For centuries it has been recognized that "all warfare is based on deception". Less recognized within this category of warfare however is the following realization: A leadership must deceive not only its enemy but also its citizenry - because history has taught us that waging war without the enthusiastic support of the subjects, be it in a kingdom, democracy or a dictatorship, is a recipe for disaster.
In modern times making war by deception has become a highly refined art form and an exact science. State officials continue to seek ways to make their subjects want to fight enemies both real and unreal. Depending on what civilization a particular nation finds itself in, religion, nationalism, tribalism and/or fear are effective tools to use in this regard. And the catalyst upon which the aforementioned tools travel upon is a nation's educational system, internet, news media, television programming and cinema.
In other words, it's the changing face of 9/11. Similar to what Al-Qaeda was before its terror value for the American cattle expired several years ago when they put the overused and no longer scary Osama Bin Laden scarecrow to rest, ISIS is the new, even nastier monster created via their allies in the region - Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Turkey and Jordan - and exploited by Western intelligence.
Deception, manipulation and - conflict management - at its finest and ugliest.
So, what to do?
Well, create an enemy - maybe even two, or three, or four...
The bigger you are the more manageable enemies you have the better. Washington and friends are so powerful, so self-assured - and so blinded by gluttony and arrogance - that they actually have the need to create enemies in today's world. And they are actually excelling at it. They have in recent years managed to turn Venezuela, Russia, Syria, Iran, North Korea and China into enemies, and they have quite literally created the terror group ISIS as yet another archenemy to focus the American cattle's attention on for the next few years. I guess the following political cartoon does a much better job of explaining what I am trying to convey to the reader -
Similar to how they have turned Russia into the new enemy to protect Europe from, as they pursue their self-serving imperial agenda of curbing the rise of Russian influence in the region, ISIS will henceforth be the new enemy to protect the Middle East from, as they pursue their self-serving imperial agenda of curbing the rise of Iranian influence in the region. For Washingtonian reptiles, Russophobic racists in eastern Europe and Iranophobic Wahhabists in the Middle East therefore essentially serve the exact same geostrategic purpose.
We are therefore now back in square one. We are back to where we started from last year. It was only last summer when the global community was standing again on the verge of witnessing yet another major Western war crime in the making. Back then, as many of you shall recall, it was the serin gas attack on civilians that they used as an excuse. Despite clear evidence that the gas attack was carried-out by anti-Assad Islamic militants themselves, Western powers did their best to blame Bashar Assad's government. Their only concern was to justify a military aggression against Syria. The reader may recall that this was also about the time when the bloodthirsty war criminal known as John McCain was in Syria meeting with Islamic extremists that many say were in fact ISIS members. Then, quite unexpectedly, Russian intervention forced them to call off their attack plans. This was almost exactly one year ago, but no one in their right mind thought that it would be the end of the story.
No one who understands anything about geopolitics and the political West thought that the Anglo-American-Zionist alliance would be forced to sit at the table with a victorious Bashar Assad - with Moscow mediating nonetheless. After all, the brutal reputation of the American empire as well as the crucially important agenda to curb the growth of Shiite power and Russian influence in the Middle East was at stake. Therefore, the Anglo-American-Zionists would go to any length to realize their goals. One of the lengths they went to, so as it now seems, was to use all their levers in the region (primarily Anbar province Sunni tribes, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Qatar and Turkey) to prop-up the present day monster known as ISIS and use it as an excuse to set their sights back on Syria.
Exactly a year after their plans against Syria was foiled at the last minute by Moscow, they have quite literally found a backdoor entry into Syria. Warmongers in the West are once more beating the war drums against Syria because in the convoluted, bloodstained world of the Anglo-American-Zionist global order: "Defeating the Islamic State will also require attacks on the Assad regime".
When they announced their plan to attack Syria a year ago they were met with an antiwar outcry throughout the US. This time around they have figured out a way to get the American cattle to support their plan. As noted above, Americans have been shocked into compliance. An amazing feat of social engineering and mind control I must say! I guess the power of nightmares does work wonders for warpigs in Washington after all. Since American civilization today is devoid of spirituality, genuine patriotism, critical thinking and rationale, fear is what works best with Americans. Scare the shit out of the little sheeple and then herd them to wherever you want them to go! As I said, deception and conflict management at its ugliest.
Even from a basic military/strategic point of view the rationale behind Washington's motive does not make much sense. After all, this is not a domestic dispute or a street fight and the military staff in Washington are not novices. The American empire has been waging wars overseas every few years on average. Simply put: You don't go after a perceived enemy thousands of miles away when the enemy in question is supposedly trying to draw you into a war. You don't go to war under the enemy's terms. You don't wage a war on a whole region nonetheless simply because someone there has supposedly murdered a few of your citizens. Nations, major powers in particular, wage wars for strategic and/or economic reasons, and such wars are carefully/meticulously planned for many years in advance. In other words, despite what you hear on the television by government mouthpieces, when US troops invaded Iraq in 2003 under the pretext of searching for weapons-of-mass-destruction, it wasn't a "mistakes", it was an agenda. On the other side of the coin: As sophisticated as they are said to be, why would ISIS leadership try to attract Western attention by publicly killing Westerners and taunting President Obama when they are already waging a war against non-aligned rebel groups in Syria, Bashar Assad's Allewites, Shiites of Iraq and Kurds? As clever as they seem to be are they so stupid as to needlessly provoke the Western military against them? Didn't they supposedly see what happened back in 2001 when Al-Qaeda allegedly provoked the West?
In the big picture: What is happening in Syria and Iraq is ultimately a fight over spoils of war. Syria and Iraq, as we knew them, are dead. A new nation, or nations, are to emerge from the ashes of what was once Syria and Iraq. All are now currently maneuvering to get a piece of the pie once its ready. In other words, the fighting now is about who will get what after the final bomb explodes. All (i.e. Western powers, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia and Iran) are currently maneuvering for the best seat in the house. ISIS therefore needs the West to reinvade Iraq and rekindle the Western agenda in Syria.
Therefore, I ask: What interests is ISIS serving? The answer is: Western, Israeli, Turkish and Gulf Arab interests. The entire story behind ISIS and the current case for war against ISIS is stuff worthy only for a tacky Hollywood movie. For the life of me I do not understand how humans - adults - believe all this bullshit.
Sunni Islamic groups are first and foremost serving a Western agenda in the Middle East. What is happening in Iraq and Syria is first and foremost an anti-Shiite/anti-Iranian agenda. Evidence of this agenda is the ten years old civil war in Yemen where tens-of-thousands of people have died as a result of an uprising against the Yemeni government. But because the rebels in Yemen are Shiites and the dictatorial government in Sanaa is led by Sunnis, the Western press has all but ignored the conflict and the Western public knows next to nothing about what's going on in the country. In fact, US military operations have actually been targeting the Shiite rebel leadership in Yemen under the guise of pursuing Islamic terrorists or Al-Qaeda operatives. Needless to say, having suffered Anglo-American-Zionist oppression for many decades, Iranians will not go along with Washington's latest plan for the Middle East. Please make time to read the Iranian take on current events -
Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif's Full NPR Interview: http://www.npr.org/2014/09/17/349262457/transcript-iranian-foreign-minister-zarifs-full-npr-interview
Iran’s Rouhani blames ‘certain intelligence agencies’ for rise of global extremism: http://rt.com/news/190640-rouhani-un-rise-extremism/
The following picture is more-or-less how it all started -
In stark contrast to what Washington has been doing in Ukraine, where the sentiments of the pro-Russia population there was utterly disregarded and crimes against it were totally ignored, talk about combating ISIS is now oddly being centered around creating an "all-inclusive" government in Baghdad. "All-inclusive" is a code word for stopping further growth of Shiite power in Iraq. Every single American political pundit, newspaper op-ed or US official I have seen addressing the situation at hand is primarily concerned about helping minority Sunnis share government with majority Shiites. It's all about curbing Shiite/Iranian influence/power. Needless to say, in case Shiites of Iraq resist the aforementioned agenda in any meaningful way, Washington and friends hold the option of having ISIS type groups carve out of Iraq a territory for Sunnis similar to what they have done with Kurdistan in northern Iraq."Democracy, Human Rights and Self-Determination for the Uyghur Poeple in East Turkestan": http://uyghuramerican.org/
Nevertheless, the resulting media hype about ISIS throughout the mainstream news press in the Western world has been breathtakingly thorough. Who in their right minds now would dare speak publicly against the valiant Western effort to fight bloodthirsty barbarians that go around blowing up monuments, beheading westerners and genociding locals? Yet, unbeknownst to the public, ISIS can actually be stopped with just two phone calls: one to Riyadh, one to Ankara.
[Speaking of ISIS, Riyadh and Ankara, there may in fact be a conflict brewing inside ISIS vis-à-vis Kurdistan. Naturally, Ankara does not want to see an independent Kurdistan to its south, whereas Saudi Arabia, Israel and Western powers do. Some of the discrepancies we have been seeing with regards to actions taken by ISIS may therefore have its root in this internal matter. In my opinion, this will prove to be the Achilles' Heel of ISIS]
For added perspective on regional geopolitics, the Western role in the Middle East, ISIS or Islamic terrorism in general, please revisit my blog commentaries -
I reiterate: With the overused and now ineffective name "Al-Qaeda" no longer able to keep the American cattle awake at nights, ISIS headhunters will henceforth be the convenient excuse to continue their crimes against humanity and keep the strategic region in question embroiled in bloody conflict. Therefore a new, and perhaps a more bloody chapter is being opened in global affairs. Russians, Syrians and Iranians are already seeing the writing on the wall. Major powers are once more converging over Mesopotamia. It will be interesting to see how this all will play out in the coming months and years. In the meanwhile may God help Bashar Assad and all Alewites and Christians in Syria.September 11, 2001 (September 11, 2011): http://whatreallyhappenedonseptember112001.blogspot.com/
Washington finally closing the chapter on the Osama Bin Laden fairytale (May, 2011): http://theriseofrussia.blogspot.com/2011/05/osama-bin-laden-assassination-cia.html
U.S. ambassador to Libya killed in rocket attack (September, 2012): http://theriseofrussia.blogspot.com/2012/09/chris-stevens-us-ambassador-to-libya.html
Tsarnaev brothers, secret services and Islamic terrorism (April, 2013): http://theriseofrussia.blogspot.com/2013/04/tsarnaev-brothers-secret-services-and.html
Driving a Sunni wedge in the Shiite Arc (July, 2014): http://theriseofrussia.blogspot.com/2014/07/driving-sunni-wedge-in-shiite-arc-june_18.html
Russian victory in Novorossiya
Ever since that very awkward handshake in Minsk between President Putin and the chocolate king, it was essentially down hill for the ill-fated Ukrainian military effort in Novorossiya. Ukrainian troops have in recent weeks been comprehensively routed by pro-Russian rebels. The town of Ilovaisk in particular will be long remembered for it was the site of an unusually bloody and one-sided military engagement that essentially brought the junta in Kiev to its knees. In a span of twenty-four hours hundreds of Ukrainian soldiers were killed and maimed and dozens of their armored vehicles destroyed -
Aftermath of Ambush on Ukrainian Forces: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4r_Nf2VK5_4
Kiev is currently in no shape to mount any kind of military operation inside territories under pro-Russian control because they have suffered several thousand casualties and scores of military hardware lost (including a warship) during the several weeks preceding the September 5 truce alone. The following is a partial and still growing list of armored vehicle losses suffered in the civil war in Ukraine -
Ukraine's Pro-War Party Is Collapsing In The Polls: http://www.businessinsider.com/ukraines-pro-war-party-is-collapsing-in-the-polls-2014-9
Ukrainian Parliament Member Tossed In Trash Bin By Angry Protesters: http://www.ibtimes.com/ukrainian-parliament-member-tossed-trash-bin-angry-protesters-video-1690106
EU-Ukraine integration pact postponed till 2016: http://rt.com/business/187408-eu-ukraine-pact-postponed/
Ukrainian president offers rebels major concessions to end uprising: http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/heavy-fighting-between-ukrainian-forces-and-pro-russian-rebels-over-the-weekend
In the opinion of pro-Russian separatist leadership in Novorossiya, as well as mine, concessions from Kiev are too little, too late. As in Nagorno Karabakh, as in Abkhazia, as in South Ossetia, too much blood has been spilled. The pro-Russian population of south-eastern Ukraine has won their right to self-determination. There is a new reality on the ground now that needs to be acknowledged by the West, lest things get much worst for all involved. Nevertheless, Novorossiya, once the industrial heartland of Ukraine, is on the path to self-determination and eventual reunion with Mother Russia.High price for ceasefire: http://www.dw.de/opinion-high-price-for-ceasefire-in-eastern-ukraine/a-17897974
In the meanwhile, Kiev will not join NATO nor will it be accepted in the EU. As predicated, Ukraine will become a politically unstable and economically desolate buffer zone between Russia and the West. As predicted, the West will now have to spend a fortune simply to keep Ukraine from becoming a failed on its doorstep. As predicated, the Karabakhization of south-eastern Ukraine is now complete and Novorossiya is defacto liberated and under the protection of Mother Russia.
Having already liberated Crimea and not wanting to overreach and in doing so risk a major war in Europe, Moscow will for the time being be content with merely having indirect control over Novorossiya and in the process sabotage Kiev's prospects of joining either the EU or NATO. Moscow did not want this conflict. This conflict was thrust upon Russia. But grossmeisters in Moscow have been making the most of the situation ever since. More importantly, Moscow has successfully resisted Western efforts in trying to pull Russia into an overt military engagement with Ukraine.
There was a time when the US Dollar was backed by gold reserves and the global public, including Soviet peoples, looked up to the Western world. Today, the US Dollar is backed by US military interventions around the world and the global public has come to fear and despise the Western world. The political West has become a source of evil around the world. The current global political landscape needs some transformations.
Russia's transition from being a nation that was integrated into the Western-led global economic/financial system (which was essentially imposed on Moscow during the post-Soviet years) into a nation that is truly independent and its economic and financial models based on the sound parameters of nationalism and socialism may prove to be somewhat painful but moving away from Western dependency is absolutely essential for the long-term health and well-being of the Russian nation as well as the world at large. Regardless of how much it may hurt, the Russian Federation needs to gradually move away from the Bretton Woods paradigm.
In the big picture, and in the long-term, by cutting its umbilical cord with the West, what Moscow is doing today is absolutely an essential first step not only for securing its future but also for laying down the foundations of a multipolar world. Moscow needs to concentrate on further deepening its relations with China, India, Egypt, Iran and Brazil. Moscow also needs to do its best to lure Germany and France away from the Anglo-American-Zionist alliance.
Moscow has finally gotten around to addressing Western inroads in a crucially strategic sector in Russian society, its mass media. Foreign ownership in Russian media outlets is to be limited to 20%. By embarking on these types of national security issues, it is only natural that the Kremlin will come into conflict with people in Russia that became very wealthy and influential during the chaotic years following the Soviet collapse. When Moscow thus comes into conflict with its nouveau riche, it is only natural that is will begin cracking down on them if they pose a threat to the state or if don't comply with state regulations. Ultimately, we need to keep in mind that it was Western machinations against the Russian state that has gotten us to where we are today. We also need to recognize that while Russia needs western expertize - it needs to eliminate dependency on Western money even more. In my opinion, the best way forward in this regard is to limit its exposure to the Anglo-American-Zionist world and concentrate on better relations with Germany and France. Nevertheless, Russia desperately needs to shed its 1990s era toxicity. The process to detoxify may hurt a little, but Russia, as an independent state, will be much better off in the long term. In the meanwhile, more power to the Russian state. I am glad to see that it's being built on the sound principles of national socialism -
Foreign participation in Russian mass media to be restricted to 20% in 2016: http://en.itar-tass.com/opinions/1917
Russia Steps Up New Law to Control Foreign Internet Companies: http://online.wsj.com/articles/russia-steps-up-new-law-to-control-foreign-internet-companies-1411574920
Nations that allow billionaires to get intimately involved in politics cannot be trusted. Nations that allow powerful lobbies to impact politics cannot be trusted. Nations that allow warmongers to influence politics cannot be trusted. Nations that allow the privatization of strategic infrastructure or national assets cannot be trusted. Nations where financial power takes precedence over national considerations do not have future.
Simply put: Western style capitalism does not work well in most nations and even in Western nations it will not work well in the long-term.
I am therefore very happy to see that Moscow is finally putting a stout leash on individuals and organizations that became very powerful and influential during the lawless years of the 1990s. I am very happy to see that the Kremlin is finally cracking down on businessmen in Russia that may be cooperating with the West against the Kremlin's wishes. Let's recognize that everything we fear and dislike about the US today is centered on the realization that it's the empire's financial/economic elite - and not genuine American patriots in government - that are dictating policy in Washington. Therefore, I am very glad that Russia is a nation where moneymen are subservient to the state. There is another aspect to this for us Armenians. Had Russia been like the West, where powerful lobbies and moneymen initiate political discourse, Russians would have sold Armenia to the Turks or Azeris a very, very long time ago.
They have in recent months finally managed to push Moscow to the point where it has no choice but to lessen its economic and financial dependency on the West. Moscow now has no choice but to seek closer relations with non-Western powers like China. And now that President Putin has begun pissing on their global parade, he is "as dangerous as Stalin and a bigger threat than ISIS" - so claim Western officials.
I have pointed out on numerous occasions that they are insulated by oceans and protected by allied buffer states. I have pointed out on numerous occasions that they enjoy the luxury of hosting the global reserve currency; they enjoy the luxury of setting commodities prices; they enjoy the luxury of setting parameters of international trade; they enjoy the luxury of setting cultural trends throughout the world; they enjoy the luxury of not having suffered any "regime changes" in centuries; they enjoy the luxury of not have suffered under the kind of democracy they impose on others. For over a century the world has been a playground for their wealthy and a laboratory for their politicians where they carryout volatile experiments.
Therefore, from their perspective, another war in Europe to stop Russia's growth is actually not a hysterical idea after all.
As I have said, as long as the political West is not made to suffer serious repercussions for their actions overseas (i.e. as long as the fires they set don't burn them) they will continue sowing chaos and bloodshed around the world. Although the conflict in eastern Ukraine was imposed on Russia by Western interests - and Moscow did not have the choice of not getting involved - it was nonetheless predictable from day one that Russia would come on top. Moreover, similar to how the war in Georgia awakened the Russian Bear, the war in Novorossiya has done a lot to strengthen Russian resolve - politically, economically and militarily. Therefore, disregard Western political spin such as - "Russia's economy is shrinking and the Russian Ruble is collapsing" - and consider the following news articles to accurately assess the kind of impact Western sanctions are in fact having on Russia -
An Isolated Russia? Think Again! https://www.redanalysis.org/2014/09/15/isolated-russia/
Russian Finance Minister considers dumping dollars and move borrowing to BRICS: http://www.examiner.com/article/russian-finance-minister-considers-dumping-dollars-and-move-borrowing-to-brics
Russia and Iran discuss ‘oil for power plants’ deal: http://rt.com/business/186328-russia-iran-oil-power-plant/
China, Russia to build seaport: http://news.yahoo.com/china-russia-build-seaport-report-034903989--finance.html
Strategic Alliance between Russia and China on the Rise: http://www.globalresearch.ca/strategic-alliance-between-russia-and-china-shanghai-cooperation-organisation-sco-on-the-rise/5402861
Russia's grain exports hit record high in August: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/reuters/article-2747781/Russias-grain-exports-hit-record-high-August.html
Why Sanctions Won't Stop U.S. Oil Drilling in Russia: http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2014-09-18/why-sanctions-wont-stop-u-dot-s-dot-oil-drilling-in-russia
Russia's Gazprom 'limiting gas supplies to Poland': http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/10/russia-gazprom-gas-supplies-down-poland-ukraine
We are in the midst of Cold War II, as well as perhaps the preliminary stages of World War III. A global conflagration may or may not yet occur. But what remain unmistakeably clear is that the geopolitical landscape of certain strategic areas of the world is definitely being broken apart and divided up and nation-states are being forced to take sides. Needless to say we know where Armenia's strategic allegiance lies. Needless to say, we also know how this will be viewed by demons in the West and their Armenian lackeys. In other words, we know where all this will lead to come next election cycle in Armenia.
Arevordi
“As a leader, there has never been an occasion as heart-breaking as what I went through yesterday. Wives losing their husbands, fathers losing their children. Imagine their feelings from such a great loss. … This is what happens when there is a conflict, whatever conflict that cannot be resolved through negotiations, with peace. In the end, who becomes the victim”?
”American colleagues at the Pentagon told me, unequivocally, that the US and UK never would allow European – Soviet relations to develop to such a degree that they would challenge the US/UK’s political, economic or military primacy and hegemony on the European continent. Such a development will be prevented by all necessary means, if necessary by provoking a war in central Europe”.
”I’m going to tell you something. I was in England two years before the violence in Syria on other business. I met with top British officials, who confessed to me that they were something in Syria. … This was in Britain, not in America. Britain was organizing an invasion of rebels into Syria. They even asked me, although I was no longer Minister of Foreign Affairs, if I would like to participate. Naturally, I refused, I said I am French, that does not interest me. …”This does not make sense. … There are some sides who have the desire to destroy Arab States, like what happened in Libya before, particularly given Syria’s special relations with Russia., …(emphasis added)…That if an agreement is not reached, then Israel will attack and destroy the governments that stand against Israel”.
”The sudden pullout of the Ukraine on Tuesday is by energy insiders with whom the author consulted perceived as yet another Ukrainian, US and UK backed attempt to force the expansion of NATO and to drive a wedge between an increased integration of the Russian and E.U. Economies. As it will become obvious below, it is related to an aggressive attempt to save the value of the petro dollar”.
”Someone here in Brussels made a most profound point by saying that if you are holding a hammer, you should not think that every emerging problem is a nail. We think the world has ample opportunity to engage in energy cooperation and to ensure energy security without making use of military-political organizations as an instrument”.
The offensive led by Anglo-Saxons (USA, UK and Israel) for world domination continues on two lines simultaneously: both the creation of the “Greater Middle East” by attacking simultaneously Iraq, Syria, Lebanon and Palestine, and separating Russia from the European Union through the crisis they organized in Ukraine.
Tension is likely to increase in the coming weeks.
Source: www.voltairenet.org/article185074.html
Source: http://spectator.org/blog/60142/cold-war-ii-world-war-iii
The implication of the question, I think, … is that each and every time a country violates one of these norms, the United States should go to war or stand prepared to engage militarily, and if it doesn’t, then somehow we’re not serious about these norms. Well, that’s not the case.
The machine has brought men face to face as never before in history. Paris and Berlin are closer today than neighboring villages were in the Middle Ages. In one sense distance has been annihilated. We speed on the wings of the wind and carry in our hands weapons more dreadful than the lightning … The challenge of the machine is the greatest opportunity mankind has yet enjoyed. Out of the rush and swirl of the confusions of our times may yet arise a majestic order of world peace and prosperity.
Source: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/08/yes-it-could-happen-again/373465/
“The most important source of ISIS financing to date has been support coming out of the Gulf states, primarily Saudi Arabia but also Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates,” (According to Dr. Günter Meyer, Director of the Center for Research into the Arabic World at University of Mainz, Germany, Deutsche Welle)
“Through allies such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the West [has] supported militant rebel groups which have since mutated into ISIS and other al‑Qaeda connected militias. ( Daily Telegraph, June 12, 2014)
…[M]eet Saudi Arabia’s latest monstrous contribution to world history: the Islamist Sunni caliphate of Iraq and the Levant, conquerors of Mosul and Tikrit – and Raqqa in Syria – and possibly Baghdad, and the ultimate humiliators of Bush and Obama. From Aleppo in northern Syria almost to the Iraqi-Iranian border, the jihadists of Isis and sundry other groupuscules paid by the Saudi Wahhabis – and by Kuwaiti oligarchs – now rule thousands of square miles. (Robert Fisk, The Independent, June 12, 2014)
Saudi prison
The prisoners had reportedly been offered a deal — stay and be executed or fight against Assad in Syria. As part of the deal the prisoners were offered a “pardon and a monthly stipend for their families, who were allowed to stay in the Sunni Arab kingdom”. Saudi officials apparently gave them a choice: decapitation or jihad? In total, inmates from Yemen, Palestine, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Jordan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Egypt, Pakistan, Iraq, and Kuwait chose to go and fight in Syria.(See Global Research, September 11, 2013)
Saudi Arabia has come to understand the Islamic State group is a serious threat to their country as well– that it isn’t a mainstream Sunni movement.One element of Obama’s IS plan seeks to undermine the ideological and religious claims that the Islamic State militants make to Islam. The administration hopes Riyadh will use its influence among Islamic religious leaders. (Voice of America, September 11, 2014)
Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/going-after-the-islamic-state/5401439
How far is Saudi Arabia complicit in the Isis takeover of much of northern Iraq, and is it stoking an escalating Sunni-Shia conflict across the Islamic world? Some time before 9/11, Prince Bandar bin Sultan, once the powerful Saudi ambassador in Washington and head of Saudi intelligence until a few months ago, had a revealing and ominous conversation with the head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, Sir Richard Dearlove. Prince Bandar told him: "The time is not far off in the Middle East, Richard, when it will be literally 'God help the Shia'. More than a billion Sunnis have simply had enough of them."
The fatal moment predicted by Prince Bandar may now have come for many Shia, with Saudi Arabia playing an important role in bringing it about by supporting the anti-Shia jihad in Iraq and Syria. Since the capture of Mosul by the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (Isis) on 10 June, Shia women and children have been killed in villages south of Kirkuk, and Shia air force cadets machine-gunned and buried in mass graves near Tikrit.
In Mosul, Shia shrines and mosques have been blown up, and in the nearby Shia Turkoman city of Tal Afar 4,000 houses have been taken over by Isis fighters as "spoils of war". Simply to be identified as Shia or a related sect, such as the Alawites, in Sunni rebel-held parts of Iraq and Syria today, has become as dangerous as being a Jew was in Nazi-controlled parts of Europe in 1940.
There is no doubt about the accuracy of the quote by Prince Bandar, secretary-general of the Saudi National Security Council from 2005 and head of General Intelligence between 2012 and 2014, the crucial two years when al-Qa'ida-type jihadis took over the Sunni-armed opposition in Iraq and Syria. Speaking at the Royal United Services Institute last week, Dearlove, who headed MI6 from 1999 to 2004, emphasised the significance of Prince Bandar's words, saying that they constituted "a chilling comment that I remember very well indeed".
He does not doubt that substantial and sustained funding from private donors in Saudi Arabia and Qatar, to which the authorities may have turned a blind eye, has played a central role in the Isis surge into Sunni areas of Iraq. He said: "Such things simply do not happen spontaneously." This sounds realistic since the tribal and communal leadership in Sunni majority provinces is much beholden to Saudi and Gulf paymasters, and would be unlikely to cooperate with Isis without their consent.
The forecast by Prince Bandar, who was at the heart of Saudi security policy for more than three decades, that the 100 million Shia in the Middle East face disaster at the hands of the Sunni majority, will convince many Shia that they are the victims of a Saudi-led campaign to crush them. "The Shia in general are getting very frightened after what happened in northern Iraq," said an Iraqi commentator, who did not want his name published. Shia see the threat as not only military but stemming from the expanded influence over mainstream Sunni Islam of Wahhabism, the puritanical and intolerant version of Islam espoused by Saudi Arabia that condemns Shia and other Islamic sects as non-Muslim apostates and polytheists.
Dearlove says that he has no inside knowledge obtained since he retired as head of MI6 10 years ago to become Master of Pembroke College in Cambridge. But, drawing on past experience, he sees Saudi strategic thinking as being shaped by two deep-seated beliefs or attitudes. First, they are convinced that there "can be no legitimate or admissible challenge to the Islamic purity of their Wahhabi credentials as guardians of Islam's holiest shrines". But, perhaps more significantly given the deepening Sunni-Shia confrontation, the Saudi belief that they possess a monopoly of Islamic truth leads them to be "deeply attracted towards any militancy which can effectively challenge Shia-dom".
Western governments traditionally play down the connection between Saudi Arabia and its Wahhabist faith, on the one hand, and jihadism, whether of the variety espoused by Osama bin Laden and al-Qa'ida or by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi's Isis. There is nothing conspiratorial or secret about these links: 15 out of 19 of the 9/11 hijackers were Saudis, as was Bin Laden and most of the private donors who funded the operation.
The difference between al-Qa'ida and Isis can be overstated: when Bin Laden was killed by United States forces in 2011, al-Baghdadi released a statement eulogising him, and Isis pledged to launch 100 attacks in revenge for his death.
But there has always been a second theme to Saudi policy towards al-Qa'ida type jihadis, contradicting Prince Bandar's approach and seeing jihadis as a mortal threat to the Kingdom. Dearlove illustrates this attitude by relating how, soon after 9/11, he visited the Saudi capital Riyadh with Tony Blair.
He remembers the then head of Saudi General Intelligence "literally shouting at me across his office: '9/11 is a mere pinprick on the West. In the medium term, it is nothing more than a series of personal tragedies. What these terrorists want is to destroy the House of Saud and remake the Middle East.'" In the event, Saudi Arabia adopted both policies, encouraging the jihadis as a useful tool of Saudi anti-Shia influence abroad but suppressing them at home as a threat to the status quo. It is this dual policy that has fallen apart over the last year.
Saudi sympathy for anti-Shia "militancy" is identified in leaked US official documents. The then US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton wrote in December 2009 in a cable released by Wikileaks that "Saudi Arabia remains a critical financial support base for al-Qa'ida, the Taliban, LeT [Lashkar-e-Taiba in Pakistan] and other terrorist groups." She said that, in so far as Saudi Arabia did act against al-Qa'ida, it was as a domestic threat and not because of its activities abroad. This policy may now be changing with the dismissal of Prince Bandar as head of intelligence this year. But the change is very recent, still ambivalent and may be too late: it was only last week that a Saudi prince said he would no longer fund a satellite television station notorious for its anti-Shia bias based in Egypt.
Source: http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/iraq-crisis-how-saudi-arabia-helped-isis-take-over-the-north-of-the-country-9602312.html
The rest of the speech was just utter bullshit: “We stand at a crossroads,” “signposts of progress,” “reduced chance of war between major powers,” “hundreds of millions lifted from poverty,” and while ebola ravages Africa “we’ve learned how to cure disease and harness the power of the wind and the sun.” We are now God. “We” is comprised of the “exceptional people”–Americans. No one else counts. “We” are it. It is impossible to pick the most absurd statement in Obama’s speech or the most outrageous lie. Is it this one? “Russian aggression in Europe recalls the days when large nations trampled small ones in pursuit of territorial ambition.”
Or is it this one? “After the people of Ukraine mobilized popular protests and calls for reform, their corrupt president fled. Against the will of the government in Kiev, Crimea was annexed. Russia poured arms into eastern Ukraine, fueling violent separatists and a conflict that has killed thousands. When a civilian airliner was shot down from areas that these proxies controlled, they refused to allow access to the crash for days. When Ukraine started to reassert control over its territory, Russia gave up the pretense of merely supporting the separatists, and moved troops across the border.”
The entire world knows that Washington overthrew the elected Ukrainian government, that Washington refuses to release its satellite photos of the destruction of the Malaysian airliner, that Ukraine refuses to release its air traffic control instructions to the airliner, that Washington has prevented a real investigation of the airliner’s destruction, that European experts on the scene have testified that both sides of the airliner’s cockpit demonstrate machine gun fire, an indication that the airliner was shot down by the Ukrainian jets that were following it. Indeed, there has been no explanation why Ukrainian jets were close on the heels of an airliner directed by Ukrainian air traffic control.
The entire world knows that if Russia had territorial ambitions, when the Russian military defeated the American trained and supplied Georgian army that attacked South Ossetia, Russia would have kept Georgia and reincorporated it within Russia where it resided for centuries.
Notice that it is not aggression when Washington bombs and invades seven countries in 13 years without a declaration of war. Aggression occurs when Russia accepts the petition of Crimeans who voted 97 percent in favor of reuniting with Russia where Crimea resided for centuries before Khrushchev attached it to the Soviet Socialist Republic of Ukraine in 1954 when Ukraine and Russia were part of the same country.
And the entire world knows that, as the separatist leader of the Donetsk Republic said, “If Russian military units were fighting with us, the news would not be the fall of Mariupol but the fall of Kiev and Lviv.”
Which is “the cancer of violent extremism”–ISIS which cut off the heads of four journalists, or Washington which has bombed seven countries in the 21st century murdering hundreds of thousands of civilians and displacing millions? Who is the worst terrorist–ISIS, a group that is redrawing the artificial boundaries created by British and French colonialists, or Washington with its Wolfowitz Doctrine, the basis of US foreign policy, which declares Washington’s dominant objective to be US hegemony over the world?
ISIS is the creation of Washington. ISIS consists of the jihadists Washington used to overthrow Gaddafi in Libya and then sent to Syria to overthrow Assad. If ISIS is a “network of death,” a “brand of evil” with which negotiation is impossible as Obama declares, it is a network of death created by the Obama regime itself. If ISIS poses the threat that Obama claims, how can the regime that created the threat be credible in leading the fight against it?
The Wolfowitz Doctrine explicitly targets Russia: “Our first objective is to prevent the re-emergence of a new rival, either on the territory of the former Soviet Union or elsewhere.” A “rival” is defined as any country capable of defending its interests or those of allies against Washington’s hegemony.
In his speech, Obama told Russia and China that they can be part of Washington’s world order on the condition that they accept Washington’s hegemony and do not interfere in any way with Washington’s control. When Obama tells Russia that the US will cooperate with Russia “if Russia changes course,” Obama means that Moscow must accept the primacy of Washington’s interest over Russia’s own interest. Clearly, this is an inflexible and unrealistic position. If Washington keeps to it, war with Russia and China will ensue.
Obama told China that Washington intended to continue to be a Pacific power in China’s sphere of influence, “promoting peace, stability, and the free flow of commerce among nations” by building new US air and naval bases from the Philippines to Vietnam so that Washington can control the flow of resources in the South China Sea and cut off China at will.
As far as I can tell, neither the Russian nor Chinese governments understand the seriousness of the threat that Washington represents. Washington’s claim to world hegemony seems too farfetched to Russia and China to be real. But it is very real. By refusing to take the threat seriously, Russia and China have not responded in ways that would bring an end to the threat without the necessity of war.
For example, the Russian government could most likely destroy NATO by responding to sanctions imposed by Washington and the EU by informing European governments that Russia does not sell natural gas to members of NATO. Instead of using this power, Russia has foolishly allowed the EU to accumulate record amounts of stored natural gas to see homes and industry through the coming winter.
Has Russia sold out its national interests for money?
Much of Washington’s power and financial hegemony rests on the role of the US dollar as world reserve currency. Russia and China have been slow, even negligent from the standpoint of defending their sovereignty, to take advantage of opportunities to undermine this pillar of Washington’s power. For example, the BRICS’ talk of abandoning the dollar payments system has been more talk than action. Russia doesn’t even require Washington’s European puppet states to pay for Russian natural gas in rubles.
One might think that a country such as Russia experiencing such extreme hostility and demonization from the West would at least use the gas sales to support its own currency instead of Washington’s dollar. If the Russian government is going to continue to support the economies of European countries hostile to Russia and to prevent the European peoples from freezing during the coming winter, shouldn’t Russia in exchange for this extraordinary subsidy to its enemies at least arrange to support its own currency by demanding payment in rubles? Unfortunately for Russia, Russia is infected with Western trained neoliberal economists who represent Western, not Russian, interests.
When the West sees such extraordinary weakness on the part of the Russian government, Obama knows he can go to the UN and tell the most blatant lies about Russia with no cost whatsoever to the US or Europe. Russian inaction subsidizes Russia’s demonization.
China has been no more successful than Russia in using its opportunities to destabilize Washington. For example, it is a known fact, as Dave Kranzler and I have repeatedly demonstrated, that the Federal Reserve uses its bullion bank agents to knock down the gold price in order to protect the dollar’s value from the Federal Reserve’s policies. The method used is for the bullion banks to drive down the gold price with enormous amounts of naked shorts during periods of low or nonexistent volume.
China or Russia or both could take advantage of this tactic by purchasing every naked short sold plus all covered shorts, if any, and demanding delivery instead of settling the contracts in cash. Neither New York Comex nor the London market could make delivery, and the system would implode. The consequence of the failure to deliver possibly could be catastrophic for the Western financial system, but in the least it would demonstrate the corrupt nature of Western financial institutions.
Or China could deal a more lethal blow. Choosing a time of heightened concern or disruptions in US financial markets, China could dump its trillion dollar plus holdings of US treasuries, or indeed all its holdings of US financial instruments, on the market. The Federal Reserve and the US Treasury could try to stabilize the prices of US financial instruments by creating money with which to purchase the bonds and other instruments. This money creation would increase concern about the dollar’s value, and at that point China could dump the trillion dollars plus it receives from its bond sales on the exchange market. The Federal Reserve cannot print foreign currencies with which to buy up the dollars. The dollar’s exchange value would collapse and with it the dollar’s use as world reserve currency. The US would become just another broke country unable to pay for its imports.
Possibly, Washington could get Japan and the European Central Bank to print enough yen and euros to buy up the dumped dollars. However, the likelihood is that this would bring down the yen and euro along with the dollar. Flight would occur into the Chinese and Russian currencies, and financial hegemony would depart the West.
By their restraint, Russia and China enable Washington’s attack upon them. Last week Washington put thousands of its NGO operatives into the Moscow streets protesting “Putin’s war against Ukraine.” Foolishly, Russia has permitted foreign interests to buy up its newspapers, and these interests continually denounce Putin and the Russian government to their Russian readers. Did Russia sell its soul and communication system for dollars? Did a few oligarchs sell out Russia for Swiss and London bank deposits?
Both Russia and China have Muslim populations among whom the CIA operates encouraging disassociation, rebellion, and violence. Washington intends to break up the Russian Federation into smaller, weaker countries that could not stand in the way of Washington’s hegemony. Russian and Chinese fear of discord among their own Muslim populations have caused both governments to make the extremely serious strategic mistake of aligning with Washington against ISIS and with Washington’s policy of protecting Washington’s status quo in the Muslim world.
If Russia and China understood the deadly threat that Washington presents, both governments would operate according to the time honored principle that “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” Russia and China would arm ISIS with surface to air missiles to bring down the American planes and with military intelligence in order to achieve an American defeat. With defeat would come the overthrow of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Egypt and all of the American puppet rulers in the area. Washington would lose control over oil, and the petro-dollar would be history. It is extraordinary that instead Russia and China are working to protect Washington’s control over the Middle East and the petro-dollar.
China is subject to a variety of attacks. The Rockefeller Foundation creates American agents in Chinese universities, or so I am informed by Chinese academics. American companies that locate in China create Chinese boards on which they place the relatives of local and regional party officials. This shifts loyalty from the central government to the American money. Moreover, China has many economists educated in the US who are imbued with the neoliberal economics that represents Washington’s interests.
Both Russia and China have significant percentages of their populations who wish to be western. The failure of communism in both countries and the success of American cold war propaganda have created loyalties to America in place of their own governments. In Russia they go by the designation “Atlanticist Integrationists.” They are Russians who wish to be integrated into the West. I know less about the Chinese counterpart, but among youth Western materialism and lack of sexual restraint is appealing.
The inability of the Russian and Chinese governments to come to terms with the threat posed to their existence as sovereign countries by the neoconservative insistence on American world hegemony makes nuclear war more likely. If Russia and China catch on too late in the game, their only alternative will be war or submission to Washington’s hegemony. As there is no possibility of the US and NATO invading and occupying Russia and China, the war would be nuclear.
McCain was praising Prince Bandar bin Sultan, then the head of Saudi Arabia’s intelligence services and a former ambassador to the United States, for supporting forces fighting Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria. McCain and Senator Lindsey Graham had previously met with Bandar to encourage the Saudis to arm Syrian rebel forces.
But shortly after McCain’s Munich comments, Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah relieved Bandar of his Syrian covert-action portfolio, which was then transferred to Saudi Interior Minister Prince Mohammed bin Nayef. By mid-April, just two weeks after President Obama met with King Abdullah on March 28, Bandar had also been removed from his position as head of Saudi intelligence—according to official government statements, at “his own request.” Sources close to the royal court told me that, in fact, the king fired Bandar over his handling of the kingdom’s Syria policy and other simmering tensions, after initially refusing to accept Bandar’s offers to resign. (Bandar retains his title as secretary-general of the king’s National Security Council.)
The Free Syrian Army (FSA), the “moderate” armed opposition in the country, receives a lot of attention. But two of the most successful factions fighting Assad’s forces are Islamist extremist groups: Jabhat al-Nusra and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the latter of which is now amassing territory in Iraq and threatening to further destabilize the entire region. And that success is in part due to the support they have received from two Persian Gulf countries: Qatar and Saudi Arabia.
Qatar’s military and economic largesse has made its way to Jabhat al-Nusra, to the point that a senior Qatari official told me he can identify al-Nusra commanders by the blocks they control in various Syrian cities. But ISIS is another matter. As one senior Qatari official stated, “ISIS has been a Saudi project.”
ISIS, in fact, may have been a major part of Bandar’s covert-ops strategy in Syria. The Saudi government, for its part, has denied allegations, including claims made by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki, that it has directly supported ISIS. But there are also signs that the kingdom recently shifted its assistance—whether direct or indirect—away from extremist factions in Syria and toward more moderate opposition groups.
“ISIS has been a Saudi project,” one Qatari official said.
The United States, France, and Turkey have long sought to support the weak and disorganized FSA, and to secure commitments from Qatar and Saudi Arabia to do the same. When Mohammed bin Nayef took the Syrian file from Bandar in February, the Saudi government appeared to finally be endorsing this strategy. As The Washington Post’s David Ignatius wrote at the time, “Prince Mohammed’s new oversight role reflects the increasing concern in Saudi Arabia and other neighboring countries about al-Qaeda’s growing power within the Syrian opposition.”
The worry at the time, punctuated by a February meeting between U.S. National Security Adviser Susan Rice and the intelligence chiefs of Turkey, Qatar, Jordan, and others in the region, was that ISIS and al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra had emerged as the preeminent rebel forces in Syria. The governments who took part reportedly committed to cut off ISIS and Jabhat al-Nusra, and support the FSA instead. But while official support from Qatar and Saudi Arabia appears to have dried up, non-governmental military and financial support may still be flowing from these countries to Islamist groups.
Senior White House officials have refused to discuss the question of any particular Saudi officials aiding ISIS and have not commented on Bandar’s departure. But they have emphasized that Saudi Arabia is now both supporting moderate Syrian rebels and helping coordinate regional policies to deal with an ascendant ISIS threat.
Like elements of the mujahideen, which benefited from U.S. financial and military support during the Soviet war in Afghanistan and then later turned on the West in the form of al-Qaeda, ISIS achieved scale and consequence through Saudi support, only to now pose a grave threat to the kingdom and the region. It’s this concern about blowback that has motivated Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Martin Dempsey and Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to encourage restraint in arming Syrian rebels. President Obama has so far heeded these warnings.
John McCain’s desire to help rebel forces toss off a brutal dictator and fight for a more just and inclusive Syria is admirable. But as has been proven repeatedly in the Middle East, ousting strongmen doesn’t necessarily produce more favorable successor governments. Embracing figures like Bandar, who may have tried to achieve his objectives in Syria by building a monster, isn't worth it.
The Islamic State is a brutal, medieval organisation whose members take pride in carrying out beheadings and flaunting the severed heads of their victims as trophies. This cannot obscure an underlying reality: the Islamic State represents a Sunni Islamist insurrection against non-Sunni rulers in disintegrating Syria and Iraq.
Indeed, the ongoing fragmentation of states along primordial lines in the arc between Israel and India is spawning de facto new entities or blocks, including Shiastan, Wahhabistan, Kurdistan, ISstan and Talibanstan. Other than Iran, Egypt and Turkey, most of the important nations from the Maghreb to Pakistan (an internally torn state that could shrink to Punjabistan or, simply, ISIstan) are modern western concoctions, with no roots in history or pre-existing identity.
The West and agendas
It is beyond dispute that the Islamic State militia — formerly the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant — emerged from the Syrian civil war, which began indigenously as a localised revolt against state brutality under Syrian President Bashar al-Assad before being fuelled with externally supplied funds and weapons. From Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)-training centres in Turkey and Jordan, the rebels set up a Free Syrian Army (FSA), launching attacks on government forces, as a U.S.-backed information war demonised Mr. Assad and encouraged military officers and soldiers to switch sides.
But the members of the U.S.-led coalition were never on the same page because some allies had dual agendas. While the three spearheads of the anti-Assad crusade — the U.S., Britain and France — focussed on aiding the FSA, the radical Islamist sheikhdoms such as Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates as well as the Islamist-leaning government in Turkey channelled their weapons and funds to more overtly Islamist groups. This splintered the Syrian opposition, marginalising the FSA and paving the way for the Islamic State’s rise.
The anti-Assad coalition indeed started off on the wrong foot by trying to speciously distinguish between “moderate” and “radical” jihadists. The line separating the two is just too blurred. Indeed, the term “moderate jihadists” is an oxymoron: Those waging jihad by the gun can never be moderate.
Invoking jihad
The U.S. and its allies made a more fundamental mistake by infusing the spirit of jihad in their campaign against Mr. Assad so as to help trigger a popular uprising in Syria. The decision to instil the spirit of jihad through television and radio broadcasts beamed to Syrians was deliberate — to provoke Syria’s majority Sunni population to rise against their secular government.
This ignored the lesson from Afghanistan (where the CIA in the 1980s ran, via Pakistan, the largest covert operation in its history) — that inciting jihad and arming “holy warriors” creates a deadly cocktail, with far-reaching and long-lasting impacts on international security. The Reagan administration openly used Islam as an ideological tool to spur armed resistance to Soviet forces in Afghanistan.
In 1985, at a White House ceremony in honour of several Afghan mujahideen — the jihadists out of which al-Qaeda evolved — President Ronald Reagan declared, “These gentlemen are the moral equivalent of America’s Founding Fathers.” Earlier in 1982, Reagan dedicated the space shuttle ‘Columbia’ to the Afghan resistance. He declared, “Just as the Columbia, we think, represents man’s finest aspirations in the field of science and technology, so too does the struggle of the Afghan people represent man’s highest aspirations for freedom. I am dedicating, on behalf of the American people, the March 22 launch of the Columbia to the people of Afghanistan.”
The Afghan war veterans came to haunt the security of many countries. Less known is the fact that the Islamic State’s self-declared caliph, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi — like Libyan militia leader Abdelhakim Belhadj (whom the CIA abducted and subjected to “extraordinary rendition”) and Chechen terrorist leader Airat Vakhitov — become radicalised while under U.S. detention. As torture chambers, U.S. detention centres have served as pressure cookers for extremism.
Mr. Obama’s Syria strategy took a page out of Reagan’s Afghan playbook. Not surprisingly, his strategy backfired. It took just two years for Syria to descend into a Somalia-style failed state under the weight of the international jihad against Mr. Assad. This helped the Islamic State not only to rise but also to use its control over northeastern Syria to stage a surprise blitzkrieg deep into Iraq this summer.
Had the U.S. and its allies refrained from arming jihadists to topple Mr. Assad, would the Islamic State have emerged as a lethal, marauding force? And would large swaths of upstream territory along the Euphrates and Tigris rivers in Syria and Iraq have fallen into this monster’s control? The exigencies of the topple-Assad campaign also prompted the Obama administration to turn a blind eye to the flow of Gulf and Turkish aid to the Islamic State.
A full circle
In fact, the Obama team, until recently, viewed the Islamic State as a “good” terrorist organisation in Syria but a “bad” one in Iraq, especially when it threatened to overrun the Kurdish regional capital, Erbil. In January, Mr. Obama famously dismissed the Islamic State as a local “JV team” trying to imitate al-Qaeda but without the capacity to be a threat to America. It was only after the public outrage in the U.S. over the video-recorded execution of American journalist James Foley and the flight of Iraqi Christians and Yazidis that the White House re-evaluated the threat posed by the Islamic State.
Many had cautioned against the topple-Assad campaign, fearing that extremist forces would gain control in the vacuum. Those still wedded to overthrowing Mr. Assad’s rule, however, contend that Mr. Obama’s failure to provide greater aid, including surface-to-air missiles, to the Syrian rebels created a vacuum that produced the Islamic State. In truth, more CIA arms to the increasingly ineffectual FSA would have meant a stronger and more deadly Islamic State.
As part of his strategic calculus to oust Mr. Assad, Mr. Obama failed to capitalise on the Arab Spring, which was then in full bloom. By seeking to topple a secular autocracy in Syria while simultaneously working to shield jihad-bankrolling monarchies from the Arab Spring, he ended up strengthening Islamist forces — a development reinforced by the U.S.-led overthrow of another secular Arab dictator, Muammar Qadhafi, which has turned Libya into another failed state and created a lawless jihadist citadel at Europe’s southern doorstep.
In fact, no sooner had Qadhafi been killed than Libya’s new rulers established a theocracy, with no opposition from the western powers that brought about the regime change. Indeed, the cloak of Islam helps to protect the credibility of leaders who might otherwise be seen as foreign puppets. For the same reason, the U.S. has condoned the Arab monarchs for their long-standing alliance with Islamists. It has failed to stop these cloistered royals from continuing to fund Muslim extremist groups and madrasas in other countries. The American interest in maintaining pliant regimes in oil-rich countries has trumped all other considerations.
Today, Mr. Obama’s Syria policy is coming full circle. Having portrayed Mr. Assad as a bloodthirsty monster, Washington must now accept Mr. Assad as the lesser of the two evils and work with him to defeat the larger threat of the Islamic State. The fact that the Islamic State’s heartland remains in northern Syria means that it cannot be stopped unless the U.S. extends air strikes into Syria. As the U.S. mulls that option — for which it would need at least tacit permission from Syria, which still maintains good air defences — it is fearful of being pulled into the middle of the horrendous civil war there. It is thus discreetly urging Mr. Assad to prioritise defeating the Islamic State.
Make no mistake: like al-Qaeda, the Islamic State is a monster inadvertently spawned by the policies of those now in the lead to combat it. The question is whether anything substantive will be learned from this experience, unlike the forgotten lessons of America’s anti-Soviet struggle in Afghanistan. At a time when jihadist groups are gaining ground from Mali to Malaysia, Mr. Obama’s current effort to strike a Faustian bargain with the Afghan Taliban, for example, gives little hope that any lesson will be learned. U.S.-led policies toward the Islamic world have prevented a clash between civilisations by fostering a clash within a civilisation, but at serious cost to regional and international security.
(Brahma Chellaney is a geostrategist and the author, most recently, of Water, Peace, and War, Oxford University Press, 2014.)
Source: http://chellaney.net/2014/08/26/who-created-the-new-frankenstein/
Source: http://www.globalresearch.ca/pentagon-and-cia-want-to-keep-isis-tweeting-exploiting-social-media-to-keep-the-endless-war-on-terror-alive/5391222
Source: Empire's Murderous Fruits
Ayatollah Khamenei reminded them that Al Qaeda — a creation of the Central Intelligence Agency, Iran has said — and the Taliban were, in the eyes of Iranian intelligence, devised by the West as a counterweight to Iran. “There is no doubt that these movements are created by Western powers and their regional agents,” Mr. Khamenei has insisted.
Iran’s support for Syria’s president, Mr. Assad, never gained much traction among ordinary people here, who care more about the economy than about propping up the leader of a distant land. But why would the United States now declare ISIS a threat to its national security and say it is ready to bomb the group inside Syria, thereby bolstering Mr. Assad by attacking his most formidable opponent?
Warning that “if the right approach is not undertaken in dealing with the issue at hand” the Middle East risks turning into “a turbulent and tumultuous region with repercussions for the whole world.”
"The rightsolution to this quandary comes from within the region and regionally provided solution with international support and not from the outside the region," he said. Speaking of Iran’s nuclear program, Rouhani vowed that Tehran would continue negotiations to cement the deal with Western states.
“No one should doubt that compromise and agreement on this issue is in the best interest of everyone, especially that of the nations of the region,” he said. “According to all international observers, the Islamic Republic of Iran has carried out its commitments in good faith.”
Source: http://rt.com/news/190640-rouhani-un-rise-extremism/
American bombs aren't yet falling on Syria, but on Tuesday Chuck Hagel suggested they soon will. "This plan includes targeted actions against ISIL safe havens in Syria, including its command and control, logistics capabilities and infrastructure," the Secretary of Defense told the Senate. Martin Dempsey, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, added that the attacks "will be persistent and sustainable."
The best way to start would be for the U.S. to end the siege of Aleppo, where FSA forces are trapped both by the Islamic State and Assad's forces. Saving the city—Syria's largest—would end a humanitarian calamity and provide a major psychological boost to the FSA.
Source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/the-syria-campaign-1410910122
Source: http://online.wsj.com/articles/ukraine-suffers-harsh-defeat-in-eastern-town-1409616541
The years from perhaps 1948 to the turn of the century marked a brief moment in human history when one could speak of an incipient global world order composed of an amalgam of American idealism and traditional European concepts of statehood and balance of power. But vast regions of the world have never shared and only acquiesced in the Western concept of order. These reservations are now becoming explicit, for example, in the Ukraine crisis and the South China Sea. The order established and proclaimed by the West stands at a turning point.
I realize that this question sounds hysterical, and foolishly apocalyptic, to U.S. or Western European readers. But hear me out, if only because this is a conversation many people in the eastern half of Europe are having right now. In the past few days, Russian troops bearing the flag of a previously unknown country, Novorossiya, have marched across the border of southeastern Ukraine. The Russian Academy of Sciences recently announced it will publish a history of Novorossiya this autumn, presumably tracing its origins back to Catherine the Great. Various maps of Novorossiya are said to be circulating in Moscow. Some include Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk, cities that are still hundreds of miles away from the fighting. Some place Novorossiya along the coast, so that it connects Russia to Crimea and eventually to Transnistria, the Russian-occupied province of Moldova. Even if it starts out as an unrecognized rump state — Abkhazia and South Ossetia, “states” that Russia carved out of Georgia, are the models here — Novorossiya can grow larger over time.
But Novorossiya will also be hard to sustain if it has opponents in the West. Possible solutions to that problem are also under discussion. Not long ago, Vladimir Zhirinovsky — the Russian member of parliament and court jester who sometimes says things that those in power cannot — argued on television that Russia should use nuclear weapons to bomb Poland and the Baltic countries — “dwarf states,” he called them — and show the West who really holds power in Europe: “Nothing threatens America, it’s far away. But Eastern European countries will place themselves under the threat of total annihilation,” he declared. Vladimir Putin indulges these comments: Zhirinovsky’s statements are not official policy, the Russian president says, but he always “gets the party going.”
A far more serious person, the dissident Russian analyst Andrei Piontkovsky, has recently published an article arguing, along lines that echo Zhirinovsky’s threats, that Putin really is weighing the possibility of limited nuclear strikes — perhaps against one of the Baltic capitals, perhaps a Polish city — to prove that NATO is a hollow, meaningless entity that won’t dare strike back for fear of a greater catastrophe. Indeed, in military exercises in 2009 and 2013, the Russian army openly “practiced” a nuclear attack on Warsaw.
Is all of this nothing more than the raving of lunatics? Maybe. And maybe Putin is too weak to do any of this, and maybe it’s just scare tactics, and maybe his oligarchs will stop him. But “Mein Kampf” also seemed hysterical to Western and German audiences in 1933. Stalin’s orders to “liquidate” whole classes and social groups within the Soviet Union would have seemed equally insane to us at the time, if we had been able to hear them.
But Stalin kept to his word and carried out the threats, not because he was crazy but because he followed his own logic to its ultimate conclusions with such intense dedication — and because nobody stopped him. Right now, nobody is able to stop Putin, either. So is it hysterical to prepare for total war? Or is it naive not to do so?
This agreement was formalised in the “The U.S.-Saudi Arabian Joint Commission on Economic Cooperation” put together by Nixon’s Secretary of State Henry Kissinger in 1974. The system was expanded to include the rest of OPEC by 1975. This was a major economic success for the U.S. As long as the world needs oil, and as long as oil is only sold in U.S. dollars, there will be a demand for dollars, and that demand is what gives the dollar its value.
How victims of American invasion wanted to stop trading in dollars
This petrodollar system stood unchallenged until September of 2000 when former Iraqi Persistent Saddam Hussein announced his decision to switch Iraq’s oil sales off of the dollar to Euros. This was a direct attack on the dollar. To protect the supremacy of the dollar, the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003. Once Iraqi oil fields were under U.S. control after the invasion, oil sales were immediately switched back to the dollar.
End of petrodollar would bring an end to the U.S. hegemony
The petrodollar is the only life support machine left for the U.S. and this is precisely why Washington goes after any country that tries to destroy it. This is not deterring Russia and China from going ahead with their plans. Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov announced after talks in Beijing recently that Russia and China are currently discussing the creation of a system of inter-bank transactions, which would be an analogue to the international system of bank transfers – SWIFT. The Russian authorities intended to reduce the dependence of the financial market on SWIFT after the first wave of US sanctions, when international payment systems Visa and MasterCard refused to work with a number of Russian banks. According to Shuvalov, Russia also discussed the creation of an independent rating agency with China. Specific proposals are to be made by the end of 2014.
No leader of a major power has behaved as overtly aggressively since Stalin in the postwar period, and sadly Putin would be very pleased with the comparison. He has said the demise of the Soviet Union was the greatest tragedy of the 20th century and he claims the right to act on behalf of Russian minorities in other states. As there are Russian minorities throughout the old Soviet Union and far wider he is in principle claiming the right to interfere in the affairs of all of the independent sovereign states of eastern Europe. Stalin’s policies pushed the world into the cold war. Putin has the potential to be equally as dangerous.
The prime minister told the House of Commons recently there is no need to look at the strategic defence review of 2010 despite the fact that large scale cuts are still being imposed on our armed forces. We have an army stuffed full of the kind of vehicles best suited to fight a counter insurgency in Afghanistan, not those likely to offer reassurance to our European neighbours facing a Russia that is re-equipping its own forces.
Source: http://www.inquisitr.com/1479376/vladimir-putin-as-dangerous-as-stalin-and-bigger-threat-than-isis-claims-former-defence-secretary/#8yEybC6VcgrImGVZ.99
While ruling out NATO military intervention against the group, Rasmussen said the "horrific atrocities" carried out by IS could provide the basis for United Nations action in the Middle East. The U.S. has already carried out several air strikes on IS forces in Iraq, though Russia warned last week it would consider any strikes carried out without a UN mandate over Syria — a Russian ally — as an act of aggression.
Ukraine's gas transport monopoly Ukrtransgaz was quoted by a Russian news agency as saying Gazprom was limiting flows to Poland to disrupt supplies of gas in the opposite direction, from Poland into Ukraine. Kiev is already cut off from Russian gas in a pricing dispute and depends on these "reverse flows" to supply homes and businesses with gas.
Gazprom made no immediate comment. Polish gas monopoly PGNiG said on Wednesday it was trying to find out why volumes were down. There was no indication that any European Union importers of Russian gas besides Poland were affected. Slovakia, a major hub for Russia gas exports to Europe, said volumes were steady, and operators in Hungary, Bosnia and Serbia said there was no disruption to their supplies.
Igor Gorsky, a spokesman for Gazprom Transgaz Belarus, the Gazprom subsidiary that operates export pipelines via Belarus, said: "There have been no extraordinary situations from our side, or any maintenance work, which could have an impact on supply volumes."
Poland has lobbied the EU hard to impose tougher sanctions on Moscow, and it is to host elements of a new Nato rapid reaction force, created in response to the Russian intervention in Ukraine. Gazprom supplies a third of Europe's gas and for many EU countries it is the main source of power for homes and industry. The Russian firm has said its focus is on continuing to provide stable gas supplies for its customers.
The Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991, but under the stewardship of President Vladimir Putin, a former KGB agent, a new cold war between Russia and the United States appears to be forming. At least, it's cold for now.
Over the past 30 months, Russian strategic (read nuclear) forces have begun testing U.S. defenses on a much more regular basis. The most recent attempt occurred just days ago when a pair of Russian strategic bombers practiced cruise missile attacks on the U.S. during a training mission -- a mission that U.S. officials said was timed to coincide with a NATO summit in Wales aimed at developing a plan to blunt Russia's aggression toward Ukraine.
American and Canadian systems picked up and tracked the aged Tu-95 "Bear-H" bombers flying a line across the northern Atlantic Ocean "near Iceland, Greenland, and Canada's northeast," the Free Beacon news site reported, adding:
Analysis of the flight indicated the aircraft were conducting practice runs to a pre-determined "launch box"--an optimum point for firing nuclear-armed cruise missiles at U.S. targets, said defense officials familiar with intelligence reports.
Testing of U.S. defenses have been increasing
The disclosure of the latest Russian nuclear forces training came amid a call by a Russian general the prior week for Moscow to adjust its military doctrine to include a first-strike option against the U.S. and NATO.
"Gen. Yuri Yakubov, a senior Defense Ministry official, was quoted by the state-run Interfax news agency as saying that Russia's 2010 military doctrine should be revised to identify the United States and the NATO alliance as enemies, and clearly outline the conditions for a preemptive nuclear strike against them," the Free Beacon reported.
Among other necessary doctrinal changes, Yakubov said, "it is necessary to hash out the conditions under which Russia could carry out a preemptive strike with the Russian Strategic Rocket Forces," which are the Russian army's nuclear forces.
The recent practice launch runs are just the latest in a string of such missions that involve aggressive Russian bomber flights near U.S. airspace. The Free Beacon said a number of analysts believe that the flights amount to nuclear saber-rattling by Moscow over escalating tensions surrounding Ukraine.
No U.S. or Canadian interceptors were launched against the Bear-H bombers because the Russian planes remained outside the North American Air Defense Identification Zone. However, not all missions in recent months have done so; U.S. and allied aircraft have scrambled often since 2011 in response to Russian aircraft.
At the NATO summit, officials issued a statement that criticized "Russia's aggressive actions against Ukraine [which] have fundamentally challenged our vision of a Europe whole, free, and at peace."
Russia upgrading its nuclear forces
The Tu-95 is a dual-turboprop bomber that first entered service with the Soviet Air Force in 1956. Like its American jet-powered counterpart, the B-52, the Bear has undergone a number of upgrades and revisions since it was first introduced. Its most modern version is designed to carry six AS-15 nuclear-armed cruise missiles, which have a range of more than 1,800 miles.
"Google Earth analysis reveals that a Tu-95 launch box located in the Labrador Sea and firing AS-15 missiles would be in range of Ottawa, New York, Washington, and Chicago, and could reach as far south as the Norfolk Naval base," the Free Beacon reported. Other Russian moves regarding its nuclear force in recent months include:
-- Moscow is developing new nuclear weapons to counter the U.S. and NATO. According to the New York Post, Russia recently tested a new sea-based weapon that was launched from a submarine. "We have warned many times that we would have to take corresponding countermeasures to ensure our security," Putin told a gathering of officials at the Kremlin, adding that he was now going to take personal charge of the government commission overseeing military industries.
-- In early August, the Free Beacon reported that Russian aircraft had tested U.S. air defenses at least 16 times in the previous 10 days.
-- In 2012, Interfax reported that Russia had tested a new fifth-generation intercontinental ballistic missile designed to counter U.S. anti-missile defenses.
Meanwhile, there have been no reports that U.S. aircraft have been testing Russian air defense forces.
Continued…
Source: http://orientalreview.org/2014/08/21/washingtons-nightmare-comes-true-the-russian-chinese-strategic-partnership-goes-global-i/
As the war in Eastern Ukraine seems to be perceived mainly through “Crimean lenses”, this Western policy, added to rounds of sanctions, aim at seeing an increasingly isolated Russian Federation bend to a “Western” vision of what the international order should be. The soon ex-General Secretary of Nato Rasmussen’s statement on Estonian TV according to which “Russia is globally isolated due to its actions in Ukraine” is only one example of similar comments made over the last months (ETV Interview: Rasmussen Says Russia is Isolated, 5 September 2014).
The latest round of sanctions, coming into force on 12 September 2014 for the EU (EU; “EU sanctions against Russia over Ukraine crisis“), taken on 12 September for the U.S., when cease-fire and peace negotiations in Eastern Ukraine, supported by Russia, seem to progress, could result from the same logic and abide to the same rhetoric.
Yet, as shown by Kearns and Raynova looking at the voting pattern in the UN General Assembly for the 27 March 2014 adoption of a resolution ‘calling upon states not to recognise changes in the status of the Crimea region’, Russia’s isolation is far from being obvious (“Is Russia really isolated on Ukraine?“, European Leadership Network, 1 April 2014). If Russia was not isolated then, could it be that more than five months later, it is truly becoming increasingly isolated, which would indicate the success of Western policies?
To estimate the alleged Russian isolation, we shall use as proxy indicators the sanctions applied upon Russia on the one hand, and, on the other, the international reactions to the Russian embargo on agricultural and food products. We shall focus the analysis on main players and salient points. Supplementary sources used to draw the concluding map (see below) are listed at the bottom of the post.
The Russian Embargo
The preliminary investigation report published by the Dutch Safety Board seven weeks after the MH17 catastrophe, still unable to fully determine causes, only underlines further how early accusations against Russia could have been felt as not only far-fetched (if after seven weeks one cannot determine the culprit, then how could it have been done a few hours after the crash?) but also unjust. The embargo started when Medvedev signed a “Government resolution on enforcing this Executive Order”, i.e. 7 August, should last twelve months and through it “Russia has completely banned the importation of beef, pork, fruits and vegetables, poultry, fish, cheese, milk and dairy products from the European Union, the United States, Australia, Canada and the Kingdom of Norway” (Medvedev, Ibid.).
Sanctions and Reactions to Russian Embargo
East Asia
As far as Japan is concerned, and despite Russian expressed disappointment with sanctions (taken in April and July), considering the so-far positive outlook of Japan-Russian relationships (e.g. VOA News, 12 February 2014; Ria Novosti, 5 August 2014), Russian News Agency RIA Novosti seems to imply that “behind the scene” diplomacy involving Former Japanese Prime Minister Yoshiro Mori is taking place: Japan explains its decision regarding sanctions by “having been forced into it”, meanwhile reasserting the importance of relationships with Russia (“Japanese Politician to Convey Prime Minister’s Message to Russian Leadership: Reports“, 8 September 2014). Indeed, as reported in Japan, former Prime Minister Mori met with President Putin, handing him a letter conveying “Abe’s eagerness to prevent bilateral relations from deteriorating further.” (The Japan News, 11 September 2014). Japan, notably, is energy starved and needs to solve territorial issues with Russia over the Kuril islands, which stops both countries to sign any peace treaty ending World War II (e.g. Sudhir Devare, India & Southeast Asia: Towards Security Convergence, ISEAS, Singapore, p.36; Harry Kazianis, “World War II: Not Over For Japan and Russia“, The Diplomat, 30 April 2013).
China relations with Russia continue being excellent and are even reinforced by “the West” sanctions against Russia, as exemplified, among others, by the huge 30 years USD 400 billion gas deal (e.g. Martin, Forbes, 30 May 2014), the Arctic coordination (Valantin, RTAS, 23 june 2014), the launch in July 2014 of the New Development Bank (NDB) by the BRICS as an alternative to the IMF and the World Bank, institutions of the American post-World War II order (e.g. our warning back in March; Pilling, FT, 30 July 2014), the recent military exercises conducted within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation-SCO (e.g. Ria Novosti, 29 August 2014), the launch of Russia’s use of China UnionPay credit card system (RT, 15 August 2014), or deals regarding supply of fruits and vegetables to Russia from China (e.g. The Moscow Times, 11 August 2014).
Meanwhile, in early September, as Russian President Putin visited Mongolia, the Mongolian President stated that he will not take any sanctions against Russia, but, on the contrary, position the country to sell meat to his neighbour, while overall trade should be boosted (Al Jazeera, 3 September 2014).
South Asia
Yet, Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj reasserted the continuity of Indian Foreign Policy, thus refusing to join the sanctions’ round against Russia (Defense news, 3 August 2014; Ria Novosti, 31 July 2014). Considering Indian historical relations with Russia, “our country’s greatest friend” as Indian Prime Minister Modi put it when meeting with Russian President Putin on 16 July, as well as Modi’s will to further “strengthening Russia-India ties” (Indian Ministry of External Affairs, India-Russia relations, 2014; Zeenews, 16 July 2014), India is unlikely to “abandon” Russia. However, the probable visit of President Modi to the U.S. in late September (The Times of India) is to be monitored, including because of possible strategic evolutions regarding China and Japan.
Meanwhile, on 26 August, Pakistan Ambassador to Russia suggested that Pakistan could “supply food products to Russia no inferior in quality to Europe‘s (Interfax Interview, 26 August 2014). Sri Lanka would also plan “larger fish, seafood export to Russia” (Itar-Tass, 13 August 2014).
Central Asia
During the recent Dushanbe summit on 11 and 12 September 2014, they signed the so-called Dushanbe Declaration (official text), where, among other major point such as the possible enlargement of the SCO, consensus over commitment for the UN, Syria, Iran or Afghanistan, they “welcome[d] the signed September 4, 2014 Protocol on the basis of the consultations of the Tripartite Liaison Group on joint steps aimed at the implementation of the Peace Plan of the President and the President of the Russia initiatives” (Google translation).
Kazakhstan is also a member of the Eurasian Union (Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus), and accepted that its territory could not be used to see the Russian embargo on agricultural products bypassed, even if it did not itself enforce an embargo (“Lavrov interview“, Itar-Tass, 11 September 2014).
Furthermore, Russia is also a crucial partner for many of those landlocked countries, as reminded, for example, by Tajikistan’s Ambassador to Russia who reasserted that ““Russia is Tajikistan’s strategic partner. We favour close economic cooperation with Russia” when he announced on 15 September the intention to “step up economic cooperation with Russia” notably in the framework of the agricultural embargo (Itar-Tass, 15 September 2014).
Uzbekistan as many other countries saw the opportunity with the Russian embargo to increase their own exports (Russian sanctions on Western food: An opportunity for Uzbekistan, 8 August 2014). Turkmenistan, for its part, seeks to maintain neutral and good relationships with all sides, and thus did not join in to sanction Russia.
These choices, according to countries, may also be read as political statements, underlining notably the historically built “misunderstanding and distrust [that] have characterized U.S.-Latin American relations (James D. Cochrane, “The Troubled And Misunderstood Relationship:The United States and Latin America“, Latin American Research Review, 28(2): 232). In early September, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, true to Chavismo, went even further, suggesting that the “West’s ‘Attacks’ on Russia Are Attempt to Stifle BRICS” (The Moscow Times, 2 September 2014).
Unsurprisingly considering the good relationships between the two countries, Iran also stressed its readiness to export food to Russia (Fars News, 6 September 2014).
The relationship between Egypt and Russia is definitely strengthening, as furthermore both now share the experience of recent alienation by “the West”. When the Egyptian revolution and struggle against the Islamism of the Muslim Brotherhood were quite unanimously denounced as a military coup and condemned by “the West” in 2013 (e.g. The Weekly No108 and No107), Russia did not hesitate to reboot ties, notably with the visit of the “Russian defense and foreign ministers in November” 2013. Now, after the state visit of President al-Sisi to Russia in August 2014, not only are military, agricultural and infrastructure contracts signed or about to be, but discussions have started for “the creation of a free trade zone between Egypt and the Russia-led Customs Union, which also includes Belarus and Kazakhstan” (Al-Arabiya News, 12 August 2014; Ria Novosti, 12 August 2014; Egypt State Information Service, 12 August 2014).
More recently, on 2 September, the Tunisian Foreign Minister expressed Tunisia’s willingness “to supply many goods that Russia does not receive from Europe now”, among other issues discussed (Itar-Tass, 2 September 2014; Tunisie Afrique Press, “La Russie assiste la Tunisie dans sa guerre contre le terrorisme“, Global Net, 3 September 2014). Morocco also wishes to take advantage of the new opportunity and “a Morocco–Russia summit will take place in mid-September to create a strategy for more comprehensive trade between the two countries.” (Jeune Afrique, 5 September 2014).
Caucasus
Trying to preserve relationships with the West, as it is a signatory of an Association Agreement with the EU, while also wishing to continue improving the prospects for normalization with Russia, Georgia expressed its will to take advantage of the offered possibility to increase agricultural exports and stated it was not joining in imposing sanctions on Russia (Armenian News Tert.am, 15 August 2014; Georgy Kalatozishvili, “Georgia waits out the Ukrainian crisis, trying to please everybody“, 29 August 2014). Importantly, Kalatozishvili (Ibid.) also underlines that the West is perceived as weaker than thought, which contributes to explain Georgia’s decisions and its criticism of the sanctions’ path.
Azerbaijan is holding talks with Russia so as to increase its agricultural exports (Aynur Jafarova, “Azerbaijan’s unique chance to increase export of agricultural products to Russia“, 22 August 2014);
Europe
Although candidate states to the EU were called upon to develop a foreign policy similar to the EU, Serbia refused to take any sanction against Russia (Lauren Gieseke, “Russian Sanctions Pose Particular Strains on Aspiring EU and NATO Candidate States (7/3)“, The European Institute, July 2014), most probably considering its long-standing relationship with Russia. On the contrary, Montenegro, for example, accepted to follow the European Union decisions (Ibid.).
However, this almost total EU unity also hides varying position according to member states. Besides hardliners against Russia, such as Poland and the UK, some states increasingly developed a more measured approach to sanctions, notably Finland, if not plain “opposition … now coming from Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, among others,” or from Hungary (DW, “Resistance grows in EU to new Russia sanctions“, 5 September 2014; BBC news, “Hungary PM Orban condemns EU sanctions on Russia“, 15 August 2014).
Furthermore, it would also seems that within some European states a domestic opposition develops against sanctions, in a more or less generalized way. For example, in early August, in Bulgaria, only 10% of the population supported stricter sanctions, whilst 40% thought “that Bulgaria should not participate in sanctions against any country in general, Russia included” (Novinite.com, 7 August 2014). Opposition to sanctions, in general, originates from the left (DW, Ibid.), from the business and corporate sector, as well as from agricultural producers, which will be seriously hit by the Russian embargo.
For example, in Spain, in Aragon on 18 August (RTVE.es) then in Catalonia on 23 August (RT video; Ria Novosti, 23 August 2014), farmers protested against the EU policy over Russia that led to the embargo and even burnt the EU flag. The cost of the retaliatory embargo to the EU will indeed be felt strongly as, according to the AP/AFP, in 2013 “Russia imported $1.3 billion (971 million euros) worth of foodstuffs from the US, an amount that was dwarfed by the EU’s agricultural exports to Russia in 2013, which totaled $15.8 billion.” (Deutsche Welle, “Russia announces ‘full embargo’ on most food from US, EU“). Hence the EU producers of agricultural products are paying the brunt of the West policy. Beyond direct and immediate cost, including bankruptcy for smaller farmers, the negative impact is highly likely to be long-lasting as the new contracts signed over the world will be difficult if not impossible to recapture.
As another indication of discontent related to sanctions, this time from both the political world and larger corporations, we find the little publicized meeting that was held under the aegis of the French non-profit organization Dialogue Franco-Russe, where the President of the Russian Duma and other Russian parliamentarians met French ones and political figures as well as businessmen, including the CEO of Total (energy, oil), the Director for Europe of GDF-Suez (energy) and Serge Dassault (founder of Dassault Systems, from aerospace and defense to energy etc.) – (meeting report, in French, in English). As another example, German businesses have also at time shared their doubts regarding the sanctions’ policy (e.g. Bethan John “One-third of German firms see sanctions hitting Russian business“, Reuters, 9 September).
Russia is not isolated
Furthermore, the discrepancy between declarations and reality may also fuel change by promoting misunderstanding, leading to feeling of aggression and injustice, breeding in turn heightened tensions and accelerated actions to protect oneself. The cost of believing wrongly that there is or could be an isolated Russia may be huge, not only in economic terms – as born principally by Europe and European companies and producers – but also in terms of international influence and power and thus ability to achieve one’s vision and aims, including ensuring the security of one’s citizens at best.
As so many other threats, from the impact of climate change to the spread of Ebola without forgetting the expansionist and warring aims of the Islamic State would demand cooperation rather than avoidable tense and escalating divisions, it may be high time for “the West” to take stock of reality and devise new policies.
——
*”The West” here is a shorthand that refers to the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the U.K. (the Five Eyes, an intelligence alliance), the EU and member states – the UK is, still, of course also part of the EU – Switzerland and Norway. New Zealand and Switzerland, however, have taken less strident positions against Russia (see sources below). We could – and should – however discuss why Russia is not seen as both a European, thus Western, and Asian country, when so many elements concur to show it is: geographically (until the Ural mountains at least), historically, culturally (considering the incredible Russian contribution to European culture, from music with Tchaikovsky (listen to a Best of – Youtube), Rimski-Korsakov (extract from Scheherazade), Rachmaninov (Best Of) or Prokoviev (Best of) to name only a few composers, to ballet dancing with Diaghilev and Nijinsky (e.g. Twenty Years that Changed the World of Art – visit Harvard exhibition) to painting with Kandinsky or Chagall for example, or literature, with Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky among many others), and geopolitically (from Russia’s role in defeating Napoleon, to the 1907 Triple Entente between Britain, France and Russia (e.g. Conybear and Sandler, “The Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance 1880-1914…“, American Political Science Review, 84(4), 1990) to the Soviet Union costly and crucial fight against the Axis during WWII to take only recent examples.
Source: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/article/504691.html
For all the celebrations in Kiev over ratifying the trade deal with Europe, it is the Russians who got most of what they wanted
Ukraine’s setback was masked by the fanfare of the simultaneous ratification of the agreement by the Ukrainian Rada and the European Parliament on September 16th (see Charlemagne). Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president, called it an historic moment and led a chorus of MPs in the national anthem: “Ukraine is not dead yet”. After all, it was the decision by the former president, Viktor Yanukovych, to reject an earlier version of the deal a year ago that sparked the Maidan revolution.
Yet the agreement will not fully come into force at least until the end of 2015. The pause is meant to give Ukraine, Russia and the EU time to find a compromise. (During it, Ukraine will be able to export to Europe duty-free while European goods will still be taxed on their way into Ukraine.) This is precisely what Russia asked for before the start of the Ukrainian crisis, only to be told to keep out. Many Ukraine-watchers are worried that the association agreement could yet be further hollowed out.
Source: http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21618840-all-celebrations-kiev-over-ratifying-trade-deal-europe-it-russians-who
This is a horrific, tragic, completely unnecessary war in eastern Ukraine. In my own judgment, we have contributed mightily to this tragedy. I would say that historians one day will look back and say that America has blood on its hands. Three thousand people have died, most of them civilians who couldn’t move quickly. That’s women with small children, older women. A million refugees.
[Interviewer:] The possibility of Ukraine in NATO and what that means and what—STEPHEN COHEN: Nuclear war.[Interviewer:] Explain.STEPHEN COHEN: Next question. I mean, it’s clear. It’s clear. First of all, by NATO’s own rules, Ukraine cannot join NATO, a country that does not control its own territory. In this case, Kiev controls less and less by the day. It’s lost Crimea. It’s losing the Donbas—I just described why—to the war. A country that does not control its own territory cannot join Ukraine [sic]. Those are the rules.[Interviewer:] Cannot join—STEPHEN COHEN: I mean, NATO. Secondly, you have to meet certain economic, political and military criteria to join NATO. Ukraine meets none of them. Thirdly, and most importantly, Ukraine is linked to Russia not only in terms of being Russia’s essential security zone, but it’s linked conjugally, so to speak, intermarriage. There are millions, if not tens of millions, of Russian and Ukrainians married together. Put it in NATO, and you’re going to put a barricade through millions of families. Russia will react militarily.In fact, Russia is already reacting militarily, because look what they’re doing in Wales today. They’re going to create a so-called rapid deployment force of 4,000 fighters. What is 4,000 fighters? Fifteen thousand or less rebels in Ukraine are crushing a 50,000-member Ukrainian army. Four thousand against a million-man Russian army, it’s nonsense. The real reason for creating the so-called rapid deployment force is they say it needs infrastructure. And the infrastructure—that is, in plain language is military bases—need to be on Russia’s borders. And they’ve said where they’re going to put them: in the Baltic republic, Poland and Romania.Now, why is this important? Because NATO has expanded for 20 years, but it’s been primarily a political expansion, bringing these countries of eastern Europe into our sphere of political influence; now it’s becoming a military expansion. So, within a short period of time, we will have a new—well, we have a new Cold War, but here’s the difference. The last Cold War, the military confrontation was in Berlin, far from Russia. Now it will be, if they go ahead with this NATO decision, right plunk on Russia’s borders. Russia will then leave the historic nuclear agreement that Reagan and Gorbachev signed in 1987 to abolish short-range nuclear missiles. It was the first time nuclear—a category of nuclear weapons had ever been abolished. Where are, by the way, the nuclear abolitionists today? Where is the grassroots movement, you know, FREEZE, SANE? Where have these people gone to? Because we’re looking at a new nuclear arms race. Russia moves these intermediate missiles now to protect its own borders, as the West comes toward Russia. And the tripwire for using these weapons is enormous.One other thing. Russia has about, I think, 10,000 tactical nuclear weapons, sometimes called battlefield nuclear weapons. You use these for short distances. They can be fired; you don’t need an airplane or a missile to fly them. They can be fired from artillery. But they’re nuclear. They’re radioactive. They’ve never been used. Russia has about 10,000. We have about 500. Russia’s military doctrine clearly says that if Russia is threatened by overwhelming conventional forces, we will use tactical nuclear weapons. So when Obama boasts, as he has on two occasions, that our conventional weapons are vastly superior to Russia, he’s feeding into this argument by the Russian hawks that we have to get our tactical nuclear weapons ready.
While the world was poring through the details of the latest round of preannounced western sanctions against Russia - a round which Russia commented would have virtually no actual impact - and just as excitedly awaiting the Kremlin's retaliation which Putin warned is coming shortly, far from the glare of the center stage Europe quietly folded to a bigger Russian demand namely to delay the implementation of a Ukraine free trade deal by more than one year until the end of 2015 and likely beyond.
As AFP reported, EU Trade Commissioner Karel de Gucht said, after talks with Russian and Ukrainian ministers, that the free trade agreement which Ukraine and its imploding economy had hoped would be implemented in the immediate future, will instead be delayed. Perhaps the date of the provisional launch has something to do with it: EU sources said the trade deal was to have taken effect on November 14, i.e. in the middle of Europe's cold, snowy, GDP-sapping winter. The European Council of 28 members states must now sign off on the delay.
De Gucht said that once Kiev ratifies the EU Association Accord, expected next week and which was negotiated at the same time as the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Agreement, then Brussels would offer "additional flexibility" in the hope of meeting Russian concerns that its economy would suffer if the DCFTA deal went ahead.
This would be done as part of efforts to "fully support the stabilisation of Ukraine," he said after talks with Ukraine Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin and Russian Economy Minister Alexi Ulyukayev. "Such flexibilty will consist in the delay until 31 December 2015 of the provisional application of the DCFTA," he said.
Sometimes glitches in the matrix such as this one make one wonder just how much of what is going on right now between the "west" and Russia has been long pre-agreed and pre-approved by the "feuding" sides, and what is really going on behind the scenes. But back to what the data available for popular consumption: in effect while Russia and the West are engaging in populism-happy trade and capital flow wars what is taking place at a higher level is far more nuanced, and it is here that a far more pragmatic EU is certainly concerned about pushing Russia too far.
The reason why Moscow is against the Ukraine free trade agreement is because Russia sees it as bolstering Kiev and potentially harming its own economy by allowing an influx of cheaper/better EU goods into the country, an important Russian market. Equally damaging, Moscow said these goods could then be sold on into Russia itself, damaging domestic industry.
Of course, with Europe launch sanction after meaningless sanction, in a world that is all about leverage and optics, the last thing the EU could afford is to be perceived as folding to the Kremlin in a matter which could really hurt the Russian economy. So instead DeGucht presented the delay as win-win for all sides, saying the preferential tariffs addressed "the very difficult economic situation in Ukraine" while the delay in implementing the deal leaves "15 months for either party to make remarks, proposals."
One can just imagine the remarks and proposals that Putin would have uttered had Europe not delayed the agreement.
What's more interesting, Russia may just win another major round in the political war that is taking place just behind the surface: the preferential tariffs announced in March and due to expire in October offered Ukraine significant reductions in customs duties worth about 500 million euros per year, the commission said. Still, had the free trade deal passed today, it would have allowed the economically devastated Ukraine, whose economy is rapidly imploding, to boost its exports to Europe by one billion euros per year, according to the commission.
In June, the EU and Ukraine signed the long-delayed Association Agreement, the very deal whose 11th-hour refusal last year by then president Viktor Yanukovich plunged the former Soviet country into chaos. It sparked a wave of pro-European protests that eventually toppled the Kremlin-backed Yanukovich in February and ushered in a pro-Western government that deeply angered Moscow. What goes unsaid is that the signed agreement was merely yet another optical pseudo intervention: in reality is provided nothing to Ukraine but simply sent signals to the global community that the "west" had the upper hand when it comes down to Kiev realpolitik.
If only for now.
But once the Ukraine people have been forced to go through a full winter with no benefit from the Russian bear, it remains to be seen just how enthusiastic they will be about the ongoing western-backed (and funded, and orchestrated) revolution. As for Europe's true "leverage" vis-a-vis Russia, the following quote from AFP encapsulates it best:
"If you want to solve a conflict, you have to be flexible," a European source said when asked about the delay in the trade deal.
In Kiev, Poroshenko thanked the EU for the new sanctions. "A friend in need is a friend indeed," Poroshenko said."I feel a full part of the European Union family," he added.
Source: Europe Folds To Russian Demands, Delays Ukraine Free Trade Deal By Over A Year | Zero Hedge
The strikes in Iraq and Syria have begun. Thus far, they seem to be keeping Damascus and Moscow informed. Their choice of target in Aleppo, however, was very unusual. Khorasan? Why haven't we heard about them before if they are so dangerous as they now tell us? Gut instinct tell me they took the opportunity to hit a group they don't control or who's existence does not serve their interests.
ReplyDeleteAroutin: Do you have any information on Khorasan? Have Arabic language social media sites you have been monitoring ever mention their name?
I believe that the Syria strikes are part of a West-Russia deal. The west gave Ukraine and Novorossiya to the Russians, probably as a return Russia would allow them to carry air strikes in Syria. The question is, how far will the West go on bombing Syria? If they start attacking Assad positions, expect escalations in the Middle East or new violence in Novorossiya.
DeletePerhaps. But I don't think so. Novorossiya was Moscow's regardless of anything else. Kiev militarily lost the south-east regions. Kiev realized that if the war continued, fighting would have eventually reached the gates of the capitol. Novorossiya, like Artsakh, will never go back to where it was. What Moscow would have been willing to make a deal over are the economic sanctions imposed by the West. Nevertheless, regardless of any deals that may or may not happen, Moscow will not accept removing Assad from power in Syria. What Moscow may eventually accept is the partitioning of Syria. The fact is the nation of Syria is dead. The fighting now is about who will get what after the final bomb explodes. After the war there stops, a new nation, or nations, will emerge. All are currently maneuvering for the best seat in the house...
DeleteBecause Novorossiya was Moscow's regardless of anything else, the West decided to stop fighting for it early on, with perhaps asking permission from Moscow for bombing certain places in Syria. That's the only logical explanation that can be found. Contrary to last summer, not much opposition was raised by Moscow and Tehran when the West announced it is to bomb IS positions in Iraq and Syria. The Syria bombings would not have been possible without Moscow's approval, regardless of the bombing areas are Syrian or IS positions.
DeleteYes, Moscow too will accept the partitioning of Syria, no one is arguing that. Perhaps this bombing is also part of that partitioning deal.
It was obvious from the beginning that Moscow would negotiate Syria's fate with the West, for Syria is not a big red line for Moscow. Moscow only cares about preserving its naval base in Tartus and that region. If Syria is partitioned for the time being, Moscow may accept it as long as a pro-Russian regime rules on the Mediterranean and Damascus regions (the Alawite populated places in this case). Incidentally, those were the first places that were secured by the Syrian Army. Aleppo is not that important for the time being for Syria.
I don't agree with Svediatsi. No one traded anything in regards to Ukraine and Syria. Washington still wants to win. Also, lets not celebrate a Novorossia victory here yet. Novorossia scored a number of tactical victories. They are only tactical in nature right now. Slavyansk, Mariupol, all of eastern Donetsk, and all of northern Lugansk are still controlled by Kiev.
DeleteThe fight continues, and it doesn't necessarily have to be with the firing of artillery. It can be by way of "hearts and minds" and government building. Novarossia exists only in name so far, there is no government Novarossia built.
This isn't like Artsakh. Artsakh's victory wasn't only on the battlefield, the main victory was state formation with all the institutions attached to it. Novarossia doesn't even have law enforcement as of it. Militiamen have been regulating traffic on the streets of Donetsk. Furthermore, Ukr troops and "national guard" battalions are in dug in, in some heavily re-inforced points where just for the heck of it they fire artillery shells and Grad rockets. Kiev's plan seems to now be to be as disruptive as possible for civil life.
Skhara,
DeleteThe liberation struggle for Artsakh began in 1988. It only began succeeding in 1992. And any semblance of a true government in the territory began evolving only after that. The situation in Novorossiya is very much like what was occurred in Artsakh during the early stages of the conflict there. Eventually, all of the regions in question will come under Russian influence one way or another.
Skhara,
DeleteAll I'm saying is to keep in mind that you shouldn't be surprised if Russia goes for concessions in Syria as an exchange for gains in Ukraine. If not now, then maybe later on.
This blog entry is some of the best work you've done lately Arevordi, thank you. After a year of trying to make sense of what exactly the end games were in Syria and in the Ukraine, things are starting to make sense. While massacres and small-scale genocides have become the norm in the Middle East and everywhere else that the Anglo-American-Zionist alliance has meddled in, particularly of minorities like Christians and Yezidis, there is a great risk that things could spiral out of control and lead to a devastating war with global reverberations. There are a lot of things worth commenting on, but right now I just want to highlight the increasingly belligerent rhetoric coming out of the controlled PR outlets. And not just the usual "Putin is Hitler and he kills puppies for fun" garbage they normally church out. Jewess whore Anna Applebaum's "War in Europe is not a hysterical idea" and several other notable pieces attempting to rationalize and glorify war is truly a disturbing sign of a nation and society on a self-destructive path. If anything can be used to argue that "America as it once existed is dead" that would be it.
ReplyDeleteFormer Jew Nathanael Kapner gives pretty much the same explanation in his newest video as in this blog entry, along with a few interesting video clips of US and Israeli officials including "friend of Armenia" Samatha Power:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3JaTjSKjJe0&index=1&list=UUtBqVgzL_cDv_t9o2hFiXXg
@Arevordi
ReplyDeleteThere is no Khorasan organization that I have previously heard of anywhere.
Google search also has no reference to khorasan until a week ago, mentioned by western media.
In Islamic ideology, the awaited Mehdi Muntazar is anticipated to rise from Khorasan region (central asia/Iran border).
Khorasan crap is possibly signs of US-Syrian co-ordination.
If US were to bomb rebel held areas in Syria (non-ISIS), around Aleppo and Idlib (non ISIS there), then they must come up with a convincing story line, ah yes, the scary Khorasans.
This saves face for Obomba who wanted to overthrow Assad 3 years ago and now needs his help to control out-of-control Islamic elements. Just my 2 cents.
PS: USA can't risk airstrikes without Syria-Iranian-Russian coordination. It's a recipe for disaster.
I think under the table there is some agreement for a new world order being cooked.
Iran-Saudi relations are reportedly improving
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2014/09/22/Saudi-Iran-foreign-ministers-meet-in-New-York.html
http://gulfnews.com/opinions/editorials/iran-saudi-arabia-talks-indicate-a-possible-thaw-1.1389004
Turkey may be approaching a final deal with Kurds. The problem always lied with the PKK militants.
The ISIS attacks on Kurds in Syria (Ayn al Arab) and places like Sinjar is a good incentive to push PKK militants out of Turkey.
Ocalan calling for all out war against ISIS
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/afp/140923/ocalan-urges-all-out-kurdish-resistance-against
Finally, I think,
None of the current powers can afford the economic costs of Cold War II.
None of the current powers want World War III cause we know that means the usage of nuclear weapons = obliteration of the planet = everyone looses
They tried the Islamic card against Syria, but Syria also played that same card aka. ISIS (I know we disagree on this point).
Israel now finds itself surrounded with an unstable Egypt, unstable Syria, unstable Lebanon. And soon, perhaps, unstable Jordan (longest border).
US primary interest in the region is to ensure the security of Israel.
So maybe they all finally came to realize they messed up, now is time to clean up.
Aroutin
You still believe in the supernatural prowess of the Syrian government? Damascus is so capable that is has actually tricked Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar into supporting ISISI to the tunes of thousands of volunteers from around the world and untold sums of money? Damascus is so confident of its abilities that just when it began winning the war against Islamic terrorists in Syria it decided to trick Western powers into turning their attention back onto Syria and Iraq?.... Perhaps. But I don't think so.
DeleteYou ignore that Syria is backed by iran and russia so they are able to invest some billions for such high stake plans
DeletePart 1
ReplyDeleteLet me clear up some things.
Normally, the Americans want to blow at the Syrian-Iranian-Russian axis. Attempts to single out any one of these nations and negotiating without reverting to the interests of the other alliance members might play advantageous to the nation coming out of the alliance. Ofcourse this is dangerous, but can happen.
This ISIS is a self created phenomena that is partially nurtured by some other national or private entities. The AngloZionists first thought it would be a good idea to install Muslim Brotherhood givernments in the Arab world, they would operate under the leadership of the Turkish Caliphate who also operates under the Anglo Zionist intelligence network. This was also meant to reverse the Islamophobia prevalent in Europe, by encouraging Muslims to migrate to their original homelands and Syria. We saw this in Egypt, Tunisia, Syria and Gaza. Al Qaeda then objected that such a step would outstrip its jihadi wing in those countries, thereby reducing its operational range. However Assad's endurance in the face of Erdogan's assault ended in an epic fail. Anyone forgot when Erdogan the stooge was numbering the weeks Assad will fall, based on input he was receiving from the Americans.
That dynamic flow of muslim movement geared toward Syria picked up its own momentum and some smart ass person initiated the project called ISIS, the epic hit in this whole movie is to have called it a Caliphate, and appointed a self proclaimed Caliph, Abu Bakr al Baghdadi.
This creates a massive tear in the Sunni Islamic world. If Muslims were to follow the Caliph, who then shall follow his Royal Highness the King of Saudi Arabia? The Islamic State of Syria and Iraq puts the Wahabis of Baghdad against the Wahabis of Saud.
The US strikes on ISIS in Syria is like a forced self invitation, in a way, asking Assad for co-operation to eliminate ISIS without suffering the embarrassment of formally requesting to strik. We all know air strikes cannot fulfill the job of eliminating the militants, only ground forces can retake these territories. So who shall it be? Seems like the Syrian and/or Iranian army is the one to lead this role, cause it takes some years for US to train the required forces able to accomplish this task without screwing it up.Saudi is jumping forward by taking a leadership role in this war, supposedly by hosting training sites for some 5,000 militants.
In reality Saudi Arabia is trying to assert its Sunni leadership role in the region, that role faces competition from Turkey who seeks the same role, but not so ready yet to actively fight ISIS.
Ironically, its role to lead the Sunnis puts it face to face with the hard core Sunnis themselves.
More ironically, the Saudi population has the highest percentage of people who embrace the ISIS ideology, that makes a recipe for the perfect storm, competing for ruling power inside Saudi Arabia, a land of massive wealth.
Part 2
ReplyDeleteThe US efforts to fight ISIS in fact is an attempt to protect and secure Saudi Arabia.
The US will try to break the Russo-Iranian-Syrian axis by expressing co-operation will to Iran and Syria. This calls for some Saudi-Iranian high level talks, and so is happening.
There is the upcoming Iran's Nuclear talks sometime in November.
So the diplomacy track will be activated in the foreseeable future.
Israel does not like to think of any Iranian-Saudi rapprochement.
Neither does Israel like to see any Iran-US rapprochement. That will shrink its geopolitcal role dramatically n the eyes of US policy. Consider how much of geopolitical outreach Iran can offer, stretching from Central Asia to the Mediterranean through Iraq and Syria.
Then begs the question, who ditched who? Russia ditched Syria or vice versa? Why didn't Russia provided the necessary anti-air defences to Syria? Why was its skies and its coasts exposed? Where is Russia's defensive umbrella to protect Syria?
or perhaps noone ditch anybody and this is a ploy against the US to draw her into a protracted war against Islam? who knows.
Perhaps Syria and Iran took the US offer because Russia was not able to protect Syria'S airspace, having been overly occupied in Ukraine? Perhaps Putin threw Assad under the bus having himself taken a deal in Ukraine that Russia could not refuse.
If any betrayal from any side indeed took place, then it means the US led Arab alliance will get rid of the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. This means two things, death or relocation.
Nobody likes to die, and honestly I'm not seeing any hundreds of air strikes launched every day like when US bombed Iraq during Saddam. It's almost there is no ongoing war. If the threat was as serious as claimed, they should have nuked all of Raqqa by now, yet, life is splendid and lively in Raqqa.
That means relocation. Whereto? What better place than Khorasan? In Central Asia, somewhere between Russia and China, perhaps, Kyrgyzstan... ofcourse caucasus also is a good place to poke Russia. Georgia by the way has just offered to host training camp for Syrian rebels, its not a joke
http://thecable.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2014/09/23/exclusive_georgia_offers_to_host_training_camp_for_syrian_rebels
When it comes to the Islamic card, this is my take, if you don't play the game, then someone else does, and you'll find yourself being chased. Therefore, Isis or Khorasan, all shall play that game. So it is very likely that Isis might act in a way you think serves Assad, and acts in another way that serves Israel. They take all offers, but do their own shit at the end of the day.
Where Armenia stands in all this? something to think about.
I did thought from the beginning that Khorasan is a code name for... Khorasan! It is a Freudian slip, inadvertently revealing the true intentions. Congratulations Aroutin!
DeleteRomAn
From Khilafah.com "Building a global movement for Khilafah"
DeleteWill Kyrgyzstan Follow Uzbekistan in its War on Islam and Muslims?
http://www.khilafah.com/index.php/analysis/asia/19774-will-kyrgyzstan-follow-uzbekistan-in-its-war-on-islam-and-muslims
We in Hizb ut Tahrir in Kyrgyzstan wish to address President Atambayev (of Kyrgyzstan)!
We advise you not to take a hostile position towards Islam and Muslims, as Karimov did; because we are determined to resume the Islamic way of life and fight the Kuffar (unbelievers) and all their oppressive policies against Kyrgyzstan and all other Muslim countries on the basis of the Islamic creed. We will not accept that Muslims fight with each other in any way!
We think, actually believe, that you do not harbor any hostile feelings against the Muslims, but at the same time we recognize that you are subjected to the pressures exercised by those stuck in mud swamps, the likes of Karimov and Putin, and we encourage you not to hesitate to stand by Islam and the Muslims and support them, and stand not by Kufr and the Kuffar.
We advise that you do not end up as a "weapon" in the hands of the criminal Kuffar against Muslims in the battle of Islam and Kufr. Otherwise, we also in Kyrgyzstan, with the help of Allah سبحانه وتعالى, will show steadfastness and resilience that the whole Islamic world will know about. However, we ask Allah سبحانه وتعالى that these feelings are manifested in our struggle against the Kuffar, and not with Muslims.
Head of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in Kyrgyzstan
PS: Kyrgyzstan is on the list to join Eurasian Union next after Armenia.
I don't have time to address the developments in Yemen (pro-Iran Houthi takeover). It has a significant impact on the geopolitical landscape of the middle east.
Aroutin
I'd like to hear more about Yemen. I know that the civil war there between Shiites and Sunnis have been going on for ten years but there has been next to no coverage of it by the Western press. And I haven't been looking into it either. But, are the Iranian-backed Shiites there that powerful or did Riyadh and the West simply not care enough about defeating the rebellion? The mentioned two seemed much more proactive in trying to defeat the Shiite rebellion in Bahrain...
DeleteLet us furnish some facts:
Delete1-Iran favors to maintain the axis Iran-Iraq-Syria-Lebanon
2- The Anglo-American-Turko-Wahabi-Zionists seek to break this axis
3- Attempts to isolating each of Syria and Iraq, serves to weaken the Iranian axis
4- By toppling the Assad regime, the Iranian axis is broken
5-The AngloZionists tried to repeat Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood scenario in Syria
6- Erdogan's Muslim Brotherhood plan failed due to the fall of Mursi
7- The endurance of the Assad regime was partly due to Russia's objections to NATO air strikes
8- Russia pushed its naval fleet into the Mediterranean
9- The influx of Islamic Jihadists into Syria through Turkey and Jordan found fertile soil in Syria to breed, in numbers and ideas
10- Russia was forced into militarily tension on its Eastern Front and the Black Sea due to Ukraine
11- On March 18 2014, Russia and Crimea signed a treaty of accession into the Russian Federation
12- On March 27, the UN General Assembly passed a non-binding Resolution 68/262 that declared the Crimean referendum invalid and the incorporation of Crimea into Russia illegal
13- On March 27, access to YouTube was blocked in Turkey a day after it carried a leaked National Security meeting conversation that seemingly revealed Head of Turkish Intelligence Hakan Fidan, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu, and others, plotting "false flag" operations in Syria.
In this leaked recording, we find high ranking Turks admiting the following two facts
DeleteA- The Islamic groups operating in Syria such as ISIS are extremely open to manipulation.
B- The Turks do not have the situation under control and are reflecting on backlashes
Feridun Siniroğlu: That ISIL and all that jazz, all those organisations are extremely open to manipulation. Having a region made up of organisations of similar nature will constitute a vital security risk for us
Ahmet Davutoğlu: Guns and ammo are not a big need for that place. Because we couldn't get the human factor in order...
Base on all the furnished facts, I reaffirm my conclusion that ISIS, Khorasan or any other Tarazan Islamic groups may work for any intelligence agency, local and international.
Regarding Yemen, to make a long story short.
The most remarkable thing in all this, is that the Houthis did not gain position due to shearly military power, but the Yemeni government and mostly Shia Houthis have actually signed a landmark agreement to end the political crisis. So it was reconciliatory move rather than a clash. This Iranian-Houthi gain in Yemen puts Saudi Arabia under serious risk, why?
The region know as the Hijaz (now in Saudi Arabia) is a natural extension of Yemen, and its population predominantly are against the House of Saud.
So very briefly, this means from now on Saudi Arabia cannot extend any security services to any other country, since it will have to deal with threats within its own territory coming from Yemen's border and Shia pockets near Bahrain and Kuweit. With an almost dead King and a Wahabi population in middle Saudi Arabia around Riyadh, things can only get worse if no mitigation measures are taken (such as sudden talks with Iran in New York).
This means that regimes like those in Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, UAE cannot anymore expect a Saudi umbrella, and that, will bring them closer therefore to Iran.
US back-up was called into the region as a compensation of Saudi and Turkish shortcomings.
The upcoming Mecca pilgrimage has just kicked in where al Shiia and Sunnis from the World are concentrate. The crescendo of the Hajj will be on October 3 next week. So its either reconciliation or blood.
Arevordi,
DeleteThese maps can help you understand the Yemeni effect on Saudis
Religious map of the region, notice the demographic continuity from Yemen's Sanaa, into Saudi Arabia (Abha and Zahran) cities and beyond
http://thesinosaudiblog.files.wordpress.com/2011/05/mid-east-religion.jpg
This is historic map
http://www.historyonmaps.com/ColourSamples/cbig/FirstSaudi.jpg
Hijaz-Asir region on the Red sea were ruled by the Saudis at later stages, by the people of Najd in central Saudi Arabia.
The language dialect also is a bit different, the Hijazis have an Egyptian influence.
Also the Najd people faith strongly correlate with Wahabism.
So, changes in Yemen have an impact on Saudi policies and maneuvering capabilities to say the least.
One last thing I want to highlight, the Houthis were able to consolidate their power grip by advocating issues that touch majority of Yemeni citizens, most importantly, the reduction of fuel prices by 25%.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/09/25/379921/yemen-reduces-fuel-prices-after-deal/
Poverty in Yemen is very prevalent. Their population doubled from 12 million in 1990 to 24 million in 2013. Makes you wonder the BS claims that Armenian population is shrinking because of poverty!!
Aroutin
Thank you Aroutin. But I pose the same question: Why didn't they take this Shiite rebellion as seriously as they have been taking other matters pertaining to Shiites around the region?
DeleteBecause at the time when there is an active and evolving situation in Syria, Iraq and Libya, the Anglos can't in addition handle Yemen and set up a proper military response (at least not for now - that will suck resources from other regions in the greater theater - they get too outstrecthed).
DeleteThe Saudis could not do to Yemen what they did in Bahrain, i.e. invade.
Bahrain: population 1.4 million - Area 750 Square Km - unarmed population
Yemen: population 24 million - Area 527,000 Square Km - 100,000 strong Houthi armed militia
But only because the media was not talking about Yemen, does not mean they (US-Saudis) were not taking it seriously. The US military was very active in Yemen specially in Drone strikes, Saudi Arabia also lended full support to the Yemeni government's crackdown on Houthi. The Anglo-Zionists were fully backing their puppet dictator Abdallah Saleh, who after getting wounded by rebel attack, was even taken to the US for treatment. Any intensification of the Yemeni situation plays against the Angloz and they will need much more lies to justify intervention to topple regime in Syria meanwhie intervening to suppress the Yemeni people in support of their puppet president.
It's just my opinion.What do you think? Why couldn't they prevent a Houthi takeover?
I have not been following events in Yemen. I therefore do not know why they (Anglo-American-Zionists and Saudis) allowed a Houthi takeover. However, your explanation makes sense. But still, they could have provided the regime in Sannaa with arms, money and PR via the global media they control. Although what you said may certainly have been a factor, I still think they could have done more to protect the regime but for some reason they didn't.
DeleteI have another question: How active has Iran been in Yemen? Does Tehran have an official representation inside rebel territory in Yemen? Have they been supplying arms to the rebels? If so, why hasn't it been publicly addressed by Western powers and their regional allies? In other words, how deep and how far back do ties between Tehran and the Houthis go?
Anyway, thank you again. Please keep us informed of new developments there.
Moscow has finally gotten around to addressing Western inroads in a crucially strategic sector in Russian society, its mass media. Foreign ownership in Russian media outlets is to be limited to 20%. By embarking on these types of national security issues, it is only natural that the Kremlin will come into conflict with people in Russia that became very wealthy and influential during the chaotic years following the Soviet collapse. When Moscow thus comes into conflict with its nouveau riche, it is only natural that is will begin cracking down on them if they pose a threat to the state or if don't comply with state regulations. Ultimately, we need to keep in mind that it was Western machinations against the Russian state that has gotten us to where we are today. We also need to recognize that while Russia needs Western expertize - it needs to curb its dependence on Western money even more. In my opinion, the best way forward in this regard is to limit its exposure to the Anglo-American-Zionist world and concentrate on better relations with Germany and France. Nevertheless, Russia needs to shed its 1990s era toxicity. The process to detoxify may hurt a little, but Russia, as an independent state, will be much better off in the long term. In the meanwhile, more power to the Russian state. I am glad to see that it's being built on the sound principles of national socialism.
ReplyDeleteForeign participation in Russian mass media to be restricted to 20% in 2016: http://en.itar-tass.com/opinions/1917
Russia Steps Up New Law to Control Foreign Internet Companies: http://online.wsj.com/articles/russia-steps-up-new-law-to-control-foreign-internet-companies-1411574920
Russia took steps in the right direction.
DeleteExcepted from NEW HISTORY of the JEWS
By Eustace Mullins
In all of recorded history, there was only one civilization which the Jews could not destroy. Because of this, they have given it the silent treatment. Few American college graduates with a Ph.D. degree could tell you what the Byzantine Empire was.
It was the Empire of East Rome, set up by Roman leaders after the Jews had destroyed Rome. This empire functioned in Constantinople for twelve hundred years, the longest duration of any empire in the history of the world.
Throughout the history of Byzantium, as it was known, by imperial edict, no Jew was allowed to hold any post in the Empire, nor was he allowed to educate the young. The Byzantine Empire finally fell to the Turks after twelve centuries of prosperity, and the Jews have attempted to wipe out all traces of its history.
Yet its edicts against the Jews were not cruel; in fact, the Jews lived unmolested and prosperously in the empire throughout its history, but here alone the vicious cycle of host and parasite did not take place.
It was a Christian civilization, and the Jews were not able to exercise any influence. Nor did the Orthodox priests bewilder their congregations with any vicious lies about Christ being a Jew.
No wonder the Jews want to eradicate the memory of such a culture.
It was Ezra Pound who launched upon a study of Byzantine civilization, and who reminded the world of this happily non-Jewish land.
From the Byzantines, Pound derived his no-violent formula for controlling the Jews.
"The answer to the Jewish problem is simple," he said.
"Keep them out of banking, out of education, out of government."
And this is how simple it is.
There is no need to kill the Jews. In fact, every pogrom in history has played into their hands, and has in many instances been cleverly instigated by them.
Get the Jews out of banking and they cannot control the economic life of the community.
Get the Jews out of education and they can not pervert the minds of the young to their subversive doctrines.
Get the Jews out of government and they cannot betray the nation".
RomAn
Ezra Pound was spot on with his recommendation about the jews.
DeleteLG
Any idea what percentage control has the west in RT. ?
ReplyDeleteRT is state owned therefore...
DeleteMore music to the ears -
ReplyDeleteIran’s Rouhani blames ‘certain intelligence agencies’ for rise of global extremism: http://rt.com/news/190640-rouhani-un-rise-extremism/
"There is another aspect to this for us Armenians. Had Russia been like the West, where powerful lobbies and moneymen initiate political discourse, Russians would have sold Armenia to the Turks or Azeris a very long time ago."
ReplyDeleteArevordi could have not said any better.
Pres. Sargsyan's recent speech at UN was a powerful one. More and more we see a confident Armenia with Russia's support. erdogan is getting angry and desperate, Der Zhor Armenian church bombing was surely his order.
This Lavrov interview was the best for last 5 months, a lot of between the lines info.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dtlDrAYqHRA
" Similar to how they have turned Russia into the new enemy to protect Europe from, as they pursue their self-serving imperial agenda of curbing the rise of Russian influence in the region, ISIS will henceforth be the new enemy to protect the Middle East from, as they pursue their self-serving imperial agenda of curbing the rise of Iranian influence in the region. For Washingtonian reptiles, Russophobic racists in eastern Europe and Iranophobic Wahhabists in the Middle East therefore essentially serve the exact same geostrategic purpose."
ReplyDeleteThis comment makes more sense to me than all the news reports I read put together.
Arto1
Obama practically stated WWIII with Russia at his UN speech. All this talk about the West and Russia agreeing to swap Syria for Ukraine is a nice fantasy created by Chaos Ink. Note how people have been derailing this thread with nonsense.This is not the first time I have dispelled myths, take this as a warning I will dispel more, including the one about this silly swap, note the cheerleaders on the sidelines reinforcing the nonsensical view. My guess is that Arevordi, and a few of the rest of us have done such a fine job that it has warranted special treatment. Hence the cheerleaders and the sidetrackers.
ReplyDeleteWhat is amusing about all this is not really amusing. Considering the nonsensical moves made by the West. When you consider Ukraine or you would like the broach the subject of the Middle East. When one really looks at the Western approach to all this insanity, one only needs to realize that the games being played here by some of the late comers is only but a subset of the greater picture of stupidity. Teams of folks getting paid good money by the American taxpayer can only muster a bunch of clowns posting on this forum. When you consider the same kind of clowns running the circus in the international realm, one can forgive them for their indiscretions on this forum, but to be fair I have to warn them not to ever take Armenians lightly.
Vahram
"Pentagon ready to train up to 15,000 Syrian rebels"
ReplyDeletehttp://rt.com/usa/191048-hagel-dempsey-command-isis/
WOW! They did not train enough ISIS members they need to train 15,000 more!
Vahram
I just finished watching the general debate at the un assembly. It basically devolved into a shouting match between a female baboon of azerbaijan and her Armenian counterpart.
ReplyDeletehttp://rt.com/on-air/un-ga-69-addressing/
Arevordi,
ReplyDeleteSo far the US did not strike any Syrian government targets.
1- Do you think US might strike any Syrian government target in the foreseeable future? and if so, will Syria-Russia respond to such an event?
2- Do you see any possible alternative alliance, constituting of Iran-Russia-Syria to fight against ISIS or Islamic terrorism in general?
3- Could we see a potential setup, that the US led alliance will operate in Iraq, the Russian led alliance to operate in Syria?
Aroutin
I realize its all speculation (based on my observations of past history and what I see happening currently) but I personally think they are slowly/carefully cultivating a new reality on the ground. Using the ISIS bogyman as the new excuse, they are trying to establish a powerful military presence in Iraq and Syria. Some time in the near future, I think they will gradually begin moving against the Assad government in one way or another. I want to emphasize that they are doing all this slowly, covertly and cautiously due to their fears of how Russia and Iran will react. Nevertheless, realize that by directly being in the theater of war, Western powers now don't necessarily have to attack Assad's government directly to influence the course of events on the ground. The West will not directly attack Syrian forces if Assad's government, Russia and Iran are prepared to fight back in any meaningful way. But, like I said, Anglo-American-Zionist forces with their allies in Ankara and Riyadh, no longer have to attack Assad's forces directly. This is why we are now seeing great effort being placed into training and arming Syria's anti-Assad rebels under the now "legitimate" pretext of fighting ISIS. Anyone objecting to the Western agenda now will be seen as supporting the genocidal maniacs of ISIS. Even in case there has been a deal reached on the partitioning of Syria, Western powers would want to be right there on the ground with a powerful presence to influence any outcome. It's all therefore a matter of geostrategic maneuverings and conflict management. How Syria will look in the future is not clear but it is certainly headed towards some form of a partition. The exact nature of the alliance between Assad's government, Iran and Russia is also unclear, although I think Moscow will do all it can to preserve a Russia-friendly Alewite government along the coast of Syria.
DeleteNote: From what I have gathered, the name Khorasan seems to be just another name for the Al-Qaeda off-shoot known as Al-Nusra. Al-Nusra, unlike its parent Al-Qaeda, was a semi-independent terror group that had its origin during the Western occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan. As you know, Al-Nusra was fighting ISIS throughout Syria. It is therefore interesting that they were one of the first ones getting hit.
Evidence of what I stated above appeared in today's New York Times -
DeleteU.S. Considers a No-Fly Zone to Protect Civilians From Airstrikes by Syria: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/27/world/middleeast/us-considers-a-no-fly-zone-to-protect-civilians-from-airstrikes-by-syria-.html?_r=0
I also came across this evidence today -
Syria rebels, experts say US airstrikes hit Al-Nusra Front not "Khorasan": http://english.al-akhbar.com/content/syria-rebels-experts-say-us-airstrikes-hit-al-nusra-front-not-khorasan
And this, to put it all in context -
Syria Unsure About US Hidden Agenda, Despite US Notices Damascus About Its Airstrikes: http://en.ria.ru/world/20140927/193360228/Syria-Unsure-About-US-Hidden-Agenda-Despite-US-Notices-Damascus.html
Thanks for posting these interesting links Aroutin, they were informative and contributed to clearing the picture around the current Middle East game.
DeleteI am not convinced that any sort of deal has been cut between Russia and the US regarding Syria and/or Ukraine - but I could be wrong. I base my position on a few keys facts, namely that the US spent the entire year creating chaos in Ukraine in order to "distract" Russia while at the same time they created ISIS in order to justify and build public support for their planned re-invasion of the Middle East and subversion of Syria. It does not seem logical to me that the US would cut a deal right as its crappy plan was achieving its maximum returns.
Also, the US is no longer a country with any logic or long-term thought in its foreign policy. It is a decedent super-power suffering from delusions of "exceptionalism" and "manifest destiny" and is further being driven down into the sewers by letting special interests like banks, multinational corporations, zionists, dispensationalist "christian" zionists, the military-industrial complex, the energy industry, and interventionist simpletons set foreign policy objectives. Such a messed up nation will not give up its attempts to dominate the entire world. If Russia hypothetically cut a deal with Ukraine, it would only be a temporary and limited Russian gain (Novorossiya) at the cost of losing Russian influence in the Middle East. American calculations would just be "well the regime change in Ukraine was successful in 2004, failed in 2014... let's continue the psych-ops and NGO routine for another decade and try again in a few years." Similarly, the Anglo-Americans (and wannabe superpower France) have considered the Middle East their private property since even before Sykes-Picot. If any deal allows the west to consolidate its assets in or around Syria, it will only be a short matter of time before the west tries again to topple Assad and create a Sunni fireball between the key Shiite/Alawite players in the region... Let's not forget that Syria and Iran are the ultimate targets of Israel as well as western gas companies.
BTW ISIS appears to temporarily be working wonders at convincing the cattle of the US that "we need to take action in the Middle East NOW(!)" because beheadings are so terrible... At least when ISIS does the beheading it's terrible, America's Saudi ally beheads two people a week on average but gets a free pass:
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/saudi-arabia-beheading-nearly-two-people-week-year-2013-02-08
Of course the ISIS effect will not last nearly as long as 9/11 did because Americans have a very short attention spans and ISIS is still something that only exists in videos and news reports, so I suspect either the Western leaders are going to try something big/bigger in the Middle East soon, or they are going to have to fall back on the "a new Pearl Harbor" idea once again. Either way hubris and recklessness on their part will end up causing more and more damage around the world.
Of course the above is just my own educated guess, we cannot know for certain what happens behind the scenes. I just don't have faith in the US, with leaders of Nuland and McCain quality, to manage to get the Kremlin to cut a deal over areas of strategic interest.
Sarkis,
DeleteEverything you have said is spot on and I could not agree more. America does not know what it has, she is wasting all the advantages she has, and part of the problem is that short of 9/11 nothing bad has really happened to the US. Countries have fallen, millions of people displaced, chaos has taken over a large part of the Middle East, not to mention Ukraine. The dollar is still the dollar, the stock market is still the stock market, yet she is waning and does not even see the actions taken today will be negative come tomorrow. So long as the US does not suffer any real blowback she is going to keep sawing chaos.
The only true enemy of democracy is the US. For when all is said and done, the world is going to revert to old ways of doing things and democracy is not part of the recipe. Sadly democracy is not in the interest of the US at this point either, long before the seeds of chaos have born fruit. America is spying on all her citizens, yet still can't manage to stop credit cards numbers from being stolen. Every phone call is recorded yet they can't catch common thieves?
For generations having a judge grant the right to spy, has been done away with on the fly snooping. Her glorious past, her wonderful achievements have been done away with for the sake of convenience.
This convenience has translated to the international realm, when no one trusts a single word the US spews. This is a disaster in the making and we shall all suffer for it. Let us only hope that democracy does not go away for another 2000 years before we discover the meaning of the term once more.
Vahram
Concerning Syria. The old Bulgarian woman Vanga who was visited by Soviet and Russian officials had some cryptic messages about a global war saying something like "Syria has not yet fallen".
DeleteHere is Kasparov the psycho:
http://news.yahoo.com/bianna-golodryga-interviews-garry-kasparov-093317385.html
Kasparov went from being a world class chess player to being a world class asshole.
Deletehttp://www.haaretz.com/news/south-african-police-confirm-existence-of-israeli-mafia-1.105210
ReplyDeleteFor any "expats" that may be lurking around: The above article from November 2003 reminds us that the Jews have long been establishing a hive inside South Africa. Their concept of "tikun olam" knows no limits, they'd do the same in every BRICS nation if they could.
Jews in SA ? The Jews control the heart and engines of SA. They always did , since Imperial times. It is not a hive, it is an israeli/jew colony. The monkey Mugabe cleared all European vestiges from his stupid land, a paradise under Ian Smith;s days. However there is only one mighty magnate left in zimbzbwe, and he goes under the name of " a british", in fact he is a chosenite and he controlls 70% of land holdings in Zimbzbwe. If this chosenite baron, always stays behind the curtain, decides to lift a finger and Mugabe can start orbiting the nether.
DeleteՍերժ Սարգսյանն այցելել է Սյունիքի մարզի արտադրական ձեռնարկություննե
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVIIrOnllOY
A very uplifting news clip. Contains footage and information of President Sargsyan's visit to Armenian factories using all-German equipment, a few Russian-Armenian joint businesses, and renovations and improvements developing outside of Yerevan.
L.G., you once mentioned (in an email if I'm not mistaken) you'd like to see Russian weapons manufacturers being using Armenian components in order to address Azeri purchases of Russian weapons. The video contains footage of "Made in Armenia" components used in Mikoyan and Sukhoi warplanes. This won't discourage the Azeris, but it is noteworthy anyway. The dumbass Azeris are so proud that they designated the MiG-29 as "the primary/official aircraft of the Azeri Air Force," I guess they do not mind the fact that the aircraft bears the name of an Armenian engineer and uses Made in Armenia components.
ps I understand the economics of exporting to Iran, but let me point out that I am not fond of the idea of "halal" meat being produced inside Armenia. The semetic religions judaism and islam have idiotic rules regarding "kosher" and "halal" meat that necessitate a lot of cruel and unnecessary suffering by the animals in order to appease their fairy desert deities yahweh and allah. I'm not against eating meat, but I have to oppose these pointless and evil belief systems.
kosher cruelty - do not view if you are sensitive to animal cruelty
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlHVin56U2w#t=57m04s
The cruel treatment of animals was the main reason why Hitler actually encouraged most of his inner circle and the military leaders to give up meat: because he described how the animals were slaughtered in a rather vicious way in such graphic detail. It also made sense that animal welfare was really popular in Nazi Germany during that time, and for one thing, Armenia could benefit from taking care of its animal population within its borders.
DeleteAzeris really don't know the meaning of irony, right? The fact that they don't mind buying a fighter plane that has an Armenian manufacturer really speaks volumes about anti-Armenian sentiment and its hypocrisy in Azerbaijan. I mean, they could have opted for Sukhois and Yakovlevs, but they settled for a MiG?
I agree with you Jerriko. Animals and other topics like abortion are beyond the scope of this blog, but they are helpful in assessing a nation's values, morality and spiritual health.
DeleteIt's too bad that for every problematic aspect which occurs in human society like animal abuse, pollution, religious extremism, poor treatment of women, and specially corruption, there is a western plan and several organizations designed to exploit those problems and natural growing pains for the purpose of advancing western interests and globalist, nation-destroying ideas. The west has made attempts at political activism and reform into a serious danger for nations like Armenia. And our politically and spiritually underdeveloped citizenry does not help the situation, and neither do the naive and idealistic, western-trained college students or the western NGOs and propaganda outlets.
As for the Azeris, they do more to earn the label of "Azerbaboon" than any of their enemies could hope for. Whether it is honoring a fucking axe murderer as a national hero(!) or bulldozing medieval Armenian cemeteries on camera, or pretending that their country, whose name did not appear in history until about 1917, actually has ancient claims to Yerevan and all of Eastern Armenia. The only way to deal with such primitive beasts is to lord over them militarily and keep them in constant fear that at any moment we can march all to way to their capital. Like Arevordi says, Armenia's neighbors are not Swiss or Icelandic, the only way for Armenia to ensure peace is to be eternally prepared for war and victory.
http://en.trend.az/business/finance/2317222.html
ReplyDeleteIf what the article claims in the last few paragraphs is accurate than the planned railway connecting Armenia's network to that of Iran's will disappear. Currently it doesn't make much sense because the railway connecting Armenia to Russia via Abkhazia is closed and in disrepair.
LG
Putin: Russia Needs True Industrial Breakthrough in Coming Years
ReplyDeletehttp://en.ria.ru/russia/20141002/193557056/Putin-Russia-Plans-No-Restrictions-on-Capital-Flow.html
Excellent. I hope the recent series of arrests of corrupt or uncooperative businessmen ("oligarchs") heralds an era of Russian National Socialism, with a focus on corporate growth aimed at achieving maximum benefit for the Russian state.
There are tons of examples of developing the national economy through smart state intervention. Hitler's Germany is the gold standard. More recent examples include South Korea through heavily state-supported Samsung and other large corporations. Japan's large businesses also serve as a good model.
http://asbarez.com/127481/armenia-%E2%80%98must-seek-further-press-freedom%E2%80%99/
ReplyDeleteHere's a good laugh: The Western psychological warfare division based in Armenia and operating under the disguise of "independent press" can publish any type of libel that it wants, from baseless allegations against Armenian officials, to derogatory and racist incitement against Artsakh Armenians (their "Karabakh Clan" bullshit) and all manner of insults against Russia, Iran and other allies of Armenia. Hell the Armenia-based, US State department funded "Armenia Liberty" refuses to officially refer to the Armenian Genocide as "Armenian Genocide" but instead uses Turkish-style "Armenians claim in 1915..." But according to the ARF media, some cunt named Shushan Doydoyan is the end-all "expert" (Armenia must hold the world record for per-capita experts who espouse pseudo-sociological and pseudo-geopolitical bullshit) and according to her Armenia just isn't free enough.
There are currently people in jail in the west for merely questioning aspects of the holocaust. Edgar J. Steele (wife half-Armenian if anyone is interested) was recently either murdered or deliberately neglected to death in the USA in legal proceedings which violated every aspect of historical law and order. But no, never mind all that, there are just not enough anti-Russian media outlets in Armenia, therefore there must not be any freedom. So says "Reporters without Borders" an organization based in France, a country that has been arming and training the Islamist rebels who have caused so much death and destruction to the Armenians in Kessab and Der Zor.
Kasparov is on a rampage lately.
ReplyDeletePerhaps Uncle Sam is trying to reactivate him for another regime change attempt. Kasparov deserves to be thrown out of a skyscraper window. It seems he did not learn the khodorkovsky lesson.
DeleteKhadarkovsky did not learn the khodorkovsky lesson, he is also on a rampage lately. Both of them are giving interviews on American TV, talking about how dangerous Putin is, how Russia is doomed to collapse, and how they are ready to become presidents.
DeleteThe reason the pro-american liberal rats in Russian establishment are out in force, is because uncle Sam has thrown them the gauntlet - but so has Putin. Putin as set an obvious course for independent Russia -- which means the pro-American fat cats either have to become like the people and lose their "privileged" status or they have to seize power for themselves. They don't have an option of comming to the west, because the west won't let them, the west needs them to stir the pot in Russia -- so they are desperate. Personally, him and khodorkovsky should be kept healthy and not make martyrs out of them -- they are utterly despised, which is a sad thing how Kasparov went. From fame to disdain.
The Beheading Psy-Ops
ReplyDeleteBoth Foley and Sotloff have intelligence connections
http://www.infowars.com/the-beheading-psy-ops/
Hail Mother Russia and the Putin government's decision to halt the further spread of toxic globalist subversions from the west into Russia. From cracking down on western-linked NGOs, oligarchs, businesses, media, organizations, and IT to halting the western-funded homosexuals and Islamists in Russia, to forging new international alliances and truly independent financial networks. We are witnessing the historical rise of Russia, and by extension all that which traditional European values represented, against the tyranny of Anglo-American-Zionist globalism and destruction of nations.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/russian-cancellation-of-us-student-exchange-heightens-chilly-relationship/2014/10/02/e831ce8a-bfd5-4d04-9a27-4ab171ff42e1_story.html
As for this specific case, Russia benefits neither from having faggots adopt and corrupt Russian orphans, nor from having naive Russian students brainwashed in western indoctrination centers. In all seriousness, as a very recent graduate I can firmly state that western higher educational institutes are full of idiots with infantile understandings of history and geopolitics outside of what the government feeds them.
More on the subject in the link below. The link targets liberals, but the same logic applies for what passes as "conservatives" in the US:
http://www.tomatobubble.com/libtards.html
The Islamic State Opens Its First Consulate in Turkey`s Capital. Issuing Visas to Foreign Fighters
ReplyDeletehttp://www.globalresearch.ca/the-islamic-state-opens-its-first-consulate-in-turkeys-capital-issuing-visas-to-foreign-fighters/5405811?print=1
The games the Turks and Americans are playing with Syria would be laughable if it did not involve so much death and destruction. Now they are talking about limited Turkish military incursions to combat the "terrorists" in the north of Syria, as well as talking about "no-fly zones" over parts of Syria. It's Iraq all over again, and all it took was two videos of "beheadings" - which omitted the actual beheadings - to get the "war-weary" and bankrupt western populations to support the idea. It's really quite an absurd, surreal situation... I hope the turks get involved and get in deep, let them get sucked into another conflict which will undermine Turkish domestic stability and development even further. Erdogan is turning out to be my favorite Turkish leader yet, he has registered blunder after blunder over the past several years.
Also I forgot to mention in my post about the assassination in Venezuela that right wing extremists are again proving to be the favorite tools of the US, just like the right-wing losers in Poland, the Baltics and what's left of the Ukraine.
I think the Russian-Iranian-Syrian-Hezbollah alliance lived up to expectations and have proved to be solid and strong.
ReplyDeleteIran's role as patron of Shia world is uncontested.
Israel is guarantor of US interests in the greater Middle East, so its security comes as priority from US point of view.
Ongoing competition between Turkey and Saudi Arabia on Sunni leadership role.
Both are showing their cards, their capabilities, how strong, big, significant they are. This is how we should view the Turkish vote for possible intervention in Syria. It's not going to happen. Russia committed to delivery of advanced weapons systems to Syria during the Chemical Weapons deal. Turks cannot afford their F-16s get shot like flies, or their tanks carried back on shoulders. There will be resistance, even Hezbolla will resist them because they know Turkish soldier is no different to Israeli soldier on the ground.
Turkey wants to show itself capable of managing ISIS on behalf of Europe, and also that it can press on regime change. Not going to happen. Assad's regime is advancing for a while now. The longer this instability is kept, the greater the risks on Israel. Today is ISIS, another day khorasan, another day something else can evolve, the region have become a fermenting cesspool.
Let's look at the problem.
We have some 25 thousand square kilometers mostly covering EasternSyria. It hosts some 10 or 15 thousand militants branded under ISIS banner. Air strikes can't and won't do the job of bringing an end to ISIS presence. Ground forces are needed, only two organized structures can take charge, that is, Syrian army or Turkish army. Since the Syrian army won't allow Turkish intervention, then it means Syria will chase the Islamist militants away, either will annihilate them in co-ordination with US air strikes, or the militants will revert back to their countries of origin, how? Through Turkey. The government of their origin countries will lock them in jail whence back, therefore, in attempt to escape from Syria they will go first to Turkey and seek a normal life there with the money they have collected lately. The Turkish army is getting ready to prevent the return of Islamists by mobilizing troops towards its border and if necessary beyond its borders when high risks are posed.
Turkey favors fighting between Kurds and Isis, gets rid of two problems at once, hence we see intensification of offensives between Kurds and Islamists.
Both are well armed, they are fighting over a common stretch of land in North East Syria and North West Iraq. Both have their eyes on oil wells in those regions. All four governments of Iran, Syria, Iraq and Turkey have an interest to tear the Kurdish space into pieces, so all of them will encourage this vector, because any genesis of Kurdistan in any one country represents a threat to the territorial integrity of all other states.
This is the price the Kurds have to pay for thinking they can play smart in such volatile game. They should have stood up with Assad's government against Nato from day 1. They will soon scream genocide.
Yemeni had an impact. Iwish someone can comment on Hong Kong since is also related. The globe is one theater now and all these developments are directly or indirectly interrelated.
The diplomatic war between Saudi backed Egyptian government and Turkish government is manifestation of this competing role for Sunni leadership. Turkey-Qatar on one side, Saudi-Egypt on the other side.
Egypt-Turkey spat continues as Cairo calls Erdogan's latest attack 'desperate'
http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/112254/Egypt/Politics-/EgyptTurkey-spat-continues-as-Cairo-calls-Erdogans.aspx
Soon I hope to see a pro-Hezbolla president in Lebanon.
My prognosis for the next couple of months. Some diplomatic activity between Saudi-Iran over Syria and European-Russian talks over Ukraine, more clashes in Kurdish held areas in Syria.
Saudi faces double threat in Yemen
Deletehttp://gulfnews.com/news/gulf/saudi-arabia/saudi-faces-double-threat-in-yemen-1.1393999
Why Saudi-Iranian rapprochement will succeed this time
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/views/news/middle-east/2014/05/23/Why-Saudi-Iranian-rapprochement-will-succeed-this-time.html
Iran Foreign Minister Hails 'new Chapter' In Saudi Ties
http://www.businessinsider.com/r-iran-foreign-minister-hails-new-chapter-in-saudi-ties-irna-2014-9#ixzz3FCvryrUl
Meanwhile the Kurds on the Syrian side
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=c55_1412388046
Kurds on the Turkish side
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-29490256
I wonder if we may see a rebellion of western business/manufacturing/technology interests, because the globalist financial elites are hurting them big time due to their Russia policy. This includes not only Germany, but America as well. I know, I work as an engineer and see just how global things have gotten. Large manufacturing corporations were salivating over the growing Russian market due to its potential for many years to come (that is an increasing population, vast space, and cheap energy).
ReplyDeletehttp://finance.yahoo.com/news/report-russians-behind-huge-jpmorgan-122025107.html
ReplyDeleteGuys, if you go to anna-news, you can watch the sureal footage of the airport battles raging this week. Legendary commander "Motarolla", paraded with this guys in the center of Donetsk today after airport battles, where people were waving balloons and taking their autographs.
ReplyDeleteMILITARY/STRATEGIC UPDATE
ReplyDeleteAn interesting article written by an ex-Soviet Navy submarine commander subtly appeared in the Russian press. The title is " Putin's Missile Surprise":
http://topwar.ru/59575-raketnyy-syurpriz-putina.html
I hereby provide you with the background and a quick analysis on that article:
The Russian Navy is nowadays introducing into service a number of brand new warships to the Black and Caspian Sea fleets: 6 large frigates, 9 smaller frigates and 6 Diesel-electric submarines.
All these ships are armed with the super-accurate CALIBER cruise missile (also known as the CLUB system - which is an export version)
According to the Black Sea Admiral, the missile has a range in excess of 1500 km. It is widely believed that the real range is more like 2500 km.
This is a photo of one of the smaller frigates (950 tons only) that is launching one of the 8 CALIBER missiles it carries:
http://i.imgur.com/U53SXfG.jpg
The following map shows the coverage of the CALIBER when launched from 4 different locations: Sevastopol - Novorossisk - Caspian sea coast - Middle of Caspian Sea.
Note that the above coverage is based on a conservative 1600 km range for the missile. If 2500 km was utilized, even London would be targetable:
http://i.imgur.com/1sEBbEk.jpg
Also noteworthy is that the smaller frigates are built in Zelenodolsk in Central Russia. They sail through the Volga river to reach the Caspian and a series of canals to the Black Sea. In order words these ships can fire their missiles while navigating through rivers:
http://i.imgur.com/8EMC7c2.jpg
Unlike ground based missiles, the ship based CALIBERs are not covered by the INF treaty that limits the range of ballistic and cruise missiles to 500 km.
Russia uses the Iskander-K (ballistic) and Iskander-M (cruise) missiles on ground based platform. The ranges of these systems are within the 500 km.
The ship based systems is Russia's way of circumventing the INF treaty.
Here is a recent video of both types of Iskanders being launched in a recent exercise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY_uUvrd_-g
Thank you for the update, Zoravar.
DeleteBy the way, do you have any information on military tactics employed by ISIS? How are they carrying out their military offensives? Is there a discernible method to their military operations? If so, what is its nature?
While being a threat, ISIS is also convenient for many parties in the region. For example, ISIS beating the Kurds at the moment is convenient to a number of countries...Dirty politics at it is best.
DeleteAs far as ISIS tactics, I must admit I am not following that part of the conflict closely. But I don't see any genius in their tactics. ISIS combatants are the most fanatic and most motivated warriors in the region.
The simplest way I can describe their continuous string of victories is: "In a world of blind and incompetent armies, the one-eyed fanatic Jack is king".
Yet despite all dirty play in the region please take special note.
DeleteNot a hair on the chin chin of a Jew or a Turk to be seen.
This would make the Jew second best! For the Turk has been enjoying very special care. For all you wondering why the Armenian Genocide is the only one in the history of mankind left out! For the Jew as much as they relish the fact that our case is not mentioned I give you the Turk. The special case is the Turk. For ISIS has not touched the Jew, yet in the long run they will one way or another. But the Turk is this special kid you see.
It is time we opened our eyes to something that in my view has been overlooked. There is a special relationship between someone and the toork that not even the Jew has this special treatment. This idea I have should be tossed around a bit more. Now that the cat is out of the bag sort of speak.
Vahram
Homosexual propaganda is out of control in western pop-culture. The Putin government banned such filth from targeting Russian society. The choices Armenia had of whether choosing Eurasian/CSTO (Russian) or EU/NATO (western) integration were not simply economic or military in nature; Armenia's choice was on a fundamental, civilizational, spiritual level between recovery and development or degeneracy and decay. I will be relieved when Armenian ascension to the Eurasian Union is inked and cemented in four days.
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, if any of you have young children or are just interested in viewing large-scale sociological experimentation in action, do yourselves a favor and spend a week or two watching the prime-time programming on children/teenage television networks like Disney, Nickelodeon/TeenNick, and MTV. Even a knowledgeable person may be shocked at what is being presented as "normal," including, inter alia, extremely flamboyant homosexual, bisexual and transsexual children, and "Kardashian-style" interracial relationships between incompatible races.
Number of Gay and Lesbian TV Characters Growing
http://www.usnews.com/news/blogs/data-mine/2014/10/01/number-of-gay-and-lesbian-tv-characters-growing-glaad-study-finds
***
Interesting read on the culture of waste, corruption and unaccountability within military procurement:
http://www.economic-undertow.com/2014/10/03/letting-slip-the-useful-idiots/#comments
What is happening in Syria is ultimately a fight over spoils of war. Syria, as we knew it, is dead. A new nation, or nations, will emerge from its ashes. All are now currently maneuvering to get a piece of the pie. In other words, the fighting now is about who will get what after the final bomb explodes and the dust settles. All (i.e. Western powers, Israel, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Russia, Iran, Alewites and Kurds) are currently maneuvering for the best seat in the house. I guess Bashar Assad is seeking to keep Aleppo, or what remains of it, under Alewite rule...
ReplyDeleteHere is what policy Forum Armenia is up to:
ReplyDeletehttp://novostink.ru/politics/86691-armyano-rossiyskie-otnosheniya-naskolko-adekvaten-vzglyad-iz-vashingtona.html
PFA has been up to this since its inception. One of its founders is actually a IMF employee. They are basically our Captain Americas in action. They are essentially our Syrian National Council. Theoretically, in interviews with CNN's Amanpour, they are meant to be the ones explaining to the audience why NATO forces need to bomb Armenia to topple its despotic regime and force Russian troops out of the region in order to bring peace and prosperity to the Caucasus. Western powers fund such groups for every nation they have an interest in (i.e. virtually all nations on earth). These people, like all those who represent Pre-Parliamant, Sardarapat, Armenian Renaissance, Civilitas, Heritage, etc, are Armenia's internal - and potentially most dangerous - enemies.
DeleteIn all this mayhem and cataclysmic calamities for the region the only territory which is not affected at all is the territory of the Bandit state. Chaos and mayhem, disasters and catastrophes, destruction and dissolution is the lifleine of the Bandit State; that is their only manner to thrive and maintain their supremacy and dominion over its neighbors and subjects. Could they be a mixture of an ET race who commited the fatality of mixing with the lesser humans ? How is it possible to control all the vital organs of the planet, the demographics of nations, the control of the elites in these nations, generation after generation ? They never err, they are never accountable , they are above everything else. They make the laws, bylaws and hamstring the judiciary in every nation. They have made all religions and sects within religions. Professor Lukaci remarked that christianity and Judaism is simply a quarrel amongst rabbis, dating since the days of Paul. We will not even venture into the economic arena. That is a closed area . Bombs will fall everywhere, but not on Zion. The bandit state is engaged, behind the scenes and the pallors of smoke, in re configuring the ME . There is much ado about the decadence of Amerika and the West, but the chosen never seem to go into decline, nor decay, nor have its centuries numbered. There is mumbo jumbo about the perilous state the Bandit State linger on. It is a false flag, they are getting stronger and stronger in inverse proportion to the decline of states orbiting under the chosenite star. Take the example of Argentina. A country wholly run by the elected race. Its former president and the incumbent are of the line of the chosen. They have a childish minister of the economy of the same line. Between the two, and the former juden, they practically have demolished the economy of the land. Notwithstanding that the juden child economic minister gets invoved in a fracas of enormous magnitude with the big heavyweight Juden;s from New York over a quibble on how to pay or recycle chronic fiat debt. The gloves are off, one Juden spits onto the face of the other juden judge sitting in New York , waiting to meet Lucifer when his terminal cancer knocks him off his perch. It seems that the childish juden from Argentina won his first round against his co-racialist from New York. The response was swift and visceral, the Buenos aires stock exchange plummettes by 12 % in a matter of minutes. As you very weel can see. since the days of bad man Peron, the nazi, the fascist, the nationalist, every singe economic Moses in Argentina has been of the blood of the juden since 1946. Juden quarrel amongst themselves and gentiles pay for the broken dishes . Gentiles quarrel amongst themselves and the Juden come out victorious. Like Frederich Nietzche said : It is unprofitable to discuss the Juden.Never forget, never forgive.
ReplyDeleteBandit state = Yahoodistan
Delete"ET race who commited the fatality of mixing with the lesser humans "
No sorry they are one of us sadly, I would love to blame ET, but that guy was nice the only thing he wanted was to go home. Not only did they ruin the ME they stole America and all her values. Sadly now she is only a ghost of her former self, going around the world obeying orders from someone else, lost to the fact that nothing she does is right. Leave it to the bandit, for the bandit is adapt at stealing, you only find out after the fact. America is in a slumber, and the thief is still plundering her treasure.
"They never err,"
Yes they do, they always do, but just when the last crying child has been sacrificed to the alter of jedia then the beast comes after the Jew, that is when the crying starts, but sadly only then, when it is too late. Take communism, who started it? Yet who still to this day cries the most? I arrest my Jew, I mean case.
"They never err, they are never accountable , they are above everything else. They make the laws, bylaws and hamstring the judiciary in every nation"
Yes they err, for the mere fact is that these laws are passed by none yahoodies, because the money they got as bribes from the yahoodie is enough for them to betray their nations. The Jews rationalize this by stating that you took the bribe so they are not guilty. You know dodging God's covenant by trickery. It's all so easy my friend, if you only have the money pay your congressmen. When he betrays the nation you too can wash your hands of guilt and just blame him. Learn!
"Professor Lukaci remarked that christianity and Judaism is simply a quarrel amongst rabbis,"
Sorry my friend this is where we part, Christianity has nothing to do with rabbies, in fact that is why they hate us more then the Muslims, for we are more correct. That is why when you flip on the TV you will see the anti Christ, for the anti Christ is not the devil that you were led to believe.
Vahram
Russia Decorates MiGs In Armenia With Images Of Saints
ReplyDeletehttp://forum.hyeclub.com/showthread.php/11485-Nagorno-Karabagh-Military-Balance-Between-Armenia-amp-Azerbaijan/page1150?p=353867&viewfull=1#post353867
If I was a Turk, the symbolism here would be frightening. On the centennial of the Great War which resulted in the destruction of the Orthodox Russian Empire, consequently giving the Turks a temporary window of opportunity to consolidate their conquests of Armenian, Greek and other Christian property, the Russians have found themselves again and are back stronger than ever.
Scotland with the privilege to vote for it’s freedom and independence voted to be enslaved. Europe owes a special thanks to us Armo’s for if it was not for us defending the European frontier theses idiots would have lost everything. For now they have the privilege of being idiots some more, cowards, without a shred of blood they folded like good droogies, sadly we are still on the front line defending the other baboons,
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkJM5Upfusc&index=7&list=PLQShNvwzDlg-Wvz7Lf5O7aRLHI-rz4Ev
So much for bagpipes, so much for our kin, so much for Europe in general as this speaks volumes of what has happened to our kin.
We now have Russians painting their saints on Migs. If anyone did not get the message well I don't know will, short of a brick to the head. These are the Russian, this is just one of their patriotic songs. And unlike the Eurotrash, they stand by what they sing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JO5-hM6xKt4&list=PLQShNvwzDlg-Wvz7Lf5O7aRLHI-rz4EvL&index=8
Getze Hayastan.
Vahram
CLASSLESS W.W.E. DEFILES RUSSIAN FLAG
ReplyDeletehttp://www.tomatobubble.com/id708.html
More examples of the animalistic "pop culture" of the US training the clueless, low-brow masses into hating/fearing Russia, and at the same time training them to cheer wildly for some strongman American (ie what the tough-talking anti-Russian faggots from the media and western politician/intelligence agencies pretend to be) who can "stand up" to Russia. Whether news, movies, tv shows, video games or other "infotainment" a professional anti-Russian undertow is always built in.
Former Infosys recruiter says he was told not to hire U.S. workers
ReplyDeletehttp://www.computerworld.com/article/2692372/former-infosys-recruiter-says-he-was-told-not-to-hire-us-workers.html
The joys of outsourcing and economic globalization, and more indicators of which direction the US economy will take in the future, namely down. With such short-sighted policies being common practice among many industries, wages and job opportunities for Americans will get only get worse. Other nations can learn a few things by watching the US commit suicidal blunders in every policy sphere, like the need for pragmatic, National Socialist based economic policies.
An interesting article from http://disquietreservations.blogspot.com.au/
ReplyDelete"The Excavator
October 6, 2014
Syria's Grand Mufti: Erdogan & Davutoglu behind Abduction of Two Aleppo Archbishops [June 2014]
Erdogan should be the one apologizing. . . to the Syrian people, Assad, the Kurds in Syria, the victims of ISIL kidnappings and beheadings, and the families of the victims.
Video Title: Syria's Grand Mufti: Erdogan & Davutoglu behind Abduction of Two Aleppo Archbishops. Source: Eretz Zen. Date Published: June 27, 2014. Description:
The Grand Sunni Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun, discusses on camera the circumstances that led to the infamous abduction of the two Archbishops of Aleppo, Yohanna Ibrahim for the Syriac Orthodox and Boulos Yazigi for the Greek Orthodox. He accuses the current Turkish government of sending a Chechen group that was trained in Turkey to abduct the two Archbishops, after dissatisfaction with the Syriac Orthodox Archbishop Yohanna Ibrahim several years prior.
Source: Syriac Foundation
"He [militant] wanted to get them to step out of the car. The pastor refused that they leave the car. So they immediately executed him. A Syrian would never do that. They immediately executed him in front of two Archbishops. They then said: "If you don't step out of the car, we will execute both of you. They took both of them. Thus, now it is impossible for those two to get released. And if I want to historically judge, I will judge both Erdogan and Davutoglu that they are the kidnappers of the Archbishops....yes, they themselves." - Grand Sunni Mufti of Syria, Ahmad Badreddin Hassoun".
Posted by Saman Mohammadi at 10:50 PM
RomAn
You guys might find this BBC article a little amusing
ReplyDeletehttp://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-29519644
Arevordi, what are your thoughts on this?
ReplyDeleteRussia has nothing against other CIS member states building closer ties with Europe, the only thing it insists on is that its allies (referring to Belarus and Armenia?) properly discuss the possible economic risks to the Russian economy, President Putin said at the summit in Minsk.
“We have never been opposed to closer relations with the EU, we ourselves want to move closer,” Putin said.
Russia not against European pivot for ex-Soviet allies – Putin
http://rt.com/business/194832-russia-cis-europe-pivot/
It just sounds like pragmatic diplomacy, addressing a few key concerns:
Delete-addressing the citizens of member states (who are constantly bombarded with "radio liberty" style propaganda), Putin is reminding that unlike the USSR, the Eurasian Union is not designed to subjugate member nations to diktats from Moscow; instead members are free to do business with Europe, Russia just wants coordination among the policies... basically a counter to the "you are losing your sovereignty(!)" bullshit the traitorous opposition and NGOs would have us believe
-addressing the EU, it shows a Russian desire to expand trade in stark contrast to American demands on the for sanctions against Russia
It serves Russian interests in a way if its allies have trade relations with Europe, because that will give Russia some slight leverage. Trade relations between the Eurasian Union states and European Union states come at the expense of American influence inside the EU. Especially if Russia is secure that it can keep the western influences in the political and social spheres of Eurasian Union states limited.
Aroutin,
DeleteNot much to say about President Putin's comments. His words sound like carefully crafted diplomatic double talk. Don't forget, Moscow has been doing its best to look like the nice guy, the guy being picked on by the bully West.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/10/381753/azeri-soldier-killed-in-karabakh-clashes/
ReplyDeleteI can now sleep better at nights. Armenia is now well on its way to joining the Russian-led Eurasian Union. The protest many of the Western NGOs in Armenia were preparing for today was a failure from a Western political standpoint. Efforts to make the protests seem as if Armenians were against Armenia's membership in the Eurasian Union proved utterly unsuccessful with opposition leaders Tsarukyan and Petrosian making pro-Russian statements. They were also incapable of getting large numbers of the sheeple behind their cause, as only several thousand people turned out.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day, the survival instincts of us Armenians (which makes us stick close to Mother Russia) and President Sargsyan's brilliant political maneuverings (which has in effect tamed the major opposition groups) have won the day. Today more-or-less saw the death of the Western agenda to pull Armenia away from Russia's orbit. My suggestions in the past that Tsarukyan's Prosperous Armenia has become Armenia's controlled opposition is also now self evident. It is also very clear now that Levon Petrosian has become a tamed political figure. Armenia is well on its way to emulate the political system entrenched in the US - an elite-based political system, where only a select handful of political parties are recognized by the high state and are thus allowed to operate -
No Maidan for Armenia: Anti-Russian rhetoric not “on agenda” of Yerevan rally: http://www.armenianow.com/commentary/analysis/57501/armenia_oposition_rally_eurasian_economic_union
Joint Opposition Rally Attracts Thousands; and More Random Musings: http://hetq.am/eng/news/56778/yerevan-calling-joint-opposition-rally-attracts-thousands;-and-more-random-musings.html
Congratulations. It seems that Armenia's ascension into the Eurasian Union might be a good thing, but the Armenians still don't have a common border with Russia. How can they manage a much more effective trade with Russia if they still have to worry about Azerbaijan? Now that Georgia has casted its lot with the European Union, at least Putin could now pressure Aliyev to play nice.
DeleteNot having common borders is a temporary issue that is technical in nature. Sooner than later, Tbilisi and Baku will be either absorbed fully into the Eurasian Union or made to cooperate with it. There is also the possibility, albeit remote, that Armenia will have common borders with Russia if a major war breaks out in the south Caucasus. Nevertheless, there will eventually be a free flow of trade between Eurasian Union member states. For Armenia, for the time being, airfreight will have to do. With that said, for Yerevan, membership in the Russian led economic pact is very important in that it has made Armenia even more impervious to Western/Turkic/Islamic designs in the region. For Yerevan this was more of a strategic move rather than purely an economic one.
DeletePS: Don't believe everything you see in the news. Georgia will not join NATO or EU. Baku is a hostage of Moscow. Both belligerents will eventually dance to Moscow's music.
Russia is launching a 24/7 broadcast of RT in the spanish language in Argentina. Putin and Kristina Kirchner held a telebridge over the event. What's interesting is that Putin was adressing the lady president by her first name (not "president Kirchner", not "Seniora Kirchner"), but just Kristina. Also when he spoke to her directly, he used the informal version of "you".
ReplyDeleteThis is actually very brilliant, much of the world is spanish-speaking, so go after probably the most influential spanish speaking country that (unlike Spain), battles for its independence and place in the world.
Much of South America, with the notable exception of Columbia, is fertile ground for Russians to operate in. But, you are right, Argentina has the potential to be their base of operations. Ultimately, the Malvinas Islands (Falklands) should be returned to Argentina by the British. A strategic alliance with Russia and Russian arms - can eventually make that happen for Buenos Aires.
DeleteNot only is Colombia pro-US, but the three Guyanas are actually under Western influence. I am speaking of British, French and Dutch Guyana that have no chance of cooperating with the Russians. Asia also has a huge potential for a strategic military alliance, which the Russians may already have started to formulate. That only leaves Africa, though I'm wary about having a Russian presence in Africa due to the ebola outbreak.
DeleteLukashenko plays a double rhetorical game. He has always been a sneaky fellow, but intelligently using the Kremlin to subsidize Belarus, but pay proper lip service to the west. I mean really, does Belarussian politics cause problems for Russia? No. So he can say whatever he wants.
ReplyDeleteIn the big, global picture, what Lukashenko is saying makes sense: Nation-states that acquire big guns cannot go around attempting to change internationally recognized borders based on every historical disputes in existence because such an approach to international relations will not end until the entire world goes up in flames.
ReplyDeleteSo, in my opinion, what was said has simple "wisdom" based on the fundamentals of human logic.
Look at what was said at face value. It's pointless to look for a deep meaning here for it was merely the ego-based rhetoric of an eccentric (yet benevolent) dictator. In other words, Lukashenko is simply being Lukashenko. Ultimately, he realizes that the West is a much, much more serious enemy for him and his nation than his close kin in Moscow.
Not knowing the context of the words he spoke, I suspect Lukashenko was talking about eastern Ukraine and not Crimea, Abkhazia, south Ossetia or Artsakh. I am sure Lukashenko realizes that there are special, historic cases where borders will have to change. After all, his got his current borders due to such changes. Anyway, don't you guys worry. Minsk is not going anywhere because Belarus is an inherent part of Russian civilization.
http://rt.com/news/195596-kiev-soldiers-president-ukraine/
ReplyDeleteContrast this behavior with, for example, Armenians defending Artsakh from invasion. The "conflict" in Ukraine has been foisted on the Ukrainian citizenry and Ukrainian soldiers by a hostile, foreign-controlled junta which was installed by NATO, the US and the EU for the sole purpose of using Ukraine as a pawn against Russia. These soldiers' behavior provides solid evidence that: 1) the regime in Kiev is illegitimate; 2) Ukrainians themselves are not behaving like people suffering from a "Russian invasion" and 3) that a substantial percentage of Ukraine's population does not view occupying Novorossiya or Crimea as serving any vital state interest.
It will be interesting, to say the least, to see what types of protests or riots take hold as Winter kicks in, and the corrupt regime in Kiev fails to provide subsistence level social support.
Yes, the "nationalists" showed up started yelling at the soldiers, insulting them, and screaming out their bandera-era cliches. There isn't really an "awakening" in Ukraine, but the cold and hunger should have a sobering effect on them this winter. This is why Russia insists on these "peace agreements" and so on.
DeleteYes, Russia has played the game in Ukraine in a slow, deliberate, calculated matter. Instead of declaring war as the jackals in Washington and Brussels had wanted, they parsed the situation and had an Anschluss with Crimea and de facto liberation of Novorossiya. As I see it, so long as the mighty, nuclear-capable Russian military protecting Russia's borders, and the west's agents provocateur in Russia facing crackdowns which will crush and bury them, the Kremlin can now they can sit back and watch Kiev slowly burn with zero chance of NATO or EU integration. Checkmate.
DeleteIt is a very sad realization that, whether dealing with Ukrainians, Armenians, or even Russians, most self-styled "nationalists" are the lowest class people with extremely poor understandings of how politics work. The irony of "nationalists" yelling at soldiers is lost on the Nazi-wannabe monkeys in Kiev. They are the same class of loser as the ARF/AYF/ANCA panels calling for chaos in Armenia or protesting against the Armenian government. No wonder that local "nationalists" have become the west's and jewry's favorite tools to use in their clandestine operations in targeted countries.
http://rt.com/news/195572-pope-catholic-synod-gays/
ReplyDeleteNothing to be said really. Europe as it once existed is dead. I never cared for either Catholics or Protestants, but it's still remarkable to see how far the "judeo-Christians" of the west have fallen.
That is indeed true, and the Catholics who on one hand are trying to cater to the LGBT community (not surprising since pedophile priests often molest young boys and girls) and on the other hand they preach one thing and practice another. There are also Catholic priests who say that poverty is a good thing, and such a backward thinking is the main reason why most Catholic countries are not that rich.
DeleteAnd the tragic part is that a quarter of Ukraine actually pledge their allegiance to the Pope.
You're correct Jerriko. Catholicism, as well as Islam and other cults, fosters some very unnatural views regarding women and sex. It's no wonder the raping of little boys is so common among these freaks. Pedophilia and homo-faggotry would naturally appeal to these types. Christianity in the west is dead today, the "liberated" Europeans and Americans have ended their blind faith in religion, and replaced it with blind faith in the globalist power structures (the news, the schools, the politicians, big business, etc.). Instead of calling non-believers in God "heretics" as they did in the past, they now call non-believers of mass immigration, interracialism, multiculturalism, holocaust-worship, GMOs, pharmaceuticals, diversity, and of course their so-called concept of "democracy" as the "heretics" of the day.
DeleteAnd don't be too sure the Catholic nations are not rich. The neo-bolshevik EU may have succeeded in recent years in robbing the Catholic nations of Europe of all their wealth, but for centuries earlier the Catholics had no problems pillaging and plundering the world, hypocritically, "in the name of God".
As for Ukrainians, they are a lost people. Non-Orthodox Slavs are essentially western-wannabe filth, just like non-Orthodox Armenians. I don't care if they are practicing or non-practicing, as long as at least nominally they are Orthdox; because any other religious affiliation would open the door to foreign (western) loyalties and a feeling of separation and superiority to their own race and nation - it's treason waiting to happen. While it may seem as though politics and religion should not mix, it is undeniable that the two are deeply rooted in history and inseparable.
In the news today:
ReplyDelete-Russian hackers supposedly targeting western-governments via zero-day Windows exploit (NSA status) - I don't how exaggerated this article is for fear-propaganda purposes
http://www.wired.com/2014/10/russian-sandworm-hack-isight
-McCunt should get psychiatric care
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/13/382023/mccain-must-see-a-shrink-analyst/
-Amusing picture, and sadly true given Obama's scripted actions and rhetoric targeting Russia, Syria, Iran, China and others:
http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/s--iDciqGYG--/17m2wms0kovotjpg.jpg
http://theuglytruth.wordpress.com/2014/10/14/holocaust-museum-uses-fake-photos-of-assads-torture-chambers-to-whip-people-into-genocidal-frenzy/#more-72117
ReplyDeleteHollowhox museum taking part in anti-Assad psych-ops. Not a peep out of those fraudulent kike assholes regarding the ongoing Israeli genocide in occupied Palestine. That's the western political scene in a nutshell: hollowhox worship (aka hollowcaustianity) + mainstream media + false accusations of violations of human rights minus any evidence.
Go Serbia!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.foxnews.com/world/2014/10/14/serbia-red-carpet-welcome-for-russian-president-vladimir-putin-despite-western/
Arto1
Serbs greeting Putin is 180 degrees different than how Armenians greeted him back in last December. It makes you think how "mature" our people is.
DeleteOff-topic, but an interesting example of U.S. psychological warfare from the Vietnam War. It's the "doom-and-gloom" and foreign Army denigration and desertion-ecouragement propaganda of its day, tailored for a superstitious Southeast Asian population.
ReplyDeleteOperation Wandering Soul
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4d9H_1ygEv8
http://americasmarkets.usatoday.com/2014/10/08/german-stocks-sink-into-correction-territory/
ReplyDeleteNo surprise, the German economy is showing signs of a downturn in the wake of the self-destructive sanctions against Russia. The US killing several birds with one stone (sanctions). Forcing the Germans to deploy sanctions against Russia ultimately weakens the German economy, which like all economies depends on imports and exports with its large and wealthy neighbors. A weaker Germany means a weaker Europe as a whole that the US can push around with even less resistance, as well as a weaker Euro to ensure that the Euro never positions as a legitimate challenger to the dollars status as the international reserve currency.
It also dampens German-Russia cooperation, which if it ever came to fruition and reached its full potential would pose a threat on the European and Eurasian heartland which the Anglo-American-Zionists know they would be unable to counter.
Finally, a struggling European economy would ensure continuing low birth rates among native Europeans. The crappy economy of course will not lead to any halting of the massive third world immigration formerly White Europe has seen, even though there is no employment for the hordes of Muslims, Africans and Asians pouring in. They are setting the European continent up for a bloody future.
I don't personally care if the Europeans commit mass suicide or not because Germany, France, and England and to a lesser extent Austria and Italy were the primary countries which empowered Turkey and ultimately allowed the Armenian Genocide to happen, and it was the German-heralded Treaty of Brest-Litovsk which gave Western Armenia to Turkey. Still I personally admire many things about Germany and be interesting, and geo-strategically favorable, to see Germany throw off the Anglo-American-Kike yolk and forge closer relations to Russia.
http://armenianweekly.com/2014/10/15/sassounian-west-must-offer-armenia-incentives-rather-decry-ties-russia/
ReplyDeleteConcise article on why it makes more sense for Armenia to stick with Russia.
LG
http://rt.com/politics/196212-piutin-approval-grows-poll/
ReplyDelete"The poll results are consistent with a recent tendency for record-breaking ratings for President Putin and other top Russian officials. Researchers explain this by ‘mobilization’ and solidarity of society in the face of foreign hostility, and also by events like the accession of the Crimean Republic into the Russian Federation."
Reverting back to the previous discussions we had, World War or Cold War? I think there is a possibility to witness a WW III, but the pattern of such a war is not like any of the previous ones. The likelihood for regional armies slipping into direct confrontation is slim, perhaps 2%, such as Iran vs. Turkey. The possibility of major world powers slipping into direct clash is another 2%. Ukraine was a perfect trigger to see such a scenario, but so far we witnessed a deescalation.
ReplyDeleteA third possibility is to see the world slip into WWIII by the spread of islamic terrorism throughout the world, including Europe, Asia and US. This scenario has higher chances compared to the other two because we have witnessed in the last few years the re-awakening (or rather the invocation) of the archetypal Islamic force hidden in the collective sub-conscience of all Muslims.
The idea of establishing a caliphate is a direct reflection of this Islamic archetype, where there is an underlying feeling that a caliphate will pull the Muslims out of their misery, out of their poverty etc... It is a nostalgic call for the past, where Islam was all powerful and all Islamic people were unified under a common caliphate. Poverty and misery will only help to accelerate this awakening. Provided with necessary funding and a fertile ground, things can pick up impressive pace.
Let's assume that the Islamic State is a production of CIA and poses a serious threat to Russia (although as always I do not believe this, despite all facebookish rumours of hillary clinton writing about ISIS, or Snowden leaks talking about it, or even the even more stupid rumour that the Caliph al-Baghdadi met with Joe Biden. All these rumors not only are unfounded, but also serve as distraction to understand the core of the problem. During war times, entertaining such illusions serves no useful purpose.
Therefore my questions:
Q1: what do you think are the chances that Russia might drop a nuke on ar-Raqqa capital of IS?
Q2: what do you think are the chances that Russia might get involved in Syria and start a bombing campaign similar to what it did to Grozny?
I find it highly unlikely that Russia will resort to the use of nuclear weapons. If nukes were used it would be during a conventional war and in a conventional field of battle, and in this scenario the nukes used would be tactical. Russia will continue to support Assad and his army but will not directly intervene unless ISIS threatens the Russian base in Tartus. If we consider that ISIS is not an American or Saudi controlled enterprise than Russia will not intervene because every action that the US and its partners take against ISIS, will result in further anti-Western sentiments among Muslims and Sunni Arabs in particular. Of course I realize that a great many Muslims do not support ISIS, or are even hostile to it. But I also know from history that people are sheep and that all it takes is for a core group of radicals to fight and die for a cause for a revolution to take place. Consider the Bolshevik revolution or the Cuban one for example. With that said, why would Russia want to add its name to the hit list of the towel-heads by engaging in attacks against them? The only reason is if ISIS presents a clear and present danger to Tartus.
DeleteAs for the news about Russia upgrading various bases to host its strategic bombers I think this is a reaction to NATO, as well as a part of the wider strategy of making Russian led organizations like the CSTO and SCO fuller in scope of duties. While on paper both organizations, and now the EAU may seem as partial equals to the Euro-Atlantic organizations like NATO and the EU, in reality they are like babes next to a grown up. I do not buy into the argument that Russia wants weak allies and submissive ones. I think it wants trustworthy allies, who will defer to Moscow in certain situations, but which can work together and create synergy within said organizations.
LG
I ask these questions because I can't understand the intentions behind the news that “Russia Decorated MiGs In Armenia With Images Of Saints”, do you think this is just a message to Turkey? or is there an actual operation (clandestine or maybe to be announced) operation to kick off soon? Keep in mind, Armenia hosts the closest Russian air base relative to Syria. If there is any plans to get involved in Syria then 102 division is a good candidate to get involved. Reminder from Tsarina Catherine II, that Syria is the Key to the Russian house!
ReplyDeleteAdd to this the latest large scale drills with soldiers moving 1000 kilometers.
Armenia to hold largest Russian military drills
http://vestnikkavkaza.net/news/politics/60876.html
Also add the previous "Ottomania" drills.
Also add this piece:
“Bondarev was also quoted by RIA Novosti as saying on Wednesday that Moscow is negotiating with Bishkek to reconstruct the Kant airbase in Kyrgyzstan, which is a home for Russian fighter jets under CSTO auspices. While the base is usable, further construction is needed to support Russian strategic bombers, he said.
Bondarev said similar work will be done on an airbase in Armenia, the Soviet-era Erebuni base, which is already home to Russian MiG-29 fighter aircraft.”
http://www.armradio.am/en/2014/10/15/russia-plans-to-expand-its-airbases-in-armenia-and-kyrgyzstan/
Does this mean we also getting to host strategic bombers? that means nukies too right?
What does all this mean? Just regular muscle flexing, or actual preparation for pre-emptive strike?
Why suddenly Russia and US are exchanging intelligence data on ISIS?
http://rt.com/news/196052-russia-us-security-renewed/
And what's the deal with Iran getting all cozy again with US and suddenly talks about Nabucco?
http://rt.com/op-edge/194592-iran-us-nuclear-isis-rouhani/
"Before our eyes" Storm Warning in Iran
http://www.voltairenet.org/article185563.html
In general Obama's 3 year plan to fight ISIS is a recipe for disaster, specially when no exit strategy is proposed, anyway, fighting is done without US flesh, so they are willing to risk it.
My 5 cents, things are out of control, I doubt any world power actually has any clear 10+ year strategy.
At present we are dealing with mid term planning (2-3 years at most), it's more about crisis management, and reactionary behavior, wait and see till the dust settles and hopefully we have boots or our allied boots on the ground.
Arevordi, do you think Russia dropping a nuke on ISIS capital is able to boost Russia's stature in world politics? I mean, nobody is going to condemn Moscow for such an act right? It would even be praised as saving the world from a cancer...
Another propaganda piece published by Amanda Paul in Turkey. Feel free to kick her up the ass in the comments section.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.todayszaman.com/columnist/amanda-paul/armenias-membership-in-eeu-will-further-undermine-regional-security_361655.html
Arto2
Wow. Once again we see Turks, the "Armenian opposition" (or at least the most radical segments of the opposition who are directly controlled by Washington), the US, the EU and Azerbaijan advocate the exact same suicidal "solutions" for Armenia. Funny how all of those groups have the same sick ideas about what "regional security" in the Caucasus means.
DeleteHer article is full of the same old empty phrases and unfounded allegations about "oligarchs" and "democrazy" and "corruption". I suggest instead that monkeys in Turkey should stick to importing terrorists into their country, while the monkeys in Europe and America stick to their programs of economic suicide and continued importation of third world trash to the toilet countries they live in.
Here is some slight background on this cunt. I cannot tell if she is a kikess or not, but odds are pretty high.
http://www.epc.eu/team_details.php?hr_id=13&dept_id=3
http://www.businessinsider.com/un-votes-against-turkey-2014-10
ReplyDeleteTurkey should get used to seeing major failures, it will be seeing many more in the near future. I hope the incompetent, arrogant, and generally unlikeable erdogan gang remain in power in Turkey for many years. In fact, I would say "decades" instead of years but I am cautiously optimistic that Turkey as it exists will not last for "decades".
Once again we can look at the position and status of our enemies and only conclude: thank God Armenia is secure inside the Eurasian Union and CSTO. God bless the Armenia-Russia alliance, I am looking forward to the wondrous developments awaiting our homeland. It may be a bit premature, but let us Armenians do what the Europeans traditionally do and begin to draw up plans to take a piece for ourselves as the Ottoman/Turkish state decays before our eyes.
http://www.pf-armenia.org/media-gallery/joint-workshop-atlantic-council-armenia-and-west
ReplyDeleteA gallery of the pfa event from this past July. The event is tied in with the report that I linked to in my previous comment. If you look closely at the 7th picture you'll see that the anti Armenian, and pro azerbaijani jewess cunt, brenda shaffer, was present at the pfa event.
LG
LG, you are a very intelligent young man. You tell me, are these PFA types imbeciles or traitors? How do you assess their craft?
DeleteYou flatter me :)
DeleteI think pfa is a combination of naive individuals as well as traitors. The suggestions they offer are unrealistic, short sighted, and ignore fundamental constraints placed upon Armenia by natural and man made structures.
The leadership is full of egoists, having heard about the personality of david grigorian from people who have spoken with him, as well as interacting with him briefly it is clear the man has a one track mind and believes he has the solution to all of Armenia's problems. His ego and those of the other top ranking people involved with pfa are what makes them traitors whether they intend to be or not. The good news is that they are persona non grata at the Armenian embassy, they are monitored by the NSS when in Armenia, and with the exception of their leadership they do not have many proactive members. The majority of the names listed on their site are people who are either no longer active or barely active.
LG
I agree about PFA members and their activists being a mix of idiots and traitors. I also agree that the traitors amongst them do what they do unwittingly (i.e. they are not consciously being treasonous). Simply put: Their massive Armenian egos and political ignorance - coupled with a nice salary working for a major Western institution in the case of David Grigoryan - blind them to fundamental truths. They do not realize that their activity - essentially in service of the American empire - can be potentially very destructive for Armenia.
DeleteSome years ago (before PFA I think) I met David Grigoryan in New York at a friend's house. After listening to him speak I remember thinking - what a shallow and self-centered asshole this guy is.
There are so many cynical comments I can make here. I'll just focus on "gee, I though Richard the Pseudohistorian Hovannisian said Turkgay was more democratic than Armenia, yet I have not heard of any journalists getting killed in Armenia in the past several years, even though Armenia is far more infested with foreign agent "journalists" than Turkgay. Oh well, I'm sure the State Department will follow up on this incident".
ReplyDeletehttp://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/10/19/382854/press-tv-reporter-in-turkey-killed/
Репортаж о ряде предприятий ВПК Армении
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcEdoDN9VFU
At 3:10 in this video, we see Defense Minister Seyran Ohanian explain that the newly established Polish-Armenian military equipment plant in Armenia will produce high quality equipment which can be further exported to the nations of the Eurasian Union. The plant will initially produce things like tents, vests, and other modern gear which the Eurasian Union nations may be interested in. I'm glad to see Armenia developing its domestic military production capabilities, and I'm glad Armenia may see profits from export in addition to profits from employment at the plant.
Let this stand as a clear response to the cyberwarriors who claim that Armenia has no role to play in the Eurasian Union other than serving as a Russian oblast, or that Armenia is somehow losing its sovereignty. Through smart management, Armenia's government can keep Armenia within the Russian orbit where it will be safe from the decaying sociological factors (i.e. globalism and "democracy") which are destroying the west, while at the same time allowing Armenia to profit from economic interactions with what's left of the west. Armenia has the potential to once again become a crossing point and trading post for the east and west, or today's eastern and western blocks.
From within NATO, as far as I know, Armenian peacekeepers have served under Poles in Iraq, Germans in Afghanistan, Greeks in Kosovo, have trained with Americans and Lithuanians, and will soon be training with the Italians for peacekeeping in Lebanon. Regardless of how we may feel of NATO (and I despise it personally), it is utter nonsense to claim that Armenia is "losing its sovereignty".
Additionally, the video contains some very nice shots of renovated military industrial buildings and plants in Armenia. This is a far cry from the decrepit footage we used to see in the 1990s and early 2000s. It may be at a slower and steadier pace than we may wish, but Armenia is slowly getting back on its feet and reorienting itself. Evolution not upheaval/revolution!
A subtle hint right at the end of this video on the recent training exercises the Russian military in Armenia held:
ReplyDelete"Let us note additionally that the combat exercises took place in the immediate vicinity of the Armenian-Turkish border"
Армения: тактические учения 102-й российской базы/Armenia: Russian army holds military drills
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WU-zDpa9s1o
UPDATE: UKRAINIAN MILITARY LOSSES
ReplyDeleteIt is widely agreed that Ukraine's Armed Forces lost around 60% of their equipment in their failed attempt to crush Novorossiya.
The website that documents each and every armor loss is updated daily. Currently the number of destroyed armored vehicles (tanks, APCs etc.) has passed the 400 mark: http://lostarmour.info/armour/
The number of captured Ukrainian armor and put back into service in the Novorossian Army has passed the 200:
http://lostarmour.info/spoils/
The above lists include only confirmed (with photo or video) losses and captures. Of course, there are many other losses behind Ukrainian lines that have never been photographed.
Note that the same website also has other pages documenting artillery losses.
Trucks and other vehicle losses are not being followed.
As for aircraft losses, the Novorossyian air defenses shot down 2 dozen aircraft and helicopters (all confirmed by the Ukrainian side). They also damaged a number of other aircraft too. Here is a documented list of Ukrainian aircraft losses during the conflict:
http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/dblist.php?Country=UR&page=1
Historians should take note that in this conflict, air defenses beat an air force.
On the Naval side, two Ukrainian Coast Guard vessels were destroyed during the last few days of the conflict.
Ukrainian officials admit to loosing about 1000 killed and a few thousand wounded. The correct number is believed to be much higher. Estimates vary between 3000 and 8000 Ukrainian soldiers killed.
Thanks for the update, Zoravar.
DeleteWhat you are describing is a complete route of the junt's military. No wonder the begged for peace at the end.
http://rt.com/news/198248-canada-parliament-shooting-soldier/
ReplyDeleteSomething is rotten in the state of Canada. The incidents of the past few days are suspicious, they look like a poorly staged false flag to rally the sheeple behind the flag and the campaign to draw Canada further into aggressive actions against Syria under the false pretext of fighting big bad ISIS.
In any case, we see once again western citizens suffering from suicidal globalist policies encouraging the importation of Muslim trash to Canada where they do not belong. The west is hopelessly lost.
Every single shooting does not necessarily have to be a false flag operation. I have no way of knowing what today's shooting was but a lone gunman/gunmen reacting to some provocation or incitement is a very real possibility as well. Like I have said before: Losing people and property from time-to-time is a price Western powers are more than willing to pay in order to have Wahhabist fanatics within their arsenal of weapons-of-mass-destruction. In other words, the geostrategic value Islamists bring to the table in places like Northern Africa, Middle East, Balkans, Caucasus and Central Asia is worth immeasurably more any single terrorist attack on Western soil. Like I have said before: They create rabid animals to use against their enemies. Once in a while, the rabid animal bites the hand that feeds. It's expected. It's ok. Such events can then be used to further scare the shit-out-of the sheeple to make them more compliant. It's a win-win.
DeleteYes, that's the best explanation.
DeleteIt is hard not to notice that the immediate reaction to that sort of happenings is to emit shrilly warnings against "islamophobia". To clamor that "islamists" have nothing to do with Islam. Is it out of fear or to protect the perpetrators from a reaction which could wipe them out?
Good points. That's what stuck out for me, the immediate "suspected ISIS/Al Qaeda member" headlines. ISIS militants - or the image of ruthless fanatic warriors as the media as painted them - in Canada seemed as unlikely as penguins in the Middle East.
Delete"Let no crisis go to waste." One of hundreds of thousands Islamist militants deciding to go on a shooting spree on their own seems plausible.
http://www.president.nkr.am/en/news/visits/2611/
ReplyDeleteAll those petrodollars and this is the best whore they could buy. I don't know who that student was but hats off to him for his courage. The whore's response was a typical over-aggressive personal attack on the poor student for asking a legitimate question, obviously guided by her racial bigotry and hatred towards Armenians. Unfortunately Colombia University has outdone itself.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan-columbia-shaffer-socar-adviser/26654044.html
Arto2
Good find Arto2. That article described some pretty ugly events. You are correct, for all her "credentials" schaffer has no professionalism. Ad hominems and ignoring the facts when someone calls out your lies is the modus operandi of trolls and disinformation agents.
DeleteAs our friend LG pointed above, the so-called "PFA"apparently invited this whore to their recent meeting to plan the overthrow of the Armenian government followed by the destruction of the Armenian state. I don't think there can be doubts left that the PFA and other US-based "Armenian" organizations are controlled by western intelligence for the sole purpose of DESTROYING Armenia (not for any of the lofty ideologies like 'anti-corruption' that they expertly use to trojan horse themselves into Armenian politics/society). The fact that all of this is done in plain sight of the Armenian Diaspora further proves how much disdain the western establishment has for their own Armenian citizens.
http://www.pf-armenia.org/media-gallery/joint-workshop-atlantic-council-armenia-and-west
The diaspora was quick to rally against the protocols, and for a short time against abe foxman of the ADL or Kobe Bryant for his advertisements for Turkish airlines. But you barely ever hear any Diasporan activist even hint at protesting against PFA's activities even though they do far more damage to Armenia.
Bonus from a year ago: PFA's ara manoogian goes full azeri-consulate against Artsakh's representative in Los Angeles:
http://www.thetruthmustbetold.com/attempted-arrest/
IN Yerevan, they conducted a round table about the potential for Maidan type operation in Armenia, and in other post-Soviet Eurasian sphere countries.
ReplyDeletehttp://rusvesna.su/news/1414190778
Note there is a lot of Georgians at this conference. I listened to the second speaker, a Georgian, the guy had a lot of interesting things to say about the Georgia "color-revolution" experience and about the people who carried it out and who came to power. Very interesting stuff..
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2014/nov/20/wake-up-europe/
ReplyDeleteSoros has been running his mouth in recent days criticizing obama the tool and the EU essetntially for not engaging in direct warfare with Russia, using Ukraine as the excuse. It's interesting to step back and look at the bigger picture: jew owners of the enslaved west inciting the western governments and societies they have hijacked to fight a war against Orthodox Christian Russia, a war which would destroy the already dying west. In fact, such a war would likely not even benefit the usual jewish war profiteers (and their anglo-american and EU lackies) as it could very realistically result in their destruction. That is the sad state the west finds itself today after "winning" two world wars and the Cold War.
It makes me wonder how long this joke can last. History repeats itself: Jews move in to a healthy host nation, gain money and power, insert their poisonous ideas into their host society while sucking out the hosts wealth through fraud and war-mongering, the host enters a period of accelerating decline, and often enough the angry host population decides it has had enough and pogroms and expulsions take place. The west is just at the "accerlating decline" phase. It cannot realistically give in to jew demands for war against Russia without risking nuclear war, but its hollowed out economy cannot be proped up in the face of rising Russian, Chinese and other non-western powers.
In any case, this article in the NY Times will presumably reach only those who read the NY Times and other mainstream media. At this point in time anyone still reading that garbage deserve to have this shit shoeveled in their faces. I'm guessing a large section of that audience consists of self-styled "intellectuals" who were indoctrinated in college and lack even a hint of critical thinking ability. Suffice it to say that the only hope for salvation in the west is the rise of a leader like Putin who can put the west's equivalents of Khodorkhovskies (Soros, Adelson and the rest) into prison, concentration camps or worse... And I just don't see that happening.
http://rt.com/news/198924-putin-valdai-speech-president/
ReplyDeleteA very interesting and potent speech.
Rouseff the Brazilian president has just been reelected. BRICS will be a major threat to the dying dollar next year! :-)
ReplyDeleteEuropean Commission President Congratulates Ukrainians on Parliamentary Elections
ReplyDeletehttp://en.ria.ru/world/20141027/194661296/European-Commission-President-Congratulates-Ukrainians-on.html
The hypocrisy of unelected EU "technocrats" like "president" Barroso is truly breathtaking. When Ukraine holds obviously-rigged elections in which western-backed radicals win, they cynically hail it as a "triumph of democracy" totally disregarding the fact that thanks to their intervention Ukraine is a country where armed militias openly attack politicians, intimidate the public, and gleefully call for genocide against the "Moskals." But when a politician like Yanukovitch, who is not foaming at the mouth with calls for war against Russia, wins an election in Ukraine, the same EU scum are their wagging their fingers and shaking their heads.
When Artsakh held a truly democratic election and voted in a new constitution in 2006, weren't these same EU rats falling over themselves to declare that they viewed the election as "invalid" despite the clear fact that this was the most flawless and transparent election ever held in the Caucasus? When French and Dutch voters in May and June 2005 rejected the EU Constitution didn't these same EU trash tell them to fuck off, and instead put the Constitution in effect through autocratic means?
Any society with any self-respect must respond with suspicion and rejection any time the European Commission offers praise or congratulations to them. EU praise is usually a dead giveaway that a nation has just made a terrible mistake.
Վարչապետը ներկա է գտնվել «Փոքր Մհեր» կրթահամալիրի նոր մասնաճյուղի բացմանը armeniatv.am
ReplyDeletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IL0Ja395hW4
I'm happy to see Armenian state structures emphasizing military training, discipline, patriotism, physical fitness, and orderliness among Armenia's youth. Healthy societies need healthy children partaking in these types of activities; not lazy couch potatoes addicted to pop culture and electronic distractions. And these children are being taught to love their country's ancient history and culture, check out the still shots around 1:11 and the maps on the walls which display how large the Armenian state was in past times.
Groups like this carry on the fine traditions of the Hitlerjugend and Russia's Nashi youth group. Compare Armenia's youth groups to the western equivalents like the Boy Scouts, where gay headmasters and "diversity" (read: anti-Nationalism) are the celebrated recent accomplishments.
Additionally, the Armenian organization in the video can address the "overly-attached Armenian mother" phenomenon that Arevordi has described. I think our friend Svediatsi will especially appreciate Armenian youth focusing on martial training.
Talk about the pot calling the kettle black. These people have no shame
ReplyDeletehttp://blogs.timesofisrael.com/armenian-american-lobby-is-powerful-despite-overt-support-of-iran-russia-and-opposition-to-israel-azerbaijan/
Arto2
Notice how Kevin Abrahamian is pleading for the author to not cast Armenians as anti-Israeli. For those of you who do not know yet, Kevin is the real name of the ass who posts at Asbarez.com comments section as 'Armenian'.
DeleteGL
I'll assume that is the same asshole who trolls "World and Armenia" page on facebook.
DeleteJerriko (not logged in)
I have met few jewish armenians over the years in Armenia and somehow most have Abrahamyan last name, another common one is Varzapetyan.
DeleteRegarding the username "Armenian" on Asbarez: He has more than one identity. He posts a comment under one name (usually "Armenian") and responds to it under another name (sometimes "Sokimag", sometimes other names). His main task on comment boards is to post anti-Russian diatribes, regardless of how stupid or irrational it may sound. The character in question is most probably a mentally disturbed individual, like many American-Armenians of mixed parentage, or he is one of Washington's many cyber warriors.
DeleteSince this is a complaint and negative comment from "The Institute for War and Peace Reporting", I know that it is a good thing. Does anyone know about this switch to digital TV in Armenia. For now it seems to have the effect of taking various broadcasters off the air which is probably a good thing for the country and a bad thing for the various democracy advocates.
ReplyDeletehttp://iwpr.net/report-news/many-armenian-tv-stations-digital-switch-spells-closure
Arto2
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.623249
ReplyDeleteI don't think this is accurate. I'd rank Iran ahead of Saudi Arabia, even Turkey.
LG
Danes, and other EU fags, are getting what they deserve. They love diversity and Chechens so much, this is the only logical outcome. These fags are lucky are were not murdered and their women (assuming they are not homos) were not raped. Incidentally, the Nordic countries (Denmark, Sweden, and Norway) are among the most "globalized" outside of the Anglosphere. Europe is going to get a lot worse before it gets better, if it gets better at all.
ReplyDeletehttp://10news.dk/archive/2014-10-28/article/5-10-denmark-muslims-beat-man-with-bottle-for-calling-islam-violent#panel5a