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Dark Vision- Shia Militias and the Battle for Ramadi - Brian Downing

June 3rd, 2015

ramadi

By Brian M Downing
ISIL’s seizure of the capital of Anbar province has once again called into question the effectiveness of the Iraqi army. With poor weather limiting air support, facing immense vehicle-borne explosives, Iraqi troops fled Ramadi as they did Mosul last summer. A counteroffensive is underway, spearheaded by Shia militias. Their effectiveness augurs well in the ISIL war in Iraq, though their impact on the fragile country worries Washington and other capitals – not always wrongly. (Image)
Effectiveness
Though discussions of the militias, and their relationship with Iran, have only recently come to the fore, the forces date back to the Iran-Iraq War of the eighties when Tehran organized guerrilla bands and political movements to weaken Saddam’s homefront. Washington’s surprise, then, should itself be a surprise.
When the US ousted the Sunnis in 2003, it unwittingly though predictably, boosted the importance of Iran-backed forces. Iran, fearing it was next in Washington’s trumpeted campaign of regime-change in the Middle East, directed the militias in an insurgency against US and coalition forces which raged for several years. For reasons neither Washington nor Tehran has deigned to articulate in public, Shia attacks on US troops and American threats against Iran both subsided simultaneously and quickly.
The Shia militia fighters have never demonstrated exceptional combat skills, not against the US, not against ISIL. Indeed, their battle tactics often border on the foolhardy – firing wildly while exposed to enemy fire, relying on ardor over caution. Their forte has always been tenacity in battle and knowledge of the urban terrain they operate in.

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Greece Defies Washington: To Join Russia's Turkish Stream Pipeline Project

June 3rd, 2015

by Stephen Lendman

Plans call for it to supply natural gas from Russia through Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Serbia and Hungary - bypassing Ukraine.

Moscow's original South Stream project was scheduled to transit through Bulgaria. US-manipulated destabilization blocked it.

Washington tried the same stunt in Macedonia - attempted color revolution destabilization to replace its government with one it favors - so far with no success. It pressured Greece to stick with a Western-backed Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) instead of Turkish Stream.

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Jingoistic Media Scoundrels Bash China

June 3rd, 2015

by Stephen Lendman

US major media function as a mouthpiece for America's imperial agenda - including full support for its endless direct and proxy naked aggression, global destabilization and alliance with some of the world's most ruthless despots.

Russia bashing is relentless. So is vilifying China - notably over its sovereign territorial water rights. The South China Sea doesn't belong to America. You'd never know it based on US policy. More on this below.

The Center for a New American Security is a right-wing/hawkish think tank. Its board of directors includes a rogue's gallery of neocons and war profiteers.

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New York Times Editors Love Ruthless Despots

June 3rd, 2015

by Stephen Lendman

They support wealth, power and privilege exclusively - Western ruling class monied interests most of all.

They love fascist regimes. They support US imperial ruthlessness - especially wars of aggression against nations threatening no one. They claim US geopolitical lawlessness is democracy building.

They call naked Israeli aggression against defenseless Palestinians self-defense. They give feature op-ed space to one tinpot despot after another or figures espousing their interests.

Social democrats, anti-war activists, and truth-tellers on issues mattering most are shunned.

The self-styled newspaper of record is a lying machine for lunatics infesting Washington - supporting their most ruthless policies.

Daily propaganda substitutes for what readers most need to know. Managed news misinformation Big Lies block out hard truths.

Try finding a single Times report, op-ed or editorial denouncing US-installed Ukrainian Nazi thugs - waging dirty war without mercy on their own citizens wanting democratic rights.

Or explaining Israeli high crimes against defenseless Palestinians - apartheid worse than South Africa's combined with genocidal wars of aggression.

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Israel Jails Soldier for Eating Pork

June 3rd, 2015

by Stephen Lendman

You can't make this stuff up. Don't put anything past Israel. Rogue states find new ways to commit abuses.

It's hard believing this one but it's true. An unnamed US-born Israeli soldier was sentenced to 11 days in jail for eating non-kosher food during training.

After an Israeli reporter asked for an IDF comment, his sentence was commuted to denying him a weekend furlough.

Israeli army regulations prohibit non-kosher food on military bases. An IDF spokesperson's office called the soldier's action "unbecoming to what is expected from a cadet in a commanders course, which is why he was tried severely."

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Tags: israel

The futility of counting on Netanyahu for peace

June 3rd, 2015

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

It is really hard to give renewed European efforts to revive the moribund peace process between Israel and the Palestinians the benefit of the doubt. But, even if we did, these efforts would hardly be proven more than just a mere regurgitation of past failed efforts.

The naked facts on the ground in Occupied Palestine underscore a completely grim outlook. Israel has more or less killed any remaining chances for a viable Palestinian state, the centerpiece of the proposed two-state solution.

Israel is relentlessly continuing to make facts on the ground, ensuring the irreversibility of present realities. But the irreversibility of present realities also means that Israel, whether we like it or not, is becoming a bi-national state de fact, at least, with as many as 50% of the population between the River Jordan and the Mediterranean (an area ruled or controlled by Israel) being non-Jews.

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Tags: netanyahu

Time for the Second American Revolution

June 2nd, 2015

SARTRE

For well over the last decade BATR has argued that the Republic is dead. Now that the Supreme Court has rendered their decision on Obamacare, there can be no doubt that the funeral for a nation, born out of a revolution for liberty, is over. The country, buried in the ashes of totalitarian despotism, is now history.

The plurality of citizens naively accepts that the national government has legitimacy. Such a claim is erroneous. What more proof does one need that slavery is the official status for the American public. The implication of affirming the health insurance mandate sets the precedent for and escalates an unlimited federal tyranny. The twisted interpretation that a forced and binding purchase of medical coverage is justified because the government can tax its citizens is demonic in its inception. Coercion as a mean for compliance is like whipping your indentured servant for the privilege of serving the master.

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Iran Nuclear Talks: Raising the Bar

June 2nd, 2015

by Stephen Lendman

On April 1, P5+1 countries and Iran agreed "in principle on all key aspects of a deal."

An article discussing the announcement said hold the cheers. It's a long way from preliminary to final agreement - especially with Washington involved, serving its own and Israeli interests.

It's longer still believing America will honor what it agrees to. Its sordid history suggests otherwise - breaching and/or reinterpreting one agreement and convention after another to suit its political agenda.

Washington's only rules are its own - made up based on geopolitical considerations and enforced belligerently.

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BDS essential to check Israeli insolence

June 2nd, 2015

By Khalid Amayreh in occupied Palestine

Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has lambasted Palestinian efforts to raise international awareness over Israel's institutionalized apartheid and other forms of systematic abuse of Palestinian rights.

Netanyahu, an extreme right-winger and strong believer in Jewish supremacy, reportedly warned that Israel was facing “international campaign to blacken its name" aimed at de-legitimizing its very existence.

Netanyahu routinely equates international criticisms of Israel's apartheid policies against Palestinians with denials of Israel's existence. On Monday, he was quoted as saying that the BDS campaign does not target Israel based on its policies regarding the Palestinians but "seeks to deny our very right to live here."

But, Netanyahu is not telling the truth, unless he implies that Israel could only exist at the expense of another people, the Palestinians.

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US/Saudi/Israeli Axis of Evil Against Yemen

June 2nd, 2015

by Stephen Lendman

Yemen is Obama's war - planned months before Saudi-led proxies launched naked aggression.

It's been raging since March 26 with no end in sight. At stake is Yemeni sovereignty and the fate of its 24 million people suffering horrifically from relentless Saudi terror-bombing and shelling.

Israel is very much involved. In late April, Fars News reported its submarines and warplanes "readily observed" near Saudi Arabia's coastline since conflict began - according to unnamed foreign diplomats. They said Riyadh secretly agreed decades ago to give Israeli submarines and warplanes access to Saudi waters.

They've been patrolling them since the start of conflict. According to Fars News, "(m)any regional officials…earlier revealed collaboration among the US, Israel and Saudi Arabia in the aggression against Yemen."

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