by Chris Faure – for The Saker Blog

At the time of writing, just in from RT – Mr Putin is in Syria on surprise visit and has already held talks with Bashar Assad. It is not hard to understand that world leaders have most probably doubled up on their already excellent security and will travel highly secured, with no pre-announcement.

The myth of the US as the self-purported savior of humankind, the tolerant and benevolent and Good Shining City upon the Hill of democracy, benevolent Uncle Sam that has your back, has now tumbled and is in the process of being exploded. The most favorite terms of the US, “rules-based” world order is disappearing in the mist and the much vaunted “international community” which usually supports the US is strangely quiet.

This statement becomes all the more clear given the UN Security Council (UNSC) meeting yesterday where the US attempted to advance a statement “underscoring the inviolability of diplomatic and consular premises” after the breach of the US embassy in Iraq. This type of statement needs a consensus agreement of all 15 members of the UN Security Council which it did not get.

Russia and China acted forcefully, saying in effect, you’re telling half the story as usual. Tell the truth, add the further events as well, especially “ … the unilateral action from the United States,” China’s U.N. ambassador, Zhang Jun, said. “If the council is supposed to do something, we should have complete coverage of the whole thing.”

This statement from the US illustrates duplicity, odiousness and double talk from the US while trying to advance a statement that diplomatic and consular premises should be inviolate after grabbing Russia diplomatic premises (2017) in the US, and not standing up to their international legal obligations to protect the Venezuelan embassy in the US (2019). We can also mention the grab of Julian Assange by the Brits from the Ecuadorian embassy in London at the behest of the US, to see that this statement by the US is simply attempting to paper over their own shortcomings.

Of course the US are bleating like stuck pigs that Russia and China would not allow their sanctimonious statement to be read out and entered, but we can expect US initiatives in the UN to fail from now on, almost by default at least in the UNSC. The US was told in perfect diplomatic terms translated to street language to Go Fly a Kite, Take a Dive through a Rolling Donut, Sit down and Shut Up, Zip your Lip, GTFO, Hop on the Bus Gus and roll on out of here and see if you can find yourself a new lover. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ABXtWqmArUU

At this stage, the future of the United Nations as it stands today may materially change and if it does, it will be a fairly fast change – The Titanic and a certain iceberg comes to mind.  Who do you think will attend the next G7 meeting where the US is host?

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-iraq-security-un-usa/us-accuses-russia-china-of-blocking-un-statement-on-baghdad-embassy-attack-idUSKBN1Z51I5

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/us-slams-russia-china-blocking-un-statement-baghdad-embassy-attack

Withdrawing the unsigned ‘withdrawal of troops’ letterwhich one can only describe in military terms as a snafu of massive proportions indicates confusion in the line of command.  Perhaps some high level military brass want to do the right things in the dark corridors of the Pentagon, and others are insistent on doubling down while sliding down a very slippery slope.

The smart money at the moment indicates that Mr Trump will be the sacrificial lamb pushed to the bottom of the slope. He has no friends as Andrei Martyanov states. The US has no option now but to go to war of some kind, if they want the myth to continue. We can only hope …. that somebody somewhere understands who they will need to go to war with and step back from the delusions of grandeur of madmen.

The Islamic World

We see the Islamic World uniting. To be true, this is very early days, but the fact that the funerals for Qassem Soleimani and Iraqi anti-terror forces chief Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis were held jointly, and simultaneously ‘repeated’ in many countries across the world, speaks volumes of a united Islamic world.

On a numbers basis, the Islamic World consists of +- 25% of the world population, and have majority in 45 to 50 countries. http://worldpopulationreview.com/countries/muslim-majority-countries/

If you think any war can be contained to Iraq or Iran only, I would seriously urge you to look at those numbers again and take a look at this map and see who the big neighbors are of the main Islamic world and then consider if war is the correct path forward. Skilled diplomacy stands between us and kinetic war. The US does not have diplomats of the required stature and still expect everyone else to obey their imperial diktat.

In reality the Axis of Resistance is growing and the most clear sign is that nobody is submitting to the imperial demand of the U.S.

In addition Iran has declared that they will continue stepping back their commitments to the JPCOA as allowed by the agreement, because of course they cannot uphold a multi-state agreement all by themselves.

Meanwhile Boris Johnson, Emmanuel Macron, and Angela Merkel issued a joint statement on Monday calling for the Islamic Republic to refrain from further “proliferation” and “to reverse all measures inconsistent with the JCPOA,” sidestepping the U.S. action explicitly.” Europe, (or otherwise known as the paralyzed poodles of our world) has consistently attempted but failed to salvage the agreement since the US withdrew in May 2018. We can take this joint statement as weak bluster while they are in a state of paralysis in the wake of the unexpected and brazen US action to take out Iran’s most important military general.

Sputnik reported that Germany is withdrawing troops. https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/202001071077964230-germany-troops-withdrawal-iraq-iran-soleimani/

Looking over the landscape of the first shots being fired in this war that has started, people are usually the first casualties – the lists of ‘warnings’ continue from everywhere.

I have been waiting for The Saker to adjust his 80/20 prediction for war, hoping for a downward adjustment. He has just done so, here, and it is adjusted now to 90% possibility of war, and 10% no war. We will most probably see from him the analysis of this adjustment and the expected roadmap when the dust settles, if it settles.  But even Rand Paul agrees:  “It’s the Death of Diplomacy with Iran.  We’ve taken diplomacy off the table and the only option is military escalation,” says Rand Paul, Senate Foreign Relations Committee, discussing the state of diplomacy between the U.S. and Iran

Many of us are fortunate never having been at war. For others, the following sequence of events will seem very familiar. Will we see detention camps in the US for Iranian and Iraqi American citizens as we saw detention camps for the Japanese and the Germans in WWII?

The Washington state chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-WA) is assisting more than 60 Iranians and Iranian-Americans of all ages who were detained at length and questioned at the Peace Arch Border Crossing in Blaine, Wash. These people crossed the border to attend an Iranian pop concert on Saturday in Vancouver, Canada and were detained on both sides, Canadian and US. Some were denied entry back into the US. The reason given was: “It is just the wrong time for you.” Most detainees were American citizens. This did not help the Japanese during WWII.  Still unconfirmed, additional detentions are reported on social media at San Francisco Airport and Los Angeles International Airport.

https://www.cair.com/breaking_cair_wa_assisting_iranian_americans_detained_u_s_border

The List of Warnings can be considered an ‘early warning’ signal

Monitor the ‘warnings’ coming from the various countries. This is only a random grab and there are already many more. This may give you a heads-up when you should have your own head down.

– US can only continue their now empty warnings and beat their empty drums.

https://sputniknews.com/world/202001071077965980-us-issues-warning-about-iranian-threat-in-persian-gulf/

– The Chinese embassy in Washington issued a travel warning to its citizens living or on holiday in the U.S. of increasing security threats following President Trump’s airstrike that killed Iran’s top military commander major general Qassem Soleimani in Iraq on Friday. South China Morning Post

– Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Khamenei, warned in a statement that the “criminals” responsible for Soleimani’s assassination will face “severe revenge,” and that his work fighting on behalf of the Iranian people “won’t be stopped by his martyrdom,” according to a statement published on Twitter.

– Russia Warns U.S. of ‘Grave Consequences’ of Soleimani Killing – https://www.nationalreview.com/news/qasem-soleimani-killing-russia-warns-united-states-of-grave-consequences/

If you keep your eyes on the media, you will see the List of Warnings grow, become more strident and eventually used to influence whole populations but it can also act as very valuable intelligence to make decisions on a personal basis.

What is clear, is what is illustrated next.  (Thanks to Col. Assad)

Mr Trump, the decision that you must leave has been taken.  What is at issue now, is simply the mechanism – and the mechanism is why Mr Putin is in Syria.