S. attacks Syria and hits the wrong targets, killing civilians, there will be worldwide hell to pay." But the Trump administration has sharply increased U.S. bombing while curtailing restrictions that sought to protect innocents. A British-based human rights monitoring group estimated Friday that U.S.-led coalition strikes had killed almost 500 civilians in the past month -- more than any month since U.S. bombing began. A United Nations commission of inquiry concluded that coalition airstrikes have caused a "staggering loss of civilian life." ..."
"... The carnage is sufficiently embarrassing that "the Pentagon will no longer acknowledge when its own aircraft are responsible for civilian casualty incidents," Micah Zenko of the Council of Foreign Relations recently noted. ..."
"... U.S.-led forces are reportedly bombarding the besieged city of Raqqa with white phosphorous, a munition that burns intensely and is prohibited by international law from use against civilians. Deploying white phosphorous to attack Raqqa could be a war crime, Amnesty International warns. ..."
"... Trump's most dangerous innovation involves direct attacks on Syrian government forces, including last week's shootdown of a Syrian jet fighter. The Russian government, which is backing Syrian President Bashar Assad, responded by threatening to shoot down any aircraft over much of Syria. ..."
"... Every side in the Syrian conflict has committed atrocities, often with approval of their foreign patrons. Former CIA officer Phil Giraldi observed, "The Saudis, Qataris, Turks and Israelis are all currently (or have been recently) in bed with terrorist groups (in Syria) that the United States is pledged to destroy." The Wall Street Journal ..."
"... The Syrian government has never threatened the United States, and Congress has not approved attacking it. White House spokesman Sean Spicer justified Trump's cruise missile attack because "when it's in the national interest of the country, the president has the full authority to act." But this is a recipe for unlimited power -- warring limited solely by self-serving presidential proclamations. ..."
"... Sen. Tim Kaine , D-Va., condemned Trump's attacks on Syrian government forces as "unconstitutional" and a " completely unlawful use of power ." Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., concurs: "This is illegal war at this point." ..."
"... James Bovard, author of ..."
"... is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors . Follow him on Twitter @JimBovard ..."
"... You can read diverse opinions from our ..."
"... Board of Contributors ..."
"... and other writers on the ..."
"... Opinion front page ..."
"... and in our daily ..."
"... Opinion newsletter ..."
"... . To submit a letter, comment or column, check our ..."
"... submission guidelines ..."
Feb 25, 2018 | www.usatoday.com

, Opinion columnist Published 3:15 a.m. ET June 26, 2017

Trump said Obama's 'horrendous leadership' on Syria could start World War III. He's made things even worse.

CONNECT TWEET 2 LINKEDIN 25 COMMENT EMAIL MORE

Last year on the campaign trail, crowds roared when Donald Trump denounced his opponent as " trigger-happy " Hillary. But President Trump is rapidly incarnating the vice he condemned. Nowhere is this more evident than in Syria, where Trump's recklessness risks dragging America into a major war.

U.S. policy toward Syria has been a tangle of absurdities since 2012. President Obama promised 16 times that he would never put U.S. "boots on the ground" in the four-sided Syrian civil war. He quietly abandoned that pledge and, starting in 2014, launched more more than 5,000 airstrikes that dropped more than 15,000 bombs on terrorist groups in Syria.

Four years ago, Trump warned in a tweet : "If the U.S. attacks Syria and hits the wrong targets, killing civilians, there will be worldwide hell to pay." But the Trump administration has sharply increased U.S. bombing while curtailing restrictions that sought to protect innocents. A British-based human rights monitoring group estimated Friday that U.S.-led coalition strikes had killed almost 500 civilians in the past month -- more than any month since U.S. bombing began. A United Nations commission of inquiry concluded that coalition airstrikes have caused a "staggering loss of civilian life."

The carnage is sufficiently embarrassing that "the Pentagon will no longer acknowledge when its own aircraft are responsible for civilian casualty incidents," Micah Zenko of the Council of Foreign Relations recently noted.

U.S.-led forces are reportedly bombarding the besieged city of Raqqa with white phosphorous, a munition that burns intensely and is prohibited by international law from use against civilians. Deploying white phosphorous to attack Raqqa could be a war crime, Amnesty International warns.

Trump's most dangerous innovation involves direct attacks on Syrian government forces, including last week's shootdown of a Syrian jet fighter. The Russian government, which is backing Syrian President Bashar Assad, responded by threatening to shoot down any aircraft over much of Syria.

After the Syrian government was accused of killing at least 70 civilians with sarin gas in April, Trump speedily ordered the launch of 59 cruise missiles against a Syrian military airfield. Much of the American news media hailed the Syrian missile attack as Trump's finest hour. When he gave the commencement address at Liberty University in May, the audience cheered when Trump was introduced as the man who "bombed those in the Middle East who were persecuting and killing Christians." But America could pay a harsh price for Trump's "virtue signalling" with bombs and missiles.

The biggest delusion driving U.S. policy is the quest for viable "moderate rebels" -- which apparently means groups who oppose Assad but refrain from making grisly videos of beheadings. America has spent billions aiding and training Syrian forces who either quickly collapsed on the battlefield or teamed up with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria , or al-Qaeda-linked forces. Policy is so muddled that Pentagon-backed Syrian rebels have openly battled CIA-backed rebels.

The United States has armed and aided al-Qaeda-linked groups in Syria despite federal law prohibiting providing material support to terrorist groups. A prominent Assad opponent who organized a conference of anti-Assad groups financed by the CIA was recently denied political asylum . The Department of Homeland Security notified Radwan Ziadeh that because he provided "material support" to the Free Syrian Army, he has "engaged in terrorist activity."

By the same standard, thousands of CIA, State Department, Pentagon and White House officials should be jailed. Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, has introduced The Stop Arming Terrorists Act to prohibit any funding, support or weapons for al-Qaeda, ISIS and allied terrorist groups.

Republicans created a health care monster by lying to their base. They need to come clean.

POLICING THE USA: A look at race, justice, media

Every side in the Syrian conflict has committed atrocities, often with approval of their foreign patrons. Former CIA officer Phil Giraldi observed, "The Saudis, Qataris, Turks and Israelis are all currently (or have been recently) in bed with terrorist groups (in Syria) that the United States is pledged to destroy." The Wall Street Journal reported this month that "Israel has been regularly supplying Syrian rebels near its border with cash as well as food, fuel and medical supplies for years."

The Syrian government has never threatened the United States, and Congress has not approved attacking it. White House spokesman Sean Spicer justified Trump's cruise missile attack because "when it's in the national interest of the country, the president has the full authority to act." But this is a recipe for unlimited power -- warring limited solely by self-serving presidential proclamations.

Sen. Tim Kaine , D-Va., condemned Trump's attacks on Syrian government forces as "unconstitutional" and a " completely unlawful use of power ." Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., concurs: "This is illegal war at this point."

Killing vast numbers of innocent civilians sows the seeds of future terrorist attacks on America. There are no good options for continuing U.S. intervention in Syria. The only question is whether Trump's blundering will turn that war into a catastrophe for Americans as well as Syrians. As Trump tweeted about Obama's Syria policy in 2013: "Be prepared, there is a small chance that our horrendous leadership could unknowingly lead us into World War III."

James Bovard, author of Public Policy Hooligan , is a member of USA TODAY's Board of Contributors . Follow him on Twitter @JimBovard

You can read diverse opinions from our Board of Contributors and other writers on the Opinion front page , on Twitter @USATOpinion and in our daily Opinion newsletter . To submit a letter, comment or column, check our submission guidelines .

[Feb 24, 2018] Syria's shifting sands: RT's Peter Lavelle interviews Alastair Crooke

Feb 24, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Richardstevenhack 24 February 2018 at 02:38 PM

Just watched this and highly recommend it to everyone here:

Syria's shifting sands: RT's Peter Lavelle interviews Alastair Crooke
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuTlEHiYLAU

Crooke makes a number of interesting points about the sea change in Syria's military relations with Israel after the shoot down of the Israeli jet, whether Turkey will indeed try to take Manbij, and US relations with Iran.

[Feb 24, 2018] Chuck Schumer War Hawk or Progressive

He is a neoliberal and neocon...
Notable quotes:
"... He basically is a Senator for Israel. He totally supports the Israeli foreign policy viewpoint, which is a very hawkish, if you were a Republican you would call him a neocon. ..."
"... Schumer criticized the Obama administration for abstaining on this very basic resolution, which every other country voted for. So the US was still a pariah, because the US didn't vote for it, it just abstained on it. But to Schumer that was not enough, he wanted it to be completely vetoed, because anything that Israel does is sacrosanct, and anyone who criticizes it, in Schumer's eyes, is not someone he wants to ally with politically, so he'd rather affectively ally with Trump. ..."
"... The most recent showing of that allegiance was last month, when Schumer supported Trump's decision to launch an air strike on an Air Force base in Syria, something Israel also strongly supported. ..."
"... The criticism of the Democratic Party is it is the Wall Street and war party. That is Chuck Schumer, and so for him to have this kind of pretend progressive image, it's just so obviously fraudulent. ..."
"... Chuck Schumer has replaced Joe Lieberman as the Senator representing Israeli interests in the Senate. US interests are usually secondary to his machinations ..."
"... Great development and exposure of this hillary-look-alike. Love the phrase 'pretend progressive,' as it describes Schumer to a T. Great piece. ..."
"... Schumer and Clinton must be understood in relation to Israel. Israel to both of them are sacrosant. Israel can do no wrong. Both these two war hawks for Israel takes their orders from Netanyahu. He is like a vice president for Israel in the United States. ..."
"... Schumer (sic) is a scum bucket who ought to be trounced out of the Senate, through the revolving door to his sinecure on Wall Street. Schumer's ultimately loyalties are to his corporate benefactors on Wall Street. Which too is his constituency. ..."
"... Schumer is a puppet for the deep state and the deep state may have some "dirt" on him in order to keep him in line...and his famous quote about the security state: "they have 6 ways to Sunday to get back at you" or something to this effect...makes me wonder what he knows? ..."
"... Israel is the driving force behind disruption of the middle east...the more the middle east is neutralized, the better for Israel...Chuck is one of their best foot soldiers ..."
"... Generals gathered in their masses, just like witches at black masses. Evil minds that plot destruction, sorcerer of death's construction. In the fields the bodies burning, as the war machine keeps turning. Death and hatred to mankind, poisoning their brainwashed minds...Oh lord yeah! ..."
"... Politicians hide themselves away They only started the war Why should they go out to fight? They leave that role to the poor ..."
"... Time will tell on their power minds Making war just for fun Treating people just like pawns in chess Wait `till their judgement day comes, yeah! ♪ ..."
Feb 24, 2018 | therealnews.com

... ... ...

Thomas Hedges: In the 2007 book he published, Positively American, in the midst of his campaign against the war, Schumer admitted that his opposition that year and the year before, was as much about ending a failed policy as it was about getting votes. In reality Schumer had been one of the war's most ardent supporters, beyond his public display against the war carefully timed for the 2006 Congressional elections, Schumer in fact pitted much of the blame on Iraqis themselves, arguing that Sunis, Shiites and Kurds seemed more interested in starting a civil war in Iraq than in receiving help from the Americans and constructing any democratic central government.

He even said, that in a similar future situation, he might vote again to authorize the use of force against a country like Iraq. "Today," he wrote in his book, "I still believe that when our country is under attack the chief executive deserves a degree of latitude, if God forbid, we were attacked again, I could well vote to give it to a future President, Democrat or Republican." And when a Real News correspondent pressed Schumer in 2007 on US reparations to the Iraqi people, this is what he had to say.

Sam Husseini: Do we owe something to the Iraqi people other than just getting out? Do we owe them reparations for having brought about this war?

Chuck Schumer: I don't believe that.

Ben Norton: It's hard to find a Democrat that's more gung-ho about war than Chuck Schumer. Not only did he support the Iraq war, and fearmonger about weapons of mass destruction, he tepidly criticized the Bush administration for how it carried out the war.

Thomas Hedges: In fact, tepid criticism seems to be Schumer at his most radical. In general, he is someone who supports hard-line policy decisions, atoning for mistakes only years down the line, and usually because it's politically expedient to do so, as in an election is about to take place.

Chuck Schumer: If you don't give up and you keep fighting and you're right, you win!

Thomas Hedges: In his early days, Schumer wasn't as focused on foreign policy, in the years before 911 would shift America's attention to the Middle East, Congressman Schumer, along with the new Democrats like Bill Clinton among others, would exploit the crime scare of the 1990's in order to gain more votes and more power. During those years, Schumer supported the Omnibus Crime Bill of 1994, which spiked the prison population. And in 1995 he sponsored the Omnibus Counterterrorism Act, which became the foundation from which the Patriot Act six years later, was built.

Ben Norton: When it comes to the war on terror he was a very enthusiastic supporter and remains so. He voted for the Patriot Act, and again this is a supposed Democratic leader, who voted for the Bush administration to take away Americans civil liberties.

Thomas Hedges: In the years straddling 911, he supported many of the same policies Republicans supported. From his tough on crime approach to supporting war in the Middle East, to defending the surveillance of Muslim groups in New York after 911. Schumer and the GOP had very few differences, in fact despite shedding tears at a press conference earlier this year after the Muslim ban that Trump implemented, Schumer himself had proposed something eerily similar.

Ben Norton: In November of 2015, not that long ago, less than two years ago, Schumer also said that the US government should consider a so called pause on the re-settlement of Syrian refugees. He also, in one of the most egregious yet under reported aspects of Schumer, previously said that torture should be considered in some places, and he said that, "Oh well if you oppose torture, you say this now, but you need to put yourself in the shoes of people in these particular situations etc." So he really left torture on the table.

Before Trump was President, he had actually donated money to Schumer, that of course, represents something, this is not a progressive Democrat. Schumer actually represents the segment, the influential powerful segment of the Democratic Party, that has helped pave the way for Donald Trump to carry out many of the policies he's already implementing.

Thomas Hedges: But for voters who have paid attention to Schumer for a long time, the Senator's policy choices are anything but surprising.

Kevin Zeese: He basically is a Senator for Israel. He totally supports the Israeli foreign policy viewpoint, which is a very hawkish, if you were a Republican you would call him a neocon.

Ariel Gold: He has come out in strong opposition to the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions movement and was very supportive of New York Governor Cuomo's order to ban BDS in New York state, and Schumer made a direct statement in support of that.

Thomas Hedges: Schumer's staunch support for Israel has prompted him for example, to criticize the Obama administration, when in 2016, the United States abstained from a UN Security Council resolution re-affirming something the Council had almost unanimously upheld since 1979. Namely, that Israel's settlement building projects on Palestinian land violated international law.

Ben Norton: Schumer criticized the Obama administration for abstaining on this very basic resolution, which every other country voted for. So the US was still a pariah, because the US didn't vote for it, it just abstained on it. But to Schumer that was not enough, he wanted it to be completely vetoed, because anything that Israel does is sacrosanct, and anyone who criticizes it, in Schumer's eyes, is not someone he wants to ally with politically, so he'd rather affectively ally with Trump.

Thomas Hedges: The most recent showing of that allegiance was last month, when Schumer supported Trump's decision to launch an air strike on an Air Force base in Syria, something Israel also strongly supported.

Chuck Schumer: On Syria, I salute the professionalism and skill of our armed forces, who took action last night. The people of Syria have suffered untold horrors and violence at the hands of Bashar al-Assad and his supporters in Tehran and in Putin's Russia, making sure that Assad knows when he commits such despicable atrocities he will pay a price, is the right thing to do.

Thomas Hedges: But perhaps Schumer's greatest show of allegiance to Israel, was his decision to oppose the Iran nuclear deal, without which experts have warned, would put the United States and Iran on a collision course.

Ben Norton: Under President Obama, Schumer was one of the most prominent Democrats to oppose the Iran nuclear deal, and he was of course fearmongering about Iran, which to him is the devil incarnate, and he actually made factually false statements about the nuclear agreement, and claimed that it would allow Iran in 10 years to produce nuclear weapons etc.

Thomas Hedges: Leading up to his decision, Schumer reassured Zionists that he was consulting the most credentialed men in Washington, including Henry Kissinger, an opponent of the deal, and the man who orchestrated the violent coup in Chile that toppled its democratically elected leader, as well as the architect of the very bloody Vietnam war.

Chuck Schumer: I spent some time with Dr. Kissinger, I'm spending time with excellence.

Ariel Gold: So it threatened to pull us into another war, and we're back in that threat again with Trump winning the election we hear a lot about undoing the Iran nuclear deal, and it's one of the things that Israel has been saying they would like to see come out of the Trump administration.

Thomas Hedges: Schumer's willingness to oppose the deal early on, which created an opening for other undecided Democrats to do the same, is a strong display of support for Israel.

News Anchor: Schumer's support here really would have been key for the White House, but coming out overnight against this deal saying in a statement quote, "I will vote to disapprove the agreement, not because I believe war is a viable or desirable option, not to challenge the path of dis-plomacy it is because, I believe Iran will not change."

Thomas Hedges: It also put him in yet the same camp as current President Donald Trump in terms of pursuing a Middle East policy that is in line with Washington's most hawkish advocates. In the end, Schumer's a friend of the neo conservative foreign policy agenda. While he may cry over Trump's Muslim ban and purport to have the same inclinations as America's most progressive members of the Senate, he's fundamentally in agreement with the United States forceful efforts abroad.

Kevin Zeese: The criticism of the Democratic Party is it is the Wall Street and war party. That is Chuck Schumer, and so for him to have this kind of pretend progressive image, it's just so obviously fraudulent.

Thomas Hedges: As the United States nears yet another arms deal with Middle East ally Saudi Arabia, this time for a hundred billion dollars, and coupled with its four billion dollar annual aid to Israel, we can expect Schumer not only to support an even more militarized Middle East, but to continue to rail against countries like Iran that pose a threat to US and Israel's hegemony in the region.


00403 days ago ,

Chuck Schumer has replaced Joe Lieberman as the Senator representing Israeli interests in the Senate. US interests are usually secondary to his machinations

raquel • 9 months ago ,

Great development and exposure of this hillary-look-alike. Love the phrase 'pretend progressive,' as it describes Schumer to a T. Great piece.

kofi1239 months ago ,

Schumer and Clinton must be understood in relation to Israel. Israel to both of them are sacrosant. Israel can do no wrong. Both these two war hawks for Israel takes their orders from Netanyahu. He is like a vice president for Israel in the United States.

potshot Stretch9 months ago ,

Said Nietzsche.

"I only take up causes in which I know I'll find no allies. And often I wait for a cause to become successful before attacking it."

Schumer (sic) is a scum bucket who ought to be trounced out of the Senate, through the revolving door to his sinecure on Wall Street. Schumer's ultimately loyalties are to his corporate benefactors on Wall Street. Which too is his constituency. Anything in the way of progressiveness that you suggest will be only, like Obama's eloquent blackness, to run cover for favors for the war party. Which at this late date ought also be christened the "hastening to collective extinction" party.

Seer • 9 months ago ,

Schumer is a puppet for the deep state and the deep state may have some "dirt" on him in order to keep him in line...and his famous quote about the security state: "they have 6 ways to Sunday to get back at you" or something to this effect...makes me wonder what he knows?

Jsharp9 months ago ,

Israel is the driving force behind disruption of the middle east...the more the middle east is neutralized, the better for Israel...Chuck is one of their best foot soldiers

sisterlauren Jsharp9 months ago ,

I think we can call him an Israel firster.

v. jabotinsky9 months ago ,

Schumer is a Zionist. He's said he sees himself as the protector of Israel.

p.munkey9 months ago ,

Of the likes of Chuck Schumer, the bard sang:

Generals gathered in their masses,
just like witches at black masses.
Evil minds that plot destruction,
sorcerer of death's construction.
In the fields the bodies burning,
as the war machine keeps turning.
Death and hatred to mankind,
poisoning their brainwashed minds...Oh lord yeah!

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait `till their judgement day comes, yeah! ♪

[Feb 24, 2018] Re-mapping the Middle East

Feb 24, 2018 | www.unz.com

The US has spent several trillion dollars over the past two decades in the Middle East , North Africa and West Asia. US Intervention from Libya and Southern Sudan, Somalia, across to Syria, Palestine, Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan has resulted in enormous costs and dubious advances. The results are meagre except in terms of suffering. The US has spread chaos and destruction throughout Libya and Syria, but failed to incorporate either into an enlarged empire. The Middle East wars, initiated at the behest of Israel, have rewarded Tel Aviv with a sense of invulnerability and a thirst for more, while multiplying and unifying US adversaries.

Empires are not effectively enlarged through alliances with with armed tribal, sectarian and separatist organizations. Empires, allied with disparate, fractured and self-aggrandizing entities do not expand or strengthen their global powers.

The US has waged war against Libya and lost the political leverage and economic resources it enjoyed during the Gaddafi regime. It intervened in Somalia, South Sudan and Syria, and has gained enclaves of warring self-serving 'separatists' and subsidized mercenaries. Afghanistan, the US's longest war in history, is an unmitigated military disaster. After seventeen years of warfare and occupation, the US is holed up in the walled enclaves of the capital, Kabul. Meanwhile, the puppet regime feeds on multi-billion dollar monthly subsidies.

Iraq is a 'shared' imperial outpost -- the result of fifteen years of military intervention. Kurdish clients, Sunni-Saudi warlords, Shia militia, Baghdad kleptocrats and US contractor-mercenaries all compete for control and a larger piece of the pillage. Every square meter of contested 'terrain has cost the US five hundred million dollars and scores of casualties.

Iran remains forever under threat, but retains its independence outside of the US-Saudi-Israeli orbit. The US geo-political map has been reduced to dubious alliance with Saudi Arabia and its micro-clients among the Emirate statelets – which are constantly fighting among themselves – as well as Israel, the 'client' that openly revels in leading its patron by the nose!

Compared to the period before the turn of the millennium, the US imperial map has shrunk and faces further retrenchment.

[Feb 24, 2018] Is there anyone on internet who doesn't know that USA basically is the global main founder of terrorism and militant islamofascist groups?

Feb 24, 2018 | nationalinterest.org

Vic Jorge Martinho , February 22, 2018 2:59 PM

Is there anyone on internet who doesn't know that USA basically is the global main founder of terrorism and militant islamofascist groups?

"According to the newly declassified US document, the Pentagon foresaw the likely rise of the 'Islamic State' as a direct consequence of the strategy, but described this outcome as a strategic opportunity to "isolate the Syrian regime.""
http://www.judicialwatch.or...

"Operation Cyclone was the code name for the United States Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) program to arm and finance the Jihadi warriors, mujahideen, in Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989, prior to and during the military intervention by the USSR in support of its client, the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan. The program leaned heavily towards supporting militant Islamic groups"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wi...

Alex Robeson Vic , February 22, 2018 6:18 PM

In regards to the Defense Intelligence Agency report (your first reference about ISIS), I'll just point you to this article.

https://www.thedailybeast.c...

If you use your brain, you'll realize the report is saying that Gulf States and Turkey would be OK with a salafist principality, because it would isolate the Syrian regime. It's obviously not talking about what the US wants - remember Joe Biden's speech to Harvard?
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

As for Afghanistan, you seem to forget that it was the Soviets who helped the Afghan communists seize power in the 1978 coup. That's what initially led to war, and yes, the US supported those fighting the communist Afghan government, including the mujahideen, and that eventually backfired.

Neither of those are examples of the US being the "global main founder of terrorism."

Vic Alex Robeson , February 23, 2018 4:13 AM

You seem to lack an ability to read, the report clearly states the USA government was informed that arming terrorists would lead to the creation of ISIS, but that the USA government when ahead with arming terrorist anyway. The mujahideen in Afghanistan became the Taliban and al-qaeda btw.

"As for Afghanistan, you seem to forget that it was the Soviets who
helped the Afghan communists seize power in the 1978 coup. That's what
initially led to war,"

-Both purely irrelevant and a lie, USA funded terrorists in Afghanistan BEFORE Soviet sent troops in, not that, that is relevant at all but you are trying a trolling tactic know as a red herring where you are saying irrelevant things hoping it will distract from the topic.

Alex Robeson Vic , February 23, 2018 7:56 AM

You literally already admitted that Operation Cyclone began in 1979. Nice try. You should read up on the "Saur Revolution".

Duendao Alex Robeson , February 22, 2018 7:16 PM

Do you know that Osama was a direct consequence of the US funding rebels in Afghanistan? watch out, may the US is Training the next Osama in syria.

When you bomb countries and kill people's relatives , dont expect the people to love you. Remember Abu gharib?
Both of this examples are the US promoting terrorism

Alex Robeson Duendao , February 22, 2018 9:00 PM

There's some truth to what you say. I do remember Abu Ghraib - it is a source of deep shame for Americans. I hope the Iraqi people can forgive us for that. I also hope there will not be another bin Laden.

As for Syria, there are some rebels who are worth supporting - al Assad and his family ruled Syria with iron fists for 50+ years.

Vic Alex Robeson , February 23, 2018 4:15 AM

"There's some truth to what you say."

-Everything he says is true.

"den. As for Syria, there are some rebels who are worth
supporting - al Assad and his family ruled Syria with iron fists for 50+
years."

-Actually it is illegal in accordance with international law to support rebels in other countries. Especially the kind that USA supports that kids the heads of children and eats peoples organs.
https://www.youtube.com/wat...

[Feb 23, 2018] The Knives Are Out for Lt. Gen. H.R. McMaster

So one year ago McMaster was under attack and survived. Note that this was the time of appointment of the Special Prosecutor which changed the dynamics, probably preserving his scalp. This time might be different.
Notable quotes:
"... Washington Post ..."
May 09, 2017 | foreignpolicy.com

The Afghanistan strategy McMaster is pushing, with the support of Defense Secretary James Mattis, would send roughly 3,000-5,000 U.S. and NATO troops to Afghanistan, according to a separate source familiar with the internal deliberations. These troops would be sent to help bulk up the Afghan National Security Forces, which, after years of U.S. assistance, are still struggling against the Taliban, al Qaeda, and a small Islamic State presence in the country.

According to the Washington Post , the new strategy "would authorize the Pentagon, not the White House, to set troop numbers in Afghanistan and give the military far broader authority to use airstrikes to target Taliban militants." The hope is that by increasing pressure on the Taliban, it will force them to the negotiating table with more favorable terms for Kabul and Washington. Sending more U.S. troops to Afghanistan follows a decision made last year by then-President Barack Obama, who announced in July that 8,400 U.S. troops would remain in Afghanistan through January 2017 because of the "precarious" security situation there, undoing his previous plan to draw down to 5,500 by the time he left office.

The Post reported that "those opposed to the plan have begun to refer derisively to the strategy as 'McMaster's War,'" and this particular criticism is repeated in a handful of negative stories about McMaster that have already cropped up this week. For those plugged into the dicey world of Trump administration power plays, this slur has the hallmarks of a hit job by Bannon's team. (It's worth noting that the same people who oppose McMaster are no fans of Mattis's moderating influence on the president, but he's seen as politically untouchable for now.)

[Feb 22, 2018] McMaster, Kelly On Their Way Out Zero Hedge

Feb 22, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

In January, McMaster quashed rumors of his departure, telling reporters "I have a job and it is my intention to go as long and hard as I can in service of the President of the nation," adding that it was "a tremendous honor to do this job every day."

Trump's first National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn, resigned shortly after taking office amid a controversy over whether he lied to Vice President Mike Pence about his contacts with Russian ambassador, Sergey Kislyak.

On Thursday, the Pentagon directed all inquiries about McMaster to the White House. "General McMaster works for President Trump. Any decision with regards to staff, the White House will make those determinations," said chief spokesperson Dana White. Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Sarah Sanders told reporters on Tuesday that Trump "still has confidence in General McMaster."

A Source within the White House, leaking to CNN, reports that Trump can't stand McMaster's demeanor during briefings - and that the President considers his National Security Advisor to be "gruff and condescending."

He prefers the briefing style of someone like CIA Director Mike Pompeo or Defense Secretary James Mattis, who patiently answer his questions, regardless of the premise. McMaster, meanwhile, is the person who delivers the news that Trump doesn't want to hear on a daily basis, according to the senior Republican source.

The issue is not political but mostly stylistic, as McMaster and Mattis tend to discuss information before it is presented to the President, the same source added. - CNN

Kelly and McMaster both declined to comment, however Reuters' sources were quick to add that "tensions could blow over, at least for now, as have previous episodes of discord between the president and other top officials who have fallen out of favor."

4

LetThemEatRand Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:18 Permalink

So much for the "military is behind Trump" meme. Kudos to Trump for telling this guy where he can shove it after repeating Deep State propaganda.

Sir Edge -> LetThemEatRand Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:18 Permalink

Finally... 'Dereliction Of Duty' comes home to roost...


Edgey...

J S Bach -> Sir Edge Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:21 Permalink

McSinister is the essence of Goldfinger in the old James Bond fiction. One couldn't envision a more stereotypical "worm-tonguesque" villain in charge of our armed forces and acting presidential "advisor".

GUS100CORRINA -> Normalcy Bias Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:57 Permalink

McMaster Finally Out? Pentagon Paving Way For Return To Military: Report

My response: Looks like the POTUS is prepping for the Return of General Flynn.

McMaster has some very suspicious associations and has been referenced in Q-ANON posts. He was an "OBOZO" plant.

Also, it appears that "OBOZO's" LEGAL problems are growing by the day.

"OBOZO" maybe the first POTUS in US history to be charged with TREASON. Also, KERRY is in a DEEP PILE OF SHIT as well. He directed the US State Department to provide 9 million dollars to her charity. This is ladies and gentlemen of ZH is BULLSHIT!!!!!!

CORRUPTION and CRIME as far as the EYE can see for the last four POTUS office holders. It make me ashamed of my nation at times.

May GOD bless, guide and protect President TRUMP and the TRUMP administration as they "DRAIN THE SWAMP".

Chupacabra-322 -> Luc X. Ifer Thu, 02/22/2018 - 21:21 Permalink

Flynn blew the whistle on Pure Evil War Criminal Treasonous Seditious Psychopath Obama, the CIA & State Dept. arming, funding & training terror organizations.

The Criminal Deep State has had it for him ever since.

gatorengineer -> J S Bach Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:52 Permalink

Member of the council on foreign relations... Nough said? Trump sure likes Obama stooges for some reason

directaction -> gatorengineer Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:54 Permalink

Trump is refusing to start new wars.

That's annoying the deep state rats inside the military.

I sure wish Trump would stop all of Obama's wars, too.

gatorengineer -> directaction Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:58 Permalink

Boy you sure get a different news feed than I do.... Mine says we have heavy ground presence in Syria (didnt under Obowel), are on the verge of war with the NORKs after the Olympics, and our CIA has been stirring the shit pot in Iran....

Does your news coverage come before of after the episodes of My little pony?

The only difference between Trump and Hillary is Hillary has better hair. Follow what Trump actually does and not what he Tweets, HUGE difference. WE ARENT WINNING.

loveyajimbo -> LetThemEatRand Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:30 Permalink

McMaster is a Deep State maggot... but who on Trump's team is not??? Too many MIC Generals all begging for moar war for profit...

Sessions is the biggest maggot... he has overseen the total breakdown of the rule of law in America and should be tarred and feathered.

Navymugsy -> LetThemEatRand Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:40 Permalink

The military is an arm of the deep state. Congratulations West Point, Annapolis, etc.

squilmi -> LetThemEatRand Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:51 Permalink

McMaster was NEVER with Trump. The military in general is.

New_Meat -> nmewn Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:31 Permalink

SecDef knows him (from in the sandbox) and might want/need him to fill a CinC slot. The pussified O crowd cut off the balls of many of the flag ranks and they need to be purged (Regan did that and brought in/up Starry and Papa Bear and Vuono and Art C-ski and the other knuckle draggers).

POTUS might be getting his foreign policy situation sorted out. McMaster hasn't ever been a smooth team player within the Army structure--that would also endear him to Jim, but not suit him to a staff/advisor role.

We can always blame it on Global Climate Change and the Rooskies--cover all the bases.

lurker since 2012 Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:26 Permalink

Fuck yea put him in Nork country. Fat boy and Monster McMaster can face off in the octagon.

Previous post regarding McMaster...

lurker since 2012 Tue, 02/20/2018 - 17:27 Permalink

Monster McMaster opening greeting to the Munich security conference, "I know OUR good friend John McCain can't be here, as unfortunately he can't, but he brings you good wishes"....Then he proceeded to outline Russian Election bullshit. Cyber bot farm meddling invading Georgia BLA BLA BLA. This is why war is plausible, McMaster is Military SWAMP.

Brazen Heist Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:37 Permalink

Oh boy, some oversized ego tripping....the sheer hubris of it all....fuckers cannot see or admit to the gross amount of meddling they have done to the world, and yet react like little bitches when allegations are merely cooked up.

I cannot believe that this is the lowly state of American political discourse in 2018 AD.

Just another Rome, only with a much bigger budget for bullshit and weaponry.

Dickguzinya Thu, 02/22/2018 - 20:50 Permalink

Fire him. Forget the fourth star. He is undeserving. Another scumbag trying to upend President Trump's agenda/objectives. The scumbag conveniently doesn't mention that the Russian Hacking didn't have an impact on the election. This untrustworthy piece of shit never should have been brought into the fold. And don't even think about allowing him back into the military. Fuck off you turncoat.

Green2Delta Thu, 02/22/2018 - 21:06 Permalink

This guy was the commanding officer of 3rd ACR while I was in. Only time I saw him in Iraq was when he flew down to tell us how sorry he was, or something like that, after we lost 1/3 of our platoon. The rest of the time he was in northern Iraq where it was safe. While those of us unlucky enough to be in 3rd Squadron were stuck down on the south side of Baghdad. If you read his bio they make it out like he personally did all kinds of Rambo shit. I guess that's they way it is for officers. Those guys will slit your throat for the next shiny thing to stick on their uniform.

Even back then my buddy SSG Judy, just talked to him an hour ago, told me McMaster was being groomed for bigger roles. He definitely nailed that one.

NoWayJose Thu, 02/22/2018 - 22:35 Permalink

These two and Mad Dog keep whispering "Evil Russia" at Trump and demanding US troops keep poking a stick at the bear - meanwhile Trump knows there is no collusion. How does that square up?

[Feb 20, 2018] Russophobia is a futile bid to conceal US, European demise by Finian Cunningham

Highly recommended!
This is an old method to unite the nation against external enemy. Carnage (with so much oil and gas) needs to be destroyed. And it's working only partially with the major divisions between Trump and Hillary supporters remaining open and unaffected by Russiagate witch hunt.
Notable quotes:
"... It is an age-old statecraft technique to seek unity within a state by depicting an external enemy or threat. Russia is the bête noire again, as it was during the Cold War years as part of the Soviet Union. ..."
"... Russophobia -- "blame it all on Russia" -- is a short-term, futile ploy to stave off the day of reckoning when furious and informed Western citizens will demand democratic restitution for their legitimate grievances. ..."
"... The dominant "official" narrative, from the US to Europe, is that "malicious" Russia is "sowing division;""eroding democratic institutions;" and "undermining public trust" in systems of governance, credibility of established political parties, and the news media. ..."
"... A particularly instructive presentation of this trope was given in a recent commentary by Texan Republican Representative Will Hurd. In his piece headlined, "Russia is our adversary" , he claims: "Russia is eroding our democracy by exploiting the nation's divisions. To save it, Americans need to begin working together." ..."
"... He contends: "When the public loses trust in the media, the Russians are winning. When the press is hyper-critical of Congress the Russians are winning. When Congress and the general public disagree the Russians are winning. When there is friction between Congress and the executive branch [the president] resulting in further erosion of trust in our democratic institutions, the Russians are winning." ..."
"... The endless, criminal wars that the US and its European NATO allies have been waging across the planet over the past two decades is one cogent reason why the public has lost faith in grandiose official claims about respecting democracy and international law. ..."
"... The US and European media have shown reprehensible dereliction of duty to inform the public accurately about their governments' warmongering intrigues. Take the example of Syria. When does the average Western citizen ever read in the corporate Western media about how the US and its NATO allies have covertly ransacked that country through weaponizing terrorist proxies? ..."
"... The destabilizing impact on societies from oppressive economic conditions is a far more plausible cause for grievance than outlandish claims made by the political class about alleged "Russian interference". ..."
"... Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he is a Master's graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. For over 20 years he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organizations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Now a freelance journalist based in East Africa, his columns appear on RT, Sputnik, Strategic Culture Foundation and Press TV. ..."
Feb 20, 2018 | www.rt.com

Russophobia - "blame it all on Russia" - is a short-term, futile ploy to stave off the day of reckoning when furious and informed Western citizens will demand democratic restitution for their legitimate grievances

It is an age-old statecraft technique to seek unity within a state by depicting an external enemy or threat. Russia is the bête noire again, as it was during the Cold War years as part of the Soviet Union.

But the truth is Western states are challenged by internal problems. Ironically, by denying their own internal democratic challenges, Western authorities are only hastening their institutional demise.

Russophobia -- "blame it all on Russia" -- is a short-term, futile ploy to stave off the day of reckoning when furious and informed Western citizens will demand democratic restitution for their legitimate grievances.

The dominant "official" narrative, from the US to Europe, is that "malicious" Russia is "sowing division;""eroding democratic institutions;" and "undermining public trust" in systems of governance, credibility of established political parties, and the news media.

This narrative has shifted up a gear since the election of Donald Trump to the White House in 2016, with accusations that the Kremlin somehow ran "influence operations" to help get him into office. This outlandish yarn defies common sense. It is also running out of thread to keep spinning.

Paradoxically, even though President Trump has rightly rebuffed such dubious claims of "Russiagate" interference as "fake news", he has at other times undermined himself by subscribing to the notion that Moscow is projecting a campaign of "subversion against the US and its European allies." See for example the National Security Strategy he signed off in December.

Pathetically, it's become indoctrinated belief among the Western political class that "devious Russians" are out to "collapse" Western democracies by "weaponizing disinformation" and spreading "fake news" through Russia-based news outlets like RT and Sputnik.

Totalitarian-like, there seems no room for intelligent dissent among political or media figures.

British Prime Minister Theresa May has chimed in to accuse Moscow of "sowing division;" Dutch state intelligence claim Russia destabilized the US presidential election; the European Union commissioner for security, Sir Julian King, casually lampoons Russian news media as "Kremlin-orchestrated disinformation" to destabilize the 28-nation bloc; CIA chief Mike Pompeo recently warned that Russia is stepping up its efforts to tarnish the Congressional mid-term elections later this year.

On and on goes the narrative that Western states are essentially victims of a nefarious Russian assault to bring about collapse.

A particularly instructive presentation of this trope was given in a recent commentary by Texan Republican Representative Will Hurd. In his piece headlined, "Russia is our adversary" , he claims: "Russia is eroding our democracy by exploiting the nation's divisions. To save it, Americans need to begin working together."

Congressman Hurd asserts: "Russia has one simple goal: to erode trust in our democratic institutions It has weaponized disinformation to achieve this goal for decades in Eastern and Central Europe; in 2016, Western Europe and America were aggressively targeted as well."

Lamentably, all these claims above are made with scant, or no, verifiable evidence. It is simply a Big Lie technique of relentless repetition transforming itself into "fact" .

It's instructive to follow Congressman Hurd's thought-process a bit further.

He contends: "When the public loses trust in the media, the Russians are winning. When the press is hyper-critical of Congress the Russians are winning. When Congress and the general public disagree the Russians are winning. When there is friction between Congress and the executive branch [the president] resulting in further erosion of trust in our democratic institutions, the Russians are winning."

As a putative solution, Representative Hurd calls for "a national counter-disinformation strategy" against Russian "influence operations" , adding, "Americans must stop contributing to a corrosive political environment".

The latter is a chilling advocacy of uniformity tantamount to a police state whereby any dissent or criticism is a "thought-crime."

It is, however, such anti-democratic and paranoid thinking by Western politicians -- aided and abetted by dutiful media -- that is killing democracy from within, not some supposed foreign enemy.

There is evidently a foreboding sense of demise in authority and legitimacy among Western states, even if the real cause for the demise is ignored or denied. Systems of governance, politicians of all stripes, and institutions like the established media and intelligence services are increasingly held in contempt and distrust by the public.

Whose fault is that loss of political and moral authority? Western governments and institutions need to take a look in the mirror.

The endless, criminal wars that the US and its European NATO allies have been waging across the planet over the past two decades is one cogent reason why the public has lost faith in grandiose official claims about respecting democracy and international law.

The US and European media have shown reprehensible dereliction of duty to inform the public accurately about their governments' warmongering intrigues. Take the example of Syria. When does the average Western citizen ever read in the corporate Western media about how the US and its NATO allies have covertly ransacked that country through weaponizing terrorist proxies?

How then can properly informed citizens be expected to have respect for such criminal government policies and the complicit news media covering up for their crimes?

Western public disaffection with governments, politicians and media surely stems also from the grotesque gulf in social inequality and poverty among citizens from slavish adherence to economic policies that enrich the wealthy while consigning the vast majority to unrelenting austerity.

The destabilizing impact on societies from oppressive economic conditions is a far more plausible cause for grievance than outlandish claims made by the political class about alleged "Russian interference".

Yet the Western media indulge this fantastical "Russiagate" escapism instead of campaigning on real social problems facing ordinary citizens. No wonder such media are then viewed with disdain and distrust. Adding insult to injury, these media want the public to believe Russia is the enemy?

Instead of acknowledging and addressing real threats to citizens: economic insecurity, eroding education and health services, lost career opportunities for future generations, the looming dangers of ecological adversity, wars prompted by Western governments trashing international and diplomacy, and so on -- the Western public is insultingly plied with corny tales of Russia's "malign influence" and "assault on democracy."

Just think of the disproportionate amount of media attention and public resources wasted on the Russiagate scandal over the past year. And now gradually emerging is the real scandal that the American FBI probably colluded with the Obama administration to corrupt the democratic process against Trump.

Again, is there any wonder the public has sheer contempt and distrust for "authorities" that have been lying through their teeth and playing them for fools?

The collapsing state of Western democracies has got nothing to do with Russia. The Russophobia of blaming Russia for the demise of Western institutions is an attempt at scapegoating for the very real problems facing governments and institutions like the news media. Those problems are inherent and wholly owned by these governments owing to chronic anti-democratic functioning, as well as systematic violation of international law in their pursuit of criminal wars and other subterfuges for regime-change objectives.

Finian Cunningham (born 1963) has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages. Originally from Belfast, Northern Ireland, he is a Master's graduate in Agricultural Chemistry and worked as a scientific editor for the Royal Society of Chemistry, Cambridge, England, before pursuing a career in newspaper journalism. For over 20 years he worked as an editor and writer in major news media organizations, including The Mirror, Irish Times and Independent. Now a freelance journalist based in East Africa, his columns appear on RT, Sputnik, Strategic Culture Foundation and Press TV.

[Feb 19, 2018] US must immediately leave area it controls in southern Syria -- Lavrov

Feb 19, 2018 | www.defenddemocracy.press

19 Feb, 2018
US troops must immediately shut down their zone of control in southern Syria in the area of Al-Tanf, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested when asked what should be done to help the Syrian peace settlement.

Lavrov was referring to an area on Syria's border with Jordan and Iraq, which the US declared to be under its protection last year. Among other things, it contains the Rukban refugee camp.

The facility is apparently used by radical militants, including members of UN-designated terrorist group best known by its former name Al-Nusra Front, to recover and raid other parts of Syria, Lavrov said at the Valdai Club conference on the Middle East in Moscow.

The US is turning a blind eye to such abuses of its protection, he added.

[Feb 19, 2018] Russian-Turkish axis in Syria faces meltdown by M. K. Bhadrakumar

Feb 19, 2018 | www.atimes.com

Will Erdogan again turn towards the US? Feb 8, 2018 | 5,604 96
Two things differentiate the downing of a Russian Su-25 ground-attack jet in the western province of Idlib on February 3 from the drone attacks on the Russian air base at Hmeimim a month earlier.

One, Russia could thwart the attack on January 5 by a wave of drone aircraft but singularly failed to anticipate the use of man-portable air defense systems by extremists operating in Idlib under Turkish watch. Russia lost an ace fighter pilot in the latter attack.

Two, Moscow sensed an American hand in the drone attack on January 5, but this time around Russia's Tass news agency promptly highlighted an American denial on record. The Kremlin's Dmitry Peskov made a point of cautioning against speculations "before one gets precise information as to how terrorists in Syria got that particular man-portable air defense system and other weapons that they have."

Notably, however, an influential lawmaker – Dmitry Sablin, coordinator of the Russia-Syria parliamentary friendship group – went ahead to "speculate," saying: "We have information that the MANPADS used to bring down our jet was brought into Syria from a neighboring country several days ago. Countries from whose territory weapons arrive, that are then used against Russian servicemen, must understand that this will not go unpunished."

Curiously, the day after Sablin spoke, Turkey came out with a counter-allegation of its own, attributed to "security sources," to the effect that the weaponry used in the attack against a Turkish army tank on February 3 by Kurds in Afrin "might have been a Russian-made 9M113 Konkurs" and that the "claim is being evaluated." Five Turkish soldiers were killed in that attack.

Suffice to say, the air is thick with innuendos and dark hints that Russia and Turkey may have drawn each other's blood on February 3, despite notionally being allies in Syria's hybrid war.

In January, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan reached out to President Vladimir Putin to clarify the situation. But over the latest incident, no such exchange has so far taken place, even though Erdogan is under obligation to initiate one – according to the understanding reached in talks in Astana last year following the Syrian ceasefire, Turkey is entrusted with setting up "observation posts" in Idlib to monitor the activities of extremist groups.

Meanwhile, on February 5, Putin sent an effusive message to Nicos Anastasiades congratulating him on his re-election as the President of the Republic of Cyprus. Putin's message expressed confidence that the "constructive dialogue" and "joint work" by the two countries are in the mutual interests of both and "in keeping with efforts to improve stability and security in Europe and the Eastern Mediterranean." Cyprus' relations with Turkey have been unfriendly ever since the Turkish invasion and occupation of the northern part of the country in 1974.

Typically, therefore, Erdogan will now seek a modus vivendi with the US. Of course, it will be a dream come true for the US if the hairline crack in the Russian-Turkish axis in Syria widens and becomes a rift in the coming weeks. In their opposition to the establishment of Russian bases in Syria, Washington and Ankara are on the same page.

On the other hand, the Pentagon will expect Erdogan to give up his plans to launch any military operation to attack the Kurds in Manbij. The US simply cannot accede to the Turkish demand that it break its alliance with Syria's Kurds. US Defence Secretary James Mattis hinted on Friday that talks are going on with Turkey to dissuade Erdogan from ordering an operation on Manbij.

For his part, Erdogan will seek a tradeoff with the Trump administration to create conditions for a broader rapprochement with the US. He is well aware that the US will see advantages in the developing situation to push its containment strategy against Iran more effectively in Syria and to isolate the Assad regime. Indeed, a rift in the Russian-Turkish axis in Syria opens an entirely new ball game in the country, one that enables the US to create new facts on the ground and negotiate harder on the terms of a future Syrian settlement. Israel is also a stakeholder here.

Erdogan all along hankered for an enhanced role for Turkey as the flag carrier in the West's strategies in Syria, fancying himself to be the role model for the Muslim Middle East. But President Barack Obama was disinterested in any such dalliance with the mercurial Sultan in Ankara.

Things are very much in flux, though. Erdogan met Pope Francis on Monday. It was the first time in 59 years that a Turkish President had visited the Vatican.

[Feb 18, 2018] Warehouses With Israeli-Produced Weapons Discovered in Deir ez-Zor

Feb 18, 2018 | www.defenddemocracy.press

Syrian government army units have discovered warehouses with weapons and ammunition, including those produced in Israel while patrolling areas in Deir Ez-Zor liberated from Daesh terrorist group (outlawed in Russia), the SANA news agency reported. The warehouses with a huge amount of rockets, mortars, tank shells and other ammunition were discovered in Al Boukamal and Al Mayadin areas, according to the Syrian state-run news agency. The weapons reportedly were produced in Israel.

A source told the media outlet that in one of the tunnels in the al-Sbikhan village to the east of al-Mayadin, the army units found a factory for manufacturing shells and explosives as well as barrels with a strange essence that could be used for manufacturing toxic substances.

Israel and Syria, which have a very embittered relations recently, and have a long history of troublesome controversies over the Golan Heights, have repeatedly exchanged fire, with the latest incident taking place in February.

In December 2017, Syrian Army units discovered a huge pile of the US and European-made weapons inside Daesh dens in Deir ez-Zor's countryside.

In October, local media reported that Syrian troops had found weapons in the city of Mayadin, which had been the largest Daesh stronghold in the region, with weapons from Belgium, Great Britain, and Israel. As the Syrian military noted, the jihadists supposedly received these weapons, which were allegedly bought under Pentagon programs, in order to help the allies.

Published at sputniknews.com

[Feb 18, 2018] Instead of Turning East, Turkey is Going It Alone by Nick Danforth

Notable quotes:
"... * Nick Danforth is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He completed a PhD in Turkish history at Georgetown University and has written widely on Middle Eastern politics. ..."
Feb 18, 2018 | www.defenddemocracy.press

What makes the current situation alarming is that anti-Western hostility, which extends far beyond Erdogan's base, now appears to be driving policy independent of pragmatic or specifically Islamist concerns. Erdogan, for example, is now courting U.S. sanctions by purchasing S-400 air defense systems from Moscow . His decision appears motivated in part by a genuine belief that he needs them for self-protection following a 2016 coup attempt that he, like a majority of his citizens, believes was orchestrated by the United States. By comparison, Ankara's anger over U.S. support for the YPG makes much more sense. But it has been dangerously inflamed by a climate of rampant nationalism . Most recently, Meral Aksener, a nationalist politician who has emerged as a potential challenger to Erdogan, called for Turkish forces to move east and attack territories where American soldiers are present.

Only against this backdrop is it possible to imagine a worst-case scenario where, say, direct fighting between U.S. and Turkish troops pushes both sides toward a decisive rupture that each hopes to avoid. Were this to happen, Ankara would face hard decisions about whether to try to pragmatically patch things up or embrace an unequal and unrewarding relationship with an unsympathetic power like Russia. It remains to be seen whether Ankara's lack of other options will be enough to save the U.S.-Turkish alliance. But Washington would do well not to count on it.

* Nick Danforth is a Senior Policy Analyst at the Bipartisan Policy Center. He completed a PhD in Turkish history at Georgetown University and has written widely on Middle Eastern politics.

Published at https://warontherocks.com/2018/02/turkey/

[Feb 18, 2018] Escalation in Syria how far can the Russians be pushed The Vineyard of the Saker

Notable quotes:
"... 'Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell, who supports Hillary Clinton and insists that Donald Trump is being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that Russians and Iranians in Syria should be killed covertly to "pay the price."' ..."
"... Reminds me of the notorious Imperial Japanese Navy order of the day. Perhaps we might say that Washington's policy is: "The bombings will continue until stability improves". ..."
"... Even the head of the Israeli Air Force Air Division confessed that his country has carried out "thousands of operations in Syria" in the last year alone. This fact was missing from most mainstream news accounts, which portrayed Israel as a non-interventionist bystander in the Syrian conflict. ..."
"... Neither the Russians nor the Americans can trust Turkey to any great degree, because politics in Turkey has traditionally been based on treachery and deceit. The Turks would like nothing better than to play Russians against Americans and visa versa, but even they know this would be going too far, as there are limits. ..."
"... When it comes to Turkey, the Russians have the advantage, in the short term certainly, and probably in the long term. Erdogan cannot forget that the US instigated that coup d'etat against him, and that Russia saved his life, literally, warning him of the approaching coup and sending combat planes to prevent his own plane being shot down. ..."
"... The goal has remained the same and will never change – to take out Assad and create a Northern vassal state. Anyone suggesting otherwise is doing disinfo for the Empire. ..."
"... mod-to note: last line removed as unnecessary to the comment and inflammatory. ..."
"... watch the old footage of helicopters flying from the rooftops in Saigon. "Ugly" doesn't worry the US elites that control policy. They'll gladly trade 'ugly' for any small benefit, and the same elites have no problems putting the lives of the people who are foolishly loyal to them into great danger. ..."
"... I believe this is where US and Israeli intentions are. With the defeat of the US/Israel/Saudi plan to degrade Syria's military preparatory to an Israel attack on Lebanon, Israel now wants to up the ante by getting the US to join it in an attack on Hizballah in Lebanon and then the US will find a way to justify extending that war into Syria. ..."
"... The last shooting skirmish between Syria and Israel caused much more than a downed F16I. It caused consternation because the Air Space at Ben Gurion was officially closed during the hostilities. ..."
"... Hezbollah also confirmed that an Israeli vs Syria + Hezbollah war will include the resistance striking targets in Israel's off shore Gas and Oil interests. The war front will be wider including Israel occupied Golan Heights, Shebaa farms, Off Shore gas rigs operated by Israel. ..."
"... In Syria's East the Hegemon is in an untenable situation. Weaponizing the Kurds against Turkey will result in an accelerated Turkey-exit from NATO on the least and an inter NATO clash on the worst case. ..."
"... I hope sanctions will not hurt many Russian citizens. Since neither the Russian government, nor the Russian citizens live in a make-believe world, they could suspect that the West will not give up with its efforts at destabilizing the Russian Federation. ..."
"... True and I believe this is the correct policy. Dramatic confrontations with the US are not in Russia's interest. There is also the issue that Trump is looking increasingly like a winner, in the Russian collusion fight. If the republicans do well in the up coming elections, he will be able to put that vicious battle behind him. This will open up possibilities for the US to cooperate with Russia, if only tacitly, in Syria and Ukraine. ..."
"... Surely Russia must have anticipated that the powers-that-be in the US would never admit defeat and cease interfereing. This will always be the case. It's a consequence of the US ubermensch mentality. As ever, to anticipate US behavior one must ask oneself 'what would the Mafia do?' ..."
"... This is why Putin has twice declared a Russian withdrawal from Syria. The Russians understand they have no good options in a direct confrontation with the West and further their greatest potential ally in the region, the Iranians, are themselves playing a double game, also secretly alligned to the Peridious Ones, as has been highlighted repeatedly by Thierry Meyssan. ..."
"... Should the Iranians wish it they could sweep the US and SDF Kurds out of eastern Syria and northern Iraq in no time flat. It is the secret cooperation of the Iranians and Pentagon in Iraq and eastern Syria which gives the game away concerning the role of the Pentagon. By threatening to tear up the nuclear agreement, which in any case gives the Iranians nothing and relinquishes over 100 billion dollars of Iranian assets held since the Iranian revolution, the Trump administration is creating a pretext which appears to be holding the Iranians back from full cooperation with Russia and ultimately, from victory in this war. ..."
"... Something is missing from the story, I keep thinking it's still about oil, lots of powerful people in the States made it in the oil industry. Why is the USA going so hard out with it's fracking? Energy isn't that expensive, why not use other countries reserves first? ..."
"... By the way, I do not see Trump falling for this trap, I believe he is sincere in his wish to disengage the US from such foreign adventures. But there is not much he can do presently against the neocon establishment. But he has already made real progress, ISIS would not have been defeated and the Syrians won the war, if Trump had not been president. Try and imagine a Hillary presidency, with McCain making Syria policy. ..."
"... Counter escalation is too logical. Syria is a quagmire. The 'mud' weighing down Russia is Daesh and the pro-US 'moderates', mainly those Kurds backed by the US. But there more potential 'mud' that can suck in the US. ..."
Feb 18, 2018 | thesaker.is

... US goals in Syria include:

  1. The imposition of a de-facto partition of Syria by taking under control the Syrian territory east of the Euphrates river (we could call that "plan C version 3.0")
  2. The theft of the gas fields located in northeastern Syria
  3. The creation of a US-controlled staging area from which Kurdish, good terrorist and bad terrorist operations can be planned and executed
  4. The sabotaging of any Russian-backed peace negotiations T
  5. he support for Israeli operations against Iranian and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and Syria Engaging in regular attacks against Syrian forces attempting to liberate their country from foreign invaders Presenting the invasion and occupation of Syria as one of the "victories" promised by Trump to the MIC and the Israel lobby

So far the Russian response to this developing strategy has been a rather a passive one and the current escalation strongly suggests that a new approach might be needed. The shooting down of the Israeli F-16 is a good first step, but much more needs to be done to dramatically increase the costs the Empire will have to pay for is policies towards Syria. The increase in the number of Russian commentators and analysts demanding a stronger reaction to the current provocations might be a sign that something is in the making.


Tom Welsh on February 16, 2018 , · at 10:51 am UTC
'Killing Russians "on the margins", so to speak, either with plausible deniability or, alternatively, killing Russians private contractors is much safer and thus far more tempting option'.

Remind anyone of this?

'Former CIA deputy director Michael Morell, who supports Hillary Clinton and insists that Donald Trump is being manipulated by Russian President Vladimir Putin, said that Russians and Iranians in Syria should be killed covertly to "pay the price."'

https://www.rt.com/usa/355291-morrell-kill-russians-clinton/

Tom Welsh on February 16, 2018 , · at 10:53 am UTC
'The bottom line is this: since the US Americans have declared that they will (illegally) stay in Syria until the situation "stabilizes" they now must do everything their power to destabilize Syria'.

Reminds me of the notorious Imperial Japanese Navy order of the day. Perhaps we might say that Washington's policy is: "The bombings will continue until stability improves".

proper gander on February 17, 2018 , · at 3:42 pm UTC
The 4 principle objectives of the Israeli's and their American dog in Syria:
  1. Removing a government that was resistant to globalist debt-death finance.
  2. In concert with the 'pipe cutting' operation in Ukraine, to push through a Axis of Evil controlled gas pipe line from Qatar to the EU to strangle Russia.
  3. Partition of Syria, creating US military controlled Kurdistan to the North (with oil fields) to control Syria between two fronts, plus annexation of Golan heights as part of 'greater Israel'.
  4. Sinking Russia into another Afghanistan.

1 & 2 have failed.

3 & 4 are still in play.

It is as simple as that.

vot tak on February 16, 2018 , · at 11:01 am UTC
A related analysis in RT on the situation in Syria that exposes the Israeli role there behind the terrorists. Syria strikes back as Israel discovers its warplanes aren't invincible (Op-ed)

https://www.rt.com/op-ed/418986-syria-israel-plane-down/

"Israel has long been the unchallenged bully in the Middle East, but now Tel Aviv will face consequences for its temper tantrums. That was the message from Damascus last weekend when the Syrian army shot down an Israeli F-16.

As usual, Israel painted itself as a victim of irrational Arab aggression. However, in fact, Syria was clearly acting in self-defence against repeated Israeli violations of its sovereignty.

Even the head of the Israeli Air Force Air Division confessed that his country has carried out "thousands of operations in Syria" in the last year alone. This fact was missing from most mainstream news accounts, which portrayed Israel as a non-interventionist bystander in the Syrian conflict. That couldn't be further from the truth. Not only has Israel repeatedly bombed Syrian government installations, it has also armed Jihadist rebel groups in the Golan Heights, coordinated with Al-Qaeda's Syria affiliate against government forces and provided medical treatment to Al-Qaeda and Islamic State-linked rebels before sending them back into battle."

A123 on February 16, 2018 , · at 11:22 am UTC
Two key issues with this as an operational concept:

1) Regardless of the original manufacturing point of the MANPAD, it downed a Russian plane from the hands of a Turkish/SDF combatant. Also, Erdogan is still the #1 advocate of regime change in Syria.*

A unitary state structure would have a legal framework that ensures an eventual regime change in Syria produces an opposition government that exercises political power over the entire country. This outcome would be highly beneficial for Turkey's geopolitical interests, as it would allow Syria to potentially become a Turkish ally if Assad were to fall from power.

Encouraging Erdogan to expand operations in Syria is incredibly risky as his forces could attack South towards Damascus instead of West. It seems unlikely that Assad or Putin would be willing to gamble on their ability to predict/control Erdogan's behaviour.

2) Assuming that Turkey-NATO relations are destroyed in the manner suggested, where will freed up NATO forces reposition?

While the idea of reducing NATO activity in Syria sounds good on paper it could readily lead to increased NATO activity in areas of much deeper concern to Russia, such as the Baltics or Ukraine. Keeping NATO focused on Syria serves Putin's interest by tying up resources. It seems unlike that he would risk these other more critical locations for potential gains in Syria.
_________

(*) http://nationalinterest.org/feature/how-turkeys-geopolitical-ambitions-could-change-the-middle-24207

B.F. on February 16, 2018 , · at 11:30 am UTC
Neither the Russians nor the Americans can trust Turkey to any great degree, because politics in Turkey has traditionally been based on treachery and deceit. The Turks would like nothing better than to play Russians against Americans and visa versa, but even they know this would be going too far, as there are limits.

When it comes to Turkey, the Russians have the advantage, in the short term certainly, and probably in the long term. Erdogan cannot forget that the US instigated that coup d'etat against him, and that Russia saved his life, literally, warning him of the approaching coup and sending combat planes to prevent his own plane being shot down. Even Russian AA missile systems in Syria protected Erdogans life, the plotters receiving warnings from Russian ground crews. Erdogan knows the EU will never accept him, and Turkeys membership of NATO is more than a liability, becoming dangerous. The last thing Erdogan wants is for Turkey to be involved in a possible US war against Iran, let alone in a war against Russia, for which Turkey would pay a price.

Some analysts have speculated that Turkey and the US could make a deal at the expense of Russia. Not impossible, but unlikely, as neither side could trust the other. As far as I can see, Erdogan is playing the waiting game, waiting for the right moment to leave NATO and prevent Turkey being dragged into a potential US led war, from which Turkey has nothing to gain but plenty to lose. I think even the US knows this, which is the reason it will try another coup against Erdogan, and Erdogan knows it. Turkey is now playing a balancing act, waiting for the right moment to turn to Russia and China and their economic alliances.

One well known analyst has stated that it's only a matter of time before both the EU and NATO implode. NATO's implosion could well start with Turkey exiting.

As for Russia, it will stay in Syria for a long time. I don't see the US staying too long, as it's tactical position in northern Syria is dangerous, the supply lines being easily cut. Yes, the US could, in conjunction with Saudi Arabia and Israel, attack Iran. However, the repercussions would be tremendous. The US would not get any European backing, while such a move could well speed up Turkey's exit from NATO.

Cyril on February 16, 2018 , · at 12:09 pm UTC
I don't see the US staying too long, as it's tactical position in northern Syria is dangerous, the supply lines being easily cut.

If Syria's enhanced air defenses can routinely knock out the U.S.'s cargo planes, the U.S. position in Syria will be seriously damaged.

stephen on February 16, 2018 , · at 12:00 pm UTC
For our part, we must tell commentators on this issue to stop claiming the US has changed its position on Assad and Syria because tillerson/kerry/whoever said something that seemed like a ray of light (anyone Orthodox, by the way, should be immune to the idea of humans producing rays of light).

The goal has remained the same and will never change – to take out Assad and create a Northern vassal state. Anyone suggesting otherwise is doing disinfo for the Empire.

mod-to note: last line removed as unnecessary to the comment and inflammatory.

Chad on February 16, 2018 , · at 4:10 pm UTC
Thanks, everyone, for your insights on these issues. In light of Mr. Trump's recent statement about a big military parade he would like to see staged later this year (at a cost of at least thirty million dollars) , I can't help but wonder what kind of "victory" or Make America Great Again big win he wants to pull out of the hat that would make the parade even more appropriate "victory" over North Korea? ? ? "victory" in Syria? ?

I am very concerned about the whole timetable. Hopefully these wars aren't being waged with glowing visions of rapid effortless victories. The flip side to that is that these wars are being waged with the intent of dragging on for half of forever, consuming as many human lives as possible, and above all, destroying as much human hope and love as possible.

JJ on February 17, 2018 , · at 5:16 am UTC
RT carrying news that the USA is to increase its stockpile of miltary shells be 800%
Dr. NG Maroudas on February 16, 2018 , · at 1:00 pm UTC
A positive note from analyst 6 1/2hr ago. [Basically the enemy continues in retreat]:

" the deal between the Syrian Government and Afrin Canton is begin to take shape and has the best shot to be signed today or tomorrow. This is as close to a deal as it has ever, so this time all sides are determined to get it done.

"It is early to celebrated, as I mentioned yesterday, there are other players that may influence in the last minute, but it is encouraging.

When I say celebrate, it means this deal (assuming the Syrian Government takes full control of State business and the SAA is fully present in all Canton with minimum possibility of setbacks with armed militias), will influence the years to come in Syria, Sheikh Maksud (which is slowly being absorbed into normal life in Aleppo) will be the first to join the deal completely.

We will see impact in Hasaka city and Province, where many inhabitants (Arabs and Kurds doe support the Syrian Government). This deal could be a message to the US that it is time to get out with some dignity or it will get uglier as time goes by .."

Anonymous on February 16, 2018 , · at 2:44 pm UTC
watch the old footage of helicopters flying from the rooftops in Saigon. "Ugly" doesn't worry the US elites that control policy. They'll gladly trade 'ugly' for any small benefit, and the same elites have no problems putting the lives of the people who are foolishly loyal to them into great danger.

The great philosopher George Carlin famously once said, "its a small club. And you ain't in it." They only care about the members of their club, and will sacrifice a few of them when forced to. But they don't care about 'ugly' and they make sure that no members of the club are among the last to flee Saigon and beyond that they don't care about anyone or anything else if it gets into the way of their grabs for power and wealth.

Anonius on February 17, 2018 , · at 8:24 am UTC
You could always count on George with his spot on critique of the establishment and other subjects. May he rest in peace.
Edward on February 16, 2018 , · at 1:03 pm UTC
Given its precarious situation, maybe Turkey will eventually try to patch its relations with Syria, although I see no sign of this so far.
sea on February 17, 2018 , · at 12:31 am UTC
Very difficult , one week ( may ten days) ago all Turkish newspapers published a photo of Erdogan : at his right side the prime minister, and at the left side the previous prime minister Davutoglu.

Davutoglu has been the most important planner of the Syrian war, big ally of the USA. He was obliged to resign and practically disappear from the political scene when Erdogan went to Putin excusing himself for the shooting down of a Russian plane. Now he ( and his policies ) seem to have made a full scale coming back .

Blue on February 17, 2018 , · at 3:33 am UTC
The US is still trying to use the Kurds to manipulate Turkey into a direct conflict with Syria. Erdoğan still wants to overthrow Assad as does the US.

Erdoğan's blocking Syria in Idlib and the possible movement of SA into Afrin sets up this potential confrontation.

The question is will Turkey take the bit if its observation forces are challenged or attecked in Idlib, and send in the Turkish army, or will they back off and leave the fighting to their Takfiri? The US hopes that the former will occur.

Gastarbeiter on February 16, 2018 , · at 1:49 pm UTC
RF will stay passive till end of World Cup (where US did not "qualify"). Afterwards all bets are off (all fronts).

TK can at best act as party spoiler and taking attention away from other areas. Can't be trusted. One can just win time.

RF could also retaliate with caliber hits at still ISIS areas, where for sure critical resources are embedded, just like was done last year at Aleppo.

Richard Steven Hack on February 16, 2018 , · at 2:03 pm UTC
"The support for Israeli operations against Iranian and Hezbollah forces in Lebanon and Syria"

I believe this is where US and Israeli intentions are. With the defeat of the US/Israel/Saudi plan to degrade Syria's military preparatory to an Israel attack on Lebanon, Israel now wants to up the ante by getting the US to join it in an attack on Hizballah in Lebanon and then the US will find a way to justify extending that war into Syria.

Tillerson just attacked Hizballah again today as part of the ramp-up"

Tillerson says Hezbollah a danger to Lebanon: https://www.thenational.ae/world/tillerson-says-hezbollah-a-danger-to-lebanon-1.705030

Larchmonter445 on February 16, 2018 , · at 3:02 pm UTC
Tillerson w/Hariri. Says it all.

President Aoun decides about Hezbollah, and he already has decided he wants them, he wants Russia and he wants no relationship with Hegemon. Tillerson is a traveling carnival show. Sad to see a man used as a puppet.

Sun Tzu on February 17, 2018 , · at 1:36 pm UTC
Lebanon is being presented with two diametrically opposite choices: a) attempt to disarm Hezbollah so that it stops threatening Israeli off-shore claims or water access wishes in southern Lebanon. b) provide access to Russian navy assets on all your ports. The first choice is just political suicide. The second choice will infuriate the Hegemon.

The last shooting skirmish between Syria and Israel caused much more than a downed F16I. It caused consternation because the Air Space at Ben Gurion was officially closed during the hostilities. Elijah Magnier ejmagnier.com asserts that his Syrian sources confirm a decision to rain down a couple of dozen Surface to Surface missiles over Israeli towns in the Golan Heights or anywhere in Israel if IAF violates Syrian air space sovereignty. The fact that Israel immediately after mobilized to strengthened its Air Defense batteries to the Northern border speaks to that threat.

Hezbollah also confirmed that an Israeli vs Syria + Hezbollah war will include the resistance striking targets in Israel's off shore Gas and Oil interests. The war front will be wider including Israel occupied Golan Heights, Shebaa farms, Off Shore gas rigs operated by Israel.

In Syria's East the Hegemon is in an untenable situation. Weaponizing the Kurds against Turkey will result in an accelerated Turkey-exit from NATO on the least and an inter NATO clash on the worst case.

It is with this in mind that I am convinced that this is the beginning of the war called Armageddon in the Bible. The Tel Megiddo is a man made mound in Northern Israel that dominates this famous battlefield.

The next Front is now in Northern Israel as proven by the location of the downed F16 and by Israeli fortification of its Northern Air Defense.

Auslander on February 16, 2018 , · at 3:07 pm UTC
In my opinion any reactions by Russia to the escalating provocations in Syria and elsewhere will be muted, and this includes if serving Russian Military are killed again. There are a number of reasons for this but again in my opinion this muted response has nothing to do with the upcoming election and/or the football champion ships which, by the way, will probably be withdrawn at the last minute as yet another calculated insult to Russia.

Muted response has been the norm from Russia for quite some years but on the other hand this in no way means there was no and/or will not be a response. Take for instance the pinpoint accuracy mortar attack on the field hospital last year that killed our doctors and nurses who were in place to treat Syrian civilians. I will not go in to the mechanics of this attack but I know exactly how it was done and I am willing to guaranty you that the highly trained and expert foreign team that did the attack is not alive today nor were they alive 3 days after the attack. It is the same with the team that shot down our Dry 25. They are dead. Period. However, killing these teams after they do their deed does not negate the damage they do in the first place and therein is the problem.

There are two ways to stop these ongoing and guaranteed to escalate attacks. One, Russia surrenders and pulls everyone and everything back to within her borders. Not going to happen. Period. Two, Russia continues on her implacable course of steady pressure on the Empire to not so much as defeat her but to preserve Russian interests and world interests, world interests meaning peace on this war wracked planet we call home.

In the near future, read a good part of this year, you can expect escalating attacks and provocations against any Russian interests and this will include both Syria and Ukraine plus southern and western Russia, proposed or in process gas supply lines and various business and industrial projects and agreements between Russia and other countries. I have few doubts that the orcs will be ordered to attack Novorossiya within a week of the Russian elections and at the same time the well known coming false flag chemical attack in Syria will take place. Both attacks will result in increasingly serious sanctions against Russia in attempts to turn the Russian populace against President Putin and foment a revolution against the government. This will not happen, that is a given, but the sanctions will hurt an ever widening part of the populace. Russians are a pretty tough bunch and additional sanctions will do nothing but make the Russians more resolved to support their government and culture.

In the end, Russia will persevere and while we will have more and more of our servicemen and women coming home dead, we will win in the end. The Empire is dying, that is obvious, but a dying animal is if anything more dangerous than when young and healthy. Therein is the real problem, will the empire in it's death throes pull down the entire world with it.

One more little detail. The number of Russian citizens under contract to Syria killed in the now world famous attack is three, two dead and one wounded who died. End of story, except for the grieving widows and families in Russia and Syria.

Auslander
Author

Sevastopol, The Third Defense. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079KRPLS4 Book 1, A Premonition, The Move South

An Incident On Simonka https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01ERKH3IU NATO Is Invited To Leave Sevastopol, One Way Or The Other.

Anonymous on February 16, 2018 , · at 7:18 pm UTC
"This will not happen, that is a given, but the sanctions will hurt an ever widening part of the populace."

I hope sanctions will not hurt many Russian citizens. Since neither the Russian government, nor the Russian citizens live in a make-believe world, they could suspect that the West will not give up with its efforts at destabilizing the Russian Federation. Russia, in corporation with China can produce pretty neat hich-tech gadgets. The Chines are able to produce excellent quality (if they want to). Who needs many Western products (often produced to fail – planned obsolescence) if the Russians have learned to develop / produce quality stuff themselves?

Ngoyo on February 17, 2018 , · at 4:00 am UTC
True and I believe this is the correct policy. Dramatic confrontations with the US are not in Russia's interest. There is also the issue that Trump is looking increasingly like a winner, in the Russian collusion fight. If the republicans do well in the up coming elections, he will be able to put that vicious battle behind him. This will open up possibilities for the US to cooperate with Russia, if only tacitly, in Syria and Ukraine.

I think Saker is way too hard on Trump, his zig-zagging on Russia is due to his domestic issues. The possibilities for friendship between Russia and the US remain. Edgar Cayce the US's "Sleeping Prophet" predicted in 1932 and 1944 that:

1944: " What then of nations? In Russia there comes the hope of the world, not as that sometimes termed of the Communistic, of the Bolshevistic; no. But freedom, freedom! that each man will live for his fellow man! The principle has been born. It will take years for it to be crystallized, but out of Russia comes again the hope of the world. Guided by what? That friendship with the nation that hath even set on its present monetary unit "In God We Trust." "

and

1932:"On Russia's religious development will come the greater hope of the world. Then that one, or group, that is the closer in its relationships, may fare the better in the gradual changes and final settlement of conditions as to the rule of the world. "

Makedonia on February 16, 2018 , · at 5:40 pm UTC
Can someone please explain why China has not provided real assistance in Syria in terms of sending their defense forces namely their air force and navy? If anything it would provide them with real combat experience which they may more than possibly need to rely on in any potential conflicts with Taiwan and the South China Sea. I really don't understand their "neutrality" with this situation. Russia really needs their help right now or the consequences of this whole Syrian situation will just be unimaginable.
JackJC on February 16, 2018 , · at 6:30 pm UTC
China has been supplying material and trainers to the Syrians – this is documented.

What is not known is how far that level of support has gone. As I mentioned in another post a few weeks ago, supplying Chinese military personnel to Syria – overtly – is not in China's strategic interest. If they actually supply 'unattached' Chinese troops it will be covert and very quiet.

дулебг on February 16, 2018 , · at 6:03 pm UTC
@ main purpose of the entire US deployment in northern Syria:
--
I think main purpose for the US in northern Syria is:
– to establish Kurdish state, from which Americans would control the whole Middle East,
– to build pipelines from the Gulf to Turkey and Europe, and to dictate the prices of oil and petrol,
– to exploit local gas and oil fields.
mijj on February 16, 2018 , · at 6:08 pm UTC
Surely Russia must have anticipated that the powers-that-be in the US would never admit defeat and cease interfereing. This will always be the case. It's a consequence of the US ubermensch mentality. As ever, to anticipate US behavior one must ask oneself 'what would the Mafia do?'
HDan on February 17, 2018 , · at 4:01 am UTC
No it's much more simple. If one wants to anticipate what they will do as a next step just ask yourself what would the lowest scum do, and your bet will hit better than 50% absolutly certain..
Where-Wolf on February 16, 2018 , · at 6:28 pm UTC
Read carefully because everything is coming into view. At the begining of WW1 the British, in an incident involving the battlecruiser Goeben, placed under a Turkish flag but still operated by a German crew, shelled Odessa pushing the Ottomans into the war on the side of the Central Powers.

The Young Turks had wanted very badly to be on the side of the Entente, but this did not matter because the British plan was to carve up the Ottoman Empire, ultimately aiming to control all of it's oil (imagine how much oil it would control if it were around today), and so after the war it was dismantled and the British-made stooge Attaturk was installed.

The same strategy is being enacted today vis a vis Turkey and Russia. Erdogan is the direct inheritor of the Young Turk political tradition and he is also a stooge of the British.

What is the proof that the Turks are controlled by the British?

There are many but one obvious link concerns the Anglo-Zionist propaganda and the chemical weapons 'management' organization known as White Helmets, which are imbedded with Turkish controlled HTS in Northern Syria, thus dilineating a crystal clear link to support what I am describing. There was also the recent drone attack on the Russian Khmeimim made from Turkish controlled Syrian territory, an attack which the Russians expalined was not 'Turkish' without further elaborating.

The Russians understood the attack on Khmeimim was perpetrated by British Intelligence, and so they gave Turkey a pass.

Now, imagine you are the Russians and your best bets for a military ally in Syria are Turkey and perhaps Iran.

What would you think?

Under no circumstances would you even consider exposing your armies to dependence on Turkish support or supply lines to Syria which could easily be blocked. To do so would be suicide.

Therefore the Russian strategy is delay delay delay, because they understand there are no good options for them in a war against the Perfidious Ones in Syria, who are effectively allied to China despite mountains of (scarcely believable) propaganda suggesting China supports Russia, which is in itself an absolute load of Dung Xiaoping.

But the Anglo-Zionists, like the Russians, all together understand these surface calculations and so the Perfidious Ones are going one better, to entice the Russians into overestimating their strength and becoming more deeply involved in Syria especially.

This involves convincing the Russians that the Pentagon junta which controls the Whitehouse of Donald Trump is also on their side and would effectively (as it sometimes appears) support Russia in a wider war, thus changing the Kremlin calculation, however, despite close cooperation in Syria between the Russians and Pentagon, and in alternative media which is generally pro Russian and pro-Pentagon , it seems the Russians are not fooled and will do their best to keep options for withdrawal from Syria open.

This is why Putin has twice declared a Russian withdrawal from Syria. The Russians understand they have no good options in a direct confrontation with the West and further their greatest potential ally in the region, the Iranians, are themselves playing a double game, also secretly alligned to the Peridious Ones, as has been highlighted repeatedly by Thierry Meyssan.

Should the Iranians wish it they could sweep the US and SDF Kurds out of eastern Syria and northern Iraq in no time flat. It is the secret cooperation of the Iranians and Pentagon in Iraq and eastern Syria which gives the game away concerning the role of the Pentagon. By threatening to tear up the nuclear agreement, which in any case gives the Iranians nothing and relinquishes over 100 billion dollars of Iranian assets held since the Iranian revolution, the Trump administration is creating a pretext which appears to be holding the Iranians back from full cooperation with Russia and ultimately, from victory in this war.

James Speaks on February 16, 2018 , · at 7:03 pm UTC
I don't think the question, "What will be the Russian response to further provocation?" is the right question. Although Russia is doing the right thing, assisting Syria at its request to fight terrorism and launching a legitimate peace process, from the twisted viewpoint of Rogue State and Hegemon, these actions are provocation. Any action that prevents Rogue State and Hegemon from destroying other nations is viewed as a provocation.

I think the right question is, "Based on the success of the past two years, how will Russia tweak its policies going forth?"

My guess is that the obvious rules. Syrian lands belong to Syria. Russia has affirmed its support for Syrian territorial integrity. Neither party has earned a reputation for hyperbole. There are locations where ISIS/Acronym have been identified, namely the pocket west of Deir Ezzor, The pocket along the border with Iraq east of the Euphrates, Al-Tanf, spots south of Damascus, Daara, and just across the Euphrates from Deir Ezzor where ISIS et all attacked SAA and government aligned troops as they attempted to cross the Euphrates and approach the Conoco oil fields.

Now that Syria has established their prerogative to shoot down opposition warplanes, and I hope Russia is providing massive ordnance in this regard, I suspect we will see a war of attrition that plays into Syrian strengths and Hegemon's weaknesses; Rather than asymmetric warfare waged on Syrian and Russian forces, wouldn't it be a hoot if the good guys waged a guerrilla operation on Hegemon. And what can Hegemon do, launch airplanes? They can be shot down, and over Syrian territory.

Andrew on February 16, 2018 , · at 9:54 pm UTC
We should go back to Libya, it's the big why we need an answer to. Hillary Clinton said' we came, we saw, he died'. Thats a lot of spite from someone raised in the South and living in comfort a long way away.

Something tipped someone over the edge, the Brits went for Gaddafi, even with NATO help they needed the USA to finish the job, they must have known it would erupt in internecine warfare, unless their intelligence is very basic, it's not like it hasn't happened everywhere else they have been. It left the EU very short of light crude for diesel, so there was some sacrifice from the EU.

Israel got a hammering in Lebanon, any idea of their invincibility was well and truly vanquished, they still have great intelligence capacity and nukes but not seen as invincible in a traditional scrap.

Something is missing from the story, I keep thinking it's still about oil, lots of powerful people in the States made it in the oil industry. Why is the USA going so hard out with it's fracking? Energy isn't that expensive, why not use other countries reserves first?

China is most dependent on energy imports, he who controls energy controls it all, and that was the house of Saud with its dependence on the USA and Aramco, a company that could be worth 10 trillion in the right market. A China/Russia alliance is going to be very powerful, China is being driven into trade deals with Russia to protect its energy supplies. China wasn't happy with the old TPP deal.

Today the energy market is more fragmented, taking control is harder and Russia looks likely to be the big player and they won't be pushed around or influenced like those in the middle east.

Syria is a mix match of cultures but it sort of works. Why was Syria so important, Ok they side with Iran and Iran is a red flag to the States. Still it shouldn't be enough to warrant this treatment, unless someone thought they could get to Iran via Syria. Either that or the Jewish lobby in the States is more powerful than I thought and it's all about Israel

The Assads have very close ties to the UK, she was born and went to school there, it's makes more sense they would be pro British than anything else. Just me thinking aloud.

vot tak on February 16, 2018 , · at 11:08 pm UTC
"Either that or the Jewish lobby in the States is more powerful than I thought and it's all about Israel"

That it is.

one minion on February 17, 2018 , · at 7:49 am UTC
He got his eye doctor training here and her parents still live here, but it doesn't necessarily follow that they are particularly pro-British. Pro-Syrian and cosmopolitan is far more likely.
Rob from Canada on February 16, 2018 , · at 10:42 pm UTC
Russia made an offer for the Saudi Aramco IPO. http://www.atimes.com/article/putin-prefers-aramco-trumps-sword-dance/
Keith McClary on February 17, 2018 , · at 12:50 am UTC
Whatever happened to the turkey israel water/gas pipeline ?
Ngoyo on February 17, 2018 , · at 3:34 am UTC
The Russians should encourage the US to go for its mini Kurdistan project and hope they achieve it. The benefits of such a policy far outweigh the costs of trying to prevent it:
  1. A mini Kurdistan in the interior of Syria is completely unsustainable in the face of Syrian, Turkish and Iraqi opposition.
  2. It will make the perfect quagmire for the US/Israel combo. It will tie up vast AngloZionist resources in establishing and defending it. All for nothing in the medium to long term.
  3. It will drive a major wedge between Turkey and the US. This would likely lead to the US being driven from Turkey and Iraq.
  4. It will allow Syria to mop up the rest of the country and begin reconstruction. This rebuilding is Syria's best defense against the AngloZionist imperialists. Syria must build itself into a fortress like Iran if it is to survive.

Sometimes people want something to happen, just out of spite for someone else, without thinking of the consequences for themselves. This is the case with the US Kurdistan project. The US wants to spite Russia and Syria by establishing Kurdistan. But such a state would be landlocked between very hostile neighbors. It has absolutely no viability. At the same time it will destroy the US geopolitical position in the middle east. Kurdistan is poisoned fruit and if the US wants it, why should Russia stand in its way?

By the way, I do not see Trump falling for this trap, I believe he is sincere in his wish to disengage the US from such foreign adventures. But there is not much he can do presently against the neocon establishment. But he has already made real progress, ISIS would not have been defeated and the Syrians won the war, if Trump had not been president. Try and imagine a Hillary presidency, with McCain making Syria policy.

Oscar on February 17, 2018 , · at 5:34 am UTC
"Step two: saturating Syria with mobile modern short/middle range air defenses" It is the only possible way to go forward (in my humble opinion) this to try avoid risking Russian lives. The best and most advanced weapons should be provided to the Syrian, Hezbollah and Iran militias. Israel will be mad about that but is the only way to put pressure on them to stop their aggression against Syria.

"One objection to this plan would be that two can play this game and that there is nothing preventing the USA from sending even more advanced MANPADs to their "good terrorist" allies". Whatever Russia does will not prevent the US from providing these weapons, on the contrary they are probably doing that already through their "secret" channels like the CIA, Mossad, etc.

Simon Chow on February 17, 2018 , · at 12:13 pm UTC
Counter escalation is too logical. Syria is a quagmire. The 'mud' weighing down Russia is Daesh and the pro-US 'moderates', mainly those Kurds backed by the US. But there more potential 'mud' that can suck in the US.

Turkey is already bogged down by the Kurds in what can be identified as the beginning of protracted warfare with Turkish cargo 200 being steadily produced for Erdogan. Israel feels threatened and so does the US.

But the Israelis are too astute to put boots on the ground in Syria in substantial numbers. Besides Hezbollah has 100,000 rockets pointed like a gun to Israel's head. But the US? There is now a window of opportunity to suck in the US in a protracted guerrilla war in Syria.

Hezbollah, Iranians and the Iraqi Shi'ites would be only too glad to scalp the Yankees in Syria and elsewhere. Now what can be done or rather what can Russia do or don't do, to suck in the ZioYanks into a Vietnam-like protracted scrap in Syria? If the ZioYanks are sucked into Syria in a big way, the fighting will likely spread to Iraq and Afghanistan. If this happen, it will also doom the already badly managed US economy! I think the solution is staring us in the eyes! Just speculatin'.

Larry Galearis on February 17, 2018 , · at 12:38 pm UTC
As usual, a well thought out and presented essay for an escalation in Syria.

Additional thought: If the Russians are concerned about a "deniability context" in supplying more competent anti-air capacity against US/Israeli air attacks I wonder if announcing a sale of S-300 or better units to Syria would be preferable to letting this escalate gradually with Russian upgrades of what already exists in Syria.

If such a purchase was undertaken, these would be Syrian owned missile systems and therefore deniable as aggressive on the part of Russia. After all the Turks are buying them, and the Iranians and the Saudis are also in line for them. But for the Syrians it would be tantamount to them declaring a no fly zone; the air losses to Israel and US planes would be very serious – serious enough to discourage this kind of escalation completely.

FWIW,
L.
P.S. Typos are the pepper in a Saker meal, maybe it doesn't add much, but given the positives I tolerate them very well.

Dimitar on February 17, 2018 , · at 3:16 pm UTC
How far can the Russians be pushed? The important thing is their responses are always the response of an intelligent, self-assured player who understands that power is not to be thrown around like some schoolyard bully. To quote Shakespeare in "Cymbelline", the game is up. And Uncle Scam knows it.
Tit for tat on February 17, 2018 , · at 6:27 pm UTC
American contractors can now come under similar pressure, after march election the command and control of the US proxies may be missiled. Even if there are US advisors on site.

[Feb 15, 2018] Syria Could Be Washington's Next Big Foreign Policy Failure

Syria adventure was hatched by Hillary and Barak. and paid by ordinary Americans. Usual imperial staff.
Feb 15, 2018 | nationalinterest.org

Now the administration assures us that it has an even better idea, an extended occupation by combat troops amid multiple contending armed forces, highlighted by forcing Assad from office, fixing war-ravaged areas, building up Kurdish forces, satisfying the Turkish government, banishing Tehran's influence, and avoiding confrontation with Russia. There is no risk of overreach or mission creep. And certainly no need for Congress to vote on the issue.

[Feb 15, 2018] The partition of Syria according to the US is a fait accompli, presumably the Kurds/SDF will be invited to govern almost one third of the oil rich and fertile parts of Syria, without them being asked. Syria, Iraq, Iran,Turkey or Russia will not like this arrangement

Feb 15, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

harrylaw , Feb 14, 2018 12:13:16 PM | 22

CarlD@14 The partition of Syria according to the US is a fait accompli, presumably the Kurds/SDF will be invited to govern almost one third of the oil rich and fertile parts of Syria, without them being asked. Syria, Iraq, Iran,Turkey or Russia will not like this arrangement, but as you know, when the US occupy a state, they never leave until militarily forced to do so. At this time it is not wise for the five states to fight the US directly even Turkey who have potentially just as much to lose as Syria and have promised to strangle this new state at birth, must do so by at least..
  1. Not letting any trade [particularly oil] cross the border.
  2. Stop any arms shipments to the Kurds.
  3. Since Incirlik air base is essential to the setting up of this state, US forces should be persona non grata there.

If this fails they should do what the coalition have done, us proxies, unattributed of course and ensure they have the weapons to do the job...IED's,EFP's mortars, rockets and manpads. The only langauge the US understands.

Willy2 , Feb 14, 2018 12:17:01 PM | 24
- Peter Lee had one other interesting story: Harry Truman fired surpreme commander Douglas McArthur in 1950 because McArthur wanted to provoke an incident with China and start a war with China.

https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/scotthortonshow/1-26-18-peter-lee-douglas-macarthur-conspired-start-war-china/

[Feb 15, 2018] Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved Sending Libya's Sarin to Syrian Rebels

Feb 15, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Speaking of fireworks in NYC:

Obama More Concerned About Manhattan Nuke Than Russia

Also interesting news:

Seymour Hersh Says Hillary Approved Sending Libya's Sarin to Syrian Rebels

Posted by: PeacefulProsperity | Feb 13, 2018 6:29:54 PM | 67

[Feb 15, 2018] Syria's War Has Never Been More International by Uri Friedman

In Syria the USA is playing "might is right" card. Ignoring all international laws. There is no legal justification for the USA troops presence. They care clearly illegal force on Syrian territory. That's a dangerous game. Taking into account the USA unleashed Syria civil war for their own geopolitical purposes, trying to reverse growing influence of Iran due to the blunder on Iraq war this is clearly Roman empire moment for the USA.
This is total capitulation of Trump to neocons.
Feb 15, 2018 | www.theatlantic.com

Turkey, for example, isn't willing to accept the entrenchment of a U.S.-supported Kurdish militia , which the Turkish government associates with Kurdish insurgents in Turkey, right across its border. The United States seems determined to hold ground in Syria to prevent the resurgence of terrorist groups and frustrate Iran's plans to extend its power across the Eastern Mediterranean. Israel shares America's goal of countering Iran, particularly at its border with Syria.

Russia, meanwhile, is bent on preserving a friendly government in Damascus and a military presence on the Mediterranean, while casting itself as a global power player on par with America. The Iranians -- currently "the single-most influential player" in Syria -- are "trying to establish a long-term strategic military infrastructure in [Syria], build missile-production facilities, move precision-guided munitions," Itani said. Both nations " are upset that the United States is not departing the country," Tabler said.

[Feb 15, 2018] Pull U.S. Troops Out of the Middle East and Put 'America First' The National Interest Blog

Notable quotes:
"... Daniel L. Davis is a Senior Fellow for Defense Priorities and a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army who retired in 2015 after twenty-one years, including four combat deployments ..."
Feb 15, 2018 | nationalinterest.org

In Iraq, U.S. advisors and air power in some cases ironically helped Iranian-backed militias succeed on the ground, strengthening Teheran's hand in Iraq. Their influence remains strong today . Less than two months into his presidency, Trump ordered hundreds more troops into Syria to assist the SDF in its battle against ISIS, especially in Raqqa. Almost immediately U.S.-NATO ally Turkey protested the effort, Syria condemned the intrusion into their country, and Russia cautioned against it.

The U.S.-backed SDF did indeed eventually liberate Raqqa , but again it must be pointed out that ISIS would have eventually lost Raqqa even without U.S. involvement. The cost to our country at having supported the Kurds, however, has been growing.

Making good on his early threats, Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan crossed into Syrian territory to engage in what he called Operation Olive Branch on January 20. Turkish troops began attacking the SDF, whom Ankara views as a terror threat to its country. Though both Secretary of State Tillerson and Secretary of Defense James Mattis mildly protested, Erdogan ignored U.S. pleas with cavalier disdain.

"We don't care what they say," the Turkish president said of America's reaction. "They will learn how wrong it is to trust a terror organization." Adding that Turkey would only remain on Syrian territory until they had accomplished their objectives, Erdogan sarcastically added , "I ask the United States: Did you have any specific time duration in Afghanistan?" Adding insult to injury, Russia owned the airspace above the location in Syria where Turkey attacked: Ankara got Moscow to support its move against the SDF in opposition to U.S. preferences. That a NATO ally can so easily and publicly rebuke the United States, literally killing soldiers that America supported and cooperating with its biggest competitor, is a troubling indicator how much influence Washington has lost. Russia is only too happy to drive a wedge between NATO countries, especially if it pokes a stick in America's eye.

All of these developments are unequivocally antithetical to American interests––and all of them could have been avoided if Obama had not committed the United States to the operations in Iraq and Syria, and if Trump hadn't doubled-down on the missions. As it is, the trouble is still not over. Recent events have raised the potential for unintentional military clashes between the United States and Turkey.

On Wednesday the White House said that Trump told Erdogan in a phone conversation that Trump "urged Turkey to deescalate, limit its military actions, and avoid civilian casualties." On the same day in Ankara, Erdogan announced his forces would expand the assault "[s]tarting in Manbij," where "we will continue to thwart (SDF's) game." In response, U.S. military spokesman Col. Ryan Dillon said the U.S. Forces in the Manbij area "have an inherent right to defend themselves and will do so if necessary."

Moreover, though Washington helped liberate Mosul and Raqqa, the terror threat to the United States ISIS poses is virtually unchanged, as the group's leaders simply moved underground to continue operating. In other words, the United States has expended enormous resources and sacrificed many of its service members to a mission that has resulted in a net loss to America.

Instead of trying desperately to remain in Iraq and Syria to perpetuate these failures, it is time for the interests of America to be considered first. Washington must wind down its combat missions in the Middle East, redeploy its troops to their home bases, and begin the process of rebuilding the ability of America's Armed Forces to face potentially existential fights in the future.

Daniel L. Davis is a Senior Fellow for Defense Priorities and a former lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army who retired in 2015 after twenty-one years, including four combat deployments . Follow him @DanielLDavis1 .

[Feb 15, 2018] Mattis is probably mentally ill. He'll gleefully kill millions more. I really can not see what Tillerson and Mattis have to offer Turkey other than threats.

Feb 15, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Mattis is probably mentally ill. He'll gleefully kill millions more.

The terrorists are mentally ill. They would kill millions if they could.

Implacable.

Thus, the reason for the rise of Russia and the influence and respect for Putin. Russians will kill terrorists but embrace Islamic people who want peaceful cooperation.

Peace is a long way off. The Hegemon abhors Peace and has the means and ideology to create chaos, death and destruction anywhere on the globe.

The American economic system depends on MIC expenditures, debt, waste, corruption, and fiscal abuse.

Nothing much will change until multi-polar economic forces come into dominance and coerce the American changes. Those are a long way off, also, though a few of those forces are coming into view.

Posted by: Red Ryder | Feb 12, 2018 12:21:31 PM | 2


ConfusedPundit , Feb 12, 2018 1:33:01 PM | 4

Mattis is coming to Turkey soon.

Pentagon statement today: 550 million dolar, 2018 budget, for PKK.
(Meaning: You can defeat terrorism, but you can't you beat our purse!)

There is a massive propaganda campaing targeting Turkey in the past 2-3 days. It's coming from international sources. BBC, AFP etc.

This is the main theme

"Turks, beware of Russia, Syria and Iran! They are your enemy. Israel is your friend! The USA is a superpower, obey!"

I believe nobody, no muslim targets America or ordinary American people for that mater! So any incident should be received as provocation.
Those who pull the strings in the USA, behind the doors, maybe under risk though.

IMHO

jsn , Feb 12, 2018 1:55:10 PM | 7
Mattis/Pentagon just doing business development for the MIC
nonsense factory , Feb 12, 2018 11:39:44 PM | 32
@colin 3, Yes, I used to try to update the wikipedia page on the TAPI pipeline and while some things remained on the site, most of it was edited away. Anything to do with Exxon, Chevron, US military actions along the pipeline route, Hillary Clinton's cheerleading for the project during the Obama era, actions taken by the US State Department in summer 2001 (pre 9-11) aimed at pressuring the Taliban into signing off on the deal (in exchange for handing over bin Laden, etc.) all gone. Not worth the bother; you're up against PR firms with full-time staff devoted to sanitizing everything.

@4 CP, the corporate media PR stream, it's something I can't even watch anymore (I follow it with Google News search just to see what the headlines are, but it's basically predictable content so that's enough). Here and there across the web there are some honest discussions though:
https://thewire.in/219467/russia-turkey-iran-triangle-economic-interests-paramount/

I really can't see what Tillerson and Mattis have to offer Turkey other than threats.

xaderp , Feb 13, 2018 3:47:05 AM | 35
I think you are reading Mattis's comments wrong.

The moment the USA pulls its troops out of the middle east, a bomb will go off at Times Square .

john , Feb 13, 2018 6:07:37 AM | 43
Yeah, Right says:

"If America Wasn't America, The United States Would Be Bombing It".
Damn, that's funny

yeah, i just read the article , and while the title is indeed humorous, the content is decidedly not. but it's a good synopsis of the unprecedented amount of death and destruction wrought on this undeserving planet by the US of Argh.

ConfusedPundit , Feb 13, 2018 12:12:09 PM | 49
What's this man talking about? US led NATO has been terrorising another member, Turkey.
By means of 3 Proxies: PKK, ISIS, Gulenists.

It's a misconception that the Turks and Americans want a war.
However, both Americans and Turks do want a war against the Neocons!

Perhaps it's time for a false flag nuke at Times Sq or Taksim Sq or Tiananmen Sq or Trafalgar Sq.

Eric Neoconman the chief provocator.

Turkey Is Out of Control.Time for the U.S. to Say So

Partisan , Feb 14, 2018 5:57:41 AM | 72
The West and in particular Amerikkans constantly use the Circular Argument in its public relation and propaganda statements. That kind of attitude works with an allies, nominal or otherwise, in the cases where sovereignty/national interest is threatened that kind of deception is treated just like that, deception.
Unfortunately Tayyip has been used as client state for long time, from Libya to Syria where he experienced sudden awakening.

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/2018/02/erdogan-slams-support-kurdish-ypg-fighters-180214070010174.html


The US has reiterated that it has no plans to withdraw its forces from Manbij.

Paul Funk, the commander of US forces in Syria and Iraq, made a recent visit to Manbij and said that the US and its partners in Syria would hit back if attacked.

"You hit us, we will respond aggressively. We will defend ourselves," Funk said.

Erdogan took aim at that, saying: "It is obvious that those, who say they will 'give a sharp response' if they were hit, have not been hit by the Ottoman slap."

He, he, he....that would be something to see.

[Feb 15, 2018] Russia In the Crosshairs by Paul Craig Roberts

that would be nice if the state capable to put the USA in place exists. But such state does not exist and we need to be content with this fact. The period of wnjoying "sole superpower" status which started in 1991 with the dissolution of the USSR will not end probably until we run out of cheap oil. Russia currently is way too weak to confront the USA and NATO allies in Syria. So she needs to suffer, while trying to preserve gains of Assad government.
I think Russia realizes that Washington is not a rational government with which diplomacy can be practiced, peace pursued, and agreements reached.
As the author stated earlier : " With the public in its pocket, the military/security complex will increase its reckless provocations of Russia until we are all dead."
Notable quotes:
"... Eric Zuesse notes that only Syria and Russia complain about Washington's illegal occupation of Syrian territory, an occupation that has no UN authorization and is a complete and total violation of international law, and Israel's continual attacks on Syria. ..."
"... Zuesse also notes that Washington and its UK puppet block all UN action against Washington's illegality. http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/u-s-not-globally-condemned-military-occupation-syria/ ..."
"... But the question is, when will Russia learn, if ever, that facts and law make no difference whatsoever to Washington? Washington's interest is in its hegemony over the world and in Israel's hegemony in the Middle East. ..."
"... Lendman makes the point that "As long as Russia maintains the myth of partnership with Washington instead of giving Washington a taste of its own medicine . . . conflict will likely continue escalating." https://www.globalresearch.ca/russia-blasts-us-attack-on-syrian-and-allied-forces/5628740 ..."
"... Either Russia is unsure of its power or Putin is prevented from using Russia's power by the treasonous Atlanticist Integrationists who constitute Washington's Fifth Column inside the Russian government and economy. It is a mystery why Putin tolerates a small handful of traitors who have minimal public support while the West and Israel become daily more aggressive against Russian national interests. ..."
"... Putin sensibly avoids escalating a situation, but one gets the impression that there are constraints on Putin's ability to stand up to Washington. The Saker identifies the problem as the pro-Washington "Atlanticist Integrationists" who for personal career reasons, personal business reasons, and because they are supported by Washington-financed NGOs and media inside Russia, have sold out Russian sovereignty to globalism. ..."
"... This entire conflict, primed to grow in intensity, could have been stopped by Putin acknowledging the same overwhelming majority vote as occured in Crimea and reincorporating the provinces in Russia. The nazi government of Ukraine even with Washington and EU's support is not so completely insane that it would attack Russia and expect to continue to exist. ..."
Feb 15, 2018 | www.unz.com

Defending the latest round of US/Israeli aggression against Syria, US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert struck a Hitlerian note when she blamed Syria and Iran for an act of overt Israeli aggression, saying "The United States . . . strongly supports Israel's sovereign right to defend itself," and when she lied that "Iran's malign activities" and "calculated escalation of threat and its ambition to project its power and dominance places all people in the region at risk." https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201802111061547754-state-department-syria-israel-escalation/

Adolf Hitler covered his "projection of power and dominance" and his invasion of Poland with the same blatant lies that Washington and Israel use to cover their aggressions. Hitler claimed that Polish forces had crossed the frontier and attacked Germany. That is the excuse used by Israel and its puppets in the White House and Pentagon that blames Iran for Israel's attack on Syria. When Washington and Israel are shameless in their lies, why does Russia think they are "partners" with whom agreements can be reached?

Eric Zuesse notes that only Syria and Russia complain about Washington's illegal occupation of Syrian territory, an occupation that has no UN authorization and is a complete and total violation of international law, and Israel's continual attacks on Syria. Washington's continuing support for war against the legitimate government of Syria and support for Israeli and terrorist attacks on Syrian and Russian forces are undermining Russia's efforts to bring peace to the region. Zuesse also notes that Washington and its UK puppet block all UN action against Washington's illegality. http://rinf.com/alt-news/editorials/u-s-not-globally-condemned-military-occupation-syria/

Zuesse is correct. But is the continuation of Washington's campaign against Syria and Russia largely the fault of Russia? Stephen Lendman makes a case that it is Russia's fault. https://www.globalresearch.ca/russia-blasts-us-attack-on-syrian-and-allied-forces/5628740

Why? It appears to be the case that the Russian government is so anxious for Western approval that it ends its successful military campaigns before the job is finished. It was Putin himself who declared "victory" in Syria and withdrew some of the Russian military before clearing all of Syria of foreign and jihadist occupation, thus leaving in place US beachheads for renewing the conflict.

It couldn't have taken more than two more weeks for Russia and Syria to liberate all of Syria from the US backed jihadists, but apparently Russia was afraid to annoy Washington that much and to risk contact with US personnel, even though Russia is in Syria legally under international law and the US is present illegally.

Again trusting to international law, the UN, and "our Western partners," Russia quit prematurely. As Lendman says, the complaints by Zakharova, Lavrov, Russian Defense Ministry spokesmen, and Putin himself are based in absolute fact. But the question is, when will Russia learn, if ever, that facts and law make no difference whatsoever to Washington? Washington's interest is in its hegemony over the world and in Israel's hegemony in the Middle East.

Lendman makes the point that "As long as Russia maintains the myth of partnership with Washington instead of giving Washington a taste of its own medicine . . . conflict will likely continue escalating." https://www.globalresearch.ca/russia-blasts-us-attack-on-syrian-and-allied-forces/5628740

Lendman might be correct judging by the reported heavy Israeli attacks on Syria on February 10 after Syrian air defences damaged Israel's image of invincibility by shooting down one of Israel's US-supplied war planes that was attacking Syria and reports that the conflict might be escalating and involving Iran. RT reports that the Kremlin is worried that the de-escalation zones are threatened and that Putin got on the telephone with Netanyahu urging restraint.

All of my life US presidents have been urging restraint on Israel to no effect whatsoever. Putin's urges will have no more effect, unless Putin takes the card from Lendman's playbook and tells the war criminal Netanyahu who heads the illegal Israeli state, which is based on land stolen at bayonet point from Palestinians, that any more of this and Russia will take Israel out. Lendman thinks that no other way of talking to the crazed zionist state, or to Washington, will have any effect, and history seems to be on Lendman's side. http://stephenlendman.org/2018/02/syrian-air-defense-downs-israeli-f-16/ and http://stephenlendman.org/2018/02/israel-escalates-aggression-syria/

Either Russia is unsure of its power or Putin is prevented from using Russia's power by the treasonous Atlanticist Integrationists who constitute Washington's Fifth Column inside the Russian government and economy. It is a mystery why Putin tolerates a small handful of traitors who have minimal public support while the West and Israel become daily more aggressive against Russian national interests.

Putin sensibly avoids escalating a situation, but one gets the impression that there are constraints on Putin's ability to stand up to Washington. The Saker identifies the problem as the pro-Washington "Atlanticist Integrationists" who for personal career reasons, personal business reasons, and because they are supported by Washington-financed NGOs and media inside Russia, have sold out Russian sovereignty to globalism. Putin, apparently, is unwilling or unable to move aside those who serve as Washington's check on Russian nationalism, which prevents any real Russian victory. If the "Atlanticist Integrationists" inside Putin's government are able to block more decisive responses, the question arises: how powerful, really, is Putin? Did Putin win Syria only to lose it to Washington and the Israelis? How can we imagine Putin, the head of a powerful state, on the telephone pleading with an Israeli war criminal who heads a tiny state? We know that Israel owns Washington, but does Israel own Russia also?

How many times did Putin announce victory in Syria, pull out, and then have to go back after Washington's forces had recuperated? Why does Putin refuse the reincorporation of the breakaway Russian provinces in Ukraine? He allowed Crimea back in because of the Russian naval base, but he has refused the Russian provinces of Donetsk and Luhansk. Consequently, the Russian people in these provinces continue to be subject to attack, and Washington has now armed its Ukrainian nazi state with weapons to reconquer the breakaway republics.

This entire conflict, primed to grow in intensity, could have been stopped by Putin acknowledging the same overwhelming majority vote as occured in Crimea and reincorporating the provinces in Russia. The nazi government of Ukraine even with Washington and EU's support is not so completely insane that it would attack Russia and expect to continue to exist.

Putin can entirely end the Ukrainian conflict by accepting the former Russian provinces back into Russia. We can understand that Putin might be thinking long term, as were the Soviet leaders who put Russian populations into Ukraine, to balance the Ukrainian state with Russian populations so that the West cannot completely turn Ukraine, a historic part of Russia herself, into a completely hostile state against which more military forces must be directed. Clearly Putin is a long term strategic thinker, but Russia's fate and that of the rest of us will be decided in the short run.

We can also understand that Putin, by continuing to stress international law, is trying to bring Europe to the realization that Washington operates outside of and above law. Putin is wasting his time. For decades European leaders have been on Washington's payroll. They don't give a hoot about anything other than their bank balances.

The neoconservatives who rule in Washington believe that Putin's removal will restore Washington's hegemony over the world. They regard China as a country that will accept American leadership in exchange for riches. This is most likely a mistaken view of the Chinese government, but it serves to concentrate the attack on Russia, within whose government Washington has allies.

Can the Russian government successfully withstand Washington without Putin dispensing with the Atlanticist Integrationists?

I understand that the views expressed here might be wrong. Zuesse perhaps is wrong. Lendman is perhaps wrong. The Saker is perhaps wrong. And perhaps I am mistaken in my reading of them. No one should underestimate Putin. Nevertheless, Russia should be aware that she is perceived by neoconservative policymakers as a weak state lacking in courage that Washington, and even tiny Israel, can push around, as Washington has done since the collapse of the Soviet Union and as Israel is doing now in Syria. There is never any cost to Washington of blackening Russia's eyes and Russia's reputation. Russia's passivity is inviting nuclear war or Russian surrender.

Whether or not Russia wants to acknowledge it, Russia is in a fight for her life. There is evidence that top Russian leaders are unaware of this. Sergei Chemezov says that Russia is willing to sell Russia's S-400 anti-aircraft system to Washington so Washington can learn how to defeat it and catch up with Russian military technology. Unless Chemezov is making a joke, there is a problem in his perception of reality. http://www.fort-russ.com/2018/02/head-of-rostech-us-may-buy-russias-s.html

Putin damaged himself with people who have a moral conscience when he met with the criminal-in-chief of the Israeli state and treated Netanyahu as if he were not a war criminal who belonged on the scaffold but a world leader worthy of Russia's recognition. This act of folly deflated Putin's reputation as a leader who stood for moral outcomes and not merely for self-interested, negotiated outcomes.

The world needs a leader. The hopes were on Putin.

The America-worshipping Russian Atlanticist Ingegrationists must have many screws loose to want to be part of degenerate Western civilization:

https://fellowshipoftheminds.com/2018/02/08/sarah-silverman-i-want-to-eat-an-aborted-fetus/

https://www.infowars.com/journalist-calls-for-profs-to-drown-conservative-students/

https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/little_barbies_sex_trafficking_of_young_girls_is_americas_dirty_little?utm_source=The+Rutherford+Institute&utm_campaign=8f8957d1fe-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_02_05&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_d7ffde3304-8f8957d1fe-42135461

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/nation-now/2018/02/08/boys-silent-victims-sex-trafficking/1073799001/

[Feb 14, 2018] The rumor of hundreds of Russians killed would be exactly the kind of story they would want to spread before the presidential elections in Russia. Fodder for regime change operations.

Feb 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

- Lots of outlets claim that dozens if not hundreds Russian contractors died in the recent U.S. attack in east Syria. I stand by my take on the issue. There was some kind of local deal made to hand over an oil field in which the Russian contractor Wagner was involved. The U.S. blew up the deal, literally, when it was about to happen. It wants to keep the issue under its sole control. Few, if any, Russians were hurt.


Petri Krohn , Feb 14, 2018 9:12:40 AM | 5

The Syrian special forces group ISIS Hunters have confirmed 20 killed among their ranks in the U.S. airstrikes. I have collected sources here: US airstrike on ISIS Hunters, February 7, 2018

Five Russians are confirmed to be dead. There are some convincing stories of over 100 PMC Wagner contractors killed. These include audio and transcript of Wagner fighters discussing the event and an interview with an alleged survivor. ( audio here.) Allegedly many of the dead are actually from Donbass. It is possible that the audio files are fake. They may come from the same sources as the stories of hundreds or thousands of regular Russian soldiers dying in the Ukraine.

lysander , Feb 14, 2018 9:20:30 AM | 7
The rumor of hundreds of Russians killed would be exactly the kind of story they would want to spread before the presidential elections in Russia. It is highly doubtful a mercenary company would undertake such an operation such as this without Russian government support. And it is highly doubtful the Russian military woukd offer such support.
foo , Feb 14, 2018 12:01:17 PM | 21
@16

From a ZH article

"Already Grigory Yavlinsky, a veteran liberal politician who is running for president in elections next month, has called on Putin to disclose how many Russians had been killed in Syria and in what circumstances."

Sounds to me like fodder for regime change operations.

article that appeared the other day in the NYT:
Grigory A. Yavlinsky, a veteran Russian opposition politician who is a candidate in next month's presidential election, called on Tuesday for Mr. Putin to disclose the number of Russians who had died in Syria.

"I demand an explanation as to why Russian nationals take part in ground military operations in Syria, despite the statements by the president and defense minister that Russian military formations will be withdrawn from this country," Mr. Yavlinsky said in a statement. "I also think there needs to be a public report about relations with the U.S., as there is a growing threat of an accidental or deliberate direct military clash between Russia and America."

To identify Yabloko founder Yavlinsky as "a veteran Russian opposition politician who is a candidate in next month's presidential election," the reporters don't even have the courage to call out Yabloko by name, that's how discredited the party is, is like saying Lydon LaRouche is a veteran U.S. opposition politician.

Posted by: Mike Maloney | Feb 14, 2018 12:39:38 PM | 27

There are more dollars than roubles in Russia! How is this situation in any way or shape compatible with a viable national security? How can the Russians claim any degree of independence when their economy is more dollarized than that of Israel or Turkey? Read about it from the horse's mouth:

http://www.pravdareport.com/russia/economics/30-12-2014/129431-usa_russia_central_bank-0/

Posted by: Lester | Feb 14, 2018 1:23:39 PM | 29

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/us-attack-pro-govt-forces-deir-ezzor-killed-10-russians-photos/

I also believe the effective defense against the Israeli military aggression is a result of the attack in Deir Ezzor as it serves as a warning that the bombings from the air which are increasingly occuring with impunity should seize.

Posted by: xor | Feb 14, 2018 1:47:53 PM | 32

If the Western casualty numbers are real, then the northwestern front could be severely degraded, and vulnerable to SDF, formerlly-known-as-ISIL raids.

I guess it's a difficult situation for Russia, but USA and Israel have prodded Russian-occupied Syria for the past two years, and are one step away from dramatically escalating their provocations. Putin pulled a GWBush 'Mission Accomplished', and seems to be more concerned about other matters

Posted by: aaaa | Feb 14, 2018 2:04:50 PM | 34

I completely agree. Russia and China have learned to take the long view. In the USA, too many people think like Wall Street investors, looking for the next quarterly payout, not even thinking a year ahead. Our media operates on the same cycle.

As far as Putin, he seems to think first about the effects of his actions on the Russian economy and the local standard of living. Hence he doesn't make ideological gestures; he doesn't throw temper tantrums (something the neoliberals and neocons always do when they don't get their way). When Turkey shot down the Russian jet, he basically let them off the hook; he didn't get sucked into some tit-for-tat retaliate-and-escalate game, and thus Russia-Turkey relations were better than ever in a few years.

Posted by: nonsense factory | Feb 14, 2018 3:43:05 PM | 40

Posted by: Alaric | Feb 14, 2018 3:49:27 PM | 41


https://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/11/turkey-russia-sanctions-apology-salvage-economic-ties.html

Posted by: Jen | Feb 14, 2018 4:09:52 PM | 43

I don't think you understand how the global banking system works. The Russian Central Bank is a member of the Bank of International Settlements. It is not independent and follows the policies the City of London (or whichever cabal is in power).

This is what happens when you have a drunk President allow the United States write the Russian constitution:
USA instructs Russian Central Bank how to strangle Russian economy

There is no other central bank in the world that would not be allowed to support the national economy. The Russian Central Bank is the only exception. This is a specific peculiarity of the Russian Central Bank. The law even says that the bank is a branch of foreign companies in Russia. For example, the Russian Central Bank is a depositary of the IMF. The law of the Central Bank does not have a word about the Russian economy. Yet, it contains detailed instructions on how to follow and execute instructions from abroad. The law was made during the 1990s. Putin tried to amend it in the 2000s, but it did not work out. As a result, the Central Bank of the Russian Federation works for a foreign country under the Russian Constitution. This state imposes sanctions on Russia. The Russian Central Bank is obliged to execute instructions from the USA - the Americans set an official task to weaken the Russian economy

Things are changing though. Russia just announced that they are ready stop using the SWIFT interbank cash transfer services:
Russian banks ready to switch off SWIFT – official

The potential disconnection of Russia from SWIFT has been under discussion since 2014, when the EU and the US introduced the first round of international penalties against Moscow over alleged involvement in the Ukraine crisis and the reunification with Crimea.

Posted by: Tobin Paz | Feb 14, 2018 4:21:48 PM | 44

Have a look/read at/of this report.
https://scotthumor.wordpress.com/2018/02/13/wagner-private-military-company-could-be-a-code-name-for-israels-black-op/

What do you think?

Posted by: maningi | Feb 14, 2018 5:26:59 PM | 48


https://southfront.org/u-s-strikes-and-scores-of-killed-russian-fighters-in-syria/


".....Meanwhile, the analysis of open info, including reports from relatives and friends of the PMCs involved in the operation, allowed all the concerned sides to find out that 5 Russians reportedly died in the aforementioned period. However, no details are available.

.....SouthFront's military experts aware of the situation say that the possible number of the casualties could be higher than 5, but not more than 15-20.

The entire story about mass casualties of Russian PMCs is based on unconfirmed and fake data, that includes a few real facts like the US strikes, some PMCs casualties and the participation of the ISIS Hunters in the incident. The rest is an orchestrated campaign in keeping with the best traditions of propaganda.

The goals of which would be that:

the US is able to fight back against the Russians in Syria;
Russia is not able to defend its interests;
the Kremlin is not concerned over killed Russian citizens or is not able to carry out any pay back."

Posted by: michaelj72 | Feb 14, 2018 8:59:22 PM | 54

[Feb 14, 2018] US report Syria groups incapable of overthrowing Assad Middle East Monitor

Feb 14, 2018 | www.middleeastmonitor.com

The cob-web of armed opposition groups and Sunni fighters in Syria are "probably no longer capable of overthrowing President Bashar Al-Assad or overcoming a growing military advantage", the report adds. Intelligence analysts have calculated that the Syrian armed opposition will most likely only have resources to continue its fight for at least "next year".

Daesh over the next year is expected to focus on "regrouping in Syria and Iraq" and enhancing its global presence. However, with Daesh receding its reach, Al-Qaeda remains "a major actor in global terrorism" and a threat to the US and Western interests, the report concludes.

[Feb 14, 2018] I hope the Russians are aware of the utter ruthlessness of certain western countries, the US in particular.

Feb 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

harrylaw , Feb 14, 2018 6:34:07 AM | 74

I hope the Russians are aware of the utter ruthlessness of certain western countries, the US in particular. They are so determined to have regime change in Syria that they will lie and cheat to achieve that end, probably culminating in direct military attacks on Syrian forces west of the Euphrates on some phoney pretext or another.

Because Putin is aware of US aims it is beyond foolish to withdraw Russian forces as they have done in the past, in the vain hope that the US will reciprocate, the US do not behave like that, they see any withdrawal as a sign of weakness and exploit it. Make no mistake the US are in this for keeps, anyone who thinks otherwise will be killed just like those Russian contractors last week and the hundreds of Syrian troops killed because they posed a "so called threat" to deconfliction zones.

If the West can supply hundred's of billions worth of arms to the most repressive nations on earth [Saudi Arabia and Co, then surely the Russians should supply s400 anti aircraft missiles to the Syrians who are under threat of a military assault from the West in the event of a successful false flag chemical weapons attack by the Wests proxies[which they are working on now] If not, why not?

[Feb 14, 2018] The US partitioning Syria to form a new state.

Feb 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

harrylaw , Feb 13, 2018 12:28:41 PM | 50

Lavrov has it right, the US partitioning Syria to form a new state. Problem is they do not have anyone as citizens or prospective leaders for it. A minor detail for the exceptional ones.
"Now we hear completely different explanations from our US partners regarding their presence in Syria -- they say that this presence should be maintained not only until military tasks are accomplished, but also until there is a stable political process that should end in a transition of power which will be acceptable for all -- meaning for the United States -- which is regime change. In general, we have a suspicion . that the United States wants to stay there for a long time, if not forever," Lavrov told a press conference after talks with his Belgian counterpart, Didier Reynders. [Sputnik News Today].

[Feb 14, 2018] This region can no longer make space for Israeli settlers! This is what people are saying here. The resentment could lead to some collateral damage to the Americans.

Notable quotes:
"... $100.000 a pop ATGM missilies which rain like confettis on the Turkish army fired by the poor PKK fighters. ..."
Feb 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

ConfusedPundit | Feb 12, 2018 2:00:18 PM | 8

Basically, "muslims will be attacking the USA" is a silly argument. However, Palestinians are refugees in Lebanon and Jordan. Syrian refugees (up to 4 million) are in Turkey.

This region can no longer make space for Israeli settlers! This is what people are saying here. The resentment could lead to some collateral damage to the Americans.

In this region there are millions of Mel Gibsons now. They say: "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world."

I personally can't comment on that because I'm not sure about it. All I know is that it's not the people from Peru who are behind all the wars in the world. It's not the muslims either. 'Muslims' from the Gulf region do pay for some of the weapons, that's for sure. And the muslims pose no threat to 'American People' despite Abu Ghraibs, MOABs, cluster bombs, B-52 campaigns in Iraq, Afganistan, Pakistan, $100.000 a pop ATGM missilies which rain like confettis on the Turkish army fired by the poor PKK fighters.

karlof1 , Feb 12, 2018 2:48:32 PM | 12

Compared with the terrorism visited on other nations by the Outlaw US Empire, the Metropole has experienced zilch--nada. The closest is 911, but that was done by ZionistWasps, not Muslims.

Well, a second place finish would be conferred upon the deliberate targeting of people of color by police, ICE and other federal terror agencies--the many FBI Frame-ups come to mind. But neither of those examples are acts of terror specifically targeting the State's Institutions.

Lurking nearby is the Empire's version of an IMF SAP and the terror within it that'll be inflicted on the Empire's citizenry when the dollar tanks and takes the economy down with it. Actions by the FED and Treasury Dept prove there's no interest in trying to create conditions for a softer Depression--they mean to harm as many people as possible.

So as has been noted on many occasions, the biggest Terror threat facing the people living within the Outlaw US Empire is their national government and related institutions--an ongoing situation existing since before the nation was born.

[Feb 14, 2018] As to Syria, the position of the US Special Forces is very delicate, their supply lines are long and easily broken, their 'allies' are generally unreliable, they are in Syria on sufferance, they may boast otherwise but the reality is that everyone around them hates them and what they represent.

Notable quotes:
"... the government is losing its legitimacy at the moment when it is increasing its demands on the people. And decreasing its servicing of their needs. There has never been a time in which both parties have been so focused on looking away from the real concerns, the anger and desperation of the great majority of the population. The Democrats are not even pretending to be reformers, the Republicans are finally wallowing in unmasked greed. ..."
"... As many others have suggested the current jockeying is all about weakening Putin's election campaign, Incredibly enough there are still idiots in Washington who, after years of boosting his position into an Alexander Nevsky like saviour of the nation, now believe that they can cut him down by accusing him of endangering Russia by defending it. ..."
Feb 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

The campaign in Syria is going very well from the Russian point of view. So is the disengagement from the western dominated financial system, but the trends being bucked are very old, centuries old, and well established.

The prime mover in the campaign against the dollar is the US government, and it moves by over reach, the more rope it is given the sooner it will hang itself. Every tactical victory, on the battlefield or in domestic politics is a strategic loss.

The bloated budget, the incredible waste in military expenditure, which appears to be inversely related to threats, the increasingly regressive tax system, transferring the burden from rich to poor, the cuts in social programmes all add up to certain disaster; the government is losing its legitimacy at the moment when it is increasing its demands on the people. And decreasing its servicing of their needs. There has never been a time in which both parties have been so focused on looking away from the real concerns, the anger and desperation of the great majority of the population. The Democrats are not even pretending to be reformers, the Republicans are finally wallowing in unmasked greed.

As to Syria, the position of the US Special Forces is very delicate, their supply lines are long and easily broken, their 'allies' are generally unreliable, they are in Syria on sufferance, they may boast otherwise but the reality is that everyone around them hates them and what they represent. A Sicilian Vespers may come any day.

As many others have suggested the current jockeying is all about weakening Putin's election campaign, Incredibly enough there are still idiots in Washington who, after years of boosting his position into an Alexander Nevsky like saviour of the nation, now believe that they can cut him down by accusing him of endangering Russia by defending it.

Nothing is ever certain but the balance of probabilities is moving inexorably against the US and its clients in the Middle East. Only those with an irrational faith in the US military and economy cannot see this.

Posted by: bevin | Feb 14, 2018 10:15:56 PM | 58

[Feb 14, 2018] Syria's War Has Never Been More International

Feb 14, 2018 | www.theatlantic.com

In syria the USA is playing "might is right" card. Ignoring all international laws. There is no justification for the USA troops presence. They care clearly illegal force on Syrian territory. That's a dangerous game. Taking into account the USA unleashed Syria civil war for their own geopolitical purposes, trying to reverse growing influence of Iran due to the blunder on Iraq war this is clearly Roman empire moment for the USA.

"The Syrian war has now been outsourced," said Christopher Phillips, a Syria scholar at Queen Mary University of London. "The decision-makers are now not really Syrians, perhaps with the exception of Assad." Foreign involvement in the civil war first took the form of "diplomatic support, then it was economic support, then it was material support for fighters, then it was fighting themselves directly. And I don't see why that shouldn't continue."

Turkey, for example, isn't willing to accept the entrenchment of a U.S.-supported Kurdish militia , which the Turkish government associates with Kurdish insurgents in Turkey, right across its border. The United States seems determined to hold ground in Syria to prevent the resurgence of terrorist groups and frustrate Iran's plans to extend its power across the Eastern Mediterranean. Israel shares America's goal of countering Iran, particularly at its border with Syria.

Russia, meanwhile, is bent on preserving a friendly government in Damascus and a military presence on the Mediterranean, while casting itself as a global power player on par with America. The Iranians -- currently "the single-most influential player" in Syria -- are "trying to establish a long-term strategic military infrastructure in [Syria], build missile-production facilities, move precision-guided munitions," Itani said. Both nations " are upset that the United States is not departing the country," Tabler said.

[Feb 14, 2018] America's Creeping Regime Change in Syria by John Glaser

Notable quotes:
"... After all, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson explained last month, the Trump administration has committed to an indefinite military presence of roughly 2,000 U.S. boots on the Syrian battlefield. Are these troops present at the behest of the host government? Certainly not. Has Congress ratified their deployment in some way? Guess again. Are they there preempting an imminent threat of attack on America? Nope. Are they under the mandate of a UN Security Council resolution? No. ..."
"... America has an interest in a stable Middle East, and thus in a stable Syria, but the notion that U.S. policy has contributed to that end is rather dubious. The Islamic State, which exacerbated the Syrian Civil War by orders of magnitude, is, after all, an outgrowth of America's war in Iraq. And the U.S. and its allies encouraged the Syrian rebellion from early on, an effort that was not only a spectacular failure but also fostered quite the opposite of stability. ..."
"... With Assad, we have a known entity that represents what is left of Syria. Get rid of Assad, there's unmanageable chaos and vacuum for decades potentially. ..."
Feb 14, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

America's Creeping Regime Change in Syria And you thought our government toppling days were over.

In eastern Syria last week, American air and ground forces attacked Syrian pro-government military units, killing roughly 100 people, including some Russian advisors . U.S. Army Colonel Thomas Veale described the attack as "taken in self-defense."

"Self-defense"? Had the regime of Bashar al-Assad bombarded Boston Harbor? No, but it had attacked a base, long held by Syrian rebels, with U.S. military advisors present. Despite the tit-for-tat chronology here, it's hard to see how Veale's "self-defense" claim is tenable.

After all, as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson explained last month, the Trump administration has committed to an indefinite military presence of roughly 2,000 U.S. boots on the Syrian battlefield. Are these troops present at the behest of the host government? Certainly not. Has Congress ratified their deployment in some way? Guess again. Are they there preempting an imminent threat of attack on America? Nope. Are they under the mandate of a UN Security Council resolution? No.

In fact, the U.S. military presence in Syria has no legal authorization whatsoever. Those American forces are cooperating with Syrian rebels to, as Tillerson put it, "help liberated peoples" in territory outside Assad's control "stabilize their own communities" and defend themselves against regime forces. This is, he added, "a critical step to creating the conditions for a post-Assad political settlement."

Dispensing with the euphemistic flummery, U.S. forces are engaged in a kind of creeping regime change operation -- the lessons of recent history be damned.

One might fairly argue that the Assad regime, in its brutality against its own people, long ago forfeited the sovereign right to defend its territory against an invading foreign army. Fine, but we should be clear that Washington, in responding to the lawlessness, is also acting lawlessly -- hardly a lodestar mission of the liberal, rules-based world order America claims to lead, and, in the big picture, decidedly not a case of "self-defense."

Quaint legalisms aside, the clash between U.S. and Syrian forces should make clear just how dangerous our military presence in Syria is. This particular incident, we can reasonably assume, didn't escalate only because the regime is desperate to avoid escalation. Were they to counterattack, the Syrians surely know, the full might of America would come crashing down upon Damascus, and that would be the end of them all.

But that is by no means a reassuring "balance of terror," the term nuclear strategist Albert Wohlstetter used to describe the deterrence model of the Cold War's mutually assured destruction. Indeed, the multi-sided chaos of the Syrian Civil War is neither balanced nor stable and the risk of escalation is very real. Should the actors in the next clash miscalculate, will the Russians defend their ally in Damascus before it falls, or will America's "self-defense" spiral into the destruction of the regime? Will the resulting anarchy plunge us into a full-scale occupation? Will Turkey take advantage of the mayhem to rampage through Kurdish-held Syria? Will Iranian-backed militias still prioritize fighting Sunni extremist groups? If anything could reverse the defeat of the Islamic State, it is an escalation like this.

As with much of American foreign policy today, the threat to the United States in Syria is roughly proportional to the extent to which we choose to expose ourselves to it. None of the five missions Tillerson laid out for the U.S. military effort in Syria -- to defeat ISIS and al-Qaeda, usher in a post-Assad state, counter Iranian influence, facilitate the return of refugees, and free Syria of weapons of mass destruction -- are vital to protect America's wealth and physical security.

Nor are these low-cost, low-risk, or high-probability-success missions. And as everyone knows, the last thing America needs now is a new set of elective, hazardous, and unachievable war aims on the other side of the globe.

America has an interest in a stable Middle East, and thus in a stable Syria, but the notion that U.S. policy has contributed to that end is rather dubious. The Islamic State, which exacerbated the Syrian Civil War by orders of magnitude, is, after all, an outgrowth of America's war in Iraq. And the U.S. and its allies encouraged the Syrian rebellion from early on, an effort that was not only a spectacular failure but also fostered quite the opposite of stability.

An enduring feature of U.S. foreign policy is that each intervention, whether it is seen to fail or succeed, eventually serves to justify further intervention. While it's true that the Islamic State has been decimated, thanks in part to the collective destructive power of Damascus, Tehran, Baghdad, Moscow, Washington, and various Kurdish and Syrian militias on the ground, it has been accomplished at great cost in blood and treasure. The answer to this near-Pyrrhic victory is not for Washington to invent new missions that lack legal authorization or a plausible timeline of success, but instead to reckon with its own role in this interminable tempest and acknowledge the very real possibility that backing away may be in the best interest of America and of Syria.

John Glaser is director of Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute.

um what about February 14, 2018 at 1:28 pm

"Damascus, Tehran, Baghdad, Moscow, Washington, and various Kurdish and Syrian militias"

And Ankara. Turkey's role was crucial, and, as usual, widely overlooked.

Xenia Grant , says: February 14, 2018 at 1:32 pm
I never thought I would say this, but Russia and the old USSR is right is supporting Bashar Assad (during the USSR time, Bashar's father,Hafez). At least Russia has historical interests in that region, unlike the US. How I long for the days when Brezhnev was in power.
mohammad , says: February 14, 2018 at 2:49 pm
War is what most Americans want! It is what most Americans love and admire, and it is the only thing which holds Americans together.
ESKL , says: February 14, 2018 at 3:31 pm
With Assad, we have a known entity that represents what is left of Syria. Get rid of Assad, there's unmanageable chaos and vacuum for decades potentially. Why some seem so eager for the latter option of getting rid of Assad hasn't been honestly explained.

[Feb 14, 2018] Mattis is probably mentally ill. He'll gleefully kill millions more.

Feb 14, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Mattis is probably mentally ill. He'll gleefully kill millions more.

The terrorists are mentally ill. They would kill millions if they could.

Implacable.

Thus, the reason for the rise of Russia and the influence and respect for Putin. Russians will kill terrorists but embrace Islamic people who want peaceful cooperation.

Peace is a long way off. The Hegemon abhors Peace and has the means and ideology to create chaos, death and destruction anywhere on the globe.

The American economic system depends on MIC expenditures, debt, waste, corruption, and fiscal abuse.

Nothing much will change until multi-polar economic forces come into dominance and coerce the American changes. Those are a long way off, also, though a few of those forces are coming into view.

Posted by: Red Ryder | Feb 12, 2018 12:21:31 PM | 2

[Feb 13, 2018] Jihadists supporter Bibi Netanyahu hit Syrian forces by Patrick J. Buchanan

Weakening government forces plays into the hands of islamist radicals.
Feb 13, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

Originally from: Is the U.S. Being Sucked Deeper Into Mideast Trap The American Conservative

Candidate Donald Trump may have promised to extricate us from Middle East wars, once ISIS and al-Qaida were routed, yet events and people seem to be conspiring to keep us endlessly enmeshed.

Friday night, a drone, apparently modeled on a U.S. drone that fell into Iran's hands, intruded briefly into Israeli airspace over the Golan Heights, and was shot down by an Apache helicopter.

Israel seized upon this to send F-16s to strike the airfield whence the drone originated. Returning home, an F-16 was hit and crashed, unleashing the most devastating Israeli attack in decades on Syria. Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu says a dozen Syrian and Iranian bases and antiaircraft positions were struck.

Monday's headline on the Wall Street Journal op-ed page blared:

"The Iran-Israel War Flares Up: The fight is over a Qods Force presence on the Syria-Israeli border. How will the U.S. respond?"

Op-ed writers Tony Badran and Jonathan Schanzer, both from the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, closed thus:

"The Pentagon and State Department have already condemned Iran and thrown their support behind Israel. The question now is whether the Trump administration will go further. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson (has) affirmed that the U.S. seeks not only to ensure its allies' security but to deny Iran its 'dreams of a northern arch' from Tehran to Beirut. A good way to achieve both objectives would be back Israel's response to Iran's aggression -- now and in the future."

The FDD is an annex of the Israeli lobby and a charter member of the War Party.

Chagai Tzuriel, who heads the Israeli Ministry of Intelligence, echoed the FDD: "If you (Americans) are committed to countering Iran in the region, then you must do so in Syria -- first."

Our orders have been cut.

Iran has dismissed as "lies" and "ridiculous" the charge that it sent the drone into Israeli airspace.

If Tehran did, it would be an act of monumental stupidity. Not only did the drone bring devastating Israeli reprisals against Syria and embarrass Iran's ally Russia, it brought attacks on Russian-provided and possibly Russian-manned air defenses.

[Feb 13, 2018] After Routing ISIS From Iraq More War by Daniel DePetris

Notable quotes:
"... With the war now entering its eighth year this March, the wisest course for the Trump administration is to detach itself. Nothing the United States can do will stop the conflict if the combatants and their enablers are intent on continuing it ..."
Feb 13, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

...Indeed, as this piece is being written, U.S.-armed Arab fighters of the Free Syrian Army are shooting at U.S.-supported Kurdish fighters of the YPG. Turkey, a NATO ally, is threatening to annihilate the Syrian Democratic Forces, the same unit Washington has relied on as a ground army to clear the Islamic State. The U.S. has now managed to alienate the Turks on the one hand and the Syrian Kurds on the other.

As if Syria wasn't complicated enough, Turkey's military operation in Afrin has made the country an unsolvable enigma. And Washington -- due in large part to overeagerness and short-term decision-making over realistic, long-term planning -- has backed itself into a foreseeable corner and contributed to the problem.

... ... ...

Eventually, the Obama administration cooperated with Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Jordan to ship weapons to the Free Syrian Army, a loose conglomeration of fighters whose goal was the toppling of the government in Damascus. The CIA ran the program, organizing and distributing weapons to anti-Assad fighters in the name of pressuring the regime to negotiate a conflict-ending settlement. And once ISIS became a higher priority, the Pentagon drew up plans to organize and vet rebel forces to fight the group -- a program that had in little to no impact on the ground despite a $500 million appropriation from Congress.

Only when all of these initiatives failed did Washington throw its weight to the Syrian Democratic Forces, a Kurdish-Arab organization that cleared substantial amounts of territory from ISIS. Unfortunately, the SDF is the same group Turkey is now seeking to drive away from its border.

The costs of all this have far outweighed the benefits. Some rebel fighters trained and supplied by the United States simply surrendered to jihadist factions as soon as they crossed the Syrian-Turkish border. Some of the same weapons destined for moderate Syrian fighters were instead captured by extremist groups or diverted onto the black market and sold to far more dangerous characters.

All the while, the U.S. discounted how important Assad's survival was to Iran and Russia and miscalculated the extent of the support Moscow and Tehran were willing to provide to keep Damascus from collapsing. Bashar al-Assad staying in the presidential palace was vastly more important to Russia's and Iran's objectives in the Middle East than attempts to overthrow him were to Washington. America's ability to navigate the ever-changing waters of the Middle East is not contingent on whether Assad stays or goes -- the U.S. is powerful and influential enough to continue operating in the region regardless of Assad's political status. But the same cannot be said of Russia and Iran, two countries that view the Assad regime as an incompetent but nevertheless useful proxy to defend its vital interests.

Syria was never a crisis Washington could have (or should have) solved. With every American action, there was an opposite and unequal reaction from Moscow and Tehran, and it is the Syrian people who have paid the price. No outside power half a world away can solve Syria's political issues. It will be for Syrians themselves to determine how they will govern what is left of their country, and neighbors with far more at stake than we have will be involved whether we like it or not.

With the war now entering its eighth year this March, the wisest course for the Trump administration is to detach itself. Nothing the United States can do will stop the conflict if the combatants and their enablers are intent on continuing it .

Daniel DePetris is a fellow at Defense Priorities.

[Feb 13, 2018] Is the U.S. Being Sucked Deeper Into Mideast Trap by Patrick J. Buchanan

Feb 13, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

In Syria's southeast, another incident a week ago may portend an indefinite U.S. stay in that broken and bleeding country.

To recapture oil fields lost in the war, forces backed by Assad crossed the Euphrates into territory taken from ISIS by the U.S. and our Kurd allies. The U.S. response was a barrage of air and artillery strikes that killed 100 soldiers.

What this signals is that, though ISIS has been all but evicted from Syria, the U.S. intends to retain that fourth of Syria as a bargaining chip in negotiations.

In the northwest, Turkey has sent its Syrian allies to attack Afrin and President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has threatened Manbij, 80 miles to the east, where U.S. troops commingle with the Kurd defenders and U.S. generals were visible last week.

Midweek, Erdogan exploded: "(The Americans) tell us, 'Don't come to Manbij.' We will come to Manbij to hand over these territories to their rightful owners."

The U.S. and Turkey, allies for six decades, with the largest armies in NATO, may soon be staring down each other's gun barrels.

Has President Trump thought through where we are going with this deepening commitment in Syria, where we have only 2,000 troops and no allies but the Kurds, while on the other side is the Syrian army, Hezbollah, Russia and Iran, and Shiite militias from Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan?

Clearly, we have an obligation not to abandon the Kurds, who took most of the casualties in liberating eastern Syria from ISIS. And we have a strategic interest in not losing Turkey as an ally.

But this calls for active diplomacy, not military action.

And now that the rebels have been defeated and the civil war is almost over, what would be the cost and what would be the prospects of fighting a new and wider war? What would victory look like?

Bibi and the FDD want to see U.S. power deployed alongside that of Israel, against Iran, Assad and Hezbollah. But while Israel's interests are clear, what would be the U.S. vital interest?

What outcome would justify another U.S. war in a region where all the previous wars in this century have left us bleeding, bankrupt, divided and disillusioned?

When he was running, Donald Trump seemed to understand this.

Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of the recent book, "Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever."

[Feb 11, 2018] Trump s Illegal War in Syria Is Getting More Dangerous by Daniel Larison

From comments: We are the new Roman Empire but far less honest about it. This is why we our military is grossly underfunded. It isn't about defense. It is about domination.
Notable quotes:
"... Those who great assurance and aplomb stated that McMaster and Mattis et al would serve as "the adults in the room" are fools. But then we knew that already, didn't we? Because those who said things like that about Mattis and McMaster were in many cases the same people who pushed us into stupid wars in Iraq, Libya, and Yemen. ..."
"... This is exactly how you find out if Trump is a dog and pony show ..."
"... Looks like Trump's foreign policy is the same as Hillary Clinton's would have been, endless war. ..."
"... I fear that we have developed a mentality where we fully expect to be able to exert military force in countries like Syria as if we are an auxiliary police force and expect the locals to behave. The day they actually shoot down a U.S. aircraft will be so shocking that the Hawks in this country will demand that we have to respond to an act of aggression and anyone who says otherwise will be dismissed as a traitor. We are the new Roman Empire but far less honest about it. This is why we our military is grossly underfunded. It isn't about defense. It is about domination. ..."
Feb 11, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
February 8, 2018, 8:28 PM Secretary Mattis claims not to understand why pro-regime forces advanced on U.S.-backed rebels in eastern Syria:

In Washington, Defense Secretary Jim Mattis described the situation as "perplexing," and said he had "no idea why they would attack" the base. Both Russian and Syrian-aligned forces on the ground had long known the U.S. and allied forces were there, he said.

Perhaps Mattis is only feigning confusion here, but it isn't encouraging that the head of our Defense Department claims not to know why forces aligned with the Syrian government might want to attack a base where the enemies of that government are located. They attacked the base because they "had long known the U.S. and allied forces were there." They oppose the presence of "U.S. and allied forces" there. This should be clear by now. If our top leaders don't know something as basic as this about the situation they are putting our soldiers in, that is deeply troubling. Mattis also "denied that the attack and the U.S. response constituted American engagement in the Syrian civil war," but this is preposterous. By providing support to armed groups inside Syria and deploying our own forces alongside them, the U.S. is taking sides in the Syrian civil war whether our leaders want to acknowledge that involvement or not. By attacking pro-regime forces and killing dozens of their men, the U.S. has committed acts of war against another government on its own soil without Congressional or U.N. authorization.

As the threat of ISIS recedes, it becomes increasingly difficult use that threat to justify a U.S. military presence inside Syria. The pretense that an open-ended mission in Syria is solely aimed at opposing ISIS is not credible when U.S. officials explicitly state that an indefinite U.S. military presence is also intended to deny the Syrian government and its allies control over parts of Syria. The Syrian government and its allies did not try to stop U.S. intervention in Syria when it began in 2014, but they have never agreed to our military presence. As it happens, the Syrian government and its allies are correct when they describe our military presence there as illegal. Secretary Mattis isn't able to counter those claims because there is absolutely no legal justification for having our troops in Syria and there never has been.

The smart thing to do now is to remove U.S. forces from Syria as soon as possible to ensure that there are no further clashes like this. If the Trump administration doesn't do that, it will be inexorably pulled deeper into conflicts that serve no American interest.


non serviam February 8, 2018 at 9:45 pm

I mean, it's becoming really ludicrous isn't it? Mattis what is he even saying ? He sounds like a completely clueless buffoon.

Those who great assurance and aplomb stated that McMaster and Mattis et al would serve as "the adults in the room" are fools. But then we knew that already, didn't we? Because those who said things like that about Mattis and McMaster were in many cases the same people who pushed us into stupid wars in Iraq, Libya, and Yemen.

john , says: February 8, 2018 at 10:35 pm
Ridiculous, a burglar sitting in your living room and watching your TV doesn't get to "shoot you in self defense" should you object to his presence.
Joseph Ammons , says: February 8, 2018 at 10:45 pm
This is exactly how you find out if Trump is a dog and pony show
Eric , says: February 8, 2018 at 11:00 pm
Looks like Trump's foreign policy is the same as Hillary Clinton's would have been, endless war.
a spencer , says: February 9, 2018 at 1:41 am
I should have taken a picture: there was a Ford plant outside Damascus in Assad's Syria as late as 2008.

One time, coming out of Zahle and heading back to Damascus, there was a range of drivers available to cross the border. Of course, I chose the guy with the musclebound 70s Chevy. He floored it on the Syrian plain for the better part of an hour, relishing his love for American machinery in front of me, knowing how to drive it like every farm boy in the rural US Midwest.

Probably all gone now.

Realist , says: February 9, 2018 at 3:30 am
The silly machinations and pettiness of a dying nation are sad.
cwk , says: February 9, 2018 at 5:31 am
quite a contrast to Afrin:

"U.S. counter-attack in Syria included Air Force AC-130 gunships, F-15s, F-22s, Army Apache helicopter gunships and Marine Corps artillery killing 100 Russian and Assad-backed fighters in 3-hour battle beginning around midnight last night."

SteveK9 , says: February 9, 2018 at 6:43 am
Of course it doesn't serve America's interests, it serves Israel's and that is enough.
Christian Chuba , says: February 9, 2018 at 8:02 am
I question the veracity of the Pentagon's account but in any case what happens when the Syrian army fights back against U.S. forces in one of these 'unexpected' encounters?

I fear that we have developed a mentality where we fully expect to be able to exert military force in countries like Syria as if we are an auxiliary police force and expect the locals to behave. The day they actually shoot down a U.S. aircraft will be so shocking that the Hawks in this country will demand that we have to respond to an act of aggression and anyone who says otherwise will be dismissed as a traitor. We are the new Roman Empire but far less honest about it. This is why we our military is grossly underfunded. It isn't about defense. It is about domination.

March Hare , says: February 9, 2018 at 10:04 am
And the recent compromise funding bill now on Trump's desk contains extra funding for this kind of stuff.

Your taxing dullards at work

[Feb 11, 2018] "Syrian Defense Ministry announces end of operations in Idlib, Aleppo

Feb 11, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

johnf , 10 February 2018 at 01:51 AM

And this is unexpected:

"Syrian Defense Ministry announces end of operations in Idlib, Aleppo.

BEIRUT, LEBANON (2:30 A.M.) – The Syrian Ministry of Defense announced, tonight, that all operations in the Idlib and Aleppo governorates have concluded after several weeks of fighting.

According to the spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense, the Syrian Arab Army completed their objectives in both Aleppo and Idlib after they successfully erased the Islamic State's (ISIS) large pocket in this region of northern Syria...

A military source told Al-Masdar News, tonight, that the Syrian Army is preparing for a long-term ceasefire with the rebel forces in this region of the country."

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-syrian-defense-ministry-announces-end-operations-idlib-aleppo/

And this just in: "Syrian military says Israeli drone downed over western Damascus"

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/syrian-military-says-israeli-drone-downed-western-damascus/

Anna -> johnf... , 10 February 2018 at 12:59 PM
Israelis as neo-Bolsheviks: https://www.rt.com/news/418414-russia-statement-syria-israel/

Moscow: "Our special concern is the threat of escalation of tension inside and around the zones of de-escalation in Syria, the creation of which became an important factor for reduction of violence on the Syrian soil." Moscow added that there were Russian service members stationed in Syria and said it considered any threat to their lives unacceptable."

More: http://www.fort-russ.com/2018/02/syria-responds-to-us-israeli-aggression.html

"Netanyahu escalates tension with Syria knowing that the Syrian Arab Army has been battling ISIS and other Saudi and Turkish supported terrorist groups for the last 7 years, and that Syria is in no position to go to war with Israel at this time. Israelis have been bombing Syria regularly during this period, and today's firm response from the Syrian army sends a loud message as a US made and tax payer donated F-16 jet was shot down over Syrian air space."

J , 10 February 2018 at 03:10 PM
Colonel, TTG, PT,

Related to the escalating D.C. screw-up in Syria, D.C. (Mattis and crew) seem to forget the 800lb gorilla in the wood-pile, an 800lb gorilla when awakened that could really ruin Mattis and crew's day before Mattis and company even know what hit them.

THE MILITARY DOCTRINE OF THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
https://rusemb.org.uk/press/2029

Russia doesn't appreciate it when their personnel are killed, which is understandable
https://www.globalresearch.ca/russians-reported-killed-in-us-strikes-in-syria/5628815

The head of the Russian staff is pissed, really pissed.

Now back to the crux of the situation --

The Military Doctrine of the Russian Federation,

  • Article 24. The Russian Federation shall regard an armed attack against a member state of the Union State [of Russia and Belarus] or any actions involving the use of military force against that state as an act of aggression against the Union State and shall take retaliatory measures.
  • Article 26. Within the framework of strategic deterrence measures of a forceful nature the use of high-precision weapons is envisaged by the Russian Federation.
  • Article 27. The Russian Federation shall reserve the right to use nuclear weapons in response to the use of nuclear and other types of weapons of mass destruction against it and/or its allies, as well as in the event of aggression against the Russian Federation with the use of conventional weapons when the very existence of the state is in jeopardy.

The D.C. screw-ups (Mattis and company) are walking on egg-shells with their Syria debacle and don't even know it.

J , 10 February 2018 at 03:15 PM
It was a Russian S400 system that the Syrians used to down the Israeli F16.

The Israelis think they are modern day Davids, NOT. They are an ant in a woodpile that could fall on them because they tugged on the wrong piece of wood.

Anna -> johnf... , 10 February 2018 at 03:26 PM
Let's see if the collective thinking by the brass is going to be guided by the zionized US deciders towards the WWII or whether the patriotism and sanity prevail: "Israel Carries Out "Large Scale Attack" On Syria After Israeli F-16 Shot Down" https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-02-10/israel-carries-out-large-scale-attack-syria-after-israeli-f-16-shot-down
"It must be remembered that the Israeli Air Force has acknowledged striking targets inside Syria at least 100 times over the past few years of the conflict, with the last attack prior to today's events happening just earlier this week. Syria has frequently taken its case before the U.N., calling for official condemnation of the unprovoked attacks, but has been just as frequently rebuffed.
In its now 'open secret' of a years-long pursuit of regime change in Syria, Israel has given covert support to al-Qaeda linked groups in Syria's south - near the vicinity of today's F-16 shoot down - which has involved weapons transfers and treatment of wounded jihadists in Israeli hospitals, according to The Wall Street Journal."

[Feb 10, 2018] The generals are not Borgists. They are something worse ...

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... The post WW2 promotion process in the armed forces has produced a group at the top with a mentality that typically thinks rigorously but not imaginatively or creatively. ..."
"... These men got to their present ranks and positions by being conformist group thinkers who do not stray outside the "box" of their guidance from on high. They actually have scheduled conference calls among themselves to make sure everyone is "on board." ..."
"... If asked at the top, where military command and political interaction intersect, what policy should be they always ask for more money and to be allowed to pursue outcomes that they can understand as victory and self fulfilling with regard to their collective self image as warrior chieftains. ..."
"... In Trump's time his essential disinterest in foreign policy has led to a massive delegation of authority to Mattis and the leadership of the empire's forces. Their reaction to that is to look at their dimwitted guidance from on high (defeat IS, depose Assad and the SAG, triumph in Afghanistan) and to seek to impose their considerable available force to seek accomplishment as they see fit of this guidance in the absence of the kind of restrictions that Obama placed on them. ..."
"... Like the brass, I, too, am a graduate of all those service schools that attend success from the Basic Course to the Army War College. I will tell you again that the people at the top are not good at "the vision thing." They are not stupid at all but they are a collective of narrow thinkers ..."
"... Academia reinforces the groupthink. The mavericks are shunned or ostracized. The only ones I have seen with some degree of going against the grain are technology entrepreneurs. ..."
"... "They are not stupid at all but they are a collective of narrow thinkers." I have found this to be the case with 80 to 90% of most professions. A good memory and able to perform meticulously what they have been taught, but little thinking outside that narrow box. Often annoying, but very dangerous in this case. ..."
"... Since Afghanistan and the brass were mentioned in the editorial statement, here is an immodest question -- Where the brass have been while the opium production has been risen dramatically in Afghanistan under the US occupation? "Heroin Addiction in America Spearheaded by the US-led War on Afghanistan" by Paul Craig Roberts: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/02/06/heroin-addiction-america-spearheaded-us-led-war-afghanistan/ ..."
"... A simple Q: What has been the role of the CENTCOM re the racket? Who has arranged the protection for the opium production and for drug dealers? Roberts suggests that the production of opium in Afghanistan "finances the black operations of the CIA and Western intelligence agencies." -- All while Awan brothers, Alperovitch and such tinker with the US national security? ..."
"... God help the poor people of Syria. ..."
"... thanks pat... it seems like the usa has had a steady group of leaders that have no interest in the world outside of the usa, or only in so far as they can exploit it for their own interest... maybe that sums up the foreign policy of the usa at this point... you say trump is disinterested.. so all the blather from trump about 'why are we even in syria?', or 'why can't we be friends with the russia?' is just smoke up everyone's ass... ..."
"... Predictably there is always someone who says that this group is not different from all others. Unfortunately the military function demands more than the level of mediocrity found in most groups ..."
"... A lot of technology entrepreneurs--especially those active today--are stuck in their own groupthink, inflated by their sense that they are born for greatness and can do no wrong. ..."
"... The kind of grand schemes that the top people at Google, Uber, and Facebook think up to remake the universe in their own idea of "good society" are frightening. That they are cleverer (but not necessarily wiser) than the academics, borgists, or generals, I think, makes them even more dangerous. ..."
"... They [the generals] seem to have deliberately completely ignored the issues and policy positions Trump ran on as President. It isn't a case of ignorance but of wilful disregard. ..."
"... So true and as others commented this is a sad feature of the human race and all human organizations. Herd mentality ties into social learning ..."
"... Our massive cultural heritages are learned by observing and taken in as a whole. This process works within organizations as well. ..."
"... I suspect a small percentage of the human race functions differently than the majority and retains creative thinking and openness along with more emphasis on cognitive thinking than social learning but generally they always face a battle when working to change the group "consensus", i.e. Fulton's folly, scepticism on whether man would ever fly, etc. ..."
"... This is an interesting discussion. The top in organisations (civil and military) are increasingly technocrats and thinking like systems managers. They are unable to innovate because they lack the ability to think out of the box. Usually there is a leader who depends on specialists. Others (including laymen) are often excluding from the decision-making-proces. John Ralston Saul's Voltaires Bastards describes this very well. ..."
"... Because of natural selection (conformist people tend to choose similar people who resemble their own values and ways-of-thinking) organizations have a tendency to become homogeneous (especially the higher management/ranks). ..."
"... In combination with the "dumbing" of people (also of people who have a so-called good education (as described in Richard Sale's Sterile Chit-Chat ) this is a disastrous mix. ..."
"... That's true not only of the US military but of US elites in general across all of the spectra. And because that reality is at odds with the group-think of those within the various elements that make up the spectra it doesn't a hearing. Anyone who tries to bring it up risks being ejected from the group. ..."
"... "The United States spent at least $12 billion in Syria-related military and civilian expenses in the four years from 2014 through 2017, according to the former U.S. ambassador to the country. This $12 billion is in addition to the billions more spent to pursue regime change in Syria in the previous three years, after war broke out in 2011." https://goo.gl/8pj5cD ..."
"... "They are not stupid at all but they are a collective of narrow thinkers." I've often pondered that concept. Notice how many of radical extremist leaders were doctors, engineers and such? Narrow and deep. ..."
"... Long ago when I was a professor, I advised my students that "the law is like a pencil sharpener, it sharpens the mind by narrowing it." I tried to encourage them to "think backwards". ..."
"... Col, I think it might help people to think of "the Borg" - as you have defined & applied it - in a broader context. It struck me particularly as you ID'd the launching of our modern military group-think / careerism behavior coming from the watershed of industrialized scale & processes that came out of WWII. ..."
"... We note parallel themes in all significant sectors of our civilization. The ever-expanding security state, the many men in Gray Flannel Suits that inhabit corporate culture, Finance & Banking & Big Health scaling ever larger - all processes aimed to slice the salami thinner & quicker, to the point where meat is moot ... and so it goes. ..."
"... I just finished reading Command & Control (about nuclear weapons policy, systems design & accidents). I am amazed we've made it this far. ..."
Feb 10, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

(Editorial Statement)

The Borgist foreign policy of the administration has little to do with the generals. To comprehend the generals one must understand their collective mentality and the process that raised them on high as a collective of their own. The post WW2 promotion process in the armed forces has produced a group at the top with a mentality that typically thinks rigorously but not imaginatively or creatively.

These men got to their present ranks and positions by being conformist group thinkers who do not stray outside the "box" of their guidance from on high. They actually have scheduled conference calls among themselves to make sure everyone is "on board."

If asked at the top, where military command and political interaction intersect, what policy should be they always ask for more money and to be allowed to pursue outcomes that they can understand as victory and self fulfilling with regard to their collective self image as warrior chieftains.

In Obama's time they were asked what policy should be in Afghanistan and persuaded him to reinforce their dreams in Afghanistan no matter how unlikely it always was that a unified Western oriented nation could be made out of a collection of disparate mutually alien peoples.

In Trump's time his essential disinterest in foreign policy has led to a massive delegation of authority to Mattis and the leadership of the empire's forces. Their reaction to that is to look at their dimwitted guidance from on high (defeat IS, depose Assad and the SAG, triumph in Afghanistan) and to seek to impose their considerable available force to seek accomplishment as they see fit of this guidance in the absence of the kind of restrictions that Obama placed on them.

Like the brass, I, too, am a graduate of all those service schools that attend success from the Basic Course to the Army War College. I will tell you again that the people at the top are not good at "the vision thing." They are not stupid at all but they are a collective of narrow thinkers. pl


Jack , 09 February 2018 at 05:42 PM

Sir

IMO, this conformism pervades all institutions. I saw when I worked in banking and finance many moons ago how moving up the ranks in any large organization meant you didn't rock the boat and you conformed to the prevailing groupthink. Even nutty ideas became respectable because they were expedient.

Academia reinforces the groupthink. The mavericks are shunned or ostracized. The only ones I have seen with some degree of going against the grain are technology entrepreneurs.

Fredw , 09 February 2018 at 06:26 PM
You remind me of an old rumination by Thomas Ricks:

Take the example of General George Casey. According to David Cloud and Greg Jaffe's book Four Stars, General Casey, upon learning of his assignment to command U.S. forces in Iraq, received a book from the Army Chief of Staff. The book Counterinsurgency Lessons Learned from Malaya and Vietnam was the first book he ever read about guerilla warfare." This is a damning indictment of the degree of mental preparation for combat by a general. The Army's reward for such lack of preparation: two more four star assignments.

http://foreignpolicy.com/2012/02/07/cmon-man-meathead-generals-and-some-other-things-that-are-driving-me-crazy-about-life-in-this-mans-post-911-army/

Peter AU , 09 February 2018 at 06:37 PM
"They are not stupid at all but they are a collective of narrow thinkers." I have found this to be the case with 80 to 90% of most professions. A good memory and able to perform meticulously what they have been taught, but little thinking outside that narrow box. Often annoying, but very dangerous in this case.
Anna , 09 February 2018 at 06:48 PM
Since Afghanistan and the brass were mentioned in the editorial statement, here is an immodest question -- Where the brass have been while the opium production has been risen dramatically in Afghanistan under the US occupation? "Heroin Addiction in America Spearheaded by the US-led War on Afghanistan" by Paul Craig Roberts: https://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2018/02/06/heroin-addiction-america-spearheaded-us-led-war-afghanistan/

" in 2000-2001 the Taliban government –with the support of the United Nations (UNODC) – implemented a successful ban on poppy cultivation. Opium production which is used to produce grade 4 heroin and its derivatives declined by more than 90 per cent in 2001. The production of opium in 2001 was of the order of a meager 185 tons. It is worth noting that the UNODC congratulated the Taliban Government for its successful opium eradication program. The Taliban government had contributed to literally destabilizing the multibillion dollar Worldwide trade in heroin.

In 2017, the production of opium in Afghanistan under US military occupation reached 9000 metric tons. The production of opium in Afghanistan registered a 49 fold increase since Washington's invasion. Afghanistan under US military occupation produces approximately 90% of the World's illegal supply of opium which is used to produce heroin. Who owns the airplanes and ships that transport heroin from Afghanistan to the US? Who gets the profits?"

---A simple Q: What has been the role of the CENTCOM re the racket? Who has arranged the protection for the opium production and for drug dealers? Roberts suggests that the production of opium in Afghanistan "finances the black operations of the CIA and Western intelligence agencies." -- All while Awan brothers, Alperovitch and such tinker with the US national security?

J , 09 February 2018 at 07:05 PM
Colonel,

There needs to be a 're-education' of the top, all of them need to be required to attend Green Beret think-school, in other words they need to be forced to think outside the box, and to to think on their feet. They need to understand fluid situations where things change at the drop of a hat, be able to dance the two-step and waltz at the same time. In other words they need to be able to walk and chew gum and not trip over their shoe-laces.

By no means are they stupid, but you hit the nail on the head when you said 'narrow thinkers'. Their collective hive mentality that has developed is not a good thing.

divadab , 09 February 2018 at 07:16 PM
God help the poor people of Syria.
james , 09 February 2018 at 07:30 PM
thanks pat... it seems like the usa has had a steady group of leaders that have no interest in the world outside of the usa, or only in so far as they can exploit it for their own interest... maybe that sums up the foreign policy of the usa at this point... you say trump is disinterested.. so all the blather from trump about 'why are we even in syria?', or 'why can't we be friends with the russia?' is just smoke up everyone's ass...

i like what you said here "conformist group thinkers who do not stray outside the "box" of their guidance from on high. They actually have scheduled conference calls among themselves to make sure everyone is "on board." - that strikes me as very true - conformist group thinkers... the world needs less of these types and more actual leaders who have a vision for something out of the box and not always on board... i thought for a while trump might fill this bill, but no such luck by the looks of it now..

David E. Solomon , 09 February 2018 at 07:50 PM
Colonel Lang,

Your description of these guys sounds like what we have heard about Soviet era planners. Am I correct in my understanding, or am I missing something?

Regards,

David

DianaLC , 09 February 2018 at 07:56 PM
As a young person in eighth grade, I learned about the "domino theory" in regard to attempts to slow the spread of communism. Then my generation was, in a sense, fractured around the raging battles for and against our involvement in Vietnam.

I won't express my own opinion on that. But I mention it because it seems to be a type of "vision thing."

So, now I ask, what would be your vision for the Syrian situation?

Bill Herschel , 09 February 2018 at 09:11 PM
This has been going on for a long time has it not? Westmoreland? MacArthur?

How did this happen?

turcopolier , 09 February 2018 at 09:40 PM
Bill Herschel

Westmoreland certainly, Macarthur certainly not. This all started with the "industrialization" of the armed forces in WW2. we never recovered the sense of profession as opposed to occupation after the massive expansion and retention of so many placeholders. a whole new race of Walmart manager arose and persists. pl

turcopolier , 09 February 2018 at 09:48 PM
DianaC

The idea of the Domino Theory came from academia, not the generals of that time. They resisted the idea of a war in east Asia until simply ordered into it by LBJ. After that their instinct for acting according to guidance kicked in and they became committed to the task. Syria? Do you think I should write you an essay on that? SST has a large archive and a search machine. pl

turcopolier , 09 February 2018 at 09:55 PM
David E. Solomon

I am talking about flag officers at present, not those beneath them from the mass of whom they emerge. There are exceptions. Martin Dempsey may have been one such. The system creates such people at the top. pl

turcopolier , 09 February 2018 at 10:08 PM
elaine,

Your usual animosity for non-left wing authority is showing. A commander like the CENTCOM theater commander (look it up) operates within guidance from Washington, broad guidance. Normally this is the president's guidance as developed in the NSC process. Some presidents like Obama and LBJ intervene selectively and directly in the execution of that guidance. Obama had a "kill list" of jihadis suggested by the IC and condemned by him to die in the GWOT. He approved individual missions against them. LBJ picked individual air targets in NVN. Commanders in the field do not like that . They think that freedom of action within their guidance should be accorded them. This CinC has not been interested thus far in the details and have given the whole military chain of command wide discretion to carry out their guidance. pl

turcopolier , 09 February 2018 at 10:12 PM
J

Thank you, but it is real GBs that you like, not the Delta and SEAL door kickers. pl

turcopolier , 09 February 2018 at 10:24 PM
Gaikomainaku

"I am not sure that I understand what makes a Borgist different from a military conformist." The Borg and the military leaders are not of the same tribe. they are two different collectives who in the main dislike and distrust each other. pl

turcopolier , 09 February 2018 at 10:27 PM
Anna. Their guidance does not include a high priority for eradicating the opium trade. Their guidance has to do with defeating the jihadis and building up the central government. pl
turcopolier , 09 February 2018 at 10:30 PM
Peter AU

Predictably there is always someone who says that this group is not different from all others. Unfortunately the military function demands more than the level of mediocrity found in most groups. pl

turcopolier , 09 February 2018 at 10:44 PM
james

Trump would like to better relations with Russia but that is pretty much the limit of his attention to foreign affairs at any level more sophisticated than expecting deference. He is firmly focused on the economy and base solidifying issues like immigration. pl

Peter AU , 09 February 2018 at 11:01 PM
The medical profession comes to mind. GP's and specialists. Many of those working at the leading edge of research seem much wider thinking and are not locked into the small box of what they have been taught.
turcopolier , 09 February 2018 at 11:16 PM
Peter AU

The GPs do not rule over a hierarchy of doctors. pl

J -> turcopolier ... , 09 February 2018 at 11:22 PM
Combat Applications Group and SEALS don't even begin to compare, they're not in the same league as 'real deal' GBs. The GBs are thinkers as well as doers, whereas Combat Applications Group and SEALs all they know is breach and clear, breach and clear.

There is more to life than breach and clear. Having worked with all in one manner or another, I'll take GBs any day hands down. It makes a difference when the brain is engaged instead of just the heel.

kao_hsien_chih -> Jack... , 09 February 2018 at 11:22 PM
A lot of technology entrepreneurs--especially those active today--are stuck in their own groupthink, inflated by their sense that they are born for greatness and can do no wrong.

The kind of grand schemes that the top people at Google, Uber, and Facebook think up to remake the universe in their own idea of "good society" are frightening. That they are cleverer (but not necessarily wiser) than the academics, borgists, or generals, I think, makes them even more dangerous.

FB Ali , 09 February 2018 at 11:23 PM
Col Lang,

They are indeed "narrow thinkers", but I think the problem runs deeper. They seem to be stuck in the rut of a past era. When the US was indeed the paramount military power on the globe, and the US military reigned supreme. They can't seem to accept the reality of the world as it is now.

Of course, these policies ensure that they continue to be well-funded, even if the US is bankrupting itself in the process.

turcopolier , 10 February 2018 at 01:03 AM
dogear

He is still the Saudi Mukhtar for the US and most of the generals are still narrow minded. pl

LondonBob , 10 February 2018 at 06:59 AM
They [the generals] seem to have deliberately completely ignored the issues and policy positions Trump ran on as President. It isn't a case of ignorance but of wilful disregard.
turcopolier , 10 February 2018 at 07:55 AM
LondonBob

I think that is true but, they were able to talk him into that, thus far. pl

DianaLC said in reply to turcopolier ... , 10 February 2018 at 09:23 AM
I've been reading this blog for some time. My question was facetious and written with the understanding of your statement about the generals not having a good grasp of "the vision thing" on their own.
Terry , 10 February 2018 at 09:25 AM
So true and as others commented this is a sad feature of the human race and all human organizations. Herd mentality ties into social learning. Chimps are on average more creative and have better short term memory than humans. We gave up some short term memory in order to be able to learn quickly by mimicking. If shown how to open a puzzle box but also shown unnecessary extra steps a chimp will ignore the empty steps and open the box with only the required steps. A human will copy what they saw exactly performing the extra steps as if they have some unknown value to the process. Our massive cultural heritages are learned by observing and taken in as a whole. This process works within organizations as well.

I suspect a small percentage of the human race functions differently than the majority and retains creative thinking and openness along with more emphasis on cognitive thinking than social learning but generally they always face a battle when working to change the group "consensus", i.e. Fulton's folly, scepticism on whether man would ever fly, etc.

One nice feature of the internet allows creative thinkers to connect and watch the idiocy of the world unfold around us.

"A natural desire to be part of the 'in crowd' could damage our ability to make the right decisions, a new study has shown."

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/12/141216212049.htm

TV , 10 February 2018 at 10:18 AM
The military by definition is a rigid hierarchical structure. It could not function as a collection of individuals. This society can only breed conforming narrow leaders as an "individual" would leave or be forced out.
Barbara Ann , 10 February 2018 at 10:22 AM
That part of our brain responsible for the desire to be part of the 'in crowd' may affect our decision-making process, but it is also the reason we keep chimps in zoos and not the other way around. Or, to put it another way; if chimps had invented Facebook, I might consider them more creative than us.
Babak Makkinejad -> Terry... , 10 February 2018 at 10:30 AM
Do you think chimps are, per the Christian Docrine, in a State of Fall or in a State of Grace?
Adrestia , 10 February 2018 at 10:32 AM
This is an interesting discussion. The top in organisations (civil and military) are increasingly technocrats and thinking like systems managers. They are unable to innovate because they lack the ability to think out of the box. Usually there is a leader who depends on specialists. Others (including laymen) are often excluding from the decision-making-proces. John Ralston Saul's Voltaires Bastards describes this very well.

Because of natural selection (conformist people tend to choose similar people who resemble their own values and ways-of-thinking) organizations have a tendency to become homogeneous (especially the higher management/ranks).

In combination with the "dumbing" of people (also of people who have a so-called good education (as described in Richard Sale's Sterile Chit-Chat ) this is a disastrous mix.

Homogeneity is the main culprit. A specialists tends to try to solve problems with the same knowledge-set that created these.

Not all (parts of) organizations and people suffer this fate. Innovations are usually done by laymen and not by specialists. The organizations are often heterogeneous and the people a-typical and/or eccentric.

(mainly the analytical parts of ) intelligence organizations and investment banks are like that if they are worth anything. Very heterogeneous with a lot of a-typical people. I think Green Berets are also like that. An open mind and genuine interest in others (cultures, way of thinking, religion etc) is essential to understand and to perform and also to prevent costly mistakes (in silver and/or blood).

It is possible to create firewalls against tunnel-vision. The Jester performed such a role. Also think of the Emperors New Clothes . The current trend of people with limited vision and creativity prevents this. Criticism is punished with a lack of promotion, job-loss or even jail (whistle-blowers)

IMO this is why up to a certain rank (colonel or middle management) a certain amount of creativity or alternative thinking is allowed, but conformity is essential to rise higher.

I was very interested in the Colonel's remark on the foreign background of the GB in Vietnam. If you would like to expand on this I would be much obliged? IMO GB are an example of a smart, learning, organization (in deed and not only in word as so many say of themselves, but who usually are at best mediocre)

Generalfeldmarschall von Hindenburg -> gaikokumaniakku... , 10 February 2018 at 11:58 AM
Isn't the "Borg" really The Atlantic Council?
ISL , 10 February 2018 at 12:58 PM
Dear Colonel,

Would you then say that a rising military officer who does have the vision thing faces career impediments? If so, would you say that the vision thing is lost (if it ever was there) at the highest ranks? In any case, the existence of even a few at the top, like Matthis or Shinseki is a blessing.

ex-PFC Chuck said in reply to FB Ali ... , 10 February 2018 at 01:08 PM
FB Ali:
"When the US was indeed the paramount military power on the globe, and the US military reigned supreme. They can't seem to accept the reality of the world as it is now."
That's true not only of the US military but of US elites in general across all of the spectra. And because that reality is at odds with the group-think of those within the various elements that make up the spectra it doesn't a hearing. Anyone who tries to bring it up risks being ejected from the group.
Adrestia , 10 February 2018 at 02:03 PM
I forget an important part. I really miss an edit-button. Comment-boxes are like looking at something through a straw. Its easy to miss the overview.

Innovations and significant new developments are usually made by laymen. IMO mainly because they have a fresh perspective without being bothered by the (mainstream) knowledge that dominates an area of expertise.

By excluding the laymen errors will continue to be repeated. This can be avoided by using development/decision-making frameworks, but these tend to become dogma (and thus become part of the problem)

Much better is allowing laymen and allowing a-typical people. Then listen to them carefully. Less rigid flexible and very valuable.

kooshy , 10 February 2018 at 02:19 PM
Apparently, according to the last US ambassador to Syria Mr. Ford, from 2014-17 US has spent 12 Billion on Regime change in Syria. IMO, combinedly Iran and Russia so far, have spent far less in Syria than 12 billion by US alone, not considering the rest of her so called coalition. This is a war of attrition, and US operations in wars, are usually far more expensive and longer than anybody else's.

"The United States spent at least $12 billion in Syria-related military and civilian expenses in the four years from 2014 through 2017, according to the former U.S. ambassador to the country. This $12 billion is in addition to the billions more spent to pursue regime change in Syria in the previous three years, after war broke out in 2011." https://goo.gl/8pj5cD

J , 10 February 2018 at 02:49 PM
Colonel, TTG, PT,

FYI regarding Syria

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/sen-tim-kaine-demands-release-secret-trump-war-powers-memo-n846176

Richardstevenhack -> turcopolier ... , 10 February 2018 at 02:56 PM
It may "demand" it - but does it get it? Soldiers are just as human as everyone else.

I'm reminded of the staff sergeant with the sagging beer belly who informed me, "Stand up straight and look like a soldier..." Or the First Sergeant who was so hung over one morning at inspection that he couldn't remember which direction he was going down the hall to the next room to be inspected. I'm sure you have your own stories of less than competence.

It's a question of intelligence and imagination. And frankly, I don't see the military in any country receiving the "best and brightest" of that country's population, by definition. The fact that someone is patriotic enough to enter the military over a civilian occupation doesn't make them more intelligent or imaginative than the people who decided on the civilian occupation.

Granted, if you fail at accounting, you don't usually die. Death tends to focus the mind, as they say. Nonetheless, we're not talking about the grunts at the level who actually die, still less the relatively limited number of Special Forces. We're talking about the officers and staff at the levels who don't usually die in war - except maybe at their defeat - i.e., most officers over the level of captain.

One can hardly look at this officer crowd in the Pentagon and CENTCOM and say that their personal death concentrates their mind. They are in virtually no danger of that. Only career death faces them - with a nice transition to the board of General Dynamics at ten times the salary.

All in all, I'd have to agree that the military isn't much better at being competent - at many levels above the obvious group of hyper-trained Special Forces - any more than any other profession.

dogear said in reply to Terry... , 10 February 2018 at 02:59 PM
That is well put.most important is the grading system that is designed to fix a person to a particular slot thereby limiting his ability to think "outside the box" and consider the many variables that exist in one particular instant.

Creative thinking allows you to see beyond the storm clouds ahead and realize that the connectedness of different realities both the visible and invisible. For instance the picture of the 2 pairs of korean skaters in the news tells an interesting story on many levels. Some will judge them on their grade of proffiency, while others will see a dance of strategy between 2 foes and a few will know the results in advance and plan accordingly

https://www.google.com.au/amp/www.nbcolympics.com/news/north-south-korean-figure-skating-teams-practice-side-side%3famp?espv=1

Mark Logan said in reply to Peter AU... , 10 February 2018 at 03:30 PM
Peter AU

"They are not stupid at all but they are a collective of narrow thinkers." I've often pondered that concept. Notice how many of radical extremist leaders were doctors, engineers and such? Narrow and deep. STEM is enormously useful to us but seems to be a risky when implanted in shallow earth.

turcopolier , 10 February 2018 at 05:03 PM
Mark Logan

These narrow "but deep" thinkers were unable to grasp the nature of the Iraq War for the first couple of years. They thought of it as a rear area security problem, a combat in cities problem, anything but a popular rebellion based on xenophobia and anti-colonialism The IED problem? They spent several billion dollars on trying to find a technology fix and never succeeded. I know because they kept asking me to explain the war to them and then could not understand the answers which were outside their narrow thought. pl

turcopolier , 10 February 2018 at 05:13 PM
ISL

War College selectees, the national board selected creme de la creme test out as 50% SJs (conformists lacking vision) in Myers-Briggs terms and about 15% NTs (intellectuals). To survive and move upward in a system dominated by SJs, the NTs must pretend to be what they are not. A few succeed. I do not think Mattis is an intellectual merely because he has read a lot. pl

outthere , 10 February 2018 at 05:19 PM
Long ago when I was a professor, I advised my students that "the law is like a pencil sharpener, it sharpens the mind by narrowing it." I tried to encourage them to "think backwards".

My favorite example was a Japanese fisherman who recovered valuable ancient Chinese pottery. Everyone knew where an ancient ship had sunk, but the water was too deep to dive down to the wreck. And everyone knew the cargo included these valuable vases. And the fisherman was the first to figure out how to recover them. He attached a line to an octopus, and lowered it in the area, waited awhile, and pulled it up. Low and behold, the octopus had hidden in an ancient Chinese vase. The fisherman was familiar with trapping octopuses, by lowering a ceramic pot (called "takosubo") into the ocean, waiting awhile, then raising the vase with octopus inside. His brilliance was to think backwards, and use an octopus to catch a vase.

turcopolier , 10 February 2018 at 05:24 PM
TV

By your calculation people like Joe Stilwell and George Patton should not have existed. pl

turcopolier , 10 February 2018 at 05:31 PM
Adrestia

the original GBS were recruited in the 50s to serve in the OSS role with foreign guerrillas behind Soviet lines in th event of war in Europe. Aaron Bank, the founder, recruited several hundred experienced foreign soldiers from the likely countries who wanted to become American. By the time we were in VN these men were a small fraction of GBs but important for their expertise and professionalism. pl

ked , 10 February 2018 at 05:56 PM
Col, I think it might help people to think of "the Borg" - as you have defined & applied it - in a broader context. It struck me particularly as you ID'd the launching of our modern military group-think / careerism behavior coming from the watershed of industrialized scale & processes that came out of WWII.

We note parallel themes in all significant sectors of our civilization. The ever-expanding security state, the many men in Gray Flannel Suits that inhabit corporate culture, Finance & Banking & Big Health scaling ever larger - all processes aimed to slice the salami thinner & quicker, to the point where meat is moot ... and so it goes.

I note many Borgs... Borgism if you will. An organizational behavior that has emerged out of human nature having difficulty adapting to rapidly accelerating complexity that is just too hard to apprehend in a few generations. If (as many commenters on STT seem to...) one wishes to view this in an ideological or spiritual framework only, they may overlook an important truth - that what we are experiencing is a Battle Among Borgs for control over their own space & domination over the other Borgs. How else would we expect any competitive, powerful interest group to act?

In gov & industry these days, we observe some pretty wild outliers... attached to some wild outcomes. Thus the boring behavior of our political industries bringing forth Trump, our promethean technology sector yielding a Musk (& yes, a Zuckerberg).

I find it hard to take very seriously analysts that define their perspective based primarily upon their superior ideals & opposition to others. Isn't every person, every tribe, team or enterprise a borglet-in-becoming? Everybody Wants to Rule the World ... & Everybody Must Get Stoned... messages about how we are grappling with complexity in our times. I just finished reading Command & Control (about nuclear weapons policy, systems design & accidents). I am amazed we've made it this far.

Unfortunately, I would not be amazed if reckless, feckless leaders changed the status quo. I was particularly alarmed hearing Trump in his projection mode; "I would love to be able to bring back our country into a great form of unity, without a major event where people pull together, that's hard to do.

But I would like to do it without that major event because usually that major event is not a good thing." It strikes me that he could be exceptionally willing to risk a Major Event if he felt a form of unity, or self-preservation, was in the offing. I pray (& I do not pray often or easily) that the Generals you have described have enough heart & guts to honor their oath at its most profound level in the event of an Event.

turcopolier , 10 February 2018 at 06:00 PM
babak

As a time traveler from another age, I can only say that for me it means devotion to a set of mores peculiar to a particular profession as opposed to an occupation. pl

Barbara Ann -> outthere... , 10 February 2018 at 06:00 PM
Great example outthere.

Another springs to mind: James Lovelock (of Gaia hypothesis fame) was once part of the NASA team building the first probe to go to Mars to look for signs of life. Lovelock didn't make any friends when he told NASA they were wasting their time, there was none. When asked how he could be so sure, he explained that the composition of the Martian atmosphere made it impossible. "But Martian life may be able to survive under different conditions" was the retort. Lovelock then went on to explain his view that the evolution of microbial life determined the atmospheric composition on Earth, so should be expected to do the same if life had evolved on Mars. Brilliant backwards thinking which ought to have earned him the Nobel prize IMHO (for Gaia). Lovelock, a classic cross-disciplinary scientist, can't be rewarded with such a box-categorized honor, as his idea doesn't fit well into any one.

Another example of cross-disciplinary brilliance was Bitcoin, which has as much to do with its creator's deep knowledge of Anthropology (why people invented & use money) as his expertise in both Economics and Computer Science.

This is they key to creative thinking in my view - familiarity with different fields yields deeper insights.

[Feb 10, 2018] US Stock Markets Enter Correction Territory as Dow Falls More Than 1000 Points naked capitalism

Notable quotes:
"... "their policies are focused on putting money into the pockets of the wealthy and corporations who will simply put that money into savings and stock buybacks which will not filter into the economy." ..."
"... We wrote earlier about the recent move by bankers -- and the politicians who serve them -- to unreform the derivatives market, to return it to its pre–Dodd-Frank, pre–Crash-of-2007 state. This is a serious move by banks and bank lobbyists, and it could well happen soon. The seven bills in the House package of "tweaks" -- as the House Agriculture website dishonestly puts it -- have cleared the committee with Democratic support and are headed to the House floor. In the meantime, there are companion bills in the Senate. ..."
"... What will happen in the Senate? Well, Dick Durbin (always an Obama surrogate) famously said of the Senate that "the banks own the place." And of course the White House has been notoriously bank-friendly since day 1. As a friend told me last week, "Bank lobbyists are good; they really earn their money." Indeed. ..."
"... Our earlier story focused on both aspects of this push -- the "bad Dems" side and the derivatives side. Let's now look at just the derivatives aspect. ..."
Feb 10, 2018 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

That buying on the dip idea yesterday doesn't look so hot today.

Markets had another wild ride yesterday. The Wall Street Journal's overview:

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 entered correction territory for the first time in two years on Thursday as worries about rising interest rates and newfound volatility continued to rattle the markets

"We opened around the highest levels of the day and closed at the lows, and that's telling us the sellers aren't quite done yet," said Jonathan Corpina, senior managing partner at broker-dealer Meridian Equity Partners

Mr. Corpina said the pace of Thursday's declines, at hundred-point intervals, seemed to be driven by large sell orders from institutional investors, as well as by algorithmic orders triggered after major indexes broke through certain levels.

The S&P 500 fell 100.66 points, or 3.8%, to 2581.00 and is now down more than 10% from its record close on Jan. 26.

The decay towards the close does not bode well for tomorrow. The S&P 500 and the NASDAQ lost 3.75% and 3.9%, respectively, in the last hour. But even after the recent swan dive, the S&P 500 is still 12.5% higher than it was a year ago.

Now that this decline has proven to be more than a one-day, algo-driven affair, commentators are looking harder for explanations, particularly since that will give them a rationale for What To Do Next. Bloomberg helpfully offers six interpretations .

But it may not be all that complicated. Despite the seeming strength of the market rally through January, the post-Trump boomlet had less confidence among investors than I can ever recall. Even in early 2007, with the Fed well along in implementing interest rate increases and cracks visible in the subprime market, analysts were complacent, saying the Fed had created a Goldilocks market and would do such a good job of managing interest rates so as to not unduly discomfit investors. By contrast, last year it was common for normally chipper or studiedly agnostic experts to say how overvalued the market was. And that's before getting to the outsized role that buybacks have played in EPS gains over the last three years.

So most people who were paying attention knew there was a lot of air in stock prices. And with the large role algo trading now plays, when corrections finally arrive, they are likely to be more violent than in the past.

Given that the Fed lost its nerve during the taper tantrum of 2014, they may have been unduly optimistic that central banks would back off from rate increases if stock markets swooned. That may in the end prove to be the case, but there are reasons to think central banks won't be as easily deterred in 2018.

The first is not to forget that the Fed is very uncomfortable with super low rates. Even though central bank officials would never admit it, my sense is that they recognize that the experiment with QE and other extraordinary policies has largely been a failure. The goosing of asset prices hasn't translated into growth. It's increased inequality, which is now increasingly recognized as an economic negative, and also is increasing political instability.

In addition, being at near zero policy rates gives the Fed nowhere to go in a crisis. Even though there has been plenty of academic debate about negative interest rates, for the most part, they've only been imposed on end customers indirectly, via fees putting them in the position of having it cost them to park money. In the US, it would be a third rail issue to have rates be enough in negative terrain so as to impose them directly on consumers. Plus the claim that it would lead consumers to spend more is barmy. Negative rates send a loud signal of deflationary expectations, which means spending later is better because goods will be cheaper. And savers deprived of safe interest income will batten down even more rather than deplete principal.

So the Fed has been eager to raise interest rates and has had a bias towards interpreting labor market data as telling the story that conditions are tightening so as to allow them to keep nudging interest rates higher. As we noted, the much-ballyhooed average wage gains of last week went overwhelmingly to managerial workers, not the schlubs. New job creation was until recently in part-time jobs, and even now, the full time jobs created have been mainly low wage. All you need to know about labor bargaining power is look at working conditions at Amazon, not just in its warehouses, but now at Whole Foods and even in its executive offices. Nevertheless, investors apparently didn't like yet another new unemployment claims report coming in at below 300,000 , as that was only going to stiffen Fed resolve.

Not only is the Fed reacting to more signs of life in the economy, but the world economy is having a phase of synchronized growth. That means no other major central bank is likely to start spiking the punch bowl.

Needless to say, investors have been nervously watching the rise in bond yields. As Bloomberg noted:

Pressure again came from the Treasury market, where another weak auction put gave bond bears ammunition, sending the 10-year yield to the highest in four years. Equity investors took bond signal to mean interest rates will push higher, denting earnings and consumer-spending power.

Treasuries did firm later in the day. Commentators also made much of the fact that bets against volatility, particularly using Cboe Volatility-related instruments like the soon to be shuttered XIV ETN, fed the market decline.

As of this hour, (4:00 AM), the Nikkei had closed its session down 2.54%, the FTSE is off 0.42%, bu Dow futures are up 151 points and the S&P 500 mini, 20.75 points. So the more sanguine mood may hold till the market opening.

Despite the speed of the correction, it's hard to get worked up about it given that this correction has merely erased recent froth. As indicated at the top, most US stock market investors are still sitting on healthy gains over the past year. And even if the selling continues, there's no evidence of an unwind of levered speculation that could blow back and damage critical payments systems players or lenders. If the stock market slide continues, however, it could dent Trump's recently improved approval ratings. Interviews of Trump supporters suggest that one regularly cited reason for their backing is that they've seen big gains in their stock portfolios. Will they be as solidly behind him if they were to evaporate?


RabidGandhi , February 9, 2018 at 5:50 am

Neil Irwin blames Mr Market's Sad on investors being freaked out by imminent Wiemar-style hyperinflation. Makes sense I guess: if you exclude those pesky labour participation and real wage numbers as outliers, those cooked unemployment figures definitely point to inflation maybe possibly perhaps sorta potentially rising to a vertiginous 2.5%, which everyone knows is the gateway drug to Venezuela/Zimbabwe. (Fun fact: a ctrl-F on the Upshot article brings up the Holy Inflationary Trinity of Wiemar/Venezuela/Zimbabwe, de riguer for any article on the 'I' word).

This all makes sense I suppose. The other day I went to the doctor, and when she saw my temperature had risen from 36.4°C to 36.6°C, the first thing she said was "smallpox".

paulmeli , February 9, 2018 at 8:49 am

Failure to understand that the cause of hyper-inflations is rooted mainly in production collapse leads the hyper-inflationistas to be repeatedly wrong. What was Einstein's definition of insanity again?

Kill the supply of goods needed for survival and prices will skyrocket without the printing of a single $ (or Euro, etc.).

rd , February 9, 2018 at 9:21 am

In order to have hyperinflation, you have to put money into the pockets of people who will spend that money so that there is significant velocity of money. I have total faith in Congress and Trump preventing hyperinflation as their policies are focused on putting money into the pockets of the wealthy and corporations who will simply put that money into savings and stock buybacks which will not filter into the economy. As a result, our money supply is likely to continue drinking rose and snoozing in brokerage accounts instead of running around generating economic activity and hyperinflation.

tegnost , February 9, 2018 at 9:56 am

"their policies are focused on putting money into the pockets of the wealthy and corporations who will simply put that money into savings and stock buybacks which will not filter into the economy."
yeah ..that's trumps fault have you ever heard of barack obama, tim geithner eric holder ben bernanke bill clinton hillary clinton the clinton foundation. Isn't bezos a democrat? What about all those other tech billionaires intent on getting everything for themselves?
https://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2016/05/31/tech-billionaires-like-democrats-more-than-republicans-heres-why/ ?
FTA "The CEO of Uber, Travis Kalanick, has publicly stated that he's a fan of Obamacare, since it helps his entrepreneurial drivers keep their health insurance as they transition between jobs.

In other words, Silicon Valley believes that the Democratic Party is good for emerging industries. I've argued that the modern emerging workforce of tech, urbanized professionals, and "gig economy" laborers all represent an entirely new political demographic pushing Democratic politicians to focus more on education, research and entrepreneurship, and less on regulations and the priorities of labor unions."
free stuff for the rich, gut regulations and ditch unions, what a bunch of self serving p.o.s.'s

paulmeli , February 9, 2018 at 10:58 am

Somehow you managed to completely miss the point of my comment.

Printing money is not the cause of hyperinflation. Both famous hyperinflations in history were caused by collapses in production.

rd , February 9, 2018 at 5:23 pm

Production usually collapses when people are not buying the produced things. It is typically the bottom 90% that does most of that buying. So diverting money from them to the top 10% or 1% or to an external entity, such as the Weimar war reparations, results in less purchasing.

paulmeli , February 9, 2018 at 8:56 pm

In Zimbabwe, agricultural production collapsed when farming was turned over to inexperienced natives.

In Weimar Germany, Germany's most productive region was occupied by the allies presumably so Germany couldn't produce weapons. In addition, Germany had to pay war reparations in gold, having to sell or export essential goods to acquire gold, which created shortages for the locals, driving up prices.

In both case the governments tried to keep up with the inflation by changing the denomination of its currency, which was a hopeless endeavor because what doesn't exist can't be bought at any price.

Adam Eran , February 10, 2018 at 1:22 pm

Amen. You might also mention that shortage of goods in the '70s called the "oil shock" that caused the less-than-hyper inflation in the U.S.

Stephanie Kelton mentions a Cato (!) study of 50+ hyperinflationary episodes throughout human history. They *never* were produced by central banks run amok. Shortages of goods and balance of payments were the sources.

Or just look at the recent sub-prime/derivatives meltdown. The Fed issued $16 – $29 trillion to cure the frauds of the financial sector in an eight month period in 2007-8. Where's the inflation.

The notion that money printing "causes" inflation is deeply embedded. It's practically like watching Pavlov's dogs if you try to discuss this but that's pretty common in most out-of-the-mainstream discussions. As Max Planck said "The truth never triumphs. Its opponents simply die off. Science advances one funeral at a time."

Wukchumni , February 9, 2018 at 11:31 am

Hyperinflation always required a physical host in the past, be it Roman denarii or Germanic coins from around 1623 or three centuries later in the same region-paper money. Even in odd instances such as the myriad of currencies the Japanese issued in locales they won in battle in the South Pacific during WW2, a host with the most, was needed.

The word everybody is pining for which didn't exist until now, is 'Cyberinflation', a no host party, which has some attributes of hyperinflation-as in way too much money created, which in the past debased it's buying power, but that was then and this is now.

It's only being channeled to a minuscule amount of the population, so in a Bizarro World way, the manna has only greatly increased the prices on things the lucky ducky recipients liked the most, such as $400 odd million paintings, real estate, see me-dig me accoutrements, et al.

JTMcPhee , February 9, 2018 at 5:11 pm

In my mind (admittedly a small, fearful and shrinking place) the whole derivatives game is best seen as counterfeiting. "Printing" and "minting" and now "mining" funny munny, with the intent to harm "the economy," for personal gain.

Players in that scam are perceived by lesser humans as holding vast wealth, which the encourages people with Real Stuff ™ to hand it over to the looters in exchange for promises to pay, hand it over maybe not altogether in good faith and with clean hands, but "sir, here's the keys to your 640-foot yacht, call us when you want to step up a notch. "

And yes, "everybody knows" that "notional value" is "not real," but somehow the collapsing-in of the derivative thing a decade or so ago seems to have made some bad things happen, to Mopedom, at least. Let's hear some older words from Gaius Publius:

We wrote earlier about the recent move by bankers -- and the politicians who serve them -- to unreform the derivatives market, to return it to its pre–Dodd-Frank, pre–Crash-of-2007 state. This is a serious move by banks and bank lobbyists, and it could well happen soon. The seven bills in the House package of "tweaks" -- as the House Agriculture website dishonestly puts it -- have cleared the committee with Democratic support and are headed to the House floor. In the meantime, there are companion bills in the Senate.

What will happen in the Senate? Well, Dick Durbin (always an Obama surrogate) famously said of the Senate that "the banks own the place." And of course the White House has been notoriously bank-friendly since day 1. As a friend told me last week, "Bank lobbyists are good; they really earn their money." Indeed.

Our earlier story focused on both aspects of this push -- the "bad Dems" side and the derivatives side. Let's now look at just the derivatives aspect. http://americablog.com/2013/03/the-worldwide-derivatives-market-could-be-over-1-2-quadrillion-in-notional-value.html

The piece goes on to explain a bit about derivatives and how they operate. And GP notes that at the time of writing, his estimate of the notional value of derivatives contracts was $1.2 QUADRILLION*, several times the capitalization of "the market." Stuff I read says the "overhang" has only been getting yuuuuger

I and the rest of the Mopery have been rebuilding the real wealth that these "liquidity makers" collapsed so very recently, like the good brothers and sisters who pay off the markers that compulsive-gambler Black Sheep siblings run up in Vegas and Macao and Monte Carlo. What's going to happen the next time that these High Flyers bring down the house, and we mopes are tapped out?

*For extra credit: A Quadrillion is what fraction of a Squillion?

sierra7 , February 9, 2018 at 10:23 pm

" .put money into the pockets of people ."
Yes, put the money into the pockets of those who lay awake at night trying to figure out how to spend all that money the next day ..instead of into the pockets of those who lay awake all night contemplating how to survive the next day(s)

Jim Haygood , February 9, 2018 at 9:00 am

'inflation maybe possibly perhaps sorta potentially rising to a vertiginous 2.5%'

The New York Fed's underlying inflation gauge sits at 2.98%, with an update (presumably higher) due on Feb 14th. Legendary trader Paul Tudor Jones is thinking along similar lines:

Paul Tudor Jones said inflation is about to appear "with a vengeance" and may force the new Federal Reserve chair to accelerate interest rate hikes.

Policy makers should have been more aggressive in "rejecting the fiscal impropriety associated with this most recent tax cut," he said.

"It is incredible that at full employment we have passed a tax cut that will push our deficit to 5 percent of GDP," Jones said. "Can you imagine what will happen to the deficit and debt in the inevitable downturn?"

At the Fed, not a single policy maker is predicting inflation higher than 2.1 percent in 2018, or 2.3 percent in 2019.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-02-06/paul-tudor-jones-says-inflation-about-to-appear-with-vengeance

With CalPERS having decided to dump its commodity allocation [see today's CalPERS post], the wise will back up their lorries to take these scorned assets into safer hands.

RabidGandhi , February 9, 2018 at 9:29 am

Please Comrade, this is a family blog. If you get the image of 3% in[ censored ]ion into the chilluns' heads, they won't sleep for weeks.

Jim Haygood , February 9, 2018 at 10:33 am

Pity the Venezuelen niños :

With new [truck] tires now going for about 70 million bolivars – about $300 on the black market or more than two decades of work at the official minimum wage – looters often swipe them along with food.

https://tinyurl.com/ybeubf42

JTMcPhee , February 9, 2018 at 4:36 pm

Yes, pity the poor Ven ninos (not the ones of the Ven Elites, who are of course doing just fine, thank you) . Pity them indeed, crushed under the Great Juggernaut of FIRE and the wheels and treads of the Great Globalized Looting Machine. (Sheds crocodile tears )

Any stick to beat a (nominally) Socialist Dog

I hear Gaia was talking with Great Spirit the other millennium, and offered that "the only good human is a dead human "

jackiebass , February 9, 2018 at 7:16 am

At 76, I know very little about the stock market. What I have concluded after years of objectively observing, is that a boom in stock prices wan't going to last forever. What is now happening has happened in the past so this didn't surprise me. Several years before the collapse of the financial system I was telling friends that something bad was going to happen. People were spending like drunken sailors. I knew what I earned while working and people were spending well beyond their means. I thought cheap credit was the reason. When I purchase my home in 1971, I thought my 7% interest rate was a good deal. At that time car loans were going for 12%. Fast forward and it made sense to me that something negative wag going to happen. It was only a matter of time. I remember when I knew people with Corning stock who suddenly becoming millionaires. In a matter of weeks they were broke because the stock and the stock market tanked. A lession I learned early in my life is if you play with matches you will eventually get burned. That's why I'll never be wealthy but also why I won't be poor.

Grumpy Engineer , February 9, 2018 at 10:09 am

Your comment about Corning stock reminded me of an interview I saw on TV (way back in 2001) that I still vividly remember today. Some poor engineer with Enron had $1.5 million of company stock in his retirement account. In the course of a single week, he lost his job and saw his retirement account lose over 99% of its value. When the smoke cleared, he barely had enough to buy a decent used car. There were definitely some lessons there as well.

lyman alpha blob , February 9, 2018 at 2:07 pm

To be fair, that guy's retirement account had probably also gone from 'not much' to $1.5 mil pretty quickly too. I remember when Enron went from boring utility to high flying 'new economy' company trying to sell bandwidth futures or some such among all the other scams it had going at the time. It's stock price went into the stratosphere in a hurry right along with all the InfoSpaces, etc of the day. The analysts touted it as some new type of company that the old rules of valuation didn't apply to anymore, kind of like they did for the entire market at the time.

drumlin woodchuckles , February 9, 2018 at 9:06 pm

I remember reading somewhere that some of Enron's growth was made through buying other smaller companies. Some of those companies had stock-ownership-plans for some of their employees and that employee-owned stock was all converted to Enron stock.

Does anyone else remember reading anything like that or about that?

Code Name D , February 10, 2018 at 8:36 pm

The opposite was true, actually. Much of Enron's "growth" came from creating spin-off companies. The spin-offs would record a revenue stream to Enron while retaining the debt on its own books. As long as the spin-offs remained viable, Enron looked to have money flowing in from everywhere. In reality, the spin-offs were drowning in debt.

Two such projects that came to mind, they tried to build an old fueled power plant somewhere in the middle of the jungle in India (or was it Indonesia.) At some point, investors realized that the power plant was built no-where near a power grid, nor did they secure a fuel source. Needless to say, the venture went belly up. Another profit venture they tried was to sell water rights from an anticipated privatization of EU's water supply. When that venture failed, the holding company had to buy back its ventures, even though the profits had already been given to Enron.

The final nail in Enron's coffin proved to be the Californian Electric Crises. The exact details escape me, but some how Enron secured a contract giving it the power to operate California's grid, where before it was run by a state appointed committee. Enron then used its now power to create the crises, with "rolling brown outs" across the state. The argument was that California grew to fast and demand outstripped productions, which was in turn hobbled by "gomit" environmental regulations that were hamstringing new oil and coal plants. (At the time, California was pushing for natural gas plants.)

However, actual numbers told a different story, that California had plenty of production capacity. Much of the independent power producers were actually shut off from the grid, preventing them from selling power during "brown outs." while Enron operated planets suddenly went off line for invented reasons.

It was later learned that the crises were manufactured in a last minute to stave off bankruptcy. They bilked the state and rate payers for hundreds of millions in additional rate hikes. The crises only ended when the Democrats gained a one seat majority in the House and thus had the power to investigate the crises (which they declined to do, I will note.) Cornered, Enron collapsed three months later.

Jim Haygood , February 9, 2018 at 8:20 am

'Pressure again came from the Treasury market sending the 10-year yield to the highest in four years'

No one should be surprised that Treasuries are getting trashed, with today's budget deal gratuitously turning up fiscal stim to eleven nigh on 6 percent of GDP.

As the US economy heads toward politically induced overheating, yield on the 10-year Treasury is edging up ominously toward the Dec 31, 2013 high of 3.04%. 2013, you'll recall, was a terrible year for bonds.

Stocks represent the discounted value of future earnings and dividends. Raise the assumed discount rate, and stock prices go down .

Knocking a thousand points off the Dow is an impressive achievement of the retarded elephant party.

rd , February 9, 2018 at 9:25 am

You have clearly missed the latest economic theories. Economic theory today is easily explained by the following:

"Democrat Party budget deficits are evil and will lead us to economic and social collapse leading to communism. Republican Party deficits are good and ordained by God."

Edward E , February 9, 2018 at 3:49 pm

Reset & jubilee, don't worry spend happy now! Whistle, whistle, whistles

Timmy , February 9, 2018 at 9:30 am

There is a tremendous amount of noise obscuring the simple math of future values discounted at a rate no longer complacently assumed to be near zero. One can almost hear the rolling global wave of buy and sell side spreadsheets being updated with new rate assumptions and lower return expectations on equities. One wonders when the fumes will waft over to the credit lab and work their way into credit analyst balance sheet assumptions.

Jim Haygood , February 9, 2018 at 10:17 am

Right on cue, the credit lab awakens in a foul mood:

London, 09 February 2018 -- The stable credit profile of the United States (Aaa stable) is likely to face downward pressure in the long-term, due to meaningful fiscal deterioration amid increasing levels of national debt and a widening federal budget deficit.

Moody's has already indicated that rising entitlement costs and rising interest rates will cause the US's fiscal position to further erode over the next decade. The recently-agreed tax reform will exacerbate and bring forward those pressures.

Moody's current baseline forecast is that the sovereign balance sheet will continue to weaken over the coming decade. Absent corrective fiscal measures, the US's Aaa rating will rely increasingly on its unparalleled economic base and the central role it plays in the global financial system.

https://www.moodys.com/research/Moodys-US-economic-strength-and-integral-role-in-global-capital–PR_379378

US triple-A rating = fudged due to 'special snowflake' status

Yves Smith Post author , February 9, 2018 at 10:44 am

The world was supposed to come to an end when S&P was threatening a downgrade of the US from triple A and finally pulled the trigger. We were virtually alone in saying it would be a nothingburger.

The Rev Kev , February 9, 2018 at 8:55 am

Kinda above my pay grade but I will chance a comment. Thinking long term this "correction" may be a good thing as apart from blowing away some of the hype off the market, it is testing the systems in place to meet an even more serious crash down the track. Computer based trading has again been found wanting but don't know if that will change any time soon. I won't hold my breath.
My understanding is that the Cboe Volatility Index (also known as the "fear gauge") mentioned here was set up to track the volatility of the stock market. Since you can't make money on the CVI, an inverse one was set up which is called the Velocity Shares Daily Inverse VIX Short Term ETN (right so far?). Apparently Bloomberg reckons that it is now worth some US$1.5 trillion which is starting to be serious money here but the correction meant that most of the big inverse VIX trades made has come crashing in value thus making the correction even worse. Count on Wall Street to create something out of nothing and to make a buck on it – and then to totally stuff it up with greed.
It's not the end of the world as we know it, as Yves points out, but it may be the beginning of the end of the easy money era. The what, $30 trillion dollars used to bail out the banks the past decade as far as I can see were not based on real wealth but just summoned up out of cyberspace. This money was lent out on artificially low interest rates to the wealthiest segment of the population and made real asset prices meaningless. If you can't value something, how do you know what it is worth. Is a five-hundred year old painting really worth nearly half a billion dollars? Is shale-oil worth the money spent developing it? Are interest rates reflecting real values or has the LIBOR rates been corrupted yet again. Who can tell? All I can say is that Wall Street I wouldn't want to be you.

Arizona Slim , February 9, 2018 at 11:27 am

And, right on cue, my e-mailbox has a message from a company that used to manage part of my retirement money. "Stay in the market!" is the theme.

Personally, I'd rather not be in the market at all.

Wukchumni , February 9, 2018 at 11:43 am

When you don't have a scintilla of savings held by greed agreed upon that by any means necessary is alright by them, you rest easy watching their machinations run amok. I imagine the real messy bits yet to come will resemble that car pile up video from the BBC.

Everybody is going to want to get out at the same time.

Darius , February 9, 2018 at 11:57 am

Where, then, would you recommend parking your savings?

Wukchumni , February 9, 2018 at 12:21 pm

Think along the lines of what a reversion to the mean could mean to means.

John k , February 9, 2018 at 12:26 pm

NYSE margin debt chart won't reflect the past week's change for 6-8 weeks, put brobably its down a hair from record high. When the margin calls start to ring off the hook and this pile of debt really begins to fall the avalanche is unstoppable.
The last two times indexes only just fell back to the 140-yr trend line, an abnormally high bottom usually it falls substantially below trend. But economy is weaker now than when fed set off selling with higher rates in 2000 and 2007, and inequality means a higher fraction of the pop is just clinging to their standard of living (spending), so a substantial decline in GDP will be harder to recover from unless congress quickly spends like mad to compensate for private sector demand crash. Forget a jobs guarantee from DC, would they even agree to massive infra? I doubt it. Next case likely longer and deeper.

Jim A. , February 9, 2018 at 1:12 pm

Negative interest rates? Time to fire up the FINCEN form 104 and store actual cash.

Chauncey Gardiner , February 9, 2018 at 1:30 pm

Now that perceived risks to the payments system have largely if temporarily been put to rest, and bank profitability concerns have arisen as the yield curve was flattened and savers euthanized under years of QE-ZIRP, economist Irving Fisher's idea that central banks can increase inflation by increasing their nominal interest rate targets seems to be gaining some traction. As a layperson this view, labeled "NeoFisherism", seems to directly counter Milton Friedman's view which has so dominated the thinking of the generation of monetarist economists at the Fed who have controlled central bank monetary policy for decades.

It's too early to say whether the Powell Fed is adopting a "Neo-Fisherian" approach, as that would likely suppress stock prices. (And who owns a disproportionate share of corporate stocks? )

https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/july-2016/neo-fisherism-a-radical-idea-or-the-most-obvious-solution-to-the-low-inflation-problem

JohnnyGL , February 9, 2018 at 3:50 pm

I feel like the equity market won't really crack until junk bond and leveraged loan markets have a break down.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/spleverage/2018/02/08/covenant-lite-credits-continue-to-dominate-u-s-leveraged-loan-market/#2c3fefca4400

If default rates pick up or interest rates rise enough and spreads blow out, then there'll be genuine damage. One of the early, understated problems in 2007-8 was the huge overhang of hung bridge loans that got stuck on balance sheets of big banks. That helped clog up the financial system and added to the liquidity event which started with subprime.

JohnnyGL , February 9, 2018 at 3:54 pm

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-01-24/hot-leveraged-loan-market-is-a-problem

Cov-lite loans, high cash burn rates, compressed spreads (against treasuries) .lots of combustible material here for at least a small-ish financial crisis.

Big banks right at the center of it, too!

Synoia , February 10, 2018 at 2:12 pm

Why is a drop called a "correction"? Is it one of the typical US euphemisms, where the use of direct words appear to cause harm?

Would that mean a rise is an "aberration?"

eg: Today the US stock market experienced a large aberration and rose 500 points!"

Vernon Hamilton , February 10, 2018 at 6:47 pm

well, a lot of smart people have been saying exactly that for a quite a while

the price of a company's stock should be somehow anchored in the value of the company, and it's ability to produce revenue, n'est-ce pas?

[Feb 10, 2018] Turkey accused of recruiting ex-Isis fighters to attack Kurds in Syria by Patrick Cockburn

In places were Isis has support of locals it remains a potent force, able to to pursue multi-year guerilla warfare. they question is how large ar pocket were local population prefer ISIS to central government.
Notable quotes:
"... Isis suffered heavy defeats last year, losing Mosul in Iraq after a siege of nine months and Raqqa in Syria after a four-month siege. The caliphate, declared by its leader Abu Baqr al-Baghdadi in 2014, was destroyed, and most of its experienced commanders and fighters were killed or dispersed. But it has shown signs of trying to revive itself in Syria and Iraq over the last two months, assassinating local opponents and launching guerrilla attacks in out-of-the-way and poorly defended places. ..."
Feb 10, 2018 | www.unz.com

Isis suffered heavy defeats last year, losing Mosul in Iraq after a siege of nine months and Raqqa in Syria after a four-month siege. The caliphate, declared by its leader Abu Baqr al-Baghdadi in 2014, was destroyed, and most of its experienced commanders and fighters were killed or dispersed. But it has shown signs of trying to revive itself in Syria and Iraq over the last two months, assassinating local opponents and launching guerrilla attacks in out-of-the-way and poorly defended places.

Isis fighters are joining the FSA and Turkish-army invasion force because they are put under pressure by the Turkish authorities. From the point of view of Turkey, the recruitment of former Isis combatants means that it can draw on a large pool of professional and experienced soldiers. Another advantage is that they are not Turks, so if they suffer serious casualties this will do no damage to the Turkish government.

The fighting between Turks and Kurds and the growing confrontation between the US and Turkey are all in the interests of Isis. It does not have the strength to recover from its crushing defeats last year, but the opponents it faced then are now fighting other battles.

Eliminating the last pockets of Isis resistance is no longer their first priority. The YPG has been transferring units that were facing Isis in the far east of Syria to the west where they will face the Turks.

Turkey is not in a very strong position militarily almost three weeks after its invasion of Afrin. It can only win by bombing round the clock, and for this it will need Russian permission, which it probably will not get. If it is going to expand its attacks, it will need more combat soldiers and this will provide an opportunity for Isis to join in a new war.

The Turkish embassy in the UK has been approached for comment but had not responded by the time of publication.

[Feb 10, 2018] US Kills Over 100 Syrian Fighters In Self Defense by Jason C. Ditz

Feb 09, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

This article was originally published in Antiwar.com

On Wednesday, U.S. forces claimed that they attacked Syrian forces "in self-defense." New details are now emerging about the incident, suggesting both that the Syrian attack was far overstated, and the U.S. retaliation was overwhelmingly excessive.

Syria putatively "attacked" a SDF base where U.S. troops were, though in reality the artillery strikes were half a kilometer away from the base, which explains why there were no casualties. The U.S., on the other hand, attacked a Syrian pro-government patrol in the area, and killed in excess of 100 fighters in the attack .

100 people is a lot to kill, particularly since the U.S. supposedly isn't at war with Syria. This does, however , reflect the mission creep in Syria, as the defeat of ISIS has meant the U.S. forces there need a new justification to stay, and fighting the Assad government looks to be it, with the Pentagon already saying part of their pretext for staying is to ensure regime change.

Syria, meanwhile, has gone to the UN Security Council to complain over the U.S. massacre of what were apparently members of a pro-government militia that had been fighting ISIS, and was at the time of the attack engaged in a search-and-rescue operation .

Russia's Defense Ministry also issued a statement condemning the U.S. attack, saying it proved the U.S. isn't interested in fighting ISIS, but rather in trying to seize control of Syria's economic assets through military means.

Jason Ditz is news editor at Antiwar.com , a nonprofit organization dedicated to the cause of non-interventionism. His work has also appeared in Forbes, Toronto Star, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Providence Journal, Daily Caller, Washington Times and Detroit Free Press.


peter February 9, 2018 at 3:45 pm

If this is true, I am a very disappointed Trump voter

[Feb 09, 2018] Sic Semper Tyrannis Syria Notes - 5 February 2018

Notable quotes:
"... Amazing how no on in the echelons of U.S. leadership ever questions why Assad always launches his WMD attacks as soon as his forces have Syria's Al Qaeda affiliate on the run. ..."
"... I am hearing that Russia has temporarily banned Turkish aircraft from flying in Syrian airspace, including Afrin. Plus there are reports that the Syrian Armed Forces are stationing AAA and SAM systems in the north. Erdogan may have outlived his usefulness to Putin. ..."
"... My SWAG is that Haley knows she is lying and does not care. Right now the Deep State wants its war on Syria as a prelude to a war on Iran, so Haley is for war as long as that will advance her career. ..."
"... If tomorrow the Deep State were to declare for the Khmer Rouge, she would scream for the death of Lon Nol Imperialists and Enemies of the People(R) with the most touching sincerity. ..."
"... 'Between May and June, 2016, Sheldon Adelson contributed $250,000 to Haley's 527 political organization, A Great Day, funds that she used to target four Republican state senate rivals in primaries. Adelson was the largest contributor to her group, which raised a total of $915,000.' ..."
"... I don't understand why we think Nikki Haley shouldn't be who she is, and should pursue policies other than what she does. IMO, she is no different than Samantha Power. They both are/were equally anti-Russia, anti-Iran, anti-Syria, and pro-Israel pro KSA, and have same position with regard to NK or China, so what is the difference, what has changed. ..."
"... It would have been either the "F* Europe" Tonia Nuland or the rapporteur social worker to Israel Wendy Sherman who is stilllearning all the dirty tricks from Madeleine. ..."
"... I agree with the good Colonel's assessment, except on one point. I don't think Mattis is being biased; to put it in less kinder terms, I think he's being a willing political hack. ..."
Feb 09, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

1. Nikki Haley is either completely gullible or is in thrall to some collection of Borgists at State. Someone remarked of a previous US Secretary of State that "if only he were still alive this would not happen." Unfortunately he was still alive and in office. Much the same could be said of Rex Tillerson. Haley is now tub thumping for US air attacks on Syria. This a reprise of several previous US assertions of Syrian Arab Government (SAG) use of chemical weapons including the East Ghouta and Khan Sheikhoun fiascos. After Khan Sheikhoun the SAG invited US and UN investigations of the air base but somehow this was not accepted. Now James Mattis is asserting that the SAG is manufacturing chemical munitions although the US has no evidence of this as yet. I believe this is called "confirmation bias?"

2. As shown above , the SAA is committed to elimination of the East Idlib pocket. The jihadis are without re-supply and will progressively be running out of the means of resistance. This should not take too long and is actually a good idea before proceeding further into Idlib Province to the west. I believe I expressed an opinion as to the wisdom of such a move.

3. The SAA has begun shelling the Turkish strong point (observation post) at Al-Eis. The Turks have been attempting tricky cleverness by claiming that they are occupying the hill at Al--Eis un accord with a Russian/Iranian/Turkish de-escalation igreement. In fact IMO they are seeking to position themselves so as to impede SAG liberation of Idlib Province. pl


Christian Chuba,

Amazing how no on in the echelons of U.S. leadership ever questions why Assad always launches his WMD attacks as soon as his forces have Syria's Al Qaeda affiliate on the run.
kooshy,
Colonel Lang, did you see this news on AMN, "Syrian Army allows massive YPG convoy to travel to Afrin from their lines' God only knows what is going on in Syria? it's a mess, was that to stop the Turks going to Al Eis.
james said in reply to kooshy... ,
and further to that - this also from AMN -

"BEIRUT, LEBANON (7:53 P.M.) – The Syrian Arab Army or allied paramilitary groups or both have reportedly started shelling the freshly established positions of Turkish forces in the southern countryside of Aleppo province according to both opposition and pro-government sources.

Opposition sources says that Syrian Army and allied Iranian-linked paramilitary groups have unleashed artillery fire onto recently established positions of the Turkish Army in the strategic Al-Eis area of southern Aleppo province."

confusedponderer , 06 February 2018 at 01:43 AM
Re Haley & in thrall of Borgists.

It seems she is attracted by John Bolton, her destructive, cunning and IMO rather malicious hard core neocon predecessor. She twittered this insight in July 2017:

"Great to see @AmbJohnBolton back @USUN. Thanks to his years of public service to our country, he continues to share great advice & wisdom."

His great advice and great wisdom? Ah yes ...

I had the pleasure that an indian senior (20+ years of service) UN guy back then did explain me what he did when US ambassador at the UN, and how and why it was cunning what he did, and how and why it was destructive and what he was after. It turned my stomach to get it explained to clearly.

So, unlike Haley, I always thought Bolton was a ruthless, destructive, nutty, if cunning, nasty man. I never seen his "wisdom". Rather I saw an arsonist who likes to play with fire.

For Haley he, with all his "wisdom", is an inspiration. He was also inspirational for Trump, but not inspirational enough.

Bolton didn't make it to Secretary of State ... because of his moustache. See? How very maverick-ish to make a difficult decision on so simple grounds.

Ah well, perhaps Trump is daily being too savaged by his hair thing on his head. I assume that having to face mirrors likely can be a terror.

Whatever about that moustache, and assuming that the story is correct - I for my part don't see the problem in what is over Bolton's mouth but that what comes out of it.

Donald Trump passed over a potential candidate for Secretary of State because of bushy moustache, according to insiders close to the incoming US President.

Several of Mr Trump's associates said they thought that John Bolton's brush-like moustache was one of the factors that handicapped the bombastic former United Nations ambassador in the sweepstakes for the role.

"Donald was not going to like that moustache," said one, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "I can't think of anyone that's really close to Donald that has a beard that he likes."

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/donald-trump-secretary-of-state-reject-john-bolton-moustache-transition-president-elect-cabinet-a7489576.html

JW said in reply to kooshy... , 06 February 2018 at 06:36 AM
Whats going on ? Iran wants influence and bases as far as the sea, to enable it to convince the Israelis to emigrate en masse. The West want to stop them now, everyone except Hezbollah will want to stop them when the last FSA / AQ /etc have almost died off, and Erdogan want to continue mugging people as a form of foreign policy.

Run those actions simultaneously and you have the current outcome.

A. Pols , 06 February 2018 at 08:14 AM
"1. Nikki Haley is either completely gullible or is in thrall to some collection of Borgists at State."

Both

JPB , 06 February 2018 at 10:18 AM
I am hearing that Russia has temporarily banned Turkish aircraft from flying in Syrian airspace, including Afrin. Plus there are reports that the Syrian Armed Forces are stationing AAA and SAM systems in the north. Erdogan may have outlived his usefulness to Putin.
JPB said in reply to Stonevendor ... , 06 February 2018 at 10:43 AM
Stonevendor -

A small number of US and troops from other coalition countries have been in the Manbij area since August 2016 when it was liberated from the headchoppers. More were sent in 2017 when TFSA from the Euphrates Shield enclave started threatening Manbij. No secret there, it has been previously announced publicly.

Barbara Ann -> ToivoS... , 06 February 2018 at 10:46 AM
I have happily discovered an analyst who has consistently been right on many aspects of the way the Syrian conflict has played out, despite its manifold complexities. If you find one that claims to be able to "see" ahead, I'd suggest he/she may better be described as a clairvoyant.

As to things being "fixed" - I guess an expectation that such a state is attainable, or indeed desirable - betrays something of one's ontological preferences. In any case, Syria appears to me to be an object lesson in the futility of such expectations.

Balint Somkuti, PhD , 06 February 2018 at 11:02 AM
Even though I have my own reservations about US benevolence about Syria, what happens if primus enter pares goes running amok?
Sid Finster , 06 February 2018 at 12:00 PM
My SWAG is that Haley knows she is lying and does not care. Right now the Deep State wants its war on Syria as a prelude to a war on Iran, so Haley is for war as long as that will advance her career.

If tomorrow the Deep State were to declare for the Khmer Rouge, she would scream for the death of Lon Nol Imperialists and Enemies of the People(R) with the most touching sincerity.

In fact, most of our elected and unelected career politicians exhibit similar levels of mendacity, on a level that is indistinguishable from sociopathy. Just that in Haley it's more shameless and obvious. Maybe she is not as good an actress as some, I don't know.

John_Frank , 06 February 2018 at 01:37 PM
With respect to the allegations surrounding the usage of chemical weapons, yesterday the UN Security Council had an open meeting to discuss the situation in Syria.

The meeting was held to consider a letter submitted by the Secretary General to the Council on February 1 concerning the latest report from the Director General of the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons.

http://undocs.org/S/2018/84

At the beginning of the meeting Izumi Nakamitsu, High Representative for Disarmament Affairs presented her briefing.

https://s3.amazonaws.com/unoda-web/documents/Remarks+of+the+High+Representative+to+Security+Council+on+Syria+-+5+Feb+2018.pdf

In turn, after the meeting the UN press office published the following news release

Proof of chemical weapons use in Syria should be met with 'meaningful response,' UN disarmament chief http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=58533#.WnnRx65Kupo

During the meeting Ambassador Haley spoke. Her remarks have been posted on the US mission to the UN website:

Ambassador Haley Delivers Remarks at a UN Security Council Meeting on Chemical Weapons Use in Syria https://usun.state.gov/highlights/8286

The UN has posted a video of the entire meeting:

The Situation in the Middle East (Syria) - Security Council, 8174th meeting
http://webtv.un.org/watch/the-situation-in-the-middle-east-syria-security-council-8174th-meeting/5726590308001/

The member states were seeking to have the Security Council President issue a statement condemning the recent reports of the usage of chemical weapons in Syria, but they were unable to achieve the needed consensus.

Russia submitted a resolution that would replace the OPCW-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism which had been shut down. However the proposal is not acceptable to the United States in its current form for the reasons stated.

Follows is a summary of the meeting as prepared by the UN secretariat:

Amid New Reports of Chemical Weapons Use in Syria, United Nations Top Disarmament Official Says International Community Obliged to Enact Meaningful Response
http://www.un.org/press/en/2018/sc13196.doc.htm

Although not posted yet, ultimately people will be able to read the entire meeting record at https://www.un.org/en/ga/search/view_doc.asp?symbol=S/PV.8174

Ambassador Haley may be pushing for US military action in response to the most recent claims of chemical weapons usage in other forums, but she did not call for such action during the UN Security Council meeting.

As to Defense Secretary Mattis, he spoke to the Press on February 2 at which time he issued a warning and expressed concerns about the usage of Sarin gas.

Media Availability by Secretary Mattis at the Pentagon
https://www.defense.gov/News/Transcripts/Transcript-View/Article/1431844/media-availability-by-secretary-mattis-at-the-pentagon/

Q: Can you talk a little bit about the chemical weapons that were -- the State Department was talking about just a little bit yesterday, that mentioned chlorine gas? Is this something you're seeing that's been weaponized or – just give us a sense.

SEC. MATTIS: It has.

Q: It has. Okay.

SEC. MATTIS: It has. We are more -- even more concerned about the possibility of sarin use, the likelihood of sarin use, and we're looking for the evidence. And so that's about all the more I can say about it right now, but we are on the record, and you all have seen how we reacted to that, so they'd be ill-advised to go back to violating the chemical convention.

Then later on during the same press briefing:

"Q: Can I ask a quick follow up, just a clarification on what you'd said earlier about Syria and sarin gas?

SEC. MATTIS: Yeah.

Q: Just make sure I heard you correctly, you're saying you think it's likely they have used it and you're looking for the evidence? Is that what you said?

SEC. MATTIS: That's -- we think that they did not carry out what they said they would do back when -- in the previous administration, when they were caught using it. Obviously they didn't, cause they used it again during our administration.

And that gives us a lot of reason to suspect them. And now we have other reports from the battlefield from people who claim it's been used.

We do not have evidence of it. But we're not refuting them; we're looking for evidence of it. Since clearly we are using -- we are dealing with the Assad regime that has used denial and deceit to hide their outlaw actions, okay?

Q: So the likelihood was not what your -- you're not characterizing it as a likelihood? I thought I used -- you used that word; I guess I misunderstood you.

SEC. MATTIS: Well, there's certainly groups that say they've used it. And so they think there's a likelihood, so we're looking for the evidence.

Q: Is there evidence of chlorine gas weapons used -- evidence of chlorine gas weapons?

SEC. MATTIS: I think that's, yes --

Q: No, I know, I heard you.

SEC. MATTIS: I think it's been used repeatedly. And that's, as you know, a somewhat separate category, which is why I broke out the sarin as another -- yeah.

Q: So there's credible evidence out there that both sarin and chlorine --

SEC. MATTIS: No, I have not got the evidence, not specifically. I don't have the evidence.

What I'm saying is that other -- that groups on the ground, NGOs, fighters on the ground have said that sarin has been used. So we are looking for evidence. I don't have evidence, credible or uncredible."

In that regard three reports from Reuters:

January 30 Exclusive: Tests link Syrian government stockpile to largest sarin attack - sources
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-syria-crisis-chemicalweapons-exclusiv/exclusive-tests-link-syrian-government-stockpile-to-largest-sarin-attack-sources-idUSKBN1FJ0MG

"The Syrian government's chemical weapons stockpile has been linked for the first time by laboratory tests to the largest sarin nerve agent attack of the civil war, diplomats and scientists told Reuters, supporting Western claims that government forces under President Bashar al-Assad were behind the atrocity."

February 1 - U.S. says Syria may be developing new types of chemical weapons https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-mideast-crisis-syria-usa/u-s-says-syria-may-be-developing-new-types-of-chemical-weapons-idUSKBN1FL65L

"The Syrian government may be developing new types of chemical weapons, and U.S. President Donald Trump is prepared to consider further military action if necessary to deter chemical attacks, senior U.S. officials said on Thursday."

As to the Friday media briefing by Secretary Mattis on February 2, Reuters reported:

U.S.' Mattis says concerned about Syria's potential use of sarin gas
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mideast-crisis-syria-usa/u-s-mattis-says-concerned-about-syrias-potential-use-of-sarin-gas-idUSKBN1FM1VJ

On Monday, February 5, the Bild, a German outlet published a report alleging that Iran was supplying Syria with missiles to deliver chemical weapons and that some of the materials in the weapons came from Germany. The report analyses missiles with gas canisters allegedly used in a chemical weapons attack in Douma, Damascus on January 22, 2018.

Deutsche Bauteile in Assads Giftgas-Raketen
https://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/headlines/gas-deutsche-teile-54697308.bild.html

The Bild article relies on work carried out by an entity known as Syrians for Truth and Justice and the online investigative journalist website Bellingcat operated by Eliot Higgins.

Also read the following reports posted on the Bellingcat website:

January 23 - Despite Trump's Threats, Chemical Attacks Continue in Syria
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/01/23/despite-trumps-threats-chemical-attacks-continue-syria/

February 1 - For the Third Time This Year, Chlorine is Used as a Chemical Weapon in Douma, Damascus https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/02/01/third-time-year-chlorine-used-chemical-weapon-douma-damascus/

February 5 - Images from the January 22nd 2018 Chlorine Attack in Douma, Damascus
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/02/05/images-january-22nd-2018-chlorine-attack-douma-damascus/

February 5 - More Details of the January 22nd 2018 Chlorine Attack in Douma, Damascus https://www.bellingcat.com/news/mena/2018/02/05/details-january-22nd-2018-chlorine-attack-douma-damascus/

Also read the following reports posted by Syrians for Truth and Justice:

August 21, 2017 - Non-Stop Using Chlorine Gas as a Weapon in Syrian Conflict https://stj-sy.com/en/view/185

December 2, 2017 - New Attack by Toxic Gases on a Battlefront in Harasta- Damascus Countryside "Testimonies Confirm Using "Organophosphorus Compounds" https://www.stj-sy.com/en/view/344

January 21, 2018 - Exposure of Six Civilians to Poisonous Substances in Eastern Ghouta- Damascus Countryside https://www.stj-sy.com/en/view/391

February 5, 2018 - Syrian Forces Use Chemical Weapons in Duma for a Second Time in a Month. Joint Report: Bellingcat & Syrians for Truth and Justice https://www.stj-sy.com/en/view/413

(Do not shoot the messenger. As to the Bild report, the summary relies on Google translate, the original article being in German. Since the Bild report relies on work done by Bellingcat and Syrians For Truth and Justice, I have linked to various reports providing details of alleged chemical weapons attacks in Syria since July, 2017 produced by these entities for your reference.)

catherine , 06 February 2018 at 02:43 PM

Re: Nikki Haley

This is all you need to know about Haley and why Trump (or rather Adelson) appointed her to the UN.

'Between May and June, 2016, Sheldon Adelson contributed $250,000 to Haley's 527 political organization, A Great Day, funds that she used to target four Republican state senate rivals in primaries. Adelson was the largest contributor to her group, which raised a total of $915,000.'

(Not coincidentally, however, Sheldon Adelson was the GOP's and Trump's single biggest donor)

"Perhaps Adelson gained an unusual interest in South Carolina's state senate, but it seems more likely the investment was a show of support for Haley's hawkish pro-Israel positions. Adelson, who is also the largest donor to the extreme right-wing Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), has long pushed stridently anti-Iran positions, suggesting in late 2013 that Washington detonate a nuclear weapon in Iran's territory unless Tehran complied with demands that it completely abandon its nuclear program.
And, as Weiss wrote, Haley had come through for Adelson already in 2015, when she signed without any reservation the first law against boycotts of Israel -- about the same time as Adelson convened an anti-BDS summit in Las Vegas.''
https://lobelog.com/nikki-haley-neocon-heartthrob/

DianaLC , 06 February 2018 at 03:00 PM
Thank you. I hear "chemical attack" now and know I need to get away from the Tee Vee and come here instead.
The Beaver , 06 February 2018 at 03:23 PM
Colonel,
Today at House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing :
Former Ambassador Ford:
-If purpose to deter Iran from attacking Israel, perhaps we should have troops in Israel instead of eastern Syria.
-US forces in eastern Syria. Iranians in western Syria. Our forces about 350 miles from Iranians. Not likely Iranians going to leave Syria. Mistake to think Russians will push them out. Hi-level consultations btw us, Israel Jordan to develop menu of options about how to deter.
-when I was US ambassador in Syria in 2007, Iranians were there. Iranians long been there. They don't need a road/land bridge. They fly things into Damascus airport.

Thought he has learnt his lessons, but I must be hoping for too much !

Richardstevenhack , 06 February 2018 at 04:25 PM
Two points:

That the reports of SAA shelling of the Turks comes from "opposition resources" needs no caveat.

That there is also a report claiming that the shelling of the Turks comes from Iranian militia also needs no caveat. Clearly someone wants to blame both the SAA and Iran, which dovetails neatly with the US/Israel desire to "roll back Iran" out of Syria as well as get a full-scale US/NATO/Israel war on Syria started, which has been the goal from Day One of the Syria crisis.

The new rise of "chemical WMD" charges against Syria clearly also feed into the now-confirmed continued desire of the US/Israel for a full-scale air campaign against Syria.

As I believe I've mentioned before, it ain't over until it's over. The US clearly has not given up a desire to go to war with Syria as a precursor to Israel and the US taking out Hizballah (to the degree that is possible) which is also a precursor to starting a war with Iran.

Also, read a report the other day that John Bolton is still considered a candidate for Secretary of State should Tillerson be forced out at some point, which I still think is quite likely. Such an appointment would signal the absolute end of any notion of Trump being interested in rapprochement with Russia and would also guarantee war with Iran.

Because John Bolton is a raving neocon lunatic - which is what the moustache tells you.

kooshy said in reply to catherine... , 06 February 2018 at 05:36 PM
I don't understand why we think Nikki Haley shouldn't be who she is, and should pursue policies other than what she does. IMO, she is no different than Samantha Power. They both are/were equally anti-Russia, anti-Iran, anti-Syria, and pro-Israel pro KSA, and have same position with regard to NK or China, so what is the difference, what has changed.

IMO, they are not selected to pursue US foreign policy, they are only there as Israel'gate keepers, they are just there to make sure nothing against the interests of Israel passes, just like, what just happened in UNSC on Jerusalem. IMO, US for her own policies, doesn't give a damn about UN or UNSC, she does what she wants, and when she wants, and are not shy saying it like it is.

She is there as the Israel' veto power over the rest of the word, in case something not kosher comes up to UNSC. IMO, US' UN ambassadors only job is to protect Israel at UN, they are a retribution from the elected president of US (of either political party0 to Israel lobby for helping them getting elected. If Nikki is a gift for Adelson' money, whoever Hillary would have appointed to UN, would have been a gift to Haim Saban or another billionaire Israeli first SOB. This country' sovereignty has been successfully hijacked in almost 50 years.

Nevertheless, I believe WE the People are the sole responsible party for loss of control, as well as what Nikki does and who she does it for.

John_Frank , 06 February 2018 at 07:00 PM
Earlier today, jihadists backed by Turkey in the Afrin conflict claimed the YPG had used chemical weapons.

https://t.co/vDos2chHTr

In response to these claims, the YPG has issued a statement denying the claim, saying the Turkish military fired artillery shells containing a chemical weapon, which harmed their forces, so they moved to the high ground, while the jihadists remained in the low lying areas, so suffering the consequences.

http://bit.ly/2GQkIgl

Have the Turkish military and the Turkish backed jihadists used chemical weapons in the past in Syria?

Three tweets by @EndiZentarmi

https://twitter.com/EndiZentarmi/status/961005969336688640

Also

https://twitter.com/EndiZentarmi/status/961012542645600256

As well as

https://twitter.com/EndiZentarmi/status/850651337733943297

Along with one tweet by @AzadiRojava:

https://twitter.com/AzadiRojava/status/960962329448976384

In addition, as to the current claim:

https://twitter.com/4rj1n/status/960962657020010497

(The writer is unable to verify the competing claims and is simply posting them for information purposes.)

james said in reply to John_Frank ... , 06 February 2018 at 07:40 PM
john - with respect.. do you understand what a false flag operation is and how often they have been used in the war on syria?
JamesT -> JW... , 06 February 2018 at 11:43 PM
JW

You wrote "everyone except Hezbollah will want to stop [Iran from spreading its influence and bases] ...".

You sir, are wrong. There are a lot of people in the world, and certainly in the Arab world (including Sunnis) who see Iran's influence as a welcome counterweight to the US/UK/Israel. They remember what happened in 1953 and don't buy into what CNN is pushing. I say this based on face to face discussions I have had with Arabs.

John_Frank -> james... , 07 February 2018 at 12:21 PM
Yes and earlier today the OPCW issued the following statement:

OPCW Fact-Finding Mission in Syria Continues Investigations into Allegations of Chemical Weapons Use https://www.opcw.org/news/article/opcw-fact-finding-mission-in-syria-continues-investigations-into-allegations-of-chemical-weapons-use/

The portion relevant for our purposes reads:

"THE HAGUE, Netherlands – 7 February 2018 – Recent allegations about the use of chemical weapons in the Syrian Aran Republic continue to be of grave concern to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW).

The OPCW Fact-Finding Mission (FFM), whose mandate is "to establish facts surrounding allegations of the use of toxic chemicals for hostile purposes in the Syrian Arab Republic", is investigating all credible allegations and provides regular reports for consideration by States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC). A rigorous methodology is employed for conducting an investigation of alleged use of chemical weapons. The FFM report will take into account corroboration between interviewee testimonies; open-source research; medical reports and other relevant documentation as well as the characteristics of any samples obtained by the FFM. The FFM works closely with States Parties including the Government of the Syrian Arab Republic.

The FFM's mandate is to determine whether chemical weapons or toxic chemicals as weapons have been used in Syria; it does not include identifying who is responsible for alleged attacks.

OPCW Director General, Ambassador Ahmet Üzümcü reiterated: "Any use of chemical weapons is a violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention and the hard won international norm prohibiting these weapons. Those responsible for their use must be held accountable. These abhorrent weapons have no place in the world today."

In turn, in my view, the UN Security Council needs to reach an understanding on the re-establishment of a OPCW-United Nations Joint Investigative Mechanism so that those responsible for the use of chemical weapons are brought to account.

The Beaver said in reply to kooshy... , 07 February 2018 at 01:35 PM
whoever Hillary would have appointed to UN, would have been a gift to Haim Saban or another billionaire Israeli first SOB.

It would have been either the "F* Europe" Tonia Nuland or the rapporteur social worker to Israel Wendy Sherman who is stilllearning all the dirty tricks from Madeleine.

james said in reply to John_Frank ... , 07 February 2018 at 01:36 PM
sure... but tell me john, how does the opcw offer any credibility to itself, if it is relying on eyewitnesses in the jihadi held area of Khan Shaykhun???
it is fine for the same countries that have been pushing for regime change in syria to say ''they believe''' syria is responsible, but that is not proof and it really sullies there reputation and the opcw's further as i see it.. al nusra were in control of the area at the time... these are the friendly headchopper crew that turkey seems to have in their backpocket at present and who they are using to further there exercise in afrin.. now, maybe al nusra has had a name change again, so forgive me if i don't have the up to date name for them... for all i know, they are now called the 'syrian democratic forces' or turkish free syrian army - 2 other names that sound straight out of a hollywood script.. if i sound cynical - you are reading me correctly.. the western gov'ts - usa, uk, or even israel, saudi arabia, turkey and france need to stop using international organizations for there own political ends and start being honest brokers in finding peace, as opposed to dividing up sovereign countries like syria.. thanks..
james said in reply to John_Frank ... , 07 February 2018 at 02:00 PM
john - for another example of the blame game that the usa has gotten so in the habit of doing with regard to these chemical weapon attacks - i call them false flags, as that is just what they are to me, take a look at the stupidity coming via the daily press briefing from yesterday... all bluster and bullshit with nothing to substantiate any of it.. is this all the usa is capable of nowadays? see down towards the bottom of the link for the relevant comments on this topic..
https://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2018/02/278014.htm
Greco said in reply to JW... , 07 February 2018 at 02:00 PM
JW, that sounds about right.

I agree with the good Colonel's assessment, except on one point. I don't think Mattis is being biased; to put it in less kinder terms, I think he's being a willing political hack.

[Feb 08, 2018] Russia Officially Accuses The US Of Planning To Partition Syria

Feb 08, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Authored by Middle East Monitor via TheAntiMedia.org,

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Wednesday accused the US of planning to partition Syria.

"Plans of de facto partition of Syria exist. We know about it and will ask our American colleagues how they do imagine all this," Lavrov said during a speech at "Leaders of Russia" contest.

He also said Americans were changing their stance about the reason for their presence in Syria.

"Americans seem to have abandoned assurances given to us that the only purpose of their presence in Syria is to defeat terrorists."

"Now they say this presence will remain until they are convinced that Syria has begun a sustainable process of political settlement, the result of which will be regime change," he said.

Syria has been locked in a vicious civil war since early 2011 when the Bashar al-Assad regime cracked down on pro-democracy protests -- which erupted as part of the "Arab Spring" uprisings -- with unexpected ferocity.

Since then, more than a quarter of a million people have been killed and more than 10 million displaced across the war-battered country, according to the UN.

The Syrian Center for Policy Research, however, put the death toll from the conflict at more than 470,000 people.

* * *

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[Feb 08, 2018] I do not believe that they would give out MANPADS. I hate to say it but I believe that the CIA is jaded enough to think, 'hey, it won't bite us in the ass'.

Notable quotes:
"... I think the use of ManPads signify a profound change in the conflict. Until now these weapons have largely been withheld from all insurgent forces. Those issued in Afghanistan once are not accounted for, but their "seekers" are dead by now. Manpads do not have unlimited shelf life. Unless maintained by, by professionals with spares. In the recent conflicts in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and with ISIS, Manpads have not been an issue, as far as I am aware. ManPads emerging on the battlefields is really, really bad news, if these weapons go rogue, you will hear about it on the news. ..."
"... Turkey has been a primary backer of the FSA/ISIL/Muslim Brotherhood "rebels" since the very start of this "regime change" operation. It kept its border open for the inflow of Jihadists/mercenaries and weapons and the outflow of oil, entire factories disassembled and shipped to Turkey, valuable ancient artifacts and apparently slaves. ..."
"... After the alleged coup attempt, and with Syria and its allies turning the tide and winning back large territories, Erdogan began appearing to work with Russia, despite having shot down a Russian jet, the crew of which was murdered by Turkish-backed (if not actual Turkish) "rebels." ..."
"... Erdogan is playing a very dangerous game trying to manipulate the US and Russia against each other. Russian diplomats are playing a very delicate game trying to gain some advantage. When it comes down to it, Syria is not the top priority to the Russians as they navigate these troubled waters. So far they have played their hand very skillfully. That doesn't mean Syria is not important and I can imagine that the Russians just might react at some point and give Erdogan one very bloody nose but at the same time leaving that fool with a face saving retreat. ..."
"... Yes Turkey for the moment is reluctant to use its armed forces in the invasion of Afrin, which is the reason advance is rather slow. With the Syrian government allowing kurdish reinforcements to pass, it is only a matter of time when Turkey will be forced to make the decision to go all in or to withdraw from Syria completely. ..."
"... At any case i don't see Turkey willingly returning the occupied territory to the Syrian government. My guess is that Turkey will try to pull off a "Cyprus 2.0" by establishing a fake puppet state in north Syria it can control. ..."
Feb 08, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 , Feb 6, 2018 5:00:51 PM | 16

Operations by SAA and allies sure look like Whack-a-Mole recently, although Turkey's assault on Affrin made SAA assault on Idlib much easier. The downing of another Russian jet was bound to occur since several Syrian jets were shot down with much less fanfare. The backstage negotiations are numerous and likely convoluted, and we aren't privy to much if any of them; so, their outcomes can only be guessed at through behavior after-the-fact.

From the POV of many Syrians, the Turks are just as bad as the Zionists, perhaps even worse since the enmity is more longstanding. I think many SAA troops are on R&R having been in combat conditions almost constantly for several years, which is why we don't see much happening.

There's related Iraqi news about the Outlaw US Empire withdrawing troops to Afghanistan amidst renewed antagonism between them and several Shiite militia forces.

Laguerre , Feb 6, 2018 5:21:45 PM | 17
Posted by: PavewayIV | Feb 6, 2018 4:51:32 PM | 14
And for the "It's not about the oil" crowd, please note that the Brits and BP are slowly winning the Iraqi oil-booty war. That's the pipeline that will never get done, even though the port is ready. All those efforts to prevent any oil from ever going through the Iraqi western pipeline through Syria to Banias/Tripoli paid off.
This is bizarre. The oil from the Iraqi south goes to the Gulf for shipment, not to Aqaba or Haifa. The Iraq- Jordan-Haifa pipeline of the 1930s transported the oil of Kirkuk. The Iraqis have won over Kirkuk. The oil, when it is back in action, is more likely to go south to the Gulf, under Iraqi control.

The US has lost in Iraq. It's just a question of when it is recognised.

Christian Chuba , Feb 6, 2018 5:28:39 PM | 18
Turkey has already had at least one airport bombing.

I do not believe that they would give out MANPADS. I hate to say it but I believe that the CIA is jaded enough to think, 'hey, it won't bite us in the ass'.

If the Russians identify this as yet another Eastern European NATO model purchased by the U.S. then we may find out that proxy Cold Wars are a two way street. We have many more targets for the Russians to hit than they have for us overseas and yes, I do believe our security establishment is too dumb to realize this. Michael Morell is proof of that.

Den Lille Abe , Feb 6, 2018 5:30:06 PM | 19
I think the use of ManPads signify a profound change in the conflict. Until now these weapons have largely been withheld from all insurgent forces. Those issued in Afghanistan once are not accounted for, but their "seekers" are dead by now. Manpads do not have unlimited shelf life. Unless maintained by, by professionals with spares. In the recent conflicts in Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, and with ISIS, Manpads have not been an issue, as far as I am aware. ManPads emerging on the battlefields is really, really bad news, if these weapons go rogue, you will hear about it on the news.

Most nations that have them in their inventories guard them rather strictly, because of the threat to civil aviation. I will follow intently on what the investigation shows.

Daniel , Feb 6, 2018 5:53:13 PM | 20
Just as the Syrian forces begin to assault Idlib province from the south, Turkey invades Idlib from the North. Yes, the US gave Erdogan the excuse by declaring the plan for a Kurdish "Border Force," but they admitted having only 200 Kurdish fighters, and immediately after, announced they would not create this border force. But still, Turkey carried out a major military invasion into Syrian territory.

Turkey has been a primary backer of the FSA/ISIL/Muslim Brotherhood "rebels" since the very start of this "regime change" operation. It kept its border open for the inflow of Jihadists/mercenaries and weapons and the outflow of oil, entire factories disassembled and shipped to Turkey, valuable ancient artifacts and apparently slaves.

After the alleged coup attempt, and with Syria and its allies turning the tide and winning back large territories, Erdogan began appearing to work with Russia, despite having shot down a Russian jet, the crew of which was murdered by Turkish-backed (if not actual Turkish) "rebels."

But I have to wonder if Turkey really did change its position on destroying Syria. What will happen when the Syrian forces moving north come into contact with the Turkish forces?

Daniel , Feb 6, 2018 6:01:24 PM | 21
"Russia has plenty of Options to drive out the Turks after that, so no worrys here."
~ Posted by: Sheeple

Yes, Russia could crush the Turkish invasion relatively easily. But let's remember that Russia needs Turkey to keep the Bosporus open to the Russian naval and shipping traffic from the Black Sea into the Mediterranean.

Putin has been a good ally to Syria (but not great, as it could have crushed the terrorists/mercenaries by now, so Putin clearly is balancing factors). But what will Putin/Russia do when Syria's forces moving north come into contact with Turkish forces?

Daniel , Feb 6, 2018 6:07:08 PM | 22
Clueless Joe, none of these "Islamic Extremists" fighting in Syria or Iraq has ever attacked Israel. Actually, one time ISIL fired on Israelis by mistake, and immediately issued an apology to Israel.
Jackrabbit , Feb 6, 2018 6:32:19 PM | 23
b

You neglected to mention the Sochi talks. The failure of the talks is a strategic 'win' for the ' Assad must go!' Coalition which wants to control the political process in Syria.

Just days before the talks Erdogan insisted on attacking the Kurds and US complained of Syria using chemical weapons. A coincidence? If so, it is a happy one from the standpoint of the <>'Assad must go! Coalition.

The apparent attempted coup in Turkey was another such happy coincidence that allowed USA to cozy up to the Kurds when it became clear that support for ISIS had become an embarrassment and dead-end. Would Kurds have trusted USA while it was aligned with their tormentor, Turkey?

Few care to notice, let alone speculate, about such coincidences. But one doesn't have to outrun the Russian bear that you just poked. You only need to outrun the stooge/proxy you invited along (and weighed down with the heaviest pack). . It's such planning that makes for "happy coincidences".

Controlled opposition also leads to favorable outcomes that appear to be happy coincidences. How strange that Erdogan & Gulen and Hillary & Trump were once friendly. Should we be skeptical of the enmity of these "bitter rivals"? What a happy coincidence to have such a flawed and evil opponent! Yet to what extent do the agendas of the "bitter rivals" actually differ? Those that have followed Hillary, for example, know that she is not really a progressive and has always supported US MIC.

How different are Turkish goals in Syria from the 'Assad must go! Coalition? I'm not sure that b is right when he speculates that Erdogan is trying to split US from the Kurds. Hasn't Erdogan's quixotic Afrin operation allowed for "happy coincidences" like the failure of Sochi talks and strengthening US-Kurd relations.

The <>'Assad must go! Coalition wants to win Syrian regime change via the political process. They HAD to derail the Russian-led process and have to return refugees (voters!) to Syria. Despite the apparent US-Turk dust-up, Turkey's desire to return refugees is important to their joint goal of Syrian regime change.

Christian Chuba , Feb 6, 2018 7:15:27 PM | 24
Proxy Cold War Targets

So if the guys in our State Dept / CIA / whatever got their wish for a hot, proxy-Cold War how would the match up go in terms of who is more vulnerable?

U.S. against Russia.
1. Muslims in Central Asia (outside chance it could bite us but it would smart).
2. Ukrainians (could be a problem as long as they were willing to fight, we'd need to sweeten the pot with economic aid)

Russia against the U.S.
1. Really arm the Taliban (nah, it would blow up in their face and they know it)
2. Help groups against special forces in Africa (hmm ... some possibility there)
3. Help groups in South America and South East Asia (very little chance of it coming back to haunt them)
4. Sell Iran the really good stuff.
5. Look for ways to harass NATO deployed troops and sailors, we have many more deployed personnel vs them.

I do not want any of this to happen, just pointing out that I really don't think that the morons in my govt have thought this one through.

karlof1 , Feb 6, 2018 7:23:09 PM | 25
Jackrabbit @23--

Who's claiming the Sochi Congress failed? It accomplished what it was set up to accomplish then adjourned.

Toivos , Feb 6, 2018 7:36:43 PM | 26
Daniel #21

Russia does not depend on Turkey to keep the Bosporus open. The 1936 Montreux Convention does give Turkey control of the Bosporus but it also requires Turkey to grant freedom of passage. If Turkey blocked the Bosporus to Russia ships it would be the equivalent of a declaration of war. Nato would not back Turkey in that case.

Turkey is extremely important to Russia for many other reasons. We should recall that Turkey backed the Chechen's during the two Chechen wars. It was the rest area for Chechen rebels as well as the route for most of their supplies. It took Russia 12 years to defeat those forces during the 2nd Chechen War. The Incirlik air base provides the US airforce a base that is very close to Russia and especially to the important Ural industrial basin where much of Russia's arms manufacturers are located.

Erdogan is playing a very dangerous game trying to manipulate the US and Russia against each other. Russian diplomats are playing a very delicate game trying to gain some advantage. When it comes down to it, Syria is not the top priority to the Russians as they navigate these troubled waters. So far they have played their hand very skillfully. That doesn't mean Syria is not important and I can imagine that the Russians just might react at some point and give Erdogan one very bloody nose but at the same time leaving that fool with a face saving retreat.

Jackrabbit , Feb 6, 2018 7:40:29 PM | 27
karolf1

The Kurds and the main opposition didn't attend.

I thought it was "setup to accomplish" discussion of a political solution by all groups in Syria. What am I missing?

I think the problems of Sochi have boosted the UN talks in Vienna as the avenue for a political solution.

Perimetr , Feb 6, 2018 8:10:58 PM | 28
M.K. Bhadrakumar, writing in the Asia Times, suggests that Russian-Turkish axis in Syria faces meltdown
I disagree with the article, but it does provide an opposing viewpoint.
redrooster , Feb 6, 2018 8:25:30 PM | 29
@b Another excellent post

Yes Turkey for the moment is reluctant to use its armed forces in the invasion of Afrin, which is the reason advance is rather slow. With the Syrian government allowing kurdish reinforcements to pass, it is only a matter of time when Turkey will be forced to make the decision to go all in or to withdraw from Syria completely.

At any case i don't see Turkey willingly returning the occupied territory to the Syrian government. My guess is that Turkey will try to pull off a "Cyprus 2.0" by establishing a fake puppet state in north Syria it can control.

This of course if Turkey is victorious which is a big IF. The supply of "rebels" with manpads is a turning point to the worse. However it is also an indirect admission from the invaders that business as usual won't work. Generally speaking, it seems that war exclusively by proxies in Syria is coming to an end and the backers slowly but steadily commit more of their own forces.

Piotr Berman , Feb 6, 2018 8:59:40 PM | 30
"That would require way more professional Turkish army forces and cost thousands of Turkish casualties."

It reminds me when I have read about Erdogan taking part in an anniversary (100 years?) of Turkish battle in Allahu Aqbar mountains in the winter 1914/1915. In was a true winter of snow and blood. Germans were threatening Paris, and allied Russia launched offensive through Mazurian Lakes of East Prussia. To get enough forces, half of Caucasus army was sent to European front. Turkey followed German advise and launched attack on Caucasus holdings of Russia. More than 100,000 Turks crossed Allahu Aqbar mountains on Russian border. Historical sources are a bit hazy how many returned, was it as few as 10% or as many as 20%? The winter storms in mountains were ferocious, 1/3 of Russian forces were lost to hypothermia etc. Which was much, much better than the fate of Turkish attackers.

re Sochi Congress, RT thinks it went well:
www.rt.com/newsline/417481-putin-erdogan-syria-congress
www.rt.com/news/417423-mistura-sochi-congress-constitution
There are several more links at RT, just search: Sochi Congress
re Sochi Congress, RT thinks it went well:
www.rt.com/newsline/417481-putin-erdogan-syria-congress
www.rt.com/news/417423-mistura-sochi-congress-constitution
There are several more links at RT, just search: Sochi Congress /div

[Feb 08, 2018] MoA - Syria - Is The Turkish Attack On Afrin Intended To Split The U.S.-Kurdish Alliance

Feb 08, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

james , Feb 6, 2018 2:55:17 PM | 1

excellent post b.. thank you..

" The attack on Afrin is designed to split the U.S. alliance with the YPG/PKK. (That may well be the reason why it has tacit Russian support.) If it succeeds in doing that it will make a further U.S. occupation of north-east Syria, which is in alliance with the Kurds, extremely difficult." that is the positive view on it... the more negative one is that turkey is conspiring with the usa here to further destabilize syria..

that was a pretty good find - "The Diyanet has been active in Syria, revealed by the former chief's meeting on the evening of the July 15, 2016 coup attempt with Sheikh Moaz al-Khatib -- the same individual who caused controversy in 2012 by calling on the United States to reconsider its decision to list Syria's Jabhat al-Nusra as a terrorist organisation."

your last line sums it up well..

Jen , Feb 6, 2018 2:59:00 PM | 2
Not only are the US and Turkey keen on prolonging the war on Syria and its secular government but Israel and Saudi Arabia at least are also keen on overthrowing Bashar al Assad. That Israel and Saudi Arabia (part of the US Deep State) are pushing the US to continue must be considered as a factor in the US decision to continue despite the apparent lack of a clear military strategy. "No military strategy" or continuous chaos with no objectives and no timelines is as much a strategy as one with a clear focus and goals.

A continuous state of war might in fact benefit corporations whose business is manufacturing and selling arms, and countries whose economies and cultures have come to revolve around continuous change and upheaval, of which state-sanctioned violence and imprisonment at home and war overseas are two consequences.

WorldBLee , Feb 6, 2018 3:07:54 PM | 3
"The war on Syria will continue and all the U.S. and Turkish scheming is only prolonging it. Neither of them have learned and decided to either [give] up on their aims or to risk all the means that are needed to achieve them."

This assumes that the US goal is a decided outcome rather than prolonging conflict for as long as possible.

Sheeple , Feb 6, 2018 3:08:55 PM | 4
" The attack on Afrin is designed to split the U.S. alliance with the YPG/PKK. (That may well be the reason why it has tacit Russian support.) If it succeeds in doing that it will make a further U.S. occupation of north-east Syria, which is in alliance with the Kurds, extremely difficult."

i would go further and say that the whole Afrin Attack is the only purpose of it. And that russia is quite happy about. In any way it works in favor of Syria. It decimates the HTS and Kurds, split Turks and US AND maybe makes the Kurds thinking again about there alliances.

Russia has plenty of Options to drive out the Turks after that, so no worrys here.

jayc , Feb 6, 2018 3:27:57 PM | 5
Reports of chemical weapons attacks by the Syrian government are being coupled with renewed calls through the UN for a sponsored "no-fly" safe zone in the north of the country, roughly the same area as the proposed no-fly zone during the Aleppo operation. There seems to be an assumption the people of at least the West have limited attention spans or are easily led.
harrylaw , Feb 6, 2018 3:36:24 PM | 6
East of the Euphrates [nearly a third of Syria] and home to its oil wealth is now US territory, and as everyone knows once the US has a foothold in such a strategic place, they will not leave, unless forced to do so. The US have a problem though, the SDF [mostly Kurds] are in North West Syria how are they expected to police and govern such a large area? If the US promise the SDF and Arab tribes the area, this could only be interpreted by Turkey and Syria as the beginnings of a separate Kurdish entity, however the Turks definitely will not attack the Kurds while they are protected by the US east of the Euphrates, nor at Manbij. But will not be happy with this arrangement, there will be a standoff, the Kurds will be invited by Syria, Russia and Turkey to keep Syria intact and agree to some form of cultural and/or legislative devolution all within a sovereign Syrian state, the US will not like it, but they will be the odd man out, and told to leave by all the interests in the region.
murgen , Feb 6, 2018 3:42:51 PM | 7
IF the attack is meant to divide US/Kurd by angering Kurds against US then the only way to achieve this is to have the attack fails. For if the attack succeeds, and Afrin is wiped out, then it will demonstrate to the Kurds that Russia is a friends that is willing to let you die shall it be in Russia interest. It will also demonstrate to the kurds that the only place under the Sun for them to exists free, is right under the US Umbrella. At Kobane they were once with their back on the Turkish wall, to be saved in-extremis, from the ISIS mad dogs, only by Uncle Sam heavy Bombers. So far, the US is the only one who have ever saved Kurds guts, beside of course, kurds themselves.
Clueless Joe , Feb 6, 2018 3:44:07 PM | 8
Giving manpads is risky, and indeed other countries' civilian airliners will end up targetted. It's particularly crazy because there's a big juicy target right next door. Even if Ben Gurion airport were too far (not sure about the abilities of the supplied missiles), surely Eilat airport just cannot be secured.
Laguerre , Feb 6, 2018 3:52:03 PM | 9
I thought it was obvious that the main Turkish aim was to prevent the rise of an independent Kurdish power in north Syria. Afrin was chosen because not protected by the US. The fact that they've made only limited progress is to be attributed to the Turk's choice of militias to do the ground fighting, rather than Turkish regular troops. No doubt there's politics there, though I don't know the internal Turkish politics concerned.
If it really wanted to take Afrin it could surely do so.
Perhaps only with a lot of casualties. Afrin is mountainous.

The Syrians are supporting the Kurds, because they want a deal with them in the end. I haven't seen much Kurdish response, but then they wouldn't want to offend the US.

By the way, just as an incidental fact, the high point of al-Eis, a hill rather than a mountain, overlooking the Roman city ruins of Chalcis, is the site of an early Arab castle, studied by my colleague from Lyon. If it comes to a fight, that'll be another archaeological site gone.

harrylaw , Feb 6, 2018 3:56:21 PM | 11
WASHINGTON (Sputnik) -- Media reported earlier in October that Syrian rebels asked Washington for Stinger missiles to use them against Russia's military jets.

"Absolutely Absolutely I would," McCain said when asked whether he would support the delivery of Stinger missiles to the opposition in Syria.

"We certainly did that in Afghanistan. After the Russians invaded Afghanistan, we provided them with surface-to-air capability. It'd be nice to give people that we train and equip and send them to fight the ability to defend themselves. That's one of the fundamental principles of warfare as I understand it," McCain said. https://sputniknews.com/us/201510201028835944-us-stingers-missiles-syrian-rebels-mccain/

[Feb 07, 2018] CIA False Flag Likely in Drone Attack on Russia's Syrian Bases by Finian CUNNINGHAM

Notable quotes:
"... What's more the Russian government appears to have the incriminating evidence on who sanctioned the drone attacks against the Russian air base at Hmeimim and its naval port at Tartus on January 6. ..."
"... Furthermore, the drones were unlikely to have been made by Syrian militants. Russian analysis of the explosive PENT substance indicates that Ukraine was the source. That points to the Americans as the bridging agency between Ukraine and Syria. ..."
"... Another key factor is that at the time of the attacks, Russian military detected a US Poseidon surveillance aircraft in proximity over the Syrian coastal area. The Poseidon would have the ability to guide the drones to the precise location of the Russian bases. Although the plane is commonly thought of as part of the US Navy fleet, that does not preclude the CIA having their own Poseidon aircraft. ..."
"... It is also significant that Crimean lawmaker Ruslan Balbek has recently claimed that American Poseidon aircraft are being used to mount drone attacks by the US-backed Kiev regime. Balbek went further and said be believes the objective is to conduct a false flag attack on the minority Tatar community in Crimea. The "atrocity" would then be pinned on the Crimean authorities which the Western media would in turn amplify as condemnation of Russia. ..."
"... "Those aircraft were only camouflaged – I want to emphasize this – to look like handicraft production. In fact, it is quite obvious that there were elements of high-tech nature there," Putin said. ..."
"... For its part, the Pentagon has categorically denied US involvement in the drone incidents. At a press conference in Washington DC last week, Marine Corps Lieutenant General Kenneth F McKenzie Jr said: "The United States was not involved in any way with the drone attack on Russian bases at any time." ..."
"... If so then that points to the other candidate being the CIA. After all, as US-based political analyst Randy Martin commented for this column, it is the CIA which has been the main driver behind the entire American drone weapon and surveillance program around the world, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Ukraine to a swathe of African countries. ..."
"... Given the routine clandestine and autonomous nature of the CIA, it is conceivable that neither the Pentagon nor even the Trump White House would be aware of all the agency's operations. The agency is apt to go rogue at any time, and the lack of knowledge among other branches of government in Washington affords the all-important foil of "plausible denial". ..."
"... Here is a speculative, but credible scenario: CIA operatives on the ground in Syria launch a swarm of armed drones on the Russian bases. The rickety design of the UAVs is aimed at giving the appearance of Turkish-backed militants in Idlib province. As Putin remarked, the objective was to scapegoat Turkey as complicit. If that worked, then relations between Moscow and Ankara, as well as Tehran, would become acutely strained. Washington is known to be unhappy with the rapprochement between Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. ..."
"... The hi-tech navigation equipment and explosives onboard the drones, plus the telltale presence of an American Poseidon surveillance aircraft in the skies above suggest the involvement of a US state agency – the CIA. ..."
Jan 17, 2018 | www.strategic-culture.org

The audacious multiple-drone attack on Russia's military bases in Syria is increasingly looking like a false flag carried out by the American Central Intelligence Agency. Sophisticated technology and a Ukrainian connection indicate that the swarm attack with 13 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was not the work solely of Syrian anti-government militants.

What's more the Russian government appears to have the incriminating evidence on who sanctioned the drone attacks against the Russian air base at Hmeimim and its naval port at Tartus on January 6.

The weapons failed to execute their deadly mission. Of the 13 drones used, seven were shot down by Russian Pantsir S-1 air defenses and six were safely landed by Russian electronic jamming technology. Those captured intact UAVs will have provided forensic information about what agency authored the plot. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said coyly, "We know who did it", without as of yet specifying the culprit.

Images of the UAVs released by the Russian Ministry of Defense showed rudimentary construction from what appeared to be plywood.

However, the navigation technology and explosives onboard were sophisticated and professionally made. This was no amateurish mission, as might have been expected if militants alone had carried it out.

Furthermore, the drones were unlikely to have been made by Syrian militants. Russian analysis of the explosive PENT substance indicates that Ukraine was the source. That points to the Americans as the bridging agency between Ukraine and Syria.

Another key factor is that at the time of the attacks, Russian military detected a US Poseidon surveillance aircraft in proximity over the Syrian coastal area. The Poseidon would have the ability to guide the drones to the precise location of the Russian bases. Although the plane is commonly thought of as part of the US Navy fleet, that does not preclude the CIA having their own Poseidon aircraft.

It is also significant that Crimean lawmaker Ruslan Balbek has recently claimed that American Poseidon aircraft are being used to mount drone attacks by the US-backed Kiev regime. Balbek went further and said be believes the objective is to conduct a false flag attack on the minority Tatar community in Crimea. The "atrocity" would then be pinned on the Crimean authorities which the Western media would in turn amplify as condemnation of Russia.

On the Syrian attack, Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week at a meeting with senior Russian media executives that the culprit was not Turkey even though the drones were initiated from the northern Syrian province of Idlib where Turkish military forces are associated with militant groups.

"The attacks were provocations to destroy relations between Russia, Turkey and Iran. They were provocateurs, but they were not Turks," said Putin.

Russia has yet to publicly attribute explicit blame for who was behind the drone operation. But the Kremlin appears to be confident in its incriminating information.

"Those aircraft were only camouflaged – I want to emphasize this – to look like handicraft production. In fact, it is quite obvious that there were elements of high-tech nature there," Putin said.

The Russian president appeared to address the culprit with a cryptic remark: "You know that I know," he said.

For its part, the Pentagon has categorically denied US involvement in the drone incidents. At a press conference in Washington DC last week, Marine Corps Lieutenant General Kenneth F McKenzie Jr said: "The United States was not involved in any way with the drone attack on Russian bases at any time."

Another Pentagon spokesmen said accusations of American complicity were "ridiculous" and "reckless".

The US military chiefs may be genuinely speaking honestly – as far as they know about the circumstances. In other words, it is plausible that the Pentagon was not involved in the drone attacks.

If so then that points to the other candidate being the CIA. After all, as US-based political analyst Randy Martin commented for this column, it is the CIA which has been the main driver behind the entire American drone weapon and surveillance program around the world, from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, Yemen and Ukraine to a swathe of African countries.

Given the routine clandestine and autonomous nature of the CIA, it is conceivable that neither the Pentagon nor even the Trump White House would be aware of all the agency's operations. The agency is apt to go rogue at any time, and the lack of knowledge among other branches of government in Washington affords the all-important foil of "plausible denial".

Here is a speculative, but credible scenario: CIA operatives on the ground in Syria launch a swarm of armed drones on the Russian bases. The rickety design of the UAVs is aimed at giving the appearance of Turkish-backed militants in Idlib province. As Putin remarked, the objective was to scapegoat Turkey as complicit. If that worked, then relations between Moscow and Ankara, as well as Tehran, would become acutely strained. Washington is known to be unhappy with the rapprochement between Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The hi-tech navigation equipment and explosives onboard the drones, plus the telltale presence of an American Poseidon surveillance aircraft in the skies above suggest the involvement of a US state agency – the CIA.

Washington's agenda in Syria has nothing to do with defeating terrorism. It is to propagate instability and chaos to undermine the Syrian government of President Assad and allied Russian achievement in overcoming the US regime-change plot. Nothing would please the American agenda more than for Russia, Turkey and Iran to bust up their detente in Syria.

The CIA has the expertise and technological capability to mount the sophisticated drone attack on the Russian bases. It also has the motivation to carry it out to further its regime-change intrigues. Who gains?

Still, there is another wild card in the pack, as analyst Randy Martin posits. He says: "The swarm drone attack was probably the first time that such a tactic was ever used in military records. It may have been carried out not only as a false flag to blame Turkey, but also as a way for the operatives to test Russian air defenses and signals intelligence."

Martin added: "The danger is that we can expect more such attacks, perhaps with deadly consequences, against Russian forces in Syria as well as against Crimea and separatists in Eastern Ukraine."

The implications are grave. If it is confirmed that the CIA were behind the drone attack on Russian bases in Syria, then that is tantamount to an act of war by the Americans – regardless of it being actioned by a rogue agency.

That might explain why the Kremlin is holding its cards very close to its chest on the matter. This is explosive.

[Feb 05, 2018] Mattis admits US has no evidence of Syria using sarin gas

Feb 05, 2018 | consortiumnews.com

derek , February 3, 2018 at 5:30 pm

Off Topic, but of interest to many here .Mattis admits US has no evidence of Syria using sarin gas

https://www.rt.com/usa/417758-mattis-syria-sarin-assad/

regards

[Feb 03, 2018] Sanders on Trump s State of the Union: Not a word on Nuclear War threat, anti-Russian and anti-Iranian crusades!

Jan 30, 2018 | www.defenddemocracy.press
Watch: Bernie Sanders' Response to Trump State of the Union

"Here's the story that Trump failed to mention "

Following President Donald Trump's State of the Union address on Tuesday, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) offered a response.

"I want to take a few minutes of your time to respond to Trump's State of the Union speech," Sanders announced. "But I also want to talk to you about the major crises facing our country that, regrettably, Trump chose not to discuss."

And, he added, "I want to offer a vision of where we should go as a nation which is far different than the divisiveness, dishonesty, and racism coming from the Trump Administration over the past year."

Watch:

... ... ...

The complete text of Sanders' prepared remarks follow:

Good evening. Thanks for joining us.

Tonight , I want to take a few minutes of your time to respond to President Trump's State of the Union speech. But I want to do more than just that. I want to talk to you about the major crises facing our country that, regrettably, President Trump chose not to discuss. I want to talk to you about the lies that he told during his campaign and the promises he made to working people which he did not keep.

Finally, I want to offer a vision of where we should go as a nation which is far different than the divisiveness, dishonesty, and racism coming from the Trump Administration over the past year.

President Trump talked tonight about the strength of our economy. Well, he's right. Official unemployment today is 4.1 percent which is the lowest it has been in years and the stock market in recent months has soared. That's the good news.

But what President Trump failed to mention is that his first year in office marked the lowest level of job creation since 2010. In fact, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 254,000 fewer jobs were created in Trump's first 11 months in office than were created in the 11 months before he entered office.

Further, when we talk about the economy, what's most important is to understand what is happening to the average worker. And here's the story that Trump failed to mention tonight .

Over the last year, after adjusting for inflation, the average worker in America saw a wage increase of, are you ready for this, 4 cents an hour, or 0.17%. Or, to put it in a different way, that worker received a raise of a little more than $1.60 a week. And, as is often the case, that tiny wage increase disappeared as a result of soaring health care costs.

Meanwhile, at a time of massive wealth and income inequality, the rich continue to get much richer while millions of American workers are working two or three jobs just to keep their heads above water. Since March of last year, the three richest people in America saw their wealth increase by more than $68 billion. Three people. A $68 billion increase in wealth. Meanwhile, the average worker saw an increase of 4 cents an hour.

Tonight , Donald Trump touted the bonuses he claims workers received because of his so-called "tax reform" bill. What he forgot to mention is that only 2% of Americans report receiving a raise or a bonus because of this tax bill.

What he also failed to mention is that some of the corporations that have given out bonuses, such as Walmart, AT&T, General Electric, and Pfizer, are also laying off tens of thousands of their employees. Kimberly-Clark, the maker of Kleenex and Huggies, recently said they were using money from the tax cut to restructure -- laying off more than 5,000 workers and closing 10 plants.

What Trump also forgot to tell you is that while the Walton family of Walmart, the wealthiest family in America, and Jeff Bezos of Amazon, the wealthiest person in this country, have never had it so good, many thousands of their employees are forced onto Medicaid, food stamps, and public housing because of the obscenely low wages they are paid. In my view, that's wrong. The taxpayers of this country should not be providing corporate welfare to the wealthiest families in this country.

Trump's Broken Promises

Now, let me say a few words about some of the issues that Donald Trump failed to mention tonight , and that is the difference between what he promised the American people as a candidate and what he has delivered as president.

Many of you will recall, that during his campaign, Donald Trump told the American people how he was going to provide "health insurance for everybody," with "much lower deductibles."

That is what he promised working families all across this country during his campaign. But as president he did exactly the opposite. Last year, he supported legislation that would have thrown up to 32 million people off of the health care they had while, at the same time, substantially raising premiums for older Americans.

The reality is that although we were able to beat back Trump's effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act, 3 million fewer Americans have health insurance today than before Trump took office and that number will be going even higher in the coming months.

During his campaign, Trump promised not to cut Social Security, Medicare or Medicaid.

As president, however, he supported a Republican Budget Resolution that proposed slashing Medicaid by $1 trillion and cutting Medicare by $500 billion. Further, President Trump's own budget called for cutting Social Security Disability Insurance by $64 billion.

During Trump's campaign for president, he talked about how he was going to lower prescription drug prices and take on the greed of the pharmaceutical industry which he said was "getting away with murder." Tonight he said "one of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs."

But as president, Trump nominated Alex Azar, a former executive of the Eli Lilly Company -- one of the largest drug companies in this country -- to head up the Department of Health and Human Services.

Trump spoke about how in other countries "drugs cost far less," yet he has done nothing to allow Americans to purchase less expensive prescription drugs from abroad or to require Medicare to negotiate drug prices – which he promised he would do when he ran for president.

During the campaign, Donald Trump told us that: "The rich will not be gaining at all" under his tax reform plan.

Well, that was quite a whopper. As president, the tax reform legislation Trump signed into law a few weeks ago provides 83 percent of the benefits to the top one percent, drives up the deficit by $1.7 trillion, and raises taxes on 92 million middle class families by the end of the decade.

During his campaign for president, Trump talked about how he was going to take on the greed of Wall Street which he said "has caused tremendous problems for us.

As president, not only has Trump not taken on Wall Street, he has appointed more Wall Street billionaires to his administration than any president in history. And now, on behalf of Wall Street, he is trying to repeal the modest provisions of the Dodd-Frank legislation which provide consumer protections against Wall Street thievery.

What Trump Didn't Say

But what is also important to note is not just Trump's dishonesty. It is that tonight he avoided some of the most important issues facing our country and the world.

How can a president of the United States give a State of the Union speech and not mention climate change? No, Mr. Trump, climate change is not a "hoax." It is a reality which is causing devastating harm all over our country and all over the world and you are dead wrong when you appoint administrators at the EPA and other agencies who are trying to decimate environmental protection rules, and slow down the transition to sustainable energy.

How can a president of the United States not discuss the disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision which allows billionaires like the Koch brothers to undermine American democracy by spending hundreds of millions of dollars to elect candidates who will represent the rich and the powerful?

How can he not talk about Republican governors efforts all across this country to undermine democracy, suppress the vote and make it harder for poor people or people of color to vote?

How can he not talk about the fact that in a highly competitive global economy, hundreds of thousands of bright young people are unable to afford to go to college, while millions of others have come out of school deeply in debt?

How can he not talk about the inadequate funding and staffing at the Social Security Administration which has resulted in thousands of people with disabilities dying because they did not get their claims processed in time?

How can he not talk about the retirement crisis facing the working people of this country and the fact that over half of older workers have no retirement savings? We need to strengthen pensions in this country, not take them away from millions of workers.

How can he not talk about the reality that Russia, through cyberwarfare, interfered in our election in 2016, is interfering in democratic elections all over the world, and according to his own CIA director will likely interfere in the 2018 midterm elections that we will be holding. How do you not talk about that unless you have a very special relationship with Mr. Putin?

What Trump Did Talk About

Now, let me say a few words about what Trump did talk about.

Trump talked about DACA and immigration, but what he did not tell the American people is that he precipitated this crisis in September by repealing President Obama's executive order protecting Dreamers.

We need to seriously address the issue of immigration but that does not mean dividing families and reducing legal immigration by 25-50 percent. It sure doesn't mean forcing taxpayers to spend $25 billion on a wall that candidate Trump promised Mexico would pay for. And it definitely doesn't mean a racist immigration policy that excludes people of color from around the world.

To my mind, this is one of the great moral issues facing our country. It would be unspeakable and a moral stain on our nation if we turned our backs on these 800,000 young people who were born and raised in this country and who know no other home but the United States.

And that's not just Bernie Sanders talking. Poll after poll shows that over 80 percent of the American people believe that we should protect the legal status of these young people and provide them with a path toward citizenship.

We need to pass the bi-partisan DREAM Act, and we need to pass it now.

President Trump also talked about the need to rebuild our country's infrastructure. And he is absolutely right. But the proposal he is bringing forth is dead wrong.

Instead of spending $1.5 trillion over ten years rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, Trump would encourage states to sell our nation's highways, bridges, and other vital infrastructure to Wall Street, wealthy campaign contributors, even foreign governments.

And how would Wall Street and these corporations recoup their investments? By imposing massive new tolls and fees paid for by American commuters and homeowners.

The reality is that Trump's plan to privatize our nation's infrastructure is an old idea that has never worked and never will work.

Tonight , Donald Trump correctly talked about the need to address the opioid crisis. Well, I say to Donald Trump, you don't help people suffering from opioid addiction by cutting Medicaid by $1 trillion. If you are serious about dealing with this crisis, we need to expand, not cut Medicaid.

Conclusion/A Progressive Agenda

My fellow Americans. The simple truth is that, according to virtually every poll, Donald Trump is the least popular president after one year in office of any president in modern American history. And the reason for that is pretty clear. The American people do not want a president who is compulsively dishonest, who is a bully, who actively represents the interests of the billionaire class, who is anti-science, and who is trying to divide us up based on the color of our skin, our nation of origin, our religion, our gender, or our sexual orientation.

That is not what the American people want. And that reality is the bad news that we have to deal with.

But the truth is that there is a lot of good news out there as well. It's not just that so many of our people disagree with Trump's policies, temperament, and behavior. It is that the vast majority of our people have a very different vision for the future of our country than what Trump and the Republican leadership are giving us.

In an unprecedented way, we are witnessing a revitalization of American democracy with more and more people standing up and fighting back. A little more than a year ago we saw millions of people take to the streets for the women's marches and a few weeks ago, in hundreds of cities and towns around the world, people once again took to the streets in the fight for social, economic, racial and environmental justice.

Further, we are seeing the growth of grassroots organizations and people from every conceivable background starting to run for office – for school board, city council, state legislature, the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate.

In fact, we are starting to see the beginning of a political revolution, something long overdue.

And these candidates, from coast to coast, are standing tall for a progressive agenda, an agenda that works for the working families of our country and not just the billionaire class. These candidates understand that the United States has got to join the rest of the industrialized world and guarantee health care to all as a right, not a privilege, through a Medicare for All, single-payer program.

They understand that at a time of massive income and wealth inequality, when the top one-tenth of one percent now owns almost as much wealth as the bottom 90 percent, we should not be giving tax breaks for billionaires but demanding that they start paying their fair share of taxes.

They know that we need trade policies that benefit working people, not large multi-national corporations.

They know that we have got to take on the fossil fuel industry, transform our energy system and move to sustainable energies like wind, solar and geothermal.

They know that we need a $15 an hour federal minimum wage, free tuition at public colleges and universities, and universal childcare.

They understand that it is a woman who has the right to control her own body, not state and federal governments, and that woman has the right to receive equal pay for equal work and work in a safe environment free from harassment.

They also know that if we are going to move forward successfully as a democracy we need real criminal justice reform and we need to finally address comprehensive immigration reform.

Yes. I understand that the Koch brothers and their billionaire friends are planning to spend hundreds of millions of dollars in the 2018 mid-term elections supporting the Trump agenda and right-wing Republicans. They have the money, an unlimited amount of money. But we have the people, and when ordinary people stand up and fight for justice there is nothing that we cannot accomplish. That has been the history of America, and that is our future.

Thank you all and good night.

Published at https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/01/30/watch-bernie-sanders-response-trump-state-union

[Feb 03, 2018] Trump isn't the only one in the US Government we should fear by Patrick Cockburn

Notable quotes:
"... The Washington Post ..."
Feb 02, 2018 | www.unz.com

The constant demonisation of Trump carries another danger that is under-appreciated and may produce a real-world disaster. The US media blames everything on him and respectfully portrays the bevy of generals who populate the upper ranks of his administration -- Chief of Staff John Kelly, Secretary of Defence Jim Mattis and National Security Adviser HR McMaster -- as the only adults in the room. Yet it may turn out that they and other business and political figures, such as Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and the CIA chief Mike Pompeo, are more likely to bring about a war than Trump himself.

Just how poor is the judgement of the very people who are meant to be a restraining force on Trump was shown last month when Tillerson made a classic blunder that may have negative results for the US for years to come. On 17 January, he announced the US military forces would stay in Kurdish controlled north-east Syria after the defeat of Isis in order to weaken Iran and President Bashar al-Assad. Just three days later on 20 January, Turkey, predictably enraged at what it saw as a US territorial guarantee of a de facto Kurdish state, sent its forces across the Syrian border to invade the Kurdish enclave of Afrin.

Tillerson had unwittingly initiated a new phase in the Syrian conflict in which the US is self-isolated and Turkey, Russia, Iran and Assad had been brought closer together. The Kurds in Afrin, one of the few places in Syria not devastated by war, have to hide in caves as the direct result of the new US initiative.

Trump's isolationism may be less risky than the neo-interventionism of his senior advisers. Reports from Washington suggest that the decision to get more fully engaged in the Syrian civil war was contrary to what Trump himself wanted. By this account, he would have preferred to use his State of the Union address to announce that the US mission in Syria had ended in triumph with the defeat of Isis and that he was withdrawing US ground forces. Instead, the decision went the other way as McMaster and Mattis supported by Tillerson successfully argued for keeping US ground forces in Syria and Iraq.

These senior officials were only advocating the consensus opinion of the US foreign policy establishment, as was swiftly illustrated by media commentators. Even as Turkish tanks were rolling into Syria, an editorial in The Washington Post was applauding Tillerson for having "bluntly recognised a truth that both President Trump and President Barack Obama attempted to dodge" -- which is that the US needs a political and military presence in Syria.

Despite all Trump's condemnation of Obama's supposed weakness, his strategy in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria did not differ much from his predecessor – that is until his chief security officials switched to an interventionist policy in Syria last month.

Traditional policy of relying on force to overcome all obstacles or what Obama nicknamed "The Washington Playbook" looks as if it is back in business. He privately condemned the US foreign policy establishment for being wedded to dubious allies like Saudi Arabia and Pakistan in pursuit of over-ambitious objectives.

American strength in the world was ebbing before Trump, though the divisive and mercurial nature of his presidency is speeding up the decline. In every continent a power vacuum has opened up which is being filled by many eager candidates. They generally have the same ingredients of populism, demagoguery, authoritarianism and nationalism, though the quantities of each may differ, and they are certainly making the world a more dangerous place because they do not know the limits of their own power.

From Manila to Warsaw, there has been the rise of the mini-Trumps who tend to know the politics of their own country well, but be dangerously ignorant of that of other countries. It is in the nature of arbitrary rulers, who have suppressed domestic criticism, such as Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Saudi Arabia, that they pursue exaggerated ambitions moving over ice that is always thinner than they imagine.

US power in the world is declining, having reached its peak between the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and the start of the Iraq war in 2003. Two dangers are emerging: one is the feckless nature of Trump administration which acts as a sort of out-of-control wrecking ball, though the damage done is limited by Trump's low attention span and divisions in Washington.

A second danger is the US foreign policy establishment. which has learned nothing new from past failures, which would like to restore US power to what it once was and is does not understand that this can no longer be done. This is "the Washington Playbook", which Obama came to deride and ignore and is just as dangerous as anything Trump may do.

JosephConrad , February 2, 2018 at 9:54 pm GMT

TILLERSON NEEDS TO BE TAKEN BEHIND THE WOODHED AND WHIPPED.
The genocidal US needs to leave Syria as it's there illegally. But dishonorable US could care less.

If you are alive, you know the Israelis run the US & the Middle East chaos. So you better call Nettanyahu.

[Feb 02, 2018] Syria - Erdogan's Bashibazouk Want To Ravage Afrin

Feb 02, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

karlof1 , Feb 1, 2018 4:29:08 PM | 3

Although not specifically related to the thread topic, Adam Garrie frames his 911 essay by using the late composer Karlheinz Stockhausen's description--a description we often see within Syria and elsewhere. Indeed, the atrocities b mentions are all part of the "performance."

As Canthama observed on his Twitter feed: The Afrin Kurds are "morons" for not allowing the Syrian government to reclaim its rightful position as protector of Syria's lands. Had they done so, the two women and many others would be alive and massive damage avoided. I would add another adjective--Masochists--to morons. Not long ago, Assad said those Syrians who choose to not stand with the elected government against the invaders are guilty of treason; so, it would seem the Turkish assault amounts to punishment. I wonder how long it will take for the Kurds to get the picture.

karlof1 , Feb 1, 2018 4:29:08 PM | 3 WorldBLee , Feb 1, 2018 4:33:48 PM | 4
It's impossible to pick a side between the jihadist-supporting Turkish offensive and the US-backed, often collaborating with jihadists, "Kurdish" side. (I used quotes around Kurdish because Kurdish-controlled forces have taken land where Arabs, Christians, and others have traditionally lived in Syria.) Obviously, the best situation would be for the Syrian army to take control of the border, keeping the Turks out and providing both security and government control to the northern lands of Syria.
xor , Feb 1, 2018 4:47:51 PM | 5
I wonder what will happen when most of north, central, east and west Afrin has eventually been occupied by the attackers and grabbed from the current occupiers. Will those fleeing thieves remaining in southern Afrin beg the Syrian government for and be allowed to have a corridor to Manbij or eastern Syria waiting for another day to steal more land in favor of US+Zionist strategic interests? I can't imagine they will be allowed to settle in government controlled area's after their loathsome acts of ultimate treason. I think the SAA should completely shut the borders with Afrin, reinforce it, let the current fight between the thieves play out by itself but also expect attacks from fleeing Kurds. Maybe it would forever be a lesson written in blood that Kurdish lives are completely worthless in face of the US empire's interests.
Red Ryder , Feb 1, 2018 5:04:17 PM | 6
Hard to believe such savagery is the norm in the 21st century.

War is always horrific, yet animalistic butchery is not forgivable.

Just as the planners and leaders who unleash these animals should not be forgiven for the War.

James , Feb 1, 2018 5:05:40 PM | 7
War is brutal - we have seen in Libya with what happened to Gadaffi and Syria with the head chopping and various other atrocities.

We probably don't know the full depth of this.

These women are caught up in this savage brutality of this war
The Kurds should have made a deal with the government

Turkey I agree with another comment can't be trusted - but Russia has leverage over them economically - and they can play this card

Piotr Berman , Feb 1, 2018 5:59:56 PM | 12
Obviously, the best situation would be for the Syrian army to take control of the border, keeping the Turks out and providing both security and government control to the northern lands of Syria.

Posted by: WorldBLee | Feb 1, 2018 4:33:48 PM | 4

There was a "long essay", more than 12 tweets, discussing that topic. SAA cannot fight on too many fronts, and YPG "got too full of themselves". Damascus government demanded more-or-less full control in Afrin before sending troops there, and Russian coordinated with Damascus, in particular, refused to threaten Turkish airforce. YPG fancied themselves that they can maintain trappings of an independent statelet, e.g. they replaced Syrian license plates with their own (talk about vanity plates!). However, Syria-Russia allies keep their options open. In particular, SAA allows YPG/SDF traffic on highways through the controlled territory, I bet that this is somewhat reciprocal, but the reciprocity is less important for SAA than for YPG.

Allegedly, Turkey mobilized 25,000 of their pet jihadists for the Afrin war, some of those were recruited in Idlib-stan a while ago, and some just recently for the occasion. That made it easier for SAA and allies to take control of the "eastern Idlib-stan", about 1/3 of the former territory (there is also ISIS enclave that was formed when the moderate jihadist retreated and in part, switched sides, this enclave is wittled down rather slowly, just so it cannot threaten important highways).

Kurds are in a tricky situation. Scratch that. Everybody is, this is a multi-way war after all, in the custom of the region that is amply attested in history.

1. Russian difficulties. Selling natural gas without obstruction is a major state interest of RF, and a minor interest is cementing their position as the cheapest and most reliable supplier of nuclear power stations, Erdogan found that these interests dovetail the Turkish ones, but those are long-term projects that can be suspended with minor immediate consequences. One of several reasons why Russia has to treat Turkey with care. Moreover, the war in Syria is not overwhelmingly popular in Russia, so the strategy of RF is to commit as few ground troops as possible. Turkey does some dirty stuff allowing heavy weapons to reach jihadists, but they can do worse (and they did worse in the past).

2. Turkish difficulties. They can be almost cut-and-pasted from the previous point. In particular, war in Syria is not sufficiently popular to commit a large number of ground troops. I doubt if the moderate jihadists that were gathered for the occasion indeed form a "fanatical force". After many years of bloody civil war, mutiliating corpses is just something "everybody does". Actually, the fact that SAA very productively exploits of the absence of these forces from Idlib is probably reducing their morale. As a result, the war progresses somewhat slowly, giving some face to Afrin-ers, and negotiate rescue from SAA + Russia.

3. Syrian difficulties. After many years of the civil war, most of the military consists of "semi-regular" units that operate only in their home regions, and with rather sketchy training, discipline and armament, so they can advance on few fronts only. Fighting to help Afrin has to be worth A LOT to forgo other needs.

4. Kurdish difficulties. USA is a generous provider of weapons and payroll, but Syrian Kurds also rely on good will of SAA and Russians. USA wants them to make the relations with SAA and Russian much worse than now, and they need to make them better. They have to decide what type of autonomy would be good for them, and when to refuse American aid if the latter will demand to be maximalist (like, total independence). Usually this leads to internal divisions, and at the very least, they will have to make a show of such divisions.

5. American difficulties. As for everyone, there is a gap between wishes and possibilities, and it is hard to see what wishes can be fulfilled in a longer time frame.

6. Piotr's difficulties. Getting a semi-complete list of difficulties.

ConfusedPundit , Feb 1, 2018 6:01:35 PM | 13
Propaganda wars. This is my interpretation of the case. The Coalition for Occupation is not happy. In fact they are like Desperate Housewives. The U.S. led Coalition partners once claimed YPG is not PKK. And the Turkish airstrike of yesterday on a Building with a rooftop portrait of Abdullah Ocalan arrives in. A giant portrait of 27m X 40m PKK leader's in Afrin. Turks hit the portrait right in the mouth. PKK in Afrin? Every household in Afrin has PKK flags since Afrin's occupation in 2012 by PKK. The airstrike made the US led coalition unhappy.

Here is the giant portrait:

36°46′46.9″N 36°48′42.7″E

http://wikimapia.org/#lang=tr&lat=36.779820&lon=36.813254&z=17&m=b

Now it's Turks' turn to counter the new move, if they can. LOL. Here is the building after the strike

http://i.borsagundem.com/2/679/400//files/2018/1/31/1273351/1273351.jpg

Laguerre , Feb 1, 2018 6:06:49 PM | 14
I didn't much like the language in this text. Bashi-bazouk = jihadi. No more, no less. Turkish language for the Arabic. Those who fight for nothing for their religion; it's an ancient Islamic practice, which goes back to the 8th century. However the jihadis in the Syrian war are paid, but don't have military training. Militias. Introduce this term, bashi-bazouk, is simply to add the ancient European hatred to what you don't like.
DemiJohn , Feb 1, 2018 7:52:23 PM | 25
Russia could play a role in Afrin but they won't. The Syrian army is certainly incapable of facing Turkey, now or in the future. So they play a waiting game: the invasion may generate sour feelings in Turkey (don't count too much on it) and the Kurds will be weakened. Win-win ...
Debsisdead , Feb 1, 2018 8:57:15 PM | 29
So many liars talking tosh it's tough to tell how committed Erdogan is to anything he spouts in his article of a few days ago headed On the ground in Afrin, it's hard to know what Kurdish fighters really stand for Fisk writes from inside Afrin which he says is policed by Russians in the daytime altho some Kurd militias are also in view. The town seems pretty normal cause the fighting is still some distance away.

Fisk makes the point that although the mob in charge of Afrin claim to be nothing to do with the PKK:

or the very moment you cross from the Syrian army's last checkpoint – red, white and black flags and a poster of Bashar al-Assad, his brother Maher, Hezbollah leader Hassan al-Nasrallah and prominent army colonel "Tiger" Suheil (please note the latter), you find yourself amid blue-and-white-coloured concrete ramps, the "star" banner of "Kurdistan" (which, like "Palestine", does not exist) and a gigantic picture of Abdullah Ocalan, the PKK (Kurdish Workers Party) leader for whom the YPG has absolutely no connection whatsoever. Or so they tell you.
One thing is for sure judging by the general unpreparedness of everyone inside the North Western Syria Kurdish 'enclave', little Rex Tillerson really fucked up when he spouted off about a 30,000 person border protection force for kurdistan.

Now even ForeignPolicyDOTcom which has been about Tillerson's only consistent bulwark in the american media is putting the skids under Tillerson by describing his recent efforts to hire senior staff and generally straighten out State's mess as an attempt to gain altitude presumably to water down criticism before he is pushed or jumps.

Too bad about all the unwhite people getting killed because you can't run a brothel on a troopship eh Rex? When you think about it there can't be an easier gig than numero uno at Mobil Exxon - hunnerds of million a year for pumping oil outta Saudi and selling it to the mugs for an extortionate mark-up. If the Saudis are stupid enough to ignore their script all Rex had to do was get his lobbyists to phone the bargain basement bought forked tongued pricks in DC and tell em to do the sabre rattle while starting up the gunboats.

[Jan 31, 2018] A crooked game is very attractive to the sharpies who imagine they're smart enough to take it over.

Notable quotes:
"... Also, Turkey fighting in Afrin is an opening for various and sundry jihadis in Idleb to escape. As part-time pawns of the US, this is not a great problem for the US. ..."
"... Russia just does not have that much to offer Erdogan, not in Armenia, not in Syria, not economically, not militarily, not diplomatically. Russia is friendly with Iran and Syria and really is opposed to AQ, IS etc. because it has vulnerable populations. ..."
Jan 31, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

steven johnson | Jan 29, 2018 4:38:16 PM | 13

Turkish army fighting in Syria is a problem for the national secular government (aka Assad.) I'm sorry but I do not see how this is driving Turkey into Russia's waiting arms.

Also, Turkey fighting in Afrin is an opening for various and sundry jihadis in Idleb to escape. As part-time pawns of the US, this is not a great problem for the US. If Turkey were clashing with the US directly in Rojava, yes, but it's not.

I don't think this is an accident. Russia just does not have that much to offer Erdogan, not in Armenia, not in Syria, not economically, not militarily, not diplomatically. Russia is friendly with Iran and Syria and really is opposed to AQ, IS etc. because it has vulnerable populations.

It's true that the US is a faithless master. It has turned on AQ, turned on IS, turned on Saddam Hussein, turned on Erdogan. But it's like the guy said when someone asked him why he'd play in a crooked game: "It's the only one in town!" Russia is not strong enough to start a new game. And despite the starry eyes, it is by no means clear that Putin wants one. A crooked game is very attractive to the sharpers who imagine they're smart enough to take it over.


Sigil , Jan 29, 2018 4:45:07 PM | 14

I should be used to neocon madness by now, but it still blows me away: fighting Russia in order to crush Assad and prevent Iran having a land bridge through Syria it doesn't need, all in order to please Israel/Saudi Arabia for some reason. And yet they think of themselves as the Serious People.
WorldBLee , Jan 29, 2018 5:41:36 PM | 19
Short of nuclear war, all the US can do is beat its chest and continue the same tactics of chaos and destruction that impede the quality of life for everyone in the region of Syria without stopping the ultimate progress of the Syrian government as it reclaims control of its own territory. In short, expect more pain and suffering for the Syrian people with a higher price tag to rebuild the country (regarded as a total plus by the US powers that be as Russia, Iran, and China will pay them rather than the US) but not the prized outcome the US seeks, i.e., the removal of President Assad.
Laguerre , Jan 29, 2018 7:19:56 PM | 24
Very good post except for the end. The war in Iraq is finished. Baghdad has won. The US may haver, but it's objectives are lost. The Kurds are back in their canton. Reunification is the word.
bevin , Jan 29, 2018 7:26:41 PM | 25
Summing up points made by several people above, it is instructive how those who have been saying "Give Israel enough rope and it will hang itself" have been proved right.

Every one of the strategic problems Israel claims to be facing is the direct result of Israeli over reach, aggression and the demagogy of internal politicking.
Hezbollah for example, would never have come into being had Israel not left the Lebanese with no alternatives but to fight back or lose their land to Zionist expansion. Hezbollah's current strength comes, politically, from its successful resistance in 2006, when it became Lebanon's shield, and militarily from Israel's decision to get rid of Assad (whose regime had been quietly accommodating to Tel Aviv for years) and give Hezbollah, along with the SAA the opportunity to transform itself into a superb, seasoned field formation.

As to Iran and Russia, does Israel prefer them to ISIS and al qaeda? Probably not but it was Israel's espousal of the neo-cons Syrian policy that has now put Israel on the brink of destruction, with nothing else to sustain it but its grip on the crooks who run Washington and their miniature counterparts in Europe and the British Commonwealth that was.

Ben Gurion and Abba Eban, fanatical zionists both and war criminals to boot, must be spinning in their graves; in their days zionists were calculating and shrewd, playing their card carefully. Netanyahu and the fascists who dominate Israel today are all about boasting, threatening, bullying and, of course, fascism's inevitable, suicidal, death wish. Those who hate life urgently enough have the choice between a partisan's lamppost and a bunker dripping with petrol.

Those who live by the sword don't die of old age.

ben , Jan 29, 2018 7:29:34 PM | 26
Sounds like "false flag" time once again. It won't take much for the America sheep to be on board for another military adventure. They're too busy playing with their newest cell phone trinkets to care much.
ConfusedPundit , Jan 29, 2018 7:41:54 PM | 27
steven johnson

"If Turkey were clashing with the US directly in Rojava"

Turkey and US won't clash. At least this is what the retired generals say on TVs (TAF communicate with the public via retired generals). However, both the govt. and the generals and the reps of other nationalist and patriotic bodies blame some 'dark forces' inside U.S. as the culprit. Make a wild guess as to who they are. I don't know myself. Some claim they are the neocons, some say globalists, some say oil giants, capitalists, weapons manufacturers. The Turks do openly target someone under this heading 'dark forces' though and as of today they began to say any accidental clash with US troops will lead to a bigger problem and they add a Turkish saying to it: You can't count punches in a fight (all out war? but against whom if not the U.S. armed forces then??)

There must be a real national security concern this time.

Govt. reps talk to the public "Are you willing to mobilize if you are needed in Afrin?" Well, what does that mean? A single TAF unit is enough to exterminate the entire PKK guys in Afrin. Why do you need the whole population ready on your backyard? I guess this is some psy-preparation. Yes? But against who?

[Jan 31, 2018] Syria - Neo-Conservatives Demand Action - Hope For A Larger War

"The neoconservative writers and their op-eds should be ignored. But the war on Iraq has shown that there is some serious political power behind them. " thatan easy question. Neoconservatives are lobbyists on MIC so there is a very powerful political force behind them
Jan 31, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org
Syria - Neo-Conservatives Demand "Action" - Hope For A Larger War

The U.S. polity and media now acknowledge what we reported on December 21. The U.S. announcement to build up a 30,000 strong PKK army in north-east Syria was a disaster. It prompted Turkey to initiate its attack on YPG/PKK Kurds in Afrin. It threatens do drive it out of NATO and into Russia's open arms. It gives the Syrian government new leverage against the Syrian Kurds.

Under Turkish threats to attack U.S. forces in Syria the Trump administration had to pull back - at least in its rhetoric. Independent of who rules Turkey the country will never acquiesce to an armed Kurdish entity on its southern border. The U.S. should have know this.

This failure of the Trump administration's plan has prompted a new push from neoconservative propagandists for a full U.S. war on Syria and its allies. The lobby shop of the Kagan family, the Institute For The Study of War, had its junior staff pen an op-ed for Foxnews to argue for a new study object:

It's time for Trump to face reality in Syria

The U.S. must rapidly change how it is executing policy in five key areas.
  1. Russian military bases. ...
  2. Acceptance of Bashar al-Assad. ...
  3. Syrian "de-escalation." ...
  4. The "peace" process. ...
  5. Iran and al Qaeda. ...

The hinted at solutions, couched in vague language, are for 1. nuke them, 2. kill him, 3. stop it, 4. who cares, 5. destroy 'em all:

The U.S. must face reality in Syria. It must recognize the threat Russia poses. It must acknowledge the limits of its current partners on the ground. It cannot put faith in a diplomatic charade. It must implement a real strategy against al Qaeda and Iran. And it must recognize the value of American action over American rhetoric.
...
It will take a long time and a hard struggle to achieve any outcome in Syria that the U.S. should be willing to live with. It is time to focus on it, devote resources to it, and prepare to do so for a long time.

"For a long time" sounds to me like a multi decade occupation of the Syrian battlefield and the adjacent areas. I doubt that any politician who wants to be reelected will vote for that.

A second neocon op-ed, this by Josh Rogin, was posted at Jeff Bezos' blog: Team Trump must match its new rhetoric on Syria with action .

It is not useful to quote the nonsense but here are some of the rhetoric figures it uses:

... the will and leverage needed to lead a solution to the Syrian crisis - defend U.S. interests - confronting the ongoing terrorist threat - Iranian expansion - Bashar al-Assad's brutal aggression - on-the-ground influence - herculean effort - a contingent that wants to cut and run - a real plan - fundamental flaw - a lack of sufficient leverage on the ground ...

After having set the scene for a massive U.S. occupation of Syria, Rogin claims that "nobody is advocating" a "large increase in U.S. troops". His advice then is to do more of the stuff that evidently just failed: stick to the Kurds, pay some Arab tribes (aka former ISIS), arm rebels (aka al-Qaeda) in Idleb. But then comes the real blopper:

the Trump administration should raise the pressure on Assad, Russia and Iran, including through sanctions, the credible threat of U.S. force and whatever else might persuade them.

Now what please is a "credible threat of U.S. force" against those three countries? And might they have the capability to credibly threat back? Who will win the thermonuclear war over the Tanf desert base in south-east Syria?

A year into Trump's presidency, his administration is saying the United States has a long-term interest in Syria. The next step is to match those words with action .
I have no doubt that the two op-eds were coordinated. More of this kind will likely come. The common theme is "action" and - while not openly said - they demand a larger U.S. war over Syria. The unmentioned beneficiary of such a war, next to the weapon producing financiers of those writers, would be Israel and Saudi Arabia.

The neoconservative writers and their op-eds should be ignored. But the war on Iraq has shown that there is some serious political power behind them. Now someone in the White House will have to pick up those arguments and try to convince Trump with them. Who will that be and will s/he be successful?

Posted by b on January 29, 2018 at 02:17 PM | Permalink


s , Jan 29, 2018 2:45:11 PM | 3

the Trump administration should raise the pressure on Assad, Russia and Iran, including through sanctions, the credible threat of U.S. force and whatever else might persuade them.
This is ridiculous. Trump tried to bully N Korea and failed. How is he going to intimidate Russia?
harrylaw , Jan 29, 2018 3:40:40 PM | 6
John Bolton Remains Leading Candidate to Replace H. R. McMaster http://nationalinterest.org/feature/john-bolton-remains-leading-candidate-replace-h-r-mcmaster-24232?page=2
Alaric , Jan 29, 2018 3:51:59 PM | 7
The neocons must expect an SAA victory in Idlib - they make such noise every time the SAA closes in on a major victory. They must also expect that the Kurds will fail them.

That is good news. Trump lacks the balls to start a war with Russia and Iran which has a Turkey which is sympathetic to their cause or at least one of them. But we should expect some deadly mischief from the neocons and their Israeli and Saudi backers that seeks to ignite a war.

jayc , Jan 29, 2018 4:32:46 PM | 11
This is also an effort in controlling the narrative, lest anyone adopt the common sense position that it was exactly the aggressive regime-change policy in Syria which led directly to the current balance of power. Israelis may feel threatened by the presence of Iran in Syria and the renewed strength of Hezbollah, but this did not occur in a vacuum and the policy adopted by Israel's government of supporting the removal of Assad has put them in such position. Perhaps the decision-making of Israel's current government should be considered foolish and malevolent, as its policies have worsened Israel's security position and caused terrible human suffering. Instead, the neo-cons (and the Israeli government) choose to double down.

As well, the neo-conservative position is often at odds with international law. Is there any other example of paid groups publicly advocating illegal policies and propagating the application of prohibited violence? It seems criminal in and of itself.

karlof1 , Jan 29, 2018 4:34:39 PM | 12
Yep, read both op/eds and they look like they emerged from the same diseased brain give their commonalities and lies those are based upon. The threat seems to be more pointed toward Iran than Russia, which means Saudi/Zion interests are feeding the diseased mind. Both papers omit any hint of what constitutes the primary interest[s] of the Outlaw US Empire such a policy will advance. It's such convoluted thinking that brought about this crisis in the first place.

The Empire's break with and eventual exit from Iraq just got an excellent start with the termination by General Dynamics to service Iraqi Army Abrams tanks. As reported today by SouthFront: "On January 28, an unnamed Iraqi official revealed to the Iraqi news outlet al-Ghad Press that the manufacturer of M1 Abrams battle tanks, General Dynamics had halted its maintenance services for the Iraqi Army. According to the source, the company took the decision because some of Iraqi Army M1A1 Abrams battle tanks were operated by irregular Iraqi Shiite forces."

The indirect nature of the Outlaw US Empire's hybrid wars against Russia and China is running out of options and thus coming to a close leaving only direct warfare as a policy tool. Expect provocations at Seoul's Olympics and Russia's World Cup events that attempt to pin the aggression on some other actor.

[Jan 31, 2018] Haim Saban a pro-Zionist founder of the US Brookings Saban Center described the Kushner team to a bunch of Orthodox Jews who have no idea about anything

As it comes from a Zionist that might be a complement ;-) You never know...
Jan 31, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

mauisurfer | Jan 30, 2018 12:19:25 AM | 36

Alastair Crooke reviews miscalculations of Israel and of Trump re: Saudi, Syria, Kurds, and now Turkey. A worthy read from a man who really knows.

Even Haim Saban, the strongly pro-Zionist founder of the U.S. Brookings' Saban Center described the team to Kushner last month as "a bunch of Orthodox Jews who have no idea about anything."

"The team has an entrepreneur -- you -- a real-estate lawyer, a bankruptcy lawyer. I don't know how you've lasted eight months in this line-up. There's not a Middle East macher in this group," Saban said, using the Yiddish word for bigwig.

https://consortiumnews.com/2018/01/29/miscalculations-in-israel-could-pave-way-to-wider-war/

[Jan 31, 2018] Chief lunatic McMaster will levitate with enthusiasm for more war.

Notable quotes:
"... General Flynn had warned Trump during the campaign before election and afterward that CIA briefers were lying to him. Flynn took over briefing Trump himself and that ended when they got Flynn out. ..."
Jan 31, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Red Ryder | Jan 29, 2018 2:49:34 PM | 4

In the WH it will be NSC adviser and chief lunatic McMaster. He will levitate with enthusiasm for more war.

The briefings Trump gets are packed with lies and he has grown to trust them.

The entire foreign policy is so different from his stated goals and intentions that it is clear he is fed fairy tales of success and bogus estimates of what the US can accomplish.

Last weeks Voltairnet.org piece by Thierry Meyssan indicated that Trump did not know what his planners were doing.

"The president Trump had not been informed of the plan Votel-McGurk. The secretary of Defense, James Mattis, confirmed to his men the instructions of the White House against the jihadists. However Votel and McGurk are still in place." -- Thierry Meyssan

General Flynn had warned Trump during the campaign before election and afterward that CIA briefers were lying to him. Flynn took over briefing Trump himself and that ended when they got Flynn out.

We have a President misled who is told bogus results based on biased input data and reports.

Meyssan has been crazy in love with Trump for a year, so for him to report this shows he knows things are being setup for Trump to be trapped in Syria.

harrylaw , Jan 29, 2018 3:40:40 PM | 6
The Neocons have the perfect candidate to implement those mad cap schemes...
John Bolton Remains Leading Candidate to Replace H. R. McMaster http://nationalinterest.org/feature/john-bolton-remains-leading-candidate-replace-h-r-mcmaster-24232?page=2

[Jan 30, 2018] Rex Tillerson: Russia bears responsibility for Syria chemical attacks: US secretary of state says Russia 'shielding' Syrian ally, amid reports of fresh gas attack

Notable quotes:
"... I would bet my life that the BBC reporter received her narrative from the UK FCO- bankrolled White Helmets who have produced all propaganda from the terrorist besieged areas/frontlines – such as East Aleppo, Daraa and Idlib. ..."
Jan 30, 2018 | off-guardian.org

MichaelK says January 24, 2018

I don't think enough people appreciate just how influential the great 'liberal' news platforms like the Guardian and the NYT and Washington Post are, out there in the rest of the western empire the rest take their lead from them, the 'framing' of events and stories. Foreign journalists, especially those specialising in the coverage of the Anglo-Saxon world, follow the BBC/Guardian closely, because well, they would never lie, would they unthinkable. This means that if the state were to succeed in 'capturing' the Guardian this alone would have enormous implications for how liberals and the soft left see the world and what's going on.

It's also important to remember and understand that the British really invented modern propaganda during WW1 with the aim of bringing world opinion over to the British side and especially influencing the public in the United States, as a vital war aim was to drag the US into the war when it became obvious that the UK would never defeat Germany without direct American military support. That basic truth isn't being talked about very much, is it, even though we're supposed to be thinking about WW1, where most of the coverage looks like 'fake news' to me but that's probably another story.

The British were so good at selling their version of the 'truths' of WW1 that the Nazis attempted to copy them and set up their own Ministry of Propaganda, only they weren't a successful as the British who had so many advantages compared to the Germans, chiefly the Germans were forced to twist the truth totally out of recognition as they were, after all, living under an openly fascist dictatorship.

vexarb says January 25, 2018
@MichaelK: "It's also important to remember and understand that the British really invented modern propaganda during WW1"
I can vouch for that as a personal reaction. Recovering from fever in WW2, I idled away the time by perusing some bound newspaper articles from WW1; you know, the sort of thing you find in doctors waiting rooms and hospital libraries. I was appalled at the viciousness of the anti-German propaganda, especially against the Kaiser; the WW1 atmosphere seemed far more savage than what I was reading from WW2 British papers against the Nazis; the latter often had a touch of gentle humour, such as Low's cartoons in the Daily Express about Hit&Muss on their Axis.
Geoff Bridges says January 24, 2018
I was a loyal Guardian reader for 35 years and have witnessed it's decline to the extent I now refuse to buy it. The paper is now owned by the Guardian Media Group which is run by a high-powered Board comprising elite, well-connected people from the "corporate establishment". I stopped buying the Guardian some years ago because I was sick and tired of being lied to by blatant propaganda or omission of the truth which didn't fit into their worldview narrative. This coincided with the rise of the alternative media which was able to search for the truth without having a hidden agenda.

It is up to existing Guardian readers to decide if they only want to believe what they read in the main stream media or if they want to find a more balanced view of the world by doing some research of their own by consulting a wide range of "trusted" media.
My comments in The Guardian were moderated a long time ago and I have become so disgusted with the paper that I no longer even grab a free one when shopping in Waitrose.
Thankfully there are many of us who still comment on their facebook page to counter their lies and propaganda particularly on Syria.

vanessa beeley says January 24, 2018
Very good questions – particularly as I have just spent 5 weeks in Syria trying to enter the Eastern Ghouta enclave without success – because it is a "hot" military zone with no access for the safety of the foreign journalists. I even tried various other avenues which included entering a Syrian government-established refugee camp near Douma and East Ghouta that had been set up to receive and treat civilians who had been injured or not given treatment by the terrorist factions occupying Ghouta, Douma & Jobar to the East of the City of Damascus.

Ghouta, to my knowledge and according to my personal experience as a journalist in Syria, is out of bounds for the time being because of high risk of sniping or shelling from the terrorist factions controlling those areas.

Having entered what was once, the REAL Syria Civil Defence HQ in Jobar and having peered through the sandbags at the windows into Jobar and having seen the ghostly snipers moving in the lunar landscape of houses and destroyed buildings, I would respect the decision by the Syrian Govt & military to protect journalists from being in the vicinity of such extremists.

However, despite not being able to enter the actual zone, I did gather enough testimony from refugees in Damascus, NGOs, Russian humanitarian operators etc to know that the "starvation" is a non-issue based on the number of convoys that have entered E Ghouta.

The issue is the Western backed terrorists who, as in East Aleppo and Madaya, are taking delivery of the supplies and stockpiling them, eking them out to civilians who pay the highest price or depriving civilians deliberately in order to maintain the "starvation" propaganda that facilitates the faux-humanitarian intervention by the NATO-aligned NGOs and organisations.

I would bet my life that the BBC reporter received her narrative from the UK FCO- bankrolled White Helmets who have produced all propaganda from the terrorist besieged areas/frontlines – such as East Aleppo, Daraa and Idlib.

vanessa beeley says January 24, 2018
I hope Off Guardian dont mind these links but these are the reports that the Guardian is trying to erase with their propaganda tactics. Also "Global Britain" is Financing Terrorism and Bloodshed in Syria – and Calling it Aid" http://21stcenturywire.com/2017/12/09/global-britain-financing-terrorism-bloodshed-syria-calling-aid/
Eric Blair says January 24, 2018
It's a classic propaganda piece. The takeaway message throughout the article is "Russia did it". Tillerson even says no matter who did it or what actually happened, Russia bears responsibility. Count how many towns variations of that message appear in the article. It's prime purpose is to keep the RussiaDidIt project alive and hammer Russia's "guilt" into the public mind.

[Jan 30, 2018] The Unseen Wars of America the Empire The American Conservative

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... Like the Romans, we have become an empire, committed to fighting for scores of nations, with troops on every continent and forces in combat operations of which the American people are only vaguely aware. "I didn't know there were 1,000 troops in Niger," said Senator Lindsey Graham when four Green Berets were killed there. "We don't know exactly where we're at in the world, militarily, and what we're doing." ..."
"... Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of a new book, ..."
"... . To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com. ..."
Jan 30, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

The Unseen Wars of America the Empire By Patrick J. Buchanan January 30, 2018, 12:01 AM

Forward Operating Base Torkham, in Nangahar Province, Afghanistan (army.mil) If Turkey is not bluffing, U.S. troops in Manbij, Syria, could be under fire by week's end, and NATO engulfed in the worst crisis in its history.

Turkish President Erdogan said Friday his forces will cleanse Manbij of Kurdish fighters, alongside whom U.S. troops are embedded.

Erdogan's foreign minister demanded concrete steps by the United States to end its support of the Kurds, who control the Syrian border with Turkey east of the Euphrates all the way to Iraq.

If the Turks attack Manbij, America will face a choice: stand by our Kurdish allies and resist the Turks, or abandon the Kurds.

Should the U.S. let the Turks drive the Kurds out of Manbij and the entire Syrian border area, as Erdogan threatens, American credibility would suffer a blow from which it would not soon recover.

But to stand with the Kurds and oppose Erdogan's forces could mean a crackup of NATO and a loss of U.S. bases inside Turkey, including the air base at Incirlik.

Turkey also sits astride the Dardanelles entrance to the Black Sea. NATO's loss would thus be a triumph for Vladimir Putin, who gave Ankara the green light to cleanse the Kurds from Afrin.

Yet Syria is but one of many challenges facing U.S. foreign policy.

The Winter Olympics in South Korea may have taken the menace of a North Korean ICBM out of the news, but no one believes that threat is behind us.

Last week, China charged that the USS Hopper, a guided missile destroyer, sailed within 12 nautical miles of Scarborough Shoal, a reef in the South China Sea claimed by Beijing, though it is far closer to Luzon in the Philippines. The destroyer, says China, was chased off by one of her frigates. If we continue to contest China's territorial claims with our warships, a clash is inevitable.

In a similar incident Monday, a Russian military jet came within five feet of a U.S. Navy EP-3 Orion surveillance jet in international airspace over the Black Sea, forcing the Navy plane to end its mission.

U.S. relations with Cold War ally Pakistan are at rock bottom. In his first tweet of 2018, President Trump charged Pakistan with being a false friend.

"The United States has foolishly given Pakistan more than 33 billion dollars in aid over the last 15 years, and they have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools," Trump declared. "They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghanistan, with little help. No more!"

As for America's longest war in Afghanistan, now in its 17th year, the end is nowhere on the horizon. A week ago, the International Hotel in Kabul was attacked and held for 13 hours by Taliban gunmen who killed 40. Midweek, a Save the Children facility in Jalalabad was attacked by ISIS, creating panic among aid workers across the country.

Saturday, an ambulance exploded in Kabul, killing 103 people and wounding 235. Monday, Islamic State militants attacked Afghan soldiers guarding a military academy in Kabul. With the fighting season two months off, U.S. troops will not soon be departing. If Pakistan is indeed providing sanctuary for the terrorists of the Haqqani network, how does this war end successfully for the United States? Last week, in a friendly fire incident, the U.S.-led coalition killed 10 Iraqi soldiers. The Iraq war began 15 years ago.

Yet another war, where the humanitarian crisis rivals Syria, continues on the Arabian Peninsula. There, a Saudi air, sea, and land blockade that threatens the Yemeni people with starvation has failed to dislodge Houthi rebels who seized the capital Sanaa three years ago. This weekend brought news that secessionist rebels, backed by the United Arab Emirates, seized power in Yemen's southern port of Aden from the Saudi-backed Hadi regime fighting the Houthis. These rebels seek to split the country, as it was before 1990.

Iran, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE appear to be backing different horses in this tribal-civil-sectarian war into which America has been drawn. There are other wars -- Somalia, Libya, Ukraine -- where the U.S. is taking sides, sending arms, training troops, flying missions.

Like the Romans, we have become an empire, committed to fighting for scores of nations, with troops on every continent and forces in combat operations of which the American people are only vaguely aware. "I didn't know there were 1,000 troops in Niger," said Senator Lindsey Graham when four Green Berets were killed there. "We don't know exactly where we're at in the world, militarily, and what we're doing."

No, we don't, Senator. As in all empires, power is passing to the generals. And what causes the greatest angst today in the imperial city? Fear that a four-page memo worked up in the House Judiciary Committee may discredit Robert Mueller's investigation of Russia-gate.

Patrick J. Buchanan is the author of a new book, Nixon's White House Wars: The Battles That Made and Broke a President and Divided America Forever . To find out more about Patrick Buchanan and read features by other Creators writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators website at www.creators.com.

[Jan 29, 2018] It is OK for an empire to be hated and feared, it doesn t work so good when Glory slowly fades and he empire instead becomes hated and despised

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... When do they run out of people for this ..."
"... Everyone is assuming this is an anti-American, Russia-backed operation, and Turkey has left the NATO fold, but is it? Wheels within wheels, and it's is not clear what the end result will be. If I was Assad, I would be looking very closely at all this. There seems to be some suggestion that the Kurds are getting reinforcements and supplies shipped via Syrian government areas, which is interesting. ..."
"... If one is set on running an empire, one simply cannot afford to be seen losing to "inferior 3'rd world tribals" very often, if not they, then others will take notice and get ideas. ..."
"... The USA was not designed to be an empire, it was designed to be a Republic for, by and of the People. Our international adventurism will be the death of not just us, but possibly the world. Not a month goes by without a major provocative incident towards Russia. Usually assassinations of Russian diplomats, Oligarchs, or military bellicosity. I wonder if these are in response to disavowed US operatives being killed, or if Russia is exhibiting enormous restraint, because they are the responsible ones who don't want to see the world burn for Israel. ..."
Jan 29, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Leveraged Algorithm Jan 29, 2018 1:22 AM Permalink

When do they run out of people for this...

An Shrubbery Jan 29, 2018 1:28 AM Permalink

So now Turkey's invading Syria, too? Curiouser and curiouser...

Archive_file, Jan 29, 2018 1:31 AM Permalink

Remember Gallipoli!!

Juggernaut x2 -> Archive_file, Jan 29, 2018 2:43 AM Permalink

another fuck-up by Churchill

OverTheHedge -> Archive_file, Jan 29, 2018 2:53 AM Permalink

In what way? The fact that the Turks won? They beat the shit out some very tough British and Anzac troops, who were invading their country. Might be something to consider at this point.

Another point: this little piece of Syria that is being invaded lies between two other little bits of Syria that turkey has already invaded / occupied. If they manage to link up on either side, they will have created a wide buffer on their border. Is this just a bit of "protection" for turkey, or is it part of the US plan to split up, partition and dismember Syria?

Everyone is assuming this is an anti-American, Russia-backed operation, and Turkey has left the NATO fold, but is it? Wheels within wheels, and it's is not clear what the end result will be. If I was Assad, I would be looking very closely at all this. There seems to be some suggestion that the Kurds are getting reinforcements and supplies shipped via Syrian government areas, which is interesting.

fajensen -> OverTheHedge, Jan 29, 2018 5:09 AM Permalink

In what way? The fact that the Turks won?

Yes. It is OK for an empire to be hated and feared, it doesn't work so good when Glory slowly fades and he empire instead becomes hated and despised.

If one is set on running an empire, one simply cannot afford to be seen losing to "inferior 3'rd world tribals" very often, if not they, then others will take notice and get ideas.

Letting one's side down has consequences. Not delivering on the benefits promised for foreigners serving the empire has consequences too.

gougeonit, Jan 29, 2018 1:36 AM Permalink

So is it, The enemy of my enemy is the enemy of my enemy?

Blue Steel 309, Jan 29, 2018 1:41 AM Permalink

The USA was not designed to be an empire, it was designed to be a Republic for, by and of the People. Our international adventurism will be the death of not just us, but possibly the world. Not a month goes by without a major provocative incident towards Russia. Usually assassinations of Russian diplomats, Oligarchs, or military bellicosity. I wonder if these are in response to disavowed US operatives being killed, or if Russia is exhibiting enormous restraint, because they are the responsible ones who don't want to see the world burn for Israel.

Omega_Man Jan 29, 2018 4:17 AM Permalink

so what, mericans killed millions in iraq and syria... you didn't cry then.

Omega_Man Jan 29, 2018 4:18 AM Permalink

hopefully merica and turkey will get into a big war...and not let those mericans off the hook...

SaudiMail Jan 29, 2018 5:26 AM Permalink

I watched 'The Promise' last night, about the Armenian genocide which the Turks still deny to this day.

Seems history is repeating itself in Syria.

[Jan 29, 2018] US secrets, lies and confusion in the North of Syria by Thierry Meyssan

Notable quotes:
"... In reality, President Trump's special representative to the Coalition, Brett McGurk, was the lawyer who participated, alongside John Negroponte and Colonel James Steele, in the creation of the Islamic Emirate in Iraq in 2006. With Colonel James Coffman, he was tasked with giving President George Bush an account of this secret operation, which was intended to combat the Iraqi resistance to the occupation by dividing their forces into Sunnis and Chiites, and artificially creating a civil war. ..."
Jan 29, 2018 | www.voltairenet.org

In reality, President Trump's special representative to the Coalition, Brett McGurk, was the lawyer who participated, alongside John Negroponte and Colonel James Steele, in the creation of the Islamic Emirate in Iraq in 2006. With Colonel James Coffman, he was tasked with giving President George Bush an account of this secret operation, which was intended to combat the Iraqi resistance to the occupation by dividing their forces into Sunnis and Chiites, and artificially creating a civil war.

After a passage at Harvard, Brett McGurk was re-assigned to the State Department under John Kerry. He helped with transforming the Islamic Emirate in Iraq into Daesh, and co-organised the preparatory meeting for the jihadist invasion of Iraq, on 27 May 2014 in Amman. He reorganised Iraq, then trained the International Coalition which was tasked with fighting Daesh.

A good student, McGurk agreed to serve President Trump in order to get rid of the jihadist organisation that he had himself created, and some of whose members he is now attempting to recycle.

The project of the Syrian Border Security Force has a lot to say about the sincerity of the YPG militia, which professes the gentle anarchy of Murray Boochkin, but which, without hesitation, are ready to form a single unit with the killers of Daesh under US command.

Contrary to appearances, the Turkish attack on Afrine, and probably soon on Mambij, was approved on 8 and 19 January by the Russian military staff, which was alerted by the number 2 of the régime and head of the secret services, the director of the MIT (Milli İstihbarat Teşkilatı), Hakan Fidan, who journeyed specially to Moscow for this reason. The attack was facilitated by the immediate withdrawal of Russian troops from the combat zone.

Identically, Turkey informed Syria of the attack in writing, even if Damascus claimed that it had not received the letter.

President el-Assad, who can not place his country in confrontation with the United States in order to stop the recycling of the jihadists, left Turkey, a member of NATO, to deal with it.

President Trump had not been informed about the Votel-McGurk plan. The Secretary of Defense, James Mattis, confirmed to his men the instructions of the White House concerning the jihadists. However, Votel and McGurk are still in place.

Source : "US secrets, lies and confusion in the North of Syria", by Thierry Meyssan, Translation Pete Kimberley, Al-Watan (Syria) , Voltaire Network , 23 January 2018, www.voltairenet.org/article199451.html

[Jan 29, 2018] Who is who in Syria war

The USA population lose much treasure and has a deteriorating standard of living to maintain an empire at the behest of neoliberal elite... This sentiment is merely confirming the US public discontent with interventionism and neocon foreign policy that had been revived by the 2003 Iraq invasion. The recent J. Wallin Opinion Research survey revealed that 71 percent of Americans believed Congress should pass legislation that restrained military action. Due to power of MIC an overblown defense budget does not get proper the scrutiny of any other form of public spending. the United States' annual military budget around $700 billion. Those guys need war to justify it.
Much of those costs have been borne by ordinary Americans-from paying for war debts to being at greater risk of terrorist attacks-while the war profits go to a select group of corporations. It is difficult to imagine any single decision in any other realm of policy that has cost so much, delivered little, and harmed America and the rest of the world so irreparably.
Jan 29, 2018 | nationalinterest.org

Jeromy Pfl HoodooTexas , January 28, 2018 1:50 AM

So, you had no problem when the CIA was funneling weapons from Libya through Turkey to Al Nusra, thereby creating chaos in the country?

jack dunster Jeromy Pfl , January 28, 2018 2:16 AM

so you have no problems with a NATO country which flirts with Putin, rounds up its citizens for the least reasons, threatens fellow NATO members and so forth? A weapon is only as good as its users, The current Turkish army is a politically reliable beast, because the actual soldiers have been rounded up and imprisoned as well.

Jeromy Pfl jack dunster , January 28, 2018 2:56 AM

What does being a NATO member have to do with the CIA funneling weapons to terrorists? In fact, one could argue that arming terrorists is the NATO-Russian way. They both do so quite regularly just on different sides. However, it was the US government who began arming the rebels against the Syrian government to overthrow the government. 400,000 have died as a result. 3/4 of the country's GDP is erased. Millions are refugees. Perhaps the US government should not have overthrown Libya's government, taken Libya's arms to Syria, and provided air cover to ISIS and al Nusra. Then, this conversation would never have taken place.

Hugh Ezzell Jeromy Pfl , January 28, 2018 10:24 AM

As I recall it, in the beginning the opposition staged rallies against the Syrian govt, because of economic problems but were militarily put down. The US came into it after the Syrian Govt used chemical weapons against the rebellion (obama's red line that got ignored), and then, the US entered only after ISIS became involved in the Syrian affair. Russia officially entered on Syria's side somewhat later on. Turkey officially entered after Russia. Dont try to put Syria's self-destruction off on the US.

Jeromy Pfl Hugh Ezzell , January 28, 2018 7:15 PM

Those staged rallies were fanned by Robert Ford, then ambassador of the US to Syria. The war, in large part, began due to water shortages which meant farmers could not grow crops. Food prices soared. The US saw the economic instability as an opportunity to overthrow the Syrian government. Israel saw this as an opportunity to extend its occupation of the Golan Heights via proxies. Saudi Arabia took this opportunity to support proxies by releasing weapons and pardoned prisoners to stick it to Iran--its sworn enemy. Many powers jockey for control over Syria but I guarantee you the foreign powers are unconcerned with civil rights and civilian tolls. The great game is afoot.

Jeromy Pfl Hugh Ezzell , January 28, 2018 6:56 PM

Unfortunately, your stated starting point for the conflict is flawed. The US, Turkey, Israel, the Gulf States, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar were arming al Qaeda, al Nusra, ISIS, 'moderate rebels', et al. far earlier than alleged chemical attacks. WMDs, like in Iraq, have often been used as an argument for arming opposition groups and overthrowing governments by the US and its allies. The US provided VX gas to Saddam, who used it against the Kurds and Iran. Perhaps if one is concerned about WMDs, one should be very concerned with the US providing one of the most lethal chemical weapons on the planet to Saddam. Then again, I find that argument unpersuasive given the US government's history of arming others with chemical, biological, and nuclear programs.

il duce Terry Pens , January 28, 2018 12:35 PM

you get everything dont you =)
if Assad steps down, from a political movement promoted by the west, you'll turn the country into another Egypt led by a western friendly dictator to promote the NATO agenda in the middle east.Without any apparent improvement to the daily lives of Syrians (don't argue with me on this one, facts tells us all "Arab spring countries turned out worst off")

If Assad don't step down, you'll fund a civil war and prolong it as long as you get your way, and with the airways filled with western news agencies you can say whatever you like.

PS: if Assad is despotic, then what are Saudis? why didn't NATO promote a Saudi civil war if they care about human rights so much?

Erik Pritchard Terry Pens , January 28, 2018 10:41 AM

I take it you haven't heard of operation Timber Sycamore? It' a widely-known fact that we funded, armed and trained known terrorist groups in Syria with the aim of regime change.

You're very correct to be suspicious of information and to demand evidence. I suggest you be particularly suspicious of the media that widely reported the "fact" that Saddam Hussein had WMD ...they clearly have an agenda other than just news reporting .

Operation Timber Sycamore:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/...

Jeromy Pfl Terry Pens , January 28, 2018 9:21 PM

No. I have seen Secretary Clinton's emails and internal documents supporting the rise of al Nusra, al Qaeda, and ISIS. ISIS and other rebels
are awash in American M-16s, Javelin anti-tank missiles, and m-pads. The food that they left behind came from Western countries. The arms came from Western countries. The US even killed over 70 pro-Syrian government troops in one airstrike minutes before an ISIS assault. Given the emails, the weapons manufacturing, and the air support, it is pretty easy to conclude that the US had once again tried to intervene in another Middle Eastern country. General Wesley Clark, having read the memo detailing the fall of seven countries, states that Syria was on the list of countries to overthrow in 2006 (? I believe). A quick Youtube can illustrate this point. The CIA was funnelling weapons from Libya and Ukraine via the CIA according to Pulitzer Prize winner Seymour Hersch. He is the same investigative journalist who covered the Abu Ghraib scandal among others.

Peter Nels Fredrickson Jeromy Pfl , January 28, 2018 7:34 AM

I am totally ok with the U.S. Government (cia) doing whatever it takes to keep us on top and the military industrial complex healthy.

[Jan 29, 2018] Washington Widens the War in Syria by Provoking Turkey by Mike Whitney

It is OK for an empire to be hated and feared, it doesn't work so good when Glory slowly fades and he empire instead becomes hated and despised
Notable quotes:
"... There's only one explanation: Tillerson must be so blinded by hubris that he couldn't figure out what Erdogan's reaction would be. He must have thought that, "Whatever Uncle Sam says, goes." Only it doesn't work like that anymore. ..."
"... Simply put, Washington is losing the war quite dramatically due in large part to the emergence of a new coalition (Russia-Syria-Iran-Hezbollah) that has made great strides in Syria and that is committed to preserve the Old World Order, a system that is built on the principles of national sovereignty, self determination and non intervention. ..."
"... Tillerson's blunder will only make Washington's task all the more difficult by drawing Turkey into the fray in an effort to quash Uncle Sam's Kurdish proxies. ..."
"... In an effort to add insult to injury, Tillerson didn't even have the decency to discuss the matter with Erdogan– his NATO ally– before making the announcement! ..."
"... One day you're a terrorist, and the next day you're not depending on whether Washington can use you or not. ..."
"... Now the US has to choose between its own proxy army (The Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces) and a NATO ally that occupies the critical crossroads between Asia and Europe ..."
"... "In response to President Erdoğan's call on the United States to end the delivery of weapons to the [Democratic Union Party] PYD-YPG, President Trump said that his country no longer supplied the group with weapons and pledged not to resume the weapons delivery in the future," the sources added." (Hurriyet) ..."
"... So far, the only clear winner in this latest conflagration has been Vladimir Putin, the levelheaded pragmatist who hews to Napoleon's directive to "Never interfere with an enemy while he's in the process of destroying himself." ..."
"... Putin gave Erdogan the green light to conduct "Operation Olive Branch" in order to pave the way for an eventual Syrian takeover of the Northwestern portion of the country up to the Turkish border. Moscow removed its troops from the Afrin quarter (where the current fighting is taking place) but not before it presented the Kurds with the option of conceding control of the area to the central government in Damascus. The Kurds rejected that offer and elected to fight instead. ..."
"... Erdogan's demand that Trump stop the flow of weapons to the SDF will benefit Russia and its allies on the ground even more than they will benefit Turkey. It's another win-win situation for Putin. ..."
Jan 29, 2018 | www.counterpunch.org

... ... ..

So why did Tillerson think Erdogan would respond differently?

There's only one explanation: Tillerson must be so blinded by hubris that he couldn't figure out what Erdogan's reaction would be. He must have thought that, "Whatever Uncle Sam says, goes." Only it doesn't work like that anymore.

The US has lost its ability to shape events in the Middle East, particularly in Syria where its jihadist proxies have been rolled back on nearly every front. The US simply doesn't have sufficient forces on the ground to determine the outcome, nor is it respected as an honest broker, a dependable ally or a reliable steward of regional security. The US is just one of many armed-factions struggling to gain the upper hand in an increasingly fractious and combustible battlespace. Simply put, Washington is losing the war quite dramatically due in large part to the emergence of a new coalition (Russia-Syria-Iran-Hezbollah) that has made great strides in Syria and that is committed to preserve the Old World Order, a system that is built on the principles of national sovereignty, self determination and non intervention.

Washington opposes this system and is doing everything in its power dismantle it by redrawing borders, toppling elected leaders, and installing its own stooges to execute its diktats. Tillerson's blunder will only make Washington's task all the more difficult by drawing Turkey into the fray in an effort to quash Uncle Sam's Kurdish proxies.

In an effort to add insult to injury, Tillerson didn't even have the decency to discuss the matter with Erdogan– his NATO ally– before making the announcement! Can you imagine how furious Erdogan must have been? Shouldn't the president of Turkey expect better treatment from his so-called friends in Washington who use Turkish air fields to supply their ground troops and to carry out their bombing raids in Syria? But instead of gratitude, he gets a big kick in the teeth with the announcement that the US is hopping into bed with his mortal enemies, the Kurds. Check out this excerpt from Wednesday's Turkish daily, The Hurriyet ,which provides a bit of background on the story:

"It is beyond any doubt that the U.S. military and administration knew that the People's Protection Units (YPG) had organic ties with the Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which Washington officially recognizes as a terrorist group .The YPG is the armed wing of the Democratic Union Party (PYD), which is the political wing of the PKK in Syria. They share the same leadership the same budget, the same arsenal, the same chain of command from the Kandil Mountains in Iraq, and the same pool of militants. So the PYD/YPG is actually not a "PKK-affiliated" group, it is a sub-geographical unit of the same organization .

Knowing that the YPG and the PKK are effectively equal, and legally not wanting to appear to be giving arms to a terrorist organization, the U.S. military already asked the YPG to "change the brand" back in 2015. U.S.

Special Forces Commander General Raymond Thomas said during an Aspen Security Forum presentation on July 22, 2017 that he had personally proposed the name change to the YPG.

"With about a day's notice [the YPG] declared that it was now the Syrian Democratic Forces [SDF]," Thomas said to laughter from the audience. "I thought it was a stroke of brilliance to put 'democracy' in there somewhere. It gave them a little bit of credibility." (Hurriyet)

Ha, ha, ha. Isn't that funny? One day you're a terrorist, and the next day you're not depending on whether Washington can use you or not. Is it any wonder why Erdogan is so pissed off?

So now a messy situation gets even messier. Now the US has to choose between its own proxy army (The Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces) and a NATO ally that occupies the critical crossroads between Asia and Europe. Washington's plan to pivot to Asia by controlling vital resources and capital flowing between the continents depends largely on its ability to keep regional leaders within its orbit. That means Washington needs Erdogan in their camp which, for the time being, he is not.

Apparently, there have been phone calls between Presidents Trump and Erdogan, but early accounts saying that Trump scolded Erdogan have already been disproven. In fact, Trump and his fellows have been bending-over-backwards to make amends for Tillerson's foolish slip-up. According to the Hurriyet:

"The readout issued by the White House does not accurately reflect the content of President [Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan's phone call with President [Donald] Trump," "President Trump did not share any 'concerns [about] escalating violence' with regard to the ongoing military operation in Afrin." The Turkish sources also stressed that Trump did not use the words "destructive and false rhetoric coming from Turkey."

Erdoğan reiterated that the People's Protection Units (YPG) must withdraw to the East of the Euphrates River and pledged the protection of Manbij by the Turkish-backed Free Syrian Army (FSA)

"In response to President Erdoğan's call on the United States to end the delivery of weapons to the [Democratic Union Party] PYD-YPG, President Trump said that his country no longer supplied the group with weapons and pledged not to resume the weapons delivery in the future," the sources added." (Hurriyet)

If this report can be trusted, (Turkish media is no more reliable than US media) then it is Erdogan who is issuing the demands not Trump. Erdogan insists that all YPG units be redeployed east of the Euphrates and that all US weapons shipments to Washington's Kurdish proxies stop immediately. We should know soon enough whether Washington is following Erdogan's orders or not.

So far, the only clear winner in this latest conflagration has been Vladimir Putin, the levelheaded pragmatist who hews to Napoleon's directive to "Never interfere with an enemy while he's in the process of destroying himself."

Putin gave Erdogan the green light to conduct "Operation Olive Branch" in order to pave the way for an eventual Syrian takeover of the Northwestern portion of the country up to the Turkish border. Moscow removed its troops from the Afrin quarter (where the current fighting is taking place) but not before it presented the Kurds with the option of conceding control of the area to the central government in Damascus. The Kurds rejected that offer and elected to fight instead. Here's an account of what happened:

Nearly a week ago, [a] meeting between Russian officials and Kurdish leaders took place. Moscow suggested Syrian State becomes only entity in charge of the northern border. The Kurds refused. It was immediately after that that the Turkish Generals were invited to Moscow. Having the Syrian State in control of its Northern Border wasn't the only Russian demand. The other was that the Kurds hand back the oil fields in Deir al Zor. The Kurds refused suggesting that the US won't allow that anyway.

Putin has repeatedly expressed concern about US supplies of advanced weapons that had been given to the Kurdish SDF. According to the military website South Front:

"Uncontrolled deliveries of modern weapons, including reportedly the deliveries of the man-portable air defense systems, by the Pentagon to the pro-US forces in northern Syria, have contributed to the rapid escalation of tensions in the region and resulted in the launch of a special operation by the Turkish troops." (SouthFront)

Erdogan's demand that Trump stop the flow of weapons to the SDF will benefit Russia and its allies on the ground even more than they will benefit Turkey. It's another win-win situation for Putin.

The split between the NATO allies seems to work in Putin's favor as well, although, to his credit, he has not tried to exploit the situation. Putin ascribes to the notion that relations between nations are not that different than relations between people, they must be built on a solid foundation of trust which gradually grows as each party proves they are steady, reliable partners who can be counted on to honor their commitments and keep their word. Putin's honesty, even-handedness and reliability have greatly enhanced Russia's power in the region and his influence in settling global disputes. That is particularly evident in Syria where Moscow is at the center of all decision-making.

As we noted earlier, Washington has made every effort to patch up relations with Turkey and put the current foofaraw behind them. The White House has issued a number of servile statements acknowledging Turkey's "legitimate security concerns" and their "commitment to work with Turkey as a NATO ally." And there's no doubt that the administration's charm offensive will probably succeed in bringing the narcissistic and mercurial Erdogan back into the fold. But for how long?

At present, Erdogan is still entertains illusions of cobbling together a second Ottoman empire overseen by the Grand Sultan Tayyip himself, but when he finally comes to his senses and realizes the threat that Washington poses to Turkish independence and sovereignty, he may reconsider and throw his lot with Putin.

In any event, Washington has clearly tipped its hand revealing its amended strategy for Syria, a plan that abandons the pretext of a "war on terror" and focuses almost-exclusively on military remedies to the "great power" confrontation outlined in Trump's new National Defense Strategy. Washington is fully committed to building an opposition proxy-army in its east Syria enclave that can fend off loyalist troops, launch destabilizing attacks on the regime, and eventually, effect the political changes that help to achieve its imperial ambitions.

Tillerson's announcement may have prompted some unexpected apologies and back-tracking, but the policy remains the same. Washington will persist in its effort to divide the country and remove Assad until an opposing force prevents it from doing so. And, that day could be sooner than many people imagine. Join the debate on Facebook More articles by: Mike Whitney

MIKE WHITNEY lives in Washington state. He is a contributor to Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion (AK Press). Hopeless is also available in a Kindle edition . He can be reached at [email protected] .

[Jan 28, 2018] ISIS survives because the US will not unite with Russia to destroy it

Jan 28, 2018 | theduran.com

A recent report by Al-Masdar has estimated that ISIS still has 8,000 to 11,000 fighters scattered across Syria. It has provided the following breakdown of the areas where they are based

In addition Al-Masdar makes the following point about the (by Jihadi standards) high level of training and motivation of these ISIS fighters

To this effect it is worth noting that whilst with non-ISIS militant groups often only one-third of their declared 'paper strength' represents actual front-line fighters (with the remainder consisting of armed locals who do not operate beyond their town or village and have only taken up arms to receive a paycheck by which they can feed their families), all Islamic State fighters (even so with individuals missing limbs as video evidence shows) are generally trained and mobilized for operations at the front.

Overall Al-Masdar's general conclusion about the continuing threat posed by these ISIS fighters is as follows

The fact that all these areas are dislocated from each other is important for future operations against them and represents a major improvement over previous years whereby the terrorist group held contiguous swathes of territory across the country that were centered along the Euphrates valley.

At the same time, the sight of isolated ISIS pockets on a map can create a false sense of security as it overlooks the fact that many thousands of fighters are still present within them.

Al-Masdar's sources within the Syrian military make it likely that this is also the Syrian military's assessment of the continued threat ISIS poses in Syria.


[Jan 28, 2018] Uncle Sam Dumps the Kurds (Yet Again) by The Saker

Notable quotes:
"... the initial AngloZionist plan was to overthrow Assad and replace him with the Takfiri crazies (Daesh, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, ISIS – call them whatever you want). ..."
"... The AngloZionist wanted to use the Kurds just like NATO had used the KLA in Kosovo: as a ground force which could be supported by US/NATO and maybe even Israeli airpower. Unlike the Israelis and Saudis, the Kurds are a relatively competent ground force (albeit not one able to take on, say, Turkey or Iran). ..."
"... the entire plan had no UNSC authorization was thus totally illegal under international law (as is the presence of the USA in the Syria's airspace and territory, but nobody cares any more) ..."
Jan 28, 2018 | www.unz.com

The US-Israeli goals in Syria were really very simple. As I have already mentioned in a past article , the initial AngloZionist plan was to overthrow Assad and replace him with the Takfiri crazies (Daesh, al-Qaeda, al-Nusra, ISIS – call them whatever you want). Doing this would achieve the following goals:

Bring down a strong secular Arab state along with its political structure, armed forces and security services. Create total chaos and horror in Syria justifying the creation of a "security zone" by Israel not only in the Golan, but further north. Trigger a civil war in Lebanon by unleashing the Takfiri crazies against Hezbollah. Let the Takfiris and Hezbollah bleed each other to death, then create a "security zone", but this time in Lebanon. Prevent the creation of a Shia axis Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon. Breakup Syria along ethnic and religious lines. Create a Kurdistan which could then be used against Turkey, Syria, Iraq and Iran. Make it possible for Israel to become the uncontested power broker in the Middle-East and forces the KSA, Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and all others to have to go to Israel for any gas or oil pipeline project. Gradually isolate, threaten, subvert and eventually attack Iran with a wide regional coalition of forces. Eliminate all center of Shia power in the Middle-East.

With the joint Russian-Iranian military intervention, this plan completely collapsed. For a while, the USA tried to break up Syria under various scenarios, but the way the Russian Aerospace forces hammered all the "good terrorists" eventually convinced the AngloZionists that this would not work.

The single biggest problem for the Empire is that while it has plenty of firepower in the region (and worldwide), it cannot deploy any "boots on the ground". Being the Empire's boots on the ground was, in fact, the role the AngloZionists had assigned to the Takfiri crazies (aka Daesh/IS/ISIS/al-Qaeda/al-Nusra/etc/), but that plan failed. The only US allies left in the region are Israel and Saudi Arabia. The problem with them is that, just like the USA themselves, these countries do not have ground forces capable of actually deploying inside Syria and taking on not only the Syrian military, but the much more capable Iranian and Hezbollah forces. Murdering civilians is really the only thing the Israelis and Saudis are expert in, at least on the ground (in the skies the Israeli Air Force is a very good one). Enter the Kurds.

The AngloZionist wanted to use the Kurds just like NATO had used the KLA in Kosovo: as a ground force which could be supported by US/NATO and maybe even Israeli airpower. Unlike the Israelis and Saudis, the Kurds are a relatively competent ground force (albeit not one able to take on, say, Turkey or Iran).

The folks at the Pentagon had already tried something similar last year when they attempted to create a sovereign Kurdistan in Iraq by means of a referendum . The Iraqis, with some likely help from Iran, immediately put an end to this nonsense and the entire exercise was a pathetic "flop".

Which immediately begs to obvious question: are the Americans even capable of learning from their mistakes? What in the world were they thinking when they announced the creation of 30'000 strong Syrian Border Security Force (BSF) (so called to give the illusion that protecting Syria's border was the plan, not the partition Syria)? The real goal was, as always, to put pressure on Turkey, Iran, Iraq, Syria and Russia while grabbing a lot of oil. As always with Uncle Shmuel, the entire plan had no UNSC authorization was thus totally illegal under international law (as is the presence of the USA in the Syria's airspace and territory, but nobody cares any more) .

Did Trump and his generals really think that Turkey, Iran, Syria and Russia would accept a US protectorate in Syria masquerading as an "independent Kurdistan" and do nothing about it? Yet again, and I know this sound hard to believe, but I think that this is yet another strong indication that the Empire is run by stupid and ignorant people whose brain and education simply do not allow them to grasp even the basic dynamics in the region of four planet there are interfering with.

... ... ...

The Trump Administration's "strategy" (I am being very kind here) is to stir up as many conflicts in as many places of our planet as possible. The Empire thrives only on chaos and violence. The Russian response is the exact opposite: to try as best can be to stop wars, defuse conflicts and create, if not peace, at least a situation of non-violence. Simply put: peace anywhere is the biggest danger to the AngloZionist Empire whose entire structure is predicated on eternal wars. The total and abject failure of all US plans for Syria (depending on how you count we are at "plan C" or even "plan D") is a strong indicator of how weak and totally dysfunctional the AngloZionist Empire has become. But 'weak' is a relative term while 'dysfunctional' does not imply 'harmless'. The current lack of brains at the top, while very good in some ways, is also potentially very dangerous. I am in particular worried about what appears to be a total absence of real military men (officers in touch with reality) around the President. Remember how Admiral Fallon once referred to General Petraeus as "an ass-kissing little chickenshit"? This also fully applies to the entire gang of generals around Trump – all of them are the kind of men real officers like Fallon would, in this words, "hate". As for State, I will just say this: I don't expect much from a man who could not even handle Nikki Haley, nevermind Erdogan.

Remember how the USA ignited the Ukraine to punish the Russians for their thwarting of the planned US attack on Syria? Well, the very same Ukraine has recently passed a law abolishing the "anti-terrorist operation" in the Donbass and declaring the Donbass "occupied territory". Under Ukie law, Russia is now officially an "aggressor state". This means that the Ukronazis have now basically rejected the Minsk Agreements and are in a quasi-open state of war with Russia. The chances of a full-scale Ukronazi attack on the Donbass are now even higher then before, especially before or during the soccer World Cup in Moscow this summer (remember Saakashvili?). Having been ridiculed (again) with their Border Security Force in Syria, the US Americans will now seek a place to take revenge on the evil Russkies and this place will most likely be the Ukraine. And we can always count the Israelis to find a pretext to continue to murder Palestinians and bomb Syria. As for the Saudis, they appear to be temporarily busy fighting each other. So unless the Empire does something really crazy, the only place it can lash out with little to lose (for itself) is the eastern Ukraine. The Novorussians understand that. May God help them.


Paranam Kid , January 26, 2018 at 5:58 am GMT

Saker, interesting analysis. 1 tiny point of criticism:

Remember how the USA ignited the Ukraine to punish the Russians for their thwarting of the planned US attack on Syria?

If I am not mistaken the CIA fomented "Orange revolution" in Ukraine was in 2014, whereas Russia stepped into the Syrian war in 2015. So in the quoted sentence, it seems you got the sequence of events back to front.

Sergey Krieger , January 26, 2018 at 10:32 am GMT
Enjoyed the article. Especially Uncle Shmuel part. Almost choked on my coffee. I was for some time worried about stated by Tyllerson never ending presence in Syria until pigs start flying but it seems Turkey's move throw another monkey wrench into USA plans. Doing something in Ukraine looks totally logical along USA typical behaviour lines.
The Alarmist , January 26, 2018 at 11:31 am GMT

"What in the world were [the Americans] thinking when they announced the creation of 30'000 strong Syrian Border Security Force (BSF) (so called to give the illusion that protecting Syria's border was the plan, not the partition Syria)?"

Yeah, pretty retarded. It's naked aggression wrapped up in a blanket of legalistic BS: What else can you expect from a government full of hack lawyers?

Carlo , January 26, 2018 at 1:17 pm GMT
@Paranam Kid

Yes, but before that Putin prevented the imposition of a "no-fly zone" to "protect civilians" in Syria, differently to what Medvedev did to Libya a few years before. So the Saker is right, Russian started ruining the plans even before they became directly involved in the Syrian war.

Andrei Martyanov , Website January 26, 2018 at 3:06 pm GMT

as soon as the Israelis and the Saudis realize that Uncle Sam can't do much for them either, they will suddenly become much more open to meaningful negotiations. Still, whether these rational minds will be sufficient to deal with the rabid ideologues I frankly don't know. But it is worth trying for sure.

I think the dawning of some reality in Israel is already in progress, hence a lot of hysteria and irrational actions on the part of some God chosen. KSA? I don't know, I may only repeat Sergei Lavrov's definition of Saudis, if you know what I mean))

for-the-record , January 26, 2018 at 3:11 pm GMT
@Paranam Kid

If I am not mistaken the CIA fomented "Orange revolution" in Ukraine was in 2014, whereas Russia stepped into the Syrian war in 2015. So in the quoted sentence, it seems you got the sequence of events back to front.

I believe he was referring to 2013, when Obama's "red line" of chemical weapons use was supposedly violated, but the Russians then deprived the US of its planned war by getting the Syrians to agree to give up their stockpile of chemical weapons.

Sarkis , January 28, 2018 at 7:22 am GMT
I don't agree with everything that The Saker says, but he does make a lot of good points. I'm curious about the consequences and dangers Turkey faces. One of my favorite geopolitical bloggers had previously written that Turkey is caught between east and west, and risks being pulled apart. It would take a Herculean effort to disentangle the Turkish military and security establishment from NATO because Turkey remains the key regional NATO minion and base holding nuclear weapons. But the American and Israeli designs for a Kurdish state to use against Iran and friends is not going to disappear.

The Kurds made the same mistake that Armenians made in 1915 and again in 1920, placing their security and future existence on western promises which turned out to be less than worthless. Georgians under the lunatic western puppet Saakashvili made a similar mistake in August 2008 when they thought the west would protect them while they attacked South Ossetta. Kurds and Georgians should consider themselves very fortunate that they did not suffer to the extent that the Armenians did.

All of the major players seem to have a presence right around Afrin. I guess Russia and Syria and Iran can take a hands-off approach for a bit as The Saker explained, while America stands around and watches its two allies fight it out .. Wasn't the joke in the Clinton and Bush era that Moscow had nonfunctioning alliances (CIS, CSTO) and uncontrollable third-rate allies that were mostly interested in fighting each other and smuggling oil and selling weapons to the highest-bidding terrorist? How the tables have turned! Amazing what two decades of competent leadership in Russia, and hubris-driven, sloppy imperialism in the west have produced.

jilles dykstra , January 28, 2018 at 7:56 am GMT
" The single biggest problem for the Empire is that while it has plenty of firepower in the region (and worldwide), it cannot deploy any "boots on the ground". "
USA blood indeed is the most precious blood in the world.
Even a one to fifty, or one to a hundred, ratio in deaths, too costly for the USA.
Miro23 , January 28, 2018 at 8:34 am GMT

Second, the Russians need to talk to the Kurds and offer them the same deal again: large autonomy inside Syria in exchange for peace and prosperity. The Kurds are not exactly the easiest people to talk to, but since there is really no other option, my guess is that as soon as they stop hallucinating about the US going to war with Turkey on their behalf they will have to sit down and negotiate the deal. Likewise, the Russians will have to sell the very same deal to Damascus which, frankly, is in no position to reject it.

Isn't there a place for Saker in the Russian government? These are great peace building ideas.

But he should stop with the Anglo-Zionist terminology. US Anglos don't make key decisions anymore. They tried to recover lost ground through voting for Trump but he's been neutralized before he could do anything useful.

Druid , January 28, 2018 at 9:54 am GMT
The stupid Kurds will fight for anyone who they think will allow them a state America is known for back-stabbing. The Kurds fell for it again. Idiots. Like the Israelis they forget the neighbourhood in which they live

[Jan 27, 2018] Who Lost Turkey - The U.S.-Kurdish Project In Syria Endangers NATO

Notable quotes:
"... From what I can make of it, the border force was a centcom idea. ..."
Jan 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

...The above linked piece noted that the Kurdish YPG/PKK leaders had rejected the Syrian and Russian government offer that would have prevented the Turkish attack. The offer still exists but the conditions will become less favorable as longer the Kurds hold out.

Elijah Magnier just published more details on that offer and analyses the strategic situation:

[T]he US is observing the performance of the Turkish army with interest and wishes to see Erdogan humiliated, broken on the rocks of the Kurds in Afrin. Indeed, the US has delivered anti-tank weapons, already effectively used by the Kurds against the Turkish army (many tanks damaged during the attack on Afrin).
...
The US can't understand that Ankara is not ready to see a rich and well-armed Kurdish "state" on its borders , disregarding the US's tempting and generous offer [of a "safe zone" (see below)]. Actually, the US is offering a territory that not only does not belong to the Americans but is actually occupied by the US forces in north east Syria.

The US is one of the losers in this battle, regardless of the results, because Turkey will continue its operations until the defeat of the Kurds, either by military means or if Afrin returns to [Syrian] central government's control.

I am not convinced that the above prediction will hold. There is still a possibility that Turkey might again change sides and (again) join the U.S. "regime change" efforts in Syria.

This depends on the winner of a conflict within the U.S. military where opposing forces are pulling for the Turkish and respectively the Kurdish side. Should the pro-Turkish side win, Erdogan can be offered a new deal and might be induced to again change sides from his current pro-Russian (pro-Damascus?) position back towards a pro-NATO/U.S. stand. (There is also a tiny chance that Turkey already has a secret back deal with the U.S. administration but I see no indication for it.)

From the very beginning of the conflict in Syria Turkey worked with the U.S., NATO, the Saudis and Qataris, against the Syrian government. It supported the Saudi and U.S. position of "regime change", let ten-thousands of terrorists pass through its borders and delivered ten-thousands of tons of weapons and supplies to the forces fighting the Syrian government. Finally Russia entered the picture, defeated the Takfiris, put harsh pressure on Turkey and offered new economic deals. At the same time the U.S. attempted "regime change" in Ankara and allied with the Kurdish YPG/PKK in Syria and Iraq.

Erdogan, though unwillingly, changed sides and now works with Russia (and Syria) to bring the war to a conclusion. "Regime change" in Damascus has become an unlikely scenario he no longer supports. At the same time he is still willing to invest money and forces to gain something for his failed investment in the war. Taking Afrin to later incorporate it into an enlarged Turkey is one of those plays. He is clearly still aiming for additional territory. The U.S. now offered him some in form of a safe zone in Syria:


james , Jan 25, 2018 1:43:13 PM | 2

fascinating post b.. thanks!

regarding elijah magniers comments and your response : "I am not convinced that the above prediction will hold. There is still a possibility that Turkey might again change sides and (again) join the U.S. "regime change" efforts in Syria." - that is my ongoing fear here...

as for the usa choosing between israel/ksa - going for kurdistan, and choosing turkey - i think the answer is obvious and i say this not fully believing that the usa was working on a coup in turkey to remove erdogan...

if erdogan was smart - i think he would continue to do exactly what he is now doing - playing the usa off russia and remaining in nato for as long as need be... why leave now? he has the best of it all... but i do believe the usa has already made a choice here and is hoping not to lose turkey in it all... not sure that they can flip back and convince turkey of their integrity when none of it remains!

so - we continue to muddle forward here.. israel/ksa work to curry favour with turkey, while the usa continues to talk out of both sides of it's mouth... putin watches it all waiting for the next stupid move any one of them make..

Robert Snefjella , Jan 25, 2018 1:49:47 PM | 3
Given that Trump's presidential primacy in foreign policy had been restricted by law by the Russia sanction bill, and that Trump has said that the military will have greater say in determining military related aspects of foreign policy, this begs the question as to who will gain primacy and how many different foreign policies will be developed in the absence or weakness of Trump. There were obvious disagreements within US foreign policy circles prior to Trump, but now in the absence weakness of Trump the CIA, State, military factions, neo-cons and bankers for starters could have quite the squabble fest. Every day, a new foreign policy turn of events, every day a dud repudiated.
Laguerre , Jan 25, 2018 2:02:57 PM | 4
Taking Afrin to later incorporate it into an enlarged Turkey is one of those plays. He is clearly still aiming for additional territory.
I really don't get this idea that Erdogan wants to enlarge his territory. There may once have been neo-Ottoman ideas, but they fade quickly when faced with reality. None of those territories in North Syria are inhabited by Turks. It would be an endless battle trying to integrate them into Turkey. They succeeded more or less in Hatay, but then there was already a a substantial Turkish population.

What Afrin is about is the fear of the development of a successful Kurdish state on the borders of Turkey, and its consequent effects on Kurds inside Turkey.

Afrin was chosen because it is the area of Syrian Kurdistan where there is no risk of a military confrontation with the US. So can be knocked off without likelihood of major war. Unfortunately Afrin is mountainous, and not a good target. We're seeing the results today.

dh , Jan 25, 2018 2:14:24 PM | 5
@4 "Afrin was chosen because it is the area of Syrian Kurdistan where there is no risk of a military confrontation with the US. So can be knocked off without likelihood of major war."

Right. Afrin is also the furthest Westward extension of Rojava so far. After Afrin the Kurds will try for access to the sea. That's why Erdogan is also going after Manbij.

The whole idea is to push the militants back Eastwards which would be a lot easier if they weren't getting US help.

07564111 , Jan 25, 2018 2:17:17 PM | 6
@ 2 >>> playing the usa off russia and remaining in nato for as long as need be.

Yes ... Erdogan is greedy and arrogant and not to be trusted ( at present/if ever ) but what he is not is stupid. He fully understands that if NATO were to enters into a military conflict with Russia, that, as a NATO member he ( Turkey ) will suffer greatly. I have no problem predicting that sooner or later he will leave NATO so as not to see Turkey used as cannon fodder and be destroyed.

Laguerre , Jan 25, 2018 2:33:21 PM | 7
Although I don't have any deep knowledge of Turkey, my guess is that Erdogan's attack on the Kurds is driven by his electorate, the not very sophisticated Anatolian Turks who fear the Kurds, or can be manipulated into fearing them (that's where my knowledge lacks). It's a very different world from Westernised Istanbul, but it's those people who elect him. Much like Trump's success in "fly-over country".

Evidently there's also a great dollop of megalomania. But staying in power is the basic point, not putting his power at risk through foreign adventures.

Laguerre , Jan 25, 2018 3:02:22 PM | 12
@8
Sounds like you're saying the Turks have no reason to fear an independent US supported state on their southern border. Seems to me such a state would be the beginning of a much bigger Kurdistan (not without the usual Kurdish infighting though.)
Did I say that? I thought I was saying much the same as you.

The possibility exists though that the switch from the Tolerance-of-Kurds policy, which existed for a number of years, to the hardline suppression of Kurds line of today was a mistake, and wasn't needed to keep Erdogan in power. But Erdogan chose to go for the provoke-fear approach. Given that "provoke fear" is a very common policy in the West, both in UK and US, it may be that Erdogan got it from that. But was it the right choice, I ask (but don't know enough to judge)?

By the way, the idea that Rojava might have access to the sea is just fantasy. Unfortunately Hatay is in the way, inhabited by Turks and Syrians (and probably a few Kurds). Never happen.

Red Ryder , Jan 25, 2018 3:06:22 PM | 13
Turkey was lost by the CIA/State Dept of Obama. They undermined the Air Force of Turkey as part of the plot to assassinate Erdogan, not just remove him. He was to be shot out of the sky. Russian Intel services SVR and GRU saved him and protect him still, as well as have worked with his military to help rebuild morale, discipline and fealty.

Nothing the US has done erases the attempt on his life. The Pentagon has charted a new Syrian War that threatens Turkey's sovereignty and territorial integrity. The Israelis hope to use the Kurds to split the Eastern half of Turkey away from Ankara.

Erdogan must ally with Iran and Russia and accommodate Syria in order to survive.

NATO is actually a side issue. The US does not trust Erdogan and the Turkish military, and have moved to use Poland as the bulwark for NATO strength.

I expect that Erdogan will be the target for later demonization and elimination.

The first target in the Middle East is still Assad. The strategic efforts of US and Israel are to limit Russia and eventually push Russia back to the Black Sea.

The Syrian Kurds are in for some devastating hits in the coming months. They either make a deal with Assad at Astana or Geneva or Sochi or they will be met with a Turk-Russian-Iranian war they cannot handle.

What the US does and for how long depends completely on the use of their proxies.
Al Nusra and AQ are still a problem. Leftover ISIS are still a problem and the Kurds are presently a problem.

But none of these groups can take Russian aerospace pounding and the ground force of Syria-Hezbollah-PMU-PMC for too long. 2018 will be bloody, but it will see the abject destruction of all US proxies.

What is clear from Operation Olive Branch is the Turks do not know how to fight this war. They have costly losses, captured men, lost tanks and seem not to have a coherent grasp on what they themselves have planned.

Their work in Afrin will assist Assad and not accrue to themselves.
Russia will accomplish more with diplomacy than the Turks with their military operations.
But what the Turks operation does do is begin the decimation of US proxy power. The Kurds will eventually call Putin and ask him to stop the war. Erdogan will obey Putin. US will have nothing to say about it.

Russia's proxies have won the first Syrian war, and they will win the second Syrian war just beginning. The US, as always, lost the first and will lose the second war, too.

ex-SA , Jan 25, 2018 3:20:34 PM | 16
@ Red Ryder | Jan 25, 2018 3:06:22 PM | 13

You might be right on!

https://www.almasdarnews.com/article/breaking-kurdish-government-officially-calls-syrian-army-protect-afrin-turkey/

michaelj72 , Jan 25, 2018 3:21:01 PM | 17
why would any imperialist policy maker prefer working with a new Kurdish mini-state rather than an established ally like Turkey. A land-locked and illegitimate kurdish state, at that.

this is like a bird in hand (Turkey) is worth 30,000 kurds (I mean birds) in the bush. the neo-cons and liberal-interventionists like Haas et. al. are imperial dreamers and idiots.

the Kurds will lose in Syria like they lost in Iraq, though this will likely take longer as there are more state-actors involved.

and who the hell has given the US the right to set up or offer some kind of "safe area" on Syrian soil?

ConfusedPundit , Jan 25, 2018 3:50:16 PM | 21
I find the article precise.
I find the comments a little confusing.

Let me remind you this:

U.S. tweaks re policy on Turkey are updated more often than Kaspersky's virus definition database.

Turks: What are you trying to do?
U.S.: Huh?
Turks: PYD = PKK
U.S.: SDF
Turks:SDF = 99% PKK
U.S.: Our land forces
Turks: You gave them 5000 trucks of weapons.
U.S.: Border Patrolling
Turks: We will conduct a military operation in Afrin, Syria
U.S.: calls on #Turkey not to deploy forces to Afrin in #Syria
Turks: We will
U.S.: We have no interest in Afrin.
Turks: Operation Olive Branch
U.S.: Stop
Turks: Manbij next
U.S.: We are prepared to work with Turkey on legitimate security concerns
Turks: Erdogan asked Trump to withdraw US forces from Manbij
U.S: There are no US forces in Afrin but there are in Manbij
Turks: TAF jets reportedly hit YPG targets in Manbij again
U.S.: The Pentagon says it is continuing its talks with Ankara on a proposal to create safe areas along the Turkish-Syrian border
Turks: Turkish FM says it would not be right for Turkey and the US to discuss a potential "safe zone" in Syria until trust issues between the two NATO allies are resolved

Partisan , Jan 25, 2018 4:19:02 PM | 26
"If the U.S. makes a real offer to Turkey and adopts a new position it might be able to turn Turkey around and to put it back into its NATO fold."

Wondering what "new position"? The fact is the US has no leverage at all. Everything is out of control. The second thing so is that sovereignty trump friendship, always! And the Turks are quite serious and sensitive when it comes to sovereignty, Just like the Russians. In particular sensitive when the White man starts to messing around their borders. I assume reason being both countries have experienced terrible costs of dismantling their respective
mega-states by the west.

For some on the West (and for Moscow as well) that Turkey is still on Bosporus and Dardanelles and holding the keys of them is still something they can fathom.

NemesisCalling , Jan 25, 2018 4:30:14 PM | 30
Is it possible that the SAA is only attacking insurgents in Idlib that Turkey views, either clandestinely or not, as expendable? Will the SAA allow a Turkish proxy state in Afrin, beneficial to Syria for eradicating the competing factions of jihadists in Idlib, and good for Iran because a setup like that would be a permanent hindrance to Kurdish ambition?
karlof1 , Jan 25, 2018 4:43:53 PM | 34
For the depth of NATO's involvement with the aggression against Syria, one need only look at the continuing propaganda support for the White Helmet terrorist organization as Vanessa Beeley outlines . I think it's very clear NATO will not cease trying to achieve its goal of ousting Assad. And of course, NATO's policy's directed by the Outlaw US Empire.

Russia knows Turkey better than any NATO country, particularly where its national interests truly reside. The attempt by US/EU to strangle the TurkStream project was a direct attack on those national interests. Erdogan, however, continued its promotion, so Obama tried to have him killed. The promotion of Kurdistan is also a direct attack on Turkish national interests. And there are several other longstanding anti-Turkish issues that will never be solved in Turkey's favor--EU entry denial being the most important and well known. Erdogan has instead turned to the SCO :

"Turkey, a member of NATO, was granted dialogue partner status in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) at the group's 2012 summit in Beijing.[12] Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has stated that he has discussed the possibility of abandoning Turkey's European Union membership candidacy in return for full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.[22] This was reinforced again on 21 November 2016, after the European Parliament voted unanimously to suspend accession negotiations with Turkey.[23] Two days later, on 23 November 2016, Turkey was granted the chairmanship of the energy club of SCO for the 2017 period. That made Turkey the first country to chair a club in the organisation without full membership status ."

Just looking at where the current and future economic power of Eurasia's located ought to be enough to inform anyone as to which direction Turkey will take. The only way the Outlaw US Empire can prevent that from occurring is to take control of Turkey's government as it did Ukraine's.

Partisan , Jan 25, 2018 5:01:04 PM | 37
The very latest Turkish's issue with the West is the German Gov. refusal to upgrade Leopard 2 MBT due to Afrin. This is Just one more issue in long string that dependency on "partners" technology caused to Turkish military. Of course this has its political dimension.

It reminds me on the Turkish dreadnought that were ordered, paid and build in British shipyards in eve of WWI and than Churchill refused to deliver them.

Don Bacon , Jan 25, 2018 5:01:38 PM | 38
Erdogan is definitely not fond of NATO.
(I'm reminded of Grouch Marx's remark: "I wouldn't join any club that would have me as a member.")

Reuters, Oct 12, 2016

Exclusive: Turkey purges NATO military envoys after failed coup
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Turkey has fired hundreds of senior military staff serving at NATO in Europe and the United States following July's coup attempt, documents show, broadening a purge to include some of the armed forces' best-trained officials.
In a classified military dispatch seen by Reuters, 149 military envoys posted to the alliance's headquarters and command centers in Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands and Britain were ordered on Sept. 27 to return to Turkey within three days.
Most were dismissed from service on their arrival, arrested and imprisoned, according to a Turkish military official at NATO and two farewell letters sent by departing Turkish officials emailed to colleagues at NATO and seen by Reuters.

Independent, Nov 17, 2017
Nato apologises to Turkey after 'Erdogan and Ataturk depicted as enemies' in joint exercise
Forty Turkish soldiers withdrawn from Norway drills
Nato's chief has apologised to Turkey after the country's leaders were allegedly depicted as "enemies" in a joint military exercise.
Both current president Recep Tayyip Erdogan's and reforming ex-leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's names were involved in the reported incident in Norway.
Debsisdead , Jan 25, 2018 6:02:55 PM | 44
Here is a piece by Robert Fisk on life in the Syrian Army divisions charged with retaking Idlib. It is old school journalism in that Fisk has largely kept his opinions to himself and instead reports on what he sees and hears up at the front.

Fisk can be trusted on that stuff, its when he goes flighty with his Lebanese gossip and the 'opinions' he derives from that he is dubious, fortunately despite the subject of the Harriri assassination being brought up by a Syrian Army officer he shows some restraint - perhaps he is beginning to suspect he had the wrong end of that stick (Fisk always maintained the bombing was a Syrian plot despite a tonne of evidence to the contrary).
The local military commander of the Syrian forces says he reckons it will take about another three years to scrape the shit off their shoes, be rid of the islamist arseholes.

dh , Jan 25, 2018 6:58:38 PM | 48
@45 It's possible that the majority of Syrian Kurds would be happy with autonomy. That doesn't explain what the militants are fighting for. Probably the young idealistic ones believe in some mystical Kurdish democratic state as promised by the US.
Jackrabbit , Jan 25, 2018 7:08:55 PM | 49
@Don Bacon

It's interesting to delve into how the Kurds are thinking about their future.

1) It is Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria that are adamantly opposed to a Kurdish state - only if one of these is weakened, if not completely overcome/overthrown, is a Kurdish state be possible.

2) Even if there is an opportunity to create a Kurdish state, there are many risks so the support of one or more major powers is really helpful.

3) Is a self-governing, 'autonomous areas' sufficient to protect Kurds and promote Kurdish interests?

4) Assad can not live forever. What comes after Assad?

5) What are the downsides to picking the wrong side? Kurds have already established themselves sufficiently that they have essentially won 'autonomy' there is not going to be a return to being ruled in Syria or Iraq.

Grieved , Jan 25, 2018 9:36:46 PM | 56
Ziad Fadel has a nice, tight analysis of the Afrin situation published today:
Turkey Invades And Now The Big Question: What Will Syria Do To Stop Erdoghan?

It says little we don't already know, and adds nothing in terms of breaking tactical news, but strategically Fadel holds no doubt as to the outcome, and also names the true authorship of the "loss of Turkey":

This U.S. plan to create a new state is a Zionist one, as I've written before. It is very poorly thought out and did not take into consideration Turkey's oft-stated opposition to any Kurdish enclave, statelet or entity on Turkey's southern border with Syria. The U.S. can try to assuage hurt feelings all it likes, but, the fact remains that a Kurdish state is a core security issue for Ankara. There will be no compromise on this issue and the Turks will dash any hopes the U.S. might be entertaining of a permanent base in Syria. You are watching a tragedy taking place as scripted by utter morons

I've already said I agree with everyone. All smart commentators and commenters are saying roughly the same thing. This is a win-win for all the players of the resistance axis, including Turkey. History smiles on this move. It will be over when its moment is done, and Syria will have advanced its strength and its position manifold. We get to watch patiently as the commanders of the theater conduct a superb campaign.

Debsisdead , Jan 25, 2018 10:34:46 PM | 58
I have to say that of all the players, it is the Syrian government which is dealing with this mess the best. They are in no state to worry about either the North Eastern or the North Western pockets of occupation until the Takfiris in and around Idlib have been dealt with, so Syria isn't wasting resources or troops on silly escapades, they are protesting loudly about US, Israeli and Turkish colonial incursions, but not allowing themselves to be diverted militarily until the Idlib area has been fumigated of all pests. What happens in a year or so will depend on what Turkey is up to - maybe they will clean out the kurds and hand it all back to Syria or, maybe old erdy will decide he wants a slice. If it is the latter the Syrian army with Russian airsupport will proceed North outta Idlib towards Afrin.
If erdy gives a little and takes less, Syria will go to the North West and chase out those arsehole amerikan/Saudi/Qatari/israeli shitbags for hire, before explaining the way of the new ME to Erdy.
It is important to remember that while this trouble bubbles, the Syrian Army has been transforming from a luck of the draft dumping ground for young blokes eager to enter the labour market, into a professional, well trained and equipped instrument of war. As time passes the Syrian Army gets better while their enemies become more & more a fractious, less well resourced and increasingly ineptly co-ordinated gang of amateurs.
mrd , Jan 25, 2018 10:54:46 PM | 59
Posted by: Peter AU 1 | Jan 25, 2018 4:29:45 PM | 28

I think you're on target with your comment. Also, I don't believe Jared has asked the Kurds themselves whether they're on board or not. Let me explain.

1. Remember that both Pence and Tillerson were outspoken Never Trumpers. Pence was promised that he'd be 100% in charge of policy and all day to day decisions. When he asked Trump what he intended to be doing he replied: "I'll be busy making America Great Again." Whatever deal and contract wound up being signed between them, I think the tomahawk missile attack on Syria violated the details and revoked most of Pence's authority.
2. Several, including Bannon have stated that Jared is in charge of ME policy. So, what did Jared offer to Exxon and Tillerson in exchange for the SOS position? I believe he / they are slated to become the King of Kurdistan. "King" is the only thing that Tillerson hasn't had in his life; yet.

Here's another map that's a little different than the one linked by Peter AU1. The Kurdish Project - https: //thekurdishproject.org/kurdistan-map/ (remove the space) Notice the potential for deep water ports on the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas. Tillerson's role with Exxon provided him with an unique understanding of exactly how much $$ that Erdogan was able to steal without consequence and leaves the pit bulls' jowels dribbling with saliva, as if a rib eye steak's aroma was wafting thru the room, with jealous envy.
Bernie Sanders figured out that he could double down and REALLY monetize the scam that Ron Paul executed against the Republican voters in 2012; which he executed to perfection. I believe Exxon / Tillerson have figured out that they are going to REALLY monetize the oil theft that Erdogan executed with Kurdistan and his name will be written in the history books as a King. Trump wants out of Nato. The Pentagon wants ports, runways and to surround Russia. Whether Turkey remains in Nato or not is inconsequential to Jared and Greater Israel.

ConfusedPundit , Jan 26, 2018 12:36:54 AM | 63
Turkish TVs are blaming the Israelis (or sometimes they call them zionists, globalists etc.) as the instigators.

Operation Olive Branch has full backing of the opposition (at least their leaders say so)

So it's not just Erdo's or Erdogan's or Dictator Erdogan's war as the western (Turks claim zionist instigated) propaganda names it.

Turks are saying that the Homeland comes first, everything else is irrelevant.

So even the most ardent anti-Erdogan people support the government.

A lot of Turks want to get out of the NATO asap. I don't know if they will or not. The US is seen as a globalist proxy. The EU, ditto.

Turks anticipate Trump will face the Grand Jury soon and he will be removed. Pence will have a go at the Holy War. Turkish side is making preparations accordingly. It's hot here.

Rabbster , Jan 26, 2018 1:13:33 AM | 64
Turkey is in Afrin with a few old tanks and some mercenaries. They still have both hands behind their back. Having a powerful, modern military, they can bring a hand out whenever they choose.
Hal C , Jan 26, 2018 10:59:44 AM | 100
After the Turks shot down the Russian jet late in 2015, the Turkish press reacted in a way that is revealing.

The religious-Right Yeni Safak wrote (BBC Trans.): "Turkmen Mountain? It is Turkey's 'red' line! No-one should assume that Turkey is just watching and waiting. So many things are being done behind the scenes! We will soon see them. Ankara will not be deterred by Turkey's enemies!.. What is going on is an 'unannounced world war'! Briefly, independent Muslim Turkey is putting up a vital fight against the Crusader-Zionist alliance!"
This paper seems to see Putin's Russia as an Eastern Orthodox Christian power [...] The center-right Turkiye compared the Russian campaign against Jabal Turkmen as a "Second Gallipoli," referring to Winston Churchill's hope of taking the Gallipoli Peninsula in WW I and then marching right up to the then capital, Istanbul, thus cutting the war in the eastern Mediterranean short. The British empire was thwarted in this plan by a strong Ottoman defense and use of machine guns and artillery. Turkiye is hearkening back to WW I, when Russia attacked eastern Anatolia!

Hal C.

likklemore , Jan 26, 2018 4:16:45 PM | 121
b is on fire, thankfully his author's block is released.

And there's that other side of the coin. As always with Erdy, watch the money flow. How soon will NATO open the exit door?

ATimes' David Goldman's take on the under-reported new alliances.

America's Syrian humiliation is worse than it looks

Turkey's attack on US-backed Kurds this week comes as a new set of economic relationships emerges to bankroll Ankara's regional ambitions
http://www.atimes.com/article/americas-syrian-humiliation-worse-looks/

Turkey's "Olive Branch" incursion against Kurdish positions in Northern Syria this week looked bad for Washington. It's worse than it looks: Turkey cemented a new set of strategic and economic relationships after defying the United States, its erstwhile main ally. Ankara now has financial backing from China and Qatar and the strategic acquiescence of Russia and Iran. Most of all, it has the financial backing to pursue its regional ambitions.
[.]
Money is the decisive variable for Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whose domestic position depends on his ability to hand out economic benefits in the traditional style of third-world dictators. During 2016, Erdogan spurred Turkish banks to increase their lending to business and consumers, and set in motion a credit boom that inevitably led to a bigger trade deficit.[.]

Import booms driven by credit-fueled demand have been the undoing of Turkish markets in the past. This time is different. Turkish stocks have risen during the past month, right through the week of the "Olive Branch" offensive, and the cost of hedging the Turkish currency's exchange rate has remained relatively low. The US-traded Turkish equity ETF, TUR, has climbed back to just below its high point of last August, while the cost of options on the Turkish lira (or implied volatility) remains at the low end of the range.[.]

The correlation of forces, as the defunct Soviet Union liked to call it, has shifted since last August, when the US and Turkey entered a diplomatic standoff over two relatively minor issues. Turkey arrested a Turkish national employed by America's embassy in Ankara, and the US suspended the issuance of entry visas to Turkish citizens in retaliation. Meanwhile federal prosecutors in New York tried and convicted a vice-chairman of Turkey's Halkbank with close ties to the Erdogan government. Turkish stocks plunged and the cost of currency hedging jumped in response.

With the attack on the American-allied Kurdish YPG militia in the northern town of Afrin last week, Turkey undertook a major military action in open defiance of Washington, and the markets didn't notice. On the contrary, Turkish stocks rallied right through the offensive. Money is Erdogan's scarcest strategic resource, and the continued flow of capital into Turkish markets is an important gauge of Turkey's power.[.]

In the background to the Syrian incursion, Turkey flaunted its ties to its most important sources of money, namely Qatar and China. Qatar is the largest foreign investor in Turkey with more than $20 billion in commitments, with another $19 billion in the pipeline for 2018. Meanwhile Turkey has become the guarantor of the Qatari royal family's security, with a new military base in the tiny country. Turkey backed Qatar during last year's Gulf States boycott, airlifting food after Saudi Arabia closed its border.

Qatar meanwhile has started to buy large quantities of Chinese arms, especially missiles that could be directed against Saudi Arabia, and has brought People's Liberation Army personnel to train its armed forces, a relationship put on display at a December military parade in the Qatari capital of Doha. That is noteworthy given the presence of America's largest air force installation in the region, the Al Udeid Air Base, the principal US hub for US operations in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Turkey meanwhile has reached a strategic accommodation with Russia over the future division of Syria: Turkey will abandon Sunni rebels whom it supported in the past in return for Russia's forbearance while Turkey reduces Kurdish forces friendly to the United States. According to a Jan. 22 TASS press summary, Kirill Semenov, the head of the Islamic Research Center of the Institute of Innovative Development, explained: "Turkey's operation in Afrin could have only happened as a result of agreements with the Russian side, particularly taking into account the fact that the Turkish air force used the Syrian air space.

Moscow's permission should have been obtained to avoid incidents. Moscow had no commitments to the Kurds. The fact that the Russian military deployed observers in the area of Afrin earlier was a move for a further bargain with Ankara. Back then Turkey's operation was not beneficial for Moscow, while now it can fault the United States for funneling weapons to the Kurds, turning them into an instrument of the American influence."

China's One Belt, One Road project acts like a magnetic field on the region: All of the players are lining up towards China, where Turkey and Iran see their economic future. China's direct investment in Turkey remains relatively small, but Turkey will be a key node in China's One Belt, One Road initiative. China is building new railway links to Turkey via Iran, and the Bank of China is financing infrastructure projects inside Turkey. China's second-largest telecom equipment provider ZTE plans to make Turkey its regional technology hub.


Peter AU 1 , Jan 26, 2018 4:20:04 PM | 122
Trump seems to sit back a bit and let the lackeys run with ideas to see what will float and what wont. That way he can dis-own a project if it wont float. From what I can make of it, the border force was a centcom idea.

Has been a bit in AMN about the arabs of Hasakah being a bit pissed off with it as well as Turkey.

[Jan 27, 2018] Remember that both Pence and Tillerson were outspoken Never Trumpers.

Notable quotes:
"... Here's another map that's a little different than the one linked by Peter AU1. The Kurdish Project - https://thekurdishproject.org/kurdistan-map/ (remove the space) ..."
"... Notice the potential for deep water ports on the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas. Tillerson's role with Exxon provided him with an unique understanding of exactly how much $$ that Erdogan was able to steal without consequence and leaves the pit bulls' jowels dribbling with saliva, as if a rib eye steak's aroma was wafting thru the room, with jealous envy. ..."
Jan 27, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

mrd | Jan 25, 2018 10:54:46 PM | 59

@Peter AU 1 | Jan 25, 2018 4:29:45 PM | 28

I think you're on target with your comment. Also, I don't believe Jared has asked the Kurds themselves whether they're on board or not. Let me explain.

  1. Remember that both Pence and Tillerson were outspoken Never Trumpers. Pence was promised that he'd be 100% in charge of policy and all day to day decisions. When he asked Trump what he intended to be doing he replied: "I'll be busy making America Great Again." Whatever deal and contract wound up being signed between them, I think the tomahawk missile attack on Syria violated the details and revoked most of Pence's authority.
  2. Several, including Bannon have stated that Jared is in charge of ME policy. So, what did Jared offer to Exxon and Tillerson in exchange for the SOS position? I believe he / they are slated to become the King of Kurdistan. "King" is the only thing that Tillerson hasn't had in his life; yet.

Here's another map that's a little different than the one linked by Peter AU1. The Kurdish Project - https://thekurdishproject.org/kurdistan-map/ (remove the space)

Notice the potential for deep water ports on the Mediterranean, Black, and Caspian Seas. Tillerson's role with Exxon provided him with an unique understanding of exactly how much $$ that Erdogan was able to steal without consequence and leaves the pit bulls' jowels dribbling with saliva, as if a rib eye steak's aroma was wafting thru the room, with jealous envy.

Bernie Sanders figured out that he could double down and REALLY monetize the scam that Ron Paul executed against the Republican voters in 2012; which he executed to perfection.

I believe Exxon / Tillerson have figured out that they are going to REALLY monetize the oil theft that Erdogan executed with Kurdistan and his name will be written in the history books as a King.

Trump wants out of Nato. The Pentagon wants ports, runways and to surround Russia. Whether Turkey remains in Nato or not is inconsequential to Jared and Greater Israel.

[Jan 22, 2018] Trump s Illegal War in Syria by Daniel Larison

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... The unauthorized, open-ended commitment in Syria is also a good example of how easily presidents can perpetuate and expand U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts with only minimal resistance at home. ..."
"... Sen. Murphy is right to object, but I fear that illegal presidential wars have become common enough over the last decade that it won't even occur to most of Trump's opponents to question the legality of what he's doing here. The Libyan war, the war on ISIS, and U.S. involvement in the war on Yemen were all similarly unauthorized, but Obama was able to "get away" with all of these for years because most of his domestic opponents didn't care and most in his own party weren't willing to criticize him. ..."
"... More members of Congress could challenge Trump over the illegality of the ongoing U.S. military presence in Syria, but most of them seem content to abdicate all responsibility for these matters in order to minimize their exposure when something goes wrong later. Americans have been conditioned by the last sixteen years of unending war and decades of the cult of the presidency to shrug when the president commits the U.S. to another open-ended military mission in a foreign country that has nothing to do with our security or self-defense. Perhaps now that Trump is the one doing it there will be a stronger reaction. I hope there is, but I wouldn't bet on it. ..."
"... Not only is there zero authorization for Trump to be in Syria, there's zero public support for it. Truth be told of course, it isn't really Trump doing this. Trump is just the creature of his handlers, and his handlers are now mostly lesser-known neocons that have been infiltrating his administration through various cracks and holes. ..."
"... The problem with our fundamentally undemocratic political setup is that you can vote against the Republicans or the Democrats, but you cannot vote against a policy of constant illegal warfare since both parties support it and have for a long time. It is baked into the system of imperialism. ..."
Jan 22, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com

Paul Pillar comments on the Trump administration's outrageous plan to keep U.S. troops in Syria indefinitely:

The Trump administration is having U.S. troops participate indefinitely in someone else's civil war, for reasons that are quite different from the original stated objective of helping to quash the so-called caliphate of the Islamic State (ISIS). The new reasons do not stand up to scrutiny in terms of defending any threatened U.S. interests. The administration has in effect made a decision to immerse the United States in yet another foreign war.

Keeping U.S. forces in Syria is illegal and unnecessary, as I said last week. Preventing the Syrian government from reestablishing control over its own territory has nothing to do with American security, and there are still no vital American interests at stake in Syria. Putting U.S. forces in harm's way to stop Iran from having influence in the territory of its own ally is as senseless a waste of American resources and manpower as one can imagine, but that is what we have come to expect from an administration irrationally fixated on harming Iran at the expense of everything else.

The unauthorized, open-ended commitment in Syria is also a good example of how easily presidents can perpetuate and expand U.S. involvement in foreign conflicts with only minimal resistance at home. There are some vocal critics of the plan for this very reason:

There is ZERO legal authorization to stay in Syria to fight Iran. If Administration gets away with this, there is no going back – executive branch war making power becomes absolute. https://t.co/xBWLuTmaMN

-- Chris Murphy (@ChrisMurphyCT) January 18, 2018

Sen. Murphy is right to object, but I fear that illegal presidential wars have become common enough over the last decade that it won't even occur to most of Trump's opponents to question the legality of what he's doing here. The Libyan war, the war on ISIS, and U.S. involvement in the war on Yemen were all similarly unauthorized, but Obama was able to "get away" with all of these for years because most of his domestic opponents didn't care and most in his own party weren't willing to criticize him. Our political culture's abject deference to presidential power on matters of war makes it easy for presidents to get away with these things. When Trump ordered an attack on Syrian government forces last year, he had absolutely no authority to do that and was in direction violation of the U.N. Charter and the Constitution, but instead of being condemned for his flagrantly illegal action he was celebrated and praised for his "leadership."

More members of Congress could challenge Trump over the illegality of the ongoing U.S. military presence in Syria, but most of them seem content to abdicate all responsibility for these matters in order to minimize their exposure when something goes wrong later. Americans have been conditioned by the last sixteen years of unending war and decades of the cult of the presidency to shrug when the president commits the U.S. to another open-ended military mission in a foreign country that has nothing to do with our security or self-defense. Perhaps now that Trump is the one doing it there will be a stronger reaction. I hope there is, but I wouldn't bet on it.


New Lamps For Old January 22, 2018 at 8:58 am

Not only is there zero authorization for Trump to be in Syria, there's zero public support for it. Truth be told of course, it isn't really Trump doing this. Trump is just the creature of his handlers, and his handlers are now mostly lesser-known neocons that have been infiltrating his administration through various cracks and holes.

Expect not just more chaos and bloodshed in Syria involving US troops and clients, but also that Trump will now do what Bibi has been screaming for for years – full-on confrontation with Iran.

I voted for him.

I will never vote for him again.

spite , says: January 22, 2018 at 10:44 am
I do not support this one bit, but by now people who follow such things should see that it does not matter who is president, the same will happen regardless who is president. If Hillary won this would have happened, under Obama this was being put in place. If a president was elected who promised to pull out of Syria and made it his key election talking point, there would be no pull out.
Iron Felix , says: January 22, 2018 at 11:26 am
New Lamps For Old "I will never vote for him again."

The problem with our fundamentally undemocratic political setup is that you can vote against the Republicans or the Democrats, but you cannot vote against a policy of constant illegal warfare since both parties support it and have for a long time. It is baked into the system of imperialism.

rayray , says: January 22, 2018 at 12:00 pm
@New Lamps for Old
Also worth noting, Trump is definitely being played, but he's a hugely easy play. GWB was an easy play by anyone's estimation, but Trump outdoes them all.

You just have to say, "you look a tough man right now as you do this, Mr. President".

[Jan 21, 2018] Poroshenko government failed to imagine the situation in Russia in which Putin was no longer around and the hawks, with plenty of stored up grievances, were in power. The Russians have their neocons too and if they came out on top we'd be worse off than now. Failing to resolve the Donbass crisis now might create much worse situation in the future

At some point in the future, the USA might also not be around as the only world superpower, but this will happen at more distant future, probably with the "end of cheap oil".
Notable quotes:
"... We saw what happened when a previous dominant power - Great Britain, though by no means as overwhelmingly dominant and not at all so at the end - effectively cut and ran after the Second World War. It ended up more of a mess than it started out as. ..."
"... Imagine a Russia in which Putin was no longer around and the hawks, with plenty of stored up grievances, were in power. The Russians have their neocons too and if they came out on top we'd be worse off than now ..."
"... The European elites wish to see Europe as a world power. Unrealistic, perhaps, but say that entity did become a dominant force. They complain about the lack of democratic control in the States, but that's nothing to the lack of democratic control in Europe. And we've already seen what the Europeans, including us, are capable of when it comes to predatory foreign intervention. Give the Europeans enough things that go bang and we could be yearning for the good old days. ..."
Jan 21, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

English Outsider -> Babak Makkinejad... 21 January 2018 at 11:18 AM

Babak

"The only sensible thing to do is to cut and run; in my opinion. Just work through the implications as US cuts and run in the Levant, in the Persian Gulf, in South Korea."

As you point out, that could have unexpected effects. We saw what happened when a previous dominant power - Great Britain, though by no means as overwhelmingly dominant and not at all so at the end - effectively cut and ran after the Second World War. It ended up more of a mess than it started out as.

Even in an ideal world, a world in which the current style of Great Power politics was universally abandoned, the sudden withdrawal of the US would cause instability and chaos. The disengagement would have to be gradual.

But there is no such ideal world as that and there will not be. Therefore the sudden withdrawal of the US would leave a power vacuum that others would fill.

What others? Imagine a Russia in which Putin was no longer around and the hawks, with plenty of stored up grievances, were in power. The Russians have their neocons too and if they came out on top we'd be worse off than now .

The European elites wish to see Europe as a world power. Unrealistic, perhaps, but say that entity did become a dominant force. They complain about the lack of democratic control in the States, but that's nothing to the lack of democratic control in Europe. And we've already seen what the Europeans, including us, are capable of when it comes to predatory foreign intervention. Give the Europeans enough things that go bang and we could be yearning for the good old days.

I'm one of those that still hope that the non-interventionist policy that was voted for in America in 2016 will be carried through. But if that is indeed Trump's intention then there is more in his way than local political or administrative difficulties. To engineer such a transition would require great care. It's no good if the US just steps back and worse comes forward to take its place.

It's not overly idealistic, or even that unrealistic, to hope for a world in which defense forces (AND defensive alliances) are used for the proper purpose of defence and not for expensive and destructive enterprises dreamed up by some bubble elite. That's part of what Trump 2016 was about. But getting to such a world would require a considerably more careful transition than we've seen in similar circumstances in the past.

[Jan 21, 2018] Turkey invades and meets resistance. The jihadis go and help Turkey. That leaves Syria a free run in South Idlib. That's the result I expect.

Jan 21, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

laguerre 21 January 2018 at 04:05 PM

Being a civilian rather than a military man, I don't have much to contribute. But I do think that interests are being misunderstood.

Erdogan is obsessed by the Kurds. Beyond rationality, if I understand correctly. Afrin is mountainous, and doesn't offer a good target. He is unlikely to succeed. However, it offers the advantage of not being protected by the US. If he attacked the real target east of the Euphrates, then the US would resist.

Syria is in favour of the Kurds, because a future deal to reunite Syria is in the making. Not surprisingly, they're going to support the Kurds. Idlib is dominated by HTS (hai'at Tahrir al-Sham, ex nusra, al-Qa'ida jihadis). They are going to support the Turks (extreme sunnism is the common interest).

So, Turkey invades and meets resistance. The jihadis go and help Turkey. That leaves Syria a free run in South Idlib. That's the result I expect.

Note that neither Russia nor the US has much of a role.

[Jan 21, 2018] America Sleepwalks Towards a Clash With the Turks in Syria by Patrick J. Buchanan

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... Moreover, the U.S. has announced plans to create a 30,000-man Border Security Force of Kurds and Arabs to keep ISIS out of Syria. Erdogan has branded this BSF a "terror army," and President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has called BSF members "traitors." This U.S. plan to create a BSF inside Syria, Damascus declares, "represents a blatant attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity and unity of Syria, and a flagrant violation of international law." ..."
"... Now that ISIS has been driven out of Raqqa and Syria, by what authority do U.S. forces remain to arm troops to keep the Damascus government from reimposing its authority on its own territory? ..."
"... Secretary of State Rex Tillerson gave Syria the news on Wednesday. The U.S. troop commitment to Syria, he said, is now open-ended. Our goals: Guarantee al-Qaeda and ISIS do not return and set up sanctuary, cope with rising Iranian influence in Damascus, and pursue the removal of Assad's ruthless regime. ..."
"... Again and again, the Amrican people have said they do not want to be dragged into Syria's civil war. Donald Trump won the presidency on a promise of no more unnecessary wars. ..."
"... Remarkable: An American-created border army is going to occupy and control long stretches of Syria's borders with Turkey and Iraq, over Syria's objections. And the U.S. military will stand behind the BSF. ..."
"... Are the 2,000 troops in Syria really up to that task, should the Turks decide to cleanse the Syrian border of Kurds, or should the Syrian regime decide to take back territory occupied by the Kurds? ..."
"... As for Syria's Kurds casting their lot with the Americans, one wonders: Did they not observe what happened when their Iraqi cousins, after helping us drive ISIS out of Mosul, were themselves driven out of Kirkuk by the Iraqi army, as their U.S. allies watched? ..."
"... The Israelis and Saudi royals want the United States to keep Iran from securing a land bridge from Tehran to Damascus to Lebanon. The U.S. War Party wants us to smash Iran and remain in the Middle East forever to assure the hegemony of its favorites. Have the generals taking us into Syria told the president how and when, if ever, they plan to get us out? ..."
Jan 19, 2018 | www.theamericanconservative.com
The war for dominance in the Middle East, following the destruction of ISIS, appears about to commence in Syria -- with NATO allies America and Turkey on opposing sides. Turkey is moving armor and troops south to Syria's border enclave of Afrin, occupied by the Kurds, to drive them out, and then drive the Syrian Kurds out of Manbij further south as well. Says Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, "We will destroy all terror nests, one by one, in Syria, starting from Afrin and Manbij." For Erdogan, the Kurdish YPG, the major U.S. ally in Syria, is an arm of the Kurdish PKK in Turkey, which we and the Turks have designated as a terrorist organization. While the Kurds were our most effective allies against ISIS in Syria, Turkey views them as a mortal peril and intends to deal with that threat. If Erdogan is serious, a clash with the United States is coming, as our Kurdish allies occupy most of Syria's border with Turkey.

Moreover, the U.S. has announced plans to create a 30,000-man Border Security Force of Kurds and Arabs to keep ISIS out of Syria. Erdogan has branded this BSF a "terror army," and President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has called BSF members "traitors." This U.S. plan to create a BSF inside Syria, Damascus declares, "represents a blatant attack on the sovereignty and territorial integrity and unity of Syria, and a flagrant violation of international law."

... ... ...

[Jan 21, 2018] Turkey might has been sent on purpose after talks and agreements between the parties whose common main problem is the illegal US presence, because as Colonel Lang put it "If the Turks close Incirlik to the US, we're out of business in the ME"

Jan 21, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

Cortes , 21 January 2018 at 05:16 PM

I saw the following comment on b's article about the Turkish intervention in Afrin and wonder whether it is totally outrageous...

"I don't believe for a second Turkey will be allowed to keep any control over Syrian territory. If Erdogan wants to enlarge Turkey at Syia's expense, Iran, Syria and Russia might well tell him that, next time he comes under the fire of his Gulenist US "allies", they'll sit back and enjoy the show.

What I think is, who could go and openly confront officially US-backed forces in Syria without risking a world war? Not Iran, not Russia, and not Syria who would have been accused of "bombing its own population".

Which left only Turkey. Whom the US has to handle with kid gloves, because, you know, Incirlik (to quote the former US Colonel Patrick Lang, "If the Turks close Incirlik to the US, we're out of business in the ME") and NATO.

If I am right and Turkey has been sent on purpose after talks and agreements between the parties whose common main problem is the illegal US presence, it is a genius stroke.

Posted by: Lea | Jan 21, 2018 8:51:16 AM | 6"

Babak Makkinejad said in reply to Richardstevenhack ... , 21 January 2018 at 05:23 PM
Not likely, as Turks do not wish to have any Arabs in their country and Arabs will never ever again consent to be ruled by Turks. And then there is the issue of Logistics necessary for such an effort, which Turkey lacks.
kooshy , 21 January 2018 at 05:33 PM
May be the best thing about Turkey ( up to few years back a model muslim country for US and EU) attacking some of west' proxies (Kurds) is, hopefully we will not hear cries of barrel bombs and chemical attack from our acting oscar winners the white helmets.
kooshy said in reply to Babak Makkinejad... , 21 January 2018 at 05:44 PM
And i don't think Turks would want to have more Kurdish territory either, especially one that is not their own, knowing they already have hard time managing their own kurds and territory.
kooshy , 21 January 2018 at 05:46 PM
Actually, both Russians and Iranians have a huge leverage on Turks it's called Gas, most of Turkey' gas is supplied by Russia and Iran.
Ishmael Zechariah -> The Twisted Genius ... , 21 January 2018 at 05:46 PM
TTG,

I cannot speak on what tayyip and his cadres are dreaming, but the secular nationalists in TSK are trying to put paid to the izziie dream of having a zionist controlled "kurdistan-with-Med-access". We believe that our vision is shared by Iran and Russia. In the opinion of many retired commanders Turkey should not keep any Syrian territory, but should insist that our Turkmen (Shiite or Sunni) have equivalent autonomy as the Kurds, if that comes to pass.

No matter what happens, being a Kurd in the Middle East will not be that easy going forward. Everyone remembers every slight since the beginning of time.

[Jan 21, 2018] Is America s Alliance with Turkey Worth It by Ted Galen Carpenter

Notable quotes:
"... The most basic feature that the United States should expect from an ally is consistent, reliable behavior that benefits U.S. policy objectives. Ideally, since America regards itself as a champion of democracy and freedom, an ally should embody those values as well, but Washington has never been a stickler for that standard. ..."
"... One prominent area in which American and Turkish objectives clash sharply is policy toward Kurdish fighters in Syria. Differences between Washington and Ankara already have produced unpleasant complications. U.S. leaders regard the Kurds as useful allies in the fight against ISIS and other Islamic extremists. Even though ISIS has suffered massive setbacks in Syria over the past year, Washington still believes that the group poses a major problem in that country and throughout the Middle East -- so much so that Secretary of Defense James Mattis insists that U.S. forces will remain in Syria and Iraq regardless of the wishes of either government. Allowing Turkey to undermine the Kurds could cause the Islamist threat to rebound. ..."
"... Washington's concession apparently was not enough to satisfy Erdogan, however. In mid-January 2018, he announced his intention to launch a full-scale offensive into Kurdish regions of Syria within a week or so. He stated bluntly that Turkey could no longer go along with U.S. policy. ..."
"... Ankara increasingly opposes the entire U.S.-EU sanctions strategy against Moscow. ..."
"... It is not that Turkey is necessarily wrong on these issues. In particular, a strong case can be made that Western policy toward Russia is both ineffectual and provocative, and that Ankara's more conciliatory approach is far better. ..."
"... As a first step toward adopting a new, more realistic stance, Washington should insist that NATO at least suspend, if not expel, Turkey. Under Erdogan, that country cannot be regarded any longer as either a legitimate member of a democratic alliance or as a reliable security partner. ..."
Jan 21, 2018 | nationalinterest.org

The most basic feature that the United States should expect from an ally is consistent, reliable behavior that benefits U.S. policy objectives. Ideally, since America regards itself as a champion of democracy and freedom, an ally should embody those values as well, but Washington has never been a stickler for that standard. Indeed, the United States has a sordid history of collaboration with undemocratic, even odious, regimes when U.S. leaders believed that the relationship was important to America's security or economic interests. President Donald Trump's fawning over Saudi Arabia is clear evidence that such a cynical attitude remains intact.

... ... ...

[Jan 21, 2018] Sic Semper Tyrannis "Commence Operation Olive Branch," said the spider to the fly - TTG

Notable quotes:
"... The Turkish Army's General Staff announced in an official statement that the Turkish Army launched "Operation Olive Branch" against Kurdish militias in the Afrin area in the Syrian province of Aleppo at 14:00GMT on January 20. ..."
"... "'Operation Olive Branch' has been started on Jan. 20, 2018 at 5 p.m., in Syria's northwestern Afrin region to establish security and stability on our borders and region, to eliminate terrorists of PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG and Daesh [ISIS], and to save our friends and brothers from their oppression and cruelty," the General Staff said in its official statement." ..."
"... The military also stressed that "Operation Olive Branch" is conducted under "the framework of Turkey's rights based on international law" and within Turkey's right of "self-defense". ..."
"... Later, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu revealed that Turkey informed the Damascus government of its military operation in Afrin area with a written statement before it was launched in a rare diplomatic connection between the two sides. ..."
"... "We have informed all parties, including the UN," Cavusoglu added, according to the Russian state-run news agency Sputnik. ..."
"... From it side, the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced in a statement that it is relocating Russian troops deployed in Afrin to insure their safety during the Turkish military operation. ..."
"... "The command of the Russian group of troops in Syria has taken measures to ensure the security of Russian servicemen located in the district of Afrin, where the Turkish Armed Forces launched a special operation against the Kurdish armed groups," the statement reads. ..."
"... The Russians also said that the US supplies of advance weapons to the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria triggered Turkey's military operation against the Kurdish militias in Afrin. ..."
"... " Uncontrolled deliveries of modern weapons, including reportedly the deliveries of the man-portable air defense systems , by the Pentagon to the pro-US forces in northern Syria, have contributed to the rapid escalation of tensions in the region and resulted in the launch of a special operation by the Turkish troops," the ministry said. ..."
Jan 21, 2018 | turcopolier.typepad.com

"Commence Operation Olive Branch," said the spider to the fly - TTG 4-18-1024x683

The Turkish Army's General Staff announced in an official statement that the Turkish Army launched "Operation Olive Branch" against Kurdish militias in the Afrin area in the Syrian province of Aleppo at 14:00GMT on January 20.

"'Operation Olive Branch' has been started on Jan. 20, 2018 at 5 p.m., in Syria's northwestern Afrin region to establish security and stability on our borders and region, to eliminate terrorists of PKK/KCK/PYD-YPG and Daesh [ISIS], and to save our friends and brothers from their oppression and cruelty," the General Staff said in its official statement."

The military also stressed that "Operation Olive Branch" is conducted under "the framework of Turkey's rights based on international law" and within Turkey's right of "self-defense".

Later, Turkey's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu revealed that Turkey informed the Damascus government of its military operation in Afrin area with a written statement before it was launched in a rare diplomatic connection between the two sides.

"We have informed all parties, including the UN," Cavusoglu added, according to the Russian state-run news agency Sputnik.

From it side, the Ministry of Defense of Russia announced in a statement that it is relocating Russian troops deployed in Afrin to insure their safety during the Turkish military operation.

"The command of the Russian group of troops in Syria has taken measures to ensure the security of Russian servicemen located in the district of Afrin, where the Turkish Armed Forces launched a special operation against the Kurdish armed groups," the statement reads.

The Russians also said that the US supplies of advance weapons to the Kurdish People's Protection Units (YPG) in Syria triggered Turkey's military operation against the Kurdish militias in Afrin.

" Uncontrolled deliveries of modern weapons, including reportedly the deliveries of the man-portable air defense systems , by the Pentagon to the pro-US forces in northern Syria, have contributed to the rapid escalation of tensions in the region and resulted in the launch of a special operation by the Turkish troops," the ministry said. (SouthFront)

********************************

Apparently Moscow gave the green light to Ankara to commence their "Operation Olive Branch" and has moved Russian troops out of harm's way in Afrin. Erdogan undoubtedly is salivating at the dreams of a new Ottoman Empire and ridding himself of those bothersome Kurds.

However, I am firmly convinced that he is being played by Putin. The Afrin Kurds will be bloodied. The Rojava Kurds will eventually come to realize that their US-organized border protection force is no match for the might of the Turkish military. The Russians are admonishing the Kurds that their decision to put their faith in whatever CENTCOM has planned for them is a poor decision. Once the Kurds realize this and appeal to the R+6 for protection, Moscow will tell Ankara to cease Operation Olive Branch and offer a face saving way for them to do so. The SAA will assume control of the northern border and all of Syria east of the Euphrates will return to Damascus' control. The Kurds will retain some kind of local autonomy in exchange for coming to their senses. The borg will not know whether to shit or go blind.

TTG

https://southfront.org/turkish-army-announces-start-of-operation-olive-branch-in-afrin-russia-relocates-troops-from-area/

Posted at 08:55 PM in Russia , Syria , TTG , Turkey | Permalink

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blue peacock ,

The Russians are admonishing the Kurds that their decision to put their faith in whatever CENTCOM has planned for them is a poor decision. Once the Kurds realize this and appeal to the R+6 for protection, Moscow will tell Ankara to cease Operation Olive Branch and offer a face saving way for them to do so. The SAA will assume control of the northern border and all of Syria east of the Euphrates will return to Damascus' control. The Kurds will retain some kind of local autonomy in exchange for coming to their senses. The borg will not know whether to shit or go blind.

It goes to show that the "experts" who formulate and then execute US foreign policy are so out of their depth. And this is across the board from the political leadership to the leadership of the foreign policy establishment in government including the military. This is a multi-decade problem of hubris and incompetence. A point will come no one will really want to have much to do with the US except stoke the egos of these "chess players" for cash. By now all these people should know that US leadership can be easily manipulated, when even complete snakeoil salesmen like Chalabi can do it. One need not be sophisticated like Bibi to extract billions.

TTG, in your opinion how long before CENTCOM is completely out of Syria as the Kurds abandon any pretense of real US backing?

The Twisted Genius , 20 January 2018 at 09:42 PM
I truly don't know when we will be out of Syria, but events unfolding now will only accelerate our eventual departure. I've seen two reports now that Damascus (and Moscow) asked the Kurdish leadership in Afrin to allow the SAA to assume control of the area. This would have prevented Turkey from attacking because they are unwilling to take on the R+6 directly. The Kurds in Afrin refused.

I agree our foreign policy apparatus is in shambles. It always had its problems, but now CENTOM and the Pentagon are given too much free hand, the State Department is decimated. The Whitehouse is engaged in infighting and our President doesn't have the interest or expertise to provide leadership in the region. He could say "get out" and CENTCOM would have no choice but to leave. Alas, that's not his management style as Colonel Lang explained a while back.

Oilman2 , 20 January 2018 at 09:42 PM
My friends still in Erbil anticipate the scenario you lay out, but rather suspect that Erdogan will require something forceful or very tempting in another area to let go.

We do not have a foreign policy with respect to anything. The SD is full of holdovers with other objectives and there is nothing cohesive on any front. The CIA does not share an agenda with anyone else. Non-agreement-capable still applies to the US. These things make the US something to be considered, but never taken at face value or in any reliable way. Well, perhaps we can be counted on to always toss a wrench into the works, as in this current epic move and the many others we have made in the area.

I hope you are right TTG...

Peter AU , 20 January 2018 at 09:42 PM
The borg will most likely go blind. The Trump admin's intentions are still guesswork.
After the US miss-spoken announcement, Russia let Erdo off the leash. Good post TTG.
kooshy said in reply to The Twisted Genius ... , 20 January 2018 at 09:42 PM
TTG, I must repeat, considering US' must do (for internal reasons) middle east position and posture vis-à-vis her regional allies namely Israel and KSA, and likes, it doesn't leave US with many better choice, other than what she is choosing or doing. We all are seeing/living through what would happen if for example, a president (as buffoon as the one we have) wants to have a better "international" relation with an important world power like Russia. With that in mind, can one imagine what would happen if a US administration decides to have a better relationship with a more mature and influential state in the ME region? Really, to make a safety umbrella for Israel and other illegitimate clients, who else can US chose as her reliable ally that will and can accepts Israel beside the Kurds, and a few Arab dictators and monarchs that are not legitimate or accepted anywhere in the region. Considering US' full of herself hubristic foreign policy, and use of it by her so called allies I don't see any better choice possible to pentagon or state.

[Jan 20, 2018] Syria - Tillerson Announces Occupation Goals - Erdogan Makes Empty Threats

Notable quotes:
"... I've been debating the confusion; whether Nikki is the real SoS who instructs Tillerson on foreign policy issues. Seeing Condi and Kissinger around leaves me confused on any good day. ..."
"... I doubt Nikki can write nor has any FP savoir faire. She depends A LOT on the Heritage Foundation employees who followed her to NYC. ..."
"... It seems though that the US has found the achillies heel of the Turks here, and is using the Kurds as bait to force Erdoğan to invade Syria. I am not sure that Erdoğan won't take the bait. He may just huff and puff. But he can't do this indefinitely without beginning to look weak to his own constituency. ..."
Jan 20, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

Robert Snefjella , Jan 18, 2018 10:56:48 AM | 2

"The United States has five key goals in Syria, Mr. Tillerson said. They are: ensuring that the Islamic State and Al Qaeda never re-emerge; supporting the United Nations-led political process; diminishing Iran's influence; making sure the country is free of weapons of mass destruction; and helping refugees to return after years of civil war."

The United States does not have 5 key goals in Syria

Islamic State and Al Qaeda did not just "emerge" and therefore cannot re-emerge

The United Nations is not leading the Syrian political process

The US cannot determine the extent of Iran's "influence" in Syria, however one define's the nebulous bs word 'influence'.

The United States, leading producer and user of weapons of mass destruction, the world renowned expert in the field, is the obvious arbitrer of such matters for other countries.

There is and was no "civil war". There was and is a war of aggression on Syria, in which the US played a critical active and enabling part.

Helping those who fled Syria, due to US led and instigated war on Syria, return to Syria? A noble humanitarian piece of bs.

likklemore , Jan 18, 2018 11:05:07 AM | 3
Some "folks misspoke" said Tillerson. Yeah, right. His lips were moving.

Erdogan reminds:

Turkey said it was unimpressed by US attempts to downplay a planned 30,000-strong, predominantly Kurdish border force in northern Syria. The Turkish foreign minister said the US had lied about supporting the Kurds in the past.

Washington must take concrete steps to address Ankara's concerns about Kurdish militias in Syria, Mevlut Cavusoglu told CNN Turk on Thursday, after top US officials tried to repair damage done by the training plan. He reiterated that Ankara could attack Kurdish militias in Syria, and said it would coordinate a possible operation with Russia and Iran to make sure their observers in the area are not harmed.

Earlier, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said it was up to Washington to alter its Syrian policy and re-engage with Turkey. "The practices of our NATO ally [the] US in Syria are unfortunately wrong and against the spirit of alliance. The US should end confusion over the region's future, and change its attitude towards peace and restoring relations with Turkey," he said, as cited by Anadolu news agency.

Washington's announcement last week that it would help its ally, the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), to set up a force of some 30,000 fighters along the border with Turkey angered Ankara. The SDF primarily consists of the Kurdish militia YPG, which is considered by the Turkish government to be an extension of the militant movement Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), which has been fighting a guerrilla war for decades. Following outcry from Turkey, the US is apparently rowing back on the plan.

Rex disappoints. Was it Condi or Nikki who wrote his Stanford speech?
Can't see him staying beyond the deadline date that allows him to take his tax benefits on Exxon stock

Ghost Ship , Jan 18, 2018 11:15:55 AM | 4
making sure the country is free of weapons of mass destruction;
ROFLOL - you would have thought that if the United States were concerned about weapons of mass destruction (forget about biological, chemical and nuclear weapons, the only real WMDs are thermonuclear weapons), they would have inspected the site of the alleged Syrian reactor in Deir Ez-zor Governorate to see what intelligence they could gather given that the site has been under the control of the SDF for more than a year.. That there are no reports of any such investigation suggests that the United States lied (typical MO) when it corroborated the Israeli claims.
Yul , Jan 18, 2018 11:16:54 AM | 5
@ likklemore #3

You have your answer here:
http://abc7news.com/politics/sec-of-state-rex-tillerson-condoleezza-rice-speak-at-stanford/2958659/

Another war hawk who turned Iraq into a s*thole in the name of Regime Change, DEmocracy and Human Rights.

Moa_Reader , Jan 18, 2018 11:29:18 AM | 6
Causes one to posit that sarcasm was invented for a reason. To wit: does "vanquishing al queda" mean that they would no longer be a US sponsored terror group?

Yeah, his lips were definitely moving...

Don Bacon , Jan 18, 2018 11:33:08 AM | 7
The Pentagon mission goes beyond defeating ISIS, to "follow-on operations to increase regional stability." (actually it's the opposite of course)

mission

In conjunction with partner forces Combined Joint Task Force-Operation Inherent Resolve (CJTF-OIR) defeats ISIS in designated areas of Iraq and Syria and sets conditions for follow-on operations to increase regional stability. . . here

Stabilising (British spelling)(not nation-building!) has its own twitter. https://twitter.com/hashtag/stabilising?src=hash

likklemore , Jan 18, 2018 12:08:55 PM | 9
@ 8

It's All here from recent campaign: Please support this site: -
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/11/last-call-please-support-this-unique-endeavor.html

@ 5, 6

Thank you. My question was - is Condi or Nikki Tillerson's speech writer because on performance I've been debating the confusion; whether Nikki is the real SoS who instructs Tillerson on foreign policy issues. Seeing Condi and Kissinger around leaves me confused on any good day.

Cue the Petro-Yuan iceberg ahead for USS FRNUST

james , Jan 18, 2018 12:51:03 PM | 10
thanks b.. good overview on the usa switch up... perfect timing for erdogan getting another 3 months of emergency rule..

@2 robert snefjella... that's basically how i see it too.. thanks for articulating all that..

harrylaw , Jan 18, 2018 1:01:51 PM | 11
The US secretary of State is like his boss a "Fucking Moron" he said it is the US intention to stay in Syria until Assad is removed and that economic sanctions will be used to realize that endeavour. Condoleeza Rice said when she was Sec of State that the war on Lebanon was the "birth pangs" of a new Middle East" Professor N Finkelstein commented that to compare the birth of a child to the Lebanese war were the words of a freak.

Was there not a force to be deployed along the Euphrates also, and would that force try to stop the Syrian army or a militia from entering East Syria, effectively making a third of Syria a no go zone for the Syrian Government?

Yul , Jan 18, 2018 1:12:25 PM | 12
@ 9

I doubt Nikki can write nor has any FP savoir faire. She depends A LOT on the Heritage Foundation employees who followed her to NYC.

Blue , Jan 18, 2018 2:01:13 PM | 13
Erdoğan and the US both want Assad to go. Erdoğan also wants some territory from Syria. The US would not mind splitting Syria. The US has been trying to get Turkey to invade Syria for awhile. Erdoğan, for his has been trying to get the US and NATO to provide boots on the ground in Syria.

It seems though that the US has found the achillies heel of the Turks here, and is using the Kurds as bait to force Erdoğan to invade Syria. I am not sure that Erdoğan won't take the bait. He may just huff and puff. But he can't do this indefinitely without beginning to look weak to his own constituency.

If Erdoğan wanted a little revenge on the US, he could just ban them from using Incirlik. It would be more effective for a while than bombing mostly Strian Arabs in Afrin

FB , Jan 18, 2018 2:01:50 PM | 14
b writes...

I have yet to read one analyst who believes that the U.S. administration can achieve any of the wishes it announced. That's the bottom line right there... Here is something I picked up a long time ago about US pronouncements on any issue they are involved in... It is pure disneyland fantasy...

Ie wishful thinking writ very very large... I have seen this countless times since the days of Bosnia... If you go back and look at these pronouncements...especially the supposed 'news analyses' in the fakestream media which purport to give you the inside track on what is about to happen... ...You will find a record of exactly the opposite happening every single time...

This kind of yapping is nothing more than the annoying and mentally imbalanced dog next door that barks for no reason all night... It is to be ignored...nothing more... Of course the comical value is something else altogether...this is quite real... [praise be Allah...since laughter is the best kind of medicine...]

CE , Jan 18, 2018 2:20:59 PM | 15
The Turkish heads of army and intelligence were in Moscow today, meeting with Shoigu and Gerasimov. Colonel Cassad has pictures showing the Russians highly amused and the Turks ... not so much. With the Yankistanis backpedaling on the BSF (I called it by pointing out the silence of the Kurds) - did we witness a failed attempt to troll Erdogan into invading?
NemesisCalling , Jan 18, 2018 2:38:36 PM | 16
@19 fb

Pure Disneyland. Apt description. They used to be an empire that could create their own reality. Many, including me, still wince at their pronouncements, because we know their history. But I guess history has a sense of humor, because it is happening to them, right now.

Putin has the good sense to diffuse and lacks a personality for gloating, so I guess that leaves the rest of us to enjoy the sight of a stumbling mass desperately trying to reverse the inverted parabola of its flailing-in-a-glass-case-of-emotion empire.

frances , Jan 18, 2018 3:54:42 PM | 19
Posted by: CE | Jan 18, 2018 2:20:59 PM | 21

My question is, why would the Russians be amused? Because Turkey got played by the US/Kurds, that two NATO countries were facing off? I would be more concerned (if I were Russia) that Turkey was about to, or saying it was about to, invade the area Russia monitors rather than the area the US monitors...

CarlD , Jan 18, 2018 4:31:47 PM | 20
15 A P

Concur a 100% with your post. Now, Yahoo comes up with an article from Newsweek whose title is: "U.S. backpedals on new Kurdish force as Turkey prepares for war." https://www.yahoo.com/news/m/2c641b4f-74f1-37df-8e04-4125bd9caf9f/ss_u.s.-backpedals-on-new.html

So it is a little early to say that Erdogan's warnings didn't have any effect. As a member of NATO -and a powerful one at that- with the keys to the Bosphorus, he has to be taken into account. As "b" fears, Turkish tanks would be sitting ducks in the mountainous area in the Afrin countryside but this has to be taken with a caveat considering that Turkey is well equipped with a sizable airforce and rotary wing crafts plus observation drones.

Erdogan may want to give an "encouragement" to the Afrin Kurds that it is in their interestto compose with Assad. But the U.S. is apparently taking him seriously.

Then there is a new possibility in the course of Modern Warfare. The Duma has recently enacted a law that will give birth to private armies which will give Eric Prince food for thought.Which means that Western contractors might have to battle their Russian counterparts. Proxies against proxies, since up to now the puppeteers have not been taken to court over their minion's crimes. The precedents have been set and others learn fast.

[Jan 20, 2018] As of today, Gen. Mathis exposing the new Us Defense Strategy warned that: The US will counter any threat to America s democracy experiment in the world, if necessary with military force

Jan 20, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

CarlD | Jan 19, 2018 11:38:25 AM | 56

I am afraid, if one is to believe Mathis words, that the Syrian, Ukrainian and Korean potential confrontations will lead to exchanges that will force us into wars on several theaters in the very near future.

As of today, Gen. Mathis exposing the sew Us Defense Strategy warned that: The US will counter any "threat to America's democracy experiment" in the world, if necessary with military force, the Pentagon chief threatened.

He singled out Russia and China as "adversaries", a far cry form the "partners" designation used by Russia in designing the USA. He vowed: the US will respond with lethal force.

So the stage is set for escalation of escalation in several theaters. How long will the bear be poked and the dragon provoked before retaliation ensues?

I am afraid that war looks more and more certain in 2018.

james , Jan 19, 2018 12:49:13 PM | 62

@40 b... thanks for that... the place was getting out of hand.. you are becoming too popular..

@56 carl... it is an outrageous statement from mattis, any way you read it!

"The US will counter any threat to America's democracy experiment in the world..."

usa as country that gets to dictate its agenda anywhere in the world.. it would explain why they want to circumvent any international body that they don't already control too, like the un.. america's democracy experiment is imposing the us$ as world currency under the threat of their military.. it is already starting to fall apart on all accounts which explains mattis's anxiousness in representing these same undemocratic structures and institutions he refers to as 'america's ''democracy'' experiment'... he needs to get a gig in hollywood at comedy central.. he never found his true calling..

harrylaw , Jan 19, 2018 1:16:21 PM | 63
"We will modernize key capabilities," Mattis said. "Investments in space and cyberspace, nuclear deterrent forces, missile defense, advanced autonomous systems and resilient and agile logistics will provide our high-quality troops what they need to win." [Sputnik News]
Just two quotes from 'Mad dog' Mattis which prove he needs to be put in an asylum.
"I come in peace. I didn't bring artillery. But I'm pleading with you, with tears in my eyes: If you fuck with me, I'll kill you all".
"Find the enemy that wants to end this experiment (in American democracy) and kill every one of them until they're so sick of the killing that they leave us and our freedoms intact."
Temporarily Sane , Jan 19, 2018 1:52:11 PM | 64
@56 CarlD
He singled out Russia and China as "adversaries", a far cry form the "partners"
designation used by Russia in designing the USA. He vowed: the US will
respond with lethal force.

Actions speak louder than words. The US is scared of two things: 1) a military conflict where its troops get slaughtered wholesale, and 2) going up against any army or regular military force it can't destroy from the air. Whatever happens in the near future we can rest assured Uncle Scam won't be engaging in direct hostilities with China or Russia.

dh , Jan 19, 2018 2:03:17 PM | 66
@63 "Investments in space and cyberspace, nuclear deterrent forces, missile defense, advanced autonomous systems and resilient and agile logistics will provide our high-quality troops what they need to win."

Nice for the high-quality troops. Sounds like they should be totally risk-free. But I don't share Mad Dog's faith in technology. Looks like an accident waiting to happen.

karlof1 , Jan 19, 2018 3:37:08 PM | 72
Mattis opens his mouth and reveals his level of ignorance when it comes to understanding the Outlaw US Empire's history--it's certainly not a "democracy experiment," nor has it ever tried to install a democracy anywhere on the planet. I'd bet he's just as ignorant when it comes to military history, too. He reminds me of the ignorant brute Sgt. Snorkel from the Beatle Bailey comic strip. The so-called "new" "defense posture" is no more than a tidied-up version of the two that preceded it: What we say goes; either you're with us or against us.

By way of rebuttal, I highly recommend reading this interview of Hassan Nasrallah from 3 Jan 2018, particularly his remarks about differences in the quality of soldiers from The Resistance versus those of the enemy--IDF, NATO, USA, Daesh--and why they exist.

Contrary to all the hype about the Empire being a new energy exporting colossus, it needed to import LNG to keep its East Coast dwellings warm, but the cargo seems to have found a better price elsewhere. Just how will it displace Russian gas from the market when it can't provide enough domestic supply?

Meanwhile, Tillerson pulls an Albright : "Signs of starvation and death in North Korea indicate that US diplomatic strategy works fine, says the secretary of state." Is he being two-faced? You bet! From last year : "We're not your enemy, we're not your threat..."

Ignorant, lying, immoral are just a few of the important behavioral traits of those leading faces of the Outlaw US Empire. And my historical investigations prove such traits have been in the forefront since its inception. Guess we can thank its tutor, the British Empire.

virgile , Jan 19, 2018 5:14:33 PM | 79
January 19, 2018 at 10:10 pm GMT • 100 Words

The US administration either is very smart in bluffing to temporarily reassure its panicking regional allies, Israel and Saudi Arabia or it is living in the la-la land of an incompetence close to stupidity.

Do they really believe that the Russians will allow the USA to rob their victory in Syria over ISIS? Or that the Turks will stay idle while the USA is building a Kurdish military entity on their border? Or that Iran and Syria will allow the partitioning of Syria and the US illegal long term presence in the region?
The USA administration is posed for dramatic blowbacks and reshuffling of alliances in the region.Maybe that is why it is running like a headless hen!

Ghost Ship , Jan 19, 2018 6:52:28 PM | 88
This will damage Trump with his base. Reducing the involvement of the United States military abroad was one of the more important commitments he made to his base and now he has broken that commitment and quite a few of his base are disappointed. Even if it's just a couple of hundred thousand of them, there goes the next presidential election for Trump and the Republicans. By forgetting about Russia-gate, focusing on his foreign military involvements, and provided the Democratic candidate is not a Clinton, the presidency is for there for taking by the Democrats. Having Tulsi Gabbard on the ticket would help.
The only reservation I have is if Trump is stiffing the generals in the White House and sometime in the future pulls the plug on all those interventions then he'll remain in the White House for another four years.
Mike K. , Jan 19, 2018 7:08:43 PM | 90
Tillerson could have been speaking for Trump, or Obama, or Bush - under whose regime the Likudnik/neocons/Zionists were able to foment a policy coup while using the OSP to concoct lies for Israel's long-desired war.

https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/trump-isnt-another-hitler-he-s-another-obama-51ea7db498b4

https://www.activistpost.com/2018/01/new-trump-admin-policy-on-syria-is-the-same-as-obamas-and-hillary-clintons.html


While there are generally multiple motives for entry into wars, only one is whitewashed. As Phil Giraldi put it:

""Why doesn't anyone ever speak honestly about the six-hundred-pound gorilla in the room? Nobody has mentioned Israel in this conference and we all know it's American Jews with all their money and power who are supporting every war in the Middle East for Netanyahu? Shouldn't we start calling them out and not letting them get away with it?"

https://www.veteransnewsnow.com/2017/09/21/1015592-americas-jews-are-driving-americas-wars/

They have also very heavily figured, neocon and neoliberal Jews both, in promoting the #Russiahoax in media and on the hill.

http://russia-insider.com/en/its-time-drop-jew-taboo/ri22186


Here's where we are, as the same cabal cheerlead for war on Iran (Lebanon must be first) a you are either committed to stopping the drive to war by all cognizable social and pitical forces, or you are not.

The time for letting cries of 'anti-Semite' preclude FAIR dis ussuon of the role of Jews and the Israel Lobby is over.

Those who censor this necessary component of analysis should be deemed confederates of the bankers, MIC, transnationals, and Zionist Jews who have been driving wars for decades.

With millions dead, playtime is over. Those censoring the truth side with the warmongers.

[Jan 17, 2018] It seems clear to me that the Kurds will fight on the government side if they enter the fight in Idlib

Jan 17, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

I rather like this expression by the Colonel:

I see that a spokesman for the Kurdish SDF/YPG says that Kurdish forces will enter Idlib to participate in the destruction of HTS and friends. It seems clear to me that the Kurds will fight on the government side if they enter the fight in Idlib. This must really be a disppointment to CENTCOM. pl
Things going the way one might expect.

Posted by: Laguerre | Jan 15, 2018 8:01:53 AM | 71

somebody , Jan 15, 2018 8:45:39 AM | 72

Posted by: Laguerre | Jan 15, 2018 8:01:53 AM | 70

Idlib Turkish proxies would be the ones used to fight SDP, as Turkey threatens?

Laguerre , Jan 15, 2018 8:48:01 AM | 73
Another unsurprising event.

Erdoğan accuses US of planning to form 'terror army' in Syria

He doesn't like the idea of a Rojavan army armed by the US. Not quite the way things are supposed to go.

somebody , Jan 15, 2018 9:05:24 AM | 74
add to 71

Turkish government press seem to think they have a deal with Russia.

Kurds seem to hedge with the Syrian government and Russia .

[Jan 17, 2018] The Syrian Civil War, every day - YouTube

Jan 17, 2018 | www.youtube.com

ΔΑΙΔΑΛΟΣ / Daedalus , 2 months ago

wow i don't believe that some people still calling the Syrian conflict as a "civil war".. with so many proxy armies supported by Syria's neighbours, with more than 20.000 foreign terrorists of ISIS, with Iranian paramilitary units etc etc

willrobd , 2 months ago

YPG/YPJ is the most effective force against ISIS because they aren't mercenaries fighting for money, they're fighting for their families and for freedom.

bluferday ros , 2 months ago

As a lebanese i should say that hezbollah should be at the whole map helping government

Illyrian King , 2 months ago

CORRECTION: The Syrian Civil War actually starts in March 15th, 2011, not March 1st.

aBoughtLemon , 2 weeks ago

What is even worse is this was no civil war. It was an insurgency funded by the US against the Syrians.

wnet intranaut , 3 weeks ago

The syrian war is not a civil war.Before everything started,the syrian army uniforms were sown in Lebanon where al hariri ,a part of the lebanese parties and officials from some gulf countries decided to get rid of AL ASSAD because according to them he had no role in the future map of the region.All of them opened their borders to mercenaries from all over the world to do the dirty job with some beared djihadists from the country who always dreamt to lead the country.These are the facts.Anyhthing else is just embroidering from the West and Israel who sized the opportunity to eliminate AL ASSAD.

fuck google+ , 2 weeks ago

U.S. coalition helps to ISIS and Nusra all the time. USA = is the war.

Parsa ShervanZade , 2 months ago

Assad has a secular government, that's why all other believers as Christians, Shias and even Sunnis Support him, But the rebels are radical sunnis & Arabs and trying to make an Arabic-sunni government that make other believers & Speakers weak and give power to sunni Arabs, so the best chance for Syria & who want a free & secular country for every Syrians is Assad But unfortunately the Saudi suckers in Syria that all are extremist muslims (sunnis) don't want a secular country and freedom of religion in Syria... And bastard western countries supported them because Assad was alliance of Iran & Russia and the extremists were Saudi Arabia's alliance and Saudi is bitch of western countries. So all you have to understand that western countries don't support freedom & secularism in Middle east (they just say beautiful things but never try for them as what you saw in Syria) because the extremism in other countries is good for them... If other countries stay weak , it's good for them... As an Iranian irreligious my dream is having a secular government as Assad , because the government of Iran is Islamic and i see they are destroying Iran... all non-shia Iranians haven't much rights here... But they have it in Syria by Assad, God bless Assad and free Syria I know Assad did some mistakes at 2011 but that's not a hard reason for saying Assad isn't better than rebels and terrorists. All Syrians have to have their free election in peace and choose their ideal government by election, not with civil war...

[Jan 17, 2018] The Russian "Zap" can be seen as a direct threat to the ORIGINATORS of the drones. Also explains why Putin has not directly mentioned who they were.

Notable quotes:
"... To add a bit;" The ISIS /US seem to want to recreate the "Caliphate" (The southern bit of east Syria was supposed to form the village "basis" with Raqqua and Mosul etc the jam on the top. The SDF have released a number of ISIS "captives" recently. (Plus a whole lot that mysteriously became SDF at the moment they might have got hit by Russian aerial bombardments). ..."
"... Note that the Tanf US base is also training and arming ISIS and other rebels (and a seperate lot from the Rubakan refugee camp), with heavy weapons and anti-tank missiles among the arms. ..."
"... Note that the main suspects - stated to be the Pentagon/etc.; could also be Israel (who support Al Nusra in the area and who sent four planes to attack the SAA near Damascus at almost the same time); The mercenary "contracters" (CIA paid); or someone benefitting from a Saudi based supply line. ..."
"... However, as the USKurd area has to be able to have import export supply lines, we can expect to see more attacks on the Syrian/Iraqi positions in the southern corner (Al Qaim) from the Western side of the Euphrates (ie Tanf). ..."
Jan 17, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

stonebird | Jan 14, 2018 12:33:39 PM | 7

Peter AU1 @2

"Reading through the article, US is now seems to be publicly stating it is in Syria to stay, with Kurd's guarding the US/Turkish border, and retrained ISIS guarding the US/Syria, and US/Iraq borders"

To add a bit;" The ISIS /US seem to want to recreate the "Caliphate" (The southern bit of east Syria was supposed to form the village "basis" with Raqqua and Mosul etc the jam on the top. The SDF have released a number of ISIS "captives" recently. (Plus a whole lot that mysteriously became SDF at the moment they might have got hit by Russian aerial bombardments).

Note that the Tanf US base is also training and arming ISIS and other rebels (and a seperate lot from the Rubakan refugee camp), with heavy weapons and anti-tank missiles among the arms.

There are supposed to be 14 US bases in Syria. (source; Al Jazeera or Qatar - not sure which).

OK: that is the US side. Now the other side.

1) who would attack the US camps and proxies? Might this be Erdogan who is already making noises about the Kurdish build-up on his borders? At least he will try to stop reinforcements and oil exports via Turkish territory if this is the case. (If the Syrians attacked the US camps directly then Trump and the Pentagon would leap with joy and use that as an excuse to re-start the war in that area.)

2) The recent drone attack on the Russians. By saying they "knew" who it was and then effectively "zapping" the "militants concerned", this is a very clear warning. Note that the main suspects - stated to be the Pentagon/etc.; could also be Israel (who support Al Nusra in the area and who sent four planes to attack the SAA near Damascus at almost the same time); The mercenary "contracters" (CIA paid); or someone benefitting from a Saudi based supply line. Whichever: The Russian "Zap", extremely accurate (!) and timed, can be seen as a direct threat to the ORIGINATORS of the drones, who were the ones trying to get to the minibus. Also explains why Putin has not directly mentioned who they were. No need, the warning is made.

However, as the USKurd area has to be able to have import export supply lines, we can expect to see more attacks on the Syrian/Iraqi positions in the southern corner (Al Qaim) from the Western side of the Euphrates (ie Tanf).

[Jan 17, 2018] Drones keep entering no-fly zones over Washington, raising security concerns

Jan 17, 2018 | www.washingtonpost.com

Don Bacon | Jan 15, 2018 11:46:23 AM | 84

The evolution of guided missiles has revolutionized warfare, obsoleting many military systems such as aircraft carries (the Pentagon of course has not gotten the message) and economizing threats.

Now come the cheap and virtually unstoppable drones, like in the recent attack on the Russian air base. In the Washington area:

In the middle of a federal no-fly zone for drones, in some of the most sensitive and restricted airspace in the United States, technicians working with Duggan recorded nearly 100 drone sightings over two months last summer. And that was just around two Army posts he oversees. . . ."

Are they bad guys? Well, we don't know," Duggan said. "It's a technology that can be used to attack us at home. Why? Because we are not as prepared as we need to be."

[Jan 16, 2018] US supported enclave in the eastern Syria desert would be land-locked by opposing governments and untenable

Should provide plenty of lucrative U.S. tax-dollar theft by the corrupt Rojava 'government' (as it were), dishonest Border Guard commanders and (of course) thieving U.S. defense contractors and their CENTCOM collaborators. Small potatoes compared to the fortunes made in Iraq and Afghanistan, but hey - times are tough
Notable quotes:
"... 'Border Guards' are little more than a CENTCOM act of desperation, yet provide enough of an excuse (in their eyes) to keep a significant U.S. military in intelligence presence there, and it will justify ongoing arms and equipment shipments. And just like At Tanf, CENTCOM can arrange 'selective' border-crossing enforcement (or not) at will. Also provides good cover for all our electronic eavesdropping and long-range radar and surveillance equipment we probably already have stationed there. And plenty of opportunities to concoct various kinds of ridiculous Border Guard Special Forces Anti-Terrorist kill teams for... whatever. SOCOM will want their piece of the SDFistan pie. ..."
"... Nobody will be able to keep track of US training, arms and supplies for such an unreasonably large force, so plenty of opportunities for future mischief: merc/terrorist training and refuge, rebel resupply, anti-Syrian intelligence gathering, weapons/ammo stockpiles controlled by the US, etc. ..."
"... The US neocon/chicken-hawk assumptions are that 1) the little people Kurds won't riot and throw the U.S. back-stabbers out before this can be implemented, 2) the PYD will trust the loyalty of these US-trained 'border guard' forces (to protect the PYD and their future revenue streams) 3) that the SAA won't simply roll across the Euphrates soon to enforce their sovereign borders, and 4) that Recep doesn't send a few armored divisions south to end this irritating SDF nonsense once and for all. ..."
"... SDFistan is CENTCOM's job - nobody fires them. ..."
Jan 16, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

@10
Laguerre is correct, the US/Kurd/ISIS enclave in the eastern Syria desert would be land-locked by opposing governments and untenable. This is yet another example of what happens when you have stupid generals determining foreign policy.

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 14, 2018 2:01:17 PM | 13

dh , Jan 14, 2018 2:08:10 PM | 14

@13 It is absurd. The idea presumably is to create a whole new country....let's call it Free Democratic Syria, with it's own border controls. Citizens will need passports to visit their relatives in Damascus.
harrylaw , Jan 14, 2018 2:25:16 PM | 17
Don Bacon@13 What you say is true, it does not mean the US will not try to partition Syria, If not a Caliphate then a new state. This landlocked entity can have no chance of success, but let Syrian or Russian troops do anything about it, then the US will accuse them of aggression and call on more troops to enforce their occupation. Hopefully enough Kurds and Arabs in the area will see a united Syria with maybe limited administrative devolution preferable to war against the combined forces of Syria, Iraq, Hezbollah and Iran. As one perceptive SDF leader said...

The SDF's Arab tribal allies can be fickle. "Most of them were in the tribal council for Isis. Before that, they were with the regime and now the SDF," he says." Whoever comes next, they'll be with them." Sounds like the US will be trying to herd cats.

somebody , Jan 14, 2018 2:25:26 PM | 18
14
It seems Kurdish politicians would like the US to stay

Erdogan threatens to attack Afrin .

Without mentioning the US, Erdogan said on Sunday he expected allies not to make "mistakes" by "taking sides" with the YPG during the battle for Afrin.

"We expect from our allies that they behave in accordance with the spirit of our deep-rooted relationship during this process," Erdogan said, adding "despite everything" he hoped for cooperation to achieve "common interests" in the region.

"I hope these forces will not make a mistake of appearing on the same stage with the terrorist organisation during the Afrin operation," the president said.

A senior Syrian Kurdish official said on Sunday that fighting between the YPG and Turkish forces was already under way.

I don't know if there are any rules in NATO for inner-NATO conflict.

stonebird , Jan 14, 2018 2:26:34 PM | 19
Update to my own post at @7
It is Iranian intelligence that has provided a list of US bases in Syria. Here is a link via "the Saker", that also gives some details
http://thesaker.is/the-us-kurd-project-iranian-intelligence-has-declassified-data-on-14-american-bases-in-syria/
Laguerre , Jan 14, 2018 4:33:46 PM | 29
The Rojavan Kurds have always been ready to make a deal with Asad. They understand their situation. It is the US which is pushing for independence. Part of their plan for cutting up Syria, descended from the French plan of the 1920s. But it's not working. Even Idlib is on the point of collapse.
mauisurfer , Jan 14, 2018 4:47:46 PM | 30
William R Polk has just published a new book, "Crusade and Jihad". It covers very wide ground, including roots of arabic and of Islam. Essential reading.
Free copy here:
https://books.google.com/books?id=xDlFDwAAQBAJ&pg=PR3&lpg=PR3&dq=Crusade+and+Jihad,+by+William+R.+Polk&source=bl&ots=TsySvxQ0LN&sig=vm_oKKJLITedv-3ZOxVutqNq1T0&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjjodHH9dfYAhULwGMKHXLYB3oQ6AEIPTAE#v=onepage&q&f=true
PavewayIV , Jan 14, 2018 5:31:35 PM | 33
Scotch Bingeington@25 - The border force scheme is just another US charade to train and equip anti-Shia and anti-Syrian forces. CENTCOM would have a hard time explaining why they would maintain a standing army of 50K SDF in SDFistan when there's no head-choppers left to fight. The PYD is going to insist on owning the military again after SDF demobilization. Guarding borders would just be a drain on those forces, so they probably would accept a US offer for a 'free' fully-equipped and trained border guard force. The PYD would have some use for that along the Turkish border, and they probably don't care what the CIA and CENTCOM do with them along the Euphrates or Iraqi border as long as they keep head-choppers out.

There's little desire anymore by rank-and-file Kurds in the YPG/YPJ to staff the US ForeverWar™. The war will be over soon enough - most want to go back to their homes. The YPG/YPJ were organized as local militia to defend their farms and villages, not a federal army to protect the PYD, SDFistan, US bases or war booty oil fields. The US knows that once the YPG/YPJ get tired of being ordered around by the US and leave the SDF, the SDF will cease to exist. There will be enough ex-SDF that still want their US paychecks every month, so filling out the border guard ranks initially won't be a problem.

'Border Guards' are little more than a CENTCOM act of desperation, yet provide enough of an excuse (in their eyes) to keep a significant U.S. military in intelligence presence there, and it will justify ongoing arms and equipment shipments. And just like At Tanf, CENTCOM can arrange 'selective' border-crossing enforcement (or not) at will. Also provides good cover for all our electronic eavesdropping and long-range radar and surveillance equipment we probably already have stationed there. And plenty of opportunities to concoct various kinds of ridiculous Border Guard Special Forces Anti-Terrorist kill teams for... whatever. SOCOM will want their piece of the SDFistan pie.

Nobody will be able to keep track of US training, arms and supplies for such an unreasonably large force, so plenty of opportunities for future mischief: merc/terrorist training and refuge, rebel resupply, anti-Syrian intelligence gathering, weapons/ammo stockpiles controlled by the US, etc. Should provide plenty of lucrative U.S. tax-dollar theft by the corrupt Rojava 'government' (as it were), dishonest Border Guard commanders and (of course) thieving U.S. defense contractors and their CENTCOM collaborators. Small potatoes compared to the fortunes made in Iraq and Afghanistan, but hey - times are tough!

The US neocon/chicken-hawk assumptions are that 1) the little people Kurds won't riot and throw the U.S. back-stabbers out before this can be implemented, 2) the PYD will trust the loyalty of these US-trained 'border guard' forces (to protect the PYD and their future revenue streams) 3) that the SAA won't simply roll across the Euphrates soon to enforce their sovereign borders, and 4) that Recep doesn't send a few armored divisions south to end this irritating SDF nonsense once and for all.

If it won't be 'border guards', then it will be some other scheme. SDFistan is CENTCOM's job - nobody fires them.

Don Bacon , Jan 14, 2018 7:01:48 PM | 40
@somebody 28

well, why should the US stay if there was no ISIS :-))

They got you covered -- the US will stay in Syria until the cows come home Assad is gone because he is "a magnet for terrorism."

CarlD , Jan 14, 2018 7:08:08 PM | 42
40 Don Bacon

I take exception to that. The US will stay for as long as Israel wants.

john , Jan 15, 2018 7:22:27 AM | 66
PavewayIV @ 33 says:

Should provide plenty of lucrative U.S. tax-dollar theft by the corrupt Rojava 'government' (as it were), dishonest Border Guard commanders and (of course) thieving U.S. defense contractors and their CENTCOM collaborators. Small potatoes compared to the fortunes made in Iraq and Afghanistan, but hey - times are tough

not to worry, i see the DoD is gonna audit itself concerning the 21 trillion in Mysterious Items , improperly recorded, or outright missing.

the audit's just gotten underway, with the disclosure that in 2018 it's gonna cost 367 million, and another 551 million to fix the problems.

these goobers NEVER give up.

john , Jan 16, 2018 6:55:22 AM | 100
PavewayIV @ 33 says:

Should provide plenty of lucrative U.S. tax-dollar theft by the corrupt Rojava 'government' (as it were), dishonest Border Guard commanders and (of course) thieving U.S. defense contractors and their CENTCOM collaborators. Small potatoes compared to the fortunes made in Iraq and Afghanistan, but hey - times are tough!

not to worry, i see DoD is gonna audit itself concerning $21 trillion in mysterious items , improperly recorded, or outright missing.

the audit's just gotten underway, with the disclosure that in 2018 it's gonna cost $367 million, and another $551 million to fix the problems.

pigs to the trough.

[Jan 16, 2018] Drones keep entering no-fly zones over Washington, raising security concerns

Jan 16, 2018 | www.washingtonpost.com

The evolution of guided missiles has revolutionized warfare, obsoleting many military systems such as aircraft carries (the Pentagon of course has not gotten the message) and economizing threats.
Now come the cheap and virtually unstoppable drones, like in the recent attack on the Russian air base. In the Washington area:

In the middle of a federal no-fly zone for drones, in some of the most sensitive and restricted airspace in the United States, technicians working with Duggan recorded nearly 100 drone sightings over two months last summer. And that was just around two Army posts he oversees. . . ."Are they bad guys? Well, we don't know," Duggan said. "It's a technology that can be used to attack us at home. Why? Because we are not as prepared as we need to be."

Posted by: Don Bacon | Jan 15, 2018 11:46:23 AM | 84

[Jan 16, 2018] The Russian "Zap" can be seen as a direct threat to the ORIGINATORS of the drones. Also explains why Putin has not directly mentioned who they were.

Notable quotes:
"... Note that the main suspects - stated to be the Pentagon/etc.; could also be Israel (who support Al Nusra in the area and who sent four planes to attack the SAA near Damascus at almost the same time); The mercenary "contracters" (CIA paid); or someone benefitting from a Saudi based supply line. ..."
Jan 16, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

stonebird | Jan 14, 2018 12:33:39 PM | 7

Peter AU1 @2
"Reading through the article, US is now seems to be publicly stating it is in Syria to stay, with Kurd's guarding the US/Turkish border, and retrained ISIS guarding the US/Syria, and US/Iraq borders"

To add a bit;" The ISIS /US seem to want to recreate the "Caliphate" (The southern bit of east Syria was supposed to form the village "basis" with Raqqua and Mosul etc the jam on the top. The SDF have released a number of ISIS "captives" recently. (Plus a whole lot that mysteriously became SDF at the moment they might have got hit by Russian aerial bombardments).
Note that the Tanf US base is also training and arming ISIS and other rebels (and a seperate lot from the Rubakan refugee camp), with heavy weapons and anti-tank missiles among the arms.

There are supposed to be 14 US bases in Syria. (source; Al Jazeera or Qatar - not sure which).

OK: that is the US side. Now the other side.
1) who would attack the US camps and proxies? Might this be Erdogan who is already making noises about the Kurdish build-up on his borders? At least he will try to stop reinforcements and oil exports via Turkish territory if this is the case. (If the Syrians attacked the US camps directly then Trump and the Pentagon would leap with joy and use that as an excuse to re-start the war in that area.)

2) The recent drone attack on the Russians. By saying they "knew" who it was and then effectively "zapping" the "militants concerned", this is a very clear warning. Note that the main suspects - stated to be the Pentagon/etc.; could also be Israel (who support Al Nusra in the area and who sent four planes to attack the SAA near Damascus at almost the same time); The mercenary "contracters" (CIA paid); or someone benefitting from a Saudi based supply line. Whichever: The Russian "Zap", extremely accurate (!) and timed, can be seen as a direct threat to the ORIGINATORS of the drones, who were the ones trying to get to the minibus. Also explains why Putin has not directly mentioned who they were. No need, the warning is made.

However, as the USKurd area has to be able to have import export supply lines, we can expect to see more attacks on the Syrian/Iraqi positions in the southern corner (Al Qaim) from the Western side of the Euphrates (ie Tanf).

[Jan 15, 2018] US military not only admits to training Syrian militants, but says they do not care if they choose to fight with terrorist organizations by Paul Antonopoulos

Jan 15, 2018 | thesaker.is

JJ on January 15, 2018 , · at 5:06 am UTC

US military not only admits to training Syrian militants, but says they do not care if they choose to fight with terrorist organizations
January 15, 2018 – Fort Russ News – Paul Antonopoulos

DAMASCUS, Syria – The United States Central Command (CENTCOM), the United States military branch responsible for North Africa, the Middle East and Central Asia, has admitted to a journalist that they only train militants and does not care if they join internationally recognized terrorist organizations afterwards.

Sharmine Narwani, an award winning journalist, asked a CENTCOM spokesperson what they thought of US-trained "rebels" allying with Al-Qaeda.

In response to the question, the spokesperson responded with "We don't 'command and control' these forces – we only 'train and enable' them Who they say they're allying with, that's their business."
16h

Sharmine Narwani

[Jan 15, 2018] A reminder that the US-armed "Free Syrian Army" was mainly a PR front for Al Qaeda, ISIS and other jihadist terrorism in Syria

Jan 15, 2018 | thesaker.is

Sharmine Narwani

@snarwani
A detailed reminder that the US-armed "Free Syrian Army" was mainly a PR front for Al Qaeda, ISIS and other jihadist terrorism in #Syria. A must-read: https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/foreign-policy/no-fsa-al-qaeda/ pic.twitter.com/PUKhbuqmFX

Sharmine Narwani

@snarwani
5) Here's what a CENTCOM spox told me when I asked what the Pentagon thought about its "rebels" working with Al Qaeda: "We don't 'command and control' these forces – we only 'train and enable' them Who they say they're allying with, that's their business." Literally, wow.
This is the first such admission from any US official as they usually deny that the militants they support, arm and train collaborate with terrorist organizations.

This also highlights that the US is prioritizing regime change in Syria over defeating terrorist organization "

http://www.fort-russ.com/2018/01/us-military-not-only-admits-to-training.html

Reply

JJ on January 15, 2018 , · at 5:10 am UTC

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia and its partners will undertake measures as a response to the US-led coalition's decision to create the so-called "Border Security Force" on the Syrian territory controlled by the Syrian Democratic Forces militia, Chairman of the Defense Committee of Russia's State Duma Vladimir Shamanov told Sputnik on Sunday.

On Saturday, the Defense Post news website published an article, in which the spokesman of the US-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State (Daesh) terrorist group said that the coalition was engaged in a training of a 30,000-strong force on the territory within Syria currently controlled by SDF to maintain security in controlled area along the Syrian border.

"[Such a behavior by the US-led coalition] stands in direct confrontation [with Russia's interests], and we and our colleagues will certainly undertake certain measures on stabilization of the situation in Syria," Shamanov said when asked whether such actions of the US-led coalition intersected with the interests of Russia in Syria.

The United States has been leading a coalition of more than 70 nations aimed at defeating Daesh operating in Iraq and Syria since 2014. The activities of the coalition in Syria are authorized neither by the UN Security Council nor by Damascus.

Turkey has already reacted to the reported US plans to create the "Border Defense Forces". Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's representative Ibrahim Kalin stated that such move is unacceptable and "worrying." Later, the Turkish Foreign Ministry has issued a statement condemning the plans of the United States to create the forces, also noting that the coalition did not hold consultations with Turkey about the creation of such forces."

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201801151060753205-russia-measures-usa-syria-security/

[Jan 15, 2018] Syrian War Report January 12, 2018 Militants' Counter-Attack In Southern Idlib Ends In Disaster The Vineyard of the Saker

Jan 15, 2018 | thesaker.is

­

Dr N.G. Maroudas on January 13, 2018 , · at 1:27 am UTC

Canthama writes in SyrPer:
"The last time we saw rats sending waves after waves of attacks was in western Aleppo city and we all know what happened there, thousands of dead rats and the city was fully liberated.
Idlib will be no different, rats will die, they can choose to speed it up or not, but their fate will be death."

So this is what NATZO countries, the richest countries on earth, do to help the third world: they find 300,000 poor young men, give them iPhones, Toyota trucks and Humvees, shiny weapons big and small, and promise them $10,000 a year and all the women they can capture. Then they let them loose on Syria, where these NATZO mercenaries have killed 200,000 Syrians. And now, as in the above reports by South Front, these poor young men from under developed countries have themselves been killed -- their numbers are down from 300,000 to 30,000. And as Canthama reports above, the remainder face certain death. What a sickening waste of potentially productive human life and resources by the evil Anglo-Zio-Capitalists who lurk in the shadows behind NATZO.

_smr on January 13, 2018 , · at 3:21 am UTC
The well orchestrated, merciless annihilation of Zion's cannon fodder in Idlib by the SAA & allies continues unabated. The only place where AQ & ISIS are winning battles are in Zion's virtual worlds of Facebook & Twitter. Total freak show! Utter calamity! Words fail!

Current situation in Idlib:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DTXsw1gXUAA_dCn.jpg

[Jan 15, 2018] The US' Kurd Project Iranian intelligence has declassified data on 14 American bases in Syria The Vineyard of the Saker

Jan 15, 2018 | thesaker.is

­

vot tak on January 13, 2018 , · at 10:39 am UTC

Turkey Vows to 'Tear Down' YPG Forces, Opens Artillery Fire on Syria's Afrin

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201801131060727765-afrin-syria-turkey-ypg/

"The Turkish army opened artillery fire on the Kurdish militia positions in the Syrian city of Afrin, the Hurriyet newspaper reported.

According to the newspaper, the Turkish Armed Forces fired 10 shots from the territory of the Reyhanli district in the country's province of Hatay.

Following the military operation, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced a possible military operation in Syria's Afrin on January 13, adding that Turkey will clear its border of "terrorists."

"If the terrorists in Afrin don't surrender we will tear them down," Erdogan told the country's ruling AK Party in the eastern Turkish city of Elazig, speaking about the Peoples' Protection Units (YPG) militants, which are considered to be a terrorist group by Ankara.

"The US sent 4,900 trucks of weapons in Syria. We know this. This is not what allies do," Erdogan said. "We know they sent 2,000 planes full of weapons."

The statement was made amid Ankara's recent summoning of the US Charge d'Affairs twice within 24 hours over the issues of Washington's support for Syrian Kurds and the US listing Turkey among countries, not safe for travel.

As Erdogan stated, Turkey's possible military advance in Syria's Idlib province would eliminate Kurdish militia in the area, which neighbors Afrin. The Turkish army entered Idlib three months ago as a guarantor of the peace settlement process and has repeatedly accused the Syrian government of violating the de-escalation zone borders."

JJ on January 13, 2018 , · at 2:40 pm UTC
Glad you spotted that also so called syrian democratic council announced SDF Kurds going to go to Idlib to fight "terrorists" ..Maria Zakharova held press conference today- well worth listening to via RT- stated SDF were charging locals in a town to de-mine it despite 89 civilians being killed injured by explosives mines etc left behind by isis.

Still potential to be a big mess in parts of Syria still statements being strongly made against illegal prsencees in Syria but amazing progress seems to being made by hard fighting SAA and tiger forces and Russian airsupport against HTS.

JJ on January 13, 2018 , · at 10:42 am UTC
https://www.libertarianinstitute.org/foreign-policy/no-fsa-al-qaeda/

Very extensive article re history of usa FSA and al nusrah "associations" against legitmate sovereignty of Syria.

vot tak on January 13, 2018 , · at 11:17 am UTC
The zio-gay media openly promoting a known terrorist.

'Very brave Syrian reporter' in WaPo tweet unmasked as jihadi propagandist

https://www.rt.com/usa/415769-wapo-syrian-jihadi-supporter/

"The Washington Post bureau chief in Beirut commended the courage of a battlefield reporter in Syria, despite being informed the man is in fact a radical Islamist. She has refused to take back her words.

On January 11, Liz Sly retweeted a video featuring a man with a microphone cowering in front a camera in the middle of an airstrike, purportedly shot near the northern Syrian city of Idlib, a current focal point of fighting between the opposition and government forces.

In any case, Sly told RT she has nothing to apologize for, as she was commending the jihadist supporter's "bravery," while the supposed journalist's pro-IS views are irrelevant here."

The wp is owned by bezos, owner of amazon. That alone is good reason to boycott amazon.

JJ on January 14, 2018 , · at 1:12 pm UTC
Articles in western press today just as SAA majorly winning against HTS in eastern Damascus ..white helmets claiming chemical attacks very recently in east Ghoutta by "murderous Assad regime" .uk military persons calls for no fly zone which had protected Kurds in north Iraq he said etc might not take much for DT to send off more missiles etc to support the new defence army being trained up by usa, and maybe protect kurds etc who are going to have a serious go at Turkish military .an attempt to further consolidate their "territorial claims" with sympathy one supposes .

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-5266479/Grainy-footage-shows-Assad-gassing-Syrian-people.html

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201801141060747389-us-led-coalition-border-force-syria/

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201801141060746468-us-occupation-cooperation-with-terrorists-southern-syria/

https://southfront.org/syrian-army-eliminates-170-militants-two-battle-tanks-and-bmp-vehicle-in-battle-for-armoured-vehicles-base-report/

anon on January 13, 2018 , · at 12:30 pm UTC
So, are we to assume that the 14 bases and the ammo dumps precise geo-coordinates are now known to the Persian Forces, and also presumably thus announced these specific locations are expecting swarms of hostile model airplanes And the Ru, and the Syrians too, and all together, all know where these brave and illustrious defenders of democracy and freedom – and their arms and servile quisling stooges – dwell and sojourn. Precisely dwell.

Nice job fellas. Naught save meat set to rot in the deserts, or to experience surrender under fire?

Zugswang. Pitiful.

What was it that the Brave US AF General Jack Ripper said? "Two can play that game, soldier!"

Their lordships are going to need additional pharmacological help! More dope for the generals!

Further into the Big Muddy. They always double.

Ken on January 13, 2018 , · at 1:18 pm UTC
Personally, I find it amazing that the Russians, together with the Iranian, Syrian, and Hezbollah forces have been so weak in the face of a patently illegal presence of the American bases. Why on earth did they let them even begin to build one base, let alone 14! An Iranian general has threatened the American presence, but this seems to be a "paper tiger" outburst.
дулебг on January 13, 2018 , · at 2:44 pm UTC
I can not imagine that the American forces and the American proxies would be able to withstand between the armies of Syria, Iraq, Iran, Turkey, Russia and their allies. Those will eat them for the dinner in a few months.

[Jan 15, 2018] By saying they "knew" who it was and then effectively "zapping" the "militants concerned", this is a very clear warning

Jan 15, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

stonebird | Jan 14, 2018 12:33:39 PM | 7

1) who would attack the US camps and proxies? Might this be Erdogan who is already making noises about the Kurdish build-up on his borders? At least he will try to stop reinforcements and oil exports via Turkish territory if this is the case. (If the Syrians attacked the US camps directly then Trump and the Pentagon would leap with joy and use that as an excuse to re-start the war in that area.)
2) The recent drone attack on the Russians. By saying they "knew" who it was and then effectively "zapping" the "militants concerned", this is a very clear warning. Note that the main suspects - stated to be the Pentagon/etc.; could also be Israel (who support Al Nusra in the area and who sent four planes to attack the SAA near Damascus at almost the same time); The mercenary "contracters" (CIA paid); or someone benefitting from a Saudi based supply line. Whichever: The Russian "Zap", extremely accurate (!) and timed, can be seen as a direct threat to the ORIGINATORS of the drones, who were the ones trying to get to the minibus. Also explains why Putin has not directly mentioned who they were. No need, the warning is made.

[Jan 15, 2018] Russia says it eliminated rebels behind swarm drone attack in Syria by Jeff Daniels

Jan 12, 2018 | www.cnbc.com
Russia 's defense ministry said Friday it tracked down and killed the group of militants responsible for a recent coordinated drone attack against one of its bases in Syria .

Experts said swarm-like attacks using weaponized drones is a growing threat and likely to only get worse. They also said the possibility exists of terrorists using these drones in urban areas against civilians.

"We're likely to see more attacks of larger scale going forward, potentially even larger than this and in a variety of things -- air, land and sea," said Paul Scharre, director of the Technology and National Security program at the Center for a New American Security, a Washington think tank.

Earlier this month, militants in Syria launched a drone attack using more than a dozen weaponized unmanned aerial vehicles in Russia's Hmeymim airbase as well as a navy supply base in Tartus. Most of the drones were used on the attack against Hmeymim, located in western Syria near the city of Latakia.

The Russian defense ministry claims its air defenses detected 13 "small-size air targets" approaching its bases and repelled the attack, shooting down seven drones with its anti-aircraft missile systems and taking control of six others using electronic warfare. "The incident itself, while it wasn't necessarily a spectacular attack by terrorist standards, it certainly portends a very dark future," said Colin Clarke, a political scientist at the RAND think tank who specializes in terrorism, insurgency and criminal networks.

"What it signals to me is a lot of the things that we talk about that we know are going to be problems in the future may be problems now or a lot sooner than we thought," Clarke said.

The RAND expert also said the U.S. and other nations have a lot of thinking to do about how to deal with the weaponized drone technology, because it could be used not just on the battlefield but potentially in urban areas by organized terrorist groups or other bad actors.

On Friday, Russia said its forces conducted an operation to "eliminate" the group of insurgents who attacked the Hmeymim airbase Dec. 31. "All forces and means of the multi-level Russian military intelligence in Syria were involved," it said.

Russia's defense ministry also released video of what it said was the targeted strike against the militants. The ministry also has shown images of what appear to be the captured drones and homemade drone bombs.

According to Moscow, it was able to track down the militants' launch site after its experts "decoded the data recorded on the UAVs."

"U.S. bases are targets, and Russian bases are targets," said Olga Olicker, senior advisor and director of the Russia and Eurasia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington defense think tank.

Experts say the U.S. also has the capability to shoot down multiple drones as well as electronic warfare and advanced jamming technology to target or take control of enemy UAVs. The U.S. Air Force last year purchased "counter-unmanned aerial systems" from an Israeli company.

"The key is not just finding a way to target these drones," said Scharre. "It's finding a way to do it in a cost-effective way. If you shoot down a $1,000 drone with a $1 million missile, you're losing every time you're doing it."

The coordinated drone attack follows a mortar shelling attack on New Year's Eve that reportedly killed two Russian service members at the Hmeymim airbase. The Russian daily Kommersant reported at least seven aircraft were destroyed , including fighter jets and a transport aircraft, but Russia's state-run Tass news agency denied aircraft were destroyed.

Also, it comes less than a month after Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Hmeymim base and boasted about Russia's "successful intervention" against Islamic State terrorists in Syria's conflict.

Islamic State militants previously used weaponized drones and showed video of its bomb-dropping UAVs. The terrorist group has attacked U.S.-backed forces fighting ISIS with drones and used them for surveillance purposes. ISIS also used booby-trapped drones to kill two Kurdish fighters in 2016.

"We have seen nonstate actors use armed drones in the past, but this is a significant step up in terms of the scale of attacks and just how many they were able to use simultaneously," said Scharre, who previously worked in the Pentagon and focused on unmanned and autonomous systems and emerging weapons technology.

Meantime, Russia said it analyzed the construction of the drones and explosives of the captured crafts, concluding that the militants in Syria must have had help from a technologically advanced country. However, the U.S.-led coalition fighting ISIS has denied it had a role.

At the same time, Russia implied that the explosive material used in the bomb may have come from a Ukrainian chemical plant.

"Some of the Russian accusations and insinuations that have been floating around I think are meant to suggest that foreign intelligence helped provide targeting information, if not the technology," said Olicker.

She said the technology itself appears to look like "off-the-shelf stuff" so the claims of assistance from a technologically advanced country are "spurious." She added that Moscow's "tendency to blame other state actors" for drone tech in the hands of militants appears disingenuous.

[Jan 15, 2018] Russia 'eliminated' rebels behind airbase attack in Syria

Jan 12, 2018 | www.middleeasteye.net

Russia said it had "eliminated" militants on Friday who were behind a mortar attack that killed two Russian soldiers on New Year's Eve.

Special forces from the Russian army had tracked the fighters to their base camp near the border of Idlib, a statement said on Friday.

"The command of our troops in Syria carried out a special operation to find and eliminate the group of militants that carried out the mortar attack on the Hmeimim base (western Syria)," the Russian defence ministry said in a statement.

The ministry added that the fighters were "destroyed by a Krasnopol guided missile" as they were leaving the base.

The Russians did not confirm which group the militants were affiliated to.

"A drone assembly and storage area was also discovered," the announcement said.

Ten drones equipped with explosives attacked Russia's airbase in Hmeimim in the early hours of 6 January, the military previously reported. There were no casualties.

[Jan 14, 2018] Russians asking for help after swarming drone attacks

Notable quotes:
"... The bomblets are released by a solenoid that opens gaps in a sliding metal bar. The bomblets contain about 1 KG of PETN plus a string of epoxied ball bearings wrapped around the PETN explosive. ..."
"... The Russians claim that one of the drones carried a camera and had the ability to adjust the track of the other drones if needed. The drones themselves were guided by GPS and the flight path for each one was pre-programmed. ..."
"... What especially disturbs the Russian analysts – and on this point they are still unable to identify the source – is that the drones were accurately programmed not only to reach the bases, but to hit specific targets that could not be attacked using standard GPS-generated maps or rely on GPS for accurate targeting. The single camera-equipped drone was there to help adjust the final target, indicating a fairly sophisticated command and control capability, something that clearly impressed the Russian General Staff. The drones also were programmed with accurate intelligence that was harmonized with GPS maps. ..."
"... the accuracy of the drones is certainly the big issue and the Russians are almost certainly right that someone was helping the terrorists . ..."
Jan 14, 2018 | www.atimes.com

ussia is seeking international assistance in its quest to determine the source of swarming drone attacks on two of its military bases in Syria.

The twin strikes represent the first time swarming drones have been used by terrorists against hardened targets, and judging from the excitement on the Russian side, they are clearly worried and upset. While denying that they lost any equipment in the strikes, it is hard to explain otherwise the level of alarm in Russia's military.

The Russian General Staff held a briefing in Moscow to show off some of the home-made drones that were used to attack Hmeimim Air Base in Latakia, Syria and the important Russian naval base in Tartus .

The drones themselves are simple. They use a small commercial gasoline two stroke engine that might be found in a weed whacker or used to power a bicycle. Structurally the drones are made out of wooden spars and styrofoam "boards" that are tied into the wooden structure with glue and plastic wrap.

The drone itself is launched from some sort of simple rail platform and guided by two piece of wood on the drone with cutouts to protect the drone's aerodynamic quality. The drones carry either eight or ten bomblets, each stuffed with the explosive PETN (pentaerythritol tetranitrate), a very energetic explosive that has been favored by terrorists such as the shoe bomber, Richard Reid. PETN needs to be ignited by an explosive fuse, and the bomblets all have fuses that explode on contact.

The Russians have pointed to the Ukraine as a possible source of PETN for the bombs. But there are many other sources and PETN and other explosives such as RDX are widely available on the black market. No doubt the Russians are trying to find out if the PETN in the drones has some chemical characteristic that would point to its source, but it is unlikely even the Russians will be able to identify the Ukrainians as the source.

The bomblets are released by a solenoid that opens gaps in a sliding metal bar. The bomblets contain about 1 KG of PETN plus a string of epoxied ball bearings wrapped around the PETN explosive.

It appears the mission of the swarming drones was three-fold:

Most of the focus was on Hmeimim Air Base where 10 drones were used in a swarming attack; another three drones struck the Tartus Naval Base.

The Russians claim that one of the drones carried a camera and had the ability to adjust the track of the other drones if needed. The drones themselves were guided by GPS and the flight path for each one was pre-programmed.

What especially disturbs the Russian analysts – and on this point they are still unable to identify the source – is that the drones were accurately programmed not only to reach the bases, but to hit specific targets that could not be attacked using standard GPS-generated maps or rely on GPS for accurate targeting. The single camera-equipped drone was there to help adjust the final target, indicating a fairly sophisticated command and control capability, something that clearly impressed the Russian General Staff. The drones also were programmed with accurate intelligence that was harmonized with GPS maps.

The Russians captured a number of the drones which they claim they were able to gain control over and crash land (the drones are not capable of landing in the normal sense). They were able to read out the directional plots and see that the programming was very accurate to locate targets. More than likely the targeting was aimed at parked Russian aircraft, since the bomblets would do very little damage to buildings. It is less sure the targeting included Russian air defense missiles, as these are of little or no interest to terrorist who don't have an air force.

Bottom line: the accuracy of the mapping means that the drones were supported by a well-established military organization capable of spotting the targets and adjusting GPS maps to their exact location. Putting aside the fact that the drones may, or may not have achieved their objectives (whether you believe the Russians shot down or controlled most of them and did not suffer any losses, or alternatively the terrorist-leaks to the press where some seven Russian aircraft, including at least one Su-35 are claimed to have been destroyed) the accuracy of the drones is certainly the big issue and the Russians are almost certainly right that someone was helping the terrorists .

At first the Russians blamed the Turks. Next they blamed the Americans and pointed out that a US Navy Reconnaissance plane may have been involved. More recently the Russians are accusing the Ukrainians.

What the Russians have not done is to blame the Iranians, ostensibly their ally in Syria. But the Iranians know the Russians are under pressure for a settlement of the Syrian mess (maybe linked to some deal on Ukraine), and perhaps the biggest demand (from Saudi Arabia, the United States and Israel) is for the Iranians and Hezbollah to leave Syria. Kicking the Russians hard may be the Iranian way of sending a strong message to Putin that they are not leaving and that Putin needs "them" to protect vital Russian bases.

Whatever one thinks, the Russians are deeply troubled and afraid these kinds of attacks will migrate to Russian territory in the hands of local terrorists (who also have been operating with ISIS in Syria). That's why even the Russian Defense Ministry and General Staff are looking for international help to prevent swarm drone attacks.

[Jan 14, 2018] Trump Stumped As Bannon-Backed Roy Moore Wins Alabama Republican Primary By Landslide

Bannon backed candidate later lost. So much for this Bannon "success".
This idea of Trump playing 6 dimensional chess is a joke. It's the same explanation that was pushed for Obama disastrous neocon foreign policy. Here is one very apt quote: "What Trump has done are disasters, and equates to treason. Selling billions of dollars of weapons the our enemies the terrorists/Saudis, killing innocent people in Syria, and Yemen, sending more troops to Afghanistan..." What 6-dimetional chess?
According to Occam razor principle the simplest explanation of Trump behaviour is probably the most correct. He does not control foright policy, outsourcing it to "generals" and be does not pursue domestic policy of creating jobs as he promised his electorate. In other words, both in foreign policy and domestic policy, he became a turncoat, betraying his electorate, much like Obama. kind of Republican Obama.
And as time goes by, Trump looks more and more like Hillary II or Republican Obama. So he might have problems with the candidates he supports in midterm elections. His isolationism, if it ever existed, is gone. Promise of jobs is gone. Detente with Russia is gone. What's left?
Note the level disappointment of what used to be Trump base in this site comment section...
Notable quotes:
"... In a serious rebuke for President Trump (and perhaps moreso for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell), ousted judge and alt-right favorite Roy Moore has won the Alabama Republican Primary by a landslide ..."
"... The Steve Bannon-backed candidate, who defied court orders to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom and refused to recognize gay marriage after the Supreme Court's June 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, is leading by 9.6 points with 92% of the votes counted... ..."
"... These attacks on Bannon were one of the most prominent news stories in the first week following Trump's election victory. It didn't take long, however, for a counter-attack to emerge - from the right-wing elements of the Jewish community. ..."
"... Bannon is a true fucking patriot trying to pull this once great country from the sinkhole. ..."
"... I think the reality is that this was a message to McConnell much more than Trump. That message is simple: I'm coming to kill your career. Bannon went out of his way to say he fully supports Trump (despite backing the opposite candidate). And, let's face it, if Bannon buries McConnell, he's doing everyone a service, Trump included. ..."
"... The echo chamber media "is so surprised" that in Germany and the US we are seeing a rising tide of pissed off people, well imagine fucking that? Leaving the echo chamber and not intellectually trying to understand the anger, but living the anger. ..."
"... Well, we can only hope that Trump gets the message. He was elected to be President of the USA, not Emperor of the World. Quote from that Monty Python film: "He's not the Messiah; he's a very naughty boy!" ..."
"... A cursory background reading on Roy Moore tells me that he is one of the worst types for public office. And he might just turn out to be like Trump -- act like an anti-swarm cowboy and promise a path to heaven, then show his real colors as an Establishment puppet once the braindead voters put him in office. ..."
"... When Trump won the Republican nomination, and then the Presidency it was because people were rebelling against the establishment rulers. There is considerable disgust with these big government rulers that are working for themselves and their corporate cronies, but not for the US population. ..."
"... Trump seems to have been compromised at this point, and his support of the establishment favourite, Luther Strange is evidence that he isn't really the outsider he claimed to be. Moore's victory in Alabama says the rebellion still has wheels, so there is some hope. ..."
"... In Missouri where I live, the anti-establishment Republican contender for the upcoming US Senatorial 2018 race is Austin Peterson. It will be interesting to see how he, and his counterparts in other states do in the primaries. Both of the current Missouri Senators are worthless. ..."
"... I remember well the last "3-Dimensional Chess master" Obama while he too was always out maneuvering his apponents, per the media reports... ..."
"... Every now and then Trump tends to make huge blunders, and sometimes betrayals without knowing what he is doing. "Champions"- (great leaders) do not do that. ..."
"... What Trump has done are disasters, and equates to treason. Selling billions of dollars of weapons the our enemies the terrorists/Saudis, killing innocent people in Syria, and Yemen, sending more troops to Afghanistan... ..."
"... It is epitome of self-delusion to see people twisting themselves into pretzels, trying to justify/rationalize Trump's continuing display of disloyalty to America ..."
"... YOU CAN'T BE A ZIONIST AND AN AMERICAN FIRSTER, IT IS ONE OR THE OTHER. ..."
Sep 27, 2017 | www.zerohedge.com

Congratulations to Roy Moore on his Republican Primary win in Alabama. Luther Strange started way back & ran a good race. Roy, WIN in Dec!

In a serious rebuke for President Trump (and perhaps moreso for Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell), ousted judge and alt-right favorite Roy Moore has won the Alabama Republican Primary by a landslide

The Steve Bannon-backed candidate, who defied court orders to remove the Ten Commandments from his courtroom and refused to recognize gay marriage after the Supreme Court's June 2015 ruling legalizing same-sex marriage, is leading by 9.6 points with 92% of the votes counted...

... ... ...

However, as Politco reported this evening, President Donald Trump began distancing himself from a Luther Strange loss before ballots were even cast, telling conservative activists Monday night the candidate he's backing in Alabama's GOP Senate primary was likely to lose ! and suggesting he'd done everything he could do given the circumstances.

Trump told conservative activists who visited the White House for dinner on Monday night that he'd underestimated the political power of Roy Moore, the firebrand populist and former judge who's supported by Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon, according to three people who were there.

And Trump gave a less-than full-throated endorsement during Friday's rally.

While he called Strange "a real fighter and a real good guy," he also mused on stage about whether he made a "mistake" by backing Strange and committed to campaign "like hell" for Moore if he won.

Trump was encouraged to pick Strange before the August primary by son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner as well as other aides, White House officials said. He was never going to endorse Alabama Republican Rep. Mo Brooks, who has at times opposed Trump's agenda, and knew little about Moore, officials said.

... ... ...

Déjà view -> Sanity Bear •Sep 26, 2017 11:19 PM

AIPAC HAS ALL BASES COVERED...MIGA !

On Sept. 11, the Alabama Daughters for Zion organization circulated a statement on Israel by Moore, which started by saying the U.S. and Israel "share not only a common Biblical heritage but also institutions of representative government and respect for religious freedom." He traced Israel's origin to God's promise to Abram and the 1948 creation of modern Israel as "a fulfillment of the Scriptures that foretold the regathering of the Jewish people to Israel."

Moore's statement includes five policy positions, including support for U.S. military assistance to Israel, protecting Israel from "Iranian aggression," opposing boycotts of Israel, supporting Israel at the United Nations, and supporting direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations without outside pressure. He added, "as long as Hamas and the Palestinian Authority wrongly refuse to recognize Israel's right to exist, such negotiations have scant chance of success."

While those views would give Moore common ground with much of the Jewish community regarding Israel, most of the state's Jewish community has been at odds with Moore over church-state issues, such as his displays of the Ten Commandments in courthouses, and his outspoken stance against homosexuality, both of which led to him being ousted as chief justice.

http://www.sjlmag.com/2017/09/alabama-senate-candidates-express.html?m=1

justa minute -> Déjà view •Sep 27, 2017 2:53 AM

moore misreads the Bible as most socalled christians do. they have been deceived, they have confused the Israel of God( those who have been given belief in Christ) with israel of the flesh. They cant hear Christs own words, woe is unto them. they are living in their own selfrighteousness, not good. they are going to have a big surprise for not following the Word of God instead following the tradition of men.

They were warned over and over in the Bible but they cant hear.

I Claudius -> VinceFostersGhost •Sep 27, 2017 6:27 AM

Forgive? Maybe. Forget? NEVER!! He tried to sell "US" out on this one. We now need to focus on bringing "Moore" candidates to the podium to run against the RINO's and take out McConnell and Ryan. It's time for Jared and Ivanka to go back to NYC so Jared can shore up his family's failing empire. However, if his business acumen is as accurate as his political then it's no wonder the family needed taxpayer funded visas to sell the property. Then on to ridding the White House of Gen Kelly and McMaster - two holdover generals from the Obama administration - after Obama forced out the real ones.

Clashfan -> Mycroft Holmes IV •Sep 26, 2017 11:33 PM

Rump has hoodwinked his supoprt base and turned on them almost immediately. Some refuse to acknowledge this.

"Ha! Your vote went to the Israel first swamp!"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Gdw_MVY1Vo

Déjà view -> Clashfan •Sep 27, 2017 1:00 AM

MIGA !

These attacks on Bannon were one of the most prominent news stories in the first week following Trump's election victory. It didn't take long, however, for a counter-attack to emerge - from the right-wing elements of the Jewish community. The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) came to Bannon's defense and accused the ADL of a "character assassination" against Bannon.

http://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-1.807776

The Wizard -> Oh regional Indian •Sep 26, 2017 10:12 PM

Trump should figure out the Deep State elites he has surrounded himself with, don't have control of the states Trump won. Trump thought he had to negotiate with these guys and his ego got the best of him. Bannon was trying to convince him he should have stayed the course and not give in.


Theosebes Goodfellow -> Oh regional Indian •Sep 26, 2017 10:35 PM

~"American politics gets moore strange by the day..."~

Technically speaking OhRI, with Moore's win politics became less Strange, or "Strange less", or "Sans Luther", depending on how one chose to phrase it [SMIRK]

Adullam -> Gaius Frakkin' Baltar •Sep 26, 2017 11:05 PM

Trump needs to fire Jared! Some news outlets are saying that it was his son in law who advised him to back Strange. He has to quit listening to those who want to destroy him or ... they will.

overbet -> Killtruck •Sep 26, 2017 9:41 PM

Bannon is a true fucking patriot trying to pull this once great country from the sinkhole.

Juggernaut x2 -> overbet •Sep 26, 2017 10:07 PM

Trump better pull his head out of his ass and quit being a wishy-washy populist on BS like Iran- the farther right he goes the greater his odds of reelection because he has pissed off a lot of the far-righters that put him in- getting rid of Kushner, Cohn and his daughter and negotiating w/Assad and distancing us from Israhell would be a huge help.

opport.knocks -> Juggernaut x2 •Sep 26, 2017 11:19 PM

Distancing us from Israel... LOLOLOLOL

https://youtu.be/tm5Je73bYOY

The whole Russiagate ploy was a diversion from (((them)))

NoDebt -> Killtruck •Sep 26, 2017 9:42 PM

I think the reality is that this was a message to McConnell much more than Trump. That message is simple: I'm coming to kill your career. Bannon went out of his way to say he fully supports Trump (despite backing the opposite candidate). And, let's face it, if Bannon buries McConnell, he's doing everyone a service, Trump included.

Oldwood -> NoDebt •Sep 26, 2017 10:08 PM

I think it was a setup.

Bannon would not oppose Trump that directly unless there was a wink and a nod involved.

Trump is still walking a tightrope, trying to appease his base AND keep as many establishment republicans at his side (even for only optics). By Trump supporting Strange while knowing he was an underdog AND completely apposed by Bannon/his base he was able to LOOK like he was supporting the establishment, while NOT really. Trump seldom backs losers which makes me think it was deliberate. Strange never made sense anyway.

But what do I know?

Urahara -> NoDebt •Sep 27, 2017 12:20 AM

Bannon is hardcore Isreal first. Why are you supporting the zionist? It's an obvious play.

general ambivalent -> Urahara •Sep 27, 2017 2:23 AM

People are desperate to rationalise their failure into a victory. They cannot give up on Hope so they have to use hyperbole in everything and pretend this is all leading to something great in 2020 or 2024.

None of these fools learned a damn thing and they are desperate to make the same mistake again. The swamp is full, so full that it has breached the banks and taken over all of society. Trump is a swamp monster, and you simply cannot reform the swamp when both sides are monsters. In other words, the inside is not an option, so it has to be done the hard way. But people would prefer to keep voting in the swamp.

Al Gophilia -> NoDebt •Sep 27, 2017 3:58 AM

Bannon as president would really have those swamp creatures squirming. There wouldn't be this Trump crap about surrounding himself with likeminded friends, such as Goldman Sachs turnstile workers and his good pals in the MIC.

Don't tell me he didn't choose them because if he didn't, then they were placed. That means he doesn't have the clout he pretends to have or control of the agenda that the people asked him to deliver. His backing of Stange is telling.

Lanka -> LindseyNarratesWordress •Sep 26, 2017 11:07 PM

McMaster and Kelly have Trump under house arrest.

Bobbyrib -> LindseyNarratesWordress •Sep 27, 2017 5:38 AM

He will not fire Kushner or Ivanka who have become part of the swamp. I'm so sick of these 'Trump is a genius and planned this all along.'

To me Trump is a Mr. Bean type character that has been very fortunate and just goes with the flow. He has nearly no diplomacy, or strategic skills.

NoWayJose •Sep 26, 2017 10:35 PM

Dear President Trump - if you like your job, listen to these voters. Borders, Walls, limited immigrants (including all those that Ryan and McConnell are sneaking through under your very nose), trade agreements to keep American jobs, and respect for our flag, our country, and the unborn!

nevertheless -> loveyajimbo •Sep 26, 2017 11:19 PM

I had hope for Trump, but as someone who reads ZH often, and does not suffer from amnesia (like much of America), I knew he was way too good to be true.

We all know his back tracking, his flip flops...and while the media and many paid bloggers like to spin it as "not his fault", it actually is.

His sending DACA to Congress was the last straw. Obama enacted DACA with a stroke of his pen, but Trump "needed to send it to Congress so they could "get it right". The only thing Congress does with immigration is try and get amnesty passed.

Of course while Trump sends DACA to Congress, he does not mind using the military without Congress, which he actually should do.

Why is it when it's something American's want, it has to go through the "correct channels", but when its something the Zionists want, he does it with the wave of his pen? We saw the same bull shit games with Obama...

Dilluminati •Sep 26, 2017 11:02 PM

Anybody surprised by this is pretending the civility at the workplace isn't masking anger at corporate America and Government. I'll go in and put in the 8 hours, I'm an adult that is part of the job. However I'm actually fed up with allot of the stupid shit and want the establishment to work, problem is that we are witnessing failed nations, failed schools, failed healthcare, even failed employment contracts, conditions, and wages.

The echo chamber media "is so surprised" that in Germany and the US we are seeing a rising tide of pissed off people, well imagine fucking that? Leaving the echo chamber and not intellectually trying to understand the anger, but living the anger.

You haven't seen anything yet in Catalonia/Spain etc, Brexit, or so..

This is what failure looks like: That moment the Romanovs and Louis XVI looked around the room seeking an understanding eye, there was none.

Pascal1967 •Sep 26, 2017 11:19 PM

Dear Trump:

Quit listening to your moron son-in-law, swamp creature, Goldman Sachs douchebag son-in-law Kushner. HE SUCKS!! If you truly had BALLS, you would FIRE his fucking ass. HE is The Swamp, He Is Nepotism! THE AMERICAN PEOPLE HATE HIM.

MAGA! LISTEN TO BANNON, DONALD.

DO NOT FUCK THIS UP!

ROY MOORE, 100%!!!!

You lost, Trump ... get your shit together before it is too late!

ElTerco •Sep 26, 2017 11:28 PM

Bannon was always the smarts behind the whole operation. Now we are just left with a complete idiot in office.

Also, unlike Trump, Bannon actually gives a shit about what happens to the American people rather than the American tax system. At the end of the day, all Trump really cares about is himself.

samsara •Sep 26, 2017 11:25 PM
I think most people get it backwards about Trump and the Deplorables.

I believed in pulling troops a from all the war zones and Trump said he felt the same

I believed in Legal immigration, sending people back if here illegal especially if involved in crime, Trump said he felt the same.

I believed in America first in negotiating treaties, Trump said he felt the same.

I didn't 'vote' for Trump per se, he was the proxy.

We didn't leave Him, He left us.

BarnacleBill •Sep 26, 2017 11:31 PM

Well, we can only hope that Trump gets the message. He was elected to be President of the USA, not Emperor of the World. Quote from that Monty Python film: "He's not the Messiah; he's a very naughty boy!" It's high time he turned back to the job he promised to do, and drain that swamp.

napper •Sep 26, 2017 11:47 PM

A cursory background reading on Roy Moore tells me that he is one of the worst types for public office. And he might just turn out to be like Trump -- act like an anti-swarm cowboy and promise a path to heaven, then show his real colors as an Establishment puppet once the braindead voters put him in office.

America is doomed from top (the swarm) to bottom (the brainless voters).

Sid Davis •Sep 27, 2017 1:40 AM

When Trump won the Republican nomination, and then the Presidency it was because people were rebelling against the establishment rulers. There is considerable disgust with these big government rulers that are working for themselves and their corporate cronies, but not for the US population.

Trump seems to have been compromised at this point, and his support of the establishment favourite, Luther Strange is evidence that he isn't really the outsider he claimed to be. Moore's victory in Alabama says the rebellion still has wheels, so there is some hope.

In Missouri where I live, the anti-establishment Republican contender for the upcoming US Senatorial 2018 race is Austin Peterson. It will be interesting to see how he, and his counterparts in other states do in the primaries. Both of the current Missouri Senators are worthless.

nevertheless -> pfwed •Sep 27, 2017 7:33 AM

I remember well the last "3-Dimensional Chess master" Obama while he too was always out maneuvering his apponents, per the media reports...

LoveTruth •Sep 27, 2017 2:56 AM

Every now and then Trump tends to make huge blunders, and sometimes betrayals without knowing what he is doing. "Champions"- (great leaders) do not do that.

nevertheless -> LoveTruth •Sep 27, 2017 7:16 AM

What Trump has done are disasters, and equates to treason. Selling billions of dollars of weapons the our enemies the terrorists/Saudis, killing innocent people in Syria, and Yemen, sending more troops to Afghanistan...

But most treasonous of all was his sending DACA to "get it right", really? Congress has only one goal with immigration, amnesty, and Chump knows dam well they will send him legislation that will clearly or covertly grant amnesty for millions and millions of illegals, dressed up as "security".

Obama enacted DACA with the stroke of a pen, and while TRUMP promised to end it, he did NOT. Why is it when it's something Americans want, it has to be "Constitutional", but when it comes form his banker pals, like starting a war, he can do that unilaterally.

archie bird -> nevertheless •Sep 27, 2017 7:45 AM

Bernie wants to cut aid to Israel https://townhall.com/tipsheet/mattvespa/2017/09/25/bernie-sanders-yeah-i...

nevertheless •Sep 27, 2017 8:04 AM

It is epitome of self-delusion to see people twisting themselves into pretzels, trying to justify/rationalize Trump's continuing display of disloyalty to America, and loyalty to Zionism.

Trump should always have been seen as a likely Zionist shill. He comes form Jew York City, owes everything he is to Zionist Jewish bankers, is a self proclaimed Zionist...

YOU CAN'T BE A ZIONIST AND AN AMERICAN FIRSTER, IT IS ONE OR THE OTHER.

Either Zero Hedge is over run with Zionist hasbara, giving cover to their boy Chump, or Americans on the "right" have become as gullible as those who supported Obama on the "left".

[Jan 13, 2018] Who Attacked a Russian Military Base with a Swarm Strike

Quite possible it was UAE behind the attack. See Brennan and Morrell might work on creating UAE Intelligence agency modeled after CIA
Notable quotes:
"... So no one will be surprised that the Taliban in Afghanistan also has the capability to attack US bases with drone swarms ..."
"... "what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!" - Walter Scott ..."
Jan 13, 2018 | nationalinterest.org

Hippie! , January 12, 2018 9:35 PM

So no one will be surprised that the Taliban in Afghanistan also has the capability to attack US bases with drone swarms?

"what a tangled web we weave when first we practise to deceive!" - Walter Scott

[Jan 12, 2018] Air raids and missile attacks show Israel flexing its muscles in Syria by Patrick Cockburn

Jan 09, 2018 | www.unz.com

Israeli jets and ground-to-ground missile attacks on targets in the outskirts of Damascus are a mark of Israel's heightened concern as President Bashar al-Assad comes close to winning the civil war in Syria. Israel's security cabinet has held meetings several times in recent days to discuss how it should respond to the "day-after" the war as Syria returns to Mr Assad's control and to Iran's expanded influence in Syria according to Israeli television reports.

... ... ...

Israel has received vociferous backing from President Trump and the US but the Israelis must wonder – along with the rest of the world – how much Mr Trump's supportive tweets are really worth. Even his recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel is not an unalloyed gain for Israel since it changes nothing much on the ground, but it has put the Israeli-Palestinian issue back at the top of the political agenda in the Middle East to a degree not seen since 9/11 and the start of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

The Israeli air strikes are not necessarily a precursor to a wider military conflict, but they do show that Israel believes it can no longer stay on the margins of the Syrian war. As the conflict comes to an end that is bound to be messy, Israel wants to be a leading player in shaping its final outcome.

[Jan 12, 2018] We Know Who They Are Putin Claims State Provocateur Behind Terrorist Drones In Syria

Jan 12, 2018 | www.zerohedge.com

Also notable in terms of the potential for US involvement, which also affirms that Russian suspicions are not mere "paranoia," is that one of the high level planners behind CIA operations in Syria, former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell, declared publicly that "we need to make the Russians pay the price" in Syria by "covertly" killing them via proxies.

Though as the Daily Beast notes anti-government insurgents in Syria have long had access to black market drones sold through social media, Russia has consistently pointed to the high tech navigational and weapons components added. An earlier Russian Defense Ministry statement said the attack needed a "high-level engineer" and that "not every country is able to get sharp coordinates using space intelligence data" while also citing the presence of "foreign detonating fuses". The statement further indicated that, " Russian specialists are determining supply channels, through which terrorists had received the technologies and devices, as well as examining type and origin of explosive compounds used in the IEDs."

And given Putin's words on Thursday, it sounds like Russia believes it has proof of the outside sponsor of the operation - though it's unclear why it is not forthcoming with the evidence as it has been in some past incidents. It could be that Russian defense doesn't actually have the level of proof needed to convince an international audience, or the more likely scenario perhaps involves the delicacy of Russia's current attempts to negotiate a settlement to the war and continued military withdrawal of its forces .

Regarding these negotiations, Putin said on Thursday of the recent attacks on its Syrian bases, "Those were provocations aimed at disrupting the earlier agreements, in the first place . Secondly, it was about our relations with our partners - Turkey and Iran. It was also an attempt to destroy those relations." Last November a trilateral Syria deal was reached between Russia, Turkey, and Iran in Sochi, Russia over the future of Syria which emphasized winding down the war while keeping the country intact and creating a humanitarian and diplomatic solution, and also included planned Moscow-sponsored talks between the Syrian government and recognized opposition.

The US and other Western powers were notably excluded from the talks, which many analysts now see as signifying that Putin is in the driver's seat when it comes to setting the final terms for winding down the war. Russia suspects that the latest attacks on Khmeimim are provocations designed to introduce suspicion among signatories to the deal , especially those elements of the Syrian opposition set to meet for continued Russian sponsored negotiations at the end of January .

Interestingly, the Russian Foreign Ministry actually previously warned of "staged provocations " aimed at doing just this in the days prior to the first January mortar attack on Khmeimim. As we reported at the time of a prior missile attack on the base, FM spokesperson Maria Zakharova warned at a December 28 press conference that ongoing attacks were " another link in the chain of ongoing and, perhaps, staged provocations involving terrorists and extremists from the Syrian opposition aimed at disrupting the positive trends in the development of the situation in Syria and, in particular, at creating obstacles to convening and holding the Syrian National Dialogue Congress in Sochi on January 29-30."

Also notable in terms of the potential for US involvement, which also affirms that Russian suspicions are not mere "paranoia," is that one of the high level planners behind CIA operations in Syria, former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell, declared publicly that "we need to make the Russians pay the price" in Syria by "covertly" killing them via proxies.

The CIA's Morell said the following in a televised Charlie Rose interview at that time :

Morell : We need to make the Iranians pay the price in Syria; we need to make the Russians pay the price.

Rose: We make them pay the price by killing Russians and killing Iranians?

Morell : Yes. Covertly. You don't tell the world about it. You don't stand at the Pentagon and say we did this. But you make sure they know it in Moscow and Tehran. I want to go after those things that Assad sees as his personal power base. I want to scare Assad. I want to go after his presidential car. I want to bomb his offices in the middle of the night. I want to destroy his presidential aircraft. I want to destroy his presidential helicopters. I want to make him think we are coming after him.

With such brazen and public past admissions by US intelligence officials it is clear that no scenario should be taken off the table regarding what happened with these recent technologically advanced attacks on Russian assets in Syria. This could indeed very likely be the United States or a regional state actor making Russians "pay the price" for being there .

Though both attacks would appear to be merely the work of Islamist rebel factions occupying nearby Idlib, multiple extraordinary factors led the Russian Ministry of Defense to immediately state that the perpetrators must have had outside state sponsorship. First there was - as the Russian Ministry of Defense mentioned in an early media statement - "strange coincidences" surrounding the terrorist attack: these included a US spy plane spotted in the area, namely a US Navy's Boeing P-8 Poseidon reconnaissance aircraft on patrol between the Khmeimim airbase and Tartus naval base in Syria during the time of the attack.

Secondly, the airbase lies deep within Syrian regime territory in what is among the most secure areas in all of Syria, which also underscores the need for advanced satellite and navigational coordination from a state actors. The Russian military claims the drones came from the village of Muwazarra in Idlib, around 50 miles away, which makes Ahrar Al Sham or Hay'at Tahrir Al Sham the immediate culprit. Both groups, though blacklisted as terror organizations by the Pentagon, have received direct and indirect assistance by the CIA and allied intelligence services at various points over the course of the war, especially during the 2015 campaign to wrest Idlib city from the control of the Syrian government.

Third, the Russian military in its examination of the recovered drones found high tech components well beyond what initially appeared to be rebel-made improvised devices manufactured locally. Putin went so far as to say the drones and explosives were purposefully made to appear primitive and homemade in order to conceal the advanced technology they were outfitted with . On Thursday he said, "As for these attacks, they were undoubtedly prepared well. We know when and where these unmanned vehicles were handed over [to the attackers], and how many of them there were. These aerial vehicles were disguised - I would like to stress that - as homemade. But it is obvious that some high-tech equipment was used."

Russia has yet to reveal the identity of those responsible, but has strongly hinted at the United States or a regional US ally, which elicited a Pentagon response this week with a spokesperson saying the suggestion is " without any basis in fact and is utterly irresponsible."

The UK Daily Mail featured detailed Russian defense photographs of the recovered drones, which were noted to be "immune to jamming technology" and summarized the advanced capabilities as follows :


Also notable in terms of the potential for US involvement, which also affirms that Russian suspicions are not mere "paranoia," is that one of the high level planners behind CIA operations in Syria, former CIA Acting Director Michael Morell, declared publicly that "we need to make the Russians pay the price" in Syria by "covertly" killing them via proxies.

The CIA's Morell said the following in a televised Charlie Rose interview at that time :

Morell : We need to make the Iranians pay the price in Syria; we need to make the Russians pay the price.

Rose: We make them pay the price by killing Russians and killing Iranians?

Morell : Yes. Covertly. You don't tell the world about it. You don't stand at the Pentagon and say we did this. But you make sure they know it in Moscow and Tehran. I want to go after those things that Assad sees as his personal power base. I want to scare Assad. I want to go after his presidential car. I want to bomb his offices in the middle of the night. I want to destroy his presidential aircraft. I want to destroy his presidential helicopters. I want to make him think we are coming after him.

With such brazen and public past admissions by US intelligence officials it is clear that no scenario should be taken off the table regarding what happened with these recent technologically advanced attacks on Russian assets in Syria. This could indeed very likely be the United States or a regional state actor making Russians "pay the price" for being there .

Brazen Heist -> peddling-fiction Jan 12, 2018 1:40 PM Permalink

Who would want to attack the Russians in Syria...hmm let me bring out the list of candidates...

  • Saudi Arabia
  • USA
  • Israel
  • Qatar
  • Some patsy working for the above
JSBach1 -> Brazen Heist Jan 12, 2018 1:52 PM Permalink

Interesting article on moon of alabama about a new offensive in SE Idlib region against SAA forces by "moderate" rebels supplied/assisted by Turkey entitled: ' Syria - Erdogan (Again) Switches Sides - Delivers New Supplies For Terrorist Attacks'

D503 -> JSBach1 Jan 12, 2018 2:01 PM Permalink

Societal collapse or world war, societal collapse or world war....hmmmm. What do you think single mother, government dependent, pussy hat wearing, terrorist inviting, uninformed voter?

JSBach1 -> D503 Jan 12, 2018 2:18 PM Permalink

" Morell : Yes. Covertly. You don't tell the world about it. You don't stand at the Pentagon and say we did this . But you make sure they know it in Moscow and Tehran. I want to go after those things that Assad sees as his personal power base. I want to scare Assad. I want to go after his presidential car. I want to bomb his offices in the middle of the night. I want to destroy his presidential aircraft. I want to destroy his presidential helicopters. I want to make him think we are coming after him ."

...spoken like a true psychopath that he and others like him who hold/held high-ranking positions think about day-in and day-out ...

a fitting end for such vermin is the gallows...

[EDIT]: Remember this article: Israel Threatens To Bomb Assad's Presidential Palace ...

... or this: Yoav Galant, a former general said : "... time has come to assassinate Assad ... And when we finish with the tail[Syria] of the serpent, we will reach the head of the serpent, which can be found in Tehran, and we will deal with it, too "

... or then SOS Hillary Clinton, as provided by Wikileaks , stated: " The best way to help Israel deal with Iran's growing nuclear capability is to help the people of Syria overthrow the regime of Bashar Assad ...

Iran's nuclear program and Syria's civil war may seem unconnected, but they are. For Israeli leaders, the real threat from a nuclear-armed Iran is not the prospect of an insane Iranian leader launching an unprovoked Iranian nuclear attack on Israel that would lead to the annihilation of both countries. What Israeli military leaders really worry about -- but cannot talk about -- is losing their nuclear monopoly . An Iranian nuclear weapons capability would not only end that nuclear monopoly but could also prompt other adversaries, like Saudi Arabia and Egypt, to go nuclear as well. The result would be a precarious nuclear balance in which Israel could not respond to provocations with conventional military strikes on Syria and Lebanon, as it can today. "

Why is it that top US officials sound almost exactly like their Israeli counterparts...who speaks for whom (rhetorical question)???

Teja -> JSBach1 Jan 12, 2018 2:34 PM Permalink

Ah, I thought psychopathic "open words" are all the rage these days? Shitholes, anyone?

stizazz -> Teja Jan 12, 2018 6:54 PM Permalink

"we (CIA) need to make the Russians pay the price for being in Syria..."

... our Israeli Masters told us to.

http://bipworldview.wordpress.com/2018/01/10/whats-really-going-on-in-t

peddling-fiction -> stizazz Jan 12, 2018 7:13 PM Permalink

I have a feeling that Jordan somehow is involved as well, or Jordan is wandering off the reservation.

Look at the dirt that just was flung at Jordan by the Russians.

https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201801131060719736-jordan-king-secre

In a tale of forbidden love, secret princes, madness and murder that would be difficult to believe as the plot of an airport paperback, the CIA has declassified documents showing that King Hussein of Jordan had a child out of wedlock with an American Jewish actress - who was later killed by their own lovechild.

Edgy-Tyler, do you dare put that article on ZH?

Note to myself: Need to buy lots of popcorn.

Not Too Important -> JSBach1 Jan 12, 2018 3:12 PM Permalink

Wasn't this solved the other day?

"A Strange Coincidence": US Spy Plane Circled Near Russian Base During Massive Drone Attack

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-09/strange-coincidence-us-spy-pl

Scipio Africanuz -> JSBach1 Jan 12, 2018 8:23 PM Permalink

You're absolutely correct, they're scared. Trump gave them what was not in his power to give, Jerusalem. They couldn't take possession because the entire world, less the brigands, said hell no!

The wound is a fatal one for the isreali regime, just a matter of time now, all their plans and actions, achieve the opposite of their desires, from Iraq, to Syria, to Iran. The world is woke!

uhland62 -> JSBach1 Jan 12, 2018 9:48 PM Permalink

Meddlers, satisfying their bloodlust. It's a requirement for office in D.C. How do we dethrone them?

HowdyDoody -> JSBach1 Jan 12, 2018 3:17 PM Permalink

The article is bullshit. The APCs could have been supplied by the Turks. They could have been supplied by Gulenist/CIA agents in Turkey. They could have been captured by US-ISIS forces from the Turkish forces in Syria. They could have been captured from the Turks by US-Kurd forces and supplied to US-ISIS forces. Transport vehicles are strategically irrelevant. Now if the floodgates for ISIS reinforcements was opened, that would be strategically significant. By one of those amazing coinkydinks, the US-Kurds released hundreds of US-ISIS 'prisoners' shortly before the attacks. I bet they didn't go on R&R after release.

Putin has confirmed the Turks were not involved in the swarm attack and it was intended to drive a wedge between Turkey and Russia. The supply of Turkish vehicles ditto. Qui bono?

JSBach1 -> HowdyDoody Jan 12, 2018 5:31 PM Permalink

HD: (BTW I did not junk you)

I do not believe the article I referenced insinuated that those vehicles came from Dubai (if that is what you are alleging) or what was the originating source, only that it was a variant of one that is known to produce "Special Purpose Vehicles" in Dubai -- but that Turkey was used as a conduit to supply weapons (bolded text my own):

"The Syrian army captured one of the the new armored personal carriers. The various pictures and videos show a variant of the Armored Panthera F9 produced by the company Minerva SPV which resides in Dubai, United Arab Emirates."

Turkey (again) delivered hundreds of tons of weapons to the jihadis. New supplies of TOW anti-tank missiles, distributed exclusively by the CIA, have also been seen. (Turkey is also again supplying jihadists in Libya. The Greek navy just caught a ship going from Turkey to Libya with 29 containers full of bomb precursors, detonators and other bomb making parts.)

Ali Özkök‏ @Ozkok_ - 10:06 AM - 11 Jan 2018
#Turkey supplied Feylaq el-Sham militia with at least six armoured vehicles . This is a major indicator that Turkey also supports the massive counter offensive of rebels and islamists in #Idlib and #Hama against Syrian army and allies ! I guess we will see soon some ATGM strikes.

The "moderate" rebel forces where trying to stop the breakthrough by SAA to split their, the "moderate" rebels', pocket in Idlib region into two, thus encircling the eastern portion completely (look at the map provided in the aforementioned article). Is it not interesting that this new counteroffensive by the "moderate" rebels was aimed -- coincidentally to be sure /s -- at a breakthrough to the ISIS enclave that seems trapped in the eastern pocket (again see the map provided in the aforementioned article)?

The other thing to keep an eye on was this (bolded text my own):

"The "rebels" in Idleb also set up a website with 150 pre-scripted tweets about killed children and barrel bombed hospitals which their fans can distribute at will . In the next few days we will hear news of the destruction of at least eight "last hospitals" in the Idleb governorate ..."

Ghost of PartysOver -> peddling-fiction Jan 12, 2018 1:49 PM Permalink

Troglodyte Erudite, Washington Post is not even worthy of the effort it takes to click a mouse button.

BobEore -> Troglodyte Erudite Jan 12, 2018 8:49 PM Permalink

Are your suggesting that the UAE is behind it? Intriguing! In the delicate dance between the members of the love-hate menage a trois - Srael, Russia... and their jointly if somewhat chaotically managed puppet state Turkey...

the strings sometimes pull sharply this way, then sharply the other. Currently, the dynamic has shifted a bit to the Srael side, and the groupings of jihadist factions controlled by Ankara have been busy making signals of displeasure about the thwarting of the caliphs plans for further intrusions in north Syria/Rojava.

As a result... the drone drama. There is very little mystery about the source of the weaponry. It has doubtless been lab-tested and identified. Turkish military manufacturers have been busy turning out.. and seeking markets for... their new array of drones with the latest military applications. Their recent attendance at the s e Asian trade fair in Thailand with all their various arsenals on display was a sign of their eagerness to impress cash-rich clients. But the proof is in the pudding - as always - and therefore 'field demonstrations' the order of the day!

Masters of the tight-lipped \delayed response/kind of diplomatic warfare, the Russkies have observed this sally from their erstwhile 'partners' in tel aviv with the same discipline as was applied when their ambassador was offed in Turkey in a previous episode of tit for tat intrigue which the mediaz were unable to wrap their noggins round. And as always... foolish fanbouys will rush in ... on cue... with the usual blustery bullshit bout "CIAs" and other creatures of the night... hoping to ward off further erosion of a fake news storyline the wheels of which have been falling off to no end lately!

[Jan 12, 2018] Syria - Army Gains In Idleb - Insurgents To Challenge Foreign Occupiers

Jan 12, 2018 | www.moonofalabama.org

While the U.S. seems to have given up on regime change in Syria it is still trying to sabotage the progress of the Syrian government and its allies.

The recent drone attack on the Russian base Khmeimim in Latakia is just one example. Thirteen sophisticated armed drones with a reach of some 100 kilometers attacked the base at the same time as a U.S. electronic warfare plane was circling off the Syrian coast . The attack was unsuccessful. Russia has sophisticated electronic warfare means and hijacked the command over six of the drones. The other seven were taken down by Russian air defenses.

To claim, as the U.S. does, that ISIS or some "rebels" did this is nonsense. ISIS has made short range weaponized drones flown by remote control in line of sight mode. This attack was by autonomous drones using GPS and barometric sensors to find their way to their targets. This is qualitatively on a whole new level. I doubt that Russia will let this go unanswered. Look out for some "mishap" that may soon hit some U.S. troops or interests abroad.

Three significant military operations took place over the last few weeks.

TG , Jan 10, 2018 8:56:45 AM | 1

Minor point: it is surprising just how sophisticated hobbyist drones can be. You can buy modules for GPS and barometric pressure and multi-axis gyros etc. for dirt cheap. Of course, these modules will not be civilian grade and will not be hardened against jamming etc., which certainly sounds like what happened. Civilian GPS in particular can be easily over-ridden by external jamming. Granted that military systems are likely more robust, I am sure that the US is very interested in Russian anti-GPS jamming systems, given the heavy reliance of the US on GPS technology.
augusto , Jan 10, 2018 9:28:01 AM | 2
well, what U really mean in your comment up here,TG?
the US has deep interest in russian anti GPS systems but seemingly the 13 or so devices used last week to hit Russian bases were cheap hobbyist, shelf type stuff?
Or have we misinterpreted your view?
Piotr Berman , Jan 10, 2018 9:31:28 AM | 3
"most impotent operation of the last week", it was quite potent and important
Lea , Jan 10, 2018 9:44:18 AM | 4
Russian MoD: a US spy plane was spotted patrolling above the two Russian bases in Syria at the time of the drone attack.
https://www.rt.com/news/415374-drones-syria-terrorists-russian-defense/

Posted by: TG | Jan 10, 2018 8:56:45 AM | 1

The Russian MoD denies the drones were anything like hobbyist or makeshift drones, precisely. Those were serious military-grade combat drones.
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-01-09/strange-coincidence-us-spy-plane-circled-near-russian-base-during-massive-drone

Don Bacon , Jan 10, 2018 10:06:42 AM | 6
The US/YPG forces hold mostly-desert eastern Syria, east of the Euphrates (yellow portion of upper map), including the oil fields in the south of that area, but they will be completely land-locked by Turkey, Iraq and Syria. The US (after suffering some pay-back casualties perhaps) will have to admit defeat and leave.
J Swift , Jan 10, 2018 10:46:08 AM | 8
ZeroHedge quoting the Pentagon statement: "The Pentagon countered that while the US was "concerned" over the incident, Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankin-Galloway, however, claimed that "those devices and technologies can easily be obtained in the open market." He later also told Sputnik that the US already saw what it called "this type of commercial UAV [unmanned aerial vehicle] technology" being used in Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS) missions."

Interesting. How does HE know what technologies were used in the drones? Sounds like the US protest was a Freudian slip. And quite the coincidence that the operation was being monitored by a Poseidon. Was a warning radioed to the Russians that what appeared to be a swarm of drones was detected incoming? The attacks by various mediums over the last few days on the Russian airbase clearly shows defenses are being tested, and apparently tested in some scientific detail by having spy plane monitors. May be for planning of future attacks, may be because the US has determined it is losing and wants to gain as much intel as possible now, in case they have to bug out soon and lose the ability to test current tech Russian defenses. Where else in the world could they do so without starting a top-level conflict? One wonders if the drones were all configured differently, in an attempt to pin down up to what level of shielding Russian tech could take over a drone, and beyond which they would have to be shot down?

Don Bacon , Jan 10, 2018 10:46:48 AM | 9
The principal US objective, using ISIS, YPG and others, has been to break the "Shia crescent" from Tehran to Beirut, which the US stupidly created with its Operation Iraqi Freedom. That is a failure even with the US/YPG in eastern Syria, as seen here .
So chalk up another military failure for the Pentagon and its clueless generals.
Don Bacon , Jan 10, 2018 10:54:42 AM | 11
from M K Bhadrakumar
>Why is the US is contesting the Russian bases in Syria? The point is, these Russian bases are located in Latakia province along the Mediterranean coast. And the US military objective is to gain access to the Mediterranean coast for the Kurdistan enclave it is creating in Syria without which the enclave will be landlocked and dependent critically on supply routes via Turkey or Iraq, apart from being economically unviable (although it is an oil-rich region of Syria.)
> The Saudi establishment daily Asharq Al-Awsat reported on Monday that the Trump administration is planning to grant diplomatic recognition to the Kurdistan enclave in northern Syria (which is of the size of Lebanon.) The idea is to create a permanent foothold for the US and Israel in a strategic, economically self-sufficient independent Kurdistan where the borders of Turkey, Iraq and Syria meet, and which may eventually reach Iran's western border with northern Iraq.
> But the US-Israeli strategy will remain a pipedream if the Kurdistsn is land-locked and continues to be challenged by Turkey, Iran, Iraq and Syria. Hence the criticality of creating an access route to the Mediterranean via Latakia province.. . . here
Jackrabbit , Jan 10, 2018 11:02:25 AM | 12
The first map shows pockets of Dash still exist.

The UN mandate called on countries that were able to "eradicate the safe haven" that Dash and al Qaeda had created for themselves in Syria.

As long as pockets of Dash and al Qaeda exit, doesn't that allow US to justify their presence in the country?

Michael , Jan 10, 2018 11:04:41 AM | 13
I'm not surprised by the use of drones by the US. IMO Syria is THE testbed for new military technology, as the US can probe the efficacy of Russian S-400 systems. It was just a matter of time before swarming technologies were being tested in combat.

As stated in other news sources, the attack would require a sophisticated control center to manage the attack, which would explain the presence of a US spy plane lurking nearby.

The strategy of launching said drones from Turkish controlled areas adds the additional benefit of attempting to drive a wedge between the Turks and Russians.

The downside of testing this new technology is that the result will be escalatory with a green light given to the Russians to test their drone technology on American assets. This is after all a war, cold to hot, irrespective to what the diplomats may say.

IMO the entire affair is particularly tragic, as the constant drought besetting the entire Middle East for the last 5 to 9 years is just a prelude to the climatic challenges awaiting us all. The the situation will become all the more grim as water becomes more scarce, and temperatures soar, due to a runaway climate beginning to rear its ugly head with the melting of the Arctic. While the US lost half of its wheat crop in a matter of weeks to a flash drought last summer, Russia has become the largest exporter of wheat, due to our 2014 sanctions. I wonder what the West will do when it starts getting hungry and it has alienated a possibly great food supplier.

JTMcPhee , Jan 10, 2018 11:18:50 AM | 17
It's grim pleasure, and sort of entertaining fun, to sit among the armchair "warfighters" and geopoiliticians with all our varying degrees of expertise and knowledge. To sit and watch "events," and parse and digest and predict and prognosticate about all the complex goings-on in the subdivision of global forever war that we call "Syria." Which we cognoscenti tend to refer to as a reification with substance (yet lacking the kind of detail that can give a possibly more accurate and possibly predictive notion of 'What's shakin.' )The same simplification via hypostatization that we also do in talking and thinking about all the other players and moving parts of the Game, I guess necessarily, given the mode and scope of the blog form of communication.

I imagine, probably inaccurately, that the more involved players, with their white papers and intelligence estimates and assessments and access to the Global Network-Centric Interoperable Battlespace thingie and all the inputs from intel and lobbyists and courtiers from all the players fiscally interested in movements and outcomes, might have better and more accurate and "grainier" views and understandings of the state of play, along with a more complete review of the bidding. And some kind of organizing principle in mind, for what they have done, what they are doing, and hope and plan to do in future. Of course if one looks around, one finds input and thinking that looks a lot like this: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1269463/Afghanistan-PowerPoint-slide-Generals-left-baffled-PowerPoint-slide.html

What are, and what "ought to be," the organizing principles best to be pursued and actuated by us nearly 8 billion humans? All well and good to be a little comforted that the Syrian national army (with its backers and allies) is maybe kicking some brigands and thieves and war-banders out of areas they have "taken over."' Takeovers done with the encouragement and assistance of other backers and allies. Or, given the Byzantine and Machiavellian and totally corrupt and cynical nature of the Game, maybe some of the same people "backing" and "supplying" and "training" the "pro-Government forces," who the heck knows?) All those "take-overs" accomplished with more ,or less, cooperation and resistance from people living there.

So discourse about the Game and its play is structured around naming and attempting to analyze and put in context and rationalize and excoriate actions and structures of all the mostly mythical unitary characters, "monads" if you will, like "Syria" and "the US" and "Russia" and "Venezuela" and "Nigeria" and "China" and so forth, in this ongoing set of complex activities, shifting interests and alliances and supply chains and weapons development and murder. We, who spend time looking down this set of silos and postholes, try to tease out the threads of continuity and organization that we are just SURE must tie together, or at least explain and offer hints how to manipulate and ameliorate, all this activity and plotting and counter-counter-counter-inititaives and -operations. Kind of like the authors of a deep scholarly law review articles, who clam to find rules of decision and hence "rule of law" in the variegated decisions of our Supreme and lower courts.

Do the people running all the bits of this have any kind of organizing principle(s) directing their so very energetic daily workload and planning sessions? Another blog owner, who ought to know, said in response to that question, 'of course not, it's as it has always been and will be, it's just individuals and groups pursuing immediate interests.' He, of course, spent his career working for, and now spends his days speaking for, an organizing principle, maybe styled 'reformed and more successful hegemony" in the current parlance. And he is only one of millions who are thus involved in the Game., pulling on one of the many ropes attached to the Jaganath all are worshiping and augmenting.

So, many of us look for rationales and structures, and signs of hope that this is not just the end-game for our species, yet we sit in among people who are also (if only we knew, in this anonymous internet space where new forms of contention and deception and "persuasion") playing smaller or larger roles, as part of still other "operations and initiatives." And try to sort out "true facts" from the sly manipulations and deceptions and distractions of those ladling out the flood of Bernays Sauce we are all poaching in.

Too bad there is no such thing as a Prime Directive, an organizing principle, particularly one that says "do not kill your species with your stratagems and predilections." Increasingly, it looks like a mass death wish, with all the stacking of means and modes of destruction and death, from nuclear weapons (proliferating, on top of the thousands "commanded" the Demonstrably Incompetent Yet Massively Self-interested Warfighters in every "nation-state" and "tribe with flags," like the 200 to 600 the Israelites have built, and now the NKs, and the hate-driven folks in India and Pakistan with their ancient enmities and "rational mutual suspicions. And ambitions") to CRSP-R technology, to the globalized world of trade and finance, to AI that even its proponents and creators fear, to plastics everywhere, soil depletion and killing of potable water resources to irreversible climate effects from several centuries of carbo-combusts-consumption, to the IoT as a self-destructive Golem, for which we have lost the magic word of control. And so forth.

Though, of course, where lies and deception and stratagems plotted and carried out by the "successful few" at the top of heap are concerned, we can't even tell if it's the case that all the bad news and sorrows we are informed about aren't just part of some grand "fear, uncertainty and doubt" initiative and operation to fill us with existential dread and inject the virus of a vast sense of futility (an initiative that would go along with the asymptotic increase in looting behaviors by the Few and their commensallists) to keep the mass of us passive and bowed and accepting the sweep of the executioner's blade, after they have taken all our stuff and all our futures... Funny lines from "Buckaroo Banzai," rendered immortal by John Lithgow in his character as a Red Lectroid from the 8th Dimension: "Laugh'a while you can, monkey-boy!" And another, apropos of what I'm exploring here: "Jesu Christe! It'a Make the ganglia TWITCH!" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=xCyyU0bSPtk

One wonders, then, "Is that all there is?" https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=qe9kKf7SHco

Red Ryder , Jan 10, 2018 11:19:07 AM | 18
Russia has an opportunity to go USS Liberty ship on US electronics planes and UAVs.
Of course, they won't.

The most interesting information from b. and Magnier's blog is that Syria intends to wage an insurgency war of its own against the Turks, Kurds, AQ, al Nusra proxies in the de-escalation zones.

This seems very good. Better than waging a counter-insurgency war that the US and Israel are shaping for the Syrians to fight. The US attempt to turning ISIS and AQ into insurgents seems problematic. Mostly, they will be terrorists on small scale, disrupting transportation and reconstruction of Syrian economy.

If Syria launches its own insurgents in "occupied" areas, it will have the 'sea' of the populace to support its warriors. Already, in Idlib this is occurring. And presumably, along the Lebanon, Golan borders.

Whatever, the future is more war, large scale or small scale. Poor Syria. How its neighbors desire to consume her.

Russia will be forced out of its recent enclave strategy sooner than later. Diplomacy without military leverage will not result in security or sovereignty as the Russians hope.

fastfreddy , Jan 10, 2018 11:42:43 AM | 19
Carl at 7

Trump the Isolationist. He's gone.

Trump to enrich the MIC further with increased nuclear weapons development and then break out the nukes first in response to conventional weapons attacks.

Use of nukes to be in response to an attack on "critical infrastructure".

In other words, any road, bridge, water tower, airstrip, utility, drainage ditch.

In other words, a wide-open interpretation. Carte Blanche.

What could possibly go wrong?

xor , Jan 10, 2018 12:10:38 PM | 20
The first bigger map has a wrong URL and should be http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/syriamap20180109.jpg so withouth the 2 a's.

I think it's not that the US invaders and their SDF grunts are having troubles clearing the area of Daesh but that a lot less resources are made available now that they lost the race to Abu Kamal and the US needs an official pretense to stay in Syria and occupy the area which is completely illegal under international law. Without Daesh there would be even less reason and the one given would stick even less.

xor , Jan 10, 2018 12:10:38 PM | 20
The first bigger map has a wrong URL and should be http://www.moonofalabama.org/images5/syriamap20180109.jpg so withouth the 2 a's.

I think it's not that the US invaders and their SDF grunts are having troubles clearing the area of Daesh but that a lot less resources are made available now that they lost the race to Abu Kamal and the US needs an official pretense to stay in Syria and occupy the area which is completely illegal under international law. Without Daesh there would be even less reason and the one given would stick even less.

james , Jan 10, 2018 1:18:12 PM | 24
thanks b.. excellent coverage of what is happening in syria... unfortunately the usa-israel-ksa and company are not going to back down.. they will continue as they see the strengthening of syria as part of a larger problem of the strengthening of iran, or even iraq and other players that are not playing the same song book these players want.. i think the recent drone attack is proof of my viewpoint.. russia needs to make a move based on this brazen act and it needs to send a message loud and clear to not fuck with russia they way the usa-israel is doing at present..
Peter AU 1 , Jan 10, 2018 1:19:53 PM | 25
SAA is pushing through to Aleppo following the rail line. Seems more important than a new road. The ISIS pocket is advancing in step with SAA. On a map, it looks like they are covering SAA's right flank. Perhaps the ISIS pocket is Syrians looking for reconciliation?
harrylaw , Jan 10, 2018 1:34:44 PM | 29
Buy a drone from Alibaba length 3.4m, wingspan 4m, Range 900 Km, carry load of 5Kg. https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/CHILONG-Red-Dragon-V-9hrs-endurance_60568131307.html?spm=a2700.7724857.main07.77.6648f0c7i3zoWI
harrylaw , Jan 10, 2018 1:55:12 PM | 32
The Syrian government have said the Kurds can have an administrative devolution type settlement within a united and sovereign Syria, this is probably ok with Turkey. The US partitioning plan will not be agreed by Syria, Turkey, Iraq, Russia or Iran or by many Kurds. Because it is landlocked the oil and gas could not be exported. Maybe a Berlin airlift operation could work?
JS , Jan 10, 2018 2:39:23 PM | 35
@30 Peter AU 1:

According to Tass , the drones took off from one of the four de-escalation zones in Syria, this one being in Iblib zone:

"The ministry also said the drones that tried to attack Hmeymim and Tartus had been launched from the area of Muazzar, in the southwestern part of the de-escalation zone Idlib, held by the armed groups of the so-called moderate opposition."
Kassandra , Jan 10, 2018 4:26:28 PM | 44
Details on the drones: http://colonelcassad.livejournal.com/3923666.html#

They had been crafted by experienced manufacturers using all kind of components, not buildt in a professional military equipment factory. However, the craftsmen have been experienced and used widely available professional components for these one-way drones.

Might well be that they got some support and know-how from Western services who took care of plausible deniability. owever, the timely monitoring of the attack and the Russion defense capabilities is suspicious.

I recommend https://translate.yandex.com/translate for translation.

michaelj72 , Jan 10, 2018 4:50:28 PM | 47
if the US was in any responsible for those drones, it would also be very interested in watching the Russian response - the timing, success rate, etc, in order to also learn more about the russian equipment and capabilities in Syria for... uh... future 'reference'

form the RT news article, "...Pentagon spokesman Maj. Adrian Rankin-Galloway, however, claimed that "those devices and technologies can easily be obtained in the open market."....

https://www.rt.com/news/415374-drones-syria-terrorists-russian-defense/

Well I guess those "open market" technologies and devices can go both ways, right? Who could believe that there won't be blow-back against US interests or forces somewhere in eastern Europe or the middle east?

harrylaw , Jan 10, 2018 5:12:26 PM | 48
Iran has been developing drone warfare for years, they have just reverse engineered the US Sentinel RQ170 they brought down several years ago. Hezbollah also have armed drones flying around Israel.One intercepted flying near Dimona. Oh dear.

"According to video evidence, the Lebanese militant group has used small, cheap unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, to drop bombs on Syrian rebels in northern Syria. A video posted on YouTube in August shows what appears to be shrapnel bombs being launched from micro-drone operated by Hezbollah". http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/analysis-hezbollah-enters-new-war-use-armed-drones-syria-11412100

Jonathan , Jan 10, 2018 8:37:24 PM | 60
@55 zakukomander,

John Robb's been writing quite a bit about weaponizing drones and suggested terrorizing the OBOR as a matter of US national interest. I can almost smell the pride in this piece on the Hmeymim attack. http://globalguerrillas.typepad.com/globalguerrillas/2018/01/drone-swarm-vs-russian-base-in-syria.html

FB , Jan 10, 2018 11:55:33 PM | 62
@ Jonathan...

I checked out this brief piece by John Robb...

He adds this at the bottom...

'...The swarm also appears to be remotely controlled, likely as a means to provide target acquisition and terminal guidance. This allowed defense units to hack them...'

'Remotely controlled' is highly unlikely...in fact I would say ridiculous...

This cannot be done with off the shelf RC airplane stuff...which radio controllers only work within line of sight due to the nature of the radio frequency...which is 72 megaHertz...there are 50 dedicated channels from 72.01 to 72.99 MHz...in 0.02 MHz increments...

This small slice of radio band is reserved for RC aircraft and this is what the radio controllers are built for...

This frequency is in the VHF band... [very high frequency] which is used for FM radio, TV as well as air traffic control communications with aircraft...and air navigation systems...ie navaids for landing and such...each particular use of this band has a certain block of frequencies set aside for its exclusive use...

Aircraft cruising at high altitude can communicate quite long distances in this band but this makes use of high ground antennas...so they are still line of sight communications...but can reach longer due to the antenna height and aircraft altitude...

Even flying in a small plane at say 3,000 ft you will be lucky to get good radio at a distance of 40 nautical miles...[about 70 km]

This equipment also uses more powerful radio transmitters and receivers...both on the ground and in the airplane...

So 'remotely controlled' is not going to happen beyond line of sight with off the shelf model RC airplane equipment that is much weaker...that's going to be maybe a few kilometers...

For radio comms beyond line of sight the HF [high frequency] band is used...this is a lower frequency of between 3 and 30 MHz...these can reach very long distances because the radio signals in this wavelength bounce off the ionosphere...

These are used for radio comms with aircraft over ocean routes...where there are obviously no ground antennas nearby...but they are notoriously sensitive and temperamental...due to the bouncing...

Anyway this kind of equipment is not suitable for a flight of 100 km...it is really for much longer distances...and would be very difficult for anything but an expert to cook up...

So this John Robb...who claims to be a USAF Academy graduate in astronautics...as well as an airline transport pilot...is talking nonsense here about remotely controlled airplanes with off the shelf equipment reaching 100 km...

Like I said earlier...a well working autopilot will get this kind of aircraft to 100 km if it is designed correctly...but there is no remote control involved once the autopilot takes over...

Hacking into the airplane would not be that difficult by spoofing the GPS/Glonass receiver on board the aircraft...ie feeding a false location signal...this is how the Iranians brought down the extremely advanced USAF RQ170 Sentinel UAV...


Peter AU 1 , Jan 11, 2018 12:04:15 AM | 63
US tried to use a swarm of Tomahawks against the Syrian airbase last year, but lost over half of them. I guess they would be interested in what tech Russia used. Now a small swarm of drones attacks the Russian base and just by chance a US surveillance plane is loitering in the area.
Grieved , Jan 11, 2018 1:59:58 AM | 64
@61 Peter AU 1

Makes sense. Force the enemy to move so you can read him. Probing by fire, it was sometimes called. The attack serves multiple purposes. So it fits multiple analyses. Russian MOD says it was foreign, despite the plausible deniability built in.

I wonder if we'll even see the Russian response - it depends what they want to find out, or demonstrate, I suppose. It's the ironic thing about Russia, the better it performs, the more its supporters are in the dark about what it's doing.

Personally, I'm glad to see this turn into insurgency warfare. Less people die, the hands of the doomsday clock stop and maybe even relax a notch or two, and the tricks become more subtle.

~~

I read the analysis by Magnier and I can see why b recommended it. The piece by Bhadrakumar that Don Bacon linked @11 was equally good. And combined with the post by Ziad Fadel that karlof1 linked @49 we have a trifecta of superb analysis that rounds out b's summation, and places it all into global and historical perspective.

We've entered an entirely distinct new phase of the Syrian conflict, which is itself the crucible of a much larger regional conflict, and ultimately of course a global and perhaps even civilizational conflict.

This is the time of patience now, and those who are not patient will not meet the demands of this time, not on the battlefield, and not here on the sidelines - IMHO.

Grieved , Jan 11, 2018 2:08:51 AM | 65
@62

Guess I should have recapped those links: Magnier , Bhadrakumar , Fadel .

Piotr Berman , Jan 11, 2018 8:07:00 AM | 66
Turkey is more plausible as the instigator of drones because they have the best control of what goes to Idlib-stan. Recently Erdogan was making pretty hostile comments against Assad, and he is unhappy with the offensive that aims to cut 1/3 of the Idlib-stan away.

On the ground, both sides have limited number of mobile forces capable of serious attacks, and on Idlib-stan side, the leadership of such forces is fractured. Some decent counter attacks were launched in the last 24 hours, the advance of Tigers onto Abu Al-Duhur was repelled and there was an attack on the west flank of the salient that changed the control of two villages, if temporarily. This attack is ongoing. OTOH, Tigers are the best of SAA, of second-best are still quite good. Defense of Khanasser highway seem to consist of "third-best" and a quick reaction force that liquidates any breaches through third-best defenses. Now these "second-best" attack to split the east lobe of Idlib-stan into southern and northern parts, and they made impressive progress. That makes a real dilemma for the defenders how to allocate forces: Tigers on their west side, ISIS on their south, and Khanasser forces on the east (they were described as "SAA-led").

Strangely enough, ISIS pocket so far avoided attacks on SAA, but one was also reported in the last 24 hours. This is a multi-way war theater.

Ghost Ship , Jan 11, 2018 8:41:21 AM | 69
Oh, and another thing? Does the United States have anything like the Pantsir? They used to have mobile radar-controlled autocannons but I think they were scrapped as being obsolete in the brave new world of air supremacy. I'd be interested to know how effective an F-22 or F-35 would be against a swarm of these drones.
Actually I doubt the United States military would be so stupid as to organize an operation like this because it lays bare major issues they would have with such an attack. On the otherhand the idiots at the CIA are stupid and arrogant enough to do something like this and tell the USN that it would be worth their while to have a Posiden lurking in the area.

I have to add that I'm a bit puzzled that it was a USN Boeing P-8 Poseidon that was used given it's designed for "anti-submarine warfare (ASW), anti-surface warfare (ASUW), and shipping interdiction, along with an early warning self-protection (EWSP) ability". I would have expected it to be something like the USAF Northrop Grumman E-8 Joint STARS. I suppose a naval aircraft flying over the Mediterranean is a bit more deniable.

FB , Jan 11, 2018 12:21:23 PM | 73
Ghost Ship @ 71...

Yes...the Poseidon would have been within line of sight to the drones even from a long distance...

This is a good point...

Being an ASW ship doesn't mean the P8 can't carry all kinds of additional gear on board as needed...it's a Boeing 737 after all...with plenty of room on board...

This brings up the possibility that the P8 'could' conceivably have been carrying radio transmitters working in the 72 MHz band and able to remotely control the UAVs...

These transmitters would need to be much more powerful than off the shelf RC airplane transmitters which are limited to just 0.75 watt power by the FCC...

By comparison a passenger jet VHF radio is 25 watts...and ATC [air traffic control] radios are from 25 to 100 W...

It would not be difficult for any radio engineer to build a custom radio set in the 72 MHz band that could be as powerful as you want...25 W would be plenty to reach well over 100 km at an altitude a P8 would fly at...

The antenna would be quite small and could even be inside a flying aircraft...similar to the small handheld backup VHF radios used by private pilots...

However...and this is a big one...

Doing something like this would be sure to be picked up instantly by the Russians...who are monitoring every single radio blip over Syria and beyond...

This kind of thing could not be denied...

We recall the incident in Syria in October 2016 where the Russians identified two Belgian F16s flying out of Jordan that bombed a village near Aleppo...

The problem was that the US side did not notify the Russians of the flight in advance as per the deconfliction rules...

Brussels denied the flight ever took place...but the Russians even had the airplanes' tail numbers...which is the real shocker...

This info is only available to 'friendlies' by means of the warplane's IFF [identification friend or foe] transponder...which transmits an encrypted radio code...

Friendly aircraft can thus identify the plane...but adversaries cannot...[although they can hear the transmissions]...

It is still a mystery as to how the Russians managed to do this...but they made a big diplomatic kerfuffle over it and even presented the proof to the Belgians...so one must assume that they did in fact manage to do this...

This gives an important clue as to the Russians' capability in the electronic warfare sphere...

Considering this...it would seem idiotic that the Americans would try something like controlling that flight of terrorist UAVs from one of their aircraft...it would be easily proven as a hostile act against Russian forces...the repercussions would be significant...

As for the possibility of having some terrorists near Hmeimim and Tartus with off the shelf RC transmitters...well...this could of course happen...but one would assume such infiltrators could not get very near those facilities...and those weak transmitters might not be up to the job from a distance of more than a few km...

In any case...it is not necessary...an autopilot equipped homemade UAV like this could quite easily do what these did...

Peter AU 1 , Jan 11, 2018 2:24:24 PM | 74
According to this article, Putin is saying Turkey had nothing to do with the drone attack.
https://sputniknews.com/russia/201801111060680364-putin-syria-bases-attack/
..."There were provocateurs there but they were not Turks, we know who was it was We know, how much and whom they have paid for this provocation," Putin said...
..."Concerning the attacks, we have no doubts that they had been well prepared, we know when and where these drones were transferred, as well as the number of drones," Putin added...

[Jan 10, 2018] Yahoo News - Latest News Headlines

Notable quotes:
"... The National Interest ..."
"... Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: ..."
Jan 10, 2018 | www.yahoo.com

Russia Came Under Attack by a 'Swarm' In Syria, Says Report

Dave Majumdar , The National Interest January 08, 2018

Dave Majumdar

Security,

<img src="https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/14vNXUc0bud_hF4Y3Vz_iw--/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjtzbT0xO3c9ODAw/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/homerun/the_national_interest_705/57c59cea21ad2bbf47e88aaf673a158d" itemprop="url"/>
Who launched the attack?

Russia Came Under Attack by a 'Swarm' In Syria, Says Report

Russian military forces at the Hmeymim air base and the Tartus logistics center in Syria came under attack by what appears to have been a swarm of drones. Some thirteen small unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) made the attack, six of which were diverted by Russian electronic warfare systems while seven additional aircraft were dispatched by Pantsir-S1 air defense batteries.

"During the hours of darkness Russian air defense facilities made clear 13 remoted unknown small-sized air targets approaching the Russian military assets," the Russian Defense Ministry told the TASS news agency . "Ten combat UAVs were approaching Russia's Hmeymim air base and three more - the logistics center of Tartus."

The Russians are asserting that the unmanned aerial vehicles -- which appear to have indigenously manufactured -- were constructed with the aid of a developed country.

Recommended: 1,700 Planes Ready for War: Everything You Need To Know About China's Air Force

Recommended: Stealth vs. North Korea's Air Defenses: Who Wins?

Recommended: America's Battleships Went to War Against North Korea

"Engineering solutions used by terrorists when attacking Russian facilities in Syria could have been received only from a country with high technological potential on providing satellite navigation and distant control of firing competently assembled self-made explosive devices in appointed place," the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Analysts dispute the Russian contention, arguing that UAV components are easily accessible and that drones are no longer the sole purview of state actors.

"It's very likely that such parts were most likely acquired commercially, in which case we are entering a dangerous terra incognita with respect to unsanctioned UAV use by non-state and terrorist organizations," Samuel Bendett, a researcher specializing in unmanned systems at the Center for Naval Analyses, told The National Interest .

Indeed, the UAVs -- which were 'home-made' -- were more capable in many regards than one might expect with ranges as great as 60 miles or more.

"Previous UAV-borne attacks were via small commercial quadrocopters- their accuracy was often questionable but such UAVs used by the terrorist organizations created a powerful psychological effect," Bendett said. "Now, we seem to have home-made UAVs that flew for tens of kilometers to their target."

The attack on the Russian forces in Syria -- though unsuccessful -- is likely the harbinger of more such UAV-borne swarm attacks.

"If the Syrian conflict is a showcase of what is possible with existing and emerging technologies, then such a UAV-borne threat is dead-serious," Bendett said. "Some expertise is required to outfit such a UAV with navigational technologies, but again, those could be procured on the open market."

While the Russians seem to believe that the insurgent group that launched the attack had support from an advanced nation-state, there does not seem to be much validity to Moscow's position.

"So far, there is no validity to those claims," Bendett said. "The technology and expertise to make such a UAV is fairly widespread at this point."

The fact of the matter is that drone technology has been democratized and this attack on the Russians in Syria is the harbinger of a future where even insurgent groups will have access to advanced capabilities.

Dave Majumdar is the defense editor for The National Interest. You can follow him on Twitter: @davemajumdar .

[Jan 07, 2018] Seymour Hirsh has been forced to get his stories published in Europe because the US and UK media have conspired to ban his exposes of their fake news

This article is one year old but still looks like it was written yesterday...
Notable quotes:
"... Some American military and intelligence officials were especially distressed by the president's determination to ignore the evidence. ..."
"... "None of this makes any sense," one officer told colleagues upon learning of the decision to bomb. "We KNOW that there was no chemical attack ... the Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real Intel and know the truth ... I guess it didn't matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump." ..."
"... Hersh's investigations have not only undermined evidence-free claims being promoted in the west to destabilise Assad's goverment but threatened a wider US policy seeking to "remake the Middle East". His work has challenged a political and corporate media consensus that portrays Russia's Vladimir Putin, Assad's main ally against the extremist Islamic forces fighting in Syria, as another dangerous monster the West needs to bring into line. ..."
"... For all these reasons, Hersh has found himself increasingly friendless. The New Yorker refused to publish his Syria investigations. Instead, he had to cross the Atlantic to find a home at the prestigious but far less prominent London Review of Books. ..."
Jun 27, 2017 | economistsview.typepad.com

RGC, June 27, 2017 at 07:27 AM

On April 6, United States President Donald Trump authorized an early morning Tomahawk missile strike on Shayrat Air Base in central Syria in retaliation for what he said was a deadly nerve agent attack carried out by the Syrian government two days earlier in the rebel-held town of Khan Sheikhoun.

Trump issued the order despite having been warned by the U.S. intelligence community that it had found no evidence that the Syrians had used a chemical weapon.

The available intelligence made clear that the Syrians had targeted a jihadist meeting site on April 4 using a Russian-supplied guided bomb equipped with conventional explosives.

Details of the attack, including information on its so-called high-value targets, had been provided by the Russians days in advance to American and allied military officials in Doha, whose mission is to coordinate all U.S., allied, Syrian and Russian Air Force operations in the region.

Some American military and intelligence officials were especially distressed by the president's determination to ignore the evidence.

"None of this makes any sense," one officer told colleagues upon learning of the decision to bomb. "We KNOW that there was no chemical attack ... the Russians are furious. Claiming we have the real Intel and know the truth ... I guess it didn't matter whether we elected Clinton or Trump."

Within hours of the April 4 bombing, the world's media was saturated with photographs and videos from Khan Sheikhoun. Pictures of dead and dying victims, allegedly suffering from the symptoms of nerve gas poisoning, were uploaded to social media by local activists, including the White Helmets, a first responder group known for its close association with the Syrian opposition.
........................
https://www.welt.de/politik/ausland/article165905578/Trump-s-Red-Line.html

RGC -> RGC... , June 27, 2017 at 07:33 AM
June 27, 2017

Hersh's New Syria Revelations Buried From View

by Jonathan Cook

.................

Hersh's investigations have not only undermined evidence-free claims being promoted in the west to destabilise Assad's goverment but threatened a wider US policy seeking to "remake the Middle East". His work has challenged a political and corporate media consensus that portrays Russia's Vladimir Putin, Assad's main ally against the extremist Islamic forces fighting in Syria, as another dangerous monster the West needs to bring into line.

For all these reasons, Hersh has found himself increasingly friendless. The New Yorker refused to publish his Syria investigations. Instead, he had to cross the Atlantic to find a home at the prestigious but far less prominent London Review of Books.
................
https://www.counterpunch.org/2017/06/27/hershs-new-syria-revelations-buried-from-view/

RGC -> RGC... , June 27, 2017 at 07:37 AM
White House Says It Will Fake "Chemical Weapon Attack" In Syria

The White House claims that the Syrian government is preparing "chemical weapon attacks". This is clearly not the case. Syria is winning the war against the country. Any such attack would clearly be to its disadvantage.

The White House announcement must thereby be understood as preparation for another U.S. attack on Syria in "retaliation" for an upcoming staged "chemical weapon attack" which will be blamed on the Syrian government.
.................
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2017/06/white-house-says-it-will-fake-chemical-weapon-attacks-in-syria.html#more

JohnH -> RGC... , June 27, 2017 at 07:38 AM
When the going gets tough, the US fakes a chemical weapons attack...
JohnH -> RGC... , June 27, 2017 at 07:37 AM
Seymour Hirsh has been forced to get his stories published in Europe because the US and UK media have conspired to ban his exposes of their fake news.

Hirsh has been a thorn in the side of the national security state ever since his expose of the My Lai massacre in 1969...and they're doing their best to shut him up.

[Jan 06, 2018] Looks like Bannon self-immolated himself by his cooperation with Wolff

Notable quotes:
"... Bannon is almost universally loathed by the Washington press corps, and not just for his politics. When he was the CEO of the pro-Trump Breitbart website, he competed with traditional media outlets, and he has often mercilessly attacked and ridiculed them. ..."
"... The animosity towards Bannon reached new heights last month, when he incautiously told the New York Times that "the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while." He also said the media was "the opposition party" to the Trump administration. To the Washington media, those are truly fighting words. ..."
"... Bannon's comments were outrageous, but they are hardly new. In 2009, President Obama's White House communications director, Anita Dunn, sought to restrict Fox News' access to the White House. She even said, "We're going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent." The media's outrage over that remark was restrained, to say the least. ..."
"... Reporters and pundits are also stepping up the effort to portray Bannon as the puppet master in the White House. Last week, MSNBC's Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski said, "Legitimate media are getting word that Steve Bannon is the last guy in the room, in the evening especially, and he's pulling the strings." Her co-host, Joe Scarborough, agreed that Bannon's role should be "investigated." ..."
"... I'm all for figuring out who the powers behind the curtain are in the White House, but we saw precious little interest in that during the Obama administration. ..."
"... Liberal writer Steven Brill wrote a 2015 book, America's Bitter Pill , in which he slammed "incompetence in the White House" for the catastrophic launch of Obamacare. "Never [has there] been a group of people who more incompetently launched something," he told NPR's Terry Gross, who interviewed him about the book. He laid much of the blame at Jarrett's doorstep. "The people in the administration who knew it was going wrong went to the president directly with memos, in person, to his chief of staff," he said. "The president was protected, mostly by Valerie Jarrett, from doing anything. . . . He didn't know what was going on in the single most important initiative of his administration." How important was Jarrett inside the Obama White House? Brill interviewed the president about the struggles of Obamacare and reported Obama's conclusion: "At this point, I am not so interested in Monday-morning quarterbacking the past." ..."
"... five of the highest-ranking Obama officials had told him that "as a practical matter . . . Jarrett was the real chief of staff on any issues that she wanted to weigh in on, and she jealously protected that position by making sure the president never gave anyone else too much power." When Brill asked the president about these aides' assessment of Jarrett, Obama "declined comment," Brill wrote in his book. That, in and of itself, was an answer. Would that Jarrett had received as much media scrutiny of her role in eight years under Obama as Bannon has in less than four weeks. ..."
"... I've had my disagreements with Bannon, whose apocalyptic views on some issues I don't share. Ronald Reagan once said that if someone in Washington agrees with you 80 percent of the time, he is an ally, not an enemy. I'd guess Bannon wouldn't agree with that sentiment. ..."
Feb 15, 2017 | www.unz.com
... ... ..

Bannon is almost universally loathed by the Washington press corps, and not just for his politics. When he was the CEO of the pro-Trump Breitbart website, he competed with traditional media outlets, and he has often mercilessly attacked and ridiculed them.

The animosity towards Bannon reached new heights last month, when he incautiously told the New York Times that "the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while." He also said the media was "the opposition party" to the Trump administration. To the Washington media, those are truly fighting words.

Joel Simon, of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told CNN that "this kind of speech not [only] undermines the work of the media in this country, it emboldens autocratic leaders around the world." Jacob Weisberg, the head of the Slate Group, tweeted that Bannon's comment was terrifying and "tyrannical."

Bannon's comments were outrageous, but they are hardly new. In 2009, President Obama's White House communications director, Anita Dunn, sought to restrict Fox News' access to the White House. She even said, "We're going to treat them the way we would treat an opponent." The media's outrage over that remark was restrained, to say the least.

Ever since Bannon's outburst, you can hear the media gears meshing in the effort to undermine him. In TV green rooms and at Washington parties, I've heard journalists say outright that it's time to get him. Time magazine put a sinister-looking Bannon on its cover, describing him as "The Great Manipulator." Walter Isaacson, a former managing editor of Time , boasted to MSNBC that the image was in keeping with a tradition of controversial covers that put leaders in their place. "Likewise, putting [former White House aide] Mike Deaver on the cover, the brains behind Ronald Reagan, that ended up bringing down Reagan," he told the hosts of Morning Joe . "So you've got to have these checks and balances, whether it's the judiciary or the press."

Reporters and pundits are also stepping up the effort to portray Bannon as the puppet master in the White House. Last week, MSNBC's Morning Joe co-host Mika Brzezinski said, "Legitimate media are getting word that Steve Bannon is the last guy in the room, in the evening especially, and he's pulling the strings." Her co-host, Joe Scarborough, agreed that Bannon's role should be "investigated."

I'm all for figuring out who the powers behind the curtain are in the White House, but we saw precious little interest in that during the Obama administration.

It wasn't until four years after the passage of Obamacare that a journalist reported on just how powerful White House counselor Valerie Jarrett had been in its flawed implementation. Liberal writer Steven Brill wrote a 2015 book, America's Bitter Pill , in which he slammed "incompetence in the White House" for the catastrophic launch of Obamacare. "Never [has there] been a group of people who more incompetently launched something," he told NPR's Terry Gross, who interviewed him about the book. He laid much of the blame at Jarrett's doorstep. "The people in the administration who knew it was going wrong went to the president directly with memos, in person, to his chief of staff," he said. "The president was protected, mostly by Valerie Jarrett, from doing anything. . . . He didn't know what was going on in the single most important initiative of his administration." How important was Jarrett inside the Obama White House? Brill interviewed the president about the struggles of Obamacare and reported Obama's conclusion: "At this point, I am not so interested in Monday-morning quarterbacking the past."

Brill then bluntly told the president that five of the highest-ranking Obama officials had told him that "as a practical matter . . . Jarrett was the real chief of staff on any issues that she wanted to weigh in on, and she jealously protected that position by making sure the president never gave anyone else too much power." When Brill asked the president about these aides' assessment of Jarrett, Obama "declined comment," Brill wrote in his book. That, in and of itself, was an answer. Would that Jarrett had received as much media scrutiny of her role in eight years under Obama as Bannon has in less than four weeks.

I've had my disagreements with Bannon, whose apocalyptic views on some issues I don't share. Ronald Reagan once said that if someone in Washington agrees with you 80 percent of the time, he is an ally, not an enemy. I'd guess Bannon wouldn't agree with that sentiment.

But the media's effort to turn Bannon into an enemy of the people is veering into hysterical character assassination. The Sunday print edition of the New York Times ran an astonishing 1,500-word story headlined: "Fascists Too Lax for a Philosopher Cited by Bannon." (The online headline now reads, "Steve Bannon Cited Italian Thinker Who Inspired Fascists.") The Times based this headline on what it admits was "a passing reference" in a speech by Bannon at a Vatican conference in 2014 . In that speech, Bannon made a single mention of Julius Evola, an obscure Italian philosopher who opposed modernity and cozied up to Mussolini's Italian Fascists.

- John Fund is NRO's national-affairs correspondent . https://twitter.com/@JohnFund

[Jan 03, 2018] When Putin Talks on Syria, It Is Worth Listening

Notable quotes:
"... He talked about the welfare of Syrians as essential to preventing new terrorist outbreaks, about resettling refugees, about working with foreign partners, about the peace process. "All the parties involved should resist the temptation to take advantage of short-term political goals," ..."
Jan 03, 2018 | russia-insider.com

Originally from: When Putin Talks, It Is Worth Listening

... ... ...

Syria. Putin did not distinguish between the Islamic State and other terrorist groups, which is in keeping with Russia's policy since it intervened at the Assad government's request two years ago. But he spoke about post–conflict challenges, notably. While most terrorist groups have been defeated, he said, there is a mop-up phase to complete. Russian forces have begun to withdraw, thus, but some will remain. This is what one would have expected. He had no comment on the Pentagon's recent announcement that US security forces will remain on Syrian soil indefinitely.

The interesting part of Putin's remarks on Syria, at least to me, concerned Russia's responsibilities now that the war is over. He talked about the welfare of Syrians as essential to preventing new terrorist outbreaks, about resettling refugees, about working with foreign partners, about the peace process. "All the parties involved should resist the temptation to take advantage of short-term political goals,"

Putin asserted. This is a healthy handful of tasks on which Russia now must prove out. Especially for those who supported Moscow's defense of Damascus to prevent Syria's collapse into another Libya or Iraq, it is time to watch the Russians. This will be their most importance performance since, by way of the Syria conflict, they have assumed a more influential role in the region.

[Jan 02, 2018] False flag attacks using sharpshooters as a standard instrument of color revolutions

Notable quotes:
"... Andrew Bacevich needs to study more deeply about Syrian history and politics, since his description of Syrian president Bashar Assad as a brutal dictator fits as a description of Bashar's father Hafez Assad but is inaccurate in relation to Bashar Assad, who seems to have a rather gentle personality and is actually one of the more benign leaders in the Middle East. ..."
"... Under that new constitution, in 2014 he ran in a free election observed by international observers against two other politicians and was reelected president. He has promised that if he loses the next election he will step down. ..."
"... Nevertheless Assad has been systematically demonized by the governments and MSM of the US, UK, and France, as well as by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Demonization is a technique that is often used to prepare the way for regime change, and it is not based on objective analysis. ..."
"... Similar tactics were used in Ukraine in February 2014 by ultranationalist Right Sector sharpshooters, who were seen shooting Maidan demonstrators. The deaths of the demonstrators were then blamed on the police. ..."
"... "'From the start the protest movements were not purely peaceful. From the start I saw armed demonstrators marching along in the protests, who began to shoot at the police first. Very often the violence of the security forces has been a reaction to the brutal violence of the armed rebels.' ..."
"... opposition is armed and frequently employs brutality and violence, only in order then to blame the government. ..."
"... For an objective overview of the context of the events of 2011 in Syria that led to the international war against the elected Syrian government, see Stephen Gowans, "The Revolutionary Distemper in Syria That Wasn't." ..."
"... Also see Gowans' well-researched 2016 book 'Washington's Long War on Syria.' The US has been demonizing and trying to overthrow the Syrian government for several decades now, above all because it is the only remaining semi-socialist nation in the Middle East and has single-payer national health insurance, support for the elderly, and free college education for all. Assad is no saint, but he is one of the more democratic and forward-looking leaders in the Middle East today. ..."
Jan 02, 2018 | www.nakedcapitalism.com

Gen Dau , , May 8, 2017 at 7:55 pm

Andrew Bacevich needs to study more deeply about Syrian history and politics, since his description of Syrian president Bashar Assad as a brutal dictator fits as a description of Bashar's father Hafez Assad but is inaccurate in relation to Bashar Assad, who seems to have a rather gentle personality and is actually one of the more benign leaders in the Middle East.

Bashar Assad had planned to be a doctor, and he studied medicine for two years in the UK before being ordered to return to Syria by his father after his elder brother died in an accident. Although there were some excesses by the police in 2011, Bashar Assad quickly relaxed some old security laws and pushed for a new democratic constitution, which was promulgated in 2012. Under that new constitution, in 2014 he ran in a free election observed by international observers against two other politicians and was reelected president. He has promised that if he loses the next election he will step down.

Nevertheless Assad has been systematically demonized by the governments and MSM of the US, UK, and France, as well as by Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar. Demonization is a technique that is often used to prepare the way for regime change, and it is not based on objective analysis. Although Assad is often called a butcher who gasses his own people, experts such as Theodore Postol of MIT and others have shown that not a single allegation of gassing by the Syrian government under Assad has ever been proven. In addition, many of the excesses by the Syrian police against demonstrators in 2011 seem to have been initiated by armed members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Al Qaeda in Syria, who quickly infiltrated the demonstrations.

There have even been allegations that jihadi sharpshooters on rooftops shot demonstrators in false-flag attacks.

Similar tactics were used in Ukraine in February 2014 by ultranationalist Right Sector sharpshooters, who were seen shooting Maidan demonstrators. The deaths of the demonstrators were then blamed on the police. In the case of Syria:

"Syrian-based Father Frans van der Lugt was the Dutch priest murdered by a gunman in Homs . His involvement in reconciliation and peace activities never stopped him from lobbing criticisms at both sides in this conflict. But in the first year of the crisis, he penned some remarkable observations about the violence – this one in January 2012:

"'From the start the protest movements were not purely peaceful. From the start I saw armed demonstrators marching along in the protests, who began to shoot at the police first. Very often the violence of the security forces has been a reaction to the brutal violence of the armed rebels.'

"In September 2011 he wrote: 'From the start there has been the problem of the armed groups, which are also part of the opposition The opposition of the street is much stronger than any other opposition. And this opposition is armed and frequently employs brutality and violence, only in order then to blame the government. '"

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/157412-syria-hidden-massacre-2011/

For an objective overview of the context of the events of 2011 in Syria that led to the international war against the elected Syrian government, see Stephen Gowans, "The Revolutionary Distemper in Syria That Wasn't."

https://gowans.wordpress.com/2016/10/22/the-revolutionary-distemper-in-syria-that-wasnt/

Also see Gowans' well-researched 2016 book 'Washington's Long War on Syria.' The US has been demonizing and trying to overthrow the Syrian government for several decades now, above all because it is the only remaining semi-socialist nation in the Middle East and has single-payer national health insurance, support for the elderly, and free college education for all. Assad is no saint, but he is one of the more democratic and forward-looking leaders in the Middle East today.

[Jan 02, 2018] Neocon warmongers should be treated as rapists by Andrew J. Bacevich

Highly recommended!
Notable quotes:
"... What's puzzling is why that capacity for outrage and demand for accountability doesn't extend to our now well-established penchant for waging war across much of the planet. ..."
"... Compare their culpability to that of the high-ranking officials who have presided over or promoted this country's various military misadventures of the present century. Those wars have, of course, resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and will ultimately cost American taxpayers many trillions of dollars. Nor have those costly military efforts eliminated "terrorism," as President George W. Bush promised back when today's G.I.s were still in diapers. ..."
"... Bush told us that, through war, the United States would spread freedom and democracy. Instead, our wars have sown disorder and instability, creating failing or failed states across the Greater Middle East and Africa. In their wake have sprung up ever more, not fewer, jihadist groups, while acts of terror are soaring globally. These are indisputable facts. ..."
"... For starters, there is no "new strategy." Trump's generals, apparently with a nod from their putative boss, are merely modifying the old "strategy," which was itself an outgrowth of previous strategies tried, found wanting, and eventually discarded before being rebranded and eventually recycled. ..."
"... Thus far, Trump's interventionism has been a fragment of what the Hillary campaign promised. ..."
"... This is the center of a world empire. It maintains a gigantic military which virtually never stops fighting wars, none of them having anything to do with defense. It has created an intelligence monstrosity which makes old outfits like Stazi seem almost quaint, and it spies on everyone. Indeed, it maintains seventeen national security establishments, as though you can never have too much of a good thing. And some of these guys, too, are engaged full-time in forms of covert war, from fomenting trouble in other lands and interfering in elections to overthrowing governments. ..."
"... It's unlikely that the USA would be remaining in Afghanistan if its goals were not being attained. So the author has merely shown that the stated goals cannot be the real goals. What then are the real goals? I propose two: 1) establish a permanent military presence on a Russian border; 2) finance it with the heroin trade. Given other actions of the Empire around the globe, the first goal is obvious. The bombing of mud huts containing competitors' drug labs, conjoined with the fact that we do not destroy the actual poppy fields (obvious green targets in an immense ocean of brown) make this goal rather obvious as well. The rest of the article is simply more evidence that the Empire does not include mere human tragedy in its profit calculation. ..."
"... Andrew Bacevich calls for a Weinstein moment without realizing that it already happened more than ten years ago. The 2006 midterm elections were the first Weinstein moment, which saw the American people deliver a huge outpouring of antiwar sentiment that inflicted significant congressional losses on the neocon Republicans of George W. Bush. ..."
Dec 22, 2017 | www.unz.com

What makes a Harvey Weinstein moment? The now-disgraced Hollywood mogul is hardly the first powerful man to stand accused of having abused women. The Harveys who preceded Harvey himself are legion, their prominence matching or exceeding his own and the misdeeds with which they were charged at least as reprehensible.

In the relatively recent past, a roster of prominent offenders would include Bill Clinton, Bill Cosby, Roger Ailes, Bill O'Reilly, and, of course, Donald Trump. Throw in various jocks, maestros, senior military officers, members of the professoriate and you end up with quite a list. Yet in virtually all such cases, the alleged transgressions were treated as instances of individual misconduct, egregious perhaps but possessing at best transitory political resonance.

All that, though, was pre-Harvey. As far as male sexual hijinks are concerned, we might compare Weinstein's epic fall from grace to the stock market crash of 1929: one week it's the anything-goes Roaring Twenties, the next we're smack dab in a Great Depression.

How profound is the change? Up here in Massachusetts where I live, we've spent the past year marking John F. Kennedy's 100th birthday. If Kennedy were still around to join in the festivities, it would be as a Class A sex offender. Rarely in American history has the cultural landscape shifted so quickly or so radically.

In our post-Harvey world, men charged with sexual misconduct are guilty until proven innocent, all crimes are capital offenses, and there exists no statute of limitations. Once a largely empty corporate slogan, "zero tolerance" has become a battle cry.

All of this serves as a reminder that, on some matters at least, the American people retain an admirable capacity for outrage. We can distinguish between the tolerable and the intolerable. And we can demand accountability of powerful individuals and institutions.

Everything They Need to Win (Again!)

What's puzzling is why that capacity for outrage and demand for accountability doesn't extend to our now well-established penchant for waging war across much of the planet.

In no way would I wish to minimize the pain, suffering, and humiliation of the women preyed upon by the various reprobates now getting their belated comeuppance. But to judge from published accounts, the women (and in some cases, men) abused by Weinstein, Louis C.K., Mark Halperin, Leon Wieseltier, Kevin Spacey, Al Franken, Charlie Rose, Matt Lauer, Garrison Keillor, my West Point classmate Judge Roy Moore, and their compadres at least managed to survive their encounters. None of the perpetrators are charged with having committed murder. No one died.

Compare their culpability to that of the high-ranking officials who have presided over or promoted this country's various military misadventures of the present century. Those wars have, of course, resulted in hundreds of thousands of deaths and will ultimately cost American taxpayers many trillions of dollars. Nor have those costly military efforts eliminated "terrorism," as President George W. Bush promised back when today's G.I.s were still in diapers.

Bush told us that, through war, the United States would spread freedom and democracy. Instead, our wars have sown disorder and instability, creating failing or failed states across the Greater Middle East and Africa. In their wake have sprung up ever more, not fewer, jihadist groups, while acts of terror are soaring globally. These are indisputable facts.

It discomfits me to reiterate this mournful litany of truths. I feel a bit like the doctor telling the lifelong smoker with stage-four lung cancer that an addiction to cigarettes is adversely affecting his health. His mute response: I know and I don't care. Nothing the doc says is going to budge the smoker from his habit. You go through the motions, but wonder why.

In a similar fashion, war has become a habit to which the United States is addicted. Except for the terminally distracted, most of us know that. We also know -- we cannot not know -- that, in places like Afghanistan and Iraq, U.S. forces have been unable to accomplish their assigned mission, despite more than 16 years of fighting in the former and more than a decade in the latter.

It's not exactly a good news story, to put it mildly. So forgive me for saying it ( yet again ), but most of us simply don't care, which means that we continue to allow a free hand to those who preside over those wars, while treating with respect the views of pundits and media personalities who persist in promoting them. What's past doesn't count; we prefer to sustain the pretense that tomorrow is pregnant with possibilities. Victory lies just around the corner.

By way of example, consider a recent article in U.S. News and World Report. The headline: "Victory or Failure in Afghanistan: 2018 Will Be the Deciding Year." The title suggests a balance absent from the text that follows, which reads like a Pentagon press release. Here in its entirety is the nut graf (my own emphasis added):

"Armed with a new strategy and renewed support from old allies, the Trump administration now believes it has everything it needs to win the war in Afghanistan. Top military advisers all the way up to Defense Secretary Jim Mattis say they can accomplish what two previous administrations and multiple troop surges could not: the defeat of the Taliban by Western-backed local forces, a negotiated peace and the establishment of a popularly supported government in Kabul capable of keeping the country from once again becoming a haven to any terrorist group."

Now if you buy this, you'll believe that Harvey Weinstein has learned his lesson and can be trusted to interview young actresses while wearing his bathrobe.

For starters, there is no "new strategy." Trump's generals, apparently with a nod from their putative boss, are merely modifying the old "strategy," which was itself an outgrowth of previous strategies tried, found wanting, and eventually discarded before being rebranded and eventually recycled.

Short of using nuclear weapons, U.S. forces fighting in Afghanistan over the past decade and a half have experimented with just about every approach imaginable: invasion, regime change, occupation, nation-building, pacification, decapitation, counterterrorism, and counterinsurgency, not to mention various surges , differing in scope and duration. We have had a big troop presence and a smaller one, more bombing and less, restrictive rules of engagement and permissive ones. In the military equivalent of throwing in the kitchen sink, a U.S. Special Operations Command four-engine prop plane recently deposited the largest non-nuclear weapon in the American arsenal on a cave complex in eastern Afghanistan. Although that MOAB made a big boom, no offer of enemy surrender materialized.

$65 billion in U.S. taxpayer dollars. And under the circumstances, consider that a mere down payment.

According to General John Nicholson, our 17th commander in Kabul since 2001, the efforts devised and implemented by his many predecessors have resulted in a "stalemate" -- a generous interpretation given that the Taliban presently controls more territory than it has held since the U.S. invasion. Officers no less capable than Nicholson himself, David Petraeus and Stanley McChrystal among them, didn't get it done. Nicholson's argument: trust me.

In essence, the "new strategy" devised by Trump's generals, Secretary of Defense Mattis and Nicholson among them, amounts to this: persist a tad longer with a tad more. A modest uptick in the number of U.S. and allied troops on the ground will provide more trainers, advisers, and motivators to work with and accompany their Afghan counterparts in the field. The Mattis/Nicholson plan also envisions an increasing number of air strikes, signaled by the recent use of B-52s to attack illicit Taliban " drug labs ," a scenario that Stanley Kubrick himself would have been hard-pressed to imagine.

Notwithstanding the novelty of using strategic bombers to destroy mud huts, there's not a lot new here. Dating back to 2001, coalition forces have already dropped tens of thousands of bombs in Afghanistan. Almost as soon as the Taliban were ousted from Kabul, coalition efforts to create effective Afghan security forces commenced. So, too, did attempts to reduce the production of the opium that has funded the Taliban insurgency, alas with essentially no effect whatsoever . What Trump's generals want a gullible public (and astonishingly gullible and inattentive members of Congress) to believe is that this time they've somehow devised a formula for getting it right.

Turning the Corner

With his trademark capacity to intuit success, President Trump already sees clear evidence of progress. "We're not fighting anymore to just walk around," he remarked in his Thanksgiving message to the troops. "We're fighting to win. And you people [have] turned it around over the last three to four months like nobody has seen." The president, we may note, has yet to visit Afghanistan.

I'm guessing that the commander-in-chief is oblivious to the fact that, in U.S. military circles, the term winning has acquired notable elasticity. Trump may think that it implies vanquishing the enemy -- white flags and surrender ceremonies on the U.S.S. Missouri . General Nicholson knows better. "Winning," the field commander says , "means delivering a negotiated settlement that reduces the level of violence and protecting the homeland." (Take that definition at face value and we can belatedly move Vietnam into the win column!)

Should we be surprised that Trump's generals, unconsciously imitating General William Westmoreland a half-century ago, claim once again to detect light at the end of the tunnel? Not at all. Mattis and Nicholson (along with White House Chief of Staff John Kelly and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster) are following the Harvey Weinstein playbook: keep doing it until they make you stop. Indeed, with what can only be described as chutzpah, Nicholson himself recently announced that we have " turned the corner " in Afghanistan. In doing so, of course, he is counting on Americans not to recall the various war managers, military and civilian alike, who have made identical claims going back years now, among them Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta in 2012 .

From on high, assurances of progress; in the field, results that, year after year, come nowhere near what's promised; on the homefront, an astonishingly credulous public. The war in Afghanistan has long since settled into a melancholy and seemingly permanent rhythm.

The fact is that the individuals entrusted by President Trump to direct U.S. policy believe with iron certainty that difficult political problems will yield to armed might properly employed. That proposition is one to which generals like Mattis and Nicholson have devoted a considerable part of their lives, not just in Afghanistan but across much of the Islamic world. They are no more likely to question the validity of that proposition than the Pope is to entertain second thoughts about the divinity of Jesus Christ.

In Afghanistan, their entire worldview -- not to mention the status and clout of the officer corps they represent -- is at stake. No matter how long the war there lasts, no matter how many " generations " it takes, no matter how much blood is shed to no purpose, and no matter how much money is wasted, they will never admit to failure -- nor will any of the militarists-in-mufti cheering them on from the sidelines in Washington, Donald Trump not the least among them.

Meanwhile, the great majority of the American people, their attention directed elsewhere -- it's the season for holiday shopping, after all -- remain studiously indifferent to the charade being played out before their eyes.

It took a succession of high-profile scandals before Americans truly woke up to the plague of sexual harassment and assault. How long will it take before the public concludes that they have had enough of wars that don't work? Here's hoping it's before our president, in a moment of ill temper, unleashes " fire and fury " on the world.

Andrew J. Bacevich, a TomDispatch regular , is the author, most recently, of America's War for the Greater Middle East: A Military History .

anonymous , Disclaimer December 11, 2017 at 3:31 am GMT

It's astonishing to see people make the claim that "victory" is possible in Afghanistan. Could they actually believe this or are they lying in order to drag this out even longer and keep the money pit working overtime? These are individuals that are highly placed and so should know better. It's not really a war but an occupation with the native insurgents fighting to oust the foreign occupier. The US has tried every trick there is in trying to tamp down the insurgency. They know what we're trying to do and can thwart us at every step. The US lost even as it began it's invasion there but didn't know it yet in the wake of it's initial success in scattering the Taliban, not even a real army and not even a real state. They live there and we don't; they can resist for the next thirty years or fifty years. When does the multi-billion bill come due and how will we pay it?
Issac , December 12, 2017 at 4:07 am GMT
"How long will it take before the public concludes that they have had enough of wars that don't work?"

It already happened, but Progressives like you failed to note that Republican voters subbed the Bush clan and their various associates for Trump in the Primary season, precisely because he called the Iraq and Afghan wars mistakes. The Americans suffer under a two party establishment that is clearly antagonistic to their interests. As a part of that regime, a dutiful Progressive toad, you continue to peddle the lie that it was the war-weary White Americans who celebrated those wars. In reality, any such support was ginned up from tools like you who wrote puff pieces for their Neocon Progressive masters.

Thus far, Trump's interventionism has been a fragment of what the Hillary campaign promised. Might you count that among your lucky stars? Fat chance. You cretinous Progressive filth have no such spine upon which to base an independent thought. You trot out the same old tiresome tropes week after week fulfilling your designated propagandist duty and then you skulk back to your den of iniquity to prepare another salvo of agitprop. What a miserable existence.

USAMNESIA , December 14, 2017 at 3:32 am GMT
This is the center of a world empire. It maintains a gigantic military which virtually never stops fighting wars, none of them having anything to do with defense. It has created an intelligence monstrosity which makes old outfits like Stazi seem almost quaint, and it spies on everyone. Indeed, it maintains seventeen national security establishments, as though you can never have too much of a good thing. And some of these guys, too, are engaged full-time in forms of covert war, from fomenting trouble in other lands and interfering in elections to overthrowing governments.

Obama ended up killing more people than any dictator or demagogue of this generation on earth you care to name, several hundred thousand of them in his eight years. And he found new ways to kill, too, as by creating the world's first industrial-scale extrajudicial killing operation. Here he signs off on "kill lists," placed in his Oval Office in-box, to murder people he has never seen, people who enjoy no legal rights or protections. His signed orders are carried out by uniformed thugs working at computer screens in secure basements where they proceed to play computer games with real live humans as their targets, again killing or maiming people they have never seen.

If you ever have wondered where all the enabling workers came from in places like Stalin's Gulag or Hitler's concentration camps, well, here is your answer. American itself produces platoons of such people. You could find them working at Guantanamo and in the far-flung string of secret torture facilities the CIA ran for years, and you could find them in places like Fallujah or Samarra or Abu Ghraib, at the CIA's basement game arcade killing centers, and even all over the streets of America dressed as police who shoot unarmed people every day, sometimes in the back.

https://chuckmanwords.wordpress.com/2017/01/12/john-chuckman-essay-of-wizards-and-washington-and-the-dreary-unrelenting-reality-of-american-politics-a-raw-and-sometimes-darkly-comic-survey-of-americas-treacherous-political-terrain/

nsa , December 18, 2017 at 5:36 am GMT
ZOG has now asserted the right to kill anyone, anywhere, anytime, for any reason. No trial, no hearing, no witnesses, no defense, no nothing. Is this actually legal? Any constitutional lawyers out there care to comment? Has ZOG now achieved the status of an all-powerful all-knowing deity with the power of life and death over all living things?
Waiting too , December 18, 2017 at 10:36 am GMT
It's unlikely that the USA would be remaining in Afghanistan if its goals were not being attained. So the author has merely shown that the stated goals cannot be the real goals. What then are the real goals? I propose two: 1) establish a permanent military presence on a Russian border; 2) finance it with the heroin trade. Given other actions of the Empire around the globe, the first goal is obvious. The bombing of mud huts containing competitors' drug labs, conjoined with the fact that we do not destroy the actual poppy fields (obvious green targets in an immense ocean of brown) make this goal rather obvious as well. The rest of the article is simply more evidence that the Empire does not include mere human tragedy in its profit calculation.
War for Blair Mountain , December 18, 2017 at 1:09 pm GMT
5.6 TRILLION $$$$$$ FOR GULF WAR 1 AND GULF WAR 2

The Native Born White American Working Class Teenage Male Population used as CANNON FODDER for Congressman Steven Solarz's and Donald Trump's very precious Jewish only Israel .

WAR IS A RACKET!!!! don't you think?

DESERT FOX , December 18, 2017 at 1:43 pm GMT
Israel and the deep state did the attack on 911 and thus set the table for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and Libya and Syria and the Zionist neocons who control every facet of the U.S. gov and the MSM and the MIC and the FED ie the BANKS set in motion the blood sacrifice for their Zionist god SATAN, that is what they have done.

The Zionist warmongers and Satanists will destroy America.

Michael Kenny , December 18, 2017 at 2:17 pm GMT
It's not so much that America is addicted to war as that the American "business model" makes permanent war inevitable. US global dominance rests on economic domination, in particular, the dollar as world reserve currency. That has allowed the US economy to survive in spite of being hollowed out, financialised and burdened with enormous sovereign debt. Economic dominance derives from political dominance, which, in its turn, flows from military dominance. For that military dominance to be credible, not only must the US have the biggest and best military forces on the planet, it must show itself willing to use those forces to maintain its dominance by actually using them from time to time, in particular, to unequivocally beat off any challenge to its dominance (Putin!). It also, of course, must win, or, more correctly, be able to present the outcome credibly as a win. Failure to maintain military dominance will undermine the position of the dollar, sending its value through the floor. A low dollar means cheap exports (Boeing will sell more planes than Airbus!), but it also means that imports (oil, outsourced goods) will be dear. At that point the hollowed out nature of the US economy will cut in, probably provoking a Soviet-style implosion of the US economy and society and ruining anyone who has holdings denominated in dollars. I call that the Gorbachev conundrum. Gorby believed in the Soviet Union and wanted to reform it. But the Soviet system had become so rigid as to be unreformable. He pulled a threat and the whole system unravelled. But if he hadn't pulled the thread, the whole system would have unravelled anyway. It was a choice between hard landing and harder landing. Similarly, US leaders have to continue down the only road open to them: permanent war. As Thomas Jefferson said of slavery, it's like holding a wolf by the ears. You don't like it but you don't dare let go!
TG , December 18, 2017 at 2:36 pm GMT
"How long will it take before the public concludes that they have had enough of wars that don't work?" Answer: Never.

In Alabama when people would rant about how toxic Roy Moore was, I would politely point out that his opponent for Senate was OK with spending trillions of dollars fighting pointless winless wars on the other side of the planet just so politically connected defense contractors can make a buck, and ask if that should be an issue too? The response, predictably, was as if I was an alien from the planet Skyron in the galaxy of Andromeda.

We are sheep. We are outraged at these sexual transgressions because the corporate press tells us to be outraged. We are not outraged at these stupid foreign wars, because the corporate press does not tell us to be outraged. It's all mass effect, and the comfort of being in a herd and all expressing the same feelings.

Intelligent Dasein , Website December 18, 2017 at 2:37 pm GMT
Andrew Bacevich is wrong about a couple of things in this article.

First, he says that the American public is both apathetic and credulous. I agree that we have largely become apathetic towards these imperial wars, but I disagree that we have become credulous. In fact, these two states of mind exclude one another; you cannot be both apathetic and credulous with respect to the same object at the same time. The credulity charge is easy to dismiss because virtually no one today believes anything that comes out of Washington or its mouthpieces in the legacy media. The apathy charge is on point but it needs qualification. The smarter, more informed Americans have seen that their efforts to change the course of American policy have been to no avail, and they've given up in frustration and disgust. The less smart, less informed Americans are constrained by the necessity of getting on with their meager lives; they are an apolitical mass that possesses neither the understanding nor the capacity to make any difference on the policy front whatsoever.

Second, Andrew Bacevich calls for a Weinstein moment without realizing that it already happened more than ten years ago. The 2006 midterm elections were the first Weinstein moment, which saw the American people deliver a huge outpouring of antiwar sentiment that inflicted significant congressional losses on the neocon Republicans of George W. Bush. An echo of that groundswell happened again in 2008 when Barack Obama was elected to office on an explicitly antiwar platform. But Obama turned out to be one of the most pro-war presidents ever, and thus an angry electorate made one final push in the same direction by attempting to clean house with Donald Trump. Now that Donald has shown every sign of having cucked out to the war lobby, we seem to be left with no electoral solutions.

The only thing that's going to work is for the American Imperium to be handed a much-deserved military and financial defeat. The one encouraging fact is that if the top ten percent of our political and financial elite were planed off by a foreign power, the American people would give as few damns about that as they currently do about our imperial wars.

Ilyana_Rozumova , December 18, 2017 at 3:04 pm GMT
@Michael Kenny

Very good but some little errors. Concerning Russia and China, Russia vent all or nothing. China was much smarter. First they allowed self employment, than small business and long time after they started to sell state enterprises,

Anonymous , Disclaimer December 18, 2017 at 3:17 pm GMT
If Tom's Dispatch continues to be successful, Americans will continue to be asleep.

Masterful propaganda. War, according to our favorite spooks, is necessary to win, but otherwise reprehensible.

Sex is otherwise necessary for human life but Harvey Weinstein is ugly. Hold tightly to your cognitive dissonance, because you're expected to remember John F Kennedy who got it on, but is the expendable martyr you should care about, not that other guy

Let's review: terror attacks are wins. Superior or effective anti-war propaganda comes from the military
itself. They really don't want war, but really they do.

nebulafox , December 18, 2017 at 4:00 pm GMT
@anonymous

We're trying to make Afghanistan not Afghanistan: aka, trying to be a miracle worker. We can throw as much money as we like at that place, and it isn't going to happen, least of all with troops on nine month shifts.

Let Iran and Pakistan squabble over it. Good riddance.

nebulafox , December 18, 2017 at 4:08 pm GMT
@Waiting too

1) doesn't really make much sense, given that Poland and the Baltic States would be more than happy to take all US forces in Europe to give us a presence near Russia in a part of the world that would be far easier to justify to the American public-and to the international community. Afghanistan? Who exactly is Russia going to mess with? Iran is their-for now, longer term, the two have conflicting agendas in the region, but don't expect the geniuses in the Beltway to pick up on that opportunity-ally, and unlike the USSR, the Russians don't want to get involved in the India-Pakistan conflict. Russia's current tilt toward China makes a strategic marriage with India of the kind that you found in the Cold War impossible, but they obviously don't want to tilt toward the basketcase known as Pakistan. The only reason that Russia would want to get involved with Afghanistan beyond having a more preferable status than having American troops there is power projection among ex-Soviet states, and there are far more effective ways to do than muddle about with Afghanistan.

2, on the other hand, given Iran-Contra who knows? The first generation of the Taliban pretty much wiped the heroin trade out as offensive to Islamic sensibilities, but the newer generations have no such qualms.

I think you give America's rulers far too much credit. The truth is probably far scarier: the morons who work in the Beltway honestly believe their own propaganda-that we can make Afghanistan into some magical Western democracy if we throw enough money at it-and combine that with the usual bureaucratic inertia.

Anonymous , Disclaimer December 18, 2017 at 4:28 pm GMT
@Waiting too

Another bonus is that Afghan heroin seeps into Russia and wreaks havoc in the regions bordering Afghanistan -- krokodil and all that.

Art , December 18, 2017 at 4:45 pm GMT
According to General John Nicholson, our 17th commander in Kabul since 2001,

We have been killing these people for 17 years. Now our generals say that if we indiscriminately kill enough men, women, and children who get in the way of our B52s, that they will see the light and make peace. How totally wonderful.

My solution is to gage the Lindsey Grahams for a year.

What will do more good for peace – B52s or shutting up Graham's elk?

Think Peace -- Art

MarkinLA , December 18, 2017 at 5:59 pm GMT
I remember when Trump said he knew more than the generals and was viciously attacked for it. It turns out he did know more than the generals just by knowing it was a waste. Trump was pushed by politics to defer to the generals who always have an answer when it comes to a war – more men, more weapons, more time.
Sollipsist , December 18, 2017 at 6:20 pm GMT
@Intelligent Dasein

"The less smart, less informed Americans are constrained by the necessity of getting on with their meager lives; they are an apolitical mass that possesses neither the understanding nor the capacity to make any difference on the policy front whatsoever."

I wonder if any Abolitionists criticized the slaves for failing to revolt? Probably not; I'm guessing they were mostly convinced that the negro required intervention from outside, whether due to their nature or from overwhelming circumstance.

If the enslaved American public is liberated, I hope we'll know what to do with ourselves afterwards. It'd be a shame to simply end up in another kind of bondage, resentful and subject to whatever oppressive system replaces the current outrage. Perhaps the next one will more persuasively convince us that we're important and essential?

peterAUS , December 18, 2017 at 6:46 pm GMT
@Michael Kenny

Agree.
Very good post, IMHO.

That phrase "a choice between hard landing and harder landing" is good and can be easily applied to USA today.

Interesting times.

peterAUS , December 18, 2017 at 6:47 pm GMT
@TG

Agree.
This is well written, IMHO:

We are sheep. We are outraged at these sexual transgressions because the corporate press tells us to be outraged. We are not outraged at these stupid foreign wars, because the corporate press does not tell us to be outraged. It's all mass effect, and the comfort of being in a herd and all expressing the same feelings.

Sowhat , December 18, 2017 at 7:29 pm GMT
Thank you, Andrew J. Bacevich, for your words of wisdom and thank you, Mr. Unz, for this post.
This corporation needs to be dissolved. I've read about "the inertia" of Federal Government that has morphed into a cash cow for a century of wasted tax dollars funding the MIIC, now the MIIC. Does our existence have to end in financial ruin or, worse yet, some foreign entity creating havoc on our soil?
The Founders NEVER intended that the US of A become a meddler in other Sovereignty's internal affairs or the destroyer of Nation States that do not espoused our "doctrine." Anyone without poop for brains knows that this is about Imperialism and greed, fueled by money and an insatiable luster for MORE.
This should be easier to change than it appears. Is there no will? After all, it Is our Master's money that lubricates the machinery. So, we continue to provide the lubrication for our Masters like a bunch of imbeciles that allow them to survail our words and movements. Somebody please explain our stupidity.
Delinquent Snail , December 18, 2017 at 8:57 pm GMT
@nebulafox

If americans would just go all in and commit genocide. That would lead to victory.

No afgans, no enemy.

joe webb , December 18, 2017 at 8:58 pm GMT
the folks in the US are sick of the wars, contrary to Bacevich. They simply will vote come next election accordingly. They register their disgust in all the polls.

This article is not very useful. More punditry puff.

No comments on the Next War for Israel being cooked up by the new crop of neocon youngsters, I guess, and Trump who will trump, trump, trump into the next War for the Jews.

How about some political science on Iran, Syria, Hisbollah, Hamas and the US, Arabia, Judenstaat axis of evil?

Joe Webb

Jim Christian , December 18, 2017 at 9:07 pm GMT
Hey Bacevich? When you link to WashPost and NYTimes to make your points, you don't. They block access if you've already read links to those two papers three times each and can no longer, for the month, read there. When folks link to papers that won't let you read, it makes one wonder why.
Simply Simon , December 18, 2017 at 10:26 pm GMT
I believe Americans are damned sick and tired of the stupid, needless war in Afghanistan. But then they should have been sick and tired of stupid , needless wars like Korea, Vietnam and Iraq, and probably most of them were. But it's easy to be complacent when someone else's son is doing the fighting and dying And it's easy to be complacent when your stomach is full and you have plenty of booze and pain killers available. There will be a day of reckoning when the next big economic bust arrives and which may make the Great Depression paltry by comparison. America is a far different place then it was in the 1930s when our population was 140 million. Americans were not so soft and the conveniences we now take for granted not available. When the supermarkets run out of food, watch out. There may not even be any soup lines to stand in.
Joe Franklin , December 18, 2017 at 11:21 pm GMT

In truth, U.S. commanders have quietly shelved any expectations of achieving an actual victory -- traditionally defined as "imposing your will on the enemy" -- in favor of a more modest conception of success.

Your assumptions are wrong about the US goal of the invasion of Afghanistan. Afghanistan and Iraq were not invaded to establish democracy or impose American will whatever that is. Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded to establish a temporary military staging ground for a US invasion of Iran, the designated regional enemy of Israel. As long as the current regime in Iran remains, the US will remain in Iraq and Afghanistan.

... ... ...

Druid , December 19, 2017 at 12:41 am GMT
@Waiting too

And minerals! Eric Prince himself recently tried to sell the idea of having his private militias do the fighting in Afghanistan for the US and finance it by mining said country's minerals, thus making himself even richer.

anno nimus , December 19, 2017 at 1:53 am GMT
"i can live without a friend, but not without an enemy."
Cloak And Dagger , December 19, 2017 at 5:03 am GMT
@SolontoCroesus

I was onboard with Mr. Bacevich, until I got to this:

Almost as soon as the Taliban were ousted from Kabul, coalition efforts to create effective Afghan security forces commenced. So, too, did attempts to reduce the production of the opium that has funded the Taliban insurgency

What utter rubbish! The Taliban was instrumental in shutting down the poppy production until the CIA came along and restarted it to fund their black ops.

http://www.sfaw.org/newswire/2017/03/28/a-conspiracy-theory-that-became-a-conspiracy-fact-the-cia-afghanistans-poppy-fields-and-americas-growing-heroin-epidemic/

We have the reverse Midas touch. Everything we touch (Iraq, Libya, Syria, Yemen, etc., etc.) turns to shit. We supposedly attack countries to liberate them from their tyrants who are supposedly killing their own people, and end up killing more people than all of them put together. And, oh yes, we have our favorite tyrants (Saudis, Israelis) whom we provide with horrible weapons (like cluster bombs) to help them kill people we hate.

Mr. Bacevich is right about the lack of outrage about our wars, but the current Weinstein explosion consists of hordes of mostly American female victims, mostly white, a (very) few jews, and a few men, who have the stage to complain about their oppressors. What would be the counterpart of that w.r.t. the wars? Millions of brown victims in far away lands that most of us couldn't even find on a map? How likely is that to happen?

So yes, no outrage, and none likely. The last 17 years have proven that.

Joe Wong , December 20, 2017 at 2:25 pm GMT
@anonymous

You don't know the American has been paying everything through monopoly money printed through the thin air since WWI, i.e. a keystroke on the Federal Reserve's computer? No wonder the Americans have been waging reckless wars all over the world on the fabricated phantom WMD allegations as humanitarian intervention relentlessly.

Romans did not stop waging reckless wars until their empire collapsed; the British imitates the Romans and the American is born out of the British, hence the Americans will no stop waging reckless wars until their empire collapsed like the Romans.

[Jan 02, 2018] BOOK REVIEW: America s War for the Greater Middle East by Andrew J. Bacevich by David Rohde

This review way written almost two year ago. The new President is now sitting in White house. Nothing changed.
The problem with Bacevich' views is that neoliberalism dictates expansion and maintenance of neoliberal empire as well in best Trotskyism tradition "export of neoliberal revolution" using bayonets, if other means do not work. So this is the nature of the neoliberal beast, not an aberration like he assumes. Militarism is essence of US foreign policy under neoliberalism.
Notable quotes:
"... This book, Bacevich's eighth, extends his string of brutal, bracing and essential critiques of the pernicious role of reflexive militarism in American foreign policy. As in past books, Bacevich is thought-­provoking, profane and fearless. Assailing generals, journalists and foreign policy experts alike, he links together more than a dozen military interventions that span 35 years and declares them a single war. Bacevich analyzes each intervention, looking for common themes from Carter's late 1970s missteps to Barack Obama's widespread use of assassination by drone strike today. ..."
"... A presumption that using military power signified to friends and foes that Washington was getting serious about a problem diminished the role of diplomats and diplomacy. " 'Getting serious' also implied a preference for uniforms over suits as the principal agents of U.S. policy," Bacevich writes. "Henceforth, rather than military power serving as the handmaiden of diplomacy, the reverse would be true." ..."
"... In another repeated mistake, triumphalist American commanders prematurely declare victory without realizing that their opponent has simply withdrawn to fight another day as a guerrilla force, as occurred in Afghanistan in 2001. They also personalize the enemy, wrongly assuming that the removal of figures like Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Muammar Qaddafi will instantly end conflict. ..."
"... From Somalia in 1993 to Yemen today, American commanders and policy makers overestimated the advantage American military technology bestows on them. And most crucially of all, the United States has failed to decide whether it is, in fact, at war. ..."
"... "In the war for the greater Middle East, the United States chose neither to contain nor to crush, instead charting a course midway in between," Bacevich writes. "Instead of intimidating, U.S. military efforts have annoyed, incited and generally communicated a lack of both competence and determination." ..."
"... For all that, Bacevich is right that the United States' reflexive use of armed intervention in the Middle East is folly. An unquestioning faith in military might and an underinvestment in diplomacy has tied Washington in a policy straitjacket. Bacevich's call for Americans to rethink their nation's militarized approach to the Middle East is incisive, urgent and essential. ..."
Apr 15, 2016 | www.nytimes.com

BOOK REVIEW: AMERICA'S WAR FOR THE GREATER MIDDLE EAST (A Military History) By Andrew J. Bacevich Illustrated. 453 pp. Random House. $30.

In the opening chapter of his latest book, the military historian Andrew J. Bacevich blames Jimmy Carter, a president commonly viewed as more meek than martial, for unwittingly spawning 35 years of American military intervention in the Middle East. Bacevich argues that three mistakes by Carter set precedents that led to decades of squandered American lives and treasure.

First, Carter called on Americans to stop worshiping "self-indulgence and consumption" and join a nationwide effort to conserve energy. Self-sacrifice, he argued in what is now widely derided as Carter's "malaise speech," would free Americans from their dependence on foreign oil and "help us to conquer the crisis of the spirit in our country."

The president came across as more hectoring pastor than visionary leader, Bacevich argues in "America's War for the Greater Middle East." His guileless approach squandered an opportunity to persuade Americans reeling from high foreign oil prices to trade "dependence for autonomy."

Carter's second mistake was authorizing American support to guerrillas fighting a Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan, a move that eventually helped fuel the spread of radical Islam. Finally, in a misguided effort to counter views that he was "too soft," Carter declared that the United States would respond with military force to any outside effort to seize Persian Gulf oil fields. "This statement, subsequently enshrined as the Carter Doctrine, inaugurated America's war for the greater Middle East," Bacevich writes.

This book, Bacevich's eighth, extends his string of brutal, bracing and essential critiques of the pernicious role of reflexive militarism in American foreign policy. As in past books, Bacevich is thought-­provoking, profane and fearless. Assailing generals, journalists and foreign policy experts alike, he links together more than a dozen military interventions that span 35 years and declares them a single war. Bacevich analyzes each intervention, looking for common themes from Carter's late 1970s missteps to Barack Obama's widespread use of assassination by drone strike today.

Washington's penchant for intervention, Bacevich contends, is driven by more than America's thirst for oil or the military-­industrial complex's need for new enemies. In addition to these two factors, he argues that "a deeply pernicious collective naïveté" among both Republicans and Democrats spawns interventions doomed by "confusion and incoherence."

The ultimate responsibility for the United States' actions lies with an "oblivious" American public engrossed in "shallow digital enthusiasms and the worship of celebrity," Bacevich writes. Americans support freedom, democracy and prosperity in other nations, he tells us, as long as they get the lion's share of it. "Ensuring that Americans enjoy their rightful quota (which is to say, more than their fair share) of freedom, abundance and security comes first," Bacevich says. "Everything else figures as an afterthought."

Bacevich's argument is heavy-handed at times, but when he writes about military strategy, he is genuinely incisive. Citing numerous examples, he convincingly argues that destructive myths about the efficacy of American military power blind policy makers, generals and voters. The use of overwhelming lethal force does not immediately cause dictators or terrorists to turn tail and run, even if that's what politicians in Washington want to believe. Rather, it often leads to resentment, chaos and resistance.

A presumption that using military power signified to friends and foes that Washington was getting serious about a problem diminished the role of diplomats and diplomacy. " 'Getting serious' also implied a preference for uniforms over suits as the principal agents of U.S. policy," Bacevich writes. "Henceforth, rather than military power serving as the handmaiden of diplomacy, the reverse would be true."

In another repeated mistake, triumphalist American commanders prematurely declare victory without realizing that their opponent has simply withdrawn to fight another day as a guerrilla force, as occurred in Afghanistan in 2001. They also personalize the enemy, wrongly assuming that the removal of figures like Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden and Muammar Qaddafi will instantly end conflict.

From Somalia in 1993 to Yemen today, American commanders and policy makers overestimated the advantage American military technology bestows on them. And most crucially of all, the United States has failed to decide whether it is, in fact, at war.

"In the war for the greater Middle East, the United States chose neither to contain nor to crush, instead charting a course midway in between," Bacevich writes. "Instead of intimidating, U.S. military efforts have annoyed, incited and generally communicated a lack of both competence and determination." The historical forces at work in the Middle East are different from the dynamics that led to American victories in World War II and the Cold War. American officials have failed to understand that. What's more, a deluded Washington foreign policy establishment believes that an American way of life based on "consumption and choice" will be accepted over time in the "Islamic world."

But it is here, in his description of the "Islamic world," that Bacevich stumbles. What is missing in this book about "the greater Middle East" are the people of the greater Middle East. Bacevich's most highly developed Muslim character in these pages is Saddam Hussein. The former Afghan president Hamid Karzai is a distant second. Beyond those two, the rest of the world's estimated 1.6 billion Muslims come across as two-dimensional caricatures.

And so Bacevich lumps together vastly different nationalities - from Bosnians to Iraqis to Somalis - often referring to all of them primarily as "Muslims." The dizzying complexities of each country's history, politics, culture, resources and rivalries are missing. And when it comes to how "Muslims" view the world, Bacevich veers into the simplistic essentialism that he accuses Washington policy makers of following.

Bacevich suggests that in the "Islamic world" lifestyles based on "consumption and choice" might not work. Such broad-brush statements might well be considered simplistic and even bigoted if applied to other faiths. Can one contend that a "Christian world," "Hindu world" or "Jewish world" exists? Are such generalizations analytically useful? Do the world's hundreds of millions of Muslims practice their faith identically?

As a result of this essentialism, Bacevich glosses over a vital point about the Middle East today: A historic and brutal struggle between radicals and modernists for the future of the region is underway. One can argue that the United States has no place in that fight, but making sweeping generalizations about Muslims as Bacevich does limits our understanding of the forces at work in the region. It also plays into the hands of extremists who seek to divide the world by faith.

In the most troubling passage of the book, Bacevich breezily questions pluralism itself. "According to one of the prevailing shibboleths of the present age, this commingling of cultures is inherently good," he writes. "It fosters pluralism, thereby enriching everyday life. Yet cultural interaction also induces friction, whether spontaneously generated or instigated by demagogues and provocateurs."

We do live in a dangerous world, but it is also an inevitably interconnected one. The commingling of cultures cannot be stopped. Nor should it be.

For all that, Bacevich is right that the United States' reflexive use of armed intervention in the Middle East is folly. An unquestioning faith in military might and an underinvestment in diplomacy has tied Washington in a policy straitjacket. Bacevich's call for Americans to rethink their nation's militarized approach to the Middle East is incisive, urgent and essential.

David Rohde is the national security investigations editor for Reuters and a contributing editor for The Atlantic.

[Jan 02, 2018] American exceptionalism extracts a price from common citizens

Highly recommended!
Widespread anti-American sentiment is as stupid and reactionary as any other form of nationalism. It's just another 'divide and rule' ideology to keep ordinary people at each others' throats, rather than see them united against their common enemy, the global so-called 'elite'/ oligarchs.
Notable quotes:
"... For all the haters of us ugly Americans, just remember that we at this blog are suffering in our country standing up for the truth, pitted against our neighbors, coworkers, and friends in the arena of political debate and decrying the massive injustice of our foreign aggression. ..."
"... The world knows the military industrial complex that has worked over years, and year to create the ugly tentacles throughout what was once our government has been usurped. Dollars. All these bastards see is dollars. Not human life. Not the potential of that lost life in science, math, technology. Just dollars. ..."
"... or heavens sakes the voters in Arizona returned the worst of ALL Warmongers to Congress. ..."
"... We can't even get the voters to learn that their votes equal WAR pushed by both Parties they are aligned with. Get real. Our challenge is yours. Help us! ..."
"... I know there are many highly intelligent Americans, who are already today suffering and paying a price. And I agree that (widespread) anti-American sentiment is as stupid and reactionary as any other form of nationalism. It's just another 'divide and rule' ideology to keep ordinary people at each others' throats, rather than see them united against their common enemy, the global so-called 'elite'/ oligarchs. ..."
"... Playing groups of people against one another is the oldest domination trick in the world, but it seems to work every single time...sad! ;-) ..."
"... I'm from California. Technically the USA. My take on things is we United States of Americans are exceptional. Most of us are exceptionally ignorant and violent. That is exceptionally sad. ..."
Jul 01, 2017 | www.moonofalabama.org

NemesisCalling | Jun 30, 2017 8:21:54 PM | 31

For all the haters of us ugly Americans, just remember that we at this blog are suffering in our country standing up for the truth, pitted against our neighbors, coworkers, and friends in the arena of political debate and decrying the massive injustice of our foreign aggression.

I won't call ya out by name, but lumping us forlorn sacks into your "untouchable" category reeks of reactionary arrogance that is, to pay patrons at this fine blog their due, beneath you.

In the mean time, American issues = issues concerning the empire they we all want to see destroyed. Liberating Americans should also be on your wish list.

lex.talionis | Jun 30, 2017 9:14:01 PM | 36
Amen @31

The world knows the military industrial complex that has worked over years, and year to create the ugly tentacles throughout what was once our government has been usurped. Dollars. All these bastards see is dollars. Not human life. Not the potential of that lost life in science, math, technology. Just dollars.

For heavens sakes the voters in Arizona returned the worst of ALL Warmongers to Congress. And you, the World, think for a moment we, citizens in this colony, have a snowball's chance in hell reeling these creatures in all by ourselves are sorely mistaken.

We can't even get the voters to learn that their votes equal WAR pushed by both Parties they are aligned with. Get real. Our challenge is yours. Help us!

h | Jun 30, 2017 8:38:56 PM | 32

@Nemesis

Well said...!

I know there are many highly intelligent Americans, who are already today suffering and paying a price. And I agree that (widespread) anti-American sentiment is as stupid and reactionary as any other form of nationalism. It's just another 'divide and rule' ideology to keep ordinary people at each others' throats, rather than see them united against their common enemy, the global so-called 'elite'/ oligarchs.

Playing groups of people against one another is the oldest domination trick in the world, but it seems to work every single time...sad! ;-)

smuks | Jun 30, 2017 8:50:51 PM | 35

@ Nemesis and all,

I'm from California. Technically the USA. My take on things is we United States of Americans are exceptional. Most of us are exceptionally ignorant and violent. That is exceptionally sad.

I am very glad to have found MoA and the crew of experts. I have learned so very much.

Big up b! Booyakah as they say in JA. God help us.

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Last modified: May, 12, 2020