At Trump’s command, the US military is adding forces and use of force everywhere: Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Afghanistan and Korea. Victory is ill-defined in all these places, but the question remains. Will Trump win? read on...
The Syrian military strategy of President Assad is well-known. It is explained here, and here. This strategy has succeeded. The Assad coalition of forces is defeating his opponents. They are continuing steadily to clear remaining opposition forces from Syria.
Raqqa has not been central to Assad. Neither has Manjib. They remain to be “cleaned up”, but they were not of strategic importance to Assad and still aren’t. read on...
Unlike the impetuous and immature US leaders with itchy trigger fingers and an agenda of expansion that I do not have, I’ve been waiting to find out whether or not Russia invaded Crimea. We cannot know this with more certainty without learning more about the deal between Crimea and Russia, the back and forth between their governments, the view that Russia holds regarding the Kiev interim government, and the identities of the armed forces now in Crimea and also their relationships (are they fighting? killing? wounding?). Russia has leased bases in Crimea and does already have a right to a substantial armed force there.
This CNN article is helpful, and we get two conflicting views between Ukraine and Russia.
As far as I can tell right now, the following are factual. read on...
The warmongers clearly have been seeding the press and politics in order to get their war against Syria. This began by planting a propaganda report that Syria was not complying with the timetable for removing chemical weapons. Then it went on to planting a report with renewed accusations of Syrian torture. read on...
Libya is a mess, we are told, worse than when Gaddafi was around. Who was instrumental in attacking Libya in an outright aggression? Hillary Clinton. One headline at the time read “Clinton credited with key role in success of NATO airstrikes, Libyan rebels”.
In that article, we learn that Hillary Clinton patched up a rift in NATO, got backing from Arab countries, and advised rebels.
She boasted “…we set into motion a policy that was on the right side of history, on the right side of our values, on the right side of our strategic interests in the region.” read on...
Wendy Sherman is Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs and the senior U.S. representative in the P5+1 nuclear talks with Iran.
She told the U.S. Senate about the Iranians: “We know that deception is part of the DNA.” For that alone, she should be fired. There is absolutely no place for a person who is leading negotiations with Iran to insult the Iranian side and Iran’s people with such a despicable slur, akin to what a Nazi might utter. read on...
The pro-Israel lobby is widely thought to be powerful on Capitol Hill, and it has been. But by Humphrey Neill’s art of contrary thinking, we would do well to ponder the opposite possibility: that its influence bubble will deflate.
If the negotiations with the Iranians work out toward detente, the pro-Israel lobby will have met with a defeat. If Israel were unilaterally to aggress against Iran, the pro-Israel lobby will also not look good. The more that Americans see their own security and interests being subordinated to those of Israel, the worse the pro-Israel lobby looks. The more that members of Congress are pressured by the pro-Israel lobby, the more obvious its tactics become and the more resistance and resentment the lobby triggers. The more that “wolf” is cried, while Iran acts with restraint and decorum while absorbing various acts of sabotage, the more that the pro-Israel lobby looks out of touch. read on...
