Russians Say Anti-U.S. Attack in Libya Vindicates Their Position
Upon learning of the violent death of the United States ambassador to Libya on Wednesday, many Russians responded with variations on “I told you so.â€
Russia has long argued that the West should not support popular uprisings against dictatorships in the Middle East lest Islamic fundamentalism take hold.
They just may have a pretty good point…one they say they learned the hard way…in Afghanistan.
US offered Israel advanced weaponry in exchange for delaying Iran attack
Instead of drumming up a war to meet the needs of the political moment, B.O. is trying to drum up a fake temporary “peace(?)” or something that could pass for it to the undiscriminating.
Now, what could be the motivation for THAT? Hmmmm. Oh, here it it, right in the article:
Under the proposed deal, Israel would not attack Iran until 2013, after US elections in November this year.
Such a deal for Israel. Yeah, right!
So How Much is This New Conflict War Costing?
Ever wonder how much a Tomahawk missile costs? How about 110 of them? And what effect will those prices have on GOP attemps to trim the budget? Those are the questions that many are asking as American involves itself in yet another international conflict. And the answers aren’t too settling.
Well, DUH! Fighting even a limited high-tech war is an expensive business, in any sense of the word!
The question that remains unanswered is what in the world are we really trying to accomplish with this one. There’s info out there that the best organized eastern Libyan opposition to Qaddafi is our old fave al-Qaida. Not wouldn’t THAT be an improvement to Muammar? (NOT!)
We would be better advised to husband our resources, and not be involved with this one….Like, if you’re hiking down the trail and come upon a scorpion dueling with a rattlesnake, would you choose a side and get involved? No thanks!
Thought this was instructive, even though the Chief reserves the right to take other content on this site with a grain of salt:
Next Year’s Wars
The 16 brewing conflicts to watch for in 2011:
• Cote d’Ivoire
• Colombia
• Zimbabwe
• Iraq
• Venezuela
• Sudan
• Mexico
• Guatemala
• Haiti
• Tajikistan
• Pakistan
• Somalia
• Lebanon
• Nigeria
• Guinea
• Democratic Republic of the Congo
See the linked article for the gory or potentially gory details.
Uh…where’s North Korea?
KUHNER: Assassinate Assange
Web provocateur undermines war on terror, threatens American lives
Julian Assange poses a clear and present danger to American national security. The WikiLeaks founder is more than a reckless provocateur. He is aiding and abetting terrorists in their war against America. The administration must take care of the problem – effectively and permanently.
…the Obama administration refuses to stop Mr. Assange. His previous document dumps disclosed the names and identities of foreigners working with the United States in Afghanistan and Iraq – individuals actively involved in defeating al Qaeda and the Taliban. Their exposure could lead to many of them being killed, tortured or targeted by insurgents. Mr. Assange is directly responsible for endangering their lives. He is an active, willful enabler of Islamic terrorism. He is as much a threat as Osama bin Laden or Ayman al-Zawahri. In short, Mr. Assange is not a journalist or publisher; rather, he is an enemy combatant – and should be treated as such.
Kuhner’s piece has more to say on this all, with more gory details on the damages as well as the near total fecklessness of the B.O. administration in its failures to deal with national security issues:
Mr. Obama, however, could not be bothered with any of this. For him, foreign policy is a distraction – something to be crammed into his schedule as he seeks to transform America into a multicultural social democracy.
The United States is paying a severe price for Mr. Obama’s negligence. This is the greatest diplomatic crisis since the late 1940s, when communist agents in the U.S. government provided atomic secrets to the Soviet Union. The world is witnessing the absurd, almost surreal spectacle of the American superpower standing helpless in the face of a lone hacker. Her diplomatic secrets are no longer safe; her allies and friends are being betrayed; and her cyber-enemies are free to roam with impunity. America is no longer feared or respected.
Rope, hacker, tree. Some assembly required.
Obama says U.S. low growth or no growth danger to world
U.S. President Barack Obama defended the Federal Reserve’s policy of printing dollars on Monday after China and Russia stepped up criticism ahead of this week’s Group of 20 meeting.
The G20 summit has been pitched as a chance for leaders of the countries that account for 85 percent of world output to prevent a currency row escalating into a rush to protectionism that could imperil the global recovery. [ID:nSGE6A703T]
But there is little sign of consensus.
The summit has been overshadowed by disagreements over the U.S. Federal Reserve’s quantitative easing (QE) policy under which it will print money to buy $600 billion of government bonds, a move that could depress the dollar and cause a potentially destabilising flow of money into emerging economies.
So, where will be be when China decides to bail out on buying our debt, since it’s value will be diving due to the Fed’s inflationary debt monetization? We don’t really want to go there…but we might not be given a choice in the matter.
As a historical sidebar note, something somewhat similar happened to us before…where a reform-minded US president with economic difficulties told the world to shove it, that we were doing our own thing in spite of it’s impact on them.
The occasion was during the early days of the FDR administration in 1933. Roosevelt set the stage in his first inaugural address by stating that “our international trade relations, though vastly important, are in point of time and necessity secondary to the establishment of a sound national economy.” He went on in June 1933, to instruct the Secretary of State who was attending the London World Economic Conference that “…far too much importance is attached to exchange stability…”
AS the Conference continued, he sent what has become known as the “bombshell message” July 3, 1933 in which he told the Conference delegates that the U.S. would NOT be a party to efforts at exchange-rate stabilization while declaring that “old fetishes of so-called international bankers are being replaced by efforts to plan national currencies”.
THe ultimate take-away message to the world was that the U.S. was going to be focusing on its own situation, and was not willing to extend itself to take part in concerted international efforts to avert danger. The lesson was not missed by Hitler, who saw a green light to his own nationalistic plans for “problem solving”.
(ref: Freedom from Fear; David M. Kennedy; Oxford Univ. Press, 1999)
So we REALLY want to give a similar impression to such luminaries of international peace and enlightenment as the Chicoms, and Putin’s Russia? REALLY?
Not only does Climategate deflect the lemming-like flow of Glowbull Warming worshipers at Copenhagen, but the leakage of draft agreements (linked here) have come as a rude awakening to the developing world that was expecting to line up at a liberally supplied trough of 1st world assistance.
Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak
The UN Copenhagen climate talks are in disarray today after developing countries reacted furiously to leaked documents that show world leaders will next week be asked to sign an agreement that hands more power to rich countries and sidelines the UN’s role in all future climate change negotiations.
The document is also being interpreted by developing countries as setting unequal limits on per capita carbon emissions for developed and developing countries in 2050; meaning that people in rich countries would be permitted to emit nearly twice as much under the proposals.
The so-called Danish text, a secret draft agreement worked on by a group of individuals known as “the circle of commitment” – but understood to include the UK, US and Denmark – has only been shown to a handful of countries since it was finalised this week.
Combined with the ignoring of the evidence of cooking the books from the Climategate, this is not exactly anything to inspire confidence in the rationality of the Great and Obaminable Church of Glowbull Warming in all it’s various denominations and iterations.
Russia’s Leaders See China as Template for Ruling
Nearly two decades after the collapse of the Communist Party, Russia’s rulers have hit upon a model for future success: the Communist Party.
Or at least, the one that reigns next door.
Like an envious underachiever, Vladimir V. Putin’s party, United Russia, is increasingly examining how it can emulate the Chinese Communist Party, especially its skill in shepherding China through the financial crisis relatively unbowed.
United Russia’s leaders even convened a special meeting this month with senior Chinese Communist Party officials to hear firsthand how they wield power.
In the words of Rod Stewart:Â “Every picture tells a story, don’t it?”
A police state is a police state – whether you call it the “Communist Party of (insert country here)”, “United Russia”, or the “National Socialist German Workers Party”, it’s just different sides of the same coin.
Plan for Palestinian state is ‘dead end,’ Israel tells U.S.
In a direct challenge to President Barack Obama’s commitment to rejuvenate moribund Mideast peace talks, Israel on Thursday dismissed American-led efforts to establish a Palestinian state and laid out new conditions for renewed negotiations.
What! Not genuflecting before the White House! Shocking!
Leaders of Israel’s hawkish new government told former Maine Sen. George Mitchell, the special U.S. envoy, that they aren’t going to rush into peace talks with their Palestinian neighbors.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that he’d require Palestinians to accept Israel as a Jewish state in any future negotiations — a demand that Palestinians have up to now rejected — Israeli government officials said.
What a concept! Paleswinians accept Israel as being JEWISH? Doubly Shocking!
Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman told Obama’s envoy that past Israeli concessions led to war, not peace.
The grand champion of all “DUH!” statements, but nevertheless, with meaning beyond the ken of the B.O., his administration, and especially the State Department’s “Foggy Bottom Boys”.
How unfriendly for Israel not to be willing to set itself up for being erased from the planet in agony, in order to meet the wishes of the Islamofascists and their claques in D.C. and elsewhere.
Britain and EU diplomats walk out as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad calls Israel ‘racist’
A rare bit of good judgment from B.O.’s administration.
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad smiled as European diplomats left in protest over his opening address to a controversial UN summit to fight racism.
President Ahmadinejad, speaking as Israelis prepares to commemorate the Holocaust on Tuesday, described Jews and Israel’s creation as the “ugly face” of a Western conspiracy.
“They sent migrants from Europe, the United States in order to establish a racist government in the occupied Palestine,” he said.
“The word Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religion and abuses religious sentiments to hide their hatred and ugly faces.”
Of course no spewage from Ahmadinejad I’m-mad-on-a-jihad would be complete without his trademark holocaust denial rant, which in this event was the unbearable straw from the Iranian camel’s backside, that even the Eurabians couldn’t abide:
EU diplomats launched a walk out when Mr Ahmadinejad claimed that the “pretext of Jewish suffering”, a reference to the Holocaust, had been used to create Israel.
The US did NOT walk out of the conference…we (fortunately) never even showed up to be there TO walk out, knowing in advance which way this UN stench was going to blow…an example of all-too-rare good judgment from the B.O. administration:
The United States, Israel, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand boycotted the conference because of fears that Mr Ahmadinejad would use the event to equate Zionism with racism.
The real question left standing regarding the B.O. administration stance is who in their right mind can hold out hopes for a positive result from negotiating with this latter-day Iranian Nazi?
This one speaks for itself.
Russia’s Medvedev hails ‘comrade’ Obama
Russia’s Dmitry Medvedev hailed Barack Obama as “my new comrade” Thursday after their first face-to-face talks, saying the US president “can listen” — even if little progress was made on substance.
It takes one to know one.
Jewish groups praise US for decision to boycott Durban II
The way things have developed, it’s not often that the Chief can whole-heartedly agree with a policy decision from the new administration.
This is one of those exceptional cases.
Jewish groups have joined in praising the US decision to withdraw from a UN-sponsored conference on racism, and say they hope that European countries will follow suit. Widely called “Durban II,” the conference is scheduled for April in Geneva.
In a statement issued by the Anti-Defamation League, its national chairman, Glen S. Lewy, said, “We applaud the administration for refusing to participate in a process that would in any way brand Israel as a racist country.”
Moishe Smith, president of B’nai B’rith International, said that while the group was “never pleased to walk away from international discussions in critical areas like racism, we credit the Obama administration for its good faith effort.”
US President Barack Obama was originally inclined to participate in the World Conference Against Racism, set to open on April 20, and even sent a delegation to Geneva for the preparations. But the US rescinded its involvement when the delegation determined that the conference’s proposed draft resolutions would be blatantly anti-Israel and were unable to change the content.
This is a good move…and shows that we will not be willing to toady to the influences of unabashed anti-semitic strains that are running through much of the UN these days out of the Islamic world and others who are sympathetic to this sort of thing for various political or other reasons.
Frankly, given the tone of SecState Hillary lately fregarding the middle-east, this is a pleasantly unexpected surprise.
Revealed: the letter Obama team hope will heal Iran rift
Read it all if you want to, but the Chief doesn’t want to dwell on the swill that is passing itself as a diplomatic initiative.
Symbolic gesture gives assurances that US does not want to topple Islamic regime
There. That pretty well sums it up without reaching the retch-point.
This is reminiscent of another letter that promised “peace in out time” that Chamberlain exchanged with Hitler in 1938. But hey, who cares about history any more, anyway?
Hamas agrees Gaza ceasefire as Israeli troops withdraw
Hamas has announced a one-week ceasefire after Israel said it was pulling its forces back to the Gaza border and suspending the 22-day war. It issued a statement saying it would halt rocket strikes as long as troops were taken out of Gaza within a week and the borders of the devastated enclave were opened up to international aid.
In the absence of a full ceasefire agreement, the Israelis said the decision to wind-up Operation Cast Lead remained under review. Twenty rockets were fired by militants, drawing retaliatory fire but no resumption of the bombardments and fierce fighting of previous days which have left more than 1,300 dead. (Emphasis added.)
If both sides are still shooting, where’s the cease fire?
I know, I know. Why be logical about these things and expect words to mean anything in the media, and/or diplospeak.
The Chief is just old-fashioned that way, I guess.
Chinese Warships Set Sail for Pirate Fight
Chinese warships — armed with special forces, guided missiles and helicopters — set sail Friday for anti-piracy duty off Somalia, the first time the communist nation has sent ships on a mission that could involve fighting so far beyond its territorial waters.
The three vessels — two destroyers and a supply ship — may increase worries about growing Chinese military power. The mission will also challenge China’s ability to cooperate with other naval forces patrolling the Gulf of Aden, one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
Warships from India, Russia, NATO and the U.S. are also cruising the Somali waters that have been plagued by pirate attacks in recent months.
This could be good news, or it could be bad news. One thing that it IS, unfortunately, is rational, at least from China’s point of view. The Chief commented in an earlier post that perhaps if the US and other western navies were doing the job, that the ChiComs wouldn’t feel as much of a need to get into the picture. On the other hand…maybe they would do it anyway…just to prove that they can.
Denny Roy, a senior fellow at the East-West Center in Hawaii, said countries in the region will view China’s mission off Somalia differently.
“For Japan and some in South Korea, this is another step in the unwelcome growth of the Chinese navy as a capable blue-water force, which has only downsides for Tokyo and Seoul,” said Roy, an expert on China’s military.
But he said most Southeast Asian countries may see China’s involvement in the anti-piracy campaign as a positive thing. It would mean that China was using its greater military might for constructive purposes, rather than challenging the current international order.
However, the analyst added, “The Chinese deployment gets at a question the U.S. and other governments have been asking: ‘Why the big Chinese military buildup when no country threatens China?’ Or more bluntly, ‘Why do the Chinese need a blue-water navy when the U.S. Navy already polices the world’s oceans?”‘
Roy said the answer is that China is unwilling to rely on the U.S. to protect China’s increasingly global interests.
Given what B.O. stated before the election about a desire to radically chop U.S. defense capabilities, perhaps it is only prudence that the ChiComs actively look out for themselves.
Beijing still believes it needs to enter the field, Roy said, and that leaves open the possibility of a China-U.S. naval rivalry in the future.
A rivalry? THAT would be an improvement over the supine attitudes of the current higher US Naval leadership.
Looks like the India-Paki pot may be getting ready to boil over – which COULD get very interesting indeed…since they both have nukie.
Pakistan cancels army leave as India tensions rise
Pakistan canceled army leave and redeployed some troops Friday in a sign of rising tension with India.
The United States urged both sides to refrain from further raising tensions, already high after India blamed Islamist militants based in Pakistan for attacks on Mumbai last month that killed 179 people.
The latest strains followed media reports in Pakistan and India that “several” Indian nationals had been held in the last two days after bombings in the Pakistani cities of Lahore and Multan.
The old game of tit-for-tat again.
The South Asian neighbors both tested nuclear weapons in 1998. They have fought three wars since independence from Britain in 1947, and came to the brink of a fourth after gunmen attacked the Indian parliament in December 2001.
Although many analysts say war is very unlikely, international unease is growing.
How reassuring. “Commentators” said war was unlikely in August 1939, also.
Chinese flag up anti-pirate fleet
China is considering sending ships to fight pirates off the Horn of Africa in what would be the country’s first significant long-range naval combat mission since the 15th century.
Senior Colonel Huang Xueping, spokesman for China’s ministry of national defence, told the FT an anti-piracy mission was “still in the consideration stageâ€. But he said: “There will be an announcement very soon.â€
What’s wrong with this? Nothing in and of itself, but why isn’t the US Navy acting against piracy?
What in the heck do we have the 5th Fleet in the Indian Ocean for?
The U.S. Navy built its first ships in the 1790’s specifically to respond to demands for “tribute” from Islamic pirates operating from North Africa. Prior to the vote, one Congressman proclaimed “MILLIONS FOR DEFENSE! NOT ONE CENT FOR TRIBUTE!”, and Congress voted accordingly to build such historic ships as the frigate USS Constitution (which is still officially commissioned and on the fleet list).
Nowadays we’re saddled with Admirals that apparently couldn’t find their posteriors with assistance from GPS, extra lookouts, along with surface and air-search radars as evidenced by their apparent lack of knowledge of what our naval ships can do.
Admiral Mike Mullen has expressed surprise at the range of action demonstrated by the Islamopirates operating out of Somalia, and has apparently forgotten that navy ships have GUNS that REALLY can shoot, and MISSILES that do a good job at killing enemies and breaking their stuff too. Perhaps India, whose Navy has demonstrated that it remembers this basic knowledge can send us some advisors to refresh the memory of the Pentagon about the capabilities of naval warships.
The Chief would have thought that the US just MIGHT be able to exercise some leadership in dealing with this problem…but not until those in charge manage to rediscover that they have some cojones. Unfortunately, there probably won’t be much, if any, improvement from the incoming B.O. administration. More’s the pity.
From Syrian fishing port to naval power base: Russia moves into the Mediterranean
The Chief remembers his time in the late 60’s on active duty aboard USS Sellers (DDG-11) with the 6th Fleet in the Mediterranean. A significant part of our time was watching, and being watched by Soviet naval and air forces based in Russia-friendly places like Egypt, Libya, and,…Syria. Looks like some of those same circumstances are re-organizing in the (allegedly) post-Soviet Russia, and old buddy Syria.
Tartous is being dredged and renovated to provide a permanent facility for the Russian navy, giving Moscow a key military foothold in the Mediterranean at a time when Russia’s invasion of Georgia has led to fears of a new cold war.
Fears of a new cold war? Uh, situational awareness dictates that “fears of a new cold war” are way behind the curve. Historically, it was a pattern of assertive and at times confrontational behavior that marked the start of Cold War I, which was formally recognized by Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech at Fulton, Missouri’s Westminster College in 1946. By the way, it’s STILL worth reading…and makes the Chief wonder where the West might be able to find another Churchill…but I digress.
The bolstering of military ties between Russia and Syria has also worried Israel, whose prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was in Moscow yesterday seeking to persuade the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, to stop Russian arms sales to Syria and Iran. Mr Olmert later said he had received assurances that Russia would not allow Israel’s security to be threatened, but offered no indication he won any concrete promises on Russian arms sales.
Igor Belyaev, Russia’s charge d’affaires in Damascus, recently told reporters that his country would increase its presence in the Mediterranean and that “Russian vessels will be visiting Syria and other friendly ports more frequently”.
That announcement followed a meeting between Medvedev and the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, at the Black sea port of Sochi in the immediate aftermath of Russia’s victory over Georgian forces and its recognition of the breakaway provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia – actions Assad supported.
The bolstering of military ties between Russia and Syria has also worried Israel, whose prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was in Moscow yesterday seeking to persuade the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, to stop Russian arms sales to Syria and Iran. Mr Olmert later said he had received assurances that Russia would not allow Israel’s security to be threatened, but offered no indication he won any concrete promises on Russian arms sales.
The Chief is a great believer in the principle that “If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and has white feathers and a flat bill, then it MUST be a duck.” It looks enough like the first one, so as far as the Chief is concerned, it IS in fact Cold War II.
Sorry about that! The Chief just couldn’t resist the obvious cheap humor, although the reality of the current crop of piracy in the Gulf of Aden has nothing to laugh about any more than there was humor in the original pirates of the Caribbean, who were as evil a pack of scoundrels and murderers as ever walked, or sailed the planet.
The current crop, by all accounts, aren’t much better.
In a startling throwback to 17th century days of Spanish galleons, Barbary pirates and avenging royal navies, pirates attacked a record 17 ships in the Gulf of Aden in the first two weeks of September compared to just 10 in the entire year of 2007, according to the Kuala Lumpur-based Piracy Reporting Center.
Q: How long until official naval anti-piracy patrols are set up?
A: Not soon enough.
Rope. Pirates. Yardarm. Some assembly required.
(Yes, modern naval ships DO still have yardarms – they’re really great at supporting antennae of various sorts!)
Soviet Union Russia says to send battleship to Caribbean Sea
First off – it ISN’T a battleship, except perhaps generically as a ship built to participate in battles. Nobody at present has any active battleships (BB types)… we still have a few that in a pinch COULD be reactivated, and there are some reasons why this would be a good idea…but that’s another story, and I digress.
What is being discussed here is effectively a guided missile battlecruser (BCG), and is a very impressive looking package, although it may be subject to some technical and maintenance issues. These ships are significantly larger than the current USN cruiser classes, and for that reason are very effective at “showing the flag” exercises and activities, if not combat.
Russia will send a nuclear-powered battleship to the Caribbean for a joint naval exercise with Venezuela, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said on Monday. The maneuvers later this year will be the first Russia has conducted in Washington’s traditional sphere of influence since the end of the Cold War.
So…Putin figures apparently that turn about is fair play, since the Black Sea has been as much of a Russian “lake” as the Caribbean has been for us.
Russia has heavily criticized the United States for sending a sophisticated command ship and two other naval vessels to Georgia, on its southern border, to deliver aid and show support for President Mikheil Saakashvili after Moscow sent troops into Georgia.
Nothing to be concerned about however, according to the Soviets Russians:
Russia denied that the move amounted to retaliation against the United States over its action Georgia. “We are talking about a planned event not linked with current political circumstances and not in any way connected to events in Georgia,” he told a news briefing. The exercises “will in no way be directed against the interests of a third country.”
You can believe as much of that as you want to, but the Chief isn’t buying it!
Ghost of Stalin strides the Caucasus
Knowing the origins of Stalin, and his later record, the current mess in Georgia, and the aggressiveness of the Soviets Russians is unfortunately part of the pattern of the new cold war, same as the old cold war.
AT the centre of Gori, Georgia, where every window has been shattered and Russian T-72 tanks patrol, the marble statue of the world’s most famous Georgian, Joseph Stalin, stands gleamingly, almost supernaturally unharmed. As this vicious colonial war turns into an international battle over spheres of influence, Stalin is Banquo at the feast, metaphorically present in the palaces of the Kremlin, the burning houses in the villages, the cabinets of Europe’s eastern capitals.
Today, as far as Moscow is concerned, the Georgian cobbler’s son and Marxist fanatic has been laundered of any traces of Georgia and Marx. He is now a Russian tsar, the inspiration for the authoritarian, nationalistic and imperial strains in today’s capitalistic, pragmatic, swaggering Russia.
In this crisis, and in who knows how many future ones, Stalin represents empire, prestige, victory.
Given the historical fact that Stalin’s USSR killed more of its own people than the Nazis did in their rightly despised death camps, where’s the outcry over Russia’s Stalinist revival?
What would the reaction be if Germany similarly launched a rejuvenation of Hitler’s rep?
To one who is able and willing to recall 20th Century history, current events produce that same old deja vu all over again.
Remember? 3rd Reich Glee Club and Marching Society World Tour: 1938- Sudetenland / Czechoslovakia; 1939 – Poland; 1940 – Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, France; 1941 – Yugoslavia, Greece, Albania, North Africa, USSR. ’nuff said.
Russia: Poland risks attack because of US missiles
A top Russian general said Friday that Poland’s agreement to accept a U.S. missile interceptor base exposes the ex-communist nation to attack, possibly by nuclear weapons, the Interfax news agency reported. The statement by Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn is the strongest threat that Russia has issued against the plans to put missile defense elements in former Soviet satellite nations….
“Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent,” Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of staff, was quoted as saying.
100%!!?? Is this REALLY a war warning? If so…see above note about 1939…
He added, in clear reference to the agreement, that Russia’s military doctrine sanctions the use of nuclear weapons “against the allies of countries having nuclear weapons if they in some way help them.” Nogovitsyn said that would include elements of strategic deterrence systems, he said, according to Interfax.
Yikes! Even the Foggy Bottom Boyus at the State Department wouldn’t be able to ignore an attack on Poland…whether or not we were actually ready to act…which we aren’t, at least not much more (psychologically if not militarily) than were Britain and France in 1939.
This leads to a REALLY ugly, bad conclusion… and the Chief at least can’t see a good ending if the
Georgia on my Mind… (to quote Ray Charles)
Quoted in an e-mail bulletin, but without specifics as to date:
“Russia’s attack on neighboring Georgia over two tiny separatist provinces is really about something much bigger—Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s desire to restore the former USSR’s might. Russia’s ill intentions clearly are on display in Georgia. In a fit of nationalist fury, it wants to teach Georgia and other former satellite countries that once made up the Soviet Bloc that its pro-Western rapprochement days are over. What better way than to invade a former republic, humiliate its leaders and then taunt the West for failing to come to its aid? As if that wasn’t enough, Russia immediately began threatening its other neighbors. A top Russian diplomat ominously warned Monday that Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland would ‘pay’ for criticizing Russia’s ‘imperialist’ policy toward Georgia. Russia’s claim to support independence from Georgia of tiny South Ossetia and even tinier Abkhazia is simply phony. Georgia, with its strategically important oil pipeline, has grown close to the U.S. —even sending troops to Iraq. Putin, furious at growing U.S. and NATO ties with Eastern Europe, wanted to emasculate Georgia’s military while deposing its pro-American President Mikheil Saakashvili. With his attack, it looks like he’s succeeding. The symbolism of the invasion, coming at the start of the Beijing Olympics, is unmistakable. This is Russia’s wake-up call to all of us. Communism may be dead, Putin is saying, but Russia isn’t.†—Investor’s Business Daily
Thid did encourage the Chief to look at I.B.D. to try to find the specifics, without success. There WERE however, a couple of other relevant op-eds there on the topic:
Geopolitics: Russia’s aggression is not only about toppling a pro-Western democracy and potential NATO member. It’s about the only pipeline bringing Caspian Sea oil to the West not controlled by Moscow or Iran.
Georgia is only the latest instance of Russia’s plans to reassemble the “evil empire” and neuter NATO expansion, using energy as both a weapon and a means of financing its rapid military expansion. Russia has doubled its military in the past five years, thanks in large part to the “windfall profits” it has reaped from skyrocketing energy prices.
One of the Russian targets in Georgia is a pipeline carrying oil from the Caspian to the West. Georgia was a target of renewed Russian imperialism because it was a democracy, a future NATO member and an energy supplier to the West. Its use would accelerate declining oil prices worldwide and put a serious crimp in Moscow’s plans.
This makes FAR too much sense…is anyone in Washington besides Sen. McCain noticing this? B.O. the Annointed continues to demonstrate his nearly total lack of situational awareness concerning national security issues.
Energy: Russia’s bloody invasion of a smaller neighbor whose territory includes a vital oil pipeline has left many people wondering: What can we do? Plenty, it turns out — including some things right here at home.
Russian President Dmitri Medvedev announced he was halting Russia’s air and ground attack on Georgia, but someone forgot to tell Russia’s military.
It has continued its brutal assault, with news reports that Russian troops have started looting, raping and savagely attacking Georgian civilians.
It’s clear former President Vladimir Putin, not his handpicked successor Medvedev, is calling the shots. Putin’s made no secret of the fact that he wants to depose Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and set up a pliant puppet regime, giving him de facto control of Georgia’s oil pipeline — the main conduit to Europe from the oil-rich Caspian Sea that’s not on Russian soil.
What to do? Some ideas from I.D.B.:
Start with President Bush’s pledge Wednesday to support Georgia, an ally in the war on terror, and send it aid. Bush warned Russia the U.S. might not support its “aspirations” to join diplomatic, economic and security groups. We’ve already canceled joint NATO-Russia naval exercises, scheduled for this weekend. And we can turn the G-8 nations back into the G-7. Russia has shown that it doesn’t deserve to be counted among democratic, economically free nations.
But there’s more we can do:
• Russia wants badly to join the World Trade Organization. Put that on a back burner until it starts behaving.
• Russia is scheduled to hold the 2014 Winter Olympics at the resort of Sochi, 15 miles from Abkhazia, the other Georgian province that Russia just invaded. Cancel it, and give it to a more deserving host.
• We’re building a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic. We should accelerate our plans, and broaden participation.
• Russia took in about $27 billion in foreign investment last year. We should limit capital flows to make sure Western capital and technology aren’t used to build Russia’s military.In short, if Russia wants a Cold War, we can give them one.
Hoo-rah! The Chief heartily concurs.
“…wars, and rumors of wars.”:
Russian strikes hit civilians
Hmmm. Restoring the old Russian traditions of not troubling over trivialities like collateral damage”. Sort of like Afghanistan in the 70’s and 80’s, to say nothing of Hungary in ’56.
Georgia conflict: Screams of the injured rise from residential streets
The ground shook and a series of explosions rippled through the air. From the middle of a housing estate in the Georgian town of Gori a huge fireball rose into the sky, twisting and mushrooming as if in slow motion. Choking dust swirled above the debris, darkening the sky. A brief silence followed and then the screaming started.
For two days, Georgia has been convulsed by a Russian air and ground assault in a conflict that has escalated rapidly from a localised war against separatist rebels in South Ossetia into a full-scale military confrontation.
But this was the first time that Russian bombs had struck a residential area.
The fighter jets responsible for the devastation had been targeting a military barracks in the built-up outskirts of Gori, a Georgian town 15 miles from the Ossetian frontier. They missed.
Unfortunately there is a lot more harrowing description of the results of the Glorious Soviet Russian Air Force in the Telegraph piece.
Of course, all is sweetness and light from Moscow:
Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, and insists that the offensive in Georgia is not war but a “peacekeeping mission”.
Yeah, right. So’s a cemetery peaceful. In other words: “Ignore the picture above and the accompanying descriptions. Move along folks, nothing to be concered about. Watch the ChiCom Olympics. Nothing happening here. The Soviet Union Russia is a peace-loving nation, quietly maintaining its sovereignty over a formerly Soviet land. I mean, wasn’t everything peaceful back in the USSR? Da! It’s that pesky independence that Georgia seems to think is important that’s the problem. Nyet?
Few of the people of Gori believe that. So powerful were the bombs aimed at the barracks that they shattered windows in a half-mile radius. Even if all had hit their intended target, the chances of collateral damage would have been high.
No precision bombing here!
Directly related is this:
Georgia: Crisis deepens as Russia snubs George W Bush’s call to pull troops out
Western nations have sent a high-level diplomatic mission to Georgia in a bid to broker a truce in the country’s conflict with Russia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Yada, yada, yada. Like former KGB thug Putin gives a rip about diplospeak. If he DID care, the Red Russian Army wouldn’t be on the march.
Georgia: Russia enters into ‘war’ in South Ossetia
If there is anyplace on the planet with as intricate a set of blood-feuds, ethno-political complications, and a potential for generating mayhem on a massive scale as the Balkans, it’s the Caucasus. This is where Russia, Iran, Turkey, and numerous smaller nations and ethnic identities all are cheek-by-jowl, and many dislike if not hate each other, and have done so for centuries.
The current events there are the latest manifiestation of this…although the situation is greatly complicated a Cold War II geopolitical calculus that has Georgia, which had been aligned to seek NATO membership musch to Russias displeasure, and which has a pipeline terminus that allows central Asian gas to by-pass Russia on its way to Europe, under attack by Russia for seeking to assert sovereignty over part of its own recognized territory opposed to an ethnic minority that looks to Russia for protection.
This is also taking place in the context of Russian threatened “bomber rattling” – floating ideas to place supersonic nuke bombers in Cuba and Venezuela, to threaten…guess who…as possible paybacks for preceding with missile defense against possible Iranian ballistic missiles. Phew! That’s a LOT on the geopolitical platter at one time.
Over 1,300 people are reported dead after Russian forces responded to a Georgian attack on rebels in the breakaway province of South Ossetia by mounting a full scale invasion. Columns of Russian tanks plunged the two neighbours into war as they filed into South Ossetia, marking the Kremlin’s first military assault on foreign soil since the Soviet Union’s Afghanistan intevention, which ended in 1989.
Russian tanks rolled towards the capital of South Ossetia and fighters bombed Georgian air bases after Georgia launched attacks on rebels in the breakaway region. South Ossetia won de-facto independence in a war which ended in 1992 but has been a source of tension ever since, along with Abkhazia, another separatist region.
The only light note in the situation, is the assurance that Atlanta will be safe…unless we learn that the Russians have a general named Sherman.
Obama Adviser Leads Delegation to Damascus
A foreign policy adviser to Senator Obama is scheduled to arrive in Syria today as the leader of a RAND Corp. delegation.
Zbigniew Brzezinski will travel to Damascus for meetings as part of a trip Syria’s official Cham News agency described as an “important sign that the end of official dialogue between Washington and Damascus has not prevented dialogue with important American intellectuals and politicians.”
This CANNOT be a good thing for the U.S.
Mr. Brzezinski’s visit to Syria, a country President Bush has accused of arming terrorists and ordering political assassinations in Lebanon, is in many ways in keeping with a theme of the Obama campaign. The Illinois senator in August said during a Democratic debate that he would be willing to meet with foreign adversaries, earning a rebuke from Senator Clinton, a Democrat of New York, who said such an approach would be “naïve.” On August 24, Mr. Brzezinski, a one-time national security adviser to President Carter, announced in an interview on Bloomberg’s satellite news channel that he was endorsing Mr. Obama, and he has been an adviser to the campaign since.
Apparently B.O.’s foreign policy attitudes will be just what he said they would be…talk to anyone, anywhere, and “We don’t need no stinkin’ preconditions!”
A spokesman for the senator’s presidential campaign, Tommy Vietor, said the campaign did not know Mr. Brzezinski was leading the delegation. “The first we heard of this trip was from you,” he said. He added: “Brzezinski is not a day-to-day adviser for the campaign, he is someone whose guidance Senator Obama seeks on Iraq.”
OF COURSE NOT! (At least not to be recognized while there’s a campaign to worry about.)
A supporter of Mrs. Clinton, Rep. Eliot Engel, a Democrat from New York, said he found it hard to believe that one of the Illinois senator’s main advisers would not know that his visit to Syria would appear to have the tacit consent of the Obama campaign. “People are going to say if you are advising Obama, you are representing Obama,” Mr. Engel said. “At this time when we are in the middle of an election, I can’t believe that for him to go to Syria at this moment would not appear he was going with at least some tacit approval of the candidate he is advising. I would think he would realize that,” Mr. Engel said.
D’ya think?
He ONLY used to be a National Security Advisor, why would he expect anything like that? Of course, he WAS in the Carter administration…with the absolute worst foriegn policy and national security record in the nation’s history.
B.O. promises more of the same
Resurrecting Christendom: A Blueprint
Historically the Holy League was an alliance of the 16th Century’s Christian powers (Spain, Venice, various other Italian states, to oppose the serious threat of the Ottoman Empire to continue to expand to the west, and dominate the entire Mediterranean.
Although the League did not achieve all of its immediate political and military objectives (which included the relief and liberation of Cyprus), it did gather a large fleet (still outnumbered by the Ottoman fleet) and decisively defeat the Islamic force at the battle of Lepanto (1571). Lest you think the threat to Europe at the time was overblown, Vienna itself was repeatedly attacked and besieged by the Ottomans…the final time as late as 1683, when the timely intervention and assistance of Jan Sobieski’s Poland was all that saved the day.
Historically, as noted by Baron Bodissy’s GATES of VIENNA blog, our current situation with regards to the 21st Century’s militant Islamofascism, is merely the latest chapter in a 1300 year struggle of Christianity to maintain its independence if not its existence in the face of Islamic aggressive and violent proselytizing. (The Baron notes it thus: “At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war.” The Chief concurs!)
This piece by Dr. Timothy Furnish (Ph.D in Islamic and World History, is a former U.S. Army veteran and college professor, now working as an editor for Praeger Publishing) suggests the possibility of a sort of revived Holy League…and models its policies on what is described as a “Gondor Strategy”…taken from J.R.R. Tolkien’s LOTR Trilogy.
Again, as Pinkerton points out, the purpose of the majority-Christian parts of the planet uniting against the Muslim world would NOT be to impose democracy or in any way to change that civilization—much less to wage a new “Crusade†(although we’d better inure ourselves to that inevitable charge): “not conquest, not occupation, not ‘liberation’†but rather “feasible strategies of containment, even quarantine.†A cordon sanitaire would be created around the Islamic sandbox until Muslims learn to play nice and stop inflicting both their near and far neighbors with anti-democratic, anti-women, anti-tolerance, and anti-modernist ideology—not to mention IEDs, assassinations and plane-bombs. And until that violent minority of Muslims obsessed with creating a global caliphate is eliminated, or at least convinced of the fruitlessness of their quest—hopefully by their own co-religionists, backed up by the resolve and non-interventionist support of the larger Christian world.
Pinkerton calls this the “Shire Strategyâ€â€”but there’s a better analogy from Tolkien. Other than four hobbits who rode off to help in the war against the arch-expansionist Sauron, the Shire folk stayed home—fat, happy and clueless about the serious and deadly conflict being fought to protect them. Even Frodo, the hobbit who eventually destroyed the Ring of Power, would never have been able to do so had not Men—dedicated survivors of the destroyed Kingdom of Arnor (called, fortuitously by Tolkien, Rangers!) and committed soldiers from the extant kingdom of Gondor—engaged Sauron’s legions in both covert and overt ops. As Boromir put it at the Council of Elrond: “it is by the blood of our people that your lands are kept safe.†Rather than Pinkerton’s Shire Strategy, we should envision the rather more muscular Gondor Strategy, which would entail setting a “Watchful Peace†upon the bloody borders of Islam, as in Tolkien the most poweful human kingdom did against Sauron’s land of Mordor.
The Chief isn’t totally sure that the approach WOULD work…but it probably COULD. Nevertheless, it’s an interesting concept, and one that ultimately may become much more of a necessity that it seems to be at present. Well worth checking it out further and giving it some thought!
H/T on this one to the above noted GATES of VIENNA.
Once again the Balkans give one that same old deja vu all over again.
Kosovo MPs proclaim independence
Whether it’s the Austrians mad at the Serbs (summer of 1914) or the Serbs, Bulgarians, Russians, Turks, Macedonians, Albanians, Greeks, Montenegrans, Bosnians, and of course, the Kosovars mad at one another and MORE than willing to pull the trigger, some things never seem to quite change.
What gives this a somewhat more serious aspect is what, IMHO, is essentially still a hangover from the Moslem Ottoman Empire being pushed back from its 17th Century high-water mark when it was attempting with some real chance of success to change the map of Europe by bringing the crescent flag of Islam to rule over Vienna.
Not for nothing do the Serbs recall the alliance between the (Moslem) Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Hitler’s 3rd Reich that led to the formation of Moslem Bosnian Waffen-SS divisions during WW-II. Admittedly the Serbs haven’t been Mr. Nice Guys in the 1990s edition of the on-again/off-again Balkan wars, but then again neither was anybody else, including NATO’s extensive use of US air power to decimate the Serb infrastructure without regard (unlike Bush’s Iraq policies) to collateral damage.
Unfortunately, we’re still there on the spot if the balloon goes up again. This is NOT a situation we need to be in. If you’re walking down a path in the desert and come upon a scorpion fighting a rattlesnake, you don’t choose sides and get in the middle of the situation. That is too close to what we did in the Balkans for the Chief’s comfort.
War fears put British troops on standby as Kosovo declares ‘freedom’
Meanwhile the Serbs feel severely put upon since Kosovo includes the original cultural and religious heartland of the Serbian nation…not that the Moslems will leave much of that standing for long, given their penchant for burning Christian churches these days.
Russia denounces Kosovo declaration
Another complication is that the Russians have traditionally – going back a couple hundred years or so – have considered themselves to be the “big brother”protector of their brother Slavs in Serbia, which does little to lessen the tension there now – remember, it was the Russian response to Austria-Hungary attacking Serbia in the above-mentioned summer of 1914 that triggered the diplomatic train-wreck that became WW-I.
Several related items, reported in the Jerusalem Post and elsewhere:
‘We need to give up deeply held desires’
Like what? The desire to survive?
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told the Knesset at the opening of its Winter Session on Monday that the current Palestinian leadership wants to move forward toward peace with Israel and that he would not use excuses to stall peace talks.
Whay expect any evidences of negotiations truly in good faith ? Those would just be an obstructive excuses.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert addresses the Knesset during the opening of its Winter Session, Monday. Laying out his agenda for the coming year, Olmert said he planned to make every effort to pursue peace with the Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
A worthy sentiment. Worthy of Neville Chamberlain in 1938.
“The current Palestinian leadership is not a terrorist leadership. President Abbas and Prime Minister Salaam Fayad are committed to all the agreements signed with Israel, and I believe that they want to move ahead together with us on a route that will bring about a change in the reality of relations between us and them,” he said.
If you believe that, PLEASE e-mail me immediately. I have a GREAT deal for you on some tropical beach-front property here in Moody County, South Dakota!
Further comments indicate that Olmert is willing to give up more than “desires”:
Israel Signals Shift on Jerusalem Split
Two senior Israeli politicians, including the prime minister’s closest ally, talked openly Monday about dividing Jerusalem, signaling a possible shift in Israeli opinion about one of the Mideast’s most contentious issues. The dispute over Jerusalem has derailed negotiations in the past, and the latest comments come at a time when Israeli and Palestinian teams are trying to agree on principles guiding future peace talks…. Earlier Monday, Olmert’s closest ally, Ramon, raised the idea of a possible division of Jerusalem in interviews on the two main radio stations…. The proposals of Ramon and Lieberman would fall far short of a Palestinian demand to set up their future capital in all of the Israeli-annexed eastern sector of the city. The eastern part contains the Old City, home to major Jewish, Muslim and Christian shrines….Ramon said that under his plan, Israel would not hand over the Old City and neighboring areasâ€â€known as the “holy basin”â€â€but he spoke of a special arrangement in the Old City. He did not elaborate, but the term would suggest less than full Israeli sovereignty there.
This would go far towards cementing Olmert’s legacy as the true heir to Chamberlain in the 21st Century (to date).
These pans seem, however, to please neither side in the dispute:
From the Paleswinians (predictably enough):
‘A Palestine without all of east J’lem as capital won’t work’
A solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict necessarily requires the establishment of a Palestinian State with its capital in all of east Jerusalem and any accord short of that will not work, the Palestinian Minister for Jerusalem Affairs said Monday. The comments by Adnan Husseini, who previously served as director of the Islamic Wakf which administers the Temple Mount, only served to highlight the immense gaps that exist between the two parties regarding Jerusalem, and cast doubt on whether Prime Minster Ehud Olmert’s longstanding proposal to cede Arab neighborhoods on the periphery of the city as part of a final peace agreement could serve as basis for such an accord.
Realize, this transfer of east Jerusalem to the Paleswinians would include the West (Wailing) Wall of the Temple back out of Israeli hands. Also, the security situation would not be improved either.
‘Olmert will place Hamas on Jerusalemem walls’
Just what we need.
At the opening of the Knesset Winter Session, Likud Chairman Binyamin Netanyahu lashed out at the government’s policy, claiming that its strategy would eventually lead to an Iranian terrorist presence in Jerusalem and the rest of Israel.
The unilateral withdrawal from Lebanon created an Iranian outpost – from which Israel is being attacked – in the North, and the unilateral pullout from Gaza created a second Iranian base in Gaza, ‘Hamastan,'” Netanyahu said. “And now the government is planning a third withdrawal – from Judea and Samaria – that will lead to a third Iranian outpost.”
Netanyahu quoted statements made by Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert before the withdrawals from Lebanon and Gaza, respectively, saying the two had promised security, while Israel was in actuality served with aggression and terror.
As Olmert seeks to become the latter-day Chamberlain, Netanyahu has taken the role of Churchill, crying in the political wilderness against the Dr. Feel-good emotions and policies of appeasement.
Senators slam lack of Arab support
In spite of all the brouhaha about the war, etc., this shows a singular lack of sympathy to a hands-off response to the problems of trying to find Arabs truly in support of Middle East peace – al long as Israel still exists.
Close to 80 senators – including all those running for president -signed a letter calling for greater Arab support for the peace process ahead of the international conference the US is planning for November.
The election’s coming, and the smell of Jewish votes is in the air! (Or is this just TOO cynical? In some cases yes, in all too many other cases, nah, not nearly cynical enough.
“The success of such a meeting, and ultimately the peace process itself, will depend on the cooperation we receive from the larger Arab world, particularly from those Arab states with close relations with the United States who have not yet signed agreements with Israel,” read the letter, in an apparent reference to Saudi Arabia. It was due to be sent to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later Tuesday.
The letter also calls for Arab countries to “recognize Israel’s right to exist and not use such recognition as a bargaining chip for future Israeli concessions” and to “pressure Hamas to recognize Israel, reject terror and accept prior agreements, and isolate Hamas until it takes such steps.”
What’s the upshot of this? Probably not much, given that so-called “moderate” Arab groups are already displeased that anyone has the nerve to expect some form of real behavior from the Saudis.
But those very stipulations would derail the effort to get the Saudis on board by setting preconditions and criticizing Saudi efforts at mediation between Fatah and Hamas, the Arab American Institute argued on its Web site.
The letter also calls for Arab countries to “recognize Israel’s right to exist and not use such recognition as a bargaining chip for future Israeli concessions” and to “pressure Hamas to recognize Israel, reject terror and accept prior agreements, and isolate Hamas until it takes such steps.”
Humph! The NERVE of the Senate to impose pre-conditions, little things like letting Israel continue to exist, and rejecting terror. This apparent offense to the Arab American Institute of these simple concepts of Israel existing and no terror shows their true colors, and they ain’t red, white, and blue!