Yes, thanks to a “slight” miscalculation on the part of the US Empire, I think many people will wake up to the fact of what has been coming down for 40 years in the Middle East.
Before this era, there was little terrorism while there were a couple of world wars. Which do you prefer? Personally, I prefer none, not for me mind you, but for my kids and my grand-kids I prefer peace.
The “slight” miscalculation is highlighted in this article that rightly makes prominent what most of MSM (no surprise there) and most people are missing:
The US did not plan to kill the vice commander of the Iraqi Hashd al-Shaabi brigade Abu Mahdi al-Muhandes when it assassinated Iranian Brigadier General Qassem Soleimani on Thursday at 11:00 PM local time at Baghdad airport. Usually, when Soleimani was arriving in Baghdad, security commander Abu Zeinab al-Lami, a deputy officer to al Muhandes, would have welcomed him. This time, al-Lami was outside Iraq and al-Muhandes replaced him. The US plan was to assassinate an Iranian General on Iraqi soil, not to kill a high-ranking Iraqi officer. By killing al-Muhandes, the US violated its treaty obligation to respect the sovereignty of Iraq and to limit its activity to training and offering intelligence to fight the “Islamic State”, ISIS. It has also violated its commitment to refrain from overflying Iraq without permission of the Iraqi authorities.
As the article states, the US and Iraq are both embarrassed by this turn of events that unmasks the US Empire’s true intentions, on behalf of Israel. This has coalesced most of the various militias in the region (except ISIS of course, sponsored by US, Israel and Saudi Arabia) and has now linked former enemies Iraq and Iran to have common ground. It will be interesting the uptake of this outside the region as Russia and China, along with Syria find each others as friends with a common enemy, especially with all the trade sanctions and tariffs that the US has instigated. I am thinking too that the European “coalition” days are numbered as what nation in Europe will side with the US Empire at this point?
So is the US Empire at the 1775 point of the British Empire? An unmasked and revealed belligerent imperialist force for bad verses American Exceptionalism, a Global Force for Good. Time will tell.
I am pretty sure that with Brexit, and with Trump’s blunder on Iraqi soil, we will all see much clearer in 2020. As more and more people distrust huge government, distrust its partner in crime, the media, there will be all sorts of things that can be revealed in this new year.
One thing I do want to draw attention to is the difference in character between the typical US politician and the man (i.e. labeled a bad guy by Trump) that was murdered after a non-private commercial flight from Damascus, Syria to Baghdad, Iraq:
Soleimani’s handwritten will: “My wife, I have chosen my burial place in the cemetery of the Martyrs of Kerman, Mahmoud knows it. I want my gravestone to be simple. Just write ‘Soldier Qassem Soleimani’ no more titles and phrases.”
Quite the difference, no?
Interesting days to come .. enjoy each day and the blessings that God the Creator has blessed us with in the midst of “wars and rumors of wars” – Jesus in Matthew 24:6.
Hug your kids, your grand-kids and good friends!
I can see clearly now the rain is gone
I can see all obstacles in my way
Gone are the dark clouds that had me blind
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
Oh, yes I can make it now the pain is gone
All of the bad feelings have disappeared
Here is that rainbow I’ve been praying for
It’s gonna be a bright (bright)
Bright (bright) sunshiny day
(Ooh…) Look all around, there’s nothing but blue skies
Look straight ahead, there’s nothing but blue skies
I do hope that the readers of this blog are well versed in what can happen after empires oppress people toward a degree of rebellion. The thirteen American colonies stood up to the powerful British army and navy and then formed their own federated republic in its aftermath.
In 2019, on the world stage, we have seen a 4 year war by Saudi Arabia (aided by US arms and the US military) on its neighbor Yemen. The blogger “Moon of Alabama” does a great job of not only covering the events of the evening of 13SEP2019 but also the context for this ongoing war that has led to a humanitarian disaster inside of Yemen:
The war on Yemen, launched by the Saudi clown prince Mohammad bin Salman in 2015, cost Saudi Arabia several billion dollar per month. The Saudi budget deficit again increased this year and is expected to reach 7% of its GDP. The country needs fresh money or much higher oil prices.
How does one country get away with attacking another country without consequences in 2019. Enter the United States of America, the American Empire. The Saudis actually launched the war in late MAR2015 with the full support of the Obama administration. They had that agreement ahead of time that the United States would provide the logistical support, the bombs themselves as well as assistance in targeting. Not necessarily explicitly targeting of each bomb, but sort of the strategic technical assistance in making decisions about how to approach the war. In addition to this, was the assurance the United States government would provide the political and even diplomatic cover for the war.
Is this sick or what? Actually, this is the same guarentee the American Empire has given to Saudi Arabia’s middle east partner (in crime) Israel, but I digress. (I sense another blog post is needed for that one right there)
The Saudis have actually felt that they could get away with not just continuing to bomb civilian targets, infrastructure targets and establishing a thorough blockade, but this economic blockade of Yemen preventing the fuel, food and medicine from coming into the country that this poorest nation in the Middle East needs to have in order to survive is lunacy. Only the US could enable a nation to operate above international laws in this world.
So the continuity from the Obama administration through the Trump Administration is that all they care about is to support the Saudis because the Saudis are anti-Iranian. Human life is second to keeping the US citizens in fear about what the Iranians might do. Millions starve because the American Empire is acting as the world’s bully. This ain’t no shining city on a hill. This ain’t no land of the free, it is a land of sheep who care less about what its masters do across the globe.
Again, I digress.
Back to the events of a few nights ago when 10 drones controlled by Yemeni Houthi forces targeted two major Saudi oil installations, Abqaiq and Babqaiq only 60 km (37 miles) southwest of Aramco’s Dhahran headquarters, and caused several large fires.
The oil and gas conditioning plant in Abqaiq is the largest of the world. It sits at the center of Saudi Arabia’s oil and gas infrastructure. Abqaiq processes 6.8 million barrels of crude oil each day. More than two thirds of all Saudi oil and gas production runs through it. It is not clear yet how much of the widespread facility was destroyed.
Looking at this map and the sheer distance from Yemen, one does have to wonder about these ten drones being this accurate. My own questions include, is this a false flag? Could these have been launched from within the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia or from Iraq or Iran even?
‘Moon of Alabama’ is on it:
But drones may not have been the sole cause of the incident. Last night a Kuwaiti fishermen recorded the noise of a cruise missile or some jet driven manned or unmanned aircraft coming from Iraq. Debris found on the ground in Saudi Arabia seems to be from an Soviet era KH-55 cruise missile or from a Soumar, an Iranian copy of that design. The Houthi have shown cruise missiles, likely from Iran, with a similar design (see below). After an attack on Saudi oil installations in August there were accusations that at least some of the attacks came from Iraq. Iran was accused of having been involved in that attack. While this sounds unlikely it is not inconceivable.
The August 2019 turning point of this war with Yemen has the Saudi’s on their heels. The Saudi’s have no protection setup to the south of their oil production facilities. ‘Moon of Alabama’ said last month:
Saudi Arabia finally lost the war on Yemen. It has no defenses against the new weapons the Houthis in Yemen acquired. These weapons threaten the Saudis’ economic lifelines.
Houthi drones on display
Blowback is like Karma .. sometimes it is a b****. In my mind, this is partial justice for the Saudi’s decision (along with Israel, UK and US) to create ISIS and all the havoc it did in Iraq and Syria.
The projected Saudi expenses to get protection is expense and takes time and will not necessarily work.
… would require hundreds of Russian made Pantsyr-S1 and BUK air defense systems to protect Saudi oil installations.
In the mean time to shore up their financial state the Saudis recently renewed plans to sell a share of its state owned oil conglomerate Aramco.
What goes around, comes around. For whatever reason Saudi Arabia had for starting a war with the poorest country in the Middle East has coincided with low oil prices which is driving the Saudis to new levels of desperation in order to maintain control of the citizens of their country.
Syrian/Russian controlled territory in Syria (pink) ISIS/Extremists/Turkish territory in Syria (green) Kurdish territory in Syria (yellow)
This is not a Russian spin zone, this is just the truth. There is calm and peace holding its own around Idlib where ISIS and other radical elements remain but are in the processes of moving out with the protection of the Turkey military presence. This arrangement was accomplished with Russian and Syrian efforts in building a buffer zone to diffuse conflicts between forces that have been at war with each other for over 7 years.
The Moon of Alabama article makes it clear that finally the Arab nations in the region that had supported these extremists have now given up on their plan to overthrow Assad.
The Gulf Arabs, except Qatar which is allied with Turkey, have given up on removing President Assad and are making nice:
“In one of the more surprising developments amid a flurry of diplomatic meetings surrounding the U.N. General Assembly, Bahraini Foreign Minister Khalid bin Ahmad al-Khalifa was seen greeting Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem with hugs and kisses at a pan-Arab meeting last week. Bahrain, a close ally of Saudi Arabia, has been a vocal critic of Assad and other regional allies of Iran, but the top diplomat said: “the Syrian government is the ruler in Syria and we work with countries even if we disagree with them.” Days later, Assad conducted his first interview with an Arabian Peninsula newspaper since 2011, telling Kuwait’s Al-Shahed that he had reached a “major understanding” with a number of Arab states and that “Western and Arab delegations have already begun to come to Syria to arrange their return, whether diplomatic, economic or industrial.”..”
Assad in Syria has been patient with the process and personally I think that the resignation of the US Empire’s UN Representative Haley is linked to to the closing of this front in the empire’s war on sovereign countries that desire to remain independent from the US. Eyes are now turning toward the Ukraine (which has been the plan B to bug the Russians) and the South China Sea.
Assad has certainly done his part to start the healing process in Syria:
The Syrian president Bashar al Assad just issued a decree that grants amnesty to those who deserted the army or ran away from serving their conscription time. If the deserters and draft dodgers turn themselves in within the next six month to fulfill their service they will escape all punishment.
I do hope that US/Israel/SaudiArabia/UK take the hint and know that they need to take their war making plans elsewhere. This region of the world has born the brunt of this criminal activity and need decades to recover.
The blowback to the US foreign policy I see is that now Russia has a trusted ally in the region and now has a Mediterranean Naval port to boot. The US can no longer do what it wants in Syria and get away with it.
It looks like Africa is now seeing an uptick in US armed forces and CIA/FBI activity as another place to “play” with people’s lives. It is sad that a majority of Americans who pay for all this global gallivanting are clueless to what its government is all about.
Dysfunctional empires will have sick agendas, this ain’t no exceptional nation no sir, no ma’am ..
Things just don’t add up. I do believe that this is a pivot point for the narrative of the American Empire .. and as Ian56 @Ian56789 at Twitter says:
So you think PTSD levels among combat Vets & the drug sales as a result of these PTSD levels are off the scale?
Just imagine what will happen when these latest War Crimes & Treason sink in
Prozac, Oxycontin & Heroin dealers licking their lips at extra profit
We have been told many lies since 9/11, and IF you apply simple logic, you can see where this may lead. Maybe the US is protecting the civilians, but why didn’t they in Aleppo last year? Maybe the US is protecting al Qaeda. If so, what does that say about saving the very clan that according to the US government DID 9/11?
However, this would make MANY (a vast majority) people uncomfortable, because it upsets the worldview they have come to accept from one god ( the state) or the other god (their religion).
In my last post about Pearl Harbor, and the lies told in the run up to that “Day that will live in infamy” December 7th, 1941, it took several generations to really unpack and research documents that have shown us the truth of that day, two generations later? What will our kids and grand-kids find in declassified documents in 2070 in regards to 9/11? On the other hand, will we have to wait that long for truth to be unveiled?
So here we are in 2018 seeing the final push by Syria/Russia/Iran and the Hezbollah troops on the ISIS/alQaeda forces, an effort that tests the US foreign policy in the extreme:
.. and the United States (and possibly France, UK and even Germany) are coming on on the side of … al Qaeda!!!
So you might be thinking that al Qaeda is the United States’ main asset to protect in the Middle East.
Not so fast.
Today in 2018 we have seen the Taliban make some impressive gains in Afghanistan .. and the US seems fine with the stalemate, a weak Afghanistan is a well behaved Afghanistan:
So the 17 year war in Afghanistan AGAINST the Taliban is NOT BEING WON!
What about the 14 year war in Iraq (2004 invasion / Gulf War II)? Iraq as a nation is very week and basically divided and impotent in this region and is not a threat to anyone.
[Originally the rationale for was was for Saddam’s WMDs (Weapons of Mass Desctruction), something the US knew something about since the US gave Saddam Hussein them in 1988 during the Iraq-Iran War]
ISIS (these are NOT religious zealots, they generally don’t read the Koran, they are 90% PLUS mercenaries only 5% are hard core fundamentalists) is seen below expanding to cover much of Iraq and eventually spilling over into Syria:
… were given safe passage of over 500 miles across open desert to Syria:
From 2011-2015 the US was “fighting” ISIS in Syria, they claimed, but it was also noted that the US assisted in training ISIS and other moderate rebels in Jordan to get ready for phase 2 of the ISIS tour in the Middle East. All told, more than 250,000 combatants arrived from overseas to fight against the Syrian Arab Republic:
Not until 2015, when the Russians were invited by Syria’s President Assad to assist in battling ISIS/al Qaeda and other “moderate” rebel groups, did the US hand start to be seen clearly. The US (along with UK/Qatar/SaudiArabia and even Israel) were secret supporters of ISIS/al Qaeda.
Since 2015 is is interesting as much as ISIS/al Qaeda has been pressed, they do not enter Israel (although Israel has been observed aiding ISIS units across the borders in the Middle East).
The US apparently has not been in the Middle East since 1990 and then in Afghanistan (2001), Iraq (2004), and Syria (2011) with a mission to “fight” al Qaeda (50 – 100 members at the time in 2001 when accused of 9/11) , or the Taliban, or ISIS.
Who is there left to PROTECT in the Middle East?
To see who you are protecting, look at the checkbook!
Who else can it be?
Why else would the US even get involved in 1990 with Gulf War I but to keep Iraq from encroaching on Israel (with US military hardware)?
Why else would the US in 2006 birth ISIS in Iraq but to keep Iran from encroaching on Israel?
Why else would the US in 2011 allow safe passage of ISIS into Syria but to keep Iran from encroaching on Israel?
Remember the conditions Trump’s administration was stating not more than a week ago about WHO has to leave Syria first?
The Trump administration won’t consider withdrawing US forces until Iran leaves the country.
Come on now! Russia was invited. Iran was invited. Hezbollah was invited.
The United States was NOT invited. ISIS/alQaeda was NOT invited.
WHO is complaining in the neighborhood?
There is no other way to look at this except that the Zionist nation of Israel needs the US Empire to accomplish the long-distance “defense” of their “homeland”.
The US seems to be uneasy about the loss of human life in the Idlib region of Syrian that is under mainly al-Queda control along with elements of the Free Syrian Army. It is not enough that elements of the US’s deep state lit the fuse on this conflict back in 2011 that has to date claimed the lives of over 500,000 civilians and caused millions of people to become refugees by destroying their means to live peacefully in their communities.
Moon of Alabama (MOA) has noted in this article that the US is determined to create a quagmire that Syria/Russia/Iran will have trouble with, while today’s article from MOA gets real specific as to the agenda the US wants here:
U.S. President Trump added another warning against the Idelb operation:
Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump – 22:20 utc – 3 Sep 2018
“President Bashar al-Assad of Syria must not recklessly attack Idlib Province. The Russians and Iranians would be making a grave humanitarian mistake to take part in this potential human tragedy. Hundreds of thousands of people could be killed. Don’t let that happen!”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Dunford, also chipped in:
“We don’t see any way that significant military operations are going to be beneficial to the people of Syria,” Dunford told reporters during a trip to Athens. “If major military operations take place we can expect humanitarian catastrophe and I think we would all want to see that be avoided,” …
…
Pressed about the best course, Dunford said: “More of a discussion between the Turks, the Syrians and the Russians at more precise counterterrorism operations — as opposed to large scale conventional operations — would be the right approach.”
The U.S. is not a friend of the people of Syria…
So the last line is the key line of logic that MOA offers and rightly so. Why would anyone listen to an entity that has spent seven years trespassing on Syrian soil, supplying any rebel group hostile to the legitimate Assad government with support both direct and indirect (thanks McCain, Clinton, Obama and Trump) is THE question one must ask!
The “advice” offered by the US administration is NOT helpful to the Syrian people, BUT to the US’s agenda as stated by MOA just a few days ago:
The U.S. is not only spoiling the military operations against the terrorists in Syria. It is trying to hamper any reconstruction and the return of refugees. Reconstruction is made more difficult by the devious sanction regime of the U.S. and EU.
So let us talk about all the lies being thrown at this. OK, we don’t have time for ALL the lies, so let’s just nail down a few:
First, the US asking what the heck is Iran doing in Syria?
The semi-permanent U.S. occupation of north-east Syria will be used in a new (and futile) attempt to achieve the long held U.S. aim of regime change. Secretary of Defense Mattis declared as much in a recent press conference. Asked about Iran in Syria he said:
“What are they doing in Syria in the first place, other than propping up someone who has committed mayhem and murder on his own people?
They have no business there. And our goal is to move the Syria civil war into the Geneva process so the Syrian people can establish a new government that is not led by Assad and give them a chance for a future that Assad has denied them, with — with overt Russian and Iranian support.”
If Iran, a treaty ally invited by the legitimate Syrian government, has ‘no business’ in Syria what business does the uninvited U.S. invasion force have?
Exactly, typical of a people group that believe American Exceptionalism allows them multiple levels of hypocrisy, it is laughable that US leaders could even think like this. The US has been the uninvited “guest” for seven years in another country .. what the HELL is the US there for?
Second, when US military leadership starts talking about ISIS again:
Asked about the prospect of U.S. troops in Syria Mattis said:
“[L]et me give three points here. One, we have to destroy ISIS. The president’s been very clear that — that ISIS is to be taken out, so that’s got to happen. We also have to have trained local troops who can take over. We’re doing that training as we speak. As we uncover ground, the chairman’s got people assigned there specifically to train the locals. And third, we need the Geneva process, the U.N.-recognized process to start making traction towards solving this war.
Now, if the locals are able to keep the security, obviously during this time we might be reducing our troops commensurate with their ability to meet — deny ISIS a return, but it really comes down to finding a way to solve this problem of Assad’s making.”
The claim that the U.S. is there to fight ISIS is a lie. ISIS is still active in two places in Syria. Both are under U.S. control.
On the east side of the Euphrates, near Al-Bukamal, ISIS holds several villages and the city of Hajin with originally some 40,000 inhabitants. The U.S. and its Kurdish controlled proxy force SDF stopped attacking those ISIS position in November 2017.
How is it that the US military and political leadership just make statements about stuff and they BECOME truth? That is truly exceptional! Epic BS.
On June 6 Mattis announced that the attack on ISIS in Hajin had re-commenced but there was zero news of any fighting. Instead ISIS forces from Hajin crossed the Euphrates and attacked Syrian government positions. Further imminent attacks on ISIS in Hajin were announced by the U.S. proxy forces on July 13 and on August 14. None happened.
Again, the US announces something they want the world to believe, 90% of the American people believe it .. but nothing happens. The people on the ground know the reality, but this is fake news all over again.
For ten month now ISIS sits unmolested in Hajin and the nearby areas. According to (pdf) the UN Sanctions Monitoring Team it is again extracting and selling oil and “earning millions of dollars per month”. ISIS attacks from Hajin on Syrian government forces west of the Euphrates continue.
The other ISIS concentration in Syria is around the al-Tanf border crossing between Syria and Iraq which is also under illegal U.S. control. The nearby Rukban refugee camp, with allegedly 50,000 inhabitants, is housing many ISIS families. Last week the Syrian army prevented an attack from the U.S. controlled area towards Palmyra ..
.. The U.S. is not fighting ISIS in Syria. It is building semi-permanent bases, trains a large proxy force, and controls Syria’s oilfields. Its aim is still regime change, the same aim it had when it launched the war on Syria seven and a half years ago.
Do you doubt that? Try on this quote:
As CIA and Pentagon mouthpiece David Ignatius wrote this week:
“[T]he administration has stopped the dithering and indecision of the past 18 months and signaled that the United States has enduring interests in Syria, beyond killing Islamic State terrorists — and that it isn’t planning to withdraw its Special Operations forces from northeastern Syria anytime soon.
“Right now, our job is to help create quagmires [for Russia and the Syrian regime] until we get what we want,” says one administration official, explaining the effort to resist an Idlib onslaught. This approach involves reassuring the three key U.S. allies on Syria’s border — Israel, Turkey and Jordan — of continued American involvement. …”
It is not nor has it ever been about the Syrian people, “democracy” or about innocent civilians being killed. It is ONLY about the US’s agenda of regime change to continue to destabilize the Middle East until it “gets what it wants” = ROI (a return on the US investment into all the rebel groups in Syria!)
Delaying the Syrian/Russian/Iranian operation in Idlib only continues to expose the civilian population trapped there to this:
[The Idlib] province is ruled by al-Qaeda:
“H.T.S. has controlled much of Idlib since 2015, acting as de facto governmental authority, facilitating trade across the long border with Turkey and organizing aid deliveries.”
The “de-facto governmental authority” HTS is known to publicly execute women accused of adultery. It “facilitates trade” by taxing it to finance its terrorist activities. It “organizing aid deliveries” by talking half of any aid that is brought in. That is the reason why the Inspector General of USAID recently shut down its aid program in Idleb.
What a bully state to say that civilians must endure this MONTHS longer because the US wants something out of this. How can anyone salute that flag (US) or say the pledge after hearing this? The flag is indeed a symbol of the state, not the people. It has been made “holy” by decree of the state as has its military that gets paid to spread the PR before every major sporting event in this country JUST to remind you of its place in your life .. to be your god.
In the meantime:
The U.S. is massively expanding its positions in north-east Syria. More than 1,600 trucks with new equipment arrived over the last month. The U.S. now has 18 bases in north-east Syria, 6 of which have their own landing strips. The media continue to claim the the U.S. has 2,000 soldiers in the north-east. The real number is more than double or triple of that. It is quite obvious that the U.S. is settling in with the intent to split the north-east from the rest of Syria, similar to what it did with the creation of a Kurdish entity in northern Iraq.
Do you feel like you have to puke yet? I do, this is not honorable, none of this is honorable. What happened to “do unto others as you would have them do unto you”? (Golden Rule) Or how about this?:
