USA EMPIRE Unmasked: Why it's time to Speak out

[teddytennisfan]

sputniknews.com
The US Empire Unmasked and Why It's Time to Speak Out
Sputnik

"Why Are We The Good Guys?" is the title of a brilliant 2012 book by David Cromwell of the media monitoring organization, Media Lens. The book challenges the dominant elite orthodoxy that whatever "mistakes" they may make, the US and its closest allies always mean well - and are an undoubted force for good in the world.


Read more: https://sputniknews.com/columnists/20160927/1045744d139/us-empire-unmasked.html
Well, that might have been true in World War Two, when the US, the Soviet Union, Britain and others were fighting the Nazis, but I wonder if there's anyone out there (and whose salary isn't paid by the US defense industry, NATO, George Soros or Rupert Murdoch), who would still claim that the US — and its closest allies — are benign actors in international affairs?

It's not just the effects of the Iraq war — an illegal conflict in which blatant lies about WMDs were told in order to justify a brutal invasion which led to the death of one million people and the rise of Daesh, also known as ISIL. In the past few weeks, we've had a number of reminders as to what the 21 century "US Empire" is really about — and the shamefully duplicitous way in which it operates.

Earlier in the month, we had the Colin Powell email leak, in which the former Secretary of State said that Israel had 200 nukes "all targeted at Tehran"and "we," meaning the US, "have thousands…"

Even if Iran did develop nukes — then they wouldn't use them as they'd be deterred by the Israeli and US ones. Powell's email shows us what a scam the whole Iranian "nuclear threat" narrative was.

Remember, draconian sanctions were imposed on the Islamic Republic — sanctions which caused great hardship to ordinary Iranians — on the grounds that the country was secretly developing nuclear weapons, which would threaten the entire world. But Powell admits that the Iranians wouldn't be able to use a nuclear bomb, even if they had been developing one. Rather than being the "threat," Iran was the country threatened.

Then, a day after the Powell email story broke, we had the US — and other coalition "allies" — bombing the Syrian army at Deir ez-Zor, when the SAA was preparing to launch an assault on Daesh. The US said, the attack, which killed 62 soldiers and injured 100, was an "accident." Yet the SAA has been static in the area for some time.

The attack was further proof (and there's been enough already), that the US' priniciple aim in Syria is not fighting Daesh and other terror groups, but to bring down the secular government fighting these groups.

It's noteworthy that while the US bombed the Syrian Army, Daesh launched a simultaneous attack. Talk about "partners in crime."

Two days after the massacre at Deir ez-Zor, an attack on an aid convoy again showed us the US' true colors. Even though we still don't know whether the convoy was bombed from the air — the UN revised an earlier statement saying it was an airstrike — the attack was blamed on Russia and used by the US to make the case for the imposition of a no-fly zone (NFZ) in Syria or, more accurately a "we can fly, but you can't zone."

The US wants a No Fly Zone in #Syria but only for Syrian and Russian planes. The Exceptional Nation & its allies wld still be able to bomb!

— Neil Clark (@NeilClark66) September 23, 2016
The "Exceptional Nation" and its allies would, needless to say, not be subject to the NFZ — it would only apply to Russia and the Syrian Air Force!

How's that for Imperial arrogance?

@NeilClark66 "No Fly Zone" has only ever (and always) meant "We Bomb With Impunity Zone" in post cold war Washingtonian newspeak

— Brennan Young (@brennanyoung) September 23, 2016
The last time the US got its way with the imposition of a no-fly zone was in Libya and we can all remember how that one ended. A country which had the highest living standards in the whole of Africa, and which had an excellent education and health care system, was transformed, thanks to NATO, into a failed state and a haven for Daesh and other terrorist death squads.

Earlier in the month we had the UK Parliamentary report into the 2011 US-led Libyan "humanitarian intervention," which concluded — surprise, surprise — that decisions were not "based on accurate intelligence."

"The Government," the report said, "failed to identify that the threat to civilians was overstated and the rebels included a significant Islamist element," as indeed was claimed by Muammar Gaddafi, to much ridicule from western politicians.

Crucially, the report held "the proposition that Muammar Gaddafi would have ordered the massacre of civilians in Benghazi was not supported by the available evidence."

The US and its allies clearly want us to forget the lurid claims of "genocide" they made before the Libyan "intervention" and get us all on board the latest "humanitarian" campaign for a NFZ in Syria. Do they really think we are that stupid?

© AP Photo/ Manu Brabo, File

What we are seeing — either through leaks — or through events on the ground is the full exposure of the "US Empire."

False claims to sell "divide and destroy" imperialist wars masked as "humanitarian interventions" — and false claims to get "official enemies" sanctioned.

Policies on the ground which aid the very terrorist groups we are being told our governments implacably oppose. Countries which pose no threat whatsoever being defamed as countries which threaten the entire world. Atrocities being blamed on the "other side" without evidence. A refugee crisis of Biblical proportions caused by Washington's policy of endless war.

The scale of the deception has been enormous- but now the evidence is there for all to see. There really is no excuse for anyone to say, "we really don't know what the US is up to." We know what the US is up to — and it's absolutely bloody awful.

As bad as things are today though, they could get even worse if Hillary Rodham Clinton is elected US President in November. Clinton, who as Secretary of State, played a key role in the destruction of Libya, and helped set fire to Syria, has the backing of Wall Street, the military-industrial complex and the most fanatical neocon hawks out there.

These serial warmongers want Assad — the protector of Syrian's Christians and other religious minorities — out of the way very quickly, so that the US can then move on to Iran. And then on to Russia.

The question is, why aren't more people talking about what the US has been up to and the great dangers the citizens of the world face on account of its aggressive, expansionary policies?

As the Nobel Prize winning playwright Harold Pinter stated, when receiving his award in 2005:

"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them."

We need to talk about the crimes committed by the US — and very loudly too — if we're to finally end the bloodshed and get the world back on a more progressive path. For history will not forgive us if, having seen the "US Empire" unmasked, we remain silent.

Follow Neil Clark on Twitter @NeilClark66

The views expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official position of Sputnik.

 

[teddytennisfan]

sputniknews.com
Obama’s Nightmare: Iraqis Set to Sue US Government for War Crimes
Sputnik
US
23:41 27.09.2016(updated 23:42 27.09.2016) Get short URL

© AFP 2016/ POOL//Brennan Linsley

The Iraqi National Project has stated that the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act, which would allow 9/11 victims and families to sue Saudi Arabia over the nation’s role in the attacks, has opened a pathway for lawsuits against foreign governments.

The White House claims that the bill was vetoed because it would open the floodgates for other nations and organizations to sue the US, which is exactly what the Iraqi group wants to do.

“In light of the majority vote by the US Congress and Senate in support of the 9/11 bill removing the sovereign immunity rights of Saudi Arabia and other countries accused of being implicated in terrorism—and in spite of President Obama’s veto on September 23rd 2016—we hereby declare that if this bill is actually passed and becomes a law, then it constitutes a window of opportunity for millions of Iraqis who have lost their sons and daughters in military operations by US military forces and US contracted forces since the US invasion in 2003 to pursue compensation from the US government for what they have endured,” a letter published by the Iraqi National Project states, according to the Washington Free Beacon.

They cited US bombings of civilians and the well-documented torture that took place in Abu Ghraib.

“These US operations included bombings of civilians, arrests, torture [like in Abu Ghraib prison], and in numerous camps set up by the US forces across Iraq,” the letter continues. “There are also tens of thousands of maimed and handicapped Iraqis as a result of this injustice.”

The group also asserts that all of those horrors were based on faulty US intelligence.

“The majority of the injustices were based on very sketchy information and very discriminatory methods with numerous omissions from US officials and ex-officials,” the letter reads. “Once the 9/11 bill becomes law, we will endeavor and assist on a strong effort towards the formation of special committees seated by top Iraqi lawyers and judges along with numerous international legal advisers.”

The Saudi government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the 2001 attacks which left nearly 3,000 people dead, but many have long suspected that the hijackers of four planes that crashed into targets in New York, Washington DC and rural Pennsylvania were backed by Riyadh.

The bill, which may become subject to the first presidential veto override during Obama’s term in office, has left many lawmakers in a tough spot, as they want to see justice for the victims of terror attacks, but are concerned with the precedent it sets.

"I worry about legal matters. I worry about trial lawyers trying to get rich off of this. And I do worry about the precedence. At the same time, these victims do need to have their day in court," House Speaker Paul Ryan told reporters.

A veto override requires two thirds of lawmakers to vote in favor of it, in both the Senate and House of Representatives.

Even key Democrats have said they will stand by the bill, despite the president's objections, including Nancy Pelosi.

"I’ve worked with these families for a very long time, and I think they should have their day in court," House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters last week.

 

[teddytennisfan]

karma can be A BITCH...it might take a while -- but it comes...

 

[teddytennisfan]

journal-neo.org
US: The Mega-Bubble That’s Going to Go Bust | New Eastern Outlook
Author: Martin Berger
It’s noteworthy that the United States state-controled media, especially such newspapers like the New York Times and Washington Post, along with the channels like CNBC and Bloomberg, have been hard at work in a bid to persuade the general public that American banks and corporations are standing firmly on their both feet. We are being told told that the eight years of Obama’s economic genius have created a near-record low unemployment, while the US economy is healthy and still remains the leader of G7 in terms of economic growth.

However, there’s a good reason why the US often being reffered to as the “Empire of Lies“, since the actual economic situation in America is pretty frightening, and it keeps detoriating on the back of the unprecedented level of US corporate debt. Still, Washington hides any signs of the inescapable financial crisis, that will soon become international after hitting the Wall Street initially.

The US national has already hit the whooping 19.5 trillion dollars and is now exceeding 100% of America’s GDP, nearing the level of 105.1% by the end of the year. The IMF is convinced that should we witness a crisiss in the nearest future, this ratio will quickly reach 132% of America’s GDP by the end of the 10-year period.

As of March 2016, the US debt to Saudi Arabia alone amounted to 116.8 billion dollars, while China and Japan remain America’s largest creditors, since each of these players holds an equivalent of one trilion dollars in US Treasuries. Jim Rogers, the notorious American investor has already noted that the Federal Reserve’s balance sheet was 800 billion dollars in 2008, and now it has hit nearly 5 trillion dollars, therefore, Rogers pointed out that the US economy will be in recession sometime in the next year or two, while the states with highest levels of national debt are going to suffer the most.

As it has been pointed out by a number of American analysts, it is a challenging task to even comprehend the total amount of money that the United States owes, it is 25 times larger than all global oil exports in 2015. Moreover, one would need the Saudis to donate the next 146 years of revenue from their oil exports to fully pay down the debt. As a matter of fact, the US national debt is larger than all of the world’s physical currencies, gold, silver, and bitcoin combined.

In fact, if one is to calculate every single dollar, euro, yen, pound, yuan, and any other global physical currency note or coin in existence, it will only amount to 5 trillion dollars . Adding the world’s physical gold (7.7 trillion dollars), silver (20 billion dollars), and cryptocurrencies (11 billion dollars), one would get 12.73 trillion, or about 65% of the US national debt.

The former Director of the Office of Management and Budget, David Stockman has repeatedly warned the US administration that the US “mega-bubble” is going to burst.

It’s believed that a major war writes off all debts, and the more “cannon fodder” of different nationalities you can bring into it- the more debt you can write off… This formula is being put to good use by the sitting Obama administration, that is getting American troops engaged in all sorts of conflicts across the globe. This is confirmed by a recent study of the Institute of Watson that was published by The Intercept. The study shows that the costs of US wars since 2001 have already reached five trillion dollars! At the same time the local government expenses related to medical care of veterans and homeland security, the macro economic costs of war for the US economy are not being included in this count.

The American system of public debt – is, in fact a sort of a fraud, but instead of tricking others into giving them the money, American capitalists are printing them, while obtaining all sorts of goods and services in return. The obligations imply that someday all these goods and services are going to be paid for, but promises are cheap just like the paper they’re printed on. But if there is a debt that is not going to pay back, it means there’s some unfortunate soul somewhere in the world that is still going to pay. If the state spends more than it earns, then who pays the difference? Think about it.

This whole scheme can be briefely described as the “Uncle Sam’s printingpress”, and some day it’s going to go bust. Certain states have already started disposing of and US government bonds and dollar they had in reserves, in anticipation of what may soon follow.

Martin Berger is a freelance journalist and geopolitical analyst, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook.”

14

 

[teddytennisfan]

journal-neo.org
Reflection on Syria and ISIL: US Has a Way Out—But NOT the One it Wanted! | New Eastern Outlook
Author: Seth Ferris
Everyone has an opinion on what should we do about ISIL in Syria and Iraq. There are no easy answers, but we are being handed only two choices: outreach or isolation. Any proposal made must either fit into one box or the other, and the choice will ultimately be made in the voting booths of the US.

We may well end up with either the lesser of two evils or no choice at all. But there is one option available which strikes a balance between outreach and isolation. It involves combining sovereignty and cooperation, working together to achieve mutually agreed outcomes based on individual strength not weakness. All of this is anathema to Western policymakers at present, but we are rapidly approaching the point where they will have no choice.

The sides of a billiard ball

Many politicians say it is one or the other; you are either with Assad or against him. The key issue here is sovereignty: do foreign powers have the right to exact regime change on other countries? Do they have a right to incite or provoke terrorism to create the goal of regime change? International law says they don’t, and the UN says they don’t. People excuse these actions with atrocities, as if these trump law, but do they look at the background to the Syrian conflict?

According to the US Peace Council Representatives, Syria is not at all what we are led to believe by the mainstream media or in mainstream politics.

Henry Lowendorf of the US Peace Council says, “We are fighting a mass of propaganda that has demonised the Syrian government, demonised its leaders, an effort that precedes every other intervention that the United States has made over the course of many decades in order to convince people that it’s acceptable, for humanitarian reasons, to overthrow a government and to replace it with whatever the United States prefers that government to be, even if it is not democratic or even worse than what existed before. The US agenda and the so called policy at the time is the deciding factor, and the country subject to change is more often than not the less-than-willing participant in whatever is at the top of the US policy of the day.

“So what we saw in Damascus and what we saw in the two villages we visited outside Damascus belies the propaganda that has overwhelmed us. It’s hard for even those that have been in the peace movement for a long time. It’s hard for us to ignore this propaganda. It is so well orchestrated. We spoke to members of industry, the Chamber of Industry. We spoke to leaders in the Student Union, the National Student Union; we spoke with NGOs that are involved in taking care of the orphans, of those who have died in this war, on both sides. They don’t discriminate. Orphans are orphans. Whatever side they were fighting on, these young people have to be taken care of. We spoke with an NGO that trains women who don’t have a skill in sewing because they lost the breadwinner in their family. We spoke to an NGO where they are trying to deal with reconciliation and trying to make sure that supplies get to the areas of the country that are under the control of the terrorists, of the mercenaries. And we make a distinction between opposition, the political opposition with whom we also met, and the terrorists and the mercenaries with whom we did not meet.

“Those in the delegation met people in Syria who work non-violently to bring about change. They learned of their efforts to bring about change, working in opposition to the government, working with the government, but nonviolently, and this include interfacing with government officials. They proposed a plan to bring back those Syrians who have for one reason or another joined the mercenaries and the ranks of the terrorists.

“It is clear that Syria is the killing field for those who are not Muslims, just for the sake of making sure the destruction is final. Predominately Christian villages have been besieged by the terrorists, and many have been destroyed or cleansed and will never recover. For instance, in the village of Malula its religious shrines have been destroyed, and this is one of the few villages left anywhere in the world where they still speak Aramaic, the language of Jesus. And there are attacks on the Christian population.

“One of the things I bring back (there are two things I want to mention finally that we feel are really important): One is that while the United States would like to divide the Syrians up by religion, or within a religion, by the different beliefs within that religion, there wasn’t a Syrian around who would accept that. We spoke to the Grand Mufti, and he said people ask me how many Muslims there are in Syria and his response was always 23 million – that’s the population of Syria – and when we talk to the bishop of one of the Orthodox churches, he answered the same thing, the number of Christians is 23 million – “We will not allow ourselves to be divided up the way the United States has divided up the people of Iraq or Libya or Afghanistan or so many other countries, we won’t allow that.” That unity, I believe, has led to the ability of the Syrians to withstand an invasion by the most powerful country in the world and its most powerful allies in Europe, its most powerful allies in the Middle East with what is a vicious attack on the Syrian people.”

So it is clear that within Syria it is not primarily a question of being for or against Assad. The division imagined in the West does not exist, and if it does, it is similar in nature to the democratic disagreements which always in exist in all Western countries, which would never be used to justify an invasion. The US went into Iraq on the basis of false claims. Is it any wonder that the intervention in Syria is turning out the same way?

The horse has bolted but there is still a stable

It is only too clear that the Obama Administration’s “efforts” to tackling ISIL and other terrorism problems have been dismal failures. So much so, that we can legitimately question what the intention of these “efforts” actually was. Did the US really set out to save Syria from Assad? Or was the intervention simply an excuse to arm more terrorists, hoping they could be controlled, only to find they bite the hand that feeds them?

The US efforts to topple the Syrian government have given future planners so many examples of what not to do. All the various stunts used, such as staging false flag gas attacks and arming the so-called “moderate” Syrian opposition illegally, have not only ended up recruiting for the enemy but have failed to achieve their initial aims. An outgoing president always wants to leave office with some semblance of a foreign policy success. But Assad seems secure for now, and this is overshadowing the significant economic achievements of the Obama Administration, which he would rather have as a legacy.

Matters are now being further complicated by how the Russians are demonstrating that the terrorists could actually be defeated if the US wanted to do it: Putin is getting the job done, quickly and cost effectively. So what options does the US have left? It is too late to just declare victory and walk away, as a juggernaut has been set in motion which will have far reaching ramifications. But neither can the US, which declared the Syrian conflict a “war on terrorism”, be seen to be losing a conflict with either terrorists or Russia, particularly as it is still haunted by Vietnam, which made domestic “traitors” into greater heroes than the troops who had answered Uncle Sam’s call.

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) problem stems from the illegal Western invasion of Iraq in 2003. It was also an unanticipated byproduct of what Western policymakers and news reporters welcomed as the so-called “Arab Spring.” So it can be said to be a Western creation.

As a result, the big foreign policy question is no longer “where should America strike next?”, as it was during the Bush years, but “where will the next terrorist threat come from?” On the surface, this is a clear sign of failure. But this situation does give the US a perverse comparative advantage.

The US knows more about terrorism than any other nation,
as it has an unparalleled track record of creating, arming and funding terrorist groups which threaten the whole planet.


No other nation controls as many supply lines, has as many dirty tricks centres and as many compliant governments in its thrall as the USA, as we discover every time a new terrorist group is identified and we are suddenly told all about its leadership, structure and ideology. If the US wants to achieve foreign policy successes this is the first place it needs to look, as it would only mean building on existing work, not entering a new country or developing new pretexts for action.

At one time the Windscale nuclear plant in the UK regarded itself as the leader of the global nuclear power industry. Obviously therefore it supported the growth and retention of nuclear power, even when the nuclear industry developed such a bad reputation that the plant had to change its name to Sellafield to prevent the public associating it with its own work. Now developed countries have moved away from nuclear power the plant is still there, but has successfully repositioned itself as the leader of the nuclear decommissioning industry, without the least irony. If the US wants to get out of Syria with dignity, and fewer lives lost, it would do well to follow this example.

Sanctions against peace

The other dimension of the US-led operations in Syria is sanctions. It is a common trick to either try to avoid war by imposing economic sanctions instead or to use them to fail and make war “inevitable.” However in Syria they are being used as another form of warfare, with the same consequences.

As Lowendorf says in another part of his report, “I have to admit that I did not know before I went that the United States has imposed sanctions on Syria in a way that is similar to the sanctions that it imposed on Iraq in the 1990’s in order to weaken that country and that government. That the United States admits killed 500,000 children in Iraq during the 1990’s sanctions. That set of sanctions means that the Syrian people cannot get medicines that they desperately need, they cannot get the factory parts that they need to maintain their economy, they can’t get infant formula and many other things.”

If people get the things they need they routinely blame their government. One of the root causes of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956 was that wages had fallen dramatically, not that a democracy-loving population had rejected communism, as it was portrayed externally. Consequently the aim of these sanctions was to encourage a revolt against Assad so the US wouldn’t have to do the job, regardless of the human consequences. Now the US supported terrorists have cut off the water supply to civilians already living in the most dismal of conditions.

As Veterans Today writes, “the so-called “moderate” rebels turned off the water to a city of once a million civilians living in West Aleppo, apparently in retaliation for a Syrian Army airstrike on East Aleppo. Now it is estimated that 250,000 residents are without water, thus setting the stage for an unprecedented humanitarian catastrophe.

But the US has a different option. If it wants to portray Assad as a repressive dictator it can demonstrate this by doing better itself. More aid, given to all victims and regardless of whatever the side they are on, more technical assistance, and no killing. This could be accompanied by a narrative that all this was available to Assad if he had wanted it but he chose not to take it. This will make the point the US wants to make more forcibly than starving people will: one reason Assad is gaining some international support, when the Syrian regime has been almost a pariah ever since the 1960s, is that he can readily say that his enemies are killing his people with sanctions and actions; he has a responsibility to protect them from this, and the Right to Protect Doctrine is established under international law.

There has been much recent speculation over the aid convoy that was destroyed on its way to Aleppo. What we know is that it was carrying banned materials, medicines, infant formula, etc. It was thus violating sanctions imposed by the US. So was it US aid or was it sent by those who do not agree with the US actions?

If so, who is most likely to have bombed it?

David was too camp for the public

Perhaps all this is Jimmy Carter’s fault. He had the temerity to try and stop war in the Middle East, and wet a long way towards achieving that with his Camp David Accords, signed by Egypt and Israel in 1978. The Egyptian and Israeli presidents who signed this ended up sharing the Nobel Prize. Carter thought this would be a crowning achievement of his presidency, regardless of what it did for him, but as we know he lost the 1980 election to the hawkish Ronald Reagan.

No one wants to end up like Carter, who was so unpopular after his defeat that people didn’t just complain about him, they avoided him. Nor do they want to end up like Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, assassinated by elements who couldn’t accept his making peace with Israel, whoever these elements may have been sponsored by.

But the US always has to lead, which is the main driver of its actions, whether they achieve anything or not. The more it pursues a strategy of fomenting war and arming terrorists to do it, the more it is losing out to countries like Russia, which simply wait for the US to compromise itself and then turn the situation to their advantage.

If the US can’t win it can’t lead either. It could win hands down at disarming terrorists and providing aid if it wanted to. Soon it will have little choice, if it wants to prevent its own otherwise inevitable decline.

Seth Ferris, investigative journalist and political scientist, expert on Middle Eastern affairs, exclusively for the online magazine “New Eastern Outlook”.

3

 

[teddytennisfan]

it should be noted -- that now that after the USA AND ITS TERRORISTS sold by the USA AS ''moderate opposition" by many changing names (lol) --

and ONLY they have VIOLATED every single agreement for ceasefires for months --

and has NO OTHER option left but MORE lies, making up 'evidence' that DOESN'T exist to accuse SYRIA AND RUSSIA of ''war crimes" -- which the USA ITSELF IS THE AUTHOR OF -- (amazing how the usa and its two most avid allies - UK AND FRANCE -- with their collective record of destroying countries - can do that breathtaking bit of bizarre ''logic" - and expecting the world to actually believe them, lol)


what does the USA do?

why -- directly THREATEN russia of course;;

with
1) '' we are going to sit in the corner and POUT " BY ''withdrawing from the agreements and any cooperation" which the USA itself DESTROYED!!
2) ISSUING a THINLY veiled THREAT to russia itself that if russia doesn't STOP HITTING THE TERRORISTS as according to agreements - who use aleppo as their human shields -- after the USA REFUSED TO SEPARATE TERRORIST CLIENTS of uncle same from civilians they hold hostage and REAL political opposition -

then ''russian servicemen might go home to russia in bodybags and extremists might even cause destruction in russian cities".

which is a CLEAR threat to russia that the USA WILL ''unleash" its TERRORISTS UPON russia.

oh really?

 

[britbox]

The only reason the US wanted to call a ceasefire in the first place was give their proxies a chance to regroup as they are getting beaten on the ground.

I doubt there are ANY moderate boots on the ground on either side... and how would a so-called moderate opposition in Syria have a mandate to govern? Assad for all his faults, would still likely have the majority of support in the country.

 

[teddytennisfan]

The only reason the US wanted to call a ceasefire in the first place was give their proxies a chance to regroup as they are getting beaten on the ground.

I doubt there are ANY moderate boots on the ground on either side... and how would a so-called moderate opposition in Syria have a mandate to govern? Assad for all his faults, would still likely have the majority of support in the country.

for me -- insignificant opinion that i have -- but at least i don't make it without back-up - what REALLY gets to me about these monstrous american elites and their war and money racket -- and obsessing about domination of the planet - because THAT is just so obvious..

is they are DRAGGING entire countries to ruin. both their targets and their allies.

one thing has to be said about the elites of the countries -- the UK, FRANCE, SAUDIS, qatar, japan, south korea and that US footstool BAN KI MOON at the UN top post , the former prsident of MY country philipines -- basically a majoirty of the world's governments with their stupid selfish callous family and clan and class and clique interests - who sell out their OWN people...

but such elites CAN have their perks in their own countries WIthout having to be such FOOLS or just plain ''aliens" to their own people by doing the USA' ELITES' BIDDING.

AND the whole world ends up in such unnecessary misery for what and who really?

these bastard americans?

are the ordinary british people, the ordinary europeans, asians, south americans, africans , middl easterners getting anything out of it? NONE whatsoever...

and it is TRACEABLE to a SINGLE CENTER of power - the USA - AND ITS ELITE CIRCLES - their families, their clans, their classes, their corporations, their chambers of commerce, their banks, their think tanks, their racketeers, their lawyers...

that'/s WHAT REALLY GETS TO ME...

that the ENTIRE WORLD - north, south, east, west, big country russia and china, smaller lands or big lands,younger countries or ancient...
all the way from far south australia - to far north norway - from far east japan to portugal and morocco..

every single country on earth has to have its population be sacrificed for the sake of who really?

BASTARDS IN THE USA, WASHINGTON DC, WALL STREET, CHICAGO...! WHO THINK they own the world.

WHO the hell do these people think they are?

 

[britbox]

They are the 1%. Among them, George Soros... Russia's control of huge swathes of natural resources doesn't sit well with them.

 

[teddytennisfan]

The only reason the US wanted to call a ceasefire in the first place was give their proxies a chance to regroup as they are getting beaten on the ground.

I doubt there are ANY moderate boots on the ground on either side... and how would a so-called moderate opposition in Syria have a mandate to govern? Assad for all his faults, would still likely have the majority of support in the country.

for me -- i'ts never been about how a country and its society orders itself -- every country has ITS own problems in its own geographical reality whose history is a reflection of that reality - including its political and social order and economic system.

the USA is THE PROBLEM for insisting ITS ''my way or the highway" cowboy american mentality.

bottom line - IT HAS NO RIGHT whatsoever to make judgments on other countries OR their system of leadership and cohesion and organization .

and then USE WAR by ALL manner - economic, politicla, cultural, military -- to ENFORCE its will upon others AND THEN proclaim itself ''the bringer of freedom, justice, prosperity and human rights". while being the AUTHOR and cause of untold misery because of its self-proclaimed ''system" it insists others must abide by while FAILING in its own carrying out of its proclaimed 'principles".

in other words --

it is EXACTLY as General Smedley Butler Jr. 1933 marines revealed it to be:

'WE ARE A nation of money and war racketeers and gangsters for our big boss : our super nationalistic capitalism and cultural and economic assalt upon others...our policies have nothing to do with democracy, freedom, justice, human rights at all...but simply our obsession to gather as much of the world's resources unto ourselves at the expense of others..the true purpose of our armed forces and institutions is to make the world safe for our capitalism..
.i was our chief high class muscle enforcer -- leading our very expensive muscle enforcer of our policies in 3 continents...for 30 years serving and suspending my own conscience knowing that what we do is EVIL....""

NOTHING has changed . if anything ''islamic'' terrorism just is now officially an ADDED tool for the USA -- to PRETEND fighting what it CREATED..and

as with just yesterday's thinly veiled ''threat" to russia -- even now openly hinting it WILL use ITS ''Islamic" terrorist proxies to attack russia itself.

which is , if anything what the USA has been doing ''on the sly" to ALL countries

INCLUDING the aftermath of the destruction of libya and iraq and syria with the millions of radicalized and the miserable migrants running from the destrcution the USA has caused and authored with its ''ALLIES" - BOTH WESTERN and MONARCHIES --

straight into europe itself -- and impose on europe the justification for MORE american occupation -- while simultaneously training its attention ''on the russian threat"...


what CREEPS ...if anyone else is ''debating" whether this IS the case -- they better wake up .

the world\'s BIGGEST TERRORIST STATE is NONE other than the USA itself.

''''THE greatest purveyor of violence in all its forms -- my own country and government"=== Martin Luther KING, jr.

 

[teddytennisfan]

rt.com
'US has always been main sponsor of Islamic State' - former CIA contractor to RT
The US claim that Russian troops will go home in body bags if Moscow doesn't end its Aleppo offensive is absurd, former CIA contractor Steven Kelley told RT. He said Russia is the only answer to defeating ISIS. Other experts also weigh in on the subject.

When asked about State Department spokesperson John Kirby's warning that Russia “will continue to send troops home in body bags” if it doesn't put an end to the offensive, Kelley said Washington is pretending to be fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) when it isn't doing so at all.

Read more


“The US has always been the main sponsor and creator of Daesh (Arabic acronym for IS), so this charade that they are having anything to do with fighting Daesh in Syria is completely a farce, and I think the rest of the world is smart enough to realize that everything that comes out of the mouth of John Kirby or any of the State Department personnel is complete and utter balderdash,” Kelley said.

He advised Russian President Vladimir Putin to focus on "getting the job done," as Russia is the only way IS will be defeated in Syria.

“Russia should sever all relations, and if I had anything to advise Mr. Putin, I would say get the job done, stop participating in any of these peace agreements and destroy Daesh and get the job over with,” he said.

“The US is not going to do anything to help removing (sic) Daesh and is going to do everything possible to reconstruct, rearm, and resupply, and put more personnel into the field. So everything they say is a lie, and Putin really needs to stop playing games with the US State Department and get the job done.”

Kelley went on to credit Russia for getting involved in Syria when it did, stating that the country would have been “completely overrun” by now if it didn't.

“One can only hope that [Russia] will be resolute, they will finish the job, they will stop being distracted by these fake calls for ceasefires,” he said.

Meanwhile, political analyst Chris Bambery slammed the US for failing to realize that there is no separation between moderate rebels and militants on the ground.

Read more


“The Americans can't on the one hand say they want to fight Daesh – the so-called Islamic State – but at the same time be supporting rebel groups like al-Nusra Front, and there is no separation between moderate rebels and jihadists on the ground. They are there together, fighting alongside each other, and in fact the jihadists make up the majority. Much of the arms provided and the recruits trained by the West... have gone over to those groups,” Bambery told RT.

“It's strange to me that America can be almost in alliance with a group which is an affiliate of the organization that carried out the 9/11 attacks in Washington and New York.

"This does not seem a coherent policy.”

Referring to Washington's threat of severing ties with Russia when it comes to Syria, Bambery said the situation is equivalent to a child “throwing their toys out of the pram,” adding that Washington needs Moscow to achieve a successful outcome in the war-torn country via a political process.

“They need the Russians to make a deal over Syria. They need them to bring Assad, as they did, to the table, and to kick off the talks,” he said, adding that US Secretary of State John Kerry “doesn't seem to be actually capable to [rising] to the challenge of Syria, and bringing home an agreement which can end the civil war.”

Jeff Steinberg, senior editor of the Executive Intelligence Review, agreed that the US is failing to differentiate between rebel groups and militants.

“The US does not differentiate between the rebel groups they're backing, with the exception of ISIS...When Kirby says there's going to be Russians going to be going home in body bags and terrorism taking place on Russian soil, I have to scratch my head and say, 'is this a threat coming from a government that's actually backing groups like al-Nusra?'”

Reminding that al-Nusra is a branch of Al-Qaeda, Steinberg said: “We seem to have forgotten every lesson learned from 9/11, and we're back in bed with the same forces who carried out those hideous attacks.”

When it comes to Kerry's call for another ceasefire in Syria, Bambery says that his demand is impossible, as trust has to be rebuilt following the recent happenings.

“Confidence has to be rebuilt, the parties have to be brought back together again, in the way that we got that ceasefire in the first place. And rather than hectoring Russia, rather than hectoring what they seem to regard as opponents in this, they need to be working together to bring back that trust, to bring back the people around the table, where we can get that ceasefire going. And this is not a way of going about it...” he concluded.

The statements, views and opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of RT.

 

[teddytennisfan]

rt.com
Russian MoD: We’re ready for Syria dialogue with US, but threats against our military unacceptable
Russia is fully ready to continue the dialogue with the US regarding joint actions to combat terrorists in Syria, the Russian Ministry of Defense has said. It stressed, however, that this is only possible if Washington abstains from “any hints of threats to Russia's military and citizens.”

Read more


The statement came in response to comments made by US State Department spokesperson John Kirby at a press briefing on Wednesday. Kirby said that if the war in Syria continues, “more Russian lives will be lost, more Russian aircraft will be shot down” as “extremist groups will continue to exploit the vacuums that are there in Syria to expand their operations, which could include attacks against Russian interests, perhaps even Russian cities.”

Speaking on Thursday, Russian Ministry of Defense spokesman Major-General Igor Konashenkov said: “Once again we declare that we are fully prepared to continue the dialogue with the American side and carry on with the joint actions to combat terrorists in Syria.”

“However, even the slightest hints of a threat to our soldiers and Russian citizens must be excluded from this dialogue. The matter of safety of Russian citizens, wherever they may be, is not up for bargaining. It is our main and unconditional priority,” the spokesman stressed.

Washington, which supports the so-called ‘moderate opposition’ in Syria, has previously promised to separate rebels from the Al-Nusra Front terrorist organization, but has not yet lived up to that obligation.

Regarding Kirby’s “threat of potential losses” to Russia in Syria, Konashenkov pointed out that Moscow is well aware of the whereabouts of American “experts involved in operational planning and supervision of the militants’ actions.”

Kirby’s comments did not go unnoticed by the Russian Foreign Ministry either. The ministry’s spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, hit back at the US official’s statement on her Facebook page.

“Don’t you think that such ventriloquism about ‘body bags,’ ‘terrorist attacks in Russian cities’ and ‘loss of aircraft,’ sounds more like a ‘get ’em’ command, rather than a diplomatic comment?” Zakharova asked.

Read more


Meanwhile, the UN has urged Russia and the US to re-establish their cooperation on bringing about the cessation of hostilities in Syria. The two countries’ efforts recently stalled following discrepancies regarding the conditions of the negotiated ceasefire. While Moscow has been angered by Washington’s inability to separate rebels and terrorists, the US has threatened to halt all cooperation between the two countries unless Moscow and Damascus end the current attack on militants in east Aleppo. The United Nations deputy Syria envoy, Ramzy Ezzeldine Ramzy, on Thursday said that the restoration of the agreement between Russia and the US in order to restore the truce in Syria “will be the best step forward.” According to Ramzy, up to 600 people have recently been injured in besieged east Aleppo. They are in urgent need of evacuation, as medical supplies in the city are scarce and there are only rations for a quarter of the population.

On September 19, the week-long ceasefire brokered by Russia and the US expired in Syria. Moscow has offered to impose 48-hour ‘breaks’ in military operations in Aleppo instead of week-long ceasefires, which Russia regards as “unacceptable.” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov on Thursday said that this latest proposal remains “on the table.”
“In order to solve humanitarian problems and provide humanitarian access, we have repeatedly offered 48-hour ceasefires, but American counterparts have fixated entirely on the requirement of seven-day breaks for reasons only known to them,” Ryabkov told reporters. Russia has repeatedly noted that the previous seven-day ceasefire was adhered to only by Damascus, while the opposition and various terrorist groups have used it to “rest and regroup forces.”
“The duration [seven days] seems to be specifically chosen for solving such problems [as regrouping], so a seven-day ceasefire is not acceptable to us, however the proposals for 48-hour breaks are still on the table,” Ryabkov said.

 

[teddytennisfan]

HIGH religious leader of IRAN --

"WE would like to remind the world and those fighting terrorists as we are also doing-- being countries that have been suffering from terrorism ourselves..

"that ANY agreements made with the UNITED STATES have an unbroken history of being used by america to extract more and more concessions ...towards its destructive purposes...these are people who have no concept of honor whatsoever".

 

[britbox]

The US would be rather foolish to start a direct campaign within Russia... seeing as there are far more Russians in the United States...and sleeper operatives... Same with Iran actually...

 

[teddytennisfan]

The US would be rather foolish to start a direct campaign within Russia... seeing as there are far more Russians in the United States...and sleeper operatives... Same with Iran actually...

just for argument's sake Britbox...

EVEN IF there were NO ''sleeper russian cells" in the USA -- and just that russians in the USA are more of the ''I wanna be sooooooooo american" types of whom there have always been MANY --

at the end of the day -- it is hard to imagine all of these, including many who are thoroughly ''american loyal" that would NOT feel a pang of conscience..IF it came to the point that they saw the USA -- 'MY adopted country" drop bombs on fellow SLAVS...once they realize that the same country they ''believe in and hated the USSR for" -- actually IS the evil empire! whose ''dominance" and invasion game is the same as it ever was...and THEY happen to just have been merely 'assimilated" enough to be ''tolerated" so LONG AS THEY PARTICIPATED in the destruction of the land , people, relatives, their very existence comes from.

that is for argument's sake. UNLIKELY we can almost be sure.

for one thing -- likely the majority of russian expatriates in the USA - ARE more likely as not more similar to the types who - to RUSSIANS are ''traitors" to their slavic culture -- and their independence and historical right as a great power in their own , whose society spans as enormous a variety of nationalities and cultures - AND indigenous to russia under its unifying slavic society as ANYTHING the western world can boast of.

and it is just as likely that those of them that - with reason , escaped the difficulties of the USSR -- to ''taste the western prosperity" - and 'freedom' -

are temperamentally more like VICTORIA NULAND -- the butcher mistress of STATE DEPARTMENT that masterminded the destruction of Ukraine placing in power FASCISTS and openly declared NAZI ideology descendants right now -- because of HER hatred for the homeland of HER foreparents and found a GREAT position and success in the USA DEMONIZING her forbear's heritage.

the likes of the Chess Grand Master -- whatever his name is - who thinks HE should be ruler of russia -- or the ''westernized" oligarch THAT OWNS that NBA new jersey team that thought HE could buy his way to presidency in russia while selling out his birth country to his western allies in wall street.

there are many like that -- and RUSSIANS in russia HAVE NO ILLUSIONS about such people. and in fact such ''expatriates" - or those of them that are so bought into the ''american way" -- that encourage the 'neo0liberalists" political ''opposition" in russia are repeatedly ''reprimanded" by the real russians by way of denying even the most cursory support for their ''parties" in russia.

that's how EASILY russians can see right through evne THEIR own fellow russians who chose to ''become westerners" .

so even without THAT ''tool'' of russian expats that will go ''traitor agianst the USA" ...

IN matters of PURE military conflict -- shoudl the USA proceed to CAUSE or instigate KILLINGS of russian citizens, ESPECIALLY on russian territory --

whether by PROXIES or direct american incursion into russian territory -- be it through excuses such as ''conflicts and russian aggression in the baltics, and black sea and against europe" etc...

these americans still seem to believe they CAN get away with destroying some russian territorial possession -- lives and towns or cities or installations or defense -- adn AS if it were some IRAQ or LIBYA or VIETNAM

can NOT be REACHED by complete destruction by russian missiles --

and need we say? all in under 30 minutes. .

do these ELITES like the former CIA director - that MORELL -- who OPENLY espoused

"KILLING RUSSIANS everywhere - we'll do assassinations, covert operations -- just KILL THEM"...

THINK this is world war 2 they are talking about? that the OCEANS can protect the USA if they ''could only make a FIRST NUKE STRIKE" TO take down russian defenses and retaliation?

they are DREAMING.

for one thing -- they SHOULD HEED one statement PUTIN said about such temptations to try and take on russia to make her KNEEL..

"i grew up in st petersburg...the scene of the great starvation of millions because of the nazi invasion -- peop;le literally ate cardboard and mud theymade into cakes ..do people imagine what kind of suffering that was ...and yet we would rather have starved than SUBMIT"..

"Growing up in st petersburg --i wasn't the best student you know. i was for a while a kind of hooligan - no , not the way people think as criminal, just a boy that was adventurous and trying to be tough...

and one day -- i found this RAT in the stairways so i chased it and i cornered it on the landing -- and there it JUMPED on me and almost bit my nose...

"i found out then what it means to be cornered and i learned my lesson never to do that again..

"as i grew up -- i was skinny but did some street fights , u know...but i got beat up -- and thats how i turned to judo because some older person told me to straighten up ...and when some bully became so bad to us i decided to go and fight him and i beat him...

"one thing i learned is this --- once YOU ARE CONVINCED that there is NO other way -- to AVOID fighting -- NO matter how you say you dom't want to fight....and the enemy is INTENT to bring it to you...

''you GO AND FIGHT FIRST...you do not wait".


THAT'S FOOD FOR THOUGHT for americans.


===============


and only question remaining is -- WHAT IS PUTIN'S or the RUSSIAN leaders' ''point of being convinced"?

america will NEVER KNOW until it hits them...after they keep provoking the russian bear out of its lair...and enter its lair...

 

[teddytennisfan]

oh -- just to add -- RUSSIAN BUSINESSES ARE BEGGING THE USA and Europe..


\\''PLEASE KEEP THE SANCTIONS FIVE MORE YEARS ...".

russia - as exporter of natural grown food (GMO'S are completely banned in russia and imports have to pass through extremely strict anti-GMO ingredients customs standards -- and i ought to know since i was there for 2 weeks eeating russian food) --

has just seen its FOOD EXPORTS SURPASS its ARMS exports...EVEN as more countries are clamoring for russian arms..

and is now the biggest exporter of wheat in the world -- soon to be followed by being biggest exporter of chicken and pork meats as the ''western sanctions" encourage the russians to develop their agriculture even more.