Tag: UK

A Non-Empire Approach to National Partnerships – Russia Does It Well

SouthFront's 07MAR2020 Syrian War Graphic
https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/7march_Syria_war_map.jpg

If anyone bothered to observe the news other than Covid-19 this week, there was a tense situation in and around the Idlib province of Syria that had the potential for bringing in NATO on the side of Turkey and Russian ships and troops on the side of Syria. The obvious question for me was, WHY would NATO consider joining Turkish forces IN Syria? But then I remembered, the US Empires troops are STILL on Syrian soil .. so the big empire models how to act ABOVE THE LAW to the little empire.

Scott Ritter’s article in Ron Paul’s Institute for Peace and Prosperity places what Russia accomplished this week in proper perspective:

This week’s meeting between Presidents Putin and Erdogan in Moscow was cast as preventing a war between Russia and Turkey in Syria. War, however, was never on the horizon. Putin called Erdogan’s bluff, and the Turk folded.

One has to admit that since Russia’s invite by Syria in 2015 to directly assist in repelling the ISIS and other radical militia incursion, financed and backed by US/UK/SaudiArabia/Israel coalition, Putin has played it all very cool and extremely patient. Many times there was open second guessing going on within Russia and Syria as to the strategic approach to this intervention that the US had openly hoped would result in “regime change” so that the US (actually Israel, the US Empire’s other little brother) could benefit with Assad out of the way.

Here we are five YEARS later as Russia negotiates a slow and methodical way to return Syria to Syrians while keeping the US Empire and NATO only marginally involved. One has to wonder how many weapons that the Syrian and Russian armies have found US serial numbers on. I am pretty sure there is a database somewhere with all that information for a special time in the future.

Scott Ritter goes on to explain:

Over the course of a week, from February 27 through March 5, Syria’s Idlib province transitioned from being ground zero for a war between the Syrian army and allied forces, and heavily armed groups opposed to the rule of Syrian President Bashar Assad, into a geopolitical powder keg that threatened to pull the Turkish and Russian militaries into direct conflict with one another. On March 1, Turkey, following up on threats previously made by President Erdogan to drive the Syrian Army and its allies back to the line of demarcation set forth in the original Sochi Agreement, unleashed a major offensive, dubbed “Operation Spring Shield” and involving thousands of Turkish troops fighting alongside anti-Assad formations.

Erdogan also inserted himself into the Syrian civil war (thanks Hillary, Obama and McCain for your “service”, I am sure the people of Libya love y’all and love ‘Merica as a result you dirt-bags) and has been attempting to play off the US Empire / NATO against Russia. Finally, Russia, as a “partner” enlightened Erdogen as to the errors of his ways in a way that allowed Turkey to save face as they retreated. (The US Empire has yet to understand their 2nd, let alone the 3rd and 4th effects of their approach to squashing a powder-keg, as brute force seems to be their motto.)

While the Putin orchestrated agreement is only a placeholder for lasting peace, it is a step in the right direction:

While couched as a ceasefire agreement, the additional protocol produced by the Moscow summit between Putin and Erdogan on Thursday is a thinly disguised instrument of surrender. The Syrian government got everything it was looking for by launching its offensive, and the Turks and their anti-Assad allies were left licking their wounds in a much-reduced Idlib pocket. Beyond preventing direct conflict between Turkey and Russia, the additional protocol achieves little that changes the situation on the ground. Turkey is still faced with the task of disarming the HTS fighters it currently embraces as allies, and the humanitarian crisis triggered by hundreds of thousands of refugees displaced by the earlier fighting remains. In many ways, the additional protocol, like its antecedent, the Sochi Agreement, is an arrangement designed to fail, because by succeeding it only perpetuates an unsustainable reality that will only be resolved when the totality of Syrian territory is restored to the control of the Syrian government.

So with the Russian “non-empire” strategy in mind, let’s take a look at how the US Empire’s fight (remember the “brute force” MO?) against militias that had nothing to do with 9/11 has panned out after 18.5 years, where instead of surgically targeting the 200 or so AlQ groups that “might” have been linked to 9/11, the US military decided to invade the whole country.(graphic below)

There is no end in sight for this in spite of the bogus Trump peace proposal that depends on the WORD of the US Empire to be believed. Sorry Trump .. from the American Indians to all the broken treaties the US government has bullied its way forward in time to 2020, there is no one on earth that ever believes what the US government says .. EXCEPT the domestic sheep that worship America as their lord and savior.

Peace out.

-SF1

SouthFront's 07MAR2020 Afghanistan War Graphic
https://southfront.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/7march_Afghanistan.jpg

Calm and Peace in Syria: No Thanks to the US Empire

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 ..

-SF1

How Geopolitics Spins the Facts: Always Has, Always Will

http://snafu-solomon.blogspot.fi/2013/09/med-fleet-deployment-graphic-via.html

From the American Revolution (and much before) through the War of 1812, the so-called “Civil War”, Spanish-American War, WWI, WWII all the way to the various wars the US Empire is supporting these days, what happens (fact) is usually spun by the world’s chess players for fiction, that helps the masses believe various narratives, so they keep their cool. As Bob Lee Swaggar was told in the movie “Shooter“:

In my previous post concerning the shooting of the Russian IL-20 with 15 Russian aviators lost, there is the story (as I told it) versus the story told by those who deep-dive into some real journalism / research.

From a Fort Russ article comes a play-by-play that deconstructs the events of 17SEP2018 (much like many researchers have done with 11SEP2001) and sorts out the facts to show what most likely happened and how the Russian leadership spun it towards their advantage, based on the following:

Using the same map I had posted the other day from the Russian MoD, guest author “FB” gets down into the rich details that standard media will never spend the time on, because there is less money in that:

It is IMPOSSIBLE for an S200 which flies at 2.5 kilometers per second and would cover 100 km in just 40 seconds… to have hit an airplane that continued flying for another ~5 minutes after that close call with the flight of Israeli F16s…

Math helps at this point, no Algebra or Calculus necessary. The sheer speed of a S200 missile does not allow for loitering around the skies like drones do. The missile is frickin’ fast compared to this turboprop recon aircraft:

As “FB” states:

The MoD map clearly shows that the Ilyushin flew north for 40 km after that ‘close encounter’ with the F16s, and then made another right 90 degree turn back toward the Syria coast on its final descent back into Hmeimim. Only after making that turn to final was the airplane hit.

You might think, so what? Well, the S200 operators would have to have launched the missile minutes AFTER the “radar” confusion directly targeting the Russian plane, and no Syrian unit under President Assad would do that, ever!

Much like the OFFICIAL story of 9/11 .. this one as well is IMPOSSIBLE. Basic physics does not discriminate.

So what IS in the realm of possibility?:

… The Russian MoD stated clearly two additional piece of information.

1…the French frigate Auvergne was nearby the Ilyushin flight, as depicted on the map, and was in fact recorded firing missiles…

2…British jets were also in the air, with their transponders turned on…making it possible to track them even with civilian ATC radar.

… At the same time, we also know that the US is flying the high altitude U2 spy plane out of Akrotiri.

French frigate Auvergne (D654)

The West has it resources in the area of the eastern Mediterranean and the Russians have their resources …:

.. we also know that a number of Russian ships were in that area at the time, and still are, and are in fact this entire week conducting live fire drills, more on that in a moment. Those ships also have sophisticated radar and also infrared sensors which picked up the missile firing from the French ship.

Besides that we have the Beriev A50U AWACS aircraft in Syria..and it is safe to assume that they would have been in the air at the time of the Ilyushin flight…

.. as well as the ill-fated IL-20, whose flight path flew a circuit over Idlib and then cruises for about 40 km off the coast of Syria, well outside the Syrian territorial airspace. With all the activity in the eastern Mediterranean it is expected that this plane would have been gathering Intel over Idlib as well as over the Med.

Back to the options at hand:

The French ship firing missiles [what kind of missiles surface to air…?…the frigate is equipped with very capable Aster SAMs.

And also the British aircraft in the air at the time and flying out of Akrotiri, there are 9 Eurofighter Typhoons there, equipped with long range air to air AIM120 radar guided missiles, and also 10 Tornados equipped with shorter range heat seeking AIM9x…

..[The Israeli jets could not have fired at the Ilyushin, since they were flying in the opposite direction at the time the airplane was hit…and it is impossible to aim a missile at a target behind your airplane.]

Physics point to the French or British, but with all the facts in hand (except for the black box from the IL-20) why would Putin suggest it was the Israeli military that is to blame for this incident? Well, “FB” lays out the obvious options that would be detrimental politically to Russia:

Now let us consider the question of why Putin is not saying anything about possible British or French involvement in the shooting down of the valuable Ilyushin electronic warfare aircraft.

First, what purpose would it serve to now come out and accuse two NATO countries of an act of war? Is not this kind of escalation exactly what NATO is looking to provoke in Syria? Is Putin supposed to now declare war on NATO?

The last thing Putin wants to do is fulfill the dreams of the Neo-Cons in Washington DC or in Tel Aviv .. or in Paris or London for that matter!

Or does it make more sense to blame Israel because Israel is the only party that can be proved to have been doing something illegal at the time, i.e bombing a sovereign country [an illegal act of aggression], and at the same time trampling all the protocol and agreements in place between Russia and Israel on the matter of Israeli operations against ‘Iranian’ forces in Syria?

I am not sure the West could have foreseen this play, OR it could be that the West “allowed” an out, as this is geo-politics on a global scale. “FB” goes on:

As things stand now, no one can defend Israel’s actions on that night. Israel realizes that Russia is very angry and Israel must now alter its behavior as to bombing Syria. Russia will also take steps to increase the security of all Russian assets in Syria. There will not be a repeat performance of this carefully planned ambush of the Ilyushin.

For Russia and Syria both, this is a win-win in the midst of a HUGE tragedy for the 15 man crew and their families. The Russian people are not happy as it seems that the West can launch missiles into Syria and render damage to Russian military as well as their resources WITHOUT retribution, but the wisdom of Sun Tze is worth repeating:

Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops unless there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical.

No ruler should put troops into the field merely to gratify his own spleen; no general should fight a battle simply out of pique.

If it is to your advantage, make a forward move; if not, stay where you are.

-SF1

What is Up With the UK and Brexit?

From Armstrong Economics, some truth!

I have to say that Boris Johnson’s comment that Britain is headed for the status of a “colony” is absolutely correct. There are “remainers” who have simply ignored ALL the economic data and will seriously end Britain as any sort of viable economy. Britain has ALWAYS been treated as a second-class European culture and it will end up subservient to that of the EU. It may simply be too much to expect rational political leadership any more from Britain.

Exactly, first there were people with vision and reality that continued allegiance to the EU was not a healthy thing for the UK in any way shape or form, but again, fear of the unknown terrifies people and politicians. Sheep and sociopaths love safety over freedom every time.

The forecast is that the pressure in the system reaches a state of change. The PM simply has been afraid to leave Europe listening to all the propaganda and the pleas from European politicians who will lose their jobs if the EU collapses.

There are people now calling for Nigel Farage to return. Quite frankly, Nigel is probably the ONLY hope for Britain. Unless they cut the umbilical cord to the EU, Britain cannot possibly survive. Its economy has been sucked dry. Much of continental Europe secretly resents the UK and the USA for having to save them in two wars.

Yes, UK moving to a colony status is commensurate to their level of leadership .. a path most empires take in their last days. The US is not far behind!

Martin then goes into depth on the history of the Tories and Labour parties in the UK and laments that London, a city he lived in for five years, is dying along with the country.