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The Tower Of Babel Comes To Paris: The Folly Of Obama's "War" On ISIS

Tyler Durden's picture




 

Submitted by David Stockman via Contra Corner blog,

US imperialism was once a fearsome force - mainly for ill. Under the latter heading, Washington’s savage destruction of Vietnam four decades ago comes readily to mind. But now the American Imperium has become just a gong show on the Potomac - even as its weapons have gotten more lethal and its purposes more  spurious and convoluted.

There is no more conspicuous proof than Obama’s quixotic “war” on ISIS. The quote marks are necessary, of course, because the White House insists that this is merely a counter-terrorism project that is not really a war; that the campaign to “degrade, disrupt and destroy” the Islamic State will not deploy a single American soldier—at least not one with his or her boots on; and that the heavy lifting on the ground against the barbaric ISIS hordes will be conducted by a “broad coalition” of so far nameless nations.

In truth, the whole thing is a giant, pathetic farce. There will be no coalition, no strategy, no boots, no ISIS degradation, no gain in genuine safety and security for the American homeland. This is an utterly misbegotten war against an enemy that has more urgent targets than America, but a war which will nonetheless fire-up the already boiling cauldron of Middle Eastern tribal, religious and political conflict like never before. There is no name for what Obama is attempting except utter folly.

Even before Secretary Kerry brought his medicine show to Paris, it was evident there is no coalition of the willing—or even the bought. The best that the 26 odd signatories to his communique could muster was a vague endorsement of Iraq’s boundaries and a pledge to support its still only partially formed, three-week old government “by any means necessary“………except not by a single one of the “means” that are actually available.

Let’s start with the neighboring nations which should fear ISIS far more urgently than the citizens in distant places like Lincoln NE and Spokane WA. The short answer is not a single one of them want to help, can help or will be invited to help. Obama’s putative coalition consists of the invisible (Germany), the indisposed (Turkey), the indecisive (the UK), the ineligible (Iran), the unwelcome (Saudi Arabia), the insolvent (Egypt) and the incensed (Russia), among others.

Thus, the heartland of the newly emerged Islamic State is in the upper Euphrates valley of Syria centered at Raqqah. That is, the fearsome threat against which Washington wants to mobilize two dozen nations sits cheek-by-jowl along a 560 mile border with Turkey. And the latter possesses the largest and most potent air force and army in the region—-a force of some 600,000 including reserves or 25X the size of the CIA’s most recent, and undoubtedly exaggerated, count of ISIS fighters.

Moreover, against the several score of tanks and armored vehicles that the jihadists seized from the retreating Iraqi Army, the Turkish military possesses 3,500 tanks, 9,000 armored fighting vehicles, 700 multiple-launch rocket systems, 2,000 towed artillery pieces and 1,000 aircraft and helicopters—-much of this right out of the latest US military specs. Finally, by virtue of its membership in NATO, it also happens to host one of the largest US air bases in the world.

But Turkey didn’t even sign the communique; won’t deploy its military against ISIS - despite its adjacency and capability to demolish the ISIS capital in short order; and won’t even permit US bombers to operate against ISIS out of the Incirlik  air base - notwithstanding that 60 years ago it was that very facility which allowed Turkey to avoid Stalin’s clutches.

Instead, it seems that the Islamist Sunni regime in Ankara has more urgent fish to fry than the medievalist Sunni sect encamped on its border: Namely, its far higher priority is deposing the secularist Alawite branch of the Shiite tribe represented by the Assad regime in Damascus. Yes, ISIS has 50 Turkish hostages, but that only guarantees that in the immediate neighborhood of the purported greatest terrorist threat ever, according to the US Secretary of Defense, there will be no war of Sunni-on-Sunni.

That means, of course, that the nation with the next largest army in the region ought to step right up because Iran is, after all, the epicenter of the worldwide Shiite community. And it is exactly the 1300-year old “heresy” of that confession which is the real target of the ISIS butchers. To be sure, the latter now find the freedom of young people in distant Buffalo NY to hang around strip malls listening to rap music and drinking beer to be evil incarnate, but their sword is meant first and foremost for the age-old infidel in their immediate environs.

Yet there will be no Shiite boots to mop up behind Obama’s bombers, either. Owing to express malice of forethought in Washington, the Iranians weren’t even invited to Paris. Needless to say, that was no small disappointment to the new government of the very nation we are attempting to rescue.

We had insisted for Iran to be there and we regret their absence,” Iraqi Foreign Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari said in Paris, adding that Tehran had provided his government with “significant support” in fighting Islamic State.

In fact, Iran is the indispensable ally if Washington really means to takes sides in this latest eruption of an age-old Sunni vs. Shiite religious war that has virtually nothing to do with America’s legitimate security interests. But two decades of neocon and Israeli propaganda have deposited a thick vapor of lies throughout the entire beltway—-spurious claims that Iran is an aggressive, terrorist nation hell-bent on getting nukes, and that, therefore, it cannot be consorted with under any circumstance.

Yes, the mullahs are doctrinaire theocrats who rally the masses with thundering denunciations of the far enemy in Washington and the near one in Tel Aviv. But Iran’s purported two decade long program to acquire nuclear weapons is entirely an invisible one - a phantom campaign that only Washington’s neocon sleuths have ever been able to detect and which involved only a few small experiments that even the CIA says were abandoned a decade ago.

And, of course, Iran has never invaded another country in modern times–unlike Washington. As for supporting “terrorism”, that consists of thoroughly open and plausible alliances based on political and religious affinities with the elected government of Syria and the dominate, elected party - Hezbollah–in Lebanon. Before Washington went hysterical about “terrorism” those sorts of relationships used to be called foreign policy.

So the irony of the neocon demonization of Iran is that the one real political and military barrier to the expansionist ambitions of the Islamic State - the so-called “Shiite Crescent” of Iran, the Assad regime in Syria and Hezbollah - is not even admitted onto the battlefield. Indeed, instead of facilitating the organizing and strengthening of the region’s indigenous opposition to ISIS, Washington continues to strangle the Iranian economy with brutal sanctions and attempts to overthrow the one regime with enough boots on the ground to actually halt the ISIS expansion.

Least there was any doubt that the Shiite Crescent is out of the ball game, Iran’s supreme leader, the ayatollah Khamenei quickly made it clear that it would not have gone to Paris even if invited. Thirty years of unrelenting enmity from Washington has its consequences, after all.

“I said we will not accompany America in this matter because they have got dirty intentions and hands,” Iran’s most powerful figure said in a televised address. “They see pretexts to interfere in Iraq and Syria, just as they did in Pakistan, where [the U.S.] can commit any crime it wants.”

On the other hand, Iran’s principle enemy on the Persian Gulf–the royal family of Saudi Arabia—does want to help. That is, they want to help as long as it only involves dropping bombs from high altitude fighters or hosting desert training camps populated by non-Saudi mercenaries.

But there are some real problems with that sort of “help”. In the first place, the Saudi’s have made it very clear that the only bombs they intend  to drop in Syria would be those meant for the incapacitation of Alawite soldiers in Damascus, not ISIS fighters in Raqqah.

Secondly, the Saudi’s are not even welcome to drop bombs on ISIS in Iraq because the newly installed government—actually the same old, same old Shiite gang—-won’t permit it. Indeed, the latter didn’t even need to speak up.  The Kurdish president of the country spoke out preemptively:

Iraq’s president insisted that Arab powers Egypt, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia do not need to join airstrikes against the Islamic State group. In an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, President Fouad Massoum said, it’s “not necessary”.

But that delimiting of outside help by the Iraqi government involves more than just the exclusion of Sunni Arab air power. The Shiite politicians and militia strongmen who dominate the south do not want to see the sight of any American boots on the ground— even should Obama relent.

In fact, the leaders of Iraqi Shiite militias allied with Iran such as Asaib Ahl al-Haq (“League of the Righteous”), Kata’b Hezbollah and the Madhi Army have warned that US soldiers would be targeted. In this regard, the nemesis of Washington’s first occupation of Iraq, firebrand Shiite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr, leaves nothing to the imagination:

Failing the threat of unrest keeping US troops off Iraqi soil, Sadr warned that they could find themselves once again a target of his allied militias, declaring “if you come back, we will be back too.

 

The Mahdi Army largely disbanded after the US pullout, but Sadr has kept ties with its leadership, threatening regularly to bring them out of retirement if the US tries to return to the country in a military role. With the ISIS war looking to do exactly that, they could quickly be another foe for the US in its ever-expanding conflict.

Mr. Sadr’s ingratitude might seem a trifle grating - after all among the infidel heads that ISIS would love to sever, his would surely rank high on the list. But actually his seemingly impudent remonstrations say it all - namely, that there is no longer an Iraqi nation or Iraqi army and no possibility that it can function as an ally on the ground in destroying ISIS.

What is left in the ancient land of Mesopotamia is only what was there before the last European empires still standing in 1916 drew lines on a map and declared it a nation - that is, sectarian enclaves and obstreperous militia that are more than able to defend their own territories, but do not want to be rescued by the Washington war machine.

And that’s why the chirping cherubs on the CNN War Channel get it so wrong night after night. They are pleased to report that Washington’s allies in Baghdad and Erbil have answered Obama’s call to arms, but have not figured out that this has nothing to do with degrading or defeating ISIS.

Stated differently, the Kurdish militias will doubtless effectively and ferociously defend Iraqi Kurdistan east and north of the Tigris river, but when it comes to the upper Euphrates valley where the Islamic State is actually embedded, there is a considerable problem. Namely, that Turkey considers most of the Kurdish militias which operate there - such as the PKK affiliated groups - to be terrorists and mortal enemies.

Likewise, the Shiite militias would be completely toxic in the Sunni lands where Obama’s bombers will need boots on the ground to accomplish anything except wanton destruction and hellacious blowback. In fact, it is not at all clear that they are any less barbaric than the ISIS fighters. As the New York Times noted, under a surely understated file called “Shiite Militias Post Challenge For US in Iraq”, militia justice is simple. As one fighter explained,

“We break into an area and kill the ones who are threatening people,” said one 18-year-old fighter with Asaib Ahl al-Haq, a Shiite militia that operates as a vigilante force around Baghdad.

In fact, the Shiite militias have been no less ruthless in Sunni neighborhoods than have the ISIS killers in the territories they occupy. As the NYT further noted,

At the end of July, a report from the research and advocacy group Human Rights Watch said it had documented the killings of 109 Sunni men - 48 in March and April, and 61 between June 1 and July 9 - in the villages and towns around Baghdad. Witnesses, medical personnel and government officials blamed Shiite militias for all of them, and “in many cases witnesses identified the militia as Asaib Ahl al-Haq,” the report said.

Well, that leaves Washington’s favorite delusion - the Free Syrian Army(FSA) - as the only available boots. At the end of the day there is no place else to go. Certainly, the peripheral Arab nations are not candidates.

Qatar, for instance, is aligned with the Muslim brotherhood and is therefore proscribed by Egypt and the Saudis. Besides, Qatar’s overwhelming objective is putting a natural gas pipeline though Syria - something that Assad has decisively rejected in deference to his Russian patrons, but which for a price the Islamic State would likely embrace in a heartbeat. So it is not even clear which side the Qataris are on.

Likewise, the UAE has no soldiers - just money - while Egypt has a lot of the former but none of the latter.

And, yes, there is a roadblock with the so-called moderate rebels and FSA, too. Notwithstanding that the House GOP has already approved $500 million of funding so long as each and every fighter first submits a fitness and suitability report card to the House Armed services committee, it turns out that like Leroy, the reluctant running back of football lore, FSA doesn’t even want the ball.

As widely covered in the middle eastern press but hardly mentioned in Washington, most of the rag-tag remnants of the moderate rebel alliance have announced a truce with ISIS on the grounds that their real enemy resides in Damascus, not Raqqah.

 The Free Syrian Army has announced that it will not sign up to the US-led coalition to destroy Islamic State (IS) militants in Iraq and Syria. The group’s founder, Colonel Riad al-Asaad, stressed that toppling Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is their priority, and that they will not join forces with US-led efforts without a guarantee that the US is committed to his overthrow...

 

The announcement comes a day after a ceasefire was signed between another rebel group, the Syrian Revolutionary Front (SRF), and IS fighters in Damascus. The details of the truce agreement, published by Arabic news site Orient Net, showed that the two sides had agreed not to target each other. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that IS and the SRF had agreed that Assad’s government and the forces allied to it are the principal enemy.

If there appears to be a pattern here, there is. Washington is trapped in a strategic cul-de-sac. Without troops on the ground in the 40% of Syria occupied by the Islamic State, US drones, tomahawks and bunker busters will simply turn these Sunni villages and cities into Gaza-On-Euphrates - that is, a wasteland which will breed ISIS fighters prolifically rather than degrade and destroy the jihadist threat.

But fielding a moderate rebel fighting force in Syria depends on eliminating the Assad regime first - an obviously fraught undertaking. It would result in not simply a two front war - with the Shiite Crescent and ISIS at the same time–but for all practical purposes a three front war, including Russia.

Perhaps the amateur warriors running the show in the Obama White House have not noticed, but their foolish campaign against Russia over the Ukrainian civil war is a direct threat to the only thing that keeps the Russian economy alive - its gas and oil exports to Europe. At the same time, elimination of the Assad regime would almost surely compound that threat by opening up a new gusher of competition for the European energy market in the form of a pipeline through Syria and Turkey for transport of Qatar’s now stranded but massive deposits of natural gas.

So to the nameless coalition of the willing, add an existentially motivated champion - Russia - of the status quo in Damascus. Indeed, were Obama to actually recognize that the route to regime change in Raqqah is through Damascus first, the resulting thunderous confrontation at the UN Security Council would be one for the ages. Putin would be banging his shoe in behalf of the sanctity of sovereign borders in Syria, while the Obama Administration would be reduced to saying that the international rules allegedly at issue in the Ukrainian civil war apply always and everywhere... except when Washington finds them inconvenient.

At the end of the day, of course, the White House will flinch - there will be no overt campaign to militarily eliminate the Assad regime, and therefore no boots on the ground, either. The peace candidate from the school of Saul Alinsky will become the Curtis Lemay of the 21st century. He will attempt to bomb back to the stone age a freakishly retrograde regime that would prefer to be there anyway.

And that points to the final folly of Obama’s war on ISIS. A band of medievalist butchers has seized power in the Sunni uplands of the Euphrates river because for 20 years Washington has been on the wrong side of the Islamic religious divide. It has consistently opposed secularizing Arab regimes in Iraq and Syria while coddling the nursemaids and bursars of Sunni fanaticism—the octogenarian gluttons and Wahhabi tyrants who occupy the throne in Riyadh.

Indeed, the Islamic State’s astonishing military success is almost solely attributable to the vast deposits of advanced weaponry that Washington has dumped into Syria and Iraq in its befuddled campaigns to destroy the Baathist regimes of Saddam Hussein and Bashar Assad. In a recent brilliant exposition in the socialist forum called Counterpunch, author Gary Leupp crystallized the giant strategic error:

George “Dubya” Bush gleefully destroyed the Iraqi state. He smashed a state in which Christians served in high posts, women attended college and felt free to leave their heads uncovered, rock n’ roll blared from radios, liquor stores operated legally, and there was even a gay scene. He replaced it with an occupation run by clueless cowboys literally marching around Baghdad in cowboy boots, issuing orders - most notably the orders of dissolution of the Baathist Party and the Iraqi Army... These were secular institutions, not tools for the propagation of any theology. Their dissolution was an attack, not on a religious belief system (about which the Occupation could have cared less), but on the Sunni community that had provided Saddam Hussein’s support base and dominated his regime.

In the hindsight of history it might well be asked what was Saddam’s offense - surely he was no more autocratic and barbarous than the regime in Saudi Arabia. During the last month alone the latter has accomplished 23 beheadings and, as a matter of general policy, it suppresses internal dissent with ruthless brutality and enforces barbaric medieval religious practices like stoning alleged adulteresses.

In truth, Saddam’s real offense was to pick a fight with the gluttonous emir of Kuwait - the proprietor of another artificial enclave drawn-up by Messrs. Sykes and Picot in deference to the interest of British Petroleum - that had no bearing on America’s security whatsoever. Indeed, 40 years on from the phony and failed oil embargo of 1973 it should be clear that it doesn’t matter which set of dictators and tyrannical rulers control the various hydrocarbon deposits along the Persian Gulf. Sooner or latter they produce and ship the oil because they need the revenue.

Likewise, international market prices have a proven, remarkable capacity to cause consumer economies to adjust to whatever price regime materializes from the rough and tumble of global political and economic developments. Just 15 years ago, the world oil price was under $20 per barrel and Chinese demand was only one-fourth of today’s level. In the interim, the price of oil has been to $150 per barrel and part-way back and there has been an explosion of new investment around the world in both conventional, deep off-shore and alternative energy forms - to say nothing of on-going material gains in energy efficiency across nearly all major economies.

So protecting the economic obscenity of the Gulf sheikdom’s has been an invalid excuse for intervention, but one that nevertheless suited the purposes of the neocons and Washington’s warfare state machinery. Yet what it did in the case of the destruction of the secular Baathist regime in Iraq was to open-up the gates to sectarian hell - a consequence that is played out nearly every day as Christian, Yazidi, Kurd, Sunni and Shiite villages take their turns at ethnic cleansing and retaliatory revenge.

So why is Washington promoting a repeat in Syria? After all, the Assads have been no more brutal and selfish than the House of Saud. It can’t be out of fear that they will use chemical weapons on their own citizens. By all accounts those are all gone. No, Washington’s entire campaign is predicated on Syria’s choice of foreign policy alignments - that is, its alliance with Tehran.

So having demonized the relatively enlightened theocrats of Qom and Tehran, Washington would now root-out another Baathist regime that would otherwise stand in the way of the Sharia fundamentalism of ISIS. To quote Gary Leupp again:

The Alawites of Syria have never been interested in establishing a religious state but rather have used the Baathist party to establish religious inclusiveness and prevent the emergence of a Sunni-dominated religious state. Bashar al-Assad’s father even attempted to change the constitution to remove the stipulation that the Syrian president be a Muslim. (This occasioned a massive Sunni uprising in Homs which he brutally crushed in 1982.)

So what we have now in the middle east is a replay of the bloody religious wars that once traumatized the West when Protestants accused Catholics of being idolatrous heretics and the latter returned the favor by putting Protestants to the stakes and the racks.  In the present instance, the real war being waged by ISIS is not against the liberties which pertain on the streets of New York City, but in Leupp’s words, “against the Shiites, Christians, Yezidis, secularists, and others it sees as unbelievers and as stooges of the west. But its primary target is the Shiites”.

Needless to say, since Washington has either destroyed, debilitated or marginalized the natural opposition to Sunni fundamentalism - that is, the Baathist regimes and the Iranian-Shiite alliance - the Islamic State has gained more territory and momentum than would have otherwise been remotely possible.

One way or another, however, 200 million Turks, Iranians, Iraqis, Jordanians, Syrians and Saudis, along with their leaders, will find ways to contain and ultimately eliminate a few thousand medievalist butchers. In the interim, America can remain vigilant at home - which is the only way to deal with the threat of terrorism anyway. Certainly, the confused disciple of Curtis LeMay currently occupying the Oval Office should put his bombs away at the very earliest opportunity.

 

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Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:17 | 5236602 HedgeAccordingly
HedgeAccordingly's picture

Quite intersting.. The roads to the heavens are paved in Alibaba Trinkets & AK-47's 

http://hedgeaccording.ly/2014/09/alibabas-jack-ma-open-to-joint-venture-...

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:11 | 5236736 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

Reread that first line.  Stockman is old enough to remember Vietnam, and not slander a whole nation for the crimes of a few.

Once he was only a coward.  He has become nothing but a whore.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:32 | 5236775 eatthebanksters
eatthebanksters's picture

And you sir are naive...Stockman is one of the few honest folks out there right now.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:55 | 5236840 Crawdaddy
Crawdaddy's picture

Stockman was ran off the Reagan plantation by the Bushies so he has that going for him. I remember Stockman getting the media "he is a bad guy" treatment. That made me think he was whispering a truth that was supposed to remain unsaid. Coincidentaly, in that timeframe, the Grace Commission report detailed that absolutley none of our taxes were going to run govt. All taxes were being paid out to banksters as interest on our debt money.

 

I wonder if Stockman was involved in that disclosure;

 

The bankster veiw of history is here:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grace_Commission

The non-crack-smoker's history is here:

https://archive.org/stream/TheGraceCommissionReport-RevealedIrsFrontForB...

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:12 | 5236880 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

"It has consistently opposed secularizing Arab regimes in Iraq and Syria while coddling the nursemaids and bursars of Sunni fanaticism"

Except he should have added Libya and Egypt as well. And Iran, if you want to go all the way back to the days of the Shah. We did absolutely nothing to support secular Iran after the ayatollah "magically" materialized there from exile in Paris and tipped the country into Islamic lunacy.

So glad someone else has finally noticed this. I feel like I've been taking crazy pills.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:10 | 5237225 ThirdWorldDude
ThirdWorldDude's picture

"Yes, the mullahs are doctrinaire theocrats who rally the masses with thundering denunciations of the far enemy in Washington and the near one in Tel Aviv."

I have no idea whether Stockman is naive or if he's acting madness, but he surely goes from some wrong premises here:

1. He never mentions who created ISIS/L and why;

2. ISIS/L have never threatened, and even if they have IS has never committed a crime or an act of terrrrism against Israhell (see p.1).

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 08:22 | 5237435 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

Obama's "War" On ISIS

 

Dammit man.....it's ISIL....not ISIS.

 

Because ISIL includes Isreal......ISIS doesn't.

 

 

Sun, 09/21/2014 - 05:46 | 5239883 Ghordius
Ghordius's picture

the article is excellent, nevertheless. No, he does not mention who created the Islamic State

counterquestion: who created the US? my point is that after a while, the question becomes... moot. creatures develop a life of their own, in the same way as when the barn is burning, it becomes irrelevant which match was used for the first spark

in the same way, the Islamic state already has enough Islamic enemies. If I was it's Caliph, I would for sure not treathen Israel now, too

refusing to show a soft side to all secular groups in the ME was always a weakness of the last 50 year's strategies in the ME

the question is always this: is Uncle Sam engaged there so that there is freedom of trade and the spice can flow, or is it to spend ammunition? and who is going to pay for all this ammunition which is needed to compensate for diplomacy?

the whole madness of de-Ba'athification was possibly only a half-witted misunderstood historical repeat attempt of the German de-nazification process. a mistake born from too much History Channel and too little classical history schooling on mighty cowboy boots wearing imperial proconsuls. or possibly a cunning plan to ensure enough ammunition is spent in the present and future. or even both, then after all, American popular sentiment is important, and is relevant in how much woar is waged abroad

and what is the mightest propaganda tool in this? the black hat vs white hat way of looking at the world, which this article highlights with it's criticism of the choices for allies in the chosen path of conflict with the IS

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:12 | 5237228 The Doofus
The Doofus's picture

ISIS is a terrible threat.  Even the pope wants them exterminated.  And who am I to argue with the Vicar of Christ?  It's time to send these boys to their 72 virgins in the sky.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:24 | 5237236 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Perfect; let's send him out there with a pocket knife and a wooden cross and see how far he gets.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 08:28 | 5237443 GetZeeGold
GetZeeGold's picture

 

 

 

Be careful.....that cat also knows quantum physics.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 10:48 | 5237609 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

Well, If the name fits, you must wear it. Oh, wait...

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:02 | 5237649 Bendromeda Strain
Bendromeda Strain's picture

All three of you get demerits for failing to slam his pimping of that asshat blog of his.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:21 | 5237683 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

And you, sir, get a demerit from me for exhibiting No Growth in IQ.

If you read again - real slow this time - you will notice that I essentially called him a Dufus.  I guess subtlety is not your strong suit.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 04:10 | 5237272 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Balkanization; if they fight each other internally, then they have no influence on the world stage; which leaves us as the prime actor; or so the deluded advisers of the shoe shine boy believe.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 04:17 | 5237277 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Stockman missed something important. It's not a Sunni-Shiite conflict at this point. ISIS is Wahabbi. Which is the crazy uncle cult of Islam.  Obama actually had a point when he said they weren't Islamic; they aren't. they are repudiated by all major Moslem factions. They have their own book; they are only 150 yers. old; their book, which is not the Koran is the one that's chock full of the cutoff everyone's head, and arms, and hands, and etc. etc. and the whole Moslem World belongs to us, (God is our real estate agent). They are really, really, nuts.  The only .gov. which is avowedly Wahabbi is the Saudi Kingdom; which beheads people every week, literally. they Qatar, and the Cia are the principle supporters of ISIS; with Turkey playing an important logistical role as the weapons and supplies back door into Syria. Israel is co-operating wholeheartedly. they don't like Syria.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 10:08 | 5237540 Metal Minded
Metal Minded's picture

Also repudiated by all major Moslem factions are the Sufi, who will remain steadfastly "minor", by choice, regardless their fortunes.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:04 | 5237655 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

The Wahhabis might have their own book, but the regular Koran is chockablock with unambiguous, straightforward instructions to kill unbelievers, or convert them by force, or enslave/subjugate them.

Lazy and indifferent Muslims ignore those parts. Observant Muslims observe them. "Fanatic" Muslims act on them.

It really isn't that complicated. People who apologize for Islam are completely mystifying to me.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 16:25 | 5238650 Overfed
Overfed's picture

How dangerous would any of those groups be if the US/Israel/SA just left them alone and stopped poking sticks into the hornet's nest? Even if one was to believe the .gov story for 9/11 (which I don't), it would still be blowback for US meddling in the MENA. No matter how you look at it, US foreign policy is the driver behind radical Islam.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 18:22 | 5238918 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

"radical" Islam (aka Islam, as it is prescribed in the Koran) has been pretty much exactly the way it is now since 700 AD. Don't pretend that it suddenly happened thirty years ago when we started poking them with a stick.

That said, it is kind of stupid to poke them with a stick. We should be more focused on containing them, and letting them destroy each other.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:06 | 5237660 Bendromeda Strain
Bendromeda Strain's picture

which beheads people every week, literally

Right, because stoning and/or hanging from construction cranes is the real Koranic way?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:15 | 5237661 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

Wahabism (from KSA, as were the 911 hijackers) is to Islam, what Zionism is to Judaism.

Both are organized, ruthless and relentless groups of zealots/fanatics, who are sponsored by Big Money interests.  The former were sponsored by the Redshields, the latter by the Saudi Royal Family.

I don't know if these psychos are truly independent at this point, but it's clear that they owe their organizational origins to the US, Israel, and their true homeland compatriots: the Saudis, who use/export Wahabism and Wahabists as an Army of Mass Detruction, to destabilize and destroy their competitors/enemies in the Petro Game.

This becomes very useful to both Israel and to the US.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:17 | 5237696 Crawdaddy
Crawdaddy's picture

Kirk - organisational orgins is key. Present day Israel was created by the NWO and has successfully brainwashed western christians into thinking the NWO version of Zionist Israel is the Isreal of the Bible. ISIS is a creation of the NWO, intended to scare christians into supporting NWO goals.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:22 | 5237717 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

You got it, crawdaddy!

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 07:54 | 5237407 Winston Churchill
Winston Churchill's picture

How could they ?

The CIA ran SAVAK for the Shah, and SAVAK's methods were taken from the gestapo.

Time could have healed those wounds, but uncle scam just salted them instead.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 01:09 | 5237071 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

Crawdaddy;

We always need new Grace Commissions since there is little follow through, monitoring, auditing, political will, .... well and now we use Fiscal Spending to prop up the Economy after 2008... even though 2002 was the start of drunken spending by congress.

Micheal Snyder has more points on our Idiocy:

#21 70 percent of Americans do not “feel engaged or inspired at their jobs”.

#22 40 percent of all workers in the United States actually make less than what a full-time minimum wage worker made back in 1968 after you account for inflation.

#23 Small business ownership in the United States is at the lowest level that has ever been recorded.

#24 It is hard to believe, but 56 percent of all Americans now have “subprime credit”.

#25 The United States has the most lawyers per capita in the entire world.

#26 The United States has the highest incarceration rate and the largesttotal prison population in the entire world by a wide margin.

#27 While Barack Obama has been in the White House, the U.S. national debt has grown by more than 7 trillion dollars.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:07 | 5237667 Crawdaddy
Crawdaddy's picture

True words Teeth. A 2014 Grace Commision type review would blow the show.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 12:47 | 5237996 teslaberry
teslaberry's picture

stockman presents himself as a dissident but he is not. read his background . he is a blackrock (or blackstone?) wall street insider. 

 

stockman' s entire analysis left out ---petrodollars ---central banks-----and the reality that military defense contractors are running this war with oil comanpies. 

 

it's about oil and gas. and the big charade about 'isis'  being a 'legitimate threat' is  assumed his thesis.

i read stockmans blog REGULARLY. this is the kind of article that reminds that stockan sort of is an insider lazy shill presenting himself as different, something like dick fischer at the fed. 

that said----i will continue going back to his blog. his choice of 'contributors' is pretty good. and shows that he's anti-msm friendly. which is fine by me.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:48 | 5236820 TuPhat
TuPhat's picture

I agree with that line.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:24 | 5236614 Kreditanstalt
Kreditanstalt's picture

Another "war on (something)..."!      Neocons, "USA! USA! USA!-shouters, big-government and stong-military types lap this stuff up...

They must love Obongo...but they STILL say he is "anti-Israel"!!   Go figure...

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:34 | 5236638 Bangalore Equit...
Bangalore Equity Trader's picture

Listen. It's quite amazing "WATCHING" your USSA from the outside-in. Disturbing but amazing.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:29 | 5236760 Harbanger
Harbanger's picture

Amazing, Bitchez!!  You never know what you're gonna get.  I know one thing for sure, it's never what you expect.  I'm gonna wear that dudes hat and teeth so I can scare the shit out of my children who were bad.  So you were expecting Santa for Christmas?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 06:40 | 5237351 Bangalore Equit...
Bangalore Equity Trader's picture

Listen Hard-bang-er, I understand. America, land of free and brave, oh, so brave. Except when it comes to dealing with the bullies that control you.

NSA: "Oh, that's ok to track my every move, creepy but I'm afraid to say or "DO" anything.

CON-gress: "Oh, they fooled me again, rrrrrrh. But what can I "DO"? I know, I'll "COMPLAIN" ".

TAXman: "Oh, do I really only get 1/3?, Really? Oh well."

USSA Life is like a "BOX" of chocolates worms "YOU NEVER KNOW WHAT YOU'RE GOING TO GET" or do you? Appetizing on the outside, disgusting on the inside.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:33 | 5236782 mrpxsytin
mrpxsytin's picture

America we understand you are exceptional. PLEASE stop trying to prove that to us. We get the point!!

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 08:38 | 5237453 NoDecaf
NoDecaf's picture

America? America is dead buddy. We are subjects of the USA, ruled by the elite criminal class in DC and Wall street. We have absolutely no influence on foreign policy...or even domestic policy for that matter.

Try to be more concise in your future appeals, thanks in advance.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:00 | 5236705 SgtShaftoe
SgtShaftoe's picture

The neocons are a "brand" like pepsi and coke owned by the defense contractors: Boeing, Lockheed Martin, Northrup Grumman, SAIC, et al.  They have mastered PR and social manipulation to make lots of money.  In 2014, their system is breaking down.  If enough people genuinely wake up, The military industrial complex will be completely and utterly fucked...  Like a MAC truck in the ass with a rusted broken cattle guard up front. 

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:25 | 5237160 conscious being
conscious being's picture

I think you have the cart before the horse - depending on how you define the MIC, or the GMIC. No offense Sarge, but you know what Kissenger said about the military?

Where do the banks fit into your schematic?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:18 | 5237700 SgtShaftoe
SgtShaftoe's picture

The banks and CBs are the genesis of the MIC.  It couldn't have happened without them.  Now they're just one big incestuous party.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:25 | 5236620 nmewn
nmewn's picture

"Instead, it seems that the Islamist Sunni regime in Ankara has more urgent fish to fry than the medievalist Sunni sect encamped on its border: Namely, its far higher priority is deposing the secularist Alawite branch of the Shiite tribe represented by the Assad regime in Damascus. Yes, ISIS has 50 Turkish hostages, but that only guarantees that in the immediate neighborhood of the purported greatest terrorist threat ever, according to the US Secretary of Defense, there will be no war of Sunni-on-Sunni."

Well der, yeah!

The friggin arms to ISIS weren't brought into Syria through the port of Tartus or Latakia I can damned sure tell ya that...lol.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:10 | 5236731 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Turkey is participating actively as allies of ISIS/ISIL; in order to ruin Syria. And, of course, our military intelligence and CIA, who are co-paymeasters are well aware of this. It's very disgusting.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:27 | 5236763 nmewn
nmewn's picture

There's a lot of "agents" (official & otherwise) with their fingers in it.

The Turks ain't much on the Alawites/Shia & Kurds while the Qataris are worse than them, for all practical purposes they're Saudi, who are scum IMO.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 12:27 | 5237925 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

Indeed.  It's a very Unholy Alliance of Convenience of a number of countries, all of whom don't want Assad to lead Syria, since he is too close to the Russians. 

And Russia is The Arch-Rival for Oil+Gas producers in the Persian Gulf, a threat to the USD, and the prime threat by enabling the Silk Road 2.0 (Eurasian Trade Route that leaves the Anglo-American Alliance in the dust).  Russia is not an enemy of Israel per se, but Israel covets Syria's water (mostly).  The gas/oil pipeline through Syria is secondary to them, since (if truth be told), said pipeline could just run through KSA, Jordan and Israel.

This is a Zero-Sum game in Petro-Currencies:  USD vs Competitors (Russia), KSA vs Competitors (Iraq, Iran).  IMO, Israel is just fronting for KSA on alleged security concerns.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:04 | 5236856 Freddie
Freddie's picture

Go back to Benghazi.  Chris Stevens was on a ship.  The ship had weapons.   He met with the Turks just before he was killed.  It was not to buy back manpads.  It was moving weapons from Libya, after murdering Khadaffi, to put into action against Syria.  

 

http://www.globalresearch.ca/u-s-efforts-to-arm-jihadis-in-syria-the-sca...

http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article34974.htm

Through shipping records, Fox News has confirmed that the Libyan-flagged vessel Al Entisar, which means "The Victory," was received in the Turkish port of Iskenderun -- 35 miles from the Syrian border -- on Sept. 6, just five days before Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American officers were killed during an extended assault by more than 100 Islamist militants.

On the night of Sept. 11, in what would become his last known public meeting, Stevens met with the Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, and escorted him out of the 'posts' front gate one hour before the assault began.

In March 2011 Stevens became the official U.S. liaison to the al-Qaeda-linked Libyan opposition, working directly with Abdelhakim Belhadj of the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group—a group that has now disbanded, with some fighters reportedly participating in the attack that took Stevens' life.

In November 2011 The Telegraph reported that Belhadj, acting as head of the Tripoli Military Council, "met with Free Syrian Army [FSA] leaders in Istanbul and on the border with Turkey" in an effort by the new Libyan government to provide money and weapons to the growing insurgency in Syria.

The Internet Media reported at that time that Ambassador Stevens had only one person—Belhadj—between himself and the Benghazi man who brought heavy weapons to Syria.

The Asian Tribune has also found that the Internet Media further reported that if the new Libyan government was sending seasoned Islamic fighters and 400 tons of heavy weapons to Syria through a port in southern Turkey—a deal brokered by Stevens' primary Libyan contact during the Libyan revolution—then the governments of Turkey and the U.S. surely knew about it.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:20 | 5237150 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Wars used to get declared for less.

Did America declare war on Syria?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 12:39 | 5237957 Kirk2NCC1701
Kirk2NCC1701's picture

The US, Israel and KSA declared war on Syria.

If Russia lets the Assad regime fall, the Russians are toast, because... (1) their Mediterranean fleet will be homeless, and (2) the Oil/Gas will flow from ME to Europe.  This would cripple the Russian economy financially, since they could not sell enough soon enough to China or others. Which, in turn would weaken Putin dramatically, and allow opportunities for internal dissent (or worse) in Russia, while the US expands NATO++ to other countries around Russia -- thus maintaining its Boa strategy of encirclement and suffocation.

Strategically, it's all about the projected Revenues vs. Budgets, i.e. Cashflow.  Companies live and die on Cashflow.  So do countries.

Whether people realize it or not, whether they admit it or not, in the final analysis... The chaos and churn that ISIS/ISIL causes, simply delays the Qatar-KSA-Iraq-Syria-Turkey pipeline, which only benefits Russia and Iran.  Watch the players and see what they DO, not what they say.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 12:55 | 5238028 teslaberry
teslaberry's picture

yes ------people still don't get this. 

 

that's in part why i've beeen saying the ukraine war was started to help escalate the syrian war. 

 

putin is fighting a 2 front war now. the ukraine war put enough pressure on crimea to help distract russia from syria. of coruse, russia is still helping assad. but it's already more than 3 whole fucking years. 

this is a war of ATTRITION. The number of dead people , cilians and fighters is now upwards of 2/3 of a milion people with 4 million people either internally displaced or refugees in a ccountry of 30 million people!!!!!

this is an insane tragedy for the syrian people. assads only backers are slowly running out of resources as the western oligarchy bleeds western coffers to fight these wars. 

 

while the only winners here are those that DONT play the game---THE ASIANS. the ultimate reality is assad WILL FALL . and RUSSIA WILL BE FUCKED. 

 

playing defense in a war costs 10% of playing offense, and that's why the ukraine war was started. russian defense was not costly enough in syria. if it costs the u.s and europe 300 billion dollars to fight a war in ukraine for 3 years. then russia and iran need spend at most 30 billion dollars. 

 

these expenditures are INVESTMENTS to be reaped by private contractors and oil companies but the prolonged high cost to the public becomes a problem when you run out of their money. 

the u.s. an europe are trying to make russia run out of money , in part by simply spending more time and energy in the ukraine, at the expense of syria. 

 

when syria falls, and it will. ukraine will break out in massive violence. there will be  ALOT MORE VIOLENCE IN UKRAINE IF AND WHEN ASSAD IS DETHRONED. 

 

the russian fleet will be booted out from latakia. those who question this prediction can do so on the basis of only one possibility-----that russia is very much a part of the new world order and their base and boats will be used to enforce order upon the next regime  of gulf friendly sunnis that take over governance in syria. 

 

that is an unlikely conspiracy ----and on the face of things,----the ukraine situation looks in part engineered to go hand in hand with helping conquer syria.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:36 | 5236643 q99x2
q99x2's picture

I say drop money, medical supplies, food and a few shares of BABA on them.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:49 | 5236677 FieldingMellish
FieldingMellish's picture

Open margin accounts for them and get them into trading. They will all have committed suicide by the end of the year.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:17 | 5236745 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

That's not funny.

It's tragic/comic and true, but it's not funny;)

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:18 | 5236748 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

As Voltaire advised, teach the mofos to play chess.

  That will ruin them.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:38 | 5236649 WOD
WOD's picture

Funny how the ones that potentially should be the most alarmed by ISIS/ISIL, are the least concerned about ISIS/ISIL. Funnier still how they all seem to be wary of any American intervention... 

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:12 | 5236738 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

There isn't anything funny about it; Turkey is their military arms supplier and backer; they are merely cannon fodder in the destruction of Syria; if they get uppity in Turkey they will be stepped on like insects. Now, do you understand?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 00:19 | 5237000 thamnosma
thamnosma's picture

Yep, the Caliphate ain't moving into Turkey.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:14 | 5237147 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Looks like Erdrogan <heart> Caliphate, especially after the USA just tried to colour-revolution his ass.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:30 | 5237240 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

public appearances; public appearances; please. pay attention. Turkey's role is to use their open border to supply heavy military cargo to the Wahabbi loonies killing innocent people in Syria; this role they perform willingly; for pay; by willingly. any attempt by the deluded "Jihadists" to make trouble in turkey will result in their being quashed like a bug. the leadership knows this' the cannon fodder doesn't.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:45 | 5236664 Handful of Dust
Handful of Dust's picture

"No one saw this coming," they testitifed to the Committee.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:37 | 5236786 thebigunit
thebigunit's picture

"gong show on the Potomac"

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:46 | 5236665 live free
live free's picture

I stopped reading when the poster used "homeland" without quotes... that pisses me off to NO END. What time do we live in and what reference does that bring to mind... seriously....

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:09 | 5236730 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Homeland, fadderland, motherland.

Yes, chilling no?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 00:35 | 5237019 talisman
talisman's picture

Homeland, fadderland, motherland,
whoreland, trannyland, lesboland, etc.??

Anyone have a clue why we have a
"United States Department of Homeland Security"
instead of a
"Department of United States Security" ??????

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 01:12 | 5237079 TeethVillage88s
TeethVillage88s's picture

It is from British Raj. We are the tool of English Bankers, Spies & Royalty.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:41 | 5237249 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Sickening.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:47 | 5236669 himaroid
himaroid's picture

So many great sayings/writings about common sense, so little time.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:48 | 5236672 SgtShaftoe
SgtShaftoe's picture

I can't wait to see Saudi get the shit bombed out of it and it's insane leaders drug through the street by a chain attached to a hilux.  That will give me a little chuckle.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:07 | 5236721 Diogenes of Sinope
Diogenes of Sinope's picture

That won't happen...until our takfiri proxies make the mistake of attacking Russia ;)

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:40 | 5237248 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

They're already attacking Russia; Russias Naval Base is in Syria; it's very important to them; wars have already been fought over it; very bloody wars.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:18 | 5236746 nmewn
nmewn's picture

You left out the double dealing Qataris.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:22 | 5236755 kaiserhoff
kaiserhoff's picture

When your country is pronounced "gutter"...

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:25 | 5236759 SgtShaftoe
SgtShaftoe's picture

You're right, I forgot!  LOL

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:32 | 5237241 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

yes, he did; but the info. is not widespread.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:38 | 5237247 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

The Royal Families days are numbered; and the number is not huge. they are feeling a little desperate.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:48 | 5236675 ozzzo
ozzzo's picture

The ISIS affair is not folly. Like AQ they are a creation of our rulers. Their leader may or may not be a Mossad agent, but whether they know it or not they are acting on behalf of the MIC.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:13 | 5236740 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Of course they are; t he rank and file are ignorant cannon fodder who will be dispensed with when their services are no longer needed.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:19 | 5237152 tvdog
tvdog's picture

If the leader of IS is a Mossad agent, he's got to be one of the greatest actors living; it explains why Jews run Hollywood.

In reality, though, the story seems to have originated as UAE state propaganda, "Snowden" supposedly said it, but it's nowhere on the Intercept.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:35 | 5237245 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

The leader of ISIS speaks to the prime minister of Israel on the telephone, (intercepted); "my great friend, we are doing well". My greaat friend, not just my friend; in Arabic this is significant. It's like the Mafia introducing you to "tony"; "tony this is our good friend, Luigi".

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:36 | 5237246 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

He's not an agent; he's an ally in a war to destroy Syria. Of course, when he's no longer of any use to the Jews; well, that's another fish to fry.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 21:55 | 5236696 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

Just shut off all aid of any kind to any of them let'em kill each other off. If we actually want the oil there it'll be a lot easier to get with nobody left to argue with us.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:06 | 5236720 SgtShaftoe
SgtShaftoe's picture

Shut off aid, trade with them, and they'll be like modern Vietnam in 50 years or so, somewhat exotic, historically stigmatic, and a valuable trading partner.  True economics (Smith, and the Austrian school) is an amazing thing.  Let it work. 

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:33 | 5236780 wtf1369
wtf1369's picture

True. I've been asked in polite conversation several times this week my opinion of the Mid East situation (not that I'm anyone of consequence). My response is always "let those fuckers sort their own shit and buy the oil from whoever's still standing. They want to sell it and we want to buy it. It ain't rocket science.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:04 | 5236858 KnuckleDragger-X
KnuckleDragger-X's picture

The difference is Vietnam had at least a somewhat coherent civiliztion and a uniform race and culture and are fairly literate, the middle east has none of that. I wish it was different but it's not and one of the biggest problems is we've been propping up that clusterfuck for decades. They have over-populated due to our food subsidies, they are heavily tribal with complete distrust of anybody else and most of their education is madrassas' where they only learn the Quran and nihilism. It is time for us to quit pretending we're making things better somehow and let them just fight it out.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:19 | 5236897 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

The other difference is that Vietnam is not populated by adherents to a violent political cult whose foundational texts promote hate, death, and intolerance in clear, unambiguous terms.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 09:53 | 5237528 Metal Minded
Metal Minded's picture

Is it time for a Sufi ascendancy?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 10:34 | 5237580 tvdog
tvdog's picture

Sufis or Ahmadiyya, neither one tends to go on jihads.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 10:54 | 5237628 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Correct.

From Timbuktu to Afghanistan the Salafist/Sunni/Wahhabi sect seem intent on destroying all that does not meet with their belief system.

http://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/has-the-great-library-of-timbuktu-been-lost

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:21 | 5237156 tvdog
tvdog's picture

Exactly. Cut off aid to everybody in the ME and leave. If and when IS becomes a problem for Turkey, it has the resources to crush the Islamic State like a bug. Israel the same. No need for U.S. boots on the ground or in the air, for that matter, except to arm the Kurds.

Nothing good will come of this ill-thought-out policy. It's hard to even imagine what "success" would look like.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:07 | 5236722 Reaper
Reaper's picture

Qui cui? Who does ISIS attack and not attack? Who fights ISIS and who doesn't? Why did Obama bow to the Wahhabi king? Are any Shia attacks threatened in the USA? Who in the US thinks? Who in the US doesn't emote? What glory comes to those who will die for Obama's machinations?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:26 | 5237159 tvdog
tvdog's picture

Everybody in the military gets at least one medal these days. Something to hang by the picture of your dead loved one.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:19 | 5236743 Son of Captain Nemo
Son of Captain Nemo's picture

There is no more conspicuous proof than Obama’s quixotic “war” on ISIS. ...

In truth, the whole thing is a giant, pathetic farce.... Oh so very true indeed!

Anybody who occasionally channel flips through the public broadcasting channels from time to time knows how much PR has gone into Ken Burns latest historical smokescreen re-creation "The Roosevelts".

If you managed to get through just 1 hour of the last 4 episodes you're either a masochist or had a frontal lobotomy by a resident intern or a practicing grocery butcher.  Maudlin doesn’t begin to describe it given the level of censorship and the details they left out, especially just something, anything on personal correspondences to the introduction of the Central Bank which influenced their political career(s) in 1913 and well beyond… Not one thing said “.” “0”!

You always know when you see too many documentaries on the Holocaust and now this piece of _ _ _ _! And yes it begins with an S not a W, they are getting ready to provide us with another spectacular moment to steel or resolve for moar "sacrifice".

Either they're banking on another 9/11 where we'll all sign up no questions asked again, or we'll have a nice little thoughtful investigation unlike any of the previous ones that got away that include a Nuremburg with ropes and firing squads!...

Wouldn't want to be the guys in Washington and Tel Aviv given the honors to roll that "dice" this time given the last 13 years and the current climate? Whoever decides to “pull that wool” I see a very short lifeline in your future!!!

 

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:57 | 5236749 SgtShaftoe
SgtShaftoe's picture

I can't get through 5 minutes of anything by Ken Burns without an intense urge to put a series of holes through the television.  It's revisionist bullshit propoganda. 

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:18 | 5236747 NoWayJose
NoWayJose's picture

Saddam's biggest mistake was to 'stop' at Kuwait. By stopping he gave the US time to 'gear up' and get a superior force in place. Had Saddam pushed further he would have prevented the US buildup and rolled over the weaker armies protecting the oil fields in other countries.

The lack of ANY coalition to fight ISIS shows how weak leadership is.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:21 | 5236752 SgtShaftoe
SgtShaftoe's picture

I can't be sure, but I suspect he was goaded into invading Kuwait by the state department and it's minions.  Those defense contractors needed some money.  Pigs at the trough. 

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:34 | 5237242 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

he was goaded into invading Kuwait by the state department and it's minions.

If you call the CIA telling the Kuwaitis to slant drill across the border into Iraqi reserves 'goading', I suppose you're right.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:22 | 5237718 SgtShaftoe
SgtShaftoe's picture

Interesting, didn't know that. 

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:39 | 5236794 Son of Captain Nemo
Son of Captain Nemo's picture

Saddam's biggest mistake was to 'stop' at Kuwait. By stopping he gave the US time to 'gear up' and get a superior force in place.

Your forgetting the reassurances from April Glaspie as messenger courtesy of her boss Jim Baker that America kept back channeling Saddam regardless of what he was witnessing with the U.S. build up on his border(s) there would be no invasion or threat of invasion from the United States.  Had Saddam used the forces he had in the summer and fall of 1990 he could have done substantial harm to American forces -but it was a gamble he was unwilling to take and of course knowing what we already know of how insane the U.S. government is when it doesn't get what it wants -who knows what Bush was capable of doing had he attacked our forces to preempt a further buildup?

Hindsight being what it is -he fucking should have given what we did to him in 1991, oil-for-food sanctions and Iraqi Freedom 2003.

NGA also came out years later with proof Iraq was not poised to invade Kuwait as many believed just as the Hill & Knowlton PR campaign with the crying 15 year old Kuwaiti girl telling the lie about babies being pulled from incubators and thrown on floors was the ultimate lie to sell the American public and Europe a war to get more oil.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 00:31 | 5237014 Freddie
Freddie's picture

The April Gillespie episode sort of mirros what Ex-CIA Susan Lindauer said about Gulf War 2 on iraq.    Help us on 9-11 terrorism or we will invade you.   They put this woman through the ringer for telling the truth.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioh9jGAk-g8

Ex-NSA Thomas Drake got the same disgusting routine.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WsrEqC2ABlg

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:31 | 5237163 tvdog
tvdog's picture

Every time I see video of that lying bitch I get angry all over again. Washington is a small town at the top, and surely the senators on the committee knew who she was; they would have seen her at one or more diplomatic parties in town. The president knew who she was too. The press, the Washington press, the same. The only people not allowed to know it was the Kuwaiti ambassador's daughter testifying falsely was the American people. Everybody else was in on the scam.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 09:51 | 5237522 Son of Captain Nemo
Son of Captain Nemo's picture

Well said td

This is why selling 9/11 to the American people without understanding first what happened that day in order to declare a new series of invasions and occupations for oil in the guise of war on a tactic was so easy.

I also keep asking myself how many Israelis and Americans must have been involved in that operation and I get sick to my stomach.  What ran through the minds of the people from FEMA who arrived in New York the day before?... What were the Air Force generals, colonels thinking before, during and after they were allegedly running exercises that day and "were cuaght off guard" during the attacks, down to the pilots and airmen who were ordered to stand down -and did?...  That's right! Just like the Germans and Japanese in WWII that were hung or shot for war crimes that did the same in Nuremburg.  They were all just following orders and doing what they were told to do as good little soldiers do... 

How many were involved?...

The way I see it 13 years later every American might as well take responsibility for allowing it to get to this point!

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:43 | 5237254 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

No, his biggest mistake was not having written a book about all the abominable things George Bush Sr. had him do, then find a Russian or Chinese publisher instructed to go to press when the yanks invaded Iraq. 

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:21 | 5236753 wtf1369
wtf1369's picture

"Gong show on the Potomac"... Priceless! Shit, I wish it were that easy to kick this act off stage!

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:23 | 5236756 esum
esum's picture

FSA = ISIS = AL QUEDA = ANSAR AL SAHIRA = al queda in the arabian peninsula = AL SHABAB = AL NUSRA =BOKO HAREM = OBAMA ... he is one of them 

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:47 | 5237256 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Yes. He is.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:27 | 5236764 eddiebe
eddiebe's picture

The word Clusterfuck comes to mind. The U.S. of course can't stay out of that.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:32 | 5236778 nmewn
nmewn's picture

lol...like a moth to a flame.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:33 | 5236776 Duc888
Duc888's picture

NowayJose:Saddam's biggest mistake was to 'stop' at Kuwait. By stopping he gave the US time to 'gear up' and get a superior force in place. Had Saddam pushed further he would have prevented the US buildup and rolled over the weaker armies protecting the oil fields in other countries.

 

You're forgetting AlbrightCunt basically gave him all but approval to do so.  Then like Lucy / Charlie Brown the walking talking Albright Anus pulled the football out ....

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:01 | 5237133 conscious being
conscious being's picture

April Gillespie (sp?) was the ambassador. Madeline shows up later in the tale when her wig slips and she answers 'Yes, it was worth it', responding to a question about the estimated 450k Iraqis killed by sanctions.

Madeline also made the stunning discovery, late in life that she was a Jewess all along.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:35 | 5237169 tvdog
tvdog's picture

Actually, Madeline Albright said that the deaths of half a million Iraqi CHILDREN was "worth it." Incredible psychopathy at the highest levels of this government.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:49 | 5237257 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

That quotation would have gotten any german in a government position at the Nuremburg Trials, hung, as a war criminal; without any question. Think About it. think about what these asswipes have done to your country.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:37 | 5236787 Dapper Dan
Dapper Dan's picture

 

 

 

The folks in the USA are all upset that a football player used a switch on his child.

This same football player was trained to smash people at a young age then was

Promoted to smash people in front of paying customers but work for free,

Then he was hired to smash people in front of millions of people and paid millions.

 

Only in the USA

 

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:51 | 5236827 nmewn
nmewn's picture

Well, I was told to go get a switch (and make it green, not a dead one) and I turned out ok, I think, some could dispute that I guess...lol.

To me that whole thing is another distraction, another Squirrel Chase promoted by talking heads to fill air time between weekends (and the attendant morally outraged who point at others so the spotlight doesn't fall on them).

Here ya go, you might find this interesting but not surprising, posted this somewhere else...

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/09/police-officers-who-hit-their-wives-or-girlfriends/380329/?single_page=true

...cops are worse than football players or even the general public at large.

Lets see the statists recover from this ;-)

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 00:21 | 5237003 Hulk
Hulk's picture

I had to go down to the creek to get my Willow switches. By the time I got back, those switches always had a nick or two  put  into them with my thumbnail.

I had unwittingly invented the mechanical fuse without realizing it !!! 

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 06:40 | 5237352 nmewn
nmewn's picture

The Three Strikes and You're Out law of switches ;-)

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:39 | 5236796 Loup Kib
Loup Kib's picture

On the Tower of Babel.  Have you noticed the similitude of structure (especially the "unfinished tower" aspect after it's been abandoned), between this painting by Brueghel the Elder representing the Tower (1560) :

 http://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/imagecache/fp_thumb/images/...

( same here, larger :  http://electrodes.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/tour_de_babel_grande_tour_... )

.. and the European Parliament building (Strasbourgh)  : http://i1.wp.com/armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/europ...

( same here, an other perspective, this time from above :  http://electrodes.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/tour_de_babel_tower_parlem... )

And while we're at it, Rome (in)famous coliseum seems to wink the same way through the centuries :

http://electrodes.files.wordpress.com/2013/08/colise-de-rome__01.jpg?w=4...

All that solemn bloody lying bs to end up always with the same kind of crumbling ruins.. Apparently, the "elites" never get the message. 

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:11 | 5236864 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Think about what happens when the tower falls, something like all people revert to their tribe. No one understands or trusts anyone from outside the tribe anymore. Kind of how the zinos operate. The Russians are of necessity adopting this model. Speak the language. Accept the principles and you can be welcomed.

One more thing. The Tower of Babel is like the derivative structure that underlies our financial system. An attempt to create surety, the state of being sure or certain of something, through language in place of the old-fashioned way which was by weight.

 

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:11 | 5236875 live free
live free's picture

As much so many people would not like to admit it, there is a power between "good" and "evil" going on.  There is always a reactive force and I know for a doubt there is good and I also know/have seen evil, so it's real.  How and what form/purpose that takes is up for discussion.  This has gone for on our entire history and it involves power to it's core and that is where the NWO comes in, and it would seemingly be in it's final stages.

I'm not sure whether they will succeed this time as it seems to be falling apart (europe) or is it to plan to cause order out of chaos, I don't know.  If they fail this time, they'll try again with their new generation offspring, cause God knows the curren generation can't be around for much longer, they are all old f*cks at this point.

 

EVERYTHING needs to be brought back locally and within it's own sphere to survive this.  A far off power can never survive.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:42 | 5237176 tvdog
tvdog's picture

The New World Order is just the continuation of the Old World Order, the restoration of feudalism.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 09:44 | 5237520 Metal Minded
Metal Minded's picture

Please, how real is good and evil? Aren't they only concepts? Just one way we may choose to look at the “real”.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:37 | 5237172 tvdog
tvdog's picture

Such an elaborate building for a parliament with no powers. But I suppose it serves a purpose as a forum for Nigel Farage to call out the idiocy of the times.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:59 | 5237263 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

Whilst I love your comment, I am compelled to reply that I wouldn't have written "Obama's Tower of Babel."

"Obama's Tower of Fable" has everything the Tower of Babel has, plus the suggestion of neocon treachery.

I will upvote you for Brueghel the Elder, though.

 

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:33 | 5237759 Crawdaddy
Crawdaddy's picture

Quote:

the Louise Weiss building is meant to look like painting “The Tower of Babel” by Pieter Brueghel the Elder in 1563. Story says that the Tower of Babel was never completed. So, the UN Parliament is basically continuing the unfinished work of Nimrod, the infamous tyrant, who was building the Tower of Babel to defy God.

http://vigilantcitizen.com/sinistersites/sinister-sites-the-eu-parliament/

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 13:14 | 5238083 Buckaroo Banzai
Buckaroo Banzai's picture

Good link.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:42 | 5236806 runswithscissors
runswithscissors's picture

~never let a good crISIS go to waste?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:50 | 5237260 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Cute.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:47 | 5236816 ramacers
ramacers's picture

like him or leave him, stockman knows the world (particularly the US) of which he writes.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:47 | 5236817 kchrisc
kchrisc's picture

The only thing to keep in mind is that it is all for Greater Israel and their pipeline to Europe.

Israel will and has risked many people's lives in an unstoppable effort to accomplish their goals. They will achieve them no matter the cost to others like the Syrians, the Ukrainians, we Americans, and the Middle Easterners.

Other peoples are nothing more than obstacles to or the blood and treasure required for accomplishing what they desire.

An American, not US subject.

 

"Am I bugging you?! Don't mean to bug ya."

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:56 | 5236841 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Qatar was the beard. The beard is slipping and ... oh, you again?!

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 03:53 | 5237261 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

No; America is an interested party in this balkanization of the middle East; Israel thinks they will benefit from it; I doubt it; but America is definitely an independent and self-motivated player.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:47 | 5236819 thebigunit
thebigunit's picture

"At the end of the day, of course, the White House will flinch - there will be no overt campaign to militarily eliminate the Assad regime, and therefore no boots on the ground, either. The peace candidate from the school of Saul Alinsky will become the Curtis Lemay of the 21st century. He will attempt to bomb back to the stone age a freakishly retrograde regime that would prefer to be there anyway."

Looking forward to the remake of "Dr. Strangelove" with Nobel Peace Prize Winner Barack H. Obama as Brigadier General Jack D. Ripper.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:49 | 5236825 Karaio
Karaio's picture

Putin told Obama: 

I, Assad and Iran know what to do to stop Isis, you leave ... 

Obama said: - Where do I get bombs? 

Putin said: First in Saudi Arabia, you end up with a problem at home, their petrodollars disappear. After that, Isis Dimona bombing, Israeli attack and we end up with them. Kill two birds incidentally, three, with only a bunch! 

Obama said: - Look, I'll play a round of golf and then answer you. 

Putin said: Let Europe with me and stay with oil. 

Everyone knows that Obama did not stop and ran into the shit will grab the wall as it is written since time immemorial. 

hehe.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:54 | 5236835 conscious being
conscious being's picture

In all fairness, it must lose something in translation.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:52 | 5237821 Karaio
Karaio's picture

Yes! 

Loses much in the translation from Google. 

Just as you read in English just believe you understand my way of thinking and language. 

A bird told this story of the Putin dialogue with the golf club checkers player. 

Shared with ZeroHedge because I thought important. 

:-)

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 22:52 | 5236832 conscious being
conscious being's picture

Nice, but Saddam was taken out for other reasons David.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:05 | 5236859 moneybots
moneybots's picture

"Nice, but Saddam was taken out for other reasons David."

 

Other reasons.  There is always an ulterior motive. 

That which is presented to be, isn't.

 

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:11 | 5236882 moneybots
moneybots's picture

"That which is presented to be, isn't."

 

The Myra is presented to be a way to save, but is intended to be a way for the government to borrow money.

ISIS is the result of Saddam being taken out.  The Caliphate is the result of Saddam being taken out.  What is the true purpose of the Caliphate existing?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:44 | 5237179 tvdog
tvdog's picture

The Caliphate must exist so that the West will see muslims as a threat. That is also why secular leaders in muslim countries are being removed one by one. To get everyone on Israel's side, the Christians and muslims must stop talking to each other.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:20 | 5236899 Freddie
Freddie's picture

New Pablo Escobar

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MID-01-180914.html

THE ROVING EYE
Obama's 'stupid stuff' turned upside down
By Pepe Escobar 


PARIS - I've been rovin' around Europe for a while and the star of the show is definitely The Caliph. Former Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has totally outstripped Vladimir Putin as Doctor Evil of the hour. Where's a good ol' Cold War 2.0 when you need it? Well, upstaged by the Pentagon's "long war" - our familiar GWOT (Global War on Terror). 

 

gp to link for more.   Good stuff. 

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 01:12 | 5237078 TheGreatRecovery
TheGreatRecovery's picture

I thought Saddam Hussein was taken out because he was trying to  sell oil for something other than petrodollars.

Moammar Ghadafi too.

And Mohammed Mossadegh was taken out because he tried to use more of Iran's oil revenues for the people of Iran.

From what I have read, these three Arab leaders all treated women better than, and built at least as many schools and hospitals as, the present ruling monarchies of Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Bahrain.  Also, I don't ever remember reading about Saddam Hussein, Moammar Ghadafi, or Mohammed Mossadegh having his own superyacht.

I have difficulty believing that western oligarchs' primary goal in the Near East is "spreading democracy" or "protecting women".

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 02:15 | 5237149 sosoome
sosoome's picture

"I have difficulty believing that western oligarchs' primary goal in the Near East is "spreading democracy" or "protecting women"."

It should be slam dunk obvious by now, that "spreading democracy" is not the goal. Sure, some in government may have been duped into buying such a noble end, but anyone with sense should certainly know by now the only way to keep all the tribes/Sunni/Shia factors in check is with an iron fist. Remove the dictator and chaos will ensue. Syria will be no different. If Americans, repubs especially, fall for the "spreading democracy" bs again, well, they deserve the inevitable outcome, which will be more chaos priced in American blood.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 04:10 | 5237273 sky wing 2010
sky wing 2010's picture

"Remove the dictator and chaos will ensue. " --> you are absolutely right. Creating caos is the real goal. A middle east in caos will significantly increase the energy input costs of many countries including China, while the US is enjoying stable and cheap domestic energy supplies.

It's all part of Wall Street's strategy of global dominance .

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 08:18 | 5237431 marchare
marchare's picture

Does anyone know what the percentage of Sunni vs Shia in the United States is? And when will that shoe drop?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 23:46 | 5237278 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

Saddam was taken out for the same reason Ghadafi was.

They thought the oil under their countries belonged to their countries and was managed by their country's government.

America, who must be obeyed,  wanted it developed faster.  More exploration, more drilling, more production.  More Halliburton.

Why?

Because according to the 'peak oil' theory, as long as production exceeded consumption, peak oil was not knocking at the planet's door.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:02 | 5236850 moneybots
moneybots's picture

"There is no more conspicuous proof than Obama’s quixotic “war” on ISIS."

 

Is it a war on ISIS or a war for ISIS?

 

Sykes-Picot round 2?  Is a Caliphate being created in order to destroy a Caliphate?  War to distract the masses from the global Great Depression that is on the doorstep?

Just what is the real game plan?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 01:50 | 5237125 sosoome
sosoome's picture

"Just what is the real game plan?"

Syria.

OBarry got scuttled at the front door (the one with the red line), so now he's trying the back door.

 

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 04:01 | 5237265 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

Syria to get Russia

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 04:06 | 5237269 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

and, of course, Iran

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 09:34 | 5237509 Metal Minded
Metal Minded's picture

And Iran smartly and rightly is not joining the "coalition".

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 12:17 | 5237896 bid the soldier...
bid the soldiers shoot's picture

 

How true.

Imagine if they did join and then took part in an operation against ISIS along with Iraq, France and the US.

And somewhere near the Valley Of Roncesvaux the Iranian rear guard fell prey to ISIS forces waiting in ambush for them.

Who would do such a thing to a coalition member.

Victoria Nuland why are you giggling?

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 04:03 | 5237268 SAT 800
SAT 800's picture

Yes.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 04:17 | 5237280 JB
JB's picture

That's where he likes it.

Sat, 09/20/2014 - 11:34 | 5237765 pgroup
pgroup's picture

Well, Chicago queer gossip says that Jugears is quite familiar with finding back doors. Just ask Larry S. if you can find him.

Fri, 09/19/2014 - 23:04 | 5236857 Whatchamacallit
Whatchamacallit's picture

And where is Israel in all this? Aren't they supposed to be our buddies? How come I don't hear anything about them being in the "coalition" ...

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