Even the neo-con warmongers’ house journal The Guardian, furious at Trump’s attempts to pull US troops out of Syria, in producing a map to illustrate its point, could only produce one single, uncertain, very short pen stroke to describe the minute strip of territory it claims ISIS still control on the Iraqi border.
Of course, the Guardian produces the argument that continued US military presence is necessary to ensure that ISIS does not spring back to life in Syria. The fallacy of that argument can be easily demonstrated. In Afghanistan, the USA has managed to drag out the long process of humiliating defeat in war even further than it did in Vietnam. It is plain as a pikestaff that the presence of US occupation troops is itself the best recruiting sergeant for resistance. In Sikunder Burnes I trace how the battle lines of tribal alliances there today are precisely the same ones the British faced in 1841. We just attach labels like Taliban to hide the fact that invaders face national resistance.
The secret to ending the strength of ISIS in Syria is not the continued presence of American troops. It is for America’s ever closer allies in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf to cut off the major artery of money and arms, which we should never forget in origin and for a long time had a strong US component. The US/Saudi/Israeli alliance against Iran is the most important geo-political factor in the region today. It is high time this alliance stopped both funding ISIS and pretending to fight it; schizophrenia is not a foreign policy stance.
There has been no significant Shia Islamic terrorist or other threat against the West in recent years. 9/11 was carried out by Saudi Sunni militants. Al Qaida, ISIS, Al Nusra, Boko Haram, these are all Sunni groups, and all Saudi sponsored. It is a matter of lunacy that the West has adopted the posture that it is Iran – which has sponsored not one attack on the West in recent memory – which is the threat in the Middle East.
The origin of this stance appears to lie in the fact that the Shia group Hezbollah proved to have the only military force among Israel’s neighbours capable of halting an Israeli invasion. After the disastrous invasion of Iraq resulted in an Iran friendly regime in Baghdad, the US decided for balance of power reasons to back Saudi regional power plays, only for Saudi Arabia to fall into the hands of the psychopathic warmonger Mohammed Bin Salman who escalated an already flawed policy to breaking point.
The chaos of this incoherent and counterproductive strategy is, peculiarly enough, what the neocons actually want. Perpetual war and destabilisation in the Middle East is their goal. One of the findings I had not expected to discover in writing Sikunder Burnes was that the British had been deliberately exploiting and exacerbating the Shia/Sunni divide as early as 1836 to the Imperial purpose. Today, by keeping Arab populations poor and politically divided, the neo-cons believe that they enhance the security of Israel, and they certainly do facilitate the access of western companies to the oil and gas of the region, as we see in destabilised Iraq and Libya.
The Clintons and Blair were the apotheosis of the capture of the mainstream “left” political parties by this neo-con Imperialist agenda in the Middle East. Sanders, Trump and Corbyn were the first politicians with any chance of power for many decades who did not pay lip-service to the neo-con agenda. Trump’s lack of enthusiasm for Cold War politics has been neutralised from any possible action on his part by the ludicrous lie that Russia hacked his election. Furthermore his greed has led to deals with Saudi Arabia which have largely undercut his declared preference for non-interventionism. And now in Syria, the very hint that Trump may not be fully committed to the pursuit of perpetual war has the entire neo-con establishment, political media and NGO, screaming in unison, both sides of the Atlantic.
I have written before that Trump may be a rotten President for Americans, but at least he has not initiated a major war; and I am quite sure Hillary would have done by now. For a non-American, the choice between Hillary and Trump ended up in balancing on one side of the scale the evil of millions more killed and maimed in the Middle East and the launching of a full on, unreserved new Cold War, against on the other side of the scale poorer Americans having very bad healthcare and social provision and America adopting racist immigration policies. I do hope that the neo-con barrage today arguing for more American troops in the Middle East, will help people remember just how very unattractive also is the Hillary side of the equation.
It is also very helpful in revealing the startling unanimity of our bought and paid for political, media and NGO class here in the UK.
Moon of Alabama provides an interesting analysis of why Trump did it.
“The U.S. military and the neoconservatives elements in Trump’s administration wanted to hold onto the northeast of Syria for an unlimited time. They planned to establish a Kurdish entity and finance it with the Syrian oil fields they occupied. They had plans to arm and train some 40,000 Kurdish troops.”
Erdogan didn’t like the sound of that. So
“It seems that Erdogan made a deal with Trump, which is now turned into practical moves. Yesterday Turkey was suddenly offered to buy advanced Patriot missile defense systems. It had earlier decided to buy the Russian S-400 system. Now we learn the U.S. troops move out. What other surprises are in this deal? What does Trump get out of it? How does this change Turkey’s relation with Russia?”
Trump Steals Prize For Defeating ISIS
U.S. To Pull Troops From Syria Immediately
By Moon Of Alabama
Updated below
December 19, 2018 “Information Clearing House” – The Wall Street Journal just reported that U.S. troops prepare to leave northeast Syria:
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50802.htm
That makes sense, Jane. Turkey doesn’t need advanced air defence systems – who is going to bomb it? Not NATO unless it goes absolutely psycho. Hardly Russia, which uses more graduated and subtle means. And as a member of NATO, Turkey is indirectly protected by the threat that anyone who does attack it will be treating as having declaring war on the USA.
I was always unhappy about the touted S-400 deal, largely because Turkey cannot be trusted with Russian military secrets. It makes perfect sense for that deal to be scrapped – on the Turks’ initiative, of course, so Russia’s good faith remains unimpeached. Let the Turks buy Patriot, which is essentially useless except as a discreet way of paying a few billion dollars’ extra tribute to the New Rome.
Indeed. I think Russia will make a terrible mistake giving S400 to Turkey. US military power depends in controlling the air space above the land it dominates. S400 is a counter to this domination. S300 was given to Syria very late, only after Russian air crew deaths. Turkey was the conduit through which all the jihadis entered Syria and eager to carve up Syria. Russia saved Syria but in its quest to prize Turkey from NATO got blinded to Turkeys desire for Syrian land. How can Putin reconcile the fact that Turkey supports the so called rebels and continues its membership of NATO, even after its rejection by Europe to join its club and coup attempt. I would not trust it with S400 secrets. This deal with US seems more evidence for Russia to give up on Turkey. Putin has to concentrate on his alliance with Iran and China. Hopefully he and Lavrov can convince India to come off the fence, ditch US and make peace with China and even Pakistan. Then we are talking !
I hope Assad gets his oil fields back and Turkey does not just replace US control. Russia is very poor and cant afford to confront Turkey. China should become more pro active and help. US wont let up its desire to maintain its grip and a uni polar world void of any rules, save its Might is Right doctrine.
They haven’t delivered the S-400s yet, Wikikettle. And I hope they never do. After all they sold SAMs to Iran and Syria and then didn’t deliver for years.
It could easily be argued that, now they have the world-class Patriot, the only possible reason they would want S-400s would be to reverse engineer them. Hence no deal.
Besides, Russia and its allies need all the S-300s and S-400s they can make.
Agreed Tom. Russia needs all the S400’s itself to defend its huge land mass. Putin has done an amazing job for his nation despite being surrounded and sanctioned. Any attempt to normalize relations with his “partners” in the west has been rejected. I hope the Russian people never forget the sacrifices of the Great Patriotic War and the long road from defeat to victory against Hitler. I used to have a Ukrainian landlord in the late 70’s that fought for Hitler. Its frightening that we now support these people and have NATO troops on Russia’s door step. No doubt the US will try everything to stop North Stream to Europe and a many more provocations. I agree with good people like Craig, but fear nationalism. How can a new Scotland align itself with a Europe dominated by NATO and far right governments. Very dangerous times for us. Yet the folk in all the countries we have destroyed will laugh at my bleating, while I sit in a warm comfortable lifestyle – there’s the rub.
Incredible it has come to this. The leftmost journal of the British MSM attacking John Bolton and Mike Pompeo for not being hawkish enough.
Sarge
You can be sure the same MSM will do everything now to push for false flags (i.e. chemical attacks) to make US bomb and maim some more.
Bolton and Pompeo are NOT on board with this.
https://www.politico.com/story/2018/12/19/trump-threat-iran-syria-1070274
Trump is indeed to be praised for this announcement. Whether it actually happens remains to be seen.
Bolton is 100% deranged on matters Middle East and Iran in particular. He is on record as recently as this year as stating that the Iranian government is imminently going to be replaced by the MEK.
Craig rightly states that Iran has not been behind any recent attacks on the West. As for dangerous, delusional loonys around Trump, his original National Security Advisor, Michael Flynn wrote a book (The Field of Fight, paperback 2017) with unhinged zionist polemicist Michael Ledeen that claimed that the East Africa, US Embassy bombings of 1998 (claimed by AQ) were actually false flag operations conducted by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.
@Vivian:
“Bolton is 100% deranged on matters Middle East and Iran in particular…”
Bolton is 100% deranged. The rest of the sentence is redundant.
FTFY.
Okay, I didn’t know this particular announcement was against their wishes.
But the question remains for anybody clinging to the idea that Trump is somehow resistant to the neocon agenda: why does he want these two, of all people, as his chief foreign policy advisors? Even by DC standards they were notorious chickenhawks, yet he appointed them to stations that were beyond their wildest dreams.
My best guess as far as answering your question.
a) All possible candidates for the posts MUST come from a right wing, MIC, think tank background. Any alternative is unthinkable.
b) Trump ‘ain’t that bright and chooses from the selection proffered by the Deep State.
All things considered, Trump would be better referring to his “recruit from Fox News” policy and hire Tucker Carlson. I believe his position at Fox hangs on a shoogly peg as of the last couple of days anyways.
Trump is clearly a fan of the “Carry a big stick” school of diplomacy. So he sees that having nutters like Bolton on board allows him to negotiate with the Iranians and North Koreans from a position of strength. It also keeps the accusations of being “Putin’s Puppet” etc at bay.
And how long will Bolton last anyway? It seems that if you work for Trump your P45 is never far away.
Pulling troops out doesn’t mean they will stop bombing or targeting with drones. So far, Trump is on course to ‘out bomb’ Obomba. Every 20 minutes, 24/7, the US drops a bomb on someone, combatant or civilian, somewhere in the worlds. Most of those countries are predominantly muslim. Look back to the PNAC think tank and the ‘new American century’, their professed aim was to maintain a permanent war, somewhere. Terrorist reprisals are simply an operating overhead against keeping the military industrial complex buoyant.
https://foreignpolicy.com/2017/08/09/donald-trump-is-dropping-bombs-at-unprecedented-levels/
Absolutely. Continued drone war. Direct replacement of US troops with another state troops (France or Gulf state?). Replacement of US troops with (euphemistically termed) “private contractors”. A false flag chemical weapons attack to kibosh the withdrawal entirely (they’ve done it before).
On a more technical point, the est. 3,500 US troops illegally occupying Syria includes units of the National Guard. There was a time when the National Guard wasn’t deployed overseas (G. W. Bush put an end to that precedent). The US military must be pretty stretched if National Guard units are being deployed to open ended, danger money bases.
The national guard soldiers were from logistical and engineering units and only a few dozen at that. Mainly deployed building bridges and fixing utilities, not fighting.
Hi Craig,
One reason (and I believe the main one) for the US rowing back on overseas occupation is the fact that it is on the verge of a huge balance of payments and deficits problem. Basically the cost of overseas occupation has become unsustainable as the US has exported its industrial base and relied on dollars exports for its purchases and occupations.
Their Defence Department brought out a comprehensive report this year highlighting the huge risks of outsourcing and calls for massive inward investment and reindustrialisation to counter the “Chinese” threat. This is a HUGELY important report and recommendation.
This is also why the US is tightening monetary policy (and will continue to do so) despite worsening economic conditions as it attempts to retrench and become self-reliant again. The report can be found at the start of this summary. A path to self-reliance will be its own oil industry and the end of ICE cars. Hence the MEast and its oil will diminish in significance.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.csis.org/analysis/review-warns-defense-industrial-base-faces-unprecedented-set-challenges%3famp
Above link to Centre for Strategic Studies, reposted, sanitised for those who’d rather avoid Google Amp:
https://www.csis.org/analysis/review-warns-defense-industrial-base-faces-unprecedented-set-challenges
Odd that this should break just as the US government’s official (i.e. minimum) indebtedness is about to reach $22 trillion…
https://www.rt.com/op-ed/446868-trillion-pentagon-audit-failed/
It also helps to explain why terrorists never seem to lack for anything. You can buy one hell of a lot of weapons for even a couple of trillion.
:
😉
Somewhat delusional to think that the United States of World Horror is going to do ANYTHING coordinated to eliminate ICE cars!!!
They LOVE ’em; and now Trump especially is in power the “ICE lobbyists”, the Fossil fuel lobbyists have never been in a stronger position.
Hell, the price of gas (petrol) drops by not very much, and the sales of gaz-guzzling road-eaters rises disproportionately – such is the average American IQ of the Stepford Wives, Stepford husbands, daughters … sons … usw infesting that place. Struggling to reach triple digits in WAY too many cases.
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Thanks to Craig for his voice, almost alone against the barrage of lies and distortions in the MSM. Best wishes to him and his family for the Season. And not forgetting Julian in his torment.
_____
The Campaign Against the Arms Trade review their activity during 2018.
https://www.caat.org.uk/events/reports/highlights/2018
They write – ‘During 2018 we saw some real successes in the struggle to stop the horror that is the arms industry and end its catastrophic impact on people all over the world. With your support, we secured a 2019 date at the Court of Appeal to pursue our case against government-sanctioned arms sales to Saudi Arabia.
CAAT supporters took action across the UK, campaigners chased an arms fair out of Cardiff, artists withdrew their work from the Design Museum in protest at links to an arms manufacturer, and students persuaded Leeds University to divest from arms companies.
Please share our achievements on Facebook or Twitter or consider forwarding this email on to your friends to tell them why you support our campaign to end arms sales to human rights-abusers. We’ll be starting 2019 by exposing collaboration between MPs and arms dealers at the annual ADS dinner on 23 January, and bringing together activists to plan opposition to the DSEI arms fair at the It Starts Here conference on 9-10 March – please put the date in your diary now. And the more people who join the movement to end the arms trade, the closer we get to achieving real change.’
Craig is nowhere near alone. A lot of other independent thinkers have been exposing the MSM for years. Try Medialens, Jonathan Cooke, Gordon Damocles, John Pilger, Galloway etc. Plus others in US including Jimmy Dore, Morris Berman, Dmitry Orlon, etc.
Predictive text sucks. Should be Dymock and Orlov.
No more heroes!
WTF ? When did independent journalists translate into heroes?
TURN IT OFF !
And of course Peter Hitchens, who has a huge readership but assiduously avoids the neocon mania that his late brother succumbed to.
Hitchens reaches huge numbers of people who would never venture into Pilger/Galloway/Murray land, making him an important voice.
add Patrick Cockburn, Robert Fisk…
I am baffled about the heinous pro-war sentiment I read hours after Trump allegedly will pull out of Syria. Even so called leftists voices condemn Syria when he will stop a war!?
Is War suddenly something good? Is bombing Syria without legal premises not important?
Have they no shame when the fact also is that:
Over 3,300 Syrian civilians killed in US-led airstrikes: report
https://www.alaraby.co.uk/english/news/2018/9/23/over-3-300-syrian-civilians-killed-in-us-led-airstrikes-report
With crazied people like this, who needs Integrity Initiative?!
typo
*voices condemn Trump
Jack
I sometimes think that US and UK policies operate in a parallel universe. Not only is war good but war on behalf of what Al Qaeda has morphed into is good. In this all the western protagonists, US,UK, France, Israel, Turkey and KSA are agreed. Protecting the Islamic terrorists is much more important than protecting the integrity and national interest of all Syrians.
Whilst I agree with this analysis I also warn that we have been there before
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-syria/trump-tells-advisers-he-wants-u-s-out-of-syria-senior-officials-idUSKBN1H61J0
Followed by false flag chemical weapons use and then this
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-syria/trump-tells-advisers-he-wants-u-s-out-of-syria-senior-officials-idUSKBN1H61J0
Thus bringing Trump back into the fold. So watch out for a chemical weapons attack in Syria.
The truth behind all of this is that the POTUS is only powerful if the whole military industrial, media, banker and secret services are in agreement with his policies. Trump was lauded when he attacked Syria by the likes of the Guardian and is now being criticized.
The other false argument being reinforced is that the illegal US (and UK and French) presence in Syria is what has caused the collapse of DAESH, a blatant untruth as it was only after the Russian intervention in 2015 that DAESH started to be rolled back, before then they were on the ascendant.
No doubt the whole of this is also tied up with Turkey’s ambitions in Syria and its desire to thwart Kurdish Nationalism and in this it appears that Erdogan has been very successful at playing both US and Russia to his benefit.
It seems to stem from the addiction of all world powers to use weapon sales as the most important instrument of world trade, for without wars there would be no need for lucrative deals to sell weapons. I believe that 30% or more US manufacture and exports is of military equipment. There is therefore no incentive to stop wars amongst those who benefit. It also appears that the Russophobia that has now become a major feature of HMG policy is driven by the fact that post Brexit, this would be our major export.
Weapons, protection rackets, sex services, drugs, moneylending and gambling account for more than half of the US economy.
Two charmers here – Erdan and Dichter, the latter who has ‘enough bullets for every Palestinian’. Does he mean ‘dum dum’ bullets, illegal under international law, that expand on impact and tear open the flesh down to the bones and joints, used by IDF snipers at the Gaza border?
‘Senior Israeli Lawmaker Calls for Killing All Palestinians, “Because they are just Nazis Anyhow”
Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan said that “the number [of peaceful Palestinian protesters] killed does not mean anything because they are just Nazis anyhow.”
By Days of Palestine
December 19, 2018 Chair of the Defence Committee at the Israeli Parliament Avi Dichter has called for killing all the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.
As he was commenting on the peaceful protests of the Great March of Return taking place along the eastern fence of the Gaza Strip, he said: “The Israeli army has enough bullets for every Palestinian.”
Dichter is a senior member of the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ruling Likud Party, which is a right wing one.
Former director of Shin Bet internal security service and Minister of Internal Security Dichter said that the Israeli army is prepared to use all means, including lethal force to deter the Palestinians protesters.
Since March 31, thousands of peaceful Palestinian protesters have been staging protests along the eastern fence of the Gaza Strip, calling for lifting the 12-year-old Israeli siege and reinforcing the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homes.
Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan repeatedly referred to the protesters killed in Gaza as “Nazis,” saying that there were no demonstrations, just “Nazi anger.” He later added: “The number [of peaceful Palestinian protesters] killed does not mean anything because they are just Nazis anyhow.”
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/50806.htm
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Thank you, SE.
Stomach-churningly evil and manipulative I$rael so-called ‘politicians’. Grasping colonials.
A pariah State possessing WMD’s. Hopefully their days are numbered.
RIP David Kelly.
1984 and Handmaid’s Tale in front of our very eyes.
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@Sharp Ears
“…‘dum dum’ bullets, illegal under international law…”
I fear you have made a category error. You mentioned “law” in the same context as Israel.
The machinations of the geopolitics may not make sense from the ringside we are sitting in, with only a limited view of the slaughterfest of the brown skinned people in those far off lands.
However, considering the ISIS* leaders whom have been given free passage, and helped with air lifts from one overran enclave to set up shop in another enclave in Syria. In an effort to further extend/expand/consolidate the moonscape that was once a thriving, safe country. That is despite the dangers posed by the “deluge” of the refugees whom have not curled up and died or waited to be beheaded or shot/hanged** by the very “religious” ISIS thugs. As we have witnessed these refugees to set on the roads crossing many miles to find their way into safe havens in Europe and elsewhere in their millions; nearly ruining the carefully crafted echo chamber, and fine balance of the amalgam of truthiness (truth and fiction) that has been spun in the lands these refugees are settling in.
However, as in evidence the arena gets tighter for our own ISIS thugs operating in Syria, moving these mercenaries from one corner of Syria to another is no longer a viable option, as evident in moving the said sponsored mercenaries further afield into Afghanistan.
Hence, the current dash for withdrawal from Syria could be a rationalization of the resources that are to be allocated elsewhere in the theatre of savagery and wholesale destruction that South Asia and Mid East have come to be. The efforts and contributions of the various coattail riders in decrying the end of the direct US involvement in Syria are merely designed to keep and maintain the echo chamber so assiduously instantiated in place. This is in perpetration to facilitate the sequestrations of the tax dollars/pounds/euros by the military industrial complex and the relevant fat cat/ghoul share holders, in their next leg of profit taking and the coming unleashing of the tsunami of death elsewhere.
* Read our very own trained, funded, equipped, guided thugs and mercenaries, whom we have helped with their planning, and tactical and media support.
** 700 souls have been hanged/shot/beheaded in Deir ez-Zur in the last few weeks by the quixotic ephemeral “ISIS entrepreneurs” whose appetite for murder and sex are further fuelled by their copious use of crystal meths
Great to see you back Fedup
You remain Very well iinformed
All the best
Hi Brian,
Thanks for your kind words.
We all need to maintain our vigilance on the psychotic throw backs that through bizarre circumstances have managed to rise and gain access to the levers of power, for the sole purpose of steering the humanity on such a destructive path, through their promotion of the imaginary/contrived/artificial zero-sum proposition that sets brother against brother and father against son.
How is your photography coming along?
Been kinda slow this year Fedup.. It was a Great Festival at Doune.. my mind is full of ideas but the heat wave nearly done me in.. I missed a lot of Jiu Jitsu.
This from my fave wee place this autumn..we go there every year for my birthday in October – ..although we may go in the summer next year..cos there is A Big All Under One Banner March in Oban.
Anyhoo
Ellenabeich – Oct 2018
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132108640@N08/
Me..2018.. Still protesting outside bbC.. Horrified to see upsidown Flag..But its the effort n thoughts that count -…Flag Fixed.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/132108640@N08/42228687530/in/dateposted-friend/
@fedup:
“…the psychotic throw backs that through bizarre circumstances have managed to rise and gain access to the levers of power…”
There is nothing “bizarre” about it. The secret of accumulating money, essentially, is being hyper-focused on it to the exclusion of everything else. Someone of reasonable intelligence who is interested only in money and ways to get it will usually do so – often by their early twenties or even teens.
The same applies to power.
While the saner 99.9% of the human race is enjoying the good things of life – to the extent their means allow – that (arguably psychopathic) 0.01% is busy industriously grubbing money, making connections, and building power. Even when they have become rich and influential, they cannot change their stripes – condemned, like King Midas, to keep struggling desperately to accumulate more of what is essentially worthless. Not even rulers and billionaires are able to relax and enjoy life – there is always someone who has more money, or to whom one must still defer (while inwardly frothing with frustrated resentment). Larry Ellison has notoriously never been satisfied with his fortune, because Bill Gates has even more.
So it goes – the tiny handful of freaks continue playing Monopoly with real people and property, while everyone else tries to make a decent life for themselves and their loved ones by playing within the rules.
ISIS, Daesh etc, proxy fighters for Saudi/US/Israeli ambitions in the region. Backed funded and armed through shell companies set up by various intelligence agencies. Trace the weapons discover the country supplying them, even the firm making them.
Meanwhile quasi dictator Erdogan of Trurkey, saw the attack on Syria as the perfect foil to attempt to exterminate the Kurds, who were actively and competently repelling the proxy fighters, or as the British government called the moderates.
So the Great Satan had to on one hand placate Erdogan, by allowing him to butcher the Kurds, who were pushing back the real terrorists backed by the west et al, so the west et al could fly sorties into Syria from Turkey.
Inbetween the hostilities hundreds of tankers crossed the border from Turkey into Syria returning laden with stolen Syrian oil. Until Russian forces bombed them.
Rob
This is probably a moot point. 911 happened because it was allowed to happen. Who the actual behind the scenes perpetrators is not clear and there is so much controversy out there. What we do know however is that since 911 there has been a strong behind the scene collaboration between various countries and their secret services and that the the long term aims of the neocons were to use any pretext to reshape the ME. We also know that some of our strongest allies in the ME continue to use Sunni terrorism as a proxy tool in Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan and Yemen. So you can see that trying to continue with the 911 controversy is really a diversion and the present known facts are enough to understand what the plan is.
Great and Brave Post by Craig..
” It is also very helpful in revealing the startling unanimity of our bought and paid for political, media and NGO class here in the UK. ”
I did not Surprise me Craig, to you mentioned several times in Medialens new book ( Propaganda Blitz )
I have it ..Rock solid, that the uk are throwing money at the Boko Haram issue.. Why.. Whilst The Yemen GENOCIDE
“Continued American Occupation of the Middle East Does Not Suppress Terrorism, It Causes It”
It is a little more direct than that. In an appearance before US Congress during Obama’s reign, a top US Army man stated that the the US military had spent $500 million training an unspecified number of ‘carefully vetted moderate rebels’ to fight in Syria and all but five then deserted to al Qaeda groups (that became ISIS). That did not stop the US Army training more, and they are still doing that at al Tanf.
Also, in 2013-2015 when the US Coalition was supposedly bombing al Qaeda/ISIS in Syria, the ISIS oil smuggling routes were left untouched and ISIS gained control of more and more territory in Syria. Taking out logistics / financing systems seems to be an obvious first step when trying to defeat an enemy, yet the US military and coalition did not do that. There were also air strikes against Syrian army units which just happened to help ISIS at key times. There are two possible conclusions, i) the US Coalition is actually as incompetent as it would seem or ii) it has actually been using ISIS as a proxy force. Option ii) seems more likely given the US air force’s ability to operate without peer opponent in Syria/Iraq. This is supported by the appearance of videos showing US military helicopters passing ISIS convoys without attacking them, videos of ISIS fighters receiving air dropped supplies and so on. It is also clear that the phrase ‘carefully vetted moderate rebel’ is a propaganda construct used to support the false claim that the US Coalition opposes ISIS rather than actively uses it.
If Putin and Xi can overcome the mutual distrust of their generals, and agree a pact with the relatively Pentagon/CIA free Trump within the next few months, I can enisage the ASEAN block falling in with the new pax-orienta. The first ever in history not imposed by might and conquest. A step change in human civilisation on the planet andan end to centuries of despotic rule by a few families and their arse wipes.
From there it wouldn’t be long before the South American and African peoples fonally throw off the yoke of their centuries of slavery by the Europeans and join in too.
India’s upcoming choice is the would be nail in the coffin of the US imperialst ambition, but it also has the greatest number of diaspora in influential positions across the NWO that are deployed in the defence of that racist enterprise. If India too chooses to join the grand future world – we will have the grand human coalition that could reshape the planets current doomed business model and maximise human potential for ever more.
The security of infinite resources in space isn’t going to be accessed by Bransons joy rides or Musks demented narcism.
I expect these private mercenary forces earning their tax free wages of sin in their McD/KFC camps are about to feel the hard Russian rain of justice, for the mayhem, terror, torture, rape and pillage they have got away with ffkr the last two decades. Their bosses will be happy that no evidence remains …
Great comment!
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Excellent.
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There are now nine versions of the Guardian article by Chulov and Borger.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/dec/19/us-troops-syria-withdrawal-trump
https://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/1716621/diff/0/1
and three of the BBC report on the US withdrawal.
https://www.newssniffer.co.uk/articles/1716899/diff/0/1
Or is it a wind up from Trump?
Don’t Hold Your Breath on US Troop Withdrawal from Syria
December 19, 2018 • 12 Comments
It would be nice to think the president has final say on foreign policy, given the U.S. Constitution. But the misleading troop withdrawal announcement, followed by Trump’s boastful tweet, suggests the exact opposite, says Patrick Lawrence
https://consortiumnews.com/2018/12/19/dont-hold-your-breath-on-us-troop-withdrawal-from-syria/?
In March 2018 Trump announced his intention to remove US troops from Syria only to be followed by a tripartite strike against Syria by UK, US and France following the false flag chemical attack, wait for one to happen now.
We know that America has been destabilizing Libya, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Afghanistan
but is it also attempting to destabilize China?
Tens of thousands of Chinese muslims are being reeducated in camps,
would the Americans have much to gain by sticking their spanner in the workings of China.
America is certainly worried about Chinese power.
According to human rights groups, between one and three million people have been held in China’s “re-education” camps since the facilities were set up in April 2017.
Speaking to FRANCE 24, the head of the World Uighur Congress denounced the “physical and mental torture” and “brainwashing” endured by Uighurs in the camps, brushing aside the Chinese government’s claim that these are aimed at fighting terrorism and providing training to the local population.
Isa claimed the camps were instead part of a policy of “ethnic cleansing” and that the terrorist accusations by the government against him and other Uighurs were trumped up in order to quell dissent.
https://www.france24.com/en/20181219-interview-dolkun-isa-world-uyghur-congress-china-reeducation-camps-uighurs-muslims
America has surrounded Russia, it has surrounded Iran, why not surround China?
Michael Norton, check out John Pilger’s excellent report earlier this year(?) on USA surrounding China.
Thanks,Craig. Well put. Happy Christmas to you and family.
They will be back as “contractors” alongside MI6-sponsored SAS units
TELL IT CRAIG, TELL IT!! 🙂
Trump may not have initiated a major war, but he is putty in the hands of the like of the gruesome and unhinged Bolton, not to mention the Israel lobby and all the other military and rightwing think tanks. They are fomenting war against iran, so we can only hope and pray that some kind of sanity prevails, but i wouldn’t look to Trump to find it. They run rings around him. Today he is pulling out of Syria, next week, once they get their oars in, it may well be a different story, as we have seen many times before. As for the Guardian being ‘furious’, that is hyperbole. What are they supposed to do – not report from Washington on what Trump is doing, and the kickback from the establishment?
I could answer Rob Pettitt’s questions but I do not dare; not because of some all-powerful enemy who orchestrated 9/11, but because I am emotionally too vulnerable to withstand the concerted emotional attacks that would fall upon me by certain commenters who object to being called conspiracy theorists.
But I have a message of hope. The orchestrators of 9/11 are not nearly as powerful as they have managed to appear. Secrecy kills. Who is Richard Blee?
Clark
The original comment by Rob and my reply have now been deleted by the mods. Just as well, I know how you feel but keep going, it is not worth the trouble.
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Surely, “It is also very helpful in revealing the startling unanimity of our bought and paid for political, media and NGO class here in the UK.” . . . . .
(omitted?) . . . . .virtually unanimous in subservience to global corporate war profiteers ? ?
Why the kid gloves when they should be behind bars in the Hague?
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It has been said for the last eighteen months, that the Kurds long term future in Syria will be to align themselves with the Syrian government.
More true today.
Gee — that the guardian is still being quoted from.
Here’s what its star reporter can be heard rehearsing these days:
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth
My two front teeth
My two front teeth
All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth
So I could better be lying through them
— Luke ‘ma no evidence’ Harding
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Yes. A measure of the stupendous MSM disdain for ordinary human beings = Harding – inexplicably obnoxious – permitted to poison, exploit and distort.
‘Do and write what big brother says. Or else the Gurn will vanish (along with its fat salaries and champagne)’
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I can’t help feeling that if the Guardian is useful to certain sectors, then efforts will be made to divert taxpayer’s money to fund its continuation.
Our intelligence services can be very generous with our money when it suits their purpose.
The Great Satan, (Consecutive US administrations aggressive foreign policies) surely learned the divide and conquer craft from the British, who as you said played one religious group off against another in the ME.
The Great Satan has for a long time now honed its treacherous divisive techniques in Central and South America, the lastest contrasts can be found in Honduras, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, Yemen and Syria have all come under the gaze of the Great Satan and its obedient minions, Britain, Israel, Saudi Arabia and others. The latter two still to be conquered though Iran and Russia have at least in Syria halted the Great Satan’s progress.
Powerful lobbists groups and wealthy individuals of a certain persuasion, in the US are constantly pushing for war with Iran, because it is a major player and a threat to Israel, and a religious counterweight, to Saudi Arabia’s Sunni populace beliefs.
Surprisingly Trump who sanctioned a US embassy in Jerusalem, even though East Jerusalem is seen by many as Palestinian territory, has not declared war on Iran, though it may yet happen, modern POTUS’s are often defined by their wars, by the outside world and domestic policies by the citizens of the nations in my opinion.
It is possible this recent story plays here.
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/256364
Russia wants to deploy strategic aircraft at Venezuelan airbase in Caribbean Sea south-east of United States.
Perhaps Mr.Trump has contacted Mr.Putin,
and quid pro quo,
Russia will shelve their Caribbean Military Base?
Yesterday’s monkey play in the House of Commons was typical Tory behaviour and it is worth analysing properly. In a nutshell: they ganged up like thugs and they did an enormous wind-up against Jeremy Corbyn.
The message was “We’ve got power. We don’t waste honesty or politeness on vermin like you. You’re just scum, and you’ve disrespected our private club. Come here and get your kicking.”
First, and led by Theresa May, they acted like raucous pantomime characters, shouting “Oh yes he did!”, “Oh no he didn’t!”, and “Look behind you!” at Jeremy Corbyn. This was in the context of mocking him for not bringing a vote of confidence in Theresa May. The truth is that he tried to but the government stopped a debate from taking place. They got a mild response out of him, calling them stupid people, and then they hit the roof with outrage. Some of them were demanding that he be grabbed by the collar and brought back to the chamber on the Speaker’s orders, so they could all give him a verbal beating-up. This was a CONTINUATION OF THE WIND-UP.
But, of course, when a person lies enough they start believing their own lies, at least to some extent. Tories are extremely shallow individuals.
Don’t tell me this isn’t the behaviour of private school bullies. It is.
Basically they see the Houses of Parliament as their private club which, in the modern era, some oiks have to be allowed into. Oiks such as Jeremy Corbyn whose jacket sometimes doesn’t even match his trousers.
Then they got the BBC to report in the most biased Tory-scum way.
The BBC led yesterday’s news on the accusation that Corbyn had called May a “stupid woman”. And by tone of voice as well as by choice of words they implied he was a lying bastard when he denied it.
Let me repeat: as this Commons sitting draws to a close, in which the government has prevented a vote from taking place on their “deal”, as they are rushing forward towards a cliffedge Brexit, what we get on state news is a man with a posh accent implying that the leader of the Labour party is a dirty rotter.
Yes, the BBC played a tape of the pantomime play-up by the Tories. But they didn’t comment on it. What matters in Britain isn’t what media consumers hear with their own ears, or see with their own eyes, it’s WHAT THE MAN OR WOMAN WITH THE POSH VOICE SAYS ABOUT IT AFTERWARDS. That’s what most people believe.
In this case, the BBC referred to what John Bercow said after his “inquiry”, and they played a carefully clipped version of it. Actually Bercow did NOT imply it was more likely than not that Corbyn said what he was accused of. But to listen to the BBC, you wouldn’t know that. He said that he could see why his words “might be construed” as “stupid woman”, and that “lipspeakers” agreed. Now clearly Bercow – and his helpers led by David Natzler – are being dishonest, because the words were obviously “stupid people”. But “might be construed as” does not equal “probably were”, however much “expert opinion” in support of “might be construed as” you care to cite.
Moreover, Bercow was playing along with the Tory wind-up, because he had had no problem with the Tories’ turning of the Commons chamber into a pantomime hall at a time when, because of their policies, there are soon going to be major problems with the food supply, to put it mildly. Nonetheless he did not say that in his view Corbyn had said “stupid woman”. (Check for yourself at Hansard.) The BBC twisted it much further.
Last point: on the day when Theresa May says the “deal” has failed and it’s going to be “no deal”, i.e. cliffedge Brexit, you can expect the ratings agencies to slash Britain’s ratings and the bottom to fall out of sterling and the British economy. Tens or hundreds of billions will be made on that day.
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Excellent, N.
For me, not so much ‘private schools’ but the same old pattern of imperialist/colonial/profiteering by the wrongfully and fraudulently privileged few. (e.g. Britain’s Gulag, see below)
Hoorah for Business Studies!
There’s money to be made via bullying, ‘sociopathing’ and psychological abuse.
Offshore money.
* Psychopaths Inc. (version 3.0) – Mindlessness of the Vanities *
_____ > Britain’s Gulag: the brutal end of empire in Kenya by Caroline Elkins <
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/books/reviews/britains-gulag-the-brutal-end-of-empire-in-kenya-by-caroline-elkinshistories-of-the-hanged-by-david-748263.html
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However, absolutely agree that many ‘private schools’ are effectively funded by dirty money from the slave trade and profits from colonial warmongering and land theft.
(From any rational human / child’s perspective, a sinister form of psychological abuse & coercion.)
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“where’s the beef”
Empowering crooks to serve justice. US Courts practice manipulation by retaining control on what is evidence and what is not. Manipulated justice becomes more heinous when perpetrated for political gain – and it is a social disaster to also encourage violence against those victimized by ill justice.
However, it takes 3 to 5 years for a common individual to integrate in a new culture – true when the individual is younger than 30 – the oldest will struggle like robots for below minim wages or some social assistance. The side effects of the war in middle-east has caused a migration-invasion of Europe adding to the burden. There is no success at all in the blend to justify further war-support. The whole west is affected not to observe an abrupt decline not only economic but also politic.
[Russians build a bridge while the west is still talking about a Brexit – China is adapting to new tariffs even before tariffs took place, what one has to say other than “where’s the beef” – while swallowing the subversion to secret societies to fake patriotism, political favoritism, dogma and so on w/o no end and solvency] — “where is the beef”
Brent Crude drops to $55/barrel,
As the U.S.A. are pulling out of Syria, this likely means the Syrian State take take back control of its oil and gas fields, which are mostly in Eastern Syria.
Peace, also means the massive Eastern Mediterranean Methane basin can be exploited, the hub is to be Cyprus,
recently, it was said America is going to build military bases on Cyprus,
so the game is still going to continue.
A warning from Putin –
‘Putin then touched upon the upcoming US withdrawal from the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. It is hard to foresee what the future will bring, but Russia will do its utmost to protect itself, he said.
“Right now [the US] is making one more step pulling out from the INF. It’s very hard to imagine how the situation will develop. What if those [American short- and intermediate-range] missiles are deployed in Europe, what shall we do?” He continued: “Of course, we’ll strengthen our security. They shouldn’t squeal about advantages we’re trying to have. We aren’t winning some advantages, we’re keeping the balance, ensuring our security.”
Lowering arms-control threshold could lead to a global nuclear catastrophe – Putin
20 Dec, 2018 11:22
https://www.rt.com/news/446946-lowering-arms-control-nuclear-catastrophe/
“Trump may be a rotten President for Americans, but at least he has not initiated a major war; and I am quite sure Hillary would have done by now. ”
– Absolutely, and there would be zero chance of the reunification of the Koreas under any other US president.
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“It is also very helpful in revealing the startling unanimity of our bought and paid for political, media and NGO class here in the UK.”
– The Independent is reporting today that ofcom has found RT in breach of impartiality rules (don’t all choke at once) and Neil Clark – who writes for the Daily Express as well as RT – now fears it could be banned.
I have already written to ofcom in support of RT as I believe that “contrary to their claims” (thanks GW) RT is the only broadcaster not controlled or heavily influenced by the current British government. Perhaps others who feel the same as I do might also write in support of RT. It may be the only chance it has.
lol, I meant GG of course, not GW. (Must be the drugs Vladimir has me on (joke)).
‘… mainstream “left” political parties …’ Can someone please explain what ‘left’ means. Obviously it longer means what it meant when I was a fair bit younger.
In my opinion the political spectrum is a now like a 2×2 square. There is “left” and “right”, but there is also “peace” and “war”.
Put crudely, in my opinion the mainstream left and right are now a “pro war left” and a “pro war right”.
The alternative or non-mainstream left and right are an “anti-war left” and an “anti-war right”.
The reason the pro war left and pro war right are the mainstream is because they get the most publicity and our military intelligence services (eg, MI6 and the CIA) seek to infiltrate them and thereby heavily influence their output.
This is just my view. Feel free to disagree.
And just to add: in my view the reason that the UK government hates RT so much is because it behaves like a mainstream media outlet, but – being Russian owned – they cannot get any UK intelligence operatives to be employed by it and thereby influence it’s content to promote the UK government’s default pro-war stance.
Thus, RT is “free” to form it’s own views on world events unhindered by the fetters of the “Deep” Tory Government machine. (In the US there is only the “Deep State”, here we at least have the glimmer of hope of an alternative).
This is also why Jeremy Corbyn is routinely smeared by the UK mainstream media. It is pro war. He is anti war and they view him as a threat.
makes sense.
Thanks, John2o2o. Can’t disagree, your explanation fits.