This column was originally written for the Unz Review: http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-three-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria/
The end of international law and diplomacy
The end of the Cold War was welcomed as a new era of peace and security in which swords would be transformed into plows, former enemies into friends, and the world would witness a new dawn of universal love, peace and happiness. Of course, none of that happened. What happened is that the AngloZionist Empire convinced itself that it had “won the Cold War” and that it now was in charge. Of the entire planet, no less. And why not? It had built anywhere between 700 to 1000 military bases (depending on your definition of “base”) worldwide and it had split up the entire globe into several areas of exclusive responsibility named “commands”. The last time any power had mustered the megalomania needed to distribute various parts of the planet to to different commands was the Papacy in 1494 with its (in)famous “Treaty of Tordesillas”.
And to make that point abundantly clear, the Empire decided to make an example and unleashed its power against tiny Yugoslavia. Yugoslavia, a founding member of the Non-Aligned Movement was viciously attacked and dismembered, creating an immense wave of refugees, mostly Serbs, which the democratic and civilized world chose to ignore. Furthermore, the Empire unleashed yet another war, this time in Russia, which pitched the semi-comatose Eltsin regime against what would later become a key part of al-Qaeda, ISIS and Daesh: the Wahabis in Chechnia. Again, many hundreds of thousands of “invisible refugees” resulted from that war too, but they were also largely ignored by the democratic and civilized world, especially the ethnic Russians. It took Russia a full decade to finally crush this Wahabi-Takfiri insurgency but, eventually, Russia prevailed. And by that time, the AngloZionists had turned their attention elsewhere: the US and Israeli “deep states” jointly planned and executed the 9/11 false flag operation which gave them the perfect excuse to declare a “global war on terror” which basically gave the AngloZionists a worldwide “license to kill” à la 007, except that in this case the target was not a person, but entire countries.
We all know what followed: Iraq, Afghanistan, Philippines, Somalia, Ethiopia, Somalia, Sudan, Yemen, Mali, Pakistan, Syria, Libya, the Ukraine – everywhere the US was at war, whether officially or covertly. The spectrum ranged from an (attempted) complete invasion of a country (Afghanistan) to the support of various terrorist groups (Iran, Syria) to the full financing and management of a Nazi regime (the Ukraine). The US also gave full support to the Wahabis in their long crusade against the Shia (KSA, Bahrain, Yemen, Syria, Iran). What all these wars had in common is that they were all completely illegal – the US and any ad hoc “coalition of the willing” became an acceptable substitute for the UN Security Council.
Here again it is important to remind everybody – especially those Muslims who rejoiced at the bombing of the Serbs – that this all began with the completely illegal destruction of Yugoslavia followed by an even more illegal bombing of Serbia.
Of course, the Empire also suffered from a few humiliating defeats: in 2006 Hezbollah inflicted on Israel what might well be one of the most humiliating military defeats in modern history while in 2008 a tiny force of truly heroic Ossetian fighters backed by a comparatively small Russian military contingent (only a small part of the Russian military was involved) made mincemeat of the the US-trained and US-funded Georgian military: the war was over in 4 days. Still, by and large, the first decade of the 21st century saw a triumph of the law of the jungle over international law and a full vindication of the age old principle of “might makes right”.
Logically, these were also the years when the US diplomacy basically ceased to exist. The sole function of US diplomats remained the delivery of ultimatums “comply or else…” and the Empire simply stopped negotiating about anything. Seasoned and sophisticated diplomats like James Baker were replaced either by psychopaths like Madelaine Albright, Hillary Clinton and Samantha Power, or by mediocre non-entities like John Kerry and Susan Rice. After all, how sophisticated must one be to threaten, bully and deliver ultimatums? Things got so bad that the Russians openly complained about the “lack of professionalism” of their US counterparts.
As for the poor Russians with their pathetic insistence that the norms of international law must be observed, they looked hopelessly passé. I won’t even mention the European politicians here. They were best characterized by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, who called them “great supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies‘.
But then, something changed. Dramatically.
The failure of force
Suddenly everything went south. Every single US victory somehow turned into a defeat: from Afghanistan to Libya, every US ‘success’ had somehow morphed itself into a situation where the best option, if not the only one left, was to “declare victory and leave”. This begs the obvious question “what happened?”.
The first obvious conclusion is that the US forces and their so-called “allies” have very little staying power. While they are reasonably skilled at invading a country, they then rapidly lose control of most of it. It is one thing to invade a country, but quite another to administer it, nevermind rebuilt it. It turns out that US-led “coalitions of the willing” were unable to get anything done.
Second, it became obvious that the enemy which was supposedly defeated had really only gone into hiding and was waiting for a better time to come back with a vengeance. Iraq is the perfect example of that: far form being really “defeated”, the Iraqi Army (wisely) chose to disband itself and come back in the shape of a formidable Sunni insurrection which itself gradually morphed into ISIS. But Iraq was not an isolated case. The same happened pretty much everywhere.
There are those who will object and that that the US does not care if it controls a country or if it destroys it, as long as the other guy does not get to “win”. I disagree. Yes, the US will always prefer the destruction of a country to an outright victory of the other side, but this does not mean that the US does not prefer to control a country if possible. In other words, when a country sinks into chaos and violence this is not a US victory, but most definitely a US loss.
What the US missed is that diplomacy makes the use of force much more effective. First, careful diplomacy makes it possible to build a wide coalition of countries willing to support collective action. Second, diplomacy also makes it possible to reduce the number of countries which openly oppose collective action. Does anybody remember that Syria actually sent forces to support US troops against Saddam Hussein in Desert Storm? Sure, they did not make a big difference, but their presence gave the US the peace of mind that Syria would at least not overtly oppose the US policy. By getting the Syrians to support Desert Storm, James Backer made it very hard for the Iraqis to argue that this was an anti-Arab, anti-Muslim or even an anti-Baathist coalition and he made Saddam Hussein look completely isolated (even when the Iraqis began shooting missiles at Israel). Second, diplomacy makes it possible to reduce the overall amount of force used because “instant overkill” is not needed to show the enemy that you really mean business. Third, diplomacy is the necessary tool to achieve legitimacy and legitimacy is crucial when engaged in a long, protracted, conflict. Finally, the consensus which emerges from a successful diplomatic effort prevents the rapid erosion of the public support for a military effort. But all these factors were ignored by the USA in the GWOT (Global War on Terror) and the “Arab Spring” revolutions which now have come to a screeching halt.
A diplomatic triumph for Russia
This week saw a true diplomatic triumph for Russia culminating in Friday’s multilateral negotiations in Vienna which brought together the foreign ministers of Russia, the US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The fact that this meeting took place right after Assad’s visit to Moscow clearly indicates that the sponsors of Daesh and al-Qaeda are now forced to negotiate on Moscow’s terms. How did that happen?
As I have been mantrically repeating it since the Russian operation in Syria began, the Russian military force actually sent to Syria is very small. Yes, it is a very effective one, but it is still very small. In fact, the members of the Russian Duma have announced that the costs of the entire operation will probably fit in the normal Russian Defense budget which has monies allocated for “training”. However, what the Russian have achieved with this small intervention is rather amazing, not only in military terms, but especially in political terms.
Not only has the Empire (very reluctantly) had to accept that Assad would have to stay in power for the foreseeable future, but Russia is now gradually but inexorably building up a real regional coalition which is willing to fight Daesh on the same side as the Syrian government forces. Even before the Russian operation began, Russia had the support of Syria, Iran, Iraq and Hezbollah. There are also strong signs that the Kurds are basically also willing to work with Russia and Assad. On Friday it was announced that Jordan would also coordinate some as of yet unspecified military actions with Russia and that a special coordination center will be set up in Amman. There are also very strong rumors that Egypt will also join the Russian-lead coalition. There are also signs that Russia and Israel are also, if not working together, at least not working against each other: the Russian and Israelis have created a special line to directly talk to each other on a military level. The bottom line is this: regardless of the sincerity of the different parties, everybody in the region now feels a strong pressure to at least not look opposed to the Russian effort. That, by itself, is a huge triumph for Russian diplomacy.
Putin’s secret weapon: the truth
The current situation is, of course, totally unacceptable for the Global Hegemon: not only has the US-lead coalition of 62 countries managed to conduct 22,000 strikes (iirc) with nothing to show for it, but the comparatively smaller Russian coalition has managed to completely displace the Empire and negate all its plans. And the most formidable weapon used by Putin in his proxy war with the USA was not even a military one, but simply speaking the truth.
Both at his UN speech and, this week, at his speech at the Valdai Conference Putin has done what no other world leader before has ever dared doing: he openly call the US regime incompetent, irresponsible, lying, hypocritical and terminally arrogant. That kind of public “dissing” has had a huge impact worldwide because by the time Putin said these words more or less everybody knew that this was absolutely true.
The US does treat all its allies as “vassals” (see Valdai speech) and the US is the prime culprit for all the terrible crises the world now has to face (see UN speech). What Putin did is basically say “the Emperor is naked”. In comparison, Obama’s lame speech was comically pathetic. What we are witnessing now is an amazing turn around. After decades marked by the “might makes right” principle advocated by the USA, suddenly we are in a situation where no amount of military might is of any use to a beleaguered President Obama: what use are 12 aircraft carriers when you personally look like a clown?
After 1991 it appeared that the only superpower left was so powerful and unstoppable that it did not need to bother itself with such minor things like diplomacy or respect for international law. Uncle Sam felt like he was the sole ruler, the Planetary Hegemon. China was just a “big Walmart”, Russia a “gas station” and Europe an obedient poodle (the latter is, alas, quite true). The myth of US invincibility was just that, of course, a myth: since WWII the USA has not won a single real war (Grenada or Panama do not qualify). In fact, the US military fared even much worse in Afghanistan that the under-trained, under-equipped, under-fed and under-financed Soviet 40th Army which, at least, kept all the major cities and main roads under Soviet control and which did some meaningful development of the civilian infrastructure of the country (which the US is still using in 2015). Nevertheless, the myth of US invincibility only really came crashing down when Russia put a stop to it in 2013 by preventing a US assault on Syria by a mix of diplomatic and military means. Uncle Sam was livid, but could do nothing about besides triggering a coup in Kiev and an economic war against Russia, neither of which have succeeded in their goals.
As for Putin, instead of being deterred by all the US efforts, he invited Assad to Moscow.
Assad’s Moscow visit as yet another indicator of US impotence
This week’s visit by Assad was nothing short of extraordinary. Not only did the Russian succeed in getting Assad out of Syria and to Moscow and then back without the bloated US intelligence community noticing anything, but unlike most heads of state, Assad spoke face to face to some of the most powerful men in Russia.
First, Assad met with Putin, Lavrov and Shoigu. They spoke for a total of three hours (which, by itself, is quite remarkable). They were later joined by Medvedev for a private dinner. Guess who else joined them? Mikhail Fradkov, Head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, and Nikolai Patrushev, Head of the Russian Security Council:
Assad, Patrushev, Fradkov, Lavrov Medvedev, Putin, Shoigu
Normally, heads of state do not meet personally with men like Fradkov or Patrushev and, instead, they send their own experts. In this case, however, the topic discussed was important enough to 1) get Assad personally to the Kremlin and 2) get all the top players in the Kremlin around the same table for a personal discussion with Assad.
Obviously, not a word came out from this meeting, but there are two main theories circulating out there about what was discussed.
The first theory says that Assad was told in no unclear terms that his days were numbered and that he would have to leave.
The second one says the exact opposite: that Assad was brought in to signal to him, and the US, that he had the full support of Russia.
I don’t believe that either one of these is correct, but the second one is, I think, probably closer to the truth. After all, if the goal was to tell Assad that he had to go, a simple phone call would have been enough, really. Maybe a visit by Lavrov. As for “backing Assad”, that would go in direct contradiction with what the Russians have been saying all along: they are not backing “Assad” as a person, although they do recognize him as the sole legitimate President of Syria, but they are backing the right of the Syrian people to be the only ones to decide who should be in power in Syria. And that, by the way, is something that Assad himself has also agreed to (according to Putin). Likewise, Assad has also agreed to work with any non-Daesh opposition forces willing to fight against Daesh alongside the Syrian military (again, according to Putin).
No, while I believe that the meeting between Assad and Putin was, at least in part, a message to the USA and the others so-called “friends of Syria”, indicating that their “Assad must go” plan had failed, I believe that the main purpose of the behind-closed-doors meeting with all the top leaders of Russia was something else: my guess is that what was discussed was a major and long term alliance between Russia and Syria which would formally revive the kind of alliance Syria had with the Soviet Union in the past. While I can only speculate about the exact terms of such an alliance, it is my guess that this plan, probably coordinated with Iran has two major aspects:
a) military component: Daesh must be crushed.
b) political component: Syria will not be allowed to fall under US control.
Considering that the Russian military operation is assumed by most Russian experts to be scheduled to last about 3 months, we are dealing here with separate, middle to long term, plan which will require the Syrian armed forces to be rebuilt while Russia, Iran and Iraq jointly coordinate the struggle against Daesh. And, indeed, it was announced on Friday that Iraq had authorized the Russian military to strike at Daesh inside the Iraqi territory. It sure looks like the Russian operation has acted as a catalyst for a region paralyzed by US hypocrisy and incompetence and that the days of Daesh are numbered
Too early to celebrate, but a watershed moment nonetheless
Still, it is way too early to celebrate. The Russians cannot do it all by themselves, and it will be incumbent upon the Syrians and their allies to fight Daesh, one small town at a time. Only boots on the ground will really liberate Syria from Daesh and only true Islam will be able to defeat the Takfiri ideology. This will take a time.
Furthermore, it would be irresponsible to underestimate the Empire’s determination and ability to prevent Russia from looking like “the winner” – that is something which the US imperial ego, raised in centuries of imperial hubris and ignorance, will never be able to cope with. After all, how can the “indispensable nation” accept that the world does not need it at all and that others can even openly oppose and prevail? We can expect the US to use all its (still huge) power to try to thwart and sabotage every Russian or Syrian initiative.
Still, the recent events are the mark that the era of “might makes right” has come to an end and that the notion that the US is an “indispensable nation” or world hegemon has now lost any credibility. After decades in the dark, international diplomacy and the international law are finally becoming relevant again. It is my hope that this is the beginning of a process which will see the USA undergo the same evolution as so many other countries (including Russia) have undergone in the past: from being an empire to becoming a “normal country” again. Alas, when I look at the 2016 Presidential race I get the feeling that this will still be a very long process.
The Saker
US job vs Russian job in Syria.
P.S. Saker, will you publish report/opinion on protests in Montenegro against corrupted anti-Serbian, anti-Russian, pro-NATO tyrant and dictator Milo Djukanovic? Will Montenegro become another member of criminal NATO gang? Isn’t it disgusting how American Zionist Empire absolutely does not mind brutal suppression of opposition protests there because they are against “their bastard”? No demands of withdrawing police, no sanctions against dictator Djukanovic as they did against Yanukovich in Ukraine. Nauseating double standards of Zionist American Empire.
Nice try Schlomo, i can´t find any reference to your claim that the Zionazi occupation Air force should have violated Syrian airspace in the western msm that otherwise would have been, i can assure you, all over boasting about it by now.
But i can certainly understand the desperation and despair you and your tribal mates must feel in these times, not being able to kill and maim at will with impunity and having lost that (odour) of invincibility.
The problem with the protest there is that they are not all anti-Nato in the opposition. Montenegro is a kind of today’s Ukraine in making. It was a Serb land with only Serb inhabitants, not counting some minorities and occupators which created new minorities. Then came communism and among the Serbs in that federal republic some regional specifics in one of its parts were shaped into a new national identity Crnogorac (Montenegrin). So since the new born Crnogorac must “prove” he is not betraying his ancestors, he of course can not behave kindly to those around that have not betrayed those same ancestors (in many cases you have two brothers of the same mother and father, one thinks of himself as Serb, the other as Montenegrin), he must invent history and so on.
Milo is a dictator, but his mafia rule and dictatorship was the reason the federative republic gained independence and fortified the new national identity. Pour Serbs, who are not afraid of saying openly they don’t accept the national makeover, have no rights there. And now many are protesting and being beaten by the police, just so the old dictator could fall and a new Montenegrin could come to power, who by a virtue of his makeover, which he refuses to recognise, can not but be harsh to those people around him who refuse to wear a make-up. And the new Montenegrin, no doubt about it, is going to be a NATO fan. Without NATO and West’s support, they would not have a state. Without inposing pressure on Serbs, threatening their existance and purging Serb culture, there would be no Republic of Montenegro, that is the sole reason it came to be and continues to exist.
Breaking: reports coming in that Israeli aircraft are inside Syrian airspace and groundtroops too (Golan Heights) and that bombs are being dropped on Queinetra (sp.)
There’s (allegedly ) an Israeli news blackout with some Israeli Arab paraglider story being run by their press, but elsewhere it is claimed the SAA have captured an Israeli pilot..
http://warmonitor.net/news/2015/10/24/reports-israeli-jets-spotted-over-syria/
It’s just as I thought, the Russ air defense is to protect their expeditionary force, not to set up a no fly zone. They did not stop the bombing of the power plants of Aleppo nor the bombing of Quneitra. It was foolish for Nasrallah to appear in public in Beirut. The Israelis can still bomb Lebanon and Syria at will so long as they don’t threaten the Russ.
This situation has been clarified, it was an Arab Israeli paragliding into Syria to join a terrorist/rebel group that caused this incident.
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/25/middleeast/syria-arab-israeli-para-glider/
@jellyfish
CNN is not my idea of ‘clarification.’
Another version claims ISIL captured the pilot.
We will have to wait and see what’s really going on here – not least because it coincides with the SAA attack on the (allegedly) Israeli-backed ISIL command centre in the Golan Heights.
What is there to wait and see? This happened two days ago. If an Israeli pilot had been captured Israel would have been bombing/shelling ISIS and the SAA non-stop since then. All sources on the ground agree that has not been happening.
Indeed, they have been shelling and bombing Quneitra since then. They have a policy of not allowing their soldiers to continue to be captives. They just make sure that they are dead. That’s their standard orders now, if somebody is captured then try to kill him.
@Anonymous 1:17
I wonder if the IDF officer ‘captured’ by the Iraqis has yielded details the Netanyahoo regime is trying to keep a lid on?
The Zionist regime has gone the full fascist. But it will be seriously compromised if more news leaks out of its collaborations with takfiri terrorists: the internal mood in Israel is very volatile. There is a strong chance Zionist support will turn its incoherent rage from the beleaguered Palestinians to them:
http://yalibnan.com/2015/10/25/confessions-of-an-israeli-traitor/
Seems to be an Israeli rescue op for a paraglider pilot first thought to be captured but then turned out he flew in to join ISIS or whoever.
The op was no doubt checked in with Russia first.
“entire operation will probably fit in the normal Russian Defense budget which has monies allocated for “training””
-Isnt the Russian defense budget is huge, some 50 billion dollars offically. I certainly hope it would fit inside of 50 billion dollars. Else it is enormously expensive.
If the Russian defence Budget is ‘huge’ at fifty billion, how would you describe the USA’s one and a half trillion, ie thirty times greater?
Ridiculously huge, altought that was hardly the point of my comment.
The point was not that the operation would cost less than the whole Russian military budget, but that the Russians could keep on doing all the stuff that they were already doing and the new operation would fit within existing parameters. The US is constantly doing extra appropriations to do particular operations, despite the enormous amounts of slop built into their general military budget.
“it was announced on Friday that Iraq had authorized the Russian military to strike at Daesh inside the Iraqi territory. I”
-I found this request odd, Russia only has what, 30-50 planes in Syria, that is not enough for Syria, let alone for all of Iraq too. Unless Russia is planning on moving in a lot of new planes and maybe using Iranian airfields of course. But that would massively increase the economic cost of the campaign. Currently according to western sources, it costs Russia 4 million a day.
If Russian aircraft is engaging Daesh in Syria and Daies makes a dash for Iraq it’s reasonable to pursue them over the border, or hit those areas supplying and reinforcing them in Syria. The geographic divisions are artificial, tactically speaking.
Well the French are throwing their toys out of the pram and wanting to host their own meeting on Syria without Russia:
http://tass.ru/en/world/831797
Yeah that’s really going to help! The French lost their influence a long time ago.
veritas, France is now so thoroughly controlled by its Jewish Fifth Column, and their objective of destroying Syria in pursuit of the Oded Yinon Plan, that Hollande, a buffoon, and his regime of poltroons, plus their Zionazi controllers like Bernard-Henry Levy et al, are now just a very sick, unfunny, joke.
Naughty Mulga: How can you be so contemptuous of that genius BHL ? Je suis philosophe :-)
Nussiminen, I’ve heard a scandalous assertion that BHL’s manly chest foliage is actually a merkin, that slipped upwards.
Makes sense! About time BHL went all the way, putting his organ where his mouth is.
That pathetic clochard Levy is one of the authors of the so-called “right to protect” doctrine… his hands are soaked in libyan blood…
That sounds like a lot–but consider, that means 3 years of it would cost a bit more than 4 billion. Or, 3 months of it stepped up to a dozen times the scale would cost 4 billion. Or, 6 months of it at double the scale would cost, um, 180 * 4 * 2, about 1.4 billion. Chump change for the Americans, a noticeable goose of the deficit for Canadians, Russia would be somewhere in between so no big deal.
The international PR and diplomatic wins seems to be the biggest for Russia, and Russia really need a PR boost after the Ukrainian situation. That gav USA a lot of ammo for their propaganda machine.
But militarily things seem to be going less well in Syria, the Syrian army has “only” captured small 2000 pop towns, no 10 000 or 60 000 towns has been liberated, and the SAA offensive seems not only to have stalled now, but is being reversed in many areas by ISIS and other american terrorists with are taking several towns, and ISIS has even cut off the Syrian army in Aleppo. Russia seems so say that they will only stay in Syria for 3-4 months, but it looks like it is going to take many years to finish this war. And if Russia leaves, Assad might fall. Perhaps Assad and Iran tricked Russia into believing they just needed alittle push to liberate most of Syria, and now Russia is stuck in a long and bloody war.
DSA you’re not kidding when you said:
“The international PR and diplomatic wins seems to be the biggest for Russia.”
Let’s take the case of Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard from Hawaii (ex-Iraq war vet, member of the US Armed Service Committee and Foreign Affairs Committee for the US Congress)
Watch her drive an 18-Wheeler truck-of-truth right thru CNN’s crumbling wall of lies (full video at bottom of this post), here’s some highlights from it:
She:
-Call’s the Russian support of Assad LEgal and the US actions illegal
-Call’s Assad government the “Legitimate and Sovereign Government of Syria
-Says Hezbollah(!), Iran(!), Syria and Russia are working to destroy a our common enemy.
-She says: “The US and CIA should stop this illegal and counterproductive war to overthrow the Syrian Government of Assad”
-She talks about the danger of a potential WW3 accidental confrontation with Russia
-She says the voice is illegal, even according to US law because no congressional approval has been sought
– When asked about the to arm the Syrian “Opposition” she says she’s against it because: “I don’t want my government to arm al-aqaeda, our enemy”
My My what are the Neocon freaks going to do with an apparently fearless Congresswoman (from a CIA and military family) who’s not dependent on them for reelection?
The video is titled:
on her official YouTube channel.
Below is the Youtube Link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u7Q8X60KQ9Q
Blitzer says Assad has killed 2 to 3 hundred thousand Syrians (“his own people”). Same old despicable lies as always when the US is trying to take over or destroy a country.
Typo correction:
Where I wrote: “-She says the voice is illegal, …..”
I mean’t to write: “-She says the War is illegal, ….”
There definitely seems to be power-struggle in the US establishment, notice her title is “CIA Must Stop Illegal … War…” she didn’t write “The US Must Stop Illegal … War…”
She’s pointing the finger directly at the CIA, i.e. a specific power-faction within the US.
Sorry to the moderators, I’ll stop posting now, I’ve got to prepare for work.
@ Espelho
I agree with your point that she’s part of a power struggle within the US establishment. There’s a lot of people in the establishment worried the present policies are leading them to a disaster they’ll never recover from. CNN is part of the propaganda machine. This interview was allowed for a reason.
Check out the Wikipedia link I posted in an earlier reply to your initial post. She’s smart, attractive, appeals to many sides of the political spectrum, has all the right credentials. She’s part Samoan, a woman, opposes Gay and Lesbian rights, is a practicing Hindu, has the right military credentials, plus more. She’s also promoting ties with India. She’s a future presidential candidate in the making, mark my words. Obama was meant to be the “new face” of US imperialism. My belief is she will be used in this role soon.
Just a thought
Nice…I wonder if Cynthia and her know each other, and how they view each other.
@Steve,
I would agree with a lot you’ve said and I’m glad your posting was balanced in that you still saw value in her opposition to the Washington psychopaths agenda of Regime change and Intervention.
I will point out that using people like her to build build bridges with not only India but Russia, ASEAN, Korea and Japan will work only to a certain extent (only insofar as it’s positive and mutually beneficial), it will not result in the Indian establishment or other Asian governments from dropping their scrutiny of the US government at all: The US has thoroughly destroyed their credibility (through duplicity and the fickleness of the US-Congress) with every power in Asia including with India, Russia, ASEAN and US vassals Korea and Japan.
Currently, nobody trusts the US anymore (including all of their major allies), and no amount of window-dressing, is going to change that.
Rep Gabbard is very bright, uses just the right talking points. Is she so dumb as to believe the official lie about 9/11? Being from a military family, it’s quite possible.
I myself am broadly of the opinion that 9/11 was . . . how would I put it . . . closer to the government account than to some of the alternative theories, put it that way. That is, I think that certain intelligence services had an idea what was going to happen before it happened, and didn’t care or perhaps cynically welcomed it if they were down with the Project for a New American Century. But I don’t think it was an inside job as such and I don’t think they knew precisely what was going to happen, although I recall some evidence they knew there would likely be planes involved. I think real passenger planes really hit those towers and brought them down, with real anti-US fanatics flying them.
Osama bin Laden and the US establishment were using each other, but they were at the same time genuinely enemies. ObL’s gig was, he wanted to pull the US into conflicts in the Middle East so as to create chaos, make his extreme ideology more powerful and give it a chance to take power. Hubris-filled US powerbrokers wanted an excuse to attack the Middle East so they could remake it in whatever image they wanted. Since 9/11 we’ve had multiple US invasions, fewer countries are doing what the US says, and al Qaeda’s ideology is now spread all over the place and running a state comprising large chunks of Syria and Iraq. So far, of the two ObL’s use of the Americans seems more successful than their use of al Qaeda.
ObL said he wasn’t involved.
Any number of other things has convinced me over time that it was, essentially, an inside job, using various external assets/resources, done by the ‘crazies in the basement’ — which I don’t find surprising at all.
I also think that a number of political people know it was inside but have chosen not to make an issue of it.
The ‘Celebrating Israelis’, arrested after being reported by numerous eye-witnesses as filming the attacks as they happened, and celebrating wildly, then released to fly home to Israel, tell me an interesting thing. Seeing as how Mossad could have filmed their handiwork secretly for the record, the ‘in-your-face’ public display of foreknowledge and jubilation, as 3000 Americans died, seems to me to be a message for those with enough nous to comprehend it. The message, of course, is ‘We can get away with ANYTHING, and there is NOTHING you can do about it. Next time it’ll be a mini-nuke or something similar, if you ever dare to cease protecting us from International Law and transferring that three billion in tribute, year after year’. A bit like the USS Liberty.
You need a music magazine to now bring out the truth about politics and money. I post this to show everyone knew Iraq had no WMD’s.. All the players since then to now.. Although this in wrapped in the politics of the 2016 elections, it shows that parties do not matter, how talking bits are used to win elections. There is no difference or change as everyone says what they think people want to hear to vote for them but nothing is ever done after elections are done with. In essence the entire system is run by criminals who have no fear of the consequences as they are never held responsible for anything. The entire thing is funny.. Except these wars and financial wizardry causes billions to suffer. The only people who can change this are the oppressed Americans themselves who are held in a prison. There was another article which analyzed gun ownership, the US would be able to defeat the population in a few weeks.. The entire country is setup in such a way that the government is a separate entity to the people. Where every day this is enforced and practiced. It only gives the impression that owning a gun keeps you safe, those guns are not effective against anything except themselves. Which is why even the police use armored vehicles and body armor. We saw this in Iraq where everyone had a gun but could not be effective against Saddam who was much weaker than the military industrial complex. Through out history, only criteria for power is the will to be utterly ruthless and organized..
Elections are about a lot of things, but at the highest level, they’re about money. The people who sponsor election campaigns, who pay the hundreds of millions of dollars to fund the candidates’ charter jets and TV ads and 25-piece marching bands, those people have concrete needs.
Win or lose, Trump’s campaign threatens to unleash the Great American Stupid
http://www.rollingstone.com/contributor/matt-taibbi
Yeah,
I think it was Saudi and Israeli intelligence working together, with cover from high level neocons. There are too many genuine patriots in US intelligence for the bulk of planning and execution to happen there.
When these patriots picked up on or detains Saudi and Israeli operatives, high placed neocons would run interference.
PLG, apart from the standing down of NORAD, the ‘anti-terror’ practise operation being run the same day (as in London in 2005)and the only known collapses of steel-framed buildings, straight down into their foot-prints at free-fall speed, the one thing that convinces me that it was a complete inside-job false-flag operation is the ‘Celebrating Israelis’ seen filming the whole thing from a park in New Jersey across the water, and wildly celebrating as 3,000 people died. That’s a very hard one to explain, which is why the MSM pretend it never happened.
There’s also the BBC reporting of #7 going down before it did, and a bunch of other things as evidence to convince me, but the physical evidence — lack of reason for #7 to collapse and likely the 2 towers, velocity of fall, thermite residue, molten steel reported, etc. It all comes together as a group within the US being complicit.
You could write books about all the circumstances, motives, and evidence ……..
(But I don’t have the money or time to buy and read them all)
False flags have been common throughout history, though, so it not unusual, and not that hard to cover up for a long time when you control both people within the state and the media, and have a well established propaganda machine.
My contention had always been that while it’s pretty bad, if people won’t act on 1/2 million Iraqi kids being killed through siege war (sanctions) — plus millions of others around the world — and that admitted to on national TV by the Sec. of State, then they are zombified and would toss off 9/11 too, to believe what they wanted to. ‘Emperor no clothes’ stuff.
@ Purple Library Guy on October 26, 2015 · at 9:45 pm UTC
I am a pilot (retd).
No civilian airliner ever built can fly at sea level at over 500 knots.
It is a physical impossibility! Maximum velocity in ground level density of air destroys the airframe.
Plus!… those CGI frames,which some refer to as ‘cookie cutter’ shots are in slo-mo,and aluminum planes do not disappear into concrete and steel buildings.
The method used by the early CGI programmers in 2001,is called ‘Raster Graphics’ and uses a system of ‘Bit Masking’,using bitmap masks,transparancies can appear and planes merge into buildings.
If you doubt what I write you can check with ‘Pilots for 911 truth’.
Jack, the ‘evaporating’ jet that struck the Pentagon is a real doozy. Even the engines, vanished, leaving bot a trace. But they rely on the popular mass being dull and disinterested,and they never disappoint. No matter what you say, what evidence you produce, they simply snort ‘conspiracy theory’ or ‘tin-foil hat’, and the conversation ends, and they, inexplicably, think that they have been really clever.
Saker, you’re a real professional in the tradition of Putin.
Allow me to paraphrase a poet, setting the scene from Yeltsin’s time:
“The war broke out at the break of dawn
Russia and her brothers suffered terrible defeats
Til they ventured out behind the lines, took surprised prisoners
They stashed them in a basement, called them amateurs.”
@ Espelho
Thanks for the link.
Interesting that CNN was even allowed to show this. I suspect Democratic Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is being possibly groomed, as a future presidential candidate maybe (if she survives the snipers bullet, that is) by forces in America who may decide a new face for US imperialism needs to be shown to the world. Just a thought. Because the present collection of clowns and neo-conservative policies are leading the USA to destruction. Shades of JFK? Check out her bio on Wikipedia. Makes for some interesting reading
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsi_Gabbard#Early_life_and_education
Couldn’t find any CIA link though. You stated: (from a CIA and military family)
Dear Espelho and Saker community,
With regards to infighting and dissent inside the Establishment regarding America’s reckless collision course with Russia and to a lesser extent China…check out the viral YouTube advertising for the Amazon TV adaptation of Phillip K. Dick’s 1960s novel The Man in the High Castle. What do you think it means? I detect beneath the show’s ambiance a subtle dig at the growing Nazification of American society. What do you all think?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hzz_6dmv03I
Its called ” An Amazon Original Film” right through…Amazon has produced it…The owner of Amazon feels this way towards Nazis.
Dear The Kulak
I don’t see it, it didn’t reach me that way perhaps because I’m not familiar with the novel as well.
She sounds like Obama, circa 2004ish. Do you really think that anyone not totally owned and controlled by the Zionazis will EVER get within a country mile of power? I smell another ‘Hope’ fiasco coming on.
Yes Mulga munglebrain,
It’s bad if someone of power & influence in the US government actually support’s the sensible Russian position and drives a truck thru MSM propaganda. That makes complete sense. I guess Mrs. Tulsi Gabbard should stay at home (barefoot & in the kitchen maybe?), keep her views to herself and not oppose the Saudis, Islamic extremists, the Anglo Oil&Banking Mafia, and the Neocon & Brzezinski agenda, because she maybe guilty of actions she hasn’t committed yet. It’s little self-defeating for us to help the neocons and attempt to damage the credibility of someone who’s actually standing up to the MSM, standing up to the Neocon agenda, supporting the Russian and Syrian government position as being legal, breaking the standard demonization of Hezbollah and standing up to the cowardly swine advocating a US no-fly zone and US boots on the ground in Syria: We can’t have it both ways unless we want to look perennially biased, contrarian and un-credible.
Let’s give the Lady the benefit of the doubt and at least agree her words make sense and isolate that from other issues.
OK, Espelho-I’ll give her the benefit of the doubt. I seem to have grown rather cynical-I really don’t know why.
This looks like a coming out party for Tulsi Gabbard.
Funny how her name seems made up like Obama. And she has the correct pigmentation for maximum credibility.
The clip is well produced and carefully edited. If you watch to the end you’ll see they even do the humanising bit discussing her surf board accident. If I heard correctly, she was also just promoted from Hawaii National Guard Captain to Major. Seems Ms. Gabbard is going places.
Honestly — I love her already.
Not.
So she is another of the prophets of the new world order, like Donald Trump, helping to set down ground rules for a new false consensus reality which will, of course, not include the truth of 9/11.
If you think that’s progress then you’re truly hopeless.
Honestly, you can’t help but be in awe of the power of the American media mind control grid. Canadians have just been given their own version of an Obama-esque saviour with Trudeau. The American establishment is trying out a new marketing gimmick they’ve just seen working out so very well in Canada.
None of it is real.
I wonder if we’ll ever break free of these illusions.
I see this as a signal for a change in policy….or alternately it could be a gate keeper role-controlled opposition, In any case, it was quite frank with the exception of the Al Qada enemy 9/11 mythology but myths have their place in the world as well and in this case it may well serve to actually fight terrorism rather then surreptitiously fund it. It could also be a front to shut up those neo cons who are threatening Obama or Hitlery and serve to help get them out of the way. Why they would feel threatened however is beyond me. They always use Democrats the people’s party) to get the US into war. Bush was the exception was he not? RR
Whatever I view it as a positive…..and hope it does signal a change in the dual policy being pursued in the remove Assad fight terrorism dichotomy.
At the end Blitzer asked Tulsi Gabbard about her surfing accident. I wonder if that was a hint that more accidents can happen……..
An excellent summary of the current situation, taking into consideration the previous articles and the responses of your readers.
Notwithstanding the 2016 Presidential race performance, I do not see how the US could become a “normal” country any time soon. I expect a major financial collapse in the coming weeks/months, major social disturbances, increased violence by the police apparatus, and serious production problems.
In short, the US is not equipped to handle the coming challenges. The main risk is the irrational behavior of the people in power in the face of losing the battle. When the whole system collapse, anything could happen…
The rise of ISIS a US loss? It did rise out of al Qaeda who were fighting the US occupation of Iraq, yet according to the documents obtained by Judicial Watch, the US military inteligence also predicted the formation of such a group.
At the time ISIS hit the western MSM bigtime, the Iraq puppet government was cutting its strings and drifting towards Iran, Syria, Russia.
Covert support to ISIS to put pressure on the Iraqi government, a huge media advertising campaign to get the US military back into Iraq and demands from the US that Iraqi PM be replaced.
The media promotion to get US military had to be something major, so the brand of ISIS – their trademark savagery was dreamed up.
Just today in one of the twitter accounts I have been scrolling through, I saw a pic of a large banner from 2011 Libya. It was exactly the same picture as one taken a couple of weeks ago in Syria. A white banner approx 3m long x 1m with read and black writing with a crowd of innocent Syrians behind it that were being oppressed by the evil Assad.
in both photo ops the only difference in the pics was the writing on the banner.
The face of ISIS that we see today was planned by promotion specialists, perhaps the same entity that created Bellingcat and SOHR, the same entity that created the two identical banners and group photo 4 years apart.
Peter, of course the US military predicted the rise of Daash. The creation of insanely vicious Sunni death-squads began in Iraq under Negroponte and Ford (the US ‘Ambassador’ when the takfiri assault on Syria began)and was called the ‘Salvador Option’ in memory of the US-controlled death-squads that terrorised the peasantry in El Salvador in the 1980s. Those death-squads were just as psychopathic and Evil as Daash, but didn’t have the Wahhabist paraphernalia. And they also called on the expertise of US veterans of Operation Phoenix in Vietnam, where one favourite tactic was ‘Pump and Dump’, ie torture your victims to death. And the common feature in all these horrors and many more besides is the USA, the greatest force for Evil by far in human history.
Dear Saker: As you know:
History does not always develop evenly or chronologically, and just as the Russian Nation is producing the finest political leadership in its history, the other world power, is scraping the bottom of the barrel and birthing pathetic, semi-illiterate dregs of humanity, ranging from outright employees of the Jewish and other wealthy Oligarchs, to cynical betrayers (sellers) of American Constitutional Sovereignty.
We lost our brilliant leader (JFK), and so many of his crew (those luminaries who shared his political dimension), Robert Kennedy, Martin L. King, and Malcolm X, and Lennon; and America has yet to recover. It is difficult to recover from those kind – those quality – of losses. Whereas the Russians are surging ahead; their worst days are behind them. They are producing more Patriots by the minute. Who would sell their heritage now? Russia’s Fifth Column can swallow on their gold. They can join Napoleon in his tomb.
As you have observed, “Still, the recent events are the mark that the era of “might makes right” has come to an end and that the notion that the US is an “indispensable nation” or world hegemon has now lost any credibility. After decades in the dark, international diplomacy and the international law are finally becoming relevant again. It is my hope that this is the beginning of a process which will see the USA undergo the same evolution as so many other countries (including Russia) have undergone in the past: from being an empire to becoming a “normal country” again. Alas, when I look at the 2016 Presidential race I get the feeling that this will still be a very long process.”
There is always a weak link. In the World Wars, some did more resisting than others. In France, (after 1945), almost everyone was a member of the Resistance. We know the German Army died in Russia. What don’t we know!
America will be freed in America by Americans. Do you believe that last sentence? That is the most ridiculous thing I have ever written; yet it must be true.
We must restore our Democratic Republic, with complete respect for our Constitution. Our Alternate Government effort must begin as opposition to upcoming the electoral circus of 2016, and end with the rebirth of our hero, John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and the American Republic he gave his life for.
IMAGINE
Hi Peter…nice post…yeah, I hadn’t thought of it that way before, but the evil took out the good from America and it has yet to recover…
In fact all the great journalists that I read and love so much…are Americans…even Saker…although he isn’t one on paper…he certainly is one of the greatest Americans of this century…and Cynthia McKinney…and Catherine Austin Fitts, and Michael Hudson and Stephen Lendman and all the rest …
Ann,
Diplomacy is of no further use here:
http://sputniknews.com/military/20151025/1029094126/us-tanks-delivered-latvia.html
Just 20,000 Russian Marines tonight in each of the Baltic Principalities, will do the trick. I assume their craven leaders were warned of the consequences of their actions. The Russian Marines, applied quickly, with a glass of water to avoid an imperialist upset stomach, will be just what the doctor ordered, and avoid a larger conflict later.
These Baltic principalities are controlled by by Zionist American Oligarchs who desire to place Nuclear weapons on their territories (to use on whom?). A cursory view of a map will show the danger that raises for the survival of Russia.
* The Key Point is that : The unloading of Nazi NATO Arms, including American Abrams Tanks, as well as American (NATO) military advisers, in Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, is an Act Of War against Russia. Active Zionist American imperialist War Against Russia has been a Fact of History since the attacks on Ossetia in 1991. [This latest act of war is a glaring provocation undertaken within walking distance from St. Petersburg], which is Russia’s most important seaport. Therefore, this provocation is not a provocation. It Is An Act Of War.
The Russians know this. The war is on.
You know this. You are (at least) as smart as me. If not, now you know this (because I just told you).
We all hope the war does not morph into a thermonuclear affair (one of the Mullahs interviewed by the Saker (I forget his name) said that this War was on and would do the nuclear morph, within the year). I hope he is incorrect. But, what if he is smarter than me? He is sure; I am not.
Read my lips! The Mullah & I agree! The War is On!
Yes, Those weapons and advisers could be withdrawn. And I could get a date with Sheryl Crow.
I still would like to do this: (alert to all American citizens)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We could begin some Alternate Government – Restoration of our old American Democratic Republic and our Constitution by 2016. We can form up at Lexington and Concord.
Nominate our favorites!
Leaflet Colleges & other crowded places.
Signs.
Save the World! Save America! Make love! (what’s wrong with that?)
For the Democratic Republics!
IMAGINE
Peter, you’re funny. And I want to join the Alternative elections…but I’m in Canada…
And about those tanks…well, the MIC (military industrial complex) has to get their money..so the tanks have to be delivered…they’s just rust and get old…like all the nukes….hopefully..I don’t think sending in the marines is wise…wait and watch is wise
evolutionary processes never return to the status quo ante. this general principle strongly suggests that there’s zero possibility of restoring “our republic”. that’s to be regretted, but one must face the truth. so what’s left as possible? think about it. one of those possibilities is our future. going back is not.
To the Anonymous world.
I have a dream!
In our dreams we always go back to something.
I wish to go back to – when I could get it up 3 times a day (good ones),
Run without stopping,
Cheat on my exams,
Be angry at Kennedy, but have John Kennedy to be angry at (as well as my parents).
Understand:
Going back is the only way you can go forward.
It’s the direction you don’t sell out.
For the Democratic Republics!
IMAGINE
The time for the Transitional Program has never been more urgent!
Yours,
RR
Sunday 25th:
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/10/25/434894/Argentina-Daniel-Scioli-Cristina-Fernandez-de-Kirchner
People in Argentina are casting their ballots in the country’s general election to pick the successor to President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner.
Polling stations opened at 8:00 a.m. local time (11.00 GMT) on Sunday and will close at 06:00 p.m. local time (21.00 GMT).
On Sunday, Argentines will also elect 130 of the nation’s 257 deputies as well as 24 of the 72 senators.
Dissing the Butcheress of Benghazi Hildabeeste—the nerve!
http://www.presstv.ir/Detail/2015/10/25/434964/Trump-saddam
Top Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump has claimed that the world would be a better place if former dictators such as Saddam Hussein of Iraq and Muammer Gaddafi of Libya were still in power.
During an interview with CNN broadcast on Sunday, the billionaire businessman also said the Middle East “blew up” during the administration of US President Barack Obama and when Hillary Clinton was secretary of state.
“Russian military operation is assumed by most Russian experts to be scheduled to last about 3 months” – absolutely unfounded and un-sourced claim.
Oct. 2 – “There is always a risk of being bogged down but in Moscow, we are talking about an operation of three to four months,” Alexei Pushkov told French radio Europe 1, adding that the strikes were going to intensify.
Russian Airstrikes in Syria Projected to Last 3-4 Months
Putin as also suggested so much.
You don’t need nukes and cruise missiles, hypersonic and laser strike vehicles, or invincible tanks if you have Sergei Lavrov. He is a weapon of intellect, physical imposition, psychological persuasion and smoke blown into your face if your are a clown. John Kerry must have inhaled 200 packs of butts in the last year while having his diplomatic pouch shoved up his hindquarters by Lavrov.
Yes, diplomacy by the Russian Federation is like their military. Superb.
I like how he said, the US is not telling the positions of the opposition, the terrorists or anything so we know where to bomb..
It almost sounded like tell us where this moderate opposition of gentle head choppers are so we can bomb them.. priceless..
@Dsa
“Perhaps
Assad and Iran tricked Russia into believing
they just needed alittle push to liberate
most of Syria, and now Russia is stuck in a
long and bloody war.”
Perhaps you are (deliberately?) talking absolute horses**t?
No guarantees of outcomes can ever be made about conflict . Neither Assad nor the Iranian leadership are infallible, and can only make promises within known parameters. Those parameters have been thoroughly examined by the Russians. But they are not set in stone.
This does not make the Iranians and Assad ‘tricksters’ and the Russians gullible idiots.
You appear to have completely missed Putin’s statement that Russian military involvement (as it is currently manifest) is phased (i.e. has a shelf-life).
Or did you?
I agree. It’s quite possible Russia will be unable to hold the gap and Hezbollah/Iran will provoke it into a fight with Israel in Southern Syria. There’s critical divergence between the Russian and Shia agendas.
Yea, military involvements are always temporary in the beginning. It can be “temporary” for a decade.
Perhaps you should read my comment I said : Russia said the conflict will last for 3-4 months, but, now Russia is in a long bloody conflict, and if they leave, Assad might fall. So they cant really leave.
Assad and Iran might have misinformed Russia about their capabilities intentionally in the hopes of getting Russia involved, and now when Russia is involved, Russia cannot leave. Not without looking like a loser.
Yes, Russia is pretty gulliable, Russia believed USA word when they said they would not expand NATO after soviet fell, Russia believed NATO would not bombed Libya to pieces when Russia approved the no-fly zone. Russia believed USA and EU would not use sanctions against Russia because it is illegal according to WTO which Russia is a member.. Honestly, Russia is very gulliable.. One of the most gulliable nations on earth i would say.. Only today is Russia actually starting to catch that USA and EU are not quite trust worthy.
@Dsa
Why would you ascribe US untrustworthiness – a ‘former’ enemy – to a long-term ally like Syria?
That makes as much sense as shark cheesecake.
Hi Eimar, thanks for arguing…yeah DSA’s a troll.
I’m glad you said that about gullibility: now I understand what level your thinking is on, and that will save me some time.
I can’t argue with the examples you gave.I’ve given the same ones on occasion.But I do think its more of a belief in the honesty and morality of people that is the problem.Sadly misplaced in dealing with the US.Hopefully,they will soon overcome that flaw.I did,after the first few lies I saw them use.And its not even my job to see those problems.There is really no good excuse for those whose job it is to see them.
As to the other point on Syria.I don’t think it matters if the war takes 3 months or 3 years.It only matters that its won.If as Saker believes Russia is arranging with Syria an alliance similar to the alliance of the USSR with Syria.Then they are down for the long haul anyway.And they aren’t going to allow a change of government in Syria who might decide to undue that alliance (Ukraine is fresh before their eyes).So that would mean either Saker (and some others) is wrong about that alliance.Or Assad’s government is safely in power.And when and “if” he steps down, it will be to be replaced by another pro-Russian president.And not one of the opposition,who is still in the pockets of the US as I type.
Russia is hardly gullible.
But there are various contending forces within Russia at work, as well as various weakenesses and external circumstances which prevent the government alwyas acting as it might like — so one plays along and gives enough rope for the empire to hang itself (expose it’s intentions and modes of operating, and also wear itself down, and become overconfident), until one has the power and support needed to oppose it.
Compare it to giving way before an enemy army so as to let it form into a vulnerable are which can be kettled — or to ‘rope-a-dope’ in boxing. Direct confrontation is often not the best strategy.
Thank-you, Bob. What matters is that absolute Evil is annihilated, before it destroys Syria, Iraq and anyone else the Saudi/US/Israeli/Turkish ruling vermin decide to obliterate. Victory for Daash and its creators will usher in a new Dark Age.
Russia’s aim here is to stop the supply of weapons and intelligence to terrorists in Syria. Russia stayed out of it until the US started supplying TOW missiles to al queda terrorists who then took over large parts of populated areas of Syria and hence why they were targeted first. If it is missed on anyone watching I bet Russia will target any weapons drops as well. They even took out the command centers and weapon’s depots deep inside IS space just to show this and to give no warning to move it somewhere else. It is the single most important message about this whole affair.. Russia will not allow the US to run the logistics and weapon supplies to terrorists to overthrow another government. And this also made everyone in a month stand up and talk peace and elections and working together.. When was the last time the US EVER talked about peace and working together…. Those words ever come up from others and the US had already left the room.. Russia can not defeat terrorism, but they can make sure the terrorists can not get their hands on high tech weapon systems easily. It wont take more than 3 months to get this message across.. It will take decades to defeat terrorism in Syria.. India has more than a MILLION soldiers in that small state of kashmire and they have not defeated terrorism after 3 decades and tens of billions spent on fences and ditches and what not.
This is a great article Saker!!
I wish it had a wider audience in the US. It would be an education for so many.
For what it is worth, I think the entire Russian operation is predicated on the presence of fighters from the Caucasus. Where will these fighters go once Syria falls? Both Russia and the ones responsible for creating the mess know the answer. Therefore while Russian actions may be an irritant, they are not provocative, not an escalation, they are something that either was or should have been expected.
The SAA is suffering armor losses at an unsustainable rate given the small amount of territory they are taking. Apparently their doctrine is just to park tanks out in the open on the front lines. This has been disastrous ever since the House of Saud and US started supplying the rebels with advanced anti-tank TOW missiles. Missiles that can be fired from 2km with accuracy and do a lot of damge to a tank.These TOW groups operate with virtual impunity, the SAA hasn’t developed any countermeasures such as forward scouts and surveillance in front of their armor.
https://www.reddit.com/r/syriancivilwar/comments/3q4bn1/syrian_civil_war_atgm_weekly_101815102415/
The Russian presence isn’t sufficient to see the entire conflict with drones and spot TOW operators, who utilize hit and run to great effect. If the current situation continues the limited SAA offensives will probably ground to a halt and Syria will return to a stalemate. I only hope Putin brought the SAA failure to adapt to the TOW threat to the attention of Assad at their meeting.
The problem the SAA is having, being hit by TOWs, is indicative of a broader problem of the whole army and administration. That is there seems to be this attitude “Oh well you have to expect to take losses in a war”. This would not be the same attitude taken by their neighbors in Israel.
It comes down to even the foot soldiers not wearing body armour. The calculation does not seem to be made that if a soldier is hit, not only is the fighting unit weakened by the loss of a soldier but then more soldiers are put in danger trying to save him or recover the body and vital medical staff and supplies are used up unnecessarily simply by not wearing body armour.
The same applies across the board. From what Ive seen of the SAA tanks they do no have any added sloped, active or spaced armour that would greatly improve their chance of survival if theyre hit by a TOW missile. Most of the tanks dont even have side skirts that have been used since WW2.
The way they are going the attrition rate will wear the SAA down to nothing, no matter how many airstrike Russia makes. All the US needs to do is keep a few airdrops coming and sit back and watch.
Its no use relying on Iranian troops or advisers. Russia needs to take control of the situation and get engineers and advisers down there quick to sort things out before opportunity is lost.
Precisely right. The situation for the SAA is this: they need decisive victories at the strategic level if they are going to win. The opposition/terrorists only have to avoid defeat and eventually they will win.
The SAA’s offensives have not even come close to a decisive victory anywhere, territorial gains have been light and have come at ruinous costs as far as manpower. The tanks don’t matter per-se, Russia could refit and ship some of their old T72’s if it would be decisive. The problem is that the SAA is going to run out of tank crews at this rate. The TOW has had a far bigger impact on this war than Russian airstrikes so far. It was after all the TOW that allowed the Army of Conquest (Al Nursa front/re-branding) to overrun Ibdil earlier this year and prompt Russia to involve itself in the first place.
If we look at Syria two months from now and see that the SAA haven’t made a decisive victory anywhere then things will indeed be dire.
“The problem the SAA is having, being hit by TOWs, is indicative of a broader problem of the whole army and administration. That is there seems to be this attitude “Oh well you have to expect to take losses in a war”. This would not be the same attitude taken by their neighbors in Israel.”
More zio media based propaganda plus Isreali idoltry. Another websayanim.
vt..are you talking about jellyfish..what a name eh ? …. yeah another Cynthia McKinney *** I guess… the word troll is getting the black mark, so I have to not use it so much.
I flicked through some of the videos at the linked site. All of the videos where tanks were hit stopped second after the hit and it could not be seen how much damage was done. In two of the videos you could actually see the tank quickly reverse back into cover.
There was no video of fuel and ammunition in the tanks burning? or tanks destroyed
It was mainly the Aleppo videos I looked at as I have not heard of high tank losses there.
I did not know that Russia did not export tanks with ERA. But Indian tanks have ERA, maybe from Israel.. Now I also saw a couple of Syrian tanks with ERA.. You never see Russian tanks without ERA and even Ukrainian tanks have ERA. So when e.ukranians or Russians say, the Syrian take a hit and they drop everything and runs off, well, I am not sure how Russians fight well I do after seeing how e.ukranian militia fights even with outdated weapons and take down organized units.. But Syrians are not trained, having inferior weapons that gets easily blown up makes you think twice about facing superior opponents who are not afraid to die. I think Russia will start supplying ERA now as they have already started supplying some anti-tow defense systems. By the time the US gets more TOW to their terrorists, Syria would be in a far better position to handle the situation. Syria has a huge number of tanks and planes and defensive weapons.. But it is more like a junkyard of weapons. Not very effective against modern systems.
If the US escalates this, it sure looks like Russia will as well..
Syria desperately needs more experienced Ukraine militia to teach them how to use these junk and turn them into effective weapons..
I’m not sure how effective ERA armor would be, TOW’s are modern and are a tandem charge, in other words each shot has two parts spaced out a little bit. Even if the first one is taken out by the armor the second one would still make an impact.
The TOW missiles are dangerous. The point is that no extra protection has been added to the Syrian tanks. Even homemade style spaced armor would help a lot. Certainly some tanks will be lucky and survive anyway.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLVIEM8k8Zs
This is one of the tanks listed as destroyed. https://twitter.com/IvanSidorenko1/status/657327947414675456
Both tank and crew survived.
The fact that none of the videos I watched showed a burning tank, and they all ended seconds after the tank was hit makes the list very doubtful.
In some of the videos where lighter vehicles were hit, the video would run for a bit longer and show the destroyed or burning vehicle.
The only way to be sure a tank that is hit is destroyed is if it “cooks off” (ammunition going up in a flames). The videos are frustrating but it is all we have. A tank can be hit and destroyed without cooking off, or it could still be operable. Certainly some of the tanks hit by TOW’s survive. Regardless the loss rate of SAA armor is bad.
Jellyfish, is Reddit a reputable source ?
The videos are there right from the source. Not that they show every single tank being hit as destroyed.
US department of defence no longer reporting strikes in Syrian territory.
The power supply strikes a parting hit, or Russia told them to keep out after hitting the power supplies to Aleppo?
One drone strike in Syria on 23rd, none on 24th and 25th
http://www.defense.gov/News
Just to add to that, if US is quietly pulling their aircraft out of Syria, expect MANPADs SAMs to move in
http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/25/us-mideast-crisis-syria-saudi-idUSKCN0SJ06720151025
U.S., Saudi Arabia to bolster support for moderate Syrian opposition
If the US and Saudi’s (proxies) can knock out a few Russian planes… this will be a different war altogether.
“If the US and Saudi’s (proxies) can knock out a few Russian planes… this will be a different war altogether.” Yes, it will mean Benghazi was a precedent and not a one off. It means warehouses full of TOWs and Stingers CIA thought were safe start blowing up deep inside Saudi Arabia, where the Saudis thought they were safe. It means Iran starts killing top Saudi and Qatari intel officers and commanders who thought they were safe just inside the Saudi or Jordanian border from attacks while guiding the TOW convoys. Even by the rules of proxy war (no direct targeting of each other’s personnel, all proxies fair game), people on both sides including the Langley guys supervising the deliveries are going to get nervous.
Russia is NOT going to back down and is getting ready for war. How prepared is America for it? How about a major ‘Houthi’ sabotage of a Saudi refinery complex that sends prices rising? Does anyone really think the Saudis are so strong as they try to project?
A certain amount of caution is in order. But the TOW isn’t a wunderwaffen and its operators can die under massed Russian firepower just like fanatical SS men and Hitler Youth died under Katyushas in 44-45.
I am not endorsing any of the above acts by anyone, only demonstrating that the notion that the Empire can always escalate the proxy war and not face severe blow back or retaliation for it is false.
The Saudis particularly the younger princes have to be wise now to the fact that KSA losses in Yemen and discord in the Royal family may be features, rather than bugs, of U.S. policy when it comes to the Kingdom. The CIA is using the Saudis in Yemen when in the long term the last Arab dictatorship for the so-called ‘Arab Spring’ to destabilize may have always been Riyadh itself. It wouldn’t surprise me in the least if the Soros NGOs are already preparing for Saudi destabilization as a ‘Plan C’ in case the younger prince Mohammed betrays Washington and quietly cuts off the arms to the jihadists KSA has been funding and arming for over five years now to destroy Syria.
I do not see Russia’s bombing campaign wrapping up in 4 months — it will last at least a year. But neither do I see any successes for the alCIAeda proxies. You can defend ground but not hold it decisively with anti-tank missiles and guerrillas. For that you need a more conventionally trained force, and the Russian Air Force ramping up from 60 to 300 sorties a day is going to kill most of the best CIA trained assets. If Iran is really in this war to win it they will send more troops as well, I suspect they are waiting
yes indeed. t34 was a poor match for the nazi tanks, but what army went to berlin?
Some may, in relation to the matter of international law, delight in reading ABOVE AND BEYOND INTERNATIONAL LAW: GEORGE W. BUSH AS THE AUSTINIAN SOVEREIGN, by Professor Ali Khan (washburn law school) http://jurist.org/forum/forumnew104.php. Published in 2003…
There are indications that, in the fullness of time, some semblance of multi-polarity and the law, which as AK writes, is based on contracts. There are also many who expect a sudden and vast increase in violence. One may follow the other, but which first? (Just my hunch, but I bet that the level of violence will increase, suddenly, and in very nasty ways.)
Either outcome will be very dangerous, as it will create sudden change and, worse, the perceptions that go along with sudden change cannot be well suppressed. As Hoffer put it: “Revolutions don’t cause change, change causes revolutions.”
Revolutions are very disagreeable. Particularly for the ruling class… A revolution in a defeated empire is really too awful to imagine. Particularly one with mountains of weapons… Therefore it’s reasonable to assume that, since either Russia or the US will lose this confrontation, the winner will occupy the loser.
Of course, these processes take years, I hope. And maybe peace will prevail, may it please the fates. Pax
This is sooo much better than your previous, far too pessimistic piece, Saker.
It is a better informed and well thought one that will inspire rather than discourage. Well done and keep it up!
Gee, what happened to Iraq, the first victim of the New World Order? Stopped reading with that glaring omission.
Please translate and post in English as this will contribute to discussion. If no-one understands you they cant really talk to you. PS
Muy bien. Muy bien. Desde México. Muy bien por La Paz del mundo. Gracias.
I really don’t feel that the USA ‘failed’ in Pakistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria. I think the intention all along was not to conquer these countries then re-make them as ‘Jeffersonian'(what-slave-owning?)democracies’, enjoying ‘Free Markets'(ie plutocratic rule behind a democratic facade) etc, but to do what has been done. Smash them to fragments, dividing them along sectarian lines and impoverishing and immiserating and killing as many of their people as possible. In other words the Zionazi ‘Oded Yinon Plan’ implemented by the almost exclusively Judeofascist ‘neo-conservatives’ who totally control US geopolitics. These are religious lunatics who believe that their right to total global dominance forever, ie ‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ is granted them by Yahweh himself. They created Daash, in league with their Wahhabist ‘cousins’ to be deliberately psychopathic, cruel and murderous, in a sort of psychological projection, and to defame Moslems the better to justify slaughtering them everywhere from Palestine to Pakistan.
MM
In the Mideast, it is essentially geostrategy benefiting the zionazis. What use is Syria to the USA? It is in the zionazi interests to see these adversaries destroyed. They are liebensraum, not colonial material. And when it gets close to “home”, zionazis don’t like share.
Contrast this with the ZPC/NWO war on Eastern Europe. The scum did not destroy the countries of EE in the way they did in the ME, but left working colonies. In the ME, the policy has been total destruction to the point of uselessness as a colony. This is zionist power at work.
I finally began to fully understand the reality of Zionazi policy when I read the Yesha Council of Rabbis and Torah Sages’ declaration in 2006, as Lebanon was being bombed to rubble, targeting hospitals, mosques, schools, power-stations, fleeing civilians etc all over the country, in an attempt to provoke civil war in Lebanon. These highly influential worthies declared that under Judaic law, killing civilians was not just permissible, but was a mitzvah, or religiously sanctioned good deed. It certainly explains murderous attacks on civilians by the Zionazis since 1947, and before.
As well as this utter disregard for the lives of the goyim, itself endlessly repeated by other Israelis, religious and secular, and manifest in cold-blooded murders of Palestinians (never punished)the massacres of POWs in 1956 and 1967, the periodic massacres in Gaza and Lebanon, and the killings of hundreds of Palestinian leaders over the years, the type of Judaic goy-hatred (even older than the reciprocal Judeophobic hatred)thus evidenced runs rampant throughout Israeli society, and amongst the military-intelligence elite, which are increasingly dominated by Judaic religious fundamentalists connected to the settler Judaic Taliban. And this brutal society, based as it is in racism and xenophobia that exceeds even that of its lost ally, Afrikaaner South Africa, is utterly immune to International Law, protected as it is by the Western states totally controlled by the money power of their Jewish Fifth Columns, and even to international public opinion, as all criticism of Israel is banished from the MSM and, increasingly, criminalised, in the famous tradition of ‘Je Suis Charlie’ and ‘Freedom of Opinion’.
You are correct.Israel easily surpasses apartheid South Africa in the mistreatment of her subject population.I never thought years ago that would be possible.But they have managed it.
Brilliant comment MM! And in this tradition WW2 was just a means to the end.
What use is Syria to the USA? Seriously, when you can drive overland from Damascus to Moscow what use is Syria to the USA? A terrorist state mobilized to head towards Russia? What use is Syria to the USA? It fits in with it’s half century plan to turn Russia into a vassal state. That is what use Syria is to the USA and once they get Syria Israel won’t mean squat to them. They are nothing but an enforcer state working on behalf us US and British Oil interests-that is all Israel is to them.
RR
Just listened to Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2.
An enigma wrapped in mystery rises like a phoenix from the ashes, like Sergei.
In the darkest hour comes the greatest power.
“In peace there’s nothing so becomes a man
As modest stillness and humility
But when the blast of war blows in our ears
Then imitate the action of the tiger.”
-Henry V
“Dance like a butterfly and sting like a bee”
-Mohamed Ali
I’ve read that a thousand years ago Russia defeated the Khazar empire. Looks like the wheel of fate has come around again.
May the Holy Seraphim have Russia’s back.
Dennis, performed by whom? My favourite is Richter. A pity he never performed the Rach 3, but at least we have Gilels, and a few others in that realm.
Hi. Anna Fedorova on YouTube.
Dear Saker,
It is a fight against evil, the amount of violence that has been unleashed on the peaceful Syrian nation has no equal.
If anyone thinks there is no Heaven and Hell, no Angels and Demons, watch this video, in the end the demon gets his just reward, from Above.
Caution, extremely disturbing video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iz0jE5IjCSw
Saker, what a brilliant and well written and wonderful and truthful and positive article…
Thank you so much for everything you do.
What…?…..no Internet..?
http://m.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/russias-submarine-presence-near-undersea-internet-cables-sparks-fears-of-internet-blackout-20151025-gki7g1.html
***anon, please describe your links properly…modaa
I am reading an article on the nuclear first attack scare of 1983.. there is whole bunch of information from Regan’s memoirs talking about how amazed and surprised he was that others took his actions and words for what they seemed because he was such a moral guy and Americans were such moral people.. makes me wonder, on what planet is this thing living on because it is not the same planet I am on and that I know others are living on. Or is it because of the containments in the water supply that makes an entire population mental midgets..
This is the guy that sold coke to finance his dirty wars in south America where people were disappeared after being tortured to death under his command. Supplying weapons of the most heinous order to both Iraq and Iran to kill and maim millions.. Started the star wars project because he thought he could destroy the Evil empire without any repercussions. He has damaged the culture of planet earth more than anyone else before him into such a degree he started this inequality of people into god’s chosen and those deemed disposable. The very same guy who threw 20 ton shells into the middle of population centers in Lebanon?
What a pathetic wretch of a human being talking about being moral and surprised others took him to be a madman of the highest order. Anyone think such a creature would not have taken advantage of any situation if an opening was present? He even put perishing nuclear missiles in Europe to prepare for a destructive first strike. Maybe his dementia started long before the he left Hollywood but an evil nutcase with his reganonomics that turns logic upside down and good into bad and evil into a force for good this current environment we live in started in this kind of situation where reality has no basis in facts.. Only some weird kind of Hollywood scenario where the federation of where we twist a few bones of of other peoples bodies can create a peaceful and productive world order against those evil evil Klingons errr romulins err kardasians errr next..
Really.. Actions speak louder than words and when both match, it is not others who are mistaking it. Others know exactly what you are. You are deluded to think of yourself as a force for good when there is not much lower to go to hit that lower bottom of pure evil incarnate. 80 billions dollars an year on intelligence.. Money most wisely should have been spent on the public school education system to create a population of basically thinking a little bit instead of absorbing tidbits feed to them.
Regan was known by social acquaintances in the 1960’s to be an avuncular idiot. People who knew him laughed, really laughed out loud, at the notion that he’d be elected to governor of California, let alone president. He was a tool, not a leader. An actor and client, not a head of state. I know this from personal contacts with his friends and neighbors from those times. Bless his idiot soul. As the in “the wizard of oz”: “pay no attention to the man behind the green curtain”, unless, of course, you want to see and know what’s ticking, how things work, and why.
Yeah, really, all presidents are actors who read a teleprompter. Unless you are a Bush or a Clinton, then it is for real.
Well, that’s not the case.
On the contrary, it was an attempt by Lyndon LaRouche to make the “MAD-Doctrine” between the two superpowers obsolete. This influence of LaRouche on Reagan was so dangerous to the Empire, that it resulted in a siege of LaRouches estate by the FBI. Bush sen. was behind it…
Dear The Saker,
i wonder when was the last time you wrote ” The Ukraine” . May be you have mentioned it else I must be in hibernation or quite aloof.
Regarding Syria things are in right direction but still a long way to go. Enjoyed this analysis.
Regards,
Biswajit
Assad traveled to Moscow by himself. All alone! That was not necessary and it speaks volumes. Assad’s visit to Moscow can not but signal Moscow’s support for him personally. And I believe that was the intention. If any traitorous elements within Syria’s government (helpfully bought or encouraged by the CIA) were planning on displacing Assad they can’t help but wonder what he discussed with Putin and what that would mean for their CIA sponsored plans.
Putin speaks the truth [Full disclosure: I am a card carrying Putin Groupie]. The Russian mission in Syria is meant to lead to a political solution. Let all who think and dream that ” Assad Must Go”® know that Russia supports him.
As for Russia, thank God for it! Somebody needed to bring this whole mess of American hubris to an end. American’s need to realize that the US does not have to control the world. In his interview with Charlie Rose Putin said he admires America’s creativity. This creativity along with its incredible work ethic, bountiful resources and innate pragmatism and intelligence ensure that the US will remain a rich and formidable global competitor, even if it gives up its empire.
Totally agree regarding Russia and Syria — it’s a dead serious challenge to Anglo-Zionazi designs.
However, the statement “Americans need to realize that the US does not have to control the world” is far less convincing. Pindo ‘Exceptional’ patriotism is merely an ideological reflection of rampant Pindo parasitism, the latter propping up the wasteful, unsustainable, and decadent lifestyles of the entire West; faggot cultural Marxists and rabid neocons included. To wit: If revolution ever breaks out in the West before it crashes and/or the Earth is made physically uninhabitable, the experience is bound to be an absolute nightmare for its 99% as well with living standards dropping enormously and very fast as their share of the global industrial output and natural resources would begin to reach an equilibrium with the rest of the planet.
The US cannot and will not “remain a rich and formidable global competitor, even if it gives up its empire”. The Pindos know it, even if Putin pretends not to. Syria is the game-changer.
It could go either way. In fact everything points to things going the way you say they will. So I’m with you there. But it doesn’t have to be that way. Its up to Americans to realize that if they accept and manage their imperial decline they will end up quite well.
Great article, Saker, thanks.
” It (the AngloZionist Empire) had built anywhere between 700 to 1000 military bases (depending on your definition of “base”) worldwide and it had split up the entire globe into several areas of exclusive responsibility named “commands””
On a side note:
Did anyone know that 60% of the US military’s C&C is based in Germany, that no drones would fly without the second biggest US-Army base in Rammstein and that EUCOM and AFRICOM have their headquarters in Stuttgard?
Sputnik had this photo of the Putin-Assad dinner: http://cdn1.img.sputniknews.com/images/102899/50/1028995002.jpg
Dear The Saker,
Thank you for the latest update. Much appreciated.
The visit by Assad and whom he met was very significant.
Rgds,
Veritas
Crucial for diplomacy is flexibility from the side of Assad. He has repeatedly frustrated the Russians and I don’t see a sign that that is improving.
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/us/politics/assad-finds-chilly-embrace-in-moscow-trip.html
He and others noted Russia’s efforts in January and April to broker talks in Moscow between Mr. Assad’s government and some of the armed groups rebelling against it. Those were coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs ….
The remaining long quote has been removed. Link to source article has been provided by commenter …. mod-hs
The NYT also had an article about Iraqi troops stealing incubators and throwing babies on the floors… They did not roast the people like how the dutch peacekeepers but they did not see fit to print such nonsense as that was not war and NYT is all war alla tyme……
Assad has been open to dialogue from the very beginning. It has been US intransigence on the issue that has stalled the issue. Of course that was when they thought they could take over the way they did in Libya. Russia’s PRINCIPLED policy is that it is up to people of Syria to determine how they are governed and by whom. And Assad would leave office tomorrow if he thought it would help bring peace and self determination back to Syria. End of Story.
RR
very good article, thank you Saker. just i feel there is something that nobody is speaking about. russians are calling US leadership and empire as icompentent and childish dangerous in same time they respect Us military and have approach with them as allies. not as enemy. it is not about that russians are afraid. i think they distinguish US military from their leadership. is this possible? is it something russians know and we don’t see? yet.
Clearly Saker needs to understand the concept of Empire of Chaos.
Paul, are you talking about the Empire’s systematic destruction of civilian infrastructure, including utilities, waterworks, libraries, schools, hospitals, roads, bridges, electrical grids, government buildings, etc. so that NO government whether friend or foe to the U.S. can function under the circumstances and failed state is the logical result? You make a great point.
No, Russians are not gullible. Far from it. They just don’t say out loud what they are really thinking. And they take a really long long time to saddle up. They take so damn long that they lulled the Empire to sleep. Then they ride like the Devil.
Well, all this russian help to Syria and Assad is of course good, but I think it would be better if Russia helped to liberate all of Novorossia from Charkov to Odessa (and Transniestria and Malorossia) first!
After all, they are russian lands on Russias front door, where russians and russian-speaking ukrainians are getting murdered by nazis every day! This is the most important front in the war against the Evil Empire. Syria is the secondary front.
These moves, Novorossia and so on, may, in the fullness of time, occur. Many expect this. But things must proceed according to logic, not emotion.
Saker, a discussion of diplomacy perhaps ought to include the driving economic forces behind the US and NATO, the looming catastrophe that faces “the west” and particularly the US. Diplomacy involves understanding economic drivers of all parties.
These forces, some might opine, are so massive that a severe increase in the violence offered to non-servile states is seems unavoidable. Honestly, the American elite is afraid, not of Russia, but of their own people. They cannot afford to be seen as defeated or as powerless.That’s not new, but it’s worse than ever – look at how their domestic army of cops act – there’s the proof. Of course they’re afraid too, and heavily propagandized.
I myself feel sorry for everybody involved.
That a real war seems nearly certain is a terrible pity.
“west” could not find FSA, so, russians found them ;
http://www.sott.net/article/304847-They-are-real-Moscow-confirms-Free-Syrian-Army-envoys-visited-Russia
now, west can stop arguing and blame Russia. russians will make deal with “FSA”, everybody else will be destroyed. i am laughing :-)
they did it again, i already see foam on McCain mouth…
I see where this blog-entry is going.
Not sure I agree with it, not 100%. Yes, the re-establishment of International Rule of Law is a must, and the de facto regime of terror of: “might makes right” needs to die a sudden, swift death.
But, also, this is the same reason why Russia supports the UN as an organization, this is happening parallely as many dissenting voices are raising concerns about the UN usefulness or even relevancy [we had a CrossTalk episode about this very issue not too long ago].
And of course Russia will support the UN, they are part of it! They’re also part of the ‘elite club’ of the UN Security Council [for how long are these “members” gonna milk their past ‘glories’ of WWII? Why, has-been States such as France and the UK, are still allowed to be permanent members? On the basis of what?!?!], all of these facts also make you wonder if the Russians would support the UN as strongly, if they weren’t members of it at all, like say; Palestine (?)
Do Russia also supports others organizations they’re not part of, like… The Council on Foreign Relations [CFR]? How about the Bilderberg Group?
Smart money says; they don’t! And why should they? They’re not part of them!
Aaaaaah!!!! You see where I’m going with this?
But what would happen if they’re invited to join in? Will we suddenly have to suffer Putin speaking favorably about them? (I shudder at the thought!)
Russia joined the WTO, you tell me what good-use was that for? The Western sanctions against Russia – as a WTO member – are illegal under WTO own rules, yet, they happen anyway. Just like IMF’s own rules forbid them to lend money to countries 1- under territorial disputes 2- currently engaged in armed [civil or otherwise] conflicts. Sounds familiar? Yup, that’s Ukraine alright. Against their own rules and all, the IMF still lent them plenty of money.
And don’t even get me started on Russia being part of the IMF – minor player as they may be – next time you hear Putin say a bad word against the IMF, give me a call.
Going back to the Syrian situation…
…you have Russia calling for “diplomatic talks” with all evil Mordor States and their dog; The Arab League, seriously? Might as well summon ‘The Friends of Syria’ group. Or, why not have talks with the head of the UN to Human Rights; Saudi Arabia? Oops! My mistake, they are already included in the talks! In fact, Putin himself contacted the “so-called” Saudi “king” on the same day Assad was visiting Russia.
The Gulf Monarchies, check! Turkey, check! Pakistan (seriously?!?!) check! …of course Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and others will be included eventually, but I insist: do they really need to “talk” to the dark side of the Muslim world? Next thing you know they’ll be having “talks” with ISIS in Minsk.
Because… you must be open to dialogue with all parties, no matter how deranged they are, apparently /end sarc.
Incidentally, this is why I never liked Hollande or Merkel being part of the Minks II talks. The Ukraine situation has zero to do with them and their countries, beyond the Gazprom gas supplies. They could have been invited as ‘moderators’ or ‘observers’ for the talks, but that’s not the way their involvement was advertised at the time. On the other hand, the Novorossia representatives were made to wait outside in the lobby, and this irks me, to this day.
-TL2Q
Russian foreign policy seems to be and to have been quite logical and consistent over the last 100 years. But the tactical details raised by our learned colleague, TL2Q, above are, I think, well worth considering; and in several ways refuting. As to why Russia supports the UN – fair question. It’s a structure. She has a veto, and a platform. Russia also “supported” the old league, until she was illegally tossed out, and for similar reasons. Overall, however, these matters are meta-diplomatic. Of course Russia would engage in talks with isis, or whatever the gang’s called – but making the date ? When to treat…these are matters of meta-diplomacy. Candy on the withheld plate. Some might imagine that the war, W3, is well underway and that Russia is winning, by her lights, and is laying the ground not for victory, but for the shape of the Peace. What, may one ask, will the UN look like when that Peace comes? Such a view might explain actions that, at present, seem ill-advised in the immediate realm.
would there be any hidden, spurious, devilish reason why Russia still supports the UN as per your comment view? Or did I get your idea wrongly? The] same UN the Us has declared or made as irrelevant in 3 out of 4 of their interventions around the world?
Yes, russia´s diplomacy has been pretty much consistent.
A flawed structure is still a structure. Perhaps the Ruskis plan reform… Of course there is no question of either justice, or reform, until there is a recognition that there is an equality of power. Therefore, friend, it’s a reasoned hypothesis that the Ruskis expect to be powerful enough to fix the UN. This is obvious, not “hidden, spurious, or devilish”.
I have had some of the same thoughts, TL20. I’m glad to see you so eloquently vent them.
I had hoped that Obama might turn his back on the gang in Washington and their loathsome allies and try to negotiate a deal. It looks, instead, like he has sided with those intent on completing the destruction of Syria’s civilian infrastructure and dragging the Russians into the ‘quagmire’ he initially predicted,
If this is so it’s past time for the Russians to shore up their position. The way to do this is to conclude an agreement with the Iranians to base substantial Russian forces, including state of the art anti aircraft missiles, several squadrons of interceptors and enough assets to guarantee the demolition of hostile warships in the Persian Gulf (and for that matter The Gulf of Oman) if Iran is attacked.
It’s possible that the Iranians don’t trust Moscow far enough to go for this;they have reasons to be chary. But once it is done EU countries and the world generally would be served notice that movement of Saudi/Gulf State oil and gas can be partially (through closure of the strait of Hormuz) or totally (through damage to installations) foreclosed if an attack is mounted on Iran.
This would be very close to a checkmate move. Once consummated the Iranians would be able to do what they cannot safely do now which is move enough troops into Syria to actually defeat ISIL and hit back at the Saudis for the abhorrent, genocidal attack on Yemen. They might, of course, suffer attacks and harassment outside of their own territory but an attack on Iran itself would be insane, something European states dependent of Gulf oil or gas simply couldn’t allow,
The alternative, if Moscow wants to avoid a protracted campaign, or an ignominious retreat when the “4 months” are up, is to send in enough troops to at least drive through the Latakia mountains and up the river to cut off the western supply route from Turkey and fuse with the Kurdish enclave. This would be enough to send the hard core jihadis scurrying across the Euphrates (if they can get across) or into Turkey and force the FSA and the Sunni city of Idlib to negotiate the best deals they can.
The greatest immediate danger rests with Erdogan et al. No telling what may happen in Turkey if he is defeated in the imminent election; no telling what may happen if he is not.
Cheers, Tom
.
@ tom r garrett:
Very thought-provoking post there, Tom. It gave me a lot to munch-on, and it might take me a few days to digest it all.
“[..] It’s possible that the Iranians don’t trust Moscow far enough to go for this; they have reasons to be chary”
Well… there were a few rumors (can’t remember if I read them here, or some other site) that the Iranians [unsurprisingly] have their own oligarchy, and it’s this oligarchy the ones getting fed-up with sanctions (mainly because… what else!? They limit their opportunities for profit) so much so that they’re willing to sell their own country down the river as oligarchs from all countries always do.
Make of that what you will, these were rumors, and therefore I can’t vouch for them.
Never the less; it could explain why maybe Russia is the one that is not so trusting of Iran, rather than the other way around. Or… it could may well be that neither side trust each other.
“[..] The greatest immediate danger rests with Erdogan et al. No telling what may happen in Turkey if he is defeated in the imminent election; no telling what may happen if he is not”
Agreed 200%, make it 300!
Erdogan is such a maniac that he even makes Nutter-Yahoo, look sane in comparison, and that’s saying something!
He and his country – as a NATO member – are the obvious, most immediate threat to this whole operation.
Having said that, [and this ties-up with the latest CrossTalk episode] the biggest threat is the same one as it always was… the US.
Obama considers moving US forces deeper into Syria, Iraq [BTW: this was Breaking News on RT just a few hours ago]
https://www.rt.com/usa/319807-obama-forces-syria-iraq/
-TL2Q
You are likely right TL2Q in suggesting that the greatest internal pressure in Iran against a “hard” alliance with Russia (assuming this has even being considered) comes from interests who expect to profit big time from oil and gas deals with western companies. Negotiations with companies like Total have been going on for months.
Meantime, it does appear that the Americans are going to “go in” with Special Forces, And Erdogan says he will attack the Kurdish enclaves in Syria. “Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.”
Thanks for your post. Tom
In WWII Japan the US allowed the government to keep the Mikado. I have the sense we backwoods hick Americans did things a whole lot better 70 years ago than in the sophisticated destructive way we do things now, leveling the infrastructure and organs of the state as in Iraq, and in other nations I might mention.
The US can save face simply by dropping regime change and genuinely joining the battle against terrorism. Ratheon and Co will have to turn their manufacturing to improving domestic computer’s and communications….And they can come out looking like a good guy….KSA how much Saudi oil does the US acatually import that can’t be replaced from other sources? Any blackmail over 9/11 the US can just go arrest the perpetrator’s and make it look like Mr Dibbs has returned to Washington or something. They could even arrest a few Banker’s to make it look even better. Israel could be put in it’s place as well. In other words, simply by doing the right thing the US could redeem itself indeed restore ( actually hard to restore something that barely existed) but the US has made modest gains in human rights over the years. Women finally got the right to vote early in the last century and Blacks finally late in the same. There are many nascent causes that the American people have been fighting for from the environment to prison and electoral reform to internet freedom that could be championed in America-and people are actually fighting for these things. Putin did it for Russia ( with the siloviki mind you) but rumblings in the intelligence community over falsified reports is an indication that people of conscious do exist in America and they are YEARNING for a more wholesome body politic and society at large. Whether or not the Great Satan will have it’s come to Jesus moment however is only going to come when the propaganda organs such as this one hit the streets in mass traction actions. Leading up to and including general strikes.
No access to http://www.unz.com (Safari say´s: Can´t find the server).
must have been temporary glitch … your link works for me … mod-hs
And me.
A breath of fresh air, your analysis. We are suffocating under the regime of “mainstream” propaganda lies here in the USA.
In re the matter of the great dangers of violence, some may wish to learn about a close shave: http://thebulletin.org/okinawa-missiles-october8826
Seems the Cuban fiasco and the Soviet sub under USN attack that decided by one vote to not fire their atomic torpedo was not the only miracle that saved the world.
The article, however, begs the question: who gave the bogus order to fire 32 ICBMs at Russia and, presumably, China. The order was given, but not obeyed… Think about that in light of to-day.
An excellent analysis. I think that Putin and the i=other Russians there have made it clear to Assad, he is the head of Syria as long as the Syrian people vote him in. Who is in power in Syria is Syrian responsibility, not Russian.
I am deeply, sadly sure that Washington and the Federal government will not change until forced to by military force as the element of insanity, introduced deliberately when Nixon and Kissinger shared the US Presidency in order to use terror as a weapon of war to defeat Vietnam..that the believe the US was insane would so terrorise the Vietnamese they’d give up. Used identically now with the difference
being several actually quite insane/incompetent America politicians have presidential powers. A Vietnamese military strategy turned into Russian Roulette with atomic bombs. Putin and Lavrov are fully up to the challenge. The urgent global need for such men, produced them, especially since the level of American propaganda was never used inside Russia against Russian by Russians. In short, Russia has a level of integrity America fears so much it has eliminated it several hundred years ago. In fact the global US empire of the future is planned to eliminate integrity and intellectual education.
That comes from being exceptional and having delusions of grandeur. You wont find that trait in many cultures. Oh yea everyone likes to think they are macho but never as many who think they are right and that might makes right. All the movies we are showing how others are so evil that their might is always defeated by the might of the righteous. Seeing that who can not take it literally.. When I look at IS, I see the very same culture. although they dispense with all the bullshit in between and have no qualms about what others might think. It seems the only difference. The US developed a conscience all off a sudden, the Saudi’s bombing the MSF hospital In Yemen is not allowed.. So this is another attempt at being exceptional.. The Saudi’s would never dare to have done such a thing before. Seeing how the US does it throws wedding parties and school gatherings every chance they get, they did not think twice. All the worst dictators never dared to commit war crimes because their own men thought they would be held accountable. Now no one thinks twice as long as the exceptional nation is behind them. Look at the amount of effort the Russians take to only bomb static targets after 3 levels of verifications. and after attack debriefings Compared to lets just drop the bombs and get back for lunch. It would take exponentially more effort to analyise what you have done and correct it. after all the DOD is a great example of not fixing anything but hide the problem. Because who has time for mundane things when there are people to bomb and weddings to crash. In a way the US IS exporting its culture worldwide, the culture of who gives a puk.. and where video games and pretending on social media are now more important than reality.
Sorry Saker – I simply can not accept this analysis. Although it makes a great deal of sense it fails to take into consideration the context of what is really going on. American government and foreign policy is wholly owned by Global Zionism. So any analysis of US actions in the world, esp the Middle East has to be set in this context. The Zionists have a mid-term goal of destroying central governments across the ME and North Africa with special attention given to Iran and Syria. Countries with failed states are the best of options as they do not have strong central governments and usually end up fighting among themselves rather than threatening Israel. And failed states can not support (or afford) strong military components that can defend against or be aggressive against Israel.
The longer term objective of the Zionists is to put nation against nation to the point they are either destroyed or rendered impotent through exhaustion – the idea being that Israel, who keeps a relatively low profile during it all, emerges not only as a world power but as THE world power with all other nations in subjection to racist, nationalistic Zionism. They want WWIII, hopefully without the nukes (which would destroy everything) through which they hope to gain world dominance.
Towards these goals expect the US and the other main Zionist players (UK, France, Germany, Saudi Arabia) to continue escalating things in the ME, Ukraine, around China and other target countries until the spark is lit triggering a world war. These Zionist-corrupted countries will not back off. Their Zionist masters would never allow that. So if they fail in one thing, they will open a new thing that will have the effect of continuing the march towards war.
Since the Zionists control most media, Western governments, all Central Banks, the financial systems of the world and have bought off or blackmailed most American/European leaders, it is not likely that anyone will stand against them – at least not effectively.
Russia and China are our only hope – and frankly I am not entirely certain about them as somehow I suspect a Hegelian Dialectic at play here orchestrated by global Zionism.
no both Russia China the brics and many others are de-coupling from the Rothschild banking industry and it is for real. Even going so far as to using the barter system instead of money either paper or gold.
The planned presidency of Mrs William Clinton if it is pushed through as planned will be as destabilising to the United States as is that of Frau Angela Merkel to Germany and all Europe.
As a famous Austrian politician noted long ago:”Women politicians should stay home.”