What in God's name is going on in Syria?

450 troops in Anbar province? The original plan was to leave 35,000 troops in Iraq to maintain stability. I don’t see how 450 is going to result in the control of Iraq and its resources that you seem to be suggesting is some sort of neocon plot. Cue: diabolical laughter. Cue: doctor administering shot of thorzine. Cue: end of this conversation.

Cue 3,550 troops today. Cue Operation Quagmire tomorrow to keep Iraq from falling into the hands of the Islamic State.

So the Islamic State represents no threat whatsoever? and is merely a figment of the fevered neocon imagination which sees, in its uncontrolled paranoia, threats behind every sand dune? But, of course, it was all created because of the invasion of Iraq. There were no terrorists or radicals in the Middle East before then… or if there were, the U.S. is to blame because of its support of Israel (can you hear the dog whistle here?).

So, let me get this right. There was never a need to worry about Saddam despite the whole litany of statements by Democrats and Republicans from 1991 onward… the intelligence reports from all the NON-allied nations who agreed he was a threat and was developing wmds and the three intelligence reports which CONFIRMED that he had every intent to redevelop when he had the chance. Yet, despite this non-threat, the US invaded to grab Iraq’s oil and then… did nothing about grabbing Iraq’s oil and then after bringing security and stability to Iraq, decided to pull out in 2011 in order to… find an excuse to put the troops back in again? to grab Iraq’s oil, which has already been given to oil companies from other countries? in order to… DOMINATE THE WORLD?

An unexpected consequence? :frowning:

[quote]The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, built in 2008, stores more than 850,000 seed samples from nations all over the world. Extending nearly 500 feet into the mountain, it’s intended to safeguard the planet’s food supply and biodiversity in the event a doomsday catastrophe like nuclear war or crippling disease wipes out varieties of plants. Crop Trust, the company that runs the seed vault, says on its website that the vault is “the final backup”:

“The purpose of the Vault is to store duplicates (backups) of seed samples from the world’s crop collections. It will secure, for centuries, millions of seeds representing every important crop variety available in the world today. It is the final back up.”

But now, less than 10 years after the opening, officials are preparing to withdraw seeds for the first time. What apocalyptic event prompted the removal of some of humanity’s food backups?

The Syrian civil war.

“We did not expect a retrieval this early,” Crop Trust spokesman Brian Lainoff told NPR. “But [we] knew in 2008 that Syria was in for an interesting couple of years. This is why we urged them to deposit so early on.”

More than 250,000 people have been killed in the ongoing Syrian civil war and millions of others have been forced from their homes. But the human toll isn’t the only cost of the violence.

Reuters reports that the seeds requested by researchers include “samples of wheat, barley and grasses suited to dry regions” to replace “seeds in a gene bank near the Syrian city of Aleppo that has been damaged by the war.”

"Grethe Evjen, an expert at the Norwegian Agriculture Ministry, said the seeds had been requested by the International Center for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA). ICARDA moved its headquarters to Beirut from Aleppo in 2012 because of the war.

“ICARDA wants almost 130 boxes out of 325 it had deposited in the vault, containing a total of 116,000 samples, she told Reuters. They will be sent once paperwork is completed, she said.”

According to Crop Trust, there are some 1,700 seed banks in the world, but many of them are vulnerable to natural disasters, war and even mundane hazards like insufficient funding or a broken freezer.

[/quote]

From NPR

Why do you keep regurgitating this narrative of WMD and terrorist cells when this has been proven false. And no I won’t provide links cause ya won’t bother reading them anyways.

No. The US invaded at the behest of Israeli lobby groups and duel Israelis within the Bush administration on the basis of false info provided by Israeli intelligence.

I guess as long as there are not tons of illegal ordnance being dropped it is considered “peace and stability’”?

The Middle East is about what Israel wants and what Israel wants is to be the dominant player in the region by 1. pitting sects against each other and 2. Breaking up and dividing countries into smaller and more manageable areas. Each of course with their Kosher approved puppets. . ww1 2.0

Looks like Putin has thrown a wrench in the the plans of ziocons . Very interesting times.

Russia has officially started their campaign against ISIS in Syria with a bang.

bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-34399164

This naturally upset the terrorists.

nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-t … ia-n436106

Who in turn could use these terrorists for back up

theguardian.com/world/2015/s … d-in-syria

More news as it develops

[quote=“agentsmith”]Russia has officially started their campaign against ISIS in Syria with a bang.
[/quote]

Against whom?

wsj.com/articles/russian-air … ss_US_News

Oh, and a warning from the Magic Underpants guy, who for all his funny notions turned out to be far less delusional than the one we’re stuck with:

washingtonpost.com/blogs/ele … tical-foe/

[quote]
“A few months ago, when you were asked what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia.” - President Obama

This is what Mitt Romney said in a March 26 interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN:

“This is without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe. They fight for every cause for the world’s worst actors. The idea that he has more flexibility in mind for Russia is very, very troubling indeed.”

Blitzer then asked if Russia is a bigger foe than Iran, China or North Korea.

Romney replied: "Well, I’m saying in terms of a geopolitical opponent, the nation that lines up with the world’s worst actors. Of course, the greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran. A nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough. But when these - these terrible actors pursue their course in the world and we go to the United Nations looking for ways to stop them, when - when Assad, for instance, is murdering his own people, we go - we go to the United Nations, and who is it that always stands up for the world’s worst[/quote]

…and humiliates the world’s most incompetent while doing so.

[quote=“rowland”][quote=“agentsmith”]Russia has officially started their campaign against ISIS in Syria with a bang.
[/quote]

Against whom?

wsj.com/articles/russian-air … ss_US_News

Oh, and a warning from the Magic Underpants guy, who for all his funny notions turned out to be far less delusional than the one we’re stuck with:

washingtonpost.com/blogs/ele … tical-foe/

[quote]
“A few months ago, when you were asked what’s the biggest geopolitical threat facing America, you said Russia.” - President Obama

This is what Mitt Romney said in a March 26 interview with Wolf Blitzer of CNN:

“This is without question our No. 1 geopolitical foe. They fight for every cause for the world’s worst actors. The idea that he has more flexibility in mind for Russia is very, very troubling indeed.”

Blitzer then asked if Russia is a bigger foe than Iran, China or North Korea.

Romney replied: "Well, I’m saying in terms of a geopolitical opponent, the nation that lines up with the world’s worst actors. Of course, the greatest threat that the world faces is a nuclear Iran. A nuclear North Korea is already troubling enough. But when these - these terrible actors pursue their course in the world and we go to the United Nations looking for ways to stop them, when - when Assad, for instance, is murdering his own people, we go - we go to the United Nations, and who is it that always stands up for the world’s worst[/quote]

…and humiliates the world’s most incompetent while doing so.[/quote]

So why is Russia the number one threat to the US and why does the US insist on regime change in Syria?

The blame game for US incompetence should be aimed at the think tanks and military advisers who miscalculated Russia’s intervention.

Nice to see agentsmith and rowland agree on something, even if it’s only drooling over Pooty-poots manly pecs.

So Russia has now started flying a small number of bombing sorties- fewer than the US allies have been doing; hence far fewer than the US is and has been doing. This proves Putin is Ironman.

Furthermore, these are dumb bombs, so they’ll mostly be blowing up civilians and infrastructure; they’re not aimed at ISIS, because the main threat is the non-ISIS Sunnis, including al-Nusra, al-Qaeda, and the half-dozen fighters the moderates have been able to assemble. They may actually help Assad to stay in power, when it looks as if he might finally have had his back to the wall. How long can the Russkies actually sustain an open overseas intervention without their much-reduced military starting to fall apart at the seams? Probably not very long.

(Note Putin is also much smarter than the Republican presidential candidates, and has no intention of putting boots on the ground- that worked out so well for the Russians last time they wanted to go into an Islamic country to prop up a dictator under siege.)

Now Putin is stuck- he too is going to be under pressure, especially if a fighter or two crashes. So far he’s been able to get away with letting Iran and Hezbollah do the fighting; now he’s got skin in the game. Prediction: Obama will sit back back and watch Russia flail around until Putin starts begging for a conference to get Assad out in exchange for a ‘compromise’ coalition government. Assad freezes his butt in Moscow; Russia gets to keep its last surviving bases in the Mid-East.

Watch Jarabulus. The YPG is predicting that they’ll take it before the end of the year. If so, this would cut off IS from Turkey, and bring the Kurds closer to having a geographically contiguous territory.

Also, Turkish elections will be held Nov. 1. The big question is whether HDP will fall below the 10 % threshhold (or be otherwise disqualified), leading to an AKP majority, or whether the results will be similar to before. This will directly impact Syrian policy.

Reports of China entering the war.

debka.com/article/24926/Chin … i-air-base

Checkmate. Or at least a collective FU to USrael.

[quote=“agentsmith”]Reports of China entering the war.

debka.com/article/24926/Chin … i-air-base

Checkmate. Or at least a collective FU to USrael.[/quote]

Umm, you seriously think the Liaoning left China, sailed across the Indian Ocean, through the Suez Canal, passed Israel and docked in Syria and nobody noticed except some Israeli Intelligence disinformation site?

And apparently without its aircraft, which will either be flown from China via Iran, or packed in giant Russian air transports and shippefd to Syria :loco:

DP

Fearless Leader surrenders:

sputniknews.com/world/20151007/1 … -jets.html

[quote]WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — The United States had to reroute aircraft in Syria in order to avoid Russian aircraft, Pentagon spokesman Jeff Davis said Wednesday.

“We have taken some actions to ensure the safe separation of aircraft, but we do continue to fly missions over Iraq and Syria in support of this mission to degrade and destroy [the Islamic State],” Davis said of US maneuvers to avoid Russian aircraft.
[/quote]

As opposed to Russian jets rerouting to avoid American jets. Yep, we’re being shoved out of the way.

Smart diplomacy. Speak boastfully and carry a limp stick.

I do believe it is Russia acting within international law and the US and NATO violating international law when it comes to flights over Syria.
Russia has offered to form a coalition with the US to fight Isis but were told to FO.

Regardless, it is now quite obvious who is arming and training the terrorists and who is fighting them.

Whatever about Iraq and that disaster the US plans for Syria have been a complete failure. The ‘moderate’ rebels who will turn Syria into a sharia state. Give the rebels lots of tow missiles so Syrian army is
Is weakened and even ISIS fills the gap. 500 million on a few soldiers. Fail.

Whatever the U.S. does let’s hope it doesn’t make the same mistake in Syria that it made in Viet Nam and cut and run. Keep the chaos going. Keep pouring gasoline on the fires of extremism until the point of no return is passed and radicalization takes on a life of its own. If it quits too soon like it did in the Commie hellhole of SouthEast Asia all peace could break loose and then where would the military-industrial messiah complex be?

Another discount sale on Noam Chomsky favorites? :laughing: