While American Empire Goes Even More Reactive, Russia Stays Pro-Active

In a totally NON-surprise move, the Russian Navy bolsters its naval presence off Syria to the highest level since 2015 when it first was asked by Syria to aid in fighting various rebel groups in their country.

As noted by a recent Reuters article:

On Saturday, the Admiral Grigorovich and Admiral Essen frigates sailed through Istanbul’s Bosphorus towards the Mediterranean, Reuters pictures showed.

The day before, the Pytlivy frigate and landing ship Nikolai Filchenkov were pictured sailing through the Turkish straits that connect the Black Sea with the Mediterranean. The Vishny Volochek missile corvette passed through earlier this month.

This is a NORMAL buildup to protect Syria as it continues in the negotiation stage and subsequent clean-up and liberation of the Idleb governorate in Syria’s northwest. The public announcement of this was made to let the rebel forces in this area know that they have limited time to respond to offers from the Syrian military that emphasized a September 7 deadline, the date when the Turkish, Russian and Iranian presidents will meet.

A Moon of Alabama article from three days ago shows the area about to be set free from rebel control, and the sensitivity here has to do with the US/UK/Israel backed rebel forces that have effectively been cornered:

There are signs that al-Qaeda in Syria and similar groups will try to preempt the upcoming attack on them by an offense of their own. The U.S., UK and France prepare for another chemical incident in support of the Jihadi attack. They would strike Syrian government forces and institutions after a new fake incident would be attributed to the Syrian government.

Turkey was given until the summit to remove al-Qaeda and similar Jihadi groups from Idleb governorate. It so far failed to do so and its chance of achieving that is practically zero. Al-Qaeda in the form of Hayat Tahrir al Sham (HTS, formerly Jabhat al-Nusra) and in coalition with other foreign Jihadis from all over the world rules about 70% of Idleb governorate:

“Idlib Province is the largest al-Qaeda safe haven since 9/11,” says Brett McGurk, the senior US envoy to the international coalition fighting Isis.

Pushed up against the Turkish border, with the clock ticking, Syria, Russian and Iranian forces are EXPECTING the US’s deep state to attempt to pull off a false flag to justify even more intervention in an area where they are not wanted.

The Inspector General of the U.S. aid agency shut down an aid program through which al-Qaeda in Idleb was fed:

“US charity Catholic Relief Services wouldn’t directly confirm it was the NGO involved but left little doubt, saying it had “closed” its operations in northwest Syria following reports of aid diversion, and had dismissed staff as it works to “further enhance” anti-fraud measures. CRS has received $147 million from USAID for projects in Syria over the last three financial years, according to the USAID website.”
“USAID’s inspector general, reporting to Congress, first in March and with more details released in July, said that staff of an unnamed non-profit added “fighters” of armed group Hay’at Tahrir Al-Sham to lists of civilians eligible for food packages and then covered up the records. The US government regards HTS as a successor to the al-Qaeda-affiliated Nusra Front.”

First reports of this scheme through which the U.S. supplied al-Qaeda were already published in 2012. It was widely known that al-Qaeda systematically “taxed” up to 50% of all food and weapon supplies U.S. supported “moderate rebels” received.

http://www.moonofalabama.org/images6/idlibmap20180815.jpg (click to zoom in)

Ringed with both Russian and Iranian observation posts, this is a very controlled “run-down” of the terrorist scourge in the region as long as the US does not interfere.

To assist in pressing its point, at lest 20 Russian naval units are in the region (thanks to Capt N on Twitter)

A long-range Kalibr cruise missile is launched by a Russian Navy ship in the eastern Mediterranean, August 19, 2016. Russian Defense Ministry Press Service

This is a serious attempt at bringing to a close this chapter (but not yet the final chapters) of Syria’s battle against terrorism and their supporters.

The US Navy however is positioned more for North Korean and Chinese “threats” and will have to bring non-carrier based task forces into the region like the USS Ross, armed with Tomahawk missiles:

Expect the US and other forces to be desperate in bringing about a confrontation. Never-mind that the US just re-activated their 2nd Fleet for North Atlantic and Arctic activities now that the Trump administration has ratcheted up tension with Russia using sanctions as well as ill-advised Tomahawk cruise missile attacks like Trump did the last time he dabbled in Syria’s domestic affairs.

The multi-year joint effort by Syria-Russia-Iran is progressing in an attempt to undo the “democracy” the US brought into the region:

Long term, Moon of Alabama says:

Six month from now, after the Idleb operation is over, the Syrian army is likely to move further north to retake the Syrian areas Turkey is currently holding and attempting to annex. After that the U.S. occupation force in north-east Syria will come into sight.

Additional U.S. operations against Syrian, Iraqi and Iranian forces might soon come on the Syian-Iraq border where U.S. forces are building up for new operations. It is claimed that the U.S. deploys radar systems to north-east Syria which it keeps occupying. These would be useful in establishing a no-fly zone over the territory of its Kurdish proxy forces. The U:S. is likely underestimating the local hostility against this development. The 2-5,000 U.S. troops there may soon find themselves in a hopeless fight with local guerilla forces.

For all the innocent lives impacted, please pray that the US steers clear of its reactive/short-term moves that continues the de-stabilization process it set in motion soon after the Cold War was over in 1989. The US continues to try to justify a global military as well as the Petro Dollar (USD).

Stay ‘tuned’ (US Navy Electronic Technician humor)

-SF1

Iran: Misunderstood If One Only Listens to US Government/US Media

USS Kidd (DDG-993), the never-delivered IIS Kouroush, to be part of the Shah’s upgraded Iranian Navy

Reflecting back on the late 1970s when I was an instructor in the US Navy’s Naval Training Center, it was apparent that I was more than just a little intrigued by some of the nationalities represented. I taught Aussies (quite the drinkers) and Germans (2nd place drinkers) as well as Saudis, Iraqis and Iranians. It was the Iranians I was the most curious about especially when it seemed at one moment Iran was the US’s closest ally and then during the “Hostage Crisis” broke out in November 1979, they were becoming our worst enemy.

In hindsight, with a little research and education it is apparent that the Shah’s policies did little to advance the Iranian people as the Iranian military was not ready to use these advanced US built navy warships without outside technical help. The situation was not helped by the woeful state of Iranian society which in the 1970s it was still 40%+ illiterate and it had an acute shortage of engineers and electronics technicians, let alone ones who wanted to join the navy. I had seen this first hand in teaching Iranians about radar systems.

Most people who remember 1979 saw what those in power wanted us to see. Few people at that time understood the path the Iranian people had up to that point. As David Swanson points out in this Lew Rockwell article back in 2013 about what the US public was fed:

[Myth follows]

U.S.-Iranian relations began around November 1979 when a crowd of irrational religious nutcases violently seized the U.S. embassy in Iran, took the employees hostage, tortured them, and held them until scared into freeing them by the arrival of a new sheriff in Washington, a man named Ronald Reagan.

From that day to this, according to this popular theory, Iran has been run by a bunch of subhuman lunatics with whom rational people couldn’t really talk if they wanted to. These monsters only understand force. And they have been moments away from developing and using nuclear weapons against us for decades now.

However, if the truth be told (just know that it was in 2013 when the CIA finally admitted to this):

[Truth follows]

… the CIA, operating out of that U.S. embassy in Tehran in 1953, maliciously and illegally overthrew a relatively democratic and liberal parliamentary government, and with it the 1951 Time magazine man of the year Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh, because Mossadegh insisted that Iran’s oil wealth enrich Iranians rather than foreign corporations.

The CIA installed a dictatorship run by the Shah of Iran who quickly became a major source of profits for U.S. weapons makers, and his nation a testing ground for surveillance techniques and human rights abuses. The U.S. government encouraged the Shah’s development of a nuclear energy program. But the Shah impoverished and alienated the people of Iran, including hundreds of thousands educated abroad.

We are talking about a beta test of the NSA called SAVAK, the Shah’s secret police, back in the 1970s. So embedded was this surveillance network, that the CIA was able to transition Iran from the Shah’s regime to an equally abusive on based on a theocracy without hardly anyone in media seeing anything strange at all.

A secular pro-democracy revolution nonviolently overthrew the Shah in January 1979, but it was a revolution without a leader or a plan for governing. It was co-opted by rightwing religious forces led by a man who pretended briefly to favor democratic reform. The U.S. government, operating out of the same embassy despised by many in Iran since 1953, explored possible means of keeping the Shah in power, but some in the CIA worked to facilitate what they saw as the second best option: a theocracy that would substitute religious fanaticism and oppression for populist and nationalist demands.

When the U.S. embassy was taken over by an unarmed crowd the next November, immediately following the public announcement of the Shah’s arrival in the United States, and with fears of another U.S.-led coup widespread in Tehran, a sit-in planned for two or three days was co-opted, as the whole revolution had been, by mullahs with connections to the CIA and an extremely anti-democratic agenda.

They later made a deal with U.S. Republicans, as Robert Parry and others have well documented, to keep the hostage crisis going until Carter lost the 1980 presidential election to Ronald Reagan. Reagan’s government secretly renewed weapons sales to the new Iranian dictatorship despite its public anti-American stance and with no more concern for its religious fervor than for that of future al Qaeda leaders who would spend the 1980s fighting the Soviets with U.S. weapons in Afghanistan. At the same time, the Reagan administration made similarly profitable deals with Saddam Hussein’s government in Iraq, which had launched a war on Iran and continued it with U.S. support through the length of the Reagan presidency…

So you see, Iran was once again used and abused by a super power like it had been before by the British and BP which profited from the immense oil discoveries from 1908 through 1953 when it enlisted the CIA to get the Shah of Iran back in power. Back in the 1800s it was Iran’s weak and greedy monarchs who where all too ready to hand over their country’s riches to the country, usually Britain or Russia, that had the deepest pockets with little regard for the well being of their subjects. These corrupt rulers, more than any other internal factor, set the stage for the violent struggle the Iranians waged for freedom, democracy, and national sovereignty throughout the first half of the 20th century.

You see, there are bits of truth out there but you will not see it in the best sellers sections of bookstores or in your history books. One recommended read is the yet to be published “Waking Up in Tehran: Love and Intrigue in Revolutionary Iran“, which is the memoir of Margot White, an American human rights activist who became an ally of pro-democracy Iranian student groups in 1977, traveled to Iran, supported the revolution, met with the hostage-takers in the embassy .. which in fact was an early version of WikiLeaks. They “continued to publish reconstructed US Embassy documents, eventually producing 54 volumes of evidence of CIA operatives … manipulating, threatening and bribing world leaders, rigging foreign elections, hijacking local political systems, shuffling foreign governments like decks of cards, sabotaging economic competitors, assassinating regional, national and tribal leaders at will, choreographing state-to-state diplomacy like cheap theater.” [ Facebook page link to this book here ]

This book, promised for the past five years, could unlock even more information about the Deep State. Maybe this is why this book has yet to be published?

In the meantime I encourage you to check out The Corbett Report article back in June 2016 which states:

It’s been an open secret that the US organized and enabled two of the three major events in modern Iranian history: the overthrow of the democratically elected Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh in 1953 and the Shah’s subsequent reign of terror (and eventual exile)…. newly-released documents confirm that the US had a larger role than previously admitted in the third: the Islamic Revolution of 1979

-SF1

 

Where Does the Fox Go When there is Pressure from Predators?

Having lived at the edge of a swamp for twenty years, it is a well known act of nature that has fox, deer and other animals seek the refuge of a swamp for protection. Now, while this sounds like a lot of standing in water, it is not, for even these animals will seek out dry ground in the middle of swamps, creeks or rivers to offer them not just protection, but the ability to hear when predators approach.

So when Francis Marion (later to be known as the Swamp Fox) had stung the larger British forces with a prisoner release expedition, that caught Cornwallis’ attention, as well as a skirmish that resulted in 15-30 British regulars taken near Kingstree, he sensed that he needed to regroup with his men back towards where they first rendezvoused earlier in the month at Witherspoon’s Ferry and then on to land in between the Great and Little Pee Dee rivers at a place called Britton’s Neck. This became home for his forces from about 27AUG until 03SEP1780.

When in camp, Marion used letters to communicate with his forces as well as attempts at communicating with the Continental Army. The first day in camp he wrote Lt. Col. Peter Horry who was still burning boats on the Santee River to disrupt the supply lines from Charles Town to Camden to frustrate the British forces there. Marion commanded Horry to come to Britton’s Neck with as many men as possible. Being late August, there were many volunteers who had to opt to harvest crops at their farms and so by the time early September came, Marion commanded only 50 men.

Also during this time, Marion penned General Gates who had fled to North Carolina, asking “Where is the army?” Marion had no logistical support from any government or military authority and was feeling quite isolated.  Having gotten the attention of the British high command, two months AFTER Cornwallis assured Gen Clinton in New York City that South Carolina was secured and that North Carolina was next on his list.

This delay of Cornwallis due to the actions of Marion’s militia was key towards keeping the British from joining with the British forces in New York to crush Gen. George Washington’s Continentals and end the quest for all of the American colonies that were seeking independence from the British Empire.

-SF1

NOTE:

  • The book “The Swamp Fox: How Francis Marion Saved the American Revolution“
  • Free resources placed online by J.D. Lewis at http://www.carolana.com

Both of these resources have been invaluable in this series of posts reflecting back 238 years ago this month. Please consider these resources for your own research of these events.

 

Lookin’ for War in All the Wrong Places ..

OK, I guess that was off by one word .. right? I would much rather have love and peace, however, this is a very broken world where Jesus promised (Matthew 24 in The Message – a paraphrase):

When reports come in of wars and rumored wars, keep your head and don’t panic. This is routine history; this is no sign of the end. Nation will fight nation and ruler fight ruler, over and over. Famines and earthquakes will occur in various places. This is nothing compared to what is coming.

“They are going to throw you to the wolves and kill you, everyone hating you because you carry my name. And then, going from bad to worse, it will be dog-eat-dog, everyone at each other’s throat, everyone hating each other.

“In the confusion, lying preachers will come forward and deceive a lot of people. For many others, the overwhelming spread of evil will do them in—nothing left of their love but a mound of ashes.

“Staying with it—that’s what God requires. Stay with it to the end. You won’t be sorry, and you’ll be saved. All during this time, the good news—the Message of the kingdom—will be preached all over the world, a witness staked out in every country. And then the end will come.

So while my mission is to let you in on what might really be happening in this world using the ability to enter “a place to entertain a thought without accepting it”. There is no need to panic, but instead consider these events in context and in your own time consider what type of planning is appropriate for yourself, your family and your friends.

Today, I am looking at a very macro picture of where the United States is at this point of an “empire’s life”. With recent ramp-up in the accusations against Iran and North Korea initially as early as Bush II declaring them part of the “Axis of Evil” it is Trump now that is expanding this to include Russia and China.

So what happened? Why is having enemies (totally fabricated, as neither Iran nor North Korea EVER attacked the United States) like tier 2 like Iran and NK not enough? Maybe because they have the military strength below that of Iraq, Libya and Syria and Trump wants to take it up a notch. Actually, maybe yet again (just like FDR in the late 1930s), frustration with domestic programs leads to a desire for war which causes everyone to think like Bush II “you are either for us or against us”. Then we can wave the flag and be happy when we entice either China or Russia to “surprise” attack the US. This is as old as Fort Sumter and Abe Lincoln, ala, let THEM fire the first shot!

So the nitty-gritty comes this time from Moon of Alabama in this article where Trump has now linked a Chinese trade agreement with some treaty with North Korea.  I call b*lls**t on this, since when does a leader have to re-define some potential treaty, except from a point of weakness. I believe that the Chinese were willing to trade more with BRICS:

… than with the US/NATO nations. We have effectively gone back to the 1960s in world affairs probably because the MIC wants a guarantee of much more military spending globally to solidify their stocks in the impending economic storm.

Here is some of what Moon of Alabama is seeing:

Pompeo was in Trump’s office when Trump tweeted the above. Staff in the State Department was briefing foreign ambassadors on Pompeo’s upcoming talks, planned for next week, when Trump stepped in. The decision was clearly a surprise.

Trump is suddenly binding the continuation of Korea talks to a trade deal with China. Such a deal is unlikely to happen anytime soon as China is convinced that it can win a tariff war, while the Trump administration overestimates the economic pressure it can create. That Trump now connects these two issues might mean that he has given up the “denuclearization” game.

In this global chess match, the people “on the ground” suffer. Peace in the Korean Peninsula might cause unification which does not play into the American Empire’s narrative. Washington DC thrives on wars and rumors of wars and has its CIA embedded around the world just to make sure the pot continues to be stirred.

Peter Lee, aka Chinahand, sees a larger plan behind the latest Trumping: to demonstrate to Kim Jong-un that China is hindering Kim’s plans for a peace agreement and for economic development; then, when China will finally be pushed into open adversary status to the U.S., Kim Jong-un will have to chose and will end up in the U.S. camp. If that is really Trump’s plan, which I doubt, then it is clearly bound to fail. North Korea would never end the relations with its long-term strategic partner for the dangerous vagueness of a nuclear treaty relations with the U.S. (see Iran, Libya).

It is true that the US character is known around the world as BOT, the Breaker of Treaties .. something the Native Americans know all too well.

Despite the evident agreement in the Statement to follow a sequence of several steps, the Trump administration has been deceptive about it. After the Singapore Statement it again demanded from North Korea to take step 3 before the U.S. takes step 1 and 2. The administration also continues to falsely claim that North Korea agreed to “denuclearization”. On August 28, when Secretary of State introduced a new special representative for North Korea, he said:

“Steve [Biegun] will direct U.S. policy towards North Korea and lead our efforts to achieve President Trump’s goal of the final, fully verified denuclearization of North Korea, as agreed to by Chairman Kim Jong-un.”

Chairman Kim Jong-un never agreed to such a thing.

The U.S. media, even those outlets which oppose the Trump regime, support the falsehoods the administration is spreading. They fail to point out the obvious sequencing agreed to in the Singapore Statement and they fail to point out the aspirational character of the disarmament point. Instead of holding Trump’s feet to the fire for breaking an agreement he himself signed just a few month ago, the New York Times, Washington Post and others seem to support his stand.

The Trump negotiations with North Korea were in the end probably just an attempt to get some fast success before the big clash with China over global supremacy finally enters a more serious stage.

Moon of Alabama hits the nail on the head with this. In fact, in spite of sanctions and tariffs, both China and Russia are stronger every day economically, and both governments spend MUCH less in military spending and yet have a lot more to show for it. The American Empire is hoping that either China or Russia will react to this bully-prodding for a fight but I do believe they have learned from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya and Syria what Washington DC is up to as it is mired in epic debt up to its eyeballs.

In summary, MoA writes:

Who in the White House is making these policies? Trump’s tweets yesterday seem spontaneous, but are carefully formulated and obviously part of some larger plans. Are these Trump’s plans? Or have the hawks -Bolton, Mattis, Pompeo- written these up to push Trump along their lines?

We may never know, but now YOU know, probably more than you wanted to know.

Research it yourself, or as Royal Caribbean might say, “get out there!”

SF1

27AUG1780: Surprise Night Attack by Marion’s Militia Captures British Regulars

Irregular warfare will always surprise traditional military thought. Cornwallis’ response to the militia victory in releasing 150 prisoners was designed to chase the patriots into the swamp or back to their homes. Instead, Marion directs Maj. James to take 150 men and move TOWARDS the British force advancing on Kingstree.

In a night move, the patriot force is able to engage part of the 300 man (some sources claim 500 man) British force under Wemyss. While both sides lose about 15 men, it is estimated that between 15-30 British regulars are captured. This skirmish, won again by the militia, will infuriate Cornwallis who expected a quick suppression of “farmers with pitchforks”.

Rather quickly, Francis Marion has adapted from a Continental officer to a freedom fighter, complete with the honorable characteristics of never engaging the enemy in a way that would cause considerable hardship on the fighting men, in this case, volunteers whose hearts are about defending their families, homes, and communities. The fact that the 150 man force was content with a small win allowed the psychological edge to follow as the local communities would see this as a cause that had yet to expire. Hope in a future without the British Empire was not desired by the majority, however, actions taken by the British military when on South Carolina soil would be remembered for generations.

SF1