Sic Semper Tyrannis

"U.S. talks with Israel on release of spy Jonathan Pollard" Politico

"The United States is talking with Israel about the possibility of releasing convicted spy Jonathan Pollard early from his life sentence as an incentive in the troubled Mideast peace negotiations, a person familiar with the situation said Monday. Such an extraordinary step would show the urgency of U.S. efforts to keep negotiations alive. The person cautioned that a Pollard release — which would be a dramatic turnaround from previous refusals — was far from certain and that discussions with Israel on the matter were continuing. The person spoke only on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the negotiations on the record."  Politico

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Idiocy.  pl  

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/jonathan-pollard-israel-release-105212.html

"Chris Christie apologizes for ‘occupied territories’ remark" Politico

"Christie made clear “that he misspoke when he referred to the ‘occupied territories.’ And he conveyed that he is an unwavering friend and committed supporter of Israel, and was sorry for any confusion that came across as a result of the misstatement.” Adelson accepted Christie’s explanation, the source said. The mini-controversy and quick apology highlight both the importance of Adelson as the reigning mega-donor in GOP politics, as well as the tricky terrain that Middle East politics can pose for American politicians courting Jewish donors and voters. Before the meeting, Adelson ally Morton Klein, president of the hawkish Zionist Organization of America, had confronted Christie about his use of the term, telling POLITICO he explained to the New Jersey governor that “at minimum you should call it disputed territories.” "  Politico

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Well, there you have it  A President Christie, at least in his first term, would be as abject in his obedience to Zionist organizers and donors as any president we have thus far seen.   Someone named Klein, head of the Zionist Organization of America, observed that if Christie thought of the West Bank as occupied territiry, then he is "hostile to Israel."

So, Christie groveled before Adelson and assured him of his "corpse like" devotion to the Zionist cause.  "Unwavering" love, "unwavering love," this must be a New Jersey tradition.

Adelson is IMO the king of Israel Firsters.  He once observed that he would have preferred to have served in the IDF rather than the US Army as he did. 

The Republican hopefuls flocked to the castration party in Las Vegas.  Rand Paul declined his invitation.  He is looking better and better.  pl 

http://www.politico.com/story/2014/03/chris-christie-occupied-territories-apology-105169.html

The origins and original function of NATO

NATO was created as a DEFENSIVE collective security alliance for the purpose of deterring any Soviet attempt to take more territory in Europe than they had been able to gain control of in the years immediately following WW2. By the time NATO was created the Soviets had nuclear weapons and the emphasis in NATO was always on deterring the Soviets from an advance into Western Europe by creating the impression that any such advance would cause a conventional war in which after a massive and very destructive struggle NATO would probably be defeated and would likely resort to tactical nuclear weapons in an exchange that would escalate to general war and Armageddon. To make this strategy work it was necessary that the conventional forces committed to Allied Command Europe (ACE) were sufficiently potent to make it clear that conventional Soviet forces would not have an easy and quick victory in which a "done deal" would be accepted as not worth mutual annihilation. Does that sound familiar? During the Cold War the process of keeping the NATO forces strong enough to make the deterrence "work" was great fun for all involved, exercises, books, promotions in large forces, etc. There was also a hell of a lot of money to be made in building the equipment involved. When the Cold War ended NATO would logically have been dismantled, but, the Hegemonist Temptation gripped the elites in the West and the alliance was illogically driven eastward to the borders of Russia and Russian attempts to join this supposed mutual defense arrangement were rejected. This made it clear to the Russians that the alliance was an anti-Russian alliance.

Somehow the Europeans were persuaded that NATO should become an "out of theater" instrument of US power.

That seemed to be an acceptable situation when the USA and Russia were not on a collision course as we are now, but both the USA and Russia still possess their roughly symmetrical nuclear weapon armaments and MAD still apllies.

 pl 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NATO 

 

A note from Turkey.

"Kunuri, Habakkuk, SST; Turkey, and perhaps quite a few other nations, owe a debt of gratitude to the patriot who exposed the planned false-flag operation and stymied a critical gambit in the great game. The well-documented Turkish involvement in Syrian and Crimean conflicts might indicate a certain degree of coordination of the tayyipist activities with the neocons running the US foreign policy. In both places, the "revolutions" appear to have been instigated by the same cast of characters and would have benefited the same groups. Currently they have lost the initiative in both places and may be trying to gain it back. A false-flag operation followed by a Turkish incursion into Syria at this time might have been very convenient for these interests. On the other hand, Russia, Iran, Turkish Nationalists and, in a more convoluted fashion, China, would have been the losers. I think we are still very close to a serious, world-wide conflict. Ishmael Zechariah P.s: Kuniri; I am very glad to see you posting again. Be safe."  Ishmael Zacariyah

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Be safe as well.  pl

Why is Saudi Arabia still thought a "vital ally" for the US?

"The Saudi royal family has been alarmed by Washington’s move toward a rapprochement with Iran as it seeks an agreement to limit Tehran’s nuclear program. The Saudis were also angered by Obama’s decision to hold back from using military force against Syria – another regional adversary – over its use of chemical weapons. The president was accompanied by secretary of state John Kerry and other senior officials. A White House statement after the two hours of talks said Obama had reiterated the significance Washington placed on its “strong” ties with the world's largest oil exporter."  Guardian

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 We really do not need Saudi Arabia any longer.

The family owned and run corporation called Saudi Arabia has been useful to the United States since the 1950s, but The Kingdom's relationship to the US has always been transactional in nature rather than an alliance that committed SA to do anything for the US that it did not wish to do.   To this day there are no documents of alliance, only arrangments for meetings, sales, training, etc.   The relationship has always been an odd thing.  SA has no civil law other than some elements ofthe Swiss commercial code.  There is no civil constitution.  "The Qur'an is our constitution."  Sharia law of the most severe sort is the official law code.  Amputations for theft are routine.  No religions other than Islam are allowed.  There are no civil rights other than those found in Qur'an and Hadith.  such appurtenances of civilized life as tourist visas do not exist.  It was always an awkward "partnership" for the United States except for the money made by US exporters re-cycling petro dollars to the US.  Saudi armed forces are largely a static display of military equipment useful only for internal security. 

On the other hand, Saudi petroleum was for a long time necessary to the Western World, Japan and parts unknown,  Saudi fear of godless communism made the country a useful tool in resisting Soviet penetration of the Middle East.   Saudi Arabia also contributed a lot of money to US covert actions that the US Congress would have refused to fund.

All that is gone now.  The US is rapidly emerging as what is likely to be the largest producer of petroleum products in the world.  Saudi oil and LNG are still useful but not vital.  There is no Soviet Union.

What Saudi Arabia wants from the US now is obedience and assistance in its long term project for Sunni triumphalism under Saudi domination throughout the Islamic World.  In Iran, Turkey, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Afghanistan, etc., the program is the same everywhere.

Is Obama dumb enough to accept such a role for the US?  I doubt it.  The level of his resistance to Saudi, Israeli and R2P/neocon excess is sometimes impressive.  pl  

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/28/obama-saudi-arabia-relations-key-ally

Foresman--Why Now Putin?

It would seem that our Intelligence Agencies believe that Russia will invaded Eastern Ukraine.  We should not be surprised.  After the President’s ill-advised dismissal of Russia as a Regional power, Putin like a wounded bear will fight back.

Russia is no Syria, no Iraq, no Afghanistan.  It is a nuclear power.  Let me say that again, it is a nuclear power.  It has missiles, it has bombs, and if further provoked they may use them.  Nuclear weapons are not something you ignore and pretend they will not use.

Why now is Putin attempting to pull together the Great Eastern Europe and Central Asia Prosperity Zone?  Since he took power he as been waiting.  He has been playing a long game.  Remember it was Churchill who said, “Russia is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma.”[1]  He has pretended the very modern 21^st Century leader, but in fact is nothing more than another Russian who wants to be Czar.

Putin has led the NATO nations to conclude that he is not a threat.  In order to balance the books, most of the Western NATO nations have reduced the size of their armed forces in the name of fiscal austerity.  The United States has reduced our forward based footprint in Germany to the 2^nd Cavalry Regiment (Stryker) and some support troops, with an Airborne Brigade in Italy.  For twelve years our troops in Germany, the United States and even a Brigade from Korea have rotated in an out of either Iraq or Afghanistan.  Putin knows we are tired, he knows our troops are tired.  He senses the growing isolationism of the American public.  Moreover he believes he can bleed the US dry economically. 

And he sense, what I have concluded, that the Obama, Rice, and Kerry foreign policy team are ineffectual.  The adults of the first administration Clinton, and Gates are gone.  The loss of Gates is particularly profound in that he was a Russian expert.  In his recent book he described as seeing in Putin a stone cold killer.

An invasion into the Eastern Ukraine directly threatens NATO members Poland, Slovenia, Romania and the Baltic States.  Putin is gambling that the NATO and US will not respond until after he takes the Eastern Ukraine.  But the question that should concern the NATO and the US will he stop here? 

How can we stop him if decides that Poland, Romania, and the Baltic States pine for a return to the umbrella of the Great Eastern Europe and Central Asia Prosperity Zone?

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[1] Read more at http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/quotes/w/winstonchu156896.html#E9SFyK4JWjdUtd1C.99

 

 

"Secrets about suspected Israeli theft of U.S. weapons-grade nuclear material declassified" IRMEP

"On March 18, 2014 ISCAP, the highest declassification authority in the U.S., released 84 pages (PDF) of formerly secret information about investigations into the illegal diversion of weapons-grade nuclear material from a Pennsylvania plant into the clandestine Israeli nuclear weapons program. Files now available to the public from IRmep's ISCAP process include: 4/2/1968 Letter from the Director of the CIA alerting the Attorney General (PDF) about a huge loss of material from Pennsylvania's Nuclear Materials and Equipment Corporation (NUMEC). "It is critical for us to establish whether or not the Israelis now have the capability for fabricating nuclear weapons which might be employed in the Near East." 03/09/1972 FBI memorandum (PDF) "On the basis of the foregoing it must be assumed for the purpose of U.S. national security that diversion of special nuclear materials to Israel by Dr. [Zalman] Shapiro and his [NUMEC] associates is a distinct possibility.""  IRMEP

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IRMEP is building a case brick by brick for the theft by Israeli controlled "shell companies" of large amounts of US owned and controlled fissile materials.  pl  

http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/secrets-about-suspected-israeli-theft-of-us-weapons-grade-nuclear-material-declassified---irmep-252658041.html

Making the unthinkable thinkable

"The ease with which a confrontation between two nuclear powers could escalate to a strategic exchange of MIRVed ballistic missiles carrying 3 to 10 hydrogen bombs each has been glossed over during the ongoing Ukraine Crisis.  Western media has devolved into 24/7 propaganda.  There has been no attempt to defuse the crisis.  Indeed, it is escalating.  This is probably because Washington DC cannot admit that it made a mistake in making a grab for dominanace in Ukraine.  For some ungodly reason, NATO’s expansion and Chevron’s fracking of Ukraine’s shale gas is worth risking Armageddon.   Unlike the defeats that began with the 1861 shelling of Fort Sumter, the 1914 Invasion of Belgium, or Barbarossa in 1941, a 21st century Ukraine War could destroy the Northern Hemisphere and make it uninhabitable. I just don’t understand why we would take this huge risk for a little more wealth and power.  This must be the result of a combination of ignorance, greed, denial, and ideology in the second decade in which the Western Elites have been unleashed from any sense of rules and regulations in international relations."  by Vietnam Vet

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I agree completely.  Bear baiting is a sport that should not be indulged in.

An additional worrisome factor in this emerging situation is the apparent effort to make tactical nuclear nuclear weapons "more usable."  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/B61_nuclear_bomb 

Nuclear weapons can not be used against another nuclear state without risking escalation to mutual annihilation and the use of such weapons against a non-nuclear state would simply be mass murder. The only justification for the possession of these true Weapons of Mass Destruction is as deterrent.  pl 

Russia - "a regional power?" Jersey Jeffersonian

Playing with fire, the vainglorious ass, Obama, has derided Russia by calling it merely a "regional powerWell, maybe, but it's a mighty damn big "region" and a well-armed "regional power" that has had a belly full of being pushed into a corner by ahistorical Jacobin asses such as our Maximal Leader.  Great thumping words, President Obama, you posturing fool. So now it seems that not only must we hope for the counsels of restraint from Gen. Dempsey, but we must also hope for a policy of levelheadedness and unemotional situational awareness from President Putin and his advisors.  Because for sure we are not seeing any of those admirable character traits on display from our own Misleaders, North American or European.   I spent the days of my youth with the ultimate Sword of Damocles, nuclear war, suspended balefully over my head.  And now these feckless buffoons casually toy with this again?  Tell me who the grownups are again, please. - Jersey Jeffersonian

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"The Sea of FaithWas once, too, at the full, and round earth's shore

Lay like the folds of a bright girdle furl'd.

But now I only hearIts melancholy, long, withdrawing roar,

Retreating, to the breath

Of the night-wind, down the vast edges drear

And naked shingles of the world."  Matthew Arnold 

http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2014/03/25/222358/obama-calls-russia-only-a-regional.html

pl

Of "States," "Nations," "Nation-States," and "Ecumenical Empires."

IMO a nation-state exists when an ethnic people bound together by language, tradition and history exist almost exclusively within the borders of a particular state (country) that is governed by s coherent system of law. Japan is a nation-state. Korea would be a nation-state if the two halves were united. Germany is not a nation-state. Germans live in great numbers in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Belgium (Flemings), arguably the Netherlands whether the Dutch like the idea or not. and in pockets all over central and eastern Europe. A "state"(country)is a territory with borders recognized in international law that is governed by a system of law that has power throughout the state. It is of no consequence whether or not a "state" is ethnically uniform. The Russian Federation is a state but it is not a nation-state.  At the same time it lacks the seemingly endless grasp and reach of authority that characterized such entities as Austria-Hungary, The Ottoman Empire,  The Roman Empire or the British Empire at its greatest size.  In those days before WW2 a globe map of the world seemed mostly to be colored pink.  East Africa was pink from Alexandria to Cape Town without a break.  And now, in a few years, the regular British Army will have 82,000 officers and men.  Incredible!  pl

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Bill Cumming urges me to put this former comment up as a topic for discussion.  pl

"Russian politician proposes new divisions of Ukraine" Reuters

"In a letter sent to the governments of Poland, Romania and Hungary, Vladimir Zhirinovsky also suggested those countries hold referendums on incorporating the regions into their territory. Zhirinovsky, whose nationalist Liberal Democratic party largely backs President Vladimir Putin in the Russian parliament, sent the letter as Russia annexed the Crimea region of southern Ukraine last week. He is deputy speaker at the Duma and his party holds a minority in the parliament. But his ideas and language resonate with a large part of the Russian population and the Kremlin's increasingly pro-nationalist rhetoric. His letter, seen by Reuters, suggested Poland, Hungary and Romania, who are now in the European Union, might wish to take back regions which he said were in the past their territories."  Reuters

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So, basically, this political ally of the Russian president has invited Poland, Hungary and Romania to exercise supposed irredentist claims against the Ukrainian state created by the Soviet Union as a result of soviet victory in world War 2. 

The borders of the territories in eastern Europe have ben moving around for many centuries.  In many cases the present borders are of recent invention.  The notion that they are somehow engraved on stone tablets in some distant Olympian vault never to change again is laughable to anyone who knows any history at all. 

It will be interesting to see if this idea is attractive to the Polish, Hungarian and Romanian peoples as opposed to their governments.   pl 

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/24/ukraine-crisis-partition-letter-idUSL5N0ML1LO20140324

Egypt sentences 529 to death.

"The mass sentencing underscored the severity of an ongoing campaign by Egypt’s military-backed leaders to silence opposition here, eight months after a military coup ousted Morsi, the country’s first democratically elected leader. It was unclear what evidence prosecutors presented to support Monday’s ruling, which came after only two court sessions. A defense attorney in the case said that the defense was never given access to the evidence and that none of the defendants — or even their attorneys — were allowed in court for the verdict."  Washpost

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 Impressive.  Presumably these people belonged to the MB  pl  

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/egypt-sentences-529-to-death/2014/03/24/a4f95692-6992-461e-aaf1-9bc84908a429_story.html

Prisoner Exchange: Pollard for Palestinians? - Peggy

 Israel is holding back on the release of the final group of 26 Palestinian prisoners promised in the current round of negotiations with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. The talks are now deadlocked. Would releasing Pollard save them from collapsing?

The talk of releasing Pollard as a gesture to Israel in return for the previously promised release of the prisoners cropped up last summer between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Secretary of State John Kerry. Nothing came of it. Haaretz reports that the “prisoner exchange” has come up again in an effort to keep the talks from collapsing.

No names and no attributions to the story. Trial balloon? Idle chatter? Kerry trying to convince Obama? What guarantee that the talks would finally go anywhere even with Pollard in Israel and the Palestinian prisoners back home?

Haaretz, March 23, http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.581444

Bargaining Chip: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.565943

Wikipedia (a pretty grim indictment of Pollard) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jonathan_Pollard

FNS invited the discraced neocon Wolfowitz to bloviate on US policy.

INGRAHAM: I think -- we have to look at the sense of upwards of $20 trillion in Iraq, right? We don't have a lot to show for it. We are stumbling still in Afghanistan.

American people -- I mean, we can talk about we should do this and we should do that -- and I understand that. I really do. But we have a country right now where people look around and say wait a second, why do we only seem to care about borders and sovereignty when they're other countries' border -- border and sovereignty? Why is it that we're obsessed about that but in our country, we have a middle class completely flat-lining, we have economic opportunity dwindling?

And I think it's a hard sell to the people spending money where we don't know where it's coming from in an economy that needs desperate help here.

So, these are the perils of military adventurism and previous decades. We're paying the price of that a little bit today.

I was a big supporter of the war in Iraq. And I understand there are a lot of complexities there. But the American people are looking and going, where is the bang for the buck? That's what they're running into, in the Democratic and Republican Parties.

(CROSSTALK)

WOLFOWITZ: You can't do this in the rearview mirror. The problem is --

INGRAHAM: You've got to learn from the past, Paul, right?

WOLFOWITZ: Yes, I know. But one of the things to learn from the past includes unfortunately the past of 1930s, is that if you don't deter this sort of moves early, when you can do it without military force, you end up in wars. And that's what we're trying to avoid here.

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One of the obsessions of the neocon faith is the need to deter Nazi Germany.  I agree that this would have been a good idea, but Russia in this decade is not Nazi Germany anymore than Iraq was in the time of Wolfowitz criminal folly.  This man admitted that he lied about Iraq WMD as a matter of political convenience in propaganda aimed at the US citizenry.  He was also dismissed from his post as president of the World Bank for malfeasance.  pl

http://www.foxnews.com/on-air/fox-news-sunday-chris-wallace/2014/03/23/inside-search-flight-370-gov-john-kasich-reflects-ohios-economic-turnaround

McAuliffe's new PAC - Times Dispatch

"McAuliffe’s political action committee, Common Good VA, would have barely qualified as news if not for the email announcing it: In addition to face time with the governor and first lady Dorothy McAuliffe, those contributing $10,000 to $100,000 could attend a monthly “roundtable discussion with policy experts.” There are some things you shouldn’t put in writing. To Republicans, eager to divert attention from the perceived ethical miscues of their own, the McAuliffe menu of eleemosynary options sounds suspiciously as if Virginia government is for sale. That’s a seamy image that’s become synonymous with Bob McDonnell. He and wife Maureen face trial in July for alleged Giftgate crimes."  Schapiro in the Times Dispatch

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Well, well.  Virginia government evidently is for sale under McAuliffe as it was under McDonnell.  In McDonnell's case this seems to have happened because of the undue influence of the unstable Lady Macbeth type at his side.  What is McAuliffe's excuse?

I suppose that the governator now realizes that he is unlikely to derive much joy from the House of Delegates as now peopled and reckons that he will sweep through the Commonwealth next election time with all the money he will raise with this PAC cleansing the Augean Stables, so to speak.  He probably hopes that then he will no longer look like an ass who cannot govern by means other than bullying and threats.

Sad to say for him, what may well happen is that the House will still have a Republican majority after that election and the Democrats may lose the US Senate this Autumn.  In that eventuality he and Obama can be lame ducks together.

The Washington Post is today whining about gerrymandered districts in Virginia.  Only losers whine.  pl   

http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/virginia-politics/jeff-schapiro/schapiro-in-raising-money-mcauliffe-raises-cain-for-himself/article_b6035b00-07da-5472-ba0d-f8ef6851f598.html

Obama and the "Mommas" by Thomas

Democracy promotion and regime change is the primary goal for Neo-conservative empire building. An example is the Director of Freedom House, he was previously with PNAC , the Jacobin club of our generation, received a government post for resume padding , and eventually winds up in the current post. It is how they place their people in key organizations to pursue the agenda. The Founding Mothers of R2P are Obama’s key advisors so their influence will naturally be reflected in his public comments. As the Mommas wanted to bombs away on Syria and he didn’t points to him not being a true R2Per or at least not as ideologically strident. I believe his problem is there are differing factions within his administration pushing their goals and undermining him at the same time, one in particular doing it intentionally. He lacks the experience or understanding to thwart this and therefore he goes from one crisis on fire to the next instigated by his own pyromaniacs. In the current day affairs, it is best to understand Russia, India and China along with many smaller countries as the rational actors with the US and EU in a stupor of false thinking caused by drinking from the poisoned chalice of moral superiority. The rational actors are working for a global system of stability and peace for their own domestic prosperity through international institutions. After all the disruptions (Nato expansion, Iraq, Georgia, Libya etc.), the Ukrainian Crisis was the proverbial straw breaking the camel’s back for Russia because a plan for transitional government was diplomatically agreed to, then broken with a violent overthrow (courtesy of the intentional pyromaniac). If this action was accepted, then could any agreement in the future (i.e. Syria) be trusted? Putin responded as a responsible statesman would when the national interests were directly challenged. Too fanciful, what the Rational Actors would want from a future US president is one who will keep their word , respect the interests of others, and have enough control over the administration that the rest of the government follows suit.  Thomas

 

Iran is building a model aircraft carrier

"Iran, U.S. officials say, is currently at work building a nonworking replica of an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier. From the sounds of it, the American intelligence community hasn't quite figured out why Iran is going through the trouble to do that, but the working theory appears to be: so they can blow it in a propaganda stunt. Or, as the New York Times gloriously put it this morning, "presumably for some mysteriously bellicose purposes.""  Slate

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Ah!  How cool!  Possibilities:

1.  Target vessel to be sunk in future exercise.

2.  Experiment in sympathetic magic to learn if real carriers are attracted to come and roost with this one, something like a duck decoy.

3.  Floating tourist attraction so that Iranian children can come and hurl stones at it.

4. Imaginative object concentrating yearning for a real carrier.

I vote for # 1.  pl       

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/03/21/iran_s_fake_aircraft_carrier_u_s_officials_say_iran_navy_might_blow_it_up.html

"Taliban attack on luxury hotel in Kabul kills 9 civilians" Washpost

"The Serena was also the target of a 2008 attack that killed hotel guests, but security has since been beefed up. The hotel is protected by private guards, not the Afghan government. Afghans have been gathering to mark the beginning of the traditional New Year. On Friday, a number of Afghans, including a deputy governor and a top aide, were wounded in an explosion in the southern city of Kandahar, where the devices had apparently been hidden in a box of fruit. The Thursday night attack on Serena came hours after a brazen raid by a group of Taliban militants killed 10 officers in a police station in the east of the country."  Washpost

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2008/2014  Same same.  We should get out of that country.  Let the Chinese deal with them.  pl

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/in-afghanistan-taliban-carry-out-two-attacks-raiding-hotel-police-station-killing-at-least-19/2014/03/21/0be8938e-b0c7-11e3-a49e-76adc9210f19_story.html

"America, the Exceptional" By Richard Sale

It cost some labor to put these musings of mine together because I am not a scholar on Russian history or the Cold War, but an obsessive reader who turns to books to try and figure out what is happening in certain areas of the world.  And it seems to me that the suspicious superiority with which we greet Russian pretensions today is not new, unique or surprising.

John Dewey once said that “habits are conditions of intellectual efficiency,” but when reactions to something new is habitual, we are in a lot of trouble. There have been many warnings by distinguished historians who claim that failures in international diplomacy are chiefly due to a certain national willfulness in pushing ahead idealistic conceptions to save the universe, combined with an inability to see events from another’s point of view. We see this today in the Ukraine crisis. We Americans don’t see other countries for what they truly are, because when a conflict comes, we look for similarities where we should be looking for differences. When we don’t find similarities, we become bitter. We Americans believe that if other nations had made more strenuous efforts to adopt our priceless values, our structures, and worshipped our innovation and hard work, their countries would have turned out to be more like ours -- not good to be equal to us, but sufficient enough for history.  There is only way to salvation in the world, we have taken it.

What lies at the base of many of our attitudes of judgment is national conceit. We don’t see others as being different from us. We don’t attempt to see events of another’s history objectively, but through the narrow lens that idolizes our national self image, an image that has never truly existed, but which never gets repudiated by U.S. public opinion because it is so flattering to us and to our pretensions of virtue. In our eyes, the events of our history seem just another testimony of our unique success in the world.

"Obama rules out 'military excursion' in Ukraine" Reuters

""We need do not need to trigger an actual war with Russia," he told KSDK, a St. Louis station owned by Gannett in a separate interview. Obama, who imposed sanctions on 11 Russian and Ukrainian officials on Monday, said the United States will push diplomatic efforts to bring pressure on Russia to loosen its grip on the Crimea region of southern Ukraine. "There is a better path, but I think even the Ukrainians would acknowledge that for us to engage Russia militarily would not be appropriate and would not be good for Ukraine either," Obama told KNSD."  Reuters

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Thank God.  Now he needs to shut Biden up.  A summit with Russia should be a top priority.  pl  

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/20/us-ukraine-crisis-obama-military-idUSBREA2J01C20140320

Israel attacked Syria for no good reason

"There is no evidence that the Syrian government was responsible for setting up a booby trap that injured four Israeli soldiers, but Israel's defense minister says it holds "the Assad regime responsible for what happens in its territory" as Syria's civil war spirals out of control The wave of airstrikes Israel carried out on Syria overnight not only demonstrated how it’s being drawn into the civil war there, but also the challenges awaiting Israelis on a battlefield crowded with non-state actors. Israel launched the attacks, which the Syrian government said killed one soldier and injured seven, to retaliate for the injuries to four of its own soldiers by a booby trap buried along the border fence with Syria the day before. The device was detonated after the Israelis left their armored vehicle to proceed on foot toward a shepherd, who may have been stationed near the fence to draw them toward the bomb according to the Israeli military. It was the fourth violent incident on Israel’s northern border this month, and the first to result in injuries, one of them serious. Yet there was no sign that the Syrian military was involved in placing the booby trap or was involved its detonation."  Time

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Israel's action is a transparent act of Chutzpah intended to damage Syria's government.  The belief persists in Israel that the fall of the Syrian government will greatly weaken Iran.  This is nonsense, but they choose to believe their own nonsense.  pl 

http://time.com/30208/israel-syria-assad/

"Pro-regime Sunni fighters in Aleppo " Al-Monitor

"... how can we account for the very real fact that the powerful pro-regime militias that have made such significant gains were drawn from the less privileged Sunni classes? What could explain certain Sunni towns and villages in the Aleppo countryside — Jibreen, for example — being staunchly pro-regime while the majority of rural Aleppan Sunnis are vehemently allied with the opposition? It’s easy enough to understand why the villages of Nibol and Zahra are loyalist and their men volunteer to fight for the regime, as they’re predominantly Shiite, but the Nayrab Palestinian refugee camp is Sunni, and its men have formed their own militia, the Al-Quds Brigades. They fight alongside other local pro-regime militias, such as the National Defense Force, which is also mostly Sunni and drawn from loyalist villages as well as clans like the Berri — whose leader Zeno was infamously executed in a hail of bullets as rebels first stormed Aleppo summer of 2012. They have been at the vanguard pushing rebels back from the Aleppo airport into Marjeh. It is also interesting to note that just like Nibol and Zahra, the Nayrab refugee camp had also been under siege by the rebels until very recently, and that only added to the camp's fury. The most likely explanation is a complex mix of tribal and clan loyalties, as well as a deeply ingrained sense of nationalism."  Al-Monitor

--------------------------

This Aleppo story is, in itself, of great interest, but the larger question of the ethno-sectarian composition of government forces and militias in general is extremely important.

The propaganda of the opposition seeks to make it a "given" that only; Alawis, the Shia and Christians  fight for the government and that the government is practising ethnic cleansing against Sunni Arabs on a grand scale.

I question that.  Let us discuss this.  I want real evidence not mere propaganda.  pl   

http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2014/03/syria-aleppo-sunni-quds-baath-brigades.html?utm_source=Al-Monitor+Newsletter+[English]&utm_campaign=dadfce1b75-January_9_20141_8_2014&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_28264b27a0-dadfce1b75-93066749

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2013/08/01/syria-sunnis-assad/2599927/

Feinstein vs the CIA

"During a fiery speech Tuesday that stunned lawmakers and members of the intelligence community, Feinstein, a California Democrat, accused the CIA of secretly taking classified documents from her staff's computers during an oversight investigation. Her comments made public a private long running saga over the review of documents related to the post 9/11 Bush administration program for questioning terror suspects -- a practice that ultimately was ended by President Barack Obama in 2009."  CNN

-------------------------

Senator Feinstein is a sometimes liberal congressperson from Califirnia whose husband is a vastly rich man.  She has been known to place his private jet at the disposal of people she likes or who agree with her.  Going home for the weekend is not a big hardship for her.  As noted in the linked article she has been an unrelenting advocate of gun control as well as federal police and intelligence capabilities, placing these seemingly above all else.  It is interesting that her attifudes toward police and governmentetal controls mirror those of Israel.

On the other hand, she has the "right end of the stick" in expressing forcefully the constitutional necessity of effective legislative oversight of the Executive Branch and in this matter she has my support.

She is a hypocrite in this matter but it is a good hypocrisy.  pl   

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/13/politics/feinstein-cia-snooping-hypocrisy/

An "Off Ramp"

"Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry agreed on Sunday to seek a solution to crisis in Ukraine by pushing for constitutional reforms there, the Russian foreign ministry said. It did not go into details on the kind of reforms needed except to say they should come "in a generally acceptable form and while taking into the account the interests of all regions of Ukraine"."  Reuters

---------------------

Ahhh!  This could well be the way out of the present escalatory menace. 

- Russia "wins" the referendum.

- Russia abstains at least temporarily from de jure annexation of the Crimea

- The EU and the US insist on meaningful constitutional modification by the Ukrainian state.

- The resulting new Ukraine is not brought into NATO

- NATO reiterates that an attack on a present NATO state is an attack on all.  pl

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/16/us-ukraine-crisis-lavrov-kerry-idUSBREA2F05Y20140316

"Ukraine Crisis: Six Reasons Why U.S. Use Of Military Forces Is Unthinkable" Loren Thompson

"Russia has the ability to utterly destroy America. Local conflicts have a way of getting out of control when foreign powers intervene. In any military confrontation between U.S. and Russian forces, there is a danger of escalation not only to conventional combat, but beyond — in other words, to the use of nuclear weapons. That may sound like an improbable scenario, but it’s no more outlandish than an assassination attempt by Serbian nationalists leading to a World War, and yet that actually happened — in the same region. Russia has thousands of nuclear warheads, and the only defense America has against such weapons is retaliation in kind. Think of the possibilities."  Loren Thompson in Forbes

-------------------------

Let's keep all this in mind, folks.  Stay calm and don't listen to people like McCain.  pl  

http://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2014/03/13/ukraine-crisis-six-reasons-why-u-s-use-of-military-forces-is-unthinkable/

"Who Cares Anyway?" A Short Story by Richard Sale

  

Jack

 

“I don’t like other people.  And they don’t like me either.

“I’ll live.

“My mom says it’s because I’m selfish. But if she improved herself instead of criticizing me all the time, maybe I would have had a new father by now. I don’t have a father, by the way. The old one left.

“I used by BB gun again yesterday. The bird fell. I watched it hit the ground. I wonder what the bird was thinking. Anyway, who cares? Who cares about what a bird thinks? That is why I practice and train. I train to hit targets. I train to get better skills.

“What do I really like to do? I like video games where soldiers kill enemies. It takes skill to kill enemies. It is exciting too. You don’t get bored. On the screen the enemy soldiers pop up from the ground all of a sudden, and you have to hit them to win. You have to pile up points. In the game, when you hit a guy, the blood gets splashed on the ground. I like that. The blood makes it more real. Blood doesn’t bother me, by the way.

“My friend, Roger, has a father who shoots real guns.  He is training me to shoot! Roger’s father is okay because Roger gets to do what he likes.  At my house, my mom doesn’t like me, as you probably can tell:  I am a poor student, I’m messy, I don’t tidy up my room. The other day I left my shower towel on the bed, and she comes in and says in that voice of hers, “Is it really too much to ask that you pick up your stuff? You know the burdens I’m under. You know I can’t bear things. I can’t do all of this alone.” She goes saying that while other boys make their mother’s proud, she has nothing to be proud in me. And I think, proud of what?

“Anyway, life is boring, and I hate school.  I have a Latin teacher who doesn’t like me.  Why study a language that no one speaks anymore? It is fun watching her getting angry at me. It like watching a dog growling and showing its gums.  I saw dog like that once. My mom is after me about school again today, but why should I pay attention?  We all sit like groups of grouse on the ground, little seated birds being preached at. My class is full of weenies. A lot of teachers think that I am a boy after their own heart, but I want nothing to do with all that learning shit.  It’s not for me.  Even before I went to school, knew I would cut a poor figure – I knew it before I went there. So what? Let the other kids be the center of attention.  If I could do what I like and do what I really wanted, I would be able to hunt all the time, be out in the big, vacant lot near our house all the time. In school, I cannot study.  I sit there at my desk, and I stare at the books, I tried to make out what they meant, but I couldn’t. I really tried, but nothing happened. My mind just doesn’t work.  I just sit there.

"U.S. Army Gets Big-Ass Old-School Gun"

"In early 2011, the Army responded to these demands and sent some Vietnam-era recoilless rifles to Afghanistan. The troops were thrilled with the variety of ammunition available for these weapons, including a shell that scatters thousands of little metal darts called flechettes. In December 2011, Special Operations Command diverted some of its Carl Gustaf rifles and ammunition to the regular Army. American commandos have used the Swedish guns since the 1990s. Troops in Afghanistan got 58 rifles and 1,500 rounds of ammunition to try out. This included air-bursting high explosive rounds that are designed to hit enemies behind cover."  medium.com

-------------------------------

Having seen what the old 57 mm recoiless with flechette rounds did to infantry assaults I can only praise the wondrousness of this development.  With the muzzle just above the terrrain mask or berm the 57 blew a hole 10 yards wide in an advancing infantry platoon.  Flechettes are flexible steel darts.  They will actually pin arms to ribs in a man who is hit.

When I was a kid lieutenant I ran a rifle company's weapons platoon for a while.  This was in 2/2 Infantry Regiment.  I had two jeep mounted 106mm recoiless guns in the platoon.  these were anti-tank guns, but they, too, had a wealth of different types of ammunition that made them a source of great firepower against almost any kind of target.  the 106 had a coaxially mounted 50 caliber spotter rifle.  The 50 caliber fired tracer ammunition.  The trigger was a disk on the side of the gun.  If you pulled it toward you it fired the 50.  If you pushed it in, it fired the 106.  The whole thing was ridiculously easy.  You looked through the scope on the big gun, put the cross hairs on the target, fired the 50 and watched where the tracer went. When you got a hit with the 50 you pushed the disk in and the 106 round went where the 50 bullet had struck  This gun was very accurate at long ranges.

Important safety tip (Ghostbusters reference) Don't ever stand behind one.  pl  

 

https://medium.com/war-is-boring/80401a4e4ebb 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Gustav_recoilless_rifle

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M18_recoilless_rifle 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M40_recoilless_rifle

 

Saudi Arabia turns away from the jihadis in Syria.

"Saudi Arabia has formally designated the Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation. An interior ministry statement also classified two jihadist groups fighting with the Syrian rebels - the Nusra Front and the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant - as terrorist groups. The statement gave Saudis fighting in Syria 15 days to return. A royal decree issued last month said any citizen found guilty of fighting in conflicts abroad faced a jail sentence.  This is the strongest warning so far to Saudis fighting with extremist groups in Syria. The Saudis clearly now fear similar blowback from having encouraged jihadist rebels there as they faced a decade ago when militants returning home attacked domestic targets. The statement also bans an exhaustive list of activities - including meetings, funding and online communication - that could be seen as supporting such groups. But it goes further, encompassing any activism seen as seditious. The message goes wider too - coming as it does in the midst of a diplomatic offensive against Qatar. Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Bahrain have all withdrawn their ambassadors from Doha in an unprecedentedly public dispute over Qatar's perceived support for the Muslim Brotherhood. Hundreds of Saudis are believed to be fighting in Syria, and correspondents say Riyadh fears they could pose a security risk when they return home. Although the kingdom has supported the Sunni-led rebels fighting to overthrow Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, it has long feared a backlash from radical jihadist groups. Last month, King Abdullah decreed jail terms of up to 20 years for anyone belonging to "terrorist groups" or fighting abroad. The new law also promised tough sanctions for anyone backing the incriminated organisations."  BBC

--------------------

This sounds like bad news for the designated groups.  It is also bad news for Prince Bandar bin Sultan who has been the executive agent for provision of Saudi funding and political support for jihadi groups in many regions.  He is an interesting character.  A Princeton graduate and a jet pilot, at one point he was dean of the diplomatic corps in Washington and had many american "friends" among the mighty.   This started to "go South" for him when an unencrypted phone call between him and his father revealed how much he despised and mocked the very people he professed to admire.  His mother was an Ethiopian (jarriya  habashiya- slave concubine) and although always a wunderkind of the Saudi royal family, Bandar was never a possibility to be king.  The Saudis are much more racist than they admit to.  

Both the Russians and the Iranians have had serious discussions with King Abdullah bin Abd al-Aziz on the subject of possible severe retribution for continuation of support for such groups.

It seems that these talks have had effect.  pl  

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26487092

Dempsey pushes back against war fever - Harper

General Martin Dempsey, U.S. Chairman of the
 Joint Chiefs of Staff, gave a lengthy interview to Judy Woodruff
 on Friday night's PBS News Hour and delivered a carefully balanced
 picture of how the U.S. military is managing the unfolding
 Ukraine crisis, both reassuring European NATO allies that treaty
 obligations will be honored, while maintaining constant
 communications with Russian counterparts, to assure there are no
 miscalculations leading to conflict. Gen. Dempsey, clearly aware
 of the boundaries between military advice and political
 decision-making, did not attempt to under-play the danger of
 conflict, particularly given the occupant of the White House.

 

McCauliffe vs the House of Delegates, So far, he has lost.

"In a state that was cautious about expanding Medicaid long before President Obama’s 2010 health-care law offered billions of dollars in new enticements, the Republican-controlled House of Delegates and Democratic Gov. Terry McAuliffe are locked in a dispute over what government is for. The value judgments embedded in Virginia’s current Medicaid system about who deserves coverage and who doesn’t — pregnant women do, childless adults don’t, for example — would be replaced by a standard set in Washington. That is seen as an unwanted intrusion by some and a welcome reform by others, leaving both camps claiming not to understand where the other is coming from. While shifting demographics helped Democrats sweep all statewide races in November and the state twice voted for Obama, Virginia is experiencing a homegrown version of the divided government that has stymied Washington."  Washpost

------------------------

I started reading the Washington Post when I was 18 and a college freshman in the Commonwealth.  I have read it ever since.  In all that time what I have seen in the pages of the Post is an unrelenting attack against everything in Virginia that the Post dislikes.  The only things the Post seems to like in Virginia are minority populations and the Democratic Party of Virginia.

I should say that I am not particularly opposed to Medicaid expansion in Virginia.  I have written that several times, but that fact is irrelevant.  The struggle between this governor and the House of Delegates is not about my opinion.

The General Assembly has adjourned without passing a budget.  The governor says he will recall them for a special session to further consider the budget.  McCauliffe tried hard to apply his "sophisticate" "House of Cards"  methods in the adjourned session.  He found that the "unenlightened," as Senator Patsy Ticer used to call the oh, so polite, and well dressed gentlemen and ladies on the GOP sida of the General Assembly, were unmoved by better liquor in the governor's mansion and persistent arm twisting and threats by McCauliffe and company.  In fact, as native Virginians have observed on SST, such tactics probably made victory less likely for McCauliffe and his bully boys.

Now we will have a special session.  Why McCauliffe thinks he will have better success is unclear to me.  He, as governor, has to run the state government.  For that he needs a budget.  The two thirds of the House of Delegates who are Republicans come from secure seats in the vast swath across Virginia inhabited by people who would never vote for anyone like McCauliffe.  These people will not be deprived of their representation and all the nonsense about demographic change will not change that.

I wrote here that McCauliffe would "break his teeth" over Medicaid expansion.  I continue to believe that to be true.  IMO the fiscal provisions of the expansion after the first few years are just an excuse for "country party" resistance.  This is a political and cultural matter.  pl         

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/dc-politics/medicaid-debate-in-va-government-echoes-among-residents/2014/03/08/92304cfc-a537-11e3-a5fa-55f0c77bf39c_story.html?hpid=z2

Escalation possibilities in Ukraine... Habakkuk

"In relation to the escalatory potentials of this situation, the passions liable to be aroused by the readiness of the U.S. and E.U. to identify themselves with West Ukrainian nationalists should not be underestimated. An article by Patrick Cockburn which has just appeared in the ‘Independent’ deals with the Lviv pogrom of July 1941, to which ‘harry’ referred in a previous thread, recalling the murder of his uncle’s family. An excerpt: ‘I thought about Lviv again last week when I saw a sentence in a newspaper referring to it as “a bastion of Ukrainian nationalism”. ‘I wondered just how much the writer knew about Ukrainian nationalists in Lviv and the strong evidence that, in 1941, they had played a leading role in one of the horror stories of the Second World War. ‘This was the Lviv pogrom of 1 July 1941, when thousands of Jews were dragged from their homes, beaten and executed by either German troops or their Ukrainian helpers. Ukrainian politicians and historians have denied complicity, but surviving Jewish victims, other witnesses and contemporary photographs prove that Ukrainian militiamen and mobs of supporters carried out the pogrom, though the Germans oversaw it and committed many of the murders.’ Drawing on a study by the Canadian-Ukrainian historian Professor John-Paul Himka, Cockburn notes that the pogrom: ‘was primarily carried out by the militia of the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) acting under German auspices. It happened quickly after the German occupation because the OUN wanted to show “the Germans that it shared their anti-Jewish perspectives and that it was worthy to be entrusted with the formation of a Ukrainian state.”

(See http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/to-see-what-ukraines-future-may-be-just-look-at-lvivs-shameful-past-9178968.html )

Actually it was not simply Jews who were murdered. The purge of the Polish ruling elite in the area initiated by Stalin was carried on by the Germans and their Ukrainian allies. Among the transcripts of the bugged conversations among captured German generals recorded at Trent Park, one finds the following explanation by General Rothkirch to General von Choltitz: ‘Of course masses of people were shot at Lvov. Thousands of them! First the Jews, then Poles who were also shot in thousands, non-Jews, the whole aristocracy and great landed proprietors and masses of students.’ As Cockburn notes, one cannot simply assume that the present generation of Ukrainian nationalists are ideological descendants of pro-Nazi Ukrainians. The truth actually appears to be that many aren’t, but some, and in particular some of the most active and influential, may well be. In any case, it might perhaps be advisable if people like Victorian Nudelman/Nuland, and Mr and Mrs Sikorski looked a little more closely at who some of their little friends are. Similarly, before Hilary Clinton compared Putin to Hitler she might perhaps have reflected on the fact that he was born in what was then Leningrad eight years after the end of the siege, and that his older brother died as a child of diptheria in the siege."  Habakkuk

Maddow, Isikoff and Corn explain the Iraq War

 "MADDOW:  At the top of the list for Bremer is oil.

 BREMER:  I had been told we had to get the oil going because it was  an oil-dominated economy.  This was fairly straightforward.  Unless you can  get the oil going, you can`t get the economy going.

  MADDOW:  What Bremer and his team find when they get into Iraq is an  oil infrastructure decimated by decades of war, sanctions, and corruption.

   ROB MCKEE, COALITION PROVISIONAL AUTHORITY:  I was shocked when I got  there about how undercapitalized it had been, how neglected it was.

    BREMER:  The oil fields were being held together by baling wire and  duct tape, in some cases literally duct tape.

    MADDOW:  The day after Bremer arrives in Baghdad, the Bush  administration draws up secret policy guidelines, which are later  declassified, stating that the coalition will move to privatize state-owned  enterprises in Iraq, including the oil industry.

     BREMER:  Oil was the lifeblood of the Iraqi economy.  You got to get  the oil going if you`re going to get the economy going.  It was not  something we were going for selfish American reasons or because we wanted  more oil on the world market or all of these fantasies that people dream  up.  We were doing it because we were the Iraqi government."   MSNBC

----------------------

It has been my contention for a decade that the neocon drive to invade Iraq and revolutionize the Middle East has to be seen against a long US policy of maintaining energy flows out of the Gulf (that Gulf).  That does not mean that the decision to invade Iraq was made by nefarious oil industry interests rather than by the Bush/neocon government.

 It should be remembered that Saddam would have been more than happy to have UN/US sanctions against  Iraqi oil production and exports relaxed so that Iraq could earn foreign exchange.

Maddow and MSNBC are relentlessly Left and anti-capitalist.  She, Isikoff and Corn take every opportunity in this production to exonerate the neocons and blame the war on business.  pl 

http://www.nbcnews.com/id/54605650/ns/msnbc-rachel_maddow_show/#.Uxn6UmeYa00

Obama's Ladder - 6 March 2014

POTUS shares the general opinion in the US that we run the world.  In pursuit of that belief he intends to sanction Russia in various ways including the punishment of private Russian capital and capitalists in the belief that rich people in Russia will force Putin to obey us.

What will happen is that Russia will match us rung by rung in going up an escalatory ladder of sanctions;  visas, seizures, etc.

Russia will certainly annex the Crimea.

How far is Obama prepared to go up that ladder?  Somewhere near the top lies a transition to military red lines and the possibility of a nuclear exchange that would destroy both Russia and the US.  pl

The CPMC (Civilian/Political/Media Complex) and/or the "Intel Pukes" - CP

"... It all comes down to properly assessing the reliability of a source, that analysts are given the time necessary for that and that reality is being taken into account. I think the inherent problem of such situations as we saw in Jugoslavia, Iraq, with Syria policy and now in Ukraine, is that there is a strong political impetus that wants a particular policy that heavily favours friendly news. We have a 24h news cycle now, and that means that the political side tries to put out stories in support of political objectives as soon as they bcome available and still have news value to shape the narrative. This is propaganda pure and simple. It has nothing to do with reality. The idea may be summed up as move fast, pick the stories you want, be first, and no more questions please. In essence, policy moves faster than the understanding of the situation, and the decision makers are so cocksure of themselves that they don't bother operating in the fog. Brandon O'Neill has called these people ahistorical and I concur. They don't know history, and they don't care. What I marvel at is the degree of decentralised harmonisation that one can see at play in western and in partuicular in US media in such circumstances. Either they play along willingly and tacitly, or they are out of their depth and simply overwhelmed with events they have no time (or inclination or knowledge) to think through. Or is it just an elite consensus of an old boys and gals crowd, some sort of DC insisder intellectual incest? I can't otherwise explain the piss poor performance we see with the hair-dos on tv and in the severely skewed reporting one can read in the newspapers. The problem inherent in that is that not just the public but in particular the political sides is never fully or orperly informed, and thus prone fall prey to believing their own propaganda. And these people are necessarily mislading their publics as much as their enemies. Regime change ops like this require secrecy and, more importantly, it inevitably requires domestic propaganda (something putatively prohibited in the US). It's a small step from staying on message to believe all that crap yourself. It probably is one way to calm the inevitable dissonance arising from knowing better and selling something else in full knowledge it is wrong. Believing that wrong is right must be tempting then, even kore so among true believers who want to be good, want to do good. It is small comfort that, of all things, they would find their redemtrion in self delusion. And of course, all of it flies on the face of parliementary oversight (and in the US, the odds are the overseers are fully on board wih any of this) and government transparency. The intel people then must be the perpetual skunks at the picknick, whose views endanger the policy - dangerous people who must be reigned in and watched with suspicion. It is worse, however, when the Intel people want to be team players and drink the proverbial kool aid. A thankless job. Afterthought: In a sense, the intelligence apparatus was rid of a conflict of interest when it was to drop the subversive mission and when Reagan outsourced it to bodies like NED. The underlying propblem however wasn't not one of the intelligence services but one of the US government wanting policies regardles of facts on the ground. That problem persists regardles of reorganisation. It is as curent now as it was in 2003 or during Iran-Contra." Confused Ponderer

-------------

CP is a German friend who studies world affairs and in particular the United States.  The link below might assist the discussion.  pl

Download Artists Versus Bureaucrats...

The NED at Work By Richard Sale

The National Endowment for Democracy (NED) is a Washington D.C-based quasi-governmental organization funded by the U.S. which boasts that it is "supporting freedom around the world."^[1]

Alan Weinstein, one of the founders of the NED, explained in 1991:

A lot of what we [NED] do was done 25 years ago covertly by the CIA ^[2]

Most of the NED, and its affiliated organizations, deals with influencing political processes abroad. The means employed range from influencing civil society, media, fostering business groups, lending support to preferred politicians/political parties, election monitoring, and fostering human rights groups.

It’s right there in the organizations own statements: 

Dr. Strangelove returns.

Last night  General (ret.) George Joulwan  was interviewed by Wolf Blitzer.  In the course of this discussion Joulwan told Blitzer that NATO should play tough with Russia, move troops around, make belligerent statements, etc.  Blitzer basically told him to shut up.  Georgie was variously theater commander in Latin America and in Europe.  Whilst in Europe he was an advocate of driving the NATO alliance as far east as possible for the evident purpose of "penning up" Russia.  So, I suppose that Joulwan can be thought of as one of the early architects of the policy that brought us to this point.  George was never too bright.  He made his way as a horse holder for various senior officers and as a hale fellow.  Today I also listened as Donna Brazile, a political consultant assured her audience that war with Russia is not our "only option."

There used to be a considerable body of literature about what would happen if the US and Russia "squared off " with each other.

Perhaps some of it should be re-visited.  pl

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_Strangelove

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guns_of_August

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fail-Safe_%281964_film%29

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/By_Dawn%27s_Early_Light

 

A Southerner moves North

"Jan.10 5:00 P.M. It’s starting to snow. The first of the season and the first one we’ve seen in years. The wife and I took our hot buttered rum and sat by the picture window, watching the soft flakes drift down, clinging to the trees and covering the ground. It was beautiful!

Jan. 11 We awoke to a lovely blanket of crystal white snow covering the landscape. What a fantastic sight. Every tree and shrub covered with a beautiful white mantle. I shoveled snow for the first time ever and loved it. I did both our driveway and our sidewalk. Later a city snowplow came along and accidently covered up our driveway with compacted snow from the street. The driver smiled and waved. I waved back and shoveled it again.

Jan. 12 It snowed an additional 5 inches last night, and the temperature has dropped to around 11 degrees. Several limbs on the trees and shrubs snapped due to the weight of the snow. I shoveled our driveway again. Shortly afterwards, the snowplow came by and did his trick again. Much of the snow is now brownish-gray.

Jan. 13 Warmed up enough during the day to create some slush which soon became ice when the temperature dropped again. Bought snow tires for both cars. Fell on my ass in the driveway. $145 to a chiropractor, but nothing was broken. More snow and ice expected.

Jan. 14 Still cold. Sold the wife’s car and bought a 4×4 in order to get her to work. Slid into a guardrail anyway and did a considerable amount of damage to the right rear quarter-panel. Had another 8 inches of the white shit last night. Both vehicles covered in salt and crud. More shoveling in store for me today. That goddamn snowplow came by twice today.

Jan. 15 2 degrees outside. More fuckin’ snow. Not a tree or shrub on our property that hasn’t been damaged. Power was off most of the night. Tried to keep from freezing to death with candles and a kerosene heater, which tipped over and nearly burned the house down. I managed to put the flames out, but suffered second degree burns on my hands and lost all my eyelashes and eyebrows. Car slid on ice on way to emergency room and was totalled.

Jan.16 Goddamn mother fuckin’ white shit keeps on coming down. Have to put on all the clothes we own just to get to the fuckin’ mailbox. If I ever catch the son-of-a-bitch that drives the snowplow, I’ll chew open his chest and rip out his heart. I think he hides around the corner and waits for me to open our driveway again! Power still off. Toilet froze and part of the roof has started to cave in.

Jan.17 Six goddamn more fuckin’ inches of fuckin’ snow and fuckin’ sleet and fuckin’ ice and God knows what other kind of white fuckin’ shit fell last night. I wounded the fuckin’ snowplow asshole with an ice axe, but he got away. Wife left me. Car won’t start. I think I’m going snow blind. I can’t move my toes. I haven’t seen the sun in weeks. More snow predicted. Wind chill -22 fuckin’ degrees. I’m moving back to South Carolina!"   Unknown Southerner

"There is appearance, and then there is reality." Joe Bob Newman

My old friend Colonel Joe Bob was a true sage filled with such bon mots.  John Kerry would have benefited greatly from Joe Bob's counsel.

Folks, I remind that many of you were quite sure that Russia would not take military action and instead would rely on diplomatic and economic sanctions.  You were wrong.  The Russians did not "play it safe."  They intend to annex the Crimea one way or another.  Their seizure of the port of Kerch in the east indicates an intention to further reinforce their forces in the Crimea.  The big ship ferries will be used to move armor, artillery and other heavy equipment from the Russian mainland for the purpose of consolidating their position against a decision on the part of Kiev to fight for the Crimea or the likely Tatar resistance to come.

The Russians will be carefully considering EU willingness to cooperate with the US in economic and political actions that will punish them as much as Russia.  IMO it is unlikely that EU countries will boycott Russian gas or entertain seriously the notion of ejecting Russia from the G-8.  If that is the case then the chances will rise to well above 50% that Russia will invade the rest of Ukraine to restore what they see as the legitimate and constitutional government.  The purpose of this will be to eliminate the influence of anti-Russian political factions and ensure that Ukraine does not move into the EU or NATO.    Would the Ukrainian Army fight?  Probably they would but to little effect.  I doubt that Russia would try to re-absorb non-Crimean Ukraine.  The costs would be too high but the chance to smash what the Russians see as a US plot organized to eliminate Russia's role in Ukraine may well be so alluring that temporary occupation of the country may occur.

Against that background the pathetic bleating of the pundits is simply wrong.  The idea that history and human societies have something like organic life and that all of that has direction and motion is incorrect.  History is just things that happened.  It has no direction of change.  It does not really change.  People do not change.  Their motivations remain what they always were.  To speak of Russian action as being characteristic of the 19th or 20th centuries is inane.  The Russians are proving that to be the case.

The newspapers and 24/7 news bilge is today full of outrage.  It is meaningless outrage.  Russia has strategic nuclear forces sufficient to eliminate any threat of significant US military action and the Europeans will not sacrifice their worldly goods for the Galicians and the Crimean Tatars.

It is clear that Putin is unconcerned with hard words directed at him from the West.  The blonde BBC newsbabe said on Morning Joe today that she has now learned that a man who does not care what you think of him is difficult to deal with.  More people should learn that lesson.  pl

 

ISIS imposes Dhimmitude on Syrian Christians

"The directive from ISIS, citing the Islamic concept of "dhimma", requires Christians in the city to pay tax of around half an ounce (14g) of pure gold in exchange for their safety.  It says Christians must not make renovations to churches, display crosses or other religious symbols outside churches, ring church bells or pray in public. Christians must not carry arms, and must follow other rules imposed by ISIS (also known as ISIL) on their daily lives. The statement said the group had met Christian representatives and offered them three choices - they could convert to Islam, accept ISIS' conditions, or reject their control and risk being killed. "If they reject, they are subject to being legitimate targets, and nothing will remain between them and ISIS other than the sword," the statement said. A group of 20 Christian leaders chose to accept the new set of rules, ISIS said."  BBC

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This set of restrictions was normal practise in Islamic states before colonial administrations interfered with their freedom of action.  The post colonial governments have ,in the main, shrunk from re-imposing this set of restrictions.  The Baath and Hashemite states never tried to restrict Christians in this way.  Yes, I mean Syria among them.  This is why the Syrian Christians support Assad.  pl 

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-26366197

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dhimmi

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jizya

 

 

We must not think of fighting Russia over Ukraine!

There is a lot of nonsense being expressed on the Sunday news shows today.  Mike Rogers, the chairman of the HPSCI said on FNS that 1- military intervention by the US was out of the question, and 2- it is unfortunate that the Ukrainians do not have tactical nuclear weapons.  On the Fariid Zakariyah extravaganza Zbig and Madeleine Albright ventilated their passions.  Zbig hates Russians (he is a Polosh gentleman of the old school) and Madeleine is still trapped in the memory of WW2.  The desire to believe that the Nazis have returned was clear.  The mere fact that the Ukrainian right wing nationalists who overthrew the government are more like Nazis than anyone else on the scene was ignored.  Zakariya himself was so worked up that he looked as though he might have a stroke.  Too much Oxbridge and Ivy is a heavy burden for anyone to bear. 

The only sane voice was that of Stephen Cohen.  He was a lecturer that I heard at both the staff college and the war college.  He looks to be in amazingly good shape for his age.  He said that Putin was nothing like a Nazi.  He said that Putin is trying to restore Russia's dignity in the world and that he had been severely provoked by the overthrow of Yanuchenko's government after an agreement had been reached under EU sponsorship for a transition.  Cohen is obviously of Jewish heritage and he said that Putin has been the Russian ruler most favorable to the Jews in the history of the country.

In any event, one sole fact must be remembered by all the arm waving foreign policy enthusiasts.  Russia possesses the ability to destroy the United States as we have the ability to destroy Russia.  There can be no combat between us and them.  None!  The risk of escalation is just too great.  pl

The tanks will be rolling in a matter of days - TTG

RT reported Putin has asked the upper house of parliament for authority to use the armed forces to stabilize the situation in Ukraine. The request is for the entire Ukraine, not just Crimea. The Federation Council opened the parlimentary session to the Russian national anthem just hours ago. The session was televised live on RT with several speeches and a unanimous vote to support the decision. One senator suggested recalling the Russian ambassador in Washington in response to the inflammatory speech given by Obama yesterday. History in the making.

Sergei Aksenov, the new Crimean prime minister asked Putin for military assistance after revealing armed thugs from Kiev attempted to take over several Crimean state buildings last night. Local citizen self defense squads repelled the attacks. He placed all Ukrainian armed forces and police in Crimea under his personal command. This is after the events of two nights ago when unidentified, incredibly disciplined forces appeared at Simferopol apparently thwarting the arrival of Tartar "jihadists" and weapons from Turkey. This incident is well reported by the Saker and Moon of Alabama.  

Klitschko in Kiev just called for Ukrainian mobilization to face an imminent Russian invasion. Do the upstarts in Kiev have any control over the Ukrainian armed forces? RT just reported a Ukrainian naval vessel steaming in the Black Sea lowered the Ukrainian flag, raised the Russian flag and headed for Sevastopol. Surely Russian officers have been talking with their Ukrainian counterparts to gauge their loyalty. Undoubtedly some of these Ukrainian forces will greet the Russian columns as liberators and assist in controlling airfields and maintaining order. GRU Spetznaz teams have undoubtedly been monitoring Ukrainian forces and are prepared to act at the right moment. They will certainly target the Maidan neonazi hooligans and their Western supporters with cold, lethal precision. The SVR is collecting most, if not all, activist communications to aid the impending military operations and to further expose the mounting evidence of Western perfidy.  Long range reconnaissance troops will soon be clearing routes into the Ukrainian heartland. Any of us who trained to face the Soviet 3rd Shock Army across the Fulda Gap knows this was standard procedure decades ago.

Yes, the tanks will be rolling in a matter of days. Once they cross the border, I doubt they will stop until they are in Kiev and at the Polish border.

TTG

The Crimea will soon be back in Russia

"Mr. Putin’s request, largely a formality, signaled publicly for the first time the Kremlin’s readiness to intervene militarily in Ukraine, and it served as a blunt response to President Obama, who just hours earlier pointedly warned Russia to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty. Even as Mr. Putin submitted his request to the Senate, formally called the Federation Council, it was clear that forces allied with Moscow were largely in control of the disputed peninsula."  NY Times

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It is becoming clear that the Nuland/neocon/NED campaign against Russia in Ukraine was probably a covert action intended to punish Russia for not supporting US/Israeli/Saudi and Turkish policy in Syria and to some extent with regard to Iran.  I have no specific knowledge of US actions in this but "back azimuths" run into events and actors make the true story obvious.  Was there to be a second phase of the spread of revolution, a phase aimed at Russia itself?  We will probably never know.

In any case Putin has called Obama's bluff.  You should not threaten if you are not prepared to act.  The Russian Strategic Missile Forces have the ability to end civilization in North America.  The same is true with regard to the capabilities of US missile forces if they were applied to the Eurasian land mass.  for those who have forgotten or never knew, this is called MAD (mutual assured destruction).  Russian and US ICBM forces cancel each other out as instruments of war.

Obama threatened penalties for Russia for disobedience to his warnings.

What could they be?:

- Conventional war conducted by the US in Russia's back yard would be very foolish.  The risk of escalation to nuclear war would loom large.

- The editorial board of the Washington Post suggests diplomatic and economic sanctions against Russia.

What?

-We would close our diplomatic posts in Russia and withdraw our ambassador?

-We would boycott the G-8 meeting in Sochi?

- We would persuade the Europeans to boycott Russian natural gas? 

- We would seek UN sanctions against Russia?  They would veto anything like that.

- We would not allow them to participate in diplomacy involving Syria and Iran?

You get the picture.  pl  

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/03/02/world/europe/ukraine.html?hpw&rref=world&_r=0

http://www.cnn.com/2014/03/01/world/europe/ukraine-politics/

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/condemnation-isnt-enough-for-russian-actions-in-crimea/2014/02/28/7b93b7c0-a09d-11e3-9ba6-800d1192d08b_story.html?tid=pm_opinions_pophttp://

www.haaretz.com/news/world/1.577114