This is a first attempt at pulling together recent articles of interest to our members. This format is experimental and will no doubt change. I (Greg) have included what I think are some of the most interesting articles bearing on present and future great power wars, just from the past thirteen days. Articles on other themes will follow, perhaps in a simpler format.<\/p>\n
You will understand that memes of “Russian aggression,” “our adversaries in Asia,” etc. ad nauseum<\/em> bear heavily on U.S. conversations about nuclear weapons. A massive mountain of propaganda is being dumped on us daily, which is difficult for many people to see through. We must try, and we must succeed one way or another<\/em>, or our civilization will surely end. Hence the subject of this first summary.<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service (FSB) has disrupted a plot to carry out terrorist attacks in the Republic of Crimea. The attacks, planned by the Ukrainian Defence Ministry\u2019s Chief Intelligence Directorate, targeted critical infrastructure and facilities in Crimea. Russia\u2019s intelligence services take the view that these planned acts of sabotage and terrorism were intended to destabilise the socio-political situation in the region in the run-up to federal and regional elections…. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 A “Russian cyberattack”? How can the NYT claim such, in an opening paragraph, when even the Director of U.S. National Intelligence\u00a0is unable<\/a>\u00a0to make such a judgement?… \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Stepping back a bit: in August 2011, when Obama and Clinton both demanded Assad\u2019s departure, and closed down the U.S. embassy in Damascus, the opposition to Assad had been largely nonviolent. But armed factions were, with U.S. encouragement, already taking shape, loosely coordinating as something called the \u201cSyrian Free Army.\u201d They included many pro-al-Qaeda elements who officially formed the al-Nusra Front (Jabhat al-Nusra) in January 2012.\n
\nThe attempts to enter Crimea unlawfully, the recent attempt on the life of Head of the Lugansk People\u2019s Republic Igor Plotnitsky, the constant firing along the line of contact in Donbass, and the actions of radical nationalists and so-called \u2018activists\u2019 from around Ukraine that go beyond the bounds of any lawful framework are a vivid illustration of the state of affairs in Ukraine today. The numerous provocations, efforts to portray Moscow as the enemy, and the deliberate cultivation of anti-Russian sentiments are an attempt by the Ukrainian government to distract the public from the country\u2019s own troubles and the problems affecting the majority of people in Ukraine. We see a deliberate effort to divert public attention from the actions and responsibility of those in power and their inability to carry out long overdue reforms and conduct an honest investigation into the murders of journalists and human rights activists and the crimes committed in 2014 during the Maidan protests, in Odessa, Mariupol, and other cities….
\nAttempts to destabilise the situation in Russian Crimea are doomed to fail. Russia unconditionally guarantees Crimea\u2019s stability and security.
\nKiev and its foreign backers should know that any harm to Russia or the deaths of Russian personnel will not go unanswered.
\nAs President Vladimir Putin noted on August 10, given the current situation and until we see real positive steps from Kiev, like renouncing terror and provocations, it makes little sense to hold Normandy format meetings, like the Beijing meeting in early September requested by Mr Poroshenko recently.
\nOnce again, we call on our partners to use their influence with Kiev to dissuade the government from taking any dangerous steps that could have grave consequences. Playing with fire is dangerous.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
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\nThe “Russia is guilty” claim for whatever happened, without any proof, is becoming a daily diet fed to the “western” public. A similar theme is the “barrel bombing” of (the\u00a0always same<\/a>) “hospitals” in Syria which is claimed whenever the Syrian government or its allies\u00a0hit some al-Qaeda headquarter<\/a>.
\nAll this propaganda is in preparation of the rule of the “We came, we saw, he died. Hahaha …<\/a>” psychopathic queen of war Hillary Clinton.
\nAs Marc Wheeler, aka emptywheel, reminds us: 6:13 AM – 10 Aug 2016<\/a>\u00a0emptywheel @emptywheel: “The actions to ensure we will escalate our wars are being taken as we speak. January will be too late to stop it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n
\n(The rule, if you haven\u2019t noticed, is: When the U.S. overthrows a secular leader in the Middle East, or tries to, it creates a power void; it creates promised lands of opportunity for vicious jihadis, whose atrocities justify the redeployment of U.S. troops to the country involved in order to \u201cpreserve regional stability\u201d and so forth. It is as though Washington is actively working to enrage, not only your everyday Muslim anywhere in the world, but your everyday anyone anywhere in the world, by its regime change bombing campaigns rationalized by lies.)
\nAl-Nusra gained widespread respect among the armed rebels in Syria in 2012. The U.S. press gave slight attention to the fact that the \u201cFree Syrian Army\u201d publicly justified and insisted upon its alliance with this al-Qaeda chapter.
\nCurrently most factions (80% in one estimate) of the hundreds of Syrian Free Army factions work with al-Nusra. They value its experience and competence, even if they may dislike its puritanism in such matters as tobacco smoking and personal appearance. U.S. officials have long since realized that to topple Assad they need to\u2014if not befriend al-Nusra directly (repeat: al-Nusra\/ Fatah al-Sham was until yesterday an official al-Qaeda affiliate)\u2014at least give their (more) directly subsidized associates leave to mingle as needed, to get the regime change job done.
\nBy 2014, with Assad still in charge and al-Nusra coming to dominate the \u201copposition,\u201d Obama asked Congress for money to fund a program for U.S. personnel to train in Jordan some 15,000 armed rebels in marksmanship, navigation and other skills. But as of September 2015, as a sheepish-faced General Lloyd Austin, commander of U.S. Central Command, told Congress, \u201cWe\u2019re talking four or five\u201d fighters actually trained.\u00a0 In that same month, it was announced that about 70 fighters of \u201cDivision 30\u201d\u2014Syrians trained in Turkey, under the \u201cSyrian Trade and Equip\u201d program, had upon entering Syria turned over their weapons to al-Nusra…
\nThe fact of the matter is, the U.S. has found it difficult, after all that\u2019s happened in the region in this young century, to recruit Syrians willing to work with them. Blinded by their Exceptionalism, U.S. policy-makers can\u2019t get it through their heads that U.S. actions in Afghanistan, Iraq, Yemen and Libya do not endear them to the peoples of those countries. Quite the opposite.
\n…
\nKerry like Obama seems conflicted about what to do in Syria. He wants to topple Assad, because the U.S. government has announced he must go, and once such a proclamation is issued, it cannot (like a law of the Medes and Persians) be retracted for fear of loss of face. But Kerry\u2019s also been (like Obama, who as you recall cluelessly called ISIL a \u201cJV team\u201d in August 2014) shocked by the sudden rise of that horrid outgrowth of the U.S. destruction of Iraq. It would be embarrassing if ISIL takes Damascus and blows up all the ancient Christian sites. Especially if Putin and tens of millions of Russian Orthodox believers who feel akin to Syrian \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 Orthodox Christians are standing around saying, \u201cI told you this would happen, if you keep focusing so stupidly on Assad\u201d).
\nSo of course U.S. leaders have to condemn, and to some extent wage war on, ISIL as well as al-Nusra. The problem is how to pursue that objective while simultaneously maintaining that Assad is the main problem, and arguing that his very persistence in power strengthens the terrorists. It doesn\u2019t make any sense.
\nIn fact, the weakening of central state power encouraged by the U.S. since 2011 has allowed these groups to seize territory and advance their positions, while the reclamation of state authority when it\u2019s happened has set back the bad guys. Or at least the worst guys.
\nThe faction in the State Department that never learns anything and is currently demanding regime change is getting louder. The manifesto published by the 51 State Department dissidents suggests too much attention has been placed on countering ISIL. What we really need to do, they say, is step up efforts to remove Assad. \u00a0\u00a0 Despite The weird, unprecedented nature of the dissidents\u2019 memo leak, Kerry has pronounced himself sympathetic. Meanwhile the recent statement from the \u201cCenter for a New Security\u201d headed by key Clinton aide and likely future Secretary of Defense Michele Flournoy similarly promotes regime change.
\nOn July 29\u2014the day that she secured the Democratic nomination in that sickening display of USA! USA! <\/em>jingoism\u2014Clinton\u2019s campaign stated that she will \u201creset\u201d U.S. Syrian policy as a top priority in office, to focus on toppling Assad from power. (Surprise, surprise, you fools who assumed she\u2019d learned something from Libya.)
\nFor all with ears to hear\u2014and have learned anything at all since 9\/11 and the inception of the era of constant wars, based on lies\u2014the war-drums are sounding. But as MSNBC\u2019s Chris Matthews notes, \u201cAmericans don\u2019t care anything about foreign policy.\u201d
\nOne can only hope that the crazies in Syria are rolled back by rational secular forces before January, aided perhaps by welcome, coordinated foreign air power, when the Queen of Chaos<\/a> comes to the throne (if so she does).
\nBecause if she gets her chance, she will be looking for excuses to bomb Damascus.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n