"The once unthinkable is now becoming normal...In 15 years of following Brazil, I have 'never' been as pessimistic as I am following a week in Sao Paulo. Open clamor for military "intervention," politicians frozen, CRAZY ideas circulating in society at-large..."
"Moscow has expressed its concern over NATO’s military infrastructure that has been built adjacent to the Russian border... an Warsaw’s plans to host a permanent US military presence on its territory... Russian lawmakers point out that this would move Poland to the top of Russia’s list of military targets."
A day after the largest exchange of rocket fire between Israel and Hamas since 2014, Israel is blaming Iran for supplying both Hamas and Islamic Jihad with advanced surface-to-surface missiles, capable of hitting targets inside southern Israel.
"We are the closest to the threshold of war since Operation Protective Edge...We don’t want it, and the other side doesn’t either, but we have our red lines.."
With the financial crisis back front and center in Europe, Israel picked a good day to remind markets that geopolitics remains as much of a gaping risk factor as ever.
"When the United States uses its impressive military machine to topple a tyrant, it’s impossible to predict the course of the chaos that follows. Fracture a society and the most nefarious actors often rise to the top: militiamen, criminal elements, Islamists and sociopaths of various stripes...Still, Washington never seems to learn."
"The United States is now visibly a force for chaos across significant parts of the planet... the military, the country’s 17 major intel agencies, and the warrior corporations of the military-industrial complex have achieved a kind of clout never before seen in the nation’s capital."
"Memorial Day should be a time of sober reflection on war’s horrible costs, not a moment to glorify war. But many politicians and pundits can’t resist the opportunity..."
The setup is straight out of Predator, and is similar to a backpack-fed machine gun rigged by U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Vincent Winkowski in 2011 during a 2 1/2 hour firefight in Afghanistan.
In a world in which "spying" is also known as "benign information gathering", it makes sense that all "soldiers", especially the recently deceased, are called "military advisors."
