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The Largest US Foreign Policy Blunder Since Vietnam Is Complete: Iran Readies Massive Syrian Ground Invasion
On Thursday, in “Mid-East Coup: As Russia Pounds Militant Targets, Iran Readies Ground Invasions While Saudis Panic”, we attempted to cut through all of the Western and Russian media propaganda on the way to describing what Moscow’s involvement in Syria actually portends for the global balance of power. Here are a few excerpts that summarize what’s taking shape in the Middle East:
Putin looks to have viewed this as the ultimate geopolitical win-win. That is, Russia gets to i) expand its influence in the Middle East in defiance of Washington and its allies, a move that also helps to protect Russian energy interests and preserves the Mediterranean port at Tartus, and ii) support its allies in Tehran and Damascus thus preserving the counterbalance to the US-Saudi-Qatar alliance.
Meanwhile, Iran gets to enjoy the support of the Russian military juggernaut on the way to protecting the delicate regional nexus that is the source of Tehran’s Mid-East influence. It is absolutely critical for Iran to keep Assad in power, as the loss of Syria to the West would effectively cut the supply line between Iran and Hezbollah.
It would be difficult to overstate the significance of what appears to be going on here. This is nothing short of a Middle Eastern coup, as Iran looks to displace Saudi Arabia as the regional power broker and as Russia looks to supplant the US as the superpower puppet master.
In short, the Pentagon’s contention that Russia and Iran have formed a Mid-East “nexus” isn’t akin to the Bush administration’s hollow, largely bogus attempt to demonize America’s foreign policy critics in the eyes of the public by identifying an “axis of evil.” Rather, the Pentagon’s assessment was an attempt to come to grips with a very real effort on the part of Moscow and Tehran to tip the scales in the Mid-East away from Riyadh and Washington.
Solidifying the Assad regime in Syria serves to shore up Hezbollah and presents Tehran with an opportunity to assert itself in the name of combatting terror. The latter point there is critical. The West has long contended that Iran is the world’s foremost state sponsor of terror, and the Pentagon has variously accused the Quds Force of orchestrating attacks on US soldiers in Iraq after cooperation between Washington and Tehran broke down in the wake of Bush’s “axis of evil” comment.
Indeed, Iran was accused of masterminding a plot to kill the Saudi ambassador at a Washington DC restaurant in 2011.
Now, the tables have turned. It is the US, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar who stand accused of sponsoring Sunni extremists and it is Iran, and specifically the Revolutionary Guard, that gets to play hero.
Of course this would be largely impossible without Moscow’s stamp of superpower approval. The optics around the P5+1 nuclear deal were making it difficult for Tehran to be too public in its efforts to bolster Assad. That doesn’t mean Tehran’s support for the regime in Syria hasn’t been well documented for years, it simply means that Iran needed to observe some semblance of caution, lest its role in Syria should end up torpedoing the nuclear negotiations. Now that Moscow is officially involved, that caution is no longer obligatory and Iran is now moving to support Russian airstrikes with an outright ground incursion (just as we’ve been saying for weeks). Here’s WSJ:
Iran is expanding its already sizable role in Syria’s multisided war in the wake of Russia’s airstrikes, despite the risk of antagonizing the U.S. and its Persian Gulf allies who want to push aside President Bashar al-Assad.
Politicians in the region close to Tehran as well as analysts who have been closely following its role in Syria say a decision has been made, in close coordination with the Russians and the Assad regime, to increase the number of fighters on the ground through Iran’s network of local and foreign proxies.
The support also could involve more Iranian commanders, military advisers and expert fighters usually assigned to these units, these people said.
Wiam Wahhab, a former Lebanese minister allied to Iran and Mr. Assad, stressed that Iran wouldn’t be dispatching troops in the conventional sense. Instead, they were likely to be officers and advisers from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, or IRGC, he said.
“I know there is a major battle upon us and everything needed for this battle will be made available,” said Mr. Wahhab, who has some members from his own political party fighting in Syria alongside the regime. “There is a plan to carry out offensive operations in more than one spot.”
Experts believe Iran has some 7,000 IRGC members and Iranian paramilitary volunteers operating in Syria already.
Separate from the regular army, the IRGC was founded in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution as an ideological “people’s army” reporting directly to the supreme leader, Iran’s top decision maker.
The more than 100,000-strong force controls a vast military, economic and security power structure in Iran and is in charge of proxies across the region. Its paramilitary organization, the Basij, was the lead force in the crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrators in 2009.
Since late 2012 Iran has played a lead role in organizing, training and funding local pro-regime militias in Syria, many of them members of Mr. Assad’s Alawite minority, a branch of Shiite Islam. Experts believe they number between 150,000 and 190,000—possibly more than what remains of Syria’s conventional army.
What’s more, some experts estimate 20,000 Shiite foreign fighters are on the ground, backed by both Shiite Iran and its main proxy in the region, the Lebanese Shiite militia Hezbollah.
About 5,000 of them are new arrivals from Iraq in July and August alone, said Phillip Smyth, a researcher at the University of Maryland. He said this figure was compiled through his own contacts with some of these fighters, flight data between Baghdad and Damascus as well as social media postings. “It looks like it was timed out to coincide with the Russian move,” Mr. Smyth said.
Yes, it certainly does "look like" that, and it wasn't hard to see this coming. Here's another excerpt from our recent analysis:
Back in June, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, Qasem Soleimaini, visited a town north of Latakia on the frontlines of Syria’s protracted civil war. Following that visit, he promised that Tehran and Damascus were set to unveil a new strategy that would “surprise the world.”
Just a little over a month later, Soleimani - in violation of a UN travel ban - visited Russia and held meetings with The Kremlin.
Make no mistake, this is shaping up to be the most spectacular US foreign policy debacle since Vietnam - and we don't think that's an exaggeration.
The US, in conjunction with Saudi Arabia and Qatar, attempted to train and support Sunni extremists to overthrow the Assad regime. Some of those Sunni extremists ended up going crazy and declaring a Medeival caliphate putting the Pentagon and Langley in the hilarious position of being forced to classify al-Qaeda as "moderate." The situation spun out of control leading to hundreds of thousands of civilian deaths and when Washington finally decided to try and find real "moderates" to help contain the Frankenstein monster the CIA had created in ISIS (there were of course numerous other CIA efforts to arm and train anti-Assad fighters, see below for the fate of the most "successful" of those groups), the effort ended up being a complete embarrassment that culminated with the admission that only "four or five" remained and just days after that admission, those "four or five" were car jacked by al-Qaeda in what was perhaps the most under-reported piece of foreign policy comedy in history.
Meanwhile, Iran sensed an epic opportunity to capitalize on Washington's incompetence. Tehran then sent its most powerful general to Russia where a pitch was made to upend the Mid-East balance of power. The Kremlin loved the idea because after all, Moscow is stinging from Western economic sanctions and Vladimir Putin is keen on showing the West that, in the wake of the controversy surrounding the annexation of Crimea and the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Russia isn't set to back down. Thanks to the fact that the US chose extremists as its weapon of choice in Syria, Russia gets to frame its involvement as a "war on terror" and thanks to Russia's involvement, Iran gets to safely broadcast its military support for Assad just weeks after the nuclear deal was struck. Now, Russian airstrikes have debilitated the only group of CIA-backed fighters that had actually proven to be somewhat effective and Iran and Hezbollah are preparing a massive ground invasion under cover of Russian air support. Worse still, the entire on-the-ground effort is being coordinated by the Iranian general who is public enemy number one in Western intelligence circles and he's effectively operating at the behest of Putin, the man that Western media paints as the most dangerous person on the planet.
As incompetent as the US has proven to be throughout the entire debacle, it's still difficult to imagine that Washington, Riyadh, London, Doha, and Jerusalem are going to take this laying down and on that note, we close with our assessment from Thursday:
If Russia ends up bolstering Iran's position in Syria (by expanding Hezbollah's influence and capabilities) and if the Russian air force effectively takes control of Iraq thus allowing Iran to exert a greater influence over the government in Baghdad, the fragile balance of power that has existed in the region will be turned on its head and in the event this plays out, one should not expect Washington, Riyadh, Jerusalem, and London to simply go gentle into that good night.
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I've already marched in several anti-draft protests. I think it's becoming likely that I may be doing so again.
Please leave us alone, I have a gay rights parade tonight and my daughter needs to post 400 selfies to facebook. lets light a candle, hold hands and bitch about our rights to do anything we want for free.
Candlelight vigils are so dangerous. They should be banned but then too many people would go out on the streets in protest.
Smartest thing Barak Opieceofshit could do is just declare victory in the ME and bring our troops home.
Let the nations with an interest in the region sort it out.
Didn't the fucking cocksucker that you elected get on TV and talk taking guns from law abiding americans while this was going down?
Let's cut the bullcrap!
Vietnam was not a foreign policy blunder, it was most obviously by design.
Both Diem and President Kennedy were against the introduction of American ground troops into South Vietnam (officially then, there were 16,000 plus military advisors, originally sent in by Eisenhower) and within the space of several weeks, first Diem, then Kennedy, were both assassinated.
And 24 hours prior to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, McGeorge Bundy had his assistant type up a new NSAM introducing a large number of American combat troops into Vietnam (and he didn't do it for JFK, since it would be signed by the next president, LBJ!).
According to latest news reports, confirmed by general-ranking officers at the Pentagon, DoD spent $500 million for FIVE Syrian rebels (and since all five gave up their weapons already to al Qaeda, it wasn't obviously too well spent!), so again obviously, someone is getting a whole bunch of money, and I'm pretty sure that $500 million did not go to those five Syrian rebels!
Having dozens of pallets with 100 FNRs lying around facilitates instant corruption.
Israel and US and Saudi Arabia will not tolerate this Iranian aid to Assad. The war in Syria just got a lot hotter.
The Iranian nuclear deal will unravel soon.
Look for a false flag attack blaming Iran.
Nonetheless, for Washington and its allies to condemn Russia for military “escalation” and acting to “fuel extremism and radicalization” in Syria is the height of hypocrisy.
The brutal civil war that has claimed the lives of up to 300,000 Syrians and turned many millions more into refugees and displaced persons was instigated, funded and armed by the US, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and other Western powers. They sought to repeat the “success” registered by the US-NATO war in Libya, which ended in the toppling and murder of its secular leader Muammar Gaddafi and the plunging of the country into a bloody war between rival militias and governments, along with economic, political and social disintegration that continues to this day.
Meanwhile, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are reported to have organized the shipment of planeloads of weapons to Turkish airbases for distribution to the Sunni Islamist militias.
The reactionary oil monarchies are demanding that the Syrian civil war end in the deposing of Assad and the installation of a puppet regime more amendable to their interests.
While voicing support for a negotiated settlement, Washington’s aim also remains regime change, placing it and Russia, the world’s two largest nuclear powers, on a collision course.
http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2015/10/03/syri-o03.html
Quick, somebody call Paul Bremer!
Or Baghdad Bob.
I think Putin has already thought of that:
"The emergency meeting in Moscow between Mr Putin and Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu on September 21st, seems to have put Israeli minds at ease. The Russians will not endanger Israel’s strategic interests in Syria. For his part, Mr Netanyahu assured the Russians that Israel would not help those trying to remove their ally—“we are neither for or against (Syrian president Bashar al-) Assad” he said."
"We are neither for nor against Assad" is cock and bull. "Israel" works night and day to undermine the countries on its borders in pursuit of lebensraum.
"...Israel and US and Saudi Arabia will not tolerate this Iranian aid to Assad..."
Fuck Israel, U.S. and Saudi Arabia. Sorry - no more eloquent and simple way to say it.
Who the fuck cares what the US and Israel think anymore?
No really, if the US gets any deeper in this they will get a good bloody nose leaving them with two choices:
1) Cut and run and look like a total fool irrelevant to the world stage from then on, or
2) Start a direct conflict in which case it will majorly suck for NATO and Europe and then cut and run looking like an even bigger fool.
You could try the ancient Australian proverb, "Fuck off, you cunt." It is simple, clear, to the point and takes fewer words.
the end of america's sole power in ME..the iran deal showed the world our weakness and it along with other obuma moves the pull outs has now allowed Iran the room to use it's military and Russia saw how weak this president is and of course joined in..
"The Iranian nuclear deal will unravel soon."
for myself the withdrawal of our forces can not come soon enough..bush clinton bush obuma..a long line of NWO thugs..who woulda thunk these elites would lead us into these international war crimes?
one would hope the whole us military presence across the globe is greatly downsized.
Ron Paul we miss you.
The Iran deal was meant to show the world how reasonable and peaceful the US was. And the intent May be for it to unravel and to then justify the use of more violence. See - we tried to be nice but now they made us bomb them - type of thing.
Ron Paul is nothing but controlled opposition. Now he pimps for financial investment firms. Ron Paul never called for the ending of the FED only for phony audits that would be controlled by the agents of the FED.
For the Iranians to have this great land force they need not just feet on the ground but heavy equipment, tanks and heavy weapons to be effective. Will they drive them through Iraq? Without them it will continue to be difficult to roll over the insurgents decisively. I am waiting to see how this occurs.
Keep in mind that so far Russia efforts seem to be in western Syria where the Syrian forces held amost all the ground except the far north and south. And Russia still refuses to supply the S-300/S-2500 anti air missile system to Iran or Syria. Is Putin attempting a version of Crimeia where Russia will have control of the western area (this is where Russia's naval base is). Perhaps using Assad as a figurehead proxy. And then let the fighting continue in the east like in Ukraine. OR will a land bridge be established all the way to Iran? (Which requires cooperation with Iraq, or a turning of Iraq towards Russia.)
Don't confuse the tactics and the strategy.Of course the Russians are going to deal with the threats to both Assad and themselve first.
That then leaves them both free to concentrate on ISIS who will be crushed between the Iranians
and Russo/Assad combination.
I won't say this will be over before Xmas, but It probably will be by the spring.
Agree it makes sense to take out concentrated locations along the controlled western region. Makes it less risky to fly over and lessens the risk of staged attacks into the western region.
Would be interested to see Russia fly missions into southern Syria and attack along Lebanon's south eastern border to show support (and a commitment to protect) Hezbollah.
Iranian tanks going through Iraq will not be an issue, Baghaded has historically been under Iranian protection for centuries and the last time I was in Basra, the shop keepers were accepting Iranian Rials, no questions asked. In a funny way US foreign policy incompetence has resulted in the undoing British colonialism. I fully expect Bahrain to submit to Tehran in the next couple of years and the Saudi royal family's heads will used to house holy candles once ISIS returns to whence it came.
Bahrain is a demonic hell-hole that never gets enough attention.
Really? You ever look at Ron Pauls voting record? Apparently not.
But hey, I guess ad hom attacks are easier to use than facts, right dickhead?
Good riddance to america's sole power in ME.
How much more screwed up can the ME get with the US's foreign policy that's all over the place .....
Seems like the US should have saved it's "shoot down an airliner" strategy for the Syrian conflict. Russia would be skewered if this happened over Syrian airspace today...while they're actually engaged in aerial combat. It will be a while before another civilain airliner is shot out of the sky.
Why?
The last one didn't work out so well for them, otherwise we would have radar tracks and ATC tower tapes of MH-17 splashed over every front page in the world.
The webs are proving that, as far as propaganda is concerned, technology is a double sided sword that cuts both ways.
The deafening silence about MH-17 is a fervent wish that it will just disappear from public view.
The silence makes no sense.
If folks want the truth, all they have to do is rub 2 brain cells together and ask Google Earth to provide "satellite" footage of anything they want. There is no sane reason for folks to accept the regime-stream-media narrative without proof. Pics or it did not happen.
Methinks that pics do exist. Whoever holds the pics will control the narrative.
I think it's too late for false flags to have any effect. I'm sure the iranian deal will unravel, but that's the US' doing for being so fucking retarded about middle-east policy.
One, no one is going to buy a false flag in the US or Europe perpetrated by Iran, especially considering all the propagandizing leading up to this was about ISIS. ISIS in Europe, ISIS in the US waiting to strike, etc, etc. Should an attack happen, they're going to have to literally do a 180 on that, otherwise it actually bolsters Russian and Iranian credibility, because that's who they're fighting!
Two, thanks to clandestinely supporting ISIS and then doing nothing when they got out of hand, US credibility in the region and in Europe is shot, completely spent. Tyler picking "Blunder" is the right word. The people behind all this fucked up, big time. Should they try a false flag I wouldn't at all be surprised if various state intelligence agencies provided the information to call it out in public (think Nuland's "fuck Europe" phone call, but 10X more significant) for a final humiliation.
It may sound like hyperbole, but I think the US mishandling of Syria and the middle east will be looked back upon as the definitive end of the US empire. Seriously, backing/creating ISIS was a hugely immoral decision, as is supporting an immoral and collapsing Saudi regime, as well as creating a power vacuums in Iraqand Libya, the list goes on.) The whole neocon seven countries in five year plan that Wesley Clark exposed will be proven to be the undoing of US power in the middle east. Remember that plan was capped off with a US invasion of Iran, which with the mobilzation of Iranians and the presence of Russia in the region will never happen unless the crazies in the US deep state really do want WW3. Even with the replacements of top military commanders, I'm not sure our military is willing to carry out the steps that would lead to that outcome.
Perhaps we'll get that US coup after all, all it would take would be for a few top military people to say they'd been ordered to take the steps that would lead to WW3, name names, and publicly refuse to carry them out.
The biggest false flag to come will be the one which "forces" so-called "Israel" to take control of the Temple Mount\Haram-al-Sarif. At that point Judaeo-Masonry, strongly supported by so-called Christians in the US and UK, will have achieved its main objective - the cancellation of the Sacrifice of Christ and the restoration of the Temple Sacrifice in its place.
All Hell will break loose then. Everything else is just foreplay leading up to the main event. Keep an eye on what goes on around the Temple compound \ al-Aqsa Mosque. It's started already, and they've successfully managed to get it pushed to the back pages.
So now Iran gets to make Barry look a fool for the second time in as many months.
Can't wait for the Presidential view on this one.
We bamboozled some folks.
The Presidential view on everything is that it isn't his fault.
To be fair to the puppet-in-chief, outside his golf handicap he doesn't really have control over anything in his life.
Bullshit. No one forced that peice of shit to suck Reggies cock.
"Can't wait for the Presidential view on this one."
One thing's for sure...as soon as the Iranians go in and start shooting, he'll try to take away their guns.
He only wants to take away guns from American citizens.
Looks like I'm going to miss my period
Will Putin spill the beans to the American people about who was behind 9/11? How does that figure in his game of chess?
The beans have already been spilled by a thousand sources and most American Sheeple would not care because it will not be reported by FoxHews, CNBC or the rest of the controlled government zionist media. Nevertheless, Putin should show his cards. Hopefully there are wiretaps and intercepted communications of the fiends planning, plotting and covering up the event.
The American fools don't want the truth.
Any one of us who has been talking to them for over a decade has come to the same
conclusion.
I have given up on most of them, which is why I am here.
When bullies take on each other, it always gets ugly.
Clearly this calls for another nasally, long winded, boring speech from John Kerry!
Wait until his next doctors appointment...
One more plastic surgery and even his lips won't move.
Nothing that some peanut butter can't fix.
Vets do plastic surgery ?
That's a horse of a different color.
It ends up like this woman who kept smiling at me in the gym.
I would smile back then I realized that was her default due to stretch surgery. lol
Does he know any other kind?
Obozo... what a fucking fail.
Fail? I don't know about that. America is definitely being fundamentally transformed.
Based on consistency, I would say whatever he is up to is doing smashingly well. Joke is on us.
It needed a trnsformation Doc, but not the one its about to get.good and hard.
Burn, motherfuckers, burn!
Putin +1.000.000.000.000.000 > Obummer -19.000.000.000.000
Iran's involvement would only be possible if we let them have tens of billion of dollars.... Wait now...
The P5+1 deal is not in jeopardy anymore - especially with all the arm twisting and quasi-legal dealings Obama and Kerry did to get it. Then touting it to across the world. No, Iran and Putin waited until the U.S. was trapped by its own foreign policy blunders and arrogance. Putin and Iran now have the remainder of Obama's term to run amok in the Middle East because Obama never admits he made a mistake and cannot pull back from either his "ISIS is a threat" or "Iran nuke" policies.
All of these wars like Vietnam should never have happened. Mass murder just so contractors, politicians, banksters and their friends can loot the Treasury, steal and they do not care who gets killed.
All wars are the same. Iran is no prize but they are no worse than any other country in the area. We always have sanctions on countries to bend them to our will and innocent people end up dead.
This "foreign policy" is run by criminals and psychopaths. These are also the same people making Ameircans lives misery.
Nobody ever told you that making the world safe for Democracy was going to be pretty.
Its an eggs and omlettes kind of thing.
Ask Madeline Albright...She'll tell ya how it works.
Putin and the Mullahs used Obozo's own narcissism as a weapon against him.
A giant elephant trap big enough even to fit his ego in.
The US will have a very large bill to pay...
After the Gulf War, Iraq accepted United Nations Security Council resolution 687, which declared Iraq's financial liability for damage caused in its invasion of Kuwait. The United Nations Compensation Commission ("UNCC") was established, and US$350 billion in claims were filed by governments, corporations, and individuals. Funds for these payments were to come from a 30% share of Iraq's oil revenues from the oil for food program. It was not anticipated that US$350 billion would become available for total payment of all reparations claims, so several schedules of prioritization were created over the years. The UNCC says that its prioritization of claims by natural people, ahead of claims by governments and entities or corporations (legal persons), "marked a significant step in the evolution of international claims practice."
Payments under this reparations program continue; as of July 2010, the UNCC stated that it had actually distributed US$18.4 billion to claimants.[citation needed]
There have been attempts to codify reparations both in the Statutes of the International Criminal Court and the UN Basic Principles on the Right to a Remedy and Reparation for Victims.
Will Obomba win another Peace Prize for lighting the ME on fire?
Actually John Kerry.
http://freebeacon.com/national-security/nobel-prize-rumors-put-focus-on-kerry-iran-coziness/
Absolutely! And the US won't accept defeat! Not losers! Winners at any price! Release the nukes!! (Maybe get the peace prize with cheese!)
Yes -those brilliant wise sages will probably give it to him again. -by their standards, he deserves it. After all, it was Obomba's brilliant strategy of supporting Al Quada and ISIS, that forced those lazy Russians and Iranians to finally get off their asses and do something about it. We all knew that after the 2003 Iraq Debacle invasion, it was politically impossible for the US to put boots on the ground. -So brilliant Obamba tricked the Russians and Iranians and Hezbollans into doing our fighting for us. Next we will trick and manipulate them into moving into Iraq and Yemen, and possible Libya, under the ruse of wiping out all the terrorists.
Then we will have them right where we want them -overextended and vulnerable- and we can make our move to retake Donbass!. Obamba is a military genius.
"Will Obomba win another Peace Prize for lighting the ME on fire?"
Imagine the MSM outrage if they gave it to Putin.
A Pulitzer Prize for fiction is surely in the bag.
There is a precedent here.
Hitler was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1939 on the basis of the peaceful resolution of the Sudetenland Crisis; but the nomination was rejected by the Nobel Prize Committee.
Perhaps Putin will get the next Peace prize for stopping the Syrian insanity.
Meanwhile the retarded American public has no clue what's going on in this world. They live their lives and think they're engaged just because the heard the sound bite: Russia & Iran evil, U.S & Europe good.
Millions of people in America are not retarded and also, well aware of the fact that the govt stinks to high heaven.
The death of those 200,000 people falls squarely on the USA for funding and training the terrorists, who they call ''rebels';
The guys who McCain met with , the guys who are cannibals.
Obama is a genius. He needs a third, fourth, and fifth term. I hear he's working on it...
yup. There may not be an election in 2016 for a new U.S. president. If there is an election, it will only be because Billary has it rigged for her victory.
The MIC has never had it so easy with Obama in office...he's play-doh in their hands.
And then there is this;
http://russia-insider.com/en/russia-will-arm-lebanon-against-isis/
Putin arming Hezbollah in the name of defeating ISIS (the useful bogeyman).
Bibi must be having a conniption. Payback from Russia to Isreal for arming Georgia & Ukraine I suppose.
That article disappeared really quick... at least it comes up as page not found. I'm not surprised, as that would be a truly incendiary bit of news (whether true or false)
If its not just a typo in the URL, I wonder who took the article down?
I just did a google search of that link
http://russia-insider.com/en/russia-will-arm-lebanon-against-isis/
Correct link appears to be
http://russia-insider.com/en/russia-will-arm-lebanon-against-isis/ri10154
BTW speaking of "lost" articles, all reference to the BBC article describing Nudelman's stroke disappeared completely within a day or two of being posted. Strange....
I saw a post on another web site that supposedly Russia may have offered to base planes in Lebanon. Maybe moon of alabama.
http://www.moonofalabama.org/
One reason given was supposedly 4 IDF F-15's were off the coast of Syria. 6 Russian Su30s turned up and the IDF jets turned and overflew Lebanon.
The only cases of any possible missile locks so far that I read was Russian Su30s and Pansir S-1 lighting up a Turkish F-16 getting close to the border.
Oh, that's nothing.
Just US sanctioned Turkish flights to clear up a nasty Kurd infestation in Turkey's borderlands.
Very suspect report.
Only 4 SU-30SMs in the area.
Putin knows its ALL about potable water for Israel.
He's now got a boot on Nutjobs neck if this is true.
"The Largest US Foreign Policy Blunder Since Vietnam Is Complete"
I'd say military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan was a far larger blunder.
I disagree because the stakes are much higher here and an entire paradigm is in the balance (e.g. Saudi as power brokers and US petrodollar hegemony, by extension US dollar WRC)
Zionist chutzpah has become fatal conceit, the worse kind of hubris that brings war and destruction.
What difference, at this point, does it make?!?
That is a serious question. You can not go back in time so what the fuck are you guys talking about?
All you can do is act now or never. The stakes are higher here. OK. Now what?
And do not forget +China.
On the sideline for now....
Good luck with that!
Remember when the USAF hit the Chinese embassy in Kosovo? These misunderstangs resulting in mere collateral damage are about to go on steroids.
China navy calls for United States to reduce risk of misunderstandingshttp://www.reuters.com/article/2015/10/01/us-china-usa-defence-idUSKCN0R...
It was in Belgrade, Serbia, not Kosovo. And it was not a misunderstanding...
The Yugoslav army shut down a stealth F117 (and apologized later stating that they did not know it was invisible...) and the remains were given to the Chinese.
I stand corrected. Thanks.
Did not mean to patronize :-)
The place does not matter. More interesting is the 'why'. USAF said it was because of old maps. Chinese said it was deliberate. Curious thing was that the Chinese embassy at the time was not located near any other embassies or Yugoslav buildings but out of the center of Belgrade, across the river. Very few buildings there were bombed.
You're right that the chances of 'misunderstanding' in Syria have increased with these new developments. Somebody might want a misunderstanding. With so much fire power in each other's way anything is possible.
"and the remains were given to the Russians."
FIFY.
"It was in Belgrade, Serbia, not Kosovo. And it was not a misunderstanding... The Yugoslav army shut down a stealth F117 (and apologized later stating that they did not know it was invisible ...)"
LOL!
@Message
Shut the fuck my little bitch boy faggot asswipe.
Did I give you permsission to speak??
Yes. Your handlers will need it.
Well informed former KGB agent turned leader running a tight ship vs. junior senator community organizer welfare champion. And the final score is:
You left out: well educated, brilliant, coherent, articulate and disciplined.
And well spoken for a Negro, per Joe Biden.
lawyer and born again Christian.A lot more to Vlad than meets the eye.
Valarie Jarrett, Obambi's advisor is from Iran. Could this be the source of all the great advice Obambi has received?
Just like a catchy song, it keeps wandering around in my mind.
"US backed moderate rebels".
How do you come up with that ?
"European backed moderate Mexican rebels bringing havoc to the US"
Will that work the same way or will Putin be allowed to bomb them ?
Mexico a different country should be "Texan rebels"
Getting Russia and Islam to engage in Syria is hardly a blunder, it's brilliant strategy, now if we can somehow sell to both sides.......
Opertunity knocks.
"Dutch F-16s flying over Iraq, have virtually no bombs stock. Netherlands begs the allies to borrow tech bombs, because the manufacturer has a delivery period of two years."
But because we are Dutch we only want to "loan" them for a short while, will be returned without a scratch.
So the Dutch Air Force isn't on strike? Who woulda thunk that.
Dutch, Germans and French are waking up to the real enemy. The USA/NATO
The Dutch just shut up and do as they're told.
Altogether pointless and useless to the rest of the world. A tourist trap for weed smokers.
The French should just bomb the place and take it back.
Wasn't it the Spanish who controlled the Netherlands?
the banksters control the netherlands via various proxies ("Spanish", "House of Orange") for more than 6 centuries.
Put 3 Obama 0
1. Russia stole Crimea and embarassed Peace Prize's Nazis
2. Russia attacking Obama's Unicorn moderates as payback for #1
3. As I predicted yesterday: Russian bombers with Iranian shock troops.
Russia and Iran couldnt team up until Obama got the Iran sanctions passed
That's what Putin was waiting for. Legitimizing Iran as a military, energy and trade partner
Putin didn't 'steal' Crimea. Crimeans voted to join Russia.
It's strange how the Kikes aren't mouthing off over the right wing Nazis in Ukraine..?!?
Maybe because a) They are not really Jewish
b) They only care about death and destruction (mostly of kids) as does the Poroshenko regime.
c) They are a bunch of fucking fag, homos who can only try and belittle those they think inferior (militarily) to them...
d) They support the killing of Russians, because they still hold a grudge that Russia doesn't bow down to the hook nose kiddy fuckers, like the U.S. does...
or
e) All of the above.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCG2L5r9T5iYCH0Mmgq85jNQ
For the real effect
Crimea seceded
drop the Russia stole Crimea nonsense
Anyone else expecting 'terrorist', 'retaliatory' bombings in Moscow shortly?
Nobody spends more money .... on killing so few Muslims .... we are number one .... in CPI (cost per Islamist) ?
"If Russia ends up bolstering Iran's position in Syria (by expanding Hezbollah's influence and capabilities) and if the Russian air force effectively takes control of Iraq thus allowing Iran to exert a greater influence over the government in Baghdad, the fragile balance of power that has existed in the region will be turned on its head and in the event this plays out, one should not expect Washington, Riyadh, Jerusalem, and London to simply go gentle into that good night."
And if Iran does get to exert more influence in Iraq, how long before Iraq's oil is not sold in USD.
How long before Israel is left prostrate?
We live in interesting times.
How long before a coup de' tat in Saudi Arabia. They are not very stable at the moment.
That would be nice. I keep my fingers crossed it happens soon...
If it were to happen it would be ISIS or Al Qaeda. Only those willing to go the extra mile in barbaric militarism could take down a Sunni dominant country. If you think ISIS is a better alternative, you're a fricken idiot.
From the most despicable blunder of an administration, and you cunts thought Bush was bad , I'll take a FUCKEN GWB back any day over this narcissist, racist failure.
Do you really think GWB had a say in anything?
You are not a longtime reader here,are you?
Of course not, but at least he was somewhat appealing, the current clown is not even trying hard to win Americans over.
They both suck. Let's not spit hairs.
The fallacy of America's unilateral withdrawal from its position of leadership leading to "A More Peaceful World"TM, is already starting to bear the bitter fruit of yet another failed socialist policy by the Community Organizer in Chief. This one will have historic reverberations leading to millions and millions dying, and this one will WITHOUT FAIL be fought in large part on American soil, through the import of so many military age islam jihadists. Think "The Democrats brought this on us" when the first nuclear bomb terrorizes the first American city, courtesy of the Nobel Peace Prize President who Gave Iran Permission to Continue Nuclear Proliferation.
And for all you Israel haters, and I know ZH is overrun with you, THERE IS NO MORAL EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR CAPABILITY AND IRAN'S, NONE. Just wait. When Iran gets any device ready to export to the west, they will, and it will be used. Iran is not called the leading sponsor of world terror for its humanitarian aid.
You liberal apologists are going to confront a future so filled with disorder, mindless mass violence, random brutality and hopelessness that it will force you to consider that maybe the socialist way is not perfectable.
Man cannot perfect himself, much less other men.
Russia, China and Iran are now more closely allied against the US. Can anyone think this marks any kind of success of American foreign policy, other than in the dark recesses of Democrat spin rooms?
We very likely have a worldwide depression getting deeper and more robust by the quarter. Seems like a perfect time to awaken the prospect of civilizational war.
Thank you, Obama and the rest of your anti-American administration, past and present.
''And for all you Israel haters, and I know ZH is overrun with you, THERE IS NO MORAL EQUIVALENCE BETWEEN ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR CAPABILITY AND IRAN'S, NONE. Just wait. When Iran gets any device ready to export to the west, they will, and it will be used. Iran is not called the leading sponsor of world terror for its humanitarian aid. '
>>>>>>>>>>>>
Bullshit, what country has been perfoming slow genoicide and theft of land? Not Iran.
Israel is a nation of psychopaths that make Nazi Germany look like choir boys.
You can spew your bullshit lies over and over but the facts speak for themselves.
Israel is a country of pure faggots...that can only kill women and children...
Death to the Untermenschen.
Mike in GA
No moral equivalency? Iran hasn't attacked anyone in 250 years
Israel is a bunch of thieves and true bastards
Asswipe ZioNazis like you need to find your moral compass.
Fucking trailer park trash is what you are, raised by a crack whore.
Your history, like your thinking in general is way off. Iran's history of the last 250 years even includes invading Russia, but don't let that little fact get in the way of your spittle-flecked anti-American diatribe.
Islam has been a pain in the ass of western civilization since its illegitimate birth at the hands of that pedophile scumbag Moohamed, goat fucker #1. Now that I think of it, you remind me a lot of your founding father. Any goats in your trailer park left virginal or you guys start in on em before they fully mature like the little boys you're so fond of?
You are a shit for brains asswipe who has never been outside of his COUNTY much less COUNTRY.
You love genocidal, lying, thieving, psychopaths of Israel. and spew nothing but bullshit about Islam.
I am atheist and wipe my ass with the Buybull, the Koran, they Talmud and the Torah.
I have never had any problems with Muslims but I have with Jews. The people who really did 911 but fucktards like you just believe the bullshit your govt and media feeds you
Just for reference. I am more athiest than agnostic. And definately not religious. Organized religion, in my opinion... well... I can't even find words for what I think. On a small scale it does people good. On a large scale, it is tantamount to genocide. And I have a particular distaste for any religion that spins off more than it's fair share of nutjobs... and even more for the ones who cannot integrate with society. If there is a hell, it is going to soon be spilling over with Christians, Jews, and Muslims alike so that can continue to live in thier hatred forever. Fuck em all.
The funny thing about atheists is that they reject the supernatural while still blaming it for all these evils.
Get this: if there is no God then God is not responsible for the evil in the world, including religious wars, paedophile priests and whatever else. If the natural, not the supernatural, is the only explanation for everything that exists in the universe then the natural, not the supernatural, is also the only culprit to blame for the ills of mankind.
Just remember that next time you take out your soap box and start preaching to us about the ills of religion. That way you won't make an idiot of yourself by contradicting yourself.
What a joke g. There is no contradiction. It IS the natural state for these to occur. I don't blame the supernatural for shit. Mankind is all sorts of things including sick. Heck, even most religions embody this... man is born a sinner, or ying and yang.
We are a product of evolution. Of gene mutuation and adaptation. Some good. Some bad.
We are a product of society. Look around. Seem healthy to you?
Your argument here is nothing short of embarrasing g. Folks like me aren't the "preachers" spouting contradiction. We are the every day folks kindly keeping to ourselves and behaving in a manner that the organized religions SAY that humans are suppose to behave. Now THAT is contradiction.
You're out of your depth here and left with nothing but tired old cliches as a result.
What I am saying is this: if there is no such thing as the supernatural, and the natural accounts for everything that is, then there is no such thing as good and evil because there is no "good" or "evil" outside this self-contained, enclosed system with which a good or bad action can correspond. I am surely justified in saying this steel ruler is 30 centimetres long if there is a metric standard in Paris with which the ruler corresponds, but I am not justified in saying something is good or bad if there is no good or bad elsewhere with which I can compare.
If you believe there is no such thing as the supernatural then you are not justified in clinging to concepts of good and evil because there is nothing outside the material universe with which any good or evil action can correspond. If, as you suggest, evolution is responsible for all human behaviour then blaming evolution by attributing good to some effects and evil to others is about the same as blaming evolution for the way the ears, the kidneys and the ankles turned out. Even rational discourse is impossible once you do away with the supernatural because there is no rationality with which our cognitive faculties can correspond. Take away God and our minds are just another accident caused by blind material processes acting without purpose. Attributing rationality to those minds is nothing but blind faith.
That's why you atheists are, literally, insane.
Good and evil are constructs.
Stop talking to me g. Your fucking nuts. Thanks for demonstrating it on stage.
Once again you're just blowing air out your pie-hole. If, as you say, you are an atheist, then you have no grounds whatsoever to start crying over the evils committed in the name of religion. Once you remove the supernatural from the equation then everything, and I mean everything, becomes just another product of blind, material processes working without purpose and without a blueprint. In such a universe good, evil, rationality, irrationality, molestation of boys by priests, Crusades and Inquisitions are nothing more than indifferent events that take place randomly as this blind, material, universal process unfolds. Nothing can be judged good or evil because both good and evil themselves are part of the process, not external measures by which we can judge.
That's why you atheists end up contradicting yourselves and end up literally insane. You try to have it both ways - dispensing with the supernatural on one hand while clinging to morality on the other. Without God there is not and cannot be any good or evil whatsoever. The only morality you can have is a morality that is itself part of the unfolding. Not a morality, in other words, that is binding because imposed from without, but rather a morality that is expedient and internal, no more binding than the tongue or the eye, and changing to suit the times.
Let's say the population of the planet in 200 years' time is 25 or 30 billion, and the planet is struggling to cope. Will it be acceptable to slit the throat of every second new-born at that time to guarantee the survival of the race? If you believe the evolution lie you are compelled to say yes; whatever is done that "advances" the survival of the species is acceptable and good according to this creed (prescinding for the time being from the absurd idea that progress should be considered a good thing even though evolution has no blueprint for the future and can only ever be judged in hindsight as "good" or "bad").
Those of us who acknowledge the existence of God and the binding dimension of his law will say this is wrong now, will be wrong then and will always be wrong. You can't say that.
Interesting that you bring up population. What you're describing as some distant situation seems to be upon us now. The strip-mining of natural resources (see last topic in Putin's UN speech) that has been made possible thanks to money out of thin air and advances in physical technology is sending back evidence of humanity heading over a cliff. The death insanities via war (attended by disease and starvation) can only be deemed 'wrong' if there existed a better way to operate death controls. "Slitting the throat of every second new-born" is traumatic and horrifying. It is not acceptable. However, if the political science was sufficiently advanced, a well designed ZERO-CHILD POLICY could possibly save not only our species but most flora and fauna as we now experience it from MASS EXTINCTION.
Have you been reading any of Radical Marijuana's comments?
+1
It is upon us now. We are in what is called "overshoot" which was enabled as you said by tech, modern economics, etc. The only thing left to keep the ugly lights from coming on is redistribution (Marxism) which is what we are experiencing now. When that fails, it is game over.
RM posts some interesting stuff. He has his own website FWIW. Check it out.
Morality, good, evil, etc. do not require a "god." They are all "human" contructs. We are social creatures and as such need rules and ways of understanding our world so that we can in fact live together. It is that simple. Society develops and human concepts of right and wrong evolve. Morality today is different than it was just a few decades ago in fact. All of us are just products of our upbringing, our communities, etc.
Part of our problem today is something I have posted before... that smaller groups of people do a pretty good job of containing other people that lack morality. In larger, more complex societies, we do a terrible job of managing those who are predatory. In fact, they thrive. They wind up in positions of power... driven by greed/power (lust)... the things that religions warn against.
Now, regarding your idiotic statement about slitting throats... evolution does not compel people to act against thier morality. But, like I said... concepts of morality can and do change - and are different from culture to culture. So, you are correct... I can't say "that" as you put it in a larger context. I cannot say that in some distant future something like a "Logan's Run" sort of thing would not be seen as morally correct. Hence, your argument does not disprove what I am saying.
You are free to believe in whatever you want. But because others do not does not mean they are living in some sort of contradiction. Your arguments are circular. Typical religious BS. The moment you move away from "faith" (which is totally cool... and another human construct... just fyi) and start trying refute basic sciences such as anthropology, you expose yourself as a nut job.
You said "organised religion is tantamount to genocide". That means you live by an absolute morality that is not socially constructed, since organised religion has always held sway over the vast majority of people on the planet. If, as you say, the good of society is the final arbiter of what is good and what is evil then organised religion, which still claims billions of adherents around the globe, must be a good par excellence. oops, there goes your flimsy argument again!
@alfred neuman 11:37
Sadly, your manner of speaking equates perfectly well with a mind that believes in nothing.
Funny thing, though, when there is only nothing to believe in, one can believe anything one wants. I see you have gathered all the world's intelligence into another great ball of Unified conspiracy toilet paper.
May you see the light of the error of your ways before you die.
Us Americans just use Charmin.
But hey, what me worry, different strokes.
Iran and Islam had nothing to do with 25 million Christians being murdered in Russia by non-Christian Bolsheviks.
Iran is not flooding America with illegal aliens, looting the country and bankrupting it. Soros and his pals are part of that team along with Zuckerberg.
The USA should worry about the USA and stop these endless wars, proxy wars and phony Arab Springs and Color Revolutions.
That war was in 1826. Still pretty fucking long ago.
The trailer trash in the room is the one who can't dissect what Mike said in a constructive manner.
I don't necessary agree with Mike's statement regarding Israel either. Let's just say "the Jury is still out on this one" for me.
However, about everything else he wrote I agree with. I think he is more correct than wrong. And for that the conversation is probably better served by continuing it instead of flinging poo.
So, do YOU disagree with the balance of Mike's post?
I don't agree with ANYONE who supports ZioNazi state of Israel.
I did not take his statement as support. Nor do I think it is fair to throw everything out just because of one statement you disagree with. Same deal with Dubai dude in this post. I disagree with him on gun control - but otherwise he had solid points.
Things are about to get real AN. I am pretty sure we agree on that. Would like to see ZH maybe start getting back on the stick with conversation more than poo flinging (with some good poo flinging also... because it is fun of course - lol). Also, sometimes the place need to be kicked in the nuts. ha ha.
Any fucktard who has to make everything a liberal vs cons or repub vs demo thing is not credible.
They are pure idiots who don't know they are being played.
Yeah... I don't disagree with that either. But, at least recently, I have come to accept that the term "liberal" is one that really is somewhat seperate from the rest. Same with neocon. Mainly because that is what DC is using to dupe and destroy the US. My opinion here is not solid. I am willing and open to adjustment as time goes by and through interactions with people (include those here on ZH like yourself).
Anyhow, so I have this cousin who is a true "liberal nut job" and through her I have seen how society itself is hastening our spiral journey down the toilet. I can see this sort of twisted sickness that violates about everything including nature.
But, hey, look at Fucktards like Hannity who spin the conservative side of it as well. In fact I could almost pin point the day he started sucking AIPAC dick. The slobbering noises are now so loud I can't even listen for more than a few minutes.
(edit: have to go yank some weeds... will check back later)
Just so we all know there is hope--I was a lifelong liberal until I watched videos of cops violating and arresting innocent humans for legally "carrying". It snowballed from there and came down to, pretty simply, right vs. wrong and respecting the wisdom of the Constitution. My once rabid anti-war stance came from the horror of my Dads stories of the battle of Okinawa. How he watched as most of the native population committed suicide by cliff due to their Govnt;s propaganda of fear. Now I know that at times there is simply no choice but to fight your enemy. People CAN change. Even after half a century.
You need to get a prize for ZH full retard acumen
There's retard and then there's full retard
Iranian troops are currently in Yemen, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, but they are just there to make sandwiches no doubt, not attacking anyone
A blind mouse with two brain cells could see that the Iranians are making a move for hegemony in the region
Retard
Let the ZH downvotes start in 3, 2, 1...
Iranian troops are there because they have been invited.
You goddam Americans are bullieis who invade countries UNINVITED.
How about calling me full retard to my face, asswipe.
You will look funny with your nuts popping out of your nostrils.
Fucking AmeriNAZI trash
So what is your nationality, Mr. Perfect?
Obviously One of her majesty's subjects. Very hostile as they abandon America to embrace the new masters of the Universe.