MAV wrote:
It was written by Chris.
I kind of get when podcast posts say By Adam when he writes an introduction (but it is still confusing). This article seems to have been written entirely by Chris but still says by Adam?
Yep – Chris wrote the piece, as he’s already clarified. I’ve just been able to log on for the first time today (as we’ve been occupied with the seminar) and have corrected the author name.
Sorry for the confusion folks. As Chris said, little sleep + busy schedule + late night military provocation of Russia = good chance of a screwup somewhere. Apologies to all that it was mine.
cheers,
A
Aloha! I am sitting here in Hawaii totally removed from mainstream “anything”. I do not even have a tv here so I only go off internet “noise”! I can tell you this. You have to chose your truths carefully in this world now because what we “don’t know” could fill Disneyland to over flow capacity! If I go outside my compound here this is what I see … No bombs, no CNN news trucks, no NSA, no Syrian rebels, not even a Trump golf course that he would let Obama caddy on. I am biased as is every American because we are far removed from the suffering of the middle east. I have seen suffering first hand, but just not this week! We have all seen NIMBY and we are it!
QUESTIONS:
1-Where is Assad? Or more to the point his denial? You would think fool me once shame on me! Where is his strong denouncement or does Putin now speak for him? Hard to say.
2-The attack did not happen in Iblid like some mainstream news says. It happened in a small town south of there named Khan Sheikhun. Did anyone look at a map? See my map below.
3-Could it have been a Lebanon or Turkey involvement? Who would want to destabilize a Sunni majority in Syria? I think the answer is a Shia(Shiite) regime. Most Shia reside in Iran and Iraq but sizeable populations are in Lebanon and Turkey and some in Syria as well, but less. All well known terrorist regimes as we know.
4-Why do we care? If it were not for politics most of us would not even pay attention. I am sure plenty of kids die every day in Syria and all through the middle east and the world and no news is reported. Why do we care? Politics. Lets face it if we all really cared we’d be on the next flight to Damascus!
5-Did Obama and Hillary start this? Read this from the Huffington Post to get some background. I think you have to be eclectic with your search for truth and not just have your biased news source at your fingertips all the time. Certainly Hillary lied to the UN and as all US warfare goes there is the CIA part, which pretty much has been the formula since Vietnam.
6-What political parties in Syria want civil war? Syria and Ba’athism have links, which is more Sunni. The Arab Revolt of 1916 was part of Ba’athist roots and actually was original intended to unite the Arab world. There is also a socialist leaning to Ba’athism. Not so much totally Communist like the USSR was, but a more closer stance towards modernizing the Arab world. Like all things politics there are multiple sects and splinter groups. These ties go back to Black September and the 1972 Munich Olympics which were Palestinian and came from the Jordanian uprising against King Hussein and so came into play the PFLP and as-Sa’iqa. Assad wants to retain power that much we do know. He is the ruling General Secretary of the Socialist Ba’ath Party.
7-The Socialist Ba’ath Party. Does socialism have values other than do what ever it takes to stay in power? I guess that is the same for all the 1% ruling class no matter what politics. More to the point that is a characteristic of the human condition. Greed, power, wealth, fame … everything that makes Hollywood and Washington DC tick!
So we can connect the terrorist dots all the way from the 1972 Munich Olympics to Assad in Syria today. So you can see the past is still very much alive and well! As with all things media you need to go outside the USA to find more truthful reporting or at least add foreign press to your NIMBY assessments of the world! I think this Guardian report has some “truthiness” to it!
I think that is about all we can expect from all media … “truthiness”! But I think a good rule to live by is “the truth is somewhere in the middle”. Maybe because of that fact our Founding Fathers(Cisgenders) decided that we should perhaps limit our war activities in foreign lands. They wanted to “limit” wars not expand them! But it seems Obama and Hillary along with the Bush family interpreted their own versions, which included “neocon visions” of triumphant splendor! But are “purple thumbs” worth it?
Right then … like when I started this … believe whatever you want to believe … or don’t … just don’t bet your sons and daughters on any of it and carry on bravely!
Mark_BC wrote:
I now pretty much instinctively believe the opposite of what the media tells me.
Some things to chew on from Scott Adams of Dilbert:
I’m going to call bullshit on the gas attack. It’s too “on-the-nose,” as Hollywood script-writers sometimes say, meaning a little too perfect to be natural. This has the look of a manufactured event. My guess is that President Trump knows this smells fishy, but he has to talk tough anyway. However, keep in mind that he has made a brand out of not discussing military options. He likes to keep people guessing. He reminded us of that again yesterday, in case we forgot. So how does a Master Persuader respond to a fake war crime? He does it with a fake response, if he’s smart.http://blog.dilbert.com/post/159264981001/the-syrian-gas-attack-persuasion
I have to say, the relatively limited impact and symbolic nature of the Tomahawk strike so far does seem to be along the lines of a ‘fake response’…
The Raytheon stockholders must be happy. They build the drones and cruise missiles that were used in these attacks. What’s really scary is that they also build the anti-missile missiles that the delusional neocons believe are 100% infallible in protecting them (not us) from ICBMs. The Pentagon has given up on the midcourse systems since they are so complex, unreliable, and easily countered. They are now focusing in on the relatively easy to design launch phase interceptors since they track extremely hot exhaust gases and don’t have to fly 100 miles into space to hit their target. They wouldn’t be of any use against Russia and China since their launch sites are so far away from any possible launch site of our own. The neocons must therefore prop up N Korea as the ultimate evil so that they can justify placing ships/subs that are armed with these missiles off of their coast.
The media’s response reminds me of this H Goring quote:
…the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any country.
Aloha! It’s not about morals in Syria. Innocent lives taken by evil regimes. It is about the money! The oil and gas money to be precise! Why else is the West in the middle east? M-O-N-E-Y!!
Putin if you recall a ways back held Europe hostage shutting off the gas one winter. Along comes Obama and Hillary who in 2009 start up a deal to move Qatar oil and gas into Europe through Syria also. By 2011 we have the start of a Syrian civil war with well armed CIA backed rebels. Turkey cares because Turkey wants to be the hub so that regime gets all the transfer fees. Now the truth is that Russia is in competition with Europe/USA and with Turkey as to who gets the biggest portion of the pipeline oil money! I hear Sympathy For The Devil playing faintly in the background!
Here is a report from Australia that defines the players and the pipeline routes. Here is another report from Martin Armstrong who ties it all in. Since when have any politicians ever cared about dead children other than propaganda fodder?
It turns out the truth is not evil rebels or evil oil, but the one thing that greases the gears in Moscow and Washington DC and Damascus and Tehran and Brussels and Sacramento is … MONEY!!!
Cross pollination
I enjoy seeing many of the bloggers that I respect and learn from cross pollinating each other’s world views.
One recent example is the retired Russian military analyst “the Saker” discovering John Michael Greer’s novel, Twilights Last Gleaming. [I whole heartedly recommend it also.]
The Saker writes:
A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article for the Unz Review entitled “The Empire should be placed on suicide watch”. As always, I also reposted it on my blog. One of the commentators, J.L. Seagull posted a comment which intrigued me. He wrote: (…) we continue to be trapped in an illusion that we are still a massive power and can simply “pull through” the current state of things, as if it is a little speed bump rather than the beginning of the end. I agree with the Saker. All that is needed is a single, concrete military failure for that hallucination to be totally shattered. John Michael Greer described precisely how this can happen in his book “Twilight’s Last Gleaming.” If the American military were to fail, the illusion of a united country would dissipate before our eyes and the country would be gone within weeks — either in a peaceful breakup or a violent one, depending on how Washington would attempt to respond. This got me very interested in the book he mentioned. While I personally had a pretty clear idea of how the USA could completely collapse and break-up, I had never heard of such a hypothesis discussed in details in an English language text, and even less so in a fiction book. I ordered the book and two days later I began reading it. And what a fascinating book it turned out to be. I don’t want to give away the entire plot as I hope that many of you will decide to get the book, but I will just say that I find the book highly realistic: it begins by a supposedly “easy” military attack by the US military on a weak and more or less defenseless country which turns into a disaster due to a fundamental miscalculation. At that point, the USA does exactly what the opposing side predicts and doubles-down and that turns out to be a fatal mistake which, through a domino effect, ends up in the dissolution of the USA. ... The book is highly realistic in the sense that the author clearly did an excellent job researching his topic and because each “domino fall” is, by itself, credible. Truth be told, the author does assume that each time before the next domino falls the President commits yet another blunder or, at least, does not take correct action. Is that realistic? Well, when I see the kind of Presidents the USA has had in the past couple of decades I would say that yes – this assumption is realistic. Still, what Greer’s describes is a “perfect storm” and we can all hope that in the real world such a crisis could be averted. There two aspects of this book which I find the most remarkable. First, Greer clearly points to a mindset of imperial hubris as the main cause for the eventual collapse of the USA. Second, Greer very skillfully illustrates how otherwise powerful and complex [high tech] weapons systems can be defeated by creative tactics. Again, I don’t want to go into the details because the book is a real page-turner and I hope that you will read it with as much enjoyment as I did.
Ask any Canadian veteran. April 9, 1917 - Vimy Ridge
Thanks for the suggestion, SP. I know of Saker, and have heard of Greer but not read him.
It is available on Kindle. Looking forward to reading it this w/e.
One other Observation. I was on the road all day yesterday, but the news reports keep on referring to the bomb crater as confirmation of the attack. One “Huge” Problem. Chemical weapons do not leave craters! They use low yeild explosives and are detenated as air burst in order to spread the agent over a wide area. A ground impact would render it nearly useless unless you were right next to it,
I also see reports on Youtube (See “Israeli News Live” channel) that shows pictures of the children killed, all had blunt trama wounds the head. Also about 170 people were kidnapped about a week ago, but I not sure if the missing have been found as the dead. Its likely that if there is a connection between the 170 kidnapped people and those killed in the alledged chemical attack will be investigated by the alt-media.
Although all this is largely pointless, since Western gov’t fully control the news released to the public. They could declare that the Dalia Lama is the Devil and the public will beliveve it as fact. 2017 is 1984! (George Orwell) We’ll always been and war with Russia and always will.
I am just waiting for the FCC to establish the department of Truth (aka Ministry of Truth in 1984 book)
I bear it foremost in my mind that DT has a formidable mind. I read that his IQ is 157.
There are various pieces of evidence that this will exercise was done for the optics.
That it is so easily seen by the moderately intelligent (the vast majority) to be a false flag tells me that this action was staged to invoke the outrage that it did.
The target was the NeoCons and the leugen presse.
They have been, (how you say?), a pain in the butt with all their war fantasies.
Extrapolating, I anticipate that this will take its course and the warmongers and their running dogs will be much diminished.
I think that they have just had a bucket of cold water thrown over them.
Please do not post this because I do not want to undermine the Don. He has just taken one for the team.
Quote:
One other Observation. I was on the road all day yesterday, but the news reports keep on referring to the bomb crater as confirmation of the attack. One "Huge" Problem. Chemical weapons do not leave craters! They use low yeild explosives and are detenated as air burst in order to spread the agent over a wide area. A ground impact would render it nearly useless unless you were right next to it, Twilight’s Last Gleaming was superb. Creative and compelling, a real page turner.
I was bigly depressed at the news of this strike at first. Now I’ve decided to be patient and wait and see. It’s stirred the pot in fascinating ways without being much more than symbolic.
Casey
Having dinner with the leader of a foreign country at the exact time you are launching missiles at a country who is the friend of a friend of your guest at table is part of the puzzle of why make a show now. What was said in Florida around a dinner table may never be known. Maybe throwing 59 Tomahawks at a target is the manly way to make an impression on (or belittle) your company. How did Comrade Xi take this? Will we ever know?
Having dinner with the leader of a foreign country at the exact time you are launching missiles at a country who is the friend of a friend of your guest at table is part of the puzzle of why make a show now. What was said in Florida around a dinner table may never be known. Maybe throwing 59 Tomahawks at a target is the manly way to make an impression on (or belittle) your company. How did Comrade Xi take this? Will we ever know?
The infantile and transparent attempts at intimidation don’t seem to be going according to plan after ‘chemical attack in Syria- the sequel!’ Chances are really high that China also just went back to putting their full support behind North Korea after the cleverly timed dinner insult.
Russia and Iran warn US they will ‘respond with force’ if red lines crossed in Syria again
Since there is 100% consensus on this blog that Assad did not use chemical weapons in this event, it gives me great pleasure to offer an alternative narrative. It strikes me as odd that people can reach conclusions when facts are not yet fully revealed or vetted. Should we not be in fact finding mode for a few days?
The following from Defense News:
April 4 6:50 a.m. local time — A Syrian fixed-wing aircraft, most likely a Su-22 launched from Shyrat airfield, drops a munition that strikes in the middle of a street at Kahn Sheikoum. “We know the routes that these aircraft took. We know that these aircraft were overhead at the time of the attack,” the first Pentagon official said. Subsequent analysis of the crater caused by the missile would show “staining” around the explosion site, in line with the signs of a chemical warhead. Despite early claims from Russia and Syria that the chemical attack were caused by an explosion at a chemical weapons factory being maintained by anti-Assad rebel groups, the Pentagon official said the crater evidence shoots that option down. 7:00 a.m. local time — Intelligence shows the first “reflections” of the potential use of a nerve agent, which include causalities arriving at a local hospital. Shortly afterwards, a small unmanned system – “either regime or Russian” – flies over the hospital, gathering intelligence at the scene before departing. “About five hours” after it was first spotted, the UAV returns, and shortly thereafter the hospital is struck by a fixed-wing aircraft. “We don’t have positive accountability yet, but [why] somebody would strike the hospital, potentially to hide the evidence of a chemical attack about 5 hours after it was clearly seen that was a hospital with ambulances and civilian traffic, is a question that we’re very interested in,” the first official said.
http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/article/2017/apr/07/unproven-onl…
Quote:
So, was the chemical attack a hoax orchestrated to draw the United States into Syria’s civil war?
We found no credible evidence of it. While doubters have raised eyebrows, asked questions and offered theories, there’s little in the way of proof that their claims are anything more than speculation.