Borgist Vapidity on The Zakariya Newsie Show

Fareed Zakariya the man who loves America as he would like it to be, assembled a panel of his fellow Borgistas today to ask their opinions on the shape of events to come in 2016.

The group was made up of Richard Haas, Anne Marie Slaughter and some other dweeb whose name I can never remember (old age showing).

For me, the most interesting aspect of their meditations was the contemplation of the fate of Syria in this year.  Not a word was said throughout of the combat situation in either Syria or Iraq.   The talk was all of the diplomatic prospects involved in the apparent belief that the progress of the war(s) on the ground meant nothing.  I presume that this is at least in part the result of the total military ignorance of the participants.

But,  Haas is the well entrenched president of the CFR.

Anne Marie Slaughter is the head of the New America Foundation

The dweeb is the acerbic head of some foundation for great thinkers. 

Slaughter is obviously parked at NAF in waiting for appointment by HC as secretary of something or other.  She opined in her prediction on Syria that Russia will soon "cave" and become "cooperative" because the public psychology in Russia is incapable of accepting casualties.  She seems to think that everyone will "come to their senses" if they are scolded enough.   She favors a federated Syria.  I guess she does not understand that federation is not thought of as other than weakness in the ME.  (The UAE is a club for sovereign princes nd is hardly a country at all).  She also thinks that a negotiated settlement in Syria can be reached without Turkish acquiescence.

R+6 is advancing everywhere; south of Damascus they are approaching the Israeli occupied Golan Heights and are now just east of the Israeli demolished city of Quneitra.  R+6 is also pressing NE from Kuweires air base, SW from Aleppo and the Syrian Army with Russian support is grinding up rebel forces along the approaches to Idlib Province.  This attritional battle will result IMO in a breakthrough moment.

The YPG Kurds and their Green Beret pals are moving west against the rhetorical resistance of Sultan Tayyip's Turkey.   This is made possible by US air and the air defense umbrella provided by the Russian expeditionary force. 

The discourse here on SST sometimes lapses into social science gibberish, completely detached from reality, but the comparison to the actual Borgist elites makes you all look good.  pl 

Comments

[b]

Anne Marie Slaughter left the State Department because she had to work too much. Clinton commented of her as something like a lazy bi***. That is why I don't think she will be back.

That he believes that Russia or its people will fold just shows that she has zero knowledge of history. Did the Russian people cave under the Leningrad siege? In Stalingrad or Sevastopol? The Russian were always willing and able to endure a lot and then some. They would be the last to fold under any circumstance.

[Will]

i liked the Col.'s description of the guests better, but here is the official version:

"Fareed convenes a panel of top analysts including New America Foundation President Anne-Marie Slaughter, Council on Foreign Relations President Richard Haass, Rana Foroohar, Time's assistant managing editor for economics, Wall Street Journal columnist Bret Stephens."

[Kooshy]

Col. Lang, you must have missed, as of the new year he is, Sultan Tayyip Hitler, of Turkey

[The Beaver]

Good Morning Colonel
Happy New Year to all

That dweeb is this dude ( or another self-proclaimed expert):

https://twitter.com/ianbremmer?lang=en

Ian Bremmer - yet another Polit Sci who coined the phrase "G-Zero":
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/politics/2013/06/g8-g20-g-zero-why-no-one-wants-take-charge-new-global-order

[LG]

comparing current events with your predictions for this period in the Jihadi Apocalypse War Games, you were absolutely spot on for everything. Also SST's commentators- one even predicted the downing of a Russian plane over Egypt.

Bravo.

[Jack]

Sir

It is striking how little the Borgistas discuss the actual war in Syria. As you note R+6 are grinding down the jihadists on many fronts. I've read they are massing forces around Idlib as you predicted.

http://www.almasdarnews.com/article/hezbollah-syrian-army-prepare-major-military-operation-idlib/

Sir, in this situation where R+6 have momentum and superior fire power, how can they hold ground on such a wide front all over the country when the jihadists are focused on hit & run tactics with their highly mobile small group forces?

[turcopolier]

jack

IMO the majority of the rebels are focused on holding ground so as to take over the country in what is essentially a conventional war. that is their great weakness IS is less committed to holding ground except in their essential centers. This makes IS a more dangerous opponent. pl

[Jack]

All

Video report from Southern Daraa by RT correspondent. Note how devastated the town is. I'm sure its similar across the entire battle frontline.

https://www.rt.com/news/327715-syria-assault-rt-gazdiev/

[turcopolier]

jack

you will be surprised how rapidly such places will be re-built after fighting stops. pl

[Jack]

Sir

That will be something to behold. No doubt there will be a lot of capital flowing in.

[oofda]

Slaughter's comment about the Russian people not accepting casualties is nonsense. And she teaches/taught at Princeton? If they feel that it is a worthy fight- and needed for their safety and security, they will endure enormous losses of blood and treasure. Not only Stalingrad or Leningrad in WWII- look at what happened in WWI. Huge losses accepted until the end. And then there was a place called Borodino.

[Lisa]

At some point the Syrian Army (and allies) are going to have slow down, or even stop for a period to regroup. They have taken casualities and with limited reserves some parts will be getting tired. There is also the need to consolidate recaptured territories.

That is all perfectly natural of course and after a pause you would expect further advances. But I can just imagine what all the Borg like commentators will say at that point.

[Chris Chuba]

That was an apt description Col. I have abandoned any hope that anyone, especially members of a think tank will acknowledge that there already is a peace plan on the table that calls for elections that will result in a unified Syria and that battlefield events may cause reluctant parties to accept reality. Get ready for MSM headlines like, 'unexpected end of Syrian civil war' or 'this or that agency taken by surprise at sudden end of Syrian Civil war'.

Regarding Fareed Zakariya, I must say that he is my favorite Borg. He is like the stray who could survive outside the collective. I saw his interview with Assad's cousin a couple of weeks ago and if you compare his interview vs. the one by Minka and Morning Joe, let's just say at least the lights were on.

[fasteddiez]

Bret Stephens, a neocon extraordinaire, former editor of the Jerusalem Times (a right wing rag as opposed to Haaretz). If Fareed was too dumb to know he had assembled an ultra neocon panel is one thing; if not
CNN did it for him.

[fasteddiez]

Why yes, Carson and the tech witch Fiorina approved of this action. This may backfire in that any goober who reads newspapers will interpret this as a seal of approval for Sharia Law being forced down their gagging throats, in their townships of course.

[fasteddiez]

I understand that the Chinese have pledged many billions toward reconstruction. Methinks, a sure fire way to get an alliance and a seaport in the Med, not to mention trade an access to oil through pipelines.

[EGrise]

I was so gobsmacked by her statement I almost didn't finish watching.

[kao_hsien_chih]

People like her planned Pearl Harbor--because, obviously, those decadent Americans wouldn't accept casualties...

[raksh wah]

It is not clear to me how the Russians will respond to attrition when not defending their country ??? I know their history when attacked.

[Ghost ship]

So far, the Russian military seemed to have suffered two dead in three months that I've read about. On the Eastern Front in World War 2, the Soviet military suffered two dead on average roughly every twenty three seconds if my calculations are correct. Anne Marie Slaughter really doesn't have a clue.
(10,600,000 dead in 1417 days)
As for Anne Marie Slaughter, she'll be back. Most Americans are strong believers in redemption so all she has to do is go round the various TV networks claiming she has "seen the light" and all will be forgven

[Chris Chuba]

I am not picking a fight with you Lisa but I have been reading about manpower shortages of the SAA for a while, one reference from SSW that was posted here on SST as well as other places. My only comment is that the SAA isn't acting like an army that has manpower shortages. I have been surprised given these reports at how they have maintained the initiative on so many different fronts in a short period of time.

Over the past two weeks ...
1. In Latakia they have advanced in the area near where the Russian Jet was downed as well as taking heights in the Salma area.
2. In Aleppo they have taken a stab at highway M5 at a couple of places.
3. From Kuweires they have advanced north about 6km and it looks like they are 12km from Al Bab.
4. In the Homs area they re-took a line of villages from ISIS near M5, a group of villages that some media outlets made some hay about when ISIS grabbed them after the start of the Russian intervention.
5. The SAA has a large offensive in the south near the Golan Heights.
There are other operations that I am probably missing.

I have no idea what to expect next. I hope that they can take Al Bab.

One thing I would be very curious to learn about is to know if there are any reports on how effective the T90's are against the TOW anti-tank weapons. The T90's look very similar to the T72's to me, if the T90's work well against the TOW's then even a small number could create problems for the rebels if they have problems identifying them.

[mbrenner]

This is where social science gibberish could come in handy. Had she substituted poly-syllabic and abstruse words for comprehensible, if moronic comments, no one would have noticed. To paraphrase an old Italian saying: "jargon hides the stupidity of the pundit."

[Tyler]

Plagiarist Fareed was bragging a few days ago about how whites are about to be a minority in the US.

Another reason why "deport them all" is a practical solution - how many rootless cosmopolitans like this court eunuch and his ilk would be exposed like moles to the plow if you took away his access to the Imperial City?

[chantose]

I would like to re-recommend to this committee’s attention an essay that toto linked to back on Dec 30 in a post under “Iraqi forces still suck:”

>> toto said...
>> Of interest:
>> https://aeon.co/essays/why-isis-has-the-potential-to-be-a-world-altering-revolution


This is IMHO an interesting attempt to understand ISIS from the jihadist point of view, based on on-the-ground research & interviews while trying to avoid the various Borgist mindsets in US and Europe. The author seems to have insights as to why men fight that echo some of those that Col. Land and other wise heads here have tried to pound into the thick skulls of the rest of us here (and elsewhere, with, let us say, varying success).

I would greatly value the comments or critique of the committee on this article, as it seems to me to pull together many threads relevant to the dynamics of revolutionary jihadism.

Tip of the cap to toto for a good catch.

[turcopolier]

chantose

"Lang," not "Land." pl