2016/02/13 13:58:37
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This whole Saudi/Turkey game is coming to a head:
http://russia-insider.com/en/politics/saudi-jets-deploy-turkey-joint-turkish-saudi-assault-syria-now-imminent/ri12828
Good article on RI.
The Munich conference today sent out a strong message too:
http://www.fort-russ.com/2016/02/medvedev-announces-start-of-new-cold-war.html
The A/Z’s aren’t backing down it seems – who will blink first?
Forgot to add above – and one of the main reasons for this is the collapse of the Western Banksters empire. War will distract the masses – or so they think.
http://russia-insider.com/en/business/iran-completes-eurasian-golden-triangle/ri12815
Here comes Eurasia…..
War is the solution for capitalism in crisis not a distraction. The crisis is one of profitability. Capitalism measures value in socially necessary labour time to produce a commodity. The more efficient the labour process, the more living labour is displaced from the production processs the less value produced. That is the inner contradiction of capitalism, it’s illogical or irrational side. That is how capitalism shoots itself in the foot. With war all old values are slaughtered. Greater accumulation and concentration of wealth occurs and the whole mess starts over again. War is the solution to capitalism in crisis. The US is broke and going for broke, doubling down on PNAC and full spectrum dominance. A transition to a post capitalist world is about the only way out of this mess-This should start in America with general strikes and a list of demands. Housing, health care, clean water infrastructure, guaranteed annual income. Full employment even if it only means two hours work a week thanks to automation. Russia and China can make this transition more peacefully than in the west. They are more open to other methods of production and reproduction of the species. Capitalism is obviously not the best way as this is what is causing all these inter-imperialist rivalries crisis wars and on it goes.
RR
@RR
You are correct. War has always been a way to fill the coffers, when taxing “the low lives” has emptied the “barrel of income” and hit the bottom.
The secret though is to win the war, the losers pay.
Anonius
War is a strategy emplyed by politicians experiencing self-generated economic crisis which they are unable to solve. For example, the USA under the Roosevelt regime gained entry into WW2 after years of provocation against Germany and then against Japan.
Why? Every effort the regime had tried prior to WW2 made the economic situation in the USA worse. The Great Depression had dragged ever on, deepening and with no end in sight. The “brains trust” in government (the “brightest minds in the nation”) refused to recognise that it was their own interferences in the economy that had caused the Great Depression in the first place and that their subsequent interferences made matters much worse. Provoking Japan into the Pearl Harbour attack gave them a war which mopped up millions of unemployed and redirected the economy. Even so, despite their success in starting war with Japan, the economic conditions of the Great Depression were not alleviated until several years AFTER the cessation of WW2 open hostilities.
The fundamental trouble with central government (apart from lacking moral legitimacy) is that by its nature it is trapped by the socialist calculation problem. That the problem is unsolvable is inescapable.
Capitalism does not require warfare to distract the people and redirect an entire economy. Central government with its gangs of thugs, “experts”, bureaucrats, commissars, gauleiters, secret police, torturers, technocrats, cronies and “brains-trusts” does. It requires it due to its inherent nature and its inevitable failures.
Siotu
@RR – you missed my point. I said war is to distract the masses from the imminent financial collapse of the West. Yes its profitable for them too – but that wasn’t my point. I was pointing out one reason and the article linked was about how China/Russia/China et al are all moving on with their new system – which the West wants to destroy – so they can keep their unipolar world.
Meanwhile Turkey/Saudi and co. sign their death warrants in Syria – Euraisa is rising and moving on……
RR
Quoting, “Capitalism measures value in socially necessary labour time to produce a commodity.”
This is an example of the socialist labour theory of value and it is obvious nonsense. One would have thought that after some 100 + years of terrible outcomes from the application of this idiocy the lesson would have been well learned. The lesson is: labour theory of value has no basis in reality.
In Capitalism value is measured on the basis of individual subjectivity.
Siotu
If you haven’t been to this site, I highly recommend it. The author of this site has daily Intel from Damascus directly.
syrianperspective.com
The comment sections have a high level of discourse and analysis on the empire’s war against Syria.
The Yank Airstrikes on an MSF Hospital in Aleppo the other day, confirmed by Russian Mil Press Statements.
How did the Yanks get to pull that off if, as many have been claiming, the Russians have an invinciblle S-400 Air Defence shield in operation?
Either
1)the Russian Mil colluded with/allowed the Yanks to bomb the Hospital without fear of reprisal
OR
2) The Russian “invincible S-400 Air Defence Missile Shield” ain’t all it’s cracked up to be.
Afetr all these were not super-duper faster-than-the-speed-of-light state-of-the-art Fighter Jets which carried out the op. These were slow-moving A-10 Warthogs.
Wassup with that?
3) The Western Partners mistake forbearance for weakness.
Colluded is too strong, as if they already knew the target.
Starting WW3 seems going a little far for seeing an A10 in the wrong place.
As I recall, USA and their allies had an aggreement with Syria and Russia about how to fly over Syria. (Personally I think that Syria/Russia was wrong in letting them fly over the country…)
According to that (stupid) aggreement, USA was obliged to report where they would fly and what they were planning to do. So when their planes came quickly over the border, what would you expect Russia/Syria to do? Shoot them down? Without any evidence that they could show afterwards that the planes would actually attack the hospitals if they hadn’t been shot down?
Perhaps Moscow wanted to let the US discredit itself by causing more “collateral damage”; or Moscow does not yet want to start a war by shooting down USAF A-10s (despite Moscow’s legal right to do so.
I doubt the S-400 failed to detect the A-10s, but I agree with, to some extent, your criticism of Russian military equipment. Throughout the 20th century Russian/Soviet fighters were often more advanced, or on par with their US counterparts, but the battle record massively favours US equipment. A few examples:
*MiG-15 vs F-86
*MiG-23/27 vs F-14 (even F-4E outperformed MiG-27)
*MiG-25, Su-22, & MiG-29 vs F-15
*MiG-29 vs F-16
A few weeks ago Saker wrote how the Su-35s in Syria are the most advanced fighters in the world, even more so than the F-22. But why is it US-designed and built “teen series” (i.e. F-14, F-15, F-16, & F-18) have lopsided kill ratios against their Soviet equivalents? Unless the Su-35 get some kills, IMHO the best fighter in the Syrian war theatre is the F-16, due to its excellent combat record.
You have a bias regarding US aircraft vs russian. The S-400 system definitely locked on to the A-10s but were not authorized to shoot since the A-10s were no threat to the russians. Understand the engagement rules. In vietnam US vs n vietnam exchange ratio was not 10-1 as expected but more like 1-1. In war games with India US lost almost every time against russian aircraft flown by Indian pilots. US was embarrased. I am familiar with how the US gov analyses one on one dog fights and there are significant areas where russia has the asvantage, believe me. That is why stand off missiles are used but they can be avoided by certain manuevers russian fighters can use where lock is lost. Plus US does not have that much of an advantage with stealth as some would have you believe
The rules of engagement most likely did not allow the S-400 to engage the A-10s since they were not a direct threat to the russians and their equipment. I will guaratee you that the Russia S-400 radars were locked on the A-10s all the way ready to fire if necessary. Russians are letting the US hang itself with these bombing provocations
I think Russia is leaving it up to Syria to take out any foreign fighters. Russia will take down any threat to themselves is what they said. Of course Russia would respond if NATO forces came for revenge against Syria but they will not start it on Syrian territory.
RR
A great deal depends on the quality, training and experience of pilots -it’s not all technical whizz bangs. Not to worry though, the USA’s F-35 Lemonjet will spend so much time as a hangar queen that the pilots will be deficient in stick time. Either that or the buggy software will doom it or the first terrorist bird ingested will flame its single engine out.
I just hope that its networked attack software won’t get hacked/get a virus/have a spectactular ‘Bhopal’ failure and launch WWIII.
I think someone has their kill ratios wrong of US vs Russian aurcraft. Vietnam was not 10-1 as expected but more like 1-1. Take a look at war games between US and India which flies russian equipment. India embarrased the US in those war games on many occasions. I am familiar with US analysis of agressor one on one dog fights and there are large areas in energy maneuver diagram where US is loser. Why do you think we tend to focus on beyond line of sight AA missiles instead, because our dog fighting ability will not allow us to have an advantage in kill ratio. Russian aircraft have certain maneuver regimes that effectively create a break lock from a missile firing. Be advised that russian aircraft are just as good if not better than US and AA missiles are not as good as many would have you believe
It seems to me the Russians understand how them shooting down a US plane would be played in the western media and thus avoid doing so. Very sensible in my view. If the situation escalates and the balance of good in this sort of decision changes then their response will change. The Russians also speak/act clearly, truthfully with evidence as against the USA and NATO who act deceitfully and speak in half truths because the position they have taken is immoral and untenable.
Awright, everyone just pipe down. This same foolishness is all over the obscure military forums I belong to and it’s the same thing chapter and verse, the sauds are coming and they can take Damascus, the turks are coming and they will attack Russia’s airbases, what is the Russian public going to do when the coffins start coming to Russian mothers, IS is attacking Aleppo, Russian citizens are ready to revolt against Putin’s dictatorship, colour revolutions will start in Byelorus, Krimea, Abkhazia, Jackass Flats, Virginia, Putin was stupud to sign the ceasefire just like he was stupud to sign the ceasefire in Donbas, the Russian economy will fall apart at 09:17 Monday, etc etc ad nauseam.
99% of what you are reading from both sides is bovine scatology. VVP is not stupid nor are his advisors. Da West is also not stupid knowing they are looking down a double barreled shotgun loaded with nukes. Da West will try their damnedest to make Russia look like the bad guy in everything and many will believe them. Our fifth column will try, and are trying, to work their magic. Da West will try their damnedest to get around NATO involvement by having proxies step in yet again, the turmoil and chaos on the southern Med Rim will continue for years more and attempts will be are and are being made to spread that chaos closer to RF.
We are not staring at late July 1914, I would say it’s early May 1914. One can hope the crises will be averted but if not, so be it. There’s not a damned thing any one of us can do about the crisis so don’t run around like a chicken with its head cut off screaming the sky is falling. It ain’t.
Auslander
Author, Never The Last One
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00ZGCY8KK
Thanks Auslander, I needed that.
I would like to share Carl Jung’s experience and reflections during his travel to the Pueblo Indians in the USA:
-taken from Memories, Dreams, Reflections. C. G. Jung (1989 Vintage Books Edition) page 247-249
There for the first time I had the good fortune to talk with a non-European, that is, to a non-white. He was a chief of the Taos Pueblos, an intelligent man between the ages of forty and fifty. His name was Ochwiay Biano (Mountain Lake). I was able to talk with him as I have rarely been able to talk with a European. To be sure, he was caught up in his world just as much as a European is in his, but what a world it was! In talk with a European, one is constantly running up on the sand bars of things long known but never understood; with this Indian, the vessel floated freely on deep, alien seas. At the same time, one never knows which is more enjoyable: catching sight of new shores, or discovering new approaches to age-old knowledge that has been almost forgotten.
“See,” Ochwiay Biano said, “how cruel the whites look. Their lips are thin, their noses sharp, their faces furrowed and distorted by folds. Their eyes have a staring expression; they are always seeking something. What are they seeking? The whites always want something; they are always uneasy and restless. We do not know what they want. We do not understand them. We think that they are mad.”
I asked him why he thought the whites were all mad.
“They say that they think with their heads,” he replied.
“Why of course. What do you think with? I asked him in surprise.
“We think here,” he said, indicating his heart.
I fell into a long meditation. For the first time in my life, so it seemed to me, someone had drawn for me a picture of the real white man. It was as though until now I had seen nothing but sentimental, prettified color prints. This Indian had struck our vulnerable spot, unveiled a truth to which we are blind. I felt rising within me like a shapeless mist something unknown and yet deeply familiar. And out of this mist, image upon image detached itself: first Roman legions smashing into the cities of Gaul, and the keenly incised features of Julius Caesar, Scipio Africanus, and Pompey. I saw the Roman eagle on the North Sea and on the banks of the White Nile. Then I saw St. Augustine transmitting the Christian creed to the Britons on the tips of Roman lances, and Charlemagne’s most glorious forced conversions of the heathen; then the pillaging and murdering bands of the Crusading armies. With a secret stab I realized the hollowness of that old romanticism about the Crusades. Then followed Columbus, Cortes, and the other conquistadors who with fire, sword, torture, and Christianity came down upon even these remote pueblos dreaming peacefully in the Sun, their Father. I saw, too, the peoples of the Pacific islands decimated by firewater, syphilis, and scarlet fever carried in the clothes the missionaries forced on them.
It was enough. What we from our point of view called colonization, missions to the heathen, spread of civilization, etc., has another face-the face of a bird of prey seeking with cruel intentness for distant quarry-a face worthy of a race of pirates and highwaymen. All the eagles and other predatory creatures that adorn our coats of arms seem to me apt psychological representatives of our true nature.
I very much enjoyed reading your post, quite excellent… mod-hs
Good example of why Jung is deemed inferior to Freud when the opposite is true.
Thank you for that.
At once so true, a genuine attempt at grace, admiration and forgiveness, and yet so heart-breakingly racist and incapable of escaping the same fragmenting, colonizing mind-process and language he seeks to grieve.
Very well said, Anon (Pick a name!).
While C.G. Jung was in India, he was offered a trip to visit Ramana Maharshi, the great enlightened master. Jung declined. He rationalized that Yoga – Ramana had nothing to do with Yoga – was not compatible with the Western mind. Utter nonsense.
Instead of humbly meeting with one of the great Indian sages, Jung preferred the security of writing books on wisdom, religion, Tao, Tantra. This is the way of the academic.
The most important thing for white people is freedom. The most important thing for Indian people is honor.
The white world puts all the power at the top. When someone gets to the top, they have the power to take your freedom. In your churches there is someone at the top. In your schools, too. In your government. In your business. There is always someone at the top, and that person has the right to say whether you are good or bad. They own you. No wonder Americans always worry about freedom. You have so damn little of it. If you don’t protect it, someone will take it away from you.
When you came among us, you couldn’t understand our way. You wanted to find the person at the top. You wanted to find the fences that bound us in. Your world was made of cages and you thought ours was, too.
Everything looked like cages. Your clothes fit like cages. Your houses looked like cages. You put fences around your yards so they looked like cages. Everything was a cage. You turned the land into cages. Little squares. Then you made a government to protect these cages. And that government was all cages. The only freedom you had was inside your own cage. Then you wondered why you weren’t happy and didn’t feel free.
We Indians never thought that way. Everyone was free. We didn’t make cages of laws or land. We believed in honor. To us, the white man looked like a blind man walking. He knew he was on the wrong path when he bumped into the edge of one of the cages. Our guide was inside, not outside. It was honor. It was more important for us to know what was right than to know what was wrong.
We looked at animals and saw what was right. We saw how every animal had wisdom and we tried to learn that wisdom. We looked to see how they got along and how they raised their young. We did not look for what was wrong. Instead we always reached for what was right. It was this search that kept us on a good path, not rules and fences. We wanted honor for ourselves and our families. The only time freedom is important is when others are trying to put you in chains. We had no chains so we needed no freedom.
We had always had our freedom, so you had nothing of value to give us. All you could do is take it away and give it back to us in the form of cages. You took our honor and gave us your freedom. And even you know that is no freedom at all. It is just the freedom to live inside your own locked cage.
Excerpt from the book “Neither Wolf nor Dog. On Forgotten Roads with an Indian Elder” by Kent Nerburn
………………………………
The Genocide of a Culture
Video was made with different intention but nonetheless shows how the soul of the Indians was broken by teaching them ‘civilized’ ways of life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WPPO-M0t8w
This video presents exerpts from the letters and diaries of Jesuit missionaries in Canada during the early 17th century. The Jesuit conversion program focused on teaching the Natives the importance and sanctity of hierarchy, womens subjugation and the corporeal punishment of children, to put each other in prison and publicly persecute each other.
That was wonderful,thank you for posting this
Thank you for that wonderful excerpt.
Let your hearts break, for all our relations. Your heartbreak becomes your skill to grieve to feed life, active, unafraid, strong.
For a profound view of “depth psychology” or psychoanalysis, see “The Essential Titus Burckhardt: Reflections on Sacred Art, Faiths, and Civilizations” (The Perennial Philosophy), Bloomington, Indiana: World Wisdom Books, 2003
http://www.amazon.com/Essential-Titus-Burckhardt-Reflections-Civilizations/dp/0941532364/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1455487576&sr=1-3&keywords=titus+burckhardt
A new big storm is coming – It’s not too late – Grexit now!
http://bit.ly/1Xi79Ig
@nmb
Dream on buddy. It won’t happen. Everyone is “high” on “EU drug”.
The “big money”, which created EU will keep it running, just like the keep the dollar on the top.
Another Day, Another Billion for Color Revolutions Near Russia’s Borders
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/politics/20160213/1034707630/state-department-democracy-spending.html
“Last week, the Obama administration proposed its final, 2017 fiscal year budget proposal to Congress. Among the proposed outlays is a State Department request for nearly a billion dollars to counter “Russian aggression” and “promote democracy” in the former Soviet Union. In other words, Washington thinks the region needs more color revolutions.
On Tuesday, the State Department and USAID held a special joint briefing, laying out a $50.1 billion spending request for 2017, including $953 million in “critical support for Ukraine and surrounding countries in Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia to counter Russian aggression through foreign assistance and public diplomacy.”
The funds, officials specified, would go toward “enhancing access to independent, unbiased information; eliminating corruption and supporting rule of law; strengthening civil society; enhancing energy security, supporting financial reforms, trade, and economic diversification; and increasing some defense capabilities” in countries including “Ukraine, Georgia, and Moldova [and] in Central Asia.”
The spending would be separate from the proposed $3.4 billion (up from $789 million in 2016), provided by the so-called “European Reassurance Initiative,” which aims for “a significant reinvestment in the US military presence in Europe after decades of gradual withdrawal” to counter “the growing threat Russia poses to long-term US national security interests in Europe and beyond.”
With most of the Western media basically ignoring the plans and focusing on other aspects of the budget’s whopping $4 trillion in proposed spending, Russian security analysts, naturally, couldn’t let this ‘minor detail’ simply slip by unnoticed, given that the spending proposal is openly oriented against Russia.”
In other words, bribes. And money that’s unaccountable. Corruption will go through the roof, the one thing they say they want to combat. No one will know how the money is spent or where it will go. Many call these people in the State Dept. this or that, but I call them power hungry and most importantly, stupid. How can they get away with this, not really screwing things up, more than it is now? This State Dept, initiated by Hillary Clinton, has first off castrated the CIA (only less than 7% are in the field; 93% are in cubicles in Langley; not much of an intelligence agency anymore), and has taken over doing covert actions, using vast amounts of money. And all actions have gone down the sewer pipe. All I say is this. Russia will teach them a lesson they will never forget. They don’t behead people, rape women, kill children, invade countries, as the Saudis and especially Turkey is now doing. And most importantly, they have the guts and the muscle to protect their interests.
And while all this spending is going on the civil infrastructure of the US is in trouble. Many of the dams, bridges and interstates are reaching their design life and many are well beyond it. For example, some 10% of dams in the USA are thought to be high risk and in need of immediate attention. That is thousands of examples, many with sizable populations living down range. The problem has been known since President Carter’s time and is growing inexorably more serious year in, year out. Meanwhile, no-one can afford to do much about it. Quoting, “The funds are unavailable.”
Siotu
The Karamazov Brothers (2008) english subtitles
10 episodes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuQTWWFuS-4
If somebody want to practise listening to Russian language.
Watched the whole series two, three years ago. Highly recommended!
“Звезда” – “The Star”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vcGC2JDh-pc
Now that some would bring us to another war … do not forget…..
Thank you Anonymous and elsi for links. I have bookmarked them and will watch at first occasion. I am copy-pasting currently top comment of Звезда” – “The Star movie because it is beautiful:
The last line of the film is so meaningful: “Every spring, every May, the souls of Russians killed in Poland, Czechia, Germany fly to their homeplaces all in blosssom now, they want to see their Russia they died for.”. Such a great line to honour the souls of 22 millions Soviet sons and daughters who fell for their Motherland, and that makes them live forever.
Those words in that comment are the last words in the film, just see it, it is so moving…..and beautiful….kinda homage to the Spetsnaz!
Good morning, World, from Hotel California. The sun is on the rise, the sky is clear and the temp will rise to the mid-eighties. I plan to walk a half-hour to a nursery, buy a potted tree and by a dolly lift bring it back and plant it.
I just came from the previous thread about the Shattered Mirror. Struck me clear as a bell that we’re all racists to some degree by virtue of the human race. What keeps us from shattering like a mirror hitting a hammer is music, the music of the spheres if you will.
Rhythm, verbal and otherwise, is in our genes. It’s a moveable feast of music using words and what they mean.
I hear it as I pass by the various cafes here in town, in the voices of the diners and in the smiles of the children, even as the shards of shattering narrow my eyes and bar my ears.
Love is a many splendored thing, multi-layered and multi-polared. It makes me glad and sad in equal measure. I mostly sing off key with many false notes and moves. Hammers don’t forgive but vineyards do.
When I read about the shattered mirrors and dreams I know I’m very lucky to be where I am in time and space. Putting the broken pieces together I can sort of see my way clear. I go over the past and clean up where I can.
It’s a moveable feast all right but why am I starving? Maybe it’s motion sickness.
Reality sets in. I just got a message from the machine that this machine will shut down in ten minutes so I better save my work or it will be lost forever. No big loss I’d say but I’ll do what I’m told. I welcome the day the machine shuts down for good and love alone remains.
Turkey is shelling YPG positions on the outskirts of Azaz n Aleppo, Syria.. which the group recently took control of. Russia should send a cruise missile to the Turkish artillery battery positions. Turkey has done this many times before to help their moderate terrorists but not with Russia watching.
http://www.mediafire.com/convkey/21ce/sawx8pc9ss39s1hzg.jpg
Turkey PM threatens military action against Syrian Kurdish rebels in Syria
Turkish official says there will be a ‘massive escalation’ in Syria over next 24 hours. After 4 years of #ISIS being on Turkey southern border, not once did Turkey fire on #ISIS but Erdogan would not waste time to bomb Kurds
Turkey shelling Kurds in Syria is an unprovoked attack. Turkey is giving artillery support to Al-Qaeda who just lost an airbase to Kurds.
Footage of Turkish artillery shelling YPG/SDF positions on Efrîn fronts.
https://twitter.com/DrPartizan_/status/698553134558355456
Turkish forces shelling in the densely inhabited city of Malkieh in the northern #Aleppo countryside. Syria
Turkey is shelling areas of Aleppo, including Minnigh, recently taken by the YPG from Islamists. https://t.co/BG0IMMvfBW
Assad’s Full interview with @AFP agency
https://t.co/apKI8agA3I
Desperate propaganda abounds, echo-chambered by the usual slime vassals:
Syria conflict: Pressure grows on Russia over civilian bomb deaths
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-35568692
Under fire for Syria bombings, Russia denies hitting civilians
http://ca.reuters.com/article/topNews/idCAKCN0VM0CV?sp=true
Saudi Arabia, Turkey may launch ground operations in Syria: Turkish media
http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/saudi-arabia-turkey-may-launch-ground-operations-in-syria-turkish-media-1.2776610
Will this be followed by empire precipitated shaped chaos -perhaps the UK one man dress shop quoted above could weigh in?
Strange Bedfellows
“Up until the point where the US had to begrudgingly acknowledge that strategically engineered “Weapons of Mass Migration” were being used against the EU and predictably blame it all on Russia, its allied “NGOs” and information outlets had categorically denied that such a planned phenomenon was taking place, slurring anyone who dared to even infer this possibility as being “racist”, “fascist”, and “white supremacist”. Astonishingly, this mainstream media-imposed “political correctness” and ideological intimidation was aggressively repeated by social and alternative media “activists” who fashioned themselves as (militant) far-left “anti-imperialists” — typically the sort of individuals who speak out against the US’ “thought police” or at least respect others’ right to do so.
These “anti-imperialists” claim to support Russia’s role in the world, yet state that border controls and assimilative & integrational immigration policies are some kind of “new fascism”. Apparently they never read President Putin’s 2012 manifesto on the topic, otherwise they would know that the Russian leader has a very firm and publicly declared stance against open borders and the Western conception of “multiculturalism”. By attacking concerned individuals that espouse these exact same principles as “racist”, “fascist”, and “white supremacist”, they’re indirectly attacking Russia and associating it with those slurs. It’s a documented fact that the tentacles of unipolar influence are long and deeply embedded in all sorts of social and political movements, so it’s reasonable to question whether these “anti-imperialist” voices are just “misguided activists” or if they’re really just anti-Russian provocateurs with an ideological ax to grind. ”
http://sputniknews.com/columnists/20160211/1034590138/putin-erdogan-refugees-europe.html#ixzz404V27UNp
War of Words: US Wages Information Campaign Against Russia
Read more: http://sputniknews.com/world/20160213/1034718253/us-russia-information-war.html
“We need to understand that an information war was declared against Russia, so such statements shouldn’t come as a surprise,” Stepanyan told Radio Sputnik. “The fact that these statements are easy to refute matters little for the US leadership because its goal is to create an information phantom for the electorate. They’re well versed in the art of fooling the masses; the creed of their propaganda is ‘the more terrifying the lie is, the more people believe in it’.”
“These are all elements of hybrid warfare, its integral component — psychological warfare,” he concluded.
Meanwhile, US President Barack Obama sought to increase the budget of the Broadcasting Board of Governors, the US federal agency responsible for the Voice of America and Radio Liberty/Radio Free Europe, among others, requested a substantial budget increase. If the newly proposed budget for fiscal year 2017 is approved, the agency will receive nearly $778 million – a vast sum, especially compared to Russia’s foreign media budget.
For example, MIA Rossiya Segodnya, the parent company of Sputnik News, operates on a budget of $75 million, including both domestic and foreign media — 10 times less than the BBG.”
Saudi invasion has begun
Your link wasn’t working. Mod TR
While people here have been talking about old world politics, things are turning very fast in Syria.. SA has moved D15 planes to turkey.. Syrian high command is sure of an invasion.
moa has an article on where they are all going to.. and its as good as any…
The Race To Raqqa Is On – To Keep Its Unity Syria Must Win
http://www.moonofalabama.org/2016/02/the-race-to-raqqa-is-on-to-keep-its-unity-syria-must-win-.html
Turkey is shelling YPG positions inside Syria. The 2 invasion routes bypass current SAA positions so no confrontation.. This is so they can take most of Russia to hold for ransom in negations since the moderate terrorist’s have been defeated and it is only a matter of time.
What is the end goal? Still assad must go.. And seems the kurds must go too.. mccaine seems to have convinced some mercs to force their way into Syria at long last. I did not read any articles while thinking this but looking at what others wrote, seems they see the same thing. Neither Iran or Russia is prepared for a fight.. A skirmish yes but not a real fight.. Under cover Turkey seems ready to move 10,000 or so troops.. SA has like over 300,000 in a war game in Jordan and moved to the border with Iraq. Egypt will take part? Thing are fluid but more than anything things are scary.. They are calling Russia’s bluff.. Iran is still transporting special terrorist fighters. These are not regular troops but troops specially trained to fight urban warfare against terrorist and they don’t fight like regular troops. So they are not ready to meet real soldiers without changing their personnel.
If McCain gives the go ahead, this will happen in the next couple of days. I highly doubt this would have gotten even this far without US being the puppet master.. Turkey is already shelling many YPG held areas to help al queda.. So they did something that Russia did before.. Moved in by stealth before anyone knew what was happening and now the US proxies did the same.. Instead of confronting Russia they have also bypassed SAA and Russia.. No wonder IS is moving to Libya so this plan was a while in the making..
So the US is now calling Russia’s bluff.. Soon nato troops will be in Syria as well..
War in #Syria doesn’t concern any longer the #Syria/n. It is a struggle betwn the #USA & #Russia; #SaudiArabia & #Iran; #Turkey & expansion
“They are calling Russia’s bluff..”
Around the time the SU-24 was shot down, I believe Putin said something along the lines of hoping nuclear weapons would not be needed to fight terrorists in Syria.
I doubt Russia is bluffing in Syria.
I doubt Russia is bluffing in Syria. The Syrians will fight, they will not leave it to the Iranians. And they are plenty capable of fighting, especially as they will be supplied by Russia, Iran and China. Yes China. This is all about China and I’m sure China will not stand aside and allow a Russian defeat in Syria. The stakes are too high for China’s own survival for it to stand aside now.
A ground invasion will ultimately provoke war with the SAA. But it does’nt have to be a ground invasion. It could be a large scale air campaign designed to destroy the SAA’s capability to fight ISIS. Then supply and support ISIS as it heads for Damascus.
Such a campaign would require an initial horrifying mass casualty event. The mother of all false flags. This would be blamed on Hezbollah, the SAA, Iran or all of them. The “retaliatory” air campaign against them would also be designed to humiliate Russia and show that it cannot defend Assad’s government. It would seek to do to Russia what Russia has done to the west, since september, with its air campaign. It would seek to put the question to Russia, escalate or give up Assad.
I believe Russia will escalate.
Thats just one possible scenario. The Saudi’s and Turks are crazy enough to attempt a large scale land invasion. Neither scenarion is likely to have a favorable outcome for them.
War is coming. The US must attack Russia, first by proxy then directly. Its Russia’s fate to fight for the freedom of humanity.
But this is not really about Russia. It is about China. Here in a nutshell is the inexorable logic of world war.
US GDP (PPP, Trillions of US$, 3% avg annual growth rate) , Military expenditure @ 5% of GDP billions US$, 2014 @ 4.35%)
2014 – $17.5 , 0.76 i.e $760 Billion
2019 – $20.5 , 1.0
2024 – $23.5 , 1.2
China GDP (PPP, Trillions of US$, 6% avg annual growth rate) , Military expenditure @ 5% of GDP billions US$, 2014 @ 2%)
2014 – $18 , 0.36 i.e $360 billion
2019 – $24 , 1.2
2024 – $32 , 1.6
This is the real problem for the USA. By 2024 the Chinese economy and military expenditures could be over 30% larger than those of the US. The US cannot sustain global hegemony in such an environment.
Therefore it is better for the US to fight now when it is stronger, than wait till later when it will be weaker.
The writing is on the wall!
Anyone remember this? The US on purpose decided to bomb an air raid shelter to show no one and no place is safe. This was a well known and well used safe zone. Not a military target and most people inside were women and children, the men giving up their seats to the women. The US used double tap bunker buster to destroy the shelter where the first bomb destroyed the ventilation to the bunker and the second bunker buster used this shaft to detonate inside preheating the water stored for drinking and as safety to boil everyone alive inside. The US excuse was they saw some men in military uniforms closing the doors to the shelters..
Anniversary of the #US bombing that killed 400+ civilians hiding in the Amiriyah shelter in #Iraq’s Baghdad in 1991.
https://twitter.com/IraqiSecurity/status/698585233776635905
The blog post at the site below offers a very interesting, indepent analysis concerning the ceasefire that’s not a ceasefire and the Kurdish/Turkish situation. The Kurds are a rather interesting and many faceted group to say the least:
http://pennyforyourthoughts2.blogspot.com/
2016/02/from-aleppo-to-munich-and-back.html
/?m=1
Hmm?m..
To all who predict the inevitable war, wherever your mind thinks it will transpire:
It is a requirement of that prediction to tell us what the Order of Battle shall be.
For instance, China attacked by the US.
Or, Turkey and US/NATO/Arabs with oil attacking Russia.
Or, Turkey and the nazis of Ukraine attacking Russia.
Or, some Israeli (Zio-whatever you want) false flag attack that results in attacking Russia.
Please tell us how the war gets going with planes? with missiles? with sub? with carriers and destroyers?
And lay out the first 5-10 hours, then day one in full, and then the next day.
And tell us, dear friends of the next inevitable war, how many men, how many planes, how many ships are involved on the attacking West’s side.
See, that inevitable stuff is nonsense in the nuclear age.
The kind of war we are seeing now in Syria, Iraq, Libya and Yemen and earlier in Ukraine and what we saw in Iraq, Kuwait and Afghanistan are very deadly to be sure. But they are small conflicts.
They have wide impact on civilians mostly. Somehow the armies rarely clash in large formations.
At most, only Ukraine has given us enormous impact because the Ukies are especially ignorant and horribly led. Yemen is a bloodbath, but it is amongst minor players.
But what you predictors of inevitable Russia attacked by the West in any form say is a fiction.
And attacking China is even more so.
One, you do not understand military doctrine. And the most important national military doctrine is Russia’s. It openly states that they will use nuclear weapons in many situations. They have a clear fast path of first use.
The West does not intend to state its first strike use, but it would strike first in full fashion if it could.
It does not because it does not want to be totally destroyed.
Russia does not much care if it gets hit by nukes under the situation of saving its troops from destruction or warding off a massive ground attack, or suffering some attempt at EMP attack or even Cyber or Space (by laser or hypersonic weapons).
What this business of nuclear is really doing is down-scaling the ‘war” between giants. There simply cannot be a war, a grand war anywhere, by proxy or by principals. The big wars are over.
No nation is going to stand still today and watch 300 ships form off its coast ready to send 4000 cruise missiles into its ports, airports, urban centers and industrial sites, and all it military installations and defenses.
No nation will be able to assemble the armor and vehicles of 90,000 men anywhere near a major nation and threaten an invasion.
No nation can send 100 or 1000 or 10,000 sorties of bombers or cruise missiles or IRBMs or ICBMs into another nation without suffering total annihilation in return.
So, there won’t be WW3.
There will be many more Syrias if Russia does not prevail. And more Ukraines if Russia does not prevail. There will be some more Yemens, probably.
But there won’t be WW3. You simply must understand the Order of Battle to form such a war is impossible today. No large nation (or tiny one like Israel with 350 nukes) will stand by and take that sort of preparation and first strike hit. The threatened nation will use their nukes to destroy the formation.
Thus, Saudi Arabia’s invasion threat and Turkey’s invasion threat are by necessity small threats.
Russia and Syria and Iraq can handle these.
The only dominant force the US has left is its naval power. And no nation is threatening it on the seas. So they can’t win anywhere. No one to fight on the oceans.
Where and how they want to fight is blocked. They want to fight the Russians and the Chinese with planes, drones and missiles. But they can’t. The S400 and S300 and next year the S500 will stop them. And if they somehow broke through in a few places, they would be nuked by missiles Russia and China have that they can’t find, can’t see and can’t stop.
The US has to get relatively close with its cruise missiles to fire them effectively. China and Russia can hit the US ships and subs from 3x the distance.
There simply is not a feasible Order of Battle for victory.
There is not going to be a WW3.
There might be a deadly clash. Jets shot down. Troops and defenses blasted.
But it won’t accelerate too widely. Even if a few hundred died, the reaction would be scaled to the region where the clash occurred. It would be over before the whole thing was reported. An hour.
And the window of war is closing. Americans are rising up. They want no more, except with Terrorists.
The biggest threat to Russia I see in bleeding it economically by wars, oil prices and sanctions.
You are so correct. What all of the “military analysts” and those who must possess inside information, since they are so certain in their predilictions, fail to mention is the nation that can inflict the most economic damage on adveraries holds the upper hand. The ones who are in control of global finance can control nations; and blackmail them to support their agenda, no matter what is in their best national interests. We know how quickly the mob can be incited against their governments when bread becomes scarce. Bread, not meaning just foodstuffs.
Larchmonter, I agree, today’s world is very different from the world depicted in our history books (in so many ways…).
I come to think of Dr Strangelove
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgyjlqhiTV8
Is there any tourism in Lattakia? It is not that I ask if it is “safe” (no place on Earth is really safe when it comes to “karma”). I just wonder if the “locals” look forward to receiving tourists in the near future.
I know that some big hotels are functioning, but I would prefer not to give my money to the big international hotels.
Does anybody here have suggestions about accomodation or tourist agency that is more “local”, run by Syrians?
I am not planning on going there “today”, but now and then I go to the Mediterranian Sea in the autum, but I wont go to Turkey (have never been there so far, aint gonna start now….), and I have been interested in Syria as a tourist/culture country for decades.
more than a decade back, we heard pentagoon’s plan to gear up for a *two wars scenario*,
we thought they meant beating up defenceless third world countries, an murkkan speciality.
now then we realise that the crazies in washington were talking about russia and china ! !
The presidential horse race, distracting us from these vital war-peace issues, almost appears to be a key part of this deep state script
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/2016/02/tensions-heating-up-fast.html
Full text of joint declaration signed by Pope Francis and Patriarch Kirill: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/full-text-of-joint-declaration-signed-by-pope-francis-and-patriarch-kirill-61341/
Remarkable series of articles:
Coercive Engineered Migration: Zionism’s War on Europe [so far, 8 out of 11 parts]
http://dissidentvoice.org/author/gearoidocolmain/
“Ukrainian far-right fighters hold Nazi-inspired torch march in Odessa to commemorate slain friends.
.
Members of the notorious Azov unit of the Ukrainian police, which sports many far-right zealots in its ranks, held a Nazi-style torch rally in the southern city of Odessa to commemorate the anniversary of the deaths of three fellow fighters.
Some 200 people participated in the event Sunday, including an Azov fighter and relatives of the three killed soldiers. Vyacheslav Kirillov, Nikolay Troitsky and Aleksandr Kutusaki were reportedly killed on February 15, 2015, as Ukrainian forces clashed with rebels for control over the village of Shirokino….”
https://www.rt.com/news/332486-odessa-azov-torch-march/
.
I really hope that this year Novorossiya’s description of the Odessa massacre gets more media space than the Ukro-nazi’s PR stunts.