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Imminent Turkish/Saudi Escalation in Syria?
Stephen Lendman
Russia’s intervention in Syria last fall shifted momentum in Assad’s favor, letting government forces regain lost ground, putting Washington’s Middle East project in jeopardy.
US officials are desperate to turn things around. Their strategy may be to use Turkish and Saudi forces as proxies to do America’s dirty work.
To what extent beyond provocative actions and warnings of escalation is unknown. The fullness of time will tell.
A US invasion is unlikely beyond small numbers of special forces and combat troops. Perhaps Ankara and Riyadh have only disruptive objectives in mind. Maybe regaining control of limited areas in northern Syria close to Turkey’s border alone.
Provocative Saudi-Led Regional Military Exercises
Stephen Lendman
Saudi Arabia’s support for ISIS and other terrorist groups, as part of Washington’s regional imperial agenda, threatens world peace and security.
According to the state-controlled Saudi Press Agency (SPA), 20 Middle East and North African countries will participate in Ra’ad Al-Shamal (Thunder of the North) military exercises.
They’re being held at King Khald Military City in Hafr Al-Batin in northern Saudi Arabia. Participating countries include Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Bahrain, Senegal, Sudan, Kuwait, Maldives, Morocco, Pakistan, Chad, Tunisia, Comoros, Djibouti, Oman, Qatar, Malaysia, Egypt, Mauritania, and Mauritius - along with what Riyadh calls the Peninsula shield forces.
Antonin Scalia’s Passing
Stephen Lendman
Appointed Associate Supreme Court Justice by Ronald Reagan in 1986, he represented core hard-right neocon extremism throughout his tenure.
Its ending saddens no one for governance serving all its people equitably and fairly, not just its privileged few. Scalia was ideologically over-the-top. He supported rolling back civil liberties, defiling human rights, and ending social justice.
He opposed core voting rights, reproductive choice, government regulations, labor rights, affirmative action, same-sex marriage, gay, lesbian and transgender rights, environmental protections and other progressive issues - subverting justice in defense of privilege, endorsing fascism over democratic values.
Conservative Judge Richard Posner once called him “the most influential justice of the last quarter century,” arguably the most deplorable among an array of right-wing extremists he failed to explain, often writing for the majority in major cases, opinions subverting fundamental justice.
Scalia was no ordinary conservative. He was a right-wing extremist, morally and ethically unfit to serve.
Turkey Shells Kurdish YPG and Syrian Forces: A US-Approved Provocative Act of War!
Stephen Lendman
Turkey is a fascist police state, a valued US ally, a NATO member, partnered with Obama’s war on Syria - naked aggression against a nonbelligerent state.
Reported cross-border shelling into Syrian territory ups the stakes hugely. Will direct confrontation with Russia follow?
On Saturday, Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu admitted his country’s military attacked Kurdish YPG fighters battling terrorist groups in northern Syria. “We will retaliate against every” advance they make,” he ranted. He demanded their forces “immediately withdraw from Azaz and the surrounding area (near Turkey’s border) and not go close to it again.”
A Kurdish YPG official confirmed the attack, explaining the Menagh air base its forces captured from area terrorists was attacked, along with Maranaz village.
Syria Demands International Action Against Turkish Aggression
Stephen Lendman
A separate article discussed Erdogan-ordered Turkish cross-border shelling of Kurdish YPG and Syrian forces - calling it a provocative US-approved act of war!
Damascus reacted sharply, its Foreign Ministry condemning naked Turkish aggression, saying:
“Turkish artillery shelling of Syrian territory constitutes direct support to the armed terrorist organizations,” in letters to the UN Secretary General and Security Council chairman, demanding international action.
Maranaz, al-Malkieh, Minnegh, Ein Daqneh and Bazi villages were attacked. Turkish forces entered Syrian territory. Its aggression constitutes “a gross violation” of its sovereignty, flagrantly breaching international law, its Foreign Ministry stressed.
Deconstructing John Kerry’s Latest Big Lies
Stephen Lendman
As secretary of state, Kerry is Washington’s imperial front man, its lead spokesman, complicit in its high crimes, justifying the unjustifiable, pretending to want peace while endless US wars rage.
Addressing Munich Security Conference participants, he repeated tired old Big Lies, featuring long ago discredited US policies, an agenda holding humanity hostage to its viciousness.
His disingenuous claims about American “democratic values…liberty, decency, justice and rule of law” fooled no one.
He expressed “unwavering support” for US-installed fascist putschists in Ukraine - at the same time, blasting nonexistent “Russian aggression” while irresponsibly blaming Moscow for Minsk peace initiative failures.
Russian Prime Minister Warns Against Syrian Conflict Igniting WW III
Stephen Lendman
Addressing Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other Gulf States following their threat to send combat troops to Syria, a grave breach of international law if ordered, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev blasted them, saying escalating conflict risks “unleashing another war on earth.”
“Any (lawless ground invasion could) lead to (dangerously escalated) permanent war,” he warned - what Washington unleashed on Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, and Syria with new targets in mind.
Addressing his comments to Saudi Arabia and Turkey specifically, he meant America most of all. These and other regional states won’t act unilaterally or together without US permission or complicity.
The EU, Greece, and All That
Kersasp Shekhdar
Amidst a hand-wringing defence of the indefensible, The New Statesman propagated a common myth thus: "The European Union has indeed brought peace and prosperity to the people of Europe..."
Indeed, it never did. The institution that arguably brought peace and truly brought prosperity to Europe was the E.E.C. Colloquially, 'it was a different type of animal,' say, the cow in the barn as opposed to the wolf at the door (now which institution might that symbolize?).
And talking about animals, we never had a single 'PIGS' during the E.E.C.'s years, did we? Neither were there so many ailing and failing economies nor were such degrading epithets flung around. In fact, the defamed nations are not 'PIGS;' they are Old Testament 'scapegoats.' Greece is but the latest one.
So much for the animal metaphors.
Israel/Palestine: Is it too late for peace?
Alan Hart
Before I offer my own answer here's a quick review of how things are and look like going.* President Obama is not going to use the leverage he has to cause or try to cause Israel to end its defiance of international law and denial of justice for the Palestinians. In the past I entertained some hope that in the last year of his second term he would do so, and there was quite a good reason for a small degree of optimism on my part. It was in what President Jimmy Carter once said to me. He explained that any president has only two windows of opportunity to take on the Zionist lobby and its stooges (I prefer to call the traitor agents) in Congress.
Well-Documented Close Turkish/ISIS Ties
Stephen Lendman
Western media scoundrels suppress information on America’s responsibility for creating ISIS and likeminded terrorist groups, using them to further its imperial agenda, involving endless wars of aggression.
Turkey is criminally complicit, Erdogan allied with Washington’s imperial project, giving safe haven status to ISIS and other terrorists on its territory, arming them, letting them pass freely cross-border into Syria and Iraq.
One rogue state supports another, both responsible for high crimes against peace.
On Wednesday, Sergey Lavrov minced no words, saying clear intelligence-gotten evidence shows ISIS terrorists maintain constant contacts with Turkish officials, planning new tactics in waging war on Syria.
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