One semi-amusing thought:
Those who were terrified of having Trump with his finger on the button are the same group basically saying he’s a wimp if he doesn’t more vigorously attack Syria - thus risking the very nuclear war they were terrified that Trump would start, because it was Trump who was the impulsive boob.
Ok, I lied, its not amusing at all. One wonders if they realize where they are right now - that they’ve totally betrayed the historical anti-war wing of the Democratic party.
My only explanation: utter cognitive dissonance. Anti-War + Hate Russia + Scary Trump = Trump Must Attack Russia, risking nuclear war.
I long for the day when the American People wake up from their slumber.
Duplicate
Granny,
I think that everyone here agrees that the appropriate course of action is to honor and support those who served/fought while withholding support or even holding in contempt those who would put our young men and women in harms way for such a foolish action. (Could I add greedy?, dangerously foolish? evil?).
AKGrannyWGrit wrote:
“I can only assume you are proud of our actions and support bombing Syria.”
Oh for Pete’s Sake, another snarky comment. Really???
I get your point - my point is that I am old enough to remember the return of our Vietnam Vets and it WASN'T a hero’s welcome for many! We got it then we get it now, somehow our troops deserve better! Your post can be interpreted as contemptuous. Our Service members deserve better.
Annoyed Granny
Mohammed Mast wrote:
AKGrannyWGrit wrote:
“I can only assume you are proud of our actions and support bombing Syria.”
Oh for Pete’s Sake, another snarky comment. Really???
I get your point - my point is that I am old enough to remember the return of our Vietnam Vets and it WASN'T a hero’s welcome for many! We got it then we get it now, somehow our troops deserve better! Your post can be interpreted as contemptuous. Our Service members deserve better.
Annoyed Granny
If you realy thought that, you wouldnt have replied at all. Saying have a blessed life in this context, is hte same as saying "bless your heart " which means, I know you are wrong and you are so naive I am not going to give anyother response.
Its dying, almost dead. They need a reason to replace it.
look up, “the economist, new currency, Phoenix Funny how 2018 is the year they chose WAY back when…
joeschreiber wrote:
This attack is against Russia, which is replacing the US Dollar as its reserve currency and for settlement of international trade. Same as Iraq, Lybia, Iran, and China. That’s why these countries are on our shitlist and subject to sanctions, invasions, attacks, trade wars, and regime change.
AKGranny-
FWIW, my uncle was deployed to Vietnam in 1968. In the army, as an enlisted man, in combat. He came back, but a lot of the people he served with didn’t survive.
In other words, I know what you mean. I honor my Uncle’s service - but at the same time, I think the war itself was a tragedy that could have been avoided, had we been wiser as a country.
Perhaps only those who have friends or loved ones who served can understand this mind-set.
Well I’m one who was terrified about Trump’s finger hovering over the button before the election and more so now. The “cackling over Qaddafi’s murder” Hillary would have been equally scary. I think the anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan said it perfectly before the election:
“No matter who “wins” on Tuesday night, the main thing to remember is that 99% of us are going to be Big Losers and the only way to for the people to win is to organize on a massive scale to oppose the policies of US empire and to join with the rest of the world in liberation struggles for freedom and equality.”
Thanks Quercus bicolor -
Granny,
I think that everyone here agrees that the appropriate course of action is to honor and support those who served/fought while withholding support or even holding in contempt those who would put our young men and women in harms way for such a foolish action. (Could I add greedy?, dangerously foolish? evil?).
For a number of years worked with a Vietnam Vet. He explained that when he returned home he did not tell people he was returning from Service as he didn't want someone to call him a baby killer. Unlike today the "anti-war sentiment" sometimes carried over to our returning men and women. Today we hear people tell our service personnel "thank you for your service"! It was not always the case. My co-worker explained one day at lunch when we were discussing the post-war movie Coming Home (1978) he explained that he didn't see it for a few years and finally during a business trip he watched it, alone, in his hotel room and bawled like a baby. It impacted him.
I don't know that everyone supports our men and women in service. But I do know that sentiment can change and history may not repeat exactly but repeat in some form or fashion it does. Obviously this is a topic few want to think about, remember or discuss. Understandable.
Its easy to get swept up in the black and white of various “truths”. That’s what the poltical/deep-state and corporate establishment rely upon indirectly to maintain control of the voting public. Even the most intellectual of poeple get swept up in public opinion on either side or the argument but at the end of the day are still completely mislead.
What is still not answered in all the anti and pro warmongering is, what drives the whole us-and-them battle rhetoric? Mostly likely it is simply the usual limbic impulses like those seen in a kindergarten playground.
However since the people playing this game are not four years old, have much more military experience than we do and think with defense department slyness, its really going to be very difficult to understand the exact motivations of the idiots in charge of this fracas. On the other hand ascribing too much cleverness to the “intelligence community” is as foolish as claiming that our central bankers are actually organized.
Nevertheless it seems most likely that Syrians/Russians don’t keep anything important at any one advertised military location. The military institutions may be as inept as our governments but let’s be realistic about their ability to formulate at least some basic strategy, like distributing valuable machinery over a wide area, too wide to bomb in any one act of aggression. Consequently if nothing is gained or lost from such a staged attack why would the Russians really care, except to save face under the spotlight of their 6’o’clock news. The inevitability of war is therefore not so assured, at least not until someone really gets hurt.
At the end of the day people in various branches of the government thrash about looking for consensus finally agreeing on trivial issues with the cognitive power equivalent to that of a four-year old. So when it finally comes time to execute a plan, our leaders communicate it to the world while giving minions on both sides, time to mitigate the collateral damage of another pointless military action.
The story therefore hasn’t changed. The US and its puppets want control of the global economy or global political direction while the Russians and Chinese threaten that dogma. The idiots on capitol hill can’t do really anything about it so they run crying to the general public and media barons, threatening to break the other kids’ toys. The end result is embarrassment for the human race while little strategic harm is done.
The real take-away here is that we still don’t have a global rule of law to keep the various government powers under control. We won’t have that until those governments are disempowered. The amount of power a government controls needs to be curtailed. Internally a country’s law’s do this well enough but globally the balance of power between the courts and the leaders is severely shifted in the wrong direction.
pgp wrote:
The real take-away here is that we still don't have a global rule of law to keep the various government powers under control. We won't have that until those governments are disempowered.
AKGrannyWGrit wrote:
Mohammed Mast wrote:
"Anyone here proud to be an American today?"
"Anyone think we are making America great?"
"We live in the United States of Amnesia. No one remembers anything before Monday morning. Everything is a blur, everything a blank."The version of the story that you have been sold, and the story that Mohammed Mast has been sold are similar, but not the same. The division is in the outcome'. To quote Leonard Cohen : -
"There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."I'll let Robert Fisk explain from this point :
In the West, it’s easy to chop off Middle East events into easily consumable news cycles which have no connection to each other, bite-sized chunks of horror which distance and ignorance and lack of compassion can easily dissolve. It’s not that many years since the British Labour Party decided it was “time to move on” from the Iraq war, as if this mass butchery was just a domestic break-up, a messy divorce, a family dispute. But no one in the Middle East would understand this. The Arabs who suffer the consequences naturally see events as a continuum, one bloody event leading to another bloody result; for these tragedies do not occur in a vacuum, separated neatly by superpower invasions or threats or missile attacks or prime-time news or terror that crosses national frontiers. Thus if the Iraq war led to IS — which it did — so IS crossed and re-crossed the Iraqi-Syrian frontier and brought its savagery to Syria’s civil war. Thus Raqa begat Mosul which beget a series of towns with forgettable names — parts of eastern Ghouta, for example; Afrin. For these are also our heritage to the people of the Middle East. And if Iraq’s new Shia Muslim power naturally attracted the Iranians, so Saudi Arabia saw Iran’s hand in Yemen and we are now arming the Saudis to continue their bombing of Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, supposedly armed by the Iranians. Another 10,000 dead. Our weapons — to the Iraqi government and to the jihadis of Syria — ended up in IS’s hands and as the Syrian regime wobbled, Russia arrived with its own military power. The “war on terror” — which for us began on 9/11 — morphed into the war on Afghanistan and then, with scrupulous duplicity, into the war against Saddam and then the war on IS and now the destruction of the Kurds (our allies, remember) and a new alliance between Moscow and Nato’s largest army (the Turkish variety under the Sultan Erdogan). Forget justice. Forget dignity. Forget education. We were not interested in these desperate, justified ambitions of the people of the Middle East. And it goes on. In Mosul this past week, they reckoned they still had more than 10 million tons of rubble to clear. Since 2013, the Iraqis have sentenced more than 3,000 prisoners to death. Since 2014, 250 accused IS members have been hanged, a hundred of them last year alone. Detainees and prisoners in Iraq — this courtesy of both Human Rights Watch and Reuters — now number 20,000 men and women, 6,000 of them in the Nassiriya prison in southern Iraq alone. This figure is of Saddamite proportions. And our wars over the past 15 years have been too titanic to leave any place for the poor old Palestinians under the longest military occupation in modern history, so costly that we must pay our tab by selling even more billions of dollars of weapons to the Gulf Arabs to fuel the Sunni-Shia civil war. We destroy Baghdad. We destroy Mosul. The Russians help to destroy Aleppo and Ghouta. Then we destroy Raqa. We alternately weep for the civilians of Aleppo and Ghouta and turn our shining faces from the dead of Mosul and Raqa, and we all know the reasons why. But we are kingmakers. If we can destroy this ancient land of Mesopotamia, why, we can declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and Theresa May can tell the world that Britain still feels “pride” in the Balfour Declaration.
This article is a little dated but lays out some of if not all the reasons for the CIA instigated civil war in Syria.
http://www.oil-price.net/en/articles/russian-gas-pipeline-hacking-electi…
fionnbharr wrote:
AKGrannyWGrit wrote:
Mohammed Mast wrote:
"Anyone here proud to be an American today?"
"Anyone think we are making America great?"
"We live in the United States of Amnesia. No one remembers anything before Monday morning. Everything is a blur, everything a blank."The version of the story that you have been sold, and the story that Mohammed Mast has been sold are similar, but not the same. The division is in the outcome'. To quote Leonard Cohen : -
"There's a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."I'll let Robert Fisk explain from this point :
In the West, it’s easy to chop off Middle East events into easily consumable news cycles which have no connection to each other, bite-sized chunks of horror which distance and ignorance and lack of compassion can easily dissolve. It’s not that many years since the British Labour Party decided it was “time to move on” from the Iraq war, as if this mass butchery was just a domestic break-up, a messy divorce, a family dispute. But no one in the Middle East would understand this. The Arabs who suffer the consequences naturally see events as a continuum, one bloody event leading to another bloody result; for these tragedies do not occur in a vacuum, separated neatly by superpower invasions or threats or missile attacks or prime-time news or terror that crosses national frontiers. Thus if the Iraq war led to IS — which it did — so IS crossed and re-crossed the Iraqi-Syrian frontier and brought its savagery to Syria’s civil war. Thus Raqa begat Mosul which beget a series of towns with forgettable names — parts of eastern Ghouta, for example; Afrin. For these are also our heritage to the people of the Middle East. And if Iraq’s new Shia Muslim power naturally attracted the Iranians, so Saudi Arabia saw Iran’s hand in Yemen and we are now arming the Saudis to continue their bombing of Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen, supposedly armed by the Iranians. Another 10,000 dead. Our weapons — to the Iraqi government and to the jihadis of Syria — ended up in IS’s hands and as the Syrian regime wobbled, Russia arrived with its own military power. The “war on terror” — which for us began on 9/11 — morphed into the war on Afghanistan and then, with scrupulous duplicity, into the war against Saddam and then the war on IS and now the destruction of the Kurds (our allies, remember) and a new alliance between Moscow and Nato’s largest army (the Turkish variety under the Sultan Erdogan). Forget justice. Forget dignity. Forget education. We were not interested in these desperate, justified ambitions of the people of the Middle East. And it goes on. In Mosul this past week, they reckoned they still had more than 10 million tons of rubble to clear. Since 2013, the Iraqis have sentenced more than 3,000 prisoners to death. Since 2014, 250 accused IS members have been hanged, a hundred of them last year alone. Detainees and prisoners in Iraq — this courtesy of both Human Rights Watch and Reuters — now number 20,000 men and women, 6,000 of them in the Nassiriya prison in southern Iraq alone. This figure is of Saddamite proportions. And our wars over the past 15 years have been too titanic to leave any place for the poor old Palestinians under the longest military occupation in modern history, so costly that we must pay our tab by selling even more billions of dollars of weapons to the Gulf Arabs to fuel the Sunni-Shia civil war. We destroy Baghdad. We destroy Mosul. The Russians help to destroy Aleppo and Ghouta. Then we destroy Raqa. We alternately weep for the civilians of Aleppo and Ghouta and turn our shining faces from the dead of Mosul and Raqa, and we all know the reasons why. But we are kingmakers. If we can destroy this ancient land of Mesopotamia, why, we can declare Jerusalem the capital of Israel and Theresa May can tell the world that Britain still feels “pride” in the Balfour Declaration.
Half a million people are dead in Iraq because of a war based entirely on lies. Half a million, half a million, half a million, half a million! HALF A MILLION PEOPLE, men women and children…dead!
Mothers send their children off to school in the morning to this day wondering if they are going to come back alive, to this day! That country, the people living there are still threatened by violence every day, the fabric of their lives destroyed. For how many generations? Can any of us really imagine what a life like that must be like, that is their daily life, this morning, now! Have any of us really tried? Do any of us care? And we are worried whether the men and women who come back from doing that get a thank you or not?
Do I blame those in uniform for what they did? For “serving their country”? How can I possibly blame them, how incredibly cowardly would that be when we are all equally to blame? We are all equally to blame, we collectively let this happen. If we were willing to endure a fraction of what the people of Iraq endured we could have stopped this, but we didn’t. That would have been to much for us to do.
Should we have love and compassion for those of us who went there and experienced those unspeakable horrors, who experience that first hand. Yes, yes and yes. And do all that we can to help them heal, yes, yes, and yes. But I’m not sure that “thank you” are the right words. How about “I’m sorry”, because of our collective failures you had to experience the horror of horrors. And what about the people of Iraq? Do they even enter into our minds? Shouldn’t that be the focus? I’m sorry would be a good start there too.
Very interesting read Mohammed.
For those who struggle to click on links, here’s the Steve Austin 17th January 2017 article below in full : -
Russian Gas Pipelines and Hacking the Elections Russia has been in the news lately, amid allegations that it "hacked the vote". Yes, the very 'vote' that granted ascendancy to Trump as the 45th president of America. What a day January 20 is going to be, so! Many believe that Russia with a volatile, if not belligerent, President aided Trump in no mean measure. Did Russia shift the scale? Is that even feasible? Well, this and Russia's geopolitical importance in the world energy market are fascinating subjects. Unfortunately much confusion and misinformation has been spread about what is happening with Russia and where this is headed. Fortunately we are here to help you see clearlyFinnRussian bogeyman
Russia occupies over 1/8th of all land on Earth. It is the largest country on Earth by far, almost twice the size of the US. It also has the largest known reserves of natural gas with double that of Qatar. Russia is also the second largest crude oil exporter behind Saudi Arabia. Like Saudi Arabia, the Russian state depends on higher oil prices for its funding. Unlike typical Middle Eastern oil producers, Russia also cultivates talent in other industries not the least of which is military equipment. Yet, in contrast with Russia's importance, only 3.6% of Russia's trade occurs with the US. News outlets, aside from recently, are relatively quiet about Russia on a regular basis. Part is due to the legacy of the cold war. Not long ago, historically, everything emanating from Russia - especially ideas - was silenced in the West and it went both ways. Even before that, Russia had very little trade with the Western world due to Russia's long standing occupation by the Mongols/Tatars under whom the Slavs lived as slaves for centuries - no pun intended. The ruling Mongols established trade routes with the Ottoman Empire and Asia and centuries later, modern-day Russia inherited these trading relationships. Russia's "oriental despotism", form of government was also inherited from the Mongols; ironically this style is sometimes copied in Washington circles by high ranking officials dubbed "Czars", for their ability to cut through red tape and get things done. It comes as no surprise, after all, that Putin gets along with some high ranked officials so well. More on this later. Is the tag of 'bully' a fitting portrait for Russian leaders over the years? Well, it takes Czar-minded leaders to hold together such a vast nation neither lacking in crude oil, natural gas or land. However, Russia soon found itself on the receiving side of colonization when Hitler's armies barged in a few centuries later. As it turned out, winter was the wrong time to attack Russia and once Germany was defeated Russia ventured out West for the first time and created a buffer zone - essentially colonizing Eastern Europe. Russia also extended its political influence into western Europe, planting and providing logistical support to then burgeoning socialist parties throughout western Europe, in an unveiled attempt to influence western electoral process. Today these parties are established and shape the (lack of) EU vision. This relationship dynamic with the West, prioritizing geopolitical dominance over trade still exists today under Putin, be it with the control of energy supplies, their routes or influence over the electoral process.Russia's got talent
We mentioned earlier that a major distinction between Russia and Middle Eastern energy producers is Russia's ability to cultivate talent. Indeed Russia does have talent in the realm of science and engineering. Look, until recently Russian chess players were the measure by which IBM's Big Blue supercomputer was evaluated. Professional prospects for this talent within Russia - that's another story. Lack of opportunity in the private sector combined with the high esteem of working for the government gave impetus for Russia's G.R.U. to recruit top talent and mount what the US press dubbed "Election Hacking". Ironically it is the opposite problem which prevented all three-lettered US agencies to protect the nation from "Election Hacking". The flock of talent into the private sector inspired by Silicon Valley successes has made it difficult for US agencies to acquire and retain said talent. This left them no choice but to turn to private contractors. Unfortunately in the aftershock of the Edward Snowden debacle, increased scrutiny has shrunk the pool of qualified applicants. Although "Hacking the Election" is a blanket statement which describes what happened fairly inaccurately, the results are in. More importantly it raises the question of what Russia has to gain from a friendlier White House today? The answer: Russia has come real close to cornering Europe's gas supplies and requires reduced interference from Washington in order to proceed. The story is one of intrigue and clever planning. Let's take a closer look.Non-Russian Gas Pipelines into Europe
In recent years the US and EU have attempted to create new gas pipelines, on multiple occasions, to help diversify Europe's natural gas away from Russia. This came to a crescendo in 2009 when Russia cut off gas for 13 days without warning following royalty disagreement with Ukraine. It wasn't the first or last time, either. Russia had cut off Ukraine's gas because of price disputes in 2006, repeating the teaser in 2009 and 2014. Within days, several East European countries that were entirely dependent on Russian gas had to stall key industries and declare a state of emergency. Ordinary people bore the brunt because Russia's cameo move came in mid-winter. As a matter of fact, when gas was cut off in 2014, more than half of Ukraine's and all of Slovakia's gas came from Russia. It was a massive and dangerous dependence, to say the least. Naturally, this prompted European powers to consider diversifying away from Russia, encouraged by the US perception of a geopolitical threat in Russian pipelines. Granted its proximity to Europe gives Russia a tremendous logistical advantage over any contending natural gas supplier. There are only a handful of candidates able to satisfy Europe's natural gas needs aside from Russia: Iran, Qatar and Azerbaijan. And so the "Nabucco pipeline" project was born.Nabucco
The Nabucco pipeline would have transported gas from Caspian states (Iran and Azerbaijan) through Turkey, Hungary, Romania bypassing Russia altogether. It was planned as an alternative route for the thirsty European market. Turkey signed the agreement for the project in 2009. Pegged as a great opportunity, the cost of the pipeline was relatively cheap at 6.2 billion dollars. Originally the planned length was about 3,900 km which was reduced to just 1,300 km later on. With a proposed capacity of 31 billion cubic meters (bcm) per year, Nabucco was funded by European Union and backed by the US. Touted as the 'fourth corridor' of gas transport to Europe, Nabucco, unfortunately failed. Moldering for some time, the project was cancelled by Azerbaijan in 2013 in favor of the Trans Adriatic Pipeline, said to be shorter by 500 km.Southern Gas Corridor
Termed the Southern Gas Corridor, SGC is a set of ambitious infrastructure projects conceived to improve energy security and diversification of resources by supplying gas from the Caspian to Europe. Totaling a whopping investment of $45 billion dollars, the initiative stretches across seven countries and 3, 500 kilometres. In other words, it's a complex amalgam of several energy projects like South Caucasus Pipeline, Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) and Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) Trans Anatolian Pipeline (TANAP) Azerbaijan has more than three trillion cubic metres of gas reserves. Putting these resources to good use, the 1850 km pipeline will carry natural gas from Azerbaijan to Turkey and Europe. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) for the pipeline was signed in 2012 between the governments of Turkey and Azerbaijan and subsequently, construction of TANAP started on March 2015. Europe will get 10 billion bcm of gas a year, while the share of Turkey is expected to be 6bcm of gas. In fact, Turkey can get gas as early as 2018. With an investment of $11.7 billion dollars, the ultimate capacity of TANAP is estimated at 31 bcm. Compared to Nabucco, TANAP was not only shorter but transit countries were smaller, reducing cost and risks involved. This pipeline would enable Turkey to become a prominent player on the gas trade map. Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) The 878 km long, Trans Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) will supply gas from the Shah Deniz 2 field in Azerbaijan to Europe. TAP will connect with TANAP at the Greek- Turkish border and pass through Greece, Albania, and Adriatic Sea before reaching Italy. Construction of TAP started in 2015 and the pipeline is expected to start operation in 2020. However, the timeline also depends on TANAP project which is being delayed. TAP will have 'physical reverse flow' mechanism so that gas could be diverted should there be any disruption. The project has the capacity to transport 10 bcm per year with further potential expansion of 20 bcm a year. South Caucasus pipeline South Caucasus pipeline (SCP) is a 629 km long gas exportation pipeline transmitting gas from the Shah Deniz fields in Azerbaijan, through Georgia to Turkey. SCP follows parallel to the Baku- Tbilisi-Ceyhan crude oil pipeline (Incidentally, the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline was built to counter over dependence on oil from Russia and Iran). In 2016, the daily average throughput was around 20 million cubic metres. Expanding SCP, the South Caucasus Pipeline expansion (SCPX) project was conceived in 2013, while construction began in 2015. SCPX will add another 16 bcma to the existing capacity. Also, as part of SCPX many new facilities like intermediate pigging stations, block valve stations are also being constructed. SCPX will carry natural gas from Russia as well as Central Asia and the Middle East to Southern Europe. Like TANAP, SCPX will start operations in 2019. Qatar-Turkey pipeline and Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline Qatar-Turkey pipeline was a proposed natural gas pipeline transporting the resource in question from South Pars- North Dome Gas fields (Iran and Qatar) to Turkey from where the gas would have eventually reached Europe. The 1500 km pipeline routed through Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria and Turkey would have elevated Qatar as a crucial player in the global natural gas market. The reason? Qatar's gas is delivered through tankers which makes it more expensive compared to Russian gas. The pipeline would have made gas from Qatar cheaper. At the same time, the project would have diminished the market share of Russia in European gas imports. Regular readers of oil-price.net know that we have extensively covered these pipelines. As we mentionned in our article titled Oil prices and the Syrian civial war, in 2009 Syrian President Bashar-al-Assad rejected the agreement allowing the 10 billion dollar pipeline to run through Syria to protect the interest of military ally Russia. Instead, in 2012 and under Russia pressure he endorsed the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipeline from Iran to Lebanon passing through Syria. The shift was considerable from Sunni Qatar to Shia Iran. Incidentally, the Syrian civial war erupted with Assad's rejection of the Qatar-Turkey Pipeline. Now both this and the Iran-Iraq-Syria pipelines are unlikely to see the light of day - much like all other non-Russian pipe dreams that were supposed to free Europe from Russia's gas monopoly. European bureaucracy combined with the lack of coordination and leadership among Caspian gas producers has resulted in minimal progress in any of pipelines mentionned above - meanwhile Czar-lead Russian pipelines are steaming ahead.Russia's European pipeline collection
Several key attributes make gas pipelines a valuable strategic asset. For one thing, pipelines bring natural gas long distances very efficiently, much more so than crude oil. The high viscosity of Crude oil requires heavy pumps and causes significant friction loss, whereas natural gas flows effortlessly with simple pressure differencials. It works so well that gas pipes - a miniature version of gas pipelines - brings natural gas to most every home. Moreover natural gas, while a fossil fuel, burns much cleaner than coal or crude oil by-products. This is why many European electrical power plants run off natural gas. Consequently everything powered by electricity - including the computer you are using to read this article - is dependent on natural gas to some extent. Finally, pipelines are a "winner gets all" business. While getting approval for and building a pipeline is hard in the first place, building another competing pipeline is next to impossible. So the early bird gets the worm - this is indeed why Russia is so aggressively overbuilding its "Turkish Stream" pipeline as explained below. Ukrainian pipelines In 2016, European gas demand increased by around 6% to some 447 bcm. The demand for gas is expected to increase in 2017 because of robust consumption in Italy, France and UK. Close on the heels of OPEC's decision to cut oil production, gas supplies from Russia to Europe are expected to remain vigorous. In this scenario, look at the ground realities: Almost a third of Europe's gas equaling 50% of total gas imports, comes from Russia, of which, 40% comes in through Ukraine. Europe just can't afford to let such a large share of its gas transit through the Ukrainian warzone. So, pipelines bypassing Ukraine altogether come into the picture eliminating the country's role as a major transit zone, with blessings of both the EU and Russia. Nord Stream Pipeline This gas pipeline, with two parallel lines, carries Natural Gas from Russia directly into Germany via Baltic Sea. Though it has the ability to deliver 55 billion cubic metres per year, the gas supplied in 2015 amounted to just about 39 billion cubic metres. According to our latest data, the pipeline supplies more than 150 million cubic metres of gas per day . Being shorter, the gas pipeline is very cost effective, so it's hard for any other foreign power (such as Qatar) to build a competing pipeline into Western Europe that would be cheaper. The multi-billion dollar Nord Stream 2, with two pipelines, is scheduled for 2019. Each will carry 27.5 bcm per year. Nord Streamand Nord stream 2 will thus supply a total of 110 billion cubic metres per year of gas across the Baltic Sea to the European Union. Turkish Stream Turkish stream, in short, is a chess master's dream. In the last month of 2014, Russia abandoned the South Stream pipeline project after disagreements with the EU. In a spectacular turn around, Russia went in for the jugular. So, instead of South Stream, work on two pipeline strings running under the Black Sea carrying 64 billion cubic feet of gas was taken up, after a meeting between Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan. In fact, the pipes and other infrastructure parts ordered for the South Stream project was diverted to the Turkish Stream. The sea section alone is set to cost Russia about 7 billion Euros. The pipe laying under the Black Sea is scheduled for late 2017. The first string of the project would supply gas to Turkey, while the second string would carry gas to Europe. Also, the south Balkan pipeline which delivers Russian gas to Turkey via Ukraine will be made redundant by the first string of the project. This is a significant strategic victory for Russia. Gazprom, will have rights to the sea part of the project, while the land stretch will be owned by Turkish customers in the first leg and by a joint venture in the second leg. So, Turkey would collect royalties on gas going into Europe to the dismay of Bulgaria, losing royalties, transit revenues and strategic advantage to its former Ottoman overlord. Indeed, Moldova and Romania too lose out in terms of transit fee. Turkish Stream's main objective is for Russia to bypass existing Ukrainian gas routes. At any rate, Russian target is to stop all gas transport through Ukraine by 2019. And, thanks to the Turkish stream, redundant with existing pipelines, Russia can "diversify" its gas pipelines, thus cornering the European market and delivering gas directly into Europe. Revenue from export duties will benefit Russia too. It also cements economical and strategic ties between Russia and Turkey which will control gas route into Europe while getting its own gas at a 10% discount. That's a blessing because Turkey relies on natural gas for 50% of its electricity generation. Russia and Turkey have also stepped up partnership in defense in the area of anti-missiles. Furthermore, Russia will also build Turkey's first nuclear power plant. With NATO allies like Turkey, who needs enemies? Apparently prediction #4 which we made in our previous article titled 9 oil price forecasts during Trump presidency" has already realized, a mere two weeks into the new year. Turkey not only gets 60% of its gas, but also more than 30% of its crude oil from Russia. For Turkey, this is a major achievement to show the world that it has the guts to implement major projects without support from Europe. Further, it strengthens Turkey's geopolitical aspirations in the region. In addition, Turkish stream aligns Russia and Turkey's interest and dissuades Turkey from building a pipeline to Qatar via Iraq which would have fed into Europe and sap Russia's market share. Of course, Turkish Stream's 63 billion capacity outdoes the expected demand in the area. However, the moot point is different. It's the story of winner gets all. Russia, thus, directly competes with Europe's plan to diversify away from Russia. It also sabotages Iran's aspiration for a pipeline.Conclusion
Putin sits pretty. US secretary of state is Exxon's CEO Tillerson, a friend of Putin. Michael Finn, the proposed national security adviser is a strong advocate of Russia. The Russian President has tons of influential friends in Washington, ready to sway things in his favor. In the coming months, US support for energy diversification in Europe will erode quickly, branding the renewal of US-Russia ties as a priority over interfering in foreign energy markets. US progress towards energy self-sufficiency in the sight of persistently low oil prices has also reduced geopolitical concerns over control of foreign energy sources. So it comes as no surprise that the US has started a reform to drastically reduce its Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR). Slowly but surely, Russia has laid the groundwork for dominance over the European energy market. For now, Russian ploy seems to be working well. And, Washington has been reined in too. The southern Gas corridor could well be the tipping point. On target, Russian monopoly on natural gas is set. The big question is, what next?
Mohammed,
thankyou for writing to me from the heart. I, too, wish to share.
I have never in my life experienced such hatred in a country. Never before or since witnessed such violence. Never before or since been in the wrong place at the wrong time. Never before experienced such justification in the cruelty enacted by a state, who’s vehement control wields power over media in a fashion as to create nothing of a balance - feigned humility - nothing of even the slightest modicum of true humility.
You can sense that if I was talking to you now face to face, there would be bile rising in my voice. This is not to say that I have hatred of either peoples of the country, because therefore I would be accountable for an equal blame. No. Mine is for the sadness that each generation is born into, who are infiltrated daily with outmoded and ignorant dogma, supported by a violent government; supported by American weaponry, training and military might.
As an example, I was walking on Seven Street in Jerusalem with an Israeli friend and we came upon three Israeli boys, no more than ten years of age, throwing rocks the size of golf balls with all of there strength, at a defenceless Palestinian woman, cradling a baby of barely six months old who was begging. The woman had burn scars as a disfigurement to her otherwise young face and old eyes. The woman cried and yelled, the baby was screaming in fear. A steady procession of tourists, palestinians and Israelis averted their eyes, closed out the sounds and appeared to casually walk by. I stopped and judged the situation. The girl I was with walked on with the crowd, letting go of my hand in the process.
I called over one of the boys in english as the other two continued. He was happy and smiling at the thought of talking in english with me and I smiled back. When he came close enough, I gently took hold of his right arm and, as I continued to explain myself, my grip on his arm became tighter and tighter until I was holding him up to my eye level. I told him in no uncertain terms that if he were to continue throwing rocks at the woman and child that I would break his arm.
When I released him, he ran away ashamed with his friends. The woman, who knew no english, stared at me in disbelief. I gave her money. In that moment, more than words past between us, as her tears fell and the babies screams settled down.
Where in the world was the outrage then. Where in the world is the outrage today …
One of the best singer/songwriters we ever had. What concise and brilliant lyrics in all his songs. That album is a goldmine of truth!
treebeard wrote:
Half a million people are dead in Iraq because of a war based entirely on lies. Half a million, half a million, half a million, half a million! HALF A MILLION PEOPLE, men women and children....dead!