Posted on 10/09/2015 9:07:45 PM PDT by Brad from Tennessee
BEIRUT, Lebanon — The Islamic State registered significant gains on Friday in the area of northwestern Syria that Russian warplanes have been bombing, taking six villages near Aleppo and threatening to cut off an important route north to the Turkish border. Late in the day, there were reports that rebels had reasserted control in one village.
The Kremlin has said its military had entered Syria to fight the Islamic State, but the Russian forces have concentrated much of their firepower on insurgent groups aligned against President Bashar al-Assad, including the Nusra Front, Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, and relatively secular groups like the Free Syrian Army. Rival insurgents say that the Islamic State, also called ISIS or Daesh, is taking advantage.
“Daesh has exploited the Russian airstrikes and the preoccupation of the Free Syrian Army in its battles in Hama, and advanced in Aleppo,” one rebel commander told Reuters.
Jalal Zein al-Din, the pen name of a Syrian journalist working in an ISIS-held area of Aleppo Province, said the advance was aided by the United States’ insistence on removing the Nusra Front from the area and leaving only groups the West was willing to deal with. He said the Free Syrian Army could not hold off the Islamic State by itself. . .
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
“Russia just handed ISIS a ‘big win’ in Syria’s largest city”
http://www.businessinsider.com/russia-just-handed-isis-a-big-win-in-syrias-largest-city-2015-10
Hopefully, Russia can get on the right side one of these days.
Remember all the freepers fawning over Putin about the show of force?
lol
And Toyota trucks.
Confused?
Your businessinsider is a leftwing rag that has propagandized for Obama from the moment he appeared on the scene.
I think this is something that many people haven’t realized yet which Western and Gulf states are working so hard to obscure via their media propaganda is that the various rebel factions including ISIS all share the same agenda, Sunni Islamic supremacy and the extermination of all infidels. Some just simply have a wider definition of infidels than others. Like the various Communist splinter groups that battled one another over quibbles in interpretation of Marxism and the “proper” revolutionary path, the end goal was still the dictatorship of the proletariat. You say People’s liberation front of Judea. I say Judean people’s liberation front. There is minor differences in ISIS and All Nusra or the dozens of other groups of armed men who change affiliations on a weekly basis. A “moderate” Syrian rebel group fighting for secular democracy simply does not exist in reality. Merely bands of jihadists practicing taqiyah who are willing to accept American money and weapons and bands of jihadists so dogmatic that that they don’t. The overthrow of Assad won’t usher in anything other than another Libya. There is no way America can influence developments in Syria to the way it wants without significant ground forces and an occupation. Present American policy also shared by the Gulf States and Turkey can only result in Sharia law and various stripes of Jihadists fighting for power over the carcass of a former Syrian state. The Russian policy is to restore the antebellum status quo with Assad in power and all of the rebels dead. Which outcome is more desirable depends on who you ask, but there will be no “Free” liberal Syria at the end of either road. That is simply a fantasy shared by both neoconservatives and liberal interventionists.
Russia Teams Up With Islamic State Against Syria’s Rebels
The main intention of Russia’s intervention in Syria is to prop up the dictatorship of Bashar al-Assad and to do that Russia is seeking to ensure that the Islamic State (I.S.) is the only alternative to Assad’s regime. If the conflict becomes binary—Assad or I.S.—nobody can support I.S., and by default it will be accepted that Assad has to stay; even if international help is not given to put down the insurgency at that point, tacit support and political legitimacy will be extended to Russia’s effort to keep its client regime alive.
In service of this mission, Moscow has consistently targeted the moderate rebels and even some non-moderate rebels, while avoiding I.S., in the conscious hope that the rebel positions it destroys will be replaced by I.S. fighters. In northern Syria in the last few days, Russia got its wish in a major way.
https://kyleorton1991.wordpress.com/2015/10/11/russia-teams-up-with-islamic-state-against-syrias-rebels/
Unit from the 53rd Anti-Aircraft Missile Brigade in Kursk in Russia shoot down MH17.
https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/10/08/mh17-the-open-source-evidence/
In service of this mission, Moscow has consistently targeted the moderate rebels and even some non-moderate rebels, while avoiding I.S."
According to the following report, Russia has actually been strengthening ISIS by sending fighters there...
From Aug 23, 2015:
"a recent investigation conducted by Novaya Gazeta, one of the few independent newspapers left in Russia, complicates this cozy tale of counterterrorist cooperation. Based on extensive fieldwork in one village in the North Caucasus, reporter Elena Milashina has concluded that the “Russian special services have controlled” the flow of jihadists into Syria, where they have lately joined up not only with ISIS but other radical Islamist factions.
In other words, Russian officials are adding to the ranks of terrorists which the Russian government has deemed a collective threat to the security and longevity of its dictatorial ally on the Mediterranean, Bashar al-Assad."
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/08/23/russia-s-playing-a-double-game-with-islamic-terror0.html
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Understanding Provocation [Provokatsiya]
One of the most powerful tools the Kremlin has in its secret arsenal of Special War is provocation, what they call provokatsiya.
While Moscow cannot claim to have invented this technique, which has existed as long as there have been secret services, there’s no doubt that Russians have perfected the art and taken it to a whole new level of sophistication and deviousness. At times, it can become a strategy all on its own (not always, mind you, with edifying results).
Provokatsiya simply means taking control of your enemies in secret and encouraging them to do things that discredit them and help you. You plant your own agents provocateurs and flip legitimate activists [in this case, dupe actual Jihadis -ETL], turning them to your side.
When you’re dealing with extremists to start with, getting them to do crazy, self-defeating things isn’t often difficult. In some cases, you simply create extremists and terrorists where they don’t exist. This is causing problems in order to solve them, and since the Tsarist period, Russian intelligence has been known to do just that.
While this isn’t a particularly nice technique, it works surprisingly well, particularly if you don’t care about bloody and messy consequences. ..."
http://20committee.com/2014/03/29/understanding-provocation/
_________________________________
In other words, it's like starting a fire, or pouring gasoline on a fire, in order to be the 'big hero', being first on the scene to put it out. Except in this case, you get to grab control over the buildings and town you helped 'saved' from the fire you helped to start.
"If we want to actually dismantle ISIS, we need to dramatically change course. We need a real, robust campaign that maximizes our overwhelming air advantage.
We need to focus our efforts not on trying to create friends, but on supporting our real ones, especially the Kurds in Iraq and Syria who have actually had success against ISIS."
-snip-
"We can redouble our efforts to develop the defensive weapons that neutralized the offensive Soviet threat -- particularly missile defense, which has seen a 25% budget reduction under Obama, according to an analysis from the conservative Heritage Foundation, and has been constrained by bad arms deals like New START.
We should not only move quickly to install the canceled interceptor sites Putin opposed in Poland and the Czech Republic, but also to develop the next generation of systems that will only increase his discomfiture.
These options do not entail a ground war in Syria, yet would effectively shake us free from the failed policies that have brought us to our current impasse.
These options set us on a new path that puts Putin on notice that the United States is reclaiming our traditional role as leader of the free world."
http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/09/opinions/cruz-syria-putin/index.html
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“I think it would be a mistake to get involved in the Syrian civil war. There have been voices in Washington eager for us to send our sons and daughters over to fight that civil war for some time. I haven’t been one of them. I think the touchstone of U.S. military policy should be protecting the national security of this country.
“What we’re seeing Putin in Russia do is a direct response to the profound weakness of Obama over six and a half years.
Putin views Obama as weak, as ineffective, and frankly, as a laughingstock. And, as a result, he is moving in, he is invading his neighbors – like Ukraine – he’s kidnapping Estonians, and he’s moving into Syria to gain a stronger foothold in the Middle East."
A: admsmith = neocon bathhouse attendant
"According to the Washington Free Beacon, Russia’s nuclear arsenal how has over 100 nuclear warheads above the limit set by the treaty.
Since the treaty was launched, Russia has deployed 111 new nuclear warheads, bringing its total number of deployed warheads to 1,648. That treaty limit is 1,150 warheads — a number that must be reached in 2018.
Comparatively, the numbers of U.S. nuclear warheads, missiles and bombers have fallen dramatically and are already below the limits set by the treaty. Additionally, the United States has decreased the number of warheads in its deployed nuclear arsenal by 250.
While the United States intends to eliminate heavy bombers and launchers, Russia has launched a strategic nuclear force expansion.
Russian President Vladimir Putin also recently announced a new doctrine that placed priority on nuclear forces.
If this raises concern for you, you are not alone.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., chairman of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, said Russia “is in the business of violating treaties.”
Rogers said Putin has violated several agreements and treaties in the past, and he simply “violates any treaty or agreement that puts limits on capabilities that Mr. Putin and his cronies desire.”
“Russia’s arguable adherence to the New START Treaty just indicates how bad a deal it is for the United States,” he said.
Adm. William Gortney, commander of the U.S. Northern Command, said Wednesday that Russia has read our play book and is “fielding cruise missiles that are very, very accurate, very long range.”
Gortney said these missiles have the ability to reach targets in Canada and the United States. He added that Russia has been participating in war game scenarios recently that simulate cruise missile strikes in Alaska.
This news is serious because it appears Russia has no intention of abiding by New START or any other treaty. We should therefore be building up our military and our arsenals instead of depleting them.
Group of conservatives?? LOL!! You're a group of devoted and/or paid pro-Russia, pro-KGB/FSB Putin trolls trying to pass yourselves off as pro-American/anti-Obama. Meanwhile, Obama is the best friend you could ever hope to have in the White House.
What year did you emigrate to America?
How long have you lived in a basement in Queens Village?
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