Posted on 02/12/2018 11:53:29 PM PST by vikingrinn
The Conflict Intelligence Team found the Russians "may have fought alongside pro-Russia separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine prior to joining the fight against the Islamic State militant group (ISIS) and other insurgents challenging Assad's rule in Syria." The group also found Russians killed "appeared to have joined the Wagner Group, a private paramilitary company, before traveling to fight in Syria. Last October, ISIS released a video showing two Russian-speaking men the militants claimed to have captured, and subsequent research showed the two men were likely Wagner Group members fighting in Syria." "While the total number of 'Wagner' operatives killed in Coalition airstrikes is unlikely to ever be established, it is beyond doubt that this incident indeed took place."
(Excerpt) Read more at newsweek.com ...
Sorry.
I promise I'm nicer in person. But even on the internet, I need to watch how my messaging comes off. My apologies.
Snark?
You were calling decorated veterans “Putinista” without regard to whether they helped win the Cold War.
That said, apology accepted.
FYI: It’s possible to support some action of the Russian Government, or to sympathize with a particular action, without being a fan of Vlad Putin.
I LOVE it! :)
Cats and geopolitics. “These are a few of my favorite things.” As Julie Andrews would sing...
This particular special operation was prompted by the growth of national self-consciousness in the former Soviet republics, she suggests; and Moscow created “a new generation of Russian historians organized by the FSB” to promote national discord among these countries.
In doing so, the Moscow propagandists are not reviving the post-1956 Soviet view but rather that of high Stalinism, denying the existence of the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, the cooperation of Hitler and Stalin, and their joint responsibility for the beginning of World War II in Europe.
“Today,” Pavlova says, “it is obvious how successfully the Kremlin and its ‘information warriors’ have been able to impose on international society its discourse on ‘the struggle with the threat of Nazism.’” Many pick up Moscow’s line on “’the fascist junta’” in Ukraine and the need to struggle with fascism everywhere.
- Irina Pavlova
an excerpt, kind of hard to follow on first read because its translated but with some key points worth considering.
http://www.interpretermag.com/russia-has-reached-its-own-very-different-end-of-history-and-west-has-failed-to-recognize-this-pavlova-says/
Turks aren’t Arabs. They are descended from Altaic speaking Oguz Turkic tribes who migrated out of Central Asia to the northwest and Islamized and assimilated the local inhabitants of Anatolia.
I think that the rebels that Trump was referring to were the so-called Free Syria Army. We’re backing the Kurdish led Syrian Democratic Forces (formerly the Syria Defense Forces).
The Putinistas don’t have a clue about anything, right now, Russia is making deals with the Saudis but leave it to the ignorant Putin-backers to make all of the same inane statements about Sunni Muslims, they retread lies from 3 years ago. They really do seem like paid St. Petersburg trolls.
...coming from a certifiable nutjob like you, I take that as a compliment. Aren't you the loon who was telling us how you plan to be raptured away when World War 3 starts on another thread, or was that one of your pals?
“I get the sense that they (Hizbollah) really prefer just to be left alone.”
When analyzing Hizbollah, it is important to appreciate that they are under the direct command of the Iranian regime.
The extreme Shi’ite sect (Twelvers) that runs Iran is focused on a final apocalyptic struggle, which they claim is almost upon us. In their view, at the end of times the “Hidden Imam” (a messiah-like figure) will re-emerge from occultation, and lead the Shia to victory - first over the Sunnis, and then the whole of the world.
In preparation, the Iranian regime deliberately set out to organize the Shia under unified command for this struggle. They established their Revolutionary Guards (Pasdaran) to protect this over-riding purpose. During the Iran-Iraq War Iran established the Quds Force within the Republican Guards, tasked with organizing supporting forces outside of Iran’s borders. Quds Forces began deploying to Lebanon in 1982 to begin initially organizing Hizbollah, which formally announced their establishment in 1985 (after conducting the Marine Corps Barracks bombing in 1983, under the direct command of Iran).
They are entirely commanded by Iran, like their Foreign Legion.
The Quds Force has since replicated the Hizbollah model within Iraq, organizing, funding, training and equipping several Shi’ite militias there (which accounted for a majority of the US combat casualties in Iraq, often with Iranian manufactured explosively formed penetrator-type munitions for IEDs). Now Iran has also established Afghan and Pakistani Shi’ite milias, which they are using as ground troops in Syria (as they did with Hizbollah, which lost more people fighting for Iran in Syria, then fighting Israel).
Hizbollah is Iran, for foreign policy or military purposes.
All good points. But remember that Hezbollah also has a political arm — and unlike other terrorist organizations, its political arm is formally recognized by many countries (even in Europe). In that regard, it isn’t much different than the dual roles played by the IRA and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland.
When the black swan event happens and you and every other hell-bound fool is caught with their pants down because you scoffed and mocked God’s repeated warnings - you might reconsider that stance.
Then again...there’s a good reason you think the way you do. Fire & brimstone clown! I hope you enjoy it! You won’t survive.
Do me a big favor, nutjob. Take your meds and don’t respond to my posts.
Don’t worry about that stuff Roman, these guys just push the Putin-line, they don’t know what they are talking about. I could probably go on for paragraphs detailing it.
You’re the one that keeps responding to me.
Maybe you need YOUR meds?
And in the meantime, Putin makes deals with the Saudis at this moment and with Erdogan in the past, Kadyrov is a Sunni strong man in Chechnya, but somehow, the Putin-bots tell us, Putin is only strongly aligned with Shias and against the Sunni threat, let alone, according to a Pat Buchanan column in the last month, Putin gave Erdogan the green light to go after the Kurds in Syria. Even objective neutral sources, are going to say the Kurd dominated forces probably did more against ISIS than anyone else.
Putinism is a religion to them.
They’re worse than Oprah Winfrey and Kim Jung-Un followers.
One wants to be a dictator and the other one is the worst type of one.
The IRA was a long-standing organization, going back generations, and in some respects centuries. It was entirely generated domestically.
Hizbollah was entirely organized by an external actor, to serve the interests of that foreign power. The “separate” political Party is simply diplomatic cover for their covert identity as an Iranian proxy. They have been agitating and propagandizing the Shia in Lebanon for the last several decades, as well as paying recruits and bribing the population, so they can now rally some votes using identity politics, Jew-bashing, peer pressure and secret police style intimidation.
Regardless of their “Political Party”, Hizbollah responds to the orders of Iran over the interests or preferences of their constituents, whenever their is a conflict. The political party is a mechanism to control public resources and the population, not to represent their wishes. It was very unpopular to sacrifice so many Lebanese for Iran in Syria, and put to lie much of the long term messaging of Hizbollah, as being dedicated to Lebanon’s defense against Israel.
European Governments recognize many terrorist front groups for the purposes of negotiations (and to pander to muslim voters domestically). It is just a useful fig leaf. The Palestinian Authority/PLO is another popular example.
Hezbollah political party members actually hold seats in Lebanon’s elected legislature, so they are clearly more than just a bunch of armed thugs.
The IRA had plenty of friends among the Irish trash right here in our own U.S. government over the years.
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