The Battle For Syria

In early August, Obama declared that the US Air Force would protect US trained insurgents if attacked by the Syrian Army or Air Force. Buoyed by their success at being able to bomb Syrian infrastructure under the guise of attacking ISIS forces, they have ratcheted up the war against Syria with this latest move.

It is very audacious because if the Syrian govt. were to avoid attacking these US sponsored terrorists for fear of being attacked in turn by the USAF, then there is nothing to stop these terrorists from marching right into Damascus. This would be a intolerable situation.

In answer to this move, Russia is supplying more anti-aircraft missiles.

The missiles by themselves would immediately become a prime target for the USAF. But Russia is also sending more Russian technicians (and marines to protect them) to help in the training in the use of these missiles.

“I can tell you once again, that our servicemen and military experts remain there [in Syria] for the maintenance of Russian [military] hardware and assisting the Syrian army in using this hardware, there’s training under way,” Lavrov said, stressing that military hardware supplies will continue. source

There has been Russian personnel in Syria for decades but recently the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, indicated that these Russian instructors would be deployed in the field with the missiles and the Syrian forces. This means that if the USAF were to attack the missile batteries, they would also be striking Russian soldiers.

The US Administration know from the Georgia debacle in 2008 that Russia will not hesitate to retaliate against any attacks on their forces. And that is a serious problem for the US. Russia has the missile technology, the fighter aircraft and the electronic weapons to decisively defeat any US attack force. If this attack and defeat were to come about, the US would also suffer a massive political defeat around the world. Whatever is left of the myth of its all dominant position as the sole superpower would evaporate in a puff of smoke. Power is largely perception and the US has been leveraging that perception for a long, long time.

What is the US to do? Well, they've started to squeal like stuck pigs about Russia sending troops to Syria as if this will provoke a war when, in fact, to not send their technicians and specialists would ensure war. Russia is not deploying assault troops as there is no need to, at this stage. The US is also howling about the Russian Naval exercises off the coast of Syria this month. These ships (and, no doubt, accompanying submarines – which are almost impossible to detect) will nullify any further attack coming from any US/NATO fleet just like they did nearly two years ago.

I think it would be a reasonable to guess that accompanying the new missiles for Syria is electronic warfare equipment to defeat any fighter/bombers or missiles launched from the Incirlik air base in Turkey. I think it is also reasonable to say that Turkey will have been informed that it runs the risk of its air base being destroyed if it allows the US to persist in any attacks on Syrian soldiers and Russian advisers and technicians. Think Georgia.

After the Georgians attacked the Russian peacekeepers in South Ossetia, Russia went through the Georgian forces like a 'dose of salts' and went on to destroy all their military infrastructure to render them harmless before withdrawing from Georgia. Russians are very touchy about being attacked and for good reason.

As one sided as this stand-off may be, it is still a very delicate situation. It has been made worse by the US government disallowing its senior military personnel from direct communication with their Russian counterparts.

Moscow fully supports the revival of contacts between the Russian and American military, Lavrov said.
“If Washington, like [US Secretary of State] John Kerry reiterated, is ready to unfreeze such contacts, than here’s our welcome,” Lavrov said, recalling that when the contacts, now suspended on the US initiative, were in place, they were extremely stable and trustful.
source

This inter-service communication was cancelled after this incident late in 2013 where inter-agency communication prevented a military confrontation between the US and Russia over the firing and downing of American missiles aimed at Syria from escalating into a full-blown battle.

This isolation of these senior US commanders from their Russian counterparts makes them much more vulnerable to being misled by the Administration neocons who are desperate to maintain their imagined hegemony. And, most probably, that is the whole point. These are not rational people and are prepared to sacrifice anyone to get what they want even if it means a disastrous military confrontation. They think they create reality. Such is the handicap of psychopathy.

The US has prevailed upon Bulgaria and Ukraine to stop overflights of Russian cargo planes heading for Syria. There is the obvious motive of hindering the resupply of military materiel and the possible supply of electronic equipment. But Russia has other supply routes and a highly mobile and effective airborne Spetsnaz force and the US must have this in mind if Russian personnel ever come under fire from a ground invasion force.

Time is running out for the bankers, the paymasters of the neocons. They have managed to keep up the value of their dollar (which is the source of all their power) by depressing oil and gold prices and the values of other competing currencies while all the while the demand for the US dollar is shrinking and the supply is ever increasing due to the various bailouts and 'Quantitive Easings'. Quite a remarkable feat but it can't last. Countries around the world are increasingly jettisoning the dollar for trade purposes and China won't be denied their place in the sun with their Yuan increasingly becoming accepted as an international trade currency despite the best efforts of the bankers and their foot-dragging IMF.

The wounded Leviathan is a dangerous beast.

Further reading-
US backs those who want to use terrorists against Assad – Lavrov

Russia's Endgame in Syria

US Seeks Occupation as US Fighters Flood Syria
First appeared: http://journal-neo.org/2015/09/08/us-seeks-occupation-as-us-fighters-flood-syria/

Comments

great post

Thanks, James. This is a really good overview. If we could read stuff like this in the newspapers, I might still be reading them.

The disconnect between the situation and the rhetoric is so twisted, it's mind-numbing to try and figure it all out. So most people don't bother.

But it's really not that tough to figure, because they always use the same tactics over and over again, but bigger -- as if doing more and more of what got them into trouble, could get them out of trouble.

This post provides an excellent (concise, detailed) case-study of the phenomenon Chris Floyd described as "A Single Answer to Every Question: Kill More People"

hi winter

brief and excellent article- straight to the point
I like it
When will the people learn, is the question I keep asking?

Thanks Winter

But it's really not that tough to figure, because they always use the same tactics over and over again, but bigger -- as if doing more and more of what got them into trouble, could get them out of trouble.

That is a perfectly succinct description of addiction and all the self-defeating madness that goes with it. "Those that the gods would destroy, they first make mad (with power)"

Chris Floyd says it so well, too. Thank you for the link, WP. The "mind-numbing" "twisted rhetoric" you mention is (apart from a window into their madness) designed to be mind numbing and confusing. The resulting confusion (cognitive dissonance) mentally disarms ordinary people and stifles resistance to their destructive campaign. It also sends us a little mad, too - a 'win-win' for the loonies.

I gotta agree with Winter!

Re: Incirlik
Recall at the beginning of the month the US offered to clear Incirlik out?
I have that posted at my blog-
"I think it is also reasonable to say that Turkey will have been informed that it runs the risk of its air base being destroyed "
btw: Incirlik is a US Airbase, not a Turkish base.
http://www.incirlik.af.mil/

Also interesting is that General Breedlove visited the base on September 11/15
"Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, NATO's Supreme Allied Commander for Europe and commander of U.S. European Command, visited the 39th Air Base Wing for a one-day tour Sept. 11"

"This makes these senior commanders more vulnerable to being misled by the Administration neocons who are desperate to maintain their imagined hegemony. These are not rational people and are prepared to sacrifice anyone to get what they want even if it means a disastrous military confrontation"

That is an outstanding point you have raised!
The psycho elites have their own agenda and by golly they would happily hang out the military to dry...
While crying crocodile tears and waving the flag

re: supply overflights to Syria-there was news today that Russia got two aid flights in to Syria- bringing food etc-
The food is enough to feed some of the internally displaced Syrians
which btw most of the Syrians are still in country- I believe the figures are around 11 or 12 million internally displaced - living in the areas controlled by the Syrian military- about 4 or 5 million have fled

What I do wonder wrt to those fleeing is exactly how many of them have been fighters?
Very dangerous times for Europe and Russia

Hi Penny

I didn't know that about Incirlik. Hopefully it is commanded by someone with a slightly firmer grip on reality than the Strangelovian Breedlove.

I read yesterday that the total refugee figure is 11 million with 4mn having fled and 7mn internal displaced. It's still an enormous number of people and an enormous level harm and distress. I can't begin to imagine what it is like to live through the mayhem that has been imposed on Syria.

Apparently, when Bashar al Assad was asked about the fears Europeans had of terrorists hiding in amongst all the refugees coming to Europe, he remarked that he didn't see what the concern was because, after all, weren't these people heroic "freedom fighters"?

McJ's picture

I agree with Winter too!

I agree with Winter too!
"If we could read stuff like this in the newspapers, I might still be reading them."

I will be linking your excellent analysis along to some internet friends and aquaintences who are very confused and distressed from all that cognitive dissonance they suffer trying to understand this from Lame Stream reporting. And to a couple of others folks that are suffering from the 'designed madness' meant for those of us that can see it as it is.

I read today that Israel was at it again, supplying air support for ISIS.
Israel Conducts Airstrikes at Syrian Artillery Near Damascus

Hi Winter hello or goodbye
That Chris Floyd sure has a way with words. Thanks for the link.

Hi Penny hello or goodbye

Thanks for the kind words,

Thanks for the kind words, McJ. I hope it is helpful for your friends. And thanks for the link.
As familiar as I am with psychopathy, I still find myself shaking my head at times at the level of brain bending hypocrisy displayed by various governments.

Speaking of which, there are a couple of very interesting articles in the blogroll feed from A13's blog on the Donmeh

McJ's picture

Thanks for the heads up

You always deserve kind words James. smiling Thanks for the heads up on articles at A13's. It was good to read them again, to refresh the old memory. sticking out tongue it is hard to keep all the machinations straight!

McJ's picture

Faked photo Faked crisis

Here is an interesting short piece from Theirry Meyssan speaking to the convenient timing of the public's sudden awakening to the crisis, the real reasons behind the mass migration and it's ramifications for Europe. I was just suggesting in a comment to an Internet friend a few days ago, that she ask herself, "Why was this photo allowed to go viral in the mainstream media at this particular point in time?" Ya know, since the crisis has been ongoing for some time now. smiling

"The left-hand part of [the] photo has been widely published by the Atlantist Press. The victim, a Syrian Kurd child, Aylan Kurdi, is supposed to have been washed up by the sea. However, his corpse is perpendicular to the waves instead of being parallel. On the right-hand part, the presence of an official Turkish photographer reinforces the suggestion of a staged event. In the background we can see people bathing."
...
"Six months ago, I was astonished by the blindness of the EU leaders, who failed to understand that the intention of the United States was to weaken their countries, including by means of the « refugee crisis » [2]. Last month, the magazine Info Direkt confirmed that, according to the Austrian Intelligence services, the passage of Syrian refugees to Europe was organised by the United States [3]. This charge still has to be verified, but already constitutes a solid hypothesis."

The phoney « refugee crisis »
by Thierry Meyssan

McJ's picture

Iconic picture

This article caught my attention the other day, striking me as BS. The source of the iconic, "heart breaking", perfectly captured photo of the dead child is Reuters. The alleged photographer is some woman who happened to be there at the time and not the official Turkish photographer in the picture accompanying the above linked Meyssan article. It appears from her statements that she could be working for the Turkish Hurriyet Daily News altho it is not clear to me if what she means by "on duty" is that she works for the paper. Or what she means by saying she and her colleagues were "documenting". Or if her duty was "to make his story heard"' in which case one might question who are her real employers.

"Nilufer also told that she and her colleagues in the region had been documenting the illegal crossing problem for the last 15 years, adding that the crossings have increased regularly in the last 2-3 months."

It seems to me it would have been fairly easy for the Turkish officials to have retrieved the bodies of the dead boy( s ) earlier in the morning or the night before and then staged them for the photos. Just saying...like never let a good tradegy go to waste kinda thing when there is a golden, timely opportunity in it.

"The photographer who took the heart-breaking picture of Aylan Kurdi that shocked the world said it was her duty to make his story heard.
Nilufer Demir, 29, was on the beach near Bodrum, Turkey, on Wednesday morning waiting for the flow of refugees that have become an almost daily occurrence.
It was then she spotted the lifeless body of the Syrian three-year-old in the surf.
Nilufer told the Hurriyet Daily News, Turkey’s English language newspaper: “I was on duty and also photographed a group of Pakistani migrants in an attempt to cross into Greece.
“While witnessing the tragedy, suddenly we noticed the lying, lifeless bodies. We recognized the bodies belonged to toddlers. We were shocked; we felt sorrow for them."


Photographer who took picture of drowned toddler Aylan Kurdi says she had to "make this tragedy heard.

Speaking of theatre, this has

Speaking of theatre, this has been turned into a 'docu-drama' if not an 'info-mercial'

The article looks like it has been written from a previous and more extensive article/interview which I'm guessing would be more forthcoming as to the real circumstances. There is obviously a lot left out of this one.

Meyssan

That was a good question to pose to your friend, McJ. If people could see politics and the media more as theatre, they would be a lot further ahead.

That is a good point about the body of that poor child laying perpendicular to the waves when it would be expected to be laying horizontal to them. I can see how that might be.

But the thing I notice about Thierry Meyssan is that for all his resources and experience, for the most part, he cannot come up with anything better than you or I or many other bloggers do and already often have, as in this case of the obvious co-ordinated media campaign.

I would have liked him to go further than indicating NATO or some bureaucrat as the culprit. How about the people who control NATO? And how about the people who control the press? And who benefits?

But then, perhaps I'm expecting a book from an Internet article! Perhaps I'm just seriously pissed off at all this needless suffering.

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