America enters the Syrian quagmire vis-a-vis Russia and Iran based on "gasing incident"
America's cruise missile attack targets Syrian airbase suspected of being the launch source of chemical weapon attack on anti-Assad rebels.
America's involvement complicates a messy situation in the region.
What was the real motive behind the turnaround in Trump's policy toward Syria?
Makes one wonder if it was just a very expensive publicity stunt! --nothing more than a symbolic flexing of American military muscle. Most likely motivated by self-interest-- intended more for his domestic audience as a distraction and to bolster his unfavorable popularity rating.
How is it that only 9 people were killed in such a massive attack...unless they had advance warning....or missed the target completely!
Targeted airfield is back in operation!
After being targeted by 59 cruise missiles, Syrian airbase is still up and running!
http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/video/images-damaged-syrian-air-base-strike-released-46672099?yptr=yahoo
How is it that the airbase runway is not cratered and rendered nonfunctional?
If the intent of the strike was to render the airfield nonfunctional, the costly effort was a clear failure!
How is it that Russian and Syrian reaction is no more than "obligatory outrage"?
There has been no retaliatory military response!
It will cost about $60 million to replace the cruise missiles that the U.S. military rained on Syrian targets Thursday night.
Each Tomahawk missile,( made by Raytheon Co.) costs $1 million, according to experts.
The better way to help Syrian people would have been to apply that 60 million to help the refugees. 60 million in humanitarian aid would have accomplished a great deal more. It certainly would have earned Trump a lot more good will!
******************
Let me explain it for you . . .
Muddle East – An American Perspective
We support the Iraqi government in the fight against the Islamic State.
We don't like IS but IS is supported by Saudi Arabia, whom we do like.
We don't like President Assad. We support the fight against him but not IS which is also fighting against him.
We don't like Iran but Iran supports the Iraqi government against IS.
So, some of our friends support our enemies and some of our enemies are our friends and some of our enemies are fighting against our other enemies whom we want to lose but we don't want our enemies who are fighting our enemies to win.
If the people we want to defeat are defeated, they might be replaced by people we like even less.
And all this was started by us invading a country to drive out terrorists who weren't actually there until we went in to drive them out.
Do you understand now?
American aircraft carrier group moving toward North Korea....positioning itself for a military strike.
ReplyDeletebrekout oc armed conflict on the Korean peninsula may be immanent:
DeleteNorth Korea's successful testing of an intercontinental ballistic missile capable of delivering a nuclear warhead to US soil has brought this festering crisis to a head. Trump says he will deal with it!
The MOAB recently tested in Afghanistan was just a rehearsal for what US military is planning for N. Korea.
Most of N.Korea's military installations are underground.
US hopes to use "bunker busters" to seal off entrances to these tunnels.
The intention is to hit nuclear and other weapon storage and assembly sites and release so much radioactivity at these sites that no one will be able to work there.
However in retaliation N.Korea could release short range missiles from mobile launchers on S.Korea including Seoul.
https://www.vox.com/world/2017/7/6/15922824/trump-north-korea-icbm-options-bad
http://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-august-1-2017-1.4230431/there-are-not-any-good-options-rising-tensions-with-north-korea-leave-u-s-scrambling-1.4230441
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/trump-promised-fire-fury-north-230955413.html
if the Syrian airstrike was intended to boost Trump's popularity rating. ..it didn't work!
ReplyDeleteshow of force: weapons of mass destruction
ReplyDeleteTrump gives carte blanche to military field commanders
America tests
largest non-nuclear bomb in arsenal
Largest non-nuclear bomb in American arsenal tested for first time on Afghan soil
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/14/moab-attack-isis-baffling-choice-cold-blooded-terms-cost-afghanistan
"Each Moab, or massive ordinance air blast – nicknamed the “mother of all bombs” – costs $16m (£13m) out of a total programme cost of $314m which produced about 20 of the bombs."
Apparently it was a success...in kkkiilling 36 people!!
ReplyDeleteHaHaHa!
Latest numbrr I heard was 98.
DeleteUS military now able to kill you in an environmentally friendly way! Now that's progress!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch? v=D2sRVORr2ks&feature=youtube_gdata_player
Wonder how many billions of taxpayer's money it took to develope this weapon of mass destruction?!
Oh well. ..at least now we don't need to use muskets and bayonets!
ReplyDeletehttps://uk.news.yahoo.com/
The "mother of all bombs" dropped by the US military is not the most powerful conventional bomb.
The "father of all bombs," built by Russia, explodes with four times more energy.
FOABs are designed to break up and incinerate their targets like nuclear weapons, but without the radioactive fallout.
Israel enters Syrian conflict
ReplyDeleteIsrael bombs Syria:
https://www.rt.com/news/386286-damascus-airport-blast-fire/
Israeli jets bomb Hezbollah munitions stockpile supplied by Iran
US fighter plane shoots down Syrian jet:
ReplyDeletehttps://mobile.nytimes.com/2017/06/18/world/middleeast/iran-syria-missile-launch-islamic-state.html
"North Korea best not make any more threats to the United States . . . they will be met by fire, fury and, frankly, power the likes of which this world has never seen before"
ReplyDelete--PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP
Trump commits more US forces to Afghanistan.
ReplyDeleteUS intends to use more force in Afghanistan...despite fact that military force has not worked.
"I will not say when we will attack, but attack we will" --Donald Trump
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/08/21/donald-trump-address-nation-outline-new-afghanistan-strategy/
They don't call it "War funding" ; they call it Overseas Contingency Spending":
ReplyDeletehttp://www.nation.co.ke/news/world/US-Senate-nods-to--700bn-defence-spending-bill/1068-4102092-97fei5z/index.html
Trump’s odd and ominous “calm before the storm” comment, not really explained
ReplyDeletehttps://www.thestar.com/news/world/2017/10/06/youll-find-out-trump-says-as-he-refuses-to-elaborate-on-calm-before-the-storm-remark.html
https://www.vox.com/2017/10/7/16441232/trump-calm-before-storm
He's going to attack North Korea.
ReplyDeleteN. korea has a nuclear missile aimed at Beijing and Seoul.
They both have U.S. markings onn them!
pre-emptive (first strike)military aggression is immanent
ReplyDeleteKim-jong-on, the supreme leader of North Korea, is no madman.
His strategy is to take advantage of the current impulsive American leadership to provoke America into striking the first blow thereby triggering a justifiable military retaliation.
North Korea as a sovereign nation has the right to develope its military including nuclear weapons and missiles as long as it does not use such capability in an offensive action.
If America tries to subjugate North Korea by military force and bloodshed it will only suceed in creating hatred against itself.
It is not possible to create peace by making war.
America has overwhelming superiority and dominance in conventional weaponry (F-35's,bombers,cruise missiles,bunker busters,etc.).
North Korea is relying that its nuclear capability will deter any military attack.
Therefore if North Korea is attacked it may have no other effective retaliatory option but to play its ace card (deploying its nuclear-armed missiles)!!
"the King of Spies" by Blaine Harden
ReplyDeletehttp://www.cbc.ca/radio/thecurrent/the-current-for-october-18-2017-1.4358599/perfectly-happy-sitting-in-on-torture-meet-the-u-s-spymaster-from-the-korean-war-1.4358630
America killed 20% of the North Korean entire population in yhe Korean war (1950-1953)
Trump prepares for outright war
DeleteTrump threatens North Korea with America's full military capability.
Trump plans to use military force to coerce N. Korea into submission.
Trump visit to Asia is intended to brief Asian leaders about US intention to use military force against North Korea.
Trump also visiting US military bases in the region...preparing the troops to be ready to act.
US puts North Korea under siege: US tries to bully N.Korea into submission to its will by strengthening sanctions to cripple its economy. N. Korea says the embargo is an act of war!
DeleteUS tried this strategy of economic warfare against Cuba. ..but it suceeded only in making Cuba more innovative and self-reliant. The blockade failed to have its intended effect.
It just made the people even more detemined to defend their right to self-determination.
Nothing short of death will stop them.
when two madmen disagree they should settle their differences in a gentlemen's duel or a boxing ring... without involving innocent civilians. Settling personal disputes by sending army proxies against each other is far too costly.
ReplyDeleteIf "might makes right", North Korea is not amiss in developing its military capability so as not to allow themselves to be pushed around by those who are stronger.
( American trade sanctions on N. Korea are essentially an economic blockade/embargo/siege...and as such are a de facto act of aggression/war)
Is fighting a justifiable way of deciding who is right?
Beneath the surface facade of civlization and the lipservice to "the rule of law", do we humans still live by the laws of the jungle?!
Perhaps for all our pretensions to having emerged from the jungle, we haven't evolved much at all, and are still controlled by the reptilean impulses at the core of our brain.
They should abandon the "fighting paradigm" for settling disputes altogether, and talk it out (reach a settlement through negotiation).
Delete"fighting" is not a justifiable way of deciding who is right?
whats needed is an international judicial system wch would enable disputes between nations to be settled in a civil, civilized, and peaceful method without resorting to military force (war and bloodshed). Such a dispute resolution mechanism would prevent much harm to innocent people..
DeleteIf "might makes right", North Korea is not amiss in developing its military capability so as not to allow themselves to be pushed around by those who are stronger. Is fighting a justifiable way of deciding who is right? Beneath the surface facade of civlization and the lipservice to "the rule of law", do we humans still live by the laws of the jungle?! Perhaps for all our pretensions to having emerged from the jungle, we haven't evolved much at all, and are still controlled by the reptilean impulses at the core of our brain.
DeleteDo "strongmen" still define what is "right"?
"fighting it out" ,although it may have been a useful means of deciding who is stron.gest in the jungle world, is no longer an option in determining who is right. Have human beings evolved to a critical threshold point wbere their evolution iz no longer driven by physical strenght (brute force) but by moral dominance?
********************
Reptilean brain is still with us:
DeleteConsciousness is the mere surface of our minds of wch, as of the earth, we do not know the inside but only the crust"
--Schopenhauer
Even if the cerebral cortex is four-fifths of the human brain by volume, it has been with us for a mere geologic instant, whereas the more primitive and decisive core goes back eons.
Delete"A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war- 'This way of settling differences is not just.' This way of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death."
from Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or Community? by Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Boston: Beacon Press, 1967.
Trump's imposition of tariffs on imports is a form of economic warfare.
DeleteIncreasing barriers to trade may trigger a global economic recession.
#protectionism
Tariffs and economic sanctions are a tactic of war
DeleteUS/China economic war escalates to hostage taking:
Deletehttps://m.news24.com/World/News/former-canadian-diplomat-held-in-china-a-pawn-experts-20181213
Trump's domestic approval rating is at an all time low and declining...so a diversionary military campaign (scapegoating an outside enemy ) may be a timely and effective distraction to refocus attention from domestic issues and discontent.
ReplyDeleteTrump's visit to Asia is intended to "sell the war" to Asian allies.
Trump is threatening to do to N. Korea what Bush did to Iraq --to carpet bomb N.Korea killing millions... and leaving the horrific aftermath of refugees and the rebuilding to S.Korea and China...(not to mention the creation of new generations of hatred toward America.
**************
US Congress passes $700 billion defence bill
ReplyDeleteFRIDAY NOVEMBER 17 2017
The United States Congress on November 16, 2017 passed a nearly $700 billion American defence budget for 2018.
In Summary
It provides for $626 billion in base budget requirements, $66 billion for Overseas Contingency Operations, or war fighting, and an additional $8 billion for other defence activities.
"My button is bigger than yours"!
ReplyDeleteFalse incoming ballistic missile alert in Hawaii
Hawaiian false alarm makes pushing the wrong button by mistake a possible reality.
False alert caused by human error could easily become real
Announcement of incoming ballistic missiles could have triggered a retaliatory strike launch by the USA.
Mistakes more likely during times of belligerent rhetoric and heightened military tensions.
Jittery nerves hover over the nuclear button.
Any pre-emptive use of force (military first strike) against N.Korea risks escalation into all-out war
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/13/politics/hawaii-missile-threat-false-alarm/index.html
http://www.cnn.com/2018/01/16/asia/japan-false-missile-alarm-intl/index.html
Buying time:
ReplyDeleteSports event warms relations between North and South Korea much to the displeasure of USA
Olympics defuses tensions and hostility on Korean peninsula.
Olympics results in truce and toning down of belligerance as Kim Jung Un seeks to capitalize on the spirit of the Olympic Games to consolidate his military power and subvert/undercut US aggressive posturing by proferring alliance/ raprochment (overtures of friendship)
with South Korea (thereby thwarting threat of immanent military strike by US)